Heaven is not a place for those who are afraid of hell; itโs a place for those who love God. You can scare people into coming to your church, you can scare people into trying to be good, you can scare people into giving money, you can even scare them into walking down an aisle and praying a certain prayer, but you cannot scare people into loving God. You just canโt do it.
Matt ChandlerThe marker of those who understand the gospel of Jesus Christ is that, when they stumble and fall, when they screw up, they run to God and not from him, because they clearly understand that their acceptance before God is not predicated upon their behavior but on the righteous life of Jesus Christ and his sacrificial death.
Matt ChandlerSo relational evangelism? Go for it, as long as it turns into real evangelism. You hanging out having a beer with your buddy so he can see that Christians are cool is not what weโre called to do. Youโre eventually going to have to open up your mouth and share the gospel. When the pure gospel is shared, people respond.
Matt ChandlerWeโve got to get past this idea that God is most glorified when weโre rich, healthy and wealthy and we go, โIsnโt God grand? Look at all He gave me.โ Because if anybody joins us in that and says, โOh, if you love Jesus, you get a house and health and cars? Then I love Jesus too.โ Because then all of a sudden youโve got a different religion. You have the religion of cars and houses, not God.
Matt Chandler