We can repeat from memory John 3:16
that says that “God so loved the world.” But we find it so
hard to live this idea out. Do we really live our lives like
people matter to God? Do we act on the knowledge that every
one of our friends and neighbors who doesn’t know Jesus
Christ is going to hell unless they repent of their sins? Do
our church programs center around the fact that people
matter to God- or are they oriented to the idea that
Christians matter to God?
Look at the programs we have in our
churches. There are all sorts of different programs ranging
from small groups, to large community fellowship gatherings.
Some churches still hold tent revival meetings while others
have rock concerts. We love and worship a God who is capable
of accepting all types of worship as long as our hearts our
focused on Him.
Now try to evaluate the programs we
have. Why do we do the programs that we do? Why is the
church decorated the way it is? Why do we have the music
that we have? There are plenty of books written on worship
alone, advocating one style of worship over another. I’ll be
blunt and say I couldn’t care less about what style of
worship is done. I am more concerned about the question,
“Does our church reflect that people matter to God?”
I believe that a worship service is
meant for Christians to worship. Whatever the style, it is
supposed to cause the Christians gathered in that place to
worship Almighty God. However, a Sunday morning worship
service is the service that non-Christians in most instances
are most likely to come to. So we have a dilemma that I
don’t have an easy solution to.
All of this said however, if we held
an “outreach” service, say on a Sunday afternoon or evening,
one where believers were not intended to hear deep
instruction or even gain a truly worshipful experience but
where non-believers could come into contact with basic
truths of the gospel – if we held an outreach service – most
of us would hate just about every element about it. The
music would be too fast, or too slow. The pastor would speak
too short, or too long. The service would be all out of
order. However, if we truly believed that people mattered to
God, we’d invite everyone we could and come with them and
suffer through the “terrible” service.
Believing that people matter to God
means that when we hold a community event like an Easter Egg
Hunt or an Ice Cream Social, we make a conscious effort to
not even talk to people from our church. We try to be
friendly to everyone at the event that we don’t know, to
establish relationships with them, learn their names, and
hopefully even remember them the next time you see them in
the community or at another event. Believing that people
matter to God means that you sacrifice what could be a fun
social event for you with your church friends so that you
can build relationships with the people who matter to God
and yet are going to hell because they don’t know about
Jesus Christ.
You can start to see how important it
is that we live our lives like people matter to God. We say
it and we even believe it, but we don’t often live like we
believe it.
Mark Mittelberg sums up the importance
of this value very well in his book. “When this value really
takes root, it dramatically affects our checkbooks and
calendars, because those are the places where it expresses
itself in daily life. We ought to be able to look back and
say, ‘Here’s where I’ve spent my time and energy trying to
reach people outside the family of God.’ We should be able
to open up our checkbook ledgers and say, ‘Here’s where I’ve
invested my resources to help make evangelism happen through
supporting the church’s outreach efforts; buying Bibles,
books, and tapes to give to spiritual seekers; spending
money to take a nonbelieving friend out to breakfast or
lunch; or inviting non-Christians into my home.’”
When we use this foundational value as a building block,
everything else becomes easier. The criticism we receive for
not fitting in with the rest of the church is easier to
ignore. When we don’t see the response we expect, we work
through the discouragement because if people matter to God,
we need to do all we can. We aren’t responsible for results
if we are doing all we can.
If you do not believe that people
matter to God, if you don’t believe this deep down in your
soul so much so that it affects everything that you do,
everything else won’t help you in evangelism. All the skills
and techniques in the world won’t enable you to effectively
win souls for God because if you don’t believe God thinks
that they matter, you won’t really make an effort to save
them. At best you’ll pay lip service to the notion and then
wonder why your church isn’t growing and people aren’t
coming to Christ.
From God’s attitude to people, we turn
to people’s attitude toward God with foundational value # 2.
Next Section -
People
Are Spiritually Lost
