Doing great things for God only in the right way and for the right reasons

Last week I shared “Dare to be great” ideas from my former pastor’s sermon.

Much of it spoke to me—even grabbed me—but a little part of it made me uncomfortable. It’s this part in which Sid said:

“Do great things for God. . . .

What could God do if every person

who has a relationship with Him

dared to be great?”

The thought wasn’t quite developed enough. And what was missing is so important!

Perhaps Sid did explain it but I didn’t remember. In any case, in last week’s blog, I overlooked a crucial ingredient. And this week I discovered what it was, and when I did, it zinged me.

If you and I are to dare to do great things for God, as Sid challenged us to do, we must do it in the right way and for the right reasons.

It’s not about how great you and I are, but how great God is. The greatness comes from Him.

In his devotional, Silent Strength for My Life, Lloyd Ogilvie pointed out that critical missing ingredient I was searching for.

He asks, “What is true greatness and how is it achieved? In the Beatitudes, Jesus gave us the eight-way test of true greatness. He listed the eight character traits He wanted His disciples to possess.

“Jesus called those who have these qualities of greatness ‘blessed.’”

To be blessed “. . . means belonging to God, being his beloved, and knowing you are chosen, called, cherished, and cared for by Him. Blessedness is experiencing unqualified grace. . . .”

Ogilvie says God planned for you and me to “experience the blessedness of the qualities of authentic greatness. . . . We have been designed for greatness according to Christ’s measurements and by His power! Each Beatitude gives us a dimension of that greatness. . . aspects of Christ’s character.” (Lloyd John Ogilvie, Silent Strength for my Life)

So doing great things for God is linked to being blessed by Him—“chosen, called, cherished, and cared for by Him.” You and I can do great things for God only in that context.

Ogilvie writes many pages about living according to the Beatitudes—no simple task—emphasizing that true greatness is based on sincere, authentic human humility.

It’s based on knowing we humans, on our own, don’t have what it takes to do great things for God—those things He wants us to do. That was what I failed to point out last week.

If we want to do great things for God, we must, in all humility, admit our human weaknesses and ask God to help us—and then trust Him to prepare and equip us and then carry out those divine assignments.

Playing life safe for fear God won’t live up to His end of the bargain

Pastor Sid didn’t beat around the bush. He just spoke plainly: “How daring are you?”

His words made me squirm. I don’t like taking risks. I avoid going out on a limb.

Sid was talking about The Parable of the Talents in Matthew 25:14-30 in which a master entrusted his wealth to his servants. “To one he gave five bags of gold, to another two bags, and to another one bag, each according to his ability” (verse 15, NIV). And then the master left them.

Sid was referring to stewardship. We hear that word “stewardship” a lot, but what does it mean?

Stewardship is something we manage or take care of that is not our own.

Like the guys in The Parable of the Talents, God has entrusted you and me with “talents,” things like money, time, skills, and experience. In the parable, the talents were of great value. Treasures. Blessings. Gifts.

Sid told us those “talents,” those blessings, those gifts, are not only for our own use and worldly advancement. The gifts He gave each of us are not just for our own enjoyment and material gain.

No, God’s best for us is this: That we manage our “talents” so they impact God’s work locally and around the world. That’s why He has given us all of those “talents.”

Furthermore, Sid said, the God we know in the Bible doesn’t want us to be conservative in our use of our money, time, skills, and experience.

Whoa. Read that again. God doesn't want us to be conservative in our use of money, time, skills, and experience.

Let’s get back to The Parable of the Talents. When the master returned, the five-talent and the two-talent servants had doubled their holdings.

“What did the two of them do,” Sid asked, “to double their five and two talents? They didn’t play it safe.” 

I don’t know about you but that statement, “they didn’t play it safe,” makes my stomach knot. I always want to play it safe.

Let’s look at the man with only one talent. Instead of investing it, buried it—because, he said, he was afraid.

Today we don’t dare to do great things for God, Sid said, “. . . because we fear God won’t live up to His end of the bargain.”

“. . . because we fear God won’t. . . .”

Won’t what?

Won’t give us strength and tenacity

to do hard things?

Won’t stick with us through the difficult times?

Won’t supply us with what we need along the way?

Sid said:  

The degree of safety that we invest in our lives

 indicates a lack of faith.

Gulp. Lack of faith. Being unwilling to trust God to keep the promises He’s given us in the Bible: His promises to enable us to do what He calls us to do with our talents, His promises to stick with us, to meet our needs (not necessarily wants, but needs) along the way.

It felt like Sid was pointing right at me.

He left us with questions and challenges:

Are you playing it safe with what God has given you of time, money, skills, and past experience?

How much do you trust God? Let go. Invest your “talents” in what God’s doing around the world.

Do you have God-sized dreams and investments?

Or are they too risky? Too scary?

It’s tempting, Sid said, to play it safe and take it easy. He compared life to a ship in the harbor—it’s safe there, but that’s not what ships are for. Staying in the harbor is not what its creator planned for it. What has your Creator planned for you?

And here’s Sid’s final challenge:

Do great things for God.

Trust Him. Don’t settle for playing it safe.

What could God do if every person

who has a relationship with Him

dared to be great?