Check out my sermon I preached on 19 October 2025 called “A New Way” from the passage about the woman caught in adultery in John 7:53-8:11 linked below. I offer some thoughts from different scholars to help broaden the message typically shared from this passage (at least from the conservative circles I grew up in). I also call this sermon, “The Amazing Grace of Jesus.” May it encourage you!
I preached this sermon as the main scheduled preacher this semester for the Young Adult Ministries (YAM) English speaking college ministry of The Lord’s Church in Waco (TLCW). This semester, I’m scheduled to preach twice a month. Come and worship with us if you are local! The Lord’s Church Waco is located in Waco, Texas, about a 40 minute drive from my home in Temple.
Scroll down below to watch a recording of the sermon and to read the benediction Scripture I used at the close of our service. Scroll down even further to watch my ‘After Sermon Preaching Tips‘ video where I’m keeping up my routine of sharing a few thoughts after I preach (right before I walk back into my home from my car!).
I am always hopeful that these offerings would bless and encourage you in your own journey with God and in your ministry of service to others. Feel free to reach out to me or leave a comment below, anytime. Blessings and peace!
Resources shared
The photo of art I shared by Julia Stankova (2015) “The Woman Caught In Adultery” can be found here.
The poem read by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer called “Amazing Grace” from “The Unfolding” is copied below:
At what point in the avalanche
do we realize there’s nothing
to be done but be pummeled
and tumbled and broken
by the world?
At what point do we know
that no matter how hard we swim,
the current will carry
us over the falls
to the rocks below?
At what point are we sure we
can’t save our beloveds,
not from the world and not
from themselves?
In that moment
and perhaps only then,
grace comes in to do
what the will cannot ,
and whatever it is
that is larger than us
makes a home in us —
like fitting the whole sky
into our hand, then
opening that hand
to pray.
Reading of John 7:53-8:11 from First Nations Version New Testament: An Indigenous Translation of the New Testament. Information about this translation (including a sample) can be found here.
Prayer offered
Lord God help us to be more like you. Give us courage to do what YOU would have us to to indeed see and love our neighbor even when there is an angry mob around us or people are just pressuring us to do things and respond in a certain way. Lord God give us courage to stop and consider you. Lord God we need your help in this world there is a lot happening, we need you to help us God. Help us now while we are safe here in church but also Lord help us when we are away in our homes, in our schools, in our jobs, Lord God we need you. It’s in your precious name we pray, Amen.
Sermon Scripture John 7:53-8:11 (NIV)
53 Then they all went home, 8 1 but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.
2 At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. 3 The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group 4 and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. 5 In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” 6 They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him.
But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. 7 When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” 8 Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.
9 At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. 10 Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”
11 “No one, sir,” she said.
“Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”
Preaching Tips Background Video
In this video share, I give a brief summary of my sermon preached on 19 October 2025 AND an overview of a lot of things going on for me as a person and a preacher. I talk about what I was hoping to do with my sermon when I presented what I did to the congregation. I also talk about how how I felt tired and several things that contributed to that. I wrap up this candid share with how I offered my work to the Lord, trusting that God would do with it what God will do. That’s our hope each time we preach, is it not? My hope is that God would be glorified and we would genuinely draw closer to the Lord in our everyday lives.
I’d love to hear what resonates with you, in your particular roles of ministry (or however you’ve come to find this particular video)!
You can watch my After Preaching Tips video playlist here.
Recommended sermon to watch next that came to mind is the one about the log in our own eye. Check out this sermon from Matthew 7. It’s called, “What are you looking at?” preached on 17 Aug 2025 at Impact Church https://sejanashines.com/2025/08/17/what-are-you-looking-at-sermon-from-matthew-7/
You can find the rest of my Sermons here! https://sejanashines.com/preaching and my Sermons playlist here.
Here’s a new link with all kinds of ways to connect with me! https://lnk.bio/sejanashines.
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