(I attended a denominational national assembly this weekend, and was not leading worship. Here is a sermon from my archives! I hope it touches your heart and spirit.)

“Today” – 2 Corinthians 5:20-6:2

June 28, 2006

            Once upon a time, there was a loving Father with abundant wealth, property and resources. He loved His many children dearly and did everything in His power to provide abundantly for them.

            Does this story line sound familiar? It should. That loving Father is God, our Heavenly Father. He created the world in the beginning, including humanity. Our loving God gave humans abundant resources, and provided many good and gracious gifts for them, doing everything possible to provide a rich and rewarding life for them.

I’d especially like to focus on the love. God’s love for humanity, for the world, for us. I dare say that many of us here today could quote John 3:16—“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

From this verse, can we tell how much God loves the world? How much does God love us? This much?     (spread arms and pause)  

There was a problem, way back when, when God lavished such good and loving care on humans, on His children. That problem was and is SIN.

Face it, humanity—and that includes you and me—is fallen. I usually hesitate when I make sweeping statements, but not in this area. We are sinful. As Romans 3:23 says, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” That is ALL. Not a few, not even most, but ALL. Everyone. All humanity. We don’t sin all the time, or in every situation. There are plenty of times when members of the human race act in kind ways, and think loving thoughts, but that troublesome sin nature is alive and kicking in each one of us.

Can you see a toddler or preschooler, stamping her feet, crossing her arms across her chest, and shouting, “No!!” Can you see a teenager, disrespectful and angry, slouching away from the dinner table without a word? Can you see the prodigal mentioned in the Gospel of Luke, wishing that his father would kick the bucket already, so he could get his inheritance? Do these selfish, proud, disrespectful, ungrateful actions (and thoughts, I might add) have anything in common? I would say, yes, they do. The sin nature that is part and parcel of all humanity is readily evident, in all of these situations. We are human, therefore we sin—by thought, word, or deed—by omission or by commission.

It would be really bad news if the story ended there, wouldn’t it? Humanity would be both hopeless and helpless, stuck in the miry clay of our own sinfulness. BUT, that is not the end of the story. God still loves us. Remember John 3:16? “For God so loved the world?” That love still comes to us, regardless of our sinfulness, regardless of our selfishness, regardless of how much we have disregarded the abundant love and the lavish care that God showers upon us each and every day.

As our passage from 2 Corinthians says, we humans trespass. We sin. We mess up. We make mistakes. But God loves us anyhow! God doesn’t keep a tally sheet, a ledger of all our good deeds and bad deeds. God does not count these mistakes against us. In fact, God goes above and beyond our mistakes, reconciling the world to Himself.

It’s not that God is estranged from the world, from humanity. It’s the other way round. It is humanity—it is you and me—that is estranged from God. God created humans, and He loves humans. He created each of us with our foibles and quirks and personality flaws as well as our individual strengths. He created each one of us as individuals to give glory to His name in our own individual ways. God knows us so much better than we know ourselves, and He still loves us just the same! God reconciled the world—that’s you and me—to Himself, out of love.

Like I said, that is wonderful news! Amen! Praise God! Thank You, Jesus!

Jesus was sinless, but He was made to be sin for us. Jesus took all of our collective sin upon Himself on the cross so that in Him we might become righteous before God. Can we tell how much God loves the world? How much does God love us? Is it this much?     (spread arms and pause)  

So, now that we know about God’s abundant love that He lavishes upon each of us, what are we going to do about it? Listen to the words of our passage again. “’At an acceptable time I have listened to you, and on a day of salvation I have helped you.’ See, now is the acceptable time; see, now is the day of salvation!”

D.L. Moody, noted evangelist during the 1800’s and founder of Moody Bible Institute, did much of his evangelistic work around Chicago. One Sunday evening in September 1871, Mr. Moody closed his sermon with the injunction for the congregation to evaluate their relationship with God over the next week and to return the following Sunday. When Mr. Moody was on his way home after the evening service, he heard the fire alarms all over and saw the flames against the sky, turning the night sky red and orange. That meeting hall where the service was held burnt to the ground, along with most of the city of Chicago. The Great Chicago Fire happened that night.

Mr. Moody was horrified, knowing that he had not told his listeners the full message of the love of God, for each one of them. He vowed from that day on to tell the whole story, to always let people know the good news of salvation in every sermon he preached.

What about you? Are you still thinking about God’s offer of salvation? You may have been a church member all your life, faithful and hard at work for many years. But you may have never realized that God’s joyful message of reconciliation was especially for you. You may have been born into a loving Christian family, maybe even a pastor’s kid or missionary’s kid, and been surrounded by God’s abundant love all your life. But just because I may be born in the room behind a bakery doesn’t make me a biscuit . . . and just because I may be born into a Christian family doesn’t make me a Christian by birthright or by osmosis. God has no grandchildren. There are only children of God.

God has been loving us—you and me—all of our lives, even when we turned our backs on Him. If this is that day for you, that acceptable time, that day of salvation, praise God! Enter into the joy of a loving relationship with God, a close friendship with God.

If God had a refrigerator, your picture would be on it. If God had a wallet, your photo would be in it. God can live anywhere in the universe, and He wants to live in your heart. If you have never, truly experienced God’s love for you, individually, there is no time like the present. We can indeed enter into the joy of our Father’s loving embrace and experience His abundant love for each one of us. Today is the day of salvation! God is ready. Are you?
@chaplaineliza

(Suggestion: visit me at my other blogs: matterofprayer: A Year of Everyday Prayers. and  A Year of Being Kind . Thanks!