20 salvations! This is unbelievable. Who would have thought that we would see 20 people place their faith in Christ on our opening Sunday as a church!!! 35 people have trusted Christ in our short history, we are a part of something special. I hope I never grow numb to people coming to Jesus. Wow.
Since every sermon will in some way connect to our mission as a church, I have decided to make sermon summaries a part of my blog. Let’s begin.
As you know by now. Reality is, God is writing a story. It’s not one that’s already been written. We sit in the chapter between Jesus’s 1st and 2nd coming. The messiah dying on a cross for us, and the culmination of things at the end of Story.
As in any movie, before you have a Story you’ve got to have a central character. and that central character has to be involved in some conflict. Some tension that draws you in. The central character is Jesus of Nazareth and the recurring tension of the Story is religion.
Jesus was prophesied from the moment sin entered the world in Genesis 3:15. And Jesus is seated on the throne of the Kingdom in Revelation 21. Of course, God is truine, and they existed outside space/time for all eternity. All 3 persons play a pivotal role throughout the Story. Jesus is the central feature however, as he was sent by the Father for the solution to the Genesis 3 problem.
The tension is religion. It works against God’s love pursuit of mankind all throughout the Story. Religion is man’s attempt to balance or cancel out your bad deeds through good deeds. If I earn God’s love I have something to be prideful about. The result is ego and pride. You begin to judge those who don’t do like you do. They attacked Jesus in his day, and they are the reason so many can’t stand the church in our day.
John 8:1-11 was our passage. A classic face off of Jesus and Religion. These men were more concerned with being right than they were about this woman’s soul. Notice how Jesus attacked the religious leaders when it was clear this woman was guilty of sin. Jesus loved this woman, and knew what she needed: Grace. Then Jesus led her out of her life of sin because her sin was destroying her potential in the Story of God.
This story captures in all: You need to receive God’s Grace through Jesus Christ to begin a relationship with God, and in the midst of this relationship a conversation begins where you learn your unique purpose in life. Your role in the Story.
