I was looking for an old assignment and ran across the document where I had typed out, word for word, my first sermon delivered last spring!  I’m pretty sure I said most of these words and I know some of them I just forgot to mention during the actual message.  This particular portion went along with Romans 15:5-7 and Romans 16:16.   Hope you’re challenged!

The doors of the church are open and we boldly declare… if Jesus loves you, so do we.

 

If Jesus loves the orphan… so do we.

If Jesus loves the widow… so do we.

If Jesus loves the drug addict… so do we.

If Jesus loves the prisoner… so do we.

If Jesus loves the homeless… so do we.

If Jesus loves the condemned, guilty and depressed… so do we.

If Jesus loves white, black, Asian and Hispanic people… so do we.

If Jesus loves women who had children out of wedlock… so do we.

If Jesus loves the girl who got an abortion… so do we.

If Jesus loves the homosexual… so do we.

 

You see folks, Jesus loves the person.  Not the sin in their life.  He looks at them the same way he looked at you.  And for us to turn our back on the community and on the world and say “that ain’t welcome here.”  We are declaring that the blood of Jesus only flows so far.

                                                                                                                                    

I am one who believes that the Blood of Jesus is still transforming lives and that Jesus Christ is still forgiving hopeless sinners.  And I can hear the criticism now, you are talking about a Gospel of Social Justice, you are too focused on people.  Church, this isn’t a social Gospel, this is the gospel more fully realized.

 

I stand here and declare that God’s love is far reaching, that it is great and that it is deep.

 

The Christian Community is a place where people are welcomed.