Mid-Week 03.21.07

What if I came up to you and was able to offer you $3,000 in cash and had arranged for you to have the next week off of work? I can’t! But what if I could? Right now, sitting at your computer at the mid-way portion of your week, what do you think you would do with your time and money? Would you plan a quick trip? There are always cheap flights when you book them last minute? Where would you go? What would you do? What would you do if suddenly you had extra money and extra time?

After day dreaming a bit about what you would do and where you would go, get ready to come crashing back to earth, because I am about to ruin it. Yes, the pastor is going to spoil your good time. You see, it’s not my job to hand out extra money and extra time, but it is my job to challenge the hearts of those I lead and it makes me a real anchor some times. I know if someone offered me extra money and extra time that I am sure I could find a million ways to waste it all one me, Me, ME! My first thought would be how I could use my stuff to meet my needs. It’s how I’m wired. Chances are, it is how you are wired too and the problem is that we all need some re-wiring.

Galatians 5:13
“You, my brothers, were called to be free.
But do not use your freedom to indulge your sinful nature;
rather, serve one another in love.”

I should title this section “Why I Hate Reading The Bible.” You see, what I offered you in my first paragraph was a Freedom Daydream. I offered you extra time and money and didn’t put any restrictions on it. I hope some of you immediately thought of others but unfortunately for most of us, we’re still stuck in ME mode. Galatians comes along and says that when we are given freedom, our natural tendency is to indulge ourselves. We don’t even have to work at it – it’s just natural. But in Christ, we are offered a supernatural experience. Rather than indulge ourselves, we are challenged to grab a towel and use our new found freedom to serve others in love. God wants to re-wire our hearts so that the moment we have extra anything we are not looking to satisfy ourselves but meet the needs of others.

There are four basic words in the language of the New Testament that are often translated serve, servant or serving. All in all, this basic concept is used over 300 times in the New Testament. The two words used most frequently are douleo and diakoneo.

Douleo litterally means to be a slave; to serve, to obey, to submit. It’s used in both a good and bad sense. On the positive side, the word means to serve God and others in a context of Christian love. On the negative side it means to become a slave to some base power, as in being “slaves to sin” in Romans 6:6.

Diakoneo means to “minister” to someone. In a more specific case, New Testament writers used this word to describe someone who serves people food and drinks; someone who cares for others’ material needs. In a more general sense, it describes those who attend to anything that may serve another’s interest. It is from this Greek word that churches have gotten the word Deacon.

In the Galatians passage above, Paul uses the term doulos which is a form of douleo. So litterally, Paul is asking that, as believers and followers of Christ, we need to become servants to each other out of love. In other words we need to be slaves to each other through love.

Love needs to be the guiding principle in our loves, expressed through acts of service and kindness. We can override the natural law of ME with the supernatural law of WE, if our hearts are transformed by the supernatural law of love. The average 747 weighs over 400 tons when fully loaded. The law of gravity says, THOU SHALT NOT FLY. But with enough engineering, jet power and momentum, the law of aerodynamics overcomes the law of gravity. The natural law of my heart uses freedom to indulge ME. The supernatural law of love uses freedom to help me meet the needs of others.

Romans 8:1-2 “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.”

You may not have extra time and extra money right now, but it doesn’t mean that you don’t have extra love to share. The last time I checked, God isn’t running low on love so just ask Him for some extra and then use that extra to serve someone else.

What if I came up to you and was able to offer you $3,000 in cash and had arranged for you to have the next week off of work?