“It’s Okay To Not Be Okay, But It’s Not Okay To Stay That Way”
Robin and I celebrated our 24th anniversary on Monday. We saw the movie, “Mom’s Night Out” (and I know you are not reading this for the second coming of Siskel and Ebert but we think that if you are a parent you will relate to and enjoy this film), and the idea for this blog hit me while watching the closing credits. The title is similar to a sermon title from a few years ago, and it really expresses the heart of our ministry at True Life. It is another way of stating our mission statement, “Meeting people where they are and helping them become fully devoted followers of Christ.” Real ministry is meeting people where they are and being used by God to help people become who He wants them to be in Christ. We are all messed up, and True Life is a place where it is okay to be honest about that. However, it is also a place to be transformed by the grace of God instead of staying where we are and just being authentic about our dysfunction. I want to apply this to our current series, “Modern Family.”
This series will be a challenging series, as I think was evident from the first message. It will be challenging for some people because of sin that will be called out. It will be challenging for some of us though because we know what the Bible teaches about these things, and we are tempted to adopt an us vs. them mentality and condemn everybody who is wrong.
Here is the key, and His name is Jesus. John 1:14 says, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” I used to teach that this means that Jesus perfectly balanced grace and truth, which is true but does not tell the whole story. He perfectly balances grace and truth because He is 100% grace and 100% truth. We are called to follow His example. Our tendency is to focus on one of these areas to the exclusion of the other. When we do that, we end up with neither of them because you cannot separate grace and truth from each other. It would be dividing Jesus. Some people tend toward a misunderstanding of grace that allows people to do just about anything. They think we are being unloving when we call out sin. Others go to the opposite extreme and are black and white about the truth but have little room for grace and forgiveness. Some also make the mistake of expecting non-Christians to act like Christians before they actually trust Jesus.
Jesus always told the truth and confronted sin, but He always loved people and offered them grace. He met people where they were and brought them to where they needed to be. That is what we are called to do. We are called to extend His grace by proclaiming His truth. That is what we are going to do in this series. We are going to share God’s truth about family and offer His grace to those who will receive the truth, repent of sin, and trust Jesus. Grace cannot be received without repentance. If you and/or your family are not okay, it is okay to be honest about it, and we will do whatever we can to help you by the grace of God so you don’t stay that way. As a church, we will continue to strive to meet people wherever they are with the life-transforming grace and truth of Jesus.
When we are not ok that is even more of a reason to trust and follow Jesus. When I’m not ok Jesus is the first one I call on even when its hard to say because I know He always listens.