The Call of Jesus
Welcome to lesson 19 - "The Whole Story".
We are going to look at the most important thing, in this video.
The most important thing is: why we are here?
What is it that separate us from God?
How sin has separated us from God
and what it was Jesus did on the cross?
This is so, so important.
It's important that we understand it.
It's important that you understand it.
And it's also important that you take the time to explain it to other people out there.
That you tell them the whole story.
Don't be "nice" and compromise.
We have too many Christians, too many believers who are so nice,
they don't want to see people suffer, so therefore they tell nothing.
They keep quiet. They don't want to talk about sin.
They don't want to talk about the issue.
But people need to know sin, before they can receive Christ.
Try to imagine a doctor who has a patient coming in, who has cancer.
He's very, very, very sick of that cancer and he's going to die.
But that doctor has his medicine.
This medicine will work if...
...the patient follows the description 100%.
He needs to follow every word and take the medicine every day at the same time.
Otherwise, the medicine will not work.
That doctor, when that patient with cancer comes,
he will not say: Hey, hey, everything is good, everything is fine,
but here some medicine, if you want it you can take it.
I encourage you to follow it, but you are, actually, okay, everything is fine.
No, he would not be afraid to tell the truth.
Hey, the truth is: You have cancer all over.
You have cancer all over your body.
And you are going to die.
You are going to die if...
...if we don't treat this cancer.
And this cancer is already spread there, and there, and there.
And the doctor takes good time to tell about this cancer
and how this cancer is killing his body,
even the other guy maybe starts to cry and feel sad.
Why? Because that is the truth.
And because, if you don't give him the bad news,
he will not be able to receive the good news.
And after he has told the patient the bad news,
and how he has cancer all over his body,
then he can say: But...
I have some good news.
This treatment can help you, but you need to follow it 100%.
But in this moment, at this time, because of the bad news he heard first,
he's ready to take this treatment and follow it 100%.
The bad news is sin.
We have all sinned.
And people need to know this.
And when I talk with people about Jesus,
I like to start in the beginning.
I encourage you to start in the beginning,
to show them where it all went wrong,
and also show them how God looked at earth
and why we need forgiveness.
In the beginning of the Bible we read how God created heaven and earth,
and how He said that everything He created was very, very good.
Everything God created in the beginning was good. It was perfect.
God created a perfect world.
And people need to know that.
And there I often focus on how people walked with God.
Because in Genesis 2 we read how God, in details, created Adam and Eve
and put them with Him in the garden.
You can read that in Genesis 2, how God created Adam and Eve
and put them in the garden, to take care of the garden,
and how they walked with God.
We can also read in Genesis 2 that in the middle of the garden
there was the tree of life,
and how they should eat of this tree of life and live forever.
But there was also another tree - the tree of knowledge good and evil
and they were not allowed to eat of this tree.
But we also read how they, actually, went against God's command.
So they took of the wrong tree.
And therefore, they were thrown out of the garden,
separated from God. Why?
Because now He didn't want them to eat of the tree of life and live forever,
because then we will always have a problem with sin.
So, this is the beginning. The beginning is...
...that God created man to walk with Him,
to have fellowship with Him.
They walked together in the garden, they had fellowship,
and the world God created was perfect.
And man was supposed to eat of the tree of life and live forever
and everything should always be good.
But they sinned against God.
They took of the wrong tree.
Sin came in.
And God said: Oh, if they now eat of the tree of life,
they will live forever. We will always have problem with sin.
And therefore man was thrown out of the garden,
away from the tree of life,
and therefore, separated from God.
And this is so important that people know this,
that this was the beginning,
and that gives a clear picture of why the world is as it is today.
We are now living in a world that is not perfect.
We are living in a world that is far from perfect.
And it's just going the wrong way. It's going down.
And I've met many people who say:
Hey, how can there be God when so many bad things are happening?
The answer you find in the beginning.
This was not how God created the world.
God created the world perfect, where man walked with God.
But then man rebelled. Man sinned.
And he was thrown away from the garden.
And since that time, it has just gone wrong, wrong, wrong.
And God doesn't look down on earth today and say:
Oh, I love everyone! It's so beautiful.
Look at you. I love every evil thing that is happening.
No. God doesn't look like that.
We can read that in Genesis 6:5-6:
"The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth,
and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time.
The Lord regretted that He had made human beings on the earth,
and His heart was deeply troubled."
Here we read how God looked down on earth
and regretted He created man.
Because of the sins.
And His heart was deeply troubled.
He did not look down and said: "Everything is amazing!" No.
God did not like what we see here on earth.
He doesn't like it.
At that time, because of men's sins, He actually found Noah, who built the ark,
and He judged the world because of sin.
But there was a problem.
Because as soon as Noah came out of the arc...
...we saw sin again.
Why? Because the sin is not only inside the earth.
The sin is deep inside of man.
It's deep inside of you.
of me,
of all who are away from God,
who's not born again, who has not got that new heart yet.
The problem is our hearts. The problem is sin.
And we need to start here.
We need to start in the beginning.
Why should people want a savior if they don't see they are lost?
Why should people want forgiveness if they don't see they have sinned?
And we, as the church, have done a big, big, big mistake,
that we have been serving Jesus to self-righteous people,
to people who don't see their sins.
And that is like throw pearls to pigs.
In Matthew 7:6 Jesus is saying that. He said:
"Do not throw your pearls to pigs.
If you do, they may trample them under their foot,
and turn and tear you to pieces."
And this is what we have been doing by telling: Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus,
Jesus, Jesus to people,
without talking about sin first.
People are now mocking us. "Er, why do I need Jesus?"
And they use that against us.
No, we need to take time to talk about sin.
We need to help people to understand that they have sinned,
and they need a savior.
Before that, before we talk about the sickness,
we cannot come with the cure.
If we move on and look at Romans 3:23, where we read:
"For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."
All people have sinned, but they don't understand it.
They don't understand that they have sinned.
So, our job as believers, is we need to help them
to see their sin by using the law of God.
I often use Matthew 5. In Matthew 5 Jesus talked about different things.
One time He talked about anger and He said this in Matthew 5:21-22:
"You have heard that it was said to the people long ago,
'You shall not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.'
But I tell you that everyone who is angry with a brother or sister
will be subject to judgment.
Again, anyone who says to a brother or sister, 'Raca' (idiot) is answerable to the court.
And everyone who says, 'You fool!' will be in danger of the fire of hell."
These are very, very strong words.
We often hear Jesus said: "Love your neighbor as yourself",
but it's not so often we hear these words.
But this is the truth.
If you murder you are guilty, but Jesus goes deeper,
because the heart was the issue.
So, He said: If you just have hate in your heart,
you are already guilty.
If you said: "idiot" or "raca" to somebody,
you are guilty to hell.
These are Jesus' words.
And after these words He continued talking about the lost.
In Matthew 5:27-30 He says this:
"You have heard that it was said, 'You shall not commit adultery.'
But I tell you that everyone who looks on a woman lustfully
has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
If your right eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out and throw it away.
It is better for you to lose one eye of your body
than your whole body to be thrown into hell.
And if your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away.
It is better for you to lose one part of your body
than your whole body get thrown into hell."
These are Jesus' words.
That is what Jesus is saying. Why did He say this?
Because we need to see the seriousness of sin.
We need to see our sin before we need a savior.
And that was the problem.
Many self-righteous Pharisees at that time did not understand they needed Jesus.
But those who saw their sin were those who needed a savior.
Let me ask you: Have you done this?
Have you looked with lust on somebody?
Have you sat there and looked at porn?
Are you doing that now?
Are you living a life in sin?
Then you are lost.
You need a new heart.
You need to be born again.
You need a new heart and a new spirit,
and you need freedom from your sin.
It's not enough to believe that there is a God.
You need a new heart.
You need to wash away your sins,
and you need a new spirit
in you.
A new life.
Try to imagine, I have a camera which is filming your life.
And I often use this example when I talk with people about sin.
Try to imagine I have a camera and I film your life.
I have your whole life on my camera.
I see everything. Not everything. I don't see all the good deeds.
Because the good deeds you have done are not a plus on your account,
and the bad deeds are a minus. People sometimes think that.
If I just have more plus then minus, everything is okay.
No. The good deeds are the zero.
Because the good deeds are what have been expected from you.
But sin is sin. It's a minus.
Let's say I have your life on my camera
and I will now show the whole world your life.
The unclean things you have said and done,
the evil things you have said and done,
the times when you have stolen something,
the times you have misused God's words,
the times you looked with lust on somebody
and had fantasies about them,
the times you have been lying and the times you broke God's law.
And James 2 is saying that whoever keeps the whole law
and yet stumble in just one point is guilty in breaking them all.
Try to imagine I put your life on a camera
and I show you the most evil, selfish, unclean things to you and the whole world.
You would be so ashamed.
You would be so ashamed if people around you saw what you have really been looking at,
saw what you have been thinking, saw what you have been doing.
And the truth is: You are guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty.
And you and everyone else deserve hell.
Why?
Because God is good and you are not.
And if you say you have not sinned, you make God a liar
and the truth is not in you, the Bible says.
This is the truth and people need to know this.
People need to know how much they have sinned,
and what sin is, before we talk about the good news - Christ.
Jesus said something in Luke 7.
He talked about that there were two persons who owed money to a moneylender.
And that moneylender forgave both of them.
One of them he forgave 500 dinars, and one he forgave 50.
And then Jesus asked people around Him: Who loved the most?
And they said: The one who have been forgiven most.
And Jesus continued: Therefore I tell you, it was about a woman who was caught in sin,
her many sins have been forgiven, as her great love has shown,
but whoever have been forgiven little, loves little.
What Jesus is trying to say here is that the one who loves the most,
or love much, is the one who have been forgiven much.
Why do people in churches today don't love Jesus more than they do?
The answer is simple.
They don't understand how much they have been forgiven.
They have never really seen their sins and how much they have been forgiven.
And if you are a "nice" person, being in church your whole life,
or you are a drug addict out on the street, been in jail,
you are guilty the same.
And you who have been a "nice" person, when you start to see your sin,
you will love Jesus as much as that homeless drug addict person,
who have been in jail.
Why? Because you have been forgiven as much as them.
Because we have all sinned.
You don't do people a favor
by not talking about their sins.
You do the opposite.
If you don't talk about sin to people and let them see their sins,
they will never see their need for a savior,
they will never really repent and they will never really love Jesus.
So, if you love people around you, you need to start with the beginning
and tell the story, and let people know why they need a savior.
Before you give a person a vaccination / Jesus,
show them their sickness,
show them their sins.
And there I want to say, I said it also last time,
we have resources, we have videos,
where we show you how we share the gospel.
And I encourage you to see those videos.
I'll put them together with the description here.
And there is a video called "The Cups and Cookies".
There is also a video where we use the gospel cards.
And I really, really encourage you, until the next time,
take the time to go through it.
Take the time to learn how to share the gospel.
When we talk about people sin, don't come like this.
"You have done that. You, you, you, you!"
But take the Word of Christ, Jesus' words, and say:
Jesus is saying: everyone who looks with lust on somebody
has already committed adultery in his heart.
Have you done that? Have you ever looked with lust on somebody?
Okay. What does that mean? You have broken His law.
Jesus also said: If you broke one of the laws, you are guilty in them all.
Jesus said: if you have hate in your heart you are murderer.
Did you ever have hate in your heart, towards somebody?
They you are a murderer.
And then, try to, not in a guilty way, in the I'm-better-than-you way,
but in an honest, direct way, get people to understand their sins.
Get people to understand their evil heart, their stone heart,
and then, when they see that,
come with the solution.
Sometimes I start sharing the gospel with people.
I did it just a few weeks ago, or a week ago.
I sat with a guy. I said: give me ten minutes, let me explain the gospel.
I sat down with him and I started to share the gospel, but when I started...
I talked about sin, he was not interested at all.
What did I do? I stopped there.
I did not give him Jesus and the solution. Why?
Because he was not ready for it.
No. Start with sin.
And when you then start with sin, and then you explain what it is,
like the doctor who has the patient who has cancer,
then say: But there is a good news.
And in the next video I'm going to tell about those good news.
See you next time.
Bye-bye!
The Call of Jesus