Serve - Divine Direction #5

We were challenge to Start - Stop - Stay - Go

INTRO

What your best decision looks like?

Good decisions are often relatively easy to make. But your best decision are usually much more difficult. They may cause you to struggle between what feels safe and comfortable and what seems risky and uncertain.

They may challenge you because you face several good options but struggle to know which one is best. Or they may carry a steeper price than other, easier options. your best decisions may defy logic or occasionally go against the recommendations of those around you.

However, theres no need to panic. If you’re walking closely with God, he will guard your steps and guide you.

Even if you stumble into a ditch, take a detour, or get stuck he can redeem your bad decisions with positive outcomes.

Our God is that good!

You might be thinking! If God can work through all my choices, then how do I know when to start, stop, stay, or go? And does it really matter which one I do?

Of course it matters. Our decisions have consequences that shape our lives and the lives of those around us. God is consistent. He’s for you.

Obviously, your best decisions won’t go against God’s Word or violate his standards.

Your faith-filled, God-honoring decision have 3 other things in common.

When you’re starting a new pursuit, stopping a bad habit, staying in the midst of a storm, or taking a step of faith, you will discover that God is also asking you to:

serve others

connect with community

trust him with the outcome.

God calls us to serve people just as jesus did on earth. God also created us to be relational and to belong to a family of other believers. And no matter what decision we’re facing, we will always be required to trust God.

Serve

Serving others does not come naturally to us. We can be a self-centered person. “I like it my way.”

I’m not the only one. All of us can be a bit self-centered. By nature, we are selfish people. Just think about it: you don’t have to teach a child to be selfish.

Kids can be selfish - you don’t see a mon teaching their kids to be selfish.

According to Jesus, life is not all about us, and yet everything in our culture tries to tell us to have it our way.

McDonald’s had a song “two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun” The song told you what you were getting. So if you didn’t like lettuce or pickles too bad for you.

Until the competition changed the rules.... 1974

Burger King - song Have it your way!

One of the quickest ways to forget about God is to be consumed with “self.” Jesus had pretty direct words for those who wanted to follow Him. He said, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.”

Matthew 16:24 NIV

Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.

We are called not to celebrate, promote, or advance ourselves but to deny ourselves. To pick up our cross, to suffer through not having everything ur way, to die to our selfish tendencies.

God wants us to have it His way.

God wants us to have it His way.

Speaking of food, Jesus made a statement that should make us pause before we order our next burger. “My food … is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.”

John 4:34 NET

Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of the one who sent me and to complete his work.

NIV

Imagine being able to say, “My food is to serve God. My food is to please Him. My food is to complete the assignment God sent me to do. My food is to do the will of my Father and to finish His work.” That’s a different kind of nourishment. That’s living with divine direction.

When all of culture says, “Fill yourself,” God tells us to fill others.

When the people around us say, “Get all you can! It’s all about you,” God wants us to contribute rather than to consume.

When all of culture says, “Fill yourself,” God tells us to fill others. God didn’t create us to be takers. He created us to be givers.

Rather than focusing on our desires, we are called to focus on the needs of others.

He created us to be givers. Rather than focusing on our desires, we are called to focus on the needs of others.

Instead of cutting to the front of the line, we are called to wait at the end. God created us to serve.

When we give our lives, that’s when we find them. When we serve others, we’re serving God.

Matthew 25:35–40 NIV

35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ 37 “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’ 40 “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’

1 John 3:16 NIV

This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.

(ESV)

When we stop obsessing over what we want, only then can we find what we need.

When we stop obsessing over what we want, only then can we find what we need.

16 By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. When we stop obsessing over what we want, only then can we find what we need.

This kind of living will change your story.

Think about it. The stories you love reminiscing about are the ones when you helped your neighbor, got involved at church, or gave something away.

That’s because we were made to serve just as Jesus did on earth.

The decision to serve may not feel natural for you. It wasn’t always for me.

But I’ve realized serving isn’t something we do. A servant is who we’re called to be.

Because when we serve, we become like Christ.

Pray: God, how are You calling me to serve? Who are You calling me to serve? Where are You calling me to serve?

(ESV)

Matthew 20:28 NIV

just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

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.”