Dentist Chair Salvation

You know that feeling when you go to the dentist, you feel like a bad person for not brushing the right way or flossing after every meal or swishing your rinse for 30 seconds, yeah, that feeling. That is the same way that church feels. You feel bad for not talking to God as much as you should have that week or donating money to the poor or helping your neighbor with his yard. Why do we feel that way? What part about us makes us feel guilty? I think it has a lot to do with the environment there, the people, the mission, the sermon, stuff like that. Sermons for the most part make us feel guilty, like we need to do more, like we are selfish. They tell us what is wrong with us, where we've had a problem, where we need to ask God for help and then tell us how much it will cost. It's so much like our world, nothing is free. Our church has become a part of the world, rather than being a light that shines out from the world. We are so caught up in what we should do and what would make us a better person that we miss the simple truth, God wants you so much that he paid with everything he had to buy us back. That doesn't fly in our world. Nothing that is worth anything is free. If you can't buy it you don't need it. This is what we have come to, this is the state of our world. We cannot see how honest, how sincere God's gift to us is because we are blinded by the our world. It has been said that the best things in life are free, but have they ever said that about God? It may cost us everything on this earth to follow him, but what does it all matter? Would we be willing to trade everything we own on this earth for eternity? The Dentist says that it will cost you a little time and some money, but it will be a good trade off, but I say that if you will just get out of that chair, walk through those doors and follow him, there will be pain, there will be suffering, but you will have your freedom.
Braveheart Speech