Before us this morning are three items: a watch, a billfold, and a Bible. The watch represents the time given to us each day. The billfold represents the financial resources that we earn or are given to us. The Bible represents the faith that we proclaim.
Now, keeping in mind the meanings of these items I ask, “Which of these three is the best way to serve others?
How many of you say the watch? How many of you say the billfold? How many of you say the Bible? How many of you say all three?
I would suggest this morning that all three is the best way to serve others. To serve others takes time. To serve others takes financial resources. To serve others is an expression of our faith.
Todd Wendorff tells the story of walking into a bathroom at his church and noticing a man in a wheelchair at the sink, with his shirt off and his toothpaste tube open. Todd said, “He was attempting to wash up and I concluded that he was homeless. Fear struck me, “God are you going to ask me to help him?”
“I didn’t know if I could do anything for him. I wrestled with God and finally washed up next to the man and left.”
He concluded, “As I walked out I felt a stab of guilt. I should have asked him if he needed help. This lonely man, I thought, probably doesn’t have a friend in the world.”
Can you relate to Todd? I can. You can.
We continue this morning with our series, “Getting In Shape for God.” Last week we looked at Ephesians 2:10 “For we are God’s masterpiece,” wrote Paul. “He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so that we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.” And we were told that getting in shape for God requires us to believe, accept, and live out the truth of this verse.
This morning we are going to learn another way that we get in shape for God. We get in shape for God as we learn to serve and be a servant to others.
In the book of James, chapter 2 and verses 14 though 18 we read, “Dear brothers and sisters, what’s the use of saying you have faith if you don’t prove it by your actions? That kind of faith can’t save anyone. Suppose you see a brother or sister who needs food or clothing, and you say, “Well good-bye and God bless you; stay warm and eat well.” but then you don’t give that person any food or clothing. What good does that do?
So you see, it isn’t enough just to have faith. Faith that doesn’t show itself by good deeds is no faith at all-it is dead and useless. Now some people may argue, “Some people have faith; others have good deeds.” I say, “I can’t see your faith if you don’t have good deeds, but I will show you my faith through my good deeds.”
Getting in shape and staying in shape for God means that we serve others - in Jesus’ name. But, this passage of scripture also challenges us with regard to service.
One reason for this challenge is because our American heritage has shaped our thinking about serving others in a couple of ways. First, we often see serving others as enabling them to stay dependent and not become responsible.
We have been taught to be self-reliant and responsible persons. We have been taught not be lazy. So our upbringing often creates a barrier to caring for others because we often see those in need as weak or lazy and if we help them in some way, then we are enabling them to continue to be irresponsible.
Another part of this challenge comes as we honestly wrestle with living out our faith by doing good works as an expression of it and yet fearing that we are going to be trapped into a commitment that we cannot get out of and find that our time and money is being expended far beyond what we had anticipated. While at the same time we don’t want to be hard or mean! (Help!)
The Bible has some important things to say about responsibility. Read through the books of Leviticus and Deuteronomy. They are filled with lists of responsibilities that God expected from the Israelites as part of the covenant. The Ten Commandments are a clear example of being responsible to God and one another. But the New Testament has some important things to say as well.
In 2 Thessalonians 3:6 – 13, Paul says this about responsibility: “And now, dear brothers and sisters, we give you this command with the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ: Stay away from any Christian who lives in idleness and doesn’t follow the tradition of hard work we gave you. For you know that you ought to follow our example. We were never lazy when we were with you. We never accepted food from anyone without paying for it. We worked hard day and night so that we would not be a burden to any of you. It wasn’t that we didn’t have the right to ask you to feed us, but we wanted to give you an example to follow. Even while we were with you, we gave you this rule: “Whoever does not work should not eat.”
Yet we hear that some of you are living idle lives, refusing to work and wasting time meddling in other people’s business. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we appeal to such people—no, we command them: Settle down and get to work. Earn your own living. And I say to the rest of you, dear brothers and sisters, never get tired of doing good.”
Pretty heavy words aren’t they?
In reading this passage, I am reminded of the story about the family in the loaded station wagon who pulled into the only remaining campsite and was observed with admiration by a camping neighbor as the four children leaped from the car and began feverishly unloading gear and setting up the tent.
The boys rushed to get firewood while the girls and their mother set up the camp stove and cooking utensils. Such teamwork, the neighbor commented, he had never seen. The father replied, “I have a system. No one goes to the bathroom until the camp is set up.”
Paul is making an important point about serving and responsibility. He points out that he and his team purposely did not come to Thessalonica to be a “drag” on the believers but to be responsible as they served as followers of the Lord: “We were never lazy when we were with you. We never accepted food from anyone without paying for it. We worked hard day and night so that we would not be a burden to any of you. It wasn’t that we didn’t have the right to ask you to feed us, but we wanted to give you an example to follow.”
Could we not say that Paul’s service was enhanced by his emphasis on personal responsibility? To be a good servant is to be a responsible person.
So when we serve others, as scripture commands us, it does not mean that we enable people to continue to be “takers” and not learn how to become “givers” as well. Serving others is a way that we help others get in shape for God as well as helping them get up and become responsible and mature followers of Christ. But there is also more to being a servant than responsibility. In the text that was read earlier in the service there is the very important issue of attitude that we have to deal with.
In a sermon entitled, “Becoming A Servant” that used Matthew 20:17-26 as one of its texts, a passage in which Jesus speaks of His coming suffering on the cross and James and John’s mother asking for places of honor for her sons, Pastor Brian Bill quotes Warren Wiersbe on this passage “Jesus spoke about a cross, but they were interested in a crown.” It is a pointed statement about our attitudes and priorities in relation to serving.
Paul says the same thing: “Don’t be selfish; don’t live to make a good impression on others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourself. Don’t think only about your own affairs, but be interested in others, too, and what they are doing. Your attitude should be the same that Christ Jesus had. Though he was God, he did not demand and cling to his rights as God.”
Now some of us may take exception to the statement “don’t live to make a good impression on others” because we don’t want to be rude or irritating to people but kind and caring. Paul isn’t telling the Philippians to be rude or irritating. He is telling them to not act in such a manner that puts self-interest ahead of God-interest. As Pastor Bill also says, “our default setting is selfishness, not other-centeredness. In order to improve our serve we must seek the Savior and follow the model of the Master.” How do we do that? By looking at passages such as this one for guidance on how to serve as Jesus did. Paul gives the Philippians and us some good tips on how to serve as Jesus did by cultivating an attitude.
Tip number one comes from Philippians 2:1: Think about how your relationship with Christ and other Christians has helped you.
Paul begins chapter 2 with a series of important questions: Is there any encouragement from belonging to Christ? Any comfort from his love? Any fellowship together in the Spirit? Are your hearts tender and sympathetic?
How do you answer these questions this morning? Have you gained encouragement in your relationship with Christ? Have you gained comfort from His love? Have you experienced fellowship, closeness as part of this church (or any church) through the Spirit? Have your experiences as follower of Christ created a caring compassion in your heart? Or has your experiences created the opposite of encouragement, comfort, fellowship and compassion? What’s your answer?
Servant hood thrives in an environment when we can give an affirmative answer to these questions. But, when we can’t our ability to serve, individually and congregationally is impaired. Not necessarily disabled, but impaired.
Tip number two comes from Philippians 2:2: Make the decision to work together and be one in Christ by loving and working together for one purpose – to bring people to Christ and help them follow Him!
Servant hood becomes increasingly effective when we make the choice to work together in Jesus’ name. Getting in shape for God requires us to work together.
I like the current emphasis in ministry on building teams and doing church as a team. (There’s even a book by that title.) Ministry is so important and so demanding that one person cannot do it all!
Much has been said about burnout. I used to think that burnout was about working too hard. That can be a problem.
But, as I have lived longer and read more, I realized that, as someone has written, burnout is more about the “emotional” position that one is in or put in. In other words, those who think that they are totally responsible for the ministry or a ministry or that success or failure of a ministry is totally dependent on their performance, creates a pressure cooker environment that will, if not dealt with, cook their spirits and they will burn out. A key attitude of servant hood we learn from Jesus is that we work together. After all Jesus had the twelve disciples and a host of others who served along with Him.
Tip number three comes from Philippians 2:3: Keep working at keeping selfishness and self-centeredness out of your life.
Keith Miller tells the story of how dealing with the issue of pure motives almost kept him from going to a speaking engagement at a church. He did go and prayed just prior to the start of his presentation, “that God would use me if you can use a man as full of himself as I am.”
Miller went on with his speech and goes on to say “several days later a man who attended the meeting came to my office. He said that he had been desperate and almost had lost hope, but as a result of attending the session that he had decided to give life another try. After he left, I sat thinking about what had happened.”
One of the conclusions that he drew from the experience was “it came crashing home to me that my motives are always mixed to some degree – and that most likely they always will be in this life. So that the leap of faith in witnessing (and I would add serving) for Christ is to go…[and] take the risk I will speak (and serve) for Him instead of myself.”
In Philippians 1, the previous chapter, Paul himself addresses the issue of motives as he honestly states that some who are preaching the Christian message do so, as part of verse 17 says, “with selfish ambition, not sincerely.” “But,” as Paul says in verse 18, “whether or not their motives are pure, the fact remains that the message about Christ is being preached, so I rejoice. And I will continue to rejoice.”
We will always do battle with selfishness and self-centeredness as we serve. We will serve with a variety of motives in our hearts and minds. But, the basic thrust of the Bible is that we do so less and less over the years.
Each of these tips builds on one another. For as we think about all the blessing and benefits that God has given to us as we have followed Him, then attitudes of love and trust begin to grow and develop in our lives so that we think less and less of ourselves and more of others and their needs, especially their need to experience the saving grace of Jesus Christ.
This requires us to get in shape for God so that as we serve, in Jesus’ name, we are able to serve well and effectively and God is made clearer and more credible in our hearts and lives.
In a moment, we are going to sing a hymn that gives us perspective on our service for Christ and the struggles that we have as we serve Him:
Does the place you’re called to labor, seem so small and little known? It is great if God is in it, And He’ll not forget His own.
Little is much when God is in it, labor not for wealth or fame, there’s a crown and you can win it, if you go in Jesus’ name.
There are no small places of service in God’s church. Every place is important. Every place is a large and important place. The smallness comes in our thinking and in our standards.
Last month, we celebrated the home going of Letha. I e-mailed one of her proteges of her passing and he wrote a wonderful note that said in part “Her humbleness and desire to serve others and tell others about Jesus was a great inspiration to me. She taught me that a person doesn’t have to have all the bells and whistles of "professionalism" to love and follow Jesus and share Jesus with others...just availability. Many people, both young and old, male and female, in both places we served together, were touched by her sacrifice and simplicity.”
That was true of Letha. And as I prepared for her funeral the depth of service that she gave for Christ throughout her life struck me. May that depth of service be a hallmark of our lives and … our faith as well. Amen.
