29 Accepting Your Assignment

 

 

 

PURPOSE # 4

 

 

You Were Shaped For Serving God

 

 

We are simply God's servants.... Each one of

us does the work which the Lord gave him to do:

I planted the seed, Apollos watered the plant,

but it was God who made the plant grow.

1 Corinthians 3:5-6 

 

 

29 Accepting Your Assignment

 

 

It is God himself who has made us what

we are and given us new lives

from Christ Jesus; and long ages ago

he planned that we should spend

these lives in helping others.

Ephesians 2:10

 

I glorified you on earth by completing down

to the last detail what you assigned me to do.

John 17:4

 

You were put on earth to make a contribution.

You weren't created just to consume resources—

to eat, breathe, and take up space.

God designed you to make a difference with your life.

You were created to add to life on earth, not just take from it.

God wants you to give something back.

This is God's fourth purpose for your life,

and it is called your "ministry," or service.

 

You were created to serve God.

"[God] has created us for a life of good deeds,

which he has already prepared for us to do."

Ephesians 2:10b

These "good deeds" are your service.

Whenever you serve others in any way,

you are actually serving God

Colossians 3:23-24; Matthew 25:34-34;

Ephesians 6:7

and fulfilling one of your purposes.

 

In the next two chapters you will see

how God has carefully shaped you for this purpose.

"Before I made you in your mother's womb,

 I chose you.

Before you were born,

I set you apart for a special work."

Jeremiah 1:5

You were placed on this planet for a special assignment.

 

You were saved to serve God.

"It is he who saved us

and chose us for his holy work,

not because we deserved it

but because that was his plan."

2 Timothy 1:9

God redeemed you so you could do his "holy work."

You're not saved by service, but your are saved for service.

In God's kingdom, you have a place, a purpose,

a role, and a function to fulfill.

This gives your life great significance and value.

 

"God paid a great price for you.

So use your body to honor God."

1 Corinthians 6:20

Through salvation our past has been forgiven,

our present is given meaning,

our future is secured.

"Because of God's great mercy...

Offer yourselves as a living sacrifice to God,

dedicated to his service."

Romans 12:1

 

"Our love for each other proves

that we have gone from death to life."

1 John 3:14

If I have no love for others, no desire to serve others,

I should question whether Christ is really in my life.

A saved heart is one that wants to serve.

In the Bible, the words servant and minister are synonyms,

as are service and ministry.

If you are a Christian, you are a minister,

and when you're serving, you're ministering.

 

When Peter's sick mother-in-law was healed by Jesus,

she instantly "stood up and began to serve Jesuse,"

Matthew 8:15

using her new gift of health.

This is what we're to do.

We are healed to help others.

We are blessed to be a blessing.

We are saved to serve,

not to sit around and wait for heaven.

 

He leaves us here to fulfill his purposes.

Once you are saved, God intends to use you for his goals.

God has a ministry for you in his church

and a mission for you in the world.

 

You are called to serve God.

Growing up, you may have thought

 that being "called" by God was something

only missionaries, pastors, nuns,

and other "full-time" church workers experienced,

but the Bible says every Christian is called to service.

Ephesians 4:4-14; see also Romans 1:6-7; 8:28-30;

1 Corinthians 1:2, 9, 26; 7:17; Philippians 3:14;

1 Peter 2:9; 2 Peter 1:3

"He saved us

and called us to be his own people,

not because of what we have done,

but beacuse of his own purpose."

2 Timothy 1:9

 

"You were chosen to tell

about the excellent qualities of God,

who called you."

1 Peter 2:9

Anytime you use your God-given abilities to help others,

you are fulfilling your calling.

"Now you belong to him...

in order that we might be useful

in the service of God."

Romans 7:4

 

In some churches in China,

they welcome new believers by saying

"Jesus now has a new pair of eyes to see with,

new ears to listen with, new hands to help with,

and a new heart to love others with."

"All of you together are Christ's body,

and each one of you is a separate

and necessary part of it."

1 Corinthians 12:27

There is no small service to God; it all matters.

 

You are commanded to serve God.

"Your attitude must be like my own,

for I, the Messiah,

did not come to be served,

but to serve and to give my life."

Matthew 20:28

It is the heart of the Christian life.

Jesus came "to serve" and "to give"—

and those two verbs should define your life on earth, too.

Serving and giving sum up God's fourth purpose for your life.

 

Mother Teresa once said,

"Holy living consists in doing God's work with a smile."

Jesus taught that

Spiritual maturity is never an end in itself.

We grow up in order to give out.

Impression without ｅxpression causes depression.

 

The old comparison between the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea is still true.

Galilee is a lake full of life because it takes in water but also gives it out.

In Contrast, nothing lives in the Dead Sea because,

with no outflow, the lake has stagnated.

 

Most of the time we're more interested in "serve us" than service.

We say, "I'm looking for a church that meets my needs and blesses me,"

not "I'm looking for a place to serve and be a blessing."

We expect others to serve us, not vice versa.

But as we mature in Christ,

the focus of our lives should increasingly shift to living a life of service.

The mature follower of Jesus stops asking,

"Who's going to meet my needs?"

and starts asking, "Whose needs can I meet?"

Do you ever ask that question?

 

 

Preparing For Eternity

 

 

"Each of us will have to give

a personal accout to God."

Romans 14:12

To all excuses God will respond, "Sorry, wrong answer.

I created, saved, and called you and commanded you to live a life of service.

What part did you not understand?"

"He will pour out his anger

and wrath on those who live for themselves,"

Romans 2:8

but for Christians it will mean a loss of eternal rewards.

 

We are only fully alive when we're helping others.

"If you insist on saving your life,

you will lose it.

Only those who throw away their lives for my sake

and for the sake of the Good News

will ever know what it means to really live."

Mark 8:35; see also Matthew 10:39; 16:25;

Luke 9:24; 17:33

If you aren't serving, you're just existing,

beacuse life is meant for ministry.

God wants you to learn to love and serve others unselfishly.

 

 

Service And Significance

 

 

You are going to give your life for something.

Service is the pathway to real significance.

"Each of us finds our meaning

and function as a part of his body."

Romans 12:5

"I want you to think about

how all this makes you more significant,

not less... because of what you are a part of."

1 Corinthians 12:14a, 19

 

God wnats to use you to make a difference in his world.

He wants to work through you.

What matters is not the duration of your life,

but the donation of it.

Not how long you lived, but how you lived.

 

Abraham was old, Jacob was insecure, Leah was unattractive, Joseph was abused,

Moses stuttered, Gideon was poor, Samson was codependent, Rahab was immoral,

David had an affair and all kinds of family problems, Elijah was suicidal,

Jeremiah was depressed, Jonah was reluctant, Naomi was a widow,

John the Baptist was eccentric to say the least, Peter was impulsive and hot-tempered,

Martha worried a lot, the Samaritan woman had several failed marriages,

Zacchaeus was unpopular, Thomas had doubts, Paul had poor health, and Timothy was timid.

That is quite a variety of misfits,

but God used each of them in his service.

He will use you, too, if you stop making excuses.

 

 

 

 

DAY TWENTY-NINE

Thinking About My Purpose

 

 Point to Ponder: Service is not optional.

 

Verse to Remember: "For we are God's workmanship,

created in Christ Jesus to do good works,

which God prepared in advance for us to do."

Ephesians 2:10

 

Question to Consider: What is holding me back

 from accepting God's call to serve him?

 

 

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