A Come to Jesus Moment
Have you ever had a come to Jesus moment?
You know, that moment where someone comes to you, sits you down, and tells you plainly like it is?
I remember one time, I was in 4th grade, and I had a come to Jesus moment.
As a kid, I was pretty shy. I was a rule follower and I did not like getting in trouble. But my 4th grade teacher drove me nuts. She gave us a ton of homework every night and the rule at my house growing up was that you had to get your homework done before you did anything else.
So every night, I’m doing homework as soon as I get home from school all the way through dinner all the way until bedtime. Every night! Which meant no TV. No playing outside. Nothing!
One day, it’s near the end of the day and she’s writing our homework assignments on the chalk board and there is steam coming out of my ears I’m so mad. I try to deal with my anger in a mature way.
I take a sheet of notebook paper and I write down all the angry words I’m thinking and feeling in the moment. I folded up the sheet of paper and put it on my desk and somehow, someway, in that moment, I felt a little better.
Until…
Until this guy in my class walked by my desk and on purpose, knocked the folded up sheet of paper with all those angry, hurtful words on it, off my desk. Then he picked it up, gave me a smirk, and put it back on my desk.
At that exact moment, our teacher looked up, thought we were passing notes in class, came to my desk, took the piece of paper, and proceeded to read it.
It was at that moment I knew, we were about to have a “Come to Jesus moment!”
Elvina Hall, 1865
There’s comes a time in all of our lives when we need to have a come to Jesus moment.
A moment where the truth comes out. A moment where we come to terms, where we put it all on the table, the good, the bad, the ugly, and we deal with it, whatever “it” is!
In 1865, Elvina Hall was sitting in church. She was singing in the choir that day and was sitting in her usual place in the choir loft at the Monument Methodist Episcopal Church in Baltimore, Maryland.
The Reverend was going on and on in his prayer and she did something none of you have ever done while I’m preaching… her mind started to wander. But she wasn’t thinking about where to go for lunch. No, she was thinking about something different.
She was thinking about the cross. She was thinking about her need for God, her need for grace, and her desperate need for salvation.
Words and lyrics started coming together in her mind but she didn’t have any paper. She wanted to write them down so she wouldn’t forget! So she grabbed one of the hymnals and started writing on one of the pages these words…
Jesus paid it all. All to Him, I owe.
Sin had left a crimson stain; He washed it white as snow.
Elvina Hall
That day in the middle of worship, Elvina Hall was having her own come to Jesus moment.
She realized something that day that so many of us have come to understand… that our sin is real, our need is great, and without God we are without hope.
Many of us try and deny it. We downplay our own sin, our own faults, and our own shortcomings. It’s easier for us to blame others and point out other people’s mistakes and poor choices than it is to take ownership of our own.
But if we’ll be honest for just one moment, we’ll realize… we need to come to Jesus.
What About My Sin?
Whenever you have a come to Jesus moment, you have to come to terms with this one singular question…
What do I do about my sin?
About the sin in my life that separates me from other people?
About the sin in my life that separates me from God?
After the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus, there was a man named Paul who had his own come to Jesus moment.
He thought he was righteous. And that’s a problem too. In fact, that’s a problem a lot of us have as well. We think we’re righteous. We think we’re alright. We think we’re right. We think we don’t need God. Or that we already have God on our side. Or that God supports what we do even if He doesn’t.
That’s what Paul thought.
He thought he was right, that he had it all together, that God was on his side.
Then one day, Jesus met Paul when he was traveling to the city of Damascus. Jesus had already ascended to Heaven so as the story goes, Paul was blinded by this bright light and he heard a voice from Heaven that no one else understood but Him. It was the voice of Jesus.
Paul was literally having a come to Jesus moment. A moment that would change his life for the rest of his life.
And then Paul began to live his life for Christ, telling everyone everywhere about the great love of God revealed in Jesus.
I want you to hear something Paul once wrote to a church in the ancient city of Ephesus.
In Ephesians 2.4-5, Paul says…
“But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much, that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead.“
Just like me in 4th grade… Just like Elvina in that church in Maryland in 1865… Paul had a “But God” moment in his life. A come to Jesus moment.
A moment when he realized his need for God. That apart from God he was lost. Separated from God. Separated from the people of God.
“But God…”
“BUT GOD” is so rich in mercy that his sin wasn’t the end of his story. “BUT GOD” is so rich in mercy that Elvina’s sin wasn’t the end of her story. “BUT GOD” is so rich in mercy that your sin isn’t the end of your story!
Have you ever had a BUT GOD moment? A moment when you realized just how much you needed the grace of God? The moment where it hits you, without God, without the grace of God, I’m done! I’m finished! Without God I am without hope!
Sometimes we think… I’m not that bad. The things I’ve done aren’t that egregious. But if we’re honest… sin in sin.
Quick question, have ever told a lie?
If you said no, you’re lying, so now you can say yes. 🙂
How many of you have ever taken something that wasn’t yours? Be honest!
How many of you have ever cheated? Maybe you copied someone’s homework, someone’s answer from a test, maybe you cut corners at work…
Ok, what about this…
How many of you have ever lusted? Did you know that Jesus said if you’ve looked at someone lustfully then it’s the same as committing adultery with them in your heart?
How many of you have been angry? Did you know Jesus once said if you’re angry with someone it’s the same as killing them?
So all of us are lying, cheating, thieving, adulterous, murderers. Welcome! I’m so glad you’re here!
Here’s the truth, we’re all perfectly imperfect. Paul would say in another place to another church, we’re all sinners. We’ve all sinned and we’ve all fallen short of the glory of God!
SOZO
But here’s the Good News…
“But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much, that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead.”
And then Paul adds this…
It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!
There’s different ways of understanding what happened at the cross that day. If you want the theological term, it’s called “Atonement.”
Atonement is all about understanding how God makes us ONE with himself. In fact, if you break the word down… it looks like this. At-One-Ment. Sin separates us. But what Jesus did at the cross unites us.
The only way you can be saved is by God’s grace! In other words, you can’t do it on your own. You can’t save yourself. ONLY GOD can save you from your sin!
And by the way, that word “saved” in the original language is the word “Sozo.” It can also be translated as HEALED. I say that to help you understand your salvation, it’s not just about Jesus paying the price for you sin in a legal sense. Sin is a spiritual disease that needs healing. And through the death, burial, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus we are healed.
How? There’s only ONE way.
Paul says…
“For he raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus.” – Ephesians 2.6
The Gospel
THIS is the Good News! THIS is the GOSPEL!
Jesus, the Son of God who was born and became the Son of Man, fully divine yet fully human, was born on planet earth! He lived for some 33 years. Then he died on the cross as the sacrificial Lamb of God. He was buried for 3 days and on the third day, he rose again. Then he walked the planet for 40 days and was seen by more than 500 people. After that, his disciples watched as he ascended back to Heaven. And now, right now, there is a man from Nazareth who experienced life on planet earth just like you and me, who is seated at the right hand of the Father!
And Paul says, if you put your faith in Jesus then you are raised with Christ from the dead and you, too, are seated in the heavenly realms because you are UNITED with Christ!
And this UNITY with Christ, this UNITY with God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit… this is God’s desire and this has been God’s plan from the beginning. For you to be in relationship and unhindered fellowship with him!
How does God do this? How does God raise us from the dead along with Christ? This happens in our baptism. In our baptism we DIE to ourselves, we are literally BURIED with Christ, then RAISED up from the water to new life UNITED with CHRIST!
Some of you have had this come to Jesus moment! When you came to the end of yourself and you came to Jesus and you made the declaration… I have decided to follow Jesus.
Some of you have not. And if not, can I ask… What are you waiting on?
Jesus paid it all. All to Him we owe. Sin had left a crimson stain. But in the waters of baptism he washes them away so that we are whiter than snow in the presence of God.
And if you’ve had a Come to Jesus moment, you can say… look at me, I’m a sinner, a lying, cheating, sinner… and Jesus died for even me.
And it is a GIFT from God!
Are you ready to come to Jesus?
Years ago I was on a retreat with a group of teenagers and I asked them to all take a white t-shirt and write down all their sins on it. I told them to be as honest as they could.
These shirts were filled with all kinds of words. Words like, Liar. Sinner. Lust. Porn. Cheater. Thief. Lazy. Mean. Cussing. Drinking. Drugs. Sex. Etc…
Then I told them to put that shirt on.
A lot of us, this is our identity apart from Christ. This is who we are. And we try to cover up who we are. Even people who don’t believe in Jesus try to cover this stuff up because we all know, this isn’t right. Even people that have never been to church know, this isn’t right.
We all have this God shaped hole inside of us and we try to fill it with different things but because only God can fill it, anytime we put anything else in there it doesn’t fit and we know it. And most of the time, it hurts when we try to force something into the God shaped hole in our heart that doesn’t fit!
For a lot of us, this is our identity. We wear it around all the time. Even when we try to cover it up, we know who we are, what we’ve done. And we think, there’s nothing that can be done. We can’t change. We can’t be forgiven. We’re worthless.
And if people knew what we knew about us, they wouldn’t love us. And if God knew what we knew about us, and deep down, we know God knows, then He couldn’t love us either.
But that night, I told our teenagers to take off these sin stained shirts and leave them in a pile at the front of the room and I told them to go to bed.
After the lights were out, with the help of some of our youth workers, we washed all the stains out of those shirts all night long.
Every sin was washed clean. Every mistake, gone. Every hurt, erased. Everything they had done that they knew was wrong, forgiven.
And we put a new word on every shirt in PERMANENT Marker.
You see, those sins, those stains, they were all written in temporary, erasable, marker. Just like your real sins, just like their real sins, they weren’t permanent. They weren’t irremovable. They could be washed away. And they were.
But this new word, this new Name, this new identifier, we were writing this in Permanent Marker. And across the back of every shirt we wrote the name, CHRIST.
And when they woke up that next morning, they woke up forgiven. With a new name. A new identity. And I asked them to put on those new shirts with their new name and their new Identity. I asked them to literally put on Christ.
Some of you need to have your sins washed away. Here’s the Good News. They can be. How? Jesus paid it all, all to him I owe. Sin had left a Crimson stain, He WASHED it white as snow!
And when you let Jesus wash away your sin in Baptism, you put on a new name, the name of Christ!
Will you come to Jesus?
The prophet Isaiah once said,
“Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow;
thought they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.”
Isaiah 1.18
God wants to wash away your sin so you can be one with Him.
Will you come to Jesus?
If you’re ready to come to Jesus you may be wondering, “What do I need to do now?
Some of you need to come back to Jesus. You’ve made a decision for Jesus before. he’s already washed away your sins. But you’ve sinned since then.
Here’s more good news. All those new sins are also written in temporary erasable marker. And when you were baptized you unleashed the Holy Spirit of God in your life who washes you over and over again in the grace of God.
Scripture says His mercies are new every morning!
But some of you have never come to Jesus. And if that’s you, let me ask you, When? When is it going to be? When are you going to have your come to Jesus moment? What’s it going to take? What are you waiting for? What else does God have to do to prove his love for you?
Won’t you make a decision today to step into the waters of baptism and let him wash away your sins.
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