by His hands! ""Is this not the carpenter, the Son of Mary, and brother of James, Joses, Judas, and Simon? And are not His sisters here with us?'' And they were offended at Him. (NKJ)

  • C. Mark 6:41-44 And when He had taken the five loaves and the two fish, He looked up to heaven, blessed and broke the loaves, and gave them to His disciples to set before them; and the two fish He divided among them all. So they all ate and were filled. And they took up twelve baskets full of fragments and of the fish. Now those who had eaten the loaves were about five thousand men. (NKJ)
  • D. Mark 10:46-48 Now they came to Jericho. As He went out of Jericho with His disciples and a great multitude, blind Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, sat by the road begging. And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, ""Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!'' Then many warned him to be quiet; but he cried out all the more, ""Son of David, have mercy on me!'' (NKJ)
  • E. Mark 12:42-44 Then one poor widow came and threw in two mites, which make a quadrans. So He called His disciples to Himself and said to them, ""Assuredly, I say to you that this poor widow has put in more than all those who have given to the treasury; ""for they all put in out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all that she had, her whole livelihood.'' (NKJ)
  • F. John 4:35 ""Do you not say, "There are still four months and then comes the harvest'? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest! (NKJ)
II. PRINCIPLES INVOLVED IN TAKING OPPORTUNITIES
  • A. The ability to see the possibilities
  • B. The ability to eliminate negative thinking and attitudes
  • C. The ability to risk failure
  • D. The ability to make the effort with zeal and determination
  • E. The ability to sacrifice for something greater
III. OPPORTUNITIES BEFORE US
  • A. The Evangelistic Harvest is always urgent. The destiny of men and of nations is always being decided. Every generation is strategic. We are not responsible for the past generation, and we cannot bear full responsibility for the next one; but we do have our generation. God will hold us responsible as to how well we fulfill our responsibilities to this age and take advantage of our opportunities. -- Billy Graham
  • B. "An article in the Harvard Business Review called 'Market Myopia' talked about how some people didn't understand what business they were in. For example, the railroad people didn't realize they were in the transportation business; they thought they were in the railroad business. Had they realized they were in the transportation business they would have invested in the airplane. The telegraph people thought they were in the telegraph business instead of the communications business. In 1886 or so, they could have bought all the telephone patents for $40,000. So obviously these people didn't know what business they were in." "I used to think these guys were really dumb because they didn't know what business they were in. Then I asked myself, 'What business am I in?'
  • 1. We need to ask the same question about the church... what business are we in
  • 2. That question should get us to the core of our purpose for existence