“God
Loved (Part 2)” By Brother Kenneth Ray January 20th,
2013 Last week we started the first part
of our 2-part sermon entitled, “God Loved.”
Who remembers the only condition needed to be met to have God’s love active
in our lives? accept it. This is sort of
a “pre.” Before there was algebra, there
was pre-algebra… Normally, physicians
don’t like pre-existing conditions, but the Great Physician likes this
pre-existing condition. He wants you to
have the pre-existing condition of accepting it, before He makes His love
active in your life. When we left off last Sunday, we were speaking
about Jesus enduring the cross and enduring the shame of it for our sake. This week we are going back to the cross: Jesus, while on the cross, according to Mark
15:34, cried out, “My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?” If you’re looking at that Scripture, then you
can see that there is much more to that verse than that; there are a lot more
words there than that. But, with in that
context, He said, “My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?” What separated the Son from the Father at
this point? The one word answer is,
Iniquity. Whose iniquity? not His; He
committed no sin. Jesus took on the sins
of the world; our transgressions and our iniquities. Jesus made His grave with the wicked;
remember He was crucified between two thieves.
One of those men accepted Him, the other of those men rejected Him. That is the same choice we have today (The
Bible says, “8Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.” (Hebrews
13:8) What are we going to do with God’s
love, accept it or reject it? It’s a
choice. I don’t have any henchmen to strong
arm anyone into accepting Jesus this morning.
I don’t have anyone who will put you on a table and interrogate you with
Scripture until you get so wearied that you just say, “Fine! I’ll do it!”
I don’t have that, this morning.
Jesus didn’t have it when He was between the two thieves. But, when you look at it, and you say, “Yeah,
I can accept,, or I can reject.” Let’s think like Americans for a
moment, or like people, but I say like Americans, in our capitalistic society,
and we say, “What does my choice get me?”
He
gives us free will (arguable the biggest mistake He ever made); My wife knows,
because she’s seen me pick out my wardrobe. Thank God, He gave me a helpmate that helps
out with my free will. We have a
helpmate to do something about our free will, and that’s called the Holy
Ghost. It helps you with more than just
your wardrobe, it helps dress you up spiritually, because that is the spiritual
fashion sense that you may have. Jesus’ love is unconditional but He
doesn’t force it upon us; we have the option to accept or reject. One of the guys that I work with, his answer
to everything is, “Whatever you want, boss.”
The boss may ask him, “How do you think we should do this?” “Whatever you want, boss.” “What I want is for you to make a decision. I
want you to come up with a solution, and bring it to me, and allow me to tweak
it as need be.” Jesus wants you to give
Him an option of your assessment of whether you’re going to accept or reject
His love, and allow Him to tweak it as need be.
Some may think (this usually happens
to at least one person in a crowd this size), “You don’t know my past. You don’t know what sins I committed.” True, I don’t, but God does, and I can tell
you that He knows and He loves you. Don’t
you think that Jesus knew what Apostle Paul did before he became Apostle
Paul? I mean, He spoke with him. You think the people didn’t know what Apostle
Paul did before he became Apostle Paul? I’m going to give you a quote from the
movie, ‘Lincoln,’ “Son, God don’t care where you’ve been, He cares where you
are now.” Now, we do, so we think that
God does. We set up barriers, “Oh, I
remember what you did; I’m not going to let you do that again,” but God isn’t
like that. We have to let God be God and
not put barriers up. Apostle Paul had to
learn how to love the unworthy. Our free
will should not allow someone else’s journey not to start. Don’t top God’s love from reaching someone
else because you fell that they are unworthy. One of my pet peeves is when someone
else answers for me when I’ve been asked something. Or when I ask somebody something, and someone
else answers my question for them. “Was
I asking you?” Don’t answer for someone
else when God’s not asking you. You may think that you are unique (“You’re
one of a kind), but you’re not different than anyone else in this, your
situation. God created man and you are
part of that family; God is our Heavenly Father and in spite of it all, He
loves you. Anybody here think that they
are not in that situation? You may ask many questions, but the only
question you have to answer is if you will accept or reject God’s love. Reject it, and there is no more He can do for
you, He is on the other side of the door knocking. His love is unconditional, but He will not
force it one you. He will stand at the
door and knock. His love is still there
for you, but it’s like anything else with Americans, you’ve got to want
it. Accept it, and He can come in and
sit and sup with you, and you with Him. He’s
not going to critique your dining room set.
He will leave you in the direction of having a relationship with
Him. We have done a lot of talking about
relationships. I don’t know where you are in your life;
I don’t have any special Ninja skills, or Jedi powers. Some feel that they are not worthy of
a relationship with God, and find themselves on the outside of what could be something
great. Well, let’s address that, this not
being worthy. You are not, and neither
am I, nor was the thief on the cross who said, “Forgive me.” Christ said to him, “This day, thou shalt be
with me in paradise.” Today there is
more to it, now we have the Great Commission, but today we are talking about activating
God’s love in our lives. By the blood of Jesus Christ we are reconciled
back to God and our debt of sin is paid.
Let me just say that you are not a thief on the cross, you still have to
talk to Him, and you need to take on His name with joy. It is by the blood of Jesus Christ that we
are reconciled back to God and that our debt was paid. Without that, God’s love could not be active. The best way to understand God’s
love is to understand Jesus. So, when we
began to understand Jesus, we began to understand love. Let’s see how Isaiah 53:7-12 plays out: we see the Father turn away from His Son as a
scapegoat for our sin ad in all this to hear Jesus cry out, “Father, forgive
them; for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34) is our first step to
understand how vast God’s love is for you, me, all of us. He removes our sins, our transgressions,, as
far as the East is from the West (Psalms 103:12). God’s only desire is to give us what is best,
and He knows what is best. God’s love is everlasting: So, we can have a relationship in
this life and in the one to come. Sermon notes by Pete Shepherd |
|
|
|
