• Sport fans generally hang out with sports fans
• Computer nerds generally hang out with computer nerds
• Racing fans generally hang out with racing fans
• Political junkies generally hang out with political junkies
• Alcoholics hang out with alcoholics
• Gossips hang out with gossips
It is a fact of life, we associate with people that we have things in common with.
But let me ask you something. If you were living when the apostle Paul was living, would you have felt that you had things in COMMON with him?
The Apostle Paul was a great man of God. In fact, he was so great that we Christians feel that we do not have a thing in common with him.
This morning, I believe the Lord would be pleased for us to see what we SHOULD HAVE IN COMMON with this great servant of the Lord.
Look what we have in common. We should have …
I. THE SAME SERVICE
Look at verse 1, we read, “Paul, a SERVANT of Jesus Christ.”
Notice how Paul describes himself. He calls himself a SERVANT OF JESUS CHRIST.
Illus: Louis Talbot said that on one occasion, a meat packer in Chicago attending the business men's class in D.L. Moody's church, sat by a man he did not know.
• After the class was dismissed, the stranger turned to him and asked, “WHAT IS YOUR BUSINESS, SIR?”
• The meat packer replied, “I AM A CHRISTIAN.”
• “I UNDERSTAND THAT, BUT WHAT IS YOUR BUSINESS; WHAT DO YOU DO?” the stranger asked again.
• The man said, “MY MAIN BUSINESS IS
TO BE A CHRISTIAN, BUT I PACK MEAT ON THE SIDE TO EARN A LIVING.”
The word “Servant” here is the Greek word “Doulos” (Doo'-los) which means a slave.
Paul was proud that he was a servant (slave) of the Lord Jesus.
Illus: In Columbia, SC, one company is known for not paying great salaries, but they give the employees fancy titles. That is, it seems everybody that works there are engineers, managers, overseers, and etc. And if you ask any of these employees what they do for a living, they very proudly tell you the title they hold.
We know a lot of folks who are proud of many things. The problem is, the things they are proud of, they ought to be ashamed of.
Illus: Wilt Chamberlain, a professional basketball player, got on national television and bragged about the many women he slept with.
Many times we hear people bragging about things they ought to be ashamed of.
Paul was proud of what most of us would be ashamed of. He proudly declared he was a SERVANT of the LORD JESUS CHRIST!
WHAT KIND OF SLAVE WAS HE?
In the Old Testament there were bond slaves.
A bond slave was a Hebrew who was a slave to another Hebrew.
For example, if a Hebrew bought a Hebrew slave:
• That slave was only to serve for six years
• At the end of the six years the slave was to go free
But during that six years, if his master gave him a wife, he could go free, but his wife and kids would have to stay with the master.
THERE WAS ONE SOLUTION TO THIS PROBLEM.
Look at Exodus. 21:5 6 “And if the servant shall plainly say, I LOVE MY MASTER, MY WIFE, AND MY CHILDREN; I will not go out free: Then his master shall bring him unto the judges; he shall also bring him to the door, or unto the door post; and his master shall bore his ear through with an awl; and he shall serve him forever.”
Notice that if a man loves his Master (Jesus first), His Wife and His Children, he will not leave the master’s house but will continue in faithful service!]
This bond slave is the perfect picture of a child of God.
Because of what Christ had done for Paul, Paul was now a bond slave to Jesus Christ!
NOW WE HAVE A LOT OF FOLKS TODAY WHO ARE SLAVES.
They do not consider themselves slaves, BUT THEY ARE SLAVES IN EVERY SENSE OF THE WORD.
1. SOME ARE SLAVES TO THE GOD OF FAME
They will compromise everything this Bible teaches to be popular. Many times this sin starts with a person when they are a teenager.
Illus: Sometimes a young girl in high school wants to be popular so that boys will like her and want to date her. But for various reasons she is not allowed in the inner social circle.
She begins to feel unimportant and overlooked. But very foolishly, she reaches the decision to compete with the girls in the inner social circle. She lowers her standards with the fellows, and earns the reputation of being “easy”.
She goes against what this Bible teaches to be popular.
WHY WOULD SHE DO SUCH AN EVIL THING?
Because she serves the god of popularity. This god in her life means everything to her.
WHY DO PEOPLE SERVE THE GOD OF POPULARITY?
Most folks associate SUCCESS with POPULARITY. That is, if someone is popular they are successful. But that is not true!
Illus: We who believe in what the scripture teaches, agree with Erma Bombeck. She said, “Don't confuse FAME with SUCCESS. Madonna is one, and Helen Keller is the other.” (Leadership, Vol. 16, no. 1)
SOME ARE SLAVES TO THE GOD OF POPULARITY.
2. SOME ARE SLAVES TO THE GOD OF SPORTS
It is obvious as you observe their life, they serve the god of sports.
• They talk about sports every time they have an opportunity
• They personally read everything they can to find out about the athletes they adore and worship
• They attend the games every time they get a chance, and sit in the stands in freezing cold weather to watch their gods play before them
They do all this because THEY ARE SLAVES TO THE GOD OF SPORTS.
3. SOME ARE SLAVES TO THE GOD OF WEALTH
Everything they do in their life revolves around the god of wealth.
They will LIE, CHEAT, AND SOME WILL EVEN KILL to get as much of this god in their life they can.
They are slaves to SIN. Every day they serve these gods with all their hearts.
We who have been bought with the precious blood of Christ, now have this in common with Paul; WE ARE SERVANTS OF GOD.
But notice in 1 Cor. 7:23, we are told, “ye are bought with a price; BE NOT YE THE SERVANTS OF MEN.”
Those of us who are bond slaves to Christ, know that:
• We have been bought with a price
• We are no longer servants of man, but SERVANTS OF THE LORD in the way that the apostle Paul was
We have this in common with Paul, we have THE SAME SERVICE. But also, we have-
II. THE SAME SUMMONS
Look at verse 1 again, we read, “Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, CALLED TO BE AN APOSTLE, separated unto the gospel of God.”
Look at the words, “…called to be an apostle…”
Paul WAS CALLED to be an Apostle. He didn’t get up one day and decide to serve God, GOD CALLED HIM!
He recognized that the God who had CREATED Him, created him for a very specific purpose.
That is why there will be the Judgment Seat of Christ to judge us for how we serve Him.
But for some strange reason, we have Christians in our churches who think that since the Lord has not called them to a pulpit ministry to preach, God does not have a set plan for their lives.
NOT SO! If you are a child of God, God has called you to do a work for Him as much as God has called any minister to preach in the pulpit.
And once we are called, we should strive to be the best servant we can possibly be. It might be that God has called you:
• To work in Sunday School
• To work on a bus route or a van route
• To play the church piano, or organ
• To work in the church nursery
• To sing in the choir
• To be the best usher you can possibly be
• To clean the church
• To be the best deacon or trustee in the church
Every one of us has been called of God to do something.
We have been SUMMONED by God. And one thing that God has not done, is call a child of God to sit on a church pew all their life and do nothing.
Illus: One man in his early eighties, died in the year 2000. But those who knew him best, say that before he died, he literally wore out a half dozen rocking chairs on his front porch. WHAT A WASTED LIFE!
But before we are quick to condemn him, we also have people in our churches who are wearing out church pews. WHAT A WASTED LIFE!
• God has called many of you to some very special jobs of service in the church
• God has called every child of God to EVANGELIZE THE LOST WORLD
God does not just save people and place them on a church pew. Once they are saved, they are called to SERVE.
God called PAUL to SERVE HIM, and God has called US to SERVE HIM!
Will you respond to His calling as Paul did?
We should ask ourselves, “What does God want me to do?”
Illus: A lot of guidance counselors will call Sophomores and Juniors in high school into their office, and ask them “What do you want to do after high school?” That is the wrong question. They should be asking, "What does God want you to do after high school?"
I challenge you to ask God what He wants you to do!
A lot of folks these days will tell you their life is a mess. They are confused and they are unhappy.
Why? Because they are taking the life that God created for a very specific purpose, and they are using it for the wrong purpose.
Their life is like a SQUARE, and they are trying to put it into a ROUND HOLE!
Every child of God has this in common with Paul.
• We are servants of the Lord
• We have been summoned by the Lord
But notice one more thing we have in common with Paul, we have ….
III. THE SAME SEPARATION
Look at verse 1, again, we read, “Paul, a SERVANT of Jesus Christ, CALLED to be an apostle, SEPARATED unto the gospel of God.”
One of the reasons that it is difficult to get people to serve the Lord, is because we have to live a SEPARATED LIFE once we are called to serve.
Listen, if you could tell people they can come to church on Sunday and be a child of God, and:
• Still lie and curse
• Still drink their liquor and beer
• Still take their drugs
• Still cheat on their mates
• Still read what they want to read
• Still watch what they want to watch
• Still gossip and slander people
They would be beating down the doors trying to get into the house of God.
But that is how we lived before we got saved.
The fact is, we who have been saved by the grace of God, have now been separated to SERVE HIM!
You can ask some professing Christians about CHRISTIAN SERVICE, and they will tell you up front that they do not have time for it.
WHY DON’T THEY HAVE TIME TO SERVE THE LORD?
Because the devil has filled their schedules with the things of this world, and they do not have time to serve the Lord.
ISN’T THAT SOMETHING! God gave them life, and now they do not have time to serve Him.
We should have this in common with Paul. Once we come to know the Lord as our Savior, we now are “SEPARATED unto the gospel of God.”
Listen, the lost world is going to hell as fast as they can go, and Christians don’t have time to share the gospel with them.
Before we got saved, we were separated from God and we lived in sin.
But now the Lord has saved us, and now we are “SEPARATED unto the gospel of God.”
Our business should be to live a SEPARATED LIFE of service.
We have this in common with Paul, WE NOW LIVE A SEPARATED LIFE UNTO THE GOSPEL OF GOD.
Matt. 5:16 “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.”
A person who is separated unto the Gospel of God will do these things.
Conclusion:
In Romans 1:1 we find that there are at least three things that we are to have in common with the Apostle Paul.
I. WE ARE SERVANTS
II. WE ARE SUMMONED
III. WE ARE SEPARATED
