Community of Servants

When we talk about 4L Groups we are not talking about them being the only thing we do as a church, but that they are a vehicle for us to have those 4 elements in our lives, in addition to Sunday mornings, church-wide events, personal devotion...

Andy talked about leaning in community last week.

I love Acts 17:11-12 and the example of the Berean Jews. They heard the Word taught and then gathered after to dig into the scriptures to see if what Paul said was true.

That’s a really neat rhythm isn’t it. Digging deeper into the preached Word for discernment and application (if this is true then…).

Today I want to talk about Serving in community.

Here is my thesis: God has created us, saved us, empowered us, and united us together to serve.

Let’s look at 1 Corinthians 12.

Serving in Community

Read 1 Corinthian 12:1-31

We are SPIRITUALLY EMPOWERED for SERVING others.

This is one of several places Paul lists spiritual gifts.

In every case where gifts are mentioned it is always in the context of serving the needs of others. (from within and without the church family).

When you become a Christian by trusting in Him for salvation, you are given the Holy Spirit, God’s presence in you.

The bible points our several ways we see evidence of the Spirit in our lives

Conviction of sin, change in desires, growing desire for the things of God...

There is Paul’s list of the “fruit of the Spirit” in Galatians 5, which are character changes that take place in us both immediately and over time.

And then there are these lists of gifts, all said to be ways the Spirit empowers us to serve.

Each person to becomes a believer in Jesus will be given a unique and powerful way to serve.

1 Corinthians 12:7 ESV

7 To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.

1 Corinthians 12:11 CSB

11 One and the same Spirit is active in all these, distributing to each person as he wills.

Pay close attention to Paul’s words: “To EACH is given” and the Spirit is “distributing to EACH person as he wills.”

God will use our personalities, passions, talents, training, and our strengths to empower/gift us to serve.

We must all be asking the question: How is He calling and shaping me to serve others?

We are GIFTED INDIVIDUALLY for the good of the COMMUNITY.

1 Corinthians 12:7–11 ESV

7 To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. 8 For to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, 10 to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. 11 All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills.

Paul makes the case here that we are all uniquely gifted by the Spirit for the “common good”, or the good of others.

He is talking to people who are confused on spiritual gifts (look back at verse 1).

One aspect they needed to understand is that their giftedness was not for them but for others.

We can also pigeonhole spiritual gifts to be only things we do for the church (teacher SS, preach, finance committee, hospitality ministry, children, music…)

Though there are a variety of ways for us to use our gifts throughout the ministry of our church, I believe God has a much bigger perspective for gifting us.

He doesn’t want just to gift in order to do things at church, He wants to empower us to BE GIFTS to others in all aspects of our lives.

In his book “A Purpose Driven Life” Rick Warren argues “whenever God gives us an assignment, he always equips us with what we need to accomplish it.”

Warren says that we all have a custom combination of capabilities that he calls our SHAPE (it is an acronym):

Spiritual Gifts- the Spirit empowering us with gifts to serve God and others.

Heart- or Passions, which Warren says is “what you love to do and what you care about most.”

Passions are desires or purposes that bring us joy.

There are certain subjects you feel passionate about and others you couldn’t care less about. Some experiences turn you on and capture your attention while others turn you off or bore you to tears.

These reveal the nature of your heart.

Abilities- The natural talent you were born with.

Whether it is talking, building, athletics, art, problem solving, mechanical ability, or something else.

God created us all with differing abilities and He intends to use those abilities in us to serve others.

Personality- Are you introverted or extroverted? Expressive or controlled? Routine oriented or spur of the moment? Competitive or cooperative?

God has given us each unique personalities.

They are not hindrances to serving, but very much increase our effectiveness in serving when we understand how our personality fits in our overall SHAPE.

Experience- They knowledge, skills, connections, and expertise we have gained through the jobs, training, schooling, and other types of experience we have are hugely influential in us understanding how we are to serve God and others.

I was awful at kids ministry until I had kids.

God doesn’t waste our experiences and our connections.

This collection of things isn’t mentioned in this verse explicitly, but who we are as followers of Jesus is the combination of all these things.

When you couple our unique passions, abilities, personalities, and experiences with the empowering of the Spirit of God we are dangerous servants.

And you groups us all together and we have a truly amazing opportunity to transform our world for Jesus.

But our giftedness does one more., very important, thing...

Our UNIQUE GIFTEDNESS unites us together in INTERCONNECTED DEPENDENCE.

1 Corinthians 12:12–13 ESV

12 For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.

We around united together in an interconnected (or complimentary) dependence.

Our unique giftedness connects us together as we become dependent on one another.

Many of you hate that word “dependent”, but it is a biblical word and your heart hates us because of pride.

You don’t want to be dependent because you thank that makes you weak, but in actually makes you human.

Paul uses the analogy of the human body to make his point and it is a really great analogy.

Think about the interconnected dependence of our bodily systems:

“Each of your body systems relies on the others to work well. Your respiratory system relies on your circulatory system to deliver the oxygen it gathers, while the muscles of your heart cannot function without the oxygen they receive from your lungs. The bones of your skull and spine protect your brain and spinal cord, but your brain regulates the position of your bones by controlling your muscles. The circulatory system provides your brain with a constant supply of oxygen-rich blood while your brain regulates your heart rate and blood pressure.”

Paul shares 2 negative scenarios to help us understand this interconnected dependence:

1 Corinthians 12:15–20 ESV

15 If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. 16 And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? 18 But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. 19 If all were a single member, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many parts, yet one body.

He is talking about the necessity of all parts of the body in order for the body to do what it is designed to do.

You are not useless, you are deeply integral to the body of Christ, specifically here at EHBC.

Your SHAPE is valuable to this body and to the pieces of this body that make up what we do as a church gathered, your 4L Group, and even the expression of the church when we are scattered into the community.

Don’t buy into the lie that you are not needed.

And don’t entertain the thought that you can just sit idle in the chair while others serve.

Find your SHAPE and get to work.

Here is the 2nd:

1 Corinthians 12:21–26 ESV

21 The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” 22 On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23 and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, 24 which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, 25 that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. 26 If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.

You need the gifts and service of others in this community as much as they need yours.

Here is that pride factor again, hence the reason Paul hit hard on that theme in his other passage on gifts in Romans 12.

“If any member suffers, ALL suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.”

There is an interdependence that draws us together in unity as we serve one another in the good and the bad of life.

Our sinful, individualistic hearts wants so much to believe we can walk this life alone, but God has not made us to live alone.

He has made us for community, not just to eat dinner together and play games, but to REALLY DO LIFE together and to SERVE ONE ANOTHER as we serve the Lord.

How we will serve.

1) We will serve BIG.

We will serve corporately as a church family.

We do this on Sunday mornings as greeters, in the children’s ministry, in the band, in the parking lot, in hospitality, and in many other ways.

We do this in teams of people serving the needs of specific areas or age groups in the church.

We do this in special events like Operation Inasmuch where we collectively go out and serve in the community, or our Table of Grace ministry at Thanksgiving.

There are drawbacks to this:

It is only occasional so we aren’t able to use our gifts as regularly as we would like.

It is easy to get lost in the crowd, either by not feeling needed or not volunteering because you assume someone else will.

2) We will serve INDIVIDUALLY.

The gifts God gives us are not just to be used on Sunday or in church related events, but everywhere we go.

You have opportunities to serve your neighbors, friend, family, coworkers, and in the community as an individual believer in Jesus.

You can, and should, be looking for opportunities to serve and love EVERYDAY.

There are drawbacks to this as well:

We have less of a splash, even though we are all making little splashes all around.

We lack support. It is often a lot more fun to serve with others.

We are busy and sidetracked, so we don’t always make time.

3) We will serve SMALL.

We will serve in smaller communities (4L Groups) to tangibly experience begin a part of the body of Christ.

Each person using the unique gifts the Spirit empowers them with to serve the common good of the group, the church, and our community.

Encouraging one another as we serve.

Holding one another accountable as we serve.

Binding us all together as we embrace a shared mission and support one another in serving.

There are drawbacks as well:

We don’t get to connect with others in the church through service (that’s why we serve BIG).

We are busy people and it is hard to carve out time. (You will not do anything if you do not intentionally carve out time to do it.)

This isn’t THE way, but it is A way and A PRETTY GREAT way.

Dream A Little

What if we embrace LOVE-MOTIVATED Service

As individual believers serving those around us every day.

As small groups scattered throughout our community every week.

And as a whole body of believers making a BIG splash in our community several times a year.

God has created you to serve

He has saved you to serve

He is empowering you to serve

AND He is uniting us together to serve

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