Love Your City

NorthStar is such a great church and we have so much to be thankful for. It is incredible how God has continued to pour out His Spirit on our church and the best is yet to come. This past Sunday, we talked about  loving our city. I wanted to share a recap of yesterday's service. What an incredible day we had in God's house together with believers.
I Corinthians 13 says the greatest of these is love. It says though I speak well, do well, work well etc if I do not have love it is worthless.  That is why today I want to talk about doing these things with love. Ministering to and Serving with love.
This was the character of Jesus.  Matthew 20:26-28   ²⁶ Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, ²⁷ and whoever wants to be first must be your slave— ²⁸ just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
Serving honors God.  John 12:26  ²⁶ Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me.
In our culture somehow we get the notion or idea that we’ve earned it or somebody owes me something.  We may not say it but often we live a life that reflects a belief that it is all about me. Notice how the Lord’s prayer start off.  
Matthew 6:9-10   ⁹ “This, then, is how you should pray: “‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, ¹⁰ your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”
It never mentions me, our, mine, etc. This starts off as a posture of surrender not suggestion. Therefore, it is not about me, you or us!  This tells us  It’s Not About Me. We love in a society that tells us it is all about me.  We live in a society that gets ticked off when Chic-fil-A puts a pickle on our sandwich. We are empowering a society that thinks it’s all about me.  Have it your way.

In our text, some of the religious leaders were trying to trick Jesus when they ask him “what is the greatest commandment?”   Matthew 22:34-40  ³⁴ Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. ³⁵ One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: ³⁶ “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”  ³⁷ Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’^{[c] 38} This is the first and greatest commandment. ³⁹ And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’^{[d] 40} All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

We are to love God and love others.

We Serve Our City When We Pour Out Ourselves to God

Jesus says the greatest commandment is to love God. The more we love God the more we can love others.
Romans 12:1  Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.

This tells us to give yourself totally to God. Find direction from God. If we don’t know who He is and what He desires for us, we will flounder around without direction. A solid foundation in Christ can be built by regularly attending church, giving, reading your Bible and serving. But if any one of those is missing, your foundation begins to wobble.

2 Chronicles 16:9   ⁹ For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him. You have done a foolish thing, and from now on you will be at war.”

The church that God is making us to be requires helping hands and faithful hearts!

We Serve our City by Serving in the Church

For some when it comes to church it is looked at as a place we go to be served. We go to have a few moments of great music and hear an inspiring message. We look forward to our favorite songs, to listen to a "good" band,  have the pastor speak to us, to have excellent ministry for our children, be encouraged and then, having been "well served" we go home.  If we were honest we'd have to admit that when we were "church shopping" we had our mental list of things we needed the church to be for us. Often when a new family comes they are probably making a circuit of different churches. We're being evaluated in terms of what we have to offer them.   I'm sure they're asking, "How can NorthStar serve us?"

I'm here to tell you that we have got to flip the script on that kind of selfish, self-centered, sinful thinking.  Somewhere in the journey of faith a transition has to happen. Somewhere, somehow as Christians, we need to find ourselves moving away from "serve-us" to "service". Where the church is no longer a place we go "to be served" but "to serve".

James 2:14-18 says:   ¹⁴ What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? ¹⁵ Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. ¹⁶ If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? ¹⁷ In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. ¹⁸ But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.” Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds.

You've got to do something.  Talk is cheap.  **serve with passion- rooted in a loving heart. **serve with enthusiasm-rooted in a expectant heart. **serve with commitment- rooted in obedience. Often crashing through the quitting points. This often requires sacrifice. **serve with a giving and sacrificial heart. We Serve our City by Giving.  **serve with expectancy Realize that God wants to do more in and through my life than I can imagine.

Ephesians 3:20  ²⁰ Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us,

Meeting needs and making His name known. It will not happen on its own. They do not come to us we must go to them.  You will never be more like Jesus than when you give and serve.

We Serve Our City by Acting

We see Jesus meeting Spiritual, Physical, and Emotional Needs.

I want to take a few minutes to be very practical. In order for us to effectively serve our community we’ve got to act. Maybe you know a single mom who needs her lawn mowed or fence repaired. Maybe you know someone in the hospital and their family could use some frozen casseroles. Maybe there is an older person who needs their rain gutters cleaned out, but they can’t do it themselves. Or maybe there is someone who can’t get out and about and would love to have someone come over for a coffee.

God still puts in your hands something with which you can serve others.  It might be time.  It might be physical strength.  It might be wisdom.   It might be laughter.  But whatever it is - if you will only take what God has placed in your hands and place your hands in HIS - somebody will be blessed.  See, anything can be a blessing - it all depends whose hands it's in. A basketball in my hands is worth about $19.  A basketball in Le Bron's James' hands is worth $19 million.  It all depends whose hands it’s in.  A baseball in my hands is worth $6; in A-Rod's hands its $60 million. A rod in my hands will keep away a stray dog. A rod in Moses' hands will part the Red sea. A sling shot in my hands is a kid's toy A sling shot in David's hands is a mighty weapon. Nails in my hands might produce a footstool. Nails in Jesus' hands will produce salvation for the entire world. It all depends on whose hands it’s in.  So God is asking will you minister to my city?
In just a few days we have two from our missions team going on a vision trip to Haiti.  I am so excited about this and I know this going to be a great opportunity for our church to be the hands and feet of Jesus.
Also, we are embarking upon a great opportunity to "Feed The City" this fall. Be listening for more details that are coming soon.