Romans 12:1-13 Why would my heart be inflamed when and as we serve? Because we are living out our nature, our nature's purpose: it is when We are most like Jesus - a humble, loving servant.
Serve - to be a slave, enslaved - the verb
I am a slave, am subject to
to serve as a slave, having all personal ownership rights assigned to the owner; (figuratively) to willingly give over the prerogative to be self-governing.
to yield obedience, Romans 7:6; τίνι, to obey one's commands and render to him the services due.
Phil 2:5-8
Jesus, a slave? - the noun, the one who serves or is a slave
someone who belongs to another; a bond-slave, without any ownership rights of their own. Ironically, ("bond-slave") is used with the highest dignity in the NT – namely, of believers who willingly live under Christ's authority as His devoted followers.
“I have not come to be served, but to serve.”
Father
John 5:19 “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.”
John 6:38 “I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me.”
His brothers…, and, family
Mark 3:34-35 “Here are my mother and my brothers! 35Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.”
John 19:26 “When Jesus saw his mother standing there beside the disciple he loved, he said to her, “Dear woman, here is your son.”
Acts 1:14 “They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.”
1Corinthians 15:7 “Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles”
By coming to love the world, loving us, having set an example for us, teaches us to love
John 13:34 “A new commandment I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you also must love one another.”
1John 4:10 “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.”
Romans 5:8,10 “...God proves His love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
Am I a disciple…
As Jesus serves the Father, the Spirit serves Jesus… and us.
John 14:23-26 “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. 24Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me. 25“All this I have spoken while still with you. 26But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.
John 10:35 “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
So, what do we do? Our mission to the lost should be an extension of how we live and love those close.
It begins at home with those with whom we live and work - it is ours to love and serve others by praying, caring, and sharing. Service with and to one another ignites and fuels our spiritual fervor, bringing to fervent boil our heart’s zeal for God, His people, and His mission - to win to Himself the lost - and that with our loving cooperation. So, we must see that service and mission are inseparable, they are intertwined, each causes the other to go act and move, like a perpetual motion machine.
Service and mission are both an act of love, yes a love expressed to who we serve and share, but also an expression of our love for God and who and what God loves. Each is a loving act of obedience to Jesus and His commands and is a grateful and humble response of the heart that has been loved and desires to please the One who commands, and expresses this love the same way it has been loved.
Our heart’s passion, is fanned into flame, by service, and bringing our spirits to a “boil”, our hearts begin to spill over with love for God and what God loves, now, loving as God has loved us, there is forming in us a compassion for the world, that is, the lost, and a growing compelling us to go
Family
Family of God - John 13:34-35; 1John 4:7-21; Romans 12
they will know you are my disciples by how you love one another
Keeping your spiritual fervor by serving the Lord
Neighbor - love your neighbor as yourself - James 2:8; Rom 13:8
Being prepared to give a reason for your hope when you’re asked - 1Peter 3:13-16
