God's Purpose

in church? Are we here to get some “religion”?

I think our worship is two-fold: we are here to worship the Lord or love Him and love one another.

Heb. 10:22 “Let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith…” This drawing near to God can be anywhere and it should be also be in the church. We should draw near to Him in worship, love and adoration.

Heb. 10:24 “And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.” Church should also be a time of loving one another and encouraging one another in the faith.

At the same time, when we come together we should be reminded that we don’t exist entirely for ourselves. Jesus came to seek and to save the lost. If Jesus was interested in lost people, so must we be! We don’t have “church” just for the sake of church itself. Church should be a reminder that there are lost people in our world and community and we must consider how to reach out to them.

The Great Commission is still the Great Commission. It’s not a “good suggestion.”

Matt. 28:19 “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them..."

Last Sunday I shared the thought that we are not reaching out to lost people. We are not winning unbelievers to Christ; we are merely shifting the Christian population around. How can we turn the tide?

Some believe the way to do it is by what they call “servant evangelism.” We must demonstrate loving service, but also lasting service.

ILL.- Here’s one example by Stephen R. Clark from OUTREACH magazine. It was Tuesday night in Mobile, Ala., and the evening’s destination was Provident Hospital. The agenda that night: Distribute gift bags to patients and their families in the emergency room.

In two hours, the small group from local church Deeper Life Fellowship (deeperlifefellowship.com) had blanketed the area with their free gifts—complete with enclosed cards that read, “We hope this small gift brings some light into your day. It’s a simple way of showing you God’s love in a practical way, no strings attached. Let us know if we can be of any more help.”

Nine days later, Deeper Life Fellowship Pastor Mark Wyatt answered a phone call. The voice on the other end informed him that her husband had received one of the ER bags.

A series of questions followed:
• Did you mean it when you said you want to help?” she asked Wyatt.
• Absolutely,” he replied.
• What kind of help do you give?” she said.
• We give spiritual help and any other kind we can. What kind of help do you need?”

That night, Wyatt visited the caller and her husband to discover that the family of five was Iraqi refugees and Muslims with no friends or family in America. While they did have some definite material needs, they were mostly hungry for relationship. The couple asked numerous questions about Christianity and the church, and at the end of the night, Wyatt invited the family to visit his church. The following Sunday, Ahmed, Salma and their three children, Sera, Hanin and Ebrahim, showed up at Deeper Life. A few weeks later, they asked to see the “JESUS Film.”

“A couple of our families in the church are reaching out to them on a consistent basis, fixing their cars, keeping their kids for sleepovers, basically loving them in any way possible,” Wyatt says. And it all began with a simple free gift and a card.

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