It doesn’t matter a team’s desire, the team’s abilities, talents or gifts, you can beat yourself with mistakes. Penalties and mistakes can wreck a game and wreck a team. When the yellow flags are falling so is a team.

How do you recover when you mess up big? What do you do when your mistake is public?

Today’s story we are looking at a controversial passage that didn’t even show up in the scriptures until many years after the Bible was canonized.

READ John 7:53-8:11

Overcoming Sin

If it weren’t for GRACE, truth would condemn me.

They never imagined him turning the tables on them. Jesus reveals their motives. They didn’t care about this woman. They were trying to trap Jesus. If Jesus said “NO” [Lev.20:10 & Deut. 22:22-24]. If Jesus said, “YES” [John 18:31 (Jews couldn’t put to death]. Jesus exposes their hypocrisy. Hypocrisy says, “Let’s deal with your sin not mine.” Blaming others shifts shame and judgment. They were blind to their own sin.

“Graceless truth is just as lethal as watered down truth!”

Truth without grace becomes an impossible burden. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life and no one comes to the Father except through me.” John 14:6

If it weren’t for TRUTH, grace would have no power to change me.

To emphasize grace only means to never call out sin. “Put off falsehood, and speak truthfully to your neighbor” Ephesians 4:25. We in the Body of Christ shy away, and avoid confrontation because we love our personal comfort. We cannot afford to not to Take a stand on sin. The Bible calls out several sexual sins. The most unloving thing to do is to leave people captive in their sin. The Bible calls out premarital sex as sin. To be intimate sexually outside of marriage is sin. It is not God keeping things from us, but it is God wanting thing for us. The Bible also calls adultery as sin. When a man or a woman in a marriage relationship travels outside to seek emotional and sexual connections it is sin. The Bible also calls homosexuality as sin. I know this is not a politically correct statement, but it is still sin. The sad commentary is that the church can beat the drum on sins we don’t personal struggle in. I believe it takes incredible courage for a person struggling with this sin to come to church. The Bible also shares about guarding our eyes and hearts from sexual things. Pornography is an epidemic within our culture and within our churches. As a church, we need to move from calling everything good and evil. We need to reframe things back to Genesis 3 of what is living and what is dying. When we choose to sin sexually, we are moving away from life towards death. It is not loving to withhold truth from people you care about.

“Watered down truth is just as lethal as graceless truth!”

To miss the truth of grace, you will forget that grace is power
Power to save
Power to transform

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son that whoever believes in Him shall never perish but will have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.” John 3:16-18

Jesus didn’t ignore this woman’s sin or the sins of the accusers.

“At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” “No one, sir,” she said. “Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.” John 8:9-11

No matter the mistake, Jesus can overcome with grace & truth

We need grace & truth

We need Jesus

“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” John 1:14

“For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” John 1:17

Jesus gives compassion to sinful people through forgiveness
1. What do you need to confess or repent?
2. What do you need more of today – grace or truth?
3. Who do you need to embrace?
4. Who do you need to confront?