The Love of Christ

What if the greatest obstacle between you and God isn’t your sin—but the belief that you’ve gone too far for Him to love you? The life of Jesus tells a very different story.

When you read through the Gospels, one thing stands out over and over again. Jesus was drawn to the people everyone else pushed away. He wasn’t intimidated by brokenness. He wasn’t disgusted by people’s past. He wasn’t afraid to be seen with those society had labeled as “too far gone.”

In John 4, Jesus spoke with the Samaritan woman when everyone else avoided her. In John 8, Jesus defended the woman caught in adultery when the crowd wanted to stone her. In Luke 7:36–50, Jesus allowed the sinful woman to wash His feet with her tears while everyone else judged her.

Jesus always seemed to move toward the people the world moved away from.

I think that’s important because many of us know what it feels like to carry shame.

Maybe shame from our past.

Maybe shame from mistakes we’ve made.

Maybe shame from things that were done to us.

The enemy loves to whisper lies. He tells us that because of our past, we’re too dirty, too broken, or too sinful for God to really love us. Sometimes those lies even follow us into church. We wonder if everyone is looking at us, judging us, wondering if we belong.

I understand that feeling because I don’t have what people would call the “perfect Christian testimony.”

I grew up around a lot of darkness. My mom was in an abusive relationship, and my siblings and I experienced abuse that no child should ever experience. Eventually, we entered foster care.

In foster care, I quickly learned something that wasn’t true but felt very real: if I wanted to be loved, I had to be perfect.

By God’s grace, my adoptive mom took in all four of us. She had only planned to adopt two children, but God had different plans. Looking back, I can see His hand over my life even when I couldn’t recognize it.

But even after being adopted, I still carried that belief that I had to earn love.

So I became the “good kid.”

I went to church.

I prayed.

I raised my hands in worship.

I accepted Christ when I was young.

I even went to Bible college.

But here’s the truth…

I knew about Jesus.

I didn’t know Jesus.

Years later, I found myself living completely differently than I knew I should. I was in an ungodly, toxic relationship. I partied. I struggled with drinking. I was deeply depressed and searching for something that could fill the emptiness inside me.

Then I found out I was pregnant.

I remember sitting on my bathroom floor, feeling completely hopeless. I didn’t know how I was going to survive. I didn’t know how I was going to care for a baby when I could barely care for myself.

I remember thinking I didn’t want to live anymore.

And in that moment, I cried out to Jesus.

What amazes me isn’t that I finally called out to Him.

It’s how He responded.

He didn’t shame me.

He didn’t remind me of every bad decision I’d ever made.

He didn’t say, “I told you so.”

He simply met me where I was.

With love.

With mercy.

With compassion.

That is who Jesus is.

He is still the Savior who goes out of His way to meet the woman everyone else overlooks.

He is still the Savior who kneels beside the broken instead of walking past them.

He is still the Savior who offers grace before condemnation.

That encounter changed everything for me.

Now, have I been perfect since then?

No.

I’ve still made mistakes.

I’ve still sinned.

I’ve still had moments where I’ve had to run back to Him.

That doesn’t mean sin doesn’t matter. God’s grace isn’t permission to keep living however we want.

What it means is that following Jesus is a relationship. It’s a journey. He lovingly changes us as we walk with Him. We don’t clean ourselves up so He’ll love us. We receive His love, and His love begins to transform us.

Jesus came to this earth, lived the life we couldn’t live, and died the death we deserved so we wouldn’t have to carry the weight of our sin anymore.

He didn’t die so we could keep carrying shame.

He died so we could be free.

Tonight, I don’t know everyone’s story.

Some of you have been hurt.

Some of you have made choices you wish you could take back.

Some of you feel forgotten.

Some of you wonder if God could really love someone like you.

I want you to hear this:

If Jesus met me on the floor of my bathroom in one of the darkest moments of my life, He can meet you right where you are tonight.

You don’t have to earn His love.

You don’t have to become perfect before you come to Him.

You simply come.

I’ll leave you with this.

Every one of us has a different journey with Jesus. Your story won’t look like mine, and mine won’t look like yours.

And that’s beautiful.

Who wants a love story that sounds exactly like everyone else’s?

Jesus writes each story differently because He knows each heart personally.

My love story with Jesus is one of redemption, grace, and relentless love.

And if you’ll let Him, He’ll write one for you too.

His grace has been abundant toward me.

So tonight, receive that same grace for yourself.

Because the Jesus who loved the women everyone else rejected is the same Jesus who loves you today.