Most pulpits preach the same message over and over whether they realize it or not. That message is an indication of what they believe matters most. I’m convinced that the majority of pulpits preach that what matters most is what we do for God. I’ve always been under the impression that it’s what God did for us that is the most important thing. Another way of saying this might be to ask if the message I’m hearing or reading is giving me something to do or something to believe that will change my perspective as a whole and work its way out in new ways of thinking and living.
Here are two biblical thoughts for you to consider and hopefully believe. The first is from the Old Testament. God tells His people in so many words, “I carry you, you don’t carry me!” This is important because all the other gods of the day were idols on carts that needed to be carried and served and taken care of. But in the entire history of the world there is only one God who works on behalf of His people, while the people work on behalf of their idols. In Isaiah 64:4 we read, “Since ancient times no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who acts on behalf of those who wait for him.” And again in Isaiah 46:1-4, “Listen to me, O house of Jacob, all the remnant of the house of Israel, who have been borne by me from before your birth, carried from the womb; even to your old age I am He, and to gray hairs I will carry you. I have made, and I will bear; I will carry and will save.”
Second, from Mark 10:45, Jesus explains, “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.” The big point here is that what God has done for us is what matters most, not what we do for Him. Focusing on the message of God’s love and salvation given to us through Christ’s sacrifice on the cross is something we increasingly appreciate as it increasingly works upon our hearts and minds, changing us from the inside.