Charles Stanley — Service
One of the greatest tragedies in life is for a person to live their whole life with no purpose, no sense of direction, no goals. They're just floating through life, just sort of managing to live from one day to the next or maybe from one week to the next; maybe from one paycheck to the next, accomplishing nothing, really, except just existing and making enough money maybe to just get by. Or maybe end up on the street corners as we see sometimes people out there begging for money.
I look at them wondering what happened. What happened back in their life that caused them to lose all hope, all sense of purpose, no real sense of direction in life? It's like going on a long journey, and you have no GPS, no sense of direction. You don't have any destination. It just sort of wobbling in life. What a tragedy. And I can tell you no matter who you are, that is not the will and the plan of God for your life. It's very clear in the scripture that He has a plan and a will for everyone's life. Otherwise, He wouldn't have given talents, abilities, skills. He would not have given spiritual gifts to believers if they were no purpose whatsoever.
So, if I should ask you what you're living for, what would you say? Would it be something to do with your family, your job or some particular interest or hobby that you have? What are you living for? So, the scripture is very clear and one of the most important things about our relationship to Him and our relationship to each other is the fact that God has given you and me a spiritual gift or gifts. And He's given us talents and abilities and skills. And He's give them to us for a specific reason. But if you don't know that and you don't care and you just want to get by, you'll miss out on life's best.
So, I want you to turn if you will to First Peter, chapter four, and look if you will beginning at this tenth verse; which is very important. And Peter's just been talking about things that are going to happen and so forth. And so, he comes down to the tenth verse of First Peter four and he says, and every word is important in the Word of God. He says, "As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. Whoever speaks, is to do so as one who is speaking the utterances of God; whoever serves is to do so as one who is serving by the strength which God supplies, so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belongs the glory and the dominion forever and ever".
Now look at this tenth verse for a moment and notice what he says, no unnecessary words in the Bible, "As each one," not as a group but "each one, as each one has received". "Each one" means an individual. "Has received" is a tense of the verb that means something happened in the past, not a line, but a period. At some point in your life as a believer, and I believe this comes to you, your spiritual gifts come when you trust Jesus Christ as your Savior and the Holy Spirit begins to work them in your life at that point. At a moment in time, you received a special gift and other gifts, for a very specific purpose, he says. And he says, "Employ it," "put it to work, activate it," how? "In serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God". That is, His multiple expressions of goodness and love for us. He says, "As good stewards". Not sloppy, not lazy, not careless, not indifferent, but "Good stewards of the grace of God".
Now, let's distinguish between something. God has given to every one of us one or more gifts, so let's define, what is a spiritual gift? And I'll have these on the screen here. A spiritual gift is what? A divinely given endowment that enables us or equips us to serve Him effectively and successfully. That is, God has placed within you as one of His children, He has endowed you with a very special gift. That is, He's endowed you with the enabling power to work in your life to fulfill His purpose, whatever that might be, and to do so effectively and successfully. And so, if you're a believer, you have one of these special gifts.
And so, let's look for just a moment at how the scripture divides them up let's start with Ephesians chapter four. And Paul in Ephesians chapter four talks about ministry gifts. And if you'll notice, if you will, in verse eleven of, of Ephesians four, He says, "And He gave some as apostles, some as prophets, some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers". And you'll notice, he puts pastors and teachers together because a pastor ought to be teaching the flock. So, these are ministry gifts. And notice what he says, "He gives these gifts for the equipping of the saints for the work of service to the building up of the body of Christ". That is my responsibility in this fellowship to build you up by the grace of God and the power of the Holy Spirit. That is in order to work out God's will and purpose and plan in your life, to build up the whole fellowship.
So I want you to turn if you will to First Corinthians for a moment. And let's look at the twelfth chapter of First Corinthians. And here are some personal gifts that God gives. And if you'll notice what Paul says beginning in the first verse: "Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I do not want you to be ignorant". And then he moves on down and he says in verse four, "Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit". It is the Holy Spirit that gives the gift. You don't get a gift from this person, that person, the other person. Spiritual gifts are a gift from God through the Holy Spirit "There are varieties of ministries, and the same Lord. There are varieties of effects". As a result of working these gifts, "But the same God who works all things in all persons," but now watch the seventh verse, "But to each one is given the manifestation". Or the expression of that "Spirit for the common good". That is, whatever your spiritual gift is, God didn't give it to you just for you. He gave it to you for the common good, that is for the church, for the whole body of Christ.
Then if you'll go to Romans chapter twelve and here is another set of gifts. The first one, were ministry gifts. Secondly, personal gifts that God gives, but always for the purpose of the work of the church. And then, beginning in the twelfth chapter, beginning, if you will, in verse four of Romans, "For just as we have many members in one body and all the members do not have the same function". They don't all do the same thing, but many different members. We have got choir members, orchestra members, teachers and prayers and so forth, "So we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another".
Now listen to what he says "Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, each of us is to exercise them accordingly: if prophecy, according to the proportion of his faith. If service, in his serving; or he who teaches, in his teaching; or he who exhorts, in his exhortation; he who gives, with liberality, he who leads, with diligence, one who shows mercy, with cheerfulness". So here are seven different gifts. Now listen carefully. These are motivational gifts. That is, these gifts are given to you for a specific purpose that which God wants to use you. A motivational gift is a gift that expresses itself within you that motivates you.
So these are the gifts that God has given to everyone and the scripture says, it very clear here in First Corinthians, where we were reading. He says, for example, that they are given for the, for the common good, which means they don't. He doesn't give us spiritual gifts for our sake, but He gives them for the common good. And so, "But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit". That is how the Spirit operates, "For the common good".
So, when I think about the purpose for which they've been given, especially, notice he says, "Employ it, put it to work in serving one another". So, whatever your gift is, God didn't give it to you for you. He gave it to you to use you in some way for somebody else. We have all been in situations where each one of those we need. Then been in situations where somebody needed to give you something or encourage you, or direct you, instruct you, for example. Or, somebody needed to correct you because of something you did wrong. In other words, all the gifts have a part. This is about us giving ourselves away to each other. What can I do to help the other person? Because people who are always looking out for themselves, they're not happy. They're not at peace. You don't even want to be around them—because it's me, myself and I, and that's all they're interested in.
What, what will it profit me? What will I get out of this? And that is not love, for example. And it is not the reason He gave us the gifts. And so, I look at Mark chapter ten verse forty-five, and listen to what Jesus said about Himself. And I would certainly think this ought to be our example. He says in verse forty-five, "For even the Son of Man," and notice how he said it, "even I". Jesus said, "Even I, the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many". And who was it washing feet at that Last Supper? Jesus washing feet, because He was demonstrating what service was all about.
And so, the truth is you have a very definite spiritual gift with your name on it, given to you by Almighty God. And nobody else can give it to you, and nobody else can take it away from you. The only thing you can do is employ it for the purpose of God or waste it by ignoring it and being selfish and not living it out as God would intend you to do. And so, somebody says, "Well why does God give these things anyway"? Well Let's think about it for a moment. If He's in heaven, and Jesus seated by His right side, and the Holy Spirit's living within you, how does God get His work done? He gets His work done through His children. He doesn't give us gifts just to sit around and say, "Well I have the gift of doing so and so. No, remember what he said? He says He gives us these gifts "For the common good, and we're to serve Him". And he says it, "As good stewards". Or excellent stewards which means this: whatever little I have, I am to be a good steward of it. If I only have a little bit of money, I'm to be a good steward of it. If I want more and be honest, if I want more, I work harder. I'm more diligent. I may outwork somebody else or whatever it might be. He says we're to be good stewards.
In other words, look. The more truth that you know, the more truth you're responsible for. And the reason God gives you truth is to make it possible for you to become the full person God wants you to be. What is your potential? You don't know what your potential is. You have no idea what your potential is, until you're tested. And once you're tested, for example, what happens? Just like people in the sports field. They never know what they can do till they get in the contest. They break all kind of records. And they think this record, nobody will ever break it. And somebody else comes along and yes they do. People are always, in those areas, are striving for the best. They want to be the best.
Let me ask you a question. Because you're a follower of Jesus Christ, ignore what the world thinks of you. You're a follower of Jesus Christ. You and I have a responsibility to do our best. It may not be as good as somebody else, but I have the responsibility to being my best at where I am and whatever I'm doing. There's always somebody who can outdo you, but that's not the issue. The issue: am I giving it my best? God is not expecting you to be like anybody else. Not expecting you to be like anybody else. He's expecting you, and equipping you to be your best at what He wants you to do. Why He created you and given you the gifts and the endowments of talent that He's given you. That's all that's all He's expecting. And He says you're living it out for somebody else for the common good, for the whole body of Christ.
So, when I look at all these passages, and I look at Colossians chapter three for a moment, and notice what Paul is saying here, because he's talking about this very idea of, of doing our best at what we do. And here's what he says in the third chapter. He says, twenty-second verse, "Slaves, in all things obey those who are your masters on earth, not with external service, as those who merely please men, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord". Now watch this, "Whatever you do, do your work heartily," thoroughly, completely, enthusiastically, "do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance. It is the Lord Christ whom you serve". If we could just get that. It's Jesus whom we are serving. This may be the mediator, whoever that person is and where we work but it's the Lord whom we serve. But if I do my best at whatever I do, that's what matters.
Now. Let's think for just a moment. Why do believers fail to serve Him and weaken the testimony of the church? Why do they do it? So, I'm going to give you a list. So, I won't have to take too long to discuss these. Number one, they're ignorant of scripture. There are people who have no earthly idea that God requires them to exercise their spiritual gifts and their talents. Secondly, there people who feel inadequate, I couldn't do this. Now, watch this. When people say "I can't," they're looking at themselves from their viewpoint, not God's viewpoint. Not what God said, but what they think. Which makes them inexcusable.
Third, they have guilt feelings. I can't serve the Lord because back yonder in my life I did this, I did that, and so I'm just not worthy. God's grace takes care of the past. Not acceptable. Fear of failure. Well, how do you learn some things? You learn how do you learn to swim? You don't just hop in the water and just take off. How do you learn to do many things? You learn by exercising the opportunity. Then of course, people are unwilling to make a commitment. And so they'll say "Well, I'll do this and so". Then what happens, for example. Listen to this. If you have a responsibility, and you commit yourself to that responsibility, don't show up late. Don't show up and say I just didn't feel good. You didn't call anybody. Nobody else to take your place.
And here's my conviction. If you take a responsibility, and you can't be on time, and doing what you're supposed to do, resign. And let somebody that God will use who may have less talent, and less ability, and less skill, and less, less, less, but what, but what they're faithful. They're trustworthy. Those things, we don't, we don't, what happens to trustworthiness. And so, we're responsible to God. Then I think, one of the reasons that people don't serve the Lord is a lack of love and caring for other people. They don't love other folks. Some people grew up in a home, where they were never taught to love and never saw an example of love, I understand that.
But you know, you can get over those things if you want to. We don't stay where we are. We move on in life. It may not be as fast as you want it to be. But when you're faithful where you are... And I can think of some people that it seems the only have one gift in life, but how faithful, loyal, devoted they are. And God says He's the one who gives them the reward. Then of course, there are people who are selfish with their time. And as we've said before, they say, "Well, I just don't have time". In other words, you don't have, you don't have to witness to somebody else. You don't have time to serve. You don't have time to sing in the choir, though you're gifted. You don't have time to play, though you're gifted. You don't have time do this, that, the other and so forth. You don't have time to visit other people. You don't have any time to do anything, for anybody, but yourself. That is pure selfishness. Ungodliness.
And then of course, people who are poor managers of their time. And the people who tell you, well I just don't have time is they've never stopped to sit down and think now, I got 24 hours in a day. Seven days in a week. Now what do I want to accomplish. You have to plan it. and you don't have to be smart to do that. I learned that a long time ago in the very beginning, early in my life, that if I'm going to get something done, I better write it down. And decide when I was supposed to do it and when I'm supposed to get it done. And you may have a long list, and say "My goodness, I didn't get half of that done". What do you do? You start again the next day.
In other words, you don't give up in life. If you don't give up and excuse it and blame somebody else's. As long as you're blaming somebody else for what you don't have, and what you can't do, and what you'll never make it in life. And nowhere in the Bible does it say, I have the privilege to blame my circumstances on somebody else. It doesn't say that. It doesn't make any difference where I came from. Who knows where Dry Fork, Virginia is? And when I tell people, they say, "Where were you born"? I always have to spell it. D-R-Y-F-O-R-K. Dry Fork. "Well, where is that"? Virginia. What's that got to do with me? Nothing. Suppose I'da said, "Well, I was born in Dry Fork", and you know, just a few people there and the thing there was a mill and a railroad crossing, and one little grocery store. And that's about it, and I guess that's what life's all about. No that's not what life's about.
I'm saying to you, don't give up! Don't be where you are, blaming on your past, or blaming on what your grandfather did, or your great-grandfather, or somebody else. "Well, my grandfather was in jail and my father was in jail". Well, don't go there. In other words, you don't have to go there because they went there. That's not the issue. But that's the way people think. Now here's one of the worst things. Comparing yourself with someone else. Number one, nobody else is like you. You put everybody's thumbprint. They're all different. I don't understand how you could have seven billion thumbprints, I don't know how all that works. But I can say this, God knows you by name. And when you think about it, it's not right to compare yourself with somebody else.
For example, as a nurse, you're a nurse, and you think, "Well, you know I just don't have the stamina so and so has. Or maybe you're a secretary, and you're not the best in the world with a computer. Don't compare yourself with somebody else, here's what you do. "God, I want to thank you for the gifts and talents and skills you've given me, and God by the Holy Spirit, I'm going to improve. I'm not going to stay where I am. I'm going to improve. I'm not just waiting for somebody else to just give me a break. I'm going to improve by the power of the Spirit of God". And do you think God'll help you? Absolutely. He promises to do so.
And then of course, one of the primary reasons people don't really serve God is they're living in sin. You live in sin, you don't have any big desire to serve God. You don't have a big desire to help other people. You're just trying to satisfy yourself, and when I think of anything that breaks my heart is when I see people waste talent, skills, time, gifts, because of this, because of that, because of the other God saved them, sent the Holy Spirit, living on the inside of them, and it's like He had to go to sleep. You never know your potential until you put yourself in the hands of God and say "Lord, I'm going to do it your way". And my desire for you is that you look at yourself and say, "God, here's who I am today. What do You want to do in my life? Where do You want me to go"? I refuse to accept the excuse that I can't, and they won't. The important thing is God, what do You want?
And now that I know I have a spiritual gift and I have, I have talents and I have the Holy Spirit in me, God, I'm going to give it my best beginning today. I'm listening for direction. I'm going to trust You and I'm going to obey you. Today could be a life-changing day in your life. It's a choice you make. If you've never trusted Jesus as your Savior, It's not going to work. You know why? The wages of sin is death. The gift of God is eternal life. And my prayer is that you would ask Jesus Christ to forgive you of your sins, based on the fact that He went to the cross and died on the cross and His blood paid your sin debt in full, so that you don't have to pay it. He forgives you of your sin, writes your name in the Lamb's Book of Life and seals you forever as a child of God.
Whoever you are, wherever you are, you've just heard the truth. And I pray in Jesus' name that you'd be willing to ask Him to forgive you of your sins. Tell Him you've messed up your life. You've depended on other things. You've lived it the way you want to live it. You've never given Him any real thought in your life about how you should live. You thought you were doing well. You're not doing well without Jesus. You're going to reap what you sow, more than you sow, later than you sow. You cannot change it. My prayer for you is that you be wise enough to receive Jesus Christ as your Savior.
Father, how grateful we are for Your love for us. How many times do we have to ask You to forgive us for not living up to what we know is the best we could do. Please Lord, do not allow us to be satisfied with anything less than holy living and wholly giving of ourselves to You, to be used by You any way, every way You possibly can. I pray You'll seal this message in the heart of every single believer. Do not let it escape them, Father. And I pray for somebody here who is unsaved. They're already wasting time. Help them to see, the first step is to be saved, the second step is to surrender themselves to you and be filled with the Holy Spirit and the third step is to say, "Yes Lord. Here am I. Use me, send me, I'm available". And that's our prayer this morning, in Jesus Name, amen.