Service

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Turn with me to Philippians chapter 2 this morning. Philippians chapter 2. You know, I can be a little self-centered sometimes.

Y’all probably say, surely not, but it happens. It happens to all of us. That’s why as a child, I always hated McDonald’s and loved Burger King because I could have it my way.

Two of the foods that I most despise on this planet are onions and American cheese. And you ask for anything at McDonald’s, or at least back then, you ask for anything at McDonald’s without onions or American cheese and they got huffy. Burger King, if they could remember what you ordered, then they were, you know, glad or at least said they were glad to do it that way.

And so as a consequence, you know, I never did like McDonald’s and still I’m not real crazy about it to this day. We like to have things the way we like them. Otherwise, we wouldn’t like them that way.

And we all have our preferences. We all have our choices and that’s fine. There’s nothing wrong with that depending on what the choices are.

But it becomes a problem sometimes when we insist on other people. I hear a phrase used a lot more often lately that says we have in the churches we have turned people from being worshipers and from being disciples into being consumers of religious goods and services. And I think there’s a lot of truth to that unfortunately.

See it’s okay to want it our way when we go to Burger King. It’s not so much when we try to make the church Burger King. And I don’t mean just this church, I mean any church.

When we try to, where our only concern is about our preferences. And just to give you some examples, instead of picking on anybody else, I’ll pick on myself. I filled in for a while leading music at a church I was pastoring before this one, and we might have a piano player one Sunday out of five because the only lady who knew how to play the piano in the church had health problems and couldn’t be there all the time.

And so I tried for a little while to play the piano and lead the music, and that was a disaster. And doing all that and preaching, it just, no, it didn’t work. But I would lead the music, and we would have to sing a cappella then.

And we would sing just out of the Heavenly Highways hymnal, which there’s not a problem with that. It just wasn’t what I was used to. The problem was no matter how fast I, as the one leading music, was going, they would sing whatever hymn we were singing at the pace they wanted to sing it.

I’m not exaggerating. And this church was split right down the middle, not only in spirit, but physically. You know, this faction sat on that side and this faction sat on this side.

And so you might have me up front going one speed and one side of the auditorium singing the same hymn, but at the pace of a funeral dirge, and the other half of the room even slower than that. And I thought, this is just boring and sad. I cannot worship this way.

And then it occurred to me that me worshiping had nothing to do with the style of music we were doing or the speed or what anybody else in that auditorium was doing. It had everything to do with my heart before God. Yes, singing the Heavenly Highways Hymnal at a pace like this was not my taste.

But you know what? We have mission churches in Canada who sing the old, old songs at that pace every Sunday, and they worship God because that’s the way they sing them. We went out to camp Wednesday night.

Some of you went out there as well. And when the music first came on, I leaned over and said to my wife, I’m getting old because it was so loud and pounding and throbbing. I thought, I’m old.

I may be 27 years old, but I’m right there with you on the pounding music. And I thought, I can’t, I can’t do this. And then I realized again that my worship of God, my praising of God had nothing to do with the style of music that was going on, had nothing to do with my preference of music or what everybody else was doing, it was a matter of my heart before God.

And I tried to focus in a little bit on the words, and you know what, I actually feel like I worshiped God once I got away from my preferences a little bit. Now, I didn’t pump my fist and crowd surf or anything, if you were concerned about that. But you know what, I don’t like slow, draggy music, and I don’t like feeling like I’m at a rock concert either.

But you know what, it’s not my preferences that are important. With anything else in church, it’s not really my preference that’s important. And I know some of you may be thinking, amen, it’s not your preference.

Well, you know what? It’s not your preference either that’s important. It’s not our preference.

I’ve heard of people saying, well, we like the preaching at such and such church, but we’re still looking because we didn’t like the music. And I flat out told somebody one day that was a dumb reason to pick a church. Or we like the music, but the preaching wasn’t.

. . Okay, if he’s preaching something wrong, that’s an issue.

But if you just didn’t like him, that might be a bad reason to pick a church. Or there’s not, we’re looking at other churches because there’s not enough here for our kids. I got real irritated when I was in college with the people that I’d gone through high school with in the youth group and had been very active in ministry with.

And a good portion of them, once they graduated high school and we got into college, suddenly they weren’t at church on Wednesday nights. And my mother used to call me the Holy Spirit because she said I was always trying to make people do the right thing and getting in their business. It’s not my job to be their Holy Spirit, but as a fellow member of the church, I was concerned about why are you not in church anymore?

Why are you not coming on Wednesday nights? Why are you not coming on Sunday nights? And I got so annoyed.

I got so annoyed. And I promise this message this morning is not just about the things that annoy me or the foods I don’t like. But I would get so annoyed hearing over and over, well, there’s nothing for us on Wednesday nights.

There’s nothing for us on Sunday nights. Well, first of all, the preaching of the word on Sunday nights, that’s for you. That’s not just for the people that you think need it.

That’s for all of us. On Wednesday nights, sure, maybe there’s no college ministry program. But who said church was about you?

I finally looked a few of my friends in the eye and said, whoever said church was about you? If there’s nothing for you, then get involved somewhere else and serve somewhere. Do something for somebody else.

And that’s the question that I have to pose to myself from time to time when I get concerned about what I want, because it may it may surprise you to know I don’t have absolute power here. If I did, there might be things I’d do differently, but by and large, I’m happy with this church. I think we’ve got a great church, and I think God’s at work here, and it doesn’t matter what my preferences are.

And I have to remind myself of that question, and I pose it to you this morning. Who said church was about you? Now, obviously, we come here to be taught, and we come here to be encouraged by one another.

We come here to be strengthened by one another. But if all we do is come to church, if all we do is be a part of the church as consumers of religious goods and services, and we stick around as long as the church is meeting some felt need on our part, but as soon as we don’t feel like we’re getting what we want out of church, we’re going to move on someplace else, we’re never going to find a church that meets all the needs we have, and we’re never going to be living up to the calling that God has given us as Christians. Yes, we do need to be taught.

Yes, we do need to be encouraged. Yes, we do need to be strengthened and challenged, and we do need to have other people meet our needs. But we are called first and foremost to serve others and to meet others’ needs.

I always like what John Kennedy said about the nation. I think it applies to the church when he said, ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country. Ladies and gentlemen, we need to stop asking what our church can do for us sometimes and start asking what we can do for our church.

If you haven’t turned with me there yet, turn to Philippians chapter 2. Paul’s writing to the church at Philippi. If he had favorites, I assume the church at Philippi would be his favorite church of the ones that he helped start.

First church in Europe, and he writes back to them. And really this letter’s a thank you note for their generosity. Even though they were poor, they had sent money to support missions.

They’d sent money to support other churches. They weren’t constantly asking, Paul, what can you do for us? Paul, what can the church at Jerusalem do for us?

And so he writes to them, not so much to correct an error that they were in, but to encourage them to do better at what they were already doing well at. And he says in verse 1, if there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies, fulfill ye my joy that ye be like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. And so what he says, if there’s anything, if there are any of these things in you, if you find any consolation, if you find any solace in Christ, if there’s any comfort of love within the church, any fellowship of the Spirit, if you fellowship together in the unity of the Holy Spirit, and he says in any bowels and mercies, that word bowels to them would be the seat of the emotions like we would think of being the heart.

You say, I love you with all my heart. Well, they would say something different. They would consider the bowels to be the seat of the emotions, and the reason for that, I guess, being sometimes, you know, something will happen and you feel like you’ve been punched in the stomach.

Or when you were young and you saw that girl you really liked and got a queasy feeling in your stomach. I don’t know if anybody else ever did that. Or somebody’s mad at you.

I don’t know about y’all, but when I know somebody’s mad at me or when I’m in conflict with somebody, I get sick to my stomach. And so when he says, if any bowels and mercies, he’s talking about their heart. And he says, if you’ve found any of these things in the church, if you’ve been ministered to the church and by the church in any of these ways, he says, then fulfill my joy, not give Paul joy, because his joy in Christ was not dependent on anybody else and what they did or his circumstances, just as our joy in Christ is not dependent on the circumstances around us.

It’s dependent on our relationship with Christ. But he says, fulfill my joy, fulfill my joy, that ye be like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. He said, make me as joyful as I possibly can and everybody get together around the person of Christ. Everybody have the same love. The same love for one another, the same love for Christ. Be like-minded, be of one accord.

That means to be together in the way they were thinking, and of one mind. Now, this doesn’t necessarily mean that they had to agree on every little thing, just as we don’t agree on every little thing. But folks, they were to be of the same mind together.

Instead of focusing on where they could squabble, they were supposed to be focused on Jesus Christ and be unified around the truth. He says in verse 3, let nothing be done through strife or vainglory, but in lowliness of mind, let each esteem other better than themselves. He says nothing that you as Christians do should be done through strife.

Nothing that we should do should be fighting with one another, jockeying for position, trying to see who can come out on top, or vainglory so that everybody can see how wonderful we are doing it for selfish reasons and selfish motives. Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory. He says, but in lowliness of mind, let each esteem other better than themselves.

Our motivation as Christians, when we act individually, when we act within the church, our motivation as Christians should be that we see our brothers and sisters as better than ourselves and we strive to serve them. Because in serving them, we also serve Christ. He’s talking about a matter of perspective, a matter of attitude here, a matter of the heart. And he draws us two distinctly different pictures.

He says we could on one hand be Christians and be a church that is characterized by these sort of worldly behaviors that we’re supposed to have been saved out of, that we’re constantly fighting and warring with one another and trying to one up one another and everything we do is based out of selfish motive. Or on the other hand, we could be Christians and we could be a church who loves one another and is always trying to put the needs of the other ahead of our own. That’s what we all ought to desire for our church or for any church.

is that we be the kind of people who constantly esteem one another better than ourselves and put the needs of our brother, the needs of our sister, ahead of our own. Some of the best advice that was ever given me before I got married was what it teaches in the Bible to put your spouse ahead of yourself. And it was phrased to me that if there’s a conflict, I can’t remember exactly who told me this, but if there’s a conflict, you should try to see the other person’s position and make the other person’s case.

Instead of arguing for your own way, you ought to fight to put the other person ahead of yourself. Now, that’s not always easy to do. As a matter of fact, that’s rarely easy to do.

However, when I’ve tried that, and again, I don’t do it all the time. Human nature kicks in, takes over, and we want our own way. But when I’ve stopped and thought about it and thought, I need to be advocating for her instead of for me, it just completely changes the dynamic of the relationship.

Folks, the same thing is true within the church. we should be advocating for one another instead of ourselves. And he says, look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.

Look not just our own business, our own pursuits, but take care for the needs of others. And he says, as a perfect example of this, let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. He says, if you want to do this, if you want to be unified as a church, if you want to be together, if you want to serve one another, There’s no better example than this.

There’s no better person to look to than this. This is what you need to try to do, and he says, let this mind be in you. This way of thinking is what you need to commit to.

Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus. He tells them if you want to do this right, if you want to be the right kind of church, if you want to be the right part or the right kind of church member, if you want to be the right kind of Christian, try to be like Jesus. who, speaking of Jesus, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God.

In other words, Jesus Christ, it says here, being in the form of God, that doesn’t mean he was a form of God. In the Greek, it’s much clearer, I think, that he was God in human form. And being God in human form, he didn’t think it was unreasonable.

He didn’t think it was robbery to be equal with God. But he made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of men. Think about this, what Jesus Christ did.

I know we talk about this at Christmas a lot and we look at the manger story and it’s a nice pretty postcard painting that we look at. But you look sometimes at how terrible our world can be at times. And Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, from eternity past, he was there with God the Father in the splendors of heaven.

And because of us and our sin, at one point, Jesus Christ stepped out of heaven, God in the flesh, in all his perfection, and he stepped into this wicked, dirty world. And he didn’t come born as a king in the traditional sense. He wasn’t born in a palace surrounded by gold and silver.

He was born in a manger. He was born in an animal’s eating trough. Born into the family of a carpenter.

He humbled himself, ladies and gentlemen. For 30 years, he was part of a carpenter’s family. At times, he had no place of his own to live.

For three years, he traveled around Israel with a band of 12 men who really at that point just didn’t even get what he was talking about most of the time. Trying to invest himself in these men and in many cases serving them, he told them the Son of Man didn’t come to be ministered to but to minister and to give his life a ransom for many. He told them things like, the chief among you must be your servant.

And he so humbled himself that before he was about to die, before he was about to die in the most humiliating way possible that they knew of, and about to die in that way not because he had done anything wrong, but to pay for my sin and your sin. Right before he submitted to that humiliation, he wrapped himself with a towel and began to wash his disciples’ feet. And even that was such a humble act that Peter said, No, Lord, you can’t wash my feet.

Jesus humbled himself. Not to bow before us, but he humbled himself before God the Father. And he took upon the form of a servant.

God in human flesh took on the form of a servant. And yet we think we’re here to be catered to. But he made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of men.

And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. The greatest act of humility and submission in all of history is when God the Son obeyed the will of God the Father and went willingly to the cross to be punished for the sins of mankind who did not deserve the sacrifice that was made for them, made for us. Verse 9 says, Wherefore, because of this, God also hath highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name.

And I read some commentators this week who said, they find it interesting because verses 5 through 11 is probably one of the earliest recorded Christian hymns that there is. And they said, and yet it doesn’t mention the resurrection. Well, what sense does it make to say that God has exalted the man after he died on the cross if he hadn’t risen again from the dead?

But it says, God has also highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow of things in heaven and things in earth and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. So through the service, through the humility of Jesus Christ, not only was Jesus Christ glorified, but even the glory that was given to Jesus Christ reflects to God the Father, and God the Father is glorified in the obedience and service of God the Son. And when Jesus Christ is presented to us as an example of service this morning, We need to be reminded.

We need to be reminded not only now as I’m telling this to you, but I need to remind myself, you need to remind yourselves that our Christian life is not about our glory or our preferences. Our Christian life is about serving God, being servants to God that we may glorify God, that everything we do may bring glory to God the Father. Now just a few quick things that we need to understand out of this passage.

First of all, a good servant humbles himself. Because it should be the desire, ladies and gentlemen, of every Christian, it should be the desire of our hearts to be servants. To be servants of God and to be servants of one another for God’s sake.

And a good servant humbles himself. Tells us in verse 3, not to let anything be done through strife or vainglory, but in lowliness of mind, esteem one another better than ourselves. Sometimes we need to get over the idea that we are the center of our own universe.

And folks, I’m just as guilty about this as anybody else is. Sometimes we think the world revolves around us. Sometimes we think that all of this is for us, that this church makes me happy, this church makes me comfortable.

And folks, there’s nothing wrong with the church making us happy or comfortable. I enjoy being part of this church. I enjoy the fellowship with you all.

I enjoy getting to be with you. But ultimately, even if it didn’t make me happy, that’s not necessarily what God has called me to do, because it’s not about me. The servant is supposed to, in lowliness of mind, esteem others better than himself.

Folks, a good servant humbles himself. To be good servants of God, to be good servants of Christ, to be good servants of one another for God’s sake, we have to humble ourselves. I know we don’t have servants in the traditional sense nowadays, but we do have people who serve, for example, at restaurants.

And have you ever been to a restaurant where the waiter or the waitress is there and supposed to take your order and supposed to serve, and yet you get this attitude from them that they hate their job, they hate you, and they think they’re a lot better than you’ll ever think about being. Anybody else ever gotten that? They’re not good at serving, are they?

Folks, we’re not good as servants when we keep in our minds that it’s all about us and that we’re better than everybody else, and our preferences and our needs matter more than everybody else’s. I very desperately want to get to the place in my Christian life where I think it doesn’t matter what I want or need. What can I do for you?

What can I do for you? That’s exactly what Jesus Christ did when he went to the cross. And we’re told to let that same mind be in us, which was also in Christ Jesus.

Folks, a good servant humbles himself. And by the way, if you’re wondering, what does this have to do with the series on discipleship that we’re going through? Everything.

Because last week we talked about becoming, taking the first steps, learning what it means to be a Christian and putting those into action and belonging, being part of the local church to be trained and to learn. There comes a point, though, when the training wheels come off and the local church is no longer there to cater to us and baby us, but we’re called upon to step out as part of the local church and serve others the way we’ve been being served. Does that make sense?

And so service is the next step in discipleship, learning how to serve others. Second of all, a good servant loves those whom he serves. A good servant loves those whom he serves.

Folks, we can serve other people and just do it out of obligation. And that’s fine as far as it goes. But to be a really good servant, we have to love those we serve.

Tells us in verses 1 and 2, Paul writes, he connects all of these things to the love that we have for one another, to the love we have for Christ, the consolation, to even the feeling of love when he talks about bowels and mercies. Ladies and gentlemen, we serve best when we serve those who we love. Because at that point, we go the extra mile.

We this because I’m a Christian and I have to. No, I’m helping you with things because you’re my brother, you’re my sister, and I love you. And I want to help you.

I want to serve you. I want to do what’s best for you. And even with God, we love Him.

And out of gratefulness, out of thankfulness for what He’s done for us, we want to serve Him and do everything He asks us to do. A good servant loves those whom He serves. Third of all this morning, a good servant has a desire to serve.

has a desire to serve. And this grows out of a love for the one we serve. But he tells us in verse 4, look not every man on his own things, but every man on the things of others.

If we stop being so concerned about our own lives and our own business for a little bit and took some time to be concerned about the lives and business of our fellow believers, we might find things, we might find ways to serve them. That’s what he calls us to do. And sometimes, you know, that means being a little bit nosy.

And I’ve talked to people who go to larger churches where they say, yeah, I can blend in and go and nobody really knows my business. That may be fine for them, but I would hate that. Now, I say that having been a member of churches larger than this, and you could blend in, but most people didn’t.

Folks, as Christians, we’re not called to blend in at church. We’re called to have fellowship with one another and be part of one another’s lives. And sometimes that means we have to open up and let people know our business.

Now, I’m not telling you to come forward and tell me everything you’ve ever done. I’m not your priest. You better not have a priest, by the way. Jesus Christ is your high priest. But sometimes we need to know more about one another than just, hi, how are you on Sunday morning?

It means being a part of one another’s lives. And I won’t say the names, but I want to give you an example because I don’t want to embarrass them.

But there are some men in our church who knew that because of some, I don’t remember if I’ve mentioned this or not, but knew that because of some health problems I’d had with asthma and also the rain and trouble with my lawn mower that I was way behind on my yard work and being busy with with things at church knew that I was way behind on my yard work they called me one morning and said we’re coming over to mow and we’d eat your yard folks they knew it was a need I had because I could have very easily you know played the the pastor and my life is perfect and my house is perfect if you’ve been to my house you know my house is not perfect everything’s fine I don’t need anything how can I serve you but having fellowship with one another, they knew what a need was that they could meet, and they stepped in and they served. And I’m grateful for that.

And I think that’s a great attitude of service. And I’m not saying this so some of you will come ask me, what can we do for you? But sometimes we need to look for ways to serve our brothers and sisters.

And that means that for a while, we have to look not every man on his own things, but on the things of others. And we should have a desire to serve one another that drives us to seek out ways to serve. And finally this morning, a good servant desires to be like the master.

A good servant desires to be like the master. When I’ve talked about serving one another this morning, that doesn’t mean that we are each other’s masters. We serve one another for Christ’s sake.

We serve one another because he has called us to. Ultimately, he is the master. And we serve because we’re serving him.

And we serve because we love him. And we serve, ladies and gentlemen, because even He served, and we are supposed to be like Him. When the Bible says, let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.

A good servant desires to be like the Master. Ladies and gentlemen, this morning, it’s not our job to come to church and get our preferences met. Yes, come to be taught, come to be encouraged, but it’s not our role to come and have the church meet every preference, every whim we may have.

It’s our job as believers to come and serve one another, serve the world outside these four walls, and to serve the Lord above out of gratefulness and thankfulness for what He’s done, and to look for ways to do that.