John 8:2-11
At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him.
But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.
At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”
“No one, sir,” she said.
“Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”
- There are 8 billion people in our world. (Different beliefs, backgrounds, persuasions, personalities, temperaments, lifestyles, different dance moves – not one is the same as the other). 8 BILLION people fearfully and wonderfully made.
- 8 billion destinies.
- 8 billion eternities.
It’s said that there are 2.5 billion Christians in the world but many of those are nominal Christians. In reality, there are probably 1 million Christians in the world today.
Imagine a dinner party attended by you and your seven best friends. Based on world population, one of you knows God and the other 7 are headed for a Christ-less eternity.
I heard one evangelist say, “If every believer alive today would reach seven other people for Jesus, the entire world would be saved.”
Now considering most unbelievers are out of our reach in terms of day-to-day life:
What if we reached just one person for Jesus?
What if we just picked up one?
What if we were intentional with one?
EACH ONE TO REACH ONE.
We have to change the way we look at people to get onboard with Gods mission.
Change Your Perspective, and You’ll Change The Objective
In John 8 the Pharisees bring a woman caught in her sin and say to Jesus that according to their own law she should be stoned to death. Jesus replies, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.”
Did Jesus not notice the woman’s sin? Of course, He did. But what really matters is He saw her first.
He saw her first, not her sin.
You are not your sin; you are not the mistake you made – your mistake is an event not an identity. In the story of the prodigal son, the Father never calls his son prodigal. Yet for thousands of years we’ve known him as the prodigal. God never called him that, the Father in the story never called him that. We did.
God never called the woman caught in adultery, “the woman caught in adultery” and yet for thousands of years we knew her as the woman caught in adultery. He never called her that. We did. We identify them by their sin, we know the by their mistake.
Many times we prefix people’s names with their issues.
God doesn’t have prodigal sons or drunk sons; He just has sons.
God doesn’t have promiscuous daughters; He just has precious daughters.
The enemy knows our name but calls us by our sin, God knows our sin but calls us by our name!
YOUR PERSPECTIVE WILL CHANGE YOUR OBJECTIVE
If I don’t value what is lost, I’ll not spend time, resources, energy, I’ll not spend my life seeing it found.
On average, about 2 million unsaved people enter eternity every month.
Every 24 hours, about 52,500 people die without even hearing the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Jesus says, “GO.”
The devil whispers, “NO.”
Culture says, “KEEP JESUS TO YOURSELF.”
Scripture says, “SHARE JESUS WITH EVERYONE.”
You have to decide what conditions your life? Culture or scripture?
56% of Christians according to Barna research believe their faith is private.
56% of Christians see the command as an option?
They’re choosing comfort over calling.
You know those people who find a place that sells great clothes or whatever and they’re really lowkey about it. “Bro, love the jacket, where’s it from?” “Ah, you know, just some place…. I forget.” They’re protected their source. Or those people who protect their connections.
It might work like that in culture, but scripture says, “The world of the generous gets larger and larger.”
POWER does not come through PROTECTING the source.
POWER is released when we’re PROJECTING the source.
Commentaires