The Church of Eleven22 - Wk 5: Bridging Shame

Episode Date: September 8, 2019

“Your faith has saved you. Go in PEACE.” – Jesus The religious knew Him as a teacher and scoffed. The wretched knew Him as Savior and wept.

Amen, amen. How we doing, church? Everybody good? You got your Bibles grabbing. We're going to be in Luke chapter 7. Luke chapter 7. We're continuing in the series called Bridges. And we are diving in deep. Today we're going to talk about that Jesus bridges over our shame. How many of you have ever heard this phrase, or maybe somebody told you this phrase, shame on you? You may have heard that, been told that? I can remember I was in the first grade, and I didn't like first grade. I didn't like all the other grades I went to either, but I didn't like that one especially.

And my elementary school was two blocks from my house, and so I would jump the fence and just go home whenever something didn't go my way, all right? And so we had to have this little parent-teacher situation, and we sat down with Miss Lucius, and she looked at me from leaving school, and she said, you should be ashamed of yourself. And she told my mom, with me sitting right there, I doubt he'll ever make it out of elementary school. And I was like, I make it out every day I won't. I don't know what you're talking about. So anyway, and she said that, shame on you. And in fact, when I graduated high school, I sent her an invitation to my graduation and college

and with my master's degree, all right, but whatever. But the crazy thing is, the crazy thing is, is that in school, whenever I got in trouble or especially when I made bad grades, and there was plenty of both of those, I began to think about the words of my first grade teacher and think, maybe she is right. You see, there's a difference between guilt and shame.

Guilt is about something that you have done. Shame is about who you are. And sometimes we can confuse our activity with our identity. And here's what I know. I know that people walk into church, especially church, week after week after week, and with you, you bring a whole bunch of shame because of your past, because of what you've done, because you're a Tennessee or a Florida state fan, whatever it is. Some things are really shameful.

Whatever it may be, we bring this sense of shame, and there is no place for shame in the gospel of Jesus Christ. Because essentially, this world says shame on you, and Jesus will say, no, no, no, no, I will take your shame and crucify it to the cross. In Luke chapter 7, we're going to pick up this event where Jesus puts to death shame. It says this. In Luke chapter 7, I think it's verse 36. My eyes can't quite get down to that little number anymore, but I got too much pride to wear the glasses yet. so shame on me. Here we go. One of the Pharisees asked Jesus to eat with him, and he went into the Pharisees' house and reclined at the table. Now remember last week, he ate with the tax collector, the chief tax collector. And in the first century, when he said he was going to eat with the

tax collector, that was like the grossest of all gross sinners, everybody there in the first century went boo, and all of us in the 21st century go, yay. We love it when Jesus eats with sinners. Now, in this situation, when the Pharisee invites him over to his house, the Pharisee was like the upper crust of society. He was a religious leader. Everybody looked at the Pharisee, and when Jesus said, I'm going to his house for dinner, the crowd then went, yay, and all of us go, boo. Because we don't like religious people. The crazy thing is, though, you are one. Me too.

The hardest part about reading this event, I don't want to say story, because it's not like a story. story, it's an event that happened, is that most of the time when we read the Bible, we don't think it's talking about us. Like when I read the Bible, I think it's talking about you. And if y'all would just do what I say, we could get out of here in about 20 minutes, all right? But the reality is, is that the crazy thing is, the more we go to church, the more and more and more, we are going to be like the Pharisees in this account. I need us to hear that.

And so last week, he heats with senators, this week heats with the religious. I hope you know this if you've been around here at all. The movement, this movement, 1122, it's a movement for all people, and all means all, for all people to discover and deepen our relationship with Jesus Christ. And so whether you're brand new to Bible study, and I said, turn to Luke, and you were like, Luke's right there, not that Luke, okay? You are welcome here. Or if the moment we crack open this story, you already know how it's going to end, that

everybody in between, the mature Christian that went to Sunday school with Moses, or if this is your first time ever, then this movement is for you. But it's not just for you to just kind of show up and be here. It's a movement for all people to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus Christ. And so here's Jesus, having dinner with this Pharisee. Verse 37, and behold, a woman of the city who was a sinner. This is a very specific description. Most commentators agree that this woman with this kind of title would be known as a

prostitute or a horrible reputation. And a woman of the city who was a sinner, when she learned that he, that's Jesus, was reclining at table in the Pharisee's house, she brought an alabaster flask of ointment and standing behind him at his feet, weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears and wipe them with her hair, the hair of her head, and kissed his feet and anointed them with the ointment. I don't even, I don't know how to describe how scandalous an event is that is happening right there. You see, most of the time in the first century, they didn't have AC, so when they would have a dinner like this, it was kind of a semi-private event. And part of the reasons it was semi-private is they left the doors open, they left the windows open, because they wanted everybody to see who their guest of honor was in their house.

At this point, by Luke chapter 7, Jesus is famous. He's been healing people, he's been doing miracles, lots of people are following him. really big deal. And the Pharisee wants everybody to know that the big deal is eating at his house. And then, out of nowhere, uninvited, a woman, by the way,

women would not have been invited to this kind of dinner. They wouldn't have been. The men would recline at the table. That means they would kind of lay all, not on each other, but they would lay down at the table. And dinners like this would take hours and hours and hours and hours because they didn't have cable yet. There's nothing to do.

So dinners would be four or five hours. long. And when she walks by and she sees Jesus reclining at the table, something happened in her that she decided in that moment, I'm sick of carrying around this shame, and I don't care what anybody else thinks, I'm going to get to the feet of the Savior. And I'm telling you, when she walked in the room, all the oxygen went out of the room. I mean, imagine this. Imagine like you're at a kid's birthday party, your kid's birthday party, all your neighbors are over, and you're hanging out. And then in come the prostitutes and move all the presents and start weeping at your husband's feet, you'd be like, um, hello, like there'd be a thing, okay? So it's more than that. And something's

going on in this woman. And here's the thing, man, here's why I don't want to call it a story, because when you think story, you think a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. This is an event. This lady had a name. She had an address. Something happened to her. I mean, let's be honest, probably some man happened to her that opened the door that she thought her best option was to go down this road that led to prostitution. It could have been a rape or abuse or maybe a man left her in the first century. All you had to do to get divorce was write a certificate of divorce if you were displeased. And then essentially in the first century, a woman who had been divorced was worthless and useless to that society. And so her whole life, her whole life, she's been walking around with nothing but shame.

And then the gall of this woman to walk in this party with religious leaders and Jesus himself. And in that moment, she cared less about what people thought about her. And she only cared about getting to the feet of her Savior, Jesus Christ. Now let me tell you, let me tell you what happens in this place over and over and over. we invite you to come and pray at the altar at the end of the service and sometimes you know God has stirred a thing in your heart but you're too afraid to get out of your seat and come down here because you're afraid of what the person next to you might think but not this woman she was overwhelmed with the grace of her Savior to the point where it trumped her circumstances and she walks in and love compels her to quit hiding. She comes out of the darkness because she understands that with the gospel of Jesus Christ, the pretending and the performing are over.

The pretending and the performing are over and she doesn't have to carry the shame around anymore. She can lay it at the feet of Jesus and the crazy thing is that he, He accepts her right there in her brokenness. And so she walks in with an alabaster jar. This would have been the most expensive thing she had. And she breaks it and she pours it. She lavishes her love upon the feet of Jesus. There are four accounts in the Gospels of a woman anointing the feet of Jesus.

They're not all the same event. There's either two or three different events. It's hard to tell. But in one of them, the disciples look at this and say, what a waste of money. We could have used all that money for the poor. And Jesus says you have no idea what you're talking about. You see, when the gospel gets a hold of you, when you begin to understand what Christ did for us, it breaks free. It breaks us free from greed.

And we respond with radical generosity. And we lavish our love upon the one who lavished his love upon us. This is what she's doing. And then she begins to weep. She is weeping over her sin. Let me ask you this, church, when is the last time? you ever wept and repented over your sin and salvation. I can tell you, man, every week, listen, every week, when I'm sitting back there, getting ready to preach,

I'm like, all right, this week I'm just going to talk like a normal human. And in about two seconds then, I cannot, because here's the, here's, it ain't about just me talking. I cannot get over the gospel of Jesus Christ. I cannot. And sometimes, and I don't control my emotions well, and sometimes the gospel sneaks up on me again, and I cannot get it out of my mind and out of my heart. Who am I that you would take my place? Jesus, you didn't just die for me, you died instead of me.

And it wrecks me and it ruins me. You see, what this woman is doing, she is coming face to face with her sin at the feet of her Savior and she is pouring her heart out on the feet of Jesus. See, we are in this two-year generosity initiative, discipleship journey and we're talking about what does it look like to love the Lord, our God, with all of our heart and all of our soul and all of our mind and all of our strength. And there's a whole bunch of people that say they love Jesus with all of their heart.

But when we worship, you just stand there like you were weaned on a pickle. I don't get it. Now, I am not into emotionalism. That is not what we are trying to do. But if you have been run over by the freight train of the grace of God and it doesn't stir something in you ever, something's wrong with you. If you look at the guy next to you or the woman next to you in church and they're crying and you say, If something's wrong with them.

If it never elicits emotion in you, I would say this, something's wrong with you. Or maybe God has never actually consumed your heart with His grace. Because she is just pouring it out on his feet. And she's cleaning his feet with her hair and her tears. See, essentially, the religious have been rude to Jesus up to this point. There were three things that you were supposed to do in the first century, if you were a host in order to demonstrate hospitality to your guest.

The first one is when you walked in the door, you're supposed to greet one another with a holy kiss. Now, I don't know exactly what a holy kiss is. Gretchen I still can't agree. I have my own definition. She has hers, all right? So I'm glad we don't generally speak in greet with kisses anymore. I think it's weird.

In fact, my family, not the ones I grew up with, but like my extended family, grandma's and aunts and uncles, they would all kiss on the mouth as a greeting. Like, on the mouth. So my grandma is 90 years old, so she wants to kiss me on her lips now, no problem. Just, mm, all right, we'll rub mustache. No problem, okay? So, she don't have one.

You know what I'm saying. But when I was 16, it wasn't awesome. It wasn't. So I would always do this move. She'd come in, hey, Shug, she'd come in like this, and then write it in, I'd go, boom, okay, give her to cheat. When Gretchen was coming to meet my extended family for the very first time, we'd just gotten married. I was like, hold on, baby. I've just forgot about something.

I need to let you know. Uncle George is going to try to kiss you in the lips. I just need you to know this. Okay? He is. Now, the good news is he's got a big old bumper. So if you just lean back, he'll never make it, all right? He will weble, he might fall down.

He was a greeter at his church and they moved into the parking lot because he tried to kiss everybody. So I had to warn her because she was like, are you being serious? I'm like, I'm serious. Because in her family, they just wave. They're like, we don't touch. Hi. All right. That's how it works.

So I'm glad we don't do that anymore. But in the first century, you would greet one another. with a holy kiss. Secondly, you would anoint someone's head with oil. The reason is because everybody stunk. You've seen the Jesus movies? Everybody's running around in bathrobes and Jesus handles and it's hot. And when you would get to dinner and you'd be laying all over each other for three or four hours, you would stink up the room. And so the an anointing with oil was essentially an axe of body spray just so everybody can handle it. And then the third thing you would do is you would wash somebody's feet. We talked about this a few weeks ago. That the

lowest of a low servant would come out and wash. the guest's feet, again, you're rocking the Jesus sandals and you would get all that stuff on your feet and the way they kind of reclined around the table. The feet and the face and the food were all in proximity, so you'd scrub those jokers down a little bit. They had done none of this for Jesus. And this woman comes in,

and not only does she begin to weep, but she lets her hair down, which would have been incredibly provocative in the first century. You only did that in the first century. presence of your husband and the privacy of your home. Now, she wasn't being erotic with Jesus, but it was for sure passionate, for sure passionate. Do you know why? Because she saw Jesus for who he is and what he could do for her, and her natural, normal response was to pour out her heart. The fact that she has her hair down means this is very, very personal. This is why, like in the book, The Song of Solomon,

I'll teach it in a couple years. When Solomon says to the shoot of my, woman, your hair is like a flock of goats descending down the mountains. That doesn't mean that, see, be careful there Tarzan before you get home, but like, baby, the hair on your head is like an animal. Don't say that. What it means is they are in their wedding chambers and she has taken down her hair, and the hair, her hair is falling down on mountains, and mountains mean mountains, can I get a witness?

And he's saying, it's beautiful. That's what he's saying. And now here, she has let her hair down. She is overwhelmed with emotion. She's washing his feet and listen to me. This is worship. This is worship. When we sing three songs at the beginning of the service, it is not warm up.

This is for the saints to get together and make much of the one who poured his life out for us. And I know there's different kind of personalities, you know. but I'm telling you if Jesus life, death, and resurrection does not stir something in you that makes you want to say thank you, thank you, thank you, then you might need to check in here

what's wrong with you. Because the same people that tell me, well, I'm just not one to lift my hands, unless you go to a Jags game and they're not even good, and you're like, yeah, okay? You should check it. Remember a couple weeks ago we showed that video, my man Brad Fort, he's a friend of mine, he said about the Danes Point Bridge,

I was about to jump off that bridge. He attends every single weekend. At the end of that video of his testimony, he says, Jesus is my Savior because he reached out and he saved me. Every week, he's on one of the first few rows. I mean, right before the song gets even into like the really groovy part, man, the worship leader's first downbeat, boom, hands go up. Do you know why?

Because Brad doesn't think this is just some kind of religious activity that you would 10 because that's what you're supposed to do. He understands that Jesus saved him and it stirs in him this gratitude that just pours out of his face and up to his hands. And so we need to do that. Amen? So if you're worship with somebody and they're just standing out of this, be like, what is wrong with you? You understand? Now think about this. Think about how awkward this whole situation is. This woman who's a prostitute is washing the feet with her tears with her hair of the perfect son of God. And in reality, she had touched many men in her life with an exchange of money, but never like this.

This is completely different. And I don't know what happened to her, but something happened to her. This was not her plan. When she was a little girl, she never planned on being a prostitute. But I'm telling you, some things happened to her. She was mishandled. She was abused. And when you get treated poorly long enough, you began to treat yourself poorly.

and the reality is is that she was an image bearer of God and the reason it would be so disgraceful for her to be a prostitute is because sex is this gift of God and sex is for married people listen to me everybody sex is for married people and marriage according to the Bible is one man and one woman for one lifetime and sex is for married people not going to be married

not used to be married not married in our hearts you can't get married in your heart You get married at the beach, you get married at the courthouse, you get married to church, you can't get married in your heart. You understand it is a covenant between a man and a woman that says this, I'm going to commit my whole life to you no matter what. Death's the only thing that can part us. Ladies, you want to know what a big deal you are in the eyes of our king? He says that the only person that gets to touch you that way is the person that has committed their entire life to you. You see, but she began to believe the lie, which is the root of shame. that because some bad things happened to her, that meant that she was worthless.

No matter what happened to her, her value in the eyes of Christ never changed. You see, we live in a world that says you are an amalgamation of accidental cells. That is a lie. For every one of you who are in Christ, you are a daughter of the most high king. You are valuable and you should be treated as valuable. and Jesus, the righteous one, welcomes her to the table. Now this is very important. Don't miss this part.

Is that she was not welcome because of her sin. She was welcome in spite of her sin. She was not there to brag about her sin, but she was broken over her sin. She was not there to justify her lifestyle. She was there to repent for her. it. And she did not come to Jesus on her own terms. She humbles herself under his lordship and Jesus never okayed her sin. He died for it. You want to know what a big deal

sin is? My sin was such a big deal. It's treason against the great high king. It is such a big deal that someone had to die to take care of it. And God's grace is such a big deal is that he was willing to do it. You see, she comes to Jesus, not on her terms, but on his. We've been singing this song lately. A couple of our worship leaders, Walt Madeline, they wrote this song. I love it. I love it. One part of the song, I don't know parts of the song, so I don't know if it's the chorus of the bridge or whatever. Somebody's already told me twice, and I forgot already. Okay, so we've been singing this last few weeks. You're never going to leave me when I am surrounded. You're never going to leave me when I feel defeated. And here's the part that gets me.

and you're never going to leave me the way that you found me. You see, Jesus receives this woman just as she is, but he does not leave her just as she is. You see, we do not come to Jesus on our own terms. We are a movement for all people, but not just for all people to gather together to be a big bouquet of humanity. What a waste of time that is.

We are a movement for all people to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus Christ. And she does not come rationalizing who she is. she comes repenting of her sin and pouring herself out at the feet of Jesus. Now, when the Pharisees who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, this means he didn't say it out loud, he just thought it in here. If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what sort of woman this is who is touching him, for she is a sinner. He thinks, what sort of woman is this doing at our party?

Now, again, here's the problem. Nobody in the room, nobody at any of our campuses, none of us think that he's talking about us. We always think, when we read the Bible, we, listen, the more you go to church, the more likely you are to become a Pharisee. It's crazy. And yet, we always think we're on team Jesus. We always think, oh, well, if I was there, I'd be like, yep, Jesus, I told him. When that process two came in, I pulled out a seat for her and said, we're a movement for all people. No, you wouldn't, you liar.

Every single one of us have a tendency in our mind to think when we see people not like us, when we see people that look different than us, people that have a different lifestyle in us, people that have a different struggle than us, people that are in a different place on the journey than we are. We all have a tendency to look down our nose and say, what sort of person is this? You don't think it can happen to you? Two weeks ago, I'm preaching in Asheville, North Carolina at Biltmore Church. church, awesome place. They put us up out the Biltmore. I like the Biltmore. We had tea time. It was amazing, okay? Then we went into downtown Asheville. Have you been to Asheville?

That's a weird place, I'm going to tell you. It's really weird. And so we're looking for a place to go and eat and drink and be merry, and this guy steps out in front of me and I'm following him. And I was like, look at this fellow. He had on these big combat boots. He had, looks like his sister's jeans on, but he cut him off into Capri's. I thought Capri's for girls. I've been Not for him. He's got those bad boys on. Had this little tank top on. He had black lipstick on his lip.

Had his hair looked like a character out of one of my son's video games. And he had on a black leather jacket that he cut the sleeves off of. You can buy a vest, not him. He cuts them off. And on the back of it, he had a patch on the jacket. And it said, keep Asheville weird. And I thought, if that's your mission statement, bro, you're killing it right now, all right? And I'm telling him.

So he's very different than me. I don't know the cat. And it isn't in Jacksonville. In Jacksonville, I think, they may come to 1122. But in Asheville, I'm saying, look at this weirdo. I'm just judging him like crazy in my mind. We walk in the restaurant. He goes left.

We go right. We sit down. He sits down. Out of his backpack, he pulls his Bible. Of course he does. 30 seconds before, I'm thinking you're mad at your dad. That's your problem. And if you listen to our act like men series, we tighten you up.

And little do I know. He's about to go to his Bible study, all right? I'm telling you, we can all do it. Much worse than that? Because I know some of you think we're not here at 1122. Because we're a movement for all people. It's all we ever hear about. about discovering and deepening a relationship with Jesus Christ.

It could never happen here, could it? A few years ago, one of our student disciple group leaders is out here in the lobby at San Pablo checking in students, young black man. Got a hoodie on, got his hat on, flat bill, got some baggy jeans, sagging. Now, you just realize that's just personal preference. See, I dress like this. Gretchen dresses me, all right? I'm just jeans with a buttoned down shirt and these shoes they old on top young on the bottom that's what I'm 46 okay

if I was in the band I would be it'd be black and tighter that's what it would be right if I grew up where he grew up I'd probably have on bigger jeans like he had on just personal preference somebody in our church at the church of 1122 leans over to some other volunteer and says can you believe they let people like that with our kids he just happened to whisper it to guy's wife. There is no excuse and there is no place in the gospel for a comment like that. It's unacceptable. It is unacceptable. And not only that, this young man might be one of the best disciple makers we have. He's one of the most gifted preachers that we have. It was through his art and music that the gospel came alive in my little daughter, Reagan Capric's heart. You understand? When I say we're a movement for all people, I'm telling you the moment your mind ever goes to what sort of person, then you better stop and repent.

Because you are not on Team Jesus in that moment. You're on the other side of the table from him. And so if you're a Pharisee, look, we're a movement for all people. You say, am I welcome to be here? You are welcome to repent. You are welcome to repent because we are and will always be a movement for all people to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus Christ. And see,

the Pharisee is looking down his nose at this woman. Here's ultimately the problem. He doesn't realize that he and she are the same. Sinners in need of a Savior. Now, there are some times when our church gets it right. Let me tell you 1122 at its best. A couple weeks ago, Pastor Adams preaching, so I went to Arlington just to go see Arlington

and be with our campus there. Because, you know, it's just one church with a bunch of different rooms, so it doesn't matter which one you go to. And so I went there. And I did the benediction, and I got to, at the end of it, I said, hey, I'd sure like to meet some of you folks. And I'm waiting down at the end of the service. And a middle-aged man walks up to me. And he says this, at our Arlington campus.

He says, my name is, told me his name. And he says, I used to attend our Baker campus. And now I attend Arlington. Amen. Movement for all people. You see, here's the problem that the Pharisee has and that the religious have. Usually, when dirty touches clean, the clean gets dirty. But with Jesus, when the clean touches dirty, the dirty gets clean.

See the difference? You see, we know this, right? If you've got a sick person, you get them around well people, the sick doesn't get well, the well gets sick. And in fact, if you think opposite, like if you're like, my kid's been sick for a while, I should surround them with healthy kids in the nursery. I would like to invite you to somebody else's church for about a month, if you don't mind. But yet with Jesus, it's the upside down world, and the dirty touches clean when it's Jesus, and the dirty gets clean.

And so Jesus answering him. Remember, Simon just thought this in his head. He just said this to himself. And yet Jesus is going to answer a question that never asked out loud. And Jesus answering said to him, Simon, I have something to say to you. And he answered, say it, teacher, not Messiah, not Lord, not Son of God, not Christ, but teacher. And then Jesus is going to tell an illustration that I think may have been insulting to Simon. the Pharisee because of how elementary it is when it comes to forgiveness.

It says this, a certain money lender had two debtors. One owed him 500 denary. That's almost two years' wages. And the other 50, that's about two months' wages. And when they could not pay, he canceled the debt of both. Now, which of them will love him more? I think Simon is looking at him like, this is the easiest question I've ever had, which lends Simon to think maybe it's a trick question because it is Jesus, right?

He's always kind of tricky with his questions. And so Simon answered, the one, I suppose, for whom he canceled the larger debt. And he said to him, you have judged rightly. It'd be like this. If I got home from church today and Gretchen said, hey, Doug and Petey came by. And I was like, cool, what did they want? And she said, well, actually, they each paid a bill for us. Like, are you serious?

Wow, I have the best friends ever. What did they pay? And if she said, Doug paid the phone bill. I'd be like, what a friend. I mean, how cool is it? I can pay my own phone bill, but that's neat. Maybe I'll send him a text and say thank you. What about Petey?

And if she said, Petey paid the mortgage. I was like, for the month? And she said, no, for the year? Or for the whole thing? I'd go, I love him. You understand? I mean, Doug's still my boy, but Petey's my man. Every time he walked in, I'm like, oh, rise.

You see what I'm saying? What Jesus is parable here, what he's trying to point out to the Pharisee is that the Pharisee somehow thinks that he's not a sinner. And the woman knows that she is. Martin Luther says it this way. Martin Luther says, if you see yourself as a little sinner,

then you will inevitably see Jesus as a little Savior. Let me amend that slightly. When you and I see ourselves as little sinners, when we get comfortable with our sin, when we think the real sin is what's happening over there somewhere, but my sin is not nearly as big a deal, then we think Jesus didn't really. really need to die for me. I just need to tighten up my behavior a little bit. And then Jesus is not

your savior. He's not. He's at best, just a little bit bigger than you, a little bit better than you, and he'll help you out maybe when you need him. And that is not the gospel of Jesus Christ. You see, this Pharisee does not understand. He does not understand that he and she are the same. In fact, according to Jesus, he's worse because he doesn't think he needs salvation. And then everything changes. Everything changes. Then turning towards the woman, he said to Simon,

I need you to get this through your mind. I don't know how long she's been washing his feet. I don't know how long she's been there crying, but it ain't quick. I don't know how long the oxygen has been sucked out of the air and how long the alabaster fumes are all through there. and then Jesus is like, all right, Simon, I got something to say to you. Go ahead, teach. All right, hi, low, who loves more?

Hi, you got it. And then he turns to her. And he asks this question. He gets really, really personal. You ever heard this phrase about Jesus Christ being your personal, Lord and Savior? Because it is personal. And he turns to the woman, but he's still talking to Simon. And he says this, do you see this woman?

You know what the implication is? No, I don't see her. I just see the things that she's done. I just see the labels that she's walking around with. I just see the shame. I see the guilt. I see the what sort of person is this that would walk into my house. I don't see who she is.

I just see the stuff that she's done. I've told you this over and over and over. This is the root of shame. The root of shame is when we confuse activity and identity, and we believe that our activity identifies who we are. Listen, the Bible says that if you are in Christ, you're a new creation. The Bible says that therefore now there is no condemnation for those of us who are in Christ. The Bible says the old is gone and the new has come.

So here's what this means. I've told you this 100 times I'm going to tell you a thousand more. You are not your past and you were not your sin and you are not your orientation and you're not your addiction and you're not your abortion and you're not your rape and you are not your past. not your abuse and you're not your ethnicity and you are not your divorce and you are not your unemployment and you're not your bankruptcy and you are not your affair you're not and you're not your 401k and you're not your job title and you're not your marital status that is not who you are and yet you might respond well it feels like the biggest thing in my life if you're in Christ

no it's not no it's i'm not saying it wasn't painful i'm not saying this world tries to identify you by that i'm just telling you we live in a world that wants to slap a label on you so it does not deal with you because this world is it wasn't a world does not see you, and yet Jesus sees right through it to see the heart of who you are. And only Jesus gets to tell us who we are. And the most important thing that ever happened in your life, it's not, it's not the affair, it's not the divorce, it's not the addiction. If you were in Christ, the most important thing that could ever happen to you is the moment

that you believe that when Jesus Christ out on the cross, it counted for me, then that's the biggest thing that could ever happen to you, and that's what gets to define you. And you can never, ever, ever simultaneously keep your eyes focused on the cross. and look down your nose at somebody else and say, what kind of person is this? Because I can tell you what sort of woman this is. This is the sort of woman that Jesus Christ died for. So implicit in this question, do you see this woman? The Pharisee would say, uh-uh.

Also implicit in this question, Jesus, eyeball to eyeball with her. He sees you. He sees through the pretending. He sees through the performing. He knew exactly who you were when he died on the cross, when he pushed up on those nail-pierced feet, and he says, it is finished. He knew exactly what that meant in your life. He sees you for who you are. And every single one of us are welcome to surrender our life to Jesus.

Jesus says, I entered your house. Here's what he's going to say. Look here, teacher. She's about to teach the lesson. He says, I entered your house. You gave me no water for my feet. but she has wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in, she has not ceased to kiss my feet.

You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with oint. You see, here's the difference between the religious and the repentant. Is the religious think that Jesus owes them something? And this woman in repentance, she understood that she owed Jesus everything. That's the difference. Church, the distance between you and God is repentance. That's it. No matter how far away you think you are or no matter how close and good you think you are,

what every single one of us need to be face to face with God is just to repent like this woman did. Therefore, I tell you, this is still Jesus talking. Her sins, which are many, Jesus is not okay with sin. He does not condone it. He says, don't worry about it. Her sins, which are many, are forgiven. For she loved much. But he who is forgiven little loves little, and he said to her, think about this,

he's looking in her eyes. I mean, think about this from her perspective. Men looked at her all the time. They never looked in her eyes. Men looked at her all the time to see what they could get from her. And Jesus is looking at this precious daughter of the king, and he says to her, your sins are forgiven. Now, what right does Jesus have to forgive sin?

If he is but a good moral teacher, he has no right to forgive anybody's sin. Right? I mean, imagine. Imagine. Can you imagine if, like, the two of you got in a fight on the way to church? I mean, just imagine. I know. Anybody ever been there?

Right? We almost did once, but we don't ride together, so that helps. And so, you know, you're on your way to church and you say some stuff and she says some stuff. And you're like, well, just shut up. And I guess we'll just live like imama. You know, it was a good one. Then you shut the door and don't tell anybody, kids. Then you walk in and just, how's everybody doing, blessed?

I got your badge on, everything's good. And then right before the service, I come walking out and go, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, I forgive you. You'd be like, for what? For the way you talked to your wife earlier, I forgive you. You'd be like, who do you think you are? Unless you are the almighty son of God, it makes no sense. But if you are, the second person of the Trinity, co-equal with the Father, and the fullness of God was pleased to dwell in him, then we know that, like from Psalm chapter 51,

all sin is against God. And this is why Jesus can't forgive sin. Not only was all sin against him, he wasn't just saying, I'm going to get over it. He is saying, I will pay your debt. That Jesus is going to go to the cross. And according to 2 Corinthians 521, God made him who was without sin to be sin. This means that Jesus is going to become her prostitution. Jesus is going to become her abuse. Jesus is going to become her sexual immorality. Jesus is going to become her rape. Jesus is going to become sin. Endure the full wrath of God to be the propitiation for our sin, the payment that satisfies, that we may be the righteousness of God. He says, your sins are forgiven.

And those who were at the table with him began saying, among them, who is this who even forgives sins? And what they're saying here is only God can forgive sins, Jesus. And he goes, ding, ding, ding, ding, winter, winter, chicken dinner. You won the showcase showdown. That's what I've been telling you for seven chapters so far. This is exactly what he's doing. And then he said to the woman, your fate has saved you.

Go in peace. He's saying to her, you have been looking for peace in the presence of other men for your entire life and you'll never find it there. peace is only found in the person of Jesus Christ. He also wants us to know it wasn't the crying that saved her, it wasn't washing the feet that saved her, it wasn't the anointing that saved her, it was her faith. She trusted, she trusted that Jesus could forgive her sin. And it was in that trust, in that trust along, that she is saved. And when that happens, two things happen.

All of her guilt is taken away. and all of her shame is taken away. You could say to that woman, hey, you've heard the phrase, shame on you. And Jesus would say, not anymore. All that shame goes on me. I'm going to nail it to the cross. And all of my righteousness will now be laid upon you. Now go.

Go. Everything about your life will be different. You don't have to go down that road anymore. You've been down that road before. You know that it's only death and destruction there. Now go in peace. See, here's the point of the whole thing. It's what Jesus says.

Your faith has saved you. Go in peace. And here's a warning for us, church. The religious saw Jesus as a teacher and they scoffed. The wretched knew him as a savior. And she wept. This church is founded on the gospel of Jesus Christ. That we all come to God, the perfect, righteous God, the same.

Through the person and work, through the blood of Jesus on the cross. All of us. what we've done, no matter who we've done it with, no matter what we've thought, no matter what this world has called us, we come to the Father through the Son, Jesus Christ, and all are welcome. And whosoever would believe in Jesus would be called a child of God. And as a church, as a church, we will, we must stay relentlessly committed to being that movement for all people to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus. You see, there are two major failures on my part as a leader years ago that have shaped much of what is now the Church of 1122.

One was, and the failures are many, but these two have impacted me more than most. One is when I was in seminary, I spent a summer in Kenya, Africa, and doing mission work, and towards the end of the trip they had this really nice dinner scheduled for us at this place called the carnivore it's like all the meat you could eat and we hadn't had meat in a long time and um I was so excited about going we got there and it's in Nairobi Kenya and as our bus pulled up there's a bunch of little boys called the glue boys they're homeless boys that sniff glue to like keep them warm at night some of the poorest of the poor in the whole world and what they know how to say in english is how are you how are you how are you there are dozens if not hundreds of these little boys saying how are you how are you how are you

and the wait staff comes out and pushes them away and says don't worry about them and just kind of red carpets us on in and I didn't worry about them I just ate and ate and ate and ate that night I laid in bed and all I could hear is how are you how are you how are you how are you and I've been worried about them ever since it's a big part of the reason we sell out on compassion international okay the other cataclysmic failure as a leader also happened in seminary um when when when class we get over for the summer I would go down and live in North Myrtle Beach. Many of you know I'm from Dillon, but my daddy said the best thing ever come out of Dillon, South Carolina is I-95, so you don't ever go back, okay? And so we just keep going to the beach. In fact, some of you will text me pictures. I'm going through Dillon. I'm like,

keep going, it'll get on you, okay? Just keep going. So go to North Mordal Beach, and I had three jobs. I waited tables at Barefoot Landing. I was a youth pastor at a church that was just like on Wednesdays and Sundays, and I worked in this gym. And I had to have three jobs because I didn't expect somebody else to pay my student loans. So I was going to pay them. So I was doing that all the time. So I worked all the time. Well, the gym that I worked at right across the street,

and by the way, I've told this story, this will be the third time. I told it in 2013, 2016, I'll do it again in 2022. That's kind of the pace I'm on, okay? So if you've heard it before, just lean in. The gym that I worked at was right across the street from the strip club. And the owner of our gym is a super smart business guy. He goes over to the strip club and he says, all right, ladies, got a deal for you.

All of you can have a free member. ship over here to the gym. And so sure enough, every day at about 10.30, here they'd come. It'd be like seven or eight girls would all come in. A little bit of spandex, a whole lot of girl, you know, coming on in. And then right behind them, 10,000 paying North Myrtle Beach guys would come in too. Word was out, all right? So the place will be packed. Well, honestly, at that point, I was a youth pastor at this little church, and I worked all the time. So I would use that time sitting at the desk at the counter of the gym to write my sermon. So I'd be sitting up there the Bible. And then when the girls

would get finished working out, people would come to the counter and I'd like make the smoothies. You know, the little protein drinks or whatever. And what began to happen in a matter of a couple of weeks, those sort of people turns out they're human.

Yeah. Yeah, it just went from like a category of people that worked across the street. And now I'm getting to know like their names and stuff. Turns out each of them had two names. Yeah. And I'd be like, oh, your name's not Bandy. Bambi. Okay, sorry, that's cool. And by the way, if your name is Bambi, you have a stripper name.

I don't know what to tell you. Just go with it. And so I would be sitting at, you know, and they would ask me questions about, so what are you working on? I'm like, I'm working on a sermon. And almost all of them would be like, oh, I used to go to church. I'm like, cool. And we talk about Jesus. And honestly, I thought, all right, if we can understand this together, me and the strippers,

that me and the high schoolers on Wednesday night, we'll probably be able to get it. So that's what we would do. It's like sermon prep. then I began to hear some of their stories. None of them thought this would be where they would be at this point in their life. All of them thought this is going to be a short-term solution. I'll do this for two or three weeks, make enough money, and then I'll be gone. And yet all of them, and again, I don't know if this is true, generally speaking, in this industry.

I'm just talking about the six or seven girls that worked out at the gym that I worked at. All of them thought, I'll just do this for a little while, and then I'm out. And yet they all felt trapped or stuck. because of some financial decisions they made or some man. All of them had kids, and they were terrified that their little daughters or little sons would ever find out what mom did. And every single one of them had to drink something or take something before they danced.

And in Myrtle Beach, they made bank. Well, as we got to know each other a little bit, they didn't know what to do with me. They didn't have a good category for me. I'm an early 20s workout guy. reading my Bible at the counter, and they were like, you should come over to where we work. I was like, you should come to where I work. That's kind of how that would go.

Now, I was on staff. I was the youth pastor at a little country, First Baptist South Carolina church. Got it? It was like, I had khakis. I got in trouble for not wearing a tie one time. It was that kind of, I mean, it was, that's how that it was, all right? Small, maybe 125 people, something like that. Then one day, one of the girls says to me, I'll go to church with you.

And I thought, oh no. I wasn't prepared for this. I don't know how this will work at my church. Now, here, man, whatever, no problem, right? But at First Baptist, I mean, it was like, so I thought, how do you un-invite somebody from church? So I began to tell her, hey, listen, I'm the youth pastor, and they don't trust me, so all they'll let me do is announcements. So I've got to be there early and do announcements, and I've got to, you know, I'm giving her all the reasons why. It's 25 minutes away.

So if you don't want to come, no problem, I totally understand. She's like, no, totally, we'll go, and I'll drive. Awesome. So Sunday morning, she shows up to my little apartment. This is the mid-90s in a convertible white corvette. I thought, sure, we'll slide right in under the radar. Literally, her license plate was like, topless fun. I thought, perfect, okay?

A little play on words, convertible, you get it? Okay. So I said, well, and she had a daughter. And I said, well, at least I'm going to drive, all right? 25 minutes away. It took me 11 and a half minutes to get to church that day. It was awesome. We come pulling in the church.

Now, when she showed up, I'm sure she had on what she would think is her Sunday best. All right? But it was just this little sundress, a little sundress. And she had some big old, like, pumps on. My memory, they had a goldfish in them, but I don't know if that was true or not. And let me just say this, okay? She was heavily invested in her dancing career. Everybody with me?

Okay, there you go. So I'm like, oh, and so we get in the Corvette, go to church. We go, drop her kid off. This was back in the day before we had security. There was no check-in. You just gave your kid to a stranger and hoped you got one back that looked like yours. Remember that? Yeah.

And then we come walking into church. Little church, man. There's only one aisle, about 50 people on each side. And at least in this text, it says that Simon said it to himself. The people at the church that I was on staff, they didn't keep it to themselves. I could hear the whispers. I could hear, who is the youth pastor with? What is she doing here? I could feel the stairs. I got up to do my announcements and people look at me and look at her. And again, the whole church is like seven families. right? So you know if somebody is new. And just the stairs and the stairs and the comments. And then the preacher gets up and I'm sweating, man. And the preacher gets up and he opened the Bible and he taught something from the Bible. I can't remember a word he said. I just remember that the song we closed with was Jesus paid it all.

Service is over. The deacon, chairman of the deacons, comes up to me with her sitting next to me and goes, we need to meet with you in the pastor's office. Now in that church, Deacon meant power broker. In the Bible in our church, Deacon means servant. But he says, need to meet you in the pastor's office. And I said, this happens all the time. It's not a big deal.

Why don't you, which was a lie. So why don't you, go get your kid. I'll meet you at the car. Just take a couple of minutes. And I walk into the pastor's office and he's sitting there, he never said a word. And the chairman of the board of deacons and two other men said to me, almost exactly what it says here. What sort of woman is this that you brought here? Now, I wish in my early 20s, I wish I would have had.

have the gospel courage to stand on the rock and say, uh, the kind of woman that Jesus died on the cross for, but I didn't. It's embarrassing. I didn't. I was a coward because I was concerned about my job. I was concerned about what these people thought. I was concerned about my reputation. I was concerned about what my resume would say in the future. I was just scared. And so I was more concerned with the applause of these four men than I was the approval of the most I got. And I said, my bad. I'm sorry. And they said something to the effect of. The reason that this church exists is to be a safe place for our families to protect these children from people like that. I said, okay, I got up. And I walked out to the car and I'm trying to act like that didn't happen and she knew exactly what happened.

And she'd gotten in her car. She put the top up. The tears are just rolling out from under her aviators. She said, that was about me, wasn't it? And I just lied. No, no, no. No, no, there's some stuff we had to talk about. Meanwhile, her daughter is sitting in the car with a picture of Jesus that she had been coloring in Sunday school. And as we're driving home, I don't know what to say. It's super awkward. And so I'm still lying.

I haven't fessed up to it at all. And I just go, so what did you think? With tears rolling under her face, she just said, I have never felt more degraded in my whole life. Little contacts, 48 hours earlier. She's drinking stuff and dancing on a pole with no clothes on to get a dollar from a stranger. Somehow that event was less degrading than when she came into a church with a cross on the front with Jesus' name on it. Most of my stories end well.

This one doesn't. She moved away. I don't even know what a real name is. For a decade I tried to chase her down. I don't know. I just know this. The day she showed up to church, she bumped into some Pharisees and she thought, well, if this is the Jesus thing, that I am out. if you have ever, ever, ever been told at church you don't belong, that's a lie.

If you have ever been beaten up by church, I am so sorry. That might be the rules of that church. It is not the rules of the kingdom of God. It is not. And if you've ever been hurt here, I am so sorry, so sorry. But when Jesus came on the rescue mission, he came for every. Every single one of us, I'll tell you what sort of woman that is. That's the sort of woman that Jesus Christ died on the cross for.

And you and I are the sort of people that Jesus came and died for. And every single one of us, whether you're a Pharisee or a prostitute, we all need the same thing. And we need Jesus. And as long as there is breath in my lungs, this church won't be like that one. We will be a movement for all people to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus Christ. So the moment your mind begins to slip to what sort of, then you stop, you repent, you look at the cross, and remind yourself, you're the same sort of, the same sort of person that needs Jesus. And if you find yourself in that kind of industry and you feel trapped, you feel stuck, let us help. There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ, Jesus.

This church will help you. Would you please stand and let's pray. or good and grace is heavenly Father God we love you because you first loved us and I thank you Jesus that you came on a rescue mission for the religious and the rebellious for the Pharisee and the prostitute God we do open our eyes for us to see just what a big deal our sin is so that we could understand what a big deal our Savior is God may we never take our eyes off of the cross here at 1122 God may we be be conduits of your grace.

May we understand it's our faith to save us and may we go in peace. May we, as Jesus' followers, always, always, always be conduits of peace and never, and never judgment. We pray this in Jesus' name.

Amen. We respond. You know, we invite you to the altar every week. We're going to sing the song, come to the altar. Every single one of us are like this woman that needs to pour out shame and pour out sin on the feet of Jesus. And there will be only one thing that keeps you in your seat.

It's your pride. Listen, man, I know we walk in here with saying. It is shameful for me to say, hey, look at me. What a crappy leader I have been. But this is why I need the gospel daily in my life. So we're going to join our voices together and sing. Come to the altar. If you're a regular here, this is where we bring our ties and offerings.

Just like this woman did. We respond in radical generosity. Not saying, God, you owe me, but we owe you everything. and we respond by praying. Won't you come and pour out your tears and pour out your repentance on the feet of Jesus? Let's respond.