preach the gospel

The idea that God has chosen a weak, sickly, no-good, shameful person to bear His light to the world has never sat well with me. And right now, I feel this mismatch blatantly. He is so holy and I am not. He is pure, I am not. He is powerful, I am not. He loves unconditionally, I cannot. It is incredibly strange and humbling on what it means to be chosen. It sounds incredibly exclusive, or should I say inclusive, and even using the word "chosen" makes me uncomfortable but that's exactly what it is. The puzzling thing is that I am in this group and that I have done absolutely nothing to earn myself a spot. This act is what I will spend the rest of my life marveling at.

I don't know how to preach the gospel. It is so incredibly layered and heavy. I listened to Paul Washer's sermon "Scripture is Sufficient for Personal Evangelism" and he simply tore apart, hammered, the version of the gospel that evangelists and "Christians" use in the West today. Basically it goes something like this: You tell someone that God has a perfect and wonderful plan for their life, then they agree because yes, they, too, have wonderful plans for their own life, then you ask if they believe they are a sinner, and they may say yes or no, but if they say the first, you say "Well, would you like to go to heaven?" and they say "Yes, please" because who doesn't want to go to heaven? Then you make them repeat a prayer after you and they are saved.

Wrong.

I'm not going to fully go into detail what Washer says (you can listen to the sermon for yourself HERE) but he essentially tears down this false notion of the gospel step by step. This scenario is not the gospel. A few things struck me. First, we have lost our focus of who God really is. We have painted Him to be who we WANT Him to be based on our own beliefs. In a country where ninety something percent claim to be Christians, we sure are a depraved society.

Second, the problem with Christians is that we are too afraid to address and deal with man's biggest problem which is sin. In a few words, we are chicken. In this age of tolerance and looking one way to ignore immorality, we are too afraid to condemn wrong to save a soul. But isn't that the point of the gospel? To remedy the biggest problem we have? Washer says it is like a doctor refusing to diagnose a patient with a malady. I am guilty through and through.

Third, asking if a person believes he is a sinner is like a doctor asking a cancer patient, "Do you know you have cancer?" What difference does it make if a person knows he is a sinner; the devil knows this too. It means absolutely nothing. That is the wrong question to ask. We must make them realize the weight of their sin and how it affects their relationship with God before presenting them with the hope that is the gospel.

I want to preach the gospel in such a way that I am earnestly fighting for a man's soul. To stay up all night with him until he is certain where he is headed. To put aside my own pride and cowardice and limited words and present the condemnation that a holy and pure God has against evil-loving, malicious men, and how hopeless we were in our state until this same God who loves His chosen too much provided a way out.

The weight of the gospel is heavy. So heavy. We live in a valley of dry bones. It would take nothing short of a miracle to bring these bones to life. I am hours away from leaving and suddenly am struck with just how limited I am in my abilities because men cannot change the hearts of men. All I have is the gospel. I am frightened. This gospel, this truth, it is heavy. Oh God, give me the strength.