How to Have a Personal Relationship With Jesus Christ August 26, 2007
Knowing God through Service
Acts 10:1-8
Over the past few months we’ve been doing this series called. “How To Have a Personal Relationship With Jesus.” We’ve looked at how to start the relationship; how to talk to God, how to recognize God’s voice; the Holy Spirits role in our relationship; how to hear his voice through scripture, and in worship; in creation & life circumstance. Last week we talked about how we can relate to God through using our spiritual gifts. Today is the last in the series – next week is church camp and there will not be a service here, and then we are into September, we’ll be doing the “Jesus Who?” course in the service.
Today I want to talk about how we build our relationship with God through service & in particular, service to the poor.
Read Acts 10:1-8
God hears Cornelius’ prayers and his gifts to the poor
Because of his prayers and his gifts to the poor, Cornelius becomes the first non-Jew to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit!
It is not like giving to the poor is paying the bill on the “God-phone,” but when we give to the poor, it lets God know our heart and it connects us with his heart.
You might have questions about giving to the poor since there has been a few stories about “aggressive panhandling” in the news. It amazes me the vitriol, hatred and fear that comes out in the responses that people have to the stories.
People had all sorts of solutions to complex problems, most of them we demeaning and punitive toward the poor. I think that because of the prevalence of aggressive driving on highways, we should ban driving! J Whether you give change to beggars on the street or you give to the poor in a different way, our attitude to the poor is not to be hardheartedness, but compassion.
Deuteronomy 15:7-11 If anyone is poor among your people in any of the towns of the land that the LORD your God is giving you, do not be hardhearted or tightfisted toward them. 8 Rather, be openhanded and freely lend them whatever they need. … 10 Give generously to them and do so without a grudging heart; then because of this the LORD your God will bless you in all your work and in everything you put your hand to. 11 There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore I command you to be openhanded toward those of your people who are poor and needy in your land.
Proverbs 19:17 (Today’s New International Version)
Those who are kind to the poor lend to the LORD,
and he will reward them for what they have done.
Serving the poor shows love to God
James says in 1:27 “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.”
1 John 3:16-18
This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother or sister in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.
Serving the Poor connects us with God
Tolstoy Story - Where Love Is, God Is
In a certain town there lived a cobbler, Martin Avdéitch by name…
- hard life – all his children died, his wife died leaving a 3 year old boy, who was Martin’s joy, but the boy died as well. Martin despaired & gave up on God.
Once a holy man visited him and convinced him to begin to read the gospels – they reconnected him with Jesus & gave him hope. Every night after his work, he would light a lamp and read until he fell asleep.
One night he had a dream:
"Martin!" he suddenly heard a voice, as if some one had breathed the word above his ear.
He started from his sleep. "Who’s there?" he asked.
He turned round and looked at the door; no one was there. He called again. Then he heard quite distinctly: "Martin, Martin! Look out into the street to-morrow, for I shall come."
Martin’s shop and living quarters were in the basement, there was a window where he could see the boots of the people passing by – he recognized many people by their shoes.
So the next day as he worked he kept looking out the window to see the feet of the Lord, feeling foolish while he did it.
He saw the feet of the old man Stepánitch who would sweep the snow rom the stoop to earn his keep. Stepánitch was old, cold and to tired to work, so Martin called him in for some tea & they talked about Jesus together.
A little while later he saw a woman dressed in poor summer clothes with a crying child, but no shelter from the cold. He called here in, gave her lunch and warmth by the fire & kept the baby happy while she rested. He sent her on her way with an old coat and a few shillings he could barely spare.
A few hours later there was the sound of shouting and crying out on the street – a young boy had tried to steal an apple from a babushka and was caught by the ear. Martin went up the stairs and asked the woman to forgive the boy & then got the boy to apologize.
And Martin told her the parable of the lord who forgave his servant a large debt, and how the servant went out and seized his debtor by the throat. The old woman listened to it all, and the boy, too, stood by and listened.
"God bids us forgive," said Martin, "or else we shall not be forgiven. Forgive every one; and a thoughtless youngster most of all."
In the end, the boy and the woman walked off together, the boy carrying the old woman’s burden for her.
As the day wore on, Martin got more discouraged – the lord was not coming. When it came time to light the lamp and read the Gospel,
He took the Gospels from the shelf. He meant to open them at the place he had marked the day before with a bit of morocco, but the book opened at another place. As Martin opened it, his yesterday’s dream came back to his mind, and no sooner had he thought of it than he seemed to hear footsteps, as though some one were moving behind him. Martin turned round, and it seemed to him as if people were standing in the dark corner, but he could not make out who they were. And a voice whispered in his ear: "Martin, Martin, don’t you know me?"
"Who is it?" muttered Martin.
"It is I," said the voice. And out of the dark corner stepped Stepánitch, who smiled and vanishing like a cloud was seen no more.
"It is I," said the voice again. And out of the darkness stepped the woman with the baby in her arms and the woman smiled and the baby laughed, and they too vanished.
"It is I," said the voice once more. And the old woman and the boy with the apple stepped out and both smiled, and then they too vanished.
And Martin’s soul grew glad. He crossed himself put on his spectacles, and began reading the Gospel just where it had opened; and at the top of the page he read
"I was a hungered, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in."
And at the bottom of the page he read:
"Inasmuch as ye did it unto one of these my brethren even these least, ye did it unto me." And Martin understood that his dream had come true; and that the Savior had really come to him that day, and he had welcomed him.
You can read the whole story in a book called “Walk in the Light - Short stories of Leo Tolstoy” or Google “Where Love Is, God Is” and I found the whole text on the web.
Jesus promised us that when we serve the poor and helpless, we will meet Him.
Partnering with God – working together
Dexter & Alan fixing garage
Being vs doing
There has been a concern with people doing things for God without relating to him. We can be a servant without knowing that we are a son or a daughter. Like all of the ways that I have talked about as ways to relate to God, we need to stay conscious of the relationship with God as we serve others, or the service can be dead. We need to remember that we do not earn God’s love by serving others, - God already loves and accepts us! Just as Jesus showed us love by serving us, we show our love for him by serving the people he loves.
While Cornelius gave money to the poor, there are many ways that we can seve the poor and others around us.
Richard Foster gives a great list of Service that we can practice for all sorts of people.
The Service of Small Things
He quotes Bonhoeffer who writes in “Life Together,” “The second service that one should perform for another in a Christian community is that of active helpfulness. This means, initially, simple assistance in trifling, external matters. There is a multitude of these things wherever people live together. Nobody is too good for the meanest service. One who worries about the loss of time that such petty, outward acts of helpfulness entail is usually taking the importance of his own career too solemnly.”
The Service of Guarding the Reputation of Others
Refusing to gossip or put others down in their presence or absence – not maligning the poor for being poor
The Service of Being Served
Allow even the poorest to bless you – it affirms their dignity and their gifts.
The Service of Common Courtesy
Giving people the time of day. There is much to be said about a person by how they treat wait staff and others in the service industry.
The service of Hospitality
The Service of Listening
The Service of Sharing the Word of Life
“There is no greater privilage and no greater joy than enabling someone to find out about Jesus Christ. The former Archbishop of Canterbury, William Temple, wrote in his commentary on John’s Gospel while on his knees, asking God to speak to his heart. When he came to the words, “And he (Andrew) brought him (Simon) to Jesus” (John 1:42), Temple wrote a short but momentous sentence: “the greatest service that one man can render another.”
When we serve the poor we will meet Christ, and we will grow in our relationship with him.
