Shaped For Serving God Series

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.