Preached by Chris Broom, 8/10/2008

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Ray Johnson (3rd from left) Places Membership

Useful to the Master - Outline

In a large house there are articles not only of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay; some are for noble purposes and some for ignoble. If a man cleanses himself from the latter, he will be an instrument for noble purposes, made holy, useful to the Master and prepared to do any good work. - 2 Timothy 2:20-21

• Noble and ignoble things in a house: a plunger and a nice drinking glass.
• Probably wouldn’t want to be served a drink in a plunger.
• We must cleanse ourselves of the ignoble things that are in us.
• Then we will be an instrument for noble purposes.
• Becoming a Christian is kind of like the recycling process.
• When we are unholy, we are not useful to the master.
• We need to be prepared to do any good work for the Master.

2 Timothy 3:10-17 You, however, know all about my teaching, my way of life, my purpose, faith, patience, love, endurance, persecutions, sufferings—what kinds of things happened to me in Antioch, Iconium and Lystra, the persecutions I endured. Yet the Lord rescued me from all of them. In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evil men and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

• Timothy knew Paul’s life.
• When we are useful to the Master, we will be persecuted.
• Paul told Timothy about his life, including his persecutions to prepare him for what would come to him if he wanted to live a Godly life. Not to slander of vent.
• The Bible is useful if we use it. By constant use of the scriptures we learn to distinguish good from evil.
• We need to be trained for righteousness so that we are equipped for every good work.
• There are times our emotions, intellect and traditions are useful and times they are not, but the Bible is always useful.
• We must trust the Bible more than we trust our emotions, intellect and traditions.
• We must know the Bible.

• We must be broken of certain things before we will be useful to the Master.
• What do we need to be broken of in order to be useful to the Master.
• We want to be useful, but what in our flesh hates being useful to the Master.
• This is a spiritual war.
• After evangelizing the world, we won’t be having a big party. There will be a lot of dead Christians lying around.
• The party is in Heaven!
• What is God trying to break me of? What do I need to change so God can use this vessel and I’ll be useful to the Master.
• Vision demands training. No vision and no need of training.
• When you want to be an Olympian, you must submit yourself to be trained.
• If you want to be a true classical guitarist, you must practice from 9 to 5.
• Some need to decide what they want to be useful for. To many dreams and you will accomplish nothing.
• We must decide what we want to do or we won’t be effective in anything. That’s why in Acts 6, the apostles delegated to job to feed the widows because they had to stay focused on their role in order to be useful to the Master.
• If we do to many things, we will do nothing well.
• Maybe you have no vision, and that demands no training.
• Training must come from someone who knows what they are doing.
• I remember when I gave myself over to be trained to be useful to the Master. I was broken and realized I needed to be trained for the vision of God.
• I remember when Andrew Smellie gave himself over to be trained and now he is planting the Washington DC church.
• What are your dreams that God?
• What has the Holy Spirit put on your heart, and what training do you need to achieve that dream?
• Training helps us to not be choked and unfruitful.
• To be useful we must cleanse ourselves of the ignoble, be made holy and useful to the Master, prepared to do any good work.

To be useful to the Master, we must…

LESSON 1: Value Mercy over Judgment.

James 2:12-13

• We jump to judgment to quickly with each other.
• We must show mercy and grace.

Zechariah 7:9-13

• We must administer true justice; and show mercy and compassion to one another.
• In your hearts, we must not think evil of each other.
• When they refused, God said He would not listen to them.

Luke 17:1-4

• When we bring sin to other people, we are useful to Satan. God says it would be better for us to be drown.
• Who do we want to be useful to?
• If brother sins, we should rebuke him.
• In this case, a rebuke is merciful so that they will repent.
• Rebuke is not because we hate someone, it is to help them.
• In 1 Corinthians 5, the immoral brother is expelled from the church out of love. Love for the church and love for the person, so that they could be saved on the last day. This is church discipline.
• It hurts to discipline in the church just like in a family. Discipline is merciful!
• If they repent, then forgive!

James 2:14-17

LESSON 2 Value Deeds over Words.

• Between the word and the deed, there is much in deed.
• Words are one thing, but deeds are what counts.
• In Jesus’ parable of the 2 sons, one said he would go into the field and work but later did not go. The other said he wouldn’t go into the field and work, but then later went and worked. Which one was useful to the Master?
• In Revelation, Jesus says, “I know your deeds!”

LESSON 3: Value Truth over Relationship.

• John 8:31-32 teaches that if we don’t obey Jesus, we don’t even know the truth and aren’t set free.
• When we become Christians, it is the truth over anything else or anyone else.
• In John 6, when Jesus gave a hard teaching and many left him, He asked the 12 if they were going to leave as well. He didn’t beg them to stay or change his message to keep them. Peter’s response says it all. He said Jesus had the words to eternal life (the truth).
• Those that believed in Jesus were afraid of being thrown out of the synagogue and Jesus said they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God.

1 Corinthians 4:14

• Paul was not writing to shame but to warn. Sometimes it feels like people are trying to shame us when they just lovingly want to warn us.
• The kingdom is not a matter of talk, but power.
• We must have deep convictions about what God wants us to do.
• We must all want what God wants.
• Paul was willing to lay his relationships on the line for the truth.
• Paul taught everywhere in every church.
• There is no credibility in a leader if their life doesn’t reflect it.
• Leaders who lose their own faith and conviction, lose their conviction to call others to imitate them.
• I must call others to the same conviction of Jesus. I can’t worry that Roger or Jay won’t be my buddy if I challenge them to be useful to the Master. Truth over relationship.
• We do not believe in Autonomy. Not in a bible talk or a church leader.
• There is authority in the scripture in leadership over churches.
• It is the same in marriage and family. There is one leader. And it’s not always the smartest one!
• If I am doing something to hurt this church, I pray Kip will come in and sit me down. Help me change and then I’ll step back up and lead when my faith is there.
• I expect you to be humble and I hope you expect me to be humble as a church leader.
• A baptist church in the 1820’s sent some people to Alexander Cambell, who taught them baptism for the remission of sins. The church split and the baptist believed the Disciples of Christ were lead astray by Cambell. After some years, the Disciples of Christ lost their conviction and rejoined the baptist church.
• Who you see as divisive and who is a preacher of the truth depends on what is right, not who is right.
• If you think I am lukewarm, please tell me. If i”m really on fire, I’ll thank you for the challenge. Worst case I get my feeling hurt. I think we can get through that if the early Christians got through being martyred. If I am lukewarm and you don’t tell me, worst case I will go to hell.

2 Timothy 3:1-5

• Terrible times!
• Don’t partner with people who have a form of godliness, but no power.
• What does it look like to have a from of godliness but no power?
• We can go to church and carry a Bible, and have no power.
• There’s power in confession of sin.
• There’s power in evangelism. There are churches of 20,000 people and yet no one walks up and shares their faith with us. That’s no power.
• There’s power in discipling. It’s what changed my life.

MARTIN LUTHER KING JR said, “I have long since learned that being a follower of Jesus Christ means taking up the cross. My Bible tells me that Good Friday comes before Easter. Before the crown we wear, there is the cross that we must bear. Let us bear it! Bear it for truth, bear it for justice, bear it for peace! Let us go out this morning with that determination.

- Chris Broom

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