Our Actions Matter

Our Actions Matter

Matthew 3:7-10 “But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sad′ducees coming for baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit that befits repentance, and do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father’; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. Even now, the axe is laid to the root of the trees; every tree, therefore, that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”

I was reading Matthew chapter 3 this morning, and this verse stood out to me. What stuck in my head is the part where John the Baptist says to the Pharisees and Sadducees, “And do not presume to say to yourselves, “We have Abraham as our father; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. Even now, the axe is laid to the root of the trees; every tree, therefore, that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” What came to me when I read this was that we can’t just rest on the fact that we are children of God.

The Pharisees and Sadducees were secure in their positions in life. They knew they were children of God, and so they thought everything they did was right. They held on so tightly to the laws that they forgot about the spirit of the laws and forgot to take care of God’s people. For many of them, it became more about being in control and having status than it was about helping everyone get into heaven.

Being a child of God brings a certain level of comfort. We know that He will always love us and that He will never forsake us. I just looked up the word forsake because I know what it means, but I couldn’t tell someone else what it means, so I wanted to know what the dictionary says. Forsake means to abandon. God will never abandon us, and He will never stop loving us, and we find courage in those facts. However, what I felt God wanted us to hear today is not to just rest in those facts and forget about everything else.

Yes, indeed, God is always with us, and nothing we can do will make Him love us any more or any less than he already does. However, that doesn’t mean we can just go through life doing whatever we want to do. God has a certain way that he wants us to live our lives, and He definitely cares how we treat people. Let me remind you what it says in Luke 13:22-30.

“He went on his way through towns and villages, teaching and journeying toward Jerusalem. And someone said to him, “Lord, will those who are saved be few?” And he said to them,  “Strive to enter by the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able.  When once the householder has risen up and shut the door, you will begin to stand outside and to knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, open to us.’ He will answer you, ‘I do not know where you come from.’ Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets.’ But he will say, ‘I tell you, I do not know where you come from; depart from me, all you workers of iniquity!’  There, you will weep and gnash your teeth when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust out.  And men will come from east and west, and north and south, and sit at table in the kingdom of God.  And behold, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.”

This verse goes well with the verse above to remind us that we are not automatically going to heaven because we are a child of God. I know this is a controversial belief because it also says in the Bible that Jesus is the way to heaven, and if we believe in Jesus, we will go to heaven. I don’t think these two verses contradict each other. I think they help explain each other. Yes, we need to believe in Jesus and have to acknowledge that He is our savior. However, I think the verse for today and these other verses from Luke show us that our behavior also matters. We don’t have to earn our way into heaven, and yet we can lose heaven by the way we act here on earth.

The people in this parable thought they were headed to heaven. They thought they were sitting at the table with Jesus, and yet He said, “I do not know where you come from; depart from me, all you workers of iniquity!” If we couldn’t do something to lose heaven, why would Jesus put this in the Bible? Why would He share this parable?

Romans 10:9-10 “ because, if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For man believes with his heart and so is justified, and he confesses with his lips and so is saved.” I don’t think the verses above contradict this verse. I know that this verse is often used to confront Catholics. We are asked why we don’t know we are saved because Jesus says so in this verse. We are asked why we think we need to earn heaven. We don’t think we need to earn heaven. We do however believe that God gave us free will and He calls us to live a certain way. He loves us so much that He gives us the choice of whether we want to live that way or not. The reason I don’t think the verses are contradictory is because I believe that if you know that Jesus is Lord and you believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, then you will love God so much you will want to do the right thing.

The closer we get to God, the more we want to live in a way that honors Him. If we truly know who God is, then we will want to live the way He asks us to live. However, we need His help with this, as living a Godly life in the world today is very difficult. The world seems so contrary to our Godly way of life. The world teaches us to get ahead at all costs. The world teaches us that people don’t matter if they stand in our way. It teaches us it is ok to step on people to pursue our own happiness. It teaches us each person is to look our for themselves. This is not ok. This isn’t how God is calling us to live.

What I really want to get across to you today is that we can’t use the fact that we are Christians as a license to act however we want to. We can’t think we are all high and mighty because we just went to church and then go around judging people and being rude to everyone. God cares how we treat people. He cares about how we act and our relationship with Him. God knows everything; he can see into the innermost places of our hearts. We can’t just pay Him lip service. We can’t just tell Him we love Him and we want Him to be a part of our lives and then go about our day-to-day without inviting him in. Our actions matter. How we treat people matters.

Yesterday, we talked about living a virtuous life. If you are struggling to live a virtuous life, a life focused on the Lord, then I want you to know you are not alone. We all struggle with this. God is not looking for perfection. He just wants us to be aware of our actions and to repent and turn back to Him when we mess up.

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless everyone listening to this episode. Lord, help us to be aware of our behavior and our attitude. Help us to cultivate an attitude that is in alignment with you. Help us to become pure of heart. Help us to become “Little Christs” to all those we meet. We love you Lord and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and In Jesus’s holy name, Amen!

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I look forward to seeing some of you on Zoom tonight for mentoring. If you would like to sign up, there is a link below. The theme for this month is Surrender. I will meet the rest of you here tomorrow morning. Remember, Jesus loves you just as you are, and so do I! Have a blessed day!

Today’s Word from the Lord was received in January 2024 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email [email protected]. Today’s Word from the Lord is, “My children, I hold you near to me all the time. You are intimate with me all the time. This is because I am divine. You and your humanness cannot fathom the depth of my love, the depth of my presence. But I will give you glimpses, and you will know, little by little, how much I love you. It will entice you to draw near to me. Someday you will know in the fullness how much we are one.”

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