Follow

Disciples Sign-up to Serve!

Today, as we jump back into our Follow series together, we are going to focus on of the most honorable responses of a follower of Jesus – Disciples Sign-up to Serve!!!

One of the greatest virtues we can possess in life, which is the opposite of entitlement, is a sense of duty. Duty is defined as the motivated awareness of ethical responsibility.

Luke 17:10

10 So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty.’ ” (ESV)

Duty is a word of action! When something needs to get done, or a cause needs to be championed, duty always responds regardless of the personal cost involved. Public servants are often the embodiment of this spirit of duty. When a firefighter climbs up a tree and rescues a little girl’s cat, the public calls them a hero, but the firefighter insists they are only doing their duty. When a police officer risks their life in a gunfight to stop violent crime, the public calls them a hero, but the officer insists they are only doing their duty. When a paramedic shows up on a tragic scene and rescues a child from a burning car, the bystanders herald them a hero but the paramedic insists they are only doing their duty. When a soldier goes on a covert operation and takes out another ISIS leader, the world declares them a hero, while the soldier insists it was simply their duty.

When a follower of Jesus signs up to serve, it is not heroic, it is simply our duty!

1 Peter 4:10

10 As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace: (ESV)

Matthew 20:28

28 even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (ESV)

How can we claim to be followers of a servant and not be servants ourselves?

Philippians 2:7-8

7 but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. (ESV)

A wise man said – “If serving others is below you, then leadership is beyond you.”

Ask yourself this question today:

Am I being served more than I am serving?

John Hagee – “The true measure of a man’s greatness is not the number of servants he has, but the number of people he serves.”

One of the biggest lies that many Christians believe, is that they don’t need to serve!

The very essence of the Christian faith is one of Service – Disciples sign up to serve!

Another lie that church people often believe is that if I’m not there, I won’t be missed!

Recent church research from The Unstuck Group found that:

-38% of adult church attendees are involved in serving at their church (62% are not!)

-The largest 10% of churches in America have 71% of their people involved in serving.

What does this tell us? If we don’t serve in the church, the life of the church suffers!

If you aren’t here to do your part, then something or someone is getting missed!

1 Corinthians 12:12-17

12 For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit. 14 For the body does not consist of one member but of many. 15 If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. 16 And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? (ESV)

Every part of the body matters, and when any part is missing the whole suffers!

YOU are an invaluable part of God’s church – priceless, indispensable, irreplaceable.

– What do you call a person surrendered to Christ? A disciple of Christ!

– What do you call a group of people surrendered to Christ? The body of Christ!

Ephesians 4:16

16 from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. (ESV)

What’s at stake in the church today is our culture! What kind of church will we be?

Churches either end up developing a Culture of Status or a Culture of Service!

Psalm 84:10

10 For a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness. (ESV)

Our cultural expectation as your church is – That everybody serves somewhere!

If everybody does something, then nobody has to do everything!

I want to share 3 incredibly powerful things that serving does for the servant:

1. Serving keeps us humble!

James 1:17 (NIV) “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights.”

Deuteronomy 8:18 “But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth…”

When we forget the God of our blessings, we focus on status instead of service!

1 Peter 5:6-7 “Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time…”

Followers of Jesus, regardless of their earthly position, are created by God to serve!

Jesus said in: Matthew 23:11 (NIV) “The greatest among you will be your servant.”

2. Serving keeps us obedient!

1 Peter 4:10 “Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.”

When our time, talent and treasure are only serving us, we have stopped serving God!

Matthew 25:40 (NIV) “Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.”

3. Serving keeps us fruitful!

Isaiah 58:10 (NIV) “and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday.”

Your talent is God’s gift to you. What you do with it is your gift back to God!

Need Prayer?

Email: prayer@realchurchohio.com