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The Value of Service
September 30, 2007 Rev. William “Buck” Day
Our scripture passage comes from Acts Chapter 6 and it is on our board, and I invite you to follow along as I read it this morning for us.
Acts 6: 1-7 Now during those days when the disciples were increasing in number, the Hellenists complained against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution of food. So the Twelve called together the whole community of the disciples and said, “It is not right that we should neglect the word of God in order to wait on tables. Therefore friends, select from among yourselves, seven men of good standing full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may appoint to this task while we for our part will devout ourselves to prayer and the serving of the word.” What they said pleased the whole community. They chose Stephen, a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit, together with Philip, Procorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas, a proselyte from Antioch; and had these men stand before the apostles, who prayed and laid their hands on them. The word of God continued to spread and the number of disciples increased greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith.
This is God’s word for us this day.
Thanks be to God!
Would you pray with me?
Oh Lord, how good you are. We thank you for your word; we thank you for what it teaches; we thank you for the way it molds us as your people. Lord we ask that today, that by your Holy Spirit, you would have full reign; you would have full reign in our hearts, in our thoughts, in the words that I speak; that Lord, you might move in us the way that we need it. So Lord we ask that this day. It is in your name that we ask that. Amen.
Well as I said, it is Deacon Sunday and I want to invite you to see how the deacons are involved in life here at Faith, to meet your deacon, put a face with a name – that would be a wonderful thing. I want to publicly thank the deacons once again for their ministry. It is a powerful ministry and we would not be where we are without the deacons. So thank you for that. As I was thinking about that, what better way to talk about the deacons, than to look at the passage of scripture from which we typically point where the deacons came from. As we do that, everything we talk about today will be, I think, either directly or indirectly coming out of our text. But I want us to focus this morning on one thing; and, that is, the outcome. What happened as a result of the disciples setting aside these men to become deacons? What happened? Well, it says the church grew, didn’t it? The church grew. It grew in its numbers; they added to its numbers daily. Then Luke adds this very unique phrase, he says “….and a number of Jewish priests”. He said that to once again remind the community that were listening to the story about Jesus before he went back into heaven, and how he gave the vision of how the church was going to grow. He said, “You will be my witnesses in – where? – Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and to the ends of the earth.” This was a little note that Luke had for his writer saying, “See, what Jesus said is happening. What Jesus said is happening.” So as we look at these groups of deacons, we can say that serving brought growth to the kingdom, can’t we? They were building the kingdom of God. They were taking what was going on in heaven and they were bringing it to earth in very tangible, very real ways. In the midst of that, they got to say, “I get to do this! I get to do this!” It was a wonderful thing.
Have you ever really looked forward to doing something? Really looked forward to it? I was talking to a friend this week. He was talking about how he was going to play golf with a friend and how he was really looking forward to it. They were going to be playing on a really nice course and they were going to have a great time. I talked to him afterwards and he said, “Yeah, we did. We had a great time. It was a fun time and we really enjoyed it.” Think for a minute about the people who just got back from the Czech Republic. Do you think they were excited before they left? I think so, just a little bit. That’s how it’s supposed to be. When we are doing something we really enjoy, there is supposed to be some excitement, some enjoyment, some love for that thing. But when it comes to service, it changes, doesn’t it? Too often, service, particularly service in the church, tends to be, “I have to do it” instead of “I get to do it.” When our service comes out of obligation, “I have to do this,” rather than devotion, “I get to do this,” I think to me it points to a disconnect. There is a disconnect in the way we understand service; and there is a disconnect in our value of service; and that is what I want to look at today – is service. Service is a key for connecting, connecting within the church here or connecting outside; just like one-on-one tutoring, they make huge connections. So that’s why service is a part of our series that Chris has been doing, “Better Together.” But service is really, I think, at the heart of who we are as followers of Christ. It is really central to what we are about. So what I want do is I want to give you four reasons why it is such a high priority in God’s mind. Why is service such a big deal for God?
One of those reasons is what I call a spiritual formation issue. Jesus told his disciples over and over again while he was on earth; “Service is the way to greatness,” didn’t he? Jesus was and is our ultimate example. He is our greatest and our highest example of what that service looks like. He said, what? “I came not to be served but to serve and to give my life as a ransom for many.” Serving is at the very heart of who God is. But then, how does that become a spiritual formation issue? Well, I think when we are serving, guess what happens? We take our eyes off of ourselves and put it on those we are serving. I think that is the number one issue that all of us face each and every day; I am becoming more convinced of that every day. It is not just a daily thing; I think it is multiple times throughout our day. That number one issue is, “Who is in charge? Who is in control of my life?” We think, “Man, I can make my decisions of what I’m going to do; where I’m going to go; what kind of car I’m going to drive; where I’m going to live; what kind of job I’m going to have.” As a result we get this kind of can do attitude. We get this attitude that “Man, I can do anything I need to do. I can pull myself up by my bootstraps if I need to. I can do whatever I need to.” You know what the result is; it leads to pride. It leads to pride. I think that self-reliance, that kind of do anything attitude kills us and we have to fight that constantly.
Jerry Seinfeld has this old bit in one of his stand-up routines that I love around this idea. He’s saying that you know how guys are really macho, they think they can do anything and they just kind of over do lots of times. He says this one guy was really proud of himself. He had to get a bed. So he went to the store and he got this bed and, of course, it doesn’t fit in the car. So what does he do? He puts it on top of the car. He thinks, “You know, I’ll just hold my hand out the window and I’ll just hold it all the way home.” We’ve seen those people driving down the road, haven’t we? Every time we see these people, my wife and I say the same line; we go, “I got it. I got it.” You put a little piece of string around it and the guy is driving and has his arm out the window, “I got it. I got it.” That’s what we do with our lives. It is the same thing we do with our lives. We say, “I got it. I got it,” but the truth is we don’t. We don’t have it. We don’t have it at all. When that kind of arrogance, that kind of self-centeredness, takes over our lives, it ruins us. It results in pride and pride is something that God hates. It is antithetical of who He is; it is the very opposite of who He is. Pride, God; right, left; the color white, the color black – it’s that far apart. God hates our pride. So if we are followers of Christ, we have to then ruthlessly rid it from our lives. I think that’s what service does. Service cuts away at our pride. It takes our eyes off of ourselves and puts it on those that we are serving; and when we are doing that, a transformation begins to happen slowly over time. First we become a little more humble. Humility begins to build into who we are. Then after that there’s a little bit of generosity that grows out of that. Then eventually, gratitude, “I get to do this. I get to do this.” That’s what God wants. That’s God’s character. That’s what God wants to build into our lives.
I want to show you a video clip. This video clip is of a group of middle school girls and as you watch this clip I want you to ask yourself, “Have these young girls grown spiritually as a result of the work that they have done? Watch and ask yourself that question.
Video clip
-This is just a group where we meet together once a week and we try to come up with ideas of what we can do help the city and the school.
-First we started collecting canned food, boxed food and videos for distribution to those that need help. It helps people who have had a real hard time in their lives. We help them get back on their feet, help them look for a job.
-We put out cans. We put up flyers on doors in the neighborhood and talk about it around our school and we do stuff like talk to people about putting their garage cans out by their house and we go by and pick them up.
-Twice we actually went to a senior center and helped cooked dinner for them and served them. I hear words like, “Thank you, thank you so much. We always appreciate it.” It really just made me happy.
- After dinner we read to them a devotional. All the people were actually like some of my friends and made me feel so good because half the people already knew about Jesus and I really think that changed me.
- I think it made me realize that I am really fortunate for all the stuff I have. There are people who are less fortunate than me and I wanted to help.
- If they so much as come up to you and say they’re glad for what you’ve done…. It makes you feel so much better than just being able to sleep over with your friends because you know you’ve done something that makes the Lord happy and that makes someone else’s day a lot easier, a lot better.
So when we serve, we grow spiritually. That’s one of the things. Another thing that happens when we serve, in God’s mind, it is a theological issue as well. Christ has called the church to be a witness to the world. He says “You will be my witnesses.” We are to witness to what? To his love. “They will know we are Christians by our love.” We are to witness to the world of God’s love that He has for them. When you are a follower of Jesus Christ, when you put your stake in the ground and said “I believe that Christ died for my sins and Christ paid the penalty that was due me; and when he died he paid the penalty and when he rose He conquered death and I will live forever with God.” When we put our stake and we say “That’s what I believe,” then guess what happens? We become part of the church, and being part of the church means that we are then called, by Christ, “You will be my witnesses,” to share that witness to the world. We are called to do that. So the first thing we want to say here is that we are called. We are called. Each one of us has been called. We have been called to do a job. God says “Here I want you to do this.” “Buck I want you to do this.” “I want you to do this.” He does that for every one of us. The theological term for that is “the priesthood of all believers.” God has everything for us. There is something for everyone to do. Let me give you a couple ways to think about it. There are two kind of different thoughts about it and you pick the one that resonates best with you.
The first way to think about this is, think about a battleship. On a battleship there are sailors, aren’t there? There are lots of sailors. And on that battleship every sailor has a job to do, don’t they? Nobody rides for free on a battleship, not even the captain. You don’t see sailors hanging their feet off the edge, putting their feet up on a deck chair and pigging out at buffets, do you? A battleship is not a cruise ship. Too many of us think the church is a cruise ship. We think we are on a cruise ship – we can just sit back and let all the folks serve us. But that’s not the case. We all have a job to do. That’s one way to think about it.
Another way to think about it is that if we had not been called to serve, the way we have been talking about it this morning, then why don’t when we make the commitment to Chris and say “I’m a follower of Jesus,” then why don’t we die right there – boom – fall to the ground? We die so we would go to heaven and be with God forever. Why doesn’t that happen? Could it be perhaps that God has something for us to do on this earth before we go to heaven? Each one of us has been called and given something to do. All of us have been given gifts in which to fulfill that calling. Not only has God given us the call, but He said, “This is what I want you to do. Here this is what you are going to need to do this. Now go and do it.” He’s given us exactly what we need to fulfill our call, and if you are unsure about that, then I invite you to read Matthew 25, the parable of the talents. Having said that, every one has something to do and there are no small jobs in the church. Every job matters. Every job has potential eternal significance. Everything counts. Everything counts. Let me give you a couple examples. One is our front line connectors. They are a critical importance to our church and you’re going, “Frontline who, what? Who are these folks?” Our front line connectors is a term I coined for those people who make the first impression when people walk into Faith. Those people are our greeters; they are our ushers; they are the folks that work at our Welcome Desk. Did you notice that last term “Welcome Desk?” Welcome Desk is to welcome new people. It does not say “Member Services”. It is to help those new people when they don’t know where they are going, saying, “Where is the five-year-old Sunday school class?” “It’s over here.” “How do I get involved in small groups?” “Here you go.” That’s what that’s for. These are our frontline connectors and when someone walks into the church, these are the people that have first contact to people when they walk in. So what happens? A warm greeting, a personal touch, good information are all the things that can make the difference if that person comes back or not, right? First impressions matter, but let me go beyond that. Not only does it matter whether they will become a part of life here at Faith, but just maybe, just maybe, those frontline connectors also may make the difference in moving that person closer to heaven if they have not made a commitment to Christ. How important is that? So not only do those frontline connectors have a ministry of growing our church and making an impact, a good impression on those who visit, but they are also, just maybe, making an eternal difference in the life of that person that walks through the door. That’s how important those ministries are. Now think about that. How long does it take to be a greeter? I’m going to pick on you Jennifer. How long does it take to be a greeter on Sunday morning? Ten minutes? Eight minutes, O.K. eight minutes. --Maybe fifteen, twenty minutes at the max. This is a little job. It doesn’t have a big impact on our lives, but what kind of a difference can it make? It has eternal implications. It is huge. A little job with a huge, huge payback. It matters. Every job matters.
Let me give you another example. There is a woman that maybe some of you know but probably a lot of you do not. Her name is Dorothy Bren. Dorothy has been a member here at Faith for many, many years but Dorothy doesn’t get to church very often. In fact, in the time I’ve been here, I don’t think I have ever seen her in church, because she is in her house and she has a hard time getting around. But don’t let that fool you. She is very plugged in to life here at Faith. She prays for our sick, she makes phone calls to check up on them and she writes cards to those folks. She’s calling me and saying “Buck, I need to know who is on the prayer list.” She wants to do something with those folks. Even on top of that she makes chemotherapy caps for Methodist Hospital. She makes these caps and she gives them to the Hospital to give to people who are going through chemotherapy and have lost all their hair. Did I tell you she is well over eighty years old? Can you be too old to serve? Not a chance. Can you be too young to serve? Not at all. Not at all. We are called to witness to the hope that is within us – that’s what our frontline connectors are doing and what Dorothy Bren is doing. That’s what God calls us to do.
God also calls us to be thinking about service as a moral issue. Let’s be real clear here. Jesus makes it very clear, that “What you have done to the least of my brethren, you have done to me.” Scripture is full of verses that talk about how we are to treat the poor. I put four up here just from the book of Proverbs and these are not the only ones from Proverbs but they go all through scripture. We are to care for the poor, that’s not an option for us. But we must understand also that the term poor is not just an economic term. There are many ways a person can be poor and some of those ways are not always visible. So I in some ways, all of us are poor, all of us are poor, particularly when we stand before a God who spoke creation into existence. You want reason to humble yourself before the mighty hand of God, spend a little time and wrap your mind around that. We are all poor, but having said that, we must not use our poverty as an excuse not to help those experiencing poverty. We are to serve the poor. When we do that we are following Christ’s footsteps aren’t we? Who did Jesus serve? He hung out with the sinners (those low lifes). He hung out with the tax collectors (you traitors). He hung out with prostitutes (I can’t even imagine looking at you). That’s who Jesus hung out with. That’s who we are supposed to serve. Perhaps some of you have noticed that the church has been called out by a lot of voices both within the church and outside of the church for not responding very well to the AIDS crisis in Africa. And in many cases the criticisms that have been leveled at the church are true. So I think the church is beginning to take that to heart and beginning to respond to that and that is one of the reasons why in two weeks on Mission Sunday we are going to have someone come and speak about the AIDS crisis in Africa and what we as a church can do to respond to that. That’s one more reason for you to be here on Sunday, the 14th, because that’s what we are called to do. That’s what the church is supposed to do.
Let me give you another example I just happened to see in the news, I don’t know if was in the paper or on TV. Sharing and Caring Hands Ministry is a ministry in Minneapolis to the homeless and those that are down in their luck. Out of the blue, they received a very, very large box from Italy and when they opened it up, you know what was inside? Shoes. Hand made Italian shoes. We’re not talking about those fashion Gucci kind of shoes, we’re talking about everyday ordinary people kind of shoes, hand made nice leather ones. You know who sent them to Sharing and Caring Hands? The Pope, Pope Benedict sent them because he had heard how Mary Jo Copeland would take people when they came off the street and wash their feet. When he heard about that, he said, “I want to help those folks.” So he sent those shoes as a next nice step. That’s what we are called to do. We are called to serve the poor the same way that Christ did.
One more way that I think service has such a high value in God’s mind and that is a stewardship issue – What you are doing with your time, your resources, your energy that God has given to you. See you thought we were just talking about stewardship with the little insert in your bulletin, didn’t you? We’re talking about stewardship, this is another thing, and it’s not even November yet. We’re talking about stewardship because it is an important deal. Jesus talks about “laying up your treasures in heaven where moths and rust can’t get to them.” I think serving does that. I think serving does that. It builds our heavenly treasure. I served in a ministry a few years ago where we kind of used that as a metaphor. We talked about how when we served really well we added another jewel to our crown. After we got done serving, we would be sitting around taking about how God had really worked that night and talking about the conversations and stuff we had; and when someone served really well, we would go “You got another jewel in your crown tonight.” That’s what is happening when we take what God has given us and put it to good use. God has made an investment in us. He has made an investment of those gifts, of those skills, those talents that we talked about before. He has entrusted them to us. They are His gifts; they are from Him; they still belong to Him; but He’s saying, “Here, use this. Use this. It’s mine but I want you to use it for what I called you to do.” He’s entrusted them to us and someday, scripture tells us, we are going to stand before God and He is going to say, “What did you do with what I gave you?” We are going to have to give an account for what we’ve been entrusted with. And scripture tells us that we will be found either faithful or we will be found foolish. That’s one of the reasons why I went back into full-time ministry after fifteen years in the marketplace. Because I knew my call, I had to relearn it, but I knew my call. I knew in order to be faithful to it, that’s what I had to do. Now for you to be faithful, I don’t know of too many people in here, that for you to be faithful to your call with the gifts that you’ve been given, that you would be called into full-time ministry. I think for a vast majority of you, that’s not your call. But you’ve been called to something else. You will be accountable for that. God will ask you, “What did you do with your gifts? What did you do with your teaching skills, or one-to-one tutoring?” “Well done, good and faithful servant.” That’s what He’s talking about. Take what you have been called to do, take your gifts and do it. Do it. When we do that, when we are faithful to what God has called us to do and are using the gifts that God is calling us to use, it will bring joy. “It will bring gladness to our heart.” That’s what Deuteronomy 28 tells us. That kind of joy, that kind of gladness I think is infectious; because as we are serving, people are going to be able to see that joy in our heart. I think they are actually going to be able to see Christ’s heart beating within us when you are serving like that.
Let me give you one more way to think about stewardship. That is, to understand who you are serving. Ultimately our service is to God and to God alone. God is the creator of everything that we see. He spoke it into existence, He still owns it. So, all of creation belongs to God. We are part of creation. We belong to God. All humans belong to God whether they acknowledge that or not – they still belong to God. So, when we are serving others, we are serving God. We are serving God. So when we serve, think about who it is that you are serving. We are serving an audience of One, ultimately. That’s what matters. We are serving an audience of One.
I have one more clip to show you. It is about a young married couple by the names of David and Cynthia and as you watch this clip I want you to do is ask yourself “Is this young couple being faithful to the gifts that God has given them?
Video Clip:
Cynthia: David and I definitely complement each other. David: Cynthia is very much the backbone and the reason I am able to do any thing that I have ever done. It is very different having surrogate adopted type children that are 18 and 20 and 21 years old even though they have the functioning level of minds of a 3 and a 7 and an 8 year old. Because of the situation that the boys are coming from, they have really turned to us as parents. So it really is very much being an official real parent at the grand old age of 23.
Cynthia: Yet they need your help to go to the bathroom or they might need you to open their juice box. And more than that, they need you to touch them and to love them.
David: Just because you may have Downs or just because the kid may some huge holes in their spine, whatever it is, they still have that right and that need.
Cynthia: These kids have basic needs like we all have and we have been able to start living that way and now, through that, we help each other.
David: when I see her serving, I see her serving Christ and that is the most attractive thing. I think the ways we serve the kids, possibly by helping them eat, by wiping drool off of their lip, by pushing their wheelchair, by showering them, by doing whatever it is we are doing, all that carries over and carries over into our marriage.
Cynthia: we know that this is the world God planned for our life so it’s part of our marriage that we can work in God’s world for us. So we know we’re happy, we can communicate, we can trust one another and walk with one another and we grow better as a team and work together as a team because we know the Lord works in our lives.
Who are they serving? Are they serving those disabled young men? Yeah. But they are also serving God. Did you hear that? The husband said, “She is serving God. She is serving God.” That’s the part I want you take home folks. Serving is a really big deal with God. A really big deal. The way we serve reveals our heart. The why we serve has eternal implications. So as a follower of Jesus Christ, if you want to really make a difference, if you really want to go deeper in your faith, I want to suggest to you that the way to do it is to serve. Serving is the gateway to a deeper relationship with Christ. So serve. Serve. Take the where you have been called, use what God has given you. He has given you everything you need. Take it and go and do for “you will be my witnesses to the very ends of the earth.”
Pray with me.
Oh holy Jesus, thank you. Thank you that you take serving real seriously. And Lord you want us to take it seriously too. Lord we confess that our heart is all too often “I have to” instead of “I get to”. We confess that to you right now. Lord we want to be different, we want to be different than that and yet it is really hard God. So Lord change our heart, move in us, get us off the couch, get us moving in ways that you called us to, because we know you will lead us exactly where we need to be. Thank you for the gift of service God. Thank you for the gift of your Son, the example, the friend, the companion in all of that, in your name. Amen.
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