Mm. The world says to put yourself first, take care of number one. Be assertive. But is that how God wants you to live? Today, on Turning Point, Dr.
David Jeremiah considers the incredible power of servanthood and putting the needs of others ahead of your own. You won't glorify God by serving yourself. but you will by serving others. Here's David with the conclusion of his message, What Can I Do? After our long and extended series on Revelation, we have more information now than we've had before.
We've learned a lot of things from the Bible about the future. But the future isn't here yet, so what do we do now? How do we live our lives? And there are several passages in the New Testament that speak to that issue. We dealt with one of them from the book of Romans, and we're dealing with another one even as we open our Bibles together today.
Here is part two of What Can I Do? And we'll get to that in just a moment. Before we get to this particular teaching, I want to remind you again, this is the last day you can order your copy of the book Vanished from Turning Point.
Now, this book is in bookstores all over the country. It was released in the early days of July, but you can get your copy from Turning Point for a gift of any size. I hope you will help us during the month of July. When you send your gift, just simply say, please send me the book Vanished, and it will be on its way. I think you'll be intrigued by the book.
It might keep you up at night a couple of times if you're reading through it. It will be a teaching tool and very helpful for you to begin to feel the presence of this coming event we call the rapture. Once again, Vanished is yours. For a gift of any size during the month of July, which ends officially today.
So here is part two: what to do until Jesus comes back. What can I do? More instructions, more ideas. More suggestions from the Bible. Listen up.
Good morning.
Now, one of the things that gets in the way of our serving the Lord is That somewhere along the way, we discover that serving the Lord involves serving other people. Did you know you can't serve the Lord if you won't serve other people? How do you serve God without serving people?
Well, I just serve him.
Well, how?
Well, I just sort of Pastor, I don't know. I just serve him. No, let me tell you something that I've discovered: serving God is serving people. The Bible teaches that. Calvin Miller writes, Unfortunately, serving people is the only way by which we can serve God.
And serving people means that we are going to get hurt in the process. If we are not careful, the pain involved in our service can cause us. ultimately to despise those we once felt called to love. Charlie Brown is right. We all want to serve God, but it can be terribly degrading to serve people in order to do it.
That's true, isn't it? Have you ever prayed this prayer, my friends? Here's where this whole bit of serving the Lord begins. Here's where it starts. Lord, I don't know what you might have for me to do in your kingdom, but I want you to know.
that I am willing and available to do it. Usually, our willingness and our availability come first, and the assignment comes second. Here's how it works. Here's the blank sheet of paper. Sign your name at the bottom.
Say, Lord, you fill in the details. I'm ready. I've signed the contract, you fill in the provisions. That sounds easy. But it's where the struggle is for most people.
I remember when I was. coming up in the faith and going to all these youth meetings and being called, you know. Commit your life to the Lord. I heard Romans 12, 1 and 2 about 50 times when I was growing up. I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice to God.
And I wanted to serve God. There's one thing that got in the way. I was absolutely convinced that if I gave my life to Christ, he would send me to Africa. Man, I didn't want to go to Africa. I didn't know anything about Africa, but it didn't sound like the place I wanted to go.
And you know, there are a lot of people that grow up like that. They think if I give God absolute permission to take control of my life, He will give me something to do that I don't want to do. But you're missing it, friends. He knows better than anyone what makes you tick. What is going to wire you with joy and excitement and adventure?
And if you'll let him have control of your life, he will give you the desires of your heart. I don't say that carelessly. The Bible says, commit your way unto the Lord. What's the rest of it? And he will give you the desires of your heart.
Do you know what I'm doing today? I'm doing what I love to do with all my heart, what I would do if I could choose what to do. But I didn't know that at the beginning. God called me to do. What I love to do.
The gift of availability. Notice secondly. The secret of authority. Everyone who is serving is under the authority to someone else. You don't serve.
Out of your own heart, you serve others. Under the direction, and that's the characteristic of the scripture. Listen to the word of God. Jesus came and spoke to them, Matthew 28, saying, All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. I have all authority.
Now, here's my command: go into all the world and preach the gospel. When you serve, you serve under the authority of someone. When Jesus was at the first miracle that he performed in John 2. Jesus' mother said to the servants, Whatever he says to you, do it. That's a perfect illustration.
Matthew 7, 21 says, Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. In Luke 6:46 says, Why do you call me Lord and do not the things that I say? If you're going to be a servant, you're going to serve someone, you're going to be under the authority of someone. And I want to ask you. Is that an issue for you?
There are a lot of folks today who don't want to be under the authority to anyone. They don't want to answer to anyone. My friend, if you're going to serve the Lord, you will be under his authority. You will do what he says.
Now, you don't have to fear that. He will not call you to do what you do not want to do. There's a wonderful story about missionary David Livingston, who was called to Africa, by the way. He was a British missionary. who was deployed to Africa in the 19th century.
When he died from malaria and dysentery, the African tribe in which he had lived. Refused to hand his body over to the British authorities for a proper burial. Eventually, they relented, but not before they cut out his heart and put a note on his body that said, you can have his body, but his heart belongs to Africa. Livingston's life was extraordinary. Was filled with missionary good works and the exploration of the gospel.
And above all, he knew that where he was was where God wanted him to be, and he was under the authority of the one who had called him there. He wrote one time in one of his writings these words. He says, People talk of the sacrifice I have made in spending so much of my life in Africa. Is that a sacrifice which brings its best reward in healthful activity? The consciousness of doing good, peace of mind, a bright hope of a glorious destiny hereafter?
By the way, parentheses, there are a lot of people caught up in the American dream who would give anything just to have those three things. Just have peace of mind. Just have the sense that they're doing something worthwhile. He found it in a place God put him. where most of us would dread to even think about going.
He wrote away with the word in such a view, away with the word of sacrifice. Away with such a thought. It is emphatically no sacrifice. Say red is a privilege. Anxiety, sickness, suffering, or danger now and then, sometimes the foregoing of common conveniences.
May make us pause. And caused the spirit to waver and the soul to sink. But let this only be for a moment. All these are nothing when compared with the glory which shall be revealed in and for us. Then he wrote, and I underlined it: I never made a sacrifice.
To serve under the authority of the living God. is not a sacrifice, it's a privilege. Most of the people I know who are doing that are joyful, happy, fulfilled individuals. And we see it often when they come home from the mission field to do their little furlough. When you talk to them, all they talk about is they can't wait to get back.
Coming home is a real irritation to most of them. They want to go back and serve the Lord. Who has called them into service? The secret. of availability and authority.
Then let me talk with you for a moment about the secret of humility. Jesus taught us how to serve. And I don't want to read this passage because it's rather extended, and you know the story. It's the story of Jesus washing the feet of his disciples. The Bible tells us that on an occasion, listen to this, when his disciples were arguing with themselves over who was the greatest in the kingdom.
Jesus walked in and, without saying a word, took off his outer garment, wrapped himself with a towel, got down on his knees, and watched all of their stinking, filthy feet. One after the other. Wouldn't you have liked to have been there for that moment? I mean, just to see the contrast between these arrogant disciples arguing over their place of prominence. And then the one who had called them to serve.
Bowing before them, taking the place of a servant and washing their feet. And when he got all done, he said, As I have done this, you should do it also. What was Jesus telling them? He's telling them, a servant Serves. Jesus came into this world to serve.
The problem With being a servant is That some of it is not easy. Serving isn't always a walk in the park. Going to Africa has its issues. I couldn't help but wonder what the lack of conveniences was he was talking about in his little paragraph. Ray Stedman writes, Loving people is about the most difficult thing that some of us ever do.
We can be patient with people and even be just and charitable, but how are we supposed to conjure up in our hearts that warm, effervescent sentiment of goodwill which the New Testament calls love?
Some people are so miserably unlovable. We all know what that means, don't we? You say, well, I'll serve God as long as it's in a nice place. with nice people. And no issues.
Don't sign up. There is no such place. Every place has its own issues. You may say, Well, look what you do, Pastor, or look what you do. Oh, yes, I have.
A lot of wonderful things that God has done for me. But I am anxious. Just like you do. Serving God has its issues. And if you're going to serve God, you've got to have a spirit of humility.
That's such an interesting word, isn't it? Humility. Nobody wants to talk about it because as soon as you talk about it, people think you have it and then you're not humble anymore. You know? You heard about the book a guy wrote, Humility and How I Achieved It?
I don't think so. True humility is not thinking less of yourself, but it's thinking of yourself less. C.S. Lewis wrote: Do not imagine that if you meet a really humble man, he will be what most people call humble nowadays. He will not be a sort of greasy, swarmy person who is always telling you that, of course, he is nobody.
Probably all you will think about him is that he seemed like a cheerful, intelligent chap who took a real interest in what you said to him. If you do dislike him, it will be because you feel a little envious of anyone who seems to enjoy life so easily. He will not be thinking about humility. He will not be thinking about himself at all. He will just be who he is.
loving people and being himself. The secret. of humility.
So far, we have availability, authority, humility. Here's the fourth one: the secret of responsibility. There's a parable in the New Testament called the parable of the talents. Where Jesus talks about a certain nobleman who went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and to return. And he called ten of his servants and delivered unto them his treasure and said to them, Do business till I come.
And this is a true parable for our situation today, is it not? The Lord went back to heaven after his crucifixion. He went back to heaven, and he has given to each of us a stewardship of service. And we are to serve knowing that one day he's coming back. And we will give an account of our service.
The secret of availability, authority, humility, responsibility. Here's number five: the secret of ability. Oh yes, ability. Matthew 25, 15 says, To one he gave five talents, to another, two, to another, one, to each according to his own, what's the word class, ability. Almighty God gives to each of us a gift.
He gives us an ability. A gift is something He gives us when we're saved. Every one of us has a special gift. And you should figure out what that gift is. Romans says, through the grace of God we have different gifts.
If our gift is preaching, let us preach to the limit of our vision. If our gift is serving, let us concentrate on our service. If it is teaching, let us give all we have to our teaching. And if our gift be the stimulating of the faith of others, let us set ourselves to it. Let the man who is called to give give freely.
Let the man in authority work with enthusiasm. And let the man who feels sympathy for his fellows in distress help them cheerfully. Here is the book of Romans telling us that God gives us everyone an ability. You say, well, Pastor, I can't do anything.
Well, yes you can. I don't know you. I can tell you on the authority of the Word of God: if you're a Christian, you have a gift that God has given you to serve. And if you don't know what it is, it's not God's fault. It's yours.
You can figure it out if you want to. the secret of ability. Then there's the secret of accountability. Accountability says that when the Lord comes back, you're going to give an account of what you've done.
Now, if you're a Christian, you will never again face your sin. The Bible says that there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. When you accept Jesus Christ as your Savior, He forgives all your sin, past, present, and future. You have to stay in fellowship with Him, but you will never face the penalty for your sin. But the Bible tells us one day we're going to stand before Him at the judgment seat of Christ to give an account of the works we have done in the flesh.
What does that mean? To give an account to the Lord of how we've used our gifts. And I don't want to stand before the Lord someday and have him say, Well, Jeremiah, I gave you this gift and this gift. What did you do with it?
Well, Lord, I hid it because I was afraid.
Somebody wouldn't understand, or Lord, I just never got around to using it, or Lord, I just felt so inadequate. No, whatever the Lord gives you to do. You need to do it because one day you're going to have an account for what you've done with the gift the Lord has given you. Finally, there's the secret of fidelity. I love this.
The Bible tells us that Fidelity is a two-way street. First of all, there's our faithfulness to God. The Bible tells us that if we serve The Lord. We are to serve him with all of our hearts. Hebrews 6:10, John 12, 26.
The Bible tells us that God is going to be faithful to us. That he will say to us one day, Well done, good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of your Lord. It says in 1 Corinthians 4:2, that it is required of a servant that we be faithful. I've always thought about that. You know, God hasn't called me to be successful, He's called me to be faithful.
That may mean that sometimes I am successful, but I'm not always successful. I need to always be faithful to do what God's called me to do, regardless of what happens, or who appreciates it, or who applauds it, or who criticizes it. to be faithful to God. That's my calling. Max Lakato's got a book he's written called It's Not About Me.
And in this book he tells about a conversation he had one day. with an Orthodox Jewish rabbi. on a flight across the country. This is a great story.
Somehow they began to talk about the Torah. And the rabbi began to wax eloquent with Max Lakato about the importance of seeing Old Testament truths through the eyes of a story instead of just hearing the words of the scripture. And he cited Exodus 27: Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain. And then he launched into this story, which he thought was an illustration of this verse. Here was the rabbi's story.
He said in Manhattan, In a skyscraper was a company where everyone worked for a CEO whose office was on the top floor. Most of the people in the building have never seen this CEO. But they know about him because his daughter is in a prominent position in the building. And what do they know about? The CEO.
One morning His daughter approaches Bert, the guard, and says, I'm hungry, Bert. Go down the street and buy me a Danish.
Well, the demand puts Bert in a quandary. He's on duty. I mean, leaving his post puts the building at risk. But his boss's daughter insists, Come on now, hurry up. What option does he have?
And he leaves and he says nothing but thinks something like this: if the daughter is so bossy, what does that say about her father? She's only getting started. Munching on her muffin, she bumps into a paper-laden secretary. Where are you going with all those papers? I have them bound this afternoon for a meeting.
Forget the meeting. come to my office and vacuum the carpet. But I was told, and I'm telling you something else. The woman has no choice. I mean, after all, this is the boss's daughter speaking.
What causes the Secretary to question the wisdom of the daughter and Now, what does this woman Say about the wisdom of her father. And on the daughter goes, making demands, calling shots, interrupting schedules, never invoking the name of her dad, never leveraging her comments with my dad said she doesn't need to. Isn't she the boss's child? Doesn't the child speak for the father? And so Bert abandons his post, an assistant fails to finish a task, and more than one employee questions the wisdom of the man upstairs.
Does he really know what he is doing? They wonder. The rabbi pauses. And looks at Max Lakato and says, But what if the daughter acted differently? And then he proceeded to recast the story.
Rather than demand a muffin from Bert, She brings a muffin to Bert. I thought of you this morning, she explains. You arrive so early. Do you have time to eat? And she hands him the gift.
En route to the elevator, she bumps into the woman with an armful of documents. My, I'm sorry. Can I help? The daughter offers. The assistant smiles and the two carry the stacks down the hallway.
And so the daughter engages the people. She asks about their families. She offers to bring them coffee. New workers are welcome. Hard workers are applauded.
She, through kindness and concern, raises the happiness level of the entire company. She does not even have to mention her father's name. I mean, never does she declare, my father says. There is no need to. Is she not his child?
Does she not speak on his behalf, reflect his heart? When she speaks, they assume she speaks for him. And because they think highly of her, They think highly of her father. They've not seen him. They've not met him.
But they know his child.
So they know his heart. As they come to the end of their flight and the end of the story, The rabbi asks Max Licato, you know how the story ends? No, I don't. How? The daughter takes the elevator to the top floor to see her father.
When she arrives, He is waiting in the doorway. He's aware of her good works and has seen her kind acts. People think more highly of him because of her, and he knows it. And she approaches, and he greets her with six words: words you would never expect a Jewish rabbi to say, since they are the words of Jesus from the New Testament: Well done, good and faithful servant. whether the rabbi knew it or not.
he was illustrating an incredibly biblical truth. Here it is in another passage we know well. Let your light so shine. before men. That they may see your good works and tell everybody what a good guy you are.
No. That they may see your good works and what's the rest of it, and glorify your Father who is in heaven. Did you know men and women when we serve the Lord, We glorify our Father. When we serve the Lord, we cause people to say good things. about the one we serve.
When we glorify the Father by our good works, We are living life at its highest level. where there is the greatest joy. I know I'm a Christian. I know I'm on my way to heaven. And thank God.
I know what I'm supposed to do. on the journey. If you aren't there, If you haven't arrived yet at the knowledge of what God has called you to do, make it your quest for life. You can find it out if you want to know.
Some of you will never go there because you don't want to find out what God wants you to do, because then you'll feel obligated to do it. But for most of you, If you will just put your heart in this issue and ask God to help you, He will show you what He wants you to do, and you can start doing it. Immediately. Amen? You know, friends, I don't think it's possible to really, really, really want to know God's will for your life and not find it out.
In fact, the Bible actually tells us that, that He will show us what we need to do if we come to Him in the right spirit and we come honestly. And I hope that these four messages at the end of the series of Revelation will impress upon your heart the importance of taking what you now know and asking God to give you a path to walk on that will be an influential path for others. As I've said to you, I don't want people just to be smarter about heaven. I want to take people to heaven. And I hope that's your purpose and plan too.
Whatever your gifts are, whatever he's created you to do, however he's made you differently from all of the rest of us, there's a place in your life for you to serve the Lord. Find that place and begin to do it today. And we'll begin August with that in our minds. All right. Thanks again for being with us.
I'm David Jeremiah. Have a great day. Our message today originated from Shadow Mountain Community Church and Dr. David Jeremiah, the senior pastor. If this ministry is an encouragement to you, let us know by writing to TurningPoint PO Box 3838 San Diego, California 92163, visiting our website at davidjeremiah.org slash radio or calling 800-947-1993.
Ask for your copy of David's exciting new novel, Set in the End Times. Vanished. It's yours for a gift of any amount. You can also download the free Turning Point mobile app to instantly access our content. or search in your app store for the keywords Turning Point Ministries.
Visit davidjeremiah.org slash radio for details. That's davidjeremiah.org slash radio. This is David Michael Jeremiah. Join us tomorrow as we begin the series, Prayer: The Great Adventure, on Turning Point with Dr. David Jeremiah.
