DATE: April 10, 2022
THEME: From Faithfully Blind to Faithful Witness
SCRIPTURE: Luke 18:35-43

Jesus' interaction with the blind beggar shows us a few powerful things about the MERCY of God by showing us the need to desire the PRESENCE of God in our lives. When you ask for healing, God may give you 1) Healing, 2) Understanding, 3) Presence.

DATE: April 3, 2022
THEME: Faith like a Child, Loyalty of a Warrior
SCRIPTURE: Luke 18:18-34

Luke illustrates Jesus's answer to the rich ruler's question of "What must I DO to inherit eternal life?" with first presenting the answer in a child coming to Jesus. "For God's kingdom belongs to such as these." He then transitions to His disciples to again remind them of the extent to which their faith and loyalty will be tested in the coming days and weeks, but how great a reward awaits because of their abandonment of comforts, their homes, and their very lives. It'll be worth it!

DATE: March 27, 2022
THEME: True Grace compels us to lift up, not put down
SCRIPTURE: Luke 18:9-14

Jesus tells a parable about two men's prayers, one who "trusted in themselves that they were righteous and looked down on everyone else" and the other a tax-collector pleading for mercy. The point of this parable begs the question "how SHOULD this parable have gone" and "how do we now live into the way it should have gone?"

DATE: March 20, 2022
THEME: Do you believe that God wants to spend time with you?
SCRIPTURE: Luke 18:1-8; 2 Peter 3

With so much suffering, stress, uncertainty, hardship, and difficulty in our lives and the world, we need the words of Jesus to resonate in our minds, that God desires for us to be with Him, to spend time in His presence; to pray always and to not give up!

DATE: March 13, 2022
THEME: The Insurgence of the Kingdom of God
SCRIPTURE: Luke 17:20-37

"When will the Kingdom of God come?" That's the question the Pharisee's ask, and Jesus says "it'll be obvious." As "the day of the LORD" is not what we think of, Jesus had something different, more devastating yet so much better, in mind when He was teaching His disciples.

DATE: March 6, 2022
THEME: As We Go Along
SCRIPTURE: Luke 17:11-19

Jesus healed 10 lepers and, while reminiscent of the healing of the leper in Luke 5 with all of the intentions and implications that apply, Luke had a very specific purpose of recording this account the way he did. Jesus healed people different ways and His pattern in this instance was to heal them "as they went along"...and this is also the way the He heals many of us in the world today..."As we go along."

DATE: February 27, 2022
THEME: All You Need is Faith
SCRIPTURE: Luke 17:1-10

What does Jesus mean when He tells his disciples about those causing offensives and also to forgive people who sin against you? How does He tie together with a servant knowing his place in the kingdom of God? Faith...faith itself doesn't grow; if you have it, you have it. It is our vision of the God whom have faith IN that grows.

DATE: February 20, 2022
THEME: Love God Love Others...use money to...
SCRIPTURE: Luke 16

The parables of the unrighteous manager and Lazarus & the Rich Man, including everything in between Jesus has bookended into one main point...love God, love people, use money to...love God and love people. Love of money is based in fear of suffering and death and this leads us to be unloving to God and others.

DATE: February 13, 2022
THEME: The God Who Runs
SCRIPTURE: Luke 15

Jesus gives 3 responses to why He "welcomes sinners and eats with them.” Jesus has come, as He will be quoted later in Luke, "to seek and to save the lost," and His responses illustrate this point through parables of; the Lost Sheep, the Lost Coin, and the Lost Son.

DATE: February 6, 2022
THEME: Fish, or Cut Bait
SCRIPTURE: Luke 14:25-35

Jesus is being followed by "great crowds" until He drops the hammer and calls them out to REALLY follow Him, to basically "fish or cut bait", to count the cost of following Him and go ALL IN or go home. His call has literal, physical, and cultural implications back then, and spiritual implications for us today.