Don't Grow Tired of Doing Good // Living the Life of Service, Part 5

Everyone goes through stormy times in life. And when we're bobbing around like corks in the ocean, what we really need is a solid rock beneath our feet. But what if God means us, you and me, to be that solid rock in someone's life? I hate being on the water in a boat. I don't mind swimming, I don't mind being beside the water looking and I don't mind diving under the water but I absolutely hate being on the water in a boat. Up and down, up and down … I get sick! I can just feel the waves of nausea crashing over me … up and down. I've always preferred terra firma, the more firma the less terra … up and down. Now, if you enjoy the water, God bless you but not this little black duck. No way! I like to have a rock beneath my feet, solid, firm, no movement, no up and down. To me there's nothing more terrifying than looking out over an angry, stormy ocean, grey water, white caps, wind howling. The ocean's a scary place in a storm don't you think? There are storms in life too. And today on the program we're going to spend a little bit of time looking at what it means for us, for you and me, to be the rock beneath someone's feet. This week, and over the last few weeks, we've been looking at what it means to live the life that God always intended. God has this great plan of joy and peace and grace and wisdom for us to live through all the things – whatever they are, ups and downs – that God has planned. Life has its downs. There's beautiful poem called 'The Weaver'. You may have heard me read this before but let me share it again. Life is but a weaving between my Lord and me, I cannot choose the colours as He weaveth steadily. Sometime He chooses dark threads and I in foolish pride, Forget He sees the upper and I the underside. Not 'til the loom is silent and the shuttles cease to fly Will God unroll His canvas and explain the reasons why The dark threads were as needful in the weaver's skilful hands As the threads of gold and silver in the pattern He hath planned. It's the reality of life isn't it? Amongst the richness and the joy and the blessing, sometimes there's the odd dark thread as well. And so much of what we do in life is about being servants rather than being served. I spent most of my life living for "me" but I was never satisfied. And these days I'm living for Him – for Jesus and other people, and for you – and I am the happiest man, the most blessed man on this planet. I wouldn't be doing anything else because God is just blessing me through this life of laying it down so that I can take it up again in Him. Jesus said, "I didn't come to be served but to serve."(Matthew 20:28) And that's where the satisfaction is in life Today, we're going to look at another practical way that we can serve someone else. One of the most wonderful things that we can be for someone is a rock beneath their feet in the midst of one of life's storms. A storm out on an angry ocean is a horrible thing but a storm when your feet are on solid ground, well it's not overly pleasant but it's not as bad as being on the ocean. Looking back at my life, I hated Christians and everything they stood for, before I met Jesus. The important things in life were clearly money and career and the big flash car and the success. And that had consequences. They caused a storm of mammoth proportions in my life. And on the dark days I felt like a cork bobbing around in this angry ocean in the middle of a storm. And here's the funny thing, the Christians, who I hated in my life (there were three of them), they were the ones that stepped up to the plate and gave me a home to live in, gave me support, gave me encouragement and gave me Jesus. They were the rock beneath my feet. I can't much remember what they said but I will never, for all eternity, forget what they did for me. We all need solid foundations. So many people have cracks in their foundations. So many people are living life-like that cork bobbing around in an angry ocean feeling as though they'

What's Providence? Well, it's when God goes ahead of us and prepares the way. Pretty cool. But what if – I mean, just think about this – what if you and I could do that for other people? What if you and I could be God's providence for them? I was looking up in the dictionary the other day the word "providence" because I wanted to know exactly what the word meant. Like most people, I'd always thought that providence was God's provision, but literally, the meaning of the word is this: Care and preparation that takes place in advance. Foresight, wisdom that goes ahead of you. Isn't that cool? God's providence is Him going ahead of us, with all His wisdom and knowledge and love and grace, and preparing the way, smoothing the path so that by the time you and I walk into that place everything's ready. Ah, it's awesome! That's what the Apostle Paul meant when he wrote: We are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works that God prepared beforehand for us to do. (Ephesians 2:10) Well, imagine just for a minute if we could do that for other people, if God used us to be His providence for someone else. What would the world look like then? Over these last few weeks we've been looking at living the life that God always intended. Now, sometimes when I say that, people picture one long holiday, luxury and wealth and health and happiness, but that's not it. Life's for living, all the ups and downs, all the good times and the bad times. There's this rich fabric that we call "life", and you and I, we're people with gifts and talents and unless we exercise those in life, there's no satisfaction. And no matter what our gifts and talents are, real satisfaction comes from serving other people. Whether you're an artist or a musician or a brain surgeon or a shop attendant or a mum or whatever. Isn't it about impacting other people's lives? When you're a parent and seeing your kids grow and become wonderful and mature adults who contribute to society, as they say, to give to other people. This week we're looking at living a life of service; serving other people, practical ways of doing that, of making a difference just like Jesus did. When Jesus came and He said: I didn't come to be served, I'm the Son of God, I came to serve you, I came to die for you, I came to give my life as a ransom for many." (Matthew 20:28) Yesterday, as a really practical way of doing that – of living a life of service, we looked at the fact that when we let people be – when we let them just be who they are with all their strengths and weaknesses, when we let people be – God sets us free. I don't think my day is meant to be ruined by other people's weaknesses. There's enough in me of my own that I have to deal with without putting up with someone else's. And so there are people who are quite different to me in my life and I value their strengths and I love them in their weaknesses. And ninety-nine times out of one hundred those weaknesses just wash straight past, because God wants us to be mature and lacking in nothing. God wants us to have joy and peace and that comes when we lay down our lives and we say, "That person drives me nuts some days, but I love them and I'll serve them and I'll bless them." Today, we're looking at going ahead of people, exceeding their expectations. And if we're going to live the life God always intended, what if God intended for us to be His providence in other people's lives? Remember, providence is when God goes ahead – when He sends His wisdom and His love and His mercy and His grace and His power ahead of us to get things ready – so by the time we walk into them they're exactly the way God meant for them to be. What if God used you or me to be His providence in someone else's life? When we think about it, that's what we do for our kids. As mums and dads we have greater wisdom because of our years of experience, so we let them walk through things and experience consequences while being there for them. We think ahea

Other people can frankly drive us nuts. But they are who they are – and here's a thought, when we let them be, God sets us free. Great theory – but how does it actually work? Over the last three weeks or so we've been talking about living the life God always intended. We have one chance at this life, that's it. It's not a dress rehearsal. And what's so incredibly sad for me is to run into people, so many people, who aren't enjoying their lives. That's not to say we don't go through some rough patches. Obviously, we do, but by and large, life's there for living, for making a difference, for touching other people. There's incredible satisfaction in that. So this week, we're kind of having a poke around in that, looking at what it means to live a life of serving other people. Today, we're going to explore one way, a practical thing that we can do to serve other people. It's so simple, it's so profound it will touch people so deeply, it's amazing. Here it is, just let them be. Let them be who they are. Let them be what God made them to be. And it turns out when we let them be, God sets us free. We're all different, have you noticed? We're good and bad at different things. We like different things. I like this colour, you like that colour. You like that taste, I like this taste. You like those clothes, I like these clothes. So different. And sometimes we get annoyed by those differences. Maybe you've heard me talk about this in the past but it's a big issue. One of the biggest things that ruin our lives is other people being who they are. Their differences grate and annoy and drive us nuts. You know what I mean. But the fact is, we're all different and the fact is, we always have to live with those sorts of people around us. God makes sure of it. God never puts us in a group where everybody is just completely the same. Let's face it, that would be boring to start with, but God wants steel to sharpen steel. God wants us to learn to humble ourselves and to get on with other people. I had a recent experience. I was involved in a really large piece of work, a big complex project. And I was the key man doing the job and there were other people around me, helping me. It was a huge job. It took a lot of months to do. And what I'm good at is communicating, telling a story. I think in concepts and stories not detail but the job involved an enormous amount of detail and what I really appreciated were the people around me. They quickly understood the things that I was good at and also the fact that I wasn't good at ferreting out and sorting through a lot of the detail. And so they served me and they helped me with the things that I wasn't good at. They could have criticised me, they could have complained, they could have attacked me. Instead, they helped me and when that happens, it so validates who we are. It's wonderful to work in an organisation like I do and to experience those things. The Apostle Paul in Romans chapter 12, figures it out. He said (my paraphrase): We're all different. We all have different motivations and abilities. Some people are good communicators, others are good teachers, and others are good encouragers, others are good leaders, others are good at caring for other people and serving. Others are real givers and yet others are great at showing mercy. (Romans 12: 6-8) But the flip side is, we all have weaknesses. Communicators like me, want to talk over people. Encouragers want to encourage so much that they end up running other people's lives for them. People who are good at caring and showing mercy, well, sometimes are not the best time managers. And on top of that, we all have our own foibles; we all have our own 'Achilles heel', the things that we do wrong. So when we have people around who are different what does it look like to live the life God always intended? How do you do that, when people's weaknesses disrupt our peace and joy that God wants us to have? You know, you have a great time with God in the

There's nothing worse than going to a coffee shop for a good cuppa and getting bad service. And it turns out that we're all in the service business one way or another. How we serve others, makes a difference. There's nothing worse than going somewhere, a shop or a cafe or a restaurant, even a ride in a taxi and you get bad service. There's this little cafe close to home where my wife, Jacqui and I, love going. We know the owner and we just get good coffee there. But there's one woman that works there that's so surly. She never smiles. She never says, "Hello." She never recognises us. We have the same coffee every time and each time she asks us, "What will you have?" instead of saying, "Just the usual?" Now everyone's entitled to a bad day every now and then, and sometimes people are going through rough patches in their lives. But in this case, I've just come to the conclusion that this poor woman is in the wrong job. And you know, whatever we do and however we do it, we're all somehow in the service business – at work, at home. The thing that makes society and the economy go round, is the fact that we all do things for other people. What a shame to spend your life serving other people, while all the time they're looking at us thinking, "Boy isn't that one in the wrong job!" Over the last few weeks we've been looking at what it means to live the life that God always intended. We're born, we eat, we sleep, we go to work and then we die and that's life. It's like that for all of us. And sure, there's routine and there's drudgery, like that woman in the coffee shop. I mean, I don't think she wakes up every morning thinking, "Wow, it's back to the coffee shop again! I just can't wait until Berni and Jacqui come down so I can get their skim flat whites and their one muffin that they cut in half to share." I think it's really sad. Life is for living and living has so much to do with serving other people. Just think about the economy again. We all make money by doing specialised things that other people can't do. We do it for them, so we get paid and that's how we make money. And other people do things for us that we can't do, so they get paid and that's how they make money. It turns out, how much we enjoy serving others, has a lot to do with what we get out of life, whether it's a paid job or a stay at home parent bringing up kids or whatever. There's this important principle that says, "It's not so much of what I pour into my life that gives me satisfaction, but it's what I pour out of my life, what I give, what I sacrifice." Now, a lot of people aren't good at giving or serving. And in a sense, you know, just quietly between you and me, we can all be a bit selfish sometimes, can't we? But when we serve other people, it makes such an incredible difference, not just in their lives, which is wonderful, enough but in our lives. I want to tell you about a startling piece of service that I received recently; in fact, it started a few months ago. For the last quarter of a century I've been using the same, pre-electric shave lotion. Now Berni's not much into lotions and potions, I have to tell you, but this lotion just makes the horrible job of shaving every morning a bit more pleasant. And I went to a few of the big department stores that normally stock this thing and they were completely out. Now you know department stores these days, they have hardly any staff on, particularly during the week and it's pretty hard sometimes to get any service, let alone good service. But this woman, Margaret, she said, "Well there's none there and we normally have some. Mr Dymet I'll investigate it for you and give me your phone number and I'll call you back." "Yeah, right." Who's been called back by someone who works in a department store lately? Doesn't happen very often does it? It turned out there was some new packaging and so this stuff wasn't available for a few months but the miracle is, within two days she actually called me back to tell

No man is an island … actually, it's true of women too. But sometimes, it seems like the rest of the world is pretty much ready to desert us. And when we feel all alone, we wonder if we still have anything useful that we can do. So … do we give up, or do we keep going? You know there are parts of the Bible that I'm prone to skimming over. For instance the genealogies. They're so long and boring and dry, particularly the one that goes on for pages and pages at the beginning of 1 Chronicles in the Old Testament. Who has time to read that? But one man did, a guy by the name of Bruce Wilkinson and he stumbles across the prayer of Jabez, one of the most powerful prayers in the Bible and of course he wrote the book, "The Prayer of Jabez". And that's how often it is with those bits we'd rather just skim over. The introductions to Paul's letters or epistles in the New Testament, we always want to skim over those. But there is such a richness and power in those, we do so at our own peril. And finally the bits that I used to be prone to skimming over were some of the personal notes at the end of Paul's letters. He'd write all the rich, meaty theological stuff that you and I can apply to our lives and then almost like a p.s. at the end of a letter he kind of writes to say, "Say gidday to Fred and tell Betty to come and visit me soon and give my regards to all my friends in wherever it is." You know, all that stuff. But just the other day as we were exploring what it means to rekindle the amazing gift that God has placed within each one of us, we read this in 2 Timothy chapter 3, verse 16: That all Scripture is useful for teaching, reproof, correction and training so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient and equipped for every good work. So as we draw to the end of Paul's letter and we get to that personal bit I'm going to resist the temptation to skip over that bit because as is always the case there are some gems hidden in there that the Holy Spirit wants us to take and write on our hearts. Paul sets out his purpose of his letter to his young protégé Timothy way back in chapter 1. Timothy's going through some terribly tough times so Paul reminds him of all that trouble that God's gone to, to get him to this point in his life. And he writes, 2 Timothy chapter 1, verse 6: For this reason I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is within you through the laying on of my hands. And verse 14: Guard the good treasure entrusted to you with the help of the Holy Spirit living in us. This letter is about rekindling the gift that God has put into each one of us and using it for the glory of God. Why? Not only because doing that is so incredibly satisfying and fulfilling, which it is, but because the time is short and people are going to a Christ-less eternity as we saw yesterday on the program. And I pray that you, like me, have been powerfully encouraged and motivated to rekindle the gift that God has placed within you over these past weeks as we've let God's Word transform us. So, here we are drawing to the end of the letter, and we get to this personal bit. What does the Holy Spirit have to say to us through this if indeed every Scripture is inspired by God and is useful in our lives? Well let's have a bit of a read about what Paul has to say on the personal front, 2 Timothy chapter 4 beginning at verse 9. He says to Timothy: Do your best to come to me soon for Demas in love with this present world has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica, Crescens has gone to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia, only Luke is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you for he is useful in my ministry. I have sent Tychicus to Ephesus. When you come bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas, also the books and above all the parchments. Alexander the coppersmith did me great harm, the Lord will pay him back for his deeds. You also must be aware of him for he is strongly opposed to the message. At my first defence no one came to support m