What it takes to finish God’s work is less complicated than one might think. The key of our success is found in what Jesus did and encourages us to do.

GCAEC 1st Annual Elders' Retreat

<p>What it takes to finish God’s work is less complicated than one might think. The key of our success is found in what Jesus did and encourages us to do.</p>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

Georgia-Cumberland Adventist Elders Consortium (GCAEC)

Victor Maddox

How to Finish God’s Work

You realize that this is a huge topic, right?

That there are a lot of things that can be said about finishing God's work.

And I believe that many of us sit in this room, you've been part of all types of evangelistic efforts and outreach and programs and things like that.

And you've seen, you know, different results from these different modes and ways of evangelizing.

Today, I want to just focus on an aspect of finishing God's work that I believe is extremely important because it's not it's not a methodology that is out there you know where the professional is brought in to do the work, but it's something much closer to home.

And I think it's something that is much more biblical when we look at what Christ actually encouraged us to do before he left the earth.

And I think this is really the very first step in really attempting to finish God's work.

It's nothing exciting or unusual about it.

This is a quote, I can't find where I received this quote, but I think the most important aspect, the most important step in attempting to finish this work is that right there, be Christian and be proud of it.

Now for some reason in society today, you know, there are, there's a lot of negativity towards Christians.

You know, people look at you and they shut you down.

They don't want to have anything to do with you.

They look at you as being weird and outdated and all.

And because of that, a lot of us believers we tend to keep our lips zipped, mouth shut.

We try to draw as little attention to our religion and our beliefs as possible.

So we'll stand around at work, we'll hang out at the water cooler, we kind of blend in, whatever the conversation is, whatever people are talking about, you know, we don't in any way try to influence that in a more loving, Christ-like manner.

It's not like you're correcting people, but you know you're looking at things from a different perspective.

You don't see things the way other people see.

You see people who are, you see people as people in need of salvation and love and trust and new beginnings.

I didn't say we have to be bold about it, but we have to be comfortable living for Jesus Christ, no matter what situation we find ourselves in.

It says, live your life in such a way that is intriguing.

Invoking someone's curiosity, live a questionable life that makes people wonder, who are they?

So if there's some event happening on your job or in your neighborhood or community where people are responding in a very hopeless or angry manner, then as Christians, you must wrestle with God.

When I was working for Xerox, I took a guy out to train him, you know, how to do the job that I was doing.

And, I got a flat tire on my car and I said, oh man, I got a flat tire.

And while I'm changing the tire in my mind, I'm just thinking, you know what?

Maybe God is saving me from an accident down the road.

Maybe this delay is good because maybe the person I'm going to go see is not going to be there.

So I changed the tire, put everything away, cleaned myself up.

And the guy who I was training, he's standing there, and he's looking at me.

I said, well, it wasn't going to change itself.

I said, if that was me, I would have been kicking and cursing and screaming the whole time that I was changing that tire.

I said, well, you know, When you view life the way I view it, things like this doesn't matter.

And I was able to talk to him more about my Christian beliefs because I'm attempting to live and be proud of them.

I'm not preaching, I'm not telling people, you don't need to be doing that, you need to put that Snickers candy bar down, you don't need to be cussing at your wife, I'm not doing that.

But I'm allowing Christ to live through me.

As I said last night, this is something that comes from above.

You know, you can try to live right with willpower, but the whole idea is to connect yourself with God.

Let God, let Christ, let the Holy Spirit do what it does in your heart, in your life.

And When people look at you, they're not looking to see how you dress, they're not looking to see what you eat and all that kind of stuff.

What they see goes beyond those external things.

What they see in you when you are filled with Christ is something you might not be able to understand, but they notice it.

And that's what the world needs to see more of.

Authentic people who believe what they believe and they live according to it.

Oh, I can tell you about the Sabbath, I can tell you about the 3 angels' message, but it's about people being able to look and see Christ in you.

And that's a very rare thing in today's world.

I'm spending a lot of time on this because this is, I think, the most important way for us to finish the work, and that is to be authentic, true Christians and being proud of it.

Living the life that Christ has given to us, allowing him to live through us.

For a while, I was a fan of this person called Ricky Smiley, I think that's his name, radio guy.

You know, he goes to church and stuff and he has some pranks that he plays, especially on church people.

So he would call up folk who go to church And he would act like he's someone else.

And I remember this 1 time he called this lady and said, you know, I was in church and I had my shoes on and your daughter was very disrespectful to me.

Well, she stepped on my shoe and she broke the crown and she didn't say excuse me and so the lady's like you know very Christian cuz she's a church goer well I'm so sorry to hear that well you know it must have something to do with her her upbringing because she's so rude And you hear the other lady on the line trying to be nice and calm.

But as the conversation goes on, the person who you know is a church goer, who's a Christian, they become upset.

And they begin to reach back and start to pull up words that sailors use and it happens time after time after time on this show and I asked God why why can't people be authentic Why does the Christian have to be the 1 that gives in when the pressure's on, when things are not going well, when the person at the post office is not paying enough attention to you.

When the food comes cold, when you're sitting at the restaurant, when the veggie links are not, you know, there's not 12 in there, 1 is missing, or whatever is happening, somehow Christ has to get a hold of us deeper than just our exterior.

Because what the world needs to see is what real, true, genuine Christianity is all about.

When you ask the question, why does this happen?

My people are satisfied with the level of knowledge that they have of me, but if they would take time, there is so much more for them to know, so much more that I can do for them, So much more that is available, so much more powerful that can transform their lives to the depths of their souls.

Allowing Christ to become a part of our experience.

Every part of it, not just a, you know, 7 day, on the seventh day of the week, a little bit of time on Wednesday night prayer meeting, but every aspect of our lives, invite him to be a part of it.

I even tell young folk, I even tell, I have a couple of young adults, I tell them, I say, if you're gonna sin, I said, make sure you take Christ with you.

How to Finish God’s Work

Transcript

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