You Killed My Son

My son Bolt is one of my best friends in the entire world. I took this picture of him on one of our daddy coffee meetings. This particular night I got my coffee and he got his favorite chocolate milk for behaving at a preaching event in town. He took one sip, turned to me and tapping his chin he said, "Daddy, let's chat." His curiosity and love for life inspires me. I have learned so much about God and life because of this little man. I love him!

This past weekend I had the responsibility of watching Bolt and his twin "brudas" (as Bolt says it) for an entire day. I'll have to write another blog about how crazy in love I am with my twin boys. Annabeth had gone off to hang out with some friends. I think I changed 63 diapers that day and I will never get used to it. While the twins were taking a nap, I took Bolt to the man cave (his room downstairs) to shoot some hoops. After a little break over some sweat tea, the Holy Spirit gave me one of the most intense pictures of His love for the world for my sermon this past weekend. Before I share an audio clip, I want to give you a little context.

Over the past 4 weeks Vintage Church has journeyed through I Corinthians 5. We have called our series "Sexual Healing." We have dealt with a ton of stuff, people have gotten saved, addictions have been confronted, pharisees have gotten ticked...it's been a good time. Paul has taught us how to confront a brother who is in unrepentant sexual sin in the hope that he would be restored by the Gospel. On this last weekend, I preached on I Corinthians 5:9-13. Paul teaches us how to "love the world" by embracing our reality as the church (vs. 9-11), our reaction to the world (vs. 12), and our redemption from God (vs. 13). Under the last point Paul tells the church plant in Corinth that "God judges those outside." I know that this is a touchy subject for a lot of people today and I am really struggling with "WHY."

In a world dominated by tolerance and a "love wins" mentality, I am tired of people second-guessing God's love for the world. I know that this world is falling apart. Tsunamis, flooding, tornadoes, disease, war, death, etc. Our sin turned God's perfect creation into a spiral of depravity that is yearning to be reunited with the Creator. In the midst of all this struggle, I believe that God's love is shining brighter than ever. Too many times we share the Gospel of Jesus as this "feel good romance novel filled with flowers and hugs." The Gospel isn't just a picture of pardon, it is also a picture of pain. The Gospel isn't just a picture of grace, it is also a picture of wrath. God's judgement on mankind and His promise of hell to all who reject Jesus is the foundational trampoline that propels His offer of salvation and love to the world.

Psalm 118:22
The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.

As I watched my son Bolt shoot hoops in the man cave, God gave me this illustration of how much He loves the world.

http://vintagenola.org/media/audio/TheHouse.mp3

You can listen to the entire message on our website @ http://www.vintagenola.org/podcast.

Romans 5:6-11
For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— 8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. 10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. 11 More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.