Field Notes is your daily 5-minute briefing designed to take Sunday's truth and put it to work Monday through Friday. Grab your gear and get ready for a daily rundown, challenge, and action step that will equip you to live intentionally for the Kingdom.
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
0:00
|
5:39
If you’ve ever wanted to serve but hesitated because you didn’t want to look like a show-off or you were terrified of failing, this Friday Field Notes devo is for you. I’m Josh, and I’m taking a clear look at Ephesians 2:8-10 to reset the order: you’re saved by grace through faith, and then you’re created in Christ Jesus for good works God already prepared. That means your next act of service isn’t a tryout for God’s approval, it’s a step into what he’s already been building in you.
We also tackle the Matthew 6 tension head-on. Jesus says not to let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, but that doesn’t mean Christians must stay silent about every good work. The real warning is about motive: don’t build a personal kingdom, don’t turn generosity into a brand, and don’t point people back to you. When there’s “no hope in me” but there’s real hope in the Father, the goal of serving becomes simple: make Jesus known.
To make it practical, I share an illustration about rebuilding an old engine with my son and why big, overwhelming work feels different when a father is right there helping. That’s the heart of discipleship and service without fear: God is already walking with you, and faith isn’t just believing facts, it’s doing the good works in front of you.
Listen, choose one serving opportunity today, and then let me know what step you’re taking. If this encourages you, subscribe, share it with a friend, and leave a quick review so more people can find Field Notes.
Good morning and welcome to Field Notes, a five-day devo from right here at Mission Scent. Remember, you can always hear the latest sermon at missionscent.org forward slash church or wherever you listen to podcasts. FieldNotes is taking daily discipleship by breaking down the sermon into bite-sized one-step pieces so that we continue discipleship throughout the week. Let's jump into it. Welcome back to Field Notes. I am your host, Josh. I I was gonna have a great grand performance there, but yeah, all the words just left. Happy Friday though. You made it, you're at the end of the week. Hopefully you you you shared one resource, you shined, you took the veil off yesterday, and today you're just excited and ready to get back into it to do the same
thing. Well, today on day five, we are created for good works without fear. Our scripture references from Ephesians 2, 8 through 10, and it says this for by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing. It is the gift of God, not a result of work, 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. See, we often get tripped up by Matthew six, because in Matthew six, like Jesus is coming right out of everything we're talking about, and and there's a lot more that comes up in Matthew 5, but he's coming out of what we're talking about, and then in Matthew 6, 3, he shifts it and he goes, When you give, do not let your left hand know what the right hand is doing. See, we wrongly assume that this means we can never share, post, or talk about our good works. But that isn't what Jesus is warning about in Matthew 6. Jesus in Matthew 6 is talking about building our own personal kingdoms by being a show-off, by by pointing people back to us. And here's the thing there's no hope in me. I'm gonna let you down, I'm gonna disappoint you, I'm gonna say things you disagree with. There is absolutely no hope in me. However, we do good works not for our own kingdom and not to point at ourselves, not to make a personal brand or a kingdom. We do good works to point to our Father who is in heaven. See, when Jesus is talking about this, he knows our true heart's desire is to make Jesus known. So how do we make him known if we can't share anything about it? See, and that's the dilemma some of us find us in. But Paul tells us in Ephesians that we were created in Christ Jesus specifically to do good works. And because God prepared these works beforehand, listen, it completely removes any fear you should have a failing.
The the example I gave at church is this JT is currently building an engine that is more than twice his age. He wasn't even a thought in my mind when the the people in Detroit started putting this cast iron together. And you know what? JT doesn't have to have all the answers because he's not building it alone. Not only does he have me, who I've already rebuilt engines before, but we also have this magical thing called the internet, where you can literally find a solution to any mechanical problem we're gonna find. See, JT doesn't have to be afraid taking on this overwhelming project because his father is here to help him. And as Christians, we need to understand that God is already there walking with you. See, we don't have to have the anxiety. We don't have to be afraid, we don't have to understand all of how everything's going to work. We just got to take the step God's putting in front of us to take now.
Furthermore, our faith isn't just believing that facts are true. In the book of James, it tells us that you believe God is one, you do well, but even the demons believe and shudder. See, it's not, do I believe all of these facts? It's because I believe all of these facts, because I know it's true, because Jesus is exactly who Jesus claimed to be, I will do. I will do the good works that God has put in front of me to do. That's what faith is. Faith isn't this blind hoping, and maybe I'm right. It is sitting here going, I know my God is greater, and therefore, yep, I'm gonna feed the hungry, I'm gonna clothe the naked, I'm gonna put myself out because God is greater than me.
So today, our challenge is are you using humility as an excuse for silence and inaction? Are you holding back from serving because you're afraid of failing? Today, commit to one serving opportunity. Stop waiting for the perfect time, it's never gonna be there. Step out boldly, knowing your Father has already prepared that work for you to walk in. So we can't wait to see you Sunday morning right here at Mission Sent as we go into what it means that Jesus fulfilled the law. And does that mean that the law is no longer applicable to Christians today? We can't wait to see you at 9 a.m. 8 40 Del Teno Boulevard, right here at Mission Cent.
