6-27-10 Worship: Service And Love

Service . . . Service . . .it’s kind of a weird word that can mean lots of things.

1. If you were the manager of a restaurant and I complained about the service, what would I be talking about?
2. If I was talking with my mechanic and asked him to service my truck, what would I be talking about?
3. If I was at a tennis tournament and I leaned over to you and said that was a bad service what would I be talking about?
4. If I told you that I was going to quit my job as a pastor and joined the Armed Service, what would I be talking about?
5. If I went to see my mom and dad this afternoon and they asked how the service went this morning, what would they be talking about?

Service is a strange word that has all kinds of baggage attached to it, and so I want to be really clear about what we’re going to be talking about today. I want to talk about the verb “To Serve”. This kind of service depicts action and this is the definition that I’d like to lay out before us as we get started:

Work done by one person or a group to benefit others.

Service is the way that Christians are called to display our love. If I say, “I love you” to my wife or my kids, but then don’t serve them in any way that reveals my love for them, then no love is present.  Therefore, service is critical to the life of a believer.

The Bible tells us to “Serve one another in love”

However, there are many ways of serving one another that are not godly.

I can serve someone because I think that I’m supposed to, because that’s what “good people” are supposed to do, or that’s what my mom or my dad taught me was the “right” thing to do. The motivation for this kind of service is a clear conscience.

A woman can vote in a presidential election, not because she thinks it will change her country, but because she thinks to herself, “Many people have died and suffered in order to give women the right to vote”, so she votes, because it’s the “right” thing to do.

1. I can serve because I think that I’ll be rewarded if I do something for someone. The motivation for this kind of serving is monetary gain.

Husbands, the reason why we serve our wives, and wives, sometimes why you serve your husbands is because you think you can get something from them.

Kid’s sometimes you mow the lawn or do the dishes or cook supper or some other chore, why? Because you think you will put your parents in a good mood so you can ask them . . . to give you something.

You can go to work every day as a greeter at Walmart, serving people as they come through the door, not because you like serving people, but because you know that you get a paycheck if you serve those who come through the door.

I had a daughter who, when she was younger, was doing community service with me and she looked at me after about a half an hour into it and said, “Dad, I’m not having any fun, can we go home now.” She thought that serving others was all about having fun. She thought the only reason she should serve others is because there was something in it for her.

1. I can serve someone because I think I’ll get punished if I don’t, so the main reason for this type of serving is motivated by fear.

Kids sometimes serve their family by doing chores. Most kids do their chores because they know that they will face punishment if they don’t. Most people serve their employers because they fear being laid off or fired if they don’t do what is expected of them. They are motivated to serve their employers out of fear.

We serve for many reasons, but only one reason is a godly reason. The godly way of serving, the way that you were created to serve is to serve one another in love. Now, the New Testament was written in Greek, so the different translations that we have today are because there is no exact translation from Greek – the original language of the Bible and English.

The original word for “Love” is the word Agape, which is the highest form of love. It means to love unconditionally. There is nothing that you or I can do to earn unconditional love. It is love without condition. It is given no matter what. So the translation could read, Serve one another and love one another without expectations. Serve one another and love one another without conditions.

A woman can go and vote, but she ought to vote because she loves her country and she wants to see it grow and become a better country.

The reason why husbands should serve their wives or wives their husbands is not to get something from him or her, but to give something to him or her. We ought to serve as a way of giving and blessing the other because we love them.

The greeter at Walmart ought to serve the people who come through the door in love, not just because he gets a paycheck if he does.

We should serve our community, not because it’s fun, but because it makes our community a better place to live, but because we love the community that we live in and want to make it a better place to live. We ought to serve our community because we love the people that live there, whether they’ve done anything for us or not.

Kid’s, you ought to serve your family by doing chores, not because you fear being punished if you don’t, but because you love your family and want to serve them because you love them.

Here’s what the Apostle Paul wrote:

You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. We are free to chose what we’re going to do. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather (by being self-serving), serve one another in love. The entire law is summed up in a single command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Galatians 5:13-14 (NIV)

We were given incredible freedom by God. We can do anything that we choose to do. We can be incredibly selfish and we can be incredibly generous, it’s our choice. We can spend all of our time serving our self, or we can spend our time serving others not because they’ve earned it or deserve it, but because we love them, in the same way that God loves us. Paul says that when we are self serving that is sinful, that is small minded. We are called to serve one another in love.

The question that I have is “Why?” Why shouldn’t I look out for big ole number one! Why shouldn’t I look out for big ole capital “I”? Why should I serve others when I have so much to do at my house – so much that I’ll never get it all done? Why should I do outreach on Saturday mornings when I have other things I want to do?

As we said a few weeks back, there are two side of unconditional love. There is gratitude and there is service. Gratitude is seeing and receiving a gift given in love. If someone serves me in love, the godly response is gratitude, because by serving me in love they are giving me the most precious and costly gift available in the universe. Unconditional love is rare, precious, costly and when someone gives it to me, it ought to almost undo me, it ought to put me to my knees.

Because, here’s the deal. When someone gives me unconditional love, it means that they are not giving it because I’ve earned it, or because I somehow deserve it, but just because they love me and want to invest in me to help me become more of who God created me to be. When someone serves me in conditional love, they are giving me a part of their self.  They are giving me the most precious and costly gift that can be given from one human being to another, which is unconditional love

Unconditional love is, of course, love without conditions. It is love that is being given without some sort of expectations. It is love that I give without anything in it for me. So here’s what I want you to go home with:

Unconditional Love is a gift;

Gratitude is how we receive it

Service is how we give it

Gratitude is like a bucket in which we receive unconditional love; Service is like a hose that has the potential to fills people’s buckets with unconditional love. I only experience gratitude when I notice that someone is giving me unconditional love and respond favorably to it. When I chose to receive unconditional love being given to me, I have to respond with action in order to truly receive it. I need to put my bucket under their hose of unconditional love and allow them to fill my bucket. As my bucket fills with unconditional love, immense gratitude fills me and my response is how can I share this with the world.  

When Paul says, You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. You were created to live freely and to choose freely. God has given you full freedom in how you live your life, but only one way will bring blessing on you and those around you. You were created to be free, but do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature – to be selfish, to be self serving; rather, serve one another in love. The entire law is summed up in a single command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Galatians 5:13-14 (NIV)

God serves us by filling our lives with unconditional love every day. Gratitude is the bucket that we receive God’s love in. Then as our bucket fills to overflowing with God’s love, it begins to spill out into other people’s buckets. This gives them joy as they begin to feel God’s love in their life and are drawn to it.

God loves us and he tells us to take the love, gratitude and passion that we have for him and shower that on those people in our homes, in our communities, and in the world. Worship is an expression of gratitude. Service ought to flow out of worship and gratitude. When we receive the unconditional love that God gives to us, we ought to respond by sharing love with the world around us, with the community around us, with the family around us.

Unconditional Love is a gift;

Gratitude is how we receive it

Service is how we give it

When I understand the costly, precious gift of unconditional love that God has given to me, I say to God, “God, you are amazing because you give such wonderful gifts to me every single day. Each day you fill my lungs with air. You make the sun rise and set on each day. You keep the earth spinning in it’s orbit and you keep the sun the right distance away from earth to provide it warmth, but not too much. You provide me with food and water and shelter and clothing. You make our crops grow, our babies grow, our hair grow and all of this is a gift that you give to me and to us unconditionally because we know that we’ve not earned it, we know that we don’t deserve it, but we need it, and yet you give us far, far beyond what we need because you love us.

And I say to God, God, I just feel so much gratitude toward you for loving me in such wonderful ways, is there anything that I can do for you? God says, “Do you mean it, Adam?” Of course I mean it, God. You have blessed me so much, “Is there anything that I can do for you?” Yeah, Yeah there is. I’d like you to serve those people in your family, and those people in your community, those people at work, those people all around you in the same way that I’ve served you. I’d like you to love them and serve them unconditionally and without expectation, just as I’ve love you.

God says, “I created the world to be filled with relationships that are centered around unconditional love and when you love and serve the people around you unconditionally, then you join me in bringing about heaven on earth. Because all relationships in heaven are centered on service and gratitude and filled with unconditional love.

Oh, you mean that I shouldn’t serve my wife because I think I can get something from her? No, Adam, because when you do that you demean her and use her. She was created for unconditional love and when you serve her in lesser ways, you demean what I created her for.

And when I serve out of obligation or fear of being reprimanded, I probably shouldn’t do that either, huh? No Adam, because when you serve out of obligation, or because you’re supposed to because your dad said so or my mom said so, you might get the job done, but you demeaned the people that you serve and made the world a darker place to live in the process.

Adam, I am calling you to serve others in the same way that I have served you. Unconditionally, out of love, as a way of helping them to know me and the love that I have for them.

Service to others is how we respond to God’s love. We are not called to serve just those that we love, but to love all those that we serve. The more you love God the more that you want to serve those who you don’t yet love, and sometimes those whom you don’t know. God loves every single human being as he calls us to serve everyone, all people in love, so that people might first experience his love through our service.

We serve as a way of expressing God’s love in this world. He calls us to love him first, so that we might receive his love and then as we receive his love, that we might serve the world in love, because we are not called just to make it into heaven. We are called to practice for heaven. We are called to practice for eternity, so that we might, more and more, experience heaven on earth as we begin to live and love as God created us to.

I can say that I love my wife, but talk is cheap. If I don’t serve my wife in love, then my words are empty and without life. My words of love must go hand in hand with actions or the love is dead and without life. Words are internal. Service is external. Both must be present to be real. In the same way, we can say that we love God, but words are cheap. Serving one another in love is the way that we serve God . . . and others, and therefore express our love to both. By doing so, we fulfill the greatest two commandments in all of life, which are to love God with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength, and to love our neighbor as our self.

We show love for God by receiving with gratitude all the wonderful gifts of unconditional love that he bestows on us each day. We express love back to God by joining him in serving others in love. When we get these two things right, gratitude and service, the world is filled with unconditional love and heaven begins to invade earth. That is the vision of God. He invites us to join him in making that dream come true.