David Served the Purpose of God in his generation (text)
Acts 13:
Paul the apostle has sailed into a place called Antioch in Pisidia. He’s preaching to those in the synagogue at Antioch. As part of a visiting group of Jews, the local synagogue give him half a chance and he’s away! Telling people in terms that they will relate to the good news of Jesus Christ.
Paul establishes common ground with them, in vs 16 he calls the audience ‘Men of Israel, and you who fear God.’ Then he goes through the Old Testament with them, picks out a few highlights like the slavery in Egypt (boo!) the Exodus (hurrah!), the forty years in the wilderness (Boo!), the period of the Judges (boo!), Samuel the prophet (hurray), Saul the King who failed (boo!), David the king who was a man after God’s own heart (hurray!).
They are on safe ground they think. The whole synagogue is thinking, “This man’s just someone who’s going to tell us the old old story, he looks too serious to give us any decent jokes, but there’ll be some things we can discuss a little when he’s gone, but our world will stay just the same.”
Then Paul lets them have it: He’s just been telling them about King David, and then in verse 23 he says something that I guarantee made them widen their eyes, scratch their beards and shake their heads: “From this man (David’s) seed, according to the promise, God raised up for Israel a Saviour- Jesus!”
Pauls’ saying ‘God’s doing a new thing. He has done a new thing! The new thing has strong links to the past, but God’s not locked into the past- he’s a today God. Don’t think God hasn’t got plans, don’t think everything will always stay the same! You might want that, but God has done a new thing!’
Vs 26, “Men and brethren, sons of the family of Abraham, and those among you who fear God, to YOU the word of salvation has been sent.” So what are you going to do with it? Like it or not, you invited the speaker to speak, and he’s spoken. He’s said ‘God’s doing a new thing.’ What will your response be to that? Will you accept it or reject it?
Paul says ‘Lots of people rejected Jesus when he came- they even crucified him. But God raised him from the dead!’ (Huuuuuuh!) He was seen for many days by those who came up with him from Galilee! (Huuuuuuuuh!). We are witnesses! (Huuuuh!) “This is good news!” says Paul. The promise of yesterday being fulfilled today! It’s in line with the Bible’s promises, God is fulfilling them!
Then he talks again about King David. Paul says ‘Remember Psalm 16? David said ‘You will not allow your holy one to see corruption?” David was not talking about himself! He was looking forward prophetically and saw Jesus being raised from the dead. Jesus fulfils that old prophecy, made hundreds of years ago- and it’s good news for you today!
That brings me to my text today: (Pause & smile!) Pray!
For when had David served God’s Purpose in his own generation, he fell asleep, he was buried with his fathers and his body decayed. Acts 13:36
1. DAVID SERVED
"Servant" here is from the Greek doulos (bondslave). It talks about someone who is no longer at their own disposal, no longer putting their own needs first, but as their master’s purchased property serves. Serves him, serves others. Puts them first. Having been bought to serve the master’s needs, Being at his beck and call every moment, following orders. Christian service means, first and foremost, living out a submitted relationship to Jesus- the Servant King.
What work does Christ set his servants to do? The way that they serve him, he tells them, is by becoming the slaves of their fellow-servants and being willing to do literally anything, however costly or undignified, to help them. This is what love means, as he himself showed at the Last supper when he took the slave’s job and washed the disciples’ feet. The King, Jesus Christ, has stooped to serve us. And David the King served. He served God, he served others. He was not too proud to be thought of as a servant by others. (What do you think I am- your servant?!).
In 1878, when William Booth’s Salvation Army was beginning to make its mark, men and women from all over the world began to enlist. One man, who had once dreamed of becoming a bishop, crossed the Atlantic from America to England to enlist. Samuel Brengle left a big church ministry to join Booth’s Army. But Booth accepted his services reluctantly and grudgingly. He said to Brengle, "You’ve been your own boss too long." In order to instil humility in Brengle, he set him to work cleaning the boots of other trainees. Brengle said to himself, "Have I followed my own fancy across the Atlantic in order to black boots?" And then, as he was doing the job, he had a vision. He saw Jesus bending over the feet of his disciples. "Lord," he whispered, "you washed their feet; I will black their shoes."
Servanthood is a heart issue. God looks HERE. // I can serve you, but not ove you- not even like you. People in restaurants & shops serve, but they do it for money not love! If I put your interests first, put Christ’s glory and his mission first, let my own needs and desires take a back seat, then I am proving to be a useful servant. If I do it grudgingly, or half-heartedly, I should expect no reward because as Jesus said ‘Even the tax collectors and irreligious people love those who love them.’ True servanthood comes from seeing that God loves me. And you too. So because of the love that connects us I will serve you. Anything else is what Richard Foster calls ‘Self righteous service.’
Self-righteous service comes through human effort. True service comes from a relationship with the Lord deep inside.
Self-righteous service is impressed with the "big deal." True service finds it almost impossible to distinguish the small from the large service.
Self-righteous service requires external rewards. True service rests contented in hiddenness.
Self-righteous service picks and chooses who to serve. True service is indiscriminate in its ministry.
Self-righteous service is affected by moods and whims. True service ministers simply and faithfully because there is a need.
Self-righteous service is temporary. True service is a life-style.
Self-righteous service fractures community. True service builds community.
Richard Foster, Celebration of Discipline, "The Discipline of Service."
Isn’t that what we’re trying to do here? Build a God-honouring, loving community here in West Horsley. (Love God, Love others). It will only come as we serve. King David Served. //// What?
What did he serve? David served…
GOD’S PURPOSE
“Most people wish to serve God - but in an advisory capacity only.”
Is that true of you? (Get the relationship upside down).
I said last week- any Christian can do something amazing for God. You can serve in such a way that you do something that builds community. Something that reaches out and includes someone outside of his love right now and brings them in. You can do that!
You might have tried and failed, but you can try again.
We’re going to be spending some time in coming months looking at God’s purpose.
Keys
Daily, Seasonal, Life purpose. (Jer 29:11).
We don’t decide, we discover.
Don’t let anything hold you back from serving God’s purpose!
Back to General William Booth (we’ll keep coming back to him this morning!). He lost his eyesight. His son Bramwell was given the difficult task of telling his father there would be no recovery. "Do you mean that I am blind?" the General asked.
"I hear we must contemplate that," his son replied.
The father continued, "I shall never see your face again?"
"No, probably not in this world."
"Bramwell," said General Booth, "I have done what I could for God and for His people with my eyes. Now I shall do what I can for God without my eyes."
Nothing was going to stop him serving GOD’s purpose! He would serve God! Why? Because even when he was blind, he saw the need!
His book In Darkest England and the Way Out appeared in 1890 graphically comparing the social darkness in England to Africa’s darkness pictured by David Livingstone. In London in one year, he reported 2,157 people had been found dead, 2,297 had committed suicide, 30,000 were prostitutes, 160,000 were drunks, and more than 900,000 were classed as paupers. The whole picture was one of dire need. Booth went on to describe the Salvation Army’s enormous rescue efforts. But no such ministry came from the Church of England. They opposed him. They said ‘We have nothing to learn from non-conformists.’
Booth’s defense of his methods? "We have no reputation to lose; we are not obliged to stop and consider what anybody will say; everybody has settled it that we are fools ... and therefore we can go into a town and do exactly what we think best without taking the least notice of what anybody may say or wish. We have only to please God and get the people saved."
Getting the people saved. That was all Booth wanted at first. But most of the churches either barred the poor totally or tucked them behind screens out of sight and smell, so where would the new converts go? "My first idea was simply to get the people saved and send them to the churches," Booth wrote. "This proved… impracticable. …they were not wanted.... We were thus driven to providing for the converts ourselves."
He travelled 5,000,000 miles and preached 60,000 sermons, saying, "Work as if everything depended upon your work, and pray as if everything depended upon your prayer." Years later the Salvation Army was holding an international convention and Booth could not be there because he was now so weak physically. He cabled his convention message to them. It was one word: "OTHERS.”
Like King David, Booth was serving the purpose of God-
IN HIS GENERATION:
He was concerned for people. He wanted to get them to hear and experience the challenging, life-changing, new life creating message of the gospel in a way they could understand, relate to and respond.
He saw the need all round him, and did whatever it took to reach the people.
He took the words of popular music songs of the day and put Christian words to them. Many of them are in our hymn books today! People think of them now as ‘Traditional.’ At the time they were radical!
He was criticised for using what church people called the devil’s music. " Do you say secular music belongs to the devil? Does it? Well, if it did I would plunder him for it, for he has no right to a single note....(Why should the devil have all the good music?) Every note, and every strain, and every harmony is divine, and belongs to us.... So consecrate your voice and your instruments.... Offer them to God, and use them to make all the hearts about you merry before the Lord."
Booth saw the need all round him. (PAUSE: LOOK ROUND)
The need is greater today than it was then! All around us people, people of this village, people you and I know, people we love, are standing outside of the love of God. They’re not paupers, but they are in desperate need of God and don’t even know it! They don’t want the Church. They believe we don’t want them. Something has to change if we are going to serve the purpose of God in our generation.
Here are some figures to think about. But don’t just think of it as figures! Think of it as people. People God loves. People you know. People on your street, in our schools. People in your family.
The total number of members of Christian Churches in 1980 was 7,600,000. In 2000 it was 5,900,000. That’s a decline of 21%. That means trouble! If we keep on doing what we’ve been doing we’ll keep on getting what we’ve been getting, or rather we’ll keep on losing like we’ve been losing. Remember these are people who used to go to church. Voting with their feet.
If I can read these figures to you and you don’t feel any concern about them, if you don’t think ‘Oh well, what can we do?’ I can think of two options why you’d think like that, either you just don’t get it – which might be excusable, or you do and you don’t care, a hard crust has formed around your heart, and you need to go to God and ask for a heart transplant this morning.
The Christian Church in this country lost on average 2,200 people a week during the whole of the 1990s.
Half of that overall loss (1100 a week) were children under 15.
The greatest percentage loss by far was in the age range 10 to 19 years. The tragedy is compounded by the fact that the average age of conversion to Xy is 18 years 11 months- after that they’re very difficult to reach! In fact 85% of people who come to Christ do so under the age of 25.
How many people go to Church these days?
3.6 million in the UK in 2000. Over a million left since 1990. A million people. Over 20%. What’s 20% of us here today? Get them to stand up. Who’s going to stop them? Who cares enough to do what it takes to keep them, who cares enough to go and get others out there them and bring them in?
They’re walking out! They’re not coming back. Do you care? (Cf. Titanic) “It’s your men out there!’ (They might rock the boat, I like things the way they are). (Bishop Gavin & wardens). How self-centred. How unfocused on others.
Who’s going to say ‘enough is enough?’ Do you know the last seven words of a dying Church? ‘We’ve never done it that way before.’
Cf. Change in services at St Lukes. More than doubled in three years. ‘Church bucks the trend.’ (made the papers!). It’s not rocket science. Build a loving community. Have excellence as your standard, Christ at the centre, worship wholeheartedly, love God and love people. They’ll beat a path to the door!
Or take a drive around the country. Notice the buildings, many old, many beautiful, church buildings that are now carpet warehouses, offices, pubs. Once people worshipped Jesus there. The Jesus who said ‘Even I did not come to be served but to serve, to give my life as a ransom for many, to seek and save the lost!’ They worshipped Jesus in the carpet warehouse! They said, ‘We’ve never done it that way before.’ They refused change. Change happened anyway.
David served the purpose of God in his generation…
4. THEN HE FELL ASLEEP (Died!)
William Booth died on August 20, 1912. During his lying-in-state, 150,000 people filed by the casket, and 40,000 people, including Queen Mary, attended his funeral. People had opposed his efforts for much of his life. When someone spat on him he refused to rub it off, saying it was a medal. They told him his work would make no lasting difference.
What was the legacy of a life lived for others? A life serving the purpose of God in your own generation?
Today The Salvation Army operates in 101 countries using more than 140 languages. Last year the Army sheltered 35,000 homeless, visited 450,000 prisoners, accommodated 4,000 young offenders, counselled 235,000 people, prevented around 220,000 suicides, gave financial aid to 2.5 million families and traced 10,000 missing people. 360 lepers, 15,000 blind people and 27 million patients were cared for in their hospitals. They operated 300 job-training centres, 2,000 food centres, 810 homes for the elderly, 200 children’s homes, 1,400 schools, 130 refugee centres, 152 alcohol and drug rehabilitation centres… the list goes on and on! The legacy of a life in the service of God is counted in people. It counts in eternity.
PRAY:
Lord, like King David, I want to serve the purpose of God in my generation. I want to do whatever it takes to see that accomplished. I know that one day I’ll be dead and gone, only what I’ve done for you, and for others will remain to show I was ever here. I will serve your purposes. I will put others first. Whatever it takes, Lord. Count me in.
Amen.
