“You know what God spoke to me at that moment? ….and this is not trendy at all, for those of you who want to go to church growth institutes, which is not what this church is about. God spoke to me and said, You see that smell ….if you don’t love that smell, I can never use you, because the whole world smells that way to me. All the stinky filthy sin of mankind, I sent my son to die for that smell. So your either going to embrace it and love people in my name or I cannot use you… I will put you on the shelf”- Pastor Jim Cymbala
“A preacher in need of God, and a guy from the street in need of God… I knew who was really in need of prayer that day: it was Jim Cymbala. I lifted my hands and just said, ‘God, please forgive me! What kind of cheap, two-bit preacher have I become? You sent somebody who’s searching for you, and I want to give him a few dollars and get rid of him. Please help me!’ And God, at that moment, baptized me with his love and with his grace. He saw how pitiful I was…”
Listen to the rest of this story of how God can fill each and every one of us with love for his world, in this video clip from the Sunday message, “A Better New Year,” January 1, 2017.
