Shaped for Serving God

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Wesley Johnson
5 years ago
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1 Shaped for Serving God Ephesians 2:10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. The day was August 16, 1977 when Elvis Presley died. Twentysix years after his death his records are still out selling every other artist! Now in spite of enormous success, Elvis was, according to friends, an unfulfilled and unhappy man. He died of obesity and drug dependency at 42. And in an interview with his wife, Priscilla, she said this about her husband, Elvis never came to terms with who he was meant to be or what his purpose in life was. He thought he was here for a reason, maybe to preach, maybe to serve, maybe to save, maybe to care for people. That agonizing desire was always with him and he knew he wasn t fulfilling it. So he would go on stage and he wouldn t have to think about it. What a terrible waste that Elvis Presley never understood his purpose in life. Today we are continuing our series of messages entitled Living 2019 With a Purpose, and we are going to look at God s fourth purpose for your life, you were shaped to Serve God. Elvis felt like he was here to do something, to serve, to preach, to save to do something with his life, but he just couldn t quite figure it out, said his wife. I don t want you to make that mistake. Let me remind you once more of what we have been told in Ephesians 2:10, We are God s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. I really want you to notice the word workmanship? The indication in the Greek wording here is that you were made to make a contribution, not just to consume. God made you to make a difference. And what matters is not how long you live, but how you live. What matters is not the duration of your life, but the donation of your life. On this planet nobody gets a free ride. We are all meant to give something back. We 1

2 are all meant to make a contribution. The Bible says we are created to serve, we are saved to serve, we are gifted to serve, and we are shaped to serve. Job made this observation in Job 10:8, Your hands shaped me and made me. God never gives us an assignment without first of all giving us the ability to do it. God uses five things to use you for His glory: Spiritual gifts, Heart, Abilities, Personality, and Experiences. Those five things reveal how God has uniquely shaped you, different from anybody else in the world, for a purpose. And that purpose is to serve Him. God made you unique and your uniqueness is not for your benefit, as seen in 1 Peter 4:10, As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. The Bible says that we are to use whatever gifts God has given us to serve others! Your talents are not for your benefit. Remember, we have said it is not about you. 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 for serving others. So put this in your mental notebook, My fourth purpose in life is to serve God by serving others. Do you want to know why you are alive? That is why you are alive. You were not put here just to take up space, consume and get a free ride through life. You were put here to serve God and the way you 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. You serve God by serving others. Now the Bible has a word for this, it s called ministry. And, again, like worship and fellowship and discipleship, this word ministry is a misunderstood word. When I say the word minister most people think of priest, 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 gifts, talents and experiences 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 2

3 that is called ministering. And if you have been saved by the grace of God you are 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. Some of you are thinking, I know that I am saved, but I really don t think I have been called to ministry. Oh yes you have! If you are called to salvation, you are called to serve. And so, as we continue in this series concerning God s purpose for your life, we are going to talk to you about your ministry. The Bible very clearly teaches that every Christian is a minister. Any time you use your talent to help somebody else, you are ministering. You are serving. And this is the fourth purpose of your life. Every saved person is a minister. You will remember that I said in the very first week of this series that life is preparation for eternity. What God wants you to do while you are here, the 60, 80, 90 years of your earthly life, is practice what you are 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, and practice! He wants you to learn how to serve, and we are going to talk about that today. 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 will remember that we have already seen that we were created to be like Christ, and what did Christ do while He was here on earth? The answer is given for us in Matthew 20:28, Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and give his life a ransom for many. The Greek reads like this, For even I, the Son of man, came here not to be served but to serve others Now listen to this, your gifts, heart, abilities, personality, and experiences determine your ministry, but your attitude determines your maturity. 3

4 If 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 determines your maturity. And I know a lot of people who figure out their gifts, talents and abilities, but they never seem to get this second part down. Therefore, today we are going to look at learning to serve like Jesus. And what does it take to be used and to learn to serve like Jesus? We are going to look at three things. Number one, serving like Jesus means being available. Matthew 20:30 tells us that one day Jesus was walking down toward Jericho, And behold, two blind men sitting by the road, when they heard that Jesus was passing by, cried out, saying, Have mercy on us, O Lord, Son of David! Verse 31 says, And Jesus stood still Jesus stopped. If you want to be used by God, if you want to serve God, you must be willing to be interrupted. Most of Jesus ministry and most of Jesus miracles were interruptions. 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 He was interrupted at a wedding. His second miracle He was interrupted on His way to Galilee. Jesus was able to minister because He allowed Himself to be interrupted. He never allowed His agenda to become more important than people! Listen; if you are going to be used of God you must be available. There are hurting people all around us, and the wounded will not wait. And yet, by-in-large, the average Christian is doing nothing in this area of ministry! What is it that keeps us from being available to be used of God? Let me give two common barriers. Number one, selfcenteredness. Philippians 2:4 says, Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. The Greek reads like this, Forget yourself long enough to lend a helping hand. You see, the number one enemy of compassion is busyness. We just get too busy! 4

5 And because I am so busy, I don t have time to serve. I have my agenda, my plans, my dreams, my goals, and my ambitions. You know what the problem is? We hang a Do not disturb sign on the door of our heart. A second barrier to being used by God is perfectionism. You know, wanting for every thing to be just right. Ecclesiastes 11:4 says, 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. If God only used perfect people, what would get done in this world? Nothing, zip, zero! We are all a bunch of misfits. We all have weaknesses. We all have faults. We all have handicaps. But guess what? God doesn t use perfect people because there aren t any. So go ahead and do it for His glory! Serving like Jesus also means being grateful. Psalm 100:2 says, Serve the Lord with gladness; come before his presence with singing. Psalm 105:1-3 says, Oh, give thanks unto the Lord; call upon his name; make known his deeds among the people. Sing unto him, sing psalms unto him; talk ye of all his wondrous works. Glory ye in his holy name; let the heart of them rejoice who seek the Lord. What do we have to be grateful for? Let me just give you one reason 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. Do you know the number one barrier to being thankful? Criticism! Listen very carefully to this statement you cannot be critical and grateful at the same time! It is an emotional impossibility! I can show you Christian after Christian who has lost their joy and gratefulness because of being critical. Child of God, a critical 5

6 spirit is the same thing to a Christian as the James gang was to a bank it robs you of your value! And last of all, serving like Jesus means being faithful. Now what does that mean? The Bible teaches us in Romans 12:3 that God has given to every man the measure of faith. Ephesians 2:8 says, For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. Faith is a gift from God. He gives us the amount of faith that we need and it never runs out. It is true that in 2 Peter 3:18 we are admonished to grow in grace and knowledge, but it is an insult to ask God for more faith. In fact, when the disciples asked Jesus to increase their faith, He responded this way in Luke 17:6, If you have faith as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, Be pulled up by the roots and be planted in the sea, and it would obey you. 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 century or in eternity. But any time you are serving in Jesus name, no matter how small, it matters. Listen to what Jesus said in Mark 9:41, "For whosoever shall give you a cup of water to drink in my name, because you belong to Christ, verily I say unto you, he shall not lose his reward." Why would the Bible say that? Because in God s work, there is no little service. All of God s work is important!! If you have never received Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, why not today? Everyone please stand for prayer. Father, I realize that I was saved to serve You by serving others. Help me to make time for what matters most. I want to give something back. I want to hear You say, Well done, good and faithful servant." In Jesus name. Amen. 6

Finding God s Will # 5 Shaped for Serving God Ephesians 2:10

Finding God s Will # 5 Shaped for Serving God Ephesians 2:10 The day was August 16, 1977 when Elvis Presley died. Thirty-five years after his death his records are still out selling every other artist!