Work
for Jesus
Well
praise Jesus this morning. We as Christians and disciples have to daily pick up
our cross and follow Jesus and do His work. Otherwise we will become
unfruitful. There are just too many ways in this world to become unfruitful. We
know the parable of the four soils and how the three other soils didn't bear
good fruit. The devil stole away the seed or they were choked out by weeds or
they fell on the stony places. And we don't want that to be us. We want to
produce good fruit. We want to keep our focus on Jesus because we know apart
from Him we can do nothing. And we want to continue to grow in our faith and
develop the Kingdom of God by the power of the Holy Spirit. If we are fruitless
for the Kingdom of God or if our salt loses its flavor or if we have no light
in us, then we're worthless to the Kingdom of God.
And so
many Christians become worthless to the Kingdom of God because they are choked
out by the things of this world. A lot of people are choked out by drugs and
alcohol. They're choked out by marijuana, smoking pot. They're living for
smoking pot. They're choked out by church. They think following God is all
about just having good friends in church. But they're not really producing good
fruit. They're choked out by relationships. They get into all sorts of
situations with the opposite sex. They get themselves into all sorts of bad
relationships and that chokes them out from being fruitful for the Kingdom of
God. They get choked out by money, by pleasure, by all the things of this
world. And instead of calling people to repent, being a light themselves, they
can barely keep their head above the water, barely keep themselves from
drowning.
We
don't want to be that. We want to be walking with the Lord in purity and
righteousness. We want to be steadfast in Him. We want Him to be sustaining us.
And if that is the case, if that is you, then we have to keep our focus on
Jesus and we have to be continually doing His work. As soon as we get up, we
have to be giving our life to the Lord, saying, “I'm going to pick up my cross
today, I'm going to follow You, and make me a light, Lord Jesus, so that I can
be fruitful for You.”
I want to read to you something Jesus said to
one of His disciples that is about keeping our eyes on Him and doing His work.
This is found in Luke chapter 14. I'm starting in verse 15.
Now
when one of those who sat at the table with Him heard these things, he said to
Him, “Blessed is he who shall eat bread in the kingdom of God!” Then He said to
him, “A certain man gave a great supper and invited many, and sent his servant
at supper time to say to those who were invited, ‘Come, for all things are now
ready.’ But they all with one accord began to make excuses. The first said to
him, ‘I have bought a piece of ground, and I must go and see it. I ask you to
have me excused.’ And another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am
going to test them. I ask you to have me excused.’ Still another said, ‘I have
married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.’ So that servant came and reported
these things to his master. Then the master of the house, being angry, said to
his servant, ‘Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring
in here the poor and the maimed and the lame and the blind.’ And the servant
said, ‘Master, it is done as you commanded, and still there is room.’ Then the
master said to the servant, ‘Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel
them to come in, that my house may be filled. For I say to you that none of
those men who were invited shall taste my supper.’ ”(Luke 14:15-24 NKJV)
This is
the parable that should be inspiring us to do the Lord's work. His servants are
to go out and call people to repent, to repent of their sins, to put their
faith in Jesus, to get their focus on Jesus Christ. But instead, too many of us
are focused on what property will we buy, what wife will we marry. All those
things that seem good in life can become a huge distraction. What's wrong with
getting married? Nothing. What's wrong with buying land? Nothing. What's wrong
with getting food and finding shelter? All those things are great, but those
things can also be something that makes us unfruitful if our focus is not on
Jesus and if we're not doing His work.
And these are the excuses people made. They
were saying, I have a five yoke of oxen, I have a piece of ground, I have a
wife I need to marry. Those are not bad things guys, but those are the things
that if we're not careful, will make us unfruitful if we focus on the things of
this world and not on doing Jesus' work. So the question I have for you as your
brother in the Lord is, are you doing the work of the Kingdom of God? Are you
compelling people to come into the Kingdom of Heaven so that your Father in
Heaven may have a full house?
Are you
doing His work or are you unfruitful with your work, with your family, with
your friends, with all the things that are surrounding you in the world? Have
you become unfruitful, choked out? Are you like that ground that the seed fell
in that gets choked out by the weeds or falls on the rocks or that the devil
snatches up and becomes fruitless? Because for me, I want to surrender
everything that I have to Jesus so that I can be an encouragement to others,
draw others as being a fisher of men into the Kingdom of God and be very
fruitful for Jesus Christ and His Kingdom because that is what's going to
matter at the end of the day. It's not going to matter how much money I made or
what vehicle I drove or what kind of house I lived in or how much property I
bought or how many children I had or how many grandchildren I had, but what
will matter is what I truly did for Jesus Christ. And if I was connected to Him
my whole life and preached His Gospel, it is the things of Jesus, His words
that will be forever and ever.
This
earth and everything in it and the world will pass away, but Jesus' Kingdom and
His words will be forever and ever. So are we grounded in Him as our focus in
Him and are we truly bearing good fruit? This is what we need to do, guys, not
distracted in the world but offering ourselves daily as a living sacrifice to
be used by Jesus Christ because apart from Him we can do nothing. I hope this
encourages someone to get their life back on track with the Lord. If you have
something in your life that is hindering you, drugs, alcohols, relationship
problems, then I want to pray for you and I want to pray for those of you that
want to be fruitful for the Kingdom of God, that you can be used by His purpose
and be good seed in good soil.
“So
Lord Jesus, I pray for those that want your salvation, that want to be
connected to you, that want to be connected to the vine. I pray for your true
church, that you would fill them with the glory of God, that they would be able
to produce good fruit for you and be separate from this dark and ugly world
that is on its way to hell because they reject your only salvation. So I pray
for my fellow brothers and sisters in the Lord, your true church, that they may
be sustained, that they would have the words of life in them and that they
would be salt and light to this dark world, staying connected to you and
bearing much fruit for you. I pray this in your name, Lord Jesus. Amen.”
