We Must Do Great Things

“Such Little things as Christians commonly do, will not evince much increase of grace. We must do great things for God.” – Jonathan Edwards

The path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, shining brighter and brighter until midday. (Proverbs 4:18 HCSB)

I want to take a few moments today and look at the Christian life. What are we called to do? Why are we called to do it? WHat attitude are we to have while doing it? And I want to look at the Christian life in that order. Many times we don’t think much about what we are supposed to do beyond saying that cheese prayer and reading our Bible every day. But there is much more to the Christian’s life than just keeping up with your Bible reading and keeping a list of rules added by the church. We have things we are commanded to do and we have a reason they are commanded and we have an attitude we are to show forth about it all found within the 2 covers of our holy Bible.

What are we called to do?

God calls us to do many things. Here are just a few.

Wash yourselves. Cleanse yourselves. Remove your evil deeds from My sight. Stop doing evil. Learn to do what is good. Seek justice. Correct the oppressor. Defend the rights of the fatherless. Plead the widow’s cause. (Isaiah 1:16-17 HCSB)

For I am the LORD, who brought you up from the land of Egypt to be your God, so you must be holy because I am holy. (Leviticus 11:45 HCSB)

Then He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to the whole creation. (Mark 16:15 HCSB)

I am not going to take time and expound on these verses because they are pretty cut and dried. I shouldn’t need to explain to you what it means to “be holy” or “defend the rights of the fatherless” or “preach the gospel”. We should all know by now what these things mean and we should all know ways in which to do these things.

Why are we called to these things?

God is an awesome God. I think we would all agree to that statement. God has many reasons for calling us to the things that He has called us to. But there is one that, I think, surpasses them all.

For My own sake, for My own sake, I will act; For how can My name be profaned? And My glory I will not give to another. (Isaiah 48:11 NASB)

God’s glory is ultimately the reason that all things happen. When good things come to pass in our lives, those things were brought about by the divine determination of an all powerful God. But the same holds true for the tragedies that come along.

We all know about the tsunami that wiped out many villages and led to the death of over 100,000 men, women, and children. People are asking, “why?”. What are we to tell them? Do we tell them, “God was just as surprised and shocked as you were that this happened”? If God is an all-knowing God, and all would agree to this I am sure, than telling them that God was surprised is a complete and utter lie. If God is all knowing than nothing is a surprise to Him. What we should tell people, and this is not going to set will with everyone reading this I know, is that we don’t know why this happened other than that everything that happens is for God’s glory and our good. Even for the good of those who were directly effected by it.

God is in complete control of everything that happens. Nothing that happens on this earth is contrary to what His perfect will is. This could lead into the idea of there being multiple wills to God. And I’d love to go there, but I will save that for another day and another time.

My point is, we are called to do what we are called to do because it is what will bring God the most glory.

What attitude are we to have?

Now that we know what we are called to do and why we are called to do it, we will look at the kind of attitude we are called to have toward what we do. I will refer back to the Edwards quote from earlier at this point. I will quote it again here.

“Such little things as Christians commonly do, will not evince much increase of Grace. We must do great things for God.”

The attitude we are called to have is an attitude of greatness. We must do our works knowing that something great is going to come from them. This, in a way, ties into the what. By having an attitude of greatness we are inclined to do great things.

Nothing that God calls us to is small. Even the small things He calls us to are not truly small. When something is for His glory, it’s the biggest thing we can be allowed a part of. God is not obligated to use us to bring Him glory. In fact, if He wanted to, the rocks on the ground would sing His praises. But He created us for His glory and therefore we need to do what we do in such a way that it brings Him the most glory possible.

“We must do great things for God”. Being a seeker-sensitive mega-church is not what God has called us to do. The church should not be trying to draw people in, but the church should be sending people out. A cutting edge worship service anymore is not cutting edge. Everyone has the cheesy, not very talented, rock band. God commands us to trust Him and when He gives you a vision of what to do, take that step of faith and do it.

“We must do great things for God.”

I don’t think this post makes a lot of sense. I am going to come back and edit it later. But in my heart I know that the American church is not doing great things these days. It hurts me deeply that most Christians don’t even give a flip. Forget what is popular and forget what everyone else is doing and go out there and do what God has called you to do. God lays stuff on our hearts and minds for a reason, and that is for us to do something about them.