February 17, 2025 • 19 mins
What happens when two friends spend a year studying every Bible verse about "good works"? A powerful realization that transforms how we view our purpose as Christians.
Josh and Mark take us on their journey from coffee shop Bible studies to church classes to this podcast, revealing a fundamental truth that many believers overlook: we aren't saved by good works, but we are saved FOR good works. Drawing from Ephesians 2:10, they unpack how Christians are God's "workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand."
The hosts tackle the tension between letting our light shine (Matthew 5) and not practicing righteousness to be seen (Matthew 6), addressing why many believers hesitate to engage in acts of service. They identify four common barriers—busyness, fear, doubt, and comfort zones—while emphasizing that even small actions can create profound ripple effects.
With warm conversation and practical wisdom, Josh and Mark challenge listeners to see good works not as optional extras but as the mission God designed us for. They offer simple, actionable steps to begin living this mission: praying for opportunities, committing to one act of kindness this week, examining motivations, and keeping a private journal of daily good deeds.
Whether you're new to faith or a longtime believer seeking greater purpose, this episode will inspire you to embrace the good works God has already prepared for you to walk in. Subscribe now and join us on this journey—because you were made for good.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Josh (00:07):
Welcome to Made for Good, a podcast where we explore how
to live out our purpose throughgood works, guided by biblical
truth.
Hey, I'm Josh
Mark (00:15):
and I'm Mark.
Welcome to the Good WorksStudio for this first episode.
So we're finally getting aroundto it, Mark what do you think
of it?
Josh (00:23):
I don't know.
You're not supposed to talkover people when you're having a
podcast.
Sorry, can I just say it's alittle excessive that you built
a studio.
Mark (00:30):
Well, I think it's important and I love the smell
of new paint.
Josh (00:34):
Yeah, so sorry talking over you again, again, no one
can smell it.
This is all audio.
Mark (00:39):
Oh okay, maybe a little excessive, maybe.
Well, josh, tell us, how did weget here today?
Josh (00:48):
Yeah, I'll make a long story short.
Years ago we were walking outof the church building and in
the back of the building yousaid to me have you ever looked
up how many times the Bibletalks about good works or
actively doing good?
And from there that led to aBible study with me and you.
We met every Thursday at acoffee shop.
For what a year yeah, a year.
(01:10):
We were supposed to be there anhour.
Sometimes we were there longer,got texts from our wives when
are you?
We might have gotten in trouble.
Yep, yep, dinner's ready.
Mark (01:18):
We closed the coffee shop down most days we really did.
Yeah, they would say we'reclosing, you guys need to leave.
Josh (01:23):
But they were really sweet .
But that turned into at onepoint and I felt like you knew
what was going to happen thewhole time.
If we're being honest, becauseyou said early on hey, who knows
, this may turn into a Bibleclass.
Mark (01:33):
Yeah, and it did.
Josh (01:35):
It did.
Mark (01:36):
We prepared 12 lessons and then the elders where we attend
church decided that they weregoing to do trimesters that year
,
Josh (01:47):
by the way.
Huge heads up,
Mark (01:48):
oh yeah.
After we got it all planned out, they said oh, 12?
No, we need 16 lessons.
Actually, I'm glad.
I'm glad that we had 16 lessonsto cover everything, because
there was just so much.
We had one person say look,have you ever taught the class
again?
Why don't you teach the classon Sunday and then leave
(02:10):
Wednesday night for just thediscussions about the class,
right right.
Josh (02:14):
And I think you should add too it was a different setting
for the two of us.
We both taught before.
We've never taught with someonetogether at the same time.
Mark (02:22):
Yeah, like we were two people sitting in front of 80,
90 people.
It's a large class for us inchairs and so we had a lot of
interaction between ourselvesand the class.
Yeah, absolutely so.
There's this, there's this,back and forth.
but what were some of thecomments that people said
Josh (02:40):
Well, I'll tell you what I thought was funny early on was,
and we had several people say,hey, I just want you to know.
I'll tell you what I thoughtwas funny early on was, and we
had several people say, hey, Ijust want you to know.
I feel like I'm being a part ofa live podcast.
Mark (02:50):
Yeah, well, and so here we are, um, full circle.
This is a live podcast.
Uh, again in the in the newlyfinished, uh, good work studio.
Uh, we are, um, we're actuallynot in a studio.
So, just just to be real clear,we did not build a new studio,
goodworks studio.
We can call it the GoodWorksstudio, but it was.
(03:11):
The paint in this room has beenlong.
It's dry.
Yeah, it's dry.
Josh (03:16):
Exactly, it's dry.
One of the things I reallyenjoy going back to the class.
That I enjoyed about class wasevery class was different
because, like we talked about,the Bible talks so much about
good works that there were justso many different topics that we
had to talk about.
That's similar to this podcastEvery episode is going to be
different and today is more ofan introduction to good works,
(03:37):
right?
Mark (03:37):
Yeah, today we're going to talk about the study of good
works as an introduction, kindof an overview, and we're going
to look at how good works arereally the purpose of a
Christian life.
They're a mission in a way.
We'll talk more about that in alittle bit.
(03:58):
Why, josh, do you think peopleare reluctant to study good
works?
It's not a topic you have a lotof times in your Bible study,
small group study, whatever.
Hey, we're going to gettogether and talk about good
works.
Why are we reluctant to do that?
Josh (04:14):
I think that this is even some feedback we got from class.
You cringe a little bit becauseyou think about what Jesus said
on the Sermon on the MountMatthew 5 and Matthew 6.
Said on the Sermon on the MountMatthew 5 and Matthew 6.
There's this idea.
Or Jesus is talking about whatwe should be actively doing in
one chapter followed up by thenext chapter.
He's then saying don't let yourleft hand know what your right
hand's doing.
Mark (04:35):
Yeah, so we should practice these good works,
letting our light shine beforeothers so they can see them.
But the purpose is to glorifyGod in Matthew 5.
In Matthew 6, it says becareful that you don't get your
motivation wrong, that we'redoing it to be seen of men, so
people struggle with that theystruggle with.
Josh (04:57):
They almost feel like well , this limits me on what I can
do it actually for some peoplethey may not have a lot of
confidence to be able to goactively do good because they're
so worried about being seen byothers, right.
Mark (05:08):
But what we want to be very, very clear on right here
up front is that we're notsaying that good works leads to
salvation.
Right, it's really the opposite.
The thing that we're going todo in this podcast is use the
Bible.
Right, the Bible is going to beour basis for what we talk
about, and so let's start overin Ephesians, chapter two.
(05:32):
Ok, we're going to look atverses eight and nine first.
Let's read that.
For by grace, you have beensaved through faith, and this is
not your own doing.
It is the gift of God, not aresult of works, so that no one
may boast.
So very clear not a result ofworks.
(05:52):
So salvation is a gift.
It's one that we receive bygrace, through obedient faith in
Christ.
That's not something we achieve.
Josh (06:02):
It's something that God gives us freely, let's say,
let's hang out in Ephesians 2.
So look at verse 10.
It tells us what happens aftersalvation, for we are his
workmanship, created in ChristJesus for good works, which God
prepared beforehand that weshould walk in them.
This, for a lot of us, is ashift in perspective.
(06:22):
Good works don't lead us tosalvation.
What this is saying is that itflows from salvation.
When we become followers ofChrist, we're transformed, made
new for a purpose, and thatpurpose is to live out our faith
through action.
Mark (06:37):
Yeah, I love that word workmanship.
We are the work, we are God'swork.
You know, the whole act ofsanctification is a process, and
we'll look at other verseswhere it's very, very clear that
that is a connection between usand good works, that there is a
sanctifying element to thosegood works.
(06:58):
If we were to look at this fromthe perspective of a Christian,
we've got to look to Jesus.
Right, we've got to look toJesus and see how he embodied
this truth.
He didn't just preach love, asa lot of people want to say.
He demonstrated through feedingthe hungry, he healed the sick,
(07:18):
he served the broken.
You know, you look at MaryMagdalene and how he just
restored her very being.
His life is really the model ofgood works.
And his approach was neverpointing to him, it was always
pointing to the father.
He wanted to glorify the father, as we should as well.
Josh (07:41):
Let's shift to our mission profile segment of the podcast
for this episode.
So at this point a lot of usprobably thinking, or listeners
may be thinking what does thatmean for us today?
How do we walk in the goodworks that God has prepared for
us?
Well, first we need tounderstand that good works are
not optional for a believer.
For a believer, matter of fact,jesus said in Matthew 5, 16,
(08:09):
let your light shine beforeothers so that they may see your
good works and give glory toyour Father who's in heaven.
Good works are meant to pointothers to God.
They are a testimony in actionwhen we serve, when we love,
when we give.
People see Christ in us.
Mark (08:21):
Right, but you know we're not trying to always do some big
grand thing.
It can be something very simple, like just encouraging somebody
.
You know, seeing somebody wetalk in today's vernacular.
I see you, you know Iunderstand where you are.
I see maybe you're struggling.
(08:43):
You look to be sad, you look tobe, you know, a little distant.
You know to check in on people,people going through stuff all
the time, and we're showing thatwe're we're caring.
There's other ways to care wecan care for.
You know, a widow at churchMaybe we go and cut their grass.
Or maybe a single parent wevolunteer to babysit their child
(09:06):
for them while they go to thedoctor or whatever they need.
You know, something even sosimple as providing a meal to a
neighbor, and sometimes it meansstanding up for truth or
justice in a really difficultsituation, you know, standing in
the defense of those, maybe,who can't defend themselves.
(09:29):
So here's something that'sreally profound, and this is the
part that I love about thatEphesians 2, verse 10 passage,
part that I love about that.
Ephesians 2, verse 10 passage.
God has already prepared theseopportunities for us to do good.
It says that he was, that thesewere prepared beforehand.
(09:50):
So he's already defined what isgood, as we mentioned.
You know scripture defines thatfor us.
You know you don't have to goand search for them, you don't
have to wonder what to do to beto do good.
Just turn to God's word and heshows you that they're right
there.
(10:11):
And there's, there's more thanwe can ever do in scripture.
All we got to do is do them.
Josh (10:18):
Yeah, I agree with that, and I think that we should be
more bold with our prayers.
We should actually pray forthese things.
We should pray that God openour eyes to see opportunities to
do good, and when he does thatand he will, that's where we got
to step up.
And maybe in that same prayer,we should pray God and give me
confidence, Because when I seethese opportunities that I'm
(10:39):
praying about right now, give meconfidence that I can go do
them.
Mark (10:43):
Well, Josh, what causes people to not do good works?
What are those barriers todoing good?
Because we know God's scripturegives us what they are and we
know the importance of them, whydon't we always do them?
Josh (10:58):
Well, I think there's a lot of things.
I can think of.
Four off the top of my head.
One busyness.
Think about people's schedules,how packed they are, and we
just struggle for time.
Sometimes we feel like we don'thave enough time in the day to
do things.
Mark (11:13):
We've got an upcoming episode dedicated totally to
time management redeeming thetime so we'll explore that in
detail.
Josh (11:23):
Yeah, very true.
I think another thing is fear,mark.
Think about how crippling fearcan be in general.
And so fear, can you know?
I could be afraid of rejection,I could be afraid of how I will
feel in a moment by justpushing myself to do something I
don't normally do.
I will feel in a moment by justpushing myself to do something
I don't normally do.
Another thing that happens alot for a lot of folks is doubt,
(11:43):
wondering if maybe even thesesmall things that I do are they
even going to make a difference?
Yeah, yeah.
And then, outside of thosethings, and maybe in the same
line of thinking, as you know,fear is comfort.
Sometimes doing good justrequires us to, flat out, get
out of our comfort zone and doit.
And so, for a lot of folks, wemay actually think about
(12:06):
opportunities, we may even seethem in our mind, but we can't
capitalize on them because wedon't feel comfortable enough to
go forward and do them.
Mark (12:12):
That's really true If you look back to the Sermon on the
Mount, if you go over to Matthew6, verse 1, this ties into what
you were talking about aboutfear, us worrying about what
other people may perceive.
Our motive is, you know, inMatthew 6, verse 1, it says very
clearly Jesus told hisdisciples beware of practicing
(12:36):
your righteousness before otherpeople in order to be seen by
them, for then you will have noreward from your father in
heaven.
And having someone see you dogood.
There's always the risk likeyeah, we're just doing that to
be seen, or you know they'rejust showing out, or they're
(13:00):
just always wanting thelimelight or those types of
things, and in reality that is arisk of doing good.
But if you go back to theMatthew 5 passage we talked
about, how do we let our lightshine before others?
We're going to have an episodein the future where we talk
about stirring one another up tolove and good works.
How do you stir one another upto love and good works without
(13:25):
letting them in on what you'redoing and asking them to come
along to do the good work?
Maybe you're going to go gettwo or three guys and you're
going to go cut one of thewidow's yards or something like
that.
We're not bragging.
There's power in doing goodtogether, and we'll explore that
in an upcoming episode.
Josh (13:43):
Mark, can I just say this too, though I think that some
people, if you are the one who'sthinking like, oh, they're
doing this to do good, becausethey want to be seen by others,
A lot of times and like I'mtalking to myself here I
probably should look at themirror and just think you know,
am I jealous that I didn't dothis, or am I jealous that this
is even occurring, and so it'snot?
(14:04):
We shouldn't question someone'smotives as much as we should
look in the mirror and think whyam I feeling this way?
Mark (14:10):
Right, Our good works need to be motivated by our love for
God to do what he's programmedus to do in Christ.
We're created in Christ forgood works.
That's the mission, but we alsoshould be motivated by love for
(14:30):
other people, and it shouldn'tbe just any desire for
recognition.
It's really fulfilling themission that God has given us as
Christians.
Josh (14:39):
But here's the encouragement and we mentioned
this in the trailer early on,when we dropped that Every act
of goodness, every act, nomatter how small, it just
creates this ripple effect.
It impacts lives in ways thatwe may never even see.
Mark (14:55):
Well, we've come to the portion of our podcast format
where we're going to talk abouta mission or a challenge.
So we're going to begin to giveyou three things that we'd like
for you to do this week.
First one is to pray foropportunities.
You know we ought to everythingthat we do we ought to do this
week.
First one is to pray foropportunities.
You know we ought to everythingthat we do we ought to start
(15:16):
with a prayer, whether startingour day or starting a new
opportunity, a new job.
In this case, we're looking todo more good.
We're looking to fulfill ourmission as Christians to do good
.
So pray, ask God to open youreyes to the good works that he's
already prepared for us.
They're there.
(15:36):
And then now let's do that oneact of good, something like
maybe helping a neighbor writingan encouraging note.
It takes almost no time.
If you don't know what to say,go to chat GPT and say I have a
friend who's going through somemedical.
Josh (15:54):
Yeah, you can actually do that?
Mark (15:56):
Go to chat GPT and say I have a close friend who's who's
going through, you know, somehealth struggles and I want to
encourage them.
What would be a nice two orthree sentence note that I could
write?
Josh (16:09):
Can I say this is just an aside and I know this is kind of
.
I've been a recipient recently.
I had a procedure done that waspretty scary and there's just
power in a written form in aletter.
I think we've kind of got towait away from it.
We text people.
That's great too.
I'm not saying that textsaren't good and a phone call is
powerful, but there's somethingabout seeing someone's words,
(16:31):
their handwriting.
Mark (16:32):
You mean like put it in the mail.
Josh (16:35):
Yeah, it is just.
It's a powerful thing.
So when we think, oh, it's justa small act of kindness, it's
tangible, well, it will evenmatter in your hand.
Well, I'm telling you, as arecipient, it matters.
You remember that, you feelthat and you're just thankful
for it.
Mark (16:50):
Yeah, and of course you got to ask yourself in all this,
why am I doing this?
Am I doing it for recognitionor am I doing it out of a sense
of purpose and a love for Godand the people that I'm doing it
for?
Josh (17:07):
Well, we didn't really talk about this, but I'd like to
add a bonus mission.
Mark (17:11):
Okay, you're going to add to my list.
Yeah, I hope that's okay.
It's going to be four.
Okay, yeah, go ahead.
Josh (17:17):
I want people to keep a journal this week.
Each day, write down what youdid, one good work that you did,
no matter how small, and at theend of the week look back on
those things.
Mark (17:26):
And post them on social media.
Josh (17:37):
No, no, no, no.
You just talked about theSermon on the Mount.
I want you to think about whatand how God used you.
So this is a private journal.
Yes, yes.
And here's the thing.
There's times where you mayfeel like at the end of the week
, it gets to be Friday and youthink, man, what did I do this
week?
Did I even do anything good inthe kingdom?
And this is a way that you canstay encouraged yourself, almost
stirring yourself up.
So you continue to do good, andwe would love to hear about
your experiences.
(17:58):
Share them on social mediausing the hashtag made for good.
Mark (18:02):
So that's M-A-D-E the number four good, and you can
find us on Instagram.
You can find us on X, we don'tneed to say formally Twitter
anymore.
Josh (18:16):
Are we past that?
I think so.
I think none of us know what tosay with that.
Mark (18:18):
Okay, I think let's just say it's X, we're moving forward
, okay.
Well, look, this is, we did anepisode.
Wow, we're here, episode numberone.
We've been talking about thisfor a long, long time and we
hope listen, we hope thisconversation maybe inspired, you
, caused you to think about goodworks, maybe in a different way
, as more of your mission,rather than you know, something
(18:42):
that you, we can be paralyzedsometimes, for it's very, very
clear Our motivation should notbe to be seen of others, but
sometimes that prevents us fromdoing it.
Step out there, do something.
You may do something that's outof your comfort zone, as we
talked about, but listen, ifthis conversation inspired or
challenged you, just be sure tosubscribe to this podcast and so
(19:06):
that you won't miss the nextone.
Josh (19:09):
And if you found this valuable and we hope that you
did consider sharing with afriend, until next time, go out
and do good, because you weremade for good.
Welcome to Made for Good, a podcast where we explore how
to live out our purpose throughgood works, guided by biblical
truth.
Hey, I'm Josh
Mark (00:15):
and I'm Mark.
Welcome to the Good WorksStudio for this first episode.
So we're finally getting aroundto it, Mark what do you think
of it?
Josh (00:23):
I don't know.
You're not supposed to talkover people when you're having a
podcast.
Sorry, can I just say it's alittle excessive that you built
a studio.
Mark (00:30):
Well, I think it's important and I love the smell
of new paint.
Josh (00:34):
Yeah, so sorry talking over you again, again, no one
can smell it.
This is all audio.
Mark (00:39):
Oh okay, maybe a little excessive, maybe.
Well, josh, tell us, how did weget here today?
Josh (00:48):
Yeah, I'll make a long story short.
Years ago we were walking outof the church building and in
the back of the building yousaid to me have you ever looked
up how many times the Bibletalks about good works or
actively doing good?
And from there that led to aBible study with me and you.
We met every Thursday at acoffee shop.
For what a year yeah, a year.
(01:10):
We were supposed to be there anhour.
Sometimes we were there longer,got texts from our wives when
are you?
We might have gotten in trouble.
Yep, yep, dinner's ready.
Mark (01:18):
We closed the coffee shop down most days we really did.
Yeah, they would say we'reclosing, you guys need to leave.
Josh (01:23):
But they were really sweet .
But that turned into at onepoint and I felt like you knew
what was going to happen thewhole time.
If we're being honest, becauseyou said early on hey, who knows
, this may turn into a Bibleclass.
Mark (01:33):
Yeah, and it did.
Josh (01:35):
It did.
Mark (01:36):
We prepared 12 lessons and then the elders where we attend
church decided that they weregoing to do trimesters that year
,
Josh (01:47):
by the way.
Huge heads up,
Mark (01:48):
oh yeah.
After we got it all planned out, they said oh, 12?
No, we need 16 lessons.
Actually, I'm glad.
I'm glad that we had 16 lessonsto cover everything, because
there was just so much.
We had one person say look,have you ever taught the class
again?
Why don't you teach the classon Sunday and then leave
(02:10):
Wednesday night for just thediscussions about the class,
right right.
Josh (02:14):
And I think you should add too it was a different setting
for the two of us.
We both taught before.
We've never taught with someonetogether at the same time.
Mark (02:22):
Yeah, like we were two people sitting in front of 80,
90 people.
It's a large class for us inchairs and so we had a lot of
interaction between ourselvesand the class.
Yeah, absolutely so.
There's this, there's this,back and forth.
but what were some of thecomments that people said
Josh (02:40):
Well, I'll tell you what I thought was funny early on was,
and we had several people say,hey, I just want you to know.
I'll tell you what I thoughtwas funny early on was, and we
had several people say, hey, Ijust want you to know.
I feel like I'm being a part ofa live podcast.
Mark (02:50):
Yeah, well, and so here we are, um, full circle.
This is a live podcast.
Uh, again in the in the newlyfinished, uh, good work studio.
Uh, we are, um, we're actuallynot in a studio.
So, just just to be real clear,we did not build a new studio,
goodworks studio.
We can call it the GoodWorksstudio, but it was.
(03:11):
The paint in this room has beenlong.
It's dry.
Yeah, it's dry.
Josh (03:16):
Exactly, it's dry.
One of the things I reallyenjoy going back to the class.
That I enjoyed about class wasevery class was different
because, like we talked about,the Bible talks so much about
good works that there were justso many different topics that we
had to talk about.
That's similar to this podcastEvery episode is going to be
different and today is more ofan introduction to good works,
(03:37):
right?
Mark (03:37):
Yeah, today we're going to talk about the study of good
works as an introduction, kindof an overview, and we're going
to look at how good works arereally the purpose of a
Christian life.
They're a mission in a way.
We'll talk more about that in alittle bit.
(03:58):
Why, josh, do you think peopleare reluctant to study good
works?
It's not a topic you have a lotof times in your Bible study,
small group study, whatever.
Hey, we're going to gettogether and talk about good
works.
Why are we reluctant to do that?
Josh (04:14):
I think that this is even some feedback we got from class.
You cringe a little bit becauseyou think about what Jesus said
on the Sermon on the MountMatthew 5 and Matthew 6.
Said on the Sermon on the MountMatthew 5 and Matthew 6.
There's this idea.
Or Jesus is talking about whatwe should be actively doing in
one chapter followed up by thenext chapter.
He's then saying don't let yourleft hand know what your right
hand's doing.
Mark (04:35):
Yeah, so we should practice these good works,
letting our light shine beforeothers so they can see them.
But the purpose is to glorifyGod in Matthew 5.
In Matthew 6, it says becareful that you don't get your
motivation wrong, that we'redoing it to be seen of men, so
people struggle with that theystruggle with.
Josh (04:57):
They almost feel like well , this limits me on what I can
do it actually for some peoplethey may not have a lot of
confidence to be able to goactively do good because they're
so worried about being seen byothers, right.
Mark (05:08):
But what we want to be very, very clear on right here
up front is that we're notsaying that good works leads to
salvation.
Right, it's really the opposite.
The thing that we're going todo in this podcast is use the
Bible.
Right, the Bible is going to beour basis for what we talk
about, and so let's start overin Ephesians, chapter two.
(05:32):
Ok, we're going to look atverses eight and nine first.
Let's read that.
For by grace, you have beensaved through faith, and this is
not your own doing.
It is the gift of God, not aresult of works, so that no one
may boast.
So very clear not a result ofworks.
(05:52):
So salvation is a gift.
It's one that we receive bygrace, through obedient faith in
Christ.
That's not something we achieve.
Josh (06:02):
It's something that God gives us freely, let's say,
let's hang out in Ephesians 2.
So look at verse 10.
It tells us what happens aftersalvation, for we are his
workmanship, created in ChristJesus for good works, which God
prepared beforehand that weshould walk in them.
This, for a lot of us, is ashift in perspective.
(06:22):
Good works don't lead us tosalvation.
What this is saying is that itflows from salvation.
When we become followers ofChrist, we're transformed, made
new for a purpose, and thatpurpose is to live out our faith
through action.
Mark (06:37):
Yeah, I love that word workmanship.
We are the work, we are God'swork.
You know, the whole act ofsanctification is a process, and
we'll look at other verseswhere it's very, very clear that
that is a connection between usand good works, that there is a
sanctifying element to thosegood works.
(06:58):
If we were to look at this fromthe perspective of a Christian,
we've got to look to Jesus.
Right, we've got to look toJesus and see how he embodied
this truth.
He didn't just preach love, asa lot of people want to say.
He demonstrated through feedingthe hungry, he healed the sick,
(07:18):
he served the broken.
You know, you look at MaryMagdalene and how he just
restored her very being.
His life is really the model ofgood works.
And his approach was neverpointing to him, it was always
pointing to the father.
He wanted to glorify the father, as we should as well.
Josh (07:41):
Let's shift to our mission profile segment of the podcast
for this episode.
So at this point a lot of usprobably thinking, or listeners
may be thinking what does thatmean for us today?
How do we walk in the goodworks that God has prepared for
us?
Well, first we need tounderstand that good works are
not optional for a believer.
For a believer, matter of fact,jesus said in Matthew 5, 16,
(08:09):
let your light shine beforeothers so that they may see your
good works and give glory toyour Father who's in heaven.
Good works are meant to pointothers to God.
They are a testimony in actionwhen we serve, when we love,
when we give.
People see Christ in us.
Mark (08:21):
Right, but you know we're not trying to always do some big
grand thing.
It can be something very simple, like just encouraging somebody
.
You know, seeing somebody wetalk in today's vernacular.
I see you, you know Iunderstand where you are.
I see maybe you're struggling.
(08:43):
You look to be sad, you look tobe, you know, a little distant.
You know to check in on people,people going through stuff all
the time, and we're showing thatwe're we're caring.
There's other ways to care wecan care for.
You know, a widow at churchMaybe we go and cut their grass.
Or maybe a single parent wevolunteer to babysit their child
(09:06):
for them while they go to thedoctor or whatever they need.
You know, something even sosimple as providing a meal to a
neighbor, and sometimes it meansstanding up for truth or
justice in a really difficultsituation, you know, standing in
the defense of those, maybe,who can't defend themselves.
(09:29):
So here's something that'sreally profound, and this is the
part that I love about thatEphesians 2, verse 10 passage,
part that I love about that.
Ephesians 2, verse 10 passage.
God has already prepared theseopportunities for us to do good.
It says that he was, that thesewere prepared beforehand.
(09:50):
So he's already defined what isgood, as we mentioned.
You know scripture defines thatfor us.
You know you don't have to goand search for them, you don't
have to wonder what to do to beto do good.
Just turn to God's word and heshows you that they're right
there.
(10:11):
And there's, there's more thanwe can ever do in scripture.
All we got to do is do them.
Josh (10:18):
Yeah, I agree with that, and I think that we should be
more bold with our prayers.
We should actually pray forthese things.
We should pray that God openour eyes to see opportunities to
do good, and when he does thatand he will, that's where we got
to step up.
And maybe in that same prayer,we should pray God and give me
confidence, Because when I seethese opportunities that I'm
(10:39):
praying about right now, give meconfidence that I can go do
them.
Mark (10:43):
Well, Josh, what causes people to not do good works?
What are those barriers todoing good?
Because we know God's scripturegives us what they are and we
know the importance of them, whydon't we always do them?
Josh (10:58):
Well, I think there's a lot of things.
I can think of.
Four off the top of my head.
One busyness.
Think about people's schedules,how packed they are, and we
just struggle for time.
Sometimes we feel like we don'thave enough time in the day to
do things.
Mark (11:13):
We've got an upcoming episode dedicated totally to
time management redeeming thetime so we'll explore that in
detail.
Josh (11:23):
Yeah, very true.
I think another thing is fear,mark.
Think about how crippling fearcan be in general.
And so fear, can you know?
I could be afraid of rejection,I could be afraid of how I will
feel in a moment by justpushing myself to do something I
don't normally do.
I will feel in a moment by justpushing myself to do something
I don't normally do.
Another thing that happens alot for a lot of folks is doubt,
(11:43):
wondering if maybe even thesesmall things that I do are they
even going to make a difference?
Yeah, yeah.
And then, outside of thosethings, and maybe in the same
line of thinking, as you know,fear is comfort.
Sometimes doing good justrequires us to, flat out, get
out of our comfort zone and doit.
And so, for a lot of folks, wemay actually think about
(12:06):
opportunities, we may even seethem in our mind, but we can't
capitalize on them because wedon't feel comfortable enough to
go forward and do them.
Mark (12:12):
That's really true If you look back to the Sermon on the
Mount, if you go over to Matthew6, verse 1, this ties into what
you were talking about aboutfear, us worrying about what
other people may perceive.
Our motive is, you know, inMatthew 6, verse 1, it says very
clearly Jesus told hisdisciples beware of practicing
(12:36):
your righteousness before otherpeople in order to be seen by
them, for then you will have noreward from your father in
heaven.
And having someone see you dogood.
There's always the risk likeyeah, we're just doing that to
be seen, or you know they'rejust showing out, or they're
(13:00):
just always wanting thelimelight or those types of
things, and in reality that is arisk of doing good.
But if you go back to theMatthew 5 passage we talked
about, how do we let our lightshine before others?
We're going to have an episodein the future where we talk
about stirring one another up tolove and good works.
How do you stir one another upto love and good works without
(13:25):
letting them in on what you'redoing and asking them to come
along to do the good work?
Maybe you're going to go gettwo or three guys and you're
going to go cut one of thewidow's yards or something like
that.
We're not bragging.
There's power in doing goodtogether, and we'll explore that
in an upcoming episode.
Josh (13:43):
Mark, can I just say this too, though I think that some
people, if you are the one who'sthinking like, oh, they're
doing this to do good, becausethey want to be seen by others,
A lot of times and like I'mtalking to myself here I
probably should look at themirror and just think you know,
am I jealous that I didn't dothis, or am I jealous that this
is even occurring, and so it'snot?
(14:04):
We shouldn't question someone'smotives as much as we should
look in the mirror and think whyam I feeling this way?
Mark (14:10):
Right, Our good works need to be motivated by our love for
God to do what he's programmedus to do in Christ.
We're created in Christ forgood works.
That's the mission, but we alsoshould be motivated by love for
(14:30):
other people, and it shouldn'tbe just any desire for
recognition.
It's really fulfilling themission that God has given us as
Christians.
Josh (14:39):
But here's the encouragement and we mentioned
this in the trailer early on,when we dropped that Every act
of goodness, every act, nomatter how small, it just
creates this ripple effect.
It impacts lives in ways thatwe may never even see.
Mark (14:55):
Well, we've come to the portion of our podcast format
where we're going to talk abouta mission or a challenge.
So we're going to begin to giveyou three things that we'd like
for you to do this week.
First one is to pray foropportunities.
You know we ought to everythingthat we do we ought to do this
week.
First one is to pray foropportunities.
You know we ought to everythingthat we do we ought to start
(15:16):
with a prayer, whether startingour day or starting a new
opportunity, a new job.
In this case, we're looking todo more good.
We're looking to fulfill ourmission as Christians to do good
.
So pray, ask God to open youreyes to the good works that he's
already prepared for us.
They're there.
(15:36):
And then now let's do that oneact of good, something like
maybe helping a neighbor writingan encouraging note.
It takes almost no time.
If you don't know what to say,go to chat GPT and say I have a
friend who's going through somemedical.
Josh (15:54):
Yeah, you can actually do that?
Mark (15:56):
Go to chat GPT and say I have a close friend who's who's
going through, you know, somehealth struggles and I want to
encourage them.
What would be a nice two orthree sentence note that I could
write?
Josh (16:09):
Can I say this is just an aside and I know this is kind of
.
I've been a recipient recently.
I had a procedure done that waspretty scary and there's just
power in a written form in aletter.
I think we've kind of got towait away from it.
We text people.
That's great too.
I'm not saying that textsaren't good and a phone call is
powerful, but there's somethingabout seeing someone's words,
(16:31):
their handwriting.
Mark (16:32):
You mean like put it in the mail.
Josh (16:35):
Yeah, it is just.
It's a powerful thing.
So when we think, oh, it's justa small act of kindness, it's
tangible, well, it will evenmatter in your hand.
Well, I'm telling you, as arecipient, it matters.
You remember that, you feelthat and you're just thankful
for it.
Mark (16:50):
Yeah, and of course you got to ask yourself in all this,
why am I doing this?
Am I doing it for recognitionor am I doing it out of a sense
of purpose and a love for Godand the people that I'm doing it
for?
Josh (17:07):
Well, we didn't really talk about this, but I'd like to
add a bonus mission.
Mark (17:11):
Okay, you're going to add to my list.
Yeah, I hope that's okay.
It's going to be four.
Okay, yeah, go ahead.
Josh (17:17):
I want people to keep a journal this week.
Each day, write down what youdid, one good work that you did,
no matter how small, and at theend of the week look back on
those things.
Mark (17:26):
And post them on social media.
Josh (17:37):
No, no, no, no.
You just talked about theSermon on the Mount.
I want you to think about whatand how God used you.
So this is a private journal.
Yes, yes.
And here's the thing.
There's times where you mayfeel like at the end of the week
, it gets to be Friday and youthink, man, what did I do this
week?
Did I even do anything good inthe kingdom?
And this is a way that you canstay encouraged yourself, almost
stirring yourself up.
So you continue to do good, andwe would love to hear about
your experiences.
(17:58):
Share them on social mediausing the hashtag made for good.
Mark (18:02):
So that's M-A-D-E the number four good, and you can
find us on Instagram.
You can find us on X, we don'tneed to say formally Twitter
anymore.
Josh (18:16):
Are we past that?
I think so.
I think none of us know what tosay with that.
Mark (18:18):
Okay, I think let's just say it's X, we're moving forward
, okay.
Well, look, this is, we did anepisode.
Wow, we're here, episode numberone.
We've been talking about thisfor a long, long time and we
hope listen, we hope thisconversation maybe inspired, you
, caused you to think about goodworks, maybe in a different way
, as more of your mission,rather than you know, something
(18:42):
that you, we can be paralyzedsometimes, for it's very, very
clear Our motivation should notbe to be seen of others, but
sometimes that prevents us fromdoing it.
Step out there, do something.
You may do something that's outof your comfort zone, as we
talked about, but listen, ifthis conversation inspired or
challenged you, just be sure tosubscribe to this podcast and so
(19:06):
that you won't miss the nextone.
Josh (19:09):
And if you found this valuable and we hope that you
did consider sharing with afriend, until next time, go out
and do good, because you weremade for good.
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