You are an Instrument

BUILDING INTRODUCTION Morning Everybody! My name is David Sorn, and I’m the lead pastor of Renovation Church. Welcome to our very last Sunday at Northpoint Elementary. Next Sunday, after 17 weeks away, we are finally going home…back to our building! I can’t even tell you how excited I am about this! I’m so pumped for you to see all the progress with your own eyes. As I’ve been saying every week, the building is not DONE…we still have over 6 months of construction left! But, we are at that point in construction, where we can safely get back for worship again. Just a few reminders and instructions for when you come next Sunday Because we’re down a kids classroom for the Fall…kids 10 11 will be in the Worship Center with us until we can open up our Kids Wing Addition in January. Also, our new North part of our parking lot is open, but the Southern Expansion, including the turn lane off of Lexington is still just a few weeks out from completion So you can turn into our parking lot the normal way off the frontage road, or you can make a right turn into the parking lot off of 125th And remember when you get there on Sunday, this is kind of like if you were remodeling and adding on to your home, and now you’re living it again… …but the work isn’t completely done... Not everything you see, even in the lobby & worship center is fully done. Counters will change, some paint might change…some furniture will be still be added. And so, as you come even over the next few weeks, it’ll be kind of cool, as you’ll get to see the final finishing touches and the changes each week And then, over the next 6 months, you’ll get to see massive changes all over the rest of the expansion and property. We’ve kind of been distant from it for 4 months, and now we get to see week by week progress, which will be really fun! And listen, I know it’s not finished, and we’re not at a Grand Opening or anything yet, but there are so many people in the community saying, “What’s going on over there?” Don’t hesitate to invite someone with you to see “what’s going on over there,” and what God is doing! AND, we’re going to embark on a new study of another book of the Bible next week. I’m going to start teaching through the Book of Ephesians in the New Testament! GOD WANTS TO USE YOU (3 Week Outline) Okay, let’s get into our message for TODAY! We are finishing a short series called, “Remember Who You Are,” where for 3 weeks, we’re looking at 3 different Scriptures, on 3 different Christian identities We’ve talked about how you are a Priest, how are a temple, and today, we’ll dive into the Biblical truth that you are an instrument. …that is, that God wants to use YOU for His purposes. (Remember Who You Are Series Slide) And before we got any further let’s just pause for a moment and think about how awesome that is. I’m not sure we do that enough when we think about our identities in Christ. What if I said that Elon Musk just called, and he wants to use you at Tesla or Space X? Or maybe you’re not into Elon Musk…maybe you’re more of a Joanna Gaines person… …or pick a politician (that might be harder) But pick someone you respect, and let’s say they want to use you for something. How would you feel? You’d feel honored. Maybe humbled. You would be in awe of the fact that they chose you. But what about when you hear that God has called you… The God of the Universe…the King of Kings… He’s on the phone. And He’s telling you that He can use YOU for His purposes.. We should be completely blown away by that! Right. …because it’s the truth. And God has given us instructions on how He can use us as His instrument. I want to show you that in His Word 2 Timothy 2:20 22 Page 814 Paul, an early Christian leader, is writing to his mentee Timothy. And Paul is going to give Timothy some advice on how believers can better be used as instruments in God’s hand. Let’s take a look: (2 Timothy 2:20 22) – NIV 20 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. 22 Flee the evil desires of youth and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart. (You are an Instrument Title slide) Okay, so let’s get our minds around this metaphor first. Paul is saying that in a large house in those days… Wealthy people would have many objects. Some of them were special…they were gold and silver dishes used to entertain important guests. But they also had plain, common, functional objects too. …and things that were used for objects like…you know…trash and ignoble things. And Paul then makes the connection that each Christian believer is like a vessel or an instrument for the use of the master of the house (God) Some of us are ready to be instruments for special purposes. But others of us, in our current state, are more similar to the instruments for “common use.” Which is actually just a PC way of saying, ignoble, or dishonorable use, which is in fact what most translations say. And so the application then, is IF you want to be used as an instrument of God, it is important that you cleanse yourself from the ignoble, the sinful parts of your life. FIRST YOU MUST CLEANSE YOUR CUP It’s kind of like this. Imagine you went over to someone’s house, and they had a pitcher of water out on their table. And you were thirsty, so you went to pour yourself a cup of water And thankfully, there were 4 cups out on the table. But the first cup had lipstick all over it And the second cup looks like someone had chocolate milk, and never washed it. And the third literally had mold in it. And so on and so forth But the 4th cup was sparkly clean. Which vessel, which cup would you use for your purposes? That is what Paul is saying: Look at 21: 21Those 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. That’s an amazing assignment from God. I pray you want to be “USEFUL to the Master!” But God is saying to you, through His Word, that if you want God to use you in great ways… … in your family…at work…in the community…. …you’ve got to work with the Holy Spirit to cleanse yourself from the sin in your cup And we get more practical instructions on this in verse 22 22 Flee the evil desires of youth and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart. And verse 22 gives us one example of a dirty cup, and 4 examples of a a clean cup So let’s use this as a framework for the type of sin we need to cleanse from our cups, so we can be “useful to the Master” as one of His special instruments. So what is the first thing we’re told to do? Becoming a Useful Instrument Pursue purity NOT the desires of youth Paul says, “Flee the desires of youth.” That is sensuality. One of the great hindrances to God using us as His instrument is sexual sin. We talked at length about that last week when we talked about how we are temples of the Holy Spirit. But before we go any further, let me say, “God can and does…use dirty vessels.” That’s almost the tagline of the Old Testament. And none of us is truly sparkly clean. Yes, positionally, God has wiped away our sin. But practically, we’re not perfect. None of us is without sin. The existence of sin in your life doesn’t mean that God can’t use you. Got that? BUT… the point of this passage is: if we willfully continue in a sin…we shouldn’t expect that God will continue to use us. He may use us to positively impact the people around us for a while… …as often God uses people in spite of themselves But eventually, if we continue in sin, God will put our glass down, and start using someone else. Holiness, which is the great forgotten truth in American Christianity, is incredibly important to the Master who chooses which vessels to use for which purposes. Robert Murray McCheyne once said it this way: “It is not great talents God blesses so much as likeness to Jesus” – Robert Murray McCheyne I don’t care how gifted or talented you are, if you want God to use you, we’ve got to strive to be more like Him…even when no one is watching. And how else are we called to be like Jesus accordingly to this passage? Becoming a Useful Instrument Pursue purity NOT the desires of youth Pursue righteousness NOT carelessness And I mean a carelessness about sin here….that is when we don’t take righteousness or holiness seriously. You know, many of us are byproducts of our parents’ reaction to the Christianity of their day. Where for many of them, Christianity had become too legalistic, too focused on rules, and not on Jesus. And so they wanted to focus more on their relationship with Christ (which was good), but like things always do, the pendulum has just swung the other way. And now, many of us while we care about our relationship with Jesus, we tend to be fairly careless about sin…and what we say, or watch, or do. And whether we know it or not, that absolutely is a hindrance to how God will use us as an instrument…because we are mucking up our cups with the dirtiness of our sin. And it detracts from our witness. Let me list the last 3 together. Becoming a Useful Instrument Pursue purity NOT the desires of youth Pursue righteousness NOT carelessness Pursue faith NOT disbelief Pursue love NOT unforgiveness Pursue peace NOT division Thirdly, your amount of faith always plays a role in what God is doing. Jesus speaks about it the quantity of faith a lot in the gospels. Fourthly, when it comes to Unforgiveness…let’s say your family member has wronged you, and you just refuse to forgive them… …as hard as it to say, you’re going against the will and example of God. The One who undeservedly forgave you. And so it’s harder therefore for God’s love to shine through you when you hold on to unforgiveness How can we…to a watching world…say, “God will forgive you even if you’ve really messed up!,” but we won’t forgive those who messed up against us. That’s why in the Lord’s prayer, Jesus teaches us to pray, “Father, forgive us our sins as we forgive those who’ve sinned against us” In our cup, we’re to reflect Jesus…not dirty up His way with unforgiveness. This is similar to the last point…when you’re creating discord and division in your relationships and friendships, it’s not the way of Christ. And so therefore, God is less likely to pick you up and use you as His instrument to bring His Living Water to a thirsty world. (You are an Instrument Title slide) And timeout for a sec: …doesn’t this just feel almost wrong to say? That God won’t use some of you. Let’s be real: At least some of you in here are going, “I don’t like this. It feels wrong.” And it feels wrong, because it’s very against the grain to how our current American culture thinks. And even some of the way our churches (that sound a bit more like the culture) teach. We’re used to hearing something more like, “God loves everybody, and He’s got a plan to use you no matter what” But the Bible really says something more like, “If you willfully continue in sin, don’t expect God to use you…it’s more likely that as a loving Father, he would discipline you than use you.” Whoa. But listen, if you step back from our cute cultural phrases and sentiments, and you just use logic, the Bible makes a lot more sense here. See it from God’s perspective… Imagine you owned your own family business, and you had 4 sons, and they all worked for you… And 2 of your sons were really responsible and on time and trustworthy And 2 of your sons were lazy, and stayed out drinking, and didn’t show up to work on time. Which of your sons would you use as a vessel to further your work? And which sons would you rely on less… …or maybe even have a stern talk with… …perhaps even discipline? This is what God is saying through Paul in 2 Timothy here If we persist in sin… …it absolutely lessens the chances that God will pick us up and use us as His instrument to change a world in need. Now, this doesn’t mean God doesn’t love you in your sin. If we go back to the family business analogy…would you still LOVE your sons…even if they didn’t show up to work? Absolutely. 100% And God loves us in our sin…even in our persistent rebellion…He loves us! But that doesn’t mean He’s going to use us. And it’s important that we understand the difference. LET GOD USE YOU! And so what sin do you need to turn from this week, so you can be an instrument that the Master picks up again? And where is it that you want to see God use you? Maybe you have family members that really need to see Christ through you? Maybe you are serving the poor or the hurting right now. Maybe you’re one of our 100 small group leaders this year. And notice by the way, at the end of verse 22, that one of the main ways we walk out this holy life…is in community. See where it says that we do this, “Along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart” And my friends look at me, that is my heart for each and every one of you That you don’t try and walk all of this stuff out alone. We are in a loneliness epidemic here in America, and in many ways it has infiltrated our churches…as even many churches have reduced what it means to be a church to watching a mere livestream from home. But Biblically, as Christians, you are called to walk out this faith WITH other people The NT alone has 59 “one another” commands (love one another, encourage one another, support one another), and you can’t do any of them…when you don’t know anyone in church. And this is why we are so passionate about house groups here. It’s why we’ve always had 80% of our people in a group. Just last year in House Groups, God did some amazing things through people. When our people had babies, their group was supporting them with meals and help every day. Many people were challenged to get in the Word and really grow in their faith, to walk away from sin, or addiction, and more. And I heard so, so, so many stories last year, but let me share 2 of them with you quick One of our House Groups had a single mom who was going through a challenging time financially due to the mental health challenges her daughter was facing. Her daughter needed to be treated at a special facility that was costly. After sharing of her struggles with the group, she was blown away because, unbeknownst to her, her house group had raised more than $3,500 for her to help her daughter. That’s incredible But look at me, that kind of love and support doesn’t happen in your life if you think church is just a “service on Sunday” Church, in the Bible, is the body of believers knowing each other and supporting one another This is part of we do…but just a PART There was another family in our church (in a different House Group) where the mom had a stroke at a young age, and is, for now anyway, partially paralyzed and in a wheel chair. She has still mostly been in the hospital, and so the family has had to prepare for this drastic change to their home life. But their house group has massively rallied around them by not only supporting them spiritually, but physically. They’ve been at their house… a lot…doing demo, remodeling the house to make it wheelchair accessible, painting, bringing meals, and on and on. And that family is new to Christ…and new to community. And they have said, multiple times, they don’t know how they would have survived if this would have happened a year ago, before they were in Christian community. That’s what we want you to be a part of. A Christian community of support…but also a community to spur you on to go deeper in your faith! And truthfully, you need to be this for someone else too. It isn’t just about us. So put your fears aside, and take the leap. Sign up And trust that God will use you in to be His instrument. Remember who you are. This says, “He wants you to be an instrument for a special purpose. This says, “He wants you to be prepared to do every good work for Him…as an instrument in His hand. And what an honor that is. But we each need to decide what you want to be used for. Paul puts this really starkly in his letter to the Romans. (Romans 6:12 13) – NIV – Leave up until the end 12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. 13 Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness. And so why should we cleanse ourselves from sin and live for God? Paul says, v. 13, that we offer ourselves to God because he brought us back from death to life. It’s that I once was blind and now I see. I once was dead…and now…I’m alive. I deserved to die for my sins, but Jesus came, and died in my place on the cross …to set me free from the bondage of sin, and to forgive me so I could have enteral life through my faith in Him. And if I was literally in the grave, and Jesus walked by called me outta that grave like Lazarus… I’m following that Jesus! I’m following Him. I want to do whatever that God Man says. I want to be useful to the Master I’m wiping that dirt out of my life… ..and I want to be instrument for Him! But my friends, that’s what happened in your life! Remember who you are. You’ve been brought back from the dead… And you…are an instrument…in the hand of God. Let me pray Copyright: David Sorn Renovation Church in Blaine, MN You may use this material all you like! We only ask that you do not charge a fee and that you quote the source and not say it is your own.