Church (Take Me Back) DevotionalSample

A SHELTER FOR THE SINNER

I have several friends who choose not to be a part of a local church for different reasons, but the most common reason they voice to me goes something like this: “I don’t want to go to that place, it’s full of hypocrites.” As a worship pastor for 7 years, I understand their frustration. People are messy, and when you put a bunch of messy people together, it often gets messier. But if we’re being honest, none of us always do the things we say we should all the time. We all make mistakes. We’ve all said one thing and done another. On some level, we’re all hypocrites. And on every level, we’re all sinners. 

Imagine walking in to a fitness center only to immediately turn around and leave when you saw out-of-shape people working out inside. That wouldn’t make much sense right? After all, isn’t that what the gym is for? To get into shape? The same is true for the Church. We shouldn’t want to turn around and leave when we encounter spiritually “out-of-shape” people, but instead, we should rejoice that they, like us, are in a place designed to help them get into shape. Jesus spoke of this when he said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

Jesus calls us to come as we are. Romans 3:23 says, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”. The humbling truth is…we’re all in the same boat. But the life-giving, joy-filling, soul-saving GOOD news comes in the next verse: “and are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus”. Jesus came for sinners like me; to save, to love, and send us out. Thankfully, the Church is not for perfect people, but for broken people in need of a perfect Savior. “It’s not a trophy for the winners, it’s a shelter for the sinners, and it’s right where I belong”.