August 25, 2024
“Essential”: Week 4
“Us Toward Others”
Service Overview: In the Christian life, Jesus’ followers are called to serve; putting faith into practice. We do this by loving others with grace and perseverance, and by sharing the good news of Jesus through our time, talents, and resources.
Memory Verse for the Week:
“Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” Matthew 22:37-39 (NIV)
Pre-Message Insights:
- Churches don’t need programs so much as they need cultures of discipling, cultures where each member prioritizes the spiritual health of others. (Mark Dever, Discipling, 68)
- For its own sake, as well as for the sake of the earth, the salt must remain salt. The disciple community must be faithful to the mission which the call of Christ has given it. (Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship, 116)
- “Love your neighbor as yourself” does not command, but rather presupposes, self-love. All human beings love themselves. Furthermore, the self-love Jesus speaks of has nothing to do with the common notion of self-esteem. It does not mean having a good self-image or feeling especially happy with oneself. It means simply desiring and seeking one’s own good. (John Piper, Desiring God, 281)
- Kindness is a sincere desire for the happiness of others; goodness is the activity calculated to advance that happiness. Kindness is the inner disposition, created by the Holy Spirit, that causes us to be sensitive to the needs of others, whether physical, emotional, or spiritual. Goodness is kindness in action – words and deeds. Because of this close relationship, we often use the two words interchangeably. (Jerry Bridges, The Practice of Godliness, 189)
- Don’t assume you have to be extraordinary to be used by God. You don’t have to have exceptional gifts, talents, abilities, or connections. God specializes in using ordinary people whose limitations and weaknesses make them ideal showcases for His greatness and glory (1 Cor. 1:26-29). (Nancy Leigh DeMoss, Biblical Womanhood in the Home, 67)
- A Christian is not one who simply buys “fire insurance,” who signs up just to avoid an unpleasant after life. A Christian…repeatedly, is one whose faith expresses itself in submission and obedience. A Christian is one who follows Christ, one who is committed unquestionably to Christ as Lord and Savior, one who desires to please God. His basic aim is to be in every way a disciple of Jesus Christ. When he fails, he seeks forgiveness and wants to move forward. This is his spirit and his direction. (John MacArthur, The Gospel According to Jesus, 197)
Why is compassionate service essential to discipleship?
- Jesus taught it.
(Mat. 6:1; 7:24-29; 10:42; 19:21; 22:34-40; Mark 8:34-38; 10:42-45; Luke 6:27-36; 10:25-37; 10:12-14; 22:25-27)
Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can and as long as you can. (John Wesley, Letters of John Wesley, 423)
Jesus’ summons to the rich young man was calling him to die, because only the man who is dead to his own will can follow Christ. (Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship, 90)
- Jesus modeled it.
(Mat. 8:3; 8:14-15; 12:9-14; 14:14-21; 20:34; Mark 1:32-34; 1:40-44; 6:34; 8:1-13; 8:22-26; Luke 5:12-13; 13:10-17; John 5:1-9)
Discipleship does not afford us a point of vantage from which to attack others; we come to them with an unconditional offer of fellowship, with the single-mindedness of the love of Jesus. (Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship, 184)
The nature of discipleship-learning is to bring about a formative change or transformation in the life of the learner. A disciple then is not only a learner, but also an apprentice or practitioner who has come to Jesus to learn how to do the things he did (John 14:12). (Jim Herrington & Trisha Taylor, Learning Change, 119)
- Jesus commanded it.
(Mat. 7:21; 10:7-8; 12:30; 12:50; 16:24-27; Mark 12:28-31; John 13:1-17; 1 Peter 4:9-11)
When Jesus gave the Great Commission (Matt. 28:18—20; cf John 17:18), He was not talking about something that some Christians do in some places; He talking about what every Christian does in every place. (Phillip Graham Ryken, City on a Hill, 144-145)
We don’t serve God to gain His acceptance; we are accepted so we serve God. We don’t follow Him in order to be loved; we are loved so we follow Him. (Neil T. Anderson, Stomping Out The Darkness, 163)
We don’t serve to convert; we serve because we are converted. (J.D. Greear, Gaining by Losing, 124)
The gospel is about much more than how we get saved and go to heaven. The gospel is about the work of Christ saturating every aspect of our lives. (Voddie Baucham, What He Must Be, 59)
A community of Jesus which seeks to hide itself has ceased to follow him. (Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship, 118)
Conclusion… How can we serve others like Jesus?
A. By doing so with humility, grace, and perseverance.
(Is. 58:10; Mat. 18:1-5; 20:26-28; Rom. 12:9-13; Gal. 6:9)
Being a Christian means that Christ has entered you, filled you with His love, and is pouring His life through you to the people around you. If you have experienced the life-changing love of Jesus, you will be overflowing with love for God and others. It’s that simple. (Francis Chan, Until Unity)
We ought not to expect to receive from God what we are not prepared to bestow on others. (David Garland, Luke – Exegetical Commentary, 464)
We need to develop a kind disposition, to be sensitive to others and truly desire their happiness. But sensitivity alone is not enough: the grace of goodness impels us to take action to meet those needs. (Jerry Bridges, The Practice of Godliness, 191)
B. By making service a priority in our lives.
(Mat. 13:44-46; Rom. 12:11; 1 Cor. 15:58; Gal. 6:10; Eph. 2:10; Phil. 2:4; Col. 3:23-24)
Men would sooner believe that the gospel is from heaven, if they saw more such effects of it upon the hearts and lives of those who profess it. The world is better able to read the nature of religion in a man’s life than in the Bible. (Richard Baxter, The Reformed Pastor, Chapter 2, Section 1)
The only way to repay the devil for hurt and devastation in our personal lives is to aggressively and vehemently do the works of Jesus. (Joyce Meyer, Help Me I’m Alone, 52)
Discipling means helping others follow Jesus. Discipling is a relationship in which we seek to do spiritual good for someone by initiating, teaching, correcting, modeling, loving, humbling ourselves, counseling, and influencing. (Mark Dever, Discipling, 74)
C. By using our service as a means to bring others into the kingdom.
(Mat. 4:23; 9:10-13; 10:32-33; Mark 1:14-15; 2:15-17; Luke 12:8-9; 15:7; John 6:1-15)
[God] did not come up with a mission for His church as much as He formed a church for His mission… If a church is not engaging in mission, it really has no point in existing. (J.D. Greear, Gaining by Losing, 152)
What the next generation needs is what every generation needs: the kind of caring community that can only be found in the church of Jesus Christ. (Phillip Graham Ryken, City on a Hill, 75)
Challenge question…
How does your life reflect Jesus when it comes to how you serve?
Obedience often grates against our natural desires, but if we obey only when it feels natural, then Jesus is not truly Lord of our lives. What often results from obedience, however, is unexpected blessing. (Francis Chan, Letters to the Church,80)
Spiritual Challenge Questions…
Reflect on these questions in your time with the Lord this week, or discuss with a Christian family member or Life Group.
- What opportunities exist to serve Jesus through your church? What opportunities exist outside your church? How are you taking advantage of these opportunities?
- Why is it important to see service as something that is not just confined to what you do in church?
- Why do you think love and service go hand in hand when it comes to being a disciple of Jesus?
- What things must we be mindful of when serving others? What pitfalls should we avoid?
- Why must we be careful when thinking a particular area of service is more or less valuable than another? Can you think of a time in the gospels when Jesus demonstrated this?
HFM Discipleship Essentials Statement Regarding Living Externally:
EXTERNALLY: (Us toward others)
Discipleship matures and blossoms as we take up Jesus’ call to serve, point others to Him, and invite others into His kingdom.
In the Christian life, Jesus’ followers are called to serve. We facilitate this through experiences and service opportunities designed to put into practice what Jesus taught. (Mark 10:45; Galatians 5:13; 1 Peter 4:10)
We seek to love others with grace and perseverance. (Galatians 6:9; Ephesians 4:2, 32; James 1:12)
We seek to create opportunities whereby we can share the truth of the Gospel and demonstrate the love of Jesus to our community through our time, talents, and resources. (Isaiah 52:7; Matthew 25:35-40; Mark 16:15; Romans 10:14; 2 Timothy 4:2)
Quotes to note…
The church was never intended to be an end in and of itself. Rather, the purpose of the church is to reproduce, to bear fruit (disciples) and fulfill the Great Commission. (Winfield Bevins, Marks of a Movement, 142)
What a wonderful Savior we have. It wasn’t lovely people for whose sake He died; it was for ungodly people, for His enemies. It was for law breakers that He suffered. He loved us, says (the Apostle) Paul, in spite of how unlovely we were. Just as He loved us, Paul insists we are to love one another. (Jay Adams, Christian Living in the Home, 41)
In our evangelism we must be partners with the Holy Spirit, presenting the Gospel but relying on the Holy Spirit of God to do the true convicting and convincing and converting. (Mark Dever, Nine Marks of a Healthy Church, 16)
Failure in our love to God always results in failure in our love to our neighbor. (A.W. Pink, Gleanings in Genesis, 145)
Selfishness seeks its own private happiness at the expense of others. Love seeks its happiness in the happiness of the beloved. It will even suffer and die for the beloved in order that its joy might be full in the life and purity of the beloved. (John Piper, Desiring God, 176)
We are called to love not because other people are empty and need love (to feel better about themselves) but because love is the way in which we imitate Christ and bring glory to God. (Edward Welch, When People are Big and God is Small, 147)