We are a Community - Part 3 Serving- The Great Adventure

Ephesians 2:10 NIV

For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Serving- The Great Adventure

Intro Illustration-- John Sargent Cram-in the book Zanies, The world’s greatest eccentrics, we read of Cram who was arrested during drug raid at a closed-down dance hall in New York City in 1962. Cram was tried for harboring drug addicts, he allowed them to stay and fed them, but never gave them money. What was not known at the time of his arrest was that Cram was a multi-millionaire who graduated from Princeton and Oxford. Upon his acquittal Cram, a weak-looking soft spoken individual said,

“I don’t know if my work does any good, but I don’t think it does any harm.… I’m quite happy, you know. I am anything but a despondent person. Call me eccentric. Call it my reason for being. I have no other!” -John Sargent Cram

People who live like Christ in today’s world are labeled “eccentric.”

Jones, G. C. (1986). 1000 illustrations for preaching and teaching (p. 45). Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers.

But to Cram, it was his reason for living.

Why should I?

What the world teaches is not what Jesus asks us to do.

Jesus washed the disciples' feet.

Picture

Picture

As you can see, this side depict the scene. But what has this to do with community?

Well, see what Jesus says here:

John 13:12–17 NIV

When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. “Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them. “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.

We were not created to chase the wind. We were created to join God on a mission. - Bill Hybels

Solomon pursued everything life had to offer: Money, women, power, fame and finally he said “All is vanity” or as one version says “All of this is like chasing the wind.”

Living life as the world dictates, never leads to any lasting satisfaction. We chase the wind, but we never finally capture it.

We were not created to chase the wind. We were created to join God on a mission. - Bill Hybels

Paul later added this

Philippians 2:5–7 NIV

In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.

Would you say at the end a regular workday, “Wow! This is what life is all about!”?

Or would you rather lay your head on your pillow at night as say, “I teamed up with God to change the world today!”?

Serving is the great adventure God designed you for. We can choose to be a spectator or a participant.

How much will it cost?

It will cost the price of doing what we want.

How much will it cost?

Mark 8:34–35 NIV

Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it.

It will cost us prestige.

We will be estimated as less valuable in the eyes of the world.

Mark 10:42–45 NIV

Jesus called them together and said, “You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of 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.”

42-45

When we are “overlooked” we are being treated just as our Savior was. We are in good company!

What are the rewards?

Mark 10:29–30 NIV

“Truly I tell you,” Jesus replied, “no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age: homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields—along with persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life.

Whoever loses will gain. This is a guarantee from God.

whoever loses will gain

whoever loses will gain

Acts 20:35 NIV

In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ ”

It really is more blessed to give that receive.

On top of the rewards Jesus promised for those who serve out of love, there are other benefits as well.

One study done in the Chicago area showed that retired men who volunteer one day a week live two and a half years longer on average than men who do not volunteer at all.

Other studies have found long-term health benefits for those whose lifestyle involve regular service to others outside of work such as, relief from back pain, lowered blood pressure, lower cholesterol, and curbed alcohol and drug abuse. Alan Luks in Spirituality and Health (May-June 2003) pg. 34

more blessed to give that recieve

Ephesians 2:10 NIV

For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

We were made for this.

Serving as God directs us, gives our lives the fulfillment we long for.

Fullfilment.

Take this with you...

Gods handiwork good works- Made for this. Fullfilment.

God doesn't need you or your work as a volunteer.

God doesn't need you or your work as a volunteer.

Instead, he wants to give you something. It's a secret, and here it is, giving away something is more rewarding than receiving something.

Serving fulfills the plan God has for you

In a community where the people understand this principle, amazing things happen.