Why Serve? Series

Why serve?

New Year’s Resolutions? – A commitment to do something different in your life in this New Year – a New Beginning – a New Start. I would guess that most New Year’s Resolutions are broken in the first few weeks after the verbal commitment is made. So what do most people state they are going to do different in this New Year?

This is what I have heard:

Spend more time with family.

Lose weight.

Spend less money.

Save more money.

Read more.

Get more education.

Relax more.

How about you – have you made a New Year’s Resolution?

I seriously doubt that many people have committed to becoming what I am going to challenge you to commit to this year – My challenge “To be servants!” Yes – this is what I am challenging you to do this year – commit to serving others in the Biblical Community and serve God.

Thesis: We need to have hearts that are ablaze and that burn with the passion for serving God and serving each other. Only then will we find fulfillment and happiness in life! Only then will we make a difference with our life for all eternity.

Video Illustration: “I am not an expert” – Bluefishtv.com

This funny illustration is how some Christians approach the idea of serving others.

Opening Scripture Texts:

John 12:25-26: (NIV) "The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me."

John 13:12-17: (NIV) “12When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. “Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them. 13“You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am.

14Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. 15I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. 16I tell you the truth, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. 17Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.”

Eph 5:21: (Jer) “Give way to one another in obedience to Christ.”

Introduction:

Subject servanthood – quotes:

• Richard Foster’s quote on servanthood: "In some ways we would prefer to hear Jesus’ call to deny father and mother, houses and land for the sake of the gospel than his word to wash feet. Radical self-denial gives the feel of adventure. If we forsake all, we even have the chance at glorious martyrdom. But in service we must experience the many little deaths of going beyond ourselves. Service banishes us to the mundane, the ordinary, the trivial…"In the Discipline of service there is also great liberty. Service allows us to say ’no!’ to the world’s games of promotion and authority. It abolishes our need and desire for a ’pecking order’."

• Oswald Chambers quote on servanthood: "It is one thing to go on the lonely way with dignified heroism, but quite another thing if the line mapped out for you by God means being a door-mat under other people’s feet."

Illustration:

While I was helping to clean the church, I encountered a 12 year-old boy who was working out his court sentence for theft by doing community service. He asked me what bad thing I had done to be working there. “Why son, I didn’t do anything wrong. I’m just helping out the church. What did you do?” I ventured. “I didn’t do nuttin’ either, “ he assured me. Alarmed, I asked why he hadn’t told that to the arresting officer. “What was the use?” He muttered. “He went to my house and found all the stuff.” Laura Panaro

Many look at serving in the church as a punishment not a joy. Yet studies have proved over and over that those who serve are more content and happy with their life than those who do not serve the Lord and others. In Myers book The Pursuit Of Happiness he addresses the truth about what genuinely brings happiness and contentment to people’s lives. In his epilogue after going through many studies he sums up his findings:

By scrutinizing the fruits of hundreds of painstaking studies of well-being we have, first, dispelled some popular but mistaken ideas:

1. That few people are genuinely happy

2. That wealth buys well-being

3. That tragedies, such as disabling accidents, permanently erode happiness

4. That happiness springs from memories of intense, if rare, positive experiences (idyllic vacations, ecstatic romances, joy filled victories)

5. That teens and the elderly are the unhappiest people