Los Alamos Church of Christ
Drawing Closer
To God
Obstacles to
Service
Last week we arrived at the Port of Service. I asked the question, "Where is the joy?" When we look through the binoculars, the right way, we see people, up close, who are hurting. There are so many people who have pitiful stories. There is so much hurting in the world. How can we even begin to make a difference? How do we harmonize the joy we found on the Island of Simplicity with the call we have to be servants?
The answer I gave, last week, was the answer Jesus gave, "It is more blessed to give than to receive". From the beginning God has intended his people to be a blessing to all the nations of the earth. When we answer the call to be servants, we step into the story of God. God promised Abraham, his descendants would be the blessing! When we have faith in Christ we become Abraham's kids who are the blessing.
-There is a deep sense of joy knowing we live in the story of God.
-There is a satisfaction in being the blessing of God.
-There is a tremendous sense of accomplishment when we fulfill the promise of Abraham.
-The LORD Yahweh uses me, personally, to bless all the nations of the earth; what could bring more joy than that? God is using us to be his servants. Wow. It is more blessed to give than to receive!
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Yet, yet… it is still not all that easy. Even knowing there is tremendous joy in being God's man, I hesitate. "Sure, I want to be the blessing to all the nations of the earth, but hang on a second. Let's not be hasty. What do you mean… servants? What about my needs? How much is this going to hurt?"
James teaches us, in our theme verses, even after we have submitted to God, there is going to be some resisting of the devil required.
James 4:7-8 Submit yourselves, then, to God. (I want to submit to being God's servant) Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. (There is going to be some opposition, isn't there? Then we can…) Come near to God and he will come near to you. (SO…) Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
There is an interesting phenomenon that James points out here in these verses. James calls it double-minded.
F. Scott Fitzgerald describes it like this.
“The test of a first rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function.”
I am not sure about the "first rate intelligence" part, but I know I can hold two opposing ideas at the same time! I would love to be God's servant. I want, more than anything, to be Jesus. Wouldn't you? I wish I could make myself nothing. I want to take the very nature of a servant. Yet, yet… at the same time I'm not all that keen on serving all the… people of the world. People are messy. People are a chore. People are never easy. People all have pitiful stories. People… disappoint. People are overwhelming.
Do you know the double-mindedness, too? Yes, it is more blessed to give than receive… but isn't it also a curse to be a servant? James says, "Resist the Devil. Wash your hands. Purify your hearts. Stop being double-minded!"
"Okay, okay, okay, let's give it a try." How do I remove the obstacles which keep me double-minded?
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Let's spend a couple of minutes looking at some of the double-minded obstacles in the Port of service. Then, perhaps, we can work on how we… purify our hearts; how we focus our hearts purely on being a servant.
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Let me begin with the obvious obstacle. We are selfish. "I don't want to spend my time helping others. Crimennetly, I want to enjoy myself. I want nice things. I want to have fun. I want my life to be smooth… Getting involved is the opposite of smooth. I want to look after me first."
Matthew 19:21-22 Jesus answered, "If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me." When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth.
James 2:15-16 Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed", but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it?
1 John 3:16-17 This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him?
You will be double-minded as long as you live… self-focused.
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Closely related, but not exactly the same, is the obstacle called pride.
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Luke 22:24-27 Also a dispute arose among them as to which of them was considered to be greatest. Jesus said to them, "The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them; and those who exercise authority over them call themselves Benefactors. But you are not to be like that. Instead, the greatest among you should be like the youngest, and the one who rules like the one who serves. For who is greater, the one who is at the table or the one who serves? Is it not the one who is at the table? But I am among you as one who serves."
It is the difference in being the waiter, in a restaurant, or the customer. We all want to be the one who leaves the big tip. We all want to be the Benefactor, but who wants to be the waiter? One gives from a superior position, the other gives from humility. But Jesus is the waiter.
There is a fundamental difference in providing service and being a servant. Who doesn't want to be the Benefactor? "Come let me give you something from my magnificence. After all I am the Benefactor." "I wish I had a million bucks so I could give it to the needy." Sure, who wouldn't? But that is the opposite of a being a servant. We are called to lay down our pride and do whatever needs to be done. There is no job beneath the dignity of a servant. But our pride creates this double-minded spiritual schizophrenia; servant and Benefactor.
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Moving through the obstacles we hit another that is selfish related; arrogance.
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There is a trap in wanting to be servant. It is an unhealthy desire to fix others.
Matthew 7:1-5 "Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. "Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye."
Arrogance enjoys helping others to feed its superiority. "Let me fix you, since I am able." That is not being a servant. The hypocrite is the one who loves to remove specks, but has a plank in his eye. Feeding your ego by helping others is double-minded, not a servant.
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Let's change gears a moment. There is a set of obstacles not related to selfishness but rather to hurt.
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Let's begin with disappointment. We often get excited about helping others until we realize we have been manipulated. The disappointment of being hoodwinked can be an obstacle to "ever doing that again".
For example, last Christmas, on a snowy day in Santa Fe, Tanya and I were having a hamburger at Wendy's. In the store was an obvious, homeless guy. He wore ragged clothes, and had a pair of tennis shoes which were held together by duct tape. In fact they were more duct tape than shoe. It was obvious he had been in Wendy's a while. It was a snow storm outside. I was wearing a nice pair of Sorel snow boots. After finishing my burger, I got up and went to the homeless guy and asked him what size boot he wore. He told me 13DDD which is way bigger than even mine. Tanya and I went across the parking lot to the Payless Shoe Store and bought a pair of 13 DDD boots. I took them back into the store to be the Benefactor and give this guy a nice pair of 13 DDD.
What am I expecting then? A little gratitude… Instead, I got this I need the money can you take them back and give me the money? Not even a minimal "thanks". I left the boots and walked out without another word. What do you think I said to myself? "That was a waste. I won't be manipulated again; the moocher."
When we get our feelings hurt, it can cause us to be double-minded.
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This kind of disappointment can lead to another obstacle.
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It is a waste of time. Whenever you get involved in helping others it is going to be time consuming. There is never something you can do to help another… quickly. To be a servant takes time. And perhaps that is the most precious gift we have. "I would love to help but I just don't have time." Are we willing to give up our time to help others? "My time is valuable. I do important stuff. It seems such a waste of time."
You are double-minded if your time is more valuable than other's time.
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Even if we are willing to spend the time there is yet one more obstacle.
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Seriously, can you really make a difference? We are easily overwhelmed.
How many homeless are there? 1.5 million in America
How many live below the poverty? 40 million Americans ( I am making these numbers up)
How many kids go to bed hungry every night across the world? 50 million in Africa alone.
How many kids are abused? Gazillions.
What about the slave trade…? What about illiteracy…? What about… fill in the blank with whatever.
On and on it goes. I could quote made up statistics all afternoon about an almost infinite number of pitiful things that happen to people. How could we make any difference? It is overwhelming. Being overwhelmed by the number of hurting people is an obstacle to being a servant.
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"Well, Tim you've done a good job in pointing out my selfishness, my pride, my arrogance, my pettiness, my overvalued sense of my time, and how I am overwhelmed. What can I possibly do to resist these obstacles to being a servant?" How do we live in the Port of Service?
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I want to challenge you to run an experiment on yourself. Jesus gives us a clue on how to overcome these obstacles.
Matthew 6:1-4 "Be careful not to do your 'acts of righteousness' before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. "So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you."
The answer to overcoming our obstacles is serving in hiddenness.
Nothing
disciplines the inordinate desires of the flesh like service, and nothing
transforms the desires of the flesh like serving in hiddenness. - Richard Foster -
As we serve without recognition, we learn to get over ourselves. Selfishness, with all its perversions, melts to the background in hiddenness. If we serve quietly, we learn to listen for the "divine nod of approval".
We are not servants because people are needy.
We are servants because God calls
us to be servants. The service in
hiddenness teaches us that we are only focused on pleasing God.
- Selfishness, pride and arrogance kind of go away when we serve to please God.
- Disappointment, about how people respond to our service, doesn't matter; God nods.
- It's a waste of time; it is not my time, it's God's time.
- I am overwhelmed by so many. We just help those God calls us to help. We are not called to save the whole world. We save those God calls us to save.
Here is the dot challenge for this week. Go on a secret servant mission. Do something for someone else without any fanfare, without any recognition, without any "getting the credit". Then see if the secret servant mission helps you overcome the obstacles to being a servant. You can see if it helps you resist the devil.
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We are called to live in the Port of Service. As Abraham's kids we are supposed to be Jesus; to be servants. To experience the joy of living in the Port of Service, we must purify our hearts. We must learn to please the One who intended us to be the blessing. We stop being double-minded when we are only interested in the divine nod of approval.
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