Don’t Volunteer- Choose to Serve

1 Cor 15:58 NIV Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.

at Family Church we follow Jesus not as volunteers as servants. And we are not serving family church we are serving Jesus by serving each other.

When we see ourselves as volunteers we think we are doing God a favor, we are doing church leadership a solid.  But when you see yourself as a servant you see it’s a privilege to be a part of what God is doing on this earth. 

1 Cor 12:12 'Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. '

18 'But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. '

26 'If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it. 

27 'Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. '

Romans 12:4 For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function

Serving Activates Spiritual Growth

Luke 15:11-12 NIV 11 Jesus continued: “There was a man who had two sons.

12 The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them

Selfishness always isolates you by hurting those around you and takes you to the pig pen. Service is a fragrant offering to God that blesses those aroudn you.

Selfishness has a stench. Service has a fragrance - which do you want in your life?

Serving Activates Spiritual GiftsJohn 2:3-5 NIV  When the wine was gone, Jesus’ mother said to him, “They have no more wine.”4 “Woman, why do you involve me?” Jesus replied. “My hour has not yet come.”5 His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”

If a grape is never crushed to produce new wine it slowly becomes a dried up raisin. 

If your gifts do not go through the crushing of servanthood you will become a raisin.

Psalm 40:1-2 I waited patiently for the Lord; he turned to me and heard my cry.

2 He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. Psalm 40:5 Many, Lord my God, are the wonders you have done, the things you planned for us. None can compare with you;were I to speak and tell of your deeds, they would be too many to declare. 

God wants to bring New wine that is symbolic of the Holy Spirit, of Joy, of abundance and blessing from God, and of Spiritual renewal.

The beginning point of serving is remembering and knowing what Jesus has done for us.

1 Peter 2:24 NLT He personally carried our sins in his body on the cross so that we can be dead to sin and live for what is right. By his wounds you are healed.

When you say “count me in” you get to see the miracle begin.