Shaped For Serving God
11-7-2004 Purpose Driven Church Part 5
1 Samuel 17:32-40 John 13:1-17
There was a young man in his late teens, that was pretty much considered as a nobody by his family because he was the youngest of eight sons. He had the job of taking care of the sheep. No doubt he had his own dreams of moving up the ladder in some form of fashion. But it seemed like things were always going downhill for him. Then came that day when his father called him in and said, “son I want you to go to the battlefield today.” Now pause for a moment, “can you think how excited he became that his father finally realized he was man enough to go to the
But his father went on to say, “now the reason I want you to go is to take some food to your brothers and come back home as soon as you can because you need to take care of the sheep. Why on earth would his father humiliate him like this the turning him into a lunch boy. His father could have gotten a servant to deliver a lunch. Couldn’t he see he was a man now.
The opportunities for us to do some things in life seem little and insignificant, and we pass them by. Now if the father had of offered a new sword to go to the battlefield, that would have been great. But a lunch bag filled with peanut butter and jelly, and some hamburger meat. Now if that young man had of refused that simple and humbling task, we never would have the story of David and Goliath. There would be no King David, and Jesus Christ would not have come through the Davidic line. Those simple choices we choose to do, because God wants it done, may forever change the course of our lives.
We’re continuing our 40 Days of Purpose, and we’re going to look at God’s fourth purpose for your life, there on the top of your outline…you were Shaped t For Serveing God.
The Bible says this, let’s read it together in Eph. 2:20, “We are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do”. The word workmanship means we were designed and molded by God for a purpose. We were made to make a contribution in life. God made us to make a difference. How we live is much more important than how long we live.
Many people who have the greatest impact on this world do not live to see their fiftieth birthday. Is there anybody here who wants to live to be a 100 and look back over their lives and say, after 100 years, I still have not made a difference for anybody. We’re all meant to give something back. We’re all meant to make a contribution. The Bible says we’re created to serve, we’re saved to serve, we’re gifted to serve, we’re shaped to serve. We’re commanded to serve God in response.
Now whenever God gives us an assignment to do something, He never gives it to us without equipping us first. And in the next verse Job says, “Your hands shaped me and made me.” (Job 10:8). God uses five things to shape us. Spiritual gifts, Heart, Abilities, Personality, and Experiences. That spells ‘SHAPE’. Those five things make you, and God uniquely shapes you, different from anybody else in the world, for a purpose. And that purpose is to serve Him. You will go in to detail on these five things in this weeks reading
But I do want you to notice this, God made you unique and your uniqueness is not for your benefit. Look at the next verse. Let’s read it aloud: 1Pet. 4:10, “Each of us should use whatever gift he’s received to make a lot of money”. Oh! That’s not what it says! It says we’re to use whatever God’s given us to do what? Serve others! Your talents are not for your benefit. Do you remember the line in our cheer, it’s not about you cause its all about God. Your purpose in life is to be what God made you to be. And He gave you gifts and talents and abilities and background and experiences and all these things for the benefit of other people, to be used by serving others.
“My fourth purpose in life is to serve God by serving others.” People are looking for happiness, when God tells us to look for opportunities to serve. We were put here to serve God and the way we serve God is by serving other people. Now, some people want to serve God; they just don’t want to serve others. But you can’t do that. The only way you can serve God is by serving others. Do you see why the purpose of fellowship is so critical. We need each other in order to serve each other.
Now the Bible has a word for serving others, it’s called “ministry”. When people here the word minister, what do they think of in their minds? A priest or a pastor? But the Bible says every believer is a minister. Now, not every believer is a pastor, but every believer is a minister. Ministry simply means using my shape to help somebody else in the name of God. Any time you use your talents, your abilities, your background, your experiences to help somebody else, you know what that’s called? Ministering. And you know what you are? You’re a minister.
In the Bible the word “service” and “ministry” are the same word. And in the Bible “servant” and “minister” are the same word. So all of us are called to ministry. You don’t need a title to be involved in ministry. You simply need to be actively doing something. If you are called to salvation, you are called to serve.
Turn to the person next to you and say “You’re a minister”. But the truth is every Christian is a minister. Any time you use your talent to help somebody else, you are ministering. You are serving. And it’s the fourth purpose of your life. All women are ministers. All men are ministers. All little kids, all old people, if we’re believers, we’re all called to serve Jesus Christ.
Does anybody remember my first sermon in which I said life is preparation for what?_____ Eternity. What God wants you to do while you’re here, the 60, 80, 90 years, is practice for what you’re going to do in heaven forever and ever and ever. And one of the things you’re going to do in heaven is serve God and serve others. And what God put you on earth to do is practice, practice, practice! He wants you to learn how to serve.
Now the good news is that God not only created us for service, He gave us a model. He came to earth Himself and said “This is how you do it. I want you to watch Me”. And so he came to earth in the form of a man, Jesus Christ, and He said, “This is what I want you to do with your life”. You were created to be like Christ, and what did Christ do while He was here on earth? He served.
Notice the next verse. Let’s read it aloud together: Matt. 20:28, “Jesus said, ‘Your attitude must be like My own, for I did not come to be served, but to serve’.” Now listen to this, because this is real important. Your SHAPE (spiritual gifts, heart, abilities, personality, experiences) your SHAPE determines your ministry, but your attitude determines your maturity. Big difference. Your SHAPE determines your ministry. You want to know what God wants you to do with your life? Look at your spiritual gifts, heart, abilities, personality, and experiences.
But your attitude, your servant heart, determines your maturity. It won’t do you much good to discover your SHAPE and never get around to changing your attitude.
There are many people spending so much of their time searching for self-esteem, for self-worth, and significance. They want to feel good about themselves. But they’re looking in all the wrong places! You don’t get your self-worth from success, because there’s always somebody else who does a better job. You don’t get your self-esteem from status. You don’t get your self-esteem from sex. You don’t get your self-esteem from your salary. The Bible says you get your self-esteem from service. Jesus said to give your life away in order to find it.
How many of us knowing that we had less than 24 hours to live, would spend it washing the feet of our friends because we loved them and wanted to show they were important to us? Not many of us would, but Jesus did. His significance came in serving others .
Now the greatest thrill in life is to be used by God and know that God chose to use you. What does it take to be used and to learn to serve like Jesus? Well it takes three things. Number one Serving like Jesus means being available. It means being available. One day Jesus was walking down to go to Jericho and some blind men start yelling at him. And the Bible says this (Matt. 20:30-32): “Two blind men shouted ‘Lord, have mercy on us! Jesus stopped and called them. ‘What do you want me to do for you?’.”
The first thing Jesus did after he heard the guys was something we all can do. “Jesus stopped. If you want to be used by God, if you want to serve God, you must be willing to be interrupted. Ministry involved interruptions. You and I must be willing to be interrupted. Most of Jesus’ ministry and most of Jesus’ miracles were interruptions. He didn’t place miracles in his appointment book. All the people he healed – the blind man, the lame man, the sick people, the paralyzed man, the dead child – all of them were interruptions. His first miracle? Interrupted at a wedding. He second miracle? Interrupted on the way to Galilee. It says, “Jesus stopped”.
You know a lot of people like to follow the steps of Jesus? We may need to concentrate more on the stops of stops of Jesus. Almost every miracle Jesus did, He did it because He let Himself be interrupted. The Bible says this: Prov. 3:28, read it with me, “Never tell your neighbors to wait until tomorrow if you can help them now.” Servant-hearted people don’t keep saying one day. They’re realize now is the time to make a difference.
To be shaped the God, we must be available. You must be willing to say, God what do You want me to do?” There are hurting people all around us, and the wounded will not wait. We’ve got to help them now. Now what keeps us from being available? You see a lot of us say “I’d like to be used by God. I’d like His power in my life. I’d like to serve God, but I’m just not available.” And what is it that keeps us from being available? Can we be honest for a moment
Let me give three common barriers. Number one: self-centeredness. The Bible says, “Forget yourself long enough to lend a helping hand.” (Phil. 2:4) Whenever you see a need right in front of you, guess what? God is giving you the opportunity to practice serving. God is giving you the opportunity to learn to serve, to learn to be like Jesus Christ.
You see the number one enemy of compassion is busyness. We just get too busy! And because I’m so busy, I don’t have time to serve. I’ve got my agenda, my plans, my dreams, my goals, my ambitions. You know what the problem is? We hang this [Pastor holds up a “do not disturb sign”] on the door of our heart, “Do Not Disturb.” We do it all the time. We say, “do not disturb”. “Don’t disturb my heart. I’ve got my goals. I’ve got my safe little life going here, so don’t disturb me for the needs of other people.”
To become a real servant we have to be open to being interrupted. That’s real hard isn’t it. Your favorite show is coming on and your Mom asks you to do the dishes, or the church asks you to come out and help on a project, or your neighbor needs to go to the grocery store. You see, real servants don’t mind being interrupted. Has anybody’s self-centeredness gotten in the way of being a servant? Wouldn’t it be great if we could schedule in our service hours.
If we really have a servant heart, like Jesus Christ, we don’t mind being interrupted because our agenda is God’s agenda, and we get up in the morning and you say “OK, God, you want to bring somebody in my life today? Bring them in! Bring them on!” I say it again. Almost every miracle and almost every act of ministry Jesus did, He did when He was interrupted.
A second barrier to being used by God…is perfectionism. Perfectionism. You know, wanting every thing to be perfect. You know, “When it’s all just right, when things settle down, then I’ll serve.” Let’s read Eccl. 11:4 together: “If you wait for perfect conditions, you’ll never get anything done.” Real servants, Christ-like servants, do the best they can with what they have for Jesus Christ today. They don’t wait. God never called any perfect people into the kingdom. Don’t worry about being perfect in what you do, just give your best in what you do.
Our service doesn’t have to be perfect for God to bless it. If God only used perfect people, what would get done in this world? Nothing! We’re all a bunch of misfits. We all have weaknesses. We all have faults. We all have failures. We all have handicaps. But guess what? God uses us all. Why? Because God doesn’t use perfect people because there aren’t any. God uses normal people. Ask your neighbor, “are you normal? Good you’re eligible to be used.
We don’t have perfect leaders leading our small groups, only normal ones. We don’t have perfect people for elders, deacons, lay pastors or pastors. Just normal ones. You know what I would really love to have. Just 10 people who will smile at everybody who walks through our church doors and be willing to greet them and give them a hug to make them feel welcome to serve as greeters each week. That ministry alone will take our church to another level. I don’t need perfect people to do it, just normal ones. “Don’t wait for perfect conditions to get involved in your ministry.” Quit saying, “You know when things settle down”, they aren’t going to settle down! They’re just not. So go ahead and start serving while things are not settled down.
Number three: materialism. Materialism is the third barrier that keeps us from being available to serve. Jesus said, “No servant can serve two masters. You cannot serve both God and money.” (Lk. 16:13). Now would you circle the word “cannot”? He didn’t say, “You should not serve both God and money.” He said, “You cannot serve both God and money.”
We all have to decide whether you want to be rich or you want to be blessed. Really! I’m telling you, we have to say, “What’s number one in priority in my life?” You cannot serve both God and money. It’s an impossibility. You see, you get so busy taking care of things; you don’t have time to take care of people.
And that’s a problem. The most important decision you’re going to have to make in life once you become a believer is, “Am I going to be a kingdom-builder or am I going to be a wealth-builder?” Now if God wants to give you wealth, that’s great. That’s wonderful, but it is not the number one goal of your life. Because the wealth you’re not taking with you to heaven, but your character you are.
So you say, “I’m going to be a kingdom-builder.” You put that first and let God take care of whatever He wants you to do. If your job is keeping you from having any kind of service, you need to make some kind of adjustment. Can you imagine saying to God one day, “Lord I was just too busy to serve you.” And God responds, “Too busy with what.” How will you answer that question? Serving means being available.
You know what else it means? Serving like Jesus also means being grateful. To serve like Jesus, we have to serve gratefully, grateful that we get the opportunity to serve. Jesus was grateful for the opportunity to wash the disciples feet even though he knew he had less than 24 hours to live, because he wanted to give back something of himself into their lives. He looks at them and says, now that I washed your feet, be willing to serve others in the same way. Thank God for the opportunity to do it.
Jesus had an attitude of gratefulness in everything that He did. Gratefulness was His attitude in ministry. Now you might think, “I’d be grateful too if I could raise people from the dead and do miracles.” However, Jesus was grateful in the tough times. Jesus was grateful when He was criticized. Jesus was grateful when things were not easy in ministry. That was the attitude that He led in His ministry. Ministry and miracles always happened in this attitude of gratefulness. And the Bible talked about our attitude of gratefulness in Psalm 100:2. Let’s read this verse “gratefully” together: “Serve the Lord with gladness.”
How many of us have one or two things we can be grateful for today? Is there anybody here with a reason to say thank you Lord.? One reason we serve God with gratefulness is because He’s given life to us through Jesus Christ. He saved us! And if He never did anything else for us, that is enough to be grateful for the rest of our lives to serve Him. Look at what the Bible has to say about that over in 2 Tim. 1:9: “It is He who saved us and chose us for His holy work, not because we deserved it, but because that was His plan.” He saved us, and out of the gratefulness of that, what He has done for us, we serve Him.
Let me tell you some of the barriers we have to being grateful. The first barrier comparing and criticizing. Anybody here ever compared themselves to somebody else or criticized someone else. When we compare ourselves to others, when we criticize others, that is a barrier that gets in the way for all of us of being grateful. The Bible tells us over in Rom. 14:4, “Who are you to criticize someone else’s servant? The Lord will determine whether His servant has been successful.” We’re all His servants. It’s not our opinion of our success that counts, but God’s.
Competition with each other in service, it just doesn’t make sense when you come right down to it. When you think about it, we’re on the same team. We have the same goal. We’re trying to make God look good to the world, let the world see how good He really looks. And He’s given us different abilities, different tasks.
A compliment for somebody else is not a put down of something you did. Why do people have to compare singers in the church? Why do we have to compare pastors. Let’s exalt what the Lord is doing in and through everybody in his own way and time.
Look at all that God has done for us. And when we have gratitude for that, there’s no longer any need to compare and criticize. Comparing and criticizing get in the way of gratefulness.
The second barrier that gets in the way is wrong motivations, our own wrong motivations. Have you ever done the right thing for the wrong reason. The Bible talks about this in Matt. 6:1. Jesus said, “When you do good deeds, don’t try to show off. If you do, you won’t get a reward from your Father in heaven”. The wrong motivation of showing off. Self-promotion and servanthood don’t mix, but it’s easy to get them mixed up.
A lot of our service can be for the wrong reasons. We need to be honest with ourselves about that. We serve to get others to like us. We serve to be admired. We serve to achieve our own goals. We serve as sort of a bargaining chip with God. “God, I’ll serve and You take care of me here.” We’re serving, but all the time we’re serving, we’re thinking about how noble we are. We’re humble, but all the time we’re humble we’re thinking pridefully about how humble we are! That’s the struggle of service.
Let’s admit it, sometimes servanthood is just our way to try to manipulate God. And it’s hard to see the wrong motivations in us. I have them, you have them. How do you know? How do you know if you have a wrong motivation? Gratitude. This very attitude. If we are not grateful for what we’re doing, we’ve lost the right motivation.
If you want to learn to serve like Jesus, you have to learn to serve gratefully with a generous heart. You make yourself available. You make yourself grateful. There’s a third and final thing.
Serving like Jesus means being faithful. Faithful. Now what does that mean? It means you don’t give up. You keep on going. You don’t quit in the middle of your assignment. At the end of Jesus’ ministry on earth, Jesus said this in John 17:4, He said, “I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work,” “that You gave me to do.”
We want you to be able to say that when you get to heaven. You completed the work that God gave you to do. Jesus was faithful in fulfilling His service. He didn’t give up. He didn’t give in. He was persistent. And if you’re going to be like Jesus it means you’re going to serve as long as you’re alive. Now you may retire from your job someday, but you’re never retiring from ministry. You’re never retiring from service. Because God wants you to serve the rest of your life.
So what motivates us to keep on going? The Bible says, (1Cor. 4:2) “The one thing required of servants is that they be faithful.” How do we be faithful? What motivates us to stay faithful in serving God over the long haul? There is the fact of being grateful for what God has done for us in forgiving us. If God never did another thing for me, I owe Him the rest of my life for what He’s already done for me.
Next there is trust and faith in future rewards. He said, “You’re going to be rewarded forever and ever and ever and ever in eternity for what you do here on earth in serving Me by serving others.” You’re going to be rewarded.
So we have gratitude for the past and we have faith in the future reward. We also know that what we’re doing really matters. Now let’s be honest folks, most of what we do in life doesn’t matter. It isn’t going to matter next week much less next year or next decade or in eternity. But any time you’re serving in Jesus’ name, no matter how small, it matters. The Bible says this in 1Cor. 15:58, let’s read it aloud, “Throw yourselves into the work of the Master, confident that nothing you do for Him is a waste of time or effort” Notice “nothing”: that means it all matters, even the little stuff. Why? Because in God’s book, there is no little service. He said, “Even if you give a cup of cold water in my name to a child, that counts.” In God’s eyes, there is no little service.
Now if you’re going to learn to be a servant of God, you must learn the difference between significance and prominence. They are not the same thing. On my body, my nose is quite prominent. But I could lose my nose and still live the rest of my life, because while it’s prominent, it’s not significant. On the other hand, if I lost, you know, my liver, or if I lost my heart, it’s not very prominent. You don’t see it. But if I lost it, I’d be dead. And a lot of people think that if something is given a lot of visibility, it’s the most important.
No, that’s not true. In fact the stuff behind the scenes is more important, God says. He says the parts of your body that you don’t see are more important than the parts you do see! And the same is true in the Body of Christ. It all matters. You see the fact is with our limited perspective, we can’t see how our small acts have big consequences, but they do!
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. Do you think that usher is going to get any credit in heaven? I’ll say!
We have no idea of the significance of small acts. Real servants do every task with equal dedication because they know it all matters. It doesn’t matter if you’re doing something important that is well known or if you’re doing something important that’s not well known. It’s all important. Don’t mistake anonymous with insignificant.
Don’t mistake anonymous with insignificant or even unnecessary. Just because it’s not known doesn’t mean it’s unnecessary. If you had to go to the bathroom, you’d be very thankful for the toilet paper sitting in there even though you don’t know who put it there, who ordered it, or who delivered it.
Our church needs you to be involved in ministry. There is something everybody can do. Take the time to go downstairs and see what some of the possibilities are . Because there are always more needs to be met than people willing to get up off their seat and say, “I was shaped to serve Christ.” Have you ever wondered why you’re here at Glenville? I’ll tell you why.
You’re here at Glenville, because God knew you had something to give back. . How will God use you? Well let’s just get real practical. Let’s take out this little brochure called, “You Were Shaped For Serving God”. I want you to fill this out brochure during communion today.
God brought you here, where you could find serving possibilities. The fact is, God wants to use you.
One day you’re going to stand before God and He’s going to say to you, “What did you do with what I gave you, the talents, the abilities, the background, the experiences, the freedom, the education, the family experiences? What did you do with your SHAPE?” “Well, God, I was a little busy with my ambitions and plan. I never got around to serving You.” How will you feel at that point. How will God feel?
Now you may be thinking nobody’s watching you, and nobody’s noticing what you do, but God’s watching. Look at this verse, Heb. 6:10: “He will not forget how hard you’ve worked for Him and how you’ve shown your love to Him.” How? “By caring for other Christians”. And God keeps His promise. You know on earth they give awards for 10 years of faithful service? In heaven you’re going to get eternal rewards. Look at the next verse (Matt. 25:21). “Well done good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things so; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness.”
Let’s bow our heads. Would you pray this?
Father I realize that I was shaped to serve You by serving others. Forgive me for the times I’ve put a “do not disturb” sign on my heart. Help me to see the interruptions as opportunities to serve. Help me to make time for what matters most. You’ve been so good to me. I want to give something back. I want to serve You freely and gratefully and faithfully, and I want to practice before I get to heaven so one day I can hear You say “Well done, good and faithful servant”. In Your name I pray, Amen.
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