Growing up in church all my life and being a pastor’s wife for thirteen years, the rhythm of a normal Sunday and a normal sermon was very common to me.
Get dressed in nice clothes.
Put on a smile to hide the pain and sin that may be permeating my heart.
Sit, stand, sing, pray, listen to a four point sermon (all four points of which start with the same letter) of how I should live my life as one who believes in Jesus and what four things I should DO to be a better person.
Drive home thinking of all the things I need to do better.
Encouraging? At times. Tiring? Yes. Insincere? Maybe…Probably. Something missing? Absolutely.
For many churches, the normal rhythm of life and teaching has become learning how to be “nice, quaint, moral people.” The focus is on the external. We abstain from discussing personal struggle of sin because that would require one to allow another person in to the deep, dark aspects of one’s heart and then further lead to the need for accountability. Instead, we focus on our outward actions that should project moral behavior (much like the Pharisees in Matthew 23:27-28).
For many churches, teaching morality has quietly replaced teaching the Gospel.
This. THIS is what my heart has been missing all these years. Hearing the Gospel (the good news of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection)
over
and over
and over
and over again as it washes over my soul.
Hearing the Gospel should never get old. Teaching the Gospel should never be left to only Palm Sunday, Easter, and Christmas. Jesus Christ’s life, death, and resurrection permeates the entirety of Scripture – from the Old Testament through the New Testament – thus our lives, our talk, our encouragement, our admonishment, our teaching, our times of accountability should all be permeated with this Good News.
When we moved to Tennessee just over one year ago, we had no idea the impact our new community of believers would have on our lives. We had no idea the sin in our hearts that would be exposed due to simply having the Gospel preached to us over and over again each week.
Somehow our pastor beautifully brings each Sunday back to this Good News – whether we are studying through Genesis or studying about marriage. And each week, when he gets to that point in the sermon, I find myself putting down my pen and paper, sinking deep into my chair, and allowing my heart and mind to cherish the spoken words of the Good News.
I have heard the Gospel preached each and every week for more than a year. And instead of it getting old, I find my heart craving to hear it more and more. And the more I crave it, the more God exposes my sin, exposes my need for Him alone, and reminds me of His forgiveness that comes only through the life, death, and resurrection of His Son, which in turn changes my heart, which changes my behavior.
I will never be good enough. I will never perfectly fulfill those four sermon points (that all start with the same letter). But the Good News means that I don’t have to be. JESUS is enough. And through Him, I am enough because HE has washed my sin white as snow.
The Gospel.
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