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Well, good morning, Real Church. Good morning. It is an honor to get to bring the word to you today. It's an honor to get to be your pastor. No place I'd rather be, nothing I'd rather be doing, and I say it every week because I mean it.
I'm so grateful that God sent us to Clearwater, Florida to plant a church 7 years ago. Me too. And our church is almost 6 years old now, and I'm I'm having the time of my life. It's so fun. We have so many leaders, so many believers that are just "rowing in the same direction", running with the vision that God has given this body, to make disciples of Pinellas County and everywhere that he sends us in the world.
And it's it's fun to be in a family, a local church that whatever local church God's called you to, I hope you're having a blast. I really do. Because if you're not having fun, man, you're doing it wrong. Right. If you're not having fun, you're probably doing it for yourself.
Let that hit a little bit. Because he who loves his life will lose it, but he who loses it for my sake will find it. So if you haven't found life yet, you're probably living for yourself instead of for Jesus. Amen? Amen.
Man, we came out hitting today. It's I I don't tell you to I'm I'm the message that I'm preaching today, I'm not trying to beat you over the head. Just so you know, I love you very much, and the *Lord* beat me over the head because he loved me very much, and I'm trying to save you from some life hurt and some some unnecessary unnecessary suffering in your life. That's that's why I'm sharing with you the principles of what I'm what I'm gonna share today. Okay?
I also know that anytime that I preach a message, any anytime that I get on a stage and preach, whether it's to a crowd of people, a large, small crowd, or I'm ministering to somebody 1 on 1. In and of myself, I can't change anybody. I'm just a dude by myself, you know? Just a person. I wrote I wrote the the course of a song to try to put in lyrics and on paper the feeling that I feel before I walk on stage.
And if I don't feel it, I go back to the place because I know that no matter how quote unquote skilled of a speaker that I get, if it's not anointed, if it's not God speaking through me, then nothing's gonna change. People just walk away and say, that was a good message. Wow, you know, he can really speak. And then no life change. I don't care if you think I'm a good speaker or not.
I care about your heart, and I care about life change happening. I care about you actually pursuing Christ with your whole heart and your whole life with everything that you have. And if the messages that I speak or other people speak on the stage don't spur you to to lay it all down for Jesus and live for him with everything that you have, not because it's some religious duty or or, you know, because you feel better because you checked it off the box of your church, but I mean, spur you on to march for Christ in your daily life. And what are we doing? Why even speak?
You know? It's it's for him and for you to learn. Man, I don't live for me. The words of the song go, Lord, I need you. Yes, I do.
I can't do this without you. I don't even wanna try to. You are my only. And I just rehearse that in my mind before I do anything for him. Amen?
That's what I was doing on right over there. Can't do this without you, Lord. I don't even wanna try to. You are my only. God's got so much for you guys.
Yeah. So much. Let's start here. We're starting a new series, by the way. Well done.
Isn't that awesome? Everybody give Jana a big old hand. Well done. Well done. This series how many of you guys were here when doctor Leon van Roijen spoke?
If you weren't, I'm I'm sorry. Maybe you're newer. You need to go back to the podcast, listen to it. We'll change your life. Doctor Leon Van Royen is a personal mentor of mine.
He's also 1 of the overseers of the church. If you don't know what that means, you need to go through Establish. We have accountability, and it's a good thing. But he wrote a book titled, "well done", and I'm I was reading it, and I was like, man, this is so well done. But such good principles from scripture, our church needs this.
Before I tell you what the message in the series is about, just know, I'm not preaching this series to you because I think that you're lacking. I actually think that you're doing what this series is about very well, most than most churches. And there's more. So it's just gonna drive these principles even deeper into you. And if you're not living this way, praise the Lord, it's an opportunity to repent, which means to change your way of thinking so much that your life shifts and starts walking in direction with Jesus in this area.
Amen? Amen. So let's let's let's start with this statement. Started with the same statement in the dream team service this morning. Unless the Lord returns first, you're all gonna die.
Every single 1 of you, myself included, unless unless the Lord returns first, we're all gonna die 1 day. The series is not about death, but it's about really living. Really living a life that matters for all of eternity. I mean, I want when I stand before my Jesus, I wanna hear him say, well done, my **good and faithful servant**. Amen?
Amen. When you're born again, you're gonna get to stand before him. Those of you that have been born again, you will not be judged for your *sin* because Jesus was judged for your sin. Those of you that have not been born again, you've not given your life to Jesus, you haven't received the free gift of his grace, you will be judged for your sin because you rejected the fact that Jesus was judged for your sin. And the payment for that is death and hell and separation from God for eternity.
And that's just truth. God loves you enough not to force you to be with him in eternity if you chose not to be with him in this life. Amen? Amen. Amen.
And if you have been born again, meaning you've trusted Jesus as the Lord of your life, then you will not be judged for your sin because Jesus was forever judged for the sins of the whole world, and you received that gift by confessing him as the Lord of your life. You believed it so much that you said, I'm gonna follow you, Jesus, instead of myself. I'm gonna follow what you say instead of what I think and feel. Your truth is my truth. Heck with my truth.
It it ain't even about me anymore. No longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. Amen? Amen. So you won't be judged for your sin, Jesus was, but you will be judged for your reward.
Man, and I wanna hear him say, well done, my good and faithful servant. Those words come from Matthew-25, the parable of the talents. You guys have heard it before. We've preached about it before. I'm just gonna just gloss over this for a second, but except for a few important points.
The talents, there's a imagine like big bags of gold, lots of money. The master entrust 5 to this 1 of his servants. 2 to another servant, and 1 to another servant. Then he goes out of town, and Jesus, when he's telling this parable, he's saying the kingdom of heaven will be like this. And then when the master comes back, the 1 that he entrusted 5 big old bags of gold to, that 1, he went and put that to work.
He put the gift, the entrustment, the master's finances. I guess it wasn't a gift. It was the master's. It was entrusted to him, and he put it to work, and it was multiplied from 5 to 10. And the master said, well done, my good and faithful servant.
You've been faithful with a little. You I'll give you much. And then the guy with 2 bags of gold, same thing. Put it to work, it multiplied to 4, the master came back, there was an accounting, and he said, well done, my good and faithful servant. The crazy thing is, the guy that he entrusted 1 to was a servant in the master's house, but demonstrated by his lack of putting to work what was entrusted to him that he didn't really know the master.
He called him harsh, and he was afraid of him. He didn't know the master's heart. And so, he operated under the master like he believed he was, not like he really was because he didn't know him. And the master, because he buried the talent, he buried the bag of gold, didn't put it to work, the master said this, you "wicked and lazy servant". And he cast him into outer darkness where there was weeping and gnashing of teeth.
And the excuse of the wicked and lazy servant was I was afraid, so I hid it. Well done, my good and faithful servant. Let's go to 1 Peter-4. Verse 10, it says, as each has received. Everybody say, I have received.
I have received. A gift. Gift. You all have received a gift. Watch this.
Use it to serve 1 another as good *stewards* of God's varied grace. The gift that he gave you is grace to you. Do not "bury it". But use it, not for yourself, but to serve 1 another, to serve the master in his kingdom, because I wanna get to the end of days and hear my master say, well done, good and faithful servant. He's talking to servants.
In order for him to say that, he's not obligated to say that. That means we did something, and we did it well. Well done. You're not saved by your works. You're saved by grace through faith.
*Grace* is opposed to earning. Grace is not opposed to effort. Grace works. How does grace work? By grace through faith.
Without faith, the grace apportioned to you will not work. Grace is God empowering you to be what you can't be on your own and to do what you can't do on your own. And he gives you a word that's wrapped in the grace necessary for you to be and do everything that he's called you to do, but you have to believe it enough to adjust your life and obey it, to put it into practice. And without the faith, that grace will lie dormant and be buried. Put in the ground, not used.
The gift, the grace he gave you to steward, serving 1 another, not yourselves. *Faith* without works is dead. I want a living faith that is a working faith, putting to use the grace that he gave me. And on the other side *obedience* is the supernatural. Why?
Because he's empowering the very thing that he said, but it takes me like a child holding my daddy's hand and walking forward as a servant and doing something. Well done. Not just doing it, but finishing it. My faithful servant. A faithful servant is a servant that is full of faith, willing to take the risk, to go after it, not fearful and timid.
That's a spirit of fear that is trying to prevent you from walking in everything God has for you. But instead, trusting that the master is good. If he gave you these gifts, then he gave them to you to use for his kingdom and not for yourself. So yes, Lord, I'm gonna take the steps like Jerry and Heidi. Heidi quitting her job of 25 years because God gave her a word that she's supposed to be in full time ministry, and moving across the country to devote her life to prayer, evangelism, and discipleship.
It's a radical step of faith. And because of that radical step of faith, the grace empowered them, and they saw well over 1000 people give their lives to Jesus in the last 6 months. You want supernatural testimony in your life? Don't live by fear and bury it and make excuses because you think that God isn't really good. The extent that you're walking out the calling and the purpose of your life is the extent that you really believe God is good enough to back his word that he gave to you.
Don't be a wicked and lazy servant. That's not who you are. You're a son or a daughter of the Most High King. Not just a faithful servant, but a good servant. What is a good servant?
A good servant, good means morally morally right, morally excellent, integrity, *righteous*. You are righteous because of Jesus and the word that he gave to you. He's made you clean to the extent that you believe it. That's the extent that you do righteous things. To the extent that you don't, that's the that's the extent you still walk in sin and make excuses for it.
Amen? Amen. He loves you. He cares for you, and he's calling you forward. What is a good servant also?
It's not just someone that's morally excellent, but a good servant was useful to the master. A good servant did things that were beneficial for his master. Good, beneficial for my king. How can I live a life that is beneficial for my king? I'm nothing but this.
Because he gave you his word and his grace to co labor with you, and he wants you to walk forward in faith as a son and an heir of his kingdom, co heirs with Christ. See, we have the position of a son. We approach our heavenly father as a son or a daughter. You've been born again. You've been washed clean, a 100% righteous in his presence.
So now I can boldly, to the extent that you approach God boldly, that's the extent that you believe that you're the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. To the extent that you approach the approach the throne of God boldly in prayer, in his presence, that's the extent that you really believe that Jesus' sacrifice was good enough to forgive you, and make you clean, and wash you free of a guilty conscience. So you can stand in his presence boldly, not not confident in myself, but I'm confident in what Jesus did in such a way that serves each other. You know how you know you're doing that? The Bible says out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.
You wanna know if you have a servant's heart? Monitor how you speak about people when they're not around. Monitor how you speak about people with your closest friends. Do you have excuses as to why you're talking about them and putting them down, or are you serving them with your words? Do you have the "heart of a servant"?
Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. Oh, out of the abundance of the heart flows the issues of life. Look at your actions. Do your actions mostly serve yourself, or are they serving the body of Christ and serving Jesus and serving others to give them the gospel? I'm not trying to condemn you.
I'm challenging you and encouraging you forward in the Lord as men and women of God. Because you are, whether or not you know it, you are servants of Christ, so man, we should reflect his character and nature and everything that we say and do with the attitude of a servant. Those who serve without being a servant are an offense waiting to happen because they're serving out of need, not out of wholeness. They're serving because they need attention or they need people to give them affirmation, or they they need promotion, or they need this or need that. And, when it doesn't happen in their life, when they think it should happen, then they get offended and they make the excuse, oh, it's just being taken advantage of, when really their woundedness is the problem.
Because they're not serving from wholeness, they're serving from need. So their serving wasn't serving Jesus, they were serving themselves. And they get offended and then they are relegated. They they they lower themselves back to the level of just attending service, making the excuse that it's their fault. And then now their perception is all through offense of everything that happens, and they'll they'll eventually either cause division or leave and go to another church and repeat the same process at the other church until their heart's healed.
Until the wound is forgiven and healed. Amen? Amen. If that hits, praise the Lord. Let the truth of the gospel do surgery on the wound, cut out the infection, then repent and let him heal you and free you from all of the unforgiveness and offense of times past so that you can be a servant that has the heart of of Jesus.
A servant that is fully whole in him because of what he's done for you, and then serve others out of an act of worship instead of what you can get, or making yourselves look better by the way that you speak. Like, what if we actually lived out 2 Corinthians-5:14-15? You guys okay? Alright. For the love of Christ, ESV says controls us.
Most most say compel us compels us. For the love of Christ compels us because we have concluded this, that 1 died for all, therefore all died. And he died for all that those who live might no longer "live for themselves", but for him who for their sake died and was raised. What if in every area of our life, we no longer live for our self, but for him? You know what that would look like?
You living with the heart and the attitude of a servant. To the extent that you're offended, the extent that you're ticked off at the church or at your brothers and sisters in Christ, to the extent that you have frustration and anxiety and all this stuff going on in your life, in that area of your life, to whatever extent that is, that's the extent that you're still living for yourself. Because he who loves his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for my sake will find it. What do you find? You find his life which is full of joy and peace, patience, long suffering, kindness, gentleness, meekness, self control.
That's the fruit of the spirit, not the fruit of your effort. So to the extent that you're focused on Christ and living for his life, that's the extent his life is empowering self control in yours. Amen? Amen. You guys okay?
I'm not mad at you. I promise. You're an amazing church. Like, amazing. And I shared this study in the Dream Team Service.
EPIC, I think, was the survey thing that that that I found, but it was a quote by doctor Leon, and said that in most churches, the average serving, the average amount of people who serve in most churches is 20%. 20%. I think our church is like 70%. I mean, we have an amazing church. Doctor Leon said in his estimate that that group of 20% of people that serve, that means 80% are attenders.
20% serve. 10% of that 20% are the core, like they're all in, doesn't matter, I'm just doing it. If I find a need, I'm going after it, no big deal. The other 10% serve to the extent that they want to, that they have time, you know, that that really serves them. And then the other 80% are attenders.
I mean, I I would say praise the Lord for what God's done in our church and through our church, but if everyone's been given a gift, then I'm not stopping teaching until everyone who calls themselves a Christian and calls himself a part of the local body is actively using their gift to serve each other. Every single 1. You know why? Because I've used this these verses over and over and over, but I'm gonna use them again. *Ephesians-4*.
Going the wrong way. Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians. Okay. Ephesians-4 verse. Let's just go back to verse 11.
Why not? And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds, and the teachers, or the pastors and the teachers, to equip the saints for the works of ministry. If you've given your life to Jesus, he's credited his righteousness to your account, in his eyes, you're a saint. If you come from a Catholic background, you might be freaked out by me saying that. Don't be.
It's biblical. You don't have to die and then be canonized to become a saint. You're you're a saint because Jesus died for you, rose again, and credited his righteousness to your account, so in his eyes, you are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. That means you are a minister of the gospel. It's not my job as a pastor to do ministry.
Not according to these verses. It's my job as a pastor to equip you to do ministry. So if I'm doing my job, if I'm not doing my job equipping you to do ministry, I need to be disciplined by the Lord. If our staff and others are not equipping you to do ministry, I need we need to be disciplined by the Lord because that's our role in the church. If you're not doing ministry in your daily life, you need to be disciplined by the Lord.
And there's an easy tell on whether or not you're doing ministry in your life. Verse 13, equip the saints for the work of ministry for the building up of the body of Christ. That's why. Our whole goal now, once you become a born again Christian, it's not for your own kingdom. It's for his kingdom, and the manifestation of his kingdom is the local church.
It's the body of Christ. It's his bride. Until we all attain the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the son of God to mature manhood, to the measure and the stature of the fullness of Christ, to the extent that you're living a life of ministry. Not saying you gotta work in the church. I'm just saying you're a minister of the gospel in the world he's put you in, in your job and other places, everywhere, and in your local church.
To the extent that you're doing that, that's the extent that you will be mature in your relationship with Jesus and unified with the body of Christ. To the extent there's contentions and divisions and other things, that's the extent that you're living for yourself instead of for him. I know that's tough, but I'm telling you because I love you, I want you to experience the beauty of unity. Our church is more unified than ever before. I'm having so so much fun.
But more unified than ever before is not enough. More people growing in maturity than ever before is not enough. Everybody being discipled and discipling and growing and walking in ministry. Every single person in Pinellas County, which means we got a lot of work to do, guys. A whole lot.
Whether they all come to real church or they're filling many different churches, I don't care. But we got a lot of work to do. Almost done with Ephesians-4. So that, watch this, verse 14, you may no longer be children "tossed to and fro" by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness, and deceitful schemes. Not just deceitful schemes of people, deceitful schemes of the enemy.
He wants you divided. He wants you past to and, like, being shifted to and fro like like somebody, a boat in the waves. Had trouble getting that out. How do you not be that tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine? When you receive something, you give it out and you begin living it.
Then your life is on the rock instead of being tossed by the wind and the waves. But if you're constantly receiving and never giving it out, then you're not growing in maturity. You're just getting, as I say over and over, a big head of knowledge, and knowledge puffs up, and God opposes the proud. So without putting into practice what God's teaching you, you're becoming more prideful and being opposed by God until you humble yourself and start doing it. I'm not telling this to condemn you.
I'm telling this to exhort you, to challenge you forward in the Lord because you're ready for it, church. You're ready. Then what does it say? Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, from whom the whole body everybody say the whole body. Whole body.
Joined and held together by every joint. Everybody say every joint. With Every joint. Which it is equipped, when each part, everybody say each part, working properly, makes the body grow and builds itself up itself up in love. So if, let's say, we had a 100 people that God's called to be a part of this local body, and 99 of them were working properly and using their gift to serve the body of Christ, we would be a handicapped church.
So if we got 70% of people actively involved, more than just attending, we're a handicapped church. And I'm not saying that because I'm mad. Dude, I'm I'm proud of our church, but we're not I'm not supposed to be proud in comparison to others. I'm proud because of what God's done so far, but we're pressing onto the goal, which is maturity and the full manhood. We're not stopping.
So every single 1 of you, if God's called you here, hey, let's start producing fruit. Let's start going all out for Jesus. If you're in him, the bible says abide in him, the branches that are in him. He says those that are not in him, most versions say he cuts off. The Greek word doesn't say cut off, by the way.
I don't know why all the versions say that. The Greek word actually says lifts up. This is a message to lift you up off your butt and get you back in the game. She thought that was funny. Yeah.
Why? I'm not I'm not preaching this message so that you can do your religious duty, you know, so we can have more and more people serving, brag be braggadocious to other pastors, you know. Is that a word? I don't know if it's a word or not. Sounded good in my head.
That's not why. I'm saying this because *Jesus* himself said, the way to greatness is being a servant. You wanna be great? Become a servant. And guess what?
Your purpose, your calling, it's great. It's greatness for the Lord. It's gonna bring glory to Him, which means that the only way for you to live out your calling and your purpose is to learn to be a servant with the heart of a servant. Otherwise, you will be resisted by God and constantly hit wall after wall, wondering why you can't "walk out your purpose", and it's because you're being put through a trial to break you of yourself so you can finally be a servant that like your Jesus Christ.
First
John. No. No. First Peter. I didn't give you guys this 1.
First Peter. This was added during the dream team service. *1 Peter-1:6*. In this, you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary. Everybody say, if necessary.
If necessary. You have been grieved by various trials. So that why are various trials necessary? So that the tested genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold that perishes though it test it is tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus. Why are the trials necessary?
To test and prove the genuineness of your faith. Some don't have to go through as many trials as others. Suffering produces perseverance, produces proven character, which produces hope that doesn't disappoint. Right? That's *Romans-5:3* through 5.
Suffering produces perseverance, but James says something similar. Why do some seem to not have to go through and this is not for every this is not, like, a 100% always the case. We're all gonna face various trials of many kinds. But some people just keep going through the same trial over and over and over. I can't get out of this hole.
What's going on? Ever felt like that? Maybe. Just maybe. It's like this.
Have you ever you you remember going through grade school? If you failed sixth grade, what do gotta do? Take it over. You gotta take it over. If you fail it again, what do you gotta do?
Take it over. Take it over until you pass it or get kicked out of school. Right? Thank the Lord he doesn't kick us out of school. God is relentless about you learning the lessons that you need to learn so that you can walk out the next aspect of your purpose.
And if you fail a test, he will bring it back around over and over and over again until you finally learn the character necessary that that test was trying to teach you or allow your faith to be stretched in the way that that thing was trying to teach you and finish the test. Otherwise, you're gonna keep going in circles. Remember, the the Israelites died in the wilderness 40 years, kept go they kept going in circles because they kept complaining about what they didn't have. *Jesus* went 40 days in the desert, in the wilderness, and overcame because he stood on the word. What are you gonna do?
Is it gonna be 40 years and never walk out the promise, or is it gonna be 40 days and then walk into ministry? Because you're all a minister of the gospel. Which 1? Man, I wanna I wanna say, yes, Lord. I wanna stand on the word.
I wanna persevere. That's why my prayer in my life is God, whatever it takes to develop the character necessary to carry the call, because man, I want the faith necessary to walk in the grace that he has he has given me. I wanna live out every good work that he's prepared for me that I should walk in. I don't wanna neglect anyone, any of those works because of my fear, or because of my laziness, because I don't understand who he is. So father, bring on every single trial necessary as quickly as possible to get the pride and the junk out of me so I can walk in humility as a servant before my heavenly father.
Whatever it takes to stretch my *faith* so that I can walk in all of it. I don't wanna be walking in circles the rest of my life making excuses for my fear and timidity. You don't either. Amen? Amen.
You guys okay? Yeah. Are feeling challenged? Let's march. The example of that in my life, and I'll share the testimony.
Shared it before, maybe you haven't heard it. I ran from ministry, from full time ministry, from the call that got out of my life, because I wanted to do it my way. I wanted to follow Jesus and minister, but I wanted to do it in the marketplace marketplace. But God had called me to do it in the church. Some of you, maybe you've been trying to run to the church, but God wants you to do it in the marketplace.
Just different callings, you know? So it was pride that me wanting to do it my way, not the way my dad was doing it or whatever. So when I finally in the submarine, my my well, my Jonah story, literally, in the "belly of the well", it was a submarine guy. In the submarine, when I surrendered to full time ministry, I said out loud, God, tears, you know, he broke me. It was beautiful.
God, every life decision that you give me from this moment forward will be in line with full time ministry. I will make it in line with full time ministry. Every life decision you give me. Well, when you say something like that, he's gonna test it because he wants to prove the genuineness of your faith. And if I failed it on the next test, he would bring it back around because I'd failed it multiple times before.
He's bringing it back around. Well, guess what? When it was time to get out of the Navy, I was hired full time at a church. I was given the offer, the opportunity to work full time at the church we were serving at. Well, I was a nuclear officer in the Navy.
So, man, I could have had a Navy recruiter or the guys that that search for those guys, recruit and, you know, work a pretty nice job. And I was offered the church job was a janitor for a lot less money. I mean, in a lot of people's eyes, that's a modern day servant. Praise the Lord for the janitors. But in my prideful eyes, that's what it was.
What was my job? Cleaning toilets, cleaning up the kids' rooms, stacking the 800 chairs, vacuuming almost every week. It's a new campus, so there was lots of it was Northeast Florida, there were lots of sand in the parking lot I had to get rid of. So in the first 6 weeks, here I am, and this is God disciplining me. Hear this story so you don't get the same discipline.
Just learn it now. Repent and move forward, know. So you don't have to, you know, give up your dream home and be humbled like I did. So 6 weeks in, sun's beating down on my back, it's hot, Florida, and I'm "shoveling sand" in the parking lot into a wheelbarrow, carrying it across, getting rid of it. And when it was 6 hours, about 6 hours that day, at the beginning, I'm ticked.
I'm like, God and by the way, I took the job because the Holy Spirit had been telling me to do it, and I was waffling on it. And when I waffle back and forth on something that the Holy Spirit's leading me to do, my wife usually becomes the "voice of the Holy Spirit" and says, you better take this. You better do this. So I'm thankful. And that's what happened.
I said, yes, Lord, and yes, ma'am. So I'm kinda frustrated. I'm serving, but not with a servant's heart. I'm not it's not joyful. And I'm shoveling sand, and I'm like, God, why am I here?
Don't you know who I am? I've led people to Jesus. I was a college and adult pastor, you know, part time. I've traveled the world and now you got me shoveling sand. I don't understand why am I here.
Anybody had that heart before serving? If you do, repent and don't have it anymore. God didn't say anything. He just kept ripping my heart to shreds over the next 6 hours. And finally, it was changed to Lord, even if I'm shoveling sand, cleaning toilets, and vacuuming for the rest of my life, as long as I'm with you, you're enough.
Because I'm I'm doing this out of obedience to you and for you, not for anybody else, not for any position or anything else. He changed it from a heart that needed something to a heart that was completely content in him. And then he left me there for another year and a half, testing it. Did I really mean what I said or not? Am I willing to continue circling in obedience, standing where he told me with the same attitude and same heart, or am I gonna start complaining again like the Israelites?
So it got to where, man, in that year and a half, I think I grew as much or more than any other season of my life. I'm constantly listening to worship music. I'm praying as I'm pushing this big vacuum cleaner and stacking chairs. As I'm doing the the kids rooms, I'm worshiping and experiencing words of God and and praying and and blessing the church and everything. My heart literally changed.
I began to love the local church so much that I washed the the feet of the bride of *Christ* and counted it in an honor to do so. But see, you serve from a place of need, then it's about your need for recognition, your need for promotion, your need for accolades, your need for relationships, your need for whatever. And once again, as soon as you don't get it, you're offended and you go. Which meant it was about you. And God's gonna continue to rock your heart until you learn to become a servant.
A servant who is willingly doing whatever he asks, and even over and above what he asks. Whatever need you see. The example of Jesus as a servant. I mean, over and over all throughout the gospels, but in John-13, we see Jesus washing the disciples' feet, which is really beautiful. I mean, amazing.
But I just wanna point out a couple of things that doctor Leon pointed out in the book, and I think as I went back and researched it, of course, he's right. In Luke-22, it talks about the same story. And Jesus tells Peter and John to go and prepare a room for the Passover. And it's a it's gonna be an upper room somewhere, you know, the the owner of the house is gonna know from the Lord that this is supposed to be. So Peter and John are tasked with preparing the room.
So they go to prepare the room for the Passover. Jesus and the disciples get there. And in John-13, we pick up, and in verse 3, says this, during supper everybody say, during oh, wait. That's verse 2. Verse 2, it says this.
During supper. Everybody say during supper. During supper. Okay. That's important.
When the devil had already put it in the heart of Judges Iscariot, Simon's son to betray him, Jesus, knowing that the father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from the from God and was going back to God, rose from supper. Everybody say, from supper. From supper. Laid aside his outer garments, taking a towel, tied it around his waist, then he poured water in a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him. That's beautiful.
But here's something. Why did Jesus wait until during supper to do this? See, it's customary for this to happen when they're walking into the home or into the room, to wash their feet. And this is the role of the servant of the house. Not the master, the role of the servant.
And Jesus waited until during supper. This was supper, so it would have been at the end of the day. They had already walked through the streets. They walked barefoot or with sandals on. It would have been dusty streets, not concrete streets.
You know? So they had some nasty feet. And so it's very customary when you're invited to a dinner or you went to a Passover, something like that, the servant would wash the feet as people went in. And Jesus waited. Could it be that nobody took the role of servant so Jesus stood and did it as an example of the way that we're supposed to live?
There's an example of Napoleon Bonaparte, the French general, you know, the famous guy, conqueror, and there's a sentry who was standing his post at night, and he fell asleep. Napoleon walks up on the sentry asleep, doesn't say anything, just grabs the sword and stands until the sentry wakes up. Can you imagine the sentry seeing the general doing his role that he fell asleep doing? Stands up and takes it, that's kind of the picture I get of what Jesus was doing. I mean, we see in Luke-7 when the sinful woman came in at the dinner and washed Jesus' feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair, It was because the Pharisees that were supposed to have prepared something for Jesus, they he he rebuked them.
He said, when I came in, you didn't provide water for my feet. So it's already alluded to that something like this is the case. And then right after this this thing in Luke-22, we see that the disciples were clamoring for who's the greatest in the kingdom. Who's gonna sit at his left and his right? *John-1*, he was the 1 that was sitting and leaning on Jesus at the Passover feast.
But yet Jesus instead was the 1 that demonstrated what leadership in the kingdom looked like, and he said, if you wanna be great, you must become a servant. If you wanna be first, you must become a slave. It could have could have looked very different if Bartholomew or somebody like that would have said, you know what? We're supposed to wash people's feet. I ain't gonna try to be greatest.
I'm gonna do what Jesus has been demonstrating this whole time. Grabbed the bowl and washed all of his disciples' feet as they come in and washed Jesus' feet. I I think maybe at supper, the the lesson might have been, hey, guys, you see what Bartholomew did? Good job. Good job, son.
That's the way that leadership in the kingdom looks. I want you all to do what he did. It's so natural for us in this world to clamor for first, clamor for best and what we want and what we need to get what but Jesus says, the way of the servant, that's the way of the master. That's the way to greatness, and that's the way to walk out your purpose. He's looking here's another point on that.
Jesus didn't tell anybody to wash feet as people were coming in for Passover. He said, prepare the room. So often, as people serving Christ, we wait for Jesus to tell us exactly what to do without taking the initiative to do what we know needs to be done. A servant a servant sees a need, knows they have the gift to fill that need, and goes does it anyway, whether they feel like it or not. Because a servant lays their life down to meet the needs of the body of Christ.
Amen? What if we all lived like that? And once again, church, we have a high percentage of people that are, and I'm proud of you. But if it's not all, it's not enough because we're growing in maturity. And as we grow to see and understand who our Jesus is, we understand who we are, and we're supposed to be an imitator of him.
I want you to serve not because of need, but because that's who you are. I'm a be gentle here, but just to give you the examples. We haven't had a bass player for 2 years, over 2 years, just waiting. Who's gonna step up? We haven't had an electric guitarist for over 2 years.
The resources are in the harvest. But when the harvest doesn't understand who they are in Christ, maybe it's my fault for not equipping you. We're constantly having need in our children's area, which is the washing feet of the church. But it's 1 of the most important areas because those are the future leaders of the nation. What if every mother and father and father, everybody say and father And father.
Who wasn't already serving somewhere else and had kids in the children's ministry decided to serve once a month? We'd be overflowing. Many hands made like work. And it would what if what if what if they did it without feeling the need, but instead joyful? Not because pastor David said it on on stage, but because they were doing it for *Jesus* as an act of worship.
Or a wrecking crew. It's they're the hands and feet of the church that wash wash they they do the dirty work. What if those that weren't serving anywhere else and had the muscle to do it, said, you know what? It's my *joy* to wash the feet of the church. I'll tell you.
I'll tell you what would happen. Fair enough. Heidi is saying anybody can do it. But I'll tell you what would happen. There'd be greater community built, greater unity.
We get more done here, but also, it overflow in your life. And you'd start serving your wife and your kids and your family with the heart of a servant and your job. And you'd start being propelled towards your purpose because the whole purpose of this church is to equip you to live like a servant and to live out your purpose in every area of your life. So we wanna sow those seeds into your life. Don't you dare serve without being a servant, though.
Don't serve for yourself. You're just an offense waiting to happen, and you'll cause division. Let Jesus heal you because he loves you, and he cares for you. Are there needs? Yes.
Do I want you to serve because they're needs? No. I want you to serve because you have the heart of a servant, because you understand who Christ is and the importance of his body. And that's the way he lives. Amen?
I'm done. Courtney, would you come and close us out? I think, actually, the way that we're gonna close out. Do you have announcements?
Okay.
Establish next week. Sign up sign up to be a part of Establish. That's the way to get serving. If you get in a local church, it's important. We love you.
We care for you. It's my will that you're all part of this body. God's called you somewhere else. Praise the Lord. Go there.
And then the real good time day. Tonight at what time? 05:30. 05:30. Let's have fun.
Yeah. It's gonna be awesome. But let's let's close with this. Dolores, would you come here? Would would would you just just pass the mic to Dolores?
Or or you can get 1 of those, whatever.
Check. Yeah.
By a show of hands, and this is just kind of like a by the way, me preaching this message affected in affected me. But if I have a show of hands, did did this challenge you forward? Oh, yeah. Yeah? Okay.
I'm gonna ask you to take a step right now. Remember, you have the position of a son or a daughter, but the attitude of a servant, the posture before our father, and doing the work of a servant. I'm gonna ask you, Robbie, would you hand me a chair? I'm gonna ask you to do this, and then Dolores is gonna sing a song. And when you're done doing business with the Lord, you're dismissed.
I'm a ask you to get on your knees, if you can, and just process the message with the Lord. If repentance needs to happen, so be it. If heart change needs to happen, so be it. If action needs to be taken place, so be it. This isn't just about serving the church.
This is being a servant in every area of your life, with your spouse, with your kids, should overflow everywhere. Your job, with joy as unto the Lord.
I pour out all my *worship* with my life, my everything. My tears, they fall before you from what your love has done to me. I see you, yes, to me in your **"nail pierced hands"**. I will love you, Lord, and walk in your commands. This is more than words, more than a song.
It's my life laid down. There's action involved. More than words, more than a song. It's my **"life laid down"**. I will love you with my ears and with my obedience.
I will love you "with my yes", *Jesus*. I will love you with my yes and with my obedience. I will love you with my yes, Jesus. And I **lay down my own will** to take up yours and yours *alone*. I lay down reputation.
I live for you and you alone. I see your yes to me in your nail pierced hands, and I will love you, Lord, and walk in your commands. This is more than words, more than a song. It's my life laid down. There's action involved more than words, more than a song.
It's my life laid down. I will love you with **my yes** and with my obedience. I will love you with my yes, *Jesus*. I will love you with my yes, and with my obedience. I will love you with my ears, Jesus.
It's my joy to **"lose my life"** and "find it in Jesus Christ". I'll find it in Jesus Christ. Oh, it's my joy to lose my life. I'll find it in Jesus Christ. I'll find it in Jesus Christ.
Oh, it's my *joy* to lose my life. I'll find it in *Jesus Christ*. I'll find it in Jesus Christ. Oh, it's my joy to lose my life. I'll find it in Jesus Christ.
I'll find it in Jesus Christ.