Good News for a Reason!
Also posted at www.mikeshaw.tv
Christian Recording Artist and Lead Pastor of The Exchange, Joel Engle, wrote this on his Facebook wall this evening:
Christian, don’t fall into despair over your sinful failings! Christ has freed you from wrath, has made you holy and will give you victory!
That gets me excited! It is the Gospel message. Jesus took your punishment and God isn’t mad at you anymore. Truly this is the heart of Christianity that should be the heart of every sermon. So often we let the enemy, or the world, or ourselves, lie to us about who we are in Christ and the miraculous transformation He has done in our heart and is doing in our lives. When you receive Christ He gives you His Holiness! You are justified (just as if I’d never sinned) and God removes your sin from you as far as the east is from the west! It is a miracle and it is good news.
When we consider the story of the Prodigal Son, who spent his share of the inheritance with “loose living” and was still welcomed home by his father when he returned home then we get a glimpse of the heart of our Heavenly Father. He never looses His love for you no matter what you choose to do. Yes, sin has consequences and can lead you to an early grave and an unhappy life, but remember you can always run to a loving God who loves you more than you can ever imagine. Always.
God poured His wrath out on His Son Jesus so He will never pour it out on you. Remember that when you sin (and you do) that God isn’t angry with you. He loves you with an eternal love. Run to Him and receive your forgiveness, don’t run away in fear and go deeper into destruction.
Are sermons about the dangers of sin important? Of course they are and all scripture is God-breathed and is good for instruction and even correction. But looking at your sin is not going to bring about change in your life. It’s when you look at the Cross and what God did for you that you realize you can trust the King of the Universe to bring you safely to your destination. And you can trust Him with your problems and your secrets. He already knows and He couldn’t love you any less.
Always remember and never forget that at the core of any and all Christian messages is (should be) the complete forgiveness that you receive when you receive Christ. Joel calls it The Exchange. It’s the best deal ever offered in the history of the universe. You Exchanged your mess for His Glorious Kingdom! When you do that you become His kid and a part of the family! Now start acting like it :-)
You are Holy!
or you can be if you’re not. Holiness is for everyone, but it’s not something you fight for or strive for. Holiness is something you receive!
When Jesus died on the cross and said, “It is finished” and then rose from the dead on the third day, it really was finished. Jesus completed the greatest exchange in history for those who will accept it.
Let me back up just a few steps. Joel Engle was in Tucson this past weekend for the Kingdom Men 2010 Conference, “Always Better Together.” There were nearly 2,000 men in attendance to hear messages like the one Joel gave. Joel is a Christian music artist and also the founding pastor of “The Exchange” located in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area.
I’m going to take just this one point that Joel made and expound on it a little bit. I want to share it with you and drive it a little deeper into this thick head of mine so I can get it into my heart. I believe that if God’s church can really believe how much we are forgiven, and how much God loves us we will have much more joy in our lives and we will be able to share that with others.
So Joel is on stage Saturday and asks, “How many here think they are Holy?” A lot of hands went up, but most were hesitant, and a lot of hands didn’t go up. I was thinking, “I think I’ve been taught that I am, but I’m really not sure. I know I don’t always act like it.” And that’s when Joel put this verse on the screen: Hebrews 10:10 “…we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.”
We ARE Holy! Not because of anything we do. We ARE Holy because of what Christ did. It’s the exchange, as Joel says. Jesus took our mess and exchanged it for His Holiness. We were separated from God, but He made a way back to Him. Jesus took our sins and unrighteousness and exchanged it for His righteousness!
If you have Christ as your Lord and Savior then you are on the winning end of the exchange. You definitely got the better deal. Through no effort of your own, you have been made righteous and Holy in the sight of God. You have been adopted into God’s family as a son or daughter as a co-heir with Christ and all the benefits of sonship or daughtership. God Loves you as much as He loves Jesus! Even though you still sin, you are no longer a sinner. God is for you and not against you. It really is good news. The best news actually. The God who created the entire Universe wants to be your best friend. That is amazing if you really think about it.
Many of us fall into the trap of trying to earn God’s favor. We waste a lot of time and energy feeling condemned because we mess up. Should we mess up? Of course not. There are consequences for making mistakes, and big mistakes can bring a lot of pain. But know this. If you have taken advantage of God’s incredible offer and believe that Jesus is who He claims to be, then God is not mad at you. If you run into His loving arms in good times and in bad, even when the bad times are your fault, He will fix it! It may take time, but when we trust Him and follow Him, blessings follow. God delights when we rely on Him. When we trust in Him and His goodness.
I really believe that if we as Christ’s body can accept this then we can be so much more effective in ministry. We will quit wasting time striving for God’s favor and instead we can unite in the joy of what God has done and tell others. God is good! He LOVES you!
38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,
39 nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 8:38-39
If you haven’t accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior and taken advantage of the exchange, what are you waiting for?! A life of adventure awaits! Just do what Paul said to do in Romans 10:9-10:
9 that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved;
10 for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.
You don’t even need a sinners prayer. If you believe that Jesus is who He says He is, the only Son of God, and if you believe that He lived a sinless life and died for you on the cross and rose again on the third day and you confess it with your mouth you have just completed the exchange! Now it’s time to get in a good church, start reading the Bible and practice living this new life that has been placed inside of you.
I love this line… you are no longer a liar, so stop lying. Because you have exchanged your sin for His Holiness your nature has changed. You are no longer a sinner even though you still sin. This is what the world has a tough time with, and so do we. If we are made Holy how come we don’t act like it many times? It’s called our flesh and we will war with it until the day we die. In the meantime we are to die to it daily and walk in the Spirit so we won’t walk in the flesh and mess up. But when we do we should run to God. He always treats us with love.
Never forget and constantly remind yourself. God is for you, not against you. He’s not mad at you. Trust Him. He sees you as Holy and Righteous and He Loves YOU!
