Fear As The Worst Barrier To Church

And how should we welcome them? The Bible tells us

, "....just as Christ has warmly welcomed you." The number one fear people have when they walk through the doors of a church is fear.

That is the number one fear, fear! People are scared they will be put on the spot. You talk to individuals and hear them say, "Oh, I walked into that party and I didn't know a soul. It was terrible" "Oh, I almost died, someone asked me to speak publicly." We have these fears. The Bible says we are to warmly welcome each other into the church, just as Christ has welcomed you. In other words, Christ is our model.

And that leads us to this question. How has Christ welcomed us? He welcomes us just the way we are. I like that. Christ didn't say to me, "Ed, before I welcome you into a relationship with Me, you have got some spiritual B.O. called sin. You take care of that first and then you can come in." Jesus said He would meet us right where we are. He will warmly welcome us. Oftentimes we confuse acceptance with approval. Jesus never did. Jesus met the woman at the well who was involved in illicit sexual relationships. Jesus did not approve of her behavior, He accepted her and then told her to go and sin no more.

Ed Young Pastor shares that when he had that power lunch with Zacchaeus, Jesus did not approve of his behavior, He did accept him as a person. That is our mission here at the church, acceptance without approval. At these four services this weekend we will have about 3,000 people. Numbers of the individuals here have questionable lifestyles, poor and bad reputations. Do we say, "We don't accept you or approve of you?" No, no, no. We don't say that. We accept you. We don't approve of your behavior but we love you and we warmly welcome you just as Christ welcomes us. Worship has to have a welcoming aspect to it.

Also worship has an organizational aspect to it. Worship must be organized. We serve a God of order.

by: Ed Young

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