A Servant For A Service

"A Servant For A Service" – 1 Peter 4:10 "As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God." The message opens by asking the congregation what gift each one has received and whether it is in use, and from there works through the verse part by part: the gift is for a service, and the service is for another, not for oneself. It is completed with Ephesians 2:10 —we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God prepared beforehand, with Ephesians 2:8-9 behind it— and with Mark 10:43-45, where Jesus answers the dispute of James and John over first place and leaves the model: the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give His life a ransom. Running through the message is the figure the pastor closes with: the deer, the most delicate of animals, whose name in Spanish (ciervo) sounds exactly like the word for servant (siervo).

I. "As every man hath received the gift"

A. God has given every one of us a gift. Who feels he has no gift from God? And who has it in use?

B. The proof is being able to say what it is. We ought to be adults by now: we would go further, and we would be servants for a service.

C. If God has given you a gift, the gift is for a service. The gift is not for you: it is a service you are to render in life.

D. She did not have to be a pastor to visit homes: she went with a friend, they preached, they prayed for the sick and the sick were healed. She preached from the day she was converted.

E. "I am not going to say I have a gift: the gift springs out." The action shows what one claims to have, because a gift is a present from God.

F. A servant has a service, an action, something to do that comes from God. It is not cooking at home nor praying for your household: it is an action, as a servant.

G. Servants, by nature, are those who do their work with tenderness.

II. In life there is always a service

A. If you do not do it, you are in idleness; and if you are in idleness, your hands are empty.

B. The Bible teaches that God does not call His children to passivity, but to service.

C. When each believer serves with the gift God has given him, the church grows.

D. The gift springs from you but is not for you: it answers a need. It may be the word, it may be prayer.

E. Life is one and is not to be wasted. Bad days come, hard days, dark days.

F. People are strengthened when someone dares to ask "how are you? are you well?" and to answer honestly.

G. "I will pray for you" costs nothing. Make a point of praying, for if you do not pray you mend nothing for anyone.

III. The purpose of the gifts

A. The purpose of the gifts is not to exalt the one who receives them, but to display the grace of God and to bless others.

B. The one who receives carries a weight from shoulder to shoulder: if he does not use it, it weighs on him.

C. On the word "blessed": she does not say "I bless you," because blessing comes from God. One says "God bless you, God keep you," knowing it is God who brings the blessing one is asking for.

D. It is natural to the human being to seek being served; we grow capricious, self-willed, pretentious. And we are here to serve.

E. If you are honest with yourself: whom do you do good to? We look for people's flaws, or for sarcasm. How different from Jesus, who walked so beautifully on the earth.

F. No believer is excluded: God gives capacities, talents and spiritual gifts, different to each person — to teach, to serve, to encourage, to show mercy.

G. Mercy shows in the face: when you set your face with tenderness and love, whoever looks at you sees mercy. "Try it tomorrow and see."

H. The worst thing in an adult is mockery: laughing at the one who falls, mocking the one who errs. That is to lack the essence of love, and love is what we are finally here to do.

I. The more a person is given, the more he demands — like the man in the tale who asked for a house, then gold, then that heaven be brought down, and lost all three petitions for asking what was not his to ask.

IV. "Minister the same one to another"

A. What God gives as gifts, minister it to others. It is not for showing off.

B. The word "minister" means to serve.

C. Gifts are not for seeking recognition, but for blessing and edifying other people.

V. "As good stewards"

A. Heaven sees us as stewards. Life was not made entirely for you.

B. A steward cares for something that belongs to another: he is a keeper. Our gifts belong to God.

C. If God gives you a gift, you must care for it and multiply it. We cannot stay where we are: there must always be action in fulfilling what God commands.

D. They cannot be set aside or hidden, for then they do not multiply; and when God sees it, He takes it and passes it on.

E. Since they belong to God, He has entrusted them to us to be used faithfully: if God trusts us, He expects us to do things with much faithfulness.

F. Small things are service too: the mother who cares for her children with love, the grandmother who wakes in the small hours to pray for her granddaughters. That is giving. And the more we give, the more good we see in others.

G. When things are done with gladness, you see how happy you come to be.

H. One day we will give account of how we used the gifts. That day there will be no going back, for it is when we stand before the throne of God.

I. The angels are writing constantly; everything of today is written and goes up to heaven. "The Bible leaves me paralyzed."

VI. "The manifold grace of God"

A. The grace of God shows itself in many ways: He gives diverse gifts so the body of Christ may work in harmony.

B. It is not you: it is the body of Christ. And if you do not do it, you are making Christ look bad.

C. He contributes diverse gifts and ministries so that nothing is lacking to the church.

D. Three questions the verse leaves: what gifts has God given me? Am I using them to serve another or only myself? Am I faithfully managing what God has entrusted to me?

E. God calls every believer to serve: not one more and another less — everyone.

F. What children do passes first through what we do: the one who bends to pick up what another dropped teaches that action; the one who returns the neighbor's ball teaches that keeping it is stealing and goes against the purity of God.

G. If we fail in the light things, how much more in the service that falls to us. God does not send ornaments among human beings: He sends a service, and therefore we are all servers.

VII. Ephesians 2:10 — "we are his workmanship"

A. The verse sums up the purpose of the new life in Christ: it begins at conversion, for while we were ungodly it mattered to no one.

B. "Workmanship" means work or creation: you are a work made by God the day you were converted and He washed you with His blood. He made you.

C. We are God's work, and He is forming and transforming us according to His will. And it is hard.

D. "Created in Christ Jesus": not my father's blood nor my mother's nor anyone else's — it is the blood of Christ that covers me, from the day we repented of our trespasses and sins.

E. It speaks of the new spiritual birth. Whoever stays carnal is halfway, neither one thing nor the other; and no one goes up to heaven halfway. In Christ there are no middle terms.

F. By faith in Christ, God makes us new creatures. When one is kind today and wants to see no one tomorrow, it is not that "the day was bad": it is the flesh that must repent, and that is absence of prayer.

G. "Unto good works": the good work does not save us; it is the fruit of salvation. First God saves by grace (Ephesians 2:8-9), and then He calls us to live a life that reflects that grace.

H. Being saved is the conversion; the long life God gives is for sanctification, and without holiness no one shall see the Lord.

I. That life must show: let people notice there is something in you, let them say "talk to her, she can pray for us." People are in need, and we are on earth to do good.

J. "Which God hath before ordained": God has a purpose for every believer and has already prepared the opportunities to serve and glorify Him before we walk in them.

K. "That we should walk in them": it is not doing one good work once, but living daily in obedience to God and practicing what is good.

VIII. Mark 10:43-45 — service is done in humility

A. Service can be rendered where there is humility; apart from that we do favors because they suit us, but a service is done because one is humble.

B. Jesus said these words after James and John asked for the first places. That is what selfishness looks like: "you first and I second."

C. They had newly come after Jesus, young men —John the youngest, very immature— and already they were contending for first place; and the other disciples were indignant.

D. Jesus took the occasion to teach that greatness in the kingdom is wholly unlike the world's: in the kingdom of God there is no greatness, there is much service, much giving, much sorrow, much pressure. There is no applause.

E. They suffered much: James was killed early, and John, the only one who reached about a hundred years, lived them on the isle of Patmos, not in the best of comforts.

F. v. 43: "whosoever will be great among you, shall be your minister." In the world greatness is measured by power, fame or authority; in the kingdom of God, by the willingness to serve.

G. Jesus did not condemn the desire to be great: He taught the right road to it, which is to serve others in humility.

H. v. 44: "whosoever of you will be the chiefest, shall be servant of all." The word "servant" expresses a deeper surrender still: the disciple does not seek to be served, he seeks how he may bless and help others.

I. Christian leadership does not consist in ruling, but in caring, teaching and setting the example. That is the exquisite part: to set the example.

J. We are not saved by what we do: we are adorned by what we do.

IX. "Came not to be ministered unto, but to minister" (Mark 10:45)

A. Jesus is the perfect model: though He is the Son of God, He came in great humility. He healed the sick, fed multitudes, comforted the afflicted, washed His disciples' feet.

B. Prayer is made in the name of Jesus, because it is He who carries it to the Father: it is not our voice that arrives.

C. "And to give his life a ransom for many": there is the central purpose of His coming — to die and pay the price for our sins. That was the price.

D. There was no more violent scene in the universe nor will there ever be: when the spear pierced Him, His body poured out blood, the whole universe went dark and the earth shook so greatly that all were filled with terror.

E. And the Son of God in the position of a slave, for He did it as a slave; the Father did not look at Him, did not give Him His hand — so that we might repent and rise, and God might give us an eternity.

F. And what do we think of ourselves? See how one answers another, how the heart has no compassion, how it cannot forgive. The one you cannot forgive, God forgave everything.

G. "There is my body, Father": in that death He offers salvation to all who believe in Him.

X. The teaching

A. True greatness before God is shown by serving.

B. Christian leadership is exercised in humility, not in pride. Jesus is the supreme example of a servant: He made Himself a servant.

C. To serve another is a way of honoring God; in honoring a person you honor God, and from God the blessing comes to you.

D. The road to true greatness passes through humility and through service. Today human beings are arrogant and proud, always thinking themselves better than the next; that is why we get nowhere and leave no good history on earth.

E. Whoever follows His example does not live to be exalted, but to glorify God by serving others in love.

F. A servant does not live for his own comfort, but to fulfill the will of the One who called him.

G. The true servant does not seek recognition: he does things and would rather no one see; he seeks to be faithful to the task the Lord entrusted to him.

H. If we look at ourselves to that depth of the heart, where no one can see, there it is known whether one is a servant. The servant is for doing good, not for showing off.

XI. Closing: the figure of the deer

A. (In Spanish the word for deer, ciervo, sounds exactly like the word for servant, siervo; the pastor closes the message on that likeness.)

B. The deer is fragile by nature. It is the doe that finds where the water is, to show the others and lead them.

C. It is not the most violent animal, nor the strongest, nor the largest: it is the most delicate; its coat is beautiful and its leap is one of gladness.

D. To be a servant one must die. To be a servant one must know the qualities of meekness. To be a servant one must love.

E. At times the nights grow long and sorrow comes in more than gladness; but what for you may be sorrow could be the freedom of the one who needs that freedom.

F. Life is not as long as we think, however many years one lives. Jesus passed through and paid the price as a servant.

G. And we live on earth as though we ought to be treated as kings. We are merely servants. There is no more.