This world teaches us to look out for ourselves. According to the world’s standards, we deserve to be served. Everything is about us. Jesus came and taught something completely different in a world focused on self-centeredness. Although He was God, He did not come to earth for the purpose of being served. Instead, He came to serve and called His followers to follow His example. It is this call to serve that we, His followers, are called to model today. As we serve and love those around us, we point them straight to Christ.
Who do you know who serves others well? What stands out to you about their example of service?
SERMON RECAP
Bible Study
What holds people back from having a mindset of service?
Read John 13:1-9. What was radical about Jesus’ actions in this passage of Scripture?
Before the Passover celebration, Jesus knew that his hour had come to leave this world and return to his Father. He had loved his disciples during his ministry on earth, and now he loved them to the very end. 2 It was time for supper, and the devil had already prompted Judas, son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus. 3 Jesus knew that the Father had given him authority over everything and that he had come from God and would return to God. 4 So he got up from the table, took off his robe, wrapped a towel around his waist, 5 and poured water into a basin. Then he began to wash the disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel he had around him. 6 When Jesus came to Simon Peter, Peter said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?” 7 Jesus replied, “You don’t understand now what I am doing, but someday you will.” 8 “No,” Peter protested, “you will never ever wash my feet!” Jesus replied, “Unless I wash you, you won’t belong to me.” 9 Simon Peter exclaimed, “Then wash my hands and head as well, Lord, not just my feet!”
Read John 13:12-17. Why did Jesus wash His disciples’ feet?
12 After washing their feet, he put on his robe again and sat down and asked, “Do you understand what I was doing? 13 You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and you are right, because that’s what I am. 14 And since I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash each other’s feet. 15 I have given you an example to follow. Do as I have done to you. 16 I tell you the truth, slaves are not greater than their master. Nor is the messenger more important than the one who sends the message. 17 Now that you know these things, God will bless you for doing them.
Define what it means to serve according to the example Jesus set.
Application
Do you find it easy to live a lifestyle of service? Why or why not?
What does it look like today to “wash people’s feet?”
What is one thing that is keeping you from following Jesus’ example of service?
There are opportunities to serve all around us. The church is one of the important places where we, as followers of Christ, can serve. Share with your group how God has specifically gifted you and how you might be able to use those gifts at Sagebrush. Commit this week to signing up to serve in that area by going to sagebrush.church/serve.
As we discussed earlier, service does not come naturally. If we want to have a mindset of service, we have to develop other traits and characteristics that naturally lead us to serve. Today, we will dive into three characteristics that Jesus demonstrated that will lead to a mindset of service.
Sacrifice:
Service requires sacrifice. After all, when we serve other people, we must sacrifice our time and resources to serve them. No one demonstrated a greater example of sacrifice than Jesus when He came to earth and laid down His life for the world.
1. Read John 10:14-18.
John 10:14-18
14 “I am the good shepherd; I know my own sheep, and they know me, 15 just as my Father knows me and I know the Father. So I sacrifice my life for the sheep. 16 I have other sheep, too, that are not in this sheepfold. I must bring them also. They will listen to my voice, and there will be one flock with one shepherd.
17 “The Father loves me because I sacrifice my life so I may take it back again. 18 No one can take my life from me. I sacrifice it voluntarily. For I have the authority to lay it down when I want to and also to take it up again. For this is what my Father has commanded.”
2. How did Jesus demonstrate sacrifice in this passage of Scripture?
3. What does it look like today to demonstrate the same kind of sacrifice that Jesus’ showed?
4. What things do we often sacrifice in order to serve?
Humility:
Being a servant requires humility. You see, we cannot have a mindset of service where we think about others, look out for their needs, and do what we can to help and show love without humility. Humility must be a part of our mindset if we want to become people who live out a lifestyle of serving others. The greatest example that we have of this type of humility that led to serving others was Jesus.
1. Read Philippians 2:3-8.
Philippians 2:3-8
3 Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. 4 Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too.
5 You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had.
6 Though he was God,
he did not think of equality with God
as something to cling to.
7 Instead, he gave up his divine privileges;
he took the humble position of a slave
and was born as a human being.
When he appeared in human form,
8 he humbled himself in obedience to God
and died a criminal’s death on a cross.
2. Summarize Jesus’ humility based on what Paul wrote in this passage of Scripture.
3. Why is humility necessary to serve like Jesus did?
4. How can we develop the mindset of humility that Jesus demonstrated while He was on earth?
Love:
At the heart of service is love. It is true that when we love people, service naturally follows. It was love for people that led Jesus to take on the role of a servant and serve all of the people around Him while He was on this earth.
1. Read John 15:9-15.
John 15:9-15
9 “I have loved you even as the Father has loved me. Remain in my love. 10 When you obey my commandments, you remain in my love, just as I obey my Father’s commandments and remain in his love. 11 I have told you these things so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow! 12 This is my commandment: Love each other in the same way I have loved you. 13 There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command. 15 I no longer call you slaves, because a master doesn’t confide in his slaves. Now you are my friends, since I have told you everything the Father told me.
2. How did Jesus define the greatest love?
3. How did Jesus prove to show that kind of love?
4. How can we model the same love that Jesus demonstrated?
Pick one of the above traits that you looked at: sacrifice, love, or humility, to focus on over the next month. Share that trait with your group, along with one step you can take to focus on that area. After everyone has shared, pray. Pray that God would help each one of you grow so that you all have the mindset of a servant, who seeks not to be served, but to serve.
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But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves. James 1:22
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