What I Could Not Do

This past Sunday we attended StoneWater Church in Granbury, TX. StoneWater is partnering with us to launch Timber Ridge Church & we've worshipped with them a couple times in the past few weeks. The Lead Pastor, Jeremy White, continued their series "Jesus Is..." by talking about Jesus Is Sacrifice. Jeremy taught on how remembering the sacrifice that Jesus made on the cross should impact us every day that we are alive. Quite frankly, it was one of the best sermons I've ever heard on the cross & death of Jesus.

At one point in the message Jeremy talked about how Jesus not only died for us as individuals, but that he also died for the people we love. Jeremy used a cross that a friend had made him with his family name in the center as an object lesson to talk about how Jesus sacrificed on the cross not just for us, but for our families as well.

God really used this message to remind me of an important truth: Jesus did for me what I could not do myself. Jesus' sacrifice on the cross paid for my sin which I could not do. His death & resurrection gave me eternal life, which I could not earn. Through the cross, Jesus put me in right standing with God, which I could not achieve on my own.

But Jesus also did what I could not do for the ones I love the most. Jesus didn't just die for me. He died for my family. He sacrificed his life for my wife, which I love with all of my heart. Jesus gave himself for my son, whom I would do anything for. Jesus did for my family what I could not do. On the cross, Jesus paid the ransom for my wife and my son that I could never afford. He not only saved me, but through his sacrifice on the cross, Jesus saved the people I love the most.

That's a sacrifice to remember. And remembering ought to make us want to live for Him even more. I was lost & considered an enemy of God. Myself, my wife & my son were subject to God's complete wrath. But Jesus changed that on the cross. He did for me - and for the ones I love the most - what I could not do.