Discover the Jesus pattern and how to apply it to your life part 2

Welcome to episode 131.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Spending time in the Word of God is the best way to spend time with God. Welcome to No Doubt, No Fear, Only Believe podcast, where we will encourage, inspire, and empower you to live your best life in Christ. Here's Greg.

Welcome to episode 131. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, I'm not going to get tired of repetition because that is the mother of all learning, and that is how we're going to learn how to put this Bible inside of us. I now have that scripture, that verse, inside of me, and I hope you're going to start getting inside of you. Well, as per usual, God has taken me on a turn. I thought I was going one direction with teaching these 6 lessons, and I'm hoping I get it all done in 6. Maybe it'll even be 5. Maybe we'll have a bonus just random lesson on Saturday. The point I wanted to make is, God, as I'm reading the word and I'm praying about what I need to teach and how I need to teach it, and I kind of had it written out how I was going to go about teaching this specific lesson, and I was looking at the pattern and I thought it was just going to be in Matthew 4:10 and the Jesus pattern that I had seen years ago, and I just prayed about it. And now, as I was about to start teaching it, I was then saying, okay, we'll start this because I see two or three little nuances— and I put my air quotes up— and God took me to Luke 2:49. And he said to them, why do you seek me? Do you not know that I must be about my Father's business? And like I've told you before in separate episodes, I'm preparing and reading the word of God and studying and meditating and all those things that I do before I do a podcast, I kind of feel God when I read a scripture and it kind of jumps off the page. And I don't know how else to describe that. Maybe it's something— maybe there's a quickening in my spirit, if you need a churchy word. But something kind of happens and it stops me. And I, as I was reading Luke, and I was just kind of reading that on my own, but I just read when Jesus was a little boy and he was at the temple, and you can read Luke 2, the whole thing. His mom and dad left him with relatives and they're thinking, and Jesus is just tagging along. I wanna remind you that I was not there, so I really don't know how it all took place. And I hadn't really studied it out enough to talk about this, but I wanna just kinda give you a background. You know, they said that they were, they just assumed that Jesus was in their company, which means they were traveling probably with a bunch of people. And so, you know, they're visiting like adults do. The kids are probably playing with the kids, and the adults are visiting, and, you know, they're going back to their home. When they stopped, they realized Jesus was not with them, and they were a day's journey away from Jerusalem. And I want you to imagine what was going on with Mary and Joseph, and they realized their son was nowhere in the company, and they're a day away. So then they busted— I don't know if they slept much or if they slept at all, if they just went back a day's journey back to Jerusalem. And then I want you to see in Luke 2:46, now so it was that after 3 days they found him in the temple sitting in the midst of the teachers, both listening to them and asking them questions. And all who heard him were astonished at his understanding and answers. So when they saw him, they were amazed. And his mother said to him, Son, why have you done this to us? Look, your father and I have sought you anxiously. And he said to them, Why did you seek me? Did you not know that I must be about my Father's business? But they did not understand the statement which he spoke to them. I've got to tell you, as a parent, I kind of feel a cold sweat coming up over me because I'm thinking, oh my gosh, what would I have done had I lost my son? I just assumed that he was with— now you got to remember, this is God, this is a virgin birth, Mary with Jesus and Joseph. They know who Jesus is, and I can't— even so, even if it was not Jesus, just think of the panic and the fear that would come over a parent that lost their child and then went back to a big city to go find them in this crowd, in the midst of these people, not knowing— because everybody that they probably knew was in this company that they were traveling with. They probably didn't have a lot of acquaintances, maybe they did, maybe they didn't, in Jerusalem. So they're running through Jerusalem for 3 days trying to find Jesus. And when they find him, I just want you to see the peace of God that rested on Jesus. And he hadn't started— he has not started his ministry yet. He is just sitting there learning and communicating back. He's in the temple and he's just talking. And I want you to hear the human response from his mom Mary: Why have you done this to us? Look, your father and I has sought you anxiously. Now that you can just hear her panic, her heart, she's probably rejoicing. And then Jesus, just the peace. Why did you seek me? Did you not know that I must be about my Father's business? And, and it's just so cool. I mean, that's just laid back. But I want to take you— this is the Jesus pattern. This is him knowing his purpose and his calling. And that's the first step I think that we have to know if we're going to enter into this Jesus pattern, we're going to have to know whose kingdom we're building. And I have struggled with this. I have got to just have a total confession. My ready, fire, aim mentality— I read the Bible and then I jump off doing something. When that doesn't work, I jump and doing something else. And when that doesn't quite work— and some, some of it works, some of it don't— then I jump and do something else. But I've always been doing what I thought I should do instead of asking God and saying, God, is this what— something that you want to do? And then sitting and waiting. And I have to confess, you know, I thought that maybe if Abraham would have just prayed before he took Hagar as his wife or concubine, whatever they called it back then, when Sarah said— or Sari said, hey, why not Hagar? And he took Hagar and had Ishmael. And I've always wondered, God, you know, why didn't he pray? Why didn't— and then I look at my life and go, look, dummy, I mean, I'm just a guy. Abram was just a guy, and he's thinking he's doing God's will. He heard from his wife. You know, I get this idea and I'm thinking, well, I'm reading my Bible, I'm a Christian, here I go, and it falls flat. And I think this is a key first starting point, is be doing God's business. Is if you're gonna start something and if you're gonna get busy in doing God's work, you need to make sure that it's what he created you for. And we know why God created Jesus. He was the Lamb of God, but he was also the Word of God. And I don't even wanna pretend that I understand all of this, But I do know that from a young age— and there's not a lot written about Jesus before he started his ministry— but from a young age, he was doing the Father's business. When I read that, I thought that was so credible and eye-opening. And we just talked about coming to God in faith like a little child. And so I see Jesus as a little child, and, and maybe he was a teenager, I don't know the age, but he was already into or doing his father's business. And here I am, 50-plus years— 58— and I'm just nicely figuring this out. If you're going to be doing Father's business, you need to figure out what Father's business is. You don't do your business and ask Father to bless it. I think I need to do Father's business, and then Father will bless it. I, I don't know where the disconnect was with me. I'm a kind of— I'm kind of thick sometimes. It takes me a minute to figure some things out, but I think I'm finally doing Father's business. And then we're going to see in the next few steps, we're going to see this pattern. We're going to see it start to develop, and then we're going to see where it takes us. And I think it's going to surprise you. Some of the things that I've seen in this pattern I don't see a lot in the church. I see a couple of things they do and then a couple of things they don't do so much. And it's real eye-opening for me because I've been praying that God would bless my business and bless my efforts and all of those things before I really— and this was pre this podcast, but I, you know, I've been slowing down. I've told you I'm kind of ready, fire, aim, so I jump out ahead. But I've seen Jesus as the Good Shepherd. And before you write or comment, I've always seen him as the Good Shepherd, but it was hard for me, I guess, sometimes to see myself as a sheep and that I need leading. And I know that may sound weird, but you know, I'm just a guy. And so when I just take off, I just start taking off and doing something without asking God and waiting for his leading. I just do it. I would just jump in and it just didn't always work out right. And then I look at Abram, and he jumped in and had Ishmael. And I've got to apologize to Abram because I've always thought, well, that was kind of dumb, because if you'd have just asked God, God, is this the right thing? Is this right? God would have said, no, I think you need to keep waiting. And something— maybe it's just a guy thing, but I don't— I'm not real good at waiting. I, I've told you about when I get in traffic, I get a little bit tense. I'm getting better, but I get a little bit tense behind the wheel. And that, I think all that comes with, it's patience. I don't suffer bad driving and bad driving skills real well when people going across 8 lanes and making me stop and holding up all the traffic. We've already talked about this, but I, I mean, I'm praying through. But my point is that if we're gonna move into this Jesus pattern, we need to figure out kind of how Jesus did it. How did he start? And he started right away. And it shouldn't surprise us that Jesus is— since he's perfect, that he did it right. But he started straight out of the gate knowing that he had to be about his Father's business. And so we have got to get that straight. It's not yours and my business. This is God's kingdom we're building. And if we can just— whatever we're doing, if you're a plumber, if you're in landscaping, if you're in real estate, if you're in whatever your career or business is, if you would then just turn it over to God and say, God, how can I build your kingdom where I'm at right now? And that's a— that's— I think that's a prayer that the Holy Spirit would gladly answer. He would lead you into all truth. He will open up doors, and it'd be— it's going to be great. But I, I mean, first I've got to straighten myself out and I've got to come clean. So all of this is kind of new. This right here was a turn that I wasn't expecting to take, but God is so cool and he's always leading me, and I'm kind of waiting on him to lead, if you can imagine. And so what I'm doing is I'm just waiting and I'm listening and I'm just going as he leads me, and he's leading me into telling you, hey, do God's kingdom, but start building God's kingdom. And all of these things— remember the Matthew 6:33, seek first the kingdom of God and in his righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you. Well, I just looked at the clock. Let's pray. God, I thank you so much for your word. Holy Spirit, thank you for being with me and guiding me into your word today. And I thank you for this turn I wasn't expecting to take, but God, I hope it helps the person listening. I know it's helping me. God, help open up our eyes to see and our ears to hear what you're trying to tell us. And God, we thank you, we love you, we ask it all in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, thank you for being a part of this, and I look forward to visiting with you in the next episode.

Thanks for listening to the No Doubt, No Fear, Only Believe podcast at www.nodoubtonlybelieve.com.