Main Idea: The level of my service to others demonstrates the measure of my love for others.

This morning we conclude our series on what it means to practice the life of a disciple of Jesus Christ. We have called the series "Spring Training: 7 Practices for a Winning Life." To help you recall the previous principles, remember we have said that a winning life is a life that is pleasing to God and brings me joy. In order to have a life that pleases God and brings me joy there are certain practices that I must do to make that possible. We said that a practice is any activity I can do that gives me the power or ability to live life as Jesus taught and modeled.

The practices we have said that are essential start with our answering the call to follow Jesus fully as a disciple. Then there are three interior practices that we need and those are: abiding in Christ, living in the Word and praying in faith. Those interior practices are accompanied by three outward or more visible practices: fellowship with believers, witnessing to the world and the last one, which we look at today, ministering to others.

Opening Day of Major League Baseball is only seven days away. The Spring Training exhibition season is winding down. The rosters of players who will start the season are almost complete. Next Sunday night at 7:05 CST, the New York Mets will play the St. Louis Cardinals and that will officially start the 2007 season. Somewhere after the playing of the Star Spangled Banner and the ceremonial first pitch is thrown, the home plate umpire will shout, "Play Ball!" and the season will begin. When "Play Ball" is said, it means it’s time for the season and the game to start. All the practicing, training and developing are finished and it’s time for each team to put into practice everything they have worked on in Spring Training. It’s time to "Play Ball."

There comes a time in every believer’s life when it is time to "Play Ball." That time comes when we let God take our life and use our life in order that we might minister to others. It is that place where we understand that we are not saved by service, but that we are saved for service, that in God’s kingdom we have a place, a purpose, a role and a function to fulfill. This ministry or service to others is what gives our lives great significance and value. As Rick Warren says, "A saved heart is one that wants to serve." (Adapted from Purpose Driven Life, p. 227-228)

One of the things that are part of the DNA of First Baptist Church is service and ministry. Since the beginning this church has been known for its service to those outside of the church and those within the church. There are formal or organized service or ministry opportunities that literally hundreds of volunteers perform every single week. There are informal or less organized acts of service that persons do in this church each week. I wanted to mention as many of them as I could this morning but there are so many that I feared I would leave someone out. This church is blessed by the lives of believers who understand that they are saved to serve!

Why do so many of our people serve? What drives or should be the motivation for their service. I believe it is because of an understanding that we are to, as Paul said in our text for today, "serve one another in love." We show our love for someone when minister to others in service. What I want us to see today is that the level of my service to others demonstrates the measure of my love for others. When I am serving others I am showing them my love. That’s when it all comes together and I am ready to "Play Ball!"

Paul wrote about the need of demonstrating love through serving in Galatians 5:13-15. Some very legalistic, narrow teachers who sought to poison the true teaching of the Gospel were threatening the Galatian Christians. In fact they had become so influenced by these teachers that they were walking away from the freedom they had as a believer in Christ. Paul has written them to remind them that they are free from the need to try to earn their salvation by obeying rules or doing good things. Yet he is concerned that they could go too far and think that their freedom as a Christian gives them permission to do what they wanted. What he tells them is that they are free but they are to use that freedom to show how much they love others by serving them. He was telling them what I am saying today that the level of my service to others demonstrates the measure of my love for others.

What makes a person want to get out of their world and choose to minister to others? What makes the hundreds of volunteers of this church do what they do continually for years? I believe it is an understanding that as a believer I am accountable to God for the level of my service to others (Gal. 5:13). "For you have been called to live in freedom—not freedom to satisfy your sinful nature, but freedom to serve one another in love." Paul says that because we are free from trying to earn God’s pleasure we now have a responsibility to use that freedom in a way that is pleasing to God. Paul recognized that it is a privilege to know that God loved me so much that the sacrifice of his Son and my trust in that was all that was needed to put me in a right relationship with him. He sees, though, a danger in such freedom—that it could be perceived as a starting point for satisfying our own selfish interests. So he defines what we are free to do—we are free to serve each other in love. Our freedom has a factor of accountability to it.

What do I mean by accountable? Well, the idea comes from the word Paul uses for serve. The word actually is the word for slave. By using that word he removes the thought that service to others is an option. If he had said, "Help one another," that lessens the intensity or obligation. I can help or not help and it really is not that big of an issue. The control is mine. The word slave was used earlier to describe being involuntarily overcome by sin and also being chained to a narrow, legalistic way of living. Here it means not something that we are overcome by or chained by but something we are free to do and be—serve one another in love. It is something for which I am accountable!

There is a difference in choosing to help someone or performing a service to someone and being a servant. Richard Foster says that a person who serves still is in charge but a person who is a servant has surrendered the right to decide who and when we will serve. He says, "But when we choose to be a servant, we give up the right to be in charge." (Celebration of Discipline, p. 132) Servants understand that the freedom God has given them is to be used not for their own selfish interests but for the benefit of others. They are accountable to God for their service.

If I am to voluntarily show my love by my service, then who am I to serve? Paul says, "one another;" in verse 14 he called them "neighbor." John in his epistle called them a "brother." It is simply those with whom I am in relationship. It means the "one another’s" in my family, in my church, the street where I live, in my work, at my school, in my community and in my world. In fact there is not a "one another" I am exempt from serving.

How do I begin serving others? Oh, you could sort of go on a guilt trip and try to do everything. That only exhausts you and everyone around you. The result is you end up bitter and angry, feeling that you are doing all the work. I believe the best way is to choose to discover our "one another’s" by asking God to help us see what he sees, asking where is he at work and where does he want me to serve. Why do I say that? Because where God leads me to serve is where I will serve best. This doesn’t mean to ignore obvious, immediate human needs. It means that if I am responding to the leadings of God’s presence then that makes my service more meaningful and me more accountable. Trying to do everything for everyone is a sign of being out of balance with serving. Seeking to obey God’s leading is being obediently accountable. Those who minister to others understand that they are accountable to God for the level of their service.

One thing about servants is that they can become used and abused. For that reason servants, those who are ministering to others, need perspective as they serve. That is why the best service we can give is at what I call at God’s PACE (v. 14). "For the whole law can be summed up in this one command: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’" Paul said to the Galatians that the entire Jewish legal system could be summed up in one sentence: "Love your neighbor as yourself." Jesus said that we are accountable for two basic commands—loving God and loving people (Matt. 22:37-39). The bottom line is that the more I completely love God the more sacrificially I love others. This is the measure of my devotion and my discipleship.

Again, how do you do this? Let me give you an acronym that I believe can help us. It’s the word "PACE." The pace is the rate at which something is accomplished. The pace of something determines how quickly and efficiently it will be done. When pace is involved it means a more methodical, steady effort. So if I am going to serve others then I must do it as what I call God’s pace or rhythm. Doing that involves four things:

Presence: The best service is service that calls for our personal physical involvement. When God wanted to show the world the depth of His love "the Word became flesh and dwelt among us" (John 1:14). "He sent His only begotten Son" (John 3:16). God became present personally. For our service to be like that it means our personal presence. So, the question to ask is does my service involve my presence? Your physical presence does two things for you. It will focus your ministry and limit your ministry. When you are present one place you can’t be present somewhere else. That helps us to remember that as servants we can’t do it all. That is also a reason that there is always a need for more servants. You don’t serve by thinking about it, intending to serve some time or wishing you could do it. You serve by physically doing some action of service.

Now, can you be everywhere? No. Can you do everything? No. What happens when we do? We get in a hurry, see the needs of others as a duty and end up hurting rather than serving. So the question to ask is where do I believe God—not a committee, not a pastor, not your spouse, not my civic group—want my personal presence? It is there that your service will be most rewarding.

Attitude: Jesus and Paul both commended that our attitude or motivation for our service is to be that of love. There is no one who showed this like Jesus. In John 13 he washed the feet of disciples to show his love for them. In Phil. 2:8 Paul said that Jesus humbled himself as a slave and went to the cross to demonstrate his love for us. The attitude that we are to demonstrate is love expressed in our willingness to humble ourselves and serve.

Jesus always served out of love. Did Paul always serve out of love? His letters don’t always indicate that he was always emotionally thrilled at all times to serve. In fact there are places n the book of Galatians that Paul is pretty rude and course to the people to whom he was writing because he felt his service was being abused. Do we always serve out of love? To be honest the answer is "No". Sometimes we serve out of duty and obligation. Those are not bad but if we are always serving because we have to do it then we will get resentful, angry, burdened and dread the service that once brought us life. When that happens it is time to step back and ask what needs to be changed in me in order to have the love for those God has asked me to serve.

Compassion: When Jesus saw the true condition—emotional, physical and spiritual-of those who followed him, he had "compassion" on them (Matt. 9:36). The word means to feel passion with someone, to enter into their sorrow and pain. Particularly it is the feeling we have when we see someone suffering in a way that is undeserved or unjust. Compassion will be that emotion that will not let us rest until we act.

However just like our level of love so our level of compassion can run down and if we keep going it will run out. Our compassion is really the engine of our service. It is that part of us that keeps us coming back the next time we are to serve even when we have been treated unkind for the hundredth time. You see compassion defines the motive of our service. We can serve for many reasons and with many motives but the service that is out of compassion is the service that truly honors God most fully.

Energy: Jesus literally gave everything to serve us. He said, "I did not come to be served but to serve and to give my life as a ransom for many." (Mark 10:45) Paul wrote the Corinthians that his service to the churches was exhausting, "I have labored and toiled and have gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked" (II Cor. 11:27). Bottom Line: For both Jesus and Paul their service cost them their life.

Just like our love and compassion so our energy for service can run out. Why? Well, for the reasons we mentioned: trying to do too much which results in attitude problems which combine to drain our compassion which in turn shows in our energy gauge dropping to zero. The key is that when the other three things are right: our focus is clear, our attitude is where it should be and our compassion is strong then the energy is going to keep being there for the service. If your energy gauge is hardly registering then we need to look at those first three areas and make the right adjustments.

These four elements--Presence, Attitude, Compassion and Energy—are essential for us to obey the words "love your neighbor as yourself." They tell us I can serve personally, lovingly, emotionally and intensely. When I do that then I am serving at God’s own PACE.

You may not have thought of it before but there is a reason that Christians are to serve that is bigger than meeting the need of the person or my obeying God’s purpose for me. A larger reason for our service to others is what it does for the church itself. What is that reason? It’s this: When I serve others I am protecting the unity of the church and preventing division within the church (v. 15). "But if instead of showing love among yourselves you are always biting and devouring one another, watch out! Beware of destroying one another." Paul makes it clear that to choose not to serve one another will result in their destruction as a church. He tells them that their continued actions of "biting and devouring one another" (NLT) are going to result in one thing: they will destroy each other. Left to ourselves we can easily turn inward. When we refuse to serve we do as Paul says and destroy the unity God intended!

There is an underlying principle in service that we often don’t realize is at work when we are serving. That principle is that service keeps any Christian organization focused outward rather than inward. The outward focus protects the unity of the group and prevents division by choosing to care more about others than about themselves. When we are caring more about others than our selves then we are duplicating the life that Jesus taught and modeled. Servants get so busy serving others they don’t have time to care if their needs are being met as long as others are being served.

Without service we will consume each other. With service we will protect our unity and prevent our destruction. If you want to see a family destroyed then let no one serve the others. If you want to see a church destroyed, youth group, Sunday School class, denomination, then let no one serve others. If you want to see communities and nations destroyed then let those who live in them refuse to serve. Choosing to serve protects and preserves our life and the life of all those around us.

Whom do you love? What do you love? The level of your service to others demonstrates the measure of your love for others. Where do you start? You begin with accepting that you and I are accountable for our service. When you accept accountability you ask God to show you where He wants your service. When he shows you then you serve with your presence, an attitude of love, a heart of compassion and with an energy that is willing to pay the price to show your love. The result of service is a protection of the integrity of the unity of the group.

Are you ready to "Play ball"? Are you ready to minister to others in service. As many servants we have in our church we can never have enough. There are multiple places that need your service. We know you have busy lives, hard jobs and family demands but this church can’t survive without servants. With the opening of the new LIFE Center we are going to see increased numbers of persons and needs. If we dare to be the people that are following Christ fully then we will serve one another in love. Jesus said, "Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be the slave of all." When you are ready to serve then you are ready to "Play ball"!

Sunday, March 25, 2007

Dr. Bruce Tippit, Pastor

First Baptist Church

Jonesboro, Arkansas

btippit@fbcjonesboro.org