Cameron: 00:07

Heavenly Father, we thank you for this day. We thank you for the sun that's shining in the windows this morning. We thank you for the warmth outside. And Lord, we ask and pray that in your, in your graciousness, by the power of your holy spirit, that you would, you would take this word as it's proclaimed over us and push it way down deep into the recesses of our soul, so that we we cannot escape the transforming process that your Holy Spirit does in us through his word. Lord, but we also pray, just for the gentleness of that process over us.

Cameron: 00:47

And, father, I'm so grateful and thankful. I'm so grateful for the this community this community here and these people. And, father, I pray that you would help us to love you more. Give us a deeper and greater hunger for you, Lord, that we might also have a deeper and greater hunger to love one another. That we might know what it means to love one another with the heart of Christ.

Cameron: 01:28

Father, transform our hearts. Transform our lives. In Jesus' name, amen.

Luke: 01:37

Amen. Well, good morning, everybody. Good morning, Luke. My name is Luke. I'm one of the pastors, and, I'm excited to open the word with you this morning.

Luke: 01:48

So, does anybody, if I say the date January 21, 2004, Remember what was happening on that day? Just earlier this year in Orchard Park, There was a game going on between perhaps our beloved Bills and the Chiefs. It was supposed to be our season. Right? We'd worked really hard to get there.

Luke: 02:18

We're in the playoffs. We're in overtime. And we just could not make it happen. Right? Final score was 27 to 20 4.

Luke: 02:30

Yet, again, the Bills did not make it. That was disappointing. Right? Like I am seeing a lot of like trauma response right now. Everyone's like like that was not like like, I remember watching the game with my wife earlier this year and we were just like, we got done with it and we were just like, what do you wanna do now?

Luke: 02:56

Like, I don't know. Like, like, the whole rest of the evening's ruined. We were so excited. And we're just like, ugh. And, like, you know, and any game.

Luke: 03:07

Right? Like, I'm sure that they've like, I'm sure that they train the cameraman. They're like, alright. It's the Q4. Start trying to find the most upset and pitiful looking person in the fan crowd that's, like, losing right now.

Luke: 03:19

Right? And then they do the zoom up on that person who's inevitably doing this. Right? Like, it is so so disappointing when our teams lose, when our expectations, our dreams, our hopes are not fulfilled. But the question is is, like, what do you do with that then?

Luke: 03:38

What are you going to do when you encounter disappointment? Right? Because that's exactly where we found ourselves and that evening. We're like, well, now what? We're disappointed.

Luke: 03:49

We're frustrated. I can't change the outcome of that game. What do we do with it? What do we do with our disappointment? And maybe you just eat it away with some ice cream, when it's a football game.

Luke: 04:03

But what do you do when it's a something bigger in your life? So when it's something more important, when it's a job, it's a family outcome, it's a expectation we had of our life or the way things were going to work out. Because we have to figure out what are we going to do with our disappointment. When it comes, when it inevitably happens, you will encounter disappointment. You will encounter disillusionment and frustration.

Luke: 04:35

What do we do with it? Where is God in the middle of it? Why didn't it work out the way that we expected it to? And today, I want to kind of dig into this question a little bit by looking at the experience of disappointment and disillusionment that the disciples experienced. Because that didn't work out the way that they thought it was going to.

Luke: 05:02

Right? Can you imagine the mood of the disciples? Right? They had gone to Jerusalem with Jesus. They had like we remember there was this Palm Sunday and they had that triumphal entry and they were waving palms and shouting Hosanna.

Luke: 05:22

And Jesus was coming in to Jerusalem. And then less than a week later, he was hung on a cross between 2 criminals and crucified. That's like a major 180. That was not the expectation of those who were shouting, Hosanna in the highest. Hosanna Hosanna.

Luke: 05:44

And they were waving their palm branches. They were not expecting for Jesus to be crucified like 5 days, 6 days later. They weren't expecting it. And then they are just absolutely like some of these disciples had been following Jesus around like intermittently, like his 12 disciples for sure had been following him for over 4 years and other disciples had been kind of following him around intermittently. Maybe they, every time Jesus came through this one area, they would go and they would make sure to hear him and connect with him.

Luke: 06:19

This was someone that they knew. Someone that they had connected with and they thought was gonna come and deliver them. They thought he was going to come and overthrow the Romans. It was the perfect time. It was passover and he ends up being killed.

Luke: 06:39

But then what happens after that? Well, not a whole lot. He kind of gets put into a grave. And then Sunday comes around and the disciples get this story from the women who had gone to prepare Jesus for burial and wrap him up and all of these things. And they come in and he's like they're like, he's not there.

Luke: 07:02

So his tomb's empty now. Jesus is even there. Like, we don't even have a grave to go and grieve at because Jesus isn't there. Can you imagine that story playing out in the amount of disappointment? The amount of, well, now what?

Luke: 07:21

And that's where our story picks up this today. We're gonna be talking about the story of the road to Emmaus, which is in Luke chapter 24. You can open up your bible. We have bibles in front of you in the pews, or you can join the join me in your own bible there. We'll be in Luke chapter 24 for most of today.

Luke: 07:45

But can you just imagine that? Like, how frustrated we've been on our, like, on our worst days. Right? And here we've they've lost the person they thought were was the messiah. The person who was going to come and deliver them from the oppression that they were under.

Luke: 08:10

And so now they're stuck in this. And we pick up this story, the road to Emmaus, in a place where we have 2 of Jesus' disciples. Not 2 of the 12, but 2 of those followers of Jesus who maybe were on the fringe, who were connected, but were not necessarily mentioned often. They kind of perhaps kind of were part of the crowd that followed Jesus often. And they're making their way, they perhaps, they don't live in Jerusalem, but they live in this small town named Emmaus.

Luke: 08:49

And they're walking their way home together. So let's pick this up. It's gonna start in Luke chapter 24. We're gonna start down in verse 13. So right now, it's the same day at Sunday.

Luke: 09:07

And the disciples have found out. They've gone and seen the tomb. They saw the tomb was empty and they've assumed that somebody has stolen the body of Jesus. He's not there. Where is he?

Luke: 09:20

They they haven't believed the report that was given to them. And now, that same day, 2 of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about 7 miles from Jerusalem and they were talking with each other about everything that had happened. They were walking along, walking the 7 mile walk between Jerusalem and Emmaus. They're leaving after Passover, after having gone there with Jesus, presumably, to see what he would do, end up seeing him crucified, hear that his tomb is empty, and they walk away disappointed. They walk away frustrated and they're just rehashing and they're just like, can you imagine it?

Luke: 10:05

Like, they're just kinda like, can you believe? Like, just a week ago, like, we were saying Hosanna, and now he's dead. Not only that, he's missing. His dead body is missing. This did not go at all the way we thought it was going to.

Luke: 10:23

This is absolutely awful. They're just walking back and they're rehashing all of that. How did he who who who turned him over? How did he get arrested? Why was he crucified?

Luke: 10:37

And as they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them but they were kept from recognizing him. So here we have Jesus, who they don't realize is resurrected. They think his body is missing. They assume he is dead. And Jesus is just kinda like, hey, guys.

Luke: 11:04

Right? These guys like, you just kinda get the sense, like, these 2 companions are just kind of walking. Maybe they're not moving at, like, a particular fast pace because they're kind of sad. Because they're kinda having this conversation talking back and forth. They're not trying to run home.

Luke: 11:19

And Jesus kinda just kinda sidles up and is like, what's what's going on? Good to see you friends. Like, and he he And they don't recognize him. They're like They just assume he's some other traveler on the road making his way home. And he asked them, Jesus did, what are you discussing together as you walk along?

Luke: 11:42

They stood still, their faces downcast. 1 of them named Cleopas asked, are you on the only one visiting Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened in these days? It it strikes me that it's recorded that they're, like, walking along and Jesus is like, hey, what what are you guys talking about? And it says that they stood still. You get this, like, sense, like, they're just kinda walking along.

Luke: 12:10

Jesus asked, what are you talking about? And they just stop. And there's, like, completely and utterly just like beside themselves. They're sad. They just stop and they're just like, do you not know?

Luke: 12:25

Like, is it not obvious why we're grieving? Like, did did you did you not see the person we thought was the Christ be crucified? Do you not hear about all of this? The entire city has been talking about this for more than a week now. And they're just absolutely beside themselves.

Luke: 12:49

And Jesus kind of coyly asks, what things? Right? And Cleopas goes on to say, he says about he says about about Jesus of Nazareth, they replied. He was a prophet powerful in word indeed before God and all the people. The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death and they crucified him.

Luke: 13:22

But we we had hope, here's their expectation. This is why they're so disappointed. We had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel And what is more, it is the 3rd day since all that took place. In addition, some of the women amazed us. They went to the tomb early this morning but didn't find his body.

Luke: 13:48

They came and told us that they had seen a vision of angels who said he was alive and then some of our companions went to the tomb and found it just as a woman and said, but they did not see Jesus. So they're we're counting it all and they're counting all that confusion. Assuming perhaps that the body of Jesus is simply gone, that the report of the angels and and Jesus actually being alive is probably just like the hallucination of these grief stricken women. And and Jesus is just listening. I can just imagine him very patiently listening, hearing it all recounted.

Luke: 14:32

He's like, uh-huh. And he gets to the end and they even have been heard. They've even been told by the women that Jesus is indeed alive, that he's resurrected on the 3rd day like he said he was going to be but they don't, they don't believe it. It hasn't connected for them. And so Jesus responds to them.

Luke: 14:58

He says, how foolish are you And how slow to believe all the things that the prophets have spoken? Did not the messiah have to suffer these things and then enter his glory? And then so Jesus is like, look can't you guys see how this all connects? Can't you see how this was what was supposed to happen? How this had to happen?

Luke: 15:25

And then he kind of opens up and he begins to kind of have this like what, like this this kind of sermonic or Bible study with them. Where he begins to just kind of explain, like, let's think about the the old testament. Let's think about the law and the prophets. And he begins, beginning with Moses and all the prophets. So essentially the entire old testament, he explained to them what was said in all of scriptures concerning himself.

Luke: 15:59

So Jesus begins to just as they're continuing the walking, he, kind of, has joined this conversation. Now there's the 3 of them walking along and Jesus is just explaining to them over and over. He's like, look, like, didn't, doesn't Genesis say that there was going to be an off spring of the woman who would crush the serpent's head? Isn't there a promised son of David who was gonna reign on an eternal throne? Isn't the one who was supposed to crush the serpent's head didn't say that his heel would be bruised?

Luke: 16:37

Isn't there the suffering servant the one who would bring redemption and healing for all people? Isn't it said that he would be despised? Isn't it said that he would suffer? Are these not all indicators that the Messiah would die? That he would endure endure these things?

Luke: 16:59

And as Jesus is explaining all of this to them, they kind of they make it to Emmaus. They get to their hometown. They've kind of they're at their place. And so it's no longer no more time for them to continue the journey. And as they approach the village to which they were going, Jesus Jesus is kinda like, okay.

Luke: 17:21

Well, I'll see you guys. You guys are gonna stop here for the night. I'm gonna keep going. And Jesus kind of kind of kind of kind of the passage kind of hints that he's kind of like pretending as if he's going to keep on walking. Well I've got I've got further to walk still and and they're like, oh no no no.

Luke: 17:39

They strongly urged him, stay with us for it is nearly evening and the day is almost over. So he went in to stay with them. Right? They're like, come in have dinner with us, spend the night at our home. You've you've been a good companion on the road, be a companion with us for the evening.

Luke: 17:57

And so he sits down at the table with them. They're having dinner and Jesus as was his custom, as what he did on the night he was arrested, he took the bread and he gave thanks and he broke it and he gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him. All of a sudden, Jesus does the thing that they've seen him do so many times, break bread and bless it. And when they do that, they're like, that's Jesus.

Luke: 18:36

And then he disappears immediately from their sight. And they asked each other, were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the scriptures to us? And so they got up, they got up, they left their table. They didn't they got up immediately and they returned at once to Jerusalem they found the 11 and those with them assembled together. So he founds the disciples and all the other people who were kind of on the outside of the disciples and he finds them all together and they're saying, it's true the lord is risen and he has appeared to Simon.

Luke: 19:15

And then the 2 told what had happened on the way and how Jesus was recognized by them when he broke bread. So you have this, like, exciting reveal. This journey that these disciples are on, that these followers of Jesus are on, they're absolutely despairing. They kind of meet Jesus. They don't recognize it.

Luke: 19:46

And then they are kind of given this understanding of the fact that the Messiah had to go through those things. They sit down to have Jesus break breakfast, dinner with Jesus and then they realize that it it is Jesus. Jesus is risen, he disappears and then they're like, we've gotta go back. We gotta go tell the disciples that he actually is risen, we've seen him, his body is not just stolen. So they get up, they leave their dinner and they rush back to the city of Jerusalem.

Luke: 20:19

And they get there and they find out that, Simon, one of the disciples has also seen Jesus. There was another sighting that's not recorded necessarily. And so that is a that's a story of this kind of this extreme disappointment, extreme disillusionment and then it kind of reverses but not in the way that they anticipated it. And the fact the funny thing is is that they almost missed it. They're like, how long did they walk along with Jesus talking with them and not recognize them.

Luke: 21:02

They almost didn't realize that they were sitting down with Jesus. So I wanna kind of walk through and say what does this passage teach us about how we deal with disappointment, with disillusionment when things are turned upside down in our world. And the first question I kinda have for us as we kind of think think about this is, how are we tempted to walk away in our disappointment? These followers of Jesus, they were in Jerusalem, they encounter this disappointment and they walk away. They're like, you know what, let's just go home.

Luke: 21:44

We're done with this. So they're gonna go home to their village, Emmaus. Only 7 miles ish away, and they walk that way. And I think that we're tempted to metaphorically walk away from things when we encounter disappointment. I think when we encounter disappointment we are perhaps tempted to pout.

Luke: 22:12

Throw a bit of a fit because things didn't work out the way we wanted them to. Maybe some of us kind of lend ourselves to that, but I know that others of ourselves, we will rage. If things didn't work out the way that I wanted them to, we will we will not just be sad, we will be mad. And we will throw a fit and try and get things to work out. Or, do we just absolutely shut down when we encounter disappointment?

Luke: 22:49

It's like, ah, not gonna do anything about this, just gonna completely shut down, completely not engage in this. And I think, those are generally, the 3, kind of, options or ways in which we respond when life doesn't go the way that we thought it should. When it doesn't work out, when we encounter suffering, when something is taken away from us, when someone is taken away from us, we shut down. We don't wanna deal with that. And we're tempted to just disengage from the situation by either entering into sadness, anger, or we ourselves will just completely shut ourselves off.

Luke: 23:41

And I think those are all different ways of just kind of saying, I'm gonna leave behind Jerusalem. I'm gonna leave behind the city of peace, the place where Christ was, the place where redemption is supposed to happen, and just walk the other way. And, like, we can't do that. Because we're we're walking away from Christ in some sense. Because I think that Christ wants to meet us in the middle of our disappointment.

Luke: 24:15

I think that there's a gift there. That there's something there in the middle of all of our frustration. There is something there that is good and something there for us. Even if it's difficult, it's something that is ultimately for our good. So how do we not do this?

Luke: 24:35

How do we not walk away in the middle of our disappointment? And the first thing I would say is to not replace, don't replace Jesus and the father's plans with man made substitutes. Don't replace Jesus and the father's good plans with man made substitutes. How many times do we talk to God and we say, God that didn't work out the way I told you it should work out. Man, God's plans didn't work out the way I thought they should.

Luke: 25:10

If he only listened to me. Right? If only he had kind of like, I told him what I wanted. He should've like, he should've asked me before he made that decision, I would've fixed it. Right?

Luke: 25:24

So often, it is our assumption that god is this little kind of, like, how do I say it? This little, like, vending machine. Right? They're like, oh, if I pray the right prayers, if I go to church on Sunday, if I maybe read my Bible a little bit, I hit the right buttons, the right spiritual blessing candy bar is gonna come out. And when it doesn't, we're like, I didn't want a crunch bar.

Luke: 25:53

We get really frustrated. And then we walk away. And God's like, no no no. Like, this isn't, this isn't some sort of, like, I'm not This isn't some sort of spiritual blessings factory where you do the Christian life and you try and get things out of it. That's not what this is.

Luke: 26:14

This is an invitation to know someone, to know Christ, to sit with him, to be with him, and to be changed by him. And we are going to always experience disappointment if we are continually making it idle out of our expectations. By saying, god, this is the way this has to work out and if it doesn't, I don't think I'm gonna follow you. Maybe we don't say that explicitly, but we say that with our words, or with our actions I should say. I think we sometimes are I think we sometimes even do this with leaders.

Luke: 27:01

Right? How many times have we heard about the another Christian leader, Christian pastor, or someone who has had a significant moral failure? And just how much and I'm not downplaying the impact of that and how awful that is, but they are not Jesus. I am not Jesus just in case you're curious. Right?

Luke: 27:29

I am a sinful human being who has flaws. I sin all the time. I am not perfect. I will disappoint you. We, a church, this church full of people led by people will mess up, will disappoint you.

Luke: 27:54

And when that happens, don't confuse it with Christ. There's a passage in first Corinthians chapter 11 verse 1. It says, follow me as I follow the example of Christ. This is Paul talking to the Corinthians and he's like, look to me as a model as long as I am following Christ. I am a good example only as much as I am an example of Christ.

Luke: 28:29

And that ought to be the the mantra of every Christian leader of every church. We are a we are a good example to follow only as much as we look like Jesus. Only as much as we embody his love, his truth, and his grace, only then are we a good example to follow. And when we're not, we're not. Only follow my example as I follow the example of Christ.

Luke: 29:05

You will absolutely encounter churches, leaders who are not good representatives of Christ. And unfortunately, I think there's a lot of, like, you know, the the buzz word, right? If you guys have heard people talking about deconstruction. And and sometimes, not all of the time, but sometimes that's happening because somebody, a a human hurt them. Cameron's talked about this a lot.

Luke: 29:38

People will say, well, I've got church hurt. He's like, is it just people hurt? You don't have church hurt, you have people hurt. Sinful people who were not embodying the love of Christ hurt you. And and and that's absolutely a thing but you're you it it's good to deconstruct something that is not Christ so that you can follow Christ but not just to walk away.

Luke: 30:12

Not all deconstruction is bad, if you're deconstructing a bad leader or a bad way of following Jesus because it wasn't the example of Jesus. It wasn't actually him. It wasn't actually the thing that he'd been calling you to. That's a good thing to deconstruct. But when we deconstruct in a way that's just like, I'm just gonna toss everything out the window.

Luke: 30:35

I'm just gonna walk away from Jerusalem and not look back. That's not that's not good. Because God's saying that you're rejecting you're not even reject you're rejecting me when the thing that you're mad at isn't even me because it wasn't a good representation of me. The other thing that we need to be cautious of, another substitute that we put in is our expectations. We so often just pick up our expectations.

Luke: 31:14

James chapter 4, chapter 4 verse 13 says this says, now listen, you who say, today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on our business and make our money? Why do you even you, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, if it is the lord's will, we will live and do this or that.

Luke: 32:11

Right? So, James here is articulating this truth that like, we are like the morning fog, the morning mist that's here. Pretty soon, as soon as the sun comes up, the temperature goes up just a little bit, it's gonna disappear. That's our life. I have no guarantee what my tomorrow will look like.

Luke: 32:39

I don't. Nothing is promised me. And we so often, I think, because of just the type of society and culture we live in, maybe it's because we carry supercomputers in our pockets. We just kind of live this world where we're like, well, we've got control of everything. I can do just pretty much everything I want.

Luke: 33:03

If I say I'm gonna do it, I'm just gonna do it. We live in the believe in it society like, believe in yourself and you can do it. Well there's lots of things I can't do no matter how much I believe. I will not dunk anytime in my life. Like, right?

Luke: 33:19

And you can extrapolate that out but there is a limit to us and so so often we just make these plans without ever consulting God. So often, we're just kind of like God again, the vending machine. God, I've come up with this plan for my life. This is exactly how I think it should play out. Bless it.

Luke: 33:46

Right? It's it's kind of like, doesn't shouldn't shouldn't we consult him a little bit? Say, Lord, here's some things, some good things I desire. Lord, if you will, can we see about these happening? But so often we're just like, oh, no.

Luke: 34:07

No. I I know I know how I want life to play out, and I just need to get god to bless it and make it happen for me. Kinda treat Jesus as kind of this, like, cosmic genie. And guess what? God will smash that idol.

Luke: 34:28

He will smash it, rather than let you continue to worship that. You you will either not get the things that you expect and plan, or you will get them and you will be so disappointed in the way it plays out. Because God is not content to let you worship idols. And so what happens when you are in that place? You don't get that expectation, you are hurt, you are disillusioned, you are in disappointment.

Luke: 35:04

This is not playing out the way it's supposed to be. And the biggest encouragement I would have to somebody who's in the middle of that moment is to say, don't miss Jesus. Don't don't get so caught up in your disappointment that you don't look to him walking next to you along the road. Don't miss Jesus in that place. And you know one of the things that shocks me about this whole passage, right, in in Luke chapter 24 is that these were people who kinda knew Jesus.

Luke: 35:46

They weren't the 12. They weren't his closest followers, but they knew him. They knew enough to recognize him. To know how he behaved, to recognize how he broke bread. That means they had been at dinners with him.

Luke: 35:59

They knew who he was and they had the whole thing explained to them. They had the whole Bible explained to them. And I just wanna say that like religiosity, being a good Christian quote unquote, knowing your bible does not necessarily mean that you're gonna see Jesus. There's a small little thing that like, I think it's hard to articulate but I think it's really important. I think sometimes we get so fixated on the things around Jesus, things of Jesus, that we actually miss Jesus.

Luke: 36:49

We get so fixated on well, I know all of my bible verses and I can explain so much theology. Yeah, but when's the last time you sat down and you met Jesus when you opened your bible? When you actually were quiet enough in your brain and your soul to hear his small still whisper? When was the last time you were in worship and you were singing your song out and you weren't so concerned about the way the music sounded or your voice sounded and you were actually singing to God. Amen.

Luke: 37:31

Right? There are so many small little ways. I don't say this to make you paranoid. I say this to to invite us deeper. So many ways in which we can be so concerned with this thing and that thing, but actually just miss Jesus.

Luke: 37:55

Because Jesus wants us to sit down and have a meal with him. He wants us to know him, to to have a relationship with him, not just be transactional. He wants us to have that intimacy with him. Jesus says that, I am the way the truth and the life. No one comes to the father except through me.

Luke: 38:22

You wanna know why we talk about Jesus so much at this church? Right there. Right? We are always saying that we want to help people get closer to Jesus. Why do we say that?

Luke: 38:36

Because he's the way, he's the truth, he's the life and nobody gets to the father except through him. It is truly all about Jesus and Jesus even here in this passage in Luke chapter 24 opens up the bible and he's like look, see at all the different places the whole story has been pointing to me. And so, yeah, we're gonna continue to talk about Jesus a lot because he's the way. And so let's not miss him. Finally, is I want to lean in and just give you this final encouragement and say that God is in the midst of your disappointment.

Luke: 39:30

Whatever it is that you are experiencing, big or small, whether it's a job that did not work out, a relationship that's not working out the way you thought it was supposed to, an expectation, a thing that we wanted. Maybe we're learning something about ourself that we don't want to learn about. Or maybe we're like, at this point wasn't I supposed to be rich? Or at this point wasn't I supposed to be, at this point wasn't I supposed to be successful? Isn't life supposed to be easier than this?

Luke: 40:14

Where are we having this place where we're not in this place of Eden that we thought we wanted to be in? Where we're experiencing more of that fall, the curse, and the brokenness than we want to. And I wanna say that God's right there. God is both in the green pastures and he's also in the valley of death. God is in both of those places walking alongside of us.

Luke: 40:43

If God had a purpose in his son's death, can you imagine what he might do in your suffering? First Peter describes suffering and going through many trials as this purification process. Your faith which is more precious than gold is being refined by fire. So that you might obtain the salvation of your souls which is so much more precious than gold and silver. That's what God is doing in the midst of us.

Luke: 41:20

God is calling you to let go so you can hold on to him. So much of life's disappointments, so much of the things that don't go our way are an invitation to let go. There's a reason that I surrender all is such a popular song and such an such a popular theme in worship music. Because so much of the Christian life is saying, Lord, I surrender to you. Modeling the prayer of Jesus in the garden.

Luke: 41:53

Lord, your will not mine. God, your will from heaven be done as it is on earth. Lord, please have your way. Lord, I am the clay. Mold me.

Luke: 42:07

God is inviting us to be surrendered to him. To realize that perhaps there's something inside of me that needs to be purified out, pulled out of me. Perhaps I need to let go of a thing that was keeping me from knowing Christ. Because the thing is, is that I think that Jesus is a lot closer than you or I might think. I think that we go about our days so distracted, so full of different noises and to do's, and things to go to, and things to be thinking about, That we kinda forget that Jesus is present with us.

Luke: 42:59

Like, church, do you believe that Jesus is here with us this morning? That his holy spirit is indwelling us. That we together are not just a group of people. We're the church. This is just a building, the people are the church and when we come together we become the body of Christ.

Luke: 43:24

Christ is among us. But how often do we even focus our attention on that truth? For me, I am wrestling and feeling convicted with like, I so struggle. I struggle because I wanna pick up my phone. I struggle because I wanna just go on to the next thing.

Luke: 43:50

I struggle because I am worried and anxious about the future. I struggle because I am worried and frustrated about the past. All of those things keep me from being here and now and saying, Lord, where are you? What are you doing? What are you doing in me?

Luke: 44:13

And what's the invitation that you were giving to me? I think Jesus is a lot closer at any given moment than any of us tend to think. And I think Jesus wants to meet you in those places of disappointment. He wants to say like, don't you see I'm here and I'm doing something. Don't walk away from me.

Luke: 44:41

I want to meet you in this. If my own death and crucifixion could be used to save the world, if the death of God meant the redemption of the world. What's God doing in the midst of your suffering? In the midst of your disappointment, big or small?