21 Day Fast // Day 8: Balance Yourself: Stone-less, Truth-full

DAY 8 // John 8: 10-11, 32 // "Balance Yourself: Stone-less, Truth-full" // Pastor Larry Walkemeyer

John 8:10-11
Jesus straightened up and asked her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?" 11 "No one, sir," she said. "Then neither do I condemn you," Jesus declared. "Go now and leave your life of sin."
John 8:32
"...Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."

In John 8, we have the revelation of who Jesus really is. Read the chapter slowly, looking at who Jesus really is. John 1:14 described Jesus as “the one who came from the Father full of grace and truth”. Grace-full and Truth-full. He was Balanced. That’s who Jesus is and that’s who his followers are to be also. John 8 illustrates this truth.

So John shares a story from the ministry of Jesus to illustrate this kind of Grace-full, Truth-Full balance. A woman caught having sex with a man who was not her husband is dragged in front of Jesus by the religious leaders. They say, “God’s law from Moses says, ‘Stone her!’ What do you say?” Jesus refuses to answer. Instead, he bends over and begins to write words in the dirt.

We don’t know what he wrote but many believe he was writing the other commandments of God or listing the sins of the religious leaders in the dirt. But then Jesus stands up and says, “The person without sin can throw the first stone.” He starts writing again in the dirt and the accusers start leaving until they are all gone.

There is only one person there who could have thrown a stone; only one without sin--Jesus. But he was “stone-less”. He looks up and basically says, “GRACE. GRACE. I don’t condemn you.”

GRACE-FULL. What a great story of forgiveness, love, mercy, and compassion! The end. NO!

WAIT! That’s not all Jesus says! He says, “Now go and leave your life of sin.” TRUTH, TRUTH, TRUTH-FULL! Jesus calls sin, sin.

In his compassion, he does not compromise the truth.
He does NOT say, “It’s okay. God is happy however you choose to live. To each their own. Different strokes for different folks. You have your truth and I have my truth”

No. Jesus says, “I love you, I forgive you, I give you GRACE” AND “I love you enough to tell you the truth.” Why? Because ONLY TRUTH CAN SET YOU FREE (John 8:32). And love wants people to be free!

GRACE gives you new chances. TRUTH points you in a new direction.

In the “cancel culture” we are living in, we are very fast to throw stones of condemnation.
We are short on grace and long on opinions. We are imbalanced.
We need to “walk away” from most of the situations and conflicts we find ourselves in.
We usually need to refuse to comment on social media posts that make us mad.
We need to drop the stones in our hands and give more grace to those who disagree with us. That’s Stone-less living.

But the other side is that we need to not compromise the truth. We need to “speak the truth in love”. In verse 44, Jesus reveals Satan as the “Father of lies”. Satan is always lying to people about what will make them happy, what they should believe, what God is okay with, who they are, & how they should live. His lies are seductive, but they lead to destruction. We must counter those lies with the truths of Jesus!

We must be “truth-tellers”, but we must do that in relationships of grace.
Stone-less and Truth-full--that’s our calling as followers of the Jesus of John 8!

Prayer Focus: Pray for our MISSIONARIES - that they would be protected and effective in their work.