In Jesus Holy Name July 21, 2024
Text: Mark 6:35,38 Redeemer
“The God Who Feeds My Soul”
St. Augustine noted that every person has a God shaped hole in his or her soul. People attempt to fill that cavity with lots of things but nothing satisfies our desire for significance and assurance of redemption….except Jesus the true bread from heaven. Deep in every human soul is a search for “Harmony” with our Creator, that was lost in the Garden of Eden.
What are our most basic spiritual needs? 1) harmony and peace with our Creator 2) security regarding our eternal address beyond our limited time on earth.
Leonard Sweet, Christian professor and author writes: “There is an explosion of Americans seeking spiritual truth….he calls them, “day trippers asking for direction…..scouting the horizon for hope, wonder and a way out of their maze of aimless living.” People want purpose. Their soul is in search for “harmony” with their Creator. This is why there is a wave of baptisms on college campuses across our nation.
Tonya Prewett, the founder of Unite US, whose husband coaches basketball at U. of Auburn, told The Christian Post that the movement “was birthed from a vision God gave me after mentoring college students and hearing about their pain, anxiety and depression.” The events begin with Christians music groups and Pastors who bring the message of the gospel. After students are baptized Unite Us helps them find a local congregation.
On September 12, 2023, thousands of college students gathered at Auburn University’s Neville Arena with one singular focus–to lift the name of Jesus.
What began in Auburn, Alabama has continued to grow into a movement reaching college campuses across the nation. Every Unite Us gathering has three main objectives:
SALVATION
For non-believers to hear a clear presentation of the Gospel in a welcoming environment. Acts 16:31; Romans 10:9
FREEDOM
For believers to know and experience true freedom from sin and burdens on their hearts. Galatians 5:1
COMMUNITY
For students to find community and discipleship through connection to local ministries and the local church. Ephesians 4:1-6
In February United Us held an event at Florida State University in which an estimated 300 people were baptized. Earlier this year at the University of Alabama, there were 260 baptisms occurring.
Since they started, Unite US has visited five college campuses, filling arenas full of college students worshiping Jesus. They've also helped thousands get plugged into a local church and watched as hundreds were baptized.
"God is on the move. And this is just the beginning.
When harmony with God is lost, the hole in the human heart still longs to be filled. Each spring, teens seek to find joy on the beaches of Florida, holding aluminum cans filed with the elixir of life, only to discover a new sunrise brings a bad headache. Almost 20 million Americans seek to bury the sadness of their life with illegal narcotics, robbing their family’s bank account, selling their body and soul for a few moments free from the pain of life.
The Apostle Paul found Athens full of idols. Corinth was known to have more than two dozen temples, each dedicated to a different deity. The world has not changed. In many countries the “government” has become the new “god” to be worshiped, to be depended on for all one’s needs, a basic income promised, to supply our needs, but it includes the cost ….new rules. Social cancellation is the new human attempt to replace the ten commandments as a way to monitor the selfishness of human behavior.
What are our most basic spiritual needs? 1) harmony and peace with our Creator 2) security regarding our eternal address beyond our death.
What drags my life away from the harmony my heart desires? It is broken commandments. Broken ethics which leave a mountain of regret and guilt. We need freedom from guilt. No one is free who is not forgiven. John Stott writes: “It was in the Garden of Eden, not at Watergate, that the device called “cover-up” was first invented.” (Contemporary Christianity p. 48) The head of a large English mental hospital has been quoted as saying, “I could dismiss half my patients tomorrow if they could be assured of forgiveness.”
(Contemporary Christianity, John Stott p. 81)
The Apostle Paul wrote in his letter to the Corinthian congregation this: God, (our Creator and eternal Judge) placed on Jesus all our sins, and (transferred) to each believer His righteousness. (II Corinthians 5:21) The fact that Jesus died as our substitute to free our soul from the wrath of God against broken ethics is opposed and mocked in our secular culture. We cannot surrender the uniqueness of the deity of Jesus Christ to the doctrine of “self-salvation”, which again leaves the soul unfulfilled.
“Once you were alienated from God, (That is the harmony and peace with God that leaves the soul searching) The reason? (Paul continues: “separated from him by your evil behavior, (broken ethics and broken commandments) but now God has brought us back as His friends, reconciled each of us through the blood of Christ, shed on the cross, to present us holy in His sight with out spot or blemish, free from accusation, “if” we continue in your faith….” (Col. 1:19-21)
