How To... Serve

All right. My name is Greg Hampton. If we have

never met, I would love to meet you, maybe grab

you a coffee, some time, hear your story. We

have been in a series for the last four or five

weeks called How To. We're trying to keep it

practical here for a few weeks because next week

we start a series on the Nicene Creed that will

lead us all the way to Advent. And we'll just

have Advent like we do every year, talk about

hope and peace and love and light. So we've talked

about how to pray, how to study the scriptures,

how to fellowship, and today I'm closing it up

with the message on how to serve. Now maybe some

of you are thinking this must be the Sunday where

Greg does all the recruiting. This also, yeah,

yes, by the end of the day we're going to get

out all the lists and you're going to fill out

your name on anything. We're going to lock the

doors. Not really, not really. But listen, serving...

isn't just about what you do in a church right

serving is about what you do with your life serving

is about seeing how your life is connected to

something that is more than just yourself you're

connected to your family you're connected to

god you're connected to this church but you're

also connected to your neighbors to your city

to the world Following Jesus leads us to do more

than just serve in a congregation a couple times

a month. Jesus leads us to serve with our lives

wherever we are. So let's go ahead and jump into

the scriptures. I'm going to read three different

passages. So there's Bibles on the table, or

you can open up the Bible app on your phone.

If you'd like, I'm going to be in John 13. 1

Corinthians 12 and Ephesians 2. So pick one of

those if you'd like, and we can all just kind

of be in different places. John 13, 1 Corinthians

12, and Ephesians 2. And we have a tradition

around here that when the passages are read in

the context of the sermon, that we give them

our full attention. One of the ways you can do

that is by standing with me. If you are able,

you're welcome to sit if you need to. I'm going

to start in John 13. Verses 3 through 5, it says

this, Jesus, knowing that the Father had given

all things into his hands and that he had come

from God and was going to God, got up from supper,

took off his outer robe and tied a towel around

himself. Then he poured water into a basin and

began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe

them with the towel that was tied around him.

1 Corinthians 12, verses 14 through 16. Indeed,

1 Corinthians 12:14–16

the body does not consist of one member, but

of many. If the foot would say, because I am

not a hand, I do not belong to the body, that

would not make it any less a part of the body.

And if the ear would say, because I am not an

eye, I do not belong to the body, that would

not make it any less part of the body. In Ephesians

2, 8 through 10, for by grace you have been saved

through faith. And this is not your own doing,

it is the gift of God. not the result of works

so that no one may boast. For we are what he

has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good

works, which God prepared beforehand so that

we may walk in them. Let us pray. God of every

tribe, every tongue, every color, every nation,

we thank you for the scriptures that they have

persisted throughout the millennia. We still

have them to learn from and to consider. Pray

that whatever you have. to teach us today that

it would stick, that it would become a part of

the framework of our faith, that our faith would

become stronger as we become more like your son,

Jesus. Amen. Thanks, y 'all. You can have a seat.

All right, let's start with Ephesians. Ephesians

tells us that God already has good works for

us to do. They're already there, but let's be

clear. We're not welcomed into a relationship

with God. If we serve. Amen? We're not welcomed

into a relationship with God if we serve. And

we don't maintain relationship with God with

the works that we do. We don't have to work to

keep God's love. And the same God that did the

good work of creating us, accepting us, welcoming

us, has also created good work for us to walk

in. And if you don't know how to start walking,

I'll give you something simple. All right, this

past July, show of hands, you knew that there

was a monastery in Rock Island, right? It's kind

of like this little hidden gem. And a lot of

us know, we've mentioned it here a couple times,

but it's beautiful. The property is beautiful.

The building is beautiful. The chapel. Everything

about it is really so peaceful. There's paths

that you can walk on. You do not need permission.

You can just go and you can walk around the pond

and through the woods a bit. And this past July,

I was at the monastery for a three -day retreat.

And they said when we got there, you can go really

anywhere that you want. There's a library and

a cafeteria and this and that and the paths.

And they said, but you'll probably see there's

one path that has a sign on it that says sisters

only. So anybody want to guess where I ended

up? All right. So I started in the library. And

the library is like when you come into the property,

when you come into the main building, you walk

in and that's technically already the second

floor because it goes down to the cafeterias

downstairs where the path starts and the pond

is. And so there's a library at the end of the

building. And because the building is kind of

multiple tiers, right outside the library they

have like a rooftop patio that has like a little

table and a couple chairs and flowers. And so

I was sitting out there reading, praying. And

there's a hummingbird came up and was feeding

from a flower just a couple of feet from me.

But eventually, the shade that was shading the

part that I was sitting in, that had all moved.

Because I sat there for quite a long time. And

I was, all right, well, I'm going to go for a

walk now. And so they're on the patio. At the

end of the building, there's an exit. It said

exit, and the stairs, and so I took those stairs

downstairs, and it popped me outside next to

a trail, and I looked over to my right, and I

saw Sister Mary getting some stuff for her garden.

I saw the garden, and I walked down the path,

and I kept walking down the path, and all the

way, I got all the way down here on the path,

and I could see a sign as I was coming, but the

text was the other direction. So I got past the

sign, and I looked back to see what the sign

said. It said, Sisters Only. I had found myself

somewhere that I didn't belong. And so at the

next chapel, I was sat next to Sister Mary, and

I apologized that I had found myself somewhere

that I wasn't supposed to be. And she said, the

garden's beautiful, isn't it? And she's this

little, little lady, little, little, little lady.

And I said, it is. And she said, I'm glad you

saw it. I work hard on it. Sister Mary is 89

years old. She has been a nun since she was 18.

And she still serves. And I'm not talking about

the garden. I'm talking about her kindness. The

kindness that she had when... I found myself

somewhere that I wasn't meant to be, and instead

of chiding me, she said she was glad I was there.

That was an act of service. So if you don't think

that serving is for you, or that you've done

all that you can, maybe something as simple as

kindness is the good work that God has prepared

for you to do, that he's asking you to walk in.

In 1 Corinthians 12, Paul reminds us that every

part matters. Every Sunday, each Sunday that

we take communion. And who notices what happens

when we're done receiving communion? Someone

goes over to the door, and sure, it's probably,

yeah, it's there. Someone grabs the little caddy

that was probably invented for silverware, but

we use it for... communion cups. And quite often,

many of those Sundays during the summer especially,

but also on Sundays like this where kids aren't

treehouse age are still with us in the room,

often the person that's walking that caddy around

is a child. It's a tiny, tiny little kid understanding

that they are a part. of the body, that they

aren't only a recipient of the body, but they

are an active part of it. And we don't schedule

that. We schedule a lot of things. Who's in the

band? Who's going to greet and host at the door?

Who serves the kids? We don't schedule who's

going to pick up the caddy and walk it around

to receive all the communion cups so that we

can wash them. Something about these kids, they

get it. They know, oh, this is a moment for me

to be a part of who we are. Because every part

matters. So maybe you don't think of yourself

as someone that's like the whole arm or the leg.

Maybe you don't think of yourself as a voice

that sings or a mouth that speaks. But every

part matters. A body needs every single part,

big and little, seen and unseen. When I was in

college and my voice was changing, I... That's

a little joke because my voice cracked right

there. Me, me, me, me, me. When I was in college,

I took this class called Age and Aging. And I

remember learning for the first time that when

an older person falls and breaks a bone or hip,

it's usually not because they were weak. It's

usually because they lost their flexibility.

Studies show that improving flexibility can actually

reduce fall -related injuries by as much as 40

% because flexibility is what allows you to trip

but not fall. When you hit the curb or when you

take two steps instead of one, flexibility is

what allows you to push your leg out further

and land on your foot instead of going down.

And y 'all, flexibility... It's found on the

inside, isn't it? It's under the skin. Your flexibility

is hidden. It's in the ligaments. It's in the

tendons. It's on everything underneath. And every

church needs worship leaders. And every church

needs people to work with the children and host

people when they enter at the door. But it is

the invisible acts of serving. Things like giving

and vacuuming and inviting other people to church.

Praying. Being kind to someone. When they find

themselves in a place they don't belong. Remembering

their name. These things help a church be flexible.

Keeps the body from breaking when we trip. And

I'll be candid. Every church you've ever been

to, every church you've ever seen, they've all

made mistakes. Not just as individuals, but as

churches, as the body. They've made mistakes

on how to handle something, how to approach something.

It is the flexibility inside, underneath the

outward facing thing that happened. It's the

kindness. It's the acceptance. All of that invisible

stuff is what helps a church, when they trip,

to not fall and break. So every part needs flexibility.

Finally, let's consider John 13. Hey, will you

bring the water basins in for the foot washing

service real quick? I'm joking. There's nobody

there. But if we had a foot washing service right

now, how many of you would want to get up and

leave? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because ain't nobody

need to see my feet, let alone touch my feet,

right? The truth is that these days, if you have

a foot washing service, it's mostly symbolic.

The person is not washing. The Pope, every year,

washes the feet of people that are homeless or

mentally ill. Every single year, the Pope does

acts of service like that. It is mostly symbolic.

The person doesn't necessarily need their feet

washed. What they need is to see someone with

status to ignore that status. We wear shoes.

We wear socks. I mean, if you're Dave Hodge,

Dave isn't here today, but if you're Dave Hodge,

you wear sandals year -round. If you were Greg

in his 20s, I wore sandals pretty much year -round.

But back then, it was a different story. They

wore sandals. Everybody wore sandals everywhere

that they went. And everywhere that they went,

they didn't have paved roads in Jerusalem. They

didn't have paved roads in the small towns. It

was all dirt and dirt paths. And you know who

else was on those dirt paths? All the donkeys

and all the other animals. And I'm not sure that

they were paying a whole lot of attention to

make sure that they didn't step in different

things. And so when you went to someone's house,

You wanted to have your feet washed. But that

wasn't going to happen by the head of the house.

That wasn't going to happen from the rabbi that

you were spending time with. Culturally speaking,

that was going to happen from a servant or the

lowest person on the chart of that house. It

was completely unexpected for Jesus, who they

looked up to and was their rabbi, for him. to

wrap himself in a towel and to wash their feet.

This is a lesson that he had taught them before.

This lesson is identical to the first will be

last, the last will be first. It's identical

to the message that if you want to be the greatest,

you must make yourself the lowest. But this time,

he's not just teaching it with words, he's showing

it. with his actual body, with his actual service,

showing them that I don't just mean it with words.

I mean it with what I will actually do with who

I am, that serving ignores status. If we are

following Jesus, there is no such thing as something

that is beneath us. Amen? There's a show called

The Bear on Hulu. I'm not saying you should watch

it around your kids. There is a lot of swearing

in it. But other than that, it's a good show.

It's about this guy that was in fine dining and

worked in Michelin star restaurants. And he comes

back. His brother had died. And he comes back

to take over the beef restaurant in Chicago.

It's an Italian beef. restaurant. They just make

Italian beef sandwiches, and he's trying to do

things differently, and he's got a cousin who's

not really his cousin, but in their circles,

you know, you called people that you knew your

whole life cousins, so his cousin Richie is upset

that he's trying to change things. Richie is

hard -headed. He's always making himself in the

way because he's trying to keep things from changing

the way that he thinks that they should be. What

happens is The tides start to change, and Carmen,

or Carmi, who's leading the restaurant, he gets

the money to reinvent this restaurant, to turn

it into something that's elevated. And everyone's

getting trained. Everyone's getting different

things that they need to learn. And he sends

Richie to the best restaurant in the world, who

I think it's based off of Elenia. So Elenia is

actually in Chicago right now. It is a three

Michelin star restaurant. It was considered one

of the... best five restaurants in the entire

world for a while. I will probably never eat

there because it's a ridiculous amount of money

for one person to eat at three Michelin star

restaurant. But it shows him getting to go and

work at this restaurant for a week. And he immediately

thinks that the only reason he's there is because

his cousin wanted to get rid of him. He just

wanted to get me out of his hair. He's tired

of me giving him a hard time. And in that kind

of kitchen, in that kind of restaurant culture,

the thing that you do when you are on loan from

somewhere else is that you clean the silverware.

You don't wash the silverware. You clean the

silverware. It's already been washed. You stand

and you polish every fork until it is perfect.

And he cannot stand it. He's bothered by it.

The first half of the episode, he's clinging

and he's just plunking them down, plunking them

down, plunking them down. There's this moment

where Garrett, the guy that works there, he's

not in charge of all of it, but he's in charge

of that. And he says, come on. And he takes him

outside and he says, listen, I don't need you

to like it, but I need you to respect it. He

says, because this place means a lot to people.

You should see the look on people's faces when

they get to come here, the experience that they've

been looking forward to, what we're trying to

provide for them. He says, every day is like

the Super Bowl here of what we're trying to create

for people. He says, so you don't have to like

it, you have to respect it. And Richie says,

okay, I can do respect. He starts to get better.

He starts to see the point. He starts to see

why things are done a certain way. But he's still

convinced that Carmi sent him there to get him

out of his hair. He's looking for polish to polish

the forks. And he runs into the head chef, Terry.

She is just standing there peeling mushrooms.

And he stands and he says, oh, can I learn how

to do that? And she shows him how to peel these

mushrooms. And he says to her, well, don't you

have? Somebody that can do this for you? You

own the place. And she says, I like starting

the day with this. It feels like respect. It

feels attached. I think that it's time well spent.

And then she explains that when she was younger,

that she had all the accolades. That she had

a restaurant that was doing really well and all

the awards and all the articles being written

about her. And then everything came crashing

down and she spent a lot of time blaming everybody

else that she had been at the top and now she

was at the bottom. She was doing this because

it kept her grounded, because it reminded her

that there was nothing that was beneath her.

And after this little teachable moment, she says,

you know, I know your cousin. And he goes, yeah,

I'm sorry that he pulled a favor. And she goes,

no, I don't do favors like that. She said, well,

let me just say what he said. She said, he believes

in you, you know. And Richie says, what makes

you say that? She says, because he told me. He

said, you're good with people. And he's not wrong.

I don't know why this episode, it makes me cry.

I've watched it three, four times. I was reviewing

it again because I knew I wanted to tell this

story. But as I was thinking about why does this

make me so emotional? I think it's maybe because

we all want someone that we think is important

to tell us that they believe in us. Someone that

we think... is at the top to tell us that we

matter. Someone that in the structure of life

has no reason to have to show us kindness to

show us a kindness. We all need someone to help

us figure out exactly who we are. Sometimes we

need someone to tell us that the person that

sent you to do this thing didn't do it to get

you out of their hair. They did it because they

believe in you. Let me just say, wherever you

are, wherever God has you, he didn't send you

there to get you out of his hair. He didn't send

you there because you couldn't cause any more

problems there. He sent you to that spot because

he believes in you. If you have kids, he gave

you those kids because he believes in you. If

he gave you a spouse, he gave you that spouse

because he believes in you. If he gave you a

rec center or a job at a bank that you never

thought you'd have, he gave that to you because

he believes in you, not because he's trying to

occupy you with something else. He's doing it

on purpose because he has put these good works

out ahead of us for us to walk in. And I personally

believe That Jesus is the top of the universal

org chart. But he's the one that is washing our

feet. He's the one that's forgiving our sins.

He's the one inviting us to sit at his table.

Because serving ignores status. Everyone matters.

And there is good for us to do. So then we ought

to ask, where is God inviting us? To serve. Maybe

it's here. The truth is that Robin would like

two more people on the Treehouse team. Two more

people to help serve the kids. But maybe, even

more likely, it's outside the walls of this church.

It's in your neighborhood. It's in your workplace.

It's in your school. Next week on Thursday, October

23rd, the house is going to be recognized. with

a Hero Award by the Community Caring Conference

here in Rock Island. And I want to tell you something.

I know that we're not being honored or acknowledged

in that way because of all the programs that

we have at this church. I think that they are

offering that honor to us because of all the

serving that the people of this congregation

do in our cities. Closet to closet. is a clothing

provider for children in the foster system. And

what some of you might not know is, well, it's

right here in our building. I'm sure some of

you knew that. But some of you might not have

known is that last year they were thinking about

closing their doors. The kids that had been based

on and founded upon and were leading it, they're

all grown. They're married or they're going off

to school. And it's like, okay, maybe it's time

to be done. Instead, Tashiana McConnell, right

over here, she said, yes, I'll take up that mantle.

I'll take up that important thing. I'll lead

that into the next season. But not just her.

She's not alone. Scott, her husband, is on the

board. And so is Josh Fowler, who goes to this

church, and Alex North, who's here today. They're

making sure that kids in the foster system have

the clothing that they need. And listen, that

is not our church's ministry. But people from

this church do ministry. Or think about the teachers

in our schools. Think about Joe Woods. Think

about Chris Britton. Think about Jake Van Dam.

Lena and Matt Armstrong. Brian McConnell. Cindy

Hampton. Kathy Webb. Kristen Kosky. I'm sure

I'm leaving somebody out. But think about the

impact that they get to have on all of the students

that they touch and come into contact with every

day because they're doing it with kindness, because

they are walking in the path that Jesus has given

them to walk. They're offering kindness and patience

and goodness. They're dedicating themselves to

the development of children that are not their

own. Think of all the benefits that that has

on your city long term. And then not just as

teachers. Kristen Kosky, in addition to being

a teacher at Moline High School, she serves on

the board for a new org called The Third Place

that's in downtown. Rock Island. It's a drop

-in shelter. It's a daytime drop -in spot for

people that don't have a home, that may be experiencing

poverty, that don't have a phone of their own.

They need a place to store something during the

day so that they can go try and get a job or

they need some connection to social services.

She's on the board for that. I think about Destiny.

She works with the project. The project offers

HIV prevention services, counseling, harm reduction,

LGBTQ health care. Think about Andy Boswell.

He's a probation officer, but he's a different

kind of probation officer. He is constantly trying

to find paths for people back to healthy lives.

About Bruce Peterson. He's on the board for the

Christian Care Center. A men's shelter here in

Rock Island. Or Marissa has worked for the Center

for Independent Living, working with people with

disabilities and educating about disabilities

for 20 years. Corey Holloway works in the Rock

Island School District as well, but he also serves

on the board for Narratives QC, which serves

people that are 18 to 24, just trying to get

their feet under them, trying to figure out what

their path is supposed to be. And when the city

of Rock Island introduced... a moratorium against

any new prophet starting for a certain amount

of time, at least 12 different people that call

this church their home were there that night.

Not because we sent out an email and said, everybody

needs to show up. They showed up because they're

connected to all the things that happen in this

city. And they care what happens on the streets

of our town. That is what it looks like when

the church moves beyond the walls. Serving isn't

just about what you do in a church. Serving is

about what you do with your life. Serving here,

it's beautiful. It's necessary. It's wonderful.

We want you to serve the kids. We want you to

greet and host people at the door and use your

voices in worship because transformation happens

here. People learn to rest, to live in Christ,

and then they find out what their work is too.

But the kind of serving that Jesus modeled is

not confined to one spot on a map. So here's

the challenge this week. Ask God to show you

how to serve. This will be my third time mentioning

it. Treehouse needs a couple people to join the

team. That is true. And if that's you, that would

be great. Please do that. If you don't already

give back to God through the local church, Pray

about that. Consider that. After service today,

Jake is going to be leading a prayer walk through

the Greenbush neighborhood. What a great opportunity

for you to do a simple act of service by just

walking through part of the neighborhood and

praying for the neighborhood. Do not reserve

all of your serving for this spot on the map.

Because most of our serving should happen somewhere

else because most of our time is spent somewhere.

else. Amen? Let's pray. Father, we thank you

for every opportunity to serve that you have

already put out ahead of us. Like little breadcrumbs

leading us in the right direction. Pray that

you would help us to listen with the Spirit,

to pay attention, and then to step into the little

acts of service, whether it's kindness, showing

up to a city council meeting, or giving more

hours of our time to serving someone that's in

need. Amen? Amen.