Nothing is more important than the gospel of Jesus Christ.  NOTHING.

 

In 2020, we have taken a few steps backwards:

Creation, Individual Identity, and the idea of Marriage and Family are all under attack.

 

But none should be.

 

Here is what the world needs to, but doesn’t want to, hear.  

 

In God’s world, you have total and absolute freedom.

 

You can do what you want, say what you want be what you want.

 

  • You Are Free.  You are totally and unequivocally, FREE.  You have freedom.  
  • You Are Loved.  Not just loved in an “I Love You Bro” sort of way.  But truly loved and understood and empathized with.  It is not conditional or based on your actions or based on your race or gender.
  • You Are Never Abandoned Or Forsaken.  Ever.  In any circumstances.  You can count on God to be there for you, through thick and thin.
  • You Are Known … And Understood.  Not just a little.  But all the way through.  Listened to?  Every word.  Understood?  Every emotion.  Empathized for?  Every tear and every hurt.

 

John 18 11 Jesus commanded Peter, “Put your sword away! Shall I not drink the cup the Father has given me?”

 

And there it is.

 

It is the moment, or decision, that Jesus made.  It was not one made in haste.  It was, like many of the sins that you have committed, made in all the choices that He ever made.  He was going to make a payment of the highest order.

 

And He did.

 

On a cross on Calvary, He began a journey of misery like the world had never seen:

  • Tempted in every way.  Your temptations.  My temptations.  Their Temptations.  The perverted ones.  The meaningless ones.  The will-breaking, life destroying, utterly irresistible ones—ALL of them were given to Him.  And He overcame them all.  Whether being starved or falsely accused or ignored or doubted or betrayed.  None of that stopped Him from making the choice.  And that choice was YOU.
  • Betrayed and abandoned, He even asked God:  “Why have you forsaken me?”  And yet, He stayed the course.
  • Mocked and ridiculed as He was suffering, He bled, and suffocated, and tried to balance on spikes between His hands and feet.  As His nervous system failed, His breathing failed, His heart became overloaded, and the pain became too excruciating to bear—He INVITED a hardened criminal to join Him in paradise.
  • At the final moments of life, He proclaimed:  “It Is Paid In Full.”  What was paid in full?  Your Debt.  Your Debt was paid in full.  In Full.  Why?  Because a perfect man chose to die in your place—an excruciatingly brutal death in a humiliating way.

 

 

Now, you might not like the last bullet point, but you need to be presented it anyway:

    • You Are Free.
    • You Are Loved.
    • You Are Never Abandoned Or Forsaken.
    • You Are Known … And Understood.

    • You … Get To Choose To Follow or Not To Follow

 

 

 

You are not the center of the universe

OR 

The greatest thing that ever walked the earth

OR

Someone who deserves the best

 

You are a sinner.

 

The Bible says that “our hearts are, above all things, deceitful.”

The Bible says that “ALL have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”

The Bible says that “There is no one worthy.  NOT ONE.”

 

You may not like the truth, but today you must read it:  Your God loved you so much that He gave everything FOR YOU.  And He said:  “Follow me”.

 

This is not easy, but it is simple.

This is not a prison, it is freedom from the three things that you could never, ever, defeat:  Satan, Sin, & Death

This is not the end of your life as you know it, it is the beginning of the Lord’s Prayer.  THY KINGDOM COME.  Not my kingdom come or your kingdom come, but His Kingdom Come.  It is you saying to Him:  THY KINGDOM COME.  I surrender.  And I surrender EVERYTHING.

He is not asking you to give up some things.  He wants EVERYTHING.  All that you have.  And once you give it, you realize that it wasn’t worth keeping in the first place.

 

This gospel offends.  And I pray today that it offends you to the point of breaking you.  I pray that today you would be so angry that you would come to the end of yourself, fall on your knees, and repent.

 

Because your ways are not His ways, and more importantly:

 

His ways are not your ways.

 

 

If there were 10,000 steps between you and Jesus, He would make 9,999 of them—uphill, through peril, and without hesitation.

 

But He loves you too much to take the last one.

 

That last step that connects you TO Him …, is completely, up to you.

 

In The Name of the Father and the 

Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

 

 

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Coach J