What do you think of when you think of service?

Perhaps old images of service – where the poor were VERY poor…

When even servants were effectively slaves and had to work a certain number of years to gain their freedom.

Perhaps your view of service is a much more modern perspective – services such as hair salons, restaurants or customer service centers.

Biblical Service

What did the Bible writers have in mind when they spoke of Service?

Service, in the Bible, was normally something done by a slave; tasks performed by ‘lesser’ persons for those who controlled their existence.
Service with regard to God usually concerned temple worship and its rituals (e.g., Exodus 31:10; 35:19; Luke 1:23), but service to humans often involved forms of bondage (e.g. Genesis 30:26; Exodus 1:14).
For Paul, the service a person owed God was to be displayed through service to one’s neighbor, which constituted service to Christ (Rom. 12:1–2; 14:17–18; Gal. 5:13; see also 1 Cor. 9:19; 2 Cor. 4:5).

This means that the service given, was not conditional, it was to be a freely given service – without expectation.

An Example of Selfless Service

For context: this is a short clip about a military Captain who was performing security duty for political leaders who were attending a meeting in Afghanistan.

A very dangerous place to go – then and now.

Jesus – Serving Others

Before we look at what Jesus said on the topic, did you catch what Simon Sinek said:

• Military – we give medals to people willing to sacrifice themselves so that others may gain.
• Business – we give bonuses to people who are willing to sacrifice others so that we may gain.

Do we understand what he is saying there?

Did Jesus teach passivism?

So, the message is clear – serve one another and serve as an example to others.
Does this mean that others should walk all over us? Should we be a doormat?
Is there any evidence that Jesus was a pushover?

Turn the other cheek

Similarly, Soldiers of the Roman Army, had the legal right to force any subject of an occupied territory to carry their heavy packs and gear for them.
However, the legal limit was 1,000 paces — that is, one Roman mile (approximately half a mile today).
To offer to go the extra mile was to put them in a position where they were breaking the law and you gained the upper hand.

To maintain order across the vast Roman empire, there were limits to how you could treat non-Roman citizens or soldiers. If these rules were not followed, the people could revolt – and given how few Romans there were to subjects, they absolutely did not want this to happen.

So we know that Jesus was not a passivist – which means he was not a doormat, and neither should we be.

Leading and Serving

Servants are Leaders, Leaders are Servants

Contract Thinking

We have discussed contract thinking and covenant thinking, and the differences between the two.

When might this be appropriate?

Contracts

There are many situations in the world when contracts are necessary. We are unable to simply trust the other party to do the right or honorable thing, so we need a contract to ensure that their obligations are met.

For example, a work contract, a contract to buy a house, a contract for building a garage, etc.

Contracts can help to ensure that we are not taken advantage of and there are legal protections in place.

Covenant Thinking

This is the ideal. This is the relationship between God and His people.

When will earthly covenants fail?

A key feature of being in Covenant is that we are not acting selfishly…
Selfish actions are not Covenant actions…
Selfish actions are not Christ-like actions…
Selfish actions are ego-driven and take us away from Covenant relationships.

What does this mean for us?

Jesus: Whoever would be great must be your servant

Peter: serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms

• How we treat those closest to us is the best reflection of who we are in Christ – are you the “because they would have done it for me” person?

• With that said, I do not believe that we are called to be doormats

There are no simple rules to apply, no easy answers…
If in doubt, serve.
If Covenant is not appropriate, then something else will need to be put in place.
And in all things – Pray!

In the Wilderness

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning?
O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer,
and by night, but I find no rest.

Yet you are holy,
enthroned on the praises of Israel.
In you our fathers trusted; 
they trusted, and you delivered them.
To you they cried and were rescued; 
in you they trusted and were not put to shame.

Psalm 22:1–5

You can see the anguish, the pain, the feeling of being in the wilderness… lost, alone in this first 2 verses. In the last 3 verses, the knowledge of the Good, Good Father who has not forsaken him and would not forsake them… they are not alone.

Jesus in the Wilderness

Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” But he answered, “It is written, “ ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ ” Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, “ ‘He will command his angels concerning you,’ and “ ‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.’ ” Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’ ” Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” Then Jesus said to him, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written, “ ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.’ ” Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to him.

Matthew 4:1–11

We see that it was God who placed Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted. Sure enough, the enemy came along to tempt and test.
In the wilderness, though we know Jesus would have been leaning into prayer
He was alone and without worldly distraction – he would have been deep in prayer, and meditation – closer to God.

David in the Wilderness

Then David and his men, who were about six hundred, arose and departed from Keilah, and they went wherever they could go. When Saul was told that David had escaped from Keilah, he gave up the expedition. And David remained in the strongholds in the wilderness, in the hill country of the wilderness of Ziph. And Saul sought him every day, but God did not give him into his hand.

1 Samuel 23:13–14

1 Samuel 23:15-29 – Saul pursues David…
Yet…
1 Samuel 24 – David spares Saul’s life
1 Samuel 26 – David again spares Saul’s life
…and more!

• David spent a long time in the wilderness
• God allowed the events to happen – He was behind the events.
• God used the events to test, to refine, to mold David.

We see that, again, God has a purpose for the wilderness – to grow, to test, to prove. Our character either shines, through or is built during the wilderness.

Israel in the Wilderness

Then Moses made Israel set out from the Red Sea, and they went into the wilderness of Shur. They went three days in the wilderness and found no water. When they came to Marah, they could not drink the water of Marah because it was bitter; therefore it was named Marah. And the people grumbled against Moses, saying, “What shall we drink?” And he cried to the LORD, and the LORD showed him a log, and he threw it into the water, and the water became sweet.
There the LORD made for them a statute and a rule, and there he tested them, saying, “If you will diligently listen to the voice of the LORD your God, and do that which is right in his eyes, and give ear to his commandments and keep all his statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you that I put on the Egyptians, for I am the LORD, your healer.”
Then they came to Elim, where there were twelve springs of water and seventy palm trees, and they encamped there by the water.

Exodus 15:22–27

• In this passage, the Israelites have just left Egypt and crossed the Red Sea.
• Note: “if you will diligently listen to the voice of the LORD and do that which is right in his eyes… I will put none of the diseases on you that I put on the Egyptians, for I am the LORD, your healer.” God expects and demands that we listen to him and follow him.
• When we talk about Israel in the wilderness it is often described as they left Egypt and then went into 40 years wilderness
• Let’s take a more detailed look

School of the Spirit not Man

Staying in submission to the Holy Spirit is a journey that requires constant taking stock and analysis of what we are following, feasting on, agreeing to, and with whom are running.
Jesus said it like this:

“No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.
Matthew 6:24.

Money, fame, power are what often pull people away from God.

Beware coming under man’s yoke – under ungodly authority. Brothers and sisters in Christ can be helpful mentors and Holy Spirit led teachers and evangelists, but they are no substitute for submission to the leading of the Holy Spirit.

When you trade your freedom for unhealthy alignment, it only creates disastrous fruit, and eventually you become discouraged and disillusioned regarding your call.

Protect Your Calling

Stay wild!
Protect your calling
Protect your anointing
Protect your own legacy by not allowing man to make small modifications to you that over time steal from the purity of who you are

Additional Scripture

Paul’s Concern for the Galatians

8 Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods. 9 But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more? 10 You observe days and months and seasons and years! 11 I am afraid I may have labored over you in vain. 
12 Brothers, I entreat you, become as I am, for I also have become as you are. You did me no wrong. 13 You know it was because of a bodily ailment that I preached the gospel to you at first, 14 and though my condition was a trial to you, you did not scorn or despise me, but received me as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus. 15 What then has become of your blessedness? For I testify to you that, if possible, you would have gouged out your eyes and given them to me. 16 Have I then become your enemy by telling you the truth? 17 They make much of you, but for no good purpose. They want to shut you out, that you may make much of them. 18 It is always good to be made much of for a good purpose, and not only when I am present with you, 19 my little children, for whom I am again in the anguish of childbirth until Christ is formed in you! 20 I wish I could be present with you now and change my tone, for I am perplexed about you. 

Example of Hagar and Sarah

21 Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not listen to the law? 22 For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave woman and one by a free woman. 23 But the son of the slave was born according to the flesh, while the son of the free woman was born through promise. 24 Now this may be interpreted allegorically: these women are two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery; she is Hagar. 25 Now Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia; she corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children. 26 But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother. 27 For it is written, 
                  “Rejoice, O barren one who does not bear; 
      break forth and cry aloud, you who are not in labor! 
                  For the children of the desolate one will be more 
      than those of the one who has a husband.” 
28 Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise. 29 But just as at that time he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, so also it is now. 30 But what does the Scripture say? “Cast out the slave woman and her son, for the son of the slave woman shall not inherit with the son of the free woman.” 31 So, brothers, we are not children of the slave but of the free woman. 

Galatians 4:8–31.