One Anothers #6: Serve One Another Series

Serve One Another

Series: The One Anothers: The Church’s “Body Builders”

Chuck Sligh

July 10, 2022

NOTE: A PowerPoint presentation is available for this sermon by request at chucksligh@hotmail.com. Please mention the title of the sermon and the Bible text to help me find the sermon in my archives.

TEXT: Please turn in your Bibles to which we will read a little later.

INTRODUCTION

Illus. – A pastor in Kansas City, Kansas, was organizing opportunities for people in his church to do small acts of kindness as a demonstration of Christ’s love in the community. He phoned several neighborhood grocery stores and laundromats for permission to do specific services. In one call, the employee who answered the phone hesitated, and then said, “I’ll need to ask the manager. But first, let me make sure I understand: You want to clean up the parking lot, retrieve shopping carts, hold umbrellas for customers, and you don’t want anything in return?” “Yes, that’s right,” the pastor said. After a moment, the employee returned to the phone. “I’m sorry,” he said, “we can’t let you do that because if we let you do it, we’d have to let everyone else do it too!”

Isn’t that silly?

Why NOT let everyone else do it?

Wouldn’t that be wonderful if everyone found ways to serve?

It would be a little like heaven on earth.

Do you want to find a little bit of heaven in your HOME?

Do you want to find a little bit of heaven in your WORK?

Do you want to find a little bit of heaven in all your RELATIONSHIPS?

THEN LEARN TO SERVE.

Did you know that that’s the reason Christ set us free? Look with me at our text in Galatians 5:13 where we begin to see what our freedom in Christ means to us practically and how it can positively impact all our relationships. Galatians 5:13 says, “For, brethren, you have been called to liberty; only do not use…liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love, serve one another.”

This is the last sermon in a series on some of the “One Anothers” of the New Testament and so far we’ve seen that we’re members of one another, and we’ve learned that we’re to love one another, be likeminded with one another, and greet one another. At the end of today’s text is our sixth “One Another” command: Through love, we are to SERVE one another.

The Galatians were caught up in what is known as “soteriological legalism,” meaning they thought they had to add works to grace to be saved or to maintain their salvation. The book of Galatians is a refutation of that false gospel. But Paul doesn’t want the Galatians to go from LEGALISM to LICENSE. He teaches that God has called us to LIBERTY so we could LOVE, not LUST. Since you’re free, Paul teaches…“Don’t serve yourself. Don’t indulge your sinful nature. Don’t let your freedom become a beachhead for the flesh.” Instead of legalism or license, Paul says to use your liberty to serve others in LOVE.

What does it mean to “serve one another” and how can we do it?

I. FIRST, I WANT YOU TO SEE THAT SERVING OTHERS IN LOVE IS GOD’S PATH TO GREATNESS IN HIS KINGDOM – Go with me to an amazing Scripture: Matthew 20:25-28 – “But Jesus called them to him, and said, ‘You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lort it over them, and those who are great exercise authority upon them. 26 But it shall not be so among you: but whoever desires to be great among you, let him be your servant; 27 And whoever would be first among you, let him be your slave—28 Just as the Son of man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.’”

We think the way to greatness is through being served. But God says that he who SERVES is the one who will be great in God’s kingdom.

Illus. – I have a friend who was a graduate of Liberty University which was founded by the late Jerry Falwell. The media always painted Dr. Falwell in a bad light because he had always stood FOR righteousness AGAINST the evils in society. But something my friend related to me told me a different side to Dr. Fallwell.

When he attended Liberty, Dr. Falwell was already a household word. His weekly TV show was broadcast around the nation. He had started a university and it was making headlines. His church was running in the thousands. His organization, the Moral Majority, was making a tremendous impact on America in the moral, cultural and political arenas.

One day there was a terrible rainstorm in Lynchburg, Virginia. Just outside Dr. Falwell’s office, a student’s car had a flat tire. In a torrent of rain, Dr. Falwell, in his coat and tie, went out and invited him to come in out of the rain until the storm let up. But the student explained that he had to be somewhere for an important appointment and couldn’t wait until the storm had passed.