A man went to his doctor after suffering weeks of symptoms. The doctor examined him carefully and then called the man's wife into his office to talk to her privately. "Madam, your husband is suffering from a rare form of anemia. Without treatment, he'll be dead in a few weeks. The good news is, his condition can be treated and totally cured with proper nutrition. Simply, you will need to get up early every morning and fix your husband a hot breakfast, pancakes, bacon and eggs, the works. He'll also need a home-cooked lunch every day, and then an old fashioned meat-and-potato dinner every evening. It would be especially helpful to him if you could bake frequently. Cakes, pies, homemade bread; these are the things that will allow your husband to live."
"Oh, and one more thing. His immune system is weak. It is important that your home be kept spotless at all times. Vacuum and dust every day, keep the dishes clean, and avoid letting them pile up. Don't let the trash sit for more than a day. Keep the laundry washed and scrub the kitchen and bathroom floors at least three times a week. Do you have any questions?"
After a long pause, the wife remained silent. So the doctor asked her, "Do you want to break the news, or shall I?"
"I will", the wife replied.
As she walked into the exam room, her husband, sensing the seriousness of his illness, asked her, "It's bad, isn't it honey?"
As she nodded, tears began welling up in her eyes. "What's going to happen to me?" he asked.
With a sob, the wife blurted out, "Frank, the doctor says you're gonna die!"
"Let me serve you."
Over the course of the next few weeks, we are going to talk about some things that just aren't talked about too much these days. For example, consider the phrase that appears on the screen. Let me serve you. When followed with action, this is a phrase that builds Christian community. This is a phrase that saves marriages, grows families, matures children, strengthens neighborhoods, and revolutionizes work places. This is a phrase that unleashes churches to become everything that God intended for them to be.
However, this phrase is worthless if it remains just that, a phrase. Like the other phrases we will discuss in the coming weeks, it needs to be talked about and applied. Specifically, we need to unpack it and digest it so that it can become a part of who we are.
So let's begin with the phrase I just mentioned. Let me serve you.
From the short skit we just watched, to the story about the man and his wife at the doctor's office, it is evident that serving other people doesn't come very naturally. Though we love hearing other people say the words, "Let me serve you", we really struggle when it comes to us serving other people. There is something deep within us that would be rather be served than to serve and to give.
For example, when I worked retail, we were trained to ask each customer, "How can I serve you?" If a customer walked into our department, we were to drop everything we were doing to serve him. If the phone rang, we were to answer it before the second ring. When we parked, we were to use the far end of the parking lot, reserving the closest spaces for you-know-who. When we were selling merchandise, we were to put customer needs before commission. If we didn't have an answer to a question, we were to find the answer. The store manager had a whole list of ways we were to put the customer first.
But as a high school student, I just couldn't do it. It was hard being patient with customers after I'd spent a long day on my feet. It was hard answering the phone when no one else was willing. It was hard to deal with phone calls when they robbed me of valuable time on the sales floor. It was hard getting my assignments done by the end of the night with customers lurking around wanting me to help them.
At times, a part of me would get cynical and I'd think, "Mr. Customer, don't come my way. Get someone else to help you!" "No, I don't have the manual and no, I don't want to go get it." "Sir, please just buy something so we can both get on with our lives! Go bother customer service with your problems." I found the whole "Let me serve you thing" to be very difficult indeed.
A few weeks ago, I worked late into the afternoon without a bite to eat. So I dropped what I was doing and I drove over to a fast food restaurant. As I pulled up to the drive-through window to get my order, I noticed a little sign hanging in the window that said, "drive-through window open late." Thinking I might someday have a need for a midnight hamburger, I asked the fellow at the window if he knew how late their drive-through was open. The guy didn't even make eye contact with me! Instead he just mumbled, "I don't know what you are talking about."
So I pointed to the sign in the window, and said "This sign, it says you're open late. Can you tell me how late your drive-through window is open?" After popping his head out the window to look at the sign for himself, he just shrugged his shoulders and mumbled, "Oh, nah, I don't know." Assuming he would turn around and ask someone who did know, I just sat there for a moment, waiting. But he wasn't moving a muscle!
Not to be outdone, I decided to take another shot, "Sir, is there someone who does know how late you are open each night?" With yet another shrug of the shoulders he looked at me and said, "I don't know. I don't ever close." And the next thing I knew, he closed the window and began taking the next order.
As I drove away I kept thinking to myself, "Houston, we have a problem!" I mean, if you look at the manner in which people serve one another these days, you will notice that our culture's service mindset is terribly inadequate.
Our culture's concept of service.
Building on a list provided by Richard Foster in his book Celebration of Discipline, I jotted down some of the distinguishing features of service in our culture. First of all, in our culture service tends to stay at a surface level. Generally speaking, the inclination is to do no more and no less than one is asked to do. The attitude is that we should just put in the minimum effort, wash our hands and go home.
Secondly, in our culture service tends to be motivated by external rewards. "I'll help, but only if you pay me." "I'll help, but only if I get my name in the paper." "I'll give, but only if I get something in return."
Third, our culture often distinguishes between small and large acts of service. People tend to be picky and choosy, often seeking those avenues of service that cost the least amount of time and energy and the least amount of blood, sweat and toil.
Fourth, our culture typically bases service on a mood or whim. You know, "I'll serve when I feel like it, not necessarily when my help is needed the most." For example, shelters always have an abundance of volunteers at Thanksgiving and Christmas, but never during rest of the year.
Fifth, service tends to be temporary. Short-term commitments are the new thing. We refuse to commit ourselves for the long haul! Forget about a one year or lifetime commitment.
Lastly, service in our culture tends to be insensitive and self-serving. People often serve more to feel good rather than serving to address the specific needs at hand.
Something needs to change, and the change begins with us.
I guess the question we have looking us in the eye this morning is rather complicated. What does it take for us as Christ-followers to be different than our culture? What does it take for us to genuinely serve one another? What does it take to light our fire to motivate us to give of ourselves to others? What will inspire us to go that extra mile when we are exhausted? What will enable us to serve indiscriminately both in the spotlight where there is praise and affirmation, but also in dark, quiet places where service goes unnoticed and unappreciated? What will enable us to serve the truly poor and those who cannot give us something in return?
Men, what will it take for us to serve our wives instead of placing demands on them to serve our interests? Parents, what will it take for you to serve your kids when they are frustrating your with their homework, struggling to mature, failing to make the right decisions, and clamoring for your time? Friends, what will it take for us to meet a need that exists in our neighborhood, a need for which we may never get repaid? What will it take for us to serve someone who is self-serving? Someone who is always trying to use us and abuse us and who always steals credit for our work and never offers a simple word of thanks?
I'm convinced that the answer is found in Jesus Christ. There are three things I want to call to your attention.
Jesus Christ is a model servant.
Jesus is the very definition of servanthood. Just as God is love, Jesus is servant. You will never know true servanthood if you don't know Christ. There are hundreds of texts describing Jesus' servanthood. My favorite is Philippians 2:5 (NIV) where we are told to, "have the same attitude as that of Christ Jesus."
As we continue through the rest of that Philippians 2 Paul tells us what Christ's attitude looks like. The first thing we learn is that Jesus Christ is truly and fully God. Referring to Christ, Paul says in Philippians 2:6 (NIV), "Who, being in the very nature God." To know Jesus Christ is to know God the Father. The last part of Philippians 2:6 (NIV) tells us that because Jesus Christ was God, he chose for himself the role of servant. "...he did not consider equality with God something to be grasped but made himself nothing."
Just because Jesus was fully God didn't mean he would automatically exempt himself from service. Rather, Philippians 2:7 (NIV) tells us Jesus Christ, "made himself nothing." And, "he took on the very nature of a servant", or as the Greek text indicates, a slave. In other words, Jesus descended from the comforts of heaven and the glory of the Father's presence to become a lowly human being, a slave!
The God of the universe became a servant for us.
But Jesus didn't stop there. Philippians 2:8 (NIV) says, "And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death, even death on a cross." Here it is in a nutshell. The God of our universe, our creator and sustainer, the alpha and omega, the beginning and the end, the judge of all the earth, our God, became our servant and died on the cross for our sins. As we sang earlier, Jesus Christ became a lamb that was sacrificed on our behalf to bring us to God.
You know, it is easy to sometimes think of ourselves more highly than we ought. It is easy to sometimes think we are above serving certain kinds of people. And it is especially easy to feel we are above meeting certain kinds of needs. When we're not careful, it is easy for us to pick and choose the little comfortable acts of service over the large and difficult and challenging areas of service.
But Jesus Christ has set the supreme example for us. In Christ, the highest became the lowest. The most entitled became our slave. The infinitely great and divine one became a man to serve us and to bring us back to God by dying for our sins.
The sheer magnitude of Christ's servanthood on our behalf ought to erase any pretense or reservation we have about serving one another sacrificially. As one author put it, "The authority is servant. Our God, Jesus Christ, is a servant God." Jesus is our inspiration and our motivation. His example fuels our service.
When we serve, we serve Jesus Christ.
When we serve, we serve Jesus Christ. In contrast, when we refuse to serve, we refuse to serve Jesus Christ. In Matthew 25:31-46 (NIV) Jesus uses the parable of the sheep and goats to teach a valuable lesson about the importance of servanthood. You can read the entire parable later for devotional purposes. But Jesus makes it clear in this parable that whenever we serve men, regardless of who they are, we are in fact serving Jesus Christ.
In the parable in Matthew 25:35-36 (NIV) Jesus affirms the righteous by saying, "For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me." And then in Matthew 25:40 (NIV) he makes this application, "I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me." But on the flip side of these verses is Matthew 25:45 (NIV) where Jesus warns us, "Whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me."
Friends, serving our fellow man and serving Jesus Christ is one and the same thing. When you are contemplating serving your self-serving boss, you are in reality contemplating whether you will serve the selfless Christ. When you ignore your neighbor in his hour of need, you are in reality ignoring the one who would rather die on a cross for your sins than run the risk of losing you for eternity. How profound! It makes sense that we should take service seriously.
Jesus Christ gives us the power to serve.
We don't have the power to serve alone. Christ himself empowers us to serve through his Holy Spirit. Philippians 2:13 (NIV) is a reminder to us that, "It is God who works in us to will and act according to his good purpose."
For those of us who are looking within to find the "want to", for those of us who are looking for a reward as a motivation or impetus to serve, for those of us who struggle serving those we don't want to serve, remember that it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his purpose. He empowers us.
Authentic servanthood is a miracle of God. It is a miracle God wants to work in our lives. Jesus Christ gives us the power to serve.
Now in conclusion, I want to call your attention to Galatians 5:13 (NIV).In this passage Paul says, "You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love." This week, on the fourth of July, we will all be celebrating Independence Day. We will watch fireworks, we will have cookouts, we will gather with friends and family, we will get a few chores out of the way, and we may even go on a short trip. As you celebrate, take a moment to realize the purpose for which we have been set free. Do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature. Rather, serve one another in love!
"Just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many." Matthew 20:28 (NIV)