We all know that Jesus was brutally flogged and then nailed to a cross to die a terrible and painful death.  But the kind of suffering and death he went through was not that uncommon in his day.  Lots of people were flogged, and crucifixion was a normal tool for Roman capital punishment.

What makes Jesus death way different (besides the fact of his innocence) is that Jesus died voluntarily.  If a bunch of trained soldiers tie you up to a post and proceed to whip the flesh from your back, there’s probably not much you could do about it.  And if your limbs are connected to wooden beams by iron spikes driven through your hands and feet, what are you going to do?  But at any point, Jesus could have snapped his fingers and stopped it all.  I doubt you or I would have the strength and commitment to endure that kind of torture for more than a few minutes if we had the power to end it.  But Jesus held strong for hours of gruesome pain and suffering until his body couldn’t take any more and finally died.

Praise the Lord for his dedication, because otherwise none of us would have any hope.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 55:50 — 25.6MB)

What if you found out that there was going to be an attack against your town?  In one week, missiles and bombs would begin to fall.  And you were the only one in town who knew about it.  So the only way to save all those people would be to evacuate everybody to bomb shelters or get them out of town.  Would you bother trying to tell anybody?  How about family or friends?  Or would you leave all by yourself, and let everybody in town die?

What if you tried telling people, and nobody believed you?  Why should they believe you?  How hard would you try to convince them?  How easily would you give up?

This is the dilemma that faces every Christian.  All believers are commanded by their Lord and Savior to make disciples and to teach people to obey the commands of Jesus.  In other words, they are to save lives by making Christ followers out of sinners, who are otherwise doomed to Hell.  Missiles and bombs might kill people’s bodies, but people who die with their backs to God suffer an eternal death that is described as a lake of fire.  So, obviously that would be worse than any kind of death we could imagine on Earth–and since our soul is eternal the torment would never end.

So, knowing that, how hard do you try to tell the world what Jesus commanded?  Do you share the message of salvation with anybody–friends, family, neighbors?  What if they don’t believe you?  How hard to you try to convince them?  How easily would you give up?

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What’s love got to do…got to do with it?  Ok, if we have an idea of what love really is…if you have a basic understanding of what it means, how do you apply it to religion?  Because Christians are always talking about love.  “Jesus loves you” and “I just love God so much” and “Christianity is a love relationship,” what does all that mean?  How does it apply to real life?  Because that’s what really matters.  Isn’t it?  I mean, people can talk about love all the time, but if it doesn’t make a difference in their behavior or how they treat people, then it’s not really love.  Right?

In the last talk I kind of hit on how love can be expressed in different degrees that build onto each other.  We can have friendships and a bond of kinship with people, and we can add commitment to basic friendships, and stick by somebody’s side through whatever.  Then, when we’re ready to make the ultimate commitment and put someone else’s needs above our own, we get married and love just continues to multiply as commitment and intimacy grow together.  Like adding fuel to a fire, our compassion and passion combine and a man and woman come together in the kind of relationship that begins to reveal the depth of what God feels toward us.  When we are willing to sacrifice and commit everything to benefit another person, we get a glimpse of what God feels and does for us.

And like any relationship, it takes work.  You can’t even have a good friendship unless you are willing to contribute to the health of your relationship.  But the really cool thing is how we benefit from giving our love to other people and back to God.  It’s mind blowing to see how our love grows even n the midst of sacrifice.  The people who really understand love, who have really figured it out, find the secret that giving in a relationship is the only way to get the real benefits of love.  And when we discover that secret we find out what we were made for.  If God made us in his image, and if God is love, then it just makes sense that we were built to give and receive love.

Ever wonder what the secret of life is?  It’s loving.  That’s just the way God designed us.

PS. In the very beginning of this talk I spend a minute talking about making it though hard times and how God is with us through the trials we face, and how God  even takes advantage of the tough things we go through to help us become better people.  Sometimes love means just being around for comfort.  And sometimes it means helping a person get up and keep walking, even if it means pushing outside of our comfort zones so we can grow.

My wife and I lost a child through a miscarriage, and it was one of the most difficult experiences I have ever felt.  But God really showed me his peace through the whole ordeal.  And God has used our tragedy to help us be able to comfort others who have suffered similar loss and to encourage people going through infertility and we have even grown closer to each other in the midst of that painful trial.

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Have you ever felt passion for something?  Do you feel a drive for anything in life?  What sets you on fire?  What really motivates you?  There are all sorts of things that we’re told we have to do out of responsibility…pay your taxes, vote, mow your lawn, obey the Golden Rule, go to church on Sundays.  But when it comes to religious stuff and all the things we are called to do as Christians, what God really wants is passion.  He wants to use the energy and drive that you have naturally and use your passion to accomplish great things!  He wants to give us all a mission from God that will set our hearts on fire.

This talk focuses a lot on youth and seeing kids and young people as an important and valuable part of the church.  Young people aren’t the future, they are part of the present, and we should treat them as such.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 42:25 — 19.4MB)