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John Lennon declared he was bigger than him. The Titanic Director James Cameron thinks he’s found his grave. His name may have been said within your earshot today. As a curse word. But who is Jesus really. And how does that affect my life, in 2009?
You may know some of the facts surrounding Jesus’ life and death.
Christmas is the celebration of Jesus’ birth in a stable, to a virgin, in Bethlehem. Easter is the celebration of His death, on a cross in Jerusalem. You may know that he worked miracles, and had disciples and enemies, that he preached love and eternal life. But do you know what he really lived and died for?
We’ve all seen the stained glass pictures, or those paintings painted in the Renaissance of Jesus. They depict him as weak, mild, insipid even. In Western culture, all of us have been exposed to the figure of Jesus Christ countless times since infancy. Holiday carols and cliches, TV specials and Bible stories, bumper stickers and slogans, crucifixes and sunrise services – even coarse jokes and curse words. We, too, consciously or subconsciously, have developed our own set of assumptions about this Jesus
Jesus was a carpenter, used to working with his hands, lifting heavy beams of wood, using his whole body to craft yokes for oxen and furniture for homes. When Jesus walked this earth, He didn’t fit the expectations of the religious community, or even his own disciples. He didn’t demand an ornate tower to preach from, He was born in the dust, His friends were the most controversial fringe elements of society – tax collector’s, prostitutes, lepers… Jesus touched those that were classed as outcasts and untouchables. Equally he called to those that were community leaders, soldiers, the wealthy. Jesus didn’t look at the exterior, he looked at the heart and gave everyone the opportunity to follow Him.
Jesus stood up for real truth, the truth that God was real and loved them and desired to be in relationship with them. He preached real love, real commitment to holy living and real commitment and relationship with God. He talked about eternity and the way to heaven, life and death, choices. This went against the grain of the religious leaders who had made “church” into a series of do this and don?t do that?s.
In his famous book Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis makes this statement, “A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic–on the level with a man who says he is a poached egg–or he would be the devil of hell. You must take your choice. Either this was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us.(emphasis: web author)”
Jesus Christ made a claim that was breathtaking in it’s audacity. Where did He come from? Was He really God in the flesh? Why was the establishment of His day so frightened by His message that He had to die? Who is Jesus to you? Your life on this earth and for all of eternity is affected by your answer to this question.
Jesus claimed to be the Son of God, even making himself the same as God. He said “before Abraham was, I AM”. Abraham is known as the father of faith for both Jews and Christians. I AM is a holy sacred name for God, the name that God himself gave Moses to share with the enslaved Jewish people as a sign of the power and reality of God and his promises. Jesus essentially is saying I AM. He is saying I AM God. To say this he was either telling the truth, deluded and lying, or just plain lying out of a desire for power and fame and self glory, to deceive the people into believing in him.
Jesus said he was the one and only way to God, both for eternity and for this life too. Will you believe what he said?
Imagine with me. It is a hot dusty day in a hot dusty land. The wind rises, blowing hair into the eyes of a young man. All around him are the noises and smells of the market and temple. The air is filled with the bleating of sheep, the lowing of oxen and the shouting of people. Each step he takes he is bustled and pushed by those around him. They all are heading to the same destination. The temple.
The young man presents his lamb to the levite priest before him.
The priest examines the lamb thoroughly. He opens his mouth. Checks the lambs hooves. Runs his hands up and down each leg. He checks for flaws, defects.
The priest nods solemnly. Relief floods the young man’s heart. His offering was perfect. Acceptable. A weight lifts off his shoulders. He is forgiven.
Did you notice?
Did you see?
The priest didn’t look the young man up and down. He didn’t glance his shoes, look in his eyes, or ask for a record of how he spent his time in the last week. There is no third degree or scrutiny of the mans heart and character. The young man did not have to be perfect or acceptable to be forgiven.
The sacrifice needed to be perfect and acceptable. The sacrifice needed to be blemish free.
The Bible says “you must bring to the Lord as the penalty for your sin a female from the flock, either a sheep or a goat. This is a sin offering with which the priest will purify you from your sin, making you right with the Lord.” Leviticus 5:6
The Old Testament sacrificial code is a shadow and a foreshadowing. It shows us how we are forgiven. It shows us how we become acceptable with God.
Just as the young man had his sin covered by the blood of the acceptable lamb so too we come before God covered and made acceptable by an offering. The offering of Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God.
1 Peter 1:1-19 And the ransom he paid was not mere gold or silver. It was the precious blood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God.
And just as the priest didn’t examine the young man to see if he was blemish free God doesn’t look at us, he only looks at the Lamb of God who takes away our sins. The blood of Jesus, the Lamb, covers us and makes us acceptable.
Did you see that?
Did you feel that?
We don’t need to be perfect to come to God. The perfect sacrifice was given in Jesus. When we first come to God (pre-Christian) we are totally blemished and defective because of sin. The Bible says we are dead to God. We are made acceptable by trusting in the sacrifice of Jesus. This is what faith is.
“Therefore, since we have been made right in God’s sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us.” Romans 5:1
Because of Christ and our faith in him, we can now come boldly and confidently into God’s presence. Ephesians 3:12
Our life as Christians and right standing with God continues to depend upon this sacrifice. It is not by our own effort or goodness that we can know God. We can never measure up or become unblemished by working for it. When God looks at us He sees the righteous record of His Son. We are right now acceptable to God.
“He is so rich in kindness and grace that he purchased our freedom with the blood of his Son and forgave our sins.” Ephesians 1:7
We are instructed and encouraged to walk out our faith by living lives that are pleasing to God but this is a process that takes a lifetime. As we “clean our lives up” though we don’t need to feel far away from God or not good enough to know Him. . If we are a Christian there is no limitation or separation between God and us. Jesus gave His life so that we can know God and be called a child of God. We can know God.
This should give us freedom and joy and gratitude and a sense of awe – the WOW response. Let’s live like this. Let’s live in this freedom and forgiveness. Lets live responding to the grace of God.
The sacrifice has been paid. We are forgiven.
God’s people can never by any possibility be punished for their sins. God has punished them already in the person of Christ, Christ, their substitute, has endured the full penalty for all their guilt, and neither the justice nor the love of God can ever exact again that which Christ has paid. Punishment can never happen to a child of God in the judicial sense”
C H Spurgeon
oh i love this!
i love this about God!
i love this about grace!
this is my reality! i am innocent and free from sin and free from the penalty and punishment for sin because Jesus paid it all for me and redeemed me and set me free and now i am holy, innocent, new, clean and acceptable to God!
But his Son became a human and died. So God made peace with you, and now he lets you stand in his presence as people who are holy and faultless and innocent. Colossians 1:22
Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise Him;
He has put Him to grief.
When You make His soul an offering for sin, Isaiah 53:10 NKJV
Yet it was the LORD’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer,
and though the LORD makes his life a guilt offering, Isaiah 53:10 NIV
But the LORD was pleased
To crush Him, putting Him to grief;
If He would render Himself as a guilt offering, Isaiah 53:10 NASB
Jesus was the sacrifice and sin offering that takes away the sins of the world, the lamb of God that pays the price and brings forgiveness.
Jesus paid the price for MY sin when he died on the cross.
He paid the price for YOUR sin.
For our sin.
Those that have faith in Jesus, who are born again, who are washed clean by his sacrifice, who have exchanged our guilt for his righteousness – need not fear the judgement of God. when we pass from this life into the next through death we will find ourselves opening our eyes, to see God, and hear him say “welcome, you belong here with me.” beuatiful, amazing, wonderous. we belong forever with God because we are now his children by faith in Jesus Christ who gave his life to make this so.
Christ says, No. I’m not saying I’m a teacher, don’t call me teacher. I’m not saying I’m a prophet. I’m saying: “I’m the Messiah.” I’m saying: “I am God incarnate.”
And people say: No, no, please, just be a prophet. A prophet we can take. You’re a bit eccentric. We’ve had John the Baptist eating locusts and wild honey, we can handle that. But don’t mention the “M” word! Because, you know, we’re gonna have to crucify you.
And he goes: No, no, I know you’re expecting me to come back with an army and set you free from these creeps, but actually I am the Messiah.
At this point, everyone starts staring at their shoes, and says: Oh, my God, he gonna keep saying this.
So what you’re left with is either Christ was who He said He was—the Messiah—or a complete nutcase.
Bono
from Is Bono A Christian?
The point of the death of Christ is that Christ took on the sins of the world, so that what we put out did not come back to us, and that our sinful nature does not reap the obvious death. That’s the point. It should keep us humbled… It’s not our own good works that get us through the gates of Heaven. Bono from Is Bono A Christian
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 6:23
Christ sacrificed his life’s blood to set us free, which means that our sins are now forgiven. Christ did this because God was so kind to us. Ephesians 1:7
But God was merciful! We were dead because of our sins, but God loved us so much that he made us alive with Christ, and God’s wonderful kindness is what saves you. Ephesians 2:4
God’s Son has all the brightness of God’s own glory and is like him in every way. By his own mighty word, he holds the universe together. After the Son had washed away our sins, he sat down at the right side of the glorious God in heaven. hebrews 1:3
Has anyone ever said to you GET A LIFE?
Did you know the bible tells you EXACTLY HOW TO GET A LIFE?
In fact it is quite black and white on what having life is all about and what not having life is all about….
1 John 5:11-12 says:
God has also said that he gave us eternal life and that this life comes to us from his Son. And so, if we have God’s Son, we have this life. But if we don’t have the Son, we don’t have this life. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does has no life.
so lets break it down:
LIFE
Life is found in knowing Jesus – in being saved – in being forgiven and made new and clean and holy and acceptable to God….
HEY did u know that when you become a Christian that all the yuck things you’ve done are taken off your rap sheet – and that you get the same record as Jesus – PERFECT and INNOCENT. Awesome and amazing eh!
God gives us life – real life isn’t just about living breathing eating sleeping school job work marriage kids tv sports etc – its about being ALIVE on the inside…
When we are alive on the inside we are connected to God and are back being his family. We have all the benefits of that.
Being a Christian is about knowing God – when we are Christians he gives us his peace and love and grace and hope and purpose and we can pray and he will answer.
Lets get black and white and real and raw here….
NO LIFE
If you are not a Christian you are dead on the inside. No life.
Your rap sheet says GUILTY.
You are separated from God – not only eternally but in this life too. You are not part of his family. You are not under his rescuing protection.
In saying that I am not saying God is ignoring you – far from that - he is trying to get your attention so that you will learn the truth and find out that there is a way made for you to be rescued and saved and to know him – in this life and next life. In fact God’s love is so everlasting for you that he sent Jesus in the first place to die on the cross in a horrible horrid full on punishing sacrificial death so that you can draw near to him and be found. Right now if you don’t know God you are lost and dead. But he has made a way for you to be found and clean and new and forgiven.
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. John 14:6
The apostles said about Jesus: Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” Acts 4:12
And God was pleased for him to make peace by sacrificing his blood on the cross, so you would be brought back to God. You used to be far from God. Your thoughts made you his enemies, and you did evil things. But his Son became a human and died. So God made peace with you, and now he lets you stand in his presence as people who are holy and faultless and innocent. Colossians 1:20-22
Who can remember why I started going to youth group when I was 16?
Yip the boys…
Not the most spiritual reason!
BUT I did know that I didn’t know God – I didn’t believe he was real at that point before – but I kind of did want to know for sure….
A guy at youth group prayed and I KNEW he knew God and that God was real and that I had to do something about it.
I couldn’t tuck that knowledge into my pocket and go cool that is neat, God is real, have a nice day.
I HAD TO MAKE A CHOICE.
That is what I am telling you about tonight.
YOU HAVE TO MAKE A CHOICE.
LIFE? Or NO LIFE?
You know what the difference is.
Life – is ???
No life is ???
We get life by???
We get no life by choosing to live our own lives ignoring God and rebelling against Him and not accepting his one way into heaven.
So how do we make that choice real in our lives right now?
If you haven’t made the choice to be a Christian and to believe that Jesus is the one way to heaven and that he makes you new and clean and saved and alive – to trust him with everything you have got and everything you are and will be – to love him and learn to love him – then now is an opportunity.
You want to sure that if you closed your eyes in death tonight that you would open them and see God and he would say WELCOME, YOU BELONG HERE WITH ME.
If you have life, if you have Jesus that is what will happen.
Jesus Christ sacrificed his life’s blood to set us free, which means that our sins are now forgiven. You are saved by faith in God, who treats us much better than we deserve. This is God’s gift to you, and not anything you have done on your own. It isn’t something you have earned, so there is nothing you can brag about.
Its not about being good enough or Christian enough or knowing about God – it is about being dead once upon a time and being made alive because of Jesus and what he did on the cross for you and for me.
Life? Or No Life?
youth preach notes for this friday night outreach
Jesus and his disciples crossed Lake Galilee and came to shore near the town of Gerasa. 2When he was getting out of the boat, a man with an evil spirit quickly ran to him 3from the graveyard where he had been living. No one was able to tie the man up anymore, not even with a chain. 4He had often been put in chains and leg irons, but he broke the chains and smashed the leg irons. No one could control him. 5Night and day he was in the graveyard or on the hills, yelling and cutting himself with stones. He had gone naked for a long time and no longer lived in a house, but in the graveyard (luke 8:27)
6When the man saw Jesus in the distance, he ran up to him and knelt down. 7He shouted, “Jesus, Son of God in heaven, what do you want with me? Promise me in God’s name that you won’t torture me!” 8The man said this because Jesus had already told the evil spirit to come out of him.
9Jesus asked, “What is your name?”
The man answered, “My name is Legion, because I have `a legion’ of evil spirits.” 10He then begged Jesus not to send them away.
11Over on the hillside a large herd of pigs was feeding. 12So the evil spirits begged Jesus, “Send us into those pigs! Let us go into them.” 13Jesus let them go, and they went out of the man and into the pigs. The whole herd of about two thousand pigs rushed down the steep bank into the lake and drowned.
14The men taking care of the pigs ran to the town and the farms to spread the news. Then the people came out to see what had happened. 15When they came to Jesus, they saw the man who had once been full of demons. He was sitting there with his clothes on and in his right mind, and they were terrified.
16Everyone who had seen what had happened told about the man and the pigs. 17Then the people started begging Jesus to leave their part of the country.
18When Jesus was getting into the boat, the man begged to go with him. 19But Jesus would not let him. Instead, he said, “Go home to your family and tell them how much the Lord has done for you and how good he has been to you.”
20The man went away into the region near the ten cities known as Decapolis and began telling everyone how much Jesus had done for him. Everyone who heard what had happened was amazed. Mark 5:1-18 CEV
Fantastic passage…. About freedom and restoration and deliverance and the power of Jesus who came to save us and set us free! And there is just something about a herd of pigs tormented by demonic spirits throwing themselves off a cliff….
But the part I want to talk about tonight is verses 18-20.
“And when He got into the boat, he who had been demon-possessed begged Him that he might be with Him. However, Jesus did not permit him, but said to him, “Go home to your friends, and tell them what great things the Lord has done for you, and how He has had compassion on you.” And he departed and began to proclaim in Decapolis all that Jesus had done for him; and all marvelled.” NKJV
The man – healed, delivered, free, saved wanted to be with Jesus and follow him wherever Jesus went. But Jesus told him to go and to tell his friends and family what had happened. The man went back to his town and his family and told them all what Jesus had done. He went and shared about what his life was like before God and they could certainly see the evidence of his life after he met Jesus.
One of the best tools I have found in talking to people about Jesus is to tell them my story. To tell them about my own personal experience of God.
You have a story. You have a story of how God is working in your life. And you know what – really your story is your history – it is your HIS STORY – the story of how God loves you, saved you, rescued you, and how you know him and his love and grace.
In Christianese your story is called a testimony.
What does testimony mean anyway? Testimony is usually someone’s eyewitness of some actions or events, which they tell to someone else. Say for example I witnessed a robbery at a bank. If the police or court would call me to testify, I would describe to them the time, the location, a description of the persons involved, and the sequence of events as I saw them as an eyewitness. My account of what I witnessed would be a testimony.
Our testimony is our eyewitness account of God. It is the description of God being real to us. It is the same as what the man in Mark did – he told what Jesus had done for him. The mans testimony was I was demon possessed and wild and alone now I am free and delivered and at peace. He was a rude nude dude – but now he was “normal” – clothed and in his right mind…. Not his wrong mind…
Okay so lets break down what a testimony is… what are the elements we can include in our testimony to make it effective and so we can use it… whats the point of having a tool in our toolbox if we don’t know how to use it and make it work?
Now just to put this in context – when I am talking about sharing your testimony I am talking about it in the context of conversation with a friend – as well as conversation with strangers. I’m not really talking about a stand up up the front speech type thing – though you can use these ideas to shape what you share in that context too. So remember that though you may take some thought into what you WOULD share that what you end up sharing may be different because it is a conversation not a recited monologue. Be flexible. Be relevant. Be yourself.
Now I am endorsing is for you to prepare and even practice your testimony. Preparing it just means you’re giving it some thought and sorting it out in your mind.
1 Peter 3:15 always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you.
I break my testimony down into 3 simple elements…
BEFORE
ENCOUNTER
AFTER
The woman who was caught in adultery had a testimony. She was having an affair, probably heartsick and fearful of being caught, maybe insecure and just wanting to be loved. She was caught in her sin, dragged before Jesus to be judged but instead found forgiveness and grace and the answers to her heart issues. Her before was I was a sinner, but now I am saved.
Zacceheus was a short tax collector (we wont hold the short thing against him though!) who cheated and stole from is his own people and was hated by the Jews for his profession and actions. He climbed a tree, met Jesus, had a party at his house and was saved and turned his life around. He was lost but then found. Despised but then accepted by God. A thief and a cheat by profession but then rescued from that life.
Bartimus, was blind, but now can see.
In working out your testimony figure out what the main points are – what are the main themes or reasons for becoming a Christian? What are some of the main things God has done in your life since then? What were the big life questions that got answered by God?
Okay – most of us have prechristian stories. I can point to several points in my life – right from when I was really young – where God was calling me and shaping me and leading me to the very point where I became a Christian. But I don’t usually include these as they are more side issues or later date conversations….
I also don’t talk heaps about what my life was life before hand… which you might say, hey but there is that before component.
For me the main theme of why I became a Christian was because I discovered that God was real and I wanted to know him and know his grace and love, for this life and for eternity.
Sure I was lost and struggling at times. Sure I needed peace and purpose. Sure I was heading down a path of destruction and drinking and darkness…. But the main thing was I had just encountered a living real God. That was knowable and that must be known. That for me is my main point.
For me my before is “before I was a Christian I had decided that God wasn’t real. But deep down part of me was unconvinced by my assumption…. And so I went along to a youth group – not for any spiritual reasons but to meet the boys – and was shocked to discover that God was real. I had thought he was a fairy tale or a fairy godmother type thing, or a nice thing we do on Sunday – but he was real. Real real real.
My next point in my testimony is the encounter God part, the what happened next, the what I found out part.
For the woman caught – it was being dragged before Jesus and his conversation and declaration that SHE was forgiven.
For Zacceheus it was that Jesus chose him to go and eat with.
For the blind man, it was that Jesus prayed for him and he was healed.
For me it was the youth camp. The where my questions were answered. The realizing that God loved me and was real and that he made the way for me to know him, that without Jesus we are separated from God, but that because of Jesus I can draw near because Jesus makes me new and clean and acceptable and holy.
And then we have a really important part – the after. The what happens next next. The how it is real in my life part.
For some it is really dramatic.
I was a drug addict and now I am clean and sober.
I was sleeping around but now I am waiting till I get married.
I was depressed but now I have peace….
I was a satanist but now I worship God.
I was a grumpy cow but now I am kind and friendly.
I was living in fear and insecure all the time but now I am secure.
I was a rude nude dude that lived in the cometary but now I wear clothes and live in a house….
The cardboard testimony thing….
But for others there may not be any dramatic change on the outside.
You might not have had to quit smoking, sleeping around, doing drugs, conquer alcoholism.
But you are different now because of Jesus. You are different now because before you were lost and dead on the inside but now you are saved and found and alive and part of God’s family.
You now have peace and life and hope, and the creator God to pray to, who hears your prayers and works in your life.
You have assurance and confidence beyond shadow of a doubt that if you drove out of here and a boy racer hit you that you would open your eyes and see God and hear him say Welcome, you belong here with me forever.
Don’t feel stink because you don’t think your testimony isn’t dramatic. Don’t feel stink if you were brought up a church kid and didn’t really even question that God was real or not. Don’t feel stink if you just lived an ordinary life and wasn’t a serial killer.
God is still at work and still doing awesome things and your story is still mighty powerful.
“You’re the only Jesus that some will ever see.”
“This is the testimony,” says John, “that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.” (1 John 5:11) So when we ask the question again: “What is Christian testimony?” The answer is not about us—it is for us. The testimony is that God gave us eternal life in His Son. God’s testimony is unassailable. He is truthful in every respect, trustworthy and sure, and His testimony is about His Son. Through knowledge of Jesus comes salvation, and through Him we have life. Christian testimony is always and ever about Jesus. He’s the One about whom we testify.
Our story is really HIS STORY.
“You’re the only Jesus that some will ever see.”
You might be the only Christian that someone knows. God has put YOU in their life to demonstrate his love and grace.
Matthew 5:14-15 You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house.
You are a witness and an ambassador for God.
Acts 20:24 says I don’t care what happens to me, as long as I finish the work that the Lord Jesus gave me to do. And that work is to tell the good news about God’s great kindness.
You are called and empowered by the Holy Spirit who lives in you to serve God and to tell those around you about Jesus and his grace and salvation. Hebrews 12:15 says Make sure that no one misses out on God’s wonderful kindness.
Your story is important because it is YOUR story. It is God at work in YOUR life.
Your story has power and can change history… your story can change someones story – by changing their eternity, by introducing them to God and his love and mercy. It is God who saves but it is us who are used by God to plant seeds and to share his message and truth.
The rude nude dude was delivered and saved and then sent by Jesus to his friends and family and he went and he told them what great things the Lord has done for him, and how He has had compassion on him.
Go and do likewise. Go and tell the great things that God has done for you and how he loves you and is real and has rescued you. Get out there and shine. Go share your story and be a history maker!
Why? What does testimony mean anyway? Testimony is usually someone’s eyewitness of some actions or events, that they tell to someone else. Say for example I witnessed a robbery at a convenience store. If the police or court would call me to testify, I would describe to them the time, the location, a description of the persons involved, and the sequence of events as I saw them as an eyewitness. My account of what I witnessed would be a testimony.
“This is the testimony,” says John, “that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.” So when we ask the question again: “What is Christian testimony?” The answer is not about us—it is for us. The testimony is that God gave us eternal life in His Son. God’s testimony is unassailable. He is truthful in every respect, trustworthy and sure, and His testimony is about His Son. Through knowledge of Jesus comes salvation, and through Him we have life. Christian testimony is always and ever about Jesus. He’s the One about whom we testify.
Our story is really HIS STORY.
these are my preaching notes for preaching at our church youth group outreach this friday ngiht.
Let me introduce myself… well rather let me tell you my story…
I’ve been a Christian since April 1993… grew up in a semi catholic home (mum catholic dad not) – so we did go to church. sometimes. but it didn’t really mean all that much to me. it was what we did on Sunday. we put on our church clothes and went to church and dad cooked a fantastic roast dinner for us to come home to.
i DID really want to know God though and there are several experiences that i know have shaped my faith, expression and relationship with God from childhood.
In early teens though i decided that God must not be real, as he didn’t seem to be “there” – so I figured I would live my life without the “hassle” of thinking about Him and “His laws” (very catholic way of thinking) and so did that.
Our family moved quite a bit and when I was 15 we moved from Gore… where I went from a 300 student coed school to Blenheim, where I had to go to a 1000+ all girls school! Talk about freak out! Took a bit of adjusting… made some new friends… anyone one of my new friends went to a youth group and I went along with her one night for one reason and one reason only. There were boys there! Great reason for going to youth group eh lol!
Anyway on that first night someone PRAYED and I KNEW God was REAL and I knew I wanted to know Him, and could, so I knew I had do something about my “revelation”. I waited until I went to their Easter Camp (about 3 weeks later) and there, not knowing what a Christian was or did, I became one…. I went up the front and responded to God, and encountered Him radically. By that i knew something was different – that i had given my life to God and became His child. sounds like a Christian cliché eh, but very real. i felt clean and new and forgiven. life had purpose and meaning. it was the start of an adventure.
So at that camp, at that youth group I discovered God was real and that I had a choice to make. I had to choose whether I would believe in Him and follow him – or whether I would turn my back on him and live my life my own way…. And suffer the consequences…
Did you know that your name is engraved on the palm of God’s hands?
Did you know that?
Your name.
My name.
My name is engraved on the palm of the hand of God.
It is for sure engraved on the palms of Jesus’ hands – great big gaping nail hole wounds.
It was all because of love that Jesus died. It was all beacuase of love that God sent Jesus to live and to die on the cross as the sacrifice that pays for our sins.
The Bible puts it this way….
Colossians 1:20-22 And God was pleased
for Jesus to make peace
by sacrificing his blood
on the cross,
so that everyone
would be brought back to God.
You used to be far from God. Your thoughts made you his enemies, and you did evil things. But his Son became a human and died. So God made peace with you, and now he lets you stand in his presence as people who are holy and faultless and innocent.
God loves you. Loves YOU. He gave everything so that you can know him. He gave everything that you would know him in this life and in our after life, in eternity.
Do you know 100% beyond a shadow of a doubt where you will open your eyes if you drove out of here and were hit by an SVU? Would you open them in a glorious place filled with light and glory and peace and joy and worship to see God face to face and hear him say Welcome, I know you, you are mine…..
Eternity is all about location location location… just like real estate.
And the choice, is up to you.
Its all been paid for.
Its all ready for the taking.
But you have to walk over the line and believe and trust and surrender and be made new….
The Bible puts it this way…. You must be born again. Only God’s Spirit can change you into a child of God. Don’t be surprised when I say that you must be born from above. Only God’s Spirit gives new life.
Being a Christian isn’t about coming to church, or coming to youth group, or wearing a cross, or even owning a bible or anything like that…. It is a spiritual transformation….
Before you become a Christian you are dead on the inside. The Bible is blunt… it says dead, evil, corrupt, guilty.
When you become a Christian God makes you alive. He makes you pure and holy and innocent and not guilty. You are a new person on the inside.
You may look the same on the outside but if we could look into the spirit of someone we would see something new and alive and amazing where there was nothing before…
Like this – light a match…
You need to be alive. The Bible says you need to be reconciled to God. Reconciled is a fancy word that means you need to be in right relationship with God. You need to know him and be part of his family. Only if you are made alive, if you are born again, are you new and clean and acceptable to God. Only then can you know God.
You can know God! That in itself blows my mind. We can know the creator God who is so creative and mighty and holy and awesome – who sees all and knows all, who created the zebra and the orchid and the butterfly and the blue whale and the tiger and the gnat…. The God who breathed the stars out with a single breath, who said let there be light and light exploded into existence…. You can know the God who knows the future and knows how many hairs you have on your head and how many hairs you have on your toes….
“ Eye has not seen, nor ear heard,
Nor have entered into the heart of man
The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.
But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. 1 Corinthians 2:9-12
Now doesn’t that rock your socks off. We can know God.
But only if we take him at his terms. The only way to God is through Jesus Christ. He is the way the truth and the life and no one comes to God but through him. Jesus made the way. He paid the price for my sin and your sin. He makes up the gap. On the day I became a Christian I sat under a huge tree by the shearing shed and I cried and cried because I knew that I would never ever be good enough to make my own way to heaven. But the good news is that I don’t have to. Jesus made the way for me. And if I believe that and accept that and live my life on that and allow him to make me alive on the inside – then I can know God in this life and when I die, forever.
Jesus died on the cross so that I can be friends with God, so I can be saved from eternity without Him, so I can be in relationship with Him now. Eternity is about now, not just after we die.
If you don’t know God, you can pray right now, you can ask God to make Himself real to you, just as He did to me. God is Real. He cares for US and loves us. He made the way. Ask Him. He is waiting for the “yes” to His invitation….
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