CityPoint Values: Selfless Service
This last Sunday, Nick taught four our 4th week on our church values series. This week was our value of “Selfless Service.” Of all our values for our mission as a church, this one is the biggest call to be like Jesus, and because of that it is a daily battle to kill our own selfishness. Why is this such a big deal? Because all through Scripture God is telling us that the primary characteristic to the Christ centered life of a Kingdom citizen is to sacrifice your own wants, opinions, or comforts for the sake of the Gospel and others. Paul tells us as much in Philippians 2:3-7
'Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.'
Jesus Christ is the ultimate example of selfless service and it is our calling as disciples to follow Him in that. It will look different than how the world would perceive service to look because the Kingdom operates on a different currency. Not one of accolades, securing comfort, or even serving only when you get something out of it, even if it’s just to make you feel better, but in putting yourself last, with the goal of spreading the Gospel as your greatest reward. Paul also models this heart in 1 Corinthians 9:19-23, v22b-23 in particular:
“I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings.”
He even goes so far as to say his purpose in life is to be like Christ in how he serves others in his Gospel ministry. To him as he sat in jail, to live is to be like Christ in his suffering and in his service for others, though he would rather be taken to Glory to be with Jesus face to face (Phil. 1:21-24).
So on Sunday Nick preached this from Matthew 20:20-28 where James and John’s mother requested that in Jesus’ Kingdom that they would be able to be at His right and left hand. Jesus took that as an opportunity to teach humility and servanthood as the way of His Kingdom, contrary to the world’s.
From NIck’s sermon, we see the 1st point from this text is that Selfless Service calls us to count the cost. Jesus asked them in this passage if they’d be able to deny themselves enough to handle the cost (and we know that they eventually do as Apostles). Jesus also makes this point in Luke 14:26-27 where He metaphorically says one can’t put their family over and above following Christ. Of course we know the Scripture says to “honor your father and mother” so Jesus isn’t asking us to hate them in a literal sense, but comparatively our love for Jesus and service to the Gospel should be so great that anything else next to it would appear as hate. Similarly in regards to our own life, in Luke 9:23-24 Jesus calls us to deny ourselves to the extent of being willing to die, because
“whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.”
Ultimately, as Nick concluded in his sermon, our ability to love God and love people hinges on our ability to deny ourselves. It is impossible to be a servant of Christ and not to also deny ourselves. Seeking your own good or comfort above others cannot exist simultaneously with seeking the will of the Father. This conflict of realities is repeated throughout Scripture, such as James 3:8-12 referring to how we use our tongues to bless God but also speak ill of others. v8-9 'but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God.'
This follows the idea that we operate with a different currency, or value system, as Kingdom citizens. The 2nd point from the text is that Selfless Service calls us to a higher Kingdom. Matthew 20:25-27 points to this difference, that the rulers in the world take authority and then assert dominance over others, but not so with Christ followers who operate on a different set of Kingdom values. As believers we are not to lord over others, but to seek to be an influence for the Gospel through our service to them. Building on the 1st point, we’re called to these higher Kingdom values predicated on service because apart from this type of loving selfless service to others it is impossible to be a Christ-follower. We can’t aim to live out the Greatest Commandment of loving God and loving people (the basis of the Kingdom currency) if we aren’t selflessly serving others who are image bearers of the Creator.
With that in mind, the 3rd point is Selfless Service is the measure of greatness in the Kingdom of God. Jesus led by example in this all the way to the cross, and in these verses He points to that reality in Matt. 20:27-28 'and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”’ The way he led by example in this was by always leaning on and pointing to following the will of His Father, which He even explicitly taught us to do through the Lord’s Prayer, Matt. 6:9-13, with v10 saying “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” When we make our lives about God’s will and His Kingdom, we’re released from the weight of success being on us and empowered to serve, because “our ability to be selfless depends on who or what you attribute worth to.”
The world struggles with this and sees it as counterintuitive and foolish, but the Biblical reality is you cannot be the most important person in your life and be like Jesus. This is a fundamental principle that is repeated in every point of the sermon on our value of selfless service. A principle the world operates on (and sadly many churches and organizations claiming Christ) is a worldview of Self-Love, which as we’ve continued to see born out through the Scripture, is contrary to Christ’s Kingdom values. The world tells us to look within ourselves, seek out our truth and desires, and things will work out. Going back to our value of Be Authentic we know that our true self is not the fundamental good that can save us, but that it’s fundamentally corrupted from sin and needs a perfect savior. That’s why in being authentic we humbly point out our sin and struggles and seek hope and rest in the only One who can possibly completely provide it: Jesus Christ.
Which that most important of all truths brings us to the 4th and final point from this text in Matthew, Selfless Service sent Jesus to the cross, securing our salvation. It’s right there in the text, as He often alluded to before he was sent to the cross, it was His divine plan to “give His life as a ransom for many.” Going back to Paul’s plea to “count others more significant than yourselves” in Phil. 2:8 he says of Jesus 'And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.’ It’s this humility that is the catalyst of what Christ accomplished on the cross on our behalf. That is why humility, and looking to the needs of others above our own is both the mark of a disciple in Christ’s Kingdom, as well as the required heart posture to grow in Christ-likeness.
“That is why humility, and looking to the needs of others above our own is both the mark of a disciple in Christ’s Kingdom, as well as the required heart posture to grow in Christ-likeness. ”
The reality is we will still struggle to reflect Christ’s perfect humility and selfless service, but that doesn’t negate our call to always be pursuing it through the power of the Spirit in our lives. The good news is we can stand on the foundation of reflecting Christ-like service while still being imperfect in our journey of sanctification and say “Jesus Loves you more than I ever could” because the goal of the Gospel in our service is not to point to ourselves and how humble we are, but to Jesus Christ, the ultimate example of humility and Selfless Service and the savior of the world.