This week, we’ll start looking at the second of the five groups:
Hanging together
Serving together
Playing nice together
Challenging together
Restraining together
Last week, I asked you to think of some times that you remember serving together here at Goodfield Baptist Church or when you’ve had another opportunity to serve with other believers.
Here’s your opportunity to participate in the service and to remind the rest of us about a memory you have. (I have a list of things to ask questions about if you don’t volunteer =) )
(building the addition, running VBS and other summer programs, choir programs, feeding over 100 people dinner on Wednesday nights, a corn boil, taking care of people who have had medical issues, cleaning the church, going on trips with the ABC Men’s groups, Panama, working up in the ceiling in the sanctuary, taking the pews out to refinish the floor, delivering bread in the trailer park, preparing the music and other aspects of the service)
What is it about serving together that helps us build a healthier church family?
(Having fun together, getting to know each other better, getting past one another’s differences, learning new skills, seeing each other in a different setting)Those are all examples of how this all works together in the big picture of Serving Together. This morning, I want us to look at three of the specific commands that are under this larger category.
The first one is found in Galatians 5:13:
Gal. 5:13 For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. 14 For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 15 But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.
I love the aspect of these verses that on the one hand remind us that we’re free in Christ and He has called us to freedom, but at the same time that we must submit ourselves to becoming a slave to our Christian family.
Paul uses a couple of key words in this command. He purposefully utilizes the Greek word agape…the unconditional, supernatural, forever, covenant kind of love. It’s that “All for One and One for All” kind of relationship or the Army’s “Leave no man behind” commitment. He is stressing that in our relationships with fellow believers that we have to be totally committed to each other.
The next word in this command is the verb form of doulos…the Greek root word for being a slave or servant. Think through the images you have in your mind of slaves in early America. They generally had the worst kinds of jobs, worked in the extreme heat, received no respect, got beaten, and so on! Slaves were usually not treated much better in the Roman Empire.
Think about it…we are to love one another incredibly and be willing to be a slave towards each other! I should desire the kind of relationship with you that I want to serve you in every way possible!Paul continues to explain that if we gripe and complain about what others in the church are doing or if I actually go so far as to figuratively bite or chew you up that the end result is that instead of having a loving family, we’ll have a family that is totally destroyed by others in the family…leaving us all injured…or dead!
One of my students at school is a perfect example of this section of Scripture. He is messing around with some gang activity and he took his hybrid gang into the mall and beat a rival gang member up…in front of the service desk of an anchor store…on video tape. In the process, the store security tried to break things up and my kid turned on him and assaulted the guard!
He ended up in jail for a couple of months and then was released to house arrest for three more months. He was in captivity…he could be at home or at school, and NOWHERE else! He actually did a good job under this kind of setting.
However, four weeks ago, he was moved from house arrest to intensive probation. Finally…Freedom! While he had a curfew and a long list of people and places he had to avoid, he could do a lot of things. Three and a half weeks ago, he used his freedom as an opportunity for his flesh and he went back to the same mall he was banned from…with others from his gang that he was banned from…and assaulted a rival gang member…in front of the security cameras.
As I talked with his Probation Officer this week, he said that in addition to the second major infraction at the mall, the other members of the gang each started turning on each other and snitching on other things that they had been involved with. As a result, my kid is now in trouble for several other previously unsolved crimes in the area. As they took turns telling on each other, most of their gang is now on the way to jail or prison!
They used their freedom to justify their crimes and then devoured each other!
The second command in this Serve Together section is found in the second half of 1 Peter 5:5b Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”
In this verse, the Apostle Peter uses an interesting metaphor of clothing yourself with the apron that a slave uses as we interact with each other.
As I was growing up, I can clearly remember my grandmother wearing her apron on Sunday afternoons for lunch. After church…whether we went to her apartment or if she came over to our house, she would tie her apron on over her dress and help prepare and serve lunch to us.
Now, my grandma could have said, “hey, I’m in my 70’s, all of you kids should get up and serve me.” But, that’s NOT what she did! As a result, thirty years after she went to Jesus, I still remember her as a humble servant who got great joy from serving others! She did the same thing at church too. You would never see her out front for anything, but if anything was going on, Grandma was busy serving behind the scenes! My other grandma over by Galesburg was a humble servant too. Her church started a “contemporary” service back in the 80’s…with guitars, no hymnals, and even drums! Grandma did not approve of the music, she was convinced it would quickly fail, but she was determined to follow the leadership of the church. In fact, she volunteered to take all of the Sunday School material home and she cut it all out for the teachers and got everything ready for those who were supporting this new service. I never remember her complaining either when things took off and her church moved to two contemporary, one blended, and one traditional service instead of three traditional ones.
The word for humility here is the same one that Paul uses over in Philippians 2:3–4: 3 Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; 4 do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.
Then Paul goes on in the next verses to remind us that Jesus was our example of despite being God, came to earth as a man and went so far as a slave that He gave His life for us on the cross.
I find these verses hard to live out. My sinful nature thrives on selfishness and wanting things my way! But Christ, my example, tells me to move beyond myself…it’s NOT ALL ABOUT ME! I need to look out for your interests too. Likewise, it’s NOT ALL ABOUT YOU either! I know, that can be a harsh reality that it isn’t all about me! I think I give that speech a dozen times a week to the students I work with! However, here in America, we tend to have that perspective that it is about me instead of all of us as a team working together to accomplish something.If you think back to 1984-1986, a young basketball player from North Carolina moved to Chicago to play for the Bulls. In his first two years, although he did a decent job, he really struggled because the rest of the team didn’t like him and all of the attention he was getting and refused to pass the ball to him and thus kept him from playing up to his potential. It was only in subsequent years when the Bulls worked through things and started playing together as a team that they were able to become a championship team.
I think that churches can sometimes struggle with this Michael Jordan syndrome, we can have people who love Jesus and who want to do great things for the Lord and for His church, but then others get jealous and do all they can to block these people out of being part of the team. We use some of the same excuses…Michael is just a hot shot; Michael is too young; Michael is getting too much attention; Michael hasn’t been part of our team long enough to have a say in things; if I keep from passing the ball to Michael, I can look better; and on and on it goes!
Just so we’re all on the same page, over the past nearly six months that I’ve been here, I’ve had my ear “chewed on” by people thinking the music we do is stuck in 1965 and those who think all the music we do is written in 2065. I’ve had people excited that the tape from last week was taken down, and people who were distraught that others took the tape down. I’ve had groups of people saying the church is going to collapse because we moved the pulpit chairs and those who believe the church will collapse if we keep the furniture there. I’ve heard about how so and so did something to somebody else and how somebody else did something to so and so. I’ve had former attenders apologize to me that I came here to become the Interim Pastor, because the people at Goodfield Baptist never get along. We have members who want to leave the church because we’re stuck in the past and those who want to leave because we’re moving beyond the past and towards the future.
I know…I’ve really crossed the line, and I’ve jumped into the meddling side of the message. However, I am confident that this is one area that if we want to see the doors stay open that we need to keep addressing. My heart is broken over the conversations that I’ve had with people just this month. I do wonder if we genuinely desire to move forward and make a difference in our communities or if we are really more interested in our own perspectives or if we will become humble and put others and their thoughts and needs ahead of our own?
Deep Breath
The third command that we’re going to look at today is found in 1 Corinthians 11:33.
1Cor. 11:33 So then, my brothers, when you come together to eat, wait for one another—
1Cor. 11:33 So, my dear brothers and sisters, when you gather for the Lord’s Supper, wait for each other.
While this verse has its main view as being part of the communion celebration, it has important directions for us in many different areas of our lives.
If you remember, the Corinthian church did not celebrate communion like we do. Instead of a little piece of cracker or bread and a tiny bit of grape juice, they celebrated communion as Christ did…in a full meal format.
However, instead of having a church potluck, it was more like a church picnic where everyone brought their own food and ate their own things. I kind of imagine it this way: We have our church service and then the idea is that to celebrate the Lord’s Supper, we all go downstairs to eat that meal together. However, Caleb and Shelby are sitting in the back, and they run down the stairs as fast as they can to get to their picnic basket which they throw open and start eating their favorite cold pizza. It’s been a rough morning for the Maynards, and all that Craig was able to get together for lunch was peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, but they head downstairs and start eating their lunch too. Karen had our lunch ready, but because we had kids up throwing up in the night, things were hectic at our house today, and we ran out of the house and left our food on the kitchen counter. Although Kenny is not moving as fast as he once was, thankfully, Madeline left during the sermon and she has been down in the kitchen broiling AMAZING Angus steaks…for her, Kenny, Jim and Coleen.
The Lord is telling us that this is NOT the way for HIS Church to function. Historically that’s why most Baptist churches have used the communion format of passing the elements and then everyone partakes together. Also, that’s why churches today tend to do church potlucks or even catered meals instead of everyone just doing what they want to.
Think though about how this works for all of us as we seek to build a better, healthier church family. If we eat together and we wait for one another and we honor each other as we celebrate the Lord’s Supper and church dinners, we have the opportunity to serve each other!
Someone mentioned to me this week that as a church, we used to have potlucks on a more frequent basis. I like that idea…maybe we need to spend some more time together waiting on each other, serving each other, fellowshipping with one another, and showing hospitality with each other.
That may be one way that we are able to build a healthy family where people really desire to come and love one another deeply!
In two weeks, we’ll pick the Serving Together theme up again and look at three more elements:
Serving Together
• Submitting to one another Ephesians 5:21
• Wash one another’s feet John 13:14
• Confess your sins & Pray for one another James 5:16
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