Jesus gives us an example of ministry that meets the social, spiritual, emotional, and physical needs of those around us. Join Pastor Clark as he shares his first message as Pastor of the Dalton Seventh-day Adventist Church and gain of vision of what Jesus would have His Church be and do in our community today.

<p>Jesus gives us an example of ministry that meets the social, spiritual, emotional, and physical needs of those around us. Join Pastor Clark as he shares his first message as Pastor of the Dalton Seventh-day Adventist Church and gain of vision of what Jesus would have His Church be and do in our community today.</p>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

Dalton SDA Church

Chester Clark

The Only Way

Thank you so much to all who have been a part of this program.

I feel like we could go home now and we'd have been fed.

Thank you for the music, Jordan and Linda and Shana and others, Merle and Kayla, thank you so much.

And thank you to this church for the welcome, the warm welcome that you've given to Jane and I.

And you know, as we've gone through this process, as we've met with the conference, as we've seen through the church, through the conference, we've seen the heart of God for ministry, the burden for the lost.

We're so thankful for the privilege we have to be able to serve with you here in Dalton.

Jane and I are humbled and honored to be called to pastor here in the Dalton Church.

We're grateful for the confidence that you've placed in us, and we would solicit your prayers.

We sense that the expectations that we all have for Dalton are high, amen?

And we feel inadequate actually to meet them.

So I could spend some time this morning trying to depress those expectations a little bit, but if anything, I think they ought to be raised, not because of us or because of what we can do, not even because of what collectively as a church can be done, but because of Jesus, because of what He is able and waiting and longing to do in and through the Dalton Seventh Diademus Church.

So as I begin this ministry, as we begin this road together, I want to confess that I can't do it, but I know someone who can.

You know, I think of Jesus, who not only could walk on water himself, but he was able to empower Peter, his disciple, to walk on water also.

There is a God in heaven who is intensely interested in this church and in the greater community around.

There's a Savior, I believe, who passionately loves Dalton and who is all about empowering his disciples, that's you and me, to do the impossible, Especially when it comes to seeking and saving the lost.

He promises that He who believes in Me, greater works than these He will do, because I go to My Father." That's quite a promise, isn't it?

Greater works than Jesus did He expects of us.

You see, the same Jesus who fed the multitude with only 5 loaves and 2 fishes is still able, I believe, to multiply what we give Him for the spiritual feeding and nurturing of His children today.

As the song says, little is much when God is in it.

And I firmly believe that If we are willing to be broken for Jesus, if we're willing to place ourselves in His hands, He will make up for that which we can never do.

And He will use us to bring spiritual food to our community, to our neighbors, to our friends, to those who are hungry.

Yes, my friends, I believe that the same Jesus who gave sight to the blind wants to today work through our hearts, through our lips, to bring spiritual sight to those who are blinded by the enemy.

I believe the Bible tells us in 2 Corinthians 4 that the God of this world has blinded the eyes of those who believe not, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ should shine through on them.

We have a work to do, amen, in revealing the glory, the character of God to our neighbors, to our co-workers, to our family, to our friends.

Paul goes on in that passage to say, for it is God who commanded the light to shine out of where?

Who has shone in your hearts, in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

Unless we should think we are something, He says we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us.

Oh, my friends, I believe that the healer of Galilee, the 1 who brought sight to eyes that were born blind, is seeking today to use you and me to bring spiritual eyesight to those in our community.

It's not that we are so capable, it's that He is so capable.

We have this treasure in earthen vessels.

The same Jesus who enabled Peter to walk on water, who multiplied meager resources to feed the multitude, The same Jesus who gave sight to the blind.

That same Jesus brought funeral processions to a grinding halt, turning tears to laughter and sorrow to rejoicing.

That same Jesus wants, I believe, to work the even greater miracle today of bringing spiritual life to the spiritually dead and using us, after revitalizing us daily in our spiritual walk, of using us to bring life and hope and forgiveness and joy to those who are languishing in the prison house of spiritual death.

We ask how we can best impact our community for good.

I believe Jesus tells us in our Scripture for today, I am the way, the truth, and the life.

He goes on in the book of John, he says, He who believes in me, greater works than these will he do, because I go to my Father." So this morning I want to just take our Bibles, and I want us to take a few minutes to look at how Jesus impacted the lives of those around Him.

Let's take just a few minutes, we're just going to briefly look at the Gospel of John.

John, we're going to begin in John chapter 2, and we're going to see how it was that Jesus went about touching His world.

If Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, if it is through Jesus that we want to reach out and touch others, then through Him we ourselves are going to be touched.

If it is through Jesus that we want to reach out and touch others, then through Him we ourselves are going to be touched.

If it is through Jesus that we will be able to do even greater works than He did, we ought to know what He was doing, right?

John chapter 2, He begins His ministry, And we read here, beginning with the first few verses, John 2 and verse 1, On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there.

Now both Jesus and His disciples were invited to the wedding.

And when they ran out of wine, the mother of Jesus said to him, they have no wine.

Verse 4, Jesus said to her, woman, what does your concern have to do with me?

His mother said to his servants, Whatever He says to you, do it.

Jesus commanded, there were 6 big water pots, stone water pots, and He commanded them to be brought and filled with water.

20 to 30 times 6, you're talking about 120 to 180 gallons of water.

A lot of water there in the Middle East to fill in these pots.

But Mary said, whatever He says to you to do, do it, right?

And then He gave the instructions, draw some out now and take it and give it to the Master of the Feast.

Verse 9, When the Master of the Feast had tasted the water that was made wine, and did not know where it was come from, but the servants who had drawn the water knew, the Master of the Feast called the bridegroom, and he said to him, Every man at the beginning sets out the good wine, and when the guests have well drunk than the inferior, you have kept the good wine until now." Now lest we think that the good wine was some alcoholic beverage that Jesus provided for those guests, I don't believe it was.

I personally am convicted that Jesus did not go against what He told us in the Old Testament, right?

When He said, don't look at wine when it moves in the cup.

I don't believe Jesus sent those guests home that day feeling tipsy, feeling single and seeing double.

I believe that he gave the best wine that could be had.

Because in those days, it was hard to get fresh grape juice.

It was easy for the fermented stuff, that's the only way it could be preserved, right?

But to have fresh grape juice, especially out of season, was unheard of.

I believe Jesus gave the best that amazed even the master of the feast.

Why did Jesus work His first miracle at a wedding.

You might be tempted to think that as a preacher, as a teacher, spiritual leader, Jesus should have gone first to the temple and there you'd perform His first miracles, you know, to bring people to church, right?

Jesus performs His first miracle not at a spiritual gathering, my friends, but at a social event.

Jesus introduces His ministry, His ministry of miracle working.

He introduces it in a way to meet the social needs that were around Him.

And I believe that Jesus is a God who is concerned about our social needs.

Jesus' first miracle was to provide for the needs of a social event.

It was His ministry to meet social needs.

Because we are made in the image of God as social beings.

I believe that today a part of the ministry of the church that God wants to place in our hearts is the ministry of meeting social needs.

Church ought to be a place of healthy friendships and healthy relationships.

John chapter 3, we find the story of the nighttime visitor, Nicodemus.

John chapter 3, verses 1 through 4, we'll read, There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.

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The Only Way

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