Hey, everyone! So, well, I got to go to church this week! Really glad, too! :D Got a bit of a message I needed out of the lesson and also ran into a friend. :)
To start, well Harvest does actually do their own blog for at least the Sunday services (not sure if they do youth ones or not). So, if I miss a week (like I missed last week and will unfortunately be missing next week as I will be in Sturgeon Falls visiting family) or you'd rather hear about the lessons from an adult, then you can check it out at http://www.harvestbarrie.ca/10584/blog/blog_id/223295/Blog-For-Those-With-Ears
So, this week was the third week in the F1rst Things (or, as I call it, GOSPEL) series. So, it was "Substitution". We looked at Romans 5:6-11. http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans%205:6-11&version=NIV (note, I give links to NIV, but you can change the version on that site : I typically use the ESV but NIV seems to be more common)
To begin, we need to recognize where we were to begin (verse 6). That was touched on during last week's lesson; sin. We were SO estranged. Our sin separated us from God. We were sinners... and if that's not bad enough, being sinnners made us enemies to God - ENEMIES TO OUR MAKER. Our sin made us WEAK and UNGODLY. I want to just focus on "ungodly" for a minute. We've all heard it a billion times before, but I think that our hearing it so much causes us to skip by and not really let the meaning sink in. Ungodly. Unlike God. Thoroughly unlike God. We are not even CLOSE to being like God. We were helpless and lost. I really like the way my pastor put it; we're like turtles that have been flipped on our backs. We've got our legs in the air flailing around trying to right ourselves. That's what sin does to us.
Despite this, God revealed His love for us (verses 7-8a). Despite the fact that there was such a huge gap between us and we were such sinners, God loved us, as He always will. He loves us SO much that He sent His only son to DIE for us so that we may have eternal life instead of the eternal hell we deserve.
Sending His son was how God shows us His love for us (verse 8b). Jesus was the only one who could have come and died for our sins to save us. God loves us enough that, despite it meaning it HAD to be His son, He still sent him down to earth to die for us.
Why did Jesus have to come die? It was to appease God's wrath (verse 9). God was angry because of our sin. Now, though, he is no longer angry at us because Jesus has wiped us clean. We are completely on the clear from God's wrath. We don't have to worry that He is mad at us ever. Essentially God saves us from Himself.
God has reconciled ourselves to Him (verses 10-11). He has restored us to Him. Jesus bridged that gap so that we may know God. 2 Corinthians 5:21 says "For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." Jesus died once so that we are restored forever.
So, we all hear it all the time; "Jesus died for you." It's like how we always hear "Jesus loves you" or "God made you wonderfully"; we let the meaning drift past because we hear it so often. We have been given the amazing gift of salvation. If that's not a reason on its own to smile, I don't know what is. So chin up! Live this week knowing and acting like you have a God that loves you as much as our God does.
That's all for now! God bless! YOU ARE LOVED!
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