Chapel speaker encourages audience to be moved by God’s great gift of salvation

Riverside, Calif. (Nov. 30, 2017) — “Every great gift demands a great response,” Albert Tate told a California Baptist University chapel audience on Nov. 30. “The question I want to ask you today, ‘What is your response to the gift God gave for you?’”

Tate, the founder and lead pastor of Fellowship Monrovia, a multi-ethnic and integrational church, expounded on John 3:16: “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. (NASB)”

Tate said belief is more than the accent of the mind or a concept of the will.

“Belief is the reclining of the heart to fully rest and recline in God,” he said.

Tate said that we can have a tendency to play “backseat driver” with God.

“God is meant to be trusted; He can handle this season of your life. You can trust Him,” Tate declared. We can believe and trust in God, or we can begin the descent into perishing away from Him, Tate added.

“Perishing is a slow drift away outside of the presence of God. Outside of what you were created to be,” Tate said. “Sin will leave you dead, it will take you on a ride that will end in your destruction and derail you from God’s plan and purpose for your life.”

Everlasting life is a gift that God offers through His Son, Jesus—an invitation to become more like the Heavenly Father each day, Tate explained. 

“God wants to transform your life. It’s not about perfection but you will begin to be transformed by the ‘Perfect One.’ That’s what God wants to do with your life,” Tate said.