Serving God in light of eternity

The book of Acts chapter 13. Acts chapter 13. I'm going to give you the setting of the verse, but then how this verse has spoken to me.

And trust it will to you. Paul is preaching and it is in relation to the One who they saw in their midst, the Son of God, the Lord Jesus, who was crucified. But not only has He been crucified, He has been raised from the dead in resurrection power.

And now, let's look at verse 29. And when they had fulfilled all that was written of Him... Interesting. Unsaved men can fulfill the will of God.

Not volitionally. Not willingly. But God is sovereign.

And that is the point of what he is making here that when they had fulfilled all that was written of Him, they had fulfilled the will of God, they took Him down from the tree and laid Him in a sepulcher. But God raised Him from the dead. And He was seen many days of them which came up with Him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are His witnesses unto the people.

So these people that we speak about, that no one else saw the risen Christ other than believers, here is a tremendous statement to the validity of their word, of their witness. And Paul is making that very clear that these are reliable, recognized witnesses attesting to the visibility and the reality of His resurrection. And he says, "...and we declare unto you glad tidings that the promise which was made unto the fathers, God has fulfilled." So now, here are unsaved men earlier.

They have fulfilled the will of God. Now here, God is fulfilling His own word. God has fulfilled the same unto us.

They're children. "...in that He hath raised up Jesus, as it is also written in the second Psalm, Thou art My Son, this day have I begotten Thee." So that is clear from that psalm that that has nothing to do with the blasphemous teaching of adoptionism that the Lord Jesus is eternally the Son of God, never became the Son of God. This is in relation to resurrection.

"...He hath brought Him forth." His Son. And death did not change that. Verse 34, "...and as concerning that He hath raised Him up from the dead, now no more to return to corruption.

He said on this wise, I will give you the sure mercies of David. Wherefore, He saith also in another Psalm, Thou shalt not suffer Thine Holy One to see corruption." Now this is the verse I like to speak for David. David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell on asleep.

Fell on sleep. He was laid unto his fathers and saw corruption. But he whom God raised again saw no corruption.

Just that first part, verse 36, David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell on sleep. Served his own generation. And it was by the will of God.

Thomas Carlyle, who is a historian, he wrote this, the history of civilization is but the biography of great men. Each one of us here, as I was looking over the crowd and thinking of my own self and thinking of events recently, it struck me that each one of us have an opportunity, a privilege, to serve our own generation. It says of David, the king, that he served.

The king served. We've been hearing about worship. True service is born out of worship.

True service, according to the will of God, will be produced in the measure that we have worship in our hearts. And isn't it interesting that what this is written about David at the end of his life, what is David known for? The Psalms. Those songs of worship.

That which was produced. But what has really struck me in recent days is this. I was at a funeral recently.

Some of you were too. And I would tell you that I did not know her that well, but I wish I had our sister Bev Brandt. And when I heard some of those things that were said, I just want to say this to the sisters.

So much of the preaching that we hear so often, and I know about individual, we've been hearing about separation is applicable to all of us, but a lot of it in particular in relation to the assembly seems to be geared toward men and their function. But what I heard that day was a testimony to the reality of the power of the witness of one sister in that family. You can be tremendous influencers.

Powers in your sphere of where you are as she was. And I was thinking, I thought of that verse that it says when Jonathan was speaking to David, and you remember that there was but a step between him and death, David was saying to Jonathan, and they were such close friends, and Jonathan was willing to, he says, look Saul, my father, he's not going to kill you. He's not going to, no, no, no, you've got it all wrong.

And David, as he was speaking to him in relation to that, and that little plan with the arrows and so on, Jonathan says to him, your seat will be missed. Your place will be empty. And I was thinking of every one of us that there is coming a time when every one of us, our place will be empty.

And you don't know when that will be. And you don't know how it will happen. But it's going to happen.

And realistically, while we long for the coming of the Lord Jesus, and while we look for that with anticipation, every day, I hope every one of us gets up in the morning with the understanding, the anticipation, he could come today. But the reality is, 2000 years have passed. And we're still living day by day and we need to live that way.

And I thought of this verse that David, when he had served his own generation by the will of God. There was a specific will that God had for David, a specific responsibility, a specific place. A number of years ago, I was talking to some of the Christians in Cedar Falls recently about a book that was written years ago by a man named Gary Friesen.

It was called Decision Making and the Will of God. It caused quite a stir, probably about, I don't know, 20, 30 years ago. And basically what Friesen was saying as an author is that there's just a general will of God for believers.

And for example, marrying someone, there could be any one of 100 different people. And doing certain things, there's no specificity in it. There's a general will of God that we have in the Word of God and that is applicable.

But I don't really read that, that there are specific things that God will bring you into and he will bring you through that are designed with his personal attention and care for you. I don't know what you're going through. I don't know what you will go through, but I can tell you this, according to the will of God, God wants you, every one of us, to serve the only generation you can serve, your own generation.

There are some, thankfully, that because of influence, because of the impact that they have, they are able to reach beyond the context and the confines of this generation. But those individuals are rare. Joshua was one such.

Not only his generation, the elders that outlived him and so on. But every single one of us, listen, the reality is, you can and would serve your own generation. This man, David, it's interesting that he's the third most popular, if I can say that, character in our New Testament.

The first one is Moses. Moses is mentioned 79 times. Abraham is in the next, he has second place.

And David is the third one. And as we read about that, it's interesting, David has the unique, though, privilege of being mentioned the first one in our New Testament. Matthew chapter one, verse one.

And he has the honor of being the last character mentioned in our New Testament from the Old Testament. Revelation 22, 16. And as we read about him, we read that David the king, and this is what impressed me, the king served.

The servant king. And my mind, of course, went to the Lord Jesus. There's no one like him.

The servant king. That's the reason why we have not only the Gospel of John that tells us of the eternal Son and the one who created all things, but then we have the Gospel of Mark to show us not just a contrast, but the complimentary aspect of this beautiful man that went to the cross and died for us. The servant king.

Now this word here, when we read about this, that David served his own generation, it's not the normal word for serve. There are different words for serve. I knew Scott's gonna start looking it up right now.

Keep me honest. One of the words, of course, you know, is the bond servant, the household servant. Then there's another word that's one, we read of it, our brother read in Romans chapter 12, which is your reasonable service.

That's priestly service or religious service. There's another one that's official service and so on. But this word, that David served his own generation.

And what I'm trying to get at by bringing this before you is this. God is looking, yes, for worshipers. He has made you a worshiper.

Every one of us, the moment he saved us and we will be that forever. But he is also looking for servants, those that will serve in humility, in lowliness, in the understanding that we are not only debtors, but that there is the absolute essential duplication of the very one who saved us and became that servant. And that one who became that servant, the son of God from eternity will remain a servant forever.

That is the meaning of 1 Corinthians 15. Then come at the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the father. And the idea there is that he will serve him forever.

Upon taking a body, the corollary there is the Hebrew servant having his ear bored through. I won't go through that. I only have very limited time.

But Psalm 40 with the book of Hebrews chapter 10 there, the correlation is this, that that body that he took, not only obviously equipped him to go to Calvary's cross to die, but it is eternally the hallmark of one who will serve his God and his father forever. Now this word here, it is the least word found in our New Testament for servants. It has the idea of literally a rower.

That's the significance behind the word a rower. And it's only found three times in our New Testament. And it's only found in the book of Acts.

Paul uses it when he speaks to the Ephesian elders. And he talks about how you've seen how these hands, here he is, the great apostle, seen the assembly planted, preacher of the gospel, traveling untold miles, given visions, revelations, and position and everything. A chosen vessel.

And that he stands before those Ephesian elders and he says, you've seen how these hands have ministered to my needs. I just wrote a rower. I just put my hands to the oars and I did what I needed to do.

It's used again in Acts chapter 24, when there was no one that was prohibited from coming to him that somehow that they might meet his necessities. And here it's used of the King David. So I wanna ask you, every one of us, are you willing to serve? Are you serving? A lot of people wanna be served.

The true mark of a believer. Of a godly believer is one who serves. And how can we hear? And what I wanna do is just lift our thinking for just a few more moments.

Yes, we've heard about a world of corruption. We've heard about a world of defilement. We've heard about a world that will rob us of our joy and effectiveness.

But let me just for a moment shift gears and open up to you the vista of a world that nothing can compare with. That David served in the light of that. That we live in the light of we are literally brethren.

We are on the threshold of the world to come. And everything around us is absolute waste. David says, it says of David, he served.

The King who served. Because he saw beyond that. Do we? Do we? I was thinking of that expression too that he served by the will of God.

The will of God. Our brother John just brought before us that in Romans 12. That you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

How do you prove that? That word for proving is experiential. It's the idea of experientially proving. How do you prove what is the will of God? By carrying it out.

By taking the truth of the word of God and literally living it out through you. That's how you prove experientially. What is that good and perfect and acceptable will of God? Isn't it interesting that that expression, will of God, 23 times in our New Testament.

You know, it's only found one time in 1 Corinthians. Only one time. Because there was an assembly that they weren't in a condition to carry out the will of God.

They were marked by factions and by sin and by philosophies all around them and the teachings of the world and so on. How could they really carry out the will of God? And so that epistle was written to correct them so that they could. But it's interesting, you know, the two letters that have that expression the most? Romans and 1 Peter.

Four times in each. So that in Romans, what the gospel has brought us into. Listen, dear child of God, do you know what trusting Christ has brought you into? It has brought you into what you could never do before.

Carry out the will of God willingly. Yes, Acts chapter 13 tells us about individuals who moved about like pawns on a chess piece, on a chessboard, they carried out the will of God. God moves nations, he does that sovereignly.

But what a wonder when a person is changed, delivered, saved, and now you are able to carry out the will of God from your heart, willingly. Four times in Romans. And you read each time and you'll see that it's connected with that great truth of salvation.

That's the gospel letter. Do you know what the next time is? 1 Peter. Four times.

Four in Romans, four in Peter. Do you know why? Because Peter's the letter of suffering. And we do suffer at carrying out the will of God.

And that, my dear child of God, my dear brother or sister, that's the choice you're gonna have to make. Choosing to suffer affliction. Choosing.

It's a choice. And I wonder how many of us are gonna make that choice as a result of hearing what we've heard and looking and thinking about the world to come. You know, these verses tell us, this verse tells us of the pattern of a precious influence.

David the prophet, it says he spoke, yet David the king served. And it's telling us he served his own generation by the will of God. There are people today, they have millions of followers, they're called influencers.

You can read about them, social media. You, my friend, my dear child of God, my dear brother or sister, you are an influencer as well. And you are influenced as well, every one of us.

Can you imagine David now leading, David serving his generation, his own generation by the will of God? And what a legacy he left. The pattern of this precious influence that we have here. I'm gonna give you just the outline, it's a shame, it's a good outline, really, it's a pretty good outline.

I worked on it a little bit, but the people of a present influence. What was it? His own, his own generation, his own kingdom, his own people. We've been hearing about those people and our people.

You can be an influencer for both. Your life will speak volumes. And what you will have then is the power of a positive influence.

I don't know, young people, I don't know how you do this. I've told this to my own kids, they haven't started it, but you ever hear it, you know, it says, if you were to save $10 a week, start at age 18, by the time you're 65, you would have $1.2 million, right? If you invested it, and you did this, and you've heard that, haven't you, you've read it. You know what that's called? The power of compounding, the power of investing.

And there are people who've done it, they've made a lot of money today. Serving your own generation by the will of God will give you that power a thousandfold. It's called the power of consistent investing, compounding.

Taking what God has given you and investing it, living it, so that when eternity comes, you will have an abundant entrance. That is what life is about, and it starts with serving. It says he served his own generation by the will of God.

I wanna tell you lastly about the passing of personal influence. We only have so much time. We've gone through Second Timothy recently in assemblies, and Timothy was to take that deposit that he had been given, and he was now to pass it on to faithful individuals who would be able to teach others also.

Can I ask you something? I'm looking at young people here, and I'm not singling you out, but you know what, let's be honest. If the Lord be not comes, you're the future. How are you gonna handle what you're given? Are you gonna serve according to the will of God? Are you going to take what has been given to you at the price of precious blood? Not only the blood of Christ, that is obviously singular in redemption.

Do you know something? There are men who have died, and you can have this book. There are men who were burned. They were cut in pieces.

They were sawn in half. They were tarred and feathered. So you can have this book.

You're gonna serve in light of it? Is it worth it? That is a question that only every one of us will be able to answer as we get our eyes upon that world and off this world. What are we living for? David, it says he served, his own generation. You can't serve the next generation, but you can serve your generation according to the will of God.

Might God help every one of us to do that? Because there is coming a day when your seat will be empty, when my seat will be empty. And what are we gonna have? What are we gonna pass on? What are we gonna take through life? And more importantly, what are you going to take into the next life? Might God help us to carry this out.