Chosen to Serve

Welcome to No Compromise Radio Ministry. My name is Mike Abendorf. Thanks for listening to 1 .5 Speed. I like to listen to audiobooks.

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Speed isn't the best. And maybe as I've gotten older, I've slowed down a little bit.

Who knows? Today, I'm recording the third show. I need three a week. In the past,

I have been up to 35 shows in the can, recorded, ready to go.

And I need to be three ahead, right? So next week, there'll be three, because Monday's the sermon, Friday's the rerun.

I need three shows. So this is show three for next week. And we're going to have to do more reruns or something.

I can't seem to get ahead. I come in on Friday to record the shows. And then there's leaf blowing and something's going on in the church.

Somebody's setting up for this, that or the other, which I'm glad there's activity, but I just can't try to find a way to get some peace and quiet.

Plantains and the herbs, there's always fighting going on. Topic today, why does

God choose people? For his own glory. You are correct.

That's the show. Thank you for listening. There you have it.

Well, that's true. Is there any other reason why God chooses people? Your answer is not my answer.

What's my answer? Well, it's tied back to Luke 6, 13, and that is

Jesus chooses the 12 to serve. He chooses the 12 to serve him.

Confrontations are increasing. Jesus knows he's going to go to Calvary and die, and the work will continue through these men.

And he's going to have them serve while he's still alive, Jesus on earth. And while he's alive in heaven, he's going to have them serve.

And Luke doesn't tell us why did Jesus choose them chosen to serve.

That's the name of the title today. Matter of fact, I'm going to write that down. Chosen to serve.

Maybe question mark, just to make sure people thinking. Why were the 12 chosen? To what end?

For what purpose? Yes, for his own glory. Yes, because it seemed right to God. Yes, because whatever

God does, it's the right thing. Mark says he appointed the 12, Mark 3, that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach and to have authority to cast out the demons.

Seems pretty similar to what their master is doing. Apostle sent out, right, sent out by Jesus to do the work of Jesus, preaching and essentially healing.

Boy, that was a hard E, wasn't it? Essentially. Like their master, they go out to preach and have authority.

So they're chosen to serve. They're chosen because there's a job to do. Now what

I'd like to do is I'd like to go to Matthew 10. And when

I read this and when I read it earlier this week, I was shocked that I didn't see the context of some of these verses.

I've read the Bible for a long time, taught the Bible for a long time, and maybe I'm just getting old.

Well, that part's true. And maybe I'm just forgetting stuff. Maybe that part's true. But I just thought, man, that is amazing.

There are verses in here that I've read, been glad for, understood, who knows, maybe even preached.

I don't think so, but maybe. And I never got the context. And the context is the 12th.

And so if you have a Bible, turn to Matthew 10. If you don't have a Bible, you're driving in the car. I'm just going to read this and make some comments.

All right. Synoptic Gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke. And Luke didn't say much about why

Jesus called them. Well, he didn't say anything. Mark tells us, preach, cast out demons type of thing.

And what does Matthew tell us? Matthew 10 verse 1 and following, and Jesus called to him his 12 disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits.

So that sounds like the authority to cast out demons, right back in Mark, authority over them to cast them out and to heal every disease and every affliction.

So it's kind of expanded from Mark, certainly from Luke. It gives us more information than Luke gave us.

And the ministry of Jesus has been preaching and doing these kind things. And so that's exactly what they're doing. The names of the 12 apostles are these,

Simon, who's called Peter, Andrew, his brother, James, the son of Zebedee, and John, his brother, Philip and Bartholomew, Thomas and Matthew, the tax collector,

James, the son of Alphaeus and Thaddeus, Simon, the zealot, and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.

And now we see the kind of the scope of their mission. These 12

Jesus sent out, instructing them, go nowhere among the

Gentiles and enter no town of the Samaritans, half -breeds, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel and proclaim as you go, saying, here's part of the preaching he sent them to preach, right in Mark 3, the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons. You receive without pain, give without pay.

Acquire no gold or silver or copper for your belts, no bag for your journey or two tunics or sandals or a staff for the labor deserves his food.

Whatever town or village you enter, find out who is worthy in it and stay there until you depart. As you enter the house, greet it.

And if the house is worthy, let your peace come upon it. But if it is not worthy, let your peace return to you.

And if anyone will not receive you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet when you leave that house or town.

Truly, I say to you, it will be more bearable on the day of judgment for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah than for that town."

So the word is going out. And of course, if you hear the good news and say no to that, then judgment is worse for you.

And Jesus is telling the men exactly what to do, to whom they should do it and how.

Right? So you could call these marching orders.

Whenever I say something slow like that, I'm writing it down on my notes because I thought that's a good thing to say. He continues to tell them things.

So this is all together, Matthew 10, verse 16, behold, I'm sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves.

So be wise as certain serpents and innocent as doves. Beware of men for they will deliver you over to courts and flog you in their synagogues.

And you will be dragged before governors and kings for my sake to bear witness before them and the

Gentiles. That's interesting. You will be dragged before governors and kings for my sake to bear witness before them.

Part of the reasons why you're going to get busted, arrested, thrown in jail is so you can preach to those people who are running the things.

When they deliver you over, do not be anxious. How are you to speak or what you're to say? Most people would think, what am

I going to say? For what you are to say will be given to you in that hour. Of course, this is specifically for the apostles.

If you're in a trial and you want to know what to say, you ask God for wisdom. And it's not as direct as this.

For it is not you who speak, but the spirit of your father speaking through you. And we would know that's not true for us when we're speaking, unless we're quoting the

Bible. Brother will deliver brother over to death and father, his child and children will rise against parents and have them put to death.

And you will be hated by all for my namesake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.

When they persecute you in one town, flee to the next for truly I say to you, you will not have gone through all the towns of Israel before the son of man comes.

A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master. It is enough for the disciple to be like his teacher and the servant, like his master.

If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more will they malign those of his household?

If they persecute Jesus, they're going to be persecuting his assent ones, the apostles. So here's the marching orders.

Everything so far so good. You say, Pastor Mike, you said you've learned something that's amazing. And now I haven't learned that much yet.

Matthew goes on chapter 10, verse 26. So I have no fear of them for nothing is covered that will not be revealed or hidden that will not be known.

What I tell you in the dark, say in the light, what you hear whispered, proclaim on the house stops. All right, here's the part.

I've always known this. To be true, generally true, biblically true, theologically true, but I've never seen or been struck so by the context.

Jesus is sending the 12 out. And now he says, do not fear those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul.

Rather fear him who can destroy body and soul, both body and soul in hell. I mean,

I've used that before to talk about the doctrine of hell, but I forgot it was in Matthew 10 context. Duh.

Right. It's just like, what, what, what must I be thinking? And how long had you been on that medication?

Well, the leukemia medicine, I've been on that for one year. Makes me tired and groggy.

Leukemia fog, venetoclax and acalabrutinib. It took me a long time to memorize those words.

If they say, what are you taking? Because it does some stuff to your blood and uric acid and your white count and potassium and sodium.

And when I go in for tests once a month, they test, I don't know, 50 things. Neutrophils.

Anyway, it does make me a little groggy. So the sooner

I'm off that, the better. Probably be through November 25. That's my guess. Back to point

Matthew 10, Jesus is sending out the 12. Don't fear the 12. Peter through Judas, don't fear those who can kill the body, but cannot kill the soul.

Then he says in verse 29, I've taken this as a personal promise.

And it's essentially true, but the point of the passage isn't that.

Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your father.

But even the hairs of your head, you 12 are all numbered. Therefore, fear not.

You are of more value, the 12 and many sparrows. Hey, these tiny little birds,

God cares for them. What about the 12? So verse 32 says, so everyone who acknowledges me before men,

I will also acknowledge before my father who is in heaven. But whoever denies me before men, I will also deny before my father who is in heaven.

Do not come to think that I, sorry, do not think that I've come to bring peace on earth or to the earth.

I have not come to bring peace, but a sword for I've come to set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother and a daughter -in -law against her mother -in -law.

And a person's enemies will be those of his own household. Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me.

And whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.

Whoever finds his life will lose it. And whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. Whoever receives you, 12, receives me.

And whoever receives me receives him who sent me, the father. The one who receives a prophet because he's a prophet will receive a prophet's reward.

And the one who receives a righteous person because he's a righteous person will receive a righteous person's reward. Whoever gives one of these little ones, even a cup of cold water, because he is a disciple, truly

I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward. What's the point?

The point is Jesus chooses the 12 to serve.

And the apostles had a unique foundational ministry. And they could do things like cleanse lepers, raise the dead, and we could never do that.

Jesus, the great savior, he calls those men, he instructs those men, he equips those men, he exhorts those men, and he gives them everything they need to do the job.

Jesus chooses people so that they might serve him. That is a reason.

Now we connect the dots. Let me talk about service. While we're not apostles, he did chose us.

When you can't talk, can you just sing? Oh, man.

He did choose us to serve. So, let me talk about service a little bit.

Number one, Jesus chooses the least likely to serve. I mean, you look at the 12, and then you look at us, you look at me.

No Pharisees, no big shots, just regular people.

So, he gets the glory when great things happen, not by might, nor by power, but by the spirit of the living

God, right? Second, Jesus chooses people to serve him and we know little about these people.

Only Jesus knows. The people that Jesus chooses to serve him seem to be unknown by everyone except Jesus.

Now, some of the 12, of course, we know a lot about, so those are kind of exceptions, but there's some people that serve the

Lord we don't even know anything about. Some of these apostles we don't know anything about. It's just conjecture on what they did, right?

It's extra biblical tradition of what they did. So, if God uses people nobody knows behind the scenes except he knows, well,

I'm thankful for that, aren't you? Three, God chooses people, Jesus chooses people who are not yet glorified.

What in the world? Well, he chooses people that still aren't perfect and he uses people that aren't perfect.

Sometimes, like in marriage counseling, I farm out some marriage counseling to couples and they're like, how can

I meet this young couple in premarital when we don't have everything together in our marriage?

Well, maybe this will help you motivate and if you are separated, you know, ministering to them, but you certainly have something to say,

Romans 15, competent to counsel. Four, Jesus chooses people to serve and equips them.

Did you know, dear Christian, like the 12 who were given the ability to preach and cast out demons and heal, 1

Corinthians 12 says, but to each one is given the manifestation of the spirit for the common good, but one in the same spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually, just as he wills.

You were given a spiritual gift and it's either speaking or serving and you are equipped to serve, so there's no excuse not to serve.

Five, Jesus chooses people to serve like him.

How do people serve? Serve like Jesus. How does Jesus serve? Jesus serves this way, not merely looking out for your own personal interests, but also the interest of others.

Have this attitude in yourselves, which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although he existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God, a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a bond servant and being made in the likeness of men and being found in the appearance of a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Matthew 20, just as the son of man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many.

Jesus served so much, he fell asleep in a boat, went without eating for 40 days and cost him his life.

And so we're just to sacrificially serve. Six, you ultimately serve the

Lord. So obviously Jesus was serving us, but he's ultimately glorifying the Father.

And the same thing here, same thing's happening here. You serve other people in the church. You're ultimately serving the

Lord Jesus. Jesus isn't physically in front of you. God doesn't need your good works. Your neighbor does.

Those at church do. And if Jesus was on earth, you'd serve him with all kinds of energy and enthusiasm.

And so that's how we're to serve other people, right? The King will answer and say to them, Matthew 20, truly, I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of mine, even the least of them, you did it to me.

So what you do for other people is counted as you're doing it for Jesus. Seven, your service should reflect how much you treasure

God's grace. Each of you have received a spiritual gift, 1

Peter 4, employing it and serving one another as good stewards in the manifold grace of God. Whoever speaks, let him speak as it were the utterances of God.

Whoever serves, let him do so as by the strength which God supplies. So that in all things,

God may be glorified through Jesus Christ to whom belong the glory and dominion forever and ever. Every one of you listening, if you're a

Christian, have received a special gift and your job is to keep on using it because you're a steward.

It's a gift. Someone says, watch the house for me. You take good care of it. Watch the dogs. You take good care of them.

Babysit my children. You take good care of them. This is language that's similar to Romans 12, one.

I urge you therefore brethren by the mercies of God to present your bodies, a living and holy sacrifice acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

Look back at Romans 1 to 11, see all the mercies of God and how God saves sinners and how

God wonderfully unites sinners to Christ Jesus through faith and through faith alone.

And you'll say, I don't just go give an animal sacrifice for that.

I'll sacrifice my time, my money, everything. Reminds me of a story by a missionary.

And they said, do you really like your work in Africa? And he said, do I like my work? No, my wife and I do not like dirt.

We have refined, reasonable sensibilities. We do not like crawling into vile huts through grote refuse, but as a man to do nothing for Christ he does not like,

God pity him if not. Liking or disliking has nothing to do with it. We have orders to go and we go.

Love constrains us. Wow. I came in with No Compromise Radio Ministry.

You can always write us, mikeatnocompromiseradio .com. Cancer is not your shepherd is out.

Updated sexual fidelity is out. Discovering Romans, discovering Colossians, you can get them all on Amazon.

If you want more than 10, then email me and we'll get you a discounted price.

Nahum said to me, you know what? There needs to be a condensed version that people can just buy in bulk. And when they go to cancer centers, they can just set them around the tables,

IV tables and stuff like that. Like the Jehovah's Witnesses do with their Watchtower magazine. It's a good idea.

I need a personal assistant. Would you do that for me? Eight, what are the consequences of not serving?

J .C. Ralph said you serve something else, right? That's the Bob Dylan. Everybody's got to serve somebody.

You become idle. Ralph said idleness is the devil's best friend. No created being was ever meant to be idle.

Adam in paradise had work. That's interesting. Angels in heaven work. That is interesting.

One man said we make time for duties we love. That's true. So we don't want to be idle, fill our minds full of all that amusement.

And then last nine, number nine, number nine, number nine, number nine.

Jesus chooses people for ministry and he makes sure they'll finish the race. Of course,

Judas excluded. Jesus has them finish well.

Now we don't know how a lot of people died that are the apostles. We know how

Judas died, right? He hung himself, guts open. But tradition said

Matthew was slain by a sword.

Luke, as he's not one of the 12, of course, I'm going to put in writers, hanged on an olive tree.

They say John the apostle was put in boiling oil, but he got out and went to Patmos to be banished.

Crucified, of course, upside down was Peter, according to tradition. James the greater beheaded at Jerusalem.

James the less thrown off the temple, beaten to death. Bartholomew flayed alive.

Andrew bound to a cross until he died. Thomas was run through with a lance. Matthias stoned and then beheaded.

Barnabas stoned to death. Paul beheaded. God faithful to the end.

God being faithful to the end. I would say at Bethlehem Bible Church, and maybe this is your church too, there are quite a few people,

I just put the number at 30%, I'm not sure if that's right or not, who simply and only and always come to church and then leave.

And you never hear anything about them the rest of the week. They just attend.

That's the only thing they do. And probably some of them have ministries at home that they do, taking care of an invalid mother.

Some of them maybe have a prayer ministry at home. Some of them may do something else to use their spiritual gifts.

But a lot of them who come don't do those things. They simply attend. I'm glad they attend, ordinary means, means of grace, preaching.

But the guilt -raised gratitude model works in ministry. You have a spiritual gift, you need to use it to serve other people.

And there's a lot of people at church who do come and they serve behind the scenes.

Nobody really knows about how many chairs they move, what kind of happens in the kitchen, all the diapers that they change, working back in the sound room, shoveling, mowing.

There's a lot of stuff behind the scenes. People don't get any recognition for those things, but the Lord knows that they do it.

So we want to just make sure that we're people that love other people and serve. We have spiritual gifts.

They're not for ourselves or for other people. And so you have to be around other people to do that. And therefore, those of you here, especially at Bethlehem Bible Church, who serve out of a love for Jesus and out of gratitude for his salvation, serving people, even that they might not want to serve sometimes.

Thank you. That is Christ -like love. And that is true faith that is working.

Working faith doesn't save, right? Saving faith saves with knowledge of sin and trust.

But that's wonderful. So when you hear about Jesus commissioning people and choosing them to serve, you ought to say to yourself, well, why was

I chosen? That's a good question. To glorify God, to praise him forever, to be a testimony of his grace,

Romans chapter 9, the list goes on and on and on. But you're also chosen to serve. Time to get out there to serve.