You Were Made To Be Useful
This teaching is Session 1 from a Men’s Breakfast on June 14, 2025.
Well I'm not sure what comes to mind in your mind when you hear the phrase “make yourself useful.” I know what comes to my mind. I have an image of a grandma, that grew up in a different generation than me, speaking to her grandkids that have maybe come over for the afternoon and there's work to be done. One of the grandkids comes up to her and says, “Grandma, we're bored. We don't know what to do.” And she responds, “Son, make yourself useful.”
While I don't remember ever experiencing that — I don't think that embodies my grandma — that's the image that pops into my head of the “go make yourself useful.”
Now, honestly, I think that is a great charge for a son. I think that's a great charge for a man.
I think something that was so innate and obvious and potentially needed in past generations needs to be sounded again today.
The thing today seems to be, as kids or as teens: Are you happy? Are you entertained? Are you satisfied? Rather than asking if you are useful or beneficial to others. And so we are to be useful. It is good to be useful.
We’re made in the image of God and our God is a God of creativity, a God of productivity, and a God of fruitfulness. I’m so glad that he is. Our God is a useful God who’s beneficial to us in every way. In fact, one of the things that sets God apart from idols — besides the fact that he is real and they are fake — is that he can act.
He’s not an image just to be looked at or beheld in some sense that has eyes that cannot see, ears that cannot hear, and a mouth they cannot speak. Idols are worthless, but God is worth much. He’s of great worth. He is worthy. Worthy to be worshiped for who he is and what he has done to benefit the world and benefit his people. So I’m so glad that our God is useful.
We have the Son of God, Jesus. When the crowd got a glimpse of his goodness, Mark writes, “they were astonished beyond measure saying he has done all things well” (Mark 7:37). This is a God I want to worship. This is a God I want to become like — a God who's willing and able to meet every need of his people.
So our God is gloriously useful. He’s much more than that, but he's not less.
This morning we're trying to continue to build off some of our previous topics we've talked about at our men’s retreats and at these breakfasts — specifically the retreat last year. At that retreat, we pressed into the topics of masculine strength and masculine agency.
So we have wills and actions. We’ve got internal and external strength that God has made us with and these are to be developed. A natural result would be that we would increase in our usefulness, that we would increase in our helpfulness to others.
So as we recognize our strength and agency as men, it's good for us to ponder our usefulness. How can we increase it? Why would we want to? What do we even mean by that?
So as we walk through these two sections this morning, that’s kind of the goal.
What is our usefulness?
How do we think about that?
Why would we want to increase it?
So I’m going to pray for us before we get started here.
Father, would you work in this time? Would we see your goodness, your glory, your usefulness? I don't know what sense we have of that word. Perhaps our default is that it feels negative, perhaps it feels neutral or positive. You are many things God. You are beneficial and good and kind and glorious to us. You’re of great use and I’m so glad that you are, that you're a God that can act and do and love.
So this morning, as as we think on you and think on the ways that you’ve created us, help to use it in our lives through your spirit for our good, for the good of others, for your glory. We ask all this in your name, Amen.
Two Bedrock Truths
We’re going to try to do some foundational work here before you look at it directly just to make sure we’re not falling off in two different ways. So here’s two bedrock truths for humans, especially for men.
Again, we’re laying the foundation here as we go into the topic of usefulness.
1. God does not need us, but chooses to use us.
Acts 17:24-25,
The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands as though he needed anything, since he himself gives you all mankind, life and breath and everything.
So he is not served by us in any way as if he has any needs. He is not dependent on us. He does not need us for help. He doesn't need us for joy. He doesn't need us for success. He doesn't need us for anything. God does not need us, but he chooses to use us. The God that made everything in the world perfectly independent from us doesn't need us.
So when we talk about usefulness, talk about beneficialness, talk about developing things — he does not need us.
He’s gloriously independent and good and sufficient in his own. He’s happy. He’s pleased with all that he does. Psalm 115:3,
“Our God is in the heavens. He does all that he pleases.”
Psalm 135:6,
“Whatever the Lord pleases he does in heaven and on earth and in the seas and all deeps.”
He’s the only being that is truly and ultimately free. He does everything on his own free act of will — to create us, save us, use us — and so completely apart from us, he is infinitely happy and good and loving. And then out of that he acts freely.
Some of the acts of freedom is creating a good creation and loving us and redeeming us and using us all out of overflow, not out of need, not out of lack. And so we have a God who doesn't need us at all yet he created us. He loves us. He redeems us. And he freely chooses to use us.
He’s self-sufficient and infinitely eternally happy. And he’s chosen to save us and to call us to a holy calling — to use us for our good and for his glory. So God does not need us, but he chooses us.
two biblical illustrations
Here’s two biblical illustrations of what it might look like when God’s using his redeemed creation.
The first one is the parable of the talents talking about the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 25:14-28, it’s kind of a longer passage but I’m going to read it and just want you to listen to the point of the parable that Jesus is telling. Speaking of the kingdom of heaven, he says,
For it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted to them his property. 15 To one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away. 16 He who had received the five talents went at once and traded with them, and he made five talents more. 17 So also he who had the two talents made two talents more. 18 But he who had received the one talent went and dug in the ground and hid his master’s money. 19 Now after a long time the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them. 20 And he who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five talents more, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me five talents; here, I have made five talents more.’ 21 His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’ 22 And he also who had the two talents came forward, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me two talents; here, I have made two talents more.’ 23 His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’ 24 He also who had received the one talent came forward, saying, ‘Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed, 25 so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here, you have what is yours.’ 26 But his master answered him, ‘You wicked and slothful servant! You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I scattered no seed? 27 Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest. 28 So take the talent from him and give it to him who has the ten talents.
There’s a lot of things that can be explored here. And with one of our discussion questions at the end, you could even get into this a little bit. But I just want to highlight a few things quick for us here:
1. The servants of the master are entrusted with his resources.
They are entrusted with his things when he goes away. That’s one obvious thing we see here.
2. There’s an expectation that they will use them for good.
It says the first servant immediately went and traded. And so there’s an assumption here that they have the resources of the master and that they’re going to do something with them. If he wanted to bury them in the ground, he could’ve buried them himself. He gives his resources to them for a certain reason. They’re given his resources and there’s an assumption and expectation that they will be used for good.
3. The wicked servant’s view of the master affects his stewardship of the resources.
There could be more to be seen there, but at least one thing we see is the wicked servant’s view of the master affects his stewardship of the resources he’s been given. So we have a God who’s free and independent and infinitely joyful, and one of the snapshots of what his kingdom is like is him entrusting resources and things to his servants to be stewarded.
Another biblical picture of God using us is John 15:1-8 where Jesus talks about being a vine. So again, a longer passage, but I just want you guys to hear it. You don’t need to study every word, but just hear the explanation that Jesus gives here. Jesus says,
I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. 2 Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. 3 Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. 4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. 5 I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. 7 If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.
Again, a lot that we could see in there but just a couple of observations here.
1. Good branches will have fruit.
That is the hope and that is the expectation — that good branches will have fruit. That’s the hope here. And that's the expectation.
2. Bearing fruit proves that we are disciples of Jesus.
He’s saying this is proof that you are a branch attached to the vine and not a branch that is sitting on the ground. Bearing good fruit proves that you are disciples of Jesus. We see fruitfulness here, we see goodness. You could say usefulness there. It’s anticipated and it’s expected.
I’ve got a few quotes from a guy named Roy Hession who wrote a little devotional book called We Would See Jesus. All three of these are from one chapter (Chapter 9, Seeing Jesus for Others) but I clipped them together. I just love how he he interacts with John 15 here. I think he’s got a few helpful insights for us. Reflecting on Jesus being the vine and us being the branches, here’s a few things he said,
Let us state the truth simply and boldly, the Lord Jesus is for others. Just as the vine does not bear its grapes for its own refreshment but for the refreshment of others, so has this Divine Vine chosen to be and to act only and always for others.
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The Lord Jesus, however, is not alone in this. He draws redeemed men into co-operation with Himself in the outworking of His glorious purposes, and they become His branches on which His fruit is borne. Just as apart from Him the branches can do nothing of themselves, so it is that apart from them the Vine does not bear fruit. They do not, however, produce or initiate the fruit; that is altogether His work. They simply bear what He produces as He lives His life again in them.
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What a comfort to us, when conscious of our weakness, to know He is the Vine! But on the other hand, with what boldness and authority does not this endue us as we move among needy, hungry men. I am His branch, a part of Him whose resources are limitless for the blessing of these men around me!
I love how he presses into the illustration here that it’s a vine and a tree. My assumption here is I’ve never seen an apple hanging off of a trunk. It’s always on a branch.
He’s saying, I am the vine, the source of everything. But my fruit? It always and only shows up on branches. There’s this interdependence that God has chosen here that he says, you are the branch in which the fruit shows up. You are the branch in which the fruit, that is a blessing for others, shows up. I am the vine, but you are the fruitful branches. And God chose it to be that way.
Certainly the branch can’t produce this fruit on its own. The source is always from the vine, but that’s where it's displayed. That’s where it shows up. Without the branches, the vine can’t display and develop its fruit. So I love how he highlights that pairing there together. God’s the ultimate source of it, but that the branches are needed. His redeemed people is where it is seen. He’s chosen to use branches to hang the fruit on.
We see again that God doesn’t need us, but he’s chosen to use us in both of these. And there is a stewardship responsibility here. I like this quote, and I would want to add in, to what boldness and authority and responsibility does this endue in us to say where God wants this fruit to be shown and visible and thus prove that we’re his disciples. It's in us and through us. That's where he’s placed it. That's where he’s put his stock. That’s where the word goes forth from. That’s where the helpfulness goes, the blessing of the nations and those around us goes through his people.
So the first bedrock truth here: God does not need us, but chooses to use us. That’s one key foundational thing here.
2. God saved us for our own sake, but also for the sake of others.
So God saved us because he loved us. Again, not because he needs us, but because he he loved us first and foremost. He will use us, but he saved us because he loves us and not because he first and foremost needs us for anything. Our God is in the heavens. He does all that he pleases.
Deuteronomy 7:6-8, talking about Israel, is just one of the places in Scripture that shows this. We see it all over the Bible. But talking about why Israel it says,
For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. 7 It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, 8 but it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers…
And so we just get a glimpse there. Again, a reminder in all of this when we think about usefulness and fruitfulness and expectation there — that the Lord saved you and loved you just for who you are. He didn't save you because you earned it. Again, he didn't save you because he needed you to do his bidding, or he needed you to accomplish anything. He saved you for the sake of you. But he saved us for more than that, not just only that. He saved us for more than ourselves — he saved us for others.
God could have made us phone poles. He could have made us winter coats in the Sahara desert. He could have made us in a way that’s useless to those around us — just save you and you just sit there. The irony, actually, of those examples is that as I was trying to think of something that’s completely useless I realized it’s hard to do because all of God’s creation was made to be good, made to have use. Even like a phone pole — which that’s trying to think like the most bland thing — a phone pole holds wires. It has a purpose. It has a reason. Jackets have reasons, you know.
Every example I could think of actually had a good function that it could be used for. That just testifies that if all of God’s creation is made to have uses and purposes and goodnesses, so does his image bearers.
And so hopefully that’s obvious to you guys, but just slow down… He didn't just make us this thing that sits over here immobile, and can't do anything, and can't speak, and he just saves it and it just sits there. He’s made us to be useful, productive, image bearing, doing the things that he does, and part of his saving and redeeming highlights and amplifies and puts that stuff into action.
And so even in these examples where I’m trying to think of the most bland thing, those things still have uses — so all the more, men that God has redeemed and created in his image. He saves you for who you are, but also to be useful to others.
And we see these things paired a ton in scripture. Just a few snapshots for us here:
Genesis 12:2, God’s talking to Abram,
“I will make you a great nation. I will bless you. I will make your name great, [Here it is, for him] so that you may be a blessing for others.”
Psalm 67:1-2,
“May God be gracious to us and bless us
and make his face to shine upon us, Selah
2 that your way may be known on earth,
your saving power among all nations.”
Ephesians 2:8-10,
“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
Saved by grace — didn't earn it.
“10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”
So God loves us, saved us, and he delights to use us.
He’s designed us that way. It’s for his glory. It’s for our good. And it’s for the salvation and blessing of others. He wants us to be useful. We were designed to be useful.
Another way to say these two things is that God loves us as an end in itself and he loves us as a means. He didn’t save you just to be a means, just to pass by you like he just needs a few people to get some things done, and just grabbed a few and threw them over here in the field. He loves you, sees you, knows you, redeemed you.
You’re an end in itself. You are worth it, in that sense, alone for his glory to be saved. Not deserving of it but worth it to be saved and to leave us there would be unsatisfying. He hasn’t designed us that way. He’s designed us to be used as a means too. So we are an end to salvation, and a means through which his salvation moves to others.
So that’s bedrock truth number two.
God saved us for our own sake and also for the sake of others, under the banner of it all being for his glory — we don’t want to miss that.
So to close here, and then we’ll do some discussion…
God does not need us, but he chooses to use us.
God saved us for our own sake and also for the sake of others.
Discussion
How does God’s joy and self-sufficiency change our perspective on useful labor and bearing fruit? How might this relate to the parable of the talents?
What do we miss if we only see ourselves as ends to God’s saving work? Or only as means?
