**Video Transcript**
Well, it's great to see you today! If I haven't told you lately, I love you. I'm so glad that we get to do this together in the Kingdom. Look around at all the wonderful people that are here. Just look at somebody and wink and say, "I'm glad you're here." Amen! Wow, it's just such a great, great, great time.
Well, if you have your Bibles with you, your iPhone, your iPad, however you read the scripture, would you hold it up? Let's make this confession together. Say it:
"This is my Bible. It is the word of God. It is life to me today. I receive the word. I confess my mind is alert, my heart is receptive. I am obedient, and I will never be the same again in Jesus' name. Amen."
Hey, while you're doing that, while you're in activity there, take out your phone. Yeah, in church, we ask you to take out your phone because I want to tell you about a brand new YouVersion plan that we're doing. It's about the journey to Easter. It's a 14-day plan, and it starts today, actually.
So you can go to thefathershouse.com and see it there, or you can just scan that little QR code, and it'll take you to the journey to Easter. It starts today and ends on Easter morning. It'll be a great time for you.
Well, listen, two weeks away, and we're at Easter. Hope you got your Easter tickets. We have some 7:30 tickets left. Let me remind you to please honor the ticket that you took, you know, the one you took. Because we're going to find that there are going to be a lot of guests showing up, especially at the 11:00 and 9:00 services.
So that's why we're really encouraging as many of you as can to go to the 7:30 service. We still have tickets for that. You may just say, "You know what? I'm going to attend that one, and then I'll just hang around and serve the rest of the day. I don't need a seat; I'll just work wherever you need somebody."
And actually, we know there's going to be a lot of people showing up, so we've got plans for overflow out in the foyer. We're going to scoot every seat we have in here, so when you come in, make sure you save room for people.
And by the way, if you have two good legs and you can walk, don't park out in front. We're saving those spaces out in front for people that have challenges and difficulties and new guests. So just park somewhere around; the parking lot is open for the school. The school's so kind for us, so be sure that you do that.
All right, one more thing. I sound like a TV commercial. "Lev a Legacy" is coming up. That's our yearly special time that we dedicate a special gift to God, and we will receive those on Easter Sunday. We're going to actually bring those in and offer them up to God together as a sacrifice of praise because it's not your tithe; it's a special sacrifice that you're giving.
$160,000 is going to wards all the missions that we support locally, nationally, and around the world, and then $40,000 of that to redo the sign out there, make signage so that people pull on the campus, they know where to go, and they can see all that.
So I'm believing that we go well beyond that. I'm really praying and asking you to hear what God would have you to say. I gave you the brochure a couple of months ago, and these are missions that we support, and we do that from what we ask you to do.
So if somebody comes up to you on their own and asks you for money, they're out of order. We don't do that like that here at the Father's House. If there's a need, we let you know about that need, and we try because as we get bigger, I mean, everybody could come up with a need for you, and you feel sympathy, and then they use my name and say, "Pastor told me I could do this." I didn't do it; I didn't tell them that.
All right, I don't want you to be constantly harassed by people that want your money, and even though it may be a good thing, you know we vet the ones that we can, and we do what we can in the midst of that. So are we okay with that? Awesome, awesome.
Well, let's pray. Father, we thank you this morning. We love you. We thank you for everyone that's here today, our regular attenders, Lord, our guests that are with us today, those that are watching online. Father, as we look into your word, I pray for the anointing to take my words and make them words that come from your scripture.
Lord, give me revelation and insight. Give us revelation and insight as we study your word today. And Lord, I pray at the end of the service today that, Lord Jesus, you would be glorified, magnified, lifted up. We pray that your saints would be encouraged today and that the enemy would be terrified in the name of Jesus.
Well, we're in this series, "I Love My Church," and we started talking about that. It's not unusual to love your church. Why shouldn't you love your church? If we are the church, then you are the church, and I love you, right?
So look at your neighbor and say, "I love you." I love you! Look at the other one in case they feel bad. Tell them, "I love you too." I really do.
Ephesians 5:15-17, we looked at that one. Remember, "Be careful how you live. Live wisely, not foolishly. Make the most of your time and make every opportunity to do good because evil is everywhere. Don't live carelessly without thinking. Instead, make sure you understand what the Lord wants you to do with your life."
What does He want you to do with your life? I mean, that's important. It's not important in life just to go through life, but it's to discover what He wants to do with my life.
So we said, "I love my church." So how do we walk that out? Well, we said one way we do that is that we want to live on mission. Say, "Mission." We want to live on mission.
Jesus said in Matthew 28:19, "Therefore, I want you to go make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit." In the book of Acts, He gives the church a clear directive. This is all review; we've been talking about that.
We are gathered together, and when we gather together, we get equipped. And when we get equipped, then we go, and then we glorify God.
The question I asked last week: When you get to heaven, who will you bring with you? When you get to heaven, who will you bring with you? Easter's coming. More people are ready for Easter service than any other time. Easter separates Christianity from every other religion.
Every other religion, the founder is dead. You can find his burial. But with Jesus, He's not dead. He is your Jesus. He's sitting at the right hand of the Father right now, and He's hearing our prayers. Let's say, "Yay, Jesus! Thank you, Jesus!"
So you say, "Well, I've been inviting people, but they haven't come yet." But maybe they're one invitation away from you inviting them.
So today, we want to continue this "I Love My Church" and ask, "How can I love my church?" And here it is today: we want to serve with purpose. Say, "Serve with purpose."
Here's the example: Jesus in Mark 10:43-45. "Whoever wants to be a leader," another translation says, "whoever wants to be great must be your servant." Be your what? Servant! And whoever wants to be first among you must be the slave. Underline that; I'm going to come back to that. That's really important.
Must be the slave of everyone else. For even the Son of Man, Jesus, didn't come to be served, but He came to what? Serve! Jesus came to what? Serve! If Jesus came to serve, what should I do? Serve! And give. He gave His life a ransom for many.
One word that has been in our vocabulary as a church that we are going to exit out and we're going to never use this word again, and it's the word "volunteer." We've used that; we've said we have a volunteer banquet. We've done all that. Well, we don't have that. What we have is a serve team.
If you volunteer, you're on a serve team, and we have serve team coaches that will help you. So Paul and Peter both picked up on what Jesus said, and they said, "I am a bondservant of Jesus Christ." A bondservant. Say, "Bondservant."
The Greek word is the word "doulos," which means a slave. Literally, it meant a person owned by another for his lifetime.
Now, let me explain to you about slavery in the Old Testament because sometimes people look at that, and they just don't understand that slavery was never endorsed in the Old Testament. Paul comes along and talks about that the church was leading in that.
So in the midst of that, let me tell you about this whole thing about being a bondservant. In the Old Testament, if you racked up debts more than what you were able to pay, there was no such thing as declaring bankruptcy. You declared you were going to prison. Because if you owed more than you could pay, you went to prison.
So you would be there until you paid the debt in prison. But sometimes that debt was so big you'd think, "I'm never going to get out of here." But if someone who knew you or someone who cared about you, they would come along to the judicial system and simply say, "I want to pay for his freedom. I'll pay for all of the debts that they've accrued. I'll pay for all of those, and they will be set free."
But they weren't set free to be on their own. Because that person paid the full price of the debt that you owed, you had to become a slave or a bondservant to them. But it wasn't for life; it was for seven years.
After seven years, even if you didn't work enough to pay off the debt, after seven years, the legal system said, "You're free. You may go now."
But if someone says, "Look, I know that my master paid more for my freedom than what I've been able to walk off and work off in seven years. So here's what I want to do." You can read it in Exodus 21.
So they said, "Here's what I want to do. I declare that I do not want to go free. I am at peace here in my master's house. I don't want to go free, but I will be known as a bondservant, a doulos, for the rest of my life."
And so then they had a little procedure they would do. The owner of the bondservant would take them to the doorpost of the house. They would take a long awl or a nail like this. They would take the earlobe of the servant, put that through there, and they would nail that into the doorpost.
And by doing that, they were saying the servant was saying, "I willingly receive this mark because for the rest of my life, I will serve this man who paid for me that I couldn't get out." And they were called a bondservant, and so they lived there.
So that's a picture, isn't it? A picture of what Jesus did for us. I had a debt I couldn't pay; it was growing every day. And Jesus came along and said, "Hey, let me pay for that."
But it won't be just a nail in my earlobe. For Jesus, it was a nail in His feet, a nail in His hands, a spear in His side. And as the blood came out, He said, "Therefore, it is finished. Paid in full. Eddie pays no more debts. He is a free person."
So one day in life, then I understand that I'm not free because I choose. I'm free because Jesus paid the price. And so I say to Him, "I recognize and realize you paid the price for me, and I'm not going to go out here and live however I want to live on my own. But I declare I want to be a servant, a bondservant, a slave to you, Jesus, for the rest of my life."
If you've done that, would you give the Lord a hand clap and say, "Yeah, that's me! Yes, that's me! I've done that!"
So basically, what Jesus is saying to us when He talks about being a servant and being a slave is He simply saying, "You are not allowed to be a spectator in the church, okay? But you're to serve in the church."
I meet a lot of people. We've been doing this now how long, Tim? Almost 28 years. I meet a lot of people who come in every Sunday, and they like us. They like our stylistics. Now, there are other people that don't like our stylistics, and we encourage them to go somewhere else where they feel comfortable because that's who we are.
We have loud music; we're exuberant people. We love God; we praise; we make a lot of noise around here. All right? Life, we laugh; we enjoy life, right?
And so I've seen people come in and say, "Boy, I love this church," and I've seen them sit and soak. Because that's some of you. You've been coming to this church for years, but you've never found a place to become like Jesus and serve.
That doesn't mean just serve here at the church, but it means serving somewhere in the community. It's making a difference, like Allan last night with his life. He's down in the community, and he's serving the community in the event that they had yesterday.
So that's what I'm saying. If I go through life and I just want to be a spectator, I've come for the show. Here, some people say, "Well, I went to my church for the real good stuff, and I came to your church for the show."
Well, they came for some reason, but I hope after a while it's not just, "I'm going to sit here and soak," but "I'm going to do and be like Jesus. I'm going to find a place to serve in the church and in the community with my life."
We're not to just be consumers, okay? We come every Sunday; we consume, we consume, we consume the worship, we consume the life, we consume the coffee, we consume the water. No, we're to be contributors.
So where are you giving? The scripture says, "God has given each of you," say, "each of you," "some special abilities. Be sure that you use them to do what? Help each other."
So here's a word that we're crossing out: we'll no longer say in this church "volunteer" because we're not volunteers; we're servants, right? The word "volunteer" is not in the Bible; "servants" is in the Bible.
Listen, if you see yourself as a volunteer, so that's why I'm saying I'm trying to clarify the difference between being a volunteer and being a servant. If you see yourself as a volunteer, then you eventually will develop an attitude problem in serving, and your attitude will be like this: whether you say it or not, "You better know that you're lucky because I'm here, and I'm serving. I'm volunteering. You better treat me right because if you don't, I won't volunteer anymore. I'll quit tithing, and I'll go negative on you, and I'll be disgruntled, give you a piece of my mind, and everybody else a piece of my mind, which I don't have much to lose."
And so don't ever ask me to inconvenience myself. Just be thankful I do what I do. You want me to do what you want me to come to the 7:30 service? Don't—what do you mean? I do—you know who I am? You know how long I've been here?
It's like last week, somebody came out. It must have been somebody in the 11:00 service. Hope you're not here. And we said we have 7:30 tickets left. "What? You don't have an 11:00 service? That's a service I always come to!"
In other words, I mean, Jesus might come back during the 11:00 service, and I got to be sure that I'm here.
It's a picture like this. Yeah, here's a picture. Let's just say this is serving, or for you, maybe volunteering somewhere. I volunteer, so I'm going to volunteer in kids' ministry. So when I stick my fist in here, man, the water gets higher. It's all good.
And so if I'm just a volunteer, there'll come a time because isn't it amazing? We say, "Oh God, just use me. Use me wherever you want to use me." And so people who have a volunteer attitude, after a while, they simply say, "All they do at the Father's House is use me."
And that's why you prayed. So we get that attitude. If I don't show up, there's going to be a big vacancy where I was. So you take your hand out. I'm not going to serve; I'm not going to volunteer anymore.
Well, would you look at this picture of water? You put your fist in there, and you created a space. Yeah, but when your fist came out, the water went back, and we never know you're gone. Our heart hurts, and on that week, somebody else may have had to double up.
But guess what? It won't be long until that place is filled. Somebody else will receive your reward because you're just volunteering, and you're not serving.
Let's say, "Serve! Serve!" You want to serve? Serve!
Servants think not about "I," but they think about others. The heart is made to be like Jesus.
Hey, if you have your Bibles, turn with me to 1 Chronicles 12, and I want to read a passage to you, and I hope you can follow along. You got your Bible, you got your iPhone, wherever it is. It's also on the sky Bible if you don't have it today.
But David is coming into his kingdom, and there are people that are going to come along, and either they're going to volunteer or they're going to serve to work with David in setting up God's kingdom in Jerusalem.
So in verse 14 of 1 Chronicles 12, these warriors from God were army commanders. The weakest among them could take a hundred regular troops, and the strongest could take a thousand.
These were men that crossed the Jordan River during the seasonal flooding at the beginning of the year and drove out all the people living on the low banks on the east and the west banks. Others from Benjamin and Judah came to David. Would you say that with me? "Came to David."
David didn't send out a help wanted to help build the kingdom, right? But they were moved of God to take the initiative. Take the initiative to say, "I've come to be with you, David."
I mean, so they took the initiative. David went out to meet them, and he said, "If you come in peace," underline that, "if you come in peace to help me, you're my friends. But if you come to betray me," I'm going to look at that in just a minute. Underline that word "betray." I'll tell you what that means in Hebrew.
"If you come to betray me to my enemies, I'm innocent. Then God will see to it, and He'll punish you." Then the spirit of Amasai, the leader of the 30, said, "We are yours, David. We are on your side, son of Jesse. Peace and prosperity be to you and success to all who help you, for our God is the one who helps us."
So David let them join him, and he made them officers of his troop. Notice the questions that he asked: "Are you coming peaceably as my friend, or are you coming as an enemy to betray me?"
In other words, he simply took time to ask, "Why have you come?" I remember in the early days, if you had a heartbeat, yeah, and you showed up, we were going to say, "We need you."
So in the midst of all of that, without asking someone, "Why did you come? Where have you come from?" You know, so you get people that have a hidden agenda, which is the word "betray" here. The word "betray" is a hidden agenda.
So they show up, and if you don't ask a question, you simply say, "Well, you know what happened at the last place you were at? Well, they asked me to leave. I had five women on the side; I stole money, and I just thought I'd come to your church and see what I could get along with."
There can only be one vision, and that has to be the vision of the Lord. Did you come to be with me, or did you come to betray me?
The word there "betray" is, "Do you have a hidden agenda?" So here's what they would do. If someone that they were envious of was very famous or very influential or had a position that they wanted, they would bring—and this is true; you can study it—they would get a dagger, cover that dagger up in a cloth, they'd hide it under their garment, and they would come and say, "God has sent me. I'm so glad I'm here. Hallelujah!"
And as you're saying "Hallelujah," they drop that; they pull out the dagger, and they stab you in the heart because they have a hidden agenda.
So David is saying, "I want to know you're mighty men, but have you come peacefully, or do you have a hidden agenda?" Are you coming to me because you know that I'm anointed and I'm going to establish the kingdom? I killed Goliath. Do you have a hidden motive?
So what David is talking about here and what would often happen, if I would come to Eddie and say, "Eddie, I want to serve with you. I want to serve in some way," what they would do is they'd take their cloak off to show there was nothing hidden inside, and they would simply lay it on the ground and say, "I'm going to open up everything to you, Eddie. There are no secrets. There are no secrets. I'm not coming to you to serve for a while and to get to know everybody and get my mailing list built up and then to just nab you in the heart. But Eddie, you can see what I've had here. You can see that."
Because you see, as a pastor, what I've discovered is that some people come to us along the way, and they have a hidden agenda.
Okay, oh, I love the Father's House. I'm so happy to be here. It'll be wonderful. I'll serve in the youth ministry. I'll serve in whatever ministry, and I'll just be that. And all the time, they're building up, and here's what people say: "You know what? You ought to have more of a ministry. You ought to be in charge because if you was in charge, things would go a whole lot better."
A whole lot better. And so on the inside, there's a hidden agenda. But if we're open, we'll say at the very beginning, "I have no hidden agenda. I'm not waiting until I build up my crowd and then say to people, 'Well, you know, we people said these nice remarks. Well, I just want you to know if I start something somewhere, you can't come because I won't let you come.' Liar! Because all the time, a hidden agenda, and I'm building mine so I can do what I want to do, and I can influence."
Pastor Kevin is experiencing that right now with a young man. Very wonderful, and Kevin loved him, and he's doing great pastoring a church. And as other people began speaking into his ear, saying, "You know what? You're the most important one. You should be in charge here. You should do this."
So the guy comes to Kevin and says, "Hey, we're going to move to Nashville and start our own church," and rips Kevin's heart right out. All along, he had a hidden agenda.
But I'll tell you what I love: I love people who are wide open and come to you with no hidden agenda. We've had—look, I've had pastors do this. I've had pastors come and say, "No hidden agenda. I love you. I'm here. I'm going to serve you. There's going to be a time when I'm going to start a church, but I promise you I won't steal any of your people. I'm not here to do that, but I want you to know there'll come a time in my life that I'm going to start a church."
No hidden agenda. So we're okay in the midst of all that. Do you see what I'm saying?
So it says, "So when people come to you, sometimes they'll do the same thing with you. They have a hidden agenda to want to be your friend because they know you can bail them out or they know you can do something for them."
But here David is saying, "Look, if you come like this, we need to come not with a hidden agenda to God, but we need to just come and say, 'Lord, here I am. I have no hidden agenda. I just want to be like you. I want to serve, serve, and help people make a difference with their life.'"
David said, "Okay, if your heart is for me, then my heart is for you." Look, any of these guys could have started their own ministry. They were not intimidated by David, and they weren't impressed by David. David killed Goliath, but one of these guys that came to him climbed down on a day full of snow into a pit where a lion was and with his own hands killed that lion.
Another one of these men took a sword and with a sword by himself killed 6,000 Philistines. So any of them could have said, "I'm almost—I could do my own." But what they realized is we can wander around in the desert, and we can have our little ministry, or we can come to you, David, and realize the hand of God is on you. That's where the anointing is.
And I'm laying down everything of my agenda to help you build the kingdom and help you to do whatever God has called you to do. And you know what? That's the Father's House. That's you. That's people that are tried and true, and you've been here. Give the Lord a hand and say, "Yay God! Yay God! Yay!" [Applause]
A hidden agenda will kill you. Notice the disciples. Judas had a hidden agenda, and it killed him. He was the first disciple to die. And then there's John the Baptist. They call it John the Beloved One. John says, "I was the one that Jesus loved the most."
That's probably because John loved Jesus so much. The pictures that we have is that John loved to be near Jesus. You see, some people want to be in the proximity of Jesus, but they don't really want to know what's on His heart.
John was close enough to hear the heartbeat of Jesus. No agenda. And guess what? He was the last disciple to die. A hidden agenda will eventually destroy you.
So in the time remaining, I have seven attitudes of a servant. I'm going to compare volunteering and serving, all right? So let's look at these real quickly. I mean, they're just so simple. You'd think, "Man, he should have come up with something deeper than this," but maybe it'll help us.
All right, number one: Volunteering is something you do; serving is something you are.
Okay? Volunteers say, "Look at what I did. Hope you notice." Because if you don't notice what I did, but a servant will say, "I'm willing to sacrifice and serve."
A volunteer always wants people to see what they do and know what they do, but a servant says, "The only important thing is not that people see what I do, but that Jesus sees my heart, and I'm serving out of a heart of gratitude."
Number two: Volunteers focus on what they give; servants focus on what Jesus gave.
A volunteer's attitude is, "Man, I've given so much. I've given so much time, so much energy, so much." And they're focused on what they give, and they've got it sometimes tallied down in the thing.
"Do you know how many hours I have volunteered in the last month? And do you know how many people sit on Sunday and they never volunteer? But this is how much that I've given. This is how much that I've done."
But a servant focuses not on how much they do but how much Jesus has done for them.
Have you ever heard of the Moravian Revival? It was one of the biggest revivals that ever happened. There were two young men that were saved in the Moravian Revival, and when they understood that there's a purpose for their life and they heard the story about an island in the West Indies that had 3,000 slaves that were there, their heart was touched.
"We want to go to that island, and we want to carry the gospel of Jesus Christ." But the owner of that island was a British man who was an atheist, and he said, "No, I will not receive any missionaries to my island. My slaves are mine, and I don't want missionaries to come along and interrupt with what I'm doing."
So these two Moravian boys, they sold themselves into slavery on the West Indies island for the rest of their life. It wasn't a short missionary journey, but they were going for the rest of their life.
It wasn't something everybody would notice and everybody would encourage them. It was something they would do because they were motivated because of Jesus.
So on the day that they got in the boat and started sailing away to this island, their family, their loved ones were on the island. And as the boat was going away from shore, and the people knowing they'll never see these two boys again, these boys look back, and one of them raised his fist high in the air and he said this real loud:
"May the Lamb who was slain receive the reward of His suffering! May the Lamb who was slain receive the reward of His suffering!"
And that became the Moravian call, and the Moravians went around the world and sold themselves into slavery to carry the gospel of Jesus Christ.
You don't see that in a lot of places, so that we can clap and say you're doing a great job, but it was their heart that was motivated to be like Jesus and to serve.
Servants focus on what Jesus gave. He gave so much; I've got to give a little, right?
Number three: Volunteers keep score; servants make sacrifices.
Volunteers keep score. "Well, you know, I've done this, and I've done that, and I've done something else." But servants just say, "I'm willing to make a sacrifice. Whatever you want me to do."
Servants say, "Don't inconvenience me. Don't ask me to do more." I mean, they say, "I am willing to be inconvenienced." I'm sorry, "inconvenience." Just ask me what you need.
A volunteer says, "If you need me, and if I don't show up, you're in trouble." Volunteers keep score; servants make sacrifices.
Number four: Volunteering is time-sensitive; serving is need-sensitive.
Volunteers say, "I can only give you this much because I've only got this much time. I can only give you this much money because I've only got so much."
But servants say, "You know what? I'll rearrange my schedule to help meet the need, and it doesn't matter how long it takes."
Let me say this to you: If you have a background in helping kids with special needs, we have a great opportunity for you to serve here at the Father's House. We have some kids coming with special needs, and our team is not quite equipped to take care of all the kids that we have plus them.
So if you have some success in that area or background, there's a great opportunity for you to make a difference. So you can use your connection card, or you can call this week, or when we're leaving today, you can say something to Pastor Tim or somebody. We'll put you in the right order, okay?
Volunteers want themselves to look good.
Number five: Volunteers want themselves to look good; servants want to make God look good.
What else can I say about that? Well said! Amen, right?
Number six: Volunteering is about convenience; serving is about commitment. Say, "Commitment."
In 2 Kings chapter 17, there were some people that were being attacked by lions, and they cried out to God, "God, save us! Keep us away from the lions!" And God did.
But the scripture says they feared the Lord, but they served their own God. In other words, what they were saying is, "I want just enough of you, God, to keep the lions away, but don't ask me for more. I want to be connected but not committed."
It's the difference in the chicken and the pig. You've heard that story. People sat down to a breakfast: bacon, eggs, toast. It sounds pretty good about now, Mike. Sounds pretty good.
Said, "Well, I wonder who made the greatest sacrifice?" Person said, "Well, the chicken was just inconvenient, but the pig, he gave it all."
You don't just cut a slab of bacon out; it takes the whole pig.
Yeah, so my question to us today is this: Do you want to just do things that are convenient, or do you want to be all in, committed? Whatever it takes.
Number seven: Volunteering makes you superior; serving makes you humble.
A volunteer says, "I'm in this position, and I'm really important." A volunteer says to Andrea, "Andrea, I'm really good at solos."
Andrea says, "Yeah, come and watch the team for a while."
"Oh no, no, no! I don't want to watch! You don't understand! I'm ready, and I'll take a solo every week! Every week!"
And Andrea says, "Well, it doesn't kind of work that way, you know."
"Well, I want it every week because I want to be on stage. I want to stand up here. I want to stand up here with Matt. Yeah, put the light on me!"
Right? I moved. They'll talk to me about that this week. They'll say, "You moved out of the light."
But isn't it amazing? I moved out of the light, and the light came with me. It's because of you. Because of you.
But you see what I'm saying? People will do something if they know they get all the credit or they see people say, "You know what? At the last church, I preached like once a month."
I'll say, "You did?" And that's all I'll say. I know what they're saying. If you just let me—and their attitude is not, "I just want to serve the people and serve the Lord." Their attitude is, "If I get up here, then everybody's going to see how good I am, and they're going to applaud me on the back, and they're going to notice me, and they're going to glory in me."
But not a servant. A servant says, "I get to do this not to bring glory to myself but to bring glory to Jesus."
The moment that pride walks onto the stage, God walks off. The moment that pride walks into the church, God walks out. He calls us to be humble servants.
If you don't remember anything else today, remember this next line: If you're too big to do small things, then you're too small for God's big things.
If you're too big to change a messy diaper on the kid next door, you're too small for the blessings that God wants to bring in your life.
Jesus says, "Enter in, good and faithful volunteer." What does He say? "Servant!"
Hey, look at this Psalm 116. Would you read it with me out loud? I think it's kind of like what we can say back to God.
Read this with me: "What can I give back to God for the blessings He's poured out on me? I'll lift high the cup of salvation, a toast to God. I'll pray in the name of God. I'll complete what I promise God I do."
Pause. Let's go back on that. Let's read that one again. "I'll complete what I promise God I do."
Pause. Let's go back on that one again. Let's say it again: "I'll complete what I promise God I do."
on Mar 18, 2024
