07

April

Sunday PM Service

by Pastor Joe

Title:

"Wrong Reasons"

Title:

"Christians in Action"

There is much to say about

Christians who stays busy for the

Lord.

Typically, in a church one finds two

types of Christians, those who are

working and stay busy for the Lord,

and those who are not.

Unfortunately, those who do not

engage in the work of the Lord and

find some type of ministry to get

involved in, have a greater

percentage of dropping out of the

things of the Lord.

In John 8:31-37

The Lord is addressing this subject. In V31 He says, " if ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed".

Indeed is in action!

Here is what we know about Christians who stay busy for the Lord;

1- They don't quit as easily as those who are not engaged! V31

a- The key here is to continue in His word and not just to talk the talk but walk the walk.

2- They are a free people! V32

a- They stay busy because they know they are free and have made up their mind out of a free will to serve the Lord.

3- They seek the truth! V31

a- Continuing in the word of God is to seek the truth. one thing we know, if you are not in the truth, you are in a lie.

b- Those who want to serve and stay busy for the Lord are always seeking the truth.

4- They know they were in bondage! V33

a-Jesus' audience argued they were never in bondage, yet they were.

b- Those who stay busy for the Lord understand they were once in bondage by the devil and don't want to go back to that bondage.

5- Allow the Word to grow in them! V37

a- Jesus' audience were seeking to kill Him, because His word was not in them and the Word was not growing in the them.

b- Those who stay busy about serving the Lord, continually allow the Word to grow in them!

Concl:

Let me ask you were do you stand today?

Are you of the 10% percent that stays busy for the Lord or are you one of the 90% who rather not get so involved?

Wrong Reasons!

Have you ever seen people worshipping,

or going to church for the wrong

reasons?

Believe it or not, our churches are filled

with people who attend churches

for the wrong reason.

From reading Revelation 2: 1-7 the Lord 

had a complaint against the church of Ephesus.

That complaint was that His people were serving Him for the wrong reasons.

In V4, Jesus lets them know that they had left their first love, and in V3, He lets them know that everything they were doing for Him was out of duty, "for my names sake", not out of love for Him.

The first love of a church is to love the Lord with all of it's heart, mind and soul, the same applies for Christians as well.

When you dig into these verses, you come to fing out the following;

1- They were serving Him out of Duty! V3

a- The Lord does not want us to serve Him out of duty, but out of love.

2- They were serving Him out of Pride! V3

a- Often times Christians get a sense of pride because of the name they bear. We don't simply serve Him because we are Christians, but because we love Him.

3- They were serving Him out of self-satisfaction! V3

a- Often times Christians give, serve, work and witness because they know they will be getting something out of it.

We serve Him because we love Him not out of self- satisfaction.

4- They were serving Him out of care, not share! V2

a- Often times you find churches fighting for their beliefs instead of sharing their beliefs.

b- It's perfectly OK to care for the things of the Lord, but it's better to share the things of the Lord with the Lord.

Concl:

What is the motive behind your service and faithfulness to the Lord?

Is it out of love or is there another reason?