You were shaped for serving God

This morning we continue with our series of talks on Rick Warren’s excellent book, The Purpose Driven Life.

It’s been a few weeks since our last talk, so just to recap, Rick Warren initially asks the question – ‘What on earth am I here for?’ and then goes on to identify 5 purposes for our lives.

So far we’ve covered – You were planned for God’s Pleasure, You were formed for God’s family, and You were created to become like Christ.

Today I’m talking on the fourth purpose he identifies which is – You were shaped for serving God.

So, you were put on earth to make a contribution. God designed you to make a difference with your life and this is called your ministry or service.

You were created to serve God through serving others. And when you serve others you are actually serving God.

As Jesus will say when he comes again and judges those who are alive at his second coming – “whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.”

We are not saved by service, but we are saved for service, and our loving service to others shows that we are saved. In other words, as Jesus said – we are recognised as Christians by the fruit we bear.

And everything that God does in our lives is to equip and encourage us for this service. As Rick Warren points out we are blessed in order that we might be a blessing; we are healed that we might help to heal others; and we are encouraged that we might encourage others.

Every Christian is called to service regardless of our jobs or careers. Every Christian has a call from God upon their lives to serve.

And when we use our God given abilities to help and encourage and strengthen others we are fulfilling our calling.

In order to do this, as Paul tells us in our reading from Romans – we are to present our bodies as a living sacrifice to God.

In other words, each day we should offer ourselves to God in service. ‘Lord help me today to do the things that you want me to. Help me to show those I meet today something of your love and to share your truth with them. Work through me this day.’

Rick Warren mentions some churches in China who welcome new believers with the words – ‘Jesus now has a new pair of eyes to see with, new ears to listen, new hands to help and a new heart to love.’

And as I said in my previous talk – your service is desperately needed. Each of us has a role to play in extending God’s kingdom in the world, and each role is important. There are no insignificant ministries in God’s church.

Sadly, lots of local churches in this country are dying because Christians are unwilling to serve. They sit on the side-lines as spectators and the body of Christ suffers.

In fact many Christians have the wrong attitude. They look for churches to serve them and meet their needs – and not a church where they can serve and be a blessing.

Jesus of course set us an example of service. As Mark tells us in his gospel; “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."

Service is at the very heart of Christian life – it’s not an optional extra. And it is through service that we grow and mature as Christians. Service grows our Christian muscles.

And we experience the presence of God with us most as we serve – as we seek to reach out in his name.

I met a Christian couple on the streets of Maidstone a couple of weeks ago – who were offering to pray for healing for passers-by.

The lady told me that two people that morning had experienced healing and two people had given their lives to Jesus.

This lady was full of enthusiasm as she experienced God working through her.

Rick Warren says that we are most fully alive when we serve others - and that it is through serving others that that we discover the purpose and meaning of our lives and that what we do on earth takes on an eternal significance.

Jesus through his death and resurrection has opened wide the gates of heaven – and everyone is invited to enter in.

It is our job – the job of the church - to do all we can to point people towards those gates and to encourage them to enter – to show and tell them that God is good and that he loves them – and that he has died for them.

And this is the purpose God has shaped us for. Each of us is uniquely designed by God to fulfil some part, to play some role – in the life and witness of his church.

As Paul says in his letter to the Ephesians – “we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”

We are each of us custom designed originals, one-off masterpieces. And each of us has specific gifts and talents that God has given us which are intended to be used to glorify God – to make him known.

Rick Warren identifies our gifts and talents under five headings and he used the acronym SHAPE – S-H-A-P-E - to summarise these.

The S stands for Spiritual Gifts, which are special God empowered abilities given only to believers, which come from God’s spirit living in us.

These are things like the ability to prophesy or to speak in tongues, or to know when evil spirits are at work or to receive words of wisdom or knowledge from God.

The H stands for our Hearts – and this includes our desires, our hopes, our passions and our motivations – what we care about and love to do. And our hearts give us clues as to where we should be serving, because if we’re passionate about something we’ll tend to enjoy it and do it well.

The A stands for our abilities – our natural talents - things we’re good at – like writing or artistic abilities or music or cooking or administration or mechanics or athletic abilities.

God gives us these abilities both in order to earn a living but also for our ministries.

P stands for our personalities. We each have a unique personality that should fit our ministry. Some are introverts, some extroverts, some like routine, others like variety. Some are thinkers, some are more feelings orientated. Our personalities should complement our ministries.

Finally, E stands for our Experiences – our life experiences – which we should use to help others. We can use painful experiences we’ve been through to help others who are experiencing similar things.

For instance, the bereaved can help those who have also lost loved ones and ex addicts can help those struggling with addictions. These experiences although painful, can give us valuable empathy to help others.

Rick Warren suggests that we ask ourselves questions like – where have I been successful – where have I seen fruit in my life – what do I enjoy doing – what makes me feel really alive – do I like routine or variety – and how can my experiences help others?

And then he suggests we get involved with different areas of service and give it a go. This can be in our local church but there are also thousands of Christian charities and organisations working in numerous areas – with the homeless, with the poor, with persecuted Christians, with children, with prisoners, for peace in the Middle East - that rely on volunteers.

For instance a guy I work with works as a collector for a Christian organisation called TWAM – Tools With A Mission. And he collects old tools and computers and type writers and bicycles which are refurbished and sent to Africa to help people earn a living.

So, every Christian has their own SHAPE. Every Christian whatever their age or education has some gifts and talents which God expects us to use to serve Him – which is what today’s gospel reading is about.

And the reason for including this is that there is a very serious side to service - because we will all be judged by God on how we have used the gifts and talents he has given us.

And here, how gifted or talented we are isn’t what is important. What is important is what we do with the gifts and talents we’ve been given.

How have we contributed to the life of God’s church? What part have we played in Jesus Great Commission to go and make disciples of all nations?

How many people’s eternal destinies have been changed through our lives and actions? How have we built up and encouraged our Christian brothers and sisters?

How much of God’s life and love have been shown in our lives?

Ultimately God will judge our servanthood – to what extent we have been good and faithful servants.

Jesus said; “The greatest among you shall be your servant. For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.

God wants all Christians to be servant hearted.

Rick Warren says that real servants make themselves available to others even when its inconvenient. They look out for ways to help others. They look for the tasks that no one else wants to do.

Real servants put on an apron of humility and don’t seek approval or applause. They don’t compete with other Christians or compare themselves to other Christians - because their focus is on pleasing God, and they understand that we are all working for the same team.

One reason lots of Christians avoid service is because they feel they’re not good enough or talented enough to serve. But this is a complete lie.

And it’s like saying to God – ‘I’m sorry God – but what you’ve given me and how you’ve made me - isn’t up to serving you.’ If this is your view I suspect that God may beg to differ.

Yes, we may feel weak – but this is actually an advantage to serving God – because as Paul says in his second letter to the Corinthians, “I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

All the time we are in the shallow end of the swimming pool we don’t have to swim because we can stand up. But when we are out of our depth we have to swim.

God likes to take us out of our depth so that we have to rely on him to help us.

All the time we can do something easily with our natural abilities we don’t need to lean on God – but when we find ourselves in situations where we can’t do something, we have to call out to God and rely on his help.

I remember years ago when I was a young Christian being asked to pray for an elderly lady at our house-group. We were each praying for one another in turn and I got her.

I really didn’t have a clue what to pray – so I prayed under my breath Lord please help me – and a prayer just came to me. And to my complete surprise this old lady was visibly moved by the prayer that came out of my mouth.

After the house-group, another lady who knew this old lady well, told me that my prayer had been just right for her. God was able to work through me because I was out of my depth and so I had to rely on Him to help me.

So, to tie up what I want to say today – every single one of us sitting here today has been especially shaped and designed by God to serve him.

And God has a purpose and a plan for each one of us which involves serving him. If we consider ourselves to be Christians then we should be demonstrating this through our lives and our service.

Our service won’t save us but it is a sign that our faith is genuine – and God will judge each one of us for how we’ve used the gifts and talents he has given us.

We need to offer ourselves to God in service – ‘Here I am Lord work through me’ – and we need to be servant hearted – always looking for ways in which we can help and encourage others.

We find the meaning and purpose of our lives through service and our faith and experience of God in our lives will grow as we step out in faith and seek to glorify God, to make him known to others.

I’d like to close with a brief time of prayer and reflection in which we can thank God for the gifts and talents he’s given us – and then offer these back to him in service.

If you’re not sure how God wants you to serve, ask Him.

So let’s pray. Lord thank you that you have expressly designed each one of us here today to serve you. Thank you for the gifts and talents you have given us. Lord, as we offer ourselves to you now in service in this time of quiet, encourage us and show us how we can best serve you.

In the name of the living God. Amen.