He did it anyway!!!

Matthew 18:11  For the Son of man came to save (from the penalty of eternal death) that which was lost.

AMEN!!  

I could not say another word, because everything we need to know is right there in that one sentence.  Everything that is and will be is in that sentence. Your past and your future are in this sentence.  The character of God is in that sentence.  The love of God is in that sentence.

God is that sentence.

How wonderful is the idea of this sentence?  How complete and whole does this make you feel?

Jesus came to save the lost and not just to save them for the moment, but to save them from evil, from death and living eternity in Hell.

It truly is hard to wrap my brain around the magnificence that is this one sentence.  It’s almost as if the Bible could have been these words only, and it would have given us a clear sense to who Jesus was and is.  Who we could learn to be like, and it would give us someone who we could emulate our lives after.   It gave us all the instructions that we would need, in that one sentence.

Have you ever heard someone speak just one sentence and know that it was a moment in your life that would change you forever?  This is one of those moments for me.

This is a big, grand, overwhelming sentence because it speaks of me.  It says to me, I came for you.  I came to gather you, to find you and to save you from not only the enemy but from yourself.

It’s hard to have words big enough to speak of the love that sentence speaks of.

Jesus came to save you! 

Jesus came to sacrifice His life so that you could have yours.   He came to be the living sacrifice that would wash away all of your sins, your mistakes, your bad judgments, the lies you have told and the secrets that you hold inside your heart.  He came to free you from all of those things, and oh, so much more.

Jesus… The man who lived this life, to connect, educate and ultimately die, for you and me, is the sacrifice that makes our lives possible.  He is the one true thing that says I will do for you what you will not do for yourself, and that is love you, completely!

Jesus saw the value in you, before you saw the value in you.  Jesus knew the beauty of your life, even before your life was created, and He then died for that value and beauty.

He did all of this, even before He knew you would love Him back!!  Think about that.  He gave His life before you even had the chance to accept His gift, because of how incredibly special you are, we are! 

I hate to use the word brave here, but truly there are not many other words that come into my mind that fits.  I have a problem being brave enough to show my emotions to the people who not only deserve them, but want them.  I have a hard time opening up my heart and being vulnerable to friends, family and loved ones, so to think that Jesus, took on my sins and all the ugliness that I would have in my life, so that I can be saved and have eternity with Him in heaven… WOW!  

Brave!!

I have not met one person in my life that would be brave enough to endure pain, on that level, and know that rejection is very possible.  I know that I don’t think I could do it… Could you?

Could you die for someone that you never knew?  Could you die for someone that would never appreciate your sacrifice?  Could you die for someone who would never love you back?

Let that sink in for a moment… That’s what Jesus did! 

Jesus died for people that have chosen not to follow Him, believe in Him, honor Him or give their lives to Him… but He did it anyway!  There are probably four people in this world that I would sacrifice myself for.   There are four people that I would stand up and say, no, take me first, but these four people already love me, and I know that.

Jesus did it without knowing if you would love Him, accept Him or even appreciate what He did for you.  He did it just to give you the chance to accept His sacrifice. 

There is not much more that I can say about this sentence, but at the same time I feel like there are a million words that I could say about this sentence.   I think the main thing is we need to understand, digest, marinate, soak in and process this sentence. 

We need to understand the complete magnitude that each word holds, and then the one who holds them.  We need to make this sentence one of the most important things we have ever read or heard.  We need to see the weight and power this sentence holds.

We don’t deserve the sacrifice that Jesus gave us that day.  We never will deserve it… but He did it anyway!   We don’t deserve for God to watch His son die on a cross for our lives… but He did it anyway!

We withhold love and affection from people we know, people we share an elevator with, every single day, but remember for a moment, that person too received the same sacrifice from Jesus that you did, so what makes us any different?  What makes us any better?  What makes us worthy and not someone else?

The truth is we do.  We esteem ourselves higher than we ought to, or ever even attempt too, but when you look at it from the perspective of, we all needed to receive the same gift from Jesus, than how can one be better than the other?

We were all lost.  We were all without forgiveness.  We were all without a Savior and we were all destined for Hell, if it wasn’t for Jesus. 

We are all the same.  We are all human beings that needed to be saved from ourselves and the lives that lay before us.  We are all the one sheep that the shepherd went to look for and rejoiced when He found them.

That is us!

God rejoiced on the day that you found Him, and His son.  The heavenly choir sang out a new song of wonder, and joy, the day you decided to receive the gift that Jesus gave to us so freely, and it is our job to help others who are lost to be found.

It is our duty to the one who sacrificed for us, to share Him with all of those around us.  To never consider someone less than ourselves, or assume that they don’t need to know Jesus, because remember He died for them too.

Matthew 18:11 For the Son of man came to save (from the penalty of eternal death) that which was lost. 

We are the lost and broken things that Jesus came to save, and once we are found, it us up to us to give what we can back to Jesus by trying to save the other lost and broken things of this world! 

You see once you are found, you can never truly be lost again.  You can wander away, but your heart will always bring you back to the One who found you!