Welcome to our Together on Mission podcast, where we seek to be with and like Jesus, as we begin a conversation with Jesus in the morning, through scripture, prayer, and meditation, and then continue that conversation with him throughout your day. Your host is Travis Twynden, the pastor at the Inland Vineyard Church in Corona, California. In this season of the podcast, we're going to be digging deeper into scripture, teaching every day, exploring new ways that we can encounter Jesus and build our relationship with him. So grab your pen, Bible, and a cup of coffee, and let's welcome Pastor Travis.
Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the daily Together on Mission podcast. This is Travis, and it is wonderful to be together. So grab your Bible, grab a cup of coffee, grab a journal, find a spot, go on a walk, take your morning drive to work, wherever it is that you tune in and begin a conversation with Jesus. We're going to be in Luke chapter four, and the title of the podcast this morning is Firsts, and as we know, firsts are always difficult.
The first day snowboarding, the first sermon, as we're going to see in a moment, the first year of marriage can be very difficult, a first job, right? Am I competent? Is the chemistry right? Am I fitting into the culture?
All of those questions. And really, the first few months of any new season, because any new season is a first season, and it can be really, really challenging. And of course, as we know, and if we don't know, I'll just remind us, the enemy loves this. He loves when it's challenging, because then he can come in and be the crafty, you know, liar that he is, try to frame the narrative, and we begin to feel things or think things like, I can't handle this.
I'm not ready. You know, I'm falling apart. I'm failing. I'm not called.
I've made a mistake. This is unrecoverable. I'm not fitting in, whatever it might be. And these are difficult things that the enemy whispers into our hearts to discourage us.
And there's often an opportunity to discourage us because firsts are difficult. Now, as we get in that space, and we think about how difficult firsts can be, we enter into the space that Jesus was almost certainly in right after he preached his first sermon. And so the setting is, you know, Luke chapter four, Jesus is in his hometown in Nazareth. And he goes into the synagogue, and he opens up to the scroll of Isaiah, and he talks about the year of God's favor.
And everyone listening is excited. Oh, God's favor. Great. They all spoke well of him.
They marveled at the things that were falling from his lips. I mean, everything was going good. His hometown was super excited. And then Jesus says in verse 24, but truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in his hometown.
There were many widows in Israel in Elisha's time when there was a famine. Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon, which is Gentile territory. And there were many in Israel with leprosy in the time of Elisha the prophet. Yet none of them was cleansed.
There's only name in the Syrian, a Gentile, and also the commander of the Gentile enemy army. Verse 28, all the people in the synagogue, remember, this is Jesus' first sermon, his hometown. They were furious when they heard this. They got up, drove him out of the town, took him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built in order to throw him off the cliff and kill him.
But he walked right through the crowd, and he went on his way. This was Jesus' first sermon. And it's surprising that he ever had a second sermon after this incredibly difficult experience. And I say this slightly tongue-in-cheek, but maybe it is at this point that Jesus thought, you know what, I should probably speak in parables.
Because when I lay it right down the line that the Gentiles are going to be welcomed on equal footing in the kingdom of God, it looks like that message is not being met with much reception. People literally tried to kill Jesus after his first sermon instead of inviting him to lunch. And if we're honest, firsts can be very difficult. And part of what's happening here, and I said jokingly that this is probably when Jesus began to teach in parables, but I mean that very seriously.
Jesus is learning. He's learning in this first. And the author of Hebrews does say that Jesus learned obedience through what he suffered. And this is obviously a moment of suffering.
I mean, how would you feel if you were given everything you had to preach your first sermon in your hometown, and the village that you grew up in wanted to throw you off the edge of a cliff? So Jesus is learning. How is this going to work? How am I going to calibrate?
What is God calling me to do? This feels very difficult. This feels like suffering. And often first can be like that.
And that's when the enemy comes in and tries to frame the narrative and discourage us. And I'll bet that Jesus thought this was a colossal failure. And often we think that when we're in that first job, that first year of marriage, that first experience of parenting kids, that first sermon, that first counseling appointment, that first leadership post, whatever it is, often we think, oh my gosh, I'm failing. This isn't working.
What's going on? But was this a failure? I mean, think about it. 2,000 years later, I'm doing a podcast.
I'm reading this story. And we're going to be encouraged by this story because it's a powerful story. What Jesus might have thought was a failure, was a colossal success. And that is true in our endeavors as well.
If we listen to the enemy, it's a failure. If we listen to the spirit of God, we're learning what it looks like to continue to move forward with what God has placed in our heart. This is a story that has encouraged so many people. And as we think about Jesus's first sermon or your first whatever or my first whatever, and maybe some of us are experiencing that season right now, firsts develop character.
Firsts solidify calling. Sometimes in difficulty, it brings us back to our calling. And we have to realize, have I been called? Firsts, forge character.
Firsts, allow us to recognize the discouragement and the lies of the enemy and speak against them. You know, firsts help us. You know, this list could go on and on. Firsts help us with compassion and understanding for other people that are struggling.
Firsts keep us from being too arrogant and too teachy of other people. This is how you do it. It's just simple, right? Firsts keep us humble.
Firsts, and we see this with Jesus, firsts develop fortitude and teach us to stay in the game when the game needs to be stayed in. You know, and another thing that I like about the story is that Jesus has gone through what we go through. He felt nervous. He felt ill-equipped.
He felt like throwing in the towel and maybe giving up. He felt discouraged, right? He's experienced all that we experience. And that's so powerful because in the midst of our struggle, in our firsts, we can lean into him and he's not going to give us some Christian cliche because he's gone through it first and he'll be there for us.
And one of the thought that has really encouraged me throughout the years, I often overestimate what God wants to do in the short term, right? At the beginning, you know, the first day, the first season, I often overestimate what God wants to do in the short term, whether it's marriage, vocation, whatever. But I underestimate what God wants to do in the long term. We often overestimate what God wants to do in the short term and underestimate what God wants to do in the long term.
And when we do, the enemy comes in, shapes the narrative, and then we throw in the towel and we quit because we've overestimated what God wants to do in the short term. And in my opinion, and I think this is happening with Jesus, I believe it's happening with us. I think what God is doing in the short term is he's developing the character and the fortitude and the humility and the anchor of the call so that we can handle long term what he indeed wants to do, but that we have probably underestimated. Jesus had a tough first, and we will as well.
And we'll face these challenges, and many of us are right now. And so this morning, let's think about that. Let's think about what Jesus went through in this first sermon, what we're going through, what the enemy is trying to do, what God is trying to do, what it is that we're learning, and let's walk and let's connect with Jesus as we're experiencing what most everyone experiences, including Jesus, when it comes to firsts. We'll talk soon.
Thanks for listening to the Together on Mission podcast. We truly hope that you were blessed and encouraged by it today. If you had any questions about the Inland Vineyard Church, our ministries, or our Sunday services, feel free to connect with us on our brand new app, which you can find in the Google Play and the App Store, and check out our social media pages like Facebook and Instagram, or even check out our website at inlandvineyard.org.