Faithful Works

Isaiah 9: 1-4
Matthew 4: 12-23

Throughout our lives, we are tested many times. Our lives are living testaments to our character. Part of who we are is directly influenced by outside sources like the people we surround ourselves with and the other part is directly influenced by the personality we were given upon our birth. However, all of our heart and mind should be influenced by Jesus Christ when we call ourselves Christians. Which means that when we give our lives to Christ, we accept that it no longer matters as much what others think of us and what our own doubts and insecurities are because we have given up control to Jesus.

We believe that God holds us steady through the storms of life. We hold onto Jesus as our anchor. It doesn't always work out that way though. Sometimes, we forget. Sometimes, we get so caught up with the problems in our life that we stop turning to God and instead we turn to those around us or our own ingenuity. Then, when things start to fall even further apart, we get just desperate enough to turn to God.
Yes, sometimes it is desperation and a last ditch effort to save ourselves that makes us see Jesus more clearly. Sometimes it is other people's last ditch efforts on our behalf that help us see that Jesus is the foundation on which we should build our lives.

One of the earliest and the most outstanding intellectuals, leaders and defenders of the Christian faith was Augustine, the fourth century writer of the “Confessions of Saint Augustine,” one of the most famous tell-all autobiographies written. Young Augustine was a hedonist, a philosopher, an agnostic, and a rebel, but his mother Monica was a godly, persistent, and resourceful woman.

Augustine often laughed at his mother’s pious ways, mocked her faith, and deliberately defied her continual pleading for him to repent of his pagan lifestyle, to convert to Christ, and to live an exemplary life. When Augustine wanted to leave the shores of Carthage, North Africa, for the bright lights of Rome, his mother feared the worst for her son, dreaded the outcome of his leaving, and often fled to the church for solace, prayer, and advice.

In her despair, she would often weep uncontrollably for her son. One day a minister noticed her painful cries, and asked her why she was so bitter. She told him of her wayward son, but the bishop reassured her with these words: “Go in peace; as you live, it cannot be that the son of these tears should perish.” Augustine avoided his mother as much as possible and ignored her warnings time and again, but he could not escape her continuous prayers. Monica painstakingly prayed, wept, and looked for her son for 30 years until Augustine surrendered his life to Christ.

Monica did not give up on her son and she did not give up her faith in Jesus. She knew that God has the power to save even those that do not know they need to be saved. All we can do is trust in Jesus to be the one that will lead our loved ones as well as us back into the arms of the Lord.

It takes faith. Faith is not a complicated thing. Faith is as simple as a man walking up to two fishermen and when he says, "Follow me." they put down their nets and follow him. They saw something about this man they had never seen before and they were instantly drawn to him. They knew that this man was going to stand by his word and that they would indeed do great things in their lives from that day forward if they followed him. They had faith in him.

While faith is not a complicated concept, it is not easy to do either. It's not easy to constantly have faith especially when things aren't going our way. It's not easy to believe there is something better coming our way when everytime we fight our way through one battle; another, bigger one looms on the horizon. Faith is simple, but it's not simple to live out in our daily lives.

The only way way to live out our faith is through doing things that remind us daily we are faithful disciples of Christ. Jesus didn't just tell those two men to follow him where he walked, he wanted them to follow his actions as well. He sent his disciples out to pray over people, to cast out demons, to heal the sick and to comfort the berieved. He believed that following meant doing and the same is true for us!

It's not enough for us to just proclaim ourselves Christians. We must ACT like Christians. We must do good works in Jesus Christ's name and we must speak of our faith without fear. The only way to stay consistent in our faith is by the things we do in our lives. Otherwise, we end up going around in a circle where we have faith for awhile and we feel good about ourselves, and then slowly we stop having faith when things get tough before we get desperate enough to once gain turn to Jesus. And around and around we go.

An old Scotsman operated a little rowboat for transporting passengers. One day a passenger noticed that the good old man had carved on one oar the word "Faith" and on the other oar the word "Works." Curiosity led him to ask the meaning of these oars. The old man, being a well-balanced Christian and glad for the opportunity to testify said, "I will show you."

Then he dropped one oar and plied the other called Works, and they just went around in circles. Then he dropped that oar and began to ply the oar called Faith, and the little boat just went around in circles again - this time the other way around, but still in a circle.

After this demonstration the old man picked up Faith and Works, and plying both oars together, sped swiftly over the water, explaining to his inquiring passenger. "You see, that is the way it is in the Christian life. Dead works without faith are useless, and faith without works is dead also, getting you nowhere. But faith and works pulling together make for safety, progress, and blessing."

So you see, sometimes we have faith but we do not act on our faith therefore what good is there in having it? It helps no one, not even ourselves. But sometimes we are so busy trying to do good works that we forget to have faith in Jesus and then what good is it to do good things without a firm foundation in Christ? We accomplish our goals when we work faithfully to fulfill Jesus Christ's dreams instead of our own.

This church is filled with many wonderful, talented people. A lot of hard workers. But what are we working toward? Are we working to fulfill Jesus' dream for this church or our own dreams? Are we carrying out God's plans or our own? Remember that just as we must not act out of fear of our future, we cannot act without faith! Either one will hurt our church and it will be because we did not remember to work faithfully with full trust in Jesus.

Jesus Christ has issued a command to us today. Follow him. When we follow Jesus we become like him, filled with faith in God's love for us and through that faith and love, our hearts overflow with the desire to do good things for others. That is our goal as Christians. We are here to make our Lord proud as we show our love through fulfilling Christ's mission for the world.

Amen.