Will we do the will of the One who redeemed us?

 

Read 2 Corinthians 9

We should.

We ought to.

It’s the right thing to do.

We’re supposed to.

That’s what the rules say, right?

Don’t want to get out of line, do you?

There’s a whole bunch of people who want to just stay within the lines and follow the rules and never even wonder why we have the rules, the directives, the commandments of God.

Just put your head down and grind it out.

There are times for just that: Head down and grind it out. Lean into it. You are not sure of the whole journey but know for the moment you need to just keep pushing forward.

Do you remember Jesus telling his disciples that he no longer regarded them as servants but as friends? He chose us to bear fruit. We are more than servants.

Yes, we still serve, but we know there is more than just following the rules. God has revealed himself to us in Christ Jesus. These are no longer arbitrary rules that seem to put us through a maze.

These are directions, guidelines, counsel, and commands rooted in love. Our love must be first for God then for others. When we grasp love, we grasp the intent of the Commander—what God wants from us.

We no longer consider the law a minefield of places where we must or must not step. Both are important if you find yourself in one. I never thought that I would ever find myself in a minefield, but then one day, there you are. I was blessed that nobody was shooting at me at the time.

Where you step or don’t step is important, but you can’t go through life with the paradigm that it’s a minefield. You would be a basket case. You can’t do every day negotiating a minefield. We need something positive to steer by. We need a target on which to focus.

We need to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus.

How do we do this? Let’s get to the core of our incentives and motivations. Is it not to go to hell? Your profession of faith received the gift of life from God.

Is it to live a flawless life? You are probably not going to make it through the rest of the day, perhaps the rest of the hour.

Or, and this is a big or, is our driving desire to please God and to put a smile on his face? That’s a motivation with some latitude. That’s what you give your senior commanders, not the buck private who just goes where you send him.

We are treated as friends, as family. We are trusted with our mission and commission, and our hearts desire to please God and fulfill the assignments he gave us.

Now to this morning’s chapter.

This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of the Lord’s people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God. Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, others will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else. And in their prayers for you their hearts will go out to you, because of the surpassing grace God has given you. Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!

When you—when we—do the things that God commands and we do them out of love for God and for our neighbor, people see that we obey our God and they will give thanks to him.

Our actions can be the catalyst that brings people to thank God. If they thank God, they may seek God. If they seek God, they will find him.

People are searching to fill a void in their lives. Fear gets in the way, and people resist and refuse to accept that God is real, he is good, and he loves them. It’s easier to live a meaningless life, or so that’s what many think.

The truth is that once you profess your belief in God and receive Jesus as Lord, your life choices become easier. You will know the right thing to do. You will know.

Whether you do the godly thing or not can be another story. It can be a big challenge on occasion.

That doesn’t mean that your circumstances are easy, but your choices are.

Will my decision bring people closer to God?

Will my choice cause people to give thanks to God?

Will what I do lead people to profess Jesus is Lord?

Will this course of action put a smile on God’s face?

It’s the whole God’s Way and Everything Else mantra that I gave you for most of a year.

Paul told the believers in Corinth that this offering that they were making would cause people to give thanks to God. That’s something to get behind or to use last week’s term, jump on the bandwagon

If what we do prompts people to give thanks to God, then we have hit the target. We are putting a smile on God’s face.

I think that we did that last Sunday afternoon. We pray that many people who thanked us also thank God and come to know him as Lord.

What’s next? It doesn’t have to be a scheduled event. It just needs to be a purposeful decision in the course of your day. What sort of decision?

To give.

To forgive.

To serve.

To pray, especially with and for someone.

To acknowledge someone, just so they know that you know they are there.

To love one another. Every time we decide to do this, we make a way for people to give thanks, not so much to us, but to God. People see who we belong to.

Our choices can bring people closer to God, perhaps for the first time in their lives. Imagine being the one who first brings the good news to someone.

Now imagine bringing the good news to someone who has heard it a thousand times but this time, it registers.

Sometimes our acts of giving and kindness can prompt someone to give thanks to God, and to thank God means you believe in God. That gets us one step closer to helping people profess Jesus is Lord!

Amen.