Light Service Sermons for the Month
The Adventure of Serving
DATE: October 11, 1998
TEXT: Philippians 2:1-8
Light Service Sermons for the Month
Living on the Edge of Adventure
The Adventure of Serving
DATE: October 11, 1998
TEXT: Philippians 2:1-8
Last week I lost my appointment book. Don Dillahunt found it about an hour later sitting on a pew in the sanctuary. But for that one hour, I was panicked. It was as if my brains had been misplaced. I didn't know what I was supposed to do when. That little book was my direction, my map. Without it, I was lost. I spent most of that hour just sitting in my office, staring into space wondering what I should be doing. In truth, we need something more than just an appointment book, don't we, if we want to know what we really should be doing when? We need a compass. And yet sometimes even a compass can point us in the wrong directions. Sometimes our compass is focused toward survival and so we expend all of our energy and all of our time and resources keeping our calendar free from obligations other than survival. Sometimes our compass is pointed toward financial success and everything about us is focused on trying to get ahead and succeed financially. Sometimes our compass is focused toward comfort and so all we really want to do is have more fun or get more comfortable. Sometimes our compass focuses us toward acceptance. All we do, all of our energy is devoted to loading up our appointment books with just those people we want to like us—to get their approval. Our bible reading invites us to consider another direction for our compass. There's another focus that can energize us, excite us and help us discover tremendous enjoyment for living. 3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. 4 Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. In one word, God invites us to be SERVANTS—to serve other people. Unfortunately, the word service is not a real popular word in our dictionaries. I think about the time I was hired as a waiter in a restaurant near the east entrance to Yellowstone National Park. Here I was in an exotic location for the summer, Buffalo Bill Cody's Old Hunting Lodge, near the Shoshone River. At the end of my first day, I thought to myself, "Why in the world did I agree to do this?" My feet hurt; I was hungry from having served food for eight hours but never having had time to eat any of it; and I was tired of having people snap their fingers at me demanding this or that. Unfortunately, for myself and for many others, we'd rather be served than serve. It sounds more fun. It sounds more comfortable. It's our nature to want to have others serve us. Yet, God knows that there is something inside of us that helps us find the Great Adventure as we serve others. Serving others is a tremendous adventure. I'd like to share with you at least four ways that we can discover the adventure of serving others. 1) First of all, we discover that adventure as we find purpose beyond ourselves. Abraham Maslow was a giant thinker of the 20th century. He brought a radical shift to the perspective of psychology. Until his time, followers of Freud, psychologists and psychiatrists devoted their attention to the pathologies of people. They studied and provided therapy for people who were sick—people who had some kind of dysfunction in their life. But Maslow turned that completely around. He spent his time studying healthy people—whole people. In fact, he studied people who were vibrantly alive. Through that process he developed a theory that is called self-actualization. As he sought to find the secret of the self-actualized person, he wrote this statement, "Without exception, I found that every person who was sincerely happy and radiantly alive was living for a purpose or cause beyond himself." As we serve others, we discover there's a purpose for living beyond ourselves. As a friend said recently to me, "I'm working hard. I'm making lots of money, but I need a purpose. I need something beyond myself that calls me." In our meetings on strategies for the 21st century, the group has been trying to come up with a mission/vision/value statement for Faith Church, a mission statement easily understood by everyone, a mission statement that is not descriptive but rather directive. One author has said, "every church have a vision and every member needs to know it. The congregation's DNA, its reason for being, is what drives the church.". Secondly, serving is a great adventure because as we serve we walk in the footsteps of Jesus. 5 Let the same mind be in you that was* in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, God had it all! He lived in comfort. He was the king. He lived in the greatness of heaven and yet he emptied himself and became one of us and actually became a servant. It says, He emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, 8he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death—even death on a cross. Friends, through Jesus Christ God has served you well. God has come to be with you to teach, to heal, and then to die for you on a cross. Have you ever been in a restaurant or hotel where you felt served well? I'm sure you can think of lots of places that didn't do so well, but have you ever been in a place that really treated you right? Or maybe in your home on a holiday or a special birthday where your family or friends treated you special. You know how it feels to be served well. Our loving Lord serves you well. He has come to be a servant to us. And not only are we grateful for that, but we can also now follow in his footsteps. Follow in the example of Jesus. A famous sculptor in Europe stood with his friend by his new sculpture of Jesus. The friend said to the sculptor, "Why are Jesus' hands missing? There are no hands on Jesus in this sculpture." The sculptor reached down and grabbed the hands of his friend and said, "These are the hands. Yours are the hands of Jesus today, in this world." You're the hands of Jesus where every you are…in your home, in your job, in your community, in your neighborhood, right here at Faith. You are the hands and the feet of Jesus. It's exciting! It's fun! It's a privilege! It's an honor to follow in the footsteps of Jesus in reaching out and caring for and loving other people. As you serve others it is as if the Lord Himself is loving this world through you. Thirdly, serving the Lord is a great adventure because it maximizes our talents and gifts. I think about Chris Sear who did a spiritual gifts inventory a number of years back. In that inventory it was revealed he had a gift for drawing. Last year, he put together a series of "Faith Funnies" as an advertisement for our congregation. I can remember the sparkle in his eyes as he showed me his latest creation. He was having a blast. He was having fun in discovering his talents and gifts match a need we have. God has wired you with certain talents and gifts that can be useful in God's work but can also bring you tremendous enjoyment. I want to encourage you to let this be a place where you can discover those talents and use them. As you do, you will find great enjoyment and great fulfillment. A church like this is where we should encourage one another in our talents. As we see people singing, teaching in the Explorers' Club, leading a small group or hospitality, say thanks. It says in our text, If then there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation from love, any sharing in the Spirit, any compassion and sympathy, 2 make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. God invites all of us to encourage those who are serving. Not just to take them for granted but to show our appreciation. Fourth, we can find the Adventure of Serving because as we serve we are touching human lives for eternity. Businessman Harvey Mackay, who authored the book Swim with the Sharks, wrote a newspaper column about the importance of leaders being willing to do any kind of work. As an example of being willing to do anything on the factory floor, Mackay mentioned Philip Pillsbury of the Pillsbury milling family. Mackay wrote: The tips of three of his finger were missing…[That's] the unmistakable mark of a journeyman grain miller, albeit a somewhat less-than-dexterous one. [Philip] Pillsbury had an international reputation as a connoisseur of fine foods and wines, but to the troops, his reputation as a man willing to do a hard, dirty job was the one that mattered…and you can be sure everyone was aware of it. The best leaders see themselves as servants. The people that are greatest in the kingdom of God are those missing the tips of their fingers. I know for a fact that Faith changes lives. It has changed the lives of many in this room. But really what I am saying is that we are the ones changing the lives in this room. We are Faith. What an awesome calling—that you and I can actually touch and change lives in this world today. Not through a strong arm but through our service—through caring for those around us. I hope you catch the excitement of that today and that you will seize the moments. Use you talents and resources not for your own gain, but for others that God will change this world!
AMEN