Spiritual Disciplines-Serving Part 1

My earliest memories of service to God go back to the early 60’s. To be honest, I don’t know for sure if they are real memories or just there in my mind as a result of many family discussions over the years, but service for our family was always patterned and always expected. It was who we were, it was a very important part of our identity. At the time we lived in Uravan, Colorado and my Dad was the Pastor both there as well as at Gateway, CO. Gateway was a ranching community about 52 miles north of Uravan. Uravan was a small mining community owned by the Vanadium Corporation, the main ore mined there when we moved to Uravan was Uranium.

Uravan didn’t have a church building, so we used the Town Hall for church on Sunday mornings. Did I mention that it was frequently used by the town as a bar the night before? So early Sunday mornings we as a family would arrive at the Town Hall to clean things up. I was 4 or 5 at the time, so I am not sure how much help I provided, but it was a family affair. We picked up and disposed of the beer bottles from the night before, with strict instructions to not taste anything that might be left inside the bottles! Then we would sweep, mop, and set up chairs for church. My guess is that several of the people that came to church on Sunday mornings may have been at the Town Hall Saturday night as well!

Everywhere my Dad pastored, we as a family served, it was patterned for us and expected by us and it was rarely something we did begrudgingly. It was done as an act of love and as a result of what we were privileged to do, we quite literally got a front row seat to the move of God in the lives of people.

You know statistics have revealed that one of the biggest sticking factors for kids to continue to be a part of the church when they go from middle school, high school and into college is when they are serving. Particularly when joyful service has been expected of them and patterned for them, and when I talk about service, I am not talking about annual projects or mission trips. I am talking about service that is patterned on a week to week day to day basis for your kids. Need proof that this works?

To be honest, you’d be hard pressed to find a better example that the one my parents provided for me growing up. Now let me fast forward to the present. As many of you know, both of my parents, now in their mid 80’s are still actively and joyfully serving, I don’t expect this to stop anytime soon. As for their children, my oldest brother Paul has been in the full time ministry since 1978, my brother Mark since 1980, my sister Joy’s husband, Steve is on staff at the local church they are a part of in Overland Park, KS, like Pam and me, they have not always been serving in a full time capacity, but they have always faithfully served. My parents have 12 grandkids from their 4 kids, of their 12 grandkids, 9 are involved in some capacity in the service of their local church. Many of their great grandkids appear to be following the lead of their parents, grandparents and great grand parents in serving in their local church.

Parents, you want your kids to be committed to their faith beyond their years in middle and high school? Pattern for them and expect of them joyful service.

With that as the foundation, let’s look at the Next Slide Spiritual Discipline For the Purpose of Godliness.

Next Slides

Spiritual Disciplines-Serving For The Purpose of Godliness

(Please note, most of the outline is adapted from Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life by Donald Whitney)

On Monday, January 21st, we celebrated Martin Luther King Jr. Day. He is known for many very profound statements, but I would like to share with you this morning, one of his lesser known statements. While it may not be know by the masses like some of his other statements, it is, perhaps, one of the most powerful. He said; “Everybody can’t be famous, but everybody can be great. Because being great is all about service.”

I don’t know about you this morning, but I want to do great things for God! Really, this has been my dream for much of my life.

Can I make a confession to you this morning? Far too much of the time I have been sidetracked from what greatness really is, by inaccurate visions in my head of what it meant to be great.

I love this quote by Martin Luther King, Jr., because it accurately portrays greatness for what it really is, laying my life down in service to the Sovereign God of the universe, and serving Him in any area He calls me to serve.

If you have as your desire to do great things for God, then you picked the right time to come to church, because this morning we are going to unpack the only recipe there is for accomplishing great things for God!

In the eyes of the God of the Universe, greatness is achieved through the life of a humble servant.

Let’s unpack that recipe for greatness together this morning.

To begin with, we need to understand something very important: Next Slides

Every Christian is Expected to Serve.

The life of the one who has trusted Christ as their Lord and Savior is not a spectator sport, God calls no Christian to idleness. In Hebrews 9:14 we read: Next Slide

Hebrews 9:14

Hebrews 9:14 ESV

14 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.

And in Psalm 100:2 we read: Next Slide

Psalm 100:2

Psalm 100:2 ESV

2 Serve the Lord with gladness! Come into his presence with singing!

Joyful service is expected from us and, in many ways, any service we do that does not end in joyful service, could qualify as the “dead works” mentioned in Hebrews 9:14. I purposely included the phrase “end in joyful service”. The fact of the matter is, there may be times that you head to do the work of the Lord, you head to faithfully serve the Lord, when your heart is less than joyful.

The truth is, you’d rather sleep in on that particular Sunday morning, or stay home and watch the game. Can I drop a bomb shell on you this morning? There are times Pastors feel the same way! That’s why Service is a Spiritual Discipline! Because there are times that you have to be disciplined, to serve God even when your heart may not be right!

But something inevitably happens when you serve the Lord faithfully, even when you didn’t have the best of attitudes heading to serve, The joy of the Lord moves in and overtakes your heart. I cannot tell you how many times my heart has been transformed as I have served.

You know, Next Slides

The Bible mentions at least 6 Motives for Serving.

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1. Motivated by Obedience. Deuteronomy 13:4

Deuteronomy 13:4 ESV

4 You shall walk after the Lord your God and fear him and keep his commandments and obey his voice, and you shall serve him and hold fast to him.

How can any professing Christian think it acceptable to sit on the spiritual sidelines and watch others do the work of the kingdom? We need to understand that we disobey God when we do not actively serve Him.”

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2. Motivated by Gratitude. 1 Samuel 12:24

1 Samuel 12:24 ESV

24 Only fear the Lord and serve him faithfully with all your heart. For consider what great things he has done for you.

As I mentioned earlier, there may be times that we will approach serving God with a less than stellar attitude. When it seems like a burden to serve God. For those times when serving God seems like a burden, remembering the “great things he has done for you” vaporizes the burden…. If we cannot be grateful servants of Him Who is everything and in whom we have everything, what will make us grateful?

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3. Motivated by Gladness. Psalm 100:2

Psalm 100:2 ESV

2 Serve the Lord with gladness! Come into his presence with singing!

We looked at this verse briefly earlier, let’s look at it again. God expects His servants to serve—not grudgingly, grimly, or glumly—but gladly… The person who can’t serve the Lord with gladness contradicts with his heart what he professes with his lips.”

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4. Motivated by Forgiveness not guilt. Isaiah 6:6-8

Isaiah 6:6–8 ESV

6 Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. 7 And he touched my mouth and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.” 8 And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here I am! Send me.”

I am hoping you don’t get too tired looking at this passage as we have looked at it from different angles several times since we have been here. But I want you to notice something here, something I have completely missed over the years. Isaiah did not seek to say yes to serving God because he felt guilty for his unclean lips or the fact that he lived among a people of unclean lips. He said “Yes” to serving God because God had removed his guilt. Please don’t miss this church family, 

We do not serve God in order to be forgiven but because we are forgiven.

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5. Motivated by Humility. John 13:3-16

I want you to picture something with me in your minds, picture a great ministry leader in the last days at a ministry, not only founded by him, but one that he has led unswervingly and faithfully. In this scenario he is at his very last meeting with those who have served alongside of him, and those same individuals are getting ready to take the lead of the ministry going forward. This meeting takes place after one last week of ministry, much of it out in the hot sun, and to be honest with you, on this particular day, none of them smells all that great, actually, to carry that honesty one step farther, they flat out stink, they are filthy from head to toe! On top of that, much of the ministry week was filled with arguments and disputes among them, sometimes that happens to the best of us when we have worked hard, even in ministry.

Let me add one more item to this scenario, this leader is the only one who knows for certain that this is His last meeting with them. Inside of 2 days he will be gone. Now if this were the vast majority of us, myself included, we might set a white board up, pull out our dry erase marker, and begin to reminisce the successes of the ministry. You know, leave on a high note. Their successes have been nothing short of remarkable!

I have given you a scenario to picture in your minds, but the scenario I have given you is not one I have just made up in my head. It actually happened.

Let’s look at it together. Turn with me in your Bibles to John 13:3-16.

John 13:3-16, Page 1145 in the Pew Bibles

Read John 13:3-16 aloud.

Did you pick up the incredible humility displayed by Jesus! With astonishing humility, Jesus, their Lord and Teacher, washed His disciples’ feet as an example of how all His followers should serve with humility…

He was giving the ones who were about to take over the leadership of the ministry He had established an example to follow, an example of servant leadership, an example of humility. You see Jesus realized a very important truth that was of paramount importance to these men. The only chance they had of accomplishing great things for the kingdom of God, was if they completely emptied themselves of.........well of self, they had to kick pride out the door or they would be operating under their own power. And the job that was ahead of them was one that was absolutely impossible under their own power.

The sad thing is, they still didn’t get it, not yet at least. In Luke:24, a verse that takes place probably less than 1-2 hours from when He washed their feet, we read this:

“24 A dispute also arose among them, as to which of them was to be regarded as the greatest.”

They probably weren’t going to fully grasp it for another 54 days or so. Tomorrow for them was the Crucifixion, followed by 3 days living in fear for their lives, followed by 50 more days with Jesus before His ascension into heaven. During that time they learned that true and Godly leaders humbly serve.

In the Spiritual Discipline of Service, God is only satisfied with service marked with a humble spirit. He also calls us to serve with humility, because that leads to Christlikeness and that leads to Christ working through us.

If you get nothing else from this Motivation of Service, get this one thing; Next Slide

We descend to greatness.

That brings us to the next Motivation;

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6. Motivated by Love. Galatians 5:13

Galatians 5:13 ESV

13 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.

No fuel for service burns longer and provides more energy than love. When you serve others, it should be marked by love. A love for God, as you are being obedient to him. As well as a love for other people, the ones that you are serving.

We looked at the fact that Every Christian is Expected to Serve. Accepting that as a fact, I’d like to tell you something else that is very important:

Every Christian Is Gifted To Serve.

I wonder if there aren’t times we don’t serve because we don’t fill properly qualified? Our tendency is to think that service to the church is limited to teaching, preaching, being an Elder or Trustee, maybe overseeing a ministry.

You know some of the people, who I respect the most here at Liberty Chapel, don’t do those things, you know, the things we generally reserve for our highest praise.

About a month from now, Ted Kinney will load his lawn tractor up on a trailer and do what he has done for several years, spend the better part of a day, every week during the mowing season and mow the lawn around the church. The only reason he didn’t do it last year was because he had just had surgery.

If you are ever at church on a Friday afternoon, you may run in to Sam and Betty Moffitt. They are usually here on their way back from Sam’s Club, having just picked up supplies for the kitchen. Oh, and while they are here, they empty the ice from the ice trays into the bins in the freezer and refill the ice trays with water.

When we get a substantial snow around days we have church activities, you can drive by the church and see Brian Brown plowing the parking lot, and early Sunday morning he, Gary and Judy Hamand & John Horn will be here early making sure the sidewalks are cleared and ice melt is down.

And these are just a few of the silent servants who’s service for the kingdom of God often times goes unnoticed by the congregation, but while the majority of us may not see their unselfish service, the eyes of the God of the Universe misses nothing.

The truth is, there are countless ways to serve the Lord in the church. Each one highly regarded by the God Who holds the universe in the span of His hands.

As far as everyone being gifted to serve. The Apostle Paul addresses Spiritual gifts in 1 Corinthians 12, Romans 12 & Ephesians 4. Peter addresses them in 1 Peter 4. These gifts go way beyond preaching and teaching, but one thing that every Spiritual Gift has in common, is what Peter writes in 1 Peter 4:10 & 11

1 Peter 4:10–11 ESV

10 As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace: 11 whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

Our gifts are to be used for the purpose of serving one another and with the goal “that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To Him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.”

I also wonder if there aren’t times that we don’t serve because we feel over qualified, or because the ministries that get noticed are already taken.

“Wait, you want me to clean the bathroom? I’m holding out for ____________. I’ll let you fill in the blank.

It’s like we are holding out on serving until something opens up where we can get found in the act of service and get the pats on the back we so desperately desire.

We are so busy trying to be found, when God says; “Just be busy trying to be great by serving me in the little things, and I’ll do the finding. Because when I find you, you want to be ready!”

He found Noah when He needed a boat builder. You know what He said of Noah? He said “Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.” Who knew that Noah was even in the eyes of the Lord.

He found Abraham in the Ur of the Chaldeans, and He called him to a land that “I’ll show you later.”

He found Joseph even though he’d been forsaken in a prison cell in Egypt.

He found Moses when he was 80 years old on the backside of the desert tending his father-in-laws flock.

He found Ruth, who was a Moabite woman, picking leftover grain in the fields of Bethlehem.

He found Samuel when he was sleeping in the night of the house of the Lord in Shiloh, where his mom had left him as a little boy.

He found David out tending the sheep even after he wasn’t called in for the line-up of the sons.

He found Jeremiah in his mothers womb.

He found Daniel praying in his window as was his custom.

He found Peter and Andrew when they were just tending their nets by the sea of Galilee.

He found Zacchaeus in a tree.

He found 5 time divorcee at Jacobs well.

And He found Paul as he was on his way to tear apart the church in Damascus.

And He can find you where-ever you are. When God needs you, He will find you, and when He finds you, all He is asking you to do is follow Him. (Taken from a message by Louie Giglio titled “Take The Stairs”-Jan. 20, 2019.