Carrubbers
Christian Centre
God wants us to glorify Him whatever we are doing
How can you make a difference for Christ?
You are awake for roughly 120 hours in a week. You might spend between 5-10 hours in organised Christian activities. But how does God want you to live and work for Him in the other 110 hours of your week? I'm sorry that sometimes we give the wrong impression that the best thing you can do for God with your life is work in a church or as a missionary overseas.
You can make a difference for God in the very ordinary things you do in your daily life. Let me tell you a true story about a teenage girl. We don't know her name, but she lived in the 8th century BC in a war zone. One day an enemy raiding party kidnapped her, stealing her away from her friends and family. She was made a slave for the commander of the enemy's army. She was in the wrong place, working for the wrong people, and didn't have many good prospects lying ahead of her. She wanted to be anywhere else than here doing this job for this man. However, while her master Naaman was mighty in battle he was also a leper. This girl didn't gloat over her unwell master, or wish him ill. Rather she prayed and worked to bless him! She believed that the God of Israel is a God of grace, even for this enemy Gentile. So she said one sentence to him that changed his life: "Would that my lord were with the prophet who is in Samaria. He would cure him of his leprosy" (2 Kings 5:3). Naaman went to see Elisha and was healed. He became a believer in the one true Living God: "Now I know there is no God but the God of Israel" (2 Kings 5:5) - and the whole enemy nation learned that the God of Israel is greater than any of their idols! One young slave girl made a huge impact for God and his kingdom. She simply and faithfully made a difference for God where she was. God used her to produce much good fruit for His glory!
How does God want you to live and work for Him in your daily life? God wants us to bear much good fruit for Him...
Your tutorial groups, year groups, workplaces, teams, families, neighbours these are the places we naturally connect with non-Christians - who are increasing disconnected with the church. These are our FRONTLINES, where God has placed us and wants us to bear fruit for Him in the world.
There are many ways of being fruitful for God in the world. Mark Greene suggests there are 6M's for being fruitful for God:
Godly character is being made more into the likeness of Christ by the Holy Spirit. It is expressed in what we do and how we do it. It is about exhibiting the fruit of the Holy Spirit and putting to death sin in the midst of the realities of daily life, in its ups and downs (Galatians 5:15-25).
God cares about our daily lives and work, which matters to him, and so we can invite Him into and to help us in our ordinary tasks. Work was created good by God but has been frustrated by sin. Work is service, serving God as we serve others (Colossians 3:23-24). In some way it involves contributing to human flourishing, bringing order, joy, beauty or provision into the world. Since work is service, the quality of work can be measured by the quality of our love (the difference between being served by a kind or unkind waiter/waitress).
While our work is what we have to do, love involves doing what we don't have to do - going beyond what you have been asked. Taking the time to bless people. Doing little things and taking advantage of chance encounters to love and serve people. Sometimes putting ourselves to inconvenience for the sake of others. Being Good Samaritans. Being generous in living and forgiving people.
Culture has been described as "the way we do things around here" - every community, church, team, workplace, family has its own culture - a set of values and behaviours. Every culture has good and bad things in it - and every culture is judged on the basis of God's values of His kingdom (loving, honouring, serving God and others). Christians should not simply behave like everyone around them (Romans 12:2) but rather can start to change things by influencing a culture in the small contributions they make as salt and light (Matthew 5:13-15). You can change opportunities to inject God's values into your workplace - e.g. putting the interests of others before your own...affirming others...apologising when mistaken. The prayers and actions of Christians in the workplace can change things: "Your kingdom come, your will be done, in my friendships, in my family, in my class, in my workplace, in my sports team as it is in heaven".
Fair dealing, right living, opposing falsehood, opposing injustice, advocating for others. Modelling integrity in dealings and making suggestions informed by biblical wisdom.
Most of the M's is about showing the gospel - demonstrating the difference Jesus makes in our lives and serving others to win a hearing for the gospel. However, showing the gospel does not save - we must also be intentionally seeking to be telling the gospel - speaking of Jesus and how He is the one who has made the difference in our lives because of what He has done in the gospel. Don't be a signpost that points nowhere. God is at work by His Spirit, we just need to be intentional and appropriate as we seek opportunities to advance His work in peoples' lives.
Intentionality can look like:
Let's finish with another true story of a young man, also kidnapped in a time of war. Daniel was taken to Babylon in 605BC. He wound up studying at Babylon university and working for the Babylonian civil service. Daniel's heart was back in Jerusalem, which he prayed facing the Temple 3x a day everyday in Babylon. However, Daniel also recognised that God had placed him in Babylon to make a difference. He didn't change the world but did make a positive difference in Babylon.
You CAN make a difference for God where you are in your ordinary daily tasks. The question is will you seek to bear much fruit to bring glory to God in those places?
