FBC Daily Devotional – June 10, 2021

Faith Baptist Church

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Well, good Thursday to you. So we're past the midpoint of the week, and I trust your week has gone well and gearing up toward the weekend.

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Enjoy the weekends because we gather together as God's people and we get to worship the

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Lord together, and this is just a highlight of the week. I hope it is for you. It certainly is for me, and it's not just because I get to preach the word, but I get to gather together with God's people, and you know the the singing of hymns and worship together is just a it's just an encouraging and lifting of the

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Spirit's point in time in the week, and then of course what we learn and gather in gathering together and focusing on the word is a particular blessing as well.

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Well, speaking of focusing on the word, back in the book of Luke, you know the other day we looked at Luke chapter 4, where you know

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Jesus is in Nazareth, and he's rejected. He says something that people don't like and they want to kill him.

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They want to get him out of there, and he leaves. He goes away. Quite the opposite is what happens in Capernaum.

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He goes to Capernaum and has a very, very successful, if you will, response.

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People respond well. He heals people. He does all kinds of things. He casts out an unclean spirit.

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He heals Peter's mother -in -law. Many, many people are healed.

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We read at the end of, near the end of the chapter, verses 40 and 41, at the end of the

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Sabbath, you know, people come together and a lot of people end up being healed, and you know,

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Jesus is just growing. His popularity is just growing, and people are coming from all over to to hear him teach and to experience the miracles that he performs.

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Again, quite a significant difference from the response he got in Nazareth.

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And yet, what's interesting about what happens in Capernaum, and we've seen this before,

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I think we looked at this in the Gospel of Mark, is that when

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Jesus' popularity increases and more and more people are wanting to come and get to him, if he thought like we normally would think, he would stay there and just keep building a crowd, building momentum from that crowd.

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And that's really kind of what the disciples are encouraging him to do, aren't they? We read in verse 42 and following, verse 42,

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Jesus went out in the morning after this very effective evening of healing and so forth on at the end of the

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Sabbath. It says in the daytime, in the morning, he departed and went into a deserted place.

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He went out there to get alone and to get with the Father in prayer and so forth.

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He went to a deserted place, and the crowd sought him, and they came to him, and they tried to keep him from leaving, from leaving them.

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And, wow, you know, people really want me. I better stay and give them what they want.

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No, that's not how Jesus responds. What he says is, I must preach the kingdom of God to the other cities also, because for this purpose

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I have been sent. So what Jesus is communicating here, excuse me, is that he has a clear sense of purpose.

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He knows very well what his purpose is, and he needs to stay on mission, to stay focused on that purpose.

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And, you know, having a good sense of purpose, a clear sense of mission, will do that for us.

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It will help us to stay on target. It'll help keep us from being pulled away into areas and into things that take us away from our mission, and keep us from accomplishing what we have been called to do, and what we ought to do, because of our our gifting, our talents, and how

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God has equipped us. So, Jesus' mission,

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Jesus' mission was preaching the good news of the kingdom, and to do so widely. It was not to stay in one place, and to build up a big following.

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And because of his mission, he moved on. He moved on. Well, I hope you have a sense of what

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God has for you to do, and how he has called you, and equipped you, and I trust that that understanding helps you, and helps keep your life focused and directed.

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And if you don't have that, don't have that sense, then, you know, pray and ask the

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Lord to give you a good sense of call, of calling, what you're here for, and what he would have you to do.

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So, may the Lord bless you in that, in that pursuit. So, our Father and our

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God, we thank you for this clear and insightful example of the

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Lord Jesus, who, because of his very clear understanding of his purpose and his mission, he was able to turn down requests, and to make decisions that would be in keeping with that mission, rather than following the wind as it blows, that would take him off course, and take him off mission.

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Help us to have that same sense of purpose, we pray, and we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. All right.

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Well, I hope you have a good rest of your Thursday, and I trust the Lord will bless you in it.