Renewed Unified Church of Jesus Christ and God and so on

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The Renewed Unified Church of Jesus Christ and God Almighty for the Salvation of Man presents: Reverend Benjamin's Collected Sermons.

And now WHYYYY would He give up his only begotten son to be CRUCIFIED in the distant lands of Palestine??!! WHYYY would he sub-mit himself to that?! HE who made the rivers and the valleys, the continents and the islands and filled them to the brim with the nations of Man and all of their rulers!
Think of Jesus on the cross. Think of our Savior, brothers and sisters, just consider Him for a minute. All that pain, all that blood, all that hateful Jewish torture! And why, I ask you, WHY would God Almighty become man and then allow him-self to go through that?!

It was Love, my brothers. LOVE (Amen). It was Love that inspired Jesus Christ to take up that cross and die for our sins. It was God’s Love that drove him to create the Universe, my sons and brothers, LOOOOVE. And LOVE is the final and ultimate message and goal of the Gospel!! LOVE THY NEIGHBOR, SINFUL MAN, LOVE HIM TO DEATH. (Hallelujah!)

LOVE.

It’s an easy word to say. Ladies will agree. (Ah shit) Hehehe…but not an easy word to live by. No! In fact, it is the hardest, most arduous, most complex, most difficult task that the Good Lord could have laid upon our shoulders! But the Love God wants us to practice is not love that comes easy. The Love that HE DEMAAAANDS from us, that’s not love we have without him. God did not need to come down to Earth as Jesus to teach a mother to love her son. His Sa-Cri-Fice was not necessary for a young man and a young woman to meet up one summer and fall in looove. Blood brothers and blood sisters…they don’t need to be taught to value each other’s company.

NO, my brothers, God let his only son be crucified on that awful day out yonder in the distant land of Palestine so we would learn to LOVE the ones we HATE.

Yes! I hear your silence! Yes! I know it’s strange! HOOO but bear with me, my people! Pay attention even if you cannot understand right now -dear brothers, sweet sisters!-just as God expects you to love a man, even if you feel you must hate him right now. THIS, brothers and sisters, THIS is the secret of the Bible! THIS is why JESUS DIEEEED up on that there CROSS, this is the MISSION of aaall good Christians everywhere. Folks ask me all the time: “Reverend, what does God expect from me? How can I be a righteous man?” and I want to answer them, because I’m curious myself, and so I ask the Lord and I read my Bible and I pray and I pray and I pray and it all comes down to one answer. One command. One simple instruction from the Almighty God…

LOVE. THY. NEIGHBOR.

LOVE HIM.

(Hootin’ and hollerin’)

Now sometimes we don’t love our neighbors. Sometimes we think they’re downright rotten, sometimes we think they’re just not groovy enough for us. We get annoyed. Why this nigger so dumb he can’t even do his taxes? Why this motherfucker so ignorant he can’t read no good? WHY am I stuck with this ungrateful bitch of a wife who does nothing all day but nag nag nag and nag, all while a brother’s doin’ nothin’ but right by her now? Brothers and sisters, sometimes I don’t love my neighbor. In fact, sometimes I outright HATE my no-good neighbor. (Mah goodness) Yeah, you heard me. Sometimes I see a man and I feel myself burning up with a fire inside, ooooh Lord, a fire so red and so bright that it makes me shake with righteous anger, the kind of anger that needs to be reserved to fight sin, the kind of anger that the Lord rightfully tells us is a Sin in it-self.

But I do not strike that man. I do not yell, brothers and sisters, no matter how much I want to, I do not attack him. In-steeaad I pray to my Lord, I turn to my God, and I ask him: “Good dear father, who has always done right by me, give me once again the strength to tolerate this fool’s fastidiousness, just as you tolerate me. Give ME, once again and as YOU HAVE ALWAYS GIVEN ME, the mighty spiritual STRENGTH needed to just LIIIVE another day in the company of sinners like me. For you are my father, sweet Lord, and I know that I can ASK this from you, I know that I can expect MY FATHER to DELIVER ON HIS PROMISE.GOOD GOD I DON’T ASK TO BE PERFECT, I JUST ASK TO BE HOLY LIKE YOU WANT ME TO BE, I JUST ASK YOU TO ALLOW ME TO DO YOUR WILL. YOUR WILL, MY LORD, CARRYING OUT YOUR WILL IS MY ONLY DESIRE, MY ONLY GOAL AND AMBITION. I HAVE NO FORTUNE, I HAVE NO FAME, MONEY AND POWER MEAN NOTHING TO ME, MY LORD, FOR I KNOW THE ONLY TRUE GLORY IS TO ACT-OUT-IN-THINE-NAME. (Praise the LORD!!)

IN THE NAME OF THE LORD, IN THE NAME OF YOUR POWER, IN THE NAME OF YOUR SON AND HIS GOSPEL….GIVE ME THE STRENGTH TO LOVE. LET ME LOVE THE MEN I HATE. LET ME LOVE THE MEN THAT WOULD HAVE ME DEAD.

LORD, ALLOW ME TO BE YOUR VESSEL, YOUR FLAG. ALLOW ME TO HELP THESE POOR SISTERS, THESE LOYAL BROTHERS, THESE WISE OLD FOLK, THESE MAD CHILDREN. HELP ME TO ENDURE, HELP ME TO RESIST TEMPTATION THAT OH LORD YOU KNOW I FIGHT IT BUT YOU ALSO KNOW IT’S BIG, YOU KNOW IT’S STRONG, YOU KNOW I CAN’T DEFEAT THE DEVIL ON MY OWN AND SO I ASK THAT YOU HELP ME, FATHER. HELP ME DEFEAT THE DEVIL. HELP ME CAST OUT THE ENEMY FROM THESE PEOPLE’S LIVES, SO THAT THEY MIGHT BE HAPPY, SO THAT THEY MIGHT SURVIVE, SO THAT THEY MIGHT WALK DOWN THE VIRTUOUS NARROW PATH THAT LEADS TO SALVATION. TAKE ME AS YOUR SERVANT, USE ME UNTIL MY MISSION IS COMPLETE.

(Wild adoration, speaking in tongues)

YOU! YOUNG SISTER, DON'T BE AFRAID TO CRY. LET IT OUT, LET IT AAAAAALL OUT. LET THE DEMONS TREMBLE AT THE SIGHT OF YOUR DEVOTION. BROTHERS AND SISTERS RAISE YOUR HANDS TO THE HEAVENS, LET THE ORGAN SING AND LET THE CHOIR BEGIN, LET ME LISTEN TO THAT HEAVENLY MUSIC WE CREATE FOR OUR GOD AND LET US OFFER IT TO HIM. LET US SHOW THIS CHURCH IS NOT AFRAID, LET US SHOW THIS CHURCH KNOWS ITS FATHER, LET US SHOW THIS CHURCH LOVES HIS POWER. LET US SHOW. HIS LOVE.WILL. PREVAIL.


(Hoohoo! Amen! Clapping and whooping)

HALLELUJAH.

The Reverend's Collected Sermons, available now at The Renewed Unified Church of Jesus Christ and God Almighty for the Salvation of Man.