the story so far...

sermons and forgiveness…

We did something new at Apex today. Rob was out and preaching in Florida and we had Jason Wing speak about whether or not we are even getting the meaning of the Gospel right. It was a very convicting sermon about how we should be able to determine if what someone is preaching is really the Word of God or not. And that as Americans have tried to shape Gospel into something that suits us better. And it’s killing us…

He went over what the Gospel should mean and how to actually apply it. I know that one of my friends, Elijah, would have gotten a kick out of this because Jason even brought up the ‘Quad Gods’ at Wright State and whether or not they were actually speaking the truth about the Gospel and following it.

“³Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, ⁴who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, ⁵to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.

⁶I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— ⁷ not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. ⁸But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. ⁹As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.

¹⁰For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.” -Galatians 1:3-10

The entire sermon was awesome and I ask that you challenge your own view of what the Gospel is all about and make sure it lines up with what is says in the bible. But the sermon is not the real focus of this post. Seems I’ve been ramblin’ (or Gramblin)…

Twice during the sermon, we were actually asked to bring out our cell phones and asked to send a text message to a specific number in reference to an incomplete sentence on the main screen. It was a great way to proclaim what God and Jesus had done in our lives.

Everything I had put down was reflected today. I find it crazy, but it’s the truth. Our God is patient with us and our actions; The Lord covers us in grace and when we going through troubling times and pain; our Father call us to be broken, to humble ourselves and surrender all that we are in this flesh. And I needed reminded of that today.

Falling into sin should make us broken and we should be running to him when we screw up, which seems is far too often. And we should be broken, not blubbering in sadness. We should feel genuine regret for our sinful actions and call out to God for forgiveness and repentance. And the Lord knows I need constant reminder of that.

Please, my brothers and sisters in Christ, please continue in the journey with Him who became sin and saved us. We have all sinned and come short of God’s glory (Romans 3:23), but we are renewed by Jesus.

I know that the last bit here may have been something I have said before, but these posts are as much for me as they are for anyone who reads them. God will work how He will in our lives and we shouldn’t question it at all. He’s God and He knows what He’s doing. And we are the vessels that He works through.

Oh, what a joyous thing it is to have a ray of heavenly sunlight in the soul, to hear the very voice of God as He walks in the garden of our souls in the cool of the day, saying to us, “Son thy sins which are many, are all forgiven thee.” -Spurgeon - A Sense of Pardoned Sin