PRAY IT! FIERCE PURSUIT - SERVICE

Need to catch up on the main passage for this Sunday's sermon?  Check it out here:  1 Peter 4:7-11

We just kicked of an amazing new sermon series entitled "Fierce Pursuit:  For We Have Spent Enough Time in the Past."  This week's spiritual discipline that we will look at in conjunction with our passage is service. 

Service is an outward spiritual discipline beautifully modeled for us by Jesus throughout Scripture.

Engaging in the spiritual discipline of service can help change our posture and place us in a better position to engage in this fierce pursuit of holiness and of other people.

If we are to truly be fiercely connected and show affectionate love to those who suffer with Christ, we need to be focused and pure in heart.  Engaging in the spiritual discipline of service can help our concentration and can help us live with a single-minded purpose of living for God.

There is more to service than serving... one can go through the motions of service without having a servant's heart.  This is why we need Jesus.  This is why we need our daily presence.  This is why we must be like peanut butter and jelly with the Holy Spirit... (close together!)

According to Richard Foster in Celebration of Discipline, service can take many forms, including the following: 

• service of hiddenness
• service of small things
• service of guarding the reputation of others
• the service of being served (darn that pride!)
• the service of common courtesy
• the service of hospitality
• the service of listening
• the service of bearing the burdens of each other
• the service of sharing the word of Life with one another

Sometimes when people think of acts of service, they immediately think it's only service if one is taking part in a formal service project through a civic organization.  Sometimes people dismiss their abilities to serve, thinking that they have no special skills to offer.  Let's all let Jesus transform and revolutionize our thinking.  (For we have spent enough time in the past!!!)

Think there's no ways in which you can serve?  Think again!  Service is a way of life that we can incorporate into just about every moment of our day, regardless of where we are or whom we are around.

Self-righteous service is not what Jesus modeled.  Self-righteous service looks like this, according to Foster:

• comes through human effort
• is impressed with "the big deal"
• requires external rewards
• is highly concerned about results
• picks and chooses whom to serve
• is affected by moods and whims
• is insensitive
• fractures community

In what ways is God calling you... me... us... to serve today... this week... this month... this year?  To whom is He calling you?  What lies about yourself and your characteristics is God calling you to surrender so that He can flow through you fully to pour out his grace on others?  On whom does God want you to focus?  What voices does God want to quiet so that you hear more of His voice alone, and are motivated by His praise alone? 

As we prepare for Sunday's message, let us pray through for the service from the first list, and pray against anything from the last list.  Let us prayerfully reflect on the ways in which God wants us to serve.

PoC|Coverage is tonight at 6pm.  Join us as we engage in care and prayer throughout the building. 

Pastor Celia