Matthew 9
Sharing My Story: Outwardly Focused
Ramon Vielza, Campus Pastor | Southside
The large ministry of Jesus shows how He toured all the cities and villages, teaching and preaching the Gospel. I can identify with His passion for missions and love for souls, because this part of his ministry is what has most impacted my life.
In these verses, there are 3 things that Jesus did that show us his outward focus:
1. A vision to reach the multitudes. The religious environment in which Jesus worked had a great spiritual blindness for the destitute multitudes, but Jesus looked out and saw a world that needed someone to tell them about the Gospel.
2. Compassion, they were like sheep without a shepherd. The picture he paints is much like the reality that we are living today. I am ministering in the midst of a very religious community, all descendants of the Catholic faith. They are without hope and do not know how to have a personal relationship with Christ. You see them wandering, like sheep without a shepherd, distressed, desperate, bitter. They need a Savior, who will go and show them the correct path?
3. Decision. Jesus said, “Pray to the Lord of the harvest, to send out laborers into the harvest.” I am praying every day that God calls many to go and collect the harvest.
Which side are you on? The side of those who are not interested in the lost world and whose focus is inside of the church, making their Christian life like a club for only special members. Or on the side of Jesus, looking, sympathizing and acting in favor of so many in need of the message of the cross.
TWEETABLE QUOTE: We pray for vision, compassion and decisions to save this lost world.
