Pleased to Serve

10/21/18

“Pleased to Serve”

Psalm 104; 1-9, 24, 35c; Hebrews 5: 1-10; Mark 10: 35-45

Pearl: Our calling as Christ followers is to serve.

Function: To reveal to worshippers that true power and true life is found in serving others in the lessor jobs and in the more mundane tasks.

 

God made you and you are marvelous and amazing in many ways.

1. God who created you, did so with great
2. He gave you the gifts and the aptitudes that you have.
   1. You have them for a reason: to put them to use for the sake of the kingdom of Christ.
3. God fashions you for many things.
   1. Recall how Paul wrote about this in I Corinthians 12: “…there are varieties of gifts…and there are varieties of services…indeed the body does not consist of one member but of many…there are many parts, yet one body” (selected verses from chapter 12).

Yet there is one thing which is common to all followers of Christ! We are all are pleased to serve!

1. Being “pleased to serve” means that all of you in all of your diverse skills, talents, and giftings have an overarching purpose to fulfill through who you are and through where you are.
   1. Many get stumped in trying to figure out their “callings” from God.
      1. Your calling to serve is very much tied together with the very things that you feel strongly about and that you would find fulfillment in doing.
         1. Whatever is a deep passion for you is your assignment.
            1. What are some of the things that you are passionate about?
            2. Being connected to the kingdom of God makes you passionate about many things! You cannot settle for things as usual. You must live for and fight for and call for a better world.
            3. The new TV series “New Amsterdam” features Max Goodwin who is brilliant, charming — and the new medical director at America’s oldest public hospital. While he’s set on tearing down the bureaucracy to provide exceptional care, the doctors and staff are not so sure. They’ve heard this before, and no one else has delivered on those promises. Max disrupts the status quo and proves he will stop at nothing to breathe new life into this understaffed, underfunded and underappreciated hospital. Inspired by Bellevue in New York City Max continually asks the question to anyone from the staff at the hospital to homeless people on the street: “How can I help you?” And then he helps. He’s turning things upside down with the simple question, “How can I help you?”
         2. You will be most pleased to serve in areas where you simply care the most.
            1. My early sense of call to the ministry as a vocation had many dimensions. But perhaps the largest motivating factor was that I realized that I could be very happy spending my life with the work of the church. I knew I loved worshipping and being involved in church activities. So I sensed that I would be happy making it my life’s work.
            2. Serving as a hospice chaplain flows naturally out of my pastoral work in the church. Pastoral ministry involves lots of grief support which early on intimidated me but became a powerful service which I now feel comfortable and honored to provide.
            3. You are a much better agent for the kingdom of God when you are doing something that you love and that you feel passionate about.
         3. All Christ followers are “called” to be “pleased to serve.”
            1. Even Jesus, the Son, was not only pleased to serve but saw it as his life mission!
               1. Hebrews 5: 5: “…Christ did not glorify himself in becoming a high priest, but was appointed by the one who said to him, ‘You are my Son, today I have begotten you’.”
               2. In the great mystery of the Holy Trinity of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, scripture says that the Son was “called” to fulfill his role as a High Priest, atoning for the sins of the world.

• Following Jesus Christ is a calling to serve.

More specifically you all have a common calling in all your diversity and it is a calling to lift others by doing the lessor tasks—you are called to be humble servants!

The call which is in common to all Christ followers is to be pleased to “humbly” serve.

1. James and John, among the closest disciples to Jesus within the Twelve, strayed from the central idea that Jesus was trying to show with his life and in his teachings. They began to think about their own ascension within their great imagined reign of Jesus in the kingdom of God.
   1. Jesus talked a lot about the kingdom of God. It was his central message.
   2. It was about a new order, a particular world of justice, fairness, enough for everyone, and a realm of peace and blessed coexistence for all.
      1. James and John had different aspirations in which they imagined themselves at Lord Jesus’ right and left hand.
   3. Jesus attended to this misunderstanding which still needs attention to this day. He said that he came not to be served but to serve. He then said that they should be pleased to serve as he was. He said in his world, God’s world, the first will be last and the last will be first. His world is a flipping of the ways of the world.
2. If you ever played a musical instrument in a band or orchestra you know that every musician is given a part to play. There are 1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd, and sometimes 4^th parts within the trumpet section, the flute section, the trombone section, etc.
   1. It starts at an early age, perhaps Jr. High School; the Director hands out parts based upon skill levels among the student musicians.
      1. This does not mean that you have to keep that part forever. If you want to “challenge” someone for a higher part, you announce to the player directly above you that you are “challenging” them and then you report it to the Director who arranges for the “challenge” to happen. The Director then determines if you can move up one step in the ranks.
      2. Most aspired to advance through the ranks toward 1^st chair!
   2. It occurred to me that a gospel principle might lead to a stronger section if say one Christ follower would seek to play the last part in the last chair. I am thinking of a very talented and very capable musician who shines on the first part but intentionally aspires to play the last part in the last chair so well and so strongly that it would motivate everyone above to play as strongly and even better.
      1. The talented player who intentionally takes the lessor position could have a stronger effect upon the other players in the section if he or she chooses the humblest, last part in the last seat.

After all, this is exactly what Jesus Christ did.

1. Lord Jesus, God on earth, the one who truly had all of the talent “…did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave…he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death—even death on a cross” (Philippians 2: 6-8).
2. Jesus said it this way: “Whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all. For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many” (Mark 10: 43-45).
   1. This is what he taught his disciples after James and John sought seats of honor on Jesus’ right hand and on Jesus’ left hand when he would reign on a throne in his kingdom.
      1. James and John want glory; Jesus offers salvation.
      2. James and John want status; Jesus offers relationship.

• James and John want power; Jesus offers purpose.

1. James and John want greatness; Jesus offers life.
2. James and John want recognition; Jesus offers grace.
3. James and John want vindication; Jesus offers mercy.

• James and John, like gentiles then and now, want to lord it over others; Jesus offers them, and us, the privilege of serving side by side with him. We want to be first, but Jesus reminds us that we are closest to him when we are among the least and the last and the lost.

Kahlil Gibran wrote:

“I slept and I dreamt that life is all joy.

I woke and I saw that all life is service.

I served and I saw that service is joy.”

 

I love playing tennis.

1. How do you get a game of tennis going?
   1. Someone has to “serve.”
   2. Without “service” there is no game.
2. Without servants, there is no life!
3. As Christ followers you are called to lift others by doing the lessor tasks.
4. As Christ followers you are pleased to serve…right alongside our Lord Jesus Christ.