Matthew 9:12 "Jesus Is For Losers"

Matthew 9:12   "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick."

          I was raised in a wonderful Christian home –but I didn’t truly allow God into my life until I was 16.  That was during the summer between my junior and senior year of high school.  During my senior year of high school, I became quite bold in sharing my faith.  One of my classes was being taught by a student teacher from Michigan State University, doing his internship.  This guy had enough of me one day, and called me out into the hall and began yelling at me.  After several minutes of blaspheming Jesus and cursing me, he ended up giving me the lame old excuse of the intellectually challenged, “religion is just a crutch for weak people.”  I guess he thought that was an insult –but you know what?  I simply admitted that he was right.  Because he was right.  It’s true Jesus is for weak people.  Jesus is for losers.  Jesus is for sinners.  Jesus is for people who have all kinds of issues that we can’t resolve on our own.  Jesus is for people who are separated from God.  Jesus is for people like us.  The point is that we are all weak people –we all need God.  If trusting Jesus is a crutch, it’s a crutch we need in order to walk.  The alternative is to remain crawling in our own dirt.  Don’t be too proud to let Jesus in.

         So, if you have never actually asked Jesus to forgive your sins and begin the life changing process, I want to ask you again today to do it.  In fact, let’s pause right here and go through the simple process.  First, we simply have to admit our guilt and our need for God.  I have thought and said and done wrong things –and the choice to do those things has caused a barrier between me and God –a separation –a separation so complete that I often wonder if there even is a God.   

          Any problem so far?  Can we admit that we have done wrong and our wrong has had spiritual consequences in our lives?  Good.  Now, we must acknowledge that Jesus is God’s provision for sin, for those choices that have separated us from God. We simply agree with God that Jesus’ birth and life and death and resurrection are God’s reality and provision for us.   

          And then, we acknowledge that because Jesus already paid the penalty for our sin, we are forgiven.  If you have never done this, I’m going to do something I rarely do; I’m going to lead you in a prayer.  If you want to be forgiven and made right with God, I invite you to pray this prayer with me –the words I’m writing mean nothing by themselves, but if this is what down in your heart you truly want, these words are powerful and life-changing.  If possible, please read this prayer out loud:

God, I know that I have sinned and that my sin has been a barrier between us –I know that my sin has separated me from You.  I want to be forgiven.  I am placing my trust in Jesus, and in His death on a cross and in His resurrection from the dead as Your provision for my sin.   Please forgive me and restore me to a right relationship with You.  Please allow me to be a part of your family –through Jesus.  Amen.