Share This

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

Thank you to everyone who was praying for us this past weekend as we shared our story at Journey Church. I hope to be posting audio from the services a bit later, but wanted to post the basic transcript of what we shared. In each of the three services, they showed our video testimony in its entirety and then we walked out and talked about scandalous grace and the secrets that we keep.

Our main message was that we have secrets in direct proportion to our unbelief of the Gospel.

In order to get the same flow as the service, I’m posting our video again above for you to view.

(And now the transcript…)

“Secrets.

We have secrets in direct proportion to our unbelief of the Gospel.

The Gospel of Jesus Christ is an absolute and complete scandal.

Let me say it another way…

God’s grace is amazing.

Listen to Paul’s words to the Church at Corinth:
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.

“Not counting their trespasses against them…”

Guess what? We don’t believe that. And, because we don’t believe it, we have secrets.

We hide.

We pretend.

We pose.

You just watched a 15-minute video of our story of marriage, divorce, and reconciliation. You heard me say that I believed Christianity was struggling in secret until you had overcome the struggle so that no one would have to know about the struggle. You heard Melody talk about her desire to look like the perfect couple…to be “super Christian”.

Let me sum up our story for you. Although Melody and I had grown up in Church and in Christian homes, went to a Christian University, planted a church in our early 20s and on and on we could go…what you witnessed in watching our video was our journey from unbelief to belief.

As familiar as we were with the Gospel, what we have come to understand is that we really didn’t believe the Gospel…not really.

Although we had sung Just As I Am it for years, at the core of our beings we didn’t believe that God loved us “just as we were”. We believed that He loved us when we were performing well and that He was highly disappointed when we had blown it. And when we felt we disappointed God we worked extra, extra hard to earn back His favor, which kept us on a perpetual performance treadmill…delicately managing our reputation.

Which is why we hid.

We get it honestly. Hiding is our flesh’s natural reaction to sin and failure. The first thing Adam and Eve did in the garden when they blew it was to hide.

But remember the scandal of grace that I referred to earlier?

Their Daddy came looking for them.

We often talk about Genesis 3 as the Chapter where sin entered the world. What is also true about Genesis 3 is it gives us our first glimpse of grace. God mentions “the seed of woman” in Gen 3 and there has only been 1 who came from the seed of woman and did not have a human father.

Jesus.

In Luke 15, Jesus tells a story about a Father and his 2 sons that gives us great insight into what God is like. Both sons had missed the heart of their Father. One believed that because he had squandered his inheritance that he had also forfeited the right to be a son. The other son believed that he had his Father’s love and approval because of his dutiful service.

The brothers give us the 2 basic ways we try to find happiness and fulfillment in life:

1. Through moral conformity
2. Through self-discovery

But the wonderfully scandalous Gospel says this…

Everyone is wrong. Everyone is loved. Everyone is called to recognize this and change.

The prerequisite for receiving the grace of God is to know you need it.

The Father’s love and acceptance are absolutely free. There is no sin that is a match for His grace.

When it comes to secrets, some of us hide in plain sight and try to convince ourselves and everyone else that we are small sinners.

Some of you have some deep, dark secrets and carry lots of shame and live as a second-class citizen in the Kingdom because you believe your sin is outside of God’s grace.

Whether you are hiding in plain sight or cowering in shame, we came to tell you that we have a Daddy who is looking for us. No matter who you are and what you have done, you are loved and God has made provision for your sin.

We invite you to step into the Light and live in the wonderful freedom His grace provides.”

(Hopefully the audio will be up soon.)

How much energy do we put into reputation management and what does that say about our belief of the Gospel?

7132 Commentshttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.ragamuffinreflections.com%2F2010%2F05%2F17%2Fdeadly-secrets%2FDeadly+Secrets2010-05-17+14%3A56%3A22Traylor+Lovvornhttp%3A%2F%2Ftraylorlovvorn.com%2F%3Fp%3D713

jennyrain

I love…love…love God's redemption and His amazing love shown through your story… your journey has been incredible…

Reply

Traylor Lovvorn

Thank you Jenny! The journey has been painful and gut-wrenching, but through the pain we have found a deep healing that we would have never stumbled upon ourselves. For that we are grateful and can see how good and loving the Father is.

Reply