Service

Thank you so much, Ryan. Good morning, everyone. How blessed were we this morning in this worship? It was pretty amazing.

And one of the songs being new. And if you're new here, when we do a new song, it's always like, I hope it works. And it so did. God arrived.

He was here. And I really hope it blessed you. Well, listen. I came home from CRTC last week.

And my bride said, are you feeling OK? And I said, well, honey, when 19 men from this church were singing his praise until our lungs gave out. And in my case, my voice gave out. And my voice is still coming back.

Yeah, we're great. Everything's good. And I see men were fighting for their lives. They were fighting for their marriages.

They were fighting for everything that God has given them. And that has for them. It was such a good weekend. Well, as Ryan said, we're in the spiritual gym series.

And I can see, if I look around the room, I can see many of you have been working out in the God's spiritual gym. I can see it. I can see it. When you are training and fasting in prayer, in the Word of God, in solitude and in Sabbath rest, you can't hide.

And that's good. You can't hide that light, that light that shines from you. You can't hide that joy, that joy that exudes from you. And your willingness to serve.

Your willingness to serve. And when I say light, I want to be very clear. I want to read from Luke chapter 11 verse 33. Jesus says, no one lights a lamp and then hides it and puts it under a basket.

Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand where it's like and be seen by all who enter the house. I think we all kind of grew up with this song, this little light of mine, I'm going to let it shine as you should. Because I think when we see all the news in this earth, we see darkness. And sometimes the darkness allows the light to shine brighter.

So do not hide that light, continue to shining it. And then I mentioned joy. I have to share John chapter 15 verse 11. Jesus says, I have told you these things so that my joy may be complete in you and your joy may be complete.

And I saw this definition of joy. And I wanted to share it with you. It says joy is an internal stability in spite of the external circumstances because of the knowledge that God is in control. Is he in control of your life right now?

It's a settled assurance and quite confidence in God's sovereignty that results in the decision to praise him. Amen? So your willingness to serve others, that's the last part that I keep on seeing with everyone training in the spiritual gym, that is today's title, it is service. We're going to be in service.

So we think about all the gym. We are going to, and this is the thing I love about the teachers that have come before me, the analogies of here's the section of the free weights. There's the section of the multi stations. Someone said there's a smoothie station back there.

I've never been a part of a bougie gym that has a smoothie station, but I took notes very well. In service, we're going to be in the cardio area. Ugh, really Omar? You do know the goal of cardio is to die.

I mean, you get your heart rate up to like ludicrous speed without passing out, and then you survive, and then you do it again, and then you do it again. Why? Because cardio stretches you and ultimately heals your heart. It makes you stronger for the things that you're going to face.

I didn't say you might face, you're going to face. Service is about stretching you, healing you, and making your heart stronger. And Jesus knew this, didn't he? And he taught us that true uncleanliness comes from within, not from outside influences.

Proverbs 4, 23, write this down. Above all else, guard your what? Guard your heart. For everything you do flows from it.

Everything you do, don't miss that do part because that's the action part. Everything you do, every action you take, every decision you make flows from your heart. Well, God, what's the first and greatest commandment? You must love the Lord, your God, with all your what?

Heart first, then your soul, then your mind, then your strength. The creator of all the Alpha, the Omega, let me remind you, knitted you and your mother's womb, knows every hair in your head, and is pumping your heart right now. You can control nothing right now. Those two chambers that bummed, that is not you at all.

You're doing nothing to control that. That is all the creator. So we kick off every part of this series with these key verses in 1 Timothy, chapter 4, 7 through 8. And at the end of 7, it says, train yourself to be godly.

Physical training is good, but training for godliness is much better, promising benefits in this life and the life to come. Don't miss the part of training. Training is an act. It's proactive.

It's not passive. Christianity, and more importantly, pursuing God's will for your life is not passive. And for those on the sidelines and maybe even in the stands, and not on the field, not actively engaged, let me encourage you this morning that God does not call the equipped. He equips the call.

So when you made the decision to say, yes, Jesus, I want you in my heart, he starts equipping you, and that's what this church is doing, and that's why we have these series like that, and we're equipped to handle and face those outside influences. But more importantly, that's your heart has changed forever. So I love this church because it's a responsive church. You could never have been here.

And I'm going to ask for participation. This is always scary, but I'm going to do it. What do you think of when you think of service? What comes to mind?

What is service? Anybody? Giving. It's good.

Serving a church. Good. Workday. Workday.

I think we're at. Workday. Yeah. Those are all good.

I'll stop right there. Let me go to the example of service in Mark, chapter 10, verse 45. The Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. You see, this verse reveals not only the motive for Jesus' ministry, but also the basis for our salvation.

A ransom was paid, a price paid, to release a slave or a captive in bondage. And Jesus paid a ransom for us because we could not pay it ourselves. And we still can't. Jesus' death on the cross released all who believe in him from the devastating consequences of all sin.

We all tend to rank sin, don't we? Sin is sin. And the more you're training in the Word of God and the more you're training in the spiritual gym, you start realizing you don't like sin at all. At all.

It separates you from what God has for your life. Let me get personal. Jesus sets us free from the slavery of addiction, self-hatred, and destructive beliefs. As we say in our household kind or quiet.

See, the thing is what you don't realize, and maybe you do, but let me remind you, when you speak words out of your mouth, the first ears that hear to your own. You are feeding your mind what you speak out to that person. Be careful. God would never speak to you that way.

Don't forget Jesus chose the cross over comfort. So speaking of being a little uncomfortable, like I said, we're back in the cardio area of the spiritual gym. This involves, ready for this? Running?

Yep. Cycling, swimming, jogging, yes. I put in brisk walking. Brisk walking is cardio.

It's good. Feet are kind of essential. And in the first century, walking was the primary mode of transportation. Most people wore sandals made from leather, wood, or plant divers, which offered little protection and left feet directly exposed to the ground.

This resulted in feet accumulating layers of grime, sweat, and debris through the day, especially in hot, dry weather where dust storms were common. The disciples' feet would have more than likely been calloused, rough from constant friction against rough services, which potentially could have blisters and cuts. So we pick up in the book of John. You can come with me to the book of John.

I will have it on the screen here as well. In chapter 13, we're going to start in verse 1. And we're going to go through 17. So John, chapter 13, verse 1 reads, Before the Passover celebration, Jesus knew that his hour had come to leave this world and return to his Father.

He had loved his disciples during his ministry on earth, and now he loved them to the very end. It was time for supper. And the devil had already prompted Judas son of Simon Ascaria to betray Jesus. Jesus knew that the Father had given him authority over everything and that he had come from God and would return to God.

So he got up from the table, took off his robe, wrapped a towel around his waist, poured water into a basin. And then he began to wash the disciples' feet, drying them with the towel he had around him. And when Jesus came to Simon Peter, Peter said to him, Lord, are you going to wash my feet? Jesus replied, you don't understand what I'm doing, but someday you will.

No, Peter protested. You will never, ever wash my feet. Pause. Before you judge Peter.

Because God knows I have in that moment, right? This is Jesus he's talking to. You must understand that this was a profound and shocking gesture in this cultural context. Far beyond a simple act of cleaning, foot washing was typically a menial, humiliating task reserved for the lowest servants or slaves, symbolizing subservience and dealing with a dirtiest heart of the body that I just described.

What a reminder. What a reminder that Jesus wants all the areas of your life. No matter how dirty you see it. No matter how dirty you label it.

No matter how dirty someone has told you, that is, you rebuke that, you renounce that the name of Jesus. That is not who you are. We pick back up in verse eight. I love Jesus, such a good father.

Jesus replied, unless I wash you, you won't belong to me. And typical Peter responds, well, then wash my hands in my head as well, Lord, not just my feet. And Jesus replied, a person who has made all over does not need to wash except for the feet to be entirely clean. And you disciples are clean, but not all of you.

But Jesus knew who would betray him. This is what he meant when he said, not all of you are clean. And after washing their feet, he put on his robe again and sat down and asked, do you understand what I was doing? You call me teacher and Lord and you are right because that's what I am.

And since I, your Lord and teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash each other's feet. I have given you an example to follow. Thank you, Lord. Do as I have done to you.

I tell you the truth, slaves are not greater than their master, nor is the messenger more important than the one who sends the message. Now that you know these things, God will bless you for doing them. You see Jesus, the disciples teacher in our Lord to perform this during the last supper inverted social hierarchies at the time. Jesus was demonstrating ultimate humility, love, and servanthood.

And it foreshadowed his sacrificial death on the cross that we sang about this morning where he would cleanse all of humanity that except him in his heart. And then he leaves us a love in verse 17. I'm gonna read it one more time. Now that you know these things, God will bless you for doing them.

Who needs a blessing in their life? Who's been praying for a blessing in their life? God will bless you for doing those things. Not sitting idle, doing those things.

Verse Peter chapter two verse 21 says, for as a believer, you have been called for this purpose. Since Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example so that you may follow in his footsteps. But Omar, I'm just a greeter. It's very important.

All I do is make the coffee. That's important. Well, all I do is run the slides. It's very important.

Okay? I have physically swept these floors with my family before. The ones you're sitting on right now. I have swept them and I felt like I was pretty good with a broom until the Winter Olympics and I saw curling.

And then I got insecure. Cause those guys and gals are good at the broom. All kidding aside, the point is, are you following in his footsteps? And if you already are, keep going, keep going.

And for those that are saying, well, I wanna follow in his footsteps. I wanna know what that means. What are the next steps? That's what concerns me.

Let me tell you, we've all been there. We've all been there. So many leaders who run these ministries, they've been there. They didn't know.

All they did is raise their hand and said, send me. I don't know what to do, but just tell me what to do and I'll do it. I can only serve for 15 to 20 minutes after service. Perfect.

I can only serve for 15 to 20 minutes to move the coffee to the kitchen to pick up the chairs, come in early, you're an early riser. I can place the chairs, I can make the coffee. And that's all important. But what's important here is service.

Cardio strengthens your heart because everything you do flows from it and God will bless you for doing them. Yeah, but my efforts, my giftings, they won't matter. No one. No one cares.

You can't. There's a man by the name of Gregor Mendel. He was an Austrian monk. I already got Zephyr's attention.

He spent years in Monastery Garden, meticulously crossbreeding pea plants. This quirky hobby gave Gregor joy and solitude in an observation. What this work was ignored. All his documented observation was ignored.

He didn't care. And he died in 1884. But that's not the end of the story, is it? In 1900, his work was resurrected, and is now called Mendel's Laws, which revolutionized biology, agriculture, influencing everything from crop breeding to genetic engineering.

Let me ask you a question. Do you like to eat? Gregor's work allows farming and farmers to occur at scale, to be affordable, and to be abundant, regardless of climate changes. Billions of people on this planet can eat because of Gregor Mendel's quirky hobby that gave him joy that nobody paid attention to during his life.

And the point is, God is looking for servants, not celebrities. I thought this was a popularity contest. Absolutely not. It's not.

It's not. Well, I see him. And he's struggling just like you are. And he has Christ in his life that he's chasing after.

We're all the same here, brothers and sisters. If you don't have Christ, you're my neighbor. I want to bring you guys a brother one day. If you don't have Christ in your heart.

So we're going to go through five quick, important, biblical truths about service. We're going to start with number one. Let's go. We are called, we are all called to service, not just some, all.

Jesus did not wash his disciples' feet just to get them to show greater hospitality to teach each other. It wasn't a hospitality training exercise. His far greater goal was to extend his mission on earth after he was gone. These men, these disciples were moved into the world, serving God, serving each other, and serving all the people to whom they would take the message of salvation too.

And because of this service that didn't stop and is not stopping today, the Gospels are now translated to 98% of the world's languages. To the ends of the earth, hallelujah. And God is not stopping and he will not stop. He loves us way more than your mind can fathom.

And in Hebrews 914, it says, how much more will the blood of Christ who through the internal Holy Spirit willing offered himself unblemished, that is without moral or spiritual imperfection as a sacrifice to God, cleanse your consciousness from dead works and lifeless observances to serve that ever, living God. As I said before, God has never, and will never call anyone to idleness ever. That's on us. That's on me.

That's on you. Luke 11, chapter 11, verse 28 says, Jesus replied, said, but even more blessed are all who hear the word of God and what? And put it into practice. I love the message version.

It says, even more blessed are those who hear God's word and guard it with their lives. You see, training is putting all that knowledge, the cardio, the training, and the spiritual gym, all that knowledge into practice, which makes it wisdom, because wisdom is the ability to apply knowledge of God's word. And then you want to guard it with all your life, because you realize how much it's helped you and how much it has just freed you from the bondage that we were all in before we had Christ. There is no such thing as spiritual vacation or spiritual retirement.

We are all called to serve. Amen? Number two, we serve because we're saved. We don't serve and then gain salvation.

You cannot gain anything by works. Works flows from the heart fueled by the Holy Spirit. Charles Spurgeon says it this way, you who are seeking salvation by your good works, what a miserable life yours must be. You toil in toil, meaning you hustle, you grind, but you never get that which you toil after and you never will.

For the Bible clearly says it is by grace you have been saved, not by works. The child of God does not work to be saved. He works because he is saved. The people of God do not serve him to be forgiven, but because they are forgiven.

Amen? The moment you try to give something to God and place your name of it, that's the moment it doesn't become grace anymore. It becomes about you. And this is not about us at all.

This is about Jesus Christ, our Father, our Creator of all. Number three, we serve with gladness. Psalm 102, serve the Lord with gladness and delight, come before his presence with a joyful singing like we did this morning. You see in ancient times around when this was written, when you served a king, you had to be happy.

You had to be glad. Because what would happen if you weren't? You were fired. No.

You had a bad performance review. No. You were jailed. No.

You were executed. You were executed. What? Are you serious?

Just for not being happy and glad with the king. Yeah. It's not on the screen, but if you want to come with me, I'm going to Nehemiah real quick. The book of Nehemiah.

If you're struggling in the workplace, I'm going to talk a little bit about this, but if you're struggling at your work, this is such a good reminder and a good book. I recommend it. But I'm going to speak to chapter two, I'm only going to go through six verses, chapter two. Here we go.

This is Nehemiah writing and speaking. Early the following spring in the month of Nissan, during the 12th year of King Adzerky's reign, I was serving the king his wine. Listen, I had never before appeared sad in his presence. So he's already sharing.

This doesn't happen. So the king asked me, why are you looking sad? You don't look sick to me. You must be deeply troubled.

This is Nehemiah. He said, then I was terrified. But I replied, long live the king. How can I not be sad for the city where my ancestors are buried in his ruins and the gates have been destroyed by fire?

The king asked, well, how can I help you? With a prayer to God of heaven, I replied, pause. So you're getting the picture, right? Nehemiah scared, but he's like, I'm just going to have to share with you since you're really asking me what's going on.

I'm going to be brave and I'm going to share with you. And the king's saying, how can I help you? Which is kind of different because they don't, kings don't ask that, okay? But this is the beauty of Nehemiah.

And this is the beauty of your story. I'm going to share a story about it. With a prayer to God of heaven, I replied. So he's not only replying to the king, he's serving, but he's replying to his king who he serves first.

Does that make sense? If it is to please the king, and if you are pleased with me, you're serving, send me to Judah to rebuild the city where my ancestors are buried. The king with the queen sitting beside him asks, how long will you be gone when will you return? After I told him how long I would be gone, the king agreed to my request.

Jamie and I, I've been with this group, call it a group of leaders that I work for, I work with now for about 17 years. In the first seven years of my career, we were asked to move to St. Louis, to San Francisco, to Virginia Beach, to Scottsdale. And I can't remember the other city El Paso, well thank you, yeah she, El Paso.

Whoo, no offense El Paso. El Paso's cool. But you're here. Yeah, yeah, yeah, and they stayed here, thank you.

They stayed here. But God said don't move. But in corporate America, if you're not mobile, you're Mr. Chance.

Good for corporate America. And so 10 years ago, almost nine years ago, the chair of the board now who at the time was the CEO of this company calls me, said, hey Omar, I've been Austin. I'm at our new building. Let's go and have coffee.

And I come and have coffee with this man, he said, hey, I want you to run this division, the home offices in Austin. And I'm like, great are you Lord? Like I'm just like, you know, I'm just singing like Jamie. Jamie, we were faithful.

We were faithful to God's word and to God's plan for a life. And to hear these people that tried to move us, now they're in our town that we never moved from. The point is you don't mope or sulk when you're serving the king. You are joyous with love and trust because love is what resides in you.

And if you're still struggling because this does take some time, Chris Duke's message, where's Chris Duke? He's back there. He had a message in December that's on our site and app. It says about Winers versus Worshippers.

It's so good. And I would put it on loop or I'd put the song we just, saying at the end in your car on repeat or maybe stay in second service if we have room. But here I am, Lord, send me. Some of you saying that.

Do you mean it? Because he's gonna call on you. And it's not gonna be painful. It's not gonna hurt because that next step is what he's already guided you to.

Okay? He's got you. Now I'm not saying it's pain free. Don't hear what I'm not saying.

Don't hear what I'm not saying. I'm just saying he has called you not to idleness but to move and to train and to do and to serve others. Number four, we're almost done. Serving is its own reward.

The reward of serving is getting to serve. You go from duty to delight. As our pastor Ryan loves to say and he taught on this. You go from a got to to I get to.

It's not an obligation anymore. I get to do this for the Lord. God, you've done so much for me. What do I do?

Richard Foster, before I go there, I put a note in here and I almost pass it, is that we don't need a pat on the back. It's not a reward. Richard Foster calls this self-righteous service. Self-righteous service requires external rewards.

It needs to know that people see and appreciate the effort. It seeks human applause with proper religious modesty, of course. The flesh winds against service but screams against hidden service. It's trains and pools for recognition.

It will devise subtle means to call attention to the service rendered. Come on, come on. This is not us. This is not the heart that Jesus paid for.

It's all through reference and all in admiration of what occurred on the cross. And in the ongoing training in the cardio section and in the entire spiritual gym that allows us to go through life nearing Jesus Christ with gladness. It's not gonna be on the screen, but Mark nine, if you have your Bible, go to the book of Mark, chapter nine, I'm gonna be in three verses, to good, good reminder within this topic. And then we'll move to number five.

Mark chapter nine, verse 33, after they arrived at Caponum and settled in a house, Jesus asked his disciples, what were you discussing out on the road? Well, they didn't answer because they had been arguing about which of them was the greatest. And like a good father, he sits him down. He says, come on, I can just see him.

Come on, boys, have a seat. He called the 12 disciples over to him and he said, whoever wants to be first must take last place and be the servant of everyone else. This is leadership. If some of you are managers, supervisors, VPs, owners of your company may be overseas, a bunch of people, maybe you're a father or mother, this is leadership.

And can I say, if you're in those roles, can you please stop using people and serve them, please? Serve them. Don't manipulate them, don't use them, you serve them. Especially if you call Christ your father in heaven and your savior and your guiding life, they are watching you, especially when you say that.

Serve them, serve them. Every time an employee would have had a morning or a loss or was sick, I don't care about their motive. I'm going to serve them. And miraculously, they worked twice as hard for me than they ever did before because I serve them.

I love them. God entrusted these people to me. God, these are your children. They're not mine.

So tell me what to do, right? He said, Jesus is mission was to serve others and give his life as a ransom as we're saying. And the good news is he's alive. We don't have to wait until April 5th on Easter to say he has risen.

He has risen right now and forever. And by his grace, we are set free to serve with gladness and joy. Serving is its own reward. Number five, last one.

Serving proves, you're real. James 2, 26 says, just as the body is dead without breath, so also faith is dead without good works. The message version says it this way, the very moment you separate body and spirit, you end up with a corpse. You separate faith and good works and you get the same thing, a corpse.

A.W. Tozer says it this way, without such true Christian service, one lives as a parasite, consuming without contributing, leading nothing of lasting value. Ouch. Now, if you're new here, let us serve you.

I'm kind of talking a little, this is a little direct with some of my brothers and sisters here. But if you are new here and do not have relationship with Christ, let us continue serving you by joining a life group, signing up for our Discovery class, talking to one of our pastors about the seven steps of freedom, and then eventually our discipleship series. But all others in this room you know your value is in Christ. 15 to 30 minutes before and after church, we could use your help.

Sunday School can use your help. Strike Team could use your help. First impression team can use your help. All we're asking you to do is say, here I am, send me.

You see, the cardio section of the spiritual gym is not a request or a suggestion. It's an essential to strength and posture of your heart. I need everybody to stand up, please. What I'm going to do is I'm going to read some scripture over your life right now, and then I'm going to go to prayer, and that's the end of the service.

At that time, if you need prayer, there's going to be a lot of prayer warriors out here after service. We'd love to pray for you. We'd love to pray with you. We'd love to battle with you.

That's what we do. Please close your eyes. Please close your eyes. I'm going to read from Ephesians, chapter 5, verses 1 through 2 in the message version.

Watch what God does. Watch what he did, and then you do it. Like children who learn proper behavior from their parents, mostly what God does is love you. Keep company with him and learn a life of love.

Observe how Christ loved us. His love was not cautious but extravagant. He didn't love in order to get something from us, but to give everything of himself to us. Love like that.

Let's pray.