Useful To The Master Series

INTRO.- ILL.- A director was screen testing Sylvestor Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger for a new film about classic composers. Not having figured out who to give which part to, he asked Sly who he would like to be. Stallone said, "I like Mozart. I want to be Mozart"

So the Director said, "Very well, you can be Mozart." Then he turned to Arnie and said, "Arnie, who would you like to play ?" And Arnie said, "Ah’ll be Bach!" (I know it’s pretty lame!)

We all would like to make our mark in life and Arnold has certainly done that! And in some ways, you do have to admire Arnold Schwarzenegger for how far he’s come in life.

ILL.- Arnold Schwarzenegger was born July 30, 1947, and is an Austrian American bodybuilder, actor, model, businessman, and politician, who is currently serving as the 38th Governor of California. BUT HE DIDN’T START OUT THAT WAY!

Schwarzenegger was born in Thal, Austria, a small village bordering the Styrian capital Graz, and was christened Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger. His parents were the local police chief Gustav Schwarzenegger, and his wife, Aurelia Jadrny. His father served in World War II with the German Army and was discharged in 1943 after contracting malaria.

According to Schwarzenegger, both of his parents were very strict: "Back then in Austria it was a very different world, if we did something bad or we disobeyed our parents, the rod was not spared." He grew up in a Roman Catholic family who attended church service every Sunday.

As a boy, Schwarzenegger played many sports—heavily influenced by his father. He picked up his first barbell in 1960, when his football coach took his team to a local gym. At the age of fourteen, Arnold chose bodybuilding over football (soccer) as a career.

He said, "I actually started weight training when I was fifteen, but I’d been participating in sports, like soccer, for years, so I felt that although I was slim, I was well-developed, at least enough so that I could start going to the gym and start Olympic lifting."

However, his official website biography claims: "At 14, he started an intensive training program with Dan Farmer, studied psychology at 15 (to learn more about the power of mind over body) and at 17, officially started his competitive career."

And, as we know, Arnold has as they say, “Come a long way” and is very wealthy to boot. His personal wealth is listed as somewhere around $800 million. That’s a nice round figure, wouldn’t you say?

While we all would like to do something significant in life or perhaps contribute to the betterment of the society, few of us will be as popular and as wealthy as Arnold is. However, this doesn’t mean we can’t contribute in a meaningful way to life and to people!

21 If a man cleanses himself from the latter, he will be an instrument for noble purposes, made holy, useful to the Master and prepared to do any good work.

Becoming useful to the Masterful, to the Lord is the best way and the most important way to contribute to society. I’m convinced that the Christian does the most good in this world! How can we be used by God to do even more?

PROP.- How to make ourselves useful to the Master.

1- We must be cleansed from sin

2- We must pursue righteousness

3- We must avoid stupidity

I. WE MUST BE CLEANSED FROM SIN

20 In a large house there are articles not only of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay; some are for noble purposes and some for ignoble. 21If a man cleanses himself from the latter, he will be an instrument for noble purposes, made holy, useful to the Master and prepared to do any good work.

ILL.- Isabella of Spain bragged that she had had only two baths in her life--one when she was born, and the other when she married Ferdinand. They gave her a third when she died.

Mercy me. If this is true, a person wouldn’t have wanted to be around her! I’ve been around a few people in my time that didn’t bathe or bathe very often and you sure didn’t want to stay around them very long!

Most people don’t want to be around someone who stinks to high heaven! But there is a worse kind of stink than body odor. It’s the stink of sin! And it can get pretty smelly! Of course, it may be that only God can see it and smell it. And it’s apparently, very offensive to Him! So offensive, in fact, that He won’t trust that person with His wealth, His treasures, and His work!

ILL.- Ted Haggard to start new church in COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Former megachurch pastor Ted Haggard said that he will launch a new church from his Colorado Springs home, 3 1/2 years after he resigned from his ministry amid an embarrassing and devastating sex scandal.