When I was a boy, I did not like school. We moved a lot when I was a child. In fact, in the 3rd grade, I went to 3 schools in 3 different states. One of those places was Greenville, Mississippi. My mom and dad worked in construction, so they woke up really early and left for work. My brother and I would get dressed and watch cartoons until the teenage girl who lived next door would come and get us and make sure we got on the school bus. But, one day I did not want to go. So, I locked myself in my dad’s truck and would not come out.
Have you ever done something like that? Let me tell you it is NOT a good idea. The girl missed the bus and could not go to school. My mom had to leave work and come and get me out of the truck. I was in big trouble!
Usually, when I got into big trouble my dad would take off his belt and spank me. That really hurt and I did not like it. That’s why I tried not to get into big trouble very often, but it was too late.
My mom and dad were really angry. And instead of spanking me immediately, they had other plans.
My dad was a contractor, he built things. So he decided that if I was not going to go to school, then I was going to go to work. I was in the third grade! This had to be against the law, but dad did not care.
At first, I was pretty happy because dad did not spank me. But that did not last long. Instead, Dad said that today I was going to be a carpenter. He also said that every nail that I bent, I was going to one spanking each! Suddenly, I wanted to go back to school. I had bent lots of nails before and I knew I was going to bend more today- and that meant lots of spankings!
That day I bent 3 nails. That was 25 years ago and I still remember getting 3 spankings from my dad.
I broke the rules didn’t I? I deserved to be punished for skipping school, making the babysitter late, and disobeying my parents.
I would like to tell you that I never did anything wrong again. But I have. In fact, I still do things wrong today. When I break God’s laws it is called sin. God is my heavenly father, and he created everything, including you and me. But when we sin, we are separated from God.
But do you know what? God wants us to be close to him. So he sent us his son Jesus to take the punishment for our sins. You know why I remember how many nails I bet that day? I remember because Jesus died and was hung on a cross with 3 nails. He took my punishment for me.
The Bible says that “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8”
Jesus died for your sins. Before you were ever born, he died for your sins. God does not want us to be away from him and he loves us so much that he would let his only son die for you and me.
Some of you have already asked God to forgive you. Some of you have not. Listen very carefully. I want to sit right where you are and be quiet for just a few more minutes. Listen with your heart, not your ears.
Do you long for something to fill the gaps in your life? Is something missing? Have you tried to fill the emptiness and pain with everything else?
Salvation only comes through Jesus. The only thing that can fill the empty and heal the hurt is accepting that Jesus is the Son of God, believing that he can save you from an eternity without your creator, and confessing that you need Jesus to rescue you from your separation from God.
If you have this and you have more questions then contact me and we can discuss it. If you have already made this decision, then I encourage you to tell your story to others. This is my story, everything in it is true.
Tell your story, someone needs to hear it. (I told this story at vacation Bible School in June 2009.)
