Ruslan Buzhduga
Sermon Transcription:
Amen. Well, I just want to say thank you. Thank you for the opportunity to share, and thank you for having this time and having me here. Pastors, Pastor Stan, Pastor Inna, I am grateful for our Heavenly Father today. Today, I want to share with you some of what He’s been showing me. You know, this year is the “Year of the Word” in the church. It's been the theme throughout the entire year. My wife and I have seen that in our lives as we’ve committed to a reading plan together. In times past, we were always kind of doing different things in the scripture—she was reading at her pace, and I was doing my own thing. But this year, I felt a conviction to get on a reading plan with her as we read through the whole Bible together.
As I’ve been doing that, I’ve seen God do so much. I’ve seen Him highlight things in the Word, show me things, speak to me. One of the biggest changes was when I started coming to the Word with the approach of, “Okay, God, what do you want to give me today?”—not, “How can I be better versed as a Christian?” or “How can I be better prepared to preach the gospel?” but simply, “What do you want to tell me?” I’ve seen God work powerfully through His Word. Like Pastor spoke about last week, the Spirit—this is His sword. This is what He’s going to use in my life. This is how He’s going to defeat all the lies and take away all the fear. One of the things I’ve seen God begin to do is redeem scriptures. I was raised in the church as a little kid, like my kids now, always around the truth, always hearing verses from the Bible. But there were many scriptures that I found difficult and even a little scary, that made me question things.
One of these scriptures, which I want to read with you all today, led me to think deeply about the Father and His love. Let’s look at Matthew 5:17-20. These are letters in red, so this is Jesus speaking: “Do not think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets. I did not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled. Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.”
Reading this, I couldn’t help but question: do you feel that this is a little harsh? As you listen to these words and read this passage, how does it sound to you? Does it sound difficult? Does it sound like, “Jesus, what are you saying?” I know I felt that way. I remember reading through this passage and questioning, “Wait, I thought Jesus came, it’s about grace. Why is He talking about the law?” He’s saying it all has to be fulfilled, and then I see, “Your righteousness has to exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees.” I thought, “I have to be a better Christian than them?”
When I was younger, these passages often made God seem a little harsh to me. Anybody with me today? Have you ever felt that? That’s where I was, and it caused a lot of confusion in my life.
It caused me to really question God’s character. God, what are you actually like? What do you actually think about me? What are you saying to me? I want to take you to another passage—the parable of the talents. Jesus shares this parable in Matthew chapter 25, verses 24–30. We’re going to get into that in just a second, but first, let’s look at the story. Jesus shares about a master who went away on a journey and entrusted talents (which were weights of gold or money) to his servants. To one servant, he gave five talents; to another, two talents; and to another, one talent.
The story goes that the servant who received five talents went out, invested it, and gained five more. The servant with two talents did the same and gained more for his master. But the servant who had only one talent did something different—he just hid it in the ground. He didn’t do anything with it; he didn’t consider it worthwhile, and he didn’t engage in his master’s business. Instead, he buried it. I always wondered why he did this. The passage tells us why. In Matthew 25:24–25, it says: “Then he who had received the one talent came and said, ‘Lord, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you have not sown, and gathering where you have not scattered seed. And I was afraid, and went and hid your talent in the ground. Look, there you have what is yours.’”
In response, the master calls this servant “wicked” and “lazy,” asking why he didn’t at least deposit the talent with those who could invest it. You see, the issue wasn’t with the gift itself, nor was it with the servant’s abilities. The master had given each servant a different amount according to their abilities. The servant with one talent was given just as much as he could handle, just like the others. The real problem here was in the heart of this servant. His view of the master was flawed. He saw the master as a harsh man, and that misunderstanding affected everything he did.
This stood out to me like a sore thumb. How is it that the other servants can go and engage eagerly in their master’s business, without hesitation, while this one sounds bitter and upset? He knows his master to be a “hard man.” The issue here was with his heart. So, how do you perceive the Father today? That’s really the question I want to pose. Are you afraid of Him? On Friday, we talked about fear, and there is a healthy fear of the Lord, one that we should all seek to grow. The Bible says that fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. I believe, 100%, that we all need more of the fear of God in our generation. But what I’m talking about here is a different kind of fear—a fear that feels God is harsh, a fear that doesn’t know where it stands with the Father. This is the kind of fear we see in the “wicked servant.” He says, “I was afraid. I hid your talent. I didn’t engage in your business because I was afraid; I knew you to be a hard man.”
Today, I want to ask: do you have this kind of fear? Do you question where you stand with the Father? Do you feel that God is harsh or even against you? That’s not what God intended for us to feel. I’m not asking for the “right” answer. I want you to search your heart because the way you feel about the Father really makes a difference. We see this servant felt something about his master, and that feeling dictated his behavior. The same is true for us today. The way you feel about God is ultimately going to affect how you live. That’s why it’s so important to examine it. I’m not talking about being led by your feelings; I’m talking about your perception of the Father. How do you feel about Him? Because that feeling is going to influence your actions.
There was a time when I felt like God was against me. Even though, theologically, I had everything right—I read the Bible, I knew God is for me, I knew His promises, I understood the facts—the truth never fully made it down into my heart. I felt like God was against me. I felt like Jesus loved me, that He died for me, but somehow God the Father felt distant. That’s something I want us to see today.
I want you to see today—if you feel like you question where you stand with the Father, if you're unsure, I want you to know it's okay. You might have it great with Jesus, feeling like, "Yes, Jesus loves me," but then wonder, "What about God the Father? What does He think about me?"
I’m grateful we have the Word of God today. I'm grateful for His truth, and I pray the Lord would speak His truth into our hearts today as we read it. I pray that you allow His truth to wash those lies away, to convince you of something different, and to bring your feelings in line with His love. That's why we’re going to read the Word—to look at what God says about how He feels about you today. It’s your choice; you can agree with Him or disagree. But if you choose to agree, and allow your heart to be affected by His truth, you're going to see something.
Let's look at 1 John 4:7–19:"Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed His love among us: He sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and His love is made complete in us. This is how we know that we live in Him and He in us: He has given us of His Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent His Son to be the Savior of the world. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: in this world, we are like Jesus. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. We love because He first loved us." Amen.
How do you know you’re forgiven today? How do you know you are loved? There’s no longer any fear of punishment. Recently, I’ve been feeling this sense that Jesus is coming back soon. Jesus is coming back for His bride. When you hear those words, does it cause your heart to quiver a little? Does it bring up a bit of fear, like, "I’m not sure where I stand with the Father"?
Maybe you’re like, "I know I have things straight with Jesus, but with the Father, I’m confused." You might fear punishment. I’ve felt that fear too—until I came to the Word and allowed His Word to tell me the truth. You've been perfected by love when you no longer fear. The Bible says perfect love drives out fear. His love, coming into you, will drive out that kind of fear. He will drive out the fear of punishment, the fear of not knowing where you stand with the Father.
In another passage, it says that He has given us His Spirit in our hearts to cry out, "Abba, Father." That word "Abba"—it’s like saying "Daddy." It's like saying, "You're my Father, my God; you're the one who loves me, who would do anything to keep me, who wants the best for me." Do you feel that way about God the Father today?
Earlier this week, I was telling Ella about something that happened. I want to share it with you. On Thursday morning, I woke up feeling so discouraged. I felt heavy, like a failure. I felt like such a disappointment in so many things, and that I just couldn't be enough. In times like these, I often struggle because I need to feel loved. And I’ll tell you right now, if you’re needing to be loved and you seek that love in other relationships, you’re going to strain those relationships. That’s a space only the Father’s love can fill. This week, I knew the other path would only bring hurt, so I chose to go to God. I’m grateful I had the opportunity to take a walk on my break at work. As I walked, before I could even say any words, tears started streaming down my face. I just prayed, "Father, I really need to be loved right now. I just need you." And I want to tell you, church, you can go to your Father for love. He has given you His love in Christ. But sometimes we doubt God the Father. We’re not sure about how our heavenly Father feels about us, so we never come to Him.
I have children, and they know they can come to me at any moment. Sometimes, they just place their hand on me to let me know they need something. They might interrupt whatever I’m doing, but my heart goes out to my kids. It’s hard to fully understand or express this kind of love because that may not be how it was with our earthly fathers. But today, you have a Father in heaven who loves you. It’s not like Jesus came for you and God just said, “Yeah, sure, you can do this thing.” No—He sent Jesus. The Father is the one who wants to treat you like His child, who wants to adopt you. That’s why He sent His Son for you. That’s how He feels about you, and that’s what He’d like to tell you today.
And when you're not sure where you stand with God the Father, when you're unsure how He feels about you, you can come to Him. You can tell Him exactly how it is. That morning when I went on my walk, I was just bawling. He was there in an instant. I felt like He held me, and that’s what I told Him: "God, I just need to be held. I just need to be loved." That’s what I was feeling. You know what, out of that conversation, He picked me up somehow. I don’t know how, but He spoke to my heart. He lifted my chin and said, "I’m proud of you." Those were the words I needed to hear. It was like all of that morning—of drooping hands and weak knees—was over because my Father lifted me up. My Father is proud of me. My Father loves me. And He loves you too, and He wants you to know today how much He loves you. Would you let Him? Sometimes, we don’t let Him.
I want to read a passage of scripture. Let’s look at Isaiah 53 and see God’s love for you over and over again through the Bible. You don’t need me to tell you; you can read it for yourself. You can see what God has done for you. Isaiah 53:1-12:"Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? He grew up before Him like a tender shoot and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to Him, nothing in His appearance that we should desire Him. He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces, He was despised, and we held Him in low esteem.
Surely He took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered Him punished by God, stricken by Him, and afflicted. But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on Him, and by His wounds, we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray; each of us has turned to our own way, and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth. He was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so He did not open His mouth. By oppression and judgment, He was taken away. Yet who of His generation protested? For He was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people, He was punished. He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in His death, though He had done no violence, nor was any deceit in His mouth.
Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush Him and cause Him to suffer, and though the Lord makes His life an offering for sin, He will see His offspring and prolong His days, and the will of the Lord will prosper in His hand. After He has suffered, He will see the light of life and be satisfied; by His knowledge, my righteous servant will justify many, and He will bear their iniquities. Therefore, I will give Him a portion among the great, and He will divide the spoils with the strong, because He poured out His life unto death and was numbered with the transgressors. For He bore the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors." Do you believe what God has revealed to you? The Lord sent Jesus to forgive you so that today, you can be forgiven because of Christ. See, Christ made the way for you to the Father. That’s why He came. He came for you to be adopted. It says here that "He will see His offspring." He wants you. You’re His offspring—the offspring of Abraham. What does that mean? Abraham is the father of faith, and all those who are like him, who believe in God, are counted by the Bible as the offspring of Abraham. It’s you and me today who believe that, because of Christ, we can be forgiven before the Father. Do you believe that you are forgiven today?
You know, when we look back at that first passage we read, where Jesus says that not a dot from this law will pass away and that everything has to be fulfilled, do you know what He's saying there? He's saying that we're not going to throw away the to-do list; we're not throwing that away or throwing it in the garbage. He’s saying, "I'm checking all the boxes for you." That's what He's doing. That’s why He said it. He's saying, "I'm not throwing the law away. I came to fulfill it. I'm checking every single box so you don't have to—because you can't." And then He says, "Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you won't even enter the Kingdom of God." What does that mean? Jesus means this for you: it means that the Son—by the way, the Son is the one who the Father showed up on the mountain and said, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased"—that's what He felt about Him. He's saying that those who believe receive the righteousness of Christ, and now when the Father looks at you, He says, "This is my beloved son; this is my beloved daughter, in whom I am well pleased."
That's what He's saying. He's saying that your righteousness must exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees. And it’s not because you have to strain to be a better person than them. No, they couldn't do it—all the things they tried to do to keep the law, and they still fell short. It’s impossible. What He's saying is that if you believe in Him and receive the righteousness of Christ, your righteousness will exceed all of that. That’s the perfect righteousness of Christ, applied to your life as you believe. Do you believe that you’re forgiven today? Do you believe that’s how the Father sees you today because of Christ? I just want to invite you to allow God the Father to love you today. Would you allow Him to send His Spirit to tell you, to show you, what He feels about you? Let Him lead you into the Word to show you, "This is what I feel about you." I’m telling you guys the truth—you won’t need anyone to convince you of anything. When you’re loved, you’re loved.
That’s what that scripture says, that "he who fears has not been perfected in love." If you still quiver, if you're still not sure how the Father feels about you, if you still fear the coming judgment and think, "I’m not sure," let Him love you. Let Him love you all the way. Let Him love you. I was reading another passage, and I couldn’t believe it, but this is a promise God has: there was a parable Jesus shared where He says that the servants will come into His Father's Kingdom, and Jesus Himself is going to serve you. I remember reading that passage and thinking, "Jesus, you're going to serve me?" I felt like Peter—like when Jesus was trying to wash Peter's feet, and Peter said, "Let me serve you." But Jesus said, "Let me love you, Peter."
That’s what God wants to do for you and in your heart today. He wants to love you; He wants to adopt you as a child—not just today, but for all eternity. He wants to be your Father. Would you just let Him? Amen. I'm going to hand it over to Sofi.
Amen. For a long time, this was my reality. Today, I was reminded of God's love through what Russ preached and the joy of my salvation. I want to share just a little glimpse of what the Lord put on my heart with you all. There was a time when I saw God as difficult, even against me. I lived in fear of the Father—not a healthy fear, but more of a fear of His wrath and what was to come. To me, He was a harsh God. He wanted me to work, to complete a list of things to do, always checking things off. It always felt like I wasn't enough, like there was still something I had to do to get to the Father.
I remember every year, around New Year’s, I would make a New Year’s resolution. I never told anyone, but my resolution was always, “I’m going to be good this year. I’m going to be the best Christian ever. I’m going to go to all the church services. I’m going to be nice to my siblings. I’m not going to curse out my sister. I’m not going to fistfight my brother.” That was my to-do list—I was going to be a good Christian this year. And every new season, I’d think, "I’m going to read the Bible every day." I had a checklist of dates. But it only lasted for so long; I’m sure my family can testify to that too. My flesh would come out again, and it was never enough. I’d have to go back to the to-do lists, to restart, to try to be good enough, because God was harsh, so I had to do all these things to please Him. I felt I had to be perfect.
What I felt determined how I was responding to the Father, as Russ mentioned. But I want to tell you today that your feelings are not the facts. They don’t always tell the truth. I came to realize this: it wasn't until I came face to face with the truth of the character of Christ that I came to know who He actually is, what He actually thinks about me, and what He actually wants for me. And you know what? It’s not much—spoiler alert! My perception of Christ was not who He actually was. I was explaining my logic, my understanding of God, and why I do all the things I do and why I serve in ministry to someone at Starbucks one day. They just listened to me and let me rant. Then they asked, “Well, if this is your standard of forgiveness, of salvation, of who God is—if you have to do all these things—do you believe you’re forgiven? If you were to meet the Father today, would you be in His house, or do you believe you’re forgiven based on everything you have to do?”
I sunk in my seat because I knew I was not forgiven, despite everything I was doing—all the good things, the praying every day, not cursing that day. I did all that, and still, I wasn’t forgiven. What was the point? Then they told me, “Your standard, your perception of Christ, of God, is not actually the reality of who He is.” In that moment, the Holy Spirit opened my eyes to the overwhelming love of Christ. It was hard to accept that after doing all those things, I was still not forgiven, and that I was just supposed to accept that Christ loving me was enough. It was overwhelming for me; I just couldn’t believe it was that simple. Just because God loved me and sent His Son—that was supposed to be enough? It felt too easy, too good to be true. But that is the love of the Father; that is the perfect love—that is the gospel. When it seems too good to be true, it is the gospel.
I’m sure you’ve heard that from our pastor before. What I realized is that we can’t build our life off of our perception of who we think Christ is. We are to build our life on His love. Love is an action, and He showed us the magnitude of His love by sending His Son. That day, the Holy Spirit showed me in my heart that I didn’t have to work anymore for God’s love. It’s called “perfect love” because we have to do nothing for it. It’s a gift that He gave us. He gave us His Son, and there’s no one who loves you like Christ does. No one will ever love you like Christ does. I came to know that firsthand, so I can testify here today and say that because of His perfect love, I am forgiven. And because of His perfect love, you can be forgiven today too.
Would you all just stand with me as we pray before worship? Like Russ would say, just allow Him to love you. It’s not something you can avoid—let it be enough for you. It’s hard, because that means you have to let go of every other way you think you can get to the Father, but it’s worth it. Lord, we pray to You today. We want to accept Your love for us today. Lord, we thank You that You are not a harsh God. We thank You, Lord, that You made a way for us into Your presence. We thank You for Jesus Christ and the cross today. We thank You, God, that You showed the perfect love sacrifice on the cross by sending Your Son.
We thank You that we can be forgiven today. Jesus, we thank You, God, that You can be enough for us. And we pray that You make it so simple to our hearts today, Lord, as You showed me one day through Your Spirit, that Your love is enough. Lord, that what You did on the cross is enough. Lord God, we choose to accept Your love for us today. We choose to accept that we are forgiven by no other means but by the cross. We thank You, Lord, for being our Father and for being a good, good Father. And I pray for anyone here who has not experienced Your love today, Lord, who has not experienced You as a good Father. Jesus, I pray, Lord, that Your Holy Spirit would penetrate their hearts, that they may come to know the goodness of the Father.
Lord, we thank You that You are not harsh or difficult, but that You love us, that You died for us, and that You would do anything for us. You’d rather die than let us take the blame. You’d rather die than let us do all the things we think we need to do. Lord God, we thank You for Your sacrifice. We thank You that You are enough, and we just want to worship You in gratitude in this place, Lord, for what You have done. Lord, You are worthy; You deserve it all, Jesus.
We thank You once again.