God So Loved Us, So Let’s Go Love The World.
I heard a sermon today at church that was what I needed. The subject was worship and what does it mean to do so? The point that was made was our worship is our time to connect and give honor to our Lord. It is not about feeling, music, liturgy, style, or method but about a sincere effort to give God glory. That is the point! Us giving an effort to put aside our own distractions and focus on just being in the presence of God. This is important to be reminded of.
The other part of the sermon was a bit more challenging because it was dealing with what Christians are here to do and what is God’s role in that? Of course the Great Commission is the easy answer. The hard answer or idea that was presented was that God is not focused on the needs of mankind but his concern is the passion and faith of his saints, the church. This means that when God sent Christ to us that was in response to the needs of humanity to obtain freedom, redemption and salvation. When Jesus died that job was finished. Sin was paid for thus giving mankind a way out. God met the needs of man, all of it through Christ. So what does God do now? This is where the challenging part came into the equation. God is not focused on meeting the needs of humanity now, because that is the churches job. We now have the Holy Spirit to guide us into lives of service to the poor, the widow, the orphan and all mankind. What God wants from us is to see our passion for him in our lives and our faith in his son Jesus. The reason for this is that Jesus came and essentially set the captives free now we are left to continue retelling the story and serving people in love. The goal to show the world Jesus and the love of the father.
Perhaps this sounds weird but to me it makes sense. When asked ”why is God not solving poverty, sickness and all the bad in the world.” Our usual answer if we are honest is “I don’t know but I have faith.” What if the answer was God did the hard part by sacrificing his Son for our greatest need now it is our job to work on the issues facing our world. We are the hands and feet of God on earth. Our mission is to love the world with a supernatural love that can heal, restore, and reconcile the world with God. The Holy Spirit is how we manage to go forth equipped for this. God is not going to force his hand so he relys on us through our faith and passion to carry out such a task. So while their is poverty, hunger, disease and so on in the world, it is not God’s fault. It is first off the result of sin in the world that has led to such dire circumstances but the job of service fall at the feet of us, the church. We are called to love the world with a perfect love. We are called to serve people, forgive one another and love those around us like Jesus did. My hope is that I continue to seek God’s face and invite him further into my life. I want to be a man of passion and faith but that passion is to serve God and that faith is in his promises. Finally I want to worship with a genuine heart that is focused on my encountering God in a real way. May we all continue to seek the Lord in our lives. God loved us that he gave us his son to set us free, now lets live in that freedom so we can love the world!
Amen
