01-23-2022 - Sermon - Come As You Are and Leave Better Than You Came

OPENING

We’re continuing on this week with our series titled, “Fitting the Pieces Together.” So far we’ve talked about how we are all living stones being built up into spiritual house. We’ve defined our mission as “Knowing Jesus and Making Jesus Known.” And we’ve said that part of our vision on how we are going to accomplish this is to be a church “Where the Presence of God is Present.”

Today we’re going to talk about another part of our vision, which also serves as our message. We are going to be a church that declares, “Come as You Are and Leave Better Than You Came!” We believe that Jesus meets us right where the are, but He loves us too much to leave us the same way He found us. One of the ways we are going to fulfill our mission of Knowing Jesus and Making Jesus Known is by loving people where they are and introducing them to the One who can change their lives.

SCRIPTURE

Mark 2:13–17 NKJV

13 Then He went out again by the sea; and all the multitude came to Him, and He taught them. 14 As He passed by, He saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax office. And He said to him, “Follow Me.” So he arose and followed Him. 15 Now it happened, as He was dining in Levi’s house, that many tax collectors and sinners also sat together with Jesus and His disciples; for there were many, and they followed Him. 16 And when the scribes and Pharisees saw Him eating with the tax collectors and sinners, they said to His disciples, “How is it that He eats and drinks with tax collectors and sinners?” 17 When Jesus heard it, He said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.”

MESSAGE

Come As You Are

Follow Me

Notice how Jesus called Levi, or Matthew, to be His disciple. Which, by the way, is how Jesus called His other disciples as well. He simply walked by Matthew and said, “Follow me.” Matthew was in the middle of his work day. For Matthew, it was probably just an ordinary day until Jesus walked by. He didn’t have time to prepare for his encounter with Jesus. Jesus just simply met Matthew right where he was at and called him to be His disciple.

Jesus didn’t say, “Sorry I can’t talk to you because you’re a tax collector and a sinner.” Jesus didn’t ask him to go home and read, “How to Properly Follow the Rabbi for Dummies.” Jesus didn’t tell him to go home and learn how to dress properly like a disciple first. Jesus didn’t say, sorry you’re not good enough to become my disciple because you’ve got sin in your life. Jesus didn’t say, come back when you’ve got it all together and we’ll talk. No! Jesus just simply told Matthew, “Come as you are and follow me.”

Jesus Came to Call Sinners to Repentance

This made the religious crowd so upset. They thought, how could Jesus share a meal with someone like Matthew and his friends. How could Jesus fellowship with people like them? They are tax collectors and sinners. They are unrighteous. They are unholy. They are dirty and unclean.

But notice what the Bible says about the tax collectors and sinners at the end of verse 15. It says that “they followed Him.” The religious leaders were so blinded by their own self-righteousness that they could not see what the tax collectors and sinners saw: their need for Jesus. The tax collectors and sinners came to Christ because their hearts were open and receptive to His message. They recognized their need for His love, grace, and forgiveness. But the religious leaders were so hard-hearted that they couldn’t see their own need for Jesus. They were so concerned about the speck in someone else’s eye that they couldn’t see the 2x4 sticking out of their own eye.

We must be careful as a church that we don’t become self-righteous like the religious leaders in Jesus’ day. I’ve seen too many so-called Holy Ghost filled men and women of God run people away from church because they are too focused on measuring the length of their sleeves, or the length of their hair, or the amount of makeup, or counting how many tattoos they have, or how many pieces of jewelry they have on. If they were truly filled with the Holy Spirit and following His lead, they would act a little more like Jesus and a lot less like a self-righteous Pharisee!

Jesus didn’t come to call the righteous. The ones who think they have it all together. The ones who think they don’t make mistakes. The ones who are too proud to admit they have some sins in their life that need to be brought to the Cross of Christ. Jesus came to call sinners to repentance!

And Jesus doesn’t say, “get your life together, get rid of all your sins, meet the dress code, and then I’ll accept you.” No Jesus simply says, “Come as you are and follow me!” Jesus wants to meet sinners right where they are. He doesn’t want them to try to fix their lives before they come to Him. They can’t do it anyway. It will never happen. He wants them to bring all of their sins, all of their habits, all of their hangups, all of their mistakes, all of their regrets, and lay them down at the foot of the Cross!

And Jesus doesn’t need us trying to fix them first either. We’ve got to know our role. We are called to be fishers of men, not cleaners of men. We catch ‘em. God cleans ‘em. We make Jesus known and provide an atmosphere where the presence of God is present. After they repent and turn to Christ, we preach the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and disciple them in following Jesus, and the Holy Spirit will take care of the cleaning process.

We are to simply to demonstrate the love of Christ by loving people where they are. God demonstrated His love for us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. What if Christ would have rejected you based on your past, or what you looked like, or where you were born? What if Jesus had not given you a chance at redemption? He loved you while you were still in your sins. He loved you before you got it all together. Because if we’ll be honest, we are all still working on getting it all together some days! Jesus just simply passed by your way one day and said, “Come as you are and follow me!”

Brothers and sisters, stop trying to get it all together before you fully surrender all areas of your life to Christ. You can’t get it all together on your own anyway. Just surrender your life to Christ and let Him do a work in you. He doesn’t want part of you. He wants all of you. We are to love the Lord our God with all our hearts, with all our souls, with all our minds, and with all our strength. God wants fully custody of you, not just weekend visitations! And He is saying to you today, “Come as you are and follow me!”

Leave Better Than You Came

Two Sides to the Coin

But a decision to follow Christ is just the beginning. We don’t just invite people to come as they are just so that they can stay the same way they came. When someone has a true encounter with Jesus, their lives will change. God did not command us to go into all the world and make believers. The Bible says that even the devils believe in Jesus and tremble at His name. Jesus called us to go into all the world and make disciples. A disciple is someone who makes a decision to follow Jesus. Follow His teachings. Follow His commandments. And as they follow Him everyday, they will start to talk like Him, act like Him, think like Him. They are going to desire to be conformed into the image of Christ. A true disciple is going to get some of the dust of the Rabbi on them and allow it to transform their life.

Too many churches today stop at “Come as you are.” There is no mention of sin. There is no preaching on repentance. There is no teaching on eternal punishment in a lake of fire. They tiptoe around the tough topics so that no one is offended. They don’t want to step on toes. They don’t want the preacher to crank up the heat and make it a little uncomfortable every once in a while.

We don’t have to beat people over the head with the Bible. But we also must not be afraid to proclaim the truth of God’s Word. The Gospel is not the Full Gospel without proclaiming the wages of sin is death, the only way to be forgiven of sin is to repent, and eternal punishment in a like of fire awaits those who refuse to accept Christ. The Bible calls us to a life of holiness. To come out from among the world and be separate. To let God rework our lives on the potter’s wheel and make us into a vessel of honor that He can use to pour His Holy Spirit into, so that we can then pour it out on others.

We all have faults and failures. We have have weights and sins that so easily beset us. But the Bible commands us to lay those weights and sins aside. And run this race with patience (endurance). Looking unto Jesus. The author and the finisher of our faith. Who for the joy that was set before Him. Endured the cross. Despising the shame. And is set down at the right hand of the Majesty on High! He’s there right now making intercession for you. He is waiting for you to bring all of your burdens, all of your sins, all of your habits, all of your faults, all of your failures, all of your insecurities, all of your worries, all of your fears, all of your disappointments, all of your sicknesses, and lay them down at His feet! You can come into His presence one way, and you can leave a different way. You can come empty and you can leave filled. You can come sick, and you can leave healed. You can come cast down, and you can leave lifted up. You can leave better than you came in Jesus name!

This is our message to those we are witnessing to and trying to get to come to church. “Come as you are and leave better than you came.” We invite whosoever will to “Come as you are.” To “come and see that the Lord is good.” To “come and taste of the waters of life freely.” But our goal should also be that they leave better than they came. That they are so impacted by the Gospel that they are never the same. That the old person that they were passes away. And all things in their life become brand new in Christ Jesus. We want to remind them that God has invited them to “come and let us reason together. Though your sins be as scarlet, He will make them white as wool. Though they be red like crimson, He will make them white as snow.” We want them to know that when you get into the presence of Jesus, your life will never be the same! And we want them to know that they can experience Jesus here at Farm Hill Church because we are a church “Where the Presence of God is Present.” Because we are on a mission of “Knowing Jesus and Making Jesus Known.” Because we are a group of believers that are gathered together in Jesus’ name and He is in the midst of us. And if they will just simply come to Him, He will flip the script on their lives!

Jesus Wants to Change Lives

Jesus loved people right where they were. But He loved them too much to leave them in the same condition He found them. That should be our message. “Jesus loves you too much to leave you the way He found you.” Think about these examples:

The Woman Caught in Adultery

Zacchaeus

The Thief on the Cross

Saul/Paul

After Jesus touched their lives, they were never the same. Jesus said, “Come as you are and leave better than you came.”

CLOSING

Our goal is to remove every obstacle, except the Cross, that would keep someone from coming to faith in Jesus Christ.

Ministry is about meeting people where they are, even in the middle of their mess, and introducing them to the One who can turn that mess into a message.

If we will do the natural, God will do the supernatural!

ALTAR CALL

Are you saved?

Have you fully surrendered your life to Christ?

Are there some weights and sins that are holding you back?

Are there times you are guilty of being a planked-eyed saint?

Can we honestly pray, “Lord break my heart for what breaks Yours?”

Do you need something from the Lord today?

If so, would you come to the altar?