God’s Purpose Will Stand (Zechariah 10:1-12)

The prophet Zechariah gives a warning to the false shepherds. This is pretty scary considering that Joshua is not a perfect priest as we witness the vision in Zechariah 3. The assurance that the prophet gives the Lord's people is to pray and ask God. Zechariah assures us that God does in fact listen to our our prayer and God will provide for us. God desires a people who wrestle with him. We know that God will prevail, and so we seek to conform to his image. We do not make God in our image.

(Sunday August 21, 2022)

God Returns to His People (Zechariah 1:1-6)

God says through his prophet, “Return to me and I will return to you.” This is a promise that sounds rather conditional. This is strange considering that the Lord promises to send a redeemer to Adam. The Lord calls Abraham out of his idolatrous land to sojourn to heaven. The Lord is the one who walks between the cut up animals as the Lord cuts a covenant with Abraham that we call the “Covenant of Grace.” So, how can the Lord say to Israel “return to me and I will return to you?”

Sojourning Under the Sun: Israel (Genesis 32:22-32)

We conclude our series regarding our Christian sojourn or as have titled it, “Sojourning Under the Sun.”  As we summarize and conclude this series an important question is: what is Israel?  Is Israel someone who lived in history, a nation, a people in a land, or a people that have ceased to exist with the coming of Christ?  These are important questions to define Israel.  So, what do we do with the nation of Israel?

Sojourning Under the Sun: Sabbath Mission (2) (Deuteronomy 7:1-26)

Israel has a very unique mission to go and establish a heavenly kingdom on this earth.  They have a unique calling to dominate a land, setup a place for God to dwell, and worship our God in the midst of the Canaanite land.  One would think that Israel has this calling because they are a great people with a wonderful history.  Does the Lord pick them because there is something special about them as a people?  Or does the Lord pick them to make clear that there is something special about God?

Sojourning Under the Sun: Sabbath Mission (Deuteronomy 4:1-24)

The rebellious generation has been purged and Moses is about to die.  So, Moses addresses the people of Israel exhorting them to remember their God and to remember their mission in the land.  What is their mission in the land?  What is their unique calling as a nation?  What is their purpose as they enter this unique land at a unique time in their history?

Diaspora People (James 1:1)

We might think that we cannot relate to what it must have been like for Israel to be in exile.  The reality is that James greets the church as a group of people who are in exile.  We might think that this life is a waste because it does not measure up to what we want.  We need to listen to James who is laying out for us that this life probably will not meet our expectations because it is not supposed to meet our expectations.  So, why follow our God then if this life will not give us all that we think it should?

The Christmas Wrestler (Genesis 32:22-32)

We can understand that Jacob is afraid to meet his brother Esau because Esau vowed to kill Jacob which is why Jacob left his home.  So, we can understand Jacob’s angst as he is about to meet his brother.  So, why would God take the time to wrestle with this poor guy rather than simply defeating Esau?  What does this wrestling teach Jacob?  What does this wrestling teach us?  What does this wrestling declare about Christmas?