Serving Jesus Series

SERVING IS BEING SET FREE

1 Jn 2:3-6

Keeping our eye on Jesus, obeying, serving Him will keep us clean. It will keep us from sinning.

Our mission statement is: “Loving Jesus, Loving Others, and Serving Both. Repeat that with me. This is why we are here. We, at New Heights, are in Pineville, KY because God wants us to love Him, others, while showing our love in service!

Why does God want us to serve Him? We are servants to something. We are either enslaved to the sin we commit or we are servants of Jesus. Obeying the Truth will set us free. In order to be set free, we must actively serve Him! If you wanted to run a marathon race would you run it with a box of Twinkies in your hand? How ridiculous would it be if you tried to run and eat the Twinkies at the same time? Kind of defeating the point. This activity is going to cause some serious cramps; and you would have to stop running to eat the Twinkies. It’s tempting to stop because my body is tired. The Twinkies give me an excuse; they make stopping that much easier. Because of them, I can justify stopping. Then once I stop, why should I start up again? Jesus is blessing me with Twinkies. He doesn’t want me to move forward? If He wanted me to move forward then He wouldn’t have given me the Twinkies! Right? After all, I deserve these Twinkies. They are good for me!

This is why it is important for us to run with your eye fixed on the goal. When doing this, the distractions are less imposing. The cramps still come but you are able to overcome because of your single-mindedness, focus, concentration! Hebrews tells us, “ 1Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. 2Let us fix our eyes on Jesus,” Heb. 12.

TELL YOUR NEIGHBOR, “IT’S TIME TO THROW SOME STUFF OFF.” Throw out the Twinkies.

When we serve God, the key is to keep our eyes on Him and off of everything else that would distract us! “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus.” Peter walking on the water.

Today, I want to share some insights from God’s word about some of the benefits of serving Jesus.

We need to understand God’s truth. Listen to this.

PRAY- FATHER HELP US TO UNDERSTAND HOW SERVING THE LEAST IN OUR EYES IS SERVING YOU. 40 “And the King will answer them, ‘I assure you: Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of Mine, you did for Me.’ Mt. 25 45 “Then He will answer them, ‘I assure you: Whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for Me either.’ Mt. 25

We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands. 4The man who says, "I know him," but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him. 5But if anyone obeys his word, God's love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him: 6Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did. 1 Jn. 2:3-6

The question arose, “Why should I serve God?” After all, what will I get from it? It seems to me that if you live a true Christian life all you get is pain. How would you respond to this argument? How would you respond to this statement? To this way of living? In case you haven’t noticed, the majority of the people live this philosophy. And I’m talking about Christians.

John wrote this chapter to keep us from sinning. Read verse 1-2 to yourself. John knew that in Pineville, KY in the year 2010 that you would need to know this TRUTH.

Let me just start with the word BECAUSE. My momma would answer my questions with this word when she felt like that was all that I needed to know. Why should we serve God? Because… just to name a few that will put us in our place: He is God, we are not; He created us, we didn’t create Him; We worship Him not vice-versa. He set the example, “Jesus is our example: For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." Mark 10:45 It’s time for us to grow up. It’s time for us to step up and be the mature Christ-serving person that we have been pretending to be all of these years! TELL YOUR NEIGHBOR, “BECAUSE GOD SAID SO AND THAT’S ENOUGH FOR ME!”