One of the ObeyGC2 values is that work is effective.
I don’t know what your perception of God is, but believe it or not, He cares about return on investment (ROI). This is somewhat difficult to comprehend sometimes because He seems to make some strange decisions such as entrusting His work on earth to His followers instead of simply doing it Himself. But I digress…
Whether it is the parable of the talents or the parable of the sower and the seed or another of Jesus’ teachings, He repeatedly makes it clear that He is looking for results and reproductivity at the end of the day. Of course, faithfulness and obedience are the bottom line. There is some truth to the old saying, “Evangelism is sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit and leaving the results up to God.” On the other hand, God gave us brains and creativity and abilities and wisdom for a purpose. He wants us to use them or rather to invest them for maximum benefit for His Kingdom. That was the whole point of the parable of the talents. God wants fruit in our lives and from our ministries.
There are several ways we can increase our fruit (besides the obvious ones of maximizing all the abilities God has given us and all the abilities we can recruit or borrow from others). We can remain in His Word and have His Word in us. We can remain in Him and have His Spirit in us. We can submit to His discipline. We can pray. Jesus summed all this up beautifully in John 15.
John 15:1-8
15:1 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. 3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4 Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.”
5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. 7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. 8 This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.”
