https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X82asf-NjJI
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.”
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