Being Served by Your Neighbor

I am going to try and do the slide and in my sermon, but it's a little like, adding my head and rubbing my belly. So, if I get behind, just let me know.

Since the first week of January, pastor Matt has been taking us through a convicting and encouraging series on what it is to love our neighbor as ourselves. And through that, we've gotten a deep dive and some rich insight into the into the parable of the Good Samaritan. And we have looked at the Old Testament and Abraham's faithful, but stumbling attempt to love his neighbor and we have begun to wrestle with what it looks like the live. Sorry you flipping. We begin to wrestle with what it looks like to live out this important command in practicality how we think about our neighbors. Are we divide our time in regards to our neighbors, and what it looks like to love neighbors. Well, in full lives. As we continue in our neighboring Series. Today we are looking at a rather awkward aspect of neighboring. The aspect of being served by others. When we talked about neighboring, we will often and very importantly talk about things we can do and ways we can serve. But today, we are talking about how we can be third. And this matter is because loving people as a one-way Street does not often lead the great relationship. And one, real way, relationships can be detrimental. It can build into our sense of Pride. It can encourage us to condescend to others. But when we build relationships, that are two way we can grow in humility, we can extend dignity to others and we can find ourselves being Jesus more clearly. As we mimic his example, The Jesus that allowed Mary supports pensive oil on his feet, that defended her in doing so accepted her service of him. There is an uncomfortable vulnerability, though when someone serves us. If it's not something we asked for, we can feel awkward at the attention or that we aren't someone who should be served. We can feel that our role as server is being threatened. And if we take it a step further, if we rely on our neighbors and actually ask them to meet our need, it can expose us to rejection to embarrassment or two loss of status. When we admit that we are in need, we open ourselves up to others and we lack control over the way that they will choose to respond. I very clearly remember the day in high school, when I told a good friend, I was having a hard time and she said, you're the one we rely on. You don't get to have hard time. I certainly learned the wrong lesson that day about asking others for help and it took me a while to recover from that and it was so tempting to believe the lie. The God wants me to shoulder the struggles, and the knees, and the issues of others. But not to share. My own needs in return, and learning to ask boldly for help from Neighbors, has certainly been a journey for me. In our scripture today, the Prophet Elijah makes a really bold ask of his neighbor. He makes an ass from a place of real need. And he asked of someone also in real need. We're going to be in first king 17 starting in 47.

Baby.

Sometime later. The brook dried up because there had been no rain in the land and the word of the Lord came to him. Meaning Elijah. Go went to their Assets in the region of sidon and stay there. I have directed a widow there to supply you with food. So he went to their FS when he came to the Town Gate, a widow. Was there Gathering sticks? He called her and that her and asked, would you bring me a little water in a jar? So I may have a drink As she was going to get it, he called and bring me please, a piece of bread.

As surely as the Lord your God Lives she replied I don't have any bread. Only a handful of flour in a jar and a little olive oil in a jug. I am Gathering a few sticks to take home and make a meal for myself and my son that we may eat it and die.

Elijah said to her, don't be afraid. Go home and do as you have said, but first make a small loaf of bread for me from what you have and bring it to me, and then make something for yourself and your son. For this is what the Lord. The god of Israel says, a jar of flour will not be used up. And the jug of oil will not run dry until the day. The Lord sends rain on the land. He went away and did as Elijah had told her there was food every day for Elijah and for the woman and her family for the jar of flour was not used up and the jug of oil did not run dry and keeping with the word of the Lord spoken by Elijah.

Are you uncomfortable with Elijah's ask of the Widow. It's uncomfortable. It takes such incredible boldness, last a starving Widow, the Fiji Now Elijah had something that we don't always have witches is an assurance from the Lord, that it was the right thing to do, and we don't want to overlook that. That is important. However, many of us can probably think of situations much less dire when God told us to do something and we didn't follow through, but Elijah Trust. We don't have it written down for us, what his thoughts were, or how he felt about the situation, but we have his actions. God said, I have directed a widow to supply you with food and so Elijah trust and Elijah act with confidence despite the obstacles and there are obstacles. There is the obvious obstacle the visible lack of food but there is also the Obstacle of location. Elijah has left the land of Israel. The land of God's people and he's entered into the territory of sidon. He is in the land that his future enemy. Jezebel was raised in the land of Baal worshippers. But Elijah trust God. And Elijah asked. Now none of us really know how we'll react in certain crisis situations until they are upon us. However, some of us may have found ourselves in that situation tempted to starve rather than to ask that boldly or at the very least to have a bit of a debate with God. I can think of my objections easily. If I were Elijah God, this woman is not one of us. God, it cannot be your purpose, despite what you were saying. The takeaway went to take from a widow with a dependent. There has to be a rich guy around here somewhere with a storehouse of food. Can you direct me to him? Instead, I could prophesy for him. He could give me some food at could be a fair exchange of goods.

But Elijah, trust God.

And God provides miraculously for the woman that serves him and for her family and Elijah himself. let's back up in the story a little at the beginning of this chapter Elijah has appeared in scripture for the very first time and his opening note is the prophesied that the evil King Ahab of Israel that God is bringing about a drought Read that in 1st Kings 17, 1 through 7. Now Elijah the tishbite from tishbe in Gilead, said to Ahab as a lord, the god of Israel lives whom I serve, there will be there. Be neither do nor rain in the next few years. Accept my word. And the word of the Lord came to Elijah leave here. Turn Eastward and hide, and the kerith Ravine east of the Jordan. You will drink from the Brook and I have directed the Ravens to supply you with food there. So we did what the Lord had told him. He went to the kerith Ravine east of the Jordan and stayed there. The Ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning and bread and meat in the evening and he drank from the brook. Sometime later. The brook dried up because there had been no rain in the land.

Oh, God has Elijah, do something, Elijah goes and prophesized to Ahab for the Lord, and then God provides a place for Elijah to hide. He provides food, and he provides water. Elijah, is being taken care of it. Is him and God in the Ravine, and he has his needs met, and then God, remove that provision.

When I read that, I feel it because I can think of so many times when I'm confident and comfortable in God getting what I need from him and then God says, okay, it's time to go out and get other people involved. Be a river. Not a lake, right? Matt talked about that in his sermon a few weeks ago when we Trace Abraham, leaving the security of Babylon and going out into a new place. But the problem is is that other people are messy. Other people disappoint again. God did not provide us. Elijah's thoughts or feelings, but I can tell you that I might have been hesitant to leave the God and Me ravine. And it's telling that God allowed the brook to dry up. He made it necessary for Elijah to move on. You remove the water and really Elijah had very little choice. God was telling him that provision was going to come through someone else and relying on others is an act of trust in God and sometimes this act plays out differently than we hope and we know this. So maybe we have a tendency not to ask others for help because we've been disappointed, let down and betrayed one too many times or maybe we don't ask others for help because our parents were disappointed and betrayed and let down one too many times and they taught us to be completely self-reliant.

But God our truest father teaches us a different way. Inspired by the spirit Paul rights and Galatians serve one another. Humbly in love for the entire laws for failed in keeping this one command. Love your neighbor as yourself. The Christian Theologian Augustine writing in the fourth Century said, do we glory in our own ability to serve or in God's grace to inspire us to serve and if we recognize that the ability to serve is because of God's grace and that God's grace is a gift to us. Will we then deny others, their gifts and their Grace to serve? How many of us have felt worth validation and encouragement and serving knowing that we do, so prompted by the Lord and in his imitation. So we not extend that same dignity to our neighbor.

In other words, if I serve others to honor God, can I let someone serve me so that they too and honor God. All right, that the law is fulfilled when we are loving our neighbors as ourselves, I want to fulfill the law and I want others to have that opportunity as well. We have to make the choice. We have to be willing to allow others to service. Elijah, a prophet of Israel extends, great dignity. The decide o'nien woman. As he receives her service. And although ultimately his provision is from the Lord, it is given by the hands of a foreign Widow. When we reject or refuse the service of others, we need to be very careful that we are not rejecting or refusing. Service. God has intended for us or opportunities to give or receive love that. God is providing us. I think of a time that some family members travel near to where my family lived but we didn't know about it until after they gone home. And I asked my dad, don't they like us. We stayed with them before. My dad said they do like us but they are the kind of people who can only host others, they don't like to be hosted because they don't know how to receive. I don't know if my relatives were just uncomfortable or didn't like the lack of control is gas or even just didn't want to burden Us by asking or imposing. What I do know is that we all missed out I was sad and a little hurt that we didn't get to see them and the lack of opportunity to serve and to be together meant to lack of growth in our relationship as extended family.

Elijah has no such compunction. He will serve God boldly in the coming chapters giving so much of himself by the Lord but he doesn't fall into the Trap of staying here. Okay, God, I can carry the burdens of others but they don't get to carry mine.

Now, like an all things. There does need to be discernment and wisdom about when and how we share ourselves. We need to have wisdom about the ways in which we invite others into our lives and depend on them. Elijah's boldness, used to be directly related to the assurances. He has from God about what Will transpire as he trusts, We do not often, get such assurances. In my own life, I have often experienced promptings from The Lord of when to share. And when to ask for help, but those promptings rarely come with disclaimers from God about how the other person is going to respond. As we look to the New Testament, I Rely Less on desired outcomes, and more on the picture of community that is painted for us and even more importantly, on Jesus's focus on us, loving others. I receive service and or ask others to serve me because if I am to offer hospitality and I am also to receive it If I am to love others deeply and with humility, then it is God's desire that they do the same for me. If I am exhorted to look to the interests of others and they are exhorted to looked mine. Now, those are all commands to Christian. What about as we interact with neighbors? Who don't know, Jesus, Back in verse 14, we see Elijah showing the might of God, the woman who is not an Israelite. Elijah, even tells the woman that her blessing is coming from the Lord, the god of Israel. He tells her this like he told Ahab, but 1/8 have Casey was reminding a have that Israel. Doesn't belong to him, it belongs to God. He tells it to the Widow with a different purpose. She doesn't live in Israel, but she needs to know that her blessing does not come from the false god Baal. It is the god of Israel that is present with her struggle and it is in her service to Elijah then a miracle is occurring in her home. God is illuminated to this woman by her service. But unfortunately, that's not all it takes. If we were to follow along in the story, we would learn that the woman will require much greater miracles in order to believe but this is the start of their relationship Elijah and the Widow serve and God his praise

Now we don't just love people Evangelistic Lee. We love people because God asks us to God tells us to end. God builds up a love for others within us.

But as followers of Jesus, we cannot help but reflect his goodness, and his grace and His Majesty as imitators of Christ. We accept with Grace, the gifts of others be except their service, when they offer it or when God prompts us to ask for it. Think of Jesus saying, the key is, I will stay at your house today. We often Focus rightly so on the favor that Jesus was doing for the Kia, but he was also getting served in return. Literally, as its physical needs will be met with rest and a meal.

In an example of today is a church body. We often get served by the local community. I have the privilege of sometimes being the church Representatives on a local integration team that gathers together hospital employees, housing, organizations, local police and fire representative reps from the school district and Family Care, organizations among others. These organizations Christian and non-Christian get together in a room to coordinate services and make connections with at the local community by better be served. Everyone in the room has a committed love for the community. And there's a moment in the meetings when we get to thank other organizations for their services. And so I haven't had the opportunity to publicly thank Liberty house on our behalf because they have come to the church throughout the years, the service by Leading staff and Volunteers in child, safety training. Their service makes us a safe for church and I've been able to thank the fire department for coming out to our preschool class during their transportation segment. And blessing kids by teaching them about the fire department, their service help little kids to know and trust firefighters and will allow those preschoolers to be more calm if a scary situation would ever happen. We cannot repay the services of those organization. We are not Elijah and this moment and God has not promised us to give others Miracles and return for their service. But when we become a safer place for children, and when preschoolers feel more safe and their Community, we have honored, the Lord, We have loved our neighbor by being served.

In our own lies, we might not always immediately notice the connection, our neighbors dropping off cookies, just be, because you're offering to mow the lawn or checking to see how your day is going. Might not seem like it is benefiting the kingdom. But it is the gracious love of our King Works in us and through us and cookies can turn into late night chat. And conversations about our day, can help us to know how to pray for others, and God has created everyone in His image. Even those that have not accepted that. I have learned about God from good teachers and kind neighbors even when they weren't meeting to demonstrate him. I don't know who your neighbors are. I don't know if they love Jesus or don't know him, but you can know that about your neighbors as you proceed with wisdom and discernment and caring for those around you and loving them and serving them and praying for them. I hope you leave an open option for it to become a two-way street. I pray that as you know them and they perhaps offer their kindness and service back that you accept it with the goodness and graciousness of Christ, allowing yourself to grow in the process. And while I hope that I have now painted a beautiful and enticing picture for you that makes you want to join fully and gratefully go out and accept the service of others and even boldly ask for it at times, there is also a less beautiful part of this reality that we need to address. What about when your neighbor serves you in a way that makes you uncomfortable? is sobriety is part of your face journey and your neighbor dropped off a six-pack of beer one evening, but then if you ask a neighbor for help and their reactions are ungodly or their advice is inappropriate. If your neighbor sees you are in need and offers to babysit your children, but they aren't people. You want to leave alone with your kids. Going back to the Ravine and being alone. With God, might sound pretty nice. When we think about these kinds of situation.

Loving people. Well, is complicated, neighboring is complicated. And so God gives us guidance throughout his word and God gives us his people that they might speak into our situations and help us discern how to respond. And God gives us his spirit so that we might have his guidance with us and in us and God gives us his forgiveness. So then when we mess up or left poorly or trust wrong, or missed, the moment, we could have leaned in God gives us more grace.

Elijah's boldness is a little terrifying and there could be a temptation to dismiss it as an act in a desperate situation. But Jesus had no such desperation when he went to vecchia's home. If we are truly imitators of Christ. Ambassadors of his peace and his presents, then our presence in our neighbors lives can be like the presence of cheeza. Would we deny our neighbors the presence of cheeza? And what each of us should spend time in deep contemplation of what healthy boundaries look like as followers of Jesus. The reality for most of us is that we probably don't ask when we are prompted to

and we probably don't accept when it is offered and we leaned back on cultural norms and customs and whatever our concept of politeness has as a default Neighboring, well is not about politeness. Cultural norms has to be as quiet and unobtrusive as possible with our neighbors serving people, while and allowing ourselves to be served and returned, creating the space for Neighbors to ask of us and then asking of neighbors is going to be uncomfortable. I probably use the word uncomfortable about 1500 times and this message, but it's on purpose. Because healthy boundaries, God Inspired Real of boundaries have nothing to do with our comfort. They are important and necessary and essential and we need them and yet God's boundaries are usually not the same down trees that we would draw if left to her own devices. It is impolite and countercultural to ask someone starving to feed you. It is Impractical and uncomfortable to accept God's word. That love keeps no record of wrongs. It is awkward and messy and way too personal to carry each other's burdens. But we are told to live that way as Christian Community. When we look at loving our neighbors of asking of them are sometimes relying on them of accepting their gift or their service to us. Let us be careful. Not to depend on our own comfort zone. Let us avoid letting past wounding be our guiding Compass. Let us have God be our guy so that we may ask boldly that we may accept graciously that we may draw the boundaries that God wants us to draw and not the boundaries. The bad experience is encouraged us to.

As a small example, I have fought through some pretty intense fear to be on this platform today, preaching. Three days ago, I thought about asking Frank to preach and said, despite the fact that God was very clear with me this week about what he wants me to do. I do not have the boldness of Elijah but God has kept prompting me to invite others into the journey this week. And I have been prayed for so much. And I have had friends and neighbors praying for me, as I stepped on the platform this morning past wounding, would have me cowering in the back row afraid.

But this congregation has served me beautifully, this week in prayer and encouragement and counsel and support. It has been hard for me to invite people into this process. It has been scary for me to ask people for prayer and counsel, and yet I have been healed from past hurts this week, as I have asked, and people have responded with Grace and wisdom and godliness. You have never heard me. Well, this week. Thank you. Can we be joyful, then, rather than sisters? Can we be bold at the opportunities? God has given us? We get to love one another and serve one another, and be served in return and we get to leave the Ravine and go out into the world and love our neighbors as ourselves. And sometimes we might find ourselves having the opportunity to accept love and service and we will you pray with me.

Father, God, I praise you that you give us neighbors. I praise you that you surround us with others to serve and love us. And grow us and challenge us. I praise you that you stress us out of our comfort zone. Help us to be imitators of you. When we receive service from others, help us to be people that honor you when others give freely to us, give us wisdom and discernment for the nuances of each and every situation, and help us to rely on one another. In the ways you have called us to. But at this church Community, might more and more represent you to the world and your son's name. Amen.