Wed. 8/15/12 Helping Others 3

Ephesians 2:4 - But because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions.  It is by grace you have been saved.  6 And raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus.  7 In order that in the coming ages He might show the incomparable riches of His grace, expressed in His kindness to us in Christ Jesus.  8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God, 9 not by works, so that no one can boast.  10 For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.  (NIV)

Dear Father in Heaven, please forgive us of our sins and help us to repent of our sins.  Walk with us this day and help us to walk with You.  Lord, as You set examples of how we should live, help us learn by those examples and live that life to the fullest while showing others that same good news You have pointed out to us.  In Jesus' Name I pray, Amen.

Good Wednesday evening, my dear brothers and sisters.  It is Wednesday, and please keep praying for all those on our prayer lists.  We have located Matthew, thanks for your prayers.  Matthew still needs lots and lots of prayers.  Our food pantry was blessed today as we received a pickup truck load of frozen dinners from a food pantry that had some to share.  GOD IS GOOD.  While we used to call this day Salvation Wednesday, we have now moved our Salvation prayer day to Friday and will be putting that together with those who are working the fields of harvest for Jesus.  So we have Wednesday open for a group type of prayer.  Suggestions are welcomed.  Let me move on to the message.  This week our topic is Helping Others.

Helping Others (Day Three).  We have looked over the parable of the Good Samaritan on Monday and Tuesday.  Yesterday I left you with this question ... "When do you retire from working for Jesus?"  I had one person tell me the correct answer.  She said when we die.  Yes, when we leave this earth, until then there is no reason to retire from working for God, nor can I find any place in the Bible that even hints of that.

Today and tomorrow I want to talk to you about why we work for God and why we cannot work our way into heaven.  And also what should happen to all those people who refuse to work.

First, let's look at why we should work for Jesus.  He commanded us to do just that ... Mark 16:15 - He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation."  (NIV)

So we follow that command and we work for Jesus telling the good news to all we see.  Will that get us into heaven?  NO, NO, NO.  We cannot work our way into heaven, it is a gift from God.  Remember the lessons from last week, how Jesus died for us because of His great love for us.

Ephesians 2:8 - For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God, 9 not by works, so that no one can boast.

You see here in Ephesians again we are told, this is a free gift, which comes from God, and it is by grace and our faith in God we are saved ... Not by works, MEANING we cannot work our way into heaven.  HOWEVER, could not working for God keep us out?  That Question is for tomorrow.

I am not judging others here, but I have seen many a person who has worked hard around their church, some cooking and setting up for all those dinners and fund raisers ... Yes, when I have talked to some of them and asked them if they were "Born Again" they looked at me like I was nuts.  (No smart remarks here.)

Brothers and sisters, we have a "faith based" religion.  We believe in Jesus because we have faith in Him, and if we are saved, we can feel Him in our hearts.  That does not mean each day goes perfectly, but it does mean some sweet day they will.  So when we work for Jesus helping others and telling the good, good news of Jesus and salvation through Him, is working for Jesus.  We need to feel Jesus in our hearts so that we can share that love.  I am sure over the years when you were in school, you can remember those good teachers, and those who, well, put you to sleep.  Those who had a passion for teaching and what their subject was, and those who were working for a paycheck. Folks, when working for Jesus, we need to have that passion of His love in our hearts so when we go out to tell the good news to others, those people can look into our faces and see Jesus.  A dear friend of mine, Doug Boyer, always had a great answer when you would greet him and ask him how he was.  It would go like this ... Hi Doug, how are you?  And Doug would answer, "Never better."  Over the years I have learned to answer that way also, for I do not just like that saying and love how Doug always carried himself (he walks in the light of Jesus), I like it because when I say I am never better, it lifts me, it gives me a boost and regardless of how much I might hurt, I still can't get past the fact of how much it must have hurt to have nails run into your hands and feet.  And how it must still hurt these days when we keep driving more nails into Jesus as we sin.  So folks, we need to work for Jesus, never retire from working for Jesus.  He will, however, once in awhile change our assignment, which is why we need to pray and talk to Him daily.  Also when we are upbeat it helps us go through the day, and tell me, if you are going out telling Jesus who do you think others want to listen to, a grump, someone always complaining about themselves, or someone upbeat and full of life and fun?

Dear Father in Heaven, thanks for letting us hear from Matthew.  Please, Lord, we ask that You look over our prayer lists and honor them according to Your will for us.  In Jesus' Name, Amen.

Now go forth, and come on, put on your Jesus smile, walk and talk with Him, and act like He died for you, because He did, and please share those blessings He has given to You.  Honest, He will replace them.  Love ya, Pastor Dan.