A Good Church serves and supports

A Good Church offers everything it is already assured about through serving

›     By the end of the message I hope you will see all that we have been assured about as Christians.  And then knowing just how much we have, the command is not to keep it but to offer it. And what we have is offered to a people and to a place.  Your role as a follower of Jesus is to offer what God has given you to a people and to a place.

Serving is first learning how to receive

Matthew 25:14–15 ESV

“For it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted to them his property. To one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away.

And everything we know about the parable centers around Christ. Service then is not a mad grab for power or influence or relevance. 

 We don’t have to spend our lives attempting to make meaning, we are given incredible meaning in Christ. Our goal is to live well enough to invest what is given into others.

We live in a culture that is ripe with virtue signaling.  I will not only tell you what I am doing but how I am doing it and how many time.  That is not service.  That is performance.

IN consuming, we remain in control of what it is we are consuming.  We choose, pick type, tap our way into consuming and choosing what it is we think we want. 

We can choose consumption and continue to live a click away but the accelerated life that comes with that has one problem.  You can only stop acceleration by one thing.  Force.  A brake pad on the car is force applied to the wheel.  But in an accelerated life, there is no brake pad, no governor.  The only way you ever stop is by hitting something bigger that doesn’t move.  You crash.

We are each given something from God.  Talents in this parable.  But each of us has something to offer another.  Something that was given by God Himself.  That is where we begin. 

Service focuses on people, not on activity or talent

Matthew 25:16–18 ESV

He who had received the five talents went at once and traded with them, and he made five talents more. So also he who had the two talents made two talents more. But he who had received the one talent went and dug in the ground and hid his master’s money.

The question we can be asking of this text is why didn’t the Master of the house just invest the. Money himself? He is successful, he probably knows his way around making money work for him.  Why didn’t he just do it himself?

How much you believe something to be valued determines how you handle it.  If you had a brick of gold, I very much doubt you would bury it in the backyard.  You would handle it appropriate to the value given.  The master knows the value of what He gives.

Matthew 25:19–23 ESV

Now after a long time the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them. And he who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five talents more, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me five talents; here, I have made five talents more.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’ And he also who had the two talents came forward, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me two talents; here, I have made two talents more.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’

The answer is the exact same whether it’s 5 or 2 or 1 talent.  Well done good and faithful servant.  You have been faithful, here is more.  Enter into the joy of the master.

The outcome is the same: I will set you over much.  So the issue isn’t how much you got, the issue is what did you do with what you got?

Matthew 25:25 ESV

so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here, you have what is yours.’

What an interesting note.  It seems the most noble thing to say.  I am returning back to you what is yours.  I kept it safe.  It wasn’t stolen or unnecessarily risked.  But this was the worst thing that could be said to the Master. 

While divine material, invaluable material is given, the Master isn’t interested in that, only in what the servant did with that.

Serving is about willingness. Are you willing to serve? Not about how much you have or about what you have or about where you are or about who you are. 

Our best model of service is found in Christ.  He is the One who has served.  We receive from Him. Do you need grace or forgiveness this morning? Ask Him.

You don’t need grand gestures to serve.  You just need another person.  Serve someone this week.  Offer something as a means of a divine encounter.  Buy a coffee or a meal, make some tea for someone, allow someone to go ahead of you in line.  These are all opportunities for encounter.