John Lloyd - Bless Series "S.1"
/"Serve In Love"
BLESS Series: Serve in Love
Pastor John Lloyd
March 18, 2018
Series Overview: During the B.L.E.S.S. sermon series, we will gain a deeper understanding of Jesus’ Mission to reach the lost, restore the broken, reproduce disciples that make disciples and release them into Jesus’ Mission as well as discover our own unique part. Each message will focus on a story about Jesus demonstrating his Mission and how he fulfilled it through B.L.E.S.S.ing others.
B - Begin with Prayer “Asking God who do want me to bless today?”
L – Listen with Care “Listening to the people and places where you are.”
E – Eat Together.“Share meals, hospitality and create strong relationships.”
S- Serve in Love
S-
Mark 7:31 Jesus left Tyre and went up to Sidon before going back to the Sea of Galilee and the region of the Ten Towns. 32 A deaf man with a speech impediment was brought to him, and the people begged Jesus to lay his hands on the man to heal him. 33 Jesus led him away from the crowd so they could be alone. He put his fingers into the man’s ears. Then, spitting on his own fingers, he touched the man’s tongue. 34 Looking up to heaven, he sighed and said, “Ephphatha,” which means, “Be opened!” 35 Instantly the man could hear perfectly, and his tongue was freed so he could speak plainly! 36 Jesus told the crowd not to tell anyone, but the more he told them not to, the more they spread the news. 37 They were completely amazed and said again and again, “Everything he does is wonderful. He even makes the deaf to hear and gives speech to those who cannot speak.” (New living Translation)
Big Idea: The 4th habit of missional people: to bless people on the Jesus mission, we will serve individuals and communities at their point of need.
Commitment: I will serve in love one person this week.
I. Jesus has ______________ you in love.
The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve… Mk.10:45.
John 13:15 For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you.
Philippians 2:3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. (Philippians 2:4-8, 2 Corinthians 4:5, Galatians 2:20)
“In ministry, we tend to forget theology and strive for servanthood and action. That attempt is, often short-lived because it quickly runs out of a logic that keeps it going. Discouragement is the result. Our motivation is simply to be like and do the will of our heavenly Father.” Klyne Snodgrass
Prayer: Lord, make me servant! Thank you for serving me with your life, death, burial and resurrection. May your resurrection life empower me to serve as you have served me.
II. Serving in love is ______________________.
Mark 7:32 A deaf man with a speech impediment was brought to him, and the people begged Jesus to lay his hands on the man to heal him.
God has either sent you to the people you are to serve, or He is going to send you to the people you are to serve. Dave Ferguson
Take some time to reflect on who is near you who you can serve.
III. Serving in love is ______________________.
Mark 7:33 Jesus led him away from the crowd so they could be alone…
Identify common interests and celebrate them.
Notice what people like and don’t like and act on what you learn.
Ask about and accept people’s values to whatever degree you can authentically do so.
Identify something in that person you admire, remembering that they were made in God’s image.
Anticipate people’s needs and try to meet them.
Notice and receive the gifts people give you.
Prayer: Help me to perceive the needs of those around me.
IV. Serving in love is ______________________.
Mark 7:34 Looking up to heaven, he sighed and said, “Ephphatha,” which means, “Be opened!”
Matthew 9:36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.
John 11:33 When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved [5] in his spirit and greatly troubled.
“Whoever we are called to serve, we need to feel their pain.” Alan Hirsch
Serving others is going to get personal.
Prayer: Help me to feel the pain of those I am called to serve.
V. Serving in love is ______________________.
Mark 7:34 Looking up to heaven, he sighed and said, “Ephphatha,” which means, “Be opened!” 35 Instantly the man could hear perfectly, and his tongue was freed so he could speak plainly! 36 Jesus told the crowd not to tell anyone, but the more he told them not to, the more they spread the news. (John 14:12, James 5:16b)
Matthew 25:21 His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’
Reciprocity: Allow people to serve you back.
Pray Aloud in Unison: Lord, you have loved and served me both in small ways and with the gift of life. Whom do you want me to bless this week? Open my eyes to see who you want me to serve in practical ways and from whom I might also ask for help. Show me who I can serve in love. Help me include those who are often excluded from our community. Give me the time, courage, and compassion to serve those who have been left out. Help me become more like you, Lord Jesus.
Growth Group Questions for March 18, 2018
Review: How are you praying for people on your BLESS list? On behalf of the unchurched people on your list, what are you asking God to answer? How are you listening to the people on your BLESS list? What question(s) did you ask and how did they respond? Who have you asked to join you with a meal? How did it go?
1. When was there a time that someone truly served you? How did that affect you? What did it do to your relationship?
2. Read Philippians 2:3-8, Matthew 20:26-28, 2 Corinthians 4:5. Why is it important for us to root our service in Christ and His example to us? How does serving make us more like Jesus?
3. Read John 13:1-17. What stands out to you from this passage? What kind of menial service might be a contemporary parallel to foot-washing today?
4. How did being secure in his identity and status with God help Jesus serve others? How did a habit of loving and serving in his life prepare Jesus to love them in even more sacrificial ways at the end of his life?
5. In what other concrete and practical ways did Jesus serve people journeying toward faith in God? In what ways did Jesus receive service from people journeying toward God?
6. When was there a time when you served someone? How did it affect you? What did it do to your relationship? What most often keeps you from serving people?
7. How do you think God may be calling you to serve someone? What is one step you can take toward obeying God and serving that person?
8. How could serving those who are outsiders to the Christian faith become a more regular part of your life?
The 4th habit of highly missional people: I will commit to serve one person this week.
Prayer: Lord, you are servant. Please help me to be like you and serve others as you have served me.
Philippians 2:3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. 4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. 5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
Matthew 20:26 It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, 27and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, 28 even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. 2 Corinthians 4:5 For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake.
John 13:1 Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. 2 During supper, when the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray him, 3 Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going back to God, 4 rose from supper. He laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist. 5Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him. 6He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, do you wash my feet?” 7 Jesus answered him, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand.” 8 Peter said to him, “You shall never wash my feet.” Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no share with me.” 9 Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!” 10 Jesus said to him, “The one who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet, but is completely clean. And you are clean, but not every one of you.” 11 For he knew who was to betray him; that was why he said, “Not all of you are clean.” 12 When he had washed their feet and put on his outer garments and resumed his place, he said to them, “Do you understand what I have done to you? 13 You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. 14 If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. 15 For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you.