Saved to Serve

Adrian Rogers was a motivator, an encourager, and a leader of the faith. He was also passionate about presenting scriptural application to everyday life circumstances, and you'll hear that in today's message.

Now, let's join Adrian Rogers. First up, we're going to be looking at two chapters today, so we're only going to be able to take the highlights out of these two chapters. But I want you to find the key word in these two chapters. You're in Romans chapter 15. Look, if you will, in verse 8. Now, I say that Jesus Christ was a minister. Do you see that?

Okay. Now, look, if you will, in verse 16. Paul says that, I should be the minister of Jesus Christ. Now look, if you will, over in verse 25, but now I go unto Jerusalem to minister unto the saints. Now look down in verse 31, that I may be delivered from them that do not believe in Judea that my service... And by the way, this is exactly the same Greek word as minister right here, that my ministry, which I have for Jerusalem, may be accepted of the saints. Now look, if you will, in chapter 16 and verse 1, I commend unto you, Phoebe our sister, which is a servant. And the word here literally means minister. It's the same word of the church, which is at Synchria.

Now, what is the theme here? It is ministry, ministry, ministry, ministry. Every member is a minister. Now folks, there is no such thing as an inactive church member.

That's an impossibility. Every church member is active. Either he's building up or he's tearing down. But he's active.

Either he's a part of the team and helping, or he's not a part of the team and he's hurting. And you say, pastor, is that true? Yes, it is true. In the book of Matthew chapter 12 in verse 30, the Lord Jesus said, he that is not with me is against me. And he that gathers not with me scattereth abroad. Every member of this church is gathering or scattering. Every member of this church is working with the Lord Jesus or working against the Lord Jesus.

Now having said that, let me tell you again, nobody is excluded. This message is not to whom it may concern. It is to you.

It has your name and address on it. And God wants you to serve and to minister. You have been called into the ministry. I'm going to give you six areas where you need to minister.

They're going to come right out of these two chapters. And I want you to ask yourself this question as we come to each of these six areas. God, am I willing that you would minister through me this way? Now first of all, the very first ministry that I want you to look at is the ministry of encouragement.

The ministry of encouragement. Now in chapter 15, let's read the first seven verses. We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak and not to please ourselves.

Let every one of us please his neighbor for his good to edification. For even Christ pleased not himself. But as it is written, the reproaches of them that reproach thee fell on me. Jesus was willing to suffer for the Father.

That's what that means. For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning. That is the Old Testament scriptures.

Now watch it. That we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope. Now watch verse five. Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be like-minded one toward another according to Christ Jesus that ye may with one mind and one mouth glorify God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Wherefore receive ye one another as Christ also received us to the glory of God. Now the key to these seven verses is verse five. The God of patience and consolation grant you to be like-minded.

The word consolation here is a word that we don't use much in modern English today, but there is a word that we do use a lot and it's the word encouragement and it's the same word. He is the God of encouragement. And what he is saying in these seven verses is that we need to encourage one another. Now if you're a strong Christian, according to verse one, you are to encourage the weak Christian. You're not here to please yourself.

This church does not exist to make you happy. Sometimes a choir might meet sometime and they would say, well, when's the best time to have choir practice? And someone will say, now let me see, if we did it at this time, this hour, no that's when I bowl. Or someone would say, no that's when I have children in school. And so I choose the time that's going to be best for me. Well, if the time that's going to be best for you is not going to be the best time for everybody else, then you need to give up the time that's best for you.

That's what he's saying. You don't please yourself. You don't put yourself number one. The Salvation Army has done so much good. I thank God for the Salvation Army. William Booth started with the poor in London and started the Salvation Army when William Booth got to be a very old man. They were having a convention of the Salvation Army and they wanted William Booth to come and speak and he couldn't come and speak.

He was too weak, too old, too feeble. And he was on his sick bed and so they said, well, would you send us a telegram? Just send us a telegram. And he said, yes, I will. And he sent a one word telegram. Just one word in that telegram.

What do you think it was? It was the word toward others. Others. We don't please ourselves.

That's what he's saying. Verse 2, let every one of us please his neighbor for his good unto edification. You see, when we do this, this is what brings us together. Verse 9, now the God of patience and consolation grants you to be like-minded one toward another according to Christ Jesus. The devil would rather start a church for us than sell a barrel of whiskey. Amen? God wants us to be together.

God wants us to encourage one another, to lift up one another. C.S. Lewis, a brilliant Britisher, a literary genius, wrote a book about how the devil works. And he called that book The Screw Tape Letters.

Screw tape is the name that C.S. Lewis gave to the devil. And he talked about the devil's nephew who was called Wormwood.

He was the nephew of Satan. And Wormwood and Screw Tape are talking about how they can sabotage the work of God. And they get to talking about the church. And here is what Screw Tape, the devil, says to Wormwood.

Just listen to this. Quote, the church is a fertile field if you just keep them bickering over details, structure, organization, money, property, personal hurts, and misunderstandings. One thing you must prevent, don't let them ever look up and see the banners flying. For if they ever see the banners flying, you've lost them forever. What he says, just keep them picking at one another. Just keep them criticizing one another. Never let them see the glory of God.

Because Wormwood, if you do that, you've lost them. Now folks, what we need to do today is to get our eyes on the glory of God and begin to love and serve one another. Did you know in 1917 the bishops of the Orthodox Church in Russia were having a convocation? And they were having a heated debate. The bishops and the leaders were fussing and fighting and feuding, going back and forth, back and forth. Just a few doors down the street in 1917, the Bolsheviks were meeting. They were plotting the overthrow of the Tsar. They were plotting a revolution. They were planning and plotting the thing that we have called communism, that has hurt, killed, maimed, damned so many souls. They were planning and plotting a diabolical scheme. But over here, the bishops were debating. Now just what was it that the bishops were debating during this whole time? It was whether or not they were going to use 18-inch candles or 22-inch candles. That's what the debate was about.

While the empire was crumbling around them. Now folks, let me tell you, you and I need to be in a ministry of encouragement. There's not a mother's child that doesn't need encouragement. We are to encourage one another. The God of all consolation, He has been patient with us and we need to be patient with one another. I need patience.

You need patience. People need encouragement. Some people think they have the gift of criticism. One pastor said, Brother Brown, would you please stand and lead us in a word of criticism?

People need to be encouraged. Everybody's hurting. There's a heartache. There's a tear on every pew. You want to minister? See the banners flying. Get your eyes on Jesus.

Put your arm around a brother or sister and help them on. That's the ministry of encouragement. Would you say God give me the ministry of encouragement? Second ministry.

You've been called not only to the ministry of encouragement, but you've been called to the ministry of evangelism. Look if you will in chapter 15 verse 8. Now I say that Jesus was a minister of the circumcision. He says the circumcision, that's a term for the Jewish nation, was a minister to the Jews for the truth of God to confirm the promises made unto the fathers. Jesus came to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Jesus came to bring the Jewish nation to saving faith in Him.

That's why He came. Not that the Jews alone would be saved, but through them all of the nations of the world should be blessed. The Bible says in John chapter 4 and verse 2 that salvation is of the Jews. And so it came through a Jewish Messiah.

We have the Jewish scriptures and God brought this message to those early followers that they might be a blessing to the Gentiles. Now notice, notice we're talking about evangelism. Jesus came as an evangelist to seek and to save that which is lost.

And now look if you will in verse 16. Paul says that he did this that I should be a minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, ministering the gospel of God that the offering up of the Gentiles might be acceptable being sanctified by the Holy Ghost. Now Paul says Jesus came to minister, that is through evangelism. And now he has given me the ministry of evangelism and Paul became the great evangelist to the Jews.

What Paul is saying that as Jesus Christ came and set an example to minister. And as I came to minister to the Gentiles, every child of God has been called, saved to serve and saved to win souls to Jesus Christ. Now I don't want to hurt your feelings, but I want you to listen to me very carefully.

I care not how beautifully you sing, how eloquently you teach, how liberally you give, how circumspectly you walk. If you're not endeavoring to bring souls to Jesus Christ, you're not right with God. I'm just telling you, you are not right with God. You are not right with God.

You are not right with God. You are guilty of high treason against heaven's king. You have been called to minister.

You have been called to bring souls bound in the golden chains of the gospel and bring them and lay them at Jesus' feet. Don't you boast about your salvation? Don't you boast about your piety? Don't you boast about your spiritfulness? Don't you tell me about your spiritual gifts if you're not endeavoring to bring souls to Jesus Christ? What right do you have to call yourself a follower of Jesus Christ if your business is not His business? And what is His business?

The Son of God came to seek and to save that which is lost. Do you know what a headhunter is? In business, when a company needs an executive, a CEO, some high-level executive. They're very hard to find people like this, and so they have professions, people who seek out professional people, professionals who find professionals. In the business, they call them headhunters.

And one headhunter was saying this, a very interesting story. He said, the way I look at an executive to find out what he really is like, because so many times all of us put up fronts. He says, I go into the man's office and after we've talked a while, I said, then we begin to have some small talk. He said, we begin to talk about sports. We begin to talk about the weather. We begin to talk about travel. He says, I pull off my coat. I loosen my tie.

I may even put my feet up on the coffee table and we just talk for a while and we get to laughing and we may be having coffee or whatever, just very relaxed. And then he says, when the man is disarmed, when he's not thinking, when he's not all prepared, I lean over and I look him right in the eye and I say, tell me, what is the motivating purpose of your life? He's not prepared for the answer. I mean, he's just right there.

What is the motivating purpose of your life? He said, many times these executives just kind of come apart. They don't know what to say. He said, I asked that question to one man. I looked him in the eye, got sober. I said, Bob, what is the motivating purpose of your life? He said, he didn't hesitate. He said, to go to heaven and take as many with me as I can.

Well, I like that. That's the motivating purpose of my life, to go to heaven and to take as many people with me as I can. Would you pray? Oh, pray it, mean it, mean it. Don't just say it, but mean it. Lord, lay some soul upon my heart and win that soul through me. If you can't win an adult, win a child. If you can't win your neighbor, win somebody else's neighbor.

If you can't win somebody in your family, win somebody in somebody else's family. If you can't bring a soul to Jesus, help somebody else to bring a soul to Jesus. There's a ministry of encouragement. There's the ministry of evangelism. I don't think I'm going to hear much shouting on this next point, but there's the ministry of giving.

The ministry of giving. Look, if you will, in chapter 15 now and begin reading in verse 25. Paul said, but now I go to Jerusalem to minister unto the saints. For it hath pleased them of Macedonia and Achaia to make a certain contribution for the poor saints which are at Jerusalem. And it hath pleased them verily. And their debtors they are. For if the Gentiles have been made partakers of their spiritual things, their duty is also to minister unto them in carnal things.

The word carnal means fleshly things. Now here's the whole point. The Gentiles in Greece had taken a love offering. And the love offering was for the Jews in Jerusalem. And Paul says, look, they didn't mind doing that. They were happy to do that because salvation is of the Jews.

They had received an incredible spiritual blessing from the Jews. So he said, why if they have blessed so much, if they have blessed so much, why should we not take our material things, our mundane things and help them when they are in need? Now there are different kinds of offerings, for different kinds of needs, but service to God is giving. It is the ministry.

He calls it here the ministry, the ministry of giving. Paul said, we do it because we're debtors. Did you know every one of us is in debt? I mean we're in debt.

I'm not talking about what you owe the credit card company. We're in debt. We're debtors to the apostles who suffered the martyrs of the faith. We are debtors to Jesus Christ and His precious shed blood. How can we sit in a service and fail to want to give as unto our great God? Because if we've been so blessed spiritually, should it pain us that we give some of what we can't keep anyway? Think about it. Some people, again, they think they've done God a wild favor if they give a little bit of money. He dropped a dollar in the plate and sung with might and maim. When we asunder part, it gives us inward pain. No.

No. What a joy it is to give. In Kansas, I was reading about a man in Kansas, in Lincoln, Kansas. His name was Davis. He was a farmer. And Davis started out as a farm hand, but he was very frugal, very hard working man. And old farmer Davis accrued a little fortune. Now he married a woman. His in-laws didn't want him to marry that woman because they felt that she was marrying beneath her level.

And so they began to be against everybody. But old Davis collected some money. As a matter of fact, he amassed a small fortune. People would say to Davis, what are you going to do with that money?

Why don't you build a municipal swimming pool? Why don't you help in the orphanage? He said, this community ain't done nothing for me.

I ain't going to do nothing for it. And he said, my in-law's not going to get one dime of what I have. Davis' wife died and he built a monument to her and to him. It was a love bench, a statue. He's sitting on one side.

She's sitting on the other side of it. Very impressive monument. And he liked that monument so much that he got a sculptor to come and build another monument. This was a monument of himself kneeling at his wife's grave. And then he liked that one so much he commissioned this man to build another monument.

This time a monument of his wife who's already gone to heaven, kneeling at his grave where he would be buried. And since she was in heaven, he had wings put on her. And then he lost his fortune.

Somehow things reversed on him. He became almost penniless. And he died in the poor house. And when he had a funeral, nobody came. Just a small handful of people, just enough to stick him in the ground by his monuments. Oh, there was one person who came, a Mr. England, who'd built all those monuments. The man who had collected all of his money to build those monuments. And the sad thing is this, that those monuments now are sinking down into the soil of Kansas and before long they're going to be buried and nobody will see his old monuments anyway.

He died, broken, bitter, penniless, and hated because he lived for himself and his self alone. You're going to leave some kind of a monument. You know one thing that bothers me? We are about ready to have a great transfer of wealth. I mean there's a generation who has amassed a lot of money. You have money.

You don't know what you're going to do with it. You're going to go, the government's going to get a lot of it. Your kids are going to get a lot of it. They're going to get divorced. They're going to fight over it.

They're going to be at one another's throat. You're going to ruin them. You better start investing in something that's going to count. They say you can't take your money to heaven.

Oh yes you can if you'll invest it in something going to heaven. The only thing I know going to heaven is the souls of men. But I'm going to tell you something, friend. All that you're going to hold in your cold, dead hand is what you've given away. That's it.

You cannot take it with you. Maxie Jarman, businessman, you know Jarman's shoes, gave away so much money. He gave away money and then finally had a financial reverse and somebody said to him, Maxie, all of the money that you gave away now that you're having these difficulties, do you ever think about that money? He said, yes, praise God. He said, that's the only thing I have left.

You see that you can't lose. Why don't you invest in souls? There is a ministry. It is a ministry of giving.

Would you say, oh God, give me the ministry of encouragement. Oh God, give me the ministry of evangelism. Oh God, give me the ministry of giving. Now here's another ministry. And you've been called to this ministry. It's the ministry of prayer. Look if you will now in chapter 15 and verse 30, Paul says, now I beseech you brethren for the Lord Jesus Christ's sake. Now notice, notice, this is not just to help build the church, not just for Paul's sake. For the Lord Jesus Christ's sake and for the love of the spirit that you strive together with me in your prayers to God for me that I may be delivered from them that do not believe in Judea and that my service, there's the word again, which I have for Jerusalem may be accepted of the saints. Paul says, listen, I minister. I am going to minister. But he says, I have enemies.

I need protection and I need reception. Would you pray that I would be delivered and that I would be received? Would you pray? Folks, prayer is a ministry. Prayer is not getting ready to serve. Prayer is service. You can do more than pray after you've prayed, but you really can't do much more than pray until you've prayed. And some of you say, pastor, I don't have much money to give. And it's kind of hard for me to encourage other people because I don't get around other people very much.

But one thing you can do, you can pray. I was preaching a revival meeting as a youngster in Jacksonville, Florida. And I was with a boy named Ernie Harvey. He and I were in college together.

It was his home church. Ernie said, Adrian, I'd like for you to meet my mother. So I never met Mrs. Harvey. Ernie, a big old tall strapping athlete, he and I played ball together. I went up to meet Ernie's mother. We went up to a little tenement, a little flat threadbare on the backside there, very poor. This little woman came out and she had crippling arthritis. Her hands were very puffy. Her joints were swollen. Her knees were swollen. She could hardly stand up straight.

She looked like an angel in the face, but a devastating case of crippling arthritis. And we visited with her. And then she said, boys, how did the revival go last night?

And I was the young evangelist going to college to play football and full of myself and thinking I'm more important than I was. But she said, boys, how was the meeting last night? I said, wonderful, wonderful. God came down.

It was glorious. And I began to tell her all the things that happened. The tears popped out of her eyes. She said, I knew it.

I knew it. She said, Adrian, the whole time you were preaching, I was on my knees praying for you. I thought, oh, God.

Adrian, you numbskull, you ignoramus, you lout. Look at that little body. What pain it must be for her even, for this lady even to get on her knees. But what a ministry. I want to say to some of you who are shut in, who are sitting by the radio, would you do me a favor and would you pray for me like Mom Harvey prayed for me so long ago? And would you pray for your Sunday school teacher? And will you pray for people that is a ministry? You've been called into the ministry. Let me just quickly tell you what the next ministry is.

It's the ministry of fellowship. Look in chapter 16 verse 1. I commend unto you, Phoebe our sister, which is a servant, a minister of the church, which is at Synchria. And then Paul lists in this 16th chapter 26 different people. Not only was Paul a soul winner, but he was a friend maker. And he tells us how that we are to minister.

And I'm just going to read the headings. In verse 2 we minister by receiving people. In verse 3 we minister by greeting people. In verse 5 we minister by loving people. In verse 6 we minister by helping people. In verse 7 we minister by honoring people. In verses 17 through 18 we minister by guarding the fellowship against all kinds of false doctrine that our fellowship might be pure. Here's the sixth way now that we're to minister. Not only the ministry of fellowship by loving one another and oh how sweet it is, how good it is for brothers and sisters to dwell together in fellowship. And then the last of all, there's a ministry of worship. Look, if you will, I save the best for the last.

That's what we've been doing today. Chapter 16 verses 25 through the end. Here's the bottom line. I mean Paul has given us the book of Romans. Now here's the book of Romans. I mean this is the constitution of Christianity. This is the greatest treatise ever written on the faith.

If I had to be shipwrecked with nothing else to read I'd want the book of Romans. But now let's get to the bottom line. I mean the bottom line of the bottom line. Here it is, Now to Him that is of power to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery which was kept secret since the world began, but now is made manifest and by the Scriptures of the prophets according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all nations for the obedience of faith to God. Only wise be glory through Jesus Christ forever. That's it.

That is it. To God be the glory through Jesus Christ. All hail the power of Jesus' name. Let angels prostrate fall. Bring forth the royal diadem and crown Him Lord of all.

Then we need to stop moaning and groaning about living in the last days. There's never been a greater day at a greater age to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. Oh, Vance Havener said, I'm proud of the business I'm in and the company I work for.

The president is God's son and his office door is always open so that a country preacher like myself can walk in day or night and talk to the boss. I have stock in the company and I have been cashing dividends for over 60 years. I've made my investment where banks don't break.

That is moth proof, rust proof where thieves do not break through and steal. I'm not just a member of the firm. My father is the head of it and I am a member of the family. My bank can't fall. My business can't fail because I am a laborer with God.

Isn't that good? Now look folks, God has called you. God is calling us.

You look around, look around. Think what will happen if all of us really begin to minister. God has called you into the ministry. You don't just sit, soak and sour, but serve. If you would like to learn more about how you can know Jesus or deepen your relationship with him, simply click the Discover Jesus link on our website, lwf.org. For a copy of this message or additional resources, visit our online store at lwf.org or call 1-800-274-5683. Thank you.