I left the church feeling dirtier than I walked in.

You Left Church Feeling Dirtier Than When You Walked In

“And when the scribes and Pharisees saw him eat with publicans and sinners, they said unto his disciples, How is it that he eateth and drinketh with publicans and sinners? When Jesus heard it, he saith unto them, They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”

Mark 2:16-17 (KJV)

So many people believe they have to get clean before God will accept them. Handle the drinking first, get the anger under control, then walk in.

You sat in the back row again on Sunday, and left during the last song so nobody could shake your hand and ask how you were doing.

Walking out felt heavier than walking in. You couldn't have explained that to anybody if they'd asked.

Something in that room made you feel like you had to be cleaner before you belonged there.

That's when you started wiping your feet on the mat.

You told yourself that once you handled the drinking, or the anger, or whatever nobody in that building knows about, then you'd come all the way in and give God your whole life. That was a few years ago and you're still standing outside, scraping your muddy shoes on the mat so you'll be presentable. One side gets halfway clean, then you look down and the other one is worse than when you started. The music starts up inside without you. The doorway is three feet away and you still haven't walked through it.

God says He loves you. Why does it feel like He is the man at the door checking your shoes?

He was never that man. Somebody else was standing there.

Look at who's complaining in that verse. The religious crowd is watching Jesus eat at a tax collector's table. They can't believe who He's sitting with. Publicans collected taxes for Rome and kept a cut for themselves. Everybody in that town has a reason to hate him. Jesus knows exactly whose table He's sitting at, and He stays.

He doesn't argue about it. He just tells them who He came for.

Look at the word He uses. Whole. The men doing the complaining had already decided they were whole, so they never sat down at all. They stood near the door and kept score on everybody who walked in dirty. Men have been standing at doors like that for a long time. That spot has always been theirs.

Religion stayed at the door.

Jesus never stood at that door checking shoes. He came out to the step where you were standing, and He sat down.

He took everything that makes you feel too dirty to sit down, and He wore it to the cross in your place. He cleaned it off you for good, so it stopped being the thing that keeps you standing outside.

That's why there's no mat.

Read this one slow:

"But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."

Romans 5:8 (KJV)

While we were yet sinners. He was already dying for you before you fixed anything, before you had one clean week to show anybody. His love didn't wait for you to improve, and it's not about to start.

Here's how to walk back in today:

1. Bring the mess through the door with you.

It was never the price of admission. You've been trying to scrub it off out there. It went onto a cross, and the blood already covered it. You don't have to leave it at the door.

2. Check what you heard against what He actually said.

If a voice tells you Jesus wants you cleaner before He'll sit with you, that voice isn't quoting Him. He said the sick are the very ones He came for. Jesus was actually sitting at that table. Believe Him over the men who were standing outside it.

3. Talk to Him today like He already knows.

He was there for every part of it, and He sat down with you anyway. You don't owe Him a performance before you're allowed to speak, and you never did.

PRAYER

Father God, I've been standing on that mat for years, trying to get clean enough to come inside.

Thank You that Jesus never asked me to do that.

Today I'm coming in with my shoes the way they are.

Thank You that He took what I'm ashamed of onto Himself, and it never has to be scraped clean before I belong.

Today I stop letting a voice that was never Yours guard the door.

Help me believe there's always been a seat at Your table with my name on it.

I rest in everything You already finished.

In Jesus' precious name we pray. Amen.