Welcome to our Together on Mission Podcast, when we seek to be with and like Jesus, as we begin a conversation with Jesus in the morning, the scripture, prayer and meditation, and then continue that conversation with him throughout your day. Your hopes to strabish find you, the pastor at the Inland Vineyard Church in Corona, California. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the Together on Mission Podcast. It's Wednesday morning, and it's great to be together.
It really is. What a great morning to start a conversation with Jesus. And so we're going to do just that in the Gospel of Luke, and then as friends, their friends of Jesus, we're going to continue that conversation with Jesus throughout the rest of the day. So Luke chapter 20, we're going to get a famous story in just a moment, but first the title of the podcast is Our Little Battles.
And I know, I know my little battles seem like big battles, and I'm sure your little battles seem like big battles. And so you might be irritated with me about calling your big battles, little battles. You might even be a little bit irritated. I think I'm a little bit irritated.
And our little battles that we fight seem so big, you know, so important, so immense, so all-consuming, but they're really not. They're really just all about us. But again, they seem big. They really do.
Like, you know, I'm not going to let that person go as the object of my anger. I'm not going to forgive. I'm going to hold this line, you know. I'm going to be right about that in my marriage.
I'm going to win this argument in my marriage. I'm going to show my spouse that I'm on the right side of this issue, and this is the best decision. You know, that group out there, they're just wrong, and they need to know that they're wrong, and I'm going to make sure that they know that they're wrong. Eventually, you know, I'm going to appear more spiritual or more wealthy or more centered and more competent than that person.
You know, that person's not going to get invited to my weekend or my event. I'm going to get the upper hand, you know, over that person. And then there, of course, there are those or that person that we're always comparing ourselves to. And we don't even know why we're doing all this, fighting all these little battles, because these little battles don't have a great deal of substance to them, and we know that.
But we still fight them, and maybe we could just take a moment and think about a little battle, or a few little battles that we're in the midst of. Then, of course, one of the ways to recognize a little battle is because there's a little enemy in the midst of this little battle, right? It may be someone that we run into at work, or in our extended family, or it's a political enemy, or it's someone at church, or it might even be someone in another car during a road rage experience that we've had recently, right? And in these little battles, we're always thinking sides, you know, my side, their side, and of course my side is right.
And one of the ways we can recognize these little battles is there's usually anger involved, and some of us experience anger in a more explosive way, like rage, but others of us, experience more internal anger when it comes to these little battles, like perfectionism, or competition, or judgment, or whatever. And honestly, a great deal of emotional energy goes into these little battles against these little enemies, and here's the big point. When it comes to these little battles, right, we want God to recognize these little battles as big battles, as important battles, and we want God on our side. We want Him on our side because our side is the right side, and we're always trying to get God on our side, and that leads us right into this very, very important text in the ministry of Jesus.
And so we're going to pick things up in verse 21 in Luke 20. So the spies questioned Jesus, teacher. We know that you speak the truth, and what is right, and you show no partiality, but you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. Tell us, is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not?
There's the question. And Jesus saw through their duplicity, and He said to them, show me a denarius. Whose image and inscription are on it? Caesars, they replied.
And He said to them, well, then just give back to Caesar, what is Caesar's, right? Return to Caesar, what is Caesar's, but give to God. What is God's? And they were unable to trap Him in what He said publicly, and they were astonished by His answer, and they became silent.
Now, the question, right, are we to pay taxes to Caesar or not? That's not the question. There's a question within the question. The question within the question is, are you a violent, messianic, revolutionary, right?
Are you against Rome? And are you ultimately going to lead us against Rome? The taxes question is just the surface question to get at the real question. But the point is these spies, right, these Jews, these zealots, they want Jesus on their side.
They want Jesus on the side of their little battle against their little enemy, because it's big. It's important. Are you on our side, Jesus, or not? Because historically, as I've shared a number of different times, there was this group that represented a philosophy in Israel that we must defeat Rome with the sword, and we're waiting for the Messiah to do it.
And this is the battle, and Rome is the enemy. And Jesus, we want you on our side of this battle. And this is not a new thing. I mean, I just thought of the incredible story in the Old Testament where Joshua is about to fight a battle, and the angel of the Lord shows up, and Joshua says to the angel of the Lord, whose side are you on?
And the angel of the Lord says, neither. As the commander of the Lord's army, I have come. Right? Joshua's thinking sides, and then Joshua was invited into a much larger story, much larger battle, and that is part of the point.
But we know in first century Israel, there was all kinds of anger just like with our little battles. And not just anger toward Rome, but anger, the zealots and the Essenes and the Pharisees and the Sadducees, they couldn't get along because they weren't taking the exact right approach to this little battle that the zealots had. And of course, there's a great deal of exhaustion and mental and emotional energy and all this planning and plotting and talking and posturing when we're fighting these little battles in our life against these little enemies. And Jesus' word to them is His word to us.
I mean, if we could just think again, I mean, I talked about unforgiveness, about being right in our marriage, you know, about communicating this group that they're wrong, about getting the upper hand with someone or comparing ourselves to someone. And that little battle is, let's hear Jesus' words, give back to Caesar what you see, and give to God what is God's. In other words, give up that little battle. Give that denarius back to Caesar, give up that little battle, that little story.
You're completely missing the point. And then give to God what is God's. In other words, give your whole self to God's, enter into God's larger story. Right?
This is so hard. It's so tough. And we really don't know exactly why, because these little battles seem so big and so important. I'm thinking about one of mine right now, and the idea of kind of letting go and giving up and just giving that back to Caesar and then entering into giving my whole self to God in his larger story.
And the reason why we latch onto these little battles is because we're created for the great battle, and we've settled for these little ones. And so let's just think for a moment before we spend some time praying, you know, what is your little battle? We all have them. I mentioned a few earlier.
You know, what are we spending too much energy on? There may be a bit of anger. There's probably a lot of comparison. We need to be right in family or church or politics.
What little battle are we wanting God to recognize as a big battle and get on our side and help us out? And he won't. And he never will because that's not the right question. Right?
And so give back to Caesar. What is Caesar's? Right? Be done with that old story, that small battle, and then give to God.
What is God's? So we must give up those little battles, give our denarius back to Caesar, right? Give our whole selves to God because God wants us to get caught up in this larger battle, right? All of our energy invested in something that's truly big.
And as C.S. Lewis said, this is such a good line. We often settle for small battles and simple pleasures when all along there's a larger story and a grand adventure that is awaiting us. So let's just chat with Jesus about this this morning.
What does it look like to give it up to let go to get back to Caesar? What is Caesar's? And then give to God. What is God's?
To let go of the small battle, the little enemy, the simple pleasures, and enter into the larger story of the true battle that God is inviting us into. We'll talk tomorrow. Thanks for listening to the Together on Mission podcast. We truly hope that you were blessed and encouraged by you today.
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