Jesus Doesn’t Want You to Miss This |12.10.23| The Word Became Flesh pt.2
Luke 4:16-21, 31-37
Pastor Drew Williams
(…) Well, to get started, I don’t want to freak you out, but it is only 15 sleeps until Christmas.
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Only 15 more sleeps, and I don’t know what happened because I could have sworn that yesterday was November, and that I blinked twice and were halfway through December already.(…) And even though supposedly we’re in this season of peace on earth, goodwill among mankind, for many of us, we find ourselves rushing through this month, trying to keep up with all the events, all the to-dos. We find ourselves switching back and forth between Cindy Lou Who and the Grinch, right? Sometimes we feel like you love all the lights and all the songs and all the colors. And other times, you feel like trying to figure out how you can just sleep through the whole month.
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Or trying to figure out how to unplug your neighbor’s light display that keeps shining into your bedroom window all night long.
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And while the younger members of our families are preparing to sing songs for school and church programs, and they’re excitedly hoping they’ll get the presents that they asked for, the adults, on the other hand, are wondering if the next propane bill is going to blow the budget for the whole month.
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We’re wondering if all those sugary goodies we’ve been enjoying are going to ruin the progress you made in your health this year.
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And then we sing songs like this one. This song, “Come Thou Long, Expected Jesus,” I’m going to put up the second verse on the screen. It talks about Jesus,(…) who was born to deliver his people,(…) born a child and yet a king,(…) born to reign in us forever.
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“Now thy gracious kingdom bring.”
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We wonder, what does that even have to do with my life? I get the whole concept of Jesus into my heart thing, or at least I think I get it, because maybe you believe in Jesus and have ever since you were a child. You prayed a prayer. You believe that Jesus saved you from your sins, and now you try and do a good job of following him.(…) Or maybe you’re listening and you’re still not fully sure about this Jesus. The idea of Jesus is great, right? The things he taught are great, but this religion stuff, I’m a little less keen on that.(…) And the whole, “Jesus is God,” I don’t believe it, but it’s just confusing sometimes. Doesn’t always make sense. And so you try and do a good job of following Jesus because he’s supposed to be coming back. And we’re not sure when he’s coming back, but I definitely don’t want to be caught slipping up when he comes back.(…) But for the most part, I’m not sure how the whole “Jesus is King,” and he’s bringing his kingdom thing. I’m not sure how that whole thing affects my life,(…) because I’m living my life. I’m trying to love my family. I’m attending church when I can, helping out when I can.(…) So why do we talk about God’s kingdom?
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Why don’t we talk more about what’s going on here now? Because isn’t God’s kingdom all about where we go when we die?(…) What does it have to do with how I live now? Am I missing out on something?(…) And those are great questions. I’m glad you’re asking them because we’re going to talk about them today. And we’re going to talk about Jesus’s response to those topics, because I do think that we’re missing something if we miss this. I think that if we miss what Jesus is talking about when he refers to the kingdom of God, then we’re missing out on a more fulfilling,(…) more meaningful life. I think that if we miss what Jesus is talking about when he tells us that he has good news,
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then we’re missing out not only on some truth that we believe in our head, but we’re also missing out on a way to live that is better than any type of life that we could build on our own. So if you were with us last week or if you caught up online, we talked about how Jesus showed up on the scene and he was saying, “I’ve got good news. The kingdom of God is here right now, and you are invited into it.” And for some reason, people were really intrigued and leaned in. And I mean, we know it wasn’t just for some reason. It was because wherever Jesus was and drawing people to himself,(…) everyone who came into contact with him left better after they met him. And even people who never met him in person were completely changed by him. One of those people is named Luke, and he went around interviewing people about their experiences with Jesus, and he wrote it all down for us. And so we’re going to be reading one of those accounts today. So open up your Bibles to Luke chapter four. And if you’re using the Black Seatback Bible in front of you, it’s on page 46 of the New Testament. But Luke chapter four, and this story, if you’re familiar with the stories of Jesus, this story that we’re reading today takes place right after he had been tempted by the enemy to take shortcuts. And he proves his ability to trust fully in God and trust fully in his own identity as the Son of God.(…) And then he started traveling around and teaching people about God and about God’s way of life. And he ends up in his hometown where he grew up. And so we’re going to read together starting in verse 16. Let’s hear the word of the Lord.
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When he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it is written. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.(…) And he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of all the synagogue were fixed on him.(…) Then he began to say to them, today, this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing. Let’s skip down. Keep reading with me. Skip down to verse 31.(…) “He went down to Capernaum, a city in Galilee, and was teaching them on the Sabbath. They were astounded at his teaching because he spoke with authority. In the synagogue there was a man who had the spirit of an unclean demon and he cried out with a loud voice, let us alone. What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth?(…) Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God.(…) But Jesus rebuked him, saying, be silent and come out of him.(…) When the demon had thrown him down before them, he came out of him without having done him any harm. They were all amazed and kept saying to one another, what kind of utterance is this? For with authority and power, he commands the unclean spirits and out they come.(…) When a report about him began to reach every place in the region. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
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Now our scene starts with Jesus in his hometown of Nazareth.
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Not only did this group of people know him when he was growing up, they’ve also been hearing about him as the word is gotten out about his teaching and his preaching that he’s been doing even recently. So they expect him to preach. And when he does, he reads from the very famous Jewish prophecy in Isaiah that’s all about what it’s going to be like when God comes back fully. And that’s what the text refers to as the year of the Lord’s favor or the time of the Lord’s favor, because it’s going to be good news. It’s going to involve freedom and healing. It’s the full arrival of God’s kingdom. And Jesus says it’s here.
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It’s now. The kingdom of God that everyone longs for. The one that’s so much better than whatever oppressive regime is in place over you. It’s here.
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It’s now.
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It’s ready for you to jump in.
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Now an interesting thing to note that we don’t actually have time to dig into today is that his hometown didn’t receive that message very well. They weren’t ready to believe that Jesus is God. They weren’t ready to join him in the kingdom of God. And so that’s why we skip down to verse 31 to hear about this other town, Capernaum, where he teaches there as well. And most likely he says the exact same message because it’s back to back times. And this is the message that he’s preaching wherever he goes to anyone who will listen. It’s the purpose for which he came.
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It just so happens that in this crowd there is someone who came to hear Jesus, came to hear what he had to say. But this person also has been living oppressed by darkness.
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He’s in a bad spot. And he probably came to hear a message of hope, but he cries out.
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We read in our scripture, he cries out against Jesus because he’s been oppressed by this darkness. And he seems uncertain by what this new kingdom will change for him. Have you come to destroy us? Will I be able to live up to this way of life that you’re laying out or will I get thrown out?
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He seems uncertain about what it means for him, but he definitely seems certain about who he’s talking to, who Jesus is, the Holy One of God.
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And immediately the presence and power of Jesus is proven to be stronger than the oppressive force that’s gripping this man. So just like last week when we looked at how one of Jesus’ followers, John, described Jesus as the light that the darkness cannot overcome.
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This man is freed from the darkness, just like the prophecy in Isaiah promised.(…) And news begins to spread.
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See good news always seems to travel fast when people need it.
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And I truly wish that we could have all been there to witness this with our own eyes. Like how incredible would that have been to see Jesus fully expelling darkness from this man’s life, fully bringing him into healing. If you saw that with your own eyes, there’s no way that you could go back to a normal day just complaining about gas prices.(…) There’s no way that you could go back to a normal day getting in a fight with your spouse or family member about whether or not your outfit matches the rest of the family’s outfit for the family Christmas party. That would not even be a thing that would bother us if we had come into this story seeing how God brings full healing to this man’s life.(…) Because when people get to see how Jesus’ presence completely changes the lives of those he touches, they immediately decide to stick with this guy no matter what because of what they’ve seen. Or they immediately decide to leave as quickly as possible because they’ve got to go tell some other people about what this guy is able to do in their lives. And a lot of times people do both. And that’s actually the adventure that Jesus invites us on to join him in his work so that people can be transformed by him. So that we can be transformed by Jesus together for others.
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That’s what Jesus was talking about when he said the kingdom of God is here. The kingdom of heaven is here right now.(…) And you get to be a part of it. But for many of us, right here is where we get tripped up because we were raised thinking that heaven means that place that we go to when we die.(…) You know, if we’ve been good. And while the Bible does talk about an eternal home with God, that’s not the only thing that is talking about when it talks about heaven. And when Jesus was walking on earth, most of the time he seemed to be talking about something here now rather than talking about something far away later.
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To help look at this more, I found a video that I think does a much better job explaining what I’m trying to say. So let’s look at this screen together.
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So in the Bible, the ideas of heaven and earth are ways of talking about God’s space and our space. So I understand our space really well. We live here. There’s trees, rivers, mountains. But my understanding of God’s space gets a little fuzzy. And what we do get in the Bible are images trying to help us grasp God’s space, which is basically inconceivable to us. So these are two very different types of spaces. Yes, they’re different in their nature. But here’s what’s really interesting is that in the Bible, these are not always separate spaces. So think of heaven and earth as like different dimensions that can overlap in the same exact space. So we talk a lot about going to heaven after we die. But this idea of heaven and earth overlapping, we don’t talk a lot about that. Which is kind of crazy because the union of heaven and earth is what the story of the Bible is all about, how they were once fully united and then driven apart and about how God is bringing them back together once again. So let’s go back to the beginning, where heaven and earth, they’re completely overlapping. Yeah, this is what the Bible’s description of the Garden of Eden is all about. It’s a place where God and humanity dwell together perfectly, no separation. And humans then partner with God in building a flourishing, beautiful world and so on.
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Okay, quick pause right here because I want us to review real quick. It’s saying that heaven is God’s space and the earth is humanity’s space, our space. And in the beginning, there was no separation. Both were fully together. And that’s the image that we get at the beginning of the Bible when it’s talking about the Garden of Eden. See, the first humans were created and they were given a purpose and responsibility to oversee creation along with God, to steward it on behalf of God. And something happens though, where people say, the first people, they look at God and they say, “You know, God, that plan that you have about us working together and us, you know, submitting to you and overseeing all of creation, that’s cool and all, but I don’t like it. And so I’m going to actually take control for myself because I’m not actually sure if I trust you, God.(…) And I’d rather put my trust in myself.”
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And that’s this picture that we get of the separation that happens that the Bible refers to as sin.(…) And so let’s pick up there with the rest of the video.
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Yeah, so we have these two spaces now and the Bible actually uses lots of different kinds of words and phrases to refer to these two spaces to make a clear distinction. So you said that these spaces can overlap though. So explain how that works. Yeah, this is where we have to start talking about temples because in the biblical world, you experience God’s presence by going to a temple. That’s where heaven and earth overlap. Now there are two types of temples described in the Bible. One is a tabernacle, basically a tent that was built by Moses. And the other was this massive building made by Solomon. And these temples were decorated with fruit trees and flowers and images of angels and all kinds of gold and jewels and so on. And these are designed to make you feel like you’re going back to the garden. And at the center of the temple was a place called the Holy of Holies, which was like the hotspot of God’s presence. Now we can go and be with God again. But not so fast because the temple also creates a problem. So God’s space is full of His presence and goodness and justice and beauty. The human space is full of sin and injustice and the ugliness that results. So how do these spaces overlap if they’re so different and they’re in conflict with each other? This was resolved through animal sacrifice. Yeah, that’s kind of weird. What do animal sacrifices have to do with this? Yeah, the idea is this.(…) Animal sacrifices, somehow they absorb the sin when the animal dies in your place. And it creates a clean space, so to speak, where you are now free to enter into the temple and be in God’s presence. Okay, so if I’m an Israelite and I live in Jerusalem, I might be able to be in God’s presence. But you said the story of the Bible was all of heaven and earth reuniting. Right. So we have to keep going in the story where we come to Jesus in the New Testament. And in the Gospel of John, we hear this claim that God became human in Jesus and made His dwelling among us. Now this word dwelling is really curious. Literally, it means He set up a tabernacle among us. And so what John is claiming right here is that Jesus is a temple. He is now the place where heaven and earth overlap. What’s interesting about Jesus is that He isn’t staying in this safe, clean space. He’s running around hanging out with sinners. He’s healing people of their sicknesses and forgiving people of their sins. He’s basically creating little pockets of heaven where people can be in God’s presence, but He’s doing it out there in the middle of the world of sin and death. And He keeps telling everyone that the kingdom of heaven is at hand. And He even told His followers to pray regularly that God’s kingdom come and that His will be done here on earth just as it is in heaven. But a lot of people are threatened by Jesus and they kill Him, which seems to spoil this whole plan to reunite heaven and earth. But we have to go back to a scene earlier on in Jesus’ story where John the Baptist saw Jesus and said, “Behold, this is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” So Jesus isn’t just talked about as being the temple, He’s also talked about as being the temple sacrifice. Yeah, so the cross is now the place where Jesus absorbs sin to create a clean space that is not limited like animal sacrifices. Jesus’ sacrifice has the power to keep spreading and spreading and reuniting more and more heaven and earth.
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So when God became human in Jesus,(…) God became flesh and lived among us, made His dwelling among us, moved into our space.(…) He created a way for heaven to reunite with earth.
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Jesus became the way for the kingdom of light and life to expand on earth, creating places for humans to connect with God, creating ways for people to experience the way of life that God intends even here in this life. And the way that Jesus has established that is by gathering a group of normal people,(…) spending time with them, letting them tag along with Him, join in with Him, sending them out on their own from time to time and then regathering again to talk about it and encourage each other and keep learning. The way that Jesus established the building of the kingdom of heaven here on earth was by inviting normal people like you,(…) like me,(…) to join Him in His work. And after He had been crucified and died, after He proved that He is God by raising Himself from the dead, He left the process in the hands of His followers. He told them that His Spirit, the Holy Spirit, would be at work in the world and in our lives so that we can be empowered to join Him in His work. And that same invitation is true still today.(…) See, we don’t have to do things for Jesus’ kingdom to come because Jesus is already at work around us. We get to join Him.(…) He’s already working behind the scenes in the lives of the people around us. He’s already creating growth that He needs in the lives of the people that we’ll meet. He just invites us to get involved in the small ways that He shows us so that we can join in with His work.
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First week I told you about my friend Greg, who’s a pastor and an author, and I told you about his book Joining Jesus in His Mission.
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And Greg says that the easiest way to see where God is at work is by looking for human need. He writes this. He says, “Human need is the evidence that the kingdom is near and working toward bringing redemption.”
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So do you want to see Jesus at work?(…) Do you want to know what God is up to?
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Well keep your eyes open to where someone might be in need.
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Now big needs are always the ones that pop into my mind at first, at least maybe you as well. And so, you know, I’m out there looking for some way that I can help someone in a huge way that’s going to completely transform their life. Or, you know, I’m out there asking God, “God, are you going to use me to cure cancer?” or something like that. We think of these big, big things. And I can tell you, as a pastor right now with 99.999% certainty that God is never going to use me to cure cancer, because He’s already working on that work through doctors and scientists and people who He’s calling into that line of work. But He still has plans for me. He still has ways that He’s calling me to join Him in His work to influence the lives of the people around us. So, you know, I keep my eyes open. I look for need.(…) Does someone need a reassuring smile?
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Does someone need some advice?
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Does someone just need a friend that moment? Or maybe just someone needs directions.
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See, all we have to do is look for a need and then ask God, “Are you inviting me to help?”(…) And please, please, please, please, please hear me. I am not saying that we need to do more for God. The point is to not to do more for God.
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God isn’t telling us to do things so that we can earn points with Him, because God has already made the way. God has already given forgiveness and grace. God is already at work in our lives, and He’s at work in the lives of the people around us. He’s inviting us to be part of it, because that’s His plan for bringing more heaven here on earth.
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That’s His plan for kicking hell out of earth. The point is not to do more.
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The point is to pray more, to pay attention more, to respond more. The doing comes naturally when we’re looking for ways that God is inviting us to join Him.
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I thought maybe a little story would help you understand what I mean by how simple this can look. A month or so ago, I was having lunch with someone from here in our New Life family. Gary Sandrock and I were having lunch together, and we had ordered the food, it had come, and so we decided to say a quick prayer before the meal. Nothing fancy, just one of those quick little prayers before we’re going to be chatting and eating together. I don’t know about you, but I’m not an eyes closed when I pray type of person.(…) I don’t know why, I just like to leave my eyes open and I zone out at the wall or something like this. This time I had my head down, but out of the corner of my eye, I could see the waitress showing up at our table right when we were finishing the prayer to drop off the napkins. And so when we finished, we looked up and she’s standing there, kind of like awkward, and she says, “Oh, I’m so sorry for interrupting.” You know, and then she mumbled something about, “Is there anything else you guys need?” You know, something that you have to like say every time you talk to the table, and I can tell she’s awkward. And Gary just looked at her and he’s like, “No worries, no problem, but while we’re at it, is there anything that we can lift up in prayer for you?”
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And I gulped because I went, “Oh no, are we being those weird Christians right now?”(…) And she paused too, but not awkwardly this time. You could tell she was trying to think of how to respond, and then she said,(…) “Um,(…) yeah,
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actually I have a doctor’s appointment this next Wednesday that I’m really nervous about.”(…) And so I responded, “Well, absolutely, see that in prayer for you.” And I don’t know what came over me, but I felt bold all of a sudden. I said, “Would it be too bold for me to ask, is it like a big doctor’s appointment or just a checkup?” And then she proceeded to tell us that she was a cancer survivor and had been in remission for a few years, and that this appointment was going to be a checkup to make sure that the cancer hadn’t come back because of some tests that they wanted to look at again. And you could feel the presence of Jesus in that moment right then. It was so close you could reach out and touch it. The fact that Jesus was there bringing strangers together to talk about real need, and then having us leave saying, “Oh, we’ll absolutely be praying for you for that.” And so she left, and Gary and I decided to just say a quick prayer right then with tears in our eyes. And I don’t know why Gary had tears in his eyes, but I had tears in my eyes for two different reasons. Number one, I had just felt Jesus’ heart for her. Her name’s Carly. And I just felt overwhelming compassion and love for her, and it was overwhelming to me. And number two, I had tears in my eyes because I had done stuff like that before offering to pray for people, and it had not gone well. It was awkward and, you know, uncomfortable, and I felt bad. But I had tears in my eyes this time because of God’s grace to allow it to go so differently because this time the harvest was ripe, and we were able to just join in with Jesus’ work in her life and offer to pray for her.
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And so when I tell you that joining Jesus in his work can be simple, that’s what I mean.(…) Sometimes it’s as simple as noticing someone in need.(…) Sometimes it’s as simple as pausing, slowing down enough, and asking questions and then actually responding to what you hear. Because I can tell you that if that waitress had felt awkward and said, “Oh, no, nothing, no thanks,” we would have gone on with the rest of her meal, no problem. Maybe still said a prayer, “Oh, Jesus, be with her because we don’t know any details about her life.”
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But because we were able to notice when God was inviting us into that moment, I’ve been able to be praying for her for weeks now, joining Jesus in that work.(…) See, sometimes joining Jesus is as simple as looking around and slowing down and asking God if he’s inviting you to help in some way.(…) And I’ve got to tell you, when we live this way, when we are actively looking for Jesus,(…) when we are actively looking for places of need, when we’re actively noticing situations where the kingdom of heaven is so close and ready to break in with healing and restoration and hope, it’s the most exhilarating, fulfilling way you could ever live your life.
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And honestly, many of you already know this because many of you have already been joining Jesus in his work in these last few months. The last few months we’ve had these two really cool mission opportunities here at church, the Baby’s Warm and Dry in November, and then we’re just wrapping up this week, the Project Angel Tree. And many of you have contributed to that. And you feel what it feels like to bring hope to someone because I got to tell you, I asked Melissa who helps oversee our Baby’s Warm and Dry project, did you know that this year, just this last month, New Life Lutheran Church, one church here in the Sauk Valley, collected 5,915 items for the Whiteside County Health Department to give to moms and babies in need.(…) Like, is that not incredible? Almost 6,000 things brought. And then Project Angel Tree is wrapping up this week, but we’ve partnered to bring gifts for six families who might not have gifts otherwise. And yes, it’s toys and fun things, but it also includes needed items like mattresses and backpacks and hygiene items. And that is just an incredible way to join Jesus in his work. And I know that sometimes it can feel like it hits the pocketbook when those types of things come up, but anyone who participated in those outreach opportunities, you all know that it feels so good to bring hope and joy and light into the life of someone else. And we get to do it in the name of Jesus.(…) And there are so many other ways to join Jesus in his work, not just financial, even though that is great.(…) But all we have to do sometimes is look for a need and ask God if he’s inviting you to help because it could be a neighbor.
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It could be someone at work or someone at the store.(…) It could be a stranger. It could even be a family member.(…) So many of our families now at this time of year are experiencing sickness or someone’s in the hospital and they’re going through a lot.(…) And sometimes joining Jesus in his work is just caring for them, maybe being there for them, keeping them company, dropping off the casserole.(…) These are absolutely ways that we get to join Jesus in his work of showing love and extending grace.
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So what is God calling you to do today?
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What’s standing out from our time together?(…) What is God inviting you to do this week and how can you take a small step of obedience?(…) Because we get to join Jesus in his work right here in our community. We get to experience the joy of knowing that our words, our presence is actually the way that God brings hope and peace to those who need it most.
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Because Jesus has made the way, because Jesus has taken our sin and our guilt away because he’s given us his grace and his forgiveness. We get to learn how to live in his way of life because Jesus is already at work around us. We get to look for him to join in when we notice a need because God is faithful to you because God loves you so much.
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He’s inviting you to join him in his work of going out, searching for the lost in the darkness so that we can shine the light of Jesus and invite them into the family of God.
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Isn’t that good news?
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Amen.