Because Jesus served us first, our whole lives become opportunities to serve as He did.
Introduction: Picture two men walking into a room. The first walks in and everyone begins serving him. Chairs are pulled out. Coffee is poured. Conversations pause so he can speak. The second walks in and immediately starts looking for who needs help: who is carrying too much, who has been ignored, who needs a seat. Which one does our culture call great? Almost without hesitation, we point to the first man. We have been trained to measure greatness by influence, wealth, authority, or the number of people who answer to us when we call.
That is exactly the argument the disciples were having in Mark 10. James and John had just asked Jesus for the two best seats in His coming kingdom, one on His right, one on His left.
Jesus’ response? “42 And Jesus called them to him and said to them, “You know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. 43 But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, 44 and whoever would be first among you must be slave[b] of all. 45 For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Mark 10:42-25)
This is the Word of God…
The Kingdom of God is an upside-down kingdom. A kingdom of service, modeled for us by Jesus.
The eternal Son of God, who spoke galaxies into existence and needed nothing from anyone. Yet He stepped out of heaven’s glory and took on flesh. He wrapped a towel around His waist and washed the feet of men who would abandon Him within hours. He touched lepers no one else would touch. He welcomed women and children that everyone else pushed aside. And in his ultimately act of service, He stretched out His arms on a Roman cross and gave His life as a sacrifice for people who did not deserve to be rescued.
The cross is the greatest act of service the world has ever witnessed. Jesus was not a victim of circumstances beyond His control. He willingly went to the cross because He loved rebels enough to die so they could become children of God.
The cross changes everything for us. The good news of the cross is this: the one and only holy God created us in his image to know him. But we sinned, rebelled against him, and deserved his judgment. In his great love, God became man in Jesus Christ, lived the perfect life we could not live, died on the cross in our place, and bore the punishment our sins deserved. He rose from the dead, proving that his sacrifice was accepted and that sin and death had been defeated. Now God calls everyone to repent and trust in Christ alone. All who do are forgiven, reconciled to God, born again, and given eternal life.
We do not serve to earn God’s love. We serve because we have already received it. Every act of service we offer should be an echo of the service we have already been shown. Christianity was never meant to be only a set of beliefs we agree with in our heads. It is a life that increasingly resembles the Jesus who gave His. If Christ’s life was marked by humble, joyful, costly service, then ours should be marked by the very same thing.
Some of you may already be pushing back inside. Maybe you are thinking, “I already give everything I have. I serve at work, I serve my kids, I am exhausted. The last thing I need is another sermon telling me to do more.” This is not a guilt trip about doing more. Guilt is a poor fuel. This morning is not about “trying harder.” It is about looking at what Jesus has already done for you, until serving Him stops feeling like a burden and starts feeling like the only appropriate response in every aspect of our lives.
I. We Serve God
“ I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” – Romans 12:1–2
Romans 12 comes after eleven chapters of some of the richest theology ever written. Paul has walked through human sinfulness, justification by faith, the depths of God’s grace, and the security believers have in Christ. Then, after eleven chapters of pure gospel truth, he writes: “Therefore.”
That word is the hinge on which the entire Christian life swings. Because of everything God has done, because of mercy lavished on people who deserved wrath, because of a righteousness given to people who had none of their own, therefore we present our bodies. Service is never the payment for grace; it is always the response to it. If we ever begin serving God to earn His favor, we have missed the gospel entirely and begin to believe a false gospel. We serve because we have already been given more favor than we could ever repay: “8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” (Ephesians 2:8–9).
Paul calls this a “living sacrifice.” Under the Old Testament system, sacrifices died. An animal was brought to the altar, its life was taken, and it was placed there once. What he’s saying is that you present your outer self as a living sacrifice because this is the worship your inner self is offering. We are a united whole, inner and outer, spiritual and bodily, and our entire being participates in worship.
You can’t just think right; you must also act right. Our schedules, our ambitions, our finances, our relationships, our careers, none of it sits outside God’s ownership. All of it belongs to Him.
Paul calls this “your spiritual worship.” We tend to think worship is something that happens for the first 25 minutes on Sunday morning when the music starts. Scripture says worship actually begins on Monday, when you choose that you are going to work diligently instead of wasting time, when you are patient with a toddler at six in the morning for the fifth day in a row, when you stay faithful in a moment of temptation, when you are generous when nobody will ever know you gave. Worship is far greater and more important than just the songs we sing. It is the offering of an entire life, where every moment, task, and relationship becomes an act of worship because there is no divide between the sacred and the secular.
If the true gospel has not captured our heart, every act of service will eventually turn back around and become about us, our reputation, our comfort, our need to be needed. Service that does not begin with surrender to God eventually morphs into self-service wearing a disguise.
Someone might ask, “Doesn’t this contradict grace? I thought we were saved by faith alone, not by works. Now you’re telling me to offer my whole life. Isn’t that just works-based religion with extra steps?” It is a fair question. We are never asked to serve in order to be accepted by God. We are directed to serve because we already have been accepted in Jesus. A living sacrifice is not a payment offered to secure God’s favor. It is a response offered because His favor is already secure. Grace does not make obedience unnecessary. Grace is what finally makes obedience possible without fear.
II. We Serve Our Family
In Marriage
Paul writes in Ephesians 5:21 that believers are to “submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.” That mutual humility sets the tone for every relationship in the Christian life, but nowhere is it more visible, or more painfully absent when it is missing, than in marriage. Marriage was never designed to be a negotiation over whose preferences win. It is two sinners learning, day by day, to place another person’s needs ahead of their own comfort.
Husbands are given a specific calling here. Ephesians 5:25-30 says, “25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, 26 that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.[a] 28 In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, 30 because we are members of his body.” Think about what that love looked like: sacrificial, patient, forgiving, unrelenting, selfless even to the point of death. Biblical headship was never meant to be about demanding service from a wife. It is about a husband gladly giving himself away for her good. A godly husband keeps asking, “How can I help my wife flourish, spiritually, emotionally, physically?” A husband’s responsibility for his wife’s sanctification.
Peter adds in 1 Peter 3:7, commanding husbands to live with their wives “in an understanding way,” showing them honor. That means slowing down enough to actually listen, not waiting for your turn to talk, but seeking to understand. Service in marriage rarely looks dramatic. It looks like doing the dishes without being asked, listening well after a hard day, praying together, quickly admitting “I was wrong, will you forgive me?”
After commanding husbands to love sacrificially, Paul writes, “The wife must respect her husband” (Ephesians 5:33), and earlier says, “Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord” (Ephesians 5:22). This is not inferiority, passivity, or silence. It is the voluntary, joyful disposition to support and encouragement
Peter likewise calls wives to display “Wives, in the same way submit yourselves to your own husbands so that, if any of them do not believe the word, they may be won over without words by the behavior of their wives, 2 when they see the purity and reverence of your lives. 3 Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as elaborate hairstyles and the wearing of gold jewelry or fine clothes. 4 Rather, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight.” (1 Peter 3:1-4). This is not a personality type but a heart that trusts God. A godly wife serves her husband by encouraging rather than tearing down, speaking truth with grace, praying for him, helping him pursue Jesus, and helping create a home marked by peace rather than competition. Her service is not rooted in whether her husband deserves it, but in her reverence for Christ.
In a healthy Christian marriage, neither spouse is asking, “How much do I have to give?” Instead, both are asking, “How can I outdo one another in showing honor?” (Romans 12:10). When a husband is laying down his life in love, and a wife is gladly supporting and respecting him, the world catches a glimpse of the gospel itself. Marriage becomes more than a relationship; it becomes a living picture of Christ’s love for His church.
In Parenting
Parents are called to something far bigger than raising well-behaved, successful, or impressive kids. We are called to make disciples of our own children first. We spent a good portion of the year in Deuteronomy, and in chapter 6 we saw a beautiful picture of what that looks like: “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.[b] 5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6 And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart.7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates” (Deuteronomy 6:4-9). Spiritual formation happens in a thousand ordinary moments: car rides, dinner tables, bedtime routines, on walks where the truth of God gets woven into everyday life.
Ephesians 6:4 commands fathers not to provoke their children to anger, but to bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. Parenting requires correction, but it also requires affection, encouragement, consistency, and grace. Our goal as parents is not merely outward compliance. It is hearts that increasingly treasure Christ above everything else.
Children
Children are not only recipients of their parents’ service; they are also called to learn the joy of serving through obedience. Scripture consistently presents obedience to parents as one of the first ways children learn to honor God. As they submit to their parents’ loving authority, they are ultimately learning to submit to the Lord Himself.
Paul writes in Ephesians 6:1-2, “Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. 2 “Honor your father and mother” (this is the first commandment with a promise).” Obedience is more than simply following instructions when someone is watching. It’s about who you are obeying: first God and then parents. It is a heart that trusts God by honoring the parents He has given.
In Caring for Aging Parents
Service to family does not end when we leave childhood behind. 1Timothy 5 tells us that caring for aging parents is a fundamental Christian duty and a direct expression of genuine faith. The church certainly has a role to play in caring for those in need, but Paul is direct: our first responsibility is toward our own household.
In a culture that often treats aging parents as inconveniences to be managed rather than people to be honored, Christians have a unique opportunity to put the gospel on display. Whether that looks like financial support, practical help around the house, regular visits, or unhurried presence, serving our parents in their later years reflects God’s own heart toward us. He has never once treated us as a burden.
III. We Serve One Another
1 Peter 4:10
“As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace.”
Peter reminds believers that every one of us has received a gift from God, and that gift was never given to make much of us. It was given to strengthen the people around us. There is no such thing as an unnecessary member in the body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:12–27). Every believer walks into church carrying something valuable to contribute, whether they realize it or not.
This means the local church was never meant to function like a store where we show up to consume a product. The church is a family we belong to. We live in a deeply consumeristic culture, and it seeps into how we evaluate churches without us even noticing. We might not ask out loud, “What did I get out of that service? Did the music move me? Did the sermon meet my needs?” Serving means using the gifts God has entrusted to you for the good of His church. The New Testament never pictures the church as a gathering of spectators. Every believer has been gifted by the Holy Spirit to build up the body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12; Ephesians 4:11–16; 1 Peter 4:10–11). When each member of the body serves, the church grows stronger, healthier, and more effective in carrying out its mission.
Right now, this isn’t just a theological principle; it’s a practical reality. We are currently about fourteen volunteers short in Kids Ministry. Holly shared this week that, unless something changes, we may not have enough volunteers to have the nursery open for both services. We also have ongoing needs on our Safety Team, at the Info Bar, in the Café, on the Missions Team, and there is always room for more people to faithfully serve on our Prayer Team.
It is easy to assume someone else will step in. But Scripture says you are part of the body. When one part of the body doesn’t function, the whole body feels it. The church doesn’t suffer because people are necessarily unwilling; it suffers because gifted believers choose not to use the gifts God has given them. Serving the church is not merely filling a volunteer slot; it is an act of worship, and a means by which God strengthens His people through you.
The New Testament is saturated with “one another” commands, and that is not by accident. Discipleship was never designed to happen in isolation. We are called to bear one another’s burdens (Galatians 6:2), encourage one another (Hebrews 10:24–25), forgive one another (Colossians 3:13), pray for one another (James 5:16), and build one another up (1 Thessalonians 5:11). Those commands demand more than showing up on Sunday. The “one anothers” require entangled lives.
It looks like bringing a meal to a family that just had a baby or major surgery. It looks like sitting in a hospital waiting room with someone so they aren’t alone. It looks like faithfully praying for a friend who is struggling. It looks like opening your home for a meal, sending an encouraging word after service, or quietly covering someone’s need without ever telling anyone you did it. These moments almost never make it onto a stage or into a bulletin; maybe they should. But this, exactly this, is how the body of Christ actually functions and how the body of Christ serves one another.
IV. We Serve Our Workplace
Colossians 3:23–24
“Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.”
Many Christians unknowingly build a wall down the middle of their week. Sunday belongs to God. Monday through Friday belong to the office, the classroom, the job site. Saturday belongs to me. Paul tells believers that whatever they do, no matter how ordinary or unnoticed, they are ultimately working for the Lord, not merely for an earthly boss. That single truth has the power to transform even the most mundane task into an act of worship.
Regardless of your vocation, Christians ought to be known in the workplace for honesty, diligence, humility, excellence, and integrity, not because we are trying to impress a supervisor, but because we know Christ Himself is the One we are ultimately serving.
Proverbs 16:3 tells us to, “Commit your work to the Lord, and your plans will be established.” This means God directs our decisions and uses our efforts for something bigger than a paycheck. Work was never meant to be simply about making a living, because work existed in the Garden of Eden before Adam and Eve fell into sin. It is one of the primary arenas where God has placed us to love our neighbors, provide for our families, sharpen the gifts He has given us, and demonstrate the transforming power of the gospel through nothing more spectacular than showing up and doing our jobs with integrity, day after day.
V. We Serve the Lost
Jesus never intended for the gospel to stay locked safely inside the walls of a church building. Every believer has been sent out, into neighborhoods, schools, break rooms, and family gatherings, as an ambassador of Christ (2 Corinthians 5:20). “Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ.” The church gathers to corporate worship. Then it scatters to witness.
In Matthew 5:14-16, Jesus calls His followers “14 “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.” But notice the purpose behind that visibility. Our good works are not meant to draw attention to us. They are meant to point people toward our Father in heaven. Peter picks up this same thread in 1 Peter 2:12, “Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.”
Scripture never pits evangelism against good works, as though we must choose one or the other. We proclaim the gospel with our mouths while displaying its reality through our lives. Acts of kindness, generosity, hospitality, compassion, and quiet sacrificial service DO NOT replace the message of the cross, but they often create the very door through which that message finally gets heard.
As the gospel rings out in our worship services, does it ring out just as clearly in our everyday lives once we walk out the doors? Do we really believe that our time, seasons of life, and living places have been appointed by God so others can find him? Our neighbors, our coworkers, our classmates, our extended family, they should encounter something spiritually different in us, because Christ has spiritually changed us. They should not only hear that Jesus saves sinners. They should be able to see the evidence that He actually transforms them.
Many of us hear the word evangelism and perhaps feel intimidated. We don’t want to be pushy or awkward. But Scripture never gives us the option of good works instead of gospel words. I heard a pastor one time say, “A changed life without an explanation is a mystery; a changed life with an explanation is a testimony.” We need to be reminded that our King Jesus said the reason we do not need to be intimidated is that he said, “ I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
One of the greatest dangers facing the American church (THIS CHURCH) may not be a lack of biblical knowledge, but a lack of biblical obedience.
We have access to more Christian resources than any generation in the history of the world. We can attend Sunday services, Sunday school classes, midweek Bible studies, conferences, podcasts, and sermons, and we can read stack after stack of books. We can work our way through the book of Philippians for the eighteenth time, memorize verse after verse, and fill notebook after notebook with sermon notes. None of that is bad. Every one of those things is a genuine gift from God. But none of them is the goal.
The goal is Christlike obedience.
James warns us: do not become hearers of the Word only, deceiving yourselves; be doers also (James 1:22). Scriptural knowledge that never produces obedience eventually turns into deception. Slowly, quietly, we begin to mistake familiarity with the truth for faithfulness to the truth. We assume that because we have heard it, we have lived it.
Think of it like a sponge. A sponge is designed to absorb water, but only so that it can later be squeezed out onto something else. If a sponge simply sits in water week after week, endlessly soaking it in and never being wrung out, something goes wrong. Mold begins to grow. Bacteria forms. Something designed to be useful becomes something you would throw away.
I fear that is happening to many of us. We have absorbed sermons, Bible study, weekly participation in Life Groups, and yet so much of it has never been wrung out in actual service. We know more than we have ever known, and yet we are no quicker to forgive than we were five years ago. No more generous. No more hospitable. No more engaged in discipling someone younger in the faith. No more burdened for our lost neighbors and coworkers than we were the year before.
Biblical maturity is not measured by what you know. It is measured by who you are becoming. The gospel does not merely fill our minds with information. It transforms our hearts, reorders our priorities, and sends us out into the lives of the people around us. Jonathan Dodson points out, “It can be tempting to withdraw from society, especially in times of moral decline. But withdrawal doesn’t make us holy, and it definitely doesn’t make others holy. Jesus was the holiest person who ever walked the planet, and he frequently hung out with sinners.”
I think perhaps we treat the gospel as merely good advice instead of good news. When in reality we get to participate in the great mission on earth, the Great Commission. When we share the gospel, we get to the heart of mission: Christ’s heart for sinners.
If we have truly been served by Christ, then we will increasingly become people who are living on mission to serve. That is not an optional add-on. Our gospel witness is one of the clearest evidences that the gospel has actually taken root in a life.
We could come up with all sorts of objections:
“I don’t have time.” That’s probably the most common objection. Your schedule is full, but most of what we’ve discussed doesn’t require adding something new. Serving your spouse, discipling your children, encouraging a friend, or working with integrity happens within the life you’re already living. The question isn’t, “Do I have time to serve?” but, “How will I use the time God has given me?”
“I’m not gifted enough,” Peter says every believer has received a gift to serve others. Some of the most important ministries are the least visible: praying, encouraging, making a meal, noticing who’s missing, or simply showing up. You don’t need a platform. You need a willing heart.
“This sounds like legalism.” Legalism says, “Serve so God will love you.” The gospel says, “God has loved you in Christ, so now you’re free to serve.” We don’t serve to earn God’s acceptance; we serve because Christ has already secured it.
A disciple is someone who learns the gospel, relates in the gospel, and communicates the gospel, and all three of these things are proven true in how we serve. Service in the ordinary places. Jesus was sent to serve us, even to the point of death on a cross. And now He sends us to go and do the same.
Let’s pray.