We Come to Serve.
Sunday Evening English Worship
March 1, 2020 - 5:00 pm (This meeting cancelled due to the coronavirus outbreak.)
Messenger: Don Frank
Bible Passage: Luke 12:35-38 & others
Introduction: This is my final Sunday evening English message I think for a while and I wanted to give you some real encouragement tonight. So, we'll finish up talking about the last aspect of God in our 3 years' worth of studying together tonight. And I wanted to talk about the God of Service this evening. And what got me thinking about this was a study I did recently about our first Bible passage, Luke 12:37. And the basic idea was the topic of service.
And since I am a Star Trek fan, I immediately thought about an early episode from the original Star Trek series. You can see a picture of that scene here on the screen. And in this scene, we are introduced to the way that Vulcans greet each other. The character Spock, on the right side of the door, greets his father by saying, "We come to serve." And his father, who is standing in the center of the doorway, responds by saying, "Your service honors us."
This conversation plus the study that I did in Luke 12, gave me a lot of motivation to talk about this aspect of God tonight. So, let's get into this really interesting study of the topic of service.
1. The Master Will Serve Them. - Luke 12:35-38 (NIrV)
And we begin with the passage of scripture that I said I studied and how interesting I think it is.
35 “Be dressed and ready to serve. Keep your lamps burning. 36 Be like servants waiting for their master to return from a wedding dinner. When he comes and knocks, they can open the door for him at once. 37 It will be good for those servants whose master finds them ready when he comes. What I’m about to tell you is true. The master will then dress himself so he can serve them. He will have them take their places at the table. And he will come and wait on them. 38 It will be good for those servants whose master finds them ready. It will even be good if he comes in the middle of the night or toward morning."
Let me set the stage a little bit for you. In Luke chapter 12, Jesus is talking to a large group of people about many topics. He's talking about things in nature and He's talking in parables or stories that have a deeper meaning. He's talking about having faith in God no matter what it costs. Then He begins to share a parable about a master going off to a wedding feast and leaving his house in the charge of his servants. Let me point out that a wedding feast back then would often last from 5 to 7 days, a very long celebration! It's so much different than it is today when a wedding party can be finished in just 2 hours.
And the interesting part of this story that I think I still don't completely understand, is that when the master comes back and finds that the servants have been very faithful, he begins to serve them! That's what it says exactly in verse 37. Does that mean when we get to heaven that God is going to serve us? I honestly have to say that I have no idea. This is a parable and a parable is a story wrapped up in another story. We could say that the master of this story is God and the servants are us. God serves us every day by giving us everything that we need. And as we go through this study tonight, we'll definitely see that God enjoys serving.
2. Jesus Wanted to Serve. - Mark 10:45 (NIrV) Now we move to our 2nd point and our next Bible passage. Here Jesus is talking to His disciples about those who are first and last. And here's what the Bible passage says...
Even the Son of Man did not come to be served. Instead, he came to serve others. He came to give his life as the price for setting many people free.
And here we see Jesus telling us directly that His purpose for coming here to be with us was to serve us. The Son of God, the creator of the universe, wanted to come and show us His heart. His heart was so full of love that He just naturally wanted to serve. And that's what He was trying to teach the disciples.
And He not only taught it, but He also showed it. In John chapter 13 (and we don't have time to read the whole story) He showed that He wanted to serve by washing the disciples feet. He took on the role of the servant, because the servant of the house was the one who washed the guests feet when they came into the house. This was probably the lowest level of service you could do for a guest. As we talked about last time, God is love. And because His heart is full of love, service just naturally flows out of His heart like a fountain!
3. Jesus Serves Both Directions. - Hebrews 2:17-18 (NIrV) And if we're talking about the service that Christ offers, then it has to be in 2 directions. And that's where our 3rd Bible passage comes in.
17 So he had to be made like people, fully human in every way. Then he could serve God as a kind and faithful high priest. And then he could pay for the sins of the people by dying for them. 18 He himself suffered when he was tempted. Now he is able to help others who are being tempted.
We see here that Jesus came not only as a human, but as our faithful high priest. He's the only one who could and would stand between a righteous God and us sinful human beings. And as our priest, He serves God. But it doesn't stop there. His paying for our sins was the best service He could give us. And the passage finishes by saying that is presently helping or even serving us who are tempted.
Over 40 years ago, I was studying as an exchange student down in Kyushu. I lived in a dormitory with a number of other students and one of them was from Taiwan. He wasn't just studying for one year. He was studying for all four years in the university in his second language of Japanese. I asked him one day why he was doing that. He said that he was a taxi driver in Taipei and he wanted to be able to speak fluently with his customers in his taxi cab! He was just a taxi driver! Come to find out, he was fluent in five languages! Jesus Christ is the same. He is fluent in the language of heaven and the language of our hearts! He can and does serve in both directions!
4. Serving Me Is Easy. - Matthew 11:28-30 (NIrV) And we'll finish up tonight by looking at one of my absolute favorite Bible passages ever, Matthew chapter 11.
28 “Come to me, all you who are tired and are carrying heavy loads. I will give you rest. 29 Become my servants and learn from me. I am gentle and free of pride. You will find rest for your souls. 30 Serving me is easy, and my load is light.”
Reading this Bible passage is always very encouraging. In fact, so much so that many of us have it memorized. But if you're like me, you often focus on the first part of the passage and kind of let the rest of it go by. But I'd like us to look carefully at the last part of this Scripture. What does it say: "Serving me is easy, and my load is light." I think we can see pretty clearly here that Christ is encouraging us to service, and not just by ourselves, but right alongside of him, together.
Conclusion: But then we get down to the nitty-gritty of this idea of God loving service. Often as Christians we think of service as something that takes a lot of hard work. Maybe we feel like this little boy looking out the window and we think, "I am already so tired with all my activities every day. How can I have enough energy to serve God more?" But the answer to that question comes from the Bible passage also. Christ invites us to come to him and rest in him. As we keep company with him we will learn how gentle and kind he is. In fact, by spending more time with him we can actually have restful souls. Do we need the power to keep going? Is there some service that God wants us to do but we just don't feel like we're up to it? Here's the key, Philippians 4:13, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."
Closing Prayer: Let's close out our evening by reading one of our Bible passages together.
Matthew 11:28-30
28 “Come to me, all you who are tired and are carrying heavy loads. I will give you rest. 29 Become my servants and learn from me. I am gentle and free of pride. You will find rest for your souls. 30 Serving me is easy, and my load is light.”
Now let's look at our closing prayer, based on God's Word and pray it back to Him together:
Our Dear Wonderful, Amazing God, we are very happy that we could worship You these many Sunday evenings. Thank You for being with us. We come to You again tonight and look for Your rest and peace. Thank You so much for serving us so completely every day. We give our hearts to You tonight and we want You to guide us as we serve You every day. May our relationship with You get deeper and sweeter every single day. We pray this now in Jesus' precious name, Amen.
March 1, 2020 - 5:00 pm (This meeting cancelled due to the coronavirus outbreak.)
Messenger: Don Frank
Bible Passage: Luke 12:35-38 & others
Introduction: This is my final Sunday evening English message I think for a while and I wanted to give you some real encouragement tonight. So, we'll finish up talking about the last aspect of God in our 3 years' worth of studying together tonight. And I wanted to talk about the God of Service this evening. And what got me thinking about this was a study I did recently about our first Bible passage, Luke 12:37. And the basic idea was the topic of service.
And since I am a Star Trek fan, I immediately thought about an early episode from the original Star Trek series. You can see a picture of that scene here on the screen. And in this scene, we are introduced to the way that Vulcans greet each other. The character Spock, on the right side of the door, greets his father by saying, "We come to serve." And his father, who is standing in the center of the doorway, responds by saying, "Your service honors us."
This conversation plus the study that I did in Luke 12, gave me a lot of motivation to talk about this aspect of God tonight. So, let's get into this really interesting study of the topic of service.
1. The Master Will Serve Them. - Luke 12:35-38 (NIrV)
And we begin with the passage of scripture that I said I studied and how interesting I think it is.
35 “Be dressed and ready to serve. Keep your lamps burning. 36 Be like servants waiting for their master to return from a wedding dinner. When he comes and knocks, they can open the door for him at once. 37 It will be good for those servants whose master finds them ready when he comes. What I’m about to tell you is true. The master will then dress himself so he can serve them. He will have them take their places at the table. And he will come and wait on them. 38 It will be good for those servants whose master finds them ready. It will even be good if he comes in the middle of the night or toward morning."
Let me set the stage a little bit for you. In Luke chapter 12, Jesus is talking to a large group of people about many topics. He's talking about things in nature and He's talking in parables or stories that have a deeper meaning. He's talking about having faith in God no matter what it costs. Then He begins to share a parable about a master going off to a wedding feast and leaving his house in the charge of his servants. Let me point out that a wedding feast back then would often last from 5 to 7 days, a very long celebration! It's so much different than it is today when a wedding party can be finished in just 2 hours.
And the interesting part of this story that I think I still don't completely understand, is that when the master comes back and finds that the servants have been very faithful, he begins to serve them! That's what it says exactly in verse 37. Does that mean when we get to heaven that God is going to serve us? I honestly have to say that I have no idea. This is a parable and a parable is a story wrapped up in another story. We could say that the master of this story is God and the servants are us. God serves us every day by giving us everything that we need. And as we go through this study tonight, we'll definitely see that God enjoys serving.
2. Jesus Wanted to Serve. - Mark 10:45 (NIrV) Now we move to our 2nd point and our next Bible passage. Here Jesus is talking to His disciples about those who are first and last. And here's what the Bible passage says...
Even the Son of Man did not come to be served. Instead, he came to serve others. He came to give his life as the price for setting many people free.
And here we see Jesus telling us directly that His purpose for coming here to be with us was to serve us. The Son of God, the creator of the universe, wanted to come and show us His heart. His heart was so full of love that He just naturally wanted to serve. And that's what He was trying to teach the disciples.
And He not only taught it, but He also showed it. In John chapter 13 (and we don't have time to read the whole story) He showed that He wanted to serve by washing the disciples feet. He took on the role of the servant, because the servant of the house was the one who washed the guests feet when they came into the house. This was probably the lowest level of service you could do for a guest. As we talked about last time, God is love. And because His heart is full of love, service just naturally flows out of His heart like a fountain!
3. Jesus Serves Both Directions. - Hebrews 2:17-18 (NIrV) And if we're talking about the service that Christ offers, then it has to be in 2 directions. And that's where our 3rd Bible passage comes in.
17 So he had to be made like people, fully human in every way. Then he could serve God as a kind and faithful high priest. And then he could pay for the sins of the people by dying for them. 18 He himself suffered when he was tempted. Now he is able to help others who are being tempted.
We see here that Jesus came not only as a human, but as our faithful high priest. He's the only one who could and would stand between a righteous God and us sinful human beings. And as our priest, He serves God. But it doesn't stop there. His paying for our sins was the best service He could give us. And the passage finishes by saying that is presently helping or even serving us who are tempted.
Over 40 years ago, I was studying as an exchange student down in Kyushu. I lived in a dormitory with a number of other students and one of them was from Taiwan. He wasn't just studying for one year. He was studying for all four years in the university in his second language of Japanese. I asked him one day why he was doing that. He said that he was a taxi driver in Taipei and he wanted to be able to speak fluently with his customers in his taxi cab! He was just a taxi driver! Come to find out, he was fluent in five languages! Jesus Christ is the same. He is fluent in the language of heaven and the language of our hearts! He can and does serve in both directions!
4. Serving Me Is Easy. - Matthew 11:28-30 (NIrV) And we'll finish up tonight by looking at one of my absolute favorite Bible passages ever, Matthew chapter 11.
28 “Come to me, all you who are tired and are carrying heavy loads. I will give you rest. 29 Become my servants and learn from me. I am gentle and free of pride. You will find rest for your souls. 30 Serving me is easy, and my load is light.”
Reading this Bible passage is always very encouraging. In fact, so much so that many of us have it memorized. But if you're like me, you often focus on the first part of the passage and kind of let the rest of it go by. But I'd like us to look carefully at the last part of this Scripture. What does it say: "Serving me is easy, and my load is light." I think we can see pretty clearly here that Christ is encouraging us to service, and not just by ourselves, but right alongside of him, together.
Conclusion: But then we get down to the nitty-gritty of this idea of God loving service. Often as Christians we think of service as something that takes a lot of hard work. Maybe we feel like this little boy looking out the window and we think, "I am already so tired with all my activities every day. How can I have enough energy to serve God more?" But the answer to that question comes from the Bible passage also. Christ invites us to come to him and rest in him. As we keep company with him we will learn how gentle and kind he is. In fact, by spending more time with him we can actually have restful souls. Do we need the power to keep going? Is there some service that God wants us to do but we just don't feel like we're up to it? Here's the key, Philippians 4:13, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."
Closing Prayer: Let's close out our evening by reading one of our Bible passages together.
Matthew 11:28-30
28 “Come to me, all you who are tired and are carrying heavy loads. I will give you rest. 29 Become my servants and learn from me. I am gentle and free of pride. You will find rest for your souls. 30 Serving me is easy, and my load is light.”
Now let's look at our closing prayer, based on God's Word and pray it back to Him together:
Our Dear Wonderful, Amazing God, we are very happy that we could worship You these many Sunday evenings. Thank You for being with us. We come to You again tonight and look for Your rest and peace. Thank You so much for serving us so completely every day. We give our hearts to You tonight and we want You to guide us as we serve You every day. May our relationship with You get deeper and sweeter every single day. We pray this now in Jesus' precious name, Amen.