Today’s Podcast
Today’s Bible reading plan:
Read it in a year – Job 39-40
see the whole year’s plan [here](http://www.bible-reading.com/bible-plan.pdf)
Today’s Devotional
Matthew 21:42-44
Jesus: I wonder if any of you has ever opened your own psalter:
The stone that the builders rejected
has become the very stone that holds together the entire foundation.
This is the work of the Eternal One,
and it is marvelous in our eyes.
Therefore, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to people who will tend its sweet fruit and who will give the Creator His due. He who falls on the stone will be broken to pieces, and he on whom the stone falls will be crushed.
What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?
If there was ever any question in the chief priests and elders’ minds about who Jesus was talking to when He talked about the landowner of the vineyards and the tenant workers who killed the landowner’s son, this statement cleared it up for them. Jesus took a passage out of the Psalms and aimed it square in their faces. He announced they would lose the kingdom of God and it would be given to people who would tend to it the way God intended.
You think that might have smarted a little when Jesus told them those words? You think they might have been a little embarrassed to get chastised by this man in front of the very crowds who followed Him. These were the same people they had taken offerings from for years. They had told these people how to live their lives, how to obey the laws God handed to Moses on the tablets of stone, how to practice the rituals set up through the centuries. These same people now heard this uneducated preacher from Nazareth dare to tell them they would lose the kingdom of God and it would be handed over to others who would care for it better than they could. How dare He make such statements, and especially in public places.
Jesus kind of stepped on their toes, well, he kind of stomped all over them. He let them know God’s kingdom is more than rules and regulations and rituals. God’s kingdom is about relationship with the Father and relationships with each other. It’s about grace and mercy and love. But that message went to the heart of the chief priests and elders in Jesus’ day, right?
Well, maybe. Do we act any different? Do we get so caught up in our programs and schedules and rituals and church rules that we forget what we’re really doing and why we do them? Do we put our processes above the reason for doing them in the first place? Do we get so set in the routine of our services and our ministries that we leave God out altogether?
Sometimes I wonder if God would be pleased with the focus we have in our churches and our ministries. Oh, we do some good things. But do we do them in the name of Jesus or to get our brand elevated in the eyes of the market? Do we feed the homeless making sure nothing has our church name on it or do we put a banner up and advertise who is helping? There’s a good question for you.
Why do we do the things we do in ministry? Is it really to serve others or to serve ourselves? Do we want to do good and help others or are we trying to buy that ticket into heaven? James tells us faith without works is dead and I agree with Him. And quite frankly, no one looking in from the outside can tell the difference between someone doing good works because of their faith or someone who is doing good works to try to attain favor. The outcome for the person receiving the help is the same. It looks alike to the person being fed or clothed or taught or housed. It’s just good works to them.
But God sees our heart. He knows what’s on the inside. He knows why we do what we do. Do we act out of love or duty? Do we feel the necessity to help others because God prompts us or because we have this inner ego that wants others to see how good we are to others? Only we and God know the answer to that question. We can fool everyone else for a long time, but there will be a day of reckoning and Jesus words will still be true.
If we don’t give the Creator His due, Jesus warning will happen to us just as it did to those religious leaders who worked so hard to push Him out of the way 2,000 years ago. “The kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to people who will tend its sweet fruit and who will give the Creator His due. He who falls on the stone will be broken to pieces, and he on whom the stone falls will be crushed.”
You don’t want to find yourself under the weight of that stone. It’s much more than you can bear.
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