Guest Speaker: Brian Barcelona - Hopelessness

Powerful worship, several baptisms, and meaningful communion started the first portion of the service. Pastor Josiah introduced Brian Barcelona who shared his testimony. 

When he was a sixteen year old, he was an atheist. A friend, Albert, saw Brian at a grocery store. This friend was a Christ follower, and he invited Brian to attend church with him at which Brian said, “No, not this Wednesday.”

The friend asked,”What about the next Wednesday?”

“No, I do not want to go to church with you. I am an atheist,” Brian replied.

“What about the Wednesday following?”

“No,” Brian responded.

“I will make a deal with you. I will buy you a smoothie,” Albert offered.

I am a cheap date. I asked, “What time does church start?” 

Brian went to church, and he sat in the back row with his arms folded on his chest. Then worship started, and the kids streamed to the front, jumping, dancing, celebrating the Lord. 

Brian remembered what his Pentecostal grandma shared with him. “If you have not accepted Christ, just surrender today,” he stated. His grandma was the kind that put oil on the door posts, on the door knobs, on his friends. She would be up with the blanket around her shoulders at three a.m. praying. She gave him the encouraging words that there was a hell and a Savior. 

Brian looked up at the ceiling and told the Lord,”My grandma said you are real. If you are real, I dare you to touch me.” Subsequently Brian felt an overwhelming love touch him. “How many of you know that when you bring a friend to church and the friend starts crying, that is your cue to take your friend to the front?” Albert grabbed him and took him to the front where Brian accepted Christ as his Savior. Brian accepted Christ in a room similar to FC’s.

 In that room a sixteen year old was freed of suicide; in that room someone who had grown up with domestic violence was being healed. In that room addictions were being broken.  In that room depressions were broken. Also in that room people had given up relationships with the Lord. In that room people showed up week after week even losing their faith. In that room people came in with diseases and walked out with them. Also in that room they saw people have God encounters, but they had never met Him. 

“There is someone in the Bible I want to speak about very briefly this morning,” declared Brian. “Someone who had not missed services but had missed moments.” He had missed the changing of water into wine in John 2; he had missed the healing of the official’s son in John 4; he had missed the healing of the paralytic at the Pool of Bethesda in John 5; he had missed the feeding of the five thousand in John 6; he had missed the raising of Lazarus in John 11; he missed the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. Jesus was so close but so far. The man did not miss Jesus because of what he did. He missed Jesus because of a condition for which he did not ask.

As believers, it is easier to accept consequences for choices we have made, but it is harder to reconcile the consequences of things that are not our fault. It is difficult to deal with disappointment, and we do not always have good theology about disappointment. The man was so close for forty years. He was left out, and it was not because of what he did. He attended religious services outside the Beautiful Gate because his friends brought him there. He had never been able to walk according to Acts 3. This man was begging at the gate for change not knowing that he could be changed.

As Peter and John were going to the Temple, they walked by the beggar. These two disciples were in Jesus’ inner circle and yet had some differences. John told of Peter and John running to see the opened tomb and John arriving first. Also John was known as the disciple Jesus loved whereas Peter denied Jesus three times. Though human, they ministered together.

As they passed by, the man asked Peter and John for money. “Peter said, ‘I have no money, but what I have I give you! In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, get up and walk!’” Acts 3:6 (NLV) Peter took the man by the hand. “At once his feet and the bones in his legs became strong. He jumped up on his feet and walked. Then he went into the house of God with them. He gave thanks to God as he walked.” Acts 3:8 (NLV) The man thanked the Lord for what He did. He praised Him for that life changing experience.

Then Brian shared about his sister who he rescued her from fentanyl addiction and being sex trafficked. They watched his sister detox on his couch. “One of the hardest things I have ever walked through,” Brian stated. After about two days she begged for Brian to give her the drug. He refused, but he offered her something more powerful than the drug. She wanted what he offered. Brian took out the elements of communion and said,”You cannot take communion. He willingly gave it.” The message of the body and blood is not old school. Only the blood is more powerful than our sins. After three days she took communion. After five days, she accepted Jesus as her Savior and agreed to go to rehab. We have a wonder working Savior.

Another story Brian relayed was about a pastor friend of his that participated in an LA outreach. He went up to speak, but the mike would not work. He waited five minutes, ten minutes, twenty minutes. Then he left the stage, and he saw a MacDonald’s where he bought a Big Mac, a large fry, and a diet coke. As the pastor walked back, he saw a homeless man named Cardboard. The pastor heard the Lord say, ”Give the Big Mac to Cardboard.” The pastor turned around and gave the Big Mac, the large fries, and the diet coke to Cardboard.

Cardboard asked,”Who told you to give the Big Mac to me?”

“God did,” replied the preacher.

Cardboard told the pastor his story. He went to listen to the preachers at the rally, but he heard that God was not real. So he climbed high up and was going to jump when the preacher began to speak. He waited five minutes, ten minutes, twenty minutes, and the preacher left the stage. Cardboard came down from his perch. He said to God,”If you are real, let the preacher give me a Big Mac, large fries, and a diet coke.” God met Cardboard’s and the preacher’s needs. It was a divine appointment for both of them because hopelessness exists when you are within reach of hope but cannot get it.

The Bible proves that humanity fails. The world demonstrates that humanity fails, but God…. He reached out after four hundred years of silence, and in Matthew he reached out for humanity. God desired(s) covenant with man so He sent Jesus to live, die and rise up from the dead. He defeated sin and death for you and me. The covenant is for when you and I fail. Unseen enemies were defeated in the baptism tank. Each no to satan is a yes to the Lord. 

Brian asked everyone to take someone’s hand. He declared, ”Jesus desires you. If you want to surrender your life to Jesus, squeeze the person’s hand. If someone squeezed your hand, stand up.” Then he invited the people to come forward. The altar was full of people who did not want to leave the same as when they came in.

May we let someone squeeze our hands and lead them to Jesus. May we be salt and light in this dark world.