Servanthood | Pastor Malachi Maillot | Patio Season

It's so great to be with you this morning.

Welcome to our online church service here at KCC.

I hope you enjoyed that time of worship.

The team has been so amazing and just been getting these services to you online.

For those of you who don't know me, my name is Malachi.

I'm one of the pastors here at KCC, and I'm excited to be sharing a message with you this morning.

Hopefully, you've been able to follow along with us in our series called Patio Season This Summer.

In this series, we've been revisiting our values, who we are as a church, and what we believe to be important.

And I think that this is really important for us as a church to go back to these values because a value and what we value will center us.

They help us direct the way we live, they determine what our priorities are in life, and they help us define what our purpose is.

And today I want to talk about our sixth value.

Last week, Pastor Brody he spoke on the culture of honor, and before that, Pastor Brian he spoke on being spirit-led.

And today I want to talk to you guys about our sixth value.

It's called servanthood.

So it doesn't matter who you are, it doesn't matter how much money you have, it doesn't matter how much money you don't have, it doesn't matter your social status, it doesn't matter if you've been a Christian for 50 seconds or if you've been a Christian for 50 years.

We as Christians are called to be servants.

Everyone is called to this life of servanthood.

We're first called to be servants of God, and secondly, we're called to serve one another.

Jesus made it very clear when he stated in Matthew that he said, I'm going to sum up every bit of the law into this one statement.

It's to love God with all your heart, soul, and your mind, and to and the second is like the first, which is to say that you can't have one without the other, is to love your neighbor as yourself.

And here at KCC, we we we say this we say, to serve is to love, and to love is to serve.

In the Bible, Jesus often uh he challenged people and he challenged his disciples about serving.

And he didn't just talk about it, but he also displayed what it was to be a servant.

In Mark chapter 10, verse 35 to 45, two of Jesus' disciples, James and John, they they come to Jesus essentially with a demand.

Mark 10:35–45

And they they they basically take the ask and you shall receive very literally here.

And they and they say in verse 35, it says, Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to him saying, Teacher, we want you to do something for us.

We want you to do whatever we ask.

This is really interesting.

They they come to him very demanding.

I don't know if you've ever talked to God like that, but I would be way too scared to do that.

And he says back to them, What do you want me to do for you?

They say back to him, Grant us that we may sit, one at your right hand and one at your left in your glory.

And Jesus says to them, You do not know what you ask.

Are you able to drink from the cup that I drink?

Be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?

And they said to him, We are able.

And so Jesus says right back to them, he says, You will indeed drink from the cup that I drink, and the baptism that I am baptized with, you will be baptized, which is essentially to say, like, it was a foreshadowed to say, like, you are going to experience what I have experienced, and you're gonna walk with that same authority that I walked with.

And then he says in verse sort 40, sorry, verse 40, he says, But to sit at my right hand and on my left is not mine to give, but it is for those who it is prepared.

And then when the t the ten other disciples heard it, they began to be greatly displeased with James and John.

But Jesus then called them to himself.

He called them and he said, Come close, come close for a second.

And there's just kind of this intimate moment that he just wanted to just gather them together.

And he said, You know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them.

They they exercise their authority, they kind of dangle it over their heads, and they the great ones exercise their authority over them, yet it shall not be among you.

This shall not be what you do.

But whoever desires to become great among you shall be your servant, and whoever desires to be first will be a slave to all.

For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and give his life as a ransom for many.

Jesus says, Whoever wants to be great must become insignificant.

You want to stand out, he says, work in the background.

Whoever wants their life to be full of purpose must learn to serve.

And Jesus says this another way in Matthew 16, 24 to 25.

It says, Whoever wants to be my disciples must deny themselves.

They must deny their personal preference, they must deny their personal opinion, they must deny everything that is in their heart to do something, they must deny all of that, pick up their cross and follow me.

For whoever wants to save their life will lose it.

But whoever wants to, whoever loses their life for my sake will find it.

Let's pray together.

Father God, I just thank you so much for this space and this opportunity that we have as a church to be able to go online.

And God, even in the midst of a pandemic, God, that we can still get your word and the gospel out to those who might be hearing it for the first time, and we can still gather as a church online.

God, I thank you so much for your word today.

Even though we're you might be watching church through a screen, God, that uh I pray that your spirit would be with each and every single person that's viewing this today.

God, that your spirit would be uh with your people today, and you would help us to draw close to you, even in a time where we have to be distant, God, will we draw close to you and grow in relationship deeper and deeper?

God, I just thank you for that.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.

Well, uh, if you've ever heard me preach before, um I always love to ask a question, and I always love to try and relate uh with a question.

And so it's kind of an interesting question today, but uh I want to ask have you ever had to sneeze while you were driving?

Have you ever had to sneeze when you were driving, or or the worst side of it, if you if you've ever been a passenger of someone having to sneeze while they were driving, it's it's honestly it's terrifying.

I don't know if you've ever been in a situation like this before, but for me, I've been in this way too many times.

And of all the places, I think that this in the in the car, while you're going like 120 down the road, it's terrifying.

Obviously, now due to like COVID, sneezing in public is most likely to start a riot.

It's probably a little bit more scary, but sneezing in the car is like a close second, right?

And if you're anything like me when you sneeze, it's like a volcanic eruption, right?

It's like a gunshot going off.

It's I have a very violent sneeze.

And if you're everything anything like uh one of our coworkers, she works in the kids' ministry, we can hear her down the hallway.

If she sneezes, it's like a gunshot goes off, and it's it's terrifying, right?

And um, whenever I'm with my my wife in the car and she has to experience this, she knows like the signs, right?

She knows what to prepare for when I have to sneeze.

Uh I'm just gonna reenact what it's like to sneeze with you.

Like you first you it's almost like it's it's just reaction, right?

You kind of have to like tilt your head back and your nose like crinkles up and it's like involuntary, right?

And then and then you do this thing where you're like you're driving and you're like trying to search for the sun, right?

I don't know why we always have to look at for the sun when we have to sneeze, but it's like we're just trying to find that bright light to make us sneeze.

And then and then this this the next part is you actually have to like you just start breathing in like all the oxygen in the car, right?

It's all involuntary, and you're trying to like stay on the road and you're like like sneezing, like ready to sneeze, right?

And the worst part of this all, the worst part of the whole sneezing in the car experience, is your eyes automatically close, right?

There's nothing you can do about it.

I don't know if it's like scientifically proven that you can't sneeze with your eyes open, but I don't know, maybe try it next time you have to sneeze.

I don't think it works, I don't think you can, but it's always in that most inopportune time that you have to sneeze in the car and your eyes shut.

Whether you're doing a hundred and twenty, trying to pass a semi on the highway, or you're in heavy traffic and you have to like suddenly stop, or there's that corner you're trying to slow down to, and then all of a sudden, bam, right?

The sneeze comes and you're like swerving all over the road, like sucking oxygen and looking for the sun, and all of a sudden you sneeze, right?

But my wife, she's amazing, she's a veteran at this now.

We've been married for two years, she knows exactly what to do in this situation, and she knows that I like absolutely hate, like I hate sneezing when I'm driving.

She I always get so frustrated, it's like one of my biggest pet peeves, and she's she's right there, she's right there to calm me down.

She's like, it's okay, honey, it's okay.

She's like petting my shoulder.

I don't know if any other people do that, but she's just trying to calm me down while I'm driving, right?

But she's she's just trying to get my bearings straight.

But the the point of this is that sneezing in the car is the worst.

Like I hate it.

Because for that split second, you can't see, right?

Your eyes just automatically close involuntary, and it's and it's when you lose your sight, it's when you lose focus on what you're doing in that moment, is it's the easiest to go off course.

You don't see what's coming in front of you, you don't see what's happening on the other side of the road, especially if you're trying to pass somebody and your eyes close, it's absolutely terrifying.

It's because that split second, you lose your vision, you lose your sight.

And when we lose our sight, when we lose our vision, even if it's for like that split second, it's so easy for us to lose our focus.

It's so easy for us to lose where we're going.

And when I think about this year, I think it's so interesting.

Um, because I I look back and I and I can sort of remember January.

I don't know if anyone uh can remember what it was like in January before all of this hit.

I feel like we all came into the year 2020 like super optimistic, right?

Like everyone was super excited.

I remember I remember myself being excited.

I remember just kind of like seeing all what other churches were doing, and all it's almost like all the pastors gathered together and like, we're gonna do the next January series, it's gonna be 2020 vision, right?

Because we're gonna see things clearly.

God's gonna like, it's gonna be amazing, God's gonna show us things, God's gonna grow our church.

It's gonna be so exciting.

Like everyone was coming into 2020, optimistic, excited.

It's gonna be the best year yet.

And then March comes around, right?

March comes around and it's like someone slammed the brakes on.

And and we all collectively kind of like hit the front seat with our head.

I don't know if you've ever done that without a sleep belt, and someone slams on the brakes, it's like wham! Right?

That's what 2020 in March felt like, and the fog rolled in, and it's almost if like what we were supposed to gain, we lost.

What we were supposed to gain, we lost.

Everything started to become distorted.

Uh we had to distance ourselves.

With distance, there's distortion.

It's it's hard to see, it's hard to focus.

We lose direction, we lose our sight.

And sometimes with with all the things that are have been going on in the last couple months, it's hard to even know what to think anymore.

It becomes impossible to see what's next.

It's it it it we don't even know what the next month looks like, right?

And oftentimes when when life is like that, uh when it's hard to see what's next, when it's hard to see uh anything in the future, let alone a month or a week, it's it's much easier for us to give up.

We lose hope.

We we we tend to lose our focus when we can't see what's next.

And ultimately, what ultimately happens is we forget our purpose.

We forget our purpose, what we were supposed to be doing, why why we were doing what we were doing.

And in Proverbs 29, uh 18, it says something, uh it's it puts it so well.

Uh it says, when there is no vision, the people perish.

When there is no vision, the people perish.

When the vision is absent, when you can't see, when you're when you're on the highway and you have to sneeze and you can't shut your eyes and you lose your vision, the purpose is gone.

Right?

When you lose your vision, the purpose is gone.

So what do we do?

What do we do when when it feels like we've lost our sense of purpose?

We've lost uh our direction for where we're supposed to be.

Uh maybe it feels like life is so chaotic.

What do we do when life doesn't really make sense?

What do we do when we don't know what the next month's gonna hold, let alone the next week?

I believe that uh the answer is simple.

And the reason I believe that is because when I look at the Bible and I read, uh, especially the story of Jesus and his and we read about his life, like Jesus never gave a complicated solution.

There were times, yes, when he when he's told a parable on purpose to confuse people and he wanted to see who was really listening, but but most often when it comes to like the basics of of our faith, when Jesus gave us the answer, it was always really simple.

The catch to this was from the simple solution, it required something from us.

It required something from us to l we had to lose something.

We had to it required commitment, it requires a sacrifice, it requires us to lose something.

When you when you want to find your life, you must lose it.

Because when you lose it for God for Jesus' sake, when you lose it, you will find it.

When you want greatness, we need to get small, we serve.

Right?

When when when I lose my sight, when I when I can't see what's in front of me, I serve.

When I when life is chaotic, I serve.

When life doesn't make sense, I serve.

Because serving brings us back to the center.

Just like how I was talking about our values, our values help direct us where to go.

Just like serving servanthood and living a life of a servant, it can bring you back to the center.

It brings us back to ground zero of our faith.

It brings us back to the basics of our faith.

It brings us back to that simplicity.

Because a lot of times we we overcomplicate things and we try to do too many things at once, or or we try to we try to do things our own, we try to control the outcome, but serving brings us to a place where I'm not trusting in me, and I'm not trying to control the situation, I'm just serving and I'm trusting God.

I was reminded of this story in Genesis 37.

And it in a in the Old Testament, they like to do this where they stretch the story over like a lot of chapters, and the chapters were like very, very long.

So I'm not gonna read the whole story for you guys.

Um, but it's uh it's about a man named Joseph, and if you've been in church for any uh time period of your life, you know about Joseph.

But I want to talk quickly about Joseph, and I'm just gonna paraphrase his story.

But Joseph was a part, he was a part of a pretty big family, um, mostly boys, actually.

He's so I couldn't imagine uh Jacob raising all boys.

There was probably a lot of insurance claims, probably a lot of fights.

Uh, but I'm sure most of you moms out there raising boys, you know exactly what that feels like.

But but Joseph was basically a middle child, right?

He he was he was the youngest until Benjamin came around and basically snaked his youngest, kind of the baby of the family feeling, right?

Because if you're if and then he became the middle child, right?

But even in 11 brothers, uh he had to be the middle child because he's not the he's not the youngest, he's not the oldest, he's immediately the middle child, right?

And it's like it's almost like the worst position of a middle child, right?

You were the youngest, and then you got that taken away from you, and now you're kind of like at the end of the spectrum, right?

So Joseph's the middle child, and even in the midst of all of that, he still maintains being the favorite son, right?

He still maintains being the favorite son.

His father uh was very, very clear about him being his favorite.

He also went so far to give him this coat, and it was this uh they call it the coat of many colors, or there's different uh things in the Bible they call it that, but it was this signification of man, you are my favorite, and I want to show you off as my favorite.

And to top it off, to top it off, to make everything you know a little bit worse for Joseph, he he God shows up and and he actually shows Joseph a dream.

He gives him a vision, and I'm not gonna explain exactly what the vision was, but essentially the dream depicted Joseph's, all of Joseph's brothers and all the family bowing down to Joseph.

And Joseph thought it was a good idea to explain that to everybody.

He said, Hey, brothers gather around in a circle, and I'm gonna tell you this dream of all of you guys.

I'm like the middle child, but you guys are gonna all bow down to me.

And it and because of this, it says in Genesis that his brothers hated, hated Joseph.

And they actually wanted to kill Joseph.

Uh they began uh plotting this like idea about how they can kill Joseph.

So one day, Joseph goes out to meet his brothers, and uh, and they they actually don't end up killing him.

They end up coming up with a different idea, they end up selling him, and they cover it up, they they they bring the coat to hit their father, and it's covered in blood, and they say Joseph got killed by the lion, and it's and it's just kind of a big mess, and there's all this grieving.

But Joseph ends up, he ends up in Egypt, and he ends up being a slave for this man named Potiphar.

And in Genesis 34, 9, super interesting what happens next, um, because I can tell you that that if I was in the same situation, I don't know if I would have the same kind of heart as Joseph, but it says that Joseph found favor in the eyes of Potiphar and began serving him.

He began to serve him.

But Joseph, in the midst of everything going on in his life, he just begins to simply serve.

And this it's an amazing moment because he sees this completely unjust, like he didn't deserve any of this.

He didn't deserve any of this.

He he he sees this completely unjust situation as an opportunity to serve.

And and he begins working his way up, it says he had favor in the eyes of Potiphar.

He began working his way up the ranks, eventually to a place where he was in charge of everything that Potiphar owned, which was an incredible responsibility and an incredible place of influence.

And so, as the reader, you look at this story, you're like, wow, like that's amazing.

What a we could we could just close the Bible right there.

What an amazing story of God taking someone from a really interesting place and and redeeming an entire situation.

But just a few verses down, things get much worse for Joseph.

Right?

He gets into the situation where he's wrongfully accused uh of sleeping with Potiphar's wife, he gets thrown in jail, he gets stripped of all his power, he gets stripped of all his responsibility, he gets stripped of all the influence he just worked to gain, and now Joseph is sitting in prison.

Like, how did we get here?

How did I end up here?

And if I'm honest, if I was Joseph in this situation, I would be struggling.

I would seriously be struggling.

And maybe his thoughts sounded something like this like, God, like my life is not going according to plan here.

Like, what are you doing up there, God?

I I I'm not even near my family, like, like I was a son, I had an amazing, I was the favorite son, I had a beautiful coat, like my dad loved me, my brothers were awesome, and now I'm a slave.

I was trying to do everything right, and I didn't even I didn't even go near his wife, and now I'm in jail.

Like nothing makes sense right now what is even happening in my life.

God, why did you even show me that dream?

Right?

Why did you even show me that dream?

Was it to taunt me?

If if following you is gonna get me to this point, like I'm done.

I'm I'm through.

And I don't know if you've ever been in a place like like that before.

I know I haven't uh where life just honestly, like in the simplest terms, it just sucks.

Like life is just awful.

You try to just continue to serve, and you just you've been trying to like just be faithful, and and everything just all of a sudden falls apart on you.

And I'm sure that most of us can relate.

And you know, I've I like I said I've been in that headspace before, and I can guarantee you in this moment where Joseph's sitting in prison, I can guarantee you that at some point Joseph had something uh like a thought like that.

But what he didn't do, he didn't dwell on those thoughts.

Okay, he didn't let those thoughts become decisions.

He didn't make a decision in the spite in spite of that whole situation.

Right?

And I think often we get we get stuck in those places.

I think we often get stuck in that head space where everything's going wrong, and and we begin to let those bad thoughts or those negative thoughts or those worrisome thoughts begin.

We we let ourselves make decisions.

Decisions out of those.

And we let them make decisions for us.

We let our thinking control and dictate what we do.

We let our feelings control and dictate what we do next.

But I think what we can learn from Joseph's response, the the response was so simple, is that he he like I said, he didn't dwell on those thoughts.

Obviously, he probably had those thoughts because he was a human.

He wasn't perfect.

He was like you and me.

Like I'm sure he was discouraged.

But what he did instead of letting those thoughts dictate what he was going to do, he was always open for an opportunity to serve.

Every single situation he was in, he always kept his heart in a spot where he was ready to serve.

He didn't let his feelings dictate it.

He served his heart, his heart posture, even though he was a slave, like he was, he was, he had to do it.

He was a slave.

Like he he literally was obligated to serve people, but his heart posture wasn't just because he had to, it was because he wanted to.

And he did it unto God.

And that's the important part.

We can serve all we want, but if we do it out of the right motive uh out of the wrong motivation, sorry, out of a motivation of I'm just trying to get somewhere, it's not going to go anywhere.

But you can see that Joseph's heart posture was to was to do it unto God.

Even though he was stuck in prison, an opportunity came up.

And he could have easily been in a space where I'm just done.

Like I give up.

But he kept his heart open.

He didn't close off.

And there was an opportunity to serve Pharaoh.

And it came up and he served.

He was right there.

He was the first one in line.

He was the first one ready to go.

And from that spot, he was promoted to a place that he could never have imagined.

And maybe, maybe you're thinking right now, and I've and I've thought this before, I've had these kind of moments where it's like, man, if I want to get anywhere in life, I just got to serve.

Because serving gets you promoted.

Right?

It's really easy to be in that headspace where it's like, I'm just going to serve to be in a position.

I'm just going to, if I can just get to the pulpit, or if I can just get to that job, if I can just get to that car, if I can just get to that paycheck, I'll do this for a moment just so I can get there.

Right?

And that's what it kind of looks like.

But but Joseph serving Potiphar, it didn't get him a promotion.

That was a promotion was a byproduct of serving.

What happened when he was serving is it actually rid him of his preference.

It rid him of his pride.

It rid him of the need that we all have, I believe, to control the situation.

And instead of trusting in himself in his own way of doing things, he was able to trust in God.

Serving kept his heart clear.

Serving kept his eyes clear, even though everything around him was unclear.

If you look at the whole situation, like from start to finish of the story, everything was unclear for Joseph.

Like if you put yourself in his shoes, God shows him a dream and he ends up a slave.

He was supposed to be in charge of everybody, and meanwhile, he's at the very bottom.

Everything around him was chaotic, but serving kept Joseph's eyes on the vision that God gave him.

Serving kept Joseph's eyes on that dream that God gave him.

When everything else was foggy, when everything else didn't make sense, Joseph served.

Serving reminded Joseph of his purpose.

And if we if we jump back to Mark 10, the disciples, James and John, they they actually thought that serving Jesus was supposed to get them a promotion.

You can see it very, very clearly.

Like, hey, Jesus, hey, uh, like we've pretty much like dropped everything for you.

And I think I think it's time for you to kind of throw us a bone.

Like, can you hook us up?

We kind of want to be your like left-hand man and your right hand man.

We kind of want to be up there in heaven, like calling the shots, like, what can you do for us?

We've done all this, like we've done A, B, C, D, E, F, G for you, like we've dropped our jobs, we've been following you around, we've been taken uh like for granted.

Uh we we think that we deserve something out of this.

And Jesus' response is really funny because he already knows.

Like he already knows what's going on.

And he says to them, You you really want to drink from the same cup I drink?

You you want to be baptized like I am?

You want the same responsibility?

You want greatness?

Okay.

Here's the answer.

Serve.

The greatest among you, the greatest among kings, is a servant.

You want acknowledgement?

Work backstage where nobody sees you.

You you want influence?

Go clean the toilet.

Go do what everyone else doesn't want to do.

Be first in line to serve.

Clean up those chairs.

I don't know if you remember this.

If you grew up in church like I did, uh I remember it was always like you serve with like kind of like your eyes looking around to see who's watching.

Especially the girls, right?

You took as many chairs, like I don't know if you guys had those fold-up chairs, but you took as many chairs as you possibly could, and you weren't just doing it because you're like, I love Jesus.

You're like, I want to be notice, and I've got some big muscles here, ladies, and look at me, I'm gonna serve, right?

And we're always looking at the the the either the girls or you're looking at the pastor where you're sweeping up and you're kind of singing like I'm doing this unto the Lord, but you know it's fake, right?

Where you're where you're serving not with just your head down, but you're serving while your head's looking around, seeing who's watching.

But Jesus is like, no, he goes even a step further.

He doesn't even just stay at that one spot where he says, Well, the greatest among you is gonna be a servant.

He actually says, Me.

Like, I came here not to be served.

And you think about who Jesus was.

He was deity, he was king, he was royalty, he was, he was, he was made from God, he was he was made from God in the flesh, right?

He he he stepped down from his throne.

It was almost like an undercover boss situation, right?

Like he stepped down from his throne and came in this humble form as a man, as a baby, in the humblest form, just to walk and serve mankind.

He he could have he could have came for so many different reasons, but his purpose for coming to earth was to serve.

He says, for the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve.

He came with a purpose.

His purpose was to serve.

Right?

And he didn't, like he's like I said before, Jesus didn't just talk about serving, but he displayed it.

And in this verse, he reminds his disciples verbally, and then it goes if you if you read on through the gospels, he makes this ultimate sacrifice for us.

He goes on to show them what servanthood looks like by laying his life down for all of mankind.

Jesus sacrificed his life for every single person on this earth.

He laid down his will, he laid down his preference, he laid down his opinion, he laid down his control, he laid down his deity, and he laid down his sonship all so that he could serve to serve is to love.

And when I when I look at my life and I when I remember I remember coming to this church, um, like I wasn't, I don't I I wasn't coming in to try and get a position, let me tell you.

I honestly didn't know why I showed up to this church.

I think it could be chalked up into to uh where I was in my life and I was just broken.

And and what what I did is I just I just started serving.

Like I didn't have my life together.

Thank thank God for amazing pastors at this church that would just kind of take someone in like me, but I honestly just started serving, and I I didn't know what else to do.

Life didn't make sense for me.

I had wasted so much of it, but I was drawn in and I just simply found a spot to serve.

I started serving in in our youth ministry here.

I was driving back and forth to Vernon, and I didn't really know why I was just completely drawn to this place.

But what it did for me, what it did is it allowed God to actually start working on my heart.

It got me to a place where I was almost defenseless to where God was able to work on me.

And it and it allowed God to start clearing that that space in my heart where pride was, where selfishness was, where my opinion was, where shame hid, where my preference for things was, where my entitlement came from.

And and when when you get to that place when you just begin to serve and you get low and you you get humble, it allows God, we allow God to work on our heart.

And what grows in that space, because God will never just take something out and leave you empty, he always replaces it with something better.

And what grows instead of those things is humility, compassion, love, peace, patience.

I think we we could all use a little more patience, am I right?

Especially during this really difficult season, right?

Kindness, self-control.

God begins to not only let those things grow inside our heart, but God begins to open our eyes to something greater than just me.

He begins to open our eyes to something greater than just it's all about me, my, and what I can get, right?

He opens our eyes to something greater.

He gives us a vision, he gives us a vision for the future.

And what he also begins to place in our hearts is purpose.

Purpose is awakened through servanthood.

Purpose can be revitalized through serving, because purpose was revitalized in me.

And I wanna I want to leave you with this today.

When life doesn't make sense, I serve.

When life is chaotic, I serve.

When life throws you a curveball, don't quit, serve.

Lean into it.

Lean into the pressure.

A pastor uh said this to me uh a few years back and it just kind of stuck with me.

And she said that you never outgrow serving.

You never outgrow servanthood.

You don't just wake up one day and be like, man, I I graduated from service, like I don't need to serve, I put my time in, uh, I'm I'm done being a servant for a while, God, like I'm just gonna kick up my feet, right?

But we are called, we are called to live a life of a servant.

If you want to live like Jesus, you have to live like a servant because that's what he came to do.

He came here on this earth to serve.

And maybe, maybe what you're doing along like a few years down the road might look different than just like setting up chairs and cleaning the toilets, but maybe, maybe not.

But it doesn't matter because that's not our decision.

We're just supposed to be available and ready.

And and I think if you ever get to the place where you think, like, man, I've made it, that's the time to take a step back and say, hey, like, I gotta think about this for a second, God, would you humble me?

Because there's a place called heaven, and that's that's when we've made it.

But I think while we're here on this temporary earth, man, we have so much more to do.

We have we have so much more life to give.

And if I'm honest, I want to be able to give the best that I possibly can while I'm here on this earth.

I want to be able to make the most of it, and I want to do as much as I can for the sake of the gospel.

To serve is to love.

Let me pray with you.

Well, Father God, I just uh I thank you for this time.

I thank you for your word.

I thank you that God, that you just remind us today that it's it's not complicated, it doesn't need to be complicated.

But God, would you give us the strength to be open to your to what you want to do with us, God, that we're we're open to an opportunity.

God, we're open for the opportunity to serve, God.

It might look different in this season, but God, would you just help us to have eyes to see and ears to hear what your will is?

And God, how we can serve the people around us, how we can serve our families, how we can serve our friends, how we can serve the church.

God, would you give us a spirit of humility?

God, would you give us a spirit of compassion first?

God, that we we are so quick to judge, we are so quick to try and defend ourselves.

But God, as we as we looked at the Bible today and we we learned about Joseph and how he didn't try to defend himself, he just was open to the opportunity.

And look where you took him.

And God, I just pray right now that you would just help us.

God, you would give us the bravery, God, you would give us the courage to be like that, to be like, to be like Jesus.

God, would you just begin to work on our hearts?

We know that it's not gonna be an instantaneous transformation, God, that it's a day by day, by day, by hour, by minute, sometimes second by second, or we're checking ourselves, or we're checking our hearts.

But God, would you just be with us through this time?

And we just thank you for everybody watching today.

I pray that your spirit would be with them today.

God, would you just soften our hearts?

Would you keep us our eyes clear in this time where things are foggy?

God, would you give us a vision for the future?

And God, keep us centered on our purpose for what you've called us to do in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Well, amen.

Well, thank you so much for for joining our our online church service.

Hopefully, we're gonna be able to be back with you in person.

It might look different, but I'm excited for the future, and uh I just wanna say God bless you and have a good rest of your Sunday.