Destiny: Good News to the Poor

The Lord’s Mission Statement

Carl Braaten: “A church without a mission or a mission without a church are both contradictions. They are pseudo structures.”

Dave Ramsey: “Without a mission statement, you may get to the top of the ladder and then realize it was leaning against the wrong building.”

If you wanted to get a loan to start a business, one of the things you have to have is mission. If you don’t have it, no bank will give you anything other than directions to the door.

Now i’m not going to say that those people aren’t brilliant, but the idea is not original… God did it first.

Jesus’ Mission Statement

Luke 4:18–19 ESV

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

When He said it, it was not a new idea to the people He said it to

Isaiah 61:3 ESV

to grant to those who mourn in Zion— to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit; that they may be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified.

Isa 61:3

When Jesus read this little passage, and then added, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” They knew they were being handed a choice. Jesus was telling them .... Today you can follow me as your Messiah and Lord… This is my path and you can follow it.. or not.

If He is Our Lord...

Now this statement is so packed with stuff, that even though there are only 53 words in our language here, we are going to spend 6 weeks talking about it.

Why? Well, if we signed up to be part of His Kingdom, we signed up to join His mission. If we can’t go where He is going, well then obviously we are not following Him we are following us.

If He is our Lord, we signed up to join His mission. If we can’t go where He is going, well then obviously we are not following Him we are following us.

Today we look at the the first part of His mission statement… and by default ours

Preach

Defined - Evangelize - Proclaim to make a message clear.

What counts? - well anything that makes the message clear.

What doesn’t count?

Simple acts of kindness.

Generosity

Holding your tongue.

Those things as great as they are, do not fulfill the requirement of proclaiming. Am I saying that those are bad? Absolutely not. You should do as much of that as you can. James tells us that our faith without actions is dead. However without a clear message just being a good person is not good enough.

The idea that we become so amazing that people come up to us and ask us how we became so awesome.... cmon. There are so many things in the world that are so nice no one is asking them how great they are.

Social Programs — ssi, ssdi, backpack program.... no one is going up to the state of NY and saying how great they are....

Good News

Poor

ptochos - difficult to define - it’s a superlative - the best definition is “utter mendicancy” — not only are you poor but there is nothing you can do about it.

Money - get a job, learn to do a job so you can .. get a job. Go to the state. getting money is a very small part of this poverty here.

Sin and it’s rewards. There is nothing we can do about it.

Rich man - it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a need than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom… Why… because he thinks he has everything he needs. And he might… today.. in this world. But it is not enough… That was the issue he had and why he went away sad. He knew he was being given a choice… He was being told..

you think your rich, but deep down, you know your riches are nothing. You know you are poor. You know that you can do nothing about it.

Jesus preached to the poor in all walks of life… His mission, Our mission

Good News

The good news isn’t telling people how horrible they are

They might need some help though.

The good news is the poor, once they realize their inability to do anything about it, can turn to the one who gives us great riches.

Conclusion

The Spirit of the Lord is on you .....

He has bestowed upon you all the power and authority to spread His message. The good news.

Because He has anointed you

You are set apart. You were poor and He reached out to you and now you are rich.

To preach Good News to the Poor