Text: Luke 6:20-36 | Listen to Message Whose Blessing Are You Living For? “Woe to you who are rich…Woe to you who are full…Woe to you who laugh…Woe to you when all people speak well of you.” (Luke 6:24-26) What’s up with statements like these? Is Jesus automatically opposed to people who happen to have or enjoy nice things? As you might expect, the answer isn’t so simplistic or superficial. Here, like everywhere, Jesus is interested with issues of the heart. It’s not that it’s inherently wrong to have money, or to enjoy a nice meal, or to laugh, or to...
Text: Psalm 46 | Listen to Message Campaign Fatigue, Anyone? Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn wrote in The Gulag Archipelago, “If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being.” The major players in contemporary politics and “culture wars” often act as if Solzhenitsyn’s first “if only” statement is correct: one person/party/policy is all good and the other is all evil – and needs to die. There is a tremendous amount of...
Text: Luke 6:12-16 | Listen to Message What Makes Me A Somebody? We’re all seeking our identity in someone or something. In traditional cultures, this is often in family, vocation, hard work, and good character. In progressive cultures, it’s often in freedom of expression and sexuality. Others seek an identity in politics, fitness, prosperity, or physical appearance. Think for a moment about yourself: what do you seek your identity in? What do you need in your life to tell you that you’re important, that you’re unique, that you’re a somebody? Okay, got something? Now apply a few questions to the source(s)...
Text: Luke 6:1-11 | Listen to Message 4 Ways Jesus Is Not A Legalist Jesus says the law exists to serve people. If anyone could say that people were made to serve the law, it would be the Son of God. But Jesus says the opposite: the law was given to serve people. People are God’s image bearers – and the law is just a tool that’s designed to help us. It helps us understand what God is like. It helps us understand how life flourishes in God’s world. It helps us know how to love our neighbor. It helps us see...
Text: Luke 6:1-11 | Listen to Message 7 Characteristics of a Legalist Legalism adds rules to God’s Word. Legalists love rules. The more the merrier. And they don’t think the Bible says nearly enough to properly control people’s sinful behaviors. So they add more. Lots more. And then they pretend like their rules came from God Himself. Legalism is obsessed with keeping the letter of the law. Who cares why the law was written in the first place? That’s an irrelevant footnote to what the law actually says. When in doubt, go with the most technically precise and restrictive meaning imaginable....
Text: Luke 5:27-39 | Listen to Message Holy, Joyful Compassion Conservative Christians are generally pretty good at demanding that sinners repent and get right with God, but they’re often short on compassion. As a result, the sin-sick often don’t feel welcome in conservative churches – because the message they’re hearing is, “You need to clean up your life first, and then you can come.” At the opposite end of the spectrum, liberal Christians are generally pretty good at displaying some kind of compassion for sinners, but they’re often short on leading them to a place of repentance. As a result, sinners...
Text: Luke 5:12-26 | Listen to Message Just Get To Jesus Luke 5 tells the story of two men united by a peculiar faith. The first man was a leper. Physically, his body was being eaten by a disease that infected every part of him and made it so he couldn’t feel properly. Socially, he was an outcast, an untouchable. Spiritually, he was unclean. The second man was lame. Physically, his body was paralyzed. Socially, he was stigmatized, yet dependent on others. Spiritually, he too was unclean. These men are pictures of what sin does to all of us. Sin is...
Text: Luke 5:1-11 | Listen to Message Where Are You Putting Your “But”? How do you like it when people who have no idea what they’re talking about tell you how to do your job? Don’t you just love getting unsolicited advice? In Luke 5, Jesus the carpenter tells Peter the fisherman how to do his job: “Put out into the deep and led down your nets in the middle of the day.” This is absurd, and Peter knows it! You can’t fish with big, heavy nets in broad daylight! These fish that spook easily will see the nets and simply...
Text: Luke 4:31-44 | Listen to Message The Power of Jesus’ Words When Jesus spoke, sinners heard THE Good News. When Jesus spoke, the demon-possessed were liberated. When Jesus spoke, the sick and diseased were healed. When Jesus spoke, the dead were raised. When Jesus spoke, countless people found purpose for their lives. You see, when Jesus spoke, power came out. Everyone saw it. Both his words and the manner in which he spoke them were authoritative. They were like dynamite – except the explosions they touched off were explosions of truth, hope, and grace. These words – the words of...
Text: Luke 4:14-30 | Listen to Message Faith First, Then Sight When Jesus returned to his hometown as an adult, he had some explaining to do! If he was really the Messiah – as he was beginning to claim – then why did he have such an ordinary upbringing? Where’d he been hiding his powers for the past 30 years? What proof was he willing to give to convince people that he was who he said he was? Those who questioned Jesus like this were good, law-keeping Jews. They believed the Bible. They faithfully worshiped God at the local synagogue. They...