Matthew Barnett - Misfits Welcome: Find Yourself in Jesus and Bring the World Along for the Ride

2014 by Matthew Barnett

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Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations marked NIV are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com

Scripture quotations marked NASB are from NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE. The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977. Used by permission.

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ISBN: 978-0-7180-2190-0 (IE)

ISBN: 978-1-4002-0657-5 (eBook)

The Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Datais on file with the Library of Congress

ISBN-978-1-4002-0656-8

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CONTENTS

O ne of the best days of my life was when I drove my little Nissan Sentra from my sheltered life in Phoenix, Arizona, as a megachurch pastors son to the heart of downtown Los Angeles to help my father with his first church in the City of Angels. I was only twenty, but I was the acting pastor! Totally out of my element. I was unprepared, unqualified, and really unsure. Why did I say this was the best day? Because it was the day I truly needed God. The day I realized I couldnt figure life out on my own.

The streets of Los Angeles did not operate like those in Phoenix. A neighborhood decimated by crime was not what I had in mind. I thought I was just moving to Los Angeles for a few months until my dad could find a real pastor. Little did I realize I would later commit the rest of my life to this city. Nothing here functioned like the church where I was raised.

I figured I would be able to usher in rapid growth at my new church. Its in my blood; Im the third generation of megachurch pastors in my family. Instead, I was about to experience megashock. I always blended in with ease back home. Not now, not here. I was totally alone, full of fear, and out of ideas.

For the first time in my life, I did not belong. I was a misfit! A pastors kid who thought he had it all together was now a young man trying to make it through one night in this strange new city. The sights, the sounds, the diversity, the pockets of great poverty. A city truly mixed with potential, hope, and despair. Cardboard boxes of homeless people underneath the corporate skyline. Promise and sadness merged together in a feeling of unease.

Its amazing how life can pivot. One day you feel like you are controlling the flow of life. You seem to manage it perfectly. Then, wham! you have no idea how to make it through a night. This was my dilemma, my start, my transformation. My entire life I thought I knew what a misfit was. But overnight I had become one. All my self-confidence had been ripped from me. I had to start over. But starting over isnt always badespecially when Christ becomes the center of the rebuilding.

Can you remember a time in your childhood when you feared going to school because you did not fit in? Have you ever looked in the mirror and were ashamed of the person you saw? Is the dream in your heart bigger than your skill set? Are you in a place in your life that does not make sense? Maybe youre in a season of recent devastation, and pain seems to have become your identity.

Have you ever felt like a misfit? Just saying the word misfit seems to strike a nerve. The truth is, in many ways, we all feel like misfits. We just dont fit into the pattern and flow of life. But thats where things get interesting. In fact, the unknown, the things unseen, is where miracles happen.

One thing Ive realized is that being different doesnt disqualify you from a dynamic life. It prepares you. The goal of this book is to get you to see that living out of the box isnt always a bad thing. Embracing the misfit in you is the open door to a very exciting journey.

The Bible is full of stories of misfits. A little shepherd boy named David took on a giant with a slingshot. Common fishermen became disciples. You might remember the Sunday school flannel board and the teacher who told dramatic stories about underdogs who did mighty things. We marvel that the Bible is full of misfits, and maybe that is what makes the stories so powerful. Think about David or Daniel or Peter or Paul. They embraced their inner misfits. So why dont we?

Even though we can celebrate the underdog in the Bible, we often hide from the fact that God is looking for that same quality in us. Hes looking for people who dont have it all together but are willing to let God take their lives and run with them. What if we can be those kinds of people? What if we can use our unqualified status as the start to bigger dreams and a life of redemption? Thats the desire of this book.

My passion is that we will look in the mirror, see who we are, and embrace it so we can progress down the road of life. There are dreams to be dreamed through the process of being a misfit, and those dreams lead us and others toward redemption. James 1:2325 describes the Word of God as a mirror.

Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in itnot forgetting what they have heard, but doing itthey will be blessed in what they do.

God wants us to look into the mirror of His Word so that we can know exactly who we are. The Word of God shows us not only who we are, but what we can become. What happens when we look at our lives and measure them up to His Word? We realize we fall short. Romans 3:23 says, For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. The reflection of the Word of God shows us the blemishes, the hypocrisy, the million ways we seem to miss the target.

Even though we miss the mark, Gods incredible love uses us despite the fact we fall short. The standard reveals how much God uses us despite ourselves. He loves us even when we dont like the person we see. Then, by His grace He uses us in our weakness as a gift to the world. Grace. It inspires us to use our weakness to make a difference.