Walking Like Jesus: Focus on Serving Others

In this sermon, Reagan discusses the importance of finding peace by imitating Jesus, emphasizing that true peace comes from serving others. Starting with Mark chapter 6, Reagan explores the life of Jesus, highlighting how Jesus found peace through quiet times, fasting, prayer, and feeding on God's word. He further delves into the misconception that Jesus led an isolated, monk-like existence, clarifying that Jesus' peace was a byproduct of his service to others. The sermon continues with a focus on Jesus’ hard work and his commitment to serving, teaching, and healing people. Reagan urges the congregation to serve others selflessly, adopting a mindset of humility and acknowledging the significance of others above themselves. He concludes by encouraging listeners to find true peace through serving others and living a purposeful life in imitation of Jesus.

00:00 Introduction and Opening Prayer
00:52 Congregational Focus: Walking Like Jesus
01:35 Review of Previous Quarters
02:36 Jesus' Example of Finding Peace
04:01 Jesus' Purpose: Serving Others
06:50 The Importance of Hard Work
11:16 Jesus Teaches Service to His Disciples
13:34 The Ultimate Example of Humility
19:39 Invitation to Work and Serve
34:27 Conclusion and Call to Action

Transcript

That that song really takes the pressure off because it's not my words that you need to listen to. It's the ancient words of life, and I hope that I'll be able to share with you some things from those ancient words. If you have your Bible with you, would you take it out please and turn to Mark six.

Mark chapter six, and we're gonna read verse three. We're gonna look at a few scriptures from the Gospel of Mark before we go to other places. And so if you'll turn to Mark chapter six. Let's read verse three together here in just a moment. Mark chapter six, beginning in verse three. So grateful that you're here and we do have several who are visiting with us.

We're, we're appreciative that you came our way. We hope we're giving you the opportunity to worship God in spirit and in truth. And it's certainly my prayer. I was praying on my way up here that I would have things to share with you that will be helpful to you as you try to try to be more who God has called you to be.

And specifically for us here at Timberland Drive is we're striving to imitate Jesus more. Our congregational focus for this year has been walk like Jesus, finding peace by imitating the Prince of peace. And so we've talked about walking like Jesus over the last three quarters by finding the quiet places where we might be alone with God alone with our Father, and be able to focus on him.

By falling at God's feet in those quiet places through fasting and prayer. And then this past quarter we've talked about feeding on God's word through reading our bibles and meditating on the word of God and memorizing those things so that we might then be able to recite them and share them with others.

And so those have been our three quarters today, marks the beginning of quarter four. And before we talk about exactly what it is we're going to be talking about over the course of this quarter. I want you to think about the three things that we've talked about so far, and remember our study of pattern four this particular study of walking like Jesus.

For each of these things, we've, we've asked ourselves three questions. Number one, what did Jesus do supposed to be imitating him, so what was it that he did while here on this earth? Number two, what did he teach his disciples to do actively those who were walking with him and imitating him, his apprentices, if you want to think about it in those terms, and then making application to ourselves, what should we do in imitation?

So thinking about that first thing in the three quarters that we've already studied three quarters of the year, what did Jesus do to find peace? That's the ultimate goal. Finding peace by imitating the prince of peace. We can think about the three things that we've studied, that Jesus found quiet times and quiet places to be alone with his father.

He had a lot going on, but he found those quiet times and quiet places that Jesus fell at God's feet by fasting often and praying without ceasing. Often he would spend all night in prayer to his father, and as we talked about, Jesus fed on God's word through reading of scripture. Meditating deeply on scripture, quoting the scripture over and over and over to respond to temptation and certainly teaching others by the word of God.

Jesus did these things and I think we've demonstrated illustrated. In fact, let me ask you, have we demonstrated and illustrated that Jesus did all of these things in the gospels? Okay, we, we've seen this right, but I was thinking about this over the past week. If we just look at this list, find quiet places fast and pray, and then teach your disciples who are around you.

Was this a monk-like existence that Jesus lived in order to find peace? I mean, if you just look at those things, you might draw that kind of conclusion. You might think to yourself, well, Jesus must have withdrew from society and isolated himself from the world and only interacted with his disciples. But of course, that's not the case.

If this was all the information we had, it might leave that impression, but you only have to read a few chapters, pick a gospel, any of the four, and read just a few chapters, and we will see that Jesus' life and ministry was focused on serving others. In other words, Jesus wasn't focused on finding peace.

It was a byproduct of who he was and the way he lived. That peace came his focus. Was somewhere else. We think about a passage like Mark chapter 10 in verse 45, for even the son of man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life for ransom. For many Jesus' purpose was twofold. To serve others and to be a sacrifice for others, and suddenly being equipped with more peace doesn't complete the process, does it?

This isn't something we hoard up for ourselves. No. Having peace enables us to look more outward and experience the lasting peace that comes through this final step of imitating the faithful work and selfless service modeled by Jesus. And so our focus on this fourth quarter. Is that we walk like Jesus by focusing on others' needs.

And let me tell you very clearly, you can find all the quiet places you want. You can fast and you can pray and you can read scripture. But if you never make application of that scripture to say, I'm supposed to be serving others like Jesus served others, you will never truly find peace. It is only in fulfilling that purpose.

We can find the peace that Jesus offers. And so to follow our, our pattern of study, I think it's very clear to walk like Jesus by focusing on others' needs. We need to see that Jesus worked to serve others. For me, and I think I speak for the elders as well, one of the one of the things that was exciting about Preston and Abby coming to, to work with us.

Is that Preston and by extension, Abby too had the background and reputation of knowing how to work. You know, he'd been on the farm, running the family farm. He was going to grad school while also preaching part-time, and that background was an indication of his work ethic that, that he had been on the farm and he'd finished school and now he's going to grad school, working at the same time.

All these things showed this was somebody who knew how to work because of that background. Before any of us met him in person, that was the impression that we had, and certainly that's turned out to be true with the hard worker that he is. So my question is, what was Jesus's physical background? If you're there in Mark chapter six, notice verse three is Jesus in is in Nazareth, his hometown, the people who knew him all growing up.

What do they say about him in verse three, is this not the carpenter? The son of Mary, the brother of James, Joseph, Judas, and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us. So they were offended at him that he would have the gall and the audacity to teach the way that he did to claim to be who he was. When we say we knew him all growing up.

Well, what's interesting to me is it says, is this not the carpenter? We think so often, and certainly there are scriptures that refer to Jesus in this way. We think so often about Jesus being the carpenter's son, right? That he was, Joseph was his physical earthly father, and he was a carpenter son. Maybe we forget that Jesus himself was a carpenter.

He was this craftsman. Maybe that would be a better translation, that he could work with wood or with stone of some kind. And so by trade, Jesus worked a difficult blue collar job and he lived in a small, unimportant town in Galilee. And what we see from this is that Jesus knew how to work hard. We see that in his spiritual work that he took advantage of the opportunities that he had.

In John chapter nine and verse four, he says, I must work the works of him who sent me. While it is day, night is coming. When no one can work. Jesus says, I've gotta get about this work because I, I only have so much time to do it. And so Jesus was busy in the work that he was doing. He worked as you read through the gospels, he worked long hours, sometimes all day and all night.

He was healing. He was answering questions, he was working miracles. He was talking and teaching his disciples. He was contradicting the false teaching of some of the religious leaders. He was traveling from place to place in order to do these things. And on many occasions, the gospels tell us that huge crowds came to him.

In Mark's gospel, it says that he healed many. And, and maybe we hear healed many means. He healed many. Not all, no Mark's point is he healed everybody who came to him. And that was many because some of the other gospels, like Matthew and Luke say people came to him, great multitudes came to him and he healed them all.

Have you ever been going to get in line somewhere? And you go and, and you, you get in line. And then for whatever reason they say, oh, I'm sorry. Time's up. You, you can't get in anymore. And and that's a little offensive, isn't it? I was here, I was in line. I mean, there's not like five o'clock and now all of a sudden I'm in line.

It doesn't count anymore. Anybody else has been offended by that? It's just a Reagan problem. No. Okay. Other people too. And it's like, whoa, wait a second. I was here. Can you imagine? Can you imagine Jesus saying, well, sorry, boys six o'clock. Go ahead and dismiss. You know, all the other people who came for healing.

I can't imagine Jesus healing every person who came to him and with great multitudes, we can imagine how long that would've taken 'cause Jesus was gonna complete the work that was before him. Mark chapter one in verse 45 finds Jesus in his deserted places. So he went to the quiet place to be alone with his father.

And what happened? They came to him from every direction. Jesus is there. All of these people come to him to receive healing, to receive teaching. And where was all of this work focused? For whom was Jesus working? You know, for God? To benefit others. He came to do his father's will to serve and sacrifice for others, and that's exactly what he taught his disciples to do.

He taught his disciples to work and to serve other people as well. If you're still there in Mark, turn to the 10th chapter. We put verse 45 up on the screen, but let's back up to verse 42. Mark chapter 10 and verse 42.

This is toward the very end of Jesus' ministry. He's about to enter into Jerusalem for this final week of his life. That culminates in his betrayal, his arrest, his crucifixion, and then ultimately his resurrection. And just before these things, the, the apostles still aren't getting it. And so it's the occasion where James and John, well really, they send their mother to go and ask that.

They might sit on his right hand and on his left, and you can. It's palpable. You can feel the frustration of Jesus, but Jesus called them to Himself to himself and said to them, you know that those who are considered rulers over the Gentiles, lorded over them, and they're great ones, exercise authority over them, yet it shall not be so among you.

But whoever desires to become great among you shall be your servant and whoever of you desires to be first shall be slave of all. For even the son of man, me, Jesus did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many. Jesus says, my purpose was not to be served by all of you, though I have that right.

My purpose was to serve others. And over the course of that week in Jerusalem, with all of that teaching and all of that conflict and all of the things that Jesus did to point out service to others and and correct misunderstanding, they find themselves on the night. On which he would be betrayed as their partaking of the Lord's supper.

And still, still they're arguing about who's gonna be greatest in the kingdom. And so if you turn over to John's gospel in John chapter 13, Jesus has told him and told him, and told him. Now he uses a powerful illustration to show them. In John chapter 13, as supper has ended, he rises from supper and you remember what he does.

He lays aside his garments, he takes the towel, he girds himself. He gets a little basin, he pours water into it, and he starts washing the disciple's feet. And then drying those feet with that towel that he girded himself with. And he goes from to each one of them and washes all of them in turn, including Judas Ariat, who has not yet left on this occasion.

And if we pick up the reading in verse 12, it says, so when he had washed their feet, taken his garments, and sat down again, he said to them. Do you know what I have done to you? Do you understand what I just did? You call me teacher and Lord, and you say, well, for so I am. If I, then your Lord and teacher have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet for I have given you an example.

You should do as I have done to you. Most assuredly I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is he who sent greater than he who sent him. If you know these things, blessed are you. If you know them, no. Blessed are you if you do them. I've told you, I've taught you for three years. I've taught you, you gotta serve other people.

You know it. Now you gotta do it. Do you understand? Jesus asks What I have done to you. Now we say, I mean, how could they really fully understand what Jesus has done? He is God in the flesh and he is taking the lowest position. There's a number of rules and regulations and, and Jewish law in regard to those who, who put themselves into slavery in order to pay off a debt and those sorts of things.

And you find some of that law in Exodus and Leviticus and Deuteronomy, but they had a, a whole host of other laws that they put on top of those things to explain those things. Things that you could and couldn't require of, of your servant, of your slave, those sorts of things. Did you know. The one job that a Jewish slave could not be forced to do was wash feet.

Now, if you had a gentile slave, according to the tradition of the Jews, you could make them wash feet. But if you had a Jewish servant, you could not make them wash feet. It was something that they had to choose willingly to do, and God of heaven and earth chose to wash the disciples. Feet. Why? Because they were dirty, I assume.

But more importantly, because they needed to see what true service looked like. It was the lowest of the low in terms of jobs. And if he, Jesus gave himself in service to others to this extent, how can I do anything less? He leaves this example, not just for Peter, Andrew, James, and John. He leaves this example for us.

This is how you serve. This is meekness. This is strength under control. Would it have been best? Let me ask you this, would it have been best for the world if Jesus just spent his whole entire life washing feet and Jesus just wash feet, didn't teach, didn't work miracles? Would that have been best for this world?

Okay, hear your head rattle. Obviously not. Obviously not. He had greater things that he needed to do than wash feet, and that wasn't the point. The point was no job or act of service was beneath Jesus. If feet needed to be washed and there was nobody else that was gonna wash 'em, what would Jesus do? He would wash feet and though he was Lord of heaven and earth with all sorts of talents and abilities, none of us possess.

It was not beneath him to take a towel and wash the feet of others. Jesus says, I have the power. I am the master. I am the teacher. You say, well for so I am and I your master serve, and if I serve, that means you should serve too, because you are not greater than me. Notice again for what he says there in verse 15, for I have given you an example that you should do as I have done.

You do things like this, not exactly what I have done. It's not about having some ritual where we wash each other's feet in a literal sense. We do things like this. We follow his example that nothing is beneath us as Christians in terms of our service of to other people. And so I ask you to use Jesus' illustration.

Would you be willing to wash someone's feet that were dirty? If, and this is the important part, if that's what they needed from you, is there any job that is beneath you? For the Christian, there's no job that should be beneath us, and so we're willing to do things for others that are humbling. That are inconvenient.

We're willing to get our hands dirty. We're willing to do things that put us out. In terms of time and money and effort and such things, work and service intersect throughout Jesus's ministry with the crowds that came for teaching with the crowds that came for healing with the prayers he offered on behalf of many with the disciples and apostles who needed guidance with the doubters and scoffers who needed rebuke in all things.

Jesus was working to serve others. When Jesus invites you and me, he invites us to work for him and to serve others. Turn to Philippians, if you would. Philippians chapter two for just a moment. I've got one through five on the PowerPoint behind me. Let's kind work backwards. Let's start there in verse five.

Philippians chapter two. Verse five says, let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. What mind? Well, presumably the mind that we have just read about in verses one through four. So this mind, this attitude, this outlook needs to be in you because it was in Christ Jesus. What is that verse?

Therefore, if there's any consolation in Christ, encouragement in Christ, if there's any comfort of love, any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and mercy fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love being of one accord of one, mind unity. That's exactly what Jesus prayed for. As we talked about in our back class in John chapter 17, right?

We're unified how verse three. Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowness of mind, let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interest of others. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.

Jesus is the ultimate example of humility. I, I like the way the ESB says, let let us esteem others better. That is more significant than yourself. More significant than yourself, I think communicates it better than. Than better, because better implies, well, I'm making this comparison and they're just better than me, but that's not the mind that was in Jesus.

Did Jesus look around that room? When he washed those feet, did he look around that room and say, oh, Peter's better than me and Andrew's better than me, James and John, they're better. I'm the worst person here. I'm asking, was that Jesus' attitude? Of course not. He knew who he was. He knew he was God in the flesh.

What he did do was look around and say, Peter, Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Judas, you are more significant in my life than my life. You're more important to me than me, and I'm about to go to a cross to show my willingness to work and serve for you. I count you as more significant, not as better, not as superior, but as more significant.

And that's the invitation Jesus gives to us, that we place the needs of others before our own. Jesus acknowledged the reality that he was Lord and master, and yet he still served and placed their needs above his own, even to the point of death on a cross. Jesus did all of this because our interests were more important to him than his own, and so when we think about peace, I'm afraid sometimes we get the wrong idea, that peace is the absence of work, that peace is vacation.

I don't know about you, but I've had some pretty nice peace on vacation. But if my entire life was vacation all of a sudden, I think that piece would start to dry up a little bit. Stephanie sent me something not too long ago, an experi an experiment they did with some rats or mice or something along those lines.

They made this utopia and everything was great for those mice for a while, and then after a week or so they started turning on one another. They started eating one another. All of these terrible things happened and they didn't have any purpose. Surely we're of more value than mice, right? But we have purpose in this life, and there is no peace without us fulfilling that purpose of our work.

So instead of escape from service and work, you don't have to work anymore. You don't have to serve anybody. It's all about you. Jesus offers equipment to work and serve well. Will you turn to one more passage with me please? Turn to Matthew chapter 11. Matthew chapter 11, verses 28 through 30, and let's look at those together.

My note takers are probably mad at me. Let me leave that up there for a second so you can copy that down. Matthew chapter 11. Let's read verses 28 through 30 and make some applications. Matthew chapter 11. Start there in verse 28. Come to me. All you who labor and are heavy laden, raise your hand if you've ever been heavy laden.

Most of us have, and I will give you rest here, the invitation of Jesus. Come to me. Lay down your burdens because he is the only one who can carry them and you can find rest. Jesus doesn't end his saying there. Jesus says he provides for this rest how? Keep reading verse 29. Maybe the last thing we would expect if this was us saying this, I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you and learn of me for I am gentle and lowly in heart and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Here is invitation to lay down your burdens and find rest through work, not from work. He gives us the equipment to work and serve Well, if, if I were to go out there and give you a team of oxen, two oxen, and a plow, and that's all I gave you, how well would you be able to plow something without the yolk and the equipment to go with it?

To pull that plow? You might have the ingredient. But it's ultimately not gonna fulfill anything. And so too, we might have some good ingredients for peace, but without the yoke, Jesus gives us the purpose that he gives us. That peace will not be found. Through work, not from work and through imitation. He says, learn of me, learn from me, and describes himself.

I am gentle. I am lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. Learn from me and imitate me in who I am in order to find rest. It is an easy yoke. Jesus says a light burden because it is a burden that we can carry. What Jesus does, he takes that burden of sin. By which we are heavy laden, and he says, I can carry this.

Let me give you what you can actually do, and I'm gonna equip you to do that work. I lay down the burden that I cannot bear life without Jesus for the one that I can life in service to him and others. And so our, our attitude should be put me in coach. I mean, harness me up, right? I'm ready to work. And that's the goal of all this stuff we've been doing.

I'm, I'm equipped by this peace and perspective to then work for Christ and others because true peace isn't selfish. I'm not gonna let anybody disturb my peace. Instead, true peace is found in selflessness. My peace can't be taken from me, but it can be shared with others. I serve them and serve my master without complaint.

So here are my three suggestions for focusing on others' needs. And I've, I've tried to make these as simple as possible. Number one, identify the needs of others. And I think our first thought is the simplest and easiest way to do this is to ask them. But sometimes they'll say, Hey, what do you need? You?

Yes, what do you need? And they'll say, what? Nothing. Oh, nothing. Is that really the case? We want to ask ourselves? You know, we don't want to impose on other people. I understand that. Sure. Use your best judgment, but sometimes we don't realize how much we need help from somebody else. Where when somebody offers the help, we say, no, I've got it.

When really the reality is we do need help. I think maybe the most embarrassed I've ever been in my life. I was a freshman in high school. I went to four H Camp. Four H camp had a lot of fun until I got super embarrassed at four H Camp. The reason why I was embarrassed, well, there was a big pool there.

There were a number of swimming activities. If you've heard me preach for any length of time, you probably know that I couldn't swim until I was 18 years old. But at four H Camp, all you had to do in order to prove that you could get in the pool and play all the games and enjoy being with everybody else is you had to, you know, it's got the long ways here and then the short ways just across, and you had to jump in and then swim the short way to the other side, and then that, that showed that you could swim well enough to be involved in everything.

So what I did, I just jumped as far as I could. And kind of just paddled to the other side. And the lifeguard who was, you know, watching a bunch of kids just said, okay, y'all are good. Y'all are good, y'all good? Everybody's good. I'm like, whew, I'm good. Until we started playing some water games. Now we're going long ways.

And it was a relay race where you had to do different things in the water. My turn in the relay was, there was this little ball, really light. Bobbing in the water and you had to push it to the other side without touching it. You could only push the water and you had to go all the way across the pool doing that.

And I was doing great. You know, I could, doggy paddle, couldn't really swim, but I could doggy paddle a little bit. So I'm doing this, you know, I got it, I got it, I got it until somebody was coming the other direction with some other activity they were doing, threw off my rhythm, my ball went over here and now I'm trying to do this and, and I remember somebody on the side of the pool saying, oh, he's in trouble.

And I thought in my head, no I'm not. I'm fine. And the next thing I remember, there's a lifeguard standing over me and I'm spitting out chlorine. I needed help a lot worse than I realized. And if the lifeguard had said, well, I'll wait for him to ask, your sermons would probably be a lot shorter that you're having to listen to.

I wouldn't be here. Somebody waited for me to ask help in that moment and sometimes, sometimes we don't see our own needs. For me in that moment, it was pride, it was delusion, it was stubbornness, whatever. But I needed help more than I thought. And sometimes our friends and our neighbors and our brethren are almost drowning.

Can we jump in and help them in some way?

Only if they want help. Yeah.

Maybe they don't even have to have the help. But do they need it? And I know what you're thinking because I think the very same thing, you can make an enemy for life doing that, trying to help somebody who doesn't want help. And that's true. But you could maybe more likely. Make a friend for life. Prove your brotherhood for life by striving to help somebody that you observe to be in need.

And so ask yourself in that situation, what can I do? You notice the question? Second question is not how can I fix? This, because the reality is sometimes things can't be fixed or I don't have the ability to fix it myself. I don't have the power. I don't have the ability. I don't have the right, I don't have the position, the authority to fix it for them.

But there is almost always something that I can do. Just a cup of cold water is the standard that Jesus gives to us. Is there some small thing that I can do in the service to someone else, to my brethren, to my neighbors, and proclaiming the gospel to the lost to my enemy who is metaphorically hungry?

Right? If your enemy's hungry, give him a drink. If, if, or, that's not right, is it? If your enemy's hungry, feed him. If he's thirsty, give him a drink. Let me give you a really small example of this this Reagan toot in his own horn a little bit. I've got a neighbor. I've got lots of great neighbors all around me.

There's one neighbor. I, for whatever reason, we've not gotten along well in the time we've lived next to one another. Our properties bought butt up against one another. Is silly. Maybe I shouldn't even share it, but I'm gonna. I know right where the property line is because there's some stakes from the last survey including a T post that's still out there.

And the telephone pole and the wire that goes off of it is on his side of that line. And because my attitude hadn't always been the best toward this neighbor, you know what I do every time I mowing weed, eating, you know how much I love mowing and weed eating. I weed eat the telephone pole, and I weed it around the wire as a reminder to myself.

I can't control his attitude toward me, but this is one small thing that I can do. So that's all I'm asking you to think about. Is there any small thing that I can do? Is there a cup of cold water that I can give? And maybe it won't make a difference. Maybe they won't even notice. Maybe there'll be no response, but maybe.

Maybe there will be. And our job is to just do it anyway, focus on others' needs. And so step three is do that. What can I do? Do that. And I don't mean to be flippant at all, but this is what Jesus did. And so imitate him. Focus on God and others for this is the path to peace. And if you're here this morning and you're not yet a Christian.

Oh, how we wish you were a part of the family of God, and if there's anything that we can do to help you in that need, whether that's putting Christ on in baptism, whether that's studying more from the word of God to know his will for you, whatever we might do, please let us help. And if you're already a Christian and you have needs and you've not expressed those to your brothers or sisters in Christ, or maybe you've expressed them in times past and there's been no response, please give us another opportunity to help you in your need as we know you would help In ours, we can help you even this morning.

Come now what? Together we stand and while we sing.