All of us have influence. We have an impact on the lives of the people around us.

INFLUENCE comes to those of us who call ourselves Christians because we’re committed to SERVING WITH CHRIST. This is our theme as we arrive at the last of the five levels we need to be walking on as we take our spiritual journey.

We experience ACCEPTANCE when we’re MEETING CHRIST. We experience a sense of our CALLING when we’re FOLLOWING CHRIST. Third, there's DISCOVERY when we’re LEARNING FROM CHRIST. Level four is when we experience TRANSFORMATION by BECOMING LIKE CHRIST. In our time together now we're going to look at the final level of the spiritual road we're to be on, which is experiencing INFLUENCE when we’re SERVING WITH CHRIST.

SERVING LIKE CHRIST
What was Jesus like? I suppose that question could be answered in many ways, but there’s one description of Jesus that ranks at the top. Let's allow Jesus to tell us in His own words how He saw Himself: “But I am among you as one who serves.” (Luke 22:27). He said that He was a servant.

The previous level of the road to maturity involved BECOMING LIKE CHRIST. One of the key ways of becoming like Him takes us to the next level of the road toward spiritual maturity: we’re supposed to be servants, like He was.

Serving others is the key to success in the business world. “Service is our business” is the spoken or unspoken motto of many companies. Any business that provides bad service won’t be in business for long, and this is especially true of those companies called “service industries.” When we decide to follow Christ, we buy into His “company” called the Kingdom of God. It’s the ultimate service industry!

As important as serving is in order to be a success in business, and in life in general, it still isn’t a very attractive way for most people to live. People often want to exert power, to be in charge of other people. As followers of Jesus, we're not supposed to give in to this tendency. Jesus said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave – 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.” (Matthew 20:25)

No one in the history of humanity has had greater influence than Jesus. A significant factor in His incomparable influence is that He came to Earth to serve. If we want to be people of influence, we must be servants like He was.

SERVING JESUS BY SERVING OTHERS
Probably the best image to use to show what it means to serve others is a bowl with a towel. Jesus used a bowl of water and a towel to remind His first followers how important it was for them to serve each other — and other people, too — just as He served them.

Toward the end of Jesus' ministry on earth He shared the Last Supper with His disciples in what we call the upper room. It was a rented room, so there was no host, who normally fulfilled — or whose servant fulfilled — the social custom of washing the guests’ feet. In those days people wore sandals, and with the dusty roads, dirty feet were a constant problem.

None of the disciples jumped to the task, but Jesus did! The apostle John, who was there and wrote this account, stated that Jesus “got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples' feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.” (John 13:4-5) After He was finished He said to them, “Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another's feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.” (John 13:14-15)

We’re supposed to serve others as Christ has served us! Obviously Jesus wasn't primarily referring to washing each other's feet; He meant that we should look for all kinds of opportunities and ways to serve the needs of the people He's placed around us.

Let me tell you how Katie and Joe, one of the young couples in our church, became engaged. Joe made sure that Katie's parents were with her. Katie was sitting on a couch, and Joe went up to her with a bowl of water and a towel. He asked her to marry him and then asked for permission to wash her feet. While he washed her feet, he quoted from memory Ephesians 5:25-30. Part of it reads, “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.” (Ephesians 5:25-27)

Joe did two things in that unique proposal. First, he put all the rest of us men to shame: how can the way we proposed ever measure up to that? Second, and more seriously, Joe's washing of Katie's feet reminds us that we’re supposed to serve each of the people God puts around us, whether it’s a mate, a friend, a co-worker, a neighbor, a relative, or whoever!

THE COST OF SERVING
It costs something to serve people, because when we do that we're putting the wants and needs of others before our own wants and needs. Serving is a personal sacrifice. Jesus' role of servant was the ultimate example of this: He served us by dying on a cross for us! It cost Him everything.

Following Jesus means following His example: sacrificing for others. The apostle Paul wrote, “Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.” (Philippians 2:4)

Serving is costly because we have to be willing to take risks. When you decide to serve others, you're putting yourself out on a limb. In fact, Jesus often required His first followers — His disciples — to do that.

Jesus sent out His twelve disciples, two by two, to the surrounding villages to preach His message. As if this wasn't a scary enough challenge, He said to them, “Take nothing for the journey – no staff, no bag, no bread, no money, no extra tunic.” (Luke 9:3) They were to depend on the hospitality of the people they spoke to for their needs to be met. Jesus certainly wasn’t going to allow them to remain in their comfort zone!

After the disciples returned from their speaking tour, they went with Jesus to an out-of-the-way place. The problem was that a huge crowd of people followed them! Late in the afternoon, after Jesus had preached and taught for most of the day, the disciples, who were probably exhausted from their own trips and from dealing with the crowd, said to Him, “Send the crowd away so they can go to the surrounding villages and countryside and find food and lodging, because we are in a remote place here.” (Luke 9:12)

Jesus replied, “You give them something to eat.” (Luke 9:13) Put yourself in the disciples’ place. There were about 5,000 men there; if you allow for a significant number of women and children, it's not improbable that the crowd totaled 9,000 people. (That's the number of people that can fit into Fifth Third Field here in Toledo to watch the Mud Hens play baseball!)

Of course they replied that there was no way that they could feed them. All they had was what they had observed one boy carrying: his own lunch, consisting of five small loaves of bread and two little dried fish. We'll finish this story later; suffice it to say now that Jesus calls us to serve others, and doing that is rarely going to be easy!

THE BENEFITS OF SERVING CHRIST
We've looked at some of the costs of serving as Jesus served (self-sacrifice and risk-taking); what about the benefits? Because our Lord is a loving Lord, we can assume that anything He asks of us is ultimately going to be good for us.

Let's start with the very practical. Serving others is the best way to feel that our lives are significant. We can have a positive influence on the people we serve. We end up feeling needed, and sometimes (though not always) we’re appreciated. Billy Graham said that the smallest package is a person all wrapped up in himself. We can't expect people to reach out and care about us if we haven’t reached out and cared about them! We can't expect people to miss us when we're temporarily out of their lives if we weren't investing in their lives when we were with them. We can choose to make ourselves important to others. An adage says that to have a friend, you must be a friend, and one of the best ways that we show friendship is by serving.

However, the greatest benefit of being like Jesus and serving as He served is that it pleases Him! The ultimate reason that a follower of Jesus should serve others is that we serve Christ by serving them! The apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthian Christians, “I care very little if I am judged by you or by any human court; indeed, I do not even judge myself. . . . It is the Lord who judges me. . . . He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of men's hearts. At that time each will receive his praise from God.” (1 Corinthians 4:3-5)

We can serve others in order to be liked by them or to have them think well of us; neither is the best motive! The best motive for serving others is that it pleases the One whom we seek to follow. We look forward to someday hearing from Jesus, “Well done, good and faithful servant!” (Matthew 25:21)

We’re useful to the Lord! We’re supposed to be His hands and feet, His smile, His very presence to the people who need Him — which includes everyone! We serve Him wherever He calls us and places us. We serve Him in His family, the church, by using our spiritual gifts designated in such passages as Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 12, and Ephesians 4. When we servants of the Lord serve Him by serving others, we have a positive influence in this world and we delight Him! That sense of personal significance can't be beaten!

THE HELP OF JESUS
The wonderful thing about serving Christ is that it’s serving with Christ: we don't do it alone. As it has often been said, the Lord doesn't call the qualified; He qualifies the called!

Jesus’ sending His twelve disciples to preach and teach on His behalf must have been scary for them, especially since they were to take no provisions. However, Jesus didn't send them out empty-handed! “When Jesus had called the Twelve together, he gave them power and authority to drive out all demons and to cure diseases, and he sent them out to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick.” (Luke 9:1-2) He provided them with the resources they needed to serve Him!

Jesus’ telling the disciples to feed the huge crowd was an impossible task from their point of view. However, Jesus only asked them to do two things. They were to organize the crowd: “Have them sit down in groups of about fifty each.” (Luke 9:14) (They were to play maitre d’.) After He gave thanks for the five loaves and two fish, He had them hand out the food: “Then he gave them to the disciples to set before the people.” (Luke 9:16) (They were to be waiters.) The rest is famous history: the feeding of over five thousand people with a boy's lunch! Jesus did the miracle, with just a little assistance from the disciples. He works the same way today, calling us to do what seems difficult, if not impossible, in serving Him — and then He helps us do it!

Last summer while our mission group was in Mexico at Refuge Ranch, we gathered in a circle to pray. Julie and Victor need to add to the basement of the new house they’re building for orphans. The problem was that there was a small mountain of rock and dirt in the way. We prayed that the Lord would somehow move that mountain. I have to admit that as I prayed, part of my prayer was “Lord, I have faith, but help my lack of faith.” It seemed to be an impossible request.

Just a few weeks ago a mission group came from Pennsylvania. One member of that group was a man named Dave who owns his own earth-moving company. He made arrangements in Mexico with Volvo, a company that builds such equipment, to have two big machines brought on semi-trailers to Refuge Ranch. When he got there he used those two BIG machines to move that mountain! “. . . you have so little faith. I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.” (Matthew 17:20-21)

We’re supposed to serve Christ. However, let's remember that He calls us to serve with Him — and that makes all the difference in the world!