Finding Joy in a Life of Service

1) "What is the good life? What is true life? We are in a series right now. We've been working our way through Paul's letter to the Philippians. This is Paul's most personal letter, and within this short little letter, Paul talks about joy, or rejoicing, or being joyful 16 times in the course of four years. It's known as the letter of joy, and so we have been, week by week, going through this letter and asking the question, how do we pursue joy? We've talked about pursuing joy in relationships, in our attitudes, in our heart, and today we're going to talk about pursuing joy in service, because the thing is, Jesus sets an example for us. He shows us what the good life looks like, and the surprising thing is, he shows us what the good life looks like, and the surprising fact is that the good life, true life, is found through a life of service." [04:00] (58 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


2) "Both of these men, Timothy and Epaphroditus, lived a life of service. They understood that true life, real life, the good life was found in serving other people. They had experienced the transformative power of the gospel, and that caused them to see their life, their story, as an embodied expression of the story of Jesus. I think that all of us have embedded in our heart the desire for true life. We all want to experience the good life, but we don't expect, we don't expect service to be the pathway that will lead us there. Both Timothy and Epaphroditus, as well as Paul, lived this life of service, but really what they were doing was following the example that had been set for them by Jesus." [10:34] (53 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


3) "I want to point out a couple of things. First of all, I think sometimes when we, from our Western mindset, read this section of Scripture, we read the question that the lawyer asks, What shall I do to inherit eternal life? And what we hear is, How do I get to heaven? Like, what's the minimum bar that gets me in the door? But the word life, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? That word, the Greek word is the word zoe. And that word actually encompasses a much wider view of what he has in mind when he asks about eternal life. That word is about full, wide awake, flourishing and thriving. It is just deeply saturated awareness of the goodness and the presence of God that causes us to live fully into our lives. So what he's asking is much more than just what's the minimum bar for entrance to heaven, but where can I find the good life, true life?" [12:12] (63 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


4) "To experience joy in serving, you must first learn to see those around you. In the parable that Jesus told, all three of the men that passed by the victim saw him. In verses 31, 32, and 33, we're told that the priest came by, and he saw, and he passed to the other side of the road. And the Levite came by, and he saw, and he also passed by on the other side of the road. Only the Samaritan saw in such a way that made room for compassion to well up inside him, and for that compassion to move him to action. But before we are too quick to judge, the priest and the Levite, I want us to consider what might have led to the decision that he made to pass by on the other side of the road." [21:00] (50 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


5) "The second step to pursuing joy through service is to choose to surrender your will. Most of us are willing to serve when it aligns with our schedules, with our budget, with our preferences, with our energy level. Most of us will serve in those circumstances. But most of us also view our lives as belonging to us. We have our agendas. We have our schedules. We have our to-do lists. We have our goals. And we don't like when they get interrupted. I certainly don't. But when we can learn to surrender our will, to begin to see our life as not belonging to us, but belonging to Jesus who lives in us, we become aware of opportunities that we might otherwise miss." [26:49] (55 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


6) "The third and final element that I see in this parable that will lead us to a life of service is to embrace a life of sacrifice for the sake of the gospel. Serving will always cost us something. Every single time. In the parable that Jesus told, when the Samaritan saw the injured man on the side of the road, and he was moved with compassion, and then he surrendered. Who knows what journey? We know he was on a journey in the story that Jesus tells, but maybe he was going to, you know, meet his future wife or close a business deal. I don't know what he might have been going to do, but it certainly was not in his plan to stop on the side of the road, to minister to this injured person, to secure lodging and care for him. He had to sacrifice in order to make that happen." [29:56] (55 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


7) "Jesus himself, in Mark 10 45, made a statement about who he is. He said, for even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many. Jesus came not to be served, but to serve. And that is the call of every disciple of Jesus, is to serve. This is the pathway to joy. In Hebrews chapter 12, verse 2, the writer of Hebrews says that it was for the joy set before him that Jesus endured the cross. Sometimes when we think about serving other people, we imagine kind of like this life of drudgery or obligation, when in fact the exact opposite is true. There is nothing more joy-filled. There is nothing more fulfilling and more rewarding than knowing exactly who you are in Jesus, how you are gifted, how you were created, and then walking out that identity in the context of your everyday, ordinary, messy life." [32:54] (77 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


8) "A lot of times I think we imagine like, well, when I find God's calling for my life, I'll live in that way. I'll press into that. When I finish school, when I get the kids into full-time school, when I get that new job, when my budget works a little bit better, the good life is not out there waiting for you. The good life is here right now, if we would just step into it. As the worship team makes their way back up here, I want to ask you to consider your real life right now. All the mess, all the inconvenience, all the things that you've been through, all the things that aren't working, your real life right now. I want you to think about who are those inner circle people. It's your spouse, or your kids, or your roommate, or your best friend. Might be the people in your home group. I want you to look around you. Look at the church family sitting with you here today." [36:36] (59 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)