Be Productive Not Perfect

Recap

This morning, we learned why we need to pursue Jesus: He is our only hope to become Kingdom Worthy. There were 3 steps in that process:

1) Repent of our sins, not simply the pain our sins bring.

2) We must submit or yield our whole heart to Jesus and let Him work on our character.

3) We must believe that what Jesus promises, He will do.

God’s plan for His people include more than just them. It is extended to others. God’s plan for you and for me requires us to interact with other people. This is why God asks us not to be perfect, but to be productive.

Spiritual perfection or sinlessness is very self focused. It is to look inward.

We

It is more important for us to be spiritually productive than it is for us to be spiritually perfect. Spiritual perfection as most would define it is to live without sin just as Jesus lived. The issue with spiritual perfection is that it tends to lead people to focus internally instead of externally. It is extremely self focused instead of being other focused.

I believe God cares more His people being spiritually productive than being spiritually perfect. To be spiritually productive means we are producing something meaningful in our life.

If someone was to look at our life they could see the produce or fruit of what we believed and lived.

Spiritual productivity is more valuable, because it will lead to spiritual perfection. By seeking to do God’s will in our life and connecting with others, we will be pushed to spiritual perfection.

What does it mean to be a spiritually productive person?

God

Jesus Commanded Us to Be Productive

In , Jesus tells a series of parables which paint a picture of what God’s people will look like or do right before the second coming of Jesus.

You first have the parable of the ten virgins which describes God’s people being filled with the Holy Spirit and watching for the soon return of the bridegroom, Jesus.

Jesus moves from the ten virgins to the parable of the talents.

The parable of the ten virgins causes the listener to look inward and upward. Do I have oil in my lamp? Am I filled with the Holy Spirit? Am I awake and watching for Jesus’ coming?

The parable of the ten virgins is about me and my God.

But the parable of the talents is about my productivity. Both parables are included in the chapter and both parables are a description of God’s people right before Jesus comes.

In the parable of the talents, Jesus commands His disciples, His followers, you and me to be productive.

The parable of the talents is a story of a master who trusts 3 of his servants with talents. Oh, just so you know, a talent was what a laborer would be paid after 20 years of work. This is no small amount, and a big responsibility.

The master leaves and after a while returns to see what his servants have done with what the master gave them. Two of the servants are very productive and double the talents the master trusted them with. But the third servant was lazy and only hid his talent.

Matthew 25:21 ESV

21 His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’

Matthew 25:26 ESV

26 But his master answered him, ‘You wicked and slothful servant! You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I scattered no seed?

When the master returns, and notices that one of his servants was lazy, he punishes that servant.

The undeniable lesson is this: Stewardship.

God is the master and we are the servants. He doesn’t want us to just sit around with what He has given us, but he wants us to grow and improve what He has trusted you with.

What has God entrusted you with? What kind of resources has God placed at your disposal?

Money

Home

Influence

Friends

Etc.

God has given you all these things and what are you doing with them? Are you using it to improve your life or the lives of others? When the master returns to check on the talents He has given to His servants, what will he find?

Will He find hearts that have been moved by your life or simply more things that clutter your life?

Jesus commands us to be productive, not because He is a taskmaster, but because He knows that it is the best way to grow spiritually.

Your Productivity Attributes to Your Spirituality

Spiritual growth doesn’t come by sitting in a pew listening to a sermon. Spiritual growth happens when you take what you learned at church, in Sabbath school, at your devotional time and use it in everyday life.

Spiritual growth happens when you answer God’s call on your life. Spiritual growth happens when you are spiritually productive.

When you open your home to your neighbors to share a meal, to connect and talk about how wonderful God is, your spirituality grows. When you open scripture with someone and pray not simply for someone but with someone, your spiritual journey will experience depth and meaning.

Our walk with Jesus wasn’t intended to be at church or at a spiritual retreat. It was meant to take root in the gritty everyday part of life.

The aspect of Christianity that can captivate the non believer is often not theology. Its often not your church’s traditions, but does your beliefs impact your daily life in such a way that I can see it with my own two eyes?

That is where productivity shines brightest.

The beauty is that your productivity will shine its light on your spirituality.

Titus 3:14 ESV

14 And let our people learn to devote themselves to good works, so as to help cases of urgent need, and not be unfruitful.

People will begin to see the God you serve by grasping what you do. Because your actions will paint a picture not just of who you are, but of who God is.

You

We should all be workers together with God. No idlers are acknowledged as His servants. The members of the church should individually feel that the life and prosperity of the church are affected by their course of action.—The Review and Herald, February 15, 1887

If you have been impacted by God’s boundless grace and love, you are not called to be a disciple of Jesus, you are a disciple of Jesus.

In Jesus’ last moments on earth, Jesus gave his disciples a command, a call to action.

Matthew 28:19–20 ESV

19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Jesus’ command wasn’t to live a perfect, sinless life. His command was for His disciples to go and reproduce other disciples. To go and make more disciples. It was a call to be productive.

As a Christian, I don’t want to be lazy about my salvation and the salvation of others. I want to embrace it so much that when Jesus comes, He will look at me, He will look at you, and say, I am proud of you and what I was able to do through you.

We

Friends, God did not place your pastor in your church to create baptisms. He has been placed there to give you guidance. You were placed in your home, in your community to create baptisms.

God has given you everything you need to be productive. If you want to see your church and community grow. If you want to see the people in your community Return to Zion, return to the presence of God.

It’s not up to your pastor, its not up to the church elders. It starts with each and everyone of us. What do I want to do with the tools and resources that God has given me?

I’m not saying that each one of us has to go to the street corner and preach. I would actually suggest that you don’t do it.

What I am suggesting, is that you pray.

Ask God to show you your mission field. Show you how to best use your resources for His kingdom and glory.

That might mean opening your home to your neighbors.

It might mean volunteering your time.

It could mean helping out that single mother who is struggling just to keep her eyes open.

What it does mean, is to be willing to be used by God.

Are you willing?

Do you want to be productive for Jesus? For His Kingdom?