Loving to Serve

Loving to Serve – In “Loving to Serve,” we explore the importance of serving others. Join us as we share insights on how acts of service can transform lives. Learn practical ways to get involved in your community and make a difference. Whether through volunteering or simple acts of kindness, discover how loving to serve enriches both the giver and receiver.

Kingdom Way Church – https://KingdomWay.ca is our church in Edmonton, Alberta. Watch us live at https://KWay.live Sundays at 10:00 AM Mountain time. Watch Video on Demand at https://Kway.tv Connect and learn more at https://MyKWC.ca

Transcription of Loving in Serve

Amen. Well, thank you everyone for being here today. Thank you for those who joined us online and will join us online in the future. I’m a little shell shocked right now. I haven’t had to do this. I don’t remember the last time where I got to lead worship and then preach right after. It used to be the norm for me. For many, many years, I would lead worship and then I would preach. And I remember how tired I used to get after those days. I get exhausted. And I’m just feeling that God is just re-energizing right now. I’m feeling that he is just releasing something. And you can always get a sense of what God is doing in the supernatural by seeing what he’s doing in the natural, because everything in the supernatural bleeds off into the natural. It’s just the way it works. So when you can see things in the natural, you can backtrace it and say, okay, well, this has already happened. And I’ve come to the place where I’ve really started to appreciate spring. For me, it was always just another season. But for some reason this year, you look around, everything’s brown, everything’s soggy, everything’s wet, mud everywhere, and I’m loving it.

I’m just like… And then the Canadian me speaks up and says, You know this could just be another fake spring. We haven’t had a fake spring this year, and we usually get at least one or two every year. So let’s see what happens. But God is good all the time. Look at a neighbor and say, Boy, you look good. Or, Girl, you still look good. All right. It’s great to have so many with us today, and I do want to recognize those from Impact who came to help us. For those of you, I’d like you to just be praying for Janine. She contacted me late last night and said, I’m just not feeling well. It’s gone to worse. She said, I won’t be able to lead. I know when Jeanine is not feeling good enough to lead, I know she’s not doing well at all. So please be praying for her and just lift her up in your prayers. But that meant at like nine o’clock last night, we had to change the service order, the songs we’re doing, and change who is leading myself and who’s on the piano because at least I can practice with my wife at home, but I can’t bring other people over at nine o’clock at night to to rehearse and practice.

So that was great. But thank you for impact. Give them a text. Yes, give them a big thank you in a hand. I think it was around 9: 30. I sent them a text and said, Hey, you guys available? You want to come over? Because my drummer, I need to have him do the sound because I’m not doing the sound. And they said, Yeah, sure. It was great. So thank you for that. It’s just a beautiful thing, a beautiful glimpse of what is to come. And today we want to end off our keys to the Kingdom series. Now know that this is a series that will probably come back again in a few months because to me, it’s so paramount. It’s so pivotal that we learn how to operate as kids in his kingdom. And to be honest, a lot of Christians get saved, and then they never know what they’re supposed to do. And as a result, they don’t feel the joy. They don’t feel the satisfaction of being used by God to do his work. And really, that’s what it’s about. When we talk about the keys to the kingdom, we’re talking about how do we activate kingdom living?

How do we activate the principles that God has laid forth. It really comes down to the verse where Jesus said, The enemy came to steal, kill, and destroy, but I came to give life and to give it abundantly. We all know that verse. We’ve all heard that verse. We all agree with that verse. Yey, God. But how many of us actually experience that abundant life that Jesus paid for? And yeah, you can theorize it and say, oh, yeah, that’s for when we die, we get to spend… No. Jesus clearly teaches it’s for the now. He warns us and says, Yeah, in this life you have troubles. But troubles are supposed to be the thing that pops up here, teaches you faith, and then you move on. If you’re stuck in something for years and years and years, if you’re not growing and not developing, that’s not a trial. Okay, it is a trial. It’s just when you haven’t learned the lesson yet. But if you learn the foundational principles of the Kingdom. If you work on these things, these eight keys that we have laid forth, it will put you on a preemptive roll so that you don’t get caught up with the things of the world, which often are the result of why feel so terrible and lousy and discouraged and depressed and lonely.

And all these things come out of not doing things God’s way. So today in point eight, we’re going to do the one that everybody loves, loving to serve. How many people like to serve? Those people who have their hands up have figured out the secret of life. Simply put, the happiest people on the Earth are the people serve. Now, there’s a catch to this. You got to serve with love. If you serve of anger or animosity, you won’t be happy. But when you serve out of love, that’s why we entitled this loving to serve, you will get all the benefits of that. And we live in a culture where we understand what it means to be served, whether it’s a waitress at the restaurant or the hairdresser at the salon, the person giving you a massage or the clerk at the checkout. We all interact with people every day who serve us. And serving means simply to help you to accomplish what you want to do. When you’re serving somebody, you’re helping that person to accomplish something, whatever that is. It’s almost become like an expectation in our culture. I remember right now it’s going on.

You I go to the checkouts, and there’s a lot of places that have the self-checkout. I don’t know about you, but part of the checkout is a conversation I get to have with the clerk who’s checking the items. Like, literally, I have one place that I go shopping for groceries quite regularly, and I’ve actually built relationships with these individuals like two minutes at a time. It might be two minutes a week or two minutes every couple of weeks. But it’s funny. I actually get to the point where I’ll choose the line where I see them, even if it’s a longer line, because I want to talk with them. I want to just encourage them. I want to build them up. And that’s the It’s not the idea we have to learn about service. It’s about really helping others. In the church, we call the word service. We often label it as ministry. Whenever you hear the word ministry, it’s actually a that’s interchangeable with service. Those two words are literally the same meaning. If you’re ministering to someone, we like to use that churchy word, but I think it’s just as effective as we use the serving word.

But I want to make a statement here. I’m going to ask you if you’ve ever considered this. Have you ever thought that you should be the greatest servant of all? Has that ever been a thought that came across your mind? That you should be the greatest servant of all. Well, that off has already been taken. Jesus definitely was the greatest servant who ever walked this Earth. And he taught us many things about serving one another. Throughout the scriptures, throughout his time in the Gospels, he continually pointed them to service. And we’re going to take a look at those things today. So here in part 8 of keys to the Kingdom, we want to look at the key of service, which, incidentally, God has used time and time again to expand his Kingdom. I’ve given this story before, but I love reminding people of this. How did the Roman Empire go from throwing Christians to the lions to a that was declared to be Christian in just a few generations? How did that happen? It’s one of the greatest turnarounds in history. But we can actually trace it back to know the time in which the It went from hating Christians to loving Christians.

It actually happened during the Black Plague. It was a time when there was this devastating illness going through Rome, actually, most of the Roman Empire. And They didn’t know how to deal with it. They had no cure. They had no way of dealing. So what they would do is they would take somebody once they were sick, and they would move them out into the street and leave them there because they understood that it was contagious. They understood that you could catch it from another person. So as soon as somebody had it, they would move them and leave them in the street. It was the Christians who went out and started serving those people in the streets. It was the Christians who went and started taking care of them. And now some may believe, well, God protected them, right? No, many of them died. Many of them caught the illness and died, too. But the fact is, what happened is there was a change in the attitude towards Christians. They’re like, you’re willing to give up your life to serve somebody you don’t even know. And those early Christians were taking their cause. They were taking their lead from Jesus Christ himself.

They were the ones doing what Jesus did. And if we want to see, and I’m not just talking about a revival because a revival is a waking of people of your heart. It’s coming alive again. What I’m praying for and what I’m believing for is more closely related to a reformation where it changes the course of the church. It changes the way things are happening. And the way we do that is through serving one another. I know it’s an outlandish thought. I know it goes completely counter to what our nature is. But is God’s key for growing his kingdom is serving one another. The fact that the Bible is a couple of instructions on the overwhelming command that we should serve one another, and that’s what we’re going to focus on today. But how can we begin without a story of Timmy and Sarah? So it was a bright Saturday morning, and Timmy and Sarah were excited. Their church was organizing a community service day, and their family had signed up to help. But Timmy wasn’t so sure about it. Do we have to go? Timmy groaned as he tied his sneakers. I want to play video games today.

Sarah had already put on her volunteer vest, grinned and said, Come on, Timmy. Jesus served others, and we get to follow his example. Timmy said, Yeah, but washing cars and handing out food isn’t fun. The mom overheard and she smiled. Serving isn’t about what we get. It’s about showing others love, just like Jesus did. At the church parking lot, it was already really busy, and some were packing food boxes while others were scrubbing cars, and there’s a group of people handing out sandwiches to those in need. Timmy and Sarah were assigned to washing cars. At first, Timmy dragged his feet, barely scrubbing the soapy sponge over the cars. But then he noticed an elderly woman struggling to carry groceries. Without thinking, he ran over and stated, Here, let me help. The woman smiled, Oh, thank you, young man. My back isn’t what it used to be. As Timmy carried her bags to her car, he felt something strange. Joy. Real joy. That was actually nice, he whispered to Sarah. Sarah winked. Told you, Jesus said it’s better to give than to receive. As the day went on, Timmy found himself having fun, not just because he was working, smoking, but because he was making people smile.

By the end of the event, he was soaked with water, covered with soap and grinning from ear to ear. Okay, okay, I get it now, Timmy laughed as they packed up. Serving is actually awesome. Sarah nudged him, and guess what? You were following Jesus’s example the whole time. As they walked home, Tim, he felt a little different. He had been thinking that serving was a chore, but now we understood it was an act of love. Let’s pray. Our dear heavenly Father, we thank you for this time together. God, I thank you for each person who was able to make it in person. And thank you for those people who have joined us online. God, we just want to say thank you for all that you have done for us. And God, teach us how to be servants like you served us. And all of us people said, Amen. Well, Matthew 10: 42, if you got your Bibles, pull it out. It says, And whoever in the name of a disciple gives to one of these little ones even a cup of cold water to drink, truly, I say to you, he shall not lose his reward.

We know that there is a direct connection between serving others and the rewards we get in heaven. Think about that. Now, we don’t do it for rewards. It’s not like you serve to get, but Just so you know, God values your service so highly, he’s willing to reward you all of eternity for it. So Matthew 10: 42. Let’s dig a little deeper and let’s look at five keys of service. So these are little keys within the big key of service. Number one, let’s look at the heart of a servant. As we can all agree, Jesus is the ultimate example of what it means to serve. Philippians 2: 5-7 goes a little deeper. And these guys are working on the overhead, so we’ll get these words up in a bit. But mark this down on a piece of paper we gave you. Philippians 2: 5-7, it says this, Have this attitude in yourselves, which is also in Christ Jesus, who, although he existed in the form of God, he did not regard equality with God to be a thing to be grasped. But he emptied himself, taking on the in the form of a bond servant and being made in the likeness of men.

You see this one fact alone, this one truth alone should be enough to convince us that service should be one of our highest priorities. And yet this is an example that we won’t even fully understand. We won’t fully comprehend this because you and I do not know what Jesus gave up. All we know is he gave up everything, but we don’t know what he had. We don’t know what it was like to be Jesus prior. So we can’t even grasp what he gave up for us. And yet, he set that aside. He laid it aside. He put it up so that he could come down and serve us in giving his life. Think about that. I preached a sermon a number of years ago, and I entitled it Who has died for you? There’s many of us here who probably have never had the experience of another human being dying for us except Jesus. And yet we all have not just another person, but we have the creator of everything, the one through whom everything was created. The name in which every knee will bow and every tongue will confess. The name that is above every other name in heaven and on earth and under the earth, he came to die for you and I.

Let that sink in for a little bit. Now, from Jesus’s example, we can draw some very major conclusions. Number one, that serving is an act of love. It’s not a job. It’s not a chore. It’s not something you just have to do because God commanded you to do it. It’s an act of love. Remember, Jesus first loved us so we can love others. Jesus first served us by giving up his life so we can serve others by giving up our lives. Galatians 5: 13 gives a very sobering truth that I wish more Christians would focus on today. It says, For you were called to freedom, Brethren. Only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love, serve one another. You see, a lot of people today view freedom as a right to do whatever you That’s not the Bible’s definition. The Bible’s definition of freedom is so that you can serve one another out of love. Meditate on that for a bit. Meditate that the reason why God gave us freedom is so that we’d have opportunity to serve one another. Like that should just Shake the foundations of so many things we base our decisions on.

Because love expresses itself through action. Love is not just some emotion that you feel. Love is a verb. It’s an action word. If you love something, you will do something about it. And the second key, let’s get into that. The second key of serving is you got to serve with the right attitude. Have you ever had someone do something for you when they were complaining? I remember this time we were in this restaurant, and I won’t name the restaurant, I won’t name the person, but this lady gave the worst service I have ever received anywhere. We literally sat there for an hour waiting for her come the first time. And then she came, took our orders. We never saw her again. Found out an hour later, she went home. Her shift was over. And nobody picked it up. Nobody put our orders in. So two hours later, we still hadn’t even placed an order. Luckily, we were a good group of friends, and we were having a good conversation. And after two hours, we clued in, Hey, we haven’t eaten yet. We’re I hear. But yeah, some of the worst service ever. But I’ve also been in times where you get the best service ever.

And what’s the difference between the two? The attitude to the one serving. It is so paramount and so important that we learn how to serve with the right attitude. And one of the key indicators we have for that is serving with joy, not obligation. If you’re ever serving out of obligation, you’re doing it wrong. You’re not going to get the benefits from it. Stop doing it. Then get the right attitude and then do it the right way. Colossians 3: 23-24 says this, Whatever you do, do your work heartily as for the Lord rather than for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance, it is in Lord Jesus Christ whom you serve. See, this is a principle that actually allows us to serve other people. Why? Some people are really hard to serve. Have you ever found that? Some people are really difficult to serve. Now look at your neighbor and say, you’re not one of them. Okay. But the way that God has got us around this is by telling us when we serve others, we’re not actually serving them, we’re serving him. We’re serving him. And yeah, he’s worthy of all the service we can give.

But we serve him by serving others. Others. If you can get this principle down, it will triple your ability to serve others. Because it’s so easy when you start serving others to tie it to what do you get out of it. It’s the natural motivation of the heart. If I’m doing something for you, what are you going to do for me? I know as Christians, we never think that way. But as human beings, we all think that way. So when we’re expecting something, isn’t it better to expect something from the creator of heaven and earth than from the person you’re serving? So serve with joy, not obligation. As Jesus demonstrated, part of that is serving with humility. What is humility? Humility is putting the needs and desires of somebody else above your own. That’s what it means to be humble. It means thinking of others instead of yourself. John 13, 12: 15 says this, So when he had washed their feet and taken his garments and recolined at the tables, he said to them again, ‘Do you know what I have done for you? You call me teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am.

If then the Lord and the teacher washes your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I gave you an example that you should do as I did to you. ‘ Now, let’s just Let me give you the background here. The disciples were getting together with Jesus for a meal, and they walked into this house. Now, this is the historical fact that we may not catch, pick up on. But when you would come to somebody’s house, it was a responsibility of the host for their servant to come and wash everybody’s feet. And you may say, well, why do they wash feet? Well, think about this. No paved roads, no sneakers, no boots. They wore sandals everywhere. Has anybody ever walked on sandals on a gravel road, a dirt road? What happens to your feet? They get very dirty. I love wearing sandals. I wear sandals every chance I get. But when you’re walking out in places, it’s like you take three steps, take another rock out. We’ll walk another three steps, take another rock out. But what Jesus did for them, there was no servant to wash their feet when they came in.

That would actually be a very big offense for the host. But Jesus, in saving face for the host, went and picked up the washing bin and grabbed the towel and went and started washing his disciples feet. He was demonstrating to them the importance of serving one another. Now, you probably all remember what Peter does. Peter says, Jesus, you’re not going to wash my feet. I’m with Peter there. Honestly, I’m with Peter. I’m like, I would feel very uncomfortable with anybody washing my feet, let alone the savior of the world. I’d be like, no. And what was Jesus’s response? Peter, if I don’t do this, you have no part of me. That opens the door, doesn’t it? That changes the table. It goes from this false sense of humility to, You mean if I don’t let you serve me, I can’t have any part of you? I love Peter’s response. Well, then wash all of Give me a bath. Give me a shower. I just love Jesus’s response. Peter, you don’t need a full bath. You just need your feet washed. One of the things I love doing is just looking at how Jesus interacted with his disciples.

It gives you a real sense of who Jesus was and is today. So Jesus washed his disciples feet modeling servanhood. No task is too small when it’s done for God’s glory. We like to think, hey, there’s another portion of scripture where Jesus is giving them some advice, and he’s saying, okay, if you go to a big banquet and you think you’re a big, important person, don’t go sit at the head of the table. Because you may go sit at the head of the table and then somebody more important than you comes in and the host will ask you to move and go sit at the foot of the table and put the host there. No, it’s better for you to sit at the foot of the table, and then the I’m supposed to come to you and say, Hey, why are you sitting here? You belong at the head of the table. Why do I bring that up? Because often when people like to serve, they like to serve in places that give them the best return for their serve. It’s like if you’ve looked at the other side of TikTok and Instagram and all these things where people are trying to get likes and trying to get accolades because they show themselves serving one another.

I was watching this little video. These people put out all these things of them cleaning the beach. They showed them on the Instagram of them picking up garbage, putting it in there, packing it up, and it made it look like, Oh, they’re cleaning the beach. It’s doing such a great job. Somebody was standing farther back and videoing the whole thing. Sure, they showed them pick up a few garbages, but as soon as the camera cut off, they took the bag, dumped it out and left. And these guys were videoing them. It’s a fun thing to do. If you ever see somebody who’s doing some Instagram, just video them doing that Instagram or whatever they call it today. Tiktok. I don’t know if TikTok is still going to be around anymore, but political stuff. Anyways. Okay, now the third part of this is the blessing of serving. Serving will strengthen your faith. There’s so many benefits to serving others. One of the primary benefits that I see happening is when you serve others, your situation gets put into a different perspective. We have it pretty good. When you start serving people who don’t have it pretty good, it has quite an impact on you.

One of the things we tried to do with our kids as we were growing up because we fully recognize the benefits of living in Canada. You may not know this, but if you have a bank account with any money in it, you are in the top 5% wealthiest people in in the world. Think about that. Simple fact. If you have a bank account with just any money in that bank account, you are in the top 5 % richest people in the world. We recognize that. We know that. Part of our vacation time, we often love to go to third-world countries and get into the culture and listen to the people and see what they’re going through. And one of the things that just blew me away one day We were going through this very desolate town. It looked like they had nothing, literally nothing. It looked like it was a place where you couldn’t really grow anything because it wasn’t enough water. Poverty was just beyond belief. I just sat there and I’m like, God, what could we do here? What is it? Then God pointed over and I saw three kids playing soccer in this dirt field.

It wasn’t a soccer ball. I don’t know what it was, but it was something wrapped up really tight because as they were kicking it, pieces were falling off it. But they had the biggest smile on their faces. They were the happiest kids I have ever seen in my life. And that changed me. That really altered me because then I’m thinking, Okay, these kids know something that most of us are missing. These kids understand something that most of us don’t understand. Now, we get that blessing when we serve. James 2: 17 says, Even so, faith, if it has no works, it’s dead being by itself. We’ve heard that time and time again. Faith without works is dead. If your faith doesn’t cause you to do something, you’re weakening your faith. If you have faith that causes you to act and causes you to respond, that will strengthen your faith. Serving is one of the best ways for us to put our faith into action. And honestly, serving leads to the true fulfillment. Acts 20: 35 says, In everything I showed you that by working hard in this manner, you must help the week and remember the words of Jesus Jesus Christ, that he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.

‘ Jesus told us straight out. Jesus said this. He couldn’t have said this any clearer. It’s not hidden in a parable. It’s not tied up in something that we can’t understand. He literally says verbatim, it’s more blessed to give than to receive. ‘ You How do you understand that? Simple. It’s better to give than to receive. And one of the best ways that we give is through serving one another. Sure, you can give of your finances, but you know what I tell you, even a greater way of serving somebody is serving somebody with your time. Why? With your time, you can always get more money, but your money will not get you more time. What’s more valuable? Your time. It’s a greater gift to give. So serving as a lifestyle. Make every opportunity to serve. It’s not just something you do on a weekly basis. Now, I’m going to speak something that was itching my crawl for many, many years. For those of you who’ve been in this church for decades, you would know that as a church, we used to host this massive event every Christmas. It was a major dramatic production where we would have a full choir.

Yeah, figure out how. That was before we had this wall there. We actually had, it was about a 30 person singing Christmas tree up in that corner. All these lights that we have here were all for that. It was an amazing production. Like, literally, everybody in the church was involved in this production. And if we didn’t invite somebody, there was nobody in the audience. That’s literally what we would do every year. But this is where my issue came in is a lot of people thought that was their service for the year. That’s all they had to do. If they were involved in that production, that was it. My whole thing was, no, we need to be doing things every day of the year. We got to be serving others all the time. You don’t just do one token event and say, well, I do this, so I don’t need to do anything else. That’s not the right way to think about it. It’s better to understand that it’s a lifestyle. It’s who you are. I have this vision that no matter what my titles, no matter what my accolades, no matter what people know me as or what I’ve done for people, I want my title to be Servant of the Most High.

That’s all I want to be known for, is that I’m a servant of the Most High. Matthew 25: 40 says, The King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly, I say to you, to the extent as you did to one of the brothers of mine, even to the least of them, you did it to me. ‘ When we are serving others, we are serving Christ. But how do we serve others? Well, one of the primary functions of the gifts of the spirit is to serve one another. 1 Peter 4: 10 says, As to each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. You see, when somebody receives a gift of healing, it’s not so we can put them on a pedestal and say, Hey, great, you’re a healer. No, it’s so they can serve the body of Christ, bringing healing where it’s needed. If somebody has the gift of What’s another gift? Shout it out. What’s a gift that you’re thinking of? Anyone. This is wake up-time. We’re almost done. A gift of prophecy. Good. Two people said that at the same time.

That’s weird. But prophecy, again, is not so we can call somebody a prophet. It’s so that people can hear the heart of God in the situation that they’re finding themselves in. Prophesy is to build up, to encourage, to speak to them the words of life that they need to hear. It’s the whole… And part of the reason why I think God is hesitant to release the gifts of the spirit, although he will release it to anybody who asks. We haven’t seen that major outpouring that I’m expecting because we have to make sure we know how to steward it well. We got to make sure that, hey, we are going to be the greatest servant we can be by serving those around us. God has given each one of us unique talents for his kingdom. We have spiritual gifts, we have natural gifts, we have abilities, we have talents, we have know-how. Part of the reason why God What brought us together as a church is that everybody has a part to play, everybody has a role to play. There are things you can do that I can’t do. Simply put, there’s things you can do that the person sitting beside you can’t do.

There’s things they can do that you can’t do. And instead of that being a negative thing that causes division, it should be a powerful thing that brings us together. Just think, if everything does its part, what the modern church would be capable of And that brings us to our next point, serving together in unity. Romans 12: 4-5 says, For just as we have many members in one body and all the members do not have the same function, so We, who are many, are also the body in Christ and individually members of one another. We have this understanding that it’s not about me. Everybody say that. It’s not about me. It’s about him. It’s about God. And the question comes down to, how can we serve God best? Well, it’s pretty obvious, is if we can do it in unity, we can do it far better than if we do it all alone. Think about this. If you have a football team and you have the world’s greatest quarterback on the team. But if he doesn’t have any receivers to get the ball, is he going to do anything? If he doesn’t have any defenders who block the people who are trying to tackle him, will he be able to do anything?

No. Even in places where you have superstars, where you have people that are put up on the pedestal, like Connor David is an amazing hockey player. But what would happen if you put him on the ice by himself? Yeah, he might still be a good hockey player, but yeah, he’s not going to win anything. It’s all about working together. It’s about serving in unity. So what is God calling you to serve? How is God speaking to you about serving? Now, one of the things that has always impressed me in this church is how many people we have actively involved in service. It’s one of the got you’s that I use it with the pastors that I hang out with because they would… Just so you’re aware, large churches, if you’re a church over 200 people, you’re lucky if you can get 20% of your people serving. If you’re a church over 500, you’re lucky if you can get 5% of your people serving. In a church like ours, we need 80% of our people serving just to exist. I have always been so amazed at the number of people who serve. And so for part of this is just this message for those of you who are actively serving.

This is just a thank you. Keep doing what you’re doing. You’re doing amazing work. Keep it up. But for those of you who haven’t yet found where you’re supposed to serve, and I get it, every one of us has excuses. But do you really want an excuse to rob you of the blessing God wants to bestow upon you? That’s the question. Do you really want an excuse to get in the way of you having the fullest joy possible? Because you will find your joy in serving others. Now, how do we come about this? And this is going to be homework for you. I’ve decided that I got more to say than the time I have to say it. So I’m just going to start giving you guys homework. It’s fun. They do it in school. Why can’t we do that in church? You’ll notice Pastor Rick passed out some sheets. We’re called the Shape Worksheet. We’re trying to make this available for those online as well. If you want it, just leave a comment in the and we will get it to you. But I just have a little confession to make to each one of you.

This is one of the ways we can use artificial intelligence in a very powerful way. I went to ChatGPT and I said, ChatGPT, can you give me a summary of Rick Warren’s shape? How many of you remember Rick Warren? We went through this as a church a number of years ago, and he gives this shape. And what the shape is, it’s just an acronym that helps you to learn where you best fit, where you should be serving. I just asked ChatGPT here. I said, Hey, can you give me a summary of what this is? Sure. He gives me a summary. It says, Would you like a worksheet for this? I’m like, Yes. Would you like me to print this off in a PDF so you can pass it out to people? Yes. It literally took me longer to print this on the copier than it did to create this worksheet. Yeah, I’m just like, Okay, God, this is one good tool we have. This is what I’ve given each and every one of you is this worksheet for you to go through. Find out where you fit. Just to give you But quick, the S stands for spiritual gifts.

The H stands for your heart, the things you’re passionate about. God’s not going to put you in a place to serve that you hate serving unless you have the gift of helps. Then he puts you wherever it’s needed. But that’s just a joke, but it’s actually true. A is for your abilities. What are you capable of doing? If you’re terrible working with kids, if every part of your being says, No, I don’t want to be around little kids. Well, guess what? We’re not going to put you in the Sunday school. If you don’t have that ability to serve them. We’re not going to ask you to to do the sound on Sunday morning if you don’t have the ability to do the sound. That doesn’t mean we won’t train you how to do it. There’s ways around this, but that’s your abilities. P is your personality. This is a big one. Your personality will actually determine. If you’re somebody who’s an extreme introvert and doesn’t like talking to people, guess what? We’re not going to make you a greeter on the front door. Maybe God will just to stretch you a bit. It’s your personality of the things.

We want our greeters to be people who know how to smile, who are happy people, who are joyous people. Personality plays a big role into it. Eish about your experience. What have you done in life? This one I’ve seen over and over again, where, those of you who know, I’ve run a deliverance ministry for many, many years. And the thing I’ve seen over and over again of the people who get free, who get delivered, they often always turn to starting helping other people to get free in that, too. I see that in a lot of examples, but that’s the one that sticks out in my mind is, yeah, they know it, they understand it, and they can relate. They know how God works in those areas, so they can help others. So that’s your experiences. Just the simplified idea of the shape is your discovering a shape helps you to serve in ways the line with God has designed you. You don’t use a hammer to tighten a screw. You don’t use a butter knife to scrape the paint off a wall. You got to use the right tool for the right job. Every one of you are God’s tools here on the Earth.

Yeah, you’re a tool. I said it. You are God’s tool on the Earth, and he has designed you. He has equipped you. He has enabled you. He has empowered you. He has done everything in you so that you will be able to carry out a very specific and tangible purpose on the earth. And guess what? Nobody can do that job but you. If you don’t do it, it doesn’t get done. Because God designed everybody to be doing something. And if everybody does their part, this world will turn into an amazing place. If we don’t, it will remain the devil’s playground. Ephesians 4: 11-12 says, he gave some as apostle, some as prophet, some as evangelists, some as pastors, and some as teachers for the equipping of the saints, for the work of service, and to building up of the body of Christ. If you’re a saint, raise your hand. Everyone should raise their hand. The Catholic Church had a very big disservice here of monetizing this. No, if you’re a child of God, you are a saint. Read the Bible. It’s our job as church leaders to equip you to do the work of ministry.

That’s our job. And yeah, I notice sometimes I fail. Sometimes I would rather do the work myself than train somebody else to do it because it’s easier, it’s faster. But in the long run, I realize I am losing out. So part of it is all of us as pastors, our job, or apostoles, or prophets, teachers, evangelists. Our job is to teach you how to serve, to minister in the way God has designed you. That’s a fun job. It’s not an easy job, but it’s a fun job. But We realize ministry is not the pastor’s calling, even though we say going into the ministry. No, that’s a misnomer. Ministry is primarily the role of every saint. It’s our job to train you how to do it. Some of us aren’t doing our job well, but some of us want to start doing it good. Acts 6: 1-4 says this in closing, Now at this time, while the disciples were increasing in number, a number of complaints arose on the part of the Hellenistic Jews against the native Hebrews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily serving of food. So the twelve summoned the congregation of the disciples and said, ‘It’s not desirable for us to neglect the word of God in order to serve tables.

Therefore, brothers, select from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the spirit of wisdom, that we may be put in charge to this task. We will devote ourselves to prayer and to the Ministry of the word. There’s so many parts of this verse I would love to get into, but I just love this highlight. They were looking for men to serve tables. And what were the requirements for them to serve tables? They had to be people of good reputation. They had to be full of the Holy spirit and full of wisdom to serve tables. Think about that. Think about God’s requirement for people to serve tables. Yeah, we don’t do this on our own. Each one of us, when we serve, We need to be people of good character. Bible refers to that of good reputation, but full of the spirit and of wisdom. Why do you got to be full of the spirit? Because if you try to serve people under your own strength, you will fail over and over and over again. But when you learn to serve people through the power of the anointing of the Holy spirit, that’s when all these things get added in.

Let’s pray. Lord and heavenly Father, thank you for this day. Thank you, God, for this opportunity for us to gather together. Thank you, God, that you have called us to serve like you have served. You’ve given us the greatest example. And Father, I just pray for each person in this house and each person watching this online now or in the future, that you would reveal to them their calling. You would reveal to them what you want them to do in your kingdom. Father, that they would know beyond knowing that they would be able to serve you out of love and compassion, no matter what you’ve called them to do. Help us in this, Lord. Equip us, Holy spirit. Enable us. And all of God’s people said, Amen. So again, take these papers home with you. Go through Come, get a good idea of where, again, the most important part of service is asking the Holy spirit, where are you going to put me? Because the Bible clearly teaches that the Holy spirit places each one in the body of Christ as he has determined, right? You got to connect with Holy spirit and say, Hey, now, I never said this, but there’s three places, three primary places that I believe you should serve is number one in the church, number one, or number two, let’s put this in the right order.

Number one, your You should be serving your family. You should be serving your family. Number two, the church, and number three, your community. Those are all areas that you should be serving. Find out how you can do it. Again, I know the big obstacle we all come I don’t have time. I don’t have time to do this. I don’t have time to do that. Well, do you want to be in God’s will or do you want to keep running around in circles? Simple question. Amen. God bless you. Fill those out. If there’s anything that you have. I do want to bring a few things to light. I was going through my notes, and in 2019, as a church, we did this thing called a Ministry Fair, where we would open up and just tell everybody all the different places in the church you could serve. This document was 26 pages long. I’m like, Okay, we’re going to put that to aside for now. We’re not going to deal with that one for a bit. But this church has always been amazing at serving others. We just want to remind you that this is a time to find your fit, to find where you’re going to be most effective in his kingdom.

That may mean you have to say no to things so that you have time to do the right thing. Amen. God bless you.