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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Heidi Carpenter

Compassion

Father in heaven, there is a great need for our hearts to become more like yours.

Jesus, I know that we are naturally selfish, we're naturally human, but we desire to be partakers of the divine nature.

Father, we want to thank you for the blessing of your Sabbath.

We've come together to worship you, we've come together to learn of you, and Father, we do not desire to leave without coming in contact with you.

So Father we pray that your presence would be here, that your Holy Spirit would speak to our hearts, the very things that we need to hear.

I grew up in Kansas, far away from LA or any metropolitan area like this.

Yeah, you don't have to, you know, deal with traffic.

You just have your own lane and you can go as fast as you want.

I grew up in an Adventist home and definitely, you know, knew a lot about Jesus, but didn't make it my own until I was 16.

Through a course of events, I finally gave my life to Jesus because I wanted to.

Not because a pastor asked me to or my parents wanted me to, but because I wanted to make it my own religion, my own experience with Christ.

And ever since then, I can guarantee you, my life has never been the same.

I know we always hear that, you know, once I give my life to Jesus, it's never been the same again.

Well, it's true, Because giving your life over to someone so supernatural is going to throw your world upside down.

And ever since then, as soon as I gave my life to Jesus, I started studying this book.

And The Jesus behind this book has transformed my life.

I was interviewing a student who wants to be a part of the summer program.

This summer, she wants to knock on doors for 10 weeks.

She's a little bit nervous, a little bit scared, but as I was talking to her, I asked her what her personal testimony was, and I could relate with her.

She said, you know, just about a year ago, I started to have this desire to study my Bible more.

And she's like, I know it's not that good of a testimony.

It's a miracle for someone who's unspiritual to automatically have spiritual desires to study the Bible, amen?

And it was such an awesome experience to tell her, no, your testimony is very valid because it was the Holy Spirit working on your heart to do something like that.

I never did anything crazy, but it's been the Word of God that has pulled me in to be more dedicated and committed to Jesus Christ.

As I've been studying in the Word, I've studied a lot in the Gospels to see who Jesus was like, what his character was like, how I can learn from him, what things I can learn in regards to ministry.

And today I thought we would just go through a little bit in the short time that we do have, go through a little bit of Jesus' life and how Jesus did ministry.

And so I pray that as we behold Him, we can become more like Him in the way we do ministry.

Because I don't know about you, but the way I do ministry doesn't usually work.

But the way Jesus does ministry through me is the kind of ministry that can change someone's life.

As soon as you're there you can say, praise the Lord.

We're going to be in the book of Matthew for this little section all morning long.

So it'll just be different parts of Matthew.

Matthew chapter 4, we're looking at verse 23.

It says, And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease among the people.

Then His fame went throughout all Syria, and they brought to him all sick people who were afflicted with various diseases and torments, and those who were deemed possessed, epileptics and paralytics, and he healed them.

This is kind of an overview of Jesus' ministry, right?

Pretty simple, but what are the 3 things that we see Jesus doing here?

He's preaching, teaching, and healing, right?

And of course, as you look through the Gospels, what was the thing that Jesus did honestly the most?

He was touching people physically so that he could reach them spiritually.

It's amazing to see the impact that this has on a person's life.

As I started studying through Matthew, it broke my heart to realize some of the cases that Jesus was dealing with.

If you turn to Matthew Chapter 8, we'll see 1, Matthew Chapter 8.

Right as he's coming down from the Sermon on the Mount, he's just given this powerful presentation.

He runs into someone who desperately needs his help.

Here we are, we pick it up in Matthew 8, verses 1 through 4.

It says, When he had come down from the mountain, great multitudes followed him.

And behold, a leper came and worshipped him, saying, Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.

Then Jesus put out his hand and touched him, saying, I am willing, be cleansed.

We all know what leprosy does to a body, right?

Leprosy, what is the first sense that it takes away?

Just think for a moment what it would be like if you couldn't feel.

I don't think I would like that very much.

But Here he is and he comes to the leper and the first touch that he feels is the touch of Jesus.

That touch transformed his life completely.

I don't know anyone who can go up to someone and touch them and transform their life.

There's no 1 living on earth right now that goes up to people, touches them, and automatically, they're completely healed.

Jesus here had the ability to touch someone's life and completely transform it.

How many of you want that in your ministry?

Whether it's physical, mental, spiritual, emotional.

I want to be able to touch people in whatever way that I can in personal ministry and their life be transformed.

I want to give glory to God because of that transformation.

Here it continues on and it goes into a centurion in Capernaum.

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Compassion

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