Be A Sheep Not A Goat, Be The Church - Give Generously, Live Generously
Serve or neglect, you decide. Be a serving sheep, or be a neglecting (jerk) goat, you decide.
Friends,
I know that I'm often exhorting about the ugly side of religion and people of faith.
Today I want to share some thoughts about good things and good reasons for the church to BE...
Jesus said,
Whoever wants to BECOME great among you must BE your servant, and whoever wants to BE first must BE your slave.
Matthew 20:26-27
He said,
BE merciful, just as your Father is merciful.
Luke 6:36
"Share your food with the hungry, and give shelter to the homeless. Give clothes to those who need them, and do not hide from relatives who need your help." Isaiah 58:7
Jesus said,
"Then the King will say to those (righteous) on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’"
Matthew 25:34-36
"Take care of widows who really need help."
1 Timothy 5:3
Jesus said,
“‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me’” (Matthew 25:40).
"A generous person will prosper; whoever refreshes others will be refreshed."
Proverbs 11:25
"Give careful thought to the paths for your feet and BE steadfast in all your ways."
Proverbs 4:26
Friends,
BE doing these things everyday. We need to find a way to go from making money and collecting possessions and fun experiences, and move onto paths where we are being servant children of God. Serving the purposes of God here and now. In order to do this we first need to know and believe the word of God, (see the scriptures above again), and hold that treasure in your heart with reverence and zeal, meditating in it day and night.
Why Mike? Why do I have to study the word? Can't I just go and do good for Jesus?
You're going to hide these lessons deep into your heart because you're in danger. The enemy, Satan, prowls around trying to get Christian children to avoid the word so that he can implant self important beliefs into their service works. He'll use pride to remove humility. He'll convince you that you're a good person all on your own.
You need to humble yourself and know his teachings so that you're never going to be tempted to boast about yourself. It's human nature to make themselves into gods. It's the original sin. Resist that natural man sin, and arm yourself against it, by loading up your heart with scripture ammunition.
Live Generously
Let's be honest, most people slip by in life without a passion for God, spending their lives on trivial diversions, living for comfort and pleasure, and perhaps if it occurs to them their trying to avoid sin.
In my older age (I'm never really growing "old" ) I've learned that we fear all sorts of self consuming things. Most people spend their days fearing about missing out on some bucket list meaningless thing. Our greatest fear should not be of failure, but of succeeding at things in life that don’t really matter (read that again). We should not fear about missing out on things that don't matter eternally.
Let me ask you a question...an honest reflection.
When was the last time you saw a friend or even yourself posting social media clips about something other than self obsessed consumption? How many reels and Tik Toks do you notice (or produce) are people doing good for Christ's "least among us"?
Often we hear people lament the news, all the bad dark news, "where's the good news?" people say. Good question. Where are all the beautiful messages of hope with people unselfishly being good with no expectations of return? Everyone is doing stuff. Eating, at play, traveling, dancing, being pornographic, checking each other out. Kinda brings to mind a scripture.
Matthew 24
"In those days before the flood, the people were enjoying banquets and parties and weddings right up to the time Noah entered his boat.
"Just as it was in the days of Noah, so will it be in the days of the Son of Man."
And where are the clips of the feeding of the hungry, clothing the naked, housing the homeless and visiting the sick and prisoners?
Where are the viral videos of people being good?
Okay..now for something different but maybe to the point of this conversation.
Why did Lucifer fall?
He rebelled in heaven and was able to convince a third of the angels to join him. That dragon brought down a third of the stars of heaven down to the earth. He created a spiritual warfare between the angels and God. And he found mankind on earth and began working on brewing up a rebellion among those creatures who were made in the image of God. He tried to convince the world of mankind that if he were in charge he would create a better world than God would. He created temptation and mankind turned it into selfishness, it's you first, it's all about you. And for generations upon generations mankind has never shook off that desire.
Friends,
It no great viral feat to live for yourself. The wicked have been doing it since the very beginning. It's nothing new and interesting.
What's been unusual has been a generous spirit. What should be going viral if people really are as "good" as they think they are, is people being servant (sheep) gospel workers. People reaching the world with godly and holy living with no expectations of winning praise, glory, or social credits. Not people recording a beat down in the streets, or their latest dinner out. How about a video showing love and generosity in action?
Conclusion:
The clicks, reposts, shares and impressions the church should be producing are viral moments of gospel inspiration, love, generosity, and peace. A revival viral content moment for an audience of One (Jesus Christ).
This truth is biblical, even from an age before social media technology was known.
1 Thessalonians 5:11
"Therefore encourage one another and build up one another, just as you also are doing."
It's biblical to share your faith working itself out in order to encourage one another.
Hebrews 3:13
"encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called “Today,” so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin."
You see there? NOT doing these things carries the danger of falling away into deception and sin.
This world desperately craves peace and goodness. BE that person. Don't be afraid the world will see you being a sheep and mock you or think poorly of you. Don't be worried about losing your social credit. Don't let the Satan's control your life by making you believe their paths of unrighteousness are what's going to make you happy and whole.
Be the church out in the open. Live generously.
Remember, not everyone who says to Jesus, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven (Matthew 7:21).