Available in the Kingdom - Phil Kauffman 6-9-2024

Good afternoon creatings in Jesus' name. This afternoon, when Nolan called me about

this little devotions, I started thinking about availability and all the examples or maybe

lack of in the Bible. Now I thought of Moses and the question I

started thinking about with him. It seems like early in his life he was

really available, like readily wanting to do something, to be available for God

for his people, and then later in life that kind of slacked off,

And I wonder if that's not kind of how life goes. Sometimes as I

get older, I think about I get tired, I lose energy. But

then it could seem like when we get ourselves out of the way, then

we can be more available for God. So just some examples thinking about in

the Bible. But the first example was God himself and John three sixteen how

he was available, says for God so loved the world that he gave his

only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have

everlasting life. For God said not his son into the world to condemn the

world, but that the world through him might be saved. One of the

components of his verse is is the so loved part he had something he wanted

to share. He so loved, he had some some drive in him that

he wanted to to get his people, to get bring these people back to

him. So he shared what he had. Think about that as we talk

a little bit, M I have three things that three things that could help

for us to be available in in practical living. But going back to to

the verse that we read, why did God send Jesus? What was what

was driving all of that? We know from reading in the Bible that God's

number one priority is to display his glory, So he created humans in his

image to reflect his glory. In in Paalaussians one fifteen and it says therefore

God sent his son Jesus as the image of the invisible God, the firstborn

overall creation. And then he began to restore the fullness of God's image and

us. So as we come back to God, we we have that that

image of Christ, and that's the glory that that that God's after. But

in all of this, I think about the journeys that we go through.

You know, we can have energy and we go do things work, we

wanna help, We wanna go to a mission project or or help with a

mission project. And as we do those things, some of these things maybe

grow on us, like why are we here? What are we doing?

When I was when I was little, uh, I had a great uncle

that was a a mission missionary in Guatemala, and I wanted to go.

I always kind of wanted to do that. I wanted to go down and

maybe somewhere and and do that. M When I had a call to to

go to police, I thought, this is kind of neat. I'm gonna

go do this. It didn't turn out quite as glorious and grand as was

anticipated. I think about think about the struggles we had, the things we

went through that a all all the things that happened when you're on a mission

field, and and and then you start wondering these questions of why am I

here? What am I giving? What do I have to give? And

as I went through that, I learned many lessons. But one thing I

I I I guess I I had to learn is that I have to have

something to give. I can't just look good, I can't just act good.

I can't just be the right person. I have to have something inside

of me that comes out that shows people, that reflects God's glory. Mm.

So many times it's easy for us to, like I said, do

you do the right thing, go to the right place, speak to the

right people, and you're available. You're doing the right things. But there's

no there's no there's no message. If we're gonna sell, if we're going

to sell something, we have to have legitimacy. We have to have something

that's real, so when they see it, it's it's the it's the thing.

Have a story. Hm uh my. I think it was third grandpa,

great great great grandpa that was maybe a little arrogant. He was from

Norway, a draft dodger, uh, heading it up in US, a

rich boy and didn't really know how to work. But he had ideas and

he was mechanically minded and he could figure things out. He uh, he

was pretty smart that way. And one day he was somewhere and he he

met someone that was a violin maker, and he came home and he said,

if that guy, somebody that dumb can make a violin maker, can

make a violin, then I can too. So he started to to start

doing that and he and he built a violin. Well, he thought this

was pretty neat. I'm gonna sell violins. So he took it to UH

a big event, some kind of a show or something that he was gonna

try to sell these violins. But before he went, he learned a song

on the violin. He only knew one song on it. He only knew

how to play one song on the violin. He took it and he went

her up and down the rows of tables or whatever wherever he was at and

played the song. And he would play the same song over and over.

They caught on, you maybe can make a violin, but you can't play

it very much. I thought about that for us, if we're selling something

that there has to be inside of us, and it has to be real.

Three things I thought of. We need this passion, we need drive.

What's important to us? What fuels us? In Matthew it says,

UH, where your treasure is, there will your heart be. Also,

the light of the body is the eye. And I I thought of the

missions and mission projects and and doing Kingdom work where it starts out with good

intentions and lots of inner and and they're gonna do things and it ends up

in disarray and broken relationships and and people go away and an and what was

done did did anybody see Christ? So many times we learn a lot through

those through those programs or through those UH experiences, But so many times we

start out with ideals and we start out with so much of us in the

forefront, which leads to my next point is humility. To be available,

we must be humble. You know, this is God's work. We're only

sharing the message that we have received and that we have experienced. We won't

create anything. When we're helping kingdom and work, we're not creating something.

It's God's work. We can only coach, we can nudge, we can

help people see God. But it's about it's about Christ. It's about God's

work. We're not special because of what we're doing. This is our duty.

The Bible talks about that MM. If you read in UH John seventeen,

verse sixteen through nineteen, it talks about I'm not gonna take time to

read that, but it talks about how UH Jesus had healed ten lepers.

Ten lepers came by, and they all were having struggles. He he healed

ten of them, and and and he said how he healed them? He

said, just go back and show yourself to the priest. So they turned

and headed back, and they started looking at themselves and realized that, wow,

they're healed. And one of them actually had the presence of mind to

turn and say, I will thank this man for healing me. So he

headed back and he got down and thanked Jesus. He said, thank you

for healing me. And Jesus he noticed how definitely he's his sidesteps the glory.

The questions that he asked is only one. I thought there were ten

cleansed. Where are then? He didn't say I cleansed, I healed ten

people. He said there were ten cleansed. I think about that. It's

so easy for us to say we have done church work, we did some

work for the church, we did all of these things. But it's Christ.

It's what's come through us. Number three sacrifice throw One's twelve one says

they beseech you. Therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, let

you present your bodies a living sacrifice fully acceptable into God, which is a

reasonable service. When when God sacrificed his son, when he said, son,

could you go down to the to this earth, to this mess and

help these people, he had to let go. Letting go is not easy

when we need, when we need stuff trimmed off of us, it hurts.

It's painful. When when Moses was so eager at the beginning of his

life to free his people, and he had to go through those hard times

and he had to run, he had to flee. All his status,

all his intellectual wisdom, everything he had had to be dropped, and he

was out in the desert for forty years. He had to God had to

trim a whole bunch of Moses off so that Moses could actually be used.

Our life is not our own. There's Corinthian six. What know you not?

Through your body is the temple, the Holy Ghost which is in you,

which ye have of God. And ye are not your own. For

your bat with a price. Therefore, glorify God in your body m and

in your spirit, which are God's one thing else one. One other thing

I I think about a lot is that in our in our availability and eagerness

to help and a a and to grow, help grow God's kingdom, we

have a tendency to s to sacrifice things that shouldn't be sacrificed so we can

do kingdom work. And and I I think we've all seen that maybe some

of us have experienced that. Uh he gets so dum so uh focused on

on important kingdom work that we start forgetting about my family, my my boy,

my child, my my wife. That's kingdom work. We need to

remember that. Or growing families, wearing families, showing families Christ is kingdom

work. It's critical and let's not forget that. But I think in all

of this, as we go forth as a as we go forward in life,

as we go find and help and coach and nudge people to Christ,

what we are, what comes through us is really what's gonna sell it.

I like, uh, like my grandpa, great grandpa, we won't sell

very many violins if we can't play the music. Thank you,