Lesson Notes

Introduction

• Brief Recap
  • Based on Don Whitney’s Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life
  • Developing spiritual habits for the purpose of godliness – growing nearer to Christ and more like Christ
  • We’ve discussed: meditation, memorization, worship, prayer, journaling, silence & solitude, fasting, and stewardship as habits to help us grow in godliness
• Tonight we talk about serving – for the purpose of godliness
  • Serving is near and dear to Christ’s heart – He taught and modeled it to us – Mark 10: 45, “For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.“
  • Every Christian is expected to serve Him faithfully
  • We’re expected to serve Him with proper motives and as a disciplined habit
    • That’s the distinctive element I want to emphasize tonight

The Habit of Godly Service

• Serving God is not a casual thing – He calls us to costly service, expecting us to give Him our life. It’s a habit of sacrifice, not a hobby.
  • That isn’t to say that serving God isn’t fun or satisfying – it often is, But sometimes it’s hard, anonymous, exhausting, and unappreciated by other people. 
  • Mark 8: 34-35, “And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, ‘If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it.“
  • Mark 9:35, “And he sat down and called the twelve. And he said to them, ‘If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.‘”
• In John 13, Jesus gave us the example of washing the disciples’ dirty feet and challenged us to serve likewise
  • Sometimes serving God looks like spectacular martyrdom and heroics
  • More often it looks like washing yet another set of feet, long after the charm of foot washing has worn off
  • Faithful service can feel boring, invisible, and inconsequential – but it matters!
  • The sound tech is just as necessary as the singer – for our worship services – you see 6 of us, but we need the other 3 or you get nothing!
  • When we gathered, Chef Bobbi was the celebrity, but Glenn was critical behind the scenes!
  • Most serving is pleasurable and done out of our love for Christ and others – but some days we have to battle spiritual forces trying to keep us from serving
    • That’s why serving must be a spiritual habit – a discipline – to keep from getting lazy, bored, or resentful during a life of long obedience to Christ 
    • Laziness and pride hate serving
    • Christ loved serving – to grow more like Christ we have to engage in serving as a habit from the right heart
    • Otherwise we only serve when it’s convenient or rewarding to us
  • Faithful godly serving is one of the best ways to grow in grace over time
• The blood of Christ cleanses us to serve God – Hebrews 9: 13-14, “For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.“
• There’s no exception for age or ability – there’s no unemployment or retirement from serving God – I love watching our active and engaged seniors, whom I miss dearly!

Motivations to Serve

• Let’s discuss some biblical motivations and attitudes of service – consider your own service and whether your attitude and motivation falls into this list
• Obedience
  • Deuteronomy 13: 4, “You shall walk after the Lord your God and fear him and keep his commandments and obey his voice, and you shall serve him and hold fast to him.”
  • Every Christian should want to obey God and to obey God is to serve Him
• Gratitude
  • 1 Samuel 12: 24, “Only fear the Lord and serve him faithfully with all your heart. For consider what great things he has done for you.“
  • Romans 5:8, “But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.“
  • God has already done immeasurably for you – He has reconciled you to Him by the sacrifice of His Son – be grateful and serve out of that gratitude!
• Gladness
  • God expects us to serve gladly, not grudgingly – Psalm 100: 2, “Serve the Lord with gladness! Come into his presence with singing!“
  • We can serve God cheerfully and with joy because we won’t have to serve Him to earn our way into heaven or His love!
• Forgiveness, Not Guilt
  • Isaiah 6: 6-8, “Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs form the altar. And he touched my mouth and said: ‘Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.’ And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?’ Then I said, ‘Here I am! Send me.'”
  • Isaiah was motivated by the forgiveness he received
  • We have been forgiven everything already!
  • If you ever find yourself serving out of guilt, preach the gospel to yourself!
• Humility
  • John 13: 12-16, “When he had washed their feet and put on  his outer garments and resumed his place, he said to them, ‘Do you understand what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. If I then your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you. Truly, truly, I saw to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him.‘”
  • We don’t serve to get some reward, recognition, reputation, or return on investment – we serve because we are servants
  • We’re called to serve like Christ and He was humble
  • Philippians 2: 3, “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.“
• Love
  • Galatians 5: 13, “For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.“
  • 2 Corinthians 5: 14-15, “For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.“

Reflections on Serving

• Every Christian of every age has spiritual gifts
  • 1 Corinthians 12: 11, “All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills.“
  • 1 Peter 4: 10-11, “As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace: whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies – in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.“
  • If you’re a Christian, you have at least one spiritual gift – something that isn’t a natural talent, but something given you by the Holy Spirit to serve others in the context of a local church to build God’s kingdom
  • Your gift may or may not line up with pre-existing talents, interests, aptitudes, or vocational experience – often it doesn’t
  • The best way to find your gift is by serving in various ways and finding the place where you discover supernatural joy, the sense of being in God’s will, and where other thoughtful Christians validate your giftedness as you serve
  • Even if you don’t know your gift, serve. J. I. Packer, “The most significant gifts in the church’s life in every era are ordinary abilities sanctified.”
• Serving is often hard work – hence the need for disciplined consistency
  • Serving God is hard work – taking up our cross, denying ourselves
  • God provides us with the desire and power to serve Him – then we must, “toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me.” (Colossians 1: 29)
  • Expect that service will be hard at times – and serve anyway
  • Serving God is the most fulfilling and rewarding work. Say with Jesus, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.” (John 4: 34)
  • Serving god always has value – 1 Corinthians 15: 58, “Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vainI.
• Worship and serving are deeply related
  • Service without regular worship leads to serving in your own power
  • Real worship moves us to serve as we saw with Isaiah
  • A. W. Tozer, “Fellowship with God leads straight to obedience and good works. That is the divine order and it can never be reversed.”
  • Tozer, “No one can long worship God in spirit and in truth before the obligation to holy service becomes too strong to resist.”
• The gospel of Christ creates Christlike servants
  • If we’ve truly believed the gospel, we will have new, Christlike desires, including the desire to serve that begins to defeat our desire to be served

Homework

• Review the ways your serve the Lord – is your service consistent and disciplined? For the right motivation? Are you called to serve more or differently?