Rules…

And many people came together in Jerusalem to keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread in the second month, a very great assembly. They set to work and removed the altars that were in Jerusalem, and all the altars for burning incense they took away and threw into the Kidron Valley. And they slaughtered the Passover lamb on the fourteenth day of the second month. And the priests and the Levites were ashamed, so that they consecrated themselves and brought burnt offerings into the house of the Lord. They took their accustomed posts according to the Law of Moses the man of God. The priests threw the blood that they received from the hand of the Levites. For there were many in the assembly who had not consecrated themselves. Therefore the Levites had to slaughter the Passover lamb for everyone who was not clean, to consecrate it to the Lord. For a majority of the people, many of them from Ephraim, Manasseh, Issachar, and Zebulun, had not cleansed themselves, yet they ate the Passover otherwise than as prescribed. For Hezekiah had prayed for them, saying, May the good Lord pardon everyone who sets his heart to seek God, the Lord, the God of his fathers, even though not according to the sanctuary’s rules of cleanness. And the Lord heard Hezekiah and healed the people. (2 Chronicles 30:13-20 ESV)

How many of you have rules for people attending worship at your congregation?

We all do. We have rules. Like “No Shoes, No Shirt, No Service.”

Ok we probably don’t have that on our doors like some other business do, but what if some showed up without shoes and shirt for worship? Would they be turned away? Would God turn them away?

There were many at the temple for the Feast of Unleavened Bread that were not clean according to the rules of the sanctuary. So Hezekiah prayed that the people would be made clean through their participation in the meal. Remind you of another meal we partake in?

Some of us remember when you had to declare your intention to partake of communion. We had to prepare our hearts and minds. So now we don’t do this, are we really ready? The truth of the matter is regardless of how we prepare ourselves we are not clean and not prepared to take the meal. God cleans us through the meal to be a part of His kingdom.

Rules are for man, not for God. God will work in-spite of our rules and whether or not we follow them.

So go and love freely as God has loved you and do not be hung up on the rules…