I’m not sure why, but reading this verse today reminded me of that sermon. Matthew 10:16 reads: “Look, I am sending you out as sheep among wolves. So be as shrewd as snakes and harmless as doves.” When I read this, what I believe we are being told is that in this world there’s going to be attacks from all sides. Attacks will even come from within your inner circles. From your family and friends. Sometimes intentionally. Sometimes unintentionally. Wherever they come from, whether they were on purpose or not, attacks are going to come. How we respond is important.

So let’s stop being comfortable. Let’s get out of our comfort zones and go do God’s work. Stand up for God. Stand up for grace. Stand up for the Holy Spirit. Stand up for what took place on the cross 2000 years ago. And let’s do this out of love. Here’s something for us to remember. Let’s do what we can. And God will do what we cannot. Read that again. Let it sink in. God will do what we cannot. Let’s get off the sidelines. Saying we have faith is not nearly enough. Let’s put our faith into action. The Bible tells us that even demons believe. Demons believe in God! And we are definitely in a battle with them. Against them. James 2:19–20 reads: “You say you have faith, for you believe that there is one God. Good for you! Even the demons believe this, and they tremble in terror. How foolish! Can’t you see that faith without good deeds is useless?” ‭‭So let’s go to work sharing the hope. Sharing the hope that only comes from Jesus. That is what we are called to do. So let’s do it. 

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With knowing that, we begin to realize that our true strength comes from the hope and grace that only God can give. The Bible tells us that we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. That does not mean that we can do all things. What that is telling us is that no matter what we are going through, we can get through it with Christ in our lives. He will be with us as we “face” what we are facing. The Bible also tells us that his grace is all that we need. That means that his grace will give us the strength to “face” what we are going through.

Don’t let this be discouraging. It’s incredible to know that God uses us in our weakest moments to show everyone his glory. He uses us as examples. As amazing as the feats of strength are that I mentioned a minute ago, I am more blown away by watching people handle deadly diseases, gut-wrenching heartache, and other situations that do not end the way they hoped for. Watching them continue to praise and worship. Watching them turn towards and show the hope that comes through the grace they received. And that is the strength that we’re talking about. The strength that we are given through Christ. Amazing! But you need to remember, you need to invite him in. You need to turn to him. Seek him. The key to this is believing that he is on our Lord and Savior. That’s it. Belief. Our Lord and Savior will provide us with what we need. When we need it. Because he loves us. Always has. Always will.

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I have made that trip around the sun many times now. Unfortunately, I have trusted myself and placed my hope in my own workings far too often. We live in a world where a man’s value is placed on his wallet and his conquests. His successes and his failures determine his worth. What he achieves determines how high on the “wall of fame” he gets placed. There’s nothing wrong with trusting ourselves, working to make a good living, and to be successful in the eyes of others. The problem is when we allow those to be our driving force. THE DRIVING FORCE.

God wants us to live well. He wants us to be successful. He wants us to motivate others. But he wants us to do that with him being the driving force. THE DRIVING FORCE. Our hope is to be in him. Our guidance should come from him. Our achievements should be through him. When we prioritize our lives like that, we live for his glory. And all the while showing others that God should be first in all that we do. He should be first in our personal lives and our public lives. He should be where we place our hope. He should be THE place where we place our hope. He should be first because he loves us. Always has. Always will.

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Truth is…God is for us. God loves us. God believes in us. Song lyrics tell us: “If God is for us, then who can ever stand against us.” Remembering this daily is the key. Believe me, I am totally aware that can be easier said than done. But there are ways to help us remember. Ways for us to walk with him daily. For example, reading the Bible daily gives us the words we need. Fellowship with people who hold us accountable out of love. What we listen to, watch, read, etc. All tools to help us build the belief that God is for us.

When we truly believe that God is for us, we know there is hope. Although we live in a world of fear, we have the strength to get through the fear. We know that God is our foundation. He is our love. Each day, strive to believe that God is for us, including you. And that means that nothing will stand against you. Nothing! What happened on the cross 2000 years ago should be the only proof that we need. Dying for us shows us that. Read that again. Our Lord and Savior died for us. Therefore, he won’t let anything stand against us. God has you. Always has. Always will.

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We’re living in an unprecedented time. We have seen diseases, natural disasters, and countries, even continents at war. But those were all generally isolated to certain areas. This virus was global. Some argue that it still is. Either way, life will never be the same as it was prior to 2020. How we interact with one another will never be the same. How we work, play, travel, everything, will never be the same. We are still adjusting to a new normal.

But there’s still the question: Why does God allow bad things to happen? Unfortunately, we live in a world where bad things happen. It’s a part of life. This virus is an example. People want to argue back-and-forth about how it came about. But that’s besides the point. It’s a bad thing that happened. Terrible thing. But as bad as it was, I have seen a lot of good come out of it. I have seen unity that wasn’t there before. I have seen people strive to serve others more than they did before. And more importantly, I have seen people turn to God more than they have before. Now don’t get me wrong. We have a long way to go. But there are definitely glimpses of hope that only come from God. And that’s how I answer the question. Bad things happen, so people will turn to God who is the only true source of hope. So let’s fix our minds on God. Let’s thirst for his love. If we do this, we will see the hope that I’m talking about. To show God’s glory to the world.

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We are to live intentionally striving to serve our Lord and Savior. That might sound impossible. Or we can question how we can do that if we are not a pastor. Or if we’re not on staff at church. Or don’t work in the missions field. Our day-to-day lives (Careers, education, families, etc.) might not be Christ centered. That’s most likely true for majority of us. But, that’s what we are called to do: “Go and make disciples.”

So now…let’s think about our lives. Our purpose. And let’s determine how it aligns with what we’re called to do. I’m certain we can all find ways to better fulfill our heavenly purpose. I truly believe that if we take inventory of what we have in our lives, we can find ways to fulfill this purpose. If you struggle with this, I suggest you pray for guidance and wisdom. And I promise you that God will show you what he wants you to do. I know I’ve challenged us with this repeatedly recently. That’s because I’m challenging myself. We’re in this together. So let’s work together with the same end goal. To show God’s glory to the world.

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As our walks in our faith progress, we begin to learn more that our foundation should be built on Jesus. I don’t just mean the foundation of our faith. I’m talking about the foundations of our lives. Our entire lives. Everything we stand for. Everything we work for. Everything we live for. Everything! When we strive to get to that point, our mission switches from one of self desire to one of serving Jesus. Serving Jesus by serving others.

Our Lord and Savior is the perfect example of what serving others looks like. If you want to be like anyone, it should be Jesus. I love the story about the final night. The night that he bent down to wash feet. Oh what a lesson he was teaching. To truly serve others, we must lower ourselves below them. We must be humble enough to lift them above us. He didn’t wash feet, to simply wash feet. He lowered himself, lifting them up, all with the purpose of teaching them how to truly serve other people. All the while, knowing that tremendous suffering was coming his way. Wow! Let’s copy that. Let’s lower ourselves and lift others up. Through love. And let’s all remember this, God loves us. Always has. Always will.

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Is there someone that you know that does not believe in Jesus. I’m sure there is. Probably a family member. Or a close friend. Maybe someone you work with. When was the last time you talked with them about God? About salvation? Have you ever prayed over them? Have you ever prayed with them? Or has it been a while? Let’s go deeper. I bet there are some of us who have never prayed over someone that was struggling to find God. Who have never prayed with someone who doesn’t know God. I’m sure you get where I’m going with this.

We are called to make disciples. We were saved out of faith. What I mean by that is, we were saved by the grace of God. And it doesn’t stop there. Now…it’s our job to share the love of Jesus with others. I’m not saying you need to go stand on the corner and preach. I’m not saying you need to go door-to-door and preach. What I am saying is, look for opportunities that God is putting in your path. They are there. It may not be comfortable. But that is fine. Share scripture. Start a Bible study at work. Or maybe a prayer group. Play praise music in the background. Post on social media. Ask God to show you a way to serve others. You can find something. You can be the vessel to show the light to others that don’t know him. You might be “the” person who can lead someone to salvation. Think of that family member. That friend. That coworker. That person who doesn’t know Jesus. You might be the only person to ever share with them. Wow! Let that sink in for a minute. And…let’s remember this as well: Sharing Jesus with others, helps keep us from becoming dull. Sharing Jesus with others might be what lights their fires. What lights our fires. How awesome would that be!

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Maybe it’s time for us to intentionally carve out parts of our day to be with God. To be in his presence. To take time and deliberately be still if only for a few moments. Our relationship with him should be priority one. It should be our main focus. It’s easy to lose sight of that in this busy world. But that’s the truth. It should be our focus. When it is, then we will realize and understand the purpose of why we are doing what we are doing. We will keep our eyes on the end goal. Not on the process alone.

If we’re honest with ourselves, we know that we can find a spot for Jesus in everything that we are doing. Whatever it is that has our attention throughout the day, there is room for him. It may take us some time to try to pinpoint it. But it’s there. There’s always room for him. Actually, it should be the other way around. We should find a way to put “what” we are doing into what God has planned for us. Not fitting him into our lives. That’s the wrong way. We need to put our lives in him. Every aspect of our lives. Keeping him the focus. We can find the rest we need. We can be recharged in his presence. Then we can move forward, doing his work, serving others, all the while having Jesus lead us. And that is awesome.

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As we go through this life, we are going to make mistakes. Sometimes our best efforts still result in making mistakes. Success does not come easily all the time. Sometimes at all. I’m a firm believer that we can learn from our mistakes. That we can learn from our “failures”. That we can learn from being held accountable by those around us who love us. And if we do learn from them, we can become stronger. Sharper! Iron sharpens iron!

Whenever a dull blade is sharpened, not only is it more sharp, it is shiny and beautiful. And whenever someone tries to sharpen us, it might hurt some, but we will also become more beautiful. We will shine. Like a transformation. We can be transformed for Christ. We can be more sharp for Christ. Therefore, we can better serve others for Christ. But that requires us to open our hearts to the accountability that others hold us to. And that will help us make our hearts pure. And that is awesome!

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