We have been talking about our vision process for a while now. Two week ago we talked about Know.
This is the idea that we need to know God (informationally and experientially) more and more.
Then last week, we talked about Grow. After coming to know God more we will also want to seek to grow in our relationship to other followers of Christ. There is also the idea that as we do that, we will also grow closer to God as well.
Sunday, we talked about Serve. The text was from 1 Peter 4:7-11. In fact, you can listen to it here if you would like. : ]
The point I wanted all of us to remember is this:
Greatness fits like a glove when we serve God and others in love.
Catchy, right?
If you like that, then get this! Living the liturgy of life from a follower of Christ perspective is encompassed in a word: leitourgia. Sound familiar? It should. It is actually where we get the word liturgy. Originally, liturgy was considered a service or ministry to others in a community. Pretty cool, huh?
The idea of liturgy is that of serving others! Or at least, that is what it started out as being.
Back to greatness . . .
There are lots of things that we think of that might make us great. More money? More prestige? More authority? More _____???? Did you think of a few things? I thought of a statue. It just seems that we tend to make statues for people that were great. Hmmmm, wonder where Alexander's statue is?
Anyway, the Bible says that we are truly great when we are not great. It says that we can only be great when we serve others. When we leitourgia. That is counter cultural. So it would seem that we have to give up some things to actually be great in a Christ perspective. I guess we can't sit on the right hand of Jesus after all. (Mark 10:42-45)
So we are actually great when we lead others to greatness. So that means . . .
As followers and disciples of Christ we are most like Him when we serve and love others. If that is true, and I believe it is, when we share Jesus with them by telling them of this sacrifice for them, his love for them, his service to them, then we are serving them and loving them in the most powerful way! Sharing is an act of serving!
Telling others about Jesus is sharing his sacrifice with them. It is truly serving them because we are looking out for them from the most loving perspective we can. We love them so much that we care about their spirituality. And more specifically, which kingdom they will spend eternity.
For me personally, my "statue" will be getting to spend eternity praising God with as many people as I can share Jesus' sacrifice with.
