In the book of Ephesians, Paul tells the church at Ephesus in chapter 2, verses 4-10 that God has mercy on us and loves us no matter what we do. He doesn't love our sins, but He always loves us. We are all created in His image. No matter how deep into sin we get, God is always there for us and Christ's death on the cross is always available as a way of escape. Consider these three points as we look for ways that we can pay God's love for us forward and show those who are lost or are going through tough times that they always have refuge in the church.
1. Encourage your brothers and sisters in Christ. With the rise in social media this has become easier than ever. It's not that hard to log into Facebook and send someone a quick note through Messenger. Oftentimes we never know what folks are going through. We attend church on Sundays and then we leave. We have no idea what people are going through Monday through Saturday. We are all one big family and just like Coach Corbin said in regard to the VandyBoys, we are all going to be a part of God's family for the long term. God loves us, even though he doesn't always love what we do.
2. Don't let new Christians fall through the cracks. On Sunday's for Bible Class here at Chestnut Mound, we are going through the book of Matthew and really taking our time to study each chapter in depth. Yesterday, we studied Matthew 13 and Jesus's parable of the sower. In verses 20-21, Jesus talks about the new Christians who have "received the good news with joy, but after a while he stumbles." This is all too common in the Church today. Men and women obey the gospel and are "on fire" for a short time, but eventually they leave the brotherhood and fall back into their old lives. It is our responsibility as Christians to not let this happen.
3. Remember that people are free moral agents. Everyone has the right to choose. Throughout Matthew 13, Jesus repeats the phrase "He who has ears to hear, let him hear!" Jesus says, "I'm putting the word out there for you, but it's your decision, and only your decision, whether or not to accept what I am saying." Think about that person in your life that has never known God, or once did but has since fallen away. I bet you would do almost anything to get them to make their lives right? Unfortunately all you and I can do is put the word out there. We can't make anyone follow the plan of salvation. For a preacher, this is hard, but that's just the way God wired people. Believe it or not, we are already showing our love for those people just by putting the gospel out there for them.
Just like Vandy baseball players will always be VandyBoys, so will all of us always be loved by God and created in His image. Again, He won't always like what we do, but He will always love us and have mercy on us. Will it be easy to live as Christ did? Of course not. We live in an evil society. Temptations and other roadblocks come at us from every direction. When freshman pitcher Donny Everett tragically passed away in June 2016, Tim Corbin said that he thought about quitting. He said he had a hard time dealing with the grief. But he stuck it out and in 2019 went on to win his second National Championship with what would have been Donny's senior class. Are there things in our lives that just make us want to quit? Do we see our fellow brothers and sisters wanting to quit? How do we respond to them? Think about that this week and love your brother and sisters and remember that God will always love you, no matter how deep in sin you might be, there's hope!! I and the Chestnut Mound church of Christ love you!!
In Him,
Carver Moore
We would be honored for you to join us for worship at the Chestnut Mound church of Christ.
Our service times are as follows:
Sunday Morning Bible study: 10 am
Sunday morning worship: 11 am
Sunday evening worship: 5 pm
Photo at top courtesy of VUCommodores.com
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