Serve One Another

Serve One Another

Message 6 in One Anothers Series

Chuck Sligh

October 13, 2013

A PowerPoint presentation for this message and all the sermons in the One Another Series is available upon request at chucksligh@hotmail.com.

Intro is not original with me, but I have lost the source. If anyone knows who it is, I’d be glad to attribute if you would send me the source information.

TEXT: Please turn in your Bibles to Galatians 5:13 which we will read a little later.

INTRODUCTION

Illus. – A pastor in Kansas City, Kansas, was organizing opportunities for people in his church to do small acts of kindness as a demonstration of Christ’s love in the community. He phoned several neighborhood grocery stores and laundromats for permission to do specific services.

In one call, the employee who answered the phone hesitated, and then said, “I’ll need to ask the manager, but first, let me make sure I understand: You want to clean up the parking lot, retrieve shopping carts, hold umbrellas for customers, and you don’t want anything in return?”

“Yes, that’s right,” the pastor replied.

After a moment, the employee returned to the phone. “I’m sorry,” he said, “we can’t let you do that because if we let you do it, we’d have to let everyone else do it, too!”

Isn’t that silly? Why NOT let everyone else do it? Wouldn’t that be wonderful if everyone found ways to serve?

It would be a little like heaven on earth.

• Do you want to find a little bit of heaven in your HOME?

• Do you want to find a little bit of heaven in your WORK?

• Do you want to find a little bit of heaven in all your RELATIONSHIPS?

THEN LEARN TO SERVE!

It’s the reason Christ set us free: Look with me at our text in Galatians 5:13 where we begin to see what our freedom in Christ means to us practically and how it can positively impact all our relationships.

Galatians 5:13 says, “For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.”

Right now we’re in a series on the “One Anothers” of the New Testament and so far we’ve seen that we’re members of one another, and we’ve learned that we’re to love one another, be likeminded with one another, accept one another, and greet one another.

At the end of our text we find our sixth “One Another”: By love, we’re to serve one another. The Galatians were caught up in soteriological legalism, thinking they had to add works to grace to be saved or to maintain their salvation. The book of Galatians is a refutation of that false gospel.

But Paul doesn’t want the Galatians to go from LEGALISM to LICENSE. He teaches that God has called us to LIBERTY so we could LOVE, not LUST. Since you’re free, Paul teaches…“Don’t serve yourself. Don’t indulge your sinful nature. Don’t let your freedom become a beachhead for the flesh.” Instead of legalism or license, Paul says to use your liberty to serve others in LOVE.

What does it mean to “serve one another” and how can we do it? That’s the subject of this week’s “One Another” command, so let’s jump right in:

I. FIRST, I WANT YOU TO SEE THAT SERVING OTHERS IN LOVE IS GOD’S PATH TO GREATNESS IN HIS KINGDOM – Go with me to an amazing Scripture: Matthew 20:25-28 – “But Jesus called them unto him, and said, Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they that are great exercise authority upon them. 26 But it shall not be so among you: but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister; 27 And whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant: 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.”

We think the way to greatness is through being served. But God says that he who SERVES is the one who will be great in God’s kingdom.

Illus. – I have a friend who was a graduate of Liberty University which was founded by the late Jerry Falwell. The media always painted Dr. Falwell in a bad light because he had always stood FOR righteousness and godliness AGAINST evil and wickedness. But something my friend related to me told me a different story.

When this man attended Liberty, Dr. Falwell was already a household word. His weekly TV show was broadcast around the nation. He had started a university and it was making headlines. His church was running in the thousands. His organization, the Moral Majority, was making a tremendous impact on America in the moral, cultural and political arenas.