Humble Service & Generous Lifestyle...part 3...Mark 12:38-44

 


Our church has a pantry and these are a couple of the pantry team members posing for a picture for me.  Thank you ladies and also for all the work you and the team do twice a month for those needing assistance.  It is an act of humble service and displaying a generous lifestyle.  The shelves behind them represent many of the church who donate on a regular basis to help those in need. 

The title of the sermon this Sunday is "Beware & Be Aware!"  Both of these commands require our attention.  Beware of religious leaders who are putting on a show and following after them.  Be aware of those who are displaying true faith and also for ways to serve them.  

The first beware deals with salvation or goodness or my ticket to paradise tied to anything I say or do or wear.  There are definite changes in my life since I responded to Jesus with repentance and with faith of Him being the One who rose from the grave.  Some of these changes can be seen from the outside.  This eternal transformation of my heart by God has made me adjust my present life to be honoring of Jesus.  The world could recognize a change because some of my outward actions have changed.  

An example might be, someone uses profane language profusely and then that person encounters Christ in a saving way and starts striving to change their vocabulary to whatever is right, pure, wholesome and so on.  The world may recognize it and question what has happened.  All is good except if that person ties their transformed action to their goodness rather than keeping the goodness only tied to what Christ did for them on the cross.  It is so easy to focus on what we do rather than what He has done.  When we do this it will lead to prideful actions like the religious leaders of Jesus' day.  Beware! 

As a church we need to "leave no doubt" about salvation.  I described the clip from the  Remember The Titans movie to illustrate this point.  May there be no doubt that salvation is only from God and through Jesus Christ.  Here is the clip.

We also need to "be aware"of those who are in need because many times those who are in need are displaying the greatest faith.  The widow who put in her last two small cooper coins was the one Jesus was pointing to as having the greatest faith.  In our world we miss this fact.  Many times we are looking in the wrong direction.  Jesus gathers up His disciples eyes to see the one who was trusting God for everything.  "Be like her" might have been Jesus' pep talk in the huddle that day.  "Be like her" and now "go serve her" that you are aware of.  (She is probably at the back of the line where you are suppose to be!)

The idols of this world can so easily creep into the church and then also become "holy-fied" to bring attention to ourselves rather than the only holy One. 

Adam



A simple man serving a great God and the local pastor of Stillwater Community Chapel (stillwater-chapel.org). We are in our 38th year of full time ministry. God directed us to this local body of believers on the Western Range of the Rockies to grow with them in mission and mindedness of Christ.

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