One of the last sermons I ever heard in a church was from the book of Galatians. That particular Sunday all four of my family members just happened to be in the service, sitting together, in a row, and as fate would have it, for the first time ever, we had a teen friend of my boys visiting with us.
The pastor, who for the previous two years had been a sound, biblical teacher, all of a sudden began diving off cliffs, preaching gibberish and throwing out "doozies" right and left (as often happens when people twist and misinterpret Galatians). His face was red, he pounded the podium more than usual, and just didn't seem like himself. To say the sermon had been causing me a little discomfort since it began was an understatement. I'm sure my squirming was bothering the couple behind us.
I cannot even tell where in Galatians he supposedly found this "truth", but I snapped to renewed attention when the pastor almost shouted,
"God does not care about your behavior."
He didn't qualify the statement in any way; not with the previous sentences, not with the following sentences, not with a paragraph to come! He didn't say "No matter what you've done, He can still forgive you." He didn't say "Sinner, repent, and turn from your wicked ways, and live for your Savior." He just simply let that statement fly ... "GOD DOES NOT CARE ABOUT YOUR BEHAVIOR!" He stated this as fact.
The moment the words left his mouth I froze, waiting for an explanation, some kind or clarification. Time actually seemed to stand still as the pastor paused for what seemed like an eternity. WHY!? So that he could clarify? ...To let the words sink in? ...for sensational effect? Why did he pause like that??
I don't know who moved first, but as I leaned forward, wide-eyed, to look down the row at my husband, my my eyes first met Tall Child's. His face said it all. He was stunned, too. Slowly I looked at each person... the friend, Music Man, then my husband... Everyone looked like they had been slapped.
I John 3:6, 9 No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him.... No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God's seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God.
I John 2:1 My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ (Yeshua the Messiah) the righteous.
Romans 6:1-2 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?
James 4:17 So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.
John 14:15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments..."
My legs were as heavy as my heart. I dared not move from my chair or I might fall down trying to leave the room! I sat there the last few minutes of the sermon praying, hoping, thinking perhaps I had heard it wrong. When it was over, I asked my family what they heard; they all heard it. In the car on the way home, I texted a friend. She heard it, too, but it hadn't gotten her like it did me.
I waited breathlessly until Wednesday when the sermons from the first and second hour were posted online and listened to each of them 3-4 times. It wasn't there!! Had we all imagined it?
Listening one final time I was finally able to hear that the audio had been edited. That portion of the audio had been cut out! Apparently I wasn't the only one who found it wrong. The series continued over the next three weeks, but there was never a correction of the statement, never a retraction, never a mention. They let it stand for all those who heard it that day, even though they had altered and removed it from the online sermons. My sons' friend told his parents and said he would never go back there.
Romans 12:2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
Psalm 86:11 Teach me your way, O LORD, that I may walk in your truth; give me an undivided heart to revere your name.
James 1:22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.