I was able to preach at the service we have been putting on for the local Hungarian and Romanian college students. I preached a message about God’s love for us. I started it with how great and marvelous God is. That God wants an intimate relationship with us. He loves us so much that He gave up His one and only Son to bear our sin so we could come to Him. I read John 3:14-18 NKJV –
“14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. 16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. 17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. 18 “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”
I then explained that in further detail. I was looking at the verses of scripture and it made me wonder what people did before Jesus. How were they able to have a relationship with God? I was then led to Exodus 30:11- NKJV-
11 Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying: 12 “When you take the census of the children of Israel for their number, then every man shall give a ransom for himself to the LORD, when you number them, that there may be no plague among them when you number them. 13 This is what everyone among those who are numbered shall give: half a shekel according to the shekel of the sanctuary (a shekel is twenty gerahs). The half-shekel shall be an offering to the LORD. 14 Everyone included among those who are numbered, from twenty years old and above, shall give an offering to the LORD. 15 The rich shall not give more and the poor shall not give less than half a shekel, when you give an offering to the LORD, to make atonement for yourselves. 16 And you shall take the atonement money of the children of Israel, and shall appoint it for the service of the tabernacle of meeting, that it may be a memorial for the children of Israel before the LORD, to make atonement for yourselves.”
Explaining it I said, we had to have a priest offer sacrifices on our behalf in order to purify us and make us right before God. There were rules that had to be followed and traditions that had to be kept. I then read Hebrews 7:25-27 NKJV –
“25 Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them. 26 For such a High Priest was fitting for us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and has become higher than the heavens; 27 who does not need daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins and then for the people’s, for this He did once for all when He offered up Himself.”
I spoke about how Jesus is now our High Priest and He has taken the place as our offering and sacrifice to purify us before God. Because of this we can have an intimate relationship with God and we can speak to Him because He has sanctified us. I went from that message to a message about our worship to God and how it has strayed away from True worship. I read Isaiah 58:1- 9 –
1 “Shout with the voice of a trumpet blast. Shout aloud! Don’t be timid. Tell my people Israel of their sins! 2 Yet they act so pious! They come to the Temple every day and seem delighted to learn all about me. They act like a righteous nation that would never abandon the laws of its God. They ask me to take action on their behalf, pretending they want to be near me.3 ‘We have fasted before you!’ they say.’Why aren’t you impressed? We have been very hard on ourselves, and you don’t even notice it!’ “I will tell you why!” I respond. “It’s because you are fasting to please yourselves. Even while you fast, you keep oppressing your workers.4 What good is fasting when you keep on fighting and quarreling? This kind of fasting will never get you anywhere with me. 5 You humble yourselves by going through the motions of penance, bowing your heads like reeds bending in the wind. You dress in burlap and cover yourselves with ashes. Is this what you call fasting? Do you really think this will please the Lord? 6 “No, this is the kind of fasting I want: Free those who are wrongly imprisoned; lighten the burden of those who work for you. Let the oppressed go free, and remove the chains that bind people.7 Share your food with the hungry, and give shelter to the homeless.Give clothes to those who need them, and do not hide from relatives who need your help. 8Then your salvation will come like the dawn, and your wounds will quickly heal. Your godliness will lead you forward, and the glory of the Lord will protect you from behind.9 Then when you call, the Lord will answer.’Yes, I am here,’ he will quickly reply.”
I expounded more on true worship. I said that we show God love by loving each other. He wants us to treat each other with the love that He shows us. I spoke about how we listen to each other is a direct representation how we listen to God. I ended saying that this is the kind of worship that God wants, then your salvation with come like the dawn and your righteousness will lead you and the Lord’s glory will protect you. AMEN!
