Building an Authentic Faith - People Matter to God

Today we are going to begin a journey of looking at what it means for us to build an authentic faith. When I looked up authentic in the dictionary it gave this definition, not false or copied, I liked that, not copied. How we live out our faith can not be copied from others. While we can learn from the example of others, if we try to follow Jesus exactly like someone else– we will end up disillusioned & disappointed. The Christian faith is not a religion of rules – it is a personal relationship with the living God & each one of us needs to figure out for ourselves what it means to faithfully follow Jesus. Over the next 2 months, what I want us to do is look at several encounters that people had with Jesus not so we can copy them, but so we can learn from them how to develop, strengthen & live out our own faith.

As we begin our journey today we need to start where all faith needs to start – not with an understanding of ourselves, but with an understanding of God. In his book Soul Revolution, John Burke says, unless we believe God is above all, loving & good & for us, we won’t be willing to seek him. This makes perfect sense. Why would we want to develop a relationship with God if we didn’t believe that ultimately God is loving, good & for us? So the foundation on which we need to build our faith is this underlying truth, people matter to God. Our lives matter to God. You & I, we matter, God is for us & yes, God loves us. The entire bible is simply the story of God’s patient & faithful love for his children. It’s a story that time & again shows us that God is for us & that God does loves us. We heard of God’s love for us a few weeks ago from Isaiah 43:1-5.

1 But now, this is what the LORD says— he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: "Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine.
2 When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.
3 For I am the LORD, your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior; I give Egypt for your ransom, Cush and Seba in your stead.
4 Since you are precious and honored in my sight, and because I love you, I will give men in exchange for you, and people in exchange for your life.
5 Do not be afraid, for I am with you; I will bring your children from the east and gather you from the west.


The Bible is full of passages that speak of God’s love and probably the most familiar one is John 3:16. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

Notice how it all begins - For God so loved the world. It’s because God is for us & because our lives matter to God that God was willing to send Jesus to save us. That our lives matter to God is also the message of John 3:17. I always feel a little sorry for John 3:17 because it doesn’t get the same recognition, and yet the truth is it is equally as powerful a verse and it also shows us how much God loves us. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world but to save the world through him. God didn’t send Jesus to condemn us & judge us – God didn’t send Jesus to give us a bunch of rules to follow, God sent Jesus to save us & to show us the way to experience all the fullness & abundance of life, & God did this because God is for us. God did this because our lives matter to Him, he loves us. I was sharing with the new member class this past week that I continue to be humbled & amazed by the thought that the God of the universe, the God who created the mountains, set the waters into the seas & placed the planets into the sky cares about me. God cares about what happens to me, he cares about what I’m going through, he cares about our lives & if you don’t believe this, if you don’t believe that God loves us, if you don’t believe that our lives matters to Him, then look with me again at Mark 1:40-42.

40A man with leprosy came to him and begged him on his knees, "If you are willing, you can make me clean."
41Filled with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. "I am willing," he said. "Be clean!"
42Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cured.

A man with leprosy came to Jesus… now let’s just stop here & remember that people who had leprosy didn’t matter to anyone. Because leprosy was such a contagious disease anyone who suffered with it was literally cast out of their homes, churches, schools & all of society & they were forced to live in communities with other lepers away from everyone. They could not see their family & friends, they were not allowed to worship in the temple with others & anytime a person even came close to a leper it was the responsibility of the leper to shout out “unclean, unclean” so that the healthy person would avoid them. So while lepers not only suffered with the pain of a physically debilitating disease, they also had to suffer the humiliation of social isolation. Lepers had no value, their lives simply didn’t matter - to anyone.

So it’s a man who has been told that his life is worthless who comes to Jesus & says, if you are willing, you can make me clean. If you want to, Jesus, if you are willing, if you care anything at all about me, you can make me clean. The man is taking a huge risk here because what he is asking Jesus is this, in a world where my life doesn’t matter to anyone, Jesus, does it matter to you? And Jesus answers with a resounding, Yes, your life matters!! I love what Jesus says here, I am willing. Jesus doesn’t reach out & heal the man because he feels obligated or compelled to do it. He doesn’t heal the man because he pities him or because it’s the right response in order to be faithful to God – Jesus heals the man because he wants to. Jesus heals the man because when he looked at him he didn’t see a leper, he didn’t see a man whose life had no value, he saw a child of God whose life mattered. By choosing to heal a leper, Jesus is making a statement about the value & worth of all people. All people matter to God, not just those who are clean & healthy, not just those on the inside of society, not just those who have standing, or who live the right way, all people matter. All people are loved by God & God chooses to reach out to us all.

Do you know that your life matters to God? Can you say with 100% certainty that God loves you & that even if you were the only person to ever life, God would have still sent Jesus to die for you? Do we understand deep within our heart & soul that there is simply nothing we can do to change God’s love for us? In a world where we are so often judged by our performance & where love is so often conditional, the unconditional love of God is often hard for us to accept, but until we do, I’m not sure we can build any kind of solid & enduring faith because the foundation of all faith is the understanding that our lives really do matter to God. When we grab hold of this truth, then, as John Burke says, we will be willing to seek God. Once we know that God loves us we can move forward to build an authentic & powerful faith that will change our lives & change our world, but nothing happens until we set this truth in our hearts & minds, so I want to invite you to join me in something called the 60/60 experiment so that we can set this truth as the foundation of our lives.

For the next 60 days I want to challenge us all to try & stay in a continuous & honest conversation with God where moment by moment, day by day we open ourselves to hearing God say, your life matter to me. Since this kind of relationship & conversation with God for most us does not come naturally, we will need some gentle reminders that God loves us. Again, John Burke, who helped developed this experiment has said, we need something to interrupt our habit of not giving God a second thought most of the day, so we can turn & allow God to break in and lead & guide us.

The 60/60 experiment challenges us to at least once every hour think about God & remember that God is with us & that God loves us. One suggestion on how to do this would be to get a watch that you can set to beep every hour & when the alarm interrupts your day remind yourself that God loves you, tell yourself once again that your life really does matters to God & that He is there to help you through whatever circumstance you find yourself in at that moment. I have been doing this for over a week now & I have to tell you that it has been an interesting experience. Many times I have heard the alarm go off at just the moment I needed some reassurance that God was with me. Once the alarm went off as I was reading an email from a friend of mine who was making a big change in her life. I immediately responded to her & told her I knew God was in her decision & reminded her that God that God loved her. What I have begun to see is that the times the alarm has gone off have not been random moments during the day, but God directed moments. They have reminded me that my life matters to God & that God is with me.

Alarms are just one way to go through the experiment, you could also try using post-it notes as reminders & you could place them in on your computer, mirrors, in your car, at work, place a small dot on your watch. Train yourself to think about God when you hear a clock chime, the phone ring, whatever might interrupt your routine use as a moment to remind yourself that God is with you & more importantly that God is for you. If doing this once every hour seems to be too much for where you are in your walk with God right now, then try thinking about God 3 times a day, or even twice, once when you get up in the morning & when you go bed at night, but keep doing it for 60 days so that by the end of October you will know with certainty that God is with you & God is for you & loves you. Knowing that our lives matter to God will begin to change us & it is that first necessary step to a more authentic & powerful faith.