April 19th, 2026 - "Double Vision: Serve Joyfully" - Rev. Dr. T. Ray Wheeler

Matt Nelson: Welcome to the sermon podcast from First United Methodist

Church in downtown Bentonville.

If you have questions related to what you hear today or just want to find

out more about the ministries at First United Methodist Church, please visit us

online at fumcbentonville.org or check us out on Facebook, Instagram, or TikTok.

Rev. Dr. T. Ray Wheeler: Thank you, Blaine.

I'm Ray Wheeler, I'm the associate pastor, and, uh, I'm grateful to be

able to bring a message this morning.

And this morning we're recognizing indigenous peoples, and so we're using

First Nations version, a relatively new translation of the Bible that uses

Native American idiomatic language.

So I invite you to listen for the word of God contained in this holy scripture.

This is 1 Peter 4:8-11.

1 Peter 4:8–11

"Above all, never stop loving each other.

For like a warm blanket, love covers a great number of broken ways.

Open your homes to each other and share your food without grumbling.

Each one of you has been given a gift, so use it to serve one another

as a good manager of the many kinds of gifts the Creator gives.

If your gift is speaking, then your words should come from the Great Spirit.

If your gift is serving, then serve with the strength the Creator gives you.

In this way, the Great Spirit will be honored by everything

you do through Creator sets free, or Jesus, the Chosen One.

To him belongs all power and shining greatness to the time

beyond the end of all days.

Aho.

May it be so." This is the word of God for us, the people of God.

Thanks be to God.

I would love it if you would join me in a moment of prayer this morning.

Oh, Creator God, open our hearts and our minds to your word, oh, Lord.

Give us the vision that you would have us for this tribe, for this people.

In Christ's name we pray.

Amen.

So some years ago now, many, many years ago really, I was watching a

cooking show called Top Chef Masters.

This was before there were, like, a million cooking shows.

And there was a competition between really established chefs.

Th- these chefs were already recognized as masters in their field.

And, uh, as I remember, they were competing for donations

to their favorite charity.

So it wasn't a cutthroat sort of competition.

It was kind of a good-natured competition.

And there was a master chef named Rick Bayless who was competing, and

his specialist was Mexican food.

And I love Mexican food, so I was really pulling for Chef

Rick to win the whole thing.

But the thing that really sticks in my mind after all these years was something

one of the judges said about Chef Rick.

He said, "You always feel so well cared for when Rick cooks for you."

And that really struck me, 'cause I had a young family at that time, I was

doing the lion's share of the cooking.

And I remember thinking, "I wanna convey that sense of wellbeing

in every dish that I serve." I'm not a chef, but I want my secret

ingredient in my cooking to be love.

Now, my cooking at that time was cooking for two growing children,

and so my cooking included a lot of butter and sometimes some lard.

So there was a lot of fat as well as a lot of love in my cooking at that time.

In other words, in the words we hear this morning from 1 Peter, there's a

beautiful simplicity and a deep challenge.

We are told to love deeply, to welcome others without complaining, to serve one

another with gifts we have received, and to do it all so that the Great Spirit,

the Creator, is honored in everything we do, in our cooking and in our caring.

It sounds straightforward, but we know it's not always easy, because

serving can feel exhausting.

Serving can feel unnoticed.

It can even feel like an obligation instead of a joy.

And yet this passage invites us into something different.

Not just service, but joyful service.

The writer of 1 Peter reminds us of something essential.

Each one of us has a gift.

Each one of us has a calling.

You are called to be the example of Christ in your corner of the world.

Our book of discipline states that all Christians are called through

their baptism to a ministry of servanthood in the world to the glory

of God and for human fulfillment.

So this is our work.

This is our calling.

To show our individual world an example of Christ-like ministry of

outreaching love And this calling is not just for some people.

It's not just for pastors or church leaders or those who feel qualified.

Each one, and that means everyone here in the sound of my voice, has a calling.

Every person here has been entrusted with something sacred, a gift

placed in your life by the Creator.

And here's the important part.

These gifts are not given to us randomly.

There's a sense of something that's given to you that is for

the good of the whole community.

In the First Nations version, there's a sense of shared life,

of walking together as a people.

So your gift is not just your gift.

It's part of the life of the tribe here, part of the life of the body, the circle.

And when we use our gifts in the way we are created to use them,

something really remarkable happens.

Joy begins to rise.

But let's be honest, this kind of service can drain us.

It's a kind of service that comes from guilt sometimes, or pressure,

or a feeling, "Well, somebody has to do it, so I guess it will be me."

And that kind of service often leads to burnout.

But that's not what this passage is talking about.

Peter is pointing us towards something else, a serving

that flows from who we are.

When you serve out of your giftedness, when you step into the space God designed

for you, it doesn't just bless others.

It brings you alive as well.

Think about it.

If you have a gift for hospitality, when you welcome

others, you feel a great energy.

When you have a gift for teaching, when you share insights, your heart ignites.

If you have a gift for compassion, when you care for others who are

hurting, you sense a deep purpose.

And that's not an accident.

There is a design to this.

There is a chemistry in kindness, a physiology of goodness.

In his book, The Healing Power of Doing Good, nonprofit leader Alan Luks

quoted survey respondents attempting to articulate the feelings they

experience when doing volunteer work.

"It makes you explode with energy," one of them said.

Another described a relaxation in their body as they worked.

Another one said, "It feels like being zapped with a bolt of energy, a euphoria."

And Luks coined the term helper's high, a helper's high to describe these feelings.

Doing the good we are designed to do, living into our calling, gives us purpose

and brings about good health outcomes.

But before Peter even talks about gifts, he starts somewhere else.

"Above all," he says, "love each other deeply." Love is the

soil where joyful service grows.

Without love, service becomes performance or obligation.

Without love, service might be about recognition.

But with love, service becomes an offering.

It becomes a connection, and it becomes a joy.

Love changes why we serve.

We don't serve to be seen, and we don't serve to check a box.

We don't serve to earn anything.

We serve because love compels us.

There's one line in this passage that might be the most convicting.

He says, "Welcome others into your home without complaining." Or as we might say

today, "Serve without grumbling about it."

But that's where it gets real because we can do the right

thing with the wrong spirit.

If we serve and resent it, if we serve and keep score, or

we serve and quietly complain.

But Peter is inviting us to something deeper, a transformation of the heart.

Joyful service just doesn't ignore difficulty.

It just doesn't pretend that things aren't hard.

But it's rooted in a different posture, a posture of gratitude

and purpose and trust.

Another key piece, when we serve, we do it with the strength the Creator gives us.

Because sometimes we try to serve out of our own strength,

and when we do, we can run dry.

When we serve in God's strength, when we lean into the Spirit, something

shifts, and we find that we are sustained in ways we don't expect.

We find energy when we should be exhausted.

We find joy when there should've been a burden.

Joyful service is not about trying harder.

It's about trusting deeper.

In many indigenous traditions, life is understood as a circle, interconnected,

shared, and balanced, and this image fits beautifully in here for us.

A church is not a stage with a few performers, but it's a

circle where everyone has a role.

When one person withholds their gift, the whole circle feels it.

And when one person steps into their gift, the whole circle is strengthened.

And when the circle is working as it should, when gifts are shared

and love is present and service flows, joy becomes contagious.

But here's the question the passage gently asks each of us: When

do you experience joy serving?

Not just where are you most needed, but where do you feel most alive?

Where do you sense that your offering connects with who you are as a person?

Because that's often where your giftedness lies.

And if you're not sure, that's okay.

Sometimes discovering our gifts is a journey of trying and

listening and paying attention.

But here's a simple way to start.

What comes naturally to you?

What do people thank you for?

When do you feel most connected to God while you're helping others?

It's a little bit of the four questions, I guess.

These are the clues we need

Peter ends with a powerful vision, "So that in everything the Creator will be

honored through the Chosen One." And this is really the heart of it all, beloved.

Joyful service is not ultimately about us.

It's about reflecting the goodness and the generosity and

the love of God to the world.

When we serve with joy, when we live into our gifts, we become a living testimony.

People begin to see something different, something beautiful, something holy.

They begin to see Christ in us

But today, hear this invitation.

Serve, not out of guilt, not out of pressure, not out of obligation.

Serve with love and serve with the gifts you have been given.

Serve with the strength that God provides.

Cooking may not be your gift.

It may not be your calling to show love through a meal.

But whatever you do, whatever your gift and calling may be, you can show

the love of Christ through your work.

And our broken world will feel a little bit more cared for

and a little bit more loved.

In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Matt Nelson: Thanks for listening to the Sermon Podcast from First United

Methodist Church in downtown Bentonville.

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Grace and peace.