I started doing some research for this based upon Scripture.  I went to Deuteronomy, Chapter 28.  And I won’t read the whole chapter to you.  If you go and read it, it’s about one-third good news and two-thirds not so good news.  And it’s all based upon this one swing verse in the middle, Verse 47 and 48 of Deuteronomy 28 says, “Because you did not serve the Lord your God joyfully and with gladness of heart for the abundance of everything, therefore you will serve your enemies whom the Lord will send against you.”  That’s kind of a chilling statement, isn’t it?

            Well, I didn’t want to focus just on that so I went to find another passage.  You see, Scripture can be used sometimes that way.  You keep looking until you find what you want.  If you don’t like the negative comment with a statement like that, then you can go to Paul in I Thessalonians where he says in Chapter 5, “Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong but always try to be kind to each other and to everyone else.  Be joyful always.  Pray continually.”  Be joyful always—that means the implication is that in service you should be joyful.

            Now in a few weeks we’re going to ask you for money.  Not that we didn’t in the offering for today, but in a few weeks, October the end of, is our time to ask for pledges and commitments for financial support for the ministry of Grace United Methodist Church in the year 2008.  Just as a fair warning, it’s coming!  It happens every year about this time.  But today we are not talking about money, we’re talking about service.  Service with a smile you might say.  And to help a little bit with that I have a little visual impact before you.  “The joy of sacred service” printed on the apron that I am wearing!  Now I’m now Amero or the Iron Chef, believe me, neither one, but I do want to talk to you about recipes today.  And the reason for wearing this is that an apron usually indicates someone who is serving in some way, preparing the food or maybe serving the food.  But also carpenters will wear aprons and that’s another form of service. Those are two examples that this easily picks up on. 

But whether you wear an apron or not in your service, I want us to talk about the meaning and the purpose of service today.  In fact, develop a recipe—that’s why I have this bowl and this ladle here this morning.  You’ll see in a moment the ingredients that we are going to put together because one thing is to know what is service?  What is the purpose of service?  If we say it is an important aspect of our faith, then why should we serve in the first place?  And the first is to put in our question, “Purpose of Service” into our bowl because you have to have a foundational question.  And what’s the understanding?

And the first part of this “purpose of service” is to equip the followers of Jesus Christ for service.  And that’s what I’ll take and now I’ll mix in “to equip the followers of Jesus Christ for service”.  And we find that in the Scripture in Ephesians, Paul’s letter to the church at Ephesus in the fourth chapter where he says, “It was he who gave some to the apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, some to be pastors and teachers.”  Now let me stop a moment there.  A lot of people say, “Well, that’s the best service of all, isn’t it?”  Understand that those are only the means to the end and the end is now spelled out in Verse 12, “to prepare God’s people for works of service so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in faith and the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.” 

The purpose of service is to equip you and I, the people of the body of Christ, to build up the body of Christ.  Whatever role of service you carry forth in this congregation, even if it’s the prophets or pastors or teachers, those who are out front in leadership positions or you are doing the things, which Nancy talked about, holding up the hammock for others quietly doing your work.  It doesn’t matter because the end result is to equip everyone as it says to prepare others for service.  That’s the recipe, that’s the main ingredient.  It’s hard for us when we think about serving in that way and to come to that knowledge of God to feel less than joyful about our service.  It’s hard to be even bitter and jealous sometimes when we consider well that person in the church gets more recognition in the church than I do for my service.  It’s hard to be bitter and jealous when we understand all of our work together, by the power of the Holy Spirit, is to build one another up so that we might do more service. That’s the end result.  When we look outside of ourselves and pay real attention to the need and the purpose of service and the needs of others around us, then that’s when we see that service isn’t just for our benefit but for others.

And that’s why the next part of my recipe is to “supply the needs of God’s people”.  We find that in Corinthians in a letter from Paul in the ninth chapter when he says, “This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of God’s people” (that’s foundational).  And how do you supply the needs of God’s people?  You have to know what the needs are of God’s people.  You have to sit down and listen to what someone needs in their life.  You have to know each other more than just on a casual wave across the lobby or sanctuary. But you get to know a person more than a handshake; you get to know who they are, where they have been, what there life has been like, so that servants can be personally shared to meet other peoples needs. 

Therefore service is not a quick fix.  It’s something that we use in a long time and it is something that helps us to get out of our own woes.  One of the best advice that we give, it’s not easy to give nor is it easy to hear, but when  a person has lost a loved one, in time the good advice is you need to get out, you need to do something, something that is important to you that will help someone else.  When we find ourselves getting wrapped up in our own woes, service to others brings us out of that.  There is no better way to get our mind off of  our aches and our pains then to be engaged in service and meeting the personal needs of someone else particularly in the fellowship of this congregation.  This is the positive side of saying that we are to be joyful in our service.  We joyfully follow the commands that God gives us, “To love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to love your neighbors as yourself.”  And that’s where a lot of service takes place in that commandment that God has given us.

Well, the third part of the recipe that I’ll mix in to our bowl this morning is to “thank God”.  That is a purpose of service.  And we find that also in Corinthians; the rest of the passage that I just gave you in Chapter 9, Verse 12 and 1”  And that’s where a lot of service takes place in that commandment that God has given us.

Well, the third part of the recipe that I’ll mix in to our bowl this morning is to “thank God”.  That is a purpose of service.  And we find that also in Corinthians; the rest of the passage that I just gave you in Chapter 9, Verse 12 and 14.  Remember, the first part said, “This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of God’s people, but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God.’  A purpose of service is to say thank you God.  Not just by giving him our offering or making a pledge for this church for 2008.  That’s one part of saying thanks to God, but putting our lives on the line in service, that’s really personal and very important.  We may like to complain about things in this country.  I do, don’t you?  Don’t you read the newspaper or listen to the newspaper reports and the things on TV?  Doesn’t it kind of get you stirred up when you see things aren’t the way they should be?  Well as I hope you were here last week when I shared just an inkling, just a slight part of Uganda as a country.  We have so much here, why should we complain?  Even in comparison, some of our poorest people, not that we shouldn’t help those who are in poverty, but some of our poorest people are better off than the average person in countries like Uganda.  We complain because we get so use to what we have.  And that’s the difficulty when God says you are to serve by giving to others out of the abundance that I have given to you and we begin to live and believe that what we have acquired is ours to enjoy only rather than seeing that the gifts that God has given me, the ability to do something, to offer my prayers in support of other people, is the abundance that God wants us to use in service to other people.  Once we have achieved a certain level of material and emotional well being, we get use to that and we sometimes want to protect it and not give it away.  We get use to our own personal time.  I own up to that. I like to protect my privacy and not have someone call me at all hours of the night or day or ask me to do this or ask me to do that when I feel like I ought to do it instead of want to do it.  I know that feeling and I bet you do too.  But remember, underneath it all God is asking you to do something in response, in gratitude, in thankfulness to God. 

A commitment to give through service eventually becomes an action of the heart.  Sometimes you have to do service on the surface and then it filters down to become a reflection of your heart.  Because that’s part of this recipe, the purpose of service is to bring praise to God.  So we mix it in to the bowl.  And that we find where in this Scripture because of the service by which you have proved yourself, people will praise God.  Think of that!  Because of the service you do in the name of God, people will praise God.  From the obedience that accompanies your confession of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, for your generosity in sharing with them, and with everyone else.  That’s a powerful understanding that service, joyful, sacred service is one that brings, eventually, praise to God.  Above all and in all the praise should be given.  So maybe they’ll see us and thank us for the service, but hopefully ultimately they will give God the praise and the thanksgiving through what we do in our lives. 

Now, another way to help recognize and understand the difference in us is that God gives us different kinds of gifts for different kinds of service.  So the purpose of service is to also recognize the varying abilities of people within the church.  And we find that in 1 Corinthians, Chapter 12, “There are different kinds of gifts but the same Spirit; there are different kinds of service, but the same Lord; there are different kinds of working, but the same God who works all of them in all people.”  That’s the power of the blessedness of so many people with so many different gifts and backgrounds and experiences.  And has Pastor Nance has been using this form to survey who you are, it’s been surprising.  And I don’t know who did this, she’s got the list; she just told me.  But some people sign their name but don’t put anything down.  Now that’s a blank slate.  You’re telling us you have no experience, no life in your past.  Nothing has happened to you.  God’s not blessed you in any way to give you a certain kind of gift that you can turn in to service.  Now I know that’s not what you meant, but that’s what you said.  When a person says, “I have nothing to give”, they are not lying.  They haven’t seen themselves as God sees them.  Recognizing different gifts enables us to build one another up to be in different service. Some are in the front line, some are in the back; some are out in public, some are behind the scenes.  It doesn’t matter where you do your service when it is based upon the gift that God has given you.

And that leads us to not just the purpose of service, but an experience that is called “joyful service”.  I came across the acronym of the word “joy”.  It is “joyfully offering yourself”.  That’s at the heart of service.  It is not just doing something because the pastor asked you to do it.  It’s not doing something out of duty.  It’s because it feels right to you.  I didn’t ask permission to quote this person; I think they’ll probably tell you their story themselves.  They have been so joyful in telling me that the volunteer work that they are doing right now in their life, they just, he said, “Should I feel so good about it?”  I said, “Of course you should.  It should be a joyful experience for you.”  And that person is loving what they are doing and I am sure that is coming through to the people that they are serving.  Joyful servants—in Colossians,  Chapter 1, Versus 10 and 12 it says, “And we pray that in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way, bearing fruit in every good word, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might, that you might have great endurance and patience and joyfully giving thanks to the Father who has qualified you, that means giving you the gift to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of life.”  In the kingdom of life, in the kingdom of heaven, God’s kingdom is a kingdom filled with service.

And that leads us then to the question, “What is sacred service?”  I want to tell you a story.  How often I’ve wanted to do this although I think I can read some people better.  The longer you are the pastor, sometimes it helps and sometimes it doesn’t.  But I want to set up this basic story.  You’ve gone to a bank, haven’t you?  And you’ve gone up to the teller window.  And the person is there to serve you, correct?  That’s what their job description is.  You take your check or your deposit, whatever it is, the business that you have at the bank, and the person usually smiles and you are there long enough they call you by name.  I’m going to call Martha, that’s not the person at the bank that I work at, but I’m going to call her Martha.  Martha does her job well.  She’s good at being a servant in that aspect.  But if I get to know Martha better, Martha tells me about her life and she doesn’t believe in God.  She believes in doing a good job, nothing wrong with that!  She has a good work ethic. That’s a fine thing.  And she performs well in her position.  And the bank recognizes that.  But she just does it as a job and so therefore her smile to me is just part of her work.  It’s not really who she is.

Now the next teller over is Jim.  When I walk up, Jim gives me the same kind of smile and the same kind of excellent service which, by the way, service in the name of Jesus Christ should be the best you can do.  But Jim gives me the same kind of service.  But as I get to know Jim I find out that he believes that God loves him and has forgiven him.  And that Jesus Christ is his Lord and Savior.  And so therefore, when he is serving me, he has heard the message that God has told him.  If you serve in my name, you are serving me.  As Jesus said, “You do this to the least of these, you are doing it to me.”  So he serves me as if I am Jesus, the Christ.  And he sees God’s love in me whether I, as a customer of the bank, know that or not.  But that’s his role, that’s his calling, that’s his joyful, sacred service and that’s the difference.

Martha is service, a good thing; Jim’s is sacred service, the best of all because of the attitude of the servant.  It’s the motivation of why you are doing what you are doing.  Not because someone requires it of you.  You see, next week we are going to be talking about some of the negatives.  Why service becomes onerous and filled with duty-bound kind of approaches and to avoid some of those pitfalls so that as you work in to your understanding of service.  But for today, I want you to know the highest and full and most complete image and purpose of service, is to be joyful and is to be sacred.  Now you can take the teller story and you can apply it to teachers, you can apply it to policeman, you can apply it to contractor, any place and any setting.  The difference is always foundational to where the person’s heart is.  Now that doesn’t negate the good service done by people who do not believe.  Anything done that’s good to serve people is in the spirit of God.  The problem is that Martha doesn’t know that.  And someday, hopefully, she will hear about it and will change all of her work and her whole attitude and the whole experience of who she is.  But the second, Jim, is the one who probably has this kind of an image that I’ve heard in a three-line poem:

I slept and dreamt that night was joy

I awoke and saw that life was service

I acted and behold service was joy!

What a way to see your day when you wake up in the morning.  To live out the dream that joy can be service.  And in the spirit of Christ, he is the savior.

So next week we look more in to what spoils the recipe of service.  What happens when you don’t follow that recipe for joyful, sacred service?  Well, I’ll give you a little hint as the closing passage that tells about Jesus working with his disciples, not just the twelve, but the seven.  We find it in Luke, Chapter 10.  And it states it this way, “After this the Lord appointed 72 others and sent them two-by-two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go.  And he told them (and these are Jesus’ words), “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.  Ask the lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”  And this gives us a foundation.  I told you that one of the purposes of service is to equip the saints or the fellowship and to build the church up so we can do more service.  What is the ultimate purpose of service but to give thanks to God and to praise God so that the good news of Jesus Christ, through our service of word and action, will help to bring in the harvest.  And the harvest is simply translated this way—the world and the people of this world that do not know God’s saving grace.  They do not know that salvation that is offered in the forgiveness of sin.  They do not have the presence of Christ’s spirit in them.  That is the world that needs to be harvested.  Not to make them in to something we think ought to be, but in to what God’s plan and purpose is for all of creation.  For from the beginning of Scripture to the end, the whole purpose that God has is to reconcile and make new his creation.  And that’s what the harvest is about.  But woe to the church, woe to the person who avoids service thinking it is not important.  It means you are witnessing in God’s saving grace by what you say and what you do when you live out the joy of sacred service.

Let’s join together for prayer, “Gracious God, we know it is not a good attribute to be proud of who we are and what we can do.  But sometimes we avoid the proudness by not recognizing what we have, what you have given us, and the purpose of the gift.  Gracious God, may each one here today be renewed in the understanding that you are calling us all to be in service, in joyful service, in joyful, sacred service.  In your name and for your purpose, help us to see the world differently as you see it.  Help us to see ourselves as you see us so that we might newly understand and feel the sense of joy that you offer to us.  We are your people, we are your church, we wish to be faithful to your call, and let it begin with our hearts for the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.  Let us be your workers.  In the name of Christ, our Lord and Savior, Amen.” 

E-mail Comments to: Pastor Bob Coleman

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