Introduction:
When you deal with human beings, you have come to the “as is” corner of the universe. Think for a moment about someone in your life. Maybe the person you know best, love most. That person is slightly irregular. That person comes with a little tag: “There’s a flaw here.” A streak of deception, a cruel tongue, a passive spirit, an out-of-control temper. I’m not going to tell you where it is, but it’s there, so when you find it, and you will find it, don’t be surprised. If you want to enter a relationship with this model, there is only one way – “as is.”
I. We are tempted to live under the illusion that somewhere out there, are people who are normal.
Psalm 39:1-13 MSG
1-3 I’m determined to watch steps and tongue, so they won’t land me in trouble. I decided to hold my tongue as long as Wicked is in the room. “Mum’s the word,” I said, and kept quiet. But the longer I kept silence the worse it got— my insides got hotter and hotter.My thoughts boiled over; I spilled my guts. 4-6 “Tell me, what’s going on, God? How long do I have to live? Give me the bad news! You’ve kept me on pretty short rations; my life is a string too short to be saved. Oh! we’re all puffs of air. Oh! we’re all shadows in a campfire. Oh! we’re just spit in the wind. We make our pile, and then we leave it. 7-11 “What am I doing in the meantime, Lord? Hoping, that’s what I’m doing—hoping You’ll save me from a rebel life, save me from the contempt of idiots. I’ll say no more, I’ll shut my mouth, since you, Lord, are behind all this. But I can’t take it much longer. When you put us through the fire to purge us from our sin, our dearest idols go up in smoke. Are we also nothing but smoke? 12-13 “Ah, God, listen to my prayer, my cry—open your ears. Don’t be callous; just look at these tears of mine. I’m a stranger here. I don’t know my way—a migrant like my whole family. Give me a break, cut me some slack before it’s too late and I’m out of here.”
A. When we enter relationships with the illusion that people are
In a community - including the community of faith - I decide to overlook the flaws of others and not assign motive to every perceived wrong.
B. One of the great marks of
Those who love their dream of a Christian community more than a Christian community itself become destroyers of that Christian community even though their personal intentions may be ever so honest, earnest, and sacrificial.
C. We all want to look
Isaiah 53:6 NKJV
All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way…
Romans 3:23 NKJV
…for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
Genesis 4:1-12 MSG
1 Adam slept with Eve his wife. She conceived and had Cain. She said, “I’ve gotten a man, with God’s help!” 2 Then she had another baby, Abel. Abel was a herdsman and Cain a farmer. 3-5 Time passed. Cain brought an offering to God from the produce of his farm. Abel also brought an offering, but from the firstborn animals of his herd, choice cuts of meat. God liked Abel and his offering, but Cain and his offering didn’t get his approval. Cain lost his temper and went into a sulk. 6-7 God spoke to Cain: “Why this tantrum? Why the sulking? If you do well, won’t you be accepted? And if you don’t do well, sin is lying in wait for you, ready to pounce; it’s out to get you, you’ve got to master it.” 8 Cain had words with his brother. They were out in the field; Cain came at Abel his brother and killed him. 9 God said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” He said, “How should I know? Am I his babysitter?” 10-12 God said, “What have you done! The voice of your brother’s blood is calling to me from the ground. From now on you’ll get nothing but curses from this ground; you’ll be driven from this ground that has opened its arms to receive the blood of your murdered brother. You’ll farm this ground, but it will no longer give you its best. You’ll be a homeless wanderer on Earth.”
Genesis 37:1-11 MSG
1 Meanwhile Jacob had settled down where his father had lived, the land of Canaan. 2 This is the story of Jacob. The story continues with Joseph, seventeen years old at the time, helping out his brothers in herding the flocks. These were his half brothers actually, the sons of his father’s wives–concubines Bilhah and Zilpah. And Joseph brought his father bad reports on them. 3-4 Israel loved Joseph more than any of his other sons because he was the child of his old age. And he made him an elaborately embroidered coat. When his brothers realized that their father loved him more than them, they grew to hate him—they wouldn’t even speak to him. 5-7 Joseph had a dream. When he told it to his brothers, they hated him even more. He said, “Listen to this dream I had. We were all out in the field gathering bundles of wheat. All of a sudden my bundle stood straight up and your bundles circled around it and bowed down to mine.” 8 His brothers said, “So! You’re going to rule us? You’re going to boss us around?” And they hated him more than ever because of his dreams and the way he talked. 9 He had another dream and told this one also to his brothers: “I dreamed another dream—the sun and moon and eleven stars bowed down to me!” 10-11 When he told it to his father and brothers, his father reprimanded him: “What’s with all this dreaming? Am I and your mother and your brothers all supposed to bow down to you?” Now his brothers were really jealous; but his father brooded over the whole business.
D. Every one of us have
A FUNDAMENTAL INSIGHT FOR ALL RELATIONSHIPS - EVERYBODY IS A LITTLE WEIRD! THANK GOD FOR GRACE.
Isaiah 53:1-6 MSG
1 Who believes what we’ve heard and seen? Who would have thought God’s saving power would look like this? 2-6 The servant grew up before God - a scrawny seedling, a scrubby plant in a parched field. There was nothing attractive about him, nothing to cause us to take a second look. He was looked down on and passed over, a man who suffered, who knew pain firsthand. One look at him and people turned away. We looked down on him, thought he was scum. But the fact is, it was our pains he carried - our disfigurements, all the things wrong with us. We thought he brought it on himself, that God was punishing him for his own failures. But it was our sins that did that to him, that ripped and tore and crushed him - our sins! He took the punishment, and that made us whole. Through his bruises we get healed. We’re all like sheep who’ve wandered off and gotten lost. We’ve all done our own thing, gone our own way. And God has piled all our sins, everything we’ve done wrong, on him, on him.
II. Can you believe it, and they seemed so normal.
A. In a
B. And the fact that
C. Why is the community we call church so important?
- It provides a sense of being
- It pulls us into something
- We need
- We need to be
- We need to bind ourselves to each other with promises of
- It is in this community that you discover that God is the
II Corinthians 5:14-21 MSG
11-14 That keeps us vigilant, you can be sure. It’s no light thing to know that we’ll all one day stand in that place of Judgment. That’s why we work urgently with everyone we meet to get them ready to face God. God alone knows how well we do this, but I hope you realize how much and deeply we care. We’re not saying this to make ourselves look good to you. We just thought it would make you feel good, proud even, that we’re on your side and not just nice to your face as so many people are. If I acted crazy, I did it for God; if I acted overly serious, I did it for you. Christ’s love has moved me to such extremes. His love has the first and last word in everything we do. 14-15 Our firm decision is to work from this focused center: One man died for everyone. That puts everyone in the same boat. He included everyone in his death so that everyone could also be included in his life, a resurrection life, a far better life than people ever lived on their own. 16-20 Because of this decision we don’t evaluate people by what they have or how they look. We looked at the Messiah that way once and got it all wrong, as you know. We certainly don’t look at him that way anymore. Now we look inside, and what we see is that anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start, is created new. The old life is gone; a new life emerges! Look at it! All this comes from the God who settled the relationship between us and him, and then called us to settle our relationships with each other. God put the world square with himself through the Messiah, giving the world a fresh start by offering forgiveness of sins. God has given us the task of telling everyone what he is doing. We’re Christ’s representatives. God uses us to persuade men and women to drop their differences and enter into God’s work of making things right between them. We’re speaking for Christ himself now: Become friends with God; he’s already a friend with you. 21 How? you ask. In Christ. God put the wrong on him who never did anything wrong, so we could be put right with God.
D. People who live for
despair.
E. We were created to draw life and nourishment from one another the way that the
Community - living in vital connectedness with others - is essential to human life.
- Community is the place God made us to
- Community is the place where God