sanctification.

The Lord tore me up today with Matt's message at church. I'm still in the midst of processing it. The Lord has been faithful in disciplining me and teaching me consistency in pursuing Him and obeying Him with reading the Word. As I've been in the Word the past few weeks, He has been so faithful in revealing Himself to me and showing me how broken I am and how beautiful He is. How sinful I am. How my rebellion and sins have greatly offended Him, the Righteous Judge. The more I study the Word to more I see how great and mighty and holy He is - and how FAR from that character I am, left to myself! We don't like to think of God that way...as full of wrath and a hatred for sin that HAS to be punished.

As Matt was going into detail about this today at church, I literally sat there and wept as I listened. I couldn't take notes. I couldn't even turn my head. It was as if this force (Jesus of course!) kept me staring straight as he spoke, and I wept. I wept over my sin, I wept over my selfishness in wanting my desires to be put on a higher scale than others, I wept over my idolatry and desiring my "good" and the temporary pleasures of the world above Jesus, I wept over my fear of man and lack of boldness in sharing the gospel with the lost I come into contact with every day, I wept over my impatience with the sin of others while I'm in sin myself! so prideful, I wept over the importance I place on the external while ignoring the internal. Matt then phrased the question "if your thoughts were placed on this screen for all to read, what would you do..." I lost it then. The shame, humiliation, guilt, embarrassment, fear...it raced through my brain and I felt so overwhelmed I almost walked out of church. But the thing we don't think about often enough (I don't think about often enough)...

JESUS SEES IT!

Those "hidden" thoughts and agendas...those manipulations and "secret" sins...they aren't secret. They aren't hidden. The Righteous Judge, the King of Kings, the Sovereign Ruler...He sees them.

This overwhelms me. It scares me and overwhelms me like nothing else can. What overwhelms me even more is what Jesus did for this. Because our sins deserve a judgment, an eternal damnation (hell is a real place) we're in a dilemma. We've sinned and committed treason against the greatest King and it must be punished. Outside of Christ, that punishment will occur on judgment day. The lost will stand before Jesus and be pronounced guilty on EVERY SINGLE SINFUL ACT, seen or not. Every single sin will be judged and punished. Not just once...forever. A forever judgment and punishment outside of Christ.

Is this not enough for us to share the gospel with the lost?

For believers, however...it's different. Jesus. That one name holds our hope, our redemption, our reconciliation...Christ is our answer. Instead of being pronounced "judged. unclean. damned. blemished. stained. unworthy. hated."...we will, with the blood of Jesus Christ, be stamped "justified. pure. accepted. unblemished. unstained. worthy. loved."

Does this not blow your mind? Does this not make you weep at your sin, knowing the great extent of it, and knowing that JESUS PAID FOR IT ON CALVARY. The fear I feel in standing face to face before God Almighty because of the magnitude of my sin?

Christ felt that separation so I didn't have to.
Christ felt that hate so I didn't have to.
Christ felt that judgment so I didn't have to.

And He's made me worthy. His striped have healed me. His blood has purified me.
He took my sin and replaced it with His righteousness.

May we never fail to revel in this grace. (unmerited favor)

May we never lose sight of the cross! 

If you want to hear the message from The Village today, podcast it or go to our website (www.thevillagechurch.net) and listen to it. It will challenge and encourage you greatly! It will point you to the cross!