Rooted in Service

Rooted in Service

All right, good morning, good morning everyone. My name is Shane and one of the pastors here, I haven’t had a chance to meet you welcome and hopefully I can meet you to talk to you and greet you afterwards. We are working through a series called rooted and if you’re familiar with that, there’s some workbooks, there’s a book back there. A lot of our community groups are working through that, but if not, uh, it’s no problem jumping right in today. We’ve been working through some of these, uh, they call them rhythms, different rhythms, seven different rhythms that kind of help us in our day to day lives. Be able to live out in obedience to christ our christian walk. And also just that benefit us on a day to day basis. Right? So there’s these rhythms that we want to implement as a believer and we’ve gone through three of them and so far we’ve looked at daily devotions. So looking at being in the word of God, being rooted in in the word of God. We’ve looked at prayer. So being rooted in our prayer life and then being rooted in the grace of repentance. And so if you think about those three, right, it’s pretty easy, you step back and you’re like, those would be considered religious in nature. Uh, so I mean being in God’s word, reading the bible prayer repentance tends to have a religious nature about them a feel to them. But then we look at today, we’re gonna talk about being rooted in service and yet this one seems to be a little different because inherently, most people would say, yeah, it’s we should serve one another. We should do kind acts for one another, right? Good works. We should we can collectively say that. So whether you are an atheist, you’re agnostic towards any different belief for your of a different religion. I think there’s a uniform kind of understanding that Yeah, this is good. We we collectively all say this is good. But obviously we look at it from the christian perspective and this is the only way to exercise it. That gives us true life and benefit. But today we’re gonna distinguish that because when it when we talk about acts of service, good works. We all understand what those are from helping those who are in need, whether it’s a great need or a small need, right? If some helping the poor, the under privilege refugee, the displaced those maybe who are being bound by the strongholds of addictions, there’s a lot of different ways we can step in, right? And help. It might be something even more simple than that storm comes through and your neighbor’s tree branch falls down and you go and help them. We have an older lady that lives next to us and our boys walker trash carts down to the curb, Right? So just ways that we can serve and we do it all the time. We see you guys in church do it all the time. And families have a baby or they’re in a crisis and you bring them a meal, you’re there, you’re doing whatever you can to help them out, different community service opportunities, there’s no shortage of acts of kindness and service and good works and we know what those things are and we know what it means to serve one another, but then we have to ask the question, what, what drives us to do that, especially as an unbeliever, what drives an unbeliever who want to serve, right? What is that motivation? Especially when it’s self sacrificial, when it costs that person something to serve one another? What’s the motivation behind that and right, Even even people who don’t have a background hindu or buddhist background, but they have like this karma like belief that, you know, there’s this uh repercussions afterwards that are gonna come back and haunt me essentially, if I don’t do enough good or you know, just that the world more of a general stance of the world, you know, it kind of works itself out, the university’s going to balance itself out with the good and the bad, and so there’s these beliefs that people have and it, it drives them to respond and it’s the motivation, some people might be a little bit more honest and say, you know what, I don’t actually know, but I know there’s something in me and I know that doing good works is good and I should do those things, I don’t know why, but I know that and I’m responding to that and then there’s people who are even much more honest, they’re very blunt there. Like I do it because I like the way it makes me feel and it’s it’s about them like I do, because it makes me feel good or do it because I want people to see it, I want to be said, you know, hey, good job, thanks for doing that. Like it’s about the what they’re getting from it, right, those philanthropic type of, um, activities that we do to then get the action back on us. So those are all honest answers. But when we look about the motivation that shouldn’t be our motivation as a believer is why we serve and love other people. So we’re gonna look today at five different motivations that we should have as believers on why we love and serve and do good works. And this is not by all means exhaustive, and it’s gonna be a little bit more of what we would call a survey overview, a systematic theology of the bible, looking at what it collectively says, which means we’re gonna look at a lot of different verses to piece together how God wants us to view Our acts of service to one another. And so I’m, I’m gonna start off with one though, that is not a motivation, right? So five motivations, but I want to address one area that is a common belief that shouldn’t be a motivation. But growing up, I know it was a motivation for me. It was just an error in my belief. And so when we talk about access service, especially if you tie that synonymous lee with good works, we can some of us can kind of have like a little bit of a cringeworthy reaction to that when you think about good works. Because at one time right, I was under the understanding. It was like this scale and on one side of the scale it’s got all my sin and on the other side it’s got these good works and I need to heap over these good works outweigh that scale. So that at the end of the day I’ve done more good than bad, right? So I don’t get the purgatory and all of a sudden be in limbo and not know what’s gonna happen. And and that’s an that’s an errant thought. That is not what the bible lays out. That is not how God reacts with us when it comes to good works, it is not something that we can earn. It’s not a you know, good works are not gonna earn us a position or favor or merit with God to then earn a salvation. It it doesn’t work like that. And so I want to address that even within the starting verse that we’re gonna look at is Ephesians 28 through 10 because it is very clear on this point and then it will catapult us into our five motivations. So Ephesians 28 says for by Grace, you have been saved through faith. And just understanding the word grace alone, right? Grace means to be freely extended. Not out of duty, not out of responsibility, not out of anything that’s making God respond to us. It is freely given, he has responded and given freely. So it’s not like a quid pro quo like in this business world was like, I’m gonna do this for you and then in return, I expect you to act this way. That’s not how we deal with God. Grace is something that is freely given unearned. So it is by Grace that we have been saved. And it says next, Not by your own doing. Sometimes we want to take it upon ourselves to do and to save ourselves essentially right. We want to do enough good work so that I can I can then become my de facto own salvation savior. I can save myself because I can do enough. And if that’s the case, then I wouldn’t need christ, I wouldn’t need the cross because I can do it myself. So you said this by Grace through faith. And this is not your own doing it is a gift from God simply a gift, not by works so that no one can boast. So it’s very clear, right? There. It is not by works that you are saved. In fact it doesn’t even earn you a better position up to being saved. It marriage you nothing. So it is by grace alone that we’re saying. But as a response to the gospel, that’s where our good works and acts of service should then overflow. It is a response to the gospel not adding to the Gospel and that’s why it moves on to the next verse. It says for we are his workmanship created in christ jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. So if we are created in christ jesus for good works and what is the motivation to then respond to God in doing those good works in those access service for the first one I want to bring to our attention is that it simply glorifies God that in and of itself is enough, right? There are acts of service glorify God in Matthew 5 16 it says in the same way, let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to God who is in heaven. Right? So our good works so that they may give glory to God. Right? There’s that correlation between the things that you do the way you love and serve people and then people correlating that to your beliefs and your faith and giving glory to God. And so just like a light, right? We go into our house, we flip on the light and it illuminates the room, right you can see and these the light that we are able to shine for other people is what we can illuminate the eyes of the heart. And in Ephesians 18 it tells us open the eyes of their hearts that they may let the light of your truth flood in. So in these opportunities that we have to serve people, it glorifies God in it gives us the opportunity to an open door to share the gospel as a result to hopefully see them saved. And that gives glory to God 95 6 tells us. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing so that you may so that your giving may be in secret and your father who sees in secret will reward you. So then it goes on to that to say, hey we understand and hopefully we understand that our sin right our flesh though naturally doesn’t want to do that. But I I can’t like mentally actually separate my mind to not let my left hand know what my right hand is doing. You know, maybe you can’t, I cannot write. But what it’s saying is that there are people and our flesh would say, you know actually I want to do this and I want to be told good job. I want someone to notice. Have you ever had in your mind a time when you have been serving and you’ve had that thought, I hope someone sees this. I know we have right. Like, it’s I would sure like someone to see me doing this, like to see how well I’m serving this this humble servant attitude that I’ve taken. It’s like, we want people to see that that’s our flesh and God says that’s not the motivation that I’m calling you to write. I’m calling you a pure motivation to love people simply because you love me. Whether it is seen by others or not, it says then going on, beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them pretty clear, it’s not about being seen by other people for then you will have no reward from your father who’s in heaven. Thus when you give to the needy sound no trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others, truly, I say to you, they’ve already received the reward. And at this time this was something common where it was, you know, they would give, they would do something, you know, that was really benevolent and and they would really let people know they would they would sound the trumpets right. They would, they would tell everyone they would they would boast about it and they would try to do it in a humble way, right? I’ve ever heard someone say humbly humble both. It’s like, yeah, right? It’s it’s it’s trying to be disguised in the way we’re propping ourselves up and God says very clearly they’ve already got their reward. The praise a man, that’s the reward. They got no other reward beside that because their motivation is for themselves, not for God. And so we think about our motive for self glorification. Self gratification God is clear that there’s no heavenly reward for doing the right thing with the wrong motive, that is your reward. So, our first and primary motivation is that acts of service or any good work must be motivated from a heart that worships and desires to give God all the glory, not part of the glory, all the glory. The second motivation to do good works and acts of service is that christ’s love compels us 1st. Samuel 1220 for there’s only fear the lord and serve him faithfully with all your heart. Or consider consider, remember, consider what great things he has done for you. This is the story time and time again in the old testament where God would do these incredible works for people for the Israelites. And then how much longer did it take? And they would forget and they’d be complaining, we don’t have this. We’re in a bad situation where that right? So we can so easily and quickly forget. And that again, speaks to all of us, if we’re honest, how quickly can we forget and we’re and we’re onto the next thing of like, I don’t have that, I want that, I need that and we forget about how we are been so generously blessed just in our own day, right? Today or yesterday. We forget very quickly and I know this from experience, like in my life and there was a time particularly was probably a decade ago and I realized that it was like, and I’m just being ungrateful, but God has blessed me immensely and and it was just unhappy with always desiring the next thing and the next thing and the next thing and well, I don’t have this and that. And so I wanted to remedy that because I knew that was not the heart of God and it was not compelling me to be generous or kind or or be more benevolent, benevolent in my acts of service, right? It closed me in. And so I spent that next year, you know, I don’t know why I came up this, but I just spent the next year, every single day writing in this book, every single day, things, I am thankful for things that God has blessed me, things that I’ve been just thankful for, that, you know, without looking back and stopping and remembering as it’s telling us do here, right, consider those things, but I wanted to stop and consider them. And it is no surprise that the result is then I realize and remember how well I’ve been blessed and how gracious God has been to me and out of that I am then compelled by the love of christ. I realize how I have been loved. And out of the love of christ, I am compelled then to do those things for other people. That’s the response of a heart, right? That’s that’s how the Holy Spirit wants to work within us to respond to the word of God, to then love people well, so that was a simple act for me that I could just be grateful and thankful and look back and consider all the great things of God. And if you would do the same, it’s amazing how God blesses you day in and day out and we can just quickly get by that and forget So remember remember those things Second Corinthians 5 14 15 for christ’s love compels us, it is the love of christ that compels us and compels us to what that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for him who died for them. And raised again, the love of christ compels us, which is why taking into account remembering the benevolent work of christ in our lives, then compel us to do the same for other people, whether it’s in our own family, whether it’s in our community group, our church community whether it’s for our community here in Lincoln or just working out in concentric circles, the nations we can affect far more than you think by simple access service. Opening the door for the Gospel 3rd is that people are transformed. People are transformed in Matthew 5 16 we talked about this, but it says in the same way let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your father in heaven, Right? If we’re speaking only about believers to believers, you know, be kind of believers, you know, encourage believers and help believers, help the church family, that’s good and we should do that. 1024 tells us that to love one another to spur each other on to love and good deeds, we are to do that. But in this verse it is talking about they outside the unbelievers, they see that and they may wonder why it doesn’t make sense to them in many cases. And again it opens that door to the Gospel and and the end result is that we’re hoping that they see that they are curious, they asked we we present the gospel and lives are changed. They give glory to God. They attribute to God not to us. Not that oh man, you see how great Shane is and what he did know, they attributed to God and they give him glory our hope is that because of simple acts of kindness, The door to the Gospel is open. We can see people’s lives changed and it’s amazing how motivating that is If you’ve ever seen right? I was 18, right, about 18 when I got saved. My family is not believers. And in year after year after year it took a long time and some of them just got saved and then years later someone got saved and my mom got saved. And and it is the most motivating thing when you see the work of christ in somebody else’s life and you see a radical transformation, you see them change completely only done by the work of the spirit. It is motivation like no others like no other. And we see it in second Corinthians 5 17 right? Therefore if anyone is in christ, he’s a new creation, the old is gone, the new has come. And if the if good works and acts of service is just a simple cracking of the door, a planting of a seed building of a small bridge to carry over the Gospel. It is for a great benefit that one day that that hopefully bears fruit and that they are saved. So acts of kindness, acts of service. Good works can be one of the greatest ways of life transformation starting from that point. So lives are transformed should be away. One of our motivations. The other one is exercising our gifts first peter 4 10 says as each of you have received a gift use it to serve one another as good stewards of God’s very grace. Right? So it’s very plain and clear you have been given different gifts and what do you do with those? Make money, get accolades, get recognition. It is to serve other people. God has gifted you in a way and equipped you in a way different than somebody else sitting in here to serve other people. Right? That that’s one of our downfalls about humanity to is right, we can kind of downplay our own gifts. And like I just don’t know if I have any gifts. I’m just not gifted, you know, but look at those guys, they’re all gifted and so we compare and we don’t want to do that, right? We want to discover what our gifting is in christ. He has created you fearfully and wonderfully and he has gifted you to serve him to serve the body. To love people in a specific way. And sometimes it does take some discovery to do that in walking alongside other believers in the church body is one of those ways that can help you discover your gifting, your wiring and how to deploy those things. There’s tools out there too. I mean, there’s you can take a spiritual gift assessment which you know, can kind of help you lay out and start to figure out some of these things. You know, I wouldn’t rely too much on those, but they can be a good tool to kind of help you, right not to let you like to pigeonhole you into like all the assessments that said, I’m this. Okay, well it’s just a tool to try to help guide you to discover those things, because we want you to discover the way God has made you uniquely to then deploy those to love and serve whether it’s your neighbor, whether it’s our community, whether it’s a church body, whether it’s presenting the gospel in a different way than the person sitting next to you, how has God made you, it’s gonna be one of the questions we ask ourselves to then serve him in that way. In first Corinthians chapter 12, it talks about spiritual gifts and we see this, you know, it’s talking about the various gifts that were in operation in that apostolic apostolic era. But then it goes on to say for the body does not consist of one member, but of many if the foot should say to the hand, because I’m not the hand, I do not belong to the body, that would not make it any less part of the body. Right? Again, that’s that kind of comparison. And the analogy there, like comparing yourself to somebody else and being like, well, I don’t have the gifts they have. That’s fine. God didn’t maybe create you with those same gifts, but he’s created for a very specific role. So I think about just the act of walking and I have to walk. It’s like, well, I need my eyes to see where I’m walking. There’s bones and pieces in your ear that helped control my equilibrium to stand upright, whether it’s your joints to bend your knees, your heart to pump your blood, your lungs to fill your body with oxygen. There’s all different parts working together. So a simple act of walking takes a lot of combined effort, right? This is usually when someone tells a joke that they hope they’re not the appendix, but right, So we we want to work together and what you do is different from them is different from them and it’s different from them. And that’s okay coming together. There’s a beauty about the way we operate in our in our varied gifts to come together as a complete body of christ. So knowing that exercising our gifts to serve one another is not only a command. We want to view it and understand it as a privilege to understand how God has made us to then motivate us to serve in that way. The other one, the 5th one here is that it is uh motivating as God’s judgment and rewards. Second Corinthians 5 10 4, you must all appear before the judgment seat of christ so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil, some of you might be thinking I thought when I got saved, I got a hall pass for the judgment card, right? And it’s like, well, yes and no, right? So the the know is that we will all stand no matter what believer, unbeliever before a holy right and just God, the know the differences though, that those who are in opposition to God, those who don’t know him as their Lord and Savior that don’t know him as their father are gonna be judged for their sin, for the evil that they have done and they will be condemned to eternal separation hell without God. The flip side is the people who are believers, we will stand before God, not in judgment of our sin, right Romans eight tells us there is no condemnation for those who believe, but it is going to be stand in judgment for the work that we’ve done in this life, those good works that we have done too will be judged for the good that we have done. And so there are, there’s a reward to be given. And Matthew 1042 it says, and whoever gives one of these little ones, even a cup of cold water, because he’s my disciple, I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward. So whether people see it or not, doesn’t matter. God sees it, he’s he’s observed it and he doesn’t forget it right, and there’s a reward to be had, there’s treasure to be stored up in heaven and that’s what the judgment of the believer is gonna be to decide those rewards to honor and give you the reward for the work that you’ve done, the good work that God has asked us to do and actually this was one of the easier ones. So when we look at all five of these motivations, the this one, the fifth one about judgment and reward had by far the most versus you read through the new testament, you’ll find more verses on this topic than potentially any of the other topics that we’ve talked about. Some of the other verses that come up would be first timothy 6, 18 and 19. They are to do good, be rich in good works and generous and ready to share storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future so that they may take hold of that which is truly life or roman revelations. 22 behold, I am coming soon bringing my recompense my reward with me to repay each for what he has done. But there is a reward for a life lived well in honor to God, in obedience to God, in doing good works and acts of service to those people around us. Right. And sometimes when we talked about, even before we were talking about exercising our gifts and helping people out in the reward. That is there we have to remember that a lot of times God asks us to do things outside of our comfort zone, outside of what we feel is our gifting and our skills and and it’s amazing to watch God work through each one of us Because when it’s not your own gifting, when when you’re just saying, I don’t know, Lord, I don’t even know how to do this, but I’m gonna try. There’s a reward to that. And even in those situations, he can really bring out his glory. What seems like even more clearly, because if somebody knows I’m really skilled at something and I do it, it’s kind of look at Shane’s really skilled at that, but when they know I’m not and it’s like, man, God really worked through him, right? It almost becomes more easy to see how God has worked through somebody when, you know, that is not in their in their wheelhouse, right? And so I was I was joking about the last last service where people are like, well, I only want to operate in my gifts. It’s really comfortable, Right? Well, in a church, if you say, my gift is not moving people, like, well, I’m not gonna help you move, right? I like it. If that was not, my gift might not be your gift, but we need to, in any way possible serve people. It’s not about it’s not about just your gifting, it’s not about just what you like to do, It’s about serving and loving those people around you and God is gonna reward any of those things, he’s not gonna miss it, no matter if somebody else sees it or not, but he is gonna be the reward of all things at the end. So those are some of the motivations as why we, as believers should serve people, But lastly, I want to give you uh an example that jesus highlighted because it’s very powerful And in John 13, he tells a story of him washing his disciples feet, it says he rose from supper and he laid aside his outer garments, taking a towel, he tied it around his waist and then he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples feet and wiped them with the towel that was wrapped around him. This is an incredible act of service. What he was about to do is unimaginable in the minds of the disciples to wash dirty, filthy feet of these men was the job of the lowest of low slaves. It is unimaginable that the king of the world, the savior of Israel would do such a thing, and that’s why initially peter even refuses him, he’s like, no, oh God, Jesus, you’re not doing that for me, as jesus walks him through, why he’s gonna do it, peter, let’s um and then he tells them, right, Jesus says, do you understand what I’ve done for you and it becomes evident they don’t understand the whole of what has been done for them. The bible tells us later, as the holy Spirit came upon them, it brought to remembrance many of the things that they had done that Jesus had done and it was like ah now I see now I see because what’s crazy is when they walked in, if you remember what the disciples were arguing about, they were arguing about who’s the greatest amongst themselves, they’re they’re trying to decide and argue and debate who is the greatest and then their hope Savior says I’m gonna wash your feet, he says you call me teacher and Lord right? That’s a position of respect and authority and in fact as a teacher or Lord he could have asked them to wash his feet but he says you call me teacher and Lord and that is right, that is true, you are right for I am, if then your Lord and teacher have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. So they had to be dumbfounded, they had to just be like in shock of wait you as the Savior telling us to wash each other’s feet frank you imagine looking across the table thinking peter like I gotta wash Andrew’s feet like I don’t think I want to do that right? And he was setting that example, he tells him he sets the example of humility and so many times we can think proud of ourselves that that is below us to do such a thing and that the king and Savior of the world could wash the feet of these disciples set the example that we are to serve humbly with humility for I’ve given you an example that you should do also as I have done this is also a character image of God, he didn’t have to do what he had done for us. He did not have to send his son and that there’s this love of service and character that he displays through jesus. It is truly, truly I say to you a servant is not greater than his master nor a messenger greater than the one who sent him. If you know these things, blessed are you, if you do them, but we can know them here, we can know it very clearly right here. I should serve, I should love, I should be motivated by the right things but it’s blessed are you? If you do them, it is not blessed if you know it, blessed if you do it and so our hope and desires as we leave here right? We we do these things because there is a blessing do we believe that that there’s a blessing for you to serve and love and care for other people to meet them in their need to walk alongside them when they’re hurting when they’re in trials to just be there for encouragement to be there when you can to serve them and that God rewards that and that there’s a blessing for it. There is but even greater the greater example than this though Is not him washing his disciples feet. The greatest example is in Mark 1042 through 45 and it says Jesus called them and said this to them. You know that those who are considered rulers of the gentiles lorded over them and their great ones exercise authority over them. But it shall not be so among you, but whoever would be great among you must be your servant. So there’s a word diagnose and it means like a waiter, right? That’s word servant means like a waiter. That’s how we would interpreted today. Like I’m serving you and I’m gonna I’m gonna be there, I’m gonna serve you, I’m gonna meet your knees, you need something. It’s so it’s uh it has this connotation of a humbled position. But then he says after that he says and whoever wants to be first among you must be your slave and he changes words here to say slave and its delos and it means one who is an indentured servant who has no rights, who is owned by someone else, A very powerful word that we are owned by christ right? And that we want to respond to him as our lord and as slaves of christ to do his will, to love people. So it is that of a servant and of a slave. And the greatest example of that is when the next verse comes up and says for even the son of man came not to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. That is the gospel, that is jesus coming to die on the cross for our sin as a servant of the Holy Father, to pay for the sins of you and I and that is why we can stand in judgment with rewards and not condemnation. That is the beauty of the Gospel and our hearts response to the beauty of the Gospel is then to do acts of kindness, to do acts of service, to do good works, to bring God glory. I have been, I just wanna say this, I’ve been a pastor here for nine years, right? We came down to start this church from Omaha Aw and from the very beginning of the days till now I get to look out and I have seen so many examples day in day out, year after year of you doing this, you loving one another, you’re serving one another. I have seen you come to the needs of people who are in some pretty critical situations, people who are really down, people who need help the needs of the community at times to watch you serve and love people is a great privilege and honor. And I know I know a fraction of what you guys have done, right, because you don’t go out there, just posted online just to let everyone know how great you are for serving most of what you have done. I don’t even know. And so the glimpse that I’ve got into your life and the way you love and serve serve I know God knows the whole story and I just wanna say good work. It is a privilege to be walking alongside alongside brothers and sisters who so adamantly believe that and respond to that. And so I would just say this as we work through this as a community group with the rooted series, you know, or personally throughout this week, I just encourage you to take a step back and look at what are your motivations to serve people? What is your motivation to do good is it here, is it these five motivations here. Does it fit within those or if you find yourself depending on the other side of it, but we can always, we can repent, we can move forward. God wants us to grow in these areas and have a conversation with your community group on acts of service things that you can do. Come alongside other people and do something as a community group. Would be an easy way to put this into action too. I’m gonna pray and then we can, we’ll continue on with the service here. So Lord, we thank you for this morning, thank you for your goodness to us. You Lord came to serve and it’s amazing privilege then be able to respond to the Gospel to serve other people. Ask that you would continue to bless our church that we would be known as a body of believers that meets the needs of the people around us that lives out the belief of our faith and Lord. We thank you for today. Thank you for everyone here and praying. Amen.