Last week was
an amazing week being with people who are planting churches. Early on in the
week we met with pastors in D.C. talking about revival in the city. For years
pastor have been gathering together to pray for a spiritual awakening, one that
has never happened in this city. We talked about how we can plant 8 churches on
the same day in 2017.
Wednesday
through Friday I met together with 5 guys who were planting churches in Pittsburg,
Austin, Vermont and Maine. Each one had a story of God’s grace in their lives. One
of those was Andy. He told us a story of how he grew up angry. He was abused
and hated everyone. At one point he went into serious depression and every day
for six months, he took his revolver, put one bullet in the chamber, spun the
chamber, put it to his head and pulled the trigger. He figured that if he was
still alive, that day meant something. When he gave his life to Jesus,
everything changed. His anger turned to love. He now loves everyone. Now he is planting
a church in Maine.
We, like Andy,
although we may not be as troubled emotionally, all look for significance. We
need to know if our lives matter to someone else. We search for
significance. We search for the sense that we matter to someone and that what
we do actually matters. We want our life, long or short, to count for
something. In his book, “The Search For Significance” Robert McGee tells us
that the feeling of significance is crucial to man’s emotional, spiritual, and
social stability and is the driving element within the human spirit.
“Millions of
people spend a lifetime searching for love, acceptance, and success without
understanding the need that compels them. We must understand that this hunger
for self-worth is God-given and can only be satisfied by Him. Our value is not
dependent on our ability to earn the fickle acceptance of people, but rather,
its true source is the love and acceptance of God. He created us. He alone
knows how to fulfill all of our needs” (pg. 11).
If we are left
on our own, we will fall into a performance trap, believing falsely that if we
perform well, God will somehow like us more and possibly accept us into Heaven.
The Muslim foundation is built on this – you have to please God and at the end,
you hope that if you have done enough good, He will accept you.
This means
that your identity is entangled with your success, which ultimately leads to a
sense of hopelessness. How much of your life is wasted trying to impress others
or gain their approval.
“We buy things
we don't need with money we don't have to impress people we don't like” (Dave
Ramsey).
Here is what
you need to know about God – He loves you and sent His son to tell you that he
loves you – and there is nothing you can do about that!
This is what
Jesus died to tell you. He died to tell you that he loves you and that your
life matters. God’s solution to the fear of rejection is based on Christ’s sacrificial
payment for our sins. Through this payment, we find forgiveness, and total
acceptance through Christ.
There is a
word we use in Christendom, it is “reconciliation”. It means that those who
were enemies have become friends. It means that your were formerly alienated,
and even hostile, toward God and now you are reconciled with him through his death.
Romans 5:6-11tells
us, “You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died
for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a
good man someone might possibly dare to die.
But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners,
Christ died for us. Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much
more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! For if, when we were God’s
enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more,
having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! Not only is this
so, but we also rejoice in God
through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received
reconciliation.”
