The message: God Love You: As You Are, Where You Are!

God Loves You: As you are, where you are

Rev. Lonnie Thoms

July 20, 2008

Speaking at: Worship on the Water & Cornerstone Community Church

I recently saw a sign on Niagara Falls Boulevard that read: “We finance your future, not your past.”

I found it quite intriguing… In a small way they are suggesting that what you did in the past isn’t being held against you. It’s not about past mistakes, it’s about the present and future.

The unfortunate thing as we get older is that we get more skeptical about whether a person can change. We hear rhetorical statements like: “Can a leopard change its spots?”; “Can a tiger change its stripes?”

Even people who “get religion” are looked at suspiciously. They just wait for them to mess up to point a finger at and say, “See, I told you it doesn’t work!”

What they are suggesting is that suddenly the person should have sprouted wings and a halo and begun to live like a saint, perfect in all aspects of their life. That’s a myth, and it isn’t what the bible teaches. The bible teaches that everyone has messed up, ( Romans 3:23 for all have sinned…) but that through Jesus Christ, God made a way for us to be forgiven and start again (Acts 2:38 Peter replied, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. ) . It tells us in 2 Corinthians 5:17 that, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!

There is a definite work that is begun in the heart of the person. The bible tells us in Philippians 1:6 “being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” It’s going to take time.

I’m not an expert on restoring classic cars by any stretch of my imagination, but I know that it takes time and care to make that pile of metal into something you can take to the car show. One man sees a pile of junk and another sees a classic waiting to become what it was meant to be. There in lies the difference.

Someone here needs to know that God loves you as you are, where you are. He thinks you are valuable enough that He’s going to put time and energy into you. He wants to adopt you into His family (Ephesians 1:5 he decided beforehand (predestined) that we should be adopted as his children…).

Speaking of adoption, I read a touching story on Sunday July 13^th from MSNBC about Emma Grace.

AP story: EMMA’S GRACE:

You see, Emma was given up not once, but twice — once by her 23-year-old birth mother, a drug user who knew she could never care for the baby, and then by a 48-year-old adoptive mother who backed out when she learned of Emma's heart condition. When Daniel & Elizabeth Monroe heard about this little girl they knew that God had answered their prayers. Unphased by the heart condition they considered her worth taking home and keeping and loving. It’s truly a wonderful story. (Picture by: Wilfredo Lee / AP)

It illustrates a great truth about how God sees you and I. It doesn’t matter the condition of our heart or the cost to care for us, to adopt us into His family, God was willing to take care of everything. And in Jesus Christ he did. The bible says in John 3:16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. Verse 17 continues “God did not send His son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him.” God sent Jesus to redeem us, to buy us back. And anyone who believes in Jesus, not just about Jesus, but place their faith in Jesus, would have everlasting life.

The world believes in reinventing ourselves. The God of the Bible believes in reconstruction from the inside out. It’s not about outward tattoos, piercing, or hair products, it’s about the God of the universe living in us and changing us moment by moment, day by day, with His Holy Spirit. You can see the damage that unholy spirits cause, imagine the power of the Holy Spirit living and working in you and I!

Someone here just can’t. Can’t wrap their head and heart around the idea.

That’s because you’ve never met people like my friend Darrell, who was in bondage to drugs and alcohol when God got a hold of Him and changed his life. Darrell is a pastor today in Wisconsin because God can change the life of anyone.

You don’t know Hanson. A former card carrying Atheist. Yes, I said former. You see as much as she didn’t want to intellectually believe that Jesus Christ was real, she came into contact with people who have been changed by God, and ultimately she couldn’t run from God. I remember the day she burst into my office. She said, “Pastor, I have to talk with you NOW!” “I was minding my own business headed to class when all of a sudden I hear this, ‘Hanson do you believe in me?’. And before I could say, ‘no’ I said, “Yes, Jesus I believe in you.” “I couldn’t deny that Jesus was God at that moment!” Needless to say, she was pretty animated and the profanity was flying and I was telling myself, “WOW God got a hold of Hanson!” She was in a bit of a quandary because she was on her way to have lunch with three of the top women atheists in Iowa City, IA. She asked, “Do I go?” And I said, “YEA! You go and tell them what just happened.” So she did and came back to me telling me how venomous their attack was when she explained that she had come to believe in Jesus Christ. She’s got an amazing story.

God loves you, as you are, where you are.

It’s hard to believe that sometimes when you come into contact with people who call themselves Christians and yet stand in judgment on you. Giving you the look. Acting all self-righteous and all. I apologize for them and ask that you look in the bible at how God sees you and how Jesus interacted with others. Two quick real stories from the bible… they happen to involve two women. (I actually summarized the two passages and encouraged everyone to actually read it to see if I was telling the truth!)

John 4 (New International Version)

1 The Pharisees heard that Jesus was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John, 2 although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. 3 When the Lord learned of this, he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee.

4 Now he had to go through Samaria. 5 So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour.

7 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, "Will you give me a drink?" 8 (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)

9 The Samaritan woman said to him, "You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?" (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)

10 Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water."

11 "Sir," the woman said, "you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his flocks and herds?"

13 Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."

15 The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water so that I won't get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water."

16 He told her, "Go, call your husband and come back."

17 "I have no husband," she replied.

Jesus said to her, "You are right when you say you have no husband. 18 The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true."

19 "Sir," the woman said, "I can see that you are a prophet. 20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem."

21 Jesus declared, "Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth."

25The woman said, "I know that Messiah" (called Christ) "is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us."

26Then Jesus declared, "I who speak to you am he."

27Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, "What do you want?" or "Why are you talking with her?"

28 Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, 29 "Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ?" 30 They came out of the town and made their way toward him.

31 Meanwhile his disciples urged him, "Rabbi, eat something."

32 But he said to them, "I have food to eat that you know nothing about."

33 Then his disciples said to each other, "Could someone have brought him food?"

34 "My food," said Jesus, "is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. 35 Do you not say, 'Four months more and then the harvest'? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. 36 Even now the reaper draws his wages, even now he harvests the crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. 37 Thus the saying 'One sows and another reaps' is true. 38 I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor."

39 Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman's testimony, "He told me everything I ever did." 40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. 41 And because of his words many more became believers.

42 They said to the woman, "We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world."

John 8 (New International Version)

1 But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. 2 At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. 3The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group 4and said to Jesus, "Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. 5In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?" 6They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him.

But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. 7When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, "If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her." 8Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.

9At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. 10Jesus straightened up and asked her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?"

11"No one, sir," she said.
"Then neither do I condemn you," Jesus declared. "Go now and leave your life of sin."

CLOSING for Worship on the Water:

You see God loves you, as you are, where you are. But because He loves you He doesn’t want to leave you in the sin and the mess but wants to clean you up inside out.

Someone is saying to themselves… “That’s nice, but I’ll come to God when I get my act together.” You don’t get cleaned up to take a bath do you?! That’s crazy! But that’s what we you suggest… I can pull myself together. Truth be told we can’t keep it together that long. Maybe 3 months before we get sucked back in. God knows we can’t do it. He gave the 10 commandments to show us that apart from Him we can’t live all that out either. Summed up (Luke 10:27) Jesus said those commandments meant to love God and others. And you know that it’s pretty difficult to forgive another person when they wrong you. That’s why we need God. Because His power working in us makes us what we aught to be, and deep down, what we really long to be.

Today is your day if you have never placed your faith in Jesus. You can make up all the excuses but the truth is your beef isn’t with me, it’s with God. He’s got the final say according to the Bible. This isn’t a condemnation, it’s an encouragement. God does love you, as you are, where you are. Today will you love Him back, as you are, where you are?

I’m not a high powered pressure salesman, so if you need some time I’ll understand. I have a business card that you can take to contact me later, or if you attend a church that really does believe that Jesus is who He claimed to be, your pastor can have that conversation with you. I just encourage you to do it soon.

Thanks for listening. I pray that you never recover from today.

(Church Closing)

Our encouragement as a Church is to show the kindness and love of Christ to others. You’ve probably heard the saying, “People don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care.”

Remember the kids? I tried this once before… wrap your arms around yourself. Now try to hug someone. It doesn’t work does it?! That’s because we have to open ourselves up. You have to embrace the other person. I’m not suggesting that we take on the other persons habits and hang ups… I’m saying that we have to walk with them a while to gain their trust, and to keep it, we have to continually come back to the biblical model of relationship which involves loving others unconditionally… no strings attached. There are people that rub us the wrong way, but even the bible tells us in 1 Peter 4:8 “Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.”

May the Lord make us a community of unity.

I was watching the movie 10,000 BC and toward the end a conversation started about the kind of people there are out there. Some have a circle only big enough for themselves. Others enlarge their circle to include a few more. Still others enlarge their circle so much that they can encompass more people.

What kind of church are we? What kind of church do we want to be? Who we impact will determine the size of circle that we are willing to create together. As a point of reference, God’s circle included everyone. God loves them as they are, where they are. Will we?