We live in a culture built upon a sense of entitlement. People feel that they have a right to, are entitled to, just about anything that they want. It has poisoned the culture, and worse, it has found its way into the heart of the church. The results have been devastating.
One of the most damaging areas we see this is in our relationship with Him. We invite people to enter into a relationship with Him, but we so often seem to make the invitation about a transaction. We exchange a life that is not good for one that He has promised to make good. We offer Jesus Christ as a kind of "cure all" for whatever it is that we want to be rid of. In short, Jesus Christ is a very good deal for us.
One of the most damaging areas we see this is in our relationship with Him. We invite people to enter into a relationship with Him, but we so often seem to make the invitation about a transaction. We exchange a life that is not good for one that He has promised to make good. We offer Jesus Christ as a kind of "cure all" for whatever it is that we want to be rid of. In short, Jesus Christ is a very good deal for us.
Lost in all this is a sense of the reason for our need for Jesus Christ and the salvation He offers. We come to Him without a sense of our sin and that we are hopelessly lost and powerless to do anything about it. We come to Him without any real sense of what it cost both the Father and Christ Himself to come to us, to live among us, and then die for us upon a cross of shame. Since we have no real recognition of the cost to Him, we not only devalue His cosmic sacrifice, we devalue what it is He offers. We don't realize how our sin created an unbridgeable gap between the Father and ourselves. We also have little understanding of His holiness and majesty and how unclean we are before Him, as well as our having no means to make ourselves clean. What we end up with is how worthy He is of all the honor and glory to be given Him and how unworthy we are to be in His presence. Our churches are filled with people who fit this description. Are we among them?
Luke 15 contains the story of the Prodigal Son, the son who demanded his inheritance from his father, went and lost it all through selfish and sin-filled living, and then, in poverty, found himself feeding pigs and eating the food that they ate. Scripture tells us that in the pig pen, he came to the end of himself, realized his state and his need, and decided to return to his father in his brokenness. He'd left in the fullness of his pride, but returned in fullness of humility. He knew he was an unworthy son.
Scripture tells us that his father had been watching for him, saw him coming from a long way off, and ran to meet him. The son began to tell him how unworthy he was, but all the father could do was take him into his arms in love. This is the picture of God's love for us. It wasn't until the son realized how unworthy he was of his father's love that he could really experience the wonder and beauty of that love. It is the same for us. None of us is worthy of His love and if we continue to be unaware of that, we'll never know or experience the fullness of His love. Grace will mean little or nothing, as will His salvation, His sacrifice, and His mercy.
May we, you and I, have a fresh sense of how glorious and wondrous is His love and mercy, and how truly unworthy we are of it. Only then can we truly enter into a worship that brings Him honor and glory. May we recognize and honor Him in all of His splendor. May we not need to end up in a pig pen for that to happen.
Blessings,
Blessings,
Pastor O
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