Speaker 1: Well, good morning.
Speaker 1: Good morning.
Speaker 1: I'd like to invite you to go ahead and come on back and find a seat If I hadn't met you before.
Speaker 1: My name's Brian and we're apart.
Speaker 1: My wife and I have been a part of the church family here for really at Pinewood since it started, and my girls are here as well, and it's just a privilege to be a part of this church family, and we're glad that you're here this morning as well, as we continue in a series about seven transformational habits, and I was at a breakfast yesterday morning, anyway, so I'm just chowing down, it's great.
Speaker 1: And then I was at the back of the line, so I was kind of behind a little bit and the guy started speaking and I'm still eating and he's talking about fasting and I'm like, oh, should I be eating right now Because he's talking about fasting?
Speaker 1: But there's this bacon on my plate right, and so now I'm torn.
Speaker 1: It's like, what do you do?
Speaker 1: I mean, you just sit right in front of the guy who's talking about fasting and eat this bacon.
Speaker 1: But this is good bacon too, and my mom taught me you don't ever leave food on your plate because there's hungry people in the world.
Speaker 1: So I eat the bacon.
Speaker 1: What do we do with transformational habits?
Speaker 1: Maybe you're torn in a sense.
Speaker 1: You think about how do I apply to my life, or why would I even want to have transformational habits?
Speaker 1: We believe and we preach that we're saved by grace through faith alone in Christ, and we're not doing works, that we can add anything to what God has done.
Speaker 1: So why would we challenge ourselves with transformational habits?
Speaker 1: Why would we take up spiritual disciplines?
Speaker 1: Well see, being a follower of Jesus is really on a journey of becoming more like Him, thinking more like Him, acting more like Him and less like ourselves.
Speaker 1: Before we came to know Jesus and in a sense, this is a privileged partnership with God.
Speaker 1: Jerry Bridges writes a book called the Pursuit of Holiness and in the forward he uses an analogy of a farmer to illustrate this partnership.
Speaker 1: He talks about how, as a farmer which I know nothing about farming, but I do get this a farmer is completely reliant upon things outside of himself to cause seeds to germinate, to cause rain to fall, to cause the sun to shine.
Speaker 1: He has no control over those things, but God has set those things into order as a part of His creation.
Speaker 1: So he's in a partnership with God in a sense.
Speaker 1: But he still has to get up early, he has to plow, he has to plant, he has to cultivate, he has to fertilize if he's going to get a harvest.
Speaker 1: And so there's a partnership in this venture of farming between the farmer and God, where God does what only he can do but God will not do what the farmer should do.
Speaker 1: And it paints a picture of what it looks like in our lives to take these transformational habits that we are entering into a partnership, that we are taking responsibility, that we're going to have a little bit of ownership here through spiritual disciplines that we can cultivate.
Speaker 1: And so this morning we come to the habit of serving and I was thinking about where we are as a culture on serving.
Speaker 1: In our culture it's typically called volunteering and there's a big emphasis on this in different civic groups and among schools for students and things of that nature.
Speaker 1: But even as much as these things are emphasized in our culture, for the last 13 years there has been a steady decline in people being willing to do that and of course COVID just rapidly accelerated that decline and the church was affected a lot.
Speaker 1: We saw when we weren't gathering together that it just kind of derailed what we were doing in terms of serving.
Speaker 1: But as we came back together, people began to rally and step in and were excited to be a part again of a healthy and a growing church and to serve in that church.
Speaker 1: And the biggest reason people give when they're asked for serving is that it helps them grow in the relationship with God.
Speaker 1: It's about getting closer to God.
Speaker 1: I talked to a guy named Lloyd yesterday morning at the table and Lloyd was downtown Somerville campus and he and his wife they greet people at the hospitality tent and he has this.
Speaker 1: He's just a gifted encourager.
Speaker 1: I was encouraged just talking with him and so he talked about how much joy he gets from just helping people who are new get to a place where they can take a step to begin to plug in and build relationships with other people.
Speaker 1: And then he was telling me how they're moving toward three services downtown, which is really exciting, but then that means they're going to be stretched then.
Speaker 1: But he sees people stepping up to fill in the gaps because serving in a growing church is fulfilling.
Speaker 1: It is exciting to be a part of what God is doing.
Speaker 1: A lot of us have been a part of that.
Speaker 1: But there's another side of the coin that maybe some of us have been at too, and an organization that said that 20% of the people do what?
Speaker 1: 80% of the work.
Speaker 1: Maybe you had a different number in mind, but that's what I've always heard 20% of the people, those are the go-getters, those are the ones that you can always count on and they're working themselves to exhaustion.
Speaker 1: And a lot of organizations.
Speaker 1: That is the truth.
Speaker 1: If you want something done, you find a busy person and give it to them, because they're already working hard.
Speaker 1: They're going to get that done, and we see that happen.
Speaker 1: Where we maybe exhaust ourselves physically, emotionally, maybe even spiritually.
Speaker 1: Maybe today that's where you are.
Speaker 1: Maybe you're tired and you know it may be a season, it may be just a moment, but in those moments the idea of serving seems impossible.
Speaker 1: In fact, when we hear somebody talk about it, it's like where is the exit?
Speaker 1: How fast can I get away from this?
Speaker 1: Or how fast can I get out of here?
Speaker 1: Or maybe you're here today and you don't even have a relationship with Jesus and the idea of serving Him is just something you've never thought about.
Speaker 1: You know what?
Speaker 1: We're grateful that you're here, and I believe that Jesus wants to meet you in this place and reveal Himself to you in a very real way so that you can, by faith, trust Him with your life.
Speaker 1: And I hope that you have that encounter today.
Speaker 1: You know it's easy.
Speaker 1: As you look around all these chairs, the mats, the sound equipment, the tech, if you go across campus, through the parking lot, everywhere across this campus you see the fruit of labor of people who have gathered early and stay late because they understand and they embrace this calling, this transformational habit that was displayed in the life of Jesus, who is the greatest example of serving.
Speaker 1: And so how are we doing with this idea, this transformational habit?
Speaker 1: Are we just kind of, you know, checking out at this moment, saying, okay, I appreciate what you're saying, but, you know, not for me.
Speaker 1: But maybe we see a need where there needs to be somebody stepping up, but we just think somebody else is going to take care of it this time.
Speaker 1: Or maybe today we make a decision to partner with God, and that's my hope that we do.
Speaker 1: We choose to partner with God to see our lives transform and to see His kingdom extended through the habit of serving.
Speaker 1: If you've got your Bible open to 1 Peter, you're in the New Testament and we're in chapter four.
Speaker 1: We're going to look at verses seven through 11 this morning.
Speaker 1: And here is the apostle Peter, one of the original disciples of Jesus, near the end of his life, writing to a group of churches that are in Asia Minor, which is modern Turkey, and they are experiencing a growing hostility in their society because of their devotion to Jesus.
Speaker 1: It sets them apart from their culture, and people are beginning to grow increasingly hostile toward them.
Speaker 1: And so Peter's writing and this is really a summary of the basic Christian life of being devoted to Jesus its encouragement, its instruction, its reminders about a life that is being transformed.
Speaker 1: And so we're going to take a look, in beginning in verse seven, where he begins with some general truth about this habit of serving, some practical application, and we'll get to the primary motive.
Speaker 1: Look at verse seven.
Speaker 1: The end of all things is at hand.
Speaker 1: Therefore, be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers.
Speaker 1: Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.
Speaker 1: Show hospitality to one another without grumbling, as each has received a gift.
Speaker 1: Use it to serve one another as good stewards of God's very grace.
Speaker 1: Whoever speaks as one who speaks oracles or words of God, whoever serves as one, who serves by the strength that God supplies in order that, in everything, god may be glorified through Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1: To Him belong glory and dominion forever and ever.
Speaker 1: Amen.
Speaker 1: Would you bow with me, father?
Speaker 1: We thank you for your word that instructs us, that encourages us, that challenges us, that corrects us, that reveals your love and your grace to us, and I pray that you would help us to open our hearts to what you would say to us today through your word, when we ask that in Jesus' name, amen.
Speaker 1: So in verse seven, there, peter starts with this statement the end of all things is at hand.
Speaker 1: He's putting a context out there for the early church, because this is the mindset that they are to have and therefore, because of the end of all things, is it being at hand?
Speaker 1: They need to be self-controlled, they need to be sober-minded.
Speaker 1: Why?
Speaker 1: For the sake of their prayers.
Speaker 1: And so what is Peter talking about?
Speaker 1: Well, he knows that when Jesus came and he gave his life at the cross and he was raised from the dead and he ascended to the Father, that Jesus is going to return, he's coming back for his church and he lives.
Speaker 1: Peter lives like every believer in every generation, lives with the expectation of the imminent return of Jesus, because he doesn't tell us when that's going to happen, but he does tell us to be ready.
Speaker 1: And so he lives with this expectation and he's telling these believers to do the same, because our time is short, god's redemptive plan is moving forward toward completion, the end is at hand, and so we live with that expectation.
Speaker 1: And in light of that, how are we to be self-controlled, sober-minded?
Speaker 1: And so, if we are self-controlled and sober-minded, we are practicing spiritual discipline.
Speaker 1: If you will, we are disciplining ourselves for the sake of our prayers, as Peter says for the sake of your prayers.
Speaker 1: And so, several weeks ago, pastor James talked about how essential prayer is as a transformational habit in this life of following Jesus.
Speaker 1: You know, the apostle is teaching us this, that the prayer, prayer is essential preparation for serving God.
Speaker 1: If we're going to step into this other transformational habit of serving that, prayer is absolutely essential preparation for that, because it is our lifeline, it is our filling station, it is how we rest, it is how we commune with our heavenly Father.
Speaker 1: Even the example of Jesus we would see prayer was essential to him before he went and started his earthly mission.
Speaker 1: He went out into the desert and went through those temptations and went through times of prayer.
Speaker 1: Before he called his disciples, before he made big decisions, as he faced the cross, he prayed.
Speaker 1: So we see in verse eight, as he moves from this essential preparation of prayer, he says above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.
Speaker 1: Again, the centrality of love throughout the New Testament, in the teaching of Jesus and the apostles, is clearly evident.
Speaker 1: That love that is essential to believers in the early church who are facing hostility from outside.
Speaker 1: They certainly need to be unified inside.
Speaker 1: They need a love that covers a multitude of sins because we're humans they were humans we fail each other, we disappoint each other, we wrong each other at times.
Speaker 1: But that love that comes from the Father, that generous, that earnest love and that word earnest has the sense in the Greek of being zealous or fervent and constant, ongoing.
Speaker 1: It is a love, it's not a one and done.
Speaker 1: He says keep loving.
Speaker 1: So they're choosing.
Speaker 1: He's saying choose, basically, to keep loving one another earnestly.
Speaker 1: One commentator described it this way.
Speaker 1: He said this is a love that's going to be stretched to the limit by the demands that are placed on it both from outside and inside.
Speaker 1: And so this earnest love, peter demands that they keep loving one another with.
Speaker 1: Well, this is where does that come from?
Speaker 1: It comes from the father, and Peter is showing them that this love is essential to serving others, because serving others gets tough.
Speaker 1: You know, if you've served in ministry at different levels, from the highest to the lowest, you've encountered difficulties.
Speaker 1: Things get tough, you get stressed.
Speaker 1: You're trying to squeeze all these things into your life and all these things are demanding your time and your energy and your attention and their stress.
Speaker 1: And then sometimes there are people that are hard to get along with.
Speaker 1: Sometimes we make mistakes.
Speaker 1: There's miscommunication.
Speaker 1: What does love do?
Speaker 1: It covers a multitude of sins.
Speaker 1: It brings unity, it brings oneness.
Speaker 1: It says to one another hey, listen, I'm going to forgive and I'm going to love and I'm going to overlook and we're going to continue to move forward in what God is calling us to do, because serving others gets tough.
Speaker 1: That brings us back to this idea that we've got to draw near to God, we've got to invest in our relationship with Him, because that is where this earnest love comes from.
Speaker 1: He is the source of this earnest love that enables you and me to love people that are even unlovable.
Speaker 1: The love with which he has loved us can fill our hearts and flow out from there, and it means also that we make ourselves vulnerable.
Speaker 1: One of the authors I was looking at talking about the different spiritual disciplines was Kent Hughes and he wrote a book called Disciplines of a Godly man and he said there are two paths we can pursue as followers of Jesus.
Speaker 1: Doesn't mean we'll be successful in these paths, but we can pursue them.
Speaker 1: He said one is to cultivate a little heart, that is to put on blinders, to not see, to not care, to not risk pain or hurt, and he concludes that the little heart is safe and it is protected.
Speaker 1: But the other path is to cultivate a large heart, which is to see, to look at the need face to face and not turn away, and to care and to have compassion and to risk pain and to risk hurt.
Speaker 1: That is the big heart, and the heart that is enlarged is vulnerable but it experiences the most joy and it is the heart that leaves a mark on this world.
Speaker 1: The heart that is little accomplishes nothing.
Speaker 1: You know, peter follows this practical application in verse nine after he says keep loving one another earnestly.
Speaker 1: He gives them an example of what that looks like.
Speaker 1: He says in verse nine show hospitality to one another.
Speaker 1: How?
Speaker 1: Without grumbling?
Speaker 1: You know he kind of just added that in there because he knows who he's talking to.
Speaker 1: He's talking to human beings, right?
Speaker 1: Grumbling is a part of our nature.
Speaker 1: If it cost us, if it inconveniences us, if it's frustrating I mean I said earlier, service, I don't know if you've had this experience, but like when you're riding in the back of the car as a child or you're the parent and you hear this grumbling from the back seat, you know it's like when are we going to get there?
Speaker 1: Are we there?
Speaker 1: Yet he's touching me.
Speaker 1: You know this all kind of that's human nature.
Speaker 1: We just do that.
Speaker 1: And Peter's just saying right up front do it without grumbling.
Speaker 1: Do it without grumbling.
Speaker 1: What is hospitality?
Speaker 1: The first century?
Speaker 1: This is literally opening up your home for people to provide a place for them to stay, to feed them water, to cleanse themselves and care for their needs.
Speaker 1: And within the early church it's opening up their homes for fellowship, for worship.
Speaker 1: They didn't have places like this to gather.
Speaker 1: They gathered and worshiped in people's homes and they shared life together like we do in life groups, and for them.
Speaker 1: This was also dangerous at some point because everybody would see all these folks going to that house and it would mark that as a house of a believer and when the hostility becomes even more and more, that marks them out.
Speaker 1: But there's a cost involved in this hospitality.
Speaker 1: There's a cost involved in serving when you open up your life in your home and you share your energy and your time and your resources.
Speaker 1: It costs you but there's such a return on that investment.
Speaker 1: Pastor Randy talked about that just last week in the transformational habit of community, how that is a part of God's plan for transforming our lives, being a part of a life giving community.
Speaker 1: You know we have a life group.
Speaker 1: Cheryl and I and our neighbors probably don't mark us out as a target.
Speaker 1: They might get frustrated because there's cars parked along the street and we're almost blocking things up.
Speaker 1: I haven't seen anything on social media yet.
Speaker 1: I don't look that often but you know we're not being persecuted.
Speaker 1: But there is a cost to serving when we open up our lives.
Speaker 1: It costs so consistent prayer, fasting, one of the other transformational habits, drawing close to God, living in his earnest love and genuine community.
Speaker 1: These are the things that fill us because as we serve, we're pouring ourselves out, we're giving away what God has given to us.
Speaker 1: In verse 10.
Speaker 1: Peter unpacks this as a part of God's plan.
Speaker 1: Look at verse 10.
Speaker 1: He says as each has received a gift, use it to serve one another.
Speaker 1: How, as good stewards of God's varied grace.
Speaker 1: So Peter is making a statement here that each person in Christ has a gift, and they are not the same.
Speaker 1: They are the result of God's very grace.
Speaker 1: They are not the same gift, but they are what To be used, and to be used in such a way that they are being managed well.
Speaker 1: That's what a steward does.
Speaker 1: A steward takes responsibility for somebody else's business or their property and treats it in such a way that it is doing well with it, that is, producing an increase of some sort.
Speaker 1: They're being a good manager, a good steward.
Speaker 1: And so when we serve others with these God-given gifts, we are doing not our business, we're doing God's business.
Speaker 1: We're the ones that he entrusted with these gifts.
Speaker 1: We're the ones that he has called to manage and to use them, and so God's plan is for us to grow closer to him.
Speaker 1: As we step out and do that and we also extend his kingdom, we bless other people, and so these aren't, again, just for us.
Speaker 1: This is a part of how we bless the rest and we reveal the love of grace of God to the world around us.
Speaker 1: And so Peter goes on and he explains that these gifts and these services that we provide, these are not rooted in us.
Speaker 1: We are not the source of this, but God is the source.
Speaker 1: He is the one who provides.
Speaker 1: Look again at verse 10.
Speaker 1: As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another as good stewards of God's very grace.
Speaker 1: Whoever speaks as one who speaks oracles of God, whoever serves as one who serves by the strength that God supplies.
Speaker 1: Now Peter could have come up with a whole long list of ways that people serve.
Speaker 1: I just told Anna, as I got a cup of coffee this morning, I was like I'm so grateful that you're here doing this.
Speaker 1: It's such a blessing to me, even though it doesn't say in the New Testament that this is a spiritual gift.
Speaker 1: Preparing coffee.
Speaker 1: It's a blessing to me and probably a blessing to a lot of other people.
Speaker 1: When we spring forward and lose an hour of sleep, it's really a blessing, right, and so we think about that.
Speaker 1: He's not trying to identify every way that we serve.
Speaker 1: He just makes two categories speaking and serving.
Speaker 1: And both of these have this one thing in common they're rooted in what God provides.
Speaker 1: So what God provides is the means of any service that we can offer.
Speaker 1: He is the resource.
Speaker 1: It is not our wisdom, it is not our words, it is not our ideas or our opinions.
Speaker 1: That and a buck and a quarter will get you.
Speaker 1: No, it won't buy you much anymore, will it?
Speaker 1: Maybe my opinion in five bucks might get you a happy meal.
Speaker 1: I don't even know if it'll buy a happy meal.
Speaker 1: It's not worth that much.
Speaker 1: But God's word, god's strength, his wisdom, his ideas.
Speaker 1: And so, whether we're leading, maybe you lead a middle school's life group on Sunday morning.
Speaker 1: Maybe you're a part of children's ministry and you're over there and you're holding toddlers or infants and comforting them and changing dirty diapers so a mom can be over here and be a part of this worship experience.
Speaker 1: Or maybe you're one of the folks that'll stay a little bit later and you'll start putting away some of these chairs or rolling up these mats.
Speaker 1: Or maybe you're a part of the people who pick up an instrument or operate technology.
Speaker 1: There are people in the parking lot that are greeting and their security, and there are all kinds of things that are happening behind the scenes that we don't even know about, and all of these things require a strength that God supplies.
Speaker 1: You see, this requires us to spend time in relationship with our father, with our savior, instead of just doing things for him.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you've ever been in that place in your life where you're doing for Jesus but you're not being with Jesus.
Speaker 1: That is a miserable place to be, it is an exhausting place to be, it is a destructive place to be, and it is not his plan.
Speaker 1: He doesn't want us just to do, he wants us to be.
Speaker 1: That's why prayer, community, fasting, these transformational habits are so important.
Speaker 1: If we're just doing for Jesus instead of being for him, we are headed for disaster.
Speaker 1: A pastor once said show me a great church and I will show you some tired people Think it.
Speaker 1: Amen, yeah, some of us.
Speaker 1: We understand that.
Speaker 1: He said this because if you see people up front behind the scenes, this greatness depends on a core people who are willing to serve as the situation demands.
Speaker 1: They understand what they're a part of, they understand how God's using it to change their life.
Speaker 1: They understand how God is extending his kingdom and so, yes, they are tired because they are at work as the situation demands.
Speaker 1: You know, I'm excited to gather with this church every week.
Speaker 1: A lot of times it's serving here with the worship team and other times it's doing this, and sometimes it's just being here and being led.
Speaker 1: It's tremendous, a tremendous blessing, because I'm surrounded by people who are willing to give it themselves to bless me and to bless others and to bring honor to our heavenly father.
Speaker 1: Throughout the week.
Speaker 1: They prepare every Sunday.
Speaker 1: They're here at six in the morning Maybe I don't know if earlier, but I know there's some people here at six and I've never been here.
Speaker 1: Well, maybe I have 630 is about my earliest, anyway.
Speaker 1: So there are people here at six up till almost one.
Speaker 1: I've been on that side of it too, and they're serving faithfully week in and week out, and we've been on this campus for well over a year and a half, right?
Speaker 1: So how does that sustain?
Speaker 1: Not in our strength, if we're not drawn close to Jesus, if we're not investing in that relationship with Him, it will not last.
Speaker 1: So instead of relying on ourselves as the means of serving our words, strength and joy in serving Jesus needs to be rooted in our belonging.
Speaker 1: As I've said, our belonging to Him.
Speaker 1: It is ultimately for Him and out of what he provides.
Speaker 1: You know, as a church we celebrate when people's lives are changed, people come into a relationship with Jesus.
Speaker 1: We see broken lives being restored, families relationships being restored, people connecting and life giving relationships, life groups and community.
Speaker 1: And we say it this way nothing beats a changed life.
Speaker 1: That is something we're celebrating.
Speaker 1: We see it when somebody comes forward for baptism as well, and we see a life that's being transformed, and so we celebrate those things.
Speaker 1: But we're reminded in the scripture again that our being in Christ is more important than what we do for Jesus.
Speaker 1: You know, jesus sent out a group of 72 and he said go out and do some things.
Speaker 1: And they went out and did some things in His name and they were empowered by God to do those things.
Speaker 1: In Luke, chapter 10, we see them come back and they are fired up, they are excited about what God just used them to do, and Jesus does celebrate with them and encourage them.
Speaker 1: But he also brings them back to what I would say and what he would say is more important.
Speaker 1: Look at verse 17 in Luke, chapter 10 with me.
Speaker 1: The 72 returned with joy, saying Lord, even the demons are subject to us, in your name.
Speaker 1: They're jacked.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's like they drank a whole thing of mountain dew.
Speaker 1: You know, they're excited about what God is doing in their life.
Speaker 1: And so he says to them here's Jesus' response.
Speaker 1: And he said to them I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.
Speaker 1: Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you.
Speaker 1: So Jesus is saying when you went out and did this in my name and the power that the Father provides through the Holy Spirit, I saw the enemy being defeated, and so this is like a huge celebration.
Speaker 1: But then he moves to this one statement in verse 20.
Speaker 1: He says nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.
Speaker 1: Was it important what they did?
Speaker 1: Yes, but what was most important?
Speaker 1: That they belonged, that they were his.
Speaker 1: So, like the disciples there, our service to Jesus is important, but not as important as belonging.
Speaker 1: See, god is not after what you have or what you can do.
Speaker 1: He's after you.
Speaker 1: You may be following him today.
Speaker 1: You may have just begun that journey.
Speaker 1: Maybe you're here and you don't even know Jesus.
Speaker 1: You're not sure where you are.
Speaker 1: With that, the bottom line is the same God is not after what you have, god is not after what you do.
Speaker 1: His heart is for you.
Speaker 1: His heart is to love you, to forgive you, to restore you, to give you a new and eternal life.
Speaker 1: That's why Jesus went to the cross to pay the penalty of your sin and my sin, so that we could live in the forgiveness of the Father, the love and grace that is given to us.
Speaker 1: That's why he was raised in victory over death on the third day, so that we could belong to him.
Speaker 1: This is his love, demonstrated for us in the greatest act of service, when he humbled himself and went to the cross.
Speaker 1: So here from Luke, chapter 10, and what we see Peter telling the early church, I find this one takeaway that I think is true for everybody we cannot give away what we don't possess.
Speaker 1: Maybe another way of saying it is we can't pour out of an empty bucket.
Speaker 1: Belonging is so important.
Speaker 1: Peter uses the example of hospitality to show what this looks like in a very practical way, gives these general principles of God's plan Verse 11, he reaches the pinnacle, the primary reason of why we would step out in love and faith to serve.
Speaker 1: Back in verse 11, he says whoever speaks is one who speaks oracles of God.
Speaker 1: Whoever serves as one, who serves by the strength that God supplies In order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to him belong glory and dominion forever and ever.
Speaker 1: Amen.
Speaker 1: So here in this doxology, if you will, peter is saying the main point of this is that God's glory is revealed when his people sacrificially serve out of what he provides, that a lost and broken world sees the glory of Jesus who glorifies the Father, and so the primary goal and result of serving is the glory of God through Jesus, and that is a privilege that God has given to you.
Speaker 1: He has given to me that we get to be a part of revealing his love, revealing his grace, his mercy, his goodness and his glory.
Speaker 1: We get to experience it for ourselves, we get to show it to a world that is watching, and it is glory and dominion that belong to him forever and ever.
Speaker 1: He is the one who gave everything so that we could be his.
Speaker 1: He is worthy.
Speaker 1: Jesus is so worthy of the glory that is revealed in our serving and perhaps I think about spiritual transformation, the habits, the disciplines, and maybe you're like me and I have in a moment, like I was yesterday, when the guy's talking about fasting and I had the bacon on my plate you feel torn because you hear what the scripture says and you see the need for this in your life and maybe you're tempted just to nod in agreement and say, okay, well, maybe that's for somebody else, not me today.
Speaker 1: And I have to be honest with you.
Speaker 1: I've been there, I've been reluctant to intentionally cultivate at times in my life, for various reasons, the habit of serving, and I know I'm not alone.
Speaker 1: I know I'm not alone, you know I thought we should talk about that instead of just leaving that uncovered a little bit.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about it.
Speaker 1: What are some of the reasons that we don't cultivate the intentional habit?
Speaker 1: One reason I believe is that we aren't investing in our relationship with Jesus Christ through transformational habits.
Speaker 1: We're just not investing.
Speaker 1: We maybe love God, we love his forgiveness, we love his grace and his mercy and we're just kind of sitting back waiting on him to do the rest and we haven't owned up to this idea that you know what we're in a partnership with God, that he has given me the opportunity to come along and to do what I need to do, and he will do what only he can do.
Speaker 1: And if you're in a spiritual rut, it could very well be that is the reason why you're stuck there, why you're not experiencing the life or the peace or the joy or the love or the power of God in the way that you maybe once did.
Speaker 1: Very often we find ourselves in those places where we're just putting our head down and we're plowing ahead day in and day out, just trying to survive.
Speaker 1: That is not God's plan, but that's what happens when we don't invest in our relationship with Jesus.
Speaker 1: There's another barrier between us and God.
Speaker 1: Maybe sin, god's told us listen.
Speaker 1: This thing is destroying you, this thing dishonors me, this thing is going to wreak havoc in your life and I love you so much.
Speaker 1: I want you to turn away from that.
Speaker 1: I want you to trust me with that.
Speaker 1: I want you to let me help you overcome that in your life.
Speaker 1: And if you're not responding to that, you can't grow in a relationship with Jesus.
Speaker 1: Maybe there's hurt, deep hurt.
Speaker 1: Maybe you're here today and you're angry at God.
Speaker 1: He's not afraid of your anger, with your hurt or resentment or bitterness or unforgiveness or whatever it is he's saying come to me.
Speaker 1: You are heavy laden and weary and I will give you rest.
Speaker 1: Come and unload your burden and receive my love and my grace.
Speaker 1: Sometimes our faith gets rocked and we feel far away from God's love and His presence.
Speaker 1: But again, god isn't after what we can do.
Speaker 1: He wants us and all our broken pieces and we can bring it to Him.
Speaker 1: We can allow Him to pour that love and that healing into our lives.
Speaker 1: We can invest in this relationship.
Speaker 1: We can see Him provide what is needed so that we will have the strength to take the gift that he has given and use it for His glory.
Speaker 1: Another reason I thought it was that sometimes we're scared of what it will cost us, because it will cost, you know, just a disclaimer up front.
Speaker 1: Sometimes people don't give the disclaimer You've ever signed up for something and they're oh yeah, it's easy.
Speaker 1: You just show up and you do this, that, and then you find out it's not just this and that and it's not just this night.
Speaker 1: You've got to do over the here to prepare for that.
Speaker 1: And then I mean you didn't know what you were getting into and it scares us.
Speaker 1: Well, the good news is this God has given you a gift, and not only has he given you a gift, but he will provide the strength that you need to use it, and he will continually fill as you pour out.
Speaker 1: He is faithful to continue to fill you as you pour out and you serve others in His name, and so we don't have to be tempted by the safety of comfort.
Speaker 1: Another reason is perhaps that we have served in the past and we have suffered for it or we've failed.
Speaker 1: I wear the scars of hurt of failure, and I would not minimize that in your life and gloss over it.
Speaker 1: But I know this.
Speaker 1: I know who wrote this letter the man who said to Jesus on the night that he was betrayed though all others turn away, I will follow you to the end and then, that very night, denied him three times.
Speaker 1: Who then met Jesus on a beach after the resurrection and had a conversation that went something like Peter, do you love me?
Speaker 1: He said.
Speaker 1: Lord, you know that I do.
Speaker 1: He said feed my sheep.
Speaker 1: Failure is not an obstacle.
Speaker 1: Hurt, pain, those things that we maybe have suffered through other people's decisions or our own choices, those are not obstacles.
Speaker 1: God is bigger than all of that.
Speaker 1: We see it in Peter's life and I'm here to tell you God can take you and wherever you've been and whatever you've been through, he can redeem and restore through this incredible love, and he can use you as our worship team comes.
Speaker 1: I just want to throw out one other reason here.
Speaker 1: Sometimes we think that what we have to offer is insignificant, it is small, and I was reminded yesterday at that breakfast, as I was sitting with this gentleman, lloyd, and he was talking about what his wife were doing.
Speaker 1: He's such an encourager.
Speaker 1: He said you know, there is no small part in the kingdom, there is no gift that is small in the kingdom.
Speaker 1: In God's hands, all of these things are powerful.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 1: We simply just need to do what he has called us to do.
Speaker 1: I was thinking about a story that I remember about a World War II bombing mission where an American bomber was returning and it was struck several times, but the plane did not explode, even though it was struck in the fuel tank.
Speaker 1: They landed and the next morning the crew chief came out to the crew and they had 11 anti-aircraft rounds that they pulled out of the fuel tank.
Speaker 1: Not one of them exploded and they began to open them up the ordnance technician and with the exception of one they were all empty.
Speaker 1: And the 11th one?
Speaker 1: They found a note written by a Czech assembly line worker who was a forced laborer under the Nazi regime.
Speaker 1: He said this is all we can do for now.
Speaker 1: We think what we have to offer is so small, and maybe that man thought he couldn't end the war, but he did what he could and he saved a plane.
Speaker 1: He saved a crew.
Speaker 1: We have no idea what God can do with whatever we think is small if we're willing to put it in His hands and trust Him with it.
Speaker 1: I like that better than the starfish story.
Speaker 1: You know the guy that walks on the beach with the starfish and throws them back in Same idea.
Speaker 1: It matters.
Speaker 1: There are no small parts in the kingdom.
Speaker 1: Jesus is the ultimate example of serving and he is worthy of the glory that is revealed in His service.
Speaker 1: And if you're not doing that, I would encourage you.
Speaker 1: You can choose today to begin stepping into that transformational heaven.
Speaker 1: And if you don't know Jesus today, let me encourage you.
Speaker 1: He is here to meet with you.
Speaker 1: He wants you to know His love and His grace and His mercy.
Speaker 1: He wants you to trust Him by faith so that you can have forgiveness of your sins and enter into a life-changing relationship with Him.
Speaker 1: As our team leads us in worship, pastor James is going to be in the back and I'll kind of be over here on the side.
Speaker 1: If you want to make a decision today and share that with us, we'd be glad to meet with you.
Speaker 1: Whether that is to surrender your life to Christ, or maybe you want to be a member here at the church, or maybe you need to be baptized.
Speaker 1: Whatever that decision is, we'd be glad to talk with you and pray with you.
Speaker 1: Would you stand with us as we close in worship today?
Speaker 1: Thank you.