Do Everything for the Good of Others - 1/19/2025 Sunday Sermon

The Tabernacle Today

Do Everything for the Good of Others - Matthew 5:13-16

5 G Living – Do everything you do…

For the Glory of God

For the Good of your fellow man

To get the Gospel to non-believers

For the Growth of your fellow Christians

With a Grateful heart

The power for 5 G living comes from the power of the triune God, accessed through the outlet of God’s grace when we place our faith in Christ! When we are saved by God’s grace through our faith, we get power for 5 G living.

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your doing; it is the gift of God, not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. - Ephesians 2:8-10

“Common grace includes earthly blessings all people enjoy but that are distinct from the spiritual blessings that only believers enjoy. When we speak of common grace, we are speaking of God’s kindness to all people during their time on earth, regardless of their present status with Him.” -Derek J. Brown

Three Principles of doing good for others

1. We are to act for the good of others

By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. - John 15:8

A phrase I love is the phrase, “Add value!”

And let our people also learn to maintain good works, to meet urgent needs, that they may not be unfruitful. - Titus 3:14

2. We are to do good for others as able in in concentric circles

And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if do not lose heart. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith. - Gal. 6:9-10

But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. - I Timothy 5:8

Husbands, your first neighbor is your wife. Wives, your first neighbor is your husband. The first neighbor you are to show love and respect for is your spouse. Marriage expert Dr. John Gottman says the first key to making marriage work is to “embrace each other’s needs.”

When we experience God’s saving grace, we gain the spiritual power to partake in Jesus Christ’s Great Commission given in Matthew 28 to take the gospel to all peoples. But we also gain the spiritual power to partake in God’s ‘cultural commission’ given in Genesis 1 to be stewards of the earth’s resources for God’s glory, and be agents of common grace for the good of our fellow man.

So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. And God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” - Genesis 1:27-28

3. We are to view all we do for others as done for God

And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him. -Colossians 3:17

And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of an inheritance; for you serve the Lord Christ. - Colossians 3:23-24

There was another phrase that came out of the Reformation – all of life is to be lived Coram Deo – before the face of God!

The glory of young men is their strength, and the splendor of old men is their gray head. - Proverbs 20:29

“Do all the good you can,

By all the means you can,

In all the ways you can,

In all the places you can,

At all the times you can,

To all the people you can,

As long as ever you can.”

-John Wesley