A vital partner in the gospel serves others in the body sacrificially:

  • They serve when they’re tired.  
  • They serve when it’s hard.
  • They serve when they don’t feel like it anymore.  
  • AND… they serve with JOY!

Paul said these words to the church in Philippi (Philippians 2:3-4), “3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. 4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.”

Paul then explains how our service to others is simply following the example of Jesus.  In Philippians 2, he continues by saying (in verse 5-8),
“5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”
God has given gifts to every part of the body to serve the whole and to help to build it up.  In 1 Corinthians 12:7, Paul restates the same concept, “To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.”
That verse means that each person had been given a gift to share with other people in the body.  We all have the ability to be a blessing to others inside the church.  It is the job of each one of us to know our gifts and find out the needs of the church so that we can best give away our gifts in the context of the body.

—

Mark Stafford

Senior Pastor