(Clip) Useful to the Lord in Winning Souls

It says useful to the master. We're serving the best of all masters. One time somebody told me how somebody had hit him up, you know, what are you doing working for him? What are you doing working for that guy? He's not worthy of your service.

Well, we're talking about working for the best of all the masters. I remember I told this story just last week down there. When I was a boy, I suppose maybe five, six years old, there was a neighboring farmer.

He was a big farmer. And he came over and asked my dad, do you think the boy can drive the tractor for us for the rock-picking crew? And sure, go ahead. And so there I was, driving tractor for this crew all day.

And come to the end of the day and hear that man. He paid me. It was the first pay I ever got.

And he shelled out four quarters. And I wrapped those quarters up, mom did, in some masking tape, and I kept them for quite a while. But sure enough, they made wings like eagles, and somehow they took off too.

But I remember thinking, you know what? You're going to pay me? Well, it's just an honor to work for you. I don't need to be paid. It's just a privilege.

I'm saying, brothers and sisters, what a privilege to serve the Lord. Can you hear the words of Isaiah, that prophet of God? After he was cleansed and renewed, he says, here am I, here am I, send me. Send me to do something.

Send me across the street. Send me to the campus. Send me to somebody today.

Here am I. Send me. Put your commission on me. Give me a job to do.

Don't let me be idle in the marketplace. Don't let me twiddle my thumbs in my tires. Don't let me sit there and wear rust out, I'm saying.

I remember early, I was about two or three years old, and the Lord God quickened Matthew 4.19 to me. Follow me and I will make you fishers of men, a fisher of men. Follow me and I will make you a fisher of men.

That's something we could pray every day. Lord, help me to follow You, and I'm going to believe You to make me a fisher of men. There's nothing more important, nothing more precious in this world than to catch men, than to win souls.

What compares with bringing somebody to Christ? Would You use me, get me somewhere, somehow, where I need to be to be a winner of souls? 1 Peter 4.10, it says that we need to be good stewards of the manifold grace of God. Lord, You've given me something. You've given me more than I deserve.

You've given me something. Now I want to be a good steward of what You've given me. I've been reading this book.

It's entitled, Wesley and the Men Who Followed. And so a lot of it is about the generation after John Wesley. One of the names was William Bramwell.

You just can't believe the way God used these men. I mean, they gave all to Christ, and He gave Himself to them and put His seal on their ministry. He said, I cannot bear to live without being made useful to God.

Another man, Thomas Collins. I mean, these men, they generally saw people converted every day in their ministry. This Thomas Collins, he'd back his horse up.

He'd go into a Catholic community and he'd back his horse up against the Catholic cathedral so that they wouldn't be as likely to throw stones at him because they'd be breaking their own windows out. But they said sometimes the power of God was on that man so much that he could, with a single word, bring a drunken sinner to his knees in repentance. And he was asked, somebody came and said, what gifts have I? And Thomas Collins replied, you've got time and you've got truth.

Let them both be well used, and your crown will be bright. Now this we're talking, you understand, not just about preachers, not just about pastors, but all of us. All of us in being used in advancing the kingdom of God.

Whether a school teacher, farmer, janitor, mother, daughter, we all should be thinking of this. How to be a workman useful to the Master.