Being a Spectacular Servant

When you serve others, you are actually serving God.

A bit about me:

Opening game: Would you Rather

Eat chocolate cake or eat cheesecake?

sleep on a bed of actual marshmallows, or jump in a huge bouncy castle made of Jell-o?

Be too hot or too cold?

Swim with a shark or walk naked inside a person-sized beehive that’s full of bees?

Ask someone out on a date, or kiss your grandmother on the lips a little longer than comfortable?

If there were only two videos left of youtube, would you rather watch me, or watch Pam?

Rather be a sheep or goat?

Series Overview: YouBeforeMe

I think this is fantastic because almost everyone I know actually lives the complete opposite - they live Me before You. Like, when people fart in an elevator, or they jump off the teeter totter when you are at the top? You remember that, you come dropping to the earth so fast your yell is still way up above you while you hit the ground, bouncing on your butt.

And lately, I see it all the time. I see it when people don’t wear their masks properly or don’t do the social distance thing. Which makes me say thank you to you because I know you all are doing your absolute best to always wear your mask and stay socially distant from each other. Just this week, I was in line at Subway, trying to do my part and stay 6 feet from the person in line in front of me and the guy behind gets so close to me that I can smell him as he tries to pick his veggies for his sub and in my mind, I’m like, dude, pandemic! Remember? We live in a mebeforeyou culture, don’t we?

Youbeforeme though is super counter-cultural - do you know what that means? It means that it goes against the way our culture is. And the person who was perhaps the most countercultural of his time was Jesus. His whole life was about others in a culture that, like ours, was also very me-focussed.

In fact, at one point, his disciples were arguing about which one was the best - which one was, as we used to say when I was a teen - all that and a bag of chips (is that a phrase you use? No? what would you say if you wanted to say you were the greatest?) . Jesus tells them, in essence, to chill. Then he says, “the son of man (which was a title for him), did not come to be served, to but serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.

Jesus was saying that, even though he was God, he didn’t come to earth to be served by others, like a human king was served, but that he came to serve others. And that’s an amazing thought!!

Jesus Christ, the one the Bible calls the KIng of Kings and the Lord of Lords, the creator of all things, came to serve. And how did he serve? So many ways:

He served lepers by touching them and healing them

He served hungry people when he did the miracle of feeding over 5000 people. And then he did it again with another 4000.

He served at a wedding to keep the host from embarrassment by turning a bunch of water into wine

He served his disciples when he washed their feet.

He served his mom when he was hanging on the cross by making sure she was cared for by his friend John

And so many more...

But the way that he served us the most, was by dying on the cross and taking all the sin of the world - all the stuff we have done and thought that goes against God’s will - onto himself. Even though he never sinned, he took all our sin upon himself to pay for it so that you and I could have a relationship with God that is built on faith and love, instead of fear and shame. And if you want to, even today, choose to have a relationship with God that is built on faith and love, then I want you to be brave - to be courageous - and tell your small group leader tonight that you want to follow Jesus.

Okay, now tonight, in the vein of YouBeforeMe, I want to talk to you about serving others and so, because I believe the Bible is God’s word to us, that God himself speaks to our hearts through it, I want to read a passage from the Bible. The whole passage that we are going to read is a quote from Jesus himself.

So let’s read it up on the screen:

Matthew 25:31–46 NLT

“But when the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit upon his glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered in his presence, and he will separate the people as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will place the sheep at his right hand and the goats at his left. “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the creation of the world. For I was hungry, and you fed me. I was thirsty, and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger, and you invited me into your home. I was naked, and you gave me clothing. I was sick, and you cared for me. I was in prison, and you visited me.’ “Then these righteous ones will reply, ‘Lord, when did we ever see you hungry and feed you? Or thirsty and give you something to drink? Or a stranger and show you hospitality? Or naked and give you clothing? When did we ever see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ “And the King will say, ‘I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!’ “Then the King will turn to those on the left and say, ‘Away with you, you cursed ones, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his demons. For I was hungry, and you didn’t feed me. I was thirsty, and you didn’t give me a drink. I was a stranger, and you didn’t invite me into your home. I was naked, and you didn’t give me clothing. I was sick and in prison, and you didn’t visit me.’ “Then they will reply, ‘Lord, when did we ever see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and not help you?’ “And he will answer, ‘I tell you the truth, when you refused to help the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were refusing to help me.’ “And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous will go into eternal life.”

Okay, so this passage is both awesome and super scary. Let’s break it down a little:

The king in this story is:___________? That’s right, Jesus. This is a story about when Jesus comes back. Jesus tells us that when he comes back, everybody - you, me, everyone, is going to get judged by him.

And what are we going to get judged on? How well we served others! How well, we were like Jesus who lived a life that was all about YouBeforeMe.

A lot of people think that God will love them and accept them just as they are. And they are right, he does. In the Bible, it says that God forgives us not because of the good things we do, but because of our faith. We are saved by our faith, not our good deeds.

But our faith isn’t just a head knowledge, like math. It’s a way to live. Jesus doesn’t just invite us to believe, he invites us to follow him, which means to become like him because your best life is found when you love people and love God like Jesus loved people and loved God.

So in the story Jesus tells here, he tells the sheep - the people on his right - that they get this amazing inheritance because they served others and get this - this is the main thing I want you to grab hold of tonight - when you serve others, you actually serve God.

What does it look like to serve people? It’s doing whatever it takes to help people. It might be a youth group event of raking leaves for our neighbors or making lasgagna for homeless youth. It might be gathering food for the food bank with your family. It might be calling your grandparents just to talk to them because they might be lonely. It might be loaning your favorite jacket to your sister instead of screaming “No, it’s mine” or setting the table for supper without being asked to. There are a million little ways to serve others. It might be as simple as finding someone who is lonely and sitting near them and talking to them.

When we serve others, we are actually serving God and God rewards those who serve Him.

But Jesus also often warned people. He wasn’t afraid to say hard things to people. For those on his left, for those who don’t do anything for others but live a me-first life, they miss out on the goodness of eternal life. Their faith is useless and dead.

If we really believe in Jesus, then that will produce something in our lives. Just like a fruit tree will produce yummy, yummy in my tummy fruit, you and I, when we live by faith in Jesus will produce spiritual fruit like a desire to serve God by serving others. That’s what an active, real faith looks like. It’s a faith that serves others.

How many of you like money? I have a $20 bill here. Does anyone want it? Well, I’m going to tell you how you can get it. I want you to keep a serving diary this week. I want you to write down how you have served others this week and then bring it to youth group next week and show it to Pam. The person who has legitimately served others the most often, or the most significantly will win. Pam will be the judge and I’ll ask her to hold on to the prize until next week.

So today, my challenge for you is to to be the sheep of our story: to think through ways that you can serve God by serving others and develop a servant heart.

Let me pray for you and then you are off to small groups.