40 DAYS OF PURPOSE
YOU WERE SHAPED FOR SERVICE
DR. JIM DIXON
ISAIAH 64:8, MATTHEW 20:25-28
OCTOBER 9, 2005
“Why should the devil have all the good tunes?” You might think that that question was posed last week by someone in our student ministries, but the truth is that question was posed a long time ago in the year 1740 by the man whose name was Charles Wesley. Why should the devil have all the good tunes? Charles Wesley had just accepted Christ two years earlier, in 1738. Charles Wesley was a brilliant man, a graduate of Oxford University, and he had noticed that Christian music just wasn’t very good. Why should the devil have all the good tunes? So, Charles Wesley decided to do something about it, and we’re all grateful. Today, at Christmas, when you sing “Hark the Herald Angels Sing,” that’s because Charles Wesley wrote that song. At Easter when you sing, “Jesus Christ is Risen Today,” that’s because Charles Wesley wrote that song. Charles Wesley wrote 8,000 hymns, including my favorite hymn, “And Can It Be That I Should Gain?” That hymn he wrote in 1738 after his conversion and that hymn describes the awesome love and grace of God in saving him.
Well, Charles Wesley, along with his brother, John Wesley, started the Wesleyan Movement and the Methodist Revival, which ultimately led tens of millions of people to faith in Jesus Christ. In a sense it all goes back to Charles Wesley’s willingness to ask the question, “Why should the devil have all the good tunes?” God wants us to ask questions. God wants you to ask questions. God doesn’t want you to question everything. People who question everything never find answers. They just tend to be skeptics. But God does want us to ask reasonable questions, and this morning as we look at the fourth purpose of the Purpose Driven Life, I want us to ask two questions, and the first question is this: “Who shaped me?” Do you ever ask that question? “Who shaped me? What am I the way I am? Who made me like I am?”
You might look at this question in a variety of ways. You might seek to answer it in a variety of ways. Certainly, on the surface you might conclude that your parents shaped you. You have their genetics. You have something of their genetics, something of their DNA. Nature and nurture, your parents had a role in shaping you. You might look at it a little bit deeper with a longer view and you might think, “Well, my peers, through the years, my friends, shaped me. They’ve had a large influence on me.” But in the ultimate sense, ontologically, who shaped you ultimately?
If you’re a secular Darwinist, then you have concluded that no one shaped you. You’re simply the product of a long impersonal process called evolution. For you it all began 3.5 billion years ago when life somehow emerged out of the primordial soup. Of course, life evolved in complexity from a single cell to the variety of life forms now existing on the earth. About 225 million years ago, mammals first appeared on the earth. They evolved from reptiles. Then about 65 million years ago, about the time that the dinosaurs were going belly up, the Tertiary Period started. And during the Tertiary Period, primates began to appear in the world. Of course, about 4 million years ago, Australopithecus began to appear, perhaps 5 million years ago, and then two million years ago Homo habilis came onto the scene. And then a million and a half years ago, Homo erectus, then finally Homo sapiens, from Neanderthals to Cro-Magnon.
Of course, here you are today, Homo sapiens, modern men and women all dressed up for church. If you’re a secular Darwinist, you believe there is no God and you have no soul and death is the cessation of existence. Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow you cease to exist. If you’re a secular Darwinist, you’re the ultimate philosophical materialist. You believe that the material universe is the sum of reality. There is no spiritual realm. You believe that this material universe either was eternally existent, which is a strange postulation. Or you believe this material universe spontaneously generated, which is a stranger postulation. You’re left in the uncomfortable position of having to posit an effect without a cause because there is for you no prime mover, there is no God, there is no Creator, there is no purpose. No one shaped you except this impersonal force.
But of course, if you’re a Christian, you actually believe God shaped you. “In the beginning,” the Bible says, “God created.” If you’re a Christian, you believe there is purpose behind everything and that in some sense you have been ultimately shaped by God. Some Christians view Genesis 1, 2, and 3 as historical narrative. Other Christians view Genesis 1, 2, and 3 as parabolic literature. All Christians view these chapters as from God and we know the message—the ultimate message, the ultimate truth—is that God has shaped us.
Some Christians are theistic evolutionists—not secular Darwinists, but some Christians are theistic evolutionists. They believe God created through evolution molded and formed us over this vast period of time, that He oversaw and guided the whole process. And they see intelligent design in the creation and even in the process of evolution itself and they believe that God had you in mind from the dawn of time and that God has worked through evolution.
Other Christians are day-age theorists and they believe that God created in six vast ages, six vast areas of time, and those six ages correspond, they believe, to the six days of Genesis. And they believe that this fits best the gaps in the fossil record—that these gaps are explained by the six creative inputs of God.
Of course, other Christians believe that God created in six 24-hour days, and they view evolutionary theory as shot through with holes. They believe that radioactive dating methods are inaccurate, whether it’s Carbon 14 or Potassium Argon or Uranium Lead. They believe that the geological column is not uniform. They believe that the fossil record has been misinterpreted and they believe that cell mutation and natural selection cannot possibly explain the multiplicity and diversity of life now existing on the earth.
But whatever your view, if you’re a Christian you do believe God shaped you. If you’re a Christian, you believe that ultimately you have been shaped by God. And so we have this passage in Isaiah 64:8: “Yet, oh Lord, Thou art our Father. We are the clay. Thou art our Potter. We are all the work of Thy hands.” If you believe that, that’s power to change your life. That’s the consistent testimony of the Bible, that God shapes us. And He’s continuing to shape us. God is at work in your life right now continuing to shape you. He knows the kind of clay that you are, and He is shaping you accordingly.
In the year 1464, Augusto de Antonio found a block of marble. It was huge. It was kind of crude, but it was huge. Augusto de Antonio thought, “I’m going to make something beautiful out of this block of marble.” Maybe he was going to make the image of a character from biblical history. Maybe he was going to make the image of a secular person who was famous in history. We do not know. We do know that he began to sculpt, and he began to work on this crude block of marble in the year 1464 and he failed. He just couldn’t make it work. The marble was just too tough, and he gave it up. In the years that followed, other sculptors found the same large block of marble and they sought to shape it and could not. So finally, this large block of marble was discarded, just placed in a rubbish heap. And there it was found in the year 1504 by a man who was just going through the rubbish heap looking for something he could use. He saw this massive block of marble. He could see that some had tried to work on it and failed, but it didn’t matter to him because his name was Michelangelo. He took that crude block of rejected marble and he sculpted it into the masterpiece we call “David.” Isn’t that incredible?
I don’t know how you feel about yourself and the person you are, the experiences you’ve had, the events you’re going through, the pain, the joy, whatever you’re going through. I don’t know how you feel about yourself today, but I can tell you that you’re not too tough for God. You’re not too tough for His Son. He could sculpt you. He can shape you. And He would do that; He seeks to do that. He has plans for you and He wants to take all the events of your life, all the hard things and all the good things, and bring them together and mold and shape you. He has a purpose for you, but you have a role in this. You’re not just passive clay. You’re not just cold stone. You have a role in this the Bible tells us.
When I was in college, I threw the javelin. I loved track and field. I still do today. I love the sprints, I love the hurdles, I love the distance races, I love the field events. I threw the javelin, and I did that for four years in college. After college, I threw the javelin for the Southern California Striders for a time. The Southern California Striders were a great track club. For nine out of ten years, they won the National AAU championship. Some of the greatest athletes in the world were on the Southern California Striders. Now, I was not one of them, but I always wanted to get my event done. I always wanted to get my losing over with so I could sit around and watch these great athletes. I saw Willie Davenport run the hurdles and I saw some of the greatest athletes. I was right down on the field and it was fun for me.
I had worked hard to try to become a good javelin thrower. In college my coach was name Jim Kline. My strength and conditioning coach was named Jerry Hune. Jerry Hune was strong. He could bench press over 500 pounds. He probably used steroids. Back then we didn’t know, and I think people didn’t really understand how dangerous steroids were. I know that my coach once tried to get me to take steroids. He told me he had this stuff called Dianabol, which was an anabolic steroid. I didn’t know the dangers of it. He said if I would take it, he could put 280 pounds on my frame. I didn’t take it, not because I was afraid of steroids. I just didn’t want to weigh 280 pounds!
But this guy Jerry Hune was a great strength and conditioning coach. You could go to him and you could say, “hey, I want definition.” Jerry would say, “Where do you want definition? Do you want it in your pecs? Do you want it in your lats? Do you want it in your abdomen? Do you want it in your stomach? Do you want it in your arms or your legs? Where do you want definition?” He could give you just the right exercises, tell you what days to do them, the number of sets, the number of repetitions, the right intervals, the right diet. He could lay it all out for you. Or you could go to him and say, “I don’t really want definition. I just want power.” He’d say, “What kind of power do you want? Do you want endurance, or do you want a burst of power? What kind of power do you want?” Of course, I wanted a burst of power because that’s what you needed to throw the javelin. He could tell me exactly what I needed to do.
In the course of time, Jerry left our school. Strange enough, I was asked to be the weight instructor and so I taught weightlifting. The school actually paid me to teach weightlifting for two years. I didn’t know anywhere near as much as Jerry Hune had known but I knew this: I knew I couldn’t help anybody unless they were willing to work. Jerry had known that, and I think we all know that’s true. God Himself will not be able to shape you into what He wants you to be unless you’re willing to work. You’ve got to be willing to make some effort here. So when we say, “Who shaped me?” maybe we’re not exactly what He intended us to be but we still could be if we’re willing to yield ourselves, give ourselves as clay into His hands and be part of the process.
There’s a second question we need to answer, because this shaping all has a purpose. The second question is, “What has God shaped me to do?” We know that God ultimately shapes us, but what has God shaped me to do? What IS He shaping me to do? Of course, you know the answer because you’ve read Rick Warren’s book and Rick knows the answer because he’s read the Bible, and I think we all have read the Bible and we know biblically God shapes us for service. You could never discover this by looking at evolution because evolution is an inadequate explanation for life. You see, God has breathed on you. If you just look at evolution, you might conclude we’re shaped for survival, but you wouldn’t conclude by looking at evolution that we’re shaped for service.
But God has breathed on you. God has breathed on me. The breath of God is upon us, and He has imparted His image, the imago Dei, within us. God is servant hearted. God Himself is servant hearted and He’s breathed on us. There is this design in us that we’re meant to serve. We’re only happy, we only have joy, we’re only fulfilled, we only find satisfaction, when we serve. That’s how God has molded us. That’s how God has sculpted us. That’s how God has formed us. We’re shaped to serve.
The Roman world didn’t understand this. I think humanity throughout history really has not understood this but certainly in the time of Christ the Roman world did not understand this. The Latin word for “service” is the word “minister.” That’s the Roman word, the Latin word for “service.” The word “minister” simply means, “servant.” This word was hated in the Roman world. They hated the word minister and they hated service and servants. The word minister comes from the Latin word “minor,” which means, “small.” Nobody wanted to be small. Nobody wanted to be minor. Nobody wanted to be a minister. Nobody wanted to be a servant. It was a negative word.
What Romans loved was this opposite word, the opposite of minister, the word “magister.” That’s the word Romans loved, the word “magister,” which means “master.” And everybody wanted to be a master. Of course, the word “magister” comes from the Latin word “major,” which means, “great.” So everybody wanted to be great, everybody wanted to be major, everybody wanted to be magister. Everybody wanted to be master.
So, along comes Jesus and He knows the Roman world. He knows how people think and He gives this incredible teaching in Matthew, chapter 20. He says, “He who would be great among you must be your servant.” Well, this was turning everything upside down, turning the world on its head. “He who would be greatest must be your servant.” So, Jesus was saying, he who would be magister must be a minister. He who would be major, must be minor. He who would be great must be small. It was a radical teaching, and yet Jesus understands how we’re made, how we’re crafted, how we’re sculpted, and He is indeed our Sculptor and He knows we need to serve. We’ve been made this way.
Of course, Jesus lived in a world that was Hellenized. In that world, people knew Latin and they also knew Greek. Even in Israel, where people spoke Hebrew and Aramaic, many knew Greek and Latin. People were multilingual. In the Greek language at the time of Jesus Christ, there were three words for service, three words for servant, and they were all hated words. There was the word “huperete” and the word “doulos” and the word “diakonos.” And all three of these words were hated by the Greeks and the Greek-speaking world. The word huperete literally means “under rower,” and it originally was used to describe those who pulled the oars in the galleys of those great ships that moved through the Mediterranean. Most of these people were slaves and this world was hated. The word doulos means “bond servant,” and it was a word used to describe the slaves, 60 million slaves throughout the Roman world. The whole Roman socioeconomic system was based on the tragic reality of slavery—60 million slaves. It was a hated word.
Of course, this third word, diakonos, is another word which means “servant” or “service.” It’s the word from which we get the word “deacon.” The word deacon simply means, “servant.” Etymologists have debated, “Well, where did this word diakonos come from?” Some say, “Well maybe it came from “konis,” which means, “dust.” So diakonos would mean, “through the dust.” Maybe a servant is somebody who is willing to get their hands dirty.” Others say diakonos comes from “konos,” and “diakonos” means, “through trouble.” So, the Good Samaritan in the parable of Jesus was willing to be troubled. He stopped to help the hurting man, but the priest and the Levite went right on by. They weren’t willing to be bothered, weren’t willing to be troubled. But a deacon, a servant, is willing to be troubled.
The cool thing as you look into the New Testament is all three of these words—huperete, doulos, diakonos—are made beautiful. They’re just the most glorious words in scripture. It’s the opposite of the way the world thinks. And so Christians are called to these words, these service words, and God knows that we find joy and we find meaning and significance and fulfillment as we serve God and as we serve people. It’s really how we’re shaped and it’s how Christ is seeking to shape us and it’s really what it’s all about.
There’s an old joke I’ve told before, years ago. I heard it many years ago about this preacher who worked in a farming community. This preacher was big. I guess he weighed about 280 pounds. This guy was big, and he loved to eat. After church one Sunday he was asked by a farming family to come to the farm for supper. So, he came. The farmer knew that this preach ate a lot, so they fried chicken and they fried two whole chickens. They sat down for supper, said a word of prayer, and the preacher began to eat. He ate and he ate. Before long everything was gone. A rooster crowed outside, and the preacher said, “That sure is a proud rooster you have out there.” The farmer said, “Well, he should be. Two of his kids just entered the ministry!” It’s an old story.
I don’t know whether everyone is proud of entering the ministry. We’ve talked sometimes as a staff, “Are your parents proud that you’ve entered the ministry?” Some of them said no, that their parents wanted them to do something else, and they didn’t want them to be involved in servanthood. They would rather they were magisters than ministers. I think we still live in a world like that, do we not? I hope you understand we’re all called into the ministry. I’m no different than you are. We’re all called into His ministry. We’re all called into service. This is God’s shaping of us in his plan for us.
I want you to see a little film clip. It’s more than coincidence that just last week Rick Warren of the Saddleback Church who wrote The Forty Days of Purpose and Ashley Smith, I think you know her story. Rick Warren and Ashley Smith were on 20/20 and they were on Good Morning America. They were also on Oprah. I want you to see this little clip from Oprah with Ashley Smith.
Oprah: By this time, it’s been hours since accused Atlanta spree killer took single mother Ashley Smith hostage at gunpoint in her apartment. She was struggling to form a bond with him that she was hoping would spare her life. We’ve all heard that He either saw The Purpose Driven Life, that book, or you started reading to him. How did that come about.
Ashley: After he did the drugs, I thought, “Well, I didn’t choose to do the drugs so I might as well do something good for myself.” So, I asked him if I could read. He said, “Sure, what do you want to read?” I went to my room and I grabbed my book.
Oprah: Where were you in it? Which day?
Ashley: I was in chapter 32. I just began to read the whole front page to him.
Oprah: Read to us some of what you read to him.
Ashley: Using what God gave you, since we find ourselves fashioned into all these excellently formed and marvelously functioned parts in Christ’s body, let’s just go ahead and be what we were made to be. What you are is God’s gift to you. What you do with yourself is your gift to God. God deserves your best. He shaped you for a purpose and He expects you to make the most of what you’ve been given.
Oprah: After you read this passage, he asked you to re-read it.
Ashley: He immediately stopped me right there and said, “read it again,” and I read it
again.
Oprah: And then he asked you what you thought your purpose is.
Ashley: Yes. I said, “My purpose is to serve others and to try to help other people.” Then I asked him what he thought my purpose was. He said to tell other people about you, about what’s happened to you. Then he asked me what I thought his purpose was and I told him he needed to go to jail and pay for what he did but maybe it was to help other people in jail and to minister to them.
Oprah: What was his reaction to that?
Ashley: He just stopped and thought about it and just put his head down.
Well, it really doesn’t matter whether you’re in jail or whether you’re free. It doesn’t matter whether you’re black or whether you’re white. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a man or a woman, male or female. God has shaped you for service. If you yield yourself to Him, if you would give yourself to Him and let Him continue to shape you, it’s powerful. This whole concept that God has designed us and shaped us and molded us for service is powerful. It’s transforming lives. It’s transforming countless lives by the power of God.
On July 31, in the year 1854, a man named Sam Wilson died. He was buried at the Oakwood Cemetery outside of Troy, New York. Perhaps you’re thinking, “Well, I’ve never heard of Sam Wilson,” but I promise you, you’ve all heard of him. You’ve all heard of Sam Wilson. Sam Wilson owned a meat packing business. He produced and distributed meat. Sam ran the company along with his brother Ebenezer Wilson. They were kind of like Monfort up in Greeley. This was a big company. Sam Wilson never went by the name Sam Wilson. Nobody ever called him Sam. They called him Uncle Sam. That’s what everyone called Sam Wilson. He was known to all his friends as Uncle Sam.
During the War of 1812, it was his company that provided all of the meat for the American troops. The meat would arrive in big containers and big boxes for the American troops, and they were all stamped U.S. The joke was, “Does that mean United States or does that mean Uncle Sam?” I think you know what happened. Over the course of time, Uncle Sam began to be a name given to the United States government. That’s what happened over time and that’s why the United States government began to be called Uncle Sam. You began to see these images of Uncle Sam in his top hat and stars and stripes suit, and a goatee and a sparkle in his eye. Of course, recruiting posters had Uncle Sam on them, right? During World War I those recruiting posters were everywhere. I’m sure not many of you were around to see those. Uncle Sam was always pointing, “I want you!” Uncle Sam continues to recruit today. “I want you!” He continues recruiting people to serve this country, recruiting people for military service.
Of course, the church of Jesus Christ is really in a sense similar because the church of Jesus Christ and indeed God Himself, Christ Himself, recruits people for service. If you’re new here, we want you to know if you keep coming, you’ll hear this. We are always recruiting for service. We’re doing you a favor because you’re shaped to serve. We find joy and fulfillment and satisfaction and purpose and meaning and significance when we serve, so we’re constantly recruiting for service. We need Sunday school teachers. You might be saying, “Well, I don’t know whether that fits my shape. I don’t know whether I’m being shaped that way, to teach Sunday school.” We need inner city tutors. You might be saying, “I don’t know if I’m shaped for that, if I’m shaped to go into the inner city and tutor a child.” We need people in the choir. You might think, “I don’t know if I’m shaped for that, whether that’s my shape.”
Of course, as John was shaping up here and you can see the work of his shaping and you can see the bowl… Christ is a loving shaper. He knows your limits and He knows all the events of your life. He knows when to draw back and give you a little space and He knows when to press on. He’s never through with you. He’s always working. He’s always shaping. He’s always molding. He’s the Potter. But you understand, He shapes you for service.
We’re happy to help you find your shape, help you understand your spiritual gifts. We have a whole department of ministry that works on that to help you understand your spiritual gifts, help you understand how your experiences can be used in the cause of Christ, help you understand your abilities, your interests, your likes and dislikes. We want to look at your shape but understand you are shaped for service. I think what’s most important is that we approach service with humility.
As you read Rick Warren’s book, you see in there how he describes a servant. He describes a servant in many ways, but one he says is that people who are servant hearted are people who do not think of themselves as owners but as stewards. They don’t think of themselves as owners but as stewards.
I realize that’s a lesson for me too. Last week we had Tommy Walker here. I thought Tommy Walker was incredible. I thought Tommy Walker just did an amazing job of leading us in worship. He’s an incredible music leader with a great gift and a great anointing and a wonderful spirit, truly a great guy. Of course, Tommy went 45 minutes in one service and 50 minutes in the other. I was sitting there kind of nervous because we didn’t know Tommy was going to go that long. I had prepared a 40- minute message, which I knew was a stretch, but I prepared a 40-minute message and I had worked real hard. I knew when I came up here, I only had like 20 to 25 minutes and I knew I couldn’t make the message work because it was linear. I mean it went A, B, C, D. I couldn’t just start at D. It wouldn’t have made any sense, and so I had to throw it out. I had to throw it out.
It was probably the third time in the history of our church when I’ve had to just throw a message out. I was agonizing over it. I was just sitting down here in agony. I was panicky and I was thinking, “What do I do?” I got up here and there was one illustration out of there that I thought I could use and then I thought of a couple of other illustrations from the past and something from my life. Then I thought of a video by Rob Bell that Rebecca and Nathan Johnson had given me during the week and how I might be able to apply some things there and so I was scrambling trying to put things together. I was working on it while I was talking at the first service. At the second service I thought it went a little better, but I was sitting there kind of angry and not worshipping at the end of Tommy’s time in the first service. I was just kind of like, “Wow! He’s going too long. What am I going to do?” I was kind of getting resentful. Barb turned to me. She could sense that I was tense and kind of angry. Barb said, “You need to take a higher view. This is God’s deal. It isn’t your deal.” She actually said that to me!
Of course, how true that is. This church doesn’t belong to me. This is God’s church and it’s so exciting to realize that. I’m not the owner. I don’t own anything. I’m just a steward serving the owner. I think we all need to be reminded of that. Is that not true? We’re all just stewards serving the owner.
What’s true of me is true of you. We’re in this deal together and this is God’s church. This is the church of Jesus Christ. He said, “I will build My church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.” Who knows what could happen here? Who knows what God might do here in the years and decades ahead if we yield ourselves to Him as clay. If we yield to the Potter, who knows what He might do and through this church and this ministry. It’s incredible to think. So we have this fourth purpose, that we are shaped for service. Let’s look to the Lord with a word of prayer.