The Holy Spirit: sending out God’s S.O.S. to the world

_{Pentecost Sunday 19^th May 2024 | Message by Pastor Rolly Stahl | The Holy Spirit: sending out God’s S.O.S. to the world | John 16:5-11; Acts 2:1-5; 14a; 22b-24; 32-41}

What does SOS stand for?  Save Our Souls.  It’s a distress call when people are in great danger and need rescuing.  Like when a ship is sinking. 

In 1979, a band called The Police released a song called Message in a Bottle.  It’s the story of a lonely castaway stuck on a deserted island.  He sends his SOS to the world via a message in a bottle, hoping someone would get it – so he can be rescued.

I wonder: If you could send God an SOS in 15 words or less, what would it say?
What would be your distress call at this time in your life?

Maybe we’d write:

“God please help me in my struggle with… (cancer, health issues, loneliness, grief, depression, conflict, financial stress…).”

Or: “God, rescue me from this mess, crisis, or overwhelming situation.’

Or: “God, deal with those who torment me.”

About 2,000 years ago on the day of Pentecost, God sent his own urgent message to the world.  It wasn’t a cry of distress.  Instead, it was God’s reply to all our distress calls. 

It was the message of how God Saves Our Souls.

Today on Pentecost Sunday, we see how the Holy Spirit brings the Good News of Jesus to a lost and hurting world – and opens hearts to receive him. 

Shortly before his death and resurrection, Jesus told his disciples:   

“Now I am going away to the one who sent me, and not one of you is asking where I am going.  Instead, you grieve because of what I’ve told you.  But in fact, it is best for you that I go away, because if I don’t, the Advocate won’t come. If I do go away, then I will send him to you.” (John 16:5-7 NLT).

Jesus’ talk of leaving must have been shocking news for the disciples.  I can imagine them asking: “But Jesus, why are leaving us?  How will we manage without you?”

Answer: With help from the Holy Spirit, whom Jesus calls the Advocate or the Counselor.  The Greek word (paraclaytos) refers to “one who is called to come alongside”.  It can be translated: advocate, counsellor, encourager, comforter, intercessor, helper, or friend. 

When Jesus was with them in the flesh, he could only be in one place at a time – with one group at a time. But when the Holy Spirit came, Jesus could be with his disciples everywhere … all the time – including us! It’s how Jesus keeps his promise: “I am with you always – till the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:20).

Jesus had to complete his saving work and return to the Father before sending the Holy Spirit.  Then at Pentecost, God’s Saviour of Souls was broadcast to the world.

Friends, there are two sides of the Holy Spirit’s SOS to us:

1. The Holy Spirit Shows Our Sin (or shows our stubbornness/selfishness)

Jesus says: “And when he (the Advocate/Counsellor) comes, he will convict the world of its sin, and of God’s righteousness, and of the coming judgment.  The world’s sin is that it refuses to believe in me.” (John 16:8-9 NLT).

The Greek word for convict[1] has two meanings:

      1. to convict a person of their errors
      2. to convince a person of the truth       

John probably intends both meanings – because they go hand in hand.  Let me illustrate.

Friends, imagine a courtroom where a case is being presented before judge and jury.  A legal “counselor” – or prosecutor – is cross examining a defendant who has been pleading: “NOT GUILTY”.  As the counsellor presents the evidence, and asks probing questions about the evidence, it becomes obvious to the defendant that he can no longer hide his guilt.  The truth of the evidence has convinced the defendant that his earlier denials are futile.  He is now convicted to admit: “I did it!  I’m guilty!  What I did was wrong!”

In our relationship with God, we need the Holy Spirit to convince us of God’s truth AND convict us as sinners.  Why?  Because our human pride hates admitting our failures!  We tend to think we can impress God.  That on balance, we’ve done more good than bad – and that should be enough to get into God’s good books.

Our capacity for self-righteousness quickly surfaces when someone points out our faults.  How do we reply?  We tell them to mind their own business!  Or we justify ourselves, make excuses, blame someone else, or compare ourselves with an axe wielding murderer…and claim we’re not so bad after all! 

Friends, if you think you’re a righteous person, take a notebook and pen, and one by one interview all your family members – asking this question: “Where do you think I can improve in my character?”  Then listen and take notes without interrupting! 

Let’s go deeper.  How well does God know you?  God knows your heart.  He not only knows your words and deeds, but your secret desires, thoughts, and motives.  

God knows when you’re rejecting him to do your own thing.  God knows when you’re cheating, when you’re lying, when you’re lusting, or when you’re coveting.  If God were to flash up your darkest thoughts and deeds on the screen in front of us, would you claim to be good enough to impress God with your righteousness?  I wouldn’t!  I’d die of embarrassment!   

Friends, what’s the pass-mark to make ourselves righteous in God’s eyes?  100% perfect, 100% of the time.  One selfish, greedy, lustful, or spiteful thought – and BAM, we’ve blown it!  One mean or nasty word – and BAM, we’ve blown it.  Truth is, I make hundreds of mistakes every single day – in thought, word, and deed.  And so do you!  

Anyone who thinks they’re good enough to get right with God on their own merits is self-deluded!  The Holy Spirit breaks that delusion. 

The Holy Spirit Shows our Sin, convicting us of how it is from God’s point of view.  It’s not something we like to hear, but unless we do, we will always by-pass the cross of Christ.

The cross is what God thinks of our sin.  God cannot pretend it doesn’t matter. Being pure and holy, God must deal with it.  He must judge it, condemn it, and punish it.  The message of the cross exposes our darkness for what it really is! 

In our Pentecost reading from Acts 2, note how Peter reminds the Jerusalem Jews what they did to Jesus:

“With the help of lawless Gentiles (the Romans), you nailed him to a cross and killed him. But God released him from the horrors of death and raised him back to life… So let everyone in Israel know for certain that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, to be both Lord and Messiah!” (Acts 2:23-24, 36 NLT).

What happened when the people heard this?  Peter’s words pierced their hearts (Acts 2:37 NLT).  They were convicted for rejecting their promised Messiah.  They knew they deserved God’s punishment.  Cut to the heart they asked, “Brothers, what should we do?” (Acts 2:37 NLT).  The Holy Spirit convinced them of their need for God’s mercy.

Years ago, a missionary in India was telling the story of Jesus by means of lantern slides projected onto the whitewashed wall of a village house.  When the picture of the cross was shown, one of the locals stepped forward, as if he couldn’t help it.  “Come down!” he cried.  “I should be hanging there – not you!” 

Why should the sight of a man crucified in Palestine 2,000 years ago still tear the hearts of people throughout the world today?  That’s the Holy Spirit at work in our hearts by Showing our Sin.  To open our hearts to Jesus, the Holy Spirit must empty us of ourselves.  Then we’re ready for God’s second SOS. 

2. The Holy Spirit Shows Our Saviour

Stuck in the mud of our guilt and shame, we need rescuing.  Thank God for sending Jesus to save us!  Jesus took the blame for our guilt and shame.  He suffered and died as our substitute.  Paul writes: For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ. (2 Corinthians 5:21 NLT).

The Holy Spirit enables us to trust that Jesus has made us right with God. Jesus’ resurrection proves his righteousness.  If he were a sinner, he would have remained dead.  But through his resurrection, our heavenly Father vindicated Jesus’ innocence, confirmed his claims to be Messiah and the Son of God, and endorsed his promises.

By receiving Jesus’ righteousness as our own – we stand forgiven and innocent before a holy God.   

John reminds us of God’s desire to save us – and how believing in Jesus changes our standing with God: 

For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.  God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.  There is no judgment against anyone who believes in him.  But anyone who does not believe in him has already been judged for not believing in God’s one and only Son.[2] (John 3:16-18 NLT).

Jesus promises: “I tell you the truth, those who listen to my message and believe in God who sent me have eternal life. They will never be condemned for their sins, but they have already passed from death into life.” (John 5:24 NLT).

In closing, there’s another SOS

Now that Jesus lives in our hearts by faith, the Holy Spirit empowers us to Share Our Saviour with others.  It’s what the Holy Spirit did through those first disciples.  The Holy Spirit wants to do the same through us: to share God’s Saviour of Souls with the world!

In Jesus’ name, may our heavenly Father fill us with the Holy Spirit, so we can share the love and good news of Jesus with others. Amen.  (c.1700)

_{An audio version of this message is available on St John’s Lutheran Church Tea Tree Gully YouTube page: www.youtube.com/@stjohnslutheranttg}

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[1] The Greek word is elegcho.  In some Bibles, John 16:8 has a footnote letter after convict the world of guilt ^a  suggesting an alternative translation – Or: will expose the guilt of the world.  Guilt is exposed by the light of God’s truth shining into our human hearts.

[2] Note again what Jesus says in John 16:9 (NLT): “The world’s sin is that it refuses to believe in me.”

Spend Less (2 Peter 3:8-15a)

We have a moneybox in our home where we put our loose change. Every now and then I’ll open the moneybox to check on how much is in it and then we do something with the cash we find.

The big question then becomes: how were we going to spend the money?

The other day I opened our moneybox to discover about $10 in it. I started imagining what I could do with the extra $10, such as buying a coffee and cake at a local bakery, fuel for my motorbike to go for a quick ride in the Hills, or some Christmas lollies to share with our family.

As I was contemplating the possibilities that a bonus $10 could offer, I saw this year’s Gifts of Grace catalogue from Australian Lutheran World Service sitting on the benchtop. I started wondering see what $10 could buy. I discovered that $5 will buy tree saplings for people in a refugee camp in Bangladesh, $6 will purchase a mobility kit for someone in Kenya who has a disability, $8 will help care for an elderly refugee in Kenya, $9 will provide a 20 litre water tank for a family in Indonesia, and $10 will feed babies in Myanmar.

As I looked through the catalogue and contemplated what my $10 could provide for someone in real need in another part of the world, my coffee, motorbike ride and Christmas lollies didn’t seem that important. Let’s face it, $10 doesn’t seem like very much, especially when we compare it to the $18.8 billion Australians spent on Christmas last year (which works out to about $969 per household on average). We can easily justify spending $10 on something we want, but if we combined $10 from every household around Australia, it would add up to a lot of money! When we compare what we want with the real needs people have in Australia and other parts of the world, we can find ourselves being challenged to re-think how we spend our money, especially at Christmas.

One lesson we are trying to teach our children is the difference between what we want and what we need. They will often come to us, telling us that they ‘need’ something, when really they just want it. It is an important distinction to apply to our lives, no matter how old we are. There are lots of things that we think we ‘need’ which are really just things we want. This doesn’t mean it is bad or wrong to want things. It is important to keep 1 Timothy 6:17b in mind when we talk about how we spend our money, because it teaches us that God ‘richly gives us all we need for our enjoyment’ (NIV). God might not give us everything we want, but he promises to give us what we need and he wants us to enjoy his gifts to us. It is also important to keep in mind that one way in which God gives other people what they need is through us. He gives us more than we need, not so we can be self-indulgent with his gifts, but to provide for others who are in need through us.

As we look at the second week of the Advent Conspiracy, we are encouraged to think about our spending at Christmas under the theme of Spend Less. This isn’t about being miserly or Scrooge-like in our spending. Instead, it challenges us to think about how much we spend at Christmas in comparison to the needs people have around the world, or even in our own communities. This becomes especially important if we get caught up in the spending tsunami at Christmas and we end up with so much debt that we spend a lot of the coming year trying to pay it off. I understand that a healthy economy needs people to spend money, in particular after the challenges businesses have faced this year with the COVID-19 restrictions, but we still need to be careful that we are not overextending ourselves financially and getting ourselves further in debt for the sake of buying a whole lot of stuff that we don’t need or that other people don’t actually want.

2 Peter 3:8-15a reminds us that everything in this world will pass away and disappear one day. If the focus of our lives is on making and spending money, then our efforts become pretty futile when we realise that nothing we have will last. Again, keeping 1 Timothy 6:17 in mind, it’s not bad or wrong because God gives us gifts to enjoy. However, if the main purpose of our lives is to make money and spend it on things that won’t last, then our lives are in danger of lacking any real meaning. Everything we buy is temporary, no matter how good it looks, how nice it tastes, or how much fun it is. God creates us for eternity. When we invest what God has given us into people, especially those in need, instead of things that are temporary, then what we do has significance which can literally last forever.

One element of living ‘holy and godly lives’ (v11 NLT) is thinking about how we use the gifts God has given us. To help our congregation think through how we are spending the money God has blessed us with, we are challenging our people to raise $5000 to partner with a village through the ALWS Gifts of Grace. We are challenging the people connected with our community of faith to think about what we are doing with the money God has given to us and ask how he would prefer that we use those resources. By sharing what God has first given us with those in need, we participate with God in filling the world with his righteousness (v13). For example, I could spend the $10 in our moneybox on coffee and cake, or maybe some Christmas treats for the kids. Or I can put it in an envelope, write AC Village or something similar on the front, and place it in the offerings this Sunday at worship. It’s easy to know which option will have the greater long-term significance…

Everything we have is a gift from our God who loves us and provides us with everything we need for this life and the next. God doesn’t always give us what we want, but because of Jesus’ incarnation, life, death, and resurrection for us, God promises to always give us what we need. He doesn’t just do this for ‘good’ people, but for everyone! (see Matthew 5:44,45) As God pours his grace into our lives, he asks us to show the same grace to others so he can provide for them through us.

How much money will you spend this Christmas? What might happen if you reduced your spending by one tenth, a quarter, or even more? Or what if you gave one less present, or asked for one less gift, and gave that money to someone who really needed it? Can we escape the trap of uncontrolled spending and rampant consumerism, and bring God’s goodness and righteousness into people’s lives who need it in the most basic of ways this Christmas?

More to think about & discuss:

• How much money do you think you will spend this Christmas? Are you comfortable with that amount? Explain why or why not…?
• What is your reaction when you read how much Australians spent at Christmas last year? Can you give reasons for why you react that way?
• What do you hear 2 Peter 3:8-15a teaching us about the things we spend a lot of time, effort and money on, especially at Christmas? What are your thoughts about what Peter might be saying to us?
• Peter encourages Christians to live ‘holy and godly lives’ (v11 NLT). What do you think that might look like in our time and place, especially as we celebrate Christmas?
• How might spending less and sharing some of that money with people in need help bring God’s righteousness to the world? Is that something you would like to be part of? Explain why…
• The Advent Conspiracy is basically about asking if there is a better way to celebrate Christmas. When you compare the amount of money you’ll spend this Christmas with the needs of people around the world or in your own community, do you think it would be good to find a better way to celebrate Christmas? How might committing to spend less help us find greater meaning in your Christmas celebrations?
• How do you plan to spend less this Christmas?

You can find a video version of this message by following this link: https://youtu.be/ousz2pi1itw

God bless you so his righteousness can fill the world through you!

Who Do We Serve? (Romans 6:12-23)

What do you think would be the best job in the world?

Sometimes I like to ask younger people what they want to do when they grow up or leave school. They sometimes give answers like a police officer, ballet dancer, secret agent, footballer, or a whole range of other things. I wonder, though, no matter how old we are, what your ideal job would be. What do you reckon would be the best job in the world?

I am also curious what you think the worst job in the world might be. There used to be a television show called Dirty Jobs where the show’s presenter would talk to people who had some of the most disgusting work you could imagine, and then gave that job a try. Some of the worst jobs he looked at included a sewer inspector, a cow inseminator, a concrete chipper, and a snake researcher who would squeeze out the contents of a snake’s stomach to examine their diet. What is the worst job you can think of?

Now, imagine your life if this was your job. Every day you would get out of bed to go to the worst work you can think of. What would that be like for you? Would you continue doing that job because that is all you know? What if someone offered you the best job you can think of? Would you decide that the job offer must be too good to be true? Would you not want to risk giving up your old job in case it didn’t work out? Would you continue to go back, day after day, to the same dirty, gross work? Or would you take the opportunity and accept the job that had been offered to you?

We can react negatively to Paul’s use of the word slave in Romans 6:12-23, but we need to remember that Paul was writing in a different social context. We reject slavery because it abuses people’s fundamental human rights. We condemn it because it exploits and devalues people who have been made in God’s image and for whom Jesus gave his life. When Paul refers to slavery in the New Testament, I do not believe he is arguing that slavery is an acceptable practice. In Paul’s time it was part of their culture. Today, thankfully, we know better. As we read Romans 6:12-23, we can still learn something from what Paul wrote because, as he explains in verse 19, he uses the practice of slavery as an illustration to teach us something about what it means to live in the reality of God’s grace.

One important difference between slavery in Paul’s time and the way we work today is that slaves didn’t have regular working hours. They weren’t casual, part-time or even full-time employees who could go home at the end of their working day. Slaves were in their situation all day, every day, often for their entire lives. When Paul writes about slavery, he is referring to something that impacted people’s entire existence and defined their identity, belonging and purpose. He wasn’t just talking about a job – he was referring to a way of life.

Paul draws a sharp contrast between two ways of living which is even more dramatic that the contrast between the best and worst jobs we can imagine. On the one hand is a life that is dominated and controlled by sin. Paul doesn’t just think of ‘sin’ as doing something wrong, the way we sometimes do. Instead, he uses words like ‘impurity’ and ‘lawlessness’ (v19 NLT), ‘ashamed’ and ‘death’ (v21 NIV). This gives us a broader understanding of sin as those things in our lives that make us unclean or dirty, that bring shame on us and ultimately take life from us emotionally, psychologically, spiritually, or physically.

In sharp contrast Paul also describes what it means to be a slave to righteousness (v18). This sounds like a contradiction, because when Paul writes about being set free from slavery to sin (vv18,22 NLT) we would assume that people who have been liberated are no longer slaves. This is where we need to remember that Paul seems to be thinking of something that is part of our lives every hour of every day, not just a casual or part-time job. When we become ‘slaves to righteous living’ (v18 NLT), this righteousness becomes part of our being in which we constantly live. ‘Righteous living’ isn’t just about our behaviours or actions. It is who we are as people who have been made right through faith in Jesus.

In the same way that I asked you if you would accept the best job in the world if you had been working in the worst job in the world, Paul is asking his readers if they want to give themselves to righteousness if they had up to that point been working in sin’s household. As we have seen, Paul connects sin with shame, being unclean or dirty, and death. He then describes the qualities of righteous living as holiness and eternal life (vv19,22). This holiness is a big concept and carries with it a range of different meanings. It means to be pure, clean, uncontaminated, set apart for God, or sanctified. It means receiving God’s holiness as a gift and growing to be more like God because one of God’s essential characteristics is holiness. Becoming slaves to righteous living isn’t about following a set of rules or trying harder to be a ‘good’ or ‘nice’ person. Righteous living that leads to holiness is more like having all the filth washed off us when we have spent our working lives as a sewer inspector, and being made clean from all the shame and dirt we used to live in as slaves to sin. The righteousness that leads to holiness is, in Paul’s thinking, living our entire lives in the goodness of God which is reflected through our lives in everything we do and say.

We can live in this righteousness because Jesus has set us free from sin. When Paul writes, ‘now you wholeheartedly obey this teaching we have given you’ (v17 NLT) he is talking about faith in the gospel of Jesus (see Romans 1:5). We are only able to ‘choose to obey God’ (v16 NLT) or ‘offer’ ourselves to the ‘obedience’ of faith (v16 NIV) because Jesus has liberated us from slavery to sin through his life, death and resurrection for us. Slaves had no choice about who they served. They were bought and sold like cattle. As people who have been set free from slavery to sin when Jesus redeemed us or bought us back by giving his life for us on the cross, now we are free to give ourselves and our lives to either sin or righteousness.

We were trapped in shame, dirt, and death because of the debt of our sin. Jesus paid our debt in full by his death on the cross, so now we are free to choose. Do we want to go back to the worst job in the world? Or do we want to step in faith into our most ideal job? Will we go back to slavery to sin with the shame, dirt, and death that it brings? Or will we walk in the obedience of faith into a new reality which gives us holiness and a life that is stronger than death?

More to think about & discuss:

• What do you think would be the best job in the world? Why do you think it would be so good?
• What do you think would be the worst job in the world? Why do you think it would be so bad?
• If you were working in the worst job in the world and someone offered you the best job in the world, would you accept it? Explain why you would do that…
• Why do you think Paul used the illustration of ‘slavery’ for living in either sin or righteous living? What might be some of the problems with this illustration in our cultural context? What might be another way that Paul could illustrate the same idea to people of our time?
• Paul contrasts a life of sin with shame, dirt, and death, with righteous living that brings holiness and eternal life. Which sounds better to you? Do you think it might be easier to live in one or the other? Can you explain why you think that…?
• Why might people find it hard to leave a bad job for a better one? What does that tell us about why some people might find it hard to leave a life of sin for a life of righteousness?
• What do you imagine a life of righteous living might look like?
• We are able to live in either sin or righteousness because Jesus has redeemed and liberated us through his life, death and resurrection for us. Why do you think this message of freedom can be such an important part of the gospel of Jesus?
• As a community of faith, how can we help each other live in righteousness that leads to holiness and eternal life? How might you be able to help someone do that this week?

You can also find a video version of this message by following this link: https://youtu.be/wclr5JQBBc0

God bless!

Persistent in Prayer (Luke 18:1-8)

When I was serving as a pastor in Lutheran schools, there were times when I would be teaching a class and students would ask me for things such as going to their locker, getting a drink, sitting with their friend, and so on. If my answer was ‘no’ it usually wouldn’t take long before they would come and ask me again. If my reply was still ‘no’ they would come back to me again and again in the hope that I would give them what they were asking for. I wondered sometimes whether my answer of ‘no’ was interpreted as ‘not now, but if you come back enough times you’ll get what you’re asking for.’

These experiences in the classroom, and more recently as a parent, helps me to understand the perspective of the judge in Jesus’ story. The widow kept coming back to him, asking him for the same thing, until she got what she wanted. The big difference between the widow and the students in my classes was that their requests were usually for things to make their life easier or more convenient. The widow in the story, however, was asking for justice.

We don’t know exactly what the ‘justice’ was that the widow was asking for from the judge. What that does, though, is give us room to read the injustices that we experience into Jesus’ story to help make it our story. In some way, though, the widow had been wronged. Something had happened to her or been done to her which was unjust and not right. She was looking for someone to make the wrong she had experienced in her life right again. Her desire for justice was a hope that someone with more authority than she had would do for her what she couldn’t do for herself and make right the wrongs that had been done to her.

There are times in our lives when we can probably identify what she was going through. We all witness or experience wrongs of one kind or another. This is because the world is not the way God intended it to be. When we read the creation story from Genesis 1, at the end of each day (however you want to interpret that period of time) God saw that what he had created was good. When we look at the world now, though, it seems a long way from that goodness. We can see conflicts and natural disasters happening all over the world. Closer to home, our nation is suffering from social, cultural and environmental wrongs. Our relationships can go wrong for a range of reasons, either what we have done or has been done to us. Even within ourselves, there are things that are wrong that might not be our fault, but still take life from us and from others. Wherever we look, we can see that there is something wrong with the world in which we live.

This wasn’t how God intended life to be, so in Jesus he did what was needed to set the wrong things right again. This is one way we can understand the biblical role of a judge. When we read the Book of Judges from the Old Testament, we can see that they were not people who sentenced offenders in a court of law. Instead, the Old Testament judges were people God raised up to right the wrongs that were being done to God’s people. This flows from an understanding of God as judge, who makes the wrong things in the world right again through his justice, grace and love.

Ultimately, God establishes his reign of justice in the world through Jesus. When he was born, he entered this world-gone-wrong and took its wrongs on himself. Jesus embraced everything that is wrong with us, our relationships and our world on himself, and takes it to the cross where he puts it all to death. This is one way of understanding the idea that Jesus takes away the sin of the world – he overcomes all that is wrong with this existence in his crucifixion, even death itself.

Jesus then restores us and all creation to its original state of being good and right in his resurrection. When Jesus was raised to new life, he triumphed over the wrongs of the world and set things right again so that we can live in right relationships with God, ourselves, other people and all of creation. This is what is called ‘the righteousness of God’ – his gift to us of making everything that is wrong in us right again through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. We can also call this God’s justice as Jesus removes the wrongs that infect us and all creation and fills us with God’s goodness.

As long as we live in this world we will still encounter its wrongs in one way or another. That is why Jesus encourages his followers to ‘pray and never give up’ (v1). The widow in his story kept asking the unjust judge for justice because she believed that he could make the wrongs in her life right again. Jesus is encouraging us to believe that God is good and just, that he can and will bring about justice for us as well. Jesus is contrasting the character of the unjust judge with our just God and saying that if the judge in the story ended up providing justice for the widow, how much more will God bring justice for us when we look to him for it?

Where do you see or experience the injustice of this world? In what ways are the wrongs of this world robbing you of the life God has for you in Jesus? God can and will bring justice to the world and to our lives. In Jesus, God embraces all that is wrong with us and our world and makes us right again through his grace.

When we believe that, when we trust that good news, then asking God to set the wrong things right again will be a natural thing for us to do. Things are what they are, but they don’t have to continue to be that way. In Jesus, God makes all things new and sets things right again. This faith gives us good reason to always pray for God’s justice to reign in us and never give up.