Sower Church

All right. Welcome. Welcome. Welcome, Come on in, have a seat. Thank you for coming. My name is mike, I’m on the passage of that solar church. It’s great to be a few. We are in the gospel of Luke. Chapter nine versus 51 through 62, Section 14 of those blue workbooks in the lobby, page 506 in the house Bible. Um, And our latitude longitude, if you’re on the live stream and you slip in and you’re still sleeping is right here, this is where we are at this junction in human history. Um, looking forward to being, if you were in part 46 of our series of Luke, we’re not even halfway, which is great. We’re gonna take a break though. We’ve been doing the gospel of luke most falls for last couple falls, looking at the life and work of jesus. But we’re gonna take a break. We’re gonna take a two week series, pre thanksgiving and kind of readjust our minds to what it’s like to live in relationships with other people. We think it’s a timely way to have a timely word from the word of God to you about relationships, loved ones in laws, outlaws, mother in law’s father in law’s moms and dads, siblings. There’s a lot of family in the calendar of y’all the next couple of months and so we thought would be good to circle the mental wagons and look what scripture says on those subjects. The bible’s not silent on those subjects and then we’re jumping into advent advent christmas? Yes, yes. You either love christmas or you’re kinda anti christmas, it seems in Christianity. So we’re gonna do some hymns. Maybe there’ll be some ugly sweaters, will have some christmas decoration, maybe some eggnog, eggnog and refreshments. You can’t blame a guy for trying right eggnog, I can hope. And we’re gonna jump into an advent christmas series leading up to christmas eve service with christmas, it’ll be fun. Speaking of fun if you’re new to us and you haven’t ever plugged into community group yet. Now is the time, tis the season thanksgiving, there’s some big old thanksgiving potlucks that happened in our 15 community groups around the city, there’s christmas parties, white elephant gift exchange parties galore, assume they’ll be ugly sweaters at those two and then there’s New Year’s parties, so if you like having a good time and meeting christians socially november december january is primo for getting to know a new community groups so come join us, join with this committee groups, fill the connect card and say I want to go to a community that has fun, right that in the comment section we’ll get you connected. So let’s pray all fun aside, let’s pray, let’s let’s look at the word together here. Um, value heads with me, take a word, let’s let’s look at the passage here and let’s pray God, thank you for the gospel of luke, thank you for all the time, we’ve been looking at the words and the actions of jesus, I’m pretty, just helped me to have courage to speak and preach this passage the way it should be preached. Lord help us to have courage to understand it and wrestle with the text. Lord help us to have courage to implement this in our lives as people I wanna be, I wanna be speaking rightly, we should be listening right now and we should be acting rightly as christians. I prayed to just help your word come alive to us today. Help us to understand it, help us to get it. I pray you would bring the increase, you would turn the lights on in our heads so we can understand what is going on in the bible and what is going on with us and you help us to do business of you God here today as we look at this passage, this challenging passage help us to be encouraged and challenged by you. We commit this time to you in jesus name Amen, Amen Luke 9: verse 51. It picks up here when the days were coming to a close for him to be taken up. He determined to journey to Jerusalem, you’re lik…

morning church. Hey, I like that. Some response. That’s great. My name is derek grumpy one of the pastors here. Um, I also get the pleasure of heading up our college ministry. Yeah, thanks brian. It’s exciting for him. I paid him, paid him little 20 slipped in there. But I, so I had, it’s exciting what’s happening on the campus. I just want to say thank you to solar church to you guys for blessing us. Uh the work we’re doing on the campus, praying for the work supporting the work. And it’s exciting to see the fruit. That’s, that’s God’s bringing about on the campus and the last, we’ve got to celebrate some of that with some baptisms and um this is exciting to see a church come behind the work that’s happening and bringing the gospel, making disciples on the campus. So thank you for that. With that we’re gonna be in Luke. Chapter nine continuing on in the book of Luke and Let’s Pray father God, we worship you this morning. You are our God, the one true God who is good, right and true, who is holy, who is merciful? Who was faithful? Well, we ask that you would direct us this morning as we look into your word that you would open our eyes to understand and behold the wonders of your word, pray this in jesus name. Amen Amen. Alright Hope and change make America great again, unite for a better future. Sure. Some of these might sound familiar to you and these are three of the slogans that have been used in the past by the past three presidents and their presidential campaigns. Uh when I think about these slogans bring up these slogans because these slogans address uh, some of the longings of our hearts, right? They weren’t just come up with in a couple of minutes by uh people who didn’t know what they’re doing. There are people who are paid a lot of money, spent a lot of time to say what would relate to the most amount of people. And up came the slogans and they speak to, like I said, the longings of our hearts and that’s why they uh they are used, that’s why they impact and our ra memorable, memorable for us. So what do they speak to? What are the longings of the heart piece is one of them. Justice is one that these slogans and things like them address uh prosperity, Freedom. These are things that we long for that we want to see and that we see represented in these slogans. And every four years we build up a fervor. We build up a hope that we can get the right person in place in this area of life, the sphere of life, the civil government area, and they’ll put the right policies in the place, the right actions into place and bring about the peace, the prosperity, the freedom, the justice that we all long for and desire? Now? This is not a new thing, right? This is old and and ongoing. In fact, we see in the second century with the Jews, the people of God. So about 150 200 years before Christ they were under the oppression of a Greek king named Antiochus and they were prevented from purely and freely worshiping god. They were restricted in their worship and under this oppressive king and people now they had this, you know, familiar with the old testament that the jewish people, God had given promises to his people that they would have a messiah that they would have one who would come and deliver them and bring about his kingdom and established his ways, his peace and prosperity. So they had these, these promises and then they’re under this oppression. Well in steps a man named judas, Maccabees, a god fearing man a jew. He also was known by Judah the hammer which is a cool name and uh maybe a nickname I can give to to one of my sons be fun. Uh so due to the hammer brought together a small militia and he defeated the greek king. This this greek people that was in their land and he restored the temple cleansed the temple, restored the templ…

Good morning. So church family. Good morning to those of you tuning in on the live stream. I’ve been praying for us this morning. I started last night praying for us. And if you could pray for me this morning because I left my glasses at home and I got to read some tiny words up here. So I would certainly appreciate that. Um, and then if you’re a visitor here, my name is dan and I’m one of the pastors here at Sword Church and I would like to welcome you and I do hope that you fill out a connect card and would be able to reach out to you this week. Um, so on that note, guys, we are going to continue our coverage of the gospel according to Luke and we are going to continue in Chapter nine. But while you turn there, I kind of want to set this up a little bit. Want to give you a little bit of history. I was a history major in college. Um, and there’s some things that I think are relevant to the passage that don’t make sense. Hopefully at some point. But how many of you know that today, there’s a half marathon taking place here in Lincoln, I think maybe they canceled it because of the weather, but there’s a half marathon taking place. Um, some of you may be aware of this. Some of you may not be aware of the fact that the first marathon resulted in the individual dying At the completion of 26.2 mi. This was a Greek marathon runner, which in actuality he was a herald of the good news that the Greeks had staved off an invasion by the Persians. And so he was carrying good news to his fellow countrymen who lived, you know, a distance away from the war to pronounce to them that the Greeks should want and that we were no longer going to be under the threat of of slaves to the Persian empire, that we have been saved, that our armies had defeated the Persians. And so the first marathon runner was actually an evangelist. A herald carrying good news. And your Christianity comes to you taking those terms, those Greco roman terms and rifle and rightfully deploying them for the purposes of christ and his kingdom. Because it has always been, I’m sorry, so excited to see this next line. Couldn’t even get that right. All right. But it has always been God’s desire. God’s plan to have a kingdom with this image bearers reflecting his glory, his character and his ways has always been God’s plan from the beginning. And it has always been the response of unbelieving, sinful humanity to prefer another king, another kingdom. And another way for living. But faithful followers of christ know that there is no other name under having by which a man may be saved. There’s no other kingdom that is eternal. That will make good on all of its problems. And there is no other way to live except that we live for the glory of the Lord jesus christ. Before I get to the passage, I want to read to you something that actually shows the contrast between God’s kingdom and the Kingdom of man. Not only does it show the contrast between the two kingdoms, but it demonstrates the context that the Lord jesus christ began his earthly ministry. In an inscription was found on a stone and Prince turki And it was dated to be around about nine BC. I want to read to you what the inscription said. It seemed good to the Greeks of Asia in the opinion of the high priest Apollon ears of Mena Phyllis as an itis. Now I need a bonus for that one. And you thought Shannon was a difficult name to pronounce anyway, in the opinion of the High priest. Since providence, which has ordered all things and is deeply interested in our life, has set in most perfect order by giving us augustus whom she filled with virtue that he might benefit humankind, sending him as a savior both for us and for our descendants, that he might end war and arrange all things. And since he caesar by his appearance, excels even our …

well, good morning, so a church. Good morning. So our church family tuning in on the livestream. So good to be with you guys this morning. So good to continue our series in the gospel of luke. Um if you’re new to soar church, my name is dan, I’m one of the pastors here and um I’m looking forward to preaching God’s word to you this morning. Um as I said, we’re going to continue in the gospel according to luke, we’re gonna pick up in chapter nine verses 18 through 27 so go ahead and grab a bible. Um there’s a bible on a chair near you. If you didn’t bring one or if you don’t have one, download it to your smartphone or anything like that, you can use that bible, you can actually even take it if you need it. Um but we’re gonna be looking at luke, chapter nine verses 18 through 27. And while you turn there, let me set the table for this teaching by saying this. Uh recently I was listening to a podcast is the most popular podcast in christendom today and one of the subjects that was covered in this podcast was the topic of celebrity and in covering this topic of celebrity. Uh the the announcers were talking about how in this post modern age, it is possible, it is now possible for a person to become famous, successful and rich without ever having to display any of the great virtues virtues like love and courage and sacrifice that. It is possible for a person to become famous in this post modern day and age without ever having to display any of those great virtues and that’s significant to us today because we have the same temptation in the church. This kind of thinking has already permeated the Lord’s church. We want to be a disciple of the Lord jesus christ, without ever having to deal with the great virtues or the fruit of the spirit or the very character, an example of our Lord and savior, jesus christ as he sacrificed as he did things in a very courageous manner as he stood for something that was indeed of God and we want to be a disciple of jesus without ever having to do any of those things. We wanted to be a smooth path to success, to celebrity to a place of being an influencer, without showing any of the great virtues let flow from God’s spirit. So that has permeated the Lord’s church and that is in direct contrast to what Jesus is going to say to his disciples in Chapter nine of Luke’s Gospel. The last thing I want to say before we read the passage is this, if you take nothing else away from this sermon, I want you to take away these things, these four things First is this life is challenging secondly, the world is fickle. Thirdly discipleship is costly, but jesus is worth it, Jesus is worth it, he is worthy life is challenging the world is fickle discipleship is costly, but Jesus is a worthy savior? He is worthy for you to give all of your life to follow him to be his disciple, following in his example and living for his glory, he is worth it. And it is the most important thing you could ever do with your life is to be all in for the Lord Jesus christ following him and living as he prescribed for us. Hey man, hey man, you guys are awake this morning. All right, let’s read the pastors this morning again uh luke chapter nine, beginning in verse 18, it says now it happened that as he was praying alone. Speaking of jesus, the disciples were with him and he asked them who do the crowds say that I am and they answered john the baptist’s but others say elijah and others that one of the prophets of old has risen. Then he said to them, but who do you say that I am? And Peter answered the christ of God In verse 21 and he strictly charged and commanded them to tell this to no one saying, the son of man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed and on the third day be raised and he s…

Good morning. Good morning. Welcome. My name is mike, it’s an honor to be a few this morning. I’m one of the pastors here. If you join us in person for the first time, welcome. If your name is Annie, you’re homesick. Welcome. Thank you for joining us on the livestream. It’s an honor to be a few this morning. Let’s pray. Let’s jump right in. We have a lot to cover and I’m gonna want to spend my time on the content. So let’s pray by your heads with me. Let’s focus our attention on the word of God and God speaking to our hearts. Thank you Lord for this passage. We’re looking at thank you that the scripture of God, the bible is a, it’s a big boy. He can take care of itself. I pray that the bible would just really uh speak to our hearts. Got every area of our heart that needs instruction correction, encouragement, exhortation. I pray that the word of God would speak to the people of God. I said we’d just be sensitive to the spirit of gods and convicting us of areas instructing us, encouraging us. I just, I just want to yield to you as you communicate to this church through me. We would listen as we should and help me to speak as I should. Give us a holy boldness and obedience and holy boldness and a bang as we listen to the word of God today in jesus name, we pray this. Amen. We’re in section seven and eight in that workbook, chapter nine of the Gospel of luke and paige 505 in the house bible. If you’ll turn with me to luke. Chapter nine verse one we’re going to continue reading is starting there in verse one says something. The 12 jesus gave power and authority over all the demons to heal disease And then verse two, then he sent them out to proclaim the Kingdom of God and to heal the sick. So what’s this, what’s this all about? What are we looking at today? This is a turning point in jesus ministry and your three when it shifts and transitions from jesus modeling and doing everything to his disciples. Starting to dabble in the ministry, jesus been showing the way now he’s unleashing his disciples out to do the work, this is the commissioning of his 12 disciples, this foreshadows the great commissioning in Matthew 28 that you said go therefore and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the father, the son and the holy spirit and teaching them them to do everything I have commanded you And though I will be with you always even to the end of the age, the very last words that he used to all of his followers is the Matthew 28 but this is a micro commissioning a regional commissioning versus a global commissioning the job description, you all have job descriptions, I have a job description, I have task and teams, I’m required to lead in my job, you have task in teams, you’re required to lead in your job, you have a job description, you have a territory, you have responsibility. The disciples were given a regional mandate. Later in the Matthew 20 will be given a global mandate to be commissioned globally. He talks about power and authority here. Power is an inherent ability. Authority is the right to exercise it. Power is an inherited ability that they inherited from jesus and authority is the right to exercise it. So disciples are given a mandate to tee it off against disease and demons to heal disease and cast out demons powered authority over disease and demons. Why why does disciples need power and authority of the disease and demons? It’s because they’re given a platform to proclaim the kingdom of God the gospel, the gospel, the kingdom of God is the greatest work that they’re engaging in the king event preaching the kingdom of God. They’re given power and authority. They’re given a mandate to proclaim the kingdom of God. They’re given power and authority over disease and demons to make that happen. I uh turned to …

Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Welcome. Welcome. Welcome. We are starting Luke End of Chapter eight. Names Mike. One of the pastors, it’s great to be a few this morning. Anyone heard the phrase desperate times, call for desperate measures. Here we go. Here we go. So the rest of you, there’s this phrase desperate times call for desperate measures to Luke. Chapter eight looks at two very different people in different situations that are in desperate situations. One, the first we are introduced to is a parent whose only daughter is dying and who is desperate to get used to go to his house and saved his daughter’s life. The second we see is a desperate attempt of a chronically ill woman to have an encounter of jesus luke is the author of the book of luke. He got real creative like I am with my sermons and he looked at some of the main message is the main themes of the gospel of luke. I just love reading all the gospels because we see jesus words and his actions and his words speak a message and have meaning, but his actions are rich and saturated and deep meaning also. And so I just love looking at the gospels with you guys. The main theme from today, The main message from today’s passage we’re looking at is everyone needs to be desperate for jesus. So in light of that, let’s pray God, I thank you for today. I thank you for all the men and women and all the different journeys were on and we’re all right with you. We could be near you, jesus, we can be far from you, jesus, we can be somewhere in the middle. We don’t know, I definitely don’t know where everyone is with you personally. But you do your personal god who has personal word and a personal connection of every single person you save. I ask that we would all realize our desperate need we have for you we are spiritually bankrupt, socially bankrupt, physically bankrupt, financially bankrupt before you jesus. We all desperately need to have an encounter. Few jesus if you realize it or not this is for us. I prayed this message, this passage, we look at the word of God will instruct the people of God, convict us with the spirit of God to live out the life you want us to be living. We commit this time to you in jesus name amen. Alright, so luke eight if you have our house bibles, that’s page five of five. If you have your own bible that’s in luke. Chapter eight if you’re using our steady guide That is section six is what we’re looking at today. Section six. If you don’t have a study guide you can have on Ryan and I talked, we decided you can have a steady guide so we have enough extra. We’re not going to get them out. If you have a friend who wants to study guide, you can take a study guide, your friend but those are tools and resources to help you. And so, looking at the passage luke eight picking up in verse 40 Let’s just let’s just circle the mental wagons and remind ourselves what happened all in the beginning of Luke eight, the 1st 39 verses that will recover the last two weeks here at this church, Jesus, Jesus is coming back from the he just left the galleon see he went to the eastern side of the lake where he cast out man possessed by demons who had 2000 demons in him. The demons were known as legions. He had supernatural strength. There was a supernatural encounter with jesus and jesus showed that he was God over the supernatural, the strange, the weird, the wild, the mr the mysterious, scary, supernatural, jesus had power and authority over the supernatural. And we see the last week that last week’s passage in last week’s sermon, there’s two kinds of responses to Jesus, the people of the town who wanted nothing to do with Jesus, and then the person who was possessed by demons who lived in the cemetery who’s walking around naked and chained, how he wanted everythin…

Good morning Sword Church family. Good Yes, thank you. Thank you for that. And good morning to those who are tuning in on the live stream and I think some of our students are doing that as well. I know a group of our students went down to Selena for a conference this weekend. I was just noticing that looking over here to the right, they like to kind of congregate in this area and I was like, where are they? Oh, they’re in salina. Um, but yeah, I’m really excited this morning. We’re gonna look at the gospel according to luke, we’re going to continue our series are teaching through uh, this gospel account. Um, I’m gonna try to get to it pretty quickly here, but I do want you to know that if you’re new here, my name is first of all, my name is dan and I’m one of the five elders and um, I’m excited that you’re here and I do hope you take Cindy up on that offer to connect with us um, fill out of connect card and so we can pray for you. We can help you pursue jesus, know him and and discover what he has for you in any way that we can. So that would be my encouragement to you. But also if you’re new here, um, don’t be discouraged that were Teaching Today on Chapter eight of Luke, you can listen to the previous teachings online at our website or via our podcast. So feel free to check that out as well. Alright, on that note, Luke, Chapter eight verses 26 through 39, I’m going to read the entire account here from luke. So the patient and read along with me. Here we go, verse 26. Since then they sailed to the country of the garrisons which is opposite galilee. When jesus had stepped out on land, they’re met him, a man from the city who had demons for a long time. He had worn no clothes and he had not lived in a house but among the tombs. When he saw jesus he cried out and fell down before him and said with a loud voice, What have you to do with me, jesus, son of the most High God. I beg you do not torment me for he had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man for many a time it had seized him. He was kept under guard and bound with chains and shackles, but he would break the bonds and be driven by the demon into the desert. Jesus then asked him, what is your name and he said legion, for many demons had entered him and they begged him not to command them to the part into the abyss. Now a large herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside and they begged him to let them enter these. So he gave them permission. Then the demons came out of the man and enter the pigs and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and drowned. When the herdsmen saw what had happened, they fled and told it in the city and in the country. Then people went out to see what had happened and they came to jesus and found the man from whom the demons had gone, sitting at the feet of jesus clothed and in his right mind and they were afraid and those who had seen it told them how the demon possessed man have been healed. Then all the people of the surrounding country of the garrisons asked him to depart from them, for they were seized with great fear. So he got into the boat and returned the man from whom the demons had gone, begged that he might be with him, but Jesus sent him away saying, return to your home and declare how much God has done for you. And he went away proclaiming throughout the whole city how much Jesus had done for him! Let’s pray Father, We thank you for your word. We thank you for your mercy. That is indeed new. Every morning we thank you for the very power of God that is at work in the teaching of your word and the receiving of your word and then the applying of your word and father, we ask you, and the time that we have this morning that your spirit would indeed apply the word very powerfully in our lives God in such a way that we…

well, good morning. So church family, so good to be with you all this morning. Um and for those of you, I have yet to meet my name is Shane, Hunger. I’m one of the five elders here. So yeah, no, I’m not, I’m dan Shane fridge last week. Uh the first service really got that joke, you guys, I’m praying for you. Thanks this morning. We are going to look at the gospel according to luke. So we’re gonna be in chapter eight of that gospel account. So go ahead and open your bibles to luke. Chapter eight we’re gonna Um read from verses 16 through 25 while you’re while you’re turning their just give you a little bit of background just by way of reminder. Um with this series with this account of luke’s gospel, you know, luke was a traveling companion of the Apostle paul. He was very well educated, he was also a medical doctor and as far as the historian goes, he was right up there with all of his contemporaries in terms of his astute mind. Uh the way he thought about things and the way he wrote and he interviewed many of the disciples and many of the early converts and through his research there and with his relationship with the apostle paul, he gives us this account, this this gospel according to luke. And so I think that’s fascinating and next week when we get to um further further along in this chapter, we’re gonna see some of luke’s own kind of giftedness and Ben starts to, to come out in terms of his concern with medical conditions. And so he likes to highlight that in his giving of this historical narrative. That’s what this is. This is a historical narrative. These things took place. But he’s also um, pulling it together and in such a way that we can read it and make sense of it and so it flows All right. So that’s Luke. Chapter eight We’re gonna be in versus 16 through 25 and we’re going to talk about the word of God and standing on the word of God in the midst of very trying and difficult times. Yes, I’m reminded of my own troubled childhood when me and my friends would get into trouble. Sometimes big trouble, sometimes little trouble. And my mom would get wind of it. And she would say to me, she say, son, if all of your friends jumped off a cliff, you would you jump too. Right. And so that parental wisdom, that parental care and concern, I later discovered, was shaped by a passage in first Corinthians. Uh, there’s several passages in the bible to speak to that very thing. But first Corinthians 15 where it says, do not be deceived bad company ruins good morals. So my mom was concerned that the people I was running with that they were influencing me in a very bad and negative way. Now, most moms believe that their Children are little angels. Right. Right. And, and, and we naughty little kids want to convince our parents that we are little angels, right? But we have a Biblical theology here, we understand that all mankind is born into sand. We are not surprised that our kids are little sinners and that we need to direct them towards jesus and we need to raise them up in the Lord, right, We get that right. But sometimes there can be a little johnny next door who is indeed a terror like he gets into trouble. Mischief is his middle name and last name. Yes, right. I mean, he’s that can be a setting that we find ourselves in and for us as christians, guess what? We live in a world that does not believe in the word of God, that does not trust in the word of God. We live in a world that thinks that the Word of God is outdated, narrow minded judgmental. We live in a world that does not value this word and every day we’re living next to people in this world that we’re called to love because of this word year. Their values are constantly coming face to face with us and our decisions and our goings and our doings. And if we’re not careful, we w…

All right, good morning. Glad you’re here. Glad to be with you. If I haven’t met you, my name is Shane and one of the pastors and I’m gonna jump right into where we’re going today. We each fall, we cover a portion of Luke, the book of Luke. And so the last two falls, we’ve worked through a handful of chapters. We’re gonna be in Luke eight today. So that’s where we’re gonna start. Technically. I’m covering versus eight, Sorry, chapter eight verses 1 through 21, but we’re going to really focus on the parable of the soils. And so if you have a bible with you, you can open it up. We’ll throw the words up on the screen. But I’m going to just get us going so luke. Chapter 8: verses four through 8 says as a large crowd was gathering and people were coming to jesus from every town, he said in a parable, a sower went out to sow his seed and as he sowed some fell along the path, it was trampled on and the birds of the sky devoured it. Other seed fell on the rock and when it grew up, it withered away since it lacked moisture. Other seed fell among the thorns. The thorns grew up with it and choked it still, other seed fell on good ground. When it grew up, it produced fruit 100 times what was sown and he said this, he called out, let anyone who has ears to hear. Listen. And so here it is parable, The soil is a lot of times people know this as the parable of the sower actually. Um, but I think it’s more fitting that it’s called the parable of the soils when you look at the beginning of it and you think about the sewer and you think about the seed, they’re really not described. It doesn’t say the good sewer, it doesn’t say he was a great farmer. It doesn’t say it really doesn’t describe it. It doesn’t describe the seat either, because that’s not the emphasis. The details are not there about the seed or the solar, particularly because it takes the time to talk about the soils. The four types of soils are really what this parable is about. And so this parable of the soils really represents the condition of someone’s heart. Right? So the parable, the soils is looking at the condition of the human heart in response to the Gospel. And if you think about all the people, you know, you included, so you and your friends, your neighbors, your coworkers, your classmates. It doesn’t matter. Every single person at a macro level falls within one of these four categories. So, as you go through this, this is a broad picture of humanity in the way every person in one sense is going to respond to the Gospel. A parable though, right? He starts telling this parable and a parable is more common. Uh, back then, just as a way to tell a story, but it’s very common now to it’s a figure of speech. We probably all understand what a parable is. But in the book of luke actually, Uh there’s 24 parables. There’s the most parables out of any new testament book. In the whole bible is Luke And 18 of them are unique just to the book of Luke. So only a few of them are in another book. Generally there in one of the synoptic Gospels, which is Matthew mark and luke. And so this parable that we’re looking at today is it’s covered in all three of those gospels, Matthew Mark and luke. And so what I’ll do is we’ll look at it through luke. But I’m gonna reference back into particularly Mark to draw out some additional details but we all get what the parable is. Right? I mean think about just an analogy where someone says man, he’s as strong as an ox. It’s like, yep, you draw the conclusion, you get what it is parallel, the word means to lay beside. Think about a parable. The root word is where we get parallel like parallel lines. What happens if you lay something side by side? It’s easy to compare right there laying side by side. Now I can compare those things but a parable is more drawn…

good to see you all. My name is Mike. I’m one of the pastors here. So we’re church welcome if you’re on the livestream this morning. If you’re new this morning. If you’re not new this morning, welcome the labor Day weekend. This is the day the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it and we’ll rejoice for yesterday to yesterday was a good day to, for many of us care about that secondary thing. It’s an honor to be a few today. We’re excited about working through week three of our three weeks series on simply story. It’s our three core values. Things are passionate about things we hold too dearly things that are unique to us as a church. Week one dan looked at gospel culture is an excellent message. If you missed it, you missed the big thing. You need to go back and watch that on our Youtube channel. Week one was Gospel culture. Week two is last week community culture and I had fun. I don’t know if you enjoy the time. I enjoyed the time working through community culture and what that looks like in our context And this is week three. Generosity, culture and I like every pastor who’s ever preached a sermon can give stories of God’s faithfulness, stories of how God has come through and provided in my life. I can tell stories of houses we bought, We bought four and renovated them and cars we’ve bought and cash gifts we’ve given in cash gifts we have received in God’s providence, caring for us and unexpected uncanny ways as we step down and faith. I can do that. But I’d rather tell a different story. I’d like to tell your story as a congregation as a church as we’ve embarked on this generosity journey a number of years ago, Specifically January of 2017 is when we begin this faith story, this this generosity journey as a gathered people, as a church, as a church family. And so let’s pray and I’d like to tell your story. So bow your heads with me. Let’s pray God, I thank you for today. I thank you for the men and women that you’ve brought here from a variety of places, variety of standpoints on life. God, you’ve you’ve your we’re all on a journey and the journey to you knowing you better, those of us who choose to follow. You choose to accept you in our life. We are on this generosity journey that we’re talking about. Lord, I pray that we would all understand you better today. We understand ourselves better today. I pray for people that are far from you, God who don’t know you, that they would somehow be impacted by this message today. To help them respond to you, jesus. We commit this time to you. We commit this passage to you. We commit the stories we’re telling them the look of the examples and illustrations and everything we’re attempting to do today. We committed to you. God appeared to you would squeeze all the glory you can out of our lives as people in jesus name, we pray this. Amen. I want to tell your story because your story is better than my story. Uh, sorry about God has been doing and I want to brag on you. Um, this generosity journey A couple of years ago, we had the opportunity to grandly give to Jesus and his mission as a, as a church, as a people, as a congregation and as a small church made it for primary college singles and young couples who are not known for their income. We had the opportunity to purchase a $1.2 million dollar property. This property you’re sitting in it. I think it’s worth more than that now. But that’s a lot of money, especially if you’re broke, especially if your college single broke young couple broke, your broke broke. And so we’re just buying diapers for babies and stuff back then as a church. And so buying a building seemed like a lot. And so it’s a lot. We don’t have a lot. We didn’t have enough for a down payment. We didn’t have the right correct monthly cash flow to be able to allow…