Accepting Your Assignment
Purpose Driven Life #29
Cornwall/Montreal
March 6, 2004
Are you concerned more with what you receive from something or with what you can contribute to something? Is coming to church a matter of getting something or giving something? Is going to school a matter of getting something or giving something? Is going to work a matter of getting something or giving something?
I know what many of you might say, because of the environment, which we are in, here, today. But what do you think would be the reality, out there, away from here? What might you say, there? What might others say out there?
I think it’s safe to say that many of us are more concerned with consuming and using resources and taking up space, than we are with making a difference with our lives. Yet, at the very beginning, God gave us all our marching orders and they had to do with giving, rather than getting.
Gen.2.15- we are here to tend and keep the garden. We are here to put into and to build. That is the instruction given at the very beginning, once creation was fully in place and when Adam and Eve received their first instruction from God. This defines, then, your fourth purpose in life, or the fourth purpose for you life. You were created to worship God. You were created to belong to God’s family. You were created to grow more and more mature within God’s family. And, you were created to minister or to serve, not to consume and to use. You were created to add to life on earth, not just take from it!
This might come as a surprise to you, because what we see around us is people very much concerned with what they are getting from life. What we see is people wound up about getting value and stuff, and not being taken advantage of, and the like. But what we see is not what comes from the heart of God.
1. You were created to serve God: Eph.2.10b- these good deeds are your service. Whenever you serve others in any way, you are actually serving God, and this is very pleasing to God.
Matt.25.31-46- many see that doing good for others is the ultimate test and responsibility for the Christian. Upon this passage, in fact, entire theologies are based, including that of the Salvation Army, and other churches with a huge social responsibility component to their church work. They are right, in that this is important to God and needs to be for us. You were placed here to serve God, through your involvement with people.
2. You were saved to serve God. 2 Ti.1.9- God redeemed you so you could do his holy work. You were saved so you could serve- so God had more people on earth doing the good things He wants done. As Christians, we have to take this responsibility seriously. We tend to hide from issues and from opportunities, and feel that it’s up to someone else to do them, but we cannot take that approach. Paul encourages us, in Ga.6.10- to do good when we have the opportunity. When someone is in front of you, with a need, fill that need to the best of your ability; don’t expect that someone else will do it. Notice how Jesus spoke of this:
Lk.10.30ff- some thought it was someone else’s job to do and, besides, they had important other things to do. But how did Jesus feel about this? How does he feel about this today? Are you able to do something good for others? Do you have opportunity, or education, or money, or time to do things for others? Then do them. Don’t sit around thinking you have done what you can do. Jesus paid dearly for your salvation so you could do really good things for others- 1 Cor.6.20. Because of this, offer yourself in whatever way he chooses for you- offer yourself as a living sacrifice- Ro.12.1ff. You were saved so you could do good things. Oh, it might appear that you’re doing exactly the same things as someone who is not a believer, but you’re not. If you do the ’same things’, remember that you’re doing them with the activity of God’s Holy Spirit in you, and that takes the ’doing’ to a higher level than is possible for others. Never forget that the opportunity for this came at the incredible cost of Christ’s life. If you’ve seen the "Passion of the Christ", don’t forget the images you’ve seen which serve to make this cost real.
Your ministry is to serve others. Why aren’t you simply taken to the kingdom of God when you are converted and baptized? Because, in this fallen world, God intends to use you for his goals. God has a ministry or service for you in his church and a mission for you in the world.
3. You are called to serve God. So this puts a lot of emphasis on this matter of serving. We weren’t born or saved or called to get for ourselves. Every Christian is called to service. No matter what your job or career or hobby, when you were called, you were called to ’full-time Christian service’. That is not just something for those called to pastoral ministry or to missionary work, and the like.
Ro.7.4 tells us that we are to produce good deeds or works for God. How much of the time are you being useful in the service of God? In reality, every time someone new is called and responds to that call, God gains an additional pair of eyes, ears, arms, legs, and all the other parts of a body for doing his work in the world of that person. Each new person called adds to the hearts that are available to love people for God and who are able to be channels of God’s grace to this suffering world. Your service is desperately needed in the body of Christ- 1 Cor.12.27- no one is indispensable. Each of us is necessary and wanted. God has no unwanted children. Each of us has a role to play and I want to encourage you to become active- and more active in your service here and outside the doors of this building. Don’t, anymore, think that all the work here is to be done by me, for instance, as the paid pastor. My role is not so much to be doing all the work of the church. Do you know that?
Eph.4.11-13- those of us with pastoral gifting are supposed to really be using that to help you become better prepared to serve and do the work of the church. Sometimes we’ve had this all upside down and backwards and we’ve looked at the pastor as the one who is supposed to be visiting everyone and teaching everyone, and the like. But that is not scriptural, even though it can be wonderfully building to a pastor’s ego, and salving to a member’s conscience, for not doing some things. I hear, sometimes, about someone who has not been visited in awhile. Although that is part of what I do, and although it’s true that at some times I need to be one of those visiting someone, because of circumstances, or because of ability that I might bring to assist, often it’s you who needs to go and visit that person, or to initiate some assistance or help toward that person. I need to teach you this and help you have the abilities and support you need, though, to go out and do this. Too many churches are too pastor-centred, and too expecting that the pastor will do everything. The skills and gifts I bring are, above all, supposed to be helping you to serve, as you’ve been called to serve. If I do that at all well, then I have served well, too.
4. You are commanded to serve God. Jesus’ example is clear- Matt.20.28- see how and why he came, and take your cue from him. Service is not optional and something to be added to our schedule if we have time. Service is the heart of the Christian life and is the priority, as it was for Jesus. Jesus said we are to ’serve’ and to ’give’- this is what he did and this is what we must do, too.
You have so much ability. Many of you have had so much teaching over many, many years. In reality, for many of you, older Christians, the last thing you need is another seminar, retreat, or Bible Study. You know a great deal and now need to be out there doing it. For years, we’ve taught solid and sound scriptural truth. I’ve been doing this in this series on how to live the Purpose Driven Life, and week-after-week you’ve heard details about how your life is to be lived. Take that instruction and those insights and do what you can do. Write a letter to encourage someone. Phone someone. Go and visit someone. Take someone a loaf or casserole. Support something that is happening in your church and be there to encourage anyone new who might come- be forward in this. This is part of your service and you ought to be forward in offering your time in such support. This is a simple way to serve. (In Montreal, we have some- 2 ladies, in particular, coming to the current series on youth in order to pray in the back room while the seminar is going on. Do you have any idea of the encouragement to a presenter to have this kind of support? These ladies don’t have teens but they care about what their church is doing! Bravo to them!!) Service exercises your spiritual muscles and helps you in building your spiritual muscles. Don’t wait for tomorrow, but serve today.
Our natural inclination is for others to ’serve us’. Many people go out looking for a church that meets their needs and blesses them/me. There is an expectation that others will serve us. But God wants us to be servers. I can tell you from experience, as can many others, that when you serve, you get far more from the experience than you give. The way to receive is to give! As we mature in Christ, which we’ve talked about over the past few weeks, the focus of our lives will become more and more of serving.
Conclusion
In four ways, you have been brought to a time of decision for serving. You were created to serve, saved to serve, called to serve, and are commanded to serve. That’s very strong propulsion toward serving, isn’t it? The mature Jesus follower doesn’t ask, "Who’s going to meet my needs?" The mature Jesus follower asks, "Whose needs can I meet?"
As you go out from here today, I want you to ask that question, as well as each day this week. Ask yourself, "Whose needs can I meet today?" Be certain that God will put the opportunities before you. They might be in your family. They might be at your work place, or school. You might not be able to meet all the need, but you will be able to contribute toward that need. I guarantee you that as you make this your focus for the week, you will know blessings, yourself, that far exceed what you can imagine right now. I guarantee you that you will come back next week with stories to tell about how you saw God working through you to improve the life of someone whose life crossed yours this week.
