A Passion to Serve Him - Part 2

Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Wednesday, December 14th. Have you been afraid that serving God will mean doing something you won't like? Today's podcast helps you see that saying yes to Jesus can bring deep satisfaction and joy.

The Passion for God series continues. In the eyes of God, all of us are servants. When you trusted Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, you became a servant of the living God. It is man who has decided that some people are servants and some are what people call laymen. The Bible says we're all his servants. That's why I continue to remind you of what he says in Ephesians chapter 2 when he says, We are his workmanship, persons of notable excellence. He says we are his workmanship. That is God's masterpieces.

That doesn't mean he's finished, but he's still working on us. Every single one of us who has been saved is a servant of the living God. The only difference is we have different roles. Can you identify anything specifically in your life which you could say is an act of service for God? And notice what Paul says. He says we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus under good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them, which is his way of saying it is to be our lifestyle. Serving God is a natural, normal aspect and activity in the life of every single believer. Well, one of the most beautiful descriptions of a passion to serve God is found in 2nd Corinthians chapter 11.

I want you to turn there, if you will. Verse 22, Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they descendants of Abraham? So am I. Are they servants of Christ? I speak as if insane.

I am more so. And then he says, In far more labors, in far more imprisonments, beaten times without number, often in danger of death, five times I received from the Jews thirty-nine lashes, three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, a night and a day have I spent in the deep, I have been on frequent journeys, now listen to this, in dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my countrymen, dangers from the Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers on the sea, dangers among false brethren, those who are false teachers. I have been in labor and hardship through many sleepless nights, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure.

And then he says, Apart from such external things, there is the daily pressure upon me of concern for all the churches. Now, more than likely, if any one of us had been giving that testimony, at the end of it, we would have had a temptation to have a little bitsy bit of a pity party and to justify some of our feelings for ourselves and how we've suffered and how we have shed blood for Jesus and on and on and on. But listen, one thing you'll never find from the Apostle Paul, whether he's sitting in a prison house or whether he's preaching the gospel, giving a survey of his past, you never hear the slightest implication of poor me, look what I've done for Jesus. Not any indication of any sorrow, any regret, any self-pity, any remorse, any claiming for pride and egotism. But Paul says, Here is the way that I have lived my life. This is the way I have given myself to Jesus Christ. And the reason Paul gives this is simply to defend himself against those who were criticizing him.

He wasn't taking any pride in all this. What motivated him to suffer all these things? One thing, this man had a passion to serve Christ. If I'm going to serve the Lord and if I really have a passion for him, as the Apostle Paul spoke of here, then there are four things that are going to be required of me.

I want you to jot them down. First of all, four requirements if I really have a passion to serve him. Number one, I will serve him according to his will, not my own. I'm not going to be making the choices of what I want to do, but rather I'm going to say, Lord, what do you want me to do? Where do you want me to do it? When do you want me to do it? How do you want me to do it? With whom do you want me to do it?

Now I want to ask you a question. How many of you even have the courage today to say, Lord, I'll do anything you tell me to do, just tell me. If you can't say that, you still play God. Now listen, if I have a passion to serve him, then I'm going to serve him according to his will, not my own. I'm not going to put in limitations on what I will not do. And you see, how do you and I ever justify telling God what we won't do when God says, here's what I want you to do? I'm not going to say that you'll always enjoy doing everything God requires of you. There have been things God's required of me I absolutely did not want to do and told him.

And you know what? Didn't change his mind one bit. God isn't persuaded by what we want and what we don't want. You've got a call on your life, just like I've got a call on my life. And listen, when does the master come to the servant and say, what would you have me to do? The servants go to the master and say, Lord, what would you have me to do? Now let me tell you what, let me tell you the battle some of you are fighting already.

You're saying, yeah, but you see, here's the problem. You don't know my schedule. And I only have so much time. And my friend, I want you to think about this real busy schedule you have and how important it is.

Because I have a busy schedule too, but I had to learn a long time ago. If Jesus Christ is not the center and the heart of my life, all my schedule will be wood, hay, and stubble. Now I want you to think about something. God is the one who gave me this life.

And he gave it to me for himself, not for myself. Now for me to stand and tell God what I will and will not do and about my schedule and my plans don't fit his, think about that. Sorry, God, you know, appreciate it. But your plan, it just doesn't fit into my schedule.

When I think about that, that's totally beyond my comprehension. And for me to tell God what I won't do says, brother, I'm not thinking right. When it all belongs to him, well, I will serve him according to his will. And secondly, I will serve him according to my gifts and not my talents. God's gifts are his special endowments which he gives, I believe, in salvation in order for those of us who are saved, who become servants of that very moment, to serve him all the days of our life. And you can rest assured of this.

Think about this now. Whatever God calls you to do, he has equipped you to do. When somebody says, well, it doesn't mean you're not having any training and not to learn some things, but to say that I can't do it.

If God wants you to do it, you can. Now, you may have to have some training, and I understand that. Just like in your vocation, somebody offers you a job. Suppose somebody said to you tomorrow, I'm going to give you this job. I'm going to pay you a half million dollars a year, but you've got to be trained. How many of you say, I don't have time to be trained? You know what you'd say?

What time did I report? But when it comes to those things that have eternal, lasting, life-changing, eternal value, we say to the face of God, can't be trained. A half a million dollars can be spent quickly. Somebody's salvation lasts forever. Watch out what you tell God, because he's gifted you to do whatever he wants you to do. Now, talents are those abilities, those capacities that we come into this world with at birth, and we either utilize them and improve on them, or we don't. But you can serve God with human talent all of your life, and you know what you'll have?

You'll just have wood, hay, and stubble. Now, there are folks who are lost who use their talents, and they're very gifted of God. They have talents. But a spiritual gift is a special endowment God gives you to serve him, and you're to use those as well as the talents. But we are to serve out of a spiritual gift, not just human talent. A third thing I want to say about that is this, that if you and I are going to serve him with a real passion, then we must serve in his power and not our human strength. That's why Jesus said in Luke chapter 24, he said, Tarry ye, you wait in the city of Jerusalem, he told his apostles, until you be endued with power from on high, until the Holy Spirit has baptized you. Then he said, You shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost has come upon you. Then you'll be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost parts of the earth.

Think about this. Every single one of us, every single time you and I have the opportunity of serving the Lord, and we're doing something that he calls us to do, or is required of us, we have the privilege of doing that in the power of God. Because the Holy Spirit is residing in you.

And what does he do? God doesn't send something down from heaven. Listen, it's like an overflowing well that's overflowing within you. God's power will enable you to do whatever he requires of you.

But now here's the problem. If I see God up yonder, me down here, when I need him, call on him, I'm going to miss the point. You and I are walking in the presence of God. Christ is living on the inside of us, walking in us in the presence of the power of the Holy Spirit. We have the supernatural power of God in us and available to us because he's called us to do a supernatural work. Anything that has eternal lasting value is supernatural in its nature.

And we have that. Now, when you're doing something God didn't tell you to do, I'm not going to guarantee you're going to have it. I will give you a confession at this point. There have been times when I've been asked to go somewhere and speak and do things and sometimes I let the pressure of people get me and listen to that sometimes more than I have, listening to God and people say, well, here's the need and if you don't come and this, that and the other and on and on and on they go and me wanting to help everybody all the time.

So, well, yeah, okay, I'll do it. But I think I've learned a lesson and here's the terrible way I had to learn it. If you go somewhere to serve the Lord, and I say this to all my preacher brothers who may be listening out there, you go somewhere to serve the Lord and God didn't tell you to go, don't expect God's anointing power upon something he didn't tell you to do.

I don't care how good it is. And there have been times when I've stood up to speak and I thought to myself, God, I knew I shouldn't be here. Now, I wouldn't tell anybody else sitting out there that because some of them may not have known better, but you see, it doesn't make any difference.

If anybody in the world knows anything, you know your heart. And I just had to say, okay, Lord, until I get some direction from you, I'm going to say no, no, no, no, no, no. Now, but when the Lord calls you to do something for him, whether it's usher, teach, preach, sing, witness on your job, be a godly mother at home, when you're doing what God's called you to do, you have access, listen, and you have flowing through you the power of God.

That's the promise. And so we're not to do it in our own strength, but in his power. And then one last thing I'd say, when you and I have a passion to serve him, listen, we will keep our focus on him and not on the work itself. Now, here's where a lot of men fall apart in the ministry. Their focus moves from the Lord Jesus to the work.

And what happens is they get caught up in the work and the schedule and the clamor and the call and the pressure and the timing and all of this. And what happens before long, the service has become the master and the servant has become another kind of slave. When you and I serve the Lord and we serve him out of a passion to do so, we'll keep our focus on him because you see, the focus must always be upon Christ, not the work. You can backslide.

Now listen to what I'm going to say. You can backslide doing the service of God. Notice I didn't say you can backslide serving the Lord. But if you get into the service, and listen, here's what happens. If what matters most is what you're doing, because listen now, because you're getting your needs met out of the service and you love the approval and the applause and the acclaim and everybody's saying, oh, you just did such a wonderful job.

You know what happens? The focus is no longer on Jesus but the service because you know what happens? The service is satisfying my ego rather than accomplishing the purpose of God. When that happens, ultimately, then check out of the ministry because you know what happens? The strain and the demands become more than they can handle because you see, when you lose your focus on Christ, you start drawing from your own resources, not God's.

And what I want you to see is this. When your focus is upon the Lord and he's given you something to do to serve him, you're going to be excited. You're going to be happy. I don't mean that every time you serve the Lord, you're just going to be thrilled out of your socks about it.

But you know what's going to happen? Even in your weariest moments, there'll be this overwhelming sense of satisfaction. Well, thank you, God.

You could just use me a little bit. Now, let me say this to you. There are going to be times when you fail. And I used to ask the Lord, God, why did you let me make such a mess of that? Took me a long time to figure it out.

Then I found out. God is going to let you fail enough to keep you ever conscious of the fact that it is him and not you. You see, God knows just enough failure salted into our life is good for us. So we're not always going to do our best, not always going to make a big impression. Sometimes we're just going to absolutely fail. Thank God for your failures, which keeps reminding you, oh, dear God, without you, it would be absolutely worthless and have no eternal value and make no impact. So those of you who've been giving the excuse, well, I'm afraid I'll fail. Join the club. Yes, you will fail.

Thank God you'll fail. Praise him that he loves you enough not to allow you to become prideful and egotistical and self-sufficient and therefore useless to the kingdom of God. Now, I want to ask you this question. Are you willing to say to the Lord Jesus Christ who saved you, who's kept you, who's living on the inside of you, are you willing to say to him today, Lord, I want to let in all these excuses I've been giving you, and Lord, I am willing to do whatever you tell me to do, however you want me to serve you, because I do believe that if you call me to do something that you will empower me to do it and you'll see that I get properly equipped and trained if I need it.

No restrictions, no reservations, just whatever you want. The answer, God, is yes. Lord, this busy schedule that I have with all these people I'm involved with, Lord, for the first time in my life I'm going to fit them around your will instead of trying to crowd you into the corner of my plans and my will. Lord, whatever you ask of me beginning today, I'm going to do it. Isn't that a fair question coming from God?

And all I ask you to do is to answer that, and you'll find out who is God in your life. Father, when we look at your precious Word and we look at ourselves, we know that if it weren't for your grace and your patience and your loving kindness and forgiveness, we'd all be in torment a long time ago. But wonderful, wonderful grace, matchless grace, marvelous grace, forgiveness beyond our comprehension, patience beyond any possibility of our measuring.

You've loved us. But we know that when we come to face the truth and we hear the truth, we have to do something with it. And I want you to speak to my heart first. If there's any area of my life that I have any limitation on, I want you to show me right now that I may confess it and repent of it so that you find nothing within me, dear God, that would trouble you. Father, in Jesus' name, let that be the honest, bold, genuine confession of many today is my prayer. Amen. Thank you for listening to part two of A Passion to Serve Him. If you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or In Touch Ministries, stop by intouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.