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Worship is supposed to be dignified, no clapping, no shouting, don’t be loud in any way, in fact it’s too loud, and don’t even think of putting your hands up in the air…

And some of the Pharisees called to Him from the crowd, “Teacher, rebuke Your disciples.” But He answered and said to them, “I tell you that if these should keep silent, the stones would immediately cry out.”

Luke 19

The Pharisees (at least their caricature as presented in the NT) are world class complainers. If your complaint in church can be rebuked with the same rebuttals that Jesus (or Paul) gives, that should be a sign to you…  

Yet because this widow troubles me I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me.

Luke 18

Keep asking God. Have you not gotten the answer you want? Well, maybe you’re asking for the wrong thing, or maybe you just have not asked enough yet. It sounds strange, I’ll admit, but God wants you to continually bring your request to God. Don’t give up!

If you do, you do.

And the apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith.” So the Lord said, “If you have faith as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be pulled up by the roots and be planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.

Luke 17

Do you feel like you need more faith? Then you don’t understand faith. “God, I need more faith” and the answer is “no, you don’t.” You just need faith. Faith is small, it is the tiniest thing, and it can move mountains (or mulberry trees).

You don’t need much of it, if you do have it, then you have enough of it. If you believe at all, nothing is impossible for God through you.

I have spoken about the Old Covenant and its relationship to Jesus and the New Covenant (see my video here)

The law and the prophets were until John. Since that time the kingdom of God has been preached, and everyone is pressing into it. 17 And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one tittle of the law to fail.

Luke 16

God is always accomplishing His plan. He gave the world the Law and the Prophets leading up to John the Baptist who would prepare the way for Jesus Christ, the embodiment of all God was doing. He died, once for all, so that we would not need to meet the obligations of God’s righteousness (which we can’t) in order to be righteous before God. That’s the gospel, we are saved by what Jesus did, not by what we can do.

This is the difference in Christianity, it is not how you can clean yourself up, it is not about you doing right… Christianity is about how if you cling to Jesus, he will save you!

Almost everyone admits that much of “the church” today is a shadow of its former self… but what do we do?

What woman, having ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it?

Luke 15

Jesus paints the picture of going after those who are lost. This is really talking about folks who were on the “inside” and have fallen off, not necessarily those who never had a relationship with God. So don’t write off these people in the church who are “lost.” We do this on both sides of the “style preference” debate.

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