Pastor Mike Biolsi
pastor@ncfchurch.org
www.ncfchurch.org
North Country Fellowship Church
Attitude Adjustment #3
Would you like Fries with That?
We all want service. We demand it.
At a hotel – I want my reservation to be as it was promised, the right bed, non-smoking; I want a good bed where I don’t sink into the middle and touch the floor, and I want the room (especially the bathroom) spotless.
At a restaurant I want a smile from the person waiting on me; I want my glass refilled before it is empty – don’t ask, just do it; I want my food served hot, my server to be cool and everything to be timely .AND most of all I want to enjoy it with the people I care about…
Proverbs 15:17 - A bowl of soup with someone you love is better than steak with someone you hate.(NLT)
How many of you know what I mean about service? We all liked to be pampered, we all like to be treated like kings & queens – royalty in our own kingdom of delusions 8-)
I think the most impressive service that I have ever enjoyed was at the Corel Centre in Ottawa. We had box tickets to an Ottawa Senators. We had special parking not far from the main doors. When we entered we went to the box seats. We had a glassed in room with a TV, radio (both tuned into the game) a fridge fully stocked and cabinets of snacks. Leather chairs, and sliding glass doors out to the arena where there were private seating for 10-12 people.
We had waitresses that came in wearing tuxedos who took orders for dinner and hot appetizers. The came in between periods and refilled our fridge and cupboards.
When the game was over we went to our hotel, a concierge came to our vehicle, greeted us by name, carried our bags to our room and parked our car. The room was spectacular, with one wall all glass, over 10 stories up, overlooking the city at night. The bed was great and the pillows were down-filled and the best I have ever found.
Now THAT was service! Oh, and the game was good, too!
Talk about red carpet treatment! We all like being treated like that. We all like being treated like we are someone important.
So… from this day forward at NCF, the deacons will be…. :)
Though we all like feeling important, the Bible tells us how we can actually BE important.
Matthew 20:26-28 -If you want to be great, you must be the servant of all the others. And if you want to be first, you must be the slave of the rest. The Son of Man did not come to be a slave master, but a slave who will give his life to rescue many people.(CEV)
Real significance is not measured by the size of your investment portfolio, your house, your ride – but by the lives that you impact, the ways that you serve others.
All success consists in this: You are doing something for somebody - benefiting humanity - and the feeling of success comes from the consciousness of this.
Elbert Hubbard (1856 - 1915) US author
The key to lasting significance and meaning in life is not how other people treat you, or how you are served, it is how you serve others.
Serving prevents stagnation…
* In LIFE – it’s keeps us from getting in a rut, self focused, stuck in routine
* In HEALTH – many people are finding that serving others keeps them healthier
* In FAITH – most importantly it keeps our faith fresh. When we cease to serve we become stale, stagnant, complacent and our faith and church dies.
The key to lasting significance and meaning in life is not how other people treat you, or how you are served, it is how you serve others.
Many people miss this facet of life – mainly because we are a self-consumed society. We are a “victim” society – where everything is an attack on us. Nothing happens that is neutral, everything is a direct attack on me.
For instance… you go into a restaurant, and the service is slow, or the waitress is not very happy – are you concerned about what might be wring with her, or are you upset that your schedule is not going as planned – you are a victim of yet another sinister plat of the “busboy underground”, a conspiracy of the darkest kind bent on ruining your life through poor service. :)
Philippians 2:3-4 - 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.(NLT)
The key to living a life of significance is to….
Choose to Be the busboy rather than the boss man…
The boss man is the one that everyone works for. It is the guy who speaks and people listen, when he says jump, everyone says how high. You can choose to be the boss man – it is what this world says is success. However, it is a life of lonely isolation and nothingness. Other people exist to make the boss successful.
[I love the way this is demonstrated in the movie, Sabrina” with Harrison Ford!]
When you go into a restaurant, the busboy is the person that is rarely seen. He/she does her job and disappears. They do that job that you hate – the dishes (which is one of the reasons you eat out!). They are bossed around by the waitresses, clean up the mess that your kids leave behind when they are learning the law of gravity with the salt shaker and the law of displacement with the ketchup bottle. The busboy’s job is to make everyone else successful.
Quiet service, in the background, where no one is there to see it, doing the job that no one else wants to do hardly seems like “success” to me! What do you think?
Well, greater minds than mine have thought about this… let me give you a few quotes to chew on:
"I don’t know what your destiny will be, but one thing I know: The ones among you who will be really happy are those who have sought and found how to serve."
— Albert Schweitzer
"Service is the supreme commitment of life."
Warren Harding, 29th President of the United States.
Any definition of a successful life must include service to others." -George Bush
"Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on earth. " - Muhammad Ali
Presidents, famous people, leaders of others have all come to this bizarre understanding that service is the most important use of a life – why we were created in the first place…
The sole meaning of life is to serve humanity. - Leo Tolstoy
Where did they get such an idea? Perhaps from the God who set this divine precedent. And Jesus lived that to the extreme – for you and me…
Philippians 2:5-8 - 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. He made himself nothing; he took the humble position of a slave and appeared in human form. And in human form he obediently humbled himself even further by dying a criminal’s death on a cross.(NLT)
Jesus DID NOT come to earth as a king, though he could have. He did not come as president; nor as CEO of a fortune 500 company, or the head of Microsoft. He came as a servant. WOW!
Matthew 20:28 - For even I, the Son of Man, came here not to be served but to serve others, and to give my life as a ransom for many.”(NLT)
Serving others is especially important if you have chosen to be called by the name “Christian”. Why? Because the way that you choose to serve others is a reflection of who God is. AND, the service that you do is viewed by God NOT as mere service to another human, but as service provided directly to him:
Colossians 3:23-24 - Do your work willingly, as though you were serving the Lord himself, and not just your earthly master. In fact, the Lord Christ is the one you are really serving, and you know that he will reward you.(CEV)
As a matter of fact, everything that you and I do needs to be a service to God. Our entire lives:
* our resources & time
* our talents & abilities
* our listening & caring
Romans 12:1 - Dear friends, God is good. So I beg you to offer your bodies to him as a living sacrifice, pure and pleasing. That’s the most sensible way to serve God.(CEV)
For many years, the church of God has been in a slumber. The national statistics says that 10% of people in churches are involved in ministry. I am proud of NCF – for our percentage is MUCH higher than that – we are probably over 50%, but that is not good enough. There is always more people to serve, more needs to meet, more opportunities to get involved.
Even the programs that we do offer need more workers – my wife is leading 2 small groups, teaching Sunday School, playing piano for the music team and does a lot of stuff to help me out besides… that is too much for one person. Perhaps you are one of the ones that has been enjoying the services NCF offers but has not been serving yourself – it’s time to jump in and do your part to make sure the ministries continue and expand.
For those of you who are not sure how to get started, let me make a few suggestions:
1. I realize that as a small church we do not have a large slate of offerings for you to get involved in. If you feel a burden for something we do not offer… let’s start something new!
TRY THIS: answer the following questions:
What I am good at:
What I love doing:
How these two things could help others:
One Thing I can do this week to start:
2. If you are not sure of what God has designed you for, shaped you for, watch for our class 301 coming out in a month or two – then sign up for it!
3. In the meantime, get involved in some ministry – experiment, try things out, look for simple ways to meet needs around you.
"For too long our culture has said, ‘If it feels good, do it.’ Now America is embracing a new ethic and a new creed: ‘Let’s roll.’ In the sacrifice of soldiers, the fierce brotherhood of firefighters, and the bravery and generosity of ordinary citizens, we have glimpsed what a new culture of responsibility could look like. We want to be a nation that serves goals larger than self. We’ve been offered a unique opportunity, and we must not let this moment pass."
President George W. Bush, 43rd President of the United States.
We have been called to serve goals that are larger than self – and those goals are as large as our God. Let us choose to live our lives for the things that God himself modeled –sacrifice and service for others. And let us realize that no service s small or insignificant if God is involved.
Great opportunities to help others seldom come, but small ones surround us daily. ~ Sally Koch
Imagine a church in which 100% of the people are involved in serving others… where the greatness of men is seen daily by the sacrifices made for others. Imagine the revolution that would take place in our world, our culture, our neighborhood, our church, our lives…. our own faith.
May God grant that vision, and make it a reality starting today.
PRAYER.
