Appointed By God To Do His Work

Speaker: Archbishop Loren Thomas Hines

February 05, 2025

in Spritual Growth

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February 02, 2025

Readings: Jeremiah 1:4-10
1 Corinthians 14: 12B-20
Luke 4:22-32

4th Sunday of Epiphany 2025 Homily – Abp. Hines

Epiphany should not be confined to just one season. It should be a continuing lifestyle. Sometimes, we misconstrue the truth about God being with us all the time. He has revealed all things to us and yet we do not live it out. We have not understood this clearly. He has blessed us since the beginning. He gave us the ability to be fruitful and multiply. Always on the increase, and everything positive. In Jeremiah 1:5 God said,
“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”

God has set the pattern since the beginning. He has consecrated us before we were born. We belong to Him. He has appointed us to do the work. He gave us the responsibility to carry out the task. Man is suffering because we do not follow in God’s ways. We do our own thing. Which is why often times we get into trouble. God gave us the garden. Everything was meant to be perfect. But man has destroyed the garden, and now we see pollution, trees being cut down for selfish gain, and there’s what we call climate change.

God has appointed us with power- power to destroy and overthrow evil, power to rebuild and restore. He has revealed to us the mystery. The mystery concerning the things that Christ has done. For 30 years, He was being prepared and trained. He did not have the amenities of modern living. He spent time meditating on the things of God. We read that when Jesus was baptized, the heavens burst open and the voice of God saying. “You are My Son.” Today, God is saying the same thing to us, “you are my child. I am your Father.” God also empowered Christ by sending the Holy Spirit upon Him. When He was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, the enemy tortured His mind and tempted Him. But He overcame every single temptation with the Word of God.

More than the story about the temptation, God was telling us the mystery. Jesus took everything that God gave Him and He lived it out. He knew who He was. He faced the enemy head on and proved that God was greater. He knew that He was from God. He came as man, but He knew His mission. He shows us that if we believe, we too can overcome all the wiles of the enemy. We have the same potentials. If He healed the sick, then we can also heal the sick. Luke 24:49 “I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.”

We have been indoctrinated by the world to believe that “we can’t do it.” We cannot make it unless we are educated and trained. But we have been given gifts by God. He has programmed the body to do certain things. The male to do specific tasks and the female to do specific tasks. God has given us the power and the potential to solve problems for the Lord is with us and in us. “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, To preach the acceptable year of the Lord. Today, this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing and in your presence.”

Jesus was human. But He made a choice to obey God. We have taken the easy way out and blamed others for our misfortunes. God has given us new life. And if only we believe, all things are possible.