The Way of Jesus 20.0

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.

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.

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 think God is in Christ.

Jesus is actually calling to us through the presence of the Holy Spirit to

enter into a place of receiving.

I think that's where God has us at the moment.

Do you want newness of life?

Do you want that new wine?

Are you willing to go and do likewise?

Washing the feet instead of keeping our lives to ourselves like are we,

are we ready Church to step into that together in some newness of way,

and this topic of service breaks open far more than just a call to

stop being slack and get moving.

I think that's a wrongheaded approach to this.

Topic.

The topic is, I think, a prophetic, uh, re-imagination of newness of life.

It's a transformation both individually for each of us here, within this family,

but also corporately and communally.

It's a command.

It's a command to come and live in this life of service together.

And that's, I think, the weight of the subject this morning that our king has

commanded us in his authority to come and join in with him to do this together.

A community of service is a blessed community as Jesus ends in that passage.

We will be blessed as we push into service together

when one is unable.

The other washes their feet and each looks out for the other.

That's that type of community that I think Jesus is desiring

for us here in this family.

And I just wanna end with this, just this little note.

If you come from a church culture where service has led to burnout,

that's not what Jesus is after.

That's not his vision.

The vision of a life in Christ is one where both we receive and we also

give, where service is not on the individual, but it's on the community.

Do you see the difference that in a loving community of service in

Christ Jesus, there's freedom to be able to say, I cannot at the moment.

That the rest of the community goes, we can.

Amen.

Amen.

Now I want to hear from these two amazing people 'cause I've y on and

just hear from their examples of how God has ministered in and through

you both in this area of service.

So starting off, we'll go with you, Sarah.

First, do you wanna go?

Do you wanna go first, Sarah?

And she's like, uh, yeah.

So let's just start with like the simplest question in Christ Jesus.

What does service mean to you?

Before we start, I just wanna say that I'm just in awe of how God is

working through us this morning.

From the worship from Meg's words.

And your words now.

It just like humbles me, like everything that God has been bringing to my heart and

it's just confirming here, there it is.

Just like it humbles me every time that when God is moving and

we are able to be part of that movement, but, all right, let's go.

I'm gonna answer your first question, um, and you phrase it in three parts.

Um, what does serving mean to me?

How have I experienced it and what God has done in me and through me or through it?

There are a few aspects to my answer here first and why I was meditating in John 13.

We see that Jesus is showing to us what's serving means, what

it looks like by meeting a need.

There was a need to to wash 30 feet.

Right.

So we read that and then my rationale thinking, my brain goes, if my

king washed, dirty, smelly feet, then truly I can pick up a tatu.

That is, if there is a need in the body of the, uh, in our body, in the

body of Christ, and I can help feel it.

So why not?

Why not step in and serve?

So, serving in this lens first means following Jesus' example,

because he's the ultimate example of what service looks like.

But he also simply means choosing to obey his command, his command to love, and

therefore to serve God and each other.

Yet there's a little bit more to that and that's why I read your

second part of the question.

When I think back of how I experienced serving in my life, I realized how

much that understanding of what serving meant changed over time.

I never thought about that.

Look.

Um, and honestly I couldn't pinpoint exactly when my heart changed or that

understanding changed, and I, I believe I didn't truly grasp what it meant

to serve God in his church until the last, I would say, eight to 10 years.

Before that, I was just happy to go to church.

And to get served.

I didn't think like that back then, but that's how I, I can see now

just receiving from pastors at our church in Brazil, there were deacon,

so they did most of the serving.

Um, and I never realized that I also was called to give and to

help and to build up the body.

I love being part of the life of the church.

I still do.

Um, and I still couldn't pinpoint exactly when I. Realize the serving part, I can't,

what I can say to you is, and like most of my faith journey with Christ, that

is, it was like a pro, it's a process.

It's a gradual, uh, process of God transforming me.

So over time, as my relationship with Jesus grew more personal

and intimate, my desire to serve him and his church grew too.

And through God's grace and patience and by watching my lovely husband there,

which he's very quiet and humble in the way, and faithful in the way he serves.

He always says that I'm the talker and he's the doer for those who know him.

I dunno if that's completely true, but let's, let's go with that.

So then I started to understand what serving meant in my heart.

Not just in my mind.

So yes, leaders of the church are called to serve the body.

Yes, but so much of serving happens within the church

community and in ordinary moments.

For instance, choosing to wash dirty dishes for my family without

complaining, I'm still working on that.

Just don't ask me just yet, or staying late to help pack up.

Or coming early to have set up or praying for someone that God brought you in

your heart, welcoming the stranger.

There's so many ways of serving the Lord.

So over time, this is small and often unseen moments, they started

to become very significant for me, even when one is thanking me, even

when I don't feel like it, even when it's someone that it's hard to love.

Because the point is I'm not serving people for to tick

a box or for recognition.

No, I'm serving because the Lord serve me first.

Amen.

And I know we're gonna cover that the next question, so don't worry.

But look, I also learned that I can't truly love or serve God on my own.

Especially serve well.

Serving begins with God.

He's not only the ultimate example of what serving looks like, he's the

source of it because God is love and we love because he first loved us.

So it is on those quiet moments that I have with God when I sit

in his presence and surrender myself like we did this morning.

Aware of how much I need him.

How much he loves me remembering who he is and who I am in him, his beloved daughter,

that his love fills me up as to overflow.

But then I also had to learn that I can't just stay on my knees

receiving all that amazing love.

It's amazing to stay with our loving father, right?

And receiving that old love, but without responding, without actually actioning.

And there's another point.

God doesn't force me to serve him.

No, he doesn't.

I have to choose to.

So it is my choice to obey as a response to this love that I'm re receiving.

And it's not a one time deal thing.

I, I don't choose one time and that's it.

I'm done.

I don't need to do anything anymore.

No, it's an ongoing choice first, that intentionality of actually spending,

making room in my life to spend time with him in my secret place, you

know, in that, and to humble myself.

He humbles me, but you know what I mean.

And then intentionally seek out sick people that are in

need to receive his love.

And look, I'm, and I'm saying all that, and I'm not pretending that

serving it's easy or perfect.

You know, none of us is perfect.

Just Jesus.

And my flesh still loves comfort and appreciation.

Very much, and I'm not gonna even talk, and you mentioned that before

about the pressures of the world about success and being competitive.

I'm very competitive, you know, competition.

But I've noticed something that the days that I feel most discouraged

are the days that I'm focused on myself on fulfilling my own needs.

Yet when my eyes are fixed in the Lord, when I sit in his

presence, remembering his love.

And choosing.

That's when I start to choose to serve from that place.

Amen.

That's when I experienced the joy and peace that the world cannot ever give me.

As you read in, in verse 17, now that you know these things,

you'll be blessed if you do them.

The blessing Church isn't just on the knowing.

It's also in the doing.

Amen.

Okay.

And serving.

There's another aspect to serving.

I know it's a big thing.

There was a few aspects that got brought to my heart.

It's not just the rational, it's the heart and all this, but it just

doesn't, uh, it's not only helping to build the body up, which it does,

but it also helps to transform me.

You see, every time I choose to serve God from that place, God meets me there.

He shapes me.

He transforms me.

He heals me.

He fills me with joy, with love, and he draws me closer

to himself and to his church.

'cause I can't love on my own.

I can't, I can't.

But with him, I can.

That's why serving has become such essential part of my

life and my family's life.

You have no idea how many times God bless us when we serve together, and it's more

often than not, we go driving to church to serve together and we are arguing.

Going at each other's throat at the car, like comes out of nowhere.

And then after we serve and worship the Lord the way back, I just

stop and watch Sam and Isabella.

They're filled with joy and they're like just chatting and, oh, I can't explain.

It is just the most rewarding thing.

So serving church is not a loss.

It's not a loss of my time, of my energy.

No.

It is a gain it's life with Jesus and his church.

Beautiful.

I'm sorry.

That was beautiful.

I don't think there's anything else to share after that.

Oh, nice.

You're following a teacher here.

Yeah,

yeah.

No, no, no.

I'm just gonna share a quick testimony about myself.

I serve in the worship.

Team, worship ministry, music ministry, and I got saved many years ago in Nigeria.

I was on campus in a university and.

Yeah, this story goes like this.

We got to campus.

I was, we used to go to church as a family, Anglican church, sit there,

HYN books and stuff like that.

And there was no real relationship with the Lord Jesus.

And then I went on campus, which is about.

80 kilometers away from home.

So I was living on campus and I remember the first day I got there,

a friend of mine walked up to me and says, Hey, there's this Christian

gathering happening on campus.

Can we all go there together?

There's good looking girls there.

You can get a girlfriend.

I. That's not why I went there.

Honestly, trust me, that was the reason why he went there.

So I went along with him and we went, you shouldn't, I'm not, I'm not lying.

Seriously.

Uh, they used to have the fellowships on Sundays and Thursday

and we just used to go along.

The music was very good and I was already involved in music, as in.

Uh, thank God he'd gifted me with music.

I was playing a little bit of, uh, piano and keyboards then.

Not in a band or anything, but just playing for fun and all that.

And I think about three months into that, sometimes we would

go, sometimes we wouldn't go.

They were having a. Like a Christian conference with a lot of people

coming to attend that conference.

And you know, there was just so much joy.

You could see the joy in these people.

And I thought, wow, these guys are Christians.

This looks very good.

So I said, look, I'm gonna go along for that Christian conference.

I went the first day and it was a week long conference where they had all the

other universities from around the country come for that week long conference.

The first day was a Monday evening.

The choir got on stage to start singing.

And I burst out into tears because there was just such a strong anointing over

the song, the first song they sang.

And you know, I was looking around and saying to everybody, can

you guys feel what I'm feeling?

And everybody, they were all Christians.

I was the only probably person that hadn't committed his life to Christ and all that.

And you know, I just, right there I felt God's love, God's touch, God's power.

And.

Because of my music.

I said to myself, if that was the power that the music had, then to

transform my heart, then I am going to follow him and hopefully I'll

get the chance to use the music the same way it had impacted my life.

Monday.

They didn't give an altar call Tuesday.

No, altar call Thursday.

Sorry, Wednesday.

No alt call Thursday.

Ah, if anybody wants to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit,

pre comes, please come out.

I ran out.

'cause that was my chance to say, look, I, I just received this powerful thing.

And it's been, that has been my journey ever since in the

worship ministry in serving God.

And I can sit here and share testimony after testimony of what God has done

in my life, and it's out of that, that I then want to praise him.

I want to worship him.

I want to thank him for all he has done.

As a Nigerian, I left Nigeria at the age of 21 to go study in Singapore.

It's a very.

Normal thing for Singapore.

You get into the country, you register in the school, then you go to the

immigration ministry to say, okay, this is a school I want to go to.

I've paid my fees.

Please give me a visa.

I did that like everybody else did, and I was refused to visa.

I appealed three or four times.

They didn't gimme the visa.

Then I wrote a letter to the ambassador.

From Nigeria to Singapore to say, look, please, I need help with this situation.

Then the next thing, the Minister for Home Affairs in Singapore

and the ambassador are having a.

Would exchange that.

Why didn't they give me little Nigel a visa?

And I've seen God move in powerful ways like that miraculously.

And it's out of that, that I then wanna worship.

I want to sing his praise.

And I actually counted as a privilege because I was gonna worship him anyway.

But then you tell me, okay, please hold a base guitar and do

it out of that heart of worship.

Of course I would do it.

And one thing I always tell myself, he's given me these gifts.

You know, you were talking about needs earlier on.

Uh, there was a church I, the first church I went to in Singapore, I got there.

All I knew how to play was keys, and they had about four keyboards,

so they needed the keyboards.

One Sunday, the drummer doesn't show up, and I said, okay, I can play drums because

the team we play around in rehearsals.

I started playing drums and I played that for about two or three years.

Then later on, then the bass disappeared.

Okay, I'll pick up the bass and I'll start playing.

And just naturally, God has given me those gifts to just pick

up instruments and play them.

And, you know, my family and I, we always make fun.

The kids always say, they say that when they have, when they the, when they have

their own kids, they'll check if the kids have rhythm and have a musical gift.

If they don't have any, they're gonna send them back.

I'm like, send them back to who they say, so.

And thankfully my kids are all gifted musically and you know, like you

say, you guys driving to church.

Our, the first church we used to attend here was 60 Ks from where

we were staying here in Perth.

And Sunday after Sunday, I would drag the poor kids into the car.

We were on the worship team.

Twice a month.

It was like they had no choice from as young as they were.

I used to play drums, that's, I went to the toilet one day, saw

my two year olds on, start playing the drums, trying to copy me, and

that's how I knew he had that gift.

Andrea would come for rehearsals with us as a family when she was

six or seven, and she would tell.

One of the older aunties.

I think the way you sang that thing was wrong.

You need to sing.

And I'm thinking, oh my goodness.

And God just has just given them that talent, that gift.

Yeah, you can.

She still does it till today correcting me.

But out of that, out of the gifts that God has given us, it's like I'll be

doing a disservice if I don't use that to worship him and to serve his people.

'cause even when we come together on Sundays, I believe every time, like

the worship team this morning did.

That we're, we're creating an atmosphere for people to receive, for people to

be blessed, for people to be healed.

You know, one of the lines in the songs that we sang, bless You, worship team,

I'm gonna sing in the middle of a storm, you might even be going through a storm.

You still sing because through that, God will make a way

where there seems to be no way.

And you know, it's out of that abundance that I serve, I worship,

and I, I want people to come into the presence of God to be blessed as well.

Amen.

Amen.

I hope all that made sense.

Yeah, that's good.

So much

Thanks guys.

Um, so moving on to sort of thinking about the life of Christ, thinking

about how he lived a life of service.

How do we understand his examples of service that are

invitational, hospitable to us?

Joining in with that type of way of serving?

So why don't we go, go that direction in our conversation?

Sure.

Well, ultimately, Jesus serves us by meeting the need.

We could never meet ourselves.

He washes us.

He forgive us.

He saves us.

I think about the, the all powerful God became flesh.

The creator came as a baby, completely dependent on human hands to feed

him, to clothe him, to care for him.

Imagine that kind of humility from his birth to his death.

Jesus' whole life was an act of humble and sacrificial service then

in his ministry, like we just read it.

Um, in, in John, he continued to show us what service looks like in practical ways.

The King of Kings kneeling down to serve his disciples.

It blows my mind every time I can know even to think about it.

And ultimately, he served all the way to the cross, laying down his

life in obedience to the father, so we could be washed away, we could

be justified in reconcile to him.

You see, Jesus, he didn't just teach us about serving.

He lived it.

His service was never just do it.

As I say, he was.

Watch me.

Do it as I have done to you.

Yeah.

He says in verse 14, now that I, like you, read before, now that I, your Lord

and teacher have washed your feet, you also should wash one another's feet.

If he are a Lord and teacher served, then serving isn't

optional for those who follow him, rather is the way of the kingdom.

Amen.

And yet.

Much like Apostle Paul, uh, Peter, here.

Paul.

Nope.

Peter, sorry.

I personally had to, and that's another thing you brought to my heart, and I

still do a lot of times, unfortunately, I have to learn to let Jesus serve me.

There are many times that my pride wants to say, no, Lord, I can do this.

I can do that on my own.

I don't need you.

Mm-hmm.

Uh, but God in his grace, he humbles me.

You know, it's not even, I'm seeking for to be humbled.

He goes and pulls the carpet and that's it showing me over and over again that I

need him, that I cannot save myself, that I cannot do anything, nothing without him.

But that truly, I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

So when I remember how he served me, how he has carried me, forgiving me,

listened to be stayed with me, and continually washes me in his grace

and transform me serving others, then becomes my response again to him.

Not a burden, but a privilege.

Like you mentioned before.

So if I was served by Christ, I should also serve all this.

Yeah.

Shorter.

Beautiful.

Sweet, and short.

Alright.

Yeah,

thanks.

Sorry, what was the question again?

How does Jesus service and

do

we understand his, um, like I said, we're being saved.

Through faith and one, one thing, before I got saved, I always used to live in

fear that if anything happened to me, I didn't know where I was gonna end up.

And that was the one thing, the minute I got saved that just disappeared.

I just had this assurance that.

Yep.

Whatever happens, I'm gonna end up in a good place, heaven.

I'm gonna be with God.

And you know, there's a song that we are sing that the darling of heaven

was crucified, worthy is the Lamb.

And God gave his best gift.

How much more do we as his kids, as his.

Christians as believers not give the best that we have to him as well.

And you know, for him to wash his disciples sweets.

I, I, you know, just reading that scripture from verse one to,

uh, verse 17 and Peter saying, no, no, no, no, no, you can't.

How dare you walk.

No, no, no, no.

You can't do that.

And then when Jesus tells him, if I don't wash your feet, then.

You're not part of this deal.

And he goes, okay, then watch my whole buddy.

Then with typical Peter, and I guess some of us are like that as well, and you know,

out of that abundance of blessing and of love and of joy that he's given to us.

It is where I would take my posture to serve and to worship and to do what

I do even in the community and in the church and at home and and all that.

And you know, I always ask myself, how do people who don't know

God, how do they go through life?

How do they go through?

The good times, the bad times, the, the pain, the grief

sometimes, and you know, yeah.

How I just ask myself how, and it's out of that, that I, because I know the

answer to that, because Christ, to me, the hope of glory, I continue to serve.

And like I said, I, I want people to, to.

Even if it's just by me saying hello to you, to grab a sense of God, to

to know, oh, something different.

Yeah, something different.

When you shake this person and you see sometimes when you're out at work and you

find somebody who's on of, of a different spirit, you say hello to them and they

look like you and like, oh, what's that?

But especially in the house of God, you wanna serve with love.

You wanna serve with the joy that he's giving.

You want to give back to everybody and it's.

It can be hard sometimes it can be, oh my goodness.

Some.

Yeah.

I remember when we used to drive 60 Ks to go to church and you know,

you'd have to prepare biscuits and stuff in the car and drag the kids

out of bed and all that kind of stuff.

But we just used to do it anyway because if it doesn't cost me nothing,

I would not want to sacrifice.

You know, David said that, I think he's in Second Samuel chapter 24, verse 24.

2 Samuel 24:24

He was trying to buy a threshing floor.

And the guy who owned the treasury floor said, no, no,

no, I'll just give it to you.

And David was like, no, no, no, no.

I can't offer up to God something that doesn't cost me nothing.

And that's the way I see it sometimes.

It, it, it's costly.

It's not.

Easy.

Sometimes waking up six o'clock in the morning to be here at eight o'clock or

sometimes six 30, or sometimes you wake up seven o'clock and you're rushing out of

the door to be here in time for rehearsal.

It's not easy Sunday after, well, not Sunday after Sunday, but

thank God like it's, it's, there's no burnout here at Red Door.

Thankfully, there's lots of room to come when you can and

to serve when you are on roster.

But of course we still come to church every Sunday, even

though we are seven or not.

And yeah, it's just sacrificially given to God that which he has already given.

'cause why wouldn't you?

He's given us so much, he's given his best gift to us to save

us, to redeem us onto himself.

So how much more, I mean, we can't give any, giving me enough to be to, to show

our gratitude or to show our thanks.

So it is out of that place that I serve and I. Mm, serve out the

pleasure of the King of Kings.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Um, you've sort of lent into my next question around those

barriers of what we face.

We had a light party here for the kids a couple of Fridays ago, and,

um, you know, Friday's our day off as staff and, um, I had a big week

and the last thing I wanted to do was go to this light party to be honest.

I was hating the idea of going and I had a, I'd had a pretty

rough day, to be honest.

Some stuff had not gone my way and I was feeling sorry for myself and um, and

Beck even came to me in the afternoon and she goes, Hey, you don't have to come.

You can stay home.

And oh my goodness, the temptation to take that and go, okay, I'm out.

I was just feeling the Lord just prompting and going, come on.

Off you go, go surf.

And so we get here and we do the night and what God does in and

through that experience of serving others to reorder me was amazing.

Like getting home and genuinely praising and worshiping God for what he's done.

In that evening of growing the affection of the community, loving our children,

seeing our children, just having such a delightful time together, you

know, um, it completely changed it of thankfulness and praise and I'm

sure, you know, so that's, that's me.

So if you've got any illusions that I'm just a joyful server.

Sometimes I am, a lot of times it's discipline.

Um, what, what's that been for you?

What's that been like for you, Sarah?

Like, what has been some of the, the barriers for you, which I

can, I can imagine is different from people to people, right?

Because we've all got our own little vices and lies and things that.

You know, that are challenging us.

What's, what's, what's that been for you?

Sure.

Thank you.

Well, one of, honestly, one of the biggest barriers, um, I face is myself.

Like I managed.

Yes, it is, like I mentioned briefly before, eh, it's my

own selfishness, my flesh once.

To be comfortable.

I want to be noticed and appreciated, and there are Sundays when honestly I come to

church hoping all this will meet my needs.

Instead of me asking, Lord, who can I love and care today?

Who can I bless today?

Right.

Another barrier is pride.

Thinking certain tasks are beneath me expecting thanks again or holding back if

someone hurt me before or mistreated me.

But then again, by God's grace, you know, it's that intimate relationship with God.

He reminds me that Jesus washed Judas feet.

Imagine that.

Like I don't know if I ever could do that.

You know, so Jesus didn't wait for perfect gratitude or perfect people.

He's simply served.

Yeah.

So why should I not?

Mm-hmm.

Like, you know, um, yeah.

The second part of the question, to overcome those barriers.

Mm-hmm.

Again, as I mentioned before, it starts in the quiet place, in the secret place

with the Lord seeking forgiveness first, um, and bringing to my heart some truths,

truth that Jesus served me first, that he.

Didn't just talk about serving, he embodied.

So it's bringing to my memory that the creator of the

universe came as a human being.

He lived humbly, he was rejected all the way to the cross.

So when those truths come from my mind to my heart, I don't

know which order it goes.

Um, and I feel that kind of humility and sacrifice, and by God's merciful

grace, the posture of my heart.

Shifts, it changes and pride and selfish goes away.

It's washed away by his love.

And second, I keep constantly remind myself that I'm not doing that.

Although we do for people, we're not, I'm not doing that to get recognition out

of that, although my flesh wants that.

So I need to always, you know, wrestle with that.

Um, I'm serving Christ and I'm serving for him, following his

examples in response to his love.

And then my motivation shifts from performance to worship.

Yes, serving is.

You know, it is a type of worship.

It is an expression of worship.

And just then hopefully, and prayfully, I go out and practice

humble service to others simple ways.

Try not to complain without the need of spotlight.

And again, like you said, and you said, not easy.

Not easy at all.

It's an ongoing act of dying to yourself, surrendering to God.

He always goes back to that.

For me, in my journey of faith with Christ and with time, I don't wanna say that

it becomes natural or because, you know, God, we can put a God, God in the box.

He works us differently and with different times.

Um, but it becomes.

I don't know if it's easier, the word, let's say easier as we

continue, as I continue to grow in my relationship with Christ.

So it becomes part of that leaving out his kingdom life here on earth.

It becomes a reflection of his love, not what I'm doing.

I guess that's what I wanna say.

I think that's it,

right, sir. Thank you.

Anything to you?

Got anything to add?

Um,

I guess, like Sarah just said as well, it's just.

As a musician, and I'm being honest, worship team, sometimes you're

standing on stage and you're thinking, I've practiced this baseline.

I hope they all hear it.

And you just have to tell yourself it's not about you, it's about God.

You have, it's all about God.

And you know, it's sadly, it's actually even a war that.

Takes something in my heart.

I I always say, maybe I shouldn't practice too much, that I don't

sound so good so that it's not about me, but, but I want to give God my

best, so maybe I should practice.

And it's just that ter Yeah, it's, it's just that little war

that happens on the inside of me and I will practice, I promise.

And.

When we're serving, especially in the worship ministry, it's all about him.

It's all about people giving people's, putting people's focus

on God, let's create an atmosphere.

The music is good, you're playing the right, the notes and everything,

and that corporate anointing.

In the service just melts, hearts breaks, bondages sets healing in the room.

You know, people live here, sorry.

They come inside and they live here.

Joyous and full of hope and full of faith.

And that's my heart's desire.

So some of the barriers I have is not having enough time to prepare.

Even before Sunday morning, you know, you've had a busy week, you are

working with computers and doing it and speaking to customers and just.

The doing life and you know, you shared that Friday was your day off?

Our day off is Saturday and Sunday, but we're still saving.

No, just put that there.

But we still come anyway and it's a sacrifice.

But I love to do what I do and like I said yeah, you guys are worth it.

You guys, we love you so much.

We wanna just bless you and and be a blessing to you and so that

you can go out there and then be a blessing to others as well.

Yeah.

Yeah,

I'll be adding something on the worship team.

I'm not music at all.

My husband, my daughter are, and therefore we serve together, so I'm usually on the,

on the computer there, back in the quiet.

But one thing I admire and love about the worship culture here at

Red Door is every time before they even start practicing one, the

first song, we spend time together.

In the Lord's presence through communion, laying all at his

feet, and I'm getting goosebumps.

It goes again, surrendering to God because the team here, they can be

the best musicians ever, but if they don't have Christ, they have nothing.

How can they lead the congregation in true worship in spirit?

In truth, how if we don't have.

God.

So it's just, and again, it blows my mind that every time, and we have nightmares

before coming in, or kids that don't let us sleep at night and we sit here,

well, not my kids, but I'm talking about the other, uh, worship team leaders.

My kid is big.

Um, but we sit.

We have communion and worship is just amazing.

And that's why I believe worship is so powerful ever adore because people

surrender their lives to Christ before bringing the congregation.

Yeah.

I just wanna add that to your, so good.

Sorry.

I think that's a great segue into communion.

We've, we've got the starting place a very.

The very thing, the very person we need is Christ.

We need his body, we need his blood.

We need the life of Christ illuminating us, reminding us, refreshing

us, reviving us, we need him.

Um, and just in this moment that's, that's what we're gonna head into.

We're gonna head into a place of actually welcoming Christ afresh into ourselves.

So that we might be these joyful peace, full contented people where

it's possible for us to serve, not be recognized, not be praised, and still

have our fill because our fill is Christ.

Amen.

And so in this moment, what I'm gonna ask you to do is something very simple

is to serve each other communion.

Each of you have your elements, you have the body, you have the

the blood, but you're not gonna take what you have in your hand.

You're gonna pass that to the person next to you, and you now exchange this gift.

And simply by saying, this is the body and blood of Jesus Christ given for you.

That's all you need to say to each other.

And in that moment of reflection, in that moment.

Of taking communion.

I want us to be reminded of what I shared at the start, that this is

an opportunity to be re reordered.

This is an opportunity to enter into a reimagination, and this

is an opportunity to receive, reorder, reimagine, receive Christ.

Amen.

Because God, as I said, I'm committed and I'll, and I'm, I'm in my prayer.

For us as a family, I'm committed to seeing God continue to do

this work of renewal in us.

Amen.

Beautiful.

So in this moment, the guys are gonna sing, uh, they're going to lead us

in this, this time of, um, worship.

Uh, and I just want to welcome, oh, Adam's got a thought.

No, I'm just, uh, wondering just to where, um, people might

not have had communion before.

And if you're here this morning, and this is all very new to you, just wanna

let you know the, uh, wafer is, uh, representing the bo of body of Jesus.

And this, uh, juice is representing his blood.

And it's a mystery, actually.

It's a mystery.

Um, parts of the body.

Believe it.

It is his body, parts of the body of Christ believe it is his blood.

It's a mystery, but we take it.

Knowing that we need his body.

Amen.

And that we need his blood to cleanse us of all sin.

And so I just wanted to add that if you're doing this for the first time

and you don't feel you like you want to be a part of this, it's okay.

It's no pressure.

Um, but if it is something you'd like to partake of, you're

welcome to join us this morning.

Beautiful.

Uh, thanks mate.

Beautiful.

Alright.

I'll release you to continue to do that now.

Thank you band.