Go and Do

Thank you, Mr. Cole. Actually, I probably need a third glass because I'm probably going to use both of them today. My voice sounded a little stronger this morning. I thought it might be starting to slip again by the end of this message. But maybe not. Well, many of you know, in the modern era of United States history, when a man becomes president, it's been common for his wife, who doesn't actually hold an elected office but has a prominent position in our nation, to sort of take part in some social betterment activity, so to speak. Take a cause and make it her own. I'm not really sure of how far back that goes. The earliest one that I have much knowledge of is I know that Lady Bird Johnson in the 60s made it her goal to beautify the nation's highways. And she encouraged the planting of flowers and removing of ugly billboards and things like that. And I believe to some success. And it's gone on from there. I know I believe Nancy Reagan spearheaded the Say No to Drugs movement. Laura Bush, I believe, promoted reading. You know, these are all good things. And probably many of you know that our current First Lady, Michelle Obama, has put her focus on reducing childhood obesity. In February of 2010, she announced a Let's Move campaign. This consists of partnerships between state and local governments, nonprofit organizations, and they pretty much promote ideas about making kids healthier. You know, they encourage better eating habits, but most of all, and it's a pretty simple premise, they encourage kids to get up and move.

And their goal is for every child to be active at least 60 minutes out of a day. And it wasn't until I was looking into this, because I knew that was there, I didn't know the details, I didn't realize that she was predated a little bit by the National Football League. I've been seeing commercials for years when I watched football games that it was back in 2007, the NFL launched its Play 60 initiative to encourage kids to get up and play for at least 60 minutes every day. And I find that greatly ironic, because you see the commercials during the football game, which if you're watching, plant you on the couch for a good three hours. And if you're a devoted fan like me and really tired, you might watch two games in a row. Not a lot of movement, except for getting up and going to the refrigerator, but that's another story.

But if you take it this way, pro football wants people to be active. The First Lady wants people to be active.

Would it surprise you if I said that Jesus Christ also wants us to be active?

Well, maybe it won't surprise you, because there are a lot of instructions in Scripture for us to do things.

Hmm. Then again, there's also a lot of instruction to not do things. The Ten Commandments seem to say, Thou shalt not to many things. So some people have this vision of God as a thou shalt not type of God.

But I don't see it that way. I disagree with that.

Now, I want to pause and shift gears a little bit, because I'm thinking in terms of an active mindset.

And when I was going to grad school, I had to learn to write all over. Well, not all over, but we focused on our writing quite a bit. And one of the things they encouraged us was to write in what's called active voice, rather than passive voice.

Active voice seems to move forward better. And I brought it... I'm not much of one for props, but I found this in my car. You can guess who it belongs to.

Now, I'm looking over here. Now, passive voice... Joe, get your hands ready.

By passive voice, I would say, the ball was thrown by me to Joe. That's passive voice.

Now, active voice... he threw me the ball. Okay, active. The person doing it makes an active... it's moving forward, so to speak. Sorry.

Brains a little cloudy from lack of sleep.

Another thing that we do in that is we try to encourage the use of active verbs and fewer adjectives.

If I were to write in adjectives, I'd say, Joe threw the ball to me in a slow, high arc.

But using active verbs, I could just say, Joe lobbed the ball. And that tells me the same thing with fewer words, and it moves along.

Now, I'm not doing all this to give us a grammar lesson. Although, for some reason, I'm tempted to do that at times.

I call myself Captain Grammer.

But I want to make the point that we can look at Christianity this way.

Because when we focus on instructions to just be a certain way, or to accept action from others, that's being stationary and passive.

Now, we might start Christianity that way. God forgives us. We accept His mercy, and we see the redemption of Jesus Christ's sacrifice.

But then, if we look in Scripture, we'll find examples of Jesus Christ giving instruction for His followers to go and do things.

Often, I don't think much about what a title for a sermon will be, but on this one, I came up with a very simple one.

Go and do. That's what Jesus tells us in a lot of cases.

Now, I realize some of you might be thinking, hmm, last time this guy spoke to us was on Pentecost, and he was focusing on how the Holy Spirit gives us gifts of words and thoughts and concepts, not so much the superpowers that we might want.

Is He contradicting Himself? Well, I hope it doesn't come across that way. Actually, I was aware of that.

But I'd like to see this as helping to fill in the picture. So not contradiction, but helping to complete things.

Let's look at some examples from Christ's ministry.

And according to the techniques I've been discussing, Jesus Christ would have been a great writer.

Or actually, I shouldn't say would have been. He's known as the author of the most successful bestseller in history. He is a good writer.

But I'm thinking about the language He used. When He talked to people in His ministry, He used action verbs, and He gave people direction.

Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John all described Jesus' ministry in a similar way. They're what we call the synoptic gospels.

John wrote considerably later, and he approached things quite a bit differently.

Let's read Matthew's account of Jesus' ministry. That's hard to say Jesus is. But you know what I mean. Matthew 4, verse 17, if you'll turn there.

Matthew 4 and verse 17. And I'll warn you, I'm going to go to Mark 1 in a moment, because I want to look at the two different accounts.

And to focus on His language. Matthew 4, 17. This is right at the beginning of His ministry.

I realized this this morning. I'm going to come back to Matthew 4 a little bit later. So if you have a marker or you want to stick a finger there, that'll be worthwhile.

But in Matthew 4, 17, it says, Isn't an action word? Somebody wants to say, Well, wait a minute. Repentance? What are you doing? We'll come to that in a moment. But let's turn over to Mark 1, if you will. Mark 1 and verse 14 and 15. We've cited this enough in sermons in the last few years that you might have it in your memory by now.

We use this as an outline for the Kingdom of God seminars when they first began. It says, Jesus came to Galilee preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom of God and saying, Well, the time is fulfilled and the Kingdom of God is at hand. Okay, that's the state of being. So what? So repent and believe in the Gospel.

Let me address that second thing He said to do. Believe. Belief, or we might use the term faith. That's incredibly powerful.

But it doesn't imply a lot of action, does it?

At least on the surface. Now, what I'll say, though, is faith or belief empowers a lot of the action that we do. To do certain things, we need faith. And you could say, if we have faith, we're going to do certain things. Faith is a great motivating power and enabler.

But let's consider that other powerful direction Jesus gave. Repent. Repent and believe the Gospel. We understand that He meant a lot more by saying repent than feel sorry for what you've done or have regret. And I realize this isn't new. Most of you or all of you have studied this before. But let's see some of the action involved if we turn to Ezekiel 18. Ezekiel 18, one of the classic demonstrations of what repent really means. Ezekiel 18 will begin in verse 27.

Again, when a wicked man turns away from the wickedness which he has committed, that turning away, that's an action. It doesn't just say when a wicked man stops in his tracks and is motionless. It says when he turns away from the wickedness that he's committed and does what is lawful and right, he preserves himself alive. So here's action. Turn away. Do what's lawful and right. Because he considers and turns away from all the transgressions which he's committed, he shall surely live. He shall not die. We've spent a lot of time in sermons discussing repentance.

Actually, in the period leading up to Passover, we tend to look at it a lot. So I'm not going to go into more detail now. I want us to understand that that's a powerful verb. That implies perhaps much more than we think. But I want to go back to what Christ instructed some other people following. Now I want to go back to Matthew 4. Matthew 4, and we'll begin in verse 18. As I said, not that I don't want to discount repentance, I just don't want to spend more time on something I've discussed a lot earlier.

We will come back to it a little bit later. Matthew 4, in verse 18, this is only a couple of verses later, we'll see some more instruction to positive action that he gave to those who would soon be part of his ministry.

In verse 18, Jesus, walking by the Sea of Galilee, saw two brothers. Simon called Peter, and Andrew drew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. And he said to them, Follow me, and I'll make you fishers of men. That's not at all ambiguous. He walked up and he said, Follow me. And apparently, they dropped their nets, got up on their feet, and started walking, because it says that's what Jesus was doing. He was walking by the sea. So in order to follow him, they had to get up and start walking also. And the Gospel accounts show that this is largely what they did for the next three and a half years, mixed in with a lot of other things.

But his disciples accompanied him back and forth across what was then known as the land of Palestine. They walked up. I hesitate. I wrote it in my notes. I said, Dusty Roads. How many times have you heard of Dusty Roads? I thought, didn't it ever rain there? They must have had muddy roads sometimes. And sometimes the road was just right. And over three and a half years, they probably encountered all kinds of roads.

There's accounts of them going up into the mountains. So they must have been up hills and mountains down through valleys. At times they were at guests in people's homes, perhaps having dinner with people. Other times they might have been camping outside, and they probably built a big fire and sat around, listening as Jesus taught them. I'm sure at times singing songs together, perhaps laughing and telling jokes. But one thing's for certain, wherever he went, they went. They were following him. And apparently there were times when it wasn't so easy.

I mean, so far I'm describing it as a grand camping trip. Let's turn to John 6 and see one occasion, at least when that faith had to be there. John 6 and verse 66.

I found I'm going to take a number of stories and some parables that we look at a lot, and I want to look at some different aspects of them. And this one might not be so different.

But John 6 and verse 66. And this is, of course, following some very deep teaching Jesus was giving to the multitude that, sure, he must have known most would not understand. He started talking about eating his flesh and drinking his blood, and he was making an analogy of him dwelling in people by the Holy Spirit and also showing the symbolism that would be in the Passover emblems that he would institute. But some people, that was too much for them. And verse 66. From that time many of his disciples went back and walked with him no more.

They stopped following him. And Jesus said to the twelve, do you want to go away also? Simon Peter answered him and said, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. Also, we've come to believe and to know that you are the Christ, the Son of the living God. Here we see again that belief, that faith, that enabled action. Because of that faith and belief, they could get up when he got up and continue following him. Let's consider another story in which Jesus, I think, deliberately took an opportunity to show that he intends his people to take abstract ideas or concepts and turn them into action.

We can find this in Luke chapter 5. Luke 5 beginning in verse 17. Luke 5. So now it happened on a certain day, as he was teaching, that as Jesus was teaching, that there were Pharisees and teachers of the law sitting by who'd come out of every town of Galilee, Judea and Jerusalem, and the power of the Lord was present to heal them. So people were crowded into his house, and he was healing people who had need.

Then, behold, men brought on a bed a man who was paralyzed, whom they sought to bring and lay before him. So this fellow couldn't walk on his own. They had him on what we might call a stretcher or a cot. They wanted to bring him in, and they could not find how they might bring him in because of the crowd.

So they went up on the housetop, and they were able to get up on the housetop. A lot of roofs then, you know, the buildings were flat and apparently had tiling laying across beams, and they were able to remove the tiles to expose the beams.

They broke up the roof, it says in another account, they went up on the housetop and let him down in his bed through the tiling into the midst before Jesus. I always pause and think, I can imagine, if this case like this I'm sitting here talking, if somebody suddenly started lowering from the ceiling, you can imagine the surprise people might have had.

Jesus might not have been that surprised, but when he saw their faith, the faith of the men letting him down and perhaps of the man laying there, he said, man, your sins are forgiven you. And he saw their faith empowered that action. They actually went up on the roof and did the work of taking apart the ceiling tiles to be able to get this man to them. And they said faith motivated them to action. And he said something, you know, powerful, but he wasn't done talking about action. Of course, the scribes and the Pharisees began to reason, saying, who is this who speaks blasphemy?

Who can forgive sins but God alone? When Jesus perceived their thoughts, he answered and said to them, why are you reasoning in your hearts? Which is easier to say? Your sins are forgiven you? Or to say, rise up and walk? And I've wondered, I'm not sure he was probably speaking in either Aramaic or Greek, and I'm not sure which is easier to literally get out of your mouth. But he knew the hassle he was going to get if he said, your sins are forgiven you.

So as far as the reaction, saying, okay, get up and walk would have been much easier. So he explains why he said it. He says, but that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins. So I said it this way, so you know I can forgive sins. And he said to the man who was paralyzed, I say to you, arise, take up your bed and go to your house.

He was making the point, Jesus was, that he could say either one. But the fact of being forgiven and then taking action are supposed to go together. I mean, we could say he wanted to cement that in our minds. When God blesses a person in a particular state of being, like being forgiven or being healed, that should translate then into positive action.

In this case, get up off your bed. You know, he didn't just lay there and luxuriate, oh, I'm healed, I feel so good, I'm going to lay here and just enjoy the feeling. No? He said, get up and go. Use that for something. Let's consider, for example, another example. When Jesus instructed his disciples to do something, that was a lot different than just looking on while he performed miracles. This is only a few pages over in Luke 9. Luke 9 and verse 10. You know, we've read this. It seems like I've been reading this account lately, and some of the other Gospel accounts.

The apostles, when they had returned, of course, told him all that they had done. This is one of the times he sent them out on a mission, and we'll actually pick up some of that later. They came back and said, oh, Jesus, all these things we've done. And he took them aside privately to a deserted place, belonging to the city called Bessedah. So let's go away somewhere where we can get some rest. You've been out doing all this work, and people have been crowding around. But when the multitude knew it, they followed him.

So he's going away to get away from the crowd, and the crowd comes with him anyways. And he received them. He spoke to them about the kingdom of God, and healed those who had need of healing. Jesus was a very compassionate person. When he saw those people in need, he didn't say, look, we need a break. Get out of here. I'll heal you later. He healed those who had need. And when the day began to wear away, the twelve came to him. And they said, send the multitude away, that they may go into the surrounding towns and country and lodge, and get provisions.

For we're in a deserted place here. You know, we're out here, it's deserted, it's a wilderness. These people are going to need food. They had a plan for how to accomplish the need. Disperse the crowd. Let them go fend for themselves. And I don't think they meant that in a bad way, because as we're going to see, you know, they didn't have the means to feed them.

But Jesus said something different. In verse 13, he said to them, you give them something to eat. So I was like, you give them something to eat. And they said, well, we have no more than five loaves and two fish. So we can't feed all these people unless we go and buy food for all these people. And I can see the logic in that. They're probably thinking, by the time we go and get food for all these people and bring it back, they could have fed themselves on their own a lot more quickly and easily. Plus, when you find out there are about 5,000 people, actually, I hadn't done the calculation this morning.

Leo Sancho told me he likes numbers. He got out of calculations and said, you know, if each person ate about a half a pound of fish and maybe a pound of bread, that'd be several hundred pounds of food that would have had to be trucked in. No wonder they said, send them away.

How are we going to go buy food for all these people? Well, Jesus knew that he was going to have to work a miracle. I suspect he knew it right from the start. Maybe he wanted to see what their thinking was, or maybe he wanted to set it up so they'd work through all the details and knew so that when he did work a miracle, they would realize how profound a miracle it was.

But he would have them do their part. Okay, I lost my place here. In verse 14, there were about 5,000 men, and he said to his disciples, make them sit down in groups of 50. And they did so and made them sit down.

Now, that sounds pretty easy when you just read. Make them sit down in groups of 50, and they did so. But I just spent a week with a little less than 200 people living in a campground, and to organize 200 people to do something in an organized way is a job.

And I had a similar experience last fall in Cincinnati. We had about 300 and some people. Or was it more like... Was it a bigger number in Cincinnati? Well, anyways, a few hundred people to get organized, it takes work.

It's effort. Imagine 5,000 and do it right now quickly. So they had to take action. They had to communicate. They probably had to direct and point. And then Jesus did the one part that only he could do.

He took the five loaves and the two fish, looking up to heaven. He blessed and broke them and gave to the disciples to set before the multitude. So they all ate and were filled, and 12 baskets of the leftover fragments were taken up by them. They didn't just watch Jesus bless the food and then it just magically appeared in people's hands. He blessed it, handed it to them. Then they had to start moving around. How many groups of 50... Does it take to make 5,000?

Actually, I should know that. That's about, what, 100? Yeah. So there's 100 different groups that they've got to bring food into. They've got to pass it around, pick up the basket, move to the next one, gather up the fragments. The apostles were busy working that whole time.

And I always wonder, when did the multiplication take place? And this is just speculation. I don't think Jesus blessed and broke it, and suddenly there were several hundred pounds of bread and fish around him. I can imagine they're taking it over, and as people are passing it around, the basket keeps not being empty. But they still, as I said, the disciples are busy moving around the crowd, giving direction, perhaps having to recruit help. Getting someone else to help you do work is a lot more work than doing it yourself. There is action involved, and it was a busy time for them.

And we start to see a pattern here of Jesus instituting direction and then that interpreting into action based on faith. Before I move on, though, to some of the wider applications, I want to read one more story of Jesus instructing his disciples. If you'll go over to Matthew 10. Matthew 10 will begin in the first verse. This is actually the beginning of the story that I picked up the end of earlier in the different Gospel accounts. It says, When he had called his twelve disciples to him, he gave them power over unclean spirits, to cast them out, to heal all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease.

Now, I'll skip the few verses here where it lists all the apostles by name and pick up again in verse 5. Then, these twelve Jesus sent out and commanded them, saying, Do not go in the way of the Gentiles, do not enter a city of the Samaritans. Okay, so there are some things he told them not to do, but then he says, But go, rather, to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

And as you go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons. Freely you have received, freely give. Now, he goes on to instruct them some things I'm not going to read because they're outside of the parameters that I wanted to discuss today. But he says they're going to suffer the same type of persecution and criticism that he did. And he also goes into a prophecy of down through the ages of how those who are fulfilling that mission would likewise suffer persecution, but also obtain great reward for serving God. But for now, I want to point out the positive actions that Jesus commanded.

He told them, Go, preach, heal, give. Now, we're looking at a specific episode in his earthly ministry. They did, as he told them to do, and as we just read over in Luke, when they'd done that for a while, they returned, and then what did they do? They continued following him. So they went and did that, came back, followed him for more instruction, and went where he went.

Later on, Jesus would give similar instructions, and at that time he would tell them, Go out now and keep doing this. Fulfill a mission. When he would tell them next time to go out and preach the gospel and heal the sick, he wouldn't put an end date.

He wouldn't have a meeting place for later on. And they would not only keep doing that mission for the rest of their lives, they would pass it on to others.

And it would go on through the ages, all the way down to us today. And that's where I finally, I do want to make that turn in our discussion, to consider how Jesus' instructions to action apply to us. It's like a magic trick. Now, I purposely avoided in these examples so far of discussing how they do or don't apply in our lives today. Because I wanted to save it up.

I wanted to first show that as I say, let me say that again. At first, I wanted to show that Jesus had a mind bent towards action. And I don't think that's a bad thing. It's easy to see both in what he did and what he told others. He was a man of action. And he gave people direction to action. That's not to say that he wasn't a man of thought, also.

He's one who could go up in a mountain and pray all night. So he wasn't up there doing jumping jacks and push-ups. So action when action is called for, contemplation, thinking, perhaps writing at other times.

But if he was one prone to action when action is called for in his ministry, that's something for us to consider. That must be a good trait. It's something for us to emulate and strive for in our lives. It's not hard to find parallels in his positive instruction to his followers for our lives today. Matter of fact, even if we didn't find it passed on and those commands repeated, I think, considering the fact that the parables and the examples of the stories, in many cases, are timeless. The principles apply through the ages. But we'll see, a lot of times, those commands and instructions passed on and repeated in a way that we know they must apply to us. So let's look at some of those. Some of those we can consider that Christ was telling people then, but we can see that as marching orders for us today.

I'll cite some scriptures that you know first. We already read Mark's account, Mark 1, 14, and 15. Jesus came preaching the Gospel, saying the time was fulfilled, the kingdom of God is at hand, repent and believe the Gospel. Now, he must have said that to a group of people literally listening to his voice with their own ears, but we'll find that instruction passed on.

We've recently looked at the beginning of the New Testament Church, and we know that in that case the Holy Spirit came down and they started speaking tongues. A crowd came in and Peter gave a powerful sermon. And after he did that, people were convicted and they said, well, what do we do? Peter said what Jesus had said, repent. And of course he added, be baptized for the remission of your sins and you'll receive the Holy Spirit.

When he said, repent, he meant the same thing that we read in Ezekiel earlier. It was true many years later when Peter said it, true down through the ages. That turning, changing. So they said it's not just coming up and stopping, but it's a turning away, a course correction, a new life. Let's read how Paul described it in 2 Corinthians 7, and we'll begin in verse 8.

I like this passage of Scripture not only because it shows a contrast between the feeling of repentance. Because it's easy to think of that. You feel bad, you have regret, remorse, but look at the action. And of course, Paul set him up for that. We know he wrote to the church at Corinth, or the congregation in Corinth, and it was a large congregation of a very, a lot of zealous people with a lot of talents, a lot of spiritual gifts, but also some problems and shortcomings. And you read all through 1 Corinthians, and Paul is correcting them, correcting them, correcting them. You know, you're doing this wrong, you've got to change that. But then the nice thing is they took that to heart, and they changed. They did what Ezekiel 18 says. They turned and went a different way. And Paul now will congratulate them on that. 2 Corinthians 7, verse 8. He says, Even if I made you sorry, I made you feel bad with my letter, I don't regret it, though I did regret it.

In other words, I'm not sorry that I did it, although I was, I felt bad. For I perceive that the same epistle made you sorry, though only for a while. Now I rejoice, not that you were made sorry, but that your sorrow led to repentance. So he separates those two. I don't care that you felt sorry, I'm glad that it made you change, you repented. For you were made sorry in a godly manner, that you might suffer loss from us in nothing. And godly sorrow produces repentance. So that feeling produces action, leading to salvation not to be regretted. But the sorrow of the world produces death, of course, because it doesn't lead to change. For observe this very thing, that you sorrowed in a godly manner. What diligence it produced in you, what clearing of yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what vehement desire, what zeal, what vindication. I lost my page. And all things you proved yourself to be clear in this matter. It's hard to read that. If you want to read it out loud, you start getting stirred up in that feeling that Paul wanted to convey. He doesn't describe their specific actions, but he says they didn't just sit and feel bad. They proved themselves. They cleared their names. They must have actually made changes. I'm sure those changes were part of things they did do. Things they did and things they stopped doing. And again, I'm going to leave the subject of repentance, because this is enough for a group that's looked at it quite a bit. And I want to look at some other examples of positive direction. As I said, you may recall Jesus, along with repent, said, believe. Repent and believe the gospel. And I want to make a point, again, the point that faith is a great motivating factor. It empowers action. One of the best explanations for that that we can find is in James 2, if you'll join me there. This is one of the sections of Scripture that I feel like I'm visiting a long-lost home or something. I'm not sure if that's the way to say it, but I've mentioned many times my grandmother was first called into God's church in the late 60s, and she started teaching my sister and I. And this is one of the earliest passages I remember her discussing with us. Perhaps because what Paul is saying here differs so much from what traditional Protestantism teaches. And I think it's one of the best expressions of how faith motivates to action. James 2 and verse 14, What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? That is, action, doing something. Can faith save him? If a brother or sister is naked in destitute of daily food, and one of you says, Depart in peace, be warmed and filled, but you don't give him the things that are needed for the body? What is it profit? What good is that? Thus also, faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. Someone will say, well, you have faith, I have works. Show me your faith without your works. I'll show you my faith by my works. And he's not saying that works build faith, but he's saying if you have real faith, it comes out in works, in action.

You believe that there's one God? You do well. Even the demons believe and tremble. The problem with the demons, that's the only action they take is the trembling. They don't actually do what God says to do. But do you want to know, oh foolish man, faith without works is dead? That's a powerful statement. And it makes sense. As I said, that's been a motivating factor for us in the church for years, that faith motivates us to do things. We observe God's Sabbath. We obey His law. It motivates us to stop doing things we shouldn't do. James goes on to mention some specific examples of action taken by Abraham and Rahab that I'm not going to read. It's interesting, there are times in life where there's a unique action. Abraham was told, take your son Isaac and go to this mountain and get ready to sacrifice him. I don't think any of us are going to have that particular action come up. We could have a unique action in our life. I always think if something like that happens, God will let me know. For me, and for you, for you, if there's a specific thing. But there are some general actions that are mentioned that seem to encompass all Christians that could at any time. We see these mirror what Christ said. Remember when Jesus talked to His disciples when that multitude was there, He said, You give them something to eat. So Jesus told the 12, You give those people something to eat. But here, James is saying, you Christians, if you see someone in need, take action. Do something about it. Don't just wish them well. Don't just pray to God that He'll provide. Because maybe somebody was already doing that, and so God sent you. And I'm not saying you, maybe He sent me. Because that's my likelihood. Oh boy, I sure hope God helps them. I said, wait a minute, Frank, God might have let you know the situation because He wants you to be the one that helps them. You know, if we have brethren who are poorly clothed or hungry, sometimes we need to give them food or clothes. And I'm glad I've got a different color ink here to remind me, though God still doesn't want us to give to the point where we make ourselves destitute. He never says, okay, give away all that you have so that somebody else has to come along and provide for you because you're the one that's naked in destitute. You know, that's not what God wants. And we've heard that message is leading up to Holy Day offerings a number of times. So it's not a new principle, but I think it's worth noting. And of course, God explained, God, through Paul, explained that a little bit later, not later from where we are, but where we were. Back in 2 Corinthians 8. Caffeine's kicking in. I'm talking fast again. 2 Corinthians 8 and verse 13, if you'll join me there.

I think this fits perfectly. And keep in mind, in this section, Paul is not describing a Holy Day offering, though we sometimes read this at those times. This is a situation where there was a famine and the people of Jerusalem were kind of going without. They were poor. There hadn't been good crops. So the people out in Corinth, you know, in Asia Minor, they had good crops. So they were sending food and perhaps money to help feed those hungry people. But Paul gives them some warning. He said, I don't mean that others should be eased and you burdened, so don't give away so much that you're going hungry, but by inequality. That now, at this time, your abundance may supply their lack, and their abundance may supply your lack. That there may be equality. Now, Paul was not a spouse in communism here. He wasn't saying everybody has to be completely equal in all things at all times. But he was making the point that sometimes God gives one person or group of people more than they need of something. And they can share it with others. And when he says they might, by their abundance, what did they have over an abundance in Jerusalem? Well, in that particular time, they had an overabundance of trained ministers. You know, they had a lot of people who had heard Jesus teach, had come into church early, so they were sending men out, like Paul and Barnabas and Silas. So they were sharing their spiritual overabundance. And the people in Corinth had a physical overabundance of food that they could send back. So, you know, it was a way of helping out. Of course, if we look across the page, we'll see some other principles in giving. 2 Corinthians 9 and verse 6, Interesting, that work word comes back in again. Action. God will provide what you need, and he wants you to use it for action. Put it to work. Use it for something. Let's notice another time, on a similar theme, when Jesus told a particular person to take action. It's in Luke chapter 18. Luke 18, beginning in verse 18.

It's a certain ruler asked him, that is Jesus, Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? Jesus corrected him on something right off. He said, No one is good, but one, that is God. But you know the commandments. Do not commit adultery. Do not commit murder. Do not steal. Do not bear false witness. Honor your father and your mother. We recognize several of the Ten Commandments here. And once again, several of them are, Thou shalt not stop doing those things. And the fellow says, All these things I've kept from my youth. Jesus heard these things. He said, You still lack one thing.

Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you'll have treasure in heaven. And come, follow me. Isn't that what he said to Peter and Andrew when he was walking by the seashore, a direct command for action? And he proceeded with one, a bigger one. Sell what you have and give to the poor. When he heard it, that is the man that asked the question, he became very sorrowful, for he was very rich.

And of course, Jesus, what he saw was sorrowful. How hard is it for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God? It's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. And he said, well, who can be saved then? Well, with God, all things are possible. And that's going on to a different thing. I want to make the point that not doing the bad things was a start. Then going to do positive action, doing good things was a continuation. Now, this young man was rich.

Jesus didn't command all people everywhere to give away everything that they have. So I'm not espousing all of you, go home and have a big garage sale, and then distribute everything you have to the poor, because guess who then is going to be poor? But this man was rich, and Jesus said, you know, you're doing okay in what you're not doing, but there's something you can do.

And then Jesus said, follow me. Now, we'll talk more about that in a moment, how we can put that into practice. But I want to note that our willingness to help and give others is a big obligation. In Galatians 6 and verse 10, we see a guiding principle. We should be willing to give and help, to give to and to help anyone that has a need.

But God does give us a priority on those who are brethren, that He's called out. When I was an ambassador to college, I was a participant in a program called Outreach, basically where students would help people in the community. And it consisted sometimes of going to mow in someone's lawn. We did a lot of just visiting elderly people. And we would help anyone, but this was our motto of Scripture. It says, therefore, as we have an opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith.

So do good to all, but especially those of the household of faith. And also, as you have opportunity. Jesus said a good example in that, in a way. You know, He produced enough food to feed 5,000 people. But He didn't produce enough food to end famine throughout the planet. He fed those who were right there, as He had opportunity. So sometimes we help the people that we see. It's not a mission for us to sell everything that we have and distribute it to the whole world. Now, if God gave me the ability to suddenly produce food from nothing, I might see that in a different manner, but, you know, of course, Jesus had a different mission in life.

He also, though, as I said, among those 5,000 people, probably most of them were not converted Christians. He fed them no matter what their state, whether they were skeptics, Pharisees, whatever. So He fed as He had opportunity, but, you know, especially the household of faith, but others there also. And it's good to keep in mind sometimes when we talk about these kind of things. Deuteronomy 15.11 reminds us that they'll never stop being poor in the land. God told that to ancient Israel. Let's come back to the fact that several times Jesus told disciples to follow Him.

We can't follow in the same way they did. As I pointed out, they literally got up and walked the way He walked. But Paul, the Apostle Paul, gives us a good example of what we can do.

1 Corinthians 11.1, I'll recite it to you because it's so brief. It says, follow me as I follow Christ. Or the New King James says, imitate me as I imitate Christ.

I appreciate it actually at camp. A couple of times I heard Mr. Martin talk about how the Greek implies not follow behind me as I'm following behind Christ like ducks in a row, but come along with me as I follow Christ.

Like, we'll do this together. You know, it's not that I'm up here and you're down there following me, but we're all following Christ. We're imitating Him. Imitate Christ. Now, imitate might sound like an ambiguous command, but we've looked at so many clear-cut instructions for taking action. So if we want to imitate Jesus Christ, that means do the actions that He would do. And not the actions that He necessarily did. I don't think any of us have to book a flight to Jerusalem and walk along the roads and stop by a well and chat to a woman and explain to her about the well, you know, living waters.

But we want to do act the way Jesus would in our life. There's a saying that's almost... well, not almost cliche. It is cliche. You've seen the initials put on people's bracelets that say, WWJD. What would Jesus do? Maybe this cliche could even seem corny because it's overused, but it's accurate. If in any situation we could imagine what would Jesus do in this situation, that's a good direction for us to know what action to take.

Yeah, I don't know. This doesn't really bear on... well, it bears on the sermon only because of the mention. I saw someone wearing a t-shirt that had the initials WWJD and underneath it said, what would Johnny Cash do? Now, I know Johnny got religion later in his life, so there might be a number of occasions where Johnny Cash and Jesus would do the same thing. But if and when there's a difference, of course, I'd say do what Jesus would do, and not what Johnny would do. I'm glad at least I got a chuckle out of that. I thought it was amusing. Let's add another important dimension to this in John 13. John 13 and verse 15. I'm sure most of you, as soon as I say John 13, this chapter is known for one thing primarily. I'm going to pick up after that action in verse 13 when Jesus does some explanation.

In verse 13, Jesus says, If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them. Once again, do its action. And of course, we know, we glance across the page, you'll see that he told them this after he'd gotten down on his hands and knees and literally washed their feet.

He performed an action normally done by the lowest servant of the household. Now, we directly follow this example once a year as part of the Passover ceremony. Because he said to do it, and that's when he did it. But we don't get an opportunity much to do that out in life, do we? I mean, if you leave here and go over someplace in Portsmouth, you know, it's funny, I said this in the morning, we were in the hotel, you know, where we had the meeting room in Prestonburg, he said, go out to the breakfast area and try to wash someone's feet and see what reaction you get.

You can't do it very literally, but we talk about having a foot-washing attitude, being willing to do the service that's called for, not saying, I'm too good for that, but being willing to serve, doing what Jesus would do, imitating him. But then there's the question, how do we know? How do we know what Jesus would do? Now, we live in a different society, as I said, you know, we can't go wash people's feet unless they invite us to, so how do we know which action to take? Well, by answer, I'll say there are two actions that we can take on a daily basis that will show us.

One is look to God's Word. I'll cite Matthew 4 and verse 4, where Christ said, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. We have God's Word in the form of the Bible. We also can apply what Christ, what Paul wrote to Timothy. In 2 Timothy 2.15, he told him, Study to show yourself approved, rightly dividing the word of truth.

So if we're putting our nose in this book, we're studying God's Word, we're reading what he said, reading about what he did, we'll get to know his ways, his personality. I guess I've been caught up in that lately, just interesting, looking at personalities and what they were like, and when you see some of the things Jesus Christ did, you start imagining, okay, if he were here, this might be what he would do. Of course, the other thing we can add to that is ask.

Talk to God, pray, and say, well, what should I do? Luke 21.36, Jesus said, Watch and pray always. Here's two basic commands, action verbs. Watching is a whole different sermon, and it occurred to me when I said that this morning. I haven't spoke on that that much lately, and I probably should come around and discuss that more. But, pray always. Again, the Apostle Paul reminds us that it wasn't just Jesus saying that to the twelve, it applies to everyone. In 1 Thessalonians 5.17, Paul said, Pray without ceasing. I remember reading that when I was younger, saying, Does that mean I have to always be praying?

Like walking around, muttering under your breath, because when praying to God, I don't want to stop, but I might have to stop and say hi to someone. No, it means don't ever cease being a person who prays. Pray continually, but not continuously, meaning you can end a prayer, you can say Amen, but be the type of person that is always going to pray again. Pray every day, hopefully several times a day. If we're praying regularly, reading the Bible, we're getting in touch with God.

As I said, you can ask Him, What do I do in a situation like this? I can tell you, a week ago I was doing that a lot. When you've got a lot of teenagers and young adults that you're the highest authority there, and I'm not Mr. Know-it-all, or have I might seem like a know-it-all, but there are a lot of cases I'd go on my knees and say, God, please tell me what to do now.

Inevitably, I would get an answer. Now, He didn't speak to me by voice, but sometimes someone would come along and say, Hey, what about this? Or I would go to an experienced person and say, Hey, we've got this situation coming up, got any ideas? I would always get an answer, sometimes even in the most tough situations. As I said, we study God's Word and pray to Him, we'll get to know Him. We'll have a pretty good idea of what God would do, and that'll tell us a pretty good idea of what we should do.

I want to pause, because we've looked at a lot of examples of specifics that Christ said to do to His disciples, and we've looked at translations to us. I want to look at another instance that is important for us to keep in mind, and it's a little different from the ordinary Christian living type thing. We'll turn to Mark 16, verse 15. I wanted to find one of the most succinct scriptures I could on this. As I said, Jesus could say things very succinctly and powerfully when He needed to. This is, of course, after His resurrection, He appears to the disciples, and Mark 16, verse 15, it says, And He said to them, Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.

That's a pretty strong call to action. Go to all the world and preach the gospel. Okay, we've got a responsibility. As I said, I think this was one that Jesus knew. It wasn't like when He sent Him out by twos and said, Go, preach, heal the sick, cast out demons, and then meet me at such and such place, and we'll go up to the mountain and have a rest. Here is like, for the rest of your lives, go and preach the gospel.

And we see the Apostle Paul told Timothy, Commit these truths to other men who will be able to pass them on and teach others also. One of our missions is, the things that we've learned teach the younger generations, not just so they'll know them, but so they'll teach the ones after them, and they'll teach the ones after them. That's why we're here. But we don't all stand on street corners and shout at passers-by. As I said, what would Jesus do? We have to interpret to our society. You know, we don't walk up to the well and say, Give me a drink, and I'll give you a living water. But, you know, we have a responsibility. As I said, we don't all produce our own TV show or radio program or print a magazine, but we all can support a group that's doing that, and I think we all do.

We're all part of that preaching the gospel. And over the years in the church, we've identified a couple of powerful ways that we can also preach the gospel more individually. If we look at Matthew 5, in verse 16, I'm going to break into the Sermon on the Mount just to bring out this one point. I'm not sure if I should say that, so you don't break into the Sermon on the Mount. Break into an account of it.

If I were there when Jesus was speaking, I'm sure I wouldn't say, Excuse me! Matthew 5, 17, he says, Oh, Matthew 5, 16, sorry. Matthew 5, 16, Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, once again, works, action, and glorify your Father in heaven. Let your light shine. Now, he's not talking about the flashlight in your pocket. He means be an example. Earlier, he talked about how his followers were the light of the world. And he said, You're the light of the world, and a light's not meant to be put under a basket, but you put it on a lampstand, and it lights up the whole house.

And he says, When you're doing that, people will see it and glorify God. And the Apostle Paul adds something to it. No, not Paul, Peter. In 1 Peter 3, 15, he said, Be ready to give an answer to everyone that asked you a reason of the hope in you. Because when you're doing those things, people will glorify God, and they might even get curious.

And you might say, Well, I'm not preaching the gospel if I'm just doing stuff. But remember that poem, and I'm not going to recite all of it. I didn't write it down, but the famous line says, I'd rather see a sermon than hear one any day. A lot of people will see a sermon in your actions if you're letting your light shine. I should say, if we're letting our light shine.

You guys hear me speak sermons all the time, but I come in contact with a lot of people who never would want to hear me preach, but hopefully I'm letting light shine. I hope that I am. And I hope all of us are. And when people do that, they'll glorify God. They might see you, and you never know it, but they'll say, There's a good person.

That person's got it together. And on occasion, they might ask you, Hey, how come you are this way? Why are you happy? Why are you successful? Or, you know, why aren't you down when things aren't so good? And Peter says, Be ready to give an answer. People might ask, Now, being ready isn't a particularly strong active verb.

If I pull out the ball, being ready is like it's just sitting there. It's not an action. Okay, being ready is an active verb. But, you know what? Getting ready is. If you're not already ready, then you need to get ready. A minister in the church for years said this in a mandate he wrote to the church, which I'm sure most of you will recognize when he said, Prepare to Teach.

Prepare to Teach. Do we still think in those terms? That takes action. That takes study. It takes prayer. It could even take practice. I say that because I remember when I started teaching history, I realized how much I didn't know, or how prepared I was not. That's not very good grammar, but... I've been studying American history for years, but when I was told, Here's your class, you're going to have to go in and teach.

I had to organize my thoughts, and I had to be prepared, and I knew it better than ever once I had to prepare. God's truth can be the same way. Even if you don't regularly get up and speak, have you ever thought about writing a little outline, or writing lessons, writing maybe letters to your friends or family to prepare to teach?

You might not ever send it or get to use it, but it's practice. It's preparing. That's action. And as I said, I think these things interrelate. Christianity is not just a bunch of thou shalt nots. It's a religion of action. As Christians, we're called to be people of action.

I wrote in my notes, have I made too much of this? I don't think so. If God designed and created our bodies for action, and according to Michelle Obama, he certainly did, we need to be up in action. We're encouraging our children to get up and play an hour every day. And that's a minimum. Believe me in my house, and there are times when we're encouraging the opposite. It's like, well, you sit still. I'm sure most of you have experienced that.

Jesus Christ encouraged his followers to take action. And I think that comes down to us. He encourages us. He commands us to do certain things. And it's not hard to sum it up, which is good, because I've only got half a page for my summary. We need to change ourselves. The other way of saying that is repent. We need to follow Jesus. Do what he would do. And if we're going to know what he would do, we've got to study. We have to pray. Those are active. We need to be an active part of the work of preaching the Gospel, both supporting the media efforts that are done, but also in shining our light and preparing to teach.

When we're doing that, one thing we won't only be preparing for teaching in this world, we'll be preparing for our role in God's kingdom. Because when Christ comes back, he's going to have a lot for us to do.