Hands: Serving with the Love of Christ, Part 2

1 Timothy 3:13
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Welcome to Open The Bible with Pastor Colin Smith. Today, Pastor Colin will be exploring a thought-provoking definition of sin as being ‘bent in on oneself’. With the illuminating guidance of the Scriptures and the insightful reflections of historical figures like Augustine, we’ll consider how sin distorts our human condition, causing us to focus inwardly, rather than on God and others.

Yet, there is a transformative power in the Spirit of Christ that lifts us from this inward curvature, enabling us to look outward and upward – to serve and to love as we were truly meant to. Join us as we delve deep into the heart of our faith, examining what it means to be straightened up by Christ and how service is not only a response to faith but a vital sign of its presence in our lives.

Sin What is sin? It is to be bent in on myself. It’s to be going through life consumed by my own problems, my own needs. Sin has us bent in on ourselves. But when Jesus Christ who is not bent in on himself comes into a human life what is the effect of the Spirit of Christ coming into human life? It straightens us up. Welcome to, Open The Bible, with Pastor Colin Smith. I’m David Pick and Colin that is the definition of sin which I don’t think I’ve heard before to be bent in on yourself. Yeah, bent over double. Remember the woman, the hemorrhage who Jesus healed, she’s bent over and imagine that looking at the ground all of the time and unable to stand up. I think it was Augustine who used that picture first that this is the affect of sin. Think about it. Adam and Eve made in the garden. They’re able to look up into the face of God and they’re made to worship him. There’s all this relationship. Then they become all about themselves, all about me, bent in on myself and what a miserable way to live. We weren’t created for that, but that’s what sin does and when you have a world of people bent in on themselves, you’ve got a world of conflict because it’s all about me. So God’s salvation involves bringing us to be upright again so that we can look into his face and behold his glory. I think Augustine had a wonderful picture there. It really is a vivid picture. So let’s start today’s message where in 1 Timothy chapter 3, here’s Colin. If I was to ask you to draw a picture that represents sin, I wonder what you would draw. Now, of course, you have a lot of options. You could draw a target and an arrow falling short of it because sin is falling short of the glory of God. You could draw a clenched fist because sin is rebellion against God. But I want to suggest to you another picture that you could draw that gets to the heart of what sin does in the human condition. And Augustine, the great Christian teacher, developed this showing how in the Scriptures sin has this effect on us. You could draw the picture of a man or a woman bent over so that they are looking inwards to themselves. Let me explain that picture to you. When Adam and Eve were created by God and wonderfully placed in the garden of Eden, they walked upright and were able face-to-face to have fellowship with Almighty God. He made himself visible so that they walked with him in the garden in the cool of the day. They looked to God. But you remember that Satan came into the garden, and he said to the man and to the woman, you can be as God. You don’t need to be looking to God, he said, to tell you what is good and what is evil. You don’t need to be a worshiper of God, you don’t need to be trusting him and loving him and serving him. You can be your own God, you can trust yourself. You can love yourself. You can serve yourself. And in their disobedience in the garden, that is exactly what happens. So that the human condition has moved from being one that is upright in which we look the face of God, loving and trusting and serving him, to a condition in which we are bent over on ourselves. And that is why James is describing this man who says he has faith, but when there is someone who is hungry and someone who is cold over here, this man doesn’t want to get involved. He says, oh, well, be fed and keep yourself warm. Why does he say that? He doesn’t want to get involved. Why because he’s bent in on himself. He’s consumed with his own life, his own problems, his own deal. And James says, can a faith like that save a man? No, the Spirit of Christ is not in this man. For whatever he says about himself, he is not a Christian. He is still in his sins. He is bent over on himself. He does not care about his brother. James is challenging, as the whole New Testament challenges, the easy believism that is rampant in the church today, by which many people have come to think that they are Christians when they really are not. And this has happened through an emaciated gospel, which offers Christ as Savior but Lord, invites people to receive Him by faith without returning to Him in repentance in order to be saved from hell without being saved from sin. So, that’s the first thing for us to establish. We’ve got to be clear about what faith is, and it goes to the heart of our whole series. A faith that does not serve, a faith that does not have deeds, a faith that does not issue in love is absolutely, completely, and utterly useless. Now that’s the first step. Here’s the second. Jesus Christ came into the world, not to be served but to serve. And our Lord states this beautifully in Mark chapter 10 and verse 45. The Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many. And service was not something that Jesus added to His life. Service was His life. Jesus Christ was not bent in on Himself. He looks up into the face of the Father and He says, my food is to do your will. And so you read in the Gospels how He spent His days, how He poured out His life, giving Himself to the disciples, giving Himself to the crowds. How when He was confronted with human need, He was not bent in on Himself so that He just said something trite and walked away, He moved towards it. He ministered to those who were sorrowing in bereavement. He served children. Think of how the Lord Jesus Christ in the extremity of His own suffering is still caring for His Mother, to be cared for, appointing John to the task. Think of how wherever He goes, He proclaims good news and He brings hope and He speaks the word of life. And this Jesus says, I come among you as one who serves. It’s who I am. That’s what I’m about. That’s my life. Not something added to me. It’s the very nature of the way that I live. It is my life. I did not come to be served. I’m not sitting back, saying what are people going to do for me? I am stepping forward and I spend my life, serving and giving my life as a ransom for many. So this is the wonderful truth about the Lord Jesus Christ. He came into the world, not for himself, but for us. He lived His life, He died His death, He rose again, not for Himself, but for us. He ascended into heaven, not for Himself, but for us, and when He comes again in power and glory, He will not be coming for Himself, but for us. So we put two steps together. Why is it that serving well gives us great confidence in our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ? Well, step one, a faith that does not serve is completely useless. Don’t be deceived about this, it is just useless. Second, Jesus Christ came not to be served, but to serve. Now, here’s the third step and the most important one. That faith that unites us to Christ will show itself in serving. You see, if it were really true that faith is a bond of living union with Jesus Christ, in which, like the vine and the branches, His life is enough. If it’s really true that Christ is in me. If faith unites me to the Christ who serves and His life is in me, the way that I will see evidence of that life is by my serving. That is, of course, precisely why it is the case that faith that does not serve is completely useless because it is evidently not a living bond with the Christ who does serve. It’s just words. But a living faith that bonds me to Jesus Christ who came into the world to serve is going to manifest itself, it’s going to give evidence of itself in serving. So, think of that picture of sin one more time and think of what it is that Jesus Christ does for us when we come to living faith in him. What is sin? It is to be bent in on myself. It’s to be going through life consumed with my own problems, my own needs. There’s this man, he’s bent in on himself and he’s consumed with how people have let him down and how he’s gonna make his mark in the world and when he’s gonna get the break that he thinks he deserves and so forth. Sin has us bent in on ourselves but when Jesus Christ who is not bent in on himself comes into a human life, what is the effect of the Spirit of Christ coming into human life? It straightens us up. It gets us away from loving self and trusting self and serving self and brings us to the position of looking up with faith into the face of almighty God and saying, I love you. I serve you. I trust you. You’ve delivered me and saved me from being my own God and now that my eyes are open to live upright in relation to you, I see a world of need around me and because the Spirit of the one who served is in me, I have a new desire to move in that direction. One of the most beautiful descriptions of the life change Jesus Christ brings is in Psalm 3 and verse three. David is consumed with his own problems and then he says of God, you are the lifter up of my head. Isn’t that beautiful? That’s what God does. He gets us away from navel gazing. You know what I mean by that? You’re the lifter up of my head and when we are joined to Christ in this living union of faith, faith unites us to Christ who serves, so, true faith will show itself in serving. That’s a tremendous truth, if we have true faith, we will serve. You’re listening to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith and the message called Serving with the Love of Christ. It’s part of the series called the Anatomy of Faith and if you ever missed one of the series or if you want to go back and listen again, you can do that by coming online to our website, openthebible.org.uk, there you can hear any of the previously broadcast messages, you’ll also find us as a podcast, if that’s a better way, for you to keep up with Pastor Colin Smith’s teaching and you’ll find that on your regular podcasting site or by following the link on our website. Back to the message now, we’re in 1 Timothy chapter three, here’s Colin. Faith unites us to Christ who serves so, true faith will show itself in serving and that principle is all over the New Testament. Christ died for all that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised to life. If you have any encouragement from being united to Christ, if you have any fellowship in the Spirit, then live not for your own interest but also for the interests of others. Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ who took the nature of a servant. If you see Paul’s argument, if his spirit’s in you, then the one who became a servant, his life is going to be manifest through you. So Martin Luther puts this very, very beautifully. He says each one of us should become as it were a Christ to the other that we may be truly Christians. Each one of us should become as it were a Christ to the other that we may be truly Christians. Now one more scripture reference here, and would you turn with me to First Thessalonians in Chapter One. First Thessalonians in Chapter One. Here’s a beautiful description of the transformation that Christ brings in a human life. These folks in Thessalonica were idolaters. It says that in Verse Nine. And that means that they were basically loving themselves and trusting themselves and serving themselves. But Paul came and brought the gospel and by God’s grace their lives were changed. They were wonderfully converted to faith in Jesus Christ. So Paul says one Thessalonians one and I’ll read from Verse Two. We always thank God for all of you mentioning you in our prayers. We continually remember before our God and father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in the Lord Jesus Christ. You see the faith that united these people who only a short time before were loving themselves, trusting themselves, and serving themselves brought them to an entirely new position in which they were now venturing in faith, the work of faith. They were laboring with love and they were persevering, they were continuing, enduring because of hope that they had found by this living union with the Lord Jesus Christ. And notice how when the spirit of Christ lives in a person, when you’re made one with Christ in this wonderful union of faith, serving isn’t something that you add to your life, it becomes your life because Christ is your life and He came not to be served, but to serve. And notice that right here, there’s a desire, the work that they do. Where does it come from? It’s produced by faith. This labor, this hard work that continues, where does it come from? It’s prompted by love. And this endurance, this going on another year, another year, and continuing and persevering in the long term, where does it come from? It’s inspired by hope. So this is not the apostle Paul kind of trying to lay it on the people to say, hey, we’ve all gotta serve, we all gotta try and add something to our lives. What he’s saying is, because you’re joined to Christ who came not to be served, but to serve, because his spirit lives within you, it’s become your life also. And thank God for the way in which that is manifest among us. A faith that is not Word only, not just saying I’m a Christian, not just saying that I believe certain things, but the evidence of a real living union with Christ who came not to be served, but to serve, evidencing itself in a life of love. So now, are you beginning to see the connection between serving and faith? A faith that does not serve is completely useless. Christ did not come into the world to be served, but to serve. And faith that unites us to the Christ who came to serve is going to show itself in serving. Therefore, where serving abounds, this is the evidence of the reality of faith. And therefore, where it abounds, assurance and joy increases, because it’s evident that this is the real thing, and not words only. So says Paul in 1 Timothy 3 in verse 13, those who serve well gain great assurance in their faith in Christ Jesus. Folks, as a church, we are now being stretched in service as never before as God opens up wonderful, wonderful new opportunities of ministry, and as we are stretched in serving, so we will grow in faith. So someone said to me last night, and then someone else said to me this morning after the first service, so I presume that a few others are thinking it as well, I’m just realizing this Lord increase my faith and it’s quite a dangerous prayer to pray. Should have told us that before the third message in the series. But oh what a wonderful prayer to pray. And oh, how wonderful to be part of a body where serving like this, that is the evidence of the reality of union with Christ, is happening in such wonderful ways. Let me just share one testimony with you and then we’re through. Just last night, after the Saturday night service, a number of conversations, I spoke at length with one lady who had been greatly moved. She said I cannot tell you how much it means to me and to my family the way in which folks within The Orchard have ministered to us, particularly over the last year. And she began to pour out, I know this lady’s circumstance as well. I’m not going to detail either her name or her circumstances to you. But she poured out, one way after another, in which really practically, members of the congression here had served her and her six children from teenage years down to quite young. And what she said was so rich. You know, I wished I could just have captured it for you, so I said to her, would you be willing just to write down some of the things you just said to me so that I can share that with the people? She said I’d love to do that. So she wrote it down last night, sent it to me on the email. Can I just read you a few paragraphs for your encouragement? Because here’s just a little snapshot of the life of Christ manifest in the church. This last year, she writes, has been absolutely earth shattering for our family. We have experienced not one but many calamities that have now shaken our once-strong marriage, our children, and each of our personal beliefs in the sovereignty of God and His love for us. A few of these events have included extreme and sudden financial loss, separation, then unemployment, underemployment, and now foreclosure in this volatile economy. The only hope we have clung to is Christ alone, each other, and the body of Christ. The love, support, and sacrifice we have received from the church body in the most unexpected ways have shone us that He truly is walking with us during these dark days. She then writes, expressing her thanks for the middle school and the high school ministry, and particularly Pastor Tom and Pastor Bing, and then says, our toddlers absolutely love going to Sunday school and Awana each week. In fact, they continually ask if today is church day because they look forward to it so much. Not only do they have fun, but they are really learning God’s amazing truths each week, which they enthusiastically share with our family. It is so encouraging to know that they are in a safe and well-run program which allows me to focus on the Sunday service and Bible study. The volunteers are amazing. They make each child feel so loved when they are there. The kids all know and experience Christ’s love in a very real way each week. She continues, God seems to answer our spiritual and practical needs through the many friends we have made at The Orchard. Only a few know about our personal difficulties. But regardless, God still seems to mysteriously lay our needs upon their hearts. Blessings of childcare, hand-me-downs, cookies, and even birthday cakes for each of our kids have overwhelmed us with his love. Then she says, this season is teaching us to be more humble and sensitive to those who are hurting around us. And showing our family how to live out the Gospel for each other, and invest in what is eternal, God’s word and other people, for we don’t know what tomorrow will bring. We just wanted to encourage and thank everyone at the orchard for their service, and love to our family for being an arrow that points us to Christ. So glad to be planted at the orchard. And she signs it on behalf of all of the family. Once I read a letter like that, and I say, Christ is here. That’s Christ at work. That’s the life of Christ manifest in the body of Christ because of this union with Christ by faith. What greater assurance could you have of the presence and the work of Jesus Christ than the testimony of serving? Those who serve well gain great assurance of their faith in Christ Jesus. And as we see serving multiplied in the body of Christ, it gives us great confidence that Christ is at work among us. So, my simple question to you is, how are you going to serve? Because faith not only has ears, faith has hands. Pastor Colin Smith there, with the reminder that serving well brings a great assurance of faith. Our message today’s called, Serving with the Love of Christ, and it’s part of the series of the Anatomy of Faith. And if you’ve missed any of the series, please come online to our website, openthebible.org.uk. And there you can go back and listen again. You can also find us as a podcast, follow the link on our website, or search on your favourite podcast site for Open the Bible UK. Open the Bible is supported entirely by our listeners. That’s people just like you. And this month, if you’ve been thinking about setting up a new donation in respect of Open the Bible in the amount of five pounds per month or more, we’d love to thank you by sending you a copy of Pastor Colin Smith’s devotional, Green Pastures Still Waters, 31 Days in Psalm 23. It’s very much a devotional that goes with this series of messages. Colin, what do you hope that people using this devotional will take away from it? Oh, well, it will fix your eyes and your mind on the Lord Jesus Christ. I mean, he is the good shepherd. He is what Psalm 23 is all about, and to know that you have a Shepherd in Christ and that he’s going to lead you in right paths, he’s going to give you rest. He’s going to restore you when you’re spent and your energy is exhausted and gone. He’s going to guard you. He’s going to sustain you. He’s going to love you all the days of your life and eventually bring you into his nearer presence. I mean, a month fixing your mind and heart on Jesus Christ, the Good Shepherd, is going to renew your strength. It’s going to encourage you greatly. And that’s what Psalm 23 does. And I think that’s why it’s one of the best-known and best-loved chapters in all of the Bible. So that’s Pastor Colin Smith’s devotional, Green Pastures, Still Waters, 31 days in Psalm 23. And it’s our gift to you if you’re able to set up a new donation to the work of Open the Bible in the amount of £5 per month during the course of this month. Full details on our website. Openthebible.org.uk For Open the Bible, and Pastor Colin Smith, I’m David Pick. And I hope you’ll be able to join us again, next time. When we gather for the Lord’s Supper at Communion, we remember our Lord’s death and we also proclaim His death. But what does Christ do? Find out next time on Open the Bible.

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Colin Smith

Trustee / Founder and Teaching Pastor

Colin Smith is the Senior Pastor of The Orchard Evangelical Free Church in the northwest suburbs of Chicago. He has authored a number of books, including Heaven, How I Got Here and Heaven, So Near – So Far. Colin is the Founder and Teaching Pastor for Open the Bible. Follow him on X formerly Twitter.

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