Sermon Recap: LUKE 5

SERMON RECAP: LUKE 5 
Teaching by Pastor Steve Osborn

We are broken in that kind of way ... 

Pastor Steve begins this week's message around the idea of collisions. We read in Luke 5 that Jesus is brought into multiple situations where healing is required, yet socially unacceptable. A collision of social protocols stirs when Jesus sits with tax collectors and calls Levi as a disciple. Then we enter into the first eleven verses of Luke 6 and we see two other collisions. One as Jesus' disciples eat grain from the fields on the Sabbath, and the other as He heals on the Sabbath. So why is this a problem? We first read about the Sabbath in the book of Exodus. Exodus is one of the first books in the Old Testament. Here in Exodus 16, Moses tells the congregation to prepare food and work as they will for the six days and then are instructed to take the seventh day as a day of solemn rest, as first told to Moses by the Lord. The Sabbath was holy, reflected even in the beginning of Creation when God designed and made the heavens and the earth, and then He rested on the seventh day. Through Exodus, we see the Sabbath as a way of law, a cultural pattern and expectation.

Enter Jesus. The Pharisees voice their concern and trouble over Jesus not only allowing the disciples to eat from the grain field, but then healing on the Sabbath. But what is the biggest problem here? That Jesus is going against the cultural expectation? That there was a man who needed healing? That the disciples were hungry? Or is the biggest problem perhaps, that we are broken in that kind of way?

Jesus makes a claim to shake the world in Luke 5:32, "I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance". The biggest problem is the condition of the human heart. We are sinners in need of the Savior. Praise the Lord that Jesus has come because I definitely require the Savior! Not a Savior, but the Savior. The one and only who has the capability to wreck our cultural worldview or expectations to bring His purpose and goodness, transforming our lives and healing the wounds of the soul.

Talk about wrecking our worldview, Pastor Steve Osborn and his wife, Debbie, wrapped up the message by introducing Katie D. Sierra Bible Church has supported Katie as a global worker through EFCA. During both services, she shared the value of what God does when He moves. While we see the devastation of war and wonder how we can pray, God is dispersing His people in countries otherwise uninhabited by the church. Katie shared one story from Ukraine, that as church members prayed together, Russian soldiers came in and instructed them how to stay safe, then left, sparing their lives. So what is the hope that we have while a great collision is occurring? God is moving, church!

How can you continue to pray?

1. Pray against the traffickers who are now poaching mothers and children.
2. Pray for continued Russian militia who are for the Ukrainians, that they would have strength to pursue peace.
3. Pray for the over 2 million refugees.
4. Pray for the churches that will be built in neighboring countries and worldwide as a result of this war.

If you would like to be added to Katie's prayer email list, you can contact her at katie.dudgeon@efca.org.

If you would like to pray or speak with a pastor, please call the church office at 209-532-1381.