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Good morning.
My name is Joan Benton.
I participate in a community group for Kensington and El Cerrito, go to Women, Reading Women,
and help once a month with CC Kids.
We're reading today from Luke chapter 8, verses 22 through 38, as printed in your liturgy.
One day, Jesus said to his disciples, let's go over to the other side of the lake.
So they got into a boat and set out.
As they sailed, he fell asleep.
A squall came down on the lake so that the boat was being swamped, and they were in great danger.
The disciples went and woke him, saying, Master, Master, we're going to drown.
He got up and rebuked the wind and the raging waters.
The storm subsided, and all was calm.
Where is your faith?
He asked.
His disciples, and in fear and amazement, they asked one another,
Who is this?
He commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him.
They sailed to the region of the Gerasenes, which is across the lake from Galilee.
When Jesus stepped ashore, he was met by a demon-possessed man from the town.
For a long time, this man had not worn clothes or lived in a house, but had lived in the tombs.
When he saw Jesus, he cried out and fell at his feet, shouting at the top of his voice,
What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God?
I beg you, don't torture me.
For Jesus had commanded the impure spirit to come out of the man.
Many times it had seized him, and though he was chained hand and foot and kept under guard,
he had broken the chains and had been driven by the demon into solitary places.
Jesus asked him, What is your name?
Legion, he replied, because many demons had gone into him.
And they begged Jesus repeatedly not to order them to go into the abyss.
The demons begged Jesus to let them go into the pigs, and he gave them permission.
When the demons came out of the man, they went into the pigs,
and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and was drowned.
When those tending the pigs saw what had happened,
they ran off and reported this in the town and countryside,
and the people went out to see what had happened.
When they came to Jesus, they found the man from whom the demons had gone out,
sitting at Jesus' feet, dressed, and in his right mind.
And they were afraid.
Those who had seen it told the people how the demon-possessed man had been cured.
Then all the people of the region of the Gerasenes asked Jesus to leave them
because they were overcome with fear.
So he got into the boat and left.
The man from whom the demons had gone out begged to go with him,
but Jesus sent him away, saying,
Return home and tell how much God has done for you.
So the man went away and told all over town how much Jesus had done for him.
And this is the gospel of the Lord.
Praise to you, O Christ.
Good morning, Christ Church.
It's Super Bowl Sunday, so we're going to talk about demons, right?
That's what you were expecting, right?
You know, most secular people in the Western world
don't believe that demons exist.
And that, I think, is a luxury.
It's a very privileged thing to be able to believe.
This man in Luke 8 doesn't have that luxury and that privilege, though,
because he can't deny the darkness that's come into his life, right?
He's oppressed by some pretty dark powers.
He's in pretty deep distress and misery.
And what's amazing about the story is that Jesus puts him back in his right mind.
And he sends him out on this new mission.
In fact, we read in verse 39, Jesus says,
Return home and tell how much God has done for you.
Go home to your people.
Go home to your city.
He tells us that this man had an extended family, right?
He had an old community of friends.
He had a workplace.
He had a city.
He had this place where he used to be rooted and he used to be grounded.
He used to belong.
He used to be known and loved by people.
And somehow, we don't know how, but he subtly and slowly came under the power of the darkness.
And I admit that it's hard for me to see myself in this man.
And maybe you feel that way when you read it as well.
But it's not hard for me to see myself in earlier stages of this man, in the earlier stages of his decline.
For example, you know, when I look at the hurts and the habits and hang-ups in my own life,
and I think about the way that those hurts can easily turn into compulsions,
when I think about the way those habits can so easily turn into addictions,
when I think about the way that my hang-ups can so easily become obsessions,
when I think about the heavy burden it is to walk around with the fear and the guilt and the shame
that those things can produce in life,
when I think about all the feelings that I've had in my life of emotional instability
and mental confusion and spiritual agitation that just sort of accumulates over time,
it's actually not that hard for me to relate to this man in some earlier stages of his life.
We don't know what kind of trauma he experienced.
We don't know what kind of abuse he endured or maybe some violent act from another person or group of people.
But hell has somehow been unleashed in his life.
And in him, I think we get a picture of how the dark powers oppress us
and how they oppress our society,
how they try to strip us of our identity,
strip us of our sense of belonging, our sense of meaning and purpose in this life,
and slowly but surely dehumanize us.
Now, how does Luke describe this man's condition?
He says in verse 27,
And then down in verse 29, it says,
Many times the demon had seized him,
and though he was chained hand and foot and kept under guard,
he had broken his chains and had been driven by the demon into solitary places.
Driven by the demon into solitary places.
You're probably aware that the U.S. Surgeon General has declared an epidemic of loneliness,
an epidemic of alienation and isolation in our society right now.
This guy's been driven out.
He's living in the tombs,
which means he identifies more as a dead person than as a living person.
And he's become such a menace to himself.
He's become such a danger to himself and to other people
that he's been chained like an animal.
And these are the human solutions.
These are the material solutions to his spiritual problems,
and it's not helping him at all.
It's not helping the problems that he has in his soul at all.
The Gospel of Mark, when it tells this story in Mark chapter 5,
it says,
And, you know, we look at the dramatic rise of anxiety and depression
over the last 10 to 15 years among Gen Z.
And that anxiety and depression is so often expressed in forms of cutting,
forms of self-harm and suicidal ideation.
And this man, that's what he's doing.
He's cutting himself and he's crying out,
probably saying,
Somebody help me.
Somebody come and fill this unbearable void.
Somebody stop the pain.
Somebody, please come deliver me from my distress and from my misery.
I hope we don't write this man off,
because I think more people are living and feeling like this man than we realize.
And maybe even that's some of us here today,
that our humanity feels like it's being beaten out of us from the inside.
We barely even know our name anymore.
We're not sure who we are.
We feel oppressed.
We feel enslaved.
We sense a lack of hope.
Maybe that's you.
Maybe it's somebody that you love very deeply.
But I want us to know that Jesus very deliberately seeks and saves the lost.
And he seeks and saves this lost man.
Right?
The same Jesus we talked about a few weeks ago in Luke 4,
who in his first sermon, he said,
You know what I've come to do?
I've come to preach good news for the poor.
I've come to release the captives.
I've come to bring liberation to those who are oppressed.
That same Jesus has just rebuked the wind and the waves
and taken this chaotic storm and subdued it and made it calm.
And now Jesus brings that same power, that same authority to this man
to subdue and to calm the chaos of his soul.
Right?
The chaotic storm of his life.
And so I want to take a look at this story in a deeper way,
thinking about a few things together.
First of all, what we see in this story is kingdoms and conflict.
We also see a transformed mind,
and we see a new mission and message.
So we're going to look at this kingdoms and conflict,
a transformed mind,
and a new mission and message.
First of all, kingdoms and conflict.
Jesus is intentionally crossing a boundary in the story.
He's crossing a boundary into Gentile territory,
and he goes to basically the most unclean place
that a Jew could think to go.
Right?
He enters into these Gentile pagan cities
that are full of idols and decadence.
Jesus is, you know, walking through these pig farms
that are the furthest cry from being kosher,
you could imagine.
That pork is being raised to feed
the occupying Roman legions, their armies.
This man is hanging out in tombs
with dead bodies and skeletons.
He's filled with evil spirits and demons.
Why, Jesus, of all the places you could be,
why would you want to be here?
Jesus, of course, often shows up
in places where he's not supposed to be.
Right?
Jesus deliberately crosses boundaries
into places that are considered inappropriate.
And what happens when Jesus does that?
What happens when Jesus shows up in dark places?
Well, what we see in this story
is that there's a power encounter
of enormous proportions.
There's a confrontation
between these two opposing powers,
these two opposing kingdoms.
And I want you to know
that it's not like Star Wars.
It's not like Star Wars
where there's this unending conflict
between the dark side
and the true force.
Right?
These two equal and opposite powers
that really depend on each other.
They depend on being balanced
with each other.
Right?
The hate and fear of the dark side,
the love and hope
of the true force.
Both of them are essential.
Both of them need to be there in tension
and balance, push and pull,
and yin and yang.
That's not the New Testament.
If you pay very close attention
to this story,
this demon is attempting
to gain ascendancy over Jesus.
And then Jesus is very intentionally
triumphing over the demons.
Right?
Jesus is not content
for the kingdom of God
to be in balance
with the kingdom of darkness.
Jesus wants to conquer
the kingdom of darkness.
Jesus wants to win a victory,
a decisive victory
over the kingdom of darkness.
And so what does Jesus' presence
and His power provoke here?
It says in verse 28
that when He saw Jesus,
He cried out and fell at His feet,
shouting at the top of His voice,
What do you want with me, Jesus,
Son of the Most High God?
I beg you, don't torture me.
See, I think there's a conflict
within this man
between the desire of His true self
to be in the irresistible presence
of Jesus
and to fall at the feet of Jesus,
which is what we were made to do.
And there's a conflict
with this other part of Himself,
this darkness inside of Himself
that is resisting Jesus,
that's fearing Jesus,
that's assaulting Jesus with questions,
is saying to Jesus,
What do you want with me?
And why won't you leave me alone?
You know, what's interesting to me
is that these demons know Jesus, right?
That they, in fact,
identify Jesus in the exact opposite way
that most secular people do today, right?
Most secular people say,
Well, Jesus is merely human.
Jesus is an extraordinary teacher.
He's a liberation theologian.
Jesus is a social reformer.
He's a peasant revolutionary.
Jesus is the exemplar
of heroic progressivism, right?
Any group of people,
any person can remake Jesus
in their own image.
But the demons know
who Jesus actually is.
And what do they say?
They say,
Jesus, you are the Son
of the Most High God.
And when they're saying that,
they're not trying to honor Jesus.
They're trying to subdue Jesus, right?
Because that's how magic works.
That's how witchcraft works.
If you manipulate the name of the person,
then you get power over the person.
You bind the person.
You control the person.
And Jesus says,
Hey, I know what you're trying to do.
And he says,
Two can actually play at that game.
And so what does Jesus do?
He says in verse 30,
Well, what is your name?
And he says,
Legion,
he replied,
Because many demons
had gone into him.
Of course,
a legion is a regiment
of about 6,000 soldiers.
And if a legion of the Roman army,
you know,
showed up into town,
it was this big,
powerful,
overwhelming force.
It's just absolutely impossible
to defeat.
And when this man says,
My name is Legion,
what he's saying is,
I'm an army.
I'm a kingdom of dark forces,
and it's resisting Jesus.
It's intimidating Jesus.
And all the while,
this man is just raging.
He's this chaotic storm
in front of Jesus.
And Jesus,
this whole time,
is just completely calm.
Completely calm.
And Jesus is like,
Okay,
you're a legion.
You're 6,000 soldiers.
That's all you brought?
Is that going to be,
is that going to be enough?
And see,
verse 31,
it says,
They begged Jesus repeatedly
not to order them
to go into the abyss.
You see,
on the one hand,
this kingdom of darkness,
it postures itself
as strong and tough
and intimidating,
this legion.
And then on the other hand,
it's begging Jesus,
Please don't torture us.
Please don't send us
into the abyss
where we deserve to go
and where you have
the power to send us.
And you see,
at the most basic level,
the reason we see
this kingdom of darkness
so aggressively coming out
into the open
in the three years
of Jesus' public ministry
is that they know
their time of ruling
God's good creation
is coming to an end.
They know that
the judgment day
is just around the corner
where God is going
to judge them
and send them
and all their dehumanizing
forces into the abyss,
into this unfathomable depth
from which they can
never return.
And you notice that
it's not Jesus
that's theologizing about this,
it's actually the demons
that are the ones
who are talking about
the final destiny
of all those
who resist God
and oppose God.
And why are they doing this?
Why are they freaking out
in the presence of Jesus?
Because they know
they're in the presence
of the Son
of the Most High God.
they're trembling
before the one
whom God has appointed
to be the judge
of all the world
with justice.
And how does Jesus
respond to their begging?
How does Jesus respond
to their repeated requests?
Well, this speaks,
I think,
to one of the three
biggest theological questions
that pastors get.
Number one,
we get asked the question,
what happens when I die?
Number two,
we get asked the question,
how can I be saved?
And number three,
we get asked the question,
what is up with these pigs?
Right?
It's like one of the biggest things
that I'm sure
was on your mind
when you woke up this morning.
What's up with the pigs?
And some of you
read this story
and you're like,
I love animals so much
and this poor herd
of 2,000 pigs
drowning in the sea
really makes me sad.
And some of us,
you're like,
I love business so much
and when I see
all this money
and all this opportunity
and all this potential
just go down the drain,
that makes me sad.
And others of us,
we love food so much,
we're like,
all the meat,
all the bacon
and all the ribs,
what a waste.
But the pigs
are not Jesus' suggestion,
the pigs are the demon's idea
and the demons know
that they're so powerless
before Jesus
that without his permission
they can't even touch
one single little piglet.
And so Jesus gives them permission
to do to the pigs
what they want to do
to this man
and what they want to do
to all of us
and that is to drive them
into death and destruction,
to drive them away
from the abundant life
that God intends.
That's what the kingdom
of dark powers
wants to do to human beings.
But Jesus won't let it happen
to this man.
Jesus liberates this man
from all of the oppression
and all the bondage
of the darkness
and Jesus causes
the kingdom of God
to come erupting
into his life.
And notice that
when Jesus brings salvation
and it's just a messy business
with all the pigs
and everything,
when Jesus exercises his power
he doesn't even roll up his sleeves.
Jesus is not breaking a sweat.
Jesus is not trying hard
in this moment.
Jesus is not calling on
a higher power
because Jesus is the higher power.
Jesus is an infinitely greater power.
This isn't even a fair fight.
It's no contest.
This whole army,
this whole kingdom,
this whole legion of darkness
just self-destructs
in the presence of Jesus
and it's no contest whatsoever.
This man who had been woefully oppressed
by demonic powers
is somehow now wonderfully released
by the power of Jesus.
So my question for you today is
what is that big
and overwhelming thing
in your life
that you're bringing to Jesus today?
what's that thing
that's completely controlling you
and dominating your life?
When you think about your friends
and your neighbors
and your coworkers
and your family members,
what are the big issues?
What are the big problems
that they're struggling with?
And the question for us today is
do you believe that Jesus has the power
and the authority
to handle that?
Is His kingdom stronger
than the kingdom of darkness
that seeks to dominate
and control
and rule over us
and our world?
You see what's interesting
is these people
in this region of the Gerasenes,
they saw the power of Jesus
but it says they were afraid of it.
They were uncomfortable
with Jesus' power
and so in verse 37,
and then all the people
of the region of the Gerasenes
asked Jesus to leave them
because they were overcome
with fear.
They were afraid
that inviting more
of the kingdom of God
into their lives,
inviting more of the power
of Jesus into their lives
would kind of mess things up
and so they'd said,
Jesus,
would you please go away from us?
And tragically,
they don't realize
how poor and powerless
they're gonna be
if Jesus actually does leave them.
They don't realize
that they're rejecting
the greatest opportunity
of their lives
to welcome Jesus,
the liberator,
Jesus,
the deliverer,
Jesus,
the savior.
I guess my question
for us today is,
do we see,
when we look at our lives,
when we look at our world,
do we see these two kingdoms
in conflict?
There's no third alternative
between these two kingdoms.
You either are wanting
to live in that one kingdom
that's familiar
and comfortable
yet dehumanizing,
or you're wanting
to live in this kingdom
that comes with power
and healing
and freedom
and salvation
that Jesus brings.
Those are your options.
Kingdoms in conflict,
that's where we're living
our lives.
But secondly,
I want us to see
not just kingdoms
in conflict,
but I want to see
this guy with a transformed mind.
A transformed mind.
Now,
where does Jesus get
his authority
to reclaim
and to save this man?
What's interesting is
at the end of the gospel,
we see Jesus and this man
actually changing places,
right?
When we come to Holy Week,
when we come to Good Friday,
we'll see the Son
of the Most High God
being stripped of his clothes
and being naked
like this man.
We'll see Jesus
being bound with chains
like this man.
We'll see Jesus
being cut and bleeding.
We'll see Jesus
crying out on the cross
in agony.
We'll see Jesus
being driven
into the tombs.
And why does Jesus do that?
Because he came
to bear the darkness.
He came to bear away
this man's misery
on the cross.
He came to absorb it all
into himself.
And the resurrection
of Jesus
will be a signal to us,
it is a signal to us
that somehow,
some way,
Jesus managed
to destroy evil
and to destroy death
without destroying
any of us.
See,
the crucified
yet risen Jesus
came to conquer
over sin and death
and hell and the devil
in order that he might
give us eternal life,
in order that he might
give us abundant life.
And that's what we see
in this man
in verse 34.
It says,
when those tending the pigs
saw what had happened,
they ran off
and reported this
in the town
and the countryside.
And the people went out
to see what had happened.
And when they came to Jesus,
they found the man
from whom the demons
had gone out,
sitting at Jesus' feet,
dressed and in his right mind,
and they were afraid.
Here's a man
who had been
a chaotic storm,
raging,
wild,
untamable.
Neither men
nor chains
could constrain him.
No one was strong enough
to subdue him.
And everybody was asking,
who can save this man?
Who can save us?
But what does the Son
of the Most High God do?
It says that when Jesus
comes in his presence
and his power,
there's a total reversal
in this man's life.
First of all,
he's liberated
from the occupying power
and the demons
are completely gone.
Secondly,
it says that he's sitting
at Jesus' feet,
which is the place
where a disciple sits.
It's the place
where a disciple
learns the word of God
and the way of God
and the will of God.
Thirdly,
it says that he's clothed,
which means that he has
a new dignity.
He has a new identity.
He has a new name.
He has a new sense
of belonging.
He has a new life.
And thirdly,
it says that he's
in his right mind.
He's been given
a sober mind.
He's been given
a self-controlled mind.
He has the mind
of Christ himself
being formed in him.
And so it says
in verse 38,
the man from whom
the demons had gone out
begged to go
with Jesus.
You see,
earlier when he had been
under the influence
of these dark powers,
what did the man say
to Jesus?
He said,
what do you want with me,
son of the most high God?
Please go away from me.
Please leave me alone.
But now that he's been
set free,
now that he's a disciple
at the feet of Jesus,
now that he's in his right mind,
what does he beg Jesus
for in his prayers now?
He says,
Jesus,
please let me go with you
wherever you're going.
And that, I think,
is the mark
of a transformed mind.
It's the mark
of a true disciple
that you talk to Jesus,
that you want to go
with Jesus,
that you have
a personal relationship
with Jesus,
that you have a new bond
and a new union
and a new attachment
to Jesus.
So you say,
I want to follow you.
I want to learn from you.
I want to obey you.
I cannot get close enough
to you.
And I think that's
an acid test
of our own discipleship,
that when we wake up
in the morning,
are we saying to Jesus,
Jesus,
I want to go with you today.
I want to be with you today.
Whatever that means,
I'm in with you.
And of course,
one of the first lessons
we have to learn
as disciples of Jesus
is that Jesus doesn't always
give us what we want.
Right?
He doesn't give us
what we ask for.
He doesn't answer our prayers
the way that we want Him to.
He very often redirects
our requests
because He has something
better in mind,
which is what happens here.
The man from whom
the demons had gone out
begged to go with Jesus,
but Jesus sent him away
saying,
return home
and tell how much
God has done for you.
So the man went away
and told all over town
how much Jesus
had done for him.
And that's the relational
dynamic of discipleship.
It's not that we
issue commands to Jesus
and He submits to us.
It's that He issues
the commands
and we submit to Him.
Right?
He tells us what to do
and we obey.
That's what it,
when we say Jesus is Lord,
that's what that means.
But it's not an oppressive lordship.
It's a very liberating lordship.
It's a freeing lordship
because it means
I no longer have to carry
the burden
of being the Lord
of my life anymore.
I no longer have to figure out
what I'm doing
and where I'm going.
What a relief.
Where does Jesus send this man?
Jesus sends this man home.
And what that tells us
is that Jesus not only heals us
mentally and physically,
He not only forgives us
spiritually and morally,
but Jesus restores us
socially and vocationally.
This man had been alienated
from his home.
This man had been driven
away from his home.
This man is now sent back
to his home as an agent
of reconciliation.
That's what Jesus wants to do.
He wants to put us back
in family life.
He wants to put us back
in friendships.
He wants to put us back
in a community
where we were made
to have a new identity
and a new belonging
and a new meaning
and a new purpose.
That's what discipleship is.
And because this man
has a transformed mind,
when Jesus says,
no, I have a better plan
for your life
than your plan for your life,
how does he respond?
He says, great.
Awesome.
And I guess that's my question
for us is,
do you have this transformed mind?
Are you in your right mind
where what you want to do
is sit at the feet of Jesus,
go with Jesus,
talk to Jesus,
let Jesus redefine
your plans for your life
and say, awesome.
What I want us to think about today
is that we live
in the midst of these kingdoms
and conflict
and that what it means
to follow Jesus
and become a disciple of Jesus
is that you have a new mind,
a transformed mind
and mindset.
But then finally,
that you have a new mission
and a new message.
That as a disciple,
you've been given
a new mission
with a new message.
And we saw this
when in Luke chapter 5,
when Peter encountered
the power of Jesus.
And Jesus immediately
gave Peter this new mission
and he said,
from now on, Peter,
you are going to fish
for people.
From now on, Peter,
you're going to share
my mission
to catch people
for the kingdom of God.
And this is the task
of every Christian disciple.
This is the task
of every Christian church
is to become a vehicle
through which God's
redemptive power
can go pouring
into the lives
of other people.
And what Jesus did
for Peter,
Jesus also does
for this guy.
This most unlikely guy
is turned into
an ambassador for Jesus.
Having been reconciled
to God through Jesus,
he's now sent out
with a new message
and a new mission
of reconciliation.
And it says this again
in verse 39,
return home
and tell how much
God has done for you.
So the man went away
and told all over town
how much Jesus
had done for him.
Isn't this amazing?
The first person
that Jesus sends
to share his mission
in Gentile territory
is this guy.
Super broken
and yet incredibly
delivered.
And he's told by Jesus
just go and share
the gospel
and make disciples.
And Jesus
thinks it's a wise idea.
He just sends him out
without a class
on evangelism.
He doesn't have
a master's in theology.
He doesn't know
anything about apologetics.
All he has
is a transformed mind.
All he has
is his own story
of God's grace
and healing.
All he has
is two ears
with which he can listen
to people
as they pour out
their pain to him
and their loneliness
and their longings
and their questions
and their concerns.
All he has
is a heart
to pray for people
and just engage them
in conversation
and Jesus says
that's enough.
That's enough.
I want you to return home
and tell your people
how much God
has done for you.
Go tell them
that the power of God
and the grace of God
is on the move.
Go tell them
that the kingdom of God
is coming
from heaven to earth
right now.
And what does the man do?
He tells all over town
not how much God
had done for him.
He tells how much
Jesus had done for him.
Did you notice that?
Does he misunderstand
the mission?
Is he misunderstanding
the message?
No, he understands
it perfectly well
that Jesus
he's got the lesson.
Jesus is not merely human
he's the son
of the most high God.
So when God
the Father acts
he acts through his son.
And when God
the Son acts
God the Father
is working.
What Jesus does
God does.
And if we are going
to tell people
about the wonderful
works of God
we have to be talking
about Jesus.
We have to say
the name Jesus.
Because Jesus
is the one
through whom
the only true God
is working out
his saving purposes
in this world.
And this is how
disciples on mission
speak
the message
that Jesus
has given.
And so he goes home
he goes home
knowing that God
is already at work
in the lives
of the people
back there
where Jesus
has sent him.
He goes home
knowing that
it's Jesus' power
and not his own
that's the basis
of his missionary
activity.
He goes home
knowing that God's
work through Jesus
is the heart
of the message.
And does everyone
accept his message
when he gets home?
No.
All the people
in this region
have already told
Jesus to his face
please go home.
Please leave us.
I'm sure this guy
was just as rejected
just as ignored
just as neglected
as Jesus was.
But I also imagine
that there were
a handful of people
some people of peace
that God had prepared
because why would
Jesus have sent him
if there weren't
people there
to receive the message?
People that were open
people that were ready
people that were ripe
people that were low
hanging fruit
people that were primed
to say
man this thing
you're telling me
about Jesus
sounds pretty amazing.
You know back
in November
we invited you
to begin praying
for three people
that you would like
to see begin
to explore the faith
and just to pray
on a daily basis
that God's kingdom
would come breaking
through into their lives.
and I want to
just remind us
of that.
I want to encourage us
that you don't need
a story as extreme
and dramatic
as intense
as this guy.
All you need
to engage
in the mission
and message of Jesus
is just a heart
to pray.
All you need
is just a willingness
to invite somebody
to coffee
or to your table
for a meal.
All you need
is just ears
to listen to their story.
All you need
is just a willingness
to share what Jesus
has done in your life
and just to sit back
and watch God work.
Some of us
have people
who are ready
to be invited
to Alpha
over the coming weeks
where we're just
asking them
to come share
a meal with us,
come and engage
in some video-based
discussions with us,
come and explore
their questions
about life
and meaning
and God
and faith.
Some of us
have people
who are saying,
you know,
thank you but not yet
and what they really need
is just more
Christ-like hospitality.
They just need someone
to lovingly listen
to their doubts
and to their questions.
Someone who can
compassionately engage
in their loneliness
and their pain.
Someone who can
just patiently walk
with them
as God is working
to soften them
and open up
their hearts to Him.
And we actually
don't have any idea
what God wants to do
in the lives
of any of the people
around us.
We don't know
when He wants to work
or how He wants to work
or where God wants
to work in their lives
but here's what we do know
and this is from
the Apostle Paul
1 Timothy chapter 2.
God our Savior
wants all people
to be saved
and come to a knowledge
of the truth.
For there is one God
and one mediator
between God
and mankind,
the man Christ Jesus
who gave Himself
as a ransom
for all people.
And that's why
Jesus says,
go tell how much
God has done for you.
So the man went away
and told all over town
how much Jesus
had done for Him.
Friends,
Jesus is sending
us just like
He sent that man.
Jesus is saying to us,
go tell how much
I've done for you.
Go tell how great
is the grace,
how great is the mercy,
how great is the power,
how great is the healing,
how great is the love
that's come pouring
into your life
through me.
Are we up for that mission?
Are we down
with that message?
I hope so.
In the name of God,
the Father,
the Son,
and the Holy Spirit.
Amen.