THE HEART OF SERVICE

Introduction

-{Matthew 23}

-Monday nights and Thursday mornings we have had Pickelball in the gym here at the church, and I think it’s a hit. Pickelball is an interesting sport: a combination of tennis and racquetball and badminton and the like. There’s a lot of rules you have to try to remember, but once you get in the swing of things (no pun intended) you pick it up pretty quick. One area of rules you really need to think about is how you serve the ball. You have to hit it from a specific area on one side to a specific area on the other. There are rules about how to actually hit the ball: you can’t hit it overhand, but have to hit it under the belt; you can’t throw the ball up in the air or throw it down hard to bounce it, you just kind of just have to let it drop. In Pickelball there is a right way to serve and there is a wrong way to serve.

-What is true of Pickelball is true of the Christian life as well: there is a right way to serve and there is a wrong way to serve. As a Christian there is an expectation of service, but how you serve is just as important as the fact of serving. And the difference is found in the heart. You can’t gauge someone in what it is they do in service because everyone is gifted and empowered in different ways. But what is your heart like when you serve as you are gifted and empowered?

-This is of importance to us today as we celebrate something important for our church family. Today we ordain Steven Allen into our deacon fellowship. The word deacon itself is connected with service to the church. Those whom we normally call the first deacons were chosen to serve the church so that the leadership of the church could concentrate on prayer and the Word. A deacon holds an office in the church that serves the needs of the church body so that the membership is ministered to in their need. Steven has proven himself as a man of service, and he is joining a group of men who have service at the forefront of their mind.

-But the work of service within the church does not only fall on the deacons or the staff. It falls on everyone—and that includes you. But if we are to serve the church, there is a right way and there is a wrong way—for staff, for deacons, and for you. In the passage we are looking at Jesus confronts the Jewish religious leaders because they did not serve the people in a right way. He tells his hearers what the leaders did wrong, and then what they need to do to get it right.

-And we find that sometimes our heart isn’t right when it comes to serving others like we are called to do. So, what we want to take away from our lesson today is that when we serve the Lord by serving the needs of others, our heart needs to have the right attitude.

Matthew 23:1–12 ESV

1 Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, 2 “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat, 3 so do and observe whatever they tell you, but not the works they do. For they preach, but do not practice. 4 They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger. 5 They do all their deeds to be seen by others. For they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long, 6 and they love the place of honor at feasts and the best seats in the synagogues 7 and greetings in the marketplaces and being called rabbi by others. 8 But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all brothers. 9 And call no man your father on earth, for you have one Father, who is in heaven. 10 Neither be called instructors, for you have one instructor, the Christ. 11 The greatest among you shall be your servant. 12 Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.

-{Prayer}

-Very quickly, Jesus highlights two wrong ways of serving (using the religious leaders as the bad examples) before he tells us the right way—the right heart to have. So, first...

1) Serve without hypocrisy

-The first criticism of the religious leaders is found in vv. 2-3. Jesus was not denying that the scribes and Pharisees had certain authority as they expounded on the law of Moses. But the problem stemmed from the fact that they themselves did not do what it was that they were preaching. They expounded upon the law, and then they added rules that were supposed to fence in the law, but then these religious leaders didn’t actually follow the law or the rules that they set up. So, here these religious leaders were supposed to be serving the people, and they talked a big game, and they said all the right things, but then their actions said something completely different from what their words were. What we find is that they told the people how they were to serve God, but then the leaders themselves did not serve God in any of the ways that they talked about. So, Jesus said to do what they say (as long as it’s biblical), but don’t do what they do because they are hypocrites.

-The meaning of hypocrite is to be an actor—to put on a mask and pretend. And Jesus warns us against this hypocrisy. Don’t sit there and tell people how they should or should not be serving God when you yourself aren’t serving God. Don’t pretend to be doing something you’re not. Don’t tell someone they need to do more at the church when you yourself are not involved and doing anything at the church. That’s kind of the cliche that people think about the church. People will complain about the church and complain about what is or is not happening around the church and they will act as if the place would fall apart without them, but then in reality they don’t lift a finger to do anything about it. They say, “Well, these people ought to be doing this and those people ought to be doing that,” and then they sit there and don’t do anything themselves.

-The old saying of DO AS I SAY AND NOT AS I DO doesn’t cut it in our service to God. As Christians, we are to both say and do when it comes to serving God by serving people. But there is another area that Jesus criticized...

2) Serve without egotism

-In vv. 4-10 Jesus calls out the religious leaders on another problem with their service. When the religious leaders did their service they did it with the motivation of promoting themselves and their brand (to use today’s language). They did service so that people would see them doing service and then heap praise upon praise upon their heads, and slap their back for completing a job well done. They served God’s people so that their name and reputation would go far and wide to be spoken about by all the people everywhere. To, again, use today’s language, the only reason they did it was so that they would go viral.

-They didn’t care about the people that they served. They didn’t care about God. All they cared about was themselves. And so they put on a show of service so that people would think that they were all holier-than-thou, and then they would turn around and expect all these people (who they thought were in awe of them) to serve them as their own personal slave. It was all about them and feeding their already enlarged ego. Really the first criticism feeds into their second criticism. They talked and pretended like they loved and served God and people, when in actuality they didn’t. But they acted that way so that people would be in awe of them and show them honor and respect. The religious leaders wanted the people to think that they were high and mighty and so above the rabble because that’s what they actually thought about themselves.

-And when Jesus talks about not giving these names and titles to religious leaders, that was part of the ego trip. These leaders found their identity in people calling them this title and that title. And Jesus says don’t give leaders these titles, because you are all equal. But these people pretend to serve so that people will call them by their title and heap praise on them. “Oh, Rabbi Ben-Mordecai, what a wonderful job you did. Oh, Father Kaplan, you do us honor by your mere presence.” What they do has nothing to do with helping people, with serving God, with lifting people up—it has everything to do with self and self-promotion and reputation and the like.

-Last year, when we were looking to fill the Director of Children’s Ministry position we received a resume from someone who referred to themselves within their email as DR. SO-AND-SO. But then, when you looked at their resume, they didn’t even have a Bachelor’s degree. But they’re going around calling themselves DR. SO-AND-SO. Why? Because they wanted to put on the mask like they’ve actually accomplished something and they wanted the name and reputation to go with it.

-But Jesus says DON’T DO THAT. Don’t serve just to boost your ego and enhance your name. But how are we to serve? Now Jesus gives us the positive...

3) Serve with benevolence

-Benevolence entails love and mercy and grace and care and compassion. Benevolence is outward focused. That’s how we are to serve. Jesus said it this way:

Matthew 23:11–12 ESV

11 The greatest among you shall be your servant. 12 Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.

-You approach your service to God to His people through His church with the utmost humility, meaning that not only do you not think that you are better than other people, you actually think that all other people are better than you. That means that your desires and wants are not the driving force, nor the main objective. Rather, after Jesus has completely changed your life when you trust in Him and His saving work by His death and resurrection, you know that you are nothing but a servant and you live to serve the One who set you free.

-And, you are moved by the desire to follow Jesus’ example. We need to get this verse burned into our brains, so we are going to put it up there and leave it up there until it is time for our ordination. But listen to what your Savior said:

Mark 10:45 ESV

45 For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

-Know this; memorize this; and live this. The very Lord of lords and King of kings came to serve, and He did so by giving His life as a ransom. Who do you think you are to do any less? Remember His warning:

Matthew 23:12 ESV

12 Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.

Conclusion

-From July 26 to August 7, 1971, the eyes of millions of Americans were on the Apollo 15 moon mission. Astronauts David R. Scott and James B. Irwin, who landed on the moon and spent eighteen of their sixty-six hours there outside the spacecraft. They covered over seventeen miles of the surface in a specialized vehicle people dubbed the “moon buggy.”

Upon returning to earth, James Irwin, a professed Christian believer, declared, “As I was returning, I realized that I am not a celebrity but a servant. So I am here as God’s servant on Planet Earth to share what I have experienced, that others may know the glory of God.”

-That is our heart of service. May we all cultivate that to its fullest.

-We recognize today one man who has taken on this heart. We are blessed at Harvest Baptist Church to have a group of men who love God and love the people, and we add this one more. What we do is that we who are ordained pray over Steven. But while we are praying, I want you to be praying for Steven, his family, this church, and for your own heart before the Lord. The ordination time is not a time of sleeping, it is a time of spiritual wakefulness…{invite ordained men to sit in front pews; invite Steven up; prepare stage}