I need to bear my heart to you today. I think that God wants to do something bigger in the church at large than we’ve allowed as Christians. We’ve so valued being right spiritually that unknowingly we’ve driven away the very people that the Father wants us to reach. As one brother put it in our men’s meeting this morning, we’ve so sought to steer clear of the yeast of sin that we’ve unwittingly embraced the yeast of the Pharisees.
Our mission is clear. We are to go into all the world and make disciples of all nations. How are we going to make disciples of people who don’t know the Lord if we won’t let our guard down and love them in their sin? Why do we have this unspoken thought in us that somehow the unsaved must in some way meet our standards before we love them unconditionally? Are we somehow afraid that we are going to be tainted and spiritually adulterated if we rub up against unbelievers and their sinful lifestyles? What kind of Pharisee have we become?
The Pharisees in Jesus’ day demanded excellence of the populace with respect to keeping the Mosaic law. In their eyes, nobody connected with God better than they did. Jesus hated their mentality and challenged the Pharisees and other religious leaders for their harsh judgments against others.
Jesus said that His goal for us is that others know that we are believers by the love we have for one another. The love He speaks of in John 13:35 is unconditional, self-sacrificial love that cares for others even when they don’t fit our mold. Do you love others unconditionally when they don’t measure up to your standards? IF you don’t love is lacking in your life.
Our culture needs God. They will only find Him in the church, for we are the Father’s ambassadors. Can we love others enough to invite them to our church meetings and embrace them even while they are unclean in sin? Jesus would. He had a meal in a tax collector’s home. Tax collectors in His day were the worst crooks in town, everybody hated them. He also extended love to a lady who was caught in the act of adultery. The law of the land in that day said that she must be stoned. Jesus loved her and told her to go and sin no more. The woman at the well in John 4 was a Samaritan. Jews would not even walk on the same side of the street with Samaritans. To them, they were untouchable. Jesus gave her water on a hot day. People were aghast! She went and told her friends in the city where she lived about Jesus and what He did for her and a revival broke out there. All because Jesus loved her in her untouchableness!
Are you a Pharisee? Do you look down your nose at people who aren’t like you or don’t believe the way you do? Can you love people while they are in their sin without forcing them to be like you? Can you remain untarnished by the sins of those you are seeking to reach while you extend God’s care to them?
Unconditional love will breed revival. Let’s go there!
Friday, October 24, 2008
Our Culture Needs Our God
Posted on Friday, October 24, 2008 at 11:05 AM by Pastor Mitch
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
wow, this is awesome! God has called us to reach people, but how are we ever going to do that if they don't sense that we really, truly love them!
ReplyDeleteOften times we pride ourselves on keeping the great commission to go into all the world and make disciples, all the while forgetting the great commandment to love everyone just like Jesus did: without any conditions or strings attached.
It's this unconditional love that will draw people to Christ. Not our proclaiming we're right and the world is wrong, but our loving people right where they are at and being patient enough to trust that God will deal with them when the time is right.
Just imagine what the church would look like if christians were known for their unconditional love for people more than the things that the word christian usually conjures up.
I believe this is what God has called us to do! So what are we waiting for??
In this day God is calling us to holiness. As we study the churches in Revelations HIS warning to ALL of the churches is to guard themselves. When we submit ourselves completely before our holy God we can't judge others because his holiness shows us the wretchedness of ourselves. God's love is perfect -- but it is encompassed in a purifying fire of holiness. There is no compromise in God -- doesn't his word say that if [Luke 14:26] Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.
ReplyDeleteWe need to proceed with EXTREME caution here. God is a God of Love and Mercy. But he is also a holy God of Judgement. We KNOW through the Word that Judgement is coming first to the CHURCH -- then to the World.
God is not pleased by compromise in His house.
Pastor Mitch,
ReplyDeleteI agree with you and Jon. If we are not loving those who don't "meet our standards" then are we really doing what God instructed us to do? Thoses who are living ungodly lives are the ones who NEED to be in church where the Spirit of God can deal with their sin. Some are worried about these people coming into the church and flaunting their lifestyles, but I let's face it....when they come to church and sit under the Annointing that God has placed upon you, they will either have to yield to the Spirit and let God invade their lives, or they won't be able to stay. While we don't need to in any way embrace the sin, we are instructed by God to embrace the sinner. If WE had not experienced God's grace, then where would WE be?????