Sermon Transcript
Christina, can you come help me move this back just a little bit? Yeah, it rolls. Just, you know me. Nah, it’s not too bad. You don’t have to lift it up.
You just roll it. There you go. Yeah, it’s on wheels. Isn’t that cool? This is how we do it.
Yeah, awesome. Thank you. You know me. I like to pace around. I can’t be knocking over elements and candles and stuff like that.
How about that extra hour of sleep? That was good, right? That was good. I have more energy than normal, so I have twice as long a sermon. So this will be good for all of us.
Here. You know, I want to tell you guys quickly about our Club Dusk trip this year down to Tecate, Mexico. I had a chance to go last year with my 3 kids, and it’s this year going to be December 27th through the 31st, right in between Christmas and New Year’s. I share this with you because it’s a very fun trip to go on, and it’s a trip that many here in the modern service have either participated in or would like to participate in because it’s something for families, it’s something for young people, for students, something for those that, you know, are coming back from college and they’re there during the break. And so there’s something there for everybody.
We partner with Calvary Church of Los Gatos, partner with Twin Lakes Church in Aptos, and a couple other churches in Southern California. And we serve the folks down there in Tecate, Mexico by helping to construct homes. We help pass out clothes and food and school supplies and just live life among the folks there in Tecate. That’s just on the other side of the border from San Diego. And it’s a fantastic trip, and we’re having a meeting next week that I’d just love to invite you to consider praying about.
Because there’s still time and we’re still collecting in different things, trying to figure out who’s on the list. If you drop me an email and say, Steve, I’m interested in going, I’ll send you the information that you need. You come next week to the lunch meeting that we’re going to have, which is back in the old library, room 111, back there in the back. You’re welcome to join us. We’d love to have you do that.
You can also go to clubdust.org and look at that opportunity. It’d be fantastic as a family to decide, what are we going to do during the holidays? It’d be awesome to go somewhere and to spend time together serving together as a family. It could be life-changing. And if it’s just you from your family, that can be awesome too, because we have several students that are going, so that’ll be a lot of fun.
I wanted to tell you guys about that. It’s a great trip. If you turn in your Bibles please to the book of Matthew, we’re going to look at chapter 9 today. Book of Matthew, chapter 9. We’re going to start in verse 9 here in just a moment.
How many of you ever— has there ever been a time that you weren’t picked for something that you wanted to be picked for? You remember that? Maybe a certain group of friends that you wanted to be a part of and you didn’t break in. Maybe there’s a group of people talking about something and they’re laughing and having fun. Hey guys, what’s up?
Oh, nothing. You wouldn’t understand. You’re like, hello? You feel like you’re on the outside. Maybe there’s a team that you tried out for and you didn’t get on the team.
Maybe you didn’t get the acceptance letter that you wanted. Maybe somebody else got the job or somebody else got the promotion. This has happened to me before. I’ve applied for jobs and they do that thing where they tell you, well, we’re going to go in a different direction. You ever had that?
And you’re like, you’re going in the wrong direction is what you’re doing. I’ve never said that, but I’ve heard people say those sorts of things. That’s frustrating to be on the outside of something that you desperately want to be a part of. But you contrast that feeling with the feeling of a time when you actually did get in, right? When you got the acceptance letter, when you made the team, when you were welcomed and you felt like you belonged.
That’s a great feeling. Being out is an awful feeling. Being in is an amazing feeling. And not only can we remember some of those times when that’s happened to us, but we can still sometimes feel it. And it’s because of that that for many people, they’ve had a bad experience at church at some time in the past.
That maybe somebody comes to church with the expectation that I’m going to be in or allowed in, but for whatever reason, somebody, the church, a group, an individual, makes them feel like, no, you’re not in. You have to do a couple things first before you can get in. Any of you ever have an experience like that? Where, like, maybe there’s some sort of complicated thing you have to do? Isn’t church supposed to be the place where everybody feels welcome?
Now, I’m not talking about not feeling in at a church because of style preferences. You know what I mean? Like where you don’t like the preaching style, you don’t like the worship style, or the family pastor just drives you nuts. I’m talking about where you don’t feel like you fit in there and you’re kind of like, okay, this isn’t the church for us. No, I’m talking about the kind where somebody implies or tells you or makes you feel like you don’t belong here, either at church or I can’t associate with you outside of the church because we’re too different.
And I think what happens is that many of us develop this kind of mindset if you’ve been a Christ follower for any period of time, and churches do this too, where we develop a reputation and over time we begin to sort of develop develop a theology or a way of thinking that says, so first a person has to believe what the rest of the group believes, and then you need to behave or change your life or become something other than what you currently are, and then you can belong.
Believe, behave, become— or excuse me, believe, behave, belong. Some people change up that order a little bit and they say, no, First, we want you to get your act together and act the way that we act. Change your way of life. And then we’ll put believe here because believing comes after you change your life and then you can belong. Either way, belonging comes at the end.
And I’m just wondering, is that biblical?
Where does belonging fit into that whole picture there? And I think Scripture gives us some really clear indication of some of these kind of issues. And I was thinking about how to portray this, and it reminded me of how very often we create hoops for people to jump through. Have you ever heard that phrase, jumping through a hoop? Some people are like, well, what does that mean?
That means to do more complicated things in order to be able to get where you want to be. Sometimes, like whenever you build a house, or like you sign a house, you have lots of hoops to jump through. Sometimes, like whenever you buy a car, you have lots of things you have to do. And I really wish I had some sort of visual to show you guys, and I’m sorry, I I just feel like maybe if we prayed a little— It’s a miracle! We have hoops!
Yeah, there you go. Bring those babies down. We have hoops. What I did is I created a really, really scientific survey on Facebook with a really ridiculously high margin of error, and I asked a bunch of people that are my friends, what are some hoops that you’ve encountered at churches that you’ve been to that people want you to jump through?
Listen, these are not necessarily things that are in the Bible, but they’re ones that I think different ones of us have found at various places along the way. How about this one? In order to belong at a church or in a group of people or to associate with other Christians, Bible knowledge and spiritual maturity. You need to start where we are, not where you are. That’s sort of the message that’s given out.
You need to have some Bible knowledge and maturity that is more mature perhaps than where you are. We assume people know how to find scriptures, right, in the Bible. We assume that people are at the same place that we are. We forget that each of us grows in a variety of different ways. But that Bible knowledge and maturity is a hoop that exists in a lot of different churches.
How about this one? You gotta know the lingo. You ever notice that Christians talk differently than other people? And you talk to somebody who’s not a Christ follower and they’re like, what do you— What are you talking about? And you have to know the lingo.
And we call that Christianese. Some people speak a language called Christianese. I have a video I just wanted to show you that I think is a good portrayal of this.
Moderation. I just wasn’t seeing much fruit. He’s going down a slippery slope. That’s your heart. That’s your heart.
Are you such a words guy? He is a total God man. I’m blessed. Been working on my testimony. Is that secular music?
We’re opening with a secular song today. Wait, is this a secular song? Isn’t she secular? Which station’s the fishing? 104.3, the fish.
Saving the whole family. I just pray you give him travel mercies. Pray for all Tyler’s unspoken. Echo that. Just really like to echo Tyler’s prayer, Father.
I just, I echo that echo of my echo of his echo. I really feel like I’m being released from this, you know? Trying to be relevant. I’m just trying to be in the world, not of it. Hey, do you want to join our small group?
You want to join my D group? You want to join my cell group? Community group? Access group? Accountability group?
Acts 27 group? Dude. He brought it. He brought the word. That service last night rocked me.
They’re pretty purpose-driven. Yeah, it’s Seeker. Don’t they do Seeker service there? I feel like he’s gotten really watered down. I don’t feel like he really teaches the word.
There’s not enough meat, you know? Are they non-denom? We have a great Wednesday night supper. Let’s invite some dudes over and fellowship tonight. We’re gonna have a sweet time of fellowshipping tonight.
Dude, we had the sickest fellowship last night. We’re going to Extreme Velocity Ignite. Yeah, I’m going to Ignite the Edge. The dive, the bridge, the ramp, fire, courageous, passion, echo, reverb, noise, velocity, drive, elevate, radiate, 722, 635, 419, orange, blue, yellow, green, clear, neon. Catalyst Conference this year.
I don’t do that because I feel like it ruins my witness. I’ve been struggling with that. I’m really wrestling with that. I’m wrestling with a doubt. I need someone to hold me accountable.
I’m really trying to be intentional with her. I’m pursuing her for sure. I’m trying to guard her heart. Guard her heart though. Will you hold me accountable to that?
Yeah, we’ll bounce your ass. Bounce your ass.
Yeah. Oh look, we have more hoops. You gotta watch how you dress, right, when you come to church? Right? Appearance is everything.
Shayna and I were part of a church at one time that this was a big hoop for us to have to jump through. That you have to dress like we dress. Any of you ever been at a church like that where you kind of feel like, gosh, I’m sort of sticking out here. I can’t really just come as I am. That’s a hoop that somebody mentioned in my scientific Facebook poll.
What do you bring to the table? What is your giftedness? What do you have to offer us as a church? Because we’re looking for people with certain sets of gifts who have certain experiences, and they hopefully will match the kinds of things we’re looking for. That sort of hoop that exists.
What do you bring to the table?
Here’s a hoop. You’ve got to really, really, really be plugged in. How involved are you? You’ve got to be here whenever we’re doing stuff, and if you’re not, you don’t really belong. We want people who are invested.
We want people who come and who serve and who use their gifts. You’ve got to be really, really plugged in. That’s a hoop. No baggage, please. If you’ve got a past, can you just kind of keep that to yourself?
No baggage, please. We’d like you to just kind of leave that at the door. There’s a hoop. We want you to vote how we vote and support what we support. And if you don’t, shh, don’t tell anybody.
Right? That’s a hoop that exists. How about this one? Be happy even if you don’t feel that way. I’ve got to be perky on Sunday morning?
Really? I’m not a morning person. But, well, we are around here, buddy. So you’ve got to kind of adjust whether you feel like it or not. There’s a hoop.
We want you to parent like we parent. There’s some Christian parenting principles that you really ought to be doing if you’re serious about following God. Raise your kids like the rest of us, please. We’d like that, and then you can belong. A couple people shared that what you do for a living and your income is a hoop that some churches have.
You know, what do you do for a living? How much money do you make? And if that fits our criteria, then you can belong. Believe, behave, belong. Or behave, believe, And I’m wondering, did we get that order right?
What does the gospel have to say about that? And I’m wondering if— have we made things more complicated than Jesus ever intended? Is it possible that somebody like Jesus would be denied membership in some of our American churches?
He was dangerous. He was radical.
He didn’t have much of a filter. He was uncompromising and unyielding.
And I’m wondering if you and I have room for somebody like Jesus in our own sort of theology and doctrine. Do we have room for somebody like Jesus in a church like this?
Have we complicated things? So I’m really interested in answering 2 questions today. One is, does a person need to believe certain things or behave a certain way before they can belong?
You have notes in your bulletin if you’re a fill-in-the-blanker. It says, does somebody need to believe certain things or behave a certain way in order to belong? Here’s another question I’m curious about on a larger macro level to say as it pertains to God. Is God more exclusive or inclusive? What does the Bible have to say about that?
So we’re going to look at that together. Let’s look at the book of Matthew, just one account here, chapter 9 of Matthew. Jesus has an encounter with a guy. Many of you have heard his name before. In fact, he’s the guy who wrote the very book of Matthew.
Matthew chapter 9, verse 9, it says, as Jesus went on from there— he’d been traveling around healing and teaching— as Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. Follow me, Jesus told him. And Matthew got up and followed him. In first-century Israel, tax collectors were crooks. They were crooks because they were traitors.
And the way that they got their job was by paying Rome a certain amount of money And then saying, well, we’re going to then overtax people so that we’ll take the money that is extra and then we’ll just pocket that. So tax collectors were rich. And back then, to the Jews, the tax was an inherent religious wrong. It was an act of disloyalty and of treason because they felt like you were stealing from the people of God. You were stealing from God in order to give to the evil Roman Empire.
And if the tax collector himself was a Jew, like Matthew, you were a social outcast. You were looked down upon. You were viewed as a traitor by your fellow Jews. The Jewish Mishnah, which was a collection of oral traditions and teachings of the Jews, said that Jews— excuse me— said that tax collectors were so loathsome that they should not even be considered people. And the missionaries said that you could lie to a tax collector because lying to an animal was not a sin.
That was the world of the tax collector. Who wants to be a tax collector? Yeah, you made some money, but you made a lot of enemies as well. So Jesus approaches him, and one of the observations that we can make here is that Jesus initiated the relationship. Matthew didn’t approach Jesus.
Jesus approached him. And he didn’t wait for Matthew to come to him. He initiated this relationship. And with that, we recognize that Jesus didn’t wait for Matthew to get off of work.
He came to him right in the midst of his thievery, right in the midst of his stealing, out in broad daylight where everybody could see, without a care for Jesus’ reputation. He initiates the relationship. People approach Jesus for help all the time. Not Matthew. He’s just sitting there.
And as you look at this, all Jesus has to say is, follow me. There may have been other words that were shared, but Matthew does the unthinkable and he gets up and he follows him. What causes that kind of a change in a person? What brings a person from where they were in Matthew’s case, to where Matthew ended up following after Jesus, being named one of the 12 disciples, writing the first book of the New Testament. What happened?
And there’s an observation that we can make here from the scriptures as well, here just in verse 9, that Jesus is making a point by describing not only the kind of people that God loves, but about the way that God loves. Not just about the people that God loves, but about the way that God loves. Do you see the word if anywhere there in verse 9? Because I don’t. You may have that in your translation.
There are no ifs here. There’s no conditions.
Jesus didn’t make Matthew change or behave or become something else or believe first before associating with him. He didn’t say, Matthew, you can follow me if you clean up your life. Matthew, you can come after me and I will love you if you just believe.
And it’s this kind of radical initiating, no strings attached, no hoops required kind of love that I believe changed Matthew because nobody else had ever offered him that before. When you come face to face with that, you see, whoa, that’s just amazing. And Matthew confronted this And there were no preconditions. There was no paperwork. No background check was done.
Well, Matthew, we’re going to have to check out some references here. Just come. Follow me. And Matthew, like other disciples did and other followers, just left everything. How does that happen?
This is so contrary to how we normally think. We normally think, if there’s a person that I care about that I want to change, here’s how they’ll change. If I just lay down the law and put down more conditions, they’ll change. But we know from experience that’s not how that works, right? You might get some external change.
You might get something for a season, but you’re not going to get lasting change.
Real change comes from unconditional love and acceptance and grace and a sense of belonging. And that’s exactly what Jesus was offering Matthew. Let’s keep reading in verse 10. While Jesus was having dinner— dinner? Who said anything about dinner?
Matthew, follow me. Now he’s having dinner at Matthew’s house? And while there, many tax collectors and sinners, in quotation marks, came and ate with Jesus and his disciples.
So as if Jesus hadn’t already done enough, he ends up at a dinner party at Matthew’s house filled with sinners. And back then, to have a meal with somebody was an expression of acceptance. It was an expression of, I accept you, I embrace you, we’re on the same page here, I can associate with you, we have intimate fellowship with one another.
And if we just sort of read past that verse, we’ll just sort of gloss over the word sinners there and not think anything about it. But that would be a mistake because the word sinners there conveys a message that Matthew, who was there on the scene, by the way, and is writing this book, is trying to make a point here that Jesus wound up at Matthew’s house eating with the same kind of people that are just like Matthew— social outcasts, The marginalized people of the world, socially unclean people, socially unacceptable people. Jesus was dining and associating with people that any red-blooded Messiah would not dine with. He was associating with people that any self-respecting Jewish person would not associate with because you just didn’t do that.
And this to me gives us an observation here just from verse 10 that Jesus liked those who were very much unlike him. And you see this all throughout the scriptures, right? Who were his best friends? The tax collector, the leper, and the prostitute. These are my friends right here.
Really? Jesus liked those who were nothing like him, very much unlike him. Let’s keep reading. Verse 11, when the Pharisees— oh, there we go, the Pharisees, what are they going to do? When they saw this, they asked his disciples, why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?
On hearing this, verse 12, Jesus said, it’s not the healthy who need a doctor, it’s the sick. But go and learn what this means: I desire mercy, not sacrifice. For I have not come to call the righteous, but I’ve come to call sinners. What do we observe here? That Jesus came for the sick, not the healthy.
Jesus came for the sick, not the healthy.
Who does the fact that Jesus is associating with these people— who does this really upset? It upsets the self-righteous scribes and Pharisees, the religious upholders of the law. And so they asked Jesus’ disciples, why does your teacher do this? And Jesus’ reply was a simple one, because the sick need a doctor and not the healthy? As if they should know this.
He’s not saying— Jesus is not saying there are 2 different kinds of people, those who need to be saved and those who don’t. He’s not saying, I didn’t come for you people because you’ve been able to pull it off on your own up until now. Good job. No, no, I came for these people. He’s saying everyone is unrighteous and everyone is sick, and I came for those people who are aware that they’re unrighteous.
I came for those people who are aware of their sickness.
And you think about who are the people who hung out with Jesus for the most part. They were people who had 2 things in common every single time. They were aware of their depravity, their sinfulness, and their unrighteousness. 2, they were aware of their need for deliverance and for forgiveness. And Jesus accepted them, and Jesus loved them, and Jesus allowed them to belong before they became something else or believed something else.
No hoops required. Those are the people who hung out with Jesus. And it reminded me of a story in the book of Luke. You don’t have to turn there, I just— we’ll read it real quick. It’s about another tax collector and another Pharisee.
Jesus told a story. 2 men went up to the temple to pray. One was a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself. God, I thank you that I’m not like other men, robbers and evildoers and adulterers, and thank you that I’m not even like this tax collector here.
I fast twice a week and I give a tenth of all I get. Verse 13, but the tax collector stood at a distance. He wouldn’t even lift— look up to heaven, but instead he beat his breast and said, God, have mercy on me, a sinner. Jesus said, I tell you the truth that this man rather than the other went home justified, made right with God.
For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted. You see, the Pharisees do what many of us have done before, where it’s this quick rush to judgment when it comes to other people.
And what we’re forgetting here is that all of us are sick, and all of us have great need, and all of us are just like the tax collector in one way or another. We tend to measure ourselves against those around us rather than against what God has to say, but measured against God’s perfect standard, we’re all like the tax collector.
And like the adulterer and like the thief. And Jesus is saying, I came for those people who are aware of that. And if you’re aware of that, I’m right here for you.
So, what do we— what does this passage imply for us? What are the implications? To me, I think there’s application here in Jesus’ encounter with Matthew and even the story I just read. I think there’s application for all of us regardless of where you’re at. You’ve been in church just a little bit of time or you’ve been in church a long time.
There’s application for all of us. And the first implication that we want to point to here in this passage is that self-righteous goodness is more dangerous— now, some people say it’s as dangerous, I would say it’s more dangerous— self-righteous goodness is more dangerous than unrighteous badness.
Self-righteous goodness is more dangerous— if you’re uncomfortable with that, then just say as dangerous— As unrighteous badness. Why? Because it blocks our love of God and it blocks our love of other people and we don’t even see how desperately needy we are. And what it does is it, for many of us, creates this sort of us versus them mentality where we exalt the us and we denigrate the them. Any of you have a thank God I’m not like those people list in your mind?
Who’s on that list? Thank God I’m not like them. And what we do is we measure ourselves against an artificial standard. You know, listen, I’m not perfect, but I’m better than you, right? I’m further along than you.
I’ve jumped through a few more hoops than you have, so I belong, and you maybe, hopefully, can get there someday. And that’s what we do. And the point is, we’re missing it. Jesus is saying, all of you are sick, and all of you are needy. And that self-righteous goodness is, to me, more dangerous than unrighteous badness.
What do we have to do? We have to go back to the gospel. Have to go back to the gospel. The gospel describes for us our problem, and the magnitude of our problem is significant. Romans 3:23 says that all have sinned.
Everybody say all. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. All. No exceptions. And that’s a huge problem for us, and we have to accept that this problem exists, and our predicament is that we can’t do anything about it because we’re not being measured against one another.
I could measure myself against you, and I might do fine sometimes. I might do not as well at other times. But the reality is, is we’re being measured against God’s absolutely perfect standard of holiness. And so, when we look at it from that perspective, we’ve— listen, we’ve got ourselves quite a predicament.
And that leads to our penalty, which is Romans 6:23 that says, the wages of sin is what? It’s death. Not just physical death, but eternal death and eternal separation from God because of our unrighteousness and because of how sick we are. But Jesus made provision. Romans 5:8 that says, but God demonstrates his own love in this, that while we were yet in sin, Christ died for us.
Somebody had to pay the tab, and it was Jesus. Sin’s price tag was death. Jesus said, I’ll pay it.
And our pardon comes from Romans 10:9, which says that if we confess Jesus Christ as Lord with our mouth and we believe in our hearts that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. You will be saved. And you have to go back to the gospel to understand just how great our problem is and how great our need is and how great God’s grace is. Here’s the implication that I love. From this story, and it’s all throughout the gospel, is that the rule and love of God is available to all.
Think about that for a moment. The rule and love of God is available to all. Jesus didn’t come to thin the herd. Jesus didn’t come to keep out the riffraff. Jesus came to expand the kingdom, and he had compassion on people, and not everybody followed him.
And let’s be honest, he did lay a very, very high standard. This is the same guy who said, many are called but few are chosen.
There are 2 roads, a narrow road and a wide road. Most people aren’t going to choose this narrow path. And Jesus is the same guy who later on said, I’m the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but through me. It’s a very strict standard, but this is also the other side of Jesus who said, listen, will you just follow me?
That’s all. No hoops required here. Just belong and follow me. And that’s to me an indication that the rule and the love of God is available to all. And that everything about Jesus’ ministry was designed around that fact.
I gotta make God more accessible to others. I’ve gotta make the knowledge of God and the love of God more in people’s lives so that their eyes will be opened. I’ve got to let people who’ve been previously excluded know that you are included and the love of God is available to you and the grace of God is available to you. He doesn’t force us to receive it, but he makes it available to all. Just a couple chapters earlier in the book of Matthew, Jesus shares what are known as the Beatitudes, the Sermon on the Mount.
And he says, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. And blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
And blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. And blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God. And blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is is the kingdom of heaven. And we read that and we say, so that’s how I get blessed. I be poor in spirit.
Okay, I got it. Okay, I know how to be blessed. I’ll be merciful and then God will bless me. Or I’ll be a peacemaker. I’ll be persecuted.
Yeah, that’s what I’ll do. And then I’ll be blessed. As if doing those things would earn God’s blessing. We’re missing it. And Jesus is saying there, the rule and love of God is available to all.
Students, the rule and love of God is available to you and blessing Blessed are you, blessed are you, single parent, because the kingdom of God is available to you. Blessed are you, parent who’s just ready to pull out your hair because you’re so frustrated with all the pressures of life. Blessed are you because the kingdom of God is available to you. Blessed are you, young professional who’s serving in a cubicle and working around people and you’re just being swallowed up with either work or with different stresses. Blessed are you because the kingdom of God is available to you.
Blessed are you, high school students, who are worried about where you’re going to go to college and whether or not you’re going to— because the kingdom of God is available to you. That’s what Jesus is saying. The rule and love of God is available to all.
That’s powerful. That’s powerful. And when we think about the gospel, it’s as if Jesus came up to this, hey, you know the whole idea about being really, really involved as that will earn my blessing? I’m just going to come along and I’m just going to say, I’m getting rid of that hoop. And this one over here, hey, you know, you need to be happy regardless at all times.
And you can, you know, even if you don’t feel that way, you need to be happy and you need to be perky, you need to be cheerful. And Jesus, through the gospel, just came and he’s getting rid of these hoops one after the other. Isn’t that fantastic? Because the rule and love of God is available to all.
And what that to me tells me is that God is a God who puts belonging before belief and before behavior. It doesn’t always work out that way, but that’s how it’s been positioned here that I believe is here according to the scriptures. Another implication for some of us here that I think is important is that hanging out with sinners does not necessarily promote sin. You may disagree with me on that, and that’s fine. Hanging out with sinners, though, does not necessarily promote sin.
That’s my thought. Because Jesus did it, and if that was a problem, he wouldn’t have done it. But instead, what he’s saying here is that at some point, we have to be a connector to help people connect with God. And it can start with allowing them to belong and loving them as they are. No ifs, ands, or buts.
Don’t worry about your reputation and what will others think. We love what would Jesus do, right? Like, we would love that WWJD stuff. Like, what would Jesus do in this situation? Well, we like it up to a point.
We like it until we have to actually start doing the things that Jesus did. We like it until we have to start saying the things that Jesus said. And then it’s like, eh, you know? The rule of God is accessible and available to all? I don’t like accessibility.
I’d rather create a complicated spiritual obstacle course filled with hoops because then I can measure myself and feel good about how much better I’m doing than you.
And yet you look at the life of Jesus and what would Jesus do? He’d say, come follow me.
It can lead to sin but it doesn’t necessarily promote or condone sin. And if you’re worried about that, you think about, well, what actually happened when people, sinners, hung out with Jesus? Did they say, thank you, Jesus, you have confirmed He confirmed me in my sin. Now we can do whatever we want. When you read the scriptures, what actually happened was you have people saying, depart from me, Jesus, for I’m a sinner.
Or, Jesus, I’m unworthy to untie your shoe. Or there are people who, encountering the unconditional love of God, say, I’m going to drop everything, just like the disciples did, and follow.
One of the points that I think is also important for us to think about if we’re struggling with this belong, believe, become, or belong, become, believe, but putting belong first. If we’re struggling with that, is that— here’s an implication that belonging frequently leads to believing.
Belonging frequently leads to belief. You want somebody to change their life or to change their belief? Well, belonging can help get them there.
You have doubts? So did Thomas. So did John the Baptist. You remember this? John the Baptist was like, I’m not really sure about— after John the Baptist had been arrested, and Jesus said, listen, go back to John the Baptist, tell him what I’m doing here and that I’m the Promised One.
You even have a group of people at the Great Commission at the end of Matthew, and Jesus has already been resurrected, and it says that many were worshiping there but some didn’t believe. They’re worshiping but some didn’t believe. You got doubts? Come on in. Belonging comes first.
And we can create that kind of environment in our church, and you can create that kind of environment with the people around you. And you have to be willing to say, what would Jesus do? And then you move in that direction. See, it’s just a natural thing that occurs, that when a person is allowed to belong, that they’re more likely to believe or become.
It just occurs naturally when coming face to face with the grace and love of God. Church doesn’t work as well when we tell people, here’s what you need to do and here’s what you need to fix and here are the hoops we have to offer you. Now jump through them. No, church works best when we say, I’m going to come alongside you and we’re just going to grow together because we’re all in the same boat here.
And we’re going to do this together and you are welcome here. There’s not going to be any of this, well, we have to let you in here because Jesus kind of told us to, but we’re going to be keeping our eye on you. It’s, we want you to come. You’re welcome. You’re welcome here because none of us has arrived, and you’re welcome here.
And belonging frequently leads to the belief and the changed life. Guys, let’s not make complicated what Jesus made simple.
The invitation is available to us each and every day that says, come follow me.
It’s available to you and it’s available to me. It’s available to all. We can’t keep out the people that God wants to invite.
Who does he want to invite? Everybody. Everybody. That’s his will. He’s not willing that any should perish.
And if you’re here today, And you’re complicating things either in your own mind or because of somebody else. Well, I can’t really associate with that person, or I can’t— We have to get the gospel right. Let’s not complicate that which Jesus made simple. In the book of Acts chapter 15, there’s a council of people that are trying to decide whether or not Gentiles, non-Jews, should be allowed to be kind of included and to belong. Should they be circumcised?
What are the different hoops that they should jump through? And eventually they conclude in Acts 15:19, let’s not make it difficult for people to come to God. That’s my admonition for you and I. Let’s not make it difficult for people to come into the life of the church. Let’s not make it difficult for you and I to be able to associate with people and say, just come as you are.
So what do we do with these hoops that are here?
I got me some scissors. Anybody like to get rid of these hoops and we can just celebrate together? And that’s students, come on up. I’d love to have a couple of you. We’re going to do this together.
Yeah, yeah, come on up. Yeah, we hate these hoops, so we’re going to get rid of them. Haven’t they been annoying up here? That’s the whole point, though. Hoops are annoying.
So don’t cut just yet. Don’t cut just yet. You need to find one that you can actually reach up to. No, no, no. Yeah, like, don’t cut just yet.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, don’t cut. We’re going to do this all together. You know how on— Yes, come on up, John Watney. Okay, I got 2 others here.
I got— Oh, yes. Don’t cut them just yet. That’s okay. Jesus cut down that hoop, but we’re not going to cut down these other ones just yet. I got 2 more hoops.
I got 2 more pairs of scissors. Come on now. Anyone? Yes, Chris Abishan, come on up. Okay, Natalia, come on up.
There you go. So you know how on Extreme Home Makeover they do that, move that bus? On the count of 3, we’re going to say, cut that hoop. Because we hate these hoops. Okay?
Here we go. On the count of 3. 1, 2, 3. Cut that hoop! Yeah!
Get rid of that hoop. Get rid of that hoop. Get it, Charlotta. There you go. We hate these hoops.
We’re getting rid of them. Yeah, kick that hoop. Yeah, there you go. Thank you. Yes, you can— don’t run through the room with those scissors there.
Well, that was fun. Isn’t that fun? Don’t you feel more liberated? Everybody just— and we got rid of these hoops. No more hoops required here at church or when it comes to God, and we can celebrate that.
We rejoice in that. Let’s pray together. Lord, we thank you for the grace of God. We thank you that we can rejoice that the rule and love of God is available to us.
Lord, help us to see that we’re like the tax collector and that but by the grace of God we have no hope.
That apart from you, Lord, we have nothing and can do nothing and we bring nothing to the table. We just simply, Lord, rely upon you. You’re a gracious God and a good God. And I pray that, Lord, for those of us who are like the Pharisee, For those of us who are like those who kind of create an us versus them mentality. Lord, for those of us who look down our noses at other people because they don’t measure up, help us, God, to repent and to change our way.
Lord, for those who have baggage, for those who’ve been told that they don’t belong, for those who feel like they don’t fit in, Lord, I pray that this church would be a place that people would know that they’re welcome. And I pray that even more than that, that people would connect with you and know that you don’t require us to jump through bunch of hoops to belong. Lord, we celebrate that today.
Father, we ask that in these moments that we have remaining in the service that you would enable us to draw near to you so that we can hear and receive what you have for us. We pray all these things in the name of your Son Jesus. Amen.
