Begin
the New Year with a commitment to the Lord. Would you want to be pleasing to
the Lord? Let’s ask the
Lord to show what He wants. Here’s
what He has said that he wants through the apostle Paul.
God wants us to do this more and more.
He wants us to Mind Our Own Business.
What is the business of the church and the Christian who is apart of
that church?
God proved his love on the
cross. When Christ hung, and bled, and died, it was God saying to the world,
"I love you." By
Billy Graham (1918- )
He that falls in love with
himself will have no rivals. By Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)
Scripture
Text:
1The 4:1 (NIV) Finally, brothers, we instructed you how to live in
order to please God, as in fact you are living. Now we ask you and urge you in
the Lord Jesus to do this more and more. 2 For you know what instructions we
gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus. 3 It is God's will that you
should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; 4 that each of
you should learn to control his own body in a way that is holy and honorable,
5 not in passionate lust like the heathen, who do not know God; 6 and that in
this matter no one should wrong his brother or take advantage of him. The Lord
will punish men for all such sins, as we have already told you and warned you.
7 For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life. 8 Therefore,
he who rejects this instruction does not reject man but God, who gives you his
Holy Spirit. 9 Now about brotherly love we do not need to write to you, for
you yourselves have been taught by God to love each other. 10 And in fact, you
do love all the brothers throughout Macedonia. Yet we urge you, brothers, to
do so more and more. 11 Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind
your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you, 12 so
that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not
be dependent on anybody.
“Our business is people and
Our reason is Jesus Christ.
Our purpose is to personally live Jesus
Christ.
Because of His love for us,
We can love Him and one another.
We believe in the absolute necessity of
conversion to Jesus,
The absolute reality of eternal life now
in Jesus,
And the absolute need of each other in
the fellowship of believers.
Our desire is to present Jesus Christ In
compassion and understanding
To every individual who does not know
Him,
And to encourage and develop every
individual who does know Him. “
By Gerry Hickman
The African boy listened carefully as the teacher explained why it is
that Christians give presents to each other on Christmas Day. "The gift
is an expression of our joy over the birth of Jesus and our friendship for
each other," she said.
When Christmas Day came, the boy
brought the teacher a seashell of lustrous beauty. "Where did you ever
find such a beautiful shell?" the teacher asked.
The youth told her that there was
only one spot where such extraordinary shells could be found--a certain bay
several miles away.
"Why--why, it's gorgeous,"
said the teacher. "But you shouldn't have gone all that way to get a gift
for me." His eyes brightening, the boy answered, "Long walk part of
gift."
--James S. Hewett, Illustrations
Unlimited (Wheaton: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc, 1988) pp. 233-234.
Let’s mind our own
business. This business is the Lord’s
business. The Lord’s
business is people. He loves
people. If we are going to be
about Father’s business we must be about people.
Why? We must be about
loving God and loving people. He
loves them all and cares for them all. Usually
when someone tells you to mind your own business they mean for you to get out
of theirs. But when God tells us
to mind our own business we have to ask what is it?
How do you mind it?
To Mind means to care for, oversee, tend to, take care of, watch over,
and or to look after. If we would
be pleasing to the Lord then we must mind His business. His business is our business.
What
is it? It is the business of
God’s love or Agape. It is love
that goes to all.
What do we have to do with
God?
What people?
God wants you to become his
ambassador to all those you know. The
Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.
What do we have to do with
the people?
What does God have to do
with the People?
What does God have to do
with us?
Then what do we have to do
with the people?
Love people enough to let
them know who God is and what God wants for them.
This is a new business for
a new year, but it is an old business with a new zeal and purpose.
It is an old business with a new goal and desire.
Would we get busy with the
Lord’s business this year?