Calvary Church Live | 10:30am | September 20, 2026

to be

praised.

You're

praised.

You are to be praised.

To be praised,

to be praised.

You're

praised.

Heat. Heat.

Do nothing.

Do my

Yeah,

down.

Be

I love it.

I'm

happy.

Hey.

Hey. Hey.

Heat. Heat.

Heat. Heat. N.

Good morning, Calvary. Would you stand

with us as we sing praise this morning?

and sing. Your word is a lamp unto my

feet.

Your word

is a lamp [music and singing] unto my

feet.

Your way

is the only [music] way for me.

It's a narrow road that leads to life,

but I want to be on it.

It's a narrow road with the mercies

wide. Cuz you're good on your promise.

Take you take [singing] you at your

[music] word.

>> You said it. I'll be leaving.

See how good [singing and music] it

works.

You started to complete it. I'll take

you [music and singing] at your

spoke.

You spoke [music]

in a chaos fell in line. [music]

And I know

cuz I've seen it in my life.

It's a narrow road that leads to life.

[music] And I want to be on [singing]

it.

It's [music] a narrow road. The tide is

high. Put your part [music] in the

waters.

I take you at your end.

You said it. I'll [music and singing] be

leading.

I see how could you rest.

You saw [singing and music] it. You

complete it. I'll take you at your

[music]

leading. [singing]

See [music] how good it was.

Start [singing] it. You're complete.

[music]

I'll take you extra.

You promise.

You said your love would never [music]

give up. You said your grace is always

enough. [singing and music]

You said your heart would never forget

[music] or forsake me.

>> You said I'm [music and singing] saved.

You called me yours. You said my

future's [singing]

full of your hope. You've never failed.

So I know that you'll never fail me.

[music]

>> You said your love will never give up.

You said your grace is

[singing and music] always enough. You

said your heart would never forget

[music] or forsake me.

>> You said I'm [music and singing] saved.

You call me yours. You said my future's

full of your hope. You've never failed.

So I [singing] know that you'll never

fail me. I take you [singing] at your

word.

[music] You said it. I'll be [singing]

leaving.

I see how good he was. [music]

You started [singing]

your competing.

take you at your word.

You said it, [singing and music] I'll

believe it. See how good

[music and singing] it was.

You started your complete

take you at your end.

[music]

Heat. Heat.

>> [music]

>> What an awesome opportunity is this

morning to praise his [music] name.

We're going to spend time opening his

word, letting him impact our hearts,

singing to him, interacting with each

other, and being the church together. If

you're new with us this morning, we just

want to say welcome. welcome. We hope

you feel uh welcome, a warmth from us

and [music] a friendliness because

we're blessed. We are truly blessed.

[music] So, if you are new with us this

morning, we'd love to encourage you to

head to the hub in the back of the

atrium at the end of the service. Our

welcome [music] team is there and they

would love to meet you, give you more

information about who we are at Calvary.

We take a second this morning to greet

each other. I want you to talk about

[music] your favorite fall beverage.

Favorite fall beverage.

Hallelujah.

Heat. Heat.

Let's

[music]

sing. I want to [music] dance like

David.

I want to dance like [music] David. I

want to feel like Paul. I want to sing

like Silas tearing [music] down the

prison walls. I want to face that fire.

Won't burn [music] me.

God's got my back. Shadrach, Meshack, a

ped.

I want to walk like Moses run through

[music] the waves. One day I'll see that

promised land no longer slaves. [music]

The fear [singing] is talking. No, it

can't take out my faith.

I'm going to praise. [music and singing]

I'm going to praise. I praise the

mountain moving body raising breaker and

chain. Going to praise. [music]

I'm going to praise. I praise the heaven

seated and defeated highest in me.

[music] That's who I praise. Yeah,

that's who [music] I praise. That's who

I praise.

I want a gift like [music] Mary. I want

to raise my face. I want to see like

Daniel, even [singing and music] in a

lion's cave. Going to get that promise

just like Jericho.

Yeah. I [singing and music] don't want

to make it full. I'm going to praise.

I'm going to praise. I praise the

mountain moving body [singing and music]

raing breaker chains. Going to praise.

I'm going to praise. I praise the heaven

seated undefeated highest in me. That's

who I praise.

Our praise to God is [singing] proving

he can do impossible [music] things.

That's who I praise.

Hey. Oh, that's [music] who I praise.

That's who I praise.

He [music] is the lion [singing] of

Judah.

is he is [music] the lamb that was

slain.

The only one who's [music] worthy worthy

worthy of all of [singing] his names.

That's who I praise. He is the risen

[music] Messiah.

He is the ancient [singing]

of days.

[music] The only one who's worthy,

[singing]

worthy, worthy of all of his names.

That's who I praise. I'm going to

praise.

I praise the God. [music]

He can do it, break or change. Going to

praise. I'm going to praise. I praise

[music] the heaven seated, undefeated,

[singing]

highest. That's who I praise.

I praise [music] the God who's proven he

can do impossible thing. That's who I

praise.

Oh, that's who I praise. That's [music]

who I praise.

Praise [music] you, Jesus.

I want to love.

I want to love like Jesus. That kind of

grace. I want to live like I've got no

more precious time to waste. Going to

give him [singing] glory with all

[music] my thanks cuz there's no

greater, stronger, higher name. That's

who I praise.

Amen.

[music]

>> [music]

>> Great [singing] is thy faithfulness,

oh God, my [music] father.

There is [singing] no shadow of turning

with thee. [singing]

Thou changest [music] not. Thy

compassions [singing] they fail not.

As thou hast been, that forever

[singing]

will be. [music]

[music]

Summer and winter [music]

and springtime [singing] and harvest.

the moon and [music] stars in their

courses above.

[music]

Join with [singing]

all nature in manifold

witness

to thy great faithfulness,

mercy [music and singing]

and love.

beginning to end.

My life in your [singing] hands.

Great,

great [music] is your [singing]

faithfulness.

You never let [music] go.

There's one thing [singing] I know.

Great, [music]

great is your faithful promise.

pardon for [music] sin and a [singing]

peace that endor

[music]

presence to cheer and [music] to guide.

[singing]

Strength for today and bright [music]

hope for tomorrow.

Blessings [music and singing]

on mine with 10,000

beside [music]

beginning [music]

to end

my life in your heavens.

Great, [music]

great is your [singing] faithfulness.

You never [music]

let go.

There's one thing I know.

Great,

great is [music] your faithfulness

beginning [music]

to end.

My life in your hands.

Great,

great is your faithfulness.

You never let [music] go.

There's one thing I know. [singing]

Great,

great is your [singing] faithfulness.

[music]

Great,

great is your faithfulness.

Great is your faithfulness.

Great is thy [music and singing]

faithfulness.

Morning

by morning, [singing]

new [music] mercies

I see.

All [singing] I [music] have needed,

thy hand has proided. [singing]

Great is thy faithfulness, [singing]

Lord, unto me. [music]

Great is thy [singing] faithfulness.

[music]

Morning

by morning,

new [singing and music]

mercies I see.

All I have [singing] needed,

thy hand has [music] proided.

Great is thy faithfulness, [singing]

Lord, unto

me.

[music]

Let's pray [music] together.

Father, we just thank you for your

mercies that are new every morning.

Thank you for your your faithful love.

Your mercies never end. They're new

every day. You forgive us, Lord. And we

just thank you for these great gifts you

give us. That you [music] want a

personal relationship with us, Lord.

that you give us prayer and your word

and that you love us more than we could

ever imagine. You give us our [music]

identity and we just thank you Jesus for

who you are. We thank you [music] God,

Holy Spirit, our father three in one. I

pray that our

the words of our mouth, the meditations

of our heart would be pleasing to you.

Help us to turn from anything that is

not of you and turn towards you and just

be filled aresh this morning. We thank

you for that in Jesus name. Amen. Thank

you for singing with us. [music] Please

have a seat.

Heat. Heat.

I would love to invite the ushers to

come forward this morning as we take

this morning's offering. As you saw, we

had a jam-packed summer of God moving in

awesome and amazing ways. From our kids

camps to summer camp to missions trips,

kidfest, and so much more, God has moved

in incredible ways this past summer. and

we just thank you so much for your

generosity because that's what helps

fuel us being able to do these types of

experiences for students and kids uh

that really encountered amazing things.

There was thousands of kids or over a

thousand kids that encountered Jesus uh

in amazing ways this summer through

KidFest and summer camp and so much

more. So, thank you for your generosity.

If you're new this morning, we want you

to know there is no pressure to give.

We're so grateful that you're here

worshiping with us today. Uh and

hopefully you have an awesome morning uh

connecting with the Lord here. Alongside

that generosity though were hundreds of

adult volunteers who stepped up to serve

this summer uh in our kids and students

areas and God used those volunteers to

make a ginormous difference in the lives

of students and I know I can I've

witnessed that firsthand. See one of the

most important volunteers in my life

growing up was a guy named Tony. Uh see

when I didn't grow up in the church I I

kind of came to know Jesus in 10th grade

and I came to church and I felt like you

know a frog out of water. I just didn't

know where I was or what I could do uh

and who I should talk to. But I met this

guy named Tony and he was a volunteer

and he wasn't super young. He was in

college and had a bunch of time. He was

older. He had a family. He was a coach.

Uh he had every reason to have a million

other things to do other than to spend

time with me. But about once a month

before work and school, he would come

pick me up and we would go to John Plain

and Fancy for breakfast together. Uh and

spend time together talking. He would

ask about school, my family, and my

faith. And somewhere along the way, he

would always bring it back to Jesus and

how God was working in my life. And some

of the most hardest moments of my high

school time, he walked me through and

let me see how God was working in my

life. Back then, I just thought, man,

Tony is such an awesome guy. Takes me

out for breakfast. Uh he's just so

great. But today, I realize the

sacrifice he was making and the

investment he was making in my life when

he he would do that. And I'm standing up

here today because of volunteers like

Tony who kept showing up and kept

investing in my life. And every week I

see volunteers all around our building

who are like Tony serving in various

ways who are, you know, working after a

long day of hard work and being at work.

They come and they serve uh they sit on

the floor with kids in our kids

environment and talk about who Jesus is.

Small group leaders leading a bunch of

middle school students on a Tuesday

night. our bridge volunteers being

buddies on a Sunday morning and serving

in tech all throughout our building. Uh

there's so many opportunities, right, of

people stepping up to serve others. And

what's so cool is that sometimes when

you think about serving, you know, you

think about what you're giving and

that's a big part of it, but it's also

about what you receive, right? Because

the people you serve with, they become

like they become your friends and they

in a lot of ways become like family.

Serving is a great opportunity to get

connected and to serve with a bunch of

people and make a difference in the

lives of others. And along the way, you

realize even though you were looking to

give, you also receive in that process

when you serve others. So maybe some of

you thought about serving, but you

haven't taken that next step yet. Or

maybe you were serving prior to co and

you haven't gotten back in the rhythm of

serving. Or maybe you feel like you're

not equipped or maybe you're too old or

too young to serve. I want to encourage

you, whatever your reason is, I would

encourage you to take that step this

fall as we look as a church to to

continue to make an impact. Take that

next step of serving because maybe

someone's Tony is sitting right here in

this room today and you just don't know

it yet. The reality is this is that you

don't have to be an expert to be a

volunteer. You don't need to know all

the answers or be a perfect person. You

just have to be willing to show up to

care about someone else and let God use

you. and you'll be amazed at how God

will use you to make such an impact in

someone else's life. Our kids, students,

and bridge uh disability ministry are

looking for volunteers. Whether it's

adult small group leaders or working in

our tech or even some behindthe-scenes

roles, we have lots of areas that you

can serve and make a difference. Also,

throughout our whole church, we need

more volunteers as well, right? There's

a volunteer area out there, and I

actually grabbed one of these cards

here. This is for the grounds crew,

right? You could do something simply as

helping with the grounds and it could

make a difference in someone's life. So,

there's actually a QR code on the seat

back in front of you. You can scan that

right now and there's a short interest

form if you want to just let us know

you're interested. We'd love to follow

up with you. Uh just put your phone

number down and someone will call you or

text you this week. But if you want to

talk to someone, there's Jamie outside

in our lobby area. There's a volunteer

area with tons of these cards that you

can see the various opportunities that

you can serve in. And again, just just

express interest. you're not committing

to it, but at least you start that

conversation

because this is the reality is that

years from now there might be someone

who shares a story about how they were

impacted because of the person that was

showing up for them. And that person

could be you if you let God use you. So

that's my encouragement. Pray about it,

think about it, and take that next step

as we look as a church to continue to

help people get connected and make an

impact in the lives of others. This

morning, we're excited to continue our

series um on the main thing and we're

going to be hearing from Pastor Charles

this morning.

Well, good morning everybody. Welcome to

week two of the main thing living like

Jesus. And what we're doing, we're

looking at select passages from the

Gospel of Luke, trying to understand

what was Jesus main thing. And if we

could figure that out, we would be doing

well if we would adopt that same main

thing in our lives. Now, um when I

learned how to drive, and contrary to

what my wife says, I do know how to

drive. Um, one of the things we're

always told, look back before you move

ahead. Now, that meant for me looking,

turn my arm on the back. You weren't

allowed to take your hands off the

steering wheel, but I would look back,

squint, look out the rearview mirror,

look out the rear window, then look up,

look in the rearview mirror. You don't

have to do any of that today. We got

cameras everywhere, and so you can kind

of look forward and see what's happening

at the cameras, but the point is still

the same. In order to safely move

forward,

you need to first look behind. You need

to look behind. Well, that's what we're

going to do today. And we're going to do

it in two different ways. We're going to

do it kind of a smaller picture and then

the bigger picture. So, uh, let me give

you the small picture looking back from

the passage we're going to look at in

Luke 4. Looking back in Luke to see how

Luke sets up what's going to happen in

Luke 4. So, let me remind you of a

couple of things from last week because

uh I'm not sure you would remember, but

the second part of last week's message

was all about Jesus sunship. And so, we

said in the temple, Jesus reminds his

parents as the father reminds him that

he's the son. And Jesus says to Mary and

Joseph, "Don't you know I have to be

about my father's business?" So Jesus is

understanding his father, his ultimate

heavenly father needs to set the

business plan that Jesus will then live

out. That becomes crystal clear in the

next chapter in Luke. Jesus understood

his sunship in the river. Now here's

what happened. John the Baptist baptizes

Jesus. When he lifts Jesus from the

water, the father booms from heaven and

says, "This is my son whom I love. with

him I am well pleased. Now um we said

sunship has to preede ministry but also

kind of testing precedes ministry too.

So let's look back just a minute and

I'll show you that how this is going to

lead into what we're going to talk about

today. After Jesus is baptized, he hears

sunship ringing in his ears. He's been

declared he's a he's believe I'm the

son. He God then ushers him into the

desert and he's tempted by the devil in

the desert. Now the picture is just like

Israel, right? Old Testament. Just as

Israel was declared God's son, Moses

then leads him out to the wilderness and

they failed the test. Now God graciously

still leads him to the promised land.

They failed the test in the wilderness.

So Jesus now the perfect Israel. Jesus

now shows up declared to be the son led

into the wilderness and he's going to be

tempted there. Remember sunship declared

in the river. What does the enemy say

when he comes to tempt Jesus?

If you are the son of God, he says it

twice. What did the father say in the

pre? You are my son with whom I'm well

pleased. What's the temptation? If

you're the son of God, turn these stones

to bread. If you're the son of God, jump

off the temple and the angels will catch

you. Jesus is succeeding. He's passing

the test. He's not failing the

temptation the way Israel. He succeeds.

Sunship testing. Well, that that raises

the question then what did the son come

to do? Like we looked at how Luke

described this is what I'm writing here.

who Jesus is the who, the sonsuffering

servant and the reigning king Messiah.

Well, what's the mission? What did he

come to do? That's what Luke now gives

us in the sermon in Nazareth. So, if you

have your Bibles,

turn to Luke chapter 4. You use your

Luke 4 · chapter mention

phone, your iPad, or just listen. And um

notice what Luke's doing. He's laying

out an orderly account what Luke is

going to do. Jesus has declared the son

in the temple. Declared the son in the

river. He passes the test of sunship in

the wilderness. Then we're told at the

sermon in Nazareth, Jesus now declares

why he's here. So, beginning in uh Luke

Luke 4:14

4:14,

let's read about this first sermon.

Jesus returned to Galilee in the power

of the spirit, and news about him spread

through the whole countryside. He was

teaching in their synagogues, and

everyone praised him. He went to

Nazareth, where he had been brought up.

And on the Sabbath day, he went into the

synagogue, as was his custom, he stood

up to read, and 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

proclaim good news to the poor. He has

sent me to proclaim freedom for the

prisoners and recovery of sight for the

blind, to set the oppressed free, to

proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.

Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it

back to the attendant and sat down. The

eyes of everyone in the synagogue were

fastened on him. He began by saying to

them, "Today

this scripture is fulfilled in your

hearing." All spoke well of him and were

amazed at the gracious words that came

from his lips. Isn't this Joseph's son?

They said. Jesus said to them, surely

you will quote this proverb to me.

Physician, heal yourself, and you will

tell me, do here in your hometown what

we've heard you did in Capernaum.

Truly I tell you, he continued, no

prophet is accepted in his hometown. I

assure you that there were many widows

in Israel in Elijah's time when the sky

was shut up for three and a half years

and there was a severe famine throughout

the land. Yet Elijah was not sent to any

of them but to a widow in Zerapath in

the region of Siden. And there were many

in Israel with leprosy in the time of

Elisha the prophet. Yet not one of them

was cleansed only non the Syrian. All

the people in the synagogue were furious

when they heard this. They got up, drove

him out of the town, took him to the

brow of a hill on which the town was

built in order to throw him off the

cliff, but he walked right through the

crowd and went on his way. Boy, that

sermon started good and went bad. Uh,

what the heck happened? Well, um, first

of all, we need to look at the promise

given the text of the sermon. Now, let

me kind of set the stage for you. This

is a familiar passage. We've actually

spoken about it before, but if we're

going to look at Luke, we have to

understand this is Jesus coming out

event. This is Jesus calling card. This

is why I'm here. We know who he is. He's

the son. He's passed the test. What did

he come to do? That's what he tells us

in the first sermon. The promise is

given. Here's the situation. Jesus is in

his hometown. Now, here's what that

means. Small hometown. Everybody in the

synagogue knew Jesus. Everybody in the

synagogue knew Joseph and Mary. He was

their carpenter. They probably saw Jesus

working there. They knew Joseph. They

knew Mary. And so they knew each other.

Jesus knew all of them and they knew

him. And here this hometown kid, he's

traveling around speaking different

places. And he's making quite a name for

himself. Now he hasn't preached at home

yet, but he travels home and he goes

into the synagogue. And my guess is the

people said, "Well, Jesus is here. Let

let him talk. We want to hear what the

other people are hearing. How why are

they so amazed at what he says? let him

let let him give us one of those amazing

sermons. And so the attendant walks over

with the Isaiah scroll. You got to

remember back then people didn't have

their own copies of the Bible. Too

expensive. You had to handw write the

copies of the Bible. And so a synagogue

may have a copy of the B. Maybe not even

the whole Old Testament. But when you

show up at the synagogue, they would

hand someone the scroll the scroll to

read. You unroll it and read. So they

hand Jesus the Isaiah scroll. And Jesus

takes Isaiah scroll, kind of unrolls,

comes to Isaiah chapter 61, and here's

Isaiah 61 · chapter mention

what he reads.

The spirit of the Lord is on me because

he has anointed me to proclaim good news

to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim

freedom for the prisoners, recovery of

sight for the blind, to set the

oppressed free, to proclaim the year of

the Lord's favor. Now, if you remember

the words that the father spoke over

Jesus in the river, you are my son with

you well pleased. The first part of that

comes from Psalm two. The second part of

that comes from Isaiah and it's a

servant song. And what what the father's

doing, he's giving us the two-pronged

mission of Jesus. He is the victorious

king, the Messiah. But he's also the

suffering servant who comes to pay for

the guilt of those that that have

failed.

This comes from a servant song. And so

Jesus reads from Isaiah 61. And um he

says, "I'm here. I've arrived. I'm

here." Now, you have to understand a

couple of things about this.

Isaiah

didn't invent everything in that quote.

Isaiah was kind of well schooled in the

Bible. He knew what the Old Testament

taught. But the pattern that he

describes in Isaiah 61 is actually the

pattern that's first started all the way

back in Leviticus 25. In Leviticus 25,

that that p that chapter is all about

the year of Jubilee. Isaiah does not

quote anything from Leviticus 25, but he

does mention the pattern. The pattern is

all about freedom. The pattern is all

about liberty. In fact, on the Liberty

Bell in Philadelphia, the ver a verse

from Leviticus 25 is engraved on the

Liberty Bell. What does it say? Proclaim

liberty throughout the land. That's what

Leviticus 25 is about. That's what they

were doing. ringing the liberty bell,

freedom from England. Well, Leviticus

25, freedom from oppression, freedom

from all these. Now, Jubilee had four

prongs to the to the freedom. And let me

mention them because this is in mind as

Jesus is reading. The first theme of the

pattern was freedom from debt. Freedom

from debt. Now, look, we're among

friends, so we can answer. Uh, how many

of you have debt of any kind? Raise your

hand. Yeah, if you don't have your hand

up, you're a liar. Yeah, you have a

mortgage, you have a car payment, you're

paying off student loans, you have

credit card. We have debt all over the

place, right? Well, what was one of the

first themes of Jubilee?

God promises freedom from debt. We've

incurred debt. Living in our world, you

almost have to acquire debt. Hopefully,

you pay it off quickly, but you can't

live without some kind of debt. You

realize you can't rent a car without a

credit card. As soon as you put it on a

credit card, you have debt until you pay

it. Well, what what's the announcement?

What's the first theme of Jubilee?

Freedom from debt. Not just freedom from

debt, though. Freedom from bondage.

Freedom from oppression. You got to

remember all the way back in Leviticus,

that's Moses' time.

Who was the oppressor of Israel in

Moses' day?

Egypt, right? Egypt. And so, the

Israelites are slaves. They're in

bondage. They're in captivity in Egypt.

What does Jubilees say? You're going to

be freed from bondage. In Isaiah's day,

they're not free from bondage, though.

But not out of Egypt. Now, it's Assyria.

Assyria has them in bondage. They have

to pay taxes. They're they're servants

of Assyria. And Assyria is brutal. After

Assyria, Babylon becomes the rulers. And

now Babylon's kind of beating on them.

Babylon is subjugating them. Babylon

extracting taxes. Babylon's cruel. And

in Jesus day, he shows up. It's not

Egypt. It's not Assyria. It's not

Babylon. When Jesus read from Luke 4,

who was the oppressor?

Now, it's Rome. Rome. But through

history, the Israelites, God's people,

have never known a time of long-term

freedom. But Jubilee is God says through

Moses, "One day, one day there going to

be freedom from debt. All the debt

you've incurred is going to be taken

away. All the oppression, all of the

subjugation, the servitude you're

experiencing, being under people's

thumb, it's going to be taken away. Not

just that, freedom from loss. Freedom

from loss. Now, remember back in the Old

Testament times and even in Jesus day,

your real worth was in your land. That's

still true, right? People say, "I have

real estate where your real worth was in

your land." Well, it was easy to lose

ownership of your land. Let me give you

two big reasons. Sickness

and stupidity.

So, if you got sick, you would lose your

land. Nobody take care of it. If your

kids weren't old enough to take care of

it, you'd lose your land. If you were

stupid, you'd lose your land. What did

Jubilees say? Every 50 years, ownership

will always revert back to the owners

that were originally given the promised

land. Freedom from debt, freedom from

oppression, freedom from loss. And one

more thing, you read the beginning of

Leviticus 25. All of the freedom

mentioned in Leviticus 25 begins, the

announcement begins on the day of

atonement, freedom [snorts]

from sin. So this big announcement of

freedom, freedom, freedom of debt,

freedom from debt, freedom from

oppression, freedom from loss, freedom

from sin.

They waited and waited. The promise

comes all the way back in Leviticus. One

day, Jubilee's coming. Well, Isaiah is

like in seven in the 8th century, 700,

still hadn't come. Isaiah says, "Oh, but

Jubilee's coming. Jubilee's coming."

Jesus shows up in Luke chapter 4.

Luke 4 · chapter mention

He carefully chooses the text that

becomes his business card event. I am

Jubilee. I have now arrived. I am

bringing this freedom. [clears throat]

The promise was given. Now Jesus says

the promise is fulfilled.

Look at how Jesus says it. He reads

that. He sits back down. And uh I I

always like that's kind of cool. you in

most synagogues even today, but

certainly in Jesus day, you would stand

to read God's word. You sit down when

the preacher's talking, that's you

respect what God say. Semi-respect what

the preachers same as today, right? You

stand and sit. Here's what Jesus says.

Short little sermon. Today,

this scripture is fulfilled in your

hearing today. Think about that. They

waited and waited

day after day, week after week.

Eventually, I think, is this stuff true?

Like God's promising all this freedom,

all this liberty that they waited month

after month,

year after year,

decade after decade,

century after century,

and Jesus shows up

in a synagogue in his hometown, and he

says, "Uh, Jubilee has now arrived."

Now, I want to show you something that

you may miss, but just to make sure you

didn't miss it, I printed both sections

on your outline. So, if you have your

outline

under the promises given, I actually

quote there Isaiah 61. See it? Then at

the bottom of the page, I list where

Jesus quotes Isaiah 61, but it's a

little different. Um, let me call your

attention to the last three lines of

Isaiah 61.

Um, I don't think Jesus made a mistake.

Here's how Isaiah originally wrote it as

he lists the pattern of Jubilee from

Leviticus 25. Last three lines. The

servant will come to proclaim the year

of the Lord's favor

and the day of vengeance, our God, and

to comfort all who mourn. Now look at

the bottom of the page.

To proclaim the year of the Lord's

favor, period. Huh?

Why' Jesus mess up?

Why did he not

read what was in the Isaiah text? Right?

And so the scroll Jesus has in his hands

as he's reading from Isaiah 61 has the

day of God's vengeance. He stops

reading, proclaim the year of God's

favor, close the scroll, gives it back.

Did he make a mistake? Did he Was that

written on the next page and he kind of

skipped and did? I don't think so. He's

communicating an important principle.

There will be a pause.

Here's what Jesus There will be a pause

between the proclamation

of Jubilee

and the enactment of justice and

vengeance. Isaiah didn't know about that

pause. Moses didn't know about that

pause. Jesus shows up and by stopping

where he stopped reading Isaiah 61, he

says, "There will be a pause right now.

I'm here to proclaim the year of the

Lord's favor.

Pause. Make no mistake. Justice and

vengeance will come, but not today.

Not this time.

Notice what he's doing, right? Exactly

according to plan. So, the promise was

given, the problem promises fulfilled.

And the people in the synagogue, they

love it. They love it. And we would love

it too, right? So think about what

they're thinking.

Freedom from debt.

Freedom from oppression. Who's the

oppressor? They're all thinking, who's

the oppressor in in Luke 4? Rome.

Freedom from loss. My guess is some

people in the synagogue had lost because

of sickness, stupidity, or some other

reason. They lost the deeds to their own

property.

And they were often feeling the weight

of their sin. [clears throat] They knew

what it was like during the Babylonian

captivity to have the temple destroyed.

So now the temple started again. And can

can these animal sacrifices really

somehow forgive my how does this work?

Promise given, promise fulfilled. My

guess is they're thinking finally

this guy, our hometown kid is going to

bring all this freedom. We don't know

how he's going to do it. Doesn't make

sense to us. It's Joseph's kid. He

promises it. He said he's going to do

it. I'm in.

Then look what Jesus does.

He extends the promise

and their joy turns to anger and their

applause

turns to murder.

They're praising the sermon. This is our

hometown son. Now they want to throw him

off the cliff and kill him. Why? Well,

it all has to do with two illustrations.

he gives. And you may not uh

understand the illustrations.

[clears throat] We don't have time for

me to lay them all out in detail. Let me

just tell you briefly about the two

illustrations. One's with Elijah Ja and

one's with Elisha. I know their names

sound alike. Um if you want to know who

always comes first, J comes before S.

And so Elijah comes before Elisha. J

before S. That's how it works. So you

can check these out. They're in the Old

Testament, right? One's in First Kings,

one's in 2 Kings 5. Here's how they go.

Um, [clears throat]

Elijah is a prophet in the northern

kingdom of Israel. The king of Israel at

that time is Ahab.

And he's a terrible king. He's wretched.

He's more wretched than the pagan

nations around him. Now, one of the

things that Ahab does to kind of

consolidate power, he marries Jezebel.

Now, Jezebel comes from Siden. And

Jezebel comes from a family of priests

that worship idols in Siden.

And uh back in Elijah's day, God says,

"I had enough of this." And so, I'm

going to bring a famine on the land. Oh,

the whole ter there's going to be a

famine. And so for three and a half

years, Jesus quotes this. Three and a

half years there's a famine. You know,

in three and a half years, nothing's

growing. There's no water. I mean,

things are terrible, right? There's a

drought. So God says to Elijah, "Hey,

Elijah, look, I don't I don't want you

to die like a lot of the other people."

So you are to go to Zerapath.

Where's Zerapath?

Oh yeah. In Siden. What? Imagine you're

Elijah. Elijah, you want me to go to

Jezebel's hometown? You want me to go

where the idolatrous

pagans are? Jezebel's killing all the

prophets of God in Israel. You want me

to go back to her home? That's right.

You go there. Well, he goes there and um

eventually God says, "I'll take care of

you there." And one of the first people

he meets is an older woman, a widow, and

she's gathering sticks.

And he says, "Hey, God sent me here. Um,

have a little mission for you. Would you

give me something to drink and uh, you

know, bake me a little piece of bread,

little roll, no hot dog, just a roll.

Bring me a roll. I'm really hungry. I

haven't had much to eat and drink. Would

you get bake me a little piece of bread,

little biscuit, and uh, bring me some

water?" She says, "Uh, huh? You're

asking the wrong woman.

You know why I'm gathering these sticks?

Because I've only got enough flour. I

can't even fill my hand with it. And so

I'm going to make I'm here gathering

sticks to start a little fire. I'm going

to make a little tiny biscuit for my son

and me. We're going to eat the biscuit

and die because there's nothing else

that we have. Elijah is persistent. Ah,

yeah. Yeah, yeah, I hear. Make make me

make me a biscuit first.

And she does. And you know what? The

flour and the oil never run out until

the famine's over.

God sent Elijah

to a gentile widow in Zerapath

Siden. What's the point? Well, you can

figure it out from Jesus' sermon. There

were lots of widows. There were lots of

widows that were starving in Israel. But

God didn't send Elijah to any of them.

He sent them to pagan Zerapath and Siden

where all the idoltors are. And God

through Elijah rescued a woman who

didn't have the resources to survive.

He said, "Oh, but I'm not. I got another

illustration." Then there was a name.

There's a guy named Non. Now, this is

Elisha s, right? Elisha.

Non is also a gentile. Non's also a

pagan. And um [snorts] Non is not from

Siden. He's from Syria. And in a lot of

ways, Non's the opposite of the woman.

The woman's dirt poor. Non is filthy

rich. The woman's a widow. Non has a

wife. The woman is disconnected from

everyone, right? She can't hold a job.

She's disconnected from society being a

widow. Non is wellconed. In fact, he

names the king as a friend. Non seems to

have everything you need in life. Oh,

yeah. One other thing, non has leprosy.

And you know what?

If you have everything

and you have leprosy,

you've got nothing.

The woman doesn't have the resources to

feed herself.

Name doesn't have the resources to heal

himself.

Different ends of the continuum.

They're both dying. They are both

helpless. They are both hopeless.

And God saves each of them. Gentile

idoltors disconnected from God. Wealthy

po. God say now the people in Nazareth

are ticked. Why are they ticked? Well,

because we want this Jubilee, all this

freedom stuff to be for us. We don't

want it to be for we don't want to share

it with them. Especially not with these

pagans. Especially not with these

Gentiles. We don't want anybody from

Zerapath coming. We certainly don't want

Syrians coming. We don't want any of

them to come. They're angry. In fact,

rather than say, "hm, I wonder if I have

this thing right." No, they want to

destroy the messenger rather than

question if the message is correct.

They want to kill Jesus. Well, Jesus

just kind of walks through the crowd and

moves on. Now, remember, we're looking

back. We look back the little bit of

Luke. We look back at Isaiah. Look all

the way back at Leviticus 25, Jubilee.

Um, let me show you what Luke's doing.

Luke uses Luke 4 and this sermon where

the promise is given, the promise is

fulfilled, the promise is extended.

That now becomes the outline of his

gospel.

More than any other gospel,

Luke is always speaking how Jesus comes

for the outsiders.

I'm guessing uh

Luke maybe teared up a little bit

when he heard about a gentile widow and

we heard about a gentile

general

because Luke was a gentile.

Luke was not a Jew.

Dr. Luke was a gentile.

My guess is he wrote his gospel and you

you we're going to read through these

next few weeks. You read on your own.

Luke's always listed lifting up the gent

you know what Jesus came for Gentiles

too.

Luke's lifting up women. Women play a

priority role in Luke's gospel. The

unclean people, the filthy, the

Samaritans. The parable of the good

Samaritan. That's in Luke. What's Luke

saying? Jesus came, he extended the

promise. And what does Luke do in his

gospel? He keeps extending the promise,

extending the grace that Jesus came to

purchase.

Now, you can probably guess before we uh

conclude here,

maybe I'll say it like this.

The problem with the congregation in

Nazareth,

they drew the boundaries of God's grace

a little too tight.

Jesus extended the boundaries and they

hated it.

I just wonder,

did we try to do we draw the boundaries

too tight?

This freedom, this deliverance, all this

stuff, this freedom, it's for me and

people like me. It's for people of my

political party, my socioeconomic level,

my educational level, people who are

like me more than unlike me. Um, that's

what the congregation in Nazareth was

saying.

And the rest of Luke's gospel says, you

better stop drawing boundaries because

we draw them, God keeps breaking them.

God extends the gospel of grace.

And can I tell you one other thing?

Jubilee, Isaiah 61, Luke 4,

all about freedom.

Freedom from debt.

Freedom from oppression, bondage,

freedom from loss, freedom from sin.

Here's an interesting thing.

The Bible often uses

physical and material problems,

difficulties to speak to spiritual and

eternal realities. You ever wonder why

um sometimes for one case they bring a

paralytic to g the guy can't walk and

what's Jesus say? Your sins are

forgiven. I'm thinking Jesus the guy

can't walk. Why would he forgive?

Sometimes he uses physical maladies to

talk about our spiritual. How often do

we do the same thing? We speak about the

debt of our sin, the bondage of the

enemy. We speak about the loss that

we've incurred because of rebellion

against God. And we speak and what's

Jubilee really about. Now, don't get me

wrong. All of those physical material

things will occur.

But right now, we live in the pause.

He's been Jesus has come to proclaim

good news to the poor. You got to admit

you're poor. Admit you're hopeless,

helpless. And when you do, you're in a

perfect position to first receive the

deliverance that Jesus brings for our

sin. Jubilee happened on the day of

atonement. And one day all of that

freedom and liberty will be experienced

when Christ brings Jubilee in

completeness.

All in a sermon in his hometown. The joy

and praise applause went to thoughts of

homicide very quickly. I hope that's not

our case. Let's pray.

Lord, we give you thanks for the sermon.

And Lord, even uh with our

very myopic view, we can look back and

see some really cool things in Luke. We

look back further in the Bible and we

see it really is one big story and Jesus

is the point and the purpose. Lord, help

us to uh look back and look ahead to

experience all that Jesus brings in the

proclaiming good news to the poor, but

help us also to look forward to the day

when true justice and grace will be

experienced in full jubilee to the

utmost forever. We pray in his name.

Amen.

>> Please stand with us as we continue to

worship Jesus.

How great [singing and music] the chasm

that lay between us. How high [singing]

the mountain [music]

I could not climb.

In desperation, [singing and music]

I turned to heaven

and spoke [music] your name into the

night.

Then [music] through the [singing]

darkness,

your loving kindness

tore through the shadows

of [singing] my soul.

>> [music]

>> work is finished.

The end is written.

Jesus Christ [music]

my living.

[music]

Who could imagine

so great a mercy?

[music] What heart could fathom

such boundless waves?

The God of wages

stepped down from glory [music]

to bear my sin and bear my shame.

The cross has spoken.

[singing and music]

I am forgi.

The [music] King of Kings calls me his

own.

Wonderful Savior. [music]

I'm yours forever.

Jesus Christ, [music] my living.

[music and singing] Hallelujah.

Praise the one who [music] set me free.

[singing]

Hallelujah.

Death [music] has lost its grip on

[singing] me. You have broken every

chain. There's salvation [singing]

in your name. Jesus Christ, my living.

[music and singing]

Hallelujah.

Praise the one [music] who set me free.

[singing] Hallelujah.

Death has lost its grip on me.

[music and singing]

You have broken every chain. There's

salvation in your name, [music] Jesus

Christ, my living

hope. [music]

Then came the [singing] morning [music]

that sealed the promise.

Your buried body [singing and music]

began to breathe.

Out of the silence, [singing and music]

the roaring lion

declared, "The grave has no

[music and singing] claim on me."

Came the morning

that silver,

[music]

your buried [singing] body

began to [music] breathe.

Out of the silence,

Lord,

[music and singing]

declare the grave has no claim on me.

[music]

Jesus, yours is the victory.

[music]

Oh, [singing]

hallelujah. [music]

Praise the one who set me free.

[singing]

Hallelujah.

You has lost his [music] strength for

me. You have broken every chain. This

salvation in [singing] your name. Jesus

[music] Christ my living.

[music] Hallelujah.

Praise the one who set me free. [music]

Hallelujah.

Death has lost its breath on [music] me.

You have broken every chain. There's

salvation in your name. Jesus Christ my

living.

[music]

Jesus [singing] Christ my living.

[music]

God, [singing] you are my living

home. [music]

So maybe the theme of our morning is

that we've experienced this grace, but

sometimes you want to draw those

boundaries a little tighter than God

does. Where does God want to extend them

this week? To your neighbors, somebody

at work, at school. be part of what God

wants to do to extend that promise

[music] beyond where we think it should

go, where it needs to go. If you would

like to talk to someone or would like to

pray with someone, please come forward.

There'll be people up here to do that.

Have a great week.

came [music] to my

call.

You answer

my

life.

Lifted

high.

lifted

my life.

We lifted high.

Feel.

I call you

to my rescue.

I just want

to beware.

I remember

wide.

>> [music]

[singing]

>> So you

made a way

to build

at the cross.

I

broke my chain.

[singing]

Thank you

for

Jesus.

Thank you.

me from the darkness into glor. Glorious

to my

laid tomb of sed

Life has no end

for

the blood.

Thank you Jesus for

Jesus.

Thank you Jesus.

Glor

Son,

father

sons and daughters.

We are

Jesus for

Jesus.