This is the response I give to the Jewish people on why Jesus is the Messiah(it might help increase your faith in God):
Yeshua(Jesus Christ) is the Messiah.
In the Song of Moses, God prophesied the things Israel would do against Him in the future and said what He would against them as punishment for their sins. In one verse He says, "They have made me jealous with what is no god; they have provoked me to anger with their idols. So I will make them jealous with those who are NO PEOPLE; I will provoke them to anger with a FOOLISH NATION."(Deuteronomy 32:21)
The phrase "NO PEOPLE" was a hint of what was to come. God told Hosea, "Call his name LOAMMI, for you are NOT MY PEOPLE, and I am not your God.”(Hosea 1:9). Here, God was talking to the House of Ephraim/the Northern Kingdom of Israel. He said they were not His people because they had mixed with gentiles and began to worship false gods. In Hosea 7:8, He says, "Ephraim mixes himself with the peoples; Ephraim is a cake not turned."(Hosea 7:8). By mixing with the pagan nations, Ephraim became the "NO PEOPLE" and "FOOLISH GENTILES/NATION" that God spoke of. The people of Israel mixed themselves with pagans and people of other races to the point that they lost their identity. They looked like pagans, acted like pagans, spoke pagan languages, and worshiped pagan gods to the point that it was unrecognizable that they were even Jews after a few generations.
In the New Testament, a Rabbi by the name of Sha'ul, (who the Christians call Paul) wrote a letter to gentiles, saying, "Lest you be wise in your own sight, I do not want you to be unaware of this MYSTERY, brothers: a partial hardening has come upon Israel, until the FULLNESS OF THE GENTILES has come in."(Romans 11:25). In saying, "FULLNESS OF THE GENTILES", he is revealing what the mystery is.
When Jacob blessed Ephraim and Manasseh before he died, he crossed his hands to give Ephraim the greater blessing. When Joseph tried to correct him by switching his hands back (since Manasseh was the oldest), he said, "I know, my son, I know. He also shall become a people, and he also shall be great. Nevertheless, his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his offspring shall become a MULTITUDE OF NATIONS.”(Genesis 48:19) In Hebrew, the phrase "MULTITUDE OF NATIONS" is actually "melo hagoyim", which means "FULLNESS OF THE GENTILES".
Yeshua(Jesus) said, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”(Matthew 15:24), that's why the Judaens didn't believe in Him. They were the House of Judah from the Southern Kingdom who returned from Babylon during the reign of King Cyrus, so they were not His sheep. Yeshua said that His sheep know His voice, and they follow Him.
It was the purpose of God to harden the hearts of the Jewish people, so they would not believe until all of the Northern Kingdom returned to Him. As I said before, Ephraim mixed in with other races and lost their identity, so even though it looks like most of the converts to Christianity have been goyim, they are not. They are the descendants of the House of Ephraim who were scattered throughout the world. By their belief, they fulfilled the prophecies that God gave to Hosea when He said, "I will have mercy on No Mercy, and I will say to Not My People, ‘You are my people’; and he shall say, ‘You are my God.'” So Ephraim(No People) came back to the Lord as "foolish goyim/ a foolish nation", and were accepted by God for believing in the Messiah, who is Yeshua.
The House of Judah(the Jewish people) also fulfilled prophecy by their unbelief. The prophet Isaiah said, "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."(Isaiah 53:3). The prophecy makes it clear that the Messiah would be and had to be rejected by Israel to fulfill His purpose. If they weren't going to reject Him, then who would?
"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."(Isaiah 53:4-5)
God gave many hints to the identity of the Messiah, and looking closely at Scripture it becomes clear that He intended to make Himself the Messiah. Proof of this is by what He said to the prophet Zechariah, where you will notice the word "pierced" showing up a second time. He said, "When they look on ME, on HIM WHOM THEY HAVE PIERCED, they shall mourn for HIM, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over HIM, as one weeps over a firstborn."(Zechariah 12:10)
He says, again, that the Messiah would be pierced, and not only that, but that His own people(Israel) would pierce Him. But right before God prophesies this, He says that the Messiah is Him. Now, we have a problem because the Messiah is supposed to be a man from the lineage of King David,and God can't be a man, right?
This is what was written on the cross when Yeshua was crucified: "And Pilate also wrote a title, and put it on the cross, and it was written, 'Jesus the Nazarene, king of the Jews;'"(John 19:19), which when translated is "Yeshua HaNazarei VeMelekh HaYahudim" which forms the acronym of God's Divine Name... YHVH.
Yeshua is considered God because He was not born of a human seed. The Spirit of God went into the womb of a virgin woman and inhabited her egg, so she gave birth. Since God is Spirit, and that Spirit took on human form, then that child is God in human form. She and her husband were both from the tribe of David, but the child is technically God's because it was born of His own Spirit. If you look closely at the names of everyone from Adam to Abraham, you will see once again how God revealed His plans from the beginning. When you translate the names it goes:
Adam- mankind
Seth- appointed
Enosh- feeble, frail, mortality
Cainan- a fixed dwelling place
Mahalaleel- God who is praised
Jared- come down, descends
Enoch- to instruct, train up
Methuselah- a man sent forth
Lamech- to be beaten, smitten, and tortured
Noah- rest, comfort
Mankind is appointed to feeble and frail mortality --- a fixed dwelling place. God, who is praised, comes down to instruct as a man sent forth to be beaten, smitten, and tortured. By this He brings us rest and comfort.
God let us know that He would come to the earth to be beaten and tortured for our sake. " ...THE PUNISHMENT THAT BOUGHT US PEACE WAS ON HIM,"(Isaiah 53:3)
And He let us know how He would redeem us by His death: “And I WILL POUR OUT ON THE HOUSE OF DAVID AND THE INHABITANTS OF JERUSALEM A SPIRIT OF GRACE AND PLEAS FOR MERCY, so that, when they look on ME, on HIM WHOM THEY HAVE PIERCED, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn.”(Zechariah 12:10)
“Yet IT PLEASED THE LORD TO CRUSH HIM; he has put him to grief: WHEN YOU MAKE HIS SOUL A SIN OFFERING, HE SHALL SEE HIS OFFSPRING, HE SHALL PROLONG HIS DAYS, and the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.”(Isaiah 53:10)
“And in the place where it was said to them, 'You are not my people,' it shall be said to them, 'Children of the living God.'”(Hosea 1:10)
The gospel(good news) of Christ is summed up in these few verses. In Zechariah 12:10, God said that by His death, He would pour out grace and mercy on all the inhabitants of Jerusalem. In Isaiah 53:10, He said He would be pleased to put the Messiah to death, and by doing so the Messiah would be a sin offering for Israel. God said that after that was done, He would see His children and prolong their days. By seeing His children, He means that those who believe Yeshua was crucified as their sin offering would be adopted as the sons of God, just like He was. And the prophecy that was given to the House of Ephraim in Hosea would be fulfilled. In the very place it was said of the House of Ephraim, “You are not my people,” they were called “Children of the Living God” because they had faith. Their days are prolonged because they have eternal life, but those who do not believe do not have eternal life, because their sins are not forgiven.
Yeshua said, “I told you that you would die in your sins, for unless you believe that I am He you will die in your sins.”(John 8:24)
When He became a sin offering to God, as prophesied in Isaiah 53:10, the sins of the whole world were placed on Him. That means the sins of everyone who had been born, the sins of those who were living at that time, and the sins of those who were not yet born. But His sacrifice is only sufficient if we accept it, and we cannot accept it if we don't believe.
“By grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”(Ephesians 2:8-9) Therefore, we all have access to Heaven if we believe.
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I read this quote from a Jewish rabbi awhile back, "If you believe in the Tzaddik(Righteous One) without any understanding, you may lose your faith, because from faith alone one can fall. But if you also have some understanding, you cannot lose your faith."
People doubt and lose faith because they don't have understanding of Him or His Word. They may have grown up in church or found God later in life, and developed a deep love for Him; but they end up falling away when there is something they can't understand that conflicts with their faith. You have to understand the things I've written above. Jesus is the Messiah and Son of God, God planned all these divine things from before the foundation of the earth, and He loves you and wants the best for you.
God doesn't look down on you for your lack of faith. Even the apostles said to the Lord, "Increase our faith!" in Luke 17:5. They walked with Jesus(God in the flesh) for 3 1/2 years but they still doubted. Thomas saw his miracles, but didn't believe it when Christ was raised from the dead. Peter said he would never deny Jesus and then did it three times. All the apostles said they wouldn't leave, but they all did. Jesus knew they would do these things, and He told them they would. He was not angry with them, and He didn't look down on them.
God said, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." (2 Corinthians 12:9 ESV). You are trying to get closer to God and you are praying with an earnest heart, trusting in the Lord. That means more to God than anything. Don't be ashamed to call yourself a Christian, none of us are perfect. We are all struggling with something, and God, by His grace, is helping us along.
As far as your question about does God want you to have fun. He definitely does, but getting drunk isn't the way to go. Drinking is fine, but getting drunk isn't. Trust me, nothing good will come from that. People ruin their lives by abusing alcohol. They end up getting drunk, getting someone pregnant, beating their wife and kids, getting into fights, killing themselves and others in car accidents, etc. It's not fun. It will ruin your life.
You can hang out with your friends, though. Even Jesus went to parties. Just don't give yourself over to sinful behavior. And yes, it's possible to have fun without sinning; think of how much fun you had as a kid without drugs,sex, and cursing. Don't be discouraged, brother. Just keep praying.
