I find it interesting how much people love to argue about stuff that seems to be so obvious… especially when that obvious thing, if we came to grips with it, would call us into action. It seems as if we would rather argue in laziness, than act in righteousness. Or maybe we just ignore the obvious in an effort to justify what we really want. Human nature is so seductive and enticing sometimes and we all fall victim to it. I will give you an example, at the heart of my point today.

Recently, there has been a real surge in the “social gospel” approach to ministry. All the cool, emerging and emergent churches are all of the sudden fixated on this thing. Honestly, it’s pretty sexy. It makes the church appealing to people who want to make a difference and change the world – namely, my generation. Unfortunately, there has been at the same time a dropping of the proverbial ball as it comes to evangelism and mission and the ultimate authority of the inerrant word of God and a bunch of so-called “pastors” starting to think they know better than God.

They all unwaveringly cling to a lifestyle that is so eloquently put in the famous and powerful, yet slightly flawed statement of St. Francis of Assisi, “Preach the gospel at all times and if necessary, use words.” Sounds good to me. It lets me live morally, be a good guy, doing good stuff, not smoking, drinking, cussing or having sex with my girlfriend and then people are gonna come to Jesus without you having to talk about Jesus. Or if you’re an emergent person, you can smoke, drink, cuss and have sex with your girlfriend, but as long as you’re taking care of the poor, you’re good. It’s funny how both the most conservative and liberal people cling to the same sandy foundation and ignore the heart of the matter. We’re always trying to work out our own salvation, one way or the other… we really would like to claim at least SOME credit.

And then there’s the world. They have no theological basis to try to weigh everything to, or any Biblical argument to try to put up for why to do what they do. It’s so black and white. Either take care of the poor because it’s obviously right, or don’t do it because you’re a lazy punk. It’s almost like the God who made them in His image put it in their hearts, whether they acknowledge Him as Lord or not. This leads to stuff like these ONE campaign ads on TV. Great organization… doing a lot of good… uniting the world to do something that God is very passionate about – taking care of impoverished people. Brad Pitt, Justin Timberlake, George Clooney, Jamie Fox, P Diddy and other uber-sexiest-man-alive types stand on a black and white screen with their white v-necks and say in a cool movie star kind of way, “One by one, we can make poverty history.” It’s the sexy thing to do and everyone wants to be sexy, so it’s kind of the in thing right now. I’m glad for this! But there’s one problem. Where’s the gospel in that? Is Brad Pitt going to go and give food to the poor and starving and then feed their need for Jesus? Most likely not… but, does this make it wrong or impractical? I would say, no.

There has been an unfortunate extreme reaction by some evangelicals in response to the emergent social gospel movement… sometimes far too extreme. And in that extreme reaction, some churches have thrown out the baby with the bath water. I have heard it said recently that if you have a piece of bread or the gospel to give someone starving in Africa, you should give them the gospel, to which I responded, “No, you should give them both!” While it’s true that ultimately the most loving thing you can do for someone is share Jesus with them, and that the gospel is complete and powerful and effective, what causes us to believe that the gospel, incomplete in us without works of love and service, will be effective if the person we are sharing it with doesn’t feel and know that we truly care for them?

It seems like I read somewhere “If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.” Maybe I was hallucinating or something. Maybe that hallucination was continuing when I read Matt 25:31-46.

“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’
“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ Then they also will answer, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?’ Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

Or even Isaiah 58:6-7, “Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover him…”

I could name countless other scriptures that discuss God’s preoccupation with taking care of the poor! It is obvious from the scriptures that it’s on His mind! That he desires it… even requires it! When his people fail to do this, he plugs up his ears and stops listening to our worship. And the majority of the time He is not saying, “You must only give a hungry man bread to eat if you can also spend the time to give him an accurate account of the gospel.” In fact, I would dare say that us taking care of the poor is a lot less about the great commission (though it can be an integral part of reaching the lost) and a lot more about obedience to a desire that’s on God’s heart – namely, worship!

Please don’t hear what I’m not saying. The Great Commission is exactly what every believer ought to be about! It should consume our thoughts and hearts. The glory of Jesus and eternally worshiping Him in Heaven should always motivate us toward the greatest good for someone, namely that they know Christ and enjoy Him forever. But if we are to call ourselves Christians, we need to take stock in what God was passionate about from the beginning and that is worship… John Piper says that the very reason missions exist is because worship doesn’t. We tell people about Jesus so that they can know him and worship him. But what if, in the process of being so centered in on other people’s worship, we forget our own? Notice the wording God uses in Isaiah 58… “Is this not the FAST I choose…” When I consider fasting, I consider worship.

Or take for instance Luke 11:42, “But woe to you Pharisees! For you tithe mint and rue and every herb, and neglect justice and the love of God. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others.” This is a solid indicator that not only is tithing a new testament/new covenant form of worship as well, but that, directly tied to that relationship of worship is that we care about justice… and that God is just as passionate about it in the New Testament as He is in the Old! Our sacrifice of justice and love is just as much an expression of worship as our tithe.

All this can be summed up in 3 words. “Justice is worship.” I think that this is the case for 2 reasons:

1. I look at the account of the rich young man in Matt. 19. He asks the Lord what he must do to inherit eternal life, to which the Lord responds, “If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” And then we see that once the the young man heard this he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. Obviously Jesus isn’t saying that we can go to heaven if we do enough good things. But what He is saying is to settle the Lord issue. Is Jesus really our Lord? Or is our wealth, or even our lack of wealth? Nothing can help us settle this issue faster than spending ourselves for the poor. When we are the object of our worship, and our comfort and excess are the trappings, God is not honored or glorified. But when we live sacrificially for the poor, we are in essence saying, “Jesus is enough for me.” What a statement of worship for the world to look at our lives and see that?

2. Jesus truly cares for the poor and when we care for the poor, we reflect Him, His nature, and His character to an unbelieving world and to Himself. When we take care of the poor, we can more greatly appreciate our own impoverished state and see how much God indeed did sacrifice for us.

As a result, both of these will rightly produce worship in us as we begin to look less and less at us and more and more at the holiness, majesty, compassion and love of our Savior. That lifestyle is sure to give us an unquenchable passion for the things God is passionate about, and produce the fruit of love in us, which is what people will know us by anyway, right?

Bottom line, obedience is our true worship. If God says it, we certainly ought never believe we know better right? He obviously has our best in mind. He never commands anything that’s not our best. He wants us to get involved in what He’s doing. I hold strongly to this view that God is sovereign in all things, including our salvation. That there is nothing I can say or do that would ultimately make someone’s heart of stone become a heart of flesh and they could receive Christ as their savior. I believe it’s a work of the Holy Spirit only and that He’s chosen some whom He would call and woo and overcome all opposition that our dead hearts could give. However, this doesn’t mean that I will not share the gospel with every person I come in contact with, does it? Certainly not! I’m not missional because ultimately I can cause a person to accept Christ. I’m missional because ultimately God gives me the opportunity to get in on what He’s doing and in my obedience to His call to be missional, I get the benefit of enjoying Him in worship!

I think this is a very similar situation. If we fail to serve the poor and meet their needs simply because of whatever reason or excuse we can come up with, God is not honored in our lack of obedience and we do not get the joy of feeling His pleasure by joining in what He’s doing! Certainly God could feed the poor all at once if He wanted, in the same way that He could convert every sinner to Himself. But He chose us to be the vessels of both his temporal and eternal mercy and grace to this hurting world that He loves.

And ultimately, if we call ourselves Christians and say we love Jesus, but do not obey His call, we really don’t love him at all…