We all suffer. We all go through hardship and pain, or as the Dread Pirate Roberts says in The Princess Bride, "Life is pain, and anyone who tells you otherwise is selling something." Andrew Brooks, River City's Student and Youth Director, teaches from Psalm 44 and uncovers the truth that orienting our hearts around God's word before we suffer is what drives us through the challenges of suffering. If we're oriented around what is true before hardship comes, it's much easier to re-orient ourselves in and after the moment.
The people who listened to Jesus teach at the temple every day woke up Friday morning, to find him already beaten, bloody, and nailed to a cross. The future hope of Israel was bleeding out in front of their very eyes. But as Jesus dies on the cross, there are a lot of massively significant things happening.
After talking to his critics about how the kingdom of God has come on earth, and telling them to keep their eyes open to the kingdom, Jesus gets invited to a dinner party where he insults and criticizes the Pharisees on the specific ways they’ve shut their eyes to the Truth.
Like a preview for a movie, Jesus allows three of his disciples a sneak peek into his future glory. The problem is that they are sound asleep. God speaks his audible words over Jesus, confirming him as the Messiah and reminds him that the plan of redemption is right on schedule.
WORDS MATTER PROVERBS 17:27-18:21 Good morning River City! We’re now just a couple weeks away from the end of our Proverbs series. We have two weeks after today, and then…
Enigo Mentoya in “The Princess Bride” said, “there’s not a lot of money in revenge.” Yet Hollywood would disagree. We love a good revenge story! Yet if we follow the example of Jesus, he shows us a different way to handle injustice.