"Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, "but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. "And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death - even death on a cross!" (Phil. 2:5-8)

A man was walking through a cemetery one night while taking a shortcut home, and he fell into a newly dug grave that he didn't know was there. He tried and tried to get out, but couldn't. So he sat down in the dark corner of the grave and resigned to wait until sunrise, hoping someone would find him. But it didn't take that long. Within an hour, another man walking through the cemetery fell into that same grave. He was struggling and climbing, doing whatever he could to get out. After a few minutes, the guy in the dark corner said, "You can't get out of here." But that voice was all it took for the second guy to get out of that grave, and I mean quick!

There are all kinds of things that can motivate us and get us moving. In this case fear was certainly the motivator. Fear does motivate us to do something a while, but rarely does that motivation last. Sooner or later it usually loses its thrust.

Today we are going to explore what can give us that desire and motivation to serve as Jesus served.
Everyone serves in some way or another, but today we want to pinpoint the kind of service Jesus calls us to as disciples. I believe it is different than just any type of serving. So let's start by exploring what motivates us to serve in the first place: What motivates you to serve?

Each year the cub scouts who meet at Clay U.M.C. are invited to come and clean up the cemetery as part of a service project. It is emphasized to the boys that if they come and fulfill this service, they will receive a patch. So sometimes we use a little reward system in our society to get things done that don't normally get done. If our church agrees to adopt-a-mile of road and keep the roadside clean, a sign will be placed sharing with the community that Faith U.M.C. is keeping this roadside clean. And when we pass by that sign it reminds us and gives us motivation to get out there and pick up that trash. What will people think if our name is out there and we don't clean it up! Just a bit of a motivation and recognition for the service provided. We see it everywhere in our society. Many groups supporting great causes use rewards and recognition as a motivator to serve.

However, we don't see Jesus serving out of this type of motivation. Jesus was motivated to serve by his compassion for others. Even in times when he was very tired and had been serving people all day, still he served them out of that compassion. Listen to this scripture in Matthew 9:35-36. Jesus was serving night and day and his motivation wasn't coming from any recognition that he was receiving. It was from the deep compassion he had for others. Love is a tremendous motivator.

Do you desire that kind of compassion? I do. I desire to love people like Jesus loved. But I find that I get in the way of that kind of love. Sometimes I'll have a call on the phone from someone who is seeking help and it never fails that these calls come at a time when I must leave or have an appointment or meeting. One call came at such a time from a man who was seeking help for his neighbor who needed gasoline to get her daughter to school. I told the man to please call me back at a certain time and I would be glad to talk to him. But he didn't call back. And to be honest, I forgot all about that call until a few days later. I was so preoccupied with what I had to get done, that I didn't think about the lady needing gas. I hope she received what she needed.

That happens to all of us and it happened in Jesus' day. People walked by those they had seen for years who had begged from them each day on the streets. Sometimes they probably noticed them but at other times I'm sure they didn't. They were preoccupied with what they had to do and just passed them by. But not Jesus. He stopped and had compassion for each one. Did you notice how the scripture put it - he went about healing every disease and sickness. That's a lot of compassion.

The motivator for Jesus was the deepest love for humankind possible. We don't have that kind of love naturally in us because we are fallen people. Ever since the garden or Eden we've had this problem with pride in our lives that keeps us from loving the way God intended for us to love. John Ortberg says, "At the deepest level, pride is the choice to exclude both God and other people from their rightful place in our hearts…Pride destroys our capacity to love." If this is the case, then can I ever have the right motivation to serve?

The answer is yes, we can, but it won't come from us. It must come from the love that only God can pour in our hearts. Christ-like service is only motivated by agape (God's love that flows through us). This kind of love only comes when we allow the Holy Spirit to cultivate that love in our hearts. It's the same love that Paul describes in I Cor. 13 (read). When we receive Christ as a Savior and invite the Holy Spirit to go to work in us that love is poured out upon us. However, we must abide in that love daily for it to take root in our hearts and grow. The abiding takes training on our part - being attentive to the pride that is in us and allowing the love of God to uproot that pride and plant other seeds in its place.

What enables you to serve as Christ served?

The Holy Spirit enables us to serve with Christ-like love by changing our character. The first thing that must be changed is that pride. In the place of pride, Jesus invites us to "humble ourselves."

The only way we become humble is to forget ourselves and put God and others before us.
(Story of the doctor bathing the patient)

True servanthood begins when we humble ourselves & depend on God to work through us. (Phil. 2:7-8)

I've heard people say, "I can't do that - I don't have enough experience…education…know-how…ability. But those who humble themselves don't worry about those kinds of things. They just lean on God and let God work all that out. The best servers are not those who are the most talented, trained, or gifted. They are those who are willing. That's the bottom line. When we are willing to get beyond ourselves and into the strength and abilities that only the Holy Spirit can bring, then God's love flows through us and touches the lives of others. If we think we're not good enough, qualified enough, or skilled enough, that really can be a mark of pride because we are rejecting to serve saying that we know better than God what we're capable of. What we forget is that God is capable of doing anything with an humble heart.

When we humble ourself and depend on God, then we must accept that serving is our purpose.

That nasty parable Jesus told is something we don't resonate with. We like some of Jesus' parables, but this one is tough news. It basically puts us in the category with people who are servants and we'd rather be on the other side of the table. But it's very true. I'm sure John Ennis used to get so many calls in the morning thanking him for serving as a police officer in the community that he hardly had time to get ready - right? Wrong! People didn't call John and say, "Thank you so much for serving our community today. No! They just expected him to get out there and get on the beat and do his duty. It's that way with many jobs. We don't get thanked every minute. We're just going in to do our job. We like to be thanked and appreciated, but we don't expect it do we? Jesus makes the same comparison to our Christian life of service. It is our purpose to serve. We must humble ourselves to realize we aren't special because we're serving. This is what we are supposed to do. The service is what is special, not us - we are simply letting Jesus work through us.

And when we humble ourselves to be in Christ-like service, we are enabled to be available to do what God requires. Sometimes that work available makes me cringe. I'll get a call and someone on the other end will say, "Hey are you going to be around for a while?" Then I think, "Well, it's according to what you want me to be around for!" I would really like to chose if this is something I want to be involved in or not. But humbleness doesn't give us that choice. It calls us to say, "Yeah, I'm here to serve." Look at the Good Samaritan. All the others were on their way to the religious meetings and duties. But he was available to serve the man who was injured. He is the example of availability, not those who were religious but not willing to serve. (Luke 10:33)

Allowing the Holy Spirit to come in and train us in humbleness leads us not only to more compassion and willingness to serve, but it begins to transform our life in some very powerful ways.

What happens when you serve with a Christ-like heart?

We will see others differently - through Christ's eyes.

First heart and hand home - built for a poor family. Never had anything other than a shack. Never lived on anything other than a dirt floor. Most of their food they grew and canned themselves. Children had never been to a restaurant. I spent a summer working with various mission teams to build a home for the sister of this family. I was with these families day in and day out. I saw these families as very different from myself and always as just dirt poor and backwards. But the love that poured out of those families hearts started to change me. The smiles on their faces daily uplifted me. Then I begin to see that even though they were poor as dirt, they were so much richer than I in so many ways. Grace was healed of cancer. It was a faith healing. Her faith made her well. She was so rich in faith. I had the Birmingham news interview her for an article on faith-healing. Here I was the pastor, but she was the one with the experience. It changed the way I looked at that family forever.

That's what happens when we spend time serving with one another. When we humble ourselves and bear one another's burdens, love begins to help us see with new eyes.

Be completely humble, gentle, & patient, bearing with one another in love. (Eph. 4:2)

We join with Christ to meet the true need. (John 3:16-17)

I can't tell you the number of times the churches I've served have been called on to help people with some bill or physical need that they could have called a human resource center for assistance. But here's what they often have told me. "Those people don't act like they even care about you when you go in their office. They don't want to listen to you. They just want to get you done and get you out." What I hear in that is I called the church because I want someone to not just help me physically, but to care about me. I want someone to listen to my pain and hurt. Sometimes people want you to pray with them. I can't tell you the number of times I've had to send people back to the human resource center to help them and they were O.K. with that after I had taken time to talk with them or pray with them. The true need is much deeper than the physical need. People need Christ to meet that true need. Only he can do it. That's the difference Christians can bring when we have compassion. We often can allow Jesus to work through us to meet that true need.

We will experience joy and fulfillment (Hebrews 12:2)

I was joyous last night when Auburn pulled out that win. But I know that that is a temporary joy that will not last. Next week is another game and it may not bring that kind of joy. But there is a joy that Jesus brings that cannot be taken from us. Serving brings that kind of joy to our lives. I have seen many people who have gone through a loss and they will be overburdened with grief. However, those same people who kept serving were able to experience joy even through the most horrible times of grief.

John Ed Mathison tells the story of a business man name Jack in Atlanta who was who was called on by a friend who worked with a Boys' Club to take a boy with Leukemia to a doctor's appointment. The family had no transportation and it was imminent that he make his appointment. He reluctantly agreed, even though he had a terribly busy schedule. When he arrived at the shabby apartment to pick up the boy, he didn't like the neighborhood. He had the mother and child to get into the car quickly and the boy ended up with his head in his mother's lap and his feet on his lap. Jack was a bit irritated but he let it slide. He tried to strike up a conversation with the boy, but he wouldn't say anything. However, when the car stopped at a red light the boy simply said, "Mister, are you God?" "What do you mean?" Jack asked, puzzled. "Well, yesterday Mama prayed and then she told me that God was going to come and take me home. Then you came to get me. Are you God?"
Jack said, "No, son, I'm not. But I'd sure like to be His helper." Soon after that experience the boy died. Jack prayed and decided he wanted to be the hands and feet of God on earth, helping people like that boy. He quit his job, and now he works a full-time ministry helping others. He found joy and fulfillment in being a servant of God.

Albert Einstein at one time had portraits of great scientists on his wall. But at the end of his life these portraits of Newton and Maxwell came down and he replaced them with two others: Mahatma Gandhi and Albert Schweitzer. Someone asked him about the switch and he replied that he had discovered it was service, not science, that makes all the difference in life.

"The only ones among you who will be truly happy are those who have sought and found how to serve." - Albert Einstein