100409_Come_As_You_Are

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No Perfect People Allowed“Come As You Are,” Matthew 22:1-10

***The Church Video***

There’s a feeling among many people that church is

nothing more than a waste of time—a place wherepeople put on masks, play old music, do nonsensicalrituals, and pretend they’re something they’re not.

According to national polls, Maine is one of the mostunchurched states in the nation. The majority of Mainers don’t attend church regularly, and over athird do not identify themselves as members of anyparticular denomination.

What’s sad is, I see more people spiritually open andseeking than ever before—yet they don’t think theChristian church is a place where they can come “as

is ”—with messy, imperfect lives, with doubts andquestions they wrestle with as they desperatelysearch for something authentic to place their faith in.

So today, we’re going to talk about why creating aCome as You Are culture is central to God’s heart.

Over the next few weeks, we’re going to exploreGod’s perfect plans for imperfect people—how hewants us to Walk with Him together to become all Hemade us and intended us to be.

As we look at the scriptures, I’m hoping there will besome of you who’ll say, “I g e t i t ,” and you’ll join withus in creating a loving “c o m e a s y o u a r e ; ” in “a s i s

c o n d i t i o n ” kind of culture.

That kind of culture is a culture of grace and it is thefoundation upon which everything else must be built.

In many places throughout the Bible, God tells us thatHis heart is for a l l people—al l who would come.

Jesus once described life with God as a party that allare invited to; some accept the invitation, others don’t.

Matthew 22:1-10 (NIV), “ Jesus spoke to themagain in parables, saying: 2 "The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. 3 He sent his servants tothose who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come. 4 "Then

he sent some more servants and said, ‘Tell thosewho have been invited that I have prepared my dinner: My oxen and fattened cattle have beenbutchered, and everything is ready. Come to thewedding banquet.’ 5 "But they paid no attentionand went off— one to his field, another to hisbusiness. 6 The rest seized his servants,mistreated them and killed them. 7 The king wasenraged. He sent his army and destroyed those

murderers and burned their city. 8 "Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready,but those I invited did not deserve to come. 9 Goto the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.’ 10 So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, both good and bad, and the wedding hall was filled with guests.”

“Come as y ou are,” God says—“good or bad .”

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“I have made ready a party for you that will begin now and stretch out for all eternity.”

The truth is we don’t need more churches for churchpeople. There are plenty for the already convinced.

We need to be the kind of church where the majorityof people who do not attend church could go.

Why? Because God cares about them just as muchas those who are churched.

The problem is most people on the streets of our community have not gotten the message, “ C o m e a s you are—it’s an open party.”

They’ve gotten very mixed messages.***Thoughts about Sinners Video:***

The first thing that pops into the unchurched mindwhen they hear the word “Christian” is usually,“judgm ental , or into lerant, or hy pocri t ical .”

Part of the problem is that most feel judged already.

In Romans 7, Paul—who tried hard to be a goodreligious guy—voices the frustration most people feel.

7:15, “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.” 7:19, “For what I do is not the good I want to do;no, the evil I do not want to do— this I keep ondoing.7:24, “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescueme from this body of death?”

Go pick someone off the street, read that to them,and they’ll say “Man, that’s in the Bible? That’s my life!” Most people feel guilty naturally.

And that’s why most people fear judgment.

They fear judgment and condemnation from God andothers, because when we get honest with ourselves,we know something’s not quite right.

We can’t even keep our own moral code, much lessGod’s. Ever said to yourself “I’ll never” or “that’swrong,” yet you did it anyway?

But what do we do instead of turning to God for help,we run from God. We run from the only One who can

heal us, change us, and give us life.

We feel unacceptable to God, so we hide and staystuck. What we don’t naturally understand is God’sgrace —that God is for us, not against us.

What is God’s grace? Not grace as in “ poise or elegance or dignity ”—grace means “undeservedfavor,” a kindness God offers to you and me that we

don’t earn and we’re not worthy of.U2 gives a really impressive personification of it intheir song “Grace”: “Grace, she takes the blame,She covers the shame, Removes the stain …Grace makes beauty out of ugly things.”

We all struggle with the “sin-cycle” Paul described inRomans 7; I vow to do the right thing, I do wrong, I feel guilt and shame, I vow to try harder, I do wrong

again, I feel worse; and around and around we go.

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Paul goes on to say in Romans 8 that God’s gracegets us out of that cycle.

Romans 8:1–2, “Therefore, there is now nocondemnation 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.”

Paul goes on to explain that when we receive God’sgrace, (and anyone, anywhere, from any religiousbackground at anytime can receive it by a simple act of the will, by faith) he moves us from that state of fear of judgment and condemnation to a state of full acceptance as his adopted children.

Rom. 8:15 (NLT), “So you should not be likecowering, fearful slaves. You should behaveinstead like God’s very own children, adopted intohis family—calling him "Father, dear Father[Daddy].”

Rom. 8:31-32 (NLT), “What can we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us,who can ever be against us? 32 Since God did

not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t God, who gave us Christ, also give useverything else?”

Rom. 8:38 (NLT), “And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from his love. Deathcan’t, and life can’t. The angels can’t, and thedemons can’t. Our fears for today, our worriesabout tomorrow, and even the powers of hell can’t

keep God’s love away.”

This is the starting point of faith in Christ—that God will take anyone willing —anyone, regardless of whatthey’ve done or how bad they’ve been or how muchthey’ve tried and failed. And he will move us from thissin-cycle of shame, condemnation, and death … to

this state of full acceptance as His adopted children.Thank you God! And why would God do this?

First of all, because He loves us!

John 3:16-17 (NIV), “For God s o loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the

world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”

And second, because it’s the only way we can trulybecome who God intended us to be.

Apart from Him, trying to gain His acceptance onlyleads to frustration; feelings of condemnation; andfear to face our ugly patterns and brokenness,because we’re insecure—so we stay stuck.

All of the laws and every religion, even our ownconscience, leads us to realize—something’s wrongand as undeserved as we are, we need God’s help,we need His kindness.

Duan, a young Asian man who grew up Buddhist hiswhole life decided to follow Christ. Upon beingbaptized he explained what led Him to Christ.

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“Trying to follow the path to enlightenment is the path of perfection, and the harder I tried, the moreI felt I failed—and it just led me to more and morefrustration and heartache. I met some Christ followers at work and saw something in them that

was authentic and attractive, and they invited meto church. I went and sat in the back, just listening for about nine months, and then the message of God’s grace started to sink in—that it’s not by working harder or trying harder, it’s by letting God be God in my life. Reading the Bible I found Christ was down to earth, got angry and frustrated at times, but he did not sin. He was empathetic and sympathetic toward people. When I found

Jesus, or he found me, it was like instead of Buddha standing on the shore telling me what I was doing wrong, Jesus ran into the water torescue me. It makes life better knowing I’m loved unconditionally and without harsh judgment.”

You see, grace forms the foundation upon which allsignificant spiritual growth is built. “A C o m e a s Y o u

Are cul ture” makes this grace come to life.

Now, here’s where I need to talk specifically to thoseof you who were already churched before coming toOpen Door.

First, we’re really glad you’re here. But we all have tobuild upon the same foundation.

Second, all of us come from church traditions thathave their own cultures—some have talked about

grace, but never taught how to live it.

If we don’t agree on the foundation we’re buildingupon, if we’re not here to build a culture upon thefoundation of grace, then we’ll really mess things up.

We need to make sure we’re all working off the samebuilding plans.

First Corinthians 3 talks about the role we play inthe plan of creating a culture of grace. Paul says,

1 Corinthians 3:6–9 (NIV), “I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. 7 Soneither he who plants nor he who waters isanything, but only God, who makes things grow.The man who plants and the man who waters

have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labor. 9 For we are God’sfellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building.

Only God can make things grow—you and I can’tgrow, fix, or change people—even ourselves.

Note though, we do have a responsibility to work withhim—our responsibility is the soil—creating the rightenvironment, the right culture in our community where

people best grow.

It starts with the soil of grace. You’ll either help usform a culture of grace or you’ll mess it up—you won’tbe neutral.

Soil can easily change—you can change it for better or worse in how you act, interact, and treat people.

They’ll “feel” the culture by the way you act.

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A grace culture is so counterintuitive, so otherworldly,it’s the antithesis of our three-strikes-you’re-out,prove-yourself world.

God knew we needed to see grace in action so Heput skin on it. He sent Jesus to show us grace

physically, giving everything for us to make beautyout of ugly, broken things.

Jesus taught about His Father’s grace in parables tohelp people “get i t .”

God is like a shepherd who risks his ninety-ninesheep and his own safety to go find the one thatwandered away.

God is like a father whose son rejects him, movesout, squanders the family fortune, yet when he returnsbroken, his father runs to greet him with open arms.

And now, God wants us to not only receive his grace,but live in it, and embody it for others.

How do we do that? Acceptance!

Acceptance is the most tangible outworking of grace.

Out of love we learn to accept people “ a s i s ” and draw near in relationship, like God does—not for the

purpose of changing them—that’s God’s job, but for the purpose of embodying how God feels about them.

Can you do that?

Think about it this way:

Let’s say you found a Rembrandt painting covered in mud—it’s a mess, doesn’t look valuable at all.But would you treat it like mud? No—I’m guessing you’d be so ecstatic that you had such a valuablemasterpiece in your hands, you would treat it with

great care. And instead of trying to clean it up and restore it yourself, you’d probably take it to amaster who could help restore it to its originally intended condition without damaging it.

When people begin treating one another as God’smasterpiece waiting to be revealed, God’s gracegrows in their lives and cleanses them.

Let me tell you who’s sitting around you right now—

there are:

Alcoholics, drug addicts, bisexual people, doctors,lawyers, construction workers, Buddhists, gay people,

rich people, poor people, homeless people, sexuallyimmoral people, people who’ve had abortions,

divorced people, porn addicts, depressed people,liars, thieves, criminals.

I know all these people personally—God has offeredall of them His Grace – (undeserved love and kindness), those who have received it are growinginto what God intended, some faster than others.

And there are religious Christian Pharisees who rightnow are so glad they’re “not like some of those

people I just named.”

But don’t forget, the Pharisees had Jesus killed.

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Now when you hear that list, what comes to mind: themud or the masterpiece?

Grace sees the masterpiece first.

Ephesians 2:8–10, NIV “For it is by grace you

have been saved, through faith—and this not fromyourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, sothat no one can boast. For we are God’sworkmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us todo.”

This is true of all of us—you are a piece of work —actually the artwork of a Master, God’s masterpiece.

God created you that way long before you got allmuddied up. And grace is the way he begins hiscleansing work of restoration.

But can you see the masterpiece waiting to berevealed and call it out in others, or do you only see

the mud?

We embody His grace for others as we call out the

masterpiece hidden under the mud. But to embodygrace, we must root out this “us versus them” attitude.

Some Christians come from church subcultures thathave this attitude—

“If you believe in Jesus, then you’ll have it all together like me. If not, then you just need to believe like I do

and it will fix all your problems and you’ll be okay, likeme.”

It’s subtle, but it’s an “ I’ m b e t te r ” attitude thatsmacks of ungrace. And it’s not true—no one needsGod’s grace more than you do; no one needs it less.

Mark Twain said, “Some people are good in theworst sense of the word.”

To some who were good in the worst sense of theword Luke 18:9-14 says this,

“To some who were confident of their ownrighteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable: 10 "Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and theother a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee stood up

and prayed about himself: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men— robbers, evildoers,adulterers— or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’ 13"But the tax collector stood at a distance. Hewould not even look up to heaven, but beat hisbreast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, asinner.’ 14 "I tell you that this man, rather thanthe other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted”

Jesus was pointing out there aren’t two categories of people—good people and bad people. There’s onlyone category—God’s masterpiece muddied—somerecognize it and seek God’s restorative help, someare blind and think they need no help. His gracerestores us if we’re willing—but we all need it.

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Some of you are really struggling with this. You’resaying, but if we just accept people “as is,” what if they never change? That’s a big risk, isn’t it?

Honestly, I’m not as concerned about THEM notchanging as I am about ME not changing—or YOU

not changing.

I can’t control, fix, or change another human being—if I could, I would; but I can’t; neither can you.

Only God causes growth. My main concern needs tobe allowing God to change m e by his grace. Thatneeds to be y o u r main concern too. That should beenough to occupy most of our time.

Then, if we want to help others, we need to have a“ p r o c e s s ” perspective on growth to truly help them.

Someone may have all kinds of messy, muddied oozeall over their life, but they’re moving forward towardrestoration of the masterpiece.

And trying to q u i c k l y fix that one muddy spot you seec o u l d d o d a m a g e to the great process of growth God

has started them on.When I think about all the things God has changed for the better in my life, it’s been a process—a journey of slow change over decades.

You know, if you had come to me as a new Christfollower and rolled out the list of all the things Godwas going to do to restore me into even more of apiece of work—I’d have given up.

Because I’d say, “That’s impossible, I’ll can never change like that.” And that’s true—but I didn’t do it—it’s something God’s been doing in me over 35 years.

It’s a lifelong process but it’s so much more freeingand fulfilling than I ever dreamed.

Don’t get me wrong, “Grace doesn’t mean people cankeep on doing hurtful, sinful, destructive things tothemselves and each other, and God will just chuckleand say “Kids will be kids—don’t worry about it”? No

Paul wrote in answer to this, “Should we keep ondoing wrong so God will show us more and moregrace—no way” (see Romans 6:1, my paraphrase)

So we say “Come as you are … but when God gets ahold of you, you won’t stay that way” —which we willtalk about in the next few weeks of this series.

But the purpose of grace is not so we can keep ondoing wrong, hurtful, unloving things.

The purpose is to enter into this new state of fullacceptance and security as God’s children.

Though we fail and fall, He’ll pick us up and walk withus to try again, until we actually learn to naturally dohis will more and more. But that’s a messy process.

Help us build here what God intended; A “Come asYou Are culture” built on the foundation of grace!

Next week we’ll talk about why we say, “No PerfectPeople Allowed”

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