Daylight Church Berea

The last sermon in our 6-month ADVENTure through the Old Testament, has led to the birth of Jesus.

Jesus is not merely the road to Heaven and Jesus is not an Avenger.

Jesus is the answer to the promise made to Abraham and more: the marriage of Heaven and Earth.

God is the world's creator, and the world is His creature, but in Jesus God becomes both creator and creation. In our union with Jesus, we become united with our creator. In 8 pound baby Jesus, we all become children of God.

We all know why Jesus had to die. But why did he have to die at the hands of the Romans? Why did he have to escape from Herod. If Herod had killed baby/toddler Jesus, would Jesus have been any less of worthy sacrifice? Wouldn’t it have been more efficient if Herod had succeeded?
Was there more to this baby than just someone who came to die to “wipe the slate clean?”
I don’t know if we communicate the importance of Jesus’ life very well, and I think that problem comes from failing to place Him in the Old Testament’s narrative. I mean we sure like to quote from Isaiah every Christmas, but do we do justice to the narrative that Isaiah is contributing towards? We know that a King will be born, called Wonderful Counselor and Mighty God who will sit on David’s throne bringing a government which will bring peace forever, but do we really know what that means and what that looks like?
If we read the Old Testament, ready to see how Jesus’s mission changed what it means to be a human, I think we can see that Jesus’ government upon which peace will reign forever, is already available right now, amidst the horrible darkness that we all see, when we look at the world around us.
Jesus is the King of Kings, and it is HIM who brings the Old Testament to its conclusion. HE is the point of the story. He isn’t just any king. He is the KING OF KINGS, and we ready to celebrate His birth into this world.

ADVENTure: Daniel and Hanukah

When you look at your spiritual life, do you look for quick easy breakthroughs? Do you look for that one fix that will set your life right? What if your spiritual life looks more like Dragon Ball Z than an 8 episode Netflix series? Goku goes Super Saiyan, beats Freiza, but it turns out that even stronger aliens are waiting for a chance to take Earth. That show is still going, and your life works the same way.

The story section of our ADVENTure comes to its thrilling conclusion, (before the next problem). We approach the end of an age before the King of Glory is born into the world.

Last week we looked at Daniel's prophecy about Jewish people returning to their land after 70 years. However, the curse would continue 490 years (70 7s). This would not be an easy fix.

Last week we looked at the end of the 70 years, the rebuilding of the Temple, the Samaritan enemies to the north, and the building of the walls.

This week, we go back to Daniel and look at what happens over the rest of the 490 years. Israel gets their land, but they do not truly reclaim their place as inheritors of the Abrahamic promise. They are not blessing their neighbors the way that they were intended to do.

As Christians, we believe that could only truly come through Jesus, the child whose birth we soon celebrate.

ADVENTure: Ezra, Nehemiah, and Zecharia

Do you have problems with boundaries?
Do you think the Bible is racist and celebrates racism?
Why does God seem to support war against His “enemies?”
Why does God have “enemies?”
The answer is always in understanding Jesus.
The King of the World, the Savior of Humanity, and the Lover of the Lowly
Born to us, a baby, set to marry all of humanity to its God.

We are near the end of the Old Testament narrative, looking at the return to the Promised Land, and Israel must rebuild itself. What a blessing we have tying all of this to the birth of Christ. I don’t think many people are familiar with this story and those that are might not automatically tie it in with the birth of the savior of the world. As Christians, we believe that Jesus is the entire point of the Old Testament. First, this sets the stage for the emergence of the world as Jesus was born into it. Second, they are building back, but in a way that does not really set them up to fulfill the promise to this world that God made to and through Abraham. They have to rebuild their Temple and rebuild their walls in Ezra and Nehemiah, but if you read the prophet Zechariah, you see that God is preparing the stage for a coming time when Israel will no longer worship in a Temple building and Jerusalem will have no walls.
In this sermon, we see the real emergence of the racism towards Samaritans, and why it has noble, even necessary features.
How can this racial segregation make sense?
First, it isn’t really a racial issue.
Second, we forget how Jesus changes the world and what it means to be human.

For unto us a child was born who would make a world of one tribe, under that child, who does not need to worship in a building, because we will worship Him in Spirit and Truth. The blessing of Abraham has been brought to the nations around the world, and it was only made possible by our King. We refuse to take our King for granted.
We prepare to celebrate His birth.

ADVENTure: Daniel's Dream (actually Advent: Hope)

Advent has been an ADVENTure this year, 6 months long, but we are in the normal ADVENT season as now which is kind of weird, since we’ve been doing it all along, so it will be a little bit different this year. That doesn’t mean it will be THAT tricky. Sermons are kind of like Taco Bell menu options. You can come up with something revolutionary, or something just a little bit different, but it all comes from the same ingredients.
We mentioned Israel returning from Exile last week and we are going to go with prophecy regarding that return. Jeremiah has prophesied that Israel will return in 70 years, but Daneil says that the true restoration is more like 70 7s… the Land has been God’s provision for Israel, but the Land itself is not the mission of Israel… to bless the nations. They will soon get the land back, but the mission will not truly launch again, until the Son of God is born into the world.
Today we talk about prophecy and hope and restoration, looking to Jesus and looking to our future with Jesus and the Mission of God.

ADVENTure: King Josiah and Exile

“What if repentance doesn’t fix it?”

King Josiah takes the throne at 8 years old, soon finds the Book of the Law, tears his clothes, and restores Israel’s faithfulness to the Covenant that God made with Moses. An amazing story of repentance, but God says, too late. Kings Hezekiah and Manasseh went too far and hard times are coming.

Why didn’t God honor Josiah’s efforts? Or did he? Let’s look closer and look at the various ways that God can bless our lives.

ADVENTure: Jonah, Israel, and Judah, Thrown into the Sea.

You really are God's gift to the world, but does God give you to the world as someone who follows him or do you give your gifts to the world independently of your own prayer life?

The big disaster of the Old Testament, Israel conquered, and Judah conquered. What leads to it? Why did it happen? What can we learn from it? How can we apply this to our own lives?

ADVENTure: A Tale of Two Kingdoms

As we pointed out last week, Solomon's wisdom was only a gift to the world, because God used it as a gift to the world. Solomon's disobedience led to disaster in the next generation. Solomon's son, King Rehoboam, ruins nearly everything.

Have you been affected terribly because of decisions that had nothing to do with you? Did it come from your parents, friends, or someone else? Does that seem fair? Does that violate your sense of justice? We have a sense of justice that helps us reflect God in this world. Why would God allow things to happen that violate that justice?

The positives give away the sermon.

Did you know telling people that everything happens for a reason is terrible spiritual abuse?

Let's look at King David, the Messiah, anointed to reign over Israel. A man after God's own heart and the final battle of the civil war, which he was kind of responsible for, killed more people than Gettysburg. In the time of their anointed King, we see wars, rumors of wars, people's heart growing cold, and yet God had a plan then, and perhaps he has a plan today.

The Great 6-Month ADVENTure Saul and David

Do you find yourself relying on something other than God for your ability to thrive and pursue the life that you feel called to live? The people of Israel do not like their form of government because it does not run their country as efficiently. They cry out for a King who could run the country more effectively, but who could also destroy the country more effectively.

God remains faithful and gives them Saul, who He fills with His Spirit, though Saul fails to mess. Saul freaks out about a situation where things might soon be lost, and He does a bad thing for noble reasons. Have you ever done a bad thing for noble reasons?

David on the other hand lets God be God. David trusts God that God will follow through with His promises, even if the promises come through in ways that David could never predict.

Join me as we dig into the drama of Judges.

Today we are going to dig into the early days of Israel in Canaan, and see how a faithful God interacts with a faithless humanity.

We are finishing up the subseries in our survey of the Old Testament, the identifiers that make Israel, Israel. We've looked at the Law, the Priests, the Temple, and today the Festivals.

Let's look at the value of repetition.

ADVENTure 13

We are in our subseries looking at how the nation of Israel became a unified nation with four key identifiers. Two weeks ago, we looked at the Law, then last week, we looked at the Temple, and this week we look at the Priesthood. As we move through the Old Testament we will see that all four of these identifiers play major roles.

When we look at the priesthood of Israel, we have no choice but to look at the sacrifices. Lets look at why we find this off putting, why we no longer do it, and how they still apply to our walk with God to this day.

ADVENTure 12: Israel Identity 2: The Tabernacle

Today is the second sermon in the subseries discussing Israel's identity. We will discuss their mobile temple tent, the Tabernacle. If we understand the Tabernacle, we might be surprised how much it still applies to our life. It certainly provides a critical component to understanding the Old Testament, and helps us place the story of Jesus in its context.

Join us as we internalize the scriptures and make the story of God the story of our lives.

ADVENTure 10 The Identity of God's People part1: The Law.

You do not have to become Jewish to be a Christian, and Paul makes that clear, yet we still have an important relationship to the Law. Many times, the Law which must be understood if you want to understand the Old Testament (and New) is discredited or inflicted on people in damaging ways. Let's look at what the Law was, how it helped bind Israel together, and how it shows how we as Christians will be bound together by what it represents, as well.

Daylight Turns 1 and Israel Crosses the Jordan River!

It's our Birthday, so we are covering the takeover of the Holy Land! There might not be a better example of the importance of Jesus, the hope that He represents, and the way that He has changed what it means to be a human being on this Earth.

In a way it feels like God planted us, parting the Red Sea, and we took a year, molding, pruning, finding out who we are as a group, and we have become a tribe, with an identity. God parted the Red Sea last year, and now I think God is about to part the Jordan River. The time between the separated waters, prepares all of us for the time of mission that comes next.

We are waiting in anticipation for this new era, waiting in expectation to see what a God who has gone before us intends to accomplish.

Exodus into the Wilderness

When God delivers you from your whatever is putting you in bo***ge, you need a montage! But you don't get a montage, sometimes you get 40 years in the wilderness. In the wilderness, you sometimes have to install what you have downloaded, but we follow that plan because we expect that pattern. We follow a God that loves us and delivers us, and will challenge us as we come to find our identity.