The Way of Jesus 20.1

We're gonna continue, uh, this series, concentrating on

the topic of service today.

And, um, I've invited, um, these two wonderful people to join me to

talk through this topic of service and have asked them to share

their lived experiences in Christ.

When we talk about the way of Jesus, I think we can easily get stuck at.

The level of mere conception, agreed ways of living or behaving.

Yet Christ's desire for his people is not simply to grow in knowing about

something, but to live in something new.

The way of Jesus is therefore incarnation.

It's lived.

It's not just thought about like there's a life to live here.

With Christ in Christ, the way of Jesus draws us into a new way

of being human in this world.

When we think about the way of service as a way of living in Christ, I think

we can make a mistake of not considering the full vision that is on offer to

us in the testimony of Christ's life.

You see, living in Christ through service has the potential to transform

our relationship with the culture at large, transform the way that we see

the waters that we swim in as people.

It brings us into a posture of humility, towards welcoming

Christ's presence into our life.

And it also leads us into a life of peace, joy, and that very thing

that all of us long for contentment.

That is the vision of service in Christ Jesus to today, we're meditating on a

passage as we talk out of service in John where Jesus serves his disciples.

And washes their feet, and you can find that in John 13.

We're gonna concentrate on verses 12 through to 17 just to meditate

on Christ's instructions to us in this, and so we can just turn to the

screens and read it together when he had finished washing their feet.

He put on his clothes and returned to his place.

Do you understand what I have done for you?

He asked them, you call me teacher and Lord and rightly so, for it

is what I am now that I, your Lord and teacher have washed your feet.

You should also wash one another's feet.

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

Very truly, I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor a messenger

greater than the one who sent him.

Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.

Here we see Jesus humbling himself, but in authority.

He speaks as Lord to making his actions an example authoritative there.

Command as king, as teacher as Lord.

He's setting a culture for his kingdom the way that we are to live.

In his kingdom as Lord and master.

And as I mentioned before, this defies the culture around us, doesn't it?

It transforms the way we live with one another.

It strips away the impulses of the flesh that seek power, ego pride,

self-promotion have no place in the life of service in Christ Jesus.

As I've men meditated on this for the last couple of weeks, there's

a prophetic word that I wanna share with you because I think it hits right

here, and that is that God has been whispering to me that he is wanting

to bring about renewal, reviving us.

That that is his determination in this moment.

For us here as a family, and in some sense he's always up to that work.

Right?

But this is an urgency that I feel in the Holy Spirit, that he's inviting

us into this place of being renewed.

God's been whispering that he wants to renew our minds and our hearts

desiring to revive us as a people.

In lovingly service to one another and to him.

And a central part of this renewal, as I've meditated on it, is found in this

life giving opportunity of service.

Just like our scene in John, Jesus brings renewal and revival

to the hearts of his disciples.

Our Lord and King also wants to reorder us as he does with

the disciples in this scene.

But that also means that he'll come and bring his Rodney

staff to his sheep, his people.

And so this word that I'm left with that I want to invite you to pray into

and meditate upon, we as a family, are we ready to say, Lord Jesus,

come with your staff and your rod.

That's a heavy invitation, isn't it?

Come reorder us.

Come let us be these people that you are wanting us to be.

Why?

To set us free to live in wonderfully humble submission to him in service.

Secondly, I think he's wanting us to reimagine something.

What could be possible in Christ Jesus together as a family.

But that's been sitting on my heart heavily over the last couple of weeks.

Reviving vision and mission, and that's a part of it.

This scene in John that's a part of the vision and the mission that we have

here to see his kingdom come, that our king in his authority comes to serve,

not to be served, and he invites us into that same ministry together.

And then finally, I wholeheartedly believe that Christ, because he is

the perfect human, he is the vision of how we were always meant to be.

That in Christ Jesus, we see peace, joy, and full contentment.

Amen.

And that's what God wants for us.

He wants us to find contentment in him.

And as we're meditating on this passage that we'll read.

This evening, the life and the instructions of Christ begin to open

up to us in this area of service.

I'm gonna look at the passage in John 13, where Jesus serves his

disciples by washing their feet.

Um, so let's read that.

It's up there now, and I'm going from verse 12.

Um, this scene starts in verse one, but I'm going from verse 12

through to 17 because I wanna lean into, I want us to consider the

instructions of Christ out of this act.

When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes

and returned to his place.

Do you understand what I've done for you?

He asked them, you call me teacher and Lord, and rightly so.

For that is what I am.

Now that I, your Lord and teacher have washed your feet, you also

should wash one another's feet.

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

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

master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him.

Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.

So here in this short passage, we see Jesus humbly serving, but he's serving in

his authority, in his lordship and teacher as his role of Rabbi with his disciples.

So therefore all his remarks and his actions are authoritative.

They're a command 'cause that's what he explicitly says, join

me in this way of living.

He's setting the culture of his kingdom for us, with us, as I mentioned before.

This culture defines the culture around us.

It transforms the way we live with one another, and it strips away the

impulses of the flesh that seek power.

Ego pride and self-promotion have no place in the life of service in Christ Jesus.

There's no room for that in his kingdom.

Now, as I've meditated on this over the last couple of weeks, I've sent God

really speaking to me about renewal.

Like he just keeps talking to me about renewal, revival, and these words can,

can sometimes get wrapped up into what should be really called awakenings.

Hm.

But he's talking about us here as a family.

Now, God always has a disposition to revive us or to renew us.

Like he's always wanting that.

But over the last couple of weeks, I've really felt God say to me, here

at Red Door is a season and I want you to be open to my work of renewal.

I wanna revive what has gone.

You know, lifeless.

I wanna resurrect what is dead in you.

My people like God is after renewal in us.

That's good news.

Yeah.

But we're not left here flopping around trying to work this out by ourselves.

Like God's disposition is, I wanna do the work in you.

Will you say yes to me?

That's what God's up to at the moment in, in some sort of significant way,

and I wanna welcome you into this sort of prophetic sort of word that I've

sort of been ruminating on over the last couple of weeks because I think

it's central to this topic of service.

You see this life giving opportunity of service actually springs forth renewal and

revival in the hearts of the disciples.

From this moment forward, there's a new way of thinking and being.

There's a revival taking place in their hearts and their minds.

So just like this scene, we're given this opportunity to find revival and renewal.

And our Lord and King wants us to first off, to be open to this

opportunity of being revived in life, in Christ in service.

He wants us to reorder our our lives.

He wants to do the work of reordering us.

Now reordering sounds okay.

That's fine.

Like clean up the mess, Lord.

But that picture of the good Shepherd coming to reorder us with his rody staff.

There.

There are places in my life, and I'm sure there's places in your life

that you can think of where we have wandered away from those green pastures,

and at the moment, God, I feel is wanting to bring his rod and his

staff to his people and so will you.

Let me guide you back to Green Pastures.

And I think that in and through this, uncovering the way of Jesus, this

topic of service that we're, we're beginning to see, oh, here are some

manifest opportunities that we can push into that to actually go, oh,

no longer my way, Lord, but your way.

Yeah.

I don't know.

Maybe it's just for me.

I. Secondly, I think God's actually calling us in this season to reimagine.

So first off, he's wanting to reorder.

Secondly, he wants to reimagine to see what is possible in

him together as a family here,

you think we've reached the height of seeing what God can

do in and through his people?

No.

There is so much more that God is calling us to imagine together, to

work towards seeing his kingdom come.

And then finally, I think God is actually calling us like he does with his disciples

here to enter into a posture of receiving.

God is calling us at the moment.

This is, and you pray about this test this.

I'm not a pope, so it's not authoritative.

Test it.

But I feel like God's actually calling us here at Red Door to come and kneel

before him and say, Lord, we receive.

Receive what?

Receive newness of life.

Receive the new wine that is offered in him.

And what does that look like?

Well, it looks like this.

A willingness to actually, oh Lord, I receive you.

So I will go and do likewise.

Washing feet instead of keeping our lives to ourselves.

That's what newness of life looks like in Christ Jesus.

And so this topic of service breaker opens far more than just a call to, Hey,

stop being slack and get moving people.

And if that's going on in your head, that's wrongheaded.

That's not what Christ is calling us to.

That's not his.

Disposition to us.

You see this topic of service right now is a prophetic re-imagination

of newness of life, newness of life.

It's a transformation that we can be open to just, not just

individually, but corporately as a family and say, Lord, come.

This topic of service opens us up to something far more than just, oh,

let's go do some more things together.

It's also a weighty subject because as I mentioned before, this is a command.

This is an a authoritative.

Response in his lordship and his teaching, he is demonstrating what

we should do as his disciples.

And so when we hear from what Tim has to offer and what Zoe's got to

offer in this area of service, we should listen to it with some weight

and go, Lord, I want to respond.

Faithful in obedience, faithfully, obedient to you.

And your ways.

You see, a community of service is a blessed community.

Jesus says that at the end there, you'll be blessed if you do them.

So what's the way of blessing?

The way of blessing is service.

The way of blessing is not receiving, but giving in the kingdom of God.

See, if you come from a church culture where service leads to burnout.

Then you haven't seen what Jesus is after in his people.

The vision of a life in Christ Jesus is one where we both, yes, position

ourselves in humility to receive and also give where the service is not on the

individual, but on the community that we can joyfully come to each other and go,

I'm unable and hear the community respond.

We are.

Ah, that is the life that Christ is wanting for us here.

Is that good?

I think it's good news.

Now I want to hear from you too, because I've blobbing on, I've heard my ramblings.

So let's just start with that really simple question, guys.

In Christ Jesus, what does serving mean to you?

Who would like to go first?

Who's super eager?

She's, she's nodding at you.

Before we start, can I just say something like, we're pretty old, right?

We're older.

You had a couple of people appear this morning that were.

Older than say Zoe.

Yeah,

yeah, yeah.

Totally.

So it is so cool for me to see you up here, Zoe.

Oh yeah, sure.

Yeah.

Like so cool like, 'cause we kind of, you know, service, you know,

sometimes we get legacy awards 'cause we're old for service, right?

You know, these guys have been serving for a while.

But you are young and you've kind of figured it out.

Like leadership has said, Hey, we want you up here because we see

something in you and you see something.

So it's just cool to be here with you.

I just wanna say that.

Okay, I'll continue.

Go for it.

Yeah.

All right.

Um,

I just didn't like, I didn't like to be included in old

Yeah, I know.

Sorry, I

was resisting that.

Sorry.

I know.

I'm the

oldest one.

One was like, yeah.

Um, so what does service mean to me?

Um, I'm gonna go back to, um, something that, um, a very ancient scholar wrote.

Um, his name is Thomas EMAs and he wrote a little, um.

Devotional, and I think it's the most read devotional next to the Bible.

So it's called The Imitation of Christ.

And it was written back in the 14 hundreds and he said some

really amazing stuff in there.

And it's kind of what I go back to when I think about what does serving mean to me.

And he said, he said to the degree that you can leave yourself behind.

That is the degree you will be able to enter God's presence,

the way, the truth and the life.

Without the way, there is no going without the truth.

There is no knowing without the life, there is no living.

Jesus is the way we are to follow the truth.

We are to believe and the life we are to hope for.

So for me, that encompasses what it is to serve because we

want to tell people about Jesus.

Yeah.

And we want to live in the way, the truth and the life and

the opportunities at Red Door.

Are kind of endless in far as serving.

Like if you wanna raise your hand, there's a place for you.

Right?

Um, but it's when you get into the why do I serve, what does serving mean to

me, uh, that's what it means to me.

I wanna be living in the way and the truth and the life in whatever I'm doing, and

that includes what I'm doing at Red Door.

Amen.

That's it.

Beautiful.

Love that.

I think my mic's on it.

Um, yes.

I feel so honored to be here, so thank you.

I feel so encouraged.

Um, to pin off what Tim said, um, I would say yes, I've been thinking about

this all week, really debating on and really trying to sit with the Lord on

like, what does serving mean to me?

And I think I previously would've had a very different answer.

I was so wound up.

Um, I would say and blindsided by when you hear the word serving, immediately jumping

to the idea of being on roster at church.

And that was such a close association in my mind.

Um, but I think that's not what Jesus is talking about when he

means by service, which is exactly what you're, what you spoke so

beautifully articulated so well before.

Um, but I think rather it is a lens at which one, as an apprentice

of Jesus to surrender to.

It's a life motivated, not by selfish gain, but rather humble service.

Mm.

And the world does a really, really, really good job at disguising selfishness

in absolutely everything and also compartmentalizing service into

this box, which is so heartbreaking.

Um.

And a few points on this.

So selfishness underlies so much of our productivity culture of our

like happiness, pursuit of our, yeah, our striving in all things.

It all is like all about me and how can, if something doesn't do

me well, I'm cutting them off.

And this can leak into the bride of Christ in a million ways.

Uh, but also.

Maybe you're the same as me.

When you think of service, you think of serving on roster at church.

Mm-hmm.

Um, or even you think of things like feeding people on the streets that

are homeless and um, volunteering at soup kitchens and things like that.

And both of these are a hundred percent service and those are included

in what Jesus is talking about.

Um, but to limit service to this is, in my opinion, to miss that.

Rather it's a lifestyle that Jesus is calling us to.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Um, and to share a little story, when I moved to Red Door in Feb,

I was sitting down with Dale.

Don't she know if she's here tonight?

I can't see her.

No.

She had to go.

Oh,

heartbreaking.

Okay.

No problem.

Um, I'll shout her out later.

Um, when I moved to Red Door, yeah, Dale sat me down and said, you're

not allowed to surf for three months.

And that was jarring to me.

I was like, what do you mean I can't serve on, on a roster?

And part of it was her honoring the word that Lord had given me that I felt God

had spoken to me over the year was rest.

And she said, well, you have to honor that.

And so I'm not gonna let you serve as your pastor for a few months.

And also letting me settle in, um, but also letting me

be a participant of church.

Without being on a roster.

And I look back on those three months and they're so pivotal in my walk

with Jesus only early this year.

Um, but I think I quite a few revelations during that time.

But one of them was this thing that.

The want to serve people should be so innate in me as a follower

of Jesus that I'm led to it, even if I'm not on a roster.

So I should be doing things and serving people and loving people, and cleaning

up within the church building despite if I'm on roster and I should be loving

on the kids, despite if I'm on roster.

Um.

And that this is a lifestyle outside of the church that God has called us to.

And now I have this beautiful revelation of that because my lifestyle should be

one of service when I come into church and I jump on teams as both of us are that.

It is just an outpouring and an overflow of my revelation that my

life is not my own and that I die every day to him to live in him.

That my life is no longer mine, uh, that I get to serve him.

And rather, the, the whole consumeristic culture of the world coming into

church and serving on roster is a safeguard for my soul because I'm

coming in and going, this is not for me.

Mm. Um, this is not consumeristic.

This is not for my gain.

And because the worship has to be perfect and everything has to be lined

up, that I'm coming in and laying it down and serving one another, and

imaging Christ and community beautiful.

Um.

Yeah,

so good.

Thanks guys.

Um, my second question I, I proposed to you guys was just around this

understanding of how, how do we witness Jesus serving us in

scripture and therefore, how do we understand his examples of service?

So as you look upon Christ, what sticks out to you about the way he serves?

And how has that formed the way you serve?

Um, this scripture that we just read means so much to me, man.

This beautiful, beautiful image of the God and the king of the universe that humbles

himself by bending down to wash feet.

And you can spend hours going through context.

Of how significant it was that he did this in the day and age, that it was

the servant's job, and that he stooped down and they were halfway through

the meal and he got up and took off his outer garments and humbled himself

to the nth degree to do this thing.

Um, and yeah, I've been reading this little book that my mom gave me.

Shout out mom, um, that she read when she became an early Christian,

and it's got this whole chapter on service being an outward discipline of.

As a Christian, and it describes it as the ministry of the Tao, which is so beautiful

that Jesus calls us in this scripture.

Yeah, to the ministry of the towel, which is to be so vulnerable and to be humble.

Um, and that's a really hard thing, um, to, to stoop down and to remain humble in

doing stuff for others because our flesh.

Wants reward and wants recognition for it.

Um, but Jesus calls us to do it without that and to do it despite that.

Um, and the one other thing that really jumps out to me in Jesus in scripture

about his way of service, um, give me a nod if you were here last week.

A few.

Yeah, 50% maybe.

Um, we had Michael Frost come and speak and he brought to

life this story from scripture.

Um, really quick rundown if you weren't here.

Um, the story of, well, not story, the time that Jesus was interrupted

by Jairus and asked to come and heal his daughter, and Jairus is this rich

leader, um, of a high authority, um, in the religious and culture days of Yeah.

In.

Greco-Roman times and.

This was like a really cool thing for like, I think if I was asked to

go and like, help an authoritative person, heal someone, I'd be like,

yes, this is my number one job and Jesus is making his way there.

Um, and he's walking through and a woman touches him.

And power go.

He feels power go out of him and he turns around and he gives her attention and

he raises her up and he heals her and he calls her out in front of the crowd and

calls her loved and acknowledges her.

A woman that was so cast out of society due to her health, um,

she was bleeding, which was.

The bottom of like the lowest of low in the Jewish curls, um,

rituals and things like that.

So he brought the low so high, but the things that jumps out in the way of

service in that to me is that he was interruptible, that it was despite his.

Semi like important role to go and serve and help, uh, this rich ruler that he was

interruptible enough to turn around in a crowd and to care for the lowest of low.

And I think that is a beautiful thing that we have to be as Christians, is

to live lives that are interruptible.

Because when you're not interruptible, you miss Jesus prompting you to

pray for the person at the servo or.

Missing you asking to pay for the groceries at the checkout or even, um,

care for the young mom who's in the shopping center trying to tussle her

kids and don't, don't even have time to give a word of encouragement to her.

So, yeah, I think it's to live an interruptible life is a

massive part that Jesus speaks to us about the way of service.

I think for me, I go back to Peter, um, first Peter four, uh, verse 11 says,

and I, and I, I like to read it in the.

Um, because, you know, I'm not really very evangelical.

I know I'm in an evangelical church, but to be honest, I don't like, I'm very

orthodox in my thinking and, and so.

Uh, to, to get in tune with the Evangelical side of, um, my life.

I, I read from the New Living Translation.

Whoa.

Yeah, I know, right?

So it has this cool way of almost doing it like catechism.

So it's a question and answer for this verse, right?

So first, Peter four, cha, uh, first Peter ch, chapter four, verse 11 says,

um, do you have the gift of speaking?

Then speak as though God himself were speaking through you.

Do you have the gift of helping others do it all with the strength and energy that

God supplies, then everything you do will bring glory to God through Jesus Christ,

all glory and power to him for and ever.

Amen.

So that that for me is how I understand Jesus to do service, that

Jesus does the service through us.

It's really not us.

We have to say, raise our hand to say, I'm willing.

Right?

But Jesus accomplished his work of redemption and salvation actually through

humility and humbleness, humbleness all the way to the cross, right?

So we're gonna take communion later.

And that's the epitome of what service was, right?

And it's a totally upside down theology.

It doesn't fit with today's world, with the world that we live in.

It does not fit.

Um, but it's so, it's so important for me to remember that, that the

strength of service is not ours.

The strength that that, that we have in service is given to us by Jesus.

Um, it's, yeah.

And I'll touch on a little in my next question, but one of the things that, that

I really, that resonate with is that duty, the word duty is actually a blessing.

So oftentimes we think duty is.

Is a slog.

Yeah.

It's not that we've got this duty to do.

Right.

And that for me is blessing.

That idea that, that you get to serve, you get to do your duty

even when it's not that great or you're not looking forward to it.

That's actually, that's actually blessing.

Yeah.

And that's how I see Jesus serving.

Because he questioned, he said God in, in Gethsemane, he said,

you know, I. Any other way.

So there wasn't, there was times where he, he questioned things, right.

But he, he did his duty.

He did his duty all the way to the cross.

And that for me is what Jesus, that's how we understand the

example of Jesus and how he served.

Beautiful.

So good man.

Um, I shared this this morning, and.

It just to launch us into that next question, but a couple of

Friday nights ago, we had the light party and you both were there.

And, um, for the kids it was Halloween and um, we had like over

a hundred people rock up and it was just such a great night, wasn't it?

Mm.

And um, anyway, like earlier in that day, I so didn't want to go.

Like, I, like I can tell you, I can't tell you how much I didn't

want to go, um, you know, and I'd had a pretty rough day, to be honest.

And so I was feeling pretty low and, and down.

And so I've got this like, oh, what, how do I get out of this?

Like, how do I not go?

And then in the afternoon, Beck actually says to me, Hey, you don't have to come.

It's, it's okay.

Like, we'll be fine.

And I'm like, oh, the temptation to just take of that fruit, right?

I really felt God go, no, no, no, I want you there.

Go.

And so, and I guess this is what the blessing of Judy like, I

think what you've just articulated is so the fruit of this story.

So I go, right?

So I get there and I put my.

I was commanded by my daughters on what to wear, and so I put my suit on

and put a crown on and I'm oblivious, but I'm actually Prince Charming and

there's this whole thing going on.

Your daughter was a part of it and I had no idea what I was doing.

Anyway, we have a great night and I remember getting home

and I was just so full of joy.

So full of joy and, and that joy took me to worship.

And I'm standing in the kitchen as the kids are going to bed, and I'm

just praising God for what he's done in and through that night.

And there is such a blessing.

There is such a blessing when we crucify the flesh in those moments.

I, I don't think I've ever had an experience where I've pushed through,

and I'm sure you guys can talk about this and have served another

and have not been blessed by it.

In fact, to Thomas Aquinas pretty smart guy, living about a thousand

years ago said the height of Christian happiness is when we serve another

in need, and I think that's true.

I think that's been my experience.

So I open that story just to ask the question of what's been, what's been

the battle, what's been the barriers to joyful service that you guys have faced?

Because I think, I don't know about you, but sometimes I look at like people

like you guys and you know Nigel and Sarah, and I've got this like really

distorted view that these guys just don't face any barriers and they're just.

They're just like supernatural Christians, you know?

And he's myself, like had a light thing going, uh, um, and I'm like,

you know, I dunno, I'll probably end up in some lower form of heaven

or something, but I'm joking.

I'll get in.

But just, um, and, uh, so what, what has been, what's been some of those?

Sort of burdens and barriers that you guys have pushed through just

to, I suppose, speak around the very humanness of the resistance that we

face being welcomed into joyful service.

Who would like to go first in that conversation?

Okay.

Okay.

Could feel the tension.

Um.

Man, I could talk about this for a long time.

I was sitting this week even going like, why did they tell

me to come up and do this?

Like, I feel so guilty of all of the above things.

Um, but once again, in this little book that I'm reading, they makes this

beautiful distinction between true self, true service and self-righteous service.

And I think especially when you become.

Um, monotonous and like just very casual about you're serving

on roster or even just life.

The things you do in life, in your home life in serving.

I'm not married, but your husband and the people in your family, in

your immediate family, like doing things around the house, it become,

can become so self-righteous.

And it summarized this type of service in a collection of phrases.

And it was so, I was like, me, me, me and all of them.

Um.

Well, surrendering all of them as I go.

Um, so I'm gonna read them out to you and maybe you can, there's not too many, but,

um, so it says, self-righteous service is concerned with results, is affected

by moods and whims requires external rewards, picks and chooses whom to serve.

Is impressed with the big deal.

Comes through.

Human effort is temporary and it fractures community.

Uh, and then it says that true service is indiscriminate of its ministry and

builds community and results in unity.

Hmm.

And I just sat there and I think I read it like four times.

I was like, wow, that is so beautiful.

Um, and self-righteous service I think for me is such a thing that I constantly

have to crucify in my flesh to think that I'm worthy of receiving any

reward or recognition of what I did.

Um, 'cause that's the last thing that Jesus seeks in his ministry and.

Um, to touch for the young adults in the room.

It is so easy to be prideful in our lifestyles as young adults.

I think that's something that we can so easily succumb to because we

don't have a lot of responsibilities.

We don't have someone that we're married to that we're serving every single day.

We've got our immediate families, but it's pretty easy to just leave the

house and choose what we wanna do.

And we've picked the jobs that we like and all these kind of

things, and it's so easy to live.

Prideful and get really like, oh, well that's not good for

me, so why would I do it?

Um, and I think that's such a lie that we constantly have to face and

crucify and go, no, like I actually in my life is to serve others.

Um, and it doesn't look as easy as being, I think marriage is one of, like, marriage

is reflecting Jesus's love in the church.

So that's like the ultimate example of servanthood in my mind.

Like that is.

Peak.

So how do we reflect that as young adults?

Um, and I think one of the ways that I protect my heart is remaining

quiet and it feels so hard.

Like I was sitting this week and I was talking to my friends and I was like,

how am I meant to talk about service, which is so closely intertwined with

humility and be on a stage and talk about.

That I'm servant hearted.

Like that just collapses the whole point of being servant hearted.

Um, and it's something that I have to actively do is to be quiet in

order to protect my heart from pride.

And I think that, yeah, it is so difficult.

So, so difficult because the platform was also designed to corrupt your heart

with pride and self-righteousness.

So being up here is.

I don't know how you guys do it, the grace of God, um, every single week.

Um, but I would say that the practice of service I have to apply is hiddenness, um,

in all things that I do as I'm folding up my Loom Roommate's laundry and I'm not.

Like requesting that she acknowledges it later or I clean the kitchen

at home and I don't pinpoint to my mom, look, I clean the kitchen.

And it's like those little things because as soon as you ask for a reward or like

it being noticed, it immediately kills it.

And that joy you get from humble and true service immediately gets

murdered in that moment as soon as you are seeking that reward.

And yeah, so having to be quiet and not tell people.

The things that I'm doing behind closed doors.

And yeah, God honors that hiddenness so beautifully and it doesn't

take away from it when you're not sharing it with other people.

And I think that's something you have to fight.

Um, another thing would be that I do actively, that I have to fight

against is that thing of being interrupted and that's moving slowly,

I think is, is a massive thing that.

Pace and productivity in our world is such a, um, enemy of service.

'cause you're living fast and you are, you're moving and you're trying to make

the most of your time and taking some time outta your day to drop someone off

a food meal off to a friend that's sick.

Doesn't seem that productive.

Um, so therefore I'm not gonna do it.

But you have to immediately go, whoa, my time is like so much more valuably spent

honoring another and serving another.

Um, so.

Yeah, I would say rushing is massive.

And then just a little shout out for my charismatic people in the room.

I think it is so difficult to be called to a humble service when you

are an extroverted, charismatic person.

That's something that I've had to fight against.

I can see benzo nodding at me.

I feel seen.

Um, I think that's something that I've had to wrestle with a lot.

Is like, how can I be called to a life of humble and hidden service

while being an extroverted person and trying to lay that down and like.

Yeah, operate out of the grace of God to remain un prideful while true, while still

like carrying full confidence in the like woman that Christ has called me to be.

Um, so yeah, pride I think is the biggest barrier that I've had to conquer.

And laziness and tiredness being like, I don't wanna go to kids in the morning on

8:00 AM on a Sunday, but you get there and it is the most rewarding morning.

I know Tim can testify this and Tim is the most.

My goodness.

He's got five.

Five kids.

Six kids and he is the most faithful server.

He is there every Sunday morning fortnightly in kids, and he

just runs with such passion.

And yeah, just to honor you.

It is the most beautiful thing and your kids just adore you and just

seeing their faces light up the way you model service for your whole family.

It just, yeah, it encourages us so much as a young adult community when

we see people that are just running at full pace at Jesus within the church,

and I can't imagine how you model that out in your home during the week.

So thank you as well.

Thank you.

Um, I think, I think for me, one of the things that, well, I'm gonna

share a story about my lovely wife.

She didn't tell her, I didn't tell her I was gonna do this,

but we had this thing that.

What happened in our home.

And she would sweep up all around, right?

And she would take the broom and she would lean it against the wall,

and all the dirt and all the stuff that she swept up just sat there.

And never, very rarely at the time that she swept, would she then

sweep it up and put it in the, you know, five seconds it would've

taken her to put it in the rubbish.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And very early on it drove me crazy because I'm like, it takes

you five extra seconds to do that.

And I really had a revelation from God that he was telling me that that

was an opportunity for me to serve.

I'm not joking.

That little thing was an opportunity for me to serve, right?

He said, why are you complaining to her?

Talk about the five seconds when you can do it.

Yeah.

So now what happens?

She'll sweep three, four times a day.

Yep.

And that pile stays there.

That's Tim's

until I get home sometimes and I get to serve my family by

doing that little thing right.

So that that barrier in my mind was.

I don't like the way that you are serving Totally.

Or missing the service.

So it's, it's almost a judgment thing, right?

Yeah.

So we look around and we go, why aren't you on a service team?

Why aren't you?

Yeah.

And, and, and so.

That little story is like encapsulates one of the struggles

for me was I love to serve.

It makes my week when I'm on service.

In fact, when it's a house church week and I have to do three weeks where I'm

not, I do, you know, I'm off and then it's house, church, and then I'm on.

I have to do two weeks away from the kids.

Don't like it.

Right.

So I love, it sets my week up for the week because I've just

got to tell kids about Jesus.

Right?

Yeah.

Love it.

Love it.

But I look, and I, and a, and a barrier for me would be when I see somebody who

isn't doing that, and I just wanna say, if you are in a place that you can't

raise your hand to be served to serve.

And you are in a place of struggle that those who are

serving are here to serve you.

Yeah.

Amen.

We love it.

We love serving.

And if there are times in my life where I needed people to serve me, I

needed to sit in the pew and be served.

Yeah.

Right.

And that is okay.

That is perfectly fine.

Because there are a lot of us who are really eager to serve and really love it.

Um, one of the things that.

Uh, a friend of ours here at Red Door said, Mr. Amit said, um, he,

he said that him and his wife were getting into a new ministry and they

basically said that success for them in their new ministry was obedience.

Very good.

And that has always stuck with me, right?

So the barrier of getting over and judging people and whatnot for

the, is that I am obeying, right?

The success of serving Jesus is my obedience.

Uh, and I've always loved that.

Right?

Um, the other thing is, I touched on it before, but seeing duty.

As sacramental, so the word sacrament, right?

You know, the more orthodox style churches have seven sacraments, right?

Um, well there's a, there's a older priest back in the late 18 hundreds,

father Joseph McSorley, and he made the point that duty is actually a sacrament.

And he said this, he said, duty is a sacrament because.

It's an expression of the will of God and a means of entering into communion with

him under a visible shell and envelope.

It bears a holy significance and secret power.

It is a channel of heavenly grace.

It is the meeting place and marriage chamber of the human will

and the divine, and not because it's in harmony with man's nature.

And not because it ensures comfort or progress or culture or physical salvation

to the human race, but rather because it is the medium's medium of God's message

to man and of man's response to God.

And, and that to me, when you are, when you are in a struggle

and you need to be ministered to.

Yeah, duty can, can sustain you.

Mm-hmm.

The duty of doing whatever it is that you need to do, and it can be as

simple as I'm gonna call my friend.

Yeah, I, I'm, I met somebody or I'm gonna, I'm gonna reach out to them.

That could be service, you know, where you're at in life.

That can be a service.

Um, so for me, how I get over that is I, I see duty, I see my service as sacramental.

Yeah.

I, and it makes me enjoy it.

You said it this morning, you said, you said that you wanted renewal

and revival through service.

Right.

Of our hearts and minds.

And it leads to blessing and amazingly it leads to rest.

Amen.

Yes.

So burnout isn't a thing when you get led to, with, when you're doing the,

the heart renewal of your mind through service because it's leading you to rest.

And that's another thing that helps me get over that.

And I'm gonna share one more story about why I ended up in Red Kids.

Um, Dale was up here speaking right.

And she said, and you know I have, you know, Naomi and I have five kids here.

My eldest is in America, but Naomi and I have five kids here.

We were somewhat new to the church.

And Dale gets up here and she goes, you know people, we need more people on

rosters 'cause Dale doesn't hold back.

Right.

We need people on the rosters.

Right.

And she said, in our kids' church, right?

There should be a line, we should have a list of people

waiting to get on the roster.

And I went, whoa, I, I have enough kids, right?

I have enough kids.

I don't like, that was my mindset, right?

I don't know how do kids' ministry, but that challenged me.

So I think one of the, I, one of the best things is that you

allow yourself to be challenged.

Amen.

When somebody says something to you about service, don't go, I'm not,

I don't want to think about that.

Allow yourself to be challenged.

And the amazing thing is you get from, from me serving in

red kids, I get the blessing of.

Knowing people and being in community.

I can look around this room and see people, you know, I see Sabrina

there and we're friends because I got to hang out with her kids.

Yes.

Right.

Yeah.

And then we got to be friends, you know?

And Jason, the Cargill's over here.

Oh yeah.

We miss your girls because they're not in stomping ground anymore.

They're all gone.

But we got to see them come through.

Right.

And like.

I get relationship, I get this beautiful thing of, of, of blessing and being in

community and being blessed in return.

And man, it's, it's so good.

And that, that is what gets me over the, the judgment or the the I.

Sometimes I just want to be over there and I don't want to be over here.

And that's not good either.

Right.

That's another stumbling block.

Right.

Because there's value in being here.

Right.

Um, sure.

But the blessing of relationship and the blessing of what comes out of

service, it just, you can't beat it.

You can't beat it.

We're gonna move into communion and, um, you've got your

elements in your hands and, uh,

these elements represent loving, submitted duty.

To use some of Tim's language this, uh, this afternoon and, you know, when the

thing about a desire for loving duty.

That loving obedience.

And the thing about, you know, driving and I think about like obeying the road

rules and, uh, and some of we, some of us aren't, aren't displaying loving duty in.

Now obeying the rules.

But you know, imagine, imagine a world where you did, you know, and you went

for the sake of myself and others.

I will obey the road rules, you know, but the other, the other

option is like the obligation.

To obey the road rules, to avoid, you know, fines or whatever.

So you, you know, you see a speed camera and you slow right down

and, and you might not get a fine, but you're not displaying love

where the person who is devoted to that loving duty is going to be driving at

the speed limit, no matter if there's a camera there or not, you know, or a,

or a, or a policeman around the corner.

And I think when I think about Christ going to the cross, I, I see this as

the highest form of loving service.

Why?

Why loving service.

Yeah.

We can talk about a loving service devoted to us, but it's primarily a

loving service to his father in heaven.

He goes to the cross because he adores his father, and his father

has asked him to live out this duty that he's calling him to.

And the the absolute blessing of the body and the blood of Jesus

Christ is it reorders us as we say, Lord, come fill us with your life.

Fill us with your body, fill us with the testimony of your

life, death, and resurrection.

We're welcoming his way, his way of being in the world.

That's what we're welcoming.

We're welcoming him, his self into us.

And as Adam mentioned this morning, and I totally agree that this

taking of communion is a mystery.

There's something mysterious going on.

And I think, you know, us non-denominational evangelicals need to

probably get lean more into that, that there's something mysterious happening

as we take the body and the blood.

We're welcoming Christ himself to take up renewed, take up, take

up residence within me, Lord.

Like, but the between the meals I have, I've wandered, I've strayed,

I've become disordered in my thinking, and I'm no longer loving the way

that you have taught me to love.

And I come again to the table for you to fill me, renew me, reorder me.

Now bring about reimagination that I might receive your life once again.

That I might join in with this love that you're calling me to.

So we're gonna just do something really simple.

All all of you have got your, your elements with you.

You've got the body, you've got the blood.

And what I want you to do is I just want you to turn to the person near you.

And I want to, I want you to give, I want every single person here to give

what you have in your hand to another.

And all I want you to say, all I want you to say is something really, really simple.

And this is that, that, that's this.

The body and the blood of Jesus Christ given to you.

That's all.

And then I want you to spend some time in quiet reflection in prayer, welcoming the

life of Christ, welcoming his reordering, welcoming his renewal, welcoming his

revival in us, and we're gonna end.

In some time of worship together tonight.

Is that okay?

Is everyone, everyone good?

Now?

If you're here for the first time and you've never had communion

before, it is completely okay not to participate in this.

Absolutely.

Okay.

Um, if you would like to come and sit with me, I'll, I'll be around.

I'll keep an eye out for you.

Um, if there's anyone here that doesn't wanna participate, if

you just wanna sit quietly and reflect, that's also okay as well.

I.