Carl and Scott Shifting Perspectives 9 - Spiritual Maturity - Serving

welcome to shifting perspectives

biblical conversations about topics that

matter let's get to

[Music]

it hey everybody welcome back you know

this this topic that we've been going

through and we're going to wrap it up

tonight and we're going to go a

different direction next week but we

want to close these

spiritual maturity marks what we we call

them benchmarks or just you know

evidences that we're growing spiritually

and we really want to challenge you all

to go through these and think about is

this an area that I should be increasing

in my life and so we've talked about

church attendance and we've talked about

prayer and singing and reading the Bible

and caring about the bible message what

the Bible is saying to us we've talked

about sharing the gospel and the

importance of that and then we talked

about caring about giving to the gospel

message and how that how that carries us

forward and this last

topic is caring about serving you know

the Bible talks so much about us serving

and you know we're we're in a in a in a

series right now on Sunday mornings in

the book of Philippians but in

Philippians chapter 2 we see this really

Philippians 2 · chapter mention

great picture about what it means to be

a servant because Jesus humbled himself

and he came um the scripture says he

came as a bonder servant one who was

driven to serve those who he came to

minister to his title if you will

through Prophecy in the Old Testament as

he was coming was suffering servant we

have to think about Jesus as the

Conquering King and that's when he comes

again but but he came to serve and

ultimately lay down his life for you and

me right and so we we teed that up a

little bit last week when we began to

talk about giving in time talent and

treasures those three T's that we talked

about last week and this serving really

drills into this time and

talent and and as you look at that you

you sp that farther you realize when we

think about serving people think I have

to be in front of the church

I have to be out front yeah um you know

I've got to you know do something Grand

and often times when you look at Christ

and the example of it it was very humble

it was it was you know it was one onone

it was it wasn't uh you know yes he

taught in the synagogues but also he was

one-on-one with people and you know

there was his disciples and washing

their feet you know right before his

crucifixion and an ultimate picture of

humility and love and why do you Ser why

would the King of Kings lower himself

down to be a servant to be exalted back

up again and because he was teaching us

as Christians how we're supposed to love

and treat others um you know that you

know may not appreciate the gospel of

Christ yet right yeah absolutely and so

so I love that idea because oh my gosh I

can't teach a Sunday school class I mean

that's the first thought right is oh

they're going to they're going to have a

recruitment and oh I got to I got to

teach children's church yeah oh gosh I

can't those kids they'll duct take me to

the chairs I've had that thought before

I've had that thought before myself and

I've been in that class I in that class

myself too but but here's the reality

when you when you take those first two

te's time and talents the first one is

is the most important that I'm willing

to say that I will prior prioritize

being a servant because Christ came and

served me and ultimately laid down his

life for me I can lay down a little bit

of my life in my time and find ways to

serve um talents that that particular

piece um you might be saying I have I

could not teach I I don't have the

teaching gift I Rugrats kids I don't

want anything to do with them you know

I'm not going to stand up and preach a

message I'm not going to going to going

to say the opening prayer I'm certainly

not going to leave worship right Scott

exactly I'm not going to leave worship

right not going to leave worship that

talents though I bet if you began to ask

the Lord what have you given me that I

can use to serve you and to serve your

people you'd begin to see that there's a

lot of ways that you can do that that

don't have anything to do with being in

front of people you know you take things

as as simple as you know um you know

while just think around the church a

little bit is you've got those that you

know are are that love the the outdoors

and the planting and the spring and they

will they will clean this place up they

will plant flowers and those that come

in and decorate the inside of the church

or you know you take those that are out

and and running that youth ministry

driving the van for youth they drive and

they're very loyal and they organize it

or you know they they organize youth

events or they do things and you know

there's a when you get a lot of people

carrying load the load gets lighter

sometimes it's oneon-one with your

neighbor of not even being in the church

it's just recognizing that need in a

coworker a neighbor a friend that

they're in a bad spot learning they're

in a bad spot because you're in a

relationship with them and serving the

lord picking somebody up helping them

through a tough time having a testimony

that says I got an answer to your

problem right you know I learned a long

time ago that there's and and there's a

actually a say that we say say a lot and

that is people don't care what you know

until they know how much you care 100%

and this is why serving is so important

because we talk about again ultimately

it comes back to the gospel right we

care about sharing the gospel we care

about giving to the gospel message going

forward and we care about serving

because it's all about the gospel but

you know what they don't want to hear

they don't want to hear you knock on the

door and say you're going to hell you

need Jesus come get saved because they

don't care what you know until they know

that you care right so they much more

care about do you care about me do I

matter do I have value do I have worth

and serving allows us to speak into that

you know we're in in this church and

many of the churches in our community

we're involved in a Ministry called care

portal and Care portal is all about

finding out about needs Meeting those

tangible needs whether that's somebody

um you know they need diapers and wet

wives they need a baby bed or they need

groceries or they need you know any

number of different things that we can

meet and that is exactly what that

phrase says people don't care what you

know until they know that you care 100%

And we get to walk into those situations

serve those families love those families

build a relationship with those families

and ultimately through that share the

love of Jesus Through serving that

ultimately leads to a gospel encounter

absolutely absolutely I mean and that's

again that's the way that's the way

Christ modeled it you know he modeled

that love he modeled that care he

modeled that compassion and you know he

puts people in our path that need the

message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ

that's right and you know we've always

got to be attentive and open and ready

to act at a moment's notice you know and

sometimes to act it says it's easy to

say we act sometimes to act may be a 5

10 15 20 years lifetime experience

whether it be a friend a family a

coworker a neighbor that's right

somebody to act sometimes is a long long

process and not something that's one

time and done yep and that goes back to

that time right we're investing

investing in time in people and that's

giving yes and it's a big part of giving

I I like I I love what you said last

week let me see if I can remember and

say it right that sometimes giving a

writing a check is the easy button right

it's the check box because we build our

lives so busy with so many things to do

that time is a greater commodity to us

than whether or not we write a check

exactly and time is what Jesus gave

exactly right he came and walked this

Earth and gave time in Ministry to those

who were around him when you begin to

think about his invest m in three guys

right Peter James and John then those

they were a part of the 12 but you you

saw really close connections where he

invested his time in those and then the

12 and then you begin to Branch out of

that and you see these numbers in

scripture where he ministered to

7072 and then and then you see it by the

time you get to the upper room there was

120 and there was it all came from

serving it all came from serving it all

came from loving people enough to give

them your time and invest in them them

and bring the gospel message to them

through that process and again that's

why you know I mean there's all kinds of

places to invest in but investing it in

in the local church makes that because

it grows that Center wider wider it

allows us to invest in each other and

you become stronger as a church family

and we carry that lad together and it it

spreads so much faster and which is why

why CRI you know um implemented the the

church feature there and you know it

allows us to min to an entire Community

that's right out of a central location

which is what I love about which is what

I love about the church M yeah I I

absolutely do too um and I and I love

the idea that we can start simply we

talked a little bit about that last week

too in the giving that you know it

really doesn't take much to take a

little bit of time out of your day to do

something for someone yes um and if you

really just began to ask the Holy Spirit

and to look I bet you would see somebody

that you could love and serve in a very

small way right in your office or right

in your place of work or right on your

bowling league or right on I mean you we

often times just kind of go through life

with our own blinders on right yes

because we prioritize our life and we

got this and I'm going to go to work and

then I'm going to go home and I'm going

to go feed the cattle and I'm going to

go do this or I I got to take the kid to

the volleyball game and whatever it it

whatever we just kind of we just kind of

get into the task mode of our lives and

don't even look yes

and and beginning Ministry shouldn't be

scary beginning Ministry should be easy

and he talked about those simple steps

simple steps calling somebody right you

know not a text pick up the phone and

call someone and just said hey you know

I remember when the day that dad died

you know uh dad hadn't been passed for

two hours yet one of my friends what

even public know I'm public but uh you

know he called me up and you know and if

you knew my dad you know he said Well

your dad's probably in heaven and

there's probably not a gate left on his

hinges because he run them all off like

you know and and you know and it was

nice to get a good chuckle and and enjoy

that but it was a phone call um you know

you can go visit somebody um you know

find somebody in need and take them food

I mean I that's done been done to our

family several times and we've done it

for other families throughout the church

um you know simple as as share this

video with them you know share these

videos with with your family friends can

you let them know here's a snippet of

the word here's a topic for this week

and we got people that are EXC side

about seeing what's coming next and and

that's an easy way to generate you know

come to church be a part of the body if

you're not here local to us or if you

belong to another church be involved be

engaged give to that body right U you

know if you if you are engaged in a

church because you know we need that

support around us right and and I think

it's very important so giving is a big

piece of it giving with the right heart

is the way God let us do it giving with

that humble example that Jesus led with

is is the Absolut perfect example that

that he put to the plate before us

that's right and so with that that's

going to end our benchmarks of spiritual

maturity and one of the things that I

that I do want to say is those are not

the

only this is not a okay well let me

check the boxes this is my checklist and

if I can check the boxes on all these

things then guess what I'm spiritually

mature it just doesn't work that way

that way no it doesn't um there are

other things that the Bible teaches that

are evidences of of our continuing

spiritual maturity and so here's what

we're going to do next week and I'm

excited about this I know you are too

you've been talking um for several weeks

now to our teenagers um on Wednesday

nights about the importance of the Bible

but more specifically why can we trust

this why do we believe this and so I

don't want you to dive into it yet well

I'd like to I know right you're ready to

go so check us out next week as we begin

to talk about why this book is

trustworthy why we believe it why we can

have fa faith in its accuracy in these

things that we talk about when we say

the the word of God is infallible the

word of God is without error the word of

God is authoritative and the word of God

is

sufficient in those four things why why

do we believe it why do we trust it why

do we trust and that is you know

whenever you're going to get me on next

week's topic you're going to do it

really easy you either believe the Bible

or you don't and this helps draw the

line to the point that you can

understand why we can say we believe it

with 100% accuracy so you really want to

come back next week yes all right you

all have a great week we'll see you next

Friday bye-bye