“This is the way we’ve always done it.” How often have you heard something like that to reject a new idea? It can be frustrating if you are the person most affected by the unwillingness to consider change. Of course, all of us get stuck in old ways. This is true even in religion and in church. Jesus came to Israel with the Good News, but many of them saw it as something to fear or to silence. They were not ready for something “different”. Jesus makes that point in this passage and Luke uses it to sum up the events of this chapter. Jesus has included those who would normally be excluded because of the presumption of their sinfulness. Instead, Jesus talks about bringing sinners to repentance. The grace of God is amazing, but sometimes it is also scary. Can we allow God to change the way we’ve always done it?
Whoever said that God never gives you more than you can handle has clearly never read the Bible before. God’s story is full of situations where his people are faced with overwhelming odds, and if we are honest, our lives mirror that pattern. Whatever challenge or calling God has placed in your life it is all too easy to feel unprepared and unqualified. We can compare ourselves to others or look at our past mistakes, and before too long the hill God gave us to climb may as well be Mount Everest. In the book of Joshua though we find good company. Not only does Joshua have big sandals to fill after the death of Moses, he also has to do something he has never done before, invade and conquer the land of Canaan. When God gives this quest to Joshua, however, he does not equip him with great battle plans, a massive army, or a secret weapon. Instead, God calls Joshua to be strong and courageous. This week we will look into how God calls Joshua to courage and what we can learn about God and our own callings in the process.
Most of us know the pain of following someone that proved to be untrustworthy. Humans struggle with power because it seems to always grab the part of us that is self-centered and ready to use whatever power we have for our own purposes. Whether you agreed to follow that person or not, the feeling of injustice is unbearable. Those in power can take our money, our freedoms, and bring unwanted change to our lives without our consent. What does our Creator think of this? As we celebrate Christmas, we should know that our God sees and that He has an answer for those who use power to do evil. In fact, a prophet hundreds of years before Jesus was born had something to say on this very topic. It turns out that Jesus’ birth was the start of God’s answer to those in charge who use their power to do what is wrong. One reason we celebrate Christmas is because God Himself will address wicked leaders and step into their place as the Good Shepherd.
When a child is born, there is a sense of all the possibilities that their life can hold. All of their days lay before them unwritten and full of potential. Many know this feeling from their own experience even though they would struggle to put it into words that fully express it. Can you imagine how much harder it is to put into words what it would mean for God Himself to come to earth as a baby? Hundreds of years before Jesus was born, a prophet gave it a shot. He used some terms packed with meaning to describe this birth and the person who would come. We see a glimpse of that truth in the Gospels and in the life that Jesus lived. We see it more fully in the death that He died and in His resurrection. But there’s more to the story than even that. Jesus even said as much when He left. He told His followers that He would come back. What does all of this mean? Let’s look at the words of the prophet and try to get our heads and hearts around what they mean as we celebrate Jesus this season.
When we are little, we struggle with the fear of noises in the dark and the monsters we imagine. Almost always, the thing that calms the fears of children is the presence of a parent. We grow up and we grow past our childish fears. But life still brings us plenty of reason to worry, stress, and fear. What we thought was a reason to be afraid as a kid gives way to the real-life experiences of betrayal, frustration, loss, and struggle. Some mask it while others build their identity on it. But no one really solves it on their own. In fact, Christmas is the story of our Creator both seeing our troubles and coming to be with us in the middle of them. Part of the story we read at Christmas refers back to something said hundreds of years before Jesus was born. We’re going to look at this prophecy that gave hope to God’s people for all of those centuries. And we’re going to see that its fulfillment was better than they ever imagined.
Did you ever have big dreams for your life? I know I have!! While we make so many plans for our family, career, and wealth, we often end up in situations that we didn’t plan for or never saw coming. Do we allow our faith to look past our challenges and still pursue the Lord? In this text, we see Jesus in a tough place facing tough decisions. No better time than now to look to the example of Jesus for how to walk through the wilderness, face temptation, and still choose obedience to our Heavenly Father.
The last holy habit we’re going to look at is the practice of giving. There are plenty of ways to give away what has been given to you, but we are going to focus on the Biblical teaching about money. It is ironic that the vast majority of Americans have more than almost anyone else in the history of the world, but we all feel like we need a little bit more to be OK. Perhaps you can feel the trap of the enemy in that reality. Money quickly turns into a source of stress and anxiety even for believers who try to put their trust in the Lord. What can we do to live at peace in this area? We have to see that what we have is not ours but God’s. He gives it to us and He directs us to use it according to His plan. If we can learn this, we can resist the pull to put our trust in our bank balance. Instead, we can follow Jesus as true disciples.
People generally do not see serving as an upgrade to their lives. If anything, it carries a feel of being made lower than others. But Jesus said that He came to serve. If serving is a bad thing, why did Jesus choose to do it? The truth is that serving is central as a habit for those who are disciples of Jesus. If we are following Him, then we serve. It truly is that simple. In order for serving to become a habit, we have to do what we do with any part of our life that is a priority: we schedule it. If you want to follow Jesus in serving, our church can help. We schedule people to serve all the time. The reality is that we can say we will form a habit of serving others as the opportunity arises, but we won’t become habitual servers unless we choose to be devoted to regularly doing it. The best part about serving is that it actually expands our ability and tendency to love. Life doesn’t have much depth or meaning without love, and love is fostered when we serve. So let’s make Hope a place where we intentionally and habitually serve others.
Those who follow Jesus worship Him. What does that mean? The Bible talks often about a physical response to Jesus like bowing down and worshipping or singing songs of praise to Him. Ultimately, it means living a life that brings glory to Him, testifying by our decisions and choices that He is right about what is good and that He is worthy of following and of our devotion. Too many believers think worship is just something we do with music during a service. In truth, that singing is a reflection of hearts that bow before our King and live for Him. We need to be sure that we are not living like something other than Jesus is worth following or trusting. Regularly worshipping tunes our hearts to the only One who is worthy of our worship!
There was a time before everyone had a smart phone with a map app that it was possible to get lost. You would have some directions in hand, but eventually, you would find yourself unable to figure out where you were and how exactly to get back on track. Truly it is easier to stay on the path than to get back on it once you’re off. One of the holy habits of disciples is to become regular readers of our roadmap. The psalmist who wrote Psalm 119 pictures the Bible as a lamp and a light for our path that helps us know which way to go. The very first psalm pictures it as a stream that constantly refreshes and nourishes our souls allowing us to be healthy in every season. It may be that the same culture that gives us smart phones and instant directions is also part of the reason so many of God’s people are losing their way. This morning, we will remind ourselves of the truth that God’s people read God’s Word faithfully, regularly, and so that they can respond to what they learn.
Some people think the world is divided into leaders and followers. But the truth is that many people don’t realize that they are already leading. They may be leading in an unhealthy or dysfunctional way, but they are having an influence over those who are following them. Most people are both followers AND leaders. We submit ourselves to those in charge in some areas, and we find ourselves setting the tone and direction in other areas. When we do lead, do we adopt the world’s way of leading? Do we lead in whatever way we think is best? What does following Jesus have to do with leading? All of us are called to ‘lead others to Christ,’ so in one sense we are all called to lead. In addition, Hope needs more leaders who know how to lead like a Christian walking by faith and living for eternal things. Jesus was pretty clear on how we should lead. What does that look like for each of us?
Sometimes, there are too many choices. Have you ever been paralyzed by an array of options because there are just too many of the choices that you like? Or maybe your health journey has suffered because you have too many options to choose from for eating and exercising, so you wind up never really committing to anything. Being a disciple requires certain holy habits that you choose and to which you are devoted. We’re going to talk about this reality that has always been a foundation for God’s people. In the Old Testament, Israel consistently made choices to move away from God and towards the idols of those around them. Even though God saved them, they kept taking the opportunity God gave them in their free will to choose something else. Today, a disciple must choose who to follow and to recognize that their choices have a harvest. If you don’t like the crop you’re getting, it’s time to look at the seeds you’re choosing to plant!
Are you tired? Exhausted? Do you regularly feel like you don’t know if you can keep up the pace at which you are living? All of us live in a very hurried world. It is hard to imagine a life that is characterized by peace and rest. This makes the invitation of Jesus to come and find rest for our souls seem wonderful and out of reach all at the same time. We think of rest as stopping from all our activity. We’d like to go somewhere and have nothing to do for a while. That is what seems like rest, even though honestly it is more like recovery than rest. Is it possible to live productively in this life and live in rest? Jesus says that this is the very nature of what it means to follow Him. Perhaps we’ve missed something really important. What if all of God’s people were able to understand and live out Jesus’ words? Let’s see if we can start learning what it means to live a life of rest.
From the very beginning, God’s people have prayed. There are many different approaches that have been taken. Some beg for mercy over and over while others barely do it at all. Some repeat the same prayers endlessly and others find a way to bring every single event to the Lord throughout their day. One of the big challenges for people is knowing HOW to pray. Or at least that’s often the thing that gets in the way of someone actually doing it. But when we look at Jesus’ words in the Sermon on the Mount, we find a simple invitation, a pattern given, a logic to the trust behind prayer, and even an outcome to our prayer life. What we learn is that prayer is a Holy Habit for those who are living as disciples of Jesus.
As we continue looking at Holy Habits, there is one that we have been emphasizing for well over a year. Isolation and loneliness are our enemies. Whether you feel alone or not, our calling is to make sure no one who is a part of Hope is vulnerable to being disconnected from our church family. Paul uses a picture of a body to teach us how we are supposed to function together. We cannot follow Jesus and be disconnected from one another. What will we do to choose community and connection?
Following Jesus is not a light or easy thing. It is quite simple, but it is completely against our human way of living. We always think of ourselves as being in the center of the story. But when we follow Jesus, the story isn’t about us anymore. Instead, we are living for things that last forever. This allows us to follow Jesus into a life of faith that may look a little crazy or ridiculous to others. Embedded in Jesus’ words about what it means to follow Him is a call to see our lives and this world from an entirely different point of view. We cannot follow Jesus without being asked to radical trust in His goodness and faithfulness.
As we begin our series, we look at one thing that is an inescapable outcome of receiving Jesus. Those who are saved want others to have it too. We don’t lose anything by giving away the Good News. In fact, we are explicitly following Jesus who came to “call sinners to repentance.” It is normal to think about Christians being “good people” and non-Christians as people who are sinful. But Jesus makes it clear that anyone who truly belongs to Him is a person who desperately needed help. There is perhaps no more obvious example of this than Levi who became a disciple of Jesus after being a tax collector. We will see the way this surprised and offended the people of Jesus’ time. And we will be reminded that if we are disciples of Jesus, we will share Him with as many as we can!
It can certainly feel challenging to love like Jesus amidst a highly polarized and emotionally charged atmosphere. However, as followers of Christ, we are called to find our voice and engage with the world in a way that reflects His character. In this passage, Jesus calls His followers to a radical kind of love – one that goes far beyond natural human instincts. As we go through the text together, may we open our hearts and minds to living out this challenging call that is set before us.
(Hebrews 11:1-13, 32-40; 12:1-2)
Faith is a mysterious thing. There’s an element of belief in it, but also trusting in things that never happen, and seeking to know things that can’t be known. If we look back at the giants of faith in the Bible, as the author of Hebrews does in chapter 11, we can see that their lives reveal a faith that goes far beyond belief—a faith that calls to action, to sacrifice, to fearlessness and even recklessness! Let’s meditate together on the great examples of faith throughout Scripture, and how we can walk that same path in our own lives.
Have you had someone in your life as a friend who was actually a bad influence on you? Maybe they were the reason you made choices that you still regret. Or maybe they just offered some moments of fun that turned into a distraction from the life you actually wanted. We see the impact of friendships in our own lives and in the lives of those we love. On the flip side, some relationships are grounded in Jesus and serve to open up our lives to His power. That’s exactly the story Luke tells in this passage. A nameless man has some nameless friends, but the story of their friendship and faith have a lasting impact thousands of years later. Let’s see what Luke wants us to know about how Jesus included those who would have normally been on the outside looking in and honored their simple faith.