1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, for the sake of the promise of life that is in Christ Jesus, 2 To Timothy, my beloved child: Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. 3 I am grateful to God–whom I worship with a clear conscience, as my ancestors did–when I remember you constantly in my prayers night and day. 4 Recalling your tears, I long to see you so that I may be filled with joy.

5 I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that lived first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, lives in you. 6 For this reason I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is within you through the laying on of my hands; 7 for God did not give us a spirit of cowardice, but rather a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline. 8 Do not be ashamed, then, of the testimony about our Lord or of me his prisoner, but join with me in suffering for the gospel, relying on the power of God, 9 who saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works but according to his own purpose and grace. This grace was given to us in Christ Jesus before the ages began, 10 but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.

11 For this gospel I was appointed a herald and an apostle and a teacher, 12 and for this reason I suffer as I do. But I am not ashamed, for I know the one in whom I have put my trust, and I am sure that he is able to guard until that day what I have entrusted to him. 13 Hold to the standard of sound teaching that you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. 14 Guard the good treasure entrusted to you, with the help of the Holy Spirit living in us. [NRSA]

Paul is in Rome and is a prisoner. He has his appearance in court that does not go well..

The Jews knew the religious charges would not stand in Roman law

So the case is twisted the charges to be conspiracy against the Roman government, loyalty to Jesus instead of Caesar.

Christians would not say Caesar is Lord.

The conflict of State and Church. Shouted when the church has influence over the people. It only goes in one direction, medaling with the church to bring the church under state regulations. It should go both ways

Insurrection against Rome is the charge <Nero beheaded John the Baptist.>

Friends of Paul also stand in jeopardy by association.

Co-conspirators

Many defected, Paul left alone against the charges, the first hearing went poorly. The sentence of death was upon him. He will soon be giving his life for his witness for Christ.

Timothly, young son, at Ephesus, left to correct problems in the church.

• False Prophets, those who have risen up, who are not true representative of Christ.
• Tactics used, fraud, and deceit, soliciting funds, if you will give to God, God will pay your bills, gives to the world fodder against the church.
• God doesn’t need our money, God is not broke, Joel Osteen, False Prophets

Godliness is a way to get rich… tv icon slimy

Timothy there to correct.

Differing doctrine

Letter to Timothy, last letter of Paul.

The Promise of Light

Sentence of death… facing death

I put you in remembrance, to stir up the Gift of God’s

GREEK words, stirring up the coals and stoke the coals, fresh wood, bring it into flame again

Light the Fire

Fresh fuel, use these gifts given by God, laying on hands, by the elders and prophecy.

In the early church, they did practice the laying on of hands.

The idea was God has called me to as his servant to represent him, God has called you to represent him

God using us to accomplish God’s work, thus he instructed them to lay hands on the sick.

We lay our hands on the sick, <new age, energy is not the intentions> the purpose is to be God’s instruments, as God’s servant, God chooses to work through us, AS God laying God’s hands on you.

<Robotic surgeon>

True faith is active

Passive faith > I believe God can do xyz,

Active Faith believes God WILL do it,

Real active faith, God will do this NOW.

Woman who’s daughter had died, crowd trying to get close to Jesus, who touched me?

Bleeding for years, I know if I could touch your garment trim, you would make me whole.

Great is your faith.

Hemorrhaging stopped. All I need is the trim/hem

Point of contact, faith was released and she was healed.

USE THE GIFTS God has given. Be not afraid…

If persecution or rejection comes God will deal with it then.

Put your trust in the Lord and be saved.

God has saved us and sent us with a holy God, not according to our works but God’s work in/through us.

We are God’s workmanship.

Saved for God’s purpose

Called us with a holy Calling, to be a holy people, to live a righteous life, according to God’s purpose and grace given through Jesus before the world began.

WE ARE CREATED FOR FELLOWSHIP with God, that God might have a meaningful loving relationship with creation, more than automatons, but with free moral agents, giving us free choice, to choose God.

Tree in the garden was attractive, looked better than any other.

Do you love me enough to obey by commands and know the tree is destructive.

And so is all sin

God knew we would break and bring death upon humanity.

God had a deeper plan, knowing our failure, also knows we need grace.

Jesus taking the penalty and power of sin on our behalf.

Greater love has no love,….

>>>>> 

Recalling your tears

In God we are not cowards, we have a spirit of power (love and self-discipline)

Saved and Called to a Holy Calling

Recalling your tears –  Tears are a response of cleansing and release.

Tears of Greif

Tears of Fear

Tears of Shame

Tears of Joy

Reasons to be Hesitant in sharing our faith

Reasons to be Encouraged in sharing our faith

Saved and Called

Holy Calling to Guard the Good Treasure

Paul knew his death was certain

In a Roman Prison, a final letter to Timothy

To exhort Timothy’s ministry

Be Faithful in all circumstances

Letters from Prison

D Bonhoeffer…

Ministry by calling… make sure God has called you, here I am, called by God, its going to be hard

You will feel like quitting

As a Preacher, Pastor, and Teacher, this is a tender introduction of faith between Paul and Timothy. It is easy for us to say, this passage may not speak to me if I’m not a clergy person. But its important that that congregation know about the calling and ministry of its pastors.

The role of the pastor in the UMC has changed a great deal during the past thirty-four years of my ministry. Appointments have changed from 2-3 tenures, to 4-5, to longer tenures because the church has been in more transition than the clergy.

At the time of answering my call to ministry to becoming fully ordained, the process could be completed in three years, and now the process might take four or five years to complete.

The number of job proficiencies have increased from preaching, visiting members and administering the church and the sacraments to over twenty skill-sets and procedures of due-diligence. United Methodist Clergy are to complete a Master of Divinity or Theological Studies in a Seminary a three year program or a course of study over ten years.

I continued my studies in with a Doctor of Ministry at Gammon Seminary at the Interdenominational Theological Center at the Atlanta University Center where I studied addressing and healing racism through the practice of worship. When I first attended the organizational class of students beginning a 2-3 year journey of continued study, there were 43 pastors in my class. I was the only white student at a historically black seminary. Our first assignment was to tell our faith-journey stories and describe why we were taking on this new study program.

Of the 43, two had quit the ministry and surrendered their credentials but could not get their tuition refunded. Two others were in the process of leaving the role of pastor in charge within in the year. And all of the remaining thirty-nine students were experiencing burnout, a loss of focus, and were considering leaving the ministry.

A central part of that journey was reclaiming the call to ministry.

About ten years ago, the Annual Conference provided a support counselor/therapist to help clergy with dealing with the very things that Paul warns Timothy about a life of ministry. After the first therapist quit, a second one was hired, within a year, that counselor who took his own life, and left a note blaming the clergy for his actions. The program is no longer offered by the conference.

There was a recent study by the Barna Institute in 2021 that found that 42% of pastor, post pandemic, are considering leaving the ministry. This is a 13% increase from the year before. The primary factors being stress, loneliness, the effect of ministry on the family, and political division.

THE POINT

Pray for those ordained with a specific responsibilities in the church

We are all called to the holy calling of sharing Jesus Christ

We live in a time that it may not be easy nor popular to do so, but we need to fan the fire

May we come the table of the Lord and find strength in the new life of Christ, who holds us fast, and guards us for God’s work in God’s time.

After he had said this, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. When he had come near Bethphage and Bethany, at the place called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of the disciples, saying, “Go into the village ahead of you, and as you enter it you will find tied there a colt that has never been ridden. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ just say this, ‘The Lord needs it.'” So those who were sent departed and found it as he had told them. As they were untying the colt, its owners asked them, “Why are you untying the colt?” They said, “The Lord needs it.” Then they brought it to Jesus; and after throwing their cloaks on the colt, they set Jesus on it. As he rode along, people kept spreading their cloaks on the road. As he was now approaching the path down from the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the deeds of power that they had seen, saying, “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest heaven!” Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, order your disciples to stop.” He answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the stones would shout out.” [NRSA: Lk 19:28-40]

Luke 19:28-40 “The Lord Has Need of It”
After he had said this, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. When he had come near Bethphage and Bethany, at the place called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of the disciples, saying, “Go into the village ahead of you, and as you enter it you will find tied there a colt that has never been ridden. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ just say this, ‘The Lord needs it.'” So those who were sent departed and found it as he had told them. As they were untying the colt, its owners asked them, “Why are you untying the colt?” They said, “The Lord needs it.” Then they brought it to Jesus; and after throwing their cloaks on the colt, they set Jesus on it. As he rode along, people kept spreading their cloaks on the road. As he was now approaching the path down from the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the deeds of power that they had seen, saying, “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest heaven!” Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, order your disciples to stop.” He answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the stones would shout out.” [NRSA: Lk 19:28-40]

The witness is not of Jesus riding in on a mighty war horse. Instead, it is a sign of humbleness and “a labor of love”… instead of a beast of a Cadillac Escalade Jesus arrives riding a base model Chevrolet Colt.

If Luke were our only Gospel, we would have no mention of palm branches, only coats being spread upon the road as ‘red carpet welcome’. So it might be known as Cloak Sunday instead of palm Sunday. It is interesting that tradition has preferred that we take palms from along lthe road over offering our coats and cloaks.

The core of the Colt along the Road and the Coats on the Road
What happens on the road? What happens at the parade?

A multitude of disciples begin telling of the deeds, signs, wonders, and accomplishments of Jesus…
• Praising God
• With Joy
• And a loud voice

17 examples in Luke’s Gospel
• “for all the mighty works which they had seen” (v. 37c). Note the abundance of Jesus’ miracles that Luke the physician records—mostly healings or exorcisms (4:31-37; 4:38-39; 5:12-16; 5:17-26; 6:6-11; 6:17-19; 7:1-10; 7:11-17; 8:22-25; 8:26-39; 8:40-56; 9:10-17; 9:37-43; 13:10-17; 14:1-6; 17:11-19; 18:35-43).
• Luke gives 17 accounts of might works and deeds done by Jesus

Those blessed by Jesus’s might works are praising
Those threatened by Jesus’s mighty works:
The Pharisees ordered Jesus to make the disciples stop the procession, stop with the branches, stop with the mockery of Jesus as {some kind of king.} If I even tried, the stones would speak the truth.

The Stones would speak the truth
• We celebrate the voices of jubilation and praise with our Palms, but it more important to deal with the voices calling for order, quiet, and silence.
• The voices of caution that tell the winds of the Holy Spirit which direction to blow are not voices of God.
• The voices of cold hard stones that have no life about them, will be given voices and become animated if needed.

Where is my voice in the celebration?
• Praising God
• Silent as a stone
• Calling God to keep quiet

Where are we in the story?
• For those who are praising God, we are on the right track
• For those who are the stone quiet already, is the greater call to be useful and purposeful for the kingdom…
• For those who are hesitant or cautious, do be hindered or wait any longer.

The World is divided between good and evil
We need to take a stand…
What good is it to take the side of good and keep quiet?
What good is it to take the side of evil and keep quiet, either?
Riding under the radar is no longer an option

The denomination is dividing whether we want it to divide or not… We can wait for the conversation to sneak up on us or we can face it head on
Elements of persons for extremes have called for action and “the majority” of silent stones in the middle have kept quiet…

Our country, likewise, has been divided into opposing camps and those who are silent hoping evils will reveal themselves and wrongs will right themselves without our taking a stand, hold the foolish thought more of the same will bring change.

When Peter steps up to tell Jesus that he cannot died and will not be killed, Jesus tells Peter that his heart and mind are being led by Satan and not the Spirit. God’s ultimate purposes will not be stopped.

What are we to do? Luke shows us two groups
If we are praising God with our whole heart and without reservation we need only continue
If we are saying things like,
• “Hold on”,
• “Wait a minute”,
• “Someone is trying something new and different”,
• “My way is being challenged.”
• We’ve never done that
• You are making me uncomfortable

On the other hand, We may be the one who needs to keep quiet and let the new thrive.
• The Lord has need of a colt, palms, branches, and disciples
• The Lord has need of the people, then and now.
• The Lord has need of the leaders, in Luke, and in 2022.
• The Lord has need of you and me

The Lord will proceed with or without any of the above.
• Lord Have Mercy on Me when I have
• Not waved the branches and raised your praise
• Not asked your will over my own
• Not spoke up and remained silent

What do we do?
We recognize that if God Needs animals and palm branches

1. God needs and desires us
2. We allow God to speak through us and our actions
3. Pay attention to hearts of stone that begin to sing praises.

Isnt their some middle ground, a safety zone, where I do not have to speak out and do not have to be called out?
As Jesus makes his way into Jerusalem, through his trial and examination, and to the cross, there is no time for quiet/comfort…

The story is the ultimate labor of love on our behalf.
For God so love the whole world that he gives his only son that through his sacrificial death may we know life and know it eternally.

Imagine taking your coat and throwing on the ground on a cold day as a sign of praise and devotion… if I am reluctant to offer my coat, how much less I’m I ready to give my heart.

If anyone else has reason to be confident in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but one that comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith.
I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus. [NRSA: Phil 3:4-14]

Philippi was a retirement community for military and government workers, as well as communities of the poor from the Greek region and from Rome. As a Roman colony, that didn’t have to pay tribute to Rome but was very Rome-like with a patriotic community of transplants in an area where Greeks visited for fertility worship. Finally, as a beautiful place of retreat and commerce, the community enjoyed a diverse group of people.

Located in the foothills of the LAKANI Mountains and mt PANGAION pan-ga-yawn, it sounds like our favorite town.

Paul’s primary theme in this passage is “Endurance in Faithfulness.”

Pressing toward the Heavenly Goal.

Pressing on – is an athletic term in Greek, as in a race.

Don’t give up when the goal is near.

We have the upcoming “run for the Son” race, and I encourage you to register today, even if you are running virtually at home. It is a worthy cause, and we need all who can help us win the prize for the most support. (Take a moment to sign up right now with your name and phone number, and we will follow up)

Pressing on also has a military use:

There would have been those in military service who had been given orders to push forward a line within a battle and the need to “Press On.”

A Time to Yield and a time to Press

There are many who press on when they should stop and yield, at the round-about, for example. There are drivers who neither slow down nor do they yield at the circle. There would be no need for the flashing speed monitors if drivers would approach all of downtown with courtesy and caution. This is not a place to press on.

Paul assures us we are on the winning team.

Know I will win the race before the race is over.

How? I belong to Jesus and Jesus is mine. Together, We are completing what Christ has already done for us, and the world.

The Catch?

If Jesus has won the race, then why bother, our team time cannot be beaten. I will coast along… Why not use the back burner, and let someone else step up.

Paul’s prescription:

Forget the past sufferings and failures and focus on the prize.

Every runner needs to be present in their current race and not think about the misery of training.

Every soldier needs to let go of what has been lost and see the need to complete the mission of today.

Do not worry or be anxious about what we have no control over, rather

Focus on the things that we can give our faithfulness.

Forgetting is a powerful work. It makes room for the possibilities of today and tomorrow.

Wendy’s mother lived with us for the majority of her battle with dementia. Alzheimer’s and Dementia are terrible thieves. The loss of memories has profound pain and anxiety. There came the point when the pain of suffering from lost memories opened the opportunity for Nancy to think she was living at the Hilton Head Island resort and woke every morning hoping that she had not missed the breakfast buffet.

What are the possibilities for trust, fellowship, witness, and service when we let go of what we have suffered through, failed, and left undone and start fresh in Christ?

When we forgive, as we have been forgiven, we are able to count on each other with fresh hearts of faith in Christ.

We can press on because the weight is gone.

In the movie “The Mission”, Robert DeNiro plays the part of a slave trader in South America who follows a tribe of native people at great suffering and cost to his own traveling party. He discovers the village is at the top of a waterfall and scales the mountain carrying his armor, weapons, and supplies in a giant net… as he reaches the top of the mountain, he is exhausted, weighed down, and defenseless as the natives surround him at the edge of the cliff.

He has two choices. Let go of the rope and all his possessions and face the tribe with nothing, or let go of the cliff, keep his possessions, and fall to the basin below. The chief warrior draws his spear and cuts the rope; DeNiro’s belongings and weapons gone, what is most likely his death, frees him up to meet his enemies. The tribe takes him in and saves his life. (Long epic movie worth the watch)

Paul asks a similar question: Are we holding on or pressing on?

Are we pressing on?

Toward the Heavenly Goal?

Do we know the outcome of the race of our life?

Are we Heaven bound?

Paul is describing a both/and/not yet relationship

What we know by faith is proven during “the course” of our life and in the end, our sharing in the resurrection.

To bind is to fasten to, to already bind, in the past tense is bound…being bound to Christ.

My sins are bound to the cross of Christ….

The Power of Forgetting

Nancy and apple pie Paul gives his credentials and says that he trades it all for what he finds in Christ, asking Roman citizens, and veterans to trade their history for a new future.

Philippians 3:17-4:1
Brothers and sisters, join in imitating me, and observe those who live according to the example you have in us. For many live as enemies of the cross of Christ; I have often told you of them, and now I tell you even with tears. Their end is destruction; their god is the belly; and their glory is in their shame; their minds are set on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven, and it is from there that we are expecting a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. He will transform the body of our humiliation that it may be conformed to the body of his glory, by the power that also enables him to make all things subject to himself. Therefore, my brothers and sisters, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm in the Lord in this way, my beloved. [NRSA]

Luke 13:31-35
At that very hour some Pharisees came and said to him, “Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you.” He said to them, “Go and tell that fox for me, ‘Listen, I am casting out demons and performing cures today and tomorrow, and on the third day I finish my work. Yet today, tomorrow, and the next day I must be on my way, because it is impossible for a prophet to be killed outside of Jerusalem.’ Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! See, your house is left to you. And I tell you, you will not see me until the time comes when you say, ‘Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.‘” [NRSA]

1. Jesus laments that he wished that he could protect Jerusalem like a mother hen.

Quilt:

• Long before Yeti coolers we had great grandma Brantley’s quilt.
• Long before people paid for weighted blanks there was great grandma Brantley’s quilt
• Long before there were bullet proof jackets,, there was great grandma Brantley’s quilt

But a quilt won’t save us.

 so often pray for protection but it’s more helpful to ask Jesus to be with us. Jesus has not come to make life easy, he came to make eternal life accessible.

We ask for protection for Ukraine. Taiwan and the world to keep us from crossing into wars that engulf us all.

Instead of waving a wand of magic protection, Jesus promises to go with us, into the midst of war, seeking peace.

• Jesus looks over Jerusalem and is disappointed.

Jesus stands with us even when disappointed

• Frances with a hand gesture of disappointment instead of anger or blame.
• Jesus is disappointed that the People of God have allowed leaders to lead them astray, where prophets are killed and those who speak truth are stoned.

• How often I have wanted to be your mother hen, and God allows us to be unfaithful, unwilling, unavailable.

3. Disappointed but Determined and Diligent

Jesus hears those who warm and caution him to lay low, keep out of the spotlight, save yourself.

• Jesus’s witness is to continue teaching, healing, and calling for faithfulness
• Living into the prophetic messiah of being determined to enter Jerusalem,
• With purpose, choice, determination, and deliberation Jesus moves closer to the cross

Following Jesus will require purposeful and intentional choices that lead us to Jesus

The charge is that the Holy City kills the prophets.

• Means that becoming prophet is dangerous
• Means only the faithful are prophets
• Means It is easier to kill the messenger when we don’t like the message

4. Recognizing Jesus before its too late….

• Those who lives as enemies of the cross, living only to satisfy hunger, seek glory and power, and set on earthly things.
• Reminder that we have a heavenly passport…. Commercial asking will you at the end of your life wish you had bought newer technology, a bigger house, or rather where you traveled? What you experienced?

Paul invites future transformation… of our body, power, and heavenly ‘things.

4. Stand firm in Christ.

As we have discussed previously, standing firm “in” Christ, is residing in Christ’s righteousness

In what christ determines is right, just, good, and faithful

It is not standing firm in what we believe but stand firm in Christ.

Luke 4:14-21

Then Jesus, filled with the power of the Spirit, returned to Galilee, and a report about him spread through all the surrounding country. He began to teach in their synagogues and was praised by everyone. 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 was 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 in the synagogue were fixed on him. Then he began to say to them, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” [NRSA]

Mattie did a great job last week sharing a call to remember we are gifted with gifts to share. But if she had shared, and my gift is to be the Messiah, we too would have at least mumbled and grumbled, she is so full of herself to say such

But this is the context of our passage today. Jesus is the hometown favorite getting up to read, preach, and teach and he goes off with a Messiah complex. Who is he to say what the completion of scripture and the law is to be.

The idea that Jesus completes us affirms that we are incomplete

Dating card with strengths and weaknesses.

• Anointed to bring good news to the poor,

• release to the captive

• sights to the blind

• freedom to those oppressed

• and proclaim the year of the lord

Jesus fulfills these and call us to share the same…

Begging the question what are the

poor, the captive, the blind, the oppressed, and those waiting for the lord to show finding out through us today?

Straight from the news reports,

• poverty continues,

• banks hold mortgages,

• governments and society hold hearts and minds captive,

• people continue to blindly follow rather than question, and there seems to be no justice for those who are oppressed and this day seems like just another day in ordinary-villa.

Christian Rapper ‘Phanatik’ of The Cross Movement Publicly Renounces Christianity

“I began to have doubts…” I could not trust what I have been telling others, so I’m renouncing my Christian faith.

written songs, book, taught classes, and didn’t believe what he was dishing out…

Many would say, I don’t care about rap in the first place, but when we hear of someone giving up hope, we need to pay attention. It might not be just those in the spot light.

Jesus begins his ministry affirming this IS. His use of the words of the prophet Isaiah become declaration of faith:

• what I trust,

• this IS what I believe,

• this IS what I will be doing, and

• THIS IS what God longs for you to do as well.

What is good news to the poor?

There is something more valuable that wealth. One less that is taught over and again when sharing ministry with those who are rich in Christ, but poor in the things of the world, is the ability to prioritize what matters most.

We speak of someone who is blinded by conditioning, majority, coercion, and assumption:

There are something we see by faith when our eyes tell us otherwise. We are called to be people who believe not because they have seen the signs and placed our hand in the side as Thomas but those who live by trust, faith alone.

We are prisoners of our own allegiance, (Quote the Eagles, our own device) to the what the world tells us right/wrong.

There is what world says its good and true and there is the one who created the world and it’s purpose says are good and true.

What do those who are oppressed by wealthy, the majority, the systems of control, institution of power, what do they want to know?

There is a power greater than the powers of this world.

Jesus declares that in him, we find this power, this wealth, this life

In the Lord’s Day,

• is not earth day,

• it is not independence Day,

• it’s not president’s day,

• Its not Santa’s Day,

• It’s not Election Day,

it is the Day of the Lord

• The Lord’s Choice

• The Lord’s Power

• The Lord’s Purpose

• The Lord’s Revealing

Jesus has made a very strong political statement in his first sermon: God’s Day, God’s Way, depends on no other variable.

What that way of life looks and sounds like is this…

There are no more tear, no more fear

no more death, no more misuse of trust and power.

So what can you and I find in this story, sermon, verse?

Where you have placed your trust in yourself, your government, your fears, your power and power of human construction, are just as they were in the tower of Babel

Just as God confused the language,

Jesus’ reading from Isaiah sounds noble and we would expect him to highlight nothing else, but what he is saying is this

Don’t trust those who hold power, wealth, influence, etc to know right from wrong.

He is not saying to ignore the world’s power, rather see it’s limitation and flaws.

Those in the world could operate from righteousness if each day were devoted to the glory of God, but where they do not, they are not God’s instruments…

For example $$$

Money is a necessary means of transacting commerce in a society, it is neither good nor evil. Misuse of the power that controlling money is evil and despite it’s power and influence, God is greater and Jesus has come to make that right

Again it is not inappropriate for us to talk about money in relationship to the church but to tell God what we cannot do because we do not have the money in hand requires no faith in God. Listening to those who hold the money is what we have come to believe is the only way. Jesus is saying money is not love, is not peace, is not justice, is not hope, is not salvation. Money is money, who’s power do we place our trust.

What are we doing with the power, wealth, opportunities, freedom that we enjoy?

What better place to invest than to invest in reversing poverty, providing freedom, release, seeing through the lies of evil power to see the truth of God’s strength.

The final part of the Lord’s Day being declaired in their hearing, points to the urgency not to wait for another day.

What are you and I doing with the gifts we currently have?

What are we waiting to happen to be bold in witness?

When will we have enough to do what the Lord needs done?

Jesus gives us these answers:

Trust the Lord and you will see the kingdom of God in every part of your life.

WWill our response be to grumble, dismiss, or ignore or take up the Cross of Christ and make this day another Day for the Lord…