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Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Saved To Stoop

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John 8 contains the familiar story of how Jesus responded when the Pharisees brought to him a woman that they had caught in the act of adultery. Spiritually, we will find ourselves on either side of Jesus and perhaps we have been on both of these sides in our past.


The way that our Lord responded to those on either side of Him teaches us a valuable lesson about how we should respond to those around us.


On one side of Jesus was an immoral woman. She had been searching for fulfillment in all the wrong places. Her sinful decisions had finally led her to be cast at the feet of the Judge of the universe.


This woman deserved judgment. She deserved to be punished for her sins.


On the other side of Jesus was the religious crowd. While the sinful woman was unrighteous, the Pharisees were self-righteous. They were “super-spiritual” in their own eyes and looked down their religious noses on everyone else.


Although they looked so good on the outside, inwardly they were very wicked. This was the very crowd that cried out later, “Crucify him!”


These Pharisees also deserved judgment
How would Jesus respond to those on either side of Him? His response is both interesting and instructive.


John 8:6 says, “But Jesus stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground, as though he heard them not.”


Everyone around Jesus that day deserved judgment, but Jesus stooped down.


Our sinless Lord got down eye-level with this wicked woman, probably with His back towards her, and began to write on the ground.


I was considering the fact that for us to ever have a relationship with God, Jesus had to stoop down. He stooped down when He left heaven to come to a sin-cursed earth. He stooped down and ministered to little children. He stooped down and washed the disciple’s feet. He stooped down and willingly lay on an old rugged cross where he died for the sins of the world.


The spotless, sinless Savior set an example for sinners like us by stooping. Are you willing to stoop?

 

Sometimes we subconsciously consider ourselves better than others. We may begin to view ourselves as above them because they have less than we do in some area of life that we deem important. Jesus is far above man in every area yet He was willing to stoop and minister to us.

 

Our church has a ministry to the homeless of Springfield, Illinois. Among this crowd drug and alcohol abuse, criminal histories, and broken lives are the norm. When this ministry first began at our church, the majority of our congregation kept these people who were “different” at arm’s length. With this attitude, our ministry to them was handcuffed.


It’s been amazing to see the Lord work as His people have begun to stoop. As members here have begun to love the homeless just like the Lord loves us, amazing transformations have begun to take place. Not only are we seeing people from this ministry saved on a regular basis, we are hearing them testify about how good it feels to be in a place where they are loved and accepted.


As we see these individuals now growing in the Lord, singing in the choir, helping on bus routes, and just being accepted as part of the family here at the church, I am reminded of the importance of being willing to stoop.


Someone needs you to lay aside that attitude that causes you to feel somehow better than they are and just be willing to stoop and minister to them.


Maybe it’s that child from a broken home that rides to church each week on the bus. Perhaps it’s that teen who seems so rebellious but may be crying out for someone to care. Have you ever thought about stooping down and spending some time with that person confined to a wheelchair?


You were not saved to sit, sulk, and sour; you were Saved To Stoop.

[Tony Bazon – Park Meadows Baptist Church]

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