chiliforchillyday

We'll be ready. Do you guys mind turning the TV off for a second? I'll share a message with you. Is that okay? Hey, good afternoon. I didn't hear you.

Good afternoon. That's better. Now, I have a... Well, let me introduce myself. My name is Michael Coghlan, and I'm here from Pickerington, and I have a brief message for you. That being a relative term, I'm a Baptist, and so some of you might think it's a long message.

But I have a brief message for you, and then what you may have noticed is we have a whole crew of people. Most of them are from my church in Pickerington. It's a small church. It's probably 15% of us here. and then a guest, a friend of ours from another church named Christopher who came down. And what we came to do today was, this was actually Pam's idea, is to bring you chili on a chili day.

And so we brought the chili and God brought the chili day. And so what we want is for you guys to get to enjoy about 11 different pots of homemade chili. and we have some bread and rolls and the fixings for chili and behind me some pop and desserts. And one other thing I have for you, because I want to get to meet you guys, is I've got a box of toothbrushes that were donated by my dentist.

And so after you get a chance to get your bowl of chili, you can come up, I'll give you a toothbrush, but I wanted to get to hear your name and say hi to each person if you could. But so briefly, I want to read to you from God's Word. And this is the book of Mark. And this is Mark chapter 12. Before I forget, we've got a box of Bibles. So if anybody here does not have a Bible and you need a new Bible we got a box of Bibles And if that box runs out I got more Bibles in the car And if that runs out I bring you one another time But we never had that problem here so maybe you guys will break the record this year But let me read to you from Mark chapter 10.

This is a story. Jesus is out there preaching, and a man comes up to him and wants to ask him a question. A question that's on all our minds sometimes. as he was setting out on his journey a man ran up and knelt before him I want you to remember that he knelt before him and he asked him good teacher what must I do to inherit eternal life so this man who in another story tells us he was a rich ruler he was a young man he was rich and he was a ruler and he knelt before Jesus said what must I do for eternal life and Jesus says to him no one is good except God alone but if you want eternal life he tells them you've got to do the commandments he says don't steal don't lie don't fornicate, commit adultery he says love your neighbor don't defraud he says honor your father and mother and so what does this man say what do you guys think he says I'm a pretty good guy what would you say I've done this from my youth up Hey that guy knows the verse already Did you read my notes?

Yeah he says I've done all this since my youth So he tells Jesus I've already done all the commandments Jesus looked at him And he loved him It says Why don't you remember that Jesus said he loved him He didn't say it he loved him And he said to him you lack one thing So Jesus knew this guy had never obeyed all these commandments. But he didn't even worry about that. He told the guy, go, sell all that you have, give it to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven, and come follow me.

Disheartened by the saying, the man went away sorrowful, for he had a great many possessions. Jesus looked around said to his disciples how difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God The disciples were amazed, and Jesus said again, how difficult it is to enter the kingdom of God. It's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God. and they were astonished and they said then who can be saved?

They said who can go to heaven then? And Jesus said with God all things are possible the things that are not possible with man. And so what I want you to think about here is that this man came to Jesus Christ and he knelt before him and so I want you to think about the fact that this man had a form of religion he had a form of piety he had something he was doing where he thought he was worshipping something.

But when he was really quizzed about his life, he lacked the ability to admit his own sinfulness, his own breaking of God's commandments. And then when he wasn't even challenged on that fact, and he was simply told, fine, trust God, follow me, and give up all these earthly possessions that you don't really need. He refused to do it. Now, Jesus doesn't want everybody to give up everything they own. but Jesus knew this man's heart and he knew that that would be enough to show that this man didn't truly value God that he valued his own stuff more now is anybody in here too rich that they can't come to Jesus I bet some of you in here think well I'm nothing like the rich guy because I'm poor I don't have earthly possessions some of you might be here and some of you maybe knew what it was like to be rich maybe some of you used your riches for the wrong things and it brought you to this point but everybody here has something that they value more than God and that is what we need to find in our lives and we need to become willing to give those things up and turn to God admit our sinfulness don do this false religion like this guy did kneeling down asking him a question as if he was really going to listen And then when Jesus told him the answer to his question, he refused to obey, right?

So let's not be that way. Come to Jesus on his terms. Admit you're a sinner. Admit you've broken the commandments. And you don't have to feel all shy about it because we all have. Come to Jesus Christ who died on the cross to pay the penalty for sinners, and then three days later rose again glorious in victory over sin and death.

And He did that so that men like you, ladies like I have here, the kids here, that we could come to Him and be forgiven of our sins because of His righteousness, not because of our own professed righteousness. And if that's something you've already done, then I ask you to share with other people. I ask you to talk to us today about being maybe encouraged in your faith.

And if that's not a decision you've ever made in your life, if you've never truly turned to Christ and trusted Him, given up your earthly life for Him, today's the day of salvation for you. Today's the day you can say, Lord, I know I've sinned, but Jesus is enough for me. Alright, let me pray for this food, and then we're here to talk to you, to serve you, to just hang out with you. and if you in particular have questions about the Bible or Jesus Christ or Christianity, we're here for that too, alright?

Alright? Alright, good. Okay. Father in Heaven, it is a great pleasure to pray over these men right now and over this food. I thank you for the numerous hands that worked on making this food, who've donated time and energy and money to provide a nice meal. I pray that it would be a blessing to the people here today, that it would be a time of friendship and getting to know one another, and that everyone here would grow, Lord, spiritually.

And most of all, I pray for faith, unshakable faith in Jesus Christ, the only one who can save. And I thank you in His name. Amen. Alright, you guys are dismissed to eat.