If you didn't quite understand what was going on in this video above, let me fill you in a little bit. A lady called in on 911 to report that she didn't get her cheeseburger! It's crazy to think that someone would call 911 so that for getting the wrong burger, but that's exactly what happened.
There are so many different rules and laws that we have to abide by. I'm sure you can think of your five least favorite ones right now. whether it's curfew, cleaning, school rules, etc. Rules have always existed. You can read about many laws that existed at one point of time that you may have never heard of. Some laws you may have heard because they were passed through the years. So often we think of religion as the same way, we think of the Bible as a big rule book we have to live by and religion as something passed down to us from our parents.
Matt talked about how that religion can be turned into something more meaningful, a personal relationship with Jesus. To start the night, he asked two questions:
1. On a scale of 1 to 10, how sure are you that you are going to heaven?
2. If you were standing before God at the gates of heaven and He asked you why should you go through, what would you say?
GIFT
Matt told us how his father-in-law recently offered him and his family a free car! How awesome is that!?! What would you do if you got offered a car for free? Often when we are given a gift like that, our first thoughts is like Wow! or Yay! Then immediately, we think why? Are there any strings attached? What do we have to do? We live in a culture where there are so many little, fine prints. There are always restrictions or tricks behind a great deal! That is not how God's gift is!
Romans 6:23 states that God's gift is FREE! not the kind of free that is asking for something in return! So what is this gift you might ask? God sent His Son to die for us so that we can KNOW that we are going to heaven! (Romans 5:8) Talk about love! that is true love, to give up your one and only son for someone else. That's exactly what God did for you! While God is loving, He is also just. Romans 3:23 states what we already know, that we are all sinners! We all miss God's glorious, perfect standards!
SIN
Sin actually means "to miss the mark" or "to miss the target". In fact, in archery this is the word they would yell out when the person shoots the arrow and misses the target. The target we have is God's glorious, perfect standard. So even when we are being good for the most part, we miss the target because we are not perfect! The Bible says that the wages (price) of sin is death (Romans 6:23). The only way to have everlasting life is to be perfect (we already missed the mark, that option is out) or to have someone who is perfect to substitute for us!JESUS
This is why God sent His Son, for us! Jesus was fully man and fully God! He lived life on earth as we are doing right, except He did not sin! He lived a perfect life. Then he died on cross for us! Romans 3:25 says that we can be made right with God by believing that Jesus did sacrifice His life for us!
FAITH
The way to have a relationship with God is through faith! Faith is a lot like jumping off on the zipline. Have you ever been on the ziplines? What a experience! You climb up a ladder to a platform that is HIGH! Someone clips you onto a rope to keep you safe, but you still have to trust that the rope will hold you when you jump out into the air! Faith is taking that step off of the platform into what you hope will be a fun ride down the zipline! But faith isn't just saying you believe in something. Imagine someone going up onto that platform and saying "Yes, I believe that rope will hold me" and then climbs back down the ladder. You can say that you believe it, but until you trust in Him with your life, you won't experience that personal relationship with Him!
~Ash
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