Serving Others Series

SERVING OTHERS LIKE JESUS

This is the last of the series “Be the church by Loving God, others, and serving both. Let say that together. After today, my goal is for you to have a heart to serve others like Jesus. To “Be the Church” in our society we must Love Jesus, Love others, while Serving Jesus and Others. To serve Jesus is different then serving others. Here is what I mean, serving Jesus is obeying Him! Serving others is not obeying them, it is submitting our resources to them as if they were Jesus!

READ AND PRAY

29 But he, wanting to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

30 Then Jesus answered and said: “A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, who stripped him of his clothing, wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead. 31 Now by chance a certain priest came down that road. And when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. 32 Likewise a Levite, when he arrived at the place, came and looked, and passed by on the other side. 33 But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was. And when he saw him, he had compassion. 34 So he went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine; and he set him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. 35 On the next day, when he departed, he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said to him, ‘Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, when I come again, I will repay you.’ 36 So which of these three do you think was neighbor to him who fell among the thieves?”

37 And he said, “He who showed mercy on him.”

Then Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.” Luke 10

YOU CANNOT SERVE WITH A RELIGIOUS HEART.

31 Now by chance a certain priest came down that road. And when he saw him, he passed by on the other side.

The priest represents empty religion. Empty religion is when you place anything above a human life. Priests were known to be ritualistic in order to keep themselves clean. The fact that he was on this road was “by chance”. He was probably late for a meeting. He certainly didn’t have time for a Samaritan little on someone who God had judged so harshly.

Wear a cross. Some want to call religion- but religion can’t save you.

These people are excellent at quoting the Bible. The only problem is they don’t understand the true meaning of what they are saying. They use the Bible to control or manipulate people, and situations. It sounds good. It sounds correct. But when you look at the heart of the verses you start seeing just how they have missed the correct interpretation.

Don’t do this. Don’t do that. Religion is a lot like Lazarus. We are bound.

You deserve it. You should have not walked down that road. Yet they were on the same road!

One of my favorite stories comes from a man who used to be in our church. He and his wife were close friends of our family, but they have now moved to another part of the country. We really miss their joyful presence. When he was a youth worker many years ago in an ethnic community, he attended a church that had Scandinavian roots. Being a rather forward-looking and creative young man, he decided he would show the youth group a missionary film. We're talking simple, safe, black-and-white religious- oriented movie. That film projector hadn't been off an hour before a group of the leaders in the church called him in and asked him about what he had done. They asked, "Did you show the young people a film?" In all honesty he responded, "Well, yeah, I did." "We don't like that," they replied. Without trying to be argumentative, the youth worker reasoned, "Well, I remember that at the last missionary conference, our church showed slides--"

One of the church officers put his hand up signaling him to cease talking. Then, in these words, he emphatically explained the conflict: "If it's still, fine. If it moves, sin!" You can show slides, but when they start movin', you're gettin' into sin.

If moral behavior were simply following rules, we could program a computer to be moral.

Samuel Ginder in Washington Post.

Trade your religious heart for a heart that worships God! When you behave this way you become your own god. You control god! God hates the same people that you hate, and loves those whom you love. This is a scary moment!

YOU CANNOT SERVE WITH A LEGALISTIC HEART. 32 Likewise a Levite, when he arrived at the place, came and looked, and passed by on the other side.