I want you to imagine something. I want you to imagine that, for you whole life, you’ve never really been sure of where you stand with God. Imagine you’ve lived your life on a bartering system: If you need something from God you’ve got to be willing to give him a little something first. It’s a system that the church endorses and that you’ve tried to live with.
You’re scared of God. He seems angry, demanding. Ready to punish the slightest infraction with the most severe judgment possible. You know He has limitless power, His holiness is infinite. Compared to Him you feel like you are nothing, not even a speck. I guess you’d actually prefer it to be that way . . . but instead of feeling invisible to God you often feel the heat of His white-hot spotlight blazing upon you. Inspecting you. Testing you. Watching you.
You’ve tried to be good. You’ve tried to do what pleases Him. But still you don’t feel your actions don’t measure up to His long, long list of demands. You’ve made vows and promises and resolutions, you’ve done everything imaginable to live a pure life, but instead of peace all you feel is the stain of sin growing and growing and growing.
Just imagine what it must be like! No matter how extreme you get you can’t feel righteous before God! You lock yourself in your room for days and do nothing but pray, but it doesn’t work. You deny yourself food, trying to fast the sin out of you, but it doesn’t work. You even forgo drinking water, deny yourself sleep, pray through the night, but still there is no release for your soul. You even try beating yourself with whips, desperately trying to use pain to purify yourself and keep your rebellious body under control, but nothing works!
To make matters worse, no one takes you seriously! You feel the taint of sin creeping into you, and so you go to the priest for confession. Unfortunately, he’s tired of seeing you! You’re always there, listing off every single little sin that you can find, ready, willing, and able to do whatever act of penance may be required, but the priest finally just tells you what you know is a lie: He tells you just to do your best and that will be good enough for God. But you know better. You know the righteousness of God is something that can never be appeased through human effort. You know . . . because you’ve tried . . . and you’ve failed.
This is exactly what the young monk Martin Luther was facing. As he lay in his cell in the monastery, day after day after day he would be tortured by the righteousness of God: that lofty, untouchable, unknowable holiness that soundly condemned him at every turn for what he knew himself to be: a sinner.
Until one day when Martin Luther opened up the book of Romans. Until one day when God opened up Luther’s eyes to what the righteousness of God truly is.
Luther began to read in Romans, and as he read he eventually came across chapter three verse nineteen. And if you’ll accept a paraphrase, this is what Luther saw:
“But we know that whatever the law says it says to those under the law, in order that every mouth may be shut and the whole of creation may be held accountable to God . . .” Luther knew that was true. Every time he came to God and tried to offer Him some good work, some good deed, it was as though the Law convicted him before he could even get a word out. “God, I (snap!) . . . Lord, I (snap!)”
Luther found the reason for this as he read on: “for from the works of the law there can be no one who is justified before Him, for through the Law is the knowledge of sin.” Can you imagine the despair he must have felt at that moment? Sure, it’s one thing to know in your heart that trying to be good and following the commandments—trying to produce righteousness in yourself—can’t give you peace before God . . . but it’s another thing entirely to have the Scriptures tell you.
And if you’ve ever tried to be “good” on your own, if you’ve ever really, truly tried to do what’s right so that you can please God, then you know the same thing that Luther did: attempting to keep every commandment of the Law only shows you how completely and totally impossible it is to do just that. If we’re going to be honest with ourselves, we’ll have to admit that “good enough” isn’t good enough for a righteous, holy God.
See, Luther was trapped there, in the same quandary that you and I have been in. We want to do better, we want to do God-pleasing things, we want to get rid of the effects of sin in our lives . . . but what happens? Each and every single time, what happens?
Personal righteousness isn’t a game. There is no off-season. There are no time-outs. In order to make yourself completely, truly righteous you have to be spot-on, each and every time. No errors. No mistakes. No slip-ups. You have to always avoid evil. You have to always do good. Don’t commit any sins, but don’t omit any chance to do good, either. Every action, every deed, every thought, every attitude must be brought perfectly in line with God’s commandments for us to have any kind of personal righteousness at all.
So we’re sunk. A righteous and holy God demands righteousness. A righteousness that we cannot attain, no matter how hard we try, through trying to keep His Law. If you were Martin Luther, what would you do at this point? Imagine his despair: No expectation, no confidence, no hope to produce righteousness in himself at all. Many men would give up at that point. Just give up and go crawl back into the wall.
But the reason why we’re celebrating the Reformation today is because when man is ready to give up, God is just beginning to work! So Luther, crushed to the absolutely lowest point in his entire life, recognizing that all of his efforts had been in vain, reads on: “But now apart from the law” . . . what? Apart from the Law? “Apart from the Law a righteousness of God has been made known . . .” You mean instead of keeping the Law? Instead of trying to be perfect? God has a righteousness that can be obtained through something else rather than torturing myself with keeping the Law?
“Apart from the Law, a righteousness of God has been made known, one that is witnessed to by the law and the prophets—in other words, all of the Scriptures—a righteousness of God through faith . . .” Through faith? A righteousness of God through faith?? “A righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe.”
Well, the young monk is stunned. Amazed. All this time he’s been trying to make his personal righteousness live up to the demands of the righteousness of God. But now he reads from God’s very Word that the righteousness of God isn’t a demand, but a gift! It is something that can be received by anyone who believes upon Jesus Christ!
You can feel his burden lifting! Luther’s heart starts to pound, he senses the strange, strange feeling of hope creeping into his belly. He starts to think, “God’s righteousness isn’t a standard to live up to . . . but a gift of holiness to be received through Jesus Christ! I can’t produce that kind of righteousness on my own, and therefore I can’t be pleasing to God on my own . . . but in Jesus Christ I receive God’s very righteousness. God is not my enemy, my judge . . . God is my gracious heavenly Father!”
And he reads on, “For there is no distinction, for all sin and have been inadequate of the glory of God . . .” Well, isn’t that the truth! “for all sin and have been inadequate of the glory of God, and yet are declared righteous without cost by His grace through the deliverance that is in Christ Jesus!” Yeeaaah!
This truth was a monumental life-change for Luther. This truth was a history-making moment for the world. Luther remembers his own reaction to this new epiphany: (followed by a reading from What Luther Says, pg 1225)
This passage in Paul . . . this opens the portal of Paradise to us, as well.
Romans 3:19-28 19 Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. 20 Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin. 21 But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. 22 This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. 25 God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished-- 26 he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus. 27 Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. On what principle? On that of observing the law? No, but on that of faith. 28 For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law.
Sunday, October 29, 2006
Sunday, October 22, 2006
Lord, Gift me to be a servant
I want to begin today by frist offering a word of thanks. Certainly to God for all His gifts to us, but more specifically to you, God’s people, for your gifts to the church over the past year.
I want to take the time to thank you for giving because you probably haven’t heard it lately. I realize that you have choices on where your money goes, and you have made a choice to set aside a certain portion of your money to be given to the Lord’s work here at Our Saviour. I appreciate that, and I thank you for it.
I thank you for your giving because of what God’s hand has accomplished through it. Certainly your giving has been the main factor in maintaining this building and providing the salary of a full-time pastor, but there is much more that God has accomplished through you. During the course of this past year your giving has supported a church-wide time of spiritual growth and renewal during our Forty Days of Purpose spiritual campaign. Your giving has been used to provide financial relief for individuals facing unpayable bills. Your giving provided for the spread of God’s Word among the community’s unchurched children during this summer’s vacation Bible school. In short, it is through your giving that God has accomplished His work in each of the five purposes—worship, fellowship, discipleship, ministry, and evangelism—here at Our Saviour. And I thank you for your generosity and your willingness to open your wallets and checkbooks so that others may receive the benefit of the blessings God has given you.
Being willing to give—allowing the money God has blessed you with to be passed along to others—is an indication of a servant’s heart. The servant has no financial resources of his own, but rather he uses what belongs to his master in accordance with his master’s priorities. As Christians, we freely acknowledge that we are no longer our own masters, but we are subject to the will and headship of our Lord and master Jesus Christ. We are no longer slaves to sin but slaves to righteousness. As such, we have a new set of priorities that come from God,
Our priorities as Biblical servants are: God, family, others, ourselves. Those priorities are the very nature of every aspect of Biblical servanthood. God has gives us gifts to use in His service, and asks that we use those gifts according to His priorities. As His servants we put our money to work according to those priorities.
The Gospel of Matthew relates how Jesus told a parable about this very thing. Now I want you to realize one thing before we get into that parable. It’s not really about money. The parable of the talents is a story that Jesus tells in order to illustrate the importance of being ready for His return on Judgment Day. Until that day arrives, we are to be busy about our Master’s business. So although it’s not really a parable about money, it is a parable about service. Therefore, we can use what we learn about service in this parable and apply it to our use of money.
Jesus says in Matthew 25:14, “Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his property to them. To one he gave five talents of money, to another two talents, and to another one talent, each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey.”
Let’s stop right there. I want you to note two things: 1) the master isn’t going to be around for awhile, and his business needs to carry on in his absence. He desires that his resources will continue to grow —that his influence will spread—until he comes back. 2) The master entrusts financial resources to his servants in order that they may cause this to happen. 3) Not every servant is given the same amount, but we will see that they all have the same responsibility for what they’ve been given.
We can see quite readily how this applies to us as modern-day Christians. Our Lord ascended into Heaven shortly after His crucifixion and resurrection and will not return bodily until His Second Coming. Yes, He is with us in Spirit, through His Word and His Sacraments, but His work must now continue on through our hands.
Also, like the servants in the parable, the money that we have been given is not truly ours. It belongs to our Master. It belongs to God. It is not ours to do whatever we wish, but it is a trust from God that is given to us in order that we may carry on the work of spreading His influence and growing His Kingdom.
In addition, I think we all recognize that we each have unique financial circumstances. For His own good reason, God has seen fit to give some of us a great deal of money and to others He has given relatively little. He has His own reasons for that—which we’re not going to get into here—but the point is that while some people are given much and some people are given little, there is still only one God who is the giver of all and one purpose for which the money is given.
Continuing on with the parable in verse sixteen, “The man who had received the five talents went at once and put his money to work and gained five more. So also, the one with the two talents gained two more. But the man who had received the one talent went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money.”
Which of those men were truly serving their master? The first two servants went to work and invested the money they had been given in such a way as to increase it. Though they were not working to increase their own wealth, they worked as though they were. Their master’s gifts flowed through them and thus brought increase. But the third? The money he had been entrusted with stopped with him. He buried it, where no one could take it away . . . but no one could receive any benefit from it, either.
Now, I don’t know if this has ever happened here or not, but I have seen in other churches where people get upset and stop giving. Could be they don’t like the pastor or maybe they don’t like where the church is heading, but for whatever reason they get upset and stop giving. In effect, they bury their talents.
Is that their call to make? Does God give us the gift of money so that we can bury it and have no one receive the benefit of it? See, giving has very little to do with feelings. It doesn’t matter if we are upset or happy. It does have, however, have everything to do with being a servant.
A Biblical servant will faithfully and consistently give regardless of his or her personal feelings. If it was our money, then we would have the freedom to make those choices. If it was my money, then I could give as long as I was happy with the person I was giving it to. But it’s not. It’s not my money. God has given us resources in order that we may use them to be about His business. When we refuse to give based upon our personal feelings, then we are, in effect, saying to God that we no longer care about His work or the expansion of His Kingdom. We no longer choose to live as though we are His servants.
At this point a few words are in order about how the Biblical servant handles the money he has been given. A Biblical servant’s first priority is? God. Therefore the first thing—the very first thing—we do with the money we are given is to return a portion of that to God and His work through the local church. Before we give to anything else we give to God. That means we give as a portion of our gross income. Not our take-home pay, but the total gross amount.
I like to recommend the tithe. I recommend that ten percent of your gross income—no matter how big or how small—should be put in the offering plate and given to the Lord to use as He sees fit. Yes, I realize that ten percent of your income can be a significant challenge and sometimes even a strain on your finances, but I also know from personal experience that the servant who gives that ten percent with a free and willing servant’s heart will rarely—if ever—miss that money. God has ways of rewarding faithful servants, and so like I said, I recommend the tithe.
But I also want to be perfectly clear about this. A tithe is my recommendation. I have studied the Scriptures enough to come to the knowledge that the tithe is a worthy and admirable goal for firstfruits giving. But I have also studied enough to know that it is not Law.
In the Old Testament God’s people were commanded to bring their tithe—their ten percent—to God. It was part of the Law that defined them as God’s people. But we are not under Law, but under Grace. We are not defined by what we do, but by our relationship with Jesus Christ. Therefore, although I recommend the tithe as a good practice for the Biblical servant, it is clear from the New Testament that Paul says in ___________________, “Let each one give what he has decided in his heart to give.” Whatever percentage you have decided to give gives glory to God if you have thought about it and prayed about it and give it joyfully and faithfully.
But back to the parable. In verse nineteen, the master returns home and the two good servants give him they money they had earned with what he had given them. And then he says in verse twenty-one, “Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!”
The servants have given, they have caused their master’s wealth and influence to grow, and now he invites them to share his happiness. Have you ever thought about what makes God happy?
There are two things that make God happy. One, He says all of Heaven rejoices over one sinner who repents. All of Heaven over just one sinner! He loves to see people come to a saving knowledge of Him through Jesus Christ! He loves to redeem people, to cleanse them through the shed blood of Christ on the cross, to make them into new creations. This is His heart’s true desire: to bring people from death to life. This is what He desired and accomplished in you; this is what He desired and accomplished in me. And God and all the angels rejoiced when it happened.
Have your grasped hold of that fact? That God loves you, that in Christ He has made you one of His own, and that in Christ nothing can ever separate you from God again? There is no sin that is too heinous for Him to forgive. There is no power so strong that can snatch you out of His hands. There is no obstacle too high that He cannot lift you over it. This is what we get, free of charge, when in faith we receive the blessings of forgiveness that Christ won for us on the cross and God makes us one of His children.
Once He brings a new believer into His family, the second thing that He desires is that we would obey His commands. In other words, that we would walk as Christians are to walk, that we would live out our new identity as children of God. His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of Him who called us. He gives us His good gifts in order that we might share them with others and so make Him happy.
For instance, would it make God happy if:
Our Sunday School could grow in numbers?
We could deepen our faith through multiple Bible studies, all happening at different times during the week?
We could give away copies of His word to hundreds of people next year?
We could witness the love of Jesus Christ to our entire community through community-wide events?
We could discover God’s purpose and vision for Our Saviour Lutheran Church?
These are all things we plan to do next year. Things that we can join in sharing the happiness of our Master. Yes, I am serious. No, I am not just dreaming. And yes, these are plans that cannot be accomplished without God’s provision.
Over the course of the next seven days I want you to think about something. I am asking you—as your pastor—to think and pray about those plans I just mentioned. I want you to ask God’s blessing be upon those plans. I want you to pray that we will be able to accomplish all of the tasks that God has given us to do. And I want you to pray about what your financial investment in those plans will be.
Next week, during the church service, we will have an opportunity to commit to giving a certain amount to the Lord’s work at Our Saviour throughout 2007. You will have a giving commitment sheet—just like the one in the bulletin right now—and next week I’ll ask you to fill that out and bring it forward and lay it on the altar as your commitment to God in thanksgiving for the blessings He has given you. Just as your giving helps us to accomplish ministry right now, so will your giving commitment help us to plan for ministry next year.
Now listen . . . I don’t care about your money. But I do care how you choose to use what God has given you. It doesn’t do anybody else any good to take it out back and bury it in the yard. I want you to have a servant’s heart that is committed to working for God by serving others. I want us all to be good and faithful servants, taking what we’ve been given by God and investing that in His Kingdom, making that investment grow, and then giving Him all praise and honor and glory.
Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms. If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God. If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen.
Take from me my life, make me a servant . . . and let me come share in my Master’s happiness.
I want to take the time to thank you for giving because you probably haven’t heard it lately. I realize that you have choices on where your money goes, and you have made a choice to set aside a certain portion of your money to be given to the Lord’s work here at Our Saviour. I appreciate that, and I thank you for it.
I thank you for your giving because of what God’s hand has accomplished through it. Certainly your giving has been the main factor in maintaining this building and providing the salary of a full-time pastor, but there is much more that God has accomplished through you. During the course of this past year your giving has supported a church-wide time of spiritual growth and renewal during our Forty Days of Purpose spiritual campaign. Your giving has been used to provide financial relief for individuals facing unpayable bills. Your giving provided for the spread of God’s Word among the community’s unchurched children during this summer’s vacation Bible school. In short, it is through your giving that God has accomplished His work in each of the five purposes—worship, fellowship, discipleship, ministry, and evangelism—here at Our Saviour. And I thank you for your generosity and your willingness to open your wallets and checkbooks so that others may receive the benefit of the blessings God has given you.
Being willing to give—allowing the money God has blessed you with to be passed along to others—is an indication of a servant’s heart. The servant has no financial resources of his own, but rather he uses what belongs to his master in accordance with his master’s priorities. As Christians, we freely acknowledge that we are no longer our own masters, but we are subject to the will and headship of our Lord and master Jesus Christ. We are no longer slaves to sin but slaves to righteousness. As such, we have a new set of priorities that come from God,
Our priorities as Biblical servants are: God, family, others, ourselves. Those priorities are the very nature of every aspect of Biblical servanthood. God has gives us gifts to use in His service, and asks that we use those gifts according to His priorities. As His servants we put our money to work according to those priorities.
The Gospel of Matthew relates how Jesus told a parable about this very thing. Now I want you to realize one thing before we get into that parable. It’s not really about money. The parable of the talents is a story that Jesus tells in order to illustrate the importance of being ready for His return on Judgment Day. Until that day arrives, we are to be busy about our Master’s business. So although it’s not really a parable about money, it is a parable about service. Therefore, we can use what we learn about service in this parable and apply it to our use of money.
Jesus says in Matthew 25:14, “Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his property to them. To one he gave five talents of money, to another two talents, and to another one talent, each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey.”
Let’s stop right there. I want you to note two things: 1) the master isn’t going to be around for awhile, and his business needs to carry on in his absence. He desires that his resources will continue to grow —that his influence will spread—until he comes back. 2) The master entrusts financial resources to his servants in order that they may cause this to happen. 3) Not every servant is given the same amount, but we will see that they all have the same responsibility for what they’ve been given.
We can see quite readily how this applies to us as modern-day Christians. Our Lord ascended into Heaven shortly after His crucifixion and resurrection and will not return bodily until His Second Coming. Yes, He is with us in Spirit, through His Word and His Sacraments, but His work must now continue on through our hands.
Also, like the servants in the parable, the money that we have been given is not truly ours. It belongs to our Master. It belongs to God. It is not ours to do whatever we wish, but it is a trust from God that is given to us in order that we may carry on the work of spreading His influence and growing His Kingdom.
In addition, I think we all recognize that we each have unique financial circumstances. For His own good reason, God has seen fit to give some of us a great deal of money and to others He has given relatively little. He has His own reasons for that—which we’re not going to get into here—but the point is that while some people are given much and some people are given little, there is still only one God who is the giver of all and one purpose for which the money is given.
Continuing on with the parable in verse sixteen, “The man who had received the five talents went at once and put his money to work and gained five more. So also, the one with the two talents gained two more. But the man who had received the one talent went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money.”
Which of those men were truly serving their master? The first two servants went to work and invested the money they had been given in such a way as to increase it. Though they were not working to increase their own wealth, they worked as though they were. Their master’s gifts flowed through them and thus brought increase. But the third? The money he had been entrusted with stopped with him. He buried it, where no one could take it away . . . but no one could receive any benefit from it, either.
Now, I don’t know if this has ever happened here or not, but I have seen in other churches where people get upset and stop giving. Could be they don’t like the pastor or maybe they don’t like where the church is heading, but for whatever reason they get upset and stop giving. In effect, they bury their talents.
Is that their call to make? Does God give us the gift of money so that we can bury it and have no one receive the benefit of it? See, giving has very little to do with feelings. It doesn’t matter if we are upset or happy. It does have, however, have everything to do with being a servant.
A Biblical servant will faithfully and consistently give regardless of his or her personal feelings. If it was our money, then we would have the freedom to make those choices. If it was my money, then I could give as long as I was happy with the person I was giving it to. But it’s not. It’s not my money. God has given us resources in order that we may use them to be about His business. When we refuse to give based upon our personal feelings, then we are, in effect, saying to God that we no longer care about His work or the expansion of His Kingdom. We no longer choose to live as though we are His servants.
At this point a few words are in order about how the Biblical servant handles the money he has been given. A Biblical servant’s first priority is? God. Therefore the first thing—the very first thing—we do with the money we are given is to return a portion of that to God and His work through the local church. Before we give to anything else we give to God. That means we give as a portion of our gross income. Not our take-home pay, but the total gross amount.
I like to recommend the tithe. I recommend that ten percent of your gross income—no matter how big or how small—should be put in the offering plate and given to the Lord to use as He sees fit. Yes, I realize that ten percent of your income can be a significant challenge and sometimes even a strain on your finances, but I also know from personal experience that the servant who gives that ten percent with a free and willing servant’s heart will rarely—if ever—miss that money. God has ways of rewarding faithful servants, and so like I said, I recommend the tithe.
But I also want to be perfectly clear about this. A tithe is my recommendation. I have studied the Scriptures enough to come to the knowledge that the tithe is a worthy and admirable goal for firstfruits giving. But I have also studied enough to know that it is not Law.
In the Old Testament God’s people were commanded to bring their tithe—their ten percent—to God. It was part of the Law that defined them as God’s people. But we are not under Law, but under Grace. We are not defined by what we do, but by our relationship with Jesus Christ. Therefore, although I recommend the tithe as a good practice for the Biblical servant, it is clear from the New Testament that Paul says in ___________________, “Let each one give what he has decided in his heart to give.” Whatever percentage you have decided to give gives glory to God if you have thought about it and prayed about it and give it joyfully and faithfully.
But back to the parable. In verse nineteen, the master returns home and the two good servants give him they money they had earned with what he had given them. And then he says in verse twenty-one, “Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!”
The servants have given, they have caused their master’s wealth and influence to grow, and now he invites them to share his happiness. Have you ever thought about what makes God happy?
There are two things that make God happy. One, He says all of Heaven rejoices over one sinner who repents. All of Heaven over just one sinner! He loves to see people come to a saving knowledge of Him through Jesus Christ! He loves to redeem people, to cleanse them through the shed blood of Christ on the cross, to make them into new creations. This is His heart’s true desire: to bring people from death to life. This is what He desired and accomplished in you; this is what He desired and accomplished in me. And God and all the angels rejoiced when it happened.
Have your grasped hold of that fact? That God loves you, that in Christ He has made you one of His own, and that in Christ nothing can ever separate you from God again? There is no sin that is too heinous for Him to forgive. There is no power so strong that can snatch you out of His hands. There is no obstacle too high that He cannot lift you over it. This is what we get, free of charge, when in faith we receive the blessings of forgiveness that Christ won for us on the cross and God makes us one of His children.
Once He brings a new believer into His family, the second thing that He desires is that we would obey His commands. In other words, that we would walk as Christians are to walk, that we would live out our new identity as children of God. His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of Him who called us. He gives us His good gifts in order that we might share them with others and so make Him happy.
For instance, would it make God happy if:
Our Sunday School could grow in numbers?
We could deepen our faith through multiple Bible studies, all happening at different times during the week?
We could give away copies of His word to hundreds of people next year?
We could witness the love of Jesus Christ to our entire community through community-wide events?
We could discover God’s purpose and vision for Our Saviour Lutheran Church?
These are all things we plan to do next year. Things that we can join in sharing the happiness of our Master. Yes, I am serious. No, I am not just dreaming. And yes, these are plans that cannot be accomplished without God’s provision.
Over the course of the next seven days I want you to think about something. I am asking you—as your pastor—to think and pray about those plans I just mentioned. I want you to ask God’s blessing be upon those plans. I want you to pray that we will be able to accomplish all of the tasks that God has given us to do. And I want you to pray about what your financial investment in those plans will be.
Next week, during the church service, we will have an opportunity to commit to giving a certain amount to the Lord’s work at Our Saviour throughout 2007. You will have a giving commitment sheet—just like the one in the bulletin right now—and next week I’ll ask you to fill that out and bring it forward and lay it on the altar as your commitment to God in thanksgiving for the blessings He has given you. Just as your giving helps us to accomplish ministry right now, so will your giving commitment help us to plan for ministry next year.
Now listen . . . I don’t care about your money. But I do care how you choose to use what God has given you. It doesn’t do anybody else any good to take it out back and bury it in the yard. I want you to have a servant’s heart that is committed to working for God by serving others. I want us all to be good and faithful servants, taking what we’ve been given by God and investing that in His Kingdom, making that investment grow, and then giving Him all praise and honor and glory.
Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms. If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God. If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen.
Take from me my life, make me a servant . . . and let me come share in my Master’s happiness.
Sunday, October 15, 2006
Lord, SHAPE me to be a servant!
Last week as we gathered together we talked about how to be a Biblical servant. There were four priorities we considered important—remember what those were? God—family—others—ourselves. It’s just as important to keep those in proper order as it is to remember to make sure we serve in each of those areas on a consistent basis.
We also talked about the progression of service. Service works from our heads to our hearts to our hands. Service that stops with a mental attitude or a passionate belief but doesn’t reach out in tangible acts isn’t truly service, it is selfishness.
The Apostle Paul tells us in Philippians 2:3-11, “3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. 4 Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. 5 Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: 6 Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, 7 but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death-- even death on a cross! 9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
Paul tells us two things in that passage. 1) Jesus Christ is our servant. In Christ we are given an enormous, abundant gift, a gift that overflows and positively begs to be passed on into the lives of others. And 2) we can serve others in abundance because Jesus Christ first served us.
We are given both the blessing and responsibility of using our God-given gifts and talents in service to others. When we make ourselves available to God by serving others, we receive the dual blessing of building God’s Kingdom, and of the personal satisfaction of a job well done. But when we refuse to use our gifts to serve, then we are in violation of God’s plan and we are actually working against Him at that point.
Being of service to God is a matter of allowing His gifts to flow through into blessings for others. Working with God is a life-giving vocation. Ron Chewning, in his book Life at its Best, likens it to the Sea of Galilee and the Jordan River. The Sea of Galilee receives the gift of water from the mountain rains and in turn passes that water along to the Jordan River. Because it doesn’t withhold that water, the Sea of Galilee is a pleasant place, full of life. Flowers dot the surrounding countryside. People come to lie on its beach and swim in its cool waters. Animals drink from it and receive life-giving moisture. The Sea of Galilee is, in that respect, truly living water.
In contrast to the precious, life-giving waters of the Sea of Galilee, however, is the Dead Sea. The Jordan river receives the overflowing water from the Sea of Galilee and carries it down to the Dead Sea. But the Dead Sea does not give it’s water to anything. It takes without giving, it receives without passing along those blessings. And so the Dead Sea is just that: dead. No fish can live there, no plants can grow. In fact, the water destroys life.
Being a Biblical servant is a life-giving vocation. The Biblical servant receives gifts from God in abundance, and rather than hoard those gifts and thus become a destroyer of life, the Biblical servant graciously passes along what God has given. Service, like water, is best when it flows freely.
But you may be thinking that you don’t know exactly how God would have you serve others. But pay attention to the last part of Ephesians 2:10, “10 For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”
You don’t have to worry about how to serve others, because God has already prepared service for you to do! He already has good works just waiting for you to do! And furthermore, you are already SHAPEd by God to be a servant.
If you remember way, way back to what we learned earlier this year in our Forty Days of Purpose spiritual campaign, you may just remember that we learned about our God-given SHAPE. SHAPE: it’s an acrostic that stands for spiritual gifts, heart, abilities, personality, and experiences, and it is how God has prepared us to do works of service for others.
Each of us has been gifted by God in each of those five areas, and each of us has a choice to be a Sea of Galilee and let His gifts flow freely through us onto others, or to be a Dead Sea and hoard them to ourselves. I know which one God asks me to be, and I know which one I want to be. I want to be a servant and be God’s life-giving instrument to others. I think that’s what we all want.
Assuming that’s true, that we all want to be good and faithful servants, let’s talk about how to use our God-given gifts in service to others.
No doubt you’ve heard of what’s called the 80/20 Rule, where eighty percent of the people only do twenty percent of the work. Now that’s not the way God designed it to happen; His intention is that 100% of the people all chip in and work together to accomplish His good purposes. But there’s also a variation on the 80/20 rule that I think we can find helpful, and that is this: A good servant spends eighty percent of his time in serving according to his God-given SHAPE.
Generally speaking, the way in which we serve falls naturally into our area of giftedness. That’s good and appropriate. When we serve according to our particular giftedness, we find service to be energizing. We enjoy it. We reap the double benefit of not only helping others but also of having a good time doing it.
For instance, I spend about eighty percent of my time playing video games . . . .
Okay, not really! But I do make an effort to structure my time and service around those things in which God has gifted me. By operating within my strengths, I find that I have more energy to keep getting up every morning. I find that I want to continue to grow in those strengths, to be even better at what I do so that I can serve others better than I do now.
I have long advocated that God’s people should find the one thing that they love to do in the church, the one thing that in which God has uniquely SHAPEd them for service, and then do that one thing for the glory of God and in service to others. I don’t like it when one person does twenty jobs, I’d rather have twenty passionate people all serving in one job that fits their God-given SHAPE. You know why? Because servants like that can serve week in and week out without burning out. They serve with a passion, they serve with a true servant’s heart, because they are doing what God has SHAPEd them to do. They’d serve even if they weren’t asked, because God made them for that one special work.
But of course, to be a Biblical servant also means that there will be times that we gladly step out of our comfort zone. Yes, please, spend eighty percent of your time serving where God has SHAPEd you, but also remember the Biblical servant has a willing and ready heart that is prepared to do anything at any time.
The Lord once spoke to the prophet Isaiah, saying, Isaiah 6:8 “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” Do you remember how Isaiah responded? Isaiah said, “Here am I. Send me! Send me!”
We need more servant hearts like that today! We need more people who cry out to God, “Make me a servant! Whatever you desire, I will do! Wherever you lead me to go, there I will follow! Whatever I can do to help, I’ll do it! Here am I! Send me! Send me!”
I was once told that Chuck Smith, the founder of Calvary Chapel, would put potential young pastors to a little test. They would come to him and tell him that God had called them to ministry . . . and he would hand them a mop and point them towards the bathroom. “But you don’t understand, pastor . . . God has called me to ministry!” And he would tell them that if they weren’t willing to serve anywhere that needed service, then God couldn’t use them anywhere.
Being a servant demands sacrifice. It demands a willingness to do what God requires for the benefit of others. There are times when God gives us an opportunity to witness the truth of Jesus Christ to people. It doesn’t matter at that point whether or not we consider the gift of evangelism to be part of our SHAPE, it only matters whether or not we do it. Next week we’ll have an opportunity to commit to a certain level of giving to the church over the coming year—we’ll have a sheet just like this one. It doesn’t matter if God has given you great wealth or only a little bit, what will matter is whether or not we will be able to use what we have been given by God in His service. “Here am I, send me! Send me!”
The reason for that is because, in being a Biblical servant, God will often test us with smaller tasks to see if we truly have a servant’s heart. God knows that (Luke 16:10) “10 Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much.” Even if a task of service doesn’t seem to fit within our SHAPE, very often God will ask us to perform it anyway.
But God also knows that a servant’s heart, once assessed in the small things, can also then be approved in larger things. Jesus, in telling the parable of the talents, relates that the master of the house said to an approved servant, (Matthew 25:21) “Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!”
No matter what the task God asks us to do, when we approach it with a servant’s heart we will find that two things are true. 1) That God rewards the servant for his service to others. That may be nothing more than God saying to us, “Well done, my child . . . well done,” or it may be more, but God does reward His faithful servants. And 2) you will find that in Christ God has given you the gifts necessary to get the job done. When He calls us to service, He equips us for service.
God gives us gifts, and He intends for them to flow freely to others. (Philippians 2:5-8) Our “attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: 6 Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, 7 but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death-- even death on a cross!”
Lord Jesus, you gave your life in service to us. Through your shed blood on the cross, we have every good gift imaginable. We have peace with God, we have love, we have life. You have given us the ability to serve others so that you may be glorified and that your name may be praised throughout all the earth. Help us to see where our neighbors are hurting . . . help us to see the needs of our families. Hold us and mold us. Choose us and use us. Lord take our lives . . . and shape us to be servants.
We also talked about the progression of service. Service works from our heads to our hearts to our hands. Service that stops with a mental attitude or a passionate belief but doesn’t reach out in tangible acts isn’t truly service, it is selfishness.
The Apostle Paul tells us in Philippians 2:3-11, “3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. 4 Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. 5 Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: 6 Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, 7 but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death-- even death on a cross! 9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
Paul tells us two things in that passage. 1) Jesus Christ is our servant. In Christ we are given an enormous, abundant gift, a gift that overflows and positively begs to be passed on into the lives of others. And 2) we can serve others in abundance because Jesus Christ first served us.
We are given both the blessing and responsibility of using our God-given gifts and talents in service to others. When we make ourselves available to God by serving others, we receive the dual blessing of building God’s Kingdom, and of the personal satisfaction of a job well done. But when we refuse to use our gifts to serve, then we are in violation of God’s plan and we are actually working against Him at that point.
Being of service to God is a matter of allowing His gifts to flow through into blessings for others. Working with God is a life-giving vocation. Ron Chewning, in his book Life at its Best, likens it to the Sea of Galilee and the Jordan River. The Sea of Galilee receives the gift of water from the mountain rains and in turn passes that water along to the Jordan River. Because it doesn’t withhold that water, the Sea of Galilee is a pleasant place, full of life. Flowers dot the surrounding countryside. People come to lie on its beach and swim in its cool waters. Animals drink from it and receive life-giving moisture. The Sea of Galilee is, in that respect, truly living water.
In contrast to the precious, life-giving waters of the Sea of Galilee, however, is the Dead Sea. The Jordan river receives the overflowing water from the Sea of Galilee and carries it down to the Dead Sea. But the Dead Sea does not give it’s water to anything. It takes without giving, it receives without passing along those blessings. And so the Dead Sea is just that: dead. No fish can live there, no plants can grow. In fact, the water destroys life.
Being a Biblical servant is a life-giving vocation. The Biblical servant receives gifts from God in abundance, and rather than hoard those gifts and thus become a destroyer of life, the Biblical servant graciously passes along what God has given. Service, like water, is best when it flows freely.
But you may be thinking that you don’t know exactly how God would have you serve others. But pay attention to the last part of Ephesians 2:10, “10 For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”
You don’t have to worry about how to serve others, because God has already prepared service for you to do! He already has good works just waiting for you to do! And furthermore, you are already SHAPEd by God to be a servant.
If you remember way, way back to what we learned earlier this year in our Forty Days of Purpose spiritual campaign, you may just remember that we learned about our God-given SHAPE. SHAPE: it’s an acrostic that stands for spiritual gifts, heart, abilities, personality, and experiences, and it is how God has prepared us to do works of service for others.
Each of us has been gifted by God in each of those five areas, and each of us has a choice to be a Sea of Galilee and let His gifts flow freely through us onto others, or to be a Dead Sea and hoard them to ourselves. I know which one God asks me to be, and I know which one I want to be. I want to be a servant and be God’s life-giving instrument to others. I think that’s what we all want.
Assuming that’s true, that we all want to be good and faithful servants, let’s talk about how to use our God-given gifts in service to others.
No doubt you’ve heard of what’s called the 80/20 Rule, where eighty percent of the people only do twenty percent of the work. Now that’s not the way God designed it to happen; His intention is that 100% of the people all chip in and work together to accomplish His good purposes. But there’s also a variation on the 80/20 rule that I think we can find helpful, and that is this: A good servant spends eighty percent of his time in serving according to his God-given SHAPE.
Generally speaking, the way in which we serve falls naturally into our area of giftedness. That’s good and appropriate. When we serve according to our particular giftedness, we find service to be energizing. We enjoy it. We reap the double benefit of not only helping others but also of having a good time doing it.
For instance, I spend about eighty percent of my time playing video games . . . .
Okay, not really! But I do make an effort to structure my time and service around those things in which God has gifted me. By operating within my strengths, I find that I have more energy to keep getting up every morning. I find that I want to continue to grow in those strengths, to be even better at what I do so that I can serve others better than I do now.
I have long advocated that God’s people should find the one thing that they love to do in the church, the one thing that in which God has uniquely SHAPEd them for service, and then do that one thing for the glory of God and in service to others. I don’t like it when one person does twenty jobs, I’d rather have twenty passionate people all serving in one job that fits their God-given SHAPE. You know why? Because servants like that can serve week in and week out without burning out. They serve with a passion, they serve with a true servant’s heart, because they are doing what God has SHAPEd them to do. They’d serve even if they weren’t asked, because God made them for that one special work.
But of course, to be a Biblical servant also means that there will be times that we gladly step out of our comfort zone. Yes, please, spend eighty percent of your time serving where God has SHAPEd you, but also remember the Biblical servant has a willing and ready heart that is prepared to do anything at any time.
The Lord once spoke to the prophet Isaiah, saying, Isaiah 6:8 “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” Do you remember how Isaiah responded? Isaiah said, “Here am I. Send me! Send me!”
We need more servant hearts like that today! We need more people who cry out to God, “Make me a servant! Whatever you desire, I will do! Wherever you lead me to go, there I will follow! Whatever I can do to help, I’ll do it! Here am I! Send me! Send me!”
I was once told that Chuck Smith, the founder of Calvary Chapel, would put potential young pastors to a little test. They would come to him and tell him that God had called them to ministry . . . and he would hand them a mop and point them towards the bathroom. “But you don’t understand, pastor . . . God has called me to ministry!” And he would tell them that if they weren’t willing to serve anywhere that needed service, then God couldn’t use them anywhere.
Being a servant demands sacrifice. It demands a willingness to do what God requires for the benefit of others. There are times when God gives us an opportunity to witness the truth of Jesus Christ to people. It doesn’t matter at that point whether or not we consider the gift of evangelism to be part of our SHAPE, it only matters whether or not we do it. Next week we’ll have an opportunity to commit to a certain level of giving to the church over the coming year—we’ll have a sheet just like this one. It doesn’t matter if God has given you great wealth or only a little bit, what will matter is whether or not we will be able to use what we have been given by God in His service. “Here am I, send me! Send me!”
The reason for that is because, in being a Biblical servant, God will often test us with smaller tasks to see if we truly have a servant’s heart. God knows that (Luke 16:10) “10 Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much.” Even if a task of service doesn’t seem to fit within our SHAPE, very often God will ask us to perform it anyway.
But God also knows that a servant’s heart, once assessed in the small things, can also then be approved in larger things. Jesus, in telling the parable of the talents, relates that the master of the house said to an approved servant, (Matthew 25:21) “Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!”
No matter what the task God asks us to do, when we approach it with a servant’s heart we will find that two things are true. 1) That God rewards the servant for his service to others. That may be nothing more than God saying to us, “Well done, my child . . . well done,” or it may be more, but God does reward His faithful servants. And 2) you will find that in Christ God has given you the gifts necessary to get the job done. When He calls us to service, He equips us for service.
God gives us gifts, and He intends for them to flow freely to others. (Philippians 2:5-8) Our “attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: 6 Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, 7 but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death-- even death on a cross!”
Lord Jesus, you gave your life in service to us. Through your shed blood on the cross, we have every good gift imaginable. We have peace with God, we have love, we have life. You have given us the ability to serve others so that you may be glorified and that your name may be praised throughout all the earth. Help us to see where our neighbors are hurting . . . help us to see the needs of our families. Hold us and mold us. Choose us and use us. Lord take our lives . . . and shape us to be servants.
Sunday, October 08, 2006
Lord, Make Me a Servant!
For the longest time, being and becoming a servant wasn’t a very popular notion in the United States. We used to hear all the time about taking care of number one. In the eighties especially there was a tendency to think it was a dog-eat-dog world. I remember hearing sayings like, “If you’re not the lead dog, the view never changes.” The idea of being a servant was somehow demeaning.
But thankfully, the attitudes towards serving others has been shifting. Today it’s not uncommon at all to hear of people serving through a special cause. The richest man in the world—Bill Gates (the billionaire, not the pastor)—has established the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and has given away over 525 million dollars in 2006 alone, using his enormous wealth in service to others, bringing vaccines to the poorest of the poor and seeking solutions to the problems of poverty and hunger. But you don’t need to be rich to be a servant to others. Even right here in Hudson a young man named Jarret Patterson saw the need of his fellow classmates to have decent clothing and decided to serve them by establishing the Kid’s Closet.
Though they may not specifically view themselves as servants—they may say things like “I just want to help” in reality this new trend towards helping others is a trend towards highlighting the importance of servanthood.
Servanthood—being a servant to others—is a good concept. We serve by helping people to address their needs. We serve by giving of our time, our gifts, and our resources. This can happen at any place and at any time. But as admirable as servanthood is, there is a much deeper, much richer concept that can only be practiced by those saved by the grace of Jesus Christ: Biblical servanthood.
The concept of Biblical servanthood is different than just regular acts of service! Throughout all of Scripture we are given examples of men and women who were in the role of serving others. Moses was a servant to the people of Israel as he led them through the desert and into the land promised them by God. King Solomon served the people by building a temple in which they could worship the one true God. And of course, for the ultimate example in being a servant we look to Jesus Christ.
While regular servanthood seeks to address people’s needs—whether those needs are physical, emotional, educational, agricultural, financial, or whatever—Biblical servanthood not only can address all of those but specifically seeks to do so according to God’s will and plan. In other words, Biblical servanthood both seeks to honor our relationship with God and also seeks to address people’s true need: their need to be connected to God.
Before we all go running out and begin serving, however, let’s get an idea of how Biblical servanthood works.
First, there is a proper order of priorities to keep in mind with all aspects of Biblical servanthood. We want to know who to put first in our list of priorities. Any guesses as to Whom that might be? Right, the answer of course is God! If you remember back from your catechism days, the First Commandment is . . . “You shall have no other gods before Me.” What does this mean? We should fear, love, and trust in Gold above all things. So as we think about Biblical servanthood, it’s good and right to keep God in our #1 of priorities.
Before we go any further with that list of priorities, though, maybe we should stop and talk about how we keep God at #1 as we serve.
There is a two-part definition of service. The first part is to supply the needs of others. Which brings up an interesting question: What needs does God have? What needs does He have? Having a need means that we lack something, some possession, some power to meet that need. Is there anything an all-powerful, all-knowing, all-present God, infinite in His power and wisdom, supremely majestic in His glory, He who alone is truly complete and self-sufficient . . . is there anything that this God lacks? No . . . no, of course not. In this sense, we cannot serve God.
So if we cannot serve God by supplying His needs, how can we serve God? The second part of the definition of service gives us that answer. The first part of service is to supply the needs of others, but the second part is that a servant fulfills the requirements of another. In other words, while we cannot serve God, we can be of service to Him. In still other words, though God Himself has no needs for us to supply, He nevertheless chooses us as His instrument of supplying the needs of others.
Jesus explains it this way in Matthew 25:31-40, “31 "When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. 32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. 34 "Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.' 37 "Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?' 40 "The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'”
When we are of service to God—when God uses us to serve others—that is true Biblical service. The progression of true Biblical service goes like this: head to heart to hands. Biblical service begins with the knowledge that God has served me in the best way possible by reconciling Himself to me through Jesus Christ. It continues with the knowledge that He richly and daily supplies all my needs and that He would also use me to supply the needs of others.
From my head it moves to my heart, as I not just understand but passionately believe that my God is able to make all grace abound in me, so that in all things and at all times, having everything that I need, I will be able to abound in every good work, that in Christ I will be made rich in every way, so that, as Paul says in 2 Corinthians 9:11, I can be generous on every occasion, and through that generosity God will be praised.
And then, as my mental attitude of service goes from my head, transforms into a passionate belief in my heart, it finds tangible expression in my hands as I perform acts of service to those in need. 1 John 3:17-18 says, “7 If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? 18 Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.” Service works from our heads to our hearts to our hands.
To be of service to God we serve the people He has placed around us. So to pick back up with our list of priorities, being a Biblical servant means keeping the order of: God—family—others—you. God first—because He is above all other things. Then family—because the Scriptures make it clear through numerous passages like that family—that kin—is one of the greatest gifts and also one of the greatest responsibilities God gives us. This is such a strong emphasis that Paul actually says in 1 Timothy 5:8, “8 If anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for his immediate family, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.” Then others—because they are the very reason why God leaves us on this earth. Hebrews 13:16 16 And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased. And then, last but not exactly least, you. You will need to take some time for yourself in order to be an effective servant.
Each of us gets the same allotment of time as all of the others. 365 days per year, seven days per week, twenty-four hours per day. If anyone here has figured out how to get more than twenty-fours hours in a day, then let me in on the secret! But each of us also has the ability to manage those twenty-four hours to maximize the use we get out of them.
Since we all get the same amount of time, the key to managing it successfully is setting priorities and making goals. Our priorities are: God—family—others—me. Our goal is to be of service to God by serving others: our goal is for God to make us servants. Our example is none other than Jesus Christ.
Even Jesus Christ took time for Himself. Have you ever thought about that? Yes, He was truly God, having power and authority, but He was also truly man. He got tired. He needed time to tend to His own needs. He needed time by Himself to recharge.
The Gospels of Mark and Luke tell us it was Jesus’ habit to withdraw by Himself at certain times to be refreshed and to pray. So take note of that: even the best servant in the history of mankind realized His need for rest and recharging. We can’t hope to be a Biblical servant unless we also take the time that is necessary for private communion with God.
But it is even more impossible to be a Biblical servant unless we first allow Christ to serve us. Jesus Christ is not only your God and your Savior, He is your servant, as well! In Matthew 20:25-28 Jesus Himself says, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. 26 Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, 27 and whoever wants to be first must be your slave-- 28 just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
We love because He first loved us, and we serve because He first served us, as well! He is great because He chose to be a servant, to humble Himself and to do what your needs required. Your needs required a sacrifice to cover your inability to properly please God. By ourselves we cannot please God nor be of service to Him. But (Revelation 5:12) “Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!” Through the service of Jesus Christ done for us, we too can reach out in God’s service to others.
Twenty-four hours in a day, and each day will bring opportunities in each of those four priorities. You may choose—as some people do—to spend the entire day in serving yourself . . . but then you’ll never become a servant. You’ll have your priorities wrong.
Instead, follow the example of Jesus Christ. Believe upon Him, receive His forgiveness, and then go forward and use the time you have been given in service to others.
1 Peter 4:10-11 10 Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms. 11 If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God. If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen.
But thankfully, the attitudes towards serving others has been shifting. Today it’s not uncommon at all to hear of people serving through a special cause. The richest man in the world—Bill Gates (the billionaire, not the pastor)—has established the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and has given away over 525 million dollars in 2006 alone, using his enormous wealth in service to others, bringing vaccines to the poorest of the poor and seeking solutions to the problems of poverty and hunger. But you don’t need to be rich to be a servant to others. Even right here in Hudson a young man named Jarret Patterson saw the need of his fellow classmates to have decent clothing and decided to serve them by establishing the Kid’s Closet.
Though they may not specifically view themselves as servants—they may say things like “I just want to help” in reality this new trend towards helping others is a trend towards highlighting the importance of servanthood.
Servanthood—being a servant to others—is a good concept. We serve by helping people to address their needs. We serve by giving of our time, our gifts, and our resources. This can happen at any place and at any time. But as admirable as servanthood is, there is a much deeper, much richer concept that can only be practiced by those saved by the grace of Jesus Christ: Biblical servanthood.
The concept of Biblical servanthood is different than just regular acts of service! Throughout all of Scripture we are given examples of men and women who were in the role of serving others. Moses was a servant to the people of Israel as he led them through the desert and into the land promised them by God. King Solomon served the people by building a temple in which they could worship the one true God. And of course, for the ultimate example in being a servant we look to Jesus Christ.
While regular servanthood seeks to address people’s needs—whether those needs are physical, emotional, educational, agricultural, financial, or whatever—Biblical servanthood not only can address all of those but specifically seeks to do so according to God’s will and plan. In other words, Biblical servanthood both seeks to honor our relationship with God and also seeks to address people’s true need: their need to be connected to God.
Before we all go running out and begin serving, however, let’s get an idea of how Biblical servanthood works.
First, there is a proper order of priorities to keep in mind with all aspects of Biblical servanthood. We want to know who to put first in our list of priorities. Any guesses as to Whom that might be? Right, the answer of course is God! If you remember back from your catechism days, the First Commandment is . . . “You shall have no other gods before Me.” What does this mean? We should fear, love, and trust in Gold above all things. So as we think about Biblical servanthood, it’s good and right to keep God in our #1 of priorities.
Before we go any further with that list of priorities, though, maybe we should stop and talk about how we keep God at #1 as we serve.
There is a two-part definition of service. The first part is to supply the needs of others. Which brings up an interesting question: What needs does God have? What needs does He have? Having a need means that we lack something, some possession, some power to meet that need. Is there anything an all-powerful, all-knowing, all-present God, infinite in His power and wisdom, supremely majestic in His glory, He who alone is truly complete and self-sufficient . . . is there anything that this God lacks? No . . . no, of course not. In this sense, we cannot serve God.
So if we cannot serve God by supplying His needs, how can we serve God? The second part of the definition of service gives us that answer. The first part of service is to supply the needs of others, but the second part is that a servant fulfills the requirements of another. In other words, while we cannot serve God, we can be of service to Him. In still other words, though God Himself has no needs for us to supply, He nevertheless chooses us as His instrument of supplying the needs of others.
Jesus explains it this way in Matthew 25:31-40, “31 "When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. 32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. 34 "Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.' 37 "Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?' 40 "The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'”
When we are of service to God—when God uses us to serve others—that is true Biblical service. The progression of true Biblical service goes like this: head to heart to hands. Biblical service begins with the knowledge that God has served me in the best way possible by reconciling Himself to me through Jesus Christ. It continues with the knowledge that He richly and daily supplies all my needs and that He would also use me to supply the needs of others.
From my head it moves to my heart, as I not just understand but passionately believe that my God is able to make all grace abound in me, so that in all things and at all times, having everything that I need, I will be able to abound in every good work, that in Christ I will be made rich in every way, so that, as Paul says in 2 Corinthians 9:11, I can be generous on every occasion, and through that generosity God will be praised.
And then, as my mental attitude of service goes from my head, transforms into a passionate belief in my heart, it finds tangible expression in my hands as I perform acts of service to those in need. 1 John 3:17-18 says, “7 If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? 18 Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.” Service works from our heads to our hearts to our hands.
To be of service to God we serve the people He has placed around us. So to pick back up with our list of priorities, being a Biblical servant means keeping the order of: God—family—others—you. God first—because He is above all other things. Then family—because the Scriptures make it clear through numerous passages like that family—that kin—is one of the greatest gifts and also one of the greatest responsibilities God gives us. This is such a strong emphasis that Paul actually says in 1 Timothy 5:8, “8 If anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for his immediate family, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.” Then others—because they are the very reason why God leaves us on this earth. Hebrews 13:16 16 And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased. And then, last but not exactly least, you. You will need to take some time for yourself in order to be an effective servant.
Each of us gets the same allotment of time as all of the others. 365 days per year, seven days per week, twenty-four hours per day. If anyone here has figured out how to get more than twenty-fours hours in a day, then let me in on the secret! But each of us also has the ability to manage those twenty-four hours to maximize the use we get out of them.
Since we all get the same amount of time, the key to managing it successfully is setting priorities and making goals. Our priorities are: God—family—others—me. Our goal is to be of service to God by serving others: our goal is for God to make us servants. Our example is none other than Jesus Christ.
Even Jesus Christ took time for Himself. Have you ever thought about that? Yes, He was truly God, having power and authority, but He was also truly man. He got tired. He needed time to tend to His own needs. He needed time by Himself to recharge.
The Gospels of Mark and Luke tell us it was Jesus’ habit to withdraw by Himself at certain times to be refreshed and to pray. So take note of that: even the best servant in the history of mankind realized His need for rest and recharging. We can’t hope to be a Biblical servant unless we also take the time that is necessary for private communion with God.
But it is even more impossible to be a Biblical servant unless we first allow Christ to serve us. Jesus Christ is not only your God and your Savior, He is your servant, as well! In Matthew 20:25-28 Jesus Himself says, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. 26 Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, 27 and whoever wants to be first must be your slave-- 28 just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
We love because He first loved us, and we serve because He first served us, as well! He is great because He chose to be a servant, to humble Himself and to do what your needs required. Your needs required a sacrifice to cover your inability to properly please God. By ourselves we cannot please God nor be of service to Him. But (Revelation 5:12) “Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!” Through the service of Jesus Christ done for us, we too can reach out in God’s service to others.
Twenty-four hours in a day, and each day will bring opportunities in each of those four priorities. You may choose—as some people do—to spend the entire day in serving yourself . . . but then you’ll never become a servant. You’ll have your priorities wrong.
Instead, follow the example of Jesus Christ. Believe upon Him, receive His forgiveness, and then go forward and use the time you have been given in service to others.
1 Peter 4:10-11 10 Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms. 11 If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God. If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen.
Sunday, October 01, 2006
Let There Be Light! (LWML Sunday)
Have you ever had a church service in the darkness? There was one time, when I was out in Maryland, that a power transformer blew out just down the street on Sunday morning. In an instant, the whole church went from a well-lit, lively place full of music to a quiet, darkened room with no organ. Just like THIS. (all lights in sanctuary are shut off)
But there’s still light in here now. We still have enough light to see by. We need to think darker. I can think of another time when the family and I were taking a tour in an underground cavern south of St. Louis. I was taking some pictures, and Luke—or was it Nick?—was with me. We got further and further behind the main group and having a good time . . . and then the lights went out. That was dark.
I did have one source of light to help find our way, though. Our digital camera had a little screen on the back that in that pitch blackness was able to light a small patch of trail right around our feet. Eventually—with the help of a tour guide who’s job it was to pick up stragglers—we found our way back to the group.
But even then I still had a little light . . . so we need to think even darker. Darker than the darkest night. C.S. Lewis wrote about the end of his fictional world of Narnia—I know I’ve mentioned the Narnia books a few times before—and at the end of that world the stars literally fell from the sky, the moon dissolved into nothingness, and the sun itself was snuffed out. The darkness of that world was so total, so complete, so frigidly cold that life became an instant impossibility. No sun . . . no warmth . . . no light . . . no life.
That is the very kind of darkness that your neighbor was born into. That is the kind of darkness some of your family members live in. Because although they may have every kind of artificial and natural light known to man, they still lack the One who is the Light of the World. They lack the light of Jesus Christ.
Imagine for a minute what their lives must be like without that spiritual light. You have the warming comfort of Christ’s promises to rely upon, but they have no warmth to give comfort to their souls. You can turn to the Scriptures for enlightening guidance when you make decisions, but they have no light to turn to for answers. They live each day in darkness, alone and cold, and even the grave will bring no relief for them. They will go down into a cold, dark, grave with no hope of ever entering the light again. That’s what their life is like: It may look nice on the outside, but the underlying reality betrays their true condition.
In the early 1940’s, a group of women began to think about the darkness that ruled the lives of their neighbors, of their families, of the peoples of the world. And so the Lutheran Women’s Missionary League was formed. Since that time they have gathered and given over eighty-two million dollars towards dispelling the darkness by bringing Jesus Christ to world-wide, regional, and local mission efforts. These women daily live out the words of the Apostle John in 1 John 1:5, “5 This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.”
Now who are these wonderful women? To give 82 million they must be rich, right? To keep a world-wide organization running they must be very influential people, right? To do something this amazing for the Kingdom of God they must be spiritual super-heroes, right? Who are these women?
I’ll tell you who they are. Some of them are sitting next to you right now. Look around—do you see anybody that’s enormously rich, anybody that President Bush is calling up for advice? As for super-heroes . . . well, I don’t see a single cape in the whole bunch.
No, the women of the LWML aren’t much different than you or I. Well, maybe I have a bit more facial hair . . . but other than that, they are just ordinary, average, everyday women. They are sure of one thing; that Jesus Christ is the light of the world. That’s it. That’s all it takes. Jesus Christ is the light of the world, He is their light, and through Him God has chosen them to accomplish something amazing for His Kingdom.
Here’s just a partial list—a partial list—of what God has accomplished through the LWML in the past two years:
Responding to HIV / AIDS Among Congregations in Kenya—given $ 30,750.00
Urban, Ethnic School Expansion-East St. Louis, IL—given $ 75,000.00
Expanding Ministries to Youth and Adults in Southwest Alaska—given $ 75,000.00
Lutheran Blind Mission Outreach Program—given $ 32,000.00
Lutheran Teachers in Sierra Leone—given $ 84,000.00
Inner City Mission and Ministry-Buffalo, NY—given $100,000.00
Lutheran Leaders' Training Institute-Pakistan—given $ 75,000.00
Those are some amazing numbers! But what is even more amazing is how God accomplished it! Normally you’d think of a big corporation offering some gigantic funding to get that kind of money, but that’s not they way God has chosen to work. If He can work through ordinary, average, everyday people like the ladies of the LWML, He can also work through the ordinary, average, everyday gifts of a few pennies at a time.
(holding up mite box) This is a mite box. It is the method by which the LWML gathers the money to do all of those amazing things. Bit by bit, loose change is gathered up and put in these boxes, and bit by bit that money adds up until it totals in the millions of dollars. And you thought a penny couldn’t buy you anything any more!
But that’s not all. Giving to mission projects is a great idea—it’s something we do even as a church: 10% of every dollar that we receive in our offerings automatically goes to missions—but often those mission projects seem very, very far away. We send our money and prayers to people hundreds and even thousands of miles away . . . but what happens to our next-door neighbor?
I just learned something. I learned that if you had one hundred pennies and crammed them all into this mite box, seventy-five of those pennies would stay and work right here in Michigan. Do you like having a pastor? Do you suppose the other churches in Michigan like that, as well? The LWML gave $25,000 dollars to provide Michigan men with scholarships to the seminaries, to train them to become pastors. Do you think it’s important to have more churches, so that more people can know of the light of Jesus Christ? The LWML funded new mission congregations in Michigan with $22,500 dollars. They gave $25,000 dollars in scholarships for women pursuing professional church work careers. They gave another $25,000 in financial assistance for the food and clothing co-op to purchase food items, and they support twenty-seven missionaries that were sent to all parts of the world from Michigan. God is spreading His light through the ladies of the LWML.
And that’s a good thing, because this old world can be pretty dark sometimes, can’t it? NIV John 3:19 This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.
Evil deeds—what the Bible calls sin—thrive in darkness. They can’t live in the light. Think of all the things that happen in a dark alley . . . they happen because of the darkness—both physical and spiritual—that allows them to happen.
But even though evil deeds thrive in hidden darkness, the Apostle Paul says in Galatians 5:19-21 that they are still obvious. “19 The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like.”
Doesn’t that list sound just like our community at times? Doesn’t it sound like our homes? Doesn’t it sound like . . . like my life?
See, I think there’s something that the ladies of the LWML understand, and maybe we need to understand it, too. Jesus Christ is not just the light of the world; He is my light, too!
I confess: all too often I love the deeds of darkness. If I was left to my own decisions, to my own path, I would wander down the path of darkness. I would serve myself. And as I traveled farther and farther down that path, I would get lost in the darkness, forgetting the light, and I would be damned.
But that’s not the way it has to be. The prophet Isaiah offer me hope, saying in Isaiah 9:2, “2 The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned.” And then Jesus Christ answers that prophecy, saying in John 12:46, “46 I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness.”
Jesus Christ offers Himself as my light! He is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path! In the cross of Christ I have life, I have salvation, I have light! I no longer live as a child of darkness, I am no longer darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God, but I am eternally united with Him through His one and only Son through the enlightening call of the Holy Spirit. The Triune God has established a relationship with me—as He can do with you—and I will never live in darkness again.
That truth—the truth of the light of Jesus Christ—is the very heartbeat of the LWML. Their mission is to assist each woman of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod in affirming her relationship with the Triune God so that she is enabled to use her gifts in ministry to the people of the world. God uses plain, ordinary women to accomplish something amazing. He uses them to give the world—from across the globe to across the street—He uses them to give the world His Son. He uses them to give the world His light.
So take a few minutes today to thank God for the light He has given you. Take a few moments today to thank God for the light He has spread through the LWML. Jesus Christ is truly the light of the world.
But there’s still light in here now. We still have enough light to see by. We need to think darker. I can think of another time when the family and I were taking a tour in an underground cavern south of St. Louis. I was taking some pictures, and Luke—or was it Nick?—was with me. We got further and further behind the main group and having a good time . . . and then the lights went out. That was dark.
I did have one source of light to help find our way, though. Our digital camera had a little screen on the back that in that pitch blackness was able to light a small patch of trail right around our feet. Eventually—with the help of a tour guide who’s job it was to pick up stragglers—we found our way back to the group.
But even then I still had a little light . . . so we need to think even darker. Darker than the darkest night. C.S. Lewis wrote about the end of his fictional world of Narnia—I know I’ve mentioned the Narnia books a few times before—and at the end of that world the stars literally fell from the sky, the moon dissolved into nothingness, and the sun itself was snuffed out. The darkness of that world was so total, so complete, so frigidly cold that life became an instant impossibility. No sun . . . no warmth . . . no light . . . no life.
That is the very kind of darkness that your neighbor was born into. That is the kind of darkness some of your family members live in. Because although they may have every kind of artificial and natural light known to man, they still lack the One who is the Light of the World. They lack the light of Jesus Christ.
Imagine for a minute what their lives must be like without that spiritual light. You have the warming comfort of Christ’s promises to rely upon, but they have no warmth to give comfort to their souls. You can turn to the Scriptures for enlightening guidance when you make decisions, but they have no light to turn to for answers. They live each day in darkness, alone and cold, and even the grave will bring no relief for them. They will go down into a cold, dark, grave with no hope of ever entering the light again. That’s what their life is like: It may look nice on the outside, but the underlying reality betrays their true condition.
In the early 1940’s, a group of women began to think about the darkness that ruled the lives of their neighbors, of their families, of the peoples of the world. And so the Lutheran Women’s Missionary League was formed. Since that time they have gathered and given over eighty-two million dollars towards dispelling the darkness by bringing Jesus Christ to world-wide, regional, and local mission efforts. These women daily live out the words of the Apostle John in 1 John 1:5, “5 This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.”
Now who are these wonderful women? To give 82 million they must be rich, right? To keep a world-wide organization running they must be very influential people, right? To do something this amazing for the Kingdom of God they must be spiritual super-heroes, right? Who are these women?
I’ll tell you who they are. Some of them are sitting next to you right now. Look around—do you see anybody that’s enormously rich, anybody that President Bush is calling up for advice? As for super-heroes . . . well, I don’t see a single cape in the whole bunch.
No, the women of the LWML aren’t much different than you or I. Well, maybe I have a bit more facial hair . . . but other than that, they are just ordinary, average, everyday women. They are sure of one thing; that Jesus Christ is the light of the world. That’s it. That’s all it takes. Jesus Christ is the light of the world, He is their light, and through Him God has chosen them to accomplish something amazing for His Kingdom.
Here’s just a partial list—a partial list—of what God has accomplished through the LWML in the past two years:
Responding to HIV / AIDS Among Congregations in Kenya—given $ 30,750.00
Urban, Ethnic School Expansion-East St. Louis, IL—given $ 75,000.00
Expanding Ministries to Youth and Adults in Southwest Alaska—given $ 75,000.00
Lutheran Blind Mission Outreach Program—given $ 32,000.00
Lutheran Teachers in Sierra Leone—given $ 84,000.00
Inner City Mission and Ministry-Buffalo, NY—given $100,000.00
Lutheran Leaders' Training Institute-Pakistan—given $ 75,000.00
Those are some amazing numbers! But what is even more amazing is how God accomplished it! Normally you’d think of a big corporation offering some gigantic funding to get that kind of money, but that’s not they way God has chosen to work. If He can work through ordinary, average, everyday people like the ladies of the LWML, He can also work through the ordinary, average, everyday gifts of a few pennies at a time.
(holding up mite box) This is a mite box. It is the method by which the LWML gathers the money to do all of those amazing things. Bit by bit, loose change is gathered up and put in these boxes, and bit by bit that money adds up until it totals in the millions of dollars. And you thought a penny couldn’t buy you anything any more!
But that’s not all. Giving to mission projects is a great idea—it’s something we do even as a church: 10% of every dollar that we receive in our offerings automatically goes to missions—but often those mission projects seem very, very far away. We send our money and prayers to people hundreds and even thousands of miles away . . . but what happens to our next-door neighbor?
I just learned something. I learned that if you had one hundred pennies and crammed them all into this mite box, seventy-five of those pennies would stay and work right here in Michigan. Do you like having a pastor? Do you suppose the other churches in Michigan like that, as well? The LWML gave $25,000 dollars to provide Michigan men with scholarships to the seminaries, to train them to become pastors. Do you think it’s important to have more churches, so that more people can know of the light of Jesus Christ? The LWML funded new mission congregations in Michigan with $22,500 dollars. They gave $25,000 dollars in scholarships for women pursuing professional church work careers. They gave another $25,000 in financial assistance for the food and clothing co-op to purchase food items, and they support twenty-seven missionaries that were sent to all parts of the world from Michigan. God is spreading His light through the ladies of the LWML.
And that’s a good thing, because this old world can be pretty dark sometimes, can’t it? NIV John 3:19 This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.
Evil deeds—what the Bible calls sin—thrive in darkness. They can’t live in the light. Think of all the things that happen in a dark alley . . . they happen because of the darkness—both physical and spiritual—that allows them to happen.
But even though evil deeds thrive in hidden darkness, the Apostle Paul says in Galatians 5:19-21 that they are still obvious. “19 The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like.”
Doesn’t that list sound just like our community at times? Doesn’t it sound like our homes? Doesn’t it sound like . . . like my life?
See, I think there’s something that the ladies of the LWML understand, and maybe we need to understand it, too. Jesus Christ is not just the light of the world; He is my light, too!
I confess: all too often I love the deeds of darkness. If I was left to my own decisions, to my own path, I would wander down the path of darkness. I would serve myself. And as I traveled farther and farther down that path, I would get lost in the darkness, forgetting the light, and I would be damned.
But that’s not the way it has to be. The prophet Isaiah offer me hope, saying in Isaiah 9:2, “2 The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned.” And then Jesus Christ answers that prophecy, saying in John 12:46, “46 I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness.”
Jesus Christ offers Himself as my light! He is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path! In the cross of Christ I have life, I have salvation, I have light! I no longer live as a child of darkness, I am no longer darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God, but I am eternally united with Him through His one and only Son through the enlightening call of the Holy Spirit. The Triune God has established a relationship with me—as He can do with you—and I will never live in darkness again.
That truth—the truth of the light of Jesus Christ—is the very heartbeat of the LWML. Their mission is to assist each woman of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod in affirming her relationship with the Triune God so that she is enabled to use her gifts in ministry to the people of the world. God uses plain, ordinary women to accomplish something amazing. He uses them to give the world—from across the globe to across the street—He uses them to give the world His Son. He uses them to give the world His light.
So take a few minutes today to thank God for the light He has given you. Take a few moments today to thank God for the light He has spread through the LWML. Jesus Christ is truly the light of the world.
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