I want to talk to you today about how God loves imperfect people. I am a preacher’s daughter, and I grew
up as a child who rebelled against just about everyone, simply because of their
holier-than-thou attitude. This was something that drove me away from God and
his plan. I made some very poor choices in my life and God allowed it to happen
because it was all in his plan for my life, because of which I found my way
back to Him. I can relate to people who have blown it, who have had a rough
past. I want to say to you that God loves imperfect people. As you read more I
pray that you are surrounded by His love…
Most of the time we believe that God loves us and is on our
side as long as we are making good decisions, resisting temptation and treating
people right, but the problem with this
kind of reasoning is that we all make mistakes. No matter how good of a person
you are there will be time when you don’t perform perfectly times that you have
doubts, times that you fail, you know you should bite your tongue but you told
them off any way, you said it will be the last time but you gave into compromise once again. When we don’t
perform perfectly, its easy to think that Gods love is far from us, “ I blew it
God would never have anything to do with me” I have heard people say to my dad
“ Pastor, would you pray for me, I know God would never hear my prayers, not
with the life I have lived, not with the mistakes I have made” I say this respectfully but sometimes religion
pushes people down. It says if you turn your back on God, God will turn His back on you. If you made poor choices
don’t expect God to bail you out it was your own fault. Now the truth is : when you fall
God doesn’t turn away from you, he comes running towards you, when you blow it,
He doesn’t say, you had your chance, instead he comes running after you with a
greater passion. Heard someone say, When you make a mistake God
doesn’t love you the same, He loves you a little bit more. So much so that He
pursues you, He will turn up the intensity. He won’t leave you alone until he
sees you back up on your feet again on the right course. In other words
God will express his love in a greater way. He will send people across your
path to encourage you, to help re-ignite your faith. May be your walking thru
the neighbor hood and you hear church bells ringing and you feel a warmness on
the inside, that’s the mercy of God coming after you saying, “you may have blown it but
your still my child”. “ you may have let me down, but I’m not going to let you
down, you may have lost faith in me but I havn’t lost faith in you”
We don’t have to have a perfect performance where we never
have a doubt, we never make a mistake, and certainly, we should try our best
each day to honor God but what I’m saying is : don’t beat yourself up all the
time, God loves imperfect people. Think about Peter, before Jesus chose him to
become a disciple Jesus knew that Peter would deny him, but He chose him in any
way. God knows every mistake that we will ever make, all of our days have been written in His book
from the beginning to the end. God knows every time you will fail, every time
you will take the easy way out, every time you will lose your temper….the good news is God still chose you.
He still says that’s my child and He will still help you fulfill your destiny.
Why? Because Gods love is not based on our performance, it’s based on our
relationship, we are His children. When Jesus was about to be crucified He said
to Peter, ‘ you will deny me three times, before the rooster crows tonight’ Peter said,’ No Jesus, I’m your most faithful
disciple, I’ll stick with you thru thick and thin, I’ll be with you thru the
very end”. They arrested Jesus, Peter
was watching it all take place from a distance, a young lady came over and
pointed at Peter and said, “He’s one of His followers, I’ve seen this man with
Jesus”, Peter said “No, Ma’am you’ve got it wrong, you’re mistaken, I don’t
know the man’. He denied Him once, then he did it a second time. The third time
the girl came back even more emphatically and said to the guards, “I know he is
one of His followers, Im certain that I’ve seen this man with Jesus”, this time
Peter got upset. He was probably cursing and swearing, saying “Girl! What are
you talking about? You’re making all of this up, I’ve never seen the man!”
Right on queue the rooster crowed. Jesus looked over at Peter their eyes met,
you can imagine how Peter must have felt. When Jesus needed him the most, when
He was at His lowest moment, If Jesus ever needed a friend to stick up for Him
it would have been a moment like this, but Peter didn’t do it! The scripture
says, Peter went out and wept bitterly, he felt ashamed, no doubt he was
beating himself up thinking “ Peter what
is wrong with you, How could you be such a coward” Not long after that they
crucified Jesus, Peter never had a chance to make things right, He never had
the chance to say Jesus I’m sorry, I blew it, I promise I will be there for you
next time . He had to carry the guilt, the heaviness of betraying his friend,
the Messiah, whom he dearly loved. We’ve all made mistakes, we’ve all failed,
but none of us have failed as big as Peter. None of us have denied Christ when
He needed us the most, when He was about to be crucified. You would think Peter
would have missed his destiny, surely God wouldn’t have anything to do with him…but
know when you make a mistake God doesn’t turn away from you, He turns to you,
He doesn’t love you less, He loves you more, He comes after you. They crucified
Jesus on a Friday afternoon, Sunday morning Mary went to the tomb, to check on
His body. When she arrived, she found that the stone had been rolled away, she
went in and the angel appeared and said,” Mary don’t be afraid, Jesus is not
hear He has risen.” Now go tell His disciples
and Peter that He is alive. Out of all the people in the world, at this
historic moment, God could have mentioned so many other people, but the only
person whom He specifically pointed out to was Peter. God was saying, “ Peter I
know you think I’m disappointed with you, and I know that you thing I don’t
want to have anything to do with you but Peter, that’s not who I am, I am the
God of another chance, when you fall I come running towards you ,when you turn
your back on me, I don’t turn your back on you.” Today God is saying,” I’m not
only alive, but I still love you, I still believe in you, If you will let go of
the guilt and move forward I will still get you to where your supposed to be.”
Now you have to do your part and receive Gods mercy. If Peter would have
listened to the accusing voices and gone around beating himself up, he would
have gotten stuck where he was. I can imagine what went thru his head when he
heard Mary saying, Peter the angel specifically said to tell you that Jesus is
alive… He would have said, “Mary did you hear him say ‘tell Peter’?”, when she said yes,
something ignited on the inside, he shook of the guilt, he shook of the self
pity, and would have said to himself ‘I may have blown it in the past but that
doesn’t need to keep me from my future. I’m still going to become what I am
created to be’. Not long after that
Peter went out and ministered and three thousand people came to know the lord,
the most ever recorded in the scripture. It would have never happened if Peter
did not understand this principle. God doesnt write us off when we make
mistakes, God doesn’t cancel our destiny because we have taken a few detours.
Some of you today look down on yourselves coz you’re not where you thought you
will be in life, you have made some poor choices, now your letting the guilt
weigh you down, that heaviness is keeping you from Gods best. But just like God
specifically called Peters names He’s calling your name today, saying tell
John, tell James, tell Sherly, tell Maria,
tell Priya, tell Santhosh I’ve forgiven them, I’m not disappointed in them, I’m
not withholding my blessing I still have an amazing future in front of them. Gods
calling your name today, he’s running towards you.
The scripture talks about the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac
and the God of Jacob. I can understand how he is the God of Abraham, Abraham is
the father of our faith. I can understand how he’s the God of Isaac, Isaac was
extremely obedient, even willing to be sacrificed but when it says that God is
the God of Jacob that doesn’t make a lot of sense. Jacob was a cheater, he went
around deceiving people, he stole his brother’s birthright. Jacob was known for
making poor choices. Yet God is called the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
What was God saying? I’m not just the God of Perfect people, I’m not just the God of
people that have never made a mistake, I am the God of people that have failed.
I’m the God of people that have blown it, I am the God of people that have had
a rough past. It’s interesting to note that later in Jacobs life. he
changed his ways, he got his life straightened out. God changed his name from
Jacob to Israel, that was to signify his new beginning. God could have been
known as the God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, that seems to make more sense. that
was his new name, he was restored and redeemed, now God on purpose left it as
the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob to forever settle it that He is not only
God of the perfect people but He is God of the imperfect people. You may have
made mistakes, but be encouraged, that He is the God of Jacob, He is still your
God. You may have lost your temper, struggled with an addiction, compromised
your integrity, don’t beat yourself up He is the God of Jacob, he is your God
too.
In the book of John, there was a woman that was married five
times and she was living with a sixth
man, you can imagine the heartache and pain that she would have gone thru, I’m
sure she got beaten down by life, not really living but just existing. Jesus
was about to travel to another city. He told his disciples ‘I must go thru
Samaria’. They said ‘No Jesus, that’s the long way. There is short cut, a much
quicker route’ and tried to talk Jesus out of it. But he said ‘No, you don’t
understand, I must go thru Samaria, there is a woman there that feels condemned,
that’s about to give up on life, I must go and express my love to her. I’ve got to go and encourage her and get her
back on the right course’. She was known as the woman at the well. Do you know
that the first person that Jesus revealed himself to as the Messiah was not the
religious leaders, not the priests and the rabbis in the synagogue it was this
woman. A woman that had made mistakes, a woman that was beaten down by life, an
imperfect person, that one encounter changed her life. But too many people like her are sitting on the sidelines
like her, they feel that they have blown it many times, they’ve failed, they
havn’t measured up. They are letting the accusing voices tell them that they
are all washed up, that God’s disappointed in them , that they can’t expect Gods favor Now you have to get this truth down in your
spirits, you may have made mistakes, but God is not running from you, He’s
running to you. He doesn’t love you
less, he loves you more. He is expressing his love today. You wouldn’t be
reading this, if God wasn’t reaching out to you today, now get rid of the guilt,
shake of the condemnation, quit thinking about being what should have been and
get back in the game, your not supposed to sit on the side lines. God is not
disappointed in you. Nothing you’ve done is a surprise to God. You got to do
your part and start moving forward, you can still fulfill your destiny,
God’s mercy is bigger than any mistake you have made.
The scripture talks about, how God searches the earth to
show himself strong in people whose hearts aren’t perfect toward him. It
doesn’t say that Gods looking for a perfect performance, but Gods looking for
people that have a heart that’s turned perfect toward him. That means if you
get up each day with a desire to please God, if deep down you really want to
honor Him, then like Peter you will have times that you fail, you wanted to resist
but you gave in, the good news is that does not cancel your destiny. Your
performance may not be perfect but because your heart is perfect toward God he
still has something perfect towards your future. No matter what you’ve done,
you can’t change the past, learn from your mistakes but don’t get stuck in the
past there, keep moving forward. Receive God’s mercy. Be bold enough to say ‘God
I blew it. I know I should have done better. But God I know your not holding it
against me, I know your not the God of just Abraham but the God of Jacob too,
the God of imperfect people. ‘
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