Christ-Like Serving, Part 2

Isn't it nice to receive? Isn't it wonderful to be a child and have your parents give you toys? To have your mother take you out and show you things? To take you to enjoyable places? To have your dad help you go camping? Learn to fish? Maybe shoot a gun? To be able to go to camp and enjoy all those activities with people providing you lodging and transportation and food and fun activities? Isn't it great to receive? Isn't it great to live in a world and an environment that God made where there's just more and more and more to see? If you only had enough time and money to travel around the world, above the world, underneath the ocean, there's so much to receive. It's great to receive, but we receive so that we can pass those things along to others. The child of the parent, of parents, eventually becomes parent of a child. And it's time then to bring that child in and open his or her eyes, begin to help that child experience life. It's time to participate in summer camp and give the experience, the transportation, the food, the activities to others.

We pay it forward, they say. We follow the example of our teachers, of our parents, of other leaders who have gone before us and have served us and given to us. In part one of this series, we saw how Christ serves us. He does so humbly. He does so abundantly. He does so totally, selflessly. He does everything for us so that, as little children and human beings, we can grow up.

Jesus Christ gives wonderful gifts to you and me. They just never should cease to amaze us, from the creation, to the abilities that we have as humans, to his gifts that he has given of his own self here. And then he continues to give, living in us. And he ultimately wants to give us everything in the spirit world, everything that he has, and he has been given everything.

That's how Christ serves. And that's good news for us. That's good news for us receivers. We like to receive. We like all those things he's giving us. In fact, people like being so-called Christians because it's great. It's kind of like being a kid. Bring on some more. Just receive, receive, receive. And Jesus Christ is such a giver, and we're just such receivers, that it's a good fit. And we can just see this going on forever, if you don't mind. Because we like to receive. It's good for our future, too, because not only do we have this life, but we have that eternal life coming. That's going to be great. We know that he's going to be serving then, and giving to us then, and we'll be receiving then. It just seems to really work well for us. He said, I'm coming that they may have life. Oh, we could use life now, life then, and have it more abundantly. It just gets better. Wow. And we can just really be, you know, religious. We can really be God's children. Children receiving, receiving, receiving. Yes, this is great. Bring it on. Bury me in it. But Jesus said, To whom much is given, from him much will be required. Oh, is there something else besides just receiving that you and I are intended to do? We have received much. And he says that for those to whom much is given, and that's you and me, much, a lot, is required. In fact, he gave all that he possibly could and continues to give all that he possibly can. What do you think he's expecting from you and me? When we think about his sacrifice and we come to the Passover and the Passover is a time to be thankful for being a receiver. This do in remembrance of me, he says. Remember the gifts that you are receiving from me. And we do. And we appreciate that. And we say, bring it on! This is working. This is good. But is that it? Is that all?

When he says, this do in remembrance of me, it now becomes our turn. Turn with me to Romans 12, and we'll read verses 1 and 2. Romans 12, beginning in verse 1.

The Apostle Paul is writing to the church at Rome, and he says, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice. Ah! You see how the receivers are to become the givers? How the students are to grow up to be like the masters? How the children are to become parents? How we pay it forward? How we join in? How we grow up and put away our childish receiving mindset at some point? And we mature. So present your bodies. Now he's done it for us. You now do it for others. Do it in a way that's holy. That means God living in you, directing that. It's a living sacrifice because you're becoming Christ-like, acceptable to God, according to His directives, His laws, which is your reasonable service. Serving. And it's what we're supposed to learn to do, serving like Christ.

Let's today examine our responsibility, our need to imitate the Master, to follow the leader, to grow up into the fullness and the stature of Christ. In the second part of the series, Christ-like serving, serving like Christ. If we go back to Matthew 10, verse 25, Jesus reveals to us a standard that exists within the God family. Matthew 10, verse 25. It's pretty strange to you and me as humans. But this is just the standard in the God family, that family which we are trying to understand, emulate, the God of which lives in those who are baptized and are led by His Holy Spirit. Matthew 10, 25 says, breaking into the verse, whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your servant. Now, this seems kind of odd. Maybe it's a good rule of leadership, or maybe it's some, you know, put it on the wall. It's a unique point. It's a unique trait. It's that odd twist for us, but not for God. See, this is a standard by which the God family lives and operates and thinks. That's why you and I have been receivers. That's why God is a giver. Whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your servant. That is a Greek word, diaconos. It's the noun. Let him be your servant. It's referring to one who would serve. International Standard Bible Encyclopedia says that the accompanying word diaconao, which is the verb of serving, would mean to like wait at a table or render a service. Now, when somebody waits at the table, they don't come up and say, you know, just sort of stand there. Well, if you need me, here I am. No, they come up and they try to anticipate. Hey, would you like something to drink? Oh, I see that glass is getting a little empty. Want some more there? Looks like you're going to need a fork there, sir. Looks like you maybe need a napkin. Ready to order. You look a little hungry. They're perceiving. They're looking. They're trying to fill the needs and the best interests of others or to render a service. Same thing if you're serving, it's just, oh, okay, I'm going to render a service. I'll just kind of show up at your house and stand around. No, you know, you're the air conditioning guy. You're supposed to knock on the door and say, I'm here to fix your air conditioner. I'll bet it's hot inside. You know, let's open your windows and get the fan going. I'll go around, start working on stuff and pull out mortars and figuring out what's going on here. We'll get you cool right away. Okay? That's what I'm doing. I'm going to hurry. I'm going to make you as comfortable as possible while I work out in the hot sun and I skin my knuckles and everything else. We're going to get you cool inside, this hot Arizona climate. You're thinking of others. Likewise, it says the noun diaconos denotes like a waiter at a meal, an attendant, in general, a servant, or sometimes referring to the office of a deacon.

In Matthew 25, in that parable about the sheep and the goats separating them and who's going to be welcome into the kingdom, he mentions things that a diaconos would do, a servant would do. Those things and those aspects of serving, that diaconnéo, those would include things like providing food, not just, oh, you asked for food, here's some food, but people are hungry, well, you need some food. People are thirsty, they need clothing. You're there, you're watching, you're observing, you're really being the servant. It's like when somebody needs something, you hand it to them. Oh, how did you know that? Well, because I've been observing, I know that you'll need this. So Christ-like serving is how we express love for a neighbor. You and I didn't know what we needed, but Jesus Christ did, and he intervened before we even had the need for the foundation of the world. He was already thinking about us and knowing what needed to happen. He knows in your own life what you need before you ask him, even the Father does. That's why it's because they are serving. So Jesus says, do you want to be great? If you do, you need to be a diaconnos, you need to be a servant. You want to be great, you need to perceive and serve and figure out how to serve and be there for other people. But next, he says, if you want to be tops, going on here in Matthew chapter 10 in verse, sorry, I guess I got the wrong chapter here.

Anyway, he says, whoever wants to be great, let him be your servant, but whoever wants to be extremely great, you know, tops, let him be your duolos. Verse 27, whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave. Slave is a little different than just a servant. A slave is one from the Greek duolos who is completely given to the service of his master, completely given to the service of his master. That means one who is not doing his own will, not embellishing his or her own life, but rather working full time to embellish the lives of others. Can you think of becoming great by stopping to think about yourself and actually becoming a slave to God and of Christ and doing their will and not your own will? Well, that's what God asks of us. That's what God asks of us. And we are not to be self-focused like a child who's receiving anymore. It's all about me getting, getting, getting. At some point, we're to mature and begin to give. Jesus Christ set us this example in Philippians chapter 2. In verse 5, it says, let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. Jesus Christ, again, is a great giver, great server. He is the epitome of a servant who is there to attend to us. He is also the epitome of a slave to his Father, who only does his Father's will and his whole life reflects on his Father. Verse 7, but made himself of no reputation, taking on the form of a bond servant. That's the word duolos, slave. He took on the form of a slave, a chosen profession slave, a bond slave.

Jesus turns this concept of greatness right on its head as we would understand it. And he says, where in humans, greatness is associated with glamour and prestige. What happens if you have prestige and you have glamour? What do you get? You get people doing your will, don't you? That's what it's about. Prestige and power. Other people do what you want and they try to please you. Jesus turns that upside down and says, if you want to be great, you serve others. It's quite different than we experience in the human sense. Greatness in the God family comes through service to God and service to man. Just as Jesus Christ set us that example, service to the Father first and service to mankind second. Slave of God, bond servant of the Father and servant to humanity.

Jesus says, that's how greatness is going to come. Now, does that sound odd? Is that what you want to convert to? Do you want to flip your life upside down and somehow pursue greatness from below? Do you want to be pursuing happiness by not pointing at yourself and not receiving and not pampering yourself and asking God for all kinds of things for me?

See, that's really what we're asked to. You talk about change. There are things that go about in our head that are permanent. One is, it is about me. It just is. If you don't think so, analyze your life. Analyze what you do, what you think when you get up in the morning. Analyze what you pray about. Analyze what your day is focused on. You know, don't kid yourself. Take the rose-colored glasses off and take a long look. What is this life about? What are you worried about? What are you excited about? Life is about receiving.

It's about feathering. It's about security and enjoyment and some sort of pleasures for the self. And maybe some crumbs will fall on someone else and will feel like, oh yes, we're so benevolent. But that's not what Jesus Christ did. It wasn't about him. It never was. He humbled himself and came as a bond servant, as a slave of God, and also a great servant to you and me. And he put us before himself. Should you convert to that mindset? I think we should ask that question seriously, rather than just, oh, here's what you do.

Let's go do it. No, but should we? Because people don't like to change, and so therefore, who's going to go? When somebody says, let's go over the hill. Here we go! And you march off, and he turns around, and nobody's following. We can be like this, preaching out of the Word of God. Let's all change! Let's all become servants. Well, we'll watch you. How many of us really do? There's this 10% rule that I just can't break myself from seeing through the years.

It goes something like this. My personal observation, and this isn't statistically accurate or, you know, definable, but it kind of goes like this. Of all the people who hear the Gospel, about one in a hundred respond to it. It's not even a tenth. Of all the people that respond to it, about one in a hundred write in and ask, where's your church located?

About one in a hundred, who ask where churches show up. About one in a hundred who show up, keep coming. And about one in a hundred who keep coming, get baptized. Now, here's the part that hurts. About, and this could be 10%, 1%. It often bounces around a bit between those two. But of the 100 that get baptized, about 10 stay with it. That's not very many. You know, that kind of 10% thing, you know, one in 10, one in a hundred.

It's between 90 and 99% that don't do anything. And when we see that the, that the calling goes out to many, but few are chosen, who wants to convert to what Jesus Christ is saying here? Would you want to convert to that? Sound like something? Well, let's go to Philippians chapter two and verse eight through 11, and we'll see the proof that this is what we're supposed to do.

That Christ-like serving is actually the thing to do. That it wasn't something that you and I, oh, wasn't it nice we got a gift, but it's something that we are to imitate. Something that we, we are to pay forward, as it were. Pass along. Follow the leader in. Philippians two, verse eight, and being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient.

Now this speaks to his entire lifetime here on earth. He humbled himself and he became obedient, obedient to everything the Father had said. And he culminated finally in being obedient to the point of death. It wasn't just that he came and he was obedient to the sacrifice that he gave, but he came with a lifetime of obedience to the point of death. Even to the death, it says of the cross, but the Greek word is pouros, and it means the stake or the post.

Jesus was not crucified on a cross, rather on a tree, it says in one place, or it continually says on a stake or a post. And therefore, because of this, or this is why, verse 9, God has also highly exalted him and given him the name which is above every other name. See how this is working?

Jesus tells us whoever humbles himself will be exalted. That's exactly what happens within the family of God. It's about humbling and later being exalted. So he humbled himself and he gave all that he had, even his own blood. And now we read in verse 9, because of this, God has highly exalted him and given him a name above every name.

Therefore, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God that he may lift you up in due time, it says in 1 Peter. That's a theme within the family of God.

God resists the proud, but he gives grace to the humble. That's part of this mindset of service, of this Christ-like mentality.

So, verse 10 now, He has exalted that at the name of Jesus every knee would bow of those in heaven and those on earth and those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus is Lord. Now, it looks like if you pay on the front end, you get some real nobility on the back end. So maybe in this lifetime you might think, yep, let's serve as servants. And then, you know, we won't have to do that anymore. What did Jesus do this for? Well, we just read in verse 11. Every tongue will confess that He is the Lord to or for the glory of God the Father. It was never about Him. It still isn't about Him. He was glorified, and He's in heaven, and He is great, but even His glory and His deeds are done to glorify the Father. He serves the Father. He is the slave of the Father, the dulos. His Lordship. Notice verse 10 again. He is Lord for glorifying the Father.

He glorifies the Father of the family, and our serving, like Christ does, is to be for the same purpose. He told us this. Do this, that when they see your good works, that they may glorify your Father in heaven. See, we are to step up and begin to serve like Christ so that our Father in heaven is glorified. He is the head of the family. He is the source. He is the source of our thoughts. He is the source of our future. It's never to be about us. The principle here is serving intends to be and needs to be about raising others up. Jesus Christ was already raised up, but He came down to raise us up to their level. And we are to live in heavenly places in our mind now and ultimately be in the family of God. And in order to do that, we need to think like they do.

Within the family of God, all do this. The Father serves more than anybody. He serves. He serves through the Son. He serves. But He will always be the principal authority. Jesus Christ came and made Himself lower than angels and served and gave. He put Himself below mankind in a sense, not authority-wise, but in serving us. He became our servant. And now He has returned to that position in heaven. And He wants to raise us up. The family of God ultimately will continue on in the same, doing the same, thinking the same. Everybody raising up, everybody involved in raising up, helping, encouraging, magnifying, being a blessing. Though there will be structure and authority and roles and responsibilities that won't change, everybody will be involved in this mindset of the servant is the greater. The more you serve, the greater you're considered in the family of God.

If we notice Matthew 10, verse 24, it's nice to be a receiver. It's great to be a disciple of Joshua the Anointed One, his English name, the one who really came and served and gave himself so that we can have him now live in us and begin to identify and grow up into him. But he says, a disciple is not above his teacher.

You, me, we're not above him, nor a servant above his master. He is not above God the Father. I think he's giving us there the relationships. The disciple, that's you and me, is not above his teacher, that's him, nor is, as he says here, a servant, and he was the servant of the Father, whereas the servant above his master. Verse 25, it is enough for a disciple that he be like his teacher. That's our goal. Not just being a receiver anymore, not just a taker, not a getter, not a receiver, but be like the teacher and a servant like his master, which he is. These are the roles and responsibilities and the mentalities within the God family that we must embrace and that we must move towards. We can't just hear about it and think, oh yeah, I like that. We have to become that. We have to go there. We have to fight the good fight of getting rid of me as my focus and start getting the Father and Jesus Christ as our primary focus, and then our fellow man as our other focus, and shift the perception of needs and the assistance and the help for others and raising others up. Really get that working in our mind if we're going to become like Christ, to be like the teacher.

If we look at the apostles, there's two views you can have. You can say, oh, the apostles, well, the apostles, you can't touch them. They're just so up there. The apostles were merely just like you and me. Peter or Paul or John or the others were in the room today. They'd be just like you and me. Paul laid himself bare in the scripture to say, I'm just like you. I'm just a fellow laborer. I'm just a worker here. I'm just fighting the fight. But in Philippians chapter 1 and the first two verses, we find what these apostles came to have as a goal. Yes, sure, they do work. Sure, they had an important authority. So did God and Jesus Christ. But what does the God family do? What does that spirit of God in us, if we are the temple of that spirit, what is it moving us towards doing? What did they become an example of? Well, let's read Philippians chapter 1, verse 1. Paul and Timothy, bondservants of Jesus Christ, slaves. That's what they became. They came all the way to being slaves of God, chosen, doing the will of. That's what their focus was. To all the saints in Christ, Jesus, who were in Philippi and with the bishops and deacons, grace to you and peace from God our Father. Not from us. Look, he's not saying grace and peace, you know, from us, big Jesus. No, we are slaves. And we're excited to let you know that and give you the greetings of grace and harmony from God, our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, a servant is free to come and go. Servants, you know, show up and you serve, and then, you know, you take off. You have your life. Slaves are not. Slaves are not. So he is a possession of his master forever.

Jesus Christ said, that's what I am. I am a bond servant. I am a doulos. I'm a slave of my Father forever. And here the apostles are showing, yeah, and I'm now a slave of Jesus Christ forever. That's what I want to do. That's the will I want to do. I want to turn myself entirely over and become that individual and turn my will over to that of the other individual. That's absolute obedience to Christ. Doing the master's will, not your own will.

So if we follow Jesus's example of Christ-like serving, we become a slave of God to do the will of the Father and to do the will of Jesus Christ, to become a servant of our fellow man at the same time. You know, when we're baptized, we recognize and we submit to our Lord Jesus Christ. It's our Lord, our master, our soon-coming King. And we give our full allegiance to Him and to doing things His way. And that is what we are asked. Now, it's not just the apostles, but the members, all of us, are encouraged to do this. Look in Ephesians 6 and verses 6 and 7.

It's talking about bond servants and masters. And if we look here, break in to verse 6, it says, But as bond servants of Christ, we are to be bond servants of Christ, slaves of Christ. And this is what Paul is telling the church at Ephesus to become, doing the will of God from the heart, with good will, doing service as to the Lord and not to men. Again, this is the family's mindset. And when we talk about wanting to be like God and wanting to imitate Jesus Christ, we begin to see that our mindset as humans is not compatible. This just doesn't work. We tend to think of life in this term. When I'm young, I need to grow, I need to have a lot of experiences, that I need a career, that I need to make money, that I need to have my family, and I need to make some more money. I need a bigger house, I need to develop a retirement. And then when I turn X number of years old, I need to retire and have my ease and see the world and have lots of money and go do nice things and let some change fall on people. And at the end of my life, have enough money to see me live comfortably all the way through, so that one day I'm rocking in my rocking chair and then the grandkids can have it. And that's pretty sad. But if you notice, we live in a retirement community in this part, in this state. If you notice, the pursuit of that, if you spent any time in retirement communities, the pursuit of that and the self-absorption of that, leaves an emptiness. There isn't any fulfillment to that, but rather endless golf, endless garage sales, endless walks. I've had the opportunity in this life, the blessing of being disabled about 20-some years ago and ending up in a retirement community in Arizona for six months. And I hated it and I fought it, but it put me dead square sinner in the middle of a population that I, as a human being, wanted to be like when I got old. And wow, you can learn some things there. What God is telling us is real life and godly life and happiness and joy for all and productivity and fulfillment comes from something completely different than taking care of ourselves.

Serving is a family trait. How is it? Why is it? Well, it seems to stem from the word agape, this love that's associated strongly with God, especially in the book of 1 John. God is love. God is love, it says. Agape is just a strong mentality, mindset of the God family. And springing from concern for others is an action to go out and help. When you see others in need, when you see others in need, you help them. When you see slaves in Egypt, you go rescue them. When you see slaves to sin, you go die for them and shed your blood so you can rescue them. When you see people in human frail lives that don't really have life, you provide them with real life and abundant life forever. And you see people with nothing and no future. You give them your future and you give them your life and you share everything you have with them and you raise them up. And that's really cool. That's what God does. And it seems to spring from this concept of agape as the motivation for the serving. It says in John 15, 13, for instance, greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends. Because you see, they need something. They need your life. They need your blood. That's got to be our motivation for Christlike serving. You know, it says in the Bible, whenever you see the need, then you fill it. As you see individuals with needs, you use what you have to go serve those needs. As opportunities come to your eyes and ears. If you have the agape growing in you, you will have a response to that, of serving, lifting those individuals up.

It says in 1 John 3, 16, by this we know agape because he laid down his life for us. We also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. It's one thing to receive the gift of his Passover, his atoning blood, but we are to pay it forward. We're to join in. We're to imitate the Master. We're also to lay down our lives, as it were, to sacrifice our will, to sacrifice our little future, this little nest egg that we'd like to have for ourselves, be it now in the physical flesh or even in the kingdom. You tend to perceive in the kingdom, oh yeah, I can just see myself there. Oh, I hope I have a nice position. Hope I'm in an area I like. You can see this little thing for me.

That mentality cannot exist in the God family. Obedience to God's law isn't the same as Christ-like serving. You think, well, I'm keeping the commandments. The commandments are about serving. Obedience to God's law isn't the same, because if you just go back to the Ten Commandments, you can avoid being a servant and a slave. So you can do the work around. Let's see, I'll do the technical stuff. I'll keep the Sabbath and the Holy Days. Have you observed anybody yet? Nope. I won't kill anybody. I won't steal. Have you served anybody? No. I won't commit adultery. I won't, I don't know, I'll tell my parents, you know, I respect you. And I won't take God's name in vain. Have you served? Are you somebody's slave yet? See, we can do the work around. We can, I don't want to be like the family of God, but I want to be in the family of God. So I'm going to swing around the whole thing. And I'm going to go back here and just kind of buy my way in through obedience only. Obedience to laws and rules and knowing the prophecies. But I'll stay home and I'll study my Bible and I'll be really spiritual. That's my work around. God's not wanting the work around. Jesus said when he separates the sheep and the goats, it's those who have been doing the serving that are going to be in the kingdom. The other mindset imitates the family. It imitates Jesus Christ by keeping the rules and expanding the rules like he did, magnifying them and finding ways to really love God and love the fellow man and develop that mindset. That's why he instituted foot washing at the Passover. He got down like the servant and he washed feet and then he said, you do likewise. You imitate me. Take on this mindset. Now how can you and I begin serving like Jesus Christ did? Go to Philippians chapter 2 again in verse 5. Philippians chapter 2 and verse 5. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. Now the precursor to that statement, kind of a pre-context, comes in the first four verses.

And he's talking here in Philippians 2 and verse 1. If there's any consolation in Christ or encouragement, if any comfort of agape, love, any fellowship of the Spirit, any affection and mercy, fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same agape, being of one accord, one mind, let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit. Not for me, I'm not the giver here, I'm not the taker, not building up myself, but in lowliness of mind. Let each esteem others better than himself, and let each of you look not out only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others. That is converting, that is changing over and putting the focus off oneself and serving the needs of others. Again, God serves, and you can look throughout the Bible. One thing that God always says is, remember you were in Egypt and you were slaves? You didn't have anything. How does he want us to remember that? And you go through the Proverbs, and you look at Job, and you look in the New Testament, and you'll find over and over and over, help the poor. Help those who are disadvantaged. Many, many, many times throughout the Bible. Let's just take a look at a few. Proverbs 19-17. Proverbs 19-17. And let's see the connection here to the Godhead with some of these statements. He who has pity on the poor lends to the Lord. Wow! And God will pay back what that individual has given the poor. God has a connection with serving the needs of needy people. Verse 22 of Proverbs 19. What is desired in a man is kindness. Or the margin says loving kindness. And a poor man is better than a liar. Loving kindness towards those with need. Loving and kind. Look at chapter 21 in verse 3.

To do righteousness and justice is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice. Righteousness is loving God, loving your neighbor. Verse 13. Whoever shuts his ears to the cry of the poor will also cry himself and not be heard. Verse 26. He covets greedily all the day long, but the righteous gives and does not spare. A righteous person, a godly-minded person, gives and doesn't spare. It's not about the self. Look at chapter 28 in verse 27. Last verse here in Proverbs. He who gives to the poor will not lack, but he who hides his eyes will have many curses. You know, God really supports servants. He supports those who are the diaconos, the servants. Let's look in 2 Corinthians chapter 9 and verse 15. This isn't just something God asks us to do, maybe if we want to do it. God knows it's hard for you and I to convert, to change mindsets, to get down, to put on the serving uniform, and to focus our lives and our purpose on raising others up. But he gets excited when we become more like him and his son. 2 Corinthians chapter 9, beginning in verse 5, it says, Therefore, I thought it necessary to exhort the brethren to go to you ahead of time and prepare your generous gift, generous gift here of helping and serving those who are in need. Now we're going to drop down a little bit. Verse 6, But this I say, He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. This is about helping others, by the way, not about giving holy day offerings. This is about serving and being a servant.

So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity, for God loves a cheerful giver when we give to our fellow man and help and serve. And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work. What's being said here is God gets so excited when you give and serve, he's going to make sure you've got more to serve and you don't run out. That's what the God family supports. Now, if you're on your knees asking for God for stuff, good luck, because that's not what God is here for. God's not here to train a bunch of selfish people that he cannot bring into his family. He's here to help us with that which doesn't make sense to us. And if you cast your bread on the water, you're not going to have any bread, are you? So he's going to give you some more. He's going to give you some more. He's going to make the windows of heaven open up, as it were, so that you can become like he is.

We are to serve.

Let's see how this is expected of all God's children in Romans 12, verse 12, 8-13. Romans 12, beginning in verse 8. Talking about various gifts here, breaking in in verse 8, second phrase, he who gives with liberality. Isn't that interesting? Be a giver, but be a liberal giver. We tend to think about being a liberal receiver. We like to win the lottery. Yeah, dump it on me. I'm saving up money. And then we read this. Yeah, if you're a giver, give liberally. Oh, that's what God, that's how God thinks. Verse 9, let love agape be without hypocrisy. A poor what's evil, cling to what's good. Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another, not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord, rejoicing in hope, persevering in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer, distributing to the needs of the saints, given to hospitality. Isn't that interesting? There's a fabulous future ahead for servants and slaves. It says in 1 John chapter 3, we'll read verse 10. 1 John chapter 3 and verse 10, in this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest. He who does not practice righteousness. Righteousness isn't just keeping the Sabbath and the Holy Days. It's those things. But it is righteousness. And the acts of righteousness is the love of God and the love of humanity. If you don't practice that, it says you're not of God, nor is he who does not agape his brother. For this is the message you've heard from the beginning that we should love one another. In verse 16, by this we know love because he laid down his life for us, and we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoever has this world's good and sees his brother in need and shuts up in his heart from him, how does the agape, the mind of God, abide in him? Or that principle of the mind of God abide in him?

That is very, very important.

My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but indeed and in truth. And by this we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before him. That's how we know we will be in the family of God. Now, as we finish this up, let's ask the question. Does all the serving stuff buy our way into the kingdom? Does it end? Is it the sort of the prepayment for getting in the door? Is it the dirty work you do, and then you get to be in the family of God? Take your seat on the throne and then kick back. Well, we find that service continues to be associated with greatness all the way throughout time. We get a glimpse of this in Luke 12, verse 37. When Jesus said, blessed are those servants, are you a servant yet? That's what we're supposed to be. Well, oh, how supremely blessed will the servants be, whom the master when he comes will find focused on changing to be like God, focused on growing in the godly mindset. They're watching their spiritual state. They're taking on this serving mindset. Assuredly, I say to you that now, after the resurrection, now as spirit beings, now the great king of kings, going on, will gird himself like a servant and have them sit down to eat and he will come and serve them.

That is what the God family is about. Revelation 22. Let's look in verses 1 through 4. What will you and I be doing? Here in the kingdom of God, at the new Jerusalem, at the throne, we see in verse 1, great things are happening there. Wonderful things happen there. It's pure river of water. Verse 3, There shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and his servants shall serve him. This isn't some sort of a prepayment, some sort of a easy buy-in, a pass to get in the kingdom. It's not an entry fee. It actually shows what the family of God is. They serve. They all serve, all the time. That's what makes it so enjoyable, so fun, so meaningful, so happy. So in conclusion, each and every Sabbath, every Passover, every holy day, notice how God's servant, Jesus Christ, serves. It's all through it. It's there in all the holy days. It's there in the whole plan of God. He is serving throughout it and off into the future. Use each of these periods of holy time to learn to imitate him, to see and perceive and appreciate receiving, but then turn into a giver yourself. And then every day put Christ-like serving into practice.

Let's go to 1 John 4, verses 9-11 for a final passage. 1 John 4, beginning in verse 9. In this, the love of God was manifested toward us, that the Father has sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. That's the serving that they have done for us. Verse 10. In this is love, not that we love God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atonement for our sins. We were stuck in a death penalty, and he came and rescued us from that. Verse 11. Beloved, if God so loved us by laying down his life for you and for me, we also ought to love one another by laying down our lives for them. And that is Christ-like serving.