The Gospel According to Jim...

Last night Bethany and I drove to Hurst so that Bethany could pick up her brother's car and continue on to Abilene in route to a family road trip to Phoenix (I will be flying out Thursday). But with Bethany away for the night it gave me a chance to hangout with my friend Jim. What started out as an excuse for a man night sitting in front of the TV watching the Mavs game at his apartment turned into one of the most meaningful/gospel conversations I've had in awhile.

Jim is one of my 5 roommates from my Junior & Senior year of college & has always been an encourager and good friend, but last night we just sat and talked Jesus, talked gospel, talked discipleship, talked sin, and talked grace- in a time I really needed it. Ministry is great, but its a challenge, and these last few weeks have been challenging- and Jim encouraged me that what I am doing is right and good and godly despite the challenges and despite those who wish to discourage.


One of the many conversations of the night centered on just the nature of the gospel- that even we as Christians don't fully grasp the magnitude of the gospel message- because until we are desperate to hear from God, until we are desperate for God's grace we don't fully get it- we act like we are okay on our own, we act like we're not sinful- because we compare ourselves to others and say "I'm not half as bad as that guy, so I'm good." No! The Bible would say "no one is good, not even one" (Psalm 14:3) And its not even about degree of goodness its that when we really start to understand God's love, God's grace and Jesus' sacrifice it's that we become more and more aware of how sinful, wretched and evil we are. Romans 7:21-25 would say it this way..."So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me.For in my inner being I delight in God's law;but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God's law, but in my sinful nature a slave to the law of sin."

For those of us who aren't struggling with a crack addiction or sleeping with anything that can walk- we act like we've got it all together- but our pride, arrogance, and selfishness- the roots of the outward visible sin- is just as wretched and causes just as much separation between us and God. Jim was talking about how the 10 Commandments can really be captured in just the first one: "YOU SHALL HAVE NO OTHER GODS BEFORE ME." Because every other sin is in someway worshipping something that is not God-  when we are prideful, arrogant and selfish- we worship ourselves above the true God, and the one who died to save us. When we lust- we worship the creation rather than the creator, when we envy we worship stuff, when we disobey God we worship our wants above God's will. I am sinful and wretched and need God's grace as much as the meth-addict in the slums.

We talked about the nature of youth ministry is getting teenagers to a place that they finally become desperate for God's grace- that often the kids who "have it all" and are "good kids" aren't very good Christ followers, because they aren't desperate for God- they aren't desperate for his grace, they aren't desperate to walk with Jesus. Jim kept saying over and over- "you're job is to preach the gospel and pray that it takes hold in some kids lives, it will for some, it won't for others, you may never see the fruit, but its your job to preach the gospel, over and over and over again, preach the gospel."

So friends, in my ministry when I talk about sin, when we address sexual sin in our youth ministry and we address drunkenness in our youth ministry and pride and selfishness and gossip and disobedience- its not because I like to talk about sin and its not because I want you to be "good"- its because I want us to all come to a place like Paul and say "What a wretched man I am!... but thanks be to God, who delivers me through Christ Jesus our Lord!" Screw goodness, pursue godliness. But we first have to be desperate- and we become desperate when we acknowledge our wretchedness in comparison to God's holiness.