Mission Statement

Luke 4:18-19 (New King James Version)

¹⁸ “ The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me,
Because He has anointed Me
To preach the gospel to the poor;
He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,
To proclaim liberty to the captives
And recovery of sight to the blind,
To set at liberty those who are oppressed;
¹⁹ To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD.”  (in context)

Pastor Terry Landsdale’s sermon title this morning was “The Mission Statement of Jesus” from the above scripture in Luke. Terry spoke a lot about Jesus: laid back, loves people unconditionally and sacrificially, is personal, private (often getting away and alone with the Father), not pushy, gracious; he was never in a hurry, rushed, in a panic or stressed out…. just to name a few things. 

If you have ever been poor, brokenhearted, captive, blind, or oppressed …. in either spirit or body, Jesus’ mission is to preach the gospel to you, heal you, set “ you free, restore your sight and to proclaim the “acceptable year of the LORD to you.”  The Spirit of the LORD is upon Him and He has anointed Jesus to do these things for you.

As I listened to Pastor Terry, the verse in James 1:2 was once more confirmed to me.  I can count my trials and disciplines as joy because that is why Jesus came to earth… for the poor, brokenhearted, captive, blind and oppressed, spiritually and physically.  Now I understand why God allows us to experience the “bad” stuff… because He loves us and it is in those hurting places that we cry out to Him and surrender our will to His will… our control to His control.  It is in the “hurting place” that we begin to realize that His plan for our lives is much better for us than our own plan and we ask Him to be Lord and Savior of our lives.  The easiest conversion would be for a person to understand in truth and reality that we are all born into captivity, therefore, wanting to be free from the bondage of sin, darkness and death, turn to God, repent and be saved.  “I am a captive to sin.  Lord Jesus, set me free.  Forgive me and make me Your own.”

Not sure if that makes sense to anyone else, but it sure makes sense to me.  Glory to God!