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.

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.