Pastor Chance had the unusual pleasure of having a conversation with a man who did not know that he was a preacher. They talked about boats and living at the lake and other light, friendly things. The man then wanted to know if Pastor Chance attended church, and he responded with “Every Sunday!”. Once the conversation turned to the church and being a Christian, the first question the man had for Pastor Chance was, “Do you believe homosexuals go to heaven?”.
Pastor Chance explains that this man needed to “diagnose” if we are a true or false church.
He responded, “We believe the only way to be saved is through the grace of Jesus Christ.” Which ended with an awkward silence between the two men.
Pastor Chance explained that this question isn’t a by-product of an organization trained to point out splinters rather than notice the log in his own eye or part of some great conspiracy.
Rather, this man has forgotten to go somewhere. We’ve been too busy building up barriers and pushing people out to remember where we are supposed to be.
He has forgotten to go to the table and remember Jesus.
“When you go to the table, you soon remember all of the barriers Jesus had to break to get to you.” For your God is “not a barrier builder but a barrier breaker building bridges to get to you.”So do not come to the table unless you acknowledge this and intend to do the same. You are meant to be building bridges.
Pastor Chance ended the sermon with a message to all Christians on World Communion Sunday: We can be a beacon of unity and light in a divided nation if we go to the table and remember Jesus.