WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:07.000 So, for the first time in 16 years, we had babies at my family Christmas. 00:00:07.000 --> 00:00:17.000 And Ella, one of my nieces, is 16, but this year, this last year, I should say, my niece Hallie 00:00:17.000 --> 00:00:27.000 and my nephew Connor, brother and sister, they both had kids for the first time. So we had a nine month old and we also had a two month old. 00:00:27.000 --> 00:00:34.000 And it's exciting, you know, they're going to grow up together as cousins and of course that's a lot of fun. 00:00:34.000 --> 00:00:45.000 But when Lane was born, they decided that they wanted to take Carson to the hospital so he could see and he could meet Carson to the hospital so he could meet Lane. 00:00:45.000 --> 00:00:52.000 And once they get there, it doesn't go exactly what they think. 00:00:52.000 --> 00:00:59.000 Bree, who is Lane's mom, Connor's wife, had given Carson a lot of attention. 00:00:59.000 --> 00:01:08.000 And so she had been pouring into him and investing in him because she was pregnant with her first and he's, you know, months old and so she's living vicariously through him. 00:01:08.000 --> 00:01:16.000 And there is a picture of Bree sweetly holding baby Lane like this, but she has her arm around Carson. 00:01:16.000 --> 00:01:21.000 And my niece sends the picture out and as soon as I saw it, I started laughing. 00:01:21.000 --> 00:01:27.000 I mean, I laughed out loud because, do you want to guess what his expression was? 00:01:27.000 --> 00:01:30.000 He was not looking at the camera. 00:01:30.000 --> 00:01:36.000 He was looking at this baby like, who the heck are you? 00:01:36.000 --> 00:01:37.000 Right? 00:01:37.000 --> 00:01:44.000 And it was so funny, but at the same time, it's really kind of a reality check. 00:01:44.000 --> 00:01:49.000 He saw him maybe the way that Cain looked at Abel. 00:01:49.000 --> 00:01:54.000 He reminds us that something is broken in us even when we're babies. 00:01:54.000 --> 00:02:01.000 And it's evidence that childhood innocent isn't quite as innocent as we want to think it is. 00:02:01.000 --> 00:02:04.000 Boy, I sound like a downer, don't I? 00:02:04.000 --> 00:02:07.000 It's also a reminder of David's words in Psalm 51-5, 00:02:07.000 --> 00:02:11.000 surely I was brought forth or born in iniquity. 00:02:11.000 --> 00:02:13.000 Because here's the truth. 00:02:13.000 --> 00:02:16.000 Nobody had to teach Carson how to be jealous. 00:02:16.000 --> 00:02:18.000 It was already there. 00:02:18.000 --> 00:02:19.000 Right? 00:02:19.000 --> 00:02:22.000 And that may sound extreme because we're talking about babies. 00:02:22.000 --> 00:02:23.000 I mean, he's sweet and he's cute. 00:02:23.000 --> 00:02:24.000 He's precious. 00:02:24.000 --> 00:02:27.000 And I'm like, I love you, you little sinner. 00:02:27.000 --> 00:02:30.000 And I think that's probably what God says to me. 00:02:30.000 --> 00:02:32.000 I love you, you little sinner. 00:02:32.000 --> 00:02:33.000 Right? 00:02:33.000 --> 00:02:34.000 It isn't extreme. 00:02:34.000 --> 00:02:36.000 It really is reality. 00:02:36.000 --> 00:02:41.000 And so each of us are born broken sinners, not just innocent babies. 00:02:41.000 --> 00:02:45.000 And now we may not want to think of it that way, 00:02:45.000 --> 00:02:48.000 but it's really important when we think about what it means to be released. 00:02:48.000 --> 00:02:52.000 Let's start with what is true, that we're born broken. 00:02:52.000 --> 00:02:54.000 We're born as sinners. 00:02:54.000 --> 00:02:57.000 And Jesus has come to do something about that. 00:02:57.000 --> 00:02:59.000 He's come to release us. 00:02:59.000 --> 00:03:04.000 So, if I were to ask you, what are we released from? 00:03:04.000 --> 00:03:06.000 Here's what I know with this group of women. 00:03:06.000 --> 00:03:10.000 We would probably get very correct theological answers. 00:03:10.000 --> 00:03:12.000 He released us from sin. 00:03:12.000 --> 00:03:14.000 He released us from brokenness. 00:03:14.000 --> 00:03:21.000 He released us from, I don't know, death would be the other one that's the most obvious. 00:03:21.000 --> 00:03:28.000 And in our head and in our intellectual understanding, so when I talk about head, I'm talking about our intellectual understanding. 00:03:28.000 --> 00:03:39.000 In our understanding, then what we would say is we know we need a savior because we need to be released from those things. 00:03:39.000 --> 00:03:43.000 And we need Jesus because we know that we cannot save ourselves. 00:03:43.000 --> 00:03:47.000 But tonight, I want to pull back the curtains a little bit. 00:03:47.000 --> 00:03:49.000 And I want to say, let's just get honest. 00:03:49.000 --> 00:03:56.000 And honest, we may have that theological answer, but a lot of times, functionally, we live... 00:03:56.000 --> 00:04:01.000 Sorry, the timer is still going off there. 00:04:01.000 --> 00:04:06.000 Functionally, we live as if... 00:04:06.000 --> 00:04:11.000 Well, we're not the worst of the worst, but we were bad enough that we needed Jesus to save us. 00:04:11.000 --> 00:04:15.000 Now, nobody ever says that out loud. 00:04:15.000 --> 00:04:20.000 But functionally, a lot of times, that is how we think. 00:04:20.000 --> 00:04:23.000 Because we do want to be considered good people. 00:04:23.000 --> 00:04:25.000 We want to be considered good Christians, right? 00:04:25.000 --> 00:04:29.000 And so that's part of that, well, I'm not as bad as so-and-so. 00:04:29.000 --> 00:04:34.000 You know, I'm not the worst of the worst, but bad enough that I needed a savior. 00:04:34.000 --> 00:04:38.000 And the question then becomes, well, is that God's perspective? 00:04:38.000 --> 00:04:40.000 Does he see us in that same way? 00:04:40.000 --> 00:04:44.000 Well, I think we obviously would say, no, that isn't. 00:04:44.000 --> 00:04:46.000 He would not say that you're not the worst of the worst. 00:04:46.000 --> 00:04:51.000 And he would not say that you were bad enough that you needed Jesus to save you. 00:04:51.000 --> 00:04:54.000 So we'll come back to that in just a minute. 00:04:54.000 --> 00:04:57.000 But for now, I want to talk about the concept of release. 00:04:57.000 --> 00:05:03.000 Because it is absolutely important to understanding a facet of salvation. 00:05:03.000 --> 00:05:11.000 So when we think about release, one of the best examples in Scripture actually happens when Jesus is on trial. 00:05:11.000 --> 00:05:16.000 And if you remember the story, there is a man named Barabbas. 00:05:16.000 --> 00:05:21.000 And Barabbas is a convicted murderer, an insurrectionist. 00:05:21.000 --> 00:05:25.000 And he is presented along with Jesus. 00:05:25.000 --> 00:05:31.000 And the crowds, or the Jews, decide, release him and kill Jesus. 00:05:31.000 --> 00:05:38.000 So it's an account of a guilty prisoner being granted release. 00:05:38.000 --> 00:05:46.000 And so right there in the story of Jesus' trial and his crucifixion, there's an example of what it looks like to be released. 00:05:46.000 --> 00:05:51.000 Because when Barabbas was granted release, he was given freedom to leave. 00:05:51.000 --> 00:05:56.000 But Jesus was condemned and slated for execution that very day. 00:05:56.000 --> 00:06:01.000 So when we think about release, scripturally, what that word means, it has two parts to it. 00:06:01.000 --> 00:06:04.000 One is to acquit and remit. 00:06:04.000 --> 00:06:09.000 So in other words, to release the accused by not pressing the charge against them. 00:06:09.000 --> 00:06:14.000 And the other is to remit, or to remit means a person's debt through transfer. 00:06:14.000 --> 00:06:15.000 And we hear that verbiage. 00:06:15.000 --> 00:06:20.000 We hear that language when we're talking about the gospel that our sin has been transferred to Jesus. 00:06:20.000 --> 00:06:23.000 And we're not guilty because he took our sin for us. 00:06:23.000 --> 00:06:28.000 But the other part of release that we don't always get, we may get it in our head, 00:06:28.000 --> 00:06:35.000 but growing in Christ and maturing in our faith, part of that process is understanding that we have, 00:06:35.000 --> 00:06:38.000 as captives, have been set free, that we have been released. 00:06:38.000 --> 00:06:43.000 So let the captive depart in freedom with no holds at all. 00:06:43.000 --> 00:06:47.000 And yet we're going to see that we don't always live that way. 00:06:47.000 --> 00:06:53.000 So to better understand the term release and to move a theological truth from our head to our heart, 00:06:53.000 --> 00:06:56.000 which is a journey, it's never just something easily done. 00:06:56.000 --> 00:07:00.000 But I do want to take you to a passage of scripture and to break it down for you, 00:07:00.000 --> 00:07:02.000 because it fills in some of the details, right? 00:07:02.000 --> 00:07:05.000 The details of what it means that in Christ we have been released. 00:07:05.000 --> 00:07:08.000 So if you have your Bibles, look at Luke chapter 4. 00:07:08.000 --> 00:07:11.000 We're going to look at 16 through 21. 00:07:11.000 --> 00:07:27.000 So the context of this passage, this is early on in Jesus' ministry. 00:07:27.000 --> 00:07:35.000 He has been baptized, the Spirit of God descended on him in the form of the dove. 00:07:35.000 --> 00:07:37.000 He's gone to the wilderness. 00:07:37.000 --> 00:07:39.000 He's been tempted by Satan. 00:07:39.000 --> 00:07:43.000 Then he leaves the wilderness, goes into Galilee in the power of the Spirit, 00:07:43.000 --> 00:07:45.000 and he begins a preaching tour. 00:07:45.000 --> 00:07:49.000 He preaches and he teaches and he does miracles all throughout Galilee. 00:07:49.000 --> 00:07:53.000 And then here, where we come to, is Jesus goes home. 00:07:53.000 --> 00:07:57.000 And I just went home for Christmas, so this is really right here in my face. 00:07:57.000 --> 00:08:02.000 I'm like, oh yeah, everything is different than my normal life. 00:08:02.000 --> 00:08:07.000 But Jesus gets to Nazareth, and this is what it says in verse 16. 00:08:07.000 --> 00:08:10.000 And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. 00:08:10.000 --> 00:08:13.000 And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day. 00:08:13.000 --> 00:08:18.000 And he stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. 00:08:18.000 --> 00:08:22.000 He unrolled the scroll, and he found the place where it was written. 00:08:22.000 --> 00:08:23.000 And he said, 00:08:23.000 --> 00:08:28.000 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. 00:08:28.000 --> 00:08:33.000 He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, 00:08:33.000 --> 00:08:38.000 to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. 00:08:38.000 --> 00:08:44.000 And he rolled up the scroll, and he gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. 00:08:44.000 --> 00:08:47.000 And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. 00:08:47.000 --> 00:08:49.000 And he began to say to them, 00:08:49.000 --> 00:08:54.000 Today, this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing. 00:08:54.000 --> 00:08:56.000 I can picture that scene, can't you? 00:08:56.000 --> 00:08:58.000 It's very descriptive. 00:08:58.000 --> 00:09:03.000 And I picture him unrolling that scroll, looking for that specific passage, 00:09:03.000 --> 00:09:05.000 and then rolling it back, handing it to him. 00:09:05.000 --> 00:09:08.000 And when he sat down, probably every eye in the room was like, 00:09:08.000 --> 00:09:09.000 Okay, what's coming next? 00:09:09.000 --> 00:09:11.000 Because that meant he was going to teach. 00:09:11.000 --> 00:09:15.000 But what we know from the Gospel accounts is that the Jews were waiting, 00:09:15.000 --> 00:09:17.000 and they were hoping for a Messiah. 00:09:17.000 --> 00:09:22.000 However, their idea of who he would be, and what the Messiah would do, 00:09:22.000 --> 00:09:24.000 was very different than who Jesus actually was. 00:09:24.000 --> 00:09:28.000 To them, the Messiah's purpose was to throw off the Roman oppressors, 00:09:28.000 --> 00:09:32.000 and to return Israel to a place of prominence and glory. 00:09:32.000 --> 00:09:36.000 They thought that their greatest need was to be free from Rome. 00:09:36.000 --> 00:09:40.000 But Jesus was sent to address this deeper need, the real need. 00:09:40.000 --> 00:09:45.000 Now, we all know what that's like, because we all have this idea of this is what my need is. 00:09:45.000 --> 00:09:48.000 But when we get underneath it, and when God continues to make us deal with it, 00:09:48.000 --> 00:09:50.000 he gets to this deeper thing. 00:09:50.000 --> 00:09:52.000 And that's what's happening here. 00:09:52.000 --> 00:09:56.000 So the real need is to be released from spiritual captivity, 00:09:56.000 --> 00:10:00.000 where sin, death, blindness, and oppression dominated their lives. 00:10:00.000 --> 00:10:06.000 So Jesus, when he read that prophecy of Isaiah, he said that it was fulfilled. 00:10:06.000 --> 00:10:11.000 And he was teaching them, first of all, you have a greater need than Rome, Roman oppression, 00:10:11.000 --> 00:10:14.000 and someone is here who can do something about it. 00:10:14.000 --> 00:10:18.000 I would love to have been in that synagogue that day. 00:10:18.000 --> 00:10:20.000 I would love to have seen it. 00:10:20.000 --> 00:10:22.000 I think I would have been like, Hallelujah! 00:10:22.000 --> 00:10:28.000 You know, but this is not, we don't see that in this passage at all. 00:10:28.000 --> 00:10:33.000 So Jesus begins quoting the prophet Isaiah from Isaiah 61. 00:10:33.000 --> 00:10:37.000 And he starts by saying that he's anointed that the Spirit of the Lord is upon him. 00:10:37.000 --> 00:10:41.000 In other words, he is telling them without telling them, I am the Messiah. 00:10:41.000 --> 00:10:42.000 I have been set apart. 00:10:42.000 --> 00:10:45.000 I have been consecrated for this messianic office. 00:10:45.000 --> 00:10:53.000 And he is also telling them that he has been empowered with the necessary power to do what he came to do. 00:10:53.000 --> 00:10:55.000 He didn't come going, I hope I can do it. 00:10:55.000 --> 00:10:59.000 He came saying, I am going to do this. 00:10:59.000 --> 00:11:07.000 If we were to study the word anointed, that word, we would find that there's an associated Greek word called chasma, 00:11:07.000 --> 00:11:18.000 C-H-A-S-M-A, which probably makes us think of the word chasm, which is how it would be defined. 00:11:18.000 --> 00:11:21.000 So a chasm, a gulf, or a gaping hole. 00:11:21.000 --> 00:11:26.000 When Adam and Eve sinned, we know that our relationship with God was broken. 00:11:26.000 --> 00:11:28.000 But it wasn't just like a simple break. 00:11:28.000 --> 00:11:33.000 You know, like if you break your arm and you break it in one place and you can put it back together and it's pretty easy. 00:11:33.000 --> 00:11:35.000 It wasn't that. 00:11:35.000 --> 00:11:37.000 It was a complete shattering. 00:11:37.000 --> 00:11:41.000 And this chasm was created between God and humanity. 00:11:41.000 --> 00:11:44.000 As the Messiah, Jesus came proclaiming, 00:11:44.000 --> 00:11:51.000 I am the one who's anointed, chosen, and empowered to restore the relationship with God by closing the chasm. 00:11:51.000 --> 00:11:57.000 Now, if you've ever been taught the bridge illustration, you understand that you have us over here on one side. 00:11:57.000 --> 00:11:59.000 There's a gulf in between or a chasm in between. 00:11:59.000 --> 00:12:01.000 And then God is over on the other side. 00:12:01.000 --> 00:12:03.000 Well, that's where that comes from. 00:12:03.000 --> 00:12:06.000 Have any of you seen the Grand Canyon? 00:12:06.000 --> 00:12:08.000 If you've seen it, raise your hand. 00:12:08.000 --> 00:12:10.000 The Grand Canyon is absolutely amazing. 00:12:10.000 --> 00:12:13.000 If you need a place to go for vacation, I highly recommend it. 00:12:13.000 --> 00:12:18.000 And I don't know, for those of you who have seen it, if you have the same reaction. 00:12:18.000 --> 00:12:24.000 But my reaction was, as I stood and I looked across that canyon, it absolutely took my breath away. 00:12:24.000 --> 00:12:31.000 And in that moment, I was aware of something that I never really thought about before. 00:12:31.000 --> 00:12:44.000 If I had gone back 100 yards, ran as hard and as fast as I could possibly run, there would be no way for me to make it to the other side of that chasm. 00:12:44.000 --> 00:12:45.000 It was too wide. 00:12:45.000 --> 00:12:54.000 And if I wanted to get to the other side, to the other end, then it had to happen apart from my ability and apart from my strength. 00:12:54.000 --> 00:13:03.000 In the same way, this chasm that developed between God and us requires someone with the power to close the gap. 00:13:03.000 --> 00:13:08.000 So, sitting at the synagogue in Nazareth, Jesus said, 00:13:08.000 --> 00:13:13.000 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because He's anointed me to proclaim the good news to the poor. 00:13:13.000 --> 00:13:17.000 In other words, someone is here who can close the gap. 00:13:17.000 --> 00:13:23.000 But, notice who He's come to proclaim it to. 00:13:23.000 --> 00:13:26.000 He's not come to proclaim it to just anybody. 00:13:26.000 --> 00:13:28.000 He's come to proclaim it to the poor. 00:13:28.000 --> 00:13:30.000 And this is where we see them stumble. 00:13:30.000 --> 00:13:34.000 Because, how many of us want to be considered poor? 00:13:34.000 --> 00:13:38.000 They could not perceive themselves in that way. 00:13:38.000 --> 00:13:43.000 But the poor, by definition here in this verse, means to be spiritually destitute beggars, 00:13:43.000 --> 00:13:46.000 who are helpless and powerless. 00:13:46.000 --> 00:13:52.000 There is something in our brokenness that makes us want to fight against that. 00:13:52.000 --> 00:13:55.000 Because we want to prove that we can overcome. 00:13:55.000 --> 00:13:59.000 And that we have the power to get ourselves out of the mess. 00:13:59.000 --> 00:14:01.000 And yet, Jesus says, No, you don't. 00:14:01.000 --> 00:14:05.000 And I think that's where we might say, Well, we're not the worst of the worst. 00:14:05.000 --> 00:14:08.000 But bad enough that we needed Jesus to save us. 00:14:08.000 --> 00:14:11.000 And yet, Jesus paints a picture of how God sees us. 00:14:11.000 --> 00:14:13.000 And here's who you are. 00:14:13.000 --> 00:14:20.000 You are a spiritually destitute beggar who is powerless and helpless. 00:14:20.000 --> 00:14:25.000 And believe it or not, that's actually part of the good news. 00:14:25.000 --> 00:14:32.000 Because when you have eyes to see it, then you have eyes to see the one who can do something about it. 00:14:32.000 --> 00:14:35.000 It hit me as I was working on this. 00:14:35.000 --> 00:14:42.000 I thought, You know, a lot of times as a Christ follower, I think we think that God is moved by our goodness. 00:14:42.000 --> 00:14:46.000 If I'm obedient, if I have my quiet time, if I do all the things that I'm supposed to do, 00:14:46.000 --> 00:14:49.000 that that is going to move God's heart towards us. 00:14:49.000 --> 00:14:54.000 But based on what this passage is teaching us, it's not our goodness that moves God. 00:14:54.000 --> 00:14:56.000 It's our helplessness. 00:14:56.000 --> 00:14:57.000 Right? 00:14:57.000 --> 00:15:01.000 It's that powerlessness in our spiritually destitute lives. 00:15:01.000 --> 00:15:04.000 God cannot resist it. 00:15:04.000 --> 00:15:09.000 I mean, nobody at the synagogue in Nazareth invited Jesus there. 00:15:09.000 --> 00:15:11.000 He came to them. 00:15:11.000 --> 00:15:16.000 Now, for just a moment, I want you to picture yourself losing everything. 00:15:16.000 --> 00:15:18.000 That's a terrible thought. 00:15:18.000 --> 00:15:22.000 But picture yourself losing everything. 00:15:22.000 --> 00:15:29.000 Your job, your home, your family, your clothes, your car, your sense of identity, your sense of purpose. 00:15:29.000 --> 00:15:32.000 Anything that you think makes you, you. 00:15:32.000 --> 00:15:33.000 Gone. 00:15:33.000 --> 00:15:38.000 And then add to that your relationship with the Lord, because it's non-existent. 00:15:38.000 --> 00:15:40.000 Your prayer life is gone. 00:15:40.000 --> 00:15:41.000 You no longer think about God. 00:15:41.000 --> 00:15:43.000 You don't see Him at work in your life. 00:15:43.000 --> 00:15:45.000 You no longer worship Him. 00:15:45.000 --> 00:15:48.000 You no longer live in community. 00:15:48.000 --> 00:15:58.000 And when we can see ourselves like that, then we begin to kind of understand that we are poor. 00:15:58.000 --> 00:16:04.000 That we are those spiritually destitute beggars who are powerless and helpless. 00:16:04.000 --> 00:16:10.000 In the garden, when Adam and Eve sinned, this chasm between them and God was there for the first time. 00:16:10.000 --> 00:16:17.000 And one of the ways that we see that being evidence is the fact that they are no longer walking with Him in the garden in the cool of the day. 00:16:17.000 --> 00:16:22.000 In fact, they are no longer living in the garden because they are cast out. 00:16:22.000 --> 00:16:24.000 God places a gate there. 00:16:24.000 --> 00:16:28.000 He puts an angel there with a flaming sword so they cannot get back into the garden. 00:16:28.000 --> 00:16:35.000 And they have to move out into this desert area where they have to grind out a life through hard work and pain. 00:16:35.000 --> 00:16:42.000 And there is no way back except the hope of a promise. 00:16:42.000 --> 00:16:48.000 And when God speaks to the serpent, He plants the seed of hope. 00:16:48.000 --> 00:16:49.000 He tells the serpent, 00:16:49.000 --> 00:16:53.000 I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and her offspring. 00:16:53.000 --> 00:16:57.000 He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel. 00:16:57.000 --> 00:16:59.000 This is Jesus. 00:16:59.000 --> 00:17:01.000 Jesus who says, 00:17:01.000 --> 00:17:02.000 I'm here. 00:17:02.000 --> 00:17:03.000 I'm anointed. 00:17:03.000 --> 00:17:05.000 I'm set apart for this specific need. 00:17:05.000 --> 00:17:08.000 I'm empowered to do what the poor, what you cannot do for yourself. 00:17:08.000 --> 00:17:10.000 I'm here to close the gap. 00:17:10.000 --> 00:17:13.000 I'm here to close the gap between you and God. 00:17:13.000 --> 00:17:14.000 But that is not all. 00:17:14.000 --> 00:17:17.000 I mean, if that was all, that would be enough, it would seem. 00:17:17.000 --> 00:17:20.000 But Jesus said, no, there's more that you need. 00:17:20.000 --> 00:17:23.000 And you need to be released from some things. 00:17:23.000 --> 00:17:32.000 So Jesus describes His messianic mission as one being where people will be released specifically from three things. 00:17:32.000 --> 00:17:35.000 He sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives. 00:17:35.000 --> 00:17:36.000 So we're captive. 00:17:36.000 --> 00:17:39.000 He has sent me to recover the sight of the blind. 00:17:39.000 --> 00:17:43.000 And to set at liberty those who are oppressed. 00:17:43.000 --> 00:17:45.000 Liberty means released. 00:17:45.000 --> 00:17:47.000 I mean, that's literally what it means in the Greek. 00:17:47.000 --> 00:17:48.000 It means release. 00:17:48.000 --> 00:17:51.000 It's not just a simple declaration like you're released. 00:17:51.000 --> 00:17:53.000 It is a dismissal of something. 00:17:53.000 --> 00:17:55.000 It means to send or depart. 00:17:55.000 --> 00:17:58.000 But this is the word picture that you get with that word. 00:17:58.000 --> 00:18:03.000 It's where some part of a hole is taken away or separated from what remains. 00:18:03.000 --> 00:18:07.000 So let's say that my ring is doing damage to my finger. 00:18:07.000 --> 00:18:09.000 Jesus will come, take that ring, and separate it. 00:18:09.000 --> 00:18:11.000 And there's something that remains. 00:18:11.000 --> 00:18:12.000 But you know what? 00:18:12.000 --> 00:18:14.000 When you look at my finger, there's not a gaping hole. 00:18:14.000 --> 00:18:19.000 And so what remains when Jesus releases us isn't gaping holes in our life. 00:18:19.000 --> 00:18:23.000 It's who we were always created to be that becomes evident. 00:18:23.000 --> 00:18:27.000 Because we were created in Christ. 00:18:27.000 --> 00:18:31.000 So he came to take the part that holds us captive. 00:18:31.000 --> 00:18:34.000 That life with God could remain. 00:18:34.000 --> 00:18:38.000 And I think it's such a beautiful picture when the things that we want to hold on to 00:18:38.000 --> 00:18:41.000 and we think are so important in our life, and God is saying, 00:18:41.000 --> 00:18:43.000 no, I've come to release you from those things. 00:18:43.000 --> 00:18:47.000 We need to learn how to let go because there's not going to be a gaping hole. 00:18:47.000 --> 00:18:50.000 We're going to be more like Christ, right? 00:18:50.000 --> 00:18:52.000 It's beautiful. 00:18:52.000 --> 00:18:56.000 So Jesus says, my mission is to release you. 00:18:56.000 --> 00:19:02.000 So I will take away what has held you captive by being taken away for you. 00:19:02.000 --> 00:19:08.000 And when he is taken away for us, what remains, of course, 00:19:08.000 --> 00:19:11.000 when we put our faith and trust in Christ is this new creation. 00:19:11.000 --> 00:19:15.000 And we are in this relationship with God, 00:19:15.000 --> 00:19:18.000 the God, the God who's making all things new. 00:19:18.000 --> 00:19:21.000 And that should give us hope and that should give us joy. 00:19:21.000 --> 00:19:24.000 And that should make us want to shout, hallelujah. 00:19:24.000 --> 00:19:27.000 So Jesus takes away the things that hold us captive. 00:19:27.000 --> 00:19:34.000 And yet, again, moving from head to heart, 00:19:34.000 --> 00:19:38.000 we have to acknowledge that functionally we know that theologically, 00:19:38.000 --> 00:19:40.000 but we don't always live that practically. 00:19:40.000 --> 00:19:45.000 So it's common for Christians to functionally live as if we're still in captivity. 00:19:45.000 --> 00:19:46.000 Right? 00:19:46.000 --> 00:19:47.000 And that's a process. 00:19:47.000 --> 00:19:50.000 I mean, we will be learning to live free the rest of our life. 00:19:50.000 --> 00:19:54.000 And even when Christ comes back for us and we know a different type of freedom, 00:19:54.000 --> 00:19:56.000 we'll be like, oh, I wasn't free at all. 00:19:56.000 --> 00:19:57.000 I didn't know freedom. 00:19:57.000 --> 00:19:58.000 Now I know freedom. 00:19:58.000 --> 00:20:03.000 So one of the ways that we functionally live as if we're still in captivity, 00:20:03.000 --> 00:20:07.000 we think that God holds our debt over us. 00:20:07.000 --> 00:20:11.000 That, you know, when we do it wrong, when we don't do what we think pleases him, 00:20:11.000 --> 00:20:13.000 that God is the one who has an issue with it. 00:20:13.000 --> 00:20:17.000 And it's actually us that have that issue because we are living functionally 00:20:17.000 --> 00:20:19.000 as if he is holding our debt over our heads, 00:20:19.000 --> 00:20:22.000 when in fact, he's actually saying there is no debt. 00:20:22.000 --> 00:20:25.000 It has been fully and completely paid. 00:20:25.000 --> 00:20:35.000 It would be three days after Barabbas was released from prison. 00:20:35.000 --> 00:20:38.000 Imagine if Pilate said, you know, I've changed my mind. 00:20:38.000 --> 00:20:43.000 I want you to go, tells the soldiers, I want you to go and I want you to get Barabbas 00:20:43.000 --> 00:20:46.000 and take him, execute him because he's a criminal. 00:20:46.000 --> 00:20:49.000 Well, you know why that would never have happened? 00:20:49.000 --> 00:20:53.000 Because in the eyes of the Roman government, he was a free man. 00:20:53.000 --> 00:20:56.000 And in the eyes of the Lord, the Father looks at us 00:20:56.000 --> 00:21:01.000 and he doesn't see those things that we think are the worst things about us. 00:21:01.000 --> 00:21:03.000 He does see them, but he doesn't. 00:21:03.000 --> 00:21:06.000 He sees them through the righteousness of Christ. 00:21:06.000 --> 00:21:12.000 So that's one of the ways that we still act like that we are prisoners. 00:21:12.000 --> 00:21:17.000 Another way is we know that God has unlocked the door, the prison door. 00:21:17.000 --> 00:21:22.000 And yet we walk out of it for the day and then we go right back into it for the evening. 00:21:22.000 --> 00:21:26.000 And the way that we go back into it is we go back into it with our thinking. 00:21:26.000 --> 00:21:28.000 We think that we still live in there. 00:21:28.000 --> 00:21:31.000 We go to that cot that's on that dirty, dirty floor. 00:21:31.000 --> 00:21:35.000 When God has said, the door is open, you are free, you can be released. 00:21:35.000 --> 00:21:42.000 So we have to remember our old and familiar ways of living. 00:21:42.000 --> 00:21:44.000 Jesus has come to release us from them. 00:21:44.000 --> 00:21:46.000 And we do that with him. 00:21:46.000 --> 00:21:48.000 Our living in the way that we think. 00:21:48.000 --> 00:21:54.000 But this is probably the one that I think for sure would be one of the harder things for me. 00:21:54.000 --> 00:22:01.000 But for a lot of Christians as I've had time to talk with people and do ministry with them. 00:22:01.000 --> 00:22:06.000 One of the ways that we stay captive is we worship a happy God. 00:22:06.000 --> 00:22:11.000 Yeah, a happy God rather than the God of the Bible. 00:22:11.000 --> 00:22:15.000 Better be good and keep God happy or else. 00:22:15.000 --> 00:22:16.000 The happy God. 00:22:16.000 --> 00:22:22.000 But because of Christ, we no longer have to worship a happy God. 00:22:22.000 --> 00:22:27.000 Because he is not the God of the or else. 00:22:27.000 --> 00:22:31.000 Instead, he is the God of more than. 00:22:31.000 --> 00:22:32.000 Right? 00:22:32.000 --> 00:22:37.000 And so he will say to us, I will do for you more than you can imagine. 00:22:37.000 --> 00:22:41.000 I will love you more than you can conceive. 00:22:41.000 --> 00:22:45.000 I will forgive you for more than you even realize. 00:22:45.000 --> 00:22:48.000 I am the God of more than. 00:22:48.000 --> 00:22:53.000 And as we begin to recognize and understand how we are seeing God. 00:22:53.000 --> 00:22:56.000 Not what we're telling ourselves just theologically. 00:22:56.000 --> 00:22:59.000 But how we are functionally living on a daily basis. 00:22:59.000 --> 00:23:02.000 We might actually say, wait a second. 00:23:02.000 --> 00:23:05.000 I'm living in that prison that I was actually released from. 00:23:05.000 --> 00:23:09.000 So Jesus, he helps us by helping us recover our sight. 00:23:09.000 --> 00:23:17.000 And to recover our sight, that means that he restores our ability to understand and to perceive and to know God. 00:23:17.000 --> 00:23:18.000 And isn't it interesting? 00:23:18.000 --> 00:23:20.000 It doesn't say that he came to heal the bone. 00:23:20.000 --> 00:23:22.000 He came to restore our sight. 00:23:22.000 --> 00:23:24.000 And there's a difference. 00:23:24.000 --> 00:23:30.000 So there's this restoration that is in the context of being released. 00:23:30.000 --> 00:23:38.000 We're released from not knowing God and restored to being able to know him. 00:23:38.000 --> 00:23:42.000 He also says that he sets at liberty those who are oppressed. 00:23:42.000 --> 00:23:45.000 And the word oppressed there, it means to break. 00:23:45.000 --> 00:23:47.000 To break in pieces. 00:23:47.000 --> 00:23:48.000 To shatter. 00:23:48.000 --> 00:23:49.000 To crush. 00:23:49.000 --> 00:23:50.000 Or to bruise. 00:23:50.000 --> 00:23:52.000 Which should make us think about that chasm. 00:23:52.000 --> 00:23:56.000 When that was created between Ab and Eve, there was a complete shattering. 00:23:56.000 --> 00:24:02.000 When we were separated from God and we experienced brokenness, it was a complete brokenness. 00:24:02.000 --> 00:24:04.000 That destroyed our unity. 00:24:04.000 --> 00:24:08.000 And it destroyed our completeness in him. 00:24:08.000 --> 00:24:13.000 I say, Jerry Maguire did not make complete Dorothy at all. 00:24:13.000 --> 00:24:15.000 You know, that's a movie. 00:24:15.000 --> 00:24:18.000 But God is the one who completes us in Christ. 00:24:18.000 --> 00:24:19.000 Yeah. 00:24:19.000 --> 00:24:22.000 So our relationship with God was shattered and fragmented. 00:24:22.000 --> 00:24:23.000 And we were crushed. 00:24:23.000 --> 00:24:25.000 And we were bruised. 00:24:25.000 --> 00:24:27.000 And we look at ourselves and go, well, maybe not. 00:24:27.000 --> 00:24:28.000 You know, I look okay. 00:24:28.000 --> 00:24:33.000 You know, there are other people who look more crushed and more bruised than I do. 00:24:33.000 --> 00:24:36.000 But from God's perspective, he's like, no. 00:24:36.000 --> 00:24:42.000 Every single one of you were crushed and bruised beyond your ability to recover. 00:24:42.000 --> 00:24:43.000 We were no longer free. 00:24:43.000 --> 00:24:47.000 We were captives to sin and death and oppressed by our sinful nature. 00:24:47.000 --> 00:24:49.000 We were poor and destitute. 00:24:49.000 --> 00:24:52.000 We are the spiritual beggars, right? 00:24:52.000 --> 00:24:55.000 And that's the mess that Jesus walks into. 00:24:55.000 --> 00:24:57.000 I'm here. 00:24:57.000 --> 00:24:59.000 I'm here to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. 00:24:59.000 --> 00:25:03.000 A time when, once again, you can be acceptable to God. 00:25:03.000 --> 00:25:06.000 And I've come to preach good news to the poor. 00:25:06.000 --> 00:25:09.000 And what that good news looks like, I'm here to close the gap. 00:25:09.000 --> 00:25:11.000 I'm here to release you from captivity. 00:25:11.000 --> 00:25:15.000 I'm here to restore your sight so that you can know God and understand. 00:25:15.000 --> 00:25:20.000 I'm here to release you from the things that have shattered our relationship 00:25:20.000 --> 00:25:23.000 and the things that have shattered your life. 00:25:23.000 --> 00:25:35.000 Now, at this point, when Jesus is telling them these things, you would think they would fall down on their faces and worship. 00:25:35.000 --> 00:25:38.000 And that is not the rest of the story. 00:25:38.000 --> 00:25:45.000 They were offended by him because it's hard to see ourselves as the poor. 00:25:45.000 --> 00:25:47.000 It's hard to see ourselves as needy. 00:25:47.000 --> 00:25:53.000 And it's hard to see that we need, truly need a savior. 00:25:53.000 --> 00:25:59.000 Not just for, to get us saved, but we need a savior every single day. 00:25:59.000 --> 00:26:06.000 And what's so sweet about this passage, and sweet may not be a word that you would ever associate it with, 00:26:06.000 --> 00:26:14.000 but the sweetness of the Lord is that he begins to teach them in such a way to provoke them so they can see their spiritual blindness. 00:26:14.000 --> 00:26:17.000 They don't, at least yet. 00:26:17.000 --> 00:26:19.000 We don't know the rest of the story. 00:26:19.000 --> 00:26:27.000 But the spiritual blindness that prevented them from seeing and understanding the truth or the good news was this. 00:26:27.000 --> 00:26:30.000 God has come to make good on his promise. 00:26:30.000 --> 00:26:33.000 A way to become acceptable once more. 00:26:33.000 --> 00:26:37.000 And the way he did that, Jesus himself became poor. 00:26:37.000 --> 00:26:39.000 He became the captive. 00:26:39.000 --> 00:26:42.000 He was the one who was oppressed. 00:26:42.000 --> 00:26:45.000 And he was the one who was crushed and bruised. 00:26:45.000 --> 00:26:53.000 So when we look at what Jesus did, I would say that he was very successful at his mission. 00:26:53.000 --> 00:26:54.000 Right? 00:26:54.000 --> 00:26:58.000 We don't think of it in that context very often. 00:26:58.000 --> 00:27:03.000 We look and we think, well, you know, it didn't go quite the way that you think it would. 00:27:03.000 --> 00:27:05.000 But Jesus was successful. 00:27:05.000 --> 00:27:09.000 And tonight you may be thinking, you know, Pamela, you haven't told me anything that I didn't already know. 00:27:09.000 --> 00:27:10.000 Okay. 00:27:10.000 --> 00:27:12.000 Well, that may be true. 00:27:12.000 --> 00:27:13.000 These are truths. 00:27:13.000 --> 00:27:16.000 And we were just digging deeper into those truths. 00:27:16.000 --> 00:27:18.000 But this is the question I want you to consider. 00:27:18.000 --> 00:27:23.000 What difference does Jesus' mission make to you now? 00:27:23.000 --> 00:27:28.000 Not when you were saved, but today. 00:27:28.000 --> 00:27:31.000 What difference is it making in your daily life? 00:27:31.000 --> 00:27:38.000 Is it something that you only needed to become a Christian? 00:27:38.000 --> 00:27:41.000 Or is it something that you need every day? 00:27:41.000 --> 00:27:44.000 Well, stay tuned and we'll answer that next week. 00:27:44.000 --> 00:27:48.000 So let me pray for us and then we're going to break up into our discussion. 00:27:48.000 --> 00:27:53.000 One of the things I need somebody to do at each of the tables, if you don't have somebody who's assigned as a leader, 00:27:53.000 --> 00:27:55.000 if somebody would just read the questions. 00:27:55.000 --> 00:28:00.000 And we are going to, we'll have about 25 minutes. 00:28:00.000 --> 00:28:03.000 So, Father, we're just grateful again to be here tonight. 00:28:03.000 --> 00:28:06.000 We're grateful that we have time around the table. 00:28:06.000 --> 00:28:12.000 And I pray, Lord, that something has been said tonight that just provokes thoughts and understanding, 00:28:12.000 --> 00:28:23.000 just creates a hunger in our hearts to know you more intimately, to see this amazing thing that you did for us when you truly fulfilled those scriptures. 00:28:23.000 --> 00:28:26.000 And so I pray for your blessing upon the discussion. 00:28:26.000 --> 00:28:32.000 I pray and ask that you would let it be rich and let it be deep and we invite you into it at each table. 00:28:32.000 --> 00:28:36.000 And so we're grateful, Father, in Jesus' name. Amen. 00:28:36.000 --> 00:28:37.000 All right. 00:28:37.000 --> 00:28:39.000 I'll bring this back together.