The Christian Handbook - The Real Worship Service

So we've been in a series titled the Christian Handbook Fundamentals of the Faith.

The goal of the series has been to look at the foundational beliefs of Christians.

That is, what Christians believe and how Christians live in light of those

beliefs, because what we believe drives what we do. So that's a series

we're in. Let's pray, and just jump right in. Let's pray.

Father God, we ask that your presence would be here with us, that

as we've sung to you praises of your great work. We asked that you've

been preparing our hearts to receive from your word, that we would be able

to see you and enjoy you and know you better so that we can walk

away from today looking more like you. And we just asked that you would

convict us, that you would comfort us, and that you would be with

us during this time. All to your glory and Jesus name you. Pray

Amen. All right. So the past few weeks we've been looking at the

topic of worship, and we have been looking at a specific text to kind

of help us understand or use as a springboard for understanding or our understanding of

worship. So let's take a look at that. That's Romans twelve one,

which I encourage you to turn there because that's where we're going to be spending

most of our time today. Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters,

in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice,

holy and pleasing to God. This is your true and proper worship.

Sidebar. If you don't have a Bible, they're in the back. Please

go help yourself to one. We go through the Bible here all the time,

so you're gonna want one in your hands. But this has been our

text, and so two weeks ago Pastor Jordan actually taught more in depth on

this text and helped us understand that worship isn't just the songs that we sing,

but the lives that we live before God. That worship as a way

of life is our proper response to who God is and what God has done.

And to quote him, he said, worship is a posture of obedience

of heart, mind, and body. So it's not just the songs we

sing. But then last week Pastor Greig walked us through five reasons why Christians

worship through song. So why Christians or Christians do sing, so it's not

just singing, but it's the lives we live and singing. So Greg helped

us walk through that as well. And now today we're also going to be

talking about worship, but a different aspect of that. Jordan kind of gave

us the broad overview of the lives that we live, but now we want

to go like, well, what does that life look like? What does

that mean? So the different aspect of worship that we're gonna look at today

is that of serving or service. So today's message is titled the Real Worship

Service. Today, we're going to continue to look at Romans twelve, specifically

verses one through eight. As we walk through our text, we're gonna see

a lot of different things in regards to our lives as Christians. But there's

a couple of things that I really want us to see in regards to serving.

Those three things that I want us to see are these the posture of

serving, the preparation of serving, and the passion of serving. So let's

jump right into it with the first one. The posture of serving posture is

important and this comes from someone with terrible posture. Okay, my weekly headaches

that I have because I sit like this all of the time. Posture is

very important. It's not only important how you hold yourself while you sit and

stand. The posture is also the way you hold yourself while being active.

So, for example, when you go to lift something, everyone says,

don't lift with your lift with your knees, legs, whatever it is.

I both in my notes because I wasn't sure which one it was, so

it's fair I have legs cross that or knees crossed that, because I was

like, well, kneeds that be too hard? I don't know either way.

It's your legs, right, knees, legs, they can all kind

of count together, So lift with your legs, not your back. Why

do we say this so that we don't get hurt right while we're being active?

So poor posture, whether working or resting, can lead to some big

problems. The Internet saying that that could be back pain, body aches and

pains, headaches, muscle fatigue. And then why is this important? But

it's just like how our posture is important in our day to day life physically,

it's also important spiritually in our day to day life. Does that make

sense? So we're gonna look at this posture. So go back to Romans

twelve one. Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view

of God's mercy, that is mercies, to offer your body as a living

sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. This is your true and proper worship.

Now Paul is telling or tells us just to kind of recap what Jordan

went over a little bit that in view of God's mercy, that is all

of God's mercies, to offer our bodies as living sacrifices. And we'll talk

about what that means in a little bit polly and pleasing to God. And

when it says that this is our true and proper worship, your translation also

might say spiritual worship. But the idea of true and proper or spiritual is

actually this idea in the Greek that is reasonable. This is your reasonable response,

This is your reasonable worship. It's a logical thing to do in view

of God's mercies, to offer ourselves as living sacrifices. And even more interesting

enough, is that the word here for worship in the Greek is actually the

word for service or divine services in service to God. The reason I'm pointing

this out is because it's important for us to realize that our worship, the

way that we live, the way are the songs that we sing, are

all in service to God. Does that make sense? All? Right?

Now? What does this? Does not mean that God needs us? What

do I mean by that? That means that God didn't create us to make

up for something that was lacking in and of himself. Does that make sense?

But God actually created us to serve Him and his purposes. So when

we walk in his ways, we are walking in our purpose. Our lives

are here to serve him, and in view of God's mercies, that is

our only reasonable response. That's the only rational thing that we can do.

So our posture and how we approach serving God is of the utmost importance because

it's the starting place. Is our proper understanding of who we are in relation

to God. So the text goes on Romans twelve two says, do not

conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of

your mind. Paul has urged the believers, in view of God's mercies,

to live for God. And now he's saying, this is going to look

different than the way that the world does things. The way you live is

not going to look like the way the pattern that this world goes about living.

So don't conform to how the world goes about things, but instead be

transformed by the renewing of your mind. And the word transformed, it's actually

got interesting. It's only used like a handful of times in the New Testament.

Here. The other times is when Jesus is transformed or transfigured or transfigured

on the mountain before a couple of his disciples. And the other time we've

actually kind of used this first pretty often is in Second Corinthians three eighteen,

and we all who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord's glory and are being transformed

into his image with ever increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who

is the spirit. I think that's really cool. I could explain why,

but I don't have time for them. So this transformation is that we're being

transformed into the image of Jesus, and this is by our contemplating the Lord's

glory, which is how we renew our minds. In the text, it

doesn't say and this is how you renew your minds. But luckily we have

scripture, or to help us interpret scripture. Let's look at Collossians where Paul

was telling the believers how to walk out their new life in the Lord.

And it gives us an even more fuller view and have put on the new

self, which is being renewed in knowledge, in the image of its creator.

So we're transformed into the image of our creator by having our minds renewed

by our knowledge of him. Meaning what that what we believe will determine how

we live. Does that make sense? What we believe like? Actually,

at a fundamental level, if we have our beliefs correct about who God is,

that will impact how we live. So we are to renew our minds

and this is done in our knowledge of God. That is what knowledge rules

our mind and what thought or knowledge governs our thoughts. And where's our supreme

source of knowledge of God? Come from scriptures? Right, So the scriptures

transform us and help us to look more like Jesus. This is key,

This is very helpful. Remember this. Put it in your pocket. Let's

go onto the second half of the verse. Then you will be able to

test and approve what God's will is, his good, pleasing and perfect will.

As we're being transformed by God's word. Then we'd learned to walk in

God's will. So makes sense when we say that again, as we're being

transformed by God's word, then we learn to walk in God's will, and

as we do, we will find that God's will is good, It's pleasing

and perfect. The idea of testing and approving here isn't in the sense of

like we judge God's will of like, oh God, that was a good

idea, that was a bad idea, Like that's not our place. God

is the only judge. But it's more in the sense of the taste and

see that the Lord is good. Right, So like we experience it,

we actually walk in it, and we approve it. We're like, man,

God, like wife, we should have been doing this all along.

You really know how to you know, run things. So we get to

see that His will and plan are good, that he is worthy of our

praise. So for some of us, the will of God is a question

that we maybe struggle with as Christians. Right, we're like, what's God's

will for my life? That's whether we're a new believer or an older believer.

It's just what does God want me to do? What's what's the will?

What's his plan for me? Well, God is amazing because in this

scripture he tells us. First Thessalonians four three says, it is God's will

that you should be what sanctified. God's will is our sanctification, and what

is sanctification It is growing more and more into then image of Jesus. Now,

I don't want to get mad at me for being redundant. And also

you can't get mad at me for being redundant, because it's God's word.

That's what he's saying, that's what he's repeating. Okay, but I think

there's usually a reason that God feels the need to emphasize and repeat himself,

and that's because first, we're bad listeners, That's what true. We just

forget stuff we don't remember. Second of all, it actually it's probably pretty

important if he's like, this is what I want you to do. So

God is trying to make it crystal clear what his will is. That is

not to conform to the pattern of this world, but for us to be

transformed, to look, act and be like Jesus. Okay, Duncan,

I thought we were talking about posture, I am, But to fix bad

posture, we need to know what good posture looks like, right, we

got to know what we're aiming at, what is our goal? Because could

you imagine going to a chiropractor and they didn't want a straight back looked like

they're like this hurts, and they're like, well I'll try this, and

you're like, you don't know what you're doing. They're like, nah,

I have no idea, Like that would not be helpful, and then you

would end up spending like resources and time and energy on something that was actually

probably more likely to make you worse than your word before. And we don't

want that. God's not allows the chiropractor. He's a good physician. He's

a great He's the great physician. So let's move on. In our text,

Romans twelve three says, for by the Grace given Me, I say

to everyone of you, Paul, I'm just gonna spoil it. He's about

to talk about humility. Okay, that's our posture. He's about to talk

humility. But I love how he starts with humility. He says, for

by the grace given to me, I say to every one of you,

do not think of yourself more highly than you ought. Uh. This is

the problem, this is our problem. We think about ourselves very highly I

do. Okay, I won't speak for all of you. I'm sure you're

doing just fine. He says, don't think of yourself more highly than you

ought. When it comes to our spiritual posture. This is the equivalent of

telling you to lift with your legs and not your back in your career,

because when we think of ourselves more highly than we ought, this ends up

being some of the worst posture that we can have as believers. In your

walk as a Christian, as you offer your bodies a living sacrifice that means

to live dying, to live dying, and more simply put, it's self

denial. That's not my will, but your will be done. Lord.

That is the posture and manner in which we hold ourselves and live out our

life. If you don't have humility, you will not be able to worship

God. And a good test of this is to ask yourself, what wouldn't

I do if God asked me? God said this is what I want you

to do. What would our response be? Think about something you really don't

want to do and think about that. Have that be what God's asking you

to do? And why would you not? If there's something that we wouldn't

do if Jesus asked us to, then we're not serving Jesus. We're serving

ourselves. We're serving our own preferences, we're serving our own desires. But

that's not the example that is set for us in scripture. Look at Ehesians

one through two, and I love this. Therefore, be imitators of God

as beloved children, and walk in love as Christ loved us and gave himself

up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. So this is

really cool because Jesus is doing and has already done, what we're being asked

to do. Okay, here we see Jesus set the example. Christ loved

us and gave himself up for us, And here we see the same language

that he offered his life as a sacrifice to God, that Jesus laid down

his life for his bride. Story time, when I first got married to

my wife, we have different preferences, different desires. You quickly find this

out right when you get married. It's crazy. And one of those things

is I kind of grew up like eat your food, everything's chill, but

the dishes on the sink, in the sink on the counter, I don't

know it doesn't. It didn't really matter. That's not how my wife drew

up. It was like, well, you already walked to the thing,

rents it off, put in the dishwasher. I'm like, I don't care

about this. I really don't mind this is this is not a preference that

I have. And after us working through that, I acquiesce right, and

I'm like, I'm over there and I'm cleaning the dishes because I'm like,

why am I doing this? I don't care about this. This doesn't matter

to me, right, And then I'm like, okay, that's right.

I'm doing this because I love God and he tells me to love my wife.

So here I am hating that I'm doing this, but I'm loving my

wife. Right. It's wrong. Okay, it's wrong. And the Lord

convicted me while I was mid washing that even though I was doing the action,

because my heart was not in it, I wasn't actually loving her.

I was just doing it. I was just doing the action, but it

not being a posture of I want to serve you because this is something that

you care about. It made I was still I was saving face or I'm

like, well, I'm over here angrily washing this dish. But I wasn't

actually loving her. I thought I might have been, but I wasn't.

God convicted me of that, because if I was to actually love her,

I would I would see the joy, I would see the opportunity to serve

my wife with a good heart, with a happy heart, with a joyful

heart. Here's the deal. If you know me for a little bit,

that's basically the one example you'll hear me always use in relation to everything,

because it's stuck with me, okay, dealing with the posture of my own

heart. And Philippians Paul gives us this great illustration in regards to Christ and

humility Philippians two five through eleven, and your relationships with one another have the

same mindset as Christ. Jesus, who, being in very nature God,

did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage.

Rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant,

being made in human likeness and being found in appearance as a man. He

humbled himself by becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross. Therefore,

God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is

above every name, and that at the name of Jesus. Every niche should

bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge

that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God. The Father. Jesus

sets the standard of humility and serving, and we are to imitate him.

Jesus makes is clear when he teaches on serving. Let's look at a couple

of passages Matthew twenty five through twenty eight. Jesus called them together and said,

you know that the rulers of the gentiles, that's the rest of the

world, right, So this is the pattern of the world. This is

how the world does things. He says, you know that the rulers of

the gentiles lured it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them.

Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you

must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first, must be last,

or be your slave. Just as the Son of Man did not come

to be served, but to what to serve, and to give his life

as a ransom for many. One more quick one Matthew twenty eleven or eleven

through twelve. The greatest among you will be your servant. For those who

exalt the themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.

Jesus was the greatest among them, and yet he served them. Jesus

was the one who humbled himself and the father exalted. Jesus had the right

posture and sets the example for the posture we are to walk in in our

new life as believers, that is of a humble servant. Were to be

humble servants to God and to others, And we'll see that here in John

thirteen. When he had finished washing their feet, Jesus the god Man washing

his disciples feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place.

Do you understand what I've done for you? He asked them. You call

me teacher and lord, And rightly so. He's talking about his position,

for that is what I am. Now that I, your lord and teacher,

have washed your feet, you also should wash one another's feet. I

have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.

Very truly, I tell you, no servant is greater than his master,

nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. Now that

you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them. Jesus's

posture is that of a humble servant. He is our teacher, he is

our Lord, and he came as a servant. And so for any of

us posture wise, if we think we're above that, do we think that

we're above Jesus. No, I hope not. We are to imitate him.

We are to be humble servant servants, which means Christians are servants.

Christians serve our lives, are to be in worship of Him through our service

to Him in every aspect of our lives. Now, if this feels like

a crushing weight in the sense of humility, you're like, well, I'm

gonna put myself all the way on the bottom, or I'm giving up everything

for him. We need to remember where we started, which is that of

in view of God's mercies. And do you have God's mercies, and you

have God's mercies, everything melts away. I didn't deserve nothing, and he

gave me everything. In Jesus. God saved us from the wrath do our

sin and has given us new life in Christ, empowered by His Holy Spirit.

Empowered That means He's given us power to walk out the things he's called

us too. He doesn't just he didn't give us new life and go like,

figure it all good luck, Like that's not it was. He also

gave us his Holy Spirit to empower us to walk out to imitate him,

to grow into the image of Jesus. And this in view of God's mercies

is like, is the idea of have you ever been so grateful to someone

that you would do anything for them? They would do anything for them?

Sort of sin? Right? Is there is there anyone in your life that

you could think of You go like this person, I owe everything I have

to this person. I'm so indebted and grateful to this person. They could

ask me if they could call me three am and I'm there. They can

say they need help moving for the fifth time and I'm there. You know,

like that is just that's what we're talking about here. The closest example

that I can think about. I was really challenged was like, I have

to have an example. There's got to be an example. I'll tell you

the example that I thought of my wife. You want to know why,

because I'm grateful that about ten years ago she decided to actually go out with

me. Yeah, yeah, And so now I'm like, I'll do anything

for you short of sin, and that's within my means. I'll do anything.

I'm grateful, she's not God. It's an example, right, Humility

is only hard if we take ourselves more seriously than we ought to. Does

that make sense? If I think I'm above something, that way, I'm

gonna be humble. The verse goes on, this is the second half of

that verse. But rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with

the faith God has distributed to each of you. Now, what's nice about

this is he's not saying like, so think about yourself is the worst and

you're just awful. You can do nothing. That's what he says. He

says, think about yourself with sober judgment. Sober judgment, and that's so

that we don't fall on the other side of the ditch where we're like,

I am the worst, I can do no nothing, and so I can't.

I could never serve God because what do I have to offer. That's

not a lab right, that's what it's saying. Here. We consider how

God has blessed us with the faith he's given us and the gifts that he

has given us. Right, which is going to lead me to the second

thing, which is the preparation of serving. The preparation of serving. Now,

how do we prepare to serve? We could talk about the posture.

I think that was a good place to start, right, but I think

we should go back before that. What I mean by that is that did

you know that God prepared you if you are a believer to serve Here's the

deal. If you're not a believer, you're also supposed to serve God.

You're just living in rebellion. That's that's kind of how this works. Okay.

So it's like, we're all created to serve God. The reason that

you're in trouble is because you are serving yourself. But we as believers have

humbled ourselves and looked and gone like what our works are are nothing? We

decided to start serving God. I don't know who I'm talking to. I'm

just this is what I'm saying. Okay. God has prepared us to serve

us, specifically as believers. He's prepared us to serve, He's equipped us,

he has redeemed us, and he's empowered us. Let's actually read the

verse, okay, before we get to moving on in our Roman Sex.

I want to look at one quick one in Ephesians two ten, For we

are God's handiwork. What does that mean? He made us, created in

Christ Jesus, to do good works which God prepared and advanced for us to

do. This is the preparation. We were like, I'm gonna prep I'm

gonna get myself ready. But no, no, no, God's been getting

us ready. God has a plan, God has things that he wants us

to do. I read it in a commentary and I thought it was really

cool. But basically it was kind of saying like we are his hands and

feet. God doesn't have physical hands. He has his body to do his

work, his mission on the earth. That doesn't mean that he needs you

and he's begging you'd have please just help him accomplishing. He'll get it done.

There's someone else, but He has prepared us. And so what is

our posture? Are we ready knowing that He has prepared us to serve prepared

good works for us? Romans twelve four three six For just as each of

us has one body with many members, and these members do not have the

same function. So in Christ though many, or Christ, we though many,

form one body and each member belongs to who all the others we have

different gifts according to the grace given to each of us, Paul or before

you get to them. Here we see this playing out, that God is

meat, each of us different, but with a purpose. We're all a

part of the same body. And now this is one of Paul's favorite or

at least seems to be. It's just a useful illustration. He uses it

all the time. And so I could explain all of this, or I

could just let Paul do it somewhere else. And that's what we're gonna look

at today. Actually, there's a pastor friend of mine, and he was

telling me, he said, it's a little bit longer of a chunk of

text because I'm not explaining. Paul is right, don't get this is really

long already. Whatever. But my friend he told me, he said,

anytime I'm about to read a long pasture or a passage of scripture, he

says, I like to remind the congregation that this is the only inspired part

of my message. And I thought that was hilarious, and I like that.

So just remember that this is God's word that we're talking about. In

First Corinthians twelve let's look at it even as the body is not made up

of one part, but of many, now, of many period. Now,

if the foot should say, because I am not a hand, I

do not belong to the body, it would not for that reason stop being

part of the body. And if the ear should say, because I'm not

an eye, I do not belong to the body, it would not for

that reason stop being part of the body. If the whole body were an

eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were

an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact,

God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just

as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where

would the body be as it is? There are many parts but one body.

The eye cannot say to the hand, I don't need you, and

the head cannot say to the feet, I don't need you. On the

contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable,

and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor.

And the parts that are unrepresentable are treated with special modesty, while our presentable

parts need no special treatment. But God has put the body together given greater

honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division

in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other,

equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers

with it. If one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.

Now you are the body of Christ. In each of you is a part

of it. So what he's saying is God has made us all one in

Christ. We are all Christ's body, but He's made us differently. He's

given us different gifts. He's given us different abilities. But for what for

us? No, we see God's plan here. He has made us to

be unified one body, but gifted differently for the specific function within the body

and for the body. Let's go back to the Romans text. For just

as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do

not all have the same function, so we understand one body unified, but

we're different. So in Christ, we, though many, form one body,

and each member belongs to all the others, and we have different gifts

according to the grace given to each of us. Our gifts are not for

us. Our gifts and abilities have a purpose, and that purpose is for

them to be used to serve God and his body. The way that I

kind of thought about this is that if your parents were to give you twenty

dollars, we're doing math now, okay, you guys ready ready to those

math equations. If your parents gave you twenty dollars and said, take this

to the store, I don't know how old you are, take this to

the store and go get milk and eggs for the family. And then I

went to the store and I used the twenty dollars to buy Cheetos and a

couple packs of Pokemon cards. Right solid? It was a solid choice.

Yeah. Yeah, What are my parents going to say when I get home

with my Cheetos and my Pokemon cards? They're gonna say, That's not what

the money was for. That's not the purpose of the money. That wasn't

even your money to spend. That wasn't for you in one sense, It

wasn't for you to spend it on whatever you wanted. Does that make sense?

The twenty dollars is our gifts that God has given us. And what

I'm trying to say here is that our gifts are not given for us to

get our gifts are given to us to give. That makes sense. We

have a purpose. We've been giving gifts for the purpose of us not taking

these gifts and be like, well, I'm really talented as a singer.

Well I'm really talented and accounting or whatever. You're like, I don't know.

I can't think of another thing, right, Like, I'm not good

with a mask, So that's a skill, but it is a skill.

It is so God has given us not so that we can go make a

name for ourselves, but that we can use the gifts he's given us to

serve God and his body. Now does this mean that we won't benefit from

the gifts that God has given us. That's not what I'm saying. These

we will absolutely benefit from them, just in the same way that the hand,

like a hand does nothing if it's just a hand, right, But

the hand is able to take food and put it in the mouth. The

teeth can show it and it gets food to the stomach, and the stomach

is able to digest it and give energy to the hand. Right. So

like like, even though it wasn't directly, it can't eat the food,

It can't give itself nutrition, It can't do anything like that, but it

plays its part so that the whole body benefits. That's what is being talked

about here. So we need to have the rights thinking. This is in

regards to our posture and our preparation. We need to have the right thinking

in regards to our selves and our gifts. Okay, ourselves our gifts,

because our life is not our own, and our gifts are not our own.

They're from God and they are for God. So we need to make

sure that we give them to God first. Does that make sense? God's

given them us. We do get to enjoy them, we do benefit from

them, but we need to make sure that we're in our priorities are straight.

We give them to anything else before God, and immediately our posture is

out of alignment. So God has prepared us for these good works by giving

us gifts, not just for ourselves, but to equip us for the good

works He has prepared for us. Right, so we should we should be

able to take our gifts and go like God, what is this for?

I don't know. I can assume it's for glorifying you. I can assume

it's for serving your body and the others around me. But we get to

we have this opportunity to actually look for that when we know that we're giving

this thing not just arbitrarily, but for a purpose which leads me to the

last thing, and that is the passion of serving. We talk about serving,

and really sometimes they can just feel like whoa right, Our posture gets

worse. That's what happens. We talk about servants that I don't want to

do that. That sounds terrible, that sounds like work. I don't want

to do that. But knowing that God has prepared for us good works,

the fact that He's given them to us in the first place, he didn't

have to, should be all the more reason that we can offer our entire

life as a living sacrifice to him. We can look at his mercies,

and that includes the gifts he didn't have to give us guests. He didn't

have to give us anything. But everything He has given us is for a

purpose. But we can, we can, We have all the more reason

to use them for his service, knowing that He's actually equipped us for that

very purpose. Sometimes we're like, I don't think I can do that.

I'm not sure that I can do that. There's no way I could try

that. I don't want to do this, But God's given us the gifts

for a reason. So you're wrong. That's what that means when you have

those thoughts, you're wrong. That's not that's not what scripture says. That's

not the purpose. Like that's that Satan is real. Okay, that's a

real thing, and you're flesh is real. If flesh wants to do whatever

it wants to do, Satan doesn't want you to do what God wants you

to do, right, keeping it really elementary here, very simple. But

when we have those thoughts, where are they lining up? So? What

God wants is it what I want? Is it what Satan wants? Our

passion comes from what we possess. That's what I'm saying. Our passion comes

from what we possess, what we have. That there's this aspect of So

like here's the d I'm so grateful that I have my wife. I will

do anything for you. Does that make sense? I'm so grateful. But

what we have in Christ is so much better. His forgiveness, his Holy

Spirit, his love, his peace, his rest, his rest I'm talking

about serving and we get his rest, and best of all, we know

that He possesses us, that we're held in his hands. He's our heavenly

father, Romans twelve, sixth through eight. We have different gifts according to

the grace given to each of us. Stopping right there. The point of

that text, and it might actually be in your scripture and your Bible translation,

is the point of what has been trying to be saying said here is

you have these gifts, so put them to use. So use them.

And then he goes on. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in

accordance with your faith. If it is serving, then serve. If it

is teaching, then teach. If it is to encourage, then give encouragement.

If it is giving, then give generously. If it is to lead,

do it diligently. If it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully.

He's saying, use them. If you have it, use them and

use it to its full capacity. Yeah, you might be someone who gives,

but give it generously. If you're going to give, you might be

someone who leads, but do it diligently with strong intent. You might be

someone who has the capability and means to serve, Then serve. Use what

God has given you. God has given us gifts and differently as He has

seen fit for each person. And that's why we shouldn't grumble about our gifts

if we do have a gift that maybe we don't like, because the gifts

that we do have have been given to us. They weren't an accident.

They're from our heavenly Father who gives good gifts. So the implication of this

text is you use it if you haven't use it. So listed here aren't

all of the gifts. Okay, just be clear. If you're like I

didn't see myself on any of those things, not to worry. That's just

an example. There's many lists all over scripture. God has gifted us all

differently, and so we should use it and use it passionately. Right there's

a difference between I can wash the dish and this is fine and passionately washing

all the dishes all the time, right to the point where I care more.

Right now, I'm not kidding. I have I have been sanctified.

Okay, now I'm not kidding. I'm not kidding, and maybe a little

over the line because now sometimes I'll see a dish being put in there and

I'm like, oh really really, but she takes care of our children,

and she's the best. So I there's grace right different seasons. That's fine.

So if you don't see the gift, or if you don't know a

gift that you have, then you should just start serving. Period. Let's

make a little bit more clear. You should just start serving wherever you see

that there's a need. We're you see that there's a need, or maybe

hear it that there's a need. The reason I say that is because sometimes

God reveals the needs to us on purpose. Sometimes he reveals the need for

us to meet that need. Sometimes we might be like, I'm not the

person to meet that need, and so then we just do nothing. But

I think God and believe that God gives us these opportunities to live out these

good works and serve Him. And in due time, you will actually start

to discover what you're gifted at. Right. So you're like, hey,

I know we need to stalk the bathrooms, right, And so you start

stalking the bathrooms, Praise God. Right, But maybe you find out that

you're you actually are really good at being able to explain the Bible to children,

and that's a gift. That's a gift you might be teaching children and

realize that you have a gift of stalking a bathroom. Right, it goes

either way. God has made us so uniquely and intentionally that we can't let

that go to waste. He's given us our gifts for a purpose. And

the reason that I think we need to be passionate in our service to the

body is because we need to realize that when we are serving our brothers and

sisters, we're serving Christ. When we're serving each other, we're serving Christ.

We're serving God. If we say that we would do anything for Jesus

but we refuse to serve and meet the needs of our brothers and sisters,

were kidding ourselves. Do you hear me if we say because we all like

to play this game, well, if Jesus was right in front of me,

I'd do anything right When first John, we kind of get a different

picture. For twenty If anyone says I love God and hates his brother,

he is a liar. For he who does not love his brother whom he

has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment

we have from him, whoever loves God must also love his brother. And

if we want a harder hitting passes. Let's do that. This is the

last big section of scripture that I have, And can I get the banda

come up, please. When the Son of Man comes in his glory,

and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne.

Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people

one from another as a shepherd. A shepherd separates the sheep from the goats,

and he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on

the left. Then the king will say to those on his right, come

you, who are blessed by my father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from

the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and you gave me

food. I was thirsty, and you gave me drink. I was a

stranger and you welcomed me. I was naked and you clothed me. I

was sick and you visited me. I was in prison and you came to

me. Then the righteous will answer him, saying, Lord, when did

we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink?

And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and

clothe you and when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?

And the King will answer them, Truly, I say to you,

as you did it, or to one of the least of these, my

brothers, you did it to me. Then you will say to those on

his left depart from me, you cursed into the eternal fire prepared for the

devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food.

I was thirsty and you gave me no drink. I was a stranger

and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me,

sick and in prison, and you did not visit me. Then they will

answer, saying, Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty,

or a stranger, or naked, or sick or in prison, and did

not minister to you, meet the needs or serve. Then he will answer

them, saying, truly, I say to you, as you did not

do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it

to me. And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous

into eternal life. So if we understand, as God's Church, that when

we serve God's Church by serving on Sundays at the gathering, meeting the needs

to make it so that we can even be here in this building together to

worship together, visiting the sick who are among us, meeting the needs of

our body, loving and caring for the members of our church. We're serving

Christ. When we do that, we're serving, Like, how much more

excited would we be if I view every person that I'm serving as if I'm

serving Jesus. I'm not saying that they are Jesus, but if we were

to think about the person that we're serving as if they were our Lord and

Savior, that's gonna look a lot different. Our humility is our It's going

to change. It's not about me. I'm here to serve my Lord,

and we as a body, we do love each other and we do serve,

and we make it happen every single Sunday. And that's amazing. And

I just think that there's this awesome opportunity that even more so that as we

picture and look at each other that we are loving Christ as we love each

other, that that care and love for one another will only go up,

and that should drive us to serve each other with passion because we love our

Lord and want to serve him. Well, So let's summarize for today.

Our real worship is done through a life in service to God, seeing the

need, meeting the need. So some questions for us, what is your

spiritual posture? Is it one of humility, self denial and the service?

And that really is saying I'm not above anything that God has for me.

For I am his servant. There's nothing that I'm not above. If God

says clean the toilet, I do it with joy. For real, he

says help the person on the side of the road, I'm obedient. I'm

a servant of him. What gifts has God prepared you with? Are you

using them for yourself or for the benefit of His body? And lastly,

are we serving with passion? Serving can be hard, Serving can be hard

work. Go look at the life of Paul. He served Jesus until death,

but his rest was in viewing God's mercies. The way I put is

that God's mercies are our great motivator. God's mercies are our great motivators.

So if you're tired, run to God and remember his mercies. And if

you're sitting on the sidelines watching the rest of the body work while you benefit,

remember God gave gifts to you to benefit his body, to use them,

to put them to use, and you have the opportunity to walk in

the purpose that God has for you. So don't neglect it. Okay,

yeah, yeah, all right, let's stand up.