Are pastors being incomplete?

I just got done listening to Francis Chan at the Saddleback Worship Conference and man he rocked me. As a pastor we are charged to teach God's word, I dont think any of us are confused about that. Most pastors pray fervently that God order and direct our words and actions and we do this because we have a great love for God and often a love to see people have life altering transformational change.

Let me ask you this though....

Jesus said to Love God with all your heart and love thy neighbor as thyself...right?

Have you ever thought about that before you preach? Have you ever before you preach asked God to cause you to fall deeper in love with the people in the audience, to truly love them? I have not. I usually spend my quiet moments with God before I take stage telling Him how much I love Him and want to do His will. I may pray that people receive His message and that their lives are changed...but if we are honest...truly honest...I think most of us will have to admit that we want to see transformational change in others for selfish reasons. We want to represent God well for selfish reasons. Now I'm not condemning us for our reasons but I am saying we are being incomplete.

Let me explain....

What if we were to truly love each and every person in the audience as ourselves as we spoke to them. What if our love for them ran so deep and was so profound that when they experienced change it was almost like we experienced it all over again for the first time. Let me put it to you this way...I love my son, I love that he loves football, when he scores his first touchdown it will be like I scored...I will be through the roof excited. At the same time...I love my wife...when I do the dishes its because I love her...there is no exuberance that the kitchen is clean. There is exuberance because my wife is happy.

We are excited when we see transformation because God is happy and rarely because we know we will be seeing this person for eternity. That's the selfishness...we want to hear 'Well done my good and faithful servant', we want God to be happy. Rarely are we pumped because now we know we can live out our earthly days with this person and then also live with them in Heaven forever. It requires love to plan to spend your life and eternity with someone...Ask anyone married they will attest to that.

See, what if we could treat those who listen to us Sunday after Sunday like our child that when they experience transformation we experience it, when they experience defeat we experience it. I truly believe this was part of the Acts 2 model...they bore with one another.

I think if we can do this, have that type of love, then God will say...'Well done..'. Because at this point we would have loved God and loved our neighbors as ourselves.

So...I hope you will join me on Sundays in asking God...To allow us to truly Love, with a crazy over the top, awe inspiring, radical love those He has asked me to communicate to.