Invite

What kind of belief really matters? John Ortberg asks this question. He comes up with three categories of belief. The first category he calls “Public Convictions.” These are the convictions that I want other people to think I believe, even though I really may not believe them. For example, if a certain someone asks me, “Does this dress make my hips look too big?” the correct response is “No. I didn’t even know you had hips until you mentioned them.” I make such statements for PR purposes whether I believe them or not.

In the New Testament King Herod is a fine example of public convictions. He tells the Wise Men, “Go and make careful search for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him.” Matthew 2.8

Did Herod really have any interest in worshipping the Christ child? No. It was a spin job. His mind was more on murder than worship. And he would soon show what he really believed.

The second category of belief is our “Private Convictions.” These are the convictions I sincerely think I believe, but in practice these beliefs turn out to be a bit fickle. I believe in reading the Bible. I believe in prayer. I believe in the Pittsburgh Pirates. I sincerely think I believe in these things, but in practice, my beliefs become a bit dicey.

The third category or level of belief is the level of “Core Convictions.” These are the beliefs that really matter. We know what these beliefs are because they are revealed by what we actually do. They are like a mental map. I believe if I touch fire I will get burned. I believe coffee helps me wake up. I believe in gravity. I don’t have in jump off a building to prove that I believe in gravity. I prove I believe it by also not jumping off the building. The belief is part of my mental map. I live by it without thinking most of the time. My actions always reveal what I believe in my core convictions. I live at the mercy of my ideas about the way things really are. Always. And so do you.

These categories of belief explain why some people can say they believe in Christianity and yet live very unlike Jesus lived; and why another person who appears indifferent to religion seems to live a life very much like Jesus would live. It’s not the public or private persona even, that matters, but what is at the core of our convictions, the shape of our mental map.

There was this man named John the Baptist who said that his most important conviction was that Jesus of Nazareth is the Son of God. The Baptist spent most of his energy witnessing to this fact to anyone who would listen. He understood this to be his purpose in life. When people came and asked him who he was, he didn’t want to talk about it. His answers were indifferent, as if to say, “Don’t worry about who I am. I’m nobody. But look there! Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world!

John didn’t waver in his belief. He didn’t have separate categories of public convictions and core convictions. In John they were one and the same. When he became convinced the Jesus was Messiah, John threw himself into inviting others to this belief. The Gospel says this about John:

“He was a burning and shining lamp, and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light.” John 5.35

You might say John set himself on fire and other people came to watch him burn. That’s who he was. You don’t have to guess what his mental map looked like. He lived it.

John paid for his great commitment literally with his life. He was martyred by decapitation. But I think perhaps the even greater display of his loyalties and convictions was shown earlier in his life at that moment when he receives the word from Jesus. Jesus tells him I am the One. But don’t just take my word for it, judge me by my works. John was convinced. He could have waited and watched longer. He could have hedged his bets. He could have played the spin game and said, “I believe you Jesus,” without ever changing his game plan. But instead John looked at his own disciples and said,

“Go follow Jesus now. He’s the One we’ve all been waiting for.”

That’s integrity. And it’s that integrity that lead John later to write,

“He must increase and I must decrease.”

Maybe this is why Jesus said of John, “There is no one born of a woman in this world greater than John.” He was a man who lived what he believed.

It’s possible for us to live what we believe. Not just what we say we believe. Not just what we sincerely think we believe. If we have repented and rethought our lives by putting our faith in Jesus, then this mental map in us, by the power of God, can change our actions.

This doesn’t mean that we never have anymore doubts. But it does mean that when we believe something, we commit to it. I believe in coffee and I have committed to it. I spend time with it every day. When I skip a day, by body cries out in pain. (You know I’m not making this up.) Coffee is just a thing. We are called to commit to more than a thing. We are called to commit to a person. The Person. Here’s an interesting thought - Jesus never said, “Commit to my arguments.”

He said, “Come follow me.”

And like John the Baptist, when we commit to following Jesus, we burn with energy to invite others to follow as well.

A woman named Sheryl went to the salon one day to have her nails manicured. As the beautician began to work, they began to have a good conversation about many subjects. When they eventually touched on God, the beautician said, “I don’t believe God exists.”

“Why do you say that?” asked Sheryl.
“Well, you just have to go out on the street to realize God doesn’t exist. Tell me, if God exists, would there be so many sick people? Would there be abandoned children? If God existed there would be neither suffering nor pain. I can’t imagine loving a God who could allow such things.”

Sheryl thought for a moment but didn’t want to argue, so, when they were done, she thanked the beautician and left the shop. Just after she left the shop, Sheryl saw a woman in the street with long, stringy, dirty hair. She looked filthy and unkempt. Sheryl turned and entered the beauty shop again, and said to the beautician, “You know what? Beauticians do not exist.”

“What do you mean?” asked the surprised beautician. “You were just here and I worked on you. I exist.”

“No,” Sheryl exclaimed, “beauticians do not exist, because if they did, there would be no people with dirty, long hair and appearing unkempt like that woman outside!”

“Ah, but beauticians do exist, “ she answered. “The problem is, people do not come to me.”

Exactly. People do not come of their own accord sometimes. Sometimes they need help. They need someone with the right mental map, with core convictions, motivated enough to invite them to come along.

In the next couple weeks, a lot of people that you know are open to the possibility of coming to church. What do you believe? What are you going to do because of it?