“I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do…For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do – this I keep doing” (Romans 7:15, 19).

I’ve got a problem. The problem is me. I am the issue. I am the culprit. I am the problem. Mind you, I am not always the problem. Sometimes, I can be quite good. It’s just that my being good is not very consistent. I guess you can say that I am very consistent at not being consistently good.

Here’s my problem:

• See, I just want to sit in a quiet place with a good cup of coffee and a good book, but I also want to be with people, travel and see new things.
• I really would love to be super fit and healthy. I really do.
• It’s just that I also want to eat whatever I want – particularly if they happen to be the bacon cheeseburger type.
• I want to be financially responsible, save, and invest. I really do. And I want a new motorcycle and I am in the market for new golf wedges, and I am always looking for a new fountain pen.
• I want to be holy and right. I want to be spiritually fit. Yet, I also find myself drawn to certain sins and the same ol’ yearnings that have plagued me all my life.

See what I mean? I am the problem. I have a serious “me” problem. That’s the problem with me.

So what are we to do? Let’s see what the Apostle Paul did.

“What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Romans 7:24-25).

Turn to Jesus Christ. Every day. Every time we fail, every time we struggle. Keep going back to Jesus. Jesus is our hope. Never ever stop returning to Jesus. We are going to continue our ups and downs as long as we live in this world. The only way we are defeated is when we stop returning to Christ. Keep the fight. Keep fighting sin. Keep pursuing Christ.

“If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth shall set you free” (John 8:31-32).

Did you catch the relationship between obeying and knowing? There are a couple of surprises in what Jesus tells us about obeying and knowing.

First, we tend to think that knowing and understanding comes first. But Jesus leads with obedience. “If you hold to my teaching…” If you obey, you are really my disciples. Obedience leads to knowing. So many of us have this backwards. We don’t obey because we understand. Disciples obey because Jesus is Lord. Obedience comes first. Obedience is a given.

Did you catch the “If…then…”? Jesus says, “If you hold to my teaching…then you will know the truth…”

Obedience comes first, then knowing. Obedience leads to greater knowledge and truth.

Second, knowing the truth has nothing to do with whether we like it or agree with it or not. Truth is truth because Jesus said it. Truth doesn’t care about our feelings or our likes and dislikes. Truth is truth.

I say this because we live in a world that has changed our fundamental question regarding truth. The question our culture asks regarding “our” truth is whether we like it or agree with it. That’s why you hear people say, “What is true for you works for you. But leave me out of your truth.” Unfortunately, truth doesn’t work like that. Truth is true regardless of our likes and dislikes.

When a society determines truth by asking, “Do I like it? Do I agree with it?” instead of asking “Is this true?” that society is in trouble.

So disciples of Jesus at the Little Church and Lakewoodgrace, listen to what Jesus tells us: “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

“While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” On hearing this, Jesus said, ‘It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick'” (Matthew 9:10-12).

Jesus ate with sinners.
Jesus hung out with sinners.
Jesus welcomed sinners.

And sinners had no problems eating with Jesus.
Sinners had no problems hanging out with Jesus.
Sinners loved being welcomed into Jesus’ presence.

These things are absolutely true. And we are called to do the same. After all, we are followers of Jesus. Therefore, we ought to do what Jesus did.

But where our society and the modern church gets confused is to think that because Jesus ate with, hung out with, and welcomed sinners that Jesus was ok with their sin. Nothing could be further from the truth. Jesus accepted sinners just the way they are so that he can transform and change them.

Listen to what Jesus says, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.” The doctor has to heal, change, and transform sick people into healthy people. That’s what Jesus does.

Jesus ate with, hung out with, and welcomed sinners to call them to a transformed life. And when the church forgets that, we mess up the entirety of the gospel.