For God Still Loves the WORLD

One of the staple scriptures of Christianity is John 3:16: For God so loved the world, that He gave His Only Begotten Son; that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have Everlasting Life. This passage is foundational to our Salvation; noting that God loved humanity so much that He was willing to sacrifice His Only Begotten Son for the sins of the world. We give God all of the praise for the Greatest Act of Love this world has ever seen. Generally when we think about this text, we think of God's love for the world in the context of the church; those who are saved or those who are being saved. But saints, I'd like to remind us today that God still Loves THE WORLD. Yes He does. The same love that God had for the world over 2,000 years ago that allowed Him to sacrifice His Son, He still has that same love for the world. Not just the church, THE WORLD.

Why is this important? Because I constantly get the impression that the church is trying to get as far away from the world as we possibly can. I suspect we do this in part to try not to be too "worldly" from a sinful and carnal standpoint. Then we use the scripture that Jesus quoted in John 17, "they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world". All of these things are true. But there's a major oversight that we have that is drastically affecting our Witness; God loves the world. Yes saints, we need to quit putting John 3:16 in a strictly salvific context. We need to understand that today, in 2015, God loves THE WORLD; and all that are in it. God still loves THE WORLD.

The reason this needs to be stressed is because the Kingdom Movement is not designed primarily for the church; it's designed primarily for The World. Whenever God is ready to release a Kingdom Movement, you'll notice that the primary effect is upon the world. Do you need some proof? When God called Moses to serve as the leader of the Egyptian Freedom Movement on behalf of the children of Israel, where did that Movement take place? In Egypt, which represents what? THE WORLD. The Judgments, the Miracles, the Signs and Wonders, they were all performed in front of Pharaoh, who was the King of Egypt; once again, THE WORLD. When you look at the Book of Acts, the scripture says that the apostles turned "what" upside down, Judaism? No, it says THE WORLD (Acts 17).

So the question becomes, how are we going to participate in a Kingdom Movement of God if we're not committed to operating in the world? We've got to get into the streets saints. We've got to get into the marketplace. We've got to get into the neighborhoods. Some of us spend too much time in "church"; particularly us preachers. It's time to hit the pavement. Yes, Jesus spent a significant amount of time in the synagogues and in the Temple. But the main thrust of His Ministry was reaching the world. This is our job as His Body. The unsaved, the unchurched, the unbelievers, they're not going to be found in our sanctuaries on Sunday Morning. If we're going to reach them and spead the Gospel of the Kingdom, we have to reach them where they are. Because God still loves THE WORLD.