Short Sermon

A Short Sermon that I wrote and preached at the Assembly of God National Fine Arts Festival.

Relentless - After the one. To pursue something relentlessly is to go after it with everything until it is yours. Let me tell you a story that you may find familiar.

I want you to imagine lights. Street lights. Bar signs. No vacancy.  No parking. An avenue flooded with light. The air is thick and heavy, to the point that when you take a breath, you can taste the people around you. The streets are packed. If the lights in this place were an ocean, the people would be the sands on the floor. 

There’s so much joy. So much fellowship. Our character’s closest friends are surrounding him. Let me tell you how infinite he felt in that moment. Seeing his friends smile. Watching them dance. The experience could compare to a paternal nature. Imagine watching your little girl twirling around in front of you with her genuine grin. Or seeing your little boy rocking his hips while singing a nonsensical melody. I hope you know what I’m talking about. If not, I hope that someday you feel it, so you can understand too. All he could think about was that he couldn’t possibly want anything more.

And it was right then that he heard it. A whisper. He was confused - With all of this noise, how would he be able to hear a whisper? At the same time, he was elated. The whisper was familiar. Like an old friend.

It called him by name several times. He would toss his face until he had his footing, and when he did, he sailed through the crowd, leaving his friends behind him and wandering to a place unknown. With every step he took, the sounds around him only got louder. He found himself standing before an alley. It was out of place - completely contrasting the avenue that he stood in just before. The light did not touch the alley in the slightest. Now imagine for just a moment being in the center of cacophony. You can feel every beat in your chest. Shaking your ribcage with every tremor. Now silence.

Now, I want you to imagine darkness. It’s cold. The alley is enveloped in shadow. The air is thin and rough, to the point that when you took a breath, you could barely take in enough oxygen. If the darkness was an ocean, he was a sunken ship.

He was like a lured fish. The voice reeled him further down the alley. He hit a wall and glanced back at his origin. The light was so far off. He only recalled taking a few steps, but looking back, the light could have been a mile or so away. The last thing heard: “You are mine now.” He turns back to the wall where the whisper had been spat from. The last noise is his very voice crying out for help. And then darkness.

And then the strangest thing happened. All of a sudden, he feels this warmth on his upper back and behind his knees. Then on his whole right side. It was perfect. He opens his eyes only to be blinded as he’s carried out of the alley and back into the light filled avenue. He didn’t even have time to see the face of the man who saved him. 

Now, the entire avenue was silent except his friends who ran over and held him. Their rejoicing sets the tone, and not even a second later, the entire avenue is full of boisterous noise. Louder than before. People start moving towards and around him. They smile and cheer. He was back where he belonged.

Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders off. Would you not leave the ninety-nine to go after the lost sheep until you find it? And when you do find it, you would joyfully carry it back home. And you would call together all of your friends and celebrate that the sheep had come home. I tell you that there will be more rejoicing in Heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need not repent. (Luke 15:4-7)

You see, this story that I just told you is no different than the parable that Jesus told to the Pharisees about the lost sheep. When we wandered off, Jesus relentlessly came after us until He found us and brought us back home. And He will again, should we ever lose our way. Do you understand, that if you were the only one in creation, Jesus would still step down from His throne to die on a tree for you.

There are people in this very room who are in the alley that I spoke of - who have wandered off from the place where they belong. Some who have taken their first step into the shadow, others who have hit the wall at the end of the alley. You don’t have to sink in these shadows any longer. Jesus is ready and waiting to come find you and bring you back to His kingdom. But he can’t do that until you cry out to Him with a desperate heart. However, the choice to do that is yours and yours alone. Thank you.

Reviews

[MoriartyMesa]

For me this is something that jumps from one time of Americana to another, the way it is delivered, made me think of old tent meetings in the Midwest, other times it leaves me to think on some if not many things. Slightly pushed in some areas, but not others, but I ask who is the speaker, on man or many?

[Kaylor Mason]

Do you feel called to be a preacher?