Teamwork

Dear Brethren,

This Countdown to the Return of Jesus Christ is about the work of God.  The emphasis in the title is on the last part, “work” – the work that God the Father and Jesus Christ are doing.  They are working together to transform us into their image – which is Love and Eternal Life (1John 4:8).  It is very important for us to understand this well defined Biblical concept.  Jesus said, "My Father is working even now, and I am working."  (John 5:17)  They are working to instill their Spirit of love in us so that we are able to love God as He deserves, and to love our brother as God does (John 3:16).

I wanted to write on the work of God because there are those who claim that they are doing the work of God, and that they are at the forefront of that work.  They maintain they are doing the primary work.  In fact, they say it so often that many of you may think that being on TV and producing literature is the work of God.  It is not.  That is the work of men.  The work of God is much more grand than that.  Let’s be careful not to redefine what God has clearly spelled out.

What is the work of God?  The work of God is His creation – but the creation of what?  "God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth."  (Genesis 1:26)  We are not complete without the love of God and the life of God.

In our image, after our likeness means that God is creating us to be like He is.  What is the image and likeness of God?  What is God like?  God is all goodness and love – that is what He is!  God is abundant life, even eternal life.  And, since God is love, we need to understand what the love of God is, and, even more than that, we must become the love of God as God is love.  Okay, that is a difficult concept.  How can we become the love of God? 

The answer is this:  We must put on Christ (Galatians 3:27).  The process of putting on Christ is also the work of God.  Here is the Biblical definition of the work of God:  "This is the work of God, that you believe on Him [Jesus Christ] whom He [God the Father] has sent."  (John 6:29)  Again, we see the team–work of God in our creative development.  The world comes very short of knowing, trusting, believing and obeying Jesus Christ.  As a result, we have a world of meanness, hate, sin, war, and death – all because it lacks Godly love.

Where does Godly love come from?  Let us understand this:  The only way we can even begin to possess the love of God in our lives is through the team work of God the Father and Jesus Christ – notice.  "Beloved, let us love one another: for love comes from God; and every one that loves is begotten of God, and knows God.  He that loves not knows not God; for God is love.  In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him."  (1John 4:7-9)  That is team–work.

As far as we in the Church of God are concerned, the work of God is His forming His love in us, because we need it in our lives.  We must become the image and likeness of God.  Jesus told the Pharisees that they did not understand the love of God because they had by-passed the love of God.  "Woe unto you, Pharisees! for ye tithe mint and rue and all manner of herbs, and pass over judgment and the love of God: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone."  (Luke 11:42)  We are certainly not being formed in the image of God if we skip-over the love of God.

God has called us from some pretty rough backgrounds.  Have we felt the love of God in our lives as much as God intends us to experience it?  I think that I can answer unequivocally, “no,” in every one of our cases.  It is certainly difficult, if not impossible, for us to express the love of God toward others unless we have first received and experienced the love of God ourselves.  God has to change us from what we were.  That is the active work of God going on in us.  Through the team–work of God the Father sending His Son, Jesus Christ, to this earth, we can have the love of God instilled in us.

If you inherited your five or ten cities right now, how would you begin to instill the love of God in the citizenry?  What would you do first?  Here is the answer:  First, you would teach them the Sabbath – and how to keep it holy.  Then on the Sabbath, you would teach them about God and the love of God expressed in His rules.  His Ten Commandments begin to express the love of God and the love of our fellow man toward one another.

You would teach them to deal with the realities of life according to the love of God, because sin causes pain, loveless heartache, and death.  The people of your cities will have learned what they know about life in a God-less fantasy world.  And, since they do not know God, they need the love of God bestowed on them as we have so graciously had the love of God bestowed on us. 

"Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not."  (1John 3:1)  Christ loves the brethren.  When we have the love God bestowed upon us, we will love the brethren, also.  That is Christ in us loving the brethren – we did not come by it naturally.  We are duty bound to love one another – and that is God dwelling in us.

At first we practice, then we learn, and then the love of God is perfected in us.  So, first we have to know God and the love of God.  "...You have put off the old man with his deeds;  And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created him."   (Colossians 3:9-10)  God the Father and Jesus Christ are creating their love in us." 

Through their team–work, [God the Father] and Jesus Christ are making us members of their team by making it possible for their love to be in us.  "When we were dead in sins, [God the Father] has quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)  And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:  That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.  For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:  Not of works, lest any man should boast.  For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them."  (Ephesians 2:5-10)

"If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and His love is perfected in us."  (1John 4:12)

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Sermon:

"Teamwork"