Acts

Part 28: Sent to be Faithful

Sunday, June 4, 2023

Josh Weiland - March 17, 2024

Jesus Gets Grief

Jesus is not only fully God, but became fully human. Because of this truth he understands us better than anyone else. One of the human experiences Jesus knows well is grief. Grief is intense emotional suffering caused by a loss. It's the painful emotion of sorrow caused not only by a loss but even an impending loss of anyone or anything that has deep meaning to you. We often associate it with death, but grief also strikes with the loss of a friendship, a job, health, and more. We all grieve in response to loss in our life, and we must all face it. No one is immune. Where there is loss, there is grief. And like an unwanted guest it comes knocking at the strangest of times. Our best response is to open the door, let it in, give it what it wants, then send it on its way until it comes knocking again. The problem arises when we either refuse to grieve (don't open the door) or when we let ourselves sit with it for too long (never sending it on its way) and begin to find our identity in our suffering. Pastor Josh wraps up this week with a metaphor of a tree, and the knots in a piece of wood. Even with the hardest grief, life does go on, and thankfully Jesus shows us the way through.

Scripture References: John 11:1-44

From Series: "He Gets Us"

Jesus is not only fully God, but became fully human. Because of this truth he understands us better than anyone else. Not only did he create us, he lived as a one of us. And he gets us. In this series, we will dive into six of the ways Jesus became like us—understanding our insecurity, exhaustion, anxiety, guilt, grief, dissatisfaction—and how we can become more like him.

Message Notes & Discussion Guide     Daily Devotional

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Sent to be Faithful

Acts 14 records the heart of Paul and Barnabas’s first journey to spread the Gospel. After being run out of Antioch, they head to Iconium where once again there is fruitfulness as they share the Gospel along with opposition to it. When a plan to mistreat and stone them surfaces, they move on to Lystra. In Lystra a crippled man is healed at Paul’s word. After witnessing the miracle, the crowds believe Barnabas and Paul to be Zeus and Hermes. When Paul and Barnabas insist they are not gods but mere men chaos ensues. Paul is stoned and dragged out of the city, assumed dead. After the disciples gather around him he rises, reenters the city then heads to Derbe the following day. Paul and Barnabas were ministering in a culture deeply divided, chaotic, and often opposed to the Gospel—not unlike our own. When the world is full of chaos, opposition, & division, our job is to be faithful and point people to Jesus, leaving the results to God. Pastor Josh also gave a helpful paradigm of “Receive, Reject, Redeem” for us to use as Christians as we interact with our culture.

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Part 28: Sent to be Faithful

by Pastor Josh Weiland | Acts

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EFCA

Wawasee Bible is a growing evangelical church located in north-central Indiana between the communities of Milford and Syracuse. We are sent to love people and invite them to follow Jesus with us.

Wawasee Bible is a part of the Evangelical Free Church of America.
The EFCA exists to glorify God by multiplying transformational churches among all people.
Learn more about the EFCA at www.efca.org.