We Are Set Apart to Serve

Go to John chapter two. Go ahead and stand if you will to honor the word of God as we read the first nine verses of John chapter two. John chapter two. It's a familiar story to probably many of you, but it goes like this. The next day there was a wedding celebration in the village of Cana in Galilee.

And Jesus mother was there. And Jesus and his disciples were also invited to the celebration. The wine supply ran out during the festivities. So Jesus mother told him, they have no more wine. Dear woman, that's not our problem.

Jesus replied, my time has not yet come. But his mother told the servants, do whatever he tells you. Standing nearby were six stone water jars used for Jewish ceremonial Washington. Each could hold 20 to 30 gallons. Jesus told the servants, fill the jars with water.

And when the jars had been filled, he said, now dip some out and take it to the master of ceremonies. And so the servants followed his instructions. When the master of ceremonies tasted the water that was now wine, not knowing where it had come from, though of course the servants knew. And I want you to note that though of course the servants knew, he called the bridegroom over. Let's make some declarations together this morning before you're seated.

Everybody together. Ready? Go. I will hide this word in my heart.

This word is life to my body, health to my bones. I will be a doer of the word, not a hearer. Only that he who has begun a good work in me will complete it. In Jesus name, Amen. You can be seated.

We started this series last Sunday, just three weeks during Love Month. We're talking about loving. Well, how do we love God? Well, what does it look like to really love him? Well, we're focusing on our vertical relationship with him and drawing from Matthew chapter 22, which tells us the first and the greatest commandment.

Beginning in verse 36. When a religious leader came to Jesus and the scripture says that he was trying to trap Jesus by asking him an impossible question to answer when he says to him, teacher, which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses. Knowing that Jesus would not be able to prioritize 613 Jewish laws that they adhered to or attempted to, that anything that he said in response to this would most likely start a debate or start a fight. And he could not answer it. And Jesus summarizes 613 Jewish laws in one statement.

He replies, Verse 37. You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul and all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. So we asked the question Last week, what's it look like to love God? Well, we talked about worship last week.

If you missed it, you can go on our YouTube channel. Go on the app, you'll find that message. Today we're going to talk about serving. These are just expressions of what it means to love God. Well, now, many people, thank God, serve here at the refuge in different capacities.

In fact, hundreds of people, week in and week out, serve in various capacities here at the refuge. But the reality is, in a church of some 2500 folks, that there are still many people that are content to sit in the grandstands and just watch the action. And there are reasons for that. There's reasons that people don't get involved. First of all, serving is not natural.

We're born with a selfish nature. Anybody agree with that? You can help me out a little bit today. It feels like I'm preaching to an empty dead room.

We're born with a selfish nature, and we. We cater to self, we prioritize self, we protect self. We make sure that self is put in prominence over anything else or anybody else oftentimes in our life. And that all goes back to the selfish nature of mankind. So it's not natural for us to lay our lives down.

It's not natural for us to take the posture and the position of a servant. But let me tell you this. One of the greatest antibodies to the sickness of selfishness is serving.

So when you take on the nature of Christ when you serve, it eradicates selfishness in your life. Second reason a lot of people are content to not get involved or to not serve is that oftentimes it's not glamorous. We've discovered that there are things that you do when you get involved that require you to get your hands dirty, that require you to do things that aren't really fun, sometimes they're not really glamorous. Sometimes you're doing things and you may do it for weeks or months or years, and nobody ever comes up and high fives you and says, hey, great job changing those diapers today.

Or maybe nobody ever comes up to you and high fives you and says, I've never in my life seen anybody run a camera like you did today, right? So oftentimes it's not glamorous for us, but we have to take on the humility of Christ and be willing to do things that. That others might reject. A third reason that oftentimes we don't get involved is that serving is not usually convenient. But listen to me, serving will always call into question our priorities and how and where we invest our time and we invest our energy.

Now, along with those reasons, there are lies that the enemy will tell you. And I just want to debunk some of the lies of the enemy. Here's the first one. The enemy will whisper in your ear and say they have plenty of help. Plenty of help.

You come to a large church like this, and the assumption on the part of many people is, they don't need me. They've got people. I see them. They're just buzzing around like ants everywhere, doing all kinds of things here at the refuge. So they really don't need me.

Now, let me just say you something. It's not as much about the church needing your help as it is about you fulfilling the purpose for which you were created and you maturing in Christ. Let me tell you, when you serve, you take on the nature of Christ and you begin to mature as you give yourself away. And let me just make it crystal clear, there's always a place for you to serve here at the refuge. Here's the second lie of the enemy.

I'm not qualified. I'm not qualified. I see these amazing people around that are just so gifted and so outgoing and so, you know, talented in what they're doing. And I'm not qualified. Well, just a reminder, you've heard this before.

God doesn't call the qualified. He qualifies the called. So if you say, well, I'm not qualified, and you listen to the lies of the enemy, you'll quickly disqualify yourself from doing what God created you to do. Here's the third lie that the enemy says, I've done too many bad things. Wonderful.

Your resume is right up there with the apostle Paul, who killed people. Your resume's right up there with David, who was an adulterer. Your resume is up there with Samson, who had lust issues, or with Rahab, who was a prostitute. And God still chose to use all of them. Not because of their pedigree, not because of their education, but they just simply made themselves available to God.

Because again, God's not looking for ability. He's looking for availability. And regardless of your past, God chooses to use us. Here's a fourth lie that the enemy will tell you. I don't have any special talents.

I don't have special talents. Well, the beautiful thing about the Lord is he's not looking to use only talented and gifted people. He just wants people who are willing. He wants people who will say, like Isaiah here, am I Lord? Or like Abraham, we talked about last week, here am I God.

I don't have any special abilities or talents or whatever, but whatever I have. It's like the little boy that we read about when the disciples were trying to figure out, how do we feed some 14 or 15,000 people and they find a little boy that has five loaves of bread, two fish? You know the story. And he just makes it available. And the Lord has a way of blessing and multiplying what we put into his hands.

So the wonderful thing about you and I, whether you're one talent, two talent, five talent, it doesn't matter to the Lord. He's not just looking for those people who make it to the final round of America's Got Talent.

He's just looking for people who say, I don't feel like I have much to offer, but it's yours. Five loaves of bread and two fish. If you can use this, go for it. Ephesians 2:10. We're the workmanship.

Paul says we're his workmanship. That word in the Greek is poema. It means masterpiece. You're a masterpiece not because of your talent, but because you were created in his image. Why did he create us?

Paul says, to do good works. You were made for this. You were made to serve. Here's the last lie of the enemy. I don't have time.

I don't have time. We all know. Every single one of us doesn't matter. Your age doesn't matter. Your education doesn't matter how long you've served God doesn't matter.

What you've done in your past doesn't matter. Your great accomplishments. All of us have 86,400 seconds every single day. And unlike cell phone carriers, there's no rollover to the next day or the next week or the next month. All of us have 24 hours in a day.

We all have 168 hours in a week. It just boils down to this. I know we're all busy. We all have stuff going on. You got kids in all these travel leagues.

You've got them in musical things going on and music lessons and school stuff. And then you gotta be involved in the pta. And then you've got responsibilities at home and responsibilities with your job. We're all busy. I get it.

I understand that. But what it boils down to is how do we prioritize the time that we've all been given? How do we prioritize that? If we prioritize the kingdom, we will find time to serve. Now, the refuge for those of you that maybe are newer to this house.

We have eight core values. Eight core values that we drafted over 21 years ago before we ever had the first service of the refuge. We wrote up these core values, we wrote up our mission and vision, and we said, everything is going to flow out of these core values. Core value number five. We're going to put it on the screen.

It says this. We believe people were created to serve and are most fulfilled when doing so. I want us to read that out loud together. Core value number five. You ready?

Go. We believe in our most fulfilled. All right, let's read it one more time. Ready? Go.

We believe people are created to serve.

Now let's go back to our text for a moment. John, chapter two. We read the story. It's familiar. It's the first miracle of Jesus.

Well, let's unpack that just a little bit. Here's what it said and here's what we read. In verse three, the wine supply ran out during the festivities. So Jesus mother told him, they have no more wine. Verse 4, Dear woman, it's not our problem.

Jesus replied, my time has not yet come. But his mother told the servants, do whatever he tells you. Now we know that Jesus own declaration about his life was that he didn't come to be served, but to serve. He makes that clear. I didn't come to be served, but to serve.

Now we also know that Jesus is God. He came to earth fully God and fully man. And in this moment, in verse four in particular, we get a glimpse of Jesus being fully man when he says, that's not our problem.

Listen to me. If we're not proactively working each day to destroy our selfish nature, we will have the same attitude about the problems and the issues of other people. It's not my problem.

It's not my problem. Then Jesus makes this statement, my time has not yet come. In other words, I don't have time. It's not convenient right now. I don't want to deal with this.

Somebody else will have to take this one on in this moment because it's not convenient for me to tackle this right now. For me to deal with this right now. It's not our problem, and we don't have time. That's the selfish nature of man. Now, Jesus being fully God, I would just say, jesus, I know you're fully God, but don't talk back to your mother.

I mean, surely you know that. He basically says, mom, it's not my deal, not my problem. Because she comes to him knowing he can fix this. He can do something about this. Hey, son.

They're out of wine. Son. God, they're out of wine. Son. Miracle worker, they're out of wine.

He talks back, not my problem.

It's not my time yet. I love the fact that his mother just completely ignored him.

She knew who was the boss. Can you imagine? Like, in that moment, she's like, I'm the boss of God.

Was he still my son? So she just ignores him, turns to the servants, and she says something that is key for you and I really understanding what it means to take on the nature of Jesus. She says to the servants that are standing there, whatever he tells you to do, do it.

That's key for us. Whatever we find in Scripture, whatever Jesus says, whatever Jesus models for us, if we want to take on his nature, whether it's convenient, whether we have time, whether we've disqualified ourselves, regardless of what we've done in the past, we need to do what Jesus did.

Remember when all of the disciples were jockeying for position? It was near the time that Jesus would be crucified. And they come into a room in Jerusalem, and they've got the dust and the dirt of an entire day, or maybe multiple days on their feet. And they walk into the room, and normally there would be a servant stationed by the door with a bowl and a towel, a bowl of water and a towel. Nobody's there.

So one by one, the disciples walk in, they glance over at the bowl, they look at the towel, they notice nobody's there. And each one of them has the opportunity to serve the others, but they're so concerned about their position that they're not willing to take on the posture.

And they all file past it one by one.

And then all of a sudden, Jesus gets up from the table, takes a towel, wraps it around his waist, and he walks over to the bowl. Can you imagine in that moment you ever had, and you're just going to have to pardon me on this, you ever had in life just an oh, crap moment.

Can you imagine what the disciples are thinking in that moment? I would imagine that one or two of them at least probably jumped up, said, hey, hey, Jesus, I got that. Hey, I'll take care of that. You had your chance, and you didn't want to fool with that because it wasn't your problem that there wasn't a servant there, and it wasn't convenient because you're so concerned about your position. So Jesus then walks around the room and he washes the feet of each of the disciples.

And then he says, Something that's so key. Jesus said, I've set an example for you so that you'll do as I've done for you.

Jesus has set the ultimate example for us of what it means the fulfillment of what Paul says in Philippians chapter 2. God, who took on the form of a servant and came to this earth, and now what he's calling you and I to do is to take on that same nature. Whatever he tells you to do, do it. Do you realize one of the great paradoxes of the Christian life is that the more that you give yourself away, the more fulfilled you are and the more filled you are. You say, what do you mean by that?

Well, you're fulfilled because you're taking on the nature of Christ and you're filled by the person of the Holy Spirit. Because as you die to yourself, as you give yourself away, guess what? You create space and capacity for the Holy Spirit to come in. Isn't that a beautiful thing? Mark 10:43 says this.

Whoever wants to become great among you must serve the rest of you like a servant. This is Jesus words. Whoever wants to become the first among you must serve all of you like a slave. In the same way. The Son of Man did not come to be served.

He came to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many people. Hey, I'm going to hit the pause button on this message for a moment. I need our ushers to help me for just a moment because they have in their hands a card that looks like this. It says, love to serve. Serve to love.

Love to serve. Serve to love. On the front and then on the back, a place for a name, email, phone number, and multiple boxes that you can check. Now, here's what I want. Those of you who are not currently serving in some capacity at the refuge, or maybe used to.

And you hit the pause button. You took a break and you're not serving currently. I want you to just have enough courage to raise your hand right now. Cause the ushers are going to bring one of these cards to you. Come on, hold your hand up high.

They're going to bring a card to you. Come on. If you're not serving, nobody's judging you. Nobody's saying, how dare you? We can't believe you've been here three years.

Da, da, da. None of that. We just want to create an on ramp for you to do what you were made to do. And you were made to serve. Hold it up high.

We've still got. Yep, there you go. Come on, keep it up. Just Hitting the pause on the message for a moment. This is super important.

Not because we're desperate for your help. No, as a pastor, I'm desperate for you to do what God made you to do so that you mature, you grow in the Lord. You find the fulfillment, you create space and capacity for the Holy Spirit to come in. It's a beautiful thing. Hands are still ushers.

Just keep looking around because as you get past, some are raising their hands.

There we go. Anybody else? Keep them up. They're in the stadium seats. Come on, raise them high.

Now I want to answer. As they continue to do that, I want to answer the why question for you. That's important. Why should I serve? Well, I've given you some good reasons already, but let me give you four more.

Why should I serve? Number one, because you were created to serve. Already referenced Ephesians, chapter 2, verse 10 that Paul says you're the masterpiece of God. You're the workmanship of God. You're the poema of God.

You were created to do this. Secondly, you're consecrated to serve. You're the word consecrate means to set apart. And God has set you apart for a purpose that goes way beyond your job. It goes way beyond your education, it goes way beyond your recreation.

Like God has consecrated you and set you apart for such a time as this. God's allowed you the privilege of being alive at this moment history so that you can fulfill what you were created to fulfill. Number three, you're called to serve every single person. And I just want to remind you, every person in this auditorium, every person watching online is called into full time ministry. Full time ministry.

Every single person. Why? Because God made you to serve. God called you to serve. Being called is not just for missionaries or pastors or evangelists or nuns.

Every single Christian is called to serve God. And listen, it's an oxymoron to have a non serving Christian. That's an oxymoron. If you're a believer, if you have Jesus in your heart, then you should be serving. Here's the fourth reason you're commanded to serve.

If the first three weren't enough, he commands us to do it. He commands us to serve. Listen, one of the fastest ways for you to fast track to the nature of Jesus is to start serving, is to begin serving. Now, I want to talk about three people, three groups of people that are right here today. And then we're going to close.

Oh, by the way, those of you that took one of those cards, I want you to fill it out right now. Go ahead and fill it out, because at the end of this service, I'm going to ask you to take that card before you leave the building. There are three desks out in the concourse that are backed up to the big grid wall with the television monitors all over it. I'm going to ask you the. If you're facing the wall with the TVs, it's the desk to the far right, right by the women's restroom, it's the serve desk.

It's marked. I'm gonna ask you to take that card when you walk out of here and turn that card in at the serve desk, somebody's gonna be there. Mary's out there right now, who oversees all of our volunteers to answer questions for you to collect those cards. So fill it out right now. And then at the end of the service, I want you to take it back down.

I want to talk about three groups of people that are in the building or watching online. The first group is visitors. The visitors. Those are the people. Maybe it's your first time, maybe you've been here for a year.

But the visitors are just checking everything out, and you have a right to do that. I would do the same thing if I showed up at a new church. I want to assess what's going on with the kids. Is that a safe environment? Is it a healthy environment?

Is it creative? Is it fun? Are my kids going to grow? Are they going to learn about Jesus? I want to assess what's going on?

Is this place, you know, are they sacrificing white hamsters? Are they weird? Is it some cult? You know, you have the right to kick the tires, right? You're just visitors.

You're checking everything out. And I'm not opposed to that. I think that's a good thing. I think it's a necessary thing. The second group are the renters.

The renters. Renters are ones who. They show up faithfully, but they're usually consumers. They come as long as their needs are significantly and sufficiently met, but when they're not, they find somewhere else to go. They never stay anyplace long enough to really mature in the things of God.

They never stay any place long enough for their roots to really go deep. They don't trust people. They don't let people get involved in their lives. And therefore, they're not going to get involved in the lives of other people. They're more like a potted plant on the front porch rather than a tree that's planted in the backyard like their roots are Never going to really go deep.

Renters treat church like staying in a hotel room. They expect the benefits. They love the comforts. They don't make the bed, they don't pick up the towels, and they don't cook the meals. That's renters.

Third group are the owners.

Owners are ones who take ownership of what's going on. They pray for the leaders, they pray for the ministries. They tithe, they give offerings, they give their time, they give their energy to consistently see the church grow and to see others mature and to see their roots grow deep. Ephesians 4:16. He makes the whole body fit together perfectly.

As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love. Listen to me. We will serve others with humility and wisdom only to the extent that we are amazed that Jesus has served us. My challenge to you today is this. Be an owner.

Be an owner. Don't move from being a visitor to a renter. And then just enjoy all the comforts and the benefits, but never really get involved. Never take any responsibility for what's going on. Always sitting in the grandstands watching others do all the work.

No. Be an owner. Let your roots go deep. Hey, let's go back to our text and then we're going to close. Y' all still with me today?

Mark, chapter two.

Jesus is there with his disciples. He talks back to his mom and says, not my problem. My time hasn't come. She blows him off, ignores him, turns to the servants, do whatever he tells you to do. And the Bible says, close by are 6 ton water pots that hold 20 to 30 gallons.

I didn't do the calculations on how much 1 gallon of water weighs, but we know water is heavy. And so if you were one of those servants who are instructed to carry those pots and fill them up with water and then bring them back, you're getting a workout. Are you getting a full on CrossFit workout that day? It's not glamorous. Probably nobody high fiving them saying, great job carrying the water pots, filling them up.

You did awesome, man. Look at those biceps. Whoo. Nobody's doing that. But here's what I want you to do now that the servants were the first ones to see the first miracle of Jesus.

Because then after they brought the water pots back, he says to them, I want you to dip some water out. And as they're dipping the water out, all of a sudden they realize a miracle occurred. Do you realize when you serve, even if it's unglamorous, even if it's as inconvenient as carrying heavy water pots. When you serve, you get a front row seat to the miracle and the work of the Holy Spirit in people's lives.