Salvador 7-10-22 Sunday AM

ME

WW2 Grandpa Grimm battleship story.

*USS Pennsylvania Pic*

Near the end of WW2, the battleship USS Pennsylvania was doing battle in Okinawa, Japan when an aircraft torpedo tore through the ship, almost tearing it in half. It killed 20 people and injured 10.

She was the last major Navy ship to be hit by enemy fire during WWII.

Grandpa Grimm pic

A gunner on the ship named Herb Grimm recalled the story, saying that the water all around him was red due to the men who were hit on the ship.

Herb wasn't a praying man, but he promised God that if he allowed him to live through this, then he would serve him the rest of his life.

God allowed Herb to live, and when he got back to the states, he went to a revival service at Smith Ridge Church in Sistersville, WV and gave his heart to Jesus Christ.

He also followed through on his promise to God and served him the rest of his life.

Herb was a pastor in the Church of The Nazarene, faithfully serving God and His people for the rest of his life.

He met a lady named Maxine at that church, and was her husband for around 70 years.

*Grimms + Grandkids pics*

Herb was better known as Grandpa Grimm and he means a lot to those who knew him. Including my wife Kayla, who is his granddaughter.

His son-in-law (Kayla's dad), 3 grandsons, and another guy that's preaching to you right now are all pastors because of this man's influence.

Grandpa Grimm went to heaven a little before Christmas 2019 at the age of 94.

Until the end of his life, he shared very little about his experience in the war. He had nightmares for years because of what happened in Okinawa.

But God used that tragedy to shape generations of pastors after him.

Jesus saved Herb physically from certain death in Okinawa, then saved Herb's soul from certain destruction in that little West Virginia church.

WE

*Dopesick Title Pic*

The Hulu miniseries Dopesick (2021) depicts the impact of opioids on American communities and the fight to make them illegal or better controlled. In episode after episode, this show depicts people hungry for a way out of their addiction or out of their involvement in the opioid industry. These are people who want to be saved. And the show also presents people who know the severity of their sin and desire forgiveness. Jesus provides both to everyone who calls on him: a way out from their sin, and forgiveness for what they have done.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, since 2012, drug overdoses in America have more than doubled.

According to Barna.com in that same time span, church attendance among US adults has gone from 43% to 29%.

Do you remember the old bumper sticker that said this:

*Know Jesus Know Peace graphic*

When we as human beings hear the hope-filled message of the Gospel on Jesus Christ on a consistent basis, we find hope and peace.

When we don’t hear this, chaos and hopelessness begin to reign in our hearts.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve talked to someone who hasn’t been to church in a while and tell them how we’ve missed them and they say

“I know I need to get back there.”

9 out of 10 times they don’t… (things like this makes pastors bang their heads against the wall and keeps us praying!)

But I’ll hear them say this over and over, and if they don’t get back involved in church guess what happens?

Sin and chaos begin to reign in their lives.

And so they continue down that path until they either come to a breaking point and turn back to Christ and His church, or they continue in the chaos for the rest of their lives.

We’ve all been in some tough spots in life.

Maybe not as tough as a torpedo coming at us… but situations where we don’t know how we’re going to make it through.

Where do we turn to when life’s at it’s worst?

Maybe the better question is… WHO do we turn to?

GOD

*Title Slide*

This message is entitled “Salvador”

Now can anyone guess what that word means?

Savior..

My wife Kayla was born in San Salvador, El Salvador, near the beginning of a nasty civil war in the country that lasted 20 years.

When she was still an infant, Kayla was adopted by a Nazarene Pastor and his wife and brought to Ohio.

When I met her, I had no clue where she was from, I just knew she was beautiful, fun, and she loved the Lord.

And that checked every box for me!

*Show pic of Elsita*

After a few dates I found out where she was born, which happened to be the same city Elsita was from. Elsita was the child I had been sponsoring through Compassion International.

When Kayla and I got married, we went to San Salvador for our honeymoon.

*Pic of Kayla and I San Salvador*

It was her first time back there in over 24 for years.

El Salvador is a beautiful country with amazing scenery, food and people.

We ziplined between two dormant volcanoes, found out about something called Pupusas (still one of our fav foods), and met some amazing people,

*Show pic of us with Elsita*

including Elsita and her family.

We even met the pastor of the Nazarene church in San Salvador. (Show pic if you have it)

Now when we were on the plane ride back from San Salvador, we met a lady around our age from there who explained to us how to say “El Salvador” correctly:

El SAL-VA_Dorrr.

Why is it pronounced this way?

Extra emphasis is added to this word because they’re talking about

THE SAVIOR of all mankind.

Without Jesus Christ coming as our Savior, we would all be headed towards a certain destruction in hell.

But the Savior did come, and made salvation possible for everyone who will turn from their sins and turn to Him.

My dad was a song evangelist and southern Gospel singer, and I remember one song that he sang many times that eloquently shares what the Savior does in the hearts of broken people:

Once I was straying

In sin's dark valley

No hope within could I see

But they searched through Heaven

And found a Savior

To save a poor lost soul like me

O what a Savior

O Hallelujah

His heart was broken

On Calvary

His hands were nail scared

His side was riven

He gave His life's blood for even me

Let us hear what God’s Word has to say about this amazing Savior:

1 John 4:9–14 ESV

In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world.

He Died So That We Might Live

1 John 4:9 NIV

This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.

The Son became an atoning sacrifice for our sins. He paid our debt before God. He paid the price for our eternal freedom.

Charles Wesley wrote a song that all of us Nazarene Ordained Elders sing every year at our District Assembly:

“Amazing love! How can it be that Thou, my God, shouldst die for me?”

Do we truly comprehend how Amazing this love is?

The God of all creation died for those who had completely rejected Him.

It just doesn’t make sense, does it?

When someone hurts us our human reaction without the Holy Spirit is to get ‘em back right?

*Holy Spirit meme*

And look, they deserve it right?

But that’s not how God operates...

He offers us exactly what we don’t deserve:

Romans 5:8 NRSV

But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us.

“By insisting on suffering due to sin and by suffering in behalf of sinful humanity, God demonstrates that (1) sin is serious and must be radically dealt with, and (2) God is gracious and makes the reconciliation possible.”

-Rick Williamson

He Loved us--->>> We Love Others

1 John 4:11–12 NIV

Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

God lives in us as we live out his love for others. And this love from God within us powerfully demonstrates God’s purpose in the world.

The early church understood well how to love others.

Here’s an example:

There were few safe, clean, and inexpensive accommodations in ancient times. Christian travelers benefited from the lodging and friendship offered by sympathetic homeowners. Host homes benefitted from the informal ministry of the travelling ministers as time was shared around meals.

It should come as no surprise that Christians “invented” the hospital as a place for hospitality.

Did you catch that?

Christians invented hospitals.

After all, Paul wrote in Romans 12:13

Romans 12:13 NIV

Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality.

There is no agreement on who built the first hospital, but it is claimed that Leontius of Antioch built one between the years 344 to 358. At around the same time, possibly with the support of the Emperor, a deacon was placed in charge of the hospitals in Constantinople. This would suggest that hospitals run by Christians had been established even earlier than the mid-4th century AD.

Since then, millions of people have been cared for by doctors and nurses: some nursed back to health and others comforted in their last days on earth.

If you watch a good nurse, they are tireless in their work.

12 hour shifts, caring for multiple people in need, smiling while they have to do things that would make a lot of people vomit.

They are practicing hospitality.

And it can be exhausting!

And rewarding.

We were pretty good about thanking our healthcare workers in the midst of COVID, but we should be thanking them all the time for putting up with us!

Paul didn’t give the command to practice hospitality to only those who work in hospitals.

He’s saying that ALL CHRISTIANS need to be doing this.

But all too often, people become a part of a church, get comfortable, and think that everyone else needs to be hospitable to them and wait on them and if they don’t do exactly what they want when they want it then they’ll just go down the road to a church that will.

May I tell you: that’s not being loving.

It’s being SELFISH!

Here’s a few verses about selfishness:

Philippians 2:3 NIV

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves,

1 Corinthians 10:24 NIV

No one should seek their own good, but the good of others.

James 3:16 NIV

For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice.

I have seen this over and over again: when Christians in a local church fail to love each other, through gossiping, infighting and just plain being trifling, no one outside their church wants to be a part of it. Why would they?

Everyone’s already got enough drama in their lives!

However, when Christians in a local church love each other well, when they are so focused on worshipping the Savior that they don’t have time to fight each other, people want to be a part of that church.

“Why does John say so much about loving our brothers, but nothing at all about loving our enemies? Reaching out to our enemies does not exclude loving our brothers. Our love, like a fire, must first take hold of what is nearest and then spread to what is further off.”

Augustine

The fire begins among us church, when we love the Lord and love each other, this love begins to spread throughout the community.

Savior of the World

1 John 4:13–14 ESV

By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world.

The world is kind of a messed up place right now.

Has been for quite some time since the Fall in the Garden of Eden.

Sin makes a wreck of lives and societies and ruins everything.

But in the midst of all the chaos surrounding us, there is a Savior who is calling.

In the midst of death, He is calling us to life.

In a world full of evil, He is calling us to goodness.

“There is a world of difference between existence and life. All men have existence but all do not have life. The very eagerness with which men seek pleasure shows that there is something missing in their lives. A famous doctor once said that men would find a cure for cancer more quickly than they would find a cure for boredom. Jesus gives a man an object for which to live; he gives him strength by which to live; and he gives him peace in which to live. Living with Christ turns mere existence into fullness of life.”

-William Barclay

The mission of Christ was for a precise and profound purpose. The Son came to do for us that we could not do for ourselves.

Pardon for our sins was achieved by God assuming the consequences of our rebellion.

Isaiah 53:6 NCV

We all have wandered away like sheep; each of us has gone his own way. But the Lord has put on him the punishment for all the evil we have done.

The purpose of the sending of the Son, beyond his incarnation, was to bring us back to God.

He has done all the work and offered us the gift of eternal life with Him.

But it’s up to us whether we accept or reject this gift:

“The sending of the only begotten Son makes God’s life in us possible—that we might live. But it does not guarantee it. Nor is the life irrevocable. The verb is in the subjunctive mood, suggesting that the life is conditional. One may have life by accepting Christ, but one may forfeit life by rejecting Christ. The offer made, and the ability to respond, are all of grace. God sent Jesus. And only because of his initiative toward fallen, broken, sinful humanity can we hope to return to life.”

-Rick Williamson

JESUS IS THE SAVIOR OF THE WORLD AND WANTS TO BE LORD OF MY LIFE.

YOU

*Lucado book image*

Homecoming

In No Wonder They Call Him The Savior, Max Lucado shares a story about a woman seeking her lost daughter:

“Longing to leave her poor Brazilian neighborhood, Christina wanted to see the world.

Discontent with a home having only a pallet on the floor, a washbasin, and a wood-burning stove, she dreamed of a better life in the city. One morning she slipped away, breaking her mother’s heart. Knowing what life on the streets would be like for her young, attractive daughter, Maria hurriedly packed to go find her. On her way to the bus stop she entered a drugstore to get one last thing. Pictures. She sat in the photograph booth, closed the curtain, and spent all she could on pictures of herself. With her purse full of small black-and-white photos, she boarded the next bus to Rio de Janiero. Maria knew Christina had no way of earning money. She also knew that her daughter was too stubborn to give up. When pride meets hunger, a human will do things that were before unthinkable. Knowing this, Maria began her search. Bars, hotels, nightclubs, any place with the reputation for street walkers or prostitutes. She went to them all. And at each place she left her picture—taped on a bathroom mirror, tacked to a hotel bulletin board, fastened to a corner phone booth. And on the back of each photo she wrote a note.

It wasn’t too long before both the money and the pictures ran out, and Maria had to go home. The weary mother wept as the bus began its long journey back to her small village. It was a few weeks later that young Christina descended the hotel stairs. Her young face was tired. Her brown eyes no longer danced with youth but spoke of pain and fear. Her laughter was broken. Her dream had become a nightmare. A thousand times over she had longed to trade these countless beds for her secure pallet. Yet the little village was, in too many ways, too far away. As she reached the bottom of the stairs, her eyes noticed a familiar face. She looked again, and there on the lobby mirror was a small picture of her mother. Christina’s eyes burned and her throat tightened as she walked across the room and removed the small photo. Written on the back was this compelling invitation. ‘Whatever you have done, whatever you have become, it doesn’t matter. Please come home.’ She did.”

Romans 3:23 reminds us that we’ve all messed this thing up. We’ve all sinned and fallen short of God’s glory.

But the next verse says we are justified (made right) freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus, the SAVIOR.

Savior Lyrics

Well, who is this angry man I see

In the mirror looking back at me?

It's a man who's tired, a man who's weak

And it's a man who needs a Savior

And who is this fearful little child

Crying out for home, lost in the wild?

With a lonely heart that's fading fast

It's a child who needs a Savior

And what is this longing in my soul

That I get so scared and angry?

I need more than just a little help

I need someone who will save me

And who is this one nailed to a cross

Who would rather die than leave us lost?

He's come to rescue us, come to set us free

Hallelujah, hallelujah

It is Christ the Lord... our Savior

*Title Slide*

Almost 18 years ago, the Savior gave life to me when I was angry, confused and in the depths and grip of sin.

I was the worst of the worst- the chief of sinners.

So I want you to understand this:

If you feel like you’re too lost be found and too far gone to be saved,

You are never too far from God’s reach because Jesus stands in your place.

And when you accept Christ into your heart He declares you righteous because of his work on the cross.

No matter what you’ve done or who you’ve become, you are not beyond His reach.

*Prayer*

WE

1 Corinthians 2:2 NIV

For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.

*Title Slide*

What if, as a church, we made this same resolution Paul did.

What if we shared the message of the Savior of the world with the words we say and the love that we show?

I believe the same thing that happened 2,000 years ago could happen today right here in Pulaski County.

There would be people being saved on a daily basis.

Not just saying they’re Christians because they’re from the south.

But really and truly being saved from their sins and free from the power of sin in their lives.

That’s the power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

That’s the power of the Savior.

Go- and share the Savior with someone this week!