Sex.
My husband and I heard the word on a young leader’s podcast this morning and he was unapologetic for it. He said all he knew about sex was you better not do it before you’re married.
My husband said, “You know, that’s the truth though. Growing up in church, I thought if I messed up one time it was over.”
I need to know, church, which is it? I’ve seen it both ways, and we’ve got to have the conversation.
Do you want us honest or dressed up?
Is the church for healing or the healed?
Should we be comfortable or confessing?
We preach the right things in the wrong context.
- God forgives us.
- Be good.
We’ve created a standard, y’all.
Jude 1:4 says, “For certain individuals whose condemnation was written about long ago have SECRETLY slipped in among you. They are ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our ONLY sovereign Lord.
There are people among us that have come in with us (Christians) that are unrecognized for what they are; LOST…. and these people, these intruders, are using God’s grace as a ‘get-out-of-jail-free’ card.
God forgives us… and He does, gosh, He does. He is so good and so sovereign and so, so forgiving BUT IT’S NO EXCUSE.
“What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We are those who have died to sin, how can we live in it any longer?” Romans 6: 1-2
Be transformed, church. Does that mean be good? Because we teach that.
We teach that church is for unified marriages, dresses, and sobriety…. that it is for the honest tither and the unwrinkled shirt.
Be good.
No cuss words, no drugs, no lies, and no past. No divorces, no abortions, no alcohol, and no teen pregnancy.
No mistakes equals no grace.
I’ve been in churches that allow t-shirts and those that prefer business casual, in churches that sing from hymns and others from guitars, in churches that have Sunday night services and those that don’t…. and no matter the setting, no matter the worship, no matter the service size… there’s one commonality. The church is for sinners, run by sinners, and that’s its biggest problem.
We sin, we point, and we judge.
The church is founding on healing, yet we’ve somehow created a prerequisite to be welcomed to have a seat.
what about the interracial relationships? about the mother that is pregnant with no husband? about the adulterer? about the one caught up in embezzlement or the latest school scandal?
Where can they sit?
God forgives, but do we?
Which is it church? Honest or dressed up?
Do we hand out pass after pass, living however we want to for the people that we accept, only to condemn the ones we don’t?
We can’t teach God is forgiveness, but not offer a seat at his table to those who need it.
and if you have a seat at the table, you have to know you didn’t earn it but you must honor it.
God did not send his son so you could live a life of sin. It’s not a free pass, it’s just a pass. You were bought at the price of blood. Innocent, perfect, Holy blood. It was not free.
We can’t preach a church founded on forgiveness and also practice a church of judgement.
Satan has secretly slipped in, having already been condemned, on this Earth he still holds a seat among us, assuring us it’s okay to be this way. With no authority, he tells us we can do that thing because God is a good God. He urges us to participate in church activities without adopting a church heart. He says a busy church is a successful one, and one without wrinkles is the one that has it together… but if we don’t come to church for healing, why do we go?
Don’t you see?
Which is church?
It hurts, because it’s true.
God is begging us to return, to refocus, to recommit.
We’ve got to talk about the hard things to become humble people. If it’s not convicting, it’s comfortable.
Be mindful if you resent the Truth, you’re not of it.
“Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another” Ephesians 4:25
“These are the things that you shall do: speak the truth to one another; render in your gates judgements that are true and make for peace” Zechariah 8:16
“Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ASHAMED, rightly handling the Word of TRUTH” 2 Timothy 2:15
“God is spirit, and those who worship Him MUST worship in spirit and truth” John 4:24
“Sanctify them in the truth; your word is TRUTH” John 17:17
“Have I become your enemy by telling you the truth?” Galations 4:16
“Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in DEED and TRUTH” 1 John 3:18
“If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth” 1st John 1:6
“A TRUTHFUL witness SAVES lives, but the one who breathes out lies is deceitful” Proverbs 14:25
“A false balance is an abomination to the Lord” Proverbs 11:1
“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness suppress the truth.” Romans 1:18
“Do not add to His words, lest he rebuke you and you be found a liar” Proverbs 30:6
“For we are not not, like so many, peddlers of God’s word, but as men of SINCERITY, as commissioned by God, in the sight of God we speak IN CHRIST” 2 Corinthians 2:17
We can continue to choose people and comfortability, or we can start choosing Christ and the great commission. Only one will help save souls… and only one will save yours.
In Spirit and in TRUTH,
