Tag: The World Turned Upside Down

Big Things from Small Places

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This week we finally wrap up our Advent – and now Christmas – teaching series, The World Turned Upside Down. All this month we have been taking a journey through Luke’s telling of the story of the birth of Jesus. It has been a powerful journey, and there have been several new things to learn from these old and familiar stories. This week is no different. While the stories of Jesus’ birth and other heroes of the faith are flashy and impressive, we live most of our lives in the mundane. The trick is: so did they. Their ability to have the giant impact they had came out of their faithfulness in these mundane moments. Let’s dig in and talk about it together. As one more note, this will be the only post for this week. I’m taking this week off to spend extra time with my family. I look forward to being back together with you again in the New Year.

Big Things from Small Places

Have you noticed lately how few truly new television shows there are? The same thing goes with movies. Now, don’t get me wrong, many of the remakes and relaunches and revivals they have done have been terrific. Nostalgia is a terrible god to worship, but it makes for some really fun media content to enjoy. Season 4 of Cobra Kai comes out this week on Netflix and I am about as excited as I can be for that one. If you haven’t seen it, it’s basically a modern day continuation of the Karate Kid story from the super popular 1980s film franchise. Now, as a bit of a warning before you go check it out if you haven’t, the language of the series is pretty awful, but the redemption element of the story and the way the writers keep weaving in Gospel concepts has been pretty cool to see. 

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Designed to Provoke

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What are you going to do with the news of Jesus’ birth? As we take another step forward in our Advent series, we are finally talking about how Jesus’ birth unfolded. The news of His birth rang throughout the world. It was and has become something no one can ignore. Let’s dig into it together.

Designed to Provoke

Have you ever tried to ignore a toddler who has something to tell you? It may not seem all that significant to you, but when a toddler has something to say, as far as he is concerned, it is the most important thing in the world. And, if you happen to be the person he has deemed most worthy of hearing this information, there’s really not much you can do about the matter. You can try to ignore it if you want, but…well…good luck with that. 

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Sidelined

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Have you ever felt like you’re sitting on the sidelines when you want nothing more than to be in the game? Sometimes life does that to us. As we continue forward in our Advent series, The World Turned Upside Down, this week we are looking at some characters who spent a lot of time on the sidelines before their moment came. Let’s see together how they handled it and talk about how we should.

Sidelined

I played basketball when I was in school for three years. Fourth through sixth grades. I remember when my folks got me a basketball goal for our driveway at the house where I grew up. We had a friend come over and help pour the cement foundation for it. We even got to put our handprints in it. And I dominated the driveway games for a while. So when I finally reached the age I could play a sport other than baseball (which I was generally pretty awful at), I was as excited as I could be to join the school’s basketball team. 

Then I got on the court. 

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Underdogs

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This past Sunday we took another step forward in exploring the story of Jesus’ birth through the Gospel of Luke. When Mary received the news that she would be mother to the Messiah, everything she knew about the world got turned on its head. More than that for her, everything about her own life got turned on its head. What she came to recognize early on in this journey, though, was that this God she was following was in the business of turning the world upside down. In a powerful proclamation of praise, she acknowledged as much, and in the process reminded us of something important about God’s character. Let’s explore that together here. Thanks for reading and sharing.

Underdogs

I have basically three sports teams I cheer for and whose progress I follow during their relevant seasons. The Kansas City Royals, who have historically been a mostly mediocre team (2014 and 2015 being delightful exceptions). The Kansas City Chiefs, who have historically been pretty good, are really good right now since we’ve figured out how to play defense again, and things look bright in the years ahead. The third is the University of Kansas basketball team. They’re always good and this season look to be particularly fun to watch. Fun fact for UNC fans in the room, next year will be the first time since 1962 that your coach has not come to you by way of Kansas, so I have no way of guaranteeing any real success for you in the future (we’ll pretend Matt Doherty didn’t happen). 

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RSVP

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This past Sunday kicks off the season of Advent. We can officially start getting ready for Christmas now. As we move forward in this season, we are going to be exploring the story of Jesus’ birth in the Gospel of Luke. As you read that story something that becomes clear is that in sending Jesus to earth, God was turning the world on its head. Over the next few weeks, we are going to explore together just how He was planning to do that and what the results of it have been. Tune in each week as we work through this incredible set of stories to see how God turned the world upside down.

RSVP

Let me pull back the curtain for you just a bit this morning on the process of doing what I do up here each week. Coming up with the title for a sermon can be an interesting exercise. Some pastors really don’t put much thought into it, but like a good title for a book draws you in before you’ve read it, a good title for a sermon will draw the listener in before she’s heard it. The same thing goes when trying to construct a title for a whole series. Now, different preachers take different approaches in their preaching. For some, they can simply make the title of the book they are preaching through the title of the series and walk away. In that sense, I could have called this series, Luke 1:4-2:40. Even if you’re a full-on Bible nerd, though, that doesn’t sound very exciting. It sounds like a verse reference…which is because it is. 

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