Why Serve?

Brad Hixon · Faith Church · May 26, 2019

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Brad Hixon

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serve45people39known31serving21jesus20god19bible18because17story16peter15church15great14servant13time13need13serve because5paul writes5serving people5life11faith church4honors god4big deal4today10name10

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So first Peter chapter 4 is where we're going to be today.

While you're turning there, I want to ask you a question.

We could probably make a whole list of things that we wanna be known for, right?

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Peter ·16Jesus ·15Elijah ·5Paul ·4Mark ·2Luke ·2Elijah. ·2Timothy ·2Timothy. ·2Christ Jesus ·2Jesus. ·2God ·1

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Israel. ·2Israel ·2Peter's point ·1turkey ·1

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want to be ·10want to be known ·9be known for ·9be known as ·8are you known for ·7are you known ·7what are you ·5what are you known ·4if you ·6he says ·5thank you ·5maybe you ·4

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Transcript

So first Peter chapter 4 is where we're going to be today. If you brought a Bible with you can get it out, turn it on, open it up. First Peter, almost all the way at the end. If you go to the end of your Bible and turn back to the left, you will find it. While you're turning there, I want to ask you a question. What are you known for? Like people around you, your friends, colleagues, family members, what do they know Fill in the blank, your name. What do people think of? Let me turn the question a little bit and say, what do you want to be known for? When people think of you, what do you want to pop into their mind? We could probably make a whole list of things that we wanna be known for, right? Like maybe you wanna be known as someone who's intelligent, you wanna be known as someone who's funny, you wanna be known as someone who's kind. Maybe it's a skill that you want people to know you by. You're a great doctor. You're a great craftsman. Maybe you want to be known as a great leader. Maybe you want to be known as somebody who's a dreamer. A really creative. Maybe you want to be known as a great mom or a great dad. Maybe you want to be known as an advocate. Somebody who helps some cause or some group of people. What is it that Jesus is known for? Did you know that the Bible says that Jesus had something, he has something he wants to be known for? There is something that Jesus wants us to think of. When we hear his name, when we hear the name Jesus, there's something he wants us to think of, something to come to mind. And he tells us in Mark chapter 10, Jesus' words, he tells us what that is. He says, "The Son of Man did not come to be served, And to give his life as a ransom for many. So Jesus says the thing that he wants to be known by of all things, he wants people to think of him. When they hear his name, when they hear Jesus, he wants people to think that guy is a servant. Which is kind of incredible to me, that the Lord of creation of all things wants to be known as a servant. So we're in this series called "Why Church?" And today we're going to ask, "Why do we serve?" What is this fascination that Christ followers have with serving? Many of you are incredible servants. A lot of you serve here at Faith Church in all kinds of ways. Did you know it takes something like 800 volunteers to make this place happen just for a week, every single week? That's nuts, right? A lot of you serve in incredible ways here. you those serve outside the walls. You serve the community. You're a great servant in your workplace. A lot of you are great servants in your home. Why do we serve? Like it's counterintuitive to serve. Why would we care about someone else's needs over our own? Serving often costs us time, energy, sometimes it costs us That's what we're going to talk about today. We're also going to talk about maybe some of the things that get in the way of serving, that stop us from serving. So before we jump in, if you're somebody who takes notes, you want to write something down, sort of the overarching principle for why we serve, we found in Mark 10 is that we serve because Jesus is our model and Jesus is a servant. we are people who want to be like Christ, who want to follow after Him. Jesus is our example, and Jesus is a servant. So that's sort of our starting point, but let's try and break that down a little bit. So first Peter, chapter four, I'm gonna jump all over the Bible today. I put a bunch of scripture in your app. If you wanna turn to each place, feel free, but you're probably gonna get dizzy, 'cause I'm gonna move fast. So if you wanna just look it up later, you wanna just sit and listen, that's cool too. going to be rooted. So at least put your finger there because we're going to start there. We're going to come back there. And Peter is telling us, why would we serve? And he starts in verse 7. Peter writes, he says, "The end of all things is near." So let's just get this out of the way. That's weird to me. Like I think of, you go to a sporting event, there's always some guy with like a big poster board and it says, "The end is near. That's not what Peter is doing here. Peter's not trying to be weird. He's creating attention. He's creating an urgency. He's saying that Christ could return at any time. So remember Jesus of Nazareth dies on a cross. He comes back to life, God raises him back to life, and then he ascends to heaven, which is where he is today. But before he leaves, Jesus says, I'm coming back. He tells his friends, I'm gonna come back. I'm going to judge the world. And Peter is saying, what are you going to be doing when Christ returns? What will you be known for? If this whole thing ends today, what would you be known for? He says the end of all things is near. Therefore, be alert and of sober mind so that you may pray. because love covers over a multitude of sins. He's going, "Hey, life is short. What do you want to be known for?" He says, "We have to, above all, love each other." Okay, how do we do that? What does that look like? He's gonna tell us, verse nine. He says, "Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others." has been given a gift to serve other people. Remember that. Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others as faithful stewards of God's grace in its various forms. If anyone speaks, they should do so as one who speaks the very words of God. If anyone serves, they should do so with the strength God provides so that circle, highlight, underline so that what he's about to say is really important, in all things, God may be praised through Jesus Christ, to Him be the glory and the power forever and ever. Amen. And so Peter's point is, look, we should serve each other. And he says one of the reasons we should serve each other is we should serve because it honors God. He just says, look, when we serve, when we serve one another, it honors God. you were super excited about it, you saved up your money, you thought this is what they want. And you got it for them and they open it and they're like, oh, like, thanks. Like, they're not that excited, right? Electric turkey carver, just what I always wanted. Thank you. And they put it on the shelf and they don't use it. It bums you out. But if you ever gotten somebody a gift and they tear it open and they're like, yes, this is what I wanted. And enough of it, it fires you up, right? You get jacked up for that, you're excited. So Peter is saying that God has given every single one of us a gift, it's a spiritual gift, he's given every one of us a gift to serve each other. And when we use it, it honors God. God gets fired up about that. He gets excited to see us use this gift that he's given us. That honors him. couple of examples. And here's where we're going to just flip all over the Bible. Again, feel free to turn there if you want to keep up or just sit back and listen. That's okay. There are a couple of stories in the Bible I want to show you because I think we start talking about serving and we think I got to do something big. I got to really make my mark something epic. I got to I want to change service that the Bible celebrates. So I want to show you a couple stories. You see a story in the news this week. There was a guy, he was speaking at a college graduation and he's a billionaire. And he announced during his speech that he was going to pay off the student loans, the college loans, of everyone who was graduating that day. Some of us are like, "We went to the wrong college in the wrong Again, what the Bible often celebrates are these small acts of service, things that you could do, or I could do. So let me show you Acts 9. I want to show you how the Bible points out and celebrates small acts of serving. Look at this story. Acts 9 starting in verse 36. It says, Greek, her name is Dorcas. Best name in the Bible, hands down, there's nothing better. Dorcas, the 12-year-old in me cannot stop giggling every time I read it. Get it out. Her name is Dorcas. All right. She was always doing good and helping the poor. So that's what she's known for, doing good, helping the poor. About that time, she became sick and died and her body was washed and it was placed in an upstairs room. Lita was near Japa, so when the disciples heard that Peter was in Lita, they sent two men to him and they urged him, "Peter, please come at once." Peter went with them and when he arrived he was taken upstairs to the room. All the widows stood around him and they were crying and they were showing him the robes and other clothing that Dorkus had made while she was still with them. Okay, stop. brings her back to life. Incredible story, but I don't want you to miss this. Because this is the only time in the Bible that this woman shows up. She's never mentioned again, and it would have been really easy. Luke could have just written this story. Okay, there's this woman and she gets sick and she dies, but thankfully Peter was right down the road and Peter has these, through Christ, has these super You're awesome. But that's not the story that Luke tells. He gives us this other detail. There's this woman. Here's her name. And here's what she did, the whole community. They knew her because she cared for the poor. She helped people who were in need. Okay, if it's gonna be in the Bible, it must be something big. What'd she do? She set up a soup kitchen. Did she like start a crisis center? people close. Like that's in the Bible. We stop this important story where this woman is being resurrected from the dead to point out that she serves. How does she serve? It's got to be life changed. It's got to be global. She gave some widows, some poor people closing. They're at the funeral. They're celebrating her. They're mourning her. And what she is known for is that she cares for the poor. She gives Did you know there's a woman in our church who sows a baby blanket for every newborn in the church? I mean, you can imagine that's a lot of babies. And she sows a blanket for every one of them. Not a big deal, just a way that she serves those families, moms and dads and those babies is small. Let me show you another story. Where in the Old Testament there's a story, first Kings is all really in this section about a guy named Elijah. Elijah is a hero in the Old Testament. He is a prophet, he's God's prophet to Israel. And this is a really important moment in the history of Israel. This incredible story is going on. But for some reason, the author of Kings interrupts the story kind of useless detail. Listen to this story. First Kings chapter 18, "After a long time, in the third year, the word of the Lord came to Elijah. Go and present yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain on the land." So Elijah went to present himself to Ahab. Now the famine was severe in Samaria, and Ahab summoned Obadiah, his palace administrator. So the story is all about Elijah. Israel, and they're at this important moment. The nation of Israel has been suffering. It hasn't rained in a number of years. And so a tremendous drought, which has caused a tremendous famine. And the message that God has for Elijah is, hey, go tell the people I'm about to turn the faucet back on. It's going to start raining. You're going to have crops again. All the people that are suffering and starving are going to have food again. It's an important moment. reason right here we're going to hit the pause button and tell this story about a guy named Obadiah who just showed up and the story is seemingly so unimportant that the Bible editors actually put it in parentheses like oh hey by the way look what it says Obadiah verse 3, "Obediah was a devout believer in the Lord." While Jezebel was killing off the Lord's prophets Obadiah had taken a hundred and hidden them in two caves, 50 in each, and that supplied them with food and water. Again, here's a guy, he's never mentioned again in the whole Bible. He's not the prophet Obadiah that shows up later. He's never mentioned again. And we get this little story. And he's not the headliner, he's not Elijah, he's just Obadiah. And there were some people who were in trouble, so he hid them and he brought them food and he brought them water. that this is in the Bible. Because we need heroes of faith, we need Elijah, we need Moses, we need Ruth and Esther, we need King David. But a lot of us can relate more to a guy like Obadiah. He's just a regular person. He goes to work, he probably has a family to support, he's trying to put food on the table. Just a normal dude. up where he saw some people who had a need, they needed help and so he helped them. He took them food and he took them water and it might not seem like a big deal to us but it's a really big deal to them. It saved their lives. Write this down. We serve because it helps others. We serve because it helps others. My kids and I went out for a little daddy date, had lunch, and we were eating, we had our meal, and it was time for, it was time to pay the bill. And I was kind of looking around waiting for our waitress to come by, and she brings it by, and she puts it on the table, and she doesn't really say anything, she's kind of almost a little awkward, and she's like, "Um, yeah, just, you're good, have a great day." And I was like, "I didn't really know what she was, I didn't get what she meant." I'm like, "I'm sorry, what do you mean?" She's like, "Oh, somebody else paid So have a great day. Just you're good. You can go and have a good afternoon. And here's the thing. I don't know who it was. Like maybe it was one of you all if it was. Thank you. My guess is it was probably somebody who was like, look at this pathetic loser who can't keep his kids under control. And now he's feeding him ice cream. What is he doing? But it's one of those things. It happened. And it was totally anonymous. I have no idea who it was. never going to be celebrated. You're not going to wake up and read about it in the newspaper. But it was just so incredibly gracious. And my kids are like, they're confused, like, "Dad, what's going on? Are we doing the Dine and Dash thing again? Or what's happening here?" And so I explained to them that somebody paid for our meal. And they were stoked over that. my kids were like, "Dad, we got to pay for somebody else's meal the next time we're out." And I was like, "Sweet, when we go to McDonald's, we'll value menu, we'll take care of everybody in the joint, no problem." But they were like, "Dad, it's so cool." And serving, you know, it's so contagious. And it's so small. What a small thing any one of One more story. Second Timothy, chapter four, don't turn there. It's really short. Paul writes a letter to Timothy. Timothy is his apprentice. And this letter is full of great theology and wisdom and encouragement. And then just at the end, again, we have this random what seems like a meaningless footnote. Paul writes to Timothy. Bring the cloak that I left with Carpis at Tros and my scrolls, especially the Parchments. Essentially Paul writes, "Bring me my jacket and my books." Why is that in the Bible? This is God's holy word. I mean, there's only so many pages, right? You want to waste ink with that? grand level. It could be as simple as, "Hey, could you bring me my coat?" Hey, can you nip me a blanket? Can you sew me a blanket? Hey, could you bring me some food and water? See, as I read the Bible, I see people serving in all these ways and it seems small. It seems thing to the recipient who has been served, it's a big thing. So Dorkus gave some clothes to some poor widows. No big deal, right? It was life-changing for them. Obadiah brings food and water to some When people think of you, do they think of someone who serves? The Apostle Paul writes something else that's really interesting. He says if we're not serving people, we're actually not doing what we were made for. So in Ephesians 2, look at this, Ephesians 2, Paul writes, "For we are God's handiwork, Here's what you were made for. This is the purpose for which you were created. Created in Christ Jesus to do good works. The very reason that you were made and I was made is to serve people. And if I'm not serving people, I'm kind of wasting my life. So are you a servant? If we asked your family, would they say that you are a servant, that you serve your family in your home? If I called work and asked your boss, would she say that you're a servant in the workplace? Flip that over. If you supervise people, would they say that you serve them? Or would they say that you Lord that power over them? That you just manage them. Would your church family say that you're a servant? Go back to 1 Peter, chapter 4. What do we want to be known for? Peter says, above all, the most important thing, love each other deeply. Okay, how do we do that? He says, offer hospitality to one another. Serve one another. Jip, Jip, Jip puts these little stories throughout scripture that honestly you could read it and you could totally skip over it. You wouldn't even see those stories if you weren't looking for them. They're so obscure, but an incredible stories of service, small acts of kindness and service, and they're celebrated in an amazing way. Hey, could you please bring me my coat? closing to poor people. And it's not about the size of the act of service. It's about the heart of the service that says, I'm not here to be served. I'm here to serve. So Christ, follower, are you serving? Are you known for being a servant? Leave that there. What stops us? What keeps us from serving people? 'Cause I think we would go, oh, serving honors God, I wanna honor God. Serving helps people, I wanna help people. I certainly wanna, if there's a purpose for my life, if God designed me for this thing, I certainly wanna fulfill my purpose and have meaning for my life, okay, then what stops us? What holds us back from serving? If you wanna write a few things down, you can. Number one, I don't serve when I'm focused on me. I'm serving I'm focused on me. I fail at this all the time. I mean, I even think of like from the way my day starts, my mindset at the beginning of my day is here are all the things that I have to get done today, here are all the things that I have to do, here's what my agenda looks like. And I wonder what opportunities I miss to serve my family, right in the halls of our home before we all leave for the day. because I'm focused on me. See, there's something about stepping outside of ourselves, that we start to see the needs that are all around us. But if all we're focused on is me, we're never gonna serve anybody else. Because we're looking at us. I mean, this goes across areas of our life. Don't we do this with church all the time? Go to a church, you go, I don't really like that church. I don't really like that church. They didn't feed me. They weren't enough classes for me. I don't really like that church. I had to walk a long way from the parking lot to get in. Like we do this, right? So humble. I was reminded this week one of our leaders said to me, he said, "Can you believe there are still dozens of people "who are founding members of faith church "who are still here attending faith church?" I'm like, that's crazy. the amount of change they have seen. 60 years. Can you imagine the change? And you have a group of people who said, you know, it's not about me. It's not about my preferences. Do I love everything? Of course not. But I'm not going to complain. I'm not going to take my ball and go home. I'm going to lean in. See, sometimes serving people is just saying I'm not going to complain. I'm going to encourage instead. But that. And listen, I'm preaching this to me as much as I am to anybody else. I need to step outside of myself, stop focusing only on me so that I can see the needs of people around me. I was reminded this week of sort of this, in an illustration, I saw a picture on social media and there was a guy and he was taking the selfie of him and he's wearing these new shoes. There are thousand-dollar shoes. Okay, listen, they're awesome. All right? But he's taking this picture of him and his thousand-dollar shoes and of this picture, there was a homeless guy that didn't have any shoes on. Okay, we need some self-awareness, all right? But it is just like, man, if I'm only looking at me, there might be needs right around me, and I don't see them, because I'm totally focused on me. See, Jesus is a servant, because he's not looking at himself. He's looking and saying, how can I serve the people around me? on me, I don't serve when I'm maxed out. That's the other time I don't serve when I'm maxed out. Some of us don't serve because we're too busy to serve. Even if we wanted to serve our families or our church or our court, we don't have time for that. Where would we ever fit that in? Maybe we need to look at our calendars and ask some questions about what What do we want to be known for? The reason God made you is to serve people. Not my words, his words. The reason that God made you is not to be a hardworking person or to be a successful person or to be a great lawyer or a great teacher or a great golfer or a great mom or dad. Those are just platforms. created in Christ Jesus to serve people. So what are you known for? Dorkas is known for making clothes for people. Obadiah is known for giving people food and water. It seems so small, but here's the deal. You want to be known for being a servant? You can start and it's small and you can just start Do it. And I know you're thinking, oh, that's the Y church series. It's gonna ask me to hold babies in the nursery next week. No, I'm not. No. I'm just gonna ask you, what are you known for? What are we, what are God's people? What are we known for? Because here's the thing about serving. You don't need someone's permission to serve them. You don't need to sign up. You just start serving people. You buy somebody a meal. door and say, "Hey, can I mow your lawn for you?" You could serve at home. If you got little kids, help put the kids to bed. You could just start. You don't need permission. You just start serving. And here's the thing. You can do it because it's what you were made to do. So what are you known for? When people think of you, your name, fill in the blank. Are you known for serving? Are you known for being a servant? Pray with me. God, thanks so much for today. Thank you that we can worship you, Lord. Thank you that you hear us when we pray. God, thank you for your son Jesus. that He is. He could have come to earth and said, "I'm here, serve me." He could have come and said, "I created you and everything you see bow down before me and serve me." But He doesn't. He came to serve. Jesus, though you are God, you didn't hold that over anyone. the way to your death, even your death on a cross. Thank you for your example. Holy Spirit, would you, would you make us servants? Would you mold us and shape us? To serve the people even right around us? Even in our home, would you help us leave here today and be servants Some of us we came here today and there's tension at home. It's hostile. There's bitterness. There's anger. Would you tear down those walls? Would you cause us to be humble and to serve one another? God, thank you for faith, church, and all of the servants here. Would you, week by week, continue to mold us? service, would you open our eyes to the needs around us and make us more like Jesus. It's in His name we pray. Amen.

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