Faithfulness:

A “How Can I Serve You?” Mindset

5.31.2023

God has raised up Victory Church for a grand purpose!

As we enter our future together and open Victory Academy, the way we serve will be all important. We have a community to reach together for Jesus!

Our level of faithfulness shows our maturity level at Victory Church!

Romans 1:1 (NKJV)

Paul, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated to the gospel of God.

The number one criteria God looks for in the lives of His people is faithfulness. To the faithful, He gives responsibilities.

 

Our simple vision statement:

 

Helping people become who God created them to be.

God calls a pastor to a local church, and he can’t do it alone.

From Ephesians 4:11-12, we find that the anointing in the local church flows from the pastoral office, the office that Jesus set in the church.

Ephesians 4:11-12 (NKJV)

And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, 12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ,

A successful church is a church where the people and pastor work together to do the will of God in their community.

 

Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 (NLT)

Two people are better off than one, for they can help each other succeed. If one person falls, the other can reach out and help. But someone who falls alone is in real trouble. Likewise, two people lying close together can keep each other warm. But how can one be warm alone? A person standing alone can be attacked and defeated, but two can stand back-to-back and conquer. Three are even better, for a triple-braided cord is not easily broken.

For a local church to be effective, it takes everyone pulling their load together in harmony.

 

The test of God’s purpose for your life is the test of faithfulness.

1 Corinthians 4:2 (AMPC)

Moreover it is essentially required in stewards that a man be found faithful – proving himself worthy of trust.

Proverbs 28:20 (NKJV)

A faithful man will abound with blessings, but he who hastens to be rich will not go unpunished.

 

1 Timothy 1:12 (NKJV)

And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has enabled me, because He counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry.

Rotherham:

Grateful am I to Him that empowered me.

Henry Alford:

I give thanks to Him who puts strength in me.

New English Bible:

And I thank Christ Jesus my Lord, who has made me equal to the task.

 

2 Timothy 2:2 (NKJV)

And the things you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.

 

Big Things Have Little Beginnings!

Zechariah. 4:10 (NKJV)

For who has despised the day of small things?

 

Matthew 25: 21, 23 (NKJV)

…Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter the joy of your Lord.

 

I am in ministry today because God saw my faithful heart.

I started in ministry as a janitor. It was a great place of testing faithfulness. My attitude and motivations were tested in fire!

I became a pastoral staff member in 1984 for Bob Yandian at Grace Church in Tulsa.

I was tested in my loyalty, in wanting to do things different than he did, in wondering why he did or didn’t do this or that!

God wanted to see if I would be faithful when I disagreed!

I became an associate to Carl Morris in 1993. It was a great test of faithfulness in my life, because I so did not do life the way he did in ministry.

The Lord challenged me: “Who are you to judge another man’s servant? TO me he rises or falls.” That changed my life. I learned to do what I do to Jesus whether I agreed or disagreed. And God rewards faithful hearts.

I pastored another man’s church for one year before I came here. God was testing my faithfulness. People told me I was a better preacher, and I said “Be quiet! Never say that again!” I refused to record my messages because I refused to draw disciples to myself. God was testing my faithfulness.

I built his church up and then gave it back a year later when he came home from the mission field.

 

ARE You Faithful or Self-Serving?

Our age has lost the attitude of self-sacrifice that is motivated by a greater and more enduring reward.

 

Our current generation and national mindset value comfort and entertainment over future rewards.

 

The “What’s in it for me?” attitude often rules instead of the attitude that says “What can I do to be a blessing to others?”

Doing Jesus’ work as a volunteer with the current cultural attitude:

• Late to commitments.
• Last-minute calls to cancel commitment.
• Not showing up when you’re scheduled to help.
• Slackness in local church commitments, such as attending services, fellowship opportunities, prayer times.
• My commitment to God is not as important as other things in life.

 

A “How can I serve you?” mindset includes:

 

* Being just as committed to what we do for Jesus as we are to our jobs! No such thing as NOT showing up unless we call and let someone know what’s up.

 

* Arriving early to a commitment because we’re excited to see lives impacted and changed by Jesus through the Word!

 

* Being enthused, excited, and involved in your local church services, fellowship opportunities, and in inviting others to come with you!

 

* My volunteer work for Jesus is one of the most important things in my life.

 

We need balance in life, but not to the extreme of leaving God and His work out!

 

I’m just a volunteer!

 

NO! You’re a son and daughter of an Almighty God, and you have a mission to change lives!

 

Our motive for serving as a volunteer should be:

Love for God

Matthew 22:37-40 (NKJV)

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. 38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 And the second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the Prophets.

 

Love for people

2 Corinthians 5:14-15 (Phillips)

We look at it like this: if one died for all men, then, in a sense, they all died, and His purpose in dying for them is that their lives should now no longer be lived for themselves but for Him who died and was raised to life for them.

 

Romans 15: 1-2 (MSG)

Those of us who are strong and able in the faith need to step in and lend a hand to those who falter, and not just do what is most convenient for us. Strength is for service, not status.

 

What do my present life and works tell God about what is important to me?

Luke 16:10, 12 (NKJV)

He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much; and he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much… 12 And if you have not been faithful in what is another man’s, who will give you what is your own?

Regardless of what we do, if we are faithful, we ALL get the same pay…

Matthew 20: 1-16 (NLT)

For the Kingdom of Heaven is like the landowner who went out early one morning to hire workers for his vineyard. 2 He agreed to pay the normal daily wage and sent them out to work. 3 “At nine o’clock in the morning he was passing through the marketplace and saw some people standing around doing nothing. 4 So he hired them, telling them he would pay them whatever was right at the end of the day. 5 So they went to work in the vineyard. At noon and again at three o’clock he did the same thing. 6 “At five o’clock that afternoon he was in town again and saw some more people standing around. He asked them, ‘Why haven’t you been working today?’ 7 “They replied, ‘Because no one hired us.’ “The landowner told them, ‘Then go out and join the others in my vineyard.’ 8 “That evening he told the foreman to call the workers in and pay them, beginning with the last workers first. 9 When those hired at five o’clock were paid, each received a full day’s wage. 10 When those hired first came to get their pay, they assumed they would receive more. But they, too, were paid a day’s wage. 11 When they received their pay, they protested to the owner, 12 ‘Those people worked only one hour, and yet you’ve paid them just as much as you paid us who worked all day in the scorching heat.’ 13 “He answered one of them, ‘Friend, I haven’t been unfair! Didn’t you agree to work all day for the usual wage? 14 Take your money and go. I wanted to pay this last worker the same as you. 15 Is it against the law for me to do what I want with my money? Should you be jealous because I am kind to others?’ 16 “So those who are last now will be first then, and those who are first will be last.”

Action Points:

1. Are you a part of the volunteer serve team helping your church obey God’s plan for it?
2. What should be your motivation for helping in your local church?
3. Do you do the small, unnoticed thing with as much heart as something you do that everyone sees?