Some of us spend our whole lives looking for a sign of God’s existence or His will. We have a hunger and thirst for truth and for proof that can be unquenchable. Rightly tapped, that kind of passion can make all of life an adventure and a quest. There is danger, though, that we can be paralyzed into indecision and inaction, always waiting for just a little more. In Luke 11:29-32 Jesus continues to address the skeptics that surrounded Him. In this text He looks back at two stories from the Old Testament and shows Himself to be greater still.

In Luke 11:14-28 Jesus is confronted by skeptics. The more spiritual ascribe His work to the devil, the more cynical look for still more proof. Jesus responded by teaching important points on the nature of God’s work and the nature of evil. This sermon focuses on careful encouragement to cynics and skeptics as we look at Jesus’ work.

In Luke 11:14-28 Jesus is confronted by skeptics. The more spiritual ascribe His work to the devil, the more cynical look for still more proof. Jesus responded by teaching important points on the nature of God’s work and the nature of evil. This sermon focuses on careful encouragement to cynics and skeptics as we look at Jesus’ work.

Prayer is a difficult discipline for most of us. This text shows us both an underlying understanding of what prayer is, as well as practical help on how to pray.

Prayer is a difficult discipline for most of us. This text shows us both an underlying understanding of what prayer is, as well as practical help on how to pray.

For many of you, Fridays bring the hope of the weekend as well as the culmination of the busyness and stress of the week that has been. For many of us, the pressure and pace of DC is something that we find exhilarating and interesting. The idea of slowing down sounds appealing, but only to a point. It is good to work hard and to be tired at the end of the day. And there may be no place that expects and rewards hard work quite like this place. In this town it is all too tempting to wear busyness as a badge of honor, showing the importance of our work and securing at least some measure of our identity and purpose. That’s why this text is so important for us. This sermon continued in Luke’s Gospel with Luke 10:38-42. This story is unique to Luke and shows us the priority and opportunity Jesus opened for women, inviting Martha and Mary to sit with Him and learn alongside the men who followed Him. It is a text best known for the corrective given to Martha, who was serving Jesus diligently, and finally bubbled over in frustration toward her sister. There are important lessons for us here. Lessons about our hearts, about distraction, and about choosing “the good portion.”

For many of you, Fridays bring the hope of the weekend as well as the culmination of the busyness and stress of the week that has been. For many of us, the pressure and pace of DC is something that we find exhilarating and interesting. The idea of slowing down sounds appealing, but only to a point. It is good to work hard and to be tired at the end of the day. And there may be no place that expects and rewards hard work quite like this place. In this town it is all too tempting to wear busyness as a badge of honor, showing the importance of our work and securing at least some measure of our identity and purpose. That’s why this text is so important for us. This sermon continued in Luke’s Gospel with Luke 10:38-42. This story is unique to Luke and shows us the priority and opportunity Jesus opened for women, inviting Martha and Mary to sit with Him and learn alongside the men who followed Him. It is a text best known for the corrective given to Martha, who was serving Jesus diligently, and finally bubbled over in frustration toward her sister. There are important lessons for us here. Lessons about our hearts, about distraction, and about choosing “the good portion.”

Living in and around a city means that all of us have a lot of neighbors. We see them all the time. Life is lived in public spaces and we are surrounded by people – people of every background. This makes the Biblical command to love our neighbor an overwhelming task. How do we even begin to understand who our neighbor is? In this sermon, we continued in Luke’s Gospel with Luke 10:25-37. This is one of the most well-known parables of Jesus, “The Good Samaritan.” At times our familiarity can actually get in the way of clarity and understanding. We took a fresh look at this text to see how Jesus’ perplexing story serves to answer the question, “Who is my neighbor?”