“The cost of reconciliation is expensive. Someone has to pay. Someone has to pay for humanity to be reconciled to God.” – Pastor Choco, In the Gap, Victory Church
Pastor Choco and yours truly.
This weekend was one explosive revelation after another from guest Pastor, Wilfred de Jesús, affectionately known as Pastor Choco to many. I could fill this post with quotes that had us on our feet, fired up and ready to stand in the gap for our cities, state, and country. He was in town for Experience 2014, a two-day conference for those of us in the ministry, packed with informative groups and dynamic speaking from Pastor Choco and others dealing with the issues that we are facing as Christian people in a non-Christian (and increasingly anti-Christian) society. Sadly, we were not able to attend the conference due to my recovery from extensive dental surgery, but we were blessed to have Pastor Choco stay with us for an additional few days and speak in the morning and evening services at Victory Church. I’d like to think Pastor Choco stuck around because he felt bad that I wasn’t able to make the conference, but I know better.
“I looked for someone among them who would build up the wall and stand before Me in the gap on behalf of the land so I would not have to destroy it, but I found no one.” - Ezekiel 22:30
The morning service was a call to action. Pastor Choco used the texts of Ezekiel 22:30 and Nehemiah 4. He focused on the fact that society’s moral foundation has increasingly broken down–much like the walls of ancient Jerusalem’s in Nehemiah’s day. It is easy to be appalled or saddened at the horrible news around us of poverty, human trafficking, crime, the war against God-defined families–and the list goes on and on–but it is a much different thing to actually do something about it. God was looking for someone to stand in the gap for Israel and Ezekiel answered the call. Likewise, when Nehemiah learned of the condition of Jerusalem’s walls, he didn’t wag his head in sadness. He did something about it. It’s not enough to say “aw, that’s too bad.” Standing in the gap requires us to act by jumping right in the middle of it. In our times that means that we are to be the voice of God to a broken and dysfunctional society. Sure, there are those who want to help, but they want to do it in the safe confines of their little bubbles. We may “go on a mission trip,” but then we go back to our safe homes and feel like we have done our part. Well, we have to a certain extent, but it’s not enough. God is looking for full-time warriors who will stand in the gap for our families, communities, states, country, and the world.
Needless to say, we practically ran to the lobby to buy the book, In the Gap, which Victory will be using for small group studies. We decided to wait and read it with our groups…but I can’t promise we’ll be able to wait.
“It was fitting to make merry and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive, he was lost, and is found.” Luke 15:32
The evening was the greatest message I have ever heard on Luke Chapter 15. Rebecca and I had already heard an amazing message in our couples class on The Prodigal Son a month earlier, but Pastor Choco took it to another level. Of the prodigal son parable, he said, “Religious people don’t like it when you repent.” The elder brother never went in to the house to join the celebration for the return of his brother. He was like the Pharisees and teachers of the law who were so self-righteous that they would never forgive or forget the sins of the brother. Besides, if “those sinners” repented, who would they compare themselves to? The son who returned was the sinner who knew he had sinned and repented. The older brother never did repent. Both brothers were lost, but in different ways. I love the way that Pastor Choco compared the three parables in Luke 15. In the first parable, a sheep was lost. In the second, a coin was lost. In the third, a son was lost. The only difference in the parables is that no one looked for the lost son. The shepherd searched high and low until he found the lost sheep. The woman tore her house apart until she found her coin. But the prodigal son… who searched for him? No one. It should have been the older brother who sought him out–but he did nothing: which is exactly what the Pharisees were doing to reach the lost! Oh, that we would not be like the Pharisees. May our hearts always seek to reach the lost no matter what the cost.
I could continue to extol this powerful message, but I’ll post a link to it instead so you can hear it from Pastor Choco himself.
Praise God, my health is improving every day. I didn’t feel like going to church on Sunday, but I asked God for divine strength. I am thankful to say that not only did He answer my prayer, but he also allowed me to see Pastor Choco while he was at our church. How cool is that?
Love in Christ,
Dwight
The Parson
