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The Whole Gospel is Love

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Wait a minute preacher! What's all this "Lord" business? I thought He was my friend who gives me advice! No beloved. The truth is there is no friendship with God without first establishing His Lordship in your life. Jesus is not in the advisement business. Wait a minute preacher! What is with all this hating everyone by comparison stuff? I never heard that! I am supposed to place Christ before my family? Yes. And what is with all of this carrying my cross thing? I thought He took care of that already...

People across this country are being sold a false bill of goods. They are being sold a Christianity that costs them nothing (except the tithe of course), challenges them little, requires no work on their behalf, and guarantees them endless blessings. Just come up to the altar for five minutes so we can count you as a salvation and then you can return to your regularity scheduled carnality. No discussion of sin and repentance. No discussion of the blood of Christ and the cross. Just say these three sentences and voila! Welcome to the family of God! Only it doesn't work that way. 

The staunch defenders of the current Pharisaical system of Churchianity are always quick to label dissent as legalism or burdensome. Joel Osteen once said that preaching the "do's and don'ts" of the Bible is not his "gifting." As if preaching the whole Gospel were a choice or an option that God gives through the bestowing of gifts. Perhaps the most egregious misinformation about the whole Gospel is the failure to realize that it is all love. The whole Gospel is love. Even the parts that make us cringe. Even the parts we may not want to hear. As parents we often have to tell our children things they do not want to hear but we tell them anyway because we love them. It is not love to hide part of the truth - even if your motive is pure. It is not love to preach grace alone and ignore the dangers of sin. And please - stop purposefully confusing the law with sin. When someone preaches to be wary of sin they are merely preaching the whole Gospel and they are doing it out of love. The Bible says that the wages of sin are death. That the enemy is waiting to devour us. That he who sins is a slave to sin. Don't these portions of the Gospel count too? Despite the harshness of the warnings - is it not love? Let us pretend that we have a friend who is cheating on his wife. Which of the following shows more love:

A)  "Don't worry. Jesus died for that sin on the cross. He loves you with an everlasting love. He has plans for you - plans to give you hope and a future. He wants you to be the head and not the tail. A lender and not a borrower. You are the apple of His eye. He wants to bless you and bless you and bless you..."

B) God does love you and Jesus did die for this sin on the cross. There are temporal consequences however you need to consider. What happens to your marriage? What happens to your children? 1John chapter three says that if we keep on sinning then we do not know Christ. What makes us Christian is not perfection from sin. It is the realization and the repentance from it. You need to make it right with God first and then your family."

Now I understand that we might prefer to hear friend A but is friend B any less loving? How exactly is it love to see someone jumping off a cliff and hold their hand on the way down singing kumbya? It should be our job to warn them about the direction they are going! Wait a minute preacher - judge not! Beloved it is not judgment to point out to a brother or sister that the path they are on is not of Christ. It is in fact, love. Staying silent or providing hollow words of faux comfort while you watch them drive off a cliff is not love. 

"For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.  - John 3: 16 (NLT)

The greatest verse about the love of God. I love to hear sermons about how great this love is that God has for me. It is incomprehensible to me but I long to hear about God's never-ending love. In this one verse is also the promise of eternal life. I love to hear sermons about the life to come. That there is more than this existence here on earth. That my name is written in the Lamb's Book of Life. But that is only half the picture from this verse. This verse also speaks about the fact that God had to sacrifice His only Son. That was a bloody sacrifice and it was offered for my redemption! I love to hear sermons about how God loved me so much that He was willing to sacrifice His only Son. It provides much needed context and reverence for what God has done. It places blessings in their proper perspective of things I have already received - not things I am demanding from God now. This verse also speaks about perishing - my state before Christ. I love to hear sermons about my imperfect state before a holy God. It keeps me humble and reminds me that I am nothing and He is everything. The whole Gospel beloved. Woe unto me if I do not preach the whole Gospel. I want to be able to say to the leaders at my Ephesus that I am free of their blood. Only the whole Gospel will save someone. Only the whole Gospel will keep someone. Only the whole Gospel will protect someone during the coming persecution. The false and incomplete gospels we hear today accomplish none of this. They make people feel better about themselves when they need to feel better about God. It is a superficial love selling a compromised god who has no power to save anyone. The whole Gospel however is the power of God unto our very salvation and woe is me if I do not preach it. I leave you with some of the parting words from Charles Spurgeon way back in 1855, hearkening unto us today...

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Credentialed Minister of the Gospel for the Assemblies of God. Owner and founder of 828 ministries. Vice President for Goodwill Industries. Always remember that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him and are called according to (more...)
 
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