What God Really Wants

The other night, Krista read me a quote:

The next time you put on a dinner, don't just invite your friends and family and rich neighbors, the kind of people who will return the favor. Invite some people who never get invited out, the misfits from the wrong side of the tracks. You'll be�and experience�a blessing. They won't be able to return the favor, but the favor will be returned�oh, how it will be returned!�at the resurrection of God's people.

Jesus. That�s The Message paraphrase, from Luke 14, when Jesus is dining at the house of a Pharisee. When I first heard that, I thought it was some contemporary quote from someone living today. I was surprised when I saw the source.

Do you ever hear a quote, or a reading, then are surprised to find out that it came from the Bible?

I want to share one of the things that I was surprised about � what God really wants; what He thinks is important.

We already know what the most important thing is. I�m not going to talk about that tonight � but that�s the death, burial, and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. That�s the center of our lives, the foundation of everything I�m going to say here tonight. It goes without saying, but it also bears repeating.

So, what does God really want?

The Pharisees tried to trick Jesus by asking Him what the most important law was. He answered them by quoting Deuteronomy:

Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.¹

Love your neighbor as yourself.²

This is what Paul has to say about love:

If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don't love, I'm nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate. If I speak God's Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, "Jump," and it jumps, but I don't love, I'm nothing. If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don't love, I've gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I'm bankrupt without love.

Love never gives up.
Love cares more for others than for self.
Love doesn't want what it doesn't have.
Love doesn't strut,
Doesn't have a swelled head,
Doesn't force itself on others,
Isn't always "me first,"
Doesn't fly off the handle,
Doesn't keep score of the sins of others,
Doesn't revel when others grovel,
Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
Puts up with anything,
Trusts God always,
Always looks for the best,
Never looks back,
But keeps going to the end.

Love never dies. Inspired speech will be over some day; praying in tongues will end; understanding will reach its limit. We know only a portion of the truth, and what we say about God is always incomplete. But when the Complete arrives, our incompletes will be canceled.

When I was an infant at my mother's breast, I gurgled and cooed like any infant. When I grew up, I left those infant ways for good.

We don't yet see things clearly. We're squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won't be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We'll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly just as he knows us!

But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love. ³

I�m always confounded by this passage � if I can completely understand God; if my faith is strong enough to move mountains; if I give away everything I have, even my life; none of it matters if it�s not done out of love.

But hear what James says:

Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.⁴

This seems to be key to the teaching of Jesus. He demands love, and He demands service.

Now listen to this; the first time I really read Jesus� description of the judgment scene, I was taken aback. Listen to what he says:

When He finally arrives, blazing in beauty and all His angels with Him, the Son of Man will take His place on His glorious throne. Then all the nations will be arranged before Him and He will sort the people out, much as a shepherd sorts out sheep and goats, putting sheep to His right and goats to His left.

Then the King will say to those on His right, 'Enter, you who are blessed by my Father! Take what's coming to you in this kingdom. It's been ready for you since the world's foundation. And here's why:

I was hungry and you fed me,
I was thirsty and you gave me a drink,
I was homeless and you gave me a room,
I was shivering and you gave me clothes,
I was sick and you stopped to visit,
I was in prison and you came to me.'

Then those 'sheep' are going to say, 'Master, what are you talking about? When did we ever see you hungry and feed you, thirsty and give you a drink? And when did we ever see you sick or in prison and come to you?' Then the King will say, 'I'm telling the solemn truth: Whenever you did one of these things to someone overlooked or ignored, that was me�you did it to me.'

Then He will turn to the 'goats,' the ones on his left, and say, 'Get out, worthless goats! You're good for nothing but the fires of hell. And why? Because�

I was hungry and you gave me no meal,
I was thirsty and you gave me no drink,
I was homeless and you gave me no bed,
I was shivering and you gave me no clothes,
Sick and in prison, and you never visited.'

Then those 'goats' are going to say, 'Master, what are you talking about? When did we ever see you hungry or thirsty or homeless or shivering or sick or in prison and didn't help?'

He will answer them, 'I'm telling the solemn truth: Whenever you failed to do one of these things to someone who was being overlooked or ignored, that was me�you failed to do it to me.'

Then those 'goats' will be herded to their eternal doom, but the 'sheep' to their eternal reward." ⁵

Then the King will say to those on His right,

I was hungry and you fed me,
...thirsty and you gave me a drink,
...homeless and you gave me a room,
... shivering and you gave me clothes,
...sick and you stopped to visit,
...in prison and you came to me.

Then He will turn to the ones on His left and say,

I was hungry and you gave me no meal,
...thirsty and you gave me no drink,
...homeless and you gave me no bed,
...shivering and you gave me no clothes,
Sick and in prison, and you never visited.

Now don�t leave here and say that Jim Manchester said that God doesn�t care whether or not we sin or whether or not we�re baptized. I believe He does, and I believe those things are important, but I�m fascinated by the fact that these are not the things that he uses in this scene to pass judgment.

Over and over again � Jesus said it; the apostles said it. We need to love people; we need to be helping people. And it�s not a minor thing � James called it pure religion; Jesus said it was the most important command; and then Jesus said it will be the basis for how we�re judged.

But if it�s so important, did God always feel this way? Have you ever heard the arguments about how there�s a different God in the Old and New Testaments � that there�s a God of anger and judgment in the Old Testament and a God of love and compassion in the New?

Well, listen to a few things that the prophets God had to say:

Micah said,

See that justice is done, let mercy be your first concern, and humbly obey your God.⁶

Be fair and honest with each other. Stop taking advantage of foreigners, orphans, and widows.⁷

I'm after love that lasts, not more religion.
I want you to know God, not go to more prayer meetings.⁸

"Why this frenzy of sacrifices?"
     God's asking.
"Don't you think I've had my fill of burnt sacrifices,
     rams and plump grain-fed calves?
Don't you think I've had my fill
     of blood from bulls, lambs, and goats?
When you come before me,
     whoever gave you the idea of acting like this,
Running here and there, doing this and that�
     all this sheer commotion in the place provided for worship?
Quit your worship charades.
     I can't stand your trivial religious games:
Monthly conferences, weekly Sabbaths, special meetings�
     meetings, meetings, meetings�I can't stand one more!
Meetings for this, meetings for that. I hate them!
     You've worn me out!
I'm sick of your religion, religion, religion,
     while you go right on sinning.
When you put on your next prayer-performance,
     I'll be looking the other way.
No matter how long or loud or often you pray,
     I'll not be listening.
And do you know why? Because you've been tearing
     people to pieces, and your hands are bloody.
Go home and wash up.
     Clean up your act.
Sweep your lives clean of your evildoings
     so I don't have to look at them any longer."

Listen to this last part.

"Say no to wrong.
     Learn to do good.
Work for justice.
     Help the down-and-out.
Stand up for the homeless.
     Go to bat for the defenseless." ⁹

So we have this message from the apostles, the prophets, from Jesus. God is telling us he wants us to help people. He wants us to love people.

And the interesting thing is, I believe this could be our greatest form of evangelism. Now, I don�t want to downplay the intentional part of evangelism � the part that makes us get out of our comfort zone and tell people about Jesus; but, I think all of this plays into the unintentional part of evangelism. How does that poem start � �I�d rather see a sermon than hear one any day�� How did Jesus say people would know we are His followers? If we love each other.

I think the greatest thing we can do to spread the message of Jesus is by doing these things � by truly loving people, caring for people, helping people. Showing people justice; showing people mercy. What if we lived our lives this way? What if these were the attitudes we evidenced to people when we walked in our daily lives? What if we, like Baxter says, went out to lunch Sunday afternoon and were friendly to the server, made her feel part of our group. And then what if we left her a big tip even if we didn�t feel like she deserved it? Mercy, anyone?

I sometimes wonder what kind of impact I could have on the world around me if I didn�t rant and make fun of how stupid people were at work (of course, I would never do that to their face). What kind of impact would I have on people I ran into during the day if I was genuinely kind and friendly? What if I spent my time looking for people to help as I went through my day? What affect would I have on other people if they could see Jesus when they looked at me?

And what would happen if all of us acted like that? I�m convinced that the gospel; this message; this good news that we have, didn�t spread so quickly in the first century because people talked about Jesus out of obligation. People were excited, and He was a part of their very lives. That�s what people saw. People acted like Jesus, and the world could see that.

How do we get that back? I don�t know. I struggle with that every day. But I pray about it. I pray daily that God gives me an attitude of love and mercy rather than being quick to anger. That God can help me see first how to help others rather than first how to help myself. And I think that�s the first step. Jesus said,

Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.¹⁰

Thank you.

¹Deuteronomy 6:5
²Leviticus 19:18
³I Corinthians 13
⁴James 1:27
⁵Matthew 25:31-46
⁶Micah 6:8
⁷Jeremiah 7:5
⁸Hosea 6:6
⁹Isaiah 1:11-17
¹⁰Mt. 7:7