LHIM Everything

A Call to Serve Others

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1. Me Church Video
2. A New Way to be Great
   a. Luke 22.13-27
   b. Luke 9.46-48
   c. We do power differently than the world. We exercise power under rather than power over
3. Washing the Disciples Feet
   a. John 13.1-17, 34-35
   b. Jesus supremely demonstrated power under by washing the disciples' feet.
4. Follow his Example on the Cross
   a. Philippians 2.1-13
   b. We are to look to Jesus' divestment of being in the form of God but taking on the form of a

   slave and stage 2 (going to the cross) as an example for how we are to live.

5. Examples of Service
   a. Fireproof (love was met with bitterness, rejection, strife, and sabotage)
   i. Poured her coffee
   ii. Pathetic flowers with card and chocolates
   iii. Call her@work to see how she was doing or if she needed anything
   iv. Made candlelit dinner (she said walked upstairs then came down and said, "just

   to be clear, I do not love you"
   v. Nice flowers
   vi. Converted to Christianity
   vii. Dishes, Cleaned floor in kitchen
   viii. Served her when she was sick
   b. My house [ceiling and painting and dishwasher and cleaning bathrooms]
   c. Sam (construction)

6. We have some serious needs
   a. refreshments, cleanup, projector, camera man, setup dude, children's felly
   b. first Sunday: setup tables, move chairs, etc.
7. Why serve others?
   a. Service is worship if done for God
   b. The power of service can transform crusted-over, mean-spirited, abusive, jerks
   c. The beauty of service serves as a living expression of God's love in his people and thus

   testifies to God's beauty
   d. The prophetic element of service shows a world without hope that God has plans to fix the world

   and in anticipation of that he is fixing up individuals who already live the lifestyle of the future

When we enter the kingdom they aren't going to have a first class line for the rich and famous like there is at

the airport. No, from a kingdom perspective, fame has been stood on its head. The last will be first and the

first will be last.

From the perspective of the kingdom of God, it is the woman who despite all odds and for no reason other than

her love for God stays with her husband who won't get a job, who is addicted to pornography and weed, who is an

absent father, who occasionally gets violent, this woman is esteemed highly because she stayed with him as a

silent witness of God's incredibly subversive and transforming power to turn enemies into friends through

love…crazy love…the kind of love that needs nothing in return to keep on loving…the kind of love that will

endure abuse but never take advantage of an opportunity to abuse in return (even when she can get away with

it)…

It is like the man who is at the end of his rope because his wife is having an affair, who instead of taking

the easy way out, deals with his own issues before God and then determines to stay and fight for his wife

through incredible acts of kindness and thoughtfulness. He makes up his mind to woo her, chase after her, and

in the end lets her know that if she leaves it will only be after he has fought for her harder than anyone else

ever would. That's the crazy, non-reciprecal, love of God

This kind of love staggers the world…
it's the kind of love that makes Satan mad…
it's the kind of love that makes atheists spit in the face of such irrationality…
it's the kind of love that keeps a dignified, sinless naked man on a cross though he is able at any moment to

call angels to his aid…
it's the kind of love that alone can change lives because of its power to convict and woo the hearts of the

sinners…
it's the kind of love that will one day permeate all of creation…
and it's the kind of love that you and I are called to live out in the power of the holy spirit

and in that day, the day our Lord returns, all of those who bought in to the myth of redemptive vengeance

(power by force), indeed, the majority of humankind, will find their own wisdom to be foolishness, their own

logic to be irrational, and their own self-preservation to be suicidal, when they observe the new world God is

going to make–a world that runs on his seemingly crazy, self-sacrificial love.

In that day, the inhabitants of the world to come will only know true love because all of the counterfeits will

have expired. And all who settled for the cheap flashy substitute of this present evil age which is bought on

sale and paid for with credit cards, will suddenly discover with the agony that causes weeping and gnashing of

teeth, that they have been excluded from something truly beautiful, something that actually makes sense, a

world without fear, hatred, jealousy, bitterness, sickness or death…a world permeated with this outrageous

cross-shaped love.