The Ministry Of Showing Up. (Pastor: Les Quinones)

What a tremendous, tremendous presence of the Lord out here today, amen.

God is amazing, God is great, and he never fails, bro.

He never fails us.

So I'm gonna get right into the word.

Mike, I want to thank you.

I'll get into that.

Let me get into the word.

Today's sermon is titled The Ministry of Showing Up.

Tell the person next to you the ministry of showing up.

Yes, the ministry of showing up, right?

There's some people who will never forget the person who showed up for them when nobody else showed up.

That's real.

You might forget the sermon you heard that day.

That's possible.

You might forget the words that were said.

And you might even forget the details of the conversation of those one.

But you will never forget who that person was.

You'll never forget who showed up.

Because the reality is that ministry isn't about having the perfect words.

That's right.

It's not about having the perfect words.

Because if it was, inspire church with it in ministry.

That's right.

Right?

It's not about having the perfect words.

Sometimes ministry is simply saying, I'm here.

That's right.

I'm here.

Why ministry doesn't look a certain way?

No, ministry should look like I'm here.

Hey, I'm present for you.

You need me?

I'm here.

I'm here.

Amen.

And that's what I want to talk about today.

Today's sermon is called The Ministry of Showing Up.

So to get into it, man, I want to thank Just Mike, my man just like me powers, and for inviting me here today and allowing me to share the word of God.

Amen?

Amen.

I noticed something about Cairos.

I noticed something.

Cairos understand something so powerful.

I need Godstone, right?

People outside the walls of church still need Jesus.

That's right.

I believe that pyros understand, right?

That people outside these four walls still need our Savior.

People who've made mistakes, and we've all made mistakes.

And sometimes because we walk up in the church every Sunday on every service, we better be the ones outside.

Maybe that was just me.

Let me keep going.

Maybe that was me.

People who failed and still need forgiveness.

Still need forgiveness.

People who have been forgotten and still need somebody to remind them that they have not been forgotten by God.

And that's where showing up becomes a ministry.

Again, the ministry of showing up.

This is where showing up becomes a ministry, Mike.

Because anybody can say that they care.

Ain't that easy to say?

I care.

Yeah, I care about this.

I care about that.

Anybody can say that they care.

But showing up proves that they do.

Come on.

Come on.

And that's just a little thing, Mike.

I'm trying to calm down.

Anybody can say, I'm praying for you, dog.

How many times have you said that?

I'm praying for you.

Yo, I got you.

I'll put you in my prayer.

Anybody can say that.

But there's something powerful about looking at somebody that's society labeled and refuted by their worst mistake.

Something powerful about that.

And looking at them and saying, I still see a person, God.

That's good.

I still see a person.

Yeah, you messed up.

But I still see a person.

You know what else I see?

You know what we should see in the people outside?

We should see their value.

I still see overlooked.

We should see their value.

And I still see someone that Jesus died for.

Because sometimes as church people, because we church people, we're in the church, we forget that Jesus died for those outside the church.

And we forget that we were the ones outside the church.

We forget that.

Come on.

Now, what is ministry?

I'll tell you what ministry is.

Don't give us the definition.

See, I don't know how I do my thing, that's why you did that.

Ministry.

Look at what the definition says.

The work.

Service.

The profession of a minister.

And it is also a humble service to God and to other people in his name.

So you know what we see?

Off the right in the definition?

We see that ministries work.

Ministries work.

Notice that it says to serve God and to serve others.

So to be real with you, ministry is not about you.

Right.

Ministry is not about me.

Ministry is not about Cairos.

Ministry is not about inspired church.

No.

Ministry is about them.

Ministry is about the one outside of the four walls of the church.

It's about those outside of these walls, guys.

It's about those that are confined and inside the prison system.

It's about those who were outside literally.

It's about those in need of service.

That's what ministry's about.

And the word service means performing labor.

Performing labor.

Obedience.

Worship.

Or acts of love for God and other people.

That's what I mean.

But look at what it says.

It says, performing labor.

Service is performing labor.

You know what that made me think?

That service can get intensive.

Service can get tough.

Service can get draining.

Service can get tiring.

Amen?

But at the same time, according to definition, it can get tiring, it's intensive, but it's an act of obedience.

My goodness.

It's an act of obedience.

To serve.

When you serve, you're dreamed.

How many have served?

Amen.

You don't have those moments where you're like, bro, every day.

Come on, man.

I really need to recharge.

Right?

But that's what it is, yo.

It's still an act of obedience.

So when you are a server, you're not selfish.

A server cannot be selfish, guys.

Server cannot be selfish.

Serving others in the name of Jesus is more than simply doing good.

Yes.

A person who is not saved can still do good.

That's right.

Say it.

Amen?

Say it.

That's right.

A person who has not had a relationship with Christ the way the church has can still do good deeds.

Can you believe it?

Oh yeah.

It's the reality.

It's a way of representing Jesus.

It's a way of loving people.

It's a way of loving people.

It's a way of participating in what God is doing in their lives.

Not only yours.

In their lives.

Just because God is working with you, don't mean he ain't working with your brother.

Don't mean he's not working with your sister.

He is working.

You know what happens?

You know what happens, bro?

We become the hands and feet of Jesus.

My big old 14s.

We become the hands and feet of Jesus, y'all.

Jesus calls us to serve people as though we are serving him.

Yes.

We receive from Jesus.

We receive his grace, love, compassion, and mercy, and then we pour it back out.

That's right.

That's right.

We pour it back out, we give it back.

We get it, and then we give it back.

That's what serving looks like.

Like that.

Matthew 25, 34, 35, and 36.

I'm gonna read them a little bit.

It says, then the king will say to those on his right, come who are blessed by my Father.

Take your inheritance.

The kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.

35.

For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat.

Oh, we won't die to be holding that.

I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink.

I was a stranger and you drink me.

36.

I needed clothes and you clothed me.

I was sick and you looked after me.

I was in prison and you came to visit me.

There's a question that I'm gonna ask in the room.

Alright?

When God looks at your life, what do you think he sees?

I need you to reflect.

When God looks at your life, what do you think he sees?

Because people around you know what they see.

You know what you do, but what does God think?

That's good.

What does God think about what you do?

That's good.

Because we live in a world where people are concerned about what other people see.

That's right.

I'm feeling Pastor Les is guilty of that too from time to time.

I gotta check myself.

Forget about what they say.

Les forget about that.

Just keep doing God's glory, keep doing God's will.

But we get caught up.

We care about how we look.

We care about what people think.

We care about our reputation.

We care about how many people know our name.

But Jesus, Jesus here in Matthew 25, he gave us a different perspective.

Give us a different perspective.

Because one day, one day, we're all gonna stand before the king.

That's right.

Not only the church, but the ones outside the church.

And not only the ones outside the church, but the ones confined in prison cells.

They will also stand before the king.

Yes, thank you.

And on that day, since we worried about so much, on that day, it's not gonna matter how many followers you have.

Y'all gonna be happy.

It's not gonna matter how pocket didn't work.

That's right.

That's not gonna matter.

It's not gonna matter how much money you made while you were here.

It's not gonna matter.

The question on that day will be what did you do with God with what God put inside of you?

When you stand before the king, all he's gonna do is ask you one question.

And what you do with that?

What did you do with what I put inside of you?

And the reason why that question is so important is because we, the body of Christ, we are a representation of Jesus Himself.

Yes, we are.

Now we may not be able to physically touch the Lord with Jesus, the Lord with our hands.

We can't do that.

But you know what we are?

Raise hands and feet.

That's good.

Raise hands and feet?

You can be the hands of Jesus.

You can be the feet of Jesus.

You, most importantly, can be the voice of Jesus.

Yes.

Thank you.

Come on.

And the most important one to me when I wrote down, I was like, yes, this is good.

You show the love of Jesus.

But when Jesus was talking here, Jesus begins talking about people who were hungry.

That's what he said.

We read it already.

People who were thirsty, strangers, the naked, the people that were sick, and the people in prison.

But here's what's powerful about that.

He said, I was hungry.

I'm going somewhere.

Hold up.

I got you.

He said I was hungry.

He said I was thirsty.

That's what he said.

He said, I was hungry, I was thirsty.

He said, I was a stranger.

He said I was sick, and he said, I was the one in prison.

What we see from that is that Jesus made it 100% personal.

Yes.

Amen.

He made it personal when he said that.

But wait a minute.

You may be thinking, Jesus, when were you hungry?

How did I miss the time you were hungry, Jesus?

When were you thirsty?

And when were you sick?

Jesus, when.

But essentially, Jesus is saying this.

When you did it for them, you did it for me.

That's right.

That's what you say.

When you did it for them, you did it for me.

And that's a revelation, y'all.

You cannot say you love Jesus while continually ignoring the people that Jesus loves.

I'm going to say it one more time so it can hit you.

You can't walk around saying I'm a believer, I'm a Christian, and I love Jesus.

But when you know that person, you need to talk to, you need to show the love of God, and you ignore them on purpose.

When you ignore them on purpose, you can't you cannot say you love Jesus when you act that way.

It's not Christ-like, y'all.

It's not Christ-like.

I feel like once, right, someone is out of sight, they are so out of mind.

So out of mind.

Now, why are we like this though, as people?

I think I found out why we're like this.

I'm a dare say that we're like this because we do not allow ourselves to see others through the eyes of the king himself.

We don't allow it.

That's good, God.

God, yo.

The Holy Spirit wants us to see what he sees in others.

But because we're so in our high horse, we already passed that last trial we were going through.

Now we feel, we feel as tall as the highest skyscraper, you know.

And we look at the other one like, man, they love.

But God wants us to see them the way he sees them.

The king sees people that others overlook.

He sees people that others overlook.

Let's look at who Jesus mentions again.

I want to mention this.

I need y'all to get this.

He mentions the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the sick, and the prisoner.

These people that I just mentioned, and if Jesus mentioned heard me, they're not celebrated by society.

When was the last time we celebrated a prisoner?

Tell me when we celebrated a prisoner.

They're not celebrated by society, y'all.

They're often people that society walks past.

I don't want nothing to do with that either.

I don't want nothing to do with her.

And we say that in our minds, we're thinking and feeling, I'm better than that person.

We miss the mark.

And it's okay to say that we miss the mark because we do.

That's the reality.

We miss them.

Ain't nobody in here perfect.

That's right.

So we be missing the mark.

But Jesus says this.

So while we look past them, while we ignore them, while we don't want nothing to do with them, Jesus says, I see them though.

That's right.

I see them.

You can ignore them all you want, and I'm trying to get you to see them the way I do.

You don't want to see them the way I do, that's good, because I still see them.

I see them.

The word see.

Look at what it means.

To perceive or detect something using your eyes.

Somebody needs to hear this, y'all.

Just because people overlook you doesn't mean God overlooks you.

That's right.

Amen.

And I'm going to go further.

I'm going to go further.

Just because somebody in the church overlooks you and you know they did does not mean that God overlooked you because that person's a believer.

No, they're just people.

And they fall short, and we're all going to fall short.

You may feel invisible.

How many of you feel invisible sometimes?

I've been ignored.

Nobody paid no attention to me.

I've been ignored.

You may feel like you've forgotten.

Like nobody seems, like nobody notices how tired you are.

Because I feel tired, y'all.

And nobody notices how much you've been helping everyone else but yourself.

Right?

But you know what?

God sees it.

That's right.

If you're somebody that's pouring into people, oh my gosh.

And you feel right now like you're empty.

Let me remind you today that maybe people on this earth are not going to acknowledge your hard work, but God sees what you're doing.

And not only that, God sees the intention behind what you're doing.

That's right.

He knows if you're doing it for cloud.

Right.

He knows if you're doing it for his glory.

Yes.

Or for yours.

He knows.

God sees the meals that you provided.

God sees the phone calls you've made, and I made a few this week.

I made a few this week, but God sees the Holy Calls we got.

God sees the people that you encouraged.

God sees the prayers that you've prayed.

God sees the person that you forgave.

Sees that.

God sees the person that you helped when you didn't have much yourself.

Sees that.

Sees it all, y'all.

Kingdom people don't just talk about love.

And show it.

That's right.

Kingdom people don't just talk about love and they show it.

This is my thing.

Jesus didn't say, he didn't say this.

He didn't say, I was hungry, and you told me, I'll bring you.

He didn't say that.

He said, I was hungry and you gave me something to eat.

That's what he said.

He didn't say I was thirsty and you preached a sermon about water.

He didn't say that.

He said, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink.

Jesus demonstrated that actions do speak out of the words.

That's right.

There's nothing wrong with preaching.

I do it for a living, y'all.

There's nothing wrong with it.

There's nothing wrong with worship.

Just have an amazing worship time with the group.

And there's nothing wrong with knowing scripture.

Nothing wrong with that.

But Jesus is teaching us that our faith must eventually become action.

That's right.

So our faith has to become exactly what we're showing.

Yes.

Amen?

Book of James, chapter 2, 16 and 17 says this.

James 2 · chapter mention

If one of you says to them, go in peace, keep warm and well fed, but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it?

What good is it that I tell you, amen, amen?

I know exactly where to go get food.

Look, you go turn the corner over there, bro.

We got this church.

Knowing that you, yo, sometimes we miss the market.

What I mean by that is God will bring somebody to you so you can provide that need.

Yes.

And you will know that you can provide that need.

But you ain't, but sometimes you ain't gonna want to.

That's right.

I'm being real.

Sometimes you ain't gonna want to.

But that's not what serving looks like.

Again, that's a selfish act, and we should not be that way.

In other words, if I say I love you, but I never show you love, eventually my words are gonna lose the credibility.

If I say I love you and I never show you love, every time you see me, he ain't about his words.

Yes.

That's not a real person.

Yo, I wouldn't trust what that pastor says.

Because he says he loved people.

Man, every time he sees me, every time I see him, I don't feel the love of God.

The church cannot be a place where we talk about Jesus.

We have to be a place where people experience Jesus through us.

Yes, yes.

Because we're the church.

That's right.

Somebody may never read a Bible, but they'll read your life.

That's good.

Yeah, because you're a walking epistle.

That's what the Bible says.

Mm-hmm.

Hey! They're gonna read about me.

How am I looking at me?

By looking at me.

Somebody may never walk through the doors of a church, but they will encounter Christ through your kindness.

Yes.

Somebody may never hear a sermon, but they will hear Jesus when you encourage them.

Yes.

You might be the closest name to Jesus somebody encounters today.

That's right.

You might be.

So I ask you to represent you well.

Represent you well.

Jesus identifies himself with the broken in this verse.

This is where things get powerful.

Jesus says, I was hungry, I was thirsty, I was sick, and I was in prison.

So what he's doing is Jesus connects himself with the people that we disconnect from.

I really like that.

I'm gonna say it again.

Jesus connects himself with the people that we disconnect from.

That's what he does.

So when you encounter somebody who's broken, let me give you a recommendation, all right?

Don't just see their condition that they're in.

Don't you see that see the value that they possess.

Yes, yes.

See the value that they possess.

Don't just see the addiction.

Don't just see the addiction.

See the person that's bound to it.

Yes.

Exactly.

Don't just see where they are.

See where God can take them.

That's good.

That's good.

Because if God took you from the hell you walked through, and you're here today glorifying God and raising your hands in his presence, God take over everybody else.

Show me another place.

I'm asking you all to look beyond the person, please.

Please look beyond the person.

Look beyond the flaws.

Because that's the first thing we see.

We see the flaws.

I want you to look beyond that.

Look beyond the cover up.

Look beyond the cover up.

Let's not forget that somebody helped you when you didn't have it all together, too.

God sent somebody to you to encourage you when you were thirsty and dry without his presence.

And a lot of us are here today because we encountered Christ through the body of Christ.

Through someone else.

Through someone that hadn't encountered themselves.

Let's not forget that.

Don't forget that somebody prayed for you too.

God bless her soul of my mother, man.

She prayed.

Until she passed away.

She prayed for her kids.

God called me to pastor at five years old, y'all.

At five.

And I spent my life rubbing.

I said, no, that's not for me.

Going back to the Lord, that's not for me.

No, that's not for me.

But then I encountered Christ.

When I encountered Allah, then I believe it can avoid the happiness that I believe it.

When I encounter the past and Allah, this is what I need to be doing.

This is what I need to be doing.

Somebody showed you grace.

Somebody gave you another chance.

Yo, just one more, bro.

My bad, my bad.

That's on me.

That's my thought.

Please give me another chance.

We're quick to ask for another chance, right?

That's that means.

Yes! I thought about that.

I got to.

But the most important thing, guys, I don't want you to miss this.

Somebody believed in you.

Yes.

Yes.

Somebody believed in you.

Yes.

And now God has given you an opportunity to do the same thing for someone else to pay it forward.

Amen?

You are blessed to be a blessing.

You are blessed to be a blessing.

Yes.

Amen.

Problem with the church is that we want to stay with our blessing.

Our blessing feels so good, bro.

We keep it to ourselves.

Now I don't want to share this glory.

What?

No, but that's not what?

That's not serving.

Yes.

That's not loving.

That's not demonstrating the love of God.

It's not.

Don't miss your Jesus moment.

And I'm almost done, though.

The people in this passage that Jesus was talking about didn't even realize that they were serving Jesus.

Because they asked, Lord, when did we see you hungry?

And paid you.

They didn't even realize it.

They asked you, when did we see you hungry and paid you?

They didn't recognize him.

And Jesus tell them, right?

Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.

Yes.

That means you had you may have already had a Jesus moment and didn't even realize it.

It skipped you.

You had a Jesus moment to demonstrate the love and grace that he showed you.

You had it, and you ain't even see it come by.

That person you helped, Jesus said, I helped him.

That person you encouraged, Jesus said, encourage him.

Yes.

What I'm trying to say is, sometimes you feel like you're just doing things to do them.

Have you ever taken a step back and said, hey God, the way you orchestrated that was crazy.

Alright?

That was definitely a divine appointment.

How am I standing here with the experience and the more that I've been doing my life?

And I ended up with somebody in Walmart opening up about the same thing.

And I do not make a mistake.

But what is intentional?

And since he's intentional, he's going to be intentional about when he places around you.

Whenever he places you, he's going to be intentional.

You know why?

Because our job is to serve.

Job is to serve.

And I'm going to close now.

I want Carlos to listen to me.

God has been watching.

God's been watching.

He saw the tears that have gone into this ministry.

The sacrifice that has gone into this ministry.

And he saw the serving.

He saw the times you helped when nobody thanked you.

He saw the times you gave when you didn't have much for yourself.

He saw you love people who couldn't give you anything in return.

Let me remind you that he saw it.

That's right.

Yes, he did.

You may not have received the recognition that we would like from time to time.

Because I'm guilty of that too.

I gotta check myself, like I said.

Man, nobody recognized my word.

No.

You may not receive that, right?

But you know what happened?

You may not receive that, but you know what happened?

Heaven took notice.

That's right.

Yes, he did.

Woo! Yes, he did.

Because the glory is not for us.

That's right.

Who said that?

The glory is God's.

That's right, yes.

The glory goes to God always.

And that's why I'm paying to encourage somebody today.

I want you to keep serving.

Amen.

I want you to keep loving.

I want you to keep giving.

I want you to keep encouraging.

Keep doing it.

I want you to keep praying and keep reaching for those.

Because Kairos, your labor isn't invisible to God.

That's right.

He sees your labor.

And don't get discouraged when people don't appreciate you, y'all.

Don't get discouraged.

You're not serving for their applause.

That's right.

You're serving for the king.

That's right.

The king.

And one day the king is going to look at everything he did in his name and say, you know what he's going to say now?

Come.

Come.

Come.

And when he says come, every sacrifice will make sense.

Huh?

Cast is every tear that you shed, now it's going to make sense.

It'll make sense now.

I don't know why I'm crying so much when I help others.

Pastoring ain't easy, don't you?

I don't know why I cry so much for these members.

But it's going to make sense on the day.

He says, Come.

My good and faithful servant.

Yes.

Servant.

Yes, servant.

Amen?

Amen.

Every chill makes sense.

Every difficult season is going to make sense.

Every time you gave when you were tired will make sense.

Every time you serve when nobody was watching will make sense.

Because you weren't just serving people.

Your ministry was showing up.

That's right.

Your ministry was showing up.

Our ministry as the body of Christ is just said, What's up, bro?

What you hear?

I got you, man.

You know how many times you've been there for me, bro?

Random audio.

That's it.

I hear his voice.

The Lord used him telling me about something I'm going through.

Bang! He was there for me.

He didn't even know he served, but he did.

And that's the way God works.

Your ministry is showing up.

So, church, let's be the church that feeds the hungry, y'all.

That's right.

Let's feed the hungry.

And I'm not only talking about physical, and that's very important.

But I'm talking about that spiritual food that you got inside of you.

That's what I want you to do.

Let's be the church that welcomes the stranger.

Yes.

Instead of casting them and pushing them aside.

Let's be the church that visits the sick.

Let's be the church that remembers the forgotten.

Let's be the church that loves the unlovable.

That's right.

I know a few that I thought was unlovable.

See, y'all know I'll be so I be real with my church, man.

I know a few of this unlovable, but I gotta love them anyway, man.

You know what I mean?

I'm a and not that I got to, because that sounds like I'm forcing myself.

I don't want you to misunderstand me.

I'm going to because I want to.

I recognize that I need to change that area in my life, so I'm going to do it.

Let's be the church that loves the unlovable, and let's be the church that reaches the broken.

Because we did it for them.

Because when we did it to them, I'm sorry.

When we did it for them, we did it for Jesus.