Domino Effect: Where Will Your Choices Lead?

INTRO

Before we get into the message I want to highlight the EPIC Chili Cook Off that we have coming in January: This is a great way to help support our students going on a mission trip this Summer as well as find out who here has the best chili. The money to enter goes towards the prize pot, but for anyone who wants to come and enjoy the chili and help do some judging its free. The way the judging will work is there will be a container for donations in front of each pot of chili. Then how you vote is by putting money in the container whose chili you want to win, and which ever pot has the most money in front of it will claim the popular vote for the chili cook off. The money that is put in the containers goes directly to the students for the mission trip. The winner of the popular vote will take half of the prize pot that is gathered from the entry fees for entering your chili. But don’t worry we will have some very hungry students judges going around and voting on which chili is the best and they will win the other half of the prize pot. The judges on this panel will be myself and students who are going on the mission trip.

ICE BREAKER

So I can’t wait to taste all of the amazing chili and see how much we can raise to help send our students to Lake Traverse, SD.

So who here loves to make a New Years Resolution? Honestly I grew up and used to make them when I was in middle school and high school, only because we had an English assignment that asked us to make them, but I maybe made it a week before my resolution completely failed. I had this choice and I was hoping that I could better myself, whether it was to eat healthier or to go work out more, spend less time playing video games or read more books. It never went well for whatever resolution that I chose. See my desire to try and better myself I thought if I got it all lined up just right and I take the right steps then it would all work out, but I figured out that I really did not desire my resolution at all and I let other choices and decisions dictate what was going to happen and once I made my choice everything fell into place just like a picture made from dominoes, that looks a little something like this: Show domino video.

MAIN MESSAGE

WHAT ACTIONS DID I MAKE THIS PAST YEAR?

Honestly I love watching those videos because I love to see all the hard work that someone had put into making the picture and then getting to see the end product. But while this can be a nice and beautiful piece of artwork, our choices and actions might not always end up looking like this when all is said and done.

Whether we see it or not all of our actions have some sort of effect like when you knock a domino over, sometimes we can know what it will be and others we may not even see the result of our actions. EH Chapin puts it this way.

Every action of our lives touches on some chord that will vibrate in eternity.

E. H. Chapin

So even before we get into the text this morning I want you guys to reflect on this thought through out this message: What Actions Did I Make This Past Year?

See maybe as you are reflecting on this year there has been some pretty good actions that you have made. Maybe you invited someone to church, or helped someone in need. Maybe you stood up for someone who was being harassed. Or maybe it was the idea of not acting. Maybe someone who normally gets on your nerves, but instead of responding you let it pass and showed the person respect even when they did not show it to you.

But then on the flip side, maybe there were some choices that you regret. You might not know where they led, but reflecting on this year there were some choices that you made that you wish you could take back. Maybe it was how you treated another person, maybe there is an addiction it your life, or maybe it too was the result of inaction, but instead of doing the right thing you did nothing.

OUR CHOICES ALWAYS CAUSE THINGS TO HAPPEN

See today we are going to be looking at a story in the Bible and look at the different choices that were made and the results of said choices. Today we will be looking at the Woman Caught in the Act of Adultery. We will be in the book of John today, look at what John writes, John 8:2-11

John 8:2–11 (NLT)

but early the next morning he was back again at the Temple. A crowd soon gathered, and he sat down and taught them. As he was speaking, the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in the act of adultery. They put her in front of the crowd.

“Teacher,” they said to Jesus, “this woman was caught in the act of adultery. The law of Moses says to stone her. What do you say?”

They were trying to trap him into saying something they could use against him, but Jesus stooped down and wrote in the dust with his finger. They kept demanding an answer, so he stood up again and said, “All right, but let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone!” Then he stooped down again and wrote in the dust.

When the accusers heard this, they slipped away one by one, beginning with the oldest, until only Jesus was left in the middle of the crowd with the woman. Then Jesus stood up again and said to the woman, “Where are your accusers? Didn’t even one of them condemn you?”

“No, Lord,” she said.

And Jesus said, “Neither do I. Go and sin no more.”

So first thing I want to do is give you some background on when this is going on. This this believed to be happening at the end of the Festival of Sukkot, also known as the Festival of Booths. This was a time when the people of Israel would live outside of their homes in tents for 8 days to remember the 40 years of the wilderness during the time of Moses. Now this is important because during this time it was more common for a spouse to be unfaithful, but also at the same time it was that much easier to be caught being unfaithful. Now we do not know the exact circumstances as to how she was caught or what exactly happened, but here is what we do know:

1: She was caught in the act.

It does not say they caught her after or even before, but in the actual act of adultery, so she already must be feeling embarrassed to be dragged out into the middle of the street during the end of a festival where everyone is having a good time.

2: She is the only one brought to Jesus.

Last time I checked adultery takes two people not one. Yet when the Pharisees and Scribes, bring her to Jesus, they do not bring the man who she was with.

3. They want her punished according to the Law of Moses.

The thing is if they truly wanted to follow and honor the Law of Moses, they would have brought the man as well, but even more they never would have take them to Jesus, they have their own courts that they would have gone too. Also it is more likely that they would have taken the women to her husband and let him have a saw in what should happen. On top of that capital punishment such as stoning was not something that Jews could carry out because of Rome. Just look at the crucifixion of Jesus, the Jews couldn’t kill Jesus, they had to let Rome do it. So there was no way for them to even carry out the capital punishment of stoning on the women without getting in trouble with Rome.

4. They could care less about the punishment and all about tricking Jesus.

See if Jesus said to stone her then not only could they label him an enemy of Rome, but they would show he was not a friend of sinners, yet on the flip side if he said spare her they would say he was not honoring the law of Moses that God had given them.

There were a lot of choices too that were made to get us to this point as well:

1. The religious leaders wanted to trick Jesus

2. The women did sin by commit adultery

3. Jesus made his ruling

So as we can tell even just looking at the outline of this story: Our Choices Always Cause Things to Happen.

We might not know what the actions of what our choices cause. Think of the butterfly effect of time travel. One small action can change the whole timeline, but you don’t know what the cause of the action will be. Or there are times when you know exactly what your choice will lead to. There might even be a time where you have a desired outcome, yet something else happens entirely.

APPLICATION

THE WOMAN: THE CHOICE OF THE FLESH

I now want to take a look at the three main actions that take place in this story, but even during this time I want you to reflect on which character you would resonate with.

The first character I want to look at is the woman herself. We do not know much about her at all except that based on the wording that was used to describe the act of adultery that she was more than likely married as was the man she was having an affair with. We know nothing of her marriage or what kind of person she was. All we know about her is the sin that she commited. But that’s it. Yet that is all we need to know, she was not perfect and she had sinned. But now just as Jesus turned the question back to the religious leaders in verse 8 when he says: John 8:7

John 8:7 NLT

They kept demanding an answer, so he stood up again and said, “All right, but let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone!”

He asked them who here has not sinned throw the first stone, I want to ask, who here would say that they are just like the woman? Maybe you haven’t committed adultery, but who here hasn’t sinned? So when we look at the Woman here is the choice she made: The Choice of the Flesh.

Now you might be wondering shouldn’t this be the choice of sin, which you could put that there, but as we are going to get the the Religious Leaders, their choice too was sin, so we are going to look more carefully at the sin and the choices that they made. And we are not going to sugar coat it. Because here is the thing the Choice of the Flesh and the sin that can corresponds to it is one that people like to hide behind and to keep in the shadows, but the thing is no sin is hidden before God. So even though you may think no one knows, God does.

THE RELIGIOUS LEADERS: THE CHOICE OF JUDGEMENT

Now lets flip it right back to the religious leaders. Look at how Jesus calls them in John 8:10

John 8:10 NLT

Then Jesus stood up again and said to the woman, “Where are your accusers? Didn’t even one of them condemn you?”

He called them accusers. Or there may be a better word that we can use instead of accusers? How about judgers? These religious leaders did not care at all about the women or even her own struggles they solely looked at the sin in her life and thought about how they could best use it for their own schemes or ideas. They refused to look at the person beyond the sin, they refused to look at the person who was hurting and struggling. While we do not know what caused the women to commit adultery, what we can infer is that it is not something someone wakes up one day and decides to do. Maybe she did not view herself as a child of god, maybe her husband didn’t treat her well. Really is doesn’t matter for the why, but just that this woman was hurting and instead of helping her they chose to judge her and throw her at the feet of Jesus to try and trip Him up. They did not bring her to Jesus for her to be shown love and mercy they wanted to bring her to Jesus to condemn her and bring down Jesus all at the same time. See when we look at the Religious Leaders here is the choice they made: The Choice of Judgement.

And let’s be honest here us as Christians probably struggle with this one the most. Think about it how often could you say that when something goes wrong for someone, you might look at them and think well they deserve it because they did X or Y. Or maybe you judge them for why do all these good things happen to them when they do this behind the scenes, does no one see them.

But then at the same tim we all have probably been on the receiving end of the choice of judgment from other people. Maybe they do something that you don’t agree with so someone bad mouths you to others. The choice of judgement can really go hand and hand with gossip. Maybe you were different and someone judged you and then talked about you behind your back. You would be a victim of the choice of judgement and sometimes we may never know we were a victim at all. But sometimes it never stays hidden at all and then it can even lead to division not just among friends but even among the whole church. This then goes against how the church is described in the book of Acts: Acts 2:42-47

Acts 2:42–47 NLT

All the believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, and to fellowship, and to sharing in meals (including the Lord’s Supper), and to prayer. A deep sense of awe came over them all, and the apostles performed many miraculous signs and wonders. And all the believers met together in one place and shared everything they had. They sold their property and possessions and shared the money with those in need. They worshiped together at the Temple each day, met in homes for the Lord’s Supper, and shared their meals with great joy and generosity—all the while praising God and enjoying the goodwill of all the people. And each day the Lord added to their fellowship those who were being saved.

The church described here is one of unity not disunity, one that does not let the choice of judgement reign supreme, but more of the choice we are going to look at with how Jesus encountered the woman.

JESUS: THE CHOICE OF MERCY

Now how did Jesus respond: John 8:10-11

John 8:10–11 NLT

Then Jesus stood up again and said to the woman, “Where are your accusers? Didn’t even one of them condemn you?” “No, Lord,” she said. And Jesus said, “Neither do I. Go and sin no more.”

Jesus did not condemn the woman for her past, nor the sin that she commited, but instead he did for her what he too has done for us. He took her sin on himself so that she could be free from the punishment of sin, which we see from Romans is death. We see from the interaction with the woman what choice Jesus had made it was: The Choice of Mercy.

As we noticed Jesus could have judged her and condemned her for her sin, but instead he showed her mercy and took the punishment for her sin on Himself. This choice is one that Christ calls us to emulate as we are his followers, yet it is this very choice that can be difficult to make. Think about this even his own disciples struggled with the idea of showing mercy. I mean just look at Peter at one point he cuts off a mans ear and then even after Jesus had ascended into heaven he still struggled with the idea of judging others and showing mercy. In the book of Acts we see Peter having to be shown a vision 3 times before he gets the notion that it is ok for the Jews to share the Gospel with the Gentiles. Mind you Jesus had given them this command right before he ascended into heaven, yet they still did not get it.

So if we don’t get it right away we aren’t the only ones, now just because it can be hard does not mean it is something that we should just duck out on and not try to better ourselves in. When we show others mercy it also gives us the opportunity to show them Christ as well. If we resond the way the world responds then they can say well look just another angry Christian and we just show them what they already think of us. So if we show them Christ instead of what they expect to hear from a Christian, then just maybe we can help be the light in their lives and plant a seed to help them see the Gospel.

CHALLENGE

WHAT CHOICES WILL YOU MAKE NEXT YEAR?

While we just looked at the three different choices in this one passage of scripture, there are many more we could have looked at thru out the Bible, this one passage is one that can really give us a look at the different choices that we can when interacting with other people and even at choices we make in our own lives.

Just to recap the three choices we looked at this morning:

The Choice of the Flesh

The Choice of Judgement

The Choice of Mercy

When looking at these choice there is obviously one that stands out among the rest and that is the choice of mercy. Early Church Father John Chrysostom, put the idea of showing someone mercy this way:

Mercy imitates God and disappoints Satan.

John Chrysostom

So if we want to imitates of God then the best way we can do that is to show others mercy.

Now we are about to close out on the year 2024, which means that 2025 is right around the corner. This means people will be starting their New Years Resolutions, which tend to fail pretty quickly. Why? Well its because you do it on your own, so instead I want to leave you with a challange, one that is not just for you, but between you and God, but not just that but between you brothers and sisters in Christ right here. So I ask: What Choices will you Make Next Year?

Let’s Pray.