Words of Jesus Podcast - Need is Not a Motivation for a Sovereign God

Episode Date: May 21, 2021

Jesus brought the Kingdom of Heaven to the earth; the status quo having been found to be insufficient to change the hearts of men. Just as the men in the synagogue that day, our reaction to Jesus is based on our expectations, our faith, and our understanding. Jesus mission was not (as many expected) to free Israel from the Romans, nor to confirm the hierarchy of the temple priests; Jesus came to show us His Father.  Some people received him with fear, some with hope, and some with anger.  Jesus was not motivated by emotion, need or His own desire. He always obeyed His Father.***Jesus and His Message Rejected at Nazareth (Part 6)HEARING that John had been cast into prison, Jesus returned to Galilee. He began to preach the gospel of God in the synagogues, saying:        "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent ye, and believe the gospel.”           His fame was spread through all the regions round about.        Jesus came to Nazareth, where he had been reared, and went to the synagogue on the Sabbath, as was his custom. He stood up and read from the book of the prophet Isaiah, were it was written:         “’The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised; to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.’”           All eyes fastened on him as he began to preach, saying:           “This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.”           Many of those present were bewildered, and others were awe-inspired. They questioned among themselves.           “Is this Joseph’s son?”           Others hearing him were astonished. They said:    “From whence hath this man these things? And what wisdom is this which is given unto him, that even such mighty works are wrought by his hands? Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, and Joses, and of Judas, and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us?           And they were offended at him.           Jesus continued, saying:           “Ye will surely say unto me this proverb, ‘Physician, heal thyself. Whatsoever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in thy country.’ But I tell you of a truth, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elijah, when then Heaven was shut up three years and six months, when great famine was throughout all the land. But unto none of them was Elijah sent, save unto Sarepta, a city Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow. And many the lepers were in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet; and none of them was cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian.”                When they had heard these things, those in the

Think Red Ink Ministries presents The Words of Jesus Series with Don C. Harris Hello and welcome once again to the Words of Jesus series. Glad to have you if you've been a part of all these shows previous. There's just been a lot to think about. And I'd love to help you with these kinds of things. If you have certain subjects that are on your mind, can I encourage you to go to thinkrightinc.com?

Perhaps you can find some material there that'll do you some good. I would love for you to have my book, The Questions of Jesus. Of course, we don't sell them there at the ministry, but they are available through Amazon. If you'd like to go there and get that book, I'm sure that's going to bless you. You'll be able to use it as a devotional, a daily devotional. 151 of the questions that Jesus asked when he was here on the earth. And it's just one of my favorite things to read, to tell you the truth. I still go through that book from time to time and am never disappointed.

All right, we've been in chapter four of our little book called The Words of Jesus. And we know that Jesus was in the temple and was reading from the book of Isaiah, and there he found the description of the ministry that he was about to engage upon. And he read it with such power that the audience was pretty sure that this person reading this was under at least the impression that they were indeed the Messiah.

Could that be so? Jesus added the comment to the reading that day, this today, this scripture, this prophecy is fulfilled in your ears. So he left no doubt that he believed it. There were people in the crowd that believed it. There were people in the crowd that were offended about it. And Jesus came and said, look, you need to know that although I am the Messiah, I'm still not who you think I am. I know there's many people here that feel like that when Messiah comes,

that I'm going to toss all the Romans out of Israel and give Zion back to the Zionists and going to reestablish the kingdom of God here and nobody's ever going to defeat us ever again. There's some people that believe that that's what Messiah would have and should have and certainly could have done. But he said that's not what I'm here for. As a matter of fact even those of you who have an outlook about Messiah and what I'm all about and what I'm doing, you're going to be

severely disappointed in me because I'm probably not going to do what you say. What you think I should do. Because I'm here to please the Father, not you. Okay, he didn't say not you. He was kinder than I am. And he said I'm here to please the Father and no doubt I'm going to disappoint you. I'll disappoint you from many aspects. One of them is

the people who don't believe I have any power will be disappointed in me because they're going to find that without the faith in me and who I am that there is no power available. And the ones who believe that I am all powerful that I can do what needs to be done are going to be disappointed that I'm going to take the stance of meekness when I'm here on the earth. I'm going to give myself to my enemies. I'm going to subject myself to them.

And by the way, can I say here do you know that that's our commission as well? Do you know the Bible talks about, remember the book by Sheldon so long ago called In His Steps? The What Would Jesus Do movement came from that book and it was fairly famous for its 15 minutes of fame. And that was all based upon a particular scripture that says that he was falsely accused

and that he suffered for sins not his own, that he suffered wrongfully for everything that he did suffer, that he suffered for us and not for himself. And he did all this so that we may follow in his steps. The name of the book, In His Steps. Now, it doesn't really take a whole lot of exegete to understand from that scripture that he expects us to suffer wrongfully. He expects us to submit to our enemies.

To give in to our enemies. To not be so precious and so they can't talk to me that way and I'm better than that and all these kind of things that just seem to get us in trouble and to exacerbate the argument or the problem between us and somebody else. The Christian's way is and should be that we submit and that we give in and we do suffer wrongfully. And if you do

so you'll find yourself following in the steps of Jesus Christ. You'll be doing what He did. That's the way He lived. He says you're going to be disappointed in me because you're going to say physician, heal thyself. But you're going to find that I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to do that. So I'm going to disappoint you people. So you got an idea what Messiah's going to be? Guess what? You don't know what Messiah's going to be. I'm here to show you what Messiah's going to be. So just hang around and watch.

I know you don't like the idea that God's not your page boy. I know you don't like the idea that God's not your page boy. I know you don't like the idea that you can't pray for anything you want. I know that people out there teach that you can't. Because they preach this mechanical prayer, this semantic prayer. They teach us that in the name of Jesus means somehow that you should say His name at the end of a prayer. We ask everything, we ask all in the name of Jesus, amen. They always stick that on the end of the prayer. Why would they do that?

Why would they say that at the end of every prayer? Why do they say amen? And why do they say, oh we ask these things in your name? Why do they do that? Do you know? Do you know why they do that? They do that because they don't understand what they're saying. That's why. They don't understand what doing things in his name mean. Their tongue would snap off if they ended a prayer without saying, in the name of Jesus.

They couldn't do it. Frankly, now it's probably nothing more than a habit. But saying, well, he says we pray for anything in his name. You have to pray in his name. And how do you pray in his name? You stick his name on the end of your prayer. Does it? That in his name? Really? Is it? I can pray for

cocaine in the name of Jesus? Huh, that's blasphemy. Well I'm going to tell you something. Some of the things you've asked for is blasphemy too. Because it's not the will of God and it's so that you can consume it upon your lusts and you said in the name of Jesus and you thought that you were asking in the name of Jesus. Well, if it's not His will then He won't do it. Well, then why ask? You got these questions? Do these things buzz around in your brain in the middle of the night? Or do you just happy-go-lucky and say, I just thank

the Lord that he's...whatever. I don't know. I see people that are satisfied with their Christianity and I think, you ought not be. But anyway, we should have learned by now that you can't ask for anything and get it. But we are to live in a state of faith. And if you don't want to be disappointed in Christ, live in faith. If you don't want to be disappointed in Him as being too humble or too meek, live in faith. If you don't want to hold him to a list

of questions and give him a pass or fail grade, you need to live in faith. And faith is always predicated upon you don't know. You just have faith. Jesus is trying to teach us this and he continues and we're going to finish up our fifth chapter today if that's at all possible. He says, Whatever we've heard done in Capernaum, do here in thy country.

Looking for a sign. Verily I say unto you, no prophet is accepted in his own country, but I tell you of a truth. Now I want you to listen. Are you listening? You're not doing something else, are you? Come back in the room and watch this. Listen to this. I tell you of a truth.

Many widows were in Israel in the days of Elijah. Oh, really? Of course they were. When the heaven was shut up three years and six months, when great famine was throughout all the land, there were a lot of widows, many widows in all of Israel. Now, are you one who believes that God's just going to do whatever he wants to do and it doesn't matter if you pray or not?

Doesn't matter if you have faith. Doesn't matter if you ask. Doesn't matter. Doesn't matter. Doesn't matter. He's just going to do whatever he thinks is right. And so, you know, we're kind of powerless and we're just kind of riding along. Are you one of those?

Are you one who believes that all you have to do is ask? And that God is sitting there with the answer to your need and He loves you and He cares about you and He would hand you what you need, but you didn't pray. You should have prayed. Well, okay I did. Oh, you didn't say in the name of Jesus. Oh, you didn't use the right name when you called on me. You didn't

speak in Elizabethan English. Or for some reason your prayer doesn't count. Therefore, the thing I have for you that you need so desperately, sorry, you can't have it. Is that the God? What is it? I gotta know. Who is the God that we serve? Jesus has given us a little insight here. He's saying God is not necessarily need

oriented. It's not necessarily the extreme need that motivates God. He says you need to know there were many widows in Israel when that famine came through here. there were many widows in Israel when that famine came through here. There were many widows but unto none of them was Elijah sent. Save Sarepta

a city of Sidon unto a woman that was a widow. And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet. And none of them was cleansed save Naaman the Syrian. Now, he's telling us that the necessity does not necessarily energize God to do something.

I know you need a Messiah. I know you need an anointed one. I know you need a king. I know you need a leader. I know you need a high priest. I know you need a king. I know you need a leader. I know you need a high priest. I know you need redemption. The need is hugely great. So great that you don't even know how great it is. Yes, need is not just contained in the land of Israel. It's all over the Middle East. It's all over the other continents of the world. This is a huge need. But I want you to know Messiah wasn't sent to them.

Was he? He was sent to you. Need does not motivate. The need of these kind of things is not the motivation. The motivation is God's sovereign will. This is why Jesus says when it comes to asking for things, thy will be done. Do you realize when you're in God's will,

you pretty much know what it is. I've had women call me, you know, you can pretty much know what it is. I've had women call me, you know, crying about their boys lost and everything and he needs to get saved and, you know, and you talk with them for five or ten minutes and find out she's been enabling him for 15 years, you know, to be the piece of trash that he is. He can spend his paycheck on cocaine

because she's going to pay his light bill. You've seen this over and over again. They say, what do I do? I've been praying, I've been praying that he'll come to Jesus. I said, he'll come when he gets bankrupt. He'll come when his butt hits concrete. He'll come when he spends a few nights in jail. He'll come, or he won't. But people just don't come to the Lord because

they have everything they want. He can't bless you into this. There's going to be trouble in this world. We need to make sure those troubles make us better people. So, you know, they say, well, you know, I really care about him and I wish you'd pray for him. And I said, here's something better to pray. Okay, you really want him to come to the Lord? Well, sure I do. And you really love him? Yeah. And you want to see him in the kingdom of God? Yeah.

At any cost? Well, yeah. Yeah, what do you mean? That's the kind of reaction you get. Well, are you willing to turn this situation over to him saying whatever it takes? I don't care whatever it takes. Let's do this kind of thing. Well, usually that's hard for a mama to do.

That's why they have daddies. That's why, you know, the people are in our life to fulfill certain functions. That's hard. That's difficult. But until you get to the point where it is whatever you want, do whatever you need to do to make this particular situation happen, to make this happen. Until you get there, I don't know that you're going to get anywhere with your whatever request it is

that you're making. One of the missing ingredients in a lot of our prayers is number one, we're going to learn about faith and what that's all about. And oh, it's going to be a big surprise that it's not what we've always thought, but it's not. And the other thing is, is the will of our sovereign God. Our God has, he has a sovereign will in a lot of these areas. This is what he wants. This is what he wants for your child. This is the way it needs to be. And if everything's got to be perfect in this boy's life then you know the chances are if you keep

making sure everything's perfect chances are he'll never in his life ever see a need for becoming a better person or having better character or having a relationship with God. It's just not going to happen. So is that what you want? Is that what you want? If that's what you want then let's pray that whatever it takes. We don't care. You want to see a list of disasters? You want to see a list of things that have brought people to a saving and a relationship, a knowledge of God?

You want to see a list of those things? They're all horrible. They're all horrible. Well, there's your list. Are you willing to do that? Are you willing to pray these kind of things? Well, when it comes to receiving from God, we have to understand that we don't understand His motivation. Jesus is trying to tell us here

that extreme need does not necessarily evoke God to action. We have had an extreme need since Genesis. But it has not evoked Him to action. Of course He's done other actions in the past and with the children of Israel. I'm not saying that's not so. I'm just saying that in the area of the redemption of mankind, the first thing that happened was

Jesus appearing in that manger in Bethlehem. That's the first thing that happened. I mean, he made preparations for this all along, but although this famine, although this problem, although this degeneration of human being was all over the world, unto none of them was sent the Messiah except you.

You see, can you see the sovereignty of God here? Can you see that sovereignty of God here? Can you see that this is his deal? Jesus wants us to know, you might be disappointed in me, but I'm telling you, we've got a plan. We've got an action. You might as well fall in line.

Just fall in line. Now, when they heard these things, those in the synagogue were filled with resentment. Resentment? What are you upset about now? Well, we can't keep our temple. We can't keep our rites and our rituals. We can't keep our hierarchy.

You know, this guy here is a rabbi but so am I but he's over me and I'm under him and I've got people under me do you know Jesus when he was telling his disciples about building a church he says the Romans, this is their deal they give somebody authority and there's people in authority over them and there's people in authority over them. And there's people underneath this guy. And they report to him. So there's this big hierarchical structure, this rank and file. Do you know what his advice to his disciples was? Advice my foot.

It was a commandment. It shall not be so with you. It shall not be so. Well, what about our priests and our bishops and our pastors and our reverends and the hierarchical structure that goes up into our conferences and stuff. It shall not be so with you. Yeah, but it is. Well, since when are you doing what Jesus said anyway? Have it your own way. Build your own religion. It's fine. Just leave him out of it. Because why do you

call me Lord and not do what I say? There's a good question for you. Alright, he says when he heard these things that the people in the synagogue were filled with resentment, they rose up in a body, now this means they rose up in a group to thrust Jesus out of the temple and city. They intended

to cast him headlong from the top of the hill. These people, they weren't ticked. They weren't upset. They were murderous. This man was going to destroy the entire structure of Israel. Okay, let's give them a little bit of leeway. The Romans came in and said, you can have any

political structure you want. You can have your priests and your synagogues and your rules and your religion and do whatever you want, but here's what you need to know. Rome is over it all. You can do whatever you want, but Rome's over it all.

That really got them mad. But here's Jesus saying, I'm not even going to give you that. These things have to go. John taught that change was coming and change is coming. These people didn't appreciate this at all. And so they decided, I'll tell you what we should do. As people of God, people who care, you know, the wonderful people we are,

let's come up with a solution for this problem. Let's kill him. Unbelievable. It's just unbelievable that people, do you think these people know the Father? Do you think they know the Father? Absolutely not. He says, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked. How could you have any pleasure in the death of a righteous man?

Was it John the Baptist or Jesus who asked him, which of the prophets did you have you not persecuted? Is there a prophet that came and went in this world that you didn't persecute and try to destroy? It's a good question. However, when Jesus came, he was well aware of all these things he lived through it, he watched it from on high

and he knew where these people were going to have problems with him one of them was he was going to be too meek for them which they would translate as being weak and he was going to be too strong for them. Too strong, too weak. Sounds to me like somebody's never going to be satisfied. The only way you're going to get satisfied and I'm going to get satisfied

is to lay down our way and seek his way. And when you do, everything Jesus said makes sense. Everything that the Lord has decided to do for us, in us, to us, with us, it all comes together, makes sense. He's in control. He's in charge. He's in charge of me. And I'm going to take whatever comes my way as his will. All right. We spent a lot of time in chapter five, but it's just a rich chapter. He says a lot in there. I hope you're starting to see that you can read or hear

what Jesus says, and you start to understand just by default, by osmosis, by repetition, by rhetoric. I don't know how it happens. But all of a sudden, the personality of Jesus Christ starts to form in your own head. You start seeing, you see him walk up on a situation. And he's being tested. And the Pharisee says, let's do this. We'll bring him to him, and we'll see how he'll answer.

And you're thinking to yourself, I know how to answer. How do you know? I know him by now. I've read him. I've listened to him. I see his point. I see his philosophy. Everything's starting to make sense sense you know what's happening?

you're starting to think red ink alright time for us to go for now we'll see you next time bye bye Thank you. you've been listening to don c harris of think red ink ministries ThinkRedInc.com. That's ThinkRedInc.com. Join us again for the next episode in the Words of Jesus series. you