Oakwood Church Tampa

Humility is the 13th and final character perfection of our Lord Jesus. Though He literally deserved everything in terms of honor, love and service Jesus laid down all of His rights and served us to the ultimate degree.

Zeal is an abiding passion for God that moves us to live for His kingdom. Jesus was perfectly aligned, with his internal zeal fueling his ministry priorities.

Jesus is actively spreading the knowledge of His glory and goodness all over the world through the church. He is the head and we are His body, sharing His love and truth with those around us. 

Matthew 9 documents nine people or groups having an encounter with Jesus and illustrates the depth and breadth of the kindness of our Lord.

What we learn in Matthew 11:28-30 is that Jesus is “gentle and lowly in heart.” No where else in Scripture does Jesus explicitly tell us what His heart is like except for this passage. 

Don’t give, pray and fast to impress or feel superior to others or to manipulate God. Rather, practice these spiritual disciplines secretly, humbly and faithfully as an offering to God alone.

In Matthew 5 Jesus gives six examples of Old Testament commands that he updates to show that our heart motivation matters: anger, lust, divorce, oaths, revenge relationships. To be good is to be righteous – perfect.

Wisdom is not just about right understanding. Biblical wisdom is about right living – truth applied.

This week our focus is His faithfulness – responsibly doing the work assigned to him.

Let’s follow Jesus’ example and apply the gospel of our freedom in Him to have our thinking shaped by God’s word, our speaking filled with God’s goodness and our lives increasingly devoted to God’s will.