Serve: Saved People Serve People

In this episode, we explore the third of the Five Behaviors of a Disciple—SERVE—and why serving is the natural overflow of a life transformed by the gospel. You’ll discover how Jesus modeled servant leadership, how God uniquely equips every believer with spiritual gifts, and why serving is essential to both spiritual maturity and lasting impact. This conversation will challenge you to move beyond convenience and comfort, step into your God-given design, and live out your faith by serving God, strengthening the Church, and loving the community with humility and joy.

Transcript

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Welcome to the Discipleship Tool Podcast. I'm Andy George, and as always, so thankful that you decided to join us on not only this podcast, but I hope that you are joining us on this incredible Discipleship journey through not only the Discipleship Tool and the assessment and all these things, but also just in your own personal life and what God's doing in you and through you. We're gonna pick up and continue our series through the five behaviors of the disciple. And I'm very excited today to be talking about the third behavior of a disciple. But before we jump into that, real quick recap there's five behaviors connect, grow, serve, pray, give. And we are walking through each of these behaviors, how we can identify, how do we know if we are really into a discipleship pathway? And we would say to the degree that connecting, growing, serving, praying, and giving are showing up in your life. And today we are jumping in on the third behavior, which is the behavior of serve. And so here is the core truth we're building on today. And that is the title of this episode, Saved People, Serve People. I'm gonna say it again for the people in the back. Save people, serve people. And that's so very true. You know, we were not saved because of our good works. We were not saved because we are just amazing servants at heart. We weren't saved because of our bank accounts or our education or the size of our platforms. We were saved by the grace of God, period, not by works. However, we were also saved to do good things. So we weren't saved because of good works, but we were definitely saved to do good works. And serving is certainly part of that. Serving isn't something we do after we arrive spiritually, by the way. This is not something we do down the road whenever we get to a mature point. It's not an add-on to our Christian life. Serving is how the gospel takes shape in our everyday life. Serving is how the gospel, the good news, actually shows itself in our everyday life. When we serve, we don't just meet needs, we reflect Jesus. You are not just filling a role, you're not just uh hanging out with kids in a kid's ministry, you're not just entertaining students, you're not just holding a door in the church, you're not just helping your neighbor with their groceries. No, no, no. You are reflecting Jesus in all those ways. And so when we serve, we don't just meet those needs, we reflect Jesus, we discover our purpose. Sometimes as we're serving, we're also discovering our own purpose and our own gift sets, and we multiply the impact of our faith. So the big idea for this episode is pretty simple and it's pretty biblical. Serving is how we live out the gospel and discover God's unique design for our life. Peter puts it this way in 1 Peter chapter 4, verse 10. He says, Each has received a gift, use it. I like that. Use it to just to serve one another as good stewards of God's varied grace. You know, you will never run into somebody, or you'll never meet anybody, and you will never look into the mirror of yourself of somebody who has not received some sort of gift. We all have a gift that we can use. And I love how Peter puts this. He says, use that gift to serve one another, not to serve yourself, not to just make a living, but to serve other people. You know, every believer has received something from God. It's not to hoard it, it's not to bury it, it's not to push it away, but it is to steward. Your gifts are not just for you. They are entrusted to you for the good of others and for the glory of God. So those gifts that you have, whatever they may be, you're not supposed to just hoard them. They're not yours just to use selfishly, but they are ours to steward in order to help other people and to show people towards God. So why does serving matter? Let's just kind of talk about this. I mean, I'm gonna give you just a few reasons why serving matters. Not that I think this is very difficult to grasp, but sometimes we just gotta spell it out. So, first of all, serving matters because Jesus modeled it. In Mark chapter 10, verse 45, uh it says, For even the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. Jesus didn't just teach about service, he actually lived it. Now, if there is anybody who's ever been born on the face of this planet since the beginning of time, the one person that did not need to wash somebody's feet, that did not need to touch the untouchable, that did not need to serve the overlooked, that did not need to lay down his life, it is surely Jesus, our Savior and King. Yet he chose the posture of a servant. Well, then if that's the case, serving definitely isn't beneath us. Not only is it not beneath us, it is actually the way of Christ. It is the way forward. Second, serving matters because the Holy Spirit equips every believer to serve. In First Corinthians chapter 12, verse 4 through 7, it reminds us that now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit to each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. In other words, the Holy Spirit has got all of these gifts that can give to each one of us, and the Holy Spirit will give as the Holy Spirit sees fit for the common good of ourselves, of other people, of our churches, of our neighbors, of our schools. This means that no one is giftless, no one is unnecessary, and no one is meant to sit on the sidelines. All of us, listen, our faith, it is meant to be lived and played on the field of life. You are not meant to sit on the sidelines. You're not a bench warmer in the kingdom of God. Finally, serving matters because it refines our purpose and multiplies our impact. It defines as I'm serving. I found that oftentimes that as I'm serving, my purpose is getting more and more refined, and I'm able to multiply the impact of the people around us. You know, many people ask, what is God's will for my life? It's a great question, by the way. I think it's a question that every single one of us have asked at some time. God, what is the plan? What is the will you have for my life? And often the answer begins: start with serving. Start with serving where there's a need. If you want to know what God's will is for your life, I can assure you part of that is serving. It's serving other people. You know, purpose is often discovered in obedience, not introspection. It's in other words, it's it's found my purpose, my belonging, my community. It's found as I'm discovering and walking in obedience, not just sitting around uh thinking about it. So there are three sides of serving, just like everyone, just like Connect and Grow. There are three different spheres of it. There's three different sides of it. And then inside of this tool, we want to talk about these three spheres because biblical service is both personal and expansive. And so, number one, the first one, the three concepts, concepts of serving, one number one is to serve God. That's where it starts. Serving begins with obedience and surrender. In Romans 12, 1, it says, present your bodies as living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. So before we serve with our hands, we have to serve with our hearts. That is so true and is so good. Before you serve with your hands, you gotta serve with your heart. Serving God looks like a surrendered life. It looks like obedience to God's word. It looks like pursuing purity and faithfulness, worship that extends beyond just a song on a Sunday morning, beyond just when we feel like it. See, this kind of service shapes who we are long before it shapes what we do. So as God is working on your heart inside, it is shaping all that you're going to do in the future. And I think sometimes we might think, well, I need to just jump in and serve. And that's true. Like there's there's a lot of places you can just jump in and serve. But let's make sure that we are allowing service to actually shape our character and our heart before it just shapes what we do. Otherwise, we put a lot of emphasis on just being a good person or a better person and we neglect the heart. Serving God causes us to obey and ultimately surrender my heart so that I will do and serve however God wants me to be and to do. The second sphere of serving, the second side, the second strategy, the second concept, whatever you want to call it, is we got to serve the church. So we're gonna serve God and we got to serve the church. So God designed the church to function through the faithful service of his people. Listen, I told you before, I'll say it multiple times in all of these podcasts, I love the local church. I absolutely do. I I am I am actually, I feel like I'm in love with the local church. I love all that the local church is about, the opportunities for the local church, the way God designed it, the beauty of it. Yes, the mess of it as well. And one of the reasons I love the local church so much is because of the wonderful people who are faithfully serving the other people who are coming to the church. See, the church is strengthened when you and I as believers use our gifts in tangible ways. And you think about any church, I'm I'm a firm believer in this, and I say this all the time, and I'm gonna pray for the day that it happens. Our church is my church and your church and every other Christian church out there, we should never, ever, ever lack volunteers. Yet, one of the major stresses I hear from pastors, from kids' pastors, from youth pastors, from young adults, on and on, hospitality, worship team, tech team, parking team, whatever team you have is we need more volunteers. How is that even possible? I get on our church's case all the time in different ways, you know, whether it's uh just an encouragement or hey, we need people to serve or email because I'm I believe that. I believe that we should never ever lack people serving. You know, we could use our gifts in hospitality, our kids in student ministries, man, they listen, they desperately need you. Worship in tech teams. We think about our care teams, our groups and discipleship, on and on it goes. There are so many areas in the church to serve. So when you serve the church, you're not just filling a role, you're actually building the body of Christ. You are helping to build the kingdom of God by just serving. You're filling a significant part of that. Serving helps turn attenders into contributors, spectators into disciples. We're gonna talk about this in some other future episode, but there's a real danger that, you know, if I'm if I'm just connecting and growing at a church, but I'm not serving and I'm not giving and I'm not praying and on and on, then what I am is I'm a consumer. And I would say that most of our churches are filled with consumers, that they they attend church and they're growing, they're getting fed, but they're not serving, they're not giving, they're not part of the body at large, they're not in group life, they're not maturing. And so what happens is our churches are filled with consumers, just kind of feed me, feed me, feed me. And, you know, if it's convenient, I'll I'll serve somewhere once in a while. That shouldn't be. We we got to serve the church. And then the third side of this is to serve the community. In other words, service doesn't stop at the church doors when we leave. No, no, no. Uh, in fact, the you know, I remember uh being in a lot of churches when I was younger in ministry, and there was a time where a lot of churches had uh, you are now entering the mission field. I remember that being very popular, you know, two plus decades ago, you're now entering the mission field, and that's very true, isn't it? Serving doesn't stop at the church door. Uh Jesus consistently moved people uh toward where they were lived, where they worked, where they struggled. And that's where it is. When you read the book of Acts and you go over all the incredible things that happened, the miracles, the salvations, the life transformation that was happening. It was all happening where they lived and worked, uh, where they were doing real life together. It was outside of the church, in other words. So serving the community really can mean that we're meeting real needs. Just think about that for a moment. We're meeting real needs. We're loving our neighbors, we're partnering with schools and local organizations. We're engaging in justice and mercy efforts, we're supporting missions locally and globally. There are so many ways for you and I to serve our community. One of the phrases that I love here at our church that we're just kind of talking about and we need to keep talking about and keep strategizing around is loving our zip code. This is where this comes into play. It's not just up to the church to provide opportunities for everybody to come to. We are the church leaving the church doors, going into our zip codes where we work, where we play, where we go to school, where we live. And when we serve the community, we're demonstrating that faith that is visible, that's credible, that's compelling. And we do it under the banner of not being a good person. We do it under the banner that we hope and pray that people see our Lord and Savior through our service. So as we begin to wrap this up, here's some just reflection and maybe a little application for you. I want to invite you to pause and reflect on these three questions. Question number one, where are you currently using your spiritual gifts? Question number two, what needs around you might God be calling you to meet? And question number three, are you modeling Jesus through humble and joyful service? You see, serving isn't about doing everything. It's about being faithful and doing something. God doesn't ask for uh availability to every single thing in our church, He's just asking you and I for obedience and just doing something. So faithfulness doesn't have to look like, well, now you gotta be at the church 24-7 and serve in every area. No, no, no. Just be faithful in doing something for the kingdom. Do something for God, do something for your church, do something for your community. And as we do that, we're gonna believe that God's gonna begin to shape you and the community around you. That's the beautiful thing about this. So here's the challenge as we as we close. Don't wait to feel ready. Don't wait when you think you've got plenty of time. Listen, you're never gonna have enough time, you're always gonna be busy, you might feel like you're never good enough, on and on it goes. Don't wait to feel all that. Just start. Start where you are. When you serve, listen, when you serve, your faith is gonna grow, your community is gonna deepen, purpose is gonna become clear, and the gospel is gonna become visible. Well, hey, again, thank you for joining me on this episode around serve. In our next episode, we're gonna look at the fourth behavior, pray. Because serving without prayer, well, that leads to burnout, uh, that leads to probably frustration, that leads to lack of direction, but prayer fuels everything we're gonna talk about. So, again, thank you for listening to the Discipleship Tool Podcast. And I want to encourage you to that if this episode encouraged you, if these last couple episodes encouraged you, then please share it with somebody who's ready to step into their God giving calling as well. And until next time, hey, listen, keep on serving.