I was in Newcastle last night at a school reunion. Has anyone ever been to a school reunion? Well it's been 20 years since I left school ready to take on the big wide world. It was fascinating to catch up with people, to  see what they have been doing since then, to hear whether they are doing what they set out to do or whether life has taken them on a completely different path.
 
You might know this already but do you know there is a purpose for you being here and that there is a plan at work in your lives? It may be that you know that, but I wonder how much you have allowed that truth to guide your life and your choices? The Bible says in Romans 8:28

"God works for the good of those that love him, according to his purpose".

 
We've just finished a small extension on our house and the wonderful architect Alex Griffin did the plans for us. When he first sat down with us in our kitchen, one of the first things he did was ask us to describe how the new room would be used, what was the intended function of it. And its the same for us. Rick Warren, the author of 'The Purpose Driven Life' says that 'before God created you, he decided what role he wanted you to play on earth. He planned exactly how He wanted you to serve Him, and then He shaped you for the tasks. You are the way you are because you were made for a specific ministry". The Bible says in Ephesians 2 verses 9-11,

"We are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do".

 
To illustrate this from my own experience: over the Summer, I was looking through some old photos at my Mum and Dad's house and amongst them I found the card that the hospital had placed in my cot when I was born. It was pink, had my birthdate on it and the name of my Mum written on the top. With that was a blue card belonging to my brother who was three years older than me. And then what caught me out a bit was another pink card amongst my brother's and mine which belonged to my sister.

Now I knew I had a sister but I knew very little about her because she had died when she was only three months old. I saw this card and I looked at the dates on it. I discovered that I had been born 9 months and 2 weeks after she had died. You can do the maths and figure out that that was quick.

I then went on a bit of a journey as to my thoughts on this and realised that I needed to hear from the Lord about why he created me - deep down I felt I was a substitute for my sister for I knew that I wouldn't have been born if she had lived. So as Alison and I prayed on the last evening at Ashburnham, the Lord did something very very significant for me- He showed me, what I guess you could call, a vision of what I was here for and how he had always, always had a plan for my life. I was totally undone as the Lord revealed how all these bible verses were relevant to me- verses such as Psalm 139 which says

"Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed".

 
Why am I telling you this? I strongly feel the Lord wants to remind you that you are here for a purpose.  And the thing that underpins our purpose as followers of Jesus is the fact that we are here to do His works, not ours.

The Bible says in 1 Peter 4 verse 10,

"Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others."
 

God deliberately shaped and formed you to serve him in a way that makes your life unique. He carefully mixed the DNA cocktail that created you. Not only did God shape you before your birth, he planned every day of your life to support his shaping process. This means that God uses all the stuff that has happened in your life- the good and the bad to shape you for service to Him. God never wastes anything. He would not give you abilities, interests, talents, gifts, personality and life experiences unless he intended to use them for His glory.
 

WHAT ARE HIS WORKS?

So if we are created to do God's works, what are they and what do they look like? It might be caring for an elderly relative, it might be playing with the children at Belly Buttons, it might be lifting boxes to set up for Sunday morning, it may be working to change the culture in your company, there's a whole variety of things. And some of the works that God calls you to serve in will fit you brilliantly- with your temperament, your talents and your spiritual gifts. It may feel like the most natural thing in the world, but there may be other times when doing God's works may feel entirely contrary to our desires.

HOW DO WE DO HIS WORKS?

Well Jesus showed us exactly how to go about it. In John chapter 13, just before Jesus was taken to be crucified, we read of this interaction between Jesus and his good friend and follower, Peter:
 

"Jesus got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.
 
 He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?”
 
Jesus replied, “You do not realise now what I am doing, but later you will understand.”
 
 “No,” said Peter, “you shall never wash my feet.”
 
Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.”
 
“Then, Lord,” Simon Peter replied, “not just my feet but my hands and my head as well!”
 
Jesus answered, “Those who have had a bath need only to wash their feet; their whole body is clean. And you are clean, though not every one of you.” For he knew who was going to betray him, and that was why he said not every one was clean.
 
When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. “Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them. “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet.  I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him."

 
I find it interesting that humility was despised in the ancient world and was considered a sign of weakness. But Jesus turned that on its head by regarding this service to others as an honourable act. He's not saying to literally go and wash each others' feet, but He is teaching us to serve others without expecting others to serve us.
 
Jesus was the king of kings but he took the nature of the lowest servant.

When I look beyond Jesus to the other great characters in the the New Testament, I can tell that they really understood this message of serving others, of doing His works not their own. Let's take a look at some of them and how they described themselves:
 
Paul- "a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God" (Rom 1:1)
 
Paul and Timothy- "Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus" (Philippians 1:1)
 
James- "James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ" (James 1:1)
 
Peter- "Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ" (2 Peter 1:1)
 
Here's my favourite: Epaphras - hands up if you have heard of Epaphras before? I hadn't either but I love what Paul says about him in Colossians chapter 4 verse 12.
 
"Epaphras, who is one of you and a servant of Christ Jesus, sends greetings".
 
It's like he's saying,"Epaphras, as he's serving food, says hi"  To put a modern day equivalent of that, I can imagine that if I was writing an email from Leeds to some of our friends in other Vineyards across the country, I'd say a similar thing..."Erika, who's singing songs about Jesus with the children, sends a big hello" or "Hazel's just making the coffee at Weekly Worship but sends big hugs!" or "a big shout out from all of the T4:12 team serving at DTI". "Epaphras, who is one of you and a servant of Christ Jesus, sends greetings".  Serving brings us together as followers of Jesus, we know what it's like because we all do it, and best of all, the King loves it!
 

WHEN DOING HIS WORK GETS TOUGH

Honestly, sometimes serving can feel unnoticed and unappreciated. I'm sure all of us have felt like that from time to time, I certainly have. But I think that's because our understanding of serving can become a bit mixed up. Serving is not about us, its not about me, it's not a business deal with God. It's not a case of 'if we give God some of our time to serve then He'll make sure we get blessed.' Jesus addressed this train of thought directly. Luke chapter 17 verse 7 reads:
 

“Suppose one of you has a servant ploughing or looking after the sheep. Will he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, ‘Come along now and sit down to eat?’ Won’t he rather say, ‘Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink?’ Will he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do? So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.’ ”

 
What’s Jesus getting at in this parable? I believe He's saying that we can never approach God and say, “you owe me because of what I've done for you" or "if I do that for you, I want you to do this for me".  This parable comes against any thinking of “Because I get up early on a Sunday morning to play in the band, I want you God to bless my children." Or, "Because I lead a housegroup God, I expect you to bless my marriage". Or, "If I go out on the streets to serve coffee to the Big Issue sellers God, come and sort out my finances". It doesn't work that way. He would rather us say:
 
"Lord, you owe me nothing and every good thing in my life is only the result of your grace."
 
The things we do may go unnoticed by people, it may feel like you are unappreciated, that nobody sees all the hard work you do but I assure you God sees it and it gives Him joy. The Bible says in Galatians 1:10,

"Am I now trying to win human approval, or God’s approval? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ."

 
I love the idea of secretly blessing someone - Have you ever done that? It's good training for us. Maybe do something for someone that you can't possibly be thanked for or even something where you can't even see the person's reaction.
 
There is much joy to be had from serving, but it's often not all blessing, it does cost, it did for Jesus and it does for us because we get tired. It's OK to be tired, in fact it's biblical to be tired- just read Isaiah 43:22 or Galatians 6:9,
 

"So let’s not allow ourselves to get fatigued doing good. At the right time we will harvest a good crop if we don’t give up, or quit. Right now, therefore, every time we get the chance, let us work for the benefit of all, starting with the people closest to us in the community of faith."

 
So I'm just going to pause for a minute for you to just examine your own hearts and minds. If any of that resonates with you, I'd encourage you to say sorry to God. It's subtle, we find ourselves thinking and saying those things without realising and I feel that the Lord is calling us to repent. Maybe it's in preparation for going to Headingley, He wants our hearts and minds clean on this. So, I'll pause for a minute whilst we do business with God.
 
So Lord forgive us if we fall into the trap of bargaining for your blessing on our lives, forgive us for looking to be noticed for what we do. Forgive us and sustain us, make our hearts clean.

PAUSE

 

HIS WORKS ARE FOR EVERYONE

I was talking to my Gran over the summer, she's 90 next year and a real woman of God whom I totally adore. The minister of her methodist church had come down to see me a few weeks earlier and she was asking how it went and what an honour it was that he had come down to see me because he was a very busy man. I was commenting on how we actually do similar things: pray for people, look to bless the community etc.

Then without a trace of malice she said, "no but Tim's a proper minister Katie" (she still calls me Katie!) I just thought that was so funny because many of us hold ministers, vicars, pastors, leaders in such high esteem when actually the word minister means 'one who serves'. We are all called to serve so we are all ministers. We are all "called into the ministry" or, as Tony Campolo put it a bit more adventurously, "God wants to recruit you into His army."
 
So if His works are for everyone and we are all created for this, how do we respond? Every New Year, Ben and I ask the Lord how he wants us to serve for the upcoming year and often it's the same as before, sometimes it's got a different slant. 

As we approach our church move to Headingley, similarly we're entering a new season and we want to be hitting the ground running, ready to do His works, knowing that what we are doing is what He has asked of us. One thing that has helped us along the way is the saying that we have in the Vineyard of "Old orders are good orders" so if God hasn't told you to do something different, I'd encourage you to stay with what He's told you to do until He says otherwise.
 
For those of you who aren't serving yet, here's a few suggestions:
 

1. Firstly ask God to show you, ask him to reveal to you the bigger picture and what He created you to do for Him;
2. Listen to your leaders. Ask your housegroup leader what they see in you, talk it over with them to explore where you might want to serve in the church or the local community;
3. Write down some words which articulate who you are, what you love to do, what things give you joy when you are doing them for others, then go do them;
4. Just get stuck in. Come and have a chat to me afterwards and you can tell me about some of the things you enjoy and I can direct you to the right people.

 
So to conclude. Repeatedly the Bible says to "serve the Lord with all your heart". God wants you to serve him passionately doing it in the way that Jesus modelled to the disciples as He washed their feet. There is a bigger picture to serving: it's about changing you to be more like Jesus, to do His works - not ours, to have His attitude and character by serving others and the best thing of all is that by doing so, we advance His Kingdom on earth!