Wake Up, Look Up

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hello everyone thanks for listening to

wake up lookup a podcast where we

connect events happening in real time to

the Gospel of Jesus Christ I'm Zach

wrock and today's episode we're asking

what's wrong with church it's going to

take me a second to get to that question

but let me just tell you what I was

reading this week it was actually an

opinion piece in the New York Times and

it was on the topic of mattering M A TT

r i n mattering mattering is a concept

in Psychology that says the key really

to happiness to self-fulfillment to

self-empowerment to confidence is

feeling as though you matter mattering a

quick definition of mattering is that

mattering is the combination of feeling

value and adding value in other words

it's other people saying to you hey

you're valuable you make our lives

better you make the world around you

better but it's also feeling deep down

kind of existentially that that's

actually true that you can look at your

life and see how you are adding value

and what the opinion piece was saying is

that this is the key to happiness that

maybe we're missing is that that knowing

that other people value US and feeling

that we are ourselves valuable actually

leads to happiness and the absence of

those things actually leads to

dissatisfaction and look I'm not an

anthropologist or a sociologist I'm a

pastor so let me tell you that when I

read this article what instantly clicked

for me is this is the difference between

Happy church people and unhappy church

people or Christians who like their

church and Christians who don't I've

been a pastor for 20 years and in my

experience it's not the music or the

preaching fundamentally that makes

Church exciting or worthwhile it's

actually mattering because healthy

church members are those who are in

community those who actually are caring

and loving for other people having them

in their home and being in their homes

sharing meals serving each other

sacrificing with for each other crying

with each other and celebrating with

each other because in doing that you

real value that's because people are

telling you thanks for being here thanks

for showing up thanks for helping out

you're seeing the effect that you have

on other people and you're hearing it

when they're telling you how much you're

loved and appreciated and and how much

you're bringing to their lives but what

is also true about healthy church

members is they can actually look at

their church and see the difference that

they're making they can see the room

full of kids or teenagers who are being

loved and cared for because they're

serving they can look out at a

congregation and see the people who are

worshiping to the music they're playing

or singing they can see the people who

feel safe and welcomed in an environment

that is clean and well thought out

because of the sacrifice and service

that they are bringing you see God

designed the local church to be a place

of mattering a place where you find

meaning and purpose in participating in

his work to reach people who do not know

him and to make them disciples but it's

also a place where you can hear others

acknowledge your value celebrate your

gifts appreciate your strengths mitigate

your weaknesses you you see I want you

to think that maybe if you're unhappy

lately with church it might not be the

pastor's fault it might not be the music

or the vibe in the room it might be that

you've become a consumer

you aren't giving or adding value You're

simply taking and as a consequence

whether you realize it or not you are

the one suffering for that that's

because psychology is simply agreeing

with what the Bible has always said

which is the key to human happiness is

to love God and enjoy him by serving him

forever feeling valued and adding value

to the kingdom of God after all is this

not the gospel that Jesus shows our

value by dying for us but then calls us

to a life of value when he gives us the

Great Commission to go into all the

nations and baptize those that we are

leading to Faith listen if you're

unhappy with your church maybe you need

to find your value maybe you need to

take seriously God's call on your life

to matter here's my guess when you find

your role and when you realize you

matter you will find maybe there really

wasn't anything wrong with your church

in the first place hey thanks so much

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