the basic message #E257
6/19/04
How do most of us show our love for another person? We try to please them. Little children often do things to gain approval from a parent by pleasing them. Husbands try to make a few points with their wives by sending them flowers in hopes of pleasing them. It's not rocket science, folks, it just makes good sense to please those we love. That said, may I pose this question to you? "What have you done to please Jesus this week?"
The modern church propagates many erroneous teachings, but one of the worst is what I would simply call "servant reversal". We, as Christians, should always be serving Christ, but for some reason the church has decided that Jesus is supposed to be serving us. Think about it- we pray for good health, for wealth, for many things, but what do we do for Jesus? Most of us do nothing. "Oh, but I go to church every week." So what? How does that help Jesus? No, really.............think about it for a moment. How does your church attendance help Jesus? Sadly, most Christian's church attendance helps no one, simply because it has become a spectator sport that lasts an hour and then it's back to the routine.
So how can we please Jesus? It might be easier than you think, but you'll need to crawl out of your own selfishness to participate. Gee, isn't crawling out of our selfishness one of the main things Jesus wants from us? If you begin to look around, you'll see all kinds of people who are struggling with life.
Matthew 11:28
"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest."
Some of you will take Jesus' words and simply dismiss them as being his offer of Salvation. Jesus was much more practical than most of the church cares to consider. He, unlike most of the so-called "church leaders" of today, realized that people have physical and emotional needs that need to be fed with more than chanting the words, "Jesus loves you", or "Jesus died for your sins". When Jesus preached the Sermon on the Mount, he knew that the people were hungry, and therefore fed thousands of people by multiplying the fish and bread that the little boy had for lunch. Jesus taught his disciples the importance of looking after each other as evidenced in the scripture below:
Acts 4:32
All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had.
Luke goes on to explain:
Acts 4:34
There were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to anyone as he had need.
How has the modern church strayed so far from this concept? We will routinely send money to the "mission fields" of the world while there may be a hungry person within a block of the church. Picture this for a moment- a successful business owner sits on a church pew during Sunday service. He begins to daydream about whether he will buy a 100 foot or a 120 foot yacht in the days ahead. Sitting in that same church is one of his dedicated employees who is also preoccupied in thought- but he isn't daydreaming, rather he is concerned about whether he can afford to keep paying his health insurance premiums. You see, the boss decided he was paying out too much on employees health insurance, so he began back-charging the employee for "their part" of the premium. And so, here are two "brothers in Christ" that are literally within feet of each other during the work week that are miles apart right now where real closeness means the most. Where is the compassion? Do you think the business owner is pleasing Jesus right about now? Please don't misunderstand my scenario here- the majority of employees in this world don't really care whether their employer is profitable or not, but the dedicated employee, as a brother or sister in Christ, should be on the mind of a Christian businessman or businesswoman constantly.
Pleasing Jesus can be very easy if we just take a minute to consider what makes him happy. I recently wrote about intercessory prayer, which I believe pleases Jesus greatly. If we can offer up simple prayers to God on behalf of complete strangers, won't that put a smile on Jesus' face? I'm really happy that the WWJD fad has finally come to an end. That might seem like a strange thing to say, but let me explain. I think it's wonderful to pose the question: "What would Jesus do?", but if the person posing the question goes no farther in the exercise, what's the point? I can pose all sorts of theological questions, but if I don't put my research into action, I'm simply wasting time. I knew a man by the name of Dixon Wilson that once said he wanted to see the marketeers come out with WWJD-TDI products. What do these letters stand for? "What would Jesus do?- Then do it!"
So, what have you done to please Jesus this week?