WHY WE NEED JESUS

This is the sermon summary of the message presented at Prairie Chapel, January 12, 2014.

 

 

We are all subject to the human condition.  Some may operate closer to the edge and experience it more acutely.  Some may experience it in the pain of love for others; but we all feel rejection, loss, abuse, depression or we have an equally hurtful list, maybe dozens long.  Economic status, social status, status high or low has nothing to do with it.  We have needs that need to be filled.  We all suffer from the human condition

Jesus met a woman at a well.  It was a divine appointment.  She didn’t know she needed Jesus until she came to know him, to know him as a prophet, to know him as Savior.  She didn’t know she needed Jesus until her needs, her social impoverishment, met “who Jesus is.”  We find we need Jesus when “who we are” intersects with “who he is.” 

At the well, Jesus crossed all sorts of boundaries in talking with a women, a Samaritan, a woman of questionable lifestyle, a person of another denomination.  Jesus crossed all sorts of boundaries because all sorts of people need Jesus.

But we don’t know we need Jesus until we come to know him, “who he is”: Son of God, Creator, Image, Good Shepherd, Savior, Resurrection Lord who gives us hope, King, Grace, Friend. 

Then we find what’s at stake in accepting him: Salvation, relationship, joy, happiness, freedom, life-together.  Do you want to miss that?  Do you want your friends to miss that?

And the last thing at stake is transformation, change.  Yes, Jesus loves us just a we are, but he doesn’t leave us there.  He fills our needs and leads us forward.  Bottom line: We need Jesus because Jesus is the answer to the deepest longings of the human heart.*  We need Jesus.

*Adam Hamilton.  Leading Beyond the Walls.  pg 22