Forrest: Thank you, Jonathan, and worship team for being us into that kind of worship moment.
Forrest: Woo! Man.
Forrest: Uh you all know that I attended a Christian college, Cumberland.
Forrest: And like any good Christian college student, during the summers, I worked as a counselor at Christian camp.
Forrest: Yeah?
Forrest: That's uh the normal thing to do when you go to a Christian college.
Forrest: Served a couple of different camps along the way, but the first one that I served is a ministry called Appalachian Ministries, where as a at that point, a 19-year-old guy spent the whole summer serving kids and families that were in some of the most broken and difficult and impoverished parts, not of just our state in eastern Kentucky, but of our whole country.
Forrest: And we had an amazing time.
Forrest: We did uh projects on people's houses, we did Bible schools for young kids out in the communities, and we were really working in and around where Cumberland is over uh just on I-75, just the beginning of Eastern Kentucky, but one random week throughout that summer, we got in a van and we left Eastern Kentucky and home and we went to Kaskaskia, Illinois.
Forrest: Anybody ever heard of Kaskaskia in Illinois?
Forrest: Yep, I hadn't either.
Forrest: We went to Kaskaskia because there was this long-running relationship with this uh just Christian retreat center camp that was there in Kaskaskia.
Forrest: And I don't know if you spent much time in Illinois, southern Illinois, but we literally are going out into the country in Illinois, and we pull into this Christian retreat center, and all around us is nothing but corn.
Forrest: Everywhere that I can see, there's like a farmhouse, there's like a couple of buildings there in this retreat center, and then everywhere you look around, it's just corn.
Forrest: And I'm thinking, what am I doing out here?
Forrest: It was like almost like a scary movie.
Forrest: You know the scary movies where you're at the you know, the corn, you know what I'm talking about?
Forrest: I'm like, what are these children gonna come out of this corn?
Forrest: I don't know, I don't know what's gonna happen here.
Forrest: But needless to say, um, I didn't have a very good attitude going into it.
Forrest: And the week got kicked off, and a couple hundred kids came out to this uh retreat center, and you could tell that they were coming from kind of locally around that area, farm-wide.
Forrest: Some kids maybe even in some difficult circumstances.
Forrest: And we started off the week in a way that was truly an experience.
Forrest: Nothing like I'd ever done before.
Forrest: We went outside in this open kind of field area and put down these long pieces of butcher paper on the ground, and then the camp uh staff brought these huge pots of chocolate pudding and put the chocolate pudding all down the butcher paper, and at the end of the butcher paper was a chair, and they got all the kids in line in front of the butcher paper, and then they let them run and smash their bare feet toes all in this chocolate pudding.
Forrest: Yes.
Forrest: Oh, just imagine that, right?
Forrest: They were having a blast.
Forrest: And after they got their feet all nice and covered and gooey, chocolatey, nasty, the kid would come down and sit in the chair, and us as the counselors had a bowl of water and a towel, and we washed the kids' feet.
Forrest: And as we washed their feet, we as the counselors prayed over the kids.
Forrest: I've never done anything like that.
Forrest: I'd never even really washed anybody's feet before, really, at that point in my life.
Forrest: Not even I didn't have kids or anything.
Forrest: And it really they really didn't need the pudding to make their feet dirty.
Forrest: You know, we're talking about like elementary, middle school kids.
Forrest: They had the funk.
Forrest: Some of them had the hand-me-down shoes.
Forrest: But as I sat there and on the ground and as I was washing kid after kid, my attitude completely changed.
Forrest: My heart completely changed as I began praying over each kid.
Forrest: And it was kind of weird.
Forrest: Kind of a weird moment, not gonna lie.
Forrest: But man, did it do something to my heart.
Forrest: That I saw these kids in a completely different light, and as the camp went on, got to really build some relationships and even see some of them come to know Jesus.
Forrest: I think about this essential series that we've been in.
Forrest: We've talked about a few different things.
Forrest: We've talked about fasting and prayer.
Forrest: We talked about last week meditation and studying.
Forrest: Today we're talking about service and submission.
Forrest: As we think about what service and submission looks like from a biblical vantage point, I want to share with you when we say the word submission, a lot of times that can bring up some uh feelings of uh maybe some PTSD, some thoughts of when you talk about submission, that word has been wielded somewhat as a weapon over the years for chauvinist purposes and otherwise.
Forrest: But I want us to look specifically from the word and say what does it mean for biblical submission?
Forrest: What does it mean for biblical service?
Forrest: And the writer of uh this book on spiritual disciplines, Richard Foster, he he describes submission as this, biblical submission is this.
Forrest: It is the ability to lay down the terrible burden of always needing to get our own way.
Forrest: Ultimately, when we think about what biblical submission is, we think about Jesus Himself.
Forrest: The fact that he submitted himself to God, to God's will, even for him to go, and to submit himself to be arrested, to be beaten, to be bloodied, and ultimately nailed to a cross.
Forrest: The sign of the cross is a sign of ultimate submission of Jesus to the will of the Father, and for his service to you and me, that he would take our sins on his back, on his body, and die in our place and be resurrected victorious.
Forrest: Something we couldn't do for ourselves.
Forrest: You're not capable of dying and then three days later coming back to life.
Forrest: Sorry, that Jesus did that for you.
Forrest: And in doing so, he submitted himself to God's will.
Forrest: We talk about biblical submission, really.
Forrest: What is it?
Forrest: It's us submitting ourselves to God's will and to the people that God has called us to submit ourselves to.
Forrest: Now let me talk about kind of what submission is not.
Forrest: So, what are there are there limits to this biblical submission?
Forrest: Well, absolutely, there's some limits.
Forrest: The main limit, I would say, is if there's an authority person, somebody of authority who's leading you into sin.
Forrest: A parent asking a child to sin, a spouse asking another spouse to sin against God, the state asking you to sin against God.
Forrest: Jesus is very clear, and the disciples are very clear, that we are to submit ourselves to the officials of our country that we are in.
Forrest: Jesus is asked about taxes, and he says, Render unto Caesar's.
Forrest: What is Caesar's?
Forrest: Telling us, hey, you know, you're a citizen.
Forrest: Under the authority of officials, pay your taxes.
Forrest: It's the government's money.
Forrest: It's the image there.
Forrest: But there are also some limits to submission as well when it comes to that.
Forrest: The disciples themselves, when the officials came to them and told them to stop preaching the name of Jesus, they said, We serve God, not man.
Forrest: They wouldn't stop.
Forrest: They resisted.
Forrest: They resisted so that they could submit themselves ultimately to God's work and to God's will for their life.
Forrest: So we think about submission.
Forrest: Who in the world do we serve in a way that we submit to?
Forrest: And there's a few of those that we do.
Forrest: We see an example of Jesus, of how he submitted himself to the ones that he loved, and ultimately to God service himself.
Forrest: So you may be in the room today and you're thinking, okay, Forrest, we're talking about service, we're talking about submission.
Forrest: This is stuff that, you know, either I've got this down pat, I'm already serving in the church, I already volunteer on a team, I serve my family.
Forrest: I get up every single day to put food on the table and a roof over their head.
Forrest: What do you mean by this?
Forrest: I've already got this down.
Forrest: Maybe for you the thought of submitting yourself to somebody higher than you, like God, you haven't even considered it.
Forrest: You think that your way is the best way, my way or the highway kind of mentality.
Forrest: You've not invited God into your life at all, and you're trying to make life work on your own terms, and you know it's not working.
Forrest: Look at the example of Jesus, what he sets for us.
Forrest: Well, first off, what he said to us in Luke chapter 9, verse 24.
Forrest: Jesus speaks of our lives.
Forrest: He says, if you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it.
Forrest: But if you give up, you submit, submission, if you give up your life for my sake, you will what?
Forrest: Save it.
Forrest: The night that Jesus was arrested, the disciples and him went to this upper room to have dinner.
Forrest: The disciples didn't know that Jesus was about to be arrested, only he knew what was going to happen.
Forrest: They came into the room to have dinner, and something strange happened.
Forrest: They all got washed up for dinner, but all of their feet were still dirty.
Forrest: Because only the lowliest of person, a servant, would wash people's feet, but they didn't have one of those there at their dinner party.
Forrest: It was just Jesus and the disciples, and then something very strange happened.
Forrest: John chapter 13, verse 3.
Forrest: Jesus knew that the Father had given him authority over everything that he had come from God and would return to God.
Forrest: So he got up from the table, took off his robe, wrapped a towel around his waist, and poured water into a basin.
Forrest: And then he began to wash the disciples' feet, drying them with the towel that he had around him.
Forrest: When Jesus came to Simon Peter, Peter said to him, Lord, are you going to wash my feet?
Forrest: Jesus replied, You don't understand now what I am doing, but someday you will.
Forrest: No, Peter protested, you will never wash my feet.
Forrest: And Jesus replied, Unless I wash you, you won't belong to me.
Forrest: Simon Peter exclaimed, Then, Wash my hands and my head as well, Lord, not just my feet.
Forrest: And Jesus replied, A person who has bathed all over does not need to wash except for the feet to be entirely clean.
Forrest: You disciples are clean, but not all of you, for Jesus knew who would betray him.
Forrest: Speaking of Judas.
Forrest: That is what he meant when he said, Not all of you are clean.
Forrest: After washing their feet, he put on his robe and sat down and asked, Do you understand what I was doing?
Forrest: You call me teacher and lord, and you're all right, because that's what I am.
Forrest: And since I, your Lord and teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash each other's feet.
Forrest: I have given you an example to follow.
Forrest: Do as I have done to you.
Forrest: Jesus.
Forrest: The Savior of the world.
Forrest: The beautiful name that we just sang about, that has no rival, no equal, took a towel, wrapped it around himself, and got down and washed the dirty feet of his followers.
Forrest: Radical.
Forrest: Unheard of.
Forrest: Kind of gross.
Forrest: So much so that Peter protested, no, Jesus, get up.
Forrest: You don't wash my feet.
Forrest: Jesus told him plainly, I need to wash your feet.
Forrest: And so who are some of the people that we need to serve, that we need to submit ourselves to in acts of submission?
Forrest: Well, the first is to God.
Forrest: We need to submit ourselves to God.
Forrest: We need to submit ourselves to the scripture, to God's word, the authority of God and God's word in our life.
Forrest: We talked about it last week of us being in his word, getting to know God's word, learning God's word, hiding in our hearts, submitting ourselves to the truth of Scripture.
Forrest: We need to submit ourselves to the family that we have in our life, to serve them, to love them, to care for them.
Forrest: Not only in a submit to one another in the way that Ephesians chapter 5 says, or a husband and a wife in that way of submission and relationship, but also the family that you have, parents, aunts, uncles, people in your life that you be willing to serve and care for.
Forrest: Your neighbors, people around you.
Forrest: It can be as easy as loaning a tool, making some cookies, or going farther than that, praying, caring for, loving your neighbors.
Forrest: A submission to the body of Christ, to spiritual authority with your pastors, but also submission and love for one another.
Forrest: That you would serve the body of Christ in the same way that you serve Jesus Himself.
Forrest: A submission to serve the broken.
Forrest: Those that are hurting.
Forrest: The poor is what the Bible says.
Forrest: Those that are going through difficult circumstances.
Forrest: And submission to community.
Forrest: Whether that be local officials and the police and the officials that you have in your life, but also a stewardship of our community.
Forrest: We talk a lot around here about loving Frankfurt.
Forrest: We're not talking about the uh geography on the map.
Forrest: We're talking about the people of Frankfurt.
Forrest: We're talking about our neighbors and the people that we are at the grocery store with and go to school with and work with.
Forrest: That we have a responsibility to care for, to love, and to steward this place.
Forrest: But it doesn't just stay here.
Forrest: It goes out to the way that we serve and care for our world.
Forrest: For nature, for the for the world that God's given to us, for us to steward.
Forrest: Will we submit ourselves to service, to care, to love what God has allowed us to, or will we just serve ourselves?
Forrest: Jesus says in Matthew 25, or Matthew 20, verse 25 through 28.
Forrest: Jesus called them together and he said, He's speaking to his disciples, you know that the rulers of this world, Lord, Lord over their people, and officials flaunt their authority over those under them, but among you it will be what?
Forrest: Different.
Forrest: Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant.
Forrest: And whoever wants to be first among you must become your slave.
Forrest: For even the Son of Man, speaking of himself, Jesus, even the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve others and give his life as a ransom for many.
Forrest: The cross and the towel.
Forrest: These two emblems for us that stick in our mind of the ministry of Jesus.
Forrest: And the way that he gave an example for us to love, serve, and care for others, and for us to do this in a way that is not self-serving or self-righteous.
Forrest: You know it's possible to serve people out of a self-righteous attitude.
Forrest: Well, I'm going to do something nice for them so that they do something nice for me.
Forrest: They scratch their back and then they'll scratch my back, right?
Forrest: Or maybe the flip side, they bloody my nose, I bloody their nose.
Forrest: And when we submit ourselves to the Lord and to his call on our life to emulate Jesus and to be like Jesus, we're set free.
Forrest: We're set free from the mentality of you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours.
Forrest: We're also set free from having to get the credit.
Forrest: Having to post a picture about it.
Forrest: You buy somebody a meal and then you make an Instagram video about it.
Forrest: I've seen some of these videos before on Instagram where people like they're videoing themselves as they're walking up to a homeless person to give them a meal or give them some money.
Forrest: Have you seen those?
Forrest: It's like appreciate, you know, appreciate the heart.
Forrest: But what's the motivation here?
Forrest: To be seen for clicks, for likes?
Forrest: Is it self-serving and self-righteous?
Forrest: Or is it true service?
Forrest: And there's a difference.
Forrest: There's a difference.
Forrest: And the difference is from just service versus being a servant.
Forrest: You know what service is?
Forrest: There are a ton of organizations and places that serve the community and do service projects and that kind of thing.
Forrest: But when you have service or you serve others in your life, you're coming from an aspect of control.
Forrest: Well, I'm going to choose who I'm going to serve, when I'm going to serve them, when it fits into my calendar, when it fits into the schedule, yeah, maybe I'll go and serve at the homeless shelter, I'll do this, or maybe when this is going on at church, I'll jump in there, or you know, yeah, I'll jump in and uh, but that that group, I really don't want to serve them.
Forrest: I'm gonna skip out on that one.
Forrest: And there's a control.
Forrest: First thing is having the heart of a servant.
Forrest: That's a lifestyle.
Forrest: It's a lifestyle.
Forrest: Not serving in the big things, but serving in the small, mundane, sometimes silly ways to the people, your family around you, that you love and want to serve them in the way that Jesus did, being the creator of the world and bending down and serving at the lowest level.
Forrest: Gosh, that's challenging.
Forrest: Jesus, why'd you have to do that?
Forrest: Because I've just been King Jesus sitting on a throne, and we can all just come in and sing worship songs to you all the time and just think about you sitting on the throne in heaven, and that'd be it.
Forrest: But instead, you had to bend down and wash your disciples' feet.
Forrest: This last week I got I got to do some cool things this week, and one of those was I got to attend this thing called the Fatherhood Summit that happened here in Frankfurt where their Lexing Leadership Foundations put on this fatherhood summit, and it happened at the child and family services this week on I think it was Wednesday or Thursday that was there.
Forrest: And there were different nonprofits from across the state that came together, and there was a panel that was sharing about serving in different capacities and people from western Kentucky and all the way across.
Forrest: And one of the people who were on this panel was a guy named Earl Young.
Forrest: There's a picture of him, he's a guy with the glasses on.
Forrest: Earl was there representing the organization that he was a part of, but he was telling his testimony well before.
Forrest: He was a part of any organization.
Forrest: Earl grew up in Florida until as an orphan, was adopted by a family in eastern Kentucky, where he moved to Eastern Kentucky with a very loving mother that unfortunately had some very unloving father figures in his life.
Forrest: As a young child in eastern Kentucky, he was abused sexually as a child.
Forrest: Had a difficult upbringing, was very angry.
Forrest: Was very angry.
Forrest: He said that after he uh got of age to join the military, he joined the military because he was so angry.
Forrest: He said, I wanted to kill people.
Forrest: That's why I joined the military.
Forrest: I was so confused.
Forrest: I was so upset from what had happened to me, but I didn't really know how to deal with it.
Forrest: Went to the military.
Forrest: Why was it military?
Forrest: In the military.
Forrest: The all-night watches that these soldiers have to do.
Forrest: If you ever get caught sleeping at your post, you can be shot, apparently.
Forrest: That's what he said.
Forrest: And so one of his fellow soldiers offered him a remedy that would keep him up for his watches called meth.
Forrest: So Earl was introduced to drugs while he was in the military, started doing meth.
Forrest: He said he felt like a super soldier.
Forrest: Started doing drugs, and when he got out of the military and was out, he said I didn't even realize, I did not even realize that I was addicted until I got out of the military.
Forrest: Went back to eastern Kentucky, addicted to drugs, breaking into houses of his family and other people who he knew that wouldn't call the cops on him, just so that he could sell things and get money so that he could feed his addiction.
Forrest: Homeless, broken, until he finally went to a friend in his life and wanted to get into treatment.
Forrest: He spent some time in jail.
Forrest: While he was in jail, he accepted Christ.
Forrest: And in his treatment, he began to really have a heart for people who are in his situation.
Forrest: So all on his own, not connected to any organization or anybody.
Forrest: After he got out of rehab, Earl started to go across eastern Kentucky, finding homeless people, many times homeless veterans, or under bridges and putting them in a car and going and putting them up in a hotel, getting them into treatment.
Forrest: And he did this over and over and over and over again until he got linked up with an organization called Pathways, which is an addiction recovery care organization in Eastern Kentucky.
Forrest: And now he serves 10 counties in Eastern Kentucky where he literally does the exact same thing.
Forrest: He goes in his 10 counties, finding veterans and people who are homeless or who are addicted to drugs, and he gets them into care.
Forrest: When Earl started doing that, he didn't have an organization, he didn't have a title.
Forrest: He was just serving.
Forrest: He was just loving.
Forrest: God and the people that God put on his heart.
Forrest: In Mark chapter 9, verse 35.
Forrest: Jesus, he sat down and called the 12 disciples over to him and he said, Whoever wants to be first must take last place and be a servant of everyone else.
Forrest: You think about being a servant to others?
Forrest: Even a servant that has that servant heart.
Forrest: I don't know about you, but I begin to think of questions like, well, what if I get taken advantage of?
Forrest: Well, what if somebody, I help somebody and really I'm being taken advantage of?
Forrest: And you know what?
Forrest: When you're serving other people, will you get taken advantage of?
Forrest: Yes, you will.
Forrest: But let me ask you this.
Forrest: If you have a heart of a servant, knowing that you're gonna love and care for someone who even if you end up being taken advantage of, but if you know that going in, are you really being taken advantage of?
Forrest: No.
Forrest: You're going in ahead of time, saying, you know what, I'm gonna serve, I'm gonna be a servant, I'm gonna love somebody.
Forrest: And however way the chips fall of loving and caring for someone, well, I'm gonna serve them.
Forrest: I'm gonna care for them.
Forrest: You know there's a difference in acting like a servant and actually being a servant.
Forrest: Having the heart of Jesus.
Forrest: What are some of those ways that we can be a servant where we can serve other people?
Forrest: Here's just a few from the scripture.
Forrest: They all start with H, very helpful for you.
Forrest: One is helpfulness, actually truly helping somebody who's in need.
Forrest: Next is hospitality.
Forrest: Be willing to welcome somebody into your home who may need a place to stay, care for, maybe a child or an adult.
Forrest: You can serve people by holding your tongue.
Forrest: By not speaking ill about somebody, not trying to trash somebody's reputation.
Forrest: Y'all can also can serve people by truly listening to them and hearing them.
Forrest: Here's some scriptures to back that up just in case some of y'all are wondering.
Forrest: Titus 3.2 says, you must not slander anyone and must avoid quarreling.
Forrest: Instead, you should be gentle and show true humility to everyone.
Forrest: Let's not slander, let's hold our tongue.
Forrest: 1 Peter 4, 9 says, carefully share or cheerfully share your home with those who need a meal or a place to stay.
Forrest: And then Galatians 6, too.
Forrest: Share each other's burdens, and in this way obey the law of Christ.
Forrest: We serve others by trying to be helpful, loving and caring, by showing just general hospitality.
Forrest: You know the ministry of hospitality?
Forrest: Some of y'all are really good at hospitality.
Forrest: You love making meals, you love getting the house ready, welcoming guests in.
Forrest: You know how important it is?
Forrest: This act of hospitality?
Forrest: Not only one is it a spiritual gift in the Bible, it's also a requirement for a pastor.
Forrest: In the list of requirements for a pastor is that they would be willing to open their home and welcome people in.
Forrest: That's how important it is.
Forrest: Caring about others?
Forrest: By not talking behind the back.
Forrest: Holding the tongue.
Forrest: Truly just listening and caring and loving for people, loving people.
Forrest: And in the same way as Earl.
Forrest: Serving was not a title.
Forrest: There's a mentality, and can be a mentality, of like, okay, well, if I'm gonna serve, then I need to be a leader.
Forrest: Well, I need to lead a small group if I'm gonna serve the church, or oh, I need to, you know, be on a volunteer team, or I need to be a part of an organization, I need to be on the board, I need to have membership in this local chapter.
Forrest: But it's not about the title, it's about the towel.
Forrest: Another amazing experience that I had this week was on Tuesday.
Forrest: I got to go to Eastern Kentucky and got to see Jared and Bethany, our nett, and there's also a picture of them.
Forrest: These two, Jared and Bethany, they planted a church in Python seven years ago.
Forrest: Not unlike ours.
Forrest: On the campus of University of Pikeville, Jared was a business owner, owned a guitar store, and felt God's call to plant a church and to start a church.
Forrest: And he and his wife, Bethany, they started services, again, not unlike us seven years ago now.
Forrest: Jared ended up being the head of the Chamber of Commerce and in a lot of different positions along the way.
Forrest: Worked for a group called SOAR, shaping our Appalachian Region, where he was working to alleviate poverty, made a lot of connections.
Forrest: And seven years later, seven years later, I got to be there on Tuesday where they had the very first summit for Together for the Mountains.
Forrest: It's a brand new initiative.
Forrest: Jared and Bethany and Emily and I, we started talking and partnering with Southland at the exact same time two years ago.
Forrest: Jared and Bethany, they were obviously already established planters.
Forrest: Their church was six, seven years old.
Forrest: Emily and I, we're just getting started here on our journey planting.
Forrest: But on Tuesday, I got to see Jared and Bethany host Together for the Mountains.
Forrest: There were 200 people in the room from 50 different organizations, and they were all there to talk about how they could love, serve, share the name of Jesus, and see more churches be planted in eastern Kentucky.
Forrest: And they started seven years ago, just like us.
Forrest: You know, a lot of times you overestimate how much you can accomplish in a short amount of time, but you underestimate how much you can accomplish in a long amount of time.
Forrest: This couple that are just so amazing, love them so much.
Forrest: God's using them now to see a movement happen in eastern Kentucky that literally is getting off the ground.
Forrest: I think about as we continue to love and care for our community, for our church, for those that we know.
Forrest: Where's God gonna take us in seven, ten years?
Forrest: Who knows?
Forrest: I don't know this, that God's gonna be the one to do it.
Forrest: And we have to be in the right heart posture of love and care and servant-heartedness to see God move in that way.
Forrest: And He can.
Forrest: I'll close with this.
Forrest: Many years ago now, now it's been, I don't know, 10, 15 years ago.
Forrest: I was 22, I got to take a trip to Israel.
Forrest: It was an amazing experience.
Forrest: Highly recommend.
Forrest: It'd be like one of those bucket list items for your life or something.
Forrest: And I got to get baptized in the Jordan River, Jordan River where Jesus was baptized.
Forrest: Little fish minnows were biting on my toes while I was getting baptized.
Forrest: This big white robe, it was real fun.
Forrest: But the Jordan River sits between two seas that we see in the Bible.
Forrest: North, the Sea of Galilee, where a lot of stuff, the ministry of Jesus goes down, when he's going the boat through the storm, he's on the Sea of Galilee.
Forrest: It gets filled up by the Jordan River that comes out of the mountains just north of the Sea of Galilee, and then down the river all the way to the bottom, it ends in this place called the Dead Sea in the Bible.
Forrest: Anybody ever heard of that?
Forrest: The Dead Sea?
Forrest: Well, if you go to the Dead Sea Dead Sea today, there's all these hotels and stuff that are around it because it's filled with salt.
Forrest: It's so salty that when you get in it, you don't sink.
Forrest: You float on top.
Forrest: And that that that water, it's so dense, and literally, if you're I got in the water there, and if you have a cut or anything, man, it's instantly like just stinging so much.
Forrest: If the water splashes just on your lip, it's like your lip dries up.
Forrest: It's like crazy in there.
Forrest: But the thing that's interesting to me is this the Sea of Galilee that's lush and green and covered with farms that are around there and food that's produced there, and there's fish that's there.
Forrest: It has water that's flowing to it and through it.
Forrest: But the Dead Sea at the bottom, where the water pours in, there's no place that it pours out.
Forrest: It just sits there, stale and idle, and nothing can live in it, nothing can survive, and in the same way, as God is pouring into us, we need to pour out for others so that we can be alive in Christ.
Forrest: If we just have God pour into us and it just stays there stale and dead and doesn't ever pour out anywhere else to serve anybody, to care for anybody, to love people in the way that Jesus loved them, well then we're just gonna be a bunch of dead people.
Forrest: A dead church, dead Christians.
Forrest: James tells us plainly, faith without works is dead.
Forrest: Not that it's the works that save us, but it is the works that happen because we are saved.
Forrest: Jesus loved you so much that he went to the cross to die in your place and serve you and give the ultimate sacrifice.
Forrest: You know, he even washed the feet of Judas who was about to betray him and have him arrested, he got down and washed the feet of Judas, the one who was about ready to turn his back on him.
Forrest: And just in case you were wondering, if you've got people in your life who may take advantage of you or may betray you, even Jesus had a Judas.
Forrest: Even Jesus had a Judas and he still served, and he still loved, and he still cared for him.
Forrest: It's crazy.
Forrest: That's the Jesus that we serve.
Forrest: That's the Jesus that served me for dying in my place when I didn't deserve it.
Forrest: My sin and the things that I've done in my life, I didn't deserve God's forgiveness, but he forgave me and saved me.
Forrest: And he'll do the same thing for you if you'll give your life to him.
Forrest: And then he'll put you on a track of purpose to love and care and to see other people be made alive from death.
Forrest: Maybe you're here today and you are needing that very thing.
Forrest: You need to receive Jesus as your Savior for the very first time.
Forrest: Today is the day that you can do that.
Forrest: That you can receive his forgiveness, that you can move forward in your life.
Forrest: Maybe today for you, you're a believer in Jesus and you've served, but you want God to put a heart, a servant heart, into you.
Forrest: To be servant-hearted.
Forrest: Will you join me in prayer for this?
Forrest: God, I thank you, Lord, for how you've loved and cared for us.
Forrest: So much so that you died on the cross for our sins.
Forrest: You're willing to serve the leased, the broken, the betrayers.
Forrest: God, that describes some of us today.
Forrest: I thank you, God, that you loved us so much that you died for each one of us.
Forrest: God, I pray across a room.
Forrest: Lord, we have seen you move.
Forrest: We have seen you serve, help us to serve one another here in our body and also in our community and beyond.
Forrest: God, we pray for more.
Forrest: God, we pray, Lord, that you would help us.
Forrest: God, that we would make ourselves low so that you would be lifted up.
Forrest: Jesus, I pray right now over the room.
Forrest: Anybody who's in this place who has not received your forgiveness, that you bought for them on the cross, that today would be the day of their salvation, that they would pray to you, Jesus, save me.
Forrest: I believe that you are the Son of God, that you have forgiven me.
Forrest: I receive your forgiveness.
Forrest: Wash me as white as snow so that I can be in heaven with you one day.
Forrest: Thank you for dying for me.
Forrest: And thank you for saving me.
Forrest: Jesus' name.
Forrest: Amen.