Title: God Wants Us To Be . . . A Church That Serves
Series: The Church God Wants Us To Be, Sermon # 4
COPYRIGHT © Joe La Rue, 2008
Text: Mark 10:42–45
Date Preached: February 3, 2008
Introduction
A. During the early morning hours of Sunday, January 27, just one week ago today, fire swept through Tim and Victoria Lasita’s Delhi Township home. The house was destroyed, and with it, practically all their possessions. Tim, Victoria and their two sets of triplets—6 children in all, under the age of 6—were now homeless, and had nothing. To compound the problem, the Lasitas had been having financial difficulties as a result of trying to care for 6 children, and in an attempt to cut costs they had reduced the coverage of their homeowner’s insurance and cancelled their car insurance.
By Tuesday of this past week, the Cincinnati community had responded to this tragedy with an overwhelming outpouring of generosity. The Lasitas have received offers of places to stay and cars to drive. Donations of clothing and money have poured in, and fund-raisers have been scheduled. Tim Lasita, in an interview with the Cincinnati Enquirer, commented: “We never asked for a handout, but the offers of help keep coming. So do our tears.”
And his wife, Victoria, added that her heart has been touched by the community’s display of kindness. “I can’t believe how people have opened their hearts and their wallets for us,” she said.
Tim Lasita summed up his feelings when he said, “The goodness in people leaves me nearly speechless. If anyone ever tells you that people are self-centered and don’t help out around here, just send them to me. I’ll set them straight.” (Cliff Radel, The Kindness of Strangers, Cincinnati Enquirer, Jan 29, 2008)
I am reminded when I hear stories like that of what Seth Wilson used to say. Seth was the founding Dean of Ozark Christian College, and he was convinced that being a Christian meant serving people. It meant giving of yourself, and allowing God to use the gifts He has given you to bless other people. And to underscore that idea, Seth used to say: “They’ll never care how much we know, until they know how much we care.”
B. For the last several weeks, we’ve been talking about the characteristics that God wants every church to possess. Two weeks ago we talked about how God wants churches to be made up of people who really worship—people who worship God in spirit and in truth, which means that they worship with the right attitude and the right focus. Last week we talked about how God wants churches to be filled with people who learn from Jesus, and we saw that we can do that through personal Bible study and church attendance and asking the question, ‘What would Jesus do?’ in the various situations in which we find ourselves. This week we’re going to study about a third characteristic God wants to see in every church. If you have your Bibles with you, look with me at Mark’s gospel, chapter 10, verses 42 through 45.
1. Immediately before the passage that we are about to read, two of the apostles—James and John—had approached Jesus and asked that that they be seated right by Him in the kingdom of heaven, one on His right side and the other on His left. In Bible times, Kings sat the most powerful people in those spots. So what James and John were really asking was, “Let us be the most powerful of your disciples. Let us be the most privileged. Let us be the important ones.”
2. Well, naturally, this didn’t sit very well with the other apostles. The Bible says that they were “indignant,” and the word used in the original Greek text indicates a strong feeling of anger. They weren’t just a little bit perturbed. The apostles were really angry at James and John and their nerve.
3. And it was in that context that Jesus spoke the words which we find in Mark 10:42–45. Read it with me. God’s Word says:
Jesus called his followers together and said, “You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Mark 10:42–45, New International Version)
C. Do you want to be great? Many people are pre-conditioned when they hear that question to say, “No, I don’t want to be great,” because we’ve been conditioned to think that “greatness in the church” isn’t something that Christians are supposed to desire.
1. But I want you to notice that, in this passage, Jesus doesn’t say that. He never said, “You shouldn’t want to be great.” No, what He did was to redefine what it means to be great. Jesus said, “If you want to be great, here’s how to do it: Serve others, and you’ll be great.”
2. Friends, I don’t know about you, but I want to be great. I want to do something that really counts. I want my life to matter. I think all of us want that. We all want our lives to really matter. And Jesus says that the way to experience that is by serving other people.
D. Trans: Let me share three principles from this passage about service. First,
I. True Greatness Comes From Service
A. True In The Life of Jesus. Perhaps the best illustration of this concept that true greatness comes from service is Jesus Himself. His greatness did not come just from who He was as God’s Son, it came from what He did. Jesus taught the multitudes. Jesus healed the sick. Jesus fed the hungry. Jesus comforted the sorrowful. Jesus touched the people that society said were untouchable. Jesus served people; and Jesus ultimately served in the ultimate way: He gave His life as a ransom for the world, to allow us to be forgiven by God. And so, while it is true that Jesus was great because of His identity, He was also great because of His activity. He served mankind.
B. True In The Lives Of Others. We see this concept of true greatness coming from service in the lives of other people as well. I think of someone like the late Mother Teresa of Calcutta, who served the poor, sick, orphaned, and dying in Calcutta, India. She lived a life of total poverty, she never wielded any real authority, and yet she is universally regarded as one of the greatest people of the twentieth century. Why? Because she served. She said, “I can make a difference for people.” And she let God work through her to do just that.
C. True In The Church. And God wants to do the same thing with us. You don’t have to be a missionary in India to be great. You just have to be a servant. True greatness doesn’t come through titles or money or power, it comes through serving others. If you want to be great, if you want to count for something, you’ve got to be a servant. That’s the path to true greatness, the path to making your life count: service to others.
D. Trans: Let me follow this principle up with another principle from this text: Our true life-purpose comes from service.
II. Our True Life-Purpose Comes From Service
A. True service brings meaning and purpose to our lives. It was true for Jesus. He was a man who understood why He was here. He said it in this passage: He had come to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many. He knew why He existed, and He lived His life to live out that mission. And, even though there was a cross, the Bible tells us that He experienced real joy, because He was true to what God wanted Him to do, and His life had meaning because of that.
B. We all want to feel our life counts for something; we all want our lives to have meaning. Let me ask you: What gives your life meaning? Did you know that God created each of us to serve and do good deeds? That’s what the Bible says in Eph 2:10: "For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."
1. Isn’t that amazing? From eternity past, when God thought about you, He thought about some good works that you could do to serve Him! When He thought about me, He thought of some good works that I could do to serve Him! You know, one of our deepest longings as people is to feel that we belong, that we are accepted, that we are part of the team. And that’s exactly what God has done for us: He’s made us part of His team! He’s said to me, "Here, Joe, here’s something you can do for Me!" And He has said to you, "Here’s something you can do for Me!" See, God could do it all, but He lets us help. Isn’t that remarkable? Isn’t it amazing, that God chooses to put us on His team and let us play a part?
2. And so, when we play our part, when we do the good works that God has prepared, just for us to do, in those moments we are living out our life’s purpose. And we really won’t feel fulfilled until we give ourselves in service. We were created for that very purpose! It is what defines us, and gives our lives meaning, because when we serve, we are living out the purpose for which God created us.
C. Trans: Let me share with you how you can get involved, serving in God’s kingdom.
III. True Service is Needed
A. Opportunities Are Available. There are literally unlimited opportunities for you to use the talents and abilities and gifts God has given you to serve Him by serving others. We can break these opportunities into two broad groups: those areas of service which we tend to think of as taking place “in” the church, and those areas of service which we tend to think of as being done “outside” the church. And both types of service are important and vital to the work that God is doing in our world. Let me break these down for you.
1. Those areas of service that we tend to think of as occurring “in” the church would be things like singing on the praise team or singing a special or playing an instrument or working in the children’s areas on Sunday morning or being involved in some other way in the children’s ministry or preparing or serving communion or serving as a greeter or helping to keep the building looking nice or running the sound system or powerpoint system; and this is just the tip of the iceberg. I could go on and on and on.
a. As an aside, I want to mention that Shonnie Wellspring, our new Director of Children’s Ministry, is working with our Children’s Ministry volunteers to make Children’s Ministry as exciting and God-honoring as it can possibly be. There are opportunities to get involved for those of you who have a heart for children and a desire to see to see children learn about Jesus, and what it means to follow Him. If you would like more information about how you can get involved in Children’s Ministry or anything else we do around her, see Shonnie or me.
b. Okay, let me share the second broad category of opportunities for us to use our gifts and talents for God regarding opportunities occurring outside the church:
2. Those areas of service that we tend to think of as occurring “outside” the church would be things like baking cookies and taking them to visitors, phoning people who miss church several weeks in a row to see if they are sick, co-ordinating the various dinners and events we are going to have, helping with outreach events to the community; and this is just the tip of the iceberg. I could go on and on and on.
3. Quite frankly, there are a bunch of ministry opportunities that we as a church need to organize. Over the course of the next year we are going to begin forming various ministry teams to better serve in the church and in the community.
4. But maybe you have an idea for a ministry. When I was a minister at Highland Church of Christ in Robinson, Illinois, we had some men who were good with tools, and one day one of them came to me and said, “We need a carpentry ministry.” Now, I wasn’t entirely sure just what a carpentry ministry would look like or what it would do. But I said “okay,” and some of the guys formed one, and that ministry helped lots of us in the church and also in the Robinson community who didn’t have a clue what we were doing with household projects. And it wasn’t started or thought up by the ministers. It was started because a couple of guys said, “You know what? God has given me some skills as a carpenter, and I want to use those skills for God’s glory.”
B. How To Get Involved. This brings me to what may be the most important part of this sermon. I want to talk to you about how you can get involved in service, if you aren’t already, so you can experience the fulfillment and joy that comes from feeling like you are doing something that really counts. And so you can be great, just like Jesus talked about. Okay, how can you do that? Let me give you four important steps to getting involved in service:
1. Pray, And Be Open To God’s Leading. I don’t think I can underscore enough how important this step is. God does not want all of us to lead the singing, my friends. But He does want some of us to. God does not want all of us to start a carpentry ministry. But He may want some to. God does not want all of us to work in the children’s area. But He wants some to. Here’s my point: if we jump into an area where God doesn’t want us, and try to serve in that area, we are not going to be as effective as if we serve in the area in which God wants us. I would be a horrible song leader. But I hope I’m a halfway decent preacher and teacher and leader, okay. Someone else might be terrified of public speaking, and would be a lousy preacher or teacher. But maybe he is great with his hands and with tools, and he just sees what you needed to do to fix things. So he would be a natural in a carpentry ministry, and he can use his carpentry gifts to serve God. So, the first step for finding your area of service where God wants you to serve is to pray, and be open to God’s leading.
2. Evaluate What You Are Good At, And What You Like To Do. Chances are, your ideal area of service is something that you enjoy. God doesn’t want service to be a drudgery for us. He wants it to be life-fulfilling! That was why the guy started the carpentry ministry—he enjoyed carpentry. So pray and be open, evaluate what you’re good at and what you like to do.
3. Third, Volunteer To Fill The Needs. When the church advertises opportunities to serve that fit within your areas of giftedness, volunteer. There are lots of areas of service that we as a church are going to explore in 2008. When we announce an area that seems to be right up your alley, and we are asking for people to step up to the plate and make that area of service a reality, volunteer.
4. Fourth, See Me With Suggestions. That’s what the carpentry ministry guy did, remember? If he had waited on me to come up with the idea for a carpentry ministry he would still be waiting, because my mind wasn’t thinking that way. But God laid it on that guy’s heart, and so he came to me and said, ‘hey we need this,’ and then we figured out how we could fit his talents and desire to serve into the overall ministry of the church. It’s the same way here. God wants us to be a church that serves, so if you have a passion to serve in ways that we aren’t currently, come talk to me about it, and let’s figure out how to turn your talents into opportunities for you to serve.
C. Everyone here this morning has a role to play in this church, in order for this church to be what God wants it to be in terms of service. The Bible says that God has given every Christian gifts and talents to use for His glory. The church is most effective for God’s glory when every Christian is using his or her gifts to serve. We need each of you.
Conclusion
A. Do you want to be great? Do you want your life to count for something? Do you want to matter for God? Then serve. That’s what Jesus said. Serve.
B. ILL: I love the story of the young boy named Antonio. Antonio loved music, and there was a boy’s choir in the town where he lived. He tried out for the choir, hopeful to make it. But his voice was high and squeaky, and so he wasn’t selected. Next, because he loved music, he took violin lessons, but the neighbors persuaded his parents to make him stop. He wasn’t any good. Yet Antonio still wanted to make music.
His friends gave him a hard time because his only talent seemed to be cutting things up. He liked to take wood and cut it up and try to make things out of it, but his skill was, shall we say, very unrefined. But he enjoyed that. When Antonio was older he served as an apprentice to a violin-maker. He learned to cut out wood and developed the skill of carving. His hobby became his craft. He worked patiently and faithfully, and became the greatest violin maker the world has ever known. By the time he died, he left over 1,500 violins, each one bearing a label that read, “Antonio Stradivarius.” They are the most sought-after violins in the world and sell for more than $100,000 each.
Antonio couldn’t sing or play or preach or teach but he used his ability, and his violins are still making beautiful music today.
C. You know, your service for God may be what makes an eternal difference in someone’s life. I think back to the story about the Lasita family, and how blown away they have been by the community’s generosity. And I think about that quote from Seth Wilson, “They’ll never care how much we know, until they know how much we care.” When we use our gifts and talents, friends, we are showing people how much we care.
D. Will you prayerfully commit yourself to be like Antonio, and say to God, “Show me how you want me to serve. Show me what I can do. And I’ll do it.”
