Gospel Message

Story

I want you to imagine something. I want you to imagine that you just got a credit card, and if you don’t know how a credit card works it is an account that allows you to spend money that you will have to pay back later., and if you don’t then the amount that you have to pay increases and that’s called interest. Keep this in mind

So lets all imagined that you opened up a credit card (no limit) and you are so excited. You plan a trip over to Eroupe and all your friends, and your so excited about this trip that you cover the cost of your friends. Not only that you book the nice stuff. When you fly you fly private, when you land you got a driver to pick you up. When you eat, you rent the building. That kind of trip and you’re going this whole summer. You go see the eifel tower, leaning tower of pizza, coloseum, you go to norway whey they filmed lord of the rings, then you go the cliffs of ireland. Your having so much fun that you extend this trip and you go down the australia, visit syndey oprah house, go on a safari, pet a koala. fly back to the USA, and you say well I have explored this country so you see the grand canyon, mount rushmore, golden gate bridge, Mt. Zion, Moab, Colorado rockies, New York to LA. Finally you get home from the most amazing summer ever. All the mean while you have been swiping this card

Everything you did to the spaghetti in Italy, to the Burger in Texas had a cost, and you have now come to a place of realization that you have to pay this price. You were able to rack a bill of $346,965,591.22 plus interest. The situation starts to sink in. you’re gonna be apying this off for the rest of your life. You ask your friends that went on the trip with you but they all left you. Your family can’t pay it, no one can pay this. So you start working on it yourself but you can’t make the minium payment and your crumbling this debt is crushing you.

Your in your house and your hear a knock on your door. Your parent or guardian answer the door and yells your name. You start sweating, you know its the credit collector asking for you to pay, you know that you missed to many payments and now its time.

There some one standing in the doorway and you can hardly look out because you feel so embarrassed.

The man looks you in the eye, and hands you a letter and stands there. You open it as fast as you can out of curiosity

You read it and it says you have two options pay your debts today or be clear of all your debts right here right now.

You look back to the man and ask him how, I have so much this doesn’t make sense.

The man says to you, I have already paid it in full and the only thing you have to do is trust me follow me and leave your old life.

You look up and say where we heading.

Now I hope that none of you have opend up a credit card and done those things and if you have this might be a warning for you to not continue to spend in theis way, but this is a fictional story or a representation of what is really going on in our lives.

Whats really going on

We serve a God that made everything and it was good, and he himself is good, and he can only be with things that are good and pure, perfect is the best word here

And then he also created Adam and eve and every other human that has walked the earth since. The other thing that he gave adam and eve in the garden was free will. This is so important.

God allows us to not chose him. He allows us to go our own way.

Lets put this idea of free will another way. Lets say I just met my wife but this would before we got married, and I have the ability to controle her mind and I force her to fall in love with me.

Would that be love?

No, it would be a fake love. It would only be the love that I have for myself through Christine, not the love that Christine genuinly has for me.

God really loves us so he never forces anyone to love him, he allows them to have free will to choose a life that is separate from him.

We know what Adam and Eve chose and we have been following this downfall in the promise kept series fairly closely.

Okay so we chose to go separate way from God, and in that moment something happened.

God who is perfect and cannot be in relation with something that is imperfect he then cannot be in relation with his creation now.

Let’s take this for example, God can only be in relation with something that is perfect, its complete lacking in nothing. God can be with this, now when human chose their own path like in the garden, like cain and able, Like the people that were living in the world when God called noah, like Abram, like you, like me something happens. It shatters the relationship that we have with him.

And no matter how hard you might try to make this new again it will never be perfect, you could even put all the pieces in the right spot but the cracks will still be showing.

If youre following along we need a perfect life in order to have this relationship but what even is the perfect life Jesus says this to sum up all the law and the prophets

Matthew 22:36–40 ESV

“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

The perfect person is some thing that never ever steps outside of these lines, and I would ask you to search yourself, have you ever not respected God, held something above him or valued something more then God, or not followed what he asked of you. I will be honest at somepoints in my life I have. I have valued what other people thought about other God, I have thought about what getting something earthyl more then my realtionship with God.

Now the second part treating others they want to be treated. I have definitly broken this. I hav lied to friends, broken promise, made fun of, made less of someone for my own gain. So no I have not lived a perfect life.

So I am separte from God and there is nothing that I can do from myself that can full fix myself it has to come from somewhere else. It has to come from something perfect

Jesus is the one, Jesus was able to live this life perfectly honored God, and always love his neighbor as himself. Jesus lived the life that we could not.

What Jesus does with his life is so key. Jesus instead of just being perfect just for himself no he lays down his life for you and for me.

Jesus asks us to do this, to leave our life before knowing him and surrender to the life that Jesus was able to life to say that Jesus I cannot live this life away from you. I put idols before you, i hurt my friends, and I know that you never did I have faith you truly did livea perfect life and that youi gave that life up so that I can true life, and now I want to follow you in every aspect of my life.

Because remember God is just God, and the choices that we do make on Earth have to get judged but here is the things when you say that Jesus I chose your way and I have faith you truly did die for my sins when you come before God broken to your sin shattered in pieces, Jesus step into this gap and says that’s me here this you I gave my perfect life to you because I knew that you could not live it, I knew that you couldn’t be in realtionship with me and I love you to much to let that be. So I come into you place

That is what the person in the first story is saying that you will either have to pay this debt of sin all by yourself you can’t or you can chose to follow me and faith that I did pay this. Jesus leaves us with the same question to pay your own debt or leave your old life behind and follow him.

This very moment this is open to you, and let me just address three people in this room. The first person has never accepted Jesus to have paid this debt today he is asking you to leave this old life and follow him.

The second person to is someone that has accepted him into their heart but maybe has fallin away or maybe your still holding onto your old life. Maybe your asking God well maybe you will just come and fix it but until you do that I’m gonna hold onto it. Jesus is askign you to give him everyhting

The third person in the room is following Jesus the best your ability, I would ask that you continue to ask the holy spirit to continue illuminate your steps show you what your holding onto thaty ou don’t even know.

Each of you can pray in the silence of you r heart here, what ever person you are. If you are that first person I am going to specifically going to be praying with you. I ask that if this is a step that you are taking for the first time that you pray this silently in your heart.

Jesus I know that I am not perfect, I know that I never can be. I have have faith that you did come down from heven and lived a perfect life, and that you chose to lay down that life for my to cover my sins so that I can be in realtionship with you. I pray that you help show me how to live this life that you help show me what I need surrender. Amen