May 20, 2001 Luke 10:30-35
¡§We exist to serve¡¨
INTRODUCTION
A boy stopped before a large marble plaque in the church. "What are all those names for?" he asked the minister. ¡§Sonny," said the minister, "those are in memory of all the people who died in the service." The boy replied: "WHICH service, Reverend? The morning or the evening service?"
We laugh at a story like that because it comes from the innocence of a child, and it echoes how some people feel about the time that they spend here. They feel like they are going to die if that preacher doesn¡¦t hurry up and get finished or if he doesn¡¥t quit stepping all over their toes. But that story also points out something about the time that we are spending together right now.
A couple of weeks ago, we began by reminding ourselves that this time in our week from 10:45 to 12:00 is referred to as the worship service. At that time we concentrated on the worship aspect ¡V that we come here to worship God with all of our hearts, souls and minds. But there is another word in that title that we seem to say without even thinking about it ¡V service. This is a worship service. It seems that we have gotten to the point that we say that word service in connection with church in the same way that we would say the word meeting. In fact, as it stands in our minds right now, we could just as easily call this time the worship meeting. But that¡¦s not what it is supposed to be.
Real quick, I want you to open your Bibles to Rom 12:1. Someone who has a KJV Bible, read that verse for us [KJV says ¡§service¡¨]. Emphasize that last word again if you would. Now, someone who has a NIV Bible, read the same verse. Read that last word for us one more time [NIV says ¡§worship¡¨]. Is there a problem here? NO! The same word in the original can mean both worship and service. Worship of God produces service toward Him and toward man that He created. An act of service toward God or toward men in God¡¦s name is actually an act of worship toward God. Jesus said that. (Mat 25:34-36,40 NIV) "Then the King will say to those on his right, ’Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’¡K"The King will reply, ’I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’ Service and worship go hand in hand with one another. You cannot have one without the other.
And that brings us to our mission statement ¡V why we exist as a church. Go ahead and get that out from wherever you have stashed it. If you don¡¦t have one, there are more here on the front table. Let¡¦s see how much of it you can say without looking. New Life Baptist Church exists to worship God with all our hearts, souls and minds; teach people how to grow in their knowledge of God and how to live in obedience to Him. And that brings us to today. New Life Baptist Church exists to serve Christ, one another and our community.
A few years ago [a pastor] was traveling and stopped at a service station for some fuel. [You know it was a few years ago if they stilled called ¡§gas stations¡¨ ¡§service stations¡¨] It was a rainy day, yet the station workers were diligently trying to take care of the customers. [He] was impressed by the first-class treatment and fully understood the reason when [he] read this sign on the front door of the station:
Why Customers Quit
1% die
3% move away
5% other friendships
9% competitive reasons (price)
14% product dissatisfaction
68% quit because of an attitude of indifference toward them by some employee!
Let’s take just a little while to evaluate our church and the way we respond to the people God sends through our doors. What kind of servants are we, and what kind of service do we render? In order to evaluate ourselves, we¡¦re going to take a look at a familiar story, and see if we can¡¦t make application from that story to ourselves and our church. Turn with me to Luke 10.
1. Service opportunities are all around you. (Luke 10:30)
Sometimes the problem is not seeing the need. But sometimes, the problem is seeing so many needs that you get overwhelmed and wonder how you can fix all the problems in the world and heal all the hurts. It was Dwight Moody who said, "I am only one, but I am one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something. And that which I can do, by the grace of God, I will do." With that simple commitment, God used him to bring revival to England and America.
2. Service shows who has true spirituality. (Luke 10:31,32;see Jm. 1:27)
The priest and the Levite that passed by on that day looked good to everyone who saw them on a daily basis. They had their Scriptures memorized. They knew what the Law said. They knew how to instruct people in spiritual things. They prayed beautiful prayers. But everything that they showed on the outside was just that ¡V a show. Their failure to serve on that day showed that at least for that day, their spirituality was not what it should have been. Jesus said of the Pharisees and the religious leaders of that day that they loved to show off their white garments to people and loved to have people hear them pray so long as they were in a crowd. But when it came to just them and God, they were like dead men¡¦s bones. Get a picture of these guys in your mind as they come upon this wounded man. They see him, and then they look ahead of them and behind them to make sure no one is watching. Then when they have been assured that no one will see their actions, they scoot over to the side of the road as quickly as they can to avoid the need and act as if they never saw it. I have to wonder if they would have responded to this situation if they knew that someone was watching and might communicate their actions to others.
Service communicates what is on the inside because it is often done in secret where no one else sees or at least where very few see. I think that¡¦s part of the reason that James [1:27] says that pure religion is to visit the widows and fatherless. No one else sees that, you will receive no earthly reward for it, and there is nothing that those people can do to repay you for your efforts. Service is an action done in humility for no other reason than it is the right thing to do, and it is an act of worship to God.
One woman writes of how her mother communicated to her the value of unseen servants: "I came home from school one day crying because I had been given only a small part in the children’s program, while my playmate got the leading role. After drying my tears, my mother took off her watch and put it in my hand. ’What do you see?’ she asked. ’A gold case, a face, and two hands,’ I replied. Opening the back, she repeated the question. I told her I saw many tiny wheels. ’This watch would be useless,’ she said, ’without every part -- even the ones you can hardly see.’
Service is the unseen action of those parts of the body that make the whole church run like clockwork.
3. Service requires being made aware of the need. (Luke 10:33a)
A pastor tells of an experience that most pastors can identify with even if the actual circumstances may be different. He says: I was in the supermarket one day, and a lady came down the aisle whom I could barely see over the top of her groceries. I got somewhat frightened because she seemed to be heading straight for me. She screeched to a halt within a few feet of me, peered over her load, wagged her finger, and said, "I left your church. I left your church".
So I said, "Well, if it’s my church, I think that was a very wise decision. If it’s my church, I think I’m going to leave too."
She said, "Don’t you want to know why I left?"
I said, "No, not particularly, but I think I’m going to find out". And I was right.
She said, "You weren’t meeting my needs".
I answered, "I don’t ever recollect seeing you before, let alone talking to you, let alone knowing your needs. Did you ever tell anyone specifically what your needs were?"
She couldn’t recall that she had, so I raised another question. "Can you tell me, if we have 5,000 people sitting in that church, all with your attitude, how anyone’s needs are going to be met? If you reserve the right to have that attitude, then you must give everybody the freedom to have that attitude. And if everybody has that attitude, who on earth is going to do all the need-meeting?"
Standing her ground, she demanded, "Then you tell me who will."
Relieved, I said, "I thought you’d never ask. This is what will work: when people stop sitting in the pew saying, ’They’re not meeting my needs’ and start saying, ’Whose needs can I meet?’ Then needs will be met. When the servant spirit flourishes in a congregation, then they minister to each other as unto the Lord." -- Servant, January/February, 1989
4. Service comes out of compassion. (Luke 10:33b)
(Mat 9:36 NIV) When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.
Compassion means ¡§with (com) deep feeling (passion)¡¨. It means that you feel right along with the person who is going through some type of difficulty. It means that you are able to put yourself in their shoes and feel what they are feeling, maybe because you actually have walked where they are walking or because you have the ability to put yourself in their position in your own minds. It¡¦s the idea of asking yourself, ¡§What if I was where they are? What would I want someone to do for me? What would help me overcome these feelings of loneliness and hopelessness?¡¨ And then, once you¡¦ve figured that out, you¡¦re ready to take the next step of actually doing something about the need that you feel compassion toward. Feelings are great, but they are given to us to motivate us to action. Compassion without action is useless.
5. Service requires you to put yourself in danger. (Luke 10:34a)
One Wed. or Sun. evening, when we were taking prayer requests, someone spoke up and said that a pastor friend of his had come upon an accident just after it had happened. There were no police there yet, people were hurt, and there was some danger of one of the cars catching fire. So this pastor got involved and helped get people out of the cars. It wasn¡¦t until later that he discovered that one of the people he had helped had AIDS. And yes, that pastor now has full-blown AIDS.
6. Service requires personal involvement. (Luke 10:34)
I asked, "Why doesn’t somebody do something?" Then I realized I am somebody.
Once upon a time there were four men named Everybody, Somebody, Anybody, and Nobody . There was an important job to be done and Everybody was asked to do it. But Everybody was sure that Somebody would do it. Anybody could have done it. But Nobody did it. Somebody got angry about it, because it was Everybody’s job. Everybody thought that Anybody could do it, and Nobody realized that Everybody wouldn’t do it. It ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody and Nobody did the job that Anybody could have done in the first place.
7. Service is costly. (Luke 10:34,35)
Think about what it cost this Samaritan to help the wounded man. It cost him his sense of security. He had to put himself in danger. It cost him his money. He paid for the man to stay in the inn and promised further payment later on. It cost him time. Time was a commodity that he could not get back. Once spent, it was gone. You cannot save time. You can only spend it. The question is how you are going to spend it. It cost him comfort. He had been riding on a donkey. Now he was walking, and the injured man was riding on the donkey. It may have cost him lost opportunity. He was headed to that particular city for a reason ¡V maybe to meet a business partner or a potential wife. But now, he was late. The opportunity might have been gone. What loss are you willing to suffer in order to serve other people or to serve God? It is the aspect of loss that makes service a worship activity. It is my loss that makes my service valuable. If my service costs me nothing in time, money, energy or relationships, then it was just an exercise in kindness, not an act of worship.
8. Service is long-term. (Luke 10:35)
The Samaritan could have brought his injured friend to the inn and left him there for the inn-keeper to deal with. It was more than anyone else had done, and it might have been enough to insure that the man was going to be ok. But instead, he stayed with him the whole night, listening to his fevered screams and keeping him cool. Then, once the danger hours had passed, and it was clear that he was going to make it, the Samaritan left, but not without promise that he would return to pay the man¡¦s debt if he had one. He was interested in doing more than just what was necessary for the immediate need.
I remember as a kid that our class at school would collect canned goods and non-perishable food items for a needy family at Thanksgiving time. And I remember that we would all pile into a bus and take that food as a class to a needy family. We have done things like that here at the church. And things like that are good. They help to develop an awareness of the needs of other people, and they help to develop a servant¡¦s heart. But they can only go so far. They are one-time events. They don¡¦t really require any personal involvement between me and that other person. Once my service is done, I can check off the service category in my little check-book of spiritual things that I am supposed to do and go and live the rest of my day or the rest of my week for myself. It seems to me that I remember that in my childhood experience, that after we had delivered a couple of bags of groceries and a Thanksgiving meal to that family, the whole class would head to McDonald¡¦s and consume more food for ourselves than we had given to them.
There is a better way. A gentleman came to his pastor one day and confessed to him that he had lost the joy of his relationship with Christ. The wise pastor told the man to go to the grocery store, purchase several bags of groceries, and take it to a family who could use some help. Then ¡V and here¡¦s where his advice was a little different ¡V he said to sit down to a meal with that family, and listen to what their real needs were. ¡§Develop a relationship with those people¡¨, he said; ¡§Do everything in your power to meet their needs as you would meet the needs of a friend, and that joy will return.¡¨ Service is never a one-time event given to strangers; it is a lifestyle shared with people whom you intimately involve yourself with.
Jesus, our great example in all things, said that He ¡§came not to be served, but to serve¡¨. Did His service to us match up to these same characteristics?
(Phil 2:5-11)
ƒá His service showed his true spirituality ¡V ¡§did not consider equality with God something to be grasped¡¨
ć His service came out of an awareness of our need
ć His service flowed out of His compassion toward us
ć His service required Him to put Himself in danger
ƒá His service required personal involvement ¡V ¡§being made in human likeness¡¨
ƒá His service was costly ¡V ¡§even death on a cross¡¨
ƒá His service was long-term ¡V ¡§and lo, I am with you always even unto the end of the age.¡¨
To the expert in the law, the wounded man was a subject to discuss. To the robbers, the wounded man was someone to use and exploit. To the religious men, the wounded man was a problem to be avoided. To the innkeeper, the wounded man was a customer to be served for a fee. To the Samaritan, the wounded man was a human being worth being cared for and loved. To Jesus, all of them and all of us were worth dying for.
CONCLUSION
During a terrible storm at sea that threatened every moment to carry the ship to the bottom, one of the ship’s crew was doing something on the deck when a great sea struck the ship and went fairly over the deck, striking this man with great force, disabling him and carrying him into the mad waters.
Although he was a good swimmer, he was so disabled that he could only keep above water. They saw him lifting up his imploring hands through the white foam, signifying his desire for help. But the Captain said, "Don’t lower a boat, for no small boat can live in this sea, in this terrific storm. We cannot save the man. The most we can do is to save the ship."
The vessel was bearing farther and farther from the helpless man. Once more they saw his imploring hands come up among the white caps further off, which moved all hearts that witnessed it. Still the Captain said a small boat must not be lowered, as it could not live a moment among these wild billows.
But one man who was an expert swimmer, was so moved by the imploring signals of the drowning man, that he threw off his loose garments, saying:
"I will save that man, or die with him."
So plunging into the surging deep, he struggled so bravely with the mad waters, that he reached the poor man just as his strength had gone; he had given up and was filling with water, and sinking down unconscious. He grasped him, and strange to tell, he brought him so near the ship that a small boat was lowered, and both men were taken up and laid down upon the deck. The one that had been swept overboard, entirely unconscious and his deliverer nearly so. Appliances were used and both were brought to consciousness.
As soon as the rescued man opened his eyes and found he was not in the ocean, his first words were:
"Who saved me?"
He was pointed to his deliverer still lying on the deck in his wet clothes. He crept to his deliverer, and putting his arms around his feet, and in the most tender and heart moving tone of voice cried out:
"I’m your servant, I’m your servant."
He felt that he could never do enough for him.
Let me ask all who read this incident, would you not put your arms about the bleeding feet of your great Deliverer and say from a full heart:
"Jesus, I’m your servant, I’m your servant. Ask anything of me, Jesus, and I will do it the best I can." -- A. B. Earle, From: "Incidents Used ... In His Meetings," published in 1888
INVITATION
Our mission statement says that we exist to serve Christ, one another and our community. Would you make that personal this morning, saying ¡§I exist to serve Christ, other Christians and my community¡¨? Here¡¦s how you can do that:
1. Right now, as the music plays, say a prayer to Jesus like the prayer that Isaiah said when he got a vision of God¡¦s glory: ¡§Here am I; send me. Whatever you want me to do, I¡¦ll do. I am your humble servant.¡¨ Do that right now, if you can say that honestly.
2. Then, take the hand of the persons on either side of you. If you are truly desiring to be a servant, say out loud to each person on either side of you: ¡§I am your servant, because I know that in serving you, I serve Jesus.¡¨
3. And then, because no one can serve you until they know your need, while still holding the hand of the persons next to you, tell them: ¡§When I have a need, I will take it to Jesus first, but then I will bring it to you.¡¨
Are you willing to be a servant? Jesus was, and because of it, He was exalted to the highest place. Let¡¦s follow His example.
