Jesus said, But seek first God’s kingdom and the Lord’s righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Matthew 6:33
I believe when verses come to me, they are given for a reason. Inspiration shows up when you least expect it!
When I took a moment to ponder the words of Jesus, it struck me. This is what we are pursuing at Community Lutheran Church. Seeking God’s Kingdom is what we do!
There are some who think we might be chasing after other things, but let me assure you we not only want God’s Kingdom to be manifest among us but also the entirety of Jesus’ love to change our hearts and this city.
See, at the center of it all is love because “God is love.” 1John 4:8 To seek God’s Kingdom is to seek the source of all love.
We are also commanded to seek the Lord’s righteousness too. That sounds complicated, doesn’t it? It isn’t. Righteousness is what is given when we are in relationship with Jesus. Simply put, we should grow closer to God so that we may grow in righteousness. We want to grow in God’s way of living life. Righteousness is found when we love more. God’s way is the way of love.
That is exactly what we are up to at Community Lutheran Church!
If we keep the main thing the main thing, Jesus tells us that, “all these things will be given to you as well.” We are reminded that everything we worry about will be taken care of when we focus on what is truly important.
That’s what we are going to keep on doing… seek first God’s kingdom.
We finish our sermon series on the Big Questions… Answered. Today we dig into the big question of What happens when we die? Have you ever wondered? Listen in and find God’s will for us after we die.
If you have worshipped with us in the past two weeks you heard me announce that we are doing work on discovering the Core Values of Community Lutheran Church.
Our Core Values are separate from but complementary to our Mission Statement of: Real People, Inclusive God, Radical Grace, and Inspired Growth.
Our Core Values already exist, and we are living into them, we just need to name them. Naming our Core Values will help us understand why we do what we do, as well as informing how we can best grow our faith and congregation in the future.
This past week we offered 6 different Core Values sessions during which we gathered the thoughts and input of our members who are currently worshipping in-person. Today on the home page of our website and in our weekly email, we shared an electronic version of these sessions for anyone who calls Community Lutheran Church their church home but who couldn’t attend an in-person session. We are still collecting input and hope every member will participate. The more input we have, the better!
I anticipate being able to report back on the results of these sessions by the end of October. I’m excited to dig into the feedback that we received in writing and during the group discussions. It will take some time to go through all the submitted responses (close to 300 of them already!) and recording that information into a spreadsheet so that we can do an in-depth analysis and summarize our findings. It will be a big project, but I promise to report back as soon as possible. Stay tuned!
This important project will help to uncover and articulate the Core Values of our church family at Community Lutheran. But what about our own personal core values? We all have our own values, of course. But have you ever taken the time to name yours or to write them down?
Even Jesus indirectly named his core values.
After his temptation in the desert in which Jesus demonstrated his divine self-control (see Luke 4:1-13), Jesus went home to Nazareth and went to the synagogue to worship with the people he had known his whole life.
It just so happened that they asked Jesus to read the scriptures that day and make commentary on them and so this is what happens…
The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:
“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” Luke 4:17-19
Right there Jesus tells us what he is all about.
Preaching the good news of God’s love
Proclaiming freedom to those who feel boxed-in and captive
Bringing sight to the blind (physically and spiritually)
Breaking the bonds of oppression for those who can’t see a way forward
And if you doubt those are Jesus’ core values listen to this…
Then Jesus rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him, and he began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” Luke 4:20-21
Essentially Jesus told those in the synagogue that day, “This is what I am about. This is my mission, and this is at the core of who I am.”
Now get this, when Jesus died on the cross for you, me, and countless billions, he accomplished all of that in the greatest gift given to humankind.
What about you? What are your core values?
Me?
I value …
Connection with Jesus Caring for my family Consistency in my relationships Commitment to my calling
We continue on in our sermon series that attempts to answer the big questions of the Christian Faith. In this message Pr. Ben looks the 9/11 tragedy and answers the question, “Why do bad things happen?”
We continue on answering the biggest questions of the faith. In this message, I answer the question, What is the Holy Spirit and what does it do? Listen in and find out how we are guided and cared for in this chaotic world.
We begin a new series that seeks to answer the biggest theological quetions of the faith. Today we begin with biggest of all questions: Is there a God?
We finish off the sermon series on the parables of Jesus by talking about the connection between mustard seeds, salt and light. What begins small can grow to the point that we can change the world in Jesus’ Name.
We continue in our sermon series and Jesus answers the most important question. Why do some people come to faith in Jesus and others do not? Jesus has the answer! There is a special song at the end of the message! Listen to the end!
We begin a new sermon series on the parables of Jesus. Today we unpack what we need to be looking for in any parable of Jesus and then we spend time looking at the parable of the vineyard owner in Matthew 20.
In the gospel stories about Jesus there are several reoccurring themes: God’s love for those who struggle, those who are sick, those who don’t have it all figured out and love for the outsider.
Jesus spent very little time with the religious leaders of his time. They thought they had it all figured out, including the very nature of God. Clearly, they didn’t, but these religious leaders never considered that they could be wrong about anything.
Jesus made time for real people. Not the pretenders or even the holier than thou types. If you attend Community Lutheran Church you know that we are real people! We struggle just like everyone else, and we don’t pretend otherwise.
As Jesus spent time with anyone who was interested, Jesus also mentored and taught his closest associates: the disciples.
One of the things that Jesus instructed them to do was to go out and tell others of God’s love. This wasn’t a one-time command either. Jesus repeatedly reminded the disciples to go and share this message with anyone who will listen.
This happened at the beginning, and this happened at the end of Jesus’ ministry here on earth.
Early on Jesus told a fisherman he barely knew this, “Don’t be afraid; from now on you will catch people.”Luke 5:10
Catch people with the love of God.
Later Jesus sends out seventy-two people he had been mentoring to share the love of God with even more real people.
Jesus even healed a man with lots demons (problems) and when he was set free, he asked if he could travel with Jesus. This was Jesus’ reply, “Return home and tell how much God has done for you.” Luke 8:39a
Go and tell. And that is exactly what this man did. So the man went away and told all over town how much Jesus had done for him. Luke 8:39b
And when Jesus ascended into heaven, he told his disciples one last time to go and tell others.
Clearly, this is important.
If we believe that God speaks to us through the scriptures, then this encouragement to share Jesus with others is for us too.
Let me ask you this, are you just one of the crowd or are you a disciple?
I don’t know about you, but I strive to be a disciple of Jesus and not just a part of the crowd.
Jesus changed my life and I know that he wants to change others.
I hope you will join me in sharing the love of Jesus and not just at worship.
It is time to invite others to discover what we’ve been given.
Pastor Paul put it this way, How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!” Romans 10:14–15
