"She said her mum had died. I said I was very sorry to hear that. She said "yeah, and my younger sister was killed in a car crash". I shook my head, and couldn't speak. Then she said "Yeah, and my baby sister has a sickness and is going to die". I just sat there with my mouth open, trying to hold back the tears."
"You know that you do not meet God's expectations. You know you are getting judged for breaking His laws. But your self-righteousness is preventing you from submitting to His authourity. Therefore you are in danger of incurring His wrath on Judgement Day. I don't want that to happen. "
The good news of the Gospel is the greatest news anyone can ever hear. Why? Because it’s not about us. If it was, it would be a story of brokenness, sinfulness, and death. And that would be the end of the story.
"When you go to bed tonight Roger, I can guarantee you're going to think about what we talked about. You'll be thinking about facing God after you die. And you'll be thinking about what He will say to you, and where He will send you."
Our human nature can’t help but see fault in others. We get so distraught when see what others can get away with, and we come to God with a shopping list of all their indiscretions against us. However, when we see ourselves in the mirror of God’s law, we come to the realisation that we are no better than them. In fact, we are no better than the worst criminal in all of human history.
I decided to go hardball on him. I said "Andrew, look at me. Listen, you are a sinner, just like me. When you die, you will have to face God for those sins. Alone, with no one else to help you out. His standard is perfection, so He will find you guilty of breaking His laws. Your punishment will be an eternity in a fiery lake called hell.
Our human brain is naturally hard-wired to deflect blame. And our rebellion started the first time we said “I don’t know!” when our parents asked us how the kitten ended up in the toilet bowl. We don’t like to admit fault, and we employ any means necessary to escape punishment for it.
"Drifting into the shallows comes at the cost of the depth of our relationships.". That's a nice catchphrase, but this is supposed to be a church service, not a TED Talk. We are 10 minutes into this 'sermon', but so far Jesus hasn't rated a mention. So far, all you've pointed us to, is ourselves and our faults.
It is possible that over time, people can change. Maybe the John Cameron of today is different to the one I reviewed back then. Maybe he has learnt some truths of the Bible. Maybe he has repented. Maybe now he is theologically sound, and is feeding, watering, and guarding his flock as a Pastor should be.So the best way to test this out, is to check him out again.
"He told me he was a Christian, but when I pressed him about how he was getting to heaven, he was focusing on his works, and his family values. He got angry with me when I said it would count for nothing on Judgement Day."