Receive Jesus’ Invitation | Sunday Livestream | Mar 15, 2026

0:13 Heat. Hey, Heat. I'll never

2:35 My soul will rise to praise you coveraves from my you are faithful and your love endures. You are faithful and your love endures. You are faithful and your love endures forever.

3:26 Forever shakes when you send your love when you speak. You're the one who sets me free. You are faithful

4:11 and your love. You are faithful and your love endures. You are faithful and your love endures forever. Forever more.

5:02 I'll sing with the sing I'll sing I'll sing with the sing again. I'll sing with the angels.

5:48 I'll sing with the heavenly Lord, I come. I confess. Here

6:35 I find my rest. Without you, I fall. You're the one that guides my heart. Lord, I need you. Oh, I need you every hour. I need you. My one defense, my rightous. Oh God, how I need you. Where

7:23 is where you are? Where you are Lord I am free. Holiness is Christ in me. And where you are Lord I am free. Holiness is Christ in me. Lord, I need you. Oh, I need you. Every hour I need

8:12 you. My one defense, my rightous. Oh God, how I need you. So teach my song to rise to you. And when I cannot stand, I'll fall on you. Jesus, you're my hope and stay. I need

8:58 you. Every hour I need you. My one defense, my rightous. Oh God, how I need you. You're my one defense, my rightousness. Oh God, now I need you. You're my one defense, my rightous. Oh God, how I need

9:44 you. Oh, good morning. Morning. Welcome to Valley Chapel. I'm so glad you're here. Um just to start off, you'll see in your um pew that there are connect cards. Feel free to fill this out um if this is your first time here. If you um have made a decision about baptism or um would like to get connected with the church in a different way. Even if you've been here for a long time, feel free to fill this out. Um there's a place for your thoughts and feelings, so you can fill that out. Um you'll also find this little step into stewardship card. Um if you um there's steps on the

10:32 back, but um we see stewardship as um none of the things that we have are because of us. They all belong to God. Um so this is a way to think about how we are good stewards of those things. One more. This one's a keeping pace card. Um, and these are at the connect center. Oh, nope. They're in the pew, too. Um, sorry about that. Um, if there is someone that God has put on your heart, um, to pray for, this is just a way to remind yourself to think about them and pray for them regularly and just thinking about ways to be invitational um, into learning more about God and and community. So, um, uh, now I have some announcements.

11:17 Um, the first one is about Holy Week. which is coming up soon. Each day of Holy Week, um there will be a video made by someone in our church. Um so Palm Sunday to Easter. Um you will find these videos in your weekly email. You can find them on the app and you can find them on social media which is uh Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. And then feel free to share. They're just ways for us to kind of stay anchored to what Holy Week is. Um, and it'll be kind of cool to see some familiar faces doing those videos. Um, the next announcement is about the Humelli Youth Conference. Um, we helped financially support some teens from Ecuador to go to this conference in Peru and um, we just want

12:03 to pray for them. This will happen during Holy Week. So, Pastor Ann, would you come up and pray for them? And are we talking talking? Am I Did I do anything right? I want to make sure I didn't do anything wrong. All right, cool. We're good to go. Yeah, let's let's pray for our our teens and leaders uh in Ecuador who will be going to the Humelli Latin American Youth Conference. Uh yeah, let's pray together. Would you join me? Um Lord, we are just so grateful for the privilege of having relationships beyond the four walls of this church, beyond our local community, that we get to uh collaborate cross-culturally, that we get to be on the same mission because Lord, your

12:49 mission is so much larger than just what we're doing here at Valley Chapel. Um so we think about our our brothers and sisters in Ecuador right now and we lift them up to you in prayer. Uh we we pray for the teens who you have called to go to this conference so that they might encounter you and learn what it means to follow you, be inspired to draw closer to you. We pray for the leaders who are going to support them. Uh Lord, you know, as somebody who who used to do youth ministry, um I pray for their energy to be able to keep up with the teens. Uh, I pray for their wisdom as they navigate hard conversations that are good conversations. Lord, I pray for the movement of your spirit that that you might show up in in ways that are unmistakably you. I pray for the people

13:36 who are uh preparing the Humeli conference that they would have your wisdom to know what to say and when to say it, how to lead worship, how to uh speak and share your word, how to uh inspire these teens to draw closer to you. We pray for all of this. And Lord, we pray for what this is creating because Lord, you've you've made it clear to us that one of the needs our brothers and sisters in Ecuador have is is a next generation of leaders to come up, a next generation of people who will carry your mission forward uh to reach more and more people in the country of Ecuador in your name so that they might know what it means to be close to the savior of the world and to be brought

14:23 into your family, into your kingdom. kingdom and to know you for all eternity. Lord, we uh we ask that you would do all of this, move powerfully, build these foundations, uh and uh we pray that they would get to have fun along the way. And we give all of this to you in full confidence in the power of your spirit in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. >> Thank you. All right. Um would you uh turn to your neighbor and just Let them know that you're glad they're here today.

15:19 All right. Um, as our first act of worship, we have a call to worship. And you can say it with me if you'd like. I will bless the Lord at all times. His praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul makes its boast in the Lord. Let the humble hear and be glad. Oh, magnify the Lord with me and let us exalt his name together. All right. Now, we have a giving liturgy video. We're not being generous with our

16:04 things. We're practicing faithful stewardship of what God has entrusted to us. And and we don't give to the church. We give with our church community as we learn to steward God's resources together. And and learning to become faithful stewards, it's a journey. And It's not one that you're meant to do alone. God has given you community to walk with you as you learn, listen, and grow. And one tool that we use for this is our step into stewardship card. It helps you to pause and to ask if God is inviting you to take a next step of stewardship. And the beautiful thing is when you fill it out, it allows us to be praying with you as you take that step

16:50 of faith. So take a moment right now as we begin worship and ask the Lord, Holy Spirit, are you inviting me to take a step of stewardship today? I want to be faithful to your lead because we don't all give in the same way or at the same time. We don't pass a plate here. uh you'll see different ways to give here on the screen. And and however you give today, this moment itself is an act of worship, a way of saying with our lives that God is God and we are not. So let's unite our

17:37 giving by praying this giving liturgy together. >> All right, let's do just that. I will read the leader part and we'll read the all together. God, you see us in our struggle and call us by name. You lift us up with mercy and crown us with compassion. You heal what is broken and speak strength into our weakness. You set us free to stand tall, to speak boldly, and to live generously. As we give today, may our offering be a witness to your kingdom that cannot be shaken. >> Use your gifts to lift burdens, restore

18:23 hope, and claim your love. >> Good morning. Please stand and join us in our first song. Um, John 3:16 says, "God so loved the world that he gave his only son. Believe in him shall not perish but have everlasting life." So, let's just come together and praise him as we, you know, we're getting closer and closer to Easter and we get to celebrate his resurrection on Easter Sunday, which is just amazing. And I don't know about you, but sometimes I take for granted and forget like what a great thing it was that Jesus did by dying for us on the cross so that we can live with him forever. So, let's praise him right now.

19:28 Come all you come all you thirsty. Come to the well that runs dry. Come all you sinners, come find his mercy. Come to the table. He will sisfy. Taste of his goodness. Find what you're looking for. For God so loved the world that he gave

20:13 us his one and only son to save us. Whoever believes in him will live forever. >> Bring all your failures. Bring your lay them down at the foot of the cross. Jesus is waiting there. >> For God so loved the world that he gave us his one and only son to save us.

20:58 Whoever believes in him will live forever. >> The power of hell forever defeated now. It is well. I'm walking in freedom for God so loved God so loved the world. Praise God. Praise God from whom all blessings. Praise him. Praise him for the wonders of his love.

21:48 Praise God. from whom all blessings flow. Praise him. Praise him for the wonders of his love. >> For God so loved the world that he gave us his one and only son to save us. us so loved the world that he gave us his one and only son to save us. Whoever believes in him will live forever.

22:39 The power of hell forever defeated. Now it is well. I'm walking in freedom for God so loved. God so loved the world. Lay them down at the foot of the cross. Jesus is waiting so

23:33 that the king would welcome I was lost, but he brought me in. All his love for me. All his love for me. The sun is free indeed. I'm a child of God. Yes, I am >> free at last. He has ransomeus

24:33 for me. Yes, sets free. Oh, is free indeed. I'm a child of God. Yes, I am. >> In my father's house, there's a place for me. I'm a child of God. Yes, I am.

25:22 >> I am chosen. not forsen. I am who you say I am. You are for me, not against me. I am who you say I am. >> I am chosen, not forsen. I am who you say I am. You are for me, not against me. I am who you say I am. >> I am who you say I am.

26:08 The sun sets free. Who is free indeed. I'm a child of God. Yes, I am. >> In my father's house, there's a place for me. I'm a child of God. Yes, I am. In my father's house,

26:53 there's a me. I'm a child of God. Yes, I am. I search the world's empty praise and treasure.

27:41 The fire now sisfisfied. Oh, there's nothing better than you. There's nothing better than you, Lord. There's nothing better than you.

28:41 to show you my failures and flaws. You've seen them all. You still call me friend of the mountain. >> God of the valley. There's not a place again. Oh, there's nothing better than you. There's nothing

29:29 better than you, Lord. There's nothing nothing is better than you. >> You turn morning to dancing. You give beauty for ashes. You turn shame glory. You're the only one who can. You turn to dancing. >> You give beauty for ashes. >> You turn shame into glory.

30:17 You're the only one who can. >> You turn graves into you. Turn bones into aries. You turn seas into highways. You're the only one who can. You're the only one who

31:10 Nothing is better than you. There's nothing better. There's nothing better than you. >> You turn graves into bones aries. You turn into highways. You're the only one who can.

32:05 You're the only one who cares. >> Would you pray with me? Gracious God, we thank you for this new day and the chance we have to gather together in person and online. God, thank you for turning graves into gardens, for doing the things that seem so impossible to us, for bringing life where there is death. There is an upside down kingdom that you have brought and are bringing to us. And God, I ask you that you show us how we get to be part of it.

32:52 We come to you this morning together in the midst of a world that is both beautiful and hurting. We ourselves carry in just a regular day a mixed joy and sorrow. God, we want to hear your voice to discern what you would have us do. And we need each other to do that, Lord. Help us to build relationships with each other as we are all your children. Help us to work with you to help bring about this beautiful upside down kingdom that you have promised us. Thank you, God, for being with us always, for truly abiding with us.

33:38 Help us to see your hand in this world and and help us to know how to be part of this too. I pray all of this in Jesus name. Amen.

34:29 I think we got it now. Time for our scripture reading together. Love to have you follow along in your own Bible or the Pew Bible. The reading the first from Psalm Psalm 34 and that's page 5 in the Q Bible. The Old Testament reading Psalm chapter 34. I will extol the Lord at all times. His praise will always be on my lips.

35:16 If that sounds familiar, it was part of the scripture reading that was on screen earlier. My soul will boast boast in the Lord. Let the afflicted hear and rejoice. Glorify the Lord with me. Let us exalt his name together. I sought the Lord and he answered me. He delivered me from all my fears. Those who look to him are radiant. Their faces are never covered with shame. This this poor man called and the Lord heard him. He saved him out of all his troubles. The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him and he delivers them.

36:04 Taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him. Fear the Lord, you his saints, for those who fear him lack nothing. The lions may grow weak and hungry, but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing. Come, my children, listen to me. I will teach you the fear of the Lord. Whoever of you loves life and desires to see many good days. Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking lies. Turn from evil and do good. Seek peace and pursue it. The eyes of the Lord are on the

36:49 righteous and his ears are attentive to their cry. The face of the Lord is against those who do evil to cut off the memory of them from the earth. The righteous cry out and the Lord hears them. He delivers them from all their troubles. The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit. A righteous man may have many troubles, but the Lord delivers him from them all. He protects all his bones. Not one of them will be broken. Evil will slay the wicked. The foes of the righteous will be

37:36 condemned. The Lord redeems his servants. No one will be condemned who takes refuge in him. And then turning to the New Testament reading, the Gospel account according to John, looking at chapter 8. Uh we've got page 1059 in the him in the Pew Bible reading the first 11 verses. John chapter 8. When Jesus went to the Mount of Olives, at dawn, he appeared again in the temple courts where all the people gathered

38:24 around him, and he sat down to teach them. The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. And they made her stand before the group. And they said to Jesus, "Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the law of Moses, the law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now, what do you say?" And they were using this question as a trap in order to have a basis for accusing him. But Jesus bent down and started to write

39:09 on the ground with his finger. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, "If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her. Again he stooped down and 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 heroman,

39:55 "Where are they? Has no one condemned you? No one, sir," she said. "Then neither do I condemn you." Jesus declared, "Now go and leave your life of sin." May the Lord add his blessing. Thank you, Don. Hey kids, I'd like to invite you up to tell you a little bit about that story that Don just read for us. Yeah, Harley, you're on it. I know it. I appreciate you, my man. All right. Yeah, come on up, guys.

40:45 All right. All righty. Let me tell you a little bit. about that story that we just heard. So, but I want to start with a question. Can I ask you guys a question? All right. Here's my question. Um, have you ever had lots of people telling you what you did wrong? No. Never. People never tell you you did anything wrong. No. Okay. Anybody out there? Anybody have lots of people telling you what you did wrong? Yeah. We know that feeling. You guys aren't the only ones who feel that way sometimes. You never feel that way. So, I'm not worried about you. You can ignore everything else I'm saying. Okay?

41:30 I'm not being serious. I'm being silly. Um, well, let me ask you, did people telling you you you did things wrong make it easier to do things right or harder? Harder. Harder. Did it feel Yeah. Did it feel uh easier? Raise your hand if it felt easier. Raise your hand if it felt harder. harder. Yeah. When people are like criticizing you, it feels harder to do things right. Um, and the reason that is is because we have a feeling Alice, could you set that aside for a second? Thank you. Just because it's a distraction for everybody. Um, so the reason it's harder is because we

42:17 feel embarrassed, right? Or maybe we feel stuck or we feel pressure and it feels heavy. And when people criticize us, sometimes it's hard to listen. It doesn't mean they're wrong, but sometimes it's hard to listen when people criticize us. And in the story that Don just read to us, a woman had done something wrong. She had done something wrong. And people brought her into the middle of a room to point fingers at her and say, "Look, she did something wrong. Jesus, what are you going to do about it?" And they singled her out. And they asked if Jesus thought she was bad. And what he told them is that if you've never done anything wrong,

43:03 then you can criticize her. You can only criticize her if you've never done anything wrong. So he said they were going to throw stones at her because they thought that she did something wrong. That was a way that they punished people for doing things wrong back then. Yeah. And they all had stones in their hand ready to throw them at her. That wouldn't be very nice, would it? No. And Jesus said, "You who has no sin, you who's never done anything wrong, you get to throw the first stone." and one by one their stones down and left because they realized they couldn't throw a stone because they had never done they had done wrong things too. He told them that if they didn't do anything wrong they couldn't criticize her and they couldn't. So they left and then he said this. This is where it gets

43:49 really interesting. You guys listening? Ready? Here's where it gets really interesting. Here's what Jesus said. Jesus said, "I'm not going to throw a stone at you either. go and stop doing the wrong thing that you can do. Now, he didn't pretend like the the wrong thing was okay. It was not okay what she did. But Jesus said, "I'm not going to throw a stone at you, but I am going to tell you, go and stop doing the wrong thing." Jesus doesn't throw stones at us, but he does call us to do what's right. And just because people are criticizing us doesn't mean just because it feels bad to be criticized doesn't mean they're wrong. Yeah, you've been criticized before. Yeah. And he he said, "Go and sin no

44:37 more. Don't do this anymore." Now, he Jesus didn't yell at them or at her. Jesus didn't scold. He protected her. Scold is when it's like you cut that out. Kind of like wagging a finger. That's not what Jesus did. Jesus helped her. Jesus helped her first. And here's here's here's the big lesson. I'm gonna pull you guys in. Can I teach you something? Yeah. A Thank you so much. I love that. Here's the big lesson. Jesus Jesus isn't around pointing fingers at you saying, "You did that wrong. You did this wrong. You did that wrong." And Jesus wants you to be the best person

45:25 that you can possibly be. And he wants to help you do that. And that sometimes means realizing that we did something wrong and starting to do something right. And we need Jesus's help to do the right thing. And here's our big idea for today. You guys ready for our big idea? That's what Harley just read it out loud. I'm going to read it for you guys too so that at home can hear it through the microphone. But Jesus helps us before he tells us what to do next. So first he helps us then he tells us what to do next. So that's what I'm going to have you guys explore is I wonder how Jesus is helping you and I wonder what he's telling you to do next. I want you to wonder about that as you go to play in the kids room. But can I pray with

46:12 you guys? Yeah. All right. Can I pray with you, Harley? All right, let's pray. Dear Lord, thank you so much that you help us and that you love us and that you uh you don't just come and throw stones at us when we do things wrong. And Lord, thank you that you don't just leave us in the wrong that we do. You show us a way forward where we can do right. Um Lord, help us to trust you and to do what you tell us to do in Jesus name. Amen. Thanks for being here with me, you guys. You can head right down through the center doors and the leaders are waiting for you.

47:52 There's this uh theologian named RC Sproul who said this once. He said, "At the moment I sin, I desire the sin more than I desire to please God." That's his quote. The moment I sin, I desire the sin more than I desire to please God. I uh I want to tell you a story. I was uh in college. Well, it was a summer in between college. I had the privilege of going and uh working I I I went to my undergrad for packaging science. I learned how to make like bottles and boxes and bags and stuff like that. I went to RIT for packaging science and what they have in their program is they do these co-ops where you go and you do an internship, typically a paid

48:38 internship in the summers in between classes. and I uh got to do an internship at a Gatorade plant, which was super cool. Um, and I so it was my first time ever living by myself. I lived by myself. I lived down in uh a town called Mountaintop, Pennsylvania. And while I was in Mountaintop, I lived in an apartment by myself. I'd go to work. This first time ever having a 40hour a week work week. uh first time ever living completely by myself. I'd lived in apartments with friends at college, but I had not been all by myself at this point. And I was struggling with some sin in my

49:25 life at this point. Um I was I was struggling with with my addiction. I um I was lonely. I had been going to a church and hanging out with their like young adult group while I was there, but just I kind of got to a point where I didn't care anymore and I thought like, have I been just calling myself a Christian and going through the motions and all this stuff is just fake? Um there there was a big part of me that just wanted to just give into my addiction, just live the way that I felt like living. forget all these expectations I have of myself of trying

50:10 to become a good person because it's just too much pressure. Maybe none of this is real. I give up. And I remember having a conversation, some of you have heard me tell this story before, but um I remember having a conversation with Casey, who is now my wife, at the time we had we were dating. Um, and she is currently in Yellowstone National Park serving on a a missions trip for the summer and I'm super jealous and she's thousands of miles away. I'm all by myself living in Mountaintop Pennsylvania working at a manufacturing plant and I'm thinking, "This just stinks." And I called her and I said, "I I don't know if I buy it anymore. I don't know

50:56 if I buy this whole Jesus stuff, this whole Christianity stuff. I just don't I don't care. I don't care. And she very uh I think I think the spirit was working through her in this moment said like essentially this is it's it's your decision to make, but I I don't think I can as somebody who's trying to follow Jesus. I don't think I can keep dating somebody who isn't following Jesus anymore. So, to let me know what your decision is. I I I hope you don't decide to give up. That was hard for me to hear. And I remember praying that night and I was laying in my bed face down

51:45 like full flat laying on the ground and the prayer that I prayed was um God I I I want to want you. I feel like I should want you, but if I'm honest, I don't want you, and I don't buy it. I don't want you. So, if if you're real and you want me to desire you, you're going to have to make me. I want to want you, but I don't want you. So, will you make me want you? Is essentially what I asked the Lord to do. And I have no empirical evidence for this experience, but it felt like a lightning bolt of emotion hit me in that moment. And I don't remember moving to the point

52:31 where I was on my knees, but I was on my knees now instead of laying on my stomach on the bed. And I am weeping uncontrollably. I was honest. I did not want Jesus in that moment. I wanted to want him because I wanted my relationship with Casey and I want I felt like it was right, but I if I was being honest, I didn't want him. But the the genuine desire to want God was it might have been there deep down, but I couldn't see it. And I couldn't change my own heart in that moment. So, I asked God to make me want him. And he did. Gave me that gift. He gave me the gift of that desire for

53:17 him. And I am so grateful for that gift. And I believe that that was that was a moment where he became very real to me. Um he he had been waiting at the door of my life, but he was not going to come in until I said come in. He was not going to enter until I opened the door and let him in, until I asked for it. Because God's not in the business of kicking down doors. He's in the business of standing at doors and knocking and waiting for us to open. The Apostle Paul once said in Romans chapter 7 verse 15. Paul said it this way and I I man I relate to this phrase. He said I don't understand my own actions for I do not do what I want but

54:02 I do the very thing I hate. Anybody ever feel like that? Man, I I know that this is what's right and I want to do what's right but I keep choosing this thing instead. Why do I keep choosing this thing instead? And Paul goes on to describe this this inner turmoil, this wanting good but feeling unable to do it. And I'm going to be honest, if you stop there, you might think that the Christian life is just about trying harder until the good part finally wins. And a lot of us do. A lot of us stop the Christian journey right there and we say it's just about trying to make sure the good part beats the bad part. And it's what I did for years.

54:51 And the bad part always felt like it won. It always felt like it won in the end. I felt like I had chosen Christ, but I was doomed to be a failure of a Christian. And then I hear a quote like that RC Sproul quote that we'll I'll show you again. The moment I sin, I desire the sin more than I desire to please God. You're gonna find that I I don't agree with RC Sproul on this because I think it's lacking a little bit of nuance. I thought, I guess I must just actually love the addiction more than God. That must be what's going on. But Paul didn't stop with what I just told you about this like this war between good and evil inside him. This

55:37 war between doing good and doing wrong. The next thing Paul said in Romans 8 verse 1-2 is he said this. He said therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus because through Christ Jesus the law of the spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. Here's what that means. The bad part in in in all of our lives, the the lie that the bad part wants you to believe that I believe the enemy wants you to believe is that your desire for sin is too strong.

56:24 The lie the enemy wants you to believe is that your desire for sin is too strong to overcome. It wants you chained down and confined to doing whatever bad thing you feel like doing. That's what the enemy wants you to feel. But the reality is that it's like we're standing there with chains. I can't move. But the chains aren't attached to anything because Christ has already broken those chains. So we're not actually confined by the chains of our bad behavior. We're confined by what we think the chains are attached to.

57:09 It's an illusion. Jesus has already broken those chains. So for the follower of Jesus, for the person who has been baptized and who has received the Holy Spirit, the claim that you simply love sin more than God is a lie designed to trick you into believing that you have no choice in the matter. But you do because of Jesus. You do have a choice in the matter. Sin might distort your desire, but Jesus seems to believe that in the depths of your heart, you want to choose good, but you feel sometimes incapable.

57:58 In Lent, we're learning this rhythm of repenting. repent in by repenting by by turning toward God. We can choose to not accept the lie that we are confined by the badness in our lives and instead turn toward Jesus to help us be the good people that he knows we are and that he made us to be. But sometimes we just we avoid it. We avoid repenting. I don't think we mostly avoid repenting because we just love sin so much. I

58:46 think we avoid repenting because we don't want other people to judge us or because we think nothing will change and we we're losing hope. Maybe because we don't think anything will change. We think it's all going to be an act. We've got a we've got a pile of reasons why we don't repent. So, if this is your first Sunday here during this season or during this series, then welcome. I'm so glad you're here. Um, you might have a little bit of catchup to do watching the past couple sermons online. And that's great. You'll still be able to engage in this very well today. Um, in preparation for Easter, we are spending the season of Lent learning how to repent. something we taught the kids in Lent, we repent. We're learning the art of repentance.

59:34 And repentance is simply this. Repentance is the act of recognizing a gap between our present lives and the lives that Jesus is calling us to and then turning back toward Jesus after seeing the gap. So we we think about like if you imagine the cross is Jesus and I am here. The gap says what exists in my life or doesn't exist in my life that makes me very separate from Jesus and his will. Repentance is noticing that and making a choice to take a step closer. That's simply what repentance is. The word repent literally means turn around. Do a 180°ree turn.

1:00:20 Today you will be given a chance to encounter Jesus from the story in the gospels that you already heard read. Um and when you encounter him, if you have eyes to see and you're willing and and open to to noticing it, you will you very well may notice a gap between yourself and the life that Jesus is presenting, the way that Jesus is presenting. And then once we see that gap, we're all going to do an activity, gathering into some smaller groups to practice the art of repentance. And if it feels I I I there will be no expectation that you self-disclose beyond your comfort level. There will be no expectation that you share something.

1:01:06 If you do not want to share something, if you just need to listen today, just listen. Um, it might feel mechanical today, like, man, am I being forced to kind of go through these motions. It might feel that way if it's new to you. Um, but if you keep at it and you do this rhythm that I'm teaching today, then you will steadily move closer to Jesus. And I believe that the goodness that he formed in you from the very beginning will slowly but steadily rise to the surface. So, let's dive in. Uh, I encourage you to open up a Bible. We're going to be reading in John chapter 8 today. John chapter 8. Uh you can grab a Bible from your pew. The words will be on the screen. Um but I encourage you to have your own just to be in the practice of being in there. If you need to know how

1:01:53 to get to John chapter 8, there's a table of contents in the beginning of your Bible. And I'm just going to throw this out there. This is completely off topic. Little uh side note. Um, you're going to notice as you're reading the Pew Bibles that some of the wording is a little bit different in your Pew Bible versus what we have up here, even though they're both the same version of the Bible, which is a translation of the Bible. Um, the Bibles in our pews were purchased before the newest edition of the New International Version of the Bible was produced. Um, and honestly, we could really use a a once over of of getting new pew Bibles here at Valley Chapel, but we haven't been able to afford it yet. So, I'm I'm

1:02:38 kind of throwing this out there just in case the spirit puts it on your heart to be a part of figuring out how we re uh renew the Bibles in our pews. Um, so if ideas or stuff pops into your head for a way that we might be able to get Pew Bibles, a new batch of Pew Bibles, an updated batch of Pew Bibles, then come talk to me. Um, I'm currently praying and asking the spirit, how would you have us and when would you have us renew them? But for now, you've got an older version. The main differences between the version that's in the pew right now and the one that I read out of and the one that's up on the screen is that most of the language that was kind of ambiguous about gender, like it might say they in in on the screen and here and in the original language. It it's

1:03:24 all very masculine language like he instead of they even when it's not that way in the original language. And that's just it's the way people use language back when that was written. we talk differently now. Uh so it's been updated in order to match how we talk now. So that's one of the main areas you know it's different. Okay, I'll move on. Spending too much time in that. Um for my Bible nerds, I'm hoping there's more and more Bible nerds every single week. I want to acknowledge something about the story that we're hearing today. There's a lot of debate about this story, about whether it was actually originally a part of John's gospel. You might notice in your Bibles that it might be in italics. There might be notes about it about whether it was in

1:04:10 the original manuscripts. So what this means is that for the longest time, the earliest versions of this story, this section of the Gospel of John that we had had this story in it. And then people discovered what's known as the Dead Sea Scrolls. And they were even older than what we had before. and they didn't have this story. People like, well, what does this story count? I don't know. So, there was a lot of debate about whether it's included because it's not there in some of those earliest manuscripts. That being said, there is a lot of sound evidence to say that this was a real historical event, what you are reading today, not just something that was made up to tell a point, um,

1:04:57 but something that Jesus really did. Um, so we're going to proceed because the church has accepted this story as a part of the gospel of John for a long time. We're going to continue to accept this story as a part of the gospel of John. But I just wanted to acknowledge that because there are these little points in how we understand our Bible that we need to recognize. Um, but here's the scene. You're in John chapter 8, starting right in the beginning of John chapter 8. And the scene is Jesus is in the synagogue. And a lot of times what would happen is like Jesus is traveling essentially from church to church is how you can picture it. And it's almost like Jesus came to church and he was here talking. But part of what what they would do is they would

1:05:43 bring cases to the the rabbi. You can think of a rabbi like a pastor. They they would bring a case to the pastor and say, "Hey, we've got this this issue in our community. What do you say about it? What do you think the scriptures say about it? How do you interpret this situation? And then the rabbi would offer um their judgment of the case in this case was a woman caught in adultery, a woman who was caught in the act of cheating on her husband. And she's dragged into the room, put in front of the crowd, and the the leaders of that particular synagogue holding stones in their hand are like, "All right, what should we do? She was caught red-handed.

1:06:29 We should kill her. Right now, they didn't do this just because they wanted to abide by the Old Testament laws. She's surrounded by these people, exposed, silenced, and the religious leaders are not seeking justice. They're setting a trap for Jesus. That's what's happening right now. They're using her story to make a point and to set a trap because the reality is if Jesus says yes, you should stone her, then he's advocating for capital punishment, which is illegal for Jews to do under Roman law. So if Jesus says yes, you should stone her, then the Romans can come and take Jesus away. And now these Pharisees are kind of done with their problem. But if he does not, then he's disobeying

1:07:15 the laws of Moses. If he says don't stone her, he's disobeying the laws of Moses. And then the Jewish leaders will be able to say, "Hey, he said he he told us not to follow the laws of Moses. Can you believe it? He shouldn't be a rabbi anymore." So they're trying to use this situation as a trap where Jesus has no right answer where he gets out of it unscathed. And I I just I can't help but note in this story that only the woman is is dragged out into the middle of all this. The man that she was cheating with is nowhere in this. Just just a note, she's not being treated like a person here. This isn't a case about her. She is

1:08:02 being used in this story as an ideological and theological prop. like a case study rather than a real person. I want you to watch what Jesus does really closely, particularly starting in verse six. Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. Now, we have no idea what Jesus was writing this. Like, we could speculate all day long that, oh, he was writing down their sins or he was writing a scripture or who knows. We don't know. Don't spend a lot of time trying to figure it out. You won't get an answer to that question. He's writing on the ground with his finger. When they kept questioning him, he straightened up and

1:08:49 said to them, "Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her." And then he goes back to the ground. He's right. They were trying to be in control of the environment by setting this trap for him. You will be in situations as a follower of Jesus where people are trying to trying to trick you and to get you to make a stand on something so that they can criticize the stand that you've made. This is what social media is. Social media is people trying to convince you to to spout your opinion

1:09:35 so they can tear it down. This is what's happening here. They're trying to convince him to make a stand, but he doesn't budge. He changes the whole environment. Jesus doesn't begin by addressing the question that he has been asked or the woman. He begins by confronting the people who would use her life as a prop. Isn't that interesting? Jesus saw right through the whole thing and said, "Who's really doing an injustice to others?" Right? He focused on them first. He begins by removing the voices that would make repentance possible. Now, hear that, too. Jesus is not trying to

1:10:22 avoid this woman's repentance. In fact, he wants this woman to repent and to change, but he knows that she can't yet because she's currently surrounded by people with stones in their hands ready to throw them at her. So, he begins by removing the voices that would make repentance impossible. And he actually cites the law itself in Deuteronomy 17:7. And it says that the the hands of the witnesses shall be the first raised against the person to execute the death penalty and afterwards the hands of all the people. So you shall purge the evil from your midst. So Jesus is say acknowledging the reality of what they are doing

1:11:08 the real by by by referencing that thing in Deuteronomy he's actually turning the stones back on them because they are just as guilty as any sin against the law is guilty. See friends, repentance cannot transform us when we are under attack. Repentance cannot transform us when we're under attack. We don't know what Jesus wrote in the sand. But what we do know is that he refused to play their game and his next actions would prove that the woman was his priority, not the religious leaders.

1:11:55 But I I I do want to draw your attention also to verse 10 and 11. So you you know what happened here. He straightened up. They the oldest ones first drop the stones. Have fun praying over that one. He straightens up and says,"Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?" Now it's just the two of them. Now it's private. Now it's Jesus has proven his how he values this woman. Has no one condemned you? She says no one sir. He says ne then neither do I condemn you. Jesus declared go now and

1:12:41 leave your life of sin. Go now and leave your life of sin. Jesus does not deny her s. He doesn't pretend it's not a problem. It is a problem. But his instruction to the sinner was the third step he took, not the first. So, so far this woman has experienced that she made a big mistake. She was singled out and used because of her mistake. She uh has not in any way been shown to express repentance or remorse at all. We've seen no sign of remorse from her. Jesus confronts her accusers, not her, not by appealing to their emotion, but by

1:13:27 appealing to the actual law, to the scriptures themselves. And Jesus does not condemn her. This is huge. He didn't reject the law and he didn't condemn her. He didn't play into the trap. In fact, what he did is he obeyed the scriptures better than the Pharisees did. So let me ask, who are you in this story? Who are you in this story? Repentance cannot transform us when we're under attack. So and and remember to repent is not to gravel in shame and remorse. to encounter Jesus, to see a gap, and to take a step toward him, to move your body toward him because Jesus

1:14:14 is fighting battles just like this one for you today, in everything. So, who are you in the story? Are you the scribes and the Pharisees looking to catch Jesus in error? Using people's real lives as just props for a theological or ideological debate or for your agenda? Check your hands for stones, brothers and sisters. And then check your heart. Is Jesus telling you the same thing today? Is Jesus saying to you, he who is without sin, she who is without sin, Cast the first stone. Do you have a stone that you need to put down today?

1:15:01 Maybe you're the woman caught accused ashamed used. He didn't test her resolve or require her to express the proper remorse. He did say, "Go and from now on, sin no more. Leave your life of sin." Have accusers pointed out your sin? Just because they pointed it out and Jesus defends you doesn't mean that they were wrong. Doesn't doesn't mean it wasn't sin. Is Jesus telling you today that he does not condemn you and he's telling you to go and sin no more? Is that you today? This might be the invitation for you to

1:15:47 act on in step four of the rhythm of repentance. Um, I'm going to invite the band to come up as we start stepping into the end of this uh this time of worship. Um, see Jesus's grace does not end with forgiveness. That's not the end. It's a part of it. It's not the end. His grace keeps moving and it keeps moving us toward more and more closeness to Jesus. True repentance looks for direction from Jesus. That's only possible through continuing to depend on him. And an encounter with Christ does not erase your past. It just simply reclaims your

1:16:32 future. And it points you in a renewed direction. And this is the deep work of Lent, brothers and sisters. It's not just self-improvement. It's retrained dependence on Christ. So, here's how we're going to do this today. We're going to walk again through the five steps of the rhythm of repentance. When we get to step four, I'm going to invite you to gather with a small group. If if this is too much for you and it's too intimate, do not feel ashamed. Totally understand. If you need to stay apart, feel free to stay apart. No pressure in this. This is an invitation, not a requirement. But I

1:17:18 do invite you to do it because I believe that gathering with other people to talk about the gap gives you space to truly hear the voice of the spirit. So I highly encourage you to do it if you do decide. Um I want you to look at the Jesus that you've encountered in hearing the scriptures read today and explained today. Take a moment, close your eyes, bow your head, and think about the encounter that you just had with Jesus and how he met with these Pharisees and this woman. What was of Jesus and what was not? The Pharisees saw sin and demanded Jesus make a judgment about whether they should hold this woman accountable and Jesus did not give into their commands. Do you make similar demands?

1:18:05 Do you hold up the sin of others and demand a judgment? The woman was caught in the act. She had done wrong and she knew it. We don't know her whole story. Do you relate? Are you aware of your own sin already? You don't need some religious people to point it out. How did Jesus respond to her sin? How did Jesus respond to your sin? Jesus said, "Go and sin no more." something that likely felt impossible to the woman. Is he giving you the same direction? Is he commanding you to give someone else that same direction? What is the Jesus of this story offer to you today? And what might he offer to

1:18:53 someone else through? I invite you to come out of that moment of prayer chewing on. But if you're seeing a Now, if you're seeing a difference between the way Jesus is, between what Jesus would have you be and where you are right now, I encourage you to write it down right now. Start start writing down the gap and try to write it in a sentence. I'm going to give you a minute to do it. A gap looks like this. It looks like saying, "I have been this way, but Christ wants me to be this way." Or, "I used to believe this way. Christ wants me to believe this. Make sense? Take a minute right now and write it down. Go ahead.

1:19:44 You're not looking for a solution, just the gap, the difference between what is and what it seems like Christ would is inviting you to be. An example might be I'm holding on to a stone to somebody who disagrees with me politically and I need to put that stone down. The gap might be I've got sin. He's telling me to go and sin no more.

1:20:33 Gap might be I'm giving in to the demand to enter the debate and I need to not play by their rules like Jesus did. Write down your gap and try to do it in a

1:21:19 Even if you're not quite done now, I'm going to encourage you to take step three. You can always complete it and finish it up as you're going. Step three is move towards Christ physically with your body. And the way we're going to practice that today is to get into small groups. So I want you to find five or six roughly, no, you don't have to be exact. roughly five or six people near you and a section of pew is near you and get in a group together so that you can talk about the gap together. Um if you like I said if you don't feel comfortable feel free to avoid this but I do encourage you to get with a group. Go ahead and find your way to a group now.

1:22:04 I'll give you about one minute to get with a group. Once you get with your group, if possible, share your gap in just the sentence. Don't explain the whole backstory. Just try to read your sentence if you have one. If you don't have one, you can try to paraphrase as best you can, but try to keep this section brief where you're just telling them your gap if you feel comfortable. Go ahead.

1:24:07 finishing earlier. If you're by yourself, feel free to take this time to be in prayer and to spend time with the Lord about it. Going to give you one more minute before I lead you to the next step.

1:24:53 Okay, I'll grab your attention for one moment before we move into step four. And I know we're probably in the middle of some really good conversations that I am interrupting right now. Um, so if if you feel like you ran out of time for this conversation so far, this this sanctuary is not going anywhere. You can continue the conversation afterwards. But what I want you to do now is recognize this. The Holy Spirit is going to guide you in the next step. So we we just did steps one, two, and three. You've you've encountered Christ, confessed the gap, and moved towards Christ. And the way you've moved towards Christ is the is the reality that Christ is with the other people in your group. Christ is

1:25:39 amongst you. And the what you're asking for next is for Christ to tell you what to do about the gap. Because if we just notice a gap, we just notice a space between us and Christ and we don't know what to do, we're going to feel kind of hopeless. But we don't want to just make something up. If we want to actually move towards Christ, we need to ask the Holy Spirit to tell us how. And the Holy Spirit will guide you. But rarely do you hear the Holy Spirit perfectly accurately all by yourself. The way you can hear the Holy Spirit well is in community with others, which is why you are in a group right now. The reason I asked you to get into a group is so that

1:26:26 for this step four because you want to listen to the Holy Spirit together. So the question you're going to ask next is you're going to take a moment to pray and then talk with your group and say, "Holy Spirit, what is one small step you would have me take so that I can be closer to you this week? What's one small step you would have me take to close this gap?" Go ahead. Take a take a moment in silence to pray and then talk about it with your groups. Go ahead now.

1:27:40 As you hear the step, it might be a small step like set down the stone. It might be something you've already tried. It might feel like a giant impossible command that he just gave you. Uh don't limit what you believe he's telling you. There's a good chance that his command might feel impossible. Um, but name it and and talk with your group about it. Go ahead.

1:30:07 I know it's not much time, but I'll give you about one more minute.

1:30:55 Okay, friends. I know that these are good conversations and I know that this requires so much more, but I'll draw your attention back up here for a moment. Uh step five of the rhythm of repentance is functionally just do it. If the Lord told you to do something, it's do it. And that happens after you walk out of this room. It might happen the moment you walk out of this room. It might happen throughout the week this week, depending on what it is the Lord has put on your heart. Um, and the reality of a rhythm of repentance. Hear this. The reality of a rhythm of repentance is that it's a rhythm. This isn't something that you you pray a

1:31:41 magic prayer and then everything's all better. This is something where you you keep coming back to it over and over and over again, trusting that the Lord's going to do something in your life as a result. So, I'd like to close this this practice that we just did, this repentance practice that we just did, um, with prayer. Uh, but before I do, um, I just want to acknowledge that for some of you, there was a name of somebody attached with what you just processed. For some of you, the Lord put brought an individual to your mind in the in that work of repentance. If the Lord brought an individual to mind,

1:32:27 whether they are a Christian or they are not a Christian, I want you to take one of those keeping pace cards out of your pews, write their name on it, and keep this with you and pray for that person. And it might reveal how the Lord wants you to to be formed while you think about that person. It might be something that the Lord wants you to bring to that person. But take one of these with you. write their name on it and keep it with you as a way to continue being obedient. If the Lord put a particular name on in your mind as you were doing step four so that you can do step five well. Um, thank you for trying that. Thank you for engaging in this and for seeking Jesus together with your community. We we we can't follow Jesus without each other.

1:33:14 He designed us to follow him in community. So, let's pray together and when we're done, we'll sing one last song before we go. Lord, thank you so much for the privilege that it has been to draw a little bit closer to you today, to encounter you and to take steps, to be steadily formed into your image. Help us to stay close to your spirit as we do step five. As we as we obey, as we do what you told us to do, Lord, if there's still conversation that needs to be had, Lord, keep us here until we have resolved what we need to resolve. Lord, keep us in community with one another. Help us to uh

1:34:01 stay close. Help us to listen and open. We give all of this to you uh to the glory of your kingdom in Jesus name. Amen. Invite you to rise as the band leads us in one last song. Lord my God. When I in awome wonder Consider all the words.

1:34:47 I see the stars. I hear the rolling thunder. Then sings my soul, my God to thee. How great thou great thou art my soul to thee. How great thou.

1:35:35 How great the woods and I wonder When I look down and see the brook and feel the gentree

1:36:25 to thee how great thou How great thou art then my soul myavior God to thee how great thou great thou And when I think that God is noting to die,

1:37:12 I scarce that on the cross my gladly. He bled and died to take away my sings to thee. >> How great thou art. How great thou art then my soul

1:37:58 God to thee. How great thou art. How great thall shouts of me. But joy shall fill my heart. Then I shall bow in horclaim.

1:38:46 My God, how great thou art then my soul to thee. How great thou art. Then sings my soul, my savior God to thee. How great thou art. How great thou are.

1:39:33 How great thou. Thank you. Um your connect card, if you filled this out, you can um bring it to the connect center. And the stepper into stewardship card, if you filled that out, that can go in the collection boxes in the back. and the keeping pace cards um which we just talked about. If you don't see one in your pew, there are more at the connect center. Um I just want to leave you with the benediction today. Go free to trust, obey, and share the good news with others, knowing that there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Amen. Have a

1:40:18 good week.