Sermon Tone Analysis

Intro:

Last week we built the foundation of how the church is to function as God intended it to function.

And we looked at the command jesus Gave us as His church.

He said above all- Love one another.

In fact, We saw last week from Scripture that the only way we can be a healthy church is if we have love for one another...

Our love for one another is a gift from God to us as the church.

It is picture of Christ loves for us. it is a picture of the love the Godhead has within Himself, The father and Son and the Holy Spirit.

Our love for one another is the glue that makes everything else possible in the church, without it we can do nothing.

As we build upon this foundation of love in our Series studying the One another commands Jesus Gave us, we come to the command to serve One another in the church.

Love is the foundation and service is what we are called to do.

We each have been given gifts from God through the Holy spirt in our lives, This gifts were not given to us for our own pleasure or experiences, they were given to us to serve one another in the church.

Every part of the body of Christ is gifted to serve.

None of us who are in Christ have an excuse for not serving the body of Christ.

Being a servant is who god intends for you to be.

The Bible seems very clear to me as I read it… As Christian who has been given gifts from God to serve the church, You are either obeying God and serving the church or your not- there is no middle ground.

As I was studying for this sermon I came across a short poem called “He’s no Stranger” written BY LYOD TAYLOR that I thought fit’S well with this topic.

“HE’S NO STRANGER”

He’s the wisest man in the church

There’s nothing he can’t do

If you turn down your ministry

He’ll be there to do it for you.

He’s also a very faithful member

And shows up right on time

If you don’t honor your commitment

He’ll cover you every time.

He’s obviously very wealthy

The plate’s always passed his way

If you choose not to give a cent

He’ll all the expenses pay.

Who is he?

You may ask,

This one with such acclaim?

Thank God he’s in every church,

“Somebody Else” is his name.

Do you get the point?

Too often churches miss out on seeing God do exceedingly abundantly more than they could ever ask or think because no one is willing serve one another in the church, because no one is building up the body of Christ..

Church family Jesus told his church to serve one another and if we are going to be a church that follows after Jesus than we need to be a church that serves one another faithfully.

Why does serving one another matter,?

Look with me at what jesus said to his followers in Matthew 20:26-28

If we are called to serve one another than I believe that we need to understand what God says it takes in order for us to serve one another.

Today I want us to take a few minutes together to look at Five attitudes a servant must have in order to serve the church the way that God intends His followers to serve.

A Servant Is Humble

In John 13 we see Jesus as a humble servant.

On the night before Jesus was arrested He wanted to demonstrate for His followers, what attitude it would take for them them to serve one another the way that He came to serve them.

The text in John 13 tells us that as the disciples and Jesus were eating Supper, He rose up from the table, took off His outer garments and laid them aside.

Then he picked up a towel, Tied it around His waste and poured water into a small washbasin.

He then quietly walked over to each one of His disciples and began to wash their feet and wipe them off with his towel.

This job that Jesus was doing was beneath any Jewish man.

Even Jewish servants didn’t wash their masters’ feet.

For a Jewish man to bend down and wash the feet of another would have been one of the greatest acts of respect and love he could show that person.

It was a menial task, and one that was reserved for the lowly and yet Jesus the creator of all humbly did it so that He could teach his disciples what attitude it would take for them to Serve One another in the Body of Christ.

Jesus Christ the self-existent  Son of God, the one who spoke everything into existence.

The one who all creation will sing his praises.

If there was ever a man who walked this earth who should never have to humble himself it would have been Jesus.

But Jesus humbled himself before these 12 men.

so that He could demonstrate to them that being a leader in the church means you must be a servant of the church.

Washing the feet of someone else was beneath any Jewish man.

Even Jewish servants didn’t wash their masters’ feet.

For a Jewish man to bend down and wash the feet of another would have been one of the greatest acts of respect and love he could show that person.

It was a menial task, and one that was reserved for the lowly

and yet Jesus the creator of all ,humbly did it so that He could teach his disciples what attitude it would take for them to Serve One another in the Body of Christ.

and as Jesus finished washing the disciples feet He said these words in

john 13:13-17

To serve one another- we must first have the attitude of Humility.

No one is above or below serving one another in the church.

A Servant is Prepared to Serve

1 Timothy 4:7–8 (ESV)

7 Rather train yourself for godliness; 8 for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.

In May, I am going on a trip to Israel and a couple of the places we are going to visit is Mt.

Sinai where God gave Moses the 10 Commandments, and I want to climb to the top of that Mt.

When I am there, We are also going to the Dead sea.

Now I have seen many photos of people swimming in the dead sea and the pose seems the same.

Act it out- you lean back in the water with your arms floating out to the side and right in the middle is a floating dead sea Bubble( Rub Belly)

So I have been going to the wellness center each day for the past few weeks.

I have been training my body to be ready to climb that maintain, and to fight enough to not have dead sea bubble in my picture.

And what Paul is telling us in this passage in 1 Tim. is that getting in shape spiritual should be so much more important to us than getting in shape physically.

When Christ saves us , He gives us a new nature, and this new spiritual nature needs to be trained for godliness.

When we train our physical bodies we go to where we can be trained best- We go to the gym.

When we train our spiritual lives we need to go to where we can be trained best.

We go to the scriptures to learn God’s truths

We go to the throne of God in Prayer to seek His wisdom

We go to the Family of God-the church, to learn from others who have already been where we are at.

and We seek the leading of God the Holy Spirit in our lives to direct our every move

The point is this , Being a servant like Christ does not come naturally for any one of us, We must prepare ourselves spiritually so that we can serve one another effectively .

Next..

A Servant Looks for ways to Serve

1 Cor.

9 Paul was speaking to the church about his own heart of Service and What attitude He must have in order to serve others.

The attitude of a servant is someone who is willing to serve in any way they are needed, no matter what the task may be.

Paul gives us a beautiful picture of a servants heart in this passage, He was willing to serve in any way that was needed in order to reach people for Jesus Christ.

Paul didn’t say “ i am a Jewish Rabbi I only serve the church as a teacher.

He was willing and ready to meet any needs that the people had.

For the Jews he served them as a jew in order to impart spiritual good into their lives,

For the gentiles he served them as a gentile in order to impart spiritual good into their lives,

Paul’s attitude was heart eager and willing to serve no matter what the task would be for the spiritual good of others.

Church family, When we serve one another we must have this same attitude in our service.

We must be always looking for ways to serve one another so that we can impart spiritual good in their lives.

Don’t limit yourself on how you serve one another in the church to what you think your preferences and abilities are, Instead Just look for opportunities and joyfully fill those needs.

Don’t sit back and be a spectator when it comes to being part of the body of Christ, Step up and serve your church.

Our next attitude of a servant we want to look at g follows in line with this one.