OPEN YOUR EYES | Lent 2021 | Wk 6: “Killing the Messenger”
Pastor Mike Overstreet | 03.28.2021
Message recordings available at: https://vimeo.com/element3
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We shouldn’t meet our heroes. Not because they’re secretly monsters, but because our expectations will almost always keep us from embracing them.
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Matthew 23:29-32 (NIV)
29 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You build tombs for the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous. 30 And you say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our ancestors, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’ 31 So you testify against yourselves that you are the descendants of those who murdered the prophets. 32 Go ahead, then, and complete what your ancestors started!
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The Prophets of the Old Testament
- The Prophets were Old Testament figures called by God to be messengers to His People when they rejected their calling to be a blessing in the world.
- They were almost universally rejected, persecuted, & sometimes even murdered by Israel’s leaders.
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Scapegoating is when we simplify complex, scary, unresolvable problems & their solutions in order to cope with them.
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Matthew 23 asks us, “Are we willing to listen & respond with change when Jesus challenges our masks, idols, & broken beliefs? Or will we, instead, scapegoat & kill the messenger?”