Love Over Judgment

Now, I don’t know about you, but I’ve noticed something lately. It seems like the world is full of experts—especially when it comes to how everyone else should live their lives. You’ve got your social media gurus, your armchair quarterbacks, and yes, even those folks who somehow know exactly what Jesus would tweet if He had a Twitter account.

Let me ask you this: have you ever walked into a room, maybe a family gathering, maybe a church, and felt like you were walking into the Lion's Den? You know what I mean—the moment you step inside, you can just feel those eyes on you, judging, analyzing, wondering if you’re wearing the right thing, saying the right thing, believing the right thing. I don’t know about you, but that’s not my idea of a good time.

Now, as a pastor, I get asked a lot about what the hardest part of my job is. Some people think it’s writing sermons. Others think it’s managing all the different personalities in a church. But you know what really keeps me up at night? It’s when I see someone finally muster up the courage to walk through these doors, looking for hope, looking for community, looking for a place where they can be themselves—and then they run into that one person who’s doing "Jesus’ work" all wrong.

I’ll be honest with you, there are times when I wish I could shake that person—maybe even slap them, just a little! (But don’t worry, I’m not about to start a slapping ministry!) But here’s the thing: when we let judgment take over, we’re not just pushing people away from church—we’re pushing them away from Jesus.

Now, I know this is sounding a little heavy, but I promise we’re going somewhere with this. Today, we’re going to dig into what it means to be the church that Jesus called us to be. We’re going to talk about love, judgment, and why it’s so much easier to hate than to love—and why we need to do the harder thing.

So buckle up, because we’re about to take a wild ride through some truths that might just make us squirm a little.

So here we are, a bunch of imperfect people gathered in this place, trying to figure out what it means to follow Jesus in a world that’s constantly changing. And let’s be real—sometimes, it feels like the church is still playing catch-up. We’ve got the same gospel, the same message of love and grace that Jesus gave us over 2,000 years ago, but we’re living in a time where technology, social media, and cultural shifts are reshaping the way people see the world—and the church.

Now, let’s talk about this for a minute. Technology, for all its benefits, has given us some new ways to be distant while pretending to be connected. We can tweet, post, and comment from behind a screen, and somehow that makes it easier to throw stones without ever having to look someone in the eye. And you know what’s scary? Some folks out there are doing this in the name of Jesus. They think they’re defending the faith, but in reality, they’re just pushing people away.

Imagine this: someone finally gets the courage to step through these doors, maybe for the first time in years. They’ve had a rough go, life’s been beating them down, and they’re looking for a place to catch their breath, to find some peace, maybe even some hope. And what do they find? A welcoming smile? Or do they bump into someone who’s too busy being a “Jesus” warrior, ready to tell them how they’re doing everything wrong?

Here’s the kicker—Jesus didn’t call us to be His social media defenders. He didn’t ask us to be the morality police, handing out tickets for every little misstep. He called us to love. To be the kind of people who, when someone walks through those doors, they feel like they’ve just come home. Not to a house full of critics, but to a family that’s ready to embrace them, flaws and all.

Now, loving people? That’s hard work. It’s messy, it’s complicated, and it doesn’t always come with easy answers. But if we’re going to be the church that Jesus intended, we’ve got to stop worrying so much about fixing people and start focusing on loving them.

So, what does that look like? How do we become a church that people want to be a part of, not just because it’s what they’re "supposed" to do, but because it’s where they feel loved and accepted?

Alright, so we’ve laid the groundwork: we know that loving people is tough, and that the church can sometimes stumble when it comes to making folks feel welcome. But here’s where it gets really interesting—what does love actually look like in action?