Car Show Saturday

This past Saturday, my buddy Cam and I attended our first Car Show of 2014 to hand out some tracts and have a few conversations.

The Car Show is every third Saturday in the Riverstone Shopping Center, starts up at 2pm and goes until dark (Weather permitting). We usually get there sometime between 3:30 and 4:30 and stay an hour or so. The Car Show is a free event, open to the public and is well attended by car friendly enthusiasts; giving us lot of opportunities to share the gospel.

Since this past Saturday was Easter weekend and rainy, we anticipated a lighter crowd and fewer than usual cars in the show; we were right. Cam and I both left our houses in the rain but were met with just a fine misty drizzle in Canton when we arrived at 3:30. The radar showed we would have a small window of opportunity before the next round of showers came. We prayed up then headed out to hand out as many of the "Do You Know Him" tracts as we could while there were still people looking at the cars in the drizzle.

As always, we start off handing out tracts and let the Holy Spirit guide us to those who we will have conversations with.

Sometimes spiritual conversations start with us asking about the car with the car owner or someone looking over the car. Sometimes spiritual conversations start right after we hand out a tract and intentionally tell the person that they just received a gospel tract.

Sometimes we "know" that we are about to have a spiritual conversation with someone...especially when we (okay, I) flag someone down, hand them a tract, tell them it's a tract and then ask them if they have a Christian background :-) Such was the case Saturday when I saw a twenty-something year old kid, that I had seen before around Canton, selling snack food to raise money for a local charity.

After flagging him down, handing him a tract and introducing ourselves, I asked Trenton (after telling him what he just received was a gospel tract) if he had a Christian background.

Here are the Cliff Notes of how the twenty minute conversation went:

He said, "Yes sir, I am a Christian." He was a very nice and courteous young man who was soft spoken always looked me in the eyes when talking. I told him that was great and could he share with me his salvation story.

Blank look.

"What do you mean?" Well, I said, can you share with me something about the day you came to know Jesus Christ as your Savior?

"I have always been a Christian."

Really?

"Yes sir. I was raised a Christian and grew up a Christian."

Trenton, would you consider yourself a good person?

"Oh, yes. I am a very good person."

After taking Trenton through the Law and showing him that he had broken the Commandments, sinned against God and was in danger of the Judgment, his self-righteous defense mechanism went up.

Still proclaiming that he was a good person, he said that he didn't believe that anyone went to Hell. He said that God had a place for all people and that Hell was a fictional place that was made up to scare people into becoming Christians. Reaching for my pocket Bible, I told him I wanted to show him in Scripture the reality of Hell.

Trenton then gave me, "The Bible was written by men" speech. While I reasoned that, of course, the Bible was written by men and didn't evolve (Thanks Ray), Trenton was having none of it. I had him pause for a moment and tell me who Jesus is.

"Jesus is the Son of God"

Yes....Is Jesus God?

"No, He is the Son of God"

He is not God in the flesh?

"No"

Again turning to the Scripture, Trenton told me that he reads the Bible every day but you can't believe everything written in it.

What parts can you believe then?

"Huh?"

Trenton, do go to church locally...here in Canton somewhere?

"No, I don't believe you have to go to church."

Trenton, you have told me you don't believe in Hell, you don't believe the Bible is the inspired Word of God, you don't believe that Jesus is God in the flesh, and you don't believe in going to church. Trenton, based on what you are telling me, I'm having a hard time believing you are a Christian.

"Only God can judge me."

Trenton, I am not judging you...I am just having a tough time believing, based on your beliefs, that you are a Christian. Your beliefs don't line up with what the Scripture teaches.

"I read my Bible every day; I have to go now."

Trenton, make sure you read that tract I gave you and tonight, when you get home, read the Gospel of John chapters 1-3.

"Ok"

Pray for Trenton. Pray that God will open his heart to the truth.

Soli Deo Gloria - 

What is so good about Good Friday

This coming Sunday, Christians all over the world will be celebrating the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ on what is traditionally called Easter Sunday. On that day, Born-Again Christians will pause to remember an event that, not only shook the world, but shook the very foundation of their own lives.

But before Resurrection Sunday could happen, there had to be a day that we now call, "Good Friday".

Good Friday - This is perhaps the most ironically named day in the history of the world.

What in the world was good about Good Friday?

Consider this:

* Early that first Good Friday morning, Jesus was betrayed by a disciple named Judas for thirty pieces of silver - there's nothing good about being sold out by someone close to you.

* Jesus was later arrested by Roman soldiers after Judas identified him with the "Judas kiss" - there's nothing good about being falsely arrested.

* Jesus was illegally tried in a mock hearing by the Jewish leaders of the day. - there's nothing good about being on trial in a kangaroo court.

* At that trial, false witnesses were brought in to accuse Jesus of things He never did - there's nothing good about being accused of crimes you did not commit.

* Finding Jesus "guilty", they handed Him over to Pontius Pilot, who turned Him over to King Herod, and was then sent back to Pontius Pilot - There's nothing good about being paraded around town and humiliated publicly.

* After Herod and Pilot found no claims to the crimes against Jesus, He was forced to wear a crown of thorns, He was beaten, tortured, and then whipped with a cat-o-nine tails to please the Jewish leaders - There's nothing good about being beaten, whipped and tortured to please anybody -

* After appealing to the people, Pontius Pilot released a criminal named Barrabus, and thus put in motion a sentence of crucifixion for Jesus - There's nothing good about a crucifixion -

* Led to a hill on Calvary, Jesus was laid down on a cross and 6" nails were driven through His hands and feet - BAM BAM BAM BAM - There's nothing good about being nailed to a cross.

* Hung between two criminals, Jesus endured the shame and the agony that was set before Him - There's nothing good about paying for a crime you did not commit.

* While on the cross, Jesus struggled to breath. Constantly pushing down on His legs to raise His body, Jesus battled asphyxiation caused by His own body weight - There's nothing good about dying a cruel suffocating death on a cross.

* At about the sixth hour of the day, Jesus cried out, "IT IS FINISHED" and died on the cross -

What in the world could be good about Jesus dying on a cross?

Nothing could be good about dying on a cross if it were you or me. But you or I did not die on that cross 2000 years ago...Jesus of Nazareth did.

So Who was Jesus...or to be more precise...Who is Jesus?

Jesus the Christ was fully God and fully man. Jesus was born of a virgin and was called Emanuel (God with us). Jesus lived a perfect, sinless life....never sinning in word, thought or deed; only God Himself could have done that.

Jesus is also called the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. He is called Mighty God. He is called Alpha and Omega; the Beginning and the End. He is called the Bread of Life. He is called the Living Water. He is called the Lion of Judah and the Lamb of God.

Jesus is God -

You see, Jesus died a sacrificial death on that cross 2000 years ago for the sins of mankind.

In Old Testament times, a blood sacrifice had to be made for the sins you committed. A perfect animal, usually a young lamb, would be brought to the High Priest, and he would kill that lamb and, figuratively, lay your sins upon that animal.

What sins have you committed, ladies and gentlemen? Have you broken Gods Law; the Ten Commandments?

Are you guilty of the sin of lying, stealing, blaspheming the Name of God, adultery, idol worship, coveting, murder, not honoring your mother or father, and so on??

In the Old Testament times, this animal sacrifice was only temporary and was a shadow of something greater to come. That something greater would be a permanent sacrifice made by a perfect person: Jesus Christ.

"For God so loved the world, that He gave....."

Because God so loved mankind, He sent His son to die a horrible death. A death sentence from the Father Himself.

The Jewish leaders that found Jesus guilty, ultimately did not kill Jesus -

Pontius Pilot who ordered the crucifixion,ultimately did not kill Jesus -

The Roman soldiers that nailed Jesus to the cross, ultimately did not kill Jesus -

God Himself killed Jesus. The Bible says "It pleased God to crush His Son".

Why? Because that was the only way you and I could have our sins forgiven once and for all.

The death that Jesus died on that cross was a death that you or I couldn't die.  Why? Because He lived a life you or I could never live. A perfect God-Man, Jesus, was sacrificed by a perfect God; perfectly.

God's full wrath of anger came upon Jesus Christ for the sins that you and I have committed. You see, God hates sin...but God loves His people. And the only way that we can be reconciled back to God is through the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ on that cross.

This is what theologians call the "Great Exchange"!

Jesus took the punishment for your sins upon Himself so you could have His righteousness. Because only through a right standing before God can you enter the Kingdom of Heaven. 

That's why we call that Friday, Good Friday.  It's a Good Friday because, as the Bible says,  Jesus came to forgive His people of their sins!

But that's not the end of the story...three days later, after Jesus died on that cross, God raised Him from the dead. Jesus forever defeated death and had victory over the grave.

What now...what now that you have heard the gospel truth? How do you get in a right standing with God?

The Bible commands you to repent and put your trust and faith in Jesus Christ for your salvation.

What if I die in my sins you might ask..what will happen to me?

The Bible says that all liars will have their place in the Lake of Fire; no thief, no adulterer, no blasphemer will inherit the Kingdom of God.

Either you are going to pay for your sins in a real place called Hell for all eternity, or you can repent and put your trust in Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.

Every day, 150,000 people die and slip off into eternity.

Make no mistake about it, everybody has eternal life...you either have eternal life in Heaven or eternal life in Hell.

God is patient...God is kind...God is long-suffering. But please, don't mistake the patience, kindness and long-suffering of God as a licenses to continue in your sins.

I promise you, the 150,000 people who died yesterday, thought they were going to live to see today. Just like you believe you are going to live to see tomorrow.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Easter is about so much more than a 3-day  holiday...or hunting Easter Eggs...or going to church that one particular day of the year.

No, Easter is all about the death, burial and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus said Himself that, He was the Way, the Truth, and the Life...and that no one goes to the Father but through Him.

He accomplished that way through what He did on the cross and His resurrection three days later. 

Living Waters presents "Noah - and the Last Days"