Sermon Central
-
Manifestation Of Love Series
Contributed by Shine Thomas on May 15, 2019 (message contributor)
Summary: The Bible says that we are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that we declare the praises of him who called us out of darkness into his wonderful light. One of the ways we declare the praises of God is by operating in love.
Follow us on:
Website: https://cityharvestag.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CityHarvestA...
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cityharvestag/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CityHarvestAGChurch/featured
Manifestation of Love.
The Bible says that we are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that we declare the praises of him who called us out of darkness into his wonderful light. One of the ways we declare the praises of God is by operating in love. A church and believer is marked by manifestation of love of God. Everything that we do must originate out of God’s love.
I started this series last week with a message entitled “How love works?” Last week we saw that one of the manifestation of love in a believer results in taking the gospel to the unreached.
1. Manifestation of love: Evangelism.
The first manifestation of love is evangelism. No church can claim to know and experience the love of God shed abroad in our hearts, unless that love is extended to those that are without Christ.
2. Manifestation of love: Service.
The second manifestation of love is service to Saints. When there’s love in the believer, service to the saints results.
1 Corinthians 16:15 You know that the household of Stephanas were the first converts in Achaia, and they have devoted themselves to the service of the Lord’s people. Here is a household who had no official appointment, who were not assigned by anybody in the church. They devoted themselves to serving the saints. They were self-motivated to serve.
The work of the ministry belongs to everybody and we all are called to devote ourselves to that. We don’t have to wait for somebody to appoint us to something.
People often say, “Pastor, you’ve got so many people in ministry, I’m sure that you don’t need any more.” Well, there is always opportunity here to serve. The point is that all the saints are to do ministry wherever they happen to gather. We don’t have those who serve and those who watch. We don’t have sanctified spectators who just come and say do it and we’ll watch. We’re all in the ministry. We just happen to assemble in this place on the Lord’s day, right? But then we get in our cars and we all leave and then we go out and we minister all the rest of our days.
Every one of us should be in some ministry either here or outside. Doing the Lord’s work in the Lord’s way is everybody’s responsibility. If you have love, you will be involved in service to saints.
The real meaning of service is put yourselves in line. You see, Stephanas and his family got in line all alone. Nobody called them in the line. Nobody said all of you who want to do this line here, they just got in line.
Ministry belongs to everybody and the chances are you’re never going to get appointed to a ministry until you take initiative and you prove yourself faithful. Serving comes by self-initiation. William Barclay, the British commentator writes, “In the early church willing and spontaneous service was the beginning of official office.”
What is the service of the saints? Well, the word service or ministry is the word from which we get deacon. Deacon meant a table waiter and it came to mean anybody who serves somebody else in the church out of love. Any loving service is deacon. Now the NT describes all kinds of service.
How can we serve the saints?
a. Spiritual Gifts.
Serve the saints through spiritual gifts.
1 Corinthians 12:7 Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.
1 Corinthians 12:4-5 There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are different kinds of service by the same Lord. When we use our spiritual gifts, we are indeed serving the saints.
b. Giving.
Serve the saints by giving. Acts 11:29 The disciples, each according to his ability, decided to provide help for the brothers living in Judea. We serve the saints through giving.
2 Corinthians 8:4 They urgently pleaded with us or the privilege of sharing in the service to the saints.
c. Word.
Serve saints through teaching the word. Acts 6:4 We will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word. So serving the saints can be through the word. When I preach, I am serving you.
d. Encouragement.
Serve the saints through encouragement. 1 Thessalonians 5:11 Therefore encourage one another and build each other up. Encourage. That can be counseling, encouraging people building them up.
Believers can either use our mouth to speak the word encourage others or do godless chatter. See what Paul is exhorting to Timothy: 2 Timothy 2:15-17 15Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth. 16Avoid godless chatter, because those who indulge in it will become more and more ungodly. 17Their teaching will spread like gangrene.
