If a friend of yours was to ask you what it means to be a servant of God, how would you respond?
In our reading from Isaiah 49 God reveals some of the things about being one of his servants.
Interestingly this reading is a prophecy spoken many years before Jesus was born on earth
to help people identify who the Messiah is.
But even for each one of us it can be helpful for us to understand what it means to be a servant of God.
At times you may feel exactly like verse 4
4 But I said, “I have labored to no purpose;
I have spent my strength in vain and for nothing.
Yet what is due me is in the LORD’s hand,
and my reward is with my God.”
God doesn’t hide the fact that there will be struggles, there will be difficulties in being a Christian.
That at times shinning God’s light in the world is not glamorous or easy.
Maybe you have felt that you haven’t contributed much.
Perhaps you feel like an old worn out couch or broken down car when it comes to being a Christian,
that no one is interested in anymore.
Maybe family members seem to be like rock solid brick walls.
You have tried being a faithful witness and have almost given up because no one seems to take notice.
You feel what is the point.
Well part of this feeling is that many of us at times feel that life should be one constant improvement.
Our view of life is that things should keep going up and up.
And when it doesn’t it is easy to become disillusioned, to give up.
To stop contributing, and to simply go through the motions.
But if we examine God’s approach to life.
Life is one of constant up and downs.
If we were to graph the life of most people it would be a graph highlighting highs and lows, and ups and downs.
In fact for many people life is like a five set tennis match.
Tennis matches rarely go to five sets,
without both players experiencing some extreme highs and some extreme lows.
It is the same for our life,
our Christian life and our church life both as individuals and as a community.
One thing that is helpful for us is to take a long term view of life, rather than a short term view.
Over the last few months I have been reading a number of books on developing a discipleship lifestyle and congregation.
There are some interesting facts one commentator highlights that congregations who are serious about making disciples will at times suffer a reduction in numbers and an increase in challenges,
because being a disciple of Jesus involves somewhat of a different attitude than being a consumer of Jesus.
Many people are happy to choose some things about Jesus, however they are not always happy about being involved what it means to be a disciple.
That is something for each of us to think about.
The difference of being a disciple of Jesus or a consumer.
A disciple sticks with Jesus regardless of whether things are going well or not,
So lets look at what it means to be a servant of God, a disciple of God according to Isaiah 49.
Verse one-three reminds us that every servant of God’s is there because God has taken the initiative to:
Select them as a servant,
to prepare them as a servant
and to be showcases of God’s love.
Jesus was the one selected by God to be our Messiah.
If we were to chart Jesus’ success in ministry on a chart according to what we believed or even the Jewish people believed a Messiah would do mostlikely many of us would have said at the time he failed.
At one stage early in his ministry he had over 5000 people listening to him in one spot,
but over time this dwindled to less than 12.
If we were to measure his success just before his death, like some did, when they screamed if you are God save yourself, Jesus failed as God’s servant.
But history and the bible shows this is not he case.
Jesus did not fail as God’s servant.
Jesus remained loyal.
Even at the start of his ministry there is a hint that God’s approach to life is somewhat different to ours.
In the Gospel reading we heard, which is talking about a time at the start of Jesus’ ministry
John refers to Jesus as the lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.
Now when we look at the Old Testament the lamb doesn’t take away the sin of the world by eating it.
The only way a lamb could take away sin was to be slaughtered, sacrificed.
And this is how God through Jesus shows his love to us, by getting rid of the problems sin causes us.
How Jesus carried out his ministry was exactly how God wanted us to see and experience His love.
Jesus was selected and prepared by God to minister in God’s way.
Now when this comes to our own situation,
Jesus is the perfect showcase of God’s love.
If you want to know how God loves you, look at Jesus.
But God has not only selected Jesus, every person who has ministered to you has been selected and prepared by God.
And you have been selected by God to be in the place you are now and have been prepared by God to serve Him in the roles you fulfill in life.
God has selected you to be His light, His showcase of love in the numerous places you frequent.
Remember this every servant of God has been selected by them, been prepared by them and showcases some of God’s love.
Now verse 5-6 indicates that even though God’s servants may feel like failures God’s mission for us is often bigger than what we expect.
A question each of us need to ask is who do you think we are responsible for ministering to?
Who do you think we are responsible to minister to individually and as a congregation?
Jesus mission initially begins to his own people, the Jewish people.
For many Jews this is where it was to be focused.
However God’s plans were not just for one race or one type of person,
but God wanted all nations to receive his love.
And so Jesus mission extends beyond all boundaries to being a light for all nations.
This should also impact us.
Our mission is not just to us, to those who are members of our congregation.
Infact unlike a club our responsibilities is to be ministering to people outside our congregations.
One of the biggest traps many people fall into is that when we get our lives in order then we can begin ministering to others.
Have a guess what?
This will never happen.
We will always be affected by sin.
We will always have something wrong with us.
Someone once said, being a Christian is one beggar leading another beggar to a place where they both can get help.
Some time ago I read a story of a congregation in South Melbourne, which many would describe had a mission statement that we are a church for all those who have had been rejected elsewhere.
This congregation was a colourful mixture of people from many different backgrounds, situations, with a vast array of problems.
And one of the interesting things about this congregation is they weren’t too concerned about everyone and everything being right before they got involved in helping others.
The pastor and leaders openly welcomed everyone and would encourage everyone to be active in being a servant of shining God’s light in the world.
One of the interesting things about this was this helped people grow in faith.
As they helped and ministered to others,
God also ministered to them.
At times they were asked some strange questions, questions they didn’t have an answer to
and when this happened you know what they did?
They responded lets find out about this together.
Remember God often has plans for us that go far beyond our expectations, or as Ephesians 3 reminds us God can do far more through us than we ask for or expect.
Verse 7 reminds us that God continues to be faithful regardless of what has happened
One of the reassuring things about God is that even though at times he is probably disappointed with me or you
God’s disappointment does not result in him withdrawing His love for us
And we know that despite Jesus being rejected, he persevered with His mission to save you and me.
Despite Jesus being let down by even his closest disciples he entrusted them with carrying on His mission.
And as we encounter difficulties as God’s servants remember God is faithful to us.
God continues to be with you and me.
God is always welcoming us, so he can constantly forgive us and prepare us for the future.
So as we live our lives as God’s disciples,
remember God is doing something amazing.
Not only do we bring God’s love and restoration to others
But God is also restoring us, God is changing us, God is refining us.
Amen
