Overall we had a great service today save one little mess up… I sang the wrong verse at the wrong time. Everyone was a little confused and a little lost but the music kept going, we recovered, and the song finished off very well. As a worship leader that kind of stuff can really eat away at me… Its disappointing when I mess up because its distracting and anticlimactic for the people and if I am to be honest with myself a little embarrassing. After the service I lamented my disappointment to my friend Cindy. Cindy replied with the typical “it really wasn’t that bad.” Then she said, “a little bad can’t outweigh all the good.” When she said that God immediately brought James 4:4-6 to mind.
4 You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.5 Or do you think Scripture says without reason that the spirit he caused to live in us envies intensely?6 But he gives us more grace.
As I thought on these verses my first thought was, “even a LOT BAD can’t outweigh all the good.” As great as our sin can get it can never outweigh God’s grace because “He gives us more grace.” As much sin as we can accumulate God gives us just that much more grace!
Now obviously, my mess up from this morning is just for illustration’s sake… It was not a moral failure. But it illustrates the kind of shame and disappointment that we can feel when we sin… Some times we feel like we have messed up so bad that there is just no chance for recovery… There is just no way that God could forgive us…
This morning we closed the services with Amazing Grace by John Newton. John Newton was an evil man who lived a despicable life as an African slave trader. As Newton reflected on his life and his sin he wrote,
“a confession, which… comes too late….It will always be a subject of humiliating reflection to me, that I was once an active instrument in a business at which my heart now shudders.”
Newton repented of his sin and turned to Jesus for forgiveness. Ultimately, he went on to serve as a pastor and became key figure in the abolishment of slavery. The drastic change in Newton’s life could only take place because of the Amazing Grace that he found in Jesus. He is the perfect illustration that as great as our sin can get, God has more grace!
