Living a Purpose Driven Life part 5
(Made to Serve God)
Brian A. Moon
(Based on the book Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren)
Welcome to week number 5 of the 40 Days of Purpose!
We have been taking an in depth look at why on earth am I here, or what is the purpose of life. We discovered that there are 5 basic purposes of life and so far we have been through 3 of them. We said that our first purpose if to know and love God, the second purpose was to belong to God’s family, and the third purpose was to become more like Jesus and that brings us to tonight’s purpose. But instead of me just telling you here is a story that I found that maybe will illustrate the fourth purpose of your life a little better.
In 1972, NASA launched the exploratory space probe Pioneer 10. According to Leon Jaroff in Time, the satellite’s primary mission was to reach Jupiter, photograph the planet and its moons, and beam data to earth about Jupiter’s magnetic field, radiation belts, and atmosphere. Scientists regarded this as a bold plan, for at that time no earth satellite had ever gone beyond Mars, and they feared the asteroid belt would destroy the satellite before it could reach its target. But Pioneer 10 accomplished its mission and much, much more. Swinging past the giant planet in November 1973, Jupiter’s immense gravity hurled Pioneer 10 at a higher rate of speed toward the edge of the solar system. At one billion miles from the sun, Pioneer 10 passed Saturn. At some two billion miles, it hurtled past Uranus; Neptune at nearly three billion miles; Pluto at almost four billion miles. By 1997, twenty-five years after its launch, Pioneer 10 was more than six billion miles from the sun. And despite that immense distance, Pioneer 10 continued to beam back radio signals to scientists on Earth. "Perhaps most remarkable," writes Jaroff, "those signals emanate from an 8-watt transmitter, which radiates about as much power as a bedroom night light, and takes more than nine hours to reach Earth.’"
“The Little Satellite That Could” was not qualified to do what it did. Engineers designed Pioneer 10 with a useful life of just three years. But it kept going and going. By simple longevity, its tiny 8-watt transmitter radio accomplished more than anyone thought possible.
You see God made you to serve him, to do something with your life that only you can do, just like NASA made that satellite to serve their needs.
And when we offer our little 8-watt lives to him he can make our lives into much more than we think possible! That is the fourth purpose of your life,
You were made to serve God.
The Bible says, “We are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” Ephesians 2:10 NIV
Circle the word “workmanship”
Just like a potter makes a clay pot to hold water, just like a wood crafter works wood and nails into a chair for sitting, we are God’s workmanship made for the purpose of serving him. We are not simply made to sit in the stands and watch the game of life pass by, we are made to get in game and make a contribution to the team! But just like a coach doesn’t send his players into a game without giving them the tools they need to succeed, God has not sent us into the game with out the tools we need.
The Bible says, “Your hands shaped me and made me.” Job 10:8 NIV
And it also says, “Each of us should use whatever gift he’s received to serve others.” 1 Peter 4:10
You see God has shaped you with some special gifts, abilities, passions and experiences that make you uniquely qualified to do what only you can do! If you take our 301 Passion Class in our Life Development Course you will learn all about how God has gifted you and made you for serving him in a unique way.
But for tonight realize that God has shaped you for serving him by serving others. God has made us to help each other out and to serve each other with whatever gifts and abilities he has given to you and me. We are not here just to float through life only thinking about me, myself, and I! We are made to serve God by serving others. Here is a little secret I will let you in on… that is all a minister is. In fact each of you is a minister; you are all made to minister to each other! God has given each one of you a ministry that only you can do; he has given you some people to serve, to help out, to love on that only you can accomplish. Anytime you serve someone with your gifts and abilities you are "doing ministry!" You don’t have to be a missionary to Zimbabwe, or have some fancy title before your name to be a minister; all you need to do is serve God by serving others. Every believer, every follower of Jesus is a minister and it time that we start living that out, there are too many lost, and hurting people for us to sit in the stands any longer. NOW is the time to get in the game!!! Last week we talked about the purpose of becoming more like Jesus, are you ready to live that out because he said this:
"Your attitude must be like My own, for I did not come to be served, but to serve."
Matthew 20:28 TLB
A lot of peoples attitude in life is finding success and basing there self-worth on their net-worth, but Jesus said for you to find significance and self-worth follow me by serving each other, that is when you will find true self-worth. There is no pill, no potion, no person that will give you more of a high then serving God by serving others and fulfilling the fourth purpose of your life. So are you ready to find out what it takes to serve God by serving others?
Here we go the first thing we need to serve God by serving others is:
We must be available
Some of you may be sitting there and are like "Daa, I could have told you that." But, being available is harder than you think, it takes more than saying "Here I am Lord, send me…" Let me caution you with three barriers that must be torn down before you can truly serve God by serving others.
The first is: Self Centeredness - You have to put your needs in second place.
The Bible says, “Forget yourself long enough to lend a helping hand.” Philippians 2:4 MSG
Rick Warren the pastor that wrote the book we are going through in our small groups says this,
“Whenever you see a need right in front of you, guess what? God is giving you the opportunity to practice serving… Anytime you have a need right in front of your face, and it is really obvious, somebody needs help. God is giving you the opportunity to learn to serve, to learn to be more like Jesus Christ.”
So what keeps us from taking full advantage of those needs right in front of us? What keeps us from getting involved in this ministry by setting up or tearing down, singing on the vocal team, greeting people on the F.I.T. team, or investing your life in your friend’s lives? It is simple… we are too busy!
We have our own agenda and we don’t like it when God comes along and says, “Here is a good place that you could serve me, or what about this, or maybe even here…” Most of the time we are like, “God I am going this direction, can’t you see that… let me serve you over here instead it fits better into my schedule!”
You know when you look at the life of Jesus, he was always being interrupted and having to serve people when maybe he was trying to do something else. But he did not mind it because Jesus agenda was God’s agenda. Is your agenda God’s agenda???
The next barrier we must deal with to be available is: Perfectionism – You have to serve with what you have.
Somehow we have this weird idea that because we don’t have the time to give something our all, we don’t have the ability to do something well, or we don’t have the personality it takes to do this thing perfectly then we just should not attempt it at all.
Well guess what… if you wait for the perfect time, the perfection of your abilities, and the perfect personality then you will never do anything to serve God.
The Bible says, “If you wait for perfect conditions, you’ll never get anything done.” Ecclesiastes 11:4 NLT
God will give you what it takes to succeed in serving him, but it takes us jumping in even when the water is too cold for our liking!
The final barrier we need to tear down is: Materialism – we have to people above possessions.
Jesus said, "No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money." Luke 16:13
You have to make a decision in life. Am I going to live for worldly, material success, or am I going to live for eternal, heavenly success? The Bible says to store up treasures in heaven where they are secure, not treasures on earth where they are unsure and can be taken away at a moments notice. What are you going to live for? The next thing that you will need to serve God by serving others is:
We must be grateful
I can remember being a freshman in high school and coming early each week to set up the chairs at my youth group. At first I did it thinking to myself, “Wow, big job they let me do here I feel real important… whatever.” But then someone told me that as we can be trusted in the little things in serving God, he will trust us with the big things. After that I was grateful that God had given me a chance to serve him, and I made sure that each week those chairs we perfect when people walked in! The point is this, when we have an attitude of gratitude when we serve in even the smallest thing God is pleased and will bless us as we serve him in what we consider bigger things. Paul one of the most powerful and influential people in the Bible said this:
“How thankful I am to Christ Jesus our Lord for considering me trustworthy and appointing me to serve him” 1 Timothy 1:12 NLT
Why did Jesus consider him trustworthy, because he said, “How thankful I am” that sounds like Paul was very grateful to be able to serve God in anyway and that he could and that is the key to being found trustworthy to serve God in the big stuff!
The Bible says, “Serve the Lord with gladness.” Psalm 100:2 NASB
Circle the word “gladness”
What do we have to be glad about when we are serving God by serving others? God has saved us and made us a part of his family! That is why we serve him with joy and gladness! In every other religion of the world people serve their god out of obligation and fear that if they don’t they will miss their salvation.
But we serve the true God because he has not called us to serve to be saved, he did all the work of salvation for us in Jesus, we serve him because we love him!
The Bible says, “It is He who saved us and chose us for His holy work not because we deserve it but because that was His plan.” 2 Timothy 1:9
So, are you grateful for the opportunities God gives you to serve him? The final thing we need to serve God by serving others is:
We must be faithful
What does it mean to be faithful? It means you don’t put up, shut up, or rest up until the job is done.
It means completing the work that God has for you to do in this life without giving up or giving in!
The Bible says, “The one thing required of servants is that they be faithful.”
1 Corinthians 4:2 TEV
But why? Why should I spend my whole life serving God by serving others and fulfilling this purpose of my life? We mentioned that God has saved us and given us a new life full of hope and promise, but there is more… God has promised to those that run the race all the way to the finish without giving up that they will be rewarded forever in heaven, but there is even more! What we do in this life for God matters!!! Every decision to serve God is important that is why we should be faithful.
The Bible says, “Throw yourself into the work of the master, confident that nothing you do for him is a waste of time or effort.” 1 Corinthians 15:58 MSG
Every act of service you do for God by serving someone else no matter how small it may be is important to God! Several years ago two teenage boys tried to come into a church service at night, much like this, only it was packed out and they couldn’t find any seats. So they turned around and decided to leave because they couldn’t find a seat. But one usher said “Come on, guys. I’ll find you a seat”. And that usher personally escorted them down to the center and set them in the middle and found them two seats. That night both of those boys accepted Christ and became Christians. One of them was Billy Graham who has now led millions and tens of millions of people to Christ. There are no unimportant acts of service in God’s book his plan’s encompass the smallest acts of service to the largest all for the same goal’s. Real servants are faithful in all that God has for them big jobs and small jobs! Are you being faithful to the work that God has for you?
In closing I will share a story that I think illustrates perfectly the picture we see in heaven for those that dedicated themselves to being available, grateful, and faithful servants to God.
One stormy night an elderly couple entered the lobby of a small hotel and asked for a room. The clerk said they were filled, as were all the hotels in town. "But I can’t send a fine couple like you out in the rain," he said. "Would you be willing to sleep in my room?" The couple hesitated, but the clerk insisted. The next morning when the man paid his bill, he said, "You’re the kind of man who should be managing the best hotel in the United States. Someday I’ll build you one." The clerk smiled politely. A few years later the clerk received a letter from the elderly man, recalling that stormy night and asking him to come to New York. A round-trip ticket was enclosed. When the clerk arrived, his host took him to the corner of 5th Avenue and 34th Street, where stood a magnificent new building. "That," explained the man, "is the hotel I have built for you to manage." The man was William Waldorf Astor, and the hotel was the original Waldorf-Astoria. The young clerk, George C. Boldt, became its first manager.
Prayer Time ----------
God thank you for letting me serve you by serving all the people here tonight. I love them so much Lord and I am humbled that I can share your love with them each week.
If you are here tonight and you have heard these messages or maybe have just heard this one but something inside of you is saying I want to serve God because of all that he has done to save me and give me a new life but you have never started a relationship with him through his Son Jesus then right now between you and God cry this prayer out to him:
God I need you in my life. I have messed it up without you and ask for your forgiveness for my sins. I want to serve you God so come and save me and give me a new life. Thank you for sending Jesus to die in my place.
If that was you then the Bible says God will give you the power to be saved and that one day you will spend forever with him in heaven.
If you are here tonight and maybe you are saved, you are a follower of Jesus but you have not got in the game yet. You are still on the sidelines but tonight you are ready to be available, grateful, and faithful then pray this to God in your heart:
God here I am… use me in whatever way you want. I want to serve you with all my abilities and strength and tonight I dedicate my life to serving you by serving others.
Thank you God for all the life-change that has taken place tonight; we love you and we want to be your servants. Amen.
Ministry Sign Up’s on the West Wall
