Church Sermon - February 2, 2003

DEDICATED TO SERVE!

Rev. Mark F. Bartels

Epistle Lesson; Hebrews 2:14-18
Gospel Lesson; Luke 2:22-40
Sermon Text; 1 Samuel 1:21-28

One of my favorite quotations that do not come from the Bible is:

A hundred years from now,

it will not matter how much money I had in the bank.

A hundred years from now,

it will not matter what kind of car I drove.

A hundred years from now,

it will not matter what kind of house I lived in.

But, one hundred years from now,

if I touched the life of a child.

In fact, one hundred years from now,

it will not matter what the size of our church budget was. One hundred years from now,

it will not matter what color the carpet was in our church. And, one hundred years from now,

it will not matter what kind of copy machines

we had in our church office.

But one hundred years from now,

whether this church touched

the lives of the children

here,

in this congregation.

Just to show the impact that a Christian mother and Christian father can have, for generations to come, I would like to read to you an article that I found in the newspaper. It is about a Christian couple named Jonathan Edwards and his wife Sarah. Many of you have heard of them. A study was done of their offspring, in the year 1900. It said, "By 1900, this Godly marriage had produced 13 college presidents, 65 professors, 100 lawyers, one dean of an outstanding law school, 30 judges, 60 doctors, one dean of a medical school, 80 holders of public office (including 3 United States Senators), 3 mayors of large cities, 3 state governors, one Vice President of the United States, and one controller of the United States Treasury.

This family entered the ministry in platoons. They sent 100 missionaries overseas, as well as staffing many mission boards. Members of the family wrote 135 books, and edited 18 journals and periodicals.

Nearly another century has gone by since this study. How much more has this one family influenced the nation, since that time?

This happened because one husband and one wife had a vision for raising a Godly seed and building a Godly dynasty.

Those are some awesome statistics! It is awesome to know that one man and one woman raised up so many people, with hearts of servanthood! Which gets me back to the thought of my great, great, grand children. I will, in this lifetime, never ever have the opportunity to meet them. 100 years from now, when my great, great, grand children are alive, I will never ever have the opportunity to talk to them about their savior. 100 years from now, I will never ever have the opportunity to express to them my concern for their eternal salvation. It will be left to the generation that is coming up. It will be left to the children, here today. They will need to become servants, dedicated servants of the Lord. They will need to take what has been passed down to them, pick it up, make it their own and pass it down to the next generations.

It won’t matter, one hundred years from now, the color of the carpet we had in this church. It won’t matter, one hundred years from now, the kind of copy machines we had in our office.

But, one hundred years from now,

it will matter,

IT WILL MATTER,

whether we touched the lives of children.

I want you to consider from our scripture reading today, two things that happened. First of all, I want you to remember that, (and all of us should know this) if we want our children to grow up, the children of this congregation to grow up, to be dedicated servants of our Lord Jesus Christ, then…

it is incumbent on you and me,

the older generation,

to be dedicated servants of our savior, Jesus Christ!

When we look at today’s scripture reading, we find a mother who dedicated her child to the service of God, for his entire life.

I want you to consider the two things that happened. Number one; Hannah was a mother with a servant’s heart. She dearly wanted her child to be a servant of God. This mother, Hannah, understood that her little child, Samuel, was a wonderful, profound gift from God, to her. She understood that. Every parent here in our congregation should understand that the children, here in our church, are a wonderful, profound gift from God! The Bible says, "Children are a heritage from the Lord." They are an inheritance from the LORD.

Because they are such a wonderful heritage from God, the Bible tells us, (particularly speaking to parents) that they should be brought up in the training and the instruction of the Lord. Parents are given the duty, responsibility, great honor and privilege of taking care of what is the Lord’s possession. Those children belong to the Lord. The blood of Jesus, our savior, has redeemed those children. Our God died for the children, here in this congregation, and they belong to Him. They are His possession. Parents have been given the great privilege of caring for that possession of God. It is the duty and the responsibility of the parents to see to it that they, as parents, are servants of God our Savior, Jesus Christ. They need to see those children as great treasures from God, with eternal souls. And, they need to bring them up, knowing our Lord and savior Jesus Christ. That is one of the great services parents can render to their savior. Hannah did that. Hannah understood the great gift she had from God. She had it in her heart to dedicate her child all of his life, in service to God. All of us here, as parents, should have it in our hearts to dedicate our children in service to God. That is why we are on this earth. We are here with a purpose. Our purpose is to serve God. Hannah understood that was her purpose. And so, we too need to understand that it is also our purpose.

Secondly, Hannah did something else. Our scripture reading says that when her son was weaned, still just a little child, she took him to the temple of the LORD, in Shiloh. There she dedicated him to serve in the Lord’s temple all of his life. Now I want you to think about what she did. As a parent, she enlisted the help of the church. As a parent, she enlisted the help of the church, to train her child to grow up to be a faithful servant of Jesus Christ, his savior.

The church is here, in large part, to assist parents. It is not here to take their responsibility, but to assist parents in their responsibility of training up their children in service to Jesus Christ, our savior.

I want you; the young people that are here today, I want you to think about what the people in this church do for you. Did you, the young people of our congregation, know that there are some elderly people here, who are living on a very tight budget, who reach deep into their pockets and contribute money to Holy Cross Lutheran Church? If they were able to give one dollar, that single dollar is split up between all kinds of things, here at Holy Cross. We send some of the money to foreign missions and to home missions. We give some of the money to our college and our seminary. We see to it that our pastors and teachers are paid with some of that money. And we make sure that the everyday bills, the repairs, and cost for maintenance is taken care of, here at church, using that money. And, we also see to it that some of those gifts of money go to you, our children, to see to it that you grow up as servants of Jesus Christ, our savior.

As you can see, that one-dollar gift of money is split up in many different ways. Do you children know how much is dedicated to you? It is almost half. Almost half of what the people here at Holy Cross give, is dedicated to you! They understand how critical the future generation is, to the generations yet to come.

Those of you young people, who go to school here, probably notice that on some days, there is a group of ladies down in the cafeteria. You may notice that they are sitting down there, eating, talking, and having fun, during a Bible study. But what you maybe don’t know is that, behind the scenes, those ladies have dedicated their service to God, working very hard, so that they can raise funds. Many of those funds are dedicated to see to it that children can go to school here, and can go to our various youth programs! Those ladies are serving the Lord, as they serve you!

You probably see lots of grown ups come in and out of our church. You see them going to meetings. And you may wonder, "What is going on in all of those meetings?" Those grown ups are dedicating their time and service to their savior. Do you know what a lot of those conversations are about, in those board meetings and committee meetings, here at Holy Cross? A lot of the conversation is about you, the children. What can we do, to ensure that you, our children, will grow up to know your savior? What can we do, to make our school the best school we can, and serve as many children as possible, with the Word of God? What can we do, to instill in parents the desire to use our Sunday School, so our children grow up, not only wanting to come to church, but also wanting to study the Bible? What can we do, so that when you, our children, grow up you will have in your hearts the desire to serve God, by studying the Bible?

Our church is so serious about the welfare of you, our children, which is why much of the time devoted in service to our savior, is in serving you, our children! We see to it that 35 hours a week, we offer assistance to parents, so that they can bring their children here, to God’s House, in our Christian Day School. There, we offer the assistance of teaching children reading, writing and arithmetic, which certainly enables them to go out and be good servants in society. All of those subjects are taught with the gospel of Jesus Christ being the center of everything, so that those children go out into society and serve God. And, through the Word of God, they understand that the talents they use and the abilities they have, are to be used to the great glory, honor and service of Jesus Christ, our savior.

Certainly, it is important for us as a congregation,

to dedicate a great amount of energy and

service to our savior,

in service to our young people.

But I do want to say this. Servant-hood does not come naturally. It doesn’t come naturally to our children. And, it doesn’t come naturally to us, as adults. By nature, we are the opposite of servants. By nature, we want to be served. By nature, we are selfish. By nature, we want to look out for our own interests and not the interests of others. By nature, we many times fall into the sin of not serving others and not serving our savior, but serving ourselves.

The only thing that can motivate us to go out and be servants of our Lord and savior, Jesus Christ, the only thing that can motivate people, who by nature don’t want to serve Jesus, is the gospel. That is the only thing that can change our hearts, from the inside out. The gospel will change hearts, so that, instead of being selfish, we want to serve.

But, what is the gospel? The Gospel is the Good News that God, Himself, came, not to be served by us, but to be our servant! Jesus Christ said,

"The Son of Man

did not come to be served,

but to serve, and

give His life as a ransom for many."

It is an awesome humbling thought to know that the God who created this universe and is in control of all things came to this earth, to be my servant!

Jesus did the menial tasks...

not just washing people’s dirty feet,

not just serving breakfast for his disciples,

not just taking little children up in His arms,

not just associating with people that no one else wanted to associate with but even more deeply than that,

v Jesus humbled Himself, for me!

v Jesus became a servant, for me!

v Jesus became obedient to death, even death on a cross, for me!

 

When people spit in Jesus’ face, He was taking what I deserved. To think, God became my servant!

When people struck Jesus in His face, He was taking my place. To think, God became my servant!

When Jesus had His back flogged and shredded, He was taking my place. To think, God became my servant!

When Jesus had nails driven into His hands and feet, He was taking everything that I deserve, for my sin. How far down He stooped, that He did that for me, to be my servant! To think, God became my servant!

When Jesus suffered the eternal torments of Hell on the cross for me, He was taking my place! To think how utterly low God stooped to become my servant!

When God took my shame, all of my shame and guilt, He was not ashamed to take it for me! When He took everything that I deserve for my shame, and suffered everything that I deserve for my shame, He took my place! To think how utterly low God stooped to absolutely become my servant!

When Jesus was laid in a grave, God was in that grave, for me! How utterly low God stooped, to absolutely become my servant!

God did all of that, all of that, so that I would be His own! God did all of that, all of that, so that my sins are paid for. God did all of that, all of that, so that I am forgiven! God did all of that, all of that, so that I am a friend of God! God did all of that, all of that, so that Heaven would be mine, by faith in Jesus, my savior!

That, my dear friends, is the only thing, the only thing, which can truly motivate us to go forward in this life and say, "I want to serve Him, because He served me. I want to serve The One who died for me and gave up His life for me, so that I am forgiven, a friend of God, and Heaven is my home!"

May we, as members of this congregation, go forward with that absolute desire to serve Jesus Christ, our savior. May we, all of us, young and old, adults and children, immerse ourselves daily in the Gospel. May we always remember that it is only through the daily study of the Gospel that our hearts are renewed, which causes us to love our savior, because we know He loves us. Daily study of the Gospel causes us to want to go forward and serve our savior, whether we are at work, whether we are home raising our children, or whether we are at church.

One hundred years from now it won’t matter much what our church budget was. One hundred years from now it won’t matter what color our carpet was. And, one hundred years it won’t matter what kind of copy machine we had. But, a hundred years from now, it will matter, whether in service to Jesus, our savior, we touched the lives of children, so that they went forward, in service to their savior, and passed that great truth on to future generations!

Amen.

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