Grace Baptist Church, Nokomis, IL.

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It’s always fun to watch the kids exit for children’s church, because they have so much life! And they’re completely uninhibited! They don’t care what people think about them, because they don’t know to care. As long as they know their parents love them, they’re perfectly happy to run and play and rest in their parents’ love.

But that can also mean that kids do things that we’d never do. Back in elementary school, there was always a day in which everyone would wear their pajamas to school. Did you all have pajama day at school? It was always so fun! Because we knew it wasn’t what we were normally supposed to do. So, even though we were allowed to wear our pajamas to school, it was like we were getting away with something.

But once you get older, you stop having pajama days. But what if we didn’t? What if you went to college every day in your pajamas? What if you went to work in your pajamas? And what if I came and preached in my pajamas? I thought about doing that, but then I remembered that I’m 34 years old, and I’m not a kid anymore. Part of growing up means not acting like a kid anymore.

And the same is true about growing in Christ. As we mature, we learn to put off the old self, and put on the new. We learn to stop finding pleasure in meaningless things, and start finding our satisfaction in Jesus. And as we do that, we continue to find more joy and peace in Christ, as we serve Him more and more.

I’m preaching this morning on a lesson that I’m still learning. And I think it might be a lesson we’re all still learning. Because, I think, if anyone has this one perfect, they would always be full of joy, always at peace, and would serve God perfectly all of the time. But I don’t know anyone like that! But maybe it’s just me. So before I go any further, I just want to know. Is anyone here always happy, always peaceful, and always perfect? No one?

Why is that? I mean, we sing it all the time. Sing it with me! “I’ve got the joy, joy, joy, joy, down in my heart!” “I’ve got the peace that passes understanding down in my heart!” And then there’s this one. “I will give you all my worship, I will give you all my praise.” But who does that? Who gives God all his worship, all his praise? Because the last time I checked, we all serve God pretty imperfectly. And even though there are moments when we feel that joy, and peace, if we’re honest, we’re often still pretty unsatisfied a lot of the time. Why is that?

Read Luke 7:48-50

To understand what’s going on, we need to back up a bit in the text (v. 37-38). This woman loved Jesus so much that she was moved to humble herself before Jesus. She knew that He was Lord, and that she was a sinner. She knew that her lifestyle was not satisfying to God, or to herself for that matter. So she decided to serve Jesus in the only way she knew, and with everything she had, by washing His feet with her tears and anointing Him with expensive ointment. It was completely irrational, because she was a sinner, condemned before everyone, not worthy to know Christ. And yet, somehow she get the inclination that Jesus loves sinners. So, feeling His love, she responded to Jesus by giving Him everything, and by weeping for joy because of Him. And in the same way, when we come to know Jesus as Lord, we’re to give Him everything we have and weep for joy.

Except that, most of the time, we don’t.

In our culture, becoming a Christian often isn’t a choice to love God with all that we are, but a logical choice. Most people in America still say that they’re Christians. More than 80% of Americans say that they’re Christians. I mean, their parents were Christians, and they were raised in church, so logically, they’re Christians, too, right? And, for awhile in America, you pretty much had to say you were a Christian, because that meant that you were a respectable person. And if you weren’t a Christian, it meant that you weren’t a respectable person. So it just made sense to at least say that you were a Christian.

But becoming a Christian is not merely a logical choice. In fact, it should seem to everyone to be very irrational. Because when Christ calls us to follow Him, He calls us to abandon everything. Abandon your life. Abandon your dreams. Give Him your talents. Give Him your money. Use it all for His glory. Deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow Jesus.

Now, of course, I’m not saying that following Jesus isn’t logical. In fact, it’s the only logical decision, given that God is our Creator, and that we can only have true life in Jesus. But, I think, many of us never truly embrace that logic, and instead continue to follow our own logic. Our own way. The way that seems right to us. And it only seems right to us to believe in Jesus. After all, we don’t want to go to Hell. And we like the friendships that we form at church. And yet, at the same time, it doesn’t make much sense to deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Jesus. Because that requires us to do things that we don’t want to do. It requires us to lay down our pride. It requires us to lay aside our plans. It requires us to treat Jesus as our Lord, which means obeying Him, and giving Him our very selves to do with as He pleases.

And yet, that’s what the woman in this story did. She humbled herself before Jesus. She gave Him herself, because she believed that He had given her Himself.

Jesus told her in verse 48, “Your sins are forgiven.” “Your sins are forgiven!” Only God could make this pronouncement, because when we sin, we sin against God. Our sins are an offense to God, because God deserves our full obedience. But since we don’t fully obey, we need His forgiveness. Forgiveness that only He can give us.

If I were to go up to Ronald here and just hit him as hard as I could, one, I’d be an idiot, because I know he’s much stronger than me, but two, he’s the only person who could forgive me of that. Now, say I hit Ronald, but then go over to Donald and say, “Will you forgive me for hitting Ronald?” And he says, “Yeah, I forgive you.” Does that mean anything? No! Because I didn’t hit Donald! It only means something if I receive forgiveness from the one that I offended, or from one who is greater than the one I offended. Say I hit Ronald, and he doesn’t forgive me. He presses charges, and I go to prison. But say word gets out, and there’s a national outcry to free Pastor Chris, and it even gets to the President of the United States, and the President comes to see me in prison, and I ask his forgiveness, and he gives me a Presidential Pardon. Am I forgiven? Yeah! The President has the legal authority to forgive me of that offense. Even if Ronald never forgave me, he wouldn’t have any legal authority to press any charges against me at that point. Because I’d have been forgiven by the Big Man.

In the same way, this woman had sinned against God and man. She was known to be a sinner, a woman of the city, which means that she was probably a prostitute. She probably slept with married men. She had probably broken up families, and there was no way she would get forgiveness from all the people she hurt for all the damage she had done. Except, she goes to Jesus, and recognizes that only He can forgive her, and He does.

Now, it’s good to reconcile with man as well. And if I did hit Ronald, and never ask for his forgiveness as well as God’s, that would be a problem. So when at all possible, we need to reconcile with one another. But at the end of the day, our offense is really against God, who made us, and loves us, and is worthy of our full obedience. So all of us, like this woman, need forgiveness from God more than anything else.

The Jews knew that. They knew that only God could forgive sins. So when Jesus told the woman that her sins were forgiven, they responded like this (v. 49).

At this point, Jesus could have gotten into a long debate about His divinity. He could have proven Himself from the Scriptures. He could have revealed Himself once again through miracles. Certainly someone there had a demon, or a cough, or a headache or something Jesus could heal! But instead of defending Himself, He continued talking to the woman (v. 50).

Jesus affirmed her. He affirmed her faith. He instructed her to go in peace, meaning, at least in part, that she was to go in God’s peace. No longer searching for peace or satisfaction by what she did, but having the peace of God which she could only receive from God. So instead of seeking to prove Himself, Jesus affirmed this sinner.

Or maybe He was doing both.

You see, Jesus wasn’t encouraging a vague sense of faith. He wasn’t saying, “Just have faith, and you’ll be saved.” This wasn’t an affirmation of any and all faith in anything you want. No, Jesus was affirming her faith in Him. This woman had already demonstrated her faith. It was a faith in Jesus that caused her to weep in joy over Jesus. It was a faith in Jesus that caused her to sacrifice for Jesus. It was a faith in Jesus that caused her to look only to Jesus for her peace and salvation.

It seems like we often look to all kinds of other things for our peace and salvation. We look to our families. We look to our friends. We look to our occupation. We might even look to our church. And we place our hope in these things to save us in the sense that they’ll give us purpose. That they’ll rescue us from meaninglessness. That they’ll satisfy us and give us peace. But if we want the peace of God, then we need to receive it from God, and God alone. And if we want salvation, true salvation, from sin, from Hell, we need to receive it from the only One who can save us.

That’s why Jesus died on the cross. Our sin separated us from God. We were separated from the only One who can truly satisfy us! We were children of wrath, deserving God’s wrath, deserving the penalty for sin. But then Jesus offered His body up for our sin. His body was broken for us. His blood was poured out for our sin. He was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. Forgiveness, peace, and salvation come only by grace, through faith in Jesus.

And so, as believers in Jesus, we need to find our salvation and satisfaction actually in Jesus. We can’t continue to live as the world lives. And it doesn’t make sense to do so. If you think you’ve found salvation in Jesus, then rest in Jesus! Don’t seek satisfaction in anything else! Because nothing else will satisfy.

Now, this doesn’t mean that you withdraw from the world and do nothing but pray in silence the rest of your life. No, it means that as you go about your life, you live in the world, but not of it. It means you don’t live to be satisfied by the things of this world. It means that you rest from trying to impress the world. And you rest from being impressed by the world. It means that you recognize that entertainment, and sports, and people, and sins, and the pleasures of this life will not satisfy you. Only Jesus can satisfy you, because only Jesus can save you and restore you to have a relationship with God.

Now, I mean it when I say this is still a lesson that I’m learning. Because, as a pastor, I often put my hope and satisfaction in you, the church. When we’re growing, and when we’re all getting along, and when we’re really serving God in meaningful ways, I’m happy! I’m satisfied!

But as soon as we plateau, or there’s a conflict, or not many people show up to that service project, I get depressed. I start to wonder if I did something wrong. Or if I could have done something better. And I probably could have! I mean, can’t we always do something better?

But whether or not that’s true, that shouldn’t be where my satisfaction lies. Because Jesus didn’t die so that I can live in fear. Perfect love casts out fear! And the more I realize that I’m perfectly loved, not based on what I do, but based on what Jesus has done, the more I’m satisfied in God. We become like a children, resting in our Father’s love. And that makes us uninhibited. The more we realize God’s love, the less we care about being satisfied by the things of this world. And the more we love God, the more we’re willing to do things this world finds completely illogical. Like, die to self, and live for Christ, because the joy and peace of Christ have taken hold of our hearts.

One day, Jesus and Moses were playing golf. Moses tees off with a 3-wood and hits the green. Jesus takes out his 5-iron and says, “I’m going to use my 5-iron because Tiger Woods would use a 5-iron from here.” Moses just laughs and says, “I wouldn’t, but hey, I’m not the Lord, so it’s up to you.” And Jesus says, “Hey, if Tiger Woods can do it, I think I can handle this.” Jesus tees it up, swings, and the ball over the green and plop, into the lake just past the green. Jesus turns to Moses and says, “How about parting the water so I can play my ball where it lies?” Moses says, “No way. You chose the wrong club because of your Tiger Woods fantasy, this is all you!” Jesus shrugs and walks past the green to the lake, looks back and Moses, and then steps out onto the water and walks on the water to where his ball went in. Just then, a couple of guys playing golf behind them see Jesus walking on the water and one of them asks Moses, “Who does that guy think he is, Jesus Christ?” Moses turns and says, “No, he thinks he’s Tiger Woods!”

In case you don’t know, that’s a joke, it didn’t happen. It’s funny because it would be ridiculous for Jesus to want to be Tiger Woods. He’s Jesus Christ! And yet, in a very real way, you are Jesus Christ. Galatians 2:20 says, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” Don’t be try to be anyone else. Be who you are, in Christ. So don’t be seek to be satisfied with the things of this world. Because they won’t satisfy.

Rest in Christ, because He is the One who forgives, and saves, and gives you peace.