What God Wants From You
Well, praise Jesus today everyone. We know what the Lord Jesus wants
from us. We know the great commission, Matthew chapter 28, that all power and
all authority has been given to Jesus Christ, therefore go and make disciples
of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy
Spirit, and teaching them to do everything I have commanded you; And lo, I am
with you even to the end of the age. These are the things that Jesus spoke
before He ascended back up to be with His Father in heaven. And we know that we
are to be separate from the world, and sanctified for the purpose of Jesus
Christ to do His work.
Now I know a lot of Christians wonder how exactly do I go? The answer
seems to be too simple. I think I lost signal for just a second there guys. But
the answer for many people is too simple. And it all comes down to one word,
which is love. God wants us to love Him with all of our heart, soul, mind, and
strength, and to love our neighbor as ourself. And if we truly have the love of
God in us, we will be worshipping Him, we will be asking Him daily for the
bread of life, we will be doing His will, we will be loving our neighbor as
ourself. And we will be telling other people about life that Jesus gives,
because we don't want people to end up in hell. We're not going to be preaching
Jesus for money like the churches, or using gimmicks as the false Christians
are doing. But out of the love of our heart, and out of the walk of our life,
we will be telling our physical neighbors, our spiritual neighbors about Jesus
Christ, that people may come into the Lord's house.
We know about those parables that Jesus taught about how the people that
were chosen were not able to enter, and then the Master tells the servants to
go out into the highways and the byways, and to tell everyone about the great
supper of the Lamb. And so the servants go out and they gather as many people
as they can, basically from the streets, so that in the last day the Master's
house will be full. That is what we're supposed to be doing. While Jesus is
still going out, collecting people, doing the work that we're supposed to be
doing, many Christians are sitting back saying, “well I am saved and secure,
I'm going to heaven, so I don't have to do anything. I don't have to lift a
finger, I don't have to preach the gospel, I don't have to live holy.” And so
they've left Jesus to do the work, thinking that they're safe and secure now going
to heaven. Meanwhile, Jesus is trying to save people's souls. You're not
helping out the Lord if you don't have His love in your heart for other people.
And what the Lord wants you doing is, first off, being a disciple yourself,
so having His love in your heart, being separate from the world, so living
righteous, but then also making disciples, making disciples of your own family,
calling people around you to repent, and you know, this sort of thing, I think
to many Christians seems too simple. They would say, “you just want me to talk
about your kingdom?” Well the thing is, that I have noticed, we have, in our
hearts we have this void. We know that if we're not doing the work of Jesus, or
if we are not living for Him properly, then we don't have the ability to speak
about Him. We know that we're going to be in hypocrisy. And so we have this
emptiness in us, this feeling that we are not fulfilled when we are away from
Jesus Christ.
So if we do want to be fulfilled and be fulfilling the Great Commission,
the commandments of Jesus, we have to be eating Jesus' flesh and drinking His
blood, having the joy of our Father in Heaven in us, and then we have to
practice preaching the gospel, speaking the things of Jesus to others. And the
less that you practice something, the worse that you get at it, obviously, and the
more that you practice something, the better that you get at it. And so I find
the times that I go out of my way to speak about Jesus, I am empowered by the
Holy Spirit, I have more messages, I have more joy in speaking about the Lord,
but if for some reason I become shy or timid, or if I don't speak, then it's
more natural the next time for me not to speak about Jesus. So I try always to
be speaking about Jesus so I'm salt and light, that I can be used for the
Kingdom of God, that I can be about my Father's business. That way I can get
better at what I'm doing. And anything in life that we want to get better at,
we have to practice.
So if you want to get good at following Jesus, you have to practice. It's
not just going to come naturally that all of a sudden, you're a great minister of
God's Word, and you're a great encouragement, you have to practice being
encouraging, you have to practice praying, you have to practice praying in
tongues, you have to practice doing what is right. And when we practice, then
the Holy Spirit gives us more power to continue to live for Him and He fills us
back up. A lot of Christians feel very beaten down, they feel like they can't
stand up for the Lord. Well we have to pray for more energy, and how do you get
more energy? We know how you do that physically. You don't get more energy by
resting, you get more energy by exerting energy.
So if you want to be able to run a longer distance, you don't get the
energy to run longer by sitting or by sleeping. You get the energy to go
farther by pushing yourself farther. Of course you need to sleep and rest, but
the way that you push past your plateau physically is by exerting more energy. And
it is the same thing in the Kingdom of God, if you want to push past a plateau
and continue to go forward with Jesus, you have to exert more energy in the
right direction with the Lord. So live holy, be separate from things that are
ungodly, get things that are like parasites out of your life, get pornography
out of your life, get drugs and alcohol out of your life, get promiscuous women
and things that cause you to stumble out of your life. So get those things out
of your life, figure that out. But then make sure that you're doing what is
right. Make sure that you're promoting righteousness, that you're loving your
neighbor, and do things for Jesus that you know are blessing the heart of God.
You know, a lot of Christians are only trying to serve God out of guilt.
They're trying to get a feeling of guilt off of their heart, so that's why
they're donating money to the poor, or they're giving money to a church, or
they're trying to go on a mission trip. But really, that void that is in your
heart is the void that needs to be given to Jesus. He needs to fill that void,
and then you need to be serving Jesus Christ His way. And it seems to me that
the things that Jesus asks us to do are far too simplistic for us to think that
that's what He really wants. We think that we need to be doing these huge
things for God. We need to be going to a different country. We need to be
giving this huge amount of money to some organization to prove ourselves to God.
He isn't looking for us to buy our way into the kingdom of God with money. In
fact, if you remember that poor widow's mite, she hardly gave anything, but she
gave what she had. And that is what Jesus said was more money in heaven. It
wasn't that she gave all this money, but she gave everything that she had to
live on.
So we need to give our full dedication to Jesus Christ and love Him in
the way that He wants us to love Him and others. And so that starts with just
simply the love of God, praying to Him, keeping ourselves separate from the
world, so that we can just pray a simple prayer like a child saying, “Dear
Jesus, please show me what You have me do today. Let me be separate from
ungodliness and let me be used for Your kingdom.” And then when situations come
up in your life that are a fork in the road to choose good or evil, choose good
every time. Choose to speak about Jesus when you have the opportunity. Choose
to be salt and light. And if you start living according to your conscience,
doing what you know is right, rejecting what you know is wrong, loving people
the way the Lord loves you, then you will be going in the right direction. And
instead of feeling like you have to appease God, you will simply be serving God
His way, the way He has made for you to serve Him. And that void that was
missing, Jesus, His truth, His love in your heart, will be filled and your joy
will be full.
My joy is full in the Lord. Even though people accuse me, the devil
accuses me, I know that Jesus hears and He answers my prayers all the time. And
He leads me in righteousness. He has made me to be someone that overcomes. Every
day I overcome in the name of Jesus. And that is such a blessing. But in order
to get to the place where you overcome, you have to be holding Jesus hand tightly
and walking with Him, not worrying what people think, not worrying what people will
say, but trusting the Lord in everything, trusting Him with your life.
Do we trust Jesus? Is He filling that void in our heart? And are we
doing the things that seem too simple to the world? Are we loving the Lord our
God with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength? Are we loving our neighbor
as our self? Are we fulfilling the great commission, the commandments of Jesus?
Or are we distracted in the world like that seed that is being choked out by
the weeds, or the seed that fell on the wayside that is getting eaten up by the
devil? Where are you today? Are you with Jesus or are you stuck somewhere in
the world?
I want to encourage you to work out your salvation with Jesus Christ. Do
those basic things to overcome. Overcome sin. Make sure that you are living
holy. Be separate so that you can serve Jesus and be a light shining for Him. That
is what Jesus wants for you. He wants you to be able to glorify Him, to praise
Him and He wants to give you everlasting life. “Lord Jesus, I pray for those
who are hearing this message today that need direction from You, that need
clarity from our Father in Heaven. I pray for Your true church that You would
give us guidance and clarity and that we could truly be salt and light and
encouraging our fellow brothers and sisters in the Lord, that we would push
along others in righteousness. Not that we can save people, but You have called
us to be salt and light and to be the light of the world. So I pray that we can
be light shining for You and that You can use us for Your glory, Lord, that we
call people out of sin and doubting and hatred of God and blasphemy and
thoughts of evil, and that people would come into the truth and be saved. I
pray that we can be partakers of Your communion and Your great commission and
that we can be saved by the blood of the Lamb and encourage others also to
practice what is right, that they may be saved by Your blood, Lord Jesus, and
live for You with all of their heart, soul, mind and strength.”
