{"id":32340,"date":"2022-09-10T16:05:47","date_gmt":"2022-09-10T21:05:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/how-you-can-be-useful-in-gods-kingdom\/"},"modified":"2022-09-10T16:05:47","modified_gmt":"2022-09-10T21:05:47","slug":"how-you-can-be-useful-in-gods-kingdom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/how-you-can-be-useful-in-gods-kingdom\/","title":{"rendered":"How You Can Be Useful in God’s Kingdom"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Adrianna Calvo photo – Pexels<\/div>\n

By Tony Evans<\/em><\/p>\n

Your destiny will always involve a test. That test will always be aimed at whether you want to be a blessing or whether you merely want to be blessed.<\/p>\n

Because once you reach that test, God uses it to examine your heart. <\/p>\n

Are you here for Him?<\/p>\n

Are you here for how He can use you for others?<\/p>\n

Or is this only about you?<\/p>\n

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If it\u2019s only about you, that\u2019s selfishness and self-preservation. That\u2019s removing yourself from God\u2019s covenantal covering of favor as you seek to grab as many treasures as you can stuff in your pockets. Doing so, like the fictional character in Aladdin<\/em>, runs the risk of having you swallowed by the sands of personal gain.<\/p>\n

Your value in the kingdom of God is found not in how much good you can get from God, but to what extent you let Him use you for the good of others.<\/p>\n

Speaking of sand, sand on a beach is free. You can walk out onto any beach and pick up a handful of sand for free. Pick up as much as you want\u2014sit in it, rub it all around. It\u2019s free. <\/p>\n

But that same sand, if you want to put it on a playground, is going to cost you something. You\u2019ve got to go to the store now and buy bags of it in order to cover the surface of the playground. Why? Because it is being used differently. It\u2019s no longer free.<\/p>\n

Now, if you want sandpaper to work on a project, that\u2019s going to cost you something as well. It\u2019s still sand, yes. It\u2019s sand glued onto paper. But you\u2019ve got to go to a fix-it-up store and pay for a very small amount of this sand. <\/p>\n

While it\u2019s essentially the same free sand, it now has a higher value placed on it due to what its intended use will be and how it has been configured.<\/p>\n

When you head into Silicon Valley where people are busy making computer chips with sand, you\u2019ll find an even higher price associated with sand. That\u2019s the most expensive sand you or I will come across. Not because it\u2019s different, but rather because it is used differently.<\/p>\n

One of the reasons why God often doesn\u2019t do much with His people is that they aren\u2019t willing to be used by Him. They\u2019re just free sand with no purpose, intention, focus, or skill. They are just hanging out somewhere. <\/p>\n

What God is looking for is Silicon Valley Saints\u2014saints who have learned that their value is tied to the extent of their usefulness in His kingdom. What good is a refrigerator that doesn\u2019t keep food cold? Or a stove that won\u2019t heat food up?<\/p>\n

I recently had a single-service coffee maker in the kitchen that stopped working. It would make all of the sounds like it should when a cup of coffee was being brewed. <\/p>\n

It would light up like it should when a cup of coffee was being brewed. But no matter how long I stood there waiting for the cup of coffee to be poured out, nothing came out at all. You can imagine where this coffee maker wound up (and, no, it wasn\u2019t on the kitchen counter anymore).<\/p>\n

The coffee maker\u2019s usefulness determined where and how it was positioned. Likewise, your usefulness to the Lord and His agenda determines the providential pathway He leads you on. <\/p>\n

Will you take the goodies and run? Or will you, like a wise businessperson, reinvest the assets of blessings He gives you in order to build a greater opportunity for growth, influence, and impact than ever before?<\/p>\n

In Luke 14, God tells us how He feels about useless saints. In using salt as a comparison, Jesus explains,<\/p>\n

\u201cTherefore, salt is good; but if salt should lose its taste, how will it be made salty? It isn\u2019t t for the soil or for the manure pile; they throw it out. Let anyone who has ears to hear listen.\u201d (Luke 14:34\u201335)<\/p>\n

Like my coffee maker that could no longer make coffee, saltless salt is \u201cthrown out.\u201d A kingdom orientation must accompany and inform all that you do or you, too, will become useless for the kingdom.<\/p>\n

God established His domain in such a way that His agenda exists to bring Him glory and expand His rule. We have each been called to the kingdom for such a purpose as this. When we shy away from this purpose out of selfishness, greed, or apathy, we cause ourselves to be useless for His kingdom.<\/p>\n

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Tony Evans<\/h2>\n

@DrTonyEvans<\/p>\n

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See also  What Sparks Evangelical Generosity? Discipleship<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Tony is the pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship and a best-selling author of over 100 books, including his most recent book,\u00a0Pathways<\/em>, from which this article was excerpted with\u00a0permission of\u00a0B&H Publishing.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n