Scripture: Psalm 139: 1-6, 13-18
Title: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
Theme: From the beginning to the end God knows everything and is still with me! In this world, we want to throw in the towel when things get rough – we are too fleshly to hang in there! But we are called to love others in spite of everything – the good, the bad, or the ugly. We must learn to look through God colored glasses when it comes to loving others.
God knows the good, the bad, and the ugly about all of us.
I. God knows the good,
A. Formed us – knows our inward parts…inside and outside
B. Knew us before we were born…from the very beginning
C. Made in God’s image… “it was good”
D. Colleges – don’t know you; government doesn’t know you
E. God knows you and seeks you out…God is behind you and before you, and has his hand on you, but you must choose…
II. God knows the bad,
A. Knows our sin
B. Knows all our behaviors – lies, gossip, … James says the tongue is the one part of our body that can defile the most…we bless God with it and at the same time curse our neighbor.
C. There is nothing we can hide from God….but again, we have a choice when we mess up…we can ignore it or bring it out in the open – God tells us that we must acknowledge our behavior, take responsibility for it, and repent – turn away from it.
D. No one wants to acknowledge their sin…but we must acknowledge it before God. Why if he knows everything? Because we must admit that we have failed the relationship. God hasn’t failed us. We must say we are sorry.
III. God knows the ugly.
A. Sometimes we are worse than bad.
B. We hurt people we love the most.
C. We stab our friends in the back.
D. We think we are good because we go to church, because we know who God is, because we even listen to Christian music…we become pious – thinking that others are much worse than we are. This is when we really become ugly.
E. We stand in judgment of others – picking and choosing who we will and will not share the gospel with, we begin to only love those who are like us, those who think like us or dress like us, or believe like us.
F. We become complacent in our spiritual lives, we begin to think we are holier than even God- ignoring God and living out of our own wisdom.
G. Repent? Ha! That’s for sinners.
H. We don’t offer our lives to God anymore, although God may still be in our vocabulary, God’s not in our hearts.
IV. In Spite of all of this – knowing the good, the bad, and even the ugly, God is always with us, offering his love, mercy and grace.
A. This knowledge was just too wonderful, too heavy for the Psalmist to be able to understand fully.
B. How can God love us when we constantly behave in ways that don’t please him?
C. How can God love us when we sin and don’t repent?
D. But God does!!!!!
E. It’s hard for me to fully understand too.
We think that we have to do something for God to love us, but that’s not true. Just because we are God’s he loves us!
I think about being a mother – I loved my children before I ever saw them. There is nothing that they could do that would stop my love for them. They may mess up. They may behave badly. They may even turn ugly. But I’ll always love them.
I guess that this kind of love is maybe like God’s love for us. God celebrates with us when we are good. God hurts when we behave badly. God cries for us when we are ugly. God hates sin. God’s love never, ever, leaves us.
Now what does this help us with as we go about our lives?
It is Good News that God is always loving us, seeking us, pouring out grace on us when we don’t deserve it.
It is Good News that God is always there for us, even when we think we can handle things on our own. God is still there, ready to pick up the pieces when we turn to God.
But, when I read the Bible, I know that I not only want to hear the good news, I also want to know how I can live better, how I can better my life and the lives of others around me.
John Wesley said that others should be able to distinguish Christians from the world.
Wait a minute…that sounds too hard. You mean others should be able to tell that I am a Christian all the time?! How about when I’m bad, or even when I’m ugly? I just want to fit in…I don’t want to stand out…
But we should stand out! We should be striving toward “higher ideals”, loftier morals…not because we can ever earn God’s favor….but because we should be trying to pattern our lives after Jesus.
This isn’t easy. And it’s not always popular. But as followers of Christ, we are called to a higher standard…
Just as God loves us, we are to love others. God loves us when we are good, bad, and ugly! Can we really live up to that?
WELL…how can a wife continue to love a husband who beats her? How can a husband continue to stay with an unfaithful wife? How can we love the person who straps bombs to themselves and then blows up people in a mall?
I believe that we should strive to be able to give away God’s unfailing, gracious, and merciful love; to share it unconditionally with others. But in order to do this, we must turn our lives over to God. We must let God sanctify us, help us grow in our spiritual journey.
If this growth isn’t taking place in our lives, then we’ll never be able to love others like God loves us.
God’s ways are so hard to understand. God loves us and calls us to love others just as God loves us…but wow! It’s as if we are set up from the beginning to fail!
But we aren’t! We are set up to put God first, to leave self behind, and to let God reign in our hearts! The love is free and given without conditions – regardless of whether or not we choose to love God in return.
But as God loves us, God seeks us, and as God seeks us, God calls us – God then tells us to love others as he loves us…all that to show us that we can’t do enough to love on our own! Love – for self, for others – comes from God! And only with God’s love, only as we choose to be loved by God and let God into our lives will we ever be able to love like that.
Is it attainable? John Wesley believed it was. I believe it is.
God loves us with a love that is really hard to understand. With a love that is so very wonderful and complete that we need nothing else. And then God says, “Go. Share that love.”
Hard to understand what God was thinking…I mean, God knows us and still loves us and calls us to love others unconditionally.
Trying to think like God wears me out! But when we come to the end…God is still with us. God is still loving us. God is still seeking and calling us.
It is wonderful that God loves me when I’m good, bad, and even ugly. How wonderful that God knows all about me and still wants to use me to share his love.
And he wants you too. What will you choose?
