Made to Serve

Introduction

who here has ever been on a cruise?

When you go on a cruise, the people treat you like royalty.

Cruise ship

They have entertainment

They have ice cream.

All the food you could want.

But there are people there who are willing to serve you to make your time worth it.

so we thought of a cruise ship.

Now think about a battleship.

There is no one there to serve you.

Everyone has a mission

a job

a role,

and a responsibility.

There are not people who are just there for the ride.

Everyone is serving.

So today we are going to talk about what it means to serve.

How Jesus is our example.

How we can get to serving.

Then some stumbling blocks.

So lets pray and then we can dive right in.

Our Perfect Example, Jesus.

We are going to be jumping into a passage in Mark 10, but I wanted to give you guys some of the background before we read these couple of verses.

James and John pull Jesus aside and they say: hey, can we sit at your side in heaven.

Jesus just responds and he says bro you dont even know what you are asking because you do not know how I am going to die yet.

but then says also, that is up to the Father, not me.

So Jesus is having this conversation with these two and the other 10 roll up because they are hearing it.

and they are angry because obviously all of them would like to sit at Jesus’s right and left in heaven as well.

So now here we are, so if someone wants to pick up in…

Mark 10:41–45 CSB

When the ten disciples heard this, they began to be indignant with James and John. Jesus called them over and said to them, “You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those in high positions act as tyrants over them. But it is not so among you. On the contrary, whoever wants to become great among you will be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you will be a slave to all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Jesus starts off by saying what people in power are generally like.

He says the rulers of the Gentiles,

Those who are in high positions.

These people who have a lot of power are acting as tyrants.

Why?

Because when you are in charge of people the world tells you that you have more say.

You have more influence.

And this can be true to a certain extent.

But Jesus is saying it does not matter if you are acting as a tyrant and not serving.

Even the people at the top should be serving, but it is harder for them.

It is so hard because they have a hard time being humble.

They want to be in charge.

They elevate themselves and get in trouble because when you elevate yourself, you shine that light on you.

You start to take that light off of Christ.

so

Jesus flips the way we think about serving upside down.

The world says the more important you are the more people you can serve.

But Jesus says wait, hold up.

It is not about us, it is about Jesus.

We have to keep the light on him.

So if you want to be great, you must be a servant, you must be a slave.

1 Peter 5:5 CSB

In the same way, you who are younger, be subject to the elders. All of you clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble.

We are to be humble.

When we are humble we know that this life is not about us.

When you have given your life to Christ and you know what he has done for you, it makes you want to live for him.

This is why we serve.

When we serve we are trying to imitate Jesus as well.

We see that he not only says these things, but he also lives them out in his life.

Jesus became the greatest servant of all by being humble and giving everything.

I mean look at what he says.

That he did not come to be served, but to serve.

and how did he do that?

By giving his life as a ransom for many.

What is a ransom?

oxford dictionary says: a sum or money or payment demanded or paid for the release of a prisoner.

It is for the release of a prisoner.

It is for us.

Before you are saved you are a prisoner to sin.

It is Jesus that comes and by him dying on the cross for our sins, pays that debt so we can be set free.

so he did a lot leading up to this moment.

Think about even in the last week of his life.

In John 13 Jesus goes and washes the disciples feet.

He once again paints this picture of the people on the top going to the bottom to serve.

It was customary that the lowest servant washed everyones feet.

It is kinda like growing up my older brother got to sit in the front seat of the car just because he was older, then I was stuck in the back.

But with more significance to that.

It was a big deal back then.

Like you did not wash feet if you had ANY sort of power.

But Jesus gets down and washes everyones feet.

He shattered the social status.

Because imagine if I have all of you guys burkinstocks and told you to go live in the dessert for a week.

Your feet would be dirty!

But Jesus is saying it does not matter your social status.

Every Christian is to serve selflessly.

With their eyes one God and not on self.

Then, Jesus went to the cross.

Romans did this for execution, but it was meant for the lowest most despised people.

For the slaves who had rebelled against their masters.

For rebels trying to over throw the government.

For murders and robbers.

But we see Jesus go and die on the cross.

And you might be thinking, how in the world is Jesus dying serving.

Like didn’t they just kill him?

by giving him no choice?

No, Jesus was serving.

He knew the outcome.

He predicted it several times.

And looking back to Mark 10:45, Jesus gave his life.

It was not taken from him.

He gave it up.

He could have called on the angels and they would have swooped down and saved him.

But he did not, he died so that we can live.

Jesus sets the ultimate example by being the servant King, who died the death we deserved, so we can live.

So Jesus is who we are aiming to be like, but how in the world do we get there?

The bar is set high.

We are all called to serve though.

So we are to follow in his footsteps the best we can.

This leads me to my second point…

The Path to Servanthood

There are two passages that we are going to look at, and there are many more that could get us down the right path.

We also have to realize that there are so many ways to serve.

You can serve others.

You can serve using your skills.

You can serve by just being there for someone.

But we have to keep in mind when we serve for the Kingdom, we must keep God at the center.

so lets take a look at…

Philippians 2:3–4 CSB

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility consider others as more important than yourselves. Everyone should look not to his own interests, but rather to the interests of others.

In the NFL the left tackle is one of the highest paid positions.

Besides QB and some WR’s they are paid more than any other position on average.

Does anyone know why?

They protect the QB’s blind spot.

but they do not get all of the recognition.

And I understand that they are still getting paid.

But they consider the QB more important than themselves.

He has to look after his QB’s interests more than his own.

This is what we are called to look like as well.

When we aim to serve like Christ, we will have action for the interests of others.

Because this passage tells us to have no selfish ambition.

There are things that we want to do for us.

But that is not how we serve.

It should be God first, others second, me last.

because you guys should know that God has given you all gifts that you can use for the Kingdom.

Just like some of you serve in the Church by singing or playing an instrument.

You have worked for that, and God has gifted some of you to keep a beat.

Some of us cannot keep a beat though.

But in using our talents it must be for God or for serving others, putting others before ourselves.

There are people who do this in our church.

He would not like me sharing because he is so humble about it, but Larry who used to serve down here.

If you do not know he is a great electrician.

He is here all the time doing stuff for the church.

Putting his church family first, but also serving the Lord with his gifts.

And like I said, you can’t put yourself first.

so we have tried to pay him, but he won’t take it

he know that God has given him this gift and he wants to give it back.

He is a great example of this.

Now lets look at Galatians 5:13-14

Galatians 5:13–14 CSB

For you were called to be free, brothers and sisters; only don’t use this freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but serve one another through love. For the whole law is fulfilled in one statement: Love your neighbor as yourself.

The background of this passage is Christians fighting over the Old Testament law of circumcision. People who were Israelites were circumcised. Now that Gentiles are coming to Christ, (and all Gentile means is a person who is not a Jew), so now that they are joining some of them are wanting these adults to become circumcised.

Paul said hey Christ fulfilled the law, you are no longer marked by that to be his.

But really he says stop fighting over these issues and we picked up in verses 13 and 14.

He said you are to be free in Christ and because of that you serve him.

We are to use our freedom in Christ to serve in love.

he says they are free and what he means is they are free some of the Old Testament things like circumcision.

so they are free from the law,

but they are also free from the power of sin.

So those who are in Jesus are to use them being free to love others as yourself.

Again, when Jesus saves you, you want to represent him.

so when you treat others as yourself you are going to do this.

No one want anything bad to happen to themselves.

So if you havent caught the drift yet, to serve, you must live like Christ, because he was greatest servant.

Lastly…

The Barriers of Service.

Now lets spend just a few minutes talking about what can get in the way of y’all serving.

One: Pride.

People have a hard time doing things that they do not want to.

They have a hard time humbling themselves.

Y’all I struggle with pride, so I get it.

but just as we talked about, we are to put others before ourselves as we saw in scripture.

Two: Age.

We do a good job here at south gate, but I know there is still come times where questions could be asked.

There has been no issues to my knowledge, but lets say one of you wants to be on the finace team… I am sure that there would be some questions.

1 Timothy 4:12 CSB

Don’t let anyone despise your youth, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, and in purity.

Guys, do not let your age get in the way of you serving.

Either here or any other church.

but if it here, come and talk to me.

If you feel like God has laid it on your heart for you to be on the finace team, come and talk to me, because if it is only age, I have got your guy’s backs because I want to see you serve.

Three: Busyness

The older you get, you will realize how busy you have gotten.

Everyone is busy.

But as you have seen, we are called to serve.

Your relationship with Christ should be a priority.

Just like worship should be a priority.

So serving is just as much as one too.

Colossians 3:23–24 “Whatever you do, do it from the heart, as something done for the Lord and not for people, knowing that you will receive the reward of an inheritance from the Lord. You serve the Lord Christ.”

So when you serve go all out. Make it a priority because we are told to act in service.

Four: Fear of Inadequacy

The fear that you are not good enough might be in your head.

But I want you to know that God has given all of you gifts, skills, and abilities that you can use for him.

1 Peter 4:10 CSB

Just as each one has received a gift, use it to serve others, as good stewards of the varied grace of God.

So guys, you know your gifts.

Do not let there be an excuse not to use them.

Serve as Christ served!

Love y’all

any thoughts, comments, questions, concerns, stones for heresy?