Dear American Church Part 1

Throughout the passage of Matthew, we take from the text a call and a commission. This call is simple; to become a servant and to make disciples.  He commissions every day, ordinary people like you and me with this purpose. I’ll even go one step further and say that He loves to commission “the worst of sinners”. Just like Paul, God loves to demonstrate His patience and mercy on the most unlikely candidate. He then sends them out to fulfill a particular purpose, despite what anyone thinks of their worthiness. They are an example of God’s grace. We are made new, but the testimony lives on in us, to show others that through Jesus, there is a way out. 

Mess #1. We try to erase the testimony. Through the competitive world of social media, spiritual filters have taken over the way we view ourselves. As painted and masked individuals, we have forgotten our original selves and now walk around in a masquerade of self-righteousness, displaying our own might, judging those who we feel do not measure up to our critical standard of godliness. God saved us from the pit of despair, however, we have run so far from that pit in our attempt to achieve something, be something, and obtain something that we have forgotten that we were never meant to run away. We are commissioned to remain there and pull others out. We have to stop shouting instructions from our mountaintop of pursuit and begin to reach our arms in for the ones who still remain. We have to stop focusing on how clean we are, and its’ time for the church to get dirty. 

Isaiah 58:10: “If you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then shall your light rise in the darkness and your gloom be as the noonday.”

Mess #2. Let’s keep going with this. Instead of focusing on helping others, many Christians in the American church have adopted a theology that our godliness is a rite of passage. As a joint heir of Christ, we have full access to the throne room of Heaven, and I believe with all my heart that Jesus eagerly waits there for us, longing to hear our hearts cry! We’ve been handed the keys to the Kingdom, but I think we’ve forgotten that the Kingdom is people. As a result, we use our access to stand before a King and demand He bless our empires of dirt; our castles in the sand. Our words are fruitless and our deeds are not changing anything because the focus of our heart has shifted from God’s kingdom to our own. We use works to measure our godliness and even the godliness of others. They are a means to move forward and sadly, we haven’t slowed down enough to hear God calling us to go get the one. The church has settled for surface-level interactions and activity-centered relationships instead of real, honest, open community. We become shocked and frustrated when godliness does not produce the outcomes we desire. But Godliness produces contentment, not results. It helps us to feel grateful for all that we’ve been given because we see it as a gift instead of something that is earned. Contentment orders our lives around God’s will, instead of asking God to yield His will to ours. It helps us to see the one. 

Ephesians 2:8-10: “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”

The word “works” in this scripture refers to self-indulgent works. It is different from the word “works” found in James chapter 2 which refers to a work produced from our faith such as helping an elderly neighbor and volunteering at a local charity. 

Mess #3. Did you know you can store up treasures in Heaven? I ask because seriously, you may not know. The church has been held captive by the prosperity gospel movement for so long and I hear sermon after sermon about how “I’m going to get my blessing right now.” Do this and do that and God will bless you. Maybe you’ll get a new car, or a new boat, or a new something. It’s a theology that God wants his children to be forever rich, forever happy, and forever healthy. We have turned the God of the universe into someone who grants thoughts and desires to come true. We have turned Him into nothing more than a magic genie and because so, the spiritual principle of blessings, seeds and harvest have been taken completely out of context, stating that giving is above all an economic act that is measured in terms of return on investment. What is forgotten, though, is found in Galatians 6:7-8, where Paul writes: “If you sow to your own flesh, you will reap corruption from the flesh; but if you sow to the Spirit, you will reap eternal life from the Spirit.” So I ask you again, do you know you can store up treasures in Heaven? In fact, this is what your workmanship is supposed to be focused on. The bible talks in great details about these treasures. Through our obedience to God and through the humility of servanthood, everything about our life in Heaven will be decided for us, right down to what clothes we will wear. Perhaps this is why the first words we will hear are, “Well done, servant!” Salvation is not a theology of prosperity, but a call to lay down your life for the work of the Kingdom. He’s not calling us on a holiday trip, he’s calling us into battle. And the cause for this Kingdom is not complicated; it’s people. I urge you today to stop using your faith as a way to manipulate reality and understand you do control God’s transcendence, no matter how loudly we scream or how good we claim we are. God transcends us. Attach yourself to the His purpose, take your eyes off the crowd, and begin to look for the one. It’s time for the American church to renounce their pride, their man-made castles, and recognize that power does not come from our faith or works, but from a surrender to a God who is much bigger than we can even fathom. And He will use whoever He wants, whenever He wants and you do not get a say in that. So, keep your eyes, hearts, and schedules open for divine appointments. Jesus was not stressed by time, what others thought of Him, or a list of tasks to accomplish each day. Jesus was led by the Spirit of God and followed His promptings to serve, love, and help others. No task was ever beneath Jesus, and no person was ever unworthy.

Galatians 5:13: “You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love.” 

Sincerely-

The Outcasts