SERVICE: THE HEART OF KINGDOM CULTURE PART 2

Matthew chapter 6







Today we are walking in: Service: The Heart of Kingdom Culture Part 2










Today we look to the word- INHERITANCE- yerushah H3425-something occupied; a conquest; also a patrimony:—heritage, inheritance, possession.









The Torah testifies………………….




Leviticus 25:46




And ye shall take them as an inheritance H3425 for your children after you, to inherit them for a possession; they shall be your bondmen for ever: but over your brethren the children of Israel, ye shall not rule one over another with rigour.







The Prophets Proclaim………………..




Isaiah 47:6




I was wroth with my people, I have polluted mine inheritance, H5159 and given them into thine hand: thou didst shew them no mercy; upon the ancient hast thou very heavily laid thy yoke.







The Writings witness…………………




Ecclesiastes 7:11




Wisdom is good with an inheritance: H5159 and by it there is profit to them that see the sun.




THE LIFE OF A SHEEP




The Kingdom of Heaven is our inheritance. It is our past as well as our future. And the principle of humble service plays a central role to our entering in. Yahusha told of the day at the end of time when He will sit on His throne of glory with all the nations gathered before Him for judgment. There will be only two groups of people: the “sheep,” or the righteous, at His right hand, and the “goats,” or the unrighteous, at His left.




Then the King will say to those on His right, “Come, you who are blessed by My Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave “Me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave Me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited Me in. I needed clothes and you clothed Me, I was sick and you looked after Me, I was in prison and you came to visit Me” (Matthew 25:34-36).




Notice that the inheritance of the righteous is not Heaven but the Kingdom of Heaven. Remember that the Kingdom of Heaven is a country with a government and influence on the earth. It is yeast that is making its way through the minds and cultures of humankind. The Kingdom is not new but has existed since creation, waiting to be populated by the righteous. The time has come, and Yahusha says to them, “Come, take your inheritance.




Then Yahusha describes the character of the righteous that sets them apart from the unrighteous, the character of service and a servant heart. It is practical service: feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, welcoming the stranger, clothing the naked, tending the sick, and visiting the imprisoned. Notice also that Yahusha views all of these actions of compassion as being performed for Him: “I was hungry…I was thirsty…I was a stranger…I needed clothes…I was sick…I was in prison.”




Characteristically, the righteous servants respond with humility (not false modesty):

Then the righteous will answer Him, “Most High, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You something to drink? When did we see You a stranger and invite You in, or needing clothes and clothe You? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit You?”




The King will reply, “I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for Me” (Matthew 25:37-40).




Humble service is so natural and so second nature to those with a servant heart that they do not think of themselves as having done anything special or of particular merit. If asked about their actions they would say, “It is the least I could do.” True servants have no ulterior motives. They are not out to get noticed nor do they seek to use their service as a steppingstone to some greater or higher position. True servants live to serve and are delighted to do so.




Yahusha so identifies with the hungry, thirsty, sick, destitute, downtrodden, and castoffs of the world that He regards acts of kindness and compassion done for them as being done for Him. In other words, whenever we serve the needy, we serve the King.




This is a mind-set that all of us who are Kingdom citizens need to develop. No person is beneath our dignity, unworthy of our compassion or beyond the reach of our love. We need to learn to look into the faces of other people and see the face of our King looking back at us. Regardless what our job, career, or profession, we have an assignment from our King to serve Him by serving others. That’s why it is wrong for us to focus just on getting a paycheck or raising our standard of living. The paychecks will come, and so will greater prosperity, as long as we keep our focus where it ought to be: advancing the influence of the Kingdom by serving others in the King’s name.




We are ambassadors of the King on a Kingdom mission. This understanding will ennoble any job, any undertaking, no matter how menial, unimportant, or even thankless it may seem from the human perspective. In the Kingdom of Heaven, no service is menial, unimportant, or thankless because the Kingdom is built on service.




THE LIFE OF A GOAT




Contrast all of this with the actions and attitude of the unrighteous, the “goats” at Yahusha’ left hand.




Then He will say to those on His left, “Depart from Me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave Me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave Me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite Me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe Me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after Me.”




They also will answer, “Most High, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison and did not help You?”

He will reply, “I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for Me.




Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life” (Matthew 25:41-46).




From the Kingdom perspective, every person is either a sheep or a goat, either righteous or unrighteous, either a Kingdom citizen or an alien. It is important to note that the “goats” that the King addresses are not necessarily “bad” people. They may possess very high ethical and moral standards. In fact, they may very well be religious people. After all, they address the King as “Most High.” And they seem genuinely surprised at the King’s charge that they did nothing for Him: “Most High, when did we see You in need and not help You?” Implied in their question is the excuse, “Most High, if we had only known it was You, we would have acted differently.” That’s the whole point—and the fundamental difference between the sheep and the goats.




Unrighteous service is always calculated, always motivated by self-interest: “How will this benefit me in the long run?” Will it make you look good in front of your peers? Will it win you the praise of men? Will it bring you to the attention of the rich and powerful who can help you rise higher?




Righteous servants don’t care about any of that. They treat everyone the same: rich or poor, strong or weak, lovely or unlovely, lovable or unlovable. To all they show the same love, demonstrate the same compassion and extend the same respect. Why? Because righteous servants are not after personal gain. All they are after is to obey and honor their King, whom they love with all their heart.




Serving others will not earn us a right standing with Yah. Righteous service is a by-product of a right standing with Yah. Right standing comes first and then service grows out of it. The ministry of righteous service is true Kingdom work. Apparently neither the sheep nor the goats recognized Yahusha when He came to them in the guise of the broken, hurting, and needy. For the righteous it did not matter; they served lovingly and faithfully anyway, as serving their King.




Giving the Kingdom life to people can be an unconscious thing. The righteous asked, “Most High, when did we see You and do all these things for You?” For them it wasn’t serving, it was life. Yah wants us to serve for no other reason than our love for Him and for other people. Some people serve because they want promotion. Some people serve because they want recognition. Some people serve because they want the applause of men. Some people serve because they want to gain some political, social, or economic advantage. The King wants our hearts to be so service-oriented that we serve without even thinking about it. Unconscious love is the best love in the world.




If you sit down and scheme as to whether or why to help a person, you are acting like a goat. Sheep ask, “How can I help?” while goats ask, “What’s in it for me?” As Kingdom citizens, we should delight in the opportunity to serve. After all, we serve a King who came to earth to serve rather than be served, and when we serve willingly and joyfully in His name we do a very Kingly thing.




SERVICE REFLECTS THE NATURE AND CHARACTER OF THE KINGDOM




Feed the hungry. Slake the thirsty. Welcome the stranger. Clothe the naked. Tend the sick. Visit the prisoner (or the infirm, bedridden or shut-in, as well as those who are psychologically or emotionally bound). These represent the very heart and soul of practical Kingdom life in this world. And yet these are the very same needs that most people fret and sweat and labor for all their lives. Can you see why Hamachiach told us not to worry about these things? These things are the common currency, the lingua franca of the Kingdom. If we are actively pursuing Kingdom life, we live with these things every day. The King provides “all these things” to us so that we can be His instruments in providing them to others.




Service is not always easy. Some people are irritable, ungrateful, unlovely, and unlikable and would just as soon bite your head off as look at you. Sometimes people become so withdrawn and inwardly focused by the assaults of life that they seem to have no room in their heart or their perspective for anything other than themselves and their own personal grievances and complaints. Nevertheless, this does not excuse us from serving them with the same smile, the same love, and the same gentle and patient Ruach we would give to others in need who were less difficult. After all, they too are created in the image of Yah.




Our eyes need to be alert to spot the strangers around us. I don’t mean just people we don’t know but also people who are strangers in society, people who are socially awkward or eccentric or painfully shy or lonely, people who may simply need a friend. It’s always easier to care for people we know or like or who are most like us or who come from the same side of the tracks or who walk in the same socio-economic circles as we. But our calling as Kingdom citizens is to serve anyone and everyone with a need who crosses our path. We need to learn to regard such encounters not as random and unconnected events but as divine appointments providing us with the opportunity to share the love of Yah and introduce another person to His Kingdom.




What about new people at work? Do you welcome the new “strangers” in your office with a handshake and a smile? Do you try to set them at ease and help them get settled in or do you ignore them in resentment or fear that their arrival may mean your own job is in jeopardy?




Feed the hungry, satisfy the thirsty, clothe the naked; all of these evoke the image of people who lack the most basic human needs. Yahusha said that the poor are with us always and that we can do something good for them anytime we choose (see Mark 14:7). The problem is that most of the time most of us choose to do nothing. Even worse, the poor are so ever-present that even if we do not turn our heads, we soon become so accustomed to their presence that we no longer see them, not even when we are looking right at them.




As Kingdom citizens positioned in righteousness, we have access to infinite provision for meeting the needs of the destitute. There is no excuse for us to turn our heads, pretend the poor are not there and blithely continue to consume Heaven’s resources on our own greed and selfish desires.




Tend the sick. This one is a natural for those Kingdom citizens who are health-care professionals. Just be careful that you are not so professional that you lose the human touch. Even those of us who are not professionals in the health-care field can still tend the sick and hasten their healing by praying for them and by encouraging them through visits, phone calls, cards, child care, providing meals, and other such personal involvement.




Visit the prisoner. Prison inmates need ministry too. They need to experience the understanding and compassion of people who truly care about them and are willing to see them as people created in Yah’s image and not just social misfits and outcasts.

There are other kinds of prisons too. Many people are imprisoned in their own homes because of fear, anxiety, or infirmity due to a body that is frail from sickness or no longer functions properly. These are often the forgotten ones in society: lonely, frightened, and depressed.




All of these needy ones are the kinds of people Yahusha most identified with. He associated with them because He loved them and because society, even the religious society, refused to do so. He is our King and sets our example. As He did we are to do also. That is what it means to be a Kingdom citizen. Service reflects the very nature and character of the Kingdom.




Service is powerful. In fact, service is the Kingdom’s greatest ministry to humankind. When people of the world see Kingdom citizens in action, in humble yet joyful service, they see firsthand what the Kingdom of Heaven is like. Kingdom culture is so vastly different from worldly culture that seeing it on display in the lives of its citizens stirs up curiosity and even hunger for it in the hearts and minds of people who are outside the Kingdom. And this is just what Yah intends to happen. Hunger leads to inquiry and inquiry results in new Kingdom citizens.




True and faithful service also attracts the King’s blessing. He says, “Because you serve Me well, I am going to give you the Kingdom. I will take care of your whole life. I will feed you, clothe you, provide a house and a car, and bless you with everything else you need to continue serving Me faithfully. Because of your faithfulness, I will give you the whole country.”




Faithful service guarantees the Kingdom inheritance. Full access to the Kingdom and its resources is reserved for those who get their priorities right and put the Kingdom and righteousness of Yah ahead of their own desires, ambition, and comfort. There is nothing we can give up for the sake of the Kingdom that the King will not return to us multiplied many times over.




Service is the highest manifestation of Kingdom culture. The heart of the Kingdom of Heaven is the love of Yah and service is Yah’s love in action from one human heart to another. And since Yah is love, service is also the King’s nature in action. It is when we are busy feeding the hungry, giving water to the thirsty, welcoming the stranger, clothing the naked, tending the sick, and visiting the prisoner that we are most like our King.




THE MOTIVATIONS FOR YAHLY SERVICE




There are two things that make the King’s nature unique. One is love. Yah doesn’t have love, and He doesn’t give love. Yah is love. Love is His very nature. Love means a commitment and dedication to meet another person’s needs above our own. It is this kind of love that took Yahusha to the Cross to die for us while we were still sinners, still in rebellion against Yah. He did not wait for us to ask Him to die. He did it before we ever even knew to ask. He met our needs above His own.




Second, Yah’s nature is caring. To care means to anticipate a need and meet it; planning to meet a need before it even arises. This is the nature of the King.

Because of the loving and caring nature of Yah, we as Kingdom citizens must always render service out of passion and not out of a desire or expectation of pay or any other kind of public or private acknowledgment. We must serve because we love it and because we love the King in whose name we serve. A popular aphorism says, “Do what you love and the money will follow.” While that is certainly true, especially in the Kingdom, the Kingdom dynamic goes even farther: “Do what you love, whether the money follows or not.” If you love living for the King and tending to His priorities, He will see to it that you never lack a thing.




Our service also must be motivated by love and not the limelight. Most of the work of service, including the most difficult work, takes place in secret, far from the public eye and the news media. If you thirst for the limelight, you will find the path of Kingdom service a very difficult road. Set your mind right now not to worry about the limelight. The King sees what you do in secret and His judgment is the only one that matters. So serve the King with a whole and undivided heart. Don’t work for limelight. Work because you love Yah and because you love people.




Kingdom service proceeds from the revelation of the value of every human being as a unique creation in the image of Yah. It is very difficult to sustain a humble servant’s heart over the long term if you cannot see the image of Yah in the face of every person you meet. Every person is entitled to basic dignity and respect. Remember, when you serve the needy, you serve the King.




Kingdom service is a calling, not a career. Careers are specialized according to education, preparation, and inclination, but every Kingdom citizen is called to be a servant. And that calling is for a lifetime. You can retire from a career, but you can’t retire from a call. You can’t retire from being yourself.




Service is the manifestation of the gifts Yah has given you. Work your gift, don’t waste it. And the Bible says your gift will make room for you in the world.




PRINCIPLES




1.Yah’s intent for us as Kingdom citizens is that we take on the culture of Heaven so that in whatever we do or say it will be evident that we belong to the Kingdom of Heaven.




2.The Kingdom of Heaven is our inheritance.




3.The government of Yah will last forever. His Kingdom is eternal.




4.We have a calling and a responsibility to influence earthly culture with the culture of Heaven.




5.Kingdom culture is a culture of servanthood.




6.In the Kingdom, you serve your way to greatness.




7.True servants live to serve and are delighted to do so.




8.Whenever we serve the needy, we serve the King.




9.Righteous service is a by-product of a right standing with Yah.




10.Our calling as Kingdom citizens is to serve anyone and everyone with a need who crosses our path.




11.Service reflects the very nature and character of the Kingdom.




12.Kingdom service is a calling, not a career.