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Called to Serve Together

Sis. Xiao Cheng

29-11-2020


We are in Week 4 of the series “Growing Small to Become Big.” In Week 1, Sis. Joanna Dorai shared about the commission to reach out together in groups of two. In Week 2, Aunty Christina shared about the call to fellowship together—that we as a community of Christ are meant to be more than just a community that meets for coffee chats. Last week, Dr. Paul Ng spoke about growing together as a community—we meet together and grow not just individually but also as a body of Christ together.

 

Today, my topic is about “Called to Serve Together.” What do we mean by serve together? In church, when we think about serving, we often think of a ministry that we signed up for and once we’re in a ministry, we’re quickly put on a roster and we have duties and schedules that we follow, we show up at the appointed time, and we do the things faithfully. That’s what we’re all used to. But when we think about serving together, we need to realise that together means more than one person; otherwise you’re just serving alone. And serving together means we serve one another and together, we move forward with the kingdom’s purpose and meet each other’s needs. We support one another as we serve together. So we cannot serve together without serving one another.

 

1)  Why do we Serve?

 

Mark 10:45

New International Version

45 For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

 

Jesus the Son of Man is the King of kings and the Lord of lords. When we think of kings and queens and the highest of the monarchy, we often think that there are thousands of servants and all their duties are taken care of. But our Lord Jesus is the King of kings and all authority has been given to Him in heaven and on earth. Yet, He says He did not come to be served, but to serve. When we say that we want to be His disciples and when we say that we are growing as a community of our King, we need to follow Him and His footsteps in serving Him.

 

Mark 10:45

King James Version

45 For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.

 

When we are serving one another, we are actually ministering to one another.

 

When we think of ministering, we often think of a Sunday service where the speaker gives an altar call invitation and when we feel touched by the Holy Spirit and we humble ourselves to move to the front of the altar and let our elders and pastors to lay hands on us. And when they pray over us and pray with us, we feel ministered to. So when we answer a call by someone who needs someone to listen to them and when we speak words of encouragement and extend help to someone who needs our help, we are ministering to one another.

 

To serve is not just about doing a task or checking off your list or following a schedule; it is simply to love one another. That is ministering to one another. But it is not just about serving one another and following God as an act of obedience. Jesus said to His disciples directly after the Last Supper:

 

John 13:34

New International Version

34 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.

 

When God gives the commandment to His disciples, He knows that as a community, we are building relationships with one another. And we need love to build relationships. Every relationship takes effort. The word “love” is such a strong word and maybe it feels like it’s too much to ask from me. How can I love someone whom I barely know in my life group? Not many of us are ready to say that I’m ready to love. But God knows that when we are in a community, we are building relationships with one another. Love requires actions. When we take actions to show and to extend God’s love to one another, we are essentially serving one another.

 

2)  How are we called to Serve One Another Together?

 

Matthew 16:24

New International Version

24 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.

 

Jesus said we must deny ourselves before we say we’re willing to take on the responsibility that He has given to us. The Bible says that the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit. When we are inspired by the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit in us moves us to want to love and obey God and to serve one another. We often find it much easier to do the things that comfortable and convenient for us to do. God knows that it is uncomfortable and difficult to move beyond what is comfortable before we say “yes” to serve. Sometimes saying “yes” to something scares us because we fear what is coming after we say “yes.”

 

To be serving, we must first be willing.

 

What are the things that are stopping us to be willing? Maybe you want to give the best to your career. There is nothing wrong in pursuing excellence in your career. After a hard day’s work, we want to scroll our social media mindlessly to take our minds off things. Some of us want to do online shopping with all the sales going on. It can get life going and it can be comfortable. What more for some of us who have young ones to take care of. At the end of the day, we need to look at what are the areas that is out of our comfort zone and say to God, “I’m willing.”

 

Some of us uncles and aunties have served for many years and have sacrificed so much to growing the kingdom of God and His church over the years. And today, you feel like taking a short break. Or perhaps you want to give opportunities to the young ones to rise up. My uncles and aunties, there is a place for everyone in the kingdom of heaven. God has created all of us wonderfully and uniquely. All of us have a special gift. What more, some of us who have gained many years of experience and have gained so much wisdom in your years of serving. We the younger ones need you. We need to be serving alongside so that we can learn from one another. We need to be learning from your wisdom.

 

Are we willing today?

 

Galatians 5:13

New International Version

Life by the Spirit

13 You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love.

 

This a letter Paul wrote to the early churches of Galatia. We are called to salvation by the grace of Jesus Christ through our faith. Our salvation is not through our works but it is through the grace of Christ. And Paul said about not using our freedom to indulge the flesh. Our flesh is always working in contrary to the Spirit and it is always pulling us away from what the Spirit is telling us to do.

 

We are all called to serve one another humbly in love.

 

Why doesn’t the Word of God say serve one another passionately in love or serve one another joyfully in love or serve one another efficiently in love? Instead, it says serve one another humbly in love. I believe that God is a God of wisdom. He is all-knowing and He knows exactly what we need before we even knew about it. My guess is, as we grow closer to one another together as a community, we are bound to face frictions and tensions. We are bound to have conflicts with one another. Here’s an example: when we know a new friend, we are often very polite. We are very careful of what we say, we filter ourselves, we sometimes even filter the jokes that we make because we are afraid of offending one another. But with our friends that we are closer to, we feel free with them so our behaviours and emotions can come out freely. With our own family members, sometimes there are behaviours and emotions that others have not seen.

 

All of us are different. We have our differences and preferences in the way we do things and in the way we interact with one another. Some of us have pet peeves and we don’t know each other’s pet peeves. So when we have conflicts and disagreements, God knows that when we serve like this and grow closer together, we need humility.

 

Humility helps us to serve together with people of different personalities.

 

God works miraculously when we humble ourselves.

 

He knows how to make us united as a community.

 

God knows that when we face conflicts, we always think that our ideas are better than others and He knows that we need humility.

 

Philippians 2:3

New International Version

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves,

 

As a community of Christ, we are called to love one another.

 

As a community of Christ, we are called to value others above ourselves.

 

The whole central theme of the Bible is about God’s love for us. God serves because He loves.

 

Galatians 5:14

New International Version

14 For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbour as yourself.”

 

To serve is to love.

 

Love will sustain us if we serve out of love. If we serve out of our flesh and our own strength, it is not going to last; we are bound to fall into the temptations of our flesh and there is going to be a lot of disunity. Therefore, we need to serve out of Christ’s love for us.

 

But something is stopping us. We feel like we are stuck in this pandemic. Many of the duties that we used to do on the Sunday services when we meet physically, we are unable to do anymore.

 

May I give you this challenge? We need to change what we think serving is in the church.

 

If you have been gifted with the spirit of hospitality or you have this people skill, perhaps you can start to look around in your life group for the people that you haven’t been connecting well or the people that haven’t been regular to your life group. Reach out to them with this gift that God has given to you that is unique. God will be able to use this to touch lives.

 

If you have the gift of worship, may I encourage you to look around the life groups and see which life groups that actually need people with the talent and gift of worship to lead them into the presence of God—even virtually.

 

If you’re not so much a frontline person and prefers to work in the backend, ask your life group leaders and members what help do they need. If your gift is in exhortation or understanding the Bible, you can encourage someone new to grow in Christ and to know how to live a life that is worthy of the kingdom on this earth.

 

For mothers amongst us who are dealing with young children, there are other mothers out there that need your support or share ideas and experience on how you raise your family together with your husband.

 

We need to stop waiting to go back to the good old days because the season is shifting and God is guiding us on how we can serve one another in this community.

 

Will we avail ourselves and follow God in what He is doing in this season?

 

Let’s stop waiting for the pandemic to be over.

 

We need to serve and to grow as a community of Christ today.

 

We need to love one another and the love can only come from the love of God.


Reflections:

 

1.   What is stopping me from being willing to serve today? What should I do about it?

 

2.   In what areas and to whom I need to humble myself to, to allow myself and others to serve even stronger together?

 

3.   What are my gifts? How can I use that to bless others starting today?


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Called to Serve Together

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