Jesus friend of sinners

For the past few weeks, I've been working from home while waiting for some paperwork to go through before I can get started on my first project.  By and large, I've just wasted time watching movies, sending out emails, and making a few phone calls here and there. But today, for the first time "on the beach/bench" I had what I considered a "productive" day working from home.

It wasn't productive in the sense that I actually provided any value whatsoever to my company (because I certainly didn't), but instead because after a short conference call around noon, I decided to start watching Matt Chandler sermons online while playing Nerts (a card game I just learned at a retreat) on my cell phone. While it sounds terrible, I actually focus very well while playing card games/scrabble on my phone.  I started honing this skill during high school (in physics) and really refined it during college (this is quite remarkable because in general, I am terrible at multitasking and if I were to literally do anything else while listening, I would retain none of it).

Anyways, while playing Nerts, I stumbled upon this video.  I saw it was 48 minutes long and like any short attention-spanned, millenial gen-er, I skipped it immediately. However, shortly after watching five or six short 2-3 minute videos, I decided to start watching [listening to] it because a longer video meant I could play Nerts with fewer interruptions caused by selecting a new video after each one ended (shame is my name).

Anyways, while I realize asking you watch all 48 minutes of it is pretty unreasonable, I would recommend you watch 36:00-41:23.

Recently I've been struggling with wallowing in my own sinfulness. It's like being stuck in a vat of self-pity and sorrow, where the more you think about your sin, the deeper the vat becomes. Anyways, Chandler really encouraged me during this video talking about how we all may be sinners but we are just "junior varsity" compared to likes of David (adulterer, murderer but still called a man after God's own heart), and Saul, who was so far gone (the "chief of sinners") that his whole salvation seems as if it occurred to show us that we haven't gone too far. It reminded me that there really is nothing that God can't redeem and that "God loves us as we are now, not for who we might become."

"No sin in our life has more power than the cross of Jesus Christ."

Rom 8:1-2 -  "Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2 because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death."