I Love My Church – 4

I Love My Church – 4

Subject – Living Out that I Love My Church

by Rick Welborne

John 8:1-11 (NKJV)
¹  But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.
²  Now early in the morning He came again into the temple, and all the people came to Him; and He sat down and taught them.
³  Then the scribes and Pharisees brought to Him a woman caught in adultery. And when they had set her in the midst,
⁴  they said to Him, "Teacher, this woman was caught in adultery, in the very act.
⁵  Now Moses, in the law, commanded us that such should be stoned. But what do You say?"
⁶  This they said, testing Him, that they might have something of which to accuse Him. But Jesus stooped down and wrote on the ground with His finger, as though He did not hear.
⁷  So when they continued asking Him, He raised Himself up and said to them, "He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first."
⁸  And again He stooped down and wrote on the ground.
⁹  Then those who heard it, being convicted by their conscience, went out one by one, beginning with the oldest even to the last. And Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst.
¹⁰  When Jesus had raised Himself up and saw no one but the woman, He said to her, "Woman, where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you?"
¹¹  She said, "No one, Lord." And Jesus said to her, "Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more." 

--I want to thank everyone who came to “I love My Church” Sunday!  I have dreamed of that day for a long time and I am thankful to all of you who made the effort to be here. Next year we will not choose spring break.

--I have prayed much about this service today and I have really wanted to say exactly what God wants me to say. I hope all of you have pulled in your barbs and learned how to dance the Porcupine Dance!  

--We talked the first Sunday of this series how we are all broken people in need of a Savior and we spoke of the illusion of finding a local church that will be everything we expect it to be.

Bonhoeffer - Those who love their dream of a Christian community more than the Christian community itself become destroyers of that Christian community even though their personal intentions may be ever so honest, earnest, and sacrificial.

Isaiah 53:6 (NKJV) 

6 All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way; And the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. 

--As broken as we are God has chosen this Christian Community to be a dwelling place of God in the Spirit. What a miracle that this idea of a Christian community can even work.

Key - Jesus is the cornerstone of this community of broken, strange, weird bunch of misfits and to criticize the community is to insult the Christ Who built it.

--The second week we talked about the idea that there is no pain like the pain of loneliness. It is so strange that with so many ways of connecting, people are lonelier now than ever. Depression and anxiety are rampant.

Ortberg - I believe that if you had to sum up in a single word what God is up to, what His goal is in creating the universe and the persons who inhabit it, that word would be community.

--We looked at how God has been experiencing this idea of community within the Trinity and He is welcoming us into that inclusive circle with Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Listen to Jesus:

John 17:21-23 (NLT) 

21 I pray that they will all be one, just as you and I are one—as you are in me, Father, and I am in you. And may they be in us so that the world will believe you sent me. 

22 “I have given them the glory you gave me, so they may be one as we are one. 

23 I am in them and you are in me. May they experience such perfect unity that the world will know that you sent me and that you love them as much as you love me.  

--Last week Pastor Juan led us in prayer and he kept emphasizing that this community of God, this local church is God’s House…there is healing, deliverance, and miracles in His House. 

Hebrews 10:21-25 (NCV)
²¹  And since we have a great priest over God’s house,
²²  let us come near to God with a sincere heart and a sure faith, because we have been made free from a guilty conscience, and our bodies have been washed with pure water.
²³  Let us hold firmly to the hope that we have confessed, because we can trust God to do what he promised.
²⁴  Let us think about each other and help each other to show love and do good deeds.
²⁵  You should not stay away from the church meetings, as some are doing, but you should meet together and encourage each other. Do this even more as you see the day coming. 

--Today, let’s continue this series of I Love My Church dealing with this idea of community. 

1. The Christian Community and the Humane Society.

--On Nantucket Island there is a museum dedicated to an organization formed centuries ago. Sea travel was so dangerous then and because of the storms in the Atlantic off the coast of Massachusetts, many lives were lost.

--Because so many lives were being lost along a mile stretch or so, a group of volunteers decide to get into the lifesaving business. They banded together to form what was called the Humane Society.

--People built little huts along the shore where people were perishing and people watched the sea at all times.

They didn’t do it for money or recognition but because they prized human life. Listen to their motto:

Humane Society Motto – You have to go out, but you don’t have to come back. 

--That doesn’t sound very catchy but it was. The stories and accounts of people who would risk everything, even their lives, to save people they didn’t know. Sounds a lot like missions.

--Over time, things began to change. The US Coast Guard began to take over the task of rescue. For a while the USCG and the Humane Society worked side by side. 

--Eventually the idea that carried the day was, “Let the professionals do it. They’re better trained and they get paid to do it.” Volunteers stopped manning the huts and going out searching for those lost in the sea. 

--A strange thing happened, they could not bring themselves to disband. The life-saving society still exists today. The members get together, have a dinner, and reminisce of the good old days. They enjoy each other.

--They’re just not in life-saving business. Listen, you and I were made to be in the Life Saving business. We are not to abandon our huts when people are shipwrecked around us every day. People are hurting everywhere.

--We have the ability to offer acceptance, love, and hope to those who may be going through the trials of their lives. So many need acceptances from those of us who seem to be more mature or seem to be blessed now. 

Romans 15:5-7 (NIV)
⁵  May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus,
⁶  so that with one heart and mouth you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
⁷  Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God. 

2. Jesus, a woman caught in adultery, and the community of God.

--When God began to speak to me about sharing this story with you guys, I told Him I would rather not. He didn’t seem to care what I felt. Question: Why do so many churches produce stone throwers?

--Do yourself a study about Jesus and see which sins upset Him the most…sins of the flesh or sins of the spirit. The NT has many stories of these situations. Sins of the spirit, sins of the flesh, and Jesus combined together.

--There is the story with the sinful woman who anointed Jesus feet, the Pharisee and the tax collector, the prodigal son and his older self-righteous brother. Jesus seemed to side with the sinners of the flesh.

C.S. Lewis – The sins of the flesh are bad, but they are the least bad of sins. All the worst pleasures are purely spiritual: the pleasure of putting other people in the wrong, of bossing and patronizing; the pleasures of power and hatred. For there are two things inside me, competing with the human self which I must try to become. They are the Animal self and the Diabolical self. The Diabolical self is the worse of the two. That is why a cold, self-righteous prig who goes to church regularly may be far nearer to hell than the prostitute.

--People who are guilty of pride and arrogance are so blind. The Pharisees in the above stories were blind to the fact of how much they loved picking up stones to crush those who were hurting. Had no love or mercy.

--Those of us who can say I Love My Church should never be guilty of having people brought to us, or who just show up in their sin, and we either ignore them or we pick up stones. Story of the SS teacher and the smoker. 

--If I had my rather, I would rather have people who have been caught in their sins and are broken than to have those who are judgmental, super spiritual, impatient with people, or bitter, leading our church.

--Questions: Who would you be in this story? The guilty caught in your sin, the judgmental picking up stones, or would you be more like Jesus? The truth is we all identify more with the adulteress. Not me, Pastor! Guilty!

--Jesus said that if we look at a woman with lust in our hearts we are guilty of adultery. We identify with her!

Isaiah 53:6 (NKJV)
⁶  All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way; And the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. 

3. Go and sin no more.

John 8:10-11 (NKJV)
¹⁰  When Jesus had raised Himself up and saw no one but the woman, He said to her, "Woman, where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you?"
¹¹  She said, "No one, Lord." And Jesus said to her, "Neither do I condemn you; 

--You see; this community should never be a place of stone throwers. Someone came up to me two weeks ago and told me how glad he was he found our church…I really feel accepted here and that people care. Wonderful!

--Jesus says something more to this lady which cuts her to her core but also gives her hope. Go and sin no more! That told her that He knew all about her sin but it also told her that someone believed in her. 

--Jesus accepting her into the community of the Trinity is not the same thing as simply tolerating any behavior that is unacceptable to God and His Word. She could not continue in her sin. We often miss this truth.

Ortberg – Accepting another human being does not mean we refuse to confront or challenge that in them which could harm others and damage their souls. 

--I love My Church means that everyone is welcome and that everyone will be accepted but it also means that once we enter this beautiful community of God that we should, go and sin no more. 

--This woman caught in adultery found forgiveness and acceptance in Christ but she also found something so unbelievably great…a new beginning…a new life…a new future surrounded by family.

Key – Failure to confront, to speak truth in love, can ultimately be as fatal to the growth of the community as being judgmental. 

Ortberg – “Go and sin no more.” Jesus’ acceptance is free, undeserved, unmerited—but it is also demanding. For the woman to fully examine her acceptance will require entering into a new way of life. The same grace that liberates her from past sins calls her to walk free of them in the future. 

2 Corinthians 5:17 (NKJV)

¹⁷ Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

--If you have found acceptance and love here at Life Church and have found that the community of God is what you have been looking for, do yourself and the community good by doing what Jesus said, Go and sin no more. 

--If the woman caught in adultery would have found Jesus’ love and forgiveness, experienced His acceptance, and then, returned to her adultery, she would have mocked the sacrifice Jesus made for her. Bad witness!

--The rock throwers hated Him for defending this woman and they would be back with more hate. Eventually they crucified Jesus for this woman and for all of us. 

--We should honor Jesus and the community He died for. Go and sin no more!

Who I Am

Who I Am

Subject – Discovering Our Identity in Christ

by Rick Welborne

Psalm 139:13-18 (NLT) 

13 You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb. 

14 Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it. 

15 You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. 

16 You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed. 

17 How precious are your thoughts about me, O God. They cannot be numbered! 

18 I can’t even count them; they outnumber the grains of sand! And when I wake up, you are still with me! 

Review Last Week:

1. There has never been and never will be anyone else like you!

Mark Batterson - You owe it to yourself to be yourself.  But more important, you owe it to the One Who designed you and destined you.

2. No one can worship God like you or for you!

Batterson - You were created to worship God in a way that no one else can. How? By living a life no one else can–your life. 

3. To find out who you are supposed to be, you will have to dig deep.

Batterson - Self-discovery is like an archaeological dig. It takes a long time to uncover the hidden treasures that lie buried beneath the surface. You can never be certain of what you will find or where you will find it. And it is a painstaking process.  

Psalm 139:14 (NLT) 

14 Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it. 

–Tonight we want to continue this journey of recognizing God’s unique print upon us and our willingness to find our uniqueness in God. We want to look for defining moments.

1. We must recognize those defining moments which reveal our destinies.

Batterson: Time may be measured in minutes, but life is measured in moments. And some moments are bigger than life. And it’s those defining moments that dictate the way we see life.

–Some of these moments may be as predictable as a wedding day or the birth of a child. Others may be as unpredictable as an accident.

–You never know which moment may become a defining moment, but being able to identify those moments is the key to identifying who you are. We must be sensitive to Holy Spirit all the time. 

–Psychological research suggest that one’s self concept is defined by a very small number of experiences. They say 99% of life’s experiences vanish like vapor into the subconscious abyss. Not sure about that percentage.

–That means only 1% of these experiences (according to them) make it into our conscious memories and only 1% of that 1% not only are remembered but are unforgettable. 

Batterson:  These are the moments that define who we are. And managing those memories is a form of stewardship. Every past experience is preparation for some future opportunity.  

–One of the ways God redeems the past is by helping us see it through His eyes. His providence. So the key in finding your destiny is hidden in your past memories.

Joshua 4:5‑7 (NKJV) 

5 and Joshua said to them: "Cross over before the ark of the LORD your God into the midst of the Jordan, and each one of you take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the children of Israel, 

6 that this may be a sign among you when your children ask in time to come, saying, 'What do these stones mean to you?' 

7 Then you shall answer them that the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD; when it crossed over the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. And these stones shall be for a memorial to the children of Israel forever." 

–Joshua was telling the people to set up memorial stones for their children in the future...These valuable memories become a part of who they are...do it for your kids. I have set up memorials for our kids.

–When you look in the mirror what do you see...you see the reflection of accumulated experiences.

–Defining moments are what shape us into what we have become. We are the aggregation (accumulation) of where we’ve been, what we’ve done, and who we’ve known...Wow...how important our choices are.

–Hear me...there are a few places, a few experiences, and a few people who leave imprints in ways that become parts of our soul prints.

–Can you give us an example in Scripture? I believe Stephen left his soul print on Saul who would become Paul:

Acts 7:56‑60 (NKJV) 

56 and said, "Look! I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!" 

57 Then they cried out with a loud voice, stopped their ears, and ran at him with one accord; 

58 and they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul. 

59 And they stoned Stephen as he was calling on God and saying, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." 

60 Then he knelt down and cried out with a loud voice, "Lord, do not charge them with this sin." And when he had said this, he fell asleep. 

Acts 8:1 (NIV) 

1 And Saul was there, giving approval to his death.

1 Corinthians 15:9 (NKJV) 

9 For I am the least of the apostles, who am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 

2. We must understand what our soul print is.

–Think about this...your finger print distinctly identifies and differentiates you from everyone else who has ever lived, but your finger print is only skin deep.

Batterson: You possess a uniqueness that is soul deep. I call it your soul print. It’s not just who you are, present tense. It’s who you are destined to become, future tense. It’s not just who others see when they look at you from the outside in. It’s who God has destined you to become from the inside out.  

–Your soul print hard wires your true identity and true destiny like your genetic code programs your physical anatomy.

–We always try to live our lives forward but God works backward. The Omniscient One (All Knowing) always starts with the end in mind.  Example please:

Psalm 139:16 (NIV) 

16.... All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.  

–As with the Psalmist all your days are ordained by God. It is our holy responsibility to discover that God ordained destiny, just like David did. His epitaph speaks for itself:

Acts 13:36 (NIV) 

36 "For when David had served God's purpose in his own generation, he fell asleep; he was buried with his fathers and his body decayed. 

–Very important that you understand this: Even though David had very humble beginnings and made huge mistakes he fulfilled his destiny. Your mistakes do not define you…giving up will.

–We will look to David as our example of having this soul print and fulfilling God’s unique purpose in our generation.

–On a day a defining moment happened when he bent down in a brook and picked up 5 smooth stones. His life was about to end or was about to begin. His destiny was being designed by God and by his courage. 

–Everybody who had ever known David, including his own father, saw him as nothing more than a shepherd boy. Don’t worry about what others do not see in you. God sees you differently.

–David saw the person God had destined him to be...a worshiper and a giant killer. That was his true identity and his true destiny.  What is your true identity and destiny?

Ephesians 2:10 (NLT) 

10 For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago. 

3. We must believe that we were conceived by God before we were conceived by our parents.

–Every work of an artist originates in the imagination of the artist...so you and I were conceived in the imagination of God...how awesome is that?

–You took shape in the heart and imagination of God before you took shape in the womb of your mother. 

Vincent van Gogh: Christ is more of an artist than the artists...He works in the living spirit and the living flesh; He makes men instead of statues.

–God is painting a picture of grace on the canvas of your life. God is writing His-story, history with a hyphen, through your life. God is crafting your character through the circumstances of your life.

Batterson: To see yourself as anything other than God’s masterpiece is to devalue and distort your true identity. And it’s in discovering your true identity that your true destiny is revealed.

–A sense of destiny is your sacred birthright as a child of God. Former verse:

Ephesians 2:10 (NLT) 

10 For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago. 

–The word “planned” is drawn from the Eastern custom of sending servants in advance of a king to prepare the road ahead. It was their responsibility to secure safe passage and make sure the king arrived at his destination.

–Paul took something they understood and turned it upside down (really right side up). The King of kings goes before His servants to prepare the road ahead. Jesus is going ahead of you!

–In other words He strategically places us in the right place at the right time. God is setting you up and that ought to fill you with an unshakable sense of destiny. Example:

Isaiah 45:1‑3 (NKJV) 

1 "Thus says the LORD to His anointed, To Cyrus, whose right hand I have held‑‑ To subdue nations before him And loose the armor of kings, To open before him the double doors, So that the gates will not be shut: 

2 'I will go before you And make the crooked places straight; I will break in pieces the gates of bronze And cut the bars of iron. 

3 I will give you the treasures of darkness And hidden riches of secret places, That you may know that I, the LORD, Who call you by your name, Am the God of Israel. 

--God will do the same thing for us if we seek Him with all of hearts. 

I Love My Church – 3

I Love My Church – 3

Subject – Living Out that I Love My Church

by Rick Welborne

John 8:1-11 (NKJV)
¹  But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.
²  Now early in the morning He came again into the temple, and all the people came to Him; and He sat down and taught them.
³  Then the scribes and Pharisees brought to Him a woman caught in adultery. And when they had set her in the midst,
⁴  they said to Him, "Teacher, this woman was caught in adultery, in the very act.
⁵  Now Moses, in the law, commanded us that such should be stoned. But what do You say?"
⁶  This they said, testing Him, that they might have something of which to accuse Him. But Jesus stooped down and wrote on the ground with His finger, as though He did not hear.
⁷  So when they continued asking Him, He raised Himself up and said to them, "He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first."
⁸  And again He stooped down and wrote on the ground.
⁹  Then those who heard it, being convicted by their conscience, went out one by one, beginning with the oldest even to the last. And Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst.
¹⁰  When Jesus had raised Himself up and saw no one but the woman, He said to her, "Woman, where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you?"
¹¹  She said, "No one, Lord." And Jesus said to her, "Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more." 

--I want to welcome everyone to “I love My Church” Sunday!  I have dreamed of this day for a long time and I am thankful to all of you who made the effort to be here.

--I have prayed much about this service today and I have really wanted to say exactly what God wants me to say. I hope all of you have pulled in your barbs and learned how to dance the Porcupine Dance!  

--We talked the first Sunday of this series how we are all broken people in need of a Savior and we spoke of the illusion of finding a local church that will be everything we expect it to be.

Bonhoeffer - Those who love their dream of a Christian community more than the Christian community itself become destroyers of that Christian community even though their personal intentions may be ever so honest, earnest, and sacrificial.

Isaiah 53:6 (NKJV) 

6 All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way; And the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. 

--As broken as we are God has chosen this Christian Community to be a dwelling place of God in the Spirit. What a miracle that this idea of a Christian community can even work.

Key - Jesus is the cornerstone of this community of broken, strange, weird bunch of misfits and to criticize the community is to insult the Christ Who built it.

--The second week we talked about the idea that there is no pain like the pain of loneliness. It is so strange that with so many ways of connecting, people are lonelier now than ever. Depression and anxiety are rampant.

Ortberg - I believe that if you had to sum up in a single word what God is up to, what His goal is in creating the universe and the persons who inhabit it, that word would be community.

--Finally we looked at last week how God has been experiencing this idea of community within the Trinity and He is welcoming us into that inclusive circle with Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Listen to Jesus:

John 17:21-23 (NLT) 

21 I pray that they will all be one, just as you and I are one—as you are in me, Father, and I am in you. And may they be in us so that the world will believe you sent me. 

22 “I have given them the glory you gave me, so they may be one as we are one. 

23 I am in them and you are in me. May they experience such perfect unity that the world will know that you sent me and that you love them as much as you love me.  

1. The Christian Community and the Humane Society.

--On Nantucket Island there is a museum dedicated to an organization formed centuries ago. Sea travel was so dangerous then and because of the storms in the Atlantic off the coast of Massachusetts, many lives were lost.

--Because so many lives were being lost along a mile stretch or so, a group of volunteers decide to get into the lifesaving business. They banded together to form what was called the Humane Society.

--People built little huts along the shore where people were perishing and people watched the sea at all times.

They didn’t do it for money or recognition but because they prized human life. Listen to their motto:

Humane Society Motto – You have to go out, but you don’t have to come back. 

--That doesn’t sound very catchy but it was. The stories and accounts of people who would risk everything, even their lives, to save people they didn’t know. Sounds a lot like missions.

--Over time, things began to change. The US Coast Guard began to take over the task of rescue. For a while the USCG and the Humane Society worked side by side. 

--Eventually the idea that carried the day was, “Let the professionals do it. They’re better trained and they get paid to do it.” Volunteers stopped manning the huts and going out searching for those lost in the sea. 

--A strange thing happened, they could not bring themselves to disband. The life-saving society still exists today. The members get together, have a dinner, and reminisce of the good old days. They enjoy each other.

--They’re just not in life-saving business. Listen, you and I were made to be in the Life Saving business. We are not to abandon our huts when people are shipwrecked around us every day. People are hurting everywhere.

--We have the ability to offer acceptance, love, and hope to those who may be going through the trials of their lives. So many need acceptances from those of us who seem to be more mature or seem to be blessed now. 

Romans 15:5-7 (NIV)
⁵  May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus,
⁶  so that with one heart and mouth you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
⁷  Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God. 

--With church attendance on the decline, have you ever given consideration why you should be faithful to this community of believers? National averages say people are attending church one or two times a month.

Hebrews 10:21-25 (NCV)
²¹  And since we have a great priest over God’s house,
²²  let us come near to God with a sincere heart and a sure faith, because we have been made free from a guilty conscience, and our bodies have been washed with pure water.
²³  Let us hold firmly to the hope that we have confessed, because we can trust God to do what he promised.
²⁴  Let us think about each other and help each other to show love and do good deeds.
²⁵  You should not stay away from the church meetings, as some are doing, but you should meet together and encourage each other. Do this even more as you see the day coming. 

Why we should be faithful to this community of believers…this local church:

A. Jesus, the great High Priest is here and He is over God’s House.

B. God’s house is a place where we can draw near to God and let Him cleanse us. 

C. God’s house is where we can receive teaching and preaching that will help us hold firmly to our faith.

D. God’s house is a place where we can help each other and show the love of Christ.

--Think about this…what if someone comes to church hurting? It happens every service. If you were here you could give them a hug (Wed. Night), pray with them, or give them an encouraging word. It is not all about us. 

Single Parent – Hi Pastor Rick, I just wanna thank you for always having open arms, to give my kids a hug means the world to them. I appreciate your kindness and always giving my children a giggle, you’re not only their pastor, you’re their friend. 

--Many of the people who come on Sunday am and pm and on Wednesday nights need someone to show love. I can’t reach them all, but as a community we can. We can’t love anyone or reach them if we are not here.

E. When we are faithful to God’s house, this community, we can encourage each other especially knowing Jesus’ return is so soon. 

2. Jesus, a woman caught in adultery, and the community of God.

--When God began to speak to me about sharing this story with you guys, I told Him I would rather not. He didn’t seem to care what I felt. Question: Why do so many churches produce stone throwers?

--Do yourself a study about Jesus and see which sins upset Him the most…sins of the flesh or sins of the spirit. The NT has many stories of these situations. Sins of the spirit, sins of the flesh, and Jesus combined together.

--There is the story with the sinful woman who anointed Jesus feet, the Pharisee and the tax collector, the prodigal son and his older self-righteous brother. Jesus seemed to side with the sinners of the flesh.

C.S. Lewis – The sins of the flesh are bad, but they are the least bad of sins. All the worst pleasures are purely spiritual: the pleasure of putting other people in the wrong, of bossing and patronizing; the pleasures of power and hatred. For there are two things inside me, competing with the human self which I must try to become. They are the Animal self and the Diabolical self. The Diabolical self is the worse of the two. That is why a cold, self-righteous prig who goes to church regularly may be far nearer to hell than the prostitute.

--People who are guilty of pride and arrogance are also blind. The Pharisees in the above stories were blind to the fact of how much they loved picking up stones to crush those who were hurting. Had no love or mercy.

--Those of us who can say I Love My Church should never be guilty of having people brought to us, or who just show up in their sin, and we either ignore them or we pick up stones. Story of the SS teacher and the smoker. 

--If I had my rather, I would rather have people who have been caught in their sins and are broken than to have those who are judgmental, superior in their attitudes, impatient with people, and bitter, leading our church.

--Questions: Who would you be in this story? The guilty caught in your sin, the judgmental picking up stones, or would you be more like Jesus? The truth is we all identify more with the adulteress. Not me, Pastor! Guilty!

Isaiah 53:6 (NKJV)
⁶  All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way; And the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. 

3. Go and sin no more.

John 8:10-11 (NKJV)
¹⁰  When Jesus had raised Himself up and saw no one but the woman, He said to her, "Woman, where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you?"
¹¹  She said, "No one, Lord." And Jesus said to her, "Neither do I condemn you; 

--You see; this community should never be a place of stone throwers. Someone came up to me last Sunday and told me how glad he was he found our church…I really feel accepted here and that people care. Wonderful!

--Jesus says something more to this lady which cuts her to her core but also gives her hope. Go and sin no more told her that He knew all about her sin but it also told her that someone believed in her. 

--Jesus accepting her into the community of the Trinity is not the same thing as simply tolerating any behavior that is unacceptable to God and His Word. She could not continue in her sin. We often miss this truth.

Ortberg – Accepting another human being does not mean we refuse to confront or challenge that in them which could harm others and damage their souls. 

--I love My Church means that everyone is welcome and that everyone will be accepted but it also means that once we enter this beautiful community of God that we should, go and sin no more. 

--This woman who was caught in adultery found forgiveness and acceptance in Christ but she also found something so unbelievably great…a new beginning…a new life…a new future surrounded by family.

Key – Failure to confront, to speak truth in love, can ultimately be as fatal to the growth of the community as being judgmental. 

Ortberg – “Go and sin no more.” Jesus’ acceptance is free, undeserved, unmerited—but it is also demanding. For the woman to fully examine her acceptance will require entering into a new way of life. The same grace that liberates her from past sins calls her to walk free of them in the future. 

2 Corinthians 5:17 (NKJV) ¹⁷ Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

--If you have found acceptance and love here at Life Church and have found that the community of God is what you have been looking for, do yourself and the community good by doing what Jesus said, Go and sin no more. 

--If the woman caught in adultery would have found Jesus’ love and forgiveness, experienced His acceptance, and then, returned to her adultery, she would have mocked the sacrifice Jesus made for her. Bad witness!

--The rock throwers hated Him for defending this woman and they would be back with more hate. Eventually they crucified Jesus for this woman and for all of us. 

--We should honor Jesus and the community He died for. Go and sin no more!