to whom will you serve?

We all have been called to serve!

We live in a service society today. Serving is everywhere! there are people that serve us food, wait on us at the store, sometimes fill our cars up and wash our windows. and then we have the people on the T.V. and the radio that are actually serving us entertainment or news. think about it. so many serving. they may like doing their jobs but they are primarily serving us to make money for themselves. they are serving us for themselves..... it is business, and big business at that. do you serve anyone? who do you serve?

When we think about serving in light of the church, we see it is not simply about an earthly pay off, but for some very different reasons as well. scripture is clear on our purpose for serving and today we will get into it.

First though, I would like to look back a few weeks and recall what we have heard from God’s word.

two weeks ago, we discussed God’s love.

last week we discussed gifts that God gives.

this week we are talking about service.

there was a purpose behind my sermons, and this week I will clarify what that purpose is. If you like puzzles, then maybe you were putting it together, but I didn’t share with you yet as to why I am preaching what I am preaching so if it didn’t even connect at all, I understand, but I do have a motive to my madness.

God has been working in some people here at CBC to work towards developing a vision statement that would put words to our ministry process. We have had some really productive meetings and we are getting closer to putting on paper what God is showing us. Ultimately, we are looking from a 30,000 foot level at the church and envisioning how we do church, in light of scripture. Just how does someone come to the Lord, grow in Christ and mature to the place of serving the Lord? good question, isn’t it?

Think about your experience when you first believed and came to Christ. When you knew you were transformed in your heart and you would never be the same, the old you was gone and the new you was born.

were you excited? Did you want to tell someone? did you want to go to church? were you wondering what was next?

How about this, were you out serving the Lord first thing, to go on a missions trip or to preach to a church? did you become a deacon the day after your salvation? of course not, there is a process of growth within ourselves and the church.

I would say, the natural progression of a Christian would be similar to a natural born person. we all start out young. we all start out with needing others to help us eat, to love us like Christ, to show us around. We all need to be raised up by the more mature Christians around us. this is part of the focus as we have been looking at vision. How did it happen for you? How does it happen here? do you know how we do it? our vision will spell it right out clearly.

With young and old Christians, God’s Love is so needed. but especially when a Christian is young in the Lord, at those times, they are extremely vulnerable. they can fall easily, can miss steps and can go in dangerous places without understanding what we are doing. the seed, or word of God can be stolen from them quickly. So we need a lot of help. We need a Paul, or more mature Christian in our life. Did you have a Paul in your life? or were you on your own when you were a young Christian?

Ever seen a toddler, on their own, no parent around, and they just walk out into traffic? it is heartbreaking because we know that they don’t understand what they are doing. Just like the new Christian who doesn’t have someone more mature in their lives, the can get on a track that hurts them or others.

I have seen well intentioned young Christians, bashing people over the head with scripture verses trying their hardest to get the other person to understand. (take a book and try to put it in someones ear) We know that helping someone understand scripture doesn’t work like that but at the maturity level of that young Christian, they don’t know. they are just trying to do their best and they want other people to know God too!

As younger Christians, we can also, with good intentions, do damage to other believers. We might think that we are doing something right by what we are speaking to each other about another but look at what scripture warns....

Scripture warns us.

Galatians 5:15 ESV

But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.

Proverbs 25:23 ESV

The north wind brings forth rain, and a backbiting tongue, angry looks.

the tongue is a powerful weapon. we can backbite, gossip and slander another brother or sister in the Lord that actually affects both the listener and the speaker. And it can bring about a disunity that will destroy the works of God. You and I can do that if we are not careful with our tongue! we must learn to mature with our words before we do damage.

Proverbs 25:2 ESV

It is the glory of God to conceal things, but the glory of kings is to search things out.

hurting others is not serving God but the enemies purposes.

as believers, as Christians this is a warning for us....we need to grow and mature, so we can understand how we affect the rest of the body, so we can understand what God want us to do and what He doesn’t want us to do. it is in a way like the self awareness we grow in and we grow up. when we were babes, we had little self awareness, but as we got older, we discovered our body, our mind, our feelings, our thoughts, and our reality. We were growing up!

we are in a growth process that is raising us up to become more like Christ! This needs to be just as intentional as the process as the physical process, we can starve ourselves physically and we know it, but we can starve ourselves spiritually and not even know it. What do I mean? if we go to church, and that is the only time we hear the word of God, we are starving ourselves. Equate the word of God to food for our soul. if we understood that, everyone would study their word daily, so their soul would have food, so their spirit would not starve but it would grow.

If we don’t know how to feed ourselves, we need another to feed us. so we seek out a teacher or someone to disciple us, to learn from and to feed off until we grow and learn to feed ourselves.

that is the process, like a physical one. we go from being a young Christian, needing another to feed us, to feeding ourselves, to feeding others. make sense? now, put yourself in that process to know how mature you are. are you not feeding anyone but yourself? you are like a teen. are you only being fed by others? you are young in the Lord. Are you feeding yourself and others? You are like a spiritual parent. It’s not about where you are on the maturity level, it is about growing from where you are. what is your next step?

Looking at Jesus, was He mature? lol, of course! the most mature! but did Jesus ask to be served by everyone? or

Was Jesus a servant Master? of course, and this is what He said.

Matthew 23:11 ESV

The greatest among you shall be your servant.

the kingdom of God has been called the upside-down Kingdom because of this verse and others like it. Why would I say that? well....

What’s the way of the world? the way of the world is the greatest one in the world is the one who is served by all others, like a king.

But the Kingdom of God, what Jesus says, the greatest one in the Kingdom is the one who serves the most people!

Serving? I thought we were free? we aren’t servants Kel!

we have freedom alright, freedom to serve! Freedom to be the greatest servant!

listen to this.

Galatians 5:13 ESV

For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.

we have been set free to serve!

some may look at the word freedom and think that is a license to do what ever they want. like their own desires, like sin? a person that thinks like that is called liberal. or thinking they have a license to sin.

if you think about a road, yes, I am a DOT guy, but if you think about a road, to stay on the road, you have to do what? not go in the ditch, right? where is the ditch? on both sides.

well, the Christian walk, we find out what is down in the ditches, there is liberalism, or license to sin in one ditch, and the other is legalism, the thought of I have to live perfect or I am going to hell. and I certainly have to hold everyone else at the same standard!

are either one of these the true Christian walk? not a chance, they are stuck in the ditch, and we see many in the ditch!

as for liberalism, or license to sin,

Paul deals with this concept in as he shares

English Standard Version Chapter 6

6:1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?

Really? Really, someone could have this attitude? the attitude of the more I sin, the more I receive grace, so I am going to sin up a storm so I get lots of grace? is it unheard of? no.

Sin is serving self only. it is not Gods will, and Paul states the answer in verse two that he asks in verse one.

Romans 6:2 ESV

By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?

we will never have a license to sin, ever, period. IF we are to grow in the Spirit than we are to walk in God’s will more and more, that means less and less sin, but does that mean legalism is the way to go? the idea that we are forced by God to obey and if we miss it, if we blow it then all is lost and we go directly to hell without passing go. Paul shares this,

Romans 7:6 ESV

But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code.

We are free! we are free from the law, in such a way that we are not forced to obey, but God forgiving us from the power of sin and death, gives us an overwhelming sense of gratitude where we DESIRE to please Him, we WANT to serve Him

we end up WANTING to obey Him, which means less sin! but it is not being under the legalism of feeling like we have to or we are forced to obey Him or else.

there is a freedom and desire to want to follow! there is a joy in serving!

says it best.

Hebrews 9:14 ESV

how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.

Jesus shed His blood for you and I, He gave up the seat in Heaven for a time for you and I, He experienced spiritual death for you and I......His blood is meaningful to us, it has the ultimate meaning, the ultimate value.

If we value Christ more than any other thing in this world, we have put everything in it’s rightful place. Christ is even more valuable than our own lives. that is the motivation to serve Christ. that will cause us to serve Him despite of anything else. and what can the enemy do to you? the enemy wants to mess with what you value. IF it is Jesus, let the enemy try! He can’t touch Jesus!

Listen to what Jesus says about serving....in John 12:26.

John 12:26 ESV

If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.

to serve Him equals Follow Jesus. follow Him. what did He do in light of serving?

do you remember that night? the night when Jesus, Master, Teacher, at the last supper, put on a towel, and got a bowl, and poured water on the disciples feet. He served His people. He humbled Himself as the servant, not the Master.

we are called to that kind of serving, church. and as we mature in the Lord, as we grow up in Him, we will serve in this way.