Begin with two minutes of silence and stillness before God.
Our son, Judah, was given a stuffed dog when he was born. The dog later earned the name “Baby.” Baby became his favorite stuffed animal and never left his side. You could say Baby became the most important thing to Judah! We quickly learned that if we ever lost Baby, we would be in trouble; Baby was irreplaceable! Over the years, we have had a few scares, but to this day, Baby is still around, and though he doesn’t go everywhere with us like he used to, he is still important to Judah.
Here’s what’s crazy – as Judah’s love for Baby grew, something interesting happened to me. Baby may have started out as a random stuffed animal, but it wasn’t long before Baby carried the same level of importance in my life as he did to Judah. There is a principle here: what’s important to the people we love is important to us. Because I love Judah, the things that were important to him became important to me. You can probably think of a relationship where that is true, because of your love for the person, their interests, passions, and the things they love become important to you as well.
This should be true within our faith as well. The more we know, love, and follow Jesus, the more we understand what is important to him and the more those things become important to us.
So, what is important to Jesus?
Well, Luke gives us some insight by sharing three parables in chapter 15. In each of Jesus’ parables, the theme is searching for something that is lost. The shepherd leaves the 99 to go after the 1, the woman searches “carefully” for the lost coin even though she has 9 others, and in the climax of the three parables, the father watches eagerly for his lost son to return. So, what’s important to Jesus? Lost people being found!
While Jesus loves those already found, he is not satisfied with some; he desires ALL to know him! 2 Peter 3:9 says, “He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” “Everyone” is all-inclusive!
Lost people are important to Jesus, so they should be important to us! We say Venture is a church for the unchurched, but for that to be true, we must be individuals who place the highest value on reaching those who are far from God—those who are not yet here.
This is easier said than done. Our tendency is to be more like the older brother in the last parable. As the lost son returns, the father celebrates, but the older brother lashes out in anger, “All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends.” (Verse 29)
Do you notice the pronouns in that verse: “I’ve”, “me”, “I’, and “my”? The older brother can only focus on himself. He was unable to celebrate his younger brother’s return because he was focused on what he wanted and how he felt he had been mistreated. His angry, entitled response revealed a lie he’d believed —one that corrupted his heart. The older brother believed the lie that his father loved him because of all that he had done. He compares his efforts and deeds to those of his younger brother, which were far less noble.
We can be deceived by this lie, too.
The longer we are in the faith, the more likely we are to become the older brother. The more faithful we are, the greater the danger of believing that God’s love for us is based on our work and faithfulness. When we believe this lie, we begin to keep score of our righteous acts and compare ourselves to those less righteous. When we believe this lie, we become entitled and self-righteous, and we lose sight of what’s most important!
So how do we keep our focus on the unchurched and those far from God? We combat this lie with truth! Ephesians 2:8-9 says, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and not from yourselves, it is a gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.”
We remember that God loves us not because of our own effort, but because of His grace. We remember we were once lost, helpless, unable to save ourselves, and God came after us! We remember this same grace available to us is available to everyone!
Take two minutes to reflect in silence.
Reflection:
- Why do you think it is easy for the churched people to make church all about them?
- Why do you think we so easily slip into a merit-based faith instead of a grace-based faith?
- Read 2 Corinthians 5:20. Who is a “prodigal” you could share God’s love with and act as his ambassador?
- Prayer: Father, thank You for pursuing me when I was far from You. Thank You for not giving up on me. Help me have the same heart towards those who do not yet know you. Father, keep your grace for me at the forefront of my mind and heart so I never lose sight of what is most important!