I
am a paradox even to myself. I have been in local church ministry for over four
decades and love the fact that God has used me in this way, and I love the
church. But I am not a people person. I don’t need people and am very comfortable
being with my family or being alone. I serve a God who loves people and wants
people to know Him and love Him.
Jesus
not only loves people, but He loves messy, broken people. Jesus says He didn’t
come to call the righteous but sinners. Jesus also said that He came to seek and
save the lost. Paul writes in Romans 5:6-8, “For while we were still weak, at
the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a
righteous person – though perhaps for a good person one would dare to die – but
God shows His love for us in that while were still sinners, Christ died for
us.”
Jesus
died for us when we were:
Weak
Ungodly
Sinners
We
were not good people when Jesus died for us, and we were not good people when
Jesus called us to follow Him. We as disciples and followers of Jesus are to
love the weak and the ungodly and the sinners.
We
many times struggle with loving the people who are messy and broken. We tend to
view them as an enemy. We need to view them as Jesus did, as victims.
Paul
says 2 Corinthians 4:4, “In their case the god of this world has blinded the
mind of unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the
glory of Christ, who is the image of God.”
Those
who are weak, ungodly sinners have been blinded by Satan from seeing the truth
of the gospel, God’s love and His grace that led to Jesus dying for every
human. We have been given the privilege to be about showing them the truth of
the gospel by how we love and accept them.
Raise
the Roof and Remove the Walls is loving as Jesus loved and loving who Jesus
loved.
But
not only did Jesus love messy broken people, and not only does Jesus love
broken and messy people, but Jesus will also never not love or turn away from
any of us.
Hebrews
13:5 says, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”
Romans
8:37-39 says, “No, in these things we are more than conquerors through Him who
loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor
things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor
anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God
in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
The
promise given to us in these two passages is that Jesus will not ever turn His
back on us and that He will always love us no matter what.
In
John 10:29-30 Jesus says, “My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than
all, and no is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father
are one.”
God
does not lose anyone who puts their faith in Him. Jesus and the Father are one,
the same, so no one can snatch us out of Jesus’ hand.
Ephesians
2:8-9 tells us that we are saved by grace through faith and that it is not by
works, doing all the right stuff, so that no one can boast about it.
Our
salvation is not based on us, our working to deserving it, but it is based on
God’s grace and our faith in Him.
Jesus
does not change, so neither does how He provides salvation or how He views us
as His human creation.
Raise
the Roof and Remove the Walls is trusting Jesus for our salvation and
knowing it is by God’s grace to us and that His love for us will never change.
I
see a nation divided by hate and anger.
I
see marriages falling apart.
I
see families being destroyed.
I
see a generation losing itself to addiction and lies.
The
answer for all this is knowing Jesus and living in a loving personal
relationship with Him. We as disciples and followers of Jesus have the answer.
The question is: Will we show our nation and the world the answer?
Experiencing the
Reality of Jesus and
Raising the Roof and
Removing the Walls,
Joe
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