What Does It Mean to Serve the LORD? | Joshua 24:15 | Pastor Andrew Coleman | 08/09/2026

If you don't have a sermon outline,

there's some guys that have come forward

and they're here so that you can lift

your hand and receive one. Uh we study

the Bible and the life of our church and

you will need it. In fact, let me use

this as an opportunity while you're

getting an outline to notice that the

next sermon series begins next Sunday.

This series will take us into the fall

and I'm very excited about it. It is a

uh a expository message series going

through the first 11 chapters of the

Bible. The God of everything. The God of

everything. This is an important

important um series for us because in

the first chapters of the Bible, we see

much of the world view that God has

called us to receive him through. So

this is how we come to know God. And uh

Genesis 1-11 will be a great

encouragement to many as we we start.

But this morning, we're going to be

looking at this question. What does it

mean? What does it mean to serve the

Lord? I recently heard about a sermon

series uh entitled Old School. My

daughter and her husband were here um

this last week. We got to spend some

time together and they go to a great

church in Lynchburg, Virginia. He's a

professor at Liberty University and they

just go to a a Bible teaching church

there and they he mentioned, "Yeah, we

started a new series kind of to wrap up

the summer and it's called old school."

And I said, "What does that mean?" He

said, "Well, it's all of these phrases

that sometimes in our modern world we

look at and we kind of think that's old

school, like the like phrases or words."

He said, uh, the first one that they did

a few weeks ago was sin. What is sin? I

mean, isn't that an old school word? Do

we talk about sin anymore? Well, there's

a lot of people who don't, but God's

word talks about it and it's important.

And so, how do we relate to it? How do

we see do we understand what it is? He

said other words like redemption,

other words like justification. How

about words uh that that like gospel?

What is gospel? Is gospel an old word

that doesn't have any use anymore?

Gospel means good news. Well, I hope

we're not calling the good news old

school. So, uh it was just saying that

we need to have a biblical theology

that's based sometimes on words that

we're not used to that may seem old

school. Well, here's one of those words.

I thought about that this morning as I

was um praying over this message and I

thought, well, for some people

the phrase serve the Lord may seem old

school. Well, let me show you just how

old it is. It goes back to Joshua

Joshua 24 · chapter mention

chapter 24. And it couldn't be any more

relevant than we would see here on this

page this morning as we come to the word

of God and we look at what does it mean

to serve the Lord? And this morning um

have you ever noticed this before when

we go to passages of scripture and I

I'll just get you to think about this

concept for a second. When we go to

passages of scripture that we've heard a

lot before, is it possible that you're

able to throw your mind into to uh

autopilot or whatever and you kind of

don't pay attention to what it's

actually saying this morning. What we're

about to read is one of those passages

that many of you have heard sermons on

before. Some of you, you're new to this.

this is all new to you and this isn't

this isn't something you heard before,

but this is one of the most familiar and

powerful passages

in the Old Testament. And so, and it's

and it's a it's a watershed passage. I

mean, it's it's it it's a dividing

passage and it really captures

really much of the message of not only

the Old Testament, but listen to this.

This captures much much of the message

of the whole Bible.

in the whole gospel. And so as we as we

look at this passage, I want you to just

kind of notice the monumental nature of

it. In fact, um let's do the context

first. So even before we read it, it

makes more sense. Notice this in the

first bullet point there under the

context. Joshua

replaces Moses. And he does that in

chapter 1. Joshua replaces Moses's and

leads the conquest of the promised land.

The settle for seven years, the

settlement of the promised land and then

he governs the promised land, Israel for

14 years. So, here we are um going

forward in history um after the Exodus,

after the wandering in the wilderness,

and then they finally make it to the

promised land. Joshua takes over and

this is after nearly 30 years of

ministry. This is his last address to

the people. So, he's been with them

before they went into the promised land.

He has been with them while they've been

into the promised land. He's led them

through their many struggles with this.

And now this is his last address. Look

at the next bullet point there. Israel

was covenantally committed to Yahweh

God. That Yahweh is the is the personal

name of God. God loves you so much. He

loves us so much. He shares with us his

personal like like my personal name is

Andrew Yhwh.

Yahweh is God's personal name. And so

when we refer to that here, we see they

are committed to this one true God, the

creator God of the universe, but they

are spiritually prone. Can you underline

those two words? Spiritually prone

toward divided loyalties and lingering

idolatry.

So they they keep coming back to that.

And as you read the Old Testament,

you'll see that they keep struggling

with their hearts being divided from

God. And they keep struggling with going

back to these other idols that are not

God. And this is part of the reason that

even in the Ten Commandments, we would

see

Moses, God through Moses, deliver

commandment number one is what?

Thou shalt have

no other gods before me. That's God's

first rule. No other gods before me. How

important is that to God? Well, it's

number one. I'm the one true God. You're

not going to worship other gods. You're

going to be my people and you're not

going to worship other gods. So, this is

something that is hard for them. This is

something that they're struggling with.

And just in that open space out there

underneath that one, can you put today

Do we not struggle with divided

loyalties today?

Do we not sometimes go? Now, you may not

have a stone or a carved image

that you have in your car or in your

house that you're tempted to raise up

and say, "Here's an idol that I have."

But no, you may drive your idol.

You may live in your idol.

You may get away to your idol,

but we too feel this pressure. How about

number three?

They were constantly tempted to serve

Baal,

Ishtar, Asher,

Asharath,

and Molech, and other gods who were

pagan gods of the nations around them.

And why did they worship these? Because

if you didn't have rain where they live,

you die. They had, you know, we don't

ever think about the real necessity of

rain here in South Florida. Number one,

we get a lot of it usually. Not this

year, but usually. But if you're up in

Texas or Arkansas or Oklahoma or other

places, I mean, there's Baptist churches

that are meeting up there right now, um,

that at different times and different

years, they're sitting there and part of

their service is asking God for rain

because they their crops are dependent

upon the dry ground farming, uh, where

my in-laws are, they depend on the rain.

Well, listen, there's a lot of places in

the world that even right now depend

upon the rain.

We're kind of insulated from that.

But Israel kept going back in in they

would be tempted in hard times to look

to the other, you know, where's our God?

Well, all the other nations around us

worship these gods and they're

worshiping these gods for rain or

fertility of their crops or fertility of

their own families, being able to have

children about warfare, about power.

many of the same pressures that are

alive in the world today.

So, what is Joshua's message that we're

about to read? Here's his message. You

cannot have Yahweh plus the gods of

Egypt, Mesopotamia, or Canaan

or I could say Bickl Avenue

or Hollywood.

Decide whom you belong to is what Joshua

is saying. He's saying, "Serve the Lord

sincerely,

exclusively,

and wholeheartedly." So, he's about to

die and this is his message. Let's read

the in the top of the page there. 24:15.

This is the box. Look at what it says.

And just notice the watershed moment.

And not only for their lives, but for

ours as well. Look what it says. And if

it is evil in your eyes to serve the

Lord. So, he's almost being cynical or

sarcastic. So if it's evil in your eyes

to serve the Lord, choose this day whom

you will serve. He's saying, make up

your mind

whether the gods your father served in

the region beyond the river, but before

they came into the promised land or the

gods of the Amorites in whose land you

dwell. So they they've come in there and

there's there's peoples that were there

in the land that worshiped other gods.

Are you going to worship the old gods

beyond the river? Are you going to

worship the new gods that are here that

you're seeing now? Read it out loud with

me. The very end. Let's read it

carefully. Read it strong. But as for me

and my house, we will serve the Lord.

This phrase, serve the Lord.

What does it mean to serve the Lord?

Well, this morning we want to dive into

that a little bit. Well, one of the

questions that we can ask ourselves is

down there in the middle of the page.

What does it mean to serve a god? Any

god. What does it mean to serve a god?

Well, first of all, we would maybe think

about this that you would revere this

god. You would respect it in some way.

Maybe you would worship it as as so to

speak, but you would revere this god.

You would it would hold value to you.

How about this? That you would pursue

this god. It would be important enough

that you pursue it in your life.

you would sacrifice for this God.

>> A huge part of worship all around the

world of many different religions has to

do with sacrifice.

And it is amazing how um pervasive that

concept is as we look at it especially

when we think about the true sacrifice

not of a human um among ourselves but

one from God

himself

which separates Christianity from all

other world religions.

But it's the idea of sacrifice. How

about this one? you depend on this God.

That's what the nation of Israel was

doing. They were looking on on who can

we depend on who can we depend for rain,

for the crops, for favor, for power, for

strength over enemies. On who can we

depend.

When you serve a god, you give yourself

to this God

and you spend you expend

your time, your energy, and your

resources

on it. And so we can begin to see that

it's not just about doing something, a

little dabble do you thing, a little

thing here or a little thing there. This

is when you serve a god. The picture is

is that you worship. Now, what's

interesting about the human heart is the

human heart is made to worship. It is

down within our DNA to worship. We're

going to worship something.

The question is, what are you going to

worship right now? This morning, you're

going to worship something with your

life. And you can sit here in this

church Sunday after Sunday after Sunday

and ultimately not worship Yahweh God.

You can be a member of this church and

in your own heart of hearts you can

worship other gods

instead of this God. And so we need to

be very careful that we see Joshua's

challenge to them to be a very real

challenge and it's a challenge that is

timeless. It's through the ages

that we see this challenge being applied

even to our own lives. Notice this.

Christians are called to serve the Lord.

And the Lord has to do with the the Lord

of Israel. This was Yahweh God, the king

that has created the world. What does it

mean to serve the Lord? Number one,

serving the Lord begins by recognizing

Jesus as Lord. This is where it begins.

And this is we've seen throughout both

Old Testament and New Testament is that

there is a Messiah that is promised and

God is saying and he's re progressively

revealing his salvation plan that he is

going to come and a Messiah is going to

come through this. they we didn't

realize it was really going to be him

him in bodily form. We weren't sure what

the what exactly it was looking for. It

was a it was a mystery still to the Old

Testament believers, but eventually it

became clear and Jesus came showing that

he was the Messiah. He came revealing

that he was God. He came working

wonders, saying, "Do you wonder who I

am? Look, look, look." He's he's doing

things to show it. And then he's

speaking and he's showing this. And then

we see that he lays down his life

as the savior of the world, as the

messiah of the world, and he is raised

again by the power of God. This is

recognizing him. He was raised to the

glory of the father as Lord. Notice

this. Jesus is Lord. I am not Lord.

And neither is anyone or anything else.

And remember this, the New Testament

concept or context was in this time when

the New Testament was being written,

Caesar was Lord over the Roman Empire.

And Caesar is being Lord over the Roman

Empire, you were called to recognize

Caesar as Lord. And if you would not

confess Caesar as Lord, you could be put

to death. You could be banished. You

could be um your citizenship could be

removed. There was a there was a wide

variety of things that they would do.

But when we see the gospel taking off

within the Roman Empire, we see that the

challenge is, oh no, Caesar is not Lord.

Jesus is Lord.

>> Amen. This is the one who is Lord. And

so I want us to recognize this morning

that we are in a similar way. What is

the question? What is our context?

Who or what is your Lord?

Who is the Lord over your life? You see,

this idea of serving the Lord is not

just about doing something for God.

That's that's what Satan would love to

keep it as. Satan would love for you to

think, well, you're going to serve the

Lord, so you're going to go on a mission

trip and build a church, or you're going

to go build habitat for humanity, or

you're going to go do something. You're

going to provide clean water to people

without clean water. Is it good to

provide clean water with people that

don't have clean water? Yes, that's very

good. I was just with a bunch of

missionaries in Prog. They were talking

about the fact that there was there's

hundreds of thousands of people in

Somalia and Sudan where the water is

over 900 ft below the surface and they

just can't drill enough wells.

It's way too far and it's very very

difficult. So, they're looking at other

ways to help protect water supplies that

are there. teaching hygiene, teaching

all kinds of other things. So, is it

good to go and to help with those

things? Yes, that is a that is a

wonderful thing. But one of the one of

the mentalities that we often have is do

something for God and this will open

heaven to you.

But what we see very differently in all

of scripture is a comprehensive

aspect of your life that it is for him.

Um, one of the teachers shared with me

that um, I believe last um, Friday that

TJ Chipman um, uh, or one of the days

this week TJ Chipman led a Bible study

and he was saying, "Why do we do all of

this? What is this all about? Everything

that we do here, everything that we do

in this ministry is for God.

And we come to see that our whole lives

are to be lived for God in all that we

do. Whether we eat or whether we drink,

whether we sleep, whether we work,

everything that we do, who is your Lord?

That's a very legitimate question

because our Lord can be a lot of

different things in our present life.

What do we bow down to? What do we what

do we fear?

You see, you can either fear the things

of the world and pay homage to the

things of the world, pursue the things

of the world, sacrifice for the things

of the world.

um or we can look to the creator of the

universe that we are called to serve. So

number one serving the Lord by begins by

recognizing Jesus as Lord. In fact

notice this Philippians 2:es 9- 11 is

very very clear on this. Look what it

says. Therefore God has highly exalted

him speaking of Jesus and bestowed upon

him the name that is above every name.

Verse 10. So at the name of Jesus, every

knee should bow in heaven and on earth

and under the earth. That means

everybody who's ever lived.

Verse 11, and every tongue confess that

Jesus Christ is Lord. Look at this. To

the glory of God the Father. You see,

eventually every tongue is going to say

that.

The great opportunity is for you to say

it now before it is everlastingly

too late.

And so Ephesians or Philippians chapter

Philippians 2 · chapter mention

2 recognizes that Jesus it is a very

very basic and comprehensive reality

that Jesus Christ is the Lord of all

creation. And there's several passages

that you can look up there this week and

uh just kind of ruminate over those.

Think about those. Let th let those sink

into your mind. Struggle with them.

Allow them to help you. Notice this that

recognizing Jesus as Lord means

submission to Jesus. Submission to him.

You see, you're not the Lord. And you

are called to live in submission to him.

Lord indicates a king over a subject.

And so he is Lord. We are subjects. If

Jesus is not Lord of all, then it's

often been said Jesus is not Lord at

all.

So you need to think about that for your

life. Is he do you think in your mind

that he's Lord of some areas of your

life but not all areas of your life?

Now, this was a very real possibility

because it's not that the nation of

Israel, listen to this, when Joshua was

dealing with them. It's not that they

said, "We have nothing to do with Yahweh

God." What the struggle was is that they

were claiming Yahweh God because they

knew what had happened with Egypt and

getting out of Egypt. But then as they

came into the promised land and they saw

and heard about these other gods and as

pressure would come on their life then

they would say well what about these

others too?

So it's not that they said no to Yahweh

God. It's that they were saying yeah we

have Yahweh God but we also are looking

to Moch

and to others.

And God said you shall have no other

gods

before me.

Notice this as well that as we as we see

this concept of divided heart, it flows

over into the New Testament. Jesus dealt

with it in Matthew chapter 6. Jesus

Matthew 6 · chapter mention

said, "You cannot have two masters.

You can't serve God and you can't serve

the things of this world."

You, no man can serve two masters.

Either you're going to come to love the

one and hate the other or hate the one

and love the other. You you cannot serve

God and the things of this world.

So same concept in the New Testament

era, same thing for us today. We too can

be tempted to say, "Oh yes, Jesus is

Lord of my life and this," but when it

comes to this relationship or this

desire or this aspect that I'm concerned

about or this this hope that I have, we

suddenly let somebody else be Lord

over those things. And Jesus is saying,

"No,

I'm called to be Lord of all." Pastor

Billingsley used to preach a beautiful

sermon. Um he preached it usually about

once a year I think and it was the

description of a house

and he masterfully

walked through the rooms of the house

telling about how Jesus had come to walk

with him in the house and the idea was

this. It was an imagery of of Jesus

saying I I'm called to be Lord of your

front door.

Yes Lord come in. You're welcome here.

I'm called to be Lord of your living

room. Yes, Lord. Come and sit with me at

the couch. Let's meet here on a regular

basis. You can be the Lord of my living

room. And well, I'm called to be Lord of

your television.

Okay, Lord, you have the remote.

You control what's on the television.

Okay. Well, I'm called to be Lord of

your kitchen. I'm called to be Lord of

these other things. I'm called to be

Lord of the rooms of the house. what's

in the house. I'm called to be lord of

your office and the things that are in

your office. I'm called to be lord. Now,

this is before the days of computers,

personal computers. So, he would preach,

I would add to it. I'm called to be

Jesus would be saying, I'm called to be

lord of your computer. Okay, Lord, you

have the passwords.

But there was one room in the house

that had a closet to it

and it was locked. And the Lord went to

open that closet door

and he said, "No, no, Lord. That this

room isn't for you.

You You wouldn't like what's in this

room. You wouldn't approve of that. No

Lord, not that door.

And he said, "The Lord let go of the

handle

and with sadness

headed for the front door.

Lord, where are you going?

Why are you leaving?"

No, Lord. You can have all of this, just

not that.

You You can have all of it, Lord, but

just don't ask for that.

And the Lord would look to him and say,

"Bill, if I'm not Lord

of all, I'm not Lord at all."

Friends, we need to evaluate our lives.

Is he Lord of all? Does he have access

to every room of our heart in our mind,

every affection that we have? Or do we

have pet sins

or listen to this pet fears

that we will not give to him?

No man can serve two masters.

He is to be Lord. So this means the last

point here is that recognizing Jesus as

Lord means repentance

or turning from sin. That's what it

means. It means that we leave the sin

that so easily entangles us. In fact,

look at 1 Thessalonians 1:9. Paul is

1 Thessalonians 1:9

rejoicing over the Thessalonians true

faith and their repentance. Look what it

says. He says, "You turned to God?" From

what? From idols to serve the living and

true God. Don't turn the page over. Just

let that sink in. Look at that phrase.

Look at that. Look at that verse. Look

what he's saying. You turned away from

the gods, from the other idols.

And he says to serve the living and true

God. You see, the implication here is

the other idols are dead gods and

they're false gods.

They're not true.

They're not real. So, some of you here

today, maybe maybe this is all new to

you and and you're hearing us call you

to come and to look to God and to serve

the one true God and to lay down all of

the other idols in your life, to lay

down the darkness,

to lay down the things that are holding

you back from walking freely in

fellowship with Christ. I would say to

you, that's what he is good for. He is

good to help you with that. He is good

to take those things and take the burden

of them away.

He can do that

>> if you will give them to him. Okay, you

can safely flip the page. Let's look

very quickly. Number two, it's not only

about coming and recognizing him as

Lord. But it's also number two, serving

the Lord continues through following

Jesus as shepherd. following Jesus as

shepherd. And we see this a lot in the

New Testament and we even see it in the

Old Testament. The people were to follow

God. God would be a light leading them

in the darkness. He would be a a pillar

of fire leading them during the day. It

was about sheep being led. And then

Jesus comes up in bodily form and he

repeatedly says, "Follow me.

Follow me." And he says it in a lot of

different ways and a lot of different

circumstances. And there, you know,

there's some people that say, "Well, I

want Jesus, but I want to go my own

way."

And Jesus is saying, "No,

if you're going to be with me, I call

you to follow me." And think about Psalm

23, the most quoted passage of the Old

Testament. In fact, look what it says.

The Lord is my what?

>> My shepherd. I shall not want. What that

means is I'm not going to lack anything.

>> He makes me to lie down in green

pastures. He leads me beside quiet

waters. He restores my soul.

He leads me in the paths of

righteousness

for his name's sake. This means God is

not going you're not going to miss out

on anything when you're following Jesus.

>> The lie is that you're going to miss out

on something. You're going to miss fun

or you're going to miss fulfillment or

you're going to miss a relationship.

You're going to miss something that

would be good for you. What what God's

word says over and over and over again

is come just depend upon me. You're not

going to miss anything.

>> Amen.

>> I love Psalm 34:8. It says, "Lions

Psalms 34:8

suffer want. Young lions get hungry, but

those who seek the Lord lack no good

thing.

You're never going to miss out on

anything

when you are following Jesus."

Man, is there something in your life

this morning that you need to say,

"Lord, I've not been following you

on this and I need to follow you on

this."

I would just even as we're talking, just

confess that to him. Say, "Lord," you

know, if he's putting his finger on

something in your life, don't hold on to

it. Let it go and say, "Lord, by your

grace, by your power, by your spirit,

even right now, I I give this to you.

Savior, lead me."

He will do it.

Number three,

serving the Lord continues through

learning from Jesus as teacher.

Learning from Jesus as teacher. Put

above the word teacher. You You wrote in

teacher. put above that rabbi because

he's called that over and over and over

again. He's the teacher. You see, he has

knowledge that we need to learn. He came

teaching because there's a lot we don't

know. Now, listen to this and be careful

to listen to this. A fool doesn't want

to learn.

A fool has no interest in learning.

Listen to this. A fool already thinks he

knows.

When my kids were teenagers, Marcy and I

just decided,

there were there were two words that

they were not allowed to put together.

And those two words that we didn't allow

them put to put together was I know.

We just said, "You want to say it

another way? We'll we'll entertain that.

You can maybe say it another way, but

you can't say I know." When we go to

tell you something, you can't say, "I

know."

Because there's there's aspects of this

where you kind of know but you really

don't.

And that's sophomoric immaturity that's

growing up. You know, eventually they

come to realize it's amazing. Eventually

they start calling and saying, "Hey,

what'd you do about this? How did you

handle that? What what did you say about

this? I remember you said you me," you

know, and something changes and that's

good. But we need to stay in that mode

of learner.

Because notice this, the word disciple

literally means learner. That's what it

means. It's someone who learns.

John 13:13 Jesus said, "You call me

John 13:13

teacher." This is an interesting verse.

You call me teacher and lord. You are

right. For so I am. Isn't that cool?

We've already been talking about the

fact that he's Lord and now we see, oh,

he's Lord and teacher.

John 8:31 says this, it Jesus said, if

John 8:31

you abide in my word, you see this is

his teaching,

his truth. If you abide in my word, then

you are what?

>> Truly my

>> truly my disciples. So if you want to

know whether or not you're a Christian,

part of the question is, do you abide in

his word? Do you know his word? Are you

reading his word? Are you growing in his

word? Is this word does this mean

something to you? Does it mean something

to you on a daily basis? Does it mean

something to you that you are that

you're coming to know what he has said

and you're seeking to listen to his

words of life? Now, if you have no

interest in this book and you're glad to

live apart from this book, well, this

would make pretty clear you don't know

him.

And oh, how I pray that you would

receive his grace to recognize he wants

you to know him and he's he's given us.

This is why we devote a good amount of

time on Sunday mornings every single

week. And we would say this is this is

really the most important part of what

we do is that we seek to hear from God

through his word.

If you abide in my word, you are truly

my disciples. Number four, serving the

Lord continues through serving Jesus as

master. Now, this is getting close to

our main phrase, serve the Lord. What

does it mean to serve the Lord? Well,

the scripture is crystal clear on this.

As Jesus took the form of a slave,

so do we as well.

And not just the word servant. In fact,

there's been translations of the Bible

that for a long time have dumbed down

the Greek word dulos

or dulos.

A dulos is not merely a servant like a

servant that may be paid or a servant

that may be no a dulos is an is a slave.

It's one who is owned.

And the greatest beautiful picture that

you can see in this about Christ is is

that Christ is the master and we are the

slaves. And what's amazing about this is

that he himself called himself and acted

like in every way

a slave.

This is the humility of Christ and the

obedience of Christ to the father.

Notice with me Philippians chapter 2 and

Philippians 2 · chapter mention

verse 7. Have this mind among

yourselves, which is yours in Christ

Jesus, who though he was in the form of

God, this was when he was in heaven, did

not count equality with God a thing to

be grasped or held on to. Verse 7, but

he emptied himself by taking the form of

a servant. Right above that, slave, same

word.

He took on the form of a slave being

born in the likeness of men. That was in

Bethlehem. That's what we celebrate at

Christmas. That this baby is born. This

is God in the flesh taking on the

humility of a baby born and laid in a in

a feeding trough.

Verse eight, and being found in human

form, he humbled himself even further.

You could say he humbled himself by

becoming obedient.

That's what a slave is, is obedient.

Obedient to the point of what?

death. And then going even further, even

death on a cross. Why? Because that was

the most humiliating,

torturous

way to die of condemnation in the world

at that time. The the picture was when

the Romans wanted to say rejected and

subjugated, they crucified people, held

them up for people to see for hours or

days.

That's the way they subjugated the

world. Deuteronomy says, "All who are

hanged on a tree are accursed of God."

Jesus took on the curse of God and the

curse of man for you.

He served us.

The master served the slaves.

We could even go to the night before the

Lord's supper. What did he do on that

night before the Lord's supper? He took

a towel and he took a wash basin and he

washed the disciples feet. The lowest

job in the of any servant in the house

was the guy who had to wash all the

guests feet. And Jesus said, "Let me

show you what my love looks like."

And he washed their feet.

We are called to be servants.

It's funny at Starting Point, we

occasionally have had people come and

they're kind of interested in joining

the church. And at Starting Point, we

talk, as we did this morning, we talk

about the fact that we have big members

meetings four times a year. And we

invite the people at Starting Point to

come and to help with the serving of

that meal. We invite you to come early.

we invite you to serve and um

to serve the body of Christ to be there

to welcome church members as they come

in.

And part of the reason we do that is so

that you can from the beginning

understand what this church is about

that we we want to serve.

And we've had some people we've had men

and we've had women say, "I will not do

that."

That's I'm just not interested in that.

And some we never see again.

We've had some that say, "You want me to

do what?

Come early and serve all these people. I

thought I thought you guys are serving

me because you want me to be a member of

the church." No, no, no.

We're we're inviting you to see a true

picture of the body of Christ

and what we're all called to. And

there's been some people that looked at

that with a weird eye and kind of just

like, "Y'all are crazy." And then

they kind of go, "Oh, [groaning]

I think I get it now."

Because they were coming from other

churches where maybe that was never

asked of them.

That was never that maybe they they

never saw that we really mean it.

one of the segments of our section. I'll

give it away early. We have a section

called in in service of of starting

point and I I just call it from from

teaching to toilets.

I I'm called to serve.

I'm called to do toilets around here,

too.

Now, I love to teach the Bible, but if I

come up on a toilet needs to be cleaned,

I need to be willing to do that. If I

come up on a church member that's

struggling, I need to be willing to to

look in and and and help. We we are all

called to be servants.

This is the way of our master.

You see, the apostles to fill this in.

The apostles called themselves

servants or slaves of Christ. Look at

Romans 1:1, Philippians 1:1, James 1:1,

Romans 1:1 Philippians 1:1 James 1:1

2 Peter, Jame, 2 Peter 1:1.

2 Peter 1:1

When they named themselves, they said,

"I'm a slave.

I'm a slave of Christ."

Because they were following in Jesus's

footsteps.

Look at our Lord's experience and his

example. So, it wasn't just an example,

but it was also his experience. This is

what he did. He became a man. That's

huge.

In fact, Philippian or Isaiah 53 calls

him the suffering servant.

He became a man. He was born. He grew.

He lived. He died in humility.

He cared for people. He spent his life

caring for people. He taught. He walked.

He fed. He healed. He fed. He delivered

them. And he waited

on God's timing.

Well, he also bore our burden of sin.

He was mocked. He was cursed. He was

rejected. He was condemned. He was

tortured. And he was murdered

so that he might bear the burden of our

sin.

And so we see from his experience and

his his example that our servantthood

must reflect his servantthood.

He's called us to be like him.

Now I'm not saying you got to run out

here and ask somebody to crucify you on

the crosses out here on Sheran Street to

be like Jesus. But I'm saying in

attitude and in action, we are called to

live like him.

Matthew 16

indicates this. Our servantthood must

reflect his servantthood.

Look at Matthew 16:24. Then Jesus told

Matthew 16:24

his disciples, if anyone would come

after me, that means to follow him. If

anyone would come after me, let him

what? deny

>> deny himself

and take up his cross and follow me.

Take up the place of surrender. Take up

the place of death

and follow me as Jesus did.

So, some of you are thinking, "I'm not

sure I'm real interested in this

Christianity thing." I get it. I

understand. I pray that the Holy Spirit

does a work in your heart and helps you

to see that it's totally worth it.

I mean, this is the greatest gift. Yes,

with strings attached,

but they're good strings.

They're not bad strings.

How about this? Number five.

Serving the Lord means serving his

people. Okay, that's too far.

I'll serve the Lord, but I don't know if

I want to serve his people.

Oh, no. Jesus calls us to serve. You

see, notice this. Jesus insepar

inseparably connects love for him with

service to others. That's what he does.

In John 21, Jesus said,"Simon, do you

love me?

Then tend my sheep.

Tend my sheep." What does that mean?

That means you care for them. You feed

them. You sacrifice yourself for them.

You go out of your way. You protect

them. You You serve my sheep even when

the sheep want to go the wrong way. Even

when the sheep are sick, even when the

sheep keep doing dumb things, you just

keep tending the flock.

That's serving others. How about 1 Peter

1 Peter 4:10

4:10? As each has received a gift, use

it, read it out loud, use it to serve

one another. As good stewards of God's

varied grace, we are called to serve one

another.

Well, we are called lastly to serve the

Lord with

the right attitude.

And this is really, really important to

God. We see it throughout the Bible.

Attitude means a lot. I mean, we see

this. God loves a cheerful giver. You

remember that? It's not just that you

would give, but you would give

cheerfully.

How about this? Notice Deuteronomy

Deuteronomy 10:12

10:12. Serve the Lord with all your

heart and with all of your soul

because he gave all of his heart and all

of his soul for you. Serve the Lord that

way. Look at Joshua 24:14. Fear the Lord

Joshua 24:14

and serve him in what? Sincerity and in

faithfulness.

Be real in your service to the Lord

at your home, at your job, at Sheridan

Hills Christian School, at church, at

your family reunion, on vacation,

at the hospital. In all that we do, we

serve the Lord with sincerity and

faithfulness. Look at Romans 12:11. Do

Romans 12:11

not be slothful

in zeal. Be fervent in spirit. What does

it say? Serve the Lord.

You know, it says, don't be slothful in

zeal. Because it is possible for us to

be slothful in zeal. And some of you

right now, you may need to recognize

that you have been a couch potato when

it comes to serving the Lord.

You've been slothful.

You've not served

him.

You've not served others.

Don't be offended. Just be repentant and

get with the program. That's what he

invites you to do.

Don't be slothful in zeal. Fervent. Be

fervent in spirit. Serve the Lord.

Hebrews 12:28. Let us offer to God

Hebrews 12:28

acceptable service with what? Reverence

and awe. May we be amazed.

1 Corinthians 15:58, the great passage

1 Corinthians 15:58

on the resurrection. Notice what it

says. Be steadfast,

immovable,

always abounding in the work of the

Lord. That's serving the Lord. Work of

the Lord. Knowing that in the Lord your

labor is what?

>> Not in vain.

>> It he the Lord never misses a payday.

>> And sure, the grand payday is after your

eyes closed for the last time. That's

when it's really all worth it. But even

in this life, he rewards those who seek

him,

>> those who serve him. And so we're

commanded, be steadfast, be immovable.

That means don't go out after other

gods. When the times get hard, don't be

looking for other solutions.

Stay with the Lord

and have the that last line. Have the

put out there to the side the confidence

in God

knowing that the Lord that in the Lord

your labor is not in vain. Have

confidence [snorts]

in him. And then the last one is our

theme verse for all of our I serve

meetings and our I serve projects. Look

what it says there. Serve the Lord with

what?

>> Gladness. gladness.

That is the attitude with which we serve

the Lord. Amen.

>> Mark chapter 10 verse 45 is the passage

Mark 10:45

that I've chosen to wrap this up. And I

want you to see what it says. The gospel

writer writes this. For even the Son of

Man came not to be served,

but to serve and to give his life as a

ransom for many.

I invite you to fold over your paper.

Put that away. And then when you get

done with that, just look right up here.

This morning,

we have been challenged to evaluate

whether we serve the Lord.

Which gods do you serve?

Are you like the Israelites or like

Jesus warned about that you would say,

"Well, I love the Lord,

but I love some other things, too.

I serve the Lord, but I serve some other

things, too." If the Holy Spirit has

laid on your heart things in your life

this morning that you know that you need

to surrender to him now is a great time

and say, "Lord, I I want to give this to

you."

Maybe you're seeing that the Christian

call, the Christian life is an active

life. It's an active life of service.

I've I've noticed a trend in my in my

life and it's this.

Really joyful Christians are actively

serving Christ and others.

People who are not serving Christ and

others tend to be miserable Christians.

They're unhappy

>> and they're constantly struggling with

cycles of sin.

Do you struggle with cycles of sin?

Anger, porn, you know, whatever it is,

grud, you know, things from the past. Do

do you anger with Do you struggle with

unforgiveness? Do you struggle with

going out after worldly things? Listen,

I want to challenge you that there's a

few things that you need, but one of

those things is to be actively getting

your eyes off of yourself and onto

Christ and onto others.

Serving others, God will give victory.

This morning, we've looked at what does

it mean to serve the Lord. And I want to

ask you to spend a few moments as our

men come to prepare the elements. I want

to ask you to sit quietly where you are

in prayer and to consider number one,

have I recognized the Lord as Lord?

Number two,

am I following him as one of his sheep?

Is he my teacher?

Am I learning to serve as he served? Um,

I just invite you to spend time with the

Lord. The Bible tells us that this table

is only for Christians who have

surrendered their lives to Christ. If

you're not a Christian, this table is

not for you. We would encourage you to

watch and maybe pray, but we would

encourage you to be very still. The

second thing that we would say is is

that this table rem reminds Christians

the price that was paid for them.

So that when we go to sin, we remember

that the King of Kings and the Lord of

Lords laid down his life for us. And so

allow that to wash over you this

morning. I would invite you to just turn

from your sin, confess that to the Lord,

give thanks in our prayer time for what

he has done for us. So uh would you bow

your head and uh we're going to be still

for a little bit. The piano is going to

play and I just invite you to be still

before the Lord.

Lord Jesus.

You have told us to observe this table

to remember the price that was paid for

our sin, [music]

for our very lives.

The sinless son of God

came and laid down his life so that we

might live

the one and only true hope.

Lord, I thank you this morning for the

gospel

and I thank you this morning that you

did in perfect obedience to the father

lay down your life so that we might

live.

I pray Lord that this observance of this

table

would help us [snorts]

in our hope.

It would help us in our holiness.

it would help us

in our obedience

to observe all that you have commanded

us.

Lord, I pray that we would be

stronger followers of Jesus because of

this table this morning. I pray that

there would be sins that we refuse

in the days ahead because we have

remembered that Christ died

in love for us so that we would love you

back

as we should.

So Lord, we give this time to you and we

thank you for it.

Gentlemen, would you