I hear so many say
they’ll come to church AFTER they clean up their act – they have it ALL
wrong – you come to Jesus first and He’ll clean you up. We must impart this to people so they will know our church
truly is a “come as you are” church.
I also have been in other
churches that say, “Come As You Are”, but then people start to “come as
you are” the church treats them different because they dress poorer, or they
don’t smell as clean as you, or their race is different, unwed mother, divorced person, ex-convict or initially come
with some sin in their life (alcoholism, drugs, swearing, etc.).
While initially these things may not be comfortable to all of us – that
is what it means to “come as you are”.
The things in people you don’t prefer, i.e., dress, smell, race are
just things you are going to have learn to accept – because we accept it.
As for people with sin in their life we will let the LORD direct us on
dealing with sin issues in His time and way.
We are going to primarily
look at three passages today:
1.
Come as you are means: Not judging people by their outward appearance!
1
Now the LORD said to Samuel, “How long will you mourn for Saul, seeing I have
rejected him from reigning over Israel? Fill your horn with oil, and go; I am
sending you to Jesse the Bethlehemite. For I have provided Myself a king among
his sons.”
2 And Samuel said, “How can I go? If Saul hears it, he will
kill me.”
But the LORD said, “Take a heifer with you, and say, ‘I have come to
sacrifice to the LORD.’ 3 Then invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I
will show you what you shall do; you shall anoint for Me the one I name to
you.”
4 So Samuel did what the LORD said, and went to Bethlehem. And the
elders of the town trembled at his coming, and said, “Do you come
peaceably?”
5 And he said, “Peaceably; I have come to sacrifice to the LORD.
Sanctify yourselves, and come with me to the sacrifice.” Then he consecrated
Jesse and his sons, and invited them to the sacrifice.
6 So it was, when they came, that he looked at Eliab and said,
“Surely the LORD’s anointed is before Him!” [By appearance –
outward he must have looked good]
7 But the LORD said to Samuel, “Do not look at his appearance or at
his physical stature, because I have refused him.
[Appearance is what got them into a mess picking Saul who was a big man].
For
the LORD does not see as man sees;[a]
for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.”
8
So Jesse called Abinadab, and made him pass before Samuel. And he said,
“Neither has the LORD chosen this one.” 9 Then Jesse made Shammah
pass by. And he said, “Neither has the LORD chosen this one.” 10
Thus Jesse made seven of his sons pass before Samuel. And Samuel said to Jesse,
“The LORD has not chosen these.” 11 And Samuel said to Jesse,
“Are all the young men here?” Then he said, “There remains yet the
youngest, and there he is, keeping the sheep.”
And Samuel said to Jesse, “Send and bring him. For we will not sit down[b]
till he comes here.” 12 So he sent and brought him in. Now he was
ruddy, with bright eyes, and good-looking. And the LORD said, “Arise, anoint
him; for this is the one!” 13 Then Samuel took the horn of
oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers; and the Spirit of the LORD
came upon David from that day forward. So Samuel arose and went to Ramah.
2.
Come as you are means: Not showing partiality or favorism!
Then
there is the rich person that comes with his limo out front,
world-famous
and
we roll out the carpet for him . . . this is WRONG.
If we can’t do it for the smelly street person then don’t do it for
the rich/famous person!!!
What
does James 2:1-9 say about this:
1
My brethren, do not hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of
glory, with
partiality. 2
For if there should come into your assembly a man with gold rings, in fine
apparel, and there should also come in a poor man in filthy clothes, 3
and you pay attention to the one wearing the fine clothes and say to him, “You
sit here in a good place,” and say to the poor man, “You stand there,” or,
“Sit here at my footstool,” 4 have you not shown partiality among
yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts?
5 Listen, my beloved brethren: Has God not chosen the poor of this
world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to
those who love Him? 6 But you have dishonored the poor man. Do not
the rich oppress you and drag you into the courts? 7 Do they not
blaspheme that noble name by which you are called?
8 If you really fulfill the royal law according to the
Scripture, “You
shall love your neighbor as yourself,”[a]
you do well; 9 but if
you show partiality, you commit sin,
and are convicted by the law as transgressors.
James was saying – this discrimination, this favouritism and flattery towards the rich has got to stop. No person in the fellowship of believers is one bit better than another. When the Church meets everyone should be equal. We are to be like our Lord, the Lord of Glory who loved all people alike, and was no respecter of persons.
3.
Come as you are means: Not excluding the throw-aways of society (God’s
cream of the crop)!
26
For
you see your calling, brethren, that not many
wise according to the flesh, not many
mighty, not many noble [important],
are called. 27
But God has chosen the foolish
things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak
things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; 28
and the base
things of the world and the things
which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to
bring to nothing the things that are, 29
that no flesh should glory in
His presence.
He
chooses the weak to become His witnesses!. The Lowly to become loyal!. The
despised to become His disciples!
Let’s
look at some of God’s picks for the starting of the early church:
Matthew,
the tax collector and his friends. Tax
collectors were hated because they were viewed by the Jew as someone who had
abandoned their patriotism in favor of personal gain - personal wealth gained at
the expense of the Jew who had to pay taxes to Rome.
The
Samaritan Woman - a woman of loose morals responds to Jesus' personal call to
salvation. (John 4).
While it was true that Jesus could have done what most Jews did and detoured
around Samaria by passing through Perea. But He had to because of a woman
- a woman who had a pretty loose definition of her relationships with men.
Peter,
the big mouthed – talk/act before you think - emotional - fisherman.
Not
the most likely candidate for one of the 12 Apostles, yet he became one of
foundational Apostles of the early church.
Saul/Paul,
the Murderer, becomes the Church's defender of the Faith (Acts 9).
Look
at the fact that Saul hated Jesus - add to that he was a murderer of the saints.
No
where in God's word do we see Jesus picking from the culturally/politically
correct or pleasant to be His friends. We do that - but He doesn't.
That is not to say that He loves the sinful condition of the sinner -
what the scriptures do reveal is that once the sinner becomes associated in
friendship with the LORD, he
is never the same after that.
Even
though all the glorious wealth of heaven was His, Christ in grace left it behind
to redeem mankind. It was more important to Him, that He extends His grace to
sinners than cling to His glory. In the people of the days of Jesus their
thoughts were: He came from the wrong town. He did not graduate from their
accepted schools. He did not have any money, and His followers were a band of
sinners, and among them were publicans and harlots. They rejected the Lord of
Glory because they looked at Him and judged Him on human standards.
So
in closing, we need need to love with Christ LOVE everyone who comes through the
doors of the church and everyone we met out there in our mission field.
Everyone
wants to feel loved AND SHOULD! I don’t think there are any exceptions to
this. You want to feel loved. Yet, not everyone feels loved. In fact, some
people feel rejected. Some people feel unwelcome. Why? It is because we can be
guilty of showing favoritism. We can stereotype people. We can classify
them, based on all kinds of real and imagined differences.
So
as a bible-believing “come as you are” church we should love EVERYONE with
CHRIST LOVE no matter what they look like, smell like or wherever they are
coming from in life.
Let’s
get a reputation in our town and surrounding community as the church that really
is a “come as you are” church. AMEN!