GCG Welcome - Aug 4, 2022

Good morning!

Good morning! My name is Chris Beshears. Welcome to CGC!!

It's so good to see everybody today. In fact, in the fashion of Pastor O, you should turn to the person next to you and tell them congratulations for making it to church this morning.

I'm serious! Sometimes it's a minor miracle that some of us even make it here on Sundays.

Illustration

Have you ever noticed that the enemy tries to pick fights in your family ... mostly on Sunday mornings? It's true! The enemy tries to stir the pot first thing so that we can find an excuse not to go to church. He does! I'm not lying!

How many times did you have to wake your kids up this morning and tell them get out of bed so that you wouldn't be late for church this morning?

I'm blessed that my kids are now adults, but growing up, anytime one of them would have an excuse to not go to church, I learned there's always one response that would stop them in their tracks and leave them speechless. I'll teach it to you? You ready?

(Kids Example)

So, for example, one of your kids says, "I don't want to go to church today ... I'm tired."

You say, "Jesus was tried hanging on the cross for you, but he did it anyway."

Complete silence! It's the truth!

And it doesn't just work on kids — it works on wives too. (Wife)

Another example, your wife says "I don't want to go to church. Those people who I had to sit by last week didn't seem to be very friendly."

Your response: "The people who hung Jesus on the cross weren't very friendly either, but he did it anyway."

How do you respond to something like that?

It works for nearly every excuse in existence. (Husband)

Your husband says, "The seats are too hard at that church. They make my back hurt."

"The cross that just hung on was hard too, but Jesus did it anyway."

Are you writing this stuff down? -- this is good stuff!

Application:

It's so easy to fall for the enemy's schemes. He wants to rob us of opportunities to be in the Lord's presence ... because it produces weak, immature Christians.

And when I say Satan tries to plant the idea of staying home instead of coming to church, it has nothing to do with the quality of the ministries at church, because CGC had some of the finest ministries I've ever seen ... and I've been in the church circle for a long time now. It's just that Satan just tries to convince us that's it's easier to stay home. Because once you get here you love it!

You see, salvation is a free gift!

Romans 6:23 - For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Gifts are free! They don't cost us anything! But because we're not fronting the bill, it's easy to take what Jesus did on the Cross for granted sometimes.

But we need to remember that it cost God something dearly -- the sacrifice of His very own Son's life to save yours!

This gift was a sacrifice and a sacrifice speaks of something costly! ... the giving of something that is dear to us! A sacrifice is not a sacrifice until you have to give up or surrender something that's of extreme value or importance to you.

That's exactly what Jesus did for us on the Cross! He gave up everything -- He gave up His life -- so that you would have eternal life.

Hanging on the Cross wasn't easy. It wasn't convenient. It wasn't pretty. ... but He did it anyways because He loves you!!

So, I don't know what kind of morning you had -- or how your day started out -- but one thing that I do know is that Jesus paid the ultimate price for our salvation when he died for our sins on the Cross -- and because of that -- He deserves our very best worship this morning.

You've made it here this morning -- whether you would consider that a miracle or not -- so give God the praise that He deserves. Don't let the enemy convince you to be lackadaisical in your worship. Don’t let him convince you to take what Jesus did on the Cross for granted any longer. He is such a good God!!!