“Do Over – Radical Forgiveness”
Do Over
- This is the last week of the series; I’ll begin something new next week.
- This series has worked from the idea that, on frequent occasions, the church of Jesus Christ has gotten things wrong.
- Gotten OFF TRACK for lack of better words.
- It’s missed its calling.
- I think we’re in one of those times presently.
- The church is failing and we need to get a sense as to why.
- Hence the idea of DO OVERS.
- We need one, here in this church, in the church more broadly, and we need one ourselves, personally.
- To that end, I’ve told you stories of my personal failures in ministry as the means to open us up more broadly to this idea.
- That pastors and priests don’t always have things, right?
- That what more than anything else we need to grow a church, to grow the church, is people having a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
- So, let’s have a Do Over, shall we?
My Mistake – Misreading the Times
- I was at my first Bible school at a church.
- Somehow, I’d missed the one at Myers Park and this was my first ever time helping with VBS.
- We had a lot of kids that year – over 60.
- There were so many, we really cramped into the fellowship hall with all the tables out. We were really too cramped.
- But they’d finally gotten the kids to settle down.
- They needed to get them into their groups.
- But I decided they needed to play a game with me, making a thunderstorm.
- Anyway, long story short, I got this whole large group of children in an absolute frenzy just as the real leaders needed them to settle down and be focused.
- I misread the room.
- We all do it from time to time.
- Look at data, form an opinion and then move on from there.
- But, sometimes, we didn’t look closely enough or, worse still, we just assumed we knew what we were talking about at the time.
- This surely happened in a great many churches during the Civil Rights Era in the USA.
The Church’s Failure – Segregation and Civil Rights
- As I’ve been showing you, collectively, the church gets things wrong a lot of the time and people suffer.
- One great incident of this occurred during the Civil Rights Era.
- Yes, some churches did very robustly support this movement away from segregation.
- But you know what, MANY did not.
- Many stayed put with their previous assumptions that the way the world was working was perfectly all right.
- Never mind that there were ample scriptures that could’ve shown that segregation was an utterly un-Christian concept.
- But instead, some churches heard about the “Curse of Ham” and the need to stay separate from the uncleanliness of other races.
- It was nutty times.
- You see, we get things wrong.
- But instead, some churches heard about the “Curse of Ham” and the need to stay separate from the uncleanliness of other races.
- Never mind that there were ample scriptures that could’ve shown that segregation was an utterly un-Christian concept.
The Prodigal Son
- There’s someone in our story that gets things wrong, isn’t there?
- Well, that’s for sure, two to be sure.
- The first brother’s failure we all know and see played out for us.
- This impudent young man goes to his dad and essentially says, “dad, you’re dead to me, give me my stuff.”
- WRONG but, you know what, he comes to his senses.
- The Younger Brother
- Comes to his senses
- Is embraced
- Radical forgiveness
- Great news of the story
- God really forgives us.
- God really embraces us back fully, there is no diminishment of our status because we’ve been sinners.
- God LOVES us that much.
- He really forgives us.
- But there is also some bad news.
- Some people will take this amazingly good reconciliation and feel somehow strangely BAD about it.
- Like they’ve somehow lost out not doing freely what they want.
- So, what’s the deal with this older brother.
- He is works based righteousness, 100%.
- Notice his words
- This son (not my brother) and how it’s all about the good things he’s done.
- He’s expecting more because he’s done more good.
- We do that too, don’t we sometimes?
- The elder brother
- Is resentful that God is full of Grace?
- Don’t we all get like that, sometimes?
- I know I do, on occasion.
- What the elder brother got wrong.
- Even though he might have been doing better, he was still doing things wrong.
- He is still a sinner.
- But he’s still wanting his stuff more than relationship with his father.
- How are we doing on that front?
- Do we understand that even though we’re here, in church, that we ourselves are the ones out of whack with God?
- That’s right? It isn’t about what other people are doing wrong, it’s about what’s wrong inside of our own hearts.
- The first step in our relationship with Christ is us seeking a do over.
- We go to God, confess our shortcomings, asking for Him to come into our lives.
- Then, the next step is growing in His love and grace so that we can share it with others.
- That’s right, our end, is to let other people know the good news.
- That we’re forgiven. Loved by God, no matter what.
- That’s right, our end, is to let other people know the good news.
- Do we understand that even though we’re here, in church, that we ourselves are the ones out of whack with God?
- Even though he might have been doing better, he was still doing things wrong.
- He’s expecting more because he’s done more good.
- This son (not my brother) and how it’s all about the good things he’s done.
- Some people will take this amazingly good reconciliation and feel somehow strangely BAD about it.
- This impudent young man goes to his dad and essentially says, “dad, you’re dead to me, give me my stuff.”
- The first brother’s failure we all know and see played out for us.
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