I heard about a Union Meeting where the Union Representative was explaining the new Work Contract.
He said, "I have great news, Comrades. Management has agreed to lighten our work schedule!”
The crowd shouted, "Hooray!"
"And we will have a 150% pay rise."
"Hooray!"
"We will finish work at 4 PM, not 5 PM."
And again the crowd yelled, "Hooray!”
"We will start work at 10 AM, not 9 AM."
"Hooray!"
"From now on, we will work only on Wednesdays."
There was dead silence --- then a voice from the back asked…
"Which ones?" (Illustration from Sermon Central)
Last week I talked about the gifts, the talents and resources that God has given each of us. I talked about how those gifts are there, within us, but we must be willing to unwrap them. Whatever our gift or talent may be, God meant for us to use it . . . not once, not twice nor even a hundred times; but every day for the rest of our lives. Service to God is not a contract with an expiration date. We’re called to reflect the spirit of Christ, beginning from the first day that we receive his grace, and continuing until he calls us home. Of himself, Jesus said, “I have not come to be served but to serve.” (Matt. 20:28)
Luke 22:26-30 it is written, “. . . he who is greatest among you, let him be as the younger, and he who governs as he who serves. 27 For who is greater, he who sits at the table, or he who serves? Is it not he who sits at the table? Yet, I am among you as the One who serves.”
Isaac Watts was a well known minister and writer of songs in the 1700’s. Among his better known songs are, “Joy to the World,” “Oh God, Our Help in Ages Past,” and “I’ll Praise My Maker While I’ve Breath.” The theme of this last hymn reflects Isaac’s great interest in the afterlife with Christ.
He once wrote, “Death to a good man is . . . but passing through one little, dusky room of his Father’s house into another that is fair and large, lightsome and glorious, and divinely entertaining.”
Then he added this personal note. “May the rays and splendor of my heavenly apartment shoot far downward and gild the dark entry with such a cheerful beam as to banish every fear when I shall be called to pass through.”
It was as he wished. As he was on his deathbed for three weeks in November of 1748, at age 74, his friends gathered round. Mustering his strength, he exclaimed, “If God may raise me up again, I may finish some more of my papers, or God can make use of me to save a soul, and that will be worth living for. If God has no more service for me to do, through grace I am ready. It is a great mercy to me that I have no manner of fear nor dread of death . . . .”
His body lies buried in London, England’s Bunhill Fields. The epitaph on his tomb, which he had prepared for himself, includes the following scriptures:
2 Corinthians 5:8, “Absent from the body, and present with the Lord.” And Colossians 3:4, “When Christ, who is my life, shall appear, then shall I also appear with Him in glory.” (“Then Sings My Soul”, Book 2, Robt. Morgan)
• Service to our Lord Jesus and to his body, the church, is a life-long calling. That service does not end until we are joyously called home where our rest in Christ will be eternal. Where does it say that after ten years, twenty years or thirty years we can retire from serving our Lord? Jesus said, “But you are those WHO HAVE CONTINUED WITH ME in My trials. And I bestow upon you a kingdom, just as My Father bestowed one upon Me, that you may eat and drink at My table in My kingdom . . . .”
• The promise of a place in Christ’s kingdom carries with it a condition, and that condition is that we have been obedient. We “. . . have continued with (Him) in (His) trials” so that we may one day live with Him in His Kingdom.
The servant doesn’t go to bed before his master. He waits until his master sleeps, and then he retires. The church is the Body of Christ in this world, and as members of the Body of Christ, we’re called to serve it until the author of that body comes. This is what we’ve been called to because the call to serve the body is the call to serve our Lord and Master. But that service is not a grievous one. Jesus said in Matthew 11:29, 30, “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
• Serving Christ releases the power and miracles of the Holy Spirit. Ask anyone who’s been a servant to the Body of Christ if they have not been blessed. Those blessings are just a sampling of the miracles that come from the Kingdom Power of the Holy Spirit. They’re an aperitif, if you will, to the great banquet of God’s Kingdom Power. That power was prepared by God and given to us so that we might exercise it in service to the world. The world is starving for this banquet but has largely been subsisting on the crumbs that Satan has tossed to ground. But why, you ask, would so many settle for the crumbs when they could have the feast? Because, for so many in this world, the crumbs are easier for them to swallow; easier than the banquet of God’s Truth. The crumbs don’t require any sacrifice.
To fully serve God means to have complete faith in Him. It means that we must believe that He can and will accomplish whatever it is that we’re called to do. Notice that I said, “He will accomplish” whatever “we’re called to do.” Because God is the one accomplishing it, we don’t have to worry whether we’re in over our heads. If it requires tact and patience, God will provide us with tact and patience. If it requires strength, wisdom, and even finances, then we will be given according to our needs. If it requires a miracle, then we’re really stepping out into God’s backyard. For in Christ Jesus, “All things are possible.” So long as we’re being obedient, the end result will be to glorify God.
A man was putting a tin roof on his barn when all suddenly he slipped and began to slide down the roof. He cried out to God to save him. No sooner had he cried out than a nail caught his pants and stopped him. When he stopped he said, “never mind God I took care of it”. (Illustration from Sermon Central)
The problem isn’t that God doesn’t perform miracles anymore. The problem is we’re not looking for God to perform miracles. The beauty of it is, however, if a miracle is needed to glorify God, then a miracle will come. We just have to be there with eyes wide open; not blinded by preconceptions and not hampered by unwillingness to serve.
There was the farmer who asked his neighbor if he could borrow a rope? The neighbor said, “Sorry, I’m using the rope to tie up my milk.”
“Tie up your milk!!?” said the farmer. “You can’t tie up milk with a rope.”
The neighbor replied, “I know, but when a man doesn’t want to do something, one excuse is just as good as another.”
Serving God is not like a military draft. It’s not a responsibility we owe to our church or our nation. It’s a privilege extended to us by our Heavenly Father. That privilege doesn’t come with a time clock attached. We aren’t called to punch in and punch out; nor does the privilege have a “limited service agreement.”
• Serving God is a way of life that takes a lifetime to accomplish. There’s a thousand excuses we can give to one another as to why we can’t find the time to serve, but would you try your excuses if God, Himself, was doing the asking? Moses tried and he didn’t get far.
On Mount Horeb, Moses tried several times to avoid obeying God and returning to Egypt to free God’s children. Moses saw the task as impossible, but he was forgetting who he was talking to. Exodus 4:1 says, “Then Moses answered and said, “But suppose they will not believe me or listen to my voice; suppose they say, ‘The Lord has not appeared to you.’” God then showed Moses some small examples of His power, but that wasn’t enough for Moses. Again in vs. 10 Moses tried another excuse, “Then Moses said to the Lord, ‘O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither before nor since You have spoken to Your servant; but I am slow of speech and slow of tongue.’” But God wasn’t interested in excuses as we see in verse 11. “So the Lord said to him, “Who has made man’s mouth? Or who makes the mute, the deaf, the seeing, or the blind? Have not I, the Lord? Now therefore, go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall say.”
Some may ask, How will I know when I’m being called to serve God?
• You’ll know it’s God calling when it’s God being glorified.
• God never asks us to do anything alone. When we’re called, we’re called to serve WITH Jesus Christ, just as He served, and WITH the power of the Holy Spirit . . . given to us by God that “. . . all things are possible for those who believe.” It’s Christ’s example we seek to follow, and it’s His glory we seek to magnify. For that reason, everything we are called to do will be done with God’s Kingdom Power.
There’s a Far Side cartoon that shows a bum sitting in a dirty alley, and there’s a giant bug next to him. The bug is saying, “There I was, vice president, stock options, corner office, Mercedes, then one day someone comes in and says, “Wait a minute! He’s nothing but a giant cockroach!”
Very few of us in life are worthy of the corner office and stock options and the adoration that goes with it. And very few of us in life are worthy of being called giant cockroaches. In other words, never believe you’re as good as everyone thinks you are, because then you’ll become complacent and stop serving. Never believe you’re as bad as they say you are, because God knows better. And never believe you’re too young or too old to serve Him. (Illustration from Sermon Central)
• God fashioned you for a reason, and whatever that reason, it will be revealed through serving Him. A guy named Shakespeare put it this way, “To thine own self be true.” Be honest with God and with yourself. Serve God, and you will have a share in His Son’s Kingdom. Decline to serve when called, and on the last day, Christ will say, “I never knew you.” Don’t ever forget whose image is reflected through you. It’s only a reflection, but it’s a reflection of God. (illustration contributed by Cory Wilcoxson)
Matthew 25: (37-40) says, “The ones who pleased the Lord will ask, ‘When did we give you something to eat or drink? When did we give you clothes to wear or visit you while you were sick or in jail?’ The king will answer, ‘Whenever you did it for any of my people, no matter how unimportant they seemed, you did it for me.’”
If you say that Jesus Christ is your Lord, then there’s only one question you need to answer. When you are called to serve Him, the body of Christ, the children of God, what will you say?
