Today marks a first. This is the first time your twenty-eighth minister presents a sermon yoked to the one that follows. This week we'll take a look at how God loves you the way you are. Next week, we'll see how God refuses to keep you the way you are. Side by side, our message this week and next build on each the other.

And when it comes to building, the facts are before us. We are building. We are discerning how and when physical improvements will come about here on our church campus, but more importantly, we are building our faith. We are building our faith with fellowship. We are building our faith with action. We are building our faith with heart. We are building our faith with energy and commitment to the Lord when we are not apart but together. Look around you. Look within you. Worship by worship, hour by hour, week by week, we are building with the power of the Holy Spirit, which, many have shared with me before and after services, is here in our sanctuary every Sunday morning.

First Congregational-UCC, the facts are before us. Sure, you can deny this. Sure, you can downplay this. Sure, you can keep trying—time and time again—to tune this building out, but God, through word and through Spirit, is finding you. And God who finds you—even in the places you are hiding—loves you.

Yes, again, in this first of a two-part sermon, we'll be talking about what is true. God loves you. Specifically, God loves you where you are.

Skeptics, doubters, and those who hold distance can ignore this love. In fact, even young or old church fogies can turn down or tune out this far-reaching love because attendance doesn't mean acceptance of that love. But rather than barricade let the power of God's love invade. Name what you have, and what you have in your heart is this: God is here, and God is working!

God is here and God is working, and God loves you! Catch the Spirit here. Catch the love from God here.

To take on even more of this love where you are—and even though we sit in the same church only a fool would say we are all in the same place—realize this scripture, this passage from Luke, is as alive today as it was the time it was written. And this is point one in our sermon notes for those with pencil or pen ready. This scripture is as alive today as it was at the time it was written.

This text, this Jesus, is not some historical figure only. These aren't dusty, dry, or dull, old verses. No, this is real.

Consider this. Many of us want to date Jesus. By dating Jesus I don't mean we want to take him out to Bingham's for an incredible homemade dessert some night this week, or invite the Son of God out to see Avatar, not that horrible movie Lovely Bones which the youth group saw this past Sunday in Moosic where all of them owe me two hours out of my life—no, we want to date Jesus by putting his words and his actions in the past tense. But Jesus isn't past tense. Jesus isn't yesterday's news. Jesus is today.

That's right. This scripture is as alive today as it was when that carpenter's son read Isaiah's words there in the synagogue there in Nazareth. That scripture is as alive today as it was then because Jesus is alive within you. His Spirit doesn't stop. His Spirit doesn't rest. And it's up to you to catch it, and you can. It's up to you to act on it, and you can. It's up to you to live it, and you can.

That love He gives to you in those places he finds you about to steal, about to cheat, about to grip about a neighbor or carry out the most unholy thought is an awesome thing. Yes, God's love will find you where you are—the classroom, the car, the family situation, or in the fight you shouldn't be having. God's love will find you here in church, in the clinic or hospital, or in the place where you work. God's love will find you in the decisions you face. Yes, God's love will find you where you are, and hang on until next week, where we'll talk about how God's love will direct you, inform you, enlighten you, encourage you, envelop you, and guide you.

But first, step one, for God's love to direct, inform, encourage, envelope and guide, you must let God's love find you where you are. And it finds you where you are when you accept the first point we shared moments ago. This scripture is as alive today as when that Isaiah scroll was unrolled, and Jesus, our Lord, spoke that all of us captives who are held down with distance and with doubt, all who are bogged down or burdened, will be set free. And this means that all of us blind to his love, will be set free to love.

Speaking of reading, most of us are now accustomed to reading back portions of the scripture during the sermon when prompted. We don't do it every Sunday, but a silent or dead group of people is by no means who we are. Instead, we are attentive, God-driven people responding to the words of their preacher by reciting back scripture at appropriate places. Yes, you're used to going back to your scripture sheets. Today, I want you to go now to your bulletins. Specifically, I want you to go to the top, or the beginning of your bulletin. Look right under our name, First Congregational-UCC.

Most often, you see a verse of scripture from the day's lesson in this place, like today. As you are led by the living word of God, read it aloud with me now. The time of the Lord's favor has come.

That's right. The time of the Lord's favor has come. It came then and comes now. And this leads to our second point. It is the second half of verse nineteen. The time of the Lord's favor has come. So appropriate it. Make it your own.

We can think of our Bible as some distant writing filled with long-ago stories. But coming from the same seminary from a man whose birth date we celebrated last week, I'll tell you that I learned what the Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King, Junior, learned in Boston University theology courses, and it's something I've shared from this pulpit before: God is both in and out of time. Simply put, God, the three in one, is not only moving in time, God is also moving outside (or beyond) time. If a wristwatch allegorically represents time, then God is not only the watch, but God is the wrist holding the watch and the inventor of the watch.

My point is the God we worship and experience is both within time, and outside the perimeter of time. Therefore, Jesus who loves you is not regulated to live within Bible pages only.

That said, let God's love touch you now. Realize this passage is as true today as it was when it was written because the time of the Lord's favor has come. And it continues to come. It continues to infiltrate and demonstrate itself to us in our daily lives.

And as present as God was then and now, God is within you. Think about it. God who knows and controls time must also control distance, and God doesn't stop where your skin starts. Instead, God runs through you. Any medical professional will tell you that your skin is porous. It's penetrable. So the God of both rain showers on earth and meteor showers above is even closer than your next breath.

Now let God do what God does, and that is to use you. That's our final point this morning. The time of the Lord's favor has come, so let God use you.

Have you wondered why you are where you are? For example, here are a few questions you may have. Why am I facing this situation? Why am I dealing with this crisis in my life now? Why do I have to deal with this decision, this co-worker, this career decision or this classmate in my life now?

Maybe it's because God plans to use you where you are. Yes, wherever you are, let God use you. Enable God to use you by letting those words Jesus spoke live within you. Let the Spirit of the Lord be upon you, which is verse eighteen today. Set yourself free. Set others free. Take your own blinders off to God who love you where you are. Help others who are blind see where God is in their life. Let God use you where you are.

Point one. The words we heard from Luke aren't dead, they are living. Point two. The time of the Lord's favor has come. And point three, the time of the Lord's favor has come and continues to come when God, from the place where you are, uses you.

Next week we build in the second of this two-part sermon. Between now and when we meet again, embrace God's love for you. Don't do it in some hypothetical sense, embrace God's love for you where you are—be it the supermarket, the meeting with your colleague, your spouse, or your sister or brother who's driving you crazy.  Let the love God has for you carry you through from our annual meeting into the days ahead. See how it makes you act. Pay attention to how you respond. God is not finished with your story. In fact, His words are not dead or lost if you accept His love for you.