Essential #7- Serving faithfully in pursuit of godliness
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· 53 viewsEssential of Discipleship #7- Serving faithfully in pursuit of godliness.
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Intro????
Intro????
As we looked last week at Uniting with a local body in worship, this week we will dig a bit into the need for our need to serve faithfully
Every disciple needs to be training godliness
Bible intake, prayer, joining a faithful church for corporate worship and now this week serving faithfully
I am reminded this week even more so need of the local body to put sin to death as yet another world reknowned theologian has be proven to be a fraud
Ravi Zaccaharias was the one of the best apologist for the skeptic fighting against Christianity but that has all been lost
His legacy forever remembered as scandal
I want to remind us all here today that we wont get to the end of life and finish well by chance
Its a sum of 10,000 tiny choices and decisions
He now can offer no apology, no public repentance, no changed life can be evaluated
The global affect of this is yet to be seen but it will be immense
Why discipline ourselves? Why so important for bible intake, prayer, church accountability, public worship, intentional service, because every single one of us are human
If we dont put the sin to death in our life like we made mention of last week, make no doubt the sin will kill you
So today we will look at the next integral part of the disciples life- service
We will be in Romans 12:1-8
Why should we serve?
I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.
Paul answers this question very quickly here
He make his whole appeal on the very answer
-Because of the mercies of God- of which he just unpacked in chapter 11- the grafting in of the nations into the family of God
Blessings of redemptive work of Christ, opened the floodgates of grace to the Gentiles as even we saw this week in Rev 20- as Christ work on the cross bound his gross deception of the nations and Gospel burst forth to all the known world
To even now, as we speak- fellow believers are taking the Gospel to places it has never gone
Paul says, because of God great mercy through Christ substitutionary atonement- you and I can be brothers with Christ and in Christ
Paul says upon that cornerstone of mercy- Live your life in sacrifice to Jesus
Just as when a animal was killed as a sacrifice to God, his life and entire being was needed , so to for the believer
Every area- being disciplined into holiness
Is there some area of your life that you know is out of place? That isnt being lived sacrificial?
If so, then this question is needed, Why?
If God desires holiness, then we should be pursuing that as well
As we do pursue these things- we see that this very pursuit is worship to the Lord
The greatest act of personal worship to the Lord Jesus is our deliberate intentional pursuit of His holiness
For many, this will never occur be there are to many other things that we love and desire more
Thats the natural bend of life
But when someone does something so amazing, transformative, life altering for you it typically changes things
Donor Video
You can feel the raw appreciation in her voice- I promise you- she wont forget it
Its story she will tell
Beloved- we too have had someone gives us an amazing, transformative, life altering gift- his name is Jesus
He has made one request- Follow me
One of our greatest acts of service to Jesus is our deliberate intentional pursuit of His holiness
Pauls continues the exhortation in vs 2
Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
Dont live the lifestyle of the world around us
Thats our natural bend- you ever wonder those songs are just so hard to get out, movies to unsee, shows to stop watching- because it all appeals to our fleshly desire
The more difficult path- the disciplined path- is a life being transformed by the Word of God
to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.
How do know who God is and what his character is? His word
The word for testing is carries the idea of examining something
Wanna life that is a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, transformed mind that discerns the will of God?
There is only one way - Examining His Word
We will never serve faithfully someone we don’t love personally
Its from the overflow of our love for God that we serve faithfully
Same as the parable of the talents in Matt 25:14-30
The owner goes away for a period of time and leaves three servants in charge of significant portions of his estate proportionately
1 gets 5 talents, 1 gets 3 and another 1
Upon return- both servants with 5 and 3 talents have doubled their money they have been entrusted with
The other did nothing with his and blames the owner for being harsh
What was the difference? Their hearts
From a heart of gratitude 2 servants worked diligently and proved themselves faithful
From a hard heart one servant did nothing and proved himself unfaithful
What is clearly seen- there is an account given for the served the master
Reward now and to come , but judgement is all that await the hard hearted
I say this to encourage you and I onward in that how we serve the Lord gives a better pic of our heart than we know
With that in mind, we will ask a second question
2. How are we to serve? Romans 12:3-8
For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.
We see another easy answer that is two-fold
1. Humbly
We aren’t serving Christ to make our name great but his
Thats harder than you think- just like a light attracts bugs- so does positions attract pride
The teacher is not greater in worth that the door greeter if done in a heart of worship
2. Cooperatively
Vs4- we have lots of members and not all of us have the same natural or spiritual gifts
1 Cor 12 tells us that God arranges the body for His purpose
So if we are apart of the church, we have clearly been told we have a job to do- in some way
Last week we saw the criteria for being apart of the church was a genuine regenerate salvation
Born again
The public declaration of our salvation was clearly our life lived but secondly believers baptism
Baptist have got it right according to the order and basic biblical methodology
Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue, believed in the Lord, together with his entire household. And many of the Corinthians hearing Paul believed and were baptized.
With that they were baptized and attached to the universal church but also primarily the local church
For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.
For the body does not consist of one member but of many.
Which reinforces the truth in VS 5
3. Consistently
As you serve consistently, you serve not only the Lord but your fellow members in faith
When believers keep the name of the Lord holy and unstained the church is encouraged but when they fall we all get the black eye
As we opened, we mentioned one who was numbered amongst the saints at one time
-If he were alive today, would be fairly judged to be an unbeliever based on a life of continued sin
The millions he affected will stand in doubt of the man but also the Message he proclaimed and the millions who stand for the Message now
Beloved hold the name of God high- serve consistently, for you not only bring honor to the Lord but also to the brothers and sisters in Christ
4. Faithfully (6-8)
-God has so gifted each believer by his grace
-Your spiritual gifts are grace gifts
-the list here isnt a complete one but serves the purpose well
-whatever act of service we do- do it well as if unto the Lord
-So when we serve, do it from the heart
I had a Awana leader say, if there is any other place you would rather be or anything else you would rather do- go do it
-there is truth in that
All gifts are needed to help the church
All gifts are given by God
All should be done faithfully and heartily for the Lord
As we close, I want us to be reminded of the Jesus faithful service to us
In Pilates hall- He is the God-man born to die
In heaven- He is the intercessor for his people
He hasnt quit serving and he clearly told the disciples the servant is not greater than his master
So we are called to serve faithfully.