No Perfect People Allowed.

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No one is perfect. No one has avoided being imperfect. Not one has escaped making a mess of our lives. In fact, even the church, our church, is filled with broken, bruised, messed up people. For all have sinned; all fall short (Romans 3:23). There are no perfect people.

Look around. Look at the person next to you, across from you, wherever you might be reading this. Looks like they have it all together, right? In reality, probably not! Definitely not! That person has said things, done things, thought things that would
shock you. And yet, why do we still feel we need to pretend we’re perfect?

There is Good News; God specializes in messed up people. So if you have a past with mistakes, regrets, and failures, you are in good company. The really Good News: God loves us like we are perfect! Let that sink in.

Consider Bible heroes for a moment:
Adam & Eve—disobeyed God while in paradise.
Noah—got drunk after being saved from the flood!
Abraham—lied.
Sara—laughed at God.
Jacob—schemed.
Leah—was written into history as unattractive.
Joseph—came from a dysfunctional family.
Moses—a murderer.
Gideon—coward.
Samson—womanizer.
Rahab—prostitute.
David—adulterer.
Jonah—ran from God.
Naomi—known for being bitter.
Peter—denied Christ . . . three times BTW.
Martha—worried.
Zacchaeus—too small.
Paul—too religious.

Yet none of this stopped God! All these flawed Bible characters are just like you and me. They were real people! But they had real flaws; in them God’s grace is on isplay for all flawed humans to see. The men and women of the Bible aren't there because
they were perfect, but to highlight God’s use of imperfect people to change the world!

 

This fall, we’re starting a sermon series titled: No Perfect People Allowed. In this series we will look at several prominent people of the bible who God took in their broken, messed up state, and gave them a new life, new purpose, and a new identity. The changes in their identity would be so radical that even their old names would not do.

Changing one’s name isn’t anything new. The practice is not limited to historical Jews. Royalty from Assyria to Judah to Ancient Egypt to China often took different, public, names when they took the throne. It is still tradition for a new pope to take the name of a former pope whom he wishes to emulate—ever since Mercurius was
named pope and thought it bad form for a Catholic pope to have the name of a Roman god, popes have changed their names too.

In scripture, God occasionally changed someone's name. It was done to establish a new identity that God was moving them toward. With this new name, came a fresh anointing, a new boldness, and a greater assignment!

The message of the Christian faith is that grace toward our imperfection has been made radically available to all through Christ. We often forget the purpose of grace.
A band-aid is designed to be applied to a cut. A contact lens is designed to be applied to poor vision. Grace is designed to be applied to imperfection (sin).

God is drawing thousands of spiritually curious “imperfect people” to investigate
Christianity, but how are we doing at welcoming them? If you’ve ever been around a bunch of spiritually snooty people, you know what I’m talking about. No one can be more unapproachable than a group of Christ followers who have forgotten how THEY received God’s grace too.

Upcoming Sermon Series:
Sept 8 Imperfect Family Abram/Sarai
Sept 15 Imperfect Reputation Jacob
Sept 22 Imperfect Faith Peter
Sept 29 Imperfect Circumstance Naomi
Oct 6 Imperfect Ambition Paul
Oct 13 Imperfect Lifestyle Solomon
Oct. 20 Imperfect You and Me Rev. 2:17

Ron Otto, preaching minister at Lincoln Christian Church

 

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