More Blessed To Give Than To Receive (The Joy of Christian Service)

Thank you for listening to this message from the ministry of Morse Corner Church in Leverett, Massachusetts. Morse Corner is a non-denominational church that is committed to the preaching and teaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Our church was founded in 1896 by two students of the famous evangelist D .L. Moody. We seek to encourage and edify the body of Christ through the proclamation of God's word through the ministries of the local church.

If you'd like more information, visit our website morsecornerchurch .com. We hope you enjoy the message. Let's turn to Romans chapter 12 and talk about service. Okay, I'm chosen for service. Now what does that look like?

Service as the Christian Life, Not a Checklist

How do we serve God? Well, Paul knew what he was supposed to do, it seems, from day one. God called Paul through the gospel. Immediately, he was baptized. And then he began preaching Christ in the synagogues.

There was never any confusion about what he should do next. There was never any sense of, okay, now I'm saved, check that off the list, now I'm on to other things in my life. There was never any sense of that whatsoever.

No, his salvation was the beginning. It was the beginning of a journey. So get saved, get baptized, find a community of believers, start serving. That's what it's all about. Start serving and grow and be open to the Lord's leading.

That's the way it's supposed to be done. If I can put it this way, Christianity is not like a checklist. It's more like a road map. And you're supposed to keep traveling down that road for the rest of your life.

Romans 12, starting in verse 1. I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your what? Reasonable service.

Another point, Christianity is not all about what the Lord can do for you. Now, he is going to do things for you. He's already done the greatest thing for you in sending his son into the world to die on the cross for your sins and to rise again for your justification.

He's already done things for you and he's going to continue to do things for you. But our focus should be on what we can do for him, what we can do for his church, what we can do for other people. That's the Christian life.

It is a life of service to God and service to others. On Wednesday night, we talked about this. And I'm sure, I'm sure. And maybe we've all kind of fell into this mindset. But I'm sure there are Christians who come to church on Sunday and they're kind of waiting for God to do something.

You know, they want their prayers answered. We all want our prayers answered, don't we? They're kind of waiting on God for the blessings. Lord, when are you going to start doing something? Lord, when are you going to start blessing me?

Not realizing that service is the blessing. You want to be blessed by God? Serve him. You want to grow? Serve him. Now, it's not the only blessing that there is. But we are blessed when we serve God. We are blessed through service.

When you give of your time and your effort. You are blessed when you do that. What did Jesus say? It is more blessed to do what? It is more blessed to give than to receive. If you're waiting on God to do everything.

If you're waiting on God to do something. Hey, you get up and start doing some things. And then God will shower you with the blessing. So, present yourself basically in service to God. A living sacrifice.

Okay, a dead sacrifice that had its place. The dead animal. But the dead animal couldn't do anything for God. Right? We are presented a living sacrifice. Because we're supposed to be active in serving him.

Using Spiritual Gifts in Ministry

Alright, look at Romans chapter 12 verse 6. And we serve. You know this, right? You serve using your spiritual gifts. Romans 12 verse 6. Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us.

Let us use them. If prophecy, let us prophesy in proportion to our faith. And of course, prophecy can either refer to the foretelling of future events. Divine revelation. Or it can refer to foretelling.

Or preaching. So, for the sake of this message, just to focus on the preaching aspect. Clearly, this was one of the Apostle Paul's gifts. Or his calling to be a preacher. Of course, his critics said otherwise, didn't they?

What did they say? Was it in Corinth? They said, his speech is contemptible. Well, Paul was an effective preacher. Obviously, the results speak for themselves. And you know, if you have a gift. Whether it's preaching or teaching or anything else.

And people criticize you. Don't worry about that. Tune it out. Paul had his critics. So, don't worry about that. But yes, he was a preacher. And he did receive divine revelation. Here's another point I was thinking about during the week.

Paul ministered his gift right up until the end of his life. That's so important. You've probably heard of pastors and missionaries. I've heard this throughout the years. When they talk about retirement, they'll say something to the effect that, you know, what's retirement?

You know, I'm not going to retire until I expire. You've heard this. Well, that's so true. But it's not just true for preachers. It's not just true for missionaries. This should be the goal for all of us.

To finish the race strong. Nobody should ever reach the age where they think, well, I've kind of paid my dues. And now it's time for me to kind of sit back and relax. We should never reach that place.

The Bible says about believers, and his servants shall serve him. Right? And his servants shall serve him until they reach age 65. His servants shall serve him until they reach 85. Now, obviously, there can be health issues or you can't do what you used to, obviously.

But his servants shall do what? Serve. And in eternity, we're going to serve forever. It's never going to end. You're going to be serving God forever and ever and ever. And as long as you have breath in you, you should be serving God forever and ever in this life.

So, if you're conscious, okay? Are you conscious this morning? If you're listening, say amen. You conscious? Okay. That's half of the job of preaching, to keep people's attention. So, you're conscious.

You're responding. Good. So, if you're conscious, you can do something for God. You might not think it's much. The devil will whisper in your ear and say, you can't do anything for God. Look at what you did in the past.

Yeah, look at what Paul did in the past. And look at how he used him. All right. Romans chapter 12, verse 7. Paul continues speaking about spiritual gifts or ministry. He says, let us use it in our ministering.

He who teaches in teaching. He who exhorts in exhortation. He who gives with liberality, you know, be generous. He who leads with diligent. And he who shows mercy with cheerfulness. Now, the word translated ministering is basically the word servant.

Okay? A minister is a servant. It can cover a wide variety of different things. You say, okay, I hear what you're saying. I need to serve God. I don't know what to do. I don't know what to do. Come talk to me during the week.

I'll find something for you to do. Okay? We have tracks out in the foyer area. We have the Morris corner track. We have plenty of other tracks. If you don't have anything new, what do I do? Hand out those tracks to people.

Invite them to church. You know, give them a word of encouragement. That's something everyone can do. Well, I would witness to people, but I'm not eloquent. And I don't know the words to say. Just hand them a track and say, hey, love to see you in church on Sunday.

Anyone can do that. So, if you don't know what to do, come and talk to me. I'll give you something to do. Okay? We'll see how many take me up on that. So, Paul mentions teaching. We have been blessed.

Just to mention this for a moment. We have been so blessed at this church to always have people that can teach and to fill the pulpit at any moment. You know, there's churches, and if this is the way it is, then so be it.

But there's a lot of churches, if the pastor's gone or sick or away on vacation, they have to hire someone in, get someone in from the outside. I don't think we've ever had to do that. At least not in my lifetime.

We've always had men here who can fill the pulpit and teach Sunday school. Of course, we have women who do a great job in teaching the children. So, we have been so blessed to have teachers, wonderful teachers, here at Morris Corner Church.

The word translated exhortation is paracletus. Right? Jesus spoke of the Holy Spirit, and he called the Holy Spirit what? Right, the paraclete. Now, that's translated in the King James Version as the comforter, right?

There's a hymn about that. The comforter has come. Well, what it means is, yes, he gives comfort, but he's basically our advocate, and he comes alongside to help and to encourage us. And you know, there's always somebody who needs help.

There's always somebody who needs someone to be kind of like their advocate. There's always somebody who needs encouragement. Sometimes our service can just take the form of being a friend to somebody.

You know, sometimes it's the little things that make the biggest difference in a person's life. Next, he mentions giving, and we understand that and no explanation necessary. But some people, they have the gift of giving.

They're just very generous, and it comes easy, and they're always giving. Next is leadership, and you know what they say about leadership? Everything rise or falls based on what? Leadership. So there are people who have been gifted, and they are able to organize and oversee things, and they do it.

They do it very well. And next on the list is mercy. So those who show mercy do it with cheerfulness. So this is helping and showing compassion to those who are afflicted. The Bible teaches that every believer has at least one spiritual gift.

For those of you who are in Sunday school, you missed it. We had a church member who took a test. I didn't know these tests existed. He took a test, and he found out because he tried to discern what your spiritual gift is.

So he went to this church, large church. They gave him a test. He filled it out, and they checked everything off, and they determined you have every spiritual gift, every one. Well, I don't know. It may be, but we have at least one spiritual gift.

The Application of Christian Character in Romans 12:9-13

So if you have a spiritual gift, what are you supposed to be doing with it? Yeah, serving, ministering that gift to others. All right. Next, look at verses 9 through 13. So this is the application portion of the sermon, okay?

We're kind of leading with the application this morning. Paul served. Paul is an example, and we are to serve also. Verses 9 through 13, at least in the New King James Version, titles this section, Behave Like a Christian.

Hey, that sounds like a good sermon title. Behave like a Christian. Maybe we'll do that sometime. Paul writes, Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil and cling to what is good. Be kindly and affectionate to one another with brotherly love.

In honor, giving preference to one another. Not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord. Rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer, distributing to the needs of the saints, given to hospitality.

You know, if we just put those basic things into action, just these, that would turn people's lives right around. All right. Now let's go back to Galatians chapter 1. What's the title of the message? Saved to serve.

So if you're saved, you should be doing what? Serving. Paul the Apostle was separated from his mother's womb for the service of God. And just one comment on that. Separated from his mother's womb. Let me add, his life was valuable from the womb.

Just like every baby in the womb is valuable to God. You picking up what I'm putting down here? So the apostle was separated from his mother's womb. God had plans for him. Even before Paul was aware of the plans.

Then the Lord called Paul by his grace. Now look at verse 16. What was the purpose of God's calling? Paul says it was to reveal his son in me. So from that moment forward, when people encountered Paul.

It was like they were encountering Christ. Because Christ was the center of Paul's life. Thanks for listening. I'm Pastor Michael Grant from Moores Corner Church. If you'd like to listen to the complete message.

Or if you'd like more information about the ministry. Visit our website moorescornerchurch .com. And we'd love to have you join us some Sunday morning. Here in Leverett. Until next time. May the grace of God be with you.