If we look at Luke 4:19 , we see an interesting episode in the beginning of Jesus' ministry while He was in the flesh, here on earth. Jesus was to read from the book of the prophet Isaiah. He found the place of a certain prophecy and begins to read from it. But abruptly, He stopped reading when He had come to the portion “…to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord” and then closed the book. If we turn to the book of Isaiah and see these verses, the prophecy continues “…to proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God;”
It is significant for us to know that Jesus closed the book before proclaiming 'the day of vengeance'; because it is still in the future; still ahead. We can stop to consider where Jesus stopped, and know that we are living in the times of God's favor and continue to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. The day of vengeance is certain, when God's judgment and wrath is poured out. We see this in the book of Revelation. But for now, we're still living in the times of grace. Today I would like to share of His goodness and mercy and about all fruitfulness and blessings that we can experience in these times of grace.
Plentiful times!
Jesus said, “I must work the works of Him who sent Me while it is day; the night is coming when no one can work” (John 9:4). We're still in the sunshine of God's favor. We must examine and experience and exploit all of God's favor upon us to work the works of God. Night follows the day. Years of famine follows years of plenty. We see it happened during Joseph's time; when the Pharaoh had a dream. Joseph interpreted the dream and gave wise counsel on how to manage the plentiful season. There is also another prophecy in the Old Testament. It talks of famine – not of food, but of God's word. We must comprehend that right now we're in the times of ‘plenty’ with regard to God's word. We find many Christian literatures, resources for knowing and teaching; we have the Bible available in many languages. We must store up God's word in our hearts in these plentiful times.
Psalm 65: 11 says, “You crown the year with Your goodness, and your paths drip with abundance”. There is going to be a bounty this year-an year of abundance. And we will experience fruitfulness in this New Year. In Psalm 103, the psalmist says, 'Bless the Lord, O my soul' and then, 'He satisfies your mouth with good things'. So that's what we can be thankful for! Even before we see the blessings, we can start to bless the Lord. In the New Year eve service, I talked about being fruitful. God wants us to be fruitful – ‘to bear much fruit’ (John 15). We can open our hearts to God’s pruning, that we may bear much fruit. There are no short-cuts to Christian maturity. And we can’t bear fruit ourselves. We have to be attached to Jesus-the true Vine. In Gal. 5:22, we see the ‘fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace…etc’
The fruit of the Spirit
You know, if you consider the fruit of the Spirit, you find that it is not producible apart from God. For example, you cannot manufacture peace by yourself. You can try to isolate yourself, seek a lonely place; but no! Peace does not come like that! It’s like holding a defect-free, perfectly manufactured electric bulb in your hands and hoping that it would glow somehow. But it won’t! Until you plug it to the electric supply. If you want peace, you have to get connected to the Prince of peace! And His peace floods your soul, a peace that passes understanding! In a similar manner is Joy. Do you expect to produce ‘joy’ by partying all night? Or can you buy it some place? But we can come to God, and know that ‘in His presence, there is fullness of joy’. The secret is to abide in Him!
The fruits of righteousness
Paul writes to Philippians saying, “being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God” (Phil. 1:11 ). Hold fast to the seed of God’s word for it is able to produce the fruits of righteousness. ‘The good ground’ are those who ‘hear God’s word and accept it and bear fruit; some thirtyfold, some sixty and some a hundred’ (Mar 4:20 ). James talks of the wisdom from above, that is ‘full of mercy and good fruits’ (James 3:17 ). Give due diligence to God’s word; heed the warnings written therein. Be wise. Be merciful. Forgive! Let go! Forgive others freely. Because freely you have received forgiveness! Each year is an extended period of God’s mercy and grace. God wants us to be changed from glory to glory; to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. God does not want us to remain in the same place and position year after year in our relationships.
Fruitfulness in our work
God has promised to bless the work of our hands. We need His blessings! We read in Psalm 127, “Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it”. All our labor will be vain, unless the Lord blesses the work of our hands. You see, the world may think differently. We find the so-called ‘self-made’ individuals who have ‘made it’ in life! All their wealth and possessions, they boast, are by their own intelligence and hard-work. In the ‘kingdom of God 1:10 talks about ‘being fruitful in every good work’.
Fruitfulness in the ministry
God is interested in blessing our ministry. Paul talks of ‘fruit from my labor’ in Phil 1:22. Peter was an expert fisherman before he met Jesus. But one morning, he was a dejected man, because he had no fruit from his labor-‘He toiled all night’, but ‘caught nothing’. Jesus told him, to launch out into the deep. And when Peter saw that in obeying Jesus, their nets were full, he fell down at Jesus knees. Jesus told him, “From now on, you will catch men”. And what a change in Peter’s life from that day on! He stood up as the natural leader among the disciples on the day of Pentecost. He had learned to simply trust God and obey. In the entire history, it was a brand new experience in the Holy Spirit! Yet He knew it was from God and that he was called to minister to thousands on that day. It is not by our own intelligence, work or strength, but the Spirit of God working in us.
It is not only a chosen few for the ministry, but each one according to the gift he has received is called to minister to one another in the house of God. In my own life, I can testify, that from 15 years on when I accepted Jesus Christ as my Savior, I have been involved in some kind of ministry. And I encourage you to use whatever you have to minister. God will make it fruitful. Start now. For now is the acceptable time. Otherwise we will see years and years pass by, without being fruitful. It’s never too early and never too late to minister. Young or old, you can start to minister according to the grace given to you. You may think, ‘I have to be more spiritual to minister’. But give whatever you have-nothing is too little for the Lord if you have a willing heart.
Ephesians 2:12 says, before we knew Christ we were “…having no hope and without God in the world”. But now we know Christ. So when we look at 2010, we must have hope because, we have our God with us. We have met Jesus. And He has promised never to leave us. Therefore, we can be filled with hope all through the year. We don’t know what 2010 will bring us; but we know God is on the throne. That God is the authority in heaven and on earth. That Jesus is the King of kings and Lord of lords! We need not face the challenges of 2010 alone. The Lord of hosts is with us! The God of Jacob is our stronghold!
He will bear us on eagle's wings! Maybe it will require us to come out of our comfort zones. That's what the eagle does to the young ones! Push them out of the nests! And swoop down to carry them again in case they do not manage to fly! God has promised that ‘When you walk through the waters, I will be with you. The waters will not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, it shall not harm you’. It is not a question of ‘if’ you walk! It is just a matter of ‘when’ you walk…We know the story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-Nego. When they were put in the fire, there was a fourth ‘Man’ with them. And they came out unscathed from the fire. Gold is refined in the fire. It will be pure and priceless after it passes through the fire.
Don't live a life independent of God. We can learn to trust Him, lean on Him. He is utterly faithful.
Let me conclude with the verse in Romans 15:13 which says, “Now may the God of all hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit”
Therefore have hope for this New Year! Shall we pray?
Thank you O God for your presence. We know it is all sufficient if You go with us and Your presence is with us. Fill us, O God, with all hope. Speak your word to every brother and sister’s situation, that they may have joy and peace and that we as your children may accomplish all that you have kept for us. Thank you for crowning this year with bounty and satisfy our mouth with good things. With faith and confidence we pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
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