God uses our imperfect motivations to bring us close
People came to hear Jesus teach because word had spread of
His story-telling, healing, feeding and comforting. He entertained, healed, fed
and comforted first. He met people where
they were at-He met their needs. God
uses our imperfect motivations to bring us close. Once He did that people were open to
listening to Him and they wanted to know more. He was drawing crowds. Likewise
today the un-churched have little interest in hearing a gospel message until
they know what’s in it for them. That
sounds selfish-right? Not so fast. We love to tell people “Jesus will
meet you right where you are at” but preaching and reaching can be very
different. Meeting needs up front is not wrong; it is understanding who it is
you are trying to reach and showing them the gospel before trying to teach it
to them. Today if you preach too much
about what Jesus can do for you, you get criticized. If your worship band is responsible for
filling most of the seats you get criticized for caving to consumerism. Either Jesus caved or He simply knew that
telling stories (He was an entertainer too), making someone feel better,
comforting them and feeding them was going to make a way for explaining why He
did these things. That’s not
consumerism-that’s just plain common sense. One of the biggest challenges for
churches is to win a person’s time. If that means you have to tell a great
story or put on a great worship set then so be it. Jesus Himself knew He had to
reel them in before they would be open to His teaching. Jesus did not however reel them in with false
hope and the rewards He spoke of were not all reserved for the afterlife. To believe that Jesus would not reward those
in exchange for their time is absurd…He did...often.
Hebrews 11:6~And without faith it is impossible to please God, because
anyone who comes to him must believe that
he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.
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