DAILY DEVOTIONAL – January 20, 2020
“Recycle the Love”
Prayer: Lord Jesus Your love is perfect and all-sufficient to save. As we strive to follow You Lord, inspire our hearts and work Your Spirit in and through us to love others as You first loved us. Amen.
Scripture: Matthew 25:31-40
31 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. 32 Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. 34 Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, 36 I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ 37 Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? 38 And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? 39 And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ 40 And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’
Devotional – “Recycle the Love”
One of my favorite TV shows is the show entitled “How It’s Made”. It’s a Discovery Channel documentary that reveals the behind the scenes processes behind the manufacturing of everyday products and items. Every morning I wake up, I enjoy a cup of coffee with my personal devotional and then browse through YouTube clips of some of my favorite shows. This morning I stumbled across a clip from “How It’s Made” that followed the process of recycling aluminum cans.
The Novelis Company has built the largest aluminum recycling center in the world, located in Nachterstedt, Germany. The Novelis plant recycles more than 400,000 metric tons of aluminum scrap metal a year. It’s incredible to watch the process of millions of aluminum cans being shredded, sifted, melted down and poured into newly recycled aluminum monoliths that are then reheated and made into a whole variety of new products. The most fascinating part of the documentary was the diverse ways recycled aluminum is used. Not only is it repurposed for making new aluminum cans, but it is also used to make household products, car parts, toys and the same recycled aluminum is even sent to NASA, who uses it to build real parts for satellites and other space-bound vehicles that are rocketed into space.
As the plant manager said in the documentary, “Quite literally, that soda can that you recycle could be on its way to orbit!” Fascinating isn’t it? Who would have thought that something as simple as recycling is as also as complicated as rocket science?
As I thought about this, I couldn’t help but be struck by how big an impact one small aluminum can has on so many different areas of life, and how such a simple act has such a big effect.
You know friends, what’s true of recycling aluminum cans is true about the small acts of kindness and mercy we are capable of performing each and every day; except unlike aluminum, our small acts of kindness could prove to influence eternity.
In our text for today from Matthew 25, Jesus is telling us about the final day of judgement and what it will be like. As Jesus said, the first thing He will do is separate the sheep from the goats; the faithful from the unfaithful. This is a crucial and very important key to properly understanding this text. While Jesus does in fact praise the sheep, the faithful ones, for their good works and acts of kindness, the judgement and separation of the sheep and goats happens before works are addressed. We are not saved by works, only by faith in Christ, however, good works are a necessary consequence and result of faith in Christ. If we keep reading in the text, we will see that the goats, the unfaithful, are judged by the same works as the sheep, except the goats failed to do these good works. The goats were not condemned because of their lack of good works, but they were judged and separated first as unfaithful and it was the lack of good works that was the evidence of that unfaithfulness.
Although good works do not save us, God calls His people to live lives of good works because it is through those simple acts of kindness and acts of mercy that God testifies to the hearts of the hopeless. Paul talks about this explicitly in Ephesians chapter 2 when he says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
Notice that these good works that Jesus talks about and judges by in Matthew 25 are not monumental works like solving world hunger or bringing an end to crime, but they are small works like feeding one hungry stomach and visiting one person locked up in prison. Much like something as common and simple as recycling has the potential to yield much larger benefits, it is the small and most commonly overlooked acts of kindness that often yield the biggest positive impact on a person’s heart and soul. Small acts of love and compassion result in the largest audiences who are now more willing to listen to the life-saving message of Jesus Christ; and it is the death and resurrection of Jesus that is the real Good Work that saves.
I very much like how author Kent Crocket talks about this in his book entitled “Making Today Count for Eternity.” Kent says:
“We’ve got to start thinking differently about what matters to God…Imagine a soldier who is wounded while courageously rescuing his fellow soldiers. When he returned home, he was rewarded with a Medal of Honor for his service. What motivated him to put his life in danger and risk his life to save his friends’ lives and defend his country’s freedom? He wasn’t thinking, “I’m going to put my life in jeopardy so that I will receive a medal.” The reward [of a medal] was simply the nation’s way of showing appreciation for his heroic actions.
Reward should no more be our motivation for serving God, than receiving a medal should motivate a soldier for saving his comrades in battle. Hebrews 11:6 says that God is a rewarder of those who seek Him, not the rewards. Our calling is to love and please God, and He will take care of the rewarding part. We serve God because we love Him and our fellow man. We don’t serve for the reward, but for the Lord.”
Friends, by faith in Christ and love for God you and I have the awesome privilege of being able to carry out the good works God has planned in advance for us to do. What makes a work good is not the size or complexity of the work, but who is doing the work. When we seek God and love Him and live our lives faithfully toward Him, He has promised to work in and us through us. Through the eyes of faith, we will see all of the little and simple ways we can bless someone in our lives. As it says in 1 John 4:19, “We love because he first loved us.” Recycle the love my friends.
Well thanks for joining me today for another devotion in God’s Word, and remember, that God has forgiven yesterday, is with you today and has already taken care of tomorrow. Amen.
