Skip to content Stand Alone Messages: Engage the Mission Aug 22 · 59 min ...more
Stand Alone Messages: Engage the Mission
August 22, 2021 · 59 min
While we were certainly not saved "by" good works we were certainly saved "for" good works. Unfortunately, in our current Christian culture this challenging truth often gets neglected. Far too often fruitless religious activity has replaced being fully engaged in the mission of Jesus Christ. Worse yet, is the other extreme where Christian "couch potatoes" sit around and discuss theology without doing anything at all. The desire of our Lord Jesus Christ is that all people would serve Him and serve Him to the full. Speaker: Jeff Schwarzentraub
Series BRAVE Church August 22, 2021 · 59 min · BRAVE Church
While we were certainly not saved "by" good works we were certainly saved "for" good works. Unfortunately, in our current Christian culture this challenging truth often gets neglected. Far too often fruitless religious activity has replaced being fully engaged in the mission of Jesus Christ. Worse yet, is the other extreme where Christian "couch potatoes" sit around and discuss theology without doing anything at all. The desire of our Lord Jesus Christ is that all people would serve Him and serve Him to the full. Speaker: Jeff Schwarzentraub ...more Show the full description Show less While we were certainly not saved "by" good works we were certainly saved "for" good works. Unfortunately, in our current Christian culture this challenging truth often gets neglected. Far too often fruitless religious activity has replaced being fully engaged in the mission of Jesus Christ. Worse yet, is the other extreme where Christian "couch potatoes" sit around and discuss theology without doing anything at all. The desire of our Lord Jesus Christ is that all people would serve Him and serve Him to the full. Speaker: Jeff Schwarzentraub
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Pastor Jeff Schwarzentraub serves as president of Pastor Jeff Ministries, a national and global ministry designed to equip believers and challenge them to take
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0:00 Lord Jesus, we come before you and we pray to you because we know that you're alive. We know that you hear us. We know that you respond to the prayers of your people. And Lord, as we've been praying all week as we watch0:09 situations unfold in the Middle East, specifically in Afghanistan. Lord, we just pray a hedge of protection around your people specifically. Lord, there are missionaries there who are fearing for their lives or some who0:19 have lost their lives because of this tragedy. Lord, we just pray that you would protect your people. Lord, I pray too in this situation that Lord, what the enemy intended for evil that you would use for good. Lord, that0:30 you would raise up new believers out of the Taliban to take the word of God around the Middle East in these last days. And that Lord, you would be glorified and set on high. And Lord, as we hear your word today,0:42 what we pray is that you would do a work in and through each 1 of us because we believe that every time that the word of God is open, you speak to us. And if you're gathered, you have your bible0:54 open, and you desire to hear what God says, and you will believe all the things that he shows you, and will by faith put into practice everything that he directs. Will you agree with me very loudly this morning by saying1:05 the word, amen. 19 men who you have never met before and never will changed the course of the world. And the tragedy is you know who they are1:17 and you know what they did. On September eleventh of 2001, 19 men between the ages 20 and 33 years old from 4 different countries boarded and hijacked 4 different planes1:29 with the intent to cause harm to different people. And if you're old enough to remember what happened on September eleventh of 2001, you'll remember right where you were, what was going through your mind, and
1:41 all the different emotions that took place that day because 19 men joined together with a common mission and their common mission was to do evil in the world. Their evil that day has
1:53 changed the way we travel. Every time you go into an airport now with all the security that we have looks very different than what it looked like before September eleventh 2001. As a matter of fact, the day goes down in
2:03 infamy so much that if you were alive, we just refer to that day by saying this, 9 11. And when we say 9 11, it evokes all the emotions, all the events, all the circumstances and all the things that
2:15 happened on that tragic day. But the reality is that everybody was intended to live for mission. And just 19 men who thought we can change the way the world
2:27 thinks just by going after this and they did. And it was a tragedy. It was a tragedy for them as they ended up in hell immediately. It was a tragedy for our world as we saw our twin towers go
2:39 tumbling to the ground. The Pentagon being hit another plane out in Pennsylvania and our hearts went off and said, what's going on here? But when you just have a few people with an idea that are committed, things can
2:51 happen. For the good, we know that Jesus when he stood on the mountainside in Galilee 2000 years ago commissioned his disciples and he said these words, all authority in heaven and earth has been given to me. Therefore,
3:01 go make disciples of all nations. Baptizing them in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit and teaching them to obey everything I've commanded you and low, I'll be with you always to the very end of
3:11 the age. And a handful of men at that time took that serious and they started to live out the gospel and took the gospel which is literally gone all around the world. And the reason that we gather today is because there
3:22 were a few that decided to live for the Lord and do good works. And because of their good works, we're still reaping the benefit of that. The reality is whether for good or for evil, here's what you need to know in your
3:33 heart, God created you for mission. Everybody is created for mission. There's something in our heart that knows we were created for something more than ourselves. It's why when we live, we know that we either wanna live
3:44 a legacy or contribute something or be known for something because we know that life is bigger than just us. And so, we either wanna do that or be around people that are doing that because we wanna know that our life
3:55 counts. And I have good news for you today. God knows your life counts and he wants to use you on a mission for him that brings you the greatest joy and satisfaction and brings him the greatest glory.
4:08 There's a tragedy in our world today that happens in the church and it may be a greater tragedy than what happened on 9 11 and that is that the God of the universe who created every single person who has saved some for
4:18 his glory in the church refused to live on mission for him. And what God could do or would do, he doesn't do because his people are not stepping forward and living the way God wants them to live. So
4:30 if in your heart you've ever felt that go off inside of you that says, there's more to life than this. There's gotta be more than that. I know I was created for more. God has a word for you today. God wants you to engage
4:41 the mission that he's given to you and God wants you to know what that is and know how to contribute in such a way that 1 day when you meet Jesus, you will hear these words, well done good and faithful servant.
4:53 And not only will you hear those words, but until you hear those words, you can live with joy and satisfaction on the inside knowing that God is doing a work in and through you. Last week, we
5:05 began by talking about how to experience Christ. We talked a lot about identity. We talked a lot about who we are, that it's not what we do for God, it's what God does in and through us. Today, we're gonna talk about how
5:14 is it that we can take what God does in and through us to engage the mission that he has for us. How can I know what it is and how can I do that? And if that's you today, God has a word for you. I encourage you, open
5:26 your bible up to the book of Ephesians. The book of Ephesians. We're gonna be in Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 10. And as we take a look at verse 10, I'll read it to you a couple times and then we're gonna unpack it.
5:37 We're gonna show 4 elements of that verse that are essential for you to engage yourself in the mission to which Christ has called you. As you're turning to this passage, you'll be familiar with where this is nestled in
5:47 the scripture because we love this scripture. It comes right after Ephesians 2 verses 8 and 9 which says, for it is by grace that you have been saved through faith and it's not your own doing, it's a gift of God so that
5:58 no 1 should boast. And we love that verse because we understand as Christians, we didn't do anything to earn God's favor. God did everything for us. That we can't work for our salvation because there's nothing
6:10 we could do that could make God please with us because we realize in our hearts that we've all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. So we love that verse and many times we'll quote it. Especially with people
6:20 whose faith says, no, you gotta work hard. You gotta be a good person. We'll say, no. It's by grace you've been saved through faith. It's not your own doing. It's a gift of God so no 1 should boast. And then we falsely
6:29 stop there. And what we say is, I know I'm saved. I know I'm going to heaven. Works don't matter. It doesn't matter what I do. It matters who I am. But that's why we're
6:41 gonna keep reading. Because Ephesians 2 and verse 10 says this. It says, for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand so that we would
6:53 walk in them. Did you hear that? It's all about good works. For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand so that we would
7:04 walk in them. See, when we say it's just about grace, it's not about works, we miss the entirety of the gospel. Because while you're not saved by your good works, you are definitely saved for good works.
7:17 Your works are the evidence that you've been saved. And if you're truly filled up on the inside by his grace, it will result in good works. Good works are important in the life of the believer. It's what God requires of
7:28 each and every believer. And if we're gonna engage his mission, we need to understand how to do that. So let's take a look at 4 of the elements of this passage. And the first that we need to understand if we're gonna
7:37 engage the mission is this. It's most important. It's bedrock. You you've gotta get this part and it's this. We belong to God and are significant to him. We
7:49 belong to God and are significant to him. Notice what it says, for we are his workmanship. We are his workmanship. We belong to God and we're
8:01 significant to him. If you don't get this foundational point right, what you're gonna do is you're gonna try to find your significance somewhere else and let me just save you a lot of time. You will never find
8:10 satisfaction apart from Jesus Christ. Full satisfaction, lasting satisfaction. Well, I'm gonna get the right job and someday when I have just the right job, I'll have full satisfaction. I promise you, you won't.
8:22 1 day when I'm dating the right person and I get married to the right person, I'll have full satisfaction 100 percent of the time. No, you won't. 1 day when I make just enough money and I have all the money I need and
8:33 all my needs are felt, then I'll feel total satisfaction. No, you won't. No matter what you put your faith and trust into other than Jesus Christ, if you don't realize that you belong and are significant to him,
8:45 you will try to latch on to someone or something or some group of people that you can belong to and find your significance there and it just won't work. Maybe we could talk about a lot of examples of this. We could talk
8:56 about why gangs are formed or why people dress up in orange every fall and travel about 11 miles north of here to cheer and scream wildly because they wanna find a place to belong. I wanna be part of that team. I wanna
9:08 be part of this culture. I'm looking for this group of people to welcome me. So let me just say it again. You are significant and belong to God. And since only 17 of you understand what I'm talking about, I'm gonna say
9:20 it again because there's no I mean, the God of the universe is saying this, you matter to me, you belong to me and are significant to me. Amen? I mean, there's no greater word that I could tell you. It's not
9:32 just that God's in heaven looking down and saying, okay, yeah, you're you're a good person. I like you some. I mean, you belong to him and you are significant to him. And why is that important? Because
9:44 if we understand our true identity, we'll live differently. And I think of the story of the prodigal son, and we're all familiar with the story of the prodigal son if you've in church for a while. And when the younger
9:52 son goes out and squanders all of his dad's money and lives his wild lifestyle and comes back to his dad, Jesus tells us this is what the father's like. Well, what's he like when he gets back? When the son comes back to
10:03 the dad, the dad doesn't wait for the son. The dad sprints to the son which was undignified for a father to do in the first century. And then instead of waiting for his son to talk about how bad he was and for the father
10:14 to stand there and look over him or shame him or give words, what does the dad do? He embraces him. He hugs him. He kisses him. The son that's just squandered everything the dad ever had, who's been living in a pigpen.
10:26 He welcomes him home. And as the son is going through his rehearsed speech saying, dad, I'm no longer worthy to be called your son. Just make me like 1 of your hired slaves. What does the dad do? He's not even listening.
10:36 He's calling all his servants saying, come bring the best robe and put it on him because my son needs to know in my house, he always has a place of honor because he belongs to me. Put a ring on his finger so
10:48 that everybody sees that he's got a signet ring that he belongs to our family. Put sandals on his feet because he's not a slave. He's my son and then let's kill the fattened calf and celebrate for this son of mine was
10:59 lost and he's found. He was dead and now he's alive. So begin to have this party. What was he saying? He was saying, son, you have significance. Son, you belong to me. It doesn't matter what you did, it matters who I am
11:10 and I love you and nothing will ever change that. That's our God. Isn't that awesome? Yeah. If we're gonna live on mission, we have to start there. If we live on
11:22 mission, we have to start from the inside out. I mean, even if you study the scriptures, if you wanna know what Jesus cared about or who Jesus cared about, just study the person of Jesus and what does he talk about more
11:32 than anything else? His dad. Who does he wanna be with more than anybody else? His dad. Early in his ministry, we find him sneaking off to solitary places where there he prays. After he feeds the 5000, sends the
11:43 disciples on the water, he goes up on a mountain to pray. I mean, night of Gethsemane, what's he doing? He's praying. He's spending time with his dad all the time. He wants to be around his dad because he knows how
11:54 significant he is to his dad and how he belongs to his dad. Remember at Jesus' baptism when he comes up out of the water, the father's voice booms. Says, this is my son whom I love. In him I am
12:06 well pleased. It's my son. He belongs to me. I love him. I'm well pleased in him. He's got significance because you should listen to him. That's what he says. Listen to him. We see the same
12:17 words at the transfiguration of Jesus when Peter, James and John are up on that mountainside and the father speaks those words. And when the father speaks those words, this is my paraphrase. It's as if Jesus is saying,
12:27 oh, those words are for you, not me. I I already know that. I already know who I am to my dad, but I wanted you to know who I am to my dad. When you walk around with your identity set right, you will live
12:39 differently. Many people in the body of Christ who have truly been saved, walk around as if they're no good, nobodies, will never make any thing happen, aren't really those good kind of Christians, can't do anything,
12:50 aren't that gifted, or still sin. And what happens is is when we become believers, nobody has a perfect trajectory of sinlessness post coming to Christ. So what
13:02 the enemy does is he lies to us and says, remember that? Remember this? God may still like you, but he doesn't love you. And he's not proud of you. And he can't use you anymore because of what
13:14 you did. Friends, let me just tell you, that's a lie from the pit of hell. God can redeem and use anybody, even Christians who have fallen into sin who he can redeem and still continue to use. God
13:25 designed you for mission. You belong to him. Notice what it says, for we are his workmanship. Now I'm gonna show you something in the text that's invisible to your eyes and most people's eyes
13:37 in North America. They were invisible to my eyes for a long time when I read this text. But when you read Ephesians 2 8 and 9, it says, for it is by grace you have been saved through faith. It's not your own doing. It's
13:47 a gift of God so that no 1 should boast. Every time almost in the New Testament where the word you is used, it's plural. It's for by grace y'all have been saved through faith. It's not y'all's doing, it's a gift of God
13:58 so that none of y'all should boast. He's talking plural about what God does in salvation for every single person. And then notice what the second word of verse 10 is, for what? For we are his
14:10 workmanship. We are his. He doesn't say you're his workmanship. We tend to read this individually and think that the gospel is about us. God saved me for me to do good works for God. No. We
14:22 collectively, why? Because God gets more done in community than he ever does through any individual. We are his workmanship. We are his. We are his. Say that with me. We are
14:34 his. Say it again so you believe it. We are his. God's talking to us. Well, who's us? Paul's writing to the church. Why is he writing to the church? Because the church is the 1 vehicle where we're called to participate
14:46 in no matter where we are. To be a Christian and not be serving in a local church is not even understood in the New Testament. There's no such thing. If you're a Christian, we are
14:58 his what? Workmanship. Now, those of you who don't know me, I can't put anything together. I was saying in the first service and I still think this is true. I don't know if I have a screwdriver at my house or not. I
15:08 really don't. I usually call my father-in-law who lives down the street and ask him for different kinds. I My toolbox would fit in the palm of my hand. I just don't I can't fix anything. So when I see we are his
15:18 workmanship, I mean, that doesn't sound that exciting to me. Like, okay, I'm part of God's toolbox or something until you understand what the word workmanship is. Workmanship means is the word poema, which means
15:30 masterpiece. Masterpiece. When God created you, that's how he sees you. His masterpiece. We studied Genesis last year and we walked through the creation story. And at the end of every
15:41 day, what does God say? That's good. Because when God creates, God doesn't create anything that's junk. God only creates what's good. When God created you, he said,
15:53 that's good. You're my masterpiece. I mean, everyone that God creates. I mean, there's never been a time God's created a human being who by the way he created in his image where God has created and gone,
16:05 oops. Never happened. And yet, that's what the enemy wants you to think about you. And he'll get you to ask questions like, why do I look like this? And why is my body
16:17 shaped like that? And why don't I have a hair on my head like them? And how come I don't have the gifts they have? And what's wrong with me that? And how come I'm not good at this? And how come I'm not good at You're his
16:26 masterpiece. You're his masterpiece. That's why he created you in his image. That's why when we talk in church about abortion being sin, it's
16:38 not just, hey, you that had an abortion, you're a sinner, you're a murderer. That's not what it is. It's this, that the life that God created on the inside is a life that he's destined for purpose. Don't
16:49 stop the masterpiece of God because every single life matters. Amen?
17:01 But I'll pause here and say this because I know this is true in a congregation of our size. Listen to me. If you've had an abortion, maybe out of naivety, maybe out of stress, maybe for some other Let me just tell you
17:13 something about you. You still matter to God and you're still significant and he forgives you and he can redeem you and still use you. We don't carry the
17:25 weight of our sin. Jesus Christ did that for us. We are loved. When I say at the end of the service and say you are loved, it's not because it's a clever thing for a pastor to say. It's not just a clever thing
17:37 to put on the wall of a church. It's God's heart for his people. Everybody God creates, he loves. His desire is that all would come to know him. So even if you're as far away from God as you could ever possibly be,
17:47 sending what you consider the most grievous sins, I have good news for you. God loved you so much that he sent his only begotten son to die on a cross for all of your sin. He loves you. And for those of you who have
17:58 repented and trusted in Jesus Christ alone for the forgiveness of your sin and his resurrection from the dead, he has a special love for you, which means this, no matter what you ever do, God can't love you anymore than
18:09 he loves you right now. And no matter what you do, God can never love you any less than he loves you right now. He just has infinite love for you. And in church sometimes, like, yes, I understand that theologically. I've
18:19 read Romans 8, I know. Have you ever got it from your head into your heart where you begin to walk around and say, I know who my daddy is and I know how he feels about me. Because when you start living like that, you
18:30 live differently. The baseline starts with intimacy with God and I would say this, your identity intimacy always need to proceed activity. Your intimacy with God
18:42 and your identity and who you are always proceeds activity. Oftentimes in church, we'll talk about needs we have in the church and we'll say, you gotta serve. We need help in kids. We need help with youth. We need help
18:51 in the men's. We need help with women. We need help, help, help. We're always gonna need help. That's not why you serve. Because if you begin to do a bunch of outside activity, but your heart isn't rightly related to
19:02 God, you will burn out or wear out. Your heart has to be right. God desires intimacy. God wants you to walk around saying, did you not know how much how special you are to me that you're my masterpiece, that we together
19:14 are God's masterpiece and he's doing incredible things in and through us. That's the perspective that God wants us to have. And this is so important because for me, what I used to do prior to being a pastor as I was an
19:26 evangelist. So what I often did was very similar to what we did at Bandomere Speedway this past Easter where we would preach the gospel and people would stream forward and get saved. And my wife and I, we traveled the
19:36 world and sometimes there were 5 people that would get saved and sometimes there were 40 people that were saved and sometimes there were thousands of people that would get saved. And by the way, it never gets old to do
19:44 that just so you know. It doesn't get old to see people at Brave Church give their lives to Jesus Christ. Amen? Amen. But what began to pain my heart is I would see all these people coming forward and in my heart, it's
19:52 like, God, they are significant to you and they matter to you and they're special to you and they're gifted by you and they have a purpose. Like, what are we doing with these people? And I started being able to count on
20:01 my hand like, where would I send them? What churches are actually gonna build them up? Where's worship taking place? Where's the word being preached? Where's prayer essential? Where's evangelism happening? Who's gonna
20:11 turn these people loose? And I couldn't find many places and it pained my heart so much as I was praying to the Lord that really sends the Lord like, are you gonna do something about it or you're just gonna complain? And
20:22 that was part of my process of ending up as a pastor because my desire for each and every person here who knows the Lord is to grow to the fullness that Jesus Christ has for you. And wherever you are in your
20:34 walk, let me just tell you something, there's more. There's more intimacy, there's more identity, there's more victory, there's more faith that you can have and God wants you to know. And this is the only thing you take
20:45 away from this message and apply to your life. If you live your life knowing that you belong to God and you're significant to God, you will live different. For we are his workmanship. Secondly, we see this. Not only
20:57 do we belong to God and are significant to him, but we were created by God for his good purpose. We were created by God for his good purpose. Notice what he says, we were created in Christ Jesus
21:08 for good works. We talked about last week, I've been crucified with Christ. It's no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the son of God who loved me and gave
21:20 himself for me. Second Corinthians 5 17 says, therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old is gone, behold the new has come. What's the mystery of the gospel? Christ in you, the hope of glory. What is
21:31 the gospel? That when you trust Christ, Jesus comes to live on the inside. Now let me tell you something. When the God of the universe comes to live on the inside of you, as I've often said, he doesn't come in to be
21:40 resident, he comes in to be president. He doesn't come in just so he can sit there so that you can be a Christian couch potato and look around and figure out what's going on. He came in your life to take it over so that
21:52 he can live the fullness of him through you. That's what God wants. You were created for good works. And in the works that God wants you to do are the ones he's gonna live in and through you. And the more
22:04 intimate that you grow with Jesus, the more that God wants to do in your life. Now think about God's creation for a minute. I mean, when God created the earth, he created it unique. Isaiah 45 18 said, he
22:16 created it in such a way that it could be populated by the crown of his creation, human beings. No other planet on the earth can do that. Regardless of what discovery channel you ever read, there is no 1 greater than the
22:27 creation of human beings in the image of God that he came and died for. No 1. He created the earth unique. That's why it says in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. It doesn't say God created the
22:37 heavens and the planets or the heavens and Mars. The earth is unique. So when he created human beings, we're created in the image of God. We are image bearers of the king. Every life that is formed
22:48 has significance and meaning and purpose. Every single human being you see, even people that are living apart from God that are evil, were designed for good. We're designed by God for his purpose even if they're not
23:00 living it out. And so when God created you, he created you as people who are unique for good works. Now you think about anything that was created. I mean, a car, you know, created for you to
23:12 get behind the wheel and get from 0.1 to point b and to drive somewhere. I mean, if you have a car but you never use it to get from 0.1 to point b and it's just a showpiece in a showroom, it doesn't accomplish what a car
23:22 was designed to do. Some of us are Christian showpieces like I know I'm saved brother. I've all I've been saved since I was 18 and God's doing something. All you're doing is sitting around like a Christian couch potato.
23:33 That's not why God saved you. God saved you because he wanted to do something in and through you that he could only accomplish in and through you with your unique personality and giftedness within the community of Christ
23:43 so that God would be glorified. He created you for good works. He didn't save you by good works, but he definitely saved you for good works. That's why I'm gonna read in the bible about
23:55 obedience to God. In John chapter 14, this is a verse. John chapter 14 23 and 24, Jesus said this, if anyone loves me, he will keep my word and my father will
24:07 love him and we will come to him and make our abode with him. He who does not love me does not keep my words and the word which you hear is not mine, but the father who sent me. How do you know somebody loves Jesus?
24:19 They're obedient to his word. That's simple. Well, don't need to be obedient to that. I got saved by grace. No. If you've been saved by grace and you're filled up on the inside, you're gonna want to keep the word of God.
24:30 Nobody will mandate it for you, tell you better, you have to, you ought. It's this person on the inside, the God man of the universe through his holy spirit's like, you need to pay attention to this. This this is for
24:41 you. This is he's he's talking about you. You need to let Christ out of you. You need to grow in Christ. Right? Like in James chapter 2 17, we read this, faith if not
24:52 accompanied by works is dead or faith without works is dead. A lot of us as evangelists, we don't like that verse. Oh, it doesn't apply to me. I'm saved by grace through faith. Yeah. And if your faith is not
25:04 accompanied with good works, it's a worthless face. Faith. What good is it? What what what good is it for you to say you're a Christian if there's nothing coming through your life that demonstrates you are 1? God wants
25:15 you to know this. God saved you for for being this. Just just hear me. For you to be an example. Be an example. So that when people see you, whether you're a man, a woman,
25:27 a boy or a girl, no matter what your vocation is or your avocations or wherever you're at, when people see you living your life, they'll say, now that's somebody that talks about Jesus, that lives out the principles I
25:37 see in the bible. That's an example. That's what God wants for all of us. God wants all of us to be an example. We were created by him for his good purpose. His good purpose was for us to be an
25:49 example for him. Now think about this for a second. How can you be an example? Like, what does it look like? Like, where do I even get started? I'm so glad you asked.
26:02 You know, Jesus talked about greatness with his disciples. He talks about greatness with us and for those of us that wanna be great, he tells us how to do it. He says that the Gentiles, the the secular rulers of the day,
26:13 they would lord their leadership over people. Very similar to how we do it today. A non spirit filled man or woman will always lord their leadership over people. Husbands will lord it over their wives. Wives
26:25 will lord it over their husband. Parents will lord it over their kids. Kids will try to lord it over their parents. People that work in the marketplace, bosses will lord it over their employees, employees will try to
26:37 lord it over other people. In the church, when you have a non spirit filled pastor, non spirit filled church, they'll try to lord it over the people. And you'll start looking at people as if they're put on earth to help
26:47 you. And it's their job to make your vision correct. And it's their job to do all this stuff. And it's my husband's job to do this. My wife's job to be that. And that's what lording it over people looks like. We've all
26:58 experienced that. We've all led that way at times when we haven't led in a way that the spirit of God leads us. And we've all been on the receiving end of that and it's not very fun. Nobody wants to be lorded over. So
27:10 Jesus says in Matthew chapter 20 verse 26, it's not to be this way among you, but whoever wishes to become great. You wanna become great? Anybody know how to become great? Whoever wishes to become great among
27:22 you shall be your servant. We call it leadership in the West. You know what Jesus calls it? Servanthood. You wanna be great, find somebody to serve.
27:34 You say, well, I don't if I have the pedigree for that. The only pedigree you need is humility. You don't need the right education. You don't need the right socioeconomic background. You don't need the right gender. You
27:43 don't need the right skin color. All you need to do is say, I totally wanna be great. And Jesus said, great. Find a place to serve, find a need and fill it, serve. Now here's the problem. For many of us as Christians, we
27:55 think service is an option. I'll decide if I wanna serve. I'll see what times they're serving. I'll see how they're serving. I'll see if I like the service and then I'll get involved in serving.
28:07 That's epidemic in our church culture in the West. You know, service is not an option. Now, if you don't have the heart of a servant, here's how you're gonna know you don't have the heart of a servant. Because anytime
28:17 you enter into Christian community, you falsely think that Christian community is supposed to be about you. So you come into church and you like, I don't know if I like the pastor or not. I don't know if I like the
28:26 version he preaches from. I don't know if I like what he said. You know those worship songs today, they went too long. They went too short. I didn't like that tune that they'd sang. I didn't like the key that they sang
28:35 it in. You become critical of community because you yourself are not serving it. When you're engaged in the service of it, you won't be critical of
28:46 it. You might have a critical mind for how it can be better, but you won't have a critical spirit of it because you've engaged your life into it. You say, well, how do I serve? Any way you want. Give your best time
28:58 to it. Give your best resources to it. Give your best gifts to it. Serve. You wanna be great? You're gonna be a servant. And Jesus doesn't stop there and he says, whoever wishes to be first among you shall be
29:10 your slave. What's the difference between a servant and a slave? Servant chooses where they're gonna serve. What do slaves do? Whatever you say master, that's where I'm going. Slaves listen to their
29:22 master and they just do what they're told. You wanna be really great? Be a slave. Can you imagine what church would be like if every single person that was called by the name of God that attended a church had the
29:33 attitude of Jesus, I'm just your slave. I don't care what happens to me. Use me however you want, wherever you want, whenever you want. So long as you get glory from me, even if I'm anonymous and nobody knows me,
29:45 I just wanna serve the body so we can advance the kingdom. What in the world would happen? I'll tell you what would happen. Things beyond anything you could ask or imagine according to his glorious power that's at work
29:57 within us. Jesus said, hey, you wanna be great? Be a servant. You wanna be the greatest? Be a slave just as the son of man. He's like, well, where am I gonna get an example of that? Whoever lives like that, I don't see
30:08 anybody living like that. Well, you did once. Just as the son of man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. Hey, Jesus, how am I gonna do that? Just just do what I did. Just
30:19 give up your rights to yourself. Be totally anonymous. Just find a place to serve. Serve me. Serve me alone. Don't worry about the results. Just be all in with me. What would happen? And Jesus is not
30:30 mincing words. He's not saying it's optional. For some of us, we've grown weary in our Christian faith or we become sick and tired of church because instead of serving, we think we're here to be served.
30:42 You're not here to be served. Now, me be careful on this. I wanna wanna back up just a minute. There are seasons in our life where we go through really difficult times. I'm not talking about I had a bad day. I'm talking
30:53 about I never expected this to happen. I feel like I've been kicked in the gut. There's a tragedy. I've lost a loved 1. I lost my job. I mean, I I came out of a church where I was just a I mean, abused
31:05 and, man, there's just a lot going on in my life right now. Listen, if that's you, there's a season for healing. There just is. There's a season to just sit in a church and soak
31:16 and hear the word of God and worship. And I've had seasons like that where I can't even mouth words because I've cried for weeks at a time. There's a season for that. And if that's you in this season, by all means,
31:28 welcome and serve the Lord in your time, but just be filled up again. Grow in your intimacy and identity. There's a season for that. But that season is not a 25 year season. I
31:40 mean, we're an army of the Lord where we're called to heal and grow so that we can get back on the kingdom field and serve the Lord. And there's a time for that too. And the Lord knows when that timing is right for you.
31:51 So you should never feel arm twisted by a pastor or anybody else. And you better, you better, you better. You know when it's right. Because deep down your heart, you know that you want to and there's a time for it. But I
32:01 would also say this to those that are hurting. Sometimes when you go through seasons like that, a lot of the ministry that God's going to use to heal you is you using your hurts to minister to others who are hurting too.
32:13 And it's oftentimes what I find in the kingdom, it's my broken dreams, it's my broken heart, it's my brokenness in my own life, it's my sin I can't seem to get a handle on that people can identify more with than, hey,
32:24 I'm living the life and it's great. Sometimes we refuse to get into community because we're afraid. We gotta wait until our life just looks just perfect. If you wait until your life looks just perfect, you will see Jesus
32:35 Christ before you get into community. It never happened. God wants you to serve. He wants you to serve. It's it's not optional. It's you're part of the body of Christ,
32:47 serve the church. You say, Jeff, why are you talking about the church all the time? There's way more needs in the world than just the church. Yes, there are. But I will tell you this, if you're a member of the body of
32:54 Christ, the church is his bride and it's the 1 vehicle he chose to bless. And he says this, upon this rock, I will build my church. You need to be part of a church. Well, don't like the church. Well, then you don't like
33:06 Jesus because it's who he died for. Well churches are Yeah, know because they're full of broken people just like you. And if you're looking for the perfect church like there's nothing wrong with church hopping for a
33:15 season. Like I get it, you move to a new area, you gotta find the right thing. Is this a fit? Did they do this? Is this where I'm gonna go? But if you spend your whole life church hopping for the perfect church, let me
33:24 just save you time. There's no such thing as a perfect church. And if you ever find it and you join it, you just blew it for everybody else that was already there. I mean, just get involved,
33:36 serve. Serve because see when you're a servant and you're a slave and you're giving yourself to it, you'll care about the result but you won't care about yourself. You'll care about what happens and that's what God
33:47 wants. He wants our heart to be about him and the whole bible can be summed up in loving the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, Loving your neighbor as yourself. You grow in intimacy and
33:55 identity. This is who I am and because I'm that, I can humble myself and do anything that the Lord would have me do. When we read about Jesus, he tells us consider others more important than yourselves. Like I humbled
34:06 myself and became obedient to death, even death on a cross. I was willing to be publicly hung on a cross and shamed for you. I was I was I allowed people to put their spikes into my hands and my feet and I hung for you.
34:18 I got to a place I couldn't breathe anymore for you. I shed my blood for you. I mean, I know what it looks like to serve Jesus would say, and no matter what you're doing, you're not serving like I served. And let me just
34:28 say this, when it comes to the church, when it comes to the kingdom, the church exists to build the body of Christ to advance the kingdom. And on the kingdom, there is no sideline. Everybody's on the
34:40 field. Now I played sports growing up and I can tell you, I played in a number of teams where I was essential to that team, where I was 1 of the key contributors to that team. If I didn't show up, it would have hurt the
34:49 team. I've also played on teams where if I didn't show up, people would be like, I didn't know he wasn't there. I mean, where was he? I didn't know you weren't there. I can tell you this, I didn't like playing on teams
34:58 like that. I like playing on teams where I was essential. Here's what you need to know. You are Christ's ambassador as though God is making his appeal through us and you are valuable to the advancement of
35:10 Christ kingdom no matter who you are. And if you spend your life running after all these different things that you think are so important, they're gonna bring you joy. You're gonna miss out on what you were created for,
35:20 which is to serve the body of Christ. Means, it doesn't mean we can't serve people outside the body of Christ. I mean, if you're an evangelist and your heart just beats for the loss, I'm like, great. Let it beat for the
35:31 loss and go out and share the gospel with as many lost people as you can. But also, why don't you pour into people in the body of Christ and show them how to do it too so they can join you. Because the problem is when
35:42 we're not servants, then we're critical. And we expect that when we show up in a church that chairs are supposed to just be there and kids ministry is supposed to be hopping and youth ministry is supposed to be great and
35:53 men's ministry is flourishing and women's ministry has multiple opportunities and small groups are awesome. It works that way when you have servants. I've been a lot of small groups in my life. I've I've been in small
36:04 groups where when the small group ends, I think to myself, I can't believe I have to wait a whole another week until I can do that again. And I've been in other small groups where the small group ends. I'm like, I can't
36:13 believe in a week I have to go back to this thing again. You know what I'm talking about? It usually comes because when you get a group of people that serve and are on mission together, community naturally happens.
36:26 Some of us think that community makes mission, but it doesn't. Mission forms community. When you think about the military, when they when you join the military for those of you that have served and we celebrate you and
36:37 praise God for you. When you join the military and you go to boot camp, it's not about community and potlucks and picnics and being besties because 1 day you're gonna serve together. No. You get on mission right away and
36:49 realize your life is no longer your own. Right? And we're gonna be about that mission. Then when you get with people that are on the same mission, friendships form. When you get on the mission about Jesus Christ that myShow more
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