The Hands and Feet of God

[00:00:00] This audio sermon is provided by AnabaptistSermons.com and may be freely copied and distributed. You may not sell or edit this sermon. Our prayer is that you would be blessed by this ministry. Greetings to each one in Christ's name. I've titled this message, The Hands and Feet of God. And I know that may sound like a long title. A more simple title would be simply, Service. Let's think a little bit about what happened when Jesus ascended to heaven. I think we're all aware of this. What did he leave behind to carry on the work if it wasn't a group of men, disciples? [00:00:42] It was, we could say, I wanted to say it was the working class men But there were also some educated men among them So it was neither the elite group nor was it all working class men And I don't know what we have to learn from that or what that teaches us But what I want to say is these men were moved and guided by the Spirit of God and that enabled them to carry forward the work that Jesus had started. [00:01:14] And today, 2,000 years later, more or less, God is still looking for men and women, neither in the elite group nor the poor working class, doesn't matter. But he's looking for people to work, to serve him, to build his kingdom. And I wasn't sure what to read as far as a text. There are so many scriptures that point us to this, this service, this thing of service. [00:01:47] But I think I'll read for a text Matthew 25 and I'll begin reading at verse 31 and maybe read to the end of the chapter there. This is the judgment scene and there's much that could be said about this. When the Son of Man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory, and before him shall be gathered all nations. And he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats. [00:02:19] And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. Then shall the king say unto them on his right hand, Come ye, blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was in hunger, and ye gave me meat. I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink. I was a stranger, and ye took me in. Naked, and ye clothed me. I was sick, and ye visited me. I was in prison, and ye came unto me. Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee, and hungered, and fed thee, or thirsty, and gave thee drink? [00:02:55] When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in, or naked, and clothed thee? Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? And the king shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these, my brethren, ye have done it unto me. Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat. I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink. I was a stranger, and ye took me not in. Naked, and ye clothed me not. Sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not. [00:03:36] Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or a thirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee? Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me. And these shall go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life. Very familiar scripture. I've heard that scripture read since I was a little boy. [00:04:11] In our Amish setting, we would, once a year, we would have this scripture. Very familiar. Talks about the end of time. The end of time. Judgment. But in light of this scripture, does God require something of his children? Does God require something of us? I had a conversation with a person recently from outside of our circles and he said this, God is not performance based at all. Doesn't matter what you do. Doesn't matter. There's nothing required of you. [00:04:46] And in the sense that it doesn't matter if my father was a millionaire or a pauper or poor. It doesn't matter. He's not performance based on who he calls. But I think one thing is clear. God does expect something of his children. It is not a true statement that God doesn't require anything of us. Over and over, Jesus speaks about bearing fruit. [00:05:18] We have to bear fruit. We need to bear fruit. And Jesus did not waste any time at all telling his disciples, Follow me. But then he said, I will make you fishers of men. It did not take him long at all to delegate some responsibility. You have something to do here. It's not just following, walking behind. They had something to do. And I think in our text there's some key words that ultimately made the difference for the destiny of these people. [00:05:52] And I know there's various different ways that commentators point this. Some of them say this is the end of the millennium or the end of the tribulation or whatever. I'm not going into that this morning, but I want to notice some things here. He called together all nations and some other translations say all people So all of us this morning will be present at Judgment Day I think that's a fact we understand But there's a verse, a key verse in here, some key words [00:06:23] Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these, my brethren, ye have done it unto me I think we all know that verse We've heard it many, many times Done, the word done they had past tense they had done something they had done something there was action and those that were doomed to everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels he said this [00:06:53] inasmuch as ye did not ye did not to one of the ok I'm missing, misquoting here inasmuch as he did it not to one of the least of these He did it not to me. So we do have something that we need to do. What is that? What is that? Did and done. Two simple words made the difference, an eternity of difference. Well, that's not quite proper to say. They made the difference that destiny was different. Two words, simple words. [00:07:28] I don't think of anything as awful as getting up in front of the judge in judgment seat and somehow being so close, but I just didn't do it. I had the opportunity, but I didn't do it. I think that's the most awful thing that people will ever experience, at least for me. If I could turn back time and just go back and just say that kind word or do that deed, I'm sure I would do it right then. [00:08:05] But I'm afraid it would be too late. I'm sure I'm going to focus this morning on service. But there's many things that we could talk about in missing this opportunity. But you know, one of the things that was pressing in on me is this thing of having our ducks in a row. We have our theology, we know what we believe, and we know how to talk just right. We have the answers. Well, I don't always have the answers. [00:08:39] But doing is my weakness. Doing is my weakness. And I don't know if you find it that way, but I would imagine there's people that struggle with the same thing I do. Getting out there and actually doing what God wants me to do. If we have chosen to follow Jesus, we've said this many times, we belong to a different kingdom. We have a different set of values. We have a different direction to our lives. But we are also, if we are serious about it, we are now employed by God. [00:09:14] We have a different director, someone that directs us in a different way. And I thought maybe I should define service. So I looked it up and there's actually there's a lot of definition to the word service. And but the first one says this. The first one in the dictionary I looked says this, work done for somebody else or work done by somebody for somebody else as a job, a duty, or a punishment or favor. [00:09:47] I don't think God is punishing us. When I think of service, I think of hearts that are welling up with gratefulness, that are pressed into service because of their longing to please God because of what He has done for us. Service is a distinct characteristic of a born-again believer. Now, I don't know if I need to repeat this or not, or if I'm not repeating, but we are born, I was born a self-centered individual. [00:10:21] I don't know if anybody would deny that. Brother Merle just emphasized that, and I appreciate that. It is natural man's instinct to follow after his interests and follow hard. Anything that gets in the way gets pushed back and we try, we fight for our rights and we follow after our own interests. But it is the work of the Spirit to enter in and change that interest, change the direction of man. [00:10:57] Men that were so self-centered become selfless in giving. And I've seen that. It's a real blessing. It's a real blessing when you notice that in people. Men that were proud and arrogant have a servant heart. And like Paul, say, Lord, what wilt thou have me do? It makes all the difference in the world. Now, I understand. And service, what I'm talking about this morning is not, Paul doesn't mention it in the fruit of the spirit. [00:11:32] And maybe it's a little hazy for us, not something that just is clearly stated, but I think it is in some areas in the Bible. But it seems to me that service should be the goal of every born again believer. We can profess to be born again, but if we don't have a heart to serve God, I question whether we have truly been born again. And I don't, it doesn't, I'm going to mention some things, but it could be something outside of what I'm mentioning. It doesn't matter if you're called to teach a Sunday school class, or rake your neighbor's leaves, or pick up garbage, or volunteer at the local food pantry. [00:12:15] You put in what you feel is your calling. Or maybe you need, you should be, you have, you feel you should open your home. There's all kinds of opportunities to be a servant. But there's one thing that service should do. It needs to point humanity back to God. We are only serving God. We are the hands and feet of God building His kingdom. Let us never lose the vision for that. Service is the fruit of a consecrated heart. [00:12:49] It is a fruit of a consecrated heart. and even the smallest deed done in a quiet way is done as unto the Lord. You know, there's something else that I thought of. We try to present the positive side of service. And I think we should do that as often as we have a chance. But there's something that happens when we serve the Lord with all our heart. It is a strike against the kingdom of darkness. It stops where the devil wants to enter in. [00:13:22] It stops it and it hinders the work of darkness. Let's remember that. Satan has a kingdom that he wants to build in this world, but when we serve God with all our heart, we are putting up a wall between us and him. Matthew 10.42 says this, and I want to emphasize this morning that service, Well, let me just read this verse in Matthew 10 42 says this and whosoever shall give a drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple. Verily I say unto you he shall in no wise lose his reward. Not sure what he's talking about in the name of a disciple, but I do know this. We don't have to do big things, but we have to be busy about God's work. [00:14:12] It is our responsibility. I think it's fair to say our love for the Lord can be measured by how willing we are, how willing I am to serve my fellow man, brothers and sisters in the church, or my neighbor, or wherever I go. And there's something about this verse that I just read. It's the model for unselfish service. Because if you hand a child a drink of water, How often will that child come back and give you a drink of water? [00:14:45] You're doing something unselfishly. You're giving. Now, where should our service be? And I want to be very careful. Should we serve as what I call ordinary people here? But I don't think we're ordinary. I think we're extraordinary if we're in service for God. God, we're doing something. Or should we go to a foreign field? And this is a question that goes through many people's minds and it has been debated over and over again. But I would pose this question. You know, we all want to do the heavy lifting for God, the big things in life, and it's not wrong. [00:15:31] But if we are not busy in a humble, simple way, at home, building the congregation, trying to serve the Lord right where we're at, I wonder if we can have a higher vision when we're in Africa or somewhere else. I would put that out as a question. But I want to be clear. I'll say this right after that. I want to be clear that I fully support going to service, doing a term of service. [00:16:02] In fact, if there's some youth here that have a question, I say go for it. You are young and you have strength. Serve the Lord with diligence. Don't wait. Don't put it off. Of course, I know that has to be tempered. that has to be done with prayer and in counseling with your parents or maybe the church but serve the Lord nevertheless serve the Lord but let's not forget we have a serve service to do right here at the local level and let's not lose our focus on building right where we're at let's build [00:16:46] Now, how did Jesus serve? And I'm not going to read very many scriptures as far as where he went or how he did it, but there's some direction. If you look at the overall picture, Jesus was the example, our model. He served as he went. He served as he went. Actually, it would be more correct to say that he served wherever he went. He did serve as he went, but sometimes he served in out-of-the-way places. [00:17:23] He was available, and he ministered as needed as he went. Now let's just look at a little pattern here. He delivered a demon-possessed man as he passed through, I'm not sure how to pronounce that, Guderianus, doesn't matter. You all know where he cast out a demon. He was passing through the country. On his walk to Capernaum, he used his time to teach the disciples. And I have references here, Mark 9, 33-37 and Matthew 8, 28-34. [00:17:57] While he was returning from Decapolis, he took advantage of opportunities to heal the sick and raise the dead. What I'm saying here is he didn't wait. As he went, he was aware of opportunities. He was watching people. He was seeing needs. Do we have divine appointments here? Have you had a chance to talk to your co-worker or a neighbor about the goodness of God recently? You know, there's times, and I'll confess this, [00:18:32] many times when I miss an opportunity, I know I had an opportunity, but I just spurned it because I thought I just don't know how to say it. And I'm in this situation right now where I thought I should go talk to this person. I thought there's something I could share. This person was discouraged, but I just wasn't sure. I just didn't think it was the right time. I just didn't know how to say it, but I've had another opportunity, and I'm thankful for that. [00:19:05] Don't spurn your opportunity. If you have a chance to share the love of God with someone else, or just show love, or just be there and just listen, do it. Don't wait. It might be the last time that you have that opportunity. You know what? Jesus was hanging on the cross, bleeding, and he still took opportunity to talk to that thief. Either side, he comforted one and he reminded another one. It's don't spurn your opportunity. [00:19:40] Our divine appointments come at the most difficult times sometimes. It just it's late and it's time to be in bed and the phone rings and somebody needs something or there's work to be done. We just don't have time for it. Or let's just it's it's even more simple than that. And I think Merle touched on this already. We have children. We have a service before we even leave the house. The children cry and we just don't, but we are there to serve. [00:20:15] And in serving others, we are serving God. Jesus was the perfect example of a servant heart. He said this, But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant, and whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased, and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted. Notice the greatness that Jesus is talking about in Matthew 23.11 Our level of service is not based on our ability or personality or who we know or where we come from [00:20:46] But it is based on my servant heart or your servant heart Your willingness to serve in a humble way It is a paradox that humanly speaking is hard to understand And it comes back to the principle of denying oneself. Jesus also said, This greater love hath no man than that a man lay down his life for his friends. This is the epitome of a servant heart. Willingness to go the second mile, the extra mile. [00:21:19] This type of love, this type of service goes beyond what I feel like doing. There are many times when we, I wonder if it's even worth trying with some people. But you know what? If this is true, and it is true, there's never a reason to stop. There's never a reason, a good reason to stop. But this type of service, with this level of love, brings a purpose and mission to our lives like nothing else will. [00:21:53] There are many people today that just are looking for a purpose in life and there just doesn't seem to be a purpose and they just keep muddling through life, just kind of surrounding themselves with their toys and things and they hang on to that and they try to find happiness, but they don't succeed. They're still unhappy. There's a sense of emptiness in something like that. You know, it goes even deeper than that. [00:22:26] There are many churches and marriages that are failing today. And I wonder if it doesn't come back, in part, to a lack of a servant heart. We say there's a lack of commitment. And that's true. I agree with that. But you know what? When I, when there's, and maybe we shouldn't even look outside of what I consider outside of our circles, but we all come back to the high level or the rate of divorce in our day. [00:23:00] And when there are many wives that say, I'm tired of washing his dirty clothes. I don't, I'm sick of it. I, I'm not going to be his doormat. I'll leave. I'll go somewhere else. But you know what? They'll never find what they're looking for. The same is true for men, maybe in a different area, but a lack of a servant heart. When there's a lack of a servant heart in churches, I'm not willing to serve my brother. [00:23:33] I'm not, you know what, that same self-centered spirit just wants to destroy. It's Satan's tool to destroy churches. When I'm no longer able to overlook the shortcomings and see the good in my brothers and sisters, I'm serving self. It's a lack of a servant heart. Now maybe this is a little too harsh. How well do we like to serve? You know, I wonder, when we grumble and complain because I have to teach Sunday school again [00:24:07] and I just don't have time to study and I taught six months ago And I just wish, this brother over here, he never teaches. I just wish I wouldn't have to do this anymore. You know, God wants to bless his children. He wants us to have a higher standard than that. Ecclesiastes 9.10 says this, and this is just a snippet coming out of the middle of a verse. It says this, whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might. [00:24:39] And you know what? If we give ourselves to that service, God will bless that. I've heard this over and over in testimonies that people have said, it was what I needed. And this is real to me. You know, I never desired to get up and preach. That was not in the cards for me. I did not. But you know, sometimes God puts us in a spot where we are, we have to do something. We have to respond. And who gets the blessing? [00:25:12] You know, I wonder if I would just sit back, if he would have allowed me to sit back, if I would have had a vision for service. It seems like I have an awful, an awful streak of laziness sometimes. And God knows that. You know, there's really only one addiction that's scriptural. I was in Hicksville some time ago and we, after the message, or after we had a fellowship dinner, one of the brothers came to me afterward and we had in our Sunday school lesson that morning [00:25:45] studied about addictions and alcohol and he said, there is an addiction that's scriptural. And then he proceeded to read in 1 Corinthians 16, verse 14, no, in verse 15 actually, Paul speaks about this Let all your things be done with charity I beseech you brethren, ye know the house of Stephanas that it is the firstfruits of Achaia that they have addicted themselves to the ministry of the saints that ye submit yourselves unto such [00:26:18] and to everyone that helpeth with us and laboreth they were addicted now they must have been on fire for the Lord if they were addicted to the ministry of the saints I did some research on this and this apparently was one of the first families or was the first family that had been converted in Achaia. But I want to notice something. Verse 18, 1 Corinthians chapter 16 verse 18 says this, several verses later, For they have refreshed my spirit and yours. [00:26:51] Because of their addiction to serving the saints, they were a blessing. Therefore acknowledge ye them that are such. You know what? We are saved to serve, to serve God. And we are most like God when we are serving others. When people begin to serve God, the beauty of God becomes evident to the world. [00:27:23] C.S. Lewis says this, He commands us to do slowly and blunderingly what he could do perfectly and in the twinkling of an eye. But you know what, it doesn't matter how little or how much we have to share. But let's share it. Let's give it all we have. We have only one life to give. And all that we give, this life will soon be passed. But all that we've given for God, that's all that will last. [00:27:58] That's all that will be left over when we stand before God in judgment. Just what we have done to serve Him. Now there's just quickly a few things that probably I've struggled with and that's why they came to mine. How do you struggle with your service? Where do you struggle? I struggle with time. You know, it just seems like there's not enough time. I just don't have enough time. There's someone else that has more time than I do. [00:28:31] I don't know if that's an excuse. Maybe I'm talking about something that isn't even mine to begin with. We are given the gift of time and we all have an allotted time to live and God will require something from us. When we get the mentality that time is short and eternity is forever, it puts a new emphasis on serving with all our heart with what little time that we have. Where do we struggle in? [00:29:05] What is our struggle when we are serving? When we are our time? What do we do with our time? You know, I thought about it the other day. I spend a lot of time thinking about how I'm going to provide for my family. And how I'm going to make ends meet. And how I'm going to do this. But it's all just right here. And it's not wrong. We have to provide for our family. We have, that's our responsibility. But what about the time I spent in my hobbies? [00:29:38] And I just feel I have a right to do this because I, after all, I like to do it. What about the time I spent surfing the internet? Well, I don't, I guess I'm kind of limited. I have dial-up and it takes too long and I just get tired of it sometimes. But you know what? We get caught up in these things and we become so self-centered that what we didn't have to do now is a necessity and we're missing our divine appointments. [00:30:10] Time. We don't have time. Time. One of the things that I see coming at us, and this is, I think, a waste of time. And maybe I shouldn't be so harsh on it. I know that there's a balance. Everything that happens, there may be some good. But I've wondered why these weblogs are so important. They take so much time away. [00:30:43] And then what is wrong with having a weblog where everybody in the whole world can see my family or my home. But in considering this thing, I came to the conclusion that there's at least one thing. There's this thing that I, when I have a weblog, I can be high, high behind that computer and people see only what I want to present to the world. they see a happy smiling family [00:31:14] that's what I want the world to see it becomes a self-centered thing and it takes a lot of time and many times when there are problems and I've heard this discussion well we saw it on such and such we saw it on Facebook yeah we saw it there they're having this and this when there are struggles then we have the ability to to put our spin on the struggle. And it's not really my fault. [00:31:44] It's this person over here. Let's be very careful. It can ultimately come down to being a time that could be spent on our knees praying. Or it could be spent relating to our children rather than having it out there for the whole world to see. I'm sure, I'm sure that there are people that say, and truthfully, it's a good place to put prayer requests. I understand that. There may be some good to it. [00:32:17] But let's be careful. Our finances, our money, where do we struggle? You know, all that I have, all that is given to us is really God's. And we are to use it the way God wants us to use it. It doesn't matter if I hand a tenth of it in, it's still all God's. And He still wants the whole check. When I get my check on a Friday, somehow I have to be sensitive. [00:32:49] It is God's. Matthew 6 verse 1 and 2 have some very good advice Take heed that ye do your alms before men to be seen of them otherwise ye have no reward of your father which is in heaven therefore when thou doest thine alms do not sound a trumpet before thee as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets that they may have glory of men verily I say unto you they have their reward I don't want to be critical But I've noticed that you can open the paper and you can see that this group has contributed $20,000 to this cause or this group was doing that. [00:33:29] But let's be careful. Let's be careful. I trust that all of us want our reward to be in heaven. And I think there's clear direction here. Maybe it's beyond just our finances. When we do something, we like it when people ask us, or we like to say, oh, I've been busy all week, I was over here helping these people and doing this, and I wonder, is it the same? How does this fit in here? [00:33:59] Well, you run that through your mind, you use your judgment on it. I don't want to discourage anybody from helping someone. Paul says this in Romans 12.8, and this is another just a snippet of something. He says, he that giveth, let him do it with simplicity. In just a simple way, in a quiet way, let's give of ourselves, whether it be time or money. Now, when does service feel like a heavy load to you? [00:34:31] On a Sunday morning, relating to the brothers and sisters, talking about going to service, it feels like, you know, it's a challenge, we want to do it, and it feels good. people are going to service and people are doing things but what about when we lose sleep when it costs us something and we think it's kind of infringing upon my time or my thing [00:35:01] Paul says this and this is a verse that we should all know I think we all do probably I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of God God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, wholly acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. Imagine that. It's only reasonable that I give my body. Now, what all does that include? I don't know. We had baptismal service here a couple weeks ago, and I thought about it. [00:35:33] Nobody asked me, but I think if we would be in a country where we would be so persecuted, I think we would have maybe a better understanding of giving our body. I don't want to speak down on it. We have our struggles here. We face maybe a larger enemy, the enemy of affluence. But Paul, I was looking for this scripture this morning, in one place Paul just simply enumerated his beatings and all that he struggled with. [00:36:09] And then he said, on top of that, the care of all the churches. I think he understood well what reasonable, what it felt like to be giving his body. I want to end on this, and I think this room here, there have been many people in this right here, sitting right here, that have traveled many miles, spent many hours on their knees. [00:36:39] God bless you for that. That is a real privilege. That is a real benefit, I want to say, to the church of Jesus Christ. There is a joy and a blessing in serving God that offsets all the hardship that we encounter. I don't think there is anything that brings us to the level of satisfaction that we get from humbly serving somebody else in a quiet way. [00:37:12] We've talked about having purpose and having a mission in life. But I would venture to say that there have been many messages preached on joy. But if you want joy, be a servant. Be a servant. I know it's hard to understand, and the reason why I know is because I've experienced it. Only recently I was just so stressed out, and I thought, if that phone rings again, [00:37:44] I thought things were just spinning out of control, and I don't know when it hit me, but I was probably going to work, I don't know. I thought, you know what, I need somebody to serve. If I need to get out of my own shell and I need to see a need And lo and behold the Lord sent me a situation where I was able to do that You know, my situation did not change at all But I felt totally different And I trust that's each one of your experience [00:38:17] I know that many of you have experienced that Psalms 126, 5 and 6 say this They that sow in tears shall reap in joy He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him I'm not sure how to close a message like this But I just challenge each one of you Be about the Lord's business It doesn't matter if you're a grandfather It doesn't matter, you don't have to be very old to give somebody a cold glass of water [00:38:51] But I encourage, I challenge you to get that vision for service Right where you're at And God will bless that and carry it even further Don't put it off Don't put off talking to your neighbor Or encouraging your friend Or making that call that you felt for a long time you should make Don't put it off Let's kneel for prayer Father in heaven, we thank you this morning that when we call out in faith [00:39:27] and we put our shoulder to the wheel that you're willing to take your end of it. We thank you, Lord, that though there are difficulties and that we want to be about your business, your work, and we struggle at times, there's also that joy in serving you. We thank you for that this morning. Father, I ask this morning that you would give us a higher vision for service, whether it's here, doesn't matter what it costs us. Father, I just ask that you would give us willing hearts, hearts that want to serve, hearts that are open to whatever you ask of us. [00:40:06] Be with us, Lord. We ask your blessing upon us. Further, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.