Made To Serve God Series

Living a Purpose Driven Life part 5

(Made to Serve God)

Brian A. Moon

(Based on the book Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren)

Welcome to week number 5 of the 40 Days of Purpose!

We have been taking an in depth look at why on earth am I here, or what is the purpose of life. We discovered that there are 5 basic purposes of life and so far we have been through 3 of them. We said that our first purpose if to know and love God, the second purpose was to belong to God’s family, and the third purpose was to become more like Jesus and that brings us to tonight’s purpose. But instead of me just telling you here is a story that I found that maybe will illustrate the fourth purpose of your life a little better.

In 1972, NASA launched the exploratory space probe Pioneer 10. According to Leon Jaroff in Time, the satellite’s primary mission was to reach Jupiter, photograph the planet and its moons, and beam data to earth about Jupiter’s magnetic field, radiation belts, and atmosphere. Scientists regarded this as a bold plan, for at that time no earth satellite had ever gone beyond Mars, and they feared the asteroid belt would destroy the satellite before it could reach its target. But Pioneer 10 accomplished its mission and much, much more. Swinging past the giant planet in November 1973, Jupiter’s immense gravity hurled Pioneer 10 at a higher rate of speed toward the edge of the solar system. At one billion miles from the sun, Pioneer 10 passed Saturn. At some two billion miles, it hurtled past Uranus; Neptune at nearly three billion miles; Pluto at almost four billion miles. By 1997, twenty-five years after its launch, Pioneer 10 was more than six billion miles from the sun. And despite that immense distance, Pioneer 10 continued to beam back radio signals to scientists on Earth. "Perhaps most remarkable," writes Jaroff, "those signals emanate from an 8-watt transmitter, which radiates about as much power as a bedroom night light, and takes more than nine hours to reach Earth.’"

“The Little Satellite That Could” was not qualified to do what it did. Engineers designed Pioneer 10 with a useful life of just three years. But it kept going and going. By simple longevity, its tiny 8-watt transmitter radio accomplished more than anyone thought possible.

You see God made you to serve him, to do something with your life that only you can do, just like NASA made that satellite to serve their needs.

And when we offer our little 8-watt lives to him he can make our lives into much more than we think possible! That is the fourth purpose of your life,

You were made to serve God.

The Bible says, “We are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” Ephesians 2:10 NIV

Circle the word “workmanship”

Just like a potter makes a clay pot to hold water, just like a wood crafter works wood and nails into a chair for sitting, we are God’s workmanship made for the purpose of serving him. We are not simply made to sit in the stands and watch the game of life pass by, we are made to get in game and make a contribution to the team! But just like a coach doesn’t send his players into a game without giving them the tools they need to succeed, God has not sent us into the game with out the tools we need.

The Bible says, “Your hands shaped me and made me.” Job 10:8 NIV

And it also says, “Each of us should use whatever gift he’s received to serve others.” 1 Peter 4:10

You see God has shaped you with some special gifts, abilities, passions and experiences that make you uniquely qualified to do what only you can do! If you take our 301 Passion Class in our Life Development Course you will learn all about how God has gifted you and made you for serving him in a unique way.

But for tonight realize that God has shaped you for serving him by serving others. God has made us to help each other out and to serve each other with whatever gifts and abilities he has given to you and me. We are not here just to float through life only thinking about me, myself, and I! We are made to serve God by serving others. Here is a little secret I will let you in on… that is all a minister is. In fact each of you is a minister; you are all made to minister to each other! God has given each one of you a ministry that only you can do; he has given you some people to serve, to help out, to love on that only you can accomplish. Anytime you serve someone with your gifts and abilities you are "doing ministry!" You don’t have to be a missionary to Zimbabwe, or have some fancy title before your name to be a minister; all you need to do is serve God by serving others. Every believer, every follower of Jesus is a minister and it time that we start living that out, there are too many lost, and hurting people for us to sit in the stands any longer. NOW is the time to get in the game!!! Last week we talked about the purpose of becoming more like Jesus, are you ready to live that out because he said this: