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Living Hope SDA Church

Christian Martin

God’s Got You on the Move

As we open the word of God, we're gonna pause for prayer as we meditate on the subject entitled, God's Got You on the Move.

The Holy Spirit is constantly on the move.

Convicting hearts, leading people closer and closer to you, revealing truth.

And so we pray Lord that as we welcome the Holy Spirit to come and abide in us, that we would understand what it means to be a spirit-filled disciple who's on the move for your name's honor and glory.

So we thank you Lord for speaking to our hearts in Jesus name, Amen.

There are moments in life when you know that you're in tune with God's movements.

You just sense that God is moving through your hands and through your feet.

You just know that you're in tune with His will.

Those are precious moments, they really are.

I remember I've sat down with a homeless man and handed him a sandwich.

After all, Jesus himself said, if you've done it to the least of these, you've done it unto me.

I've prayed with someone drowning in addiction, the smell of liquor still heavy on their breath, but that prayer is a prayer that I will not soon forget.

I've listened quietly and compassionately as someone shared the confusion and pain of struggling with their sexual identity.

And I was able to see God's compassion at work as in those moments you know that you're in tune with God's movements.

We're family, So I'm going to confess something here.

There have been moments that I'm not proud of.

I've avoided eye contact with A man holding a cardboard sign, standing on the street corner, as if he were invisible.

And I could almost sense his presence crying out for help.

I've crossed the street, not to get to the other side, but to dodge someone that I decided was just another addict chasing a high, I'm just going to stay out of the way.

I've looked away, I've looked away on purpose when I saw someone who was transgender, Not wanting to engage or not wanting to feel uncomfortable.

In those moments, a pang of conviction would hit me hard when I would reflect on what I just did.

Because I had chosen to overlook someone Jesus would have stopped for.

Someone He would have seen with His eyes.

Come with me together, let's go together to the Gospel of Matthew, where I find a passage that reveals to me 1 of the most direct passages that speak of Jesus looking at people like I should so many more times than what I do.

Let's take a look at how Jesus saw people.

Jesus went about all the cities and villages teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom and healing every sickness and every disease among the people.

Verse 36, but when he saw the multitudes, see that's why I asked you, have you ever prayed, Lord help me to see with your eyes?

It says, when he saw the multitudes, he saw the multitudes with his eyes, he was moved with compassion for them.

Because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd.

Then He said to His disciples, The harvest truly is plentiful, but the labors are few.

Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out labors into His harvest." Depending on your translation, Those crowds were described as harassed and helpless.

New American Standard Bible says distressed and dispirited.

The King James says, fainted and scattered abroad.

The Holman Christian Standard Bible says, weary and worn out.

When Jesus saw, what He saw is what moved Him with compassion.

We see this in this passage, But as you can only imagine, Jesus experienced this kind of inner emotional response many times.

In fact, I would go as far as to say this happened every time.

Time again and again and again in Jesus' life.

Everyone He set His eyes on, He will smooth with compassion.

Time won't allow us to go through the times that the Bible records that Jesus saw people differently with his eyes.

When Jesus saw lepers, no rather when people, when people, let's begin with people's perspective, when people saw lepers, they saw people whom they considered unclean and untouchable due to disease.

That's going to be a reoccurring phrase you're going to hear in the next few moments.

But Jesus saw lepers, then went to them, touched them, and healed them.

When people saw tax collectors, they saw people whom they viewed as corrupt traitors, collaborating with the Roman oppressors.

But Jesus, when he saw tax collectors, he ate with them.

And that's significant, because in that culture, in that society, sharing a meal, eating with people, was not just a passing of time.

When you ate with people, you were saying, I want to know you personally.

That's why it was such a controversial thing for Jesus to be eating with sinners.

And he prays Zacchaeus for his response to the Gospel.

Salvation has come to this house, a tax collector's house.

When people saw prostitutes, They saw people who were morally impure and beyond redemption.

But Jesus saw prostitutes and befriended them, defended them, and forgave them.

And when people saw Samaritans, they saw people who were considered heretics and outsiders by Jews.

But Jesus, when He saw Samaritans, He honored their faith.

When people saw the poor, they saw people who were cursed or unworthy.

But Jesus saw them and said, Blessed are the poor.

And called them first in the kingdom of God.

When people saw the demon possessed, they saw people who they feared and who were feared, and they isolated themselves from them.

But Jesus saw a demon possessed and healed them, restored them, and commissioned them, and sent them to their communities to turn them upside down.

See, Jesus saw crowds in a different way.

And when He did, He didn't flinch, He didn't dismiss them, He didn't turn away from them.

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God’s Got You on the Move

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