Sermon Central
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Saved To Serve Series
Contributed by Jerry Shirley on Feb 27, 2008 (message contributor)
Summary: The Parable of the Talents reminds Christians that we weren’t saved to sit, soak, and sour...we were saved to serve! Just like in tennis-Service begins w/ ’Love’. Link inc. to formatted text, audio, and PowerPoint Template.
Saved to Serve
http://gbcdecatur.org/sermons/Saved2Serve.html
This is a parable found in the context of Jesus’ teaching on the end of the world. So far we’ve been challenged to be watching because Jesus is coming...now we’re told to be working. Not just looking for Him, but laboring for Him in the meanwhile because the time is short, there is much to do, and once eternity begins we will wish we had done more for Him!
If you are a serious Christian, then Jesus is your boss, and you should work for Him. Don’t be the type that punches a card before and after each service...you should be here other times during the week, and out and about serving Him full time. We did a census and we have plenty of Christians who consider themselves to have been saved to sit...and they do it faithfully...but sitting and soaking leads to souring...we are saved to serve! He’s our King, and we are servants in His courts. He’s the Lord, and it’s a privilege just to be a peasant.
For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand. I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness.
There’s 2 periods of time in this parable:
The present day of responsibility
The future day of accountability
Right now we need to live in the present, but be thinking about the future! We will one day be held accountable...
Don’t give God the leftovers of your life, give Him your best! If you can be on time for work you can be in place and on time on the Lord’s Day. If you can organize and plan a vacation then you can plan and prepare your lesson for the little ones you teach. If you can look at your calendar and set aside a future date for something exciting then you can make God a priority in advance, and decide “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord!”
People are getting saved, and if you have already been saved, you should be willing to disciple one of them. It will be great for both of you, and God can do it thru you. God is not a beggar, He’s God! But I’m a beggar and we need you!!
Remembering the future day of accountability will turn a pew warmer into a servant of God! God might as well take you on to heaven if you won’t do what He left you here to accomplish. And you can’t buy God off...I’m glad if you tithe, but that is not why God left you here.
1. The Servant’s Ability.
A “Talent” is a measure of money, not an ability, but it applies just the same. In each case every one got a different amount, but all got a lot, even if less than another. For instance, the one w/ 5 talents got about 100 year’s wages! 2 talents = 40 years – 1 talent was still 20 years wages!
The Master represents the Lord Jesus, who said I go to prepare a place for you. We are the servants in the parable. The talents represent our abilities, our possessions, and our opportunities to serve the Lord.
We all have time, talents, and treasures to use for the Lord...and the key is not how much of each you have, but how faithful you are with whatever you have.
Everyone has been given something. Each has something in their hand. We all can serve God in some way! And we’re all different because we are a body, and each one of us are body parts, and God wants us to work together as a team...interdependence is the key word...we need each other, and when you aren’t filling your place there is a hole left over, and that’s not fair to the others, to God, and not even to you!
Many of you can do great things that I cannot do. I can do some things I was designed and trained for...but we all are necessary.
Ill.—Peter and Andrew were brothers, but very different. One was loud, the other quiet, one spoke to crowds, the other was more personable one on one. One had more strengths but also more weaknesses, and Peter wouldn’t ever have seen thousands saved if he hadn’t been won to the Lord by his own brother!
Ill.—Billy Graham was won by Mordecai Hamm, who came thru Billy Sunday, who came thru J. Wilbur Chapman, who was won by D.L. Moody, but Moody was won by his s.s. teacher in Boston when he was 17. He was just a businessman named Edward Kimball, who went out after work and visited every member of his class to ask them if they were saved. He found Moody in the stock room behind the shoe store where he worked, and there in a room full of shoes he led one guy to Christ, but also started a chain reaction that won millions and is still in progress today!
