Are You Willing?
Matthew 28:16-20
Throughout the Bible we read of others who are willing to be faithful servants of the Lord God. If you start with Genesis and go all the way through to Revelation you will see how God used various people to accomplish His will. This morning I would like to do something a little different I am going to read our main text at the end of the sermon today and instead I want to start off today by looking at one family that was willing to serve God and in doing so accomplished His will. Since we are in the Christmas season I thought the best place to look would be with Mary and Joseph lets begin by reading Luke 1:26-38. As we can see Mary was willing to be the Lords servant. Mary did not make excuses even though people were going to start to ask questions and wonder. She was a virgin, engaged to be married and she was pregnant this did not look very good for her because people would assume that she was unfaith to Joseph even though she wasn’t.
I now want to take a look at Matthew 1:18-25. The Lord sent an angel to Joseph and told him what he was to do. Joseph was to take Mary as his wife and to name her son Jesus or as Matthew quotes here from Isaiah 7:14 Immanuel which means God with us remember this I will be mentioning it again. Joseph also did what the Lord had commanded.
I now want to look at one more example of how Mary and Joseph were willing to obey the Lords directions for them.
Lets look at Matthew 2:13-14 & 19-23. As we can see here God told Joseph to take Jesus and Mary and flee too Egypt. Joseph did what the Lord commanded him to do and went to Egypt and there he stayed until the Lord told him to return.
God had a very specific task for Mary and Joseph to accomplish and they were faithful and obeyed God directions to them. God has also given us directions and a purpose. God has called me to be His servant He has also called Al, Ken, and Russ, God has not only called the four of us to serve Him, He has also called each and everyone of you to serve Him too. Jesus gave us specific instructions as to what we are to be doing in service to Him. Lets take a look at our text for this morning Matthew 28:16-20. Here we are told by Jesus to go and make disciples baptizing and teaching them to obey what Jesus has commanded. Before I conclude I want to look at the end of verse 20 and a very encouraging promise in which Jesus says “and surely I am with you always” Do you remember when I was discussing the first chapter of Matthew and mentioned the name Immanuel means “God with us”. I find it interesting that Matthew’s gospel record begins with the statement “God with us” and then ends with a promise from Jesus that He will be with us always. If you were to ask me a few years ago if I would get up in front of everybody and give a speech for school I would get worked up and worried about it. I used to have a great fear of getting up in front of people. I used to be a very shy person who would keep to myself. I would have never though of myself as a preacher but as I stand here before you today I want to tell you that I have not got to this point in my life by my own power. God has brought me to this point and He has been with me all this way and I know that He will continue to be with me. I used to think that I did not know enough or was smart enough to be a preacher and I would always feel so useless until I realized that God would help me and that I am not perfect. God has called you to serve Him. Not only has He called you but He also has promised that you will not be alone and he will be with you. So let me ask you are you willing to do what God asks of you remember He will be with you and you are not alone.
Throughout the Bible we read of others who are willing to be faithful servants of the Lord God. If you start with Genesis and go all the way through to Revelation you will see how God used various people to accomplish His will. This morning I would like to do something a little different I am going to read our main text at the end of the sermon today and instead I want to start off today by looking at one family that was willing to serve God and in doing so accomplished His will. Since we are in the Christmas season I thought the best place to look would be with Mary and Joseph lets begin by reading Luke 1:26-38. As we can see Mary was willing to be the Lords servant. Mary did not make excuses even though people were going to start to ask questions and wonder. She was a virgin, engaged to be married and she was pregnant this did not look very good for her because people would assume that she was unfaith to Joseph even though she wasn’t.
I now want to take a look at Matthew 1:18-25. The Lord sent an angel to Joseph and told him what he was to do. Joseph was to take Mary as his wife and to name her son Jesus or as Matthew quotes here from Isaiah 7:14 Immanuel which means God with us remember this I will be mentioning it again. Joseph also did what the Lord had commanded.
I now want to look at one more example of how Mary and Joseph were willing to obey the Lords directions for them.
Lets look at Matthew 2:13-14 & 19-23. As we can see here God told Joseph to take Jesus and Mary and flee too Egypt. Joseph did what the Lord commanded him to do and went to Egypt and there he stayed until the Lord told him to return.
God had a very specific task for Mary and Joseph to accomplish and they were faithful and obeyed God directions to them. God has also given us directions and a purpose. God has called me to be His servant He has also called Al, Ken, and Russ, God has not only called the four of us to serve Him, He has also called each and everyone of you to serve Him too. Jesus gave us specific instructions as to what we are to be doing in service to Him. Lets take a look at our text for this morning Matthew 28:16-20. Here we are told by Jesus to go and make disciples baptizing and teaching them to obey what Jesus has commanded. Before I conclude I want to look at the end of verse 20 and a very encouraging promise in which Jesus says “and surely I am with you always” Do you remember when I was discussing the first chapter of Matthew and mentioned the name Immanuel means “God with us”. I find it interesting that Matthew’s gospel record begins with the statement “God with us” and then ends with a promise from Jesus that He will be with us always. If you were to ask me a few years ago if I would get up in front of everybody and give a speech for school I would get worked up and worried about it. I used to have a great fear of getting up in front of people. I used to be a very shy person who would keep to myself. I would have never though of myself as a preacher but as I stand here before you today I want to tell you that I have not got to this point in my life by my own power. God has brought me to this point and He has been with me all this way and I know that He will continue to be with me. I used to think that I did not know enough or was smart enough to be a preacher and I would always feel so useless until I realized that God would help me and that I am not perfect. God has called you to serve Him. Not only has He called you but He also has promised that you will not be alone and he will be with you. So let me ask you are you willing to do what God asks of you remember He will be with you and you are not alone.
posted by Jason at 1:42 AM
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