6-24-2016

       Good Morning All!!   

         Galatians 1: 13-14; “For you have heard of my former life in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God violently and tried to destroy it.  And I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people, so extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers.”

    There are many names for them; gunners or hot dogs are a couple.  They are overachievers in whatever they do.  I remember when I was in college there would always be two or three “non-traditional” students who took one or two classes a semester and just lived the class.  They really messed up the curve for the grading.  We all know someone like that or maybe it is you; that one person who has to be the best at whatever they are doing.  That is what Paul is claiming he was the overachiever.

    As we look at our verse, and elsewhere in Scriptures, Paul claims to be “the Jew’s Jew”.  He was intent on destroying the early church.  He breathed fire toward them.  He was doing everything to find these “Christians”.  He would seek to arrest them, bring them to Jerusalem, have them tried and then punished.  Paul was a bad person.  He was an overachiever at being bad.

    Of all the things that we are overachievers at; being a sinner is probably at the top.  We can be angry at people we don’t even know over the smallest thing.  We glare as they take up the whole aisle in the grocery store.  We share the road with two kinds of people; idiots who drive slower than we do and maniacs who drive faster than we do.  We are cruel to our family, judgmental of our friends, envious of our neighbors, lazy in our worship and delinquent in our reading of the Bible.

    But what if you really are an overachiever in being a sinner?   What if you have had an affair or an abortion?  What if you have a police record, spent time in jail or are about to?  Maybe you think you are “the crook’s crook.”   There has to be a level to bad or a line that is crossed and you know you crossed it but so did Paul, so did I, so have all of God’s redeemed children.  Just like Paul became a new man so God makes us new men and women.

    The wonder of God’s forgiveness is that it leaves the past in the past.  God’s forgiveness is to free us from past “overachievements.”  God’s forgiveness through Jesus pays the debt that is due for our past sins in order to cleanse us to be his children so that we would have a future.

    We can look at Paul as an example.  He went from a murdering zealot to the leading apostle of Christ.  He did not have to carry those past sins with him and neither do you.  God’s love for you transforms you into someone who can boldly and confidently follow Jesus without being pulled down by past sins.  Trust God’s grace to carry you through life’s struggles and battles.  Trust God’s love to be greater than all of your “overachieving.”

Father of love, your grace lifts us up and gives us hope.  Enliven our faith that we may ever cling to you.  Defend us, protect us and bring us safely home.  In the precious name of Jesus we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret