Called to Serve

Before we dive into our text, we need to set things up a bit.

All who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour, belong to him and are members of this body, the church. By Christ’s life, death, resurrection and ascension, we who believe are members of Christ. Our membership is created in us by the Holy Spirit. We are adopted by God into his family. We belong to Christ.

So, those who believe belong to Christ. Through the Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ lives in and through us. Jesus is in our hearts. Jesus works in us, he works in others around us, to move us to be more and more like him!

But what does that look like? Turn with me, I mean literally, Kari, if you can add this to the screen, awesome, turn with me to . Read the passage.

In the first 5 verses of this passage, the Apostle Paul calls the church to unity in mind, love, spirit, and purpose. This unity of mind, love, spirit and purpose comes from Christ. We are to reflect the oneness of the Trinity, in this body of believers. We are to reflect the love of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, toward each other. We are to have the same spirit in us, the Holy Spirit, we are to be united in purpose: loving God, loving others, making disciples. In everything, we are to consider others better than ourselves, that is, being humble toward one another, not vying to put oneself over and above another, looking to the interests of others, not our own.

Then, we get to the great hymn: the description of Christ’s humble attitude. He was humble, not only in relation to the Father and the Holy Spirit, but also humble toward us, his creation! Because Jesus humbled himself in such a way, God glorified him.

Just an aside here. If you are to glorify yourself in this life, then that’s all you’ll get. Your trust in heaven, will get you there by the skin of your teeth. But if you would be truly great in Christ’s kingdom, you must humble yourself before others, and serve. In other words, you must have Jesus’ attitude, mind, love, spirit and purpose.

In this vein then, Jesus calls us to serve each other. Jesus calls us to serve the body of Christ in particular ways. Not only does Jesus call us to do so, he equips us to do so by the Spirit. He does this because he is the head. I know, I’m going a bit out of order here, but I want us to think about Jesus Christ as our head.

The head is the most important part of the body. You can live without limbs, you can live without a kidney, you can live with only half a lung, you can have a large part of your liver removed and live. But you can’t live without your head. The head commands all the functioning of the rest of the body. The head tells the hands to move. The head interprets the senses that come in, and how to respond.

Jesus is the head of the church. Jesus is the Good Shepherd. Jesus is the head, and he tells the body, the church what to do. He commands us members, us people how to function, and he gives us everything we need to do his work.

He has given you everything you need to do your work in the church. And yes, the parts of the body have work to do. All the parts work together, serving each other, like we saw last week.

But here’s the thing, “from Jesus, the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.

Love is the key. If you would serve Jesus, you must love him first. You are able to love him, because he loved you first. But you have to love Jesus.

How are you doing in your loving Jesus? I can still remember something my dad said to me when I was a teenager. He said, “You know, Paul, the guys I work with, most of them go to the bar after work. I don’t.” I think I asked at that point, “Why not, Dad?” And he replied, something like this, “I love your mom. She’s the reason why I go to work every day, and she’s the person I look forward to seeing when I get home. I love her. I’d much rather spend time, as much time with her than with guys from work, or strangers at a bar.”

Who do you spend your time with? I hope it is with family and friends. But I hope more than that, it is with Jesus. Are you spending time with Jesus? Are you spending time in his word, getting to know him better. Are you spending time in prayer, talking to God, asking questions? Are you sharing Jesus with people around you, because he’s the most important person in your life? If not, what can you do to change that? Spend 5 minutes a day reading your Bible. Put it in your calendar. Commit to it. Stay with it, pray.

So love. Love for Jesus. Which, in turn, produces love for others.

I stand before you and confess that it is possible to do this job without really loving others. It is possible to be a member of the church and do all kinds of things for the church, for the church members, and not love the people you are serving. It is possible to do things out of duty, out of obligation, out of a sense of fear. What will God think? What will people think? I can’t say “no” even if I really want to.

So, to serve, to obey Jesus’ call to serve, in whatever capacity in this body, in this church, you must love. If you don’t think you love people as you ought, that’s no problem. Simply ask God. He’s already put his love into you, he’s already given you the love you need to have for others. But we have to ask him to help us love others as he loves us: for we have a natural sinful tendency to do the opposite, to hate God and neighbour.

But because we belong to Christ, we are able to love truly love. And as the head, Jesus enables us to love others by serving them. He gives some to be apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers. I love how that’s worded. He gave. We belong to Christ, and he gives us to the other parts of the body. He gave hands to serve the feet, and so on.

Now, this list isn’t exhaustive here, there are more ways to serve in Christ’s body, , for example. The purpose of these who are given by Christ is to equip the saints, that’s us, for the work of ministry, that’s whom we’ve commissioned to serve today, with the view of building up the body of Christ. That’s everyone.

Specifically, we are built up in unity of the faith, in the knowledge of the Son of God, becoming mature, attaining the whole measure of Christ. Have you attained that? Then make yourself available of the things that this church offers: worship, Bible Study, personal devotional books, small groups, Christian fellowship,Sunday school, GEMS, Adventure Club, College and Career, the library. Take advantage of the resources offered to you, and grow! Don’t be a passive participant; be an active participant!

Speak the truth in love. Be honest with one another. Sometimes such honesty hurts. It isn’t nice being corrected. Receive it, grow from it, and keep up the relationships. Grow up into the Head, who is Christ. From him, the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.

We have commissioned several to lead. We have many whose duty is to follow. We work together in Christ, in mind, love, spirit and purpose. Love each other. Love the ones you lead. Love the ones who lead.

Let us pray:

Lord Jesus, build your kingdom, here. Set your church on fire. Rule in our hearts. Show us the gifts you’ve given to us, the gifts of each other. Lead through us, help us love you and others. Set our hearts ablaze with hope. We are your church, we need your power in us. Through us, bring hope to this land. Bring truth and light! May we serve You and each other, receiving you and each other, Amen!