Sermon: Finding Meaning in Service

I pay attention to commercials. Especially local commercials, commercials for local businesses, people we might see in our community. No surprise, they’re usually bad, and that is what makes them so interesting to me. Is there only one Al Britt? Thank goodness. We don’t need any more of those sing songy voices. Is Corey B Trotz really changing Nahon, Saharavich and Trotz, NST, to Win ST? Is Nahon out of the business? Did he croak? Is my comfort your business or your passion? One of those sounds better than the other, even if they both sound kinda weird. Do I really want to buy carpet from two nincompoops who blow up their gas grill by soaking it in lighter fluid? Do I really deserve the best, and does that sad eyed dog Chief that you introduce every time really make your business the best?

Then there’s Choates Air Conditioning, Heating, and Plumbing, a local company located right over here on Mt. Pleasant Road in Collierville. Anybody here related or work for them? Yeah, I gotta ask before I talk about them. They’ve been in business since 1958. It’s an Andy Wise wise choice. I had them bid on a job for me once. Kinda pricey, but seemed competent. Do you know their tag line? Let Our Family Serve Your Family. I like that. I like being served, don’t you. I like that they want to serve me and my family. That ought to be the tag line for the church. Let Our Family Serve Your Family. That is the Jesus way. In fact, if you are searching for meaning in life, may I suggest that serving others is a pretty decent meaningful life. Jesus, Paul, and Peter, highly recommend it.

Jesus

There’s an interesting interaction Jesus has with his apostles, James and John, recorded in Mark’s Gospel.

³⁵ Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to him. “Teacher,” they said, “we want you to do for us whatever we ask.”

³⁶ “What do you want me to do for you?” he asked.

³⁷ They replied, “Let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left in your glory.”

Like Jason has said, this sounds like something little kids would do to their parents. Mom and Dad, would you give us whatever we want? Sure, kids, why not! As childish as James and John’s request is, you have to give some credit to their faith. They believe Jesus is the king who is going to come into his glory and will have all power and authority in the earth, and, hey, they want in on the power. Would that give your life meaning? Would you find purpose and meaning in ruling others, in being most highly regarded? James and John thought they would. But Jesus had some teaching to do.

³⁸ “You don’t know what you are asking,” Jesus said. “Can you drink the cup I drink or be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with?”

In the kingdom of Jesus, power and position don’t come without terrible suffering. But James and John don’t understand.

³⁹ “We can,” they answered.

Jesus said to them, “You will drink the cup I drink and be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with, ⁴⁰ but to sit at my right or left is not for me to grant. These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared.”

It seems that shut James and John up, but it got the tongues of the other apostles wagging in indignation. How dare they jockey for greater position! How sneaky of them to run an end around on them and try to steal away the power they hoped to get.

⁴¹ When the ten heard about this, they became indignant with James and John. ⁴² Jesus called them together and said, “You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them.

Yes, that’s the way of the world. I get power and that makes me feel meaningful and important, and I find even more meaning in bossing you around and making me seem like you must serve me because I’m the most important person here. We see it at work, we see it in the churches, we see it in marriages, in parenting. But Jesus has something to say about what gives meaning to life.

 ⁴³ Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, ⁴⁴ and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. ⁴⁵ For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Mark 10:35-45, NIV)

Can you imagine if Jesus had taken the stance of “you serve me” with his followers. Can you imagine such a person being willing to die on our behalf? If anyone deserved to be served it is Jesus. But his meaning and purpose in life was not to be served but to serve. That’s what makes him great. And that is what will make you great, too.

One of my favorite Presidents is Ulysses Grant. If you’re still fighting the Civil War you won’t like him. But he was a man without ego, a servant, who nearly single-handedly saved the day for the union army. He didn’t need the accolades. He did the job. And that is the kind of President he was.

I am a big fan of the book, Good to Great, by Jim Collins, a study of 11 companies that went from tracking the market to exceeding it by at least 3x. He looked for what made the difference and though he was biased against this conclusion, he was forced to conclude that it was the company leaders who made the difference. And it was something about these leaders that made the difference. Here were the characteristics of leaders who took their companies from good to great:

• They embodied a paradoxical mix of personal humility and professional will
• They were ambitious, but ambitious first and foremost for the company, not themselves
• They set up their successors for even greater success in the next generation
• They were fanatically driven
• They were infected with an incurable need to produce sustained results
• They resolved to do whatever it takes to make the organization great, no matter how big or hard the decisions
• They displayed a workmanlike diligence – more plow horse than show horse.
• They looked out the window to attribute success to factors other than themselves
• When things went poorly they looked in the mirror and blamed themselves

How could we sum that up. They were servants, servant leaders, the kind of leader Jesus was and that he was urging his apostles to be. Does Jesus’ commitment to serving others sound like a viable choice for your life? “We are most like Christ when we serve others.” – Unknown

 

Paul

The apostle Paul mirrors Jesus’ teaching. When writing to the church at Philippi, a church that was good, maybe not great, in many respects, but suffering from division and disunity over, believe it or not, their support of Paul. Paul had the solution to their disunity, the way to move from good to great:

² …make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. ³ Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, ⁴ not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. (Philippians 2:2-4, NIV)

Letting our family serve your family is the very opposite of disunity. Disunity is fueled by selfish ambition (my way is the best way and my promotion is critical) and vain conceit (I am more important than you). That is what James and John were fueled by. That is what made the other apostles so indignant. It undoubtedly aroused selfish ambition and vain conceit in them. But what did Jesus say, if you want to be great…serve. Be a slave. Or as Paul says it, “value others above yourselves.” And it is not that you have to ignore your own interests, or better, your own needs, but you need to look to the needs of others, also.

Sum tertius is a Latin phrase for, “I am third”: Meaning: put God first, your fellow man second and your own interests third.

When Suzie Q gets on to me for leaving the table cluttered, what is the deeper need she has that I should be aware of and minister to? When Joe Blow says ugly things about me behind my back to discredit me, how do I serve him rather than just retaliate? How do I value others more than myself; without denying my own needs, how do I serve them? Many a warring community could be rescued by their people finding their meaning in serving. It is the Jesus way. It is the Paul way. And it is the Peter way.

Peter

Peter tells us very clearly how we find meaning in the body of Christ:

⁷ The end of all things is near. Therefore be alert and of sober mind so that you may pray. ⁸ Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. ⁹ Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. ¹⁰ Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms. ¹¹ 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 in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen. (1 Peter 4:7-11, NIV)

Love is demonstrated in service. God has given you and me various gifts, abilities with which we can serve the Body of Christ, his church. He split them out between us, speaking gifts and serving gifts, teaching, counseling, encouraging, administration, prayer, mercy, giving, leading. We need each other. We need the way your family serves our family and you need the way our family serves your family. We are a family of servants, with no one needing to find their meaning from position or power, but all of us finding our meaning in being good stewards of God’s multifaceted grace.

Like the leaders of great companies, we need to be doggedly committed to the success of our church, our family, our marriage, our business with a humility that is ambitious for the success of others, more plow horse than show horse, blaming ourselves when things go bad, commending others when they go well.

You know, I see this in our friend and brother, Caleb Hollingsworth. I see it in the way he runs his business. He is a servant leader who wants his employees to do well, to reap the benefits of their efforts. He’s a plow horse, not a show horse. I see it in the way the Beatties serve our church, not for recognition but because they care. I see it in the way our pastor leads us. He doesn’t crave power. He gives it away. I see it in our elders, in our staff, in our worship team, in our personnel team, in our finance team. It is the meaning of our church, to be a community of grace and peace for the good of our city and the fame of Jesus. We are a body of servants who don’t care who gets the credit, other than Jesus. Service is our business and our passion.

Service is where you find meaning in life. It has been said,

“True greatness is not found in possessions, power, position, or prestige. It is discovered in goodness, humility, service, and character.” – William Arthur Ward

 

James Barnett grew up in church, did service work, mission trips, and volunteering at homeless shelters, but he felt his life didn’t really measure up to Jesus’ calling. He did a mission trip to Nicaragua to minister to the people who lived in the large city dump, La Chureca, under the leadership of a Jamaican woman, Ms Ruby.

His last day of the trip James went to Ms Ruby for prayer. After praying over him a while she fell silent. Finally she looked at James and said, “Child, the Lord wants you to know you haven’t been obedient.”

James was furious. He had worked so hard to live a good life; he didn’t understand how he had not been obeying.

“My child,” she said calmly, “your obedience isn’t defined by what you don’t do, but by what you do for the world your God so loved.”

Slowly, James began to feel convicted that there was a difference between admiring Christ and following him.

When James got home he told his mom, “I feel like I want to be homeless.” With tears she said, “Ok.” His dad encouraged him to engage in what he thought would be a neat adventure. James began ministering to people on the street and eventually founded a ministry called Clothe Your Neighbor As Yourself.

Here’s a little video he made about serving in Jesus’ name.

[show video]

 

“Excellent service isn’t the result of doing one thing 1000 percent better. It’s the result of doing thousands of things 1 percent better.” Michael LeBoeuf

Perhaps we should make it a rule for our lives, that by the help of the Holy Spirit we won’t go to bed at night without having helped make one fellow human being’s life a little easier, a little happier, or a little better. That is the way of Jesus. He didn’t come to be served but to serve, and we shouldn’t come any other way, either.

 

Jesus, Paul, and Peter would say, Amen.