Normally on Friday I post about my upcoming Sunday message. For some reason, that just does not seem right to me today. Instead, I want to post something I found. It lasts 2:12 (hence the title) and will bless your socks off.
Is there anything more to say on this day we remember the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross? I am speaking at noon today (Friday) at a Good Friday community service. The church building I am speaking in does not have the modern technology available to show this, or I would, and then close with prayer. 🙂 However, I did change the direction of my message from a shortened version of my message last Sunday of Judas and Peter to a message on the cross.
Hope you enjoy Pastor Matt’s presentation. Any thoughts? Have a meaningful and blessed Resurrection Sunday. I will see you on Monday.
Great stuff today. Hope that all goes well for you this weekend and that you are successful by whatever metrics you deem important.
Thanks Daniel. I also hope NLC has a good day Sunday. I am not much into numbers but I am hoping for eager listeners to the message of hope. Have a fantastic weekend.
It’s been a while since I’ve stopped in, I hope you’ve been doing good, Bill. I enjoy hearing Matt Chandler speak and this is just awesome.
Many feel that to be a follower of Jesus and love God you have to be a “robot”. You can’t make mistakes, you can’t mess up, you have to be perfect. Which is not true. Thanks for sharing the video.
joseph! Man, it is good to hear from you. I tried to find your URL to contact you and it says “No address.” Hope things are well with you and the new baby. You are right that some perceive being a follower= robot. Glad you enjoyed the video and it so good to hear from you again.
Wow! Not only did it bless my socks off, it blew my socks off! What more is there to say after that??? Except that I am so undeserving of Jesus sacrifice & it overwhelms me to know that He suffered for me. Have a blessed Easter Sunday Bill. Love ya.
Glad you feel that way Jan. Jo told me you posted it on fb. I, too, am undeserving. Praying you have a blessed Resurrection Sunday as well. Tell Michael I said hi. Love ya too.
Hi Bill,
I’m kind of thinking that Pastor Matt is combing some things in his message that may be confusing to some.
Salavation is by grace through faith. Our past life is forgiven and we stand righteous before God.
After we are saved, I believe we have responsibility. Teachings in the NT talk about our conduct, our lifestyle, our need to walk with God. If there was no need for us to do this walk half of the Bible would be useless to us. Maybe most of the Bible would be useless to us. There would be no need for Scripture. Also, it would be very difficult for God to condemn sinners.
God hates sin. He has provided victory to believers through the provisions of Jesus Christ and his victory over evil. We have to fight evil. We are given armour in scripture in Ephesians 6 to do this fight.
As believers, our sin matters. It counts. We are to be gaining victory over our sins.
There is so much exhortation to the believer in Scripture to abstain from sin, evil, wickedness, immorality etc. etc.
What I understand Pastor Matt to say in this message is that we as believers can sin and sin and not worry at all. We can be wicked and feel secure in eternal life with Jesus Christ. This is another gospel in my mind.
Linda: I say this as kindly as I can: you have missed the point of Pastor Matt’s message. He is not talking about after we are saved. He is talking about what Christ has done for us on the cross, not only so we can be saved, but so we can know we are saved. When a person comes to Christ, he/she stands before God justified. That is the point of the Romans 5 passage and the point of this video. Nothing I can bring to the table merits salvation. IT is by His blood and blood alone. I don’t see a confusing message at all.
Hi Bill,
I was just reading Psalm 145:18 “The LORD is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth”.
If we are holding a wrong doctrine or idea of God, that may explain some of the difficulty believers seem to be experienceing in their walk with God. They are in essence not calling upon God at all. They are calling upon a God who is no God. An Idol. We must call on Him in truth.(correct doctrine and understanding)
This is the job of you Pastors and Preachers. To get truth into the lives and hearts of believers. Preaching has been emphasized in our day to the unbeliever in its teachings. We are not unbelievers. We are being neglected.
The message of the cross is for all- saved and unsaved. Disciples and “outsiders.” Paul says, “I preach Jesus Christ and Him crucified.” He makes no distinction what he preaches and to whom. If you were to ask the folks here, I don’t believe they would say they are being neglected.
I agree Bill that the cross is for all who will believe and accept the sacrifice of Jesus for our sin.
The cross for the unsaved is salvation, the cross for the believer is victory over our sin.
A new creation, gaining power and authority because of the work of the Holy Spirit as we move forward. We as believers have to journey with our God.
Never for a moment do I imagine the apostle Paul preaching repeatedly that believers’ sins are not an issue in our lives. I Corinthians proves that. The believer was thrown out of the church until he repented of his sin and was going to cease this particular sin.
If Pastor Matt is speaking to believers in his youtube video he is off the gospel.
This is the year of transformation Bill. Many church leaders have gotten off the gospel path somehow. They feed salvation milk to the believer over and over.
When a person has become saved by Jesus Christ they don’t need a salvation message. They need a pablum message, then a pureed baby food message, then a meat and potatoes message. Then maturity.
A pablum message and a meat and potatoes message can be in the same teaching time. The believer will find their own food in the message because of the Holy Spirit. Believers who are only fed salvation will become very weak and underfed. Not only this, but their very souls are at risk.
A person knows that they are saved because of the wittness of the Holy Spirit within. If they are without this secure wittness then believers need to be ‘heads up’ and make steps to ensure that they are right with God.
If believers are worshiping their own made up God, they are doomed. Simple as that. Even though they have experienced salvation. They can’t take pieces of Jesus and mold him with other ideas. Their own thinking about Jesus. This is called idolatry. No idolaters (the Bible says) will enter into the kingdom of Heaven.
this is what has happened in our churches. Jesus has been pieced with the spiritual leaders’ own ideas somewhere along the line. Church leadership has bought into and embraced falsehood. The devil is crafty. We cannot beat him on our own. We will be the devil’s prey if we try.
the pride of man has caused this. the humbleness of man can bring it down.
Linda: I honestly don’t know where this is coming from. It is totally off the scope of the video. Obviously, a salvation can’t be preached every time. The Fundamentalists are good at that. I don’t disagree with your thoughts on the progression of teaching that must be done, but there are other times for some of that to take place other than the “Sunday morning worship time.” People are also responsible for growing on their own. As I have said before: to put this all off on the pastors and leaders is wrong. Not all are like that.
Not sure what you mean by “off the gospel” but Matt is quoting Scripture for the most part. I have a hard time thinking that is “off the gospel.”
Pastor Matt’s message in this video is for the unsaved. What he says is the gospel of Jesus Christ for unsaved sinners. His message is not the truth (or the gospel)for the redeemed Christian who has been made a new creation by God.
As believers can we blaspheme our God, and then stand before God without sin? This is not scripture that I know about. The scripture I know says that we are going to be judged. Even the words that we speak.
The apostle John says in his book that if we say we have no sin we are liars. John also says that our love covers a multitude of sins.
If pastor Matt is using this video to minister to believers in Christ, he is off the gospel.
Heb 5:9 ‘he (Jesus Christ) became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him’. Here in this scripture it says that we must obey Christ. This is not mentioned at all in pastor Matt’s video. Pastor Matt says (in essence) in his video that we have no need to obey God. There is nothing required from us as believers. This is not the gospel teachings in the Bible.
I disagree Linda. Pastor Matt’s video is also for the saved. I believe that works will not save anyone, and I also believe works will not save anyone after salvation. Will they be a fruit of salvation? Yes. But to say they will save a person is to take a “works oriented” approach to salvation. It is grace that saves us initially, and when i stand before God it will still be His grace that saves me. In Romans Paul talks about “this grace by which I stand.” I am discounting the importance of faith and works (or I would be discounting James) but I also don’t believe works saves a person. It really doesn’t matter how many works you do, how many times you go to church, how much you tithe, if your heart is not right.
Now…it is obvious that we are at opposite ends of the grace spectrum here, so I would prefer to simply stop our discussion at this point. Our perspectives about this video are also different and it will accomplish nothing to continue badgering on about it.
I like graphical representation like that.
It’s good that we don’t really have to *do* anything in order to be saved – otherwise we would be doomed. All we need is to ask – simple (but often not easy).
So true Zee. And it is simple but not often easy. Thanks for the comment.
Aaaand re-shared! Thanks, hope you don’t mind if I spread this one via facebook. Love the solid, Biblical teaching of the message here.
“The word “justified” means that you and I stand before God acceptable, spotless, pure, and without sin… That He looks at us and we are now just in His sight.” I hope I can never shake the magnitude of that truth.
Don’t mind at all Stephen. The message contained in this needs spread far and wide. Too many are missing this. Thanks for doing that. I, too, hope I never shake it. Thanks.
I had seen that before. That is good stuff! Although videos like this make me wish I had a backing soundtrack when I teach. Don’t you think your preaching would be so much cooler if you had a soundtrack to it? 🙂
That would be cool Loren. But the chance would be good that the preaching would be overshadowed by the cool graphics. 🙂 Thanks for coming by.
That was wonderful. It hit me to send it to a new friend of mine that I do a writing meeting with a couple times a month. He is an atheist and a good guy. We have many in depth conversations, God might use this to continue to “hit” him. Please pray for my friend. Jesus died for him to, maybe he’ll get it this year.
I’m praying for you and your Easter sermon, God bless Bill.
Glad you liked it Floyd. I most definitely will pray for your atheist friend. A simple message is sometimes all it takes. Thanks for your comment, but most of all, for your prayers.
What an AWESOME message. Everyone needs to see this message. Thanks for sharing it with us Bill. I feel truly blessed today and this video just reinforces the reason.
I hope you don’t mind if I share it with my readers as well.
Glad you liked it Sele. Please do share it with your readers. This message needs spread far and wide. Thanks.
Amen. I needed this today. 🙂
Glad it helped Susan. 🙂
Oh my goodness…I can only say: AMEN!
Not much else to say is there? Thanks for coming by Robin.
From Sally (a vital part of OVCF):
Great video. Sometimes it makes more of an impact if we “see” as well as hear the message. I will never fully appreciate on this earth the sacrifice of Jesus’ death and life for me, but praise God for His love and mercy.
Great and true video. We can’t do anything to earn God’s forgiveness or grace but he gives it freely.
Praying for you and the service:)
Agree about the video. Thanks for the prayers Dan. I am going to need them since God has laid it on my heart to change the sermon today.
Tomorrow will be a great day for you and Ashley and Logan. Can’t wait to hear how it goes.