His
name is one you hear in many different places.
It is often spewed through profanity.
It is used to cut and cause pain, but turn the other direction and watch
what the name does. The name of Jesus
brings peace and strength. It is at this
name that salvation comes, demons tremble, and people like you and me begin to
get a little mushy because we have seen God overcome some big things.
Jesus
is more than a name derived from a conversation. The name of Jesus is comforting and makes us
strong. We can talk theology of the
deity of Christ and the second person of the trinity. We could build a case for the power of
transferred sin from us to Jesus through His shed blood, death on the cross and
the promise of eternity with God because Jesus is no longer in the grave. Those are incredible truths.
But
I desire for this truth to inspire us and the people around us to have more
conversations about JESUS? What you
think about, you talk about. Who you
love, you share with others. What or who
you lean on becomes part of who you are on a daily basis. Fill in the blank … JESUS IS __________.
Remember
that it is Jesus who is the head of the church and the reason for the
church. Our church motto or purpose to demonstrate the love God to our community,
and remember again that the love of God was first demonstrated to us through
the gift of His son. That is the
fact. You’ve heard it before.
For
God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in
him will not perish but have eternal life.
This
past weekend we began a new series called “Jesus
is _______.” And through this series I am asking people to fill in the
blank. Who is Jesus to you?
Prayer
partner. The love of my life. Great.
My Healer (thank you Billy). The
beginning and the end. Everything. All I need.
Enough. Truly my life saver. My lifeline.
Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. My rock and my salvation. Me is my help, my hope, my teacher, my friend
and the lover of my soul. Love…true
love. Unparalleled and
unprecedented. My best friend. Everlasting God. sweet unconditional love. Awesome.
My all in all. Lord. My savior.
The dad who has patience with you.
Mine. Only way. Salvation.
Only way. Lord, savior and
king. King of kings. My shining light. With me forever.
That
is what many people put on Facebook as I asked them to fill in the blank. I want to remind you that we are all
human. I am a pastor, but I am a man
like you guys. It is easy to get into a
rut where we stereotype people or judge.
We look down on people a lot. Admit
it. Human nature does that often, like
daily in our own lives.
We
categorize sin. Murder is high on the
list, but telling a lie is very low.
Cheating on your mate is bad, but using a cuss word isn’t that big of a
deal. I’m sorry if I am going to bust
your bubble. A sin is a sin is a sin is
a sin. There are the same across the
board. One is no worse than the other,
and any sin will keep you away from Jesus.
But Jesus came to earth to deal with that sin. He deals with our judging. He levels the playing field and our
minds.
With
Jesus on our minds, in our hearts and rolling off our lips often and with sincerity
life will change. Making Jesus famous is
a big deal. Our lives point people to
something or to someone. Yet we are not
talking about a system of beliefs. We
are not taking about theology. We are
talking about a person. This person who
wants you and me. He pursues us because
that is who the Father is. He gave us
His son.
Therefore,
God elevated him to the place of highest honor and gave him the name above all other names,
Jesus
is God. Jesus is greater than anything
any anyone else. His name is the highest
of high leading to salvation where nothing else can do salvation and hope. That is what teaches us and leads us to
examine what Grace.
God
saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this;
it is a gift from God. 9 Salvation
is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about
it.
Did
you read that right? It’s not of
you! We are saved by what Jesus did for
us. We are accepted because that is what
God does. We have worth because of him
and nothing can change the worth that He placed in our lives.
It
is a gift. God’s grace is a gift to us
that we didn’t and can’t earn. Not by
our works. Christianity has nothing to
do with us paying him back. We can’t pay
God back.
God
comes to us in the person of Jesus and gives us grace. All because of who He is. Worth is not gained. It is given by His imagine. God hunts for and seeks us. God loves you. Your worth is true in God.
Praise God for the facts of His grace,
and thank God that His gift is Jesus who is grace!
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