“But I myself said: I have labored in vain, I have spent my strength for nothing and futility; yet my vindication is with the Lord, and my reward is with God.” HCSB
In the first three verses of Isaiah 49, Isaiah shared that God had called him to prophesy before he was born, and that God put words in his mouth to tell the people God’s will. Yet Isaiah felt that he had labored in vain. He couldn’t see that he had done any good at all. The Israelite people just kept doing what they wanted in spite of God’s commandments and in spite of Isaiah’s prophesying. I know how Isaiah felt, and if you have served God in any capacity, you probably feel the same way. We preach and preach, we have church and have church, we pray and pray, and we hope and hope, but things still seem to go on as before. Instead of getting better, the spiritual and moral situation seems to be getting worse, not better. Understand that to people who have no interest in the Bible, church and spiritual things, things are going rather well – right on schedule. Does that mean, then, that we have lost and that we, like Isaiah, feel that we “have labored in vain”? It doesn’t mean that at all. As you have heard before, God has not called us to be successful, just to be faithful. The problem is that we forget history. (That’s why it is important to know something about history.) There has never been a time when the world was in perfect moral order, yet God has continued to call people into His service, and He continues to bless His Church. The point is that we enter the world at a particular time in history and it is our duty, our privilege, to serve God in that time. We can wish that things were like they were in bygone years, but it will never be. My formative years were in 40’s and 50’s. I have often wished that we could return to the simplicity of those days. (It might be worth it if we could take air-conditioning and medical science back with us. lol) However, I realize that, while those days were simple to me, there were older folks who wished they could go back to the 20’s and 30’s during that same time. Since the fall of humankind in Genesis, the world has not been a perfect place, nor will it ever be on this side of history. We just have to be faithful and serve God in the time in which we live, and trust that He knows what’s going on. Which brings me to Isaiah’s conclusion of the matter: “Yet my vindication is with the Lord, and my reward is with God.” The vast majority of the people paid no attention to Isaiah and went on their merry way, doing as they wanted to do. Isaiah came to realize what we must come to realize, i.e., it is not our fault that people pay no attention to God if we have been faithful in serving Him and telling others what He did for us in Jesus. If we are “walking the walk” and not just “talking the talk,” we can feel vindicated as Isaiah did. (Warning: I’m about to get “fussy” here!) One of the problems is that instead of being Christ’s Church in a sinful world, we play at being the church and society does not take us seriously. That is our side of the problem. We need to live the Christian life before people so that they can take us seriously. We need to love people like God loves them so that they can take us seriously. We need to stand up for what is right, remembering Paul’s admonition in Ephesians 4:14-15: “That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the slieight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive. 15. But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into Him in all things, which is the head even Christ.” But even when we have done our best, we will still just need to trust God and know that our vindication is in Him and not in our effectiveness. Our labor for God is never in vain, for He is still in charge. Bro. Joe
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(The beginning of every year is filled with expectations. Deuteronomy 10:12-13 presents some good expectations as we begin this year. Read them and take them to heart.)
“And now, Israel, what does the Lord thy God require (expect) of thee, but to fear the Lord thy God, to walk in all His ways, and to love Him, and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul. 13. To keep the commandments of the Lord, and His statutes, which I command thee this day for thy good?” The Book of Deuteronomy is actually a sermon by Moses as the children of Israel waited to enter the "Promised Land.” It is a summation of Israel’s travels and events from Egypt to that present time. In Deuteronomy, Moses gives some summary statements that serve as advice for God’s people as to how they should live. Deuteronomy 10:12-13 is one of those summary statements. It answers the question as to what basic requirements, or expectations, God had for Israel as they entered Canaan. It is good advice for us as well. The first expectation was “to fear the Lord thy God.” This does not just mean to be afraid of God, but hold Him in deep reverence and awe. One of the problems that Israel faced and that we face today is that, “there is no fear of God before their eyes.” God, as we know Him in Jesus, is not just “the man upstairs.” He is the creator of the universe and the master of all that He created. We would do well to heed Moses' advice. Do you really hold God in awe and reverence? The second expectation was “to walk in all His ways.” Moses wanted Israel to understand, as we are to understand, that there are two ways that we can walk – God’s way or our way. Moses knew from experience that Israel had a penchant for walking in their way as opposed to God’s way. God allows us to choose the way we will walk. If we walk in His way, the way might be rough sometimes, but it will be the rewarding way. If we walk in our way, we will eventually walk into disaster. I know what I’m talking about here, and you probably do too. God wants His people, including those of us who belong to Him through Jesus, to live right, to make right decisions instead of making wrong-headed decisions. I think that the disastrous journey of the prodigal son in Luke 15 is an example of what can happen when we take God’s resources and go our own way. He took a rough route until he came to his senses and sought out his father. The third expectation was “to love Him.” Jesus said that the first commandment is to “love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.” We should love God with all of the fiber of our being. If we will just think of all that He has done for us in Jesus, we should have no problem loving Him. When we love Him, we are returning the great love that He has for us. The fourth expectation was “to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul, and to keep the commandments of the Lord…” Notice that we are to serve Him from our hearts. Everything that we do that really counts in our lives comes from our hearts. If He has our hearts, we will serve Him wholeheartedly. Our salvation from God begins in our hearts, and everything else in our lives should come from our hearts. We are to serve God with all of our souls. This means that our service should proceed from who and what we are in Him. The “soul” is who and what we are, and it should be defined by our devotion to God/Jesus. We are to serve Him with our minds. When Christ saved us, He did not kill our minds. God wants us to keep our transformed minds on Him, and to think when we serve Him. We should serve Him with “the mind of Christ.” How are you doing in these areas of your life? Do you hold God in deep reverence (fear)? Do you walk in all His ways? Do you really love Him? Do you serve Him from deep within yourself? Think about it. Bro. Joe “Not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord. 12. Rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer.”
We are told in verse 11 to fervently serve the Lord. In verse 12, we are reminded that fervency alone will not result in effective service. This verse will give some direction to our fervent service. “Rejoicing in hope” – Let’s just say that we are to be hopefully joyful. The word for hope here does not mean that there is any doubt as we serve the Lord. We can serve joyfully, because we know that the Lord will be with us in our service, and that He will help us serve effectively. The Greek word for hope, “elpidis” carries the meaning of expectancy. We can serve the Lord in a spirit of joyful anticipation, because we know that the Lord will be with us in what He has called us to do. That is why that I say when I preach that the Lord is going to use His word to touch somebody’s life. That doesn’t mean that I will have to know about it, but I can anticipate God’s word “will not return to Him void.” (As promised in Isaiah 55:11.). Does this describe your attitude in your service? “Patient in tribulation” – The word that is translated “patient” here means to be willing to wait. When we serve the Lord, the world being as it is, we are bound to encounter trouble along the way. Jesus never promised us that our service for Him would be trouble free. We cannot let the troubles that we might encounter cause us to grow discouraged and give up. This happens all too often in churches. We can begin to see things moving in the right direction and Satan will throw all kinds of troubles in the way. If we give up, he wins a victory, and keeps the work from going forward. That is why we are told to have patience, and trust in the Lord’s timing. His timing is perfect, ours is not perfect. “Continuing instant in prayer” – This can be translated, “stay faithful in prayer.” Another translation that I like is to be “constant in prayer.” Nothing is ever accomplished in our service to the Lord without prayer. It is constant, faithful prayer that causes us to rejoice in hope and to be patient in trouble. Dwight L. Moody wrote that “every great movement of God began by a man on his knees.” Too often we try to bring revival to our churches by a program. Programs work well only when they are bathed with the faithful prayers of God’s people. Think about your own service for the Lord. Are these three qualities involved in your service? It is at least worth thought isn’t it! Bro. Joe “And (Jesus) said unto (Andrew and Peter), follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.”
This is Jesus call to His first disciples, Andrew and Peter. According to John’s gospel, Andrew had been a disciple of John the Baptist, and when John the Baptist showed Jesus to him, he followed Jesus and went and found his brother Peter, who also became a follower. This was their formal call to “become fishers of men.” They didn’t realize it at the time, but Jesus was calling them to a lifetime opportunity to serve Him. He still gives the opportunity to people today. When we accept His call to become Christians, we accept the opportunity to serve Jesus and to “fish for men.” We need to see it as the opportunity that it is, and actually follow Jesus and invite people to Jesus – which is what “fishing for men” is. It is a tremendous opportunity because it is a call to follow Jesus. We are all going to follow something or someone. Some people follow their own inclinations and follow only what, or who, they want to follow. For example, some people seem to substitute sports for Jesus. Of course, there is nothing wrong with enjoying sports and pulling for your team, but when it consumes your life it has gone too far. I certainly have my “druthers” when it comes to ball teams, and I really want them to win, but my whole life doesn’t depend on it. Jesus is “the lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” This means that it was decided back beyond eternity that Jesus would come, live a perfect life, die on the cross for our sins, rise from the dead, ascend to the Father, intercede for us and come again to receive us. It is not just an opportunity to follow Jesus; it is an honor to follow Him and serve Him. He wants you to follow Him. If you aren’t already following Him, surrender to Him now. It is a tremendous opportunity because of His involvement in our lives. Notice that Jesus said, “I will make you fishers of men.” This means that when we make the decision to follow Jesus, He becomes involved intimately in our lives. It’s not just an invitation to follow Jesus on our own. Part of His “making” us fishers of men is sending the Holy Spirit to live in our lives to empower us for witness and to guide us into truth. Becoming a follower of Jesus is not a shallow thing. Being “fishers of men” is not a shallow thing. Jesus wants to use us to do His work on this earth, just as He did for Andrew and Peter. You can follow Peter’s life after he became a follower of Jesus, and see that Jesus, and serving Him, took over his life. Following Jesus is a tremendous opportunity because it is a call to become involved in the lives of other people. When we fish for people, we do not do it without having to become involved in their lives. Just as Jesus does not call us to follow Him and then dump us, we do not lead people to Jesus and forget about them. We invite them into fellowship with us and the fellowship of our church, where we will be involved in their lives as they grow in discipleship. Have you accepted Jesus call to follow Him and become a “fisher of men”? Bro. Joe I copied this article from 2017. I needed to reread it and remember the truth that was revealed to me when I wrote it. You, no doubt, need to also read it.
“God resists the proud, but gives grace unto the humble…” This text is easy to read and easy to preach, but it is awfully hard to remember about ourselves. I think that pride is one of the most difficult things for us to deal with. I guess that one reason for this is that pride can be good and bad. We certainly want to take pride in our families, in our appearance or in doing a job well. But it becomes bad, even harmful, when we begin to internalize the pride and think that no one is better than us at what we do. It is at this point that we begin to think, “It’s all about me.” It is difficult for us to overcome this syndrome, if that is what it is, because we are so prideful that we think that we could never think that it’s all about us. Satan is a wily old tempter, and he will help us to lie to ourselves about our own pride. Let me begin with a personal example. When it became obvious to me that the Lord was leading me to retire, I balked at the idea at first. I tried to tell my Creator that I was not ready to “get out of the loop.” That meant that I was not ready to turn my work over to someone else, or that I was not ready to cease being the center of attention. I want to tell you, it is hard to imagine that we can be replaced. I began to pray about this, and the Lord convinced me that it was time to step aside into retirement. He also convinced me that I wasn’t being “replaced” but moving on to a new era in my life. Does it surprise you that for a little while there I thought that it was “all about me”? Well, you shouldn’t be surprised because you probably have to deal with the same thing in your life if you will be honest with yourself. I still have to be careful about it, but don’t you go getting self-righteous on me, you also need to remember that it is not all about you...:) Who taught us more about this than our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ? Remember, now, that if anyone had a claim that it was all about Him, Jesus certainly did. In the prologue to his gospel, John wrote: “In the beginning was the word (Jesus), and the word was with God, and the word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him; and without Him was not anything made that was made.” (John 3:1-3) Do you see what I mean that He had a real claim that it was all about Him? Then we can go over to Philippians 2:5-9: “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: 6. Who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: 7. But made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: 8.and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.” Don’t miss this point: He who could claim that “it was all about Him,” made it all about us instead. If this doesn’t humble us, nothing else can. When Jesus made it all about us, it was written of Him in Philippians 2:9: “Wherefore God has highly exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above every name.” It becomes plain to us that we need to fight this temptation to think that everything is all about us. In order for us to get to that point, we need to confess our false pride, and start thinking like Jesus. We would do well here to remember what Paul wrote in Philippians 2:7: “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.” If we want to be like Christ, we must humble ourselves, get off of our “high horse,” as my Grandma Cooper used to say, and remember that it is not all about us but all about Him. When you start feeling all self-important, just say to yourself: “It’s not all about me.” Bro. Joe “Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you and to exhort (encourage) you that you should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.”
Jude intended to write about “our common salvation,” but the circumstances demanded that he write about contending for the faith. I think that we live in a time like this as well, but I don’t want us to necessarily read that as a call to fight. There are many things that make me angry today, but anger will not make me a good witness. We need to fight, but we need to remember that the weapons that we use in this warfare are spiritual. I want to give you my opinion of how we can contend for the faith today. I will begin with one thing that we should not do in order to contend for the faith. We do not need to argue with people about the faith. I don’t mean that we do not need to speak up for the faith. What I mean is that when our witness, or discussion, turns into an argument all it does is raise our blood pressure and it does not contend for the faith. I have never argued anyone into the kingdom of God. Let’s move to what we can do to contend for the faith. The first answer is simple: We can live what we preach. There is no advertisement for the Christian faith like a person really living for Jesus. This means that our moral lives are upright and beyond question. This certainly doesn’t mean that we will be perfect, but it does mean that we will watch our behavior, privately and publicly. I know that a lot of people are turned off by church because they see church people living like the rest of the world. Early Christians turned the world upside down because they lived authentic Christian lives. We contend for the faith when we obey Jesus’ admonition that we love one another. In John 13:35, Jesus said: “By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love one to another.” This means that Christians are to love each other, but beyond that, it means that we are to love people in general. Now, I know that this is not an easy command to follow. There are some people in the church, out of the church as well as people who are opposed to the church, who are not easy to love. We have personality conflicts. We have differences of opinions. We have doctrinal differences. We have moral differences. We are to help people live better lives, and we will be more effective in that endeavor if we love them. I love the saying: “People won’t care how much we know until they know how much we care.” If we want to contend for the faith, we need to stand up for the faith. This doesn’t mean that we should tear into people, foaming at the mouth, condemning them. We cannot, however, contend for the faith if we are ashamed of Jesus or ashamed of what we believe. Paul admonished us in Ephesians 4:15 to “speak the truth in love.” We need to speak the truth, and we need to do it in love – but we do need to speak the truth. If we say what we say out of love and concern and by the leadership of the Holy Spirit, we don’t need to worry about what the other person thinks, for we have done what we have been commanded to do. This post is by no means comprehensive on the subject, but I think that it gives some sound advice on contending for the faith. Bro. Joe “Now therefore, fear the Lord, and serve Him in sincerity and truth: and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the flood, and in Egypt; and serve ye the Lord.”
Every Christian is a servant of God. We can be effective or ineffective servants, but we are servants. Through the Holy Spirit, God has gifted every Christian to serve Him. This means that there is something for every Christian to do for God. This service can be achieved in the church or in the community. He did not call some of us to be “pew sitters” and some of us to do the work. We need to consider ourselves as servants of the lord. Joshua 24:14 tells us how to serve God. Our service should be reverent. “Fear the Lord” does not mean that we are to be afraid of God as if He was a hobgoblin intending to harm us . This is what a lot of people think this means. What it means is that we are to reverence God and hold Him in great awe. How can we read the Bible, believe what we read, and not hold Him in awe? Think of Jesus healing the sick, stilling storms, turning water into wine, etc. When we reverence God, we do not want to displease Him, particularly in the area of our service for Him. Our service should be sincere. When we serve sincerely, we put our hearts and souls into our service. For example, if a person has the gift of hospitality and serves as an usher in the church, he will not greet people half-heartedly. He will greet people in a sincere, Christian spirit. That makes a difference to people. If a person has the gift of encouragement, he or she will seek to encourage people wherever they are. This means that they would encourage people at work, at the mall, at a ball game – wherever. Sincerity goes a long way towards bringing people into the kingdom of God. Our service should be steadfast. When we serve the Lord, we serve Him according to His truth. This means that we hold steadfastly to the word of God as we serve. We are not to be “tossed about by every wind of doctrine.” Whatever we do, we are to stick to the Bible and what it commands. This will lead to stability in service. When we serve according to biblical truth, we do not stop serving because of adversity or disagreement. A lot of people quit serving when they encounter problems with people. We must keep on serving in spite of the obstacles and persevere in our service for the Lord. Our service should be exclusive. Joshua told the Israelites to “put away the gods which your fathers served.” Jesus said that we “cannot serve God and mammon." We are not in religious service, which can mean anything. We are servants of the Lord Jesus Christ and we are to serve Him and Him alone as led by the Holy Spirit. Keep in mind that you are a servant of God if you are a Christian. Serve Him! Bro. Joe “This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.” Psalm 118:24
“Again, He limits a certain day, saying in David, Today, after so long a time, as it is said, today if you will hear His voice, harden not your hearts.” Hebrews 4:7 Have you ever wished that you lived in another time or another place? I guess we have all wished this at some time or other, but it is a useless exercise. We are living in a certain time at a certain place, and the way I see it, we are living in this time and place because that is what God wants of us. I have often said that I would go back to simpler times if I could take air-conditioning and medical science with me. I think you get my point. If we could live in another time and another place, we would still have to face the hardships of each day. I think that the Bible teaches us that we need to live today, because we can’t relive yesterday and we can’t live tomorrow until it gets here. That’s right, that only leaves today. We should live each day to the fullest, giving our time to the Lord, and following His will for our lives. I want to point out some things about living life to the fullest today. What we do with each day will determine what will take place in the future. I remember that when I was in high school, I decided that studying was a waste of time, and that homework was just a nuisance, so I gave them up. Each day passed, and life just kept going on. It took awhile, but I finally decided that I had better make better use of my days. Suppose I had not wised up and had kept on like I was going. The days would have kept passing and I would have gotten sorrier and sorrier. (Some of you are probably thinking that I couldn’t be any sorrier – shame on you. lol) How we use the time that we have each day will determine the quality of our lives as we live from day to day. It is important that we embrace each day. The psalmist gave us some wise advice: “This is the day that the Lord has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.” It is worth noting that he did not write: “We should rejoice and be glad in it,” but he wrote “we will rejoice and be glad in it.” The NIV translates it: “Let us rejoice and be glad in it. ”Either way it is a positive statement about living each day that God has given us and rejoicing in Him and in the fact that He has given us another day. You can rejoice in the day or bemoan the day, but it is all you have at the moment. We can meet each new day with rejoicing, or we can bemoan each new day, and it will still be all thhat we have at the moment. Too many people are putting off today what they plan to do tomorrow. We need to take advantage of the fact that we are alive today, and that we can live it in a positive way. I have heard it said many times that we can greet the day with “good morning Lord,” or with “good Lord, it's morning.” Which do you think will give you a better day? It is today that we can take care of the things that we know need to be taken care of. One of these has to do with our spiritual lives. We can start off the day with prayer and reading God’s word. We know that if we want to draw closer to the Lord, we need to communicate with Him, and that we need to delve into His word. Today is a good day to start your day, as best you can with the time that you have, in fellowship with God and His word. I have found that the exercise of prayer and Bible reading has helped me “rejoice in the day that the Lord has made.” Today is the day to get right with the Lord. Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 6:2b: “Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.”In the spirit of that text, we can say that today is the accepted time to draw near to the Lord. You have today! What are you going to do with it? There are choices before you as you face today. You can spend some time praising God and thanking Him that you have today. You will be surprised at how much difference that will make in the rest of your day. Try it! Bro. Joe “And as He walked by the Sea of Galilee, He saw Simon and Andrew his brother casting a net into the sea: for they were fishermen. 17. And Jesus said unto them, Come ye after me, and I will make you fishers of men.”
I want you to think about the possibility of Jesus using you to be a part of carrying out His purposes in the coming year. It is possible that you feel that you didn’t do a very good job of that in 2019. I guess that’s about par for the course for a lot of us, because it is difficult to determine when we have adequately served the Lord. If you are like a lot of people, and I mean A LOT OF THEM, you question whether God can use you at all. This is where Peter and Andrew come in, as well as James and John who were called to be used by the Savior right after Peter and Andrew. These men prove to us that Jesus can and will use us. The four men that Jesus called that day were not out of the ordinary. In fact, they were very ordinary – they were fishermen. There was nothing wrong with that profession. It was just not one that qualified people in the eyes of people that day to do anything remarkable. That should be an encouragement to us, for most of us are ordinary. (I remember that Abraham Lincoln said: “God must really love common people, because He made so many of us.”) Take Billy Graham for example. He was just a raw bone North Carolina farm boy. Who would have thought when they saw him at school, church and at work, that God would use Billy Graham to be the evangelist to the world? (No one was more incredulous than Billy Graham himself.) I am not putting myself in the league with Billy Graham, but who would have thought that God would use me to touch people’s lives with the gospel? My cousin Johnny and I were nicknamed “worry warts” at the Smithville Baptist Church. God started calling me when I was about twelve years old to preach His word, but I had a lot foolishness to overcome before I finally surrendered at age 21. If Jesus could use Peter, Andrew, James, John, Billy Graham and me, He can use you as well for whatever purpose(s) He has for your life. Notice that Jesus called them to be “fishers of men.” What Jesus meant by that was that they were to tell others about Him. While He called them from their fishing boats to follow Him and evangelize the world, that is not what He demands of everyone. There have been millions of people who have become “fishers of men” and stayed at whatever location or task that they were doing before. It is important that we realize that Jesus is using people who work at ordinary jobs to reach other people for Him. First of all, Jesus wants us to live lives before people that will reflect Him. Second, He wants us to give a verbal witness to people that we encounter when He leads us to do so. He wants to use us right where we are, doing what we do every day to reach people for Him. As you start this New Year, resolve that you are going to make yourself available to the Lord to be used of Him in whatever way He wants to use you. He wants to use you at your church, but He also wants to use you in the community where you live. I don’t know what He wants to use you to do, but there are plenty of opportunities to be used of Him as you encounter people daily. He wants to use you in the mundane things of life. For example, when you encounter a cashier and he or she makes a mistake, He wants to use you to show them how Christians are supposed to act. He wants to use you at work around the people with whom you work every day. People should be able to tell by your actions that Jesus is making a difference in your life. Of course there are also things that He can use you for at your church, just be available to Him to use you as He sees fit. Just remember this – God can use you!!!!! Bro. Joe “And whosoever shall compel you to go a mile, go with him two.”
Wherever the Romans ruled, they had certain expectations of their captives. One of these was that if a Roman soldier told a man to carry his heavy military equipment a mile, he had to do it. The rule was that the man only had to carry the equipment a mile and no more. Jewish men listening to this would probably not be happy to hear it. I read that some Jewish men had mileage markers placed along the road from their houses and they would only carry the equipment from one marker to the next. Jesus told them to do more than was expected of them. In verse 39 of Matthew 5, Jesus told the men that if someone struck them on the right cheek to turn the other also. Man, you talk about tough demands. It was the same message to go beyond what is expected. To go beyond what is expected, we must have our egos under control. Pleasing the Lord must be more important than what we think should be expected of us. When we apply this rule to our lives, it will cause us to be more effective servants of Jesus. It will make us more Christ like, since He certainly went the extra mile and turned the other cheek for us. In order to go the extra mile we have to be very secure in our faith in Jesus, and secure within ourselves. If we will do this, it will make a difference in our lives. How? First, it will mean that we are being obedient to Jesus’ hardest demands on our lives. It is easy to obey Jesus if it doesn’t mean that we have to sacrifice any of ourselves or our time. If we go beyond what is expected, we will serve on a deeper level than the normal service. Jesus has no problem asking us to go beyond what is expected of us. He knows that it will be hard on our egos and on our sense of “self,” but His purpose is to help us realize that everything is not about us. He wants us to realize that it is important for us to take people seriously and serve them in the love of Jesus. Second, it will make us more effective witnesses of Jesus Christ. All Christians have been called to be witnesses for Jesus, and urge people to enter the kingdom of God by faith in Him. Going beyond what is expected of us will make an impression on people about the seriousness of our Christian faith. It will help people to know that we really love and care about them. We are more attractive witnesses when we do the things that Jesus Himself would have done, and going beyond what was expected was a way of life with Him. The Bible tells us that when Jesus was tired and would have preferred to take a little time for Himself, people would come to Him with their needs and He would take the time to meet their needs. Early Christians went beyond what was expected of them when they continued to serve Jesus, even though they knew they would be persecuted. That kind of dedication is contagious. Christians today in many countries go beyond what is expected of them by serving Jesus in spite of threats of persecution, which in some places can mean death. Surely, this should compel us to go beyond what is expected in our safe environment. Third, this kind of service will make us feel better about ourselves. I know that this is not the major reason to go beyond what is expected, but it doesn’t hurt for us to feel good about what we are doing. When we are selfish, self-serving and mean-spirited, Christ in us makes it impossible for us to be satisfied with this lifestyle. There is something very satisfying about knowing that we are obeying Jesus, and that we love people and that we are ministering to them as Jesus would have done. It is good to know that no soldier is going to come along and demand that we carry his equipment a mile, but we will be confronted with situations in daily life that will make the same demand. Let’s do it. Bro. Joe |
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