The Work of God Is This...

We're all on level ground before God and a common door has been opened to each of us, to all who would call on His Name. It is not based on heritage - it was God's choice whether we were born a Jew or a Gentile.

9/26/1994

“Then they asked him, ‘What must we do to do the works God requires?’

Jesus answered, ‘The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.’”

To add a thought to that scripture…it’s intriguing that He would word it that way, about the work of God, right? People are asking, “How can I work for God? What things does He want me to do? I want to put my hand to something in order to serve Him. I want to do something sacrificial, something costly. I want perspiration beads on my forehead and arms and legs that are sore. I want to give up sleep. I want to sacrifice somehow. I want to know what the work of God is. I want to DO something to serve God.”

Obviously, that’s not a terrible question. But think about a little different twist or the other side of the same coin. “The work of God is to believe on the one whom he sent.” He didn’t say, “I don’t want you to work, I want you to believe.” If He had said that, we certainly would have accepted that as 100% true and valuable and grabbed a hold of that thought: “I don’t want you to work, I want you to believe.” But in the words from His mouth, He added that extra thought or phrase, “The work of God is to believe on the one whom he sent.” In other words…. “This is work too! To believe, also is work. The external things don’t necessarily get a hold of the heart, and I want your heart. The other things will take care of themselves.”

Hypothetically, suppose that everyone here vacated the premises and this whole half-acre was empty with no one left behind but you. All these chairs and tables, and all the food, the picnic blankets, the little children’s rubber duckies—everything was left here, but nothing had a name on it. Everything was just totally abandoned and Jesus asked you to return every single item to the owners, to their homes. Every dish washed, all the chairs folded, all the blankets washed and returned to their owners. You would do it if you knew Jesus wanted you to do that. If you asked any single person here who has sworn their allegiance to Jesus…who has abandoned their heart, their life, their mind, their finances to Jesus…he or she would do it. You wouldn’t have a big problem with that. It would be a task, it would be hard, it would be “work,” but who amongst us wouldn’t do that for our Savior? He has forgiven your sins! Who wouldn’t do that? He is the King of all the Kings. It would require a little work, but of course we would do that.

Now the things God has suggested to us that are equally as valuable as that example are things like giving your body to be burned. Or giving all your possessions for His work or having faith that moves a mountain on an external level. If you go over land and sea to make a single convert, or read your Bible 100 hours a day or whatever your thing might happen to be, He said, “That all might be well and good. I won’t count that as having no value, but the thing I primarily want, is the work of the heart. I want you, when things are difficult, to love Me anyway. I want you, when things don’t go your way…to be a worshipper anyway. I want you, when you are tired and things are challenging, confusing and frustrating…to trust Me anyway. If you feel a little depressed because of your hormones, or just because of the fatigue of life, or you don’t understand or don’t like this or that…I want you to love My people. I want you to give your life away. I want you to look people in the eye and care for them and express My love and My kindness, My patience and my mercy to them. I want you to have a good attitude without whining, or lashing out, or being impatient. I want you to do that and guess what? I know it is going to be work but that’s the work you asked Me about! I want this work from you, to believe on the one the Father has sent. I want that work from you. That is primary. Everything else will take care of itself. I want you to do it.”

“You would do anything for Me! Now do this: correct your attitudes. Be a worshipper, not a whiner, not a complainer, not doggin’ it through life because you think life is unfair or you think circumstances aren’t as you think they ought to be, or you’re not treated just exactly as you please. The job’s not exactly what you thought it would be or you don’t think everybody around you is acting or thinking the way they ought. This is My work I am inviting you to, says the Lord. ‘My burden is easy and My yoke is light.’ Take it upon you…believe on the one whom the Father sent. Trust Me with a wonderful, worshipful, sacrificial, kind, generous attitude no matter what happens in your life. DO this work. You want to know what the work is? Here is my answer: BELIEVE ME, TRUST ME, LOVE ME. Sacrifice your heart, your attitudes, and your perspectives for Me, and feed My sheep. Love those that I was willing to die for. Care for them intimately, and be a worshipper no matter what life brings. This is the work you asked Me about. I’m just answering your question. All these other things are great, but primarily the work of God is this: to believe no matter what, to trust no matter what, to love no matter what.”

Does that sound like work? Yeah…ain’t no doubt about it.

I face it every day and have to make that choice. “What was Your work again? Oh yeah—all right, I’ll go forward. I said I’d do anything for Him. Well, this is in front of me now and it’s what He has asked me to do.” So now what will I do? I’m going to stay connected as best as I can, and I’m going to believe and trust and love the one whom He sent. I’m going to live that life in Him, through Him, for Him and with Him. And it will extend out to others for the sake of loving Him and believing Him and trusting Him and not backing off, not quitting, not disconnecting, not holing up inside of myself but extending to others through His eyes, through His lips, through His hands and arms. And that’s work!

Would anyone claim they’ve walked that out since the day Jesus was crucified and three days later rose again? No one would ever claim they’ve done that perfectly every day. I sure wouldn’t claim it, but at least we have to know what the work is, right? At least we have to focus on what He has invited us into. “Here is My work. It’s not just all this “stuff to do”—that will take care of itself. Rather, believe Me in the inner man. Worship Me from the heart no matter what life deals up to you. Stay connected to Me and stay connected to My Family that I died for, with all your heart, all your mind, all your soul and all your strength. And live with an attitude that expresses faith in Me no matter what life deals you and no matter how you think things are unfair or burdensome. Stay with Me. This is the work I called you to. Stay with Me no matter what.” Will you do that? That is His question for us. That is His call to us.

His call isn’t to bail out! It’s so easy to do that and cut out. “I don’t want to hurt anymore. I don’t want to think anymore. I don’t want to feel anymore. I don’t want to give anymore. I’ll just bail out and serve myself for a while. I’ll do what I want. I’ll say whatever thought comes to my mind. I’ll have whatever attitude jumps into my heart. I’ll just live for myself because nobody is making it easy for me. Nobody is serving me hand and foot and making it easy for me, so I’ll do whatever I want to do.” Those are choices. He is saying, “Come with me.” You want to know what My work is? This is My work…to believe, to trust, to fully abandon yourself and let Me live through you. The one the Father has sent.” Will you do that? That’s His invitation to us.

The next time you’re tempted to shriek in pain or pull back in fatigue or frustration or injustice…the next time you’re tempted to turn inward or let your emotions or hormones or your attitudes rule your mouth and your mind and all those things start becoming subject to your flesh, just stop. Collect yourself, and ask, “If He asked me right now to lay down my life in some physical or financial way, or to do something or go somewhere, or speak something, or to serve in some other way…if He stood in front of me and asked me right this minute, would I do it? OF COURSE I would! I wouldn’t look Him in the eye and say ‘no’ after He died to save me from my sin. How ridiculous, I wouldn’t say no.” Since that’s so, He’s saying to you at that moment, “Then give up your attitude; then give up your right to mouth off or shrink back or to feel some thought or attitude, because the work I’m asking you to do this time, is not to collect all the chairs and wash all the dishes.

What I AM asking you right now to do is abandon that attitude and live by faith and not by sight. Give up the feelings, the emotions, the lashing out, the attitudes or the fatigue or the quitting or whatever it happens to be and BELIEVE on the one whom the Father sent. Give it up and let Me rule in your heart and your mind, and be willing and able to stop right where you are and abandon your heart and attitudes and thoughts into His hands. This is the work He has asked me to do. This is work, but He has asked me to do it, so I will humble myself and bend my knee and I will do that. I will believe and trust and worship the one the Father has sent, right now. This is the work and this is what I will do… Amen?

A Prayer

Father, we want to do Your work but sometimes we lose sight of what that means. We get too enamored with ourselves or our rights or the injustices around us or the confusing things. Whatever those excuses may be, they are nothing but that—excuses. We know that You have invited us to join You and to do Your work which is to totally abandon ourselves and totally trust and worship Your Son in every circumstance—particularly the hard ones because that is when it is work but those are the times we can offer You gifts. So we ask that You take these few minutes right now and make it crystal clear to us. Remind us of the times we have not done that. Instead we’ve let the stresses and situations pull and tug at us and call us away from that simple work. Please remind us, Father, that that IS the work You have called us to, primarily—first and foremost. The other things are purely external and secondary compared to that. They will flow from the work, but they certainly don’t replace that.

So Father, please show us day by day and minute by minute…remind us as You have promised You would give us a way out that you will never let us be tempted beyond what we can bear. It is apparent that You have promised us that You would always remind us of the opportunity we have to correct our thoughts, and our attitudes, our perspectives and our tongues. The things in our bones that want to scream and shriek or run or quit or whatever…strike back, have our way, promote ourselves or whatever those things would be. You promised us that You would remind us that we could do Your work by believing on the one whom You have sent. We invite You to do that with clarity and it’s our humble prayer right now that the Spirit that You have given and the call that You have offered to us in our lives would become crystal clear at that moment because we want to do Your work just as Your Son Jesus did the work for You first. We want to live in the middle of the heart of that life-giving Spirit, Jesus of Nazareth. Amen.

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