Be Rich • Serve with Angelica Sudduth

Welcome to the Southside Church Podcast.

Weekly content that inspires all of us to follow Jesus.

Join us each week for a message from one of our fantastic communicators that provide practical ways to grow our faith, challenge ourselves, and to love others more.

And now, this week's message.

And it really is an awesome experience for my team and for myself to just hear those stories and share them with you.

One of the things about Michaela's story that just stuck out to me from the very beginning was that she knew from a very young age, I don't know if you caught it, nine years old.

She knew that because of what I've been through, I never want anyone to have to navigate it alone.

I remember when we were talking, we were actually just sitting right upstairs here, and she was like, you know, I had this idea.

What was I thinking?

A billboard with my name and my number on it?

She's like, really?

Like at nine years old, what advice could I give someone?

But I thought it really wasn't about the advice, was it?

It was just that she knew she could tell someone that she wanted to help.

That if someone needed help, hey, I'm here and I want to help.

And I think Michaela isn't the only one in this room who could probably say something like that.

I think there's something inside of us, a desire to want to help, and oftentimes it's because of something we've experienced.

Maybe you've been through something in your own life, or maybe someone stepped in and helped you when you needed it most.

For some, you simply saw something that you could not unsee.

And you had this thought that came across you that said, somebody should do something about this.

And then you had the thought, maybe I'm supposed to do something about this.

So here's the thing, when we see a need and we want to help, why don't we?

Why don't we do something about it?

And I I have a few familiar answers for us.

I like to call them the I don'ts.

Yeah, the I don'ts.

So some of these might sound familiar to you.

I don't have enough time.

Let me tell you, I can relate to that one.

It's why I put it at the top of the list.

I'm sure a lot of you, you're working, you have families, you're busy lives.

The kids are in sports.

There are hobbies and activities that we want to do.

And well, sometimes I just want to take a nap.

I don't have time.

I don't need to.

Someone else will.

Surely there is someone else who is figuring this out.

There are a lot of smart people around us.

They're going to take care of it.

I don't want to.

I mean, that one's real.

It will cost me something.

I think that we know that when we hear a story like those that are in foster care, it can sound really messy.

Maybe you've been through that and you think, wow, am I gonna really step into that?

What's it gonna cost me?

And then this last one here, I don't have enough to offer.

And I think it's in that hesitation that we go a little bit deeper, and I think there's something that we're really telling ourselves, and it's that I don't think I will make a difference.

Man, because we don't want to just help, but we want to know that our help matters.

And so last week we kicked off Be Rich.

It's our annual generosity campaign, and we usually use three simple words to oftentimes describe it, and that's give, serve, and love.

And give is that simple ask of giving$39.95.

And our commitment is this that 100% of what you give, we will give it away to our nonprofit partners.

And for some of us, that ask was pretty straightforward.

As a matter of fact, some of us probably felt relief because we didn't have to think about these.

We didn't have to think about the I don'ts, did we?

Mm-mm.

We trust Southside, we trust the work that our partners are doing, and we know that giving financially allows the work that matters to keep happening.

It's an important part of be rich.

But in many cases, I think if we we might all agree, giving financially is the easier part of it.

Although the amount might stretch our pockets.

I know for me, last week I heard Joey, our lead pastor in Peachtree City, he shared that he was in a season where he felt like it was time for him to give for him and for every member of his family.

And that really challenged me.

I thought, whoa, okay, maybe that's something I could do.

And so, okay, made the decision in about two minutes.

I picked up my phone, and we tell you guys all the time scan the QR code, open the app.

As a matter of fact, if you open up the app right now, the first thing it's gonna do is pop up, be rich, give today.

So under two minutes, gone ahead, I've given the gift, and for some of us, it might not even be amount that we necessarily miss.

And if we're honest, sometimes we prefer the distance that giving financially provides for us because we can keep it at arm's length.

We can say, all right, I don't have to actually show up and come face to face with the need.

I don't have to actually see the need right in front of me or maybe be a little bit uncomfortable.

And so when we're asked to give our time, it feels different.

Because now we're not just giving something, we're making ourselves available.

We're giving up an hour of our schedule, and we know, okay, now I've got to like GPS it, I gotta get in the car, maybe I'm going somewhere that I've never gone before.

Why do they just have time slots at 7 p.m.?

And I don't want to drive in the dark, or it's raining out.

I have to maybe give up something else I normally do during the week.

Now I've got to show up and I've also got to meet people that I've never met before, and they're probably gonna give me a task that I haven't done before that's probably unfamiliar.

We've got all of those things going on, and then there's something else that's going on too.

We also want to know that our hour mattered.

Because we're human, that the work we did helped someone, that we didn't go through all of that effort, and we showed up, and then we go home, and then we're like, did I really make any difference?

And I think it's reasonable to want that.

But what happens when we don't see the outcome?

What happens when we don't know the person who will benefit?

And we can't say, oh, there, that's what that hour made a difference in.

Do we still show up?

And I think this is the gap that a lot of us live in.

We're living in the gap between wanting to serve, but also wanting to see results.

And here's the thing: if our willingness to serve depends on our ability to see the results, we might be missing out on opportunities to make a difference simply because we can't see the whole picture.

And you know what it reminds me of?

It reminds me of a seed.

Because when we plant something, we're investing in something that we can't fully see yet.

You plant it, and for a while it looks like nothing is happening.

But underneath the surface, we know that something is taking shape.

Even though it looks like nothing's happening.

And so we have to remind ourselves, I think, of this, and that's that growth isn't easy to see.

And growth, it takes time.

Yeah.

It's true of so much of what matters in our lives.

And I will say there are times when we get to see results.

I love those moments.

When you have a conversation and you get to watch like the light bulb go off in someone's mind, and suddenly it changes the trajectory of what they thought they were going to be doing.

Or maybe a relationship opens a door for someone.

And you got to be part of that.

You had a front row seat, you're like, oh, you were looking for a job.

I knew of an opening.

Boom, let me connect you.

Wow, you got that job.

That's incredible.

And I think we get to celebrate those moments.

But sometimes we don't get to see that part of the story.

Sometimes we don't know what a moment or a nudge meant to someone.

And sometimes we don't get to know maybe the benefit of the work that we put in and the work that we help make possible.

And I think we have to be okay with that.

See, it's not because the outcome doesn't matter, but it's because we're not always gonna be the ones to see it.

The reality is that sometimes you just have to trust that something is happening.

Yeah.

So what does that mean for those of us who follow Jesus?

Is the point of serving to prove that we can make a difference?

No, Jesus tells us there's a different way.

For Jesus followers, actually, serving others isn't about seeing a result, but instead it's about planting a seed of service and then knowing that when we do, we're reflecting the love of Jesus to others.

And Jesus showed that love all the time.

Jesus shows us how to serve.

See, throughout his ministry, we see him performing miracles.

He turned water to wine.

We see him, and he is meeting the Samaritan woman at the well, someone that the society would have called an outcast, and yet he meets her there and serves her.

We see him feeding a multitude of people, thousands of people.

And even on the night, his last night on earth, he washed the feet of his disciples.

So he was showing us and he was displaying what it looked like to serve others, and he was constantly showing us the importance of serving others.

And so today we're gonna be in the book of Mark.

If you have your Bibles, I would love for you to go ahead and get that out.

If you use a device, like sometimes I do as well, you can go ahead and get out your device, and you're gonna be going to Mark chapter 10.

Mark 10 · chapter mention

And if you don't have a Bible, we'd love to give you one as our gift.

So make sure you let us know at the end of service and we can get that for you.

So again, if you'll open up to Mark chapter 10.

Mark 10 · chapter mention

First, I want to give you a little bit of context about the book of Mark.

So Mark is one of four accounts of the life and ministry of Jesus.

Oftentimes throughout the book of Mark, what you're doing is you're seeing people trying to figure out who is Jesus and what does it mean to follow him.

Here's what's really fun for me, and I love this moment we're gonna step into.

Even those who followed him closely, the disciples, sometimes they didn't even get it right, and that's where we meet them.

So in Mark 10, 43, I'll just kind of paint a picture for you guys.

Here's what's happening.

Jesus is having a conversation with his disciples, and James and John, they come to him, and I gotta tell you guys, they made a pretty bold request.

I mean, my kids have asked me some pretty bold things before.

Like, can I have ice cream at 8:30 at night before I'm in going to bed?

I'm in my PJs, brushed my teeth, and they want to have ice cream then.

A lot of bold things have happened.

Here's what they ask Jesus, so they ask him, remember, they're asking Jesus, will you do whatever we ask you to do?

I'm thinking, what?

These guys.

And then Jesus surprises me with this answer, and he goes, Well, what do you want me to do?

And their their question, what they ask him for, is they want a position of honor.

They ask him, Can I sit on your right and can I sit on your left when you come into your glory?

Wow.

I'm thinking, like Jesus said, you don't know what you're asking.

See, in other words, what they're thinking about is they're thinking about status.

They're thinking about greatness.

They're thinking about what would it mean to be close to Jesus when he comes into his glory.

And when the other disciples heard this, they weren't so thrilled as you can imagine.

They're thinking, wait a minute, wait a minute.

I'm not sure if they're not thrilled because they are thinking, why didn't I think to ask that?

That might be why they're not so thrilled.

Or maybe they're thinking, like, really?

This is what you're gonna ask him?

So Jesus gathers them all together and here's what he tells them.

He says, you know, the government officials, the rulers and the authorities, here's what they do with their authority.

They exercise it over the people.

But Jesus tells them, Greatness in my kingdom, it looks different.

And so let's listen to what he says in Mark 10, 43.

He says, Not so with you.

Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant.

Wow.

Now remember the not so with you, that is referring to the way that we've seen the world exercise their authority.

And I think it's important to understand what Jesus is saying here because it's a powerful statement for so many reasons.

First of all, a servant.

In the ancient world, a servant had the lowest of lowest status.

As a matter of fact, they held no status at all.

They're simply there to serve others and to be there and perform works for the benefit of others.

And so Jesus, he isn't simply giving the disciples another good thing to try and do.

No, he's completely reframing the way that they look at greatness.

He's challenging it all together.

Because the world, it tells us that greatness is about status, right?

We want to get social status.

What about financial status?

Because certainly if I can start to achieve those, then you know what?

Maybe people will serve me.

And Jesus says, not so with you.

Jesus, what he's communicating to them, and he's communicating to us today is in my kingdom, greatness looks different.

It looks like serving.

And he doesn't just tell them, he points to himself.

So we're gonna go on and we're gonna read in verse 45.

So it says, For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve.

We're gonna stop right there.

Think about that.

Jesus.

The only one who had every right to receive the honor came to serve.

And we saw it all throughout his ministry.

Again, we saw him meeting people where they were.

He fed the hungry.

He would stop and he would talk to the people that everyone else overlooked.

Jesus oftentimes made time for those that were pushed to the margins.

See, because Jesus didn't serve because he needs to prove something.

No, Jesus serves because who he is.

That's just who he is.

And ultimately, he gives his life.

And so for those of us who follow him, that changes the way that we think about serving others.

See, we don't simply serve because we get to show up and check a box.

No, this is where it gets exciting.

We're learning to live the way that Jesus did.

We're learning to see people the way that he sees them, and we're learning to see that the needs around us, they matter.

And when we serve others, it brings our lives and our king's life, and it brings them in alignment.

And it means that our service isn't ultimately about what or whether we get to see the result.

It's simply a response to the example that He first gave us.

Now that doesn't mean that the impact isn't important because, you know, the needs are real.

The work our community partners are doing, it matters.

We can show up, we can give our time, we can do the work in front of us, but we can trust God with what's next.

So the question I have for you is when we have the opportunity to plant a seed of service, what will our response be?

Will we ask, well, what will we get out of it?

What will we receive?

Or what impact will I see?

Or will we be willing to ask and plant the seed?

What seed can I plant even if I don't see the harvest?

So we're gonna go over to Galatians.

We're gonna go into chapter six, verse nine.

And this is what Paul writes to the churches in Galatia, and I think this is why he writes it.

He says, Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.

Man, one I'm gonna tell you one of the things that I love about scripture is when it's just honest and it's human, let us not become weary.

See, Paul is honest here.

He knows that the doing good, it's not effortless.

Doing good is hard.

And we know that it's not always going to be easy, that we can get tired.

Sometimes we wonder, are we even accomplishing anything?

That's why he's telling us to not give up.

Even when we don't get to see the harvest, Paul encourages us to keep going.

We trust God with the harvest, and then our responsibility isn't to control the outcome, it's to faithfully plant the seed.

So by doing this, we create opportunities for others to see God's love in a tangible way.

And that's what makes the invitation today so practical.

Whether you follow Jesus or not, this is the ask today.

It's one hour.

One hour to show up for one of our nonprofit organizations and to simply maybe meet a need, offer your time, offer your willingness and your attention to serve.

Because be rich, it doesn't create the work.

It simply is us saying, we see it and we want to be a part of it.

We want to participate in the good that's already happening in our community.

Our partners, if you haven't already figured it out, they're doing a great work.

They already know the needs, they know how to help, and we just get to come alongside them.

And here's what I want us to remember is that we don't have to know the whole story to be part of it.

So you may spend an hour sorting food, preparing supplies, and you might help a family.

It might feel pretty ordinary.

You might not see a dramatic result, but you can still have part of something that is meaningful.

So here's our invitation today.

We're asking for 100% participation.

We always say we don't have like financial goals or serve hours number serve goal and be rich.

And that's because we believe there is something for everyone, and collectively we can do what none of us could do individually.

So when we all just say yes to one hour, we believe that we're showing others that serving matters.

And because Jesus showed us what it looks like, we have the opportunity to put into practice right here in our community what he showed us.

So in just a moment, we're gonna give you time to serve up, sign up and serve.

And like I said, it's probably gonna take you less than two minutes.

You're gonna see that we have nonprofit organizations all across the south side of Atlanta.

There are those who are meeting the needs of foster children, there are those who are meeting the needs of food and security, and you're gonna pick one of those.

And as you consider that, I want you to remember this that we don't have to see the harvest to be faithful to the planting.

And I know that because long before I ever signed up to serve through Be Rich, I was on the other side of someone's generosity.

So in 2011, I was a newly single mom.

I had gone through a divorce and I had two young kids.

I have a picture for you guys.

So this is I think they're pretty cute too, actually.

So this is Evan in the red, and this This is Eli in the blue.

And yeah, we were just trying to figure out life.

And I was looking to see what it looked like to begin to follow Jesus.

So I stepped into the doors of Southside for the first time in 2011 and quickly began to grow a faith community.

But I was looking to see what it meant to follow Jesus, and I believed that at the time God was calling my family to move to Noonan.

And so after living in our home of 10 years in Fairburn, I decided that I would pick up the family, move them to Noonan.

And I was really blessed because at the time, Southside was also had a newly formed campus in Noonan.

So in 2013, I switched over and started attending the campus in Noonan.

And I got plugged in with one of the first women's small groups.

It's a little bit of my claim to fame, guys.

First women's small group at our Southside Noonan campus.

And a lot of the women in that group just started making connections with me.

One of those, her name was Erin.

Erin was a young mom with kids as well.

And her and her husband, they were struggling financially.

And so through her parents, they got connected to a food co-op.

And the more and more that Erin and I got to know each other, she asked me if it's something that I would be interested in.

Would I be interested in every week getting a box of food?

Well, let me tell you guys, I jumped on it.

Yes, the answer was yes.

Because when I stepped out in faith, here's what happened.

I was leaving my beautiful home, and I was stepping in to a house that I was renting that was double my mortgage.

And you know what happens when our expenses double?

Sometimes the income doesn't double along with it.

And so I said, yes.

It felt like an answer to prayer, yes, I will take that box of food.

And so every week, right on my doorstep, her sweet, sweet parents would leave a box of food for me.

I call it Instacart before Instacart was a thing.

And they were meeting my needs.

They knew I was stretched so thin that even going to get it was a stretch.

So they brought it to me.

And it had fresh produce, it had fresh dairy, it had treats, treats that my kids love.

Name brand things.

I'm not against a good store brand.

You know, not against it, but man, for my kids to have the fruit snacks that the other kids had, to have the little dino nuggets to this day.

They still love a dino nugget because dino nuggets would come in this in the box.

Things that I just wasn't buying at the store.

I remember being so grateful for that box of food that I actually took a picture of it.

I wanted to remember what it meant to have someone to provide for us in that season.

This picture has been in my mind all these years later.

Over a decade later, to the point that when I was preparing for today, I thought I gotta go find that picture.

I gotta go find it.

I'm glad to share it with you, but it was more for my heart to remember.

To remember what I said I never wanted to forget.

So I didn't know where all the food came from.

I just knew that someone made sure that we had it.

So fast forward to 2017.

And I'm sitting in a service just like this one.

And someone's telling me all about Be Rich and what's it gonna look like for us to serve for an hour.

And so my small group and I, we got so excited and we decided we were gonna sign up to serve.

And we signed up to serve at Midwest Food Bank.

So when we show up, we step into this warehouse.

That's me with my small group.

And when we showed up, they told us we're gonna be part of something called loadout.

So loadout is when food pantries get to come and they show up with their trucks and with their vans, and they get to fill it up with food and supplies to take back to their food pantries.

So if you don't know about Midwest Food Bank, they're incredible.

What they do is they have partnerships with large food distributors, and they're able to collect food and get food on the penny, on the dollar.

And they then bring all of that food to one of their many warehouses they have across the country.

We just happen to have one right in our backyard in Peachtree City, and they invite other food pantries to come.

So they supply those that are supplying others.

And so when you walk along with loadout, what they do is they assign you a food pantry.

So we get to say hi, we're excited to meet them, and we get these huge carts, and we're gonna walk along, and we're just gonna walk through all of these bays that you're seeing here.

And on the outside, there's like little labels, and it says, you know, you can have 30 of these applesauce, you can have 50 of these granola bars.

And the food pantry, because they know their people best, not Midwest Food Bank, they get to choose which items they know their people need most.

And so we're walking along with them, and as we're walking along, I start to recognize some of the items.

And then we get to one box in particular, and I knew right then I'm looking in, and it's something called Tender Mercies.

If you've never heard of Tender Mercies, you haven't seen it at the grocery store, it's because you can't find it there.

You can only find it at Midwest Food Bank.

It's nothing fancy.

Actually, my kids would probably tell you it's definitely not fancy.

It's just nutritional value.

It's beans and it's rice, and it's spilling.

I can still smell it when I think about it.

It's one of those kinds of foods.

My kids sure didn't eat a lot of it, but I did.

And I look in the box and I pick up the bag and I notice something that I had never noticed before.

That tiny little logo.

Midwest food bank.

And I suddenly realized that the box of food that I had received years earlier and the work that I was doing that day were connected in a way that I had never understood before.

And I don't know the exact path that that food took to get to me and to my family.

I just knew that suddenly I was serving an organization that very well could have been part of the network of generosity that sustained my family.

And they didn't know who I was.

And they didn't know who my boys were or how much that food mattered to us.

I had received something without knowing the full story, and now I got to participate in being part of that story for someone else.

I think about this experience often, every time Be Rich comes up.

As a matter of fact, when Tony asked me if I would speak today, I thought, yes.

Because I will tell this story to every person that will listen.

I'm grateful for Midwest Food Bank, forever grateful for the work that they are doing.

Resourcing our community partners, being there and being the hands and feet, providing food where no one else can get that food.

And I'm grateful for a church that continues to create opportunities for us to give, to serve, and to love our community.

Before I came to Southside, I had never even really served.

Southside helped me discover what it looks like to serve, not only in the local church, but how generous are they.

They encouraged me to serve outside of these four walls.

And not just to care about the needs in our community, but to do something about it.

Because here's what we know we want to help.

Sometimes we just don't know how.

And be rich makes it so simple.

Be rich has grown my own generosity.

I shared earlier.

This year I was able to take a step to grow my generosity and to give for every member of my family.

That's not something I could have done before.

That's not something I could have done in that season.

Well, we say you can move that decimal.

Well, that decimal was moving over for me in that season.

But I'm so glad now that they've asked for 100% participation, we really mean it.

Just one little bit, one hour, one dollar, whatever that means for you.

And this is why it matters to me because someone else's generosity made a difference in my story before I even knew the whole story.

So I wonder how many people in our community are being helped right now by people who have no idea the impact that they're making.

How many people are receiving care because someone showed up and they were willing to push a cart.

They were just willing to stock a shelf or to fill a van and to offer an hour, a job that might have felt really, really ordinary.

So we may never know the impact, but we can be a part of it.

And here's what we'll go back to.

You don't have to see the harvest to be faithful to the planting.

So give one hour, choose one partner, show up and serve.

As we think about that service, I want to take us back to the beginning where we started, and that's with Jesus.

See, Jesus didn't just tell us to serve, no, he showed us.

And he ultimately gave his life for us.

So I want to finish reading in verse 45.

So Mark 10, 45.

For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.

And that is the heart of the gospel.

Jesus did for us what we could never do on our own.

He gave himself for us and he brought us back to God.

And so for those of us who follow Jesus, our response to the love that Jesus first gave us is to serve.

And if you're still figuring out what you believe about Jesus, this is what I love so much, is that you still belong.

And you can sign up and serve one hour in your community while you're still figuring it out.

So let's be a church that doesn't just see the need, let's be a church that responds.

And let's be a church that's faithful to planting the seed that we're able to, and then trust God with the harvest.

Let me pray for us.

God, thank you so much for the incredible generosity that you first demonstrated to us.

And thank you for the men and women who have chosen to say yes to meeting you there, to following your example.

Lord God, we thank you for our community partners.

We pray a blessing over them.

We ask God that as we unleash a wave of generosity, that it would just do things that we would never even imagine of.

And just remind us when we want to see that impact to just be faithful to the planting because you are good and we can trust you with the harvest.

We pray all of this in the matchless name of Jesus.

Amen.