Luke Chapter 16:9-11  Here’s the lesson: Use your worldly resources to benefit others and make friends. Then, when your earthly possessions are gone, they will welcome you to an eternal home. “If you are faithful in little things, you will be faithful in large ones. But if you are dishonest in little things, you won’t be honest with greater responsibilities. And if you are untrustworthy about worldly wealth, who will trust you with the true riches of heaven?

Service is a word that is kicked around in the local church and for most of us it means a variety of things. However, the most striking part of the passage above is the instruction on how to serve with the use of our resources. I always get caught when scripture talks about helping others with worldly resources.  It is difficult to define this apart from anything else except our money.

Often we like to think in terms of activity or caring or supporting with our talents, and while these things are important and needed, Jesus is hitting us at the core when He talks about using our money to benefit others. Please note I am not talking about giving; I am talking about service. The key words are “benefit others,” and it comes with a promise.

The promise is important because it defines a reality of a giving heart against a small selfish heart. If we are faithful in our service to others, we open the door to increased opportunity of more service to others. Service begets more service. Pretty simple formula, and the beauty of this idea is that it works.

So here are some action steps:

• Commit to doing a work of benefiting another person this week.  We call this a  “random act of kindness.”
• Send a letter to a college kid with some money in it to help them at the start of the school year.
• Give some worldly processions to a clothing center or soup kitchen.

The ideas can go on and on, but I challenge you to come up with your own plan to put into practice the act of service.

Pastor Rip

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