How To Improve Your Serve With God Series

Series: How to Improve your serve?

Illustration:

Racquet ball and hit a few racquet balls into the audience! Give away 5 dollar Dunken Donut cards to those who catch them!

Over the years I have played tennis with Kathy off and on, but I really loved playing racquetball! I learned from others that the key to winning in this game was all in the serve! So, I got coaching and lessons to improve my racquet ball serve and it worked I improved my serve and I ended up winning my league – got a trophy and everything! The key to improving my serve was actually hard and simple - I played in tournaments, got coaching, went to the court and practiced a lot! I even became good friends with Wes Hamilton who at the time was an all-pro offensive line man for the Minnesota Vikings. He was really good at the game and we went to church together so he and I played together a lot – He even signed my ordination papers – trust me when you play against a pro-football player long enough you will improve and yes I did eventually beat him!

Introduction:

Jesus had an awesome serve – It was miraculous and powerful and he hit the ball with divine power smoking it past all who even tried to return His serve! His serve defeated the great deceiver and won back from Seoul a host of people.

Quote Swindoll:

He states, “Listen as He declares His primary reason for coming: “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many (Mark 10:45). No mumbo jumbo. Just straight -from-the shoulder admission. He came to serve and to give. It makes sense, then to say that God desires the same for us” (Page 18).

He adds, “Maybe you’ve never before stopped to consider that God is committed to one major objective in the lives of all His people: to conform us to “the image of the His Son.” We need to blow the dust off that timeless goal” (Page 18)

We need to improve our serves today – Jesus was the greatest server od all time!

Why improve our serve today? Because our Covid world has caused even more and more people to disconnect from each other – it has caused Churches and organizations to lose people who are willing to serve others like never before. Our impersonal world is causing more distance than ever – we have the highest rate of suicide ever – highest rate of mental health problems, depression, hopelessness and so I see the need is greater than ever to start serving again. We need to be the church and be like Jesus by choosing to improve our serve by serving others: More than ever before we need to commit to work on improving our serve in the following areas:

1. We need to improve our serve with God!

2. We need to improve our serve in our community!

3. We need to improve our serve in the workplace!

4. We need to improve our serve in church and in other ministries!

5. We need to improve our serve in our families!

Scripture Texts:

Philippines 2:4-8 (NIV)

4Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.5Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: 6Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, 7but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death—even death on a cross!

Romans 12:1 -2 (CEV)

1Dear friends, God is good. So, I beg you to offer your bodies to him as a living sacrifice, pure and pleasing. That’s the most sensible way to serve God. 2Don’t be like the people of this world, but let God change the way you think. Then you will know how to do everything that is good and pleasing to him.

Thesis: As Christians we are called to be servants! Yes, I said the “s” word “servants” – for many this term seems to imply to some – a slave, a person lacking self-esteem, someone of lower class, a person crushed in spirit, a person with low self-worth. But Jesus (The Great I Am) came to serve and so should we.

T.S. – Lets explore How we are to improve our serve for the Lord!

Sermon 1: We need to improve our serve for God!

Scripture Text:

Matthew 20:25-28:

A Mother’s Request

20Then the mother of Zebedee’s sons came to Jesus with her sons and, kneeling down, asked a favor of him.