The Bring Series: Be A Bringer: Matthew 9:35-38

 

Then Jesus went to all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and every sickness. 36 When He saw the crowds, He felt compassion for them, because they were weary and worn out, like sheep without a shepherd. 37 Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest is abundant, but the workers are few. 38 Therefore, pray to the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest.”

Matthew 9:35-38 (HCSB)

Reaching People is…

1) Motivated by Compassion

When He saw the crowds, He felt compassion for them, because they were weary and worn out, like sheep without a shepherd.             

Matthew 9:36 (HCSB)

2) Driven by Prayer

Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. 38 Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”

Matthew 9:37-38 (NIV)

3) Accomplished by Work

Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”

Matthew 9:38 (NIV)

“Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”    

Romans 10:13-15

source https://edgechurchcolorado.com/the-bring-series-be-a-bringer-matthew-935-38/

Meta: Meta Tithe: Philippians 4:18-19; Proverbs 3:9

 

I have received full payment and have more than enough. I am amply supplied, now that I have received from Epaphroditus the gifts you sent. They are a fragrant offering, an acceptable sacrifice, pleasing to God. And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 4:18-19 (NIV)

By faith Abel brought God a better offering than Cain did. By faith he was commended as righteous, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith Abel still speaks, even though he is dead.
Hebrews 11:4 (NIV)

1. My Faith Honors The Lord

Honor the Lord with your wealth…
Proverbs 3:9 (NIV)

2. My Faith Helps Me Rethink My Priorities

Honor the Lord with your wealth, with the firstfruits of all your crops.
Proverbs 3:9 (NIV)

Now if the firstfruits offered up are holy, so is the whole batch. And if the root is holy, so are the branches.
Romans 11:16 (CSB)

For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Matthew 6:21 (CSB)

“Will a mere mortal rob God? Yet you rob me.“But you ask, ‘How are we robbing you?’ “In tithes and offerings. 9 You are under a curse—your whole nation—because you are robbing me.  Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it.
Malachi 3:8-9 (NIV)

3. My Faith Hastens God’s Blessings

Honor the Lord with your wealth, with the firstfruits of all your crops; 10 then your barns will be filled to overflowing, and your vats will brim over with new wine.
Proverbs 3:9-10 (NIV)

The point is this: The person who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and the person who sows generously will also reap generously.
2 Corinthians 9:6 (CSB)

“…give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.”
Luke 6:38 (ESV)

source https://edgechurchcolorado.com/meta-meta-tithe-philippians-418-19-proverbs-39/

Meta: Welcome To The Metaverse: Matthew 6:19-26

 

1. Where is your treasure?

“Don’t collect for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal.  But collect for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves don’t break in and steal.  For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Matthew 6:19-21 (HCSB)

2. What is your focus?

“The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. So if the light within you is darkness—how deep is that darkness!
Matthew 6:22-23 (HCSB)

You do not have because you do not ask.
James 4:2 (CSB)

Consider the birds of the sky: They don’t sow or reap or gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Aren’t you worth more than they?
Matthew 6:26 (CSB)

I am the Lord your God, who brought you up from the land of Egypt. Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it.
Psalm 81:10 (CSB)

And my God will supply all your needs according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus. Now to our God and Father be glory forever and ever. Amen.
Philippians 4:19 (CSB)

3. Who is your master?

“No one can be a slave of two masters, since either he will hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot be slaves of God and of money.
Matthew 6:24 (HCSB)

 

source https://edgechurchcolorado.com/meta-welcome-to-the-metaverse-matthew-619-26/

Meta: Meta Faith: Mark 12:41-44

 

Sitting across from the temple treasury, he watched how the crowd dropped money into the treasury. Many rich people were putting in large sums. 42 Then a poor widow came and dropped in two tiny coins worth very little. 43 Summoning his disciples, he said to them, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. 44 For they all gave out of their surplus, but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had —all she had to live on.”
Mark 12:41-44 (CSB)

Meta Faith…

1. Stretches Me

Sitting across from the temple treasury, he watched how the crowd dropped money into the treasury. Many rich people were putting in large sums. 42 Then a poor widow came and dropped in two tiny coins worth very little.
Mark 12:41-42 (CSB)

The widow who is really in need and left all alone puts her hope in God and continues night and day to pray and to ask God for help.
1 Timothy 5:5 (NIV)

2. Motivates Me

Sitting across from the temple treasury, he watched how the crowd dropped money into the treasury. Many rich people were putting in large sums. 42 Then a poor widow came and dropped in two tiny coins worth very little.
Mark 12:41-42 (CSB)

3. Inspires Me

Summoning his disciples, he said to them, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. 44 For they all gave out of their surplus, but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had —all she had to live on.”
Mark 12:43-44 (CSB)

source https://edgechurchcolorado.com/meta-meta-faith-mark-1241-44/

Messes & Miracles: Atomic Choices: Ruth 4

 

4 Choices that Shape your Life

1) Faith Choices

But Ruth replied, “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God.
Ruth 1:16 (NIV)

2) Community Choices

With her two daughters-in-law she left the place where she had been living and set out on the road that would take them back to the land of Judah.
Ruth 1:7 (NIV)

Now Naomi had a relative on her husband’s side, a man of standing from the clan of Elimelek, whose name was Boaz.
Ruth 2:1 (NIV)

So Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife. When he made love to her, the Lord enabled her to conceive, and she gave birth to a son.
Ruth 4:13 (NIV)

3) Family Choices

…both Mahlon and Kilion also died, and Naomi was left without her two sons and her husband.
Ruth 1:5 (NIV)

Who are you?” he asked.“I am your servant Ruth,” she said. “Spread the corner of your garment over me, since you are a guardian-redeemer of our family.”
Ruth 3:9 (NIV)

So Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife. When he made love to her, the Lord enabled her to conceive, and she gave birth to a son.
Ruth 4:13 (NIV)

4) Attitude Choices

“…My daughters. It is more bitter for me than for you, because the Lord’s hand has turned against me!”
Ruth 1:12-13 (NIV)

“Don’t call me Naomi,” she told them. “Call me Mara, because the Almighty has made my life very bitter. 21 I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty.
Ruth 1:20-21 (NIV)

He will renew your life and sustain you in your old age. For your daughter-in-law, who loves you and who is better to you than seven sons, has given him birth.” Then Naomi took the child in her arms and cared for him.17 The women living there said, “Naomi has a son!” And they named him Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David.
Ruth 4:15-17 (NIV)

This, then, is the family line of Perez: Perez was the father of Hezron, 19 Hezron the father of Ram, Ram the father of Amminadab, 20 Amminadab the father of Nahshon, Nahshon the father of Salmon, 21 Salmon the father of Boaz,Boaz the father of Obed, 22 Obed the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of David.
Ruth 4:18-22 (NIV)

source https://edgechurchcolorado.com/messes-miracles-atomic-choices-ruth-4/

Messes & Miracles: Lovestruck: Ruth 3:1-18

 

Love Is…

1. Submissive

Ruth’s mother-in-law Naomi said to her, “My daughter, shouldn’t I find rest for you, so that you will be taken care of? 2 Now isn’t Boaz our relative? Haven’t you been working with his female servants? This evening he will be winnowing barley on the threshing floor. 3 Wash, put on perfumed oil, and wear your best clothes. Go down to the threshing floor, but don’t let the man know you are there until he has finished eating and drinking. 4 When he lies down, notice the place where he’s lying, go in and uncover his feet, and lie down. Then he will explain to you what you should do.”5 So Ruth said to her, “I will do everything you say.”
Ruth 3:1-5 (CSB)

Yield to obey each other because you respect Christ.
Ephesians 5:21

That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh.
Genesis 2:24 (NIV)

“This is my command: Love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this: to lay down his life for his friends .”
John 15:12-13 (CSB)

2. Bold

At midnight, Boaz was startled, turned over, and there lying at his feet was a woman! 9 So he asked, “Who are you?” “I am Ruth, your servant,” she replied. “Take me under your wing, for you are a family redeemer.”
Ruth 1:8-9 (CSB)

3. Generous

She went to her mother-in-law, Naomi, who asked her, “What happened, my daughter?” Then Ruth told her everything the man had done for her. 17 She said, “He gave me these six measures of barley, because he said, ‘Don’t go back to your mother-in-law empty-handed.’”
Ruth 3:16-17 (CSB)

4. Loyal

Boaz replied: The LORD bless you! This shows how truly loyal you are to your family. You could have looked for a younger man, either rich or poor, but you didn’t.
Ruth 3:10 (CEV)

5. Protective

But if he doesn’t want to redeem you, as the Lord lives, I will. Now lie down until morning.”14 So she lay down at his feet until morning but got up while it was still dark. Then Boaz said, “Don’t let it be known that a woman came to the threshing floor.”
Ruth 3:13-14 (CSB)

For you know that you were redeemed from your empty way of life inherited from your ancestors, not with perishable things like silver or gold, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of an unblemished and spotless lamb.
1 Peter 1:18-19 (CSB)

source https://edgechurchcolorado.com/messes-miracles-lovestruck-ruth-31-18/

Messes & Miracles: Grace In The Grind: Ruth 2:1-23

 

1. Grace Approaches Me

Then Boaz said to Ruth, “Listen, my daughter. Don’t go and gather grain in another field, and don’t leave this one, but stay here close to my female servants.
Ruth 2:8 (CSB)

GRACE SHOWS UP AT UNEXPECTED TIMES
GRACE SHOWS UP IN UNUSUAL PLACES

For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save the lost.
Luke 19:10 (CSB)

2. Grace Protects Me

See which field they are harvesting, and follow them. Haven’t I ordered the young men not to touch you? When you are thirsty, go and drink from the jars the young men have filled.”10 She fell facedown, bowed to the ground, and said to him, “Why have I found favor with you, so that you notice me, although I am a foreigner?”
Ruth 2:9-10 (CSB)

For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift— 9 not from works, so that no one can boast.
Ephesians 2:8-9 (CSB)

God has revealed his grace to save the whole human race.
Titus 2:11 (NJB)

3. Grace Blesses Me

At mealtime Boaz told her, “Come over here and have some bread and dip it in the vinegar sauce.” So she sat beside the harvesters, and he offered her roasted grain. She ate and was satisfied and had some left over…She picked up the grain and went into the town, where her mother-in-law saw what she had gleaned. She brought out what she had left over from her meal and gave it to her.
Ruth 2:14;18 (CSB)

So the king asked, “Is there anyone left of Saul’s family that I can show the kindness of God to?” …So Mephibosheth ate at David’s table just like one of the king’s sons.
2 Samuel 9:3;11 (CSB)

4. Grace Uplifts Me

She fell facedown, bowed to the ground, and said to him, “Why have I found favor with you, so that you notice me, although I am a foreigner?”11 Boaz answered her, “Everything you have done for your mother-in-law since your husband’s death has been fully reported to me: how you left your father and mother and your native land, and how you came to a people you didn’t previously know. 12 May the Lord reward you for what you have done, and may you receive a full reward from the Lord God of Israel, under whose wings you have come for refuge.”
Ruth 2:10-12 (CSB)

5. Grace Favors Me

Then she said, “I have found favor in your eyes, my lord, for you have comforted me and spoken kindly to your servant, though I am not one of your servants.”
Ruth 2:13 (CSB)

source https://edgechurchcolorado.com/messes-miracles-jaded-on-the-journey-ruth-11-22-2/