Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
We are a small church plant in Denton, TX. Jesus gave a command: to love one another as he loves us. He goes on to say that "everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another." We work to make care for each other, for our city, and for our world the utmost priority in our lives. Love is more than simply a feeling or even a philosophy for us, it is a lifestyle commitment that guides where we live, what we do, how we treat people, and ultimately who we are. This is our church. These are some of our recorded sermons if you'd like to listen.
Good morning, everyone. How are y'all doing this morning? Staying warm, I hope. Thank you so much for being here. How many of you all have seen the movie, Oppenheimer, that came out earlier this year?
Joshua:Well, there's a scene early in the movie where young j Robert Oppenheimer He's a student. He's the guy, if you names kinda sounds familiar, but you're not quite sure who he is. He went on to, like, lead the team that created the atomic bomb. So Very, historic individual, you know, had a pretty big effect. But he's learning, And he's in college at Cambridge, I think it is, somewhere in Europe, and he is talking to Niels Bohr.
Joshua:Anyone remember his name from, like, High school chemistry or whatever. Yeah. So was he chemistry? Was he physicist or what? There we go.
Joshua:Nice. I knew I just locked eyes with Ethan. I was like, Ethan's got this right here. So he's they're talking, and this professor that Oppenheimer is under at the moment is also in the room. And, Niels Bohr asks, well, Robert, how is your mathematics?
Joshua:And the other professor says quite kinda quips quickly, not good enough to be the physicist he wants to be. And then Niels Bohr says, Well, algebra is like sheet music. The important thing isn't can you read music, it's can you hear it. Can you hear the music, Robert? I'm gonna thread this through our our discussion this morning.
Joshua:Can you hear the music? So I think for me growing up in a church in Christian home, there was a sort of just a lack of interest or real connection to Jesus, the person of Jesus growing up, which really for me made Christianity seem kind of boring and lifeless and, not that intriguing. I didn't have something or rather someone captivating me, compelling me. Most of what is summed up to me, about Christianity was just sort of what we did with the time, Sunday mornings. What we do with our time, Wednesday evenings.
Joshua:What music we weren't allowed to listen to. What, like, shows and movies we weren't allowed to watch. That kind of stuff. Like, for me as a kid, that's kind of what at least that's as far as my thinking went. It was deep as I got.
Joshua:I couldn't really hear the music. Does that make sense? If you didn't even didn't didn't see the movie, then it's that and now I just still kinda carry a little bit. It was just sort of markings on a page for me. It was like data.
Joshua:It was information, but it wasn't music. I I couldn't hear it until I came to college and was reintroduced to the person of Jesus, and that is what really made me hear the music of Christianity, hear the music of what God's trying to do in our world. And that's what I think is really an underlying kind of thought and goal, like, we've been talking about, and Leslie did a really good introduction and Did the 1st chapter of Luke last week about why we're doing this series fulfilled in Jesus. Luke chapter by chapter, fulfilled in Jesus. We're gonna be doing so we're gonna be taking each chapter of Luke and doing it just once a week, and you and highly encouraging you, reminding you until it's annoying to read 1 chapter a week along with us so that when you get here on Sundays, you're ready.
Joshua:You just know what we're gonna be talking about. But it's about reintroducing ourselves or maybe introducing for the 1st time, if that's where you are, to Jesus. The person, our lord, who we talk about being an apprentice of, being a disciple of this person that everything revolves around, and it and just really looking at him every single week, getting a chance to go in detail, filling out our picture of who he is, what he does, how he acts, what he says, and also just seeing how he fulfills, how it fulfills the promises of God that have been set up all throughout the Old Testament, how it fulfills prophecies of God's servants in the Old Testament, how it fulfills us today and fulfills what we need and what we hope for. Jesus fulfills. So that's gonna be our goal for this series, and I'm really excited about that.
Joshua:You'll get to hear from a bunch of different people, and we'll just be going 1 chapter a week. So, but one thing that's important for you to know is that each week will really hone in on one specific part of a chapter, because we're not gonna try to be as arrogant as to think that we could take an entire chapter of scripture and preach in detail about it in, like, a 30 to 40 minute Sermon, that would be, no one I know of could do that well consistently for 24 chapters. So we're not gonna do that, but we're gonna do is hone in on one specific part of the chapter. Whoever is preaching that week will get the chance to just pick what thing they feel led to, what part of that chapter They wanna go do a deep dive on and share with you what thing God put on their heart as they read that week. So we will, be doing that week by week, but, honing on a one specific thing.
Joshua:So close your eyes real quick. Close your eyes. Who and this is only applying to people who knew about us doing this. You're off the hook if you didn't. Who was able to read chapter 2 this week?
Joshua:Pretty nice. Okay. Put it back down. I can't believe Ryan Bristow didn't even read it. Golly.
Joshua:Bristow, dude. Just kidding. He's not here. You can open your eyes now. He's not here.
Joshua:I picked somebody who's not here to make that joke about. So that, so anyway, next week you get a new chance. So read chapter 3, just 1 chapter. You can listen to it while you're driving if you'd like. The bible the various bible apps We'll, you know, have it read out to you, but it really will be a huge benefit to you.
Joshua:Obviously, what you have to come here and learn about Jesus from us, Like, that's why we're doing this. You know? That's why we're here. But just so you know, that's never gonna be an apt replacement for reading Jesus for yourself, for reading Jesus for yourself, not just alone, but also with others, reading his words, his stories for yourself. It's Jesus who fulfills, not me or Leslie or and when else we might have preach, this sermon series.
Joshua:So this whole series is 1 big scheme to just get you to read the Bible a very small amount, just very small amount each week and make it incredibly relevant and attractive to do so because we're all doing it together. We're not just challenging you to do it and then asking if you did. We're gonna be talking about it. It's gonna be really, a vibrant and relevant conversation, and we'll talk about it together each week on Sundays, and you'll just get way more out of it if you're familiar with it. I won't be having to sort of recap the story for you, and you'll be like, yeah.
Joshua:I didn't know that was in there, and, like, like, rifling through pages trying to quickly catch up or whatever. So just I wanna encourage you to keep doing that. You have another chance this next week, read chapter 3, and you'll get more out of each, sermon as we go. So Goals for today, I want you to try to view the things we read and talk about. Actually, this is for any any Sunday this this summer series.
Joshua:But when you think about this today, as we read and talk about these stories, I want you to try to listen to them, think about them with fresh eyes and ears as much as you possibly can. Pretend it's the 1st time you're you're hearing a specific story when you're reading it during the week even. And maybe it actually is, and that gives you a really cool perspective. There's times where I'm like, I would love to just be in somebody else's brain for a second and hear these stories of Jesus for the 1st time with no, you know, history, no, like, Kids version I heard when I was younger, no little cartoon I watched as a kid to hear this for the 1st time. And I think as much as we can try to do that, sort of shake ourselves out of the familiarity of this stuff, it'd be really helpful to us.
Joshua:Because I think sometimes we just think, oh, yeah. I remember this, and we kind of Keep going. Or like, oh, I've read this before. And we might miss details, miss what's happening. We read it in the way we read it the first time ever back, you know, So that's when we're, like, 7 or 8.
Joshua:And we don't really try to redigest it and really look at all the details and think through it more deeply. So I wanna encourage you to do that. Another goal is look for characteristics, qualities, habits of Jesus, things for us to follow if we're trying to be like Jesus. Write them down. Jot them however makes sense to you.
Joshua:Keep them somewhere and notice things that come up. Notice things that come up multiple times. Characteristics you see, habits he has, etcetera. So let's take a pause before we get into today's story. Just a little breath.
Joshua:This is for me more than you. When I talk fast, I just forget to breathe. You know? Lord, we just ask that as we Look at your word this morning, that you reveal to each one of us exactly what you want us to see, what you want us to hear. Thank you for your son.
Joshua:Thank you for the person of Jesus for saving us, for sacrificing, your son, Jesus, For our good and for the example of his life, help us to see what you want us to see and be challenged, be encouraged the ways you want us to be, and thank you for your word. We love you. Amen. So last, week we started Luke chapter 1. Just a quick little recap.
Joshua:Zechariah and Elizabeth were told by Gabriel they're gonna have a son in their old age, and that happens. And as John the baptizer, the messenger to prepare the way for Jesus. Joseph and Mary, similarly, told they will have a son named Jesus. He will be the son of God. He will be the Messiah Israel waited for to save and redeem people.
Joshua:And then both Zechariah and Mary write these really wonderful phrases responding to being told this stuff, and in Zechariah's case after, it's after he could speak again and after John is born. And it's just a really wonderful chapter. It's a long one, but it's really, really good. So I would encourage you to read that if you have time to go back there. Today, so that's where we left off.
Joshua:Was sort of the cliffhanger there. In this chapter, chapter 2, we get Luke's account of Jesus' birth. I'm not gonna focus in on that too much. We just had Christmas. I was kinda thinking We might all have familiarized ourselves hopefully with Jesus' birth, so I wanted to look at another section of the story.
Joshua:That happens. He's born, and the presentation of baby Jesus at the temple happens. We get to see that. And we get to see Simeon and Anna, people in the temple there, recognizing the significance of Jesus, and they're praising God. We get to see their response to Jesus and Jesus being here and then recognizing who he is.
Joshua:So Luke is doing that a lot this far actually, both demonstrating that God's promises are being fulfilled quite quickly, and then also including people's responses to recognizing that, which I think is kinda cool. So he get all of these these sort of, verifications along the way. Like, man, this guy Simeon, he recognized this is the Messiah. This prophetess, Anna, she recognized it. And I think that's been really cool so far already.
Joshua:A little theme I've noticed. So this week, we'll be focusing on the very end of This chapter in, chapter 2, the story of young Jesus in the temple. So I'm gonna read just this portion really quickly. I'm gonna start in verse 39. When they com completed everything according to the law of the lord, they returned to Galilee to their own town, Nazareth.
Joshua:The boy grew up and became strong, Filled with wisdom, and God's grace was on him. Every year, his parents traveled to Jerusalem for the Passover Festival. When he was 12 years old, they went up according to the custom of the festival. After those days were over, as they were returning, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, But his parents did not know that. Assuming he was in the traveling party, they went a day's journey.
Joshua:And when they began looking for him among their relatives and friends, when they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem to search for him. After 3 days, they found him in the temple sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. And all those who heard him were astounded at his understanding and his answers. When his parents saw him, they were astonished, and his mother said to him, son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you.
Joshua:Why were you searching for me? He asked them. Didn't you know it was necessary for me to be in my father's house? But they did not understand what he said to them. Then he went down with them and came to Nazareth, and he was obedient to them.
Joshua:His mother kept all these things in her heart, and Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and the people. Does anyone come away with from this story with 0 questions?
Joshua:It's one of those, like,
Joshua:I think we've kinda familiar with. Again, like, if you've grown up in church at all, you may have heard this somewhere. But isn't it a kinda odd story? Like, really, I have not in my own experience really thought to, like, question that much. You know what I mean?
Joshua:Anyone feel like it just makes perfect sense, or feel like they know why Luke thought it was important to include it? Oh, did anyone think that loo okay. Someone's Siri was talking. You can hear that. So I had my own sort of version of this kind of story, a less righteous one, but when I was about 4 years old, I just got this idea.
Joshua:We lived in this very small town called Drilling send city. Anyone heard of Sterling City or had the misfortune of going that way? Yeah. So very, very, very, very small, like maybe 500, 600 people, something like that at the time. So I got this idea.
Joshua:I had this, like, my brother and I had pooled our allowance together, and bought I'm guessing we had maybe about $20, and my parents, bought the rest of this. But we had been saving up, and we'd bought one of those little, like, motorized Jeep kind of kid things. You know what I mean? And so I thought, you know what? It's a beautiful day.
Joshua:Why don't I go visit my mom's friend who lives just a few blocks away? So I hopped in my little Jeep and went, you know, whopping 2 miles an hour up the road to go visit my, we called her aunt Ernie, but she was her name wasn't Ernie, and She wasn't our aunt, so can't remember that part, why we called her that. So I went to go visit her and was just driving up the road. And, and Because it was such a slow drive, when my mom realized I was gone and couldn't find me, I was just far enough away where she probably didn't think to just look up the street and see if I was there, but I was nowhere in the house. But I hadn't arrived yet either, so no one knew I was.
Joshua:It was gonna take me a little bit. So she had had time to, like, call the I guess we had a a cop in town or something. And they started looking for me. So by the time I got to my aunt Ernie's house, One, she came out and had this, like, just puzzled look on her face. Like, what are you doing here?
Joshua:And I kinda thought, like, I'm cool. I decided just to come visit you. Like, You know, I thought you'd be excited to see me as well, but, you know, I was missing the the the thing that all grown ups realize about seeing a kid that young without their parent. And so then not that long after, the police officer, because there's not that many streets, comes right up And I was like, hey, buddy, your parents are looking for you and all that kind of stuff. Another important detail as to why, you know, anyone would be worried about the situation.
Joshua:But We had been told many times about a house that's on that street, of of somewhere somewhere we shouldn't go near. And the way we're told that when I was a kid was that, there's a really mean guy, and he had this rusty truck that sat in his driveway. So we called him old rusty. My parents just told us, Hey. That guy's really mean.
Joshua:He's not a nice person. Like, don't talk to him. Don't engage with him. You know? Later, as an adult, I find out he's a person who's registered in a certain database.
Joshua:So the risks were even worse than I had thought, and my parents had even more reason to be worried about where I was. And, and then when they found me, they were, of course, very, not happy about what I had been doing. I didn't have as good of reasons as a 12 year old Jew this year. But the kind of worry that it caused my parents and that that story really came to my mind this morning. But it wasn't even you know, in this case, we've got 3 days going on.
Joshua:So, like, not knowing where your son is for 3 days. Just imagine the kind of, like, anxiety that Joseph and Mary were feeling. And Just golly. I can't imagine. I can't imagine I can't believe I put my parents through that and thought so little about it.
Joshua:Even as a 4 year old, it just seemed like Such a normal thing to do, but it wasn't. So, but I think that's the one of the kind of things that you can do when you when you pause on these stories and think about them a little bit more. Like, maybe you are parents. So thinking about your kid going missing is a little bit harder to do. You could think about just if you one of your friends just was vanished.
Joshua:You couldn't find them. Do you know where they were or one of your roommates, something like that? Or imagining, being, on Jesus' side, doing something that you think is totally fine and normal, and and having people react quite a little differently to what you've done and having to understand where they're coming from about that. But this short little story has a lot of that packed in there that Luke doesn't take a ton of time to to lead us through, but just that's the kind of thing you can do as you think about Ezra decided he kinda wanted to be in here, and then I think he was like, oh, it's just my dad talking. Never mind.
Joshua:Never mind. I I that's not what I wanted. That's what I thought I was gonna do. So bye bye. And maybe he was getting ideas too.
Joshua:He was like, okay. I could go visit the neighbors. That's right. That's right. He's like, guess what I just heard?
Joshua:You can drive your car to see your neighbors. So here's one of the I I there's 3 kinda think they wanna hone in on from the story. And the first is just that Jesus prioritized the father. Jesus prioritized the father. That's Pretty easy to see on 1st reading here.
Joshua:He was drawn by him. He was captivated by him. He's only 12, but his commitment was already set this early. He could hear the music to reference earlier. He could hear the music.
Joshua:He was drawn by it. He had to be with his father. One of the things I really I found that was really interesting as I looked into this is that probably the Greek of this specific story, especially Jesus' phrase of Didn't you know is necessary for me to be my father's house is not very straightforward. In fact, there's like because of some of the ways the Greek works, which I'm not, you know, an expert on it all. But, like, even the word house isn't in there.
Joshua:It's sort of like an implied noun. It's just sort of not said. And so there's a lot of disagreement about what he could have meant and just Different interpretations. And I don't I don't usually try to go super deep into language stuff because I think, like, there's a handful of us who that's super interesting in. There's a handful of us who just immediately tune out and aren't gonna be really getting a lot of valuable stuff from it if they're not listening.
Joshua:So I'm not gonna go much further than that, But, the an alternate translation I found from some actually found this forum of some, like, Greek scholars that were, like, actually commenting on each other's stuff and, like, arguing with each other, which I was super fun to read. They were like, no. No. No. No.
Joshua:No. You have you have to retain the plural of the Greek, and so it must be a word like this and stuff like that. But here's here's the translation I found out that was interesting. Do you not know that I am bound to be involved in the affairs of my father? Do you not know that I'm bound to be involved in the affairs of my father?
Joshua:I'm not saying that's, like, inherently better, but it's just interesting that that is an another route you could end up with these same Greek words, which has a much much more broader appeal, much more broader, not appeal, statement to say, I must be bound in the affairs of my father and not just I must be in the the place of my father's worship. So Jesus is prioritizing the father. He would be bound to be involved in what the father is doing. That is his highest priority. I think we can see start this early on Jesus living this life that adheres to these commands we have all throughout the Old Testament, especially the Shema, the love the lord your God with with your with your heart, your soul, your strength, with all of that and that being the greatest commandment.
Joshua:We see Jesus forsaking other things for the sake of loving god, loving the father with all his heart and his soul and his strength. He was prioritizing the father, drawn by him, captivated by him at an early age. I think that's really impressive to me, especially when I think about what The heck I was up to when I was 12. Who knows? Nothing like that.
Joshua:So I would I should have been getting in trouble for this kind of stuff instead of other things. But, Jesus was prioritizing the father, drawn by him, and captivated by him. I think that could be one thing Luke wants us to take away from this story here. Another point I think we can look at is that Jesus respected now hold on a little bit. Respected his earthly parents' authority.
Joshua:Now I realize, Initially, it seems like, did he though? You know, like, you might wonder. It forces us to think about what it must have been like for Jesus to grow up as both God's son and the child of human parents, and also what it must have been like for Joseph and Mary to raise the son of God, the Messiah. Like, Golly. You know, what what prepared you for that really well?
Joshua:You know? Who foresaw this kind of, like, conflict of interests coming about in Jesus, and, something that just remember have to deal with. So I think that's that's an interesting aspect of this. But Luke decides to shine a lot on this tension, which I think is incredibly important and interesting. But after the story, just after it says, he was obedient to them.
Joshua:Went back to Nazareth, and he was obedient to them. So I think maybe we have a possible diability situation here. Have any of you guys tried to pull that? Where you're like, mom and dad, you didn't tell me not to go be in the temple for 3 days. Like, how was I supposed to know?
Joshua:And it's like sort of like, you know, Joseph and Mary be like, okay. Our bad. Our bad. You're right. We didn't think we needed to say that, but I guess we did.
Joshua:But clearly, there's this tension here. Clearly, there's a tension these identities, these priorities. And, it wasn't what Jesus was doing good and valuable. Wasn't it good for him? Wasn't good for others?
Joshua:He was asking questions, listening, and people are amazed at his knowledge. It wasn't good for him to do that, especially in light of his real mission on Earth, what he's really here to do. And then Luke says he was obedient to them. So Jesus did need to learn about this tension. It's something I think seeing we're given the story to see, like, Jesus had to figure this out too.
Joshua:Like, he had to be, the child of God, the son of God, and be the child of human parents. Mary and Joseph needed to learn about this too. It's good for Jesus to be involved in the doings of the father and the affairs of the father. It's good for him to be in the father's house. It's also good for Jesus to trust the parents who are raising him, to honor them, to love them.
Joshua:And and Luke says that he does, that he obeys them. And so I think that's one thing we can learn from this that is a tension that we, we don't have exactly in the same way, but is sort of like, okay. Who where is our allegiance? Who's our what's our priority here? Who are we most trying to serve here?
Joshua:And sometimes that is intention. So now it's us serving the father, us following God, his intention with our our relationships with other people. We need to think through that. And it's not like, and it won't happen all the time, but we have to figure that out. And at bet at the very best, learn how to respect the authority that's been placed over us in any area, jobs, parents, whatever you wanna say, as well as respecting God's authority and our priority being about serving him and being involved in his affairs.
Joshua:So I think there's something, there's an interesting angle there about the story. And last my last sort of thing I wanna point out about this story that is the thing that drew me to this story the most, is the references Luke has at the beginning of that story, the end of that story, and in the middle. I'm gonna read those really quickly. So he places this phrase as a transition between the temple dedication story and then the lost in temple story. The boy grew up, became strong, filled with wisdom, and god's grace was on him.
Joshua:And then during the actual story, we get this phrase, They found him in the temple sitting among the teachers, listening to them, asking them questions. And at the end of the story, we get, and Jesus increased in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and people. Jesus grew. He learned. He listened.
Joshua:He asked. He gained wisdom, knowledge, favor, etcetera. He matured As a person, he matured. I think this really emphasizes the humanness of Jesus. Various parts of story do, but his priorities were good and right.
Joshua:He was already seeking to do the father's will, and yet he also had a need to grow, a need to mature, a need to learn, to gain wisdom and favor. And this can additionally maybe make us feel sort of weird to think about, because it forces us to think about this this time period of Jesus' life. But will we want it any other way? We want it any other way to have someone who live the perfect human life, but doesn't didn't ever have a need to grow and mature and learn. Like, wouldn't that be kinda weird?
Joshua:It'd be hard to follow. But, yeah, just follow me where I you know, get to where I'm at, but good luck getting there. I was I started already here. You know what I mean? I think this idea that Jesus grew, learned, matured, sought knowledge, asked questions, listened is really good news for people like us who are hoping to follow in his footsteps or hoping to become like him.
Joshua:Jesus lived a human life god's way. He invites us to live life this way too, to be fulfilled, to be satisfied, and never thirst again. And according to Luke's example, this life includes listening, learning, asking, growing, maturing. And think this is exactly what we mean when we talk about apprenticeship Jesus. It's about being formed and grown into his image, making this work of our lives, work of our lives to study and grow slowly, to study Jesus, become like him.
Joshua:In first Peter, he references it like this. For this, you have been called because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example so that you may follow in his steps. We're to follow the way he lived his life. I think it's okay that a lot of us are getting a much later start on caring about this stuff, learning, growing, asking questions. We don't all have the 12 year old kind of, Jesus mentality.
Joshua:But it's so good, I think, that we're given this example of him seeking, asking, listening, growing. I think the story just also speaks to Jesus' humility. A quality that we continue to see Jesus have, once he's begun his ministry. He makes clear statements about a submission to the father. I only do what I see my father doing.
Joshua:The works that the father has given me to accomplish, these are the very works I'm doing to testify about me that the father has sent me this humility, the submission to what God's doing in the world, that he is there to do what God wants. In Philippians, this is a verse we've referenced a lot, but, Paul talks about this humility. Adopt the same attitude is that of Christ Jesus, who existing in the form of God did not consider equality with God as something to be exploited. Instead, he emptied himself by assuming the form of a servant, taking on the likeness of humanity. When he had come as man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death even to death on a cross.
Joshua:So Jesus humbled himself. He matured. He had to learn things. He had to sit and ask questions of other people. Probably some of them didn't know what they're talking about.
Joshua:Who knows? But he had to grow and learn and mature and be humbled be to be a a human being. And I think that, there's just something that's a little odd and challenging about that. As I was thinking about this, I was like, am I saying anything that's, like, heretical? Like, I hope not.
Joshua:But Luke puts a story in there, so it begs us to at least explore it and think about it and question it. You know? So but what about you? I think This mature I'm obviously using the the the word very very pointedly, but this is the invitation of our church. From wherever you are to mature and being a disciple full of Jesus.
Joshua:From wherever you are to mature and being a disciple of Jesus. Our mission is to make and mature disciples who love, serve, and share Jesus. So are you when we think about these qualities of Jesus we see in this story, are you committed to be about the father's affairs, to be about father's business? Is that a priority for you? To be in his house, to spend time with him.
Joshua:Do you feel bound to it like that 1 commenter said that you must do it? It was necessary for you. Or whose business are you about most of the time? Whose affairs are you worried about? Please don't sleepwalk through This time we have, this life that we have, these years that we have, Jesus is basically 20 years away from the start of his ministry at the point of the story, and he's making the most of his time.
Joshua:He's there in Jerusalem. He's making the most of his time. I'm gonna go sit and listen and learn and spend time in my father's house. What if someone told you, get ready because in 20 years, this is what your ministry is gonna look like. You will be doing x y z.
Joshua:You know, Jesus knew his mission. Right? So he's preparing. He knows he's building towards something. He's preparing.
Joshua:What if someone told
Joshua:you similarly? Hey. About 20 years, you're gonna be starting a ministry. Here's what it's gonna look like. You're gonna be doing blah blah blah to so and so, and that's gonna happen no matter what.
Joshua:How would that change how you think about your days, your weeks, your the ways you spend your hours? This feeling of I need to prepare. I need to grow. I need to learn. I need to be asking questions and listening and learning.
Joshua:I think for most of us, if they were told that, we would be like, Do I get a choice? You know, like but I just want you to think about it like that. Jesus is preparing. He knows what he's here to do. And we know what what Jesus did until he started his ministry.
Joshua:He's got 20 years from then, or so, a little less than that. We have very good reason to believe that he worked just like the rest of us. He was working. But if this story tells us anything, at every chance he had, he was in the father's house. He was about the father's business, about his affairs while maintaining a respect for the fair the parents that God have placed over him.
Joshua:So for so much of Jesus' life, he was juggling the same things that we are asked to juggle. We have relationships. We have work we must do. We have to, you know, have something to eat. We gotta have things to do with our hands.
Joshua:And then we just we have a lot of time that we don't know what he did, but that's what we're we're led to believe and assume and makes a lot of sense. He had to do something until he started ministry. So he was living life a lot like you and I do, preparing for what God was gonna do through him, living his his days, with that in mind and building toward that. You know what I mean? He could hear the music and it captivated him.
Joshua:It's made him spend his hours, his time, his minutes, the way the father wanted him to. We're just 2 chapters in, and this is just one example of things about Jesus that I think deserve a closer look. Really, you know, that should pop off the page a little bit for reading it with fresh eyes. He's not some sort of just classical narrative character trope. Is 1 dimensional and predictable and easy to digest without much thought.
Joshua:It takes some thought. It takes some effort. It's gonna take some, some effort from us, but I think it's very, very worth it. So what are we doing here if as a group we're not about the father's affairs? We're not about the father's business.
Joshua:We're not prioritizing trying to be in our father's house. We're supposed to be the body of Christ here and now, but how can we be his body and do his work If we aren't learning and growing and maturing, how are we gonna share him with other people if it's not our priority, if it's not on our top of our agenda, will it happen by accident? And how can we help other people hear the music if we're not barely sort of listening ourselves? You know what I mean? How can we help people be captivated by God, not just learn information about him if we are not trying to listen and be captivated ourselves?
Joshua:Just wanted to think about that. Wanna close with a a sort of different sort of prayer, if you don't mind. And then I think we're gonna try to sing, 1 more song or sing one of the songs that we had sung earlier to close out our time together this morning. But as I was writing this, I just kind of, put these words together as a as a prayer. Father in heaven, I've tricked myself again into piling on the errands, into checking emails during dinner, and to watching 1 more pointless video about nothing, and to checking my bank account instead of going to sleep, and to reading 1 more article.
Joshua:I tricked myself again into stressing about tomorrow, into thinking it won't go right if I don't worry about it, into avoiding my feelings, and to filling every corner of my day with busyness or into wasting the corners of my day on things that do nothing for me or you or anyone, and to believing that I don't have time for you, and to believing that I know what's best. Undeceive me. Interrupt me with what's true. Compel me with your love. Open my ears to the music.
Joshua:Make me about what you're about.