EVERYONE IS CALLED TO SERVE Value 3.
HE IS AWESOME
He is the first and the last, the Beginning and the End
He is the keeper of Creation and the Creator of all!
He is the Architect of the Universe and
The Manager of all times.
He always was, He always is and He always will be…
Unmoved, Unchanged, Undefeated, and never Undone!
He was bruised and brought healing
He was pierced and eased pain
He was persecuted and brought freedom
He was dead and brought life
He is risen and brings power
He reigns and brings peace.
Reading from the "Kiwi Bible" Eph 2:1-10
You once went about your life not knowing what the hell was going on around you.
Just doing what everybody else was doing and not knowing that you could give a stuff about what it all meant.
You were sucked into the matrix of a meaningless, regimented life and you didn't even know it.
We were all there once, because that's what we were born into. We obeyed our deeply deceptive programmed desires to do whatever we liked and whatever felt good to our bodies and made us happy.
But into this sad matrix which kept us captive, came a God who existed outside the system and saw it for the crap that it was.
And God was appalled at the power it held over us and what it reduced us to.
It was so far off the plan, it was ludicrous.
And so without us having to do anything.
Do you understand this?
That's right NOTHING
At no cost whatsoever to us
He came into the matrix and blew it apart.
He destroyed it. He dismantled it
He kicked its bottom to the end of eternity, crushing its power over us for ever.
And so the way was made clear to escape from the matrixtentacles
And get on the original path that God had planned from the beginning.
Now for goodness sake, get this straight.
He sorted this.
You can do stuff all to get yourself out of this mess.
It was God who provided the rescuer Jesus Christ
And it's only possible to escape with his help.
So don't even think about how you might have a hand in this.
It is all God's doing
And all you have to do is grab onto this mindblowing freedom and let its power explode into your life.
Because right now, you have got the power of God that transformed Jesus from death to life, available to you.
And you can walk into a lifetime of doing the stuff that you were made to do right from the very beginning of the whole plan of creation.
No more feeling trapped, confused and empty
God has stuff for you to do that only you can do
And God literally sits on the edge of the universe biting his fingernails
Wondering when you're going to get on with it.
Everyone is called to serve
- Service comes as a response to Jesus Christ in our lives. ( the first two values). Not something we have to do. Good works are a response not a way of getting to God. When you have a complete God then you have to reach God by your own attempts.
- God does not force us to love Him neither does He force us to serve Him. But that doesn't mean we should do neither.
Service comes out of love and compassion:
Jesus' love and compassion came from deep within.
Mt 9: 36 When Jesus saw the crowds he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Literally translated, this phrase means: Jesus felt a deep pain in his bowels. And his resulting prayer was: The harvest is plentiful but the labourers are few therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest.
Same in Mark 1: 40 Jesus was moved with compassion, actually anger at the state in which this man was in, Jesus touched the leper and said I do choose, Be made clean.
Before the crucifixion, Jesus cried out over Jerusalem: How I longed to gather you, like a mother hen gathers her chicks under her wing, but you would not have it.
We need to ask God to give us this sort of compassion.
What is at the gut level of the Gospel is this: LOVE
For God SO loved the world that He got involved.
What fired me up from a 15 year old shy, naïve and dissociated fifth former was Love. Love in the form of a leader willing to go in their holiday to a Scripture Union camp and walk a mile in my shoes. When I encountered this and God in her and in this amazing environment, I was propelled out of my existence into something on a totally different plain. I have never been the same since and my passion for God and for serving Him has never diminished.
If it's meant to be it's up to me.
There's stuff out there that only you can do.
Look at this story of a 9 year old girl from Dunedin who said I can make a difference, and she made it happen. She collected thousands of soft toys and sent them to children orphaned by the Tsunami. If she hadn't NOBODY else would have done that thing.
I am convinced that we can make a difference
But it will only happen when we actually do the things we get stirred about.
It was so tempting for me to sit back and not become a minister. There was nothing in my favour, except God's inner voice and believe me that was not written in the sky in big, bold letters.
You've got stuff in your head that you think about but aren't doing.
You don't think you can.
You make excuses about time.
You call yourself too young.
But it's not the truth. Who says you will fail?
And if you fail who says that's a bad thing??
In my opinion we become more like Christ, we grow up as we get involved and do stuff. Otherwise you receive a gift and it sits on the shelf, unused, gathering dust and you wonder why church and being a Christian seems so boring.
Give and it will be given to you, pressed down shaken together and running out all over.
Stretch yourself. The year after I encountered God at the camp I was back as a leader at 16. I directed my first camp at 19. I've never stopped giving in some way into the church. I can't sit on the passion inside me and if you're honest you can't either. It will cost you, but isn't it worth it to bring love and compassion into the world around you.
Enlarge your borders. Spread out the pegs of your tent. Take some risks this year. If you don't cast some seeds nothing will grow.
If it's meant to be it's up to me. But it's not all up to me.
Remember this. None of us are in this alone.
We work together in teams and we cover each other's back.
I can't do what I do on my own, I need God and I need you.
This semester let's learn how to raise our game in terms of expressing the love of God we have come to know. But find your own level of ability and involvement and don't feel pressured by anyone else. Serve in response to what God has done for you.
There are many levels on which to serve:
1. RAK Random acts of kindness, Mt 25: 40
What can you do to make a difference in someone's life this week, today! It could simply be a smile as you walk down the street. It could be getting someone a coffee, or the gift of listening to someone else's story.
I hope we may become a people of kindness, having a lifestyle which thinks of others and looks out for the ways in which we can express it.
Write down some possibilities, share them together. Eg carry someone's groceries, give a compliment. Do this randomly, someone in the supermarket, someone in the uni café, offer to buy them a drink.
More specific opportunities:
2. Helping others as in volunteering at a rest home or buddying up with a needy child. See Michelle for details on this.
3. Leadership. Join a GEL group. See Helen for details.
4. Overseas mission
5. Sharing the Gospel. We are going to take some time to help each other get better at this over the semester.