Big Idea: God always creates places for people to walk with him and know him. That place is now the church.

It was one of the most anticlimactic moments of my life. I was in Israel with Charlene. We had traveled to Joppa and Galilee. The day had come. We were finally going to arrive in Jerusalem. I’d read stories of people who’d arrived in Jerusalem the first time, and I expected to be moved. The highlight for me was going to be standing at the site of the ancient temple.

Imagine. This is the site where Abraham was willing to offer his son Isaac to God, before God provided a ram as a sacrifice. It’s where King David built an altar in the middle of a plague. It’s where Solomon built the temple. It’s the place where we read:

As soon as Solomon finished his prayer, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the LORD filled the temple. And the priests could not enter the house of the LORD, because the glory of the LORD filled the LORD’s house. (2 Chronicles 7:1-2)

It’s where the Babylonians destroyed the temple, and it’s where Zerubbabel rebuilt the temple, later enhanced by King Herod. It’s where Jesus himself walked and taught.

Josephus, one of the most famous historians of that day, wrote that Herod’s temple project was “the most glorious of his actions…sufficient for an everlasting memorial of him.” He said that “the exterior wanted nothing that could astound either mind or eye.” The sanctuary was covered with gold and silver, crimson and purple. As you approached Jerusalem, you would sometimes be blinded by the sun reflecting on the gold. It would dazzle you. It’s been said that Jerusalem wasn’t a city that had a temple; it’s more like the temple that had a city. The temple was a huge deal.

Now, I knew it wasn’t like that anymore, and that a mosque now stands where the temple used to be, but I still wasn’t prepared for how I felt. You know those photos of downtown Detroit of buildings that used to be glorious but are now ruins? That’s what it felt like.

This is kind of a big deal, too, because it’s a huge part of the central message of the Bible. It seems that God has left the building.

The Message of the Bible

We’re in this series The Heart of God’s Story. And today we’re in the second last week.

If someone asked you what the Bible’s all about, there are at least two ways you could respond.

One is to give them an overview of the story, the plot, of the Bible. We did this one time as a church in our early days. We broke the Bible into four parts: creation, Fall, redemption, and restoration.

Creation — God made this world, and everything in it, to be good. He designed it for human flourishing, so that we could live in joy in his presence, worship him, and love him and one another forever.

Fall — Adam and Eve rejected God’s rule and rebelled against him. Because they represented all of humanity, their choice affects us too. We are, by nature and by action, enemies of God. Our rebellion against God has brought both physical and spiritual death.

Redemption — God, who could have rightfully judged us all for our rebellion, initiated a rescue plan to redeem the world and to rescue sinners. He sent his Son, Jesus, to live, die, and be raised again to renew the world and restore his people.

Restoration — God promises to renew and restore the whole world, and he’s given us a taste of this right now.

That’s one way to summarize what the Bible’s all about. It’s the plot line of the Bible.

But that’s not what we’re doing. Last week, this week and next week, we’re trying to summarize the Bible by talking about its major themes. D.A. Carson, a top biblical scholar, estimates that there are 20 large themes and 60 smaller themes that run throughout the whole Bible. We’re just looking at thr…

Big Idea: For a spiritual reset, cultivate simple faith and gratitude.

According to Precision Nutrition, a nutrition coaching company in Toronto, there are some simple steps we can take to fix a broken diet. The first one is simple and obvious: Identify and remove nutritional deficiencies. Before making extreme changes in your diet, make sure that your body is getting the nutrients it needs. Studies show that most of us are deficient in key nutrients, like iodine, vitamin D, zinc, vitamin E, and calcium. “When our bodies don’t have the nutrients they need to do their work, we all suffer. But as soon as we get these nutrients, we thrive.”

I know you didn’t come here today for a nutrition talk. You came to hear from God’s Word today. But I want to tell you that the same thing applies to our spiritual lives. There are some simple steps that we can take to fix a broken spiritual life, and it’s to make sure that we’re covering the basics. Today I want to cover two of them.

If you have your Bibles with you, please turn with me to Luke 17. We’re going to discover two basics that are absolutely essential to the Christian life. When we don’t have these basics in place, we all suffer. When we get these basics in place, we will thrive spiritually.

So let’s look at Luke 17. Let me give you some background. Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem, and knows that he’s facing death. On the way he is teaching his disciples about what it means to follow him.

As we read this passage, Jesus is speaking to the disciples, but there are some others listening. Jesus knows that there are some listening who appear to have faith, but lack the basic qualities of what it means to be a disciple. And so he begins to teach his disciples, warning them against being fakes, and calling for radical change in their lives.

In the middle of teaching what it means to be a genuine follower, the disciples say, “Lord, increase our faith!” (Luke 17:5). Do I ever understand where they’re coming from! Once in a while I take a look at myself and have the exact same thought. I often feel like I need a complete spiritual overhaul. It’s like when I take my car in for an oil change. I go in there thinking it’s going to cost $40, and then they come over and tell me that I need new air filters, wiper blades, light bulbs, fuses, and some liquids that I didn’t even know belonged in my car. That’s what it feels like so often when I open the Word of God and see my true condition. I realize how desperately I need to change.

If you feel that way too, I want to talk to you. Because in this passage Jesus gives us two basics that we need to get back on track. I’m so grateful that Jesus doesn’t recommend a complete overhaul of our spiritual lives. He’s doesn’t call us to a spiritual crash diet. He calls us back to the basics.

Do you want to fix a broken spiritual life? There are two basic qualities of a disciple. Here they are.

Qualities of a Disciple

Little faith (5-6)

The first thing we need is little faith.

Don’t miss this. The disciples have just said, “Increase our faith!” But Jesus responds differently than we’d think. Look at what he says in verse 6:

And the Lord said, “If you had faith like a grain of mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you. (Luke 17:6)

Here’s what I want to tell you this morning: if you want to fix your spiritual life, then it begins by refocusing on the basics. And it doesn’t get any simpler than this. You need faith — even little faith — in Jesus Christ. You don’t even need a lot of faith. According to Jesus, a little faith does wonders.

I have to go back to our health as an example. I know that some people spend a lot of time working out in the gym. For instance, some Hollywood studios hire persona…

Big Idea: It may seem like God has abandoned us, but he is committed to us with the deepest kind of love that we could imagine. And he will move heaven and earth to fulfill his purposes for us.

The question arises in my mind occasionally: What does God think of us? It’s a fair question, too.

I ask this question as I look at the world. When I open the news, I read about terrorism, crime, and injustice. I don’t know the last time I heard a news broadcast that I didn’t feel at least a little worse at the end. If that’s not bad enough, there’s politics. We read the newspapers and watch the debates and wonder, “Is this the best we can do?”

To be honest, though, the question really isn’t about what God thinks about the world. It’s about what God thinks about me. About us.

Years ago I took golf lessons from parks and recreation. We met in a public school gym and listened to lessons about how to hit the ball. They gave us these little plastic golf balls that we could use to practice. The instructor would come down the line, watch each of us, and then give some tips about how we could improve.

I remember the instructor getting to me. I tried my best. I lined up that swing and showed him what I’ve got. But the instructor didn’t give me any instruction. I remember him watching me, and then slowly walking away while he just shook his head. I gave up my golf lessons soon after that.

Do you ever feel like that spiritually? We show God everything we’ve got, and it’s not really that much. As we say sometimes in our confession:

We have erred and strayed from Your ways like lost sheep. We have followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts. We have offended against Your holy laws. We have left undone those things which we ought to have done; and we have done those things which we ought not to have done; and there is nothing good in us. O Lord, have mercy upon us, miserable offenders.

What does God think of us, especially when we’re not at our best?

It will sometimes feel like God has abandoned us.

Today I want to look at a passage of Scripture that was written by the prophet Isaiah. Most of the book of Isaiah was written to address a crisis. Israel and Judah believed that God was creator of the universe, and that he had chosen them with an everlasting covenant. They believed that as long as they kept the prescribed rituals and commands, they would be secure. But in 540 BC, Assyria destroyed and exiled Israel. In 586 BC, Babylon destroyed and exiled Judah. Nebuchadnezzar destroyed the walls of Jerusalem, the Temple, and the homes of the most important citizens. Nebuchadnezzar captured the the king’s sons and the officials of Jerusalem, and killed them in front of the king before ripping out his eyes and throwing him in prison for the rest of his life.

You could be forgiven for thinking that God had forgotten about Israel and Judah, that he had gotten so fed up with all of their sins that he’d turned his back on them. This is why we read in Isaiah 49:14:

But Zion said, “The LORD has forsaken me;

my Lord has forgotten me.”

You can’t really blame them for thinking this. The evidence was all around them. They were supposed to be God’s people. “The LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth” (Deuteronomy 7:6). Yet there was no evidence of God’s care for them. There was lots of evidence to the contrary. It really did look like God had turned his back on them.

They are saying is this: Skip the theological lectures. Look at the realities of my life. All of God’s promises seem abstract and remote, because my life is so completely broken.

We need to be honest. This is going to be our experience too. Zack Eswine writes:

There comes a time in most of our lives in …