Generous Part 4 | Does Giving Pay? with Kelsi Palmer

Welcome to Hub City Vineyard.

To get connected or to give online, go to connect.hcv.church or give.hcv.church.

If at any point during this message you feel called to make a change in your life, text

change me to 970-00.

Thank you and enjoy the message.

Alright, alright, wait for it, wait for it.

Good morning Hub City Vineyard!

Surprise!

It's me, Kelsey, here with not your morning announcements but with the Sunday morning

message.

What!

Hey, when the passers are away, I mean, right, right?

Hey, so listen, I hope you've had your coffee this morning.

So you're going to need it.

So cheers!

Welcome to everybody watching online for wherever you are in the world.

Thank you for joining us.

And obviously Chris and Jess, we know you're watching too, so hey guys.

Yeah.

Alright, if this is your first time here, online or in person, just to be clear, I am

not the pastor.

He's on vacation, in fact, with his family.

Not even a preacher, but I do know exactly who I am.

I'm a communicator, I'm a motivator, I'm a teacher, a coach, a speaker.

And today I'm here to inspire you, you, you, you, you, and even you.

Yep, that's right.

We're going to motivate you to take action, motivate you to give, motivate you to serve,

motivated to do just one thing differently at the end of this service and this message.

We ready?

Alright, good.

I was waiting for you at 9 a.m., not nearly as excited as you guys, so you got to keep

bringing that energy, okay?

Alright, yeah, good.

As a motivational guest speaker, Kelsey has so much to say on this topic.

So first, let's pray and invite God and the Holy Spirit to join us before we get started.

Join me in putting your hands out, ready to receive what God has for you today.

Remember, open hands equals an open heart, an open mind, and open ears.

Come Holy Spirit.

Lord God, I just thank you for this opportunity today, and I pray that you use me, but use

me with your words, your intentions, your motivation, Lord, and your accountability,

not mine.

God, I thank you for everybody who's here today, who's watching online.

Lord, let this message just deliver an impact where people want to take action.

Lord, that they just pick one thing to do differently when they leave today.

Lord, I can't do this without you, and I thank you very much for everything, all the blessings

you brought to my life.

Thank you, Jesus, in your name.

Amen.

Yeah, all right.

Oh, it says breathe on my notes, so I got to breathe.

All right, yeah.

Breathe.

All right.

First, I want to deliver a heartfelt thank you to Chris and Jessica for this opportunity.

Cried First Service, I think it's out of my system now.

They may be on vacation, but again, trust, we know they're watching.

We've been praying for rest and relaxation for you guys over the past couple weeks, your

entire family.

We hope you're enjoying your time away together so you can come back refreshed and ready for

all that's going to be waiting for you.

You guys are such a huge blessing in my life, and I couldn't feel more privileged to be

able to speak on your behalf today.

Thanks for constantly challenging me and for your continued encouragement to do the things

in order to grow both in my personal faith and in serving others.

All right.

Now, that's over.

When you guys, let me tell you the honest truth, when they approached me and told me

their plan for the message topic to end the generous series, I just giggled.

I'm going to be honest.

They could have said anything to me, and I would have at least considered it for the

ability to share my heart with all of you.

But when they said, hey, Kels, we want you to share about being generous with your time

and talents by serving our community of faith.

I almost jumped at the chance.

But then calmly, I said, I'll pray about it.

I'll let you guys know.

I mean, for real, how to play it cool, right?

I'm pretty sure the look in my eyes said it all.

A spark, a spark to speak life and truth to all of my friends in hopes of changing the

perception about serving.

God has such a sense of humor, doesn't he?

He knows he always knows this one topic that I'm super passionate about.

It's literally who I am as a child of God.

I'm sure of it.

It's his plan for me to live my life abundant by serving others.

In fact, I have been serving my whole life in different ways.

And now I have the opportunity to share my serving heart and my story about how it's

challenged and changed me and made me into who I am today.

All ready for it?

All right.

Let's go.

It also says let's go in here.

For those of you who follow directions to our welcome team and grabbed a program when

you came in today, I want you to open it up.

You will see a couple things.

If you didn't grab one and you want to participate, you can run out to one of the doors real quick

and grab one.

All right.

First thing, you'll see a couple things.

Number one, a post it.

Don't do anything with that.

We'll get to it later.

Number two, a sentence under the heading, just one thing, and it starts with the gift

of serving.

So take a few seconds, please, and just read that to yourselves.

We have it up here if you did not grab a program and you're not fast to run out the door.

Okay.

Hopefully you had turn.

Now it's my turn.

The gift of serving is the divine strength or abilities to do small or great tasks in

working for the overall good of the body of Christ.

If you're new for Sunday, you're like, oh, here we go.

Listen, now this is the audience participation part.

Everybody's going to join me.

We're going to read it together.

You ready?

The gift of serving is the divine strength or abilities to do small or great tasks in

working for the overall good of the body of Christ.

Yeah, I know it's a lot.

How about in layman's terms?

Anything small or large that you contribute towards serving others makes a difference.

It makes a difference in this church.

It makes a difference in this community, and it makes a difference in your lives too.

The part that makes this difficult is your different perceptions.

Something that's small to one of you may be very great to someone else.

Divine strength may lead some of you to believe that you need a miracle to physically meet

the perceived requirements of what we're asking you to do.

How would you even interpret working for the overall good?

That seems like a lot of work needed, and honestly, I'm not sure I really have time

for all that.

Don't worry.

You don't have to do it all yourself.

All you have to do is pick just one thing.

Can you do that?

All right, point one.

To live an abundant life, we must first change our mindset.

What Kelsey?

First we're talking about change in mindset.

Yep, we're getting into it.

I warned you all.

I'll be deep today.

We all have an opinion of volunteering.

Some of you, unfortunately not so inspiring.

I used to have a coworker who would always tell me every time I asked him, Kelsey, you

know what they say about volunteering?

It just doesn't pay.

You guys were a little later on that one than 9 a.m.

I roll.

I mean, he is kind of right.

So I would laugh and respond with, respectfully, I disagree.

It's just that it pays in non-monetary ways.

See, in my opinion, serving is one of the best dopamine boosts that you can ever receive.

It genuinely feels good.

And as we've heard, it's better to give than to receive.

It's actually scientifically proven that volunteering your time and your talents by choosing to

serve others makes you happier.

All right, I got to sit down for this.

This is the science part.

Evidence shows that helping others can benefit our own mental health and well-being.

For example, it can reduce stress as well as improve your mood, boost self-esteem, and

your happiness levels.

Sounds good so far.

Focusing on someone else can disrupt tension-producing patterns and release dopamine, which can increase

your positive feelings.

Plus, reduced stress can lower the risk of physical and mental health problems such as

heart disease, strokes, depression, anxiety, and just general illness.

Positive emotions like optimism and joy like Kelsey can actually strengthen the immune

system.

Sign me up!

Okay, now that everyone's feeling all warm and fuzzy inside, did that on purpose, let's

get back to those program post-its, right?

Program post-its.

Okay, you ready?

Write down just one thing, one thing that is stopping you from serving others in your

daily life.

Wow!

Wow!

Yeah, I'll say it again.

Just one thing that is stopping you from serving others with your time and talents in your

daily life.

Perhaps I'll give you a second.

Take your time.

Perhaps it's what you respond with when someone's approached you here from HCV to ask you to

help with any of the following.

A special event, kids camp, yikes!

Serving on a Sunday morning volunteer team, joining a growth group, playing softball on

Mondays and then b-ball on Tuesdays.

How about coming to the Thursday night community dinner just to help set up teardown tables

and maybe help feed some people?

Just that one thing that's stopping you from doing it.

Now, although your answers will be different, chances are I can sum them up to one or two

general things.

Number one, fear of the unknown.

Number two, lack of time.

I know because I hear it all the time.

Not just here but also out in the business world.

When it comes to serving or volunteering, it just doesn't pay.

People tend to say, I don't have time, which is the easiest reason to decline giving of

our time and talents to others.

Let's pause there for a second.

Remember when Chris was talking about tithing our income a few weeks ago and giving that

first 10% back to God?

Tithing our time is actually similar to finances.

And especially if you get paid for your time and talents in what you do professionally.

Then quite literally, time really is money.

Ironically, both of those things actually belong to God.

That's right.

We are borrowing them for our short time here on earth.

If you started thinking about your time as God's time, would you second guess how you're

spending it?

Would 10% of your time be enough to give to God and others?

We have the time.

Chances are what most of you are too afraid to say is that serving just isn't a priority

for you nor your time.

Maybe you've done it before and it didn't go so well.

I get it.

Been there, done that.

Or like my old coworker says, it just doesn't pay.

Again, respectfully, I disagree.

When you start serving others, you receive blessings of all sorts.

But you don't have to take my word for it.

Ask anyone who's actively serving.

Trust that they will have a story to share with you about what happened in their life

after they gave their time to someone else.

Which gets us to our first verse.

Romans, we're going to stay in chapter 12 today for the most part, guys.

So hey, it's a big fan.

Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new

person by changing the way you think.

Then you will learn to know God's will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.

Okay, now, let me give you a real life example here.

We'll put it up on the screen here too as well.

First of maybe a few, what I like to refer to as hashtag serving selfies.

Feel free to use that.

Just be sure to tag Hub City Vineyard.

Thank you and good night.

No, I'm just kidding.

We have this image here.

Yeah.

Why?

Because we're all visual learners, right?

You want to look at something pretty, get tired of looking at me, fine.

I'm sure you have all heard of Gandhi.

Maybe even this famous quote of his.

The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.

Now realistically, I know he was not around in the time of cell phones, hashtags, social

media, obviously, right?

Like, yeah, I get that.

Stick with me here.

I called them serving selfies for a reason.

You'll see where I'm going with this.

Mahatma Gandhi was born in 1869 and assassinated in 1948.

The perception of him in many parts of the world, Gandhi is seen as a decent, open-minded,

reasonable person who advocated for nonviolence, justice, and peace.

But some thought he was proposing too much change too quickly, while others thought he

was promising enough change, not quickly enough.

So how did Gandhi change the world, you ask?

While leading nationwide campaigns to ease poverty, expand women's rights, build religious

and ethnic harmony, and eliminate the injustices of the caste system, Gandhi supremely applied

the principles of nonviolent civil disobedience, playing a key role in freeing India from foreign

domination.

Yeah, I know, that's a lot.

It's a lot for me to say.

Disobedience.

But was he obedient?

All without any social platforms, he accomplished all of that.

No mass media.

Hmm.

Think about that one for a minute.

How did he get his message across?

The craziest thing?

Gandhi's biggest fear?

He suffered from stage fright and talking in front of people.

Yet he didn't let that stop him from changing the world and having people talk about him

all these years later.

His legacy speaks volumes.

And with all those responsibilities that I listed, he still found the time and the ability

to serve people.

To lose himself, in fact, in the service of others.

I'm guessing that wasn't just a one-time volunteer opportunity.

In 2 Timothy 1, 7, we read, for God did not give us a spirit of fear.

He gave us a spirit of power and love and of a good mind.

A good mind and a growth mind.

Not a fixed mind.

Surprisingly, when you wake up every single day, you have a choice.

You can choose how you respond to God's little nudges.

You know, those feelings you get that there's an action to take saying, Gary?

Saying yes!

He's my assistant today.

To a new and different opportunity, praying for that stranger in the store, reaching out

to an old friend to ask for forgiveness, being honest in understanding that each of us has

something to give.

The only thing standing in most of our ways is fear.

Point 2.

Tithing our time allows us to serve others in humility, obedience, and love.

Quick story.

A few months back, during our mental health series, Stretched Thin, Chris invited a senior

vineyard pastor from New York to come down and spend a couple days with the staff.

The conversations were so beneficial.

And this one thing that he said has truly stuck with me.

When working with church staff and ministry leaders all over the world, he would hear

that the jobs we do within the church tend to stretch a lot of people thin.

Less than out even.

Maybe to the point where they might want to quit.

When he would talk to someone who had been overly stressed out, he would ask them one

simple question.

Where are you serving?

Not are you serving, but where are you serving?

If they said that they weren't, his first suggestion was to eliminate the stress would

be go find a place or a group of people and serve.

In his experiences, those who did what he instructed became less stressed and even happier

in life and their roles in the church.

Remember that example from before, serving has positive health benefits for us all.

Now in all my recruiting interviews that I do for my clients, one of my main questions,

where are you serving?

Take this to Romans 12 verses 3 through 5.

Romans 12:3–5

Because of the privilege and authority God has given me, I give each of you this warning.

Don't think you are better than you really are.

Be honest in your evaluation of yourselves, measuring yourselves by the faith God has

given us.

Just as our bodies have many parts and each part has a special function, so it is with

Christ's body.

That's all of you.

We are many parts of one body and we all belong to one another.

Okay, who has been watching the Olympics?

USA!

USA!

Okay, you guys aren't good at that either.

Okay, that's all right.

We'll come back to it.

Next version is lots more needed participation.

As you may know, you can stream different competitions 24 hours a day, depending on the

right streaming service, etc.

I think we covered in the email last Thursday that I'm one of those psycho weirdos that

tends to get up super duper early in the morning.

I do that for multiple reasons.

One of the reasons that I didn't share with you yet is because it's my uninterrupted time

with God.

Coffee and Jesus.

Yes, shameless plug for the growth group.

I co-lead here with Rudy and Matt Walker one Saturday a month called Coffee and Jesus.

I mean, I had to.

I had the audience.

Okay.

Anyway, yesterday at 5 a.m., I started watching the qualifications for the USA men's gymnastics

team.

Full disclosure here.

I am not a gymnast.

I do go to the gym.

And in fact, there happens to be gymnastics there, but I wouldn't say I really get it.

So I watched as one by one, each member of our team did their best to qualify for placement

individually in the upcoming official Olympic competition.

As a coach myself, I quickly became involved watching the dynamics of this team.

The commentators were talking about the team captain Brody Malone.

Cool name, right?

Like he was destined to be an athlete.

Anyway, he was the golden ticket to get Team USA into the main competition and himself

individually, with highest possible scores anticipated all around on three different

events, the pommel horse, the floor exercise, and his signature event, the high bar.

But after a shocking performance, that chance was gone.

Malone, the only returning member of the previous Olympic team, failed to qualify for the individual

all around final by finishing third among U.S. athletes on the first day of competition.

Unfortunately, only two athletes from each country can proceed to the finals.

The commentators then continued to explain that the fact that he was even at the Olympics

was a miracle due to a gruesome knee injury, one that doctors in fact were sure that wouldn't

allow him to walk on his own.

Brody only recently returned to competitive gymnastics in June when he won his third national

title.

The qualifier was not the outcome he had anticipated.

It was hard to watch.

A champion failing.

Not just once, but multiple times.

He literally slipped and fell twice on one exercise.

His signature event, the one he was supposed to be the best at.

Then, on the floor, he couldn't stick the landings.

I would say a very humbling experience indeed.

But what came next, I was not prepared for.

The cameras caught a team huddle with Captain Brody at the center of it, encouraging the

rest of his team to push forward.

He said he knew his performance had not only let him down personally, but his entire team

too.

Something that could ruin their chances in fact to make it to the next level towards

a team USA Olympic gold medal.

However, the way he put his individual pride aside, for the overall good of the team was

remarkable to watch.

So motivating.

It made me realize in preparing for today's talk, that's how we should see ourselves.

Humbly and willing to put our own goals and our own aspirations aside for our team.

For God.

For God's team.

An individual whose impact, small or great, through our own strength and abilities, won't

always get the overall good accomplished.

We all play a role.

We all have an ability to set ourselves apart like Brody did to support and motivate his

team towards greatness and immediately following his failure and to do it with grace.

We are part of team God.

That's going to be the next chant.

We are called to serve not just in humility, but also in obedience and love for others.

Ready?

Team God.

Team God.

Team God.

Way better.

Yes.

Okay.

All right.

Way better than first service.

All right.

Next verse.

Galatians 6-10.

Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those

who belong to the family of believers.

I promise we are going to take action today.

Our 2024 motto here at HCV in our community of faith is to go deeper.

Raise your hand if you think you've gone deeper since January.

Hallelujah.

Amen.

Yeah.

So, we're sent first service.

You guys, much better.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right.

So, well, we're more than halfway through the year now, so I'm going to motivate you

today for the next five months to instead grow deeper.

What?

Here's what I mean.

Action steps to growing deeper.

Number one, as Jesus followers, we are expected to take action.

It's hard to believe, but this year marks my 10-year anniversary coming to Hub City

Vineyard.

Yeah.

Okay.

Yeah.

Thank you.

All I did was show up most of the time, but it's cool.

My first Sunday gathering at Bauer Avenue was January of 2014.

Thanks Matt Walker for inviting me.

And like most of you, I immediately felt at home as soon as I walked through those doors.

Free coffee and snacks?

Yes, please.

Then friendly hippies high-fiving for Jesus?

I thought to myself, where am I?

Is this for real?

Maybe like week number three, attending church, a girl walks up to me and says, hey, you look

fun.

You should be on our welcome team.

Hey, girl.

I don't remember now how I responded then, but again, like most of you, I would guess

I said something to the effects of, but I haven't even been here a month yet.

She said, so what?

You'll catch on quick.

All you need to do is smile and welcome people, give high-fives and hand them a program.

So the next week, I was on the welcome team being trained by our very own Mr. Rick Troxel

on how to give correct high-fives.

Yes, if you don't know, there is a science behind it.

I was welcoming people and handing out programs because that's what they said to do.

Let's just say I was a quick learner.

Today, 10 years later, I'm still on the welcome team and even the church staff member who

oversees it.

Shout out to my volunteer teams and my leader, Michael Swain, who's been with us since the

South High days.

Buddy, you rock my socks.

I'm so thankful for you.

My point, yeah, go ahead.

Yeah, yeah, clap.

Audience participation, bring it.

Lots of clapping.

So my point, it doesn't have to be complicated.

It's actually quite simple, just say to one thing.

Man, this is so easy.

I just point and it's good.

Gary, I love you, man.

All right.

One opportunity, one way to serve.

Our request here at HCV for regular attendees, let me explain what that is.

If you come once or twice a month, congratulations, you're a regular attendee, is to participate

in one Sunday a month, one gathering, which equates to roughly two hours a month, way

less than 10%.

Yet, we still don't do it.

You know, we just don't have the time.

So Kelsey, how do you find out more about these opportunities to serve?

Well, I'm glad you guys asked.

In addition to our weekly email, Chris's email on Thursday mornings at 7 a.m. to be specific

and announcements, social media website, et cetera, starting next week, there will be

a QR code on the backs of all these chairs.

Well, not all of them, every three chairs, I think, that will take you when you scan

it to active links for you to sign up to serve and all the details plus registering for all

of our events.

Now you can clap.

Yeah.

We do work.

Listen, we really do work when the pastors are away.

I swear.

Thank you, Stephen, for helping us out with the QR code and Aaron's going to be putting

them on the chairs.

We'll do it next week.

Scan that thing.

Yep.

I hope it works.

God, we can't do it without you.

All right.

Then another shameless plug in two weeks, Sunday, August 11th, I host Team Up, which is another

way for you to come and learn about the different opportunities.

It's almost like I said this before.

Here for our Sunday morning volunteer teams as long as our, I'm sorry, as well as our

ministry teams.

If you have talents that don't align with any of these opportunities, that's okay.

We're open to your ideas too.

So in fact, I'll give you a couple of examples.

You see all the plants around our campus, both inside and out?

A couple came to us and proposed they could help beautify our campus.

We said, sure.

Thanks Mike and Sean.

Yeah.

I told you you were going to be clapping.

Did you know there are people who fist bump every Sunday and spread love to everyone who

walks through that door?

Guess what?

He's not even a part of our welcome team.

He just shows up every week and does it.

Ryan, love you buddy.

Then you have our favorites, the fellas in the parking lot.

Your first point of contact as you enter on Sunday mornings and aren't they gorgeous to

look at?

Shriver, you and the team make it easy to be your manager.

After services, there are people who go through all the seats, cleaning up spilled drinks,

trash and leftover programs so that the first guest experience is the same as the second

guest experience.

Then we have ladies.

We refer to them as our CPOs, chief potty officers.

That's right.

Our chief potty who clean the bathrooms every single week after the second gathering.

Yep, yep, yep.

Amen.

Talk about a dirty job, but they do it with a smile and don't expect anything in return.

Thanks Chris and Ellen.

We love you guys.

Those are just a couple opportunities, a couple things that were brought to us.

Now that's what I call a love for serving when you decide what your time and talents

are and you tell us and we say, let's do it.

Still also recruiting for the parking team.

You may get hit by a car when you go out and people turn the wrong way, but it's safe.

I promise it's safe.

All right, next verse, Romans chapter 12, nine through 11.

Romans 12 · chapter mention

Don't just pretend to love others.

Really love them.

Hate what is wrong.

Hold tightly to what is good.

Love each other with genuine affection and take delight in honoring each other.

Never be lazy, but work hard and serve the Lord enthusiastically.

A genuine thank you to all of our volunteers and our teams who work hard and serve the

Lord enthusiastically here at HCV.

Hold on, wait, hold it, hold it.

I promise I'll give you a chance.

I pray it brings you just as much optimism, joy and blessings that it has me.

All right, save a little bit.

Ready?

This is where you're going to clap.

We love and appreciate each and every one of you.

Come on, let's give them a round of applause.

All right.

I know you're tired of listening to me talk.

The news is I may have leaked this next super secret extra special surprise to some of you

already now for the rest of you.

At this time, I would like my good friend, my brother, Scott Fuzz Kretzer to share his

testimonial with all of you about how serving has impacted his life.

Yeah.

I think we got to do some moving around, so just bear with me here for a second.

As Scott gets settled up here, I left you more room this time.

Are you happy about that?

Okay.

Yeah.

I didn't bring last time I had like three drinks and all kinds of stuff up here.

All right.

So you'll notice this nice image on the screen.

Yeah, let me move over so everybody can see it.

Scott's the one on the right, obviously, and some of you may recognize that big guy on

the left from the parking lot.

Yeah, he's good looking.

Oh, he is good looking.

He's also my husband.

So he didn't really get to volunteer.

He was more like volun-told.

He was going to co-lead the parking team with Shriver.

But since then, he says that when he misses a Sunday morning serving in that capacity,

that his weeks just aren't the same.

That's God.

Amen.

God love him.

I know I do.

All right, Scott.

The two things, hold on before you start actually.

Look at us.

We're way ahead.

Way ahead.

All right.

We were a little late for service.

We'll fix it.

We got it this time.

Okay.

So, the thing these two have in common is at a very young age, they were taught the

meaning of service.

As veterans of the most elite branch of the US military, our United States Marines.

They still get giddy like little school girls when they have the opportunity to serve together.

Hence, when I received this picture, the first night Scott volunteered at the Maryland Theater

where my husband was working.

The rest, I'll let him share with you.

Welcome, Scott.

Thanks for saying yes to this opportunity.

Take it away, bud.

The first thing I want to say is thank you.

It's been awesome this week.

It's been nuts.

So much practice.

But we showed up this morning kind of coordinated.

We didn't even make the phone call.

But anyway, my name's Scott Kretzer.

I'll get to my story here because the last service, I think I seen the red light back

there going, it's time.

It's time.

It's time.

But any which way.

I did.

I talked faster.

Yeah, I got a little breathing room.

So I grew up in the church at an early age.

My parents were divorced early, but they both led examples of Christ.

So I was able to see how that was portrayed and how I was supposed to live.

I went through my teen years as a lot of us did and just set that all aside and figured

I'd come back to it later.

So they led by example and planted a real good seed at the time.

Before I attended Hub City, I went to another church.

It was a very spirit-filled church.

And I just got to the point after about two years where I wasn't being fed.

I'd volunteer a little bit here and there, but I remember talking to my mom and I asked

her, Mom, this church, I'm kind of at a stagnant point, not really going anywhere.

The church is not giving me anything.

So mom looked at me kindly and she said, son, the church is not designed to give you anything.

My question to you is, what are you giving your church?

And bam, I let it go through one ear, right out the other.

That's what we do with moms, right?

She doesn't know what she's talking about.

So at that point, I consider myself a taker.

And I'll come back to that.

But at that point in my walk, I am a taker.

So I show up here at Hub City.

I'm a veteran now.

I'm 12 years in, so I've got some time here.

Same thing, volunteered a little bit here, a little bit there, where it was comfortable

when I had time.

And often, Chris over at Bauer Avenue would catch me after service and he would say, hey,

God's calling you to serve.

Okay, so the next week I would serve.

That was about it.

So it fit my schedule and my level of comfortability.

And then I can remember like two years ago, you guys know Patricia Benchoff?

Well, she hit me with one of her, well, we all know her as the mother of the church,

you know, pretty much.

I think everyone knows her as mom of the church, you know.

But to me, yeah, she's the fairy godmother of church because of how she approaches things

personally with me.

She just kind of sneaks up behind you and she drops these little things in your, you

know, back here, kind of give you the chills and all that.

And she met me out in the lobby out there and she passed by behind me and she was like,

hey, go check out the School of Kingdom Ministry table.

I looked for her and she was gone.

Where'd that come from?

Yeah, that had to be Patricia's.

That's one of those nudges.

Yeah, so I looked around the lobby.

I seen the table.

I went over and I checked it out and it's amazing how God works in all of our lives.

But at that moment in my Bible study, I was kind of at a dead end.

My days are structured just like military.

I wake up at a certain time.

I take a shower at a certain time.

I get in the Bible at a certain time and then I get to work.

I work from home so I can lay that all out.

So my Bible study at the time was kind of stagnant, wasn't really boosted.

So I signed up for the School of Kingdom Ministry and it didn't take long to realize my Bible

study is on fire now.

It's different.

Hallelujah.

It's a lot different.

Yeah.

Yes.

So it was just really, really crazy at the time.

But during this school, the one thing that really stood out to me early was at the end

of the school year, we were going to be challenged to go out into public spaces, the malls, and

pray for complete strangers.

That was going to be our big challenge of the whole year.

To me at the time, I was down.

I was like, cool, this is going to be exactly what I need, exactly what I want.

I'm ready for the challenge.

But the time came and I backed out.

I found every excuse to get out of it.

It was very intimidating to me.

And so I got out of it.

Yeah.

Walk, walk, walk.

Yeah, walk, walk, walk.

So again...

I was just waiting patiently to throw that in there.

So at this time, I'm still a taker.

I'm still a taker.

Okay?

Switch gears here.

I know all of you feel the same way I do.

There's sometimes Chris is looking at you and you only when he's preaching.

The room is empty, but you and him.

Okay, well, Chris...

In my time here, Chris has never spoke that I have heard about marijuana.

And we were finishing up the 21 Days of Freedom in January.

And Chris was doing a sermon and he looked right at me.

He said, nobody else was here, I believe.

I didn't feel it.

Yeah.

And he looked at me and he said, stop believing the lies that you need marijuana to relax,

to sleep, to exist.

And I was very convicted at the time, very convicted at the time.

That week to end that series, Chris had what was called Freedom Night.

And along the front of the stage here, there was a ton of trash cans, a couple of dumpsters.

And I came with two armloads that night.

I remember you coming in actually and I was like, bro, you got a lot to work with.

Yeah, I had a backpack full.

I was coming to get rid of some stuff, some baggage.

Throw it out.

Yeah.

And a 20-year-old prayer to release them demons from me, stop believing the lies was

answered that night.

I walked out.

Yeah.

Yes.

I gave up marijuana and I gave up tobacco all in the same night.

And it was fantastic.

I walked out of here a different person.

Heck yeah.

Yeah, it was fantastic.

You guys read Fortune Cookies?

Okay.

I do sometimes.

I saved some.

Is that weird?

Yeah, I have two.

I have two.

One is an old one that my nanny gave me when I was about 25, I believe.

And it runs through my mind all the time.

You can barely see it anymore, but I still have it.

And it says, if you continually give, you will continually have.

And I've carried that with me for years and years and years.

And when I feel that I'm not giving, I revisit that.

The other one, Fortune Cookie, it also reads, some of us are blessed to be givers and some

of us are cursed to be takers.

Wow.

That night I became a giver.

I am no longer a taker.

That night that I gave up...

Yeah.

That was bad.

We didn't do that.

Yes.

Yeah.

So I became a giver that night.

Cheers to giving.

Yes.

Yeah.

All right, Scott, I'm going to stop you for a second because that's the perfect lead in

to our next action step.

We get very excited up here.

We got to stay on track.

Number two, action.

Awareness and accountability helps us to learn and grow deeper in our faith.

I'm going to go ahead and do the Bible verse as well.

Again, Romans chapter 12, verses six through eight.

Romans 12 · chapter mention

In his grace, God has given us different gifts for doing certain things well.

So if God has given you the ability to prophesy, speak out with as much faith as God has given

you.

If your gift is serving others, serve them well.

If you are a teacher, teach well.

If your gift is to encourage others, be encouraging.

If it is giving, give generously.

If God has given you leadership ability, take that responsibility seriously.

And if you have a gift for showing kindness to others, do it gladly.

All right, you can continue now.

All right.

One of the other areas I volunteered for early was the night to shine.

Tim Tebow's night.

What an amazing night.

We skipped this the first time.

Can you put that picture of somebody that you might recognize up on the screen for me,

Trent?

This is from night to, no, the other one.

Sorry.

The other one.

Oh, there it is.

This is from night to shine.

I didn't use it for service, but I felt the need to show the joy from serving at night

to shine.

So February, we're definitely doing it again.

Be sure to put it on your calendars.

Attack Tracy at the welcome hub.

She'll get you all the info you need to know.

All right, back to you.

Night to shine was one of those nights where I did not know, I knew nothing about special

needs.

I just felt it was a good time to serve.

So I came and walked away.

Amazing.

Pretty wild.

How many times did you cry?

The whole week after.

The whole week after.

I was in awe.

So good.

The whole week after.

It was very, very heavy.

All right.

As you've seen in the picture earlier, I also saw volunteer at the Maryland theater.

My mom, she introduced me to the arts and theater at an early age.

Just for my appreciation for that, I decided to hear that I would volunteer there as well

and just give time back to them and the community there.

It's been very rewarding.

What's your favorite part again?

You get in free.

Oh, you get to watch all the shows.

You get to watch all the stuff for free.

Hey, they have some really good shows at the Maryland theater.

Oh, and the vest.

Yeah, you get a cool vest.

The vest, that's really his favorite.

The name tag.

The vest and the name tag.

Oh, yeah, yeah.

You look stylish, man.

Look at that.

I was so happy to get that vest.

So classic.

So classic.

All right, go.

Our church also has, we volunteer, I don't know if everyone knows this, but we also volunteer

in at the Hagerstown Home, Hagerstown Health Care, Health Center.

And it is in off the dual highway.

So you better give them a shout out.

Yeah.

Hey, guys.

Good to see you guys.

I missed you this week.

Hopefully I'm there next week.

But it's very rewarding.

And to me, it was when Chris talked about it, then Rudy talked about it, Rudy headed

it up.

So I decided, you know, it should be easy.

You know, I should be able to do it.

Great reason to volunteer and serve.

Yeah, it should be easy.

You know, you just go in.

It should be easy.

Turn the TV on, let them live stream, say hi, bye.

And you know, well, it wasn't that.

This is, the story goes, it's God doing God things.

And what happened?

Truly amazing.

I was in there by myself and because we don't have very many people serving in there.

So it would be nice.

Any which way, I'm sitting there.

And after the service was over, I was wrapping things up.

And one of the nurses came up to me with a little sheet of paper and it had two residents

names and their room numbers.

And she asked me, would you be so kind to go to their rooms and pray for them?

They can't physically make it down here to watch the service.

So I was like, all right, God, give me strength.

I failed in at the Socom class at the mall.

So I asked for opportunities.

That's right.

He knew you didn't have an opportunity.

Here we go.

Here we go.

I said, absolutely.

Oh yeah, I got this.

I do it all the time.

So I actually, I went to the rooms and, and we gave to each other.

I mean, it was a step of faith, boldness, I felt, but it also blessed two young people,

you know, in their walk.

So where am I at now?

I might've mixed up the order a little bit, but I feel like last time it was not as easy.

So this time it's gonna be better.

Go.

This, this is my last one.

Now this is Kelsey comes in.

You got something to say here?

I'll just jump in.

Okay.

Yeah, go ahead.

All right.

But my favorite, the one that hits my heart the most is the story goes one February, I

wake up out of bed and the Lord put it on my heart.

He put a word on my heart and the word was abandoned.

Had no idea what that was.

Went did my shower, went to my Bible, went to prayer time, ask God, what, what do you

mean, you know, speak to me.

Nothing, nothing.

Same thing the next morning I woke up and the word had changed and it's the word today

was a band of men.

So you went from abandoned to a band of men.

Do you mean a boy band?

Like in sync or backstreet boys?

No.

Oh, no.

All right.

Well, explain that.

A band of men.

Well, I didn't know either.

So I had to go back into my prayer room and find out.

So later that day it was put on my heart, hey, get in your phone and start texting men

that do not attend church.

Men that you know struggle in their faith.

Men that you know are scared to talk about their faith.

Men that are pissed off, clueless, sit in the back.

So I did and the response was phenomenal.

I had men, I had men calling me that I didn't even text saying, hey, I heard you have a

group going, you got room for me.

I'm like, absolutely.

So two months into it, I, I were very, very nice.

Sometimes there's 10 men, sometimes there's me in one, you know, but my wife sees it and

she goes, I want a Bible study.

I'm like, okay, babe, we got a Bible study for you.

So her and I, we meet once a week, we go to the local coffee shop, we have our Bible study.

I actually interrupted.

And then I heard about what they were doing and that he started this men's group.

I said, can I be part of it?

He says, well, first, Kelsey, you're not a man.

And secondly, you're already in church.

So no, I was like, rude, but fine.

But the cool thing is I see, I see faces of these men in my church right now.

So it's, yeah, they're here.

There's some of them here.

So that's awesome.

So my wife gets hers, her Bible study and my children see it and they ask the same thing.

Hey, where's our Bible study?

So now there's a lot of Bible studies going on in my house with, you know, with just the

simple fact of hearing and obeying and the take the risk, take the risk.

So I'm going to close my side up of this.

And the way I'm going to do that is I'm going to challenge you all if you're, if you're

waiting for a blessing from God, if you're waiting for something, you waiting to hear

something, do what waiters do and serve.

I was trying not to say anything.

Yeah.

All right.

I'll do it.

It's on the screen this time.

Look how quick.

If you're waiting to hear or you're waiting for a blessing, do what waiters do.

Serve.

Oh, amen.

Gosh.

All right.

We're wrapping up.

Look, we're way ahead now.

We're way ahead.

All right.

So good.

Thanks, Scott, for sharing.

Thanks, Scott, for a final action set.

You don't have a choice.

We can't get you off stage.

All right.

So step number three, serve selfishly.

What, Kelsey?

Selfish?

That's not how you're supposed to serve.

Scott, remember in Acts chapter 20, when Paul quotes Jesus to the Ephesians, leaving

Acts 20 · chapter mention

them an example of hard work and sacrifice to demonstrate the value of generous living.

It's more blessed to give than to receive.

Are you looking for a way to give your time and talents?

We got you.

There's this thing called the backpack giveaway.

I'm not sure if you've heard about it.

She's not in here, but I know because I asked the first time.

Tracy says we have 500 and some backpacks.

Go ahead.

Give yourselves a round of applause.

That's awesome.

I'm sorry.

How many?

627 since last service.

Yeah.

All right.

Here's the moment of truth.

Our goal is 1200 and we've got two weeks.

So not just backpacks.

There's tons of opportunities to serve, to volunteer.

Please just go see everybody at the Welcome Hub and they can help you out with that.

In fact, everyone sitting here, we like to challenge people, right Scott?

We've been challenged by Chris on a regular basis, so why not just do it again?

If everyone sitting here today and watching online chose to do just one thing over the

next year to give their time and talents to one thing, get this, we would never have to

ask for volunteers.

I challenge you.

The next time you are asked to serve, you should say yes.

All right.

Last thing because I know we had to rush the last time.

You ready?

Ephesians 320.

Some of you might say that sounds familiar.

That's because Chris about roughly a year ago said, hey, you should set something in

your phone so that you get a text alert or something in your calendar every day at 320

and read this verse.

So we're going to read it and then I'm going to have Scott pray us out.

Now all glory to God who is able through his mighty power at work within us to accomplish

infinitely more than we might ask or think.

God knows, he always knows, we have to find that one thing that we can do differently

to experience all that is in store for us when we choose to serve others with our time

and talents.

All right.

You ready?

You're going to pray us out.

First reminder, if at any point during this message, it's almost like again, you hear

me say this on the announcements, you're called for life change.

Take out your phone, text change me, 9700.

And as always, the prayer team is going to be up here on the right.

So if you have questions about what your gifts and talents are, or you just need prayer for

health or anything, please come up here and please get prayer today.

All right, Scott.

All right.

You please stand up and join me.

Open hands, open heart, open mind, open ears.

Dear heavenly father, Lord, I want to give thanks today for opportunities, Lord.

Risky opportunities, Lord.

And I give thanks for the change that they make when you obey.

Lord, I want to give thanks for all the hands that are present in this house that help all

the behind scenes people that give their time without any recognition, Lord.

That's how this place operates.

Lord, I ask for a burning desire in each one of our hearts, Lord, to be bold, be brave

and step out and take a chance.

Give your time, Lord.

Forgive us when we hear your word and we do not act.

Lord, I ask all these things in your name.

Amen.

Yes, Jesus.

Thank you.

Hey, have a great week.

There's no impossible.

I believe that you are working now.

Supporting you is the only way.

You are working now.

You are working now.

You are working now.

You are working now.

You are working now.

You are working now.

You are working now.

You are working now.

You are working now.

You are working now.

Pour it out, oh pour it out