Martin Chairez delivers a powerful message about how the real Jesus gives His followers a voice.

Click here to donate to the program

Click here for more sermons

OC Church of Christ

Please turn your Bibles to Luke chapter 11, Lucas Lucas Capo.

So encouraging to be able to have a worship service.

Lord, what to do?

I?

Yes.

Thank you.

Yes.

Yes.

Kyle?

Uh, Uhoh.

I feel like I'm being prank cuz I didn't buy a donut.

I will repent.

The United States is the second largest Spanish speaking country in the world.

There are more Spanish speakers that live in the United States than

in Argentina, than in Colombia.

Then in Spain, this is a country where the Spanish language

is here and is here to stay.

Whereas in other cultures who bring their own native language, usually by

generation two, that language is gone In the proximity to Latin America, new

generations not being ashamed to be speak Spanish, but embracing their parents'

language and the culture being a communal.

Family oriented culture.

The, the language remains.

Every institution in every industry in the United States has figured that out.

So when you call somewhere, they say

used to be those

moved us up.

Every institution and every industry has embraced a branch for Spanish

in our fellowship of churches.

My wife and I are only one of nine ministers devoted to Spanish

ministry in our, the entire country, in our fellowship of churches.

My position doesn't exist as a Spanish minister for Spanish

ministry in the majority.

Of our churches, and yet we are the second largest Spanish

speaking country in the world.

I say that to say, to bring some context as to how special our

bilingual service is and how we are participating with the new things that

God is doing in the second largest Spanish speaking country in the world.

And so for this English dominant speakers, we thank you for making space where we

can worship publicly in both languages and not be in a corner with headsets

feeling like second class citizens.

But now we are participating in the kingdom with all are welcome and all

can hear in their native language.

Amen.

Luke Chapter 11, the English Ministry.

You guys have been going through the Gospel of Luke, and so I'm grateful.

We're grateful to be able to join in into this passage for us.

We've been going through the gospel of Johnson.

We'll pause that.

We'll enter the world of Luke.

Have in 11 how much bread did the Defriend ask for?

Find your answer, don't tell anyone.

We'll get to it later in Luke chapter nine.

Luke chapter nine in verse 51.

Jesus makes this proclamation as a time.

The scripture says, as a time approach for him to be taken up to heaven.

Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem.

And so from chapter nine, verse 51, all the way in 1928, it's Jesus

and his ministry journeying to Jerusalem in the Christian calendar.

We're on our way to the cross and resurrection, and that's

what's taking place there.

And so then chapter 11 is in the middle of this journey, and

chapter 11 talks about prayer.

And other things that we're gonna unpack for a second, but I, I want

to just kind of set it up here for you before you understand how unique

Chapter 11 is in the context of this journey to death and resurrection.

So look, chapter 11,

here's a breakdown of Luke Chapter 11.

This breakdown is an invitation for you to take some time this week and

to dive into one of those things.

So we see prayer, power, signs and critics pod.

It's a very dense chapter, in fact, chapter 11 and chapter 14.

There's a lot of content and teaching back to back, to back, to back, to back.

That for the reader can be a little overwhelming and easy to miss some things.

But again, it's right in the middle of that journey.

But we're gonna not talk about all of these, but we'll talk about powers and

then we'll go back to the beginning.

Prayer.

So I'm just gonna kind of summarize it here in Luke 11, verse 14 to 28.

It says there that Jesus healed a man that was muted.

Verse 14, sorry, as Jesus was driving out a demonn that was muted when the Demonn

left, the man who had been muted spoke and the crowd was amazed and author.

And then later, Jesus here, right away, he's accused that he's

driving out demons by a demonn.

And then Jesus responds just with logic like, Hey, if saint's divided

against Satan, it's gonna collapse.

Like he just kind of is gently just kind of breaking it down

logically to his critics.

And then there's a lady at the end, you know, bless is the mother who bore you.

And Jesus is like, that's cool, but it's better to trust and believe in God.

And so we see two extremes in the middle of this teaching and this miracle, one

extreme is hyper critical of Jesus.

And the other extreme just kind of that people, people that tell you what

they want you, they want you to hear.

But I love how Jesus kind of handles both and brings them back to trusting in God.

Oh,

that says a lot about Jesus who can take critics and people pre pleasing praise and

not be shaken, but be able to attend to both and bring them to God centeredness.

Because we can relate to the critics.

We may not accuse Jesus of doing things in the power of Satan, but

we may feel like Jesus is absent or not working in your favor.

You said you'd love me.

You said you'd be there.

Where are you?

Maybe we have resentment at times, especially when difficult

things are taking place.

Or maybe we're in the other extreme.

This is the best life ever.

Oh my goodness.

Yay.

I mean, it is, but life is real.

The struggles, there's ups, there's downs.

God is not expecting us to be in this hyper bubble either.

So it says a lot about God who can take the spaces where we can

be and bring us back to God vent.

Jesus.

Jesus.

Now Luke is doing something a little cool here.

Love gospel.

Luke, at the beginning of Luke Zacharia doesn't trust God.

God's messenger and he's muted.

Elizabeth Trust that might be a sign.

Brothers , I'm leave it right there.

Elizabeth.

And now there's a demonn that can mute people.

So we see a God who mutes arias can Muk And we see a demonn that can mute.

Luke is letting us know we're bringing both powers into the ring.

Both have powers.

And so it makes more sense when you read that passage when Jesus is talking about

the strong man, what he's talking about.

I'll leave that for your own personal Bible study,

sir,

and in verse 20 it says, but if I drive Jesus, this is what Jesus says.

But if I drive out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come

upon you again, using logic to help them understand, I'm God helping you out here.

Now this is a reference, as you can see, finger of God.

It's a reference to Exodus chapter eight,

what's happening, Exodus.

God is displaying God's power to emancipate the enslaved people

in Israel and freedom from the bondage of Pharaoh's system.

But Pharaoh is pushing back and God sends a plague and the magicians

respond with something similar.

And so we see a coalition of powers.

Am I, are you gonna be enslaved and new to muted?

Why are you gonna be freed and be able to pray as we are gonna get to you?

See all of that, the contrast of the God who wants us to pray.

Who wants us to be free?

Luke chapter four, here to set the captives free

and the demons who want to keep you silenced, Barrow, who wants to keep

you enslaved and under his bondage.

So there's a lot happening in Luke that we should play close attention to.

But the magicians tried to produce Nats by their secret arts.

They could not, since the Nats were on people and animals

everywhere, the magicians set to Pharaoh, they just gave up.

This is the finger of God, the same thing Jesus is saying.

That's a direct reference.

Jesus is kind of letting him know.

Listen, you guys are like the magicians of Pharaoh.

Let me free my people.

Luke chapter four.

Stop trying to keep people in religious bondage.

Stop accusing me.

I'm here to.

Can translate that one.

It's cultural

Are you in bondage?

Have you been muted to find yourself able to?

Find yourself, be able to share what's really going on.

Find yourself not having the people in the space here, how you're feeling.

Do you feel censored?

Do you feel trapped?

There is a God who can walk you through and give you a voice and give you and

a space to be God centered and freed.

And if you look into that passage, you see the call.

As you remove things, you need to replace them.

I'm all about deconstruction, but how are you gonna re, what are you gonna replace?

That way it's good to.

critic about certain things.

I think that's healthy and I think that's good.

But if we don't replace it with God's centerness, we may end up

in a better, a worse situation.

So God is letting us know.

Say what you need to say.

I'll listen to you.

He didn't ignore the critic.

He'd ignore the people pleasing person.

He attended to them to bring him, because God's power is listening to us and giving

us a voice so that we can speak to him.

The power of a relationship with the living God.

Good on that.

We gotta translate.

Let's go.

Let's talk about prayer now.

We're going backwards here and we'll end right here with communi.

, can we go to the next slide?

Thank you.

So let's talk about prayer.

Next slide.

For some reason, there we go.

Let's read this,

this very short prayer compared to Matthew, but there's a lot there.

Are you guys doing right?

You good?

Yeah.

We're we're, we're together here.

Yeah.

You're committing to buy more donuts.

. They stopped my controller, so I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm committing

here so I can, all right.

One day Jesus was praying as in a certain place that tells you

so much about God right there.

That tells you so much about Jesus.

Luke is constantly highlighting the prayer life of Jesus.

When he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, Lord, teach us to pray.

Just as John taught his disciples, that tells you so much about what

it means to be a follower of Jesus because these guys are learners.

They're humble, they're paying attention.

They have a desire to learn more from the living God.

He's said to them, when you pray, say, father, all be your name, your

kingdom come give us that have been highlighted each day our daily bread.

Forgive us, our sin for we also forgive everyone who sins against

us and lead us not into temptation.

The brilliance of Luke that he's able to pack all of these themes in

Luke into, or verses into an outline.

of prayer because this is a communal prayer.

We talked about personal muteness, but now we look at communal expressions of faith.

Let me read in Spanish.

Jesus.

Anyway, all right.

Lemme go.

And.

So last we, we, last time we spoke in English few seconds ago, we talked

about how Luke packs everything.

Most of the themes of Luke in these four verses, let's see them.

We see Jesus prayer life.

In these four verses, we see the followers as learners.

We see the importance of prayer life of the church cuz it's Luke in Acts.

And so the church is constantly in prayer.

We see the God centeredness about this.

The, the students are asking, we wanna learn to pray for what

reason, to connect with God.

Sometimes we wanna learn to do something.

This is a posture of learning to be someone, because when you're stuck

in a cycle, will you read your Bible just to give a lesson that's not God's

centerness, that's performance oriented.

Protect your relationship with God, God's future breaking into the present

because he says, you know, your kingdom come the Old Testament connections

to God providing to his people.

In four verses, Luke is wrapping up the major narratives of scripture

and then the emphasis on forgiveness.

That's a big one.

That's a complicated one.

Can we say that?

That's a complicated one, but God don't mute.

, but don't let me be muted.

Help me to pray or forgiveness and to forgive.

That's a personal prayer and a church prayer.

Release our debts cuz he came to set the captive free the year of the

Jubilee where equality mutuality can take place in the kingdom of God.

And obviously the trials and temptations that come not from God, but because

of the consequences of following God.

God's not out there trying to figure out how you can fail.

Let me test you to see that you are not complete.

Therefore you can turn and need me more.

That's not.

God listens to critics and walks them through into God's centerness.

God listens to out of touch people and moves them into God, centerness,

and then says, call me Father.

Pray for this.

Pray with others.

Be part of a community.

So the trials are not the God who's trying to get you.

The trials are the consequences of life when you're trying to follow God.

So as we wrap up, once he teaches this prayer,

he gives them two parables to encourage 'em even more to pray.

The Demonn wanted to mute.

Yes.

God muted Aria, but only so that Aria can listen to God.

And when he heard Little John be, be born

cool.

John the Baptist spoke Spanish . That's how he said it.

. That's how he said.

So we'll close with this and we're gonna take communion.

This is the parable.

He gives the parable of the friend, right?

How many loafs of bread that the friend asked for Spanish

three.

Is that by chance?

Is that a random, first of all, it's random that at midnight

you're gonna go ask for bread.

But then in that randomness you're asking for three specific.

In the, after the parable of the friend, he gives a parable of.

Again, I don't want you to just pray.

Let me convince you to pray.

Let me give an example that's friendly, a friend.

Let me give you even a more intimate example.

Father, let's make parenthesis that word also can be complicated for some of us.

Wanna acknowledge that.

So it says, so.

I say to you, ask and it will be given to you.

Speak and you will find knock and the door will be open to you.

For everyone who ask receives the one who seeks, finds, and the one who knock.

The door will be open.

All of these are connected to what just happens later.

How can you ask if you're muted?

You're not muted anymore, right?

The whole house strongman analogy, knocking on the door and all that.

All right, that's for your homework.

Which of your fathers, if your son asks for a PlayStation, will you give him

an Xbox instead , or if he asks for an egg, will you give him a scorpion?

If you then though you are able, what?

We won't get into that one right there.

I don't know if it means what it sounds like.

It means know how to give good gifts to your children.

How much more will your father in heaven give the Holy Spirit the those?

Did you catch that?

This is a Trinitarian passage.

How many loaves of bread?

I say to you, son, father in heaven, holy Spirit,

as we take communion, we can remember that the Trinitarian God in our times of

need, he will give us our daily bread.

And Luke might be making a connection here saying, I know what you need.

I am available.

To you more than a friend, more than a dad.

I'm available to you, but are you available to me?

Are you seeking?

Are you asking?

Are you knocking?

God is saying, can you join me from this space and that space?

Can you join me?

Ask me.

Can you join me and seek me?

Can you join me and knock on my door?

I'm going to give you what you need.

Will we have a relationship?

Yes.

Connected.

Don't be in bondage.

Don't be muted.

We take communion knowing that God is at work in the broken world,

calling us to participate and need what he will meet our needs.

We are called to seek, knock and to ask.

Let's pray now.

We're so grateful to be able to dive into Luke 11.

We pray we can listen to the things that you wanted us to hear today.

We pray to be in tune, that you are the God who wants us to have a voice,

who wants to free us, but is also is asking us, desiring us to be students

who wanna know you more, to seek to ask.

We take communion in celebration of your love.