“We Are to Become Like Him”
Scripture Reading: Philippians 2:5-11
Sermon Transcript for September 11, 2005
By Steve Wakefield
I want to thank you this morning for your continuing support of our youth program. We have a lot of exciting things happening with our youth and the program here at Grace Church. And, obviously, it wouldn’t be possible without you providing the resources, the building, the support, and the prayers for our program. That is you—the members of Grace United Methodist Church.
Our youth program is based on a foundation of four things that are modeled after what Christ taught us. And I’ve mentioned these before to you—prayer, Scripture, service, and evangelism. Prayer—because Jesus taught us the importance of prayer. Scripture—Jesus studied and knew the Scriptures. Evangelism—Jesus said “Go, and make disciples of all nations”. And service—Jesus modeled, the ultimate model for servant hood.
This morning the message focuses on service and is entitled, “We Are to Become Like Him”. I discovered something about service on our World Changers St. Louis trip. And I knew it all along; I felt it and I practiced it to some degree, but I never understood its profound significance until I saw it in action. The Scripture today, Philippians 2, Verses 5-11, points out three characteristics of Jesus--Jesus was a servant, He humbled Himself, and He was obedient. Jesus was a servant. That’s a WOW for me! The Son of God was a servant! I believe we are to become like Him. Most of us find it difficult to step out of a routine and consistently be a servant. That’s why the youth program places such emphasis on monthly mission projects and the annual mission trip. This year Veneita Taylor, our mission team leader (thank you, Veneita), has monthly service projects already planned and is taking the mission team to, I believe, Chattanooga, Tennessee next summer. My dream is to take a group of high school students on an international mission trip. This year we are going to take a group of sophomores, juniors and seniors to the Third World. I hope it will become as much of a tradition at Grace Church as World Changers.
Jesus was a servant. Jesus was also obedient even to death on the cross. Is obedience enough? Last summer was our seventh youth mission trip. Michigan; Galveston, Texas; Birmingham, Alabama; Cornwall, Canada; Denver; Roanoke, Virginia; and last year, St. Louis. Personally, I was obedient to God when He called me to go on these trips. Obviously I wasn’t obedient to death on the cross, but these mission trips are very, very difficult for me. My personality is not such that I’m comfortable necessarily getting a group of people together, taking responsibility for them, and taking them on a trip to another location, and being responsible for them throughout the week. The organizational process, the stress of that, it weighs heavily on me. But I do it! I remember being up here after our Roanoke trip to Virginia and saying that sometimes the best we feel we can do is be obedient. But is that enough? I would answer “No” after my St. Louis trip. But obedience is part of the journey, absolutely!
I saw something on this World Changer’s trip that I knew about service but I often lost sight of it in the details and the chaos of the trip. I believe that God showed it to me because of the funk I was in. I was recovering from an auto accident, a gout problem that I have periodically and, as I mentioned earlier in this service, burnt out. God showed me something in practice over and over in St. Louis. I believe it is the key characteristic that Jesus modeled that closes the gap between God and us in each of us. Do you feel like God is over there and you are over here? That’s the gap I am talking about. By following what Jesus modeled for us, we close the gap between ourselves and God.
To help you understand what I am talking about, I’m going to talk a little bit about my personal project. Before I went to World Changers, Bob Fortier decided to go one more time. And he came to me and said, “Steve, I want to be a crew chief.” And a crew chief has responsibility for making sure that the project goes well with a group of 11 or 12 youth, sometimes middle school or high schoolers. This time Bob had middle schoolers. I said, “Bob, I’d be glad to.” He wanted me to be a crew coacher who is the person on the crew who encourages and keeps things rolling, kind of a second person behind the crew chief. And although I really didn’t want to be a crew changer this year, I just wanted to go for the experience, I said, “Sure, I’ll do that Bob.” And then Bob, a couple of weeks later, said, “Well, Steve, you know, we’re going to be doing roofing.” And I said, “Okay, Bob, we’re going to be doing roofing.” I said, “Do you know how to roof?” He said, “No. I’ve never done it.” I said, “Okay, Bob, you’re the crew chief and you haven’t done any roofing.” I said, “Bob, you know, I was on a crew in Denver and we did roofing and I can lay down shingles but when it comes to lining them up and getting the project scoped out and the valleys and everything, I said, Bob, I don’t have a clue.” “Don’t worry,” Bob says. I said, “Well, I’ll listen to you.” So my anxiety level goes up a little bit. I’m not too good about giving anxiety to God all the time. I try to, but there’s Bob! So then about two weeks later Bob said, “Hey, I talked to the construction coordinator.” And I said, “Okay, Bob, what’s he got to say?” And he says, “Well, our job is pretty interesting.” I said, “What?” He said, “It has no roof.” I said, “Bob, it has no roof?” He said, “No, its four walls, no windows, no doors.” I said, “So we’re going to do a roof with no structure to put the roofing on?” “Yeah”. I said, “Bob, do you know how to do that?” He said, “No.” I keep thinking, what’s Bob gotten into here? Now he starts to get a little panicked. He says, “Steve, I’m glad you’re on the job with me.” And I’m like, “Bob, I’m glad you are my crew chief.”
But God sent to us a construction coordinator. They have gentlemen, retired gentlemen usually, that come around to each job site and helps us, whether we’re crew chiefs or crew encouragers or crews, if we run into problems on how we are going to do things. And sure enough we had a very, very good construction coordinator who came and worked on our project named Charlie. And Charlie is a great guy. Even though when I first got there and looked at this thing and you saw it up there, it was a concrete block. It was a small out building, thank goodness. It wasn’t a house. But it needed two doors and two windows and it wasn’t a major job. And Charlie helped us out and scoped it out. I’m very good at taking directions. You tell me what it is, you lay the plan out, and I can do it. Except Brenda will tell you that’s not always the case because she makes a plan and I don’t always do it. But on a construction project, I can do that. Then one of the other blessings for me on that particular job was because I was pretty stressed on this particular trip, Tressa Shapp took over for all likelihood as the crew encourager. She took a group of girls that I was having particular problems with and went off with them and made it work. And so, thank you Tressa, that was a great service to me and to the crew.
So what does all of this mean for us? Well, it was hot. One day in fact it hit 101 degrees and we’re up on the roofs. All the 300 kids in this particular St. Louis were up on top of dark roofs. They are wetting down shingles to keep them from tearing. They are up there from 7:00 a.m. in the morning until 4:30 p.m. or 5:00 p.m. at night doing God’s work. Bob had a consistent theme. And Bob’s consistent theme was always to look out for those around him. And in that regard, Bob is a wonderful, wonderful crew chief. There was a girl on our crew named Kasey. And Kasey was kind of a tomboy. She wore coveralls and had an attitude. But she was afraid to use a power saw. And Bob says, “Come on Kasey, we’re going to use the power saw.” It doesn’t matter about mistakes; it doesn’t matter about the time; it doesn’t matter about anything else, Bob is zeroing in on Kasey. And he is there to serve her and get her comfortable using a power saw. Consistently Bob would say, when we ran into a problem, “What does the homeowner want?” Not, “What does Bob want? What does the construction coordinator want?” What does the homeowner want? Consistently!
Pastor Gibbs—when you are on this project you have a supporting local church that will bring you lunch every day. Pastor Gibbs was pretty different. He showed up in a suit and tie. You know its 101 degrees out and we’re standing out in the sun. He was difficult to talk to. Bob had difficulties talking to him. Every time Pastor Gibbs and his church and his students brought us lunch, Bob was the first one over there talking to Pastor Gibbs. And when I’m over there sitting down on the curb just exhausted, Bob’s over there carrying on a conversation with Pastor Gibbs even though he and Pastor Gibbs’ personality were not alike and it was very difficult for Bob.
One day we had two lunches coming. The homeowner’s mother lived across the street and wants to fix us lunch—ribs and all kinds of great stuff—in the vacant lot next door. And she does. Well, we’ve got another lunch coming. Pastor Gibbs is going to show up with another lunch—Arbys sandwiches. So Bob says, “No problem, we’ll eat two lunches.” So I get over there and we get over there early and the ribs are outstanding. I begged the lady for the recipe; she wouldn’t give it to me. Her family was over there a lot and they said, “She won’t give it to any of us. She’ll die with the recipe.” But it would just make you cry, it was so good. So I’m having a good lunch. Here comes Pastor Gibbs with big, giant bags of Arbys roast beef sandwiches. So we ate sandwiches. To Bob, no problem! We do what we need to do.
Well, there was a girl named Alex. She’s a quiet girl and Bob took special time with Alex. And at the end, at the closing celebration, Alex was in tears, hugging Bob because Bob has served her, because Bob had humbly served her. Bob’s humble service is a wonderful example provided by God. Bob serves in humility. Bob’s sitting across the street to Charlie—we actually had another project across the street. We had two projects, actually three—one across the street to replace a window in a house and paint the deck and then on the garage out back. And at this house we had to paint it and tar the roof. Black tar – 101 degree temperatures—that was a great experience, black tar! But I stood in the bedroom of this elderly couple’s home to replace a window. And the window--and these were big, old homes and they bought the best window they could but it wasn’t a custom-made window. So you try to line it up; so you make the window fit. We are in this person’s bedroom. The wall was there, their bed was right beside us, the dresser was right beside us, and all their family pictures were there. We’re carefully disassembling the window and holding a ladder for Charlie and cutting pieces off the window that Charlie has cut off. I’m holding the screws for him, the hardware, and continually asking the homeowners, “What do you want? Is this okay? Will this be okay for you? We can try to do something different if it doesn’t?” It’s the attitude of humble service that we are talking about. It’s not the service; it’s the humble service.
There were lots of other examples of our adult volunteers modeling humility for our youth in St. Louis. Every one of our adult volunteers, there are too many instances to mention here, I saw humility doing things for our youth, other youth, and for the residents of St. Louis. I want to thank Veneita Taylor and Tressa Shapp, Linda Williams, Sara Warwick, Scott Warwick, Bob Fortier and many more for all they did. Obedience in going places gives us the opportunity to serve and more importantly, to find humility.
You probably recognized that the third characteristic that I recognized is humility. The Scripture—your attitude should be saying that is the same as Jesus Christ. You being in the very nature of God did not consider equality with God something to be grasped; it may be made nothing taking the very nature of the sermon. Being made in Him in likeness. And after being found in the appearance of a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient even to death on a cross.
I believe there are two reasons we are called to serve. The first is those we serve, the people that we serve. Will those we serve see Christ in action? Will they see humility? Will Christ’s light shine through you and me? It’s about going and making disciples. Will Christ touch their lives through you and me? The second reason we are called to serve concerns you and me. Sometimes I do things like, and it just isn’t on World Changers, its mission projects, adult mission projects. I’ve participated in a few different projects and different venues. And I hear things like, “This isn’t what I expected.” Or, “I didn’t get to do what I wanted.” Or, “Do these people really need the help? Wouldn’t we be better off helping somebody else?” When a person doesn’t seem very appreciative, the meaning of the work is questioned. Those questions are a mistake and they show that the focus is on yourself rather than listening to God. God has called you to the project. It doesn’t matter what you think about the quality of the opportunity. God called you to be there. It’s a teaching event that you, the disciple of Christ, for you, the disciple of Christ. I know this to be true because each time I serve, God teaches me something about my relationship with Him and what He expects from me. Be obedient and be a servant when called. But sometimes it’s all for nothing, without humility. Matthew 23:11-12 says, “The greatest among you will be your servant and whoever exults himself will be humbled and who ever humbles himself will be exulted.”
Remember the distance dilemma – God’s over here and we’re over here? We sense it, we know it, but we have trouble in our daily lives acknowledging it. What closes that gap? The gap is closed by Jesus Christ. What are we required to do? -- To be obedient, to serve and, most importantly, to be humble in obedience and service. In becoming nothing like Jesus and becoming humble, we gain everything. I know that personally. I know it. The gap between God and ourselves closes when we find the relationship we much want and need.
Thank you again for the opportunity to speak to you this morning, the support of the youth program, and God bless you.
E-mail Comments to: Reverend Dan Sinkhorn