Foundations of Truth

Guest (Male): Welcome to Foundations of Truth, the Bible teaching ministry of Pastor Timothy Mann and Providence Church, Ormond Beach, Florida. Providence Church is a local assembly of followers of Jesus Christ dedicated to helping people become committed and mature followers of Jesus Christ. Now here's Pastor Tim Mann with today's message: Serving to the Praise of God.

Dr. Timothy Mann: I don't know about you, but I would have to say that there is nothing more wonderful than being saved. There's just nothing greater than to have believed in Jesus, God's one-of-a-kind Son, as the only way to God the Father. There's nothing more awesome than to have Almighty God forgive you of your sin and impart to you his eternal life. Would you agree with that? I'm talking about the experience of becoming a Christian. Believing on Jesus Christ.

This is the absolute best thing that could ever happen to you in this life. And then to know that God is your Father, that Jesus is your Savior, and that Heaven is your home. How many of you here this morning are thankful for the salvation that Jesus Christ has given you? Do you praise God today for the grace and forgiveness that he's given you through the cross of Jesus Christ?

If you are here this morning and that is not the testimony of your life, then the Lord God calls on you to turn from your own way of living, to turn from your sin, and to trust Jesus. Trust him and his death on the cross and his resurrection from the dead for the forgiveness of your sin, for your eternal life, and for your salvation. Repent and believe on Christ this day. Trust him today. If that's not the testimony of your life, trust him today.

However, unfortunately, a lot of church people think that's all there is to it. The sad part is that they miss out, at least on part of what being a Christian is about, and they cause the church to miss out on what God can do. If you're a Christian here today—I mean you've truly trusted Christ, you've given your life to him—ask yourself these questions. For what purpose did God save me? Why did Jesus die for me? Why did God forgive me and indwell me with his Holy Spirit?

Well, some of you might say, "Because he loved me." Well, yes, obviously. But was that the only purpose? Was that the only reason for his grace? I submit to you that it was not. And for those of you who are the more theologically high-minded, you'll say, "It was to bring glory to God." And while that may be a correct answer, what does that mean in real life? I mean in real time.

The call to salvation includes a call to serve God. You are saved by Christ. If that's the case, you were saved by Christ to serve Christ in his work. The New Testament is clear, it's abundantly clear, in its presentation of that truth. You can survey the Gospels—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John—and every invitation to eternal life that Jesus gave during his earthly ministry was a call to follow him in his kingdom work.

The number one evangelistic invitation that Jesus gave was not, "Ask me into your heart." As a matter of fact, he never uttered those words once. Instead, what he said was something like this: "Deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow me." That was his main evangelistic invitation. Deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow me. And then he would go on to say something like this, basically, "And if you're not willing to forsake everything and everyone, you can't be my disciple."

That's a little bit different than make a decision for Jesus or ask Christ into your heart, isn't it? A little different. And unfortunately, the church in recent years has done an inadequate job in communicating that truth. As a result, churches are so out of whack from what they should be. They're ineffective for the kingdom. I didn't say they can't draw a crowd. There's a big difference between a crowd and a church. They're ineffective for the kingdom because they actually have a very small group of people carrying out the so-called work.

Sadly, in some situations, that small group wants to keep it that way. That's not the case here. And then what happens is that everybody else thinks that the blessings of salvation and the existence of the church is actually to cater to them and provide a religious product that they can benefit from when they want to, if they happen to like what is offered. And if they lose interest in it or get bored by it or stop liking it, they'll shop somewhere else.

What we end up having is we end up having clubs for religious people instead of churches of kingdom workers who are actually striving to serve God in his kingdom. That is so far off from what Jesus instituted and what the Bible teaches. I am all for the fellowship and community aspect of church life. I preached a sermon on it last week. Remember that? All the one-anothering one-anothers? If you were here, I'm all for that. That's an important part of church life.

But the church is not a club where its members simply perpetuate activities for their own enjoyment and their own entertainment. The church is a band of followers of Jesus Christ on a mission to carry out the work that Jesus started. Getting people ready, getting people into, and getting people ready for the kingdom that Christ will establish when he returns. The church is a redeemed people working with an end in view.

And folks, there is an end coming. As a matter of fact, the text hopefully you're opened up to already, 1 Peter chapter four. Before we get to verse 10 and 11, let your eyes fall to verse seven. 1 Peter 4, verse seven, where the apostle's writing and this is what he says. He says, "But the end of all things is at hand." If Peter wrote that then, how much closer are we now? But the end of all things is at hand. Therefore, be serious and watchful in your prayers.

But all that I've just talked about is what we end up with when individual Christians and the church does not understand its reason for existing, and when members don't understand one of the primary reasons that they're saved for in the first place. If you belong to Jesus and Jesus belongs to you, do you know what that means for you? It means that you have a divine mandate on your life. He saw in you a person he wanted to use.

He's called you to serve him. That's what this is all about today: serving to the praise of God. We're going to look specifically at verse 10 and 11 of 1 Peter chapter four. Just those two verses. Let's read it. 1 Peter chapter 4, verse 10 and 11. This is what the Bible says: "As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. If anyone speaks, let him speak as the oracles of God. If anyone ministers, let him do it with the ability which God supplies, that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belong the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen."

This is God's word. I'm not going to spend a lot of time expounding this passage necessarily. There are five principles in these two verses that we just read about serving God. Five principles about serving God in these two verses. Like I said, I'm not going to spend a lot of time expounding each one because, simply stated, they stand on their own. However, they are clarifying truths about our activity as followers of Christ that we need to grasp, and we need to grasp them without misunderstanding.

I want to show you the first one. The very first one is in verse 10, the first phrase: "As each one has received a gift." So here's the first principle: you have been equipped to serve God. You have been gifted to serve God. If you are saved, as I talked about at the very beginning of our time, if you become a believer in Jesus Christ—you are born again by the grace of God—the Bible says that God has gifted you to be used by him in his service. As each one has received a gift.

First, what happened is he indwelt you with his Holy Spirit. This is a mystery, a beautiful thing, something we can't fully understand, but it's a reality that the Bible teaches. Let me tell you what happened when the Lord saved you. This is what happened at conversion. The Holy Spirit of God, somewhere along the way in your life, uninvited and unannounced, stepped in. Through the teaching and preaching of the Word and through circumstances or whatever he may have been orchestrating in your life, he opened your eyes and your heart to the truth of the gospel.

And he said to Satan, "Leave." And he said to you, "Come here. I want you. Trust me as your Lord and Savior. Here's what I've done for you on the cross through my Son, Jesus Christ. Come to me, repent of your sin, believe on me, give your life to me." And he worked this work of repentance and faith in your life, and you chose to believe on Jesus and you repented of your sin. You said, "I give up, I surrender, I'm yours. I don't understand everything, but I know I need to be forgiven of my sin. I know I'm lost without you. I know I'm going to hell without you. Would you have mercy on me? Would you save me? Would you forgive me? Would you come into my life and be my Savior and Lord?" Do you remember that?

Let me tell you what happened. The Bible says—and I don't know how to explain it, all I know is the Bible says it's true—the Holy Spirit of God, the third person of the Trinity, you might not have even known there was a Trinity at the time, you didn't understand about sanctification, you didn't know what there was about a Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit of God indwelt you. He entered into your inner man and you're indwelt by God himself. And the Bible says that he gifted you, he empowered you, he gave you spiritual gifts. At least one to use in his work.

Here's the good news about all of this: no Christian has been left out. Nobody gets left out in receiving a gift, in getting this spiritual gift. You have at least one spiritual gift. And then in addition to that, God has given you a temperament, a personality that God has given you. Through your life now, you have specialized skills that you have. You have a passion towards certain topics. I mean, there's just some things that fire you up. You get excited about certain topics and interests and you want to engage because it interests you. God has put it on your heart.

And you have life experiences, both good and bad, that God has allowed you to have. You put all that mixed together—God has given you a gift, he's given you a temperament, you have specialized skills, you have a passion towards certain topics and interests, and you have life experiences that God has allowed you to have—he didn't allow you to have all of that to be wasted and to do nothing with. God has given you all that is necessary to serve him. You have his Word, you have his Spirit, all that I've just referenced already that he has given you.

So what does that mean? That means then that there is no excuse of, "I just don't have anything to offer." That excuse doesn't, as we used to say back in the mountains of North Carolina, that dog doesn't hunt. It doesn't fly. God has gifted you by his grace. Let me ask you: have you identified what those gifts are? Do you thank him for those gifts? Do you praise him for those gifts? Do you recognize what he has given you in your life? The very first principle out of these two verses is this: you have been gifted, you are equipped to serve God.

Second principle is the next phrase: "Minister it to one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God." Minister it to one another as good managers, stewards, of the varied, multi-dimensional, multi-faceted grace of God. Here's the principle: you have not only been equipped and gifted to serve God, but you are to faithfully minister God's grace to others. You are to faithfully minister that gift that God has given you to others. This is the heartbeat of the church. Giving God's grace to others through your giftedness, through serving God.

What is God's grace? If you ever wonder what God's grace is, get a good look at the cross. It is revealed at the cross of Calvary. That's a clear picture of God's grace. It is God's undeserved kindness and favor toward sinners that he has exhibited through Jesus Christ. Like the Apostle Paul said in Romans 5:8: "But God has commended, he has demonstrated his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." That's grace. That salvation that's free, that's available, that you come to know Jesus.

And it's all about others. As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another. That's somebody else. It's all about reaching out to others and to each other, and it's all about the gospel. Serving God is all about taking the gospel to those who are lost and taking the gospel back and forth to one another on a regular basis, and serving one another and serving others in this way. Most of us just want to hang out with our friends, people we already know, and our family. We want to do outreach to those we already have, if we do any outreach at all.

Mostly we just enjoy having God's grace ourselves, and we really don't give a second thought about those who don't. And yet we serve God, the scripture says, by ministering his gospel grace to others. You are to be a minister. And take note, it says we're to be ministering to one another as good stewards. That's faithful managers of God's grace. To be a faithful manager, to be a good steward, that means that serving God is not an on-again, off-again sort of thing. It's not minister this gift you have given to one another if you feel like it, or if you're happy, or if everything's going my way.

No, God's word says faithfully, as good stewards, as faithful managers. So I need to ask you: are you serving God in some way? Are you ministering your gifts to others as a faithful manager of the grace of God? The straightforward command of verse 10 is this: as a good manager, you must use the gift that God has given you to serve others. Is that what's happening? And if not, why not? I'm not asking you: are you in full-time vocational Christian ministry like I am?

What I'm asking you is: are you obeying this verse somehow, somewhere, sometime? And almost never is not the right answer. That is not the right answer. Yes, we all have life responsibilities. Yes, we all have financial obligations. Yes, some of us have real physical limitations. But none of that negates this obligation to fulfill the expectation of our Lord in this verse. There are no "yeah but" clauses in here. Anytime you see a command in God's word that's as straightforward as this, then there's a problem, and it's not with the command.

"Yeah but I'm busy." No, that didn't say this. These are spiritual gifts given by the Spirit of God for spiritual purposes. To not use our gifts in and for ministry is to live in disobedience. I don't know how else to say that. It's just to live in disobedience. So the second principle here is not only you've been gifted to serve, but secondly, there's a clear expectation that I and you are to be a faithful minister of those gifts for others and serving others. Third principle is verse 11: "If anyone speaks, let him speak as the oracles of God."

Here's the third principle: you serve God by what you say. You serve God by what you say. Now, by the way, I could even expand that out to be by what you communicate. So that would include what you write on social media, what you put in an email. You serve God by what you say. Do you know the Bible is filled with references to the power of, to the control of, and the use of the tongue? It's filled with that. As a matter of fact, Jesus said that the evidence of what is in your heart comes out by your speech.

Your speech is evidence of what's in your heart. And if you didn't know this, let me fill you in: the New Testament commands believers to not use vulgar language, cursing, or coarse jesting as a manner of speech. And the Bible actually commands us to not associate with those who do. Why? Is that just an arbitrary command? Well, you just shouldn't cuss. Why? Well, I think it ties back to what we just read right here: if anyone speaks, let him speak as the oracles of God. Because we are to serve Christ by what we say.

We are to serve in such a way that our very words represent the mind and heart of Christ as revealed in the Scriptures. We are to communicate the truth of the Word of God. You personally, you are to speak the words of God. Not just preachers. This isn't just for preachers. You are to be a preacher. Let me ask you: are you responsible with what you say? I'm not always, I have to be honest. Are you responsible with what you say? Do you speak as though God himself were speaking through you?

The Bible states very clearly that is how you serve God. But it doesn't leave it there. Look at the next phrase. You been equipped to serve God, you've been given a gift. You're to faithfully minister to others using that gift. You serve God by what you say. But now here's number four: you serve God by what you do. Look at the next phrase: "If anyone ministers, let him do it as with the ability which God supplies." So look, you can't just be all talk, right? There has to be works, tangible service.

This phrase speaks of participation. This speaks of rolling up your sleeves and getting your hands dirty in the mission of Christ. This speaks of doing. When's the last time you actually ever did anything in the name of the Lord Jesus for the glory of God in the kingdom of God? When's the last time? Can you name it? Some of you are thinking, "Well, back in 1967 I did this." Well, what have you done for me lately? Jesus says. Many church members think they've been called to serve God but only in an advisory capacity.

Listen, there are so many souls to be won, there are so many disciples to be made. Every Christian has to do their part. And I am so thankful that we don't have to do it in our own energy. God provides the strength. That's what he says here. God provides the ability. Have you ever wondered what you can do for the Lord outside in your own life day by day as you are going and living your life? There's all kinds of ways you can serve God by using your gifts to impact somebody else.

Listen to what the Apostle Paul had to say about him in Philippians 2. He said it this way: "Your attitude should be the same as that as Christ Jesus." The old King James says it this way: "Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus." Basically, in common day language, your attitude should be the same as that as Christ Jesus, who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness, and being found in the appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death, even death on a cross.

Guest (Male): Listen, we don't serve in the church just to get to be with our buddies. We don't serve in a church to get to do our hobby in a religious setting or to feel important or to exalt our ego. We serve so that in all things, God may be glorified in Jesus Christ exalted. You've been listening to Foundations of Truth, the Bible teaching ministry of Pastor Timothy Mann and Providence Church, Ormond Beach, Florida. Providence is located at 1151 West Granada Boulevard, Ormond Beach, Florida.

If you'd like to contact or learn more about Providence Church, go online to theprovidencechurch.org. If this program has ministered to you, please feel welcome to call the church at 386-310-4997 or write us at 1151 West Granada Boulevard, Ormond Beach, Florida, 32174. If you feel led by God to financially support Foundations of Truth, visit the giving link at theprovidencechurch.org. Until next time, continue to build your life on the foundations of truth through Jesus Christ and God's written word.