Awanita Night 4

Thursday Night

Romans 5:8 “8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

Focus for the night:

I don’t care where you are in life right now, There are things drawing you in.

Business, sports, school, overwhelming feelings, feelings that you aren’t worth it, loneliness, imperfections…

All of these things are attacking you and I just want you to hear from me tonight…

Listen to this one verse.

Romans 5:8 “8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

There’s not much I’d give my life for.

What qualifies you for God’s love?

According to Romans 5:8, its the opposite of what makes sense.

What qualifies you for God’s love isn’t how good you are, but actually how bad you are.

Christ didn’t die for all those people who have it all together.

He didn’t die for those that are righteous.

He died for sinners.

In other words, the very thing that qualifies you for God’s dying on the cross is your sin.

The very thing that qualifies God’s love for you isn’t your goodness, it’s your sin!

What motivates God to move towards you isn’t your humbleness and goodness.

It’s the evil you’ve done.

Recently, I heard a horrible thing about a friend.

I have a friend who I worked with in 2008 in a ministry called Child Evangelism Fellowship.

His name is Kellan.

His Dad is a friend also and His name is Ken.

Ken DJ-ed my wedding actually.

Great guy.

Well, Kellan was a student pastor until about a month ago.

A month ago an addiction spanning almost a decade came to the surface with Kellan…

An addiction to be honest with you that is probably going to keep him in jail likely for the rest of his life.

A guy only 3 years older than me is about to be in prison for the rest of his life for horrible things.

A student pastor no less… taking students like you who are in such a fragile part of their life…

And He abused some of them, manipulated them, did things that make me sick to my stomach to think about…

But… Despite the evil that seems to be ruling the day, God’s grace is still available to Kellan.

Isn’t that wild?

Like, I stand here today and I don’t want grace for Kellan. I don’t.

I want Him to go to prison…

Yet…

God’s grace is still offered.

Do the bleach/Iodine illustration throughout this lesson.