65. Do Them A Favour

Many Christians find it challenging to bring their friends to church. This is not surprising. Usually they first bring their friends to Church service and it is not a very friendly place for non-Christians. So, they feel that they are asking them for a favor by inviting them to church.

But for us who do house church ministry shouldn’t feel this way. For us, the house church is where we bring our friends first. We need to be convinced that house church meeting is very attractive to non-Christians. The atmosphere is friendly, food is there, and above all, people will listen what they have to share in the house church. In normal party settings, friends don’t genuinely listen to each other because such function promotes short chit-chat or shallow life updates, not deep conversation. So when we invite our friends to house church, we are not asking them for a favor. We are doing them a favor. They will have a loving community that will listen and serve them. Above all, when they receive Christ, they become the children of God and find eternal security that they never had. Of course, we become joyful as we witness that but the biggest beneficiary of all this is them. We need this healthy sense of confidence because this is true.

Then why some still feel that they are asking for a favor from their non-Christian friends? It is because their Christian life or church life is not very happy. When our life in Christ is full of happiness, it becomes easier to share it with other people.

So we first need to become a happy Christian. How do we do that? It happens when we become confident that we have been perfectly forgiven and perfectly accepted by our heavenly Father the moment we received Christ. Without constantly being reminded of this truth, our Christian life always turns into a lifeless religion that focuses on performance. Serving becomes a duty. Loving others becomes a chore.

However, when you see yourself precious in the eyes of God, you begin to see others as precious. When you begin to love yourself the way God loves you, you begin to love others. When you enjoy God’s love, you want others to enjoy it as well.

So when you are are trying to invite your non-Christian friends, remember this: We don’t want something from them. We want something for them. Jesus can give them an abundant life! To communicate this genuinely, we first need to know that God doesn’t want something from us but for us. He does not need our obedience. Everything is already his. It is “us” who benefit the most from obeying him.