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Before Jesus, I served the god of ME. I lived in the throne room, sitting on my royal throne and calling out with my royal voice. But it was all a façade. The god of ME was a pitiful and powerless god. One day, though, everything changed.

1 Corinthians 6:9-11
Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

Our backs were turned on God. We had no desire for him, we wanted nothing to do with him. We were headed our own way at our own pace. Sin was not our shame but our significance. Our life was characterized by acted-out rebellion—sex before marriage, sex outside of marriage, and sex outside of God’s created design. We lived in idolatry, greed, drunkenness, slander, and fraud. We all bowed before the god of “ME.” Pompous pride ignored God’s love and grace.

But then, our life was interrupted. In God’s timing and in God’s way, he ordained a life-changing meeting with Jesus. We were stopped in our tracks. God washed off the filth, set us apart, and declared us innocent of all our sin. Through Jesus and his Spirit working within us, our dead spiritual hearts started to beat.

Remember where you were when you met Jesus. That life-transforming meeting gives us the grace to speak the truth in love to those who are there now. We don’t look at those caught in sin with haughty eyes but with eyes of grace. Apart from God’s grace, where the “unrighteous” is, is exactly where we were! Pray that God pours out his grace on the “unrighteous” just as he poured out his grace on you.

Father, we must speak clearly regarding sin. Help us speak clearly and boldly in love. In Jesus’ name. Amen.