"...'I am carrying on a great project and cannot go down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and go down to you?''" (Neh. 6:3, NIV).
"But as for you, be strong and do not give up, for your work will be rewarded" (2 Chron. 15:7, NIV).
It's all in a nutshell by a sermon William Carey preached, titled "Expect Great Things From God, Attempt Great Things for God."
Mother Teresa of Calcutta said that we don't do great things, just little things with great love. It's not our achievements that God is pleased with, but our faithfulness. Mother Teresa also said that God doesn't call us to success, but to faithfulness. Indeed, he who is faithful in little will be faithful in much as Jesus said. We are all to give an account of our stewardship and will be rewarded according to our works--not our faith. Jesus said that He had finished the work God gave Him and was ready to enter His glory in John 17:4. Nehemiah boasted that he was engaged in "a great work" for the Lord and wouldn't be interrupted. Jeremiah warns against doing the Lord's work with slackness (cf. Jer. 48:10)!
Some people are performance-oriented and will say at Judgment Day that they did great works in the Lord's name, even casting out demons; however, their faith was in their works, not the Lord! Misplaced faith, though big, doesn't save--it's the object that matters. All achievements are eventually outdone and eclipsed, all records will be broken, all reputations will fade, all tributes will be forgotten, and trophies will be lost or decayed, but what we do in the Lord's name in His power (that are ordained for us to do per Eph. 2:10) will not go unnoticed nor unrewarded. These good deeds will not be in vain. Isaiah said in Isa. 49:4, NIV, "But I said, 'I have labored in vain; I have spent my strength for nothing at all. Yet what is due me is in the LORD's hand, and my reward is with my God.'" Paul said in 1 Cor. 15:58, NIV, "...Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain."
There has been much evil done in the Lord's name (the Catholic Inquisition, the Salem witch hunts, the Crusades, and the Thirty-Years War et al.) but what is done in the Lord means in the right spirit and in the power of the Spirit. I'm not against good works, just those done in the power of the flesh.
"But as for you, be strong and do not give up, for your work will be rewarded" (2 Chron. 15:7, NIV).
It's all in a nutshell by a sermon William Carey preached, titled "Expect Great Things From God, Attempt Great Things for God."
Mother Teresa of Calcutta said that we don't do great things, just little things with great love. It's not our achievements that God is pleased with, but our faithfulness. Mother Teresa also said that God doesn't call us to success, but to faithfulness. Indeed, he who is faithful in little will be faithful in much as Jesus said. We are all to give an account of our stewardship and will be rewarded according to our works--not our faith. Jesus said that He had finished the work God gave Him and was ready to enter His glory in John 17:4. Nehemiah boasted that he was engaged in "a great work" for the Lord and wouldn't be interrupted. Jeremiah warns against doing the Lord's work with slackness (cf. Jer. 48:10)!
Some people are performance-oriented and will say at Judgment Day that they did great works in the Lord's name, even casting out demons; however, their faith was in their works, not the Lord! Misplaced faith, though big, doesn't save--it's the object that matters. All achievements are eventually outdone and eclipsed, all records will be broken, all reputations will fade, all tributes will be forgotten, and trophies will be lost or decayed, but what we do in the Lord's name in His power (that are ordained for us to do per Eph. 2:10) will not go unnoticed nor unrewarded. These good deeds will not be in vain. Isaiah said in Isa. 49:4, NIV, "But I said, 'I have labored in vain; I have spent my strength for nothing at all. Yet what is due me is in the LORD's hand, and my reward is with my God.'" Paul said in 1 Cor. 15:58, NIV, "...Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain."
There has been much evil done in the Lord's name (the Catholic Inquisition, the Salem witch hunts, the Crusades, and the Thirty-Years War et al.) but what is done in the Lord means in the right spirit and in the power of the Spirit. I'm not against good works, just those done in the power of the flesh.
In the final analysis, no one will be able to boast of his works that God did through him but will give glory to God for being a vessel of honor, as Paul said in Romans 15:18, KJV, that he would not "dare to speak of any of those things Christ hath not wrought by [him]..." or venture to mention anything but what God accomplished through him." In sum, we're all "doing a great work," if it's done in the Lord, and we ought not to belittle anyone's task or gift for without Christ we can do nothing (cf. John 15:5). Soli Deo Gloria!
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