Published by admin on 27 Jul 2017 at 11:37 pm
TELL ME THE WHOLE GOSPEL, NOT JUST PART
Let’s say you are a jigsaw puzzle fan, would you want to buy a puzzle with some of the pieces gone? No? why not? Well, you’d want the whole picture, right? And if some of the pieces of the puzzle are gone, you don’t have the whole picture when you’re done putting it together. But yet, we seem to be satisfied to go to church and hear part of the Gospel week after week. Sure, I know you can’t preach the whole Gospel in one sermon. But in the space of weeks, you can. So then why are so many Christians missing so many pieces of the puzzle?
I propose to you that many preachers don’t have enough knowledge of the scriptures to teach the whole Gospel. Oh, they may know this part or that part pretty well, so they just tend to stay in “familiar waters” and leave the rest alone. Well that’s fine if you don’t happen to need the part he isn’t preaching, but what if you do? And what if that missing part is really messing you up? They say “What you don’t know can’t hurt you.” But the truth is, what you don’t know can KILL you.
Luke 4:18-19 is a prime example of the full Gospel:
18 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,
19 To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.
The Lord Jesus is first letting you know the source of His authority: the Spirit of the LORD is upon Him.
If you’re poor, listen up, the LORD is about to give you good news. “Gospel” MEANS Good News, you know. You don’t have to be poor. You can be if you WANT to be, but God isn’t telling you that if you want to be Holy, you have to be poor. Some churches seem to want their people broke, but not so broke they don’t bring offerings to church, just broke enough so they never get ahead. Did Jesus tell people they should be poor? No, in fact, He told people to give to the poor. You can’t give if you don’t have it to give. Some churches today encourage you to give what you don’t have: in other words, put it on your credit card. God doesn’t teach people to do that. People teach that. God wants His children to be blessed, and you get that way by being obedient to Him, and by being wise. The book of Proverbs teaches wisdom, a proverb for every day of the month. I like to read the next day’s proverb before going to bed so I can meditate on it before going to sleep. Obedience to the Word of God, and wisdom will help you gain wealth.
Jesus was sent to heal the brokenhearted. If you happen to be brokenhearted, then Jesus has a cure for that, but if that is not preached at your church, and you happen to need that, well, too bad, right? WRONG! Many, if not most persons are broken in one way or another, they’ve been hurt, abused, promises have been broken and tossed aside, how can you have an abundant life in Christ Jesus if you’re brokenhearted? You can’t. Jesus wants to heal you, but He also understands it’s hard for you to trust Him because people have all let you down. Thankfully, the Lord Jesus isn’t like others, He will never lie to you or betray your trust. He healed the brokenhearted; Many of you are like that, people have made you promises and haven’t kept them, or have forsaken you and left you high and dry. There are single parents out there raising children alone, brokenhearted because their mate left them. But there is HOPE, for the Lord Jesus came to heal your broken heart.
Jesus preached deliverance to the captives. You may have been taken captive by the devil through no fault of your own, because sometimes the devil captures people simply because he CAN, and you just happened to be handy.
I’m saying this today because the LORD told me to. Perhaps you were raped as a child and all your life you have been carrying around all this guilt and condemnation. Maybe you’ve been told it’s your own fault. Your life has been upside down ever since that day. Time after time, relationships have failed, maybe several failed marriages, and no matter how you try, you’re still captive and don’t understand why. Others have opened a door to becoming his captives by engaging in activities they know they shouldn’t, but hey, everyone else is doing it, right? Many of you are held captive by sins you’d like to quit but just can’t. Maybe it’s gambling, or drugs, pornography, lying, adultery, or stealing. It doesn’t matter what. Some of you became captive because you played around with the devil and thought you could walk away anytime you wanted to, and later found out you couldn’t. Good news! Jesus will set you free if you really want to be free!
Jesus isn’t going to nitpick about whose fault it is that you’re being held captive by the devil, He is going to set you free if you want to be free, OK? How do you get free? Glad you asked! It’s as simple as crying out to the LORD, and saying, Help me, LORD JESUS! I’ve been taken captive and I can’t get free! I ask YOU to set me free, Will He set you free? YES!
Jesus came to recover sight to the blind, and the devil will do everything he can to blind your mind to the truth, so that even when you hear the truth, you will not believe. One mark of being blinded by the devil is being hard-hearted. Many are hard-hearted because they have been hurt so badly they just want to shut everyone out to keep from getting hurt again. That includes those who are physically blind as well as spiritually blind. So many are physically blind, and stay that way for the rest of their lives. But Jesus also healed the physically blind, setting precedence that indeed, it can be done if you can believe. There is no one so blind as one who WILL NOT SEE. You can have a closed mind to the Gospel, and it cannot help you whatsoever. It’s entirely YOUR choice as to whether you will let the Gospel help you. It has the power to set you free, but you have the power to keep yourself captive if that’s what you want.
Jesus came and ministered with compassion and mercy, and set at liberty those who were bruised. Have you ever been bruised? Sure you have. It comes from a hard blow, not usually hard enough to break a bone, but it really hurts. And nine times out of ten, before that bruise heals, you’ll end up hitting it time and time again, adding pain to pain. Or someone said something really bad about you, and though you try to tell yourself words cannot hurt you, they do. They have bruised your spirit. And to make matters worse, they just keep it up and keep it up. Some of you ladies understand being bruised by the words of an abusive husband. And yes, it happens to men, too. Bruises hurt. But Jesus came to set you at liberty!
The question I must ask now, WILL YOU BE HEALED? WILL YOU LET JESUS SET YOU FREE?
Maybe you haven’t been hearing the whole Gospel where you go. I’ve just taught you on TWO VERSES, and you can see the power in them. Now if there’s so much in just two verses, think how much there is in the whole Bible! You can’t be whole on half the Gospel, so why would you be satisfied with less than the LORD want’s you to have? There’s always MORE the LORD wants to reveal to you. Why not get serious about God? Don’t miss out on the abundant life that Christ Jesus is offering you, because you want the WHOLE Gospel, not just a part of it! God thinks you’re worth it!
Stephanie on 28 Jul 2017 at 3:32 pm #
Another good sermon! Thanks Pastor Jerry.