Forgiveness

Excerpt from Sermon:

Oh Heavenly Father, Creator of the Universe, Heaven, and Earth, let Your Name be Glorified, no Man’s name, but Your Name, prepare our hearts and finite minds, to give us the spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of You, for us to truly Understand who You are…..

Today we will resume our exposition and journey through the Book of Ephesians and today we will come to a section of God’s Word that should typify what it means to be a Christians and should be a hallmark of our faith and how we show the world we are different and set apart from the world.

In March of 2019, the Houston Chronicle published a story about churches within the Southern Baptist Convention, over the span of 20 years, there were a reported 700 victims of sexual misconduct in 300 churches, and it was reported that these abuses were covered up. One of these churches was a church in Columbus, GA. The pastor that came in 10 years after the fact of one of these cases is my Christian Leadership professor, Jeff Struecker. You might not know that name, but for the old guys in the Special Operations Community or the younger ones that keep up with their military history, Jeff was one of the main characters in the movie Blackhawk Down. He was part of OPERATION GOTHIC SERPENT in 3rdRanger Battalion. After the main battle, he felt God’s call on his life to become a pastor and to minister to Soldiers.

After he retired from the military, he was offered the lead pastor position at this prominent Southern Baptist Church in Columbus, GA. What he didn’t know when he accepted the position was this church was one of the 300 churches in the article. A married man with multiple daughters in the church, who was part of the Ministry Leadership Program was convicted of molesting one of his daughters and sent to federal prison.

He denied molesting his daughter and spent 10 years in federal prison for his heinous acts. The pastor prior to Jeff still visited this gentleman and while he was there, he confessed to the pastor he did molest his daughter and he came under conviction and came to faith and repentance. After he came to faith and repentance, he said he deserved prison and Hell. Before his conviction and working in the church, he said he had knowledge of God, Christ, and Salvation, but he was not saved. He knew about Christ Jesus, but Christ Jesus did not KNOW him!

When his prison sentence was coming to a close, he wanted to come back to the church that he was at formerly. So, Jeff brings it before the church and conducts what we call in the military sensing sessions or information meetings about this gentleman. The question is, “Do you let him back in?” During one of the sessions, one of the members stands up and says, “Why is his sin any different than mine?”

To add more complexity to the matter, one of the ladies of the congregation came to Jeff later and told him that she had been molested growing up and said she could not be next to him. He was sensitive to her concerns and they offered her counseling and trying to work through her concerns.

So, I ask you, “Do you let him back in the church as a member?”