When did we
make church about meeting our needs?
Yes you are
important and yes you deserve to have your needs met. But don’t think coming to
church is going to meet them and don’t think not coming is going to meet them
either.
What?
Church does
not exist to meet your needs or your family’s needs.
The church
is Jesus’ body. Jesus promised to build his church, and that will happen
without regard to your personal tastes – or mine! The church matters to Jesus – so much so that
he died for it.
We are
called to do the same.
We are
called to die for our local church – to lay down our selfish desires, our
needs, our wants. We are called to serve, sacrificially.
Yes, it
hurts. Yes, you won’t always get what you want. Yes, you will not be appreciated.
We are
called to make the church about Jesus. We are called to look for ways to love
the body of Christ. Let’s try by just appreciating one another. Let’s appreciate
the tired mum who has gone without a lie in and battled her kids just to get
here. Let’s appreciate the frail elderly who have fought feeling tired and ill
to be here.Let's appreciate the teenagers who look like they'd rather be anywhere else but here.
When we
forget about ourselves and look for ways to love and to serve, when we treat
one another as we would wish to be treated, when we become the hands and feet
of Jesus to people we don’t have much in common with, we start to learn in God’s
classroom. We start to put into practice the lessons of love. This is what it means to grow into maturity, to be people of faith, to trust that your needs will be met even if you can't see how. When we put our needs to death, God can break open our cold hard needy hearts and start to do some real work.
We start to
be authentic.
