Some people get confused by the third part of our mission statement.   

They don’t understand what we mean when we say, “Love the World”. 

So let me clarify.   

This is not the world’s system which we are commanded not to love in I John 2. 

Rather, when we say we want people to “love the world” we mean the exact same “world” that God loves and gave His Son to die for.  The “world” we are to love is the evil, sinful world of humanity that is rebellious against God.   We believe that God has called us to love this “world”. 

Why?  

Because they are sinners as we are and need the Savior that we have.  

Specifically, as far as our mission goes, we love the world in two ways:  by serving others and through sharing the Gospel. 

We are committed to serving others because our Heavenly Father calls us to a life of service, Jesus modeled for us true servanthood, and the Holy Spirit empowers us to be the kinds of people who give of themselves.   

We are equally committed to sharing the Gospel.  We believe that lost people matter to God and should matter to us as well, so we take Jesus’ command to “make disciples” seriously (see Matthew 28:19-20).   

So, there you have it. 

Now help us do it. 

Love God…Love People…Love the World

“Love people” is the second part of our mission statement. 

This is also taken from Matthew 22.   

After Jesus let everyone know that loving God was the most important thing anyone could ever do, he continued with these words in verse 39, “And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’  All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” (NIV) 

Again, this is so obvious when you stop and think about it, but it’s remarkable how few of us make developing relationships with other Christians a priority in our lives. 

But at Southside, we don’t think it’s healthy for any Christian to live their life in isolation.   And not only that, we view it as part of the mission of this church to encourage the very kind of community that the early church had. 

As you read the Book of Acts, you can’t help but notice that the earliest Christians did life together. 

They didn’t just shake hands and sing a fellowship chorus every week, and consider that community.   They opened up their lives to each other.  They made commitments to each other.  They shared meals together.  They cared deeply for one another.  They even made sacrifices for each other.  

And you need to make loving people a priority in your life because you need some brothers and sisters who will do life with you, people you can share joy and laughter with, people who will be there when the tears won’t stop and the hurt won’t go away.   And not only that, but those people need you too! 

So, if you’re in our church or any church for that matter, and you’re not in community, I beg you to jump in and see join the rest of us who have realized the value of true, biblical fellowship. 

The first section of our mission statement I want to talk about (as well as the most important part), is the phrase, “Love God”. 

This part of our mission statement is taken from Matthew 22:36-38, which says, “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”  Jesus replied: ” ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.‘  This is the first and greatest commandment.”  (NIV) 

Of course, “Love God”, seems like a really obvious thing to have as a part of your mission statement, but it’s amazing how many churches seem to miss this. 

And not only that, but how many individual Christians just don’t understand this as well.   

But “loving God” is the most important thing!   

And if we do everything else, but don’t make our Heavenly Father the center of our lives, then we have absolutely missed the boat!

Jesus didn’t stutter…the most important thing we can do is to love God.

So, what are we waiting for?

I want to take the next few days and talk about the mission of Southside Baptist Church. 

By way of introduction, let me first of all define what I mean by “the mission”. 

The mission is the compass that guides us. 

It is what we are obsessed with, what we want to be known for, and it is the one thing that matters more than anything else.  

The mission is the one thing that actually is sacred!

Most church mission statements I’ve seen are based off of Jesus’ last words here on earth (aka “The Great Commission”). 

Ours is no different. 

“Our mission is to love God, love People, and love the World on the journey to life change”

Over the next few days, I want to break down this mission statement into smaller pieces and talk about what this mission statement really means, and how we plan on making our mission happen. 

For those of you who missed last night’s teaching, I thought I’d share with you a couple of sound bytes from the night.  

My thought for the night was one that’s been “stuck” with me since my college days.  

I remember sitting in class and being confronted with this particular thought, and I’ve never been able to forget it.  Anyway, here is the first sticky thought in the series, as well as a few other things I shared during my teaching:

“Our message must never change, but our methods must be ever changing”

“It’s not just important what you say.  It’s also important how you say it.” 

“Biblical truths should never be altered, should never be tweaked, should never be changed.  However, we must find more creative ways to communicate these truths to the people in our community.” 

“Our goal is to tell the people in this world about Jesus in a way in which they can understand.  This is not watering down the Gospel.  This is putting the Gospel into words they understand.” 

“Jesus took complex and complicated truths and made them very simple.”

“The reason we engage culture is not to be cool, contemporary, or cutting edge, but so that those who live in this culture can hear and understand the message of Jesus.”

“Sometimes I think that the local church gets in the way of the Gospel!”

“I’m concerned that if we’re not careful, we will love the way we do ministry and the way we do church more than we love God and more than we love seeing lives changed.”  

Tomorrow night, I’m starting a new series called, “Sticky Thoughts”.  

In this series, I’m going to be sharing some principles that have “stuck” with me over the years.  

And when I say “stuck” I mean that I’m going to be communicating several key principles that are so powerful that I’ve never been able to forget them!

Some of these “sticky thoughts” I’ve learned from books, others from conferences, but all of them have affected my life in a significant way, and I just wanted to share them. 

More than that, my goal in this series is to communicate these thoughts in such a way that they “stick” with you for years to come just like they’ve “stuck” with me.

I hope you’ll join us tomorrow night for this new series!