Message
Service to Humanity
Nov 3, 2013
Two police officers saw an old woman staggering down the street. They stopped to see if she was okay, when they realized she had far too much to drink. Instead of taking her to jail, they decide to just drive her home.
They put her in the back seat of the cruiser. One of the officers decided to ride beside her to be sure she was safe.
As they drove the streets they kept asking her where she lived. All she would say as she stroked the officer’s arm is, “you’re passionate.”
They drove a while longer and asked again, but the same response, as she stroked his arm again saying, “you’re passionate.”
Both officers were not a little upset, so they stopped the car and said to the woman, “look, we’ve driven around this city for two hours and you still haven’t told us where you live.”
A little more sober now she replied, “I keep telling you, you’re passin’ it!”
Today marks a change in this program, “The Layman’s View.” Not only are we adding another radio station after a year on the air, but announcing something that has been in the planning for a while, called Christian Service Fellowship. It’s time to explain what this Fellowship is.
When enough study is done in the Word of God it is easy to see threads of specific themes repeated through the Gospels, which must mean such things are important in our walk with God. Years of study in religious history, which include learning of activities in the early church, caused awareness of requirements of Christians in all ages. However, we who promise to pattern our lives after Christ have, for the most part, relinquished our Christian duties to government that is all too happy to pick up where Christianity leaves off. The problem with government filling in the gap is that political leaders love to be your god and posses your soul buy taking from you to give back what you think you want. Government exercises power over you but God gives power to you. The mark of discipleship, which is loving one another, is held at bay by quarreling, while government holds us hostage by creating obligations through laws enforced at the end of gun barrel. It’s time Christians unite to reverse the trend and establish service to humanity under the guidance and authority of God and His love.
The term “Christian Service Fellowship” may sound like a nice group within a church that occasionally distributes food, but it’s not. One of those prevailing themes in the Word of God is “unity” yet our nation has 41,000 denominations that fracture the powerful potential of Christianity. The challenge then is bridging the barriers denominations have raised so the influential Christian community can reach its potential. What is the cost of this division? A world lost to governmental control, instead of individual responsibility under the leadership and control of our Creator.
The Christian cause was so well voiced in the “Liberty Song” written in 1768 by John Dickinson, that since has become the battle cry for many righteous causes, including the independence of the United States. Dickinson wrote, “Then join hand in hand, brave American’s all, by uniting we stand, by dividing we fall; in so righteous cause let us hope to succeed, for heaven approves of each generous deed.” However, Dickinson wasn’t the first to proclaim the idea that a divided entity cannot stand. Words spoken by the Master as recorded in Matthew 12:25, read, “Every kingdom which is divided against itself will be destroyed; and every house or city that is divided against itself will not stand.” Does this mean the kingdom of God suffers by our division? Of course. How can we then be in unity by loving each other while all 41,000 lines of thought demand to be right and declare others wrong? By claiming exclusivity to the truth, our efforts to bring the rest of the world to the truth of Christ is split 41,000 ways. How is a person desiring to be a Christian determine which of these denominations will lead them to God and His ways? Usually, one group recruits better than another, and then convinces the initiate of their point of view to birth a new right fighter. Would it be better to bring a person to God through Christ and equip them to be of service instead?
As grand as it sounds, Christian Service Fellowship is a method to bring Christians together who have heard the call to service, but are in self-sustaining churches more interested in maintaining status than reaching a hurting world. There are many main-stream churches involved in amazing and important missions and service, but not enough of them. Christian Service Fellowship is the way to bring people of like mind into service to God through hands-on action without calling them out of their established church.
If I take the rest of our time together this morning to list the scriptures that call us to unity and missions, there would be no time to explain the concept. As Christians, you know this to be true, so the selected focus today is on Luke 6:20 through 31 to help explain the Christian Service Fellowship concept.
Luke’s recording of the Sermon on the Plain is not quoted as often as Matthew’s Sermon on the Mount. Luke missed some detail that Matthew recorded, since Matthew’s precision was the result of his former profession as a tax collector. Still, Luke included critical points that mirror so many more words of instruction that tell us what this Christian life of service should be about. For example, verse 31 reads, “Just as you want men to do to you, do to them likewise.” Could this mean that when you are in desperate need you would like for someone to care and offer help? Certainly! Yet, there are times when a need is bigger than one person can handle. The world is definitely in that situation now that government has given Christianity the proverbial “day off” from genuine care. Each generation learns where help is. Since churches today are more prone to sustain their organizations than help the needy, Christianity is largely ignored by the needy and turn to the likes of government where helps programs have been established. The problem is; where do you find love in government? How does government connect a lost soul to God or teach the poor how to climb out of their condition?
We have the idea from modern-church teaching that our job should be dispensing spiritual instruction, which is true, yet this is not where we are to stop or even begin. The foundation of our instruction in service to humanity is Luke 12:48, which reads in part, “For to whomever more is given, of him more will be required; and to whom much is entrusted, more will be required of his hand.” Are we to hold the blessings we have been entrusted with white-knuckled clinched fist while proclaiming spiritual blessings on the needy? If so, our spiritual message means little. What representation do we display if we become hoarders of joy while we march under the banner of the Almighty in this blessed nation? If we follow Yeshua’s words in Luke, the goal for blessed Christians in their call to service is quite high. The ones who reach the level we would call “sainthood” are the ones who do love and pray for their enemies and give to the needy. Faith with works is alive.
Since we are more effective together than apart, and exercising our faith by doing what we are instructed is then more powerful, it stands to reason that we should come together to carry out assignments from God in His spirit of love. The act of doing God’s will exercises faith that covers divisions that cause us to do what is right rather than prove we are right in our divisions. This means we who are called to be God’s hands on earth should never be inhibited by others who don’t care, or are happy to be consumers of faith rather than givers.
Christian Service Fellowship allows followers of all denominations to come together in service, just like the early church that needed each other to survive and spread the Word. And, like the early church, denominations are secondary to the need for service. The plan is that this Fellowship is much like the early church by meeting in homes so there is no need for, nor money spent on buildings or programs. Another feature is that each meeting is led by a different member of the group since this Fellowship is not about personality of a leader or man-made organization, but service. Believers who don’t care to be of service to humanity but remain in church can continue as they are, but those who hear the call of God can join others to be dramatically effective through unity in their answer.
There is not even an attempt to be in conflict with organized religion or established denominations, since people of God need help too and have much to share. There are amazing causes being addressed by churches with denominational names on their doors that can be helped by the Christian Service Fellowship activities. Meetings are not intended to be another church since neither dogma nor theology is to be taught. Strength in unity and effective service is a study in every gathering. What also happens in these meetings is a review of needs in the community or the world that can be addressed by these like-minded Christians in concert for service.
You have just heard that the Christian Service Fellowship concept is not about established church organizations, which is true for a very important reason. The “church” in our nation has, in so many places, become a building or complex that Christians can see and touch that is intended to benefit the organization. Christian Service Fellowship has no buildings for worship, so the building to be accomplished is in the heart and soul of the needy. A long-standing criticism of the established church is that we spend money on ourselves and our buildings instead of meeting needs, such as hunger and addiction. Sometimes it does take a structure to accomplish a mission, but not always. To avoid the building syndrome, this plan limits the number of participants in each group to 70 so that existing buildings or homes can be used for meetings. At the point a Fellowship reaches 70, five are asked to break away and start another group. There is no “mega-church” in the Christian Service Fellowship, since a huge congregation is not necessary to meet “mega” needs. Communication is established through a website so multiple Fellowship groups can join forces to meet the biggest needs.
The usual method of meeting needs in a community used by most Christians is prayer, and prayer is very important, yet prayer is often a plea to get God to do what we need to accomplish. Concern and recognition is one thing; adding action to your prayer and faith is another. This means that Christian Service Fellowship meetings engage in fervent prayer with a different request; asking God to show us what we need to do, and where resources need to be placed.
An example of hands-on action and lesson comes from the publication, “Today in the Word” published in 1991. “During the American Revolution a man in civilian clothes rode past a group of soldiers repairing a small defensive barrier. Their leader was shouting instructions, but making no attempt to help them. Asked why by the rider, he retorted with great dignity, ‘Sir, I am a corporal!’ The stranger apologized, dismounted, and proceeded to help the exhausted soldiers. The job done, he turned to the corporal and said, ‘Mr. Corporal, next time you have a job like this and not enough men to do it, go to your commander-in-chief, and I will come and help you again.’” The rider who stopped to help was none other than George Washington.”
This is the idea. We help our Commander accomplish the things necessary to build a society where love is cherished as the most important, with truth as the avenue to that love. And, as with the example George Washington gave, we know that our Commander will help us accomplish the tasks He gives through the Holy Spirit. Another goal of Christian Service Fellowship is found in our focus scripture passage of Luke 6, to minister to the hungry, the sad, the critical and destitute. If we do, the promise in verse 23 is ours, “Be glad and rejoice in that day, for your reward is increased in heaven; for their fathers did the same to the prophets.” What happens if we don’t carry out service as required? Read the list of warnings from verses 24 through 26. Seriously, do read this passage in Luke 6.
The time for coming together in service is now. Our world is falling apart, partially because the Christian Community has not followed instructions so carefully given to us by our One Leader, Yeshua, Messiah, Master.
What happens if we fail to meet the needs of those in our world by doing nothing? Perhaps this story is a way to relate the result. The great violinist, Nicolo Paganini, willed his marvelous violin to Genoa -- the city of his birth -- but only on condition that the instrument never be played upon. It was an unfortunate condition, for it is a peculiarity of wood that as long as it is used and handled, it shows little wear. As soon as it is discarded, it begins to decay. The exquisite, mellow-toned violin has become worm-eaten in its beautiful case, valueless except as a relic. The moldering instrument is a reminder that a life withdrawn from all service to others loses its meaning.
The Christian Service Fellowship is in harmony with the words of Dr. Richard Foster, who writes; “Self-righteous service comes through human effort. True service comes from a relationship with the divine Order deep inside. Self-righteous service is impressed with the "big deal." True service finds it almost impossible to distinguish the small from the large service. Self-righteous service requires external rewards. True service rests contented in hiddenness. Self-righteous service is highly concerned about results. True service is free of the need to calculate results. Self-righteous service picks and chooses whom to serve. True service is indiscriminate in its ministry. Self-righteous service is affected by moods and whims. True service ministers simply and faithfully because there is a need. Self-righteous service is temporary. True service is a life-style. Self-righteous service is without sensitivity. It insists on meeting the need even when to do so would be destructive. True service can withhold the service as freely as perform it. Self-righteous service fractures community. True service, on the other hand, builds community.”
The goal of true service is what we are aiming to accomplish with Christian Service Fellowship, and that goal is possible with your interest and cooperation. All Christians are welcome, regardless of affiliation, denomination or position within the established church. We invite you to look further into this plan to bring a world together under the banner of love. A document explaining the concept is available by sending an email requesting it, to info@ChristianServiceFellowship.org. There is no charge for this information, and there are no membership fees associated with Christian Service Fellowship, since we want to be as effective as possible.
We opened with a story of a woman who did her best to communicate to police where she lived. Likewise, I want to clearly relay the intent and purpose of this plan designed to unify Christianity in service without layers of bureaucracy or confusion. And, we don’t want to miss a single Christian who knows the call of God is on their heart for remarkable service. If that call is yours, let us help.
Next week we will continue with The Layman’s View in the tradition of teaching you may have experienced over the past year.
The email address to receive details on the Christian Service Fellowship is; inof@christianservicefellowship.org.
His mercy endures forever. In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, amen.
Audio available on Sundays at 9AM (central) on www.newstalk1290.com
