Message: Service

Series: Christianity, It`s not Rocket Science

SE100409
ROCKET SCIENCE
4. Serving

I think from time to time, we all misunderstand “service”.

Like this slightly naïve teenage girl a while back who brought home a new boyfriend to meet her parents. They were appalled by his appearance. I mean he had the whole look going on: ratty hair, leather jacket, un-tucked shirt, motorcycle boots, tattoos of naked women on his arms, three or four pierced body parts.

Of course these days that’s the look most youth pastors are going for… but back then the parents were disturbed. So the mom pulls her naïve daughter aside and say,
“honey, he doesn’t seem very..... nice.”
The daughter says,
“Mom, if he’s so rotten, like, why is he doing 500 hours of community service?”

Here’s more misunderstanding of service: This spring the President signed a bill into law that dedicates $5.7 billion over five years to encourage volunteerism. Think about that. The bill provides $500 summer scholarships to millions of middle school and high school students and gives $1,000 educational grants to older volunteers.

I read that and thought… maybe I have the wrong definition of “volunteer”. $6 Billion to encourage people to do something for free? What am I missing here? Volunteerism – we’re talking about it, but I don’t know that we’re getting it.

Even in churches! As illustrated in our drama. Volunteerism:
- Something that sucks up all my free time
- Something I hate to do feel obligated to do
- Penance for my sins

And here’s the biggest misconception of all:
Volunteerism: can’t we pay someone to do this?

There’s been a whole paradigm of church that’s been built on this kind of “hired gun” thinking. Christians for hundreds of years, would get together and say, " we're going to start a church." So first thing they do is, hire a minister. Why? To do ministry, what else? Someone to…
- teach and preach and
- marry and bury and
- comfort and rebuke,
- mow the lawn,
- visit the sick, anything they can get him to do.

If this paid minister isn’t giving enough ministry bang for the buck, then he gets “called” (Christians don’t fire people) to do ministry for hire elsewhere. The church puts him on waivers and hopes another church will pick him up while they draft another guy.

So where, in that paradigm of church is there room for volunteerism? It’s not there. Therefore it’s not talked about. It’s not valued.

BIBLICAL PARADIGM OF VOLUNTEERISM
But if you look at the Biblical paradigm of leadership and servanthood in church, it’s not rocket science. The Bible agrees that there should be leaders who, because they give all their time to God’s work, ought to be paid. Paul explains it like this:

• 1 Cor 9:14 In the same way, the Lord has commanded that those who preach the gospel should receive their living from the gospel.

OK, so you say, that seems to advance the “hired gun” approach to ministry. Ah, but that’s just a part of the puzzle. Here’s what those leaders are charged with doing:

• Eph 4:12 …prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up

So is that the hired gun model? Are the paid professionals supposed to DO the all the various works of service that will advance God’s purposes in this world? NO! Paul specifically says that the leader’s job more than anything else, is to mobilize, equip, prepare and unleash everybody ELSE in the church to do the works of service.

That’s a total change in perspective, isn’t it? In fact, the man who wrote those words, was himself a volunteer! He had the right to be supported, as he had just explained. But he chose to refuse all support… why? To go above and beyond in demonstrating that a life of SERVICE TO OTHERS ought to be normative for true Christians.

Why? For three reasons…

1. EXAMPLE OF OUR LEADER
When I say our leader, I’m not now referring to Paul. Paul was an example of service because he was following HIS leader, Jesus the Christ. And Jesus set the original example of extreme servanthood.

Some of you aren’t convinced yet that Jesus was who he said he was. But imagine it with me for a second… conceive in your heart that it’s true, that a man who walked this earth with a real heart pumping real blood through real veins could also be, somehow, God Almighty in the flesh.

Now what would it take for the God who spun quasars and galaxies into space, the God who designed cells and gravity, the God who knows the mysteries of time and space, to “FIT” into a human frame? It would take some emptying wouldn’t it?

• The Bible says that to be incarnated in human form, Jesus was in fact emptied.
  • Phil 2:6-7 - being in very nature God, [he] did not cling to his rights as God, but emptied himself…taking the very nature of a servant.

Let that soak in. The Almighty, humbled himself, condescended to our level, and discharged much of his prior position and power and prestige in order to become our servant. Say it in your mind, say it slowly until your heart understands:
God becomes a slave. In order to serve our great need.

This is why during his life, in John 13, Jesus once took a towel and a bowl, and washed his disciples dirty, smelly feet. This was the job of the lowliest household servant. And the Son of God, willingly, did it. Why? After Jesus dried their feet, He said: 

• "Now, I have given you an example to follow: do as I have done to you.”

And in so doing he laid down a pattern that is totally counter cultural. As trendy as volunteerism is, servanthood is never trendy – because it’s selfless.
- Imagine there’s a line at the drinking fountain, can you say, “you first.”
- Imagine there’s only one treat left and two people who haven’t been served and you’re one of them. Can you say, “you take it.’
- Imagine you’re at work and they did some financial downsizing, and someone’s got to move out of their corner office into the cubicle. Are you the man or woman who raises your hand and says, me? That’s servanthood.
- Imagine your spouse has a great dream, or opportunity and that dream means a move, a new house, a new community. Can you says, “let’s go?” That’s servanthood.
o That’s following the example of Christ.

Friend, Jesus showed us that servanthood is more volunteerism: doing something without getting paid. It’s doing something willingly, in love, to meet a need for someone else, regardless of personal recognition or reward. Jesus is saying to you,
Friend, I’ve led the way. I emptied myself of all my divine prerogatives. I didn’t hold onto those precious things, I emptied myself, to serve. So, what are you hanging onto? Will you be emptied for others?

That example is why we serve. Next.

2. GRATITUDE TO GOD.
I’d like to expunge some ideas from your head forever. That serving is:
Luke tells us that Jesus was once invited over to the home of a religious leader named Simon. These social gatherings were often open air sorts of meetings, and so this dinner party is crashed by a woman in the town of questionable character. We can presume two things – she had public sexual scandal in her past, she had had a live changing encounter with Christ.

And this woman did an audacious thing. She leaned over and knelt by Jesus feet, as he reclined at the table. And there she started to weep. She just sobbed tears of strange joy. And the tears fell off her face and onto Jesus feet. Then she pulled out a little vial of very expensive perfume. And you know what she did then?

She poured the perfume onto his feet and then started to wipe up the mingled tears and perfume with her hair. Strange.

Now, this is scandalous to Simon the Pharisee. Doesn’t Jesus know he’s being touched and fawned over by a tramp? A skanky whore? And doesn’t he see the indignity of this display! It’s gaudy and improper! And it’s a waste too. Like throwing money in the fire.

Jesus sees this all in Simon’s expression and decides to tell him a story. Simon, two men owe a banker money. One of them owes a lot of money, the other a little. The banker decides to cancel both debts. Question Simon:
which man will love the banker more?

“That’s easy,” said Simon.
“The man who owed him more money.”

Correct, said Jesus. So look at this woman here. She has served me, lavishly… and you? You did not. You didn’t give me a kiss of greeting, you didn’t give me the courtesy of olive oil to anoint my head… meanwhile she has not stopped kissing my feet, and anointed me with expensive perfume, not cheap oil.

Now get this into your head SIMON, her sins — and they are many — have been forgiven. THAT’S WHY she has shown me much love. But a person who is forgiven little shows only little love. Get it? (BULLET)

You serve out of gratitude. And if you have no heart for service, friend, check the heart. There may have been no grace encounter with the Living Christ. If you serve poorly, if you serve for the eyes of others, if it’s like pulling teeth, then I propose that you have not been forgiven much.
- For he who is forgiven little loves little
- But he who is forgiven much, loves much.

3. SERVICE FULFILLS OUR PURPOSE
So,

• Acts 20:35: It is more blessed to give than to receive.

Do you believe that? Jesus is saying, there’s a better pay off to you, when you let go of time and resources and life energy for the sake of others, than when you only hoard them. Therefore, Christians FIND FULFILLMENT IN USING THEIR SPIRITUAL GIFTS. That’s the topic for Extended today.

I was reminded of this idea of the fulfillment and gifts when I went on one of my oldest son’s field trips many years ago. On the bus trip these 7 year old kids got into a rousing game of stupid body tricks.
- One kid manages to fold all his fingers completely over each other
- Another kid does this thing with his tongue.

Finally, my son Joren holds up his hand, and a few seats in the bus go silent as he prepares to unleash his gift. He starts to bend all his fingers back. Back, back, until they touch the top of his arm, like so.

These kids were in awe. One of them was just open mouthed, like they were in the presence of a rock star. Finally, one of the kids turns to me and says,
- “man, your son is gifted!”
- Yeah, his mother and I are so proud... We’re going to make sure he gets into the best double jointed school in the country!

Well, not a spiritual gift – but you could just see the look of completion and satisfaction when the kids used their unique abilities.

God’s word says that each person who is reborn by faith in Christ, gets a spiritual gift. That is, a special ability God gives by his Holy Spirit inside to every believer in order to serve. You don’t earn it, you just have it from “new-birth” so to speak.

It might be a thing you do naturally that seems totally ordinary on one level, but there’s uncanny effectiveness and purpose when a spiritual gift is employed in the service of Christ – it’s a divine enablement!: It might something as simple as But when you experience God inside you, by his Holy Spirit activating that gift, using it to help others – I'll tell you what, it lights you up!


I remember when I discovered that my main spiritual gift is teaching. I was just asked to give a little devotional at a youth group setting. I was a volunteer back then, 15 years old. I was into hockey, girls, and oh yeah, hockey. But someone just asked me to talk to this group of 35 students I was a part of, and tell them something that I was learning in my relationship with God.

And when I saw that little talk find traction in someone else’s life to draw them closer to God – I was blown away.
This is what I was MADE to do! This is how I FIT.

The Bible says that we’re like a Body that way. 

Each gift is like the different organs and parts of the body. They work together, each with a purpose, each with a calling, each with a unique, indispensible ability. And just knowing that you’re a part of a bigger body, brings a huge measure of fulfillment in itself.

Your job then is to serve and in serving see where you’re gifted and take your place in the Body.

Look around AC3 someday and you’ll see it happening… the Body of Christ in motion. People lavishly loved, loving lavishly.
I don’t care what you do (and what you do is very important, it’s noble and good, whether you’re a doctor or a plumber, or a lumber jack or a teacher) but whatever it is…
you weren’t just meant to contribute to the economy, you were meant to contribute to ETERNITY!

CONCLUSION
So that’s why we serve. It’s not rocket science. I felt like a retiree who has a nest egg that he’s built for a long time and he suddenly realizes that money’s going out instead of in and it bothers him. But a retirement fund was meant to be spent. What good is it to live impoverished and die with a million dollars in the bank?
- If the retiree is upset he’s got two options – he could try to not spend money but that’s foolish.. he has to eat and live.
- Or, the retiree could do a wiser thing and say, if my nest egg is getting smaller every day, I better make extra sure I’m spending it on the right things.

Well just like that, friend, you can look at time going by and say, “I need to stop time.” Maybe I’ll reverse the clock, by dressing like an 18 year old, by playing it safe; by protecting my assets, by hoarding my self for myself. But that’s a fools response to the passage of time.

The wise response, is to realize that one way or another, your life WILL be spent. Like a retirement fund, my life was MEANT to be spent. And one day the wine will by poured out and the golden bowl will break. So the question to ask now…
- is not how can I stop, but rather
- how should spend my one and only life.

Because it’s going to be spent, Friend. It was meant to be spent. So I ask you, what are you spending your one and only life ON?
- I want to get to the end say, “I competed my mission”.