They Can't Get To Jesus

Roy Scott worked as the custodian at Denman Avenue Baptist Church where I was baptized after Jesus saved me. As a teenager I never really talked to Roy though I was around all the time.

I spent some time as the staff evangelist at Denman Avenue after college. From time to time Roy and I would stop and talk about the Lord. Roy served as the worship pastor at an African American church. Roy loved Jesus. He could talk for a long time about the Lord and worship.

We had a defining moment conversation one afternoon in a hall way. Roy involved himself in what he called street ministry. He and others walked the streets in the hood in Lufkin to minister to people. I vividly recall that day. He talked about the drug users, the sexually immoral, and the alcoholics. These people were the undesirables nobody from churches seemed to care about. Roy cared because Jesus cared.

With tears flowing he said, "People need Jesus. They want Jesus but they cannot get to Him because of people in the church! People in the church trip the very ones needing Jesus the most."

Many years have passed since I had that conversation with Roy. I have served and preached in many different churches. I may not have fully understood what Roy meant that day back then but I better understand it today.

Think about how many churches are known for fussing and fighting. They fuss about the money, the color of the carpet, who has a key or does not have a key, who controls the direction of ministry, who wields the power, and what people are welcomed and what people are shunned.

If a person is truly a sinner they may develop a reputation. Heaven forbid they should ever wander into certain local churches with their pristine chandeliers and pretty pews. Such immoral people are not welcomed in many churches. Oh, they may be tolerated but they are never welcomed. They are not embraced. They are always on the outside looking in.

Many of them will never walk into a  worship service because they know the hypocrisy of the members. So called leaders who talk as profanely as any pagan. They tell dirty jokes, make crude comments, and then turn it all around on Sunday mornings. Lost people see right through all this. To them it is nothing more than a show. Not authentic.

Then there are the holier than thou people. They are arrogant. They carry themselves as a cut above the sinner. These people turn more people off to Jesus than they know. I am talking about arrogant pastors, deacons, Sunday School teachers, student pastors, worship pastors choir members, trustees, and elders. They shun the very people Jesus came to help. They are pious and obnoxious. If these religious people really knew what unchurched people thoughts about them they would be shocked. Sinful people will never sit alongside such people in a worship service. NEVER.

I heard a story just last week about a young couple so burned in a church they vowed to never go back to any church. Think of it. The people of God actually repelling Jesus and His church from the people who need both of them the most. It happens over and over again.

Lost sinners. Condemned people losing hope because the church has strayed so far from her Master. Jesus called Himself a friend of sinners. How it could be that the most holy God-man to ever dirty His feet with the dust of planet earth could attract sinners and His church repel so many.

I once received a phone call from a lady who wanted to visit our church that Sunday morning. She asked if it would be okay because she did not own a dress. I encouraged to her come. I met wth the deacons when they arrived to give them a heads up to make this woman feel especially welcomed. The chairman of deacons commented, "Well that is okay for now. She needs to get a dress in the future." ARE YOU KIDDING ME?

This woman was hurting, broken, and needing the love of Jesus. The stinking deacons could think of nothing else but her personal appearance. The presence of it all is sickening.

When I travel and preach I hear the same stories over and over again about local churches. They are few in number. They used to be bigger. They have fallen on hard times.

Could it be the reason why so few come is because they cannot get to Jesus because of the rules, regulations, and man made traditions taught as Bible truth.

Jesus loves people. He loves sinners. If He didn't none of us would have a relationship with Him. Jesus approached sinners in scripture. He dealt with them tenderly but firmly about their sin. He never lowered His holy standards for anyone in the scripture. He told the woman caught in adultery she was forgiven but to go sin no more. [John 8:11] He called the woman out at the well about living in sin with a man she was nor married to. [John 4:16-18]  He did not tickle sinner's ears but He loved them. The woman at the well did just opposite of turning others away form Jesus. After her encounter with Him she brought a whole community to Jesus.

Jesus showed them a better way. He did not water down truth to get a crowd. He just loved people, spoke the truth, and offered forgiveness. He still does that today. Only church people, religious people keep fouling it up. They keep turning sinners off. They talk a good religious game but do not live the very truth they study so ardently.

It breaks my heart. Many wander from sin to sin aimlessly looking for peace and life's meaning. They look in bars, in one bedroom after another in sexual escapades like dogs in heat. They try to drown their sorrows in the devil's brew of alcohol only to sober and find all the same sorrows are still there. They believe the so called experts and build their lives on fairly tales. These experts say each person can determine their own morality but the sinner wonders if this is so why they feel so guilty, unclean, and ashamed.

They may even wonder if Jesus is real. They may truly seek Him like one lady did recently on social media. She simply wrote, "I need God in my life." Nobody commented. Not a word. No help. No gospel. I could not help her because I did not see that post. A friend told me about it. What is worse is I just learned recently that lady lived in Kermit. She probably never even knew we were there offering the love and hope of Jesus outside in the open air under a tent.

Saints we will answer for the sinners we turned off to Jesus and His church. We will not get away with our self righteousness nor our hypocrisy. We will give an account for our power trips, fussing, and fighting for control of local churches while repelling the lost far away. We will answer for hearing truth we never lived. We will answer for all the people who could not get to Jesus because of us. Mark 2:15-17 (ESV) 
¹⁵  And as he reclined at table in his house, many tax collectors and sinners were reclining with Jesus and his disciples, for there were many who followed him.
¹⁶  And the scribes of the Pharisees, when they saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, said to his disciples, “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?”
¹⁷  And when Jesus heard it, he said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”