An angry mob hauls a woman in before Jesus – they throw her on the dirt in front of him
They are self righteous, proud – this woman has sinned and they are going to make her pay
They demand that she be punished by the law of Moses
Stoning was the punishment of choice and they were gathered around the woman with stones in hand

Why is it that some of God’s people want to throw stones?
These were the teachers of the law & the Pharisees – they should have known God better than this – but they didn’t

John 8: 6 - 11 Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.” Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground. At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”
“No one, sir,” she said. “Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”

Just like the Pharisees we can be the ones carrying the stones
Maybe you are carrying a few stones – maybe people have done something wrong in your eyes – and you think they deserve to pay
Jesus said you without sin throw the first stone – who are we to be throwing stones at each other – we who have been forgiven such a great debt

The world loves to take people down – Tiger Woods has sinned and the media vultures are flocking
The world might be like this – but not us – we are meant to be the people who forgive

Jesus demonstrates his extravagant love and forgiveness by releasing this woman
He also demonstrates it by forgiving and releasing you and I
We need to drop the stones and forgive one another!

I just got back from Korea where I was attending Ps Yonggi Cho’s Church Growth Conference. It was unreal. I was hanging out with Ps Phil Pringle and Ps Kong Hee and listening to Ps Cho. That’s about as good a week as you can have!
This guy has built the largest church in the [...]

 
1. Repent
Acts 2:38
Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
You need to repent and be baptized
This is step one in living by the Holy Spirit
 
2. Wait on the Holy Spirit
Acts 1: [...]

In Ephesians 4 Paul writes
I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received
This is a great challenge from Paul and I get 3 keys out of this
 
1st key – It’s not a mild request or a suggestion from Paul, but heartfelt Plea – that we would live this amazing life [...]

God’s creative power
Today I was standing on the shores of Lake Wakatipu in Queenstown NZ. This is surely one of the most beautiful places on earth!!
How can you not connect to your creator in a setting like this? – I made the connection – it was unreal!
It speaks of the awesome creative power [...]

Overcoming disappointment
Robert Kiyosaki said “The size of your success is measured by the strength of your desire; the size of your dream; and how you handle disappointment along the way.”
To be successful in life you have to get over yourself and over disappointment
Disappointment is something you have to keep overcoming to show yourselves faithful
When ever [...]

Eternity
Ecclesiastes 3: 11 says
Everything is beautiful in it’s time
Your time is coming – a time for your gift – a time when our life is needed for an eternal purpose
Most of us are living before our time
We are in preparation for our moment of great impact
Many people miss their time – People give up [...]

Loyalty
MARIO PUZO, the writer of the Godfather series said “The strength of a family, like the strength of an army, is in its loyalty to each other”
Today in the world loyalties shift around depending on how things look for us
Disloyal people are everywhere – people shift loyalties so easily
It might be the world’s way – [...]

Do not give up
2 Chronicles 15: 7
But as for you, be strong
To make it in life we need to be strong – to make our dreams into realities we need to find strength
It is easy to feel weak as situations in life feel overwhelming
But you have strength
David said in Psalm 28: 7 the Lord [...]

Enlarge
We are launching a new Primal Youth Church tonight in the Auckland suburb of Mt Wellington I have been feeling so pumped about it and having a huge sense of anticipation about what is ahead for us
It is so exciting to enlarge your territory – there is something so spiritual about stepping into a [...]