Shaped for Serving God
The Purpose-Driven Life, part 5
Wildwind Community Church
David K. Flowers
November 11, 2007
In spite of enormous success, Elvis Presley was, according to friends, an unfulfilled and unhappy man. He died of obesity and drug dependency at 42. And in an interview with his wife, Priscilla, she said this about her husband: “Elvis never came to terms with who he was meant to be or what his purpose in life was. He thought he was here for a reason, maybe to preach, maybe to serve, maybe to save, maybe to care for people. That agonizing desire was always with him and he knew he wasn’t fulfilling it. So he’d go on stage and he wouldn’t have to think about it.” Elvis didn’t have a clue where to begin to look. In a sense, he was lost.
Today we’re continuing our 40 Days of Purpose, and we’re going to look at God’s fourth purpose for your life, that you were Shaped to Serve God. I don’t want you to make Elvis’s mistake. Elvis felt like he was here to do something; to serve, to preach, to save…to do something with his life, but he just couldn’t quite figure it out. I want to help you piece it together today. Would you read this with me?
Ephesians 2:10 (NIV)
(10) For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
You are God’s workmanship – a product of God’s work. And he created you for a specific purpose. We have already discovered you were created for worship, fellowship, and discipleship. And right here you see that you are created to do good works – in other words, you were created to serve. You were created to serve. You were wired up for it. A squirrel not collecting nuts isn’t functioning like a squirrel, there’s something wrong with it. A dog that doesn’t walk on four legs isn’t functioning like a dog, there’s something wrong with it. A fish that doesn’t swim isn’t functioning like a fish, there’s something wrong with it. And a human being that doesn’t serve isn’t functioning like a human being, there’s something wrong with him or with her.
Pastors sometimes wonder, “Man, why can’t we get people involved in serving?” But I don’t wonder that. I don’t wonder why practically every church struggles for workers. The reason is simple. The church struggles for workers because people don’t understand they were created to serve. Let’s be honest – it’s not like that’s the only one of God’s five purposes for our lives that we don’t understand! People do not understand that they were created to worship God and love him. And since they do not understand that they were created to love God, they do not understand that they were also created to love the people God loves – for fellowship. And since they do not understand that they were created to love God and love God’s children, they do not understand they were also created to become more and more like Jesus – God’s dearly loved Son. And since people don’t understand that they were created to love God and love God’s children and become more like Jesus, they quite naturally do not understand that they were created to serve alongside God’s children in the church -- to give their lives in service to others like Jesus did. That’s why the church’s ministries always lack workers.
But it’s my job to tell you God’s purposes for your life and then to call you to live into those purposes. You know one of our main problems in the church is that we are educated so far beyond the level of our obedience. A few times lately it has occurred to me that a new calendar year is beginning and if I preach a three point sermon on each of the Sundays in that first month, then you will finish January having heard 12 points to apply to your life. And my guess is that you could take one of those points and work on applying it for a whole month so that those twelve points could easily take you a year to actually implement in your life. And my question to you is this: if it could easily take 12 months to apply the points you heard in January, why have any sermons the rest of the year? It’s just gonna be more stuff that you hear but are not capable of working into your life and implementing. Stuff that carries with it the danger of becoming something you know and so are responsible to God for, but that you are not actually doing. In that sense, all you know actually becomes a liability. Why do I mention this now? Because I do not want the Purpose-Driven Life to be a liability, because these are God’s five purposes for your life. Some of you heard me explain a few weeks ago why small groups are a critical part of fellowship but still have not joined a group. I want to sincerely ask you this question. Why? Is it just a schedule thing so that you really can’t? I realize not everybody actually can. Is that it, or are there just not really any plans to move forward in this essential purpose for your life? Have you become comfortable hearing sermons about what God has for your life and nodding your head and then just walking out of here and ignoring it? What about discipleship? God’s purpose is for us to be like Jesus. We hear that and nod our heads in church, but many of us don’t put effort into overcoming things in our lives that are keeping that from happening. What about worship? We hear in church that it’s not about me it’s about loving God, but then so many are functional agnostics the rest of the week – not praying, not reading God’s word, not subjecting their decisions to the scrutiny of life in Christ. Is this you? If it is, what’s the date when that’s going to change? On what date are you going to hear a message about loving God and walk out of here having decided to love him? On what date will you hear about fellowship and small group, and contact Brent and get into a group and move into that purpose for your life? On what date will you hear about discipleship and get to some serious work on those areas in your life that are keeping you from being like Jesus? When?
What about today? Will you hear this message today about serving and will you get up out of your seat when this is done and go back to the back tables and sign your name on a piece of paper and say, “That’s it – I’m going to live into this purpose for my life. I’m going to set aside my excuses and my reasons and my objections and my preoccupations, and I’m going to do this.” I want to start with that today – with the idea that some are sitting here this morning with absolutely no intention of actually doing anything I might talk about today, whether or not they’re convinced it’s what God would have for them. To those people (and you know who you are) I wish to say that until you have every intention of obeying God, God will never make himself real to you. God will become real to you through your obedience and only through your obedience. May you be not only a hearer of God’s Word this morning, but a doer as well.
Now if we are meant to become like Jesus, and if Jesus came to earth to be a servant, then it must be our goal to become servants. Now right now some of you have already started with the objections. “yes, maybe I’m to be a servant, but do I have to serve in the church.” “Yes, maybe I’m to be connected to others, but must I be connected in the church.” My friends, I want to tell you that if you think like that, you’re sunk already. I have never in my life seen a passionate, vital, devoted follower of Christ who was serving God outside of an intimate bond with a group of believers in a local church. It just doesn’t happen. God is active in many ways and many places, so we never say the church is the only place God is working, but the church is what Jesus died for and what he’s returning for, and what we all need to focus on making as important to us as it was to him if we expect to ever have real fellowship with him.
Ephesians 5:25-27 (NIV)
(25) Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her
(26) to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word,
(27) and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.
That’s how much Jesus loved the church. Now when this says, “the church” of course it doesn’t just mean Wildwind Church or St. John’s Catholic Church or First Baptist Church, it means all churches where Jesus is acknowledged as Lord. But the Bible is clear that that powerful universal church is expressed individually through commitment to a local group of believers and deep, abiding, intimate connection to that body. We already covered that when we talked about fellowship.
So yes, I’m talking to you about serving in the church, and unapologetically so! You are meant to serve in the church. Not JUST in the church, but DEFINITELY in the church! And like I said, if we are meant to become like Jesus, and if Jesus came to earth to be a servant, then it must be our goal to become servants. The church isn’t the only place where we learn to serve and carry out serving responsibilities, but it’s definitely our hub, our training place, our central command center, so to speak.
Now the Biblical word for serving is “ministry.” Ministry literally means “serving.” As your pastors, Brent and I are servants to all of you. But what Jesus taught is that every believer is to be a minister – we are all to be servants – we have been called to a lifestyle of service. Now there are three things it’s going to take for you to serve the way Jesus served, and I want to say up front that you won’t learn them overnight. Don’t say, “I’ll start serving when I have the three qualities it takes.” That’s backwards. The truth is that you will learn these qualities as you commit to serving.
First is that if you are going to serve like Jesus you will have to be available.
Matthew 20:29-32 (NIV)
(29) As Jesus and his disciples were leaving Jericho, a large crowd followed him.
(30) Two blind men were sitting by the roadside, and when they heard that Jesus was going by, they shouted, "Lord, Son of David, have mercy on us!"
(31) The crowd rebuked them and told them to be quiet, but they shouted all the louder, "Lord, Son of David, have mercy on us!"
(32) Jesus stopped and called them. "What do you want me to do for you?" he asked.
Jesus stopped! The gospels are full of stories like that. We often focus on walking in the steps of Jesus, but maybe we should consider looking at the stops of Jesus. Jesus did a huge amount of ministry when he was on his way to other places to do other things. Serving requires staying alert to what the needs are around you.
Every Sunday after church, we have over 100 people who stand around in this gym talking while a handful of people pack up our equipment and load our trailer. We have made appeal after appeal for workers to help us with this critical task. See, servanthood means stopping. It means keeping your eyes open and being alert to the needs around you. About 100 people stand around talking while there is a significant unmet need right in front of them, and they don’t even notice. Now some have guests with them that day and need to be with their guests. But if everyone who could chip in a little bit did so, we could have our church packed up and out of here in 15 minutes every week. Instead, this little handful of people has to stay long after everyone else is probably already at dinner, trying to get everything packed and taken care of. Servanthood – servanthood is being available. Seeing needs and meeting those needs as they present themselves. What the church needs is not people saying, “I already serve here,” or “I gave at the door” and looking for reasons to not give and not serve, but people with the attitude, “I serve until the work is done.” That was Christ’s attitude about serving and we must have that attitude also.
What are barriers to serving? Self-centeredness is one. “I don’t want to pack equipment, I want to stand here and talk to my friends.” Another is perfectionism. “I’m afraid that if I tried to load something I might not do it right.” Don’t wait to serve until you can do it perfectly. If so you’ll never even start. I have an invitation for you. I want to invite you to be one of the imperfect people who’s in the game and serving. This is essential so that the perfect people who don’t serve have someone to criticize! After all, this is usually how it works. Another barrier is materialism. “I’m afraid that if I served it might mean that I would have to give up this luxury or that luxury, or invest some of my money or my resources.” Materialism. Until we want to be like Jesus more than we want to find excuses, we’ll find excuses – and plenty of them. More than we’ll ever need. So those are reasons we often don’t serve – self-centeredness, perfectionism, and materialism. Today when church is out, I hope to see more people sweep up to the front to offer to help than ever before, and I don’t want to see it gradually fall off after a few weeks when it seems like the heat’s not on anymore. I’m talking about a change of heart and a change of attitude and a change of lifestyle. Isn’t that what we come to church to learn? If so, let’s put it into practice right here before we even leave. Let’s get disturbed this morning! Let’s get disturbed about how we sit around learning about servanthood and how Jesus was a servant and how we want to be like Jesus, and then have an opportunity to serve five minutes after the sermon is finished and choose not to. You might say, “Dave, why are you making me feel guilty?” To that I would respond that it’s time the people of God accept responsibility for learning about him but not obeying him. Don’t feel guilty – God doesn’t need your guilt and neither do I. What God demands in your obedience. Make a decision. Are you or are you not going to get in the game? See, if you’re going to serve like Jesus, you’re going to have to make yourself available. You make yourself available already for everything that matters most to you, and the things that matter to you matter because you make yourself available for them.
The next thing we need in order to serve like Jesus is gratitude.
John 11:41-42 (NIV)
(41) So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, "Father, I thank you that you have heard me.
(42) I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me."
Here Jesus gives thanks to God, shows gratitude, before he raises Lazarus from the dead. Being able to serve is a privilege that we should be grateful for. But two things get in the way of gratitude. The first is comparing and criticizing.
Romans 14:4 (NIV)
(4) Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To his own master he stands or falls. And he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand.
We get into this thing where we somehow come to believe it is our job to criticize the ministries of other people, from the pastor right on over to those who are serving side by side with us. If I let you down, I get the phone calls and emails, or the rumor mill starts cranking. If someone you work next to in ministry isn’t meeting all your expectations – here we go. Or sometimes worse yet, if someone you’re working with in ministry is excelling and being successful, we can feel like a failure, like the success of another person means failure for us. Rather than being happy for them, we can get bitter and resentful because we feel like in comparison we’re less than them. My friends, all of this is a major sign of immaturity. Spiritually mature people grant grace to those around them and do not constantly compare themselves with other people. You can see, I’m sure, how this kind of thing keeps us from being able to experience gratitude toward God. So I ask you, am I talking to you right now? When things happen at Wildwind that you disagree with, whether from one of my decisions or another leader in the church, or the Leadership Team, do you start griping to people who have no ability to solve the problem? Do you let frustration and anger eat you up inside? Do you compare yourself with other people and feel jealous about the success they are having in ministry? We all probably have times when we feel this. I know I do at times. But it’s immature and it has to go. We have to surrender this to God and keep surrendering it. Now granted, if every Christian stopped criticizing, my life would be a whole lot better. Some might think, “How convenient for him.” But you know what? If every Christian stopped criticizing, your life would be a whole let better too. And whether our life is more comfortable or less comfortable, we must obey God.
Another barrier to gratitude is wrong motivations. Maybe we’re not serving for the right reasons.
Matthew 6:1 (NIV)
(1) "Be careful not to do your ’acts of righteousness’ before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.
Motivation matters. Why are you serving? Is it because you genuinely desire to have a piece of the life God has carved out for you? Your true motives will show when something happens that you don’t agree with, or when you get rattled in your ministry somehow. This will reveal what’s in your heart. Are you serving to get credit and praise and esteem from others, or for attention? These are wrong motives for serving and will keep you from being grateful to God because they will set you up for disappointment when you don’t get the credit you feel you deserve. It’s okay to enjoy being thanked and recognized, but those can’t be our basic motives.
The third thing we need in order to serve like Jesus is faithfulness. Hanging in there. It means you keep on going. You don’t quit in the middle of your assignment. At the end of Jesus’ ministry on earth, Jesus said
John 17:4 (NIV)
(4) I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do.
Jesus was faithful in fulfilling His service. He didn’t give up. And if you’re going to be like Jesus it means you’re going to serve as long as you’re alive. You may retire from your job someday, but you never retire from ministry. You never retire from service.
When we finish this service in a little while, you’ll be dismissed to roam around and check out the tables here at the back of the gym. You’ll have a chance to meet and talk to ministry leaders who can plug you into a position of service. Remember a few weeks ago we talked about fellowship and I said I’d be making some calls to some of our members who had drifted out of group. Those calls were made, and now I want to say we’ll be contacting our members who are not plugged into a position of weekly service in the church. We believe in this deeply, it’s one of our core membership commitments, and it’s essential that the members of our church remain steeped in service here at Wildwind. Those of you who are not members, that doesn’t mean it’s any less important for you. Members are people who promise to do this but whether it’s promised or not, it’s still vital and we encourage every one of you to find a place to serve. Just go for it. Realize that if you sign your name on a piece of paper back there today, we’ll view this as a trial run. Some of you don’t know where you’ll serve best and need to try a few things out, and we want to give you that chance.
When you boil it all down, you can do two things with your life. You can spend it, or you can invest it. The best use of life is to invest it in that which is going to outlast it. I don’t know if you’ve realized this or not, but not every investment here on earth pays off. Invest your time, invest your life, invest your abilities into the things that really matter. Truthfully folks, not much does. But there is no effort too great for the church because there is no cause more important. Don’t ever forget that. We are called to the huge, eternal, incredible work of changing the lives of men and women and children – and changed people create changed homes. Changed homes lead to changed communities. Changed communities lead to changed states. Changed states lead to changed countries, and changed countries lead to a changed world. Seem like a big job? It’s HUGE. And that’s what we’ve been called to. We are called to change this world by allowing our own hearts to be changed and then working to play a role in changing the hearts of others until the whole world is changed. But we do it one person, one life, at a time. Don’t say we don’t need you. We DO need you and we need you now!! And you do not get to have it both ways. You cannot come here every week and sit in these seats with us and hear God’s Word with us and worship with us and then expect to take a pass when it comes to working alongside us! Scratch that – you CAN take a pass. But you can’t expect us not to tell you what you’re missing and that you need to work with us!
One day you’re going to stand before God and He’s going to say to you, “What did you do with what I gave you? “Well, God, I was a little busy with my ambitions and plan. I never got around to serving You.” And God’s going to say, “Do you think I put you on earth to live for yourself?”
I make no apology in saying to you that the most important thing you’ll ever do with your life is serving God in ministry. It’s far more important than your career, it’s far more important than your hobbies, it’s more important than anything else you can think of because nothing else is going to last. But this is. You were put here on earth to practice serving. Let’s pray. Would you pray this?
Father I realize that I was shaped to serve You by serving others. Forgive me for the times I’ve put a “do not disturb” sign on my heart. Help me to see the interruptions in my life as opportunities to serve. Help me want to make time for what matters most. You’ve been so good to me. I want to give something back. I want to serve You freely and gratefully and faithfully so one day I can hear You say “Well done, good and faithful servant”. In Your name I pray, Amen.
