Turning on the Lights! – Thursday, October 3, 2024. Our Calling and our good works.
Good Morning, Good Morning my brothers and my sisters and welcome to Turning on the Lights! for Thursday October 3, 2024.
Oh, I am all fired up today as I ask the question, “What are these ‘good works’ of which Jesus (and James) speak, and how do I know that I am engaged in them?
What if I think that I am following the Lord only to hear, “away with you. I never knew you?”
How do we know?
How should we live?
Are they internal (fruit of the Spirit?) or external (evangelizing) or some combination of both?
I think we leave today with more questions than answers, but it sure was fun – and necessary.
Won’t talk again until next Thursday, in the mean-time, Go to church! It’s Important!
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This is a transcript from the audio of this episode of Turning on the Lights! – Thursday, October 3, 2024
Good morning. Good morning, my brothers and my sisters, you are looking live. If you’re listening to the podcast, you’re listening, but not live. But hey, if you’re here right now joining us, you’re looking live at the altar of the church of the church town church of God. You are looking into a sanctuary that was constructed in 1849. That’s right, 1849. The church was started in 1833 up the street and then this physical structure was built in 1849. A tradition that has continued on for all those years. And we are a part of it. I write about that today in the church town weekly. So I hope that you will read about that today in the church town weekly. You don’t get the church town weekly. Maybe you should. If you are a regular attendee, and or if you are interested in turning on the lights and all things church town, just send me your email address as the kids say, DM me baby. Send me a direct message with your there we go. Look, this cross is sticking out the top of my head. Well, here we are. You all know that it has been a couple of weeks you live here in South Central Pennsylvania. It has rained every day for two weeks. And that might be I know that I’m not complaining, complaining. I know what’s going on along the East Coast, and all of those things. But yeah, it has been raining every day for two weeks. So we’ve been trying to keep up keep our spirits up. Everything is soggy. The grass is a foot and a half high. All kinds of things going on Tuesday had a little bit of a family thing. I ended up Tuesday with all of the grandkids and the grand dog and everything like that my son got sick, had to go get taken care of everything is fine. Everything is fine. But I thought, what am I going to say? If I say there’s no turning on the lights today? Good morning, D. You know, family emergency or something then I know it would be super well meaning because you’re all awesome. You but I’d be inundated with what’s wrong what’s wrong. I hope everything is okay. So everything is okay. I just had to run over and pick up the three grandkids and the dog and my son needed tending to and he is much better and all is well now. Tomorrow morning, Kelly and I are taking off for a few days together. My birthday is Sunday. And so we’re going away for a few days with the dogs. And there will be no turning on the lights next Tuesday because of that I won’t be here. And I don’t want to do it from what is a vacation. No offense, but time away is necessary. unplugging is necessary. Sitting around and just playing games on my phone is necessary. From time to time to let everything go. And so we let everything go. Because when I come back, we’re gonna be quite busy. We got everybody I have everything ready for that weekend. I’ve been working my tail off. Today now is preparation for our departure tomorrow. But everything for this week, and everybody who’s taking care of business here at church town this week, I’ve helped with all of that did the men’s group last night, which we’ll talk about in a moment, which is has inspired today’s turning on the lights, and got everything ready for the 13th, which is a busy day, service of the ordinances, and a wedding to follow everything is done. So that being said, let’s ask for the Lord’s blessing upon us. Dear Lord, in the name of your son, Jesus Christ, we pray that you would inspire us in your word this morning, that you may provoke us to thought and to growth, and your word will grow and grow your kingdom in in your son’s name. Amen. How about that? I they say, son, I said yesterday, the weatherman said the s word yesterday on the radio and everybody thought I meant snow. I meant sun. He said tomorrow, cloudiness in the morning, but there should be partial sunshine in the afternoon. I’m like, what come again? So I’m waiting for that. I doubt that it will dry off well enough in one few hours stretch for me to get out and mow today. That would be lovely if I could just hack off the grass. I last week when it was raining, I went down and mow just a few strips of it so I could walk the dogs. Good heavens. But like I said, if you want to look out into our soggy nest here at church town and then compare it to the destruction of that hurricane. Now I’m not going now. We’re fine. I’m just annoyed. We’re fine. We got to find ways to help those people. Our government’s doing such a great job of helping those people. So hey, wow, somebody blew up fireworks behind me instead of the cross. See the cross sticking out of my head. Got this work going yesterday. You know what I did? I got that solo deo Gloria. Glory to God alone. And the very week I got it, I was working on the threshold of the working on the threshold of the parsonage and boom, it popped. And I looked up like this and there’s a screwdriver sticking out of my hand. It went right through the O of Sully, right through the L. So I had to wait a few weeks to get that all healed up perfectly and I went back and he patched up all of it solo deo Gloria. Oh, thank you, Rosie. Rosie did message me privately and asked if everything was okay. He is doing well. He actually took two days off work, which I guess it’s a good thing I’ve instilled in tremendous work ethic, me and my wife have instilled a tremendous work ethics into our children. To the point where, you know, he gets that ill at work and he doesn’t want to inconvenience anybody and he thinks I can I can plow through it. So I was very proud of him. He took two days off and he’s recovering. I don’t know. I think he’s went back today, but I have yet to check. So here’s what I want to talk about today. I think we got all of the stuff out of the way. If there’s anything on your mind, you need prayer, anything of that nature. You don’t we are feel free. Feel free to write it down and put it right there. We’ll read it and we’ll take care of it. If you have questions about anything today, write it down. We’ll take care of it right here right now or later on in the comment section. But feel free to interact because I’m going away from First Corinthians today because last evening with the with the men was very, very, very thought provoking for me. It was it’s a very big I didn’t really I was very uncomfortable. Because this is a part of who I am that I feel very vulnerable about. We’re in the book of James. And of course, James chapter two gets really down to the nitty gritty about faith without works is dead. As a matter of fact, in verse 24, he says your righteousness is based in your works for faith without works is dead. Am I okay? Now that is hotly contested. And James is a hotly contested book. And the theology of James is hotly contested. I’m not here to do all of that. My conviction is what are my good works as a vocational pastor. So that’s for me to work out. And that can make me feel certain ways at times, because I compare myself to other pastors. And I think, you know, I don’t have that gift. I don’t have that gift. I don’t have that gift. I don’t demonstrate the fruit of the Spirit all the time in terms of compassion and long suffering and all the patience and kindness and I still have a lot of I don’t know what the word is. I was about to say normal feelings. But I you know, I feel like I’m still me. I’ve just been called to exercise my gifts. In my giftings are preaching and teaching, which I pray that come out in the word when I do that, and pastoral care, particularly in a crisis. So I’m not the I’m not the typical pastor that, you know, I don’t know, just walks around with all my brother, all my sister. Yes, everything is all well all the time. And you never see a crack in the facade. I don’t have a facade. I just am who I am. And as a pastor, I can I feel guilty about that sometimes like, no, you should put yourself out there more. I you should do this, you should do that. And of course, that translates into every human being that reads these things. We’re going to read from Matthew seven today and a little bit from James two. What are good works? What are we called to do as disciples of Christ? If, if, and we know, scripture is the inspired infallible word of God, it never fails in its purposes, then what is the purpose of the book of James? And what does Jesus say about the good works that we should do? He has a lot to say about it. But it can be rather vague at times. Paul talks about fruit of the Spirit as well. Okay, that’s those are big categories. And even in Corinthians, First Corinthians 13 talks about love and God is love and patience and kindness and all of those different things. How does that apply to the moment by moment existence that we have as human beings interacting with one another as Christians interacting with those outside of the kingdom of God? What does it look like? And I’m challenged by this as in particular as a vocational minister. What should it look like for me because I feel as I shared with you and I shared with the fellows last night. I don’t feel like I’m like that. I am always there. And it’s complicated. It’s very complicated. And should I not just fake my way through things and look like a pastor should look and sound like a pastor should sound so I don’t have to wrestle with those sorts of things. And now as we go to non-vocational ministers, because we’re all ministers of the gospel, right? Non-vocational ministers. How does it translate? Should you turn it on or and turn it off? Can you turn it on and turn it off your Christianity and what it looks like? Should you have different ways of behaving in different situations? If not, what does it look like in a secular world for those who are controlled by the demonic? And I don’t mean everyone’s demon possessed. I’m saying there are as much as our current culture and media streams would like to divide us into every sort of group that you can possibly imagine and turn one another against, turn us against each other. There really are only two types of people in the world. Those who dwell within the kingdom of God and those who do not. There’s no gray area here. And it is radically inclusive. The kingdom of God is radically inclusive. That’s why we know that all of the division that is sown by media and culture, media is really a tool of culture. All of the division that is sown is straight from hell trying to break apart God’s image bearers because the actual true essence of the church, right? This great mystery that God withheld from those of old and from even the angels, this great mystery, what would be his tool to evangelize all of the image bearers of Yahweh, the church. And Paul calls Ephesians and Ephesians. This great mystery is revealed in this church. It’s radically inclusive. That’s the thing. So again, you’re living and you’re dwelling with those who dwell and live within the kingdom of God. And of course, you’re living and working and dwelling with those who live outside the kingdom of God. What are good works? Are they only meant for the kingdom of God? Are they meant to demonstrate who Jesus is outside of the kingdom of God? Okay, but what about this whole concept of not throwing your pearls to swine? What about the concept of dusting off your feet? When is it time to shut off the good works? Or is that a good work when you say, “I’m not going to.” Right? If you go into a house and the peace is upon you, stay in that home. If you go into the house and there is no peace, leave. Okay, so you see, maybe I’m just the geek that worries about these things. But when I read stuff like this, it makes me worry about those things. You can enter God’s kingdom only through the narrow gate. The highway to hell is broad and its gate is wide for the many who choose that way. But the gateway to life is very narrow and the road is difficult and only a few ever find it. But Lord, Lord, we prophesied in your name. We cast out demons in your name. Get away from me. I never knew you. Beware of false prophets who come disguised as harmless sheep but are really vicious wolves. You can identify them by their fruit. Here it is. That is by the way they act. You can pick grapes. You can’t. Can you pick grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles? That is actually a tongue twister. A good tree produces good fruit. A bad tree produces bad fruit. A good tree can’t produce bad fruit and a bad tree can’t produce good fruit. So every tree that does not produce good fruit is chopped down and thrown into the fire. Yes, just as you can identify a tree by its fruit so you can identify people by their actions. What actions? I want to know what those actions are. I want to be identified by good fruit. And so you say the fruit of the Spirit is it all internal? Patience and kindness and right? Is it external? The good works that we do? What are those? How do we know what they are? Now we have inklings here in terms of Jesus saying, “Go and make disciples of all nations.” Okay. But if I’m not going and making disciples of all nations, how am I living my life that I may be on the narrow path? And even those who come to Jesus and say, “But Lord, Lord, we have prophesied in your name. We have cast out demons in your name. We have healed the sick in your name.” And he says, “Get behind me. I never knew you.” Why? See, these are challenging things. And I think that we all have some sort of semblance of an answer in our hearts and in our heads. But I think that it is desperately important to consider and reconsider what those answers are. As a vocational minister, I want to do the things that God wants me to do. What are they? I know I don’t look like other ministers. Is that true of every minister feel that way? Does every pastor feel that way? Is there a book that I should read that says, “No, you need to do all these things as a pastor. You got to be involved in every ministry of the church. You got to be going every moment of every day doing everything.” Last night at the men’s group, I told him, “I don’t want to lead a men’s group.” I never did. I don’t feel called to lead a men’s group or a youth group. I don’t organize well. I don’t plan well. I don’t feel led or called. I want desperately to be a part of a men’s group. I want desperately to be able to speak with men. I want to go into Scripture with men. I want to hear all of the different life experiences and stories that come with a unified group of that same sex, if you will, shared experience. But I don’t feel called to lead a men’s group or to create a men’s ministry. Who does? Does anybody will anybody? Because I will gladly come alongside and teach. So this really struck me last evening, and you can sort of hear that. Because there I am and we’re in James 2, and I’m trying to be honest with myself. I’m trying to plow my way through it. This is something I need to do, and I don’t want to do it. I want to be in the group talking about it like I am talking to you about it right now. And then I want to learn from others. How do you listen to these Scriptures and apply them on a moment-by-moment basis in your life? What is good fruit? Is it relative to every human being? We know about the internal stuff, right? And we should. Without love, God is love. There’s love in our hearts. We are indwelled by God’s Holy Spirit, and we grow internally and mature, basically mature emotionally and spiritually, and you have kindness and you have all those fruits of the Spirit. Great. Okay. What are the works that come from that? Is that relative to every individual? Is there a unified list that is consistent? Like is there some that are universal for all Christians and the rest are relative to every individual? When you look at vocational ministry, is it like that? Or is there a different way that I should be? Because I just feel like Brian. My conversion was real and it was very radical and I am engulfed in what I’m doing. But sometimes I don’t feel very pastoral and sometimes I’m quite sick of people. And sometimes I have these like, okay, get behind me. I never knew you. You don’t want to do it. Don’t do it. So do you feel that way as a Christian? So you see saying you will know them by their fruit. Okay. What’s the fruit? Give me a list. Drop a list out of heaven so that I could be on the narrow gate. I’ll follow it every day. I promise. But there’s that whole issue of faith again. The whole issue of faith. What would faith be if we had that list? Does anyone else struggle like this? Trying to figure it out? You know, it’s been years. Not everyone who calls out to me, Lord, Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven. Only those who actually do the will of my father will it in heaven will enter. Only those who actually do the will of my father in heaven will enter. On judgment day, many will say to me, Lord, Lord, we prophesied in your name, cast out demons in your name, performed many miracles in your name. But I will reply, I never knew you. Get away from me, you who break God’s laws. What? I know that he is. I know that he is has put all of this information in here so that over 2000 years later, we would be having this conversation, right? That we would be digging in our hearts to find the meaning behind those words for us as individuals and for we as a church. I know that. That’s intrinsic in the book, in the word. There’s no other book that over 2000 years later, we’re saying, what is meant by that for me in my life? I want to be able to live the way that this author, pretending that it’s another book, wants me to live. How do I, there’s no other book that we’re doing that with. But we’re sitting here today and you’re hearing the real thoughts of a real vocational minister saying, I want, I don’t want to be told that. I want to persevere to the end and be saved. I want to get to that goal. I want to run the race. I want to hear done what, or hear well done, my good and faithful servant. And that is, should be translated to every Christian that is in the Kingdom of God. So we have to think about these things. But isn’t that challenging? Maybe you’re like, no, it’s not. I wake up every morning and I just, I feel it, like it’s all good. And I’m not poo-pooing that. I’m not saying maybe that’s the case. For me, maybe it’s my nature. Maybe it’s the way that I’m constructed. Maybe it’s my brain that never, ever, ever shuts off. But I drill down on these things. And I want to please my God who saved me. And it’s important. And I think that’s important. I think the key, one of the key elements that we heard is only those who do the will of my Father in Heaven. And that’s the piece I think is relative to every human being. Meaning that what is the will for God in your life? That’s what gets us on our knees, physically and metaphorically in our hearts, gets us on our knees, seeking God’s will through godly conversations like we had last night, through good teaching and preaching, through direct interaction with God’s word. What is God’s will for me in my life? Perhaps those are the good works that I should be following and seeking to follow and seeking to do. There are some that are direct, like Jesus says. He talks about going, you know, he says, “What must I do to inherit the kingdom of God? Go and sell everything you own and come and follow me.” “Uh, okay.” “What should I do?” Oh, kids are out there screaming. Can you even hear those elementary school kids? They run up and down the sidewalk like nutbags every morning, yelling and screaming. And then the bus comes and they all gather like little, like little ducks. And they jump in the bus like little ducks jumping in the water. “Anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock. I want that to be me. Though the rain comes in torrents and the flood waters rise and the wind beats against that house, it won’t collapse because it is built on bedrock. But anyone who hears my teaching and doesn’t obey it is foolish, like a person who builds a house on sand. When it rains and floods come and the winds beat against that house, it will collapse with a mighty crash. When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, for he taught with real authority, quite unlike their teachers of religious law.” Now this is embedded in the Sermon on the Mount. And there are a lot of teachings about a lot of things in the Sermon on the Mount. About money, about adultery, about anger, about judgment. Is that the fruit of the Spirit? Are those the good works? Is it an all of the above answer? I think I’m going to ask more questions than we’re going to answer here today. But I just wanted to share this with you. And I pray that it is very thought provoking as it was for me last evening. I hope that it stirs your spirit to question and to wonder and to dig deeply into the Word of God. You know, Martin Luther had a real problem with the book of James. He didn’t feel that it belonged in the canon whatsoever because of some of the things that it says like this. “So you see, we are shown to be righteous with God by what we do, not by faith alone.” What? That’s in Scripture? That’s James 2 24. Let me read a different translation. “You see then that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone.” What? “You see that a person is considered righteous by what they do and not by faith alone.” And then he goes in the next sentence, “In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction?” She was not a follower of Yahweh. She did the right thing for kind of selfish reasons. She wanted to save herself and her family. And God considered her righteous because of her good works. But then he turns right around and says, “As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.” And he switches it back. Now, the general consensus is, but you can see how thought provoking this is, if you break it down, it’s righteousness and then faith. No, no, no, it’s faith. And then righteousness is counted to you. It’s faith, and then the righteousness of Christ is bestowed upon you. No, no, no, it’s good works. You must profess with your mouth and believe in your heart. Those are things that you do. Those are good works. And then righteousness is bestowed to you by Christ because of your faith. I’ve been deeply studying Scripture for 15 years now, and this shakes me up. And I think that that is a good thing. I think the questions that we’re going to leave here today are a good thing for us to continue to ask and continue to dig deeply in Scripture and continue to pray deeply with our Lord. Show me, lead me, teach me. Ultimately, we all have our notions about these interpretations about these particular Scriptures. But ultimately, we understand that the cornerstone of our faith is Jesus Christ. That’s a good answer. Everybody should read that. It’s as unique to you as it is to the multitude of species that are out there, right? That’s the metaphor that that he’s using. And so the fruit of your spirit is going to be unique to you. So, like I said, I don’t feel like the old man is dead and the new Brian was born. There’s no doubt about that. Being the pastor of a church was absolutely this zero on my radar my entire life until it was. And so here I am. And I want to seek the Lord’s will for me in my life. And I want to be good at what I do. Because I’ve been called by the Lord to do it, not necessarily out of selfish reasons. Because I feel like if I’m not good at what I do, if I’m not answering my call correctly or appropriately, there’s that whole narrow gate and few will ever find it. There’s that whole, but Lord, Lord, I preached a thousand sermons in your name and prayed a thousand prayers in your name. And he says, Brian, get behind me. You breaker of God’s law. What? I’ll leave you with that. It’s a good one. It’s a good one. It’s a good one today, folks. It’s a good one today. I want you to go into scripture and seek these things. And I want you to seek God’s will for you in your life. I want you to be the fruit tree to use mama Dee’s analogy. I want you to be the fruit tree that he grew you to be. And continue that intentional relationship to continue to learn and grow and become. That’s what we must do. And perhaps, perhaps I don’t wanna speak for God in the way that he constructed our holy scriptures, but perhaps that’s just why they are constructed the way they are so that we will continue to seek. Continue to dig continue to want to grow and learn. Father, we pray that you would by the power of your Holy Spirit motivate us to do just that to seek first the Kingdom of God and know that all things will be added to us from that point on. We pray that we would recognize the fruit of our spirit, the fruit of your spirit within us. I should say and live that as you call us to live that in Jesus name. Amen folks remember I’m heading out for my birthday tomorrow. I won’t be back till Tuesday night of next week, so I’ll see you next Thursday. When turning on the lights hey. Wherever you are and wherever you’re listening and all the go to church go to church go to church. It’s important.
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