Speaker 1: Well, jenny Allen is a New York Times bestseller and a leader of a global women's movement called the IF gathering.
Speaker 1: A couple of years ago she had some doors open to her to interview the leader of the Christian movement in Iran.
Speaker 1: And some of you may not know, but the revival happening in Iran some are saying is the greatest Christian revival in our world right now.
Speaker 1: In 1994, there were 100,000 Christians in Iran, and you fast forward 29 years and they've had a 30X return on what God is doing in the Christian world.
Speaker 1: There are now 3 million Christians in Iran.
Speaker 1: How amazing is this?
Speaker 1: All of this is happening while there is real persecution and where pledging your allegiance to King Jesus could have significant cost.
Speaker 1: And so it was a fascinating.
Speaker 1: Take this interview to kind of learn more about the persecuted church in Iran.
Speaker 1: And as she's interviewing, of course he's hidden, he's blurred out, his voice is distorted to protect his anonymity, and they started talking then about, with all of this happening in Iran, like what's happening in the Western world, what's happening in America, what's going on in the Western church.
Speaker 1: I think there's sometimes that the Western church gets ripped on for things that aren't quite fair.
Speaker 1: I love the church, but I think sometimes there are things that we get ripped on that are 100% fair.
Speaker 1: And as they were talking about what is happening in America, the leader of this movement again, who has family and friends that have been killed for their faith and has acquaintances in prison right now, said it's almost like in America.
Speaker 1: There's this satanic lullabah that is happening and then, with all the comfort and material blessing and prosperity collectively, there's just this lullabah that's being sung over them and it's almost like the devil's just going shh, just go back to sleep.
Speaker 1: Here's your blanket, just go back to sleep.
Speaker 1: So what I wanted to do this morning is sound the alarm and ask that you and I, that we would wake up, that we would know there is a real fight happening right here and right now and that we're all called to play a part in this.
Speaker 1: And then we have to enter in, not avoid the problems and injustices of this world, but enter in like Christ has entered in.
Speaker 1: And I really believe that if we do this, that we will see something in our day.
Speaker 1: And I also believe that if we choose not to get in the fight, we will also see something in our day and it will continue to be charts that decline and it will be gut-wrenching as more and more people leave the faith.
Speaker 1: But will we wake up?
Speaker 1: Will we choose to remember that even what we're experiencing right now, as great as this is, this is not all there is, and we are citizens in heaven, not earth?
Speaker 1: And will we not be distracted by all the glitz and glamour that this world can bring, but we'd rather give our very lives over to serving Jesus and serving others?
Speaker 1: Will I?
Speaker 1: Will I stop the monotony of waking up and getting all my tasks done and running all my errands and getting everything done so that I can rush home and just Netflix myself back to sleep?
Speaker 1: Will I stop listening to the lullaby and awaken to the fact that there is a real fight going on right now and that God's armed me and you and all of us to get in this fight and see what God can do?
Speaker 1: We're in the middle of a fight, and so I'm asking today will you wake up?
Speaker 1: Speaking of being in the middle, we are literally in the middle of a 40-day challenge called serving challenge.
Speaker 1: We're on day 20.
Speaker 1: Today.
Speaker 1: Many of us here at King of Kings are reading through the books daily for further devotion and to be challenged.
Speaker 1: We're looking at really two things.
Speaker 1: Number one how did Jesus serve us?
Speaker 1: We, of course, want to learn from the greatest servant of all time, so let's learn how he served us.
Speaker 1: And then, secondly, let's challenge each of us to do our able best to serve just like Jesus.
Speaker 1: And so we've been doing this now for 20 days and we've been exploring this beautiful text from Philippians 2, 5 to 11, and we're looking at five aspects, as we're going through these verses, of how Jesus served us, again, to challenge each and every one of us listening to practice these aspects.
Speaker 1: And again we're in the middle aspect, number three today of those five.
Speaker 1: So if you haven't got in yet, you can get in.
Speaker 1: There's books available at each campus.
Speaker 1: We'd love for you to do that.
Speaker 1: If you've missed it so far, don't worry.
Speaker 1: The messages are online.
Speaker 1: You can check them out on our website, or even my favorite is our brand new app, which is just next level awesome.
Speaker 1: If you haven't got in it yet, get and download the app.
Speaker 1: There's also daily videos there from our staff, only a minute or two long, where we can just challenge and encourage and like and talk about what God is doing in all of our lives as we get in the fight and challenge and serve together.
Speaker 1: So quick recap if you've missed where we've been.
Speaker 1: We started with the first aspect of Jesus, this word attitude and we said, before we do anything on the outside, let's at least spend a week getting our hearts right, our mindsets right, so that we're serving out of the right place, that we're not serving to earn favor or gain anything with God or like because we have to, or gritting our teeth together because pastor tells me I got to do it.
Speaker 1: No, no, no, no.
Speaker 1: We're serving because we've been served, and it's the gratitude of being so loved by God that we can't help but want to be like him to the rest of the world, because we know that that's what the rest of the world needs too.
Speaker 1: And then last week we looked at this often under celebrated, really practical aspect of serving availability.
Speaker 1: Some of us may have the heart and the desire to serve it like ah, my calendar, I don't know if there's enough time or margin or space and so we learned the art of being available both long term, but also in the present day moments as well.
Speaker 1: And so, now that we've got attitude and availability right, we're moving to our third aspect today, action.
Speaker 1: Everybody say action, action.
Speaker 1: I want to look at action.
Speaker 1: Today.
Speaker 1: People say that the opposite of action is inaction, and I kind of agree, but at the same time I believe that inaction is an action and it's actually a pretty costly action.
Speaker 1: I wrote on day three about this author, daniel Pink, that has studied regret, and he said that regret is one of the most common, if not the most common universal negative emotion that humans experience.
Speaker 1: And he would know he's studied 15,000 responses in his world regret survey and after looking at all the regrets that have come in, he analyzed it all.
Speaker 1: In his big summary is this that our deepest regrets are almost always our regrets of inaction, not things we've done, things we have not done.
Speaker 1: And I wonder how many dreams and visions haven't come to fruition, not because God didn't give them to us, not because we didn't want them to happen, but just we failed to take steps of action.
Speaker 1: Winston Churchill once said I never worry about action, only about inaction, only about inaction.
Speaker 1: If you tried it, if you acted on it, like, at least you know the cost, at least you know if it worked.
Speaker 1: But if you never do, like, ah, there's so much out there that we just never know what would have happened.
Speaker 1: Anyone out there both campuses have or remember a company called Kodak, hearing some laughs here and seeing lots of hands up, especially hands of older generations.
Speaker 1: That makes sense.
Speaker 1: I don't know that the younger generation has heard of Kodak, and so let me bring you up to speed.
Speaker 1: Kodak was a thriving business for over a century in America and they were always like innovators and disruptors, especially with technology.
Speaker 1: And in 1975, they actually invented digital photography.
Speaker 1: Steve Sassin, who was the architect behind it, actually showed it to the corporate execs at Kodak and their response was this it's cute, but don't tell anyone about it, just go to sleep.
Speaker 1: And they believed that they had, with this new technology, about a 10 year head start on the rest of the world.
Speaker 1: Crazy, and it actually turned out to be more.
Speaker 1: It was 1989 that the first digital camera came out.
Speaker 1: But here's the reality it wasn't Kodak, it was Fujifilm, and then others in the early 90s, like Sony and Toshiba and Nikon all joined.
Speaker 1: And then finally, in the mid 1990s, kodak came out with their first digital camera, but it was too late.
Speaker 1: They far and away should have been the leader, could have been the leader, could have had at least a 14 year advantage on the competition.
Speaker 1: They did nothing with it.
Speaker 1: They fumbled on the opportunity and in 2012, this company that lasted more than 100 years and again mostly was known for its innovation and disruption, filed for bankruptcy.
Speaker 1: Last time I heard about Kodak do you remember this?
Speaker 1: In the race to create the world's first vaccine against COVID, do you remember that there was a week where Kodak, of all people, became a player in this and their stock went like from a penny to like multiple dollars in a day?
Speaker 1: Everybody jumped on it and it didn't actually pan out in the end, and my thought was gosh, not only in action, but has this company struggled with its vision a little bit?
Speaker 1: What are we doing?
Speaker 1: Covid vaccines now?
Speaker 1: Crazy, maybe, when you think of a business that didn't innovate or didn't act maybe Blockbuster comes to mind, or Blackberry or Sears these once-tightens in their fields are no longer because they failed to act, and while we could talk about digital cameras and businesses all day long that have done this, when we come and gather on a Sunday morning, we're coming under the saving grace of Jesus and we know that what's at stake is not digital photography, but it's destinies, eternities and lives, and we cannot fumble this opportunity that God puts in front of us.
Speaker 1: Our inaction has already cost us has already cost potentially, even you in your life or me in my life and how much longer will we let our inactions go Like?
Speaker 1: How many more people have to die in this world without God's ambassadors you, me and others stepping up and sharing the good news of Jesus with them?
Speaker 1: How many more children do we need to lose to abortion before we step up and right this wrong together?
Speaker 1: How many people in a world where there is enough food for everybody need to die of hunger or starve?
Speaker 1: Why is it that we have so much access to clean water but there are still hundreds of millions that in our world do not?
Speaker 1: How many more children, young children, boys and girls have to get involved into the sex trafficking industry before we all stand up against these sorts of injustices and get to action?
Speaker 1: How many more?
Speaker 1: I know why we choose in action.
Speaker 1: At least let me back.
Speaker 1: I know why I choose in action because it's just comfortable to be sung lullabies and go to sleep.
Speaker 1: Netflix does a really good job of just soothing me.
Speaker 1: Professional sports do a good job of soothing me.
Speaker 1: Actually, it's not all the way.
Speaker 1: True.
Speaker 1: Sometimes they get me really fired up in the bad way.
Speaker 1: I'm not saying that any of those can't be a good outlet for you to rest and relax and enjoy God's creation.
Speaker 1: Some of the films and videos and the human innovation and the creativity like that's God's image right there, so that's really cool to be a part of.
Speaker 1: I'm not saying it's not awesome to watch elite athletes at their top level, especially when once in a time it pans out for us here in the state of Nebraska, like last night when Husker women volleyball reclaimed number one in the nation.
Speaker 1: Y'all that's fun.
Speaker 1: Enjoy it while it lasts, right, enjoy it.
Speaker 1: But when any of this stuff or any other stuff takes precedence, when we think about these things more, when we crave comfort from these things more than living out the calling to be the servants of God and act in this world, then we're off balance.
Speaker 1: It's just really comfortable, the lullaby.
Speaker 1: I can listen to the lullaby and I don't have to think about all the problems world, all the world's problems and injustices and brokenness, and it's just easier.
Speaker 1: I don't know what lullaby you're listening to.
Speaker 1: Maybe for you it is Netflix or streaming platforms.
Speaker 1: Maybe it is professional sports that's gone too far or collegiate sports.
Speaker 1: Maybe it's online shopping, amazon.
Speaker 1: Maybe it's social media.
Speaker 1: Maybe we don't talk about this one a lot.
Speaker 1: Maybe it's eating or it could be downright harmful things.
Speaker 1: Maybe it's drinking far too much alcohol every single night, shooting up pain pills, addiction to drugs.
Speaker 1: Maybe you seek comfort by consuming pornography over and over and over again.
Speaker 1: I'm really grateful.
Speaker 1: When I step back, I see a God that didn't choose inaction.
Speaker 1: But when he saw the world's brokenness on display, more than any of us have ever seen it on display, rather than just letting us go to our own ways or rather than saying sucks to be them, they've chosen wrong he came down into this world, made himself available we talked about that last week and then did action upon action upon action in order to make us right before him again.
Speaker 1: This is the God that we serve, a God that would do anything and everything to get us back.
Speaker 1: So let's enter back into those words of Philippians 2 today, verses 6 to 8, but this time from the message version, just to get a little different feeling from it.
Speaker 1: Speaking about Jesus, it said he had equal status with God, but he didn't think so much of Himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what?
Speaker 1: Not at all.
Speaker 1: When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave.
Speaker 1: Slave became human.
Speaker 1: Having become human, he stayed human.
Speaker 1: It was an incredibly humble process.
Speaker 1: He didn't claim special privileges.
Speaker 1: Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death, and the worst kind of death at that a crucifixion, and despite living for only 33 years and before things like social media influencers existed.
Speaker 1: You can make the case and I think you can do this, whether you believe in Jesus or not that there has never been a more influential person than Jesus.
Speaker 1: And yet, when you look at the typical things that he acted on His actions, they don't match up with what it teaches in our world.
Speaker 1: To be influential or to be great, jesus never.
Speaker 1: He didn't write a book.
Speaker 1: He didn't hold a political office or work at a mega church or have a social media following, or play guitar or speak at a major conference or win an Emmy or win a championship, or host a podcast or dance on TikTok or monetize as YouTube.
Speaker 1: He didn't do any of those things.
Speaker 1: Not only did he not do those things, he didn't do common things that many of us get to do today.
Speaker 1: He never owned a home, earned a degree or traveled widely and again, I'm not knocking any of those things.
Speaker 1: They can all be great gifts from God if used correctly.
Speaker 1: But what did Jesus do?
Speaker 1: He acted on a behalf, over and over and over again, and you can learn a lot from how Jesus acted.
Speaker 1: But what I wanna do is just teach you one thing, one thing this morning that man, if we can get this right, I believe we can transform lives.
Speaker 1: That we learn through the action of Jesus.
Speaker 1: And here's what I wanna teach you this morning the action of compassion.
Speaker 1: The action of compassion.
Speaker 1: So let's talk about compassion.
Speaker 1: The root definition of compassion means to suffer together.
Speaker 1: Right, that prefix calm means with, and that original passion comes from Latin Pasio or Greek pathos, passion.
Speaker 1: And so it's suffering with, it's suffering together, and that's why, like in the events leading up to the cross, that week is known as Passion Week or the movie, right, the Passion of the Christ.
Speaker 1: It meant at one time passion suffering.
Speaker 1: Now it's kind of changed in its definition and now passion is more like intense emotions or feelings, and those intense emotions or feelings can be good or bad, but mostly passion is celebrated in today's world as a really good thing.
Speaker 1: In fact, one of the famous preachers, John Wesley, who was talking about best practices in preaching I like this quote he said here's what you gotta do.
Speaker 1: He said, as a preacher, you gotta light yourself on fire with passion and people will come from miles just to watch you burn.
Speaker 1: Like I like that.
Speaker 1: I like that.
Speaker 1: That's why, when I preach, I try to bring some passion alongside of me and I go why are you so angry about it?
Speaker 1: You also, I got passion, but initially passion was suffering, compassion was suffering together.
Speaker 1: So not only has passion changed, so too has compassion.
Speaker 1: Because I think when most of us think of compassion, we think of feeling sorry for someone, feeling bad sorrow, but that's not the type of compassion that Jesus practiced.
Speaker 1: He chose to see that sorrow, feel for that sorrow, enter that sorrow and overcome that sorrow.
Speaker 1: He acted on his feelings and Jesus shows us that just feeling sorry, that's not real compassion.
Speaker 1: In fact, it's one of my favorite findings in the last couple of years of really learning about servant Jesus, and I wrote about it in day 22.
Speaker 1: You'll hear more about it on the small group video, because you've got to understand what I'm about to tell you If you ever at all wanna serve like Jesus.
Speaker 1: And I borrow the words from Kyle Eidemann, who wrote the book, one at a time, and he says that whenever you see the words Jesus and the words compassion together, you will find a third word.
Speaker 1: And it's the word and everybody say and Jesus had compassion and he acted.
Speaker 1: I'll show you this in the Bible, just so you can see it over and over and over.
Speaker 1: You've got to catch this.
Speaker 1: This, I think, is the hinge point on whether or not you will ever be a servant like Jesus Compassion.
Speaker 1: And so I'm gonna go through Bible verses and when it's in a different color, I want you to read those words hints, those words are compassion.
Speaker 1: And you ready, here we go.
Speaker 1: Thank you, dave Millen, for saying yes.
Speaker 1: Thank you, northwest Omaha.
Speaker 1: No, you're with me too.
Speaker 1: All right, here we go.
Speaker 1: Jesus had, on the multitude, Healed all their sick.
Speaker 1: Jesus had, on the crowd of 4,000, miraculously fed them.
Speaker 1: Jesus had on two blind men, touched their eyes.
Speaker 1: Jesus was moved with for a leper, healed him.
Speaker 1: Jesus had, on the crowd, began to teach them many things.
Speaker 1: When Jesus saw a woman grieving her dead son, he had, on her, raised her son from the dead, and there is verses many more like over and over and over.
Speaker 1: And so what do we see in the life of Jesus, true compassion is not a sorrowful feeling, but it's it's.
Speaker 1: It's followed by an action.
Speaker 1: The test of real compassion is, in the end, true compassion is a feeling followed by an action.
Speaker 1: So we talked about kind of the root definition, but let me let me talk to you about the Greek word that's most commonly used to describe the emotion of Jesus.
Speaker 1: Daniel pink said earlier that that are our most common emotion, at least from a negative stance, is this word regret.
Speaker 1: The most common emotion Attributed to Jesus is this word compassion, in one of the Greek words that's used the most.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna teach you this word.
Speaker 1: I think it's gonna be your favorite Greek word you've ever learned, because it's awesome.
Speaker 1: Are you ready?
Speaker 1: It's the word splognid zoe, my.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I know it's great, right?
Speaker 1: So come on, let's say it together.
Speaker 1: Splognid zoe, my.
Speaker 1: Come on one more time, it's just fun.
Speaker 1: Splognid zoe, my yeah, splogna is?
Speaker 1: It means like the internal organs or the bowels, and so splognid zoe, my is like being so moved, feeling it so much, that it like moves you in your gut, it's got to do something down there.
Speaker 1: So how do we get splognid zoe my in this world?
Speaker 1: We just go to Taco Bell and rock that menu as well as we can, right.
Speaker 1: That's if you want a real physical version of what that feels like.
Speaker 1: One of the most underrated fast food restaurants still in our day is Taco Bell, but I, that's for another Sunday, maybe, maybe not ever, but anyway, let me keep moving splognid zoe my To feel it so much like it moves you.
Speaker 1: So I'm not I'm not saying, by the way, that if you like get married and like you're thinking about your wedding vows that you ever Want to be like hey, you know, I promise you to love you with like all of my bowel movements, or every time I have a bowel movement I'll think of you like that's not what I'm don't, don't do that.
Speaker 1: That's just weird, not, not, not the same.
Speaker 1: And the reason it's not the same is because of this in first century, greek Emotions were actually attributed to their gut and yet in English we attribute emotions to our heart.
Speaker 1: So it's changed over time.
Speaker 1: But at one point, the compassion, that feeling, it landed in the gut and it's like ah, something's not right about this and I got it's moving.
Speaker 1: I got to do something about this, I Can't just let it sit.
Speaker 1: That's real compassion.
Speaker 1: We need to splognid zoe, my revolution.
Speaker 1: But the problem for me?
Speaker 1: I May know all this, I may intend and desire to want to serve and act and step into it, but I feel compassion fatigue More than I moved by it in a positive way.
Speaker 1: That word compassion fatigue that was coined in the 1980s by by two nurses and they exhibited feelings of anger or helplessness and had to kind of turn off their emotions because of the amount of Patience that were suffering that they had to deal with.
Speaker 1: Now the the term it's fast forward a little bit.
Speaker 1: It's defined this way you can see it on the screen Compassion fatigue is an indifference, an indifference to charitable appeals on behalf of those suffering Experienced as the result of the frequency of the number of such appeals.
Speaker 1: And so since this was coined in the 1980s, of course compassion fatigue has increased because we are living in a world where we are Bombarded by negative news, by brokenness, by injustice, and I get it.
Speaker 1: It's exhausting, it's overwhelming and it's happening at a rapid pace.
Speaker 1: I remember growing up I think I've maybe said this before like in my generation.
Speaker 1: I think I went all the way through high school and I experienced one single solitary school shooting and I still remember it was Columbine in Colorado and it wrecked everybody that was going through school in those days.
Speaker 1: And now, if you're a high schooler, you've experienced a mass school shooting every single year of your life, and oftentimes multiple years, multiple times in a year.
Speaker 1: And so this, this is fast forwarding and if I can be real with you, maybe, maybe, what?
Speaker 1: All the fatigue?
Speaker 1: Maybe you're experiencing that, maybe exhaustion, maybe tired the word that's come into my mind is I'm just, you know what's happening.
Speaker 1: I'm becoming numb to all of it and I don't like that, even in our world right now.
Speaker 1: In the last couple weeks, like I hate what's happening in Israel, but I also like I don't want to look into it anymore because I know the more I look into it, the more awful I'll feel, the more I feel like I have to do something, more helpless I'll feel like I have to do something.
Speaker 1: So it's rather just easy to listen to the lullaby, netflix myself, to sleep and just act like there's nothing wrong, and I hate that.
Speaker 1: I feel bad as a Christian, like should I care more?
Speaker 1: Yes, and actually I do care and that's why I'm not looking.
Speaker 1: So I'm experiencing this like, oh, there's so much out there that I'm just kind of because I can't do it all All, I'm kind of just numb and I don't want to look into it anymore.
Speaker 1: And the way news comes out of it it's like it's not healthy.
Speaker 1: Journalist Amanda Ripley says that 42% of Americans do everything they can to actively avoid the news, and I'm one of those.
Speaker 1: I try to actively avoid it, because she says that part of the problem is today's news is not designed for humans, and I get it Like the reason we're experiencing the fatigue is because it's not designed for us and God didn't design you to solve every single injustice.
Speaker 1: And so if you're feeling like, ah, I can't do it all, so I'm not going to do it Like I get it.
Speaker 1: I'm there too, but the more I look at the example of God and what he's done in my life, christians don't avoid injustice, don't avoid brokenness.
Speaker 1: I'm not saying you shouldn't set limitations with the news and understand that all of this is kind of coming with an agenda and we've got to be careful of what we're putting in, what's coming out.
Speaker 1: We've got to be careful of all that.
Speaker 1: But the answer cannot be avoid all the news and avoid all the problems in this world.
Speaker 1: That's not biblical, that's not what Jesus did.
Speaker 1: So what do we do?
Speaker 1: We recognize that in this one, I can't fully do like Jesus did.
Speaker 1: I'm limited in what I can do.
Speaker 1: But God, you know what.
Speaker 1: You know what he didn't call me to do.
Speaker 1: He didn't call me to save the world, but what he did call me is to be a servant like Him.
Speaker 1: And so, while I can't do everything, you know what I can do.
Speaker 1: I can do something.
Speaker 1: While you can't do everything, you can do something.
Speaker 1: And this is what God calls each and every one of us to do Not to avoid the brokenness, but to enter into it.
Speaker 1: That's how first century Christianity was forever changed by a group of people that said, in the midst of all the persecution and all the Romans living for themselves, we're going to set up a community that cares for one another, that meets one another's needs, that takes care of the widows and the orphans, that feeds those around us, that is generous with our blessings and our materials.
Speaker 1: Like that's how they change the world.
Speaker 1: That's how Iranian Christians are changing the world, and there's revival happening right there because they're seeing the brothers and sisters that are standing up for their faith and they're looking the more into this persecution.
Speaker 1: And the more they stay solid in their faith, the more others are looking around to say maybe there's something there that's worth it.
Speaker 1: And so I need to enter in.
Speaker 1: We need to enter into the world's problems and not just go to sleep but wake up.
Speaker 1: At one point Jesus said to the disciples that the harvest is plentiful but the workers are few, and servants are workers.
Speaker 1: The harvest is plentiful, but the servants are few, and with the rapid decline in Christianity in our nation, I will argue, even in our city, that we have never had a more ripe harvest than right now.
Speaker 1: It is plentiful.
Speaker 1: So many have left the faith, so many have not joined the faith, so many are not adhering to Jesus as their Lord and Savior anymore.
Speaker 1: The harvest is plentiful and we cannot sit idly by when we see people that don't know Jesus, and we do.
Speaker 1: We have, whether they know it or not, what they most need, and so will we listen to the lullaby or will we enter in?
Speaker 1: You need to continue on.
Speaker 1: Paul writes in Galatians, another letter to a church in Galatia.
Speaker 1: These words, the apostle Paul.
Speaker 1: He says let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we don't give up.
Speaker 1: Paul's saying you want to see that plentiful harvest, here's how you do it.
Speaker 1: You don't give up, you don't get weird, you keep doing good things.
Speaker 1: You don't go to sleep, you wake up and you get in the game.
Speaker 1: And then he says this at verse 10, therefore, as we have opportunity, let's do good to all people, especially those who belong to the family of believers.
Speaker 1: So he said eventually we're going to do good to everybody, but first we're going to make sure that all the needs in this house, the needs in the church, are taken care of those that believe in God.
Speaker 1: And that's why last week, if you weren't here we issued a challenge.
Speaker 1: Last week we called it the one out of 720 challenge that in every month there are more than 720 hours in a month and we're asking can you serve at least one of those hours on mission with us here at King of Kings to transform lives?
Speaker 1: There's at least 10 teams on this card for you to be a part of, and if you didn't do that last week, we want to challenge you again to do that this week to get in the game.
Speaker 1: Let's not give up, let's not get weary, let's do good to those who are believers, so that then we're fully not just paid for in a tone by the grace of God, but then we're met the needs by others in our community so we can go out and be the people of God that he's called us to be to the rest of the world.
Speaker 1: But it starts with what happens in here.
Speaker 1: So, if you haven't done that, fill that out, click one or two of those teams, check one of those, and then there's baskets on your way out to throw those in, because we want everybody to get in the game.
Speaker 1: Because, again, you can't do everything, but you can do something.
Speaker 1: And I wish I could see the original manuscript of Paul writing this letter to Galatia, because the very next verse he says it this way See what large letters I use as I write to you with my own hand.
Speaker 1: I wish I could see that, like I'm taking up all the page to tell you this this is how important is don't give up, don't grow weary.
Speaker 1: And so I'm.
Speaker 1: I'm putting all caps, throwing emojis, putting slam effect on the text, on this bad boy, because I want you to see it and for right now, I want you to hear it.
Speaker 1: Passion, intense like this, is what Paul is saying gets in the game.
Speaker 1: Do good, don't get weary, wake up, don't listen to the lullaby.
Speaker 1: So I wanted to sound the alarm this morning and I don't know where you're at.
Speaker 1: Maybe maybe you're not listening to the lullaby and you are one of those faithful Servants that just crush it and you keep going.
Speaker 1: But for the rest of us, let's get in the game.
Speaker 1: You can't do everything, but you can do something.
Speaker 1: So I'm feeling this again for myself, but I want to move to a compassion and action, compassion and action.
Speaker 1: I don't just want this feeling, this burden that I'm feeling on the inside, to sit in here.
Speaker 1: I want to do something about it, and I write more about this on day 22, about my own personal battle right now of what I'm feeling a burden for, and and and I talk about it in the book of like, I've not always known my place in the battle against racism in this nation, and, and part of the reason I haven't known my place is because I feel like, am I even equipped to do something about it?
Speaker 1: I feel like, am I even equipped to do this as a a 40 year old, six foot white male, blue-eyed, blonde-haired dude?
Speaker 1: What, what, what really can I do?
Speaker 1: And yet, the more I've entered into this Situation and this problem and had allies in communities of minorities, They've told me, zach, actually what we need more than anything is white advocates, because you can talk to people that look like you and think like you and behave like you, and they'll listen to you in a different way than they will to us.
Speaker 1: And so this burden has been sitting there, but I haven't been sure what to do with it, and so I've taken some steps of action, and I'm not done yet.
Speaker 1: But I've partnered with right now media, an incredible organization.
Speaker 1: They're like the Netflix of small group studies and, by the way, our church has a subscription that anyone in this church can have access to that material for free.
Speaker 1: A library of 25,000 Bible studies.
Speaker 1: It's awesome.
Speaker 1: If you want to help find in 50 great ones, I can tell you what 50 great ones look like.
Speaker 1: But I've partnered with right now media to do a study called please, a disciples guide to fight racism, and I'm setting up interviews with a lot of people that don't look like me and don't share my skin color, and I Personally want to go on a journey so that I can get deeper into because as deep as I get, I see my eyes haven't always been clear and if I can welcome others into that journey with me to take steps and learn some practical things along the way, then cool.
Speaker 1: I want to do that, god.
Speaker 1: I want to steward this platform for you, and I haven't been as scared about a project like this one as I have been in probably over a decade.
Speaker 1: It might totally fail.
Speaker 1: It might be a total flop.
Speaker 1: I May accidentally, inadvertently, alienate some people.
Speaker 1: Some people may think I go too far.
Speaker 1: Some people may think I don't go far enough and I'm scared.
Speaker 1: But it might be awesome and it might be a blessing to somebody and hopefully it in 2024 it comes out and it is a blessing, hopefully, to a lot of people.
Speaker 1: But what I can't do and what I I refuse to do and part of me, even telling you this in public Is so you can hold me accountable to this.
Speaker 1: What I refuse to do is nothing.
Speaker 1: What I refuse to do is get to 2025, 2026, 2027, and on my list of accomplishments I've got 40 more limited series on Netflix that I've breezed my way through and the time that I spent doing that I could have given to something like this, because, at the end of the day like who cares if I know a little bit more about David Beckham and this awful Murdoch family that's in the south?
Speaker 1: Nobody cares about any of that.
Speaker 1: I Don't want to live with regret and I know you don't either, and I know our deepest regrets come from inaction, not action.
Speaker 1: So you can't do everything, but you can do something.
Speaker 1: So my challenge of the week for you is this, borrowing the words from Pastor Andy Stanley do for one what you wish you could do for everyone, because you can do one thing for someone every single day.
Speaker 1: You can have compassion and action, and when you do, your serving will bless them.
Speaker 1: There are parts of your brain, the pleasure and reward center, that will light up when you serve, because it's actually what you were wired and designed to do and you'll get hits of dopamine that'll fill you with well-being, joy and satisfaction that, by the way, every single one of you want.
Speaker 1: But you look in different places.
Speaker 1: I do too, because it's joyful to serve, as Jesus entered in an acted on our behalf.
Speaker 1: He had joy, hebrews says, as he endured the cross, because he could see to the other side.
Speaker 1: There's joy in fulfilling God's work.
Speaker 1: And I don't.
Speaker 1: I don't envision Jesus, you know, when he said the word to tell us die, which means paid in full, and it was stamped on business documents and receipts when, obviously, it was paid in full.
Speaker 1: I don't, I don't see Jesus doing that angrily or begrudgingly, but rather with a smirk and a smile.
Speaker 1: Paid in full, it's done Because he knows that he's about to take his last breath, but because he's God, he know that, that he knows that in three days he's gonna wake up.
Speaker 1: And I just want you to know we serve the God who awakens Anything and anybody, no matter what you've gone through, and he's done that for you.
Speaker 1: And my question to you Is will you act?
Speaker 1: Will you serve like Jesus?
Speaker 1: Let's stand as we pray as we pray.
Speaker 1: God, thank you for acting on our behalf when we wanted nothing to do with you.
Speaker 1: You wanted everything to do with us and you saved us by grace.
Speaker 1: May that grace that we have received not only give us assurance of eternity and heaven, but may it also cause in us a A desire to live differently and make a difference and to right wrongs In this world.
Speaker 1: May the people of God hear a king of kings wake up.
Speaker 1: May we wake up, may we not listen to the lies and the lullaby of the enemy any longer, and as we act and as we serve, may many more come to know your love and grace.
Speaker 1: And may you, jesus, get all the glory that you deserve, for you are worth it, and together both campuses said amen.