SERVING IS BEING SET FREE
1 Jn 2:3-6
Keeping our eye on Jesus, obeying, serving Him will keep us clean. It will keep us from sinning.
Our mission statement is: “Loving Jesus, Loving Others, and Serving Both. Repeat that with me. This is why we are here. We, at New Heights, are in Pineville, KY because God wants us to love Him, others, while showing our love in service!
Why does God want us to serve Him? We are servants to something. We are either enslaved to the sin we commit or we are servants of Jesus. Obeying the Truth will set us free. In order to be set free, we must actively serve Him! If you wanted to run a marathon race would you run it with a box of Twinkies in your hand? How ridiculous would it be if you tried to run and eat the Twinkies at the same time? Kind of defeating the point. This activity is going to cause some serious cramps; and you would have to stop running to eat the Twinkies. It’s tempting to stop because my body is tired. The Twinkies give me an excuse; they make stopping that much easier. Because of them, I can justify stopping. Then once I stop, why should I start up again? Jesus is blessing me with Twinkies. He doesn’t want me to move forward? If He wanted me to move forward then He wouldn’t have given me the Twinkies! Right? After all, I deserve these Twinkies. They are good for me!
This is why it is important for us to run with your eye fixed on the goal. When doing this, the distractions are less imposing. The cramps still come but you are able to overcome because of your single-mindedness, focus, concentration! Hebrews tells us, “ 1Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. 2Let us fix our eyes on Jesus,” Heb. 12.
TELL YOUR NEIGHBOR, “IT’S TIME TO THROW SOME STUFF OFF.” Throw out the Twinkies.
When we serve God, the key is to keep our eyes on Him and off of everything else that would distract us! “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus.” Peter walking on the water.
Today, I want to share some insights from God’s word about some of the benefits of serving Jesus.
We need to understand God’s truth. Listen to this.
PRAY- FATHER HELP US TO UNDERSTAND HOW SERVING THE LEAST IN OUR EYES IS SERVING YOU. 40 “And the King will answer them, ‘I assure you: Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of Mine, you did for Me.’ Mt. 25 45 “Then He will answer them, ‘I assure you: Whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for Me either.’ Mt. 25
We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands. 4The man who says, "I know him," but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him. 5But if anyone obeys his word, God's love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him: 6Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did. 1 Jn. 2:3-6
The question arose, “Why should I serve God?” After all, what will I get from it? It seems to me that if you live a true Christian life all you get is pain. How would you respond to this argument? How would you respond to this statement? To this way of living? In case you haven’t noticed, the majority of the people live this philosophy. And I’m talking about Christians.
John wrote this chapter to keep us from sinning. Read verse 1-2 to yourself. John knew that in Pineville, KY in the year 2010 that you would need to know this TRUTH.
Let me just start with the word BECAUSE. My momma would answer my questions with this word when she felt like that was all that I needed to know. Why should we serve God? Because… just to name a few that will put us in our place: He is God, we are not; He created us, we didn’t create Him; We worship Him not vice-versa. He set the example, “Jesus is our example: 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 10:45 It’s time for us to grow up. It’s time for us to step up and be the mature Christ-serving person that we have been pretending to be all of these years! TELL YOUR NEIGHBOR, “BECAUSE GOD SAID SO AND THAT’S ENOUGH FOR ME!”
SERVING JESUS KEEPS US OUT OF TEMPTATION- Lk 4 Jesus answered, "It is written: 'Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.' " Go back to the analogy of running. If I am running, then what am I concentrating on? Running for the goal. I am not thinking about anything else. When I stop running for the goal, then I get into trouble. If I am serving Jesus because I love Him and know that He loves me; I am running toward the goal. I am concentrating on Him. He keeps me focused! He keeps me out of trouble!
Are you living a life of service? How do we know that we are serving God? How often do you ask, “Have I served Jesus enough this week? Could I have done more? Should I have done more?” You can know. God’s word says, “We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands. Our service demonstrates our love for Jesus. He directs our path. We follow Him, not reversed. You have heard that everyone wants to serve God, but just in an advisory capacity. Everyone that Jesus met He said, “Follow me”. The commands of God are more than just the 10 commandments. We are like the rich young ruler. We ask to get into heaven, and our reply is, “I have done that since a youth.” We literally believe that we have not broken the commandments! How absurd. Jesus fulfilled the law because we CANNOT. This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, 1 Jn. 5 When we experience God’s grace we recognize that we cannot fulfill the law and that He did this for us. We recognize the grace that He so generously bestowed upon us! And we recognize that the commands of God are not burdensome. He is not out to break our backs. If that were His goal, He would have done it!
Jesus came to fulfill the law so that we could have a RELATIONSHIP with Him. Think about dating. When you found someone that you wanted to date, you spent time with them because you wanted to get to know them, you enjoyed their company, you wanted to give them an opportunity to get to know you. You enjoyed sacrificing just to be with them. It wasn’t a burden, it was a blessing! If that person didn’t like onions, then you didn’t eat onions! And this wasn’t a problem.
Jesus wants to have this type of relationship with you. Yes the 10 commandments are apart of it. It is important to obey them as best we can! But it goes much deeper. It is a walk of faith. We are to learn how not to murder with our mouths. We are to learn how not to commit adultery in our hearts. We are to learn how not to steal because we are working for the Lord and not men.
As we grow closer to Christ we will have to throw off the things that hinder us. Let me give you an example. When I first started dating Alice, I liked to date girls. The more the merrier! In order for me to keep dating Alice I had to get rid of the rest. I had to make a decision: Alice or the others. I really liked Alice, I knew that she was the one; and fell in love with her. This may sound ridiculous to you; it wasn’t a hard decision to lose the others. It’s this way as a Christian. When you come to Christ, to God, you have many “gods” in your life. You are a slave that is serving and in bondage to many things. "Now fear the LORD and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your forefathers worshiped beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD. Josh. 24:14. You see, in America we have many unnamed, false gods. Let’s face it. We serve money. Most of all that you do is motivated by money or lack there of. You don’t shovel your neighbor’s driveway just because you like him. You do if for money. Let’s be honest, most of us tithe because we know that God will bless our giving. We get more “money”. It’s time to start throwing away some foreign gods.
Most Christians complain about the worship or music that is played. They serve their pianos or keyboards. They serve their organs or instruments. Let’s throw off some foreign gods. The word “religion” has taken on a negative connotation because of our foreign gods. Too many of us have served other gods and the non-Christians see it, know it, and think why should I be like that? TELL YOU NEIGHBOR, “IT’S TIME TO THROW OFF THE FOREIGN GODS!” Get rid of your Twinkies!!!
SERVING JESUS KEEPS US IN THE TRUTH.
Throwing off things that we once depended on will force us to trust Jesus more! We need to learn to trust Jesus with the most important items and relationships in our lives! You know, those areas that only you and He know about. But be very careful to keep the commandment and the law that Moses the servant of the LORD gave you: to love the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to obey his commands, to hold fast to him and to serve him with all your heart and all your soul." Josh 22:5
When we choose not to obey we deny the truth. Look at verse 4. 4The man who says, "I know him," but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him. The opposite is true. When we obey Him, then He keeps the truth in us! And we become free!!!
Our service demonstrates our faith in Jesus. When we are found faithful, and obedient this demonstrates a life of faith. We show the whole world that we are believers in Christ even when things are not perfect.
In Rev. we find a verse that tells of the anti-christ and the saints. It says, “This calls for patient endurance on the part of the saints who obey God's commandments and remain faithful to Jesus. Rev 14:12
If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king. Dan 3:17
When he came near the den, he called to Daniel in an anguished voice, "Daniel, servant of the living God, has your God, whom you serve continually, been able to rescue you from the lions?" Dan 6:20
SERVING JESUS FULFILLS OUR LIVES. Satisfies, completes, brings meaning to our lives!
Why do we eat our Twinkies? They fill us with sugar. We get that sugar rush. We crave it. We desire it. But it’s empty! After eating, then getting on our high, we then experience a crash! And we go lower than we were before. Now listen to the promise of God. This is what happens when we serve Him: 5But if anyone obeys his word, God's love is truly made complete in him.
God’s word fulfills you, completes you, brings meaning to your lives! You thought your spouse completed you? Maybe that person does, but the completion only comes from God who ordained your marriage! It is God who completes you!
We are in a transitional time. A time of change is never steady, sturdy, or stable. Transition is always unstable, and unsteady. You never know when it’s going to tilt, how far it will tilt, or what causes you to tilt. You are learning! Transition isn’t bad. It’s good. It means you are growing! Notice that you are not comfortable, but you are joy filled. You may not even recognize the joy. Now you are aware of it! You recognize that your joy never left you in the midst of your discomfort.
God is changing you! God is making you more like Him! Serve Him and you will never be the same again!
WHEN WE SERVE JESUS WE BECOME JESUS TO OUR WORLD.
6Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.
My heart for you is that you be found as Jesus was found, you will be where Jesus was, you are doing what Jesus did, you are saying what Jesus said! I believe that God is looking for a people who are willing to be Jesus to their world. I believe that God wants to do God things in and through their lives! "If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. Jn 14:23
Listen, I believe that God wants us to be Jesus to our world. What if we were filled with the Holy Spirit to such a degree that it was as if Jesus walked into the room. What if people were changed immediately because Jesus in you entered the room? You don’t believe this because you have never experienced it! You have experienced too many empty prayers; too many unanswered prayers; too many failures! That was because you were eating too many Twinkies! God is changing you to be like His Son! He has called you to walk as Jesus walked! To talk as Jesus talked! To pray as Jesus prayed! To be Jesus to your world! Then God Himself is making a home in you. God, Immanuel, abides in you!
How do we do this?
We went to New York City one Thanksgiving for the Thanksgiving Parade. Collier was 3. We were scared to death that we might lose Collier in the crowd. Plus the fear of just being country folk in a big city is weight bearing in and of itself. So we borrowed a child’s leash. We strapped it around him so that we could control where he went, how far he could get away from us, and how fast he traveled. If he went too fast we pulled him back, when he became tired we just drug him. Just kidding.
Sometimes that is how Jesus needs to treat us.
Collier is older now, so we don’t need the leash. (Well most of the time) We can just hold his hand and do the same stuff.
God wants us to trust Him in faith by holding His hand.
And as Collier gets older I can imagine that the hand holding days will come to an end. Although the relationship will never end. Collier will have experienced our rules enough that he can manage without us being right there.
God wants us to overcome temptation to such a degree that we apply His word. Imagine the day that you see your temptation, “God’s word rises up inside you and you simply walk away! It can happen.
But be sure to fear the LORD and serve him faithfully with all your heart; consider what great things he has done for you. 1 Sam 12:24
“Consider what great things He has done for you.” When you think of what He has done for you, it causes you to praise Him, it motivates you to celebrate what Jesus is doing in your life. You take your eyes off of your Twinkies, and put it back on Him! Your heart is filled with joy. This is what is going to happen when we get to heaven! We will recognize just what He has done for us and we will worship the True Son of God! I dare you to practice this now. I challenge you to stand and worship Him now. I dare you to walk out of here in such a way that you worship God, and become Jesus to your world!
I dare you to live in such a way that you leave a legacy to your family:
"For when David had served God's purpose in his own generation, he fell asleep; he was buried with his fathers and his body decayed. Acts.13:36
Will you be changed today? Will you turn from your Twinkies and turn to Jesus? This is repenting. This is asking Jesus to forgive you. Will you be changed by God and made in the image of His Son?
