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| Date of Sermon: January 15, 2006 |
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Learning other languages is hard. I don’t remember learning English being so taxing. But I spent three years in high school studying Spanish and all I seem to remember is, “Vamos a carreras de perros” I have never really had the chance to use this. For you unilingual people out there, it means, “Let’s go to the dog races.” I have found the same difficulty with languages outlined by Gary Chapman in his book, The Five Love Languages
One of them I know quite well, it is my native language, but the others take some work. For those of you who do not speak the language of Acts of Service we will begin slowly. Repitame por favor, oh, sorry. I always resort to Spanish when in a foreign language situation. It doesn’t matter if I’m in Mexico, Austria, Greece or Canada. I always seem to speak broken Spanish to the residents. Anyway, for those to whom Acts of Service is a foreign language repeat after me, “May I help you?” Let’s try it one more time, “May I help you?” Very good. Acts of Service is a biblical language. Jesus spoke it when he washed his disciples’ feet. Paul spoke it when he instructed his readers to “serve one another in love.” Gary Chapman says Acts of Service means doing things that another person would like for you to do. My taking Tammy to a baseball game is not an act of service. She does not like baseball, talk about a foreign language. How can anyone not love baseball! Acts of Service means doing things that another person would like for you to do. Elisha, the Old Testament prophet, spoke this language. After a rather rocky start, this prophet became famous for his fluency in this love language. Let’s just take one chapter of the Bible, II Kings 4. There we find five Acts of Service performed by this prophet of God. We don’t have time for me to read the entire chapter to you, but allow me to read the theme verse of this chapter. It is the first part of verse 13 and this is what it says. Hear now the word of the Lord.
This is the Word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God. Amen. This is the principle story of Chapter 4. It takes up thirty of the forty-four verses. This one part of a verse though captures the personality of this prophet, who spoke Acts of Service. Did you hear him? He almost said what I’m teaching you to say. Do you remember your foreign phrase, “May I help you?”Repitame por favor. Let us pray. Allow me to highlight Elisha’s acts of service for you from this chapter and then return to make three points regarding Acts of Service. 1) Acts of Service meet people where they are. 2) Acts of Service take something of who you are. 3) Acts of Service draw totally on who God is. First the stories. Once upon a time there was a prophet named Elisha. He was not the only prophet around, but he seemed to be the lead prophet. Everyone knew Elisha. One day a widow of one of the prophets came to him with a problem, a terrible problem. Since her husband’s death, she and her two boys had become destitute, poor, terribly broke. One of the persons they owed was on his way to take the two boys as slaves to settle the debt. The widow cried to Elisha. “What shall I do for you?” Elisha asked. Then a thought came to him. She only had one jar of oil in the house, but he knew that when God gets involved there’s more than enough. “Borrow empty jars from all your neighbors. Get a lot of them. Then close your door and you and your boys start pouring oil from your jar into those empty jars.” That oil lasted as long as there were jars. There was more than enough oil so that when she sold it, she had enough money to pay her debts and to support her little family. That’s the kind of guy Elisha was – helpful. Then he met a couple that spoke his language. They could not do enough for Elisha. Every time he came through Shunem, he had to stop by their home where they fed him and Gehazi quite well. Then they built him his own little retreat center, a guest room in the attic. They were so kind to Elisha and Gehazi that Elisha wanted to do something for her. That’s when he asked, “May I help you?” The woman had everything she wanted. She was wealthy; she lived among family and friends. She was fine. “No thanks” she said. This frustrated the giving prophet who pondered with his servant how they could help this couple. Gehazi guessed, “They’ve always wanted a baby.” So a baby they had. Sometime the next spring, Elisha saw them beaming with joy with their bundle of blessing. Then one day the boy seemed to have suffered an aneurysm. He was out in the fields with his father when he complained, “My head. My head.” One of the farm hands carried him to the house and gave him to his mama. She held him on her lap and around noon, the boy died. Mama took him to Elisha’s room and laid him on the bed. Then she took the twenty-mile trip to Mt. Carmel to talk with Elisha. Her husband tried to stop her, Gehazi tried to stop her, but she went straight to the lead prophet. “I never asked for a son. Why have you broken my heart?” Elisha sent Gehazi ahead to see about the boy, but she insisted that Elisha come home with her. He was a powerful prophet, but she was a determined mother. He went. When he got there he looked at the lifeless boy. He got right in his face: eye to eye, mouth to mouth, hands to hands, and he prayed. After a while, he got up, walked around and prayed again. The child sneezed seven times and all was well: The boy, the mother’s heart, Elisha’s retreat center. Since he was halfway to Gigal, he continued south where a famine was going on. The prophets there were starving. Elisha suggested some vegetable stew using the vegetation around them. One fellow found some nice looking gourds, kind of like squash. He brought them back, cut them up and threw them in the pot. It did not take long before the prophets said something no cook ever wants to hear; “O man of God, there’s death in the pot!” Remember, Elisha’s love language was Acts of Service. He got up, put some flour in the pot and invited them to try it again. It was delicious and their hunger was abated. Of course, the thing with vegetable stew is that you might be full now, but a day later you’re hungry again. So a man from Baal-shalishah came to the band of preachers with a gift of twenty little loaves of barley and a little grain. It was his offering and it wasn’t much, but it was just the beginning of harvest and it was a sizeable offering for him. Elisha told Gehazi to feed the prophets with it. Gehazi knowing how preachers can eat said, “You must be kidding! This will never feed all these men.” Elisha reminded his servant that when God gets involved there’s more than enough. So just as Jesus would do at least twice in his ministry, Elisha did that day, he distributed what seemed to be a meager amount to a large crowd and wound up with leftovers. (Close the Bible) What a wonderful collection of stories. Maybe we can learn this language by listening to and looking at one who spoke it so fluently. Did you notice those three lessons I mentioned earlier?
Remember, Dr. Chapman wrote that Acts of Service is doing things that another person would like for you to do. The widow needed money, the couple wanted a son, the mother needed a miracle, the prophets needed stew and the preachers needed bread. Elisha met them at their point of need. Bruce Wilkinson referred to those moments in life as “Divine appointments,” opportunities that come our way to meet another person at their point of need. Watch for those moments then speak the one phrase you learned from this foreign language. Let’s say it together, “May I help you?”
Elisha did not seem to want to make the twenty-mile trip from Mt. Carmel to Shunem, but he could see in this mother’s eyes that he needed to go. In the movie “The Fisher King” one of the panhandlers on the street said, “People put money in my jar so they won’t have to look at me.” This does not qualify as an Acts of Service. It will take something of who you are and it all begins with that simple phrase. Let’s say it together, “May I help you?” Good.
Never confuse the vessel for the content. Elisha was used of God. On his own one jar of oil equals one jar of oil, one childless couple equals one childless couple, one dead child equals one dead child, one poisoned pot of stew equals some really bad gastrointestinal problems, and one pittance of bread equals one hundred hungry preachers. But when God gets involved, there’s more than enough. I have been the recipient of this kind of divine generosity again and again. When I was in Pasadena, I had a car that was eleven years old and not feeling well. The roof lining was sagging, the shocks were shaking, the brakes were squeaking and the engine was sputtering. One of the members of the church, a mechanic, agreed to take a look at it. Not only was the sputtering fixed, the brakes silenced and the shocks replaced; when I got the car back my roof lining was repaired, my car vacuumed and washed and the gas tank was full. “What did you do?” I asked the man. “What God wanted me to do,” was his reply. “No charge.” When God gets involved, there’s more than enough. Go ahead - be bold enough to speak this language even if it is not your native tongue. Start with the phrase you learned today. Let’s say it together, “May I help you?” Gary Chapman ends his chapter on Acts of Service by telling a story of a woman who told him, “I’m going to send all my friends to your seminar.” She went on to tell him that after attending his seminar on “The Five Love Languages” her husband asked her something he’d never asked her in their entire marriage, “What can I do to help you this evening?” She told Dr. Chapman, “At first, I couldn’t believe it was real, but it has persisted for three years now!” Go ahead speak the language of Acts of Service this week. Start with the phrase that is much more useful than, “Vamos a carreras de perros”. Start with the phrase we learned today. Let’s say it together, “May I help you?” Amen.
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