Holy Interruptions
Notes
Transcript
Jab 1
Jab 1
I had the opportunity to go to Africa back in 2017 on a trip to hold conferences to equip pastors for counseling their people.
Long flights
When we landed and left the airport we were immediately in the heart of the city and I saw these buildings
unfinished
falling apart
and not used
I asked our driver what were those buildings and why weren’t they finished he said....
churches came from America to build it for them
left the building unfinished planning to come back
ran out of money or
moved on to another project and forgot
The work people came to accomplish was big, and in far off places. This is so much more interesting when we talk about our mission. Missions work is fun when we can travel, have a group to go with and have new experiences, and then go home and return to normal life when we are done.
Jesus gives us a very different idea of Mission when it comes to our work for the kingdom.
Explanation
Explanation
Large crowds followed Jesus as he came down the mountainside. Suddenly, a man with leprosy approached him and knelt before him. “Lord,” the man said, “if you are willing, you can heal me and make me clean.”
Jesus had just finished his pretty regular routine of teaching crowds of people
-he was coming down the mountain
“Suddenly!”
Have you ever had something SUDDENLY HAPPEN?!?!?!
startling
distracting
frustrating
annoying
This was not a fun Suddenly
Jesus was coming down this mountain after he had been teaching
Heading
-Jesus was face to face with a man who had a skin disease that disfigured him and left him without a community
-outcast
-unwanted
-people even thought he was dangerous
Jesus did something that would have automatically made himself an outcast along with this man....he touched him. He ignored the 6 ft social distancing rule and touched him.....
brought healing into his life
told him to present himself to the priest as a testimony of his healing
restored him back into community
When Jesus returned to Capernaum, a Roman officer came and pleaded with him, “Lord, my young servant lies in bed, paralyzed and in terrible pain.”
Jesus was headed home and again he was interrupted by this guy who wanted him to do something for him. Jesus loved and cared for people and at the same time he was human
-tired from a full day
-a Roman officer was the personification of the oppression the Jews had been experiencing from the empire
-again the human side of him was probably not too excited to see him, but then he started to speak.....
Jesus said, “I will come and heal him.”
But the officer said, “Lord, I am not worthy to have you come into my home. Just say the word from where you are, and my servant will be healed. I know this because I am under the authority of my superior officers, and I have authority over my soldiers. I only need to say, ‘Go,’ and they go, or ‘Come,’ and they come. And if I say to my slaves, ‘Do this,’ they do it.”
When Jesus heard this, he was amazed. Turning to those who were following him, he said, “I tell you the truth, I haven’t seen faith like this in all Israel! And I tell you this, that many Gentiles will come from all over the world—from east and west—and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob at the feast in the Kingdom of Heaven. But many Israelites—those for whom the Kingdom was prepared—will be thrown into outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
Then Jesus said to the Roman officer, “Go back home. Because you believed, it has happened.” And the young servant was healed that same hour.
This was an interruption in Jesus’ schedule and yet there was an opportunity to experience faith in an unlikely brother of faith.
-I haven’t seen faith like this in all Israel
-Jesus is not just speaking of his experience there, but he is referring to all of Israel’s history and acknowledges the Roman’s understanding of who he is and the ability to act as one from God and as God himself.
When Jesus arrived at Peter’s house, Peter’s mother-in-law was sick in bed with a high fever.
Jesus healed Peter’s mother when he finally got back to the house......
Application
Jesus did so many things while he was hear on earth, but we can see that his life was filled with Interruptions
- can you imagine what would have happened if he would have had the attitude of not right now I’m on my way to......
I talked about the buildings when I went to Africa on a “Missions Trip”
-One thing I have learned about Jesus is that he was always on mission and he always stayed local.
-didn’t travel nearly as far as Paul did and yet he was still in the thick of his mission
-What if we started to view our daily living as Mission?
-Daily we go out on our mission and engage with people who need to see the person of Jesus lived out in front of them?
-Starting to change our thinking from what we do locally as ministry and think of what we do locally as missions.
2 Characteristics to our Mission
Local - learning the people around you …what does it mean to serve them? How can you provide a basic or physical need, relational need? All the preparation we would spend on doing mission in another country can be spent here with great impact on those around us.
Daily - What if we took the same mindset to our daily life that we had for the focus of a 2 week over seas trip? When we are somewhere for a ministry trip I have seen people have no problem engaging people asking them if they knew Jesus.
The interruptions we experience on those trips can be seen as new opportunities because our purpose for being there is to share Jesus.....
What type of impact would that have on our community if we had that mindset here?
Missions would be as we lived for Jesus daily and the interruptions that would have been stopping our busy lives are now new opportunities .......Holy Interruptions!
Benediction
And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them. For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And having chosen them, he called them to come to him. And having called them, he gave them right standing with himself. And having given them right standing, he gave them his glory.
Today ask Jesus to change your outlook to see the field of mission before you and the interruptions that come as Holy Interruptions that God has established for his work to be done through you!
