Lesson 4, Week 3: Becoming Spiritually Whole By Serving Our Family and Community

Today’s Scripture Focus:  Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation, the old has gone, the new has come.

*Pause and ask the Holy Spirit to teach you as you read and study God’s Word.

Serve?  Been there, done that!  We’ve worked hard to provide for our families, and we’ve done our stint in community service.  We been classroom helpers, chairpersons of the “Beautify our Town” projects, and served on every conceivable drive.  Now it is time for the younger set to move into the passing lane and head on down the thoroughfare of life.  We’ll just relax and set the control on cruise—thus, goes the thinking of many seniors.  Surely this thinking has sprung up from the psychological jargon of the last few decades, which is “look out for number one.”

But that is not how it has been, nor how it is meant to be.  I’ve heard it said that it takes a village to raise a child, and there is a lot of truth to that statement.  The popular TV series, the Waltons, showed us the benefits of involving the grandparents. Extra hands are always a blessing.  Expertise, resulting from years of experience, can make the pathway smoother.  Years ago, grandparents supplied these needs by living near, or with, their married children and their grandchildren.

Today, grandparents are still needed. Moms, dads, and children of all ages, race through life as if on roller-blades.  Parents race to job, then home again to evenings jam-packed with family and community activities. 

Grandparents are often called in to assist, whether they be near or far. Long distant grandparents may be called on to catch the next flight out and assist with whatever needs have arose.  Nearby grandparents may be called on to baby-sit or chauffer. 

In addition to our family’s needs, community service still beckons because (truthfully) the younger generation is working long hours and striving to be good parents and spouses.   Grandparents are needed.  Would we have it any other way? 

Think On These Things

But how can serving help us become spiritually whole?  It all has to do with one word, “obedience.”  Christ came not only to save mankind, but He came to serve.  Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourself.  Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also the interests of others.  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 gasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.  Philippians 2:3-7 NIV

When worldly wisdom is telling us we’d better look out for our needs, and we are not feeling up to par, these verses reverberate seemingly impossible demands. 

God is not asking us to be doormats—to do all the work while others sit.  Nor is He asking us to ignore wrongs, or calling us to “just” busyness.   But He is asking that when we see a need, we not be above fulfilling that need. 

The greatest among you will be your servant.  For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.  Matthew 23:11-12 NIV

Three things that can keep us from serving others:

1. Prideful spirit—a sense that it’s not our place and that we are above having to stoop to such service.

Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you.  Romans 12:3 NIV

2.  Self-love—a sense of focusing on our needs rather than others.

“A new commandment I give you:  Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.  By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”  John 13:34-35 NIV

Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with action and in truth.  I John 3:18 NIV

3.  Laziness—The soul of the sluggard desireth, and hath nothing: but the soul of the diligent is made fat. Proverbs 13:4 KJV

The truth is we will never become spiritually whole until we surrender these faulty attitudes.

Read Matthew 12:15-22

Christ was not above being a servant.  We are called to be imitators of Christ.  Our walk must match our talk.

Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us, and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.  Ephesians 4:1-2 NIV

What I Have Learned

Christ came not only to save, but to ________________.

Our attitude should be the same as_______________.

Jesus tells us that to be great we need to _______________.

To be a servant, we have to be willing to ___________Jesus’ teachings.

Three mind-sets that serve as roadblocks to service are:

1.

2.

3.

Whom are we to imitate?_________________

How I Will Apply What I Have Learned

1. I will prayerfully examine my heart and ask the Holy Spirit to reveal my faulty attitudes concerning serving others.
2. I will pray for God to show me places I can serve and where He wants me to serve.
3. I will pray for God to help me prioritize my life. 

We must remember that the key in service is balance.   We must not neglect our families while pursue community service.  One person is not called to fulfill all needs, but every person is called to serve some need. 

Father,

      I pray for a teachable heart.  Reveal to me any wrong thinking regarding service to my family and your children who make up my community.  May I confess any sins of pride, self-love, or laziness that 
have taken up residence within my mind and heart. May I see people and their needs through Your eyes.  Show me which needs I am to fulfill and how.  You’ve called me to serve; and Father, help me to do it willingly.  In Jesus’ Name, Amen.