Hard Left Turn

So God has been teaching me a lot. A lot. I have been thinking about sin. Mostly my sin, but other’s also. To be honest it usually starts at my sinful looking at other’s sin and then being convicted of my own. He has gone through and started taring down my ideas and pre-conceived notions of Christianity since I have been a Christian for most of my life. There is way too much religion and not enough good news of Jesus in today’s Christianity. I get angry at “Christian T.V”, radio, music, and most of whatever has the term Christian in front of it because in the words of Matt Chandler, “they have hijacked Christianity” and I have been thinking about how little the Gospel has to do with Christianity anymore. I am guilty of this too as we all are.

It was a Matt Chandler sermon that has spoken to me, I have forced about half a dozen people to listen to it and will continue to until everyone hears this 3 part sermon series on sex. Even though they are entitled “Sex” it is about way more than sex. It is about God’s redemption, the rhythm of love, the mingling of souls, and the wilderness. You, whoever you are, need to listen to these sermons (http://hv.thevillagechurch.net/sermons?kw=sex&type=sermons&match=any).

I don’t want to give away the sermon, but at the end of the first one, he talks about the story in John 8 where the Pharisees bring the women caught in adultery to Jesus and prepare to stone her. To make the story short, He calls out for the one who is without sin to cast the first stone. They all left, Jesus picks her up and said to her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?" She said, "No one, Lord." And Jesus said, "Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more." Here Matt goes in another direction, but what smacked me is that Jesus was the one without sin. He had every right to condemn her and yet, he had compassion.

That is mind-blowing. I have been thinking about this for the past several hours and cannot get it out of my mind. Matt puts it into infinitely better words than I do, but I am seeing in my own life that I am too quick to judge. I am seeing that I don’t have Jesus’ eyes. I am seeing that I need His grace and I need to show his grace to others. I need to forgive because I have been forgiven. A LOT. I need to help other and not condemn them based on what they have or haven’t done. God really does meet us where we are and cannot love us anymore that what He already has. I’m seeing that I’m that sinner thrown down in front of Jesus and am completely worthy of the stoning that I should receive but am completely unworthy of the grace that He shows.

The most beautiful part is that at the end, he tells her to go, not in condemnation, but with peace. He loves the unlovely. He chooses the worthless things and gives them worth. He picks up the broken pieces, binds, and then heals.

The song that is (or was playing) on this blog is “Give me your eyes” by Brandon Heath. Give it a chance. It has hit me at the same time as this sermon and it brings peace to my soul. . .

Once again, the place to get those sermons is: http://hv.thevillagechurch.net/sermons?kw=sex&type=sermons&match=any