Grace is Greater Than Your Mistakes (Ls 2)
Notes
Transcript
I’m willing to believe that each of us did something stupid this week. Am I right?! Let’s not make a joke out of it, let’s take this seriously.
Resuming our talk about grace we started last week!
Grace is undeserved favor!
Grace is undeserved favor!
We established last week, that we all make mistakes.
We said each of us need to take an honest look at ourselves. That’s difficult to do.
I shared this quote:
“If the biggest sinner you know isn’t you, then you don’t know yourself very well.” - Pastor Jean Larroux.
We like to avoid talking about or dealing with our sins. I know I do. Often times in life we will experience a beautiful collision.
Beautiful Collision with Grace
Beautiful Collision with Grace
These are moments where we can’t avoid our sin, we have to deal with it. They can be painful, but they lead to our growth.
You get kicked out/off team/school for your behavior
Lose your job
Get in a wreck
You get caught
Confrontation
I want you to understand grace. That’s why we’re talking about it. We shouldn’t fear confrontation with our sin. We shouldn’t fear that God wants to punish us.
The worst thing that could happen is that you spend your life trying to outrun God because you think he’s chasing you to collect what you owe—when he’s really chasing you to give you what you could never afford.”
Let’s look at a beautiful collision of grace recorded in the Bible.
He had to go through Samaria on the way. Eventually he came to the Samaritan village of Sychar, near the field that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there; and Jesus, tired from the long walk, sat wearily beside the well about noontime. Soon a Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, “Please give me a drink.” He was alone at the time because his disciples had gone into the village to buy some food.
The woman was surprised, for Jews refuse to have anything to do with Samaritans. She said to Jesus, “You are a Jew, and I am a Samaritan woman. Why are you asking me for a drink?”
Jesus has a divine appointment - He intentionally “HAD” to go through Samaria. He’s in the right place at the right time to have this encounter with this woman. Jesus is talking with a stranger - that alone, would be weird in our society. In their culture it was even more weird because of the way the differences in the ways their religions worked.
Jesus replied, “If you only knew the gift God has for you and who you are speaking to, you would ask me, and I would give you living water.”
“But sir, you don’t have a rope or a bucket,” she said, “and this well is very deep. Where would you get this living water? And besides, do you think you’re greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us this well? How can you offer better water than he and his sons and his animals enjoyed?”
Jesus replied, “Anyone who drinks this water will soon become thirsty again. But those who drink the water I give will never be thirsty again. It becomes a fresh, bubbling spring within them, giving them eternal life.”
Jesus has this conversation with her that quickly turns spiritual. More than just talking about water is taking place. They quickly get to the heart of their religious differences. Jesus knows this women and wants to lovingly share his grace with her. So he moves the conversation to get to the heart of the matter.
“Please, sir,” the woman said, “give me this water! Then I’ll never be thirsty again, and I won’t have to come here to get water.”
“Go and get your husband,” Jesus told her.
“I don’t have a husband,” the woman replied.
Jesus said, “You’re right! You don’t have a husband—for you have had five husbands, and you aren’t even married to the man you’re living with now. You certainly spoke the truth!”
So this is an awkward, but important confrontation. Jesus isn’t being mean or angry. He’s not beating her over the head with a Bible. He’s being honest, direct, and filled with grace.
“Sir,” the woman said, “you must be a prophet. So tell me, why is it that you Jews insist that Jerusalem is the only place of worship, while we Samaritans claim it is here at Mount Gerizim, where our ancestors worshiped?”
Jesus replied, “Believe me, dear woman, the time is coming when it will no longer matter whether you worship the Father on this mountain or in Jerusalem. You Samaritans know very little about the one you worship, while we Jews know all about him, for salvation comes through the Jews. But the time is coming—indeed it’s here now—when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. The Father is looking for those who will worship him that way. For God is Spirit, so those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.”
The woman said, “I know the Messiah is coming—the one who is called Christ. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”
Then Jesus told her, “I Am the Messiah!”
The woman tries to run a screen, tries to move the conversation away from her and onto a hot-topic that is hotly debated between their two religious groups. She has this way of trying to push people away. Jesus gives her a good answer, but still points toward his authority. She tries to end the conversation by saying, “yeah, well that’s for God to decide...” Jesus responds, “actually, I am God”
The woman left her water jar beside the well and ran back to the village, telling everyone, “Come and see a man who told me everything I ever did! Could he possibly be the Messiah?” So the people came streaming from the village to see him.
This woman is changed by this encounter with Jesus. His grace cuts her to the core. She quickly share this story with those in her town (who she previously tried to avoid).
Many Samaritans from the village believed in Jesus because the woman had said, “He told me everything I ever did!” When they came out to see him, they begged him to stay in their village. So he stayed for two days, long enough for many more to hear his message and believe. Then they said to the woman, “Now we believe, not just because of what you told us, but because we have heard him ourselves. Now we know that he is indeed the Savior of the world.”
The grace Jesus brought to this woman changed her life and then she helped spread that grace to everyone in their whole community. This is a group that was “outside” of Jesus’ own people. Grace is like that. It affects everyone.
I’m curious though. If Jesus encountered you or me one day. What would he say to us? How would the conversation he’d have with us go? What would he confront us about? Would he say...
Your short temper keeps everyone on-edge around you. You’re pushing friends away.
your jealousy is causing you to overlook the good you have in your life.
Your lust problem can grow into addictions that will never be satisfied.
That boy/girl-friend isn’t the answer to your problems, no matter how much of yourself you give them, they just are using you.
The words you say to others may get laughs, but they can really hurt people. Do you want them to be as hurt as you are?
When you talk about me, but don’t live like me, it keeps people from being interested in knowing me.
Embrace the grace God wants to give us.
Embrace the grace God wants to give us.
Look at your life. Recognize the sin you harbor. Don’t let your pride get in the way of removing sin from your life. Be free of it. God wants to offer you forgiveness!
Grace is greater than your mistakes. Let this be a confrontation of it’s own. I’m asking you to think about this and do something about it. What sin has gone on long enough in your life? Where do you need to accept grace in your life?
Grace is greater than your mistakes.