Have you ever felt like you just aren't good enough to serve Jesus - maybe because of something you have done or something that was done to you? This Sunday we will explore Peter's denial of Jesus on the eve of His crucifixion, and what this event teaches us about failure, redemption, hope and perseverance. Check out Lk. 22:21-23, 31-34, 54-62; and John 21:15-19.
If you are like me, it is easy to find yourself in Peter's sandals. The good news is, God is not surprised by your sin, failure or dysfunction. God calls us while we are sinners (Romans 5:8). He makes us His while we are completely incapable of living as He desires (Ephesians 2:1-3), apart from His soul transforming love and grace (Ephesians 2:4-10, 2 Corinthians 5:17). We are completely dependent upon God to be and do what He demands of us.
Amazingly, as we walk with Him by faith, God uses imperfect people like us to accomplish His perfect purposes on earth. While God does not need us, He loves us and is in control over every detail in our lives. This means that our sin, failure and dysfunction, like every part of our lives is completely under His sovereign control and part of His perfect plan to glorify Himself through us. Morever, as we will see, our weaknesses do not disqualify us from growing in Christ and shining His light in the world. They actually qualify us to experience and reflect God's amazing grace through the "cracks" in our lives (2 Corinthians 12:9).
How refreshing to know Jesus is not waiting for us to become perfect or to put the pieces of our lives together before He will use us. He calls us simply to admit we are a mess apart from him, invite Him to wrap us in His immovable perfection, and trust Him to transform us from the inside out - as He uses us in our imperfections to shine His light to imperfect people.
You don't have to have it all together to live for Jesus. Quite the opposite. As we learn from the life of Peter, you are actually at your weakest when you think you are standing strong. It is only as you acknowledge your weakness and desperate need for God that you become (spiritually) strong, because God's perfect power is most prevalent in our lives when we admit our brokenness and submit all that we are (and are not) to Him.
What does this stir in your heart and mind? What questions does this raise? Maybe you would like to respond to last week's sermon on cultivating a righteous fury against sin. Your call. Let's blog.
pastor john
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
Perfect Imperfection
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11 comments:
Christians don't like imperfection much--not in our world and especially not in ourselves or our churches. Somewhere along the line, we have embraced a picture of a Jesus who would turn us into perfect people unpolluted by the world or our own sin. But He didn't. In Him we are new creations; in ourselves we are dump dwellers. Longing for our full redemption, we strive to please Him and grown in our falleness and bask in his beauty. For whatever reason, Jesus didn't choose to instantly sanitize the whole lot of us. We often think he did, though, so we spend a lot of time running around with mops and buckets getting ready for bunk inspection. In our kingdoms, we begin to think we can fix all our imperfections. In Jesus' kingdom, He alone can start with our imperfections and accomplish something we never could have imagined. And He does.
Well said money man.
Well I say 'Hallelujah!!!!!" to imperfection, imperfection in you and in me. Without our imperfections we would not full appreciate, love or follow Jesus the way God intended. I wouldn’t fully appreciate the gift that God has given me without having been so imperfect to start with. God Is Good.
Yah - I love that God actually uses our imperfections to accomplish His perfect will!
A year ago, now, I came out of a situation where this message would never have come up. The people at this church, a good portion of them college students, were (and still are) so concerned with looking the part. With appearing that they had it all together. Some of them put all their spare time, obsessively, into the church. Trying to be accepted by the families in power as being, at the very least, worthy of serving in an area suited to them. They were mean and spiteful behind closed doors, but out together they were "nice". Coming out of that situation made me so grateful that I'm imperfect. Honestly, it's less stressful. I can just be me, how I was created to be, and the only worry I have is how to best fulfill what God has planned for me.
Very refreshing Mariah. Thank you.
I wanted to talk about the illustration used during the sermon yesterday. It struck me that I couldn't even see the vase while the light was pouring out of it. I thought that was a hopeful image; that others could see the light of Christ instead of me.
But all I can think about now is the smoke and the disaster that was averted.
Thank you Kim.
Yah that was unintentional. But I feel what you are saying. In the end, it does not matter if I am seen or not, just that the light of Christ is seen. Very cool observation. And I too am grateful to Kim for saving us all to live another day for Him!
What boss in his right mind would give a promotion before the work is done? Not only is God offering you a promotion without meeting the requirements, but He’s doing the work and giving you the raise. In a world where everything comes with a price it’s hard to grasp the concept of free. You don’t trust it because you’ve been burned so many times before. Free is never really free and “as you are” just seems so unbelievable. We believe it, we just don’t believe it.
Powerful and beautiful, though inexplicable. God lavishes His grace upon us in Christ.
I've been an imperfect christian for the few years that I've been a christian.I'm Simon Roberts and live in Australia.I spent many years of my life as a drug addict and it's only pretty recently that it has and is falling away from me, as I am knowing Him more
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