Matt 11:25-30.... Jesus Revealing God through Challenging us to Labor

Jesus Reveals God to Us… Jesus challenges us with Laboring for God= THIS is what He wanted to Reveal to us about God…

Matt 11:25-30 At that time Jesus said, "I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. 26 Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure. 27 "All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. 28 "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." NIV

Sharing some thoughts from my QT this past week with our STS group…

Interesting thought for me as God is revealing more to me about Him through Christ and through His Word.  I never connected verses 25-27 to verses 28-30.  Verses 28-30 are REALLY popular with most Christians- as most see it as God wanting to give us rest… one thing about this one is that God’s idea of rest- that Jesus is telling us- is that HE wants to put on HIS yoke on OUR necks…. A yoke is a device placed on the necks of beasts of burden in order to harness their energy to do work—WE are those beasts of burden- God wants to harness our energy to do work- to labor for Him…

The first thing with this passage is that God WANTS to hide some things from people- verses 25-26

The next thing is that in verse 27 we find that Jesus is telling us 4 things:

• ·         No one knows the Father except the Son
• ·         No one knows the Son except the Father
• ·         Jesus will be the one to reveal God to us
• ·         Jesus will be CHOOSING the people who He will reveal God to

Then He tells us that He wants us to Labor for God and that this labor will be REST for us…

Connecting the dots….

Jesus is revealing to us something about God- and that something is that God wants us to Labor.  Therefore, those who labor- will be understanding more and more about who God is and what He is about- we will understand God more in a way that others will not- since they are not joining in on the labor for God…

THIS is what God wants to hide from people…

Is that IF we want to KNOW God and Understand Him- then we must Labor for Him…

There are alot of implications that go along with this too...

One of them is that... IF we don't labor- then we won't know God- and this may be because we are resisting Jesus revealing God to us through us laboring...

SO... if we don't labor- that may mean that we DON'T want to Know God...

Navigators Military SE Regional Conference 2011

Our SouthEastern Regional conference kicked off with a strong message and theme about Laboring for the Cause of Christ and bringing to fulfillment what was on God's mind to reach the world.

One of the slides from our 1st talk of the weekend that centered on Vision and how each one of us can be part of bringing God's objectives to fruition.  God said what He wanted to see happen in:

 1 Tim 2:3-4 This is good an pleases God our savior who wants all 

men to be saved and come to a knowledge of the Truth.

If we are going to be part of meeting God's objective here- we must accept the Lordship of Christ.  That means WHATEVER is on Christ's mind- what He wants to do..... how He wants to do it.... that is what we are to do....

Then we must realize that we are sent by God on a mission.... the mission is Matt 28:18-20

Since we are charged with a mission to accomplish- we MUST mature and grow and develop into laborers and REAL disciples of Jesus Christ.  As we are growing through the Basics of the Christian life- we must also be growing in 3 roles.... those roles are:

• Ambassador- A Representative of God bringing a Message of reconciliation to others
• Recruiter- A Representative of God that pulls other Christians in to join in on the mission
• Trainer/ Disicplemaker- A Representative of God who is able to train, develop, and mature believers to become the same thing he is.... a fisher of men  Matt 4:19

IF.... we mature....

then we will be able to reproduce spiritually.

If we reproduce spiritually, then we will be able to meet God's objectives that He showed us He wanted in 1 Tim 2:3-4.  

This is the strategy and gameplan installed by Christ for us to use.....

Can we come up with another plan??  Probably- but Christ outlined this pattern for us...

We must accept the Mission because this mission is given to all those who believe.

so....

Great time at this years Fall South East Military conference.  I had a great time talking with several people about this topic and helping them understand how they might speak vision to their fellow Christians around them that have not yet joined in on the 'War Effort'.  The need is urgent and our task is daunting.... but our Lord is MORE than a match.... He has ALL AUTHORITY  (Matt 28:18) and He has ALREADY OVERCOME THE WORLD  (John 16:33)

So...

consider how you might join in with us in the war effort.... 

Get in the Word...

Get trained...

Find a worthy man...

Exciting and Terrifying!!

Exciting and Terrifying all at the Same Time!!

Great conversation with one our young soldiers attending biblestudy at our Soldiers Chapel study. This particular soldier was led to Christ by a chaplain and was referred to us to begin discipling him and helping him grow to maturity in his pursuit of Christ.

“John” (as we’ll call him) just started coming to the biblestudy and one of our biblestudy group leaders has been encouraging him to continue spending time in the Word in daily quiet time and also in investing in biblestudy. As John continued doing biblestudy- he realized more and more how he was to look to God to answer questions for him such as “should I get out of the army?” or “does God want me to move my family somewhere else to reach out to people who are not being reached?” Great questions!!

John’s response to it all was that he was excited to realize that God could be directing him toward what GOD WANTED FOR THEM and to realize that he needed to submit more and more to God’s directing rather than directing things for himself and for his own thoughts and desires. But John also said that it was terrifying as he saw more and more that ‘someone else’ would be doing the directing and not him…

“Its Exciting and terrifying all at the same time!!” John exclaimed at biblestudy that evening…

“John” eventually deployed and is currently overseas. We’re hoping and praying that God will put us in touch with more and more soldiers like “John” who have a hunger to meet Christ and know Him personally and submit to Christ’s call and direction for their lives….

As Peter told Christ so many years ago… "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God."- John 6:68-69

At Ft. Campbell, we are creating an atmosphere where soldiers can discover these truths and find a face to face, personal interaction with Christ…. And eventually come to the same realization that Peter did in those days that Christ walked with the 12 disciples…

Then we encourage them and challenge to take the plunge and begin the adventure of laboring for Christ wherever He might take them…

The Art of Sending

Team Campbell and Friends…

Our STS team at the Campbell Ministry has been steadily studying through the Book of Luke…

Always a great time to study the Gospels and take a closer, investigative look into the life of Jesus Christ and take inventory of what things each of us has made a priority versus the things that Jesus has given us insight into what the Heavenly Father considers as a priority.

One of the things that Jesus made a heavy priority was the training and sending out of His disciples. Jesus invests a large amount of time modeling for the disciples what to do and how to go about doing it…. And then He sends them out to get out there and gain some experience in ‘laboring’ for the Kingdom while also making a heavy impact toward taking ground from Satan and beating back where he has formerly controlled regions and areas in people’s hearts and minds…

Just wanted to share a few points from James C’s devotional before our STS study as we went over Luke 10 just last week…

The 6 I’s of Sending...

· INVOLVED- Jesus involved the disciples in the process of laboring and fishing for the Kingdom- Lk 10:1

· IDENTIFY needs- Jesus saw the need for laborers for the harvest and communicated to the disciples the great need Lk 10:2

· INFORMED them of the dangers- Jesus told them that they would be sent out like sheep among wolves Lk 10:3

· IGNITED a sense of urgency- Jesus told the disciples to move out quickly and not stop on the road and avoid distractions to get out to the places to interact in the villages Lk 10:4

· INTRUCTED them with a course of action- Jesus told them how to go about being received and what to do when they were rejected Lk 10:10

· ILLUMINATED the difference between majors and minors- Lk 10:17 Jesus was excited for them but continued to keep them focused on what to be truly excited about

Jesus told us in Matt 4:19 “Come follow Me and I will MAKE you Fishers of men”

As followers of Christ- we OUGHT to be becoming skilled in the art of sending out others and training others to be sent out- as we must also be interacting with others around us for Christ as well.

If you are finding yourself unskilled and fumbling as a ‘fisher of men’… it may mean a re-prioritization of time is in order and a re-determining of who you spend your time with is in order as well…

The pattern Jesus sets as an example for us is a more mature believer guides us an trains us for the battle- we must therefore make diligent effort to find these people and ensure that we are getting as much time with them as possible so that they can train us- much in the manner as Jesus trained the 12 Disciples too…

Some thoughts from One of our Team mates overseas..

Team Campbell and Friends,

Just wanted to share a quick email from one of our guys overseas, Drew M.
Drew has been involved with us for 2+ years now and has caught an infectious desire to bring Christ to others and be involved with reaching the world for Christ through the multiplication of Disciplemakers and Laborers...
I just wanted to share with you guys a few thoughts that he sent me recently:


Dude...
I cannot explain what God has in stored for us. I was reading in my q.t. yesterday and I came across this verse in Deuteronomy 1:8. " See, I have given you this land. Go in and take possession of the land that the Lord swore he would give to your fathers-to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob-and their descendants after them." I have been thinking about the word possession. This word is used frequently in the old testament. Joe, when you said about having a Disciple and a labor in every Battalion on Campbell, it hit me that morning that God wants us to possess the Land. GO-GET IT! It starts with the insiders (Jeff V, myself and others) I did some research and there are 32 Battalions at Campbell. That is going to be a lot lot of work but I am standing by Jeremiah 32: 17 "Ah, Sovereign Lord, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and outstretched arm. Nothing is too hard for you" We have promises by God himself to back this up! I really believe this Joe! I am encouraged that the LEADERS have instilled in us the vision and how important it to take hold of it.

Thank your for lending your ear bro and I cannot wait for you to mentor me in a much effective way!

Love you,



Team Campbell and Friends.......
Drew's excitement and desire reminds me of Caleb in the OT when the other guys gave a bad report about the land that they had spied out and that God has given them.

Num 13:30 Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses and said, "We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it."

Caleb was confident that they could take the land- no matter what was in their path BECAUSE God was with them. His fellow brother spies however responded in fear despite Joshua and Caleb's urging to go up to take the land. And..... the Israelites paid for their discouragement, fear, and inaction with their lives.

Team Campbell and Friends....
Our task and vision for Ft. Campbell is ambitious and challenging- but our God is BIG AND POWERFUL...... and on OUR SIDE. Therefore- our vision to reach Ft. Campbell and put a laboring disciple in every battalion is reachable and attainable.

Do you want to be part of reaching and changing the world for Christ??
We are starting here at Campbell.....

Reading the book "Living Legacy"

Team Campbell and Friends....
Our STS team finished the year reading the book "Living Legacy"
Written by Jim Downing to celebrate the 75 year anniversary of the Navigators Ministry.
Here are a few points that people drew out as we read it and discussed it together.
If you have not had a chance to read it- I highly recommend it as it will give you each an idea of how the Navigators ministry started and what it took to get this tremendous work off the ground and running to where it is today....
The book is divided into 2 parts.
The first part covering Dawson Trotman- the founder of the Navigators
The second part covering Lorne Sanny- the leader who took over after Daws died

Part I

• The book presented Daws as Human- Lindsey Stone
• Daws recognized that it Was God who did all the work- Jake
• Daws was assured of the Promises of God- Mercy
• Jim had every reason to never come back to Daws and the ministry since he felt offended, but he DID return- Joe
  
• Daws prioritized laborers at the cost of casualties- Matthew
• Depending on how much we put into it is what God allows us to produce- Jake
• Simple Mission: Christ + maturity- Jake
• Daws made the mission simple- find one man, help him grow to where he can help another- Caleb
• Daws knew what God gave him and made no apologies for his weaknesses but was never satisfied with the state of things- Matthew
• The sovereignty of God is what started things and what continued things- Mercy
• Daws passion and Vision changed people's lives- Matthew

Part II

• The mentality that Daws created was that everyone was responsible for everything- Matthew
• Jim's perspective on the ministry: "The Navigators were on the front lines, waging spiritual warfare, releasing captives out of darkness, and equipping them and enlisting them in spiritual battle" - Jake
• Daws perfectionist attitude caused him to be a micro-manager, we need to be careful not to fall into this trap- Joe
• Having a 'protector' like Jim was for Lorne is key to our survival- Joe
• The community that they had, re-emphasizes for me what the environment can do for ministry- Andrew V
• Lorne modeled submission to God, He was an undershepherd to the Great Shepherd- Jake
• Quote from page 80 "Although the Navigator family was exceptionally close, there were some wounded souls who felt like they were outsiders and second-class citizens. They were only healed as they banded together and bonded in new spiritual battles, of which there was an abundance of opportunity" - Joe

John 14

Greetings Team Campbell and Friends....

Our STS team went over John 14 last night. I've posted a few of the thoughts from our discussion. I hope each of you guys are getting and taking opportunity to do some digging in the Word- especially these particular chapters alongside with us.

• Seeing Jesus IS seeing God.
• The miracles were to establish Christ's credibility- not to PROVE God- but they were show the people why they should listen to Christ. Victor P/Matthew C
• Obedience to God = Loving God
• Loving Christ = Obeying Christ's commands
• Jesus tells the 12D that He DOES intend to only reveal Himself to those who are willing to be obedient- not to everyone else.... vs.22-23
• This 'peace' promised to them is different from the OT version of peace
• Seems that Jesus is saying one of the main reasons I'm going to the Cross is not only to take care of the sin issue for us- but to show the world- I WILL AND AM OBEDIENT TO THE FATHER

Hope these thoughts will drive you each to look at the Word closer and investigate more and more who is Christ and what did He say and want....