by Pastor Glenn Layne

November 17, 2002
(1 Peter 2:9)

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.

Living for Others:
Service, Stewardship and Evangelism
Participation in the Kingdom: Service, Stewardship and Evangelism

Service (the Saw):
JOIN THE PONY EXPRESS!

Maybe the most extreme example of service in American history was the Pony Express. Do you know it only lasted about a year and a half-from April 3, 1860-November 18, 1861? Then the telegraph made it obsolete! Riders on the Pony Express would ride 75-100 miles per day, changing horses every 15-75 miles (depending on terrain). They rode in shirtsleeves, no matter the weather, as a way of saving on weight. They carried tiny amount of food with them. A letter sent by Pony Express was expensive even by modern standards: $2.50 to send a letter.

Here's a real ad for Express riders that ran in a San Francisco newspaper:

WANTED: Young, skinny, wiry fellows not over 18. Must be expert riders willing to risk daily. Orphans preferred.

That would keep me away! Yet there was never a shortage of riders! There are always those drawn by the thrill of the adventure. These guys were the Extreme Sports types of their time-the kind of guys who jump off mountains and bridges with a hand held parachute.

But what if you signed on to the Pony Express and you were called never to ride. Instead, you signed and were told to:

Sit quietly and wait and never ride.
To wash the old body of a diseased man.
To be alone and never in the limelight.
To never be acknowledged-in this life.

It reminds me of a missionary couple. They spent 40 years of their life serving the Lord in China and then retired, and took the long boat ride back to England. The elderly man wondered if anyone would be at the dock to meet them. As the arrived, a band was there at the dock and struck up a jaunty tune. "They did remember!" said the man. But then they realized the band was there to greet a British politician on board. The man was disappointed. Then his wife said to him, "It's alright, dear; after all, we aren't really home yet."

A call to all Jesus-followers (Hebrews 9:14)

How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!

Here's a beautiful thought: Jesus died that we might serve God with a clean conscience. It only makes sense to serve the Lord of all creation-it makes even more sense to serve the One who died to set me free-to give me a clean conscience.

Why? Reverence to the Lord (Deuteronomy 13:4)

The motivation for service is given in Deuteronomy 13:4:

It is the LORD your God you must follow, and him you must revere. Keep his commands and obey him; serve him and hold fast to him.

We serve out of reverence. That means we see Him as uniquely special and holy. This is a reverence that rises above all others: above reverence for family, or nation or ethnic pride. God has a claim on us that's higher than any other.

John Newton on the angels

Because it's God calling, whatever He calls us to do is good with us. John Newton, the man who wrote the hymn "Amazing Grace" said this:

If two angels were to receive at the same moment a commission from God, one to go down and rule earth's grandest empire, and the other to go sweep the streets of its meanest village, it would be a matter of entire indifference to each which service fell to his lot, the post of ruler or the post of scavenger; for the joy of the angels lies only in obedience to God's will.

Whatever God has called you too-whatever!

When Erwin McManus became the pastor of a small inner city church in Houston, he discovered that despite the fact that he was being paid $50 a week, and the church only had 30 members, the little church had $20,000 in the bank. When he suggested spending that money, one of the men of the church said, "We need that money. We must survive!"

No you don't. Service for Jesus meant death. As it did for Stephen, James, Paul and Peter. Service is mandatory; survival is optional.

• How do we serve? Through your spiritual gifts, in your role as a servant, inspired by worship and in empowered by the Spirit of God.
• The dual impact of service: first, it impacts you. Service shapes you soul to be a servant. The ACT of service changes out heart to BE more of a servant. Second, service helps people-to the glory of God. Service is a winner all around.

Stewardship (the Pliers):
DON'T SHOW UP EMPTY-HANDED!

The Time Bank (Ephesians 5:15-16)

What if you were to show up at you bank to be told that an unknown benefactor was depositing $1440 per day, each and every day? There's only one catch: You have to spend it that day, or lose it. It would go back to zero. I have a feeling we would all become adept a finding ways to spend that $1440 per day.

That's $525,600 per year. Again, you would have to spend it that year.

Well, God deposits 1440 minutes into each of our days, and 525,600 minutes into each of our years (leap years get an extra 1440!)

Paul says in Ephesians 5:15-16

15Be very careful, then, how you live--not as unwise but as wise, 16making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.

Your chief stressors: Money and time

Overload…burn-out…bills…work…running late…unexpected expenses…too little rest…too much month and too little money. The reality is that the chief sources of stress in our lives have too do with stewardship issues: money and time.
Yet God has given us plenty if we'd just be good stewards of His gifts. That even, yes, pertains to money.

The Amazing Money Bank

Let's assume that you average life annual earnings are $35,000 per year. That's a modest income, especially in an urban area like greater Los Angeles. Do you know that over a 40-year period that translates into $1.4 in earnings?

Seen that way, most of us are or will be time-delayed millionaires. Yet the average American Baptist gives about 2% of the their income to their church-and among "mainline" denominations, that's considered pretty good.

Look, get this deep and straight in you heart: God has made you a steward over all this time and all this money! A steward doesn't own anything. They just administer it for the sake of the master.

Giving is worship (Philippians 4:18; Deuteronomy 16:16b-17)

Therefore, giving is worship, the surrender to God of what already belongs to Him. Paul says in Philippians 4:18,

I have received full payment and even more; I am amply supplied, now that I have received from Epaphroditus the gifts you sent. They are a fragrant offering, an acceptable sacrifice, pleasing to God.

Fragrant offering? Acceptable offering? That's the language of worship.

Deuteronomy 16b-17 says,

No man should appear before the LORD empty-handed: 17Each of you must bring a gift in proportion to the way the LORD your God has blessed you.

What could be clearer?

What giving does in you

Again, the impact of the spiritual tool is two-fold. Giving is a regularly scheduled attitude adjustment: all this you see around you-all the cars and homes and computers and DVD players will pass, but we have received a kingdom that cannot be shaken! When you invest in the eternal, you never take a loss!

What giving does for the cause of the kingdom

And along the way, you get to impact people for the unshakable kingdom. You can't be there yourself, so you send a piece of yourself in the form of dollars to minister to get, reach lost people in the Congo, to counsel the bereaved, to explain to a 6 year old what it means to accept Jesus into their heart.

EVANGELISM (the Hammer): Seeing the Stickers

Now what is the greatest service that can be given? What is the best gift that can be given? It's the gift of knowing Jesus.

The view from the Cross

I want you to consider evangelism from the standpoint of Jesus on the cross. Like I been saying the last few weeks, the hammer should always remind us of the ultimate act of good-new giving: His suffering and death on the cross. For God so loved the world, that He gave His one and only Son-on that cross-so that whoever, whenever, and wherever people put their ultimate trust in Him, instead of perishing, they have eternal life!

What happens to you when your share your faith?

Nothing is more fulfilling than sharing Jesus with another person. Nothing puts you in touch with spiritual realities more than that. Nothing motivates you to live a God-filled life more than that.

What happens to them: See the sticker!

A youth pastor once gave an unusual assignment to His students. He realized that they could care less about evangelism. It sounded like too much trouble! So he taught a simple lesson about the reality of hell. Then he loaded them up in vans and they went to the nearest mall. "I want you to imagine that the people you see all have a sticker on their foreheads. And on that sticker you see these words: BOUND FOR HELL."

What if you could see their stickers-the people at work, at school, in your neighborhood: BOUND FOR HELL?

We share Jesus as our Lord, and for people's sake, because with Him they are bound for hell.

Styles of witness

Now last week, I mentioned six styles of witness. I want to present them to you again, but I want you to take your message outline this time and Underline the one that most sounds like your style:

confrontational (Peter-Acts 2)

You like to knock on doors. You take no prisoners in a conversation. You could see yourself on a street corner preaching salvation. You can strike up a conversation with a cashier about Christ with no sweat. You're a confrontational witness.

intellectual (Paul-Acts 17)

You love to talk detail with doubting Thomas'. You get into things like fulfilled prophecy, the transmission of Biblical manuscripts, and the low, low chance that all these things could be fulfilled by chance. You love to talk to people of others faiths-or no faith-about Jesus. You love to read books that show good reasons to believe, and you love to pass them on to people who've asked good questions, or who've shown by their words that they've rejected the faith because they don't think it's reasonable.

This is the strategy that reached me!

If so, you are an intellectual witness.

testimonial (Blind man-John 9)

You don't have a taste for all that detail. You're not a theological whiz by any stretch. But you know that God's done some amazing things in your life. "I don't know all the details. But this I do know: once I was in this mess, and now look what God has done!" Listen: there's nothing quite like a satisfied customer!

If that sound like you, then you're a testimonial witness.

interpersonal (Matthew-Luke 5)

When Matthew Levi, the tax collector that became an apostle first met Jesus, he threw a party for all his tax-collector buddies and invited them to meet Jesus too. The interpersonal witness loves to have people over for dinner and uses that hospitality gift to share the reality of Jesus. They are good at asking spiritual questions in a non-threatening way-like, "So, what are your spiritual beliefs?"

If that's you, then you're an interpersonal witness.

invitational (Samaritan woman-John 4)

We looked at her last week. This is the witness style of the natural born salesperson.

Research shows that at least one out of four adults, if invited, would attend a service of worship with you! Yes, ¼ of all those "Hell-Bound" stickers on their heads would say YES. That's especially true of "special" events-and we have a million of them coming up in the holiday season.

Let me put you on notice now: the four weeks leading up to Christmas, I will be sharing as clearly as I know how what it means to know Jesus as Lord and Forgiver. This year, harvest time is Christmastime!

serving (Dorcas-Acts 9)

I keep thinking about that Laundromat across from McDonald's on Las Tunas. There's a great opportunity for service evangelism there. Here's a challenge for one of our Sunday morning small groups (a.k.a. Sunday school classes): take $20 in quarters and $20 worth of cokes and burgers in their on a Saturday night (say around 6 PM), and just give stuff away. And as you give, give them a gospel tract, a flier on our church and have Bibles (in English and Spanish) ready to give away. (I can help you with that.) Invite them to come to worship the next morning-and I betcha that you'll see some people come to Jesus. If that kind of witness cranks your oil, then you have a serving style of witness.

Can you be happy never reaping?

Service, stewardship and witness: these are tools that move us our from ourselves. They bless others and form Christ-like character in us.

We've been wobbly on all these, but perhaps none more so than evangelism. Over 100 years ago, Charles Spurgeon said this:

If I never won souls, I would sigh until I did. I would break my heart over them if I could not break their hearts…I cannot comprehend any one of you Christian people trying to win souls and not having results, and being satisfied without results.

We have been satisfied to sow and never ever reap too long. We have been satisfied to let the hell-bound go by while we play at church. No longer! People matter to God! Do they matter to you?

Presentation of Gospel

A: admit your spiritual need.
B: believe on Jesus as the only way to get right with God.
C: confess Him as Leader and Forgiver before other people.

© Copyright 2002, Pastor Glenn Layne, www.templecitybaptist.org