Serve One Another

[00:00:01] Speaker A: Thanks for tuning in to the Met Church podcast. Here at the Met, we are all about connecting people to God and one another. If you have any questions or want more information about what's happening here at the church, then head to our [email protected] we would love to stay connected with you throughout the week through social media, so be sure to connect with us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter now. Enjoy the message. [00:00:24] Speaker B: Well, good morning, everybody. Glad you are here. I want to ask you to remember to pray for the people in Nepal. I know you are familiar with what has happened this last week and the tragedy in that part of the world. One of our families are actively involved. They're missionaries with Manna Worldwide, the Allsup family. And Jennifer's here this morning. Would you wave at everybody, Jennifer, so they know who you are. And Craig is in. I guess he's in Kathmandu still. And I communicated with him last week, and he said he and his team are safe, but they all need prayer. So remember to pray for the ministry that has happened in Nepal and for the people there in that country. And I just want them to know that our church has their backs and we're praying for them, and we're available to help any way that we can. And we'll keep you informed as we go forward. And then we had our own little challenge this past week. Electricity went out around here. Y' all have that experience at your house. I mean, the juice went out at the church. The crc, it got knocked offline. And the scary thing about that is we've got big freezers over there that house thousands of dollars in food. And so I was talking to my brother, he's our executive director, and their team, they were doing a lot of praying, as we all were, about those freezers coming back on. And he called me and he said, I got good news. The good news is they came up after about 24 hours of being down, and those freezers are kind of rated for about 48 hours. So praise God. We didn't lose any food. So that was a wonderful thing. What I did underscore is the fact that going forward, we're going to need to get a big old generator over there, you know, to kind of help us be a backstop for that. And then we had another thing because, you know, we're pretty close geographically to the crc. It went out here, too. Guess what happened here? When the power came back up, it fried our light board. I mean, fried the light board. So if the lights are a little wonky, a Little funky right now. It's because we gotta replace that. That's about a $30,000 hit, that. Yeah, yeah, I know. Woo is right. And all that brain that works our lights is integrated in such a way that I don't understand all that I just said, but they told me that. And what I do understand is that we've got one of our tech guys standing, standing at a breaker board even as I speak. And the event this goes out, he's gonna go click. So the lights come back up. So if anything wonky in here happens, we're a little white trash this weekend. So just go with us on that, we'll get through it. But anyway, we've gone through worse. We were at. I was telling them, man, we were at the high school and we had. They were doing a remodel at Carroll High School. And we were in the auditorium, just started the church and. And they didn't communicate with us that the lights were gonna be out for a couple of Sundays. No power. And so we had to bring in these emergency lights and plug them in. And so the weekend the power went out, it went out right in the middle of our service. And back then we were doing little sketches. I don't know if you remember, like little sketches you do. Churches don't do them anymore. But there was a little period of time when that was pretty effective. And we had one of our ladies, and God love her, she's a sweet little old lady. And she was doing this sketch, she was sitting in a rocking chair and she doesn't have a strong voice anyway. And she's one of those very soft spoken women. Well, right in the middle of her sketch, the electricity goes off, off. And so all you hear over here from the side of that stage is, I mean, she's trying to talk. And at some point I think, when do I get the hook, you know, and pull her off the stage? And so after this, and I'm looking at people and they're going, you know, I finally walked out there and I'm not gonna call her by name. I love her to death. She's over in Dallas now in a great church. I just said, hey, they can't hear you, sweetheart. We're gonna, you know. And so for the next two Sundays, man, just cause I've got a big mouth. They were able to hear the message. And so that's how we got through it. So I'm just saying we've gone through worse times than that, but those were the good old days. And it kind of brings Back memories. Cause this past week we kind of moved through the threshold of celebrating our 30th anniversary as a CH just a few days ago. So that was wonderful. And we're gonna do a big fun celebration in November. But nobody wants to be out in 107 degrees celebrating anything right now. So we thought we'd just push that off to November when the summer of summer is over and we'll get out there and do that sort of thing. But I was thinking about the years that our church has been in existence and the secret to the effectiveness of the Met Church, how that it was tied to so many biblical principles. And I pray that we still are. I believe we still are. And some of the biblical principles that made the church so effective was that we were empowering the people that attended the church to lead and to serve. In fact, this morning I'm speaking on the next One Another, and that is the One Another where we serve one another. Serve one another. And I was thinking when we started the church, we couldn't hire anybody. I mean, we barely had enough money to keep me there with my house and a car. And there were weekends when I didn't get paid. There were two, three weeks where I didn't get paid. It was either me or the lease on the building. And so we couldn't lose the building. So we lived a lot out of our savings and just tried to make it work. And believing God has a purpose as church is gonna go. So I know what it's like to go all in on a church and I also know what it's like to know that I can't afford to hire a staff to do everything that needs to be done. So I have to rely on the people that attend here to. To do the work of the ministry. And man, God blessed us guys with a corp of people who sat up and broke down every week. They met and encouraged Cindy and me. We were such a tight knit group and we were realizing that the effectiveness of our church and the people that we were reaching were in the volunteers and the people that we had that were all in, they were willing to sacrifice and they were willing to serve. And guys, that's really what got our church off the ground. Then we moved into the grocery store and once we got down in the grocery store, which was the old Metro Food Store, for those of you that aren't familiar with that part of the history, it's where Venture Church is now. Venture Church is the old Harvest Church that relocated. And before they were there, Milestone was there. So we got it, converted it from a grocery store into a church building, remodeled it several times, leased the bank building next door, the top floor, leased a lot of the space around there so that we could do ministry. As the church grew, at one point we grew out to five services on Sunday and close to 6,000 people. And so the greatest growth that we saw when we moved into that grocery store, at first we saw that great growth with about 7 or 8 on full time staff. Now we had some support staff that we paid part time and we had some contractors that we were paying, but the church grew out to about 3,000 with a very small staff. But what we did then, and we've made the mistake a few other times, we. That has affected our ability to get a lot of volunteers is when your church grows numerically and your church grows financially, you just staff out. You staff out. And it's an unintended consequence that when a church has a very large staff that you end up having fewer volunteers. And when you think about it, it kind of makes sense because everybody has the impression, well, somebody on staff is paid to do that, so they really don't need me. And I understand why churches do it. I understand why we did it. Because you do it, because you have so many people coming that you're trying to effectively minister them. By the way, the statistic is the average church in America runs about 125 people. That's the average church. And the average church In America Running125 has one pastor. Well, when you flip that model and you begin to understand why that's true, only one pastor can effectively Minister to about 125 people. So what happened to us at the high school is we were outgrowing me. When we left the high school, we had two or 300 people. Well, 125. And there's just Bill, you see, where. I'd already outpunted my coverage, but the dilemma I was in is what do I do? I say anything above 125, find another church. That's not an option. So what we started doing was we were empowering our membership to minister to the people. And I'm gonna show you this morning where that's actually a more biblical model. And then as we were empowering our members to serve one another and to minister the needs of one another, we staffed out a little more as the church grew. And we staffed out till we got to six or eight full time guys. As in part time, we were running 2,500 3,000 at that point. Before we Hit that next big growth spurt. But then we went through a season where the numbers, attendance wise, were good, but. But the offerings were low. So I had to lay staff off. I had to say, look, love you. You're doing a great job. This is not personal. But to keep the church healthy, we're top heavy. We got too many on staff and we gotta downsize. We're kind of in that season now. This last week, I've had a couple of guys said, look, we're top heavy. We just can't seem to be able to maintain the level of staff that we've got. So we're gonna lay you off. When I first came Pastor 50 years ago now, no, 40 years ago, when I was a senior pastor, I had two guys, three guys that were on my dad's staff that we went to high school together. And the hardest thing I did the first week I was there is sit down with two guys that I went to high school with and say, hey, gotta lay you off. I mean, the church is going gang. I mean, we're just. We're reaching a lot of people, but the offerings are lagging behind because the economy was tight and people were going through a hard time. And I'm not going to get up and break people over money, so we're gonna have to adjust. And so I said, I need you to continue to do what you've been doing. I can't pay you. One of them went to work for a guy in the church. Another one went to work for a men's clothes store in Northeast Mall, Graham's Menswear, for those of you who remember that store. And I brought them back on as the church turned that corner. So I'm saying we've got a pattern of doing that as we grow out. We have to lay some people off. We bring them back if we can. We or they find other places of services. But the point is, our staff knows, and the folks that have been part of this church a long time, who know me, knows that my main priority is to always do what is best for the church, to make sure our church is healthy and to make sure our church continues to grow. So it's just part of that cycle. And when I think about our church being effective, it has always been effective. Not necessarily because of the staff that we have, though. They brought great value to us and they've been key in many ways to our growth. It's been effective because of the people in the church who stepped up in ministry and began to serve in key places of Leadership. And as a pastor, the only thing I can do in discerning kind of where we are as a church family is that I think we're in that season again. We're in a season where we're growing numerically. Offerings are lagging a little behind, you know, the economy. Everybody's feeling that a little tight right now. So I get it. The last thing I ever do. And if you've been with me a long time, you know this is true. The last thing I do is get up and just berate people over money, because that's the last thing you need. You're under pressure anyway, then come to church and let me put you under some more pressure. So that's just not what I've done. In fact, when I preach and when I teach, what I try to do is go to the heart. I try to preach to the hearts of people because I know that if I can reach the heart of that person with the gospel of Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit, whatever change and whatever transformation and whatever needs to happen will happen if God transforms their heart. Here's the temptation. Cause my dad was a pastor, and I can tell you the temptation is when you're feeling a little bit of pressure is you take it out on the people. Anytime you hear a preacher and he gets up and he goes into ranting and raving about any issue, no, the boy's under some pressure, and he's taking it out on the people. And so I've always cut my brothers some slack because I get where they're coming from. But I'm telling you, after knowing my dad and seeing him do that, it doesn't change anything. Part of the role of a pastor is to be a shepherd. And when you're a shepherd, you don't beat the sheep. And the part of being a pastor different than being a cowboy is that I'm an under shepherd. If I were. If he said, I want my pastors to be cowboys, then the way cowboys move cattle is you get behind them and push them. The way shepherds lead sheep is they get in front of them and lead them. You know what happens if you get behind sheep and you start, hey, come on, man, you need to give, you need to serve. We need more of this and we need more of that. You people, what's wrong with you people? And the minute you do that, guess what they do? Just like sheep, they scatter. And so that's just never been my style. So what I do, when our church goes through a season, a great Season, a trying season. I preach to the heart. I try to be consistent at preaching to the heart. Because the only thing that will change a person's life is, is the heart. I don't care what it is. You want to be a better husband, start in the heart. You want to be a better wife, start in the heart. You want to be a better parent, start in the heart. You want to be a better part of a church family, it starts in the heart. Generosity is a heart matter. Serving is a heart matter. And so what I try to do is I try to preach to the hearts of people and allow the Holy Spirit to do his work. I hear people. Sometime they'll get on these hobby horses, some of these churches, and they'll hit. They'll hit these issues that are going on in the world and they'll do a 10, 12 point series on some issue that's going on in the world and just berate people over whatever that issue is going on in the world. And they just work people over and what they're trying to do. I understand where they're coming from. They're trying to get compliance to a biblical principle through forced compliance. I'm just going to hit them in the head and beat them up and force them to comply. Well, that doesn't work. That's not effective. I mean, because you are assuming the role of the Holy Spirit. And when you get 10 or 12 things that the church is against and that's the only 10 or 12 things you're against, you miss so many other things. You see, the Holy Spirit has a way of identifying and illuminating sin in the lives of people and things that need to change in the lives of people without my help. My role is to stand behind the Bible and under the Bible, not on top of it or in front of it. So I preach to the heart and I trust the Holy Spirit to transform the life. And to be honest with you, I think the biggest sin that most churches face is not drunkenness or somebody doing something crazy. I think the biggest sins most churches face is spiritual pride. It's people who don't think they need it, and those are the ones who need it the most. And the people that always suggest that you get on a hobby horse, never say, let the first sermon be of spiritual pride. Because the tendency is, once a person knows Jesus, is to look down your nose at people who don't know Jesus and to feel we're better than they. So I say all that to you to say that in our 30th year, my commitment is to continue to preach to the heart. And as we grow, we'll grow our staff. And as we have these times and seasons of less resources, we'll shrink our staff. But we are committed to doing what's best for our church. And in the midst of this, please hear my heart. The secret to the effectiveness of the church 30 years later is getting people involved in ministry, is getting people to step up and by love, serve one another. In fact, let me give you some verses that support what I'm saying. This is interesting. Ephesians 4. Ephesians 4. The challenge to the leaders of the church of Ephesus, now get this. Was to equip the saints to do the work of the ministry. Now, understand, when he calls people saints, he's not saying we're better than somebody else. Now go back to that point. There are only two classes of people in the world. You ready for this? The saints and the ain't. And once you know Jesus as your savior, I guess you're a saint, right? And so what he's saying is the role of the pastors or the leaders in the church is to equip the people to do the work of the ministry. So the primary job of a pastor is to try to help you discover your spiritual gifts, your calling, your passion, and see how that fits somehow in life and in the work of the church. So that's the goal. Because the Bible describes the job description of a pastor. He uses three Greek words. He uses the word poimein. We get the word shepherd that I spoke of a moment ago. A shepherd under shepherd. What does a shepherd do? Leads the sheep, feeds the sheep, guides the sheep, watches over the sheep, protects the sheep. That's a shepherd, poime. And then there's the word presbuteros. We get the word Presbyterian from that word. Presbuteros is to be an elder, is to be spiritually mature. Has nothing to do with age. I was 27 years old when I became pastor of a senior pastor of a church. I was certainly young. The guys that were on my leadership teams at that time, the youngest one was old enough to be my father, and most of them were old enough to be my grandfather. So they invested a lot of trust in a young guy that was still learning how to do ministry. And I'm just saying, being presbuteros doesn't have anything to do with your age. It has to do with your spiritual maturity. I know a lot of young people that are very mature, and I know some old ones that could use a little Growth. So there is poimine, presbuteras. The third word is episcopos. Episcopos. We get the word episcopal from that word. Bishop comes out of that word. It means to be an overseer. EPI is to over scopos like a scope on a rifle is to see. So you oversee episcopos. And so it doesn't mean a pastor or a staff does everything. It means that a pastor or staff has to see that everything gets done. Does that make sense? So that's part of it. And part of what our job is to do, those of us that are in full time ministry is we are to help equip people to do the work of the ministry. And that is the secret to effectiveness. And what you find is when you begin to contemplate serving and what that looks like for you and understand everybody's in a different season. Some of you are not in a season where you can do much. And that's fine. One of the most powerful ministries in the life of our church is our prayer ministry. And people who take those lists that we get every week and do as I do and our staff does, we pray over the people who've asked for prayer. And one of the most powerful things guys you can do is say, I'm gonna be a part of the prayer ministry. We have many people who sign up to serve at our crc. And that's the man that is the front door. That is the top priority of the missions of our church. Missions begins here in Jerusalem when Jesus gave the Great Commission beginning in Jerusalem. And so the CRC is really the front door. And so many of you volunteer. That's where you serve. So I'm saying you're in a different season, so you figure that out. I don't know how to help you with that because you alone know what your schedule looks like and what your season is. But I'm saying the purpose of the Expo is to give you an example of ways whereby and places whereby you could connect in the life of the church during this very important season. Because we know to effectively minister to the church, we can't staff it out to be big enough to do that. But instead we have to empower more of our people to do the work of ministry. So it's good theology. And let me give you this thought, it's good psychology. Listen, there's been mental health studies and you can do this now. You can google and you find about anything out in about three. So this isn't rocket science. You Could Google and you could say, what are the mental health benefits of serving others? You'll be shocked what you read. I was Mayo. And all these major mental health institutions have done studies on it and I've summarized what they said. They said, when a person serves others, your brain rewards you. Serving others releases feel good chemicals like serotonin and dopamine. It'll improve your physical and mental health. It provides you with a sense of purpose, and it helps you nurture and create brand new relationships. There's something powerful about serving others. So it's good theology, it's good psychology. In fact, look again back in Ephesians 4. I'm just giving you this Ephesians 4, it says, from him, the whole body. He's referring to the church as the body. The church is the body of Christ. So from Christ the whole body is joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love as each part does its work. Meaning every church has within it all the potential it needs to reach the purpose God has for it. We have untapped potential in this room. It's discovering the potential we have, helping people find where they fit and the church can grow to the next level of effectiveness. I was identifying, thinking about 30 years of ministry here at the Met. I was thinking about people who served and no longer serve. And there's a lot of reasons why that's so. I've identified four. Think about these with me. First of all is overuse. Overuse, you burn them out. I go back to my core people that helped us start this church. I wore them out. Some of them are here this morning. But man, I leaned on them so heavily. They were my small group, my accountability group. Cindy and I, we spent so much time with them because we couldn't do ministry without them. And so after a period of years, I know they just walked in and said, I just looking for a place to lay down. And I know sometimes if you're not careful and you don't watch the gauges, you can burn yourself out. I mean, you can absolutely do too much. And overuse and burnout is one of the reasons some people no longer serve. Here's the second reason. Not overuse, but misuse. What do I mean by misuse? It is when you have the right person doing the wrong job. I know sometimes you do a job cause you gotta do, you gotta put food on the table. And it's not really what you. You're doing that job while you look for the job you wanna do, right? And sometimes in A church, you step up and you say, okay, I'm gonna try this. And you get in it and you go, oh, my goodness, that is not for me. I hate my life right now. And if you don't have permission and you don't have a way to change jobs, then we will absolutely lose you. What we've tried to do in our church is say, hey, stick your toe in the water. Try something. If it doesn't work, don't be afraid to say it isn't for me. I thought I wanted to work with kids. Not so much. I thought I'd wanted to work with students. Nah, I don't think so. I thought I worked with adults. I've checked out of that too, you know, so just find where you fit and don't be afraid to try. Because overuse and misuse are two reasons people quit. Here's the third one. Abuse. Abuse. And that's when you dump on people and you take advantage of people because they're willing to serve. This will happen at your job as well. Remember we talked about the difference between delegation and dumping? Delegation is when a leader says to a person, I need you to do this. I don't have the time to do it. I would if I could. I can't. Would you help me? Nobody minds helping somebody out like that. But everybody resents somebody who puts a responsibility on them that they feel. The person feels they're too good to do it. And they, you know, I wouldn't do that job, but I'm gonna let you do it because you. You have to do it. And I can put that on you. Well, that's dumping. And people resent that. And that leads to the fourth thing, and that's just disuse. Disuse, disuse. People just quit. They just stop. They quit being asked and they quit volunteering because of the bad experiences that they've had. So I do understand it. But let me come back to the heart of what I want to share with you. And that is, as long as you have life in your body and as long as you are a part of a local body, God has a purpose for your part, for your body. Being here, you bring something to us we did not have before you got here. And so to have you on the sideline or to have you disconnected, it cuts off an ability that we have to give you ministry and for you to receive ministry. And then it cuts off an ability for you to, in turn, give back ministry to people who desperately need your giftings, your personality and what you bring to the table. So I want to try to help you find your fitness. Look at Galatians 5, 13, 14. We've got it on the screen. If you don't have a Bible with you this morning, Paul is writing to this local body, this local church at Galatia. Listen to what he says. You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. In other words, God has saved you to set you free. But he went on to say, don't use your freedom to indulge the flesh. In other words, just because he's freed you from your past, it doesn't mean because you've got your fire insurance in your pocket, you can live any way you want to live. Basically. Loosely translated, but instead, note now, serve one another humbly in love. Boy, underscore that. Serve one another humbly in love. And notice why, for the entire law, the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command, love your neighbor as yourself. So Paul is appealing to the church at Galatia. Man, God has saved you. He sets you free not to do anything you want to do, but to do everything you ought to do. And one of the things you ought to do is to by love serve one another. Let me give you another verse that's powerful along that line, 1 Corinthians 12, where Paul talks about the body principle. 1 Corinthians 12. Look at verse 12. Just as a body, though a body is singular, it has many parts, but all of its many parts form one body. So it is with Christ. Now track with what he's saying. He's doing an analogy of a physical body to the body of Christ the church. He's saying, just like the physical body has parts, hand and arms and organs and brain, eyes, ears, all the parts. Think about all the parts of your body, yet it's one body. And he's saying, just like you're made up of all these parts, so is a local church. You got a lot of parts in that church. For we were all baptized by one spirit so as to form one body. Whether Jews, Gentile, slave, or free, we were given the one spirit to drink. Verse 14. Even so, just like that's true, the body is not made up of one part, but many. And then he goes in to say, think about it this way. If the foot were to say, I'm not part of the hand, so I don't belong to the body, it would not be for that reason to stop being part of the body. Well, since I'm a foot, not a hand, I just quit is kind of what he's Saying. And he goes on to say, if the ears should say, because I'm not an eye, I don't belong to the body, it would not be for that reason to stop being part of the body. Verse 17. If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But. Verse 18. But in fact, God has placed parts of the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. God has designed people to fit in the body to be exactly where he wants them to be. So think about that now as I think about the body of Christ and I think about the local body, the Smet church, on our 30th years. We're talking about empowering people to do the work of ministry and getting more people in the life of service within our church and getting more people involved in leadership. You think about a body. What does a body do? A body manifests a person. All right, now stay with me on this little thought. You know me because you know this body. You know my face. You know my form. I know you because I know your face and I know your form. You and I are more than a face with a form. We are a spirit and a soul. The part of us that constitutes life is not just a body. It is a spirit and a soul. Now, just as my body manifests my person, you know Bill Ramsey because you recognize me. But I'm more than what you see. I'm a spirit and soul. What does the body of Christ do? Think about this. The body of Christ manifests Jesus. In other words, when I look at his body, I ought to see Jesus. You get the point. You get the analogy. So the body of Christ ought to reflect who he is. Paul said in Ephesians unto him be glory in the church. What is glory? Glory, by definition is everything that God is. What Paul was saying is everything that God is should be reflected in a church. You should see a church body collectively, and it ought to reflect Jesus. We see a church and it oughta be. We oughta love like Jesus. We oughta serve like Jesus. We oughta care like Jesus. All the attributes of Christ ought to be reflected because the body manifests the person. So stay with me on that analogy. As we think about serve one another, the first thing I would tell you that's so important in service is the passion. The passion of service. Notice I read to you just a moment ago that Galatians verse where he says, we are to by love serve one another. Passion. Remember I told you My goal is to go for the heart, to talk to the hearts of people, to change their heart. And if their hearts are changed, everything about their lives change. And Paul starts out talking about the passion. The thing that drives me to serve one another and the things that lead me to step up and wanna be a part of the life of my church is passion. God said something in my heart, I love him. And the natural part of loving him is I love people. And I wanna make a difference in the lives of people. So there should be a. A passion in their service. Here's the second thought. Not just the passion of service, but the purpose of service. My body is designed to serve me. My heart is pumping this morning to keep me alive. My lungs are working this morning to keep me breathing. My voice is working this morning to serve this intention. All the things that I'm. Everything about my body is designed in purpose for me. The body of Christ, we are designed to serve him. We are designed. The purpose of service is to serve the Lord. We're performing for an audience of one. In other words, we're saying, God, everything I do in the life of this church, I do unto you. First Corinthians 13 said, Whatever you do, whether you eat or drink, do all to the glory of God, so that God will be made manifest through your works of service. So, yes, there should be passion, man. I don't know, man. I've gone through seasons where I didn't serve out of passion. Back to point one, I just did it. Cause I was obligated to do it. And that is the worst. That's the lowest level. When you think about what you do, the lowest level of motivation is I do what I do because I have to. I have to, man. That's just. I mean, it's okay, but, man, that's. You're not gonna stay there for long. You're not gonna serve if the only reason you serve is you have to. You're not gonna stay in your job if the only reason you go to that job every day is you have to. And then you move up a notch. And then you go, well, okay, I kind of want to. I kind of like what I do. It's not really fulfilling, but I want to do it. Well, That's a higher level than I have to. But wouldn't you agree with me? The highest level is I love to. I'm passionate about this, man. I get fulfilled in doing this. It makes me feel good. When I do, I know I'm helping somebody. Those dopamine, all those Feel good things are happening psychologically, and those good things are happening theologically. And so the goal is to get passion. And you get passion through your heart. And then once you found the passion of your heart, you begin to see purpose. How is God gonna use me? What does that look like? Because I know I'm in the body of Christ at this place called the Met Church for a reason. So what would that be? Where do I fit? Cause I know I have a purpose. Eye, hand, ear, nose. You know I have a purpose. So it's finding where I fit. So track with me now. So you have the passion of service, the purpose of service. Here's the third one. The power of service. What did he say the power of service is? It's the power of the Holy Spirit. You see that we've baptized into one spirit. The spirit of a person is where the life of the body comes from. Remember what Jesus said on the cross just before he passed? He said, into thy hands I commend my what spirit? It is finished. In other words, when a person dies, the spirit leaves the body. When the body goes back to the earth and is buried, it's because the spirit and soul no longer reside in the body. It is the Spirit that enlivens and illuminates the body. What is it that illuminates the body of Christ? What is it that illuminates my service? It's the Holy Spirit. And so it's so important that we walk in the Spirit so we not fulfill the lust of the flesh, as Galatians 5 warns. So the secret to me serving effectively and faithfully is gonna be linked to my willingness to stay connected to His Holy Spirit. I say, use me, Lord. Help me. Even days when I don't feel like it, God, I know I have a purpose and a plan. Use me. Help me to make a difference in the lives of someone else. That is the power. That is the power of service. Then let me give you the fourth thought. The practice of service. What do I mean by that? The practice of service means every part of my body works in harmony with the other parts of my body. God had designed everything to work in sync. I'm doing my hands like this right now because my brain is telling them to go like that. I'm walking over here right now because my brain's telling my feet to walk. Can you imagine if my brain is standing? My feet walk this way. And they say, yeah, I'm going that way. How many of you watched Seinfeld when that was out? Anybody watched Seinfeld. Any Seinfeld fans? Okay, if you're not enlightened on this, I'm gonna give you a little homework. When you leave here in a few minutes. Search. It's on YouTube. Search Elaine's dance. Search. Trust me on that one. Search Elaine's Dance, and look what comes up. The most discombobulated, dysfunctional mess your eyes have ever tried to behold. Watching that girl dance. I mean, I can't even contort. And I don't dance. Understand? I don't. It's not that I don't. It's not that I think anything's wrong with it. I just know how to do it. When your dad was a Baptist pastor, you didn't dance, I didn't dip, I didn't chew, and I didn't date the girls that. Do you remember that one? So anyway. Yeah, but the point I'm making is, man, when you grow. I didn't. Now, Cindy, my Cindy, she didn't grow up like that. That girl could. She could disco. That girl had the moves. And so when we got married and we go to weddings, or I do a wedding, she's constantly trying to get me out on the dance. And, baby, you don't wanna see that. That is not what you wanna see. Finally, the movie Hitch came out. Remember that movie? And I found my move. This is where I live. Right here. I live here. I do this and I live right here, and I do that, and I'm living here. This is where I live. There. You don't want me out here. You want me here. And so when I. If I go to one of your weddings and I do something and you drag me out on that floor, you better spike the punch, first of all, to get me out there. But if you do and I get out there, I'm living right here. I'll do a little of that and I'll do a little step and I'll do. You know, And I mean, I'm just not going anywhere else because I'm afraid I'm going to make a mess of myself. Especially in this day of iPhones and everybody. Can you imagine? I'm going to go viral for that. I do enough stupid stuff without that. So the point I'm making is, that's why it's funny. Cause she's all over the page and she's not in sync and she's not coordinated, and it's hilarious. Well, what happens when a body gets that way and we get all dysfunction? Well, that's what happens when a body gets out of sync. The practice of service is when people find where they fit and they work in love and in harmony and unity with other people. And all of a sudden, man, the foot's moving when it's supposed to and the eyes are working and the ears are working and a body is happening and a body is functioning and a body is representing and showing forth the glory of God. Let me give you this last thought. Matthew 20:28. Jesus said the Son of man did not come to be served, but he came to serve. The greatest example of service is Jesus. And can I tell you this morning, those of you who know him and a part of this body, first of all, I'm so glad you're here. Oh, man. God has blessed his church over 30 years in incredible ways. I'm not exaggerating when I say we have touched tens of thousands of people over 30 years. I would dare say you can't attend a church within a 5, 10 mile radius of here. You don't find somebody that at one point was a part of our church, family, former members, former staff that served for a season and God moved them to the next season of life. And that's fine, that's the way it works. But God has made such a difference. But the heart of the church. I go back to where I started and the secret of our effectiveness has always been tied to getting people involved in the work of ministry. I think we're in that season again. And can I say this? Everybody is somebody in his body. You fit somewhere. Everybody is somebody in his body. And the purpose of the expo is not to give you something else to do. As I told you last week, it's to help you find where you fit. We can't do it without you. I've out punted my coverage years ago, but I know the effectiveness of our church going forward is getting you locked in somewhere where you can do the thing. Bring to the table what God has gifted you uniquely to do and he'll take care of the rest. Let's pray together. Lord, thank you for your word. That's always practical, it's possible. And yet your word is so powerful. Lord, I ask this morning that we don't just listen to it, but that we'll actually apply it and do it. Father, I pray for my friends this morning who are going through a hard season. Maybe it's a season of loss in their personal life. Loss of finances, loss of resources, loss of job. Maybe they're going through the loss of a relationship. Father, I lift them up to you. I pray Father, they'll know that you're the God of the valleys, just as you are the God of the mountains, and that your promise to never leave or forsake is applicable to them as well. Father I pray for my friends who are struggling today. And I pray for those, Lord, who may be honestly prayerfully considering how they could step into the water and begin to have a ministry that make a difference in the life of people within this church. Father Help them to put that on their heart, affirm it, confirm it. And then finally, Lord, I pray for those who have never trusted you as their Savior. I pray this will be the moment right where they are, whether in this room or watching online or they'll watch at a later date, where they say, lord Jesus, with everything I know about me, I now trust all that I know about you. Come into my heart, forgive my sin, and I ask that in Jesus name. Amen. [00:38:56] Speaker A: Thank you so much for tuning in today. If you have any questions or prayer requests, please contact us by visiting metchurch.com so that we can follow up with you this week. We look forward to seeing you next week.