Note from SOLA: This video was recorded during The SOLA Conference 2019. Below is a transcript of the video. It has been lightly edited for readability.
We do live in a very broken, fallen world. More often than intellectual or theological excuses or objections against the Gospel, more than theological or intellectual objections against the church, I have found so often people who have stories of pain, stories where they were turned off, and they just don’t want anything to do with the church or things of Christ or the Gospel.
There are many many Sundays I feel utterly unworthy to belong to a church, let alone be a pastor and speak about the word of God in front of his people. But the church is meant to be a gift.
I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone complain or loathe going to like the Ellen DeGeneres Show especially during the holiday seasons. People will line up, they’ll get there on time. They’re giddy and they’re so ecstatic about getting into the show because once you get into that show especially on Thanksgiving or Christmastime she gives away these free gifts — lavish, expensive gifts — and people are just so excited about receiving these gifts.
I do think the church is meant to give you gifts that the world can never deliver. It might be through stuttering, ordinary means — breaking bread, sharing a cup, listening to the Word of God through someone who may not be clear or cogent that day, a song that takes beautiful gospel lyrics, and it somehow pierces your soul.
The church of Jesus is meant to be a gift — to breathe new life into our souls, to give us hope when we think we’re finished. His blood, his grace is greater than all of our sins — past, present, and future. And so Jesus does welcome us in, especially when we feel like we’re not worthy to fit in.
“The church of Jesus is meant to be a gift — to breathe new life into our souls, to give us hope when we think we’re finished.”
I think it was Kevin Hart’s meme that went something like this: Not going to church because of hypocrites is like not going to the gym because you find out-of-shape people there.
So not going to church because of spiritually out-of-shape people, people who are not consistently, regularly living out what they say they believe, and sometimes really diseased or dysfunctional, is akin to not going to the gym because we find so many out-of-shape people there.
I thank God that the church is a people of God, no matter what shape you’re in. There are seasons of inconsistency, there are inexcusable seasons, and maybe lifetimes of unrepentant hypocrisy. But I do thank God that Jesus came for hypocrites, tricksters, frauds, the fake, Pharisees, the prodigal, for all kinds of people, like me.