Serve (2010)
? If you were to die today … to stand before Jesus … would you go to heaven?
? If you were to LIVE today … standing before Jesus … what would you do?
- If Jesus sustains you … gives you another day to live … adds another day to the adventure that we call life … what would you do?
1. God’s Inexpressible Gift is The Adventure of Serving
“Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift!” (2 Corinthians 9:15, ESV)
A. Service Through Giving (Corinthian Context)
Corinthians are being asked to pitch in for famine relief.
Big economic crisis in the area.
Jerusalem is hit hard.
The Corinthians are holding back … thinking Paul is looking to take something from them.
Actually … Paul is giving them something … an inexpressible gift.
B. Service is A Gift
At first it looks like v. 15 is just tacked on at the end here.
“Gift” = Grace (xaris)
“For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.” (2 Corinthians 8:9)
inexpressible
This is the first time in history we find that word.
Paul probably made it up
God’s gift is wonderful “beyond words”
The Ability To Serve Is A Wonderful Gift Because We Are Participating In the CHaracter of God
For the Corinthians … they were being given an opportunity / a gift
- Step out of their own mess
- Step into the adventure God created them for
- Not just with their money
- But using their money as a pry-bar
- Moving their whole character, their church, their relationships into God’s will
C. Service in Marriage
Do we see Service as an GIFT?
- Today is Valentine’s Day
- Here you go … I gave you a dishwasher to empty
- A bed to make
- Some clothes to fold and put away
ILL – Movie “Up”
- Their big dream was to go to Paradise Falls, South America
- In the hustle-and-bustle of life, that dream got pushed aside
- Part of the message … the real adventure of life is found in the day-to-day acts of service
- Part 2 of the message … don’t miss your adventure.
- What are the “some days” in your life / marriage
- Examples
- My Dad going to China
2. This Is What We Were Created For
Ever have a moment when you could say “I was made for this?”
- Tracy Porter catching interception and scoring in the Super Bowl
- A day spent working, laughing with your family
- Rescuers on Sept 11
A. When We SERVE, We Make God Famous
V.12 – Ministry of serviceè supplying needs èthanksgiving to God
v.13 – Approval of service èglorify God
B. We Were Created to Glorify God
Delight yourself in the LORD; and He will give you the desires of your heart. (Psalm 37:4)
Be glad in the LORD and rejoice, you righteous ones; and shout for joy, all you who are upright in heart. (Psalm 32:11)
Sing for joy in the LORD, O you righteous ones; praise is becoming to the upright. (Psalm 33:1)
Let the nations be glad and sing for joy; for You will judge the peoples with uprightness and guide the nations on the earth. (Psalm 67:4)
Shout joyfully to the LORD, all the earth. Serve the LORD with gladness; come before Him with joyful singing. (Psalm 100:1)
C. In Service That Glorifies God, We Can Truly Say, “I Was Made For This.”
David – “But the king said to Araunah, “No, but I will buy it from you for a price. I will not offer burnt offerings to the LORD my God that cost me nothing.” So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver. ” (2 Samuel 24:24, ESV)
“But the king said to Araunah, “No. I’ve got to buy it from you for a good price; I’m not going to offer GOD, my God, sacrifices that are no sacrifice.”So David bought the threshing floor and the ox, paying out fifty shekels of silver. ” (2 Samuel 24:24, The Message)
Esther – For Such A Time As This
“For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” ” (Esther 4:14, ESV)
ü Latino Church “You were appointed for such a time as this.”
Big Story of Service
Service in Marriage / Relationship (weekly serve & surprise)
- Weekly Planning (idea from CJ Mahaney)
- Sometimes they’ll never know what the “surprise” or “service” was
- It’s that small … or I totally miss
- As much as it is for them … its more for me
- Blogpost by Ray Ortland
“Let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.” Ephesians 5:33
God made Adam first and put him in the Garden with a job to do, a mission to fulfill. In the heart of every fallen man is the self-doubt that wonders, “Am I man enough to climb this mountain God has called me to? Can I fulfill my destiny?” A wise wife will understand that question at the center of her husband’s heart. And she will spend her life answering it, communicating to him in various ways, “Honey, I believe in your call. I know you can do this, by God’s power. Go for it.” In this way, she will breathe life into her man.
God made Eve from Adam, for Adam, to help him follow the call. In the heart of every fallen woman is the self-doubt that wonders, “Do I please you? Am I what you wanted?” A wise husband will understand that question at the center of his wife’s heart. And he will spend his life answering it, communicating to her in various ways, “Darling, you are the one I need. I cherish you. Let me hold you close.” In this way, he will breathe life into his wife. – Ray Ortland
3. What If Everyone … ?
A. Power of Joint Tithing
CF Graphic
From: http://www.emptytomb.org/potential.html
- If Americans who identify with the historically Christian church increased their giving to an average of 10% of income, there could be an additional $161 billion given to the church.
- If 60% of this amount were made available to expand overseas missions activity, that number would mean an additional $96.5 billion available for overseas missions.
- $70-$80 billion would impact the worst of world poverty
- $5 billion could end most of the 9.2 million under-5, global, annual child deaths.
- $7 billion would be sufficient for global primary education for all children.
- One billion would address the costs of global evangelization, according to one estimate
- You should be aware, that there could also be $32.0 billion more a year for domestic outreach.
- And this all on top of our current church activities.
Churches that took seriously the kingdom of God would look a lot like training centers’ for life, a life interactive with God. Churches would be deeply immersed in giving every bit of their resources to doing good, to blessing their communities. It is pathetic, for example, that you cannot get people to give a tithe. If the Christians in this country tithed, the church would be awash in money and there would not be a single legitimate social need that couldn't be met, at least in financial terms. – Dallas Willard
B. Power of A United Church
- Abolition of Slavery
Rodney Stark:
Although it has been fashionable to deny it, anti-slavery doctrines began to appear in Christian theology soon after the decline of Rome and were accompanied by the eventual disappearance of slavery in all but the fringes of Christian Europe. When Europeans subsequently instituted slavery in the New World, they did so over strenuous papal opposition, a fact that was conveniently “lost” from history until recently. Finally, the abolition of slavery in the New World was initiated and achieved by Christian Activists.
ü William Wilberforce / John Newton
ü John Woolman in America
ü Quakers
ü All had nothing to gain in this.
- “…no one has succeeded in showing that those who campaigned for the end of the slave trade … stood to gain in any tangible way … or that these measures were other than economically costly to the country.”
- Slavery was abolished because it was wrong … and it took Christian leaders to say that.
- Civil Rights
Was as much of a religious revival as a social movement.
If we are all equally God’s children and equally fallen … needing grace, then how should we relate to each other?
…How should we forgive each other?
C. There Is Power of Living Like Jesus TOGETHER
What if everyone …
ü Family
ü Small Group
ü Block / Neighbors
- Showed grace
- Forgiveness
- Service
- Laughter
4. Service Flows From Submission To The Gospel (v.13)
Left to ourselves we’ll be powerless.
We serve out of submission to the gospel.
“He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness. You will be enriched in every way to be generous in every way, which through us will produce thanksgiving to God. For the ministry of this service is not only supplying the needs of the saints but is also overflowing in many thanksgivings to God. By their approval of this service, they will glorify God because of your submission flowing from your confession of the gospel of Christ, and the generosity of your contribution for them and for all others, ” (2 Corinthians 9:10–13, ESV)
5. Service Is An Adventure that Glorifies God. This Is An Indescribable Gift
Piper – Don’t Waste Your Life – Winnebago, seashell collection
John Piper writes, "In April 2000, Ruby Eliason and Laura Edwards were killed in Cameroon, West Africa. Ruby was over eighty. Single all her life, she poured it out for one great thing: to make Jesus Christ known among the unreached, the poor, and the sick. Laura was a widow, a medical doctor, pushing eighty years old, and serving at Ruby's side in Cameroon. The brakes failed, the car went over a cliff, and they were both killed instantly. Was that a tragedy? Two lives, driven by one great passion, namely to be spent in unheralded service to the perishing poor for the glory of Jesus Christ -- even two decades aftermost of their American counterparts had retired to throw away their lives on trifles. No, that is not a tragedy. That is a glory. These lives were not wasted. And these lives were not lost. "Whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's will save it" (Mark 8:35)
I will tell you what a tragedy is. I will show you how to waste your life. Consider a story from the February 1998 edition of Reader's Digest, which tells about a couple who "took early retirement from their jobs in the Northeast five years ago when he was 59 and she was 51. Now they live in Punta Gorda, Florida, where they cruise on their 30 foot trawler, play softball and collect shells." At first, I thought it might be a joke. A spoof on the American Dream. But it wasn't. Tragically, this was the dream: Come to the end of your life -- your one and only precious, God-given life -- and let the last great work of your life, before you given account to your Creator, be this: playing softball and collecting shells. Picture them before Christ as the great day of judgment: "Look, Lord. See my shells." That is a tragedy. And people today are spending billions of dollars to persuade you to embrace that tragic dream. Over against that, I put my protest: Don't buy it. Don't waste your life."
You get one life to serve people for Christ. DON’T WASTE IT.
If you were to die today … what would you say?
If you were to LIVE today … who would you serve?