A beautiful mess

thank God for Steve and Missy Crowder! As we continue the sermon series entitled A Beautiful Mess, I want you to consider this thought.

The beautiful part about our faith is that everyone is invited to the party!

It doesn’t matter who you are, where you’re from, what you’ve done or how many times you did it. The moment you say yes to Jesus, You are received and you are loved. Some of us began our journey 40 years ago, or more. Some of us started forty days ago. It’s even possible that there is someone in this room who began their journey just 40 minutes ago. It doesn’t matter when you got here. I’m just glad you‘re here.

Listen, the church is a beautiful organism, made up of beautiful people who are committed to a beautiful savior with a beautiful story of a beautiful faith thats worth betting your life on. Now understand that as beautiful as our faith may be, and as precious as the bride of Christ is to our Lord and savior, there’s a part of her that may not be so attractive to outsiders. As they say, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. But some people can’t see the beauty of our faith because they are focused on the mess. You know, the mess that was stuck on the bottom of your shoe when you decided to turn and follow Jesus. Some of our mess was sticky.

Some of it had a lingering stench. The mess of bad habits, attitudes and ungodly thinking didn’t drop off at the door. You believe, you’ve received, you’ve been baptized and praise God, you’re born again. And ideally, what you buried in the proverbial grave when you were baptized, should’ve stayed buried. But let’s be honest. Sometimes we don’t even realize the paper is stuck to the shoe.

still, you came and still, Jesus has received you. Dirty, but you’re here. Imperfect and messy, unlearned and raw, but you’re here and you are loved. That’s the messy part of the faith, isn’t it? And the messy part of our faith is actually the same thing that makes the church so beautiful.

Everyone is invited to the party!

(PRAY)

About 2 weeks ago I had the privilege of sharing the abridged version of my testimony at the men’s breakfast and I told them how my pastor helped me to become the man I am today. Although he lives thousands of miles away, he’s only one phone call away and bless God, because of technology I am still able to glean from his teachings.

This relationship that I have with my pastor is deeper than the average church member in that we have disagreed on occasion, but he’s still my pastor. I’ve made mistakes but he’s still my pastor. He’s not perfect either but he’s still my pastor. This is not to say that I follow blindly. But what is does mean is that I am loyal to the person that God has assigned me to, in order to become the man that God intends for me to be.

I don’t know if you realize it but God has a plan for your life, just like he has a plan for my life and her life and his life… And contrary to popular belief, and I know this is a popular belief because it is common behavior, we believe therefore we do, It is by God’s design that we achieve, gain, and grow together.

Moses was very clear in Gen 2:18 when he wrote those divinely inspired words from the very mouth of the creator of the heavens and earth, the same God who spoke everything into existence out of nothing, and after reaching into the dust that he created, formed man and breathed life into him. This same God who plans all things with the end in mind looked upon Adam and declared in Gen 2:18

Genesis 2:18 (NIV)

“It is not good for the man to be alone…”

The Apostle Paul would follow up thousands of years later with this thought likely in mind when he penned Eph 2:19-22

Ephesians 2:19–22 NIV

Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.

WE WERE MEANT TO BE A PEOPLE, NOT SIMPLY A PERSON!

And as beautiful as that may sound, sometimes it gets a little bit messy. It’s messy because what you want is not always what I want. Where you want to go, what you want to do, and when you think we should do it does not always sync with what your wife, your husband, your kids, or Your friends want.

Keep living if you haven’t discovered already, life is not a straight, simple line. It has ups and downs, twists and turns, pot holes and dark alleys, dirt roads and sink holes and if we’re not careful, some of us get lost even with the best navigation systems. I’ve tried Garmin, Google, and Siri and still, there are times they lead me to places that have moved on. Maybe it used to be a restaurant, but when we got there it was someone’s house?

I have the address and followed the instructions. How did I end up in the woods? Have you ever been going through life thinking you’re making good decisions and realize you’re off the path you intended to take? Have you ever looked at your present situation and asked, “How did I get here?And what do you do when you followed the directions systems gave you but you still end up lost? Who do you turn to when the people who were supposed to lead you, lead you wrong?

what am I supposed to do when I don’t know what to do? I don’t know about you, but at times like these I turn to the word of God because when life is no longer practical, in his word I find principle.

it is the community principle that reminds me that I should not go at it alone. Yes, sometimes people get it wrong, but I can’t judge them too harshly because I too, am people. Which means I too get it wrong at times. We mean we’ll, but we are not perfect. We want to help but we don’t have all the answers. But if wars are won in the counsel of many advisors, we definitely shouldn’t be fighting this one alone. And to this, Paul writes

1 Corinthians 11:1

1 Corinthians 11:1 NIV

Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.

At first glance we are tempted to think Paul is saying follow me only as long as I’m flawlessly following the perfect example of Jesus Christ, but that would be insane. Especially considering that Paul also wrote Ro 7:18-25

Romans 7:18–25 NIV

For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature.  For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.

Clap you hands if you’ve ever felt like Paul. We all have. So to be sure, Paul is not saying follow me to the extent that I’m flawlessly following Christ. On the contrary, What Paul is doing is inviting us to

Imitate his life as he pursues the characteristics of Christ!

This is the literal translation of what Paul wrote in 1 Co 11:1 reads this way

Imitate my life as I pursue the characteristics of Christ!

Will I make mistakes, yes! Will I fall short sometimes, yes? But none of that excuses me from teaching people what I know. None of that gives me a license to disobey my saviors command to make disciples of Jesus Christ.

And that’s what I’m going to do. Flaws and all. And today, with your flaws and all, I’m inviting you to do the same. I’m inviting you to pursue the characteristics of Christ and as you do, show someone else the way. But before you do that, you need to know the way.

Jesus said, and it’s recorded in John 14:6

John 14:6 NIV

Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

Why does that matter? I’ll tell you.