Big Idea: What do you expect of Jesus, our Messiah? Do you expect him to be a ragamuffin prophet, wandering through the wilderness? An uptight priest, judging all of those for whom he offers sacrifice? A heavy-handed king, ruling with fear and power? The truth is, Jesus is all three and more, in the most perfect of ways. Jesus doesn’t fit into a nice little box that we can always fully comprehend; but we must not make the mistake of setting our expectations of what he is able to do too low simply because we don’t understand. After all, God used the birth of a child at Christmas to begin our redemption story, and his love is capable of even more than we could imagine. Let’s expect the unexpected through God’s gift of grace.

Big Idea: We see signs everywhere, every day, all around us. In this scripture there are signs in stars and dreams as well as in God’s word. God has already given us everything we need to know he is present, if we’d just pay attention to the signs.

Big Idea: Would you die for a friend? The Bible says that the greatest gift of love anyone could give is to be willing to die for a friend. If we want to share our friendship with Jesus with people who haven’t met him yet, we need to and be willing to make deep sacrifices in order to show our friends that they are loved by us, and that they are loved by God… because that’s what God has done for each of us.

Big Idea: Loving our friends is easy. Loving our enemies is hard. But the Bible says that we should treat our enemies with just as much kindness and love as we do our friends… maybe even more! When we interact with people who don’t feel the same way about God’s grace that we do, let’s not miss out on the chance to show them by loving them sacrificially.

Big Idea: Doing good is tiring, but it’s fruitful. Doing good takes a commitment, but it comes with the promise of a harvest. It’s our job as the ecclesia–the called out ones–to continue to value what we have been called to by encouraging others in our midst through our service.

Big Idea: Being the church in your home means being willing to put the needs of other people even above your own rest when you most want it, and even when it’s terribly inconvenient. Sometimes it’s easier to plan to serve at a soup kitchen or go on a mission trip. Our homes are intimate, and where we go to escape the burdens of the world–which, if we aren’t careful, makes them into barricaded environments that allow us to reject the call to serve Christ always, in every place, and in every situation. Serve your family and your guests with the understanding that teaching and modeling the comfort found in redemption allows them the chance to experience God’s comfort for themselves.

Big Idea: Routines are good, because they allow us to do important things with little-to-no thought; but shouldn’t the things that are important to us be things we actively think about? If we aren’t careful, a passive relationship with church as a routine can turn us into watchers or workers–people who come preparing to be entertained, or to just check a box. God doesn’t want us to be watchers or workers… he wants us to be worshipers! To do that, we need to be prepared to see God do impossible things, and we need to prepare to celebrate those things by returning praise to him and by being obedient to his call on our lives. God’s love is so much more than routine!

Jesus wants to call people out from their sin, call people out from their apathy, call people out from the relentless pursuit of false idols and American Christianity. And he wants to call them into redemption, fellowship, love, and hope as part of his family.

When we are in need of God's care, the psalms of comfort take us there.

 

 

Series: Psalms - Season of Prayer

Title: Prayers of Celebration

Scripture: Psalm 150