What Do You Do For God?

Tonight I had the wonderful God (and Pastor Jason) given opportunity to speak at the student lead service at Altared Reality. This is what I shared...

What Do You Do For God?
Matthew 25.

It was towards the end of a not very good day. Its two days after the triumphal entry –that was a good day! - Jesus spent it in the temple fighting with one religious group after another, and about the time he thinks its over, they are walking out of the temple, which would be Jesus final time. And one of the disciples pops up with “man, look at these great buildings!” and that just set Jesus off, because in his mind they are NOT great buildings, they were cursed to destruction. He doesn’t say another word.
They go up to mt. Olive and they still ask him “but what about those buildings” Jesus then begins in Matthew 24 through the end of 25 whats called the Olivet Discourse. Where he just threatens the destruction of the temple he saying “you know what’s gonna happen down there? Gods gonna come and blow the place up! Using the wrath of the roman empire”
Then somewhere in the middle of that sermon Jesus moves from talking about the destruction of the temple and starts talking about his own second coming. This is the last parable of 5 or 6 depending on what you call a parable. And Jesus is just steaming you can hear it in his voice. Starting in..

31"When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. 32All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.
34"Then the King will say to those 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. 35For 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, 36I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.'
37"Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?'
40"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'

Last week Amy talked about things in our life we need to give up for God, things that are hindering our walk without us even realizing it. And this week I want to know ‘What ARE you going to do for God?’

When we help the people God has put in our lives, the poor, broken and the hurting, Jesus takes it personally. And also takes it personally when we don't.

41"Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.
42For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.'44"They also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?'45"He will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.'
46"Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life."

It’s not going to be a good bad when the king separates the sheep from the goats. The most frightening verse is in 44 when the goats on the left will say…

'44'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you”

Notice how they address him “LORD”. People who go to church think because they go to church they have a relationship with Jesus

If you ask anyone walking through these doors “Do you do good things for God?” almost all of us would say “Well yeah, I do” “what do you do?” “Well we go to church” For God? Like he needs you here? No this is not your gift to him, this is his gift to you. “Well I read my bible?” For God? What are you going to edit it? I mean seriously, this is not your favor to him this is his favor to you. “Yeah, but I pray!” oh congratulations! Like if the president let you call him on the phone, would you consider it your favor to him to call him? I know you may think he needs to know your opinion on a few things. But seriously is that his favor to you or your favor to him? Lets be honest about it now, when you pray it is Gods gift to you not your gift to him. He loves to spend time with us yes. But we’re not helping God through most of these things. “Well I got baptized” No, that was his gift to you. That’s his grace for you.
If you want to do something for God, what does that look like?

We just read the answer…you can feed the hungry, give water to the thirsty, clothe the naked, visit those in prison, welcome the stranger, and heal those who are sick, that is what we do for God.

Now I’m not saying we are all supposed to go feed the homeless and visit people in prison. This Call is going to look different to every one of us

Isaiah 61
1 The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives, and release from darkness for the prisoners, 2 to proclaim the year of the LORD's favor and the day of vengeance of our God, 
to comfort all who mourn, 3 and provide for those who grieve in Zion— 
to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, 
and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.

We are called to help people and when we do our Lord Jesus Christ takes it personally. As Christians our greatest goal is to live a life like Christ and to bring glory to him in everything we do. Jesus was compassionate. Why shouldn’t we be? And it shouldn't be something we practice once a week when an opportunity presents itself and we remember. But it should become a lifestyle. And if we are going to make a habit of being compassionate. We better have a good theological foundation for it.

Because there are a lot of people out there being compassionate. People who are in the world who are atheists, Moslems, Mormons, lots of people are being compassionate, but if your just being compassionate for compassion’s sake. Jesus said the poor you’ll always have with you. You think your gonna change the world? Jesus promised you there would be poor till he comes back. The compassionate ministry’s of the body of Christ has to have a greater impetus and firmer foundation then just being nice to people.
We have a message of salvation that is best preached through a holistic gospel, caring for the body, economics, family, social, intellectual, spiritual and physical needs of people.

Teenage statistics video. And story time.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FaGfNBM8o7I

When I judge someone, I realize its because I don’t know their story, and it leads me to believe… People, who are unlovely, are not unlovely because they are unlovable, but because they are unloved…Benevolence is worth it. Even when the people are not.
We nice to people because it is effective; we do it because we understand that’s where we used to be. And we treat people the way we want to be treated, with the love that God showed us. Weather its effective or ineffective. We need to come to the realization that it’s not our call. It is our job to do the biting of God.

We are not out to change the world; we are out to change one life at a time. And sometimes that life is out there, but more often its in here. When we recognize that we all live fragile lives, but by the grace of God alone we stand here, it isn’t in till we understand that, that we will be able to live a life compassionately in love with Christ. What we do in benevolence may never be effective, but its still worth it

Our end game is to bring the message of Jesus Christ to people. Not just create a utopia on earth. That’s why we need to have our theology strait.

For the last 200 years Protestants have been preaching directly that we are saved by grace through faith, and not of ourselves.
There is nothing you can do. That will make you anymore loved by Jesus then you are right now.

Lets understand what role our works have to do in our salvation, because Jesus did say that those who do work for God, not just read our bibles, and going to church. but ministry to the hungry, poor, naked, those that do that kind of work are saved, and those who don’t do that kind of work are damned, your work does impact your salvation.
Matthew 25 is not the only passage that describes your judgment based upon your behavior.
Jesus already said it in the Sermon on the Mount, in matthew7.
When the lord comes back its not going to be those who claim of a relationship with Jesus, it’s going to be those who obey him and do what he says.

Same thing chapter 5 the words of Jesus again where he said "When I judge those who have done good they will be rewarded, those who have done evil will be punished.” The apostle Paul say the same in Romans 2 “those who have done good will be rewarded, those who have done evil will be punished” 2 Corinthians 5 same, revelations 20 same thing. Every time you have a judgment sermon in the New Testament it says the same thing.

So that brings us to the question HOW CAN I BE SAVED BY GRACE AND JUDED BY WORKS? Its really very simple, those of us who have a real relationship with Jesus, we’ve meet him, we know him, love him. That changes us. That changes the way we look at the people, the poor, the wealthy, the kind, the wicked, our world view is different and we get a new set of eyes and a new set of hands, therefore are works is merely an extension of what Jesus would be doing if he where here in this world.
So when we give ourselves to Jesus we say Jesus enough of my eyes, enough of my mind, enough of my mouth, enough of my hands. You take control of my eyes let me see what you see. You take control of my hands; you take control of my feet. And if your life is not an embodiment of the ministry of Jesus, then I have to question weather you ever meet him over here in grace.

His half brother James said it this way “you say you have faith, ill show you my faith by my works, you keep talking about it. But I’m going to live it.”
It’s not your works that earn you salvation.
It is that your salvation always works itself out in compassion to the broken. We hear it all the time from pastor Jason “If you love Jesus, if you have a relationship with him, your going to do SOMETHING” So What are you doing for God?

My prayer is that people would start saying about you and I (the students of Life 360 youth group). What our heavenly father is saying. ‘Now I see who they really are’ and my hope and pray is that its an embodiment of Christ