The "Doing Good" Life - Peti Szabad

Sunday sermon recorded on April 26, 2026   

Part of the "Be a Blessing" series.   

Slides used in the sermon: https://drive.google.com/file/d/14RwOu0GEbtMzAg5NNjwFbuTFLM4osqcU/view?usp=drive_link

https://linktr.ee/northpointema

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

This spring, we're doing a series on being a blessing as a church. And we try not to just uh print hoodies with with that slogan, but those those are good reminders. We try to actually engage and provide to be a blessing for the people outside of our church community. To care for them, to love them, to listen to them, to serve them, to connect with them, maybe share the gospel with them as well. Because that is that is why we are here. And uh and today we're there's we're we're actually gonna do an I'm gonna do another sermon on an aspect of what it means to be a blessing for other people. I've got a question to start with though. Okay. Today, if you think about Christianity, there are multiple approaches of how to look at and practice Christianity. Here's a few of them. You know, the believing good life. You make sure that your your belief is right. There's also the feeling good life, you know, me and God, you know, that that kind of stuff. And then the doing good things life, right? My question today is which one is right of all these three things? What do you think?

SPEAKER_05 1:27

I don't think it's just one.

SPEAKER_00 1:29

Ah, all of them, not just one.

SPEAKER_01 1:31

None.

SPEAKER_00 1:33

None of them. Any other thoughts?

unknown 1:39

One and three.

SPEAKER_00 1:40

One and three, okay. Why?

SPEAKER_02 1:44

Because I I feel like when it comes to really just serve and doing what God wants you to do, you don't have to feel it.

SPEAKER_00 1:51

Uh-huh. Sometimes you just gotta do it. Okay? Alright, believe it and do it. Okay? Alejandro, what do you think?

SPEAKER_04 1:56

Well, say exactly those two.

SPEAKER_00 1:58

The second. So compliment it, okay. You've gotta you've gotta have your heart involved. You gotta have your emotions involved as well. Okay, okay. Anyone else? Any thoughts? Yes, I get you. I asked a few. Which one? Like none of them. None of them. Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_02 2:15

Like uh, I think about like feeling good. I think about like your approach to get comes from fate, it's not from works or something.

SPEAKER_00 2:26

It's not from works, it's from fate. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 2:29

So or like obedience being more sacrifice.

SPEAKER_00 2:35

Okay. Alright. Thank you. Rich?

SPEAKER_01 2:38

Yeah, because I know it's a trick question, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:41

You know me! It is a trick question.

SPEAKER_01 2:45

There's just so much more to it. Yeah. You could say all of it, but you have to say none of it.

SPEAKER_00 2:51

None of it, all of it, none of it. It's just it just it's too narrow. Too narrow. Okay, Oscar.

SPEAKER_03 2:57

It brings the thought that mind when the guy with somewhat had called Jesus the good teacher. He says, Why do you call me good? It just brings that to mind. It's like, what is your idea of good? Yeah. Everybody has a different idea of what good is.

SPEAKER_00 3:13

And he Jesus answered, nobody's good but God, right? Yeah, yes. I think uh uh watching your life and doctrine and persevering in both of them. So it's you know, watching how I live and what I believe. Yeah, so belief and doing, yeah, and and uh yeah. It's you know, I know this is a trick question.

unknown 3:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:32

How does a b make sure you believe in good life looks like? What is uh a Christianity? What's what's what's that kind of a Christianity?

SPEAKER_01 3:39

Yeah, like the correct doctrine.

SPEAKER_00 3:41

The correct the right doctrine, okay? Make sure, you know, uh right? That's true. You know, that's some people, you know, some people, you know, no matter how you live, if you believe in your heart uh that that that Jesus is God and and He died for your sins, you're fine, right? Have you ever heard that?

SPEAKER_05 3:57

Yes, right?

SPEAKER_00 3:59

If you just you just just believe and and and you're saved. How does the feeling good life of Christianity look like?

SPEAKER_04 4:09

Lots of emotion.

SPEAKER_00 4:10

Lots of emotion, okay. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 4:14

It's quite subjective.

SPEAKER_00 4:15

Very subjective.

SPEAKER_04 4:19

If you feel good at the church and you buy your love, that's enough. That means you are okay with God.

SPEAKER_00 4:25

Yeah, you go to a service and depending on how it makes you feel, you stay. If not, you go church hopping, go to the next place, to some place that makes you feel this. Oh me and God, we're connected. You know, that that those feelings of connection, right? Uh that there's there's there's there's versions of Christianity like that today, right? That cater to that idea. If you come here and worship with us, you're gonna feel it all. Right? How about the doing good life? Any thoughts?

unknown 4:54

That's objective also.

SPEAKER_00 4:56

That's subjective also.

SPEAKER_01 5:01

Hey, you got your charity, you got your good deeds.

SPEAKER_00 5:03

You got your good deeds, and uh, and you're you're kind of doing some religious activity. Yeah, it can lead to burnout, too. It can lead to burnout if everybody wants to do it. You just keep doing things, right? You know. So obviously, this this this is I I I put these questions up that, but there's Christianity's like just doing things and don't care about how you feel, you know. Here's what our you know, here's what our religious uh lifestyle looks like, and make sure you do all those things. And and I agree, none of those, none of these are all by themselves really the good life. But I'm gonna talk about one of them today that I think most of us do not pay close enough attention, and that's the doing good life. And I'm gonna tell you why I think we're not paying close enough attention to this. Uh and you know, I'm not saying, so hear me out. I'm not saying the other ones are not important. Right. All right? But I want to make sure that that we understand why doing good is part of Christianity. So I got two points. I thought I'm gonna make sure that you know we get we get home for lunch. Uh first question: how did we get here? And uh and that's gonna be a a short, brief explanation of a very brief, of church history. How does how did we get to the point where we have all these versions of Christianity emphasizing some of these different things? Uh, and I'm gonna give you guys my opinion on how we got here.

unknown 6:49

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 6:50

Uh you can agree or disagree, I'll let you decide that. And number two, the second point is doing good is actually being like Jesus. So we'll get there. Let's let's get going. So, how did we get here? Brief church history. I don't know about you guys, I I am fascinated by church history. Uh I I love reading, so that helps uh because church history is a rutter reading. I'm actually auditing a class at Mounton uh Theological Seminary uh this semester on uh the history of the restoration movement, which is the movement that our church comes from. Uh and and this is a movement that started in the early 1800s, and what I like, and I've read books on the history of the restoration movement before, but I like about this class is that we now read a bunch of the original writings of the people that kind of started this movement, and even even writings of people before that from the Reformation and different things. But one of the things when you study church history, you realize church history is a series of reactions and overreactions, it's a bunch of pendulum swings. Things going to one extreme, and then and then that's getting too frustrated for people, and like this is out of whack. So they react, they start a new new revolution, and then they go, No, we're gonna correct this, and what happens? They stop in the middle? No, never. You go all the way emphasizing the the other extreme, and then a couple hundred years later, that becomes uh unbearable to some of some people and go like, this is not right. So they lead another revolution. They go, no, we're gonna do it the other way, and then do what the pendulum does swings the other way. And that's church history. And if you and I think that we're we're not affected by this by it, we're wrong. So let me introduce you to a guy that you're probably familiar with. This guy named Martin Luther. He uh he was uh a monk uh and a and a pre and a uh uh a preacher uh uh serving at a church in Wittenberg, Germany. I actually, as a teenager, had a chance to visit that church and sew the door, uh hope probably a different door at this point, it's not the original door, but the same building, and it still has a a wooden door that he nailed his 95 thesis of why the Catholic Church is wrong when you when you look at it that way. Uh and you know what was he emphasizing? Luther felt like that the Catholic Church has become very humanistic, human-focused. Uh, it was very much focused on people doing different works to earn their salvation. If you uh, and that that's if you sinned, you had to go in and do, you know, some of you guys are familiar with confession. You go in, and what does the priest do? They give you certain things to do or to pray, certain prayers, and to to do penance, as they called it back in those days. So Luther said, that ain't right. We're not, we're not, it's it's it's not by works, it is by faith that we are saved. So, what did he do? He over-emphasized faith to the point that when he translated the Bible to German, and praise God that he translated it to German. I I appreciate all the translations that we get to read the Bible in our own language. What a blessing that is! He actually inserted a word into Galatians 2.16 that is not there in the original Greek, but he felt so strong about it that he put in that word a line in German, which means alone. And in Galatians, the the the original in Greek reads, translate to English, is we know that a man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. But he he put the word in, but just by faith alone. Can you guys see where this is going? How this is becoming polarizing? So the movement Luther started emphasized, put put works against faith. So if if the Catholic Church in the Middle Ages were very humanistic, they had this idea of you have to do things in order to earn forgiveness of sins. That's due penance. It was a guilt-driven uh situation. Your your religion was mainly driven by your admission of sin. Uh you you know, if you attend Catholic services, you know, they still practice this. You stand up and my sin, my great sin, you know. You guys, you guys with me? Come on. And a very diminished understanding of the grace of God. So, what did Luke the Reformation emphasized? Going back to the Bible, we say amen to that, because that is God's word. That's how we know what is right. A better understanding of grace, amen to that. But an over-emphasis and pointing belief versus works or doing good. So the the the movement that Luther started, if you try to do any good works, you were you were the devil. No, no, no. Don't don't you dare do good works. Don't you dare, don't you dare rely on that. It's all by faith, nothing else, just by faith. So that's you guys get where that this is this is you understand how we got here today? And then came another another uh uh movement or or time called the Enlightenment. And this is this started about a century after Luther where thought, reason, science was over-emphasized. A concept in spirituality, philosophy, and psychology related to achieving clarity of perception, reason, and knowledge. The time of the Enlightenment separated man's thoughts from their actions. And if your thoughts and your beliefs are right, that's what matters. That's more important than what you're doing. That all influences today's Christianity, and it influences us. We can think that way. Now, that's how the you know, you just have to feel you have to have faith, you just have to believe right, and you're fine. That's where that is coming from. It's coming from overreactions, started by Luther and some of the other reformers. It it's gotten emphasized by the Enlightenment, and today a lot of people think that Christianity is just having the right set of beliefs, believing in Jesus, and you're fine. And that's what Christianity is. And and how you live, what you do, you know, it's it's grace, it's it's faith, it's okay, God's got you, you know, just believe the right things and you're fine. And that's and that's not what the Bible teaches, actually. There was another reaction that I wanted to let you guys know, and and that that helps us to understand where the the feelings. You make sure your feelings are the right place come from. And uh it started uh uh in the in the the late 1800s. By the time uh Enlightenment and the Reformation was done with uh Christianity, a version of Christianity developed, and especially in the United States, spread that was very cut and dry. It's called the Protestant denominations of the 18th century were focused on reason and the right belief. They had many creeds or statements of beliefs, uh confessions of faith, they called them sometimes. And and every single denomination had their own thing. This is what you gotta believe, this is what you gotta believe, this is what you know, and and that's what it was a very heady, reasonable, uh cerebral view of Christianity. So, you know, people were feeling like that's you know, that's probably not right. You know, they they've seen how Jesus gathered crowds and his preaching move people emotionally in the Bible. So there came uh a couple of these awakenings, and I just wanted to focus on the the you know an event in the second great awakening. Uh this is uh uh a gathering of uh this is how sometimes in the especially in the the the western frontier of the United States in those days, which was probably more around Kentucky and Tennessee at that time and Ohio, so not not all the way to the West, but right we probably wouldn't call that West today. Uh but people, preachers would go around and actually deliver very emotionally moving sermons from the Bible. And you know what happened? People responded. They craved this. This was like, oh, I I'm feeling I'm feeling convicted about my sin. I'm also feeling loved by God, they were crying, they were breaking down, they just they were touched, they they were they were they were emotionally responding to the message of the Bible. Not just a very calm and reasoned understanding of the statements of faith. But something that moves you emotionally, and it it started a movement. Uh it's it's it it started by an overreaction from a very emotionally reserved, uh have the right thinking type of type of idea to a more experiential religion. You've got to experience the love of God. You've got to experience the power of the Holy Spirit. And uh, you know, and and it it what does it do? What does the pendulum do? Swings over. So today there are churches that that that focus only or almost only on the emotional reaction that people have. And and and they equated an emotional response to the message of the Bible with salvation. So this is this is how we get to this. You know, that's why there's these different types of Christianity around today, and and some of them are, you know, some of them can't stand the other. Some of them are pointing fingers, and we and and that's not where I want to go today. I don't want to point fingers. I think I think you know, God asks us to love him with all our heart, all our mind, all our soul, and all of our strength. So all of it is needed, but somewhere in the middle, we gotta find a balanced way. And that's where Jesus comes in the picture. Because Jesus was full of grace and truth. We're humans are not really good at that. We're usually, we usually tend to be out of balance emphasizing something, depending on what we're reacting to. If something is a little more truthful, we feel like, oh no, no, no, no. Let's be a little more gracious here. Like if something is too gracious and it's cheap grace, and you're like, no, no, no, some there's gotta be some lines in the sand here. Come on. You know, does it make sense? Jesus was fully divine and fully human. How did he embody all that? I have no idea. But the Bible teaches both his full divinity and his full humanity. I I'm I appreciate Jesus. So, out of these three, which one did Jesus teach and exemplify? What do you think?

SPEAKER_05 19:48

Hmm?

SPEAKER_00 19:49

All three of them? Did Jesus did Jesus, yeah? Doing good. Doing good? Okay. He actually emphasized all three of them and exemplified it as well. He he told people about believing. He he he challenged the way they believed. You read through the Sermon on the Mount, he's challenging a lot of their beliefs. You know, you heard it was said, but I'm telling you, this is what it is. Yeah, Rich.

SPEAKER_01 20:15

Yeah, just to touch on that, he also preached against believing good to the Pharisees.

SPEAKER_00 20:20

Yeah, just because that was their focus. Yeah, yeah, exactly. He he called us to follow him. Did he love God with all his heart? Yeah. Did he get his emotions involved? I mean, he rejoiced when the disciples came back telling him, oh, we saw the good things. He also wept for Jerusalem after trying to preach the gospel there for many, many times, and still people would just not believe him and not follow him. But I want to focus on the area of doing good today. He taught a parable in Matthew chapter 21 that's very powerful. Matthew chapter 21, verse 28 through 31. Here's what we read. What do you think? You know, Jesus asked questions. He actually only answered six questions that was asked of him and asked over 200 questions from people. And I think Jesus is asking a question of us today. What do you think? There was a man who had two sons. He went to the first and said, Son, go and work today in the vineyard. I will not, he answered. But later he changed his mind and went. Then the father went to the other son and said the same thing. He answered, I will, sir. But he did not go. Which of the two did what his father wanted? The first. They answered. You know, sometimes I find myself emotionally excited about. About following Jesus, listening to a sermon, going to a conference, reading something from my Bible, listening to a podcast or something. And then I go about my day, all the distractions and the things that I have to do about the day, and you know what happens? Nothing. Is this familiar? I'm like the second son. Right? So the challenge is we gotta we gotta understand what God is teaching. We gotta be moved emotionally, but we gotta try to do something with it. Matthew chapter 7, part of the Sermon on the Mount. And this is very challenging. But this is Jesus preaching. He says, Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name? And in your name did drive out demons and perform many miracles. Then I will tell them plainly, I never knew you away from me, you evildoers. You know, that's one of my worst nightmares. To get to the last day, to meet Jesus, and he goes, Who are you? I don't know you. You've not done what I ask you to do. You're the second son. You know, that's that's scary stuff. Now, I don't, you know, I'm not talking about this to scare you into believing or following Jesus. It's just it's just it's just a plain teaching of the Bible. Does it affect us emotionally? It should, right? So knowing what God's will is, that's your belief, is important. Being motivated to do that will is important, but actually doing the will and following through is also non-negotiable. So doing good is being like Jesus.

SPEAKER_03 24:08

Amen.

SPEAKER_00 24:10

You know, in uh about ten, maybe most scholars think about ten years after the start of the church, after the death, the resurrection of Jesus, he ascended to heaven. And ten years later, uh the gospel spread through Jewish people, and he gets to this person named Cornelius, who was a Roman centurion. And there's this guy who's praying, and God sends him an angel. But the angel actually doesn't preach him the gospel. The angel says, why don't you go and get this guy, this apostle named Peter, Simon Peter, over, invite him to your house, and he's gonna tell you how you can be saved, how you can go to heaven. So Peter arrives to this guy, this Roman centurion, and uh and the centurion invites him to his house, he invited his friends and family over to listen to this. Uh, Peter also had to have a vision from God to be able to go into the house of this Gentile who was beyond the limits of God's grace and definitely not worthy of any kind of salvation, is a Gentile, a Roman, the occupying guy in the country. But here's what Peter says as he's teaching this man about Jesus. In Acts chapter 10, verse 36 to 38. He says, You know the message God sent to the people of Israel, telling the good news of peace through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all. You know that has happened, you know what has happened throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John preached, and how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil because God was with him. You know, when Peter preached about Jesus, he didn't just tell that Jesus taught and Jesus healed. He actually taught that Jesus lived a life that was about doing good. Doing good things, doing good to other people. That was Jesus. You know, Jesus didn't do the good things so he can be saved. He did not need to be saved, he did not sin, he was God. Yet he did those good things. And this is the problem. Sometimes we think if we do good things, we're doing them to earn God's favor, to gain something from God. And then and the Bible actually corrects that belief. Paul teaches the church in Ephesus in chapter 2, verse 8 through 10. For it is by grace you have been saved through faith. So, yes, that's high works. And this is not from yourself. You did not you did not make this happen for you. It is the gift of God, not by works. So all the good that you do will never earn you a seat at heaven.

SPEAKER_05 27:25

That's right.

SPEAKER_00 27:26

And if you think that's what happens, that's wrong. The Bible corrects that so that no one can boast. For we are God's workmanship creating Christ Jesus for what? To do good works. When we come to Jesus, we're not accepted because we already done all these great works. We're accepted because we come to Jesus in humility, confessing our sins, expressing our need for forgiveness, making him the Lord of our lives, submitting our entire lives to him, responding with our emotions to the love that he showed on the cross when he died for us, understanding that he's right and I'm wrong no matter what the topic is. But then when we when we come to, we're accepted by that, by God's favor. But once we are accepted, it's not time to lay down and put our feet up and you know, turn on YouTube or whatnot, and and just, hey, can't wait for heaven to come. I'll be here. Check out. We're safe for following Jesus. For good works. Not that we're earning anything with those good works. We're not doing those good works to get another pat on the back from God. We're doing the good works because that's God's will. That's that's the life God called us to live out. He prepared those for us. That's the life to do good like Jesus did. Paul writes this letter to the Corinthians, and and you know, Paul, the apostle Paul had a pretty good understanding of God's grace. And sometimes we put these two things against each other, grace and works. But that's the Protestant idea of overreacting, the pendulum. Too much works, too much grace. You know, how does it find how did how did Paul see this? He writes to the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 15. He says, For I am the least of the apostles, and do not even deserve to be called an apostle because I persecuted the church of God. How did I get here? It's all by the grace of God, right? How would God pick somebody that was good that was trying to kill Christians? You know, talk about the grace of God. He says, But by the grace of God I am what I am. And here's what comes next. But his grace to me was not without effect. And then you kind of think, oh, his grace forgave my sins, assured my salvation, made me godly, and you know, put me in the in the in the in a place of of the heavenly realms. No, what does he say the effect of grace is? He says, no, I worked hard. Harder, not with, you know, not harder than all of them. He understood that because I was given this grace, I'm here to pass this on. I'm here to to do something good with this. Yet not I, but the grace of God that was in me. It wasn't, it wasn't look at me, how great of a guy I am. I'm Paul, I'm the apostle, all these things that I've done. He's like, no, no, no. I'm doing all these things because I understand how gracious God is. And and his grace moves me to do these things. Not to earn anything more, but to to honor God with my life, to make a difference in this world for God's glory. And it's not me. I'm not the source of this. This is from the grace of God. And a couple concluding thoughts. You know, the Bible talks about in the Sermon of the Month that we are the light of the world. That's what we need to be. That's who we are. You know, it's kind of like a little bit of a tension between those two. The Bible says we are the light of the world, yet we don't always feel like the light of the world. Right? And and how how can we be the light of the world? In Matthew 5, here's what it says. 14 through 16. You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. You know, talk about waste of energy, right? You light a lamp and cover it up so it doesn't, there's no light coming. I hope you don't do that. Instead, they put it on a stand and it gives light to everyone in the house in the same way. Let your light shine. So Jesus says, You are the light. If you are a Christian, if you're a follower of Jesus, you are the light of this world. Now the challenge, let your light shine. How? That you may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.

SPEAKER_01 32:27

Come on, Betty.

SPEAKER_00 32:29

That's how people see our light. That's right. It's not by us telling people I'm a Christian or putting a fish sticker in the back of our car. You know, that's that that's that's not it. It's not checking a little box when uh the census comes around. You know, what do you claim? Christian. It's not even just coming to church on Sundays. Although I'm glad you guys are here. I'm really happy. But it's it's living a life of good deeds.

SPEAKER_04 33:03

Come on.

SPEAKER_00 33:04

And and the good deeds that you don't take credit for, but you point to God, like Paul said. The hard work I do, that's not me. That's the grace of God who's with me. The things I do, why do you do this? Because of Jesus. When you do good things and people marvel at why are you doing this? That's an amazing opportunity to talk about God. So the challenge the Bible gives to Christians, and this is going back to Galatians 6, verse 10. This is my last scripture. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers. Amen? Do you have opportunity?

unknown 33:51

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 33:52

Now, some of us are too busy. And we need to create a life that has opportunity to do good. If you have overcommitted yourself in uh other pursuits, then maybe you're not living a life that does good, or maybe maybe the light is covered by that bowl of overcommitment. Maybe you need to kind of give up some of those things so your light can shine. Now, sometimes life just, you know, sometimes you just gotta get pushed through a hard hard time. I understand that too, okay? It's not it's not a it's not always a straight line. Here's a few questions uh that I I wrote after after I uh this sermon says, which part of my Christianity do I emphasize focus on? Belief, emotions, or deeds? Uh it's a good question. It's a self-awareness question. Which one is automatically more important to me? And maybe I'm neglecting some of the other ones. Uh for the first three years of my Christianity, I completely neglected emotions. I felt like Judge Dredd. Emotions, they should be outlawed. You know? They just complicate things. Right? But but but that was that was not healthy. All right. How can I find a more balanced approach to following Jesus? What do I need to work on? How can a better understanding of the grace of God motivate me to do good? What opportunities do I see for doing good in my life right now? What is one good deed that I can do this week? Not just to not not not to feel like, you know, this again going back to some of the religious ideas. I've done my good deed. You know, that's what I'm talking about. I'm talking about honoring God by living a life of good deeds. But pick something this week that you can focus on and practice doing good for the glory of God. Thank you so much.