So have you ever been disappointed? I have been disappointed ever. Ever had one of those days or one of those moments when when nothing happens the way that you thought it was going to happen. There's a story told from years ago about a doctor named dr Lenore Campbell. And she was going to check on one of her patients who was just kind of coming out of anesthesia. Well off in the distance, you could hear the chimes at the church that was next door to the hospital. And so the patient is kind of groggy and they kind of open their eyes a little bit and they're like oh oh I must be in heaven, I can I can hear the bells ringing and then they kind of turn over to the left and open their eyes a little more. And they said, oh no, I guess I'm not in heaven. There's dr Campbell I guess she didn't think a whole lot about her. Doctor's faith disappointment is part of life, right? I mean all of us are going to face disappointment. There's always going to be wrinkles in life. It might be the the wrinkle in the seat of your brand new recliner. It might be a wrinkle in selling your house or selling some property, it might be a wrinkle in your wedding plans or your college plans or your job plans. It might be a wrinkle in the parchment paper that you have underneath your bacon in the oven. And and that wrinkle causes the bacon not to cook with its full bacon Nous. And you know there's just a wrinkle, it's just a problem. That's a thing. Or it could be the 45 wrinkles that you wake up the next morning after trying to binge watch the third season of Remington Steele. You just didn't get any sleep. Wrinkles, Wrinkles, wrinkles wrinkles just about every area of life we can find wrinkles, wrinkles that create disappointment. Wrinkles that will start making us feel feel things like fear and worry and stress and anxiety and anger and frustration and discouragement and depression. So what do we do for the wrinkles in life? What do, what do we do when the disappointing moments happen when our spouse lets us down or our kids let's let us down or our boss lets us down or our teacher lets us down? Or the coach lets us down? Or the players let us down or or the pastor lets us down or the politician lets us down or the doctor lets us down or just about anybody else on the earth? Everyone in your life will let you down. I hope we all know that unless I've missed something no one in this room or on this earth is perfect. We will all be disappointed with people. We will be disappointed with situations. But is there any help for those moments? Is there any help for the disappointment? Well there is we continue our series this morning called doors. Where we are looking at at some of the most defining doors that you and I face every single day in life. Last week, we looked at at tiny doors, the ability to to escape temptation, those tiny doors that God will give us at any given time. And today we're going to look at closed doors. Our message today is closed doors And we'll be asking Dr Luke to help us Luke. Chapter four is where we'll be looking today and and as we look what we're going to discover is that there is this one thing, this one most important reality that we can always turn to immediately when disappointment strikes. So let's see what that one thing is Luke. Chapter four, beginning with verse 16 and jesus came to Nazareth where he had been brought up and as was his custom, he entered the synagogue on the sabbath and stood up to read and the scroll of Isaiah, the prophet was handed to him, Jesus was in the habit of going to church and on this particular day he's at his home church, so to speak and he's been appointed and called upon to read and teach now in the synagogue. The way it works is you would stand up to read and then you would sit down to teach. So what is it that he stood up to read, luke continues verse 17 and he opened the book and found the place where it was written. The spirit of the Lord is upon me because he anointed me, jesus stood up and he was reading from Isaiah about the messiah. Now, the people in the audience that day, they would have understood the messiah, We don't know a whole lot about synagogues back during the time of jesus, but just to encourage you what we little, little little we do know is there were no pews or chairs, everybody sat on the floor, so just be thankful today. All right, you've got somewhere to sit. So, so the audience, the crowd that day, they were very familiar with the messiah and here's why they came to church every sunday to hear about the messiah for the early synagogue and the early church. The whole notion of gathering was that there was this sense of anticipation and excitement. They went to church the way we go to football games, they went to church, the way we go to broadway plays, there was excitement, There was anticipation. They couldn't wait to get there because they were going to hear about the messiah. They were going to hear about the Savior. They were going to hear about the christ. There was excitement because the messiah was coming to rescue them. The messiah was coming to rescue them from death and taxes and government and worry and stress and pain and, and pride and everything else that was going on in their life. They couldn't wait to gather together to hear about the rescue that was coming in the messiah. Now, I'm not trying to give out any tickets for guilt trips here, but the reality is we should come to church in the same exact way we really should. This isn't a country club, you know, this is a gathering of of believers. We should come with a sense of excitement that we are gathered to remind each other together again, that jesus is coming again, that the return of jesus is happening and the return of jesus is more thrilling and more exciting than any sporting event or broadway play that you could possibly imagine. Yes, you are a christian. If you're truly a believer, the return of jesus is it? It's better than weddings. It's better than anniversaries. It's better than birthdays. It's better than the birth of kids or grandkids. It's better than promotion or retirement. It's better than the National Championship. This sounds sacrilegious for me to say it's even better than the Masters. Okay, that hurts saying that out loud. It's it's better the return of christ is the best. It is the greatest we should gather as believers with a sense of excitement. However, if you're not a believer then the return of christ is the most terrible thing that you could possibly imagine because the return of christ means that you will be separated from God. You'll be separated from all that is good and holy and awesome and loving and happy and joyful and satisfied and you'll be separated forever from that. There are many people today that I think the return of christ is is folk lords. It's a fairy tale, it's it's a legend, maybe it's real, Maybe it's not real. But everything about the historic birth of jesus, the historic life of jesus, the historic crucifixion of Jesus, the historic resurrection of jesus, the historic ascension of jesus, all of these facts about jesus tell us it is all for real, it's all for real. That's what I would just graciously say for all of us, people get ready, Jesus is coming again, He is and we should gather with excitement, we should gather with joy the first time Jesus came, he was anointed and appointed to do something. What was it? What was it that Jesus? The messiah was appointed and anointed to do? Well, Jesus is standing up in church on this particular day and he is telling what the messiah was supposed to do. He's reading from Isaiah in Isaiah, the one primary purpose of the messiah messiah is told and then Isaiah breaks it down into five different pictures. And so we're going to look at each one of these pictures. These pictures have dual meanings. They can be physical realities or they can be spiritual realities. More often than not, they are spiritual realities. And so we'll focus on the spiritual realities of what the messiah was anointed to do And we'll start in verse 18, the first thing was the Messiah was anointed to bring good news to the poor. So jesus stands up and he reads and he says the messiah was anointed to bring good news to the poor. The word for poor here, it means to to shrink back or to cower. And so the picture is like someone is is holding their hand out there, they're begging for for food or for money and then with their other hand, they're covering their self in shame. They're they're they're shamefully asking, they're they're embarrassed, so to speak. There's a cowering shame all around us. There are people cowering in your neighborhood. There are people cowering. They're they're shrinking back. There are people who are financially poor, There are people who are emotionally poor. There are people who are physically poor. There are people who are spiritually poor. Recent statistics show there's about 300,000 people in Lexington County, that's the county that our our church sits in. So of the 300,000 people. Statistics also show that about 40,000 of those people are living in extreme poverty. 40,000 people, I think it's the actual number is about 37,000 living in extreme poverty right here in our community. I just want to offer a quick challenge, engage with that statistic this week for all of us. Just just find one way, Find way, it doesn't have to be anything glamorous. It can be something very simple, but find one way to engage with that statistic this week. Find one way to to give or to donate or to volunteer toward the 40,000, so to speak. You can very easily do it in the back hall at our church, you can donate some food for God's helping hands. That that will go to someone in need. Or or you can go volunteer and donate admission Lexington over in downtown Lexington. Great opportunity for you to engage with those in need. There's there's multiple opportunities for you this week to do something For the 40,000 and when you do it, do it again and then do it again. In other words, make it a regular part of your life to find ways to minister and serve those who are in extreme poverty. Now, someone might say, well, poor people are poor because they're lazy and irresponsible. All right, well, that may be true sometimes, however, if you're a christian, the command jesus gave us was when you give to the poor, not if you give to the poor. Yes, we need to be discerning we we need to be wise, but don't disobey jesus because you love capitalism. Okay, find a way to serve and minister to those who are in the greatest of need. But what if we aren't talking about financially poor or physically poor people, What if we're talking about emotionally are spiritually poor people see some of you in this room today right now, you have extreme emotional poverty. You have extreme spiritual poverty. And it's not because you're lazy or irresponsible is because someone or something is overwhelming in your life right now. See poverty is real for all of us. There are moments that we all are deeply, deeply poor and for those moments please hear these words that jesus stood up and said on that day because they are still true today, jesus stood up and he said that he was anointed to preach the gospel to you that there was good news for you, not just in general, but for you, there is good news to be found in jesus and that good news is for you and the news is this that if you die without a penny to your name, if you die without a crust of bread in the pantry in christ you will die rich and you will be rich forever. Someone may say, well that's a hollow promise if I don't have food today, I get it. I got it. There's, there's a lot of truth to that but I would also remind you of of kind of a bigger truth than than just the truth of our stomach and and hunger. There's a song I listened to sometimes by a guy named KB and the, and the song is, is rich forever and one of my favorite lines in the, in the song goes like this. So we got a bigger house but the same size coffin and he's talking about our, our pursuit of worldly things, our pursuit of wealth. And it's this picture of, well we had this small house, but oh we got this bigger house and now we have this bigger house, but we still have the same size coffin, nothing changes for anyone. And so the picture we have here is this, there is love, there is joy, there is peace, there is satisfaction beyond poverty in jesus. There is wealth beyond poverty, wealth beyond hunger. There is wealth beyond the big house and there is wealth beyond the coffin. See the promises that are found in jesus, they are not just for this world, they are for always and forever. The messiah was anointed to bring good news to the poor and that's me and that's you, he was anointed to make sure the good news of salvation came to us Second, the Messiah was anointed in verse 18, he has sent me to proclaim release to captives who's captive. Well, ultimately the person that is most captive in the world is the person without christ, the person that that does not know God, maybe they don't have any kind of religion, Maybe they worship little g gods instead of worshiping jesus. In fact, there can even be professing christians in the church that could be captive, very successful, successful businessman once said that the reason that we see so much conflict and the life of so many churches across all denominations is because of the number of unsaved church members in the church, he said oftentimes the conflict is because there are church members that are not actually christians, so we have atheists and we have agnostics, we even have a tenders of church that can be captives captive to what captive to sin. Sin is what captures a sin makes us poor. Sin knocks us down and keeps us from any attempts. We can have to have joy in our life. It's the nature of what sin does and since knocks us down in such a way it takes us captive in such a way that we become imprisoned with so many different things in prison with things like drugs or gossip or alcohol or or anger or apathy or or stress or fear or worry or greed or power or sexual immorality or or selfishness, even anybody feel imprisoned to any of those things today. Was there any release from them? Is there any release from the sin that so easily entangles us? The the sin that keeps us imprisoned? Well, there is, and jesus stood up in church one day and he read about it, he said that the messiah was coming to actually break the power of sin to release people who are captives of sin, that's what the messiah came to do. He came to release us from the power of sin. Third, the messiah was anointed to bring recovery of sight to the blind. Did jesus heal people who were physically blind? Yes, he did. Can jesus still heal people who are physically blind? Yes, he can, but if he doesn't, it does not lessen the reality of what it means to be spiritually blind. To be spiritually blinded is one of the worst states that any person could possibly be in. It's exactly why when john Newton was writing his famous song, he said, I once was blind, but now I see especially for those of us that have grown up in the church, we we forget that we were blind. We forget that we were in chains. I mean, I was I was a pretty decent kid who grew up in church, but I was lost and damned and condemned to hell. I was in chains. I was blind. I was in the church and couldn't see gospel to be transferred out of the Kingdom of Darkness into the Kingdom of light. There is no greater transfer in the universe. That is why we call it amazing grace to be able to see the beauty and the power and the majesty and the glory of jesus. There is no greater sight. That we could possibly have. Someone once said that the greatest and most important and most loving thing that we could ever do for another person is to help them no longer be blinded with unbelief, in other words, no longer be blinded by ignoring or rejecting jesus. I think of all the great things that you could do for somebody this week, there's nothing greater than helping them see the good news and no longer be blind the messiah came. The messiah was anointed to give sight to the blind. Jesus kept reading the fourth thing the messiah was anointed to do was to set free those who are oppressed. One day, Jesus was walking through a village and Matthew records what happens. It says that Jesus looked out on the people and he had compassion on them because he saw that they were harassed, they were helpless. They were like a sheep that didn't have a shepherd. They were lost, Jesus saw the people and and he had compassion on them because they were hassled and helpless and weary and scattered because the government was holding them down. No, you know the language in Matthew is that Jesus looked at them and he saw how empty they were without God. He saw how empty their lives were without God. Are you spiritually empty today? Do do you do you feel like there's there's something missing or that you can't get ahead or that that nothing you do is enough? Are you trying to find your ultimate joy in your spouse or your kids or your grandkids, or your education or or your job or your or your car or sports or whatever it may be, or do you know someone who seems to be trying to find their ultimate joy and their ultimate happiness and and all of the things and all the people of life. But you see that they're empty or you yourself feel that emptiness. What could you do to help them? What could you do to help someone that you know is helpless, harassed, scattered, weary, someone who is oppressed, Someone who is weighed down. How could you help someone find Godly freedom this week? How could you help someone find the freedom that is there? For the oppressed. The messiah came for the purpose of helping give freedom to the oppressed. And then one more thing jesus read in verse 19, messiah was anointed to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord. You know, you may look at the scope of politics right now or the scope of gas prices or the scope of education or whatever other negative thing that we hear constantly in the news today. And and you may look at that you make a man, the world has fallen apart. Gosh! The world was so much better when I was growing up and and man, I just feel bad for my kids and grandkids. It's just this, this awful place. Well, let me, let me just encourage you with something. You are right now. Living in the favorable year of the Lord 2022, favourable year of the Lord. I don't stutter and your ears didn't flap. Okay, 2022 is the favorable year of the Lord. Why? Because jesus has not returned yet. So right now, in this moment we are living in the favorable time of the Lord because someone can still find jesus before it's too late. So until christ returns we are always in the favorable time, we're always there because the grace and the mercy of God are still being extended. There is the opportunity for someone to find the hope and the grace and the salvation and the forever freedom, the forever wealth that comes from jesus, So dear christian. How are we doing during this favorable time of the Lord? What is our aroma like? What do we smell like out in the world? Do do we have the aroma of christ? Do we smell like jesus or do we smell like the world? Do we smell like fear and and worry and aggravation and and frustration and anger and and stress and pride. And do do we fear so many things in life? Are we so aggravated with so many things in life that we actually smell more often like the world than we smell like the gospel? If you're a christian, what's the purpose of your life? If you're a christian? What is the purpose of your life according to the whole of the bible? It is to glorify God by loving and following jesus. That's that's your purpose. If you didn't know there it is, that's free, there you go glorify God by loving and following jesus. What about this church? What is the purpose of Holland avenue baptist church with the purpose of holland avenue baptist church is to be a gathering of people who are glorifying God by loving and following jesus. Our purpose is to make a big deal out of jesus to the world. To try to make jesus through us famous to the people that we have influence with. That's our call. We've been called to be good news people in a bad news world. We've been called to be good news people in this favorable time, which is the only time we have to make much of christ and to help other people find christ. So how are we doing during our favorable time? And why should you have that attitude? If you're a christian, why should you have the attitude that most of your day should be more positive communication, positive love, positive life centered on the gospel instead of negative whining and complaining about everything that you've heard on the news or whatever it is that you don't like that's happening in the world. Why is it that as christians? We should live as people where grace and mercy and gospel and good news and love should cut him off out our mouth more than anything else? Why should we live that way? Here's why? Because if you're a christian that it only takes you a moment to stop right now and remember that you wants rapport and you were chained and you were captive. You were imprisoned, You were oppressed and helpless and harassed and weary and scattered and dead I was an 11 year old Dead center. I wasn't a great kid that had life. I was dead in my sins and my trespasses. Dear christian. Have we forgotten that? How do we look at the poor? How do we look at the downtrodden? How do we walk outside of this building and when someone doesn't dress like us or speak like us, think like us, vote like us, we are angry at them, we are defiant against them. How have we forgotten our chains? How have we forgotten that? We were not able to see we were blind. But but now we see we should live as people of grace and mercy and love not fools. We need to have discernment that we should live as people of grace and mercy and love. We should be good news people because we once were blind. But now we see we once were oppressed and condemned. But now we have life. Are we living as if we're in a favorable time. Are we functioning as if we're in the favorable time of the Lord. We are dear christian. This is the favorable time of the Lord. Let us make the most of it. So jesus reads about the messiah, he finishes his reading And this is what happened next verse 20 and he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down and the eyes of all the people in the synagogue were intently directed at him now, he began to say to them today, this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing, this is the first mic drop in history, okay, but this is an amazing moment. Jesus reads from the prophet Isaiah, then he sits down and you can hear the crowd when he gets through talking, what did he just say? The, did he say, what is this, joseph and mary's kid? Because what Jesus said when he sat down was this, he said who is Isaiah writing about, but he's writing about me and when will this prophecy come true? It's coming true right now before your eyes, I mean hundreds and hundreds of years of people going to church and and hearing about the messiah and hearing about the messiah and then here is the carpenter sitting down in front of them going, this is now fulfilled right before you, Jesus was and is the messiah, jesus is freedom, Jesus is hope and jesus is deliverance, he is deliverance, there is no deliverance outside of jesus, he is freedom, he is hope, he is salvation, he is deliverance. But you may be thinking this morning, I ain't feeling it, my life is hard and tough. I'm I'm one of those spiritually emotionally poor people that you were talking about and hey, I'm I'm physically and financially poor too and I'm not feeling this, I'm I'm not feeling this, this freedom, this hope, this deliverance. I'm not feeling it. In fact, all I'm feeling in life is a bunch of closed doors. That's all I got is closed doors. I don't feel this deliverance from jesus. Benjamin started having a really hard time with food, anything he ate became like a poison, he would get extreme pain, his stomach would swell up. He'd take a bunch of medicine and, and sleep longer. But but that really didn't help. He described himself like humpty dumpty. He said all the medical specialists and all of nature's holistic remedies couldn't put back my digestive system again. He said, I had a cabinet full of all kinds of different bottles with all kind of funny names on it, but none of them were helping. Nothing helped for four years. He went through this and then he was reading one day and he came across something in his reading about doors and we know this phrase right When one door closes, another door opens. But what he was reading on that day was sometimes when one door closes, there's not another door that opens and the door just stays closed. There's not a window, There's not another door, It's just just this, this closed door. And then he kept reading down the page and he came to this question, Will jesus be enough. When the door closes, will jesus be enough. This is what Benjamin wrote about his experience with his closed door. When you stand up for what's right and end up in jail when you have cancer, when you lose your job, when your house is robbed, when your parents get divorced when you're sick and lying on the floor and your kids ask you daddy, are you okay? This is what he says in that moment, jesus is still jesus and he will be enough for you. He's still jesus all the time. It never stops. It doesn't matter what gas prices are, doesn't matter what the doctor says. Doesn't matter which countries are at war with who jesus is still jesus and jesus is always enough. You see Palm sunday is not just some religious holiday with some you know easter fanfare. No, it's a date on the calendar. That's a reminder. A reminder of what well Palm sunday is that reminder that in that moment when the door slams in your face and you're left out in the cold in such a way that you feel oppressed and stressed and depressed. Palm sunday is this reminder Of the difference that one week come back. The difference that just a few days can make. Palm sunday reminds us that fear and sadness and death are real and none of us will avoid any of them. Palm sunday is a day that reminds us that friday's coming, death is coming, brutal. Crucifixion is coming. But Palm sunday is also a day that reminds us that next sunday's coming a day. That reminds us that there is one moment in history where one door is opened and that one open door is enough for every closed door in our lives. This one moment in history reminds us that sunday is coming, that death is not the end, that we can breathe easy because death is no longer our fate and because of the one door, because of the one glorious moment that will remember until next sunday that we can remember this sunday because of that one moment today, tomorrow, Next Thursday. five years from now and forever. Dear Christian Jesus is enough. He really is. Jesus is enough.