Sermon Tone Analysis

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Intro
One Sunday morning, little Alex stared at the large plaque that hung in the foyer of the church.
The seven-year-old had been staring at the plaque for some time, so Pastor McGhee walked up, stood beside the boy, and said quietly, “Good morning, Alex.”
“Good morning,” said the boy, still absorbed in the plaque.
“Pastor McGhee, what is this?”
“Well, son, all of these people have died in the service,” the pastor said.
Soberly they stood together, staring at the large plaque.
Then little Alex asked quietly, “Which one, the 9:00 or the 10:30 service?”
Tonight we are going to talk about Service, though not necessarily worship service, I just liked that joke.
Service is defined as the act of helping or doing work for someone.
And as such serving others, helping others, working in the best interest of others is something that Christians are called to do because that was what Christ came to do.
I bet we all recall the verse that states:
But do you know what even lead to up to that statement?
The mother of James and John the sons of Zebedee approaches Jesus and asks him for something.
Matthew 20.20-
Jesus made it clear to everyone that the kingdom of which he was the king was different from any other kingdom the world had ever seen.
This kingdom was a kingdom full of servants!
Why?
Because the king himself came to serve and He set for us the ultimate example of humility and service that we ought to strive always to achieve.
He told his disciples on multiple occasions “A Servant is not greater than his master.”
Therefore whatever Jesus humbled himself to do in service of others, we have no excuse to think ourselves too good to do ourselves.
Jesus repeatedly tried to convey this message to his disciples, and even with the pain and agony of his crucifixion on the horizon he takes time before the passover meal, lays aside his outer garments, ties a towel around his wast and washed his disciples feet.
Now this was a task for someone of much lower status than Jesus, I mean he was there teacher, their Lord, and we see Peter convey this idea of shock when he said in “You shall never wash my feet!”
John 13:
After he had finished he said to them
John 13:12-
So because Christ served, a Christian must serve!
And I don’t think it’s any surprise the way that we do that.
We do that which Jesus did.
We show compassion, we show mercy, we proclaim God’s word, we feed the hungry, care for the sick and the poor and the imprisoned, we bless when reviled, we pray when persecuted, Christian service manifests itself in all kinds of selfless ways.
But I’ve committed to looking tonight at what the parables of Christ teach us regarding our Christian Service, and because there are so many relating to a king and his servants, I couldn’t possibly choose just one, so we will look quickly at three tonight.
Christian Service Requires Growth
5 talents -> 5 more
Mat 25.14-
2 talents -> 2 more
1 talent -> nothing.
Now it’s important to note here that I’m not saying Christian service requires financial growth, what is in view here is what we talked about this morning, Spiritual Growth.
The message of this parable is that
We will be held accountable for our unwillingness to grow into what he knows we can become, whatever reason that might be.
Whatever excuse we might want to use, whether it’s fear, or busyness, or lack of faith, Jesus just calls it flat out wickedness and slothfulness.
Our Christian Service may start out small, but ideally it should grow into maturity.
I wanted to use this illustration this morning so I’ll use it now:
John Maxwell in his book Developing the Leader within you tells a story of a group of tourists visiting a beautiful village when they came upon an old man sitting on a bench.
One of the tourists asked the man, “Were any great men born in this village?”
To which the old man replied, “Nope, only babies.”
Everyone of us as christians start off life in God’s service as babes in Christ.
There is nothing wrong with that, but it becomes a tragedy if after 15, 30, 50 years a person remains a babe in the kingdom of God.
Living a life of Christian service requires Growth.
Christian Service Requires Readiness
I’ve said it before, and I’ll never stop saying it, Christianity does not come with vacations, sabbaticals, or a retirement package.
Luke 12.35-
We will never out serve christ, even if we could live 10,000 life times, therefore it is our duty to serve our king until we draw our last breath and be ever ready to provide that service which we know Christ would provide were he still walking the Earth today.
We are after all the body of Christ are we not?
Should we not then be ever ready to respond at a moments notice?
James answers this nicely in
What good is it to tell a person without a home
Christian Service Requires Willingness to Work
Notice in this parable that whenever the laborers were called, whether it was
8 AM - 9 AM - Noon - or 5 PM, all those who were called were willing to work
Now I realize that isn’t the overall point of this parable, but the truth remains that only those that worked were rewarded, a theme that is consistent across all the servant parables of Jesus.
The overall point of this particular parable though leads nicely into our final point, and that is
Christian Service Requires Steadfast Humility
Luke 17:7-
Whatever we might do in service to our King Jesus Christ, our attitude ought to be that of nothing we ever do will ever compare to what Christ did for us on the cross.
As we talked about last week with the servant who was forgiven 10,000 talents, the level of gratitude and the knowledge of the forgiven debt ought to have humbled him into constant thankfullness and joy and caused him to serve his master with a greater zeal and ferver than ever before.
That too is how we should serve in Christs kingdom.
Whatever we do, however great others might think of us, we must always have at the forefront of our minds that we are unworthy servants and that even in our best service, we’ve done only what was our duty.
So the question then tonight is, how does our service stack up?
Are we growing spiritually?
Are we laboring with readiness?
Are we humbly submitting ourselves as servants to our king who served better than we can ever hope?
If not, we need to change and no one is better at the people changing business than God.
Perhaps you are here tonight and you are ready for that change, You are tired of serving koplkjlkkjjkllk
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