Serve Others

The Ship is Sinking

Imagine that you are on a sinking ship. You, your family, and your closest friends all realize that the ship is sinking. Do you abandon ship without telling anybody? No you’re going to tell somebody in charge and everyone you run into on your way to a life boat.

The problem is that this is true of the world we live in today. Our world is a sinking ship. And christians do one of two things.

They isolate themselves from the world. They have jumped into a lifeboat and they are waiting for Jesus to come and get them. Forget about the rest of those wicked people. We don’t want to be anywhere near them.

They conform to the world around them. They are actually enjoying so much of the fun and food on the ship that they forget the ship is sinking. They are living for the American pursuit of entertainment, money, and stuff, more than they are living for the mission that God has sent them on.

We are supposed to be ambassadors showing the world a different kingdom in the midst of their own.

Matthew 5:13-16

Freed to Follow

We’ve been talking about this idea that we have been freed from sin to follow Jesus.

We are no longer slaves to sin. We don’t have to give ourselves over to temptation. We have the power in us to overcome it.

But more than that, we have been from from sin for a purpose — to follow Jesus.

That purpose is twofold - Surrender to God and Serve Others. You do those two things and you will be advancing the influence of God’s Kingdom in your life and in the lives of others.

Last week we talking about Surrender to God. Ultimately, we surrender to God by seeking Him first in everything. He is the filter whom we run every thing in our life through.

This week we look at serving others.

Matthew 5:13–16 “13 “You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet. 14 “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”

We serve others so they will see Jesus.

Jesus gives two word pictures in the text. Salt and light.

These two things are highly noticeable when they are present. And highly noticeable when they are not.

You know this if you’ve ever had something bland or too salty. Or if you’ve ever been in a bright room or a dark room. I was changing out a light fixture this week and I told Jacqueline to turn the light on so I could make sure it was working. My genius self decided to be looking at the light when she turned it on.

Light is noticeable.

Salt had a specific purpose in Jesus’ day. It was used to keep meat from spoiling and rotting. It was a preservative.

Our world is full of so much rotting. In fact we literally have a thing today called brain rot with all the weird words and phrases that people keep coming up with. Worst than that we are being fed so much garbage on tv, internet, social media, etc…

The sin is not silent, it is always speaking and seeking to rot the world around us.

We serve others by speaking truth.

Paul says in Ephesians 4:15 that we are to speak the truth in love. Meaning we are to care enough about others to say something and that we are to show care when we say it.

We speak out against sin, not just political issues. We speak up about all sin, not just the ones that are easier to mention.

Salt doesn’t exist for itself. It exists to influence other things. Salt in the shaker is worthless if it is never poured out, just like Christians who keep their Christianity in their church or in their home.

Salt losing its saltiness is hard for us to imagine, but in Jesus’ day salt was not as pure as ours. Salt had all kinds of impurities in it and when it expired it was worthless. Sometimes it would be mixed with gypsum and water to make a paste for patching holes in the roofs. So it was either on the ground outside the home or on the roof of the home where people walked.

If you don’t speak truth you are literally being walked on by everything and everyone around you. You are not serving in your purpose in the kingdom.

We don’t just speak out against sin. We tell others about Jesus, Who He is and what He has done!

This transforms how we study the Bible too. It actually makes you a better student of God’s Word.

We store more of God’s Word, when we study it to share it.

Read for yourself to become salty. But be salt by sharing that Word with others.

We serve others by showing them Jesus through our good works.

Light in this passage isn’t just about exposing things like sin. It’s compared to a city on a hill. It’s light in the darkness. It’s hope in hopelessness.

It’s something good in a world full of evil.

We are literally meant to be a representation of what the world will be like one day when Jesus is King and everyone is surrendered to Him.

Jesus tells us to shine this light in such a way that everyone will see and want to follow. And that light is good works.

It’s us doing good for others. It’s feeding the hungry, clothing and sheltering those in need. It’s just doing random acts of kindness for complete strangers because that’s what Jesus would have done. It’s Operation Christmas Child. It’s foster care and adoption. It’s making sure the widows and seniors are cared for.

The early church did such a good job of this that they offended the government. You had Roman Caesars frustrated that the church was better at serving the needs of others than they were.

Side note: This isn’t just loving those outside the church, but those inside too. Sometimes churches will get outside right but inside wrong.

How do we start doing this? What motivates us to do this?

See the Savior Who Served You to Save you.

Matthew 20:28 “28 even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.””

Philippians 2:5–8 “5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”

If Jesus came and died on the cross for you, then there is nothing beneath you. You can’t say, I will not do that for Christ. The depth of humility in Christ far exceeds anything you will ever have to do.

If God leads you to go and help clean up a senior or disabled persons home and maybe that toilet is rough looking, you may have to do a stinky job for God’s glory.

See the Savior Who is serving with you.

Jesus in the great commission told us we would never be alone, but that He would always be with us.

You’re never serving others alone. God is always with you.

Serve until they see Jesus.

We’re serving others so they will see Jesus. So we need to make the decision to serve until they see Him.

Do you see how Jesus serve to save you?

Do you see Jesus serving with you?

Are you willing to speak the truth and show others Jesus?

Show and Tell

Kids would bring the craziest things but they thought they were the coolest things.

Tell me what is better than Jesus?