When serving the kingdom you must… | Mark 6:30–44

You must rest, b/c serving people is exhausting.

The disciples had been commission to go and preach, heal, and cast out demons. This is what we would refer to as a short term mission trip with great supernatural effect. They had gone in and with the authority of Jesus.

When they returned they had must to tell Jesus, as if he didn’t already know (ha). When Jesus saw and listened to to them, he required them to go and rest.

When God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit created this world they also created the sabbath for our rest. That means that you and i have bodies that require at least one day of rest to rejuvenate and prepare for the upcoming responsibility.

Sabbath rest is also about getting away to be with the Lord, not sit and watch mindless tv or scroll social media. Come and be alone with Jesus! Come and physically and spiritually rest.

Get away from from the hustle and bustle and spend time reading and chewing on the Words of God. Come and pray and listen to the Spirit of God speak to you. Come and make your relationship with Jesus a priority.

In this case, and in ours, serving the kingdom of God is supposed to be exhausting. But rest in supposed to be built in. Sometimes the kingdom suffers though:

you have one group that serves until they pass out and burn out.

you have another group who never turned out.

the local church, the smaller picture of the kingdom of God, should have every piece of the body working so that the body functions fully. In a church our size there are many people that play similar parts, or at least should, so that when you need the rest your body requires, mind desires, or spirit thirst for, there is another person willing to step in.

So if you and I are going to be the best picture of the kingdom right here in Dawsonville, it’s going to start with serving the kingdom, but also resting. We have to be alone with Jesus and His Word. Daily every Christian, if He wants to grow in and serve king Jesus, should be in the Word.

This is the way we mature…

A Christian matures by allowing the Spirit to teach him and direct him by feeding on the Word.

bio.warrenwiersbe

One of the reasons we struggle so much is because while the world is feeding the old nature, the new nature is being starved to death. We have put it on a low calorie diet.

bio.davidjeremiah

9. So church get away daily for the Word and prayer. Get away occasionally for revival and excitement. Get away often to best prepare to serve the kingdom of God.

You must recognize the needs of the people.

The closer we are to Jesus, the more likely it is that he will call us to share in his work of compassion, healing and feeding, bringing his kingdom-work to an ever wider circle.

bio.ntwright

As Jesus saw the crowds he had compassion on them.

this is not always our response. We are like the workers at six flags who let you wait in line for thirty minutes so your three year old can ride the easiest ride in the park and then when the clock turns eight you say oops can’t ride, parks closed. Though you could have locked the other two entrances, fifteen minutes ago so that this wouldn’t happen, instead you wanted to crush a little girls dreams. We are like this when see ministry before us sometimes.

Typically if you are there, you are in burn out stage and have not rested in the Lord. Usually when someone gets there, they don’t rest in the Lord daily by being alone with God in the Word and Prayer.

Jesus invites you to see the ministry of the kingdom as a ministry for people.

Just as Jesus knew the needs of the disciples was rest and spiritual rejuvenation, he also saw the physical needs of people who were actually crying out spiritually whether they understood it or not.

Why needs that the kingdom can serve are you pushing yourself to provide in order that kingdom of God may grow. What good works are you doing for the kingdom, that provides for the needs of others, that people would see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.

Some of you may say nothing. Or you may say something to get the guilt feeling off your mind. But hopefully are considering…How am i serving the kingdom of God by seeing and serving the needs of other people.

Usually a bad illustration comes in a sermon right here about serving the homeless, giving a hungry man a happy meal, or helping a lady across the street.

No! The first thing you need is rest in the Lord daily, and weekly. Then you need to ask the Lord for spiritual eyes to see the needs he uniquely qualifies you to provide.

One pastor tells the story of being in seminary and attending a local church. He involved himself by getting connected to a Sunday school, sought to encounter God through worship opportunities, served the church according to his gifts, and was making disciples. Every week a classmate of his in a prestigious Seminary would slide in about preaching time in the service. The pastor who was a student at the time said to his classmate, why do you show up at this time every week? He said oh i don’t need small groups and music and stuff. I am spiritually above that. I just need the preaching of the Word. The pastor didn’t blink an eye and asked, did you ever think that all those things you are so spiritually qualified for and don’t need aren’t about you but rather could be the way God uses you to serve people?

You must depend upon Jesus for the things you can’t do.

Mark alone tells us that this event transpired in a lonely or deserted place (6:31, 32, 35), which intentionally brings to mind the story of the feeding of Israel in the wilderness in Exod. 16.

Ben Witherington III

Just as the OT story was a magnificent way God showed up and did the supernatural, this NT even will be a picture of Jesus’ sovereignty over all things.

When Jesus asked the disciples how much they had they came back with the report and the attitude of how is this going to happen?

But just like the OT wilderness feeding that made no sense, this five thousand feeding is going to make no sense. But it doesn’t have to make sense!

Jesus takes what little they had to offer and made it go so much further than anyone expected.

This also happed with Elisha in the OT. IT was a supernatural event.

There are things that you and I can’t do. Doctors can do it. Medicine can’t do. Great philosophical arguments can’t do it. Perfect apologetics can’t go it. Persuasion won’t do. Feeding food and giving them a Kroger card won’t do. Keeping the nursery won’t do it. Showing up at church, even giving someone a ride. Being strong, smart, quick, wise, resourceful, nothing!

There are things in ministry that can’t happen outside the work of Jesus Christ.

countless revivals have happened in this world that make no sense outside the work of God.

In the First Great Awakening during the 1740s, Massachusetts native Jonathan Edwards became known for his intense sermons, exemplified in a famous message he gave in Enfield, Connecticut, titled “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” His work inspired George Whitefield, a minister from Great Britain who helped pioneer the itinerant preaching that was a common element of the First Great Awakening and subsequent revival movements. Whitefield came to America, starting in New England, and convicted and compelled audiences throughout the colonies.

After the second great awakening: On a Saturday afternoon in August, 1806, five Williams College students, Congregationalists in background, gathered in a field to discuss the spiritual needs of those living in Asian countries. When a thunderstorm arose they took shelter in the lee of a haystack and continued to pray. This gathering came to be called “The Haystack Prayer Meeting,” launching the modern mission movement. Within a few years, the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) was formed and sent some of the first American Protestant missionaries to other lands.

Off the west coast of Scotland is a small group of islands called the Hebrides. Between 1949 and 1952 a wide spread revival swept through these islands in answer to the prayers of God's people. Instrumental in this revival was the evangelist Duncan Campbell.

From May 30 to June 3, 1973, an estimated 3.2 million people attended Billy Graham’s largest ever Crusade in Seoul, South Korea, with 1.1 million traveling—mostly by foot—to the final service on the airstrip at Yoi-do Plaza. Some 75,000 people submitted cards showing they made a decision for Christ because of that Crusade.

Jesus was illustrating the kind of ministry they would have after His departure. They would be involved in feeding people, but with spiritual food. The source for their feeding would be the Lord Himself.

Louis A. Barbieri Jr.

Conclusion

first baptist dawsonville will most likely see between 200-400 new people walk through our doors in the coming five years.

FBCD will need its members to be serving from rest and not exhaustion.

FBCD will need to have spiritual eyes to see the needs God will put before us.

FBCD will need the supernatural work of Jesus to completely fulfill our call to be part of the kingdom of God