Look Again for the Very First Time

Are you ready for another round of look again...for the very first time? The game where we take a fresh look at some perspective of Jesus life that we may have heard so often that we fail to be amazed by it. Here we go...be amazed...

Your name is Mary. You’re a hooker. A street-walker. A prostitute. Nobody at the church wants you hanging out in front of the entrance, and you assume that if the church people don’t want you, their God doesn’t want you either. You watch from your corner as the people leave the evening service, giving you cold glares as they walk by or drive off. Not a problem for you. You’re not wanting what they have to give anyway. You’re waiting for a certain someone to come out of the church. Here he comes now. One of the Pastoral staff. He shakes hands with the last of the parishioners and watches as they disappear around the corner. He locks the building and then looks your way. You’ve seen that look hundreds of times before. The look of a man hungry with lust. He looks around to make sure that no one is watching and then gives you the signal. You leave your corner and head for your previously arranged meeting place a few blocks away. By the time you get there, he is already inside and waiting. You are barely undressed when the door comes smashing in. It’s the rest of the pastoral team. Grabbing you, dragging you from the bed as you clutch at sheets and try to cover yourself, they half-lift, half-drag you out into the streets.


Your mind is swirling. This is it. This time you lose. Set up by the pastors. You know the rules. You mess around and get caught, you die. You’ve played the odds and this time you lose. You’ve been in and out of a hundred beds, and so you figure it must be your time to go.

Inwardly you cry for a God to save you. But why would He? His people know you’re scum. His word says that an unfaithful woman should be stoned. No. No use crying out to Him. Take the punishment with as much dignity as you can muster. Suddenly you are flung in front of the Teacher, your sheet being ripped away as you hit the dusty street. Curling up you try to cover yourself from all of the laughter and leering eyes as the pastors say, “Teacher, Moses and the law say that we should stone this woman. What do you say?”

You know what any holy man will be forced to say and you brace yourself for the rocks. Abruptly, you realize that all has grown quiet and then you hear the question. “Woman, where are your accusers?” Looking up slowly from your curled up position, you realize no one else is around. It is just you and Jesus. He is taking His outer cloak and covering you. You respond, “I don’t see anyone, Lord.” And then His response takes you totally by surprise, “Neither do I condemn you. Go and leave your life of sin.” You look again. And you see for the very first time that He is smiling.

Go ahead...be amazed!

You CAN Begin Again Pt 2

She didn’t think it was that big of a deal, at least not at first. Her boyfriend had only wanted to spend a little time making out, showing her, as he put it, “how much he loved her.” It was exciting to be held in his embrace. It felt good to be physically touched and caressed. But one thing led to the next and before long, raging hormones got the best of them, and found themselves in bed, not only with each other, but with a load of guilt and overwhelming shame. But they loved each other right? How could it be wrong when it felt so right? And yet there was always that nagging feeling in the back of their mind that something wasn’t so right. When all of their friends were gone, when they were apart, and they were left only to the thoughts in their own mind, they both knew, deep down that it wasn’t right. And yet, when they were with each other, they couldn’t control themselves and they found themselves getting more deeply involved, until one day they realized that life wasn’t quite as fun as it once had been. They were fighting more in between their sexual encounters. In fact, life had been reduced to that cycle. Fight and have sex. And the guilt continued to gnaw on them. And she just knew she was going to hell.

He thought that perhaps it was because she just wasn’t the right girl after all, and though he had promised a thousand times that he loved her, he began looking and jumped ship when he saw a prettier face come by. And it wasn’t long before he was involved in another relationship and pledging his love to another, “for all time!”

She could hardly stand herself for the choices she had made, and she liked him less. Something inside her screamed. “Wait!---Do-over!” But she realized that she could never go back, and since she was headed for hell and since a guy had ruined her, she decided that she was going to get her revenge by taking down as many guys as she could. She set out to see if she could seduce someone. At first, she did it for fun. But one day, a guy offered her money, and she realized that she could support herself and mess up guys at the same time. And guys were so stupid, she thought. They are so totally ruled by their hormones.

Weeks turned into months which turned into years. Always it was the same. Men, who just wanted one thing. Men from all walks of life. Business men. Construction workers. Professors. Lawyers. Doctors. And yes, even a few preachers, who always came at two or three in the morning to keep from getting caught. The hypocrites. All of them, professing to live honorable lives, some even having a wife and kids at home.

At least she wasn’t pretending…not anymore. There had been a time when she had told herself that she was still a good person. But not anymore. Now she knew what she was, and had accepted it…except for that same old gnawing feelings of guilt that she couldn’t seem to shake, and that she was headed for hell. And in the middle of the dark and lonely nights after the man of the hour had left her bed, she would lay and stare at the ceiling and wonder if there was no way out.

It happened early one morning. She had just gotten to sleep at 2:30, but at 5:00, just as the sky was starting to turn pale, there was an insistent knocking on her door. She pulled aside the curtain to see one of her regulars, a preacher, looking around and banging on the door. She opened the door and he swept in, angry that she had taken so long to answer the door. “Someone might see me,” he said. “Hypocrite,” she responded.

“Don’t call me that! I give you a good amount of business!”

“Yeah, and a good amount of guilt. If your God is so great, why doesn’t he rescue me from you?”

He pulled out a wad of bills. “Who's the paying customer here? Do you want the money or not? Just shut up and get on with it."

She went into the same weary routine of seduction and soon it was over. Suddenly, the door burst open and in came police officers and a bunch of other ministers. Finally she thought, they’ve nailed the hypocrite. He just sneered at her and picked up the wad of bills that he had laid on the nightstand. But instead of him, they grabbed her and yanked her naked and fighting from the bed, dragged her out into the street and down towards the local church. There was a Street Preacher there. And they threw her down in front of him. Naked and alone. And they began quoting scripture, “Moses said that such a woman should be killed. What do you say?”

You know the story and you know the preacher. Jesus bent down, without saying a word and took off his outer garment and covered her. Then he knelt down and began writing in the dirt. The accusers asked their question again. Jesus stood up and said, “let the one without sin be the one to throw the first rock.” And then he knelt and started writing. One of my favorite Christian writers, Ellen White says that he was actually writing their sins in the dirt, and one by one as they read their own sins written there, they dropped their rocks and slipped away.

When they were all alone, Jesus asked the woman a simple question. John 8:10 Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”

I can imagine her looking up for the first time from the place she has been huddled waiting for the rocks to hit. And as she looks around she is forced to acknowledge that no one is left to condemn her except the one that truly could. John 8:11 “No one, sir,” she said. “Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”

Jesus speaks the same words to you and me this morning. Neither do I condemn you. Go now and leave your life of sin.” Do-over!

That’s the good news. And some of you need that news this very day. Some of you, the Lord has been working on your heart all this week. You’ve had a spiritual struggle going on for a long time, because you know you need to drop the old life and start over, but you keep clinging to your sin. Let it go this morning. Accept before God, that you are a sinner in need of forgiveness. Confess your sins to Him, and he will forgive and cleanse you from all of your sin. He’ll let you start over.

Simply say in your heart to God: God, I am a sinner in need of your forgiveness. I need you to take my sin and guilt and shame and cover me with your robe of righteousness. 

 

You CAN begin again!!

You CAN begin again! Pt 1.

The summer of my fifth-grade year, a hot new fad took my neighborhood by storm. Many of our neighbors jumped on board immediately, and with a lot of begging and pleading from my sister and I, we were soon the latest in the neighborhood to buy in to the rage of the season. I remember coming home from the store, unpacking the box in the front yard, and while my dad set up the net, my sister and I smacked what was known as a birdie, back and forth. The rage…backyard badminton. Only in our case, we had to play in the front yard, because our back yard sloped away so steeply it made it difficult to play.

Then we were all about hitting the birdie back and forth trying to hit it over the net. We played for hours. Then one day, it occurred to us that there just might be a way to keep score. We read the directions for play and learned about boundaries and scoring. We measured out a regulation court and put out four stakes for the back corners, and tied a string to one and ran it all the way around the court so we could know where the boundaries were. We read about serving and returning. We tried each a few times and returned to the rulebook. We read of strategies for badminton. My personal strategy at the time was just to hit the stupid thing and hope it went over. We read of proper racket grips and we adjusted ours accordingly. And finally, when we had read all we could, we decided it was time to try our first game.

I stepped up to the line, with my racket extended and the birdie held aloft. Swinging through and stepping forward, I promptly caught my foot in the string and my birdie went straight up and straight down, and I immediately cried those words we learn all through childhood whenever we mess up. “Wait! Do-over!” And my sister quickly agreed that because of the string, I was indeed entitled to a do-over. We fixed the string again…this time as close to the ground as possible, and I tried again. This time I didn’t hit it hard enough and it went into the net. “Wait! Do-over!” After the 5th “Do-over” my sister said…”That’s enough! It’s my turn now!”

But after her 5th “Do-over” I was saying the same thing. You need to know that I went on to become a champion badminton player. I took badminton in college for a PE credit, figuring it would a simple A. I’ve never worked so hard at a PE grade in my life as I did competitive badminton. It is definitely not a sissy sport. And there are definitely not any “Do-overs” allowed. You mess up…too bad!

Don’t you love that concept of “Do-over”? Don’t you wish sometimes in life after you’ve just messed up big-time that you could just yell, “Wait! Do-over!” and everything would reset for you just the way it was before you messed up? Wouldn’t that be great?

You say something you really didn’t mean to say, and you can see that your words just devastated the other person—“Wait! Do-over!” and the damage is instantly undone. It’s like you never said anything at all. Or you wreck your parent’s car and injure someone. “Wait! Do-over!” and zzzzzip! You are right at the point before things went awry, and with your new-found knowledge, you can avoid the mistake and move on consequence free. You choose differently and avoid the wreck and no one is any the wiser.

Or you are making out with your boyfriend or girlfriend and things get a bit too hot and heavy and before you realize what has happened, you have gone too far and become sexually involved. “Wait—do-over! And suddenly you have your virginity back with a new knowledge and the ability to choose, once again how you will handle it. This time, realizing the emotional, physical, and spiritual toll it will take, you choose differently and get yourself out of the situation before it gets too serious…and you find that all is well and no one is the wiser.

Or you step out on your marriage for just one night...but the guilt and shame won't leave you and now your spouse has discovered your secret. "Wait--do-over!" And suddenly your marriage is put back together again.

What a great concept, if a simple “Wait! Do-over!” would un-change all the bad mistakes and stupid choices we make or dumb accidents we have because we’re not paying attention. But it’s not that simple. There is no magic do-over rule. For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Have you ever experienced that rule? For every choice you make, there is a consequence. That’s the rule. If you want good consequences, you have to make good choices. But if you make bad choices, there are bad consequences to have to deal with. That’s life!

Some of you are carrying heavy loads because of the choices you’ve made. Some of you are absolutely miserable deep under the surface, even though you outwardly are all smiling and joking.

See we live two different lives. One that is on the surface that we let everyone see, and one that is beneath the surface that we desperately try to keep hidden, except from a choice few people that we’ve learned to trust. And you live life scared to death that someone you don’t trust might find out who you really are and not like you because of it, or worse, use it against you.

Some of you have done stuff that you badly wish you could go back and undo. Perhaps some of you even did stuff this past week that you have been kicking yourself for and hoping and praying that no one finds out about.

You desperately long for a Do-over. A new beginning. One that says….ok…I have really screwed things up in my life, but wait—do-over!!! I just want to be at peace inside myself. I just want to be able to look at myself in the mirror again and know that I’m an ok person. I just want to be loved for who I am. I want to drop this load of guilt and shame. And I just wish I could start all over and not be so stupid and make the same mistakes.

Did you know the Bible says that there is such a thing as a do-over. While it can’t erase all of the consequences of your sin and bad choices, it can make you appear, to God, as though you had never sinned. Grab your bibles, let’s go on a quick trip to the land of do-overs.


Romans 3: 10 As it is written: "There is no one righteous, not even one; 11 there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. 12 All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one." 13 "Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit." "The poison of vipers is on their lips." 14 "Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness." 15 "Their feet are swift to shed blood; 16 ruin and misery mark their ways, 17 and the way of peace they do not know." 18 "There is no fear of God before their eyes."

Man’s condition is rotten. Basically, God is saying: “I DO know all about you. I know your heart. I know your deeds. And they are not good. In fact, Romans 3 goes on to say: 19 Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. 20 Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin. 21 But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. 22 This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus

Did you see that? All have sinned and fall short. That means that the pastor has stuff in his life that needs as much forgiveness as you do. That means that I am as much of a sinner as you are, and there are things in my life that I want to keep hidden as much as you do. And how can I condemn you when I have sin in my life? Does that mean that I can just excuse your sin because I want you to excuse mine? No…if we did that for each other, it would still leave us in a miserable mess.

Romans 6:23 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

If I keep doing the things I have done, I deserve death. There is no hope. I’m up the creek without a paddle. I’m in a sinking ship with no hope. I’m drowning in a sea of sin. If I just stop at the beginning of that phrase, it’s hopeless. Oh, but praise God, I don’t have to stop there. BUT…the gift of God.

What does gift mean?
Can I earn it?
Can I buy it?
Can I barter for it?
Can I trade for it?

John 3:16    “For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life."

I can do nothing except receive it. How?

By faith. By simply trusting in His sacrifice. Trusting in the completed work of what Jesus did on the cross and claiming it for your own. He said that if I would receive His gift, He would put his life’s record in place of mine. I can’t add anything to it. It’s perfect. It’s the biggest do-over possible!

When Satan, the accuser of the brethren comes and says, “Keele is mine…he’s sinned and he’s sinned big! I want him and you must release him to me”, God the Father looks over at Jesus…and instead of seeing my record riddled with sin and mistakes, He looks at me THROUGH Jesus…as though I had never sinned. Jesus simply says, “My blood, Father. He has accepted my blood.” And God looks back at that old serpent, the devil and He says, “Devil! You don’t know what you’re talking about! NOW GET OUT OF HERE AND LEAVE MY CHILD ALONE! And I am saved from the accusations. Saved from the Devil. Saved from eternal death. Is that Good News or what?

Ok…so what do I do?

 Confess.

 

1John 1:8,9    "If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth.  9 But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness."  

Confess that you have done wrong. God already knows it. You already know it. Tell the truth! And determine to turn away from sin. Don’t keep wallowing in the miry quicksand of the sin that has sucked you in. Get out of it. Turn away. Don’t just casually say…oops, sorry God. Oh well. Hehe.

But confess it and ask him for power to turn away from it. And claim Jesus as your Savior.

1 John 5: 11 And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 12 He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. 13 I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.

God wants you to have the assurance of your salvation. He says that if you have accepted the Son of God into your life, you may KNOW that you have eternal life. And that’s cause to celebrate. That’s cause to be happy. Knowing that you have been released from your past. Knowing that you also have grace to live for the future.

Learn to accept it...then learn to offer it.