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!
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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
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