Pastor Elwin Ahu
March 10, 2002 - W0210

What were Jesusí greatest, most life-changing instructions? That by which we would change the world? Simply this, love God and love one another. And one more thing: ìIf you love Me, then serve.î Thatís it! All we need to do is apply it!

The simplicity of this is best illustrated when He was about to make His triumphant entry into Jerusalem. Up until this point, Godís people had suffered much at the hands of their Roman oppressors. They were desperately seeking someone to save them. They knew that prophecy predicted a coming Messiah, but their idea of a triumphant king was that of a worldly ruler: someone who would overthrow the Roman government and establish his own powerful kingdom. His triumphal entryóthe day that he proclaimed his sovereigntyówould surely be majestic! But Jesus had a different idea:

ìHe sent two of His disciples, and said to them, ëGo into the village Ö and immediately as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, on which no one yet has ever sat; untie it and bring it here. And if anyone says to you, ëWhy are you doing this?í you say, ëThe Lord has need of ití; and immediately he will send it back hereî (Mk. 11:1-3).

A mighty king riding into town on a humble colt? And why did the disciples listen to His instruction, doing what He asked without question? They didnít wait for an explanation, they just obeyed. What sets a disciple of the Lord apart from the rest of the world? There are two insights into developing just such a heart. The first is by:

1.                 HAVING A RENEWED MIND.

The disciplesí perspective of life had to be radically different from the world around them. Remember that the rest of the people were looking for someone to deliver them from Roman oppression. Serving was the farthest thing from their mind; they were just trying to survive. How could they even think of other people?

Think about our lives today, and itís not all that different. Many of us fight to surviveówe have an unstable economy, our individual circumstances can be tough, and we have a lot of upheaval happening in our world. All of this places a kind of oppression on us too. So serving is not our top priority.

Question 1: ìIf you love Me, then serve.î What in your life makes it hard for you to serve?

Because of all of these factors in our world, we must start with a renewed frame of mind. Here are a few common barriers that block us from obeying Godís simple instructions to serve:

?        Reason & Speculation

We try to make sense of life. Itís human nature. The downside is that we have a tendency to wait until everything is just right before we commit. God is asking us to serve, but instead we grab our planners and frantically try to account for every second of our day. Too often we end up saying, ìSorry, I just donít have time to serve.î

Furthermore, we try to assess the outcome beforehand. ìWhat if I get involved and nothing happens? I donít change or my character doesnít growÖ What if I donít like that ministry or they donít like me?î We analyze all this, asking question after question. And what happens is we wait for everything to be perfect before we commit.

If we limit the size and magnitude of our God by fitting Him into the mold of our expectations, then we prevent Him from working miracles. We end up shortchanging ourselves! God is a God of order and logic, but many times His ideas, plans, and the ways just donít make sense. Check it out: ìEye has not seen nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Himî (1 Cor 2:9).

Sometimes there is a miracle just waiting to happen, we just canít see it. One exciting example of this was when Jesus, His mom, and His disciples were invited to a wedding. The wine ran out and it would have been a huge embarrassment and disgrace for the host. So Mary asked Jesus to do something. Then she turned to His disciples and said something really radical: ìWhatever He says to you, do it.î (Jn. 2:5). Jesus hesitated but had them fill huge water pots sitting outside. And before they knew what happened, the wine steward was approaching the groom. ìYou have kept the good wine until nowî he said in shocked amazement. A miracle had taken place. But imagine if the disciples just sat there doing nothing. Imagine if they tried to make sense out of it before acting. Everyone would have missed the miracle.

Question 2: Have you ever experienced a miracle by acting on Godís illogical requests? What happened?

ìWe walk by faith, not by sightî (2 Cor. 5:7).

Serving doesnít make sense according to our worldly way of thinking. We question, we speculate, we grumble. We wait until everything fits. But, sometimes God asks us to do something and if we wait for it all to make sense, we may miss a miracle. His simple instruction is to serve and, as Mary said, ìWhatever He says to you, do itî!

That brings us to the second barrier that gets between God and us:

?        A Hardened Heart

A lot of us are Christians but refuse to move any further beyond that. We come to church, sit in our same seats, look straight ahead, and wait to be fed. The Bible calls that being stiff-necked. If you ever had a stiff neck, you know it feels comfortable as long as youíre looking straight ahead. But if you turn your head to either side, it hurts! The Bible is making the point that stepping outside our familiar area would be quite uncomfortable. But we must!

ìLike newborn babes, long for the pure milk of the word, that by it you may grow in respect to salvationî (1 Pt. 2:1-2).

God doesnít want us to stop when we receive salvation; He wants us to keep growing! His desire is that we begin a consistent process of spiritual growth. But itís up to us to make a conscious choice to do that.

So because the Lord loves you so much and the leadership of this church loves you so much, we donít want you to stay where you are. God has asked each of us to grow in respect to our salvation and not to become stiff-necked and comfortable. Imagine if we never grew up. Some Christians never do; they are born again but stop there at rebirth. Yet we have been commanded to grow so Christ may be glorified through us.

Are you going to grow up in your salvation? Or are you going to be content to hang on to your old life and remain where you are? The cure to a hardened heart is to allow your heart to become softened, teachable and open to the instructions the Lord has for you. That way you may grow with respect to your salvation. Jesus spoke directly on this issue in the book of Mark:

ìWhoever wishes to save his life shall lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake shall save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soulî (Mk. 8:35-36).

Question 3: How are you growing up in your salvation? In what specific ways do you advance your spiritual progress daily?

The final barrier that can block us from the Lord is:

?        Wrong Motivation

Sometimes we serve or donít serve for the wrong reasons. Either we serve with a wrong motivation or we donít serve because weíre not motivated enough. Maybe itís an expectation of rewards or we want to hear the approval and applause of others. We may even look for approval from Pastor Wayne himself. Some think, ìIím not going to serve because Pastor Wayne didnít ask me,î or ìIíll wait till he asks me himself!î

In essence weíre really saying our pride and ego is much larger than our God. But serving should not be conditioned on manís approval because Godís love is unconditional. And wrong motivation keeps us from understanding that unconditional love. God loves us whether or not the crowd applauds us. Godís grace is sufficient. He is totally unconditionally in love with us. There is nothing we can do to lose His love:

ìI am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lordî (Ro. 8:38-39).

Weíve received such great, unconditional love that we can begin to realize that lifeís greatest joy is to give His love away again and again. Once that occurs, we can break free from the barriers that separate us from God and from clearly hearing His instructions.

Question 4: Can you comprehend the depth of the love God has for you? What is your motivation for serving? Share your insights.

When we finally realize how much God really loves us, we can begin to understand the real reason for serving. And this leads to our final point:

2.                 UNDERSTAND WHY: BECAUSE HE ASKED.

ìAnd if anyone says to you, ëWhy are you doing this?í you say, ëThe Lord has need of itíî (Mk. 11:3).

Notice that there was no reason or promise of rewards. Jesus just asked. Why then do we serve? Because He asked.

For all the things weíve been through, He didnít have to love us or give us graceÖ but He did. I donít know about you, but I shouldnít be here. With all the mistakes I made in my life I should be dead, but Godís grace saved me. My wife Joy doesnít have to love me either after all that Iíve done, but she loves me with all her heart and sacrifices her life for me. I understand that. And when she asks me to do something, Iíll do it. Not because I want to win her love but because of her love. The same is true with our heavenly Father: We donít serve to win His love; rather it is because of His love. 

Donít let your hearts become so hardened that you canít listen to what God is asking you to do. Godís love and instructions for you are unconditional and simple. He loves you completely and all Heís saying is, ìIf you love Me, will you serve?î May your answer be ìYes!î!

Question 5: What point from our discussion most impacted you? Why? How will you choose to be different because of it?

Summarized by Rhonda Pang