Caught, Forgiven, Freed: Jesus and the Woman at His Feet

We've been talking about victory someone shall victory victory. You are destined for victory You're never meant to live in defeat Yet, there are so many obstacles in our life that seem to stop us from victory your obstacle is not the end Jesus invites you to victory God's not asking you to do more to work harder to be better. He's inviting you to victory Jesus says, come to me, learn from me. The key to victory is actually rest. And rest is a rhythm, but you'll never get on that rhythm without learning from Jesus, living like Jesus, asking Jesus to be the greatest focus of your life.

Last week we talked about the secret sauce of victory, the power of prayer. Do you all remember the one point to last week's sermon? sermon there was only one point shouted out if you remember oh come on that makes the pastor proud usually no one can remember a single point but there was one point to the sermon and it was to pray that is when you don't know what else to do you pray when you're going through difficult times you pray when you're going through a great time you should pray that when you're driving your car you should pray Tim over here was telling me when he was hunting it was driving 80 miles per hour with snow slapping his truck sideways and he was listening to the sermon and it said the one thing you should do is pray. I tell you you drive an 80 in the snow you should pray. You need a prayer. Now today

is the most important sermon in this study and this message is for you. God put this on my heart to share with you. God sent me here to tell you this message is for you. The enemy is gonna try to trick you in just a moment and you're gonna think, uh-uh, that one's not for me. But you just tell a total stranger right now around you, you look at someone you don't even know and say, this is for you, just tell someone right now, just tell someone. If you're watching online, you say it out loud, this is for me. Because this is for you. Let me just tell you, this is for you. This is really important that you understand this because this is the very thing that will stop you

from having powerful prayer. This is the one thing that will stop you from learning from Jesus. It will stop you and retracts when you hit an obstacle. You will not turn to the Lord if you do not embrace this message today. The title of the sermon is simple. I stole the words from Jesus himself. It's three words, sin no more. That's the title of today's sermon. Would you say it with me? Sin no more. Now I know that's not exactly the sexiest message to preach. What I mean by that, it's not super attractive. People don't wake up saying, I hope the preacher talks about sin today. And I hope that message of sin is just for me. Very rarely do you wake up saying,

man, Lord, would you just preach about sin so I don't do this anymore? We typically want some self-help. We're having problems in our lives and we say, I want a sermon that has to do with that. Well, I'm here to tell you, This is a sermon that has to do with that. Sin is way more significant than you understand. The enemy is tormenting you and the greatest tool of the enemy is sin. You have a real enemy of your soul, Satan, and he wants to bring you down because you're made in God's image and the enemy knows your potential. And he wants to stop you from experiencing all that God has for you. He wants to stop you from giving glory to God in your life and he will use sin.

See, here's what sin does. Sin stops you from having a right relationship with God. Sin separates you from God and sin separates you from other people. That's what sin does. And the enemy would love to keep some sin in your life to stop you from the greatest intimacy you can have in your life. In fact, ultimately, sin will stop you from victory. You want to be somewhere else where where you are not in your spiritual life. We need to deal with sin Earlier this week. I heard the a myth that maybe you believe and that is it can't be sin if it feels good That somehow the enemy has taught us that sin are the areas of our lives that we can judge in someone else

So it looks something like this Sin is murder Sin is robbing a bank sin is doing something big and and I don't do that Therefore, I'm not that bad of a sinner. I May I may have stolen cookies from my grandmother's house, but but I've never I've never murdered anybody So I'm not really a sinner So so if it feels good then then how can that be sin and actually that's the exact opposite of what sin is Sin will entice you to do something God doesn't want you to do because the enemy wants you to think that's the very thing you need to do in your life. That could be to protect your life so you lie. That could be to have an affair because your marriage is miserable. That could be to steal money from work because you're not being compensated fairly. So the enemy will begin to entice

you with something so that you step into sin, which ultimately it will feel good. But the consequences of sin will separate you from God and others and eventually it It will not feel good. You cannot be led in your life by feelings. If your whole life is led by feelings, you will do all sorts of things that will lead you right down the road of hell. Jesus said, narrow is the road to eternal life. Sometimes you've got to do things that are contrary to your feelings. I would like and send to this way that if you see someone who has prescription glasses, you know what the glasses are for. They're meant to allow that person to see more clearly,

to experience something even more. They're able to read. They're able to see a focus. Now if you took someone else's prescription glasses, let's just call this sin. So let's just say this is someone else's spouse. This is someone else's house. This is whatever it might be. Sin comes in many different forms and lest we think that it's a form that is not in our lives, sin can be pride. You think you've got it all figured out. That could be a sin. Sin can be gluttony. You just wanna feel good, and so you use food to feel good. Sin can come in so many different ways, but let's just say you take that and you put it on your life and it's not your prescription. See, right now I'm actually wearing these glasses

and y'all look fuzzy wuzzy. You're not clear to me. I thought I would be clear by wearing these, but this is not what God designed. If I keep wearing this, I will look through the lens of metaphorically here sin and I will not see accurately. I cannot see God accurately if I have sin in my life. I'm looking through the lens of sin. Now, if I continue to wear these, I'll get a headache. It will continue to create even greater problems if I don't take these off because these are not my glasses. Okay, I'll tell you the truth. they are my glasses, but they're not prescription because I'm getting older and I think I need glasses,

so I bought them on Amazon, but they don't work, so my wife's like, why would you do that? I was like, I don't know, I thought I would start to look more mature and full of wisdom, but really, you look fuzzy with those on, and that's what sin will do. And sometimes we have sin in our lives and we don't even realize, we don't have an accurate view of God. Some of you think that God's upset with you, he's mad at you, you think God is distant, you're wondering why God's not answering your prayers, and we're listening to the deceit looking through life through the lens of sin. I don't know about you, but I'm so tired of the cancel culture. Do you know what I mean by the cancel culture?

Someone has a bad experience and they got to tell the whole world to cancel whatever that is. I mean, today you go to a fast food restaurant and you don't get your food fast enough or your food doesn't taste good enough, and all of a sudden you gotta let the whole world know do not go to that fast food restaurant. I mean, back in the day, we used to say like, hey, you're going to a fast food restaurant, you're paying $3 for a meal that you get under three minutes, you shouldn't expect a lot. That kid's making minimum wage. Come on, let's just be realistic, But in today's cancel culture. I can't believe how long it took I can't believe they got my order wrong I can't believe they forgot to give me more chick-fil-a sauce. I just I just can't believe this And then we have the audacity in this cancel culture. And here's the deal about cancel culture is bold. It's brash

I'm gonna leave one star. I'm gonna be a keyboard warrior. Y'all shouldn't go to this place You shouldn't trust this person. You shouldn't do this one star connected to my name I want the world to know don't do this I'm we're such a canceled culture people post things on social media very rarely do you think you're part of cancel culture but if you've ever reposted something against something you're part of the cancel culture we live in a cancel culture campaigns today politically it's not what I'm for hey what can we do to make this world better is let's cancel that person that's why you should vote for me. Are y'all sick of the ads yet of that? And it's typically done in black and white with this dark music like dun dun dun. They are the Antichrist. I'm not gonna tell

you about my credentials or why I should be the better person. I just want you to cancel that person. And I want us to see in a story that we're gonna look at today, that cancel culture is not only not new but what the enemy is using with boldness which is bad can actually be good. I propose to you there is no one more bold in all history than Jesus Christ. Jesus was bold but he did it in the right way and I wonder what it would be like if we just spent more time with Jesus not with others not trying to be like others not when he'd be influenced by others if you You had just a moment with Jesus, I'm talking about a few minutes with Jesus, face to face

with Jesus. What would that encounter be like? Well today we look at a story of a woman that had that opportunity. It was not in the way that you might expect. The story is found in John chapter 8, I would like to start with verse 2 and we'll go through verse 11. I want to read the entire text and we'll come back, we'll splice it and dice it to better understand what does this mean as an application for our hearts. Chapter 8 starting with verse 2. Early in the morning, he, Jesus, came again to the temple. All the people came to him and he sat down and taught them. The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery and placing her in the midst they said to him, teacher, this woman's been caught in the act of

adultery now in the law Moses commanded us to stone such a woman so what do you say this they said to test him that they might have some charge to bring against him Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground and as they continued to ask him he stood up and said to them let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her and once more he bent down and rode on the ground but when they heard it they went away one by one beginning with the older ones and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him Jesus stood up and said to her woman where are they has no one condemned you

she said no one Lord and Jesus said neither do I condemn you go from now on say it with me sin no more we turn our attention at a time when Jesus was in the temple this is the place of worship where you would meet with God you would bring your sacrifices and at this time John notes that Jesus is teaching in temple. What kind of preacher must Jesus have been? Captivating. He constantly told stories. We love to go deeper in the text and understand the exegesis of what this really means. Jesus

loved to use metaphors, pictures, childlike stories to open up our imagination that our Our God is the creator. That we're not just limited to intellectual knowledge and we don't know his topic that morning in the temple, but we do know he took his proper place as a rabbi at the time. Rabbis were teachers. They would sit down while everyone around them would stand up. So you've got this crowd standing up around him in a horseshoe like setting. Perhaps his topic was prayer, because John tells us in chapter 8, verse 1, he was just at the Mount of Olives. That was one of his favorite places to pray. So maybe he came off the Mount of Olives and said, y'all should pray.

Maybe he didn't say y'all, but maybe his topic was prayer. Perhaps it wasn't prayer, maybe it was unforgiveness. Jesus constantly spoke about unforgiveness because that could be the very thing that that stops you from victory is not being completely forgiven and not forgiving others. Maybe it wasn't unforgiveness, maybe it was money because really Jesus did talk about money more than heaven and hell. It could have been money. Maybe it was marriage, maybe it was sex. We don't know, but we do know this. He was interrupted while he was teaching. What could be so important that someone would interrupt greatest preacher of all times. Well it was the religious that would interrupt Jesus on this day.

The Pharisees, the scribes, these are the religious elite of Jesus' day. They came in with a conundrum. They present a problem. They cast a woman at Jesus' feet. They thrust her in front of him. You can only imagine what this woman looked like, what she was wearing, because here's the problem on this particular day. and she was caught in the act of adultery. And according to the ancient law, the Torah, God gave these scriptures, and let me just give a preface that to understand the instructions of God, we have to understand the full context. That God gave commandments so that we would understand how to have a right relationship with him and with others.

That left to our own, we choose some really bad things. We look at what other people are doing, and we emulate it, and it leads to destruction. It leads to, ultimately, as we'll look at more today, death. So the Lord gave commandments as a structure at a culture and a time so that we would take Him serious. We read God's laws and commandments through Western eyes, and we say, this just doesn't seem right. Well, if we would put ourselves in the place of when God gave this instruction, it was absolutely necessary. We read the same law in Deuteronomy 22, but this one's found in Leviticus 20, verse 10. If a man commits adultery with the wife of his neighbor, both the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.

So here's the problem. If someone's caught in adultery, the law says they should be put to death. So now they present this to Jesus. This woman was caught, and the law says that she should be put to death. As you read this story, I just go something smells a little suspicious here. They only brought one person in the party that committed adultery. The law says that both who participated in adultery should be put to death. We're not going to deal with that said the religious. We just want to see what What will you do in this case?

How will you do this? Now we've got to recognize that the ones presenting this to Jesus are the Pharisees. Jesus had all sorts of titles for the Pharisees like Brood of Vipers. Their intentions are not always right. He also called them hypocrites. We use that same phrase all the time. You hear people, I don't want to go to church, it's full of hypocrites. you should come and join them. We all, deep down inside, are hypocrites in some way. The phrase in Jesus' day is a Greek word. It just meant an actor. You wear a mask. You're one person with someone else. You're a different person than the other one. And when Jesus says you're hypocrites, it means you say one thing, but you do another thing. We cannot

trust hypocrites. They will turn on you like that. They will tell on you to get you You in trouble? Rarely is it, hey Rabbi, this woman's done wrong. By the way, I've done wrong too. What should we all do with our wrong? In this case, this person's way worse than I am. I've never been caught in adultery. You ever been caught in adultery? No, don't raise your hand. Here's the reality. We've all been caught. You've been caught in a white lie. You've been caught doing something you shouldn't do. Come on, you've been caught somewhere in your life. You know you're driving way too fast. You know you're driving too fast

and when you look in the mirror and see that red and blue lights, you're not happy. Your stomach sinks, your heart starts racing. It's even worse when the first question from an officer is, do you know why I pulled you over and now you've been caught and now you're either either gonna be honest or you're gonna lie. I have no clue, no, no clue. Like, don't you have other bad people to go catch right now? Like, I got my Bible here, I'm headed to church. Like, why would you pull me over? Now, if you're having an honest day, you say, yes, I was caught, I did wrong, please have mercy on me. Please, you see, in this moment, This woman was caught, but just a moment ago,

she was potentially at a peak in her life, a sensual encounter with another man. It goes from a moment of high to a moment of low in just a moment. It didn't take days, weeks, or months to get to this moment. It was like in a moment, her life changed. You know, that will happen to every single one of us at some point. It may be different than this occasion, but there will be a moment where it's a text message, a phone call, a knock on the door, maybe a word from someone else, where that moment changes everything. If you've yet to experience it, it will happen. You will be devastated. A loss of a loved one, a doctor's diagnosis. Maybe you're caught in the sin that you've hidden for so long. In just a moment, you go from living life normal to what are you gonna do with your life?

This is the worst thing ever. I don't know what to do next. You go from a high to a low, and this woman couldn't be any lower she sits at the feet of Jesus. It's her worst hour. And we've got to ask, where is Jesus in our worst hour? Let's just say, at your worst. The worst sin that you've ever committed. How does Jesus feel about you? I want you to see Jesus in this story with this woman, how he sees you. He's not looking at the act. He's looking at the potential of what could be. Jesus doesn't look at your sin and stop loving you. Jesus doesn't look at your worst and say, I can't love you at your worst. In fact, Jesus loves us at

his best and our worst. And it's in this trap that we see they're trying to trap Jesus, but it looks like this woman is also trapped. Verse five and six reads, now in the law, Moses commanded us to stone such women and men. They left that out. The enemy loves to pervert scripture, twist scripture, leave things out, take this verse out and just tell you what the enemy wants to tell you. And he will use the very word of God that's meant to build you up and bring you down. You ever seen that before? This is what the enemy, he will even do that in your own head. You won't think you're good enough. You're not meant to be good enough. Jesus is the only one that's good enough. So they pervert the scripture and

they said this to test Jesus that they might have some charge of bringing against him because if Jesus says yes the law says that take those rocks you guys found her because according to the law the one that found a person caught breaking law is the first to cast the stone. It's symbolic in a community. Every once in a while I wish we still put this into practice but it's just symbolic, that you did wrong, we're going to show the world what happened. And so here they are holding their stones to see, will Jesus put this woman to death? And if he doesn't put her to death, if he has compassion, it shows in the religious world he doesn't take the law seriously, but if he puts her to death in the Roman Greco world, he just judged according to the spiritual law, not the political law.

So we really have a conundrum here. And here, they are holding their stones. Before we think, what a barbaric act, today we do the same thing. We may not use stones to throw at people, but we hurl our words of accusations just like the Pharisees did. We love to take our stone of words and we throw them at other people. In fact, in this place, as they hurl these accusations, it's not towards the woman, it's towards Jesus. They demand an answer. Have you ever demanded an answer of God? I know I have. And let me just warn you, you absolutely can ask questions of the Lord.

Just beware of the answer. He will often flip the script where you're demanding Him. He'll put you in your proper place where now you see more clearly and rightly who you are and who he is. In this case, Jesus, knowing their hearts, knowing that they put this woman on trial, she's minutes from her last breath, and what does Jesus do? He doesn't bend down to get a rock. He bends down and starts riding in the dirt. This is the very dirt that our God made man out of. He seems to use the dirt of life. The very thing the creator used to make the creation of mankind. He writes in the dirt and John

leaves us with a mystery. We know not what he's writing, but we do get to see the wonderful character of God that as he's writing these things and they're asking questions, we begin to wonder in our imagination, what is Jesus saying? those pretentious pretending religious people are trying to put this woman to death and what does Jesus do he gets down to her level not their level he gets down to her level so that we can see he's he's a God that knows what we're going through in our worst hour this is not the first time Jesus has gotten down to the level of a woman he does it with the Samaritan woman at the well

He does it with Mary and Martha when they lose their brother. Jesus wept with them he knows he's bringing Lazarus back to life and Yet he grieves with them. He hurts with them for this is who our God is The writer of Hebrews puts it this way. Jesus is unlike any other priest He is the he says we do not have a high priest who's unable to sympathize with our weaknesses But we have one who in every respect has been tempted as we are yet without sin. So although it looked like this woman was on trial, it was really Jesus that was on trial. He knows what you've been through. He knows when others have hurled accusations at you. He knows when you're the one hurling accusations.

And he stoops down to a low level so that we would see what kind of a God we have. And while he's riding on the dirt, verse seven says, they demanded him again. They continued to ask him, oh, can you feel the tone and the atmosphere in the air? What are you doing down there? What do you say about this? There's a certain tone in a Pharisee. Unless you think Pharisees are just in the days of old, we should probably all write in our Bibles, I am a Pharisee. And then maybe underneath that, I'm a recovering Pharisee. You shouldn't want to be a Pharisee. It seems like the Pharisees are the highest. You know the word of God.

You go to the place of worship. You look like you have it together. But Jesus says, on the outside you look good, but on the inside you're like a rotting tomb. It's a dead corpse on the inside, and some of you have tried religion that way. You've gone to church, but you don't have life inside of you. Jesus says, you're not meant to look good on the outside and be dead on the inside. You're meant to be alive on the inside so that you're alive on the outside. It starts right inside here that they continue to ask him, verse 7, and he stood up and he said to them, let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her. You can imagine these men, they're holding their rocks. I can imagine today some of us are holding the rocks in our hearts.

Maybe some of us are more like this woman. We're so sick of being beaten down by everyone's words. You know these words. You are a no-good son of a, piece of a. You'll never. This is who you are. It's what the enemy tries to plant inside. This woman has no name that we're aware of. She's just a woman cocked. That's what the enemy loves to do in our lives. This is who you are. This is who you will forever be. She is one moment away from having a stone bring her down and Jesus makes that statement

in verse seven. Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her. This is a challenge. This is a charge. Here we see Jesus in his rightful place as the great high priest, the rabbi steps forth and gives an answer. What should happen to this woman? Well let me just start with you. Before you point the finger at anyone else. Now I'm not sure if Jesus knew that so many times his words would be misused and it would be abused. In the same chapter if we continue to read Jesus said the truth will set you free. Now how many times is that misused? Jesus says, I am the truth. You can't come up with your own truth.

There's one way to get to the eternal life. There's one way to have a right relationship with the Father. There's one way to be forgiven of all your sins. That will set you free. But yet, we like to say in our world, I'll tell you the truth will set you free. Then we come up with our own truth. Our own interpretation of the law. Well, she was caught, she should be put to death. We're gonna come to our own conclusions of what this looks like. And he lets this statement linger for just a moment. Let he who is without sin cast the first stone and then he does something interesting. John tells us he bends down on the ground again. I can imagine he's able to multitask and he's looking the woman in the eye at the same time he's writing with his finger.

We have to read between the lines in this story which can sometimes be dangerous. We don't know who the guy is who was caught in the act of adultery as well. Was it a neighbor, a co-worker, a friend? We have no clue. Do you know who I thought it was? This is just an opinion here. I think it was a Pharisee. It doesn't say that, but I could read between the lines because Pharisees were abusers, and women have been abused throughout all of history, and the abuse the enemy prefers the most is sexual abuse. We're in 2022, a time where we can get any information at any time right on our fingertips with the screen, and it is devastating how many women in our

church, the people sitting right here in this room, have been sexually molested and abused. Most often as children, the enemy goes after children the most. It's even worse in other countries where the laws are not as severe here, where at least we have a judicial system and where we prosecute those whom do these evil acts. But I will tell you, the enemy has often worked through sexual abuse to try to change our identity because if you are abused, you think you're worthless, and then you continue to live in that worthlessness. It's a lie. Many women have never had the true joy in their heart because it was robbed from them in rape, sometimes by a loved one, someone they trusted, someone they should have done. So when I say it's a Pharisee, what I'm saying is,

even religious people can be abusive and do things they shouldn't do. I don't know if that was the case. I'm just looking back at history saying, the enemy is a tormentor. And the people around you have been through a lot more hell than it looks like in their life. And when we come to church, this is the place we can get relentlessly real and come before Jesus face to face and say, yes, I was caught. Yes, I am in the place I don't wanna be. and I have no clue what's going to happen next and what does Jesus do? He surprises us. He writes on the ground. Now we don't know what He writes on the ground. We can only once again suspect and use our imagination because while Jesus is writing the second time, the oldest from the youngest begins to lead one by one.

I think Jesus named their sins starting with the oldest to the youngest. The oldest Pharisee in the group, George? committed adultery too. Not once, not twice, but thrice. Here are the names of the women. I'm out of here. Joe, do we need to talk about your tax fraud? How your cousin Vinnie helps you out to make sure the Roman Empire doesn't get their say? Joe leaves quietly. Steve, should we mention to the world you dress like a woman on Saturday nights? Steve ran

out of there. Ram. Y'all don't know each other's secrets right here but there's some secrets in this place. Jesus knows everything. It's really easy on the outside to point out someone else's problem. This is why marriage is failure. This is who you are. You go look in the mirror deep down in your soul and Jesus say, you are too. Not always but sometimes they left they left they left they left see when you're in front of Jesus you have a choice to stay or leave there's two types of people that's it too one that stays and one that leaves here's the reality they both have sin

one runs one stays see this message of sin is not for some people it's for the youngest of person that could hear my voice it's for every single teenager you hear this message Satan's gonna be really upset this is for every adult in every season of life whether you're single you're married or your widow see you don't stop sending when you get older some of us think that we all arrive someday in our lives maybe when I get to this place I'll arrive but to those of you who are not yet parents your parents were the worst of sinners and and they know it and your grandparents were even worst of sinners and they know it and generationally this is passed on but the scriptures teaches

that we are all born in sin and the law says not just regarding adultery there's a true consequence to sin every sin has a consequence some consequences are greater than others but all sin separates you from God in fact in In Romans 6, 23, Paul, who was a Pharisee at one point in his life, says, for the wages of sin is death. So it's not just for the adulterer that it'll lead to death. That's just true. Because of the curse of sin in Genesis, chapter 3, we will all die. It's horrific. It's the explanation of why children dies, the explanation of why someone who seemingly has a good life dies. It's as a result of sin. And some people will die because of overdosing.

Some people will die because of a car accident. Some people will die because of a heart attack. But we will die, and that's a direct result of sin. Our God is the life giver. He meant us to be eternal. Some of you may not have seen this, but in South Korea, there was a horrific event that happened yesterday. Young people celebrating Halloween, and at this point, over 150 of them dead because they got trampled on one another. They came to celebrate what they thought was life. This life we live in in this body, the same writer that says for the wages of sin is death, says this is temporary, which is why we call this church journey. Your body is a tent. Your soul is permanent.

So you gotta look at the reality, this tent is going to fail one way or another. And the presentation from Jesus is what do we do with that? We see in this story, sin deceives. We don't know what her role is, but she's caught in the act of adultery, but we see even the religious deceives. Sin always deceives because as Jesus says of Satan, he's a liar, it's his native tongue, that's what he does. And when you're deceived, you rarely even know you're deceived. And that's what the enemy does. He takes that which is good and he deceives us to go outside of God's plan for it. He's done that with everything, sex. Sex is good and designed by God. We absolutely do not need to be ashamed of sex.

We start to feel ashamed about sex because the enemy has perverted it and as a result we keep quiet and then the enemy goes ahead and teaches the whole world a false understanding of sex. God has a perfect plan for sex. It's between a man and a woman in the marriage bed, period. Someone say, this is more complicated than that. The Bible shows all kinds of polygamy. God never condoned polygamy. In fact, every time it went wrong, it never went right where a guy says, you know, I want a ton of wives. No, it got even more confusing. David had plenty of wives. Well, then why did he still have an adulterous affair? It is never good enough. Marriage, sex is designed for marriage. The enemy would love to say, no, no, you can have sex outside of marriage.

You might as well practice it out and make sure you really love that person. And God said, no, there's no practicing this. Something happens when the two become ones. And there's a spirit that's still living today that's been woven throughout all history. It's the spirit of Porneia, that's the Greek word. We get our English word today, pornography. It's just a perversion of that which God created. The reason people are drawn towards pornography is because God created sex. He created the sexual organs. He created the pleasure of sex. He created all those things and the enemy comes in and deceives you that if you go down wrong view of sex, it will lead to death. Physically, diseases. Emotionally, your own mind. Relationally, with other people. I'm literally praying in this city that the strip

club will shut down. Stars, that they'll get a better job. I'm praying for the sex shops. I'm praying for those who are doing this. Those are the physical signs of what's happening on a larger level in your homes, on your screens. It will stop you from a right relationship with God. And it's not just sex, money. Money's not bad, it's not evil. Paul writes to Timothy, he said, it's the love of money that it even traps Christians. They'll stop worshiping God and serving God because they're going after money. People are freaking out right now because the economy and the stock market and all these different things. It's the love of money. It's all gods and it's all gonna be okay if you put God above money because Jesus said you cannot serve both God and money. You decide which God it is, but the enemy loves to come and say,

no, no, no, you need money for everything. You need money for everything. You need money for everything. No, you need Jesus for everything. Amen. It's not just money, it's not just sex. We can get into the spirit of pharmacy or we could talk about how drugs can ultimately lead us down that road and it's not just the drugs like snorting cocaine or getting drunk on alcohol. This could be prescription drugs. Okay, I need to talk to somebody today. Maybe it's not drugs or sex or money. Do you know gluttony is a sin? Oh, Holy Spirit, you got me there. You may not even look like a glutton and you can be a glutton. And you don't even know it because it's the very thing the enemy wants to use to numb your pain

so you turn to something that feels good and it triggers it in your mind because neurologically God made you this way to seek pleasure and you'll only be satisfied in Jesus. Do you know why all these things happen? Because you have a real enemy of your soul, Satan. It's not God. He doesn't tempt you to fail. He'll test you to be stronger. But there's an enemy. This is what Peter says of him. You, my friends, need to be sober-minded, be watchful because you're adversary. That's the enemy, Satan. He's your enemy. The devil, he prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. Satan's purpose is to trap you, to trick you, to get you in a place where ultimately that sin leads to death. I shared that verse with you, Romans 6.23. Let's look at the whole context. For the wages of sin is death, but what? The free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

He doesn't leave us in death. He doesn't leave us in sin. Sin equals death. Jesus equals life. That's the only equation there is. You can seek it through physical health, but guess what? One day you're going to get old and not have it. You can seek it through a successful career, but one day you'll need to retire, and then you'll look back and say, is this what I did it for? One day you're gonna see that your true life is only found in Jesus. Paul put it this way to the Corinthians, the sting of death is sin. If you really wanna know what kind of sinner you are, go ahead and read the Bible, and you're gonna see the power of sin is the law. Do you understand what he's saying here? If you're not quite sure where you're a sinner, just go read all of the laws, and you'll find somewhere where you've broken the law. Just get down to the 10 commandments. There's somewhere in your life, Jesus says,

lest you think that maybe you have to go commit adultery to be adultery, he says, if you're thinking about having sex with someone in your mind, you've done the act. Don't think you're better than the person that did the deed, you've done the deed in your mind. So Jesus makes you sure that you understand, no, if you look at the law, you've got sin, sin leads to death, but look at the very next verse, come on, but thanks be to God who gives us victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Someone shall victory. Victory over sin because of Jesus. Victory over Satan because of Jesus. Victory over the accusations because of Jesus. Victory over being at the feet of Jesus. Knowing you deserve death, but what is he going to give you? Life. Let him who is without sin be the first among you to cast the stone at her. Was there anyone that day who was without sin that could have thrown the stone at her?

Yes. Jesus. That was a trick question. Everyone left that day but Jesus because Jesus is without sin. 2 Corinthians 5 21 says, for our sake, our Lord God made him Jesus to be sin, even though he knew no sin. He took all of our sin so that in him, we might become the righteousness of God. Our righteousness does not come from being a better person, being more religious or following more rules. Our righteousness comes from Jesus. The Old Testament scripture says your best righteousness on your best days are like filthy rags to God. You can never be good enough for God. Your righteousness comes from God. He exchanges your sin.

He takes it on that day and says I want to give you my righteousness. Now how is that life? Well Paul puts it this way. Now the Lord is the Spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is there is what? Freedom. Jesus had the fullness of the Spirit in him because Jesus is God. There's the Father. That's our Heavenly Father, there's the Son Jesus, and there's the Holy Spirit. Jesus shows us what it means to be filled fully with the Holy Spirit, and what does the Holy Spirit do? He's a great liberator. With Jesus, there's no greater freedom, and he sets her free. He asks her in verse 10, woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you? Verse 11, neither do I condemn you. Go, and from now on, sin no more. when you have Jesus, who can be against you? Who can condemn you? Satan is the accuser.

You go to Revelation, it says he actually accuses day and night. But do you know what you have against the accuser? Jesus. The protector. The defender. That when Satan comes to accuse you, you know what you've done? You know who you are? You know what was done to you? Jesus stands forth and says, who can accuse her? Who can accuse him? When you're born again, you're a child of God. You're no longer defined as a sinner. You are now a saint. The word saint means you're set apart. We are all born sinners, we're not born saints. You don't have to go do miracles and perform it and be proved after you're dead long enough to be called a saint. The scriptures say, in Jesus Christ, you're a saint.

And Jesus says, I look at you, I don't see a sinner. I don't see an adulterer. I don't see a cheater. I don't see someone caught. I see the potential that you would be forgiven and that you'd go sin no more. You ever had the phrase said to you? Okay, maybe it wasn't said of you, but maybe you said it to someone else, it's something like this. Are you just sorry because you got caught? What that phrase is saying is you're showing sorrow, you're admitting your guilt. That's indisputable in this text. Jesus did not say she didn't do this, but what the person asking the question is really saying is, I don't believe you're changed. You're gonna keep doing this. There's a difference between remorse and repentance.

Repentance is a changed thinking. I'm not gonna keep doing this. I know what was given to me this day. I deserve death. I was given life. I'm gonna live differently. Hear me loud and clear on this. The ultimate goal of the enemy is to lie to you, where you've been given freedom, but you still live in the lie. Some of you know you're forgiven, you know you're going to heaven, but you still live in the lie. Jesus stands and looks at you. He says, I don't condemn you. Go from now on, sin no more. Here's how I know you're gonna embrace who I am. You're gonna be in this rhythm of not continuing to do what you've done or what was done too. send no more from this day forward. You are set free. Y'all heard of John 3

16? I'll just read it to you and maybe it's familiar. For God so loved the world He gave His only Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. Jesus said those words. He continues and says let's just make it clear God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world. Jesus did not come to the world to condemn you. Jesus did not come to the world to make you feel guilty or to give you shame. He did not come to the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world, that's us, might be saved through him. For whoever believes is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the only son of God." You see, you're born in condemnation. We don't like to say that about kids these days, but you're born in sin. I mean, from an early age, you were just born in sin.

Of course, there's an age of accountability where you start to understand that sin, but you're born in condemnation. You're born thinking the world revolves around you, and Jesus comes and says, no, you're just a part of the world, and I came to save you, to rescue you from the condemnation. I came to expose what's actually inside of you, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there's freedom, because now, the realities, you're caught, and you're naked, and you're vulnerable before Jesus, and he looks at you and says, I still love you, you have worth, I made you, you are fearfully and wonderfully made, I can't wait to spend eternity with you, and your response should be to live differently because of that. And it may not be the most popular message today, but there's three words I want you to get today. Sin no more. Jesus is not like anyone in your life. He's not like your parents, your grandparents,

a spouse, or even your kids. He's so much more. He refuses to allow you to have the death penalty and he will take it for you and that's exactly what he did on the cross. Usually in our mess, people run. Usually in our mess, people try to fix us. Instead, Jesus embraces us and offers us an alternative. I got to bring this to a close, but I want to just present to you I've got three points to today's sermon No, I'm not just getting started Here's the three points of the sermon you could write these three down three three quick points. Here's number one acknowledge your sin Acknowledge your sin The Bible says it very clearly that if you confess your sin, he's not gonna hold it against you He's not gonna condemn you he is faithful and just to forgive your sin

So acknowledge your sin, acknowledge your sin, acknowledge your sin. When you confess your sin, it changes everything. Number two, it's not enough just to say you're a sinner because then you're just caught. You need to believe in Jesus. Believe in who he is. His very name in Hebrew is Yeshua, it means the Lord saves. That's what Jesus means, he's your savior. He actually has taken your sin on the cross. He had no sin, but he died for your sins once and for all. Believe in Jesus. Number three is this, choose Jesus. What I mean by that is if you're gonna believe in Jesus, you gotta choose to follow Jesus, and if you're gonna choose to follow Jesus, that means you're now a disciple of Jesus, and that means although you've sinned, you're gonna sin no more. You've broken that curse. Whatever was hanging on to you for generations has been stopped in Jesus' name. Notice here, these three points, A, B, C.

It's easy as one, two, three. God didn't make it complicated. You don't need to go confess to a priest or be better or take some beads and pray it a million times. No, no, no, go to Jesus, confess your sin, believe in Jesus, and start following Jesus. Quit sinning. You're in an affair right now. The Lord's just used me to say, stop, stop. Before you go tell your spouse, you talk to Jesus. You're looking at pornography today. The Lord has just told you, stop. He's not telling you try harder, be better, because here's the deal. You're gonna be weak, you're gonna be tempted, you're gonna be tried, you're gonna be alone, and the devil's gonna get you. It's not about you. it's about you surrendering it all to Jesus. Some of you are all hooked on things that no one else around you knows you're hooked on,

and the Lord just told you, stop. Revival will only happen when we truly repent of our sin. Because when we repent of our sin, now we can tell the world what I have, you can have. One little rant, and then I'm gonna ask you if you wanna follow Jesus for the first time. We need to start being bold like Jesus. I don't know about you, but I'm just gonna say it as it is right now, I am sick and tired of the devil being so bold. Perverting sex down in parades, completely naked, waving flags of a promise that God said, that promise is because I will never destroy the world again. I'm sick and tired of the lure of a drug to numb you, to make you feel better. I'm sick and tired of someone thinking

I gotta go outside of God's plan to make them feel, I'm tired of my own sin and my heart feeling like I'm defeated because I live in the Pacific Northwest and it looks like the devil won. The devil is bold, the devil is brash, the devil is a tormentor, the devil's gonna go after you wherever you are. It's time for us, I'm not telling the devil he needs to stop because that's God's job to lock him up. I'm just saying Christians, rise up and be bold. Rise up. I am not ashamed of the gospel. It is the good news in which I am saved. We gotta let the world know just as much as the devil's letting the world know what sin is, but instead disguises it like it's good, we should let the world know there's only one good news

and it's found in Jesus Christ. We don't fight like the enemy, we don't look like the enemy, don't go use the canceled culture like the enemy, that was the Pharisees. It's time for you to rise up and be like Jesus. Accept others who they are and say, I believe God's best is ahead of you, it's not behind you. Look at what God can do, There's victory because you're not meant to live in defeat. So now's the moment I've gotta ask you if you've never given your life to Jesus. Now's your moment. The Bible says don't wait for another day. Today is the day of salvation. You don't know if you have tomorrow. It's not a scare tactic. I do not wanna scare you into heaven. But you do not know what will happen with your life.

So why don't you just surrender your life to Jesus? Why don't you give him your sin right now, confess it in your heart, whatever that is in your life, confess it. And if you mess up again, he won't stop loving you, you just need to keep confessing. But don't keep going back to sin. The secret to sin no more is replacing it. So you can't just stop sin, because the devil knows if you stop sin, he's gonna come back with seven other friends and occupy your life. The secret is to now allow the Holy Spirit, God himself, to consume your life. Read the Bible, pray, start making healthier decisions for your life, Start loving people. And if you don't know what to do, just start saying it out loud. Just start saying out loud what you don't even believe. I am loved. I am a child of God.

You may not even feel it on the inside, but you say it enough times. The devil's gonna get the hint here. He's gonna try different tactics and you're gonna fight a new battle. God's giving you everything he needs. So in just a moment, I'm gonna ask you if you wanna make that decision. I want you to raise your hand and then I'm gonna pray with you. This is between you and the Lord, but it's gotta be serious. The Bible says as long as you believe in your heart you're willing to tell someone with your mouth that you believe he died and rose for your sins, you're saved. It's not complicated. But from this day forward, you're choosing Jesus over anything else. So with every head bowed and eyes closed, even for those who are listening online, I wanna ask you, do you wanna receive the gift of grace, which is the forgiveness of your sins. It's the inheritance of eternal life. It's recognizing that God loves you and has a plan for you. If that's you, I just want you right now,

right where you are, would you thrust your hand up in the air saying, You're saying yes to Jesus. Praise God, praise God. Praise God, praise God, so many. Is there more, just raise it nice and high. Praise God, praise God, praise God. You're tired of carrying the weight of sin on your own. You're gonna give it to Jesus right now. Young man, God is so proud of you. Praise God, someone else. I'm so proud, you can put your hands down. Many all across the room, and I'm sure some listening to my voice right now, If you wanna be saved, you call out to the name of Jesus, present your sin, and he gives you the power of God himself, the Holy Spirit. Now you trust God, you are sealed with God himself, the Holy Spirit in your soul.

Nothing can separate you from the love of God. I'm gonna pray out loud a prayer, and it's not the words that will save you. Prayer is just talking to the Lord. It's Jesus that saves you. In your heart, would you pray this prayer, Lord, I trust you. I give you my life, I give you my sins. I no longer wanna live on my own. Help me to follow you. Protect me against the enemy. Thank you for the gift of salvation, the gift of eternal life. Thank you, Lord, for who you are. I am no longer condemned, I am set free. And we pray these things today in Jesus' name, amen. Amen, praise God. Hey, before we leave, we're really short on time, but we're gonna do the world's fastest communion service. So if you're watching online, we hope you got some elements as well.

I had a message on my heart and I didn't want to rush that message. We have two elements right here. If you don't have these, you could raise your hand. Somebody will bring them to you right now. This is just the bread and it represents the cup and it represents two reminders that on the night Jesus was betrayed, before he was arrested, before he went to the cross, he left us a reminder of who he is. These were elements of a greater meal, but he wanted us to remember two things and he started with the bread. So if you take out the bread, put it in your hand. It was Jesus that said, This is my body broken for you. Today, church, we're gonna be reminded we are one body because Jesus was broken for us. He heals us, He restores us. Would you remember Christ's body broken for you?

Then He took the cup and He changed history. He said, this is a new covenant. The writer of Hebrews says it's a forever covenant. It will not change. His blood was shed for the forgiveness of every single one of your sins, every one. It's not a single thing that Jesus can't liberate you and forgive you of. So now we take this cup as a reminder of Christ's blood shed for our sins. Lord, we remember you today. I thank you for so many lives that said yes to you. Lord, we celebrate that it's not what we can do but what's done for us. Would you help this church to live in victory? Would you help us to follow you in Jesus' name, amen. Well friends, here's how this works.

I'm gonna dismiss you and if you have prayers Ties and offerings you can put them in the boxes before you leave if you need prayer today There'll be prayer teams on either side of the room the band's gonna sing a song you're most welcome to stay and sing that song But you're also welcome to go grab your kids. We do have another service I just want you to be aware that another service is coming God bless you go have a great week in the mighty name of Jesus