“Progress is simply taking a little ground, holding it, and taking a little more.” Sage counsel from my respected friend, Dennis. “Progress is…”
There was definitely gospel progress in Sin City. Just look around the auditorium during Sunday morning gathering.
· That guy over there? Known all over the city as a “player”. Reputation as a “skirt-chaser” and was proud of it. But captured by the gospel!
· These people right here? Always making sure they had all their bases covered. Genuflecting at every shine or altar, leaving gifts for all the gods, just in case… Today? Found peace through the gospel.
· Those three couples over there had a “swinger’s club” going. No marriage was safe with those folks around! Today they have found love in the fidelity of Christ’s faithfulness through the gospel.
· That guy always kept you guessing. Today you might see him dressed in fine masculine attire and then tomorrow, bump into him at the market and find he was carefully adorned in woman’s clothing. Now he is clothed in the robes of Christ’s righteousness…took off the old garments of sin and put on the wardrobe of the gospel.
· Some of those worshipping here this morning once preferred relationships with their own gender in rebellion against God’s relational designs. Today they have discovered unconditional and fully satisfying love through the gospel.
· For some of these, you would need a bank vault with a 24/7 guard! They now have true riches in Christ because of the progress of the gospel.
· That one was the legendary “fisherman’s wife”…never had enough…never satisfied…never content. She now has ultimate contentment because of the fullness of the gospel.
· DUI’s beyond number for her. Seems like couple of weeks she would be busted for recklessly driving her chariot through the plaza under the influence…Today she is no longer intoxicated by the wine of her world but has been arrested by the control of the Spirit as a gift of the gospel.
· “A fight looking for a place to break out” would have described him and a white-collared crook would be the label for those two. But they, too, have been freed by the joys of the gospel!
“Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God” 1 Corinthians 6:9 There has definitely been gospel progress in Sin City!
However, the glorious liberation experienced through the early proclamation of the gospel has been slowly diluted by the integration of once abandoned sins. The Corinthian revival had begun to more closely resemble Jersey Shores or the Real Housewives of Corinth. The early joys of the Church in Corinth have become the later sorrows of too much Corinth in the Church. Or as Chuck Swindoll said, “Three Steps Forward, Two Steps Back”.
“Progress is simply taking a little ground, holding it, and taking a little more.” It is time for a Wake Up call before sacred ground is irretrievably lost in Sin City!
0 comments:
Post a Comment