Serve Sunday | Ps. Keith Pittman

Welcome to the Celebration Church Orlando podcast.

Thank you so much for listening today.

We hope it encourages you and inspires you.

Here's today's message.

When Megan and I got our call to ministry well over 20 years ago, this is the church that we had envisioned.

Yes.

If I can be real with you, when Megan and I got our radical call into ministry, there was no fog machine, there were no moving lights, there were none of the aesthetics that we typically use nowadays to try to draw people in with trying to create an attractional model.

What we found was just the presence of God and the purity of people coming together and sometimes getting into environments that weren't always the most comfortable, but the pursuit of the love of God was certainly more important than the comfort of the people.

And so it reminds me of those Book of Act moments where we see that the people of God were just so enamored with the person of Christ that there was nothing that was going to keep them from being in God's presence.

You know, a scripture that I love to quote when it comes to us as a community, it's simple as it says that God is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

And I reference it quite a bit because I think that there's something so pure and powerful in that when we understand that God sees when we take the extra steps in order to get into his presence.

What that looks like, if I could be very practical, is when you find out that the venue that we typically have church services in isn't available for us for the next couple of weeks, and so we have to get creative and have unique November.

It looks like when we find out maybe a week ahead of time that this facility is going to be available for us, and so we do everything we can do to communicate with our church that this is where we're going to be gathering and hosting serving opportunities.

And it looks like even when it rains outside, people showing up ready to serve, like that is what diligently seeking God looks like.

And what I say in scripture, it says that God sees you and he's a responder to those things.

And so I want to thank you guys so much for responding to the call of God and not resting in your comfort.

I'm not judging y'all at home at all.

That's not for y'all.

That's not for y'all.

That's not for y'all.

That's for those who are traveling.

Um, but I do want to read, I do want to read a quick scripture to us to encourage us.

Um, and and it's it's a quick devotional, so it's not gonna be long.

Pastor Nate's gonna come up in just a moment and give us some instructions uh on how we're gonna all serve together as a family.

But it's it's found in Matthew chapter 20.

Matthew 20 · chapter mention

And and what's really important, and I want us to kind of put this in our hearts that as a family, that as a church, celebration, that whenever we gather, there are gonna be four things that you can expect.

I can't you can't always expect that it's not gonna rain.

You can't expect that we're not gonna be under a pavilion, but what you can expect is community, you can expect worship, you can expect giving, and you can expect encouragement.

That is what the church was built on, and that is what we're gonna always do whenever God calls us to come together.

So here's a pace where I want to encourage us.

Um, found in Matthew chapter 20, verse 20 through 28, it says this.

Matthew 20:20–28

Then the mother of James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came uh to Jesus with her sons.

She's knelt down respectfully to ask a favor.

What is your request?

He asked.

And she replied, and I don't know why I want to say this with a whisper, but if you read the connotation of it, you've recognized that she's whispering.

She says, In your kingdom, please let my sons sit in the places of honor next to you, one on your right and one on your left.

But Jesus answered, saying to them, Do you know what you are asking?

Are you able to drink from the bitter cup of suffering?

I am able to drink.

Oh, yes, we've replied, we are able.

Then Jesus told them, You indeed will drink from this bitter cup, but I have no right to say if you're gonna sit on my right or left.

My father has prepared places for those.

But when the other ten disciples heard that James and John basically were trying to maneuver their ways into a position of favor, they were indignant.

Um, but Jesus called them all together and said, You know the rulers in this world lord over the people, and the officials flaunt their authorities under them.

But among you it will be different.

But among you it will be different.

Whoever wants to be a leader among you must first be a servant.

And whoever wants to be first among you must become a slave.

For the Son of Man didn't even come to be served, but I came to serve and to give my life as a ransom for many.

What we see in this passage of scripture is Jesus is, he's what we call the upside-down kingdom.

He's shifting the paradigm of what does it mean to really have influence inside of the kingdom context.

As you can imagine, this mother who had been watching her son serve so faithfully with Jesus, giving up aspects of their livelihood, their ability to gain wealth in that time period.

So she recognizes what her sons have given up in order to partner with the mission of Jesus.

So, like any ambitious mother, you want to try to position your kids to be successful.

I can't be the only father or parent that's made an effort to do everything you can do to position your kids so that they can be successful.

So she comes to Jesus and she says, like, hey, um, I know that you see everything that my kids are doing, right?

Like, man, you you love you love them, right?

Well, well, when everything is all said and done, can you put them in these positions of authority?

What happens here is when those moments when our ambition outpaces the grace of God, where we have such drive and ambition that we can begin to have a transactional relationship with God where I'm doing this for this instead of doing it for him.

They they began to have this posture of like, Lord, if you see the sacrifices we make, you see all that we're doing, so because of that, we certainly should be in the seats of honor.

But Jesus said, You you've got it all twisted.

You're you don't you don't serve looking for a place where to sit, but when you serve, you're doing it because of who you stand with.

It's understanding that things are a little bit different.

So Jesus begins to shift her perspective a little bit.

He says, Listen, are are you able to drink from the cup that I have to drink from?

That the language that he's using there is directly connected to this Passover meal that they would all take together, and it would be these four cups that they would all share as a family.

There would be the cup of sanctification, which was the cup of reminding them that God was always going to pursue his people.

But then there's the cup of deliverance.

That's the second cup that is drank.

And what that cup of deliverance is is often referred to as the cup of wrath, it's the cup of suffering.

And so Jesus was referring to that because he was preparing to go to the cross to suffer for God's people, and that communicates sacrifice.

He was saying, I know that you want to be a great leader, but if you really want to be the person that's in a position of influence, you can't skip over the cups.

You're going to have to go through a season of sacrifice.

You're going to have to go through a season of discomfort.

You're going to have to go through a season of leaning more on calling than convenience.

After he says these words to her, he has these moments where he's talking about cups, and then he begins to shift the language and talk about what does it really mean to be a servant.

He says, Man, I didn't even I didn't even come to be served, but I came to serve, to give my life as a ransom for many.

It's here we see that Jesus and his ministry was all the overflow of his desire to serve his people.

When we think about what Jesus has done, like the environment that he came from, the Bible says that he forsook his godly authority.

When you actually read the scriptures in Isaiah and these other ones that have described the throne room, I can't imagine I would be the person that would leave that environment.

I mean, I'm I'm just as saved as the next person, but if I got angels just declaring, holy, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, I don't know why I would come downstairs just to hear them say, Crucify Him.

But but Jesus forsook an environment where they were worshiping him so that he can come down here and serve us, and he was doing it to be an example.

He's like, if I can walk away from eternity so that I can move you forward, certainly you can step outside of your convenience to help people as well.

Jesus is setting a new standard that he's trying to shift our paradigm, that our mentality cannot be who can serve me, but more so, who can I serve?

As Jesus continues in this conversation, he says, Man, if you truly want to be a leader, if you want to be a person of influence, be a person that knows how to serve others.

He says it's a choice.

And for the longest time, I used to think that having a servant's attitude was just like kind of like it was like something that was just like you're wired in, like, man, that person was wired with servanthood.

And I used to think, like, man, like that person is meant to be a servant, that person is not.

But what scripture communicates is having a servant's posture is a choice.

It's choosing to serve, it's choosing to be humble, it's making that choice every single day.

I'm choosing to put others ahead of me.

Megan and I, a couple years ago, we had saved up all of our little coins and went on a vacation.

And when we went on this vacation, it was at an all-inclusive resort.

We'd never been there before.

I'm telling Megan, like, listen, act like you've been somewhere before, girl.

Like we, but we're walking around and we're enamored with all the treatment and how we're and how everybody's smiling and all these things.

But typical fashion for Keith, like the first two days I'm into it.

The third day, I'm trying to understand how they operate.

And by the fourth day, I'm trying to find dents in the armor.

Like, okay, like I'm just that's just the way that my analytical mind works.

So here we are on the fourth day.

And and I got a great relationship going with the people that have been working alongside of us.

So our person that was like kind of assigned to us was Andreas.

Remember Andreas, Megan?

So um so I see Andreas and I finally say to him, like, hey man, listen, I said, bro, we've been hanging for the past four days, bro.

Bro, like, this has been absolutely amazing.

I got I got a question for you.

Do you ever have a bad day?

Because Andreas was just filled with joy.

He had such an excitement in his heart and the way that he interacted with us and the way that he interacted with everyone around him, the way that he interacted even with his fellow workers.

So I was like, bro, do you ever have a bad day?

What are you drinking and can I get one?

Like it was one of those type of things.

And when he said, he's like, oh, he said, absolutely.

He said, absolutely.

He said, man, like yesterday was a very, very tough day for me.

And I'm like, bro, I couldn't even tell.

He's like, yeah, like uh uh two of my co-workers couldn't come in, so I had to cover their assignments.

Um and then one of our bosses was really in a bad mood.

I'm like, I couldn't tell that any of those things happened to you.

He said, because I recognize that a price was paid in order for you to be here, so I'm gonna serve you with excellence regardless of how I feel.

Wow, wow.

He made the statement that a price was paid in order for us to be there, so he's gonna serve out of the overflow of the price that was paid and not based on how he felt.

He didn't recognize that he was preaching the gospel to me at that very moment.

It was seared in my mind, and I never could forget it, that he was saying a price was paid for us to be here, and we're gonna serve out of the overflow of the price that was paid.

Let me make it a little bit more clear for some of us.

The Bible says that Jesus paid the price for every single one of us, that he gave up the seat to put us in heavenly places, so that now we are able to serve of the overflow of what has been done for us.

Let us be reminded that when we serve our community, we're not doing the community a favor, that when we serve at our church, we're not doing the church a favor, that when we serve others around us, we're not doing them a favor.

We're serving out of the overflow of the fact that Jesus first served us.

So we serve because we made a choice that we're gonna make a difference.

It's not always convenient, it doesn't always feel, but we know that we're called to do it.

That is what it means to have a heart of a servant.

It's not waiting for that emotion to hit us, it's making the choice to say, a price was paid, and I'm gonna serve of the overflow of that.

Celebration Orlando, I couldn't be more blown away at the way that we respond to the way that that price has been paid for us and then through us, we're able to demonstrate the love of God to those people who desperately need it.

You'd be amazed at how these simple gestures of giving up an hour and a half of our time is literally seeds of eternity for a person that's gonna receive what we're about to do.

Sometimes I don't think we're gonna get it, and I don't want to romanticize heaven, but I do believe there's a moment when we're standing before God, and there could be a cinematic moment because you guys know I love movies.

I think God's gonna respond to that.

But there's gonna be a cinematic movie, it's gonna be like a trailer.

Long for me, it's gonna be a super long trailer of all the good I've done in my life.

Like we're gonna be here for a while.

There's gonna be a trailer of all the good that we've done, and we're not gonna recognize that time that we just spoke to someone and not realizing that they were having a bad day, that day that we encouraged someone when they were on the verge of maybe trying to end their own lives.

There were moments where we came to a rainy park and decided to pack up some things for some mothers who were young and having children and didn't understand what the next step was gonna look like.

But because we wrote handwriting notes and let them know that they are loved by God, that that gave them the hope to go on, and now that became the next evangelist that is now reaching the next generation.

I'm trying to help you understand.

We never know what we're about to do, and we do it because of what has been done for us.

And what I love about this church is that we're all hands, we all participate and we're all in.

So, what I want to do is I want to pray over us.

I'm gonna ask Pastor Nick to come to give us some instructions, but just from your pastor, thank you so much for truly being a church that looks like heaven.

Thank you for being a kingdom-minded church that is willing to get uncomfortable, willing to get your shoes a little bit muddy.

I went and changed my shoes, but I was like, hey, like the other shoes I had on, those were not meant for this weather.

But but doing whatever it takes in order for us to be here to serve the people of God, that is what we do.

We make a decision to make a difference.

Let me pray for us.

Lord, I thank you so much for the way that you invite us to participate in this kingdom work.

We don't take it for granted.

We don't take it lightly, God, that that in your parting words, Christ, you said that I count you as family, I count you as brothers, that you are part of this kingdom work, and I'm inviting you in.

You're not kept in the dark.

And if you do your part, I do my part.

We're gonna continue to see the kingdom of God advance.

Father, I pray over every one of our precious people, not only the ones who are here today, but those who participate in their generosity that allows us to have the resources that we're able to plant seeds to make a difference in others, God, that goes beyond today.

That is what a kingdom legacy looks like.

So, Lord, I just pray that you bless our time.

And Father, I am praying.

We don't do this for something, but we do this for you.

But we also have an expectation that you're gonna refresh those who refresh others.

That's your word, that's your promise.

And so, Father, we stand on that promise knowing that you're a rewarder of those who diligently seek you, that you refresh those who refresh others, God, that you respond to acts of faith.

So, Father, I pray that you pour out your blessing.

I pray that you pour out peace, I pray that you pour out strength, I pray that you pour out whatever it is that there's a deficit in our lives.

I pray over every one of us right now that there's an abundance in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.

Let's give God some praise.

Thanks again for listening.

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