6 Qualities for Spiritual Health part 6
(6) I am willing to serve.
- Today is our last sermon of our 6 qualities for spiritual health.
- Today Let’s look at the importance of ourselves in the Body of Christ.
- It is easy to find ourselves feeling like the appendix in the body of Christ, but each
part has great value.
- Case in point. That appendix that you thought was useless is now thought to be
the safe house for good bacteria in our gut. Bacteria that helps us stay healthy.
- Each member is important.
- Let’s begin with 1 Corinthians 12:12-27.
1 Corinthians 12:12-27
12 For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ.
13 For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.
14 For the body is not one member, but many.
15 If the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body?
16 And if the ear shall say, Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body?
17 If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling?
18 But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him.
19 And if they were all one member, where were the body?
20 But now are they many members, yet but one body.
21 And the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee: nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you.
22 Nay, much more those members of the body, which seem to be more feeble, are necessary:
23 And those members of the body, which we think to be less honourable, upon these we bestow more abundant honour; and our uncomely parts have more abundant comeliness.
24 For our comely parts have no need: but God hath tempered the body together, having given more abundant honour to that part which lacked.
25 That there should be no schism in the body; but that the members should have the same care one for another.
26 And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it.
27 Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular.
Q- Why should the body of Christ be so unified & diversified?
- Prayer
- Being a Christian centers around the theme of working together for the cause of
Christ.
- Sometimes this work can get a little dicey, & hard.
> Prospecting for the Lord (www.broadcaster.org.uk)
On a sunny Sunday afternoon, two young church members were going door to door to invite people to visit their services. When they knocked on one door, it was immediately clear the woman who answered was not happy to see them.
She told them in no uncertain terms that she did not want to hear their message, and before they could say anything more, she slammed the door in their faces.
To her surprise, however, the door did not close; in fact, it bounced back open. She tried again, really putting her back into it, and slammed it again with the same result - the door bounced back open.
Convinced these rude young people were sticking their foot in her door, she reared back to give it a slam that would teach them a lesson. Just then, one of them said quietly: "Ma'am, before you do that again, you really need to move your cat."
- I’m not so sure I could’ve kept a straight face at this woman’s repeated attempts.
- Then I think of how she probably loved her cat, & the trauma she’s going to go
through.
Q- Why is it so important that the church is so unified & diverse?
- Look at the complexity of our world!
- If we were all the same, only a fraction of the world would be reached.
Q- Have you ever heard the phrase, “I don’t know what it is, I just don’t like that person
or they just rub me the wrong way”?
- Sometimes our demeanor, or just simply the way we dress, the way we look turns
people away.
- We were all made different to do one amazing thing, serve others.
- After The Lord’s Supper, Jesus washed the feet of the disciples, & I want us to
read the charge Jesus gives for all of us (the church) to do.
- This is a call for the unified body of Christ!
John 13:12-17
12 So after he had washed their feet, and had taken his garments, and was set down again, he said unto them, Know ye what I have done to you?
13 Ye call me Master and Lord: and ye say well; for so I am.
14 If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another's feet.
15 For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you.
16 Verily, verily, I say unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord; neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him.
17 If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them.
- Jesus came to serve. To do the will of Him that sent Him, the Father.
- Jesus had one goal. Do what Daddy said.
- Think of the difference. If Jesus would have been like so much of mankind. He
would have been sent by Dad, but He has His Own agenda, Own ideas. So, He’s
going to do it His way.
Q- Does that sound familiar?
- That’s Why Jesus has been named the head of the church.
- We are to follow His leading, just as He followed God’s leading.
- Jesus answered James’, & John ‘s mother when she asked Him to put seat her boys
at His right & left hand.
Matthew 20:28
28 Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.
- That almost sounds like an odd answer, until you grasp the heart of both the world, &
sadly also the church.
- Deep inside us is engrained a grading scale
- When it comes to being in any job, or part of life. There is a grading scale that always
goes along with it.
- When you start a job, or enlist into the military. You start at the bottom.
- You work your way up from employee to assistant manager or private to
corporal.
- You Do this until you’ve achieved your highest rank, maybe CEO or General.
- That’s the way we’re used to our world working.
* Listen Now
* It’s not the way it works for the Church!
- The grading scale doesn’t apply
- We are all sinners saved by grace!
- When it comes to ranking or marks we can earn, it makes us feel like we’re better
than someone else.
- If we’re better than someone else, then we won’t want to serve them like we
would someone beneath our stature.
- Jesus just told the disciples, I Am greater than anyone else, I Am Master, But I
came to serve!
Q- Is there any person here greater than their master?
- No, then all of us are called to serve, just like Jesus did.
- God didn’t pick just one special group that we are to attend to,
- If you notice, when serving is often mentioned in scripture it’s talking about
serving the brethren.
- I get the feeling a lot of Christians have adapted this way of thinking.
Q- Did Jesus just limit us to serve the Church?
- No, We are to minister to our family first, but listen to Paul’s words in Galatians
5:13-14
Galatians 5:13-14
13 For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.
- Here’s the first step - Serve the brethren, then,
14 For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
- Paul brought in the rest of the crowd, our neighbors.
Q- Who are our neighbors?
- A scribe asked the same question to Jesus, & Jesus gave the parable of the Good
Samaritan.
- The neighbor came down to the one who wasn’t in the family at all. As a matter of
fact the Samaritan would be seen as un-pure, the lowest of the low, but God used
him for His service.
- The Samaritan was our example. God calls us to serve in every area we are in,
because all around us is our neighbors.
Colossians 4:5-6
5 Walk in wisdom toward them that are without, redeeming the time.
6 Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man.
- To increase our spiritual health we must be willing to serve like Jesus did.
- To be unified with Christ & His body. So that, others might be brought into the fold.
> The flutter of Angel’s wings by a metro Denver hospice physician (www.allaboutgod.net)
I was driving home from a work when my car started to choke and sputter and died.
I barely managed to coast, cruising, into a gas station, glad only that I would not be blocking traffic on the highway and would have a somewhat warm spot to wait for the tow truck. It wouldn't even turn over. Before I could make the call, I saw a woman walking out of the "quickie mart" building, and it looked like she slipped on some ice and fell into a gas pump! So I got out to see if she was okay. When I got there, it looked more like she had been overcome by sobs than that she had fallen. She was a young woman who looked really haggard with dark circles under her eyes. She dropped something as I helped her up, and I picked it up to give it to her. It was a nickel.
At that moment, everything came into focus for me: the crying woman, the ancient Suburban crammed full of stuff with 3 kids in the back (1 in a car seat), and the gas pump reading $4.95. I asked her if she was okay and if she needed help, and she just kept saying "I don't want my kids to see me crying," so we stood on the other side of the pump from her car. She said she was driving to California and that things were very hard for her right now.
So, I asked, "And you were praying?" That made her back away from me a little, but I assured her I was not a crazy person and said, "He heard you, and He sent me."
I took out my card and swiped it through the card reader on the pump so she could fill up her car completely, and while it was fueling, walked to the next door McDonald's and bought 2 big bags of food, some gift certificates for more, and a big cup of coffee. She gave the food to the kids in the car who attacked it like wolves, and we stood by the pump eating fries and talking a little.
She told me her name and that she lived nearby. Her boyfriend left 2 months ago, and she had not been able to make ends meet. She knew she wouldn't have money to pay the rent January 1st, and finally, in desperation, had called her parents, with whom she had not spoken in about 5 years. They lived in California and said she could come live with them and try to get on her feet there.
So she packed up everything she owned in the car. She told the kids they were going to California for Christmas but not that they were going to live there.
I gave her my gloves and a little hug and said a quick prayer with her for safety on the road. As I was walking over to my car, she said, "So, are you like an angel or something?"
This definitely made me cry. I said, "Sweetie, at this time of year, angels are really busy, so sometimes God uses regular people."
It was so incredible to be a part of someone else's miracle. And of course, when I got in my car, it started right away and got me home with no problem. I'll put it in the shop tomorrow for a check, but I suspect the mechanic won't find anything wrong.
- This story paints the picture that we must be ready for whenever we are called.
- When it comes to our spiritual health, when we stop serving our health is
declining, or even dying!
- Jesus is the head of the church. If He’s looking one way, & the Body’s going the
other direction! We’re doomed to have trouble.
- Let’s get on track, & follow the leading of the head of the church.
