Shepherd's Gate Church
Shepherd's Gate Church
Attitude | Jim Jensen
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Serving starts on the inside. This week we explore the mindset of Jesus and how His love reshapes our hearts so we can serve others well.
Hi, and thank you for listening to this message from Shepard's Gate Dirt. Located in Delby Town Shipwitch again. To learn more about Shepherd's Gate and to access more content.org.
SPEAKER_02Good morning. That music, I feel like I should be coming out of a stadium with my football helmet on, ready to go. Well, uh, my name is Jim Jensen. I'm the executive director here at Shepherd's Gate. What does that mean? That means that I oversee the processes and strategy of behind the scenes of our ministry, and it's also my privilege to lead the staff. Thank you so much for being here today. You guys look great, and thanks for joining us online as well. We're so glad that you're tuning in for the second week of our new series called The Serving Challenge. And uh it's it's been great so far. The um the author of the serving challenge was our guest speech speaker last week, and he kind of set the stage for it. And today we're gonna uh uh begin to unpack what it means to serve like Jesus. And even our kids have books. Uh, if you came in today and you weren't here last week, you got a book, everyone's got a book, uh great content in there, so make sure you're using that every day. Our students are with us as well. It's gonna be great. The whole series is based on a passage in Philippians, uh Philippians 2, and it pulls out five ways in which we need to take a look at serving in our lives. And you can see them there. All the words begin with A, so uh we're gonna cover all of these in the next few weeks, except for Mother's Day. You saw that Mother's Day chakuterie, come on, that's gonna be awesome. I'm so pumped about that. My wife is excited about the spa challenge giveaway, and I'm sure there are others that are too. If you know a mom, please invite them for that. If you um your own mom, if she's uh available, uh moms in your area, in your neighborhood, and their families. We're just gonna do it up big, we're going all out this year for moms, so make sure you do that. Um, otherwise, we're hitting these different words with the serving challenge, and today, as you can see with the circle, it's attitude. We're gonna talk about an attitude for serving. So, who cares about attitude? Why is attitude important? Well, have you ever heard the phrase attitude is everything? So I went, I thought to myself, you know, this sounds like a sporting analogy moment, and I'm not really into sports, but I did I did go on Chat GPT and I was like, hey, is it true that like professional athletes talk about attitude a lot? And you probably know the answer to that. Yes, they do. Almost every time they're interviewed, they talk about their mindset, their focus, their attitude for their sport, to be a top athlete. And actually, I know that's true. These days, I'm on the elliptical. But years ago, I was a long-distance runner, and I even got some pictures to prove it. Here's me with uh Haley when she was little, my youngest daughter. We did a little fun run there together. And then uh the other picture is me with uh a friend of mine, Jim, and a mentor, and that's the Chicago Marathon. I actually did the Chicago and the Philadelphia. Oh, you can clap for that, that's great. It was so many years ago. I really don't deserve any thanks for it now or accolades for it now. I was much younger and in much better shape, but uh that was fun. Actually, this guy, Jim, he said anybody can run a marathon, and I laughed. I thought it was a joke. And he's like, No, it's no joke, you just need to put in the time, and I'm like, you know, that's that can't be true. And he challenged me to run it, and that's how I got into running. I can tell you that it as a long-distance runner, attitude is everything. In fact, your body gives you signals after a few miles. It tells you, oh, I'm tired, you know, you really need to stop, you need a snack. But but actually, if you have the right mindset and you just tell your body to keep going, your body's capable of way more than it thinks it is. Yeah, attitude is everything, and running, it's everything in life. And so, you know, if if attitude is so important, then, you know, uh, what attitude should we have if we're following Jesus? If attitude is important in every aspect of life, then what should our attitude be as Jesus followers? Is it uh just positive thinking? I mean, positive thinking is important, is that all it is? Maybe it's uh thinking about more good things than bad things? Sounds good, is that the totality of it? How about figuring out how to be nice to people that you'd rather just kill? No. I mean, we laugh at that, but there have been times, right? There have been times. No, uh, it's it's maybe all of these things, but is it more? Is it deeper? What is our attitude if we're if we're a follower of Jesus, if we want to follow Jesus? Well, in the passage that the serving challenge is based on in Philippians, there's a pretty straightforward answer. So let's start there. In Philippians 2, 5, it says, you must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had. Great church Sunday school answer, isn't it? Yes, but it makes sense. If we're gonna follow Jesus, then not just following him in our actions, but in our attitude. And what attitude did Jesus have? It's clear in Scripture that Jesus was a servant, that he served, that he came to serve. Have you ever heard the phrase Jesus was a servant of all? It comes from Scripture. Pastor and author Craig Groschel says it this way: according to Jesus, greatness is service, not status. That's the attitude that Jesus had. And that's why it's crucial this morning that we study the attitude of Jesus if we want to figure out the serving challenge and dig deeper into what it really means to serve. For a follower of Jesus, attitude and action are deeply connected, like two sides of the same coin. And so we need to see what the attitude of Jesus really was. So for the remainder of this talk, we're gonna do two things. We're gonna do an attitude check, and we're gonna do an attitude alignment. I think it's critical to examine our mindset regularly. That's what an attitude check is. And then we'll look at an encounter with Jesus and a woman and some Pharisees, these teachers of the law that did not like Jesus' teaching. We'll look at how he encountered them and how he demonstrated his servant attitude. So, first, an attitude check. Here's kind of the truth about our attitude and what happens with us. If you're unhealthy on the inside, you will do unhealthy things on the outside. This is just a truth. We we know it intuitively to be true. Actually, in the Bible, it's all over the place. There are so many, there are so many verses and situations in the Bible that demonstrate that if we're unhealthy on the inside, if we don't have the inside right, our thoughts, our feelings, our emotions, our heart and our mind, then what comes out of us is not healthy either. I'm just gonna give you one. Here's one from Romans 12, 2. Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Isn't that interesting? It starts with the mind. It starts with our mindset, it starts with our attitude. So it's been shown on average that the average person in their thought life, each day, that 80% of their thoughts are negative. Sobering. There may be something wrong with us. We know that we're flawed, we know that we're not perfect, but this might start explaining the problems that crop up in our own lives, don't you think? If 80% of our thoughts are negative, or we have issues in our family or our work or our communities around the world, it starts to explain what we see and hear in this world. It's not perfect a perfect world, and yet here we are dwelling on these negative thoughts. I can still hear my dad say to my brother and I, if we mouthed out off at him, check your attitude. I think he was on to something. I mean, he's very wise at the time. I didn't think about it, but now that I think about it, he was on to something. Check, you know, don't uh don't don't say that, you know, he didn't say that. He said, check your attitude. Why? Because he was concerned about what was on the inside that allowed those words to come out. And of course, if we ever mouth that that off that mom, you know, that was even worse. You know, then you're really in trouble. And the attitude, the attitude check is coming to terms with the reality that our inward life is not always in control, it spills out into our outward life and causes problems. Is this true for you? Just do a little thought experiment here. Uh, just can you think of a time recently when what was on the inside, your thoughts and your feelings, broke out into the outside world and caused you a little bit of trouble. This is a common, a common occurrence. Positive or negative, it actually happens all the time because this is just the way people work. That's the principle. What's on the inside comes to the outside. I uh mentioned uh a few minutes ago that uh we have serving opportunities in church and we're talking about serving and we're looking at the serving challenge. We actually have two kinds of serving opportunities: step out and step in. Step-in opportunities are the serving opportunities we have here at church to serve one another in our community. And step out opportunities, we go out into the community at large outside our four walls, and we serve others there. And of course, we're always having these kinds of opportunities at church. And this winter we had one, the Macomb County Winter Shelter, where we went to a homeless shelter in Warren. Uh just a show of hands, who was who was in on that one? Who did that one? So a fair amount of you, yeah. Um, what we do when we have these serving opportunities on staff is that I send an email to the staff and encourage them hey, let's lead by example, let's make sure we sign up for this step out opportunity for the shelter, and that will lead by example for our congregation, which I think is really great. But you know, if I send the email, then I have to lead by example, and I have to sign up for it too, which is normally not a problem for me. I'm happy to do these things over the years. Shepherd's Gate's great at stepping out to serve. It's always a very rich time for me, but this time uh was different. I just gotta be honest with you. Part of it is that uh I'm I'm I'm a little busy right now in you know, executive director role, but also uh if you've been with us for a while, you know that we're looking for a worship director as well. And we're actually looking to hire two people for that job full-time, uh, and I'm filling in for that role as well. So I'm doing I'm doing a dual role, and then you know, the winter shelter is between Christmas and Easter, so Holy Week's coming up, you know. So I was really busy looking at our Holy Week services to make sure they were good, and I was leading the search for these uh these new staff members for worship. And so I was a little bit busy, and I don't know, it just hit me different this time. I I I sent the email, I was very positive, but inside I was thinking, oh, I guess I'm gonna have to do this too. And um I'm like, well, how can I how can I get this done? And I just kind of had a bad attitude about it, to be honest. But I I know I know to do my duty, I know how to step up and you know, and and do things even if I don't feel good about it. I know what's right to do, so I signed up. And I just remember thinking that day, you know, oh I just kind of shuffled through the day. I think, oh, I'm gonna have to go there uh tonight, and I'm really tired, and it's been a long week, and I'm really busy. And uh some of you may know I don't I don't live close to church, I live about an hour away, and so unfortunately, uh the Macomb County Winter Shelter in Warren is not towards my home, it's this way. So I was like, Well, I'm gonna have to go, I'm going farther away, and then it's gonna take a while, and then I'm gonna have an extra long commute back home, and I guess I'll just go to bed at the end. I don't know, I just I wasn't feeling good about it. And uh so uh I kind of had that attitude, and I went there that night, and I stepped in, and the first thing that happened to me is uh because I'm on the platform here at church regularly, then um people come up and talk to me, even if they don't know me, which is great, I love that. Uh, but you know, my attitude for that night was not so great. But the first thing that happened to me was a couple was there and they said, you know, we're new to Shepherds Getting. I'm like, oh, how long have you been coming? And I think they said maybe a year, six months, something like that. He said, We were looking for a church like this. We're so excited to be here. I can't wait to serve. This is the kind of thing we want to be doing. And you know, I was like, oh, all right, all right, all right, God, I see what you're doing. You know, and uh so then so then we're doing things, we're mopping and we're sorting laundry, and then uh it comes time for the clients to come in because it is a warming shelter for homeless people, so we serve them uh a hot meal, and then they have a bed for the night, and so we're serving food, and I'm and I'm seeing these people come in and I'm starting to talk to them and serve them food, and it just that's the the turn came for me there because I saw them and I thought to myself, you know, I have so much in my life. I have a family, I have a beautiful home, and um a career and a job and a car, and I don't have to worry about where my next meal is coming from. And these people need this meal and they need this bed, and I can't even just spend one night showing God's love to them. Like, what's wrong with me? And I just, and as as they came through, my attitude started to change. And I remembered why I was there. And uh, because I'm a staff member, uh, I was the one that was going to give the devotion that night, like a little talk. And so I asked our leader, Greg, I said, okay, how does that work? What do I do? And he said, Oh, you just go out into the tables where all of the clients are sitting and just start talking to them, get to know them a little bit. I was like, really? Are you serious? Like, okay, take it up a notch, let's go in the next level. All right. So I got out there and I sat down and I was just overwhelmed. I got to know, you know, it's it's one thing to serve somebody a biscuit or whatever. It's another thing to like sit down. Hey, what's your name? You know, how are you doing today? And so I was talking to people, and I talked to this one guy, Andre, he had a uh deck of cards, and our family loves playing cards. So I said, hey, deal me up. Let's, what are you playing? And so we we played some cards, then we started talking, and I was able to share the gospel with him and pray with him. And I was like, okay, I get it. I'm back. That was my attitude check, you know? And listen, you know, it's not like I don't, I haven't done these things all my life. Like I've I've been a follower of Jesus since I was really little. I'm a pastor's kid, so I was always in church growing up, and now I work for a church. So I've I've been in church a lot, I've heard thousands of sermons. You would think that the attitude would be fine, but you know what? This is why we need these attitude checks regularly, because it's just human nature. We lose focus on it. I went home that night and it was a longer commute, and I didn't even notice. My heart was just so full, and I was so glad that I went, and I was so glad that God helped me with this attitude check. Has that ever happened to you? This thing creeps up like you're good, and then like it gets off balance. We we lose it. We think, oh man, I'm so busy, I don't have time for this. Uh maybe what am I gonna get out of it, you know? Or I have lots of important things I need to do. But serving others is at the core of who Jesus is. You can't get away from that as a as a Jesus follower. And it does something in your own heart, it changes you, it fills you up. God knows what we need. We need his heart, we need his servant heart. So here I am at the shelter with some of my team. See that big smile on my face? Yeah, it was a great experience. It was wonderful. So let's move on to our attitude alignment. What does this mean? Like, how do we how do we get into this? We need to look at a story from Jesus' life, we need to look at his attitude, his mindset, and see. In fact, uh, this is one way to put it, it's impossible to have a mindset like Jesus without having your mind set on Jesus, right? So we're gonna take a look at this story from the Gospel of John. Uh again, it was a time when the uh Pharisees were talking to him. The Pharisees were a group of people who were kind of zealots and they were uh very like religious and they did not like what Jesus was teaching, they did not like what he was doing, so they were always kind of just um trying to catch him in something. They were always trying to like derail his ministry, and so that's where this story starts in John 8. At dawn, Jesus appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him and he sat down to teach them. The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group. Alright, now right away, there's something fishy about this because last time I checked, it takes two to commit adultery. So where's the man? And caught in the act, so we don't know, but is she naked? Like, this is an awful situation. They bring this person. How would you like it if some secret sin of yours is exposed and someone dragged you in front of a bunch of people and stood you there? It's it's very awkward, it's uncomfortable. And it's not fair because the man's not fair. This is what they said. They said to Jesus, Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. The law of Moses commanded us to stone such a woman. Now what do you say? Well, it's not a fair question, but they are right. In Deuteronomy 22, 22, it says this if a man is found sleeping with another man's wife, both the man who slept with her and the woman must die. So it is in the law. Well, what were they really asking? What were they really doing here? John gives us some commentary. It says they were using this question as a trap in order to have a basis for accusing Jesus. So you see how this would work, right? If Jesus said, Oh yeah, go ahead and stone her, the law is clear, then it goes against everything that he's been teaching about the forgiveness of sins. And so undermines his teaching. But if he says, No, don't stone her, don't do that, then he looks, you know, soft on crime, so to speak. He looks like morally soft with this crowd of Pharisees. So either way he answers, he falls into a trap. But if you know anything about Jesus, you know he's not gonna fall into that trap, and he doesn't. This is what he does. But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. And they kept on questioning him, so he straightened up and said to them, Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her. Again he stooped down and he wrote on the ground. At this, those who heard began to go away, one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. Now I know the number one question when you read this passage is what? What was he writing? What was he doing? Well, there are different theories. Some people think he was just doodling just to make the situation uncomfortable, so the Pharisees would just go away, just like stick figures or something, who knows? Whatever they doodled back then. Another theory is that since he knew so much scripture, he was writing, he was writing some scripture verse that applied to this. My favorite one is that he was writing down the names of everyone that was around accusing this woman, and then writing their sins next to it. I want that so bad to be true. I think that would be. But you know, if God wanted us to know, he would have told us, but it doesn't. The passage never explains it. We don't know what he was doing. But it broke up the Pharisees, they left. And then this is the really important part. Jesus straightened up and he asked her, Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you? No one, sir, she said. Then neither do I condemn you, Jesus declared. Now go and leave your life of sin. This is a really polarizing moment where most in the crowd wanted to take out their rage and anger by throwing things at this woman to destroy her. Jesus, who arguably is the only one that could judge humankind as a perfect being, as our creator God, would you agree that that God would be the only one that really could judge us? So he could judge this woman and condemn her. He doesn't. He calls her up out of that life. He calls her up to something new. He forgives her. She didn't deserve it. But he chose not to drag her through the dirt any longer. And look at the attitude of Jesus here. He comes into this situation which is designed to trap him and get him off track and refuses to get into that debate with people that just want to trip him up, and then he takes the time to see this woman, to really see her, and to give her what only he can give her forgiveness, grace, hope, and a new life. He's focused on energizing this woman for a new life. He's serving her in the way that Jesus can. And he's ignoring the rest of us. He's ignoring the rest of the crowd and letting that go. And he's saying, This woman, I'm gonna serve her. I'm gonna give her something new. And he really does that for all of us. What's the number one reason that we struggle with our inward thoughts? Why do you think it is? Like, let's get to the very bottom of this. We struggle with negative thoughts, we struggle with negativity, it comes out on the outside. But why? Why is that true? But because it's because we're not perfect people. I mean, we know that already, but there's sin in our life. We've messed up. We can't be perfect. We know that. Sin is the problem. And Jesus comes and he takes the form of a human and he gets down in our dirt and he just doesn't doodle in it. I mean, he's spit upon, he's beaten, he's nailed to a cross, and he dies. And the dirt of our sin is placed on him in that moment. And he just takes it all and he dies for our sin. That's why he's called the servant of all. And he rises from the grave, defeating sin and death. And that's the gospel. His invitation to this woman is the same invitation to me and to you. I know my inner thoughts. It's a common struggle. But Jesus says to you and to I, I don't condemn you. Receive my free gift of grace and leave the past behind. We're not saviors, you know, like Jesus. We have to have the same attitude as Jesus if we want to be Jesus' followers. We can't save anyone. Only Jesus can do that. But here's the amazing thing: He has empowered us. We are changed through God's word to be the hands and feet of Jesus. He's inviting us to be a part of his redemption of this world. And so we can serve, we can serve like Jesus. We can have the same attitude as Jesus. It is possible. And it's a positive example of this principle of moving from the inside to outside. If we have his spirit, if we have a new attitude, if we have a new heart, then what comes out of us? Not unhealthy things, but healthy things to serve. I want to illustrate this with a story. We do these videos once in a while, they're called inside stories. This one is from my friends, uh Eli and Lisa. And just listen to how their story is moving from finding God into a servant's heart. Check it out.
SPEAKER_03Hi, I'm Lisa Fascio. This is my husband Eli. We have been coming to Shepherd's Gate for a little over two years now, and it's really become a big part of our lives here.
SPEAKER_01So my faith journey started technically as a kid. My mom used to send us to church all the time, and we got into youth group. But as I got older into my teenage years, I really started pulling away and started rebelling against all that.
SPEAKER_03I grew up Lutheran. I was ELCA raised, so growing up just something felt off. I liked learning the Bible. I liked growing in the faith, but it just it didn't resonate with me the way it does here. After confirmation and graduating high school, you kind of your parents can't force you to go anymore, so you stop going. And I guess I kind of just got further and further from God. But one of the things that really pushed us to go back to church and really get involved is when we went overseas to Jordan.
SPEAKER_01Jordan, Jordan was a really eye-opening experience. The power of knowing you are standing where Jesus stood is unbelievable. The Bible kind of came alive where we were at, and uh we got back, October 7th happened, and uh that's when we said it was time to start coming, and here we are, two, three years later.
SPEAKER_03I like the combination of the strict message. It is buy the Bible. We don't skip over things and try not to hurt people's feelings. If that is what the Bible tells us, that is what is preached. And I love that. But we still have that modern feel where the message speaks to you more. It's not so stiff.
SPEAKER_01There's definitely a different vibe here than any church that I've ever attended, for sure.
SPEAKER_03We do a lot of volunteering with the students in particular. We do a lot of Sunday mornings with the fifth and sixth graders, and I do Wednesday night youth group with the high school students, and I just I love being a part of shaping the next generation.
SPEAKER_01I run the set design team, and then I also uh help lead the fun spot for our outdoor services.
SPEAKER_03We do some step out and serve events when we can, we'll go out and help the community. I think it's really important to be involved with your church, not only for the church's needs and the community's needs, but I feel so much better for myself. It's very uplifting knowing that you're helping others and you are being the hands and feet of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01Definitely a good feel to be able to serve in church and serve out of church. It gives you a purpose, without a doubt.
SPEAKER_03Really spread the word of Jesus. Pastor Tim did a sermon and showed how much of the world hasn't heard of Jesus and have never been introduced to Christianity. I was shocked how much and realizing how much work we have to do still.
SPEAKER_01The biggest thing that we should be doing as Christians is what Matthew 28, 19 says, and and and we should be leading others to Christ.
SPEAKER_03I offer the invite all the time to friends at work, hey, we're having an outdoor service, come check it out.
SPEAKER_01Just soak the seed. That's all we're supposed to do. You know, there's there's someone else responsible for the harvest. So we just they're called to sow the seed.
SPEAKER_02Eli and Lisa are sitting here in the service. Thank you so much for being willing to share. Really appreciate that. Thank you. I know if you were to ask uh Lisa and Eli, hey, um, I'm convinced you know, serving is a servant's heart is what Jesus wants for us, and and to follow him that way, should we should we step in or should we step out? And their answer would be yes. You heard in the video that uh yes, do both. Why? Because it's not situational. This attitude that we have, that we can uh have the same attitude of Jesus, it's for every time, everywhere, every place. It doesn't matter where we go, it doesn't matter who we're with. We can have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had. If we can really see people like Jesus, truly see them like Jesus does, and have that attitude, then we're ready to serve others wherever we are. When I began the talk, uh we looked at Philippians 2, verse 5, where it says, have the same attitude as Christ Jesus. Do you remember that verse? Uh there's actually a front part to that verse, and I want to share it with you now. In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset or attitude as Christ Jesus. In your relationships with one another, He's designed by God to be the means through which that attitude of Christ comes out of us and serving each other. So what's your inward mindset? What's your attitude? Are you um are you frustrated? Are you angry at the faults and the shortcomings of the people around you can happen? Are you dismissive of them? Maybe you prefer just to be left alone and not worry about other people's issues? Or you're caught up in your own drama, you don't really even see the people around you, the needs of the people around you, it can happen. Maybe it's time for an attitude check or an attitude alignment. And what would your life look like if every day this week you woke up and said and said this prayer, Jesus, I know I'm not perfect, but I want to see people the way you do. I want to have your attitude and I want to serve others. What adventures might you have? What kind of week would you have? And if you're uh looking for something uh to do, if you're looking for an action today, it just turns out that today's the first day that we have Step Out and Serve weekend serving opportunities open. Now our our serve our Step Out and Serve weekend is a weekend coming up where we don't have church here, but we go out into the community Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, and we just serve. And this year we have over 50 sites. We have so many opportunities. We usually have four or five hundred people sign up to do this week, and it's always a very rich experience. But I want to especially uh say to those that have never done it before, you can do this. This is a great first step to think about that attitude of serving and to take action on it. And in fact, you can go out and into the lobby after service if you're here in person, or you can go online on our website, and there are people that will help you. You can sign up online, you can sign up on our app. If you don't know where to go or what to do, or you're like, I'm a little nervous about this, they will help you find the exact right serving opportunity for you and for your family. We would love to see five to six hundred, six to seven hundred people serving because we know we know that it's not just about getting the numbers, it's about an attitude, a heart change, and we know that that does such good for us and for everyone around us. In fact, we we do a lot of like mulching and and um yard work for uh these sites, and you know it's not even really about the mulch, it's it's about making the connections with those people at the site and just sharing God's attitude of a servant heart with them and sharing the gospel with them. So I encourage you to check that out. And um, of course, there are always step-in opportunities throughout the year as well. It doesn't have to be just one time a year. But thank you so much for thinking about this with me. Thanks so much for thinking about our attitudes, our inward life, our heart and our mind. I hope that it's food for thought for you today and that God blesses you as you think it through. Can I pray for you? God, thank you so much for each person here, for each uh person watching online. Thank you that you have given us an example to follow. Thank you that your attitude was such that you came down and you saw us, and you served us and you saved us. God, help us to have the same mindset as we go about our daily lives, that we can see people, flawed people, but you love them and we can love them. Help us to have your attitude as we serve. Lord, empower us to do this in your name. Amen.
SPEAKER_00We hope this message was helpful to you today, and we welcome you to join us live in person or online every Sunday. If you're interested in accessing more on demand content, please visit escapechurch.org.