BUILDING A LIFE OF SERVICE
Building a Great Life
- Part 3 of 8
Matthew 20:26 (GWT), Mark 10:45 (NLT)
04-21-13 Sermon
"Whoever wants to become great must be a servant to others."
Matt. 20:26 (GWT)
Jesus: "For even I didn't come to be served
but to serve others
and give my life as a ransom for many." Mark 10:45 (NLT)
WHY USE MY LIFE TO SERVE OTHERS?
1. I WAS ______________________________
FOR SERVICE.
"For
we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works,
which God prepared in advance for us to do." Eph. 2:10 (NIV)
2. I AM ______________________________ FOR
SERVICE.
"It
is God who saved us and chose us for his holy work..." 2
Tim. 1:9 (LB)
3. I'VE BEEN
______________________________ TO SERVICE.
"God,
in his grace, chose me even before I was born, and called me to serve him." Gal. 1:15 (GN)
"Live
a life worthy of the calling you have received." Eph. 4:1 (NIV)
4. I'VE BEEN
______________________________ FOR SERVICE.
"God
has given each of you some special abilities; be sure to use them to
help each other..." 1
Peter 4:10 (LB)
5. I AM ______________________________ TO
SERVE OTHERS.
(Jesus) "Your attitude must be like my own,
for I did not come to be served, but to serve..." Matt. 20:28 (LB)
6. IT PROVES ______________________________.
"...
you are part of the Body of Christ and you belong to him ... in order that we
might be useful in the service of God." Rom. 7:4 (GN)
7. MY CHURCH FAMILY
______________________________ MY SERVICE.
"All
of you together are the one body of Christ and each of you is a separate and necessary
part of it." 1 Cor.
12:27 (LB)
8. SERVING OTHERS IS THE WAY TO
______________________________ .
"Whatever
you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for
men... It is the Lord Christ you are serving." Col. 3:23-24 (NIV)
9. BECAUSE I OWE
______________________________.
"Because
of God's great mercy to us... Offer yourselves as a living sacrifice to
God, dedicated to his service..." Rom. 12:1 (GN)
10. BECAUSE SERVICE MAKES LIFE
______________________________.
"If
you try to keep your life for yourself, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my
sake and for the sake of the Good News, you will find true life." Mark 8:35 (NLT)
"Keep
busy in your work for the Lord since you know that nothing you do in the
Lord's service is ever without value." 1 Cor. 15:58 (GN)
11. I WILL BE HELD
______________________________ FOR MY SERVICE.
"Each
of us will have to give a personal account to God." Rom 14;12
12. BECAUSE I WILL BE _______________ FOR
ETERNITY.
Jesus
said, "My Father will honor
anyone who serves me." John 12:26 (NCV)
"Well
done, good and faithful servant!
You've been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many
things. Come and share your master's happiness!" Matt. 25:23 (NIV)
MY RESPONSE
"Teach me to serve you with complete devotion." Ps. 86:11 (GN)
"Serve the Lord with gladness!" Ps. 100:2 (KJV)
BUILDING A LIFE OF SERVICE
Building a Great Life
- Part 3 of 8
Matthew 20:26 (GWT), Mark 10:45 (NLT)
04-21-13 Sermon
Some might say the secret of
greatness is connections and influence.
If you went to Wall Street and asked people there, "What's the
secret of greatness?" They'd
say financial clout and a big portfolio.
But God says, "My
definition is very different."
God says none of those things last. You're not going to remember them. God says what's going to last is service. God says the secret of a great life is
you're never going to be great, until you learn to serve.
Matthew 20:26 "Whoever wants to become great must be
a servant of others."
Circle "great" and "servant". The Bible says those go together. We all know that great teachers serve
their students. We know that great salespeople serve their customers. We know that the key to being a great
leader is to serve your followers. The key to being great at anything -- a
great manager serves the workers or the employees.
God says the way to Up is
Down. The more you serve the
greater you are. If I were to ask
you, "What two words best define the Christian life?" Summarize all of Christianity in two
words, I would pick the words "give" and "serve". That's what Jesus did.
Jesus said, "For even I didn't come to be served
but to serve others and to give my life as a ransom for many." Circle "serve others" and
"give my life" -- That summarizes the Christian life. Unless I learn
how to serve others and unless I learn how to give my life away, I will never
be like Jesus Christ. I may claim
to be a Christian. I may have
doctrine or thoughts or ideas in my mind, but I'm not really a true believer
unless I learn how to serve and I learn how to give.
The Bible says in the book of
James, "Be doers of the word and not
hearers only." God says
"I don't just want you to listen to what I say, I want you to act on it,
apply it. I want you to work it
out in your life."
I want to clarify the reasons
why the Bible says that you should give your life in service to God and to
other people, why that should be the number one priority over your career, over
your hobbies, over everything else in your life. God says the top priority in your life after loving God and
getting to know Him should be serving other people. Why does He say that?
I have a dozen reasons. I promise you that since I have 12
points in this message that next Sunday my sermon will be pointless.
TWELVE REASONS WHY I SHOULD GIVE MY LIFE TO SERVING
GOD AND OTHERS.
1. I WAS
CREATED FOR SERVICE
God made me for that
purpose. I was designed for
it. The Bible says in Ephesians
2:10 "For we are God's workmanship,
created [circle "created"]
in Jesus Christ to do good works [that's called ministry, service] which God prepared in advance for us to
do."
God designed everything on
this earth for a purpose. He made
dogs to be dogs. He made cows to
do cowly kind of things. Bees have
a function that they're supposed to do.
I am not sure of the function of mosquitoes, but I am sure they have one
too! The Bible says you were put
on this earth for a reason. Human beings are here to serve. Human beings are here to help each
other. Human beings are here to
help make the world a better place.
And God says, "I created you
for ministry, for service."
Did you ever go looking for a
flashlight and you tried to turn it on and it wouldn't work. You hadn't used it in a long time. When you opened it up the batteries had
gotten corroded and had leaked all over and not only were the batteries ruined
but the flashlight was ruined.
Why? Batteries are made to
be used.
Human beings are made for
service. And when we're not used
in serving other people, we get corroded, ruined on the inside. God says I was made, I was created for
service.
2. I AM
SAVED FOR SERVICE.
2 Timothy 1:9 "It is God who saved us and chose us
for His holy work." What
is a holy work? The Bible word for
it is called ministry. Another
word for that is service. Anytime
you see the word service in the Bible, it's the same word as ministry. Anytime
you see the word ministry in the Bible, it's the same word for service. When you see the word servant, it's the
same word for minister. When you
see the word minister, it's the same word for servant. The two are identical.
The Bible says you were saved
to serve. God didn't just put you on
this earth to take up space, to set around, watch TV, eat Pringles, have a good
old time, and just die. Have you
ever thought why, the moment we become Christians, God doesn't just zap us and
we go instantly to heaven? Why did
God leave you here on earth the moment you became a Christian? You know where you're going eventually
so why did He leave you here? He
has something for you to do. Part
of that involves your ministry, your service. You're left here for a reason.
A talk show had some body builders
on. One guy all buffed up was
asked, "What do you use those
muscles for?" The guy
positioned himself and posed, the crowd went wild, clapping, showing all his
muscles but the talk show host said, "That's
great, but what do you use those muscles for?" So the guy took
another pose and the people went wild again and the talk show guy kept saying, "Yes, but what do you use those
muscles for?" The guy was
bewildered. The fact was he had no
use for those muscles. He had
muscles just for the sake of muscles.
They were just
Let me ask you: Why do you build spiritual muscle? Why do you come to church? Why do you read the Bible? Why do you go to Bible studies? Why do you pray? Why do you develop spiritual muscle? Hopefully not just to say, "I got it! Look at my Bible biceps!"
The Bible teaches very
clearly that maturity is for ministry. Maturity is never an end in itself. You say, "I want to be a mature Christian." You'll never be a mature Christian until
you start ministering. Maturity is
for ministry. Muscles have a purpose.
3. I'VE
BEEN CALLED BY GOD TO SERVICE.
I'm not only created for it, I'm
not only saved for it, but I've been called by God for service. This phrase, "God's call", some
people think it is some kind of special thing for special people like
missionaries were called or priests were called of God or pastors or nuns had
the call, that it was some kind of special thing. You're walking down the
street one day and you're zapped and you are all of the sudden "called by God -- from now on I must
serve Him with all my life."
But the fact is, the Bible
says every Christian is called.
The Bible says the call to salvation and the call to service are
identical. The moment you signed
up and said, "Yes, I want to go to
heaven and I want to have my sins forgiven" you also said, "And I'm willing to serve You the rest
of my life." They're not
indistinguishable. If you are a
Christian, you are called to ministry.
The Bible says every Christian is called to serve, every member of God's
family is a minister. That’s why
we say in our bulletin each Sunday that the ministers here at Forest Grove are
all the members of the congregation.
Not everybody's a pastor.
But everyone’s a minister.
What's a minister? A
servant. What's a servant? Somebody who serves. Anytime you use your abilities to help
other people in the name of Jesus, you're ministering to them. We ought to print up little business cards
for everybody here: Your name/Minister of Jesus Christ. That's what you are. The Bible says I've been called to
serve. Every Christian is called
to serve.
4. I'VE
BEEN GIFTED FOR SERVICE.
God did not give you your
talents just to spend on yourself and retire and die. But He gave you those abilities to help other people.
1 Peter 4:10 "God has given each of you some special
abilities. Be sure to use them to ... " make a lot of money (Reviled
Substandard Perversion) It doesn't say that. "Be sure to use your abilities to feather your nest
egg." No it says "Be sure to use your abilities to help
each other." That's
called ministry. That's called service.
If you have given your life to Christ, the Bible says God gave you those
abilities for you to use in helping other people. This verse is our building block verse. It's our key chain
verse for the week. 1 Peter 4:10
(New Century Version) "Each of you
have received a gift to use to serve others."
5. I AM
COMMANDED TO SERVE OTHERS.
That's good enough reason
alone if that's the only one if God says do it. Matthew 20:28 Jesus said, "Your attitude must be like my own, for I did not come to be
served, but to serve." Circle "must". It is not an option. Service for a Christian is not
optional. A non ministering
Christian is a contradiction. To call myself a Christian and not be involved in
ministry, God says is silly. It's
a contradiction. It can't be. To be a Christian means to have the
attitude of Christ. And He said,
"I came to serve."
Human nature does not want to
serve other people. I want to be
served. Human nature says, "Always focus on who is going to serve me." When I look at life from my own
viewpoint I say, "Who's going to
meet my needs? Who's going
to help me? Who's going to
help my hurts? Who's going
to help me?"
Me! Me! Me!
But the Christian changes
that around. The Christian says, "Whose needs can I meet? Who can I help? Who can I serve?" If you're still in the "Who's going
to meet my needs?" stage, you haven't grown up yet. You're spiritually immature. The mature Christian says, "Whose
needs can I meet?" because they realize the more I give my life away, the
more God blesses my life. When I
worry about the needs of other people, God takes care of mine.
A mature Christian is
interested in service. An immature Christian is interested in serve-us. And there's a big difference. God says I'm commanded to serve
others. If I have no desire to
help anybody else, I should doubt whether I'm really a Christian or not.
6. IT
PROVES THAT I BELONG TO CHRIST
Romans 7:4 says, "You are part of the body of Christ and
you belong to Him in order that we might be useful in the service of God." Circle "body". In the New Testament church, when they
would welcome new members into the body of Christ, the family of God, they
would say, "Welcome, Jesus Christ
now has a new pair of eyes to see with... Jesus Christ now has a new pair of
ears with which to listen to the hurts of others... Jesus Christ has a new pair
of hands with which to help others... Jesus Christ now has a new heart to love
others with." Why? Because
you're part of the body.
Ministry, not attendance, is
evidence that Christ is in you.
The Bible says that one of the purposes of pastors is to help you get
ready for your ministry in life, that God put you here on earth for.
7. MY
CHURCH FAMILY NEEDS MY SERVICE
It's needed and
necessary. 1 Corinthians 12:27 "All of you together are the one body
of Christ and each of you is a separate and necessary part of it." Circle "necessary". You are necessary. You're a part of the body of Christ,
the family of God.
What happens in your life
when one part of your body stops functioning? You get sick and you may die if one part of your body
doesn't function.
If you're a Christian that
means you're part of the body of Christ.
If you're not functioning it makes the rest of us sick. It makes an
unhealthy body. What if one day
you got a phone call from your liver?
And your liver said, "I don't
feel like functioning this year. I
just want to be fed." You'd say, "What
kind of liver are you? Get back to
work!" What if your heart
called up or your gall bladder or spleen and said, "I don't feel like functioning in the body this year. I just want to be fed." You'd
say, "You get back to work!" A non functioning body part is not
doing its job, not pulling its weight, not serving its function.
You say, "Maybe we don't need that body part." God says we're all needed, we're all
necessary. We're all needed in the
body of Christ. The strength of any
church is not the pastor or pastors of the church. It's the lay ministers who serve in the different ministries
of the church. That's the
heartbeat of the church.
8.
SERVING OTHERS IS THE WAY TO SERVE GOD.
Colossians 3:23 "Whatever you do, work at it with all
your heart, as working for the Lord, not for me. It's the Lord you're serving." Jesus said, "Whatever you do for
others, you're doing for Me. Even
a cup of cold water given in my name it's like being done to Me." If I'm not serving others, I'm not
serving God.
9.
BECAUSE I OWE EVERYTHING TO CHRIST.
Romans 12:1 "Because of God's great mercy to us
offer yourselves as a living sacrifice to God, dedicated to his service." Jesus Christ sacrificed His life for
me. And even if He never did
anything else, I owe Him my life.
I don't serve God out of
duty. I don't serve God out of
fear. I don't serve God out of
some kind of guilt. I don't serve
God out of anger. I serve God out of gratitude. I owe Him my life. He saved my life. I'm going to live forever in
eternity. All my sins are
forgiven. He gives me purpose and power
right now in the present. Because of that I want to serve Him out of gratitude,
out of joy, not out of duty. I owe
Him my life.
10.
BECAUSE SERVICE MAKES LIFE MEANINGFUL.
Jesus said it like this, "If you try to keep your life for
yourself, you're going to lose it but if you give up your life for my sake, and
for the sake of the good news, you will find true life." You're going to give your life away for
something. Some people give their life away for a career and you get a gold
watch at the end -- big deal! Some
people give their life away to get a big bank account. Some people give their whole life to
get some kind of thrill or some kind of pleasure out of life or to attain some
level of status or to get their name or picture in some magazine or to
accomplish some kind of human achievement. You're going to give your life for
something. The question is are you
going to give your life for the right thing? How much is it going to matter in eternity? How much is it going to matter
forever? When you die is it going
to matter at all?
Lots of people are trying to
figure out how to live longer. That's not the real issue. It's not how long you live that
matters, it's how you live that matters. It's not the duration of your life, it's the donation
of your life. If you're not going
to use your life in service, why should God even let you live next week. God does not owe you another single
minute of life. If you're not
going to use it for His plan doing what He created you for, why in the world
should He let you live? Just to
use up resources?
It's not the duration -- it's
not how long -- but it's how you live.
If you're going to use it in serving God and others, you're going to use
it to fulfill His plan, He's not through with you. When people live for themselves, they eventually get bored
and they feel unfulfilled. On the
other hand, when you know God's plan for your life, and you start by saying, "God, I don't know it all yet, but I'm
going to start serving You in a simple way, just giving back something of my
life" it brings fulfillment, satisfaction and significance.
"Keep busy in your work for the Lord since you
know that nothing you do in the Lord's service is ever without value." Can you
say that about everything else you're doing? No. A lot of
what you and I do is of no value in the long term. But nothing you do in the Lord's work is ever without
value.
11. I
WILL BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE FOR MY SERVICE.
One day God is going to have
me stand before Him and He's going to say, "What
did you do with what I gave you?
That talent? That ability?
Did you use it to help anybody else? Were you ever unselfish? Did you ever give anything back or were you just a taker in
life? Were you ever a giver where
you did something totally unselfish that you got no personal benefit from? You just did it unselfishly? What did you do with what I gave
you?"
And suppose I say, "I'm sorry, God. I was kind of busy. I had some plans and some goals that I
thought would be really cool for me and I
never got time to get in on Your plan.
I was just too busy to have a ministry."
God's going to say, "What? Hello? What
were you thinking? Do you think I
put you on earth to live for yourself?
Of course not! The real
happiness and joy I intended for your life is found in giving your life
away. You missed it! Wrong answer. What were you
thinking?"
I will be accountable one
day. I can imagine getting to
heaven and Jesus saying, "When I
went to earth, My purpose on earth was to give and to serve. By the way, what was your
purpose?"
There's one more reason. I need to make giving my life away in
service to others the number one priority of my life after knowing God ...
12.
BECAUSE I WILL BE REWARDED FOR ETERNITY.
John 12:26 Jesus says, "My Father will honor anyone who serves
me." God is planning a
party in heaven for eternity. It's
going to last a long time. This
reward is going to last forever.
One of the rewards you're
going to get in heaven for your service on earth is that you will be trusted
with greater responsibility. "Well
done, good and faithful servant!
You've been faithful with a few things; I will now put you in charge of
many things. Come and share your
master's happiness."
Just for affect, I want us to
read these twelve reasons aloud -- together. If someone were to say to you, "Why in the world should you put your ministry of serving other
people and serving God by serving others right at the top of your To Do
list?" Why would you say
that's important?
I was
created for service.
I
am saved for service.
I
have been called by God to service.
I
have been gifted for service.
I
am commanded to serve others.
It
proves I belong to Christ.
My
church family needs my service.
Serving
others is the way to serve God.
Because
I owe everything to Christ.
Because
service makes life meaningful.
I
will be held accountable for my service.
Because
it will be rewarded for eternity.
The question is this: What are you going to do about it? In light of this, knowing that you were
made for this, you were saved for this, you were gifted for this, and all these
things we just looked at, we're not talking about some side issue here. We're
talking about the most important thing in your Christian life -- following
God's plan. What are you going to
do? Are you going to be a hearer
of God's word today? Or are you
going to be a doer? Are you going
to get up off your blessed assurance and do something? Or are you going to sit around and sit,
soak and sour till Jesus comes back?
You've got two options.
One, you can walk out of here, go get in your car, say, "We're
getting out early today!
Great!" and you can drive off and have lunch and do zip!
Or you can do something about
it knowing this is the very thing God put you on earth for.
Prayer:
Father,
this is exciting. You set the
model of giving and serving and we want to be like You. We realize that we were created and
saved and called and gifted and commanded to serve. We also realize that serving in a ministry proves that we
belong to You and it makes life meaningful and one day we will be
rewarded. Help us all to live our
lives in light of eternity and help us to remember that one day we will give an
account to You. Thank You for the
privilege of serving You by serving others.
Why
don't you pray this prayer: "Dear God, I know it's easy to get so
busy and wrapped up in my own plans that I don't have time or energy for the
important things. Jesus, I want to
be like You. I want to live a great
life. I want my life to
count. Help me to find a place of
service and ministry where I can be unselfish, develop my gifts, and express my
love and gratitude for all You've done for me. Today I commit to serving You
for the rest of my life from this day forward. And I do it in love and with joy. In Your name I pray.
Amen."
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