Useful Life
Living a righteous and useful life brings joy to God and echoes the harmony of heaven.
Mary Wilder Tileston preaches about the beauty of living a righteous and useful life, emphasizing the importance of doing our duties cheerfully and orderly in the place where God has positioned us. She compares the sweet melody created by a life of obedience to God to the harmonious melodies of heaven, highlighting the significance of humbly following the example of Christ in all aspects of our lives.
Text
Joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody.
ISAIAH 51:3
If thou art living a righteous and a useful life, doing thy duty orderly and cheerfully where God has put thee, then thou art making sweeter melody in the ears of the Lord Jesus Christ, than if thou hadst the throat of a nightingale; for then thou in thy humble place art copying the everlasting harmony and melody which is in heaven.
CHARLES KINGSLEY
IN proportion as the perfect obedience of the life of Christ comes, through humility and prayer and thought, to be the constant aim of all our efforts; in proportion as we try, God helping us, to think and speak and act as He did, and through all the means of grace to sanctify Him in our hearts; we shall, with growing hope and with a wonder that is ever lost in gratitude, know that even our lives are not without the earnest of their rest in an eternal harmony; that through them there is sounding more and more the echo of a faultless music: and that He who loves that concord, He who alone can ever make us what He bids us be, will silence in us every harsh and jarring note; that our service too may blend with the consenting praise of all His Saints and Angels.
FRANCIS PAGET
Sermon Outline
- The Value of a Useful Life
- The Importance of Obedience
- The Harmony of a Faultless Life
- Our lives can echo the harmony of heaven
- God can silence harsh notes and make us what He bids us be
Key Quotes
“If thou art living a righteous and a useful life, doing thy duty orderly and cheerfully where God has put thee, then thou art making sweeter melody in the ears of the Lord Jesus Christ, than if thou hadst the throat of a nightingale;” — Mary Wilder Tileston
“In proportion as the perfect obedience of the life of Christ comes, through humility and prayer and thought, to be the constant aim of all our efforts;” — Mary Wilder Tileston
“He who loves that concord, He who alone can ever make us what He bids us be, will silence in us every harsh and jarring note;” — Mary Wilder Tileston
Application Points
- We can make a sweet melody in the ears of the Lord Jesus Christ by living a righteous and useful life.
- Perfect obedience is achieved through humility, prayer, and thought, and by trying to think, speak, and act as Jesus did.
- Our lives can echo the harmony of heaven and blend with the consenting praise of all God's Saints and Angels when we allow God to silence harsh notes and make us what He bids us be.