A Servant’s Reward

Worship Service for June 27, 2021

WELCOME

Good morning, welcome and thanks for joining CrossPointe Community Church’s online worship presentation. As does the Apostle Paul in his letters to churches, I thank God for all of you and pray that as a result of participating today, you will draw closer to the Lord’s presence and grow more and more into His likeness.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Thanks to those of you who spent last Friday evening at the church helping to serve our monthly Community Meal. We served 65 dinners.

You are all invited to come to the church on Saturday, July 10th between 1 and 4 pm to help Ron and Rena Thomas celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary!

CALL TO WORSHIP

One of the teachers of religious law was standing there listening to the debate. [A debate with the Sadducees over the resurrection of the dead]. He realized that Jesus had answered well, so he asked, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?”
Jesus replied, “The most important commandment is this: [and He first quotes Deuteronomy 6:4-5]. ‘Listen, O Israel! The Lord our God is the one and only Lord. And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.’ The second is equally important: [and now Jesus quotes Leviticus 19:18] ‘Love your neighbor as yourself. ‘No other commandment is greater than these.”
The teacher of religious law replied, “Well said, Teacher. You have spoken the truth by saying that there is only one God and no other. And I know it is important to love Him with all my heart and all my understanding and all my strength, and to love my neighbor as myself. This is more important than to offer all of the burnt offerings and sacrifices required in the law.”
Realizing how much the man understood, Jesus said to him, “You are not far from the Kingdom of God.” And after that, no one dared to ask Him any more questions.
Mark 12:28-34

The man who questioned Jesus was close but no cigar. His moment would come. Would he be able to transfer his love for God to God’s Son?

Because we have, we are Kingdom people who have gathered together once again to love the Lord with all of our heart, mind, soul and strength. In other words, to worship. So let us express the desires of our hearts as we worship in song:

OPENING WORSHIP SONGS

More Love More Power

Del Hierro, Jude

More love, more power,
More of You in my life;
More love, more power,
More of You in my life;
More love, more power,
More of You in my life;
More love, more power,
More of You in my life;
And I will worship You
With all of my heart,
And I will worship You
With all of my mind;
And I will worship You
With all of my strength
For You are my Lord….
You are my Lord.
More love, more power,
More of You in my life;
More love, more power,
More of You in my life;
More love, more power,
More of You in my life;
More love, more power,
More of You in my life;
And I will seek Your face
With all of my heart,
And I will seek Your face
With all of my mind.
And I will seek Your face
With all of my strength
For You are my Lord.
And I will worship You
With all of my heart,
And I will worship You
With all of my mind;
And I will worship You
With all of my strength
For You are my Lord….
You are my Lord.
©1987 Mercy/Vineyard Publishing (admin. by Music Services)
CCLI License No. 1843349

Love the Lord

Brewster, Lincoln

Love the Lord Your God
With all your heart,
With all your soul,
With all your mind,
And with all your strength.
Love the Lord Your God
With all your heart,
With all your soul,
With all your mind,
And with all your strength.
With all your heart,
With all your soul
With all your mind,
With all your strength.
Love the Lord Your God
With all your heart,
With all your soul,
With all your mind,
And with all your strength.
I will serve You, Lord
With all my heart,
With all my soul,
With all my mind,
And with all my strength.
I will serve You, Lord
With all my heart,
With all my soul,
With all my mind,
And with all my strength.
With all my heart,
With all my soul
With all my mind,
With all my strength.
I will serve You, Lord
With all my heart,
With all my soul,
With all my mind,
And with all my strength.
I will love You (echo)
I will praise You (echo)
I will serve You (echo)
I will trust You (echo) LORD!
With all my heart,
With all my soul
With all my mind,
With all my strength.
With all my heart,
With all my soul
With all my mind,
With all my strength.
I will love You, Lord
With all my heart,
With all my soul,
With all my mind,
And with all my strength.
I will love You, Lord
With all my heart,
With all my soul,
With all my mind,
And with all my strength.
I will love You, Lord
With all my heart,
With all my soul,
With all my mind,
And with all my strength.
©2005 Integrity’s Praise! Music; c/o Integrity Media, Inc.
CCLI License No. 1843349

Let us join in our opening prayer as we sing:

Awesome In Power

Founds, Rick

Oh God, awesome in power.
Oh God, gentle in love.
Oh God, You are my God
And I love You.
Oh God, full of compassion
Oh God, faithful and true.
Oh God, You are my God
And I love You.
Oh God, You are my God.
And I love You.
©1990 Maranatha Praise, Inc.
CCLI License No. 1843349

THE GIVING OF THE LORD’S OFFERING

For those of you who participate in the Lord’s offering by giving through the mail, our address is P. O. Box 126, Chippewa Lake, OH, 44215.

As we consider what it means to give, there is perhaps no better word on this than the one we have already heard from Jesus: “And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength” (Deuteronomy 6:5).

AN OFFERING PRAYER

O Lord, our God, we thank You for making it possible for us to give in this way. We thank You for the blessing we have enjoyed to work; to exchange our time and effort and energy for a paycheck. In this way, we have been enabled to do and accomplish so many wonderful things. As we consider Your marvelous grace at work in our lives in these ways, how could we not want to love You with everything we are and everything we have. We thank You that we are never more like Jesus than when we give. We thank you for making it possible for us to love You, to worship You in this way, through Jesus, amen.

PRAYER SONG

Hear My Cry

Founds, Rick/Collins, Todd

Hear my cry, O Lord,
Attend unto my prayer.
From the ends of the earth,
Will I cry out to Thee.
And when my heart is overwhelmed,
Lead me to the Rock
That is higher than I, that is higher than I.
For Thou hast been a shelter unto me,
A high tower Lord against the enemy.
And when my heart is overwhelmed,
Lead me to the Rock
That is higher than I, that is higher than I.
And when my heart is overwhelmed,
Lead me to the Rock
That is higher than I, that is higher than I.
©1977, 1982 Maranatha Praise, Inc.
CCLI License No. 1843349

MORNING PRAYER

Alan Robbins

Please join me in prayer.
Dear Lord, our Heavenly Father.
We are ever more thankful for the opportunity to be back in your house of worship on this beautiful Summer Sunday.
We pray for those that are crying out and have a heart that is overwhelmed with life’s circumstances and heavy burdens, that God will show them that he is the Rock that you should base your life upon.
We can feel the Holy Spirit of God working to bring some sort of normalcy to those suffering with seemingly impossible heavy burdens.
Keep Pastor Randy in our prayers as he “guides us back to the ROCK that is higher than I.”
Lord, we know you will stay by our side. We know you will listen and guide our prayers to Reach Out, to Hold, to give Help, to give Love, to give Peace, to give Joy and to Call the Holy Spirit to those that are grieving, for those that are ill, for those that are hurting in any way and prayers for our own needs.
Thank you Lord, as we give God’s Glory, and Grace, and Joy, and Refuge, and Strength, and Love, and Peace, and the Holy Spirit to our community and the world in which we live.
In Jesus name, we pray. Amen

SCRIPTURE

From then on Jesus began to tell His disciples plainly that it was necessary for Him to go to Jerusalem, and that He would suffer many terrible things at the hands of the elders, the leading priests, and the teachers of religious law. He would be killed, but on the third day He would be raised from the dead. But Peter took him aside and began to reprimand Him for saying such things. “Heaven forbid, Lord,” he said. “This will never happen to you!”
Jesus turned to Peter and said, “Get away from Me, Satan! You are a dangerous trap to Me. You are seeing things merely from a human point of view, not from God’s.”
Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If any of you wants to be My follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for My sake, you will save it. And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul?”
Matthew 16:21-26

The human body has many parts, but the many parts make up one whole body. So it is with the body of Christ. Some of us are Jews, some are Gentiles, some are slaves, and some are free. But we have all been baptized into one body by one Spirit, and we all share the same Spirit.
Yes, the body has many different parts, not just one part. If the foot says, “I am not a part of the body because I am not a hand,” that does not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear says, “I am not part of the body because I am not an eye,” would that make it any less a part of the body? If the whole body were an eye, how would you hear? Or if your whole body were an ear, how would you smell anything?
But our bodies have many parts, and God has put each part just where He wants it. How strange a body would be if it had only one part! Yes, there are many parts, but only one body. The eye can never say to the hand, “I don’t need you.” The head can’t say to the feet, “I don’t need you.” In fact, some parts of the body that seem weakest and least important are actually the most necessary. And the parts we regard as less honorable are those we clothe with the greatest care. So we carefully protect those parts that should not be seen, while the more honorable parts do not require this special care. So God has put the body together such that extra honor and care are given to those parts that have less dignity. This makes for harmony among the members, so that all the members care for each other. If one part suffers, all the parts suffer with it, and if one part is honored, all the parts are glad.
All of you together are Christ’s body, and each of you is a part of it. Here are some of the parts God has appointed for the church:
first are apostles,
second are prophets,
third are teachers,
then those who do miracles,
those who have the gift of healing,
those who can help others,
those who have the gift of leadership,
those who speak in unknown languages.
Are we all apostles? Are we all prophets? Are we all teachers? Do we all have the power to do miracles? Do we all have the gift of healing? Do we all have the ability to speak in unknown languages? Do we all have the ability to interpret unknown languages? Of course not! So you should earnestly desire the most helpful gifts.
But now let me show you a way of life that is best of all.
I Corinthians 12:12-31

SERMON

Randy K’Meyer

A Servant’s Reward

Servanthood.

We introduced this series by considering the words of Jesus, the servant par excellent

Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you must be the slave of everyone else.
Mark 10:43-44

Then we looked at the mindset of a servant given by Paul in his letter to the Romans:

And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all He has done for you. This is truly the way to worship him.
Romans 12:1

The following Sunday we examined the attitude of a servant: humility:

Have this attitude in You that was also in Christ Jesus . . . who humbled
Himself to the point of death, even death on a cross.
Philippians 2:5, 8

Last week we turned to Ephesians to discuss spiritual giftedness;

“For we are God’s masterpiece; He has created us anew in Christ Jesus so we can do the good things He planned for us long ago” (Ephesians 2:10). To that end, “He has given each one of us a special gift through the generosity of Christ” (Ephesians 4:7). Moreover, “He makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love” (Ephesians 4:16).

Today, as we close this series on servanthood, I want us to think about the reward of being a servant.

In today’s letter, Paul wants the Corinthians to know that part, not all, but part of the reward of servanthood is discovered as Christians come to understand that God has graciously provided the means for them to accomplish His will through them! There are many different parts to the body and each part has something to contribute to the health and vitality of the body. The principle is: “many hands make light work!”

Retired Bishop, Dr. Maxie Dunham says, “When we make the deliberate choice to be servants, strength and vitality and joy and meaning are ours. When we use our gifts and graces with an attitude of servant-hood, the body of Christ comes alive among us and the church repeats the life of Christ.” ¹

And that’s what it’s all about for you and I as Christ followers: repeating the life of Christ.

16th century’s Saint Teresa of Avila wrote,

Christ has no body now but yours. No hands, no feet on earth but yours.
Yours are the eyes through which He looks with compassion on this world. Yours are the feet with which He walks to do good. Yours are the hands through which He blesses all the world. Yours are the hands, yours are the feet, yours are the eyes, you are His body. Christ has no body now on earth but yours. ²

In 1924, Anna Johnson Flint, taking inspiration from Saint Teresa wrote the words for a hymn, titled The World’s Bible, the first verse of which says:

Christ has no hands but our hands to do His work today
He has no feet but our feet to lead men in the way
He has no tongue but our tongue to tell men how He died
He has no help but our help to bring them to His side. ³

And therein lies our reward.

Our reward for serving is to join forces with God to help Him redeem this planet one act of service and one life at a time.

I know that in the eyes of the world that’s not much of a reward. But to those who have chosen to follow Christ it means everything!

For those who have chosen to follow Christ value His words to His disciples:

If any of you wants to be My follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it.
Matthew 16:24

What does Jesus mean by trying to hang on to your life?

I think Solomon answered that for us in the Book of Ecclesiastes in which he tells about purposefully setting out to find real meaning and purpose and value in life. He started by accumulating a vast sum of money only to discover that in the end it didn’t provide what he was looking for. Then he sought power; attained it and discovered that it too failed to satisfy. Next he began to hotly pursue pleasure, then fame and then celebrity. Finally at the end of all his pursuits he wrote: “As I looked at everything I had worked so hard to accomplish, it was all so meaningless—like chasing the wind. There was nothing really worthwhile anywhere” (2:11).

Solomon was not created to chase the wind.

Neither were you or I. According to Paul, we were “created anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things He planned for us long ago” (Ephesians 2:10).

That’s why Jesus warned His followers: “If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it” (Matthew 16:25a). Most of this world’s pursuits; power, fame, wealth are like chasing the wind. You not only never catch what you are really after; you may well lose your soul as you try.

And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul?
Is anything (wealth, power, fame) worth more than your soul?
Matthew 16:26

But if you give up your life for My sake, you will find it.
Matthew 16:25b

That is, we will find real meaning in life.

Our reward is to realize that we were created to join God on a mission; His mission to reclaim and redeem and fix this broken planet. God has His work gloves on and He invites us to roll up our sleeves and join Him with everything we’ve got; our time, our money, our talents, our gifts, our passions, our church.

God says, “You can keep chasing the wind if you want, or you can team up with Me and together we’ll transform this hurting planet one act of service, one life at a time.

My dream and vision for CrossPointe is that everyone would make the choice to join God in His mission!

For until and unless everyone is playing some role, the church of Jesus at CrossPointe will not be all that it could be and should be!

What do we have to offer? More than we think.

We have the gifts and talents that we were born with.
We have the spiritual gifts given to us when we became Christians.
We have the passions that inspire us.
We have the blessings of education, the skills we’ve honed, the life experiences that have matured us, the pain that has deepened us, the love of our fellow man that bleeds from God’s heart into ours.

These are powerful tools for good that God has lavished on all His children. And when we decide to invest a portion of the blessings God has given, there will soon come a day when we will realize I was made for this!

Hey, if we want, we can try it Solomon’s way. Every chance we get we can pursue the things of the world, put our self in the center, be demanding, insist on our own way, expect the world to revolve around us. And then we can honestly assess; ‘am I coming closer to God and others; is my life fuller or emptier?’

On the other hand, we can choose to follow Jesus in donning the servant’s towel. And as we do, we will likewise monitor the condition of our hearts; are we gaining or losing life? I think you know the answer to that.

We will begin to realize and enjoy the soul-satisfying rewards of serving.

What rewards?

The reward of being part of a church that is clicking on all eight cylinders.
The reward of being part of a church sharing God’s grace with our community.
The reward of seeing that everything we do, from maintaining the building and grounds to preaching the Word, has the potential to help someone turn life God-ward.
The reward of knowing that God is using you for His glory!

What a difference it makes at the end of a day to say ‘you know what I did today, I teamed up with God to change this world for the better one act of service, one life at a time!’

Chaplain of the United States Senate, Peter Marshall, used to tell the story of the Keeper of the Spring, a quiet forest dweller who lived high above an Austrian village along the eastern slopes of the Alps. The old gentleman had been hired many years ago by a town council to clear away the debris from the pools of water up in the mountain crevices that fed the lovely spring flowing through their town. With faithful, silent regularity, he patrolled the hills, removed the leaves and branches, that would otherwise cause silt to choke and contaminate the fresh flow of water.

By and by, the village became a popular attraction for vacationers. Graceful swans floated along the crystal spring, the millwheels located near the water turned day and night, farmlands were naturally irrigated and the view from restaurants was picturesque beyond description.

Years passed until one evening the town council met for its semi-annual meeting. As they reviewed the budget, one man’s eye caught the salary being paid the obscure keeper of the spring. Said the keeper of the purse, “Who is this old man? Why do we keep him on year after year? No one ever sees him. For all we know the strange ranger of the hills is doing us no good.” By a unanimous vote, they dispensed with the old man’s services.

For several weeks nothing changed. But by early autumn the trees began to shed their leaves. Small branches snapped off and fell into the pools, hindering the rushing flow of sparkling water. One afternoon someone noticed a slight yellowish-brown tint in the spring. A couple of days later, the water was much darker. Within another week, a slimy film covered sections of the water along the banks and a foul odor was detected. The millwheels moved slower, some finally ground to a halt. Swans began to leave; as did the tourists.

Quickly, the embarrassed council called a special meeting. Realizing their gross error in judgment, they re-hired the keeper of the spring and within a few weeks the veritable river of life returned to the hamlet in the Alps once again.

What the keeper of the spring meant to that village, Christian servants mean to our world. Left to run its natural course in the world the river of life on this earth would begin to turn yellowish-brown and a slimy film of greed and hatred and jealousy would smell up the whole planet. And the millwheels of God’s grace would slowly grind to a halt.

But we are the keepers of the spring! We are not going to allow the river of life to become clogged. We are going to offer God what He has given; our abilities, our gifts, our time, our treasure, our bodies in service to Him and to others so that His river of life continues to flow freely!

The hope of the world is the church! And the success or the failure of the church rests on the willingness of folks like you and I, to consider ourselves servants of Christ who are mobilized and empowered and used by God to accomplish His will for His glory.

CLOSING PRAYER

[Please pray as you feel God is directing you.]

CLOSING SONG

Let It Be Said of Us

Fry, Steve

Let it be said of us that the Lord was our passion,
That with gladness we bore
Every cross we were given.
That we fought the good fight, that we finished the course.
Knowing within us the power of the risen Lord.
Let the cross be our glory and the Lord be our song,
By mercy made holy, by the Spirit made strong.
Let the cross be our glory and the Lord be our song,
‘Til the likeness of Jesus be through us made known.
Let the cross be our glory and the Lord be our song.
Let it be said of us: we were marked by forgiveness,
We were known by our love, and delighted in meekness.
We were ruled by His peace heeding unity’s call;
Joined as one body that Christ would be seen by all.
Let the cross be our glory and the Lord be our song,
By mercy made holy, by the Spirit made strong.
Let the cross be our glory and the Lord be our song,
‘Til the likeness of Jesus be through us made known.
Let the cross be our glory and the Lord be our song.
Let the cross be our glory and the Lord be our song,
By mercy made holy, by the Spirit made strong.
Let the cross be our glory and the Lord be our song,
‘Til the likeness of Jesus be through us made known.
Let the cross be our glory and the Lord be our song.
Let the cross be our glory and the Lord be our song.
©1994 and this arr. ©1997 Maranatha! Music and Word Music (a div. of Word Music)
CCLI License No. 1843349

BENEDICTION

May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Romans 15:5–6

2 Quote by Teresa of Avila
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/66880-christ-has-no-body-now-but-yours-no-hands-no

3 Anna Johnson Flint, The World’s Bible, © 1924 by J. W. Askew
https://hymnary.org/text/christ_has_no_hands_but_our_hands