Becoming A Super-Natural Servant XII, Celebrating Servanthood

This is going to be wild for you. You have no idea what this is about. But it will help us if everyone else takes the time just to read this over for a moment. And we want to hear from you on this before I have the teaching, the concluding teaching in this series. I want to know what you're thinking. And I can't do that very accurately by just an occasional conversation. So take out your pens. Looks like we could use another hand or two to get these all distributed. Are we doing all right? All right. And let's put your name on them first, up at the top or in the bottom, unless you really don't want to. If you want to be totally anonymous, it's all right. Let me walk you through it very quickly. It'll take us five minutes. That's all it's going to take. Having listened to, if you've been here, a total of all the messages on servanthood, it only comes to 11, contrary to what Pastor Jeff told you. He wasn't to 12. There's just 11 messages. You may have been to two of them, five of them, whatever. On the subject of servanthood, I find that, OK, look at your survey, Fred. I don't know what I'm talking about. OK? As soon as you get one. We're running out. What great news, Pastor Scott. We're running out. Fred, I want to hear what you have to say. Give that man one of them. OK? Here's a few extras, a couple more. All right. I apologize. I guess we based it on last week's turnout, and it was very pessimistic. So this week's much more indicative of our normal Wednesday nights. Anyhow, forgive us if you really want one. We'll make sure that you have some available. Here comes a few more. All right. Having listened to every message on the subject, I find that I totally agree all the way to I totally disagree with the idea that being a servant is a pathway to blessing. There we go. Just about everyone's done. Number two, my greatest impediment or hindrance to being a servant is circle as many as appropriate. Please don't discourage me and circle them all. I expect one or two or three at the most. What's keeping you from being the kind of servant you believe God wants you to be? Maybe you don't understand the Bible. Maybe you tried somewhere else and failed. Number three, my greatest experience in a serving role was or is running the soundboard or being an usher or teaching children's ministry. If anyone puts being in the nursery, I will immediately announce you a saint of God. No, I'm just kidding. We have one. Yes. We do. I'm just kidding. OK. What is your greatest role? Maybe it's sharing in a Bible study in your workplace. It doesn't have to be in the church. Understand that. It can be somewhere else. Maybe it was just in visiting a shut-in for six months and being an encouragement, whatever it might be. Number four, I understand my spiritual gift for service to be, and you may have several. And this is not a theological, you know, I'm not looking for someone to say, well, I have all of them because the Holy Spirit's in me. I know those kind of answers. But what do you think that you most often express as your spiritual gift? If you were here in weeks five, four, five, and six, or five, six, and seven, we touched on all those. Number five, I am currently satisfied that I am serving God in the area of my spiritual giftedness. In other words, I know where I'm gifted, and I'm doing what I'd like to do. Yes or no? Certainly, you can qualify it if you say, well, yes on Wednesdays and no on Sundays, or I'm not sure, or it changes. But I'd like to know. Number six, in order for me to serve God more effectively, I need, circle as many as appropriate, more training, opportunity, encouragement, discipline, direction, support, that's relational support, friendship, clearly defined objectives and goals. I suppose all of us could say more time. I don't guess anyone would say, I don't need any more time. But I mean that you've got seven kids, and you work three jobs, and it's just totally impossible. Number seven, during my time, well, I better stop that. And since that's one we're going to need to think about. Number seven, during my time here at North Way, I have or I have not attended the Stepping Stones to Serving class. That should be a very easy yes or no. Number eight, recalling the message of three weeks ago, I find that I am good at serving through sharing. Myself, that is who I am and my experiences, my gifts, talents, and skills. Particularly, we were talking about specific tangible things that we could do for people. I noticed that the people with the gift of fudge come out at Christmas time. I've got, there's a lot of people with the gift of fudge that comes out at Christmas. There are also the same people that come out with the gift of tomatoes in late August that I find are just, you notice that? When you have more fudge at Christmas, when you really need it in the middle of March, it's not as, I'm sorry, I keep moving the line here. My resources and finances, which of these is easiest? Which is the most difficult for you? Is it hard for you to be open and vulnerable and giving of yourself or your resources or your skills? What's the easiest? Finally, the greatest reward I've enjoyed is a servant of the Lord has been. What's the greatest reward that you have enjoyed? Now, I did mention this is going to be a little different tonight. Are you ready to be different, Sam? That's good. Are we all about finished? I want to give you a little, or enough time, rather, to finish that last question. That's where we're going to start tonight. Who would be so vulnerable and open as to share with us what your greatest reward in serving has been? I'd like to start with that tonight. Who would like to share, this is what I have experienced as a great reward of serving? All right, some hands are going up. Let's see another one. OK, sir. Good. All right, well, we'll start here in the back. Lori, come on up real quickly. And then, there you are. The thing that I thought of right away when you said that was that there's no burnout. When I was doing things before, when I was, when we lived in Roanoke, Virginia before, I was doing a lot of stuff that needed to be done that I saw a need for. But really, I was doing it because nobody else was doing it, and it had to get done. And so I was doing it. But when I came here, I started being able to do some things that I enjoy doing, that I know that I'm at my gift in. And I'm not getting burnt out. I'm enjoying it, having a good time. And God's given me a peace and a joy in doing it. And I just don't feel like, oh, I got to go to church again. Oh, I got to go do this. I don't have that. So the reward is that peace and joy without the burnout. And there's no burnout. And I'm excited about doing what I'm doing. Oh, good. That's great. All right. Someone over here? Way in the back. Come on up to work. While you're doing that, Gene, that gives you time to get up here quick. Come on. I saw your hand. And then if this gentleman, I saw it. Didn't I see a gentleman's hand over here somewhere? OK, way in the back. Is that Dave? All right. And this gentleman right here, did you have your hand up, sir? You just want to stand and tell us? You can do that. All right, he shared that he taught an adult Sunday school class for seven years. And he got more joy and knowledge and understanding doing it than they did, probably. That's true for me. How many of you know that's true? If you really give yourself to teaching, it's true. OK, Dori? I've danced at North Way for a while. And I think the greatest reward of all the times that we have danced, aside from the friendships that I've developed in the dance ministry, has been the one opportunity we went to St. Barnabas to dance for the nursing home patients. And a lot of them couldn't even express, I think, what they felt in their heart. But to see the smiles, and even just their eyes, it was just amazing. And I think that was more of a reward than anything. Great. All right, thank you. I teach a class on Monday nights for community college. And the amazing thing has been is we get people that don't even know anything about the Bible. Some of them come in with great big family Bibles. And coming from different churches and different backgrounds, we had a gathering last week. And we just incorporated all of these people in there. And Ben Sheltonbrand and I just sat down. And we began to look over the different lives that had literally been changed from night to day, from the teaching, not from what I taught, but from the what the word of God did for them. And we were amazed. There were about 35 people there. And to see that each one of them, that their lives were turned around totally because of what they had heard from the word of God. Yeah, that's great. We'll come back to that, Jean, thanks. All right, last one, Dave, one of our custodial staff. Boy, am I nervous. I've been working maintenance now for a little over two years here at North Way. And I'm still thankful to God for that, to Pastor Scott, because I was heading to Boston, Massachusetts to live with another married couple that I knew from South Carolina that moved up there. And Pastor Scott said, why are you going there when there's plenty of work for you to do right here? And within 72 hours, I was an employee here at North Way. And there's been so many countless blessings, so many things that I'm thankful for to be serving, to be able to serve June Lloyd and the Eden teachers and the Eden Christian Academy and all of the little kids that have gone through there in just the last two years. The children are just wonderful. And just some of you out there have come up to me during when you've gone through classes like on Monday nights and Tuesday nights and have been so encouraging and just uplifting, if only in one sentence or one word or just a touch. And it's hard on Wednesday nights because there's not a whole lot of you here that there is on, say, a Sunday morning or a Saturday night. But I wanted to say thank you, not just to my god and father, but to each one of you collectively and as individuals because you are really there for me. And you have become a family to me that I really wish I had at home. And I thank God for you. And I thank God for my pastor who believed in me enough to allow me the privilege of being in this position. Thanks. I'm sure he's glad he doesn't have to clean up after his family at home like this one. It's a big job. Let's weave these testimonies together and just look for a few moments tonight at what rewards we might expect. Turn in your Bibles to Matthew 19. As you're doing that, I'm going to reduce everything down here to about 15 minutes. Matthew 19, I see some of you holding both of your hands in your lap. That means you're not turning your Bibles. I want you to slide to your neighbor and say, please let me look at your Bible. Please. There we go. This is not going to believe what I'm going to tell you tonight. This is incredibly good stuff. All right? All right. Look up here, then I'll tell you where to look in the Bible. Have you ever been in a meeting where experts were gathered together and the audience was given an opportunity to ask the experts a question? Maybe it could be something like a town council meeting. It might be a panel of experts in a particular business field or educational field or whatever. Have you ever seen Nightline, for example, with Ted Koppel, and he's interviewing somebody, and you think, boy, I wish you'd ask him this question, like the one that's really going to nail the guy to the wall. And then Ted Koppel's pretty good, and he usually comes up with that question and nails the guy. Yeah, that's the question. Well, the disciple's been following Jesus for quite a while, and who do you think asked Jesus the question? Peter, good old Peter. Count on Peter to speak for us, folks, because he says in Matthew chapter 19 and verse 27, Peter answered him, we have left everything to follow you. Let's say it together. What then will there be for us? Or what's in it for me? Good old Peter. I mean, he's not bashful. Now, you'd think that Jesus would have been like really, come on, Peter, get spiritual and humble and holy about this. But no, here's what he said. Let's read it. You can follow along. Jesus said to them, verse 28, I tell you the truth. At the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on 12 thrones, judging the 12 tribes of Israel. And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields for my sake will receive 100 times as much and will inherit eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first. Now, just so you know, that wasn't a fluke, flip over to Mark chapter 10. There's a little additional phrase in there I want you to catch in Mark chapter 10. Peter, same question. Verse 29, here's the answer. 1029 of Mark. I tell you the truth, Jesus said, no one who has left home, brothers, sisters, or some, will fail to receive 100 times as much in this present age. Homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children, and fields, and with them persecutions. And in the age to come, eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last first. Church, listen. Jesus Christ was very clear that reward is a proper motivation for service. That's a very important statement. Some of you haven't even grasped that yet. That's anti-traditional for many of you. It's almost, it sounds like it couldn't be true. But Jesus frequently encouraged service because of the reward that you would get. In the same way, as John Haggai says, that Jesus Christ never asked for money without promising that you'd have more when you gave. That's not spiritual. That's right. Just look it up. Jesus was very plain that there's, he knew our nature, you see. He knew that we could only give selflessly and without concern for ourselves for very long. And so he said, there's a reward. There's a reward to look for. Now, the reward isn't always monetary by any means. And generally, the best rewards aren't monetary at all. I want to suggest to you, just in conclusion of this series, three rewards of a servant in this life. All right, here they are. First one is the satisfaction of pleasing God. Now, no one said this exactly, but I think a number of you were probably hinting at it. To satisfy our Heavenly Father is one of the greatest rewards in life. Jesus said in John chapter 8, verse 29, I always do what pleases him. John 5 30, I seek not to please myself, but only my Heavenly Father. Paul the Apostle was writing and said, I live to please him in every way. What a statement. Pleasing God. Pleasing our Father in heaven. How important is that to you, church? How many of you like affirmation? If your neighbor's hand's on up, lift it up right now. I like affirmation. And we like affirmation primarily from the people that are important to us. Isn't that true? Many people end up in the counseling centers today because they didn't get the affirmation from the most important person in their life, their father or their mother. Maybe you are one of the fortunate ones that always got approval. I mean, it just was the kind of thing that we needed growing up. Maybe you were one of the ones that got approval from a teacher. How many of you know people end up in careers because a teacher has just the right ability to give affirmation? I was in high school. I was a fairly average basketball player, but I did play on the high school team. And we had a coach who didn't say a whole lot. But when he did, he got angry, kind of puffed around and so on. And I just didn't, you know, I never did all that well. I went to college, made the team my freshman year. And we had a coach who knew just how to give the right affirmation, the right. And what he usually did, he'd sit back. And when we did the drills right and we did the plays right, he'd sit back and he'd go like this. He'd have a nod and a smile. And it was his way of saying, that's the way it's supposed to be. I'll tell you, we put out, we were, to the skill levels that we had in that team. Why? Well, because pleasing a person and having that affirmation is one of the greatest motivators in the whole world. Isn't that true? I mean, even the animals know that, don't they? You know, the basic, since we're talking about it, the basic disposition of a dog is to please. Now, you may not believe that. Some of the dogs that we've had, but that's really true. Remember when we first got our retriever, you know, it wasn't real easy for the retriever to realize that the necessary things of life happened outside. And I remember one time coming home, and this was about six or seven years ago. And somehow, she'd been left up in the house. And we came up looking for the little surprise that was going to be somewhere. And the dog would slink over into the corner and just look. You know how there's the hound eyes, you know? And we scoured around the house, no surprises. And just kind of the look with the eyes. And she lit up, you know, and bounded over. And I went, did good, didn't I? Did good, you know what I'm saying? Good puppy? Well, anyhow, affirmation, pleasing. Now, believers in Jesus know that it must be an incredible thing to have God look down and go, good job. Have you known that smile? Have you known God's smile in your life? Do you know when God's smiling on your life? Do you know when He's saying, good job, well done? Please don't think you're not going to hear that until you die. You know, you read Matthew 25, and you figure, I'm not going to hear it till I die. That's not the truth. You can know God's smile tonight. You can know God's smile, His favor. You can know that well done, that appreciation. That approval from God. I mean, it's all through the Bible. It appears all the time. I don't have time to get to, but use your concordance and study where it talks about pleasing Him. God's smiling. I don't know anything, folks, that's a greater reward than to know that God, the God of the universe, is looking down and saying, I like that. That makes me happy, and I like that. And when that smile is kind of resting on your life, you know what? All the little junk that we face, you know, the parking lot hassles, and the lines at the store. That's not very big stuff when God's smiling on your life. Amen? When you know God's satisfaction in your life, all those little things just kind of take care of themselves. You can't find that kind of satisfaction doing anything else than doing God's will, though. You can't find it. In fact, that satisfaction will cause you to do some things that you really shouldn't even do in the natural. The gal that I shared about a little early in the service who lost her mother this year was sharing with us that she had left the country during her mom's illness. And of course, as you might imagine, when her mom slipped close to death while she was out of the country, it was a major problem. And she had to hurry back to try to make it home. And she was asking herself the question that people often do in those times of grief. Why didn't I just stay there and be with her? You know how you always question yourself? And she said, the Lord spoke to her and said, well, you were doing what I wanted you to do by going back out of the country, and you were obeying me. And in obeying me, you've pleased me. And that's all the affirmation she needed. And that's helped to relieve her from any guilt that she might have had for not being there as her mom was struggling between life and death. Well, anyhow, that's one of the major rewards, folks. And I don't know how to make it any better than that. Just to tell you, it's a good thing to have God smiling on your life. You say, I don't ever feel that. You can feel it tomorrow. How do you feel it? Read Romans 12, verse 1. Live your life as a living sacrifice. Serve the Lord faithfully. Just be a servant. You'll find, you'll just sense that. Home group leaders, you'll sense it when you make the call you didn't want to make or you prepare the study you didn't really have a lot of time for. You'll just sense the Lord's smile. All right, number two, the second reward. And it's an earthly one also. This one was touched on. The greatest rewards, one of the greatest ones is to see others grow in Christ. Whoa, do I love this one. I love to see other people growing in Christ. This is a tremendous thing. Look at 1 Thessalonians. That's why I told you to move next to the person with the Bible. Do you know where that, flip, go ahead. 1 Thessalonians, I want you to see it. And you can make a better note of it. Chapter 3, here it is. And Paul writes these words, verse 8. For now we really live, since you are standing firm in the Lord. Now we really live, Paul's saying. What does that mean? It's kind of like he's saying, we are really on it now. We get a real rush out of the fact that you're living for Christ. Somewhere else here in Thessalonians, I forget the verse, he says, Who is our joy and our crown but you? Folks, there is something incalculable about knowing that you had some small part in a person's life being shaped in the image of Christ. I don't know. What surpasses that? Other than parenting, perhaps, in terms of... What is more wonderful and valuable than helping a person discover Christ and grow in Christ? What's better than that? You tell me. I can't think of anything. Why? Because everything else that I can think of eventually is going to get worse. Maybe you can give them a whole bunch of money and they pay their bills and that's wonderful. But what happens a year later? Probably, they'll get bills again. But if you help them find Christ and you help them to grow in the Lord, guess what? That's an eternal thing. And there's no greater joy that I know as a pastor than seeing people that I poured into years ago now doing the same thing and pouring into other people. And I really won't bore you with lots of stories about this, but it just so happened that that same young lady I was talking about today was a gal that was... I mean, I was very involved in her life as a young teenager. And to see her on the mission field now and just to realize that her greatest joy is serving Christ. Now, you say, well, I don't see that very often. But listen, listen. Every time you obey the prompting of God to serve, maybe you just come up and lick envelopes. We had two young men today licking... How many sore envelopes did they lick today? I mean, hundreds of them. For SOAR 91, the Junior High Outreach. Every one of you that does something for the kingdom of God, you share in this reward. Now, it's much more tangible when you disciple someone or you're right there teaching them and so on. But I hope you usher a sense. You're sharing in the formation of people. I hope that those of you who serve behind the scenes know that you're sharing in this thing. You're seeing people's lives changed. This is a tremendous thing. I don't know how to say it. Sometimes you get disappointed. One of the brothers in our church worked with prisoners and inmates in the county jail. A while back, he offered a job, two jobs, to two inmates that had been out of jail. They worked for him for a while, six months or so, and then ended up stealing from him. Now, how many of you know that that can kind of just discourage you a bit? You get angry. You think, why did I let this person take advantage of me? Why did I ever help him in the first place? I've had disappointments. How many of you have ever poured into someone's life and seen them go nowhere, maybe backwards? You think, oh man, I'm a liar. You think, I'm a zero. What difference do I make? But folks, listen. God is going to bless you along the way with people that respond. I don't know. How many soils were there in Mark chapter 4? Who knows? How many soils were there? Soils. What does it sound like? How many soils? How many kinds of soils? Four, right. What were they? Rocky, thorny, real shallow, the real hard stuff, and the very fertile. Four kinds. Let's just take the law of averages. Maybe God was saying one in four is going to really produce fruit. I don't know that. I'm not saying that's a doctrine. But let's just say that one in four really produces fruit. I can't tell you what a joy it is. And I urge you to hang in there. If you're disappointed with one, don't give up. And if you're disappointed that you're not serving where maybe you're the most fruitful, move to the next one. Find out where it is because it will enormously enervate your service and the blessing that's on your life. All right, I could go on, but I've promised you I'd make this short. But I... Gosh. David Hunter. How many of you know David Hunter? David and Betsy in Turkey. Did you know that 20 years ago I helped lead David to the Lord? Just kind of accidentally. And I got a letter just the other day telling the great job that they're doing. I mean, these kind of things, folks, there's no money, there's no plaque that could ever replace that. It's great. Finally and quickly, the third reward is the satisfaction of wise investing. How many people here have ever made a bad investment? You know, beachfront property in Iowa. You know, that kind of thing. All I can tell you is this. There is a tremendous satisfaction in knowing that whatever you invest in the kingdom of God, and I mean this literally. I mean it financially. Absolutely rock solid financially. I mean it in terms of your time. I mean it in terms of your emotional energy. I mean it in terms of the hours you may put in. Dear ones, every single thing that you do, God sees. Turning conclusion here to Matthew 6, and let's end with this tonight. This is the final reward. Matthew 6 and verse 3. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. Every single thing, even the things that no one sees, God sees and rewards. Mark 9, verse 41, Jesus says, I tell you the truth, anyone who gives you a cup of water in my name will certainly not lose his reward. You can have the satisfaction of knowing whatever you invest of your time, your gifts, your energy, you're going to get the reward of God. It's a good investment. I wish I knew that about everything else I did. Don't you? I mean, I wish I knew. I'm sure some of you ladies wish you knew all of your energy invested in that great dinner was going to be appreciated. Ever cook a dinner and have everyone go, big deal, and you say, why did I do that? That happened tonight with some people. You'll never do that with God. You'll never pour out and have God say, He always sees and always rewards. Well, I want to end tonight and I want to ask you a question. Are you excited about the rewards of God? Do you want to please the Father and know His smile? Do you want to see others growing in Christ? Do you want to know that your investments are going to have a great return? How do you do it? You simply act on the promptings of the Spirit to be a faithful servant of God. You just act on it. You just do it. And I want to say, all these weeks we've talked about this, the thing that most concerns me is that if you get discouraged or you're in the middle somewhere, that you give up. I don't want you to give up. Don't give up until you know where you're called to serve because then, put those up again, then you can enjoy these rewards. If you don't keep searching and know where you find are fit by God to serve, you'll not know those rewards. And there's nothing like them. Let's stand together. Okay, well, come up. We can have someone put a little exclamation point on here. Come on up. This is what? This is the first time I've ever done this. Okay, good. First time caller. Is that how they say it? Yes. Okay. But I do have to say what serving has done for me in my life. Several years ago, my children were grown and they were all going in different directions. And my husband went in a different direction too. And I was just wondering what I was going to do with myself. And the Lord called me to serve in the nursery. Oh, all right. So I'm a saint. And I never realized I've been doing it now for over two years. So at the 11 o'clock service every Sunday, I'm there. And it has just done so much for me. I can't tell you. I just don't know where to start with it. But I got away from thinking about all my own problems and giving of myself to these small children. And now the ones that have graduated, gone on. And I see them in the halls or wherever, and they come running to me to hug me sometimes. And it's just a wonderful feeling. But giving of yourself is a reward. You're just rewarded. Thank you. Thank you. Do you sense anyone else here also has a call to serve in the nursery with you? I have heard people say that to me. There was a woman last Sunday that said, I feel called here. And I said, go with it. Now, when I first came, I was really kind of frightened and now it's almost like a habit. You know, you just do it. And you don't even think about it. Bless your heart. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. Let's give her another hand. Thank you. Lord, thank you for that testimony, Lord, of how the reward for our sister was the invasion of her dark circumstances with the light of life. What a great principle, Lord, that when we give of ourselves, oh Jesus, you so outstrip us with your abundance and your goodness and give you prayers for us. Hallelujah.