Saturday evening was an amazing time of preaching the Gospel. The Barnum & Bailey Circus was at the Comcast Arena in Everett. I thought it would be great to preach the Gospel to the circus goers. We had a team of four (one is the pastor of Faith Baptist in Everett.) It turned out to be an outstanding time and place for the Gospel to go out. God had prepared His message, and He had prepared the hearts and lives of the hearers.
The circus show started at 7:30pm, so I arrived at about 5:45, and as I drove up, I noticed the PETA people were there protesting the mistreatment of animals at the circus. I thought to myself, "oh, at least I will have the PETA folks to preach the Gospel to." I walked up to the entrance area, where the protesters were assembled, and there were at least 50 to 80 people lined up, waiting for the doors to open. I prayed really intensely before I stepped up on my stool. I had prepared a message entitled, "The Greatest Show (of Love) on Earth", as a take-off on the circus calling itself, "The Greatest Show on Earth".
About half-way into my message, (and by the way, I was connecting with several circus goers, included a ~21 year old young man), the PETA camera man came and stood right in front of me and started calling me every name in the book, and telling me I was an idiot, etc, etc, etc. I told him, "Is that all you have? An ad hominem attack. He walked away. Then a couple of ladies with signs, walked right in front of me, trying to obstruct my preaching. Then some ladies called out, "Doesn't God love animals?", I responded, "Yes, absolutely". Then they shouted, "don't you care about animals?", "Yes", I responded. Then they said, "Well, do you eat them?", and I said, "Yes, and they're very yummy too!" The women groaned, as if they had been kicked in the stomach, while the people in the crowd laughed.
Then there was a mom and a grandma who had brought their kids to the circus, who were in line almost right in front of me while I was preaching. They kept asking me to stop. Finally they started singing songs to try to drown out the Gospel message. Very sad. Then there was the guitar thrashing, harmonica blowing guy, trying to drown out the Gospel, the whole time we were preaching.
After I finished preaching, the rest of my team arrived, and they took up the preaching duties. At that time, the 21 year old young man (Josh) came up to me crying and confessing sin. He told me he had made some bad decisions and had been in jail the night before. His x-girlfriend came to his apartment, with her new boyfriend, and Josh had gotten into an altercation with the boyfriend, and had gotten taken to jail. I was able to pray with Josh, and just encourage him to repent and trust Jesus and he would come out of this alright.
Here's what I said, at least one time...
Hi folks. My name is Keith and I'm a born-again Christian, and I'd like to share a few thoughts with you while you wait for the doors to open to the show tonight. This circus was started by a man named P.T. Barnum in the mid 1800's. He merged circuses with James Bailey. Then in the early 1900's the Barnum and Bailey circus merged with the Ringling Brothers, and it came to be known as "The Greatest Show on Earth". But I'm here to talk to you about The Greatest Show (of Love) on Earth.
John 15:13 Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Romans 5:8 God demonstrated His love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. 1 John 4:9 In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. John 3:16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Here I am talking about the love of God toward mankind, but does thinking or hearing about God make you anxiousness; nervous? Just talking about God makes a lot of people irritated and annoyed. If you’re not comfortable when you think or hear about God; it’s actually a good thing, because deep down the thought of meeting your Maker, The Creator of the Universe who is holy and righteous and infinite ought to make you uncomfortable. Let’s be honest, we all have a guilty conscience, we feel shame and embarrassment over the wrongs we have committed. It is tough to bring up our sin, to face own failures, but we must look at ourselves squarely in the mirror, so to speak. Think about this though, it’s our pride keeps us from facing up to our sins; we all want to save face; to keep our dignity. 1 John 1:7 says, "But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin." As painful as it is, we must admit our offenses to God, and bring them out into the light. Jesus said, I am the light of the world, whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will abide in the light of life. Don’t confess your sins to a priest, you can go straight to God because He’s the one that you’ve sinned against. King David said in Psalm 51, "Against you [God] and you only have I sinned and done this evil in your sight." Proverbs 28:13 says, "He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy." God opposes the proud but give grace to the humble.
One approach many take to try to appease their conscience is to do good, to try to outweigh their bad. Its kind of like trying to pay for your sins by doing what is right. The thought goes, if I just give enough, if I am kind enough, if I am honest enough, and work hard enough, God is obligated to let me into heaven. Not so, the Bible says, “not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy has He saved us, by the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit.” Every religion says you must 'do', 'do', 'do' to be right with God, but true Biblical Christianity, says "it is finished." The work of salvation was completed by Jesus Christ dying on the cross for our sins. Trying to earn your way to heaven is like trying to bribe the Judge of the universe to turn a blind eye to your sin.
Many try to silence and drown out their conscience by drinking, or taking drugs. Continually going from one party to the next. They numb the pain, the shame and the insecurity of a guilty conscience by self medicating, rather than addressing the root of the problem. It doesn’t have to be drinking or drugs that you use to suppress and ignore your conscience. It could be anything that distracts you from the seriousness of sin. It’s called Idolatry, and we make idols out of things like professional athletes, musicians, or movie stars. But it could even be good things like family, friends, career or education, that can become the focus of our lives rather than putting God first. God doesn't want just to be on the top of the list, He wants to be number one on a list of one; nothing else should even compare to the love and devotion we have for God. The first commandment is You shall have no other gods before Me. The second commandment is You shall not make for yourself idols. And Jesus said, “The greatest commandment is you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength." If you live for yourself, your desires, your wants, your self-gratification, you will lose your life. If you live for God, to bring honor to Him, to glorify Him, to put Him first, you will not only gain eternal life, but you will receive new life here and now. Luke 9:23-26 Jesus said, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily,and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, but loses his own soul? For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, of him the Son of Man will be ashamed when He comes in His own glory, and in His Father’s, and of the holy angels.
Pray for Josh who came up to me crying over some sin he had committed and poor decisions he had made.
Here are some vids...
Here are some vids...
1 comment:
Amen...Preach the Word
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