The Irreducible Minimum

Most of the people we are surrounded by are looking for meaning and purpose in their lives, and we believe that we have found something so amazing that we want to make sure they have the opportunity to hear and know about the Jesus we have found.

Underneath all of the exterior things, we live in fragile cities with fragile people. A lot are open, hungry, and hurting people. We have Jesus that we can give to bring them the peace and comfort they are looking for.

We have found the irreducible minimum. We have discovered what the one thing in life is that we cannot do without. In any situation, getting to the irreducible minimum is a treasure. When we get that kind of clarity in life, we get a compelling purpose.

For us at Passion City Church, the irreducible minimum is people need Jesus. Once we understand this, our perspective permanently changes. Every person you ever know or will ever meet has a paramount and urgent banner over their life. That banner is that they were created by and for Jesus. Without Him, they will never experience everything they were meant to.

Our key passage is 1 Corinthians 9. Paul wrote it and he was a very successful man in a world without Jesus. He had reached every high, but he had an encounter with Jesus and gave his life over to Him. Because he had initially been on a mission to persecute Christians, when he started preaching the gospel after his conversion, he got challenged on his authority to do so. This chapter is his defense of why he is qualified. He understood the irreducible minimum so he knew it was his mission and purpose in life to preach the gospel. Paul, even though it is right to be paid for the work that you do, was willing to preach for free because he knew his reward was in Heaven. Paul had another job as a tent maker because he didn't want to be a burden on other people. 1 Corinthians 1:19 shows his heart. He makes himself a slave to everyone in order to win as many people to Christ as possible.

Win in this sense means to trade for something better. It's actually an agricultural term. It would be as if you traded corn for wheat. The goal is to always trade up. So in Paul's view, trading up would be for as many people to come to know Jesus as possible.

He became all things to all people so he could win some people. He would get into their cultural understanding and framework, not to become a chameleon, but to win some people. There was nothing about him that was fake, he truly would put himself in a position to understand how they could come to know Jesus. The irreducible minimum always gives you a clear and compelling purpose.

Jesus said in Luke 19:10 that he came to seek and save that which was lost. He never stepped out of Heaven not understanding the irreducible minimum: people needed Him. His clear and compelling purpose was that people needed Him, so he came to us, lived among us, died for us, exchanged our unrighteousness for His righteousness, and saved us through His grace. He took our place and our death. He placed us into a new family and gave us a purpose. At the end of his ministry in Matthew 28, He commanded us to go and make disciples of every nation and He will be with us. The Holy Spirit came to give us the power to preach the gospel to the nations.

If you never tell the story of Jesus, no one will ever come to know Jesus. Your actions and God-fearing lifestyle are great, but you need to use your words.

The irrefutable argument is that Jesus changed our lives. There's no pressure to tell people about Jesus at the end of the day. You just have to live out your story of grace. Our goal is to live the kind of lives that make people want what we have. People will ask you about you, and you'll be able to tell them about Jesus. Our confidence doesn't rest on our story, it rests on us telling Jesus's story. The gospel is so powerful in and of itself that when it is proclaimed the searching, open, hungry, and hurting people say yes to Jesus.