Hey everyone!
This weekend was great! It was very relaxing and I got a lot of sleep and much needed alone time. But I would have to say the best part about my weekend was last night. Sunday night. I went to Hillsong church with my good friend Hallie. I went to high school with her and she is at an acting school up here in the city. The service started at 5:00 so we got there at 4:40. Little did we know there would be a line all the way around the block to just get in the door! Once we were in, there was only standing room left. It was so crowded! But I would much rather be in a crowded, electric, energetic church than an empty one!
Once the service started, the band came out and it was like a rock concert. But all for Jesus. It was an amazing feeling being in a room with so many people who were on fire for God! After a couple of very moving songs from the new "Hillsong" album "Young and Free", the preacher came out. I don't remember his name. But he was phenomenal. His message was called "A Problem Called Grace". The first story he told was about a funeral he had attended earlier that day. He was at a 36 year old woman's funeral who had passed away from cervical cancer. She had 8 kids. The funeral lasted 5 hours. The reason the funeral lasted so long is because people just kept coming up and telling stories of her kindness. He said that one woman came up and said that she has 4 kids and one night she called the woman who had passed and said "I only have 2 bags of rice and I need to feed my children. Can you help me?" and the woman who had just passed said "I have 2 cans of chicken, but you come over here and we can use your bags of rice and my chicken and we can eat together." Most christians would stop after "I have 2 cans of chicken". But she didn't. She was always giving. Spending is a seasonal act. You spend a lot around the holidays. You receive a lot around the holidays. But giving is a never ending act of kindness.
2 Corinthians 9:11 says "You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God."
The "problem called grace" he spoke of in his sermon is that God has so much grace for us. He LETS us breathe in the air around us. He LETS us live. He satisfies us with his love. He provides for us. He sent his perfect son to die on the cross for OUR sins! He loves us more than we could ever imagine. He does all of this through grace and love! We don't deserve anything he gives us. We have turned against him and sinned against him everyday of our lives! And yet he still loves us and his love is more than enough for us.
He told another story about a day that he went to his daughter's 1st grade class and spoke to the kids. He asked them to get in groups of 2 and tell the other person things that they loved about themselves. Most of the kids were very confident and were just spitting off things they loved about themselves. He noticed a little boy in the corner of the room just looking at the floor. He asked him his name and the little boy said "Alex". He asked Alex what he liked about himself. He asked what he was good at. Alex said he wasn't good at anything and that he didn't like anything about himself. He then proceeded to ask the class what they liked about Alex. The hands just shot up and all the kids were saying things like "He's smart" "He's nice" "He's funny" "He's good at soccer" etc. And Alex's head just popped up and he had a huge smile on his face.
It is so funny how this 6 year old boy could be encouraged by other people and the positive things they thought about him. This is very similar to how God thinks of us. Alex would have never thought he was funny or nice or smart or good at soccer. We can never fathom how much God loves us and how much he cares about us. What Alex did is much like what adults do. They get down on themselves. We only care about what is happening to us in the moment. We don't think about how God has a bigger plan. A plan to prosper us and not to harm us (Jer. 29:11). By trusting in God and casting all of our troubles on him, we are experiencing his grace and his love.
"He is the one who has saved us. He is the one who forgave us. He's the one who has come and is coming again. He's the remedy."
I think that sums up this post. Haha.
Thanks!
Molly
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