The Greatest Question I've Ever Been Asked!

John 1:12 – But to all who did receive Him, who believed in His name, 

He gave the right to become children of God, 

       I stood there completely overwhelmed.  I just wasn’t expecting that question.  Looking back on it now, it was the question that I had been wrestling with for so long.  I couldn’t quite put it into words, however.  But as the man stood on the platform and asked, something inside of me suddenly leapt for joy.  It was as if my eyes were opened to a whole new world.  (Maybe that’s why Aladdin is still one of my favorite Disney movies … but I digress).  Hope visited me that night in my confusion.  Love reached out to me in my crisis.  Faith found me in my fear.  And I haven’t been the same since.  It’s been a wonderful journey full of excitement and joy …peace and promise … purpose and plans.  Oh, I’ve had my fair share of confusion and doubt …pain and heartache … questions and complaints.  But what happened that night has undoubtedly been the greatest thing that I’ve ever experienced.  To quote the title of one of my favorite books by Max Lucado … “God Came Near!”  

I had grown up attending Catholic Church services all of my life with my family.  I even went to Catholic elementary school and high school.  (Shout out to the Brother Martin Fighting Crusaders!).  I am so grateful for the roots of faith in God that were instilled in me early on. But along the way, a question started to rise up within me.  Simply stated … “Is this all that there is to God?”  At that time, being a Christian to me simply meant going to church every weekend and trying my best to behave in between.  Problem was … I just couldn’t behave! Or as I like to say, I couldn’t be “good” enough for God.  As I grew, my world began to expand, more opportunities presented themselves to me.  Some good, most not so good.  I started wrestling with questions like: what is right and what is wrong and who gets to decide?  What is good and what is evil and where did this all come from?  Who am I and is there any purpose to this thing called life?  There has to be more.  As I looked around, it seemed like everyone was following a similar path in life.  Something like this:

Birth à School à Career à Spouse à Kids à Promotions à Retirement à 

Grandkids à and … well you know. 

All of that probably sounds a bit morbid so forgive me for that.  At 15 years old, it was my perspective on this journey called life.  Sprinkle in family vacations, changing jobs, moving and upgrading, and that’s about it.  In the midst of trying to figure out “who I am” and “where am I going,” the most important question I know was presented to me.  

My older brother, Ted, invited me to an event that his church was hosting.  (To be clear, that my brother was attending church at all was nothing short of miraculous.  I came to find out later that he struggled with the same question I did but found the answer while away at college.  The result … instant life change!  I like to say that one weekend he was terrorizing us and the next he was hugging us and telling us that Jesus loved us.  My explanation … Alien Abduction!  But that’s another story.)  A group of people called “The Power Team” were in town and doing an event at his church.  In short, they were really strong athletes that performed feats of strength like breaking baseball bats over their knees, smashing concrete blocks with their foreheads, bench pressing telephone poles, etc.  Sounded cool so I decided to go.  I also was still trying to find out what happened with my brother to create such a radical change in him.  I decided to accept his invitation.  As I sat in that church, these guys amazed me.  Not with how strong they were or how athletic the stunts they were doing (I couldn’t bench press a phone book at that time, much less rip it in half), but with how they talked about Jesus.  So, I’m sitting in the church auditorium at 2001 Transcontinental Drive, Metairie, Louisiana taking this all in.  And at the end of the performance, the pastor of the church steps to the front of the platform and begins to talk about Jesus.  Only it was in no way like I’ve ever heard anyone talk about Him.  He talked about God being a loving Father.  He talked about sin separating us from God and Jesus dying on the cross to reunite us to Him.  He talked about our lives having purpose and being part of God’s great story of mankind.  He talked about the Holy Spirit being given to Christians to empower them to overcome sin and walk in God’s plan for their lives.  My mind and imagination went into overdrive.  Was this true?  He kept talking about the bible and quoting scripture from it.  I knew about the bible but didn’t think it was something I needed to read.  And then came the question!  It was the theological haymaker that proverbially knocked me to my knees in surrender.  He asked, 

“Would you like a relationship with God?”

That’s it!  Even typing this it seems a bit anti-climactic.  But it remains to this day the greatest question I have ever been asked.  RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD?!?!?  What is he talking about?  You can’t have a relationship with God … can you?  What does that even look like?  After all, He is way up there and we are all way down here.  He is … well … God!  And I am most certainly not.  He is holy and, did I mention that, I couldn’t behave?  I just couldn’t possibly be good enough for God to love me. 

Why do we so easily buy the lie that we have to be “good” for God to love us?

       Pastor Frank began to explain:

·      We were created for God and to live from a place of relationship with Him.

·      Sin entered God’s creation at the beginning as Adam and Eve choose to reject God.  The decision to choose self over God led to our relationship with Him being ruined.  Mankind was now separated from God.

·      We all deal with the effects of sin in our lives: pain, addiction, confusion, purposelessness, fear, etc.  We them all around us today in our world.  

·      But God the Father, never gives up on us.  Living in brokenness and pain was never God’s plan for us, His children.  He wanted to restore us to relationship with Himself again because He loves us. 

·      So, He sent His Son, Jesus, to pay the penalty for our sin by dying on the cross so we could be free to live with Him and for Him again.

·      And Jesus rose from the grave in new life so we could in turn also have new life, God’s life, that we were created to live from in the first place.

·      Simply put God came to rescue us from sin and death so we could live for Him and with Him as He always planned. 

The equation for me changed in that one night:

Birth à Discover God à Enter Relationship with Him à Learn to Know God à Walk in His Plans and Purposes for our Lives à Be a Witness to What He’s Done for Me to All Around Me à Promotion to Life Beyond this One

       At the end of his explanation of what I now know is the gospel or “good news,” the pastor invited anyone wanting to step into relationship with God to come forward.  I hesitated for a minute or two.  I knew this was a big decision for me.  It wasn’t an emotional reaction to an inspirational night.  It wasn’t a calculated decision to try to make my life better.  It was a decision to surrender my life to God and receive His gift of salvation and new life.  The bible talks about being “born again.”  In other words, dying to the penalty of sin and being born into new life with God.  “Excuse me,” I whispered to the people next to me.  “I need to get through.”  Through Pastor Frank, God was calling me and I was excited to respond.  That walk to the front of the church marked me forever.  As I stood at the front and prayed a prayer of repentance from sin and acceptance of Jesus as my Lord, my entire worldview changed.  I certainly didn’t stop struggling with sin.  I didn’t instantly start behaving.  I didn’t have all the answers.  

But I knew this, my relationship with God started that night and my journey of walking with God began.

       Quick question for all who may end up reading this … Have you answered the most important question you can ever be asked yet?  I have heard it said that at the end of this journey called life, everyone will stand before the Lord, just you and Jesus.  And everyone will be asked this one question, “Do you know Me?”  This is so important.  You won’t be asked, “Do you know ABOUT Jesus?”  You won’t be asked, “Do you know OF Jesus?”  You won’t be asked, “Did you DO good things FOR Jesus?”  Nope … “Do you KNOW Jesus?”  The word “know” in the original Greek language means “to experience intimately as in relationship.”    

That night at, at Victory Assembly on 2001 Transcontinental Drive, I decided to answer that question.  I wanted to KNOW God.  I wanted relationship with Him.  How about you?  If you would like to talk more about this or if you have any questions about what I’m writing about, let’s talk.  Email me at wayne@destinyworship.com.  I would love to talk more about this with you.   

"Would you like a relationship with God?" he asked that night.  What kind of question is that!  Only the most important question you will ever answer.  

(to be continued)