You are invited to step into the fullness of your identity as an anointed servant, moving beyond mere belief to active faithfulness. Serve boldly yet gently in Jesus' name, trusting that God values your faith over your technical skills or status. Let this anointing empower you to do good for His glory today.
Good morning, church. Let's pray. *Lord*, you have an amazing word today for us, so help me to just completely get out of the way so that you could tell this beautiful truth, Lord God, that you could tell this empowering story of who we are, Lord, in you. Help us to see you more clearly. I pray that the words from this message would be implanted into our hearts, that they would bury down deep into our souls, and that they would spring forth and bear fruit, and that fruit would abide in you.
In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. So, are picking back up on the Well Done series. It's from a book that our newest overseer wrote, who is Doctor. Leon Van Royhan.
It's called Well Done, **good and faithful servant**. Thank you. It's from a story that Jesus told in Matthew-25. It's the parable of the talents, and the master celebrates the servants that did a good job, and he says, "well done", good and faithful servant. Not pastor or preacher or evangelist or tither or healer, well done, good and faithful servant.
This is the most important title that we have. Philip talked about this 2 weeks ago where he pointed out that a lot of the New Testament authors, when they introduced themselves, they identified first and foremost as *servants*. Amen? Amen. That is who we are.
It's in our DNA, and it's in our DNA because we are followers of Christ, and Jesus came not to be served, but to serve others. So 2 weeks ago, we ordained Philip. Are you here, Chevy, Philip? Teaching, okay, there you go. He's serving, he's a servant.
And he preached on the attitude of a servant. He explained that not all that serve are servants, It's about the heart, this heart posture that we are to have as servants. It's not that we have to serve, and let me just get this out of the way upfront, I'm not just talking about serving here on Sundays as part of the dream team. When I say a servant, I'm talking about your entire life. I'm talking about Monday through Saturday.
I'm talking about in everything that you do and everyone that you encounter, that you have the heart posture of a servant. And, that attitude is what Philip spoke about a couple weeks ago, and that's a great foundation to start us off in what it means to be a servant. Today, I wanna talk about the anointing of a servant and the motives of a servant. So, **anointing of a servant** everybody repeat after me. Say, I have I have.
The anointing The anointing. Of a servant. Of a servant. Do you believe that? Yes.
Okay. That's important. So what is an anointing? Everybody, you believe you have it, but what is it? The anointing is an empowerment by God to do what he has called you to do for his glory.
Amen. Not for our glory, for his glory. And this is so important because you cannot walk out what God has called you to outside of the *anointing* from God. But that's the good news too, right, is that you have this anointing that you need to walk out what God has called you to. You have to have that anointing.
You cannot do it on your own. So, the reason why we have this anointing is because our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, had an anointing. We read about it in Acts-10. So, go with me to Acts-10:36. We're gonna go through a lot of scripture today, and I know I say that a lot.
Somebody likes it. Yeah. *Acts-10:36* says, oh, I'm sorry. Verse 38. How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power.
*Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus Christ*, was anointed with the Holy Spirit and with power. So he was given that anointing. He also then gives us that anointing. We read about it in Acts-1, verse 8. Jesus tells the *disciples* to stay where you are.
Stay in Jerusalem. Wait for the Holy Spirit that's going to come upon you, and you will receive power. So what is this anointing? What is this power? What the writer of Acts is talking about, this is the Acts of the Apostles, this is Luke that's writing this, he's talking about Matthew-3, where Jesus is baptized by John the Baptist.
John the Baptist being his cousin, he is the 1 that Isaiah prophesies about, that there's gonna be 1 that clears the way, that makes the way for the coming Messiah, and this was John. And so, John's baptizing people in the River Jordan, and Jesus comes up, and he says, I can't even tie this guy's sandals. This guy, he should be baptizing me. Jesus says, no, no, no, baptize me. This is important that we do this.
He gets baptized in the River Jordan, and then we see probably the most beautiful picture of the Trinity in the Bible. We see the son being baptized, the Father says, this is my Son, and then the Holy Spirit descends upon him like a dove. So, you see the whole Trinity in 1 event there. And when the Holy Spirit descends on him, he is now the Christ. *Jesus* the Christ, not Jesus Christ.
*Christ is not Jesus*' last name. Did you know that? Christ means anointed 1. Jesus, the anointed 1. There's that word again, anointed.
And we are Christians. We are Christians, or little Christ, or little anointed ones. And so, we are also anointed in the same way that Jesus was. And if you go back to chapter 10 38, you see that it says, he then went about doing good. He did.
He went out. It's an action. He did something. That anointing made him do something. So, what are we to do with our anointing?
Do something. Do something. We don't just sit back and say, man, got anointed with the Holy Spirit. It felt great, and and, you know, it's this beautiful emotional experience. That's awesome, but that's not what it's for.
It's for something. We are to do something prophecy that this anointing would come. This was prophesied years before that. Peter talks about it in his first message after Pentecost in Acts-2. Look at Acts-2 starting in verse 16.
So this is the first message that was preached about a risen resurrected *Christ*, and Peter decides to go back to the Old Testament to say, this is what this prophet spoke about. But this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel, and in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my spirit on all flesh. Everybody say, all flesh. All flesh. And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams, even on my male servants and female servants.
In those days, I will pour out my spirit, and they shall prophesy. And I will show wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and vapor of smoke, the sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the day of the Lord comes, the great and magnificent day. That doesn't sound very great and magnificent, does it? Sounds a little crazy, but it's great and magnificent because of the next sentence, and it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Amen?
So, we should be excited to see these things happen. When I hear from Christians say, I don't like reading the book of Revelation because there's scary stuff in there and the end times are coming. The only people that should be afraid of the book of Revelation are non believers. Amen? We are in Christ.
We shall be saved. So, now, and Peter's talking about this prophecy, we are in the first part of this 3 legged event. Right? So, you have the pouring out of the spirit, you have end time revelation type things, and then, last but not least, you have the coming of the Lord, this great and magnificent day. So, we are in that that first period right now where the spirit has been poured out on us.
And, it's not just on the sons and daughters, as you saw there. It says it's also on my male servants and female servants. So as believers, we are all children of God. Amen? Amen.
But not all believers are servants of God. All believers are children of God, but not all believers are servants of God. It takes a special kind of anointing, a special touch by God to be a servant of God. But that's what we want. That's what we need because, again, we are in Christ, and *Jesus* is the servant of servants.
Amen? Amen. That's the touch that we want, that special pouring out of the spirit that actually impacts us to go out and serve, again, in our daily lives, Monday through Saturday, and on Sunday. We get a great example of this with Peter's mother-in-law, who doesn't even get named, but we are talking about her 2000 years later. *Mark-1*.
Mark-1, if you start in verse 21, you'll see the story about Jesus going to a synagogue where there's a man who's possessed by a demon, and Jesus casts him out. Yes, demons are in church too. So Jesus leaves that synagogue and he immediately goes to Peter's house, Simon. At this point, he had not been renamed by Jesus yet as Peter. His name is still Simon.
We pick it up here in verse 29. *Mark-1:29*, and immediately, he left the synagogue and entered the house of Simon and Andrew with James and John. Now, Simon's mother-in-law lay ill with a fever, and immediately, they told him about her. And he came and took her by the hand and lifted her up, the fever left her, and she began to serve them. Immediately.
So, Peter's mother-in-law is immobilized. Right? She's laying in bed. She's sick with this fever. Nobody knows what it is.
Nobody knows how long it's been going on for, but she cannot serve. Right? She is paralyzed. She's of no good to anybody at this point. And then Jesus comes, and he touches her.
And immediately, she begins to serve. She doesn't just serve Jesus. Notice how she serves them, Jesus and the ones that were with him. A touch by Jesus forces us. You cannot be the same once you are touched by the nail scarred hands of Jesus.
The touch of Jesus forces her to not only serve him, but serve the people with him, because serving others is serving Jesus. Immediately. Some of you are immobilized. I feel like I'm, like, coming down harsh, and I I don't wanna be. I'm just I'm passionate about this.
Some are immobilized, but you only need 1 touch from Jesus. You need 1 touch. Hold on for that touch, because once you encounter the risen king, you will never be the same. Amen. It will cause you to take on his heart, and it will cause you to walk in his image and likeness back to the created value that you were created as, to be in the likeness and image of God.
Notice that *Jesus* touched her by the hand. He raised her up. He lifted her by the hand. So, immobilized hand, Jesus touches it, and now that hand is used for service. What was paralyzed is now mobilized for the kingdom.
And she does something very practical. It says she served them. I mean, probably giving them food and drinks and and we could look at that as like, oh, that's just, you know, that's that's not very spiritual. The practical is spiritual. If you're Chevy, if you're working with the kids right now, if you're in production back here, if you're tearing down and setting up, if you help feed a homeless person, if you take care of the elderly, these are practical things that you do that are very spiritual.
We're not all called to be pastors and prophets and and all these grand titles. We're not all called to that, but we are all spiritual. Walk out the spiritual things that God has called you to with the anointing of a servant. You are anointed to serve, so serve. There's no excuse.
There's nothing that you have to work toward to get to this point. This message isn't about you having to check off all these boxes and figure these things out and do these spiritual hoops and and work yourself up into this mighty man or woman of God. You already have this anointing. This is already yours. You just need to reach out and grab it.
You need to just step up in faith into what God has called you to, and if you are not, then the body of Christ is dysfunctional. If you are a believer and you're part of the body, if part of the body is not working, by definition, it is dysfunctional. So, what do we do with that? How do we get to that point of laying down our lives of being what God has called us to do, to to serving in a practical way? We do it by the touch of Jesus.
You need to be touched. How do you get touched by Jesus? You need to be with him. You need to be in his presence. You need to be seeking after him.
If you feel like you're not working or or doing things in the way that God has called you to, sit at the feet of Jesus. That's all he wants you to do, just sit at his feet. The early disciples, the, the apostles, as they were called, had some trouble with this practical side of of the spiritual work of God. And we read about in Acts-6, how they were some of the basic needs were being neglected of the believers, and the apostles were saying, we just don't have the time to do this. So what we're gonna do is we are going to choose people to take care of the practical side, as they called it, to serve tables for the people, to do this part of the ministry so so that they could focus on preaching the word.
This is really the institution of deacons. These are the first deacons. Do we are the deacons at our church here? Can you stand up, please? There we go.
Let's give them a hand, guys. Yeah, that's Chuck and Shirley, Grossman. We have Mike and Angie Gabbert, and Bart and Dixie as well, who are on mission. They left for Uganda yesterday, I believe. These are the deacons of our church.
These are the table servers of our church, and they play such an important role and function in this church body. It's very important. Let's look at the qualifications of these table servers. Shall we? Acts-6:3.
Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you 7 men of good repute, full of the spirit and of wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty. They are full of the spirit and of wisdom. Ah, so, spirit filled spirit filled isn't just for miracles. Spirit filled is for the practical workings and serving of the church. Why?
We already went over that. You need the anointing of God to serve. So, they need to be spirit filled in order to be deacons. I mean, go down to verse 5. Stephen was 1 of these first deacons.
It says that Stephen was a man full of faith, faithful, full of faith, and of the Holy Spirit. I mean, is there a better way to be described? Imagine people saying about you, yeah, full of faith and of the spirit. If you go to verse 15, you'll see that they say, gazing at him, all who sat in the council saw that his face was like the face of an angel. What does that even mean?
How did that look like? How was his face like an angel? Was the glory of God so on him? Was he so full of faith, full of the spirit, full of wisdom that he looked as if he had been with Jesus? Stephen goes on to preach this amazing message, and he actually gets stoned.
He becomes the first Christian martyr. The first Christian martyr was not an apostle, It was a deacon, a table server. And as he's getting stoned, he says, Lord, don't hold this sin against them. Sounds eerily familiar to what Jesus said on the cross. Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.
He was so full of Jesus, everything that he spoke was of Jesus. That's the kind of faith that I want. That's the faith of a table server. So we do not look down on the faith or the workings or the role of a table server. If we go back to Matthew-25 with the parable of the talents that the whole book that Doctor Leon Van Royen wrote, you'll see at the end of that chapter, Jesus tells this story about the final judgment.
This isn't a parable. This is this is a prophecy. This is what is to come. And if you read starting in like verse 34, 35, down to verse 40, *Jesus* talks about that the king will separate sheep from goats. Goats are not righteous.
Goats are not his followers. Sheep are his followers. Have you noticed when goats and sheep are babies, when they're infants, they look really similar? It's only when they mature that you can really tell the difference between a goat and a sheep. Some of you got that.
That's a whole message right there. I mean, that's a whole message right there. I I don't have time for that. But he says to the sheep, he says, you know, when I was sick, when I was thirsty, when I was hungry, when I was in prison, you helped me. You are inheriting the kingdom.
Whatever you did, I'm sorry, truly I say to you, as you did it to me, to 1 of the least of these, my brothers, you did it to me. And then he goes on to talk about the unrighteous and those that didn't do these things, those that didn't serve the least of these, and they are cast out into eternal darkness. So, Jesus hinges kingdom inheritance on serving. That is important. Serving is important.
God calls you his masterpiece. *Ephesians-2:10*, Paul talks about it. God says that you are his masterpiece. I don't care if you feel like you're a masterpiece. God says you are his masterpiece.
Amen? So that's what we believe. And the purpose of this masterpiece is to do good works that he planned in advance for us that we should walk in them. We should walk in them. It's not a guarantee that you're gonna walk in them.
You should. So, how do we walk in them? We walk in them the same way that we came to him. *Colossians-2:6 says, as you came to Christ Jesus*, so "walk in him", rooted and built up in faith. It's not of your own doing.
You are not doing these works. You are not serving. Your heart as a servant is not to please God. It's not to be on right standing with God. You don't serve to be saved, and you don't serve to stay saved.
My wife and I read this yesterday morning by happen chance, Galatians-3. I don't think this is I don't think I gave this in the slide, sorry. But if you go to Galatians-3, look how Paul puts it. Starting in verse 1, and I'm not calling you foolish. It's not, oh, foolish, clear water ends.
Oh, foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. Let me ask you only this. Did you receive the spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Did you receive salvation or justification by works of the law or by hearing of faith?
Did you do anything to come to God? Did you have to do any works? Are you so foolish having begun by the spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? Having begun in Christ, are you now turning back to the flesh to move forward in the things of God? I mean, this was the trap that I fell into for years.
It was, I totally believe 100% that Jesus died on the cross for me, and he forgave my sins, he did it all, I didn't have to do anything. But then, I believed that I had to do works to become more like Him, that I had to stop doing this, I had to stop thinking this, I had to start doing that, and it was all of my own will. That's wrong. That's adding to the cross. You cannot add to the cross.
You can't subtract from the cross. Paul says to the Galatians, he goes on to say, for those of you that have that mindset, that law based mentality that I have to do works, Christ has become of no advantage to you. He's of no effect to you. You have fallen away from grace. That's a dangerous mindset to have.
Please do not believe that lie from the enemy that I have to now clean myself up and do these good things to approach God. No, we approach the "throne of grace" with boldness and confidence as children of God. That's who we are. And so, we are not doing works to get saved, we are not doing works to stay saved, we are doing works because we are saved. Amen?
It's the joy of the Lord that is our strength. Our strength to do what? To just sit there? No. Our strength to do the works of God.
That's how we do them. So, God works in us. He gives us the will and the work. You see it in Philippians-2. Philippians-2:13.
For it is God who works in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure. He gives you the desire and the ability to do his work. So that's squash. Right? We all believe and understand that.
So, if we truly believe that, let our actions follow that. Are you struggling financially? Give to someone in need. Have you been believing and praying for healing for a miracle? When's the last time you prayed for somebody for their healing?
Are you really trying to get that promotion at work like you're doing all, you know, you're crossing your t's, dotting your i's, you've been on your best behavior, but you still haven't gotten the promotion, praise 1 of your coworkers in front of your boss. If you give, if you serve out of a place of lack, God will do exceedingly, abundantly in that area to empower you to do those things, and he will bless you in the process. Amen? Amen. Paul understood this.
This is why Paul said, I boast in my weakness, because he is made perfect in my weakness. So, I can actually boast about my shortcomings, and I can serve even though it seems like I can't or I shouldn't, or what about me? It's not about us anymore. It's about serving and putting him first and putting his people above us. When Peter's mother-in-law woke up, it wasn't, oh my God, am I okay?
I gotta make sure that this is and let me let me drink water. I I haven't eaten. No. She immediately thought about others. She immediately thought about Jesus.
She immediately served. That is to be our heart posture. And when you finally get this, you will be set ablaze for the kingdom, I promise. Once you finally get this mindset away from me, me, me, and I have to do this, and the focus is on you, and you focus more on God, and you focus more on others, you will be operating in a way that sets you ablaze for the kingdom. The people that are going to Uganda, are they thinking about themselves?
What is what is in it for them? What's in it for them is God has changed their heart, and the the love of Christ so compels them that they wanna share it with others. That's the attitude of a servant that is enabled by the anointing of a servant. Paul talks about this changed mindset in Romans-7. I just wanna give you scriptural backings for this, and the word of God is better than anything I can say, so it's better that we read this.
*Romans-7:6*. But now, we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive so that we serve in the new way of the spirit and not in the old way of the written code. We serve in the new way of the spirit. We serve empowered by the spirit. We don't serve from a place of lack.
We don't serve from a place of, like, I need to get recognition and I need to be rewarded. I've already been recognized. I've already been rewarded. I already have eternal life. What else can you want?
We don't serve from a place of fear or shame or guilt. Those are negative motives. That's that's from the enemy. That's that's not of God. We serve from a place of full assurance in Christ, knowing that he laid it all down for us, and this compels us to lay it down for others.
That's the new way of serving in the spirit. So, how do we serve as a true servant? What are our motivations? It's not to receive God's favor. Right?
We already have God's favor. We serve even those that don't deserve to be served. Have you ever done that? Have you ever served someone who you felt did not deserve to be served? I see a lot of heads shaking.
Yes. Did Judas deserve to get his feet washed by Jesus? Did any of the *disciples* deserve it? No. But Jesus did it because he was confident in his identity of who he was in the father, and that is how we serve.
So, wanna go through some of these motives of a servant that doctor Van Royan points out for us here. So, the first 1 is we serve with joy. Psalm 100 verse 2. Serve the Lord with gladness, exclamation point. Come into his presence with singing.
God wants joyful *servants*. What what is it that Chick fil A employee say that no other fast food restaurant employee say? "My pleasure". That's what God wants to hear when he asks you to serve. My pleasure, Lord.
It is my pleasure to get to serve the king. That's my attitude. It's an honor and privilege. It's my pleasure. It is joyful.
God warns the Israelites what happens if they don't serve with joy In *Deuteronomy-28:4* through, 47, starting in verse 47. Because you did not serve the Lord your God with joyfulness and gladness of heart because of the abundance of all things, therefore, you shall serve your enemies whom the Lord will send against you in hunger and thirst and nakedness and lacking everything, and he will put a yoke of iron on your neck until he has destroyed you. God says you're gonna serve regardless. You know? You either serve me with joy and gladness or you serve your enemies with a yoke of iron around your neck until you are destroyed.
We serve God or we serve sin. I mean, it's it's 1 or the other. Right? You're either a slave to righteousness or a slave to sin. Nobody is is free in that sense of of having no service to anything or anyone.
I'd rather serve the Lord. *Jesus* said it's more blessed to give than receive. It's also more blessed to serve than to be served. Amen? And, the reason why is because Jesus came to serve and not be served.
We also serve with sincerity of heart, meaning liberally or bountifully, we go above and beyond. We don't just do the bare minimum. We serve bountifully. *Colossians-3* talks about this. Verse 23.
We could start in 22. Bondservants, obey in everything those who are your earthly masters, not by way of eye service as people pleasers half heartedly, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord, whatever you do, work heartily as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ. We serve with sincerity of heart because we are serving God first and foremost. Alright?
Again, like we were talking about with Peter's mother-in-law. She served Jesus and she served the others because serving others is serving Jesus. We serve with sincerity of heart. And whenever I I read this, I I love this this passage of scripture, brings me back to, a work trip that I had back, probably about 5 years ago in in the last job that I was in. And, as part of this job, I was an equity research analyst, so I work in finance, that probably just sounded like Greek to some of you, but essentially, what I did was I had a group of companies that I covered, meaning I would model and forecast what the earnings potential and the value of these companies were to try to come up with a decision on whether to buy or sell these stocks.
I then pitch it to investors, writing, going around the country visiting different investors to try to pitch these ideas. And 1 of these trips that I went on, I took the CEO and the CFO, Chief Executive Officer, Chief Financial Officer of a Texas based bank on a Midwest trip. So, again, we would take these management teams and we would visit these clients, hedge funds, pension funds, asset managers, anybody who is managing money, anybody who would listen to us. And the CEO and CFO are really successful people. I mean, the CEO founded the bank, multi billion dollar bank, and older gentleman, been in the industry for decades, and I have been covering banks for like a year or 2 at that point.
You know, so here is this 30 year old who is taking these guys around, it was kind of like a show me trip, you know, it was my first trip with them and kind of proving to them what I was able to do, but I didn't have to prove anything to them. I already am who I am in Christ, so I didn't feel any pressure of having to prove, but I could see from them that there was this idea of like, let's see how much this guy really knows and what he can really do. So, hotshot kind of guys were flying around in their private jet going to all these different meetings, Chicago, Minneapolis, Milwaukee, St. Louis, all around the Mid West, these meetings, they were very successful. They got to see investors that they've never seen before, and they were really pleased with how things went.
And so, we went out to a dinner that night, like fancy, you know, steak dinner, and as we are waiting for the food to come out, they ordered bottles of wine for the table, I had a glass of wine or 2, and they just keep coming around, and it's getting to the point where it's just like, yeah, no, I'm good, I'm good. And the servers keep coming around, you know, they keep asking, and then the cocktails come around, and it's like, no, I'm good. And I can start to see the CEO staring at me every time a server comes around and kinda just observing me, really. And so, the food finally comes around and I don't know about you, but every time before I eat, I pray. I thank God for what he's given me.
You know, he is my provider. Whoever I work for, whatever I do, that's great, and I work unto that company as unto the Lord, but God is my provider ultimately. And so I'll I'll thank God, you know, sometimes it's a couple seconds, sometimes it's a couple minutes, it it just depends. And so, as the food came around, I bowed my head and prayed, and I thank God for the food, I lift my head up, and I I see the CEO staring at me. So, he looks at me and he he says, are you a Christian?
And I said, yeah. Yeah. I'm I'm a born again believer. And he goes on to tell me that he is the trustee of 1 of the largest churches in the Dallas Fort Worth area, and that he himself is a Christian, and that every, like, the the code of conduct, the ethics of his bank, what he built it on was the Mosaic covenant, the Mosaic law. And he says that the way that they treat their clients and customers, like the the motto, the mantra is Colossians-3:23, that for everything you do, work heartily unto the Lord.
Do it with excellence because you're doing it to the Lord. And he explains that this is why he has been so successful. Turns out the CFO is is a believer as well. And it's funny, the the servers come around with the wine again and CEO says no. And in that moment, this 30 year old, in the presence of kings, gives glory to the king of kings, and it changes the atmosphere.
Yeah. Praise God. And from that moment on, the rest of the trip, it was a lot of talking about Jesus. A lot of finance and a lot of Jesus. So let that be a testament to, you know, standing firm in in who you are and what you believe, and you don't have to shove it down anybody's face because "Jesus is attractive".
He's attractive to those that want him, and he is those that are opposed to him will be opposed to him regardless. Just walk in him. Amen? Amen. Number 3, we serve with *love* because how could we not?
Right? **God is love** and God is in us. And the the "love of Christ" compels us to do this service, to do these works. Paul talks about it in 1 Corinthians-13, all your good works, all your spiritual accolades, they are worth nothing if they are not done with love. Let all that you do be done in love, because without it, we are nothing.
Without God, without love, we are nothing. And if we serve without it, then we are nothing. It's worthless. Vanity of vanities. Number 4, we serve with zeal, meaning great energy and enthusiasm, great passion.
We should be passionate about this. Some of you need to remind your faces that you're zealous, you are passionate about Jesus. Tell your face. We live in a society where people are really passionate, right, about everything. Everybody has a cause or an opinion, everything is so polarizing.
Every time somebody has a birthday on Facebook, you'll see, instead of gifts, please consider donating to children with 2 left feet on the East Coast Of Madagascar. So, you have any left footed shoes, please consider donating. You know, like everybody has this weird random cause, and they're very passionate about it. We have to have the same passion about our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We have to be passionate about it or we will not reach this generation.
Amen. Amen. **Be zealous**. Be radical in your zealousness. Be bold.
At the same time, we also serve with humility. Don't confuse passion with arrogance. We're not beating people over the head. We are gentle. We are respectful.
*Jesus said, I am gentle and lowly* in heart. I am gentle. We have to be sensitive and serving with humility. Jesus didn't say, I am humble in heart, because it's not very humble to say you're humble. Right?
So Jesus Jesus just says, I am gentle and lowly in heart. Like, that's that's the form of a servant. Right? That you are low. You are lowly in heart.
And you can do that without feeling less than when you are confident in your identity, in Christ. That's how you're able to do that. *Philippians-2:8*, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. That is the level of humility that we're looking for. That's the level of humility that the Father is looking for.
And this is really difficult for those that have a lot of education or wisdom or wealth. There's a reason why Jesus says it's really difficult for a rich person to make it into heaven. And the reason isn't because Jesus hates rich people. The reason is that if you are abundant in and of your flesh, you are more easily reliant on the flesh. It takes a lot more self control, 1 of the fruit of the spirit.
It takes a lot of self control to have the ability to do things without God, and yet still crave him and chase after him, to have that mindset. So, if you are 1 of those people with education and wealth and wisdom, please don't let it get to the point where Jesus has to snatch you up out of those situations, because He will, for your own good. Alright? Because it is more important to be in the father's house than to build your own house. We also serve with faithfulness because it is impossible to please God without it.
We have to serve with faithfulness. Going back to the parable of the talents. Right? It was well done, good and faithful *servant*. God loves faith.
God is not impressed by your technical skills. He's not impressed by your gifts. He gave them all to you. He's impressed with faith. *Jesus*, I believe 3 times in the New Testament, talks about being impressed, and it's always faith.
*Jesus loves faith*. Jesus actually could not even understand non belief. When he went to back to his hometown in Nazareth, it says that the people didn't really believe him, and he couldn't do a lot of miracles there because of it. But there's there's this verse there, and and it's in the book of Mark, it says that Jesus marveled at their unbelief. Jesus was so faithful, he was so full of faith that he marveled at unbelief.
It was so foreign to him, so different for him. Like, when we see healings and miracles like the supernatural, it's like, wow, that's amazing. Like, that's how Jesus is about unbelief. It's so foreign to Him. He just does not understand it.
Let us have that level of faith that we marvel at unbelief, so you serve with faithfulness. And David's looking for help at at the church here, pastor David. I said pastor, doctor, there's there's so many titles now. He is not looking for a list of technical skills or IQ or, you know, how many degrees you have or what your work experience is, he is looking for fat people. It's an acronym.
There's a lot of them now, but the original 1 was FAT, f a t, and that's faithful, available, and teachable. That's what he's looking for. Faithful, available, meaning that you have a willingness, and teachable that you are humble. That's what he wants. That's what the Father wants.
That's what God wants, for us to be faithful. Last, but certainly not least, probably most important, we serve in the name of the Lord. We serve in the name of Jesus, the name above every other name. It's the only name that demons flee at. It's the only name that we cast demons out in.
It's the only name that the the dead are raised, the sick are healed. It is the name that we wash feet with. It's the name that we serve with. We serve as his children with his "royal seal". Serving in the name of the Lord means serving with the authority, the representation.
We are ambassadors of Christ. We serve in the name of the Lord and the authority of the Lord, capital l, Lord. And we pray in the name of the Lord. Please don't forget that with your prayers. Whenever you pray, pray in the name of Jesus.
Don't let it just be like some quick thing that you're about to finish your prayer and you just mumble over it at the end. That is the only thing that gives your prayer power. That is the only thing that the Father hears. It's in his authority, in his name. Yeah.
We pray in the name of Jesus. If we do all these things, if we truly believe that we have been anointed with this this service, with the Holy Spirit empowering us to do this service, and we do it with the right motives, then on that fateful day, we will hear, well done, good and faithful servant. Let's pray. Lord, thank you so much for being the "picture for us" of what it is to be a servant, to serve you wholeheartedly, Lord God, with everything that we have, and not doing it to be saved or to stay saved, but because we are saved, understanding that we are empowered by you, God. Help us to step out in that act of faith, doing things that we know we are not able to do on our own and yet doing them anyway because we have faith that your **strength is perfected** in our weakness.
God, I thank you for these children of God, and I thank you for these servants of God. Help us to be who you've called us to be. Help us to actually use this special touch, this anointing that you've given us, Lord, and let all of it be to your glory. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.
Amen.