Go Where the Hurt Is: Don't Be Afraid

Devotional

Day 1: Sparrows Remembered, Shotgun-Pocked Hope

The kingdom comes not in tidy packages but through weathered hands clinging to promise. Jesus told disciples to expect both miracles and hostility, sparrows and hairs counted amid persecution. Like the battered "Best is yet to come" sign in Oklahoma ghost towns, hope persists where despair seems logical. Early Methodists sang "What troubles have we seen" while facing prison cells and mobs, yet kept setting tables in the world’s hungriest corners. Our calling isn’t to preserve crumbs of the past but to become bakers of God’s future bread. [45:04]

Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.
(Matthew 10:29-31, ESV)

Reflection: Where have you seen God’s care manifest in life’s frayed edges? What “shotgun-pocked” place in your community might Christ be calling you to welcome as holy ground?

Day 2: When Comfortable Piety Becomes Dangerous Love

Methodists earned their name not through private prayers but public risk. Visiting prisoners like Thomas Blair meant enduring slander as “troublemakers.” Jesus warned disciples that healing and exorcisms would anger systems benefiting from brokenness. True gospel work still unsettles – whether advocating for the condemned, feeding the excluded, or amplifying silenced voices. The kingdom advances through hands dirtied in love’s trenches, not sanitized in holy huddles. [39:08]

When the Son of Man comes in his glory, he will say to those on his right, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father... For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.”
(Matthew 25:34-36, ESV)

Reflection: What “respectable” discomforts have you avoided to keep peace? Who needs you to risk being labeled a troublemaker for Christ’s sake this week?

Day 3: Tables Set Where Sanctuaries Don’t Reach

Bishops and barrios alike cry for tables beyond church walls – food trucks near festivals, laundromat ministries, immigrant business hubs. Early Methodists prioritized weekday witness over Sunday shows. Jesus sent disciples into homes and highways, not synagogues. Spiritual hunger thrives where life happens: soccer fields, startup offices, addiction recovery circles. Our sanctuaries become waiting rooms until we move the feast to where teeth gnaw on despair. [40:36]

Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame... Go out to the roads and country lanes and compel them to come in, so that my house will be full.
(Luke 14:21-23, ESV)

Reflection: Where do you already move through life (coffee shops, gyms, PTA meetings) that Christ wants to claim as communion space? What simple act could turn that place into a table of grace?

Day 4: Ordained by Scars, Not Robes

Sixty years of women’s ordination stand as a testament to grit over glamor. These pioneers entered churches that spat on their collars, nursed congregations through addiction epidemics, and buried children of parishioners who doubted their calling. Like the female disciples at the cross and empty tomb, they carried Christ’s body into graveyards. Their legacy isn’t in titles but in tender fists that kept breaking bread in places others wrote off. [43:02]

There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
(Galatians 3:28, ESV)

Reflection: Whose quiet kingdom work in your life goes unrecognized? How will you honor their “ordinariness” as holy rebellion this week?

Day 5: Singing “Fightings Within” at Retirement Parties

Annual conference veterans weep during hymns because they’ve watched mentors die and mentees burn out. Yet retirees still rise to recommit – not to buildings or budgets, but to the stubborn belief that God resurrects churches through nursing home visits and youth group mission trips. The Methodist anthem “And Are We Yet Alive” gains its power from scars, not success. Our shared bruises become the score where grace composes its next movement. [33:55]

We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.
(2 Corinthians 4:8-10, ESV)

Reflection: What ministry loss still haunts you? How might Christ be inviting you to grieve it fully – then recommit to the work with resurrected hope?

Sermon Summary

Annual conference carries a lot of memory for a long timer, the kind that can be inspiring, frustrating, life changing, and boring, sometimes all in the same week. The old Charles Wesley hymn about being yet alive and seeing each other’s face brings the whole story into the room. That song was not just pretty Methodist nostalgia. For circuit riders who had known “fightings without and fears within,” it named real troubles, real conflicts, and real preservation by God.

The gospel reading tells the same kind of truth. Jesus sends the twelve out to proclaim that the reign of God has come near, and that promise shows up in healings, exorcisms, and even the dead raised to life. But Jesus does not pretend the mission will be sweetness and light. The representatives of the prince of peace will be misunderstood, accused, threatened, and even divided from the people closest to them.

The Methodist story presses that point home. The Wesleys and their friends were just a little odd when they were a holy club studying Scripture, receiving communion, and helping the sick and orphaned. But when grace pushed them into uncomfortable places, they made other people uncomfortable. John Wesley’s visits to Thomas Blair in prison, and the Holy Club’s advocacy to keep him from death, drew public scorn. The newspaper called them troublemakers, rabble rousers, and finally Methodists. The name stuck because love had become public action.

The call to be Methodist once again means going where the hurt is, where despair is real, where despised people need to know they are not alone. The future of the church is not simply in warm, beautiful sanctuaries. The church’s future is also at tables set up in the community, where people meet face to face, are fed, and are known. The old Methodist pattern of forming disciples Monday through Saturday still has something to say when spiritual hunger is greater outside the church than inside it.

Jesus places “don’t be afraid” right in the middle of danger. God counts sparrows and hairs, even if some heads make that easier than others, and God holds the fearful mission in God’s hand. The church has known renewal before, including through women who carried full clergy rights into places marked by sexism, neglect, and resistance. The sign in a worn-down Oklahoma town still tells the truth: “The best is yet to come.” But Jesus does not let that promise become an excuse to hide. The best may come through disciples who head into the storm, go to the hurts of the world, attend to the hunger there, and find their own hunger fed along the way.

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Key Takeaways

1. Grace gets public and risky Grace does not remain a private feeling or a safe church word when it follows Jesus into the world. The Methodist name itself came when love moved toward a despised prisoner and took on the cost of public advocacy. Holy habits became holy trouble when Scripture and undeserved love pushed believers into places that polite society wanted to avoid. [38:48]
2. Fear belongs inside the mission Jesus does not send the disciples because the road is safe. Jesus tells them not to be afraid precisely because misunderstanding, accusation, and loss may come with faithful witness. Courage is not the absence of fear, but trust that God still counts sparrows, hairs, and frightened servants sent into the storm. [41:44]
3. Tables may become sanctuaries The church’s future is not trapped inside beautiful rooms, even when those rooms are warm and beloved. Tables in the community can become places where hunger is named, faces are known, and grace becomes tangible. The Spirit is not limited by Sunday, because the world’s ache keeps showing up Monday through Saturday. [40:04]
4. Renewal often comes through overlooked people The celebration of women’s full clergy rights names a hard and holy truth: the church has been renewed by people who were resisted, overlooked, and sent into places others had given up for dead. God has often moved through those whom institutions were slow to recognize. Their faithfulness stands as a rebuke to despair and a witness that the Spirit has moved before. [43:02]
5. The best arrives through obedience “The best is yet to come” is not a slogan for waiting out the storm. Jesus sends disciples toward the hurt of the world, not away from it, and the promise of God’s future becomes flesh through costly obedience. The hope ahead may arrive for somebody else through a believer willing to risk comfort for love.

## [45:37]

Youtube Chapters

[00:00] - Welcome
[31:26] - Annual Conference Memories
[32:39] - The Old Wesley Hymn
[33:55] - Faces, Grief, and Gratitude
[35:20] - The Gospel Is Not the Whole Story
[35:48] - Jesus Sends Disciples Into Trouble
[37:16] - When Methodists Became Troublemakers
[38:15] - John Wesley and Thomas Blair
[39:37] - Going Where the Hurt Is
[40:04] - Setting Tables in the Community
[41:13] - The Spirit Moves Beyond Sunday
[41:44] - Do Not Be Afraid
[42:29] - Women Renewing the Church
[43:38] - The Best Is Yet to Come
[45:04] - Sent Into the Storm

Bible Study Guide

Bible Reading
Matthew 10:7-8 (ESV)
And proclaim as you go, saying, “The kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons. You received without paying; give without pay.

Matthew 10:28-31 (ESV)
And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.

Observation questions

What specific instructions did Jesus give the disciples about their mission, and what actions were tied to the message of God’s kingdom?
According to the sermon, why did the name “Methodist” originally carry negative connotations, and what public action caused it? [38:48]
What examples were given of “tables in the community” becoming places of connection and grace? [40:04]

Interpretation questions

Why do you think Jesus paired the promise of God’s kingdom with warnings about rejection and danger for his disciples?
The sermon says, “Courage is not the absence of fear, but trust that God still counts sparrows.” How does Jesus’ teaching about sparrows and hairs address fear in the middle of risky obedience?
How might setting up tables in the community (like Fridays After Five or Southwood Village) reflect Jesus’ command to “proclaim the kingdom” beyond Sunday worship? [41:13]

Application questions

Where in your daily life (work, neighborhood, hobbies) could you “set up a table” to meet others’ spiritual or practical hunger? What would it look like to prioritize relationships there over programs?
The Methodists were labeled troublemakers for advocating for a marginalized prisoner. Is there a person or group in your community that others avoid or scorn? How could you show up for them, even if it costs comfort or reputation? [39:37]
Jesus tells his disciples, “Do not be afraid” in the same breath as sending them into danger. What fear holds you back from a specific act of love or justice? How might trusting God’s care for you—like his care for sparrows—change your next step?
The sermon celebrates women who renewed the church despite resistance. Who are the overlooked or undervalued people in your circles? How could you actively support or learn from their leadership? [43:02]
“The best is yet to come” was a sign in a dying town. What “storm” or hurting place is God calling you to walk into rather than avoid? What would it look like to believe renewal might come through your obedience? [45:37]

Sermon Clips

67s

“``But Jesus didn't tell them to sit on that news. Jesus didn't tell them not to go out into the fire and risk it all. Jesus didn't tell them to curl up in a fetal position and wait till the storm passes and God's new day comes. He knew the fear that those disciples had that we have. He knew our tendency to hold on to what was and to try to preserve the crumbs of the church we used to be rather than trusting God's new future. at the same time, Jesus told them to head out into the storm, go to the hurts of the world, attend to the hunger of the world, and in doing so, attend to your own deep hunger. The best is yet to come, but you may be the means by which it arrives for somebody in this world.”

57s

“Jesus didn't tell them to curl up in a fetal position and wait till the storm passes and God's new day comes. He knew the fear that those disciples had that we have. He knew our tendency to hold on to what was and to try to preserve the crumbs of the church we used to be rather than trusting God's new future. at the same time, Jesus told them to head out into the storm, go to the hurts of the world, attend to the hunger of the world, and in doing so, attend to your own deep hunger. The best is yet to come, but you may be the means by which it arrives for somebody in this world.”

44s

“They became Methodists when they took the risk to go where the hurt was and to suffer the abuse that would come their way that they knew would come their way. And so doctor Baughan challenged us to be Methodist once again, to go out into the places that are not comfortable for the world or for us with a word that God's love is even there, to go to places where the despair is real and to risk being uncomfortable, to stand with people who are despised by the world, and to let them know that they are not alone.”

45s

“Our bishop, Sue Harper Johnson, said that the in the in at the conference that the future of our church is not in our beautiful and warm sanctuaries. A continuing theme of this conference was that our churches need to be about the work of setting up tables in the community, places where people can meet face to face and be fed and known. She said, there's more spiritual hunger right now outside the church than inside it. And maybe our own hunger will be wetted and fed as we meet others and remind ourselves that God's message is one of love and acceptance and invitation.”

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Go Where the Hurt Is: Don't Be Afraid

Devotional

Day 1: Sparrows Remembered, Shotgun-Pocked Hope

Day 2: When Comfortable Piety Becomes Dangerous Love

Day 3: Tables Set Where Sanctuaries Don’t Reach

Day 4: Ordained by Scars, Not Robes

Day 5: Singing “Fightings Within” at Retirement Parties

Sermon Summary

Key Takeaways

Youtube Chapters

Bible Study Guide

Sermon Clips

Go Where the Hurt Is: Don't Be Afraid

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