Whatsoever You Do.....

[00:00:00] This audio sermon is provided by AnabaptistSermons.com and may be freely copied and distributed. You may not sell or edit this sermon. Our prayer is that you would be blessed by this ministry. My heart has been warmed and touched as we have been together this morning. Have you seen God this morning? Did you see Him anywhere? Where was He? What did he look like? What did he do? [00:00:35] Those are just a couple questions that we'll leave. My pen wrote three words this morning, or yesterday. All it wrote was, whatever you do, what more should it have written? Whatever you do is a pretty inclusive statement. You could write a lot of things in there, whatever you do. [00:01:09] Let's pray that the Spirit of God would minister to each of our hearts like some of you have been sharing this morning already, that while we think about the things of God and the ways of God and perhaps how we can help other people know the ways of God, that God speaks to us. That's a blessing. When God speaks to us, then we have something to share. That's our heart this morning, that God would share with each of us, [00:01:42] wherever we're at in life's journey, that he can lead us on, whatever you do. As an introduction to the message, I'm going back to Revelation chapter 2 and chapter 3. We have the message to seven different churches in Asia. I'm not sure if Paul was the founder of all of these or not, but we just want to notice briefly as an introduction here that these seven churches, they were started, they were founded. [00:02:19] To five of these, John gives correction. He says, repent to five of those. That tells me that those churches no longer were where they had been. They needed to make some changes. There's a general law in life. Things left to themselves change. There's a general tendency toward decline. water will always run down [00:02:52] well almost always buildings that aren't maintained deteriorate bodies atrophy at least the muscle tone does and there are other things all you have to do to raise weeds is nothing Somebody preached a message called The Push of the Wilderness. A number of years ago, the first trip to Paraguay that we ever made, [00:03:25] we were back in Neil Beach's cornfield. I had no idea it was a cornfield. He had planted corn, cleared the land as they did at that time, planted corn, and the bushes and the trees were so thick and so tall I know that occasionally you found a corn stalk. He called it a corn field. Something had happened. And that is also true when it comes to the moral status of the Christian life. [00:04:02] Anything left to itself, anything good left to itself, declines if it's not taken care of. We are in a situation where if we are going to go upward, it is going to take commitment, it takes effort, it takes sweat, it takes pain and sacrifice. The seven churches in Asia, I don't know. I hear of a group that's planning to go over there sometime this year and I don't know what the full mission is of their churches, but it would be interesting to know if there's anything left of any of those seven churches. I've heard that there isn't. May it well be that there are some believers there. [00:04:57] Paul, in his letters to the different churches, was, soon after their founding, was giving admonition, correction, and direction. And that's an indication, again, that things need maintenance and effort to even continue on in their original state, let alone growing. Anyway, the contemporary church is another testimony to this same truth. [00:05:28] As a young lad, I went to the first Christian school, as they're called here in our community, the first year that it started. And there we mixed together a variety of church groups in this school. And I would say that the most liberal part of that group look very much like we do today. Maybe not quite, but at least the intermediate part of that group look much like we do today. [00:06:03] Now today, if I go to find my classmates, if we go to a reunion, things are not like they used to be. Perhaps that's enough of an introduction to make it very clear that things left to themselves don't go the right direction. There is that subtle danger of gradual decline. And when there is decline, if you think about drift, it is said that on the Niagara River above the falls, there is a point that is called the point of no return. [00:06:41] When you drift along merrily, casually, in life, on that river, it could be a very nice summer day. You may be hearing the ripples in the water. You may hear a roar in the distance. And if you choose to turn off, there is still that possibility. But there is a point. When you get to that point, it is called the point of no return. The volume, the sheer pressure is too great. [00:07:13] It overcomes the possibility of return. Now, we're not trying to limit God this morning. With God, there is the possibility of return. Even at the 11th hour, the man on the cross repented. But, there is imminent danger. This is what we want to notice. So, having said that, we want to be practical this morning. [00:07:47] Now I want to turn to the book of Luke in chapter 6 and read a few verses, then the book of Hebrews. Luke chapter 6 in verse 43. Jesus said these words, For a good tree bringeth not forth corrupt fruit, neither doth a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. for every tree is known by his own fruit for of thorns men do not gather figs nor of a bramble bush gather they grapes a good man out of the good treasure of his heart [00:08:19] bringeth forth that which is good and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh we are looking at a heart issue here this morning that we want to give notice to, a hard issue. Let's go back to Hebrews, the fourth chapter. In verse 12, that well-known passage that many of us can quote from memory, [00:08:50] where it speaks about the Word of God. Before we read verse 12, we want to notice verse 1. It says here, amongst other similar passages, Let us therefore fear, lest the promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it. Now, this is not a fear-mongering message this morning, I trust. But he is saying here, let's be serious about this thing. [00:09:21] because decline is inevitable where there is not maintenance and cultivation and nourishing and other things that go with growth. Let us therefore fear. Then verse 12. For the word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight, but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do. [00:10:04] So he is saying here that the word of God is living, it is powerful, and it deals with our man, with our person, but it deals deeply with our person, as I understand what he is saying. He says, it discerns the thoughts and intents of the heart. Now God is interested. The Bible is clear that by our words we are justified or condemned. [00:10:35] We are judged by our words. The Bible is clear that we are judged by our deeds. In this passage of scripture, the Bible is equally clear that a man is judged by his motives. Not only what we do, why we do what we do. Now let's remember when we say that for every mile of road there are two miles of ditch. It does not matter today, is it on this side or is it on this side. [00:11:08] But the matter is, the question, the big question, and I thought of maybe making this title much shorter yet this morning and just writing the three letter word, why. Why do I do what I do? Why do I believe what I believe? Why do I feel the way I feel? And it becomes a very important question as we look at this passage here. For the word of God is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart, [00:11:43] and there is nothing hid before God, it says. Everything is naked and open to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do. It is obvious in this scripture that God looks on men's motives and intentions to determine a man's destination even. It is not a matter of just doing the right things, having the right order. The church of Laodicea was a church that considered itself rich and increased with goods. [00:12:18] They had everything going just about the right way. But God saw something deeper than that. He said, you don't know that you are naked and wretched and blind and poor and whatever else he said to them. So we are looking this morning at a heart issue. The heart of this matter that we're looking at is a matter of the heart. The heart of the matter is a matter of the heart. [00:12:49] And we're looking at issues that deal with our way of living, our way of thinking, our culture, and our standards in whatever we do. Whatever you do, he says in 1 Corinthians, the 10th chapter. This is a hard issue. We agree this morning with the statement that what really matters is the heart. But you pray that God can tell us what that means. [00:13:21] That it's really a matter of the heart that matters. But what is a matter of the heart? Proverbs 16 says, All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes. But the Lord weigheth the spirits. You know, man is not a very good judge of himself. I'm not a very good judge of myself. If I do something, I can come up with all kinds of reasons to justify in me what I see wrong in my brother. [00:13:57] Isn't that an interesting thing? That even it happens in parents. They have an issue to deal with with their child. They deal one way, but if the teacher deals with the child, you know, the teacher's in question. That's my child, but you wouldn't tolerate it yourself. What's going on? A man's ways are right in his own eyes, but the Lord weigheth the spirits. Again in Proverbs it says, every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the Lord pondereth the heart. [00:14:34] The real question this morning for me is, what is going on in my heart? What is going on in my mind as I weigh situations, as I deal with them? Why is it that I can get up in church and say, I confess that I have failed, and my brother comes to me in private and he says, brother, I'm sensing you have failed. Does that feel any different? It's just a verification of the truth of this scripture, is it not? [00:15:09] A man's ways are right in his own eyes, but the Lord pondereth the heart. We're not very good judges of our own motives at times. Though there's a very real potential of doing a right thing for the wrong reason. The Pharisees were men that prayed. They were bold in their prayers. They got right out on the street corner, and I don't know if they posted a sign or what they did, but apparently they didn't always comb their hair just right so the people could see they were fasting. [00:15:44] They wanted to pray to their God. But really what they were doing is seeking the applause of men, the Bible says. People can give their alms. I was at a meeting one time where a man lifted up his money and he dropped it in the box And he said, I likes to give. Well, bless God if he liked to give. And I hope he was really honest in his heart. But the possibility also exists like it was in the synagogue in Portland, Oregon years ago. [00:16:22] When if you gave a certain amount, they had a light go on with your name. They likes to give too. But the real reason was they liked the applause of men. It was a good thing for a wrong reason. I think that's what God is saying in His Word here. He says the Word of God is quick and powerful. I don't know if He's talking about the written Word. No, this New Testament wasn't written when this, didn't exist when this was written. [00:16:56] It just came in to be. Was he talking about the law and the prophets and the Psalms? The Bible doesn't say. It really isn't important in what form it came, but the Word of God, the spoken word, the written word, the convicting word in our conscience, the Word of God is quick and powerful. In fact, the Word of God is the only thing that can really reach my heart and help me understand what my motives are. [00:17:31] This is what I'm hearing him say. The Word of God. People say today, well, I just don't feel that way about it. I would say, so what? I don't see it that way. So what? Whenever did that become a standard for living a godly life? The real question is, what does the word of God say? [00:18:02] That is the only thing that can establish a standard by which to live. So the first thought was, we are talking about a heart issue. Now when it comes to the heart, when it comes to motives and intentions, How many basic motives can you think of? How many motives really drive human behavior? Well, I'm not sure that I can give you a full answer to that, [00:18:36] but I would like to notice a few things that stand out in Scripture, that the Scripture mentions as basic motives that people do deal with. 1 Corinthians chapter 10 verse 31. There's a simple little passage. It's not really hard to understand. It's quite conclusive and he says whatever you do, whatsoever you do it says here. Whether therefore you eat or drink. Now eating and drinking, that's pretty basic. So when you eat or when you drink, but that's pretty limited too. But then he just goes on and covers the whole field. [00:19:24] and whatsoever you do, do all to glory of God. So the one basic motive is to glorify God. That is a basic intention of the human heart. A possible basic intention of the human heart is to glorify God. Have you ever thought what it would be like in your own heart and in the heart of the community and the heart of the church and the heart of the world if everybody would live by that motive? Everything we would do, we would always do with the desire to glorify God. [00:19:59] You know, I would like to see people come to the Lord. I'd like to see church growth. But there's a very real possibility that I can look at my church and look at growth there and glory in the growth for some very selfish reasons. But if my concern is I am looking for people to find a relationship with God Not only for their good But for the glory of God It puts things on a different level Notice what the young man said [00:20:31] That had run away from home And squandered his living And sinned all kinds of matters of sin When he came to himself The Bible says I have sinned Not against me, not against other people, not against my father, but I have sinned against heaven. Every sin is first of all a sin, an act against God. Our desire to live holy lives should be to glorify this God. [00:21:05] We were Wednesday night at a viewing in Ohio of an older man, Ben Koblitz, Who was one of my spiritual mentors from years gone by. There on the table in front of the vestibule they had little booklets that he wrote. I've read only a little in them, but I noticed one little booklet is full of chapters, short chapters. Every one of which that I've looked at so far speaks about the love of God. That man was a man of not so many words, but he was a man. [00:21:38] His son-in-law said, if ever there was a godly man, it was my father-in-law. And I see that Ben Koblitz was penning his heart and it was full of the love of God. When our concern, our motivation is that we, whatever we do, we just want to bring glory back to God. We're on a good track. It's the track that the church needs to walk if we want to be here tomorrow as well as today. [00:22:12] We cannot live in the past. We cannot even live in the present. In one sense, we always live in the present. But we need to live in the present with our eyes to the future. This is what we want to say. John the 8th chapter in verse 29. Let's look and see what he speaks about here. John 8, 29 says, He that sent me is with me. [00:22:42] The Father hath not left me alone. For I do always those things that please Him. I do always those things that please Him. Our Lord lived with that kind of a vision. To please God. And to please God means to bring glory to God. We go to 1 Thessalonians, the 4th chapter. Let's turn to these verses and just get them seated in our mind this morning. 1 Thessalonians, chapter 4, in verse 1. [00:23:18] Furthermore, then, we beseech you, brethren, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus, that as you have received of us how you ought to walk and please God, so you would abound more and more. That was Paul's message to the church. Walk so that you can please God. 2 Timothy 2, in verse 4 he says, No man that warreth and tangleth himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who has chosen him to be a soldier. The motivation, the intent of the heart that God wants us to look for and to live out [00:23:55] is that motivation to please God, to please God. The second motivation we can read about in Romans, the 15th chapter, in the first three verses. And even there, when he speaks about it, he tells us that it is a motivation to avoid. We then that are strong, this is Romans 15, verse 1, we then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak and not to please ourselves. [00:24:27] Not to please ourselves. That's the second basic motive. Can you think of any other motives that do not come under either of those two classifications? Either we do something to please God or it is something to please the ego, ourselves. Any others that I could think of could still be classified under one of those two. but be that as it may those are the two basic motivations that we're looking at this morning [00:24:58] that the word of God is given to us to help us discern what our motivations are why we do the things that we do and he says whatever we do it ought to be to glorify God everything we do Can you wash dishes for the glory of God? Can you milk cows for the glory of God? If not, we're in the wrong occupation. [00:25:31] The wrong setting of life. So, it is good for us to be rather introspective. And that's what we like to do this morning. A bit further. Look this way. Inside. Being introspective. What are my motivations in the things that I do? Why do I do what I do? It is very possible that many of the things that we do, we never give a thought to why we do them. Does God then just say that it doesn't matter, since you didn't think about it? [00:26:07] As I understand the scripture, he has given us his word to tell us that God is looking. God is observing. And this is not to send anybody on a false guilt trip. Some people look inward. Maybe we look inward with the wrong view. But I'm glad this morning we can look inward and be free. The Bible says that the blood of the covenant can cleanse our conscience, make it free. [00:26:40] Not sure what the English word is just now. There is something like positive introspective. Why do I think or feel about things the way I do? Sometimes you have a discussion and you share a concern. Somebody says, well, I just don't feel that way about it. Where does it say? Where does it give us a clue that it matters? But you have to understand me in the right way when I say it this way. But where does it give us an indication that that changes anything? How I feel about something. [00:27:12] But the issue is not how I feel about something. The issue is what does this word of God that can discern the thoughts and intents of the heart, what does it say about something? Is my motive to please God? Or is it because, like Samson, get her for me for she pleases me well. You know, Samson looked out on that strange woman of an enemy group And his parents advised him, counseled him to not reach out there [00:27:47] But he said, no, you get her for me Because I want to please God That's not what he said She pleases me well You know, the possibility exists very much in life That we do a lot of things just simply because they appeal to me instead of appealing to God. And so, we need to be very introspective. How do I look at my job, my profession? How do I look at my leisure time? [00:28:20] How do I look at my social activities? How do I look at my manner of dress? How do I look at just a whole host of things? No, whatever I look at. What is my motivation? It comes into bearing in a very real way. The Bible says, He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool. [00:28:52] In other words, he is saying we need to be honest in our introspective, introspection or it really deceives us more than it helps us. We need to be honest about things. Now sometimes somebody will say, no this is the way it is. At times people are challenged, are you sure? Yes, I'm sure. But are you really sure? Remember, sometimes we have to simply sit down and take a good look at things. [00:29:29] Is that really the motivation? Perhaps we say sometimes, well, I don't really mean anything bad by this. But that's not the question. A better way to look at something might be something like this. What is the benefit I mean to render to God by the thing? What is the glory God is going to get out of this thing? And if you say that by this I want to glorify God, another question might be, well, how are you going to glorify God by this thing? [00:30:05] Let me give you an illustration. If we're not thoughtless, if we're negligent or careless, whatever the case may be, there is always a motivating factor causing us to do what we do. We always do it for a reason. We may not consider the reason, we may not even have thought about the reason, but there is still a reason. There is always a subtle underlying reason. [00:30:40] I'd like to give a very earthly illustration, if I may. This could be done with a whole list of things. But why is it, I ask myself the question, why is it, wherein lies the power of a new fad that comes in? Now, I hope you don't feel too bad, but I hope you do feel a little bad if you're involved. That is, there was a few years ago, the first that I noticed it, and I'm sometimes behind the times. [00:31:20] But a few years ago, there was this thing that I saw for the first time, where somebody started to, I don't know how they do this, But up there in the hair somewhere there was a little path that went, you know, kind of back and forth and back a little bit and then it stopped. Now, the point is not this morning is that immoral or moral. But the illustration I'm making is this. That thing started somewhere, I don't know where, nor do I know how. [00:31:56] But what I do know is it swept like wildfire. Across a constituency. No, not across a constituency, but across constituencies. It's not a beachy thing. What is it? What kind of a power made something like that? And you could put a whole list of things in there. So if you feel targeted this morning, just be honest. Why did something like that have such a power? [00:32:30] I never saw it advertised in the budget. I never heard a promotional talk given on it. I never heard anybody come up to somebody else and say, you ought to try it once. You might like it. Did you? What then gave that thing that tremendous power? There's power in there somewhere. It influenced hundreds, thousands of people. [00:33:03] A dead, inanimate thing. I suppose my hair look like that sometimes too when it's windy. So it's not a matter of it being wrong or right in itself. But there's something about that thing. Is this too personal? It can be said about so many things. The thing that's a concern to me this morning is the fact, as I see it, [00:33:36] what I see happening in the few years of experience that I've had, is that somewhere, somebody saw such a thing and there was something inside here that was drawn to it. You get the point. It is a heart issue. We talked today about what really matters is the heart. [00:34:08] And that's true. What really matters is the heart. But if that illustration holds any water, then this is a heart issue. It is not just a hair issue, or a ruffle issue, or a button issue, or whatever else you can take. It is a heart issue. You see, my heart is attracted to something. And I'm doing that. Now tell me, if you really want to be honest, and you put your own little thing in here, how many times when you sit at the sewing machine, when you do your shopping, when you get a job, when you go to play ball or whatever you do, how many times do you sit down and analyze? [00:34:58] Now, the important thing is, the motivation is either to please me or to please God. And you conclude, in this situation, I am going to do this to bring all the glory to God that I can. You do that and you're on a good track forward. It'll help keep the house in repair. Now, probably not everybody's going to do that. So we need each other's help to do it too. Well, maybe that's enough said. [00:35:33] What is the power in these things? It's not in the thing. The power is in here. It's a choice we make. And that choice is always motivated either by pleasing me or pleasing God. Does that give us any direction for life? Does it give us any direction for church life? Blessed the church where all the people want to please God. [00:36:07] We help each other please God. And let's remember when we look inward, to look inward through this lens. Because a man's ways are right in his own eyes. But God looks at the heart. Let's think upon these things. You know, the issue is much more than hair or clothes or sports or professions. It is a spiritual issue. [00:36:39] Talk about your heart. It's important. But remember, out of the heart come the things that we do. And now, we could take that to the other ditch. I am amazed as I look back at reading a history about a hundred years old now I'm amazed at how we interpret the good old ways I see things in the conservative element of the church of a hundred years ago [00:37:11] That we would today call very liberal I saw a picture, the real thing If my heart is only to preserve tradition, it's not going to please God. But if my heart is to walk as closely with God as I can in the context of the brotherhood, I believe we're going to keep the shingles in repair and we're going to keep the doors from creaking. The church is going to go forward. [00:37:43] But as soon as my own interests are the focus, we're on a downward spiral. The answer for this whole thing, according to the teachings of Jesus and the Apostles, is nothing short of the cross. The cross. Dying to my desires, my plans, my ambitions [00:38:14] And seeking the will of God The psalmist gave a good prayer for us to pray Psalm 139 when he said Search me, O God, and know me Try me and know my thoughts And see if there be any wicked way in me If we pray that prayer honestly I think God's going to answer it honestly too. Let's pray.