Dying to Serve - Pastor Kipp Penrod

Thank you for listening to this message from

Lifehouse Church. If you're not familiar or you're

not part of LifeHouse and this is your first

time here, these we call the invitation balls.

These over here are salvation. We get super excited

about these, by the way. Come on, can we give

the Lord a hand? Yeah. Every one of these represents

somebody, right? Truly, this represents a life,

somebody that's been saved. And you could have

clapped longer than that. It's Jesus. I'm sorry

I interrupted. I feel bad now. But these really

represent somebody who's come to Christ. And

these are invitations. So what I want you to

do. We're going to pray over the Word, and we're

going to pray over these invitations, because

these might be people that are far from God and

need to know Him. So I want you to extend your

hand this way. We're going to pray that the Lord

reaches out and goes before and behind and beside

whoever these folks are, and His Holy Spirit

begins to draw them to Him. So Father, we come

today, God, thankful, grateful for the opportunity

to invite people into the kingdom, those who

are far from You. We ask, Lord, that... The Holy

Spirit would continue to go out ahead and speak

and minister to them. And, Lord, we're looking

for that to take place so that, Lord, one day

they'll be in orange. God, one day their name

will be on that orange ball, and they'll be in

the kingdom of God, and they'll know your power,

they'll know your presence, they'll know salvation.

We just give you praise. We give you glory in

Jesus' name. Everybody say it together. Amen.

Amen. We never want to let that go. I can't tell

you the importance of the Holy Spirit going out

ahead of us. Amen? All right, you may be seated

this morning. Thank you. Thank you for hopping

up so quickly and being ready to go. Well, I

viewed something online this week. I saw a video

by Josh Howerton. I don't know if you've ever

seen him. He pastors Lake Point Church down in

the Dallas -Fort Worth area. Really like some

of his videos, and I totally ripped off one of

his stories. I stole it from him, and I'm going

to use it this morning, but it was just so good,

I needed to repeat it. And the story comes from

a college campus from the 1960s. And on this

particular campus, they called all the students

together and had assembly. I don't know if that's

still what they call it. Back when I was in school,

they called it a general assembly. All the students

would come in, and you would have an assembly

in wherever the auditorium was. And they called

them all together, and what they did is they

brought in four branches of the U .S. military.

They brought in the Army, the Navy, the Air Force,

and the Marines. And the purpose for the assembly

was for recruitment. Each recruiter would get

up and, for lack of a better term, kind of give

their pitch about what they're recruiting and

telling a little bit about the service or that

branch of the service that they come from. And

so the students gathered into the area that they

were going to meet, and each recruiter came up

one at a time. And the first one was the Army

recruiter, and he gets up and he says something

like this. He tells the students, if you join

the Army, you can be part of the GI Bill. This

was back in the 60s. And earn a free education

on Uncle Sam's dime, right? The government will

help pay for your education. The Army will pay

for your education. And you will gain experience,

and it's all going to be amazing. And he sits

down. The Navy recruiter then gets up. And he

says something along these lines. He says, join

the U .S. Navy, and you're going to learn job

skills that affords you all kind of opportunities

following your service to your country. And he

promised that this could be an opportunity for

you really to sail across the globe, to visit

great places that you've never been before. And

he sits down. Then the Air Force recruiter gets

up, and he says, join the Air Force, and you

may get the opportunity to fly a jet or work

on aircraft equipment. You will be trained in

highly sought -after skills that will lead to

high -paying jobs in your future, again, post

-military. And then the Marine recruiter gets

up, and he walks up to the podium, and he begins

to look over this group of students, college

students that are before him, and for 60 seconds,

he doesn't say anything. He just stares into

their eyes. He just looks intently across the

crowd, a little bit like I'm doing right now.

Except I'm not doing the awkward silence thing,

right? And he begins to stare. And after a long

period of time, when he finally speaks, he says

something like this. He says, ladies and gentlemen,

I was asked to come and present today as a recruiter

for the Marines. But from the looks of the audience,

I'm wasting my time and yours. I know. Did you

expect me to get up here and tell you how wonderful

the Marines are and that you're going to love

it? You expect me to tell you about the career

advancements, the early retirement, the job skills

that you can put into practice in the private

sector once you finish serving. But I'm not going

to tell you any of that because some of that

may not be true. If you join the Marines, you're

probably going to hate it. You will curse the

day that you were born. You will be mad at God

for the day your mom was made and the day that

she birthed you. You will be shot at. Some of

you will be hit with ammunition, live ammunition.

Some of you will be killed in the line of duty.

Because when you're a Marine, you're the first

one in and the last one out. And I'm wasting

your time and you're wasting mine because I looked

at every single one of you in the eye and I did

not see one person sitting in this place that

would make what we call a United States Marine.

Forgive me for wasting your time. And he closed

his little book. and he walked off the stage.

And after a long, awkward silence that took place,

and the assembly ending in a very awkward manner,

they began to disperse, and there was tables

set up out in a common area for the Army, the

Navy, the Air Force, and the Marines. And a handful

of students were at the Army, the Navy, and the

Air Force. But at the Marine table, they were

lined out the door. To sign up to go into the

Marines. Why? Why? Because what people want is

more than just an easy button for their life.

They want something that's worth living and dying

for. They want something that they can die for,

climb a hill and die for. And when Jesus Christ

came to earth, he did not lower the bar. He did

not dumb it down. He did not give us an easy

button to push for Christianity. for Christianity.

He came and he said, serve, serve, right? Come

and die with me and serve. That's the mission.

If you want to be my disciples, come and die.

Come be crucified with me and serve. This is

Serve Team Sunday. Turn to somebody right now.

Tell them it's Serve Team Sunday. Come on, Serve

Team. This is the mission. This is the call.

To die and serve. This is the call of Christ.

Not only so that we serve those around us here

in this place, but so that we serve outside this

place and so that others come into the kingdom

of God. So other people can get in. It should

be our attitude. It should be our desire. It

should be our heart. It should be our drive when

we get out of bed in the morning. It ought to

be our passion. And on some level, it ought to

be our obsession, truly. We should be dying.

To serve. Just dying to. Dying to serve. Turn

to your neighbors. Last time I'm going to tell

you to do it. Tell them, I think he's going to

preach about serving today. Go ahead and tell

them. I think he's going to preach about serving

today. I'm going to preach about serving today.

Tell somebody one last time. Serving should be

what gets us up in the morning. It should be

on my radar every single day. It should be one

of the primary motivations in my life. I should

be willing and ready to go, die on some hill.

for some eternal cause that Christ has put before

us. But how do we know that's not always the

case? It's not always, sometimes that's not the

case at all, right? The reality is, for some

of us, sometimes we get up, we don't even think

about serving. Sometimes we get up and we rarely

think about serving. Some people never think

about serving at all, in any case. There's probably

Christians who would never, ever make the statement

that's the title of this message. I'm dying to

serve. They'll never say it. Sometimes you will,

right? I'm dying to serve. But if we're Christian,

and Jesus is our Savior, He has commissioned

us to die and serve. And there may be something

fundamentally wrong with our thinking, for those

of us who call Christ by name, if one of our

primary motivations is not to die. and serve.

Jesus said this in Matthew 16, 24. He said this,

and Jesus said to his disciples, if anyone desires

to come after me, let him deny himself. How many

know that's a fun statement, right? Right? I'm

going to deny myself. We only like to deny ourselves.

Well, let me speak for myself, right? I only

like to deny myself of things that I actually

don't like in the first place. That's what I

like to deny myself of. If I'm going to deny

myself something, I would say, I deny myself

coconut. I like just about everything except

coconut. I'd be like, I deny myself. I will deny

myself coconut all day long and twice on Sunday.

Because I don't like it. I'll deny it for 365

days of the year, right? I'll take one for the

team and deny coconut. We like to deny things

that we don't really like in the first place.

But that's not what Jesus was saying here. He

was saying if anyone desires to come after him,

that means denying yourself the things that you

like to do. It may even be some things that you

love, right? That's like me saying, I deny myself

chocolate. I love chocolate. Dark chocolate in

particular. I deny myself chocolate. And he doesn't

stop there. Jesus said to his disciples, if anyone

desires to come after me, let him deny himself.

And then he steps it up a notch. And he says,

take up his cross. It gets even harder. And follow

me. For whoever desires to save his life will

lose it. But whoever loses his life for my sake

will find it. For what profit is it to a man

if he gains the whole world and loses his own

soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for

his soul? For the Son of Man will come in glory

of his Father and with his angels, and then he

will reward each according to his works. Jesus

is returning to reward his disciples. He's going

to return. He's going to reward those who have

followed him, those who have called. But the

reward is for those who have died to themselves.

Those who have taken up the cross, right, not

only denied themselves, died to themselves, but

begin to take up the cross. They begin to take

up the burden. They begin to grab a hold of what

God has in front of them. And it's sweat equity.

It's actually laboring. It's actually diving

in and doing it, right? The Marine had it right,

calling people out to lay it all down for eternal

purposes, for what God has in mind. And can I

tell you, can I say something very clear? There

is no such thing as a sideline Christianity.

There really isn't. There's no such thing as

sideline Christianity. There's nobody on the

sidelines. There's no observation decks in Christianity.

It's not a spectator sport. There's no spectator

sections. There's no park it and see how it all

goes down just to watch the show. It really isn't.

There are no stadiums. There's no stadiums at

all in Jesus' world. What do I mean by that?

Well, think about a stadium, right? We have sports

stadiums all across the United States. And what

do we do when we go to a sports stadium? We show

up to the sports stadium and we go watch the

superstars out on the field, right? The superstars

are going to come out. Those people who are the

athletes, those people who have gone and trained,

those people who have serious sweat equity in

what they're doing, right? There's been deep

sacrifice on their side. They show up for game

day. They show up for practices. They're in all

the way. They've given everything they've got,

right? And everybody comes to the stadium, and

we watch the superstars on the team. And what

do the rest of us do? We get in the stands. We

go get a hot dog, right? We go get nachos and

cheese. We get an 84 -ounce soda so we can wash

it all down just a little bit later, right? We

paint our faces colors, you know, red, blue,

yellow, green, whatever, and we start cheering

on the superstars down on the field. But that's

not how it works in the kingdom of God. In the

kingdom of God, it's not a stadium. It's not

a spectator thing. In the kingdom of God, it's

more like a construction site. It really is.

In the kingdom of God, first of all, there's

only one superstar, right? His name's Jesus.

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, God's the only

superstar in the whole deal. The whole rest of

it's like a construction site. The rest of it

is all of us co -laboring together. It's all

of us coming in. And one person's swinging a

hammer. One person's digging a hole. One person's

painting. One person's setting doors. One person's

putting up the drywall. Somebody's going to the

awful job of putting in insulation. Somebody's

wiring the place. Somebody's putting on a roof.

Somebody's landscaping. Somebody's planting plants.

The engineers are making sure that everything

works right and designing. And it's more like

a construction site in God's economy. We come

together and we serve arm in arm. There's no

big I's and little u's. There's no superstars

except our King and our Lord and Savior. It's

the kingdom. It's a construction site. And God's

at the head of it. The only superstar is the

King of kings and the Lord of lords. And the

rest of us are servants. The rest of us put on

the towel, right? And we put on the tool belt

and we go to work, laboring together to populate

heaven and decrease the population of hell. That's

what we're here to do, right? Arm in arm, locked

together. And to do that, we have to die to self

and come together and work. One of the most gratifying

moments that you'll ever have in your life is

if you ever sign up to go on a mission trip.

And that could be locally. And when I say locally,

inside the border of the United States of America.

Or if you go somewhere outside of the country

to serve on a mission trip. It'll be one of the

most life -changing things you'll ever do. And

it's the most interesting thing because it's

a week where you completely deny yourself. Truly.

When you go on a mission trip. Because you think

about even a short -term mission trip that's

maybe a Saturday to Saturday, a seven -day mission

trip. And think about the people that go on those

trips. First of all, one, they pay to go on that

trip. Right? They shell out a bunch of money

to pay for their housing, to pay for their food,

to pay for land fees. Some of them even give

extra towards whatever the cause is that they're

going to. And they do all that. They take a week

off from their job. They burn up a week of vacation.

So they're spending money. They take a week of

vacation. They go somewhere and they work harder

than they probably did back at home at their

job. They spend seven days exhausting themselves.

and working and laboring, only to come back,

right? Sunday, they'll get Sunday off. If it's

Saturday, it's Saturday. And then Monday, they

go right back to work again. They do all this.

And do you know what 9 .9 % of them will say?

9 % out of the 10 will say to you, or 9 .9 people

out of 10 will say to you, they'll say it was

one of the best weeks of their entire life when

they went on the omissions trip because they

go to serve. They go to serve. There's reward.

God will reward it. And there's reward. I got

to be honest, there's even reward in your own

heart here. When we die to serve, the enemy sells

us a lie. He sells us a lie. He sells us the

idea of live it up for yourself, right? Real

life, abundant life does not begin until we begin

to die to self and we begin to serve with God

and with others. It's true. And just so you don't

think I'm on a tirade, because it's Serve Sunday,

right? And I'm just pumped up and fired up for

today, but I am a little bit. Let's take a look

at what happens in actually the book of Mark,

Mark 10:41

chapter 10, verse 41. And Jesus is taking a little

time, and he's kind of straightening things up.

Sometimes Jesus straightens things up with his

disciples, and this is kind of one of those moments.

He's got 12 disciples who follow him, right?

They're protégés that are along. These are people

who are protégés, they're trainees, they're hand

-picked apprentices, and there's a dozen of these

supposedly spiritually mature followers. And

here's what they're doing. They're all bickering

with each other about who's going to be the greatest

in the kingdom of God. Right? Now, they kind

of got this idea, like, look at me, look at me,

look at me. You know what I'm talking about,

right? I'm the greatest, I'm the greatest. And

James and John, in this particular two of the

disciples, they're kind of the ringleaders or

the cause of this whole thing. Because what they

do is they try to go to Jesus. And they go to

Jesus and they tell Jesus, hey, Jesus, when you

come into your kingdom and you're fully set up

as king, we want to sit on your right hand and

your left hand. They were positioning themselves.

See, when you're in the right hand or the left

hand of the king, seat beside the king, that's

a place and position of honor. That's a place

of exaltation. It's a place of maybe even entitlement

that comes along with that. And James and John,

two of the disciples, they go to Jesus and they

say, Jesus, when you come into your kingdom,

can we sit right beside you? Can we be the ones?

And the other 10 hear about it, these other 10

disciples, and they're miffed. They're angry.

They're like, what are you guys doing? Come on.

You're maneuvering in the background, right?

Politicking in the background. And they all begin

to bicker like a bunch of kids in the backseat

of a van on vacation. Amen? Know what I'm talking

about. Some of you are like, I know what I'm

talking about. Mark 10, 41 says this, And when

the ten heard it, they began to be greatly displeased

with James and John. But Jesus called them to

himself and said to them, You know that those

who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord

it over them, and their great ones exercise authority

over them. Yet it shall not be so among you,

but whoever desires to become great among you

shall be your what? Servant. Say it. Servant.

And whoever of you desires to be first shall

be slave. Jesus always steps it up. Slave of

all. He's always stepping it up. For even the

Son of Man, this is our theme verse. You heard

it this morning already for serving here. For

even the Son of Man did not come to be served,

but to serve and give his life as a ransom for

many. This is one. And only one position we can

take in God's construction site is serve. It's

dying to serve. It's the attitude of serve. It's

got to be one of my primary purposes in life.

Serve is sprinkled in everything that I do when

I get up in the morning. And I know we all got

positions and we got places we have to be and

jobs that we have to serve in. And I understand

all that. you know, walking out. But in our hearts,

we serve. And I know I'm preaching a completely

countercultural message from the world around

us. I'm aware that the world's going to tell

you the complete opposite. They're going to tell

you to live for yourself. They're going to tell

you, the world's going to tell you to indulge.

They're going to tell you, don't deny yourself

anything. As a matter of fact, grab everything

that you can. Find yourself, right? Anybody ever

hear that? Find yourself? Raise your hand if

you've ever heard that before. Go find yourself,

right? But we also know that Jesus said it's

not about that. It's about dying. And at the

end of the day, if you dive into what the world's

saying, if you jump into the ideology of the

world of grabbing it all for you, indulging in

whatever you want to indulge in, at the end of

the day, you're going to be empty. You're going

to be unsatisfied. I have seen some of the most

wealthy people in the world, some of the people

that we would say were the most successful, and

they are completely empty and void in their lives.

And they won't tell you that until they get alone

somewhere. They're empty. They lined up the door

to sign up for the Marines, to live and die for

something. Abundant life's never going to be

found in ourselves. I tried to find myself once,

and when I got there, I didn't find much, truly.

Wasn't much there to find. Real life, real freedom

is dying to me and living for Christ, serving

him. And if you serve him, you will serve others.

One of the last scriptures I'm going to give

you today, and then I'm going to get dismissed.

I don't want to preach long because I want to

give you time to get out into the square for

the fair, the serving fair. And make sure you

take that card with you. And if you're here this

morning, and maybe you'll go out there and one

of those teams don't seem to fit how you want

to serve the Lord, I want you to stop and talk

with me. I'm going to be out there because I

want to know. Part of what I feel as a pastor

is getting you connected with a way that you

can serve. It might not fit into the teams that

we have here at Life Files currently. Maybe it

will be that we start something brand new, right,

with you and in you. It could be that kind of

thing. I want to give you time to do that. But

John 12, 23 says this, but Jesus answered them

saying, the hour has come that the son of man

should be glorified. This is before Jesus goes

to the cross. He says, Moses, surely I say to

you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground

and dies, it remains alone. But if it dies, it

produces much grain. Jesus said it again. He

says it again here, right? He who loves his life

will lose it. And he who hates his life in this

world, will keep it for eternal life. If anyone

serves me, let him follow me and where I am,

there my servant will be also. If anyone serves

me, my father will honor. Anyone who serves him,

his father will honor. We want to be where Jesus

is, but we got to be like that grain of wheat

that falls into the ground and dies. Die to me,

die to self. And the word of God says, then you'll

produce much grain, right? A seed never produces

anything in the packet. If you've ever got a

packet of seeds, I remember doing this when I

was a kid, right? You get a packet of seeds and

you put it. How many of you ever got a cup, right?

Got a little bit of soil, stuck your finger down

in there, put a seed down. A seed never produces

anything in the packet. It has to die. It has

to be buried in the ground and then covered up.

And when that happens, it begins to germinate,

and it begins to open up, and it begins to take

root, and then it grows, and it produces fruit

of some kind. Something comes forward, and it

has to be that process. We've got to die to ourselves

so that we can grow in Christ if the worship

team would come. I read an excerpt from a story

this week, and I think it may be kind of sum

up exactly what I'm saying. And this story is

actually from the 16th century, and I think it's

fitting. Historians of a certain small village

named Eom in the 16th century England reminds

what it means to serve in its purest form. Throughout

the 13th century and into the 16th century, the

Black Plague or Black Death ran in various forms

and killed at least 25 million people in Europe

and anywhere from 75 to 200 million worldwide.

The symptoms were flu -like after an incubation

of three to seven days. And in September 1665,

a tailor's assistant brought a bunch of flea

-infested blankets from London. Soon, many of

the estimated 800 residents of Eom were perishing

from the disease. Eom's rector, William Montpresson,

also with his previous rector, decided to quarantine

the entire village to contain the disease. in

an important trade route between two prominent

cities, and if the current plague was brought

to those cities, many, many more would die. Together,

they persuaded the villagers to voluntarily self

-quarantine. According to eyewitness accounts,

a quarantine cordon was established with a one

-mile radius marked by a ring of stones around

the village. For 14 months, nobody went in and

out of the village. Food was left at that boundary.

Stones and nearby townspeople would bring the

food, and they would place it there, and they

would exchange that for gold coins set out there

submerged in vinegar. They believed that the

vinegar would kill off anything that would be

on the gold coin. The villagers did this throughout

the 14 months. The death rate skyrocketed. One

woman, Elizabeth Hancock, buried six of her children

and her husband inside of one month. To limit

the infection within Eon, church services were

held outdoors. We remember that, right? Some

villagers left their homes to live outdoors nearby,

but by the plague's end, 260 of the Eon's estimated

800 residents died, more than double the mortality

rate of the plague in London. The villagers'

self -sacrifice had worked. The plague never

spread to the nearby towns, and 14 months later,

November 1667, The quarantine was lifted. E .M.'s

survivors, descendants write in the history of

the village that is succeeding generations that

E .M.'s villagers should admire their ancestors

who in sublime, unparalleled resolution gave

up their lives. Yea, doomed themselves to pestilential

death to save the surrounding country. They died

to serve. To serve people in villages. or in

communities they didn't even know, in cities

beside them. Jesus died to serve you. Jesus died

on a cross. He served while he lived here, and

he served by his death on a Roman cross. I'm

going to ask you to stand. He lived and died.

Jesus was the first. When the disciples would

be arguing with one another, He would be the

one who would take the towel and lay it across

his arm and get a basin of water and wash the

disciples' feet. They're griping and complaining

and bickering about who's going to be the greatest,

and Jesus is down on the floor washing their

feet, the Son of the living God. He died. He

went to a cross for your sin and for mine. He

served us. He served us. We pray that you were

impacted powerfully by this message. If you have

been personally affected by our ministry and

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