The Servant's Heart | Pastor Ashley Garza

So I'm going to start in the opening scripture, Matthew 2026

through 28, it says, yet it shall not be so among you, but

whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your

servant, just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but

to serve. I was thinking about something

as I was in 8th grade. I, I, it's crazy the little life

situations that they don't seem significant to you in the

moment, but they have a really big impact on your life.

When I was in 8th grade, I was sitting in our science lab.

And why this situation happened in science, I have no clue.

Probably because we go to a, we went to a Christian School.

So we're sitting in our science lab.

And I will never forget in 8th grade, our teacher asking us,

what is it that you want to be when you're older?

What is it that you want to do? What is it that you want to

accomplish? And she gave us, you know, a few

moments to think about it. I remember laying my entire life

plan out there in my science class when I was about 13.

But I as I was thinking about this and I was reading the.

Scripture and just preparing for.

Today, I'm sure many of us have probably went through a

situation in our life where someone asked us at a young age.

What do you want? To do when you're older, you

know, they have career day and you know, all these spirit week,

my kids, I was like, what do you want to be when you're older?

And they get to dress up for what they want to be.

And as I was thinking about today's scripture, I thought to

myself, most people when they're in middle school and someone

says, what do you want to be when you're older?

Someone's not like I know I want to be a loser.

That's exactly what I want to be, right?

No one sets out. They're not like I want a

horrible job or I want a horrible car.

You know, when you're 16, those are the things that you're

thinking of or 13 or whatever age maybe you're, you know, I

just want the worst husband in the whole world.

That is what I want, right? No one sets out to be that

person. But most people, when they're

asked from a young age what they want to be, they're given some

pretty awesome aspirations about their life because most people

set out to become great. Can we all agree on that?

Amen. So here the scripture is talking

about being great. So he says many of you here

desire to become great. But if you have this desire

inside of you, what must you do? Serve it says the Son of man did

not come to be served, but the Son of Man came to serve.

So if you desire to become great, it's as simple as this.

We serve. We somehow, you know, get it

through our mind, you know, through whether it be just

natural situations or what the world is trying to teach us to

do and maybe experiences that we've been through this desire

to become great. There's like this checklist that

we come up with and I, and I'm nothing wrong with checklist

whatsoever, right? But sometimes we come up with

these checklists of what we need to do to accomplish greatness

right now. I, I would have at 8th grade

thought of myself as a checklist person.

And I think what happens with life is you just kind of like

you get married and you just. I think it's just like in you to

become opposite. It's crazy.

I don't even know because I considered myself a checklist

person at a very young age and then I got married and I became

a mom and all of a sudden my husband's the checklist person

and my life is just scattered. I don't even I.

It's. Crazy to explain.

I don't know where the shift came, but you know, he has like

his like Trello app and he has even checklist on I'll be like

he's looking at his phone and when I'm like scrolling

Instagram like what are you looking at?

And he's like my checklist. For the day.

And I'm like, I love that. I love that.

We were at some dinner one time and it was some one of the

siblings from the Duck Dynasty. And they sat there and we're

sitting at the table. They didn't sit there.

They were standing on stage with a microphone.

And they said, you know, there's something about me and my wife.

He said we have. Nothing in common except we love

Jesus and we love our kids. And I looked at my husband.

I was like, no truer statement has ever been said.

It's just it's crazy, right? So nothing wrong with checklist,

naturally speaking, but if we have this checklist on how we

can become great and fill in these natural aspirations in our

lives, we have to ask ourselves, are these check these things

that we're checking off our list helping us to become a greater

servant in life? Or are they just getting us to

the place that exalts us? So a lot of times we spend our

days trying to accomplish this and accomplish that.

And again, it may be great according to the world

standards, but we have to understand when we are set out

to accomplish something, the number one thing that has to be

in our minds is how can we serve?

How can my life be a life of service unto the Lord?

A great according to the world has its standards of what the

word great is. I looked up the definition of

great according to the world 'cause I just wanted to see, you

know, their thoughts on it. And it all boiled down to this.

The world's definition of great is all about you.

The Bible's definition of great is all about other people.

And we have to, we have to, at the beginning of time, we have

to just kind of solidify that in our lives that if we want to

become great, our life cannot be about ourselves and building

ourselves up. But if we want to become great,

our life has to be in service to other people.

Because the biblical definition basically is what can I do for

other people? And again.

All Christians, it can't be just like you can walk out of here

today and be like, oh, I didn't want to be the one to serve.

Right. This is for all of us.

We are all called as Christians to serve.

And the greater the call because how many of you believe that God

has a call on your life? The greater the call that we

have in our life is the greater responsibility to serve.

In First Samuel 1732 to 33, it says then David said to Saul,

let no man's heart fail because of him your servant will go and

fight with this Philistine. And Saul said to David, you are

not able to go against the Philistine to fight with him,

for you are a youth and he a man of war from his youth.

I love the story of David. I have always loved the stories

of David. There's something that even as a

young, young person, every time I heard a story of David, I was

just like in awe of this person. Obviously, when the Bible calls

him a man after God's own heart, we know that he lived a life

that God loved. We knew that his heart was after

the Lord. So whether it be him fighting

Goliath, whether it be the stories about him being a

shepherd boy, whether it be the story about him becoming king

and or even the crazy stories when he's like instantly running

from Saul. I mean, David's life is just

something that I've loved to study.

And when I felt that the Lord was speaking to me about talking

about being a servant today, I really obviously Jesus the

number one, but I really thought about the story of David and how

his life was a life of service. So David was called, if we can

all agree on that, he was called from a very young.

Age. But not by his own strength.

God had been training David from the very beginning.

All of his natural situations that he went through in his life

was all a training ground to fulfill the call that God had on

his life. And God is training all of us.

But the crazy thing that I love about David is from a young age

he knew that God was using his natural situations to train him

and equip him for the call that God had on his life.

Now he didn't know the call that God had on his life.

David never set out to become king.

He just knew while he was a shepherd boy that he had a call

on his life. In whatever situation that he

was presented with, he was going to use it for the good, for

giving God the glory. Amen.

So here in this scripture, David comes up to Saul and, you know,

he decides that he's going to fight Goliath, right?

Because he knew that God was using his natural situation to

prepare him for life. So it wasn't like he was trying

to outperform his brothers and it wasn't looking or it wasn't

like he was trying to, you know, gain recognition for slaying the

giant. But he just knew that God had

been preparing him for such a time as this.

But in his preparation, we know that David was a shepherd.

A shepherd is someone who tends in a rear sheep and one who

directs them in a particular direction.

A shepherd's job was physically demanding.

It was dirty, it was low paying, it was risky.

By all means, a shepherd's job and a shepherd vocation was not

a prestigious job. Being a shepherd, it wasn't like

being a shepherd. You're like next in line to

become king, right? So it's not like he's walking up

this ladder knowing like, hey, I'm going to become king.

But he was a shepherd not knowing that he was going to be

a king. But he knew that as he was

guiding the sheep in certain directions, and when he lost his

sheep, he would go find his sheep.

When, you know, a predator would come in to take the sheep.

He had decided that he was going to use the supernatural strength

of God to fight off the. Lion and the Bear in.

All of these situations, David was taking and tending care of

these sheep, but again, he knew in his heart that all of these

things that he was going through was in preparation for the call

that God had on his life. So his call was one of a

servant, and he started a servant.

And although David became king, he was still a servant of God

through it all. So we have to understand that it

wasn't being a shepherd that made him a king, it was being a

servant that made him a. King.

Right. So this verse here, when he's

talking to the king, so here they are, they're at battle,

they're all wondering. Who in the?

World is going to fight this giant.

No one is willing to fight him. King Saul's like, I don't even

know what we're going to do because he called on like the

people who you would have thought that would fight the

giant and no one was willing to fight this giant.

So here David's talking to the king and he says your servant

will go, your servant will go. So David again walking out, a

natural circumstance in life was constantly in the state of

knowing he was a servant. So whether or not he was serving

his sheep or whether or not he was.

Serving his king. He was walking out that life as

a servant. See a lot of people.

What we do is we wait to become king until we're ready to serve.

So we say, oh, we know that God has a call on my life, and when

I get there, I. Am going to just be.

So ready to serve, David. Wasn't waiting to become king to

serve because again, he didn't know right he didn't grow up

knowing he was not next in line to become king but he was a

servant and his heart of a servant is what made him king so

we. Can't sit back and just say,

well, you know, when God's call comes to pass on my life, that's

when I'm going to serve. You have to serve with what you

have in your hands. If you're at home, you're

serving at home. If you're in your job, you're

serving in your good job. If you're at the grocery store,

wherever it is, you have to be the one that has a heart of

being a servant because David's heart of service is what made

him king and help to fulfill the call that God had on his life.

Second, Samuel 7 says, Then King David went in and sat before the

Lord, and he said, Who am IO Lord, and what is my house that

you have brought me this far? This comes at a time where David

was now king and he had in his heart to build God a house.

So at this point, the Ark of the Covenant had been traveling to

and fro. It had a tent that it would live

inside of and it was a beautiful place.

It's exactly what God had asked them to do.

And David becomes king. So he builds himself a house and

he has this beautiful house and he loves this house and he has

it in his heart. He's like, you know what?

This doesn't make sense that I have a house and God's present

doesn't have a house. So he says I'm going to build a

house for his presence, that he may dwell in this house.

And it sounds like a great idea. He gives this idea to a prophet

and the prophet's like, yes, that's it.

And the prophet walks away and God's like, that's not it.

And the prophet's like, oh. Man, I mean.

Even the Prophet's probably thinking this is this is a

great. I mean how?

Could there ever be a better idea than this?

Like he has a house, you should have a house.

And God speaks to the prophet and he says, you tell David that

he is not going to build me a house.

I didn't ask for a house. And not only is David not going

to build me a house, but when I'm ready to have a house, he's

not going to be the one to build me the house.

So the prophet, he goes back and he talks to David and he said,

listen, this is all the words that the Lord has spoken to me

about you building a house. So this is where David comes in.

He says, then King David, he went in and he sat before the

Lord. He hears this word of the Lord

from a prophet. And he goes in, and he sits.

Before the Lord and this is what he says.

He says who am IO, Lord God and what is my house?

You have brought me this far. So when he hears this news that

he's not going to be the one to build a house, he says who am I?

He remembers who am I? I didn't bring myself this far.

I didn't make all of this stuff happen in my life.

The Lord is the one that directed my steps.

The the Lord is the one who gave me this supernatural strength to

fight off the bear and the lion. The Lord's hand is the hand that

killed Goliath, and the Lord is the one who chose to anoint me

with oil and make me king. Amen.

So he sits in the presence of the Lord, and he reminds

himself, humility. I didn't make myself king.

I didn't do this. I didn't get me to this place,

the Lords, the one who build my house.

And if he doesn't want me to do this, I'm not going to do it.

So he had to come to this place of humility in this situation in

his life that reminded him, I am but a servant in the House of

God. I am but a servant.

And that's how I became king. Nothing of my my own doing, but

the Lord's call on my life and my willingness to be a servant

has led me to this place. So even when his situation went

from shepherd boy to king, he remembered he's still a servant.

He kept his humility. And a lot of times in our lives,

we start out as a servant. But like I said, the how many of

you know, the more responsibility, the more of a

responsibility we have to be a servant.

So a lot of times when we, we start gaining things in our

lives, maybe, you know, you gain a new job or, you know, a title

or a platform or influence or money or the things in life or a

completed checklist or whatever it may be.

A lot of times when we go through lives and these things

start changing in our lives, although we set out to be a

servant, these things can creep. In.

And they can change us and they can change us from within.

And it changes our view on the greater I want to become, the

more service that is required of me.

The greater the servant, the more responsibility.

We. Have to be a servant.

So we have to be reminded. And sometimes when we need to be

reminded, God will place us in situations that are going to

remind us. And that's David.

He was reminded in this place humility service.

I am a servant to the most High king in first Corinthians 9 it

says and everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in

all things. Now they do it to obtain a

perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown.

They sang this song today and it's a song that I've asked them

to do at altar call because as I've been, you know, preparing

for this this sermon today, as I was preparing for today, the

song really resonated inside of me.

And then I was like, Oh my gosh, we do the schedule so far in

advance. It just so happened that it was

scheduled today. And I love the way God works on

things like that. But it says.

Here on the altar, I lay myself down, my gifts, my treasures,

and all of my crowns because I just want you.

And I've been singing that song over and over again.

And you know, as I just, you know, walk around and pray and

just seek the Lord for you know what it is that he wants me to

speak on when I, you know, preach on these Sundays.

This song just really was just resonating inside of me.

How many times in life that we live our lives for, for crowns.

And it might not be the physical crown, but it's a perishable

crown because we have it in our mind to become great.

We must have something to show. For it, we must have a crown or

jewels on our crowns or all these different crowns or

accolades or trophies or whatever accomplished checklist,

whatever it may be in our lives. And we have to ask ourselves,

what are we competing for? What are we living each and

every day for? Because we can only one run one

race. We can only run one race.

You may try to run 2, but the Bible is very clear, you cannot

serve God and mammon. So we have to pick the race that

we are willing to run and run that with everything that we

have inside of us. Because what race are we want

running to achieve? What are we running to achieve?

Something temporal in nature, Something that's man made or man

given or man recognized. That's a huge one because a lot

of times the things that we're doing in life is for the eternal

crown, but we like man to recognize our crown.

So we have to ask ourselves, what are we running for?

A quote that my husband uses all the time.

I love this. Has anyone ever like you quote

something all of your life and then you realize that it's in

the Bible. It might not be that exact

quote, obviously, but it's like totally Bible based.

One the the other day that even my brother and his my

sister-in-law, we said something.

Oh, layout, she said it. She said what?

No, I can't even think about it. Something about red sky.

Oh, red sky in the morning is a sailor's warning.

Red sky at night is a sailor's delight.

And they're like, who taught you that?

And I was like, it's in the Bible and we looked it up.

It's again, it doesn't say that exactly, but it's in the Bible.

But the quote I want to talk to you about today is 1 about this.

This what we're talking about right here, the perishable,

perishable verse, imperishable crown.

It says you will never see a U-Haul.

Behind a hers. And that is tough stuff when you

think about that, you don't, you don't see it because you could

spend your entire life working on a perishable crown, but it's

perishable. It will never be an imperishable

crown. It will always remain A

perishable crown. And in Psalms 49, I love the

Lord. He's so good.

He's so, so good because I have had this, my notes, I've had

these for two weeks. And I have my reading that I do

when I'm preparing for a sermon, but I also have my personal

reading that I do each and every week, and I'm reading the Bible

in order again. So I've been in Psalms.

And I was reading in Psalms and I already have this scripture

picked out. I already have this quote here.

And in Psalms 4917, it says for when he died, he shall carry

nothing away. And I'm like, gosh.

What an. Impact, that is, we can spend

our whole life without being a life of a servant or having a

heart as a servant, doing our own thing and trying to achieve

greatness. All for man recognized greatness

only to be carried away in hers. And EU Haul is not following

behind us. And I, and I know that that's

some tough stuff to swallow today because we really have to

look into our hearts and say, what is it that I have in my

heart? And am I setting out on a race

that is not the race of the imperishable crown?

Am I setting out on a race because you can't run 2?

You can't be good at both, right?

The Lord says you either be hot or you cold.

If you're lukewarm, I'll spit you out of my mouth.

And that's something that we have to be.

Have this confidence in. When we choose the life that we

want to live, David wasn't living his life to become king.

That's the craziest part. That's why I wanted to point out

that being shepherd wasn't a prestigious job.

Being a shepherd boy was not, you know, like a shoo in for

becoming king. David was not living his life to

become king, he was living his life as a shepherd.

And God saw him and God saw his heart and that's what made him

become king. We have to remind ourselves, if

you want to become great, serve. A servant is living the life for

the imperishable crown, and a life lived for in an

imperishable crown looks much different than a life lived for

a perishable 1 And we have to decide today what life.

Are we living in Luke 1038? And Pastor Lauren used this

scripture last week and it was just coincidence that he used

this last week because I have an amazing story that goes with

this scripture that I want to share with you guys today.

Says now what happened is he went in and he entered a certain

village and a certain woman named Martha welcomed him into

her home. She had a sister called Mary who

also sat at Jesus feet and heard his word.

But Martha was distracted with much serving and she approached

him and said, Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me

to serve alone? Therefore, tell her to help.

Me and Jesus answered and said to her.

Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things,

but one thing is needed and Mary has chosen that good part which

will not be taken away from her. This story, although it is a

very, very short snippet in this amazing book called the Holy

Bible. It's a short story, right?

How many? How many scriptures is it?

4 There's so much packed in to this story.

We have to understand that a life of service, a life and

being a servant, there is a work to that life.

And I want to use the word ministry.

I'm not talking about full time ministry.

I'm talking about each and every one of us and the call that God

has placed on our lives. There is a work that has to be

done, but there's another side to it.

There's a personal devotion that we have to have, and you cannot

have one without the other. The personal devotion is the

part that sits at the feet of Jesus drinking it all in.

And what this Scripture shows us is there's this balance.

A lot of people look at the Scripture and think that Martha

was just doing it all wrong and Mary was doing it all right.

But that's not what was happening here.

We have to understand that both of them served.

It says in the scripture that Martha was serving.

They both served, but they were both serving in different ways.

Both of them had a servant's heart.

But what this Scripture shows us is when Jesus was in the room,

when Jesus was in the room. The number one most important

part is not missing out on what He is speaking because we are

too caught up on our acts of service.

When God calls us to be and have a servant's heart, there is a

work that has to be done. But how many of you know that

you cannot pour out to people if you are not filled?

So we can get so caught up on being busy and forget that we

have a personal devotion that is filling us up so we are able to

serve. There's two sides.

We have to be a servant, but we also have to serve in the area

of having this personal devotion to the Lord.

And it's so easy for some of us to get caught up on this

practical side and miss out on the spiritual.

And it can happen in the church. It can happen in your home in

about, let's see, when I was 17. I'm not good at math.

I'll just throw that out there. I was really good in high

school, but then I haven't done math since I was 16.

I'm like, what the heck? My daughter comes home.

I'm like, I don't know, ask Chad or your dad.

We just got a she's only in 3rd grade too.

But when I was 17, many years ago, I'm 39, so 22 years ago, I

hope I said that right when I was 17, there was a time.

When we had three services all happening in Auditorium A, this

place was not. Here and what?

Happened was is someone didn't I was not.

I wasn't even like on the. Scene at this point.

Right. I was like I was.

A praise coach for the kids ministry and someone didn't.

Show up from for altar call. This is the way God works,

right? And Pastor Lauren, he's ready to

do. Altar call and there's no.

One on stage and he. Comes down after that service.

And he's like, I'm like, OK, you know, right, that was you now

that's what I was mouthing. And he's like, you're, you're

starting to do altar call. I always use the word Vol and

told I was Vol and told that I was going to start doing altar

call. But I like to do anything that I

was asked to do, so I had no problem doing it.

However. I wasn't asked to do altar call,

just altar call. I was asked to sit on the stage

for all three services. So I would sing and then I would

not like backstage, I would sit on stage.

There's a chair, I pointed it to it at our 9:00 AM service and I

sat in that chair. Then I would sing altar call.

Then I would sing, sit on stage and sing altar call then three

times every Sunday, and I would do that every single Sunday

until Pastor Lauren learned to trust me.

I was like, I promise you I will not be late.

I promise you I'm going to show up, right?

I'm like please. God let him trust me. 22 years

later, I have never once I I'm saying it with confidence, I've

never once been late for an altar call we might be on.

Stage trying to figure out a key change because he he like throws

A wrenching thing and changed the song.

Last minute, but I am here and I will do that because that is my

service that I have been asked to do.

I've never missed it. I've never been late, right?

And when we get? Involved in the church, a lot of

us have things that we have. To do, you might have a door,

you might have a classroom, you might have an offering.

Bucket that you pass. You might be putting the

communion in the chairs. And a lot of us have something

that we have to do. I like to say we get to do, but

right, we have this service side, but then there's the side

that I'm singing the altar call. So for 22 years, I don't get to

go to the altar call physically. So I'm standing on stage and as

to not miss a beat. I'm like, if you're new, I

usually lead worship. So I'm standing here while

Pastor Lauren's walking back and forth and my eyes are just like,

I'm giving you all the tips. Now you're you're going to be

like, watch me next time. You're like, Oh my gosh.

And I literally follow him because I wait for his body to

just. Like I know, right?

Like I know when he wants us to start singing.

I, I tried to read his body language.

I mean, we're like locked in now, right?

22 years of doing this. But that's my service side.

But someone said to me one time, isn't it weird that you never

get to attend to altar call? I said, I attend to altar call

every single service. Like, what do you mean?

I was like, my heart is down there so I could sit up here and

I could sing a song and you guys.

Maybe at first would never even know that my heart's not

prepared because I know the lyrics That's I always say I was

blessed with. Just like I can listen to the

song one one time and I know the song so I could live a life of

service on stage. I could sing the songs.

I can raise my hand, I can jump. I know when they're everyone's

supposed to. Do what?

But if my heart's not in it, I can't take.

It's called leading worship. I can't take you to a place that

I haven't been myself. So we have to understand that

there's a personal devotion to this.

So although our life may be walking around serving, my eyes

are on him, but my heart is at the altar call.

I listen intently to what the pastor is preaching every single

week to make sure that we're picking out a song that matches

his sermon. So we can take you to the place

that God has for you. So we have to understand, I have

which one was the servant? Both you have a service

physically that you have to do, but your heart has to be one

that's willing to sit at the feet of Jesus and drink it all

in. Come on, can I get a Amen?

Imagine, imagine the Lord is coming to your house.

I I get it. Like Martha girl, I got you.

I know how you feel. We're having friends over today

and I'm like. Pick that paint brush up off the

floor. Wrap the vacuum.

Cord, you know, I'm like, you know.

And they're just friends. Imagine Jesus coming to my

house. I'd be like.

Oh my, I'm like dust and everything.

You know, you're just, that's just like what it is.

Jesus is here in this place. Come on.

Can I get an Amen? We got to believe that Jesus is

here in this place, so we're going to prep it all up.

But when Jesus is here, we got to have our hearts attentive to

what He's saying. We have to live our lives

sitting down at the feet of Jesus, not worried about if

there's dust. I know before service, I'm

texting maintenance. There's footprints on the stage,

but once I start, not always, they're amazing.

We have an amazing maintenance crowd.

I'm just saying it was actually me.

I I was barefoot one rehearsal and I was like, Oh no, but once

we start service, we got to lock in.

We have to be at the feet of Jesus and John.

It says I can of myself do nothing.

As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is righteous because I

do not seek my own, but I seek the will of the Father who sent

me. This verse is so amazing to

myself. It says I myself can do nothing.

We have a stewardship when we are a servant of the Lord.

He places things in our hands, which means we have a

stewardship of what is in our hands.

But we cannot let that stewardship turn to ownership

because in that stewardship we have to remember God is the one

that placed it in your hands, right?

So a lot of times when serving, we can take ownership of

something. My team, my door, my bucket, my

class, my kids, my nursery, my seat.

A lot of times when serving what happens is our service can go

from stewardship to ownership. And there is a fine line between

stewardship and ownership. But the only thing that lies on

the line of stewardship and ownership is your.

Heart, our heart, if it's one of a servant, says I did nothing of

myself. I am here to do the will of my

father, the will of the one who sent me.

There's a stewardship that comes with the responsibility of

service, and that stewardship is important, but we have to be so

careful to not let our stewardship.

Turn to ownership. And he goes on to say I do not

seek my own. If our heart is to remain as one

of a a servant, our stewardship will turn very quickly into

ownership if we don't. Allow our heart.

To be in the right. Place Now I shared this with our

singers on the Thursday before our Easter rehearsal because God

did something awesome in my heart last week.

So we have a team of people who really prep for all of our

services obviously. But obviously, as you all know,

Easter's like the most attended service, which is crazy.

I'm like, it's so good every week.

Why are we not all here every week?

However, that's your service. Go out and preach the gospel,

right? So anyway, we prep for Easter

and we spend all these months prepping for Good Friday and

Easter and a lot of stuff goes into it.

You're picking out the songs, you're picking out the soloist,

you're picking out the look and. 1.

Part that I'm a part of is the graphic design and what are like

theme is. Going to be.

And then I just designed that and then we pump it up on social

media and we put it on our background and.

Whatever it may be, the pamphlet, we try to match our

photo wall to the theme of what Easter is going to be.

And man, this year I was like, this is good.

You know, I'm like, this is awesome.

I love this and it's great. And everyone in the office, they

looked at it and they're like, it's great.

So I pop it up on the LED screen and I'm like, this is awesome,

this is it. So I go and I like create all

the different sizes that we need for reels and social media and

backdrop, all this kind of stuff.

I send it all out and there it is.

Here we are working with Easter and Thursday before Easter comes

the day before Good Friday and my husband I.

Love him, he does a lot of the most of the.

Production in here and kind of like puts it all together,

whatever. So he pops the graphic.

Up on the screen and he calls me.

He's like, hey, I need you to come down.

I was like, we already looked through this and it's awesome,

but whatever, I'll come down, right?

So I come down and I'm just like, he's like, I don't know if

Pastor Lauren's going to like this.

I was like, yes, he is. And he's like, I don't think he

is. And I was like, why?

You know, and I am just. Like, you know, and he's like,

well, for this reason, there's a little whatever.

And I was just like, it's Thursday.

We've already posted this on social media.

We've already made our backdrop out in the lobby.

We've already done all this stuff.

It is finished, right? And I'm like, whatever, we'll

call Pastor Lauren, so I call Pastor.

Lauren, he comes down and. He kind of stands up here.

I was like. Look, you can't look at the

backdrop from right here. No one's sitting right there.

You got to like, sit out there. And Mike kind of thought like

people would feel like they're tilting over.

And Pastor Lauren's like, you know what?

I don't think that, But I don't like it.

I'm like, well, we didn't ask you down here to see if you

liked it or not. And he's like, I don't want it.

It doesn't work for the church. I'm like, what do you mean it

doesn't work for you know, so we get into it, you know, it's like

me and my husband and my dad and I'm just like, ah, it's like 2

verse one and I'm just like. I have to design something

before Sunday. Like this is so like we, you

know, I'm and I'm getting all mad and I'm just like, whatever,

I'll just OK, bye. I'll, I'll just do it.

And I walk out and I'm just like, this is so ridiculous, you

know, and that's, you know, like 1. 30 or something, and then our

next rehearsal is at 7 and sometime in between there God

was like ownership. This is not your ownership.

And I was just like, oh. And I was like.

You know, you want to be like, I am not owning this.

It is just good. But Pastor Lauren, when I could

actually take, you know, my, my defensive walls down, he said.

This doesn't. Work.

For the good of the congregation.

And I was not even think I'm just being real with you guys

today. I wasn't even thinking about you

guys. I was just thinking about how

great our wall looked. When you all walked in, you're

going to be like, oh man, that's so good.

But God spoke to me. Stewardship, not ownership, You.

Work with what I, the Lord has placed in.

Your hands. And ultimately, it's not your

call to make. It's the pastor's call to make.

And the pastor, who's a servant, is looking out for his sheep.

And I was just like, Oh my. I'm like the.

Lord just worked in me that day. That's your heart is the only

thing that can take stewardship to ownership.

So that's why it's so. Important that our heart stays

in check because we're only working with what God has placed

in our hands. And we have to understand that

when we're working with what God placed in our hands, no matter

what we do with it, it's still not ours.

It's still stewardship over what God has placed in our hands

looking. At him loved him, and said to

him, one thing, you let go your way, sell whatever you have and

give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven.

Come take up the. Cross and follow me.

And he was sad at this word, and he went away sorrowful, for he

had great possession. This.

Scripture wraps up what ownership?

Looks like when what you. Have in your hand changes.

And you go away sorrowful because of the loss of

something. That you had in your hands.

When it was never yours to begin with, and I'm not talking about

just a loss. Of like a change of scenery or

you know when you are in ministry your your you know job

or whatever you. Want to say or your ministry,

this ministry you steward, it changes constantly, right?

Because there's just we're doing.

What's best for the body of Christ?

So I'm not talking about just being sad.

Like. Oh man, so many fond memories of

that. But when you feel like what I

steward has been taken. Away.

From me, and you asked me to give it up.

That's when your stewardship has become ownership, and that's

when the ownership has become attachment.

And that's at the point where you don't feel like you're

willing to give up what God has asked when God asks.

Us to leave something. Behind, but we've built an

attachment to it. This is where we forgot that

it's not ours in the 1st place. So we have to be so careful of

our attachment to the things that the Lord gives us a call, a

title, a hope or dream, a you. Know an accomplished checklist

or a position or a job or you know, whatever it looks like for

you. We can't attach ourselves to

those things because those are things that man recognize as

perishable crowns. But we're in it to be a servant

and walk with the imperishable crown.

So our attachment really should be attached to the the

fulfillment of the call that God has on our lives.

If I could have the musicians and singers and.

Band. And all that come forward.

We have to realize. That this guy, right?

That we're just talking about when he he was.

A good man, it says. He was a good man.

And he loved the Lord. But he was not willing to.

Give up his. Possessions and that's where we

come so near sighted when we look at what we have.

Naturally. Speaking and think that that's

going to fulfill us and God. Shows us here in the scripture.

It says go sell whatever you have give.

To the poor and you. Will have treasure in heaven

because our lives are but a vapor I.

Know when we're here. They seem long and fulfilling

and you know, a pastor Rich said something Wednesday night that

really spoke to me. And he said, you know, Pastor

Lawrence said to. Him.

He said what? If the call that God has on your

life. Your.

Entire life was to have kids and the call.

Is you know for your. Child and I think about.

David King. David when he said I want to

build. Him.

A house. And God said.

When I'm ready for a house, it's.

Not going to be you, it's. Going to be your child, But

David was willing. Because he.

Humbled himself and he said, You know what, I know it's not going

to be in by my name that the house was built, he says.

But I'm going to come up with plans and I'm going to come up

with all. Of this stuff to make you an

awesome house. Not in my name, but I'll help my

son do it. And that's where we have to come

to this place. That we realize what God has

placed in our hands is not ours, but we're just stewards of it.

We're servants in the House of the Lord, whether it be at your

home, whether it be at your job. We have to remember if we want

to become great, we are called to serve.

The Son of Man did not come. Here to be served.

But he came to serve. And it all comes down to our

heart. This is Pastor Lauren Coverbius

from Mount Zion Church. We thank you for joining us

today and invite you to connect with our church family by

visiting mountzion.org and following us on social media.

God bless you.