What I Want to Want

By Gary Keith, Lead Pastor 

All Jesus’ followers start with a “What’s in it for me” mentality. Before you get mad at me, I’m not trying to undermine the work of God’s Holy Spirit. But think about it – we all started following Jesus because we want what Jesus has. We want eternal life. We want to experience fullness of life today. We want to be forgiven. We want the mercy and grace Jesus offers even though we don’t fully understand it. We start out by following Jesus for what we get out of it.

But let me suggest that the more we learn about Jesus and understand the truth of what is offered, we can begin to put away our own agenda and think differently. We can think less about what’s in it for me and start thinking about the agenda Jesus has for our life. We start thinking this way because we learn to trust the agenda that Jesus has as being a better agenda. Over time we move away from “What’s in it for me?” to “I want what You (Jesus) want more than what I want.”

I know that was a little hard to say, so read it again slowly: “I want what You (Jesus) want more than what I want.” And when that happens we can better embrace all that Jesus has for us and trust Him.

All of this fits so very well with our mission statement introduced last August:

We exist to passionately pursue LIFE in Jesus and to lead our neighbors to do the same. 

Now this statement sounds great and it’s something that has been well received in our church, but let me ask a couple of questions: How do we embrace this mission so that it is more than just words printed in our lobby? How do we go from “What’s in it for me?” to “I want what You want more than what I want?” How do we grow in our passion to pursue LIFE in Jesus?

For the last year we have been focusing on three major areas of response. First, we engaged our church family in a Bible reading plan that also involved a time of reflection. I believe that reading and reflecting on the Bible will make a difference in our lives so we ought to give time to God’s written word. Second, we stressed the importance of being part of a LIFE Group. We believe that being part of a LIFE Group provides the community everyone needs to grow in a passionate pursuit of LIFE in Jesus. And lastly we challenged ourselves to get involved in serving here at church and in our community. To follow the LIFE of Jesus is to serve others.

So here we go into August 2013, the month we gear up to start a new season of ministry at LBF. People are coming back from vacations and children are starting school again. Life gets back to a routine – sort of. So let me ask you, how are you going to be passionately pursuing LIFE in Jesus during the last few months of 2013? What will you say “yes” to and what will you say “no” to in order to make sure you are moving in a direction of spiritual growth?

These are important questions. Life is about much more than simply going to work Monday through Friday, receiving a paycheck, buying a home, paying the bills, enjoying the weekends, preparing for retirement, driving your kids to all sorts of activities, and fitting in some time for church. God has given each one of us a bigger purpose. Part of our greater purpose involves asking ourselves: How can we take this passionate pursuit into our jobs, into our families, into our activities, into our kids’ activities, and into our church life?

As I personally reflect on that for myself there are some obvious responses, like how much do I allow the Bible to influence my decisions? How much time am I giving to developing meaningful relationships within this church family? How am I reflecting Jesus by serving others?

Let me challenge you as I challenge myself to start this new season of our calendar by asking and answering those questions for yourself. And let me challenge you to make passionately pursuing LIFE in Jesus the main focus of your life between now and the end of the year. Set that as a short-term goal, make some lifestyle changes, be an example to your kids – pursue LIFE in Jesus.

I can guarantee that if you do, your life will be filled with a meaning and purpose and fullness that can only come from passionately pursuing LIFE in Jesus! I want to be able to say at the end of the year that I have grown in wanting what Jesus wants more than what I want. Let’s do it and let’s do it together!