Crossroads Community Church

February 18, 2015 · 0 Comments

Sunday February 15th, 2015
It may have been one of the coldest days yet this winter but the best place to be was in the company of warm hearts sharing the Love of God. We worshipped the Lord with gladness, Pastor Don shared announcements and prayer requests, then he prayed, “Dear Father God, we humbly come before you with open hearts to receive your word through your Son Jesus, help us learn and be obedient so we can reflect Him in word and in action, In Jesus Holy name, Amen.”
We have begun a journey in the teachings of Jesus in His infamous sermon on the mount, today we continue a lesson in humility versus pride, or tooting our own horn so to speak as when we do things to get noticed or invoke pity or praise from others. Jesus has much to say on the subject. “Watch out! Don’t do your good deeds publicly, to be admired by others, for you will lose the reward from your Father in heaven,” Matthew 6:1. Today it is common place to see people doing things for attention, to be admired and we even become fans, from music artists, to athletes, to actors and politicians, why? We all need someone to look up too, we seek authentic inspiration, genuine hearts but all too often we are disappointed when they don’t live up to our expectations. God also is seeking for genuine hearts, people who wholeheartedly follow Him with one difference, He wants us to do things for His glory not our own for it is only then that we are truly satisfied.
Craving attention is nothing new; we were born to instinctively draw attention. As babies we cry for Mom, as toddlers we yell “Look at me Daddy”; teenagers want popularity to find a sense of acceptance, as adults we seek approval from our boss and co-workers, our friends and neighbors. This can be a good thing but also a bad thing depending on our motivation for approval. Are we more concerned with human approval or God’s? And are we careful in our actions because we are afraid of human rejection or are we cautious in order to not only obtain God’s approval but be a witness for Him so others will want to know Him? (Matthew 5:16). We ought to live in such a way that no one will turn away from God, (2 Corinthians 6:3). Jesus is warning us about the heart attitude towards doing good for God, our motivation should be to please our father in Heaven and build His Kingdom with genuine hearts. Our prayer should be that whatever our words, whatever our actions people would see Jesus through them not us,(Galatians 1:10). Hypocrisy has no place in God’s kingdom, (Matthew 6:2-4). We should not do things for others for personal praise or recognition, our compassion ought to be from a heart that loves Jesus. That is the only way we will find satisfaction in serving God, be filled with His joy and have true impact on those who don’t yet know Him. Something to remember as we give is to forget about it. When we have done something, we shouldn’t recount it to the one we did it for, we shouldn’t advertise it and we shouldn’t expect anything in return. Our reward is not of this world but from Jesus, and it is not for now but for when He returns and what He gives is eternal, (Matthew 19:29-30). God promised that He will reward every one according to what we have done for Him, but if all we ever receive is Himself that is more than enough…( Ephesians 6:8).
Jesus knew then that money is part of life and still is now so it is wise to heed his advice on the matter. After all, we work for it, we need it to obtain the necessities of life that are ever increasing and we find we never quite have enough, if we are not careful it could become a source of discontentment and an obsession to want more and more. Jesus however gives us the way to lasting contentment by where we should be investing our resources, (Matthew 6:19-20). Jesus is talking about treasures, but not the kind we deem valuable in human terms, it isn’t gold or silver, money or diamonds. Our treasures and our heart’s desire should be to see hearts in heaven of those that will be saved because we invested our time, our love and our resources to impart the Love of Jesus, (Matthew 6:21). Our focus needs to remain on Jesus and pointing others to him. We need to use our spiritual eyes rather than our physical eyes; our self-serving desires block our vision and we become out of focus from Jesus. This leads to a down spiral of discontentment and stress not what God wants for us at all. When we refocus on the pure and holy will of God we will see His light and flee darkness, (Matthew 6:22-23). If our attention seems to dwindle back and forth perhaps it is because we need to make a decision as to whom we will serve,(Matthew 6 :24).
Beloved a final word of wisdom and a secret to lifelong contentment is; “Do not worry”. We live in a day and age where many things can cause fear and worry, unemployment, inflation and poverty, all these things are a reality and our Heavenly Father knows our every need. He is our ultimate source for every provision, if we worry we forfeit the joy and peace God has for us each day. Worrying has no power to change anything but it can make us lose everything because worry takes our focus off God and puts it on whatever it is we are fretting over. When we seek God’s Kingdom first and trust in His promises to provide for us then we are truly content and we receive the peace that surpasses all understanding. The apostle Paul said like this, “Don’t worry about anything but pray about everything! This week friends let us bring back our focus on the One who truly satisfies, Asherey Shalom.