The following story reminds us that the gospel has the power to change lives. It is from an interview with Jim Cymbala, pastor of the Brooklyn Tabernacle.
“Down and Out on Easter Morning”
David Ruffin was one of the thousands of homeless men in NYC.
Left his home in Greensboro NC with dreams of making a life in NYC. But what he wasn’t prepared for was how quickly the city chews up and spits out the naïve and the uneducated. David soon found himself demoralized, alcoholic and homeless. He writes,
“I woke up one day and found myself in the streets homeless. Something had been taken away from me. It’s like, to me, like a fall from society.”
“Being homeless was about the worst thing that could ever happen to me. You grow up always expecting to do something with your life. Then to find yourself in a situation like this – it was really horrible. It hurt me the most one day when it started to rain. I would see people scurrying, scattering all over the place, just going different directions to their homes. I looked at myself, and it was like, “Now where do I go?”
The Brooklyn Tabernacle is one of the places he used to go to get out of the weather. It was Easter Sunday. He was dirty, filthy, smelly, drunk. But something compelled him to come in to the church service. When the pastor gave the altar call, David came forward. From here, Pastor Jim Cymbala tells the rest of the story.
We have homeless people coming in all the time, asking for money or whatever. So as I sat there, I said to myself, though I am ashamed of it, “What a way to end a Sunday. I’ve had such a good time, preaching and ministering, and here’s a fellow probably wanting some money for more wine.”
He walked up. When he got within about five feet of me, I smelled a horrible smell like I’d never smelled in my life. It was so awful that when he got close, I would inhale by looking away, and then I’d talk to him, and then look away to inhale, because I couldn’t inhale facing him. I asked him, “What’s your name?”
“David.”
“How long have you been on the street?”
“Six years.”
“How old are you?”
“Thirty-two.” He looked fifty--hair matted; front teeth missing; wino; eyes slightly glazed.
“Where did you sleep last night, David?”
“Abandoned truck.”
I took some money out of my pocket and started to offer it to David. He pushed his finger in front of me. He said, “I don’t want your money. I want this Jesus, the One you were talking about, because I’m not going to make it. I’m going to die on the street.”
I completely forgot about David, and I started to weep for myself. I was going to give a couple of dollars to someone God had sent to me. I was not seeing him the way God sees him. I was not feeling what God feels.
David just stood there. He didn’t know what was happening. I pleaded with God, “God, forgive me! I am so sorry to represent You this way. I’m so sorry. Here I am with my message and my points, and You send somebody and I am not ready for it. Oh, God!”
Something came over me. Suddenly I started to weep deeper, and David began to weep. He fell against my chest as I was sitting there. He fell against my white shirt and tie, and I put my arms around him, and there we wept on each other. The smell of His person became a beautiful aroma. Here is what I thought the Lord made real to me: If you don’t love this smell, I can’t use you, because this is why I called you where you are. This is what you are about. You are about this smell.
Christ changed David’s life. He started memorizing portions of Scripture that were incredible. We got him a place to live. We hired him in the church to do maintenance, and we got his teeth fixed.
A year later David got up and talked about his conversion to Christ. The minute he took the mic and began to speak, I said, “The man is a preacher.” This past Easter we ordained David. He is an associate minister of a church in New Jersey. And I was so close to saying, “Here, take this; I’m a busy preacher.”
SOURCE: http://www1.cbn.com/700club/david-ruffin-down-and-out-easter-morning
Our text this morning is Colossians 1:21-23. This passage speaks of the power of the gospel. This powerful text flows from the preceding passage in which the Apostle Paul elevated Seven Attributes of Jesus.
HE IS......
God made known to us Image of the invisible God
Ruler of all things Firstborn of all creation
Creator and Sustainer of the physical world. By him all things were created
Our Hope and Resurrection .. Firstborn from among the dead
Head of the Church and He is the head of the body, the church
The Fullness of God. In him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell
Our RECONCILIATION ... Through Him to reconcile to himself all things
The seventh and final attribute of the exalted Christ is that He is our reconciliation.
Paul will not take this theme of reconciliation and explain further what it means to be reconciled.
If Colossians 1:15-20 Center on the words “HE IS”, then Colossians 1:21-23 centers on the words,“AND YOU”
Let’s talk about how the gospel changes our lives.
I. Our Need for Life Change: We were ALIENATED from God
A. In science fiction, a VISITOR from another world is called an ALIEN
B. But when JESUS cane to earth, WE WERE THE ALIENS!
C. Estranged, separated.
D. “Of a different kind”
E. HOSTILE in MIND. Our thoughts are corrupt
1. Genesis 6:5 "The Lord saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time."
2. Jeremiah 17:9 "The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?"
F. Practicing Evil... hostile in mind because of your evil behavior
1. We are guilty of sin
2. Romans 3:23 "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,"
3. Isaiah 59:2 "But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear."
4. Psalm 58:3 "Even from birth the wicked go astray; from the womb they are wayward and speak lies."
G. TIM KELLER: “The universal religion of humankind is this: We develop a good record and give it to God, and then he owes us. But the gospel is: God develops a good record and gives it to us, then we owe him. (Rom. 1:17).
II. Our MEANS of Life Change: Christ’s Death
A. “But now he has reconciled you through Christ’s physical body through death”
B. This defeated the idea of a cosmic Christ
C. Being a Christian is more than saying a prayer
D. Salvation results in a changed life.
E. This week, a young man came and shared that he has finally found Christ! I baptized this young man about 6 years ago, but his life returned to his messed up state. He abused alcohol and drugs, rejected spiritual authority, and basically did everything that his teenage desires instructed him to do. He came in to see one of the pastors this week because he truly got saved@
III. Our Standing Through Life Change: God Makes us Flawless
A. HOLY - Cleansed
B. BLAMELESS in his sight- Mercy Me, Flawless
No matter the bumps
No matter the bruises
No matter the scars
Still the truth is
The cross has made
The cross has made you flawless
No matter the hurt
Or how deep the wound is
No matter the pain
Still the truth is
The cross has made
The cross has made you flawless
C. ABOVE REPROACH. Revelation 12:10 “Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ. For the accuser of our brothers, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down."
IV. Our Continuation in Life Change: If you continue in your faith.....”
A. Two words for “if” in Greek (Weust)
1. One is an “unfulfilled, hypothetical condition”
2. The word here is positive and forceful, meaning “assuming that you continue in the faith”
B. Discipleship is more than Bible Study.
C. Discipleship is LIFE CHANGE
D. Discipleship book by Eugene Peterson, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction: Discipleship in an Instant Society Eugene Peterson, July, 2000
E. Implications for discipleship
1. More than a course or Bible study
2. Best done in small groups
3. Progressive teaching. One truth builds on another.
a. A B Bruse “The Training of the Twelve”
b. Stages in the lessons Jesus taught and the assignments Jesus gave
(1) As the disciples encounter Jesus they believe in his person,
(2) second, they become full time followers of Jesus,
(3) finally, they develop into a chosen group of apostles entrusted with the spread of his message.
4. THINKING and BEHAVIOR must both be changed. We were ALIENATED in our THINKING and our BEHAVIOR. Discipleship puts both our thinking and behavior in line with God.
5. There will be points of confrontation about both thinking and behavior
6. Leaning must be accompanied by serving
Have you surrendered your life to Jesus?
Is he still changing your life?
