Introduction:
A. One day, some church members were working at their church workday and a teenage boy they didn’t know was working with them to fulfill some court appointed community service hours.
1. The teen asked the man who was working next to him, “So, what bad thing did you do that caused you to end up working here?”
2. The man simply replied, “I didn’t do anything wrong. I’m just serving here at the church because I love God, and it’s a good thing to do.”
3. Unfortunately, I think that many people, old and young, have the attitude that “no one serves unless they have to.”
4. Too many people look at serving in the church as a punishment, rather than a privilege, but nothing could be further from the truth.
5. Ultimately, there is no greater privilege, and satisfaction than serving for the Lord.
B. Today’s sermon continues our sermon series on becoming a Healthy Church.
1. So far we have learned that healthy churches grow deeper through discipleship.
a. We learned that discipleship requires the commitment and devotion of our hearts and lives.
b. We must put God first in all things, and we must strive to obey God in every way.
2. Last week we learned that healthy churches grow warmer through fellowship.
a. We learned that fellowship is more than eating together or socializing with each other, rather it is the expression of genuine Christianity among the members of God’s family.
b. We learned that we are all in the Christian race or on a mountain climbing expedition and that we need each other if we are going to make it to the end.
c. I challenged us to make a list of those people we are going to make an extra effort to encourage and be in touch with. I hope that each of us made the list and are working at it.
3. Today, we want to explore the idea that we will be a healthier church as we grow broader through ministry.
a. Today, I want us to look at several verses about serving, and see what message God has for each of us about serving in ministry?
I. The first thing God wants us to know about serving is that: We are created to serve.
A. Paul stated it well in Ephesians 2:10, “We are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”
1. You and I were made by God, we are His workmanship, His masterpieces!
2. And by the way, anytime we’re tempted to become discouraged about who we are, we need to remember that God is the master craftsman.
3. God designed you and me for a specific purpose, and constructed us for that purpose.
4. We are ideally suited for the role in which God has cast us.
5. God intends for our lives to make a difference, to make a contribution to His kingdom, and He has given us what we need to fulfill that purpose.
B. Do you remember that when God first called Moses to lead God’s people out of slavery in Egypt, Moses balked.
1. Do you remember why he did that? Moses didn’t have a very high opinion of himself. He didn’t think that he was much of a speaker. And maybe at that time, he was right.
2. Obviously, a man who was going to rally several million people to leave their Egyptian masters would need to be quite an orator.
3. A man who was going to stand before the Pharaoh and convince him to voluntarily release his slaves would need to have quite a way with words. Right?
4. So Moses said to God (Ex. 4:10), “Oh Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue.”
5. But look at what God then said to Moses (4:11-12), “Who gave man his mouth? Who makes him deaf or mute? Who gives him sight or makes him blind? Is it not I, the Lord? Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say.”
C. In other words, God said: “Moses, trust me. I know what I’m doing. I have a plan for how you are going to serve me. I have formed you for that plan. Your birth into a specific Hebrew family, your natural abilities or lack of them, your training and upbringing in Pharaoh’s court – even the sin of murder that forced you into exile for 40 years – all of these are the process by which I was shaping you, preparing you to fulfill your role in my plan. Yes, my purpose for your life will require everything you have, but it will require nothing that you lack.”
1. Don’t you think the same is true of us?
2. God’s purpose for our lives will require everything we have – all our gifts and abilities, all of our skills and experience, all of our wisdom and intelligence, all of our strength and energy.
3. And it will require nothing that we lack. God has made us and will make us into what He needs us to be.
4. In other words, everything we are and everything we have is intended to be used for serving God and serving people.
D. So, first of all today, I want us to realize that God has made us to serve.
1. He has created and has called us to serve.
2. God has prepared and endowed us with what we need to serve in very personalized ways.
II. The second thing God wants us to know is that: The Body of Christ Needs our Service.
A. Look at 1 Peter 4:10-11, “Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms. If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God. If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ.”
1. Peter makes several important points.
2. He says that “each one should use whatever gift he has received.”
a. Obviously, we can’t serve with gifts we don’t have, but we can and should use the ones we do have.
3. Notice that he says that God’s grace is administered in its various forms by the use of the various gifts that we have received – God’s work is done in many different ways.
4. Notice also that as we use the gifts God has given, we must depend on God – We must depend on God’s wisdom, God’s words and God’s power.
5. And notice the goal of all this service – we are to serve so that God receives the glory due God, that God may receive the praise.
6. That is all simple enough, don’t you think?
B. Now let’s look at Romans 12, and let’s spend a minute with verses 3-8.
1. “For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you. Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man's gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully.”
2. Let’s begin our evaluation of this text by noticing that in verse 6, Paul said that we have different gifts according to the grace given us.
3. God has made us and endowed us differently. Why did he do so? So that we can play different roles, and function in different ways.
4. In verses 4 and 5, Paul used the illustration of the body to help us understand that the church is made up of different members who have different roles, but that we all belong to each other and we all need each other.
5. In verse 3, Paul encourages us to be humble in our assessment of ourselves and the gifts we have been given. No one should think of themselves more highly than they ought.
6. Even though a person plays a role with a higher degree of responsibility or visibility, that does not make them better or more important than others in the body.
C. Sometimes I think people fail to serve because they think that the service that they might render is unimportant.
1. You know, when it comes right down to it, we are not good judges of what is truly valuable.
2. Only God sees the whole picture, and only He understands how every part fits into the whole.
3. Something which appears to be quite unimportant or insignificant to us now could prove absolutely critical in the grand scheme of things.
4. An act of service which receives no notice or acknowledgment by anyone, something which is seen only by God, could prove to be key to the work of God’s kingdom.
5. Didn’t Jesus say that on the day of judgment many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first?
D. Let me give you an example from Scripture. Do you remember the miracle of the loaves and fishes in John 6?
1. Jesus received a small boy’s lunch, and miraculously multiplied it, so that it fed over five thousand people.
2. That small, seemingly insignificant act of giving up a small lunch created an opportunity for the power of Christ to be displayed.
3. The boy remained anonymous, but how many hundreds of millions of people all over the world, for the last twenty centuries have read what that boy did, and have come to faith and followed his example, just because of his small act of service and the power of God?
E. What about the various households who showed hospitality to the disciples and Jesus?
1. Do you know any of their names? Not many. And yet, their acts of service are recorded in the Scriptures as well.
2. Every act of service has value in God’s sight. It is all significant to him.
3. When we serve someone, young or old, we have no idea what the result and eternal consequence might be.
4. I’m confident that when we get to heaven, we will be amazed to learn how many of our seemingly unimportant words or deeds set off a chain of events which resulted in great things.
5. Jesus said, “And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is my disciple, I tell you the truth, he will certainly not lose his reward.” (Mt. 10:42)
6. In 1 Cor. 15:58 Paul reminds us, “Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.”
F. Before we move on to the last point I want to make today, let’s spend a minute with the text used as our Scripture reading, Ephesians 4:11-16: “11 It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, 12 to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. 14 Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. 15 Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. 16 From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.” .
1. Paul makes two points that go along with what we are trying to learn and apply today.
2. First, Paul points out that God has given us different roles.
a. Some people are to be leaders and teachers, and one of their responsibilities is to prepare the rest of the body for works of service.
3. The second point that Paul makes is that all of these different roles and works of service help to build the body up and move it toward maturity.
a. The critical issue on this point is verse 16: “As each part does its work.”
b. The body cannot be properly joined and held together, and grow and build itself up if each part is not doing its work.
4. The human body is not considered healthy and functioning if only one side of the body is working, or if the upper half is working but not the lower half.
5. The human body is truly healthy and functioning when every single part is working properly.
6. That’s what we want in the church. That’s what God wants for the church!
G. So, what have we learned so far?
1. First, that God has made us for service.
2. Second, that the body needs each part of the body doing its work of service.
III. A final thing that God wants us to know about service is that: Serving Leads to Fulfillment.
A. Where can true happiness and fulfillment be found?
1. Not in Unbelief - Voltaire was an infidel of the most pronounced type. He wrote: “I wish I had never been born.”
2. Not in Pleasure - Lord Byron lived a life of pleasure if anyone did. He wrote: “The worm, the canker, and grief are mine alone.”
3. Not in Money - Jay Gould, the American millionaire, had plenty of that. When dying, he said: “I suppose I am the most miserable man on earth.”
4. Not in Position and Fame - Lord Beaconsfield enjoyed more than his share of both. He wrote: “Youth is a mistake; manhood a struggle; old age a regret.”
5. Not in Military Glory - Alexander the Great conquered the known world in his day. Having done so, he wept in his tent, saying, “There are no more worlds to conquer.”
6. Where then is real joy found? - The answer is simple, real fulfillment is found in serving Jesus Christ the Lord.
B. In John 13, we are told about something that Jesus did with his disciples during his last meal, just before he was arrested, tried and crucified.
1. Jesus took the position of a servant.
2. Jesus took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. He poured water in to a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet.
3. After Jesus had washed all their feet he said, “I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you…Now that you know these things you will be blessed if you do them.” (vs. 15, 17)
4. Someone has said, “Happiness, in this world, if it comes at all, comes incidentally. Make it the object of pursuit, and it leads us on a wild-goose chase, and it is never attained.”
5. The blessed and happy life is not something that is achieved, but it is something that comes to a person as they lead a life of service.
C. There’s a wonderful story told about a young girl who was walking through a meadow one day and saw a butterfly impaled upon a thorn.
1. Very carefully she released it, and the butterfly immediately changed into a beautiful fairy.
2. “For your kindness,” the fairy told the girl, “I will grant you your fondest wish.”
3. The little girl thought for a moment and replied, “I want to be happy.”
4. The fairy leaned toward her and whispered something in her ear and then vanished.
5. As the little girl grew, no one in the land was happier than she.
6. When anyone asked her for her secret of happiness, she would only smile and say, “I listened to a good fairy.”
7. Now a lovely old woman facing death, her neighbors begged her to reveal the secret and she finally did. She said, “The fairy told me that everyone, no matter how strong or secure they seemed, had need of me.”
8. Acting upon those words, the little girl had devoted her life to serving others, and found happiness along the way.
Conclusion:
A. Becoming a servant is the very best thing we can become in this world.
1. It is what we are made for.
2. It is what will make the church body the strongest.
3. And it is what will bring us fulfillment.
B. In the end, however, the right motivation for Christian service is love.
1. When we discover that God loves us with an everlasting love and that we matter deeply to him, we will want to serve.
2. He has given us salvation as a free gift.
a. He has done for us what we could not do for ourselves.
b. He has given his own Son as a sin sacrifice for undeserving souls like us.
3. When we truly realize all of that, an insatiable desire to return love to God will well up in us.
4. That love is returned to God through a life of worship and service.
5. Anything short of passionate service should seem unnatural.
C. Our church family will be healthier as we learn to grow broader through ministry.
1. My prayer for us is that we, the body of Christ here at Wetzel Road will grow and build ourselves up in love as each part does its work!
2. Here is our homework: I want to encourage each of us to consider our present service to God.
a. How are you serving God?
b. In what ways are you using your gifts?
c. In what ways would God want you to be serving more?
d. Who are you serving, or who does God want you to be serving?
3. I pray that as we leave here today we will allow God to inspire us to an even greater life of service.
