Think about what God did for you. He gave His only son as a sacrifice to pay for your sins so that you would be able to live in heaven. God gave His only son as a sacrifice to pay for your sins. This act of love provides hope and forgiveness and shows us the great lengths that God is willing to go to have a relationship with us.

Now think about what Jesus did for you. He died for you. Jesus died for our sins so that we could be forgiven and have eternal life. This incredible gift should motivate us to want to live our lives in a way that pleases God.

You have been given a wonderful gift. The free gift of eternal life. It’s yours whether or not you choose to accept it. Hopefully, you not only accept this great gift, but you choose to share it with others as well.

Referenced Verses:
John 3:16
2 Corinthians 9:15
Matthew 20:28
2 Corinthians 5:14
Matthew 28:19

 

Video Transcript
Hello and welcome to Social Media Ministries. My name is Spencer Coffman. Thank you for tuning in today. We have a great message for you, as normal.

I hope you’ve subscribed to the channel on YouTube, or on the podcast, you’re following it, so you’re continuing to get these messages each and every week. In addition, please help us out. Take advantage of those share buttons, the follow, the bell icon, all of that kind of stuff. Share these sermons on your social media accounts to help us reach more people through social media.

After all, that is the mission of Social Media Ministries. We want to reach more people through social media, cuz we believe social media is the place to reach more people, to get the Gospel out to the world.

So, if you could help us do that by sharing your favorite messages, or all these messages, or some of them, on your social media for others to see, that would be awesome. Not only for us, but for them, for you, for the Kingdom of God, and, hopefully, everyone that sees that message.

All right, so today, this is a very powerful message. So this would be an excellent message to share. In addition, I’ve got a very special thing at the end, so stick with me. This message will be a little bit longer than normal, however, stick it out, because at the end is something very, very special.

I may even post that part separately as well because the story is so powerful, that you may want to share only that part to try to bring more people or more discussion on your social media as well.

So today, we are talking about how God gave His only son. So this is something that a lot of people don’t think about tremendously. However, it is pretty much the most well-known verse in the Bible.

It’s associated — a lot of celebrities may reference it, or football players, most notably, would put it right here. One specifically, and he, by doing that, really had an incredible impact on the Kingdom of God. I mean just an incredible person, an incredible story.

So, it is really the most well-known verse, but it is not known entirely. What do I mean by that? Well, the verse is John 3:16. If you go say that out on the street, most people will say, “Yeah, I’ve heard of it” or “I know of it.”

But do they know the verse? Do they have it in their heart? Is it memorized? Have they internalized it? Have they acted upon it? Have they become a doer of the Word?

So let’s talk a little bit about this. This is, again, it’s one of the simplest, it’s one of the most well-known verses in the Bible. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, so that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal or everlasting life.”

Understand that for a moment. Let it sink in. God so loved you, that He gave His only son so that you can be forgiven and have everlasting life.

If you have children, imagine sending your only son to die for other people. But not only for people that you like, like your relatives, your friends but also the people you don’t like.

The people who drive you nuts. The people you never get along with. That other parent at your child’s school, who is just a pain in your neck. The employee, the co-worker, all those people that absolutely drive you nuts.

Imagine sending your kid to die for that person. That is what God did for you, for everybody. God loves them all. Even the people you don’t know.

Imagine sending your child to die for people on the other side of the world that you have never even met or seen. Of course, God knows everyone but that is not the point.

If you have several daughters and only one son, or even flip it around, you have several sons, but one daughter. Imagine sending your only one to die for someone else, sacrificing them for others, that is how much God loves you. He was willing to give up His only son for you. That is love that is indescribable.

Let’s go to 2 Corinthians 9:15. All of these verses will be referenced in the description below, so you can come back and look them up at any time, read them on your own.

2 Corinthians 9:15 says, “Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift.” It is an indescribable gift. It is extremely hard to fathom, so I hope that this is kind of prime in your mind, for the story that is about to come, because it really is incredible. It is indescribable. It is really hard to explain.

God gave up His most prized possession, not that He prizes His possessions, but He cared for His son and He cared for you as well. His favorite thing, His favorite thing, even though God does not have favorites, imagine sending your son. This is a part of Him, to go and die for everyone.

Matthew 20:28. Let’s go there. It says “Just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” He gave His life for you to pay the penalty of your sin. He paid your price.

If you have been with us in any of the other messages, this is always a common theme. This is the salvation issue; whether you believe that Jesus died for your sins and became your payment, your sacrifice, so that God can look upon you.

You can say, “Lord, I believe in Jesus. That He died for me so I am going to Heaven. He was my payment. I am not good enough. I could never do it through works, through sacrificing.”

Every single day we sin. We are not perfect, but Jesus came to be our perfect sacrifice and that is the salvation issue right there.

I know we have talked about many other things in these other sermons, so if you are new with us, you might not be getting this. A lot of things in the Bible we can discuss and debate and maybe even disagree on, but the salvation issue has to be something we all agree on because that is the one way to Heaven.

“I am the way, the truth, and the life, no one comes to the Father except through me.” That is what Jesus said. So accept this magnificent gift and even share it with others. It is free. Christ died for everyone. He died for many.

Let’s go to 2 Corinthians 5:14 and continue on. I had a marker here but I think it fell out. 2 Corinthians 5:14 says, “For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all and therefore all died.”

What does that mean? One died for all. Jesus died for all, and therefore, we all died in Him. Our sin was ended.

We accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. We are a new creation; the old is gone, the new has come. What does that mean? Our old self must die. You kill your sinful nature. We accept Jesus Christ. He becomes the leader of our life and we follow Him. We are a new creation. We were born again.

He wants all of us to be in Heaven with Him. It is part of your calling to share this news with everyone. You have many purposes here on earth, but your main calling in your life, you may not know it yet, but you will have one main calling. When your time has come, you will start to do it, and in addition to that calling, there is another call on your life, to share Jesus with others.

Matthew 28:19, “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” Therefore go, this is the great commission, go out there and share this good news with all you can.

If you don’t want to go out and talk about it, or you are scared or bashful, don’t worry. God will be with you. He will back you up. All you need to do is take that first step, and if you are still a little too afraid to take that first step, then hit the share icon on this message. If people watch, that could be your first step.

We are going to dive into that story. For the sake of time, we are just going to start going into it. If you have not made the decision to follow Jesus, let us know. We can help you. We can pray with you. It is very, very simple, all you need to do is talk to Him.

“Jesus I know I am imperfect, I am a sinner. Thank you for dying for me. Please come into my life; lead my life. I want to follow you forever and ever. Amen.”

That’s it. It is so easy. You need to acknowledge that you are imperfect, acknowledge that Jesus died for you, ask for forgiveness, and ask Him to lead your life.

You gotta let Him take full control and get rid of that old self. Jesus can make wonderful things happen in your life if you let Him.

On to the story. You may have heard it before. If so, great. This is an excellent, excellent reminder. I hope you share this with all kinds of people, even if you tell them to skip ahead in the video to this story. It is so powerful. Every time I read it, I get chills. I get emotional. It is really a powerful, powerful story. I am going to get on with it right now.

There was once a professor of religion who taught the required Introduction to Christianity course at a major college. Every student is required to take this course their freshman year, regardless of their major. Just by going to this college. It is part of the core curriculum of the college.

Although the professor really tried hard to communicate the essence of the Gospel and the message of Jesus and what it was about, he also found that most of these students saw this course as nothing but a required course that they had to take, that they didn’t really care about.

Despite his best efforts, most of the students refused to take Christianity seriously. They just didn’t grasp it. They didn’t really care. So he wondered how he could make them care.

So this year, the teacher or the professor had a student, —not this year, but at the time of this story. One year, we will say, he had a special student named Dan.

Now, Dan was a freshman, so of course he was taking this course. He was intending to go on to seminary to be some type of minister in the Christian ministry. Dan was very popular, very well-liked and he was in excellent shape. He was the starting center on the school football team, and he was the best student in the professor’s class: academically, attendance, you name it – it was excellent.

One day, the professor said to Dan after class, he said, “Can you stay? I want to talk to you.”

“Okay, no problem.”

“Dan, how many push-ups can you do?”

And he says, “I do about 200 every night.”

“Holy moly! Two hundred. You think you could do 300?”

Dan says, “I don’t know. I have never done 300 at one time before.”

“Well, do you think you could?”

“Well, I can try,” Dan says.

“Do you think you could do 300 in sets of 10? I have a class project. I need you to do about 300 push-ups, in sets of 10, for this to work. Can you do it?” I need you to tell me you can do it, Dan. This is very, very important.”

“Okay well, I think I can. Yeah, I can do it.”

“Good, good. I need you to do it this Friday,” the professor says. “Let me explain what I have in mind.”

Friday, Dan came in, got to class early, sat in the front of the room. When the class starts, the professor pulls out this big, big box of donuts.

Now these aren’t the normal kind, just a glazed donut or a sour cream donut or a cake donut or nothing like that. These were very, very nice super fancy cream-filled frosting swirl expensive donuts, like the kind you go and pay $4.00 or $5.00 a donut for. Very, very good donuts.

Everyone was pretty excited. It was a Friday. This was the last class of the day, so it was at the end of everybody’s day. In addition, they were going to get an early start on the weekend with a party in this class and he told everyone ahead of time, the professor said that we are going to have a little celebration. It will be a light and easy class, so come excited for that.

The professor took this box of donuts and he went to the first girl in the front row and asked, “Would you like to have one of these donuts?”

The girl says, “Yes.”

So the professor turns to Dan and says, “Dan, would you do 10 push-ups so that she can have a donut?”

“Sure.” Dan jumps down, does a quick 10 push-ups, and then jumped up and sat in his desk, no problem.

The professor put a donut on her desk. Then he went to the next person. He says, “Hey, do you want a donut?”

“Yeah, I will take a donut.”

So Dan gets down, does 10 push-ups.

Next student got a donut, and so went down the first aisle. Dan did 10 push-ups for every person before they got their donut.

Walking down the second aisle, the professor came to Scott. Scott was on the basketball team, he was in really good shape, pretty much as good as Dan. He was very popular and he always had a lot of girls around him; no problem, he was a stud. He really was a very popular person.

The professor says, “Scott, do you want a donut?”

Scott said, “Sure, but I can do my own push-ups?”

The professor says, “No. Dan has to do them.”

Then Scott says, “Well, I don’t want a donut.”

The professor shrugged, turned to Dan, and said, “Dan, would you do 10 push-ups so Scott can have a donut that he doesn’t want?”

With perfect obedience, Dan gets down. 10 push-ups.

“Hey,” Scott says, “I said I didn’t want one.”

The professor says, “Look, this is my classroom, my class, my desk, and these are my donuts. Just leave it on the desk if you don’t want it,” and he put a donut on Scott’s desk.

Now, by this time, Dan had begun to show little signs of tiredness. He was slowing down a little bit. After this set, he decided he’d stay on the floor between sets because it took too much effort getting up and down, back and forth. He just stayed on the floor. You could start to see he was kind of sweating a little bit. The professor started down the third row, and the students were beginning to be a little angry and upset. There was a little tension.

The professor says to Jenny, “Jenny do you want the donut?” Sternly, Jenny says, “No.”

Well, Dan did 10 push-ups automatically, very slowly, but with great effort, and then Jenny was given a donut. Continuing on down the class, he continued doing push-ups for every person.

Now the class started to be filled with a little uneasiness. The students were beginning to say “No,” and there were a lot of uneaten donuts on the desks.

The professor would continue to ask, “Dan, would you do 10 more push-ups, so this person can have a donut that they don’t want?” Dan would do them every time.

The professor asked Robert, who is the most vocal unbeliever in the class, to watch Dan do each push-up to make sure he did the full 10 push-ups in a set. Because he couldn’t bear to watch all of Dan’s work for all of those uneaten donuts, he sent Robert over there to watch so he could do that.

The professor started down the fourth row. During his class, however, some students from other classes would wander in and sit down along the steps or by the radiators that ran down the sides of the room. In addition, they would fill in the empty seats.

This was the last class of the day, and a lot of people would come to his class because they liked the professor or they would come to pick up their friends, etc. So, when the professor realized this, he looked around and realized that there were now 34 or 35 students in the room. He started to worry if Dan would be able to make it.

The professor went on to the next person and the next. Near the end of that row, Dan was really having a tough time. He was taking a lot more time to complete each set.

Finally, Dan asked the professor, “Do I have to make my nose touch the floor on each one?”

Professor thought for a moment and said, “They are your push-ups. Well, you are in charge. Now, you do them any way you want.”

A few moments later, Jason, a recent transfer student, came into the room and was about to come in, when all the students shouted, “No! Don’t come in, stay out!”

Jason didn’t know what was going on, but Dan picked up his head and said, “No, let him come in, professor.”

Chris says, “You realize if Jason comes in, you will have to do 10 push-ups for him?”

Dan says, “Yes, let him come in. Give him a donut.”

The professor says, “Okay Dan, I will let you get Jason’s out of the way right now. Jason, do you want a donut?”

Jason, brand new to the room, didn’t know what was going on. So, he said, “Yeah, sure, give me a donut.”

“Dan, will you do 10 push-ups so Jason can have a donut?”

Dan did 10 push-ups, very slowly and with great effort. Jason, bewildered, was handed a donut and then sat down. The professor finished the fourth row and then started on those visitors seated by the heaters.

Dan’s arms were shaking with every push-up and he struggled to lift himself against the force of gravity. By this time, sweat was profusely dropping from his face, and there was no sound in the room except his heavy breathing. Not a dry eye in the room.

The very last two students in the room were young women, both cheerleaders; very very popular. The professor went to Linda, the second to last student, and said, “Linda, do you want a donut?”

Linda very sadly said, “No thank you.”

The professor quietly asked Dan, “Would you do 10 push-ups so that Linda can have a donut that she doesn’t want?” Grunting from the effort, Dan did 10 very slow push-ups for Linda.

The professor put a donut on Linda’s desk and turned to the next girl, Susan. “Do you want a donut?”

Susan, with tears flowing down her face, says, “Professor, why can’t I help him?”

The professor, with tears of his own, says, “No, Dan has to do it alone. I have given him this task. He is in charge of seeing that everyone has an opportunity for a donut, whether they want it or not.

He then says, when I decided to have a party on the last day of class, I looked at my grade book. Dan in here is the only one with a perfect grade. Everyone else has failed a test, skipped class, or offered me inferior work.

Dan told me that in his football practice, when a player messes up, he must do push-ups. I told Dan that none of you could come to my party unless he paid the price by doing your push-ups. He and I made a deal for your sakes.

“Dan, would you do 10 push-ups so Susan can have a donut?”

Dan very slowly finished his last push-up with the understanding that he had accomplished all that was required of him. Having done 350 push-ups, his arms buckled beneath him and he fell to the floor.

The professor turned to the room saying, “And so it was that Jesus, our Savior on the cross, pleaded to the Father, ‘Into thy hands I commend my spirit’ with the understanding that He had done everything that was required of Him. He yielded up His life, and like some of those in this room, many of us leave the gift on the desk uneaten.”

Two students helped Dan up off the floor and into a seat, physically exhausted, but smiling.

“Well done, good and faithful servant,” the professor says, adding, “Not all sermons are preached in words.”

Turning to his class, the professor said, “My wish is that you might understand and fully comprehend all the riches of His grace and mercy that have been given to you through the sacrifice of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. He spared not His only begotten son, but gave him up for us all, for the whole world, now and forever. Whether or not you choose to accept that gift, the price has been paid. Are you going to leave it lying on the desk?”

It is a good story, very powerful. It is a good illustration. Not all sermons are done in words. I hope that that story resonates with you, that you think about it, that you think about the verses, that you think about what exactly Jesus did for us. It was a lot more than push-ups.

Let’s pray. Lord Jesus thank you so much for your willingness to die for the sins of the world, for each and every one of us. Lord, I ask that each person watching, listening, would grasp the magnitude of that situation and what you did for us.

That this illustration would hit home to their hearts, that they would be touched by it, and that they would be inspired to share it with other people, even if they simply tell the story or hit the share button and let it do the work.

We know Lord what you did is indescribable, but we want to describe it as best we can so that we can share it with others, so that they can accept that gift, rather than leaving it alone uneaten on the desk. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

If you are out there and your gift is sitting uneaten or unopened and you want to access that gift, comment below, send us a message on social media, do what you can. Reach out and we will help you do that. It is very simple and it will change your life. God bless.