PASTOR’S CORNER: No more excuses

Today’s topic is not unfamiliar to any of us. It is a familiar language to each of us, as we have all used it at one time or another.

We learned to make excuses from a young age. We used them to make up for something we didn’t want to do or didn’t do. We don’t worry about not doing it! As Christians, we should try to live our lives in such a way that we don’t need to make excuses.

We can all be guilty of this word called “excuses,” and we’ve all been faced with excuses from other people, asking why they didn’t do something, didn’t show up, didn’t follow through, or didn’t complete a particular task. We all know—we really know—that excuses are easy to find. You don’t have to look for one, somehow they’ll find you. If you don’t want to do something badly enough, you can find an excuse not to do it.

The word “apology” means “to apologize for; to express regret for not doing something.” Apologies are used in all aspects of life. Employers get excuses from employees when they don’t show up for work. Children give excuses to teachers when they don’t have their homework: the dog ate it!

There are excuses for not paying back money. People who commit crimes blame the neighborhood. Young people blame growing up in a residential neighborhood or trailer park for being in a gang, being a thug, and not having an active father in their lives. Some young girls blame the system for being who they are. Drug addicts blame society and circumstances.

However, as children grow up, they make their own choices. While the environment may contribute to their behavior, it is not responsible for it. There is no excuse for bad behavior.

Jesus gave a parable of three men who were invited to a great supper. They all gave excuses for not coming (Luke 14:16-24). The unsaved are without excuse this morning. The excuse of “I am not ready to be saved. I will tomorrow” will not suffice if we are not saved and die in our sins! Eternal damnation awaits all who pass through this life without accepting the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross; as Jesus said, “Except a man (or woman) be born again, he shall not see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3).

But, community, there is no greater example of where excuses come into play than when the gospel is presented to a sinner for salvation and to the local church! You all know that when it comes to accepting Jesus Christ as your personal savior and when it comes to attending church, there is always an excuse for not doing it. The fact is, people do what they really want to do and go where they really want to go without an excuse!

A few years ago I heard a song about excuses by a gospel group called “Excuses.” This is part of what it said: “Excuses, excuses, we hear them every day; for the devil will provide them if we walk away from the church; when people come to know the Lord, the devil always loses; so to get them away from the church, he provides excuses.”

Excuses!!! There are excuses for not coming to choir practice, excuses for not coming to Sunday school or not being in Bible study and for some churches it’s on social media live.

Community, we need to know that the cross put an end to all excuses. Excuses have no place in the kingdom of God, for if anyone had a right to an excuse, it was our Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus came into a sinful world to die on the cross—without excuse. He was hated by the very people he came to save, but he offered no excuse. His own brothers did not believe in him. The religious leaders called him the devil. They even tried to kill him, but he offered no excuse. They arrested him for no good reason and tried him at night in a sham court, but still, he offered no excuse.

Someone said that the night before he was crucified, they tore his hair from his face with their hands, hit him in the face with their fists, and he still didn’t apologize. They slapped him, spat on him, put a crown of thorns on his head and drove it into his brain, causing blood to flow down his face. They mocked him and laughed at him. He had every reason to turn back. He could have undone it all and gone back to glory, but if he had, the thief on the cross whom he had saved at the last hour would have been lost. The woman at the well would have continued to thirst. Mary Magdalene, Zacchaeus, the woman caught in adultery, even we, would have all been lost. He made no apology.

Aren’t we glad He didn’t apologize? Instead, He went to the cross, bore our sins, took our punishment, and when He died, He nailed every excuse to the cross.

God of the community has been good to all of us…no more excuses.