The following entry is a sermon I prepared for an outreach church service in the villages. Every Friday this month, the CCH home our team is working with hosts an outreach service for the community, in hopes that non-believers will partake and come to know the Lord. Every service one of us must deliver the message of the Gospel, something I am truly terrified of. Many of you already know my story and background. Growing up in Hebrew School and Temple I was raised with the understanding that Jesus was a false messiah. I didn’t really know what I thought He was, quite frankly it was easier just not to think about it. However, once curiosity got the best of me, the more I researched, the more I investigated, the harder it was to deny the truth. Ultimately I realized Jesus was far more than I gave Him credit for. He is indeed the Messiah the Old Testament prophesied about, He is indeed our God personified, and our ticket to a deep and intimate relationship with Him. With that being said I didn’t necessarily accept Jesus for the salvation. At the time I didn’t understand the need for salvation. I’m alive and well, what do I need to be saved from? I accepted Jesus because He showed me a love like no other, and He brought me closer to a God that I had heard of my whole life, but never actually known.
With all that being said, I have had no problem speaking in church. I deliver messages on God’s love, or the importance of intimacy with Him, I’ll speak of grace and forgiveness and healing, but never the Gospel. The Gospel scares me. I felt so condemned by it all my life. Going to church with my grandparents whenever I was in their care, hearing the preacher say “Jesus is the only way, he died for our sins so that we may have life, if you don’t accept him you are going to hell.” Ya,… I can tell you, that was anything but convicting. Sitting there as a Jew I grew defensive, I built up walls against Christianity, and I developed an animosity against ‘The Gospel’. Yet now I find myself here, in a tiny village in India, inhabited mostly by those of the Hindu faith, asked to share The Truth I supposedly know so well, asked to preach the Gospel. A little voice in my head whispers, ‘you can’t do this’ and for that reason alone I knew I had to.
The service was Friday night but I started my preparation early Wednesday morning. Sitting on the roof, the sun rising higher and higher above the fields with each passing moment, my journal wide open ready to organize whatever thoughts poured into my mind, my Bible resting on my lap, and worship music blasting in my ears.
Holy Spirit I need You to enter me right now, fill my heart and my mind, Jesus instruct this pen to move in whatever way Your Will desires. I’m at the end of my knowledge, I’ve reached the end of my strength. Papa I don’t know where to go from here, so I need you to guide me. Convict me of the Gospel, convict me of the Truth, I am merely an earthly vessel for you to use, fill me with Your words and Your will. You know what these people need, not me. Guide me, use me, and move me, Jesus.
After that, the words started to flow. I ended up with two pages of sermon that included ten different bible verses.
As I read through my sermon the next day, my eyes began to water, and tears fell onto the pages of my journal below. God had pursued me because He loves me. He saved me because He wants to be in relationship with me. Without Jesus’ salvation I could never have the eternal life I now possess with God, and I could never have the overwhelming peace that I have now with the Holy Spirit dwelling within me. Jesus’ sacrifice is real, and His resurrection and impending salvation is real. The river of peace, the ocean of love, and the fountain of joy are all so real you can feel them. What am I doing with my salvation if I’m not sharing it with others? What good is this endless joy and peace if I’m holding it hostage for myself. Sure, I may be mocked or persecuted, in fact, the Bible guarantee’s that. However the approval of my Creator trumps all.
I initially wrote this sermon in order to help minister to the non-believers in the community, however, in God’s wonderful turn of events, He used these words to minister to me.
For so long, the Gospel was a message of condemnation. It was Christians pointing their finger at me saying you are not good enough because you don’t believe in Jesus. But that’s a lie. The truth is, any condemnation comes from man, not God. Man might say ‘you’re not good enough unless you believe Jesus saved you’, but God says ‘you are more than good enough, that’s why I sent Jesus to save you’.
I include my sermon in this post not to judge or condemn, but to share with you all the words that brought forth breakthrough for me. To invite you in on this journey that God is carrying me on.
Papa, I pray that You will bless the ears that hear these words. That these words will come from Your lips and not mine, and that they will be used for Your glory alone. Papa, I pray that these words will not condemn but inspire, that these words will encourage life not death and will illuminate Your unconditional love, not judgement. Papa, go before me and prepare the hearts of many, open them up to Your truth and Your love. In Jesus’ mighty name, Amen.
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The Gospel
The Gospel tells the story of a living God. One that speaks, one that moves, one that loves. The Gospel is an invitation to enter into relationship with a God that loves you; a God that gives you purpose, that gives you reason and that fills you with honor and joy.
“But seek first His kingdom, and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”
Matthew 6:33
In the beginning we were created by God with His own two hands, and He instilled in us a desire to know Him. That’s why we worship, that’s why we idolize. Be it money, other gods, our job, our spouses, our children, our sports teams. We worship because when God made us He placed in our hearts a desire to worship and love Him, a hole we are constantly trying to fill.
“Know therefore today, and take it to your heart, that the Lord, He is God in Heaven above and on the earth below; there is no other.”
Deuteronomy 4:39
Then God made a covenant with us, His sons and daughters. He told us that if we honor Him and abide in His laws and His ways, than He will love us, protect us and be with us all the days of our life.
“Know therefore that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God, who keeps His covenant and His lovingkindness to a thousandth generation with those who love Him and keep His commandments.”
Deuteronomy 7:9
Unfortunately we broke that covenant. We did not uphold our end of the deal. We worshipped other gods, we sinned against our neighbor, and we cursed a God who created us. We turned away.
However, as our Father, and as His sons and daughters, God loved us way too much to let His covenant fail.
“For the Lord your God is a compassionate God, He will not fail you nor destroy you nor forget the covenant with your fathers which He swore to them.”
Deuteronomy 4:31
Therefore, He sent His only son, Jesus. Jesus lived the life that we were meant to live, one that was perfect and sinless. A life that was focused entirely on God, loving Him, serving Him, and serving our brothers and sisters around us. God the Father sent Jesus to fulfill the covenant that we couldn’t fulfill, and as both man and God, He is the only one that can.
God the Father sent Jesus so that He may live the life we were meant to live and die the death that we had deserved. Jesus died for us, for our sins, so that we may have life eternally with God.
“For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Romans 6:23
Jesus died and with His death, He unlocked us from the bondage of sin. He freed us from our sin long before we ever stepped foot on this earth.
“I have wiped out your transgressions like a thick cloud, And your sins like a heavy mist. Return to Me, for I have redeemed you.”
Isaiah 44:22
After freeing us from our sin, on the third day Jesus rose from the dead, and with His resurrection He gave us life eternally. Through Jesus’ death and resurrection we are freed from the bondage of sin and instead receive eternal life with God in Heaven.
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.”
John 3:16-17
In the beginning God made a covenant with us. He said keep Me and abide by My ways, and I will dwell with you so that you will have life eternally with Me. Jesus did that. He fulfilled God’s covenant on behalf of each and everyone of His children, each and everyone of us.
I grew up Jewish. I was raised going to Temple. There I worshipped a God that I did not know. I memorized and recited prayers that I didn’t understand, and I swore by a God that had no real meaning to me. I seemed okay, but I longed for more. There was a whisper in my soul that told me there was more to life, and I was hungry to fill the longing in my heart. I pursued God fervently. Seeking the truth with a vigor like no other. One night in particular, a little over a year ago, I got down on my knees, in my empty apartment, bowed my head and lifted my hands up to God.
I’ve hit the limit of my own knowledge. I don’t want to do what I think or what other’s think, I want to do what You KNOW. I don’t want to worship a false god, but I also don’t want to miss out on a love like no other. I no longer know which way to turn, so I surrender all my thoughts to You, Lord. Guide me in the way of the truth, I will go wherever You lead, just show me the way.
That week God began to show me Jesus in new ways each an every day, and that Sunday at church Jon Lash spoke of Yeshua the Messiah; my Jewish Messiah, my King of Kings, that God was inviting me to follow.
Now, I worship a God that I adore with all my heart. I talk to a God that listens to me, and I listen to a God that speaks. I praise a God that moves in my life each and every day, a God that loves me unconditionally and a God that has overflowed me with a joy and a peace that has no comparison.
By receiving Jesus into our life, we receive His salvation, His freedom and His life. We enter into a living relationship with a living God. One that speaks to us, One that guides us when we are in need, and One that promises to protect us. We enter into relationship with a God that promises to love us no matter what we do, no matter how far we try to run. The covenant has already bee fulfilled, He will never turn His face from you. By receiving Jesus we enter into relationship with a living God that gives us purpose, a God that gives us our identity as ‘the sons and daughters of the Creator of the entire universe!’
Think about that. You are the son or daughter of the Creator of the entire universe. He is your Father. That is the greatest honor any of us could ever hope for.
“For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, Abba! Father!”
Romans 8:15
If you want to enter into relationship with your Father, turn to Jesus, seek out His salvation, and acquire the life that He gained for us.
“What man among you, if he has a hundred sheep and has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open pasture and go after the one which is lost until he finds it? When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!’ I tell you that in the same way, there will be more joy in Heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.”
Luke 15:4-7
“My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.”
John 10:27-29
