“Serve from Grace!”

Key Verses:  Galatians 6:9-10

I really like going to Chick-fil-A. It’s not only their food, it’s the atmosphere and their service! They are just that good! We have some employees of Chick-fil-A in here, so please shout out that wonderful phrase that we all should use when someone says thank you to us and I’ll give you a hint, it is not “You’re Welcome!” It’s a step up… The employees respond, “My pleasure!”

Paul teaches us about serving in Galatians 6:9-10, “Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary. So then, while we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, and especially to those who are of the household of the faith.”

Is serving one another in the household of faith a pleasure to you? Have you lost heart in doing good because you can’t see any good reason to do it? Have you grown weary because you are not reaping fruit (maybe your timeline is off or you are looking for results too quickly)? Are you still looking for opportunities to do good to all people?

People can tell whether or not it is truly “my pleasure” and your attitude about serving changes the atmosphere of not only what happens here, but out there on a daily basis. Your attitude towards serving can take something ordinary and make it extraordinary! Your attitude can stop something from becoming extraordinary! It only takes one person to turn someone off from this church or from Jesus…

Paul would not have told us about the dangers of losing heart in doing good and growing weary if these weren’t real threats to the church. In fact, Jesus Himself invited us in Matthew 11:28-29a, “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me…”

What can we learn from Jesus’ example on how we are to serve?

We are commanded to serve like Jesus: From Grace, in Love, and with Compassion!

Firstly, From Grace… It is as Jesus said in John 15:9-10, “Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.”

Did you hear the comparison in Jesus’ words? The Father loves us with the same love that He loves Jesus! We are to find rest for our souls by remaining in the One who is love. We connect to, abide in, yoke with the One who rescued us from the death penalty of our sin and gave us new life. As Paul says in Ephesians 2:1-5, And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved).”

It is all from God’s grace. We serve because we are becoming like the One who loved us first because we are now united with Him by grace. That is what I mean when I say “We serve from grace…” We are serving others from the deep well of gratitude to God for our salvation!

We serve from grace, [and secondly] in love… Paul taught us in 1 Corinthians 13:1-3, “If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.”

Listen to this devotional reading that Scott Underwood shared with me. Read devotion.

Paul explains to a group of Christians really struggling in their daily faith in Galatians 5:6, 13-14: “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision [religion nor nonreligion] means anything, but faith working through love [relationship]. For you were called to freedom, brethren; only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole Law is fulfilled in one word, in the statement, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’”

To serve in love is to bring Christ to the situation. Love is the energy. If grace is the deep well that motivates our service, then love is the energy that compels it into action. No one will ever know your deep love for God and His grace unless it is seen through your love of another!

We serve from Grace, in Love, and [lastly] with Compassion! Compassion directs our service! Grace is what motivates us! Love is what energizes us! Compassion focuses us!

Let’s just take a couple snapshots from Jesus’ earthly ministry:

To serve another in love and with compassion is to pull from the deep well of grace that God first served you with. To serve another is to declare your faith in this Jesus and to live like He lived. You don’t serve others because they deserve it, but exactly because it was God’s good pleasure to serve you first. As John said in 1 John 3:1a, “See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are.”

I don’t know about you, but I can hear God say in this verse, “My pleasure!”

Because of His pleasure, we serve from Grace, in love, and with compassion!

In conclusion, we have learned how we are to serve so that we don’t lose heart in doing good or grow weary (from the deep well of grace, in love, and with compassion) and as we go to do this we are left with the question: Who are we to serve?

Remembering our scripture lesson for today from Galatians 6:9-10, “Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary. So then, while we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, and especially to those who are of the household of the faith.”

It starts in the household of faith. We should have a better atmosphere than Chick-fil-A right here in these relationships. I can make it a part of your job description, but only God can change your heart! We are to do more than practice and perfect the art of saying, “My pleasure!”, we should be motivated by grace to love one another.

Serving begins in the household of faith, but continues to the world. How we serve conveys our  message! The gospel is good news! As Jesus Christ commanded His followers after He washed their feet in John 13:34-35: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Remembering that 80% of all communication is non-verbal, are people hearing the message of God’s good news through you by the way you serve? Are they seeing Jesus as you serve?

Jesus said in Matthew 20:28, “the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.” And Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5:20, “Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.”

The same One we gather together to celebrate every Sunday morning for our salvation is the very One we put on display in our service! First, in here [inside this building] and then out there [as the church]! Just like it must start in here [point to my head and heart], but it must be put on display with these [my hands and my feet]!

SERVE: IT’S THE WAY OF JESUS!

Listen to the message for Week 6 here:

You can watch the video HERE.

“The 5 Steps to Effective Serving!”  (PART 3 of 3)

(Romans 12:1-8)

Today, we are going to walk through the last step of “The 5 Steps to Effective Serving” based on Romans 12:1-8.

Allow me to quickly review the first 4 steps from the last 2 sermons:

Step 1: Everyday, Dedicate Your Everyday life to Jesus! Romans 12:1 calls us to daily submission to God’s Word. Are you experiencing rest in the easy yoke of Jesus Christ?

Step 2: Eliminate Competing Distractions! Romans 12:2 calls us to focus on Jesus and to guard our hearts from that which will distract us from seeking first the Kingdom. Where is your treasure? What are the “patterns of this world” that are taking your mind, heart, calendar or check book away from Jesus and His Kingdom?

Step 3: Remain Humble in God’s Grace! Romans 12:3 calls us to view ourselves humbly through God’s grace by the faith that has been given to us. Nothing we have is from our own hands—not our salvation or even all that which we think we have earned or done. Humility is not thinking less of yourself, but thinking less about yourself.

Step 4: Commit to Being a Functional Member of Jesus’ Church! Romans 12:4-5 commands us to not see ourselves as a lone ranger Christian, but to become healthy members of a local congregation by seeing ourselves as each having an important function. Are you willing to be a healthy member of Jesus’ body by being a functional member of a local congregation?

Before I move on, I want to discuss a concern that has been expressed to me recently. First of all, let me say that I appreciate it when people share their concerns with me, the elders, or other members of the leadership. That is the right way to handle concerns, by being healthy and helpful. Please talk to us. I know trust is hard, but this is the better way. A concern has been expressed to me that there is no place to serve for some people. I hope the report I have received is isolated. As a pastor and fellow elder, speaking for the elders of the church, I want to publicly say that we want every person to find a place of service in and through the church—we desire to be a safe place for you to grow in Christ in every season of your life because we don’t believe in retirement from serving God. While there is process for some positions in the church (e.g. worship team try outs or qualifications for eldership), that does not mean that we don’t want people to find the right place of service. We are not in the business of hurting people, but healing people. But what happens when hurting people are not willing to be a part of God’s therapy through the church for their healing? We want each person in our church to find God’s will for his or her life. So, if you are actively taking yourself out of ministry, stop! If you are actively working against others, stop! If you feel like you have no place to serve here or have been told that by anyone, then talk to me or one of the elders or come to talk to the elders as a team or write us a letter (and please sign your name to it). We want every person who calls FBC their home to have a place of service, whether in the church walls or outside in the community. That is the 1 in our 7:1 Initiative!

Now, let’s finish with the last step of learning how to effectively serve as found in Romans 12:1-8. This step is important to the above issue because it is not our goal to get you busy, it is our goal to guide you in all righteousness to serve as God designed you to serve. The elders do not feel called to either direct your steps for you or derail you from using your gifts, but to disciple you into great fruitfulness for the ministry of the gospel of Jesus Christ; the journey of maturity!

Step 5: Multiply what God has given you to use! Romans 12:6-8 brings it back to God’s grace and how He has given you a S.H.A.P.E. for ministry by giving you spiritual gifts: “Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, each of us is to exercise them accordingly: if prophecy, according to the proportion of his faith; if service, in his serving; or he who teaches, in his teaching; or he who exhorts, in his exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness.”

Romans 12:6-8 is not a comprehensive list of spiritual gifts, but it is an exhortation to fully engage with what you have been given by God’s grace to do God’s will.

What is a spiritual gift? It is a special ability, given by the Holy Spirit to every believer upon being saved, to be used to minister to others and therefore build up the body of Christ. All gifts are given to help the Church fulfill its purposes to the glory of God.

Here are three Bible verses to help us better understand the Bible’s view of spiritual gifts: Paul says in 1 Corinthians 12:1 & 7, “Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware.” & “But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.” Peter says in 1 Peter 4:10, “As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.”

The Bible does not lock us into tight restrictions as to the number of spiritual gifts, or even their definitions. If you like would like to further explore the major lists of gifts beyond Romans 12:6-8; check out 1 Corinthians 12:1-11, 27-31; Ephesians 4:11-12; and 1 Peter 4:9-11.

The bottom line about spiritual gifts is found in 1 Corinthians 12—14: spiritual gifts are the temporary to build the eternal; don’t worship the gifts (nor those who are working more maturely in their gifts), but only worship the Gift-giver! Everything we have and every service we render unto King Jesus is by God’s grace and for God’s glory! All glory to God!

A couple teaching points regarding spiritual gifts: They show your ministry whereas the Fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23) shows your maturity in Christ. At conversion, you are saved and given everything in Christ through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. No one person has all the spiritual gifts and there is no one gift everyone is to have (i.e. tongues) that manifests at conversion to prove you’re a Christian! The sign of salvation is a life that exalts Jesus Christ; God will grow up those who are His! That is His promise to His people; to you!

By following the steps in Romans 12:1-8, you will grow in His grace in your maturity and in the ministry Christ has gifted you. This is the means of grace found in Christian discipleship!

Let’s review the 5 steps as we wrap up these three messages on the steps to effective serving: 1) Submit to God in every area of your life, every day; 2) Keep your eyes on Jesus and get rid of the distractions; 3) Stay humble in God’s grace; 4) Be a functional member of the body of Christ; and 5) Multiply what God has given you to use!

We want to equip you to learn more about spiritual gifts so we are making inventories with information sheets available for you on both the welcome and resources desks. Please grab a packet and work through this information. If you would like to learn even more, please email me or get in touch with the church office and we will send you even more information. God has given you a S.H.A.P.E. for service. Do you know it and are you using it?

God formed you in your mother’s womb with service in mind. When you came into union with Christ, the Holy Spirit sealed you for eternity with His presence and power. At the time of your salvation, God gave you spiritual gift(s) to build up the body of Christ, to fulfill your design for ministry, all to bring glory to God! Always for God’s glory!

Do you know how good God is and what He has given you to do the good works He prepared in advance for you to do for His glory?

What does this look like? I will need some youth to help me illustrate what this looks like. We are going to have some fun to help us all remember today’s lesson.

With the youth acting out parts, tell the story of Jesus’ Parable of the Talents from Matthew 25:14-30.

Are you multiplying what God has given you for His purposes and His glory?

Listen to the Week 5 message here:

You can watch the video HERE.

“The 5 Steps to Effective Serving!” (PART 2)

Key Verses:  Romans 12:1-8

Today, we are going to walk through the last 2 steps of “The 5 Steps to Effective Serving” based on Romans 12:1-8.

Allow me to quickly review the first 3 steps from last week’s sermon:

Now, let’s continue with the last 2 steps of effective serving found in Romans 12:4-8.

As the Scripture is worded, everyone has a function. No one is called to sit on the sidelines. There are no stand-alone Christians, just like there are no coals outside the fire that are red hot for very long. We are members of a body, gathered by the Holy Spirit through the gospel of Jesus Christ, to do God’s will for God’s glory. Apart from the body of Christ we are neither healthy nor able to faithfully function as God designed us. Finding your place of service in a local church is an essential piece of God’s program. In fact, it’s what builds the body of Christ!

Ephesians 4:11-16 emphasizes this point, “And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.” (emphasis mine)

There can be no lone rangers in Christianity. We already have our hero and His name is Jesus. That job opening is closed. I am not asking anyone here to be anyone else’s savior and I’m definitely breaking down any preexisting codependency you may have with a pastor, especially if that pastor is me. I’m a horrible savior; I am a fellow beggar for grace! When I act like a lone ranger or like an omni-competent pastor, then I am doing just that—acting out of my own particular brand of brokenness! We are in this together, each of us doing our part as God calls us, because the health and effectiveness of the church is 100% dependent on each of us doing our own part.

One of my friends explained the imagery of “what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part.” In understanding the imagery we see the importance of it. Listen to her explain, “There are so many things happening in the joints of the body. 1) Ligaments attach bone to bone to stabilize the joints of the body. 2) Tendons attach muscle to bone to provide range of motion to the joint. 3) Synovial fluid in the joint is like oil to an engine, and allows all the parts to keep moving freely and without pain (i.e. when someone says they have “bone on bone” joint pain, it means all their synovial fluid is gone).”

This biblical imagery explains why the contemporary church looks like it is limping through life and groaning along the way. It is not supposed to be this way! The church accomplishing the mission to bring glory to God is 100% dependent on the individual members being healthy functional members of the body. That is why the Bible says in Hebrews 10:23-25, “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful; and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near.”

God wants us to be together on a regular basis. To do life together, face to face, in union with Jesus and united to one another. God commands this for His glory, for our usefulness as His Church, and for each of our good. We are designed by God to be in a faith community. Our salvation may be personal, but it is not designed to be private. In fact, salvation comes with commands for a very community-oriented, service-focused life. Are you willing to be a healthy member of Jesus’ body by being a functional member of a local congregation?

This is not a comprehensive list of spiritual gifts and these are different than your natural talents, but it is an exhortation to fully engage with what you have been given by God’s grace to do God’s will! Get off the sidelines and start using all of what God has given you for all of His glory! We want to equip you to learn more about Spiritual Gifts so we are making Spiritual Gifts inventories with information sheets available for you on both the welcome and resources desks. Please grab a packet and work through this information. If you would like to learn even more, please email me or get in touch with the church office and we will send you even more information. God has given you a S.H.A.P.E. for service. Do you know it and are you using it?

God formed you in your mother’s womb with service in mind. When you came into union with Christ, the Holy Spirit sealed you for eternity with His presence and power. At the time of your salvation, God gave you spiritual gift(s) to build up the body of Christ, to fulfill your design for ministry, all to bring glory to God! Always for God’s glory!

Do you know how good God is and what He has given you to do the good works He prepared in advance for you to do for His glory?

What does this look like? I will need some youth to help me illustrate what this looks like. We are going to have some fun to help us all remember today’s lesson.

With the youth acting out parts, tell the story of Jesus’ Parable of the Talents from Matthew 25:14-30.

Listen to the message for Week 4 here:

You can watch the video HERE.

“The 5 Steps to Effective Serving!” (Part 1)

Key Verses:  Romans 12:1-8 & Luke 10:25-37

In the first week of this series we looked at the heart of ministry by looking at the heart of Jesus Christ, who did not come to be served, but to serve. We saw this truth most clearly displayed through His sacrificial death (Philippians 2:3-11), but also through how He washed the feet of His disciples on the night he was betrayed before going to the cross (John 13:5-20). Last week we dove into the heart of what keeps us from serving. We took time to ask God to check our hearts and minds so that we could hear from Him what He would have us do. The concept of being uniquely designed for service was introduced to you—you were created with good works in mind (Ephesians 2:10).

In fact, we each have a unique S.H.A.P.E. (Spiritual Gifts, Heart passions, Abilities and talents, Personalities, and Experiences) for service because God created us and saved us to serve. Your form follows your function—to serve according to God’s design! Are you serving effectively?

Over the next 2 Sundays, we are going to walk through Romans 12:1-8, where Paul lays out for us the 5 steps for how we are to serve like Jesus served. We are going to learn how to walk in the good works that God prepared in advance for us to do—we are God’s workmanship (Ephesians 2:10), that is who we are!

Today, we will cover the first 3 steps and next Sunday we will cover the last 2 of how we each can know we are serving effectively, as according to God’s design and purposes for us.

Paul is not talking about your initial conversion to faith in Jesus Christ. He is talking to church people, people who have already made a decision to be disciples. The first step every day for disciples of Jesus Christ is to present themselves to God as living and holy sacrifices, by getting into the yoke of Jesus (Matthew 11:28-30).

Jesus gives us this promise from Matthew 11:28-30, “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

This is not only a promise; it is a way of life (a daily praxis). Every promise of God is ours to believe, but also ours to live as a praxis of life (as a lifestyle). I get in the yoke of Jesus each morning with my early morning quiet time (a.k.a. “coffee time with Jesus”) because I know that if I am not in the yoke, then one of my 3 A’s—anxiety, ambition, or ambivalence—will take over and lead my day. It has become such an ingrained habit that a majority of the time I am awake before my 5:30 alarm ready to get in the yoke with Jesus. Before, I used to wake up distracted, filled with anxiety for the work that needs to get done or driven by the impulses of my body, but now I wake up desiring to be with Jesus and once again submit and find rest in His yoke.^[1]

This is the first and most important step: submit to God, dedicate your day to God’s glory! Just like in spiritual warfare, before you have authority to rebuke the devil, you have to first submit to God (James 4:7). It is in submitting to God that Jesus’ authority and power flow through us.

But this promise of God—to know the will of God for your life—like all the promises of God, comes with daily challenges! I am an easily distracted person and I have triggers from my past that must be safe-guarded against. For example, TV for me is like one of those old school bug zappers that was on the back porch when I was growing up. ZAP! If the TV is on, then I am glued to it and being sucked in. ZAP! To stay alive, I have to stay away from it! For me that is eliminating a competing distraction. I don’t know what it is for you, but that is part of what it looks like for me to follow Jesus well. You may have better time management skills or more brain space than me, but I don’t have minutes, nevertheless hours, to invest in someone else’s program for my life. It also saves a lot of money which allows us to be even more generous with both time and money! I realize that not everyone will have the same issues that I have, so I don’t command this. I just ask you, “what are you doing to eliminate those things that are after your brain space, your heart space, your calendar and your checkbook?”

Remember Jesus’ words from Matthew 6:19-21, 33a, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness.” Friends, we do not serve what we love, we love what we serve!

So often, I will tell people that spending minutes a day in Jesus’ program for your life is not enough if you are spending hours in the world’s program for your life. Jesus does not want to be one of your priorities, He wants to be “The Priority”. He doesn’t want to be on the top of your checklist of things to get done today, He wants everything on your checklist to be for Him and through Him. Jesus is a jealous God and will not tolerate idols in His people! Why? Because He loves us and knows that those very idols we serve are killing us from the inside out.

Your heart will follow that which you treasure—guard it well! Whatever you feed your mind and heart with will influence you the most. Who are you listening to? Where is your treasure?

Pride comes before the fall. Pride is the ruin of the great servants of God. I have hit the wall of pride and performance in my own life, and I am here to tell you that step #3 is essential to serving in the way of Jesus—be humble in God’s grace! While this is an everyday process, I exhort you to not think more highly of yourself, but as Paul commands us in Philippians 2:3-8,

Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Having a servant’s heart is critical to serving like Jesus! In fact Jesus said in Matthew 18:3-4, “Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever then humbles himself as this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”

What does this look like? I will need a whole bunch of children to help me illustrate what this humility looks like. We are going to have some fun to help us all remember today’s lesson.

With the children acting out parts, tell the story of the Good Samaritan from Luke 10:25-37.

Serve Week 3: Listen to it here…

You can watch the video HERE.

Footnotes:

[1] Do you think you can get to be on time so that you can get up earlier than necessary to start your day by getting in the yoke of Jesus? The following quote reflects the positive ripple effects that come from the spiritual fruit of self-control (Gal. 5:22-23) that can lead to such a morning routine. This is not legalism or an evangelical check list. This is God’s grace to empower the abundant life: “One way in which the self is resourced is through self-discipline. Though it is an unpopular concept in a materialist world propelled by consumerism and expectant of instant gratification, self-control or self-discipline is critical in resilience and can be learnt by practice. Self-control is defined as the self’s ability to alter its states and responses. Since self-control is central to most forms of virtuous behaviour [sic] it can be regarded as the primary or master virtue. It seems to operate like a muscle which is weaker after exertion and replenishes with rest, slowly becoming stronger with repeated exercise and also strengthened by social support. For those in adversity, self-discipline during times of trauma can enable physical escape or psychological protection. After trauma self-discipline helps to deal with anger and hurt, setting boundaries in relationships and the rebuilding of life, as when survivors of childhood trauma make an ongoing, deliberate choice to manage their anger and hurt” (Justine Allain-Chapman, Resilient Pastors: The Role of Adversity in Healing and Growth, New Library of Pastoral Care [London: SPCK, 2012], 28–29).

[2] “The concept of humility is enriched rather than diminished by religious understandings, she argues, because the religious perspective describes one’s place in the world in relation to God, so that one can be smart, but not all-knowing, and have personal power, but not omnipotence. There is a connection between humility and compassion which resonates with the observations already make about empathy. Humility, viewed positively, leads to compassion because of self-forgetfulness, rather than a self-focus that can come with false humility. Thus humility is not a devaluation of oneself but an increase in the valuation of others” (Justine Allain-Chapman, Resilient Pastors: The Role of Adversity in Healing and Growth, New Library of Pastoral Care [London: SPCK, 2012], 32–33).

“Designed with Service in Mind!”

Key Verse:  Ephesians 2:10

What is your response to the starving child in Africa commercial? What comes to your mind when you see a person with a card board sign outside of Walmart? What happened inside of your head and heart a month ago when I asked for people to open their homes to a young couple and their 2 children? How do you respond for a request to commit your Saturday morning to help someone move or to bring a dinner to someone in need or go help clean someone’s house? What feelings come up when you are asked to hold babies in the nursery or work with teens one night?

Let’s just sit in that for a minute. What happens in your heart when you are asked to do something for someone else that is inconvenient, costly, or uncomfortable?

Read more…

“The Example of Jesus!”

Key Verses:   John 13:5-17

Read more…