Good morning and welcome in everybody. Today, we are going to take a look at a passage of scripture, but before we do that, I wanted to tell you a little story.
In my early twenties, I got a job in a warehouse driving a forklift. I started out on a rideable electric pallet jack, driving around the warehouse, picking up pallets and dropping them off at a workstation. From there they would box up the items, and ship them out in the mail. With conscientiousness towards my duties, I was eventually moved up to a propane forklift, and upon that promotion, was quickly asked to do something that I had never done before. The shipping supervisor showed me an empty trailer that needed to be loaded. After he secured the trailer by engaging the dock lock, he gave me a sheet of paper, and told me that it needed to be done swiftly, as the load was already behind schedule. We were approaching a three-day holiday weekend and were extremely short staffed. He promised me that if I got it done, that I could leave early, with bonus pay. With a heart that was willing to please, I quickly began to drive out to the warehouse, and ran them into the back of the trailer, double stacked. That afternoon was a blur as I ran in and out of that trailer stacking pallet upon pallet.
When it was finally filled, I went to close the door but it wouldn’t shut. The last few pallets were sticking out far enough that I couldn’t close the door. Whenever you load a trailer, you have to make sure that the pallets are butted up against each other. I had left small spaces between them, and by the time I got to the end, there was no room left to shut the door. The foreman told me to unload everything, and stack them tighter. It took another 2.5 hours to do this. Although I had been given the promise of leaving early, I hadn’t completed what needed to be done, and my efforts had come up short.
This reminds me of the Christian Life.
We are given the promise of eternal life, but in order to obtain that promise, we need to walk according to God’s will. God wants to save us and wants all men to come to a place of repentance. We are given the promise of eternal life, but in order to obtain it, there are certain activities that are required on your part.. You must repent and turn from your sins. You must become sanctified and mortify the sinful deeds of the flesh. If these things don’t happen, then your efforts to serve God are ineffectual. You might have loaded the trailer, but in the end you came up short, because you really didn’t complete the things that were required of you.
Hebrews 4:1-3 Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it. For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.
For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.
Each day, people go to work with the promise of eventually receiving a paycheck, but in order to receive that final reward, you need to show up for work and do the things that you’re told. God’s Word is our instruction manual that shows us what God wants us to do, but in order to enter heaven, one must do what it says. It is more than just hearing what you’re supposed to do, it is doing what is required of you.
James 1:21-25 Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls. But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.
In order to enter eternal life, there is some effort that is required on our part. We are given a promise that God will save us, but we must repent of our sins and do what is right. If there’s no effort in one’s life to become a new creature in Christ, then you are going to come up short. In order to please God perfectly, we must possess faith. We must understand God’s will from scripture, and activate our faith by doing what it teaches, because faith without actions really isn’t faith at all.
James 2:18-26 Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works. Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble.
But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead? Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar?
Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect? And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God.
Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only. Likewise also was not Rahab the harlot justified by works, when she had received the messengers, and had sent them out another way? For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.
To eventually obtain the promise of eternal life, we must become sanctified and pleasing unto God, which requires faith.
Hebrews 11:6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
The only way that genuine repentance and obedience to God’s Word can happen in your life is when you possess faith. You might know the Bible inside and out. You might have memorized large passages of scripture, but knowledge without faith is ineffectual in one’s life. The only way that you can sincerely do the will of God is by believing in the reality of God.
1 Thessalonians 2:13 For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe.
Although I was trying to do the will of my boss when I loaded that trailer, I didn’t do it the way that it needed to be done. I had come up short of the promise that he had given me. The Christian life is about accomplishing the will of God, striving to do things His way, rather than our own. It doesn’t matter how fast we complete the task, what matters is that we do it right. Only then can we obtain the promise, shut the doors on this world, and eventually disengage….
……The Dok-Lok
Let’s think about these things for right now. We can be found on your web browser by searching, tlkjbc where you can find our diaries distributed through various platforms. We are not associated, nor affiliated with any other religious groups. You can get our entire podcast feeds directly, along with transcripts at tlkjbc.com or I suppose that you could find us somewhere up here, in the Great Northern Minnesota woods. Peace to you, and Lord willing, we will talk with you some more tomorrow. Till then, bye bye everybody. ❤️
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