Introduction:
A. The story is told of a minister who was organizing opportunities for people in his church to do small acts of kindness as a demonstration of Christ’s love in the community.
1. He phoned several neighborhood grocery stores and Laundromats and asked for permission to serve their customers.
2. As he talked with a grocery store employee, the person hesitated and said, “I’ll need to ask the manager, but first, let me make sure I understand what you want to do: You want to clean up the parking lot, retrieve shopping carts, hold umbrellas for customers, and you don’t want anything in return?”
3. “Yes, that’s right,” the minister replied.
4. After a long wait on hold, the employee returned to the phone and said, “I’m sorry, we can’t let you serve our customers, because if we let you do it, then we’d have to let everyone else do it.”
(Ann Jeffries, Kansas City, Kansas, “Lite Fare,” Christian Reader; www.PreachingToday.com)
B. How silly is that! How many people do you know who are beating down the door to serve others?
1. Why not let everyone else do it!
2. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if everyone walked around looking for ways to serve others?
C. As we continue our series on the “One Another” passages of the New Testament, let’s keep in mind that we are trying to build real Christian community.
1. We want to be the church as it ought to be.
2. We want to love one another as God has commanded us to love one another just as He loves us.
3. So far in our series we have tried to learn something about being devoted to one another.
4. We’ve looked at what it means to honor one another, and submit to one another.
5. We’ve been challenged to practice accepting one another, and admonishing one another.
6. Last week we learned about how to encourage one another.
7. Today, hopefully, we can learn something about serving one another.
I. Called to be Free
A. The passage we want to focus on today comes from Paul’s letter to the Galatians.
1. Freedom emerges as a major theme in the letter to the Galatians.
2. No longer were they to “let themselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.” (5:1)
3. Formerly, they – along with the whole world – were “prisoners of sin.” (3:22)
4. The Law of God that had thundered from Sinai did not set them free from sin. Rather, it simply made them more aware of how captive they were to the flesh.
5. Throughout the years that followed, the law of Moses became God’s means of “leading us to Christ that we might be justified by faith.” (3:24)
6. It was Christ who fulfilled the requirement of the law and therefore set us free.
7. Therefore, Paul could declare: “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.” (5:1)
B. But what does Paul mean by freedom? In what ways are we free?
1. Sometimes it helps to look at what it doesn’t mean, in order to understand what it does mean.
C. First of all, Paul makes it clear that freedom in Christ is not freedom to sin.
1. “You my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge your sinful nature…” (5:13)
2. The New American Standard reads: “For you were called to freedom, brethren; only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh…” (5:13)
3. The Galatians, like so many Christians today, had gone to two extremes.
a. On the one hand, some had reverted to trying to become righteous by keeping the law, and this only served to bring them back into bondage. (Gal. 5:2-4) That’s legalism.
b. On the other hand, some, having heard Paul’s teaching about freedom, felt that they were now able to do anything they wanted to do. That’s libertarianism.
c. Therefore, Paul wrote: “But do not use your freedom to indulge your sinful nature…”
4. Freedom in Christ is not freedom to sin, even though we are forgiven.
a. To have this attitude is to misuse, abuse and misunderstand the grace of God.
b. We are not free to use or abuse legal or illegal drugs.
c. We are not free to visit porn sites, “hook up” sexually with a friend, or have an affair.
d. We are not free to lose our temper, or cheat on our taxes.
e. We are not free to embrace a lifestyle that violates God’s plan and commands.
f. We are not free to call evil good or good evil.
5. The freedom we have in Christ is not freedom to do whatever we want.
6. We are not free to do something foolish just because it is legal. Just because something is permitted under the law doesn’t make it good or right.
a. For instance in July of 2005, ESPN reporter, Andrea Kremer, interviewed the Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback, Ben Roethlisberger, who at the time was the youngest quarterback ever to win a Super Bowl.
b. One of her questions concerned his decision to ride his motorcycle without a helmet.
c. Please understand, that the law in Pennsylvania does not require the wearing of a helmet, but Andrea Kremer wanted to know, “Why didn’t he wear a helmet?”
d. Roethlisberger simply replied, “Because you don’t have to. It’s not the law. If it was the law, I’d definitely have one on every time I rode. But it’s not the law and I know I don’t have to. You’re just more free when you’re out there with no helmet on.”
e. Unfortunately, less than a year later, in June of 2006, Roethlisberger was involved in a serious motorcycle accident.
f. A motorist failed to yield the right-of-way at a Pittsburgh intersection, and Roethlisberger was thrown into the windshield of the Chrysler Town and Country van.
g. His bike was totaled, and emergency surgeons spent over seven hours repairing a broken jaw, a fractured skull, missing teeth, and several other facial injuries.
h. After being released from the hospital, Roethlisberger apologized to the fans, his family, and his team for risking his health (and life) unnecessarily.
i. In another interview, he was no longer focused on taking advantage of his individual freedom.
j. He told the reporter, “In the past few days, I’ve gained a new perspective on life. By the grace of God, I’m fortunate to be alive.”
k. He also added that, if he ever does ride a motorcycle again, “It will certainly be with a helmet.” (David Slagle, Atlanta, Georgia; source: ESPN.com; www.PreachingToday.com)
m. So real freedom doesn’t mean doing anything we want, or sinning any way we want.
D. Second, freedom in Christ is not freedom from the reality of the flesh.
1. When Christ died to set us free, He did not, with His death and resurrection, eliminate the temptation and struggle of the flesh.
2. If that was the case, then there would be no need for Paul to warn the Galatians about not indulging the flesh.
3. There would be no need for Paul to be so specific about the acts of the sinful nature in Gal. 5:19.
4. The good news is that in Christ we have the power to overcome the temptations of the flesh, but the bad news is that they are still there, and they are still a danger to us.
E. Finally, freedom in Christ is not freedom from servanthood.
1. This, of course, is one of Paul’s primary points in this Galatian passage.
2. Our freedom in Christ is not a freedom to indulge the flesh, but a freedom to serve one another in love.
3. But you might ask, “how can Christians be free and yet be slaves at the same time?
4. This is one of the wonderful mysteries of the Christian faith.
5. Jesus spoke about it when He said: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it.” (Mk. 8:34-35)
6. The Christian who wants to experience true freedom in Christ must live in total surrender to Christ.
7. It sounds completely paradoxical, but in turning our lives over to Him completely we discover the freedom about which the Bible talks.
8. Paul certainly knew this freedom in Christ, and yet he frequently introduced himself as a slave of Christ (Rom. 1:1; Phil. 1:1; Titus 1:1).
II. Saved to Serve
A. The freedom we find in Christ gives us the freedom to serve.
1. The Bible is clear that we are not saved by service – we are not saved by our good works.
2. Rather, we are saved for service.
3. Look at Ephesians 2:8-10: “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”
4. So we are saved by grace and by grace alone.
5. We are set free in Christ to serve.
6. Salvation is not for self-indulgence, but for service.
B. When we serve one another in a spirit of love, we fulfill the whole law as it applies to our relationships with others.
1. Look again at Gal. 5:14: The entire law is summed up in a single command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
2. We are not called to loath ourselves, but to love ourselves.
3. Our love for ourselves is not to be selfish nor exclusive, but to be healthy and appropriate.
4. And then we are to love others with the very same kind of love with which we love ourselves.
C. You will recall that the command to love our neighbor is the second part of the great commandment.
1. The first and primary command is to love God with all our heart and soul and mind and strength.
2. The second command goes hand in hand with that one – love your neighbor.
3. We love each other by doing the kinds of things we have been studying about – by honoring, submitting to, accepting, admonishing, and encouraging each other.
4. And there is no better way to love each other than by serving each other.
D. Jesus is the greatest example we have of being a servant.
1. Paul tells us: Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death— even death on a cross! (Phil. 2:5-8)
2. When Jesus needed to straighten out his disciples about service and greatness, he said: “You know that the 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 your slave— just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Mt. 20:25-28)
3. When the apostle John wrote his gospel he tells us something that Jesus did that none of the other gospel writers tell us about.
a. John 13:1: It was just before the Passover Feast. Jesus knew that the time had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he now showed them the full extent of his love.
b. John 13:3-5: Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.
c. John 13:12-17: When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. “Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them. “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. I tell you the truth, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.”
4. We are called to serve each other in love, and we will be blessed if we do so.
E. One man discussed this truth with his minister.
1. He said, “But when you get right down to it, it comes down to basin theology.”
2. “Basin theology? What’s that?” the minister asked.
3. The man answered, “Do you remember what Pilate did when he had the chance to acquit Jesus? He called for a basin and washed his hands of the whole thing. But Jesus, called for a basin and proceeded to wash the feet of the disciples. It all comes down to basin theology – what will you do with your basin?”
Conclusion:
A. What will we do with our basin?
1. Will we wash our hands of the needs of others? Will we say, “someone else will have to do that? It’s someone else’s job!”
2. Or will we be like Jesus and take our basin and do what needs to be done for others?
3. Whatever the need is – dirty feet and all – we will serve.
B. In what kinds of ways can we serve others?
1. The list of possibilities is endless.
2. People have physical needs, emotional needs, and spiritual needs.
3. We can serve them by doing something for them that they cannot do for themselves – like cook a meal when they are sick, or fix their car when it is broken.
4. We can serve them by lending a listening ear when they need to talk.
5. We can serve them by giving them a ride to the doctor or the store or to church.
6. We can serve them by praying for them.
C. I’m thankful that we have so many servants here at Wetzel Road.
1. Some are elders, some are deacons, some are teachers, and so many others serve, but do so in no official role.
2. I encourage you to look around and find a need and fill it.
3. You don’t need permission, just a willingness to serve.
D. I want to give two examples of people who found their way to serve.
E. Here’s a picture of Corrie Ten Boom’s bedroom in which the "hiding place" or secret room was built. You can see there is a little entrance to get into it in the bottom of the closet, and the wall is broken now for museum purposes, but it was built especially to harbor Jews during the Nazis occupation of Holland.
1. Let me tell you about Rudy and Betty de Vries who had a slogan they lived by, it was “Hide a fugitive, and do not betray the refugee.”
2. They also lived in Holland during WWII under Nazi occupation.
3. Their names are not familiar to most, but they are dear to the hundreds of Jews whose lives they saved.
4. Rudy and Betty were ordinary people – owners of a butcher shop – but God had an extraordinary job for them.
5. Not a day went by when they didn’t secretly ship meat to starving Jews, or hide them.
6. They never received any medals, and they are not widely known, and that is how they prefer it.
7. They didn’t do what they did for recognition of people, rather they did it out of their love for Christ.
8. They served Christ by serving others.
F. How many of you know a man named Cory McDonald?
1. He is better known by his professional name – Mr. Twister.
2. Cory is a professional clown who lives in Santa Cruz, California.
3. Cory has served many people in Santa Cruz by putting quarters in their expired parking meters.
4. This practice is called “plugging coins” and was considered an illegal act by Santa Cruz municipal code.
5. The law states that a person is not allowed to put money in other people’s meters without their permission. The penalty for doing so was a $13 fine.
6. After receiving several warnings, Mr. Twister was ticketed for his random acts of illegal kindness.
7. Nevertheless, he refused to stop doing what he considers doing to others as he would have them do to him.
8. He just wants people to be nice to each other and help in whatever way they can. That’s all.
F. Albert Schweitzer said: “I do not know what your destiny will be, but one thing I know, the only ones among you who will be really happy are those who have sought and found how to serve.”
1. Serving others with love, because of Jesus, leads to true fulfillment and true greatness.
2. Like Rudy an Betty de Vries and Cory McDonald, we all need to find our way to serve.
3. There is some way that God wants us to serve, and there is someone who needs us to serve.
G. Let me end with this poem:
If you’re feeling low and worthless; there seems nothing you can do,
Just take courage and remember, there is someone needing you.
You were created for a purpose, for a part in God’s great plan
Bear ye one another’s burdens so fulfill Christ’s law to man.
Are you a father, son or daughter? You’ve a work none else can do.
Are you a husband, wife or mother? There is someone needing you.
If perhaps in bed you’re lying, you can smile and press the hand
Of the one who tells his story, He will know you understand.
There are many sad and lonely, and discouraged, not a few
Who a little cheer are needing, and there’s someone needing you.
Someone needs your faith and courage. Someone needs your love and prayer.
Someone needs your inspiration, thus to help their cross to bear.
Do not think your work is ended; there is much that you can do,
And as long as you’re on earth, there is someone needing you.
H. May God help us learn to serve one another in love.
1. It’s a secret to true freedom and fulfillment, happiness and greatness.
2. And it’s essential to experiencing real Christian community.
Resources:
Building Up One Another, Gene A. Getz, Victor Books, 1976
“Free to Serve,” Sermon by C. Philip Green, SermonCentral.com
“Serve One Another,” Sermon by Gerald Flury, SermonCentral.com
“The Freedom to Serve,” Sermon by Dr. Neil Smith
