Text: Luke 10:1-24 | Listen to Message Gospel Privileges The contemporary Christian often excuses him or herself from sharing the Good News of Jesus with others because… “I’m not exactly sure how to start that conversation.” “I might get in a situation where I don’t know the answer to something.” “It might put our relationship in an awkward place.” “Someone might reject me and then I’d be sad.” Interestingly enough, when Jesus commissions a bunch of ordinary followers to be ministers of the Gospel, he presupposes dangers far worse than these! He says, “I’m sending you out as lambs in...
Text: Ephesians 4:25-32 | Listen to Message Sticks And Stones Everything that comes out of your mouth is simply the overflow of what’s already dominating your heart. If you are a critical, complaining, truth-twisting gossip, it’s because your heart is full of spiritual cancer. It’s a simple fact that meek, forgiving, loving people don’t talk bad about others. Here’s something to remember whenever you hear someone gossiping or being critical of others behind their backs: you haven’t necessarily learned anything about the persons being discussed, but you’ve learned a ton about the person doing the discussing. He or she is proud....
Text: Luke 9:23-27, 57-62 | Listen to Message You First In Part I, we looked at what it means to deny – or even die to – yourself in order to follow Christ. In Part II, let’s go further in the same text and consider what it means to accept a new priority and agenda for your life. In this conversation that Jesus has with the crowds and with a few specific individuals, he shows us four things we tend to give our first and ultimate allegiance to: 1. Power, Prosperity, and Peace. This is what it means to “gain the...
Text: Luke 9:23-27, 57-62 | Listen to Message Identity Crisis Christianity is often seen as little more than praying a prayer, changing one’s attitude toward Jesus from negative to positive, or adhering to a prescribed list of moral/spiritual behaviors. But when Jesus himself talked about what it meant to be a Christian – a follower of Christ – he had something radically different to say: “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake...
Text: Luke 9:37-56 | Listen to Message The Remedy For Pride Jesus’ disciples are stumbling and bumbling their way through this section of Luke’s Gospel, displaying a remarkable lack of self-awareness: First, they can’t cast out a demon that Jesus gave them power over (Luke 9:1), apparently because they’re relying on their own technique and experience rather than trusting God for a fresh work of grace. Second, they can’t grasp what Jesus means about suffering and dying because they’ve already decided that this is not how the story – his or theirs – is supposed to go. Third, they’re arguing about...
Text: Luke 9:28-36 | Listen to Message Experiencing God’s Glory It’s a fantastic story: Jesus goes up on a mountain to pray with Peter, James, and John. Suddenly, the Old Testament prophets Moses and Elijah show up, and Jesus begins radiating a brilliant and blinding white light from within himself. The disciples are getting their first glimpse of his eternal and divine glory, long veiled by the ordinariness of his humanity. They witness firsthand the splendor, majesty, beauty, and awesomeness of the glory that flung the universe into existence by just a word from his mouth! And they hear God’s voice...
Text: Luke 9:7-9, 18-27 | Listen to Message The Death of Your Designer Jesus “Who is Jesus?” This is easily one of the most important questions you’ll ever consider at any point in your life. In Jesus’ day, people assumed they knew who he was. “He must be John the Baptist,” some thought, “because he’s talking about repentance, forgiveness, and good news – and he’s leading a populist movement outside of mainstream Judaism.” Others thought, “Certainly this is Elijah, who was taken up in the whirlwind, for he’s doing the same kinds of miracles that Elijah did.” Still others concluded that...
Text: Luke 9:1-6, 10-17 | Listen to Message Your Hands, His Power Who would you serve – and how would you serve them – if you really believed Jesus would work through you, in real time, to give you everything you needed to help them (even in supernatural ways, if that’s what the situation required)? Let’s work our way back to this question. When Jesus first sent his disciples out on a Gospel mission of their own, this is what we read: “And he called the twelve together and gave them power and authority…” – his power and authority. Then he...
Text: Luke 8:40-56 | Listen to Message Weak Faith In A Strong God The story in this text of Scripture intertwines the lives of two very different people who had one thing in common: they each had a desperate medical condition that only Jesus could heal. First, there was a Jewish man named Jairus who was the ruler of the local synagogue. He was wealthy, respected, and well-connected. But he had a twelve year-old daughter who was suddenly dying. Second, we meet an unnamed older woman living in abject poverty as an outcast. She’s an untouchable because, for twelve years, her...
Text: Luke 8:26-39 | Listen to Message No Longer Slaves The Gospels tell the story of a wild, demon-possessed man with superhuman strength, commonly referred to as “the maniac of Gadara.” Devils had overtaken his mind and body, and he was little more than a pawn in their ongoing hostility toward God. They drove him into the desert where he lived naked among the tombs, cutting himself with sharp rocks, shrieking at any who would pass his way. His name was simply “Legion” – for an army of devils had claimed his identity for themselves. On the surface, he was so...