Tonight kicks off a short series on community and on reaching people. The whole idea is this: everything we do is personal, and if it’s personal, it matters. If reaching people is personal, then it matters. Before we talk about what we do, we need to look at what God did, because he made it personal first.
TS: Let’s start with how God sees us.
1. God genuinely cares about us
His view of mankind amazes even the writers of Scripture.
3 When I consider your heavens,
the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars,
which you have set in place,
4 what is mankind that you are mindful of them,
human beings that you care for them? u
5 You have made them a little lower than the angels v
and crowned them with glory and honor.
The New International Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011), Ps 8:3-5.
David looks at the moon and the stars and wonders why the God of the universe who created the cosmos would even pause to think about human beings. Not just that, but He created us in such a unique way and gave us the important task of caring for His creation.
TS: How God sees us is beautiful, but there is a problem.
2. We are the problem…
We are told that sin entered the world through Adam and Eve’s disobedience. This has led to a terrible situation: we all have sin in our lives. Romans 3:23 says, “All have sinned.” Romans 6:23 says, “For the wages of sin is death.” Because God is just, he must punish sin.
TS: However, God is also a merciful God and a God of Grace. We already said He views mankind in a very special way, and His emotions lead him to a humbling action.
3. Why Christ humbled himself to become one of us
…the same mindset as Christ Jesus: 6 Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; 7 rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross!
The New International Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011), Php 2:5-8.
Jesus is God, but he took on the form of man, a weaker vessel for our sake. But why? What does that do?
Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil—15 and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. 16 For surely it is not angels he helps, but Abraham’s descendants. 17 For this reason he had to be made like them, fully human in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people.
The New International Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011), Heb 2:14-17.
Jesus became flesh to act as a stand-in for mankind.
But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.
The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2025), 1 Jn 2:1-2.
That word, propitiation, means He acts as our stand-in. He takes the punishment that we deserve upon himself.
TS: And he did this on his own initiative, long before we showed any interest.
4. He reached us even when we didn’t want it
God took our salvation and relationship so seriously that he extended himself simply because he cares.
…but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2025), Ro 5:8.
Even when we didn’t want his grace, he took our punishment on himself, because this is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
The New International Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011), 1 Jn 4:9-10.
TS: God’s love was never passive; it’s always been active, and it has led to very uncomfortable situations, where he reached out to not just lost people, but the kind of people everyone hated
5. Jesus reached out to the lost with a purpose
In Luke 19, Jesus sat with a sinner to show him God’s love. Everyone hated Zacchaeus, and Jesus still loved him. Zacchaeus repented greatly. Here Jesus states his mission:
For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”
The New International Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011), Lk 19:10.
TS: If that was Jesus’ mission, and he pursued people this personally, what does that mean for us?
Closing
God cares about us, and sin separated us from him. He stepped into this world as one of us, reached us when we didn’t want it, and went looking for people nobody else wanted. None of that was done from a distance nor just an act of going through the motions. It was personal to Him. That’s why everything we do is personal, and if it’s personal, it matters. Reaching people matters because it mattered enough to God that he sent His Son.
Tonight, write down two or three names of people you want to see come to know Jesus. Those names are where we start. Tonight we begin by praying for them.
Questions for parents to ask:
- What’s one thing from tonight that stuck with you, and why that one?
- The message was about how God went after people on purpose, even the ones everybody else avoided. What does that tell you about how he sees you?
- Did you write down any names of people you’d like to see come to know Jesus? Who’s on your list, and what’s one thing you could do for one of them this week?
