“Winners and Losers”
(Scripture Readings
Greetings, brothers and sisters! During the final week of the second Special
Session of the Louisiana Legislature, I gave the following message entitled “Winners
and Losers” (with
only slight changes here):
There is no other
foundation but Christ. (vs. 11) The foundation is eternal life in Christ. What is eternal life? Our Savior prayed, “And this is eternal life, that they know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You
have sent.” (John
17:3). To have eternal life is to have a never-ending, love relationship with
God, and it is only through trusting in the sacrificial death of Christ for us
that we can have this life. Jesus says, “I am the way and the truth and the
life. No one comes to the Father but
through Me.”
But we are to be
wise in the way that we build upon that foundation. (vs. 12 – recognizing primary ref. to
doctrinal teaching)
Every day you and I are building with either “gold, silver, precious
stones” or “wood, hay, and straw.” Moment by
moment, we are thinking, speaking,
and acting in one of two ways: either in ways that
are of supreme and permanent value to God or in
ways that are worthless in His sight and
will be destroyed by Him.
What characterizes those thoughts,
words, and actions that God values?
Faith and love. Faith is
expressed through continual prayer and conscious submission of oneself to
God: “And without faith it is impossible to
please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.”
(Hebrews 11:6) And the Apostle
Paul says, “For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.” (Romans
14:23) Love is a profound spirit of
giving and forgiving in relating to others:
“If
I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy
gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic
powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all
faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not
love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up
my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.” (1
Corinthians 13:1-3)
One
day God will “reveal” the value of our words and actions as He will test them
“by fire,” i.e., by His divine judgment. (vs. 13) The Apostle Paul seeks to prepare us for that
day, saying, “For we must all appear before the Judgment Seat of Christ that
each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has
done, whether good or bad.” (2 Corinthians 5:10)
Our
Lord’s examination will lead to either rewards or loss of rewards. (vs. 14-15)
The Apostle says, “If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives,
he will receive a reward. If anyone's work
is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as
through fire.” Jesus says: “Lay up for yourselves treasures in
heaven.”
A legislative
session has just ended. There has been
and will be much talk and many articles written about winners and losers. But who will the real winners and losers
be? The winners will be the ones who, hour by hour,
laid up much reward in heaven by thinking, speaking, and acting in faith and love. And the losers will be those who focused on
themselves: the ones who placed their
confidence in themselves and sought their own glory and did not walk, step by
step, in love for all of the people in our city, our state, our nation, and our
world. The word for this godly love
“agape” was well translated “charity” in some of the older translations because
this kind of love gives and forgives. Merriam-Webster defines “charity” as “love
for others” and as “the giving of aid to the needy.” It also includes this definition: “kindliness in judging others,” and offers
this quote by Mark Twain in A Connecticut
Yankee: “I pray you mercy of my
fault, and that ye will of your kindness and your charity forgive it.”
If
we are honest, we all realize that there have been days on which, in varying
degrees, we have lost our opportunities to live in faith and love: our works
were “wood, hay, and straw.” So what do we do?
We confess our failures, and we experience God’s forgiveness. We also
give thanks to Him for every moment that, by His grace, we truly won the day,
laying up “gold, silver, and precious stones” in heaven. Then we resolve to lay hold of today and tomorrow with all of our
hearts, thinking, speaking, and acting with true faith in God and sincere love
for all people, especially those most in need. Jesus says, “Behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to
render to every man according to what he has done.” (Rev. 22:12)
THANK YOU so much for your financial support and
for your prayers for us! We are very grateful!
In the love
of our Savior,
Rod and Bec
