Conviction Of Conscious Choices Cause Change Or Continuation Of Your Current Series

The Ministry, Message, and Messiah in the Book of Mark Week 12:

"Conviction of Conscious Choices Cause Change or Continuation of Your Current Situation.” (Mark 6:14-29)

June 14, 2015

Crossroads Community Church

Rev. Ricky A. Rohrig Sr., Founding Pastor

Have you ever heard the expression what is your conscious telling you? Life is all about choices and we have to make them plenty of them every day:

• If you are going to get up when the alarm goes off or sleep in

• If you are going to bathe or not

• What to eat for breakfast, or to even not eat

• What clothes you’ll wear

• What time you need to leave to get wherever you’re going by whatever time you need to be there

And these are just the many few you make in the morning. One of the great things about God is He gives us free will. He allows us to make our own choices, but with every choice we make there is a consequence, some good and some bad. While God will not make our choices for us I do believe He wants and desires for us to make the right choices in life. If you are a Christian today who has made a conscious choice to have a personal relationship with Jesus, God helps guide our choices through the Holy Spirit.

You even had a choice to come to church today and to this particular church. You can choose to make the service all about you today and what you need or want, or you can choose to make it all about God glorifying Him, lifting up the name of Jesus, and letting the Holy Spirit have His way with you, me, us , and in this service today.

So today I believe God has a rhema word for us today, a right now word you and I.

Life truly is about choices and today I am going to minister and teach about the consequences of choices, that is our topic, our text comes from the book of Mark chapter 6, verses 14-29, and the title of the message is, “Conviction of Conscious Choices Cause Change or Continuation of Your Current Situation.” (Mark 6:14-29.)

That’s a mouth full and the text today may be a little complicated or confusing to

understand, so let’s unpack it together. If you remember last week Jesus was instructing His disciples on how to go door to door. Because the mission was being carried out, the fame about Jesus was being heard and this is where we pick up today’s text,

Mark 6:14-29

14 And king Herod heard of him; (for his name was spread abroad:) and he said, That John the Baptist was risen from the dead, and therefore mighty works do shew forth themselves in him.

Matthew 14:1

1 At that time Herod the tetrarch (TEHT-rahrk) heard of the fame of Jesus,

• This was a son of Herod the Great. Herod the Great died probably in the first year after the birth of Christ, and left his kingdom to his three sons, of whom this “Herod Antipas” was one, the Jewish ruler of Galilee and Perea from 4 BC–AD 39. The title “tetrarch” literally denotes one who rules over a “fourth” part of any country. It came, however, to signify the governor or ruler of any province subject to the Roman emperor - Robinson, Lexicon.

15 Others said, That it is Elias. And others said, That it is a prophet, or as one of the prophets.

• Elias – Elijah from the OT. Whose name means "My God is Yahweh."

• According to the Books of Kings, Elijah defended the worship of Yahweh over that of the Canaanite idol Baal.

• He also had God perform miracles for him, which included raising the dead, bringing fire down from the sky, and having himself be taken up, "by a whirlwind." (2Kings 2:11) In the Book of Malachi, Elijah's return is prophesied "before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord" (Malachi 4:5)

o So they thought one of two things, that this was Elijah and the end was imminent or it was another prophet that was one who prophesied such as Isaiah, Jeremiah, or others

• At any rate they did not think it was Jesus Christ the Messiah

16 But when Herod heard thereof, he said, It is John, whom I beheaded: he is risen from the dead.

• People had their opinion but Herod was certain it could only be one person, John the Baptist, the innocent man he killed had been risen from the dead

o Imagine the emotion that would be going through Herod

17 For Herod himself had sent forth and laid hold upon John, and bound him in prison for Herodias' sake, his brother Philip's wife: for he had married her.