I have a neighbor with a perfect lawn, it's immaculate. He has beautiful flowers, precisely trimmed trees and shrubs, deep green fluffy grass, and professional landscaping. Compare to mine where the grass is kinda green, I trim my trees so I don't have to duck when cutting the grass, I have beautiful yellow flowers called dandelions, and I haven't changed my mulch since moving in over 3 years ago. Sometimes I feel like he's judging me on a consistent basis because he spends so much time on his yard. Sometimes I look at his yard and think how it would be pretty neat to have such a nice lawn...then I pull in my garage, go in the house, and forget all about it.Someone once said to me they wish they could connect with God in worship like I do, that they wanted to be like me one day. While I was flattered for a moment I let them know I don't want them to desire that. I'm a sinner. I'm broken and my heart is wretched. My motives aren't always pure and I struggle with a multitude of sins. My only hope is I rely on my salvation in Jesus Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit. I'm not worthy to lead God's people in worship of Him and it's only by His grace that He allows me to do this. No, I'm not a person you want to be like. I am not someone you want to strive to be. You can do better. Keep your eyes on Jesus.
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| Robert Cray has been a huge influence on my playing style, Iwant to play guitar like him when I grow up |
your church staff, every deacon, every elder, every Sunday school teacher are sinners, who struggle with sin, and without daily relying on the grace of God would be no more than a blind person blundering about a 4 walled room with no doors or windows desperately trying to escape. Without Jesus we would all be leading our churches into an aimless future with no vision or direction.
I will let you down. Your pastor will let you down. Your leaders will let you down. I and every person will fail you, disappoint you, and possibly cause you undue hurt. Jesus Christ should be our standard. Jesus Christ should be our goal. Jesus, and Jesus alone, should be the only standard to try to compare ourselves to.
Matthew 5:46-48 For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers,[i] what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
So, Jesus just set the standard of what God's expectations are of us....to be perfect. I say with 100% certainty you have already failed to meet that standard. Perfect is the standard we must achieve to be in God's presence. Perfect is the standard we need to spend eternity with God and avoid being separated from Him for eternity. That's such depressing news! Can you imagine the look on people's faces when Jesus said these words on the sermon on the mount? If I worked hard enough and put in enough time I could get my yard looking just as good as my neighbors and we can work hard enough to look like the people we may achieve to be like, however, no matter how hard we try I nor you will ever be perfect.
God is fully aware it's depressing news and He doesn't apologize for it either. Instead, God the Father sent God the Son, Jesus Christ, to be the perfect sacrifice for sin. Our eternal, sinless God stepped out of heaven, lived a sinless life, taught and revealed more about Himself than any other time in history, then willingly laid His life down on the cross for the forgiveness of our sins. When we accept the sacrifice of Jesus God no longer sees our sin but sees the perfection of Jesus Christ. His grace covers every sin. Our God is just and in His holiness and righteousness sin must be accounted for but our God is also a God of grace and mercy who provided the answer. In place of depressing news we now have the good news, we have the Gospel!
Keep your eyes on Jesus. Keep His sacrifice in forefront of your mind.
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