Sheryl Brady - Pieces of Passion

On your way down to your seat, at least five people have pieces of passion for Jesus. Some of y’all have three pieces of peace and passion. You know, I’ve said so many times that Easter is really one of my favorite holidays. I think I like it because, number one, my mom always got me a chocolate Easter bunny every Easter. I loved that because I knew that little chocolate bunny was coming. It wasn’t the solid kind; it was that hollow kind. I loved to pinch his ears off and eat him. So, I loved Easter as a kid for that reason. I also loved it because I was born on Easter. One day, I had a heart-to-heart with God and asked, «Do I love Easter because of You, or do I love it because it’s my birthday?» You know, it switches every once in a while and it’s not always on my birthday, but I do know when Easter comes around, my birthday is near. And I love Easter! I haven’t always loved Easter, though. When I was a kid, if you all could have seen the stuff my mom would put me in on Easter Sunday morning! I mean, to tell you, I sent Shelby a picture yesterday and said, «Oh, there it is! Shelby, first of all, if you show this to anybody, you are dead, do you understand me?» And he just laughed. I said, «But in that little girl, there’s a gangster. Okay? I’m from the city of Detroit, and in her, there’s a gangster. I mean, I can rip that hat off and slice your throat so fast because we learned to defend our turf.» So, everybody who thinks I’m just a sweet little worshiper—wrong! Anyway, my mama would make me wear those hats. Thank God she got over it! You know those hats with that rubber band? If your child has one on today, that’s child abuse, and you need to fix it! I hated it. I praised the Lord when I got older and outgrew the trauma, and I learned that I could pick out my own clothes for Easter. I forgave my mom and focused on what the real meaning of Easter was: the death, burial, and resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. I love Easter. Here’s why: because Easter always brings us back to the Gospel. Not every holiday does that, but Easter takes us right back to the Gospel. It brings us back to the good news of Jesus Christ, and that is important, especially today, because we have many people doing good things. Good things, okay? Things like feeding the hungry. We have organizations that reach out into the community to help those who are less fortunate. We mentor young boys and young women, and there are groups building clinics so that children from underserved communities, who may not have insurance, can take their children to these clinics and get what they need. All of that is wonderful, and I’m grateful for the fact that people are willing to do things like that. Yet, I have to say that if what we do is not grounded—somebody said grounded—if it is not grounded in the preaching of the Gospel, then we will lose our distinction as the church because the Gospel is everything. Okay, I said the Gospel is everything, and every person saved by the blood missed a great opportunity to say «Amen» to that right there! The Gospel is everything, and Paul said in Romans 1:16, «I am not ashamed of the Gospel.» I can do all of these good things, but at the end of the day, I will tell you it is because of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Why do you say that, Paul? Because he said it is the power of God unto salvation. It is the power of God unto complete deliverance. It is the power of God that helps us, and it is the power of God. Psalms 3:8 makes it very clear that if we have anything real and lasting that brings us real lasting help, it is a gift from God because salvation doesn’t belong to you; the Bible says salvation belongs to God. So, if what we are doing is not rooted in the spirit or in the message of the Gospel, then we are nothing more than just another good organization. Why would we want to be another good organization when we could be the church? I asked why we would want to be another good organization when we could actually be the church. I am slightly concerned for the church because I feel like the church is, little by little, piece by piece, losing the real message. Right now, the real message coming from the church seems to be all about who has favor, who has the favor of God on their life. It seems to be about who has the most followers on Facebook or whose life can look the most glamorous on Instagram. It’s all about that.