COME AS YOU ARE-NO PERFECT PEOPLE ALLOWED!

When I was a kid, my parents used to go to church all the time and my sisters and I went to church with them. I remember going to Sunday School and vacation bible school. I even joined a special program just for boys that my Sunday school teacher led. I don’t remember much about the program except that we went camping.

On my very first camping trip I was 10 years old. We went to a camp with lots of other boys from other churches. It was rustic camping and the first thing we did was lay out our sleeping bags on the grass in a big meadow. I was the last one done, so as I finished I took off running after the other kids. But I didn’t get very far before my leader called me back.

Apparently when I ran after the other kids I stepped on some sleeping bags leaving my footprint. My leader told me that I had broken one of the rules; I had stepped on someone else’s sleeping bag. He explained to me that no one wanted footprints on their sleeping bag. Then he told me that there was a punishment for breaking the rules and he pulled out the bottom of a tennis shoe and proceeded to swat me with it. I don’t remember anything else about that camp.

When I went home I told my parents, I am never going to go back to church again. They saw how hurt I was, they knew I had had some trouble with some of the boys in my Sunday school class; I was the fat kid and they made fun of me; and the worst kid in my class was the son of my Sunday school teacher. See when someone made fun of me at school I just punched them, but at church, that wasn’t the way to do things… after all God was there! So when I was 10 years old my entire family stopped going to church.

I didn’t have much use for church after that.

When I was in 10th grade a girl invited me to go with her to a high school club called Campus Life. They were having something called a burger bash which was basically a free hamburger dinner! Finally someone was speaking my language; free burgers and I was invited by a girl!

I found out that Campus Life was a Christian club for High school students, but unlike my previous church experience - it was a lot of fun. They played games, there were girls, they always had some kind of food at the end, and there was some kind of talk about God. That was cool; I figured that I had gone to church when he was a kid, so I was cool with God. I mean I assumed that I was a Christian because I used to go to church.

I went to Campus Life all through high school. It was a regular part of my life that I looked forward to every week.

High school was good to me. I may have grown up a fat kid but in high school, things changed and I went from being the fat kid that kids made fun of and basically ignored to a really big guy. I started playing football and I found my niche, I was a jock! I just wanted to fit in someplace really bad and finally as a football player I experienced some kind of acceptance.

That’s all I really wanted was to feel accepted. Unfortunately, as an athlete you’re accepted as long as you play well, make a mistake and everyone turns on you. So my acceptance in High school was partially due to athletics and partly due to fear. I thought that if people feared me they would accept me, so I became a bully; I made the kids pay for making fun of me and I began pushing other people around, getting in fights, and acting as tough as I could.

But that wasn’t really satisfying. That wasn’t real acceptance. People weren’t my friends because they liked me, it was self preservation. It didn’t matter to me, I wanted to be accepted and I was willing to do anything to at least think people liked me.

My senior year of high school my campus life club went on a water ski trip to Lake Havasu for spring break. A whole week camping, hanging out in the sun, water-skiing, BBQ every night and girls in bikinis, what more could a guy want!

But as great as those things were that wasn’t the highlight of my week. For the first time in my life I felt totally accepted. I didn't have to be a bully, or a jock, or funny, or anything. They cared for me just because I was there. There were 150 kids there who were happy, I mattered to them and not just because they didn't want to get beat up.

They had a speaker on this ski trip who was a USC offensive lineman and he had just been drafted by the New England Patriots. He was also the Captain of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes at USC.

He spoke about God as a loving, caring God who accepted everybody for who they were. I wanted this relationship with God he was talking about but I had this effeminate view of Christians. None of the really tough guys I knew were Christians, and being tough was a significant part of my life. I was very interested in how this huge All American Linemen could play football, a really tough sport, and be a Christian.

One night after He finished speaking I asked to speak with him alone. We sat on a log and talked. I asked him "How can you be a Christian and be a football player? After all football was a violent sport. And I loved the violence: I played to win at all costs, even if that meant playing dirty."
He said football is a game - not a way of life. He said you can’t live your life as if it was a football game, and you can't play football as if it was your life.

And He told me that the most important thing I could ever do with my life was to begin a relationship with God who loved and accepted me so much that He sent His Son to die for me on the cross.

That week I asked Jesus to be my Savior, and for the very first time I experienced complete and total acceptance.
· For the first time in my life I found peace and fulfillment.
· For the first time I began to understand the joy and unconditional acceptance the other kids were experiencing and that I had been looking for.

That began a lifetime of changes in my life. But it almost didn’t happen. I almost gave up on God because the church had treated me badly.

Unfortunately, I’m not the only one who has a story of rejection, un-acceptance or hurt by the people in the church.

Over the past several decades huge numbers of people have left the church because of being rejected as not good enough, being hurt, broken trust and irrelevance.

But it shouldn’t be that way! We have the keys to the kingdom of God. God has entrusted us with the responsibility of telling people about Him, His love for us, and how He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to die on the cross just so we could have a relationship with Him.

Our American culture has shifted away from the church. And now we live in a postmodern society that not only doesn’t understand the church, but they don’t understand God. And many of those who do have some kind of understanding of God have given up on the church.
But again, that’s not the way it’s supposed to be!

There is so much misconception of what the church is supposed to be that it has buried the truth of what God designed the church to be. So when we try to tell people about who God is and how He loves them, they get hung up on the church.
· All they think about is that the church just wants their money,
· Or the church wants to make people be just like them,
· Or the church is full of a bunch of rules and regulations.
They are willing to find out about God, most Americans say they believe in God but their view of the church stops them cold.

They don’t trust us to tell them that their misconceptions of church are wrong, especially since they can walk into many churches where the very thing that turned them off is still going on.

Maybe you’re one of those people who have been turned off by the church. I will make you a promise, The River will be different! Listen why I explain what will make us different.

God has given us, as the church, the responsibility of telling people about His love for them, His acceptance of them and His desire for them to spend eternity with Him in Heaven.

1 Corinthians 5:19 (NLT) “So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!”

That’s our job! But how do we reach people with the good news of God’s love and acceptance when they are struggling with misconceptions of the church and their own personal struggles with acceptance, trust, brokenness, truth, and tolerance?

One word: GRACE!

Theologically grace is God giving us what we don’t deserve. In other words we don’t deserve forgiveness. We don’t deserve a purpose for our lives. We don’t deserve a future home in heaven. But God loves us and He gives it to us anyhow, that’s grace.

The church has always understood receiving the grace of God, what it has struggled with is extending personal grace to an undeserving world. It’s developed rules and regulations, expectations and standards; and it’s been very judgmental of people who don’t measure up.

It’s amazing to me is that those of us who have experienced the total acceptance and forgiveness and grace of God, that we did not deserve, do not offer that same grace to others; just like Jesus did.

Jesus was absolutely non-condemning. In fact the only time Jesus ever condemned anyone was when they were self-righteous and religiously pious! And that’s exactly what many non churched people think about the people in the church! They think the church is nothing but self-righteous and religiously pious people!

You say, how is the church self-righteous?
· I was at a church board meeting one time where they spent thirty minutes discussing what to do about a couple who came to church… wearing shorts!
Think about this, have you ever noticed how some people treat those who are different than they are?
· Those who have chosen to decorate their bodies with tattoos or piercings?
· How would you react to discover that the person sitting next to you in church was an alcoholic, a drug user, struggled with pornography, had an abortion, struggled with a sexual addiction or homosexuality, was living with someone they are not married to, or they had a prison record?
· How would you treat a Jew, a Mormon, an atheist, a Jehovah Witness, a Buddhist, a Muslim, Christian Scientist, a witch or a warlock?
· How about someone who is African American, Hispanic, Asian, Iraqi, Iranian, or Pakistani?
· What about a street person, a poor person, under privileged?
For years the church has turned away people who desperately need the love and acceptance that God offers. Instead they have condemned, criticized, and ostracized.

Or the church opened its arms to them and once they started attending or indicated that they were spiritually interested they dumped a bunch of rules and expectations on them and turned them off.

Part of the problem is the church has misunderstood part of the Great Commission.
Matthew 28:19-20 “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.”

Some think that teaching them to obey means that it’s our job to make people obey, to force obedience; often times forcing them to obey God even before they know God personally.

That’s not our job; that’s the job of the Holy Spirit!

So you have to ask yourself, what would Jesus do with the kind of people I just mentioned?

I know that sounds trite, but think about how Jesus treated the outcasts, the sick, the demon possessed, and the prostitutes. What did He do? HE LOVED THEM UNCONDITIONALLY!

He said in Matthew 11:28-30 (Msg) “Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”

Jesus said the answer to life’s problems, burdens, and issues is to come to Him, lay them on Him, and learn to live freely and lightly. You can’t do that under rules and regulations!

He said I won’t put anything heavy or ill fitting on you who are already struggling; instead He says I will show you grace, I will give to you freely what you do not deserve! Forgiveness from their past, a purpose for today, and a future home in heaven!

If that’s what Jesus would do, then so should we! The question is how? How do we show grace to others, no matter what their background, problems, or issues are?

We do it just like Jesus. We tell people; just come as you are! There are no perfect people at The River in fact there are no perfect people allowed at The River. So come as you are!

God doesn’t expect us to change anything to come to Him. He just says come as you are, and when He says that He means:
· You don’t have to dress a certain way or look a certain way
· You don’t have to Act a certain way
· You don’t have to Fit a certain lifestyle
· You don’t have to give money
· It doesn’t matter what your religious background is, your class or your socio-economic position.
Jesus says come as you are! Bring your baggage, your issues, and your problems. God loves you just as you are and we should do the same!

In fact…At The River we are working diligently to create a come as you are culture.

What our world needs more than anything else is real grace, not just talk about grace – but grace that seeks out people who are far from God and accepts them just like God does.

We want to create a culture at The River that is tolerant, loving accepting of people no matter what their background is, who or what they are, what they believe, or how the look or dress.

We will be completely loving and accepting…, just as God is, and just like God we will love people enough to help them be transformed into the image of His Son Jesus Christ.

In other words: come as you are; but once you know Jesus don’t plan on staying that way!
Romans 12:2 (CEV) “Don’t be like the people of this world, but let God change the way you think. Then you will know how to do everything that is good and pleasing to him”
Circle “let God change the way you think”

It’s God’s job to change people through the power of the Holy Spirit, not ours; and when God is ready to change a person, He will! Our job is to love them before, during, and after that happens!

So how do we do that? How do we practically practice this all accepting grace, just like Jesus did?

The answer comes in what is referred to as the Great Commandment. Jesus was asked, what’s the most important commandment?

Matthew 22:37&39 (NIV) “Jesus replied: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself.”

Jesus gives us two key values that ought to permeate our lives. If we are going to treat others like Jesus would then we have to learn to live these two commandments. First we must learn to…
1. love God with all our whole being

Matthew 22:37 (NIV) “Jesus replied: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.
Jesus says that a person’s total being must be involved in loving God. Nothing must be held back because God holds nothing back in loving us and He proved that by sending His Son to die on the cross for us.

Jesus used the words “heart,” “soul,” and “mind” to express the different and dimensions of our love for God. In other words He said we are to Love God with our whole being.

If we are going to love God with our whole being we cannot separate the heart from the soul or the mind.
· That would be like saying, “I will love God today with all my heart… while my soul and mind are otherwise occupied”.
· That’s not loving God, that’s just fooling ourselves into thinking we’re loving God.
The heart, soul, and mind must all function in harmony if we are going to love God with our whole being.

Let me explain these three functions of loving God:
· Heart refers to our emotional response. When we think about love, we usually stop with emotions. The roles of “soul” and “mind” become clear when our emotions or heart fail us.
So what do we do with the command to love God if we don’t feel like it? That’s where our soul and mind comes in.
· Soul includes the willful, decision-making part of us. Loving God with our soul covers those times when we love God apart from our feelings. Kind of like when we forgive someone who did us wrong while part of us still feels like taking revenge.
· Mind refers to the intelligent component of our love for God. In a world where faith is often described as characteristic of people who don’t think, Jesus’ says it’s important to engage our mind as a central aspect of what we believe.
Of course, loving God with our mind covers much more than just thinking about God, It takes into account being obedient to Him and His Word. Our soul and mind prove our love for God as we think through His commands and act accordingly.

Get this: the word for love here in the Greek refers to agape love, a totally unselfish love; a love of which we are only capable of with the help of the Holy Spirit. God’s Spirit helps us love him with our heart, soul and mind.

Jesus said we’re to love God with our whole being and we are to
2. love others for who they are

Matthew 22:39 (NIV) Jesus also said, “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

Think about it like this: We all love ourselves, some more than others, and as we love ourselves - we give ourselves grace.

That means we accept ourselves, with our flaws, faults, and failures. When we make a mistake, we say oops, I made a mistake, my bad! And we move on.
· We don’t beat ourselves up,
· We don’t ignore ourselves,
· We don’t put ourselves down.
· We don’t gossip about ourselves.
· We accept our mistakes.
We know we are different - and we accept our differences.

Jesus says, this is the second most important thing you can do. First you love ME then you love others. He places an extremely high value on loving others, second only to loving God!

How are we to love others?
· We accept them for who they are.
· We care about them even when they are different.
· We accept them and love them even when they make a mistake either on purpose or by accident.
· We accept them and love them even if they live a different lifestyle, values, skin color, or appearance.
We love others by accepting them just as they are.

And we’re in luck! God gives us a whole chapter on how to love others. Here’s a portion
1 Corinthians 13:4-8 “Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous, it does not brag, and it is not proud. Love is not rude, is not selfish, and does not become angry easily. Love does not remember wrongs done against it. Love is not happy with evil, but is happy with the truth. Love patiently accepts all things. It always trusts, always hopes, and always continues strong. Love never ends.”

I don’t have time to go through all this to help us understand all the nuances of love - so let’s focus on just the last part:
“Love patiently accepts all things. It always trusts, always hopes, and always continues strong. Love never ends.”

Basically, God says if we are going to love others as we love Him, we will accept everyone hoping for their best in Christ, and we love intensely never giving up.

That’s why the mission of The River begins with COME AS YOU ARE.
· That means we will accept you just as you are hoping and praying for your best… and your best comes when you discover God loves you!
· We say, no perfect people allowed, because there are no perfect people!

We don’t expect you to be perfect, we’re not perfect, you’re not perfect; and that’s OK! I’m not Ok, you’re not Ok and that is perfectly OK!
· It doesn’t matter who you are, what you have done, or what you are doing.
· It doesn’t matter what your background is, what your lifestyle is, or what you do for a living.
The only thing that matters is that God loves you unconditionally and so do we!

So come as you are; we want to help you to discover who Jesus is and what He has done for you. Take your time; investigate the claims of Christ and Christianity.

I am thoroughly convinced that whoever does that will begin a relationship with God through His Son Jesus Christ.