Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction—Final

Well good morning Forest Glen, my name is Dan Osborn, one of the Pastors over at the Near North location.

It’s good to be with you all again.

If you have a bible, go ahead and open with me Romans, chapter 12. It’s on page 811 in the house bible. .

Only at FG

We’re going to be doing texting this morning, so if you have any questions that come up from the message, we want to give you a chance to ask them!

Really no question is off limits.

We think its important to be able to talk about difficult questions in community!

The way to ask you question, is with you phone, in the message section you have to write ‘AskFG’ the write out your question.

Send it to the number 62953.

You’ll know it worked because you’ll get a text back from us.

What’s the difference between volunteering and serving?

We live in a volunteer culture.

Think about it for a moment, volunteering is just about everywhere you look.

It’s a popular thing to do right now!

In the workplace, a fast growing trend in companies is something called VTO—Volunteer Time Off—time set aside for you to volunteer in your community.

You can volunteer at a growing number of local organizations depending on your particular interests.

Volunteer at PAWS for animal lovers, Boys and Girls Club—for kids, World Relief—for refugees, CPS for parents.

Homeless Shelters, teaching english, tutoring with underprivileged students and the list goes on!

Volunteer at PAWS for animal lovers, Boys and Girls Club—for kids, World Relief—for refugees, CPS for parents.

Homeless Shelters, teaching english, tutoring with underprivileged students and the list goes on!

On top of that there are now entire organizations and companies specifically designed to connect interested Volunteers with Opportunities.

One Good Deed or Chicago Cares

And on one level it makes sense that Volunteering is popular, doesn’t it?

Everybody has their own reasons for it and who doesn’t love that feeling of contributing to something bigger than yourself…of helping someone who might be able to help themselves.

There is a lot of good happening in our city because people are deciding to roll up their sleeves and volunteer time and skills to meet very real needs in their communities.

Friends, volunteering is good.

But again, what’s the difference between volunteering and serving?

PAUSE

And maybe you’ve never thought about it before.

At first, there probably doesn’t seem like much of a difference, does there?

In fact, what we do when we’re volunteering or serving probably looks exactly the same.

And we use both words pretty often, right?

Serving or Volunteering.

But let me ask you a question.

What is the difference between volunteering and serving?

It’s interesting isn’t it?

I mean most of the situations where you would use the world Volunteer, it would be pretty easy to substitute the word serve, right?

Like you can volunteer for a project…you can volunteer on a team or serve on a team…you can volunteer for a project or you can serve the city.

Most of the time when we use the word volunteer, you could easily substitute the word serve, right?

Like you can volunteer for a project or serve on a project…you can volunteer on a team or serve on a team…you can volunteer in the city or you can serve the city.

In fact, what we do when we’re volunteering or serving probably looks exactly the same.

BUT you can’t always do it the other way around.

You usually can’t substitute the word volunteer for serve?

Think about it.

For example, guys I would suggest that when you talk about caring for you wife, you don’t describe yourself as a volunteer!

Right?!

We’d never say that!

And it’s funny, right?

But play that out in a number of different ways with friends and family members...

Why?

There’s something about those closer and deeper relationships that makes the word “Volunteer” just sound a little cold, right?

And don’t get me wrong…I’m not saying that volunteering doesn’t come from a place of genuine concern!

Even though many of us have A TON of volunteer opportunities and experiences...We rarely talk about volunteering when we’re doing something for someone we love.

But when you really stop to think about, there’s this subtle, but profound difference between volunteering and serving.

See, we rarely talk about volunteering for someone we love.

We rarely talk about volunteering when were talking about doing something for someone we love.

That’s when we serve.

And like I said, serving and volunteering may look exactly the same on the surface.

And like I said, serving and volunteering may look exactly the same on the surface.

Both Volunteering and Serving can be defined as looking to the needs of others and working to meet those needs…but the difference lies not in WHAT we do, but HOW and WHY we do it!

Volunteering opportunities are all over the place in Chicago.

Define what I mean by serving.

Serving is seeing and caring for the needs of the others.

For the first two years, it did not seem like much changed with her…she needed help with reading or remembering where she’d put things…and eventually she lost the ability to drive.

Then things started to go down hill—quickly.

Over the next year, my grandma lost her ability to do anything for herself…and for the last 8 years of her life, she couldn’t take care of herself anymore than my 9 month old daughter could.

But for 8 years, I watched my grandpa serve and care for his wife…for every need he could see she had.

He bought all the medical equipment he needed so she could stay at home with him.

He bathed, clothed, and fed her…you do the math and that’s almost 3,000 days…9,000 meals…most of the time by himself…and all this for his wife who could do nothing in return for him…could not say thank you.

Both of them do the SAME TWO THINGS:

And I remember finally asking him, ‘How do you keep doing all this?’

I mean he was in his late 70’s at this point…and the family wasn’t sure how long he could keep all this up.

And I’ll never forget his response.

He said, ‘She’s my wife—I do this because I love her.’.

We’re in the middle of our series called, The Glory of God on Display, talking about the church.

And the last few weeks we’ve started to focus in on the life of the church…or what this community of people is like.

We talked about Partnership—partners are the people who make up the community.

We talked about small groups which was the way we experience the community together, but this morning we’re going to look at what we do in community together.

They SEE THE NEEDS

AND

We’re in the middle of our series called, The Glory of God on Display, talking about the church.

And the last few weeks we’ve started to focus in on the life of the church…or what this community of people is like.

We talked about Partnership—partners are the people who make up the community.

We talked about small groups which was the way we experience the community together, but this morning we’re going to look at what we do in community together.

at least try to MEET THE NEEDS of others.

But the difference lies not in WHAT we do, but HOW and WHY we do it!

This morning, we’re going to be talking about serving in the church!

And my goal is that, by God’s grace, many of us would move from the exhausting work of volunteering, to the life giving work of serving.

So if you’re not there yet, open with me to .

So if you’re not there yet, open with me to .

Let me pray and we’ll get started.

PRAY

Rising Action

Rising Action

The Church as the Body—.

The Body.

The way Paul talks about serving here is interesting because he doesn’t just say, “You should serve and here’s why!” Instead, he uses a picture to talk about how we interact with each other in the church—that the Church is like a body.

And in body, there are different parts that serve different functions.

His point is that as a follower of Jesus you have a role..a function in the church AND you have been gifted by God to serve in that role!