Good morning.  Let me begin by saying that it is good to be back from a week long trip with the youth.  For those of you who didn’t know, we went over to Grayson, Kentucky for a week of Summer In The Son.  It was a great week, in fact, Kaycee, during the week decided that she wanted to get baptized, and at the end of our services this morning, she is going to do just that.

Each year when we get back from a trip like this, I like to be able to share with you a little bit of what we learned while we were there.  And this year is no different.  In fact, I think that this year might have been one of the best years as far as what the speaker, Jim Burgen from Boulder Colorado, had to say to each of us about how weird we are as Christians.  And so, I want to share with you a little of what we learned this week.

Before we do that though, allow me to open with a word of prayer.  Let’s Pray!

If you have your Bibles with you this morning, go ahead and turn with me to Colossians 2:17.  In this passage, we find the theme to this past week.  Look at that verse with me.  Colossians 2:17 says, “These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ.”

Now, the idea for the week was to Re-Think Reality.  To rethink the way that we do things, and to rethink Christianity as a whole.  On Monday, we had to rethink God.  Tuesday caused us to rethink Jesus.  On Wednesday, we were asked to rethink church.  And on Thursday, we had to rethink ourselves.

Now, to share with you all that we leaned over the week would take more than one sermon, so I have narrowed it down to what I believe is the most important part of the week, that even us adults could use to learn.

That verse that I read followed a list of things that people were doing to give the impression that they were religious, when in fact, they were not.  I think that you will agree with me, that it is possible to go to church, and still not be connected to God.  Some people are creating the illusion, or the shadow that they are a Christian.  For those of you who where here a couple Sunday nights ago, we said that people put on masks from time to time.  They try to hide who they really are.

Go ahead and turn with me to John 8:2-11.  In this passage, Jesus is confronted by the teachers of the law and by the Pharisees.  Listen to this passage.  John 8:2-11 says, “1”

In this passage, you have the teachers of the law, and the Pharisees, who evidently waited on this woman, ran in and caught her in the act of adultery, and then drug her out of the bed and took her to Jesus.

Now, as a side not, I have some great advice for you.  If you have a pen or pencil and are taking notes, makes sure that you write this one down.  You ready?  Walking in light is better than walking in the dark!  Let me say it one more time, walking in light is better than walking in the dark!

Now, in John 8:12 it 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.””  So, as I said, it is better to walk in light than to walk in darkness.

However, a lot of people that go to church tend to be judgmental.  We have this light of Christ in our lives, but we use it as a spotlight.  Look at the teachers of the law and the Pharisees.  They had the light, they knew God’s word, and yet they used it as a spotlight.  They pointed out the woman caught in adultery, and they picked on her sins.

But you know what, a lot of Christians today can be judgmental as well.  We take God’s word and we shine that directly on people and say, “You’re doing it wrong!”  Just like the teachers of the law, and the Pharisees, we have used what God has given us to judge others.  Have any of you ever had that experience.  A hypocritical and judgmental Christian comes along and shines the light at you and says, “You’re doing it wrong!”  (Take time to shine light around and keep saying, “You’re doing it wrong!”)

But as we read, and as we try and be more like Christ, we find that that isn’t the attitude that Jesus has.  Instead, He says, “If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.”  And then that passage says that Jesus once again bent down to the ground and began to write in the sand.  Have you ever wondered what it was that Jesus was writing on the sand?

The Bible never tells us, but, I like to think that Jesus was writing down certain sins that the people wanting to stone her were guilty of.  Maybe He saw Tom standing there, and He wrote on the ground, thief.  Perhaps He saw John standing there and He wrote the word drunkard.  What if He looked at you, and He wrote the words hypocrite, or judgmental.

Anyway, whatever it was that Jesus wrote on the ground, scripture tells us that the people standing there to stone this woman dropped their stones one by one and walked away.  Now here is the neat part.  At that, Jesus asked the woman where her accusers were.  And then He said, “Neither do I condemn you.  Go now and leave your life of sin.”

Now, Jesus was without sin, He could have launched the first stone, but He didn’t.  Nor did He excuse her sin.  Instead, He said, “Go now and leave your life of sin.”

Now, more than likely, there are 3 groups of people here this morning.  There are those of you who are in the darkness.  There are those of you who are carrying around stones.  And there are those of you who are in the light.

Allow me to speak to each of those 3 groups before we close today.

First, to those of you who are in the darkness.  You are caught in sin, and you have not accepted Christ’s light into your lives.  To you, I would encourage you to make the decision to enter into His light today.  Leave the darkness and ask God to shine His light on you.

There is a word that I like to mention when we are talking about those of you who are in darkness, and that word is switch.  You need to make a switch with God today.  You see, your life is full of sin, and the Bible tells us that the wages of sin is death.  But over 2 thousand years ago, Jesus went to the cross and He made a switch for you.  He died in your place.  In II Corinthians 5:21 it says that, “God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.”  Why wouldn’t you want to make that switch with Him?

Think about it like this.  You have a checking account that has over the limit charges on it.  You have gone into the negative, and you actually owe the bank money before they will allow you to write any more checks.  You go to the bank and you are ready to take care of that problem.  When you get to the bank, you have them print off a balance slip for you, and it reads that you have 10 million dollars in that account.

You go to the bank teller and she explains that some guy named Bill Gates has switched accounts with you.  He took your debt, and you inherited his 10 million dollars.  Of course, if you are not interested, the accounts can be switched back.

Now, no person in their right mind would do that.  And when we come to Christ, He takes our debt, He takes our sin, and He switches it for His greatness, for His righteousness.  In Romans 5:6-8 it says, “2”

So, if you are still walking in darkness, why don’t you make that switch and come into the light?

Now, the second group of people that I want to address, are those of you who are stone carriers.  The people in our story today, they were supposed religious people, yet they came carrying stones.  This just shows us that people can look one way on Sunday, and be a look different on others days.  To the stone carries, and I would put myself in this category at times, and many of you have been judgmental at times as well.  To us, I say that we need to drop those stones.  We need to stop hurting each other, and seek forgiveness from others and from God as well.

You see, Jesus hates hypocrisy.  He still loves the person, but he hates the sin.  You can read the 23^rd chapter of Matthew, and see that Jesus hates the idea of hypocrisy.  Realize that we cannot judge others for the sins that they commit.  Whatever it was that Jesus wrote in the sand that day caused the people to drop their stones.  In Matthew 7:1-5 it says, “3”

The number one criticism of the church is that it is full of hypocrites.  Instead of the “You’re doing it wrong!” attitude, we should have a Me Too Attitude.

You’re a sinner.  Me too.  You fall short of what God wants for your life.  Me too.  You have issues that make God sick.  Me too.  You deal with addictions or lust or greed or judgmental attitudes of hypocrisy.  Guess what, me too.

Jesus says to take care of the plank in your own eye, that way you can see better to help your brother with the speck of sawdust that is in his eye.  So, to those of you who find yourselves carrying stones, being judgmental, being hypocritical, I would challenge you to drop those stones and realize that we are all in the same boat.  Christ dies for all of us.  Stop being so judgmental.  At one point this week, the kids were able to name about 4 or 5 people that came to our church, and they felt that people were too judgmental and didn’t give the people Christ’s love.  And as a result of that, they didn’t stay attending with us.  So we need to drop the stones.

And finally, the last group of people.  Some of you are in Christ’s light.  You made a decision a long time ago to become a Christian, and you have been trying to serve God in your life ever since.  For you, I have a challenge.  In Romans 10:13-14 it says, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.  How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed?  And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard?  And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?”

Now, the word preaching there does not limit the job to me.  It simply means opening your mouth and saying it.  All it is, is sharing Christ with others.  Now, some of you are thinking, “But I just don’t know that much about the Bible.”

Well, guess what, I am not asking you to tell about the Bible.  Just tell how Christ has affected your life.  In John chapter 9, Jesus heals a man that has been blind from birth.  And when asked what had happened, the man simply told them how Christ had changed his life.  Later, when the teachers of the law and the Pharisees were questioning this man about Jesus, they asked all sorts of questions.  And all the blind guy told them was that he was once blind but now he could see, and it was Jesus that had done it.

When you share your story with others, all you have to do is share what He means to you.  Share what He has done in your life.  Just tell your story!

Now, as we begin to wrap things up this morning, allow me to give you 2 take-a-way points that we gained this week.

First, in Ephesians 2:8-9 it says, “For it is by grace that you have been saved, through faith, and this not from yourself, it is the gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast.”  The first thing that we need to do is begin to believe that verse.  If we would believe that verse, there would be no problems in our Christian lives because we would realize that it was by God’s grace that we have been saved.

And finally, we need to understand that Jesus is the light of the world, and as Christians, so are we.  In II Corinthians 4:6 it says, “For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made His light shine in our hearts…”

Now, we are to be the light of the world.  But no one can produce their own light.  Someone go ahead and turn off the lights.

You see, as hard as I try, there is nothing that I can do to create light.  I cannot produce light in myself.  But here is how that works.  God is the light of the world.  His light is shining down, and as I realize that and enter into a relationship with Him, His light shines on me.  And as His light shines on use, we are to shine on others.  But it cannot be our own light, because we cannot produce light, only God can do that.  As Christians, we are to simply reflect the light of Christ onto others.

And as we do that, we get out of the shadows, and we become the kind of Christians that God desires us to be.  We become less judgmental, we are less hypocritical, and we are more like Him.  And when we allow the light of Christ to shine on us, and we reflect that light to others, we become broken and wholly surrendered to God and His will in our lives.

Let’s Pray!

(Invitation Time – Sweetly Broken)