Friends With Sinners

“Don’t you see how wonderfully kind, tolerant, and patient God is with you? Does this mean nothing to you? Can’t you see that His kindness is intended to turn you from your sin?” - Romans 2:4 
 
 
How many of you remember MySpace? So before there was Facebook, there was MySpace. And then Justin Timberlake bought it and we don’t know what happened to MySpace. It’s gone. But at the time, it was our social media platform in which we could stream music, play music, and obviously communicate with each other. What we didn’t know then was that it would be the precursor to all of the social media tools we have to connect today.  
 
I share this, not for the sake of giving MySpace a shout-out, but to talk about when Jesus comes into “my space.” Jesus invades your space and my space because of the fact that He desires to be a friend of sinners. The good news is that we serve a Jesus who was willing to put His reputation on the line to be considered friends with sinners.  
 
Romans 2:4 says, “Don’t you see how wonderfully kind, tolerant, and patient God is with you? Does this mean nothing to you? Can’t you see that His kindness is intended to turn you from your sin?” 
 
See, Jesus will invade our space to know us better, but at the same time, He is incredibly tolerant and patient with us. He doesn’t force His ways upon us. The verse says, “Can’t you see that His kindness is intended to turn you from your sin?” It is not that Jesus doesn’t care when you sin. It is that the relationship you build with Him will change you and your willingness to give into sin. 
 
As long as we are humans, we will always be tempted with sin. We will also continue to fail. But we can fail far less frequently, and we can fight back. That happens when we grow in our relationship with Jesus. The Bible doesn’t say, “Get your life right, stop sinning, and then come to Jesus.” He is a friend of sinners. He will meet you where you are! And then, as you grow, He will change your heart!