An Inside Job

An Inside Job John 13:34

OBITUARY"

Our church was saddened to learn this week of the death of one of our most valued members, Someone Else. Someone’s passing creates a vacancy that will be difficult to fill.

Else has been with us for many years and for every one of those years, Someone did far more than a normal person’s share of the work. Whenever there was a job to do, a class to teach, or a meeting to attend, one name was on everyone’s list,"Let SomeoneElse do it.

Whenever leadership was mentioned, this wonderful person waslooked to for inspiration as well as results; "Someone Else can work with that group."

It was common knowledge that Someone Else was among the most liberal givers in our church. Whenever there was a financial need, everyone just assumed Someone Else would make up the difference.

Someone Else was a wonderful person; sometimes appearing superhuman. Were the truth known, everybody expected too much of Someone Else. Now Someone Else is gone!

We wonder what we are going to do. Someone Else left a

wonderful example to follow, but who is going to follow it? Who is going to do the things Someone Else did?

When you are asked to help this year, remember -- we can’t depend on Someone Else anymore.

There are some things that can only be done by an inside job. At some crime scenes the police conclude from the evidence that it had to be an inside job. When there is no break-in, and the alarm was not set off, and certain items were taken from a secret vault without blowing it - they conclude it must have been an inside job. I want to look at relationships inside the church. The word of God gives us many principles to guide us, and they are called “one another” passages. On the Church Health survey you took you rated yourselves low on “loving relationships.” Not only was the problem diagnosed in this room, the answer is also in this room. The Wesleyan Headquarters can’t fix it, the district can’t improve it, Danny, Jeff, or Bryan can’t make it happen. It has to be an inside job. We all have to do our part to changing the relational atmosphere inside the church. We can’t expect the world to take notice of Jesus unless the church learns how to make each other feel loved. Jesus said this would demonstrate that we are his, v“35. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." “May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. “ John 17:23

1 Serve One Another “Wash one another’s feet”

Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. 15. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. John 13:14-15

13. You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature ; rather, serve one another in love. Gal. 5:13

A Man With a Servant’s Heart

A large group of European pastors came to one of D. L. Moody’’s Northfield Bible Conferences in Massachusetts in the late 1800s. Following the European custom of the time, each guest put his shoes outside his room to be cleaned by the hall servants overnight. But of course this was America and there were no hall servants.

Walking the dormitory halls that night, Moody saw the shoes and determined not to embarrass his brothers. He mentioned the need to some ministerial students who were there, but met with only silence or pious excuses. Moody returned to the dorm, gathered up the shoes, and, alone in his room, the world’’s only famous evangelist began to clean and polish the shoes. Only the unexpected arrival of a friend in the midst of the work revealed the secret.

When the foreign visitors opened their doors the next morning, their shoes were shined. They never know by whom. Moody told no one, but his friend told a few people, and during the rest of the conference, different men volunteered to shine the shoes in secret. Perhaps the episode is a vital insight into why God used D. L. Moody as He did. He was a man with a servant’’s heart and that was the basis of his true greatness.

You’’re Going to Die

A man went to the doctor after weeks of symptoms. The doctor examined him carefully, then called the patient’’s wife into his office. ““Your husband is suffering from a rare form of anemia. Without treatment, he’’ll be dead in a few weeks. The good news is, it can be treated with proper nutrition.””