Welcome to another day the Lord has made that we should rejoice and be glad in. (Psalms 118:24)

Today’s song is the inspiration for this post. We should live our lives to please God.

Jesus said in Today’s scripture, Matthew 25:19-30 (ERV)…
[19] “After a long time the master came home. He asked the servants what they did with his money. [20] The servant who got five bags brought that amount and five more bags of money to the master. The servant said, ‘Master, you trusted me to care for five bags of money. So I used them to earn five more.’ [21] “The master answered, ‘You did right. You are a good servant who can be trusted. You did well with that small amount of money. So I will let you care for much greater things. Come and share my happiness with me.’ [22] “Then the servant who got two bags of money came to the master. The servant said, ‘Master, you gave me two bags of money to care for. So I used your two bags to earn two more.’ [23] “The master answered, ‘You did right. You are a good servant who can be trusted. You did well with a small amount of money. So I will let you care for much greater things. Come and share my happiness with me.’ [24] “Then the servant who got one bag of money came to the master. The servant said, ‘Master, I knew you were a very hard man. You harvest what you did not plant. You gather crops where you did not put any seed. [25] So I was afraid. I went and hid your money in the ground. Here is the one bag of money you gave me.’ [26] “The master answered, ‘You are a bad and lazy servant! You say you knew that I harvest what I did not plant and that I gather crops where I did not put any seed. [27] So you should have put my money in the bank. Then, when I came home, I would get my money back. And I would also get the interest that my money earned.’ [28] “So the master told his other servants, ‘Take the one bag of money from that servant and give it to the servant who has ten bags. [29] Everyone who uses what they have will get more. They will have much more than they need. But people who do not use what they have will have everything taken away from them.’ [30] Then the master said, ‘Throw that useless servant outside into the darkness, where people will cry and grind their teeth with pain.’

Consider…
Deitrick Haddon sings a song that testifies…

Just wanna make it to heaven
I just wanna make it in
I just wanna cross that river
Oh oh
I wanna be free from sin

Oh, I just want my name written, oh Lord
Written in the lambs Book of Life, eh yeah
And when this life is over
I just wanna have eternal life

Oh, I wanna hear Him say
I wanna hear Him say

Well done, well done, well done
You can come on in.
Well done, well done, well done
You can come on in.

I just wanna cross that river of God, eh yeah
That’s why I’m living, day to day, just to hear him say
Say, say, say, say!

Well done, well done, well done
You can come on in.
Well done, well done, well done
You can come on in.

I’m living to live again
I’m living to live again
Wanna hear Him say
You can come on in.

Brother Deitrick’s echo the Apostle Paul’s swan song confession in 2 Timothy 4:7-8 (ERV)…
[7] I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have served the Lord faithfully. [8] Now, a prize is waiting for me—the crown that will show I am right with God. The Lord, the judge who judges rightly, will give it to me on that Day. Yes, he will give it to me and to everyone else who is eagerly looking forward to his coming.

Many of us remember our excitement to tell our parents, spouses, bosses or anyone influential in our lives something good that we did. I think a big reason for our excitement is the anticipation of their affirmation.

I like that, we should live lives in anticipation of God’s affirmation!

That’s what the parable of the talents makes me think about. I noticed the three servants lived based on how they viewed their Master. The two with multiple talents focused on pleasing Him, and were eager to see him again. But the last servant focused on fearing disappointing him, and feared seeing him again.

I like what Pastor Steven Furtick said last Sunday…
Focus fuels our fear or our faith.

This begs the question, what’s the basis of your focus on God? Is it fear of disappointing Him or faith to live pleasing to Him?

It’s an important answer because our focus will drive our stewardship of what God entrusts to us.

Which brings me to a couple pearls of wisdom we can glean from this familiar parable.

• God entrusts everyone with something
• Those focused on using what they have to please God
• Those focused on not disappointing God lose it

This makes me think of Jesus’ message to two groups of people entrusted with the same opportunities but had different responses…

Matthew 25:34-46 (ERV) shares Jesus’ words…
[34] “Then the king will say to the godly people on his right, ‘Come, my Father has great blessings for you. The kingdom he promised is now yours. It has been prepared for you since the world was made. [35] It is yours because when I was hungry, you gave me food to eat. When I was thirsty, you gave me something to drink. When I had no place to stay, you welcomed me into your home. [36] When I was without clothes, you gave me something to wear. When I was sick, you cared for me. When I was in prison, you came to visit me.’ [37] “Then the godly people will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and give you food? When did we see you thirsty and give you something to drink? [38] When did we see you with no place to stay and welcome you into our home? When did we see you without clothes and give you something to wear? [39] When did we see you sick or in prison and care for you?’ [40] “Then the king will answer, ‘The truth is, anything you did for any of my people here, you also did for me.’ [41] “Then the king will say to the evil people on his left, ‘Get away from me. God has already decided that you will be punished. Go into the fire that burns forever—the fire that was prepared for the devil and his angels. [42] You must go away because when I was hungry, you gave me nothing to eat. When I was thirsty, you gave me nothing to drink. [43] When I had no place to stay, you did not welcome me into your home. When I was without clothes, you gave me nothing to wear. When I was sick and in prison, you did not care for me.’ [44] “Then those people will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty? When did we see you without a place to stay? Or when did we see you without clothes or sick or in prison? When did we see any of this and not help you?’ [45] “The king will answer, ‘The truth is, anything you refused to do for any of my people here, you refused to do for me.’ [46] “Then these evil people will go away to be punished forever. But the godly people will go and enjoy eternal life.”

Embedded in this passage is the fact that both the evil and godly groups had the wherewithal to help others in need.

The passage also reveals the humility of serving versus the pride of deserving. Recall the godly people didn’t realize they pleased the Jesus, they just used what they had to help others. On the other hand, the evil people thought they lived well enough to deserve Jesus’ validation, only to learn He looked beyond their outward acts into their inward motives and pointed out they only lived to save themselves rather than serve others.

Are you living to save (serve) yourself or serve others?

As you answer remember 1 John 3:16-18 (ERV) emphasizes…
[16] This is how we know what real love is: Jesus gave his life for us. So we should give our lives for each other as brothers and sisters. [17] Suppose a believer who is rich enough to have all the necessities of life sees a fellow believer who is poor and does not have even basic needs. What if the rich believer does not help the poor one? Then it is clear that God’s love is not in that person’s heart. [18] My children, our love should not be only words and talk. No, our love must be real. We must show our love by the things we do.

The Holy Spirit just hit me between the eyes, God wants us to live to live like Him, not to be loved by Him, because He already loved us.

1 John 4:7-11 (ERV) emphasizes…
[7] Dear friends, we should love each other, because love comes from God. Everyone who loves has become God’s child. And so everyone who loves knows God. [8] Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. [9] This is how God showed his love to us: He sent his only Son into the world to give us life through him. [10] True love is God’s love for us, not our love for God. He sent his Son as the way to take away our sins. [11] That is how much God loved us, dear friends! So we also must love each other.

And 1 John 4:16 (ERV) summarizes…
[16] So we know the love that God has for us, and we trust that love. God is love. Everyone who lives in love lives in God, and God lives in them.

Notice everyone who lives in love, lives in God!

As the Holy Spirit drove the live in love modus operandi home to me, He circled back to those who do can also living in anticipation of God’s affirmation.

The last thing that the Holy Spirit downloaded for today comes from Romans 12:9-11 (ERV)…
[9] Your love must be real. Hate what is evil. Do only what is good. [10] Love each other in a way that makes you feel close like brothers and sisters. And give each other more honor than you give yourself. [11] As you serve the Lord, work hard and don’t be lazy. Be excited about serving him!

This reminds me Kirk Franklin’s beautiful questions…

Have you ever loved somebody?
Will you ever love somebody?
The way that Jesus loves you

Our focus on pleasing versus not disappointing God will reveal the answer to others.

Let’s live our lives focused on pleasing God, not avoiding disappointing Him.

Let’s do that by sincerely and lovingly and humbly serving others, rather than trying to save ourselves.

In fact, let’s live lives of JOY…

• Jesus first
• Others next
• Yourself last

When live that way we can live with anticipation of God’s affirmation.

Therefore, let’s genuinely love others with eager anticipation God’s LOVE affirmation, which will be Him saying ‘WELL DONE’!

Bonus thought: Live for God by loving and humbly serving others and be welcomed in, or live for self-preservation and end up stunned with being shunned by Him.

People who live to please God will look forward to seeing Him, those who don’t won’t!

Today’s song is…
He’ll Welcome Me

Blessings 4HG (1 Corinthians 10:31)