Sermon Transcript — February 11, 2006
Well a few months back I was on a plane coming from Seattle, Washington and flying back into Houston and I sat down next to a gentleman and I was just wanting to sleep and wanting to not have any sort of conversation and I was happy that he seemed to be of the same mind and we're sitting there, about three hours into the flight, it's a five hour flight from Seattle to Houston, he pulled out a bible and began reading his bible. I thought, Well this is interesting, I don't think in all the years I've flown on a plane I've ever sat next to someone who pulled out a bible and began reading, I thought this was interesting so I sort of still continued to do my best to sleep and then he put his bible up. I couldn't help but then begin a conversation with him and I began by saying, Well what do you do, what is your work? He said, I'm an executive for Washington Mutual, which is a large bank here in the United States and has quite a number of offices and banks in the Houston area. He was coming back to Houston, he lived in Houston. I said, Well I noticed you had your bible and you were reading. He said, Oh yes, I'm a deacon in my local congregation, he told me the area of Houston, it's West University Place which is one of the very very nice areas of Houston and he began telling me all about his church and all about what he did and he told me about their building program, they were trying to build a building and it almost split the church and he and his wife were both accountants so they had to get involved to try and manage the money because the money was being managed so poorly. And I related to him how we had also built a building there in Houston and we carried on quite a conversation for about the last hour or so of the trip.
When I got off the plane I realized that that whole conversation started, and I learned all about this man, as much as I could in an hour and I told him all about me, but it all began by a very simple question, What do you do for a living, what is your job? And it dawned on me that so many times when we talk to someone, that's the first question we ask. Yesterday, even at the funeral and you're meeting people and they come along and you ask, Well what do you do? What is your job? In fact it is interesting that one young man there came up and someone said, Well what do you do? He said, I don't do anything! Well that was a pretty honest guy, he was living at home with his parents, probably 30 years of age, unemployed and most people would say, Well my career is... but he said, I don't do anything! Well that's at least a breath of fresh airhonesty, he was living off his parents, he wasn't doing anything. But that's what you ask people. I realize and it also dawned on me, when I explained to the man on the plane that I was a pastor and he became very interested. He explained to me that he worked for Washington Mutual but his passion was for his church. He said, I really consider that my job, to be not only an example but to do things for my church.
I thought a little bit further and thought, Well you know if we had the opportunity to sit down with God the Father or sit down with Jesus Christ and we sort of leaned over and we said, Well what do You do for a living, what is Your job, what is Your work? What do you think they would say? We use the term, "God's Work," we use the term "Work of God," just sort of flows out of our mouths, but what do we mean by that? If you were asked this morning to define the work of God, what would you say? What does God do? And then of course we would also ask, Well what do you do? What is your real job? Now you may be a secretary, you may be an executive, you may be doing something else, but I want to go a bit further than that.
What do you really do, what is your life's passion? What is the most important thing that you do? I'd like to begin this morning by defining as much as we possibly can, from scripture, what we would call the work of God. I think it's important to us, there was a time in the Church we probably heard that term even more often than we do today. In fact we even got to the point where we shortened it and called it "The Work." Now within the Church, when someone said "The Work" you knew what he meant, he didn't have to say "The Work of God" or "The Work of the Church," if he said "The Work" you knew what he meant. What does it mean to us today? What does that term really mean? Let's begin in John 4:34. Jesus Christ refers to His work and we'll look at several scriptures here in John to begin because this is where you begin to see Christ identifying this concept of work and of course what He does.
John 4:34 Jesus said to them, "My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to finish His work."
Now if we're reading the scriptures correctly, there is a work that God does, there is a work that Christ does and to me it would seem rather foolish if God has a work, Christ has a work, then doesn't the Church have a work and therefore don't we as Christian have a work? What is that work, what is our job, what is our profession? We use terms rather loosely sometimes. Look over in John 5; you probably know this scripture by heart where Jesus answered them.
John 5:17 "... My Father has been working until now and I have been working."
Now do we think in terms of the Father and of Christ working and if we do, what is it that they do? What do they do? What is the purpose in their work, what is the future of their work? Where does it go, where does it take us, what is it all about? When someone that we know, certainly someone in the Church, dies, it is a tragedy and a tragic event and we struggle sometimes with that. I've since realized a long time ago, realize that tragedy certainly strike God's people. In the presence of death you think in deeper terms, what's it all about, what are we doing here? What are we trying to accomplish. In the funeral sermon normally the term is used, "we're here in the presence of death" and there's something about that term, that concept about being in the presence of death that makes you think deeper, you're thinking of the family, you're thinking of why did this happen, what is this all about, what is the purpose in this? Your mind sort of goes in circles sometimes trying to figure it all out.
Well what is the work of the Father, what is the work of the Son, what are they doing and what are we doing? Look at John 6:28.
John 6:28 Then they said to Him, "What shall we do that we may work the works of God?"
V. 29 Jesus answered and said to them, "This is the work of God ...so now we begin to get to a definition... this is the work of God that you believe in Him whom He sent."
Now that's a pretty simple statement but I would submit to you there's a lot more to that than just simply that statement, again, as we know, certainly we learn in the Church that just believing there is a Savior, believing there is a God isn't enough, that there is more to the work than simply that. Now if that is our total goal then our work is pretty short, pretty simple, doesn't require a lot from us, but I submit to you that the work that God has given us and the work that He does is very very strong, it is very all-involving, it is something that should be all-consuming as well, the passion for the work of God. Again, we have to ask ourselves certain questions. Look at John 17, on the night before Christ died, in His final prayer here, look at what He said:
John 17:4 " I have glorified You on the earth ...and notice this... I have finished the work which You have given Me to do ."
So the work that Christ had been given was completed. Well did Christ retire then is He in retirement now that His job is over? Well I think none of us would accept that as a good answer, Christ isn't retired, He is working, the Father is working. But what are they doing? What is the goal of their work? When you go to your job, whatever that job may be, you have a goal that you're trying to achieve, there's a purpose in that work. If there's not a purpose then you have to question, well why am I doing this? And of course we could ask ourselves the same question about our own daily activities. Why are we doing these things, what is the purpose in them, what is the purpose in life? Then of course we get into a very broad and a very deep discussion when it comes to what God is doing in our lives. Let's go to Hebrews 1 and I'd like to define for you what I will submit to you is a definition of the work of God and really defines not only what the Father is involved in, what the Son is involved in, and what you and I and the Church of God should be involved in as well. The book of Hebrews is truly a profound book, I mean all of the books of the bible are profound but the book of Hebrews really serves as a linchpin when you understand the concepts of Old Covenant, New Covenant, you understand the transition that goes on in the New Testament period of time and you go to the book of Hebrews and it talks about the high priest and the position that Christ holds and it really bridges, it provides the bridge between what some would refer to and certainly appropriate to refer to as the Old Covenant versus the New Covenant or the Old Covenant and the New Covenant. But it begins, the book begins by addressing the position of Jesus Christ and notice it refers to Him in verse 8, it says:
Heb. 1:8 But to the Son He says, "Your throne O God, is forever and ever."
So here we have Christ or the Son referred to as God, whose throne is forever and ever, so we have eternity connected with Christ and of course the teaching of the Church and what we see in scripture is that certainly Christ preceded His human birth, that He was certainly eternal, we have the two beings who are both referred to as God and they both work, as we're told in scripture. Then you come to chapter two, I'd like to begin then in verse 10 and I want to come to a definition that I will submit to you this morning as being the definition of God's work, this is what God is doing.
Heb. 2:10 For it was fitting for Him ...this is referring back to verse 9, maybe we should begin in verse 9...
Verse 9 But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor, that He by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone.
Verse 10 For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things and by whom are all things ...and notice this little phrase, five words only... in bringing many sons to glory to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.
Now I want to emphasize this little phrase "in bringing many sons to glory." In fact if you look for a title to the sermon, the title is, "Bringing Many Sons to Glory." I submit to you that the work of God is this that God's work, His job, His passion, what He does is bringing many sons to glory. Now I want you to notice the term "many" sons to glory. You know we speak in terms of the Church and it's true that the Church is a small flock, many are called but few are chosen, there's only a handful of people, but we have to know that God's ultimate purpose is that it will be many sons brought to glory, not a few but many sons brought to glory. And while you and I are very special and privileged because God has put us into His Church and His work, we will not be alone in the kingdom of God, that God's work is to bring many sons to glory, that's His job, that's what He does, that's what He is doing.
You know this week was interesting in that the first part of the week we spent having festival meetings and we were discussing with the festival coordinators how to make the Feast better and in the process of discussing that you realize that what we're planning when it comes to the Feast of Tabernacles is a part of God's plan, that God has a plan and that you and I have learned that plan through the holy days. In fact one of the most profound truths that I think we've ever been privileged to understand as a church or a body has been the plan of God through the holy days, which make the holy days so very special.
So here we are working on that and then you go to a funeral in which you see death, you see an end to a life but you realize, and of course in the sermon message at the funeral you talk about the future, the resurrection, the kingdom of God, these are all themes and principles of the Feast of Tabernacles! It really, on the one hand, the Feast of Tabernacles, we're looking at living in advance and when you deal with death you are looking at the reality of God's plan, you know it's not just acting something out, it's real. God has a plan. If He doesn't have a plan and death is the end of everything, then what hope do we have? You know, why do you want a job that's going to end that way? Why would you want to work in something that's going to end like that? Well that's not the end the kingdom of God , the millennial reign of Jesus Christ. The job of bringing many sons to glory is an awesome thing; it's a tremendous thing, it's so incredible it's beyond our comprehension and you and I have a part in that.
I think of the gentleman who had such a passion for his church, sitting on the plane and he wasn't embarrassed to pull out a bible and read a bible on a plane because he was so passionate for his church and he doesn't even have a clue about God's plan and here we are, we know the plan of God. You begin to ask, what passion do we have for God's Work and God's Church and this way of life and what we have to offer? How are we going to bring many sons to glory? You know if you follow this section of scripture on, you will see that there are several statements that follow this particular statement. In fact in some books you can find, beginning with verse 10 and reading through chapter 4, there are seven " therefore's " sort of seven conclusions that all sort of feed off this. You look at verse 1 of chapter 3, " Therefore holy brethren, partakers ..." Actually verse 17 of chapter 2 is the first one, " Therefore in all things He was made like His brethren that He might be merciful and faithful, a High Priest in things pertaining to God to make propitiation for the sins of the people ." So all of the things that follow this really kind of direct us back to this concept of bringing many sons to glory. Many sons to glory. Chapter 3:1 " Therefore holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling.. ." You know you're a part of this; you're a part of this.
Verse 7 of chapter 3, " Therefore, as the holy spirit says ..." and we have a discussion about the millennium and the rest and how of course chapter four it compares to the Sabbath. Chapter 4:1 " Therefore a promise remains of entering His rest ..." Verse 9 " There remains therefore, a rest for the people of God ..." Verse 11 " Let us therefore be diligent to enter into that rest ..." and then finally in verse 16, he says, " Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need ."
So in this section of scripture we lay out what I contend or what I would submit to you is truly the work of God - that is to bring many sons to glory, to provide a family. You know Mr. Armstrong spoke in terms of God creating a family. The term in Hebrew is "bringing many sons to glory," it's not going to be small and limited but there are going to be many who will be brought into that. Well how do they get there? Then we have the various statements about Christ as the High Priest, the propitiation for sin, we have the statement of entering His rest, the comparison of this physical life and resting and of course comparison to the millennium and with the Sabbath. Now when you think of the Church, when you think of the work of God, can we not say, or to at least reach somewhat of a definition, the work of God is to bring many sons to glory. And can we not also agree that this is the work of the Church and if it's the work of the Church, then is it not also the work of every Christian? Are we not also "hired," I use the term loosely, hopefully it's not a hireling in that sense, but that we are committed and convicted that this is our job, this is our work, this is our passion.
You know even the Sabbath as compared in chapter four to the millennial rest, if you think in terms of the Sabbath and sometimes our view of the Sabbath becomes very narrow, you know it's a day of rest, well we appreciate a day of rest, but if you look at the Sabbath command, what does it say? Six days you shall work and the seventh day is the day of rest, the Sabbath. When you look through Jewish literature, you will find that the Sabbath is the crowning day of the week, it's the crown of the week and that you work six days in order to get to the Sabbath. You don't endure one Sabbath in order to get back to the six days, you see, it's wrong thinking. You work six days to get to the Sabbath and in one sense, in some of the Jewish literature, all six days are preparation for the Sabbath, it's the crowning day of the week. Well why is it the crowning day of the week? Because it is your job, it is your passion, it is your work and every Sabbath you have an opportunity to in one sense, show up to work you see. There is a job to be done, there's something for you to accomplish here every Sabbath, it's a holy convocation as Mr. Johnson explained a couple of weeks ago.
So we work for six days at our physical labors, we come to the Sabbath service on the Sabbath service because this is our true work, this is our true job, this is more important than any other job, this is your work and it's the work of God. And it's on the Sabbath that we receive direction, we receive instruction, we sometimes receive correction and we are further enhanced in doing our job. It's sort of like on the physical job, how productive are we if we don't even show up for work you see? How long would you or I as an employer put up with someone who never came to work? Of course the bottom line is that we all must recognize that this is truly our work and truly our job. But let's think in terms of the Father and the Son and lets see exactly what they do, what is their part in this work, what do they do, how do they do their work? Let's go to Colossians 1 . We understand that Jesus Christ is the one who did the creating, He is even called the Creator but we should not be confused that the Father was uninvolved. I think sometimes in the past, even in the Church, we have so emphasized Christ as the God of the Old Testament, He was certainly the one who dealt with Israel, and we believe that very strongly, but we failed sometimes to acknowledge that the Father is intimately involved and has always been intimately involved in this work. You know the Father isn't retired and the Son is doing all the work. The Father has work that He does, Christ said that very clearly. But in Colossians 1:15 we find that Christ, as He is described here:
Col. 1:15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him.
So we know that Jesus Christ was the one, the Word who was there and was of course creating, but, notice in Genesis 1:26 , we have the statement that says:
Gen. 1:26 Let us create man in our image ...we view that very simply as the Word and the Father who were both intimately involved in the creation.
So we know that the Father was involved, we know that, we believe that, we don't ignore the Father, we believe very strongly that He was involved and has been involved but what does He do? What is He doing today? What is His work? Did Christ do all of the work and the Father does nothing? Well let's look at John 6, it's a scripture that we all know well and I'd like for you to view this scripture in light of what we're talking about this morning.
John 6:44 No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him and I will raise him up at the last day.
Now Christ made it very clear that no one can come into this way of life unless the Father initiates it. Christ acknowledges that the Father is the one who initiates it, He is the one who must call. This is a profound truth, this is a truth that is so poorly understood and sometimes I wonder even in the Church if we fully comprehend what miracle takes place when someone comes into the Church, when someone is called you see. It's a profound miracle and it is the beginning of conversion, you're not converted when you're being called, you are becoming converted. You repent, you're baptized, you begin that life you see. But where did it begin? It began with the calling of the Father. Christ clearly acknowledged that He didn't call, that the Father is the one who calls. Look at verse 64-65, this is repeated again.
V. 64 " But there are some of you who do not believe, but Jesus knew from the beginning who they were and who did not believe and who would betray Him."
V. 65 He said, "Therefore I have said to you that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted to him by My Father."
So who is it that initiates your being in the Church or my being in the Church? It's the Father who must call. So the Father is very intimately involved in calling those whom He will to be in His Church. I Cor. 1 we're told this is a holy calling. We even find in I Cor. 7 that because we have been called, our children we are told, are also holy. So that this calling reflects even upon a family when someone is called, when someone comes out of this world. I know many of you go back a number of years in the Church and you probably remember the old days of Spokesman Club meetings and you remember the very first speech in Spokesman Club was of course the icebreaker. And what were you told before you gave your icebreaker? You were told, "Be sure you tell us how you came into the Church." I've long since lost track of how many Spokesman Club meetings I've been to or how many speeches I've heard but you know the one I've always really enjoyed was hearing the icebreaker and hearing the stories of how people were called and came into the Church.
We had a couple in Houston and I always appreciated his story, they were actually a couple of the oldest members in our congregation as far as baptism dates and he told how he came into the Church and I'd known this couple for probably fifteen years and in this particular case the gentleman's wife died and in the course of spending probably more time than I had spent with him previously, he told me how they had come into the Church. I'd only seen the record, they were baptized in 1939 and I said, "How did you come into the Church, how did you know about the Church?" Actually I should correct that, she was baptized in 1939, he came along somewhat later. But I said, "How did you ever find out about the Church and how did you become acquainted with it?"
And he mentioned to me that when he and his wife got married, they were so poor they didn't own a radio, didn't have a radio at all and he said they would go out on their back porch every evening and their neighbor had a radio and he would play it in the evening and their house was next door to him so they could go and sit on their back porch and listen to their neighbor's radio and every evening about seven o'clock, Herbert Armstrong would come on the radio so they would sit in their house next door to their neighbor and listen to Mr. Armstrong on the radio, became convinced this was what they believed, wrote in for literature, eventually a baptizing tour came and eventually were baptized. But this all went back to the 1930's you see, the 1930's an absolutely incredible story.
God calls people into His Church in ways that you and I could not even imagine, you cannot even think of all the ways and over the years, hearing the various stories of how people were called into the Church has always been just an impressive part of seeing the hand of God when you listen to the icebreakers in the Spokesman Club or you meet someone and you ask them, "Well how did you find out about the truth, how did you come into the Church?" My mother came into the Church in the early 1950's when a neighbor of ours, my father and a neighbor lady, we actually lived in Michigan City, Indiana at that time and my father had left the farm in Arkansas because of a poor year and had gone to Michigan City and had worked for a Pullman Cars, they made train cars at that time and they worked the night shift, my father and another gentleman in a neighboring apartment. All of us were from Arkansas and so they kind of knew each other from the farm in Arkansas and while my father and this other man were working the night shift, this lady said, "You need to come down, I don't want to be alone, it's kind of lonely here." I think my mother was nineteen or twenty years old at the time and very lonely having moved away from Arkansas and so she would go to this lady's apartment and she would play the radio and of course Mr. Armstrong came on and this lady that introduced my mother at that time to this broadcast could not read or write, she was illiterate and yet when she heard the message she said, "Well that's right, I know that's right." And of course my mother said, "Well I can't accept that." She's a dyed-in-the-wool Baptist, she couldn't accept that. But over time she began to listen to this and check it in the bible and she began to prove it and of course accepted it. But the lady that God used to introduce her to the truth could not read or write and yet she knew when she heard it, it was right, she absolutely knew it. Of course both families actually came into the Church over the years, over a period of time.
Your story, my story, all of the stories in this room are absolutely incredible. God is working, He is calling people into His Church because ultimately there will be many sons brought to glory. Jesus Christ is also working, what does Christ do? If you look through the scriptures you'll find that there are several titles given to Jesus Christ. He's called the Creator, He's called our Savior, He's called our High Priest and He's identified in the book of Ephesians as the head of the Church. So Jesus Christ is the head of the Church, Jesus Christ is our High Priest, He's the one that we go to or He's the one that's there to go for us to the Father for intercession whenever we do fall short, whenever we do stumble. So when you look at the work of Jesus Christ, you realize that He's obviously very intimately involved.
We see the work of the Father, we see the work of Jesus Christ and we see that there is a work going on, to lead many sons being brought to glory. But it begins with the Father, Christ of course is there, Christ is directing His Church, He's directing His work and what is that work? Well that work is bringing many sons to glory. What tool or what implement are the Father and the Son using to bring many sons to glory? Let's go to Matthew 16. We look at the Father, we look at the Son and then we also should look at the Church. This is the famous statement and of course is used and interpreted differently by different individuals but it's really not that complicated.
Matt. 16:18 "I also say to you (Christ talking to Peter) that you are Peter and on this Rock I will build My Church and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it."
So probably the best way of explaining this verse that I've seen as far as any sort of book, if you look at Barclay's Notes on the New Testament, he paints a picture, he says you need to imagine this as though Christ is looking at Peter and He says, "You are Peter but upon this Rock (and He points to Himself) I will build My Church." When you're reading the scriptures you can't see the gestures or the inflection that was probably given. I think Barclay's gives a good explanation. You know, you're Peter but upon This Rock I will build My Church. The Church is built upon Christ you see, but He builds the Church. The key here though is that the Church is built by Christ. Now think this one through, if you're at work, your plan, your goal is to bring many sons to glory, how would you do that? You've been given this job, you want to get many sons to glory, you want to add to God's family, you want to do all of this, how would you do it? Well I think we would all agree that God, as the Great God and all-powerful and all knowing, could have done this in different ways no doubt. You know God could have done something else besides what we see today. But what did He choose to do? He chose to build a Church. I think sometimes we don't view the Church in the proper perspective that we should. The Church was built by Christ, it isn't man-made or man created, it wasn't as though human beings said, well we need to have a church, we need to do this, we need to do that. Christ built the Church; He is the head of the Church. Why did He do that? To bring many sons to glory.
Now sometimes the challenge for us is not knowing what God has done but sometimes knowing why He did it and what He expects from us. The Church was built as a part of, as a part of the work of God, it is to bring many sons to glory. The Church serves a very important purpose in that. The Sabbath, as I mentioned is a part of that. The Sabbath is a very important part, the holy days are a very important part as we gather together as we serve God on the Sabbath day, as we serve God on the holy days, I would hope that we would all agree that when we come together to serve God, when we come together as a part of the work of God in that sense, on the Sabbath day as a part of the Church of God, that we should bring our very best to God. Our very best job, our very best work performance every single Sabbath. If you're working and obviously many of you are working and you have a job, there is an expectation that you will do your very best with that job.
Is it not true that God would have the same expectation of us? That when we come to Sabbath services every Sabbath, when we are on the job, that we are doing our very best job. There are scriptures that refer to the Church as being "fellow laborers," we're told that we work alongside Christ, and what do we work alongside Christ in doing? Well again, bringing many sons to glory. Our job, you and me, is to assist, certainly those whom God has called on this road to the kingdom. You're part of everybody's life who is here today and those who aren't here today, you're a part of their life, you have an impact on them as Mr. Lovelady mentioned in the sermonette, you reflect certain things and it's reflected back to you. There is a job; there is a work to be done. Notice, let's go to Romans 14, let's talk a bit about our job and our part in this work because I think the bible has a great deal to say about that.
Rom 14:19 Therefore let us pursue the things which make for peace and the things by which one may edify another.
Now why is Paul appealing here in Romans, that we promote things of peace and that we do everything we can to bring or to help others? The idea that you and I are alone is simply not true, we are a part of a body, we are not alone and what we do and how we perform our work affects other people in the body and we need to be very very clear on that. So he says if you strive to promote peace, this is good, "we make for peace and the things by which one may edify another..." If we do that then it says:
V. 20 Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food, all things indeed are pure but it is evil for the man who eats with offense.
Now again we're talking about fasting and not fasting and other issues but the primary issue here is offending someone else. Why is it so important that you not offend a brother? Why is it so important that you not cause a brother to stumble? Because your job is to promote peace, your job is to promote unity; your job is to promote anything that will help others into the kingdom of God . That's your job! You are called Christian, you are a follower of Christ, you have the same job, the same work that the Father and the Son has, to bring many sons to glory. Now you can't call people, you can't be their savior, but you are there to help them. Why do we need a Church? I've thought about this over the years because in the case of my family, we had ten years that we kept the Sabbath and the holy days at home, no church to attend. The first opportunity we had to attend a church was a whole new world open for us, a whole new world, because not only did we feel comfort in the fact that there were other people, but then it really began to dawn on us and we took it very seriously as a family, that we had a work to do and that work involved, at the very minimum, every Sabbath, not only being present but being someone who was there to promote peace, to promote unity, to promote love, these were all the things that we were there for. Because you see if we were the cause of offense, if we were the cause of someone to stumble, what a terrible thing that would be. Again, it would be like, you have a job and you failed miserably in that job.
The calling that God has given us isn't to aggrandize or make you someone important or to make me someone important, it's to bring many sons to glory, it's to bring many more people into the kingdom of God because when life ends and when it's the end of the day, when it's over, this physical existence comes to an end and every single one of us will face that, in our families and in our lives and when it comes to an end, what kind of job did you do? What kind of work did you? What kind of a support were you? I've often thought the most important fact, I still think this way, some of the most important people in the Church of God are the people who never get recognition. I think I mentioned this in a sermon before, that there were people in every congregation that I've pastored who never were recognized, you never heard their name announced from the lectern and yet those were the people other people gravitated to for encouragement. How many sons did they help on the road to the kingdom? How many sons were they helping bring along to the kingdom? What sort of legacy did they leave behind? What is it all about, where does it go?
Coming into the ministry and being in the state of Georgia, when I actually began in my ministry and not being experienced, not knowing...in fact the first funeral I ever attended in the Church was one I was conducting and I had no idea...what am I suppose to say? What do you say to people who've lost a loved one, how do you comfort them? And of course the way you comfort them is with God's word, the way you comfort them is to try to help them, and over the years in performing or conducting funeral services, having people come back, even years later I've had individuals come back and say, What you said at the time of...and they'll tell you the member of the family that died...was just right, it was just what we needed to hear because it gave us hope and gave us encouragement. People who can do that, and I'm not talking about the ministry who does that, but people who can do that on a regular basis are doing a work that is so valuable and so important, I believe to God and to His Church, that we should never never minimize that.
There were some of the phrases used a few years ago, almost a slap I felt on the people of God, they said, "Well all we do is pay and pray..." that's all we're here for, that's the way people look at us. You know if we ever look at God's people from that perspective then we've already missed the work of God. The work of God is bringing many sons to glory. I don't know what part you and I play in whom God will call, that is God's call, He is the one who does that, but I believe we play a part, whether it's through our prayers, and I believe that is very important, whether it is through our tithes that certainly are, you know God's tithes that we contribute, or whether it's just through being an encouraging person every Sabbath. We are working; we are doing a job of bringing many sons to glory. We don't know sometimes the positive; you don't know how many people you have positively affected you know, in your work. But I'll tell you, you know or often you'll know if you do something that negatively impacts someone, we often hear about that, you know offenses are caused, people are upset. But the positive things, we often don't hear about that and I suspect that in this congregation as in all, there are people here who are doing that, encouraging others and please never minimize that as a part of this work, a part of bringing many sons to glory. We notice again that God has given us such a wonderful responsibility there.
So what specifically then and I want to give some very specific points as we conclude this morning. What specifically then has God given us to do? You know we can see clearly in scripture that God has work, Jesus Christ has work, we know that we have work but what specifically can we do? Let's go to II Corinthians 1 and I've made reference to this already. But if you look for a job description, what should we be doing, then let's try to summarize it in actually four very simple points that I want to conclude with.
II Cor. 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our tribulations ...now why does God do something for us... that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble ...
I truly believe that the most significant thing, the greatest work than any of us can do is to encourage someone, to comfort someone who is suffering or hurting. You can't minimize that, to visit someone who is sick, to talk to someone who is discouraged, to help other people . Why? Because we are helping them become sons of glory, bringing sons to glory I should say. That's our goal. This life ends, beyond this life is the kingdom of God. How do we get there, how do we go there? Well it's a gift from God. But how can you and I help more people? Mr. Armstrong used to describe the Church as a spiritual hospital; he said it is a place where we ought to be able to come to get better! We ought to get a little better every Sabbath because there's encouragement, there's hope, there's all of these things that are flowing through the congregation whether it's here or somewhere else, whether it's four or five hundred people or if it's twenty or thirty people. The encouragement, the hope, the positive view is something that I believe, God wants from us because He gave it to us. If God gave you comfort, guess what, He expects you to comfort someone else. If you've ever found comfort in a trial through God, through His spirit, then you should share that with others who are suffering, that's why God comforted you, that you might comfort others.
Let's look at Hebrews 6. When you read through the scriptures and you read that there are some things that God just doesn't forget. We read that God forgets our sins, He says He forgets our sins, the bad things we do, the poor things we do, the things that we've repented of, God doesn't hold on to those. So what is it that God will remember about us? Look at verse 10 of chapter six:
Heb. 6:10 For God is not unjust to forget your work and labor of love which you have shown toward His name in that you have ministered to the saints and do minister.
So what does God remember about us? He won't forget your labor, your work of love. Serving others, ministering to others, ministering to the saints and do minister as he says. Works of service- we have opportunities on a weekly basis, probably, if not weekly, certainly regularly to do works of service, to serve other people, to do something to help them. Generally it can be in a physical way and certainly, hopefully it is in a spiritual way.
Point #1 then is certainly, our job as a Christian is to be encouraging.
Point #2, our job as a Christian, or our work should be, to do works of service for others.
Point #3, of course, is something we've heard about, I think even recently sermons here on the subject of prayer and the need to pray for one another regularly.
We should never discount that as a part of our work. Not only should we encourage, not only should we serve, but we should be praying regularly for those who are either sick, as we hear about them, or those who we know are having a trial or a difficulty. You can never discount that. If God is desirous of comforting those who are struggling, then we must acknowledge our part in bringing those to God, that God wants to hear from us. We're told in scripture to be instant in prayer, that we're to always be praying in that sense, that we pray regularly, we don't let a day go by that we aren't praying for other people. God is working in many people's lives. But they need our help, they need encouragement, they need God's help and they need someone to be praying for them, it really is very important. Then finally:
Point #4, we should continue to ask ourselves the question, what am I doing to bring sons to glory? What part of this work am I participating in?
Again, I'm not referring to a particular physical aspect of doing the work as we might use the term, I believe that the scriptures show us that the work of God is to bring many sons to glory. God is working through His Church; God has called us into His body so that we might work together to bring sons to glory. It may sound good to say that, Well, my relationship with God is between me and God, and that is certainly true, I'm not denying that at all, but if we ever get to the point that we feel we don't need each other or that we don't need the body of Christ, then I believe we've taken a wrong turn somewhere along the way. God created the Church, Jesus Christ built the Church because there is something missing in our lives that we need from one another and that by being a part of the body of Christ and being committed to bringing many sons to glory we are serving in a way that also produces within us something extraordinary. We call it character, we call it conversion, there are terms and titles that we use but it's becoming more like Christ.
When you think of life and of course in the face of death, you think very seriously about life and what your life is all about. You may spend your whole life as a carpenter or as in my family, many of my family members spent their whole lives as farmers. They never had anything, they lived in the same old shack when they died as they were born in, that was their life. Many generations have come and gone. When your life is over and my life is over, we simply have to ask ourselves, well what did I do? What part did I play in bringing many sons to glory? You and I have an opportunity to be a part of the body of Christ; we have an opportunity to be a part of His Church. It's a great miracle, it's a wonderful blessing and it's through this blessing that you and I can be a part of bringing many sons to glory.
When I sat on the plane with this deacon from the Baptist church in Houston who told me of his passion for his church and he told me about his job. And when we finished the conversation, I clearly knew that his real job was doing the best he could for his church. He was an executive for Washington Mutual, he made probably a good salary, he certainly lived in a very exclusive part of Houston but in spite of all of that, his, at least what I got from my conversation with him is that his real job was to be this person, who in his mind, was a Christian and was doing everything he could to promote and serve his church. And in thinking and reflecting on that and asking the question, what is your work, what is your work? What is the work of the Father? I think we can all identify the work of the Father. The work of the Father and the Son is to bring many sons to glory, to increase His family. I don't think God wants a few people, I think He wants many people in His family. He's privileged you and me to have a part in bringing many sons to glory. How can we do that? We can do it through encouragement, through works of service, through our prayers and also by asking ourselves the critical question and that is, what am I doing to bring sons to glory?