No Good Deed… When God Puts a Limit on "Good Works" - Purity 934

To see today's photo, go to mt4christ.org or follow me, M.t. Clark, on Facebook or Twitter. Good morning. Today's photo of a thriving cornfield underneath an exquisitely blue sky with idyllic cumulus cloud formations comes to us from yours truly as I captured this peaceful scene on Waite Road in Easton back on August 13th, 2022. Um, well, it's Friday, and while I pulled the short straw and have to work tomorrow, I know that for most, today is greeted with joy, or at least relief, as the first work week of 2023 will draw to a close at quitting time later today. And I am choosing to rejoice with those who, who will be rejoicing and pray that all who read or hear this message have an easy day at work and a wonderful weekend. One sign of a healthy, growing, mature Christian is seen by one's ability to share in the joy of others. Rather than giving into feelings of envy or coveting someone else's good fortunes, our hearts thrive when we can share in someone else's joy rather than lament over our perceived lack. One of the prayers from the, from Dr. Neil Anderson's Overcover Covenant in Christ prayers, uh, is to choose to adopt the attitude of Christ, which was to do nothing from selfish or empty conceit, but with humility of mind, to regard others as more important than ourselves, and to not merely look out for our own personal interest, but also the interest of others, knowing it is more blessed to give than to receive. Um, so as Christians, we seek to do the Lord's will. We try to adopt an attitude that considers the needs of others, um, uh, and to look out for opportunities to do good works to help others when we can. When we walk in the Spirit, well, where we are drawing close to God and listening for his guidance, occasionally we'll receive intuitions or promptings to step out and do good works. Some of these promptings or opportunities are pretty easy to recognize. If your local church is organizing an event where you can serve the church or the community in some way, that's a wide-open invitation to step out in faith and lend a helping hand. That doesn't necessarily mean that you have to say "yes" to everything, nor does it mean you should exercise your freedom for legalism by saying "no" to everything. We have to be discerning in doing good works and be sure that we are doing them for the right reasons and with the right spirit. If you are signing up to do good works because you think it will make God love you more or that he will accept you more, I would invite you to review the teaching from Dr. Neil Anderson's Victor Over the Darkness to gain the understanding of who you are in Christ and to accept the fact that God's love and acceptance are not impacted by our efforts. God loves and accepts us according to his grace, not our works. If you become frustrated or angry or feel you are doing good works out of obligation, you should probably take a break from them because you are probably burned out or operating from a self-focused attitude that has forgotten all about— forgotten all that you've received in Christ, and that it is a blessing to be able to represent his kingdom and to do the good works he has prepared for you to walk into. We don't have to do good works. We are blessed to get to do good works and give God glory. If you don't feel blessed by the good work you do for God, you may need to remind yourself of who you are in Christ and what that means. Without Christ, we are eternally lost. We are dead. Did you forget that? Uh, we don't operate, operate by obligation. We could never pay back God for what he did for us. It's not about that. But if we truly grasp and meditate on all that we have in Christ, we should have a wellspring of joy in our lives that never runs out. When we focus on the world or ourselves instead of focusing on what God has done for us, that joy can dry up. So abide in Christ in prayer, worship, praise, and meditation to keep your joy flowing. So you can have an abiding peace and joy that will naturally lead you to step out into good works. I'll keep it real and admit that sometimes frustrating things or circumstances can arise and the outcomes of our good works can be less than we expect. But when your motivation is to surrender to the service of the Lord for his glory and out of the joy of your salvation, you'll be able to endure the negative and accept the results for what they are. And as another lesson for growth on the path of sanctification. I often share the story of organizing bell ringing for the Salvation Army during Christmas time at my former church, and how a colleague was less than joyful to be standing out in the cold in the early morning hours as we partnered to do the first shift of the opening weekend of that Christmas drive a couple years ago. Although he was enthusiastic to sign up, he wasn't feeling it early that morning. But I showed him how it was done and impressed upon him that we were blessed to be out there collecting funds for a good cause and greeting people with a hearty "Good morning!" and "Merry Christmas!" It was awesome to see his grumpiness disappear as his frown turned upside down and he gave into the joy set before us. We later went to lunch and were talking about our recovery ministry, and a woman in the restaurant overheard us and came over to tell us her testimony of how the Lord had led her out of the darkness years ago and how she was over 30 years sober because she was— she trusted God to bring her out of her addiction. We were blessed by her testimony, encouraged her to keep, uh, keep on walking and talking with God, and she seemed to appreciate it because even though she had the victory, she seemed to need to get her joy back. And so she tapped into ours because we were openly rejoicing over what we had done. And by what God was doing in our recovery ministry and the good works of the day. Um, joy is infectious. It is the fruit of the Spirit, and it grows when we praise the Lord and follow where he leads us. Now, I have to ease back on the joy meter a little here. I definitely want to encourage you to operate in joy and seek good works to give God glory, but we also have to be discerning and realize that some of the ideas we get to do good works are not necessarily God-breathed. And we have to be open to his guidance when we— he calls us to ease back or to walk away from situations that we thought were a good work but either proved to be our own ideas or that, or that our work here is done. I have two examples of this. Years ago, I saw on social media that a Facebook friend was having difficulties with the new housing that they were blessed with. They needed furniture and a few things around the apartment needed fixing. Feeling that this was a great opportunity to do good works, I offered up to bring over some old furniture right away and just try to see if I could possibly help with some other things. I was encouraged to help this friend because they had made some posts about going to church and turning over a new leaf from their previously broken existence. So I rushed over and delivered the furniture, but After I talked to them, um, after I talked to them for a few minutes, my spirit told me to ease back and walk away because their faith was surface level, and their faith seemed surface level and disingenuous and perhaps a scam, uh, because they were obviously still living a sinful lifestyle, and their requests, uh, for additional help seemed opportunistic. They didn't seem to be working towards righting their situation, but seemed to have their hands out to take whatever they could get. When we discussed their newfound faith, I got the impression that they had found a local church that was giving to them, and they were gladly accepting their help, but they were only in it for what they could get. So I felt foolish. I gladly gave what I did without regrets, but pulled the plug on that good work. Project, uh, and encouraged them to stay connected to the local church to receive the help and guidance they needed. Was that mean? No, I don't think so. Is that a good testimony where this friend went on to be strong in the Lord and to be transformed? No, unfortunately it is not. It appears that my spirit was right because as far as I know, they quickly gave up their new faith. I'm sure there are some who would say that I should have done more and that I could have turned things around, but I don't think that is the case. That was years ago. I have continued to be out there encouraging, inviting people to the ministries I've done and to follow the Lord, but I still haven't heard from this person. The other example is similar. I recently decided to bless a person with a Christmas card and a very small and modest gift, a $5 gift card. Because I felt led to bless them. This person is on public assistance, I believe, is distant family, and has special needs. We've been chatting on Facebook Messenger, and they asked about a Christmas card and asked for a gift, a $30 gift card to a restaurant. I decided to be kind and send them a Christmas card and obviously a more modest gift. I had considered giving the full amount, but something in my spirit told told me that I— what I sent wasn't quote-unquote enough. Um, I felt good about it. Look at me sending a gift to one of the, one of the least of these, right? Well, now I know why my spirit told me that my meager gift was enough. Just like my previous experience, this friend seemed energized by my giving and quickly told me about the fact that their birthday is this month and they asked for 2 or 3 gift cards, $30 or $40 each, please, and a small handheld computer. I didn't really consider sending the money but offered to send them my old laptop and actually started to prepare to ship it to them. But before I got a chance to send it out, they contacted me again asking for the gift cards. When I made it clear that I wasn't going to send them any, I realized that maybe Maybe the fact that my spirit told me— maybe, you know, geez, I'm stumbling. I just scrolled away. Forgive me. Before I got to— that maybe the fact that my spirit told me that $5 was enough meant that I wasn't necessarily called to bend over backwards to bless this person. Maybe my idea to do this good work was more about stroking my ego than answering the Lord's call. So I asked if my old laptop from 2014 with Windows 7 was something they wanted. They quickly replied that they wanted a handheld computer, indicating that what I want— uh, what I was going to send wouldn't be welcome, and that they basically wanted a new computer. It was at that point that I realized I was done. This wasn't necessarily something I was supposed to do, and if anything, it was either a lesson for me to be discerning or possibly a lesson to this person to pursue work to obtain what they desired. They admitted that they wanted a paying job. So, I don't know if this interaction will light a spark and move them to seek employment or if it was just a lesson for me to be discerning and offering help. My offer of an old laptop seemed to be a good idea but could be seen as to be an insult. We have to be careful when we seek to help the least of these not to give less than what they desire or need. I think that our benevolent ideas are not so benevolent when we give people our junk. This, this is why some charities refuse to take used toys or items. It really isn't a blessing to receive junk. So my magnanimous attempt to be nice ended up opening my eyes to this and has humbled me, causing me to warn all of you to be discerning in answering the call to do good works and to be sure that our attempts to offer help or meet needs will meet the expectations of and actually bless the people who we want to help. And so I join the Apostle Paul who prayed in Philippians 1:9-11, and where he says, in this I pray that you, your love may abound still more and more in knowledge and all discernment, that you may approve the things that are excellent, that you may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ, being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Christ Jesus. Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God. As representatives to the King, we want to do right, do right things for the right reasons, using our knowledge and discernment to be filled with the fruits of righteousness and to do good works that will actually give glory to God. So I encourage you to do good works, but to be led by this, led by the Spirit. And to know when enough is enough, or when to say no, and when to turn and walk away. When we do things in our own strength or to stroke our egos, they usually result in a mess and cause us to think that no good deed goes unpunished. But in truth, these failures should humble us and cause us to see that we may have misread our signals or have been given the opportunity to learn patience and wisdom from our mistakes. Uh, we learn as we go, right? So keep walking and talking with God and try to listen, uh, every once in a while. Sometimes he may tell you to back off rather than press in. Well, um, uh, again, I've written too much, um, or I don't know what I did. Maybe I, I read too many Bible verses during my, uh, meditation session here. Um, but basically, uh, I'm out of time and I'm not going to share from the New Living Translation Bible Promise book for met. I encourage all of you to, you know, have a daily Bible study. I did share one verse, or three verses anyway, but perhaps we'll have time tomorrow to continue from sharing from that resource. But as always, I will invite all of you to go to mtforchrist.org, where I always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to assist my brothers and sisters in Christ with the walk. Because today we will be continuing the share from A.W. Pink's The Sovereignty of God as we begin chapter 2, uh, The Sovereignty of God in Creation. And it's about how he's sovereign in the heavens and on our own planet. So if you want to read that, um, it's at the end of today's blog post. So go to m.t. for christ.org and you'll be able to check that out. As always, I mentioned, uh, uh, Victory Over the Darkness in today's post, so I would encourage you to check out that teaching. If you wanted to listen to a podcast of it, I just happened to put one on our podcast and, uh, on our YouTube channel. Um, so if you want, uh, to learn more about who you are in Christ, Victory Over the Darkness, The Bondage Breaker, and Freedom in Christ are all available for your listening and edification pleasure, um, on our podcast and our YouTube channel. Along with a study on, uh, The Cost of Discipleship by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and, uh, all the Bible studies that we do with, uh, Arthur and Susanna Sincotti. So we offer these resources to encourage you in your walk, um, because we don't get it right all the time. And, uh, but our, our walk is a joy walk, you know. We, we are born of God, we are free, um, and, uh You know, we should— we shouldn't be too disappointed in our failures if we keep that at the forefront of our minds. So that's my prayer for you this Friday. Uh, I have to work today and tomorrow, so let's pray and move along. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. Lord, we thank you so much for what you do and for, you know, what you made us to be. And, uh, Lord, we just pray for you to go before us today. We pray for you to bless the people who are listening or reading to this— reading this message, and come alongside their prayer requests because they need your help. We all do. We all need your help to, to do the good works that you prepared for us and to walk in the way we should walk. So, Lord, we just pray for you to go before us, open our eyes to all the things you want us to see, and move us and guide us into the things you want us to do. Um, Lord, that's all we want to do is represent you here on the earth and to share your love, um, with the people around us, Lord. So we, uh, we thank you, we praise you, and we love you. And we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.