Gospel in Chairs: A Beautiful Gospel 2015 Brad Jersak

so today I want to share the gospel and I want to share the gospel in a way that I used to share it and then I want to share it a second time with some necessary upgrades the gospel itself doesn't need any upgrades the gospel is perfect but how we share the gospel needs to be continually checked over it tweaked and upgraded so that it's appropriate for our time in our age and also that it's most accurate to what Jesus Christ delivered to us and what he passed on through his disciples to us so while we want to work at how we share the gospel we also want to remember that the gospel itself is perfect because the gospel itself is the story of Jesus of his incarnation of his lifework of his death his resurrection and his ascent to heaven this is the gospel the gospel is Matthew Mark Luke and John the announcement of what Jesus has done the gospel is not an atonement serie the gospel is not for laws or five steps or ten hoops the gospel is the story of Jesus and what he came to do and so in sharing the gospel I want to show you how I used to share it and I'm not going to blame anyone else for sharing it this way although I will say I feel like this has been the dominant message for the last few hundred years as we've shared it in America in Canada in the West and then I'm going to share it a second way with some tweaks that I've been learning from our Eastern church friends that I think will find our more ancient more historical more biblical in the first one you're going to see a real honoring of sort of illegal theme where sin is considered to be law breaking that needs to be punished and therefore the devil is an accuser Jesus and is an advocate and God is a judge and sin has taken care of sort of in a courtroom scenario in the second version we're going to look at something less legal and more therapeutic and so instead of thinking in terms of courtroom we're going to think about hospital where sin is much worse than behavior problems or law breaking it's a fatal disease and how many of you know that you cannot punish a disease out of anyone what we need is not a punishing judge but a great physician you can go right to the root of the problem and so I'm going to begin with the first sort of approach or the first telling the first way that we've often shared I'm going to use these chairs as an illustration of our condition and of God's position in this first telling it goes something like this and you may recognize it in the beginning God created heaven and earth he placed a garden in this world and he created man Adam and Eve and he placed them in the garden and there they were going to represent God in the world image him to be his likeness to be his stewards in the world and to walk in perfect communion with God and then the unthinkable happened Adam and Eve sinned they fell they turned from God and in this telling of the gospel we find that when they turn from God he turned from them and he expelled them from the garden and they lived with the consequences of their sin and in sinning they became sinners in their identity and then this tell of the gospel what does God do well he comes to look for them and to create covenants with them but over and over and over again whether it was Abraham Moses David or the people of Israel they would turn and break the Covenant and in this telling of the gospel when they broke the Covenant God would turn from them and punishment penalties plagues would come and in this telling of the gospel they're sent off into exile and no matter what they did to try to turn to God it was all just empty works and religion and that could never satisfy his justice and so what does God do well he sends his son to live in our place to obey in our place and the son and the father are in perfect communion as Adam and Eve should have been as we should have been but never could be and so on our behalf Jesus lives and then God has to do the unthinkable and he puts his son on a cross and he places all the sins of the world on his son he makes him sin to be sin for us he puts the curse of sin on him and then in the darkness of Good Friday God turns away from his son and he pours out all his wrath on his son and he punishes him in our place and Jesus is sent into death thanks be to God because of his perfect life his perfect obedience and his sinlessness god raises him from the dead and now if you believe that Jesus did this for you you too can live in communion with God but if you don't if you refuse this gift of his vicarious suffering if you reject the love that he had for you and what he did for you in Jesus Christ and if you stay turned away from him you're kept in alienation from him but if you'll turn to him he'll turn to you if you turn from him he'll turn from you and if you die in your sins you go into eternal separation from God and so there's this urgency in our preaching of that first gospel that people would repent and turn to God so that they could receive His grace and that is how I preached the gospel for many years I'll add that I preached it with an anointing I preached it and sinners came to him people repented many were saved and I preached it for a long time just like this and it even has some strength to it doesn't it it has the strength that God is taking care of sin through his son it has a strength that Jesus did for you what you could not do for yourself it has a strength that Jesus sacrifice for you has made it possible for you to have eternal life and so in that sense there's some strengths to this but I also began to notice glitches in it things that didn't seem quite right to our image of God seeing things that didn't seem to line up with certain aspects of the scripture and I am wanting to say that will throw the whole thing out but I do want to address a few particular problems before we go on to the second telling the first problem with ice I see with this view is that it pits God against people in fact one theologian told me the primary disadvantage that's like Direction posture the primary disposition of God towards humankind is M nity anger wrath and I thought really why do we think that would be God's primary disposition towards us when God is love and he sent his son into the world because he loved the whole world right where did we get the idea and so let me tell you we got this idea from a few passages in the Bible one of those pastors passages is in Habakkuk 1 verse 13 where Habakkuk says to God Lord your eyes are too pure to look on sin you are too righteous to look on sin and so if God's eyes are too pure to lock on sin he cannot look on sinners oh if we'd only kept reading the verse do you know how the rest of the verse goes God you are too righteous and your eyes are too holy in too pure to look on sin so why do you Isaiah 59 is another one we begin in verse 2 where Isaiah 59 says your sins have separated you from God and your sins have hidden his face from you that sounds like this doesn't it this sounds like we're separated from God that he's turned from you and can't look on you he's his face is hidden from you Oh we'd only read the rest of the chapter could I read a few verses from that chapter for you here's how it keeps going Isaiah chapter 59 and I'm going to start at verse 15 he says truth is nowhere to be found and whoever shuns evil becomes a prey and he's he's talking about the separation there injustice in the world and then he says this and the Lord looked and he was displeased that there was no justice and he saw that there was no one he was appalled that there was no one to intervene so his own arm achieved salvation for him he goes on later in the chapter and he says a redeemer will come to Zion to those in Jacob who repent of their sins declares the Lord as for me this is my covenant with them my spirit who is on you will not depart from you my words that I put in your mouth will always be on your lips on the lips of your children the lips of their descendants from this time and on forever and what he's doing there is he's saying look at your sins hide your face for me so I'm going to come and find you I'm going to come and look for you I'm disappointed that there's such injustice in the land what will I do I'm going to come and make it right and I'm going to come and be with you and if you run away from me I'm going to come find you right so it's my sense that God's eyes are not too holy to look on sinners or he wouldn't see anybody think about the Gospels whose eyes were too pure to look on sin who is too righteous to eat with sinners the Pharisees could I make a suggestion God is not like a Pharisee God is like Jesus God is exactly like Jesus God is Jesus the son the son of God God the Son all of this wrapped up and where is he he's right in the thick of things with us in our mess in our prisons in our families with the you know the those gone astray and they've run away from him where is God is he like the Pharisees you can't look on that oh no way he comes and finds you he sees you he looks he seeks he saves the lost he's the one who goes after the lost sheep until when until he finds them so this is just a glorious thing now there's a side note to this some of the reformers would say it this way well it's true God can't really look at you but he can look at Jesus and so they would use phrases like this loser has been misquoted as saying this you are now snow covered dung you're still poo but you're covered in the mercy the snow of Jesus righteousness oh isn't that nice another modern theologian has said it this way God has covered you or you you've been covered with Jesus Jesus is your asbestos suit from the white-hot wrath of God so here's almost a good guy bad guy good cop bad cop scenario isn't it where Jesus is saving you from God and could I make a different suggestion God does see you and he's quite in love he sees you just as you are and his heart is bursting with affection for you and so I believe this is a serious glitch in that first telling I apologize for ever saying that God has turned his back he's pitted himself against sinners this is this is just completely not the heart of God that we see in Christ in the Gospels who's madly in love and desperate pursuit of everybody the second glitch that I see is that on the cross in this telling it pits God against Jesus a Jesus is God the Son and never for one moment ceased to be fully God even on the cross to say less than that is formerly a heresy Jesus at all times was fully God and fully man and we believe in a Trinity that can never be severed how many gods are there we sang it this morning how many gods one God in three persons forever in communion without confusion without separation this idea that God could actually reject his own son as if the son weren't God is deeply problematic where did we get the idea that God turned away from his son and poured all his wrath on him let me tell you I wrote my master's thesis promoting the idea that Jesus experienced all the wrath of God when the father turned his face away and we know this why because Jesus says my God my God why have you forsaken me now it is true that in his humanity Jesus experienced all of the human condition on our behalf in order to overcome it including despair he experiences the despair of those who are even about to take their own life in order to overcome it but does this mean the father turned his face away oh if only we'd keep reading Jesus is quoting Psalm 22 verse 1 my God my God why have you forsaken me and then the rest of the psalm is a messianic prophecy the rest the psalm goes on to talk about the Passion of Christ it includes them piercing his hands in his feet it includes them dividing his clothing his garments with Lots it includes his death and it includes his resurrection I think when Jesus cries out Psalm 22 verse 1 he has the so whole Psalm in mind don't you he knows the whole Psalm very well in fact it's describing what he's about to experience and when he cries that out would it be okay with us if he just quoted the first verse or do we have to make him while he's hanging there on the cross suffocating read the whole thing for you how about if we heard him say this so I'm 22 verse 1 go read it here's what I read when I keep reading Psalm 22 I'm going to start at verse 22 this is the prophetic testimony of Jesus himself I will declare your name to my people in the Assembly I will praise you you who fear the Lord praise him all you descendants of Jacob honor him revere him all you descendants of Israel why verse 24 for he has not despised or scorned the suffering of the afflicted one he has not hidden his face from him did the father turn his face away Jesus own prophetic testimony he has not hidden his face from him but has a listened to his cry for help and you get a conversation between the father and the son that goes something like this my God my God why have you forsaken me I haven't Father forgive them they don't know what they're doing it's accomplished father into your hands I commit my spirit and we find out that the father never once turn turned his face from Jesus it's more than that where is God on Good Friday he's on a cross we read in 2nd Corinthians chapter 5 God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself we read in Zechariah 12 Yahweh says you will look on me the one you have pierced and you'll mourn as one mourns for an only Son where is God on Good Friday well let me tell you this Jesus did take a bullet for you but God's not holding the smoking gun Jesus took a nail for you one in this hand one in that one in his feet and God's not holding the hammer CS Lewis comes along in the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe and he tries to bring this correction to us because he saw the problem he says Aslan the lion who needs to represent Jesus gives himself as a substitute for Edmund Edmunds been deceived by a witch he's been ensnared and and the which demands a sacrifice the witch demands to kill Edmund the witch wants to put him on the stone table of retribution and condemnation and take his life and Aslan says let me take his place and so Aslan gets on the stone table they bind him up and they kill him and then he rises from the dead and I noticed two things that CS Lewis is up to one is this where is God in the story can I make this suggestion God is not the witch God is not demanding the sacrifice God is not demanding appeasement God is not demanding his wrath be mollified somehow as if he were a volcano God needing a virgin God is a slán in self giving love taking Edmunds place but it's not just that he satisfies the wrath of the table of retribution he breaks the table forever and he says there's a deeper magic and older older magic and it's called love it's called grace it's called mercy and so Colossians chapter 2 says he actually takes that written code that was against us and he nails it to the tree you know what that tells me it was not part of God's eternal character if it's nailed to the tree if the table is broken it has nothing to do with the character of God the character of God seen in Christ seen an aztlán is self giving love and so this idea that that God is somehow pitted against Jesus I think that has to go I'll just add one more sort of bigger picture glitch in this story the first telling and that is that it really is an atonement theory and I want to say the gospel is not an atonement theory gospel is the drama of redemption played out in the life of Jesus so when we tell the gospel it probably should sound less like an outline or a law or an atonement theory and more like the story and so let's go at it again the beginning of the story is going to sound similar in the beginning God created Adam and Eve he put them in the garden they were there to represent his likeness and image to all of creation and to walk in communion and fellowship with God so far so good the early church that noticed was this Adam and Eve fell into sin and in sinning they experienced a curse called death and what does God do he sends them out of the garden so that the curse will not be made permanent by the tree of life and then he goes with them when they leave the garden he leaves the garden and he closed them said I think you're going to be warmer in this well we're with the fig leaves anyway and then we see a whole drama of redemption throughout the Bible let me lay it out in just a few stories alright so you've got Adam and Eve they leave the garden what does God do he follows them you've got Cain and Abel Cain gets an idea thinking about killing his brother what does God do he says careful Cain sin is crouching at the door that wants to devour you Cain ignores him kills his brother what does God do he comes and finds Cain hey where's your brother am I my brother's keeper and he's killed his brother and God must send them East of Eden and what does God do he gives him a sign on his head it's actually like a family patriarchal protection sign so no one can take vengeance on this murderer interesting as we continue in the Bible we reach Abraham God makes a covenant with Abraham I'm going to give you a miracle child and what does Abraham do he gets some ideas in his own mind about how he's going to fulfill the promise I mean after all the slave girl was a little perkier and what does God do not only does he honor the original promise and gives them the miracle child he even blesses the child that came out of the sex with the slave gives him a covenant - and the woman gets to be the first one who names God I have seen the God who sees me later on you get Moses God says to Moses I want to do a project with you let let's deliver all my people out of slavery in Egypt and what does Moses do it's like I think I've got an idea and he goes and kills an Egyptian get started on the project by himself ends up having a run off into the wilderness for 40 years in hiding and what does God do he shows up as a shrubbery on fire right and he establishes a covenant says oh just because you had a bad idea it doesn't mean my covenants done let's go get him let my people go we come to David God says today but I want to establish an incredible covenant with you where where there's going to be someone from your family on my throne forever and what does it what does David do David likes hot tubs and he's covetous of Bathsheba and he takes her and they he arranges for her husband to be killed in battle and it's just like this horrendous lustful covetous theft and what does God do he actually fulfills his promise through a child from Bathsheba incredible this keeps happening all through history God's people keep breaking the Covenant God keeps looking for them you get to hosea and hosea is like god's people are just like in a horrendous desperate awful sin injustice murder oppression in the land and god looks at this and he says you deserve to be judged you deserve to be punished you deserve to go and exiled and then what does god do he said I started thinking about you when you were a toddler I remember how cute you were when I took your hands and you took your first steps I remember I remember when I would feed you with a spoon some pablum and you like spit it off over the highchair my heart is turned within me I can't do it I just love you so much in fact he says in a brilliant play on words if you don't repent I will I will and he says and I will send you prophets with such good news that even while you're in deep sin you will turn to me because the news is so beautiful and then as this tension in the Old Testament builds and builds finally God says I'm going to need to come down in person and he comes and the Incarnation is Jesus Christ here is a woman by a a well she's lost her first husband she's had her second divorce didn't work out third husband third divorce starting to raise our eyebrows fourth husband fourth divorce fifth husband fifth divorce come on something's going on here and I'm seeing a pattern and what does God do he comes and sits down beside her says oh yeah you've had five husbands and the man you're with now isn't your husband implication is it might be someone else's and he says this I know your problem you're thirsty and all of these have relationships all of this this urge to be bent towards a man all of this you know even adultery it's all just about being spiritually thirsty and I'm going to install in your belly a spring of living water and you will never thirst again and she turns to him and and she's so excited she goes down to Samaria becomes Saint Fatima equal to the Apostles first evangelist to the samaritans you know she she gets older has kids they go off as missionaries together this is true they're tortured for their faith her own children who are also evangelists have their limbs cut off by the Romans in retaliation and finally they take her take her and they knew her testimony and Nero throws her down a well and kills her that way faithful martyr witness who would never renounce her faith why not cuz she had met God the Sun in person and he puts something in her that nobody could take away here is a man who okay let's be honest he had short man syndrome he's a bit greedy he's a tax collector alright he's a betrayer of his own people he's in collusion with the Romans he's defrauding people and not only is he stealing their money and giving it to Rome he's even taking a great part of it and putting in his own pockets he's lost his people he's lost his community you can bet he never went to the synagogue to worship this guy is isolated and he has completely turned not only on God but his own faith community his own clan and what does God do he walks under a tree one day and says Zacchaeus come on down I'll be your friend I want to have supper at your place tonight when you ate with somebody you were dignifying them you were raising that of them up and it was so powerful for for Zacchaeus that he actually repents and he's going to return all the money with interest to anyone he's defrauded and if there's anything left he's going to give half of that away to the poor and he really did why because God didn't turn from him God came and found him here is a man who threw the random curse of life you know I grew up as a quadriplegic and in that culture you would look at somebody who was severely disabled like that and you would assume God had cursed them and God would only curse them if they are their parents or a grandparent or somebody had sinned and so you were condemned as if you were a sinner even just through a disability we only think that's silly now because of Jesus you know and so this man who probably would have been seen as cursed this man who in his body had been cursed by the curse of death you know at least at least here's what he's got for friends and these four friends heard heard of Jesus and one day they get up on a roof they start taking the tiles off a house where Jesus is preaching what does God do God looks up maybe he felt some plaster crumbling in his hairs like oh yeah come on down and he looks at the man he says first let's take this off the table your sins are forgiven this isn't about that and second so that you can all know that the Son of man has authority to do this in the world get up take your mat and walk incredible here's a woman who's been caught in the act of adultery and dragged to the temple where's the man I'll tell you what happened she got set up so that they could set up Jesus text says so this is about testing Jesus right in the temple and they said Moses law the Bible says the plain reading of Scripture is that we must stone her what do you say G what does God do he crouches down in the dust beside her starts scribbling in the dust and one by one the man the accusers the one with the stones start leaving oldest to youngest finally there's nobody there it's just Jesus and her alone and he says ma'am where where is your accusers she's there all gone and then Jesus says this neither do i condemn you go and sin no more or i will condemn you no he didn't say that at all did he but isn't that how we've sometimes heard it in the tone neither do i condemn you go and sin no more like there's this threat I think it was more like this neither do i condemn you you get a fresh start why don't you go out and live as if today never happened as if the the slate is totally clean as if this sin didn't even come across god's mind why don't we just give you a fresh start and i'll tell you i bet she did and she didn't need to be threatened out of her sin at all she was graced into a new life here is a man who's lost his mind he's been demonized by a whole Legion of them and he's so bound up in in in spiritual chains that they had to try to put him in physical chains and he would supernaturally break the chains and he was living down at the cemetery couldn't even handle having clothes on so it's a naked guy and the parents in town are like do not go down there kids not even on Halloween and then okay right and what does God do God gets in a boat one day and he crosses the Sea of Galilee and when his foot lands on that region principalities and powers shook in their boots and he goes and he finds the man and he restores his mind he cleans out his heart gives him his community back gives him his clothes back gives him his family back and the man says I just want to follow you now Jesus like nah just go tell people the good news here's a man who in the hardness of his heart condemns Jesus to death names Pilate here's a group of soldiers in the hardness of their heart nail him to a cross here's a Sanhedrin religious authorities who conspire against him and what does God do is he hangs on a cross tell you what he does he says I forgive you and what happens on that cross number one we get a revelation of the very nature of God this God the one that the Romans and the Jews and that all of us in some way have nailed to that cross he reveals God's heart as radically forgiving self-giving Co suffering love we get our clearest vision of the nature of God in that cruciform man self-giving radically forgiving Co suffering love second on that cross we see his decisive victory over Satan over sin and over death and I want to just read to you from a little sermon that was written in the 300s by one of the greatest preachers in history about what happens on that cross and when Jesus descends down into Hades and then rises from the dead it's such an anointed sermon that in the Eastern Orthodox Church they preach this sermon every single Easter since the time it was written I'm just going to give you the last two paragraphs let no one fear death for the Savior's death has set us free he that was taken by death has annihilated it he descended into Hades and he took Hades captive he embittered it when it tasted his flesh and anticipating this Isaiah exclaimed Hades was embittered when it encountered thee in the lower regions it was embittered for it was abolished it was embittered for it was mocked it was embittered for it was purged it was embittered for it was despoiled it was embittered for it was bound in chains it took a body and came upon God it took earth and encountered heaven it took what it saw but crumbled before what it had not seen Oh death where is your sting o grave where is your victory Christ is risen and you were overthrown Christ is risen and the demons are fallen Christ is risen and the angels rejoice Christ is risen and life reigns Christ is risen and not one dead remains in the tomb for Christ being raised from the dead has become the firstfruits of them who have slept to him be glory and might unto ages of Ages amen amen did you notice the direction of the chairs when we run he comes looking and you could run all your life and he will come looking and you can even have preachers tell you well you know if you turn from him you won't be able to find God if you run from him you won't be able to hear him oh if only it were true I'm gonna go off and I'm trying to sin and then like God shows up he's like son what are you doing never mind I'm gonna go over here and send him it some more and he's like son what are you doing and it's like well it's uh never mind and and I run again and he's like son Here I am and I'm like could I have twenty minutes do you know you can run all your life and the Bible says even if you make your bed in Sheol thou art there this is the Jesus who says in Revelation chapter one behold I'm alive I was dead but now I'm risen and I'm alive forevermore and John chapter five and all those who are in the grave will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear shall live and now there is no place where God's love is not anywhere in the universe and for those who love love they experience that love as paradise and for those who hate love they experience that love as a consuming fire and a refiners fire and a launderers soap and you can run all you like maybe you could run forever but here's what we know for sure his love endures forever his mercy endures for how long for how long forever his loving kindness is everlasting upon everlasting does that feel like it's going to run out does that feel like even death could separate you from the love of God actually what Jesus says is I now hold the keys of death and Hades question if Jesus holds the keys of death and Hades what do you think he'll do with them Ephesians says that he descended into the lower regions took captivity captive and led a parade behind him as he came out well all of this tells you one thing this is a finished work this is done now question is how does it work out in our lives could I just tell you one testimony this one's a zinger here is a woman who comes to fresh wind Christian Fellowship she's been you know alcoholic since she was fifteen now she's in her 30s she's never been able to stay sober for 100 days in a row even when she was pregnant she had run away from God and ended up in a crack house and what did God do he sent a man to come and rescue her took her out of the crack house gave her a life of freedom she became interested in our church starts coming regularly to Bible studies actually helps us plant the church learns how to do prayer ministry with people very effective but still an addict and sadly at one point she fell off the wagon again she ended up stealing like ten thousand dollars from her husband she ends up living on the streets sometimes with a boyfriend in a pickup truck sometimes in a cardboard box and what does God do calls out to her and veidt's her back her ex-husband now says tur why don't you come and do detox in my house and bring your boyfriend so her and her new boyfriend go to the ex's house they do to detox for a couple weeks and then he puts them in rehab and in rehab this woman cries out to God and she said I just want you to know I'm so sorry I've lost my husband I've lost my kids I've lost my church I've lost my health she now had Hep C from needle use and she said I'm not even asking you to restore it anything I just want you to know I'm so so sorry and in that moment she has an open vision of Jesus taking her needle kit strapping her the rubber band around his arm and injecting himself with her drugs and she says no you can't do that you're too righteous and holy and he said is this not what I have done for every man woman and child on the planet I have taken their sin and their sorrow and their wounds into myself to overcome it completely and he said do you feel the grief of seeing me do this and she said yes and she's just weeping and he says when I saw you doing this that's what I felt not condemnation accusation judgment and a need for wrath just grief for a daughter that he loved in that moment this addiction that she could not shake for nearly twenty years was broken in a moment do you know what she's been clean and sober for over ten years not only that she went for her interferon treatments for the Hep C and the doctors did a blood test before they began and they said it's gone he healed her of the Hep C they wrote a non-christian doctors wrote healed by the power of faith in her medical report then oh it gets better she she then decides she's going to marry her boyfriend and she calls the ex-husband and she said would you walk me down the aisle is that legal I'll tell you what we're having a Hosea moment is what's happening and the husband does it and then he starts letting her phone the kids every night from a new home to pray with them and so they would say a good night prayer Lord Jesus if there were any possibility that someday we could be together again would you make that happen after one year the ex-husband calls he says I want you and your new husband to come live with me we have a basement suite we could raise the kids together what this is radical grace this is unconditional love this is the Heart of Jesus so they do after a few more years the ex-husband sells his half of the house to them and moves often has another family it's like what a mess what a holy beautiful glorious gospel mess two weeks ago she had an open house for her new counseling clinic you know what she does family counseling and prayer for at your at-risk children and those who've been sexually molested and God has completely given her a new life how's that that's a beautiful gospel and so we used to call this the gospel in chairs now we call it the beautiful gospel a gospel where God is never pitted against anybody the father is never pitted against Jesus but God in Christ has come to seek and to save the Lost I just want to add this little bit here some of you may have run a long way from God and God has Kaminey run a long way to get you and some of you have a testimony of very very distant journeys away from the heart of God and God comes and he runs after you you and you could even get a backpack and go try to find yourself in Europe for a summer and he went stomach come and get you and maybe you could even have a midlife crisis and buy a really good Harley then he would still come and he would get you and then finally one day one day you just surrender is there anybody here who could worship a God like that if so let's stand together and I want you to close the eyes of your body and open the eyes of your heart and I'm inviting you to look into the glorious shining kind smiling face of Jesus could we do that so Lord Jesus now for my brothers and sisters that you would open the eyes of their heart and I invite you to come close because you live in them anyway take a moment by faith look into his eyes as you look into his eyes what expression do you see you know how eyes can speak right eyes can communicate fear or anger or surprise the eyes of Jesus communicate the good news to communicate the gospel and did you know that he can look at you and he can see right to the heart of you and he knows all your stuff and he deeply loves you and he welcomes you in grace I'd like to do a quick experiment what's the very first thing he says to you just listen for a moment Jesus you've been waiting all morning for this moment what's the very first thing you want to say to my brothers and sisters go ahead and say it what does he want you to know first thing you hear I love to hear the voice of God through other people could a few of you just speak out what's the first thing you heard just say it nice and loud so I can repeat it whoa it's like the voice of many waters I've always loved you I heard that one what else you're the apple of my eye what else I heard a lot more you could never run from me what else I was always there always always always what else I will never leave you or forsake you and that's not just a bumper sticker Bible verse sister that's a word of the Lord for you today could you just let them go ahead and hug you now in your heart Lord would you envelop your children put your arms around them and communicate your deep wonderful love to their hearts so let them give you a squeeze my son my daughter Jesus name Amen amen

Channel: Brad Jersak

Views: 34,203

Rating: 4.8396435 out of 5

Keywords: Brad Jersak, Anthony Carbo, Brian Zahnd, Gospel in Chairs, Beautiful Gospel

Id: 9VwP7df9BuY

Length: 54min 15sec (3255 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 20 2015