When we pray for and invite the lost to fill the seventh and the eighth seats in our LifeGroup, do not miss what just happened. We have just loved the lost. We have just learned a little bit more how to stand in the place where God stands, and we have just learned a little bit more how to see the world as God sees it. God has concern for the lost. We have concern for the lost.
From time to time, I pray for those in my life who are lost. They are some of my lost neighbors, coworkers, classmates and friends. There is nothing wrong with that. Praying for the lost is an honorable thing to do. But I have felt that even though it is easy for me to find names to pray for, I do not do very much beyond just praying their names. If I am honest, it has made me feel I was being less than faithful. I think I can do a little better than that.
In LifeGroups, we are not going, and making disciples, as we live in our own LifeGroup. We are really asking those who are lost to actually come and be in our LifeGroup. We are really inviting them into a long-term relationship with us. We are really hoping they will do life with us. We make them feel welcomed and loved. We are going, and making disciples of all nations. We have just done missions.
The third and last of Three Pillars of Christian living is missions.
1 Community
2 Discipleship
3 Missions
If we have prayed for God to reveal to us the names of our lost friends whom we will ask to join our LifeGroup, and if we have loved the lost, and I mean really loved the lost, then as creatures, we have pretty much done all we could possibly do. There is nothing left we could have done that we did not do. God cannot find fault with us for not doing enough. You and I have been faithful.
The Three Pillars of Christian living are community, discipleship, and missions. When one is a part of a LifeGroup, then he or she brings to reality in the 21st century the three essential things 1st-century Christians set out to do soon after our Lord Christ Jesus ascended into heaven.