In the Bible readings I read daily, Nicky Gumbel has written about 25 ways to be useful to God. His advice is worth repeating.

1. Love your enemies (Prov 25:21-22) – and thereby reflect God’s character.
2. Watch your speech (2 Tim 2:16) Our words can either build up or tear down.
3. Avoid quarrelling (Prov 25:24, 2 Tim 2:14,23-24)
4. Bring good news (Prov 25:25) – be positive!
5. Stand for what is right (Eph 6:14)
6. Do not seek your own honour, but God’s. Look to the interests of others. (Phil 2:3-4)
7. Be self-controlled and stop trying to control others (Gal 5:22-23)
8. Don’t be over-concerned with what others say
9. Pass on what God gives you (2 Tim 2:2)
10. Endure hardship (2 Tim 2:10,12) – there’s no avoiding it in life, but how you respond makes a huge difference
11. Avoid distractions (2 Tim 2:4)
12. Keep the rules (2 Tim 2:5)
13. Work hard (2 Tim 2:6)
14. Meditate on God’s words (2 Tim 2:7) – reflecting takes time!
15. Focus on Jesus Christ (2 Tim 2:8)
16. Correctly handle God’s word (2 Tim 2:15)
17. Turn away from evil (2 Tim 2:19, 22)
18. Be a peacemaker (2 Tim 2:22-23)
19. Be kind to everyone (2 Tim 2:24) – everyone is an all-inclusive word!
20. Learn to teach (2 Tim 2:24-25). We all teach in sme way – a worker teaches his colleauges through their example; a parent teaches children in word and deed.
21. Don’t be resentful (2 Tim 2:24) Resentment poisons relationships and turns us into sour, unwelcoming people.
22. Hear the word of the Lord – God is a shepherd who speaks to his sheep (John 10:3-4)
23. Allow God to speak through you. (Jer 50:1) It’s an amazing thought that God can speak through our words!
24. Walk closely with God. (Jer 50:4)
25. Find rest in God. (Jer 6:16, Jer 50:6)

Many of us don’t feel useful at all; we feel useless. But this practical advice shows how we can be like Onesimus, once a runaway slave who was useless to his master, but turned into a useful brother in Christ by God’s mercy. Being useful to God is not as hard as it may sound!

From ancient times, craftsmen have known how to tailor their material to fit the purpose., Some cloths are practical and durable, useful for work clothes which need to last. Other cloths, like silk, are expensive and beautiful, dyed to make garments that are eye-catching and visually attractive. Similarly, in a home, there are the pots and pan whihc feed families day-in, day-out (my parents’ copper-bottomed pan set, a wedding present 54 years ago, is still going strong), and there are also articles of silver and gold which are precious and treasured.

Paul says, ‘In a large house there are articles not only of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay; some are for special purposes and some for common use. ²¹ Those who cleanse themselves from the latter will be instruments for special purposes, made holy, useful to the Master and prepared to do any good work.’ (2 Tim 2:20-21)

Ultimately, every Christian should want to be the kind of container that God can use. John Stott writes, No higher honour could be imagined than to be an instrument in the hand of Jesus Christ, to be at his disposal for the furtherance of his purposes, to be available whenever wanted for his service.” This is our aim and goal: to be useful to God.

We had a belated birthday to celebrate tonight.

Dave spoke this evening from Ps 126:5-6 on ‘sowing with tears’, reminding us that even Jesus wept (John 11:35). So often, we are indifferent to the fate of those who do not know the Lord; the doctrine of eternal punishment is not one we like to speak about nowadays, but we need to understand that God wants us to sow with tears. Great preachers from the past spoke often of the tears they shed as they implored people to come to Christ. We often look as though our tear ducts have been cauterised, but we need to understand that tears are ‘liquid prayer’ and that God wants to give us all wet eyes…

Jeremiah spoke of a ‘fountain of tears’ and is known as the prophet of lament and weeping (see Jer 9:1) and Paul spoke of many tears as he considered those who lived as enemies of God (Phil 3:18). Jesus Himself is known to have wept over Jerusalem (Luke 19:41) as well as over sin’s wages (death) when Lazarus died (John 11:35). Heb 5:7 tells us that Jesus ‘offered up prayers and petitions with fervent cries and tears‘, and we too need to weep over lost souls. Brokenness is necessary if we are to see God move in power in our church.

As adults, we often believe that crying is childish. Tears are certainly our first language, speaking of pain and hurt. It is not spiritually healthy to suppress tears, though we need to avoid crocodile tears (being hypocritical in our display of sorrow.) We need to meditate on Jesus’s teaching on hell (see Luke 16:19-31) and understand that a right understanding of eternal punishment will leed us to care for those who do not know God (see Rom 9:1-3, Gal 4:19). Birth pangs need to be experienced before the church will see new life and as any mother will tell you, the pain of labour is intense!

If we want to know Christ’s heart and weep His tears, we have to spend time with Him, opening our heart’s door to Him (Rev 3:20) and allowing Him to share the burdens on His heart with us. Tears are the glue which make salvation stick; we need to learn to seek God with tears and to show compassion to all.

‘So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, ¹² to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up ¹³ until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.’ (Eph 4:11-13)

Evangelists

Evangelists are people who bring good news, who proclaim the gospel. The word itself is only used three times in the New Testament: Philip is called ‘the Evangelist’ in Acts 21:8 and Timothy is exhorted to ‘do the work of an evangelist’ in 2 Tim 4:5. Philip certainly was good at proclaiming the good news: Acts 8:4-40 talks of his powerful ministry of evangelism in Samaria and to the Ethiopian eunuch.

An evangelist is someone who is particularly effective at communicating the gospel message to people and who is used by God to bring many people to salvation. In modern days, we have seen Billy Graham and Luis Palau work as effective evangelists in large crusades, but we need to understand that whilst some are gifted in this area, all of us still have a duty to share the good news with people on a one-to-one basis. We mustn’t ever think that these gifts Jesus gives are always for other people and leave us with nothing to do! These gifts are given to equip us for works of service: to train us as well.

Pastors                                                                                                                                                                                

The word ‘pastor’ means ‘shepherd’, one who serves as a guardian or leader. It’s a very familiar title in the Old Testament (see Jer 10:21, Ezek 34:2-10; Nahum 3:18, Zech 10:3) Peter writes to leaders to be ‘shepherds of God’s flock that is under your care, watching over them—not because you must, but because you are willing, as God wants you to be; not pursuing dishonest gain, but eager to serve; ³ not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock.’ (1 Pet 5:2-3) Those verses give us some insight into the role of a pastor: looking after the sheep willingly, being eager to serve, being examples, not working for financial profit but with a shepherd’s heart. Jesus also famously demonstrated the care of a shepherd when He told the parable of the lost sheep, demonstrating that the shepherd cares about the individual, not just about the flock. Pastoral care nowadays has that connotation of listening to an individual and working through life’s problems with them, listening to the person and listening to God at the same time. Our prayer is that we can be good shepherds here in Goldthorpe, caring for people and bringing God’s word into people’s lives.

Teachers

Teachers are those who are involved in the ministry of the Word. In Acts 13:1, we read, ‘Now in the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen (who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch) and Saul.’ Teachers are mentioned in the ministry gifts listed in 1 Cor 12:28, and clearly teaching can be combined with other roles, for Paul said, ‘of this gospel I was appointed a herald and an apostle and a teacher.’ (2 Tim 1:11) A teacher will explain and expound the Word of God and will link this to all the things Jesus has taught us: ‘teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.’ (Matt 28:20) Teaching can be both to a congregation, to small groups (such as Sunday school groups and home groups) and to individuals.

‘So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, ¹² to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up ¹³ until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.’ (Eph 4:11-13)

These ‘ministry gifts’ are not there to do all the work while the rest of the church acts as spectators. Attending church is not a spectator sport; being church means being part of the body of Christ and each part having its own gift, function and talent. Paul gives us insight, however, in the role of leaders whose job is to help all Christians to be equipped for works of service.

Apostle                                                                                                                                                                           

An apostle is one who is sent away to achieve an objective: a delegate, an envoy, a messenger. In the early church, apostles were individuals sent with Jesus’s personal authority to establish His church. The original apostles were eyewitnesses of Jesus’s ministry. (Acts 1:21-22) However, other apostles are clearly named in the New Testament, including Matthias, Paul, James, Barnabas, Adronicus and Junias, so we are not just talking about the original twelve apostles.

An apostle is someone who often is a pioneer, a visionary who perhaps travels around churches and has leadership over more than one church. They are people who, like Paul, want to preach about Christ where He is not yet known and whose ministry often involves signs and wonders. They may well travel abroad and be involved in missionary work. An apostle is a gift to the whole church, bringing a sense of positive vision and an initial thrust motion which results in people being saved and churches being established.

Prophets

We’re familiar with the Old Testament prophets – Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Elijah and Elisha, for example – and understand that a prophet is someone who ‘speaks forth’ what God says. In the New Testament, John the Baptist is called a prophet (Matt 11:19) and Jesus Himself is called a prophet (Matt 16:14). Other prophets are said to have gathered at Antioch (Acts 11:27, Acts 13:1) and Judas and Silas are named as prophets. (Acts 15:32) One prophet named Agabus predicted a famine (Acts 11:28) and prophesied about Paul’s imprisonment in Rome (Acts 21:10), and there is often that sense of ‘foretelling’ as well as ‘forthtelling’ in prophecy. One definition of the gift of prophecy is, “the special ability … to receive and communicate an immediate message of God to His people through a divinely-anointed utterance.”

Paul makes it clear that the gift of prophecy is available to God’s people and that we should earnestly desire this gift. (1 Cor 14:1) That doesn’t necessarily make us a prophet, however. A prophet seems to be someone who habitually speaks forth messages from God, someone who does this on a regular basis, whereas the gift of prophecy may be used more widely but less frequently by others in the church. Nonetheless, we need both the gift of prophecy and prophets in our churches today, for we need people who can communicate God’s mind to us directly and we need to hear the word of the Lord spoken with boldness and sincerity. Incidentally, it’s clear that both men and women can prophesy, because Acts 21:8 tells us about Philip the evangelist and his four unmarried daughters who all prophesied!