Come and See Grace

Kyle Lounsbury: Good morning, everybody, and welcome to

our Harvest Festival Sunday.

It's great to be together with you all.

Great to have our Spanish ministry and our Korean ministry, amen.

And, uh, very encouraged also to have many first-time guests here, uh, visiting

and be able to enjoy the festivities after our service here together.

Amen.

Um, are the slides good?

We're good?

All right.

Well, uh, we're gonna continue on in our series Come and See.

And, uh, for those that don't know who I am, my name is Kyle Lounsberry.

Along with my wife, Jasmine, we lead our campus ministry at OC Church, amen.

College students.

And, uh, you know, it's so much fun working with college students because

they keep you on your toes, all right?

College students and teenagers, uh, are full of energy, and they keep me

young, and they think I'm old now.

Isn't that crazy, guys?

Yeah.

They think I'm old, which is so funny.

They call me Unc', so I don't know how that happened.

I guess you have two kids and you just get old.

That's how life works.

Um, but I did wanna share some really encouraging news from the campus ministry

and our youth ministry, and really wanna, uh, lift up the congregation because

we've had the privilege and honor to be able to hire four part-time interns for

our campus and youth ministries, amen.

Is these four right here, and they're working, uh, for, to help our

bingo operation on Tuesday nights.

They're helping our college students.

They're helping, uh, our, our teens and our youth.

And so we're really encouraged to see how God's gonna use these awesome

individuals, uh, three of which were in our summer internship program this summer.

And one, Kiana, came from Revive, which is a mission team, uh, out in Eastern

Europe, and we're very encouraged to be able to have them, uh, serving

the church and being able to bring a youthful presence to our church.

Amen.

'Cause I'm old now, so we need more youth.

Amen?

Yes.

But as we, uh, transition into our time of, uh, the lesson today, we're gonna

be having a, a communion lesson, so we'll be taking communion following.

Uh, you know, we're gonna talk here about grace.

All right.

All right?

Grace.

You know, when I, uh, read John chapter 8, my favorite part of John

John 8 · chapter mention John 8 · chapter mention

chapter 8, I must confess, is verse 31 to 33, and it's all about…

No, it's all about truth.

It's not about grace.

That part is all about truth, and I love that part 'cause it convicts me.

It makes me feel like Jesus is the truth.

Amen.

But then as you really study out the chapter and you see the first part of

what takes place, you realize, man, Jesus was a perfect balance of grace and truth.

Amen.

And so today we're gonna focus in on, on the grace aspect, but I believe he also

gives us a call to truth, uh, at the end of the story we're gonna look at.

So if you guys can start turning your Bibles to John chapter 8, verse

John 8:1

1 is where we're gonna pick up.

And, uh, we don't have the ability and time to go through the whole chapter.

It's very rich.

I wanna encourage you to take some time to study it out, uh, this week.

But we are gonna look at the first part of John chapter 8.

John 8 · chapter mention

And you know, last week Marcel spoke about the one who satisfies your soul,

that we wanna come and see the one who satisfies our soul, that there are so

many distractions and things in our world that can't truly satisfy us the

way that Jesus Christ can truly satisfy.

But today I wanna start off with a hypothetical.

All right?

Let me start off with a hypothetical question for you guys.

Now, I want you to imagine for a second that on our giant screens

up here today- That we, instead of having our announcements and our

sermon slides and our, our lyrics, what if we broadcasted on those

screens your most embarrassing moment?

Your most embarrassing moment, and we put it up on the screen, whether it was

a picture or a video, and we watched it.

I want you to think about that for a moment.

Not your best picture, not the version of you that, that made it

onto your Instagram or your Facebook.

No, I want, I want the worst, most embarrassing,

hilarious, or maybe sad photo.

Right?

I'm talking about the moment where you're like, "Lord, I thought we

agreed we'd never bring this up.

This would never happen."

Anybody feeling a little nervous?

Yeah.

You know, I started scanning some of your guys' Facebooks.

Ooh.

No, I'm just kidding.

I'm just kidding.

I'm just kidding.

But I got a few pictures of my own.

I'm gonna make…

I'm gonna embarrass myself for a moment here.

All right?

I got a first picture here.

This past week I was in Germany- Oh.

… and I was repping the, the lederhosen.

Oh yeah.

This is a traditional Bavarian outfit, and I felt like such a

goofball wearing that, walking around.

But here's the thing, I felt comforted, 'cause there was thousands of other

people wearing the same thing.

All right?

So I felt much better about myself.

Uh, let's see what else I got here.

Oh, there we go.

That was the first picture I took with Jasmine.

I was, I think, 17, 16 years old there.

Oh.

Teens, be careful what pictures you take now.

You'll be, uh, getting made fun of later.

So that was me as a wee little lad, although I was still pretty tall there.

And then I got one I'm really embarrassed to show.

All right?

And it's for a specific reason.

The picture itself, you don't really pay attention, you'll be like, "Oh, whatever."

But look deeply at the picture and tell me if you can find out what's going on here

I cannot believe I brought myself to wear a Chicago Cubs shirt at a Dodger game

To my shame.

To my shame.

My wife is from Chicago.

We weren't married yet here.

I think we had just started dating, so I was just trying to

put love deposits in the love bank.

That's all it was.

But I will never again, ever again, wear a Chicago Cubs shirt.

Go Dodgers.

We're up 1-0.

Amen?

Amen.

Uh, why do I share this with you guys?

Well, we're gonna look at a story today where we look at some, some,

a situation where somebody's worst moment gets puts, put on display.

Now, when I asked you the question, you know, your worst moment, your

most embarrassing moment, man, imagine if we all here were just ridiculing

you, seeing your worst moment, seeing that picture on the screen.

Imagine how you would feel.

You would probably feel terrible.

Now, not just an embarrassing moment, but now think of the worst

decisions you've made in your life.

Think of some of the worst things you've done, some of the things you regret.

We're, we've all made mistakes, right?

What would happen if the worst thing about you or the worst thing you've done

was broadcasted in front of everyone?

Would people look at you differently?

Would people judge you?

Would people, you know, maybe disown you, your family?

Would they understand or would they reject you?

You know, there's a story in the Bible where it's not a hypothetical,

and in John 8:1 we're gonna see a woman whose worst moment is

John 8:1

broadcasted in front of everybody.

Let's look at John 8:1.

John 8:1

You guys with me?

Yes.

"But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.

At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts."

So anytime a chapter starts with but, I always look at,

okay, what happened before.

Essentially in chapter seven it says all the disciples went home, but then

Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.

"And at dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all

the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them.

The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman

caught in the, caught in adultery.

They made her stand before the group and said to Jesus, 'Teacher, this woman

was caught in the act of adultery.

In the Law of Moses, the, in the law Moses commanded us to stone such women.

Now what do you say?'

They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him.

But Jesus bent down and started writing, or started to write

on the ground with his finger.

When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, 'Let

any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.'

Again he stooped down and he wrote on the ground.

At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones

first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there.

Jesus straightened up and asked her, 'Woman, where are they?

Has no one condemned you?'

'No one, sir,' she said.

'Then neither do I condemn you,' Jesus declared.

'Go now and leave your life of sin.'"

You know, Jesus is teaching here in the temple courts, and it says the

Pharisees find a woman caught in adultery, and they bring her to the

temple courts in front of everybody and place her in front of Jesus and have her

standing there right in front of Jesus.

The Pharisees then say

In the law, Moses commanded us to stone such women.

Now what do you say?

So this woman is brought to Jesus, standing in front of Jesus, and the

Pharisees go, "We need to stone her.

We need to kill her."

That would be justice.

That would be right according to the law.

You know, I want you for just a moment to think of yourself in this situation.

Imagine if you were, were brought in front of Jesus, in front of this crowd,

in your worst moment, and everyone around you, imagine this whole room is

chanting and screaming, "Let's kill him.

Let's kill her.

We're gonna stone her

Pretty intense, right?

You know, and as I started studying this out and reading this, I, I really

wanted to figure out what, what did the law that Moses commanded really say?

What, what did it really say regarding the situation?

Are they just fibbing?

Are they twisting it, or did it actually say something?

And what I found is in Deuteronomy 22:22, it says, "If a man is found sleeping

Deuteronomy 22:22

with another man's wife, both the man who slept with her and the woman must die.

You must purge the evil from Israel."

So what is the issue here in this moment that the Pharisees are doing?

They have the woman, but not the man

They found the woman, but somehow, some way, where's the man?

Where is he?

It takes two people to commit adultery.

And this is where I believe the true intention of the Pharisees

starts to be revealed, right?

It says they were using this question as a trap.

They were trying to trap Jesus.

They were saying, "Jesus, look, we got her.

She was in sin.

She was committing adultery.

This is what the law says.

We must stone her."

And they were trying to just put Jesus in a tough spot.

So this really isn't about the woman.

As I've really learned about that, I was like, it's not

necessarily all about the woman.

They're just using her as a means to get to Jesus, and that's sad.

That is evil.

And so Jesus is then put in this trap.

So if he ignores the law, what's the problem?

The problem then is they have an accusation against him.

But if he doesn't respect the Roman authority and the Roman law, then

he can be in trouble with them.

They think they've trapped Jesus, because if he calls for her death, the

Romans will come in and say, "Hold on, you don't have authority to do that.

You have to go through us."

So what does he do?

He starts bending down, and I always find this so interesting.

He gets on his knees, and he starts writing in the dirt.

He starts writing or drawing or I…

Who knows what he's doing there?

We can only speculate.

My speculation, just to throw it out there, this woman was caught in adultery,

and I think Jesus, being a pure man, was on his knees trying not to look at her

You know, eventually Jesus then stands up, and what does he say?

He says, "Let any one of you who is without sin be the

first to throw a stone at her."

If you're without sin, you can do it

One by one, stones begin to drop.

They start walking away, and the crowd gets smaller and smaller

until eventually she probably looks around and it's just her and Jesus.

Just her and Jesus

You know, imagine being her.

Everyone leaves except one man.

Imagine what you'd be feeling.

Wow, I'm standing face to face with Jesus.

You've, you've been exposed, you've been humiliated, you've been found out.

You're guilty.

You can't undo what you've already done

And now you're right there with Jesus.

What is Jesus gonna say?

And I love Jesus' response.

Jesus says, "Woman, where are they?

Has no one condemned you?"

"No one, sir," she said.

"Then neither do I condemn you," Jesus declared.

You know, I love that moment because that, to me, is grace.

That is that moment of grace.

Jesus met her with grace, met her in that moment, in that moment

where she was probably f- so fearful, so scared, so distraught.

Grace.

He saves her life.

Now think of the relief she must be feeling.

The relief, the, the burden that's taken away, the weight that's off her

chest to, to feel like, wow I deserve death, and now I've received grace.

Brothers and sisters, what I wanna share with you is your worst moment doesn't have

to define your relationship with Jesus.

I don't know where you're at today.

I don't know what you've done.

I know some of you, but I know that your worst moment doesn't have to define you.

That's good.

Yes, indeed.

One of the things I, I was very grateful for when, when actually

w- Jasmine and I were h- uh, being interviewed to come to Orange County,

sitting, uh, with Steve and Charlie, one of the things they shared is…

Or one of the things Steve Stephenson shared was some people

are defined by their righteousness.

Other people are defined by their response, their repentance.

Amen.

And that was in a time where I was struggling with some things in my own

life, and he was helping me see that you can be defined by your repentance,

how you change, how you respond.

You don't have to be defined by what you did, who you were.

Isn't that exciting?

Yeah.

Isn't that encouraging?

Doesn't that relieve you to know, wow, I've blown it.

I've messed up, but that doesn't have to define me.

That's right.

I'm no longer defined that way if I respond differently.

I don't have to be defined by the ways that I've blown it, because

Jesus wants to give me grace.

Amen.

Jesus wants to give all of us grace.

He wants to offer this world grace.

He wants to offer Orange County grace.

That's right.

Are we gonna bring grace to Orange County?

Are we gonna be the ones that bring these interactions, these

Jesus moments with people, or are we gonna be like the Pharisees?

Are we gonna say, "Stone them"?

Are we gonna say, "They don't belong here.

They don't fit in here.

They're, they've done too much.

They've messed up too much"?

Or are we gonna allow people to be defined by their relationship with Jesus?

Amen.

Jesus defines us.

Your identity is not what you've done.

Your identity is not your sexuality.

Your identity is not the mistakes you've made.

Your identity is in Christ.

Amen?

Amen.

That is our identity, because of the grace we've received from Jesus.

Amen?

Amen.

But brothers and sisters, let's not confuse grace with

permission to stay the same.

We can't confuse grace as just a free pass.

Now, it is a free gift.

Amen?

But Jesus doesn't say, "Neither do I condemn you.

Go back to what you were doing."

No, he says, "Go now and leave your life of sin.

Go change.

Go be different.

Don't, don't allow that sin to pervade your life any longer.

Go be different because of this moment."

You see, I love the passage that says, "Those who have been

forgiven little, love little.

But those who have been forgiven much, love much."

Because when we're forgiven of much, when we realize how much we've been

forgiven of, when we have those grace moments with Jesus and we

realize, "Man, I don't deserve this," then we love much, then we change.

We're, we're grace driven.

We're inspired to live a different life.

It doesn't become rule following in the church, because the

grace we received motivates us.

Amen.

Amen.

Grace gives this woman a new direction.

Grace gives you a new direction.

God's grace gives us a new direction.

If you're visiting with us today, I wanna encourage you,

God's grace can transform you.

God's grace can give you a whole new perspective on

life, a whole new worldview.

Studying the Bible with college students has made me realize,

man, these young men and women, they are passionate about things.

But how much more passionate can they be if they experience the grace of Jesus?

If they experience how much God loves them and wants to change them, that transforms

their perspective on life, and then they begin to live lives devoted to Jesus.

I wanna encourage you, if you're visiting today, grace gives you a new direction.

When you experience God's grace, it can give you a new direction.

You know, she was identified by her sin.

This woman was caught in adultery.

That's shameful.

Imagine the shame.

The Bible doesn't even name her.

We don't even know what her name was.

She's an unnamed, sinful, adulterous woman, yet Jesus provides her

with an opportunity to leave that behind Jesus is offering each of

us today that same opportunity.

Amen?

Amen.

The same opportunity to leave it behind and to live a new life.

And so here's the question I want us to consider this morning: What do

you need to leave behind so that the grace of Jesus can define you instead?

What do you need to leave behind?

What are you holding on to?

Maybe you've experienced the grace, maybe, maybe you've been forgiven,

maybe you've even changed your entire life, but there's some things you've

allowed to, to hang around and you're no longer truly living in that new

direction that Jesus called you to.

What do you need to get open about and be real about?

And if you're visiting with us today, I wanna encourage you to come and see grace.

Come and see what it looks like.

Open the Bible and study with somebody and learn how to become a

disciple of Jesus, to be baptized, to repent, to build new relationships

and build God's kingdom together.

You don't have to have everything figured out.

That's what I love about this moment, is this woman was in her worst moment.

You can be in here today feeling your worst, yet Jesus can

still give you a new direction.

Amen?

Amen.

And brothers and sisters, for those who have been around, don't

receive grace from Jesus and then turn around and pick up stones

Don't look at others and start judging.

Let's not, let's not have infighting.

Let's be gracious to one another.

Let's be graceful the way Jesus is graceful.

But let's also call one another to go and leave our life of sin, and

let's get in each other's lives and ask, "Hey, how can we help each

other to really leave that behind?

How can we grow into who Jesus is calling us to be so we can make an impact for

him while we're here on this earth?"

And I love that verse 12, I haven't put it up there, but in verse 12 right

after this, Jesus then goes and he says, "When Jesus spoke again to the people

he said, 'I am the light of the world.

Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will

have the light of life.'"

God's grace leads us to the light of life.

The light of the world is Jesus, and let's be the light of the world, OC Church.

Let's be the light of the world in our communities.

How can you be the light of the world on your campus, college students?

How can you be the light of the world in the workplace?

How can you practically be the light of the world and show grace like Jesus?

You know, I wanna close out this morning as we get prepared for

communion by sharing with you guys, uh, this really cool story and

analogy that connects really the Gospel message and the idea of grace.

You may have heard it.

Um, if you haven't, hopefully you enjoy it.

But I want us for a second to imagine there's a king, all right?

And this king is a sovereign king.

He's, he's big, he's strong, he's got a huge kingdom.

He, he's all-loving.

He's a loving king, and he's a king that is so just.

He, he forgives, but he also holds people accountable

You know, someone in his kingdom had been caught stealing from him.

They were stealing from the treasury, stealing lots of money.

And he puts out this decree and he's like, "We need to f- we need

to figure out who's been stealing.

We need to catch that person.

We need to find them."

And eventually, they bring the thief before the king.

And when the king looks down and he sees who's been stealing from him,

he sees that it's his daughter.

His own daughter has been stealing from him.

So what does he do?

He loves his daughter, but he also is just

He's put in a tough spot.

He can't just pretend like nothing happened and, and blow it off and

just, "It's my daughter, it's okay."

No, she's guilty.

There's a punishment.

And so the day comes for her punishment, and in that kingdom,

stealing is worthy of death

And right before the executioner is about to kill the king's

daughter, the king yells, "Stop!"

Gets off his throne.

He walks down to his daughter, looks at the executioner.

He lays on top of his daughter and he says, "Kill me.

Kill me."

I get emotional every time I think of it He takes the place of his daughter.

Church, that's grace.

Yeah.

That's grace, amen?

Amen.

Taking the place that we deserve, the punishment we

deserve, the king was killed.

And as we reflect on that, as we take communion, as we consider the m-

amount of grace God's given us, God's grace paid the price for you and I.

Jesus paid the price, and it was only made possible through Him dying on

the cross and resurrecting three days later that we now have the opportunity

to experience grace with Him.

Amen.

And so let's go ahead and bow our heads.

Let's take communion, and let's reflect on God's grace.

Father, thank you so much for this morning, this time to be together.

We are so grateful for Your grace, for Your mercy, for Your love.

Lord, when I, when I think about my life, I, I don't deserve

the grace You've shown me.

My sin slaughtered Your Son, Jesus.

And God, I pray that You would humble each of our hearts this morning as we reflect

on the cross, as we take communion, as we take the blood and the bread, the body.

Lord, that You would soften our hearts, inspire us, motivate us to

be grace-filled, to live grace full lives, to have a life that is a new

direction because of Your grace.

And God, I pray that if we're struggling with any specific sin in our life

that we need to be open and real about to be able to be transformed by Your

grace, that we would take that step.

I pray for anyone visiting that, that hasn't taken that step, that You

would connect somebody here today with them, the right person to connect with

them to, to reveal You to them, God.

Please bless this congregation.

Bless this church.

Help us to be men and women full of grace.

We love You.

We thank You.

In Jesus' name, amen.