No Perfect People

Here is Sermon #4 in our No Perfect People Allowed series. It's been huge in our church. Enjoy reading about Grace!

            We’ve spent the last few weeks examining a wonderful topic. It’s a topic that has impacted my life, and after hearing from some of you, it’s a topic that has impacted your life as well.

            We even had one person come to faith in Jesus last week!!!! WOOO!!

            We’ve been looking at this simple truth: “No Perfect People Allowed.” God doesn’t call the super educated; the super-rich; or even the super good-looking.

            God calls those of us who are willing to admit that we don’t have it all together.

            We’re not celebrating how messed up we are; nor are we saying that we’re content with how we are. We’re simply acknowledging that every one of us needs the Grace of God.

            We all need Jesus to go there in our life. We all need Jesus to deal with that untouchable thing that we’ve been hiding from everyone.

We recognize that this is the perfect church for those of us who aren’t perfect.

We have looked at examples of God calling imperfect people. Three weeks ago we examined Matthew’s story.

He was a tax collector. (Sends chills down my spine) He was despised by everyone.

Then Jesus invades his space, looks at him eyeball to eyeball and says: “Follow me…” (Matthew 9:9, NLT2)

Matthew left all he knew to follow Jesus. He even invited some of his friends to eat with Jesus.

All the religious “freaks”, have a heart-attack, and exclaim: “Why does your teacher eat with such scum?” (Matthew 9:11, NLT2)

Why does Jesus do that? Because that’s God!!!!!!

He goes to where imperfect people are, and He calls imperfect people to follow Him!

ILLUSTRATION- I’m not sure about you, but I want a God who will go there in my life. I want a God who’s not afraid to deal with the junk in my life.

I want a God who is willing to take me as I am, and One who will change me into who I need to be.

Jesus is that God. He wants us to come to Him, and unload our junk on Him.

He can handle all that we have to give Him, and we will find that what He has to offer us is sufficient.

For the last two weeks, we have looked at 2 different—but similar—women who had labels; two women who did crazy awesome things in order to find God.

These two women wanted better things for their lives; these two women believed that God could—and would—come to them.

The Bible is full of mind blowing, jaw-dropping expressions of grace. And grace is, as you may know, getting what we don’t deserve.

A tax collector doesn’t deserve Grace. Two hookers don’t deserve Grace. I don’t deserve grace. You don’t deserve grace.

But, remember, grace is getting what we don’t deserve, and our God, the God of the Bible, is a God of grace.

Think about it: if I deserved it, it wouldn’t be grace.

If I could buy it, it wouldn’t be grace.

If I could work for it, it wouldn’t be grace.

Grace is getting what we don’t deserve, and the bible is full of “I got what I didn’t deserve stories. (And the opposite is true as well)

But so is this church.

ILLUSTRATION- I had a conversation this week with someone who shared with me of a dark time in their life, a time when they did something stupid.

But they also shared with me of how the grace of God has taken that event and turned it around into something positive.

            This was an “I went from what I was, to what I am now only because of God’s grace” story.

            And we’ve been looking at stories like this in the Bible to remind us that God calls imperfect people.  

God will welcome anyone who is willing to admit that they are not perfect, even if you happen to be a thief.

            If you have your Bibles with you, turn to Luke chapter 23. 

Just to give you a little context: Jesus “trial” has just ended. Pilate had sentenced Jesus to be crucified.

            A man from Northern Africa by the name of Simon happened to be in the right place at the right time, and he was forced to help Jesus carry the cross to the top of the hill.

            The Bible tells us that 2 other men, “…both criminals, were led out to be executed with him.

³³ When they came to a place called The Skull, they nailed him to the cross. And the criminals were also crucified—one on his right and one on his left.

³⁴ Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing.” And the soldiers gambled for his clothes by throwing dice.

³⁵ The crowd watched and the leaders scoffed. “He saved others,” they said, “let him save himself if he is really God’s Messiah, the Chosen One.”

³⁶ The soldiers mocked him, too, by offering him a drink of sour wine. ³⁷ They called out to him, “If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!”

³⁸ A sign was fastened above him with these words: “This is the King of the Jews.”

³⁹ One of the criminals hanging beside him scoffed, “So you’re the Messiah, are you? Prove it by saving yourself—and us, too, while you’re at it!”

⁴⁰ But the other criminal protested, “Don’t you fear God even when you have been sentenced to die?

⁴¹ We deserve to die for our crimes, but this man hasn’t done anything wrong.”

⁴² Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your Kingdom.”

⁴³ And Jesus replied, “I assure you, today you will be with me in paradise.” (Luke 23:32-43, NLT2)

There is a tremendous amount taking place in this passage. Far too much for us to completely unpack this morning, but I would have you notice that some people that day were gambling. They were gambling for Jesus’ clothes.

Some people in our day are gambling; they are gambling on Jesus being who He said He was, and believing that His life has the power change our forever.

Some people that day were watching. They weren’t doing anything else, just being “innocent bystanders.”

We have some of those people here today. You’re not betting on Jesus, you’re not even betting against Jesus, you’re just watching.

Some people in Jesus’ day were mocking, scoffing and even testing God. They were putting Him to the test: “if you’re the Real Deal: come off that cross”

Amidst all the scoffing, mocking, gambling and the testing, one of the criminals asks Jesus to forgive him. Amazingly enough, Jesus does.

A lot of people have a problem with this. It doesn’t seem fair that this person lived life as he wanted to—as a criminal—and at the last minute he says a prayer and comes to faith in Jesus.

Does this mean that I can life any way that I want too?

 Does it mean that I can live like a pagan all of my life, and then, at the last minute, I can say “I’m sorry God?”

I don’t think it works that way. As far as we know, this was the thief’s first encounter with grace. This was his first time meeting Jesus.

He knows that he’s done wrong---he said to the other criminal on the other side of Jesus: “We deserve to die for our crimes…”(Luke 23:41, NLT2)—

He, for the very first time sees an incredible offer and he’s all in. .                                 ILLUSTRATION- Most of us receive unlimited offers to receive God’s grace. Don’t believe me?

Take your finger and place it just under your nostrils, and breathe.

What do you feel? Air! Right!

If you are still breathing—and most of you are--- then you can still be a recipient of God’s grace. This was the thief’s opportunity, and he received it.

Most of us have no problem accepting grace if it’s offered to us, but we balk when grace is offered to someone else.

But that’s not how grace is supposed to work. Grace is getting what we don’t deserve regardless of who we are or what we—or the other person—has done.

Paul said: “When people work, their wages are not a gift, but something they have earned.

 ⁵ But people are counted as righteous, not because of their work, but because of their faith in God who forgives sinners.” (Romans 4:4-5, NLT2)

Grace isn’t something that we earn, or even something we deserve. It’s something we receive, by faith.

The thief knows that he’s messed up; he knows that he’s not perfect; he knows that he needs help; he recognises that he’s got no way out.

Amidst the entire ruckus going on around him, he believes that Jesus is the Messiah and that He is the Key to life.

How do I know this? Look at what he said: “Jesus, remember me when you come into your Kingdom.”  (Luke 23:42, NLT2)

Jesus gives this man exactly what he didn’t deserve: “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise." (Luke 23:43, NIV)

Jesus gave this criminal Grace.

I wonder how many of us need to receive what we don’t deserve. I’m not talking about guilt, punishment and death—we deserve all of those things.

I’m taking about grace. How many of us need to come face to face with the grace of God?

Andy Stanley reminds us that: “Grace is birthed from hopeless inequity. Grace is the offer of exactly what we do not deserve.”

“Thus it cannot be recognized or received until we are aware of precisely how underserving we really are.”

“It is the knowledge of what we do not deserve that allows us to receive grace for what it is. Unmerited. Unearned. Underserved.”

“…grace can only be experienced by those who acknowledge they are underserving.” (Stanley, 2010, xiv)

Of all the people present in the life of Jesus that day, only one person received the grace of God.

Only one person got what he didn’t deserve and found what he could never imagine: paradise.

Please, friends, don’t miss the opportunity to receive the grace of God.

The truth of the matter is we don’t deserve the grace of God. We can’t earn it, we can’t buy it, and we can’t even sell it: we must receive it.

The story of the thief on the cross shows us that God welcomes those who are truly repentant of their sins into the kingdom of God.

God doesn’t want perfect people, He doesn’t want people who think they’ve got it all together, He doesn’t want people who think they are God’s gift to the world; He wants people who are willing to receive His grace in their lives.

As the band comes, I want to make this very personal. If you have received Jesus into your life, you still need God’s grace.

I’m going to ask you to come to the front, stand at the foot of the alter and take a card off the alter that says: “Grace”.

Let this be a reminder to you that you’re not perfect; that you haven’t got it all together.

Let this be a reminder that Jesus still has the power to change your life because of the Grace of God.

If you have never accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior, you need the Grace as well.

You can come to the Cross and get what you don’t deserve instead of what you do deserve.

You can leave your burdens at the feet of Jesus and pick up something way better, something off the chartsà Grace.

Following Jesus isn’t simply a decision that you make; it’s a lifestyle that you chose, so if you choose to operate in the realm of grace, you respond as we are reminded that our chains are gone, but only by the grace of God.