USEFUL

Mac McFarland

31 July 2001

Do you feel useful? For example: Is the work you are doing to provide a life for yourself and your family, useful? Do you FEEL useful when you have accomplished a day’s work?

Do you take pride in the work you do because you DO feel useful in it? Or are you one that simply goes to work to earn some money? Is the position you hold, useful to the company? The POSITION may be, but you MAY NOT be!!!!!!

How useful is your partner in a three-legged sack race, as far as completing the race is concerned? VERY. In contrast, how useful is your buddy who is just ONE of the runners in the Peachtree Road Race? No where near as useful. You will finish in whatever position in that race, probably regardless of what your buddy does.

This short study is on the usefulness of each one of us in the Kingdom of God. Turn to 1 Corinthians. chapter 12, verse 12, and read to the end of the chapter, through verse 31. Paul is telling us about our value, or usefulness, within the church. Even though YOUR talent (or gift) may not be mentioned there, do YOU feel useful as a member of the church?

As a member, each one of us has responsibilities. MAINLY, we must each grow our relationship with God. AS WE GROW, we will find it easier to do some of the things that make us more useful for Christ. The more we grow, the more we share. The more we grow, the more we read and gain scriptural knowledge. The more we grow, the better our prayer lives become. Our usefulness in the church can be gauged mainly on how we live our everyday lives. As disciples, we each have someone we are supposed to be ‘discipling’….helping THEM to become more useful within the church.

Reflect a moment upon the last 7 days. How many hours did you spend reading your bible, praying, and sharing your convictions with others? How about conversing with your discipling partners about God? Were you useful, or useless, for Christ the last week?

Turn to Paul’s letter to Philemon, and read verses 10 and 11 in chapter 1.

Philemon 1:10-11: “I appeal to you for my son Onesimus, who became my son while I was in chains. Formerly he was useless to you, but now he has become useful both to you and to me.”

Paul is talking about Philemon’s runaway slave and telling Philemon that as a slave, Onesimus really was useless to him. But now that he has accepted Christ, his usefulness has changed. He is now part of the body of Christ, and can serve the entire church. Can Ben and Tammy say the same thing about you? And if so, how can we prove to them that we really are useful?

Turn to 2 Timothy 2:21. Paul writes to this young Christian: “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.” He is explaining that ‘the latter’, which is ‘ignoble purposes’ (previous verse), is what we must turn away from. We must turn away from the desires of the heart. We must avoid worldly desires, and turn toward God. Only then, will we become USEFUL to God. Our lives are perfect examples of what we really are. We can profess to love God, yet when we sit at home and watch TV, gorge ourselves on food, read magazines instead of the bible, work around the house instead of inviting over our neighbors for fellowship, then we are being extremely hypercritical. As Paul says, “we must be prepared to do any good work.” Mainly, he is talking about spreading the word of Christ. That takes a lot of bible study and prayer.

When we do all those things we shouldn’t., and when we become selfish, and when we fail to stay in constant contact with other members of the church, we are really USELESS for God. Turn to, and read, Proverbs 1:17: “How useless to spread a net in full view of all the birds!”

Similarly, it is useless to call ourselves Christians, when we don’t do anything for Christ.

Turn to and read Isaiah 30:7: “to Egypt, whose help is utterly useless. Therefore I call her Rahab the Do-Nothing.” If we are not evangelizing, then we are the same. We are a “Rahab, or a Mac, or a Star, or a Maurice, or a Marvin , the Do-Nothings!!!! In James 2:18-20, the half-brother of Jesus tells us that no matter how much faith we have, it is USELESS without deeds. The deeds? Working for Christ by volunteering in the church. Teaching in the kids’ ministry. Ushering. Evangelizing. Leading bible studies. Etc, etc, etc.

Now, turn to the book of Ezekiel, and read the entire chapter 15.

Ezekiel is relaying what he heard from God. GOD is teaching us, in this chapter, about being useful. He says that, in comparison to strong trees, vines are useless. He says, What good is a vine? Can you make pegs from it? I suppose you COULD, but not very strong ones. In comparison, a strong tree can be used for many pegs, and each have sufficient strength to perform the function of a peg.

Are you a vine?, or a tree? Do you just ‘hang around’, like a vine does, or do you have a function within Christ’s church? Vines usually live off other living plants. They put their roots in other solid objects, such as trees, to get their nourishment, but they never put anything back. Vines spread themselves out over a large area, but only for the purpose of surviving. They don’t grow so that they can help other plants in the forest, they grow only to get larger.

Are you a vine? Do you just ‘hang around’ the church without putting anything back in? Do you just try to grow by hearing the message a couple of times a week, but never put anything you hear into practice to help others? God calls these vines, useless. He sets his face against people that can be compared to vines. God says that the strength and size of vines cannot withstand fire, like a tree can. He means the same about people. Those that are weak in faith, and those that do nothing for Christ, and those that still want to be worldly, he despises. They can’t stand up to any fire. At the first sign of a struggle, they withdraw into their own little worlds and become useless for God. Many people in the church today, at the first sign of a struggle, withdraw. They don’t continue doing their mission for Christ. Many of them fall away. They are the same vine that will face the wrath of God, because, as Ezekiel quoted Him, “Although they have come out of the fire, the fire will yet consume them. And when I set my face against them, you will know that I am the Lord. I will make the land desolate because they have been unfaithful, declares the Sovereign Lord.”

Be useful this week. Spend an hour a day in your bible. Spend at least 30 minutes each day praying to God. And lastly, spend some time sharing with others about the person that has made it possible for you to spend all of eternity in glorious heaven. Be USEFUL, not USELESS!!!!

Amen.