At salvation, God designed each of us to impact the world around us. God describes our choices to fulfill our duty simply in Acts about how David lived. David accomplished God’s will by doing what God desired for him to do.
Acts 13:36 (ESV) For David, after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, fell asleep and was laid with his fathers and saw corruption,
Acts 13:36 (NKJV) “For David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell asleep, was buried with his fathers, and saw corruption;
God wants us to serve those people He puts around us during our lifetime.
Jesus saved us to live for Him in our corner of the world.
He called us to become salt and light to the world we live in.
Salt speaks of us spreading the healing, and life-giving work of the Gospel.
Light speaks of us shining Christ as the Way, Truth & Life, in this world of darkness. That means simply:
LIVING FOR GOD
The early believers were known for their love, patience, endurance, and compassion.
They rescued orphans. They took in the helpless. They fed and clothed the needy.
Wherever they lived life was better around them.
They were different. They were hopeful. They were joyful.
They were real people, struggling through life like everyone else, only with a contagious hope.
Much of the early church at first was Jewish. They had heard the Scriptures all their lives. They knew God’s desire for compassion on the foreigners, and on the needy. The compassionate lifestyle we see in our Isaiah 58 passage is what all Jewish background believers would have heard growing up. As we saw last time, the first step in embracing a Biblical or Christian worldview is for each of us to start carefully:
LISTENING TO GOD
God is love (1 Jn. 4:8,16).
Jesus said that His love reflected through us would be the way people would know we are His disciples (Jn 13:35).
The Spirit of God overflows us with love from God (Rm. 5:5).
God wants us to be kind and tenderhearted and compassionate like Him (Eph. 4:32).
This is the most understandable attribute of God.
When God explains His character in 1 John, He says: God is love. God loves us. We are to love one another.
When God explains to us what He desires to be our attitude towards the world He demonstrated it by His ministry: Jesus who is the exact image of God the father showed such tender compassion for both saved and lost people. He felt for their needs and extended compassion towards them.
God wants to have us reflect His love in this world. Jesus said that the badge of love would be how the world would know that we are His people. God wanted Old Testament Israel to live in such a way that the world around them saw, and felt the love and compassion of God. That is how:
GOD EXPLAINS HIS DESIRES IN ISAIAH 58
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