Orchard Baptist Church

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04 – Church Is Who We Are.mp3

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of the future reality that we’re going to see

in the church, a shadow of it.

And Caleb, when he was speaking a moment ago,

kind of alluded to this, right?

He referred to the big C, the capital C,

that the church, because at this time,

in this stage in the world, God’s people,

like we are scattered across the world. And even in some world, God’s people, like we are scattered across the world.

And even in some ways, God’s people,

the church are scattered across our city, right?

You drive along the road and you’ll see different churches

separated by distance, separated by location,

churches separated by doctrine,

churches separated by buildings, local churches, right?

And this is a beautiful image of the gospel that we have.

But here today, for just a moment, for the next little while,

for the next couple of hours, it was special–

while we’re here worshiping, but especially while we’re eating,

right?

We’re going to see a shadow of the future reality for God’s people

when all God’s people will be gathered around the throne of God, worshipping Him, not as churches but as the church. And so when we

gather together today and our voices are singing the same songs, trusting in

God, like Lord, like take us and and bind our wandering hearts, like when we are

singing these gospel truths, it is not orchgin bad, just in five rivers church. It is just God’s people.

Amen.

And so today is just a shadow of what we are going to get to do in eternity.

And I look forward to that day and like what a joy and privilege though in this moment

that it is going to be for us to be able to worship together today.

So you can go ahead and open your Bibles or if you don’t have a

Bible that’s totally fine it is going the scripture are going to be on the

screen here. If you go and open your Bibles to Acts chapter one we’re going to

be looking at a single verse together this morning we’re going to be looking at

Acts chapter one verse eight. For many, this will be a familiar

passage for you. But I also assume for some this may be the first time that you have ever read

these words and these are words from our Lord Jesus. And so I’ll just catch everyone up. So

at Filed River’s church in the last weeks, what we have been doing as a church is walking through

what the gospel is, who does the gospel call us to be?

And then today, what I want us to gather

as orchard and Fiberyver’s to look at

is this whole idea about what does the gospel call us to do?

So this is not something that I believe for many of us

is lost upon us, but for some of us,

this may be totally new news

about what is it that the gospel calls us to do?

So first of all, what is the gospel?

Words that we say all the time,

words that sometimes can even become,

we become numb to them.

You know what I’m talking about?

If you ever said a word so many times repeatedly

that you start to wonder, is that even a word? I don’t know what that phenomenon is called. I’m sure it’s got a name. Somebody will tell me the name of that phenomenon later.

But here’s the problem.

We can say the words the gospel, the good news of Jesus so much that we begin to lose what it actually means and when we begin to lose what it actually means, we begin to have our lives

not be as impacted by it as it should be. So the gospel is this great news from Jesus.

That our sins, our sins, the ways that we rebel against God, cut us off from God.

And the punishment, what we earn from our sins is that we have earned the wrath of God.

But the good news of the gospel is that God looks on us with love instead of the wrath

that we have earned.

So when we have earned God’s wrath because we rebelled against Him. I holy God who created everything.

God instead looked on us with love and sent Jesus

to die and take the punishment for our sin upon Himself.

So that by placing our faith in Him,

by placing your faith in Him alone,

you and I can be saved and you and I can be saved, and you and I can be redeemed by the grace

of God.

And so all who place their faith in Jesus can be saved.

That is the gospel church.

So now with that in mind, I want to ask this question.

A question that once we hear the gospel, this is a question that we all

have to contend with and the pressing question is going to be on the screen here is this. What does God

intend to do with the people he has forgiven and made new?

what does God intend to do with us? Like, church, we have been saved by Jesus. We’ve

been like brought into this grace of God. But I think this begs the question,

does God save us to enjoy the benefits of salvation and not do anything else

the rest of our lives? Like, does God reconcile us to Himself as second Corinthians says, that we may just live in comfort?

Or is there a greater purpose to our lives now that we have been saved and reconciled to God?

And praise God, Church, I believe the answer is that we have a greater purpose now that we’ve been saved and reconciled us to God. That God didn’t save us and then tell us to go about our way, but instead gives us his mission.

And so as we go today to act one verse eight, I think we’re going to see so clearly

for every single person here in this room that you have a purpose. You have something that the Lord has called you to,

and God has meaning for your life,

and we can rejoice in this news together.

So in your moment we’re gonna read Acts 1-8.

Let me read the scripture first,

and then I wanna talk a little about

about what’s going on here.

So it’s gonna be on the screen.

I’m reading from the English standard version.

If you don’t have that version, that’s fine.

You can follow along the screen, or you can just listen.

Either one’s fine.

These are the words of Jesus.

And He says, “But you will receive power

when the Holy Spirit has come upon you.

And you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and all of

Judea and Samaria into the ends of the earth. All right, so church, this is

exciting stuff that we’re reading here. So these words are from Jesus and these are

the last things that Jesus says to anyone after he has lived the life, died on a cross,

been resurrected, and now he’s been with his disciples for 40 days, and these are

the last words he says to anyone as he is about to ascend to heaven to the right

hand of the Father. So, like we can imagine this is probably pretty important, right?

The last words are something that is meaningful.

And so, when Jesus comes and he says these things,

you can imagine that this is an emotional time

for his followers.

These are people that have lived their lives with Jesus.

Some of these people have been living their lives

with Jesus for years and years.

And Jesus is speaking to them and he is giving this charge God is in the Lord’s hands. He is in the Lord’s hands. He is in the Lord’s hands.

He is in the Lord’s hands.

He is in the Lord’s hands.

He is in the Lord’s hands.

He is in the Lord’s hands.

He is in the Lord’s hands.

He is in the Lord’s hands.

He is in the Lord’s hands.

He is in the Lord’s hands.

He is in the Lord’s hands.

He is in the Lord’s hands. He is in the Lord’s hands. Jesus does not say to them. Jesus, after he has saved them,

he doesn’t look at his followers and say,

okay, now I’m done, go back to your normal lives,

do whatever you want, live your lives,

I’ve saved you, you’re good.

Instead, he does something quite the opposite.

He looks at his people and he tells them

that the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God is going

to give them power and then that they are going to go be witnesses to what they have seen

and heard.

The resurrection of Jesus was not the end of the story.

It’s the beginning of the mission that His people will now go and carry into the world.

Church, the same gospel that saves us is the gospel that sends us.

So as your first point, this morning, feel free to write these down as we go.

Is the gospel that saves you?

Is the gospel that sends you?

Jesus didn’t save us.

Jesus didn’t save his people just for them to live a life of comfort.

And man,

friends there is a temptation.

There’s a temptation to look at the Christian life

through these terms.

That Jesus saved me and now my only role in my salvation is to go and live a happy, comfortable life.

But here’s the problem that such thinking totally misses one of the largest aspects of

the gospel.

That Jesus didn’t just announce your sins are forgiven and then send you on your way.

But the same Jesus that calls you to Himself calls you to the world and others as well.

Judge, salvation, salvation is not the finished line for the question.

It is the beginning of new life under the Lordship of Jesus.

And praise God, right?

I mean, like how much better is it knowing that your life, as I said a moment ago, your life has purpose

beyond the mundane things that like we see around us.

There are people here and regardless of your walk of life, regardless of your age,

I think there are people here that can know that

typically a lot of the things that the world tells us to strive after in life end up

being empty and end up not bringing the joy that we thought it would be.

So if that’s like you spent your entire life chasing after money, you realize how quickly

that you just want more and what you have brought

you no joy, like students in the room.

Like I can, I hate to tell you this,

’cause I don’t want you to not do what I’m about

to talk about.

All that studying you’re doing for the test

that is coming up next week, after you make an A

or whatever you make on it. On that test there’s just

gonna be another one and the satisfaction you thought that would bring is gone.

If you are searching no matter what it is, if you are looking to put your

identity and something that the world has to offer you, my sad news for you is

that it’s a terrible place to put your identity because it brings no joy.

And so what the Lord Jesus is saying here is when He gives you purpose to your life, this

is something that lasts.

This is something that lasts.

God has a plan for you church.

Don’t let those words be meaningless.

Like think about what that means.

The creator God of the universe.

The one who is above all loves you enough

to have a plan for your life.

We say things sometimes and they lose their meaning. You’re not too young to make a

difference in the kingdom of God because God has a plan in your life. You are not too old to

make a difference in the kingdom of God because God has a plan for your life. And if the gospel

sends us, if the gospel is sending us, then we have to understand something about this. Jesus does not give us only a task to perform.

Like, the gospel sending us is who we are called to be.

The gospel sending us is not just a task to perform.

This is actually who God wants us to be.

So I want you to look even more closely at Acts 1-8 with me.

Specifically, I want you to look at look at the second half of the verse.

We are going to actually reverse engineer Acts 1-8 together.

And so as many of you know, the Bible was actually not written in English.

The Bible was written in several languages, whether it be Hebrew, whether it be

Arabic, or whether it be Greek, but what we were reading here today was originally written

in the Greek language.

And so sometimes, in order to understand the true meaning behind what we were reading, it’s

important that we go to the Greek.

And today, I want you to keep that in mind here for just a few minutes

because we’re gonna talk about that in a while because here’s my conviction

church here’s a conviction I have I believe that we often miss the fullness and

the full importance of what Jesus is saying here in these last words that he

gives to his people and here’s the So often, we read these words of Jesus saying,

you will be my witnesses.

And we read this as if we’re being given a command

for what we are going to go do.

Right?

You’re going to receive my Holy Spirit

and then you are going to be my witnesses.

It’s an authoritative command from Jesus.

That’s the law of times the way we read it. And I think the reason that we read it this way

is because we’re actually pretty comfortable and familiar with being

commanded things to do. So let me give you let me give you this example. I have two

young boys under the age of five. One is named is Patton, one his name is Sully, and it is a madhouse.

And I find myself most times in my life,

having to be someone who gives

authoritative commands constantly.

But here’s the thing, this is what they don’t tell you about

when you become a father.

I find myself giving authoritative commands constantly

on the weirdest things you

could ever think that would need to come out of the human mouth. So like it has a gigantic

range of things I’m having to tell my children, “Hey, don’t do that. I’m giving commands.

Patent, do not let all the chickens out

of the chicken coop at our house.

We have chickens.

That’s a whole other story.

Like, you don’t need to pet them,

and you don’t need to put that chicken under a bucket.

Why are you doing this?

Like, hey, those things swimming around

in that bucket of stagnant water.

That’s mosquito lava.

Why are you carrying them around?

Don’t do that.

And theoretically, right?

He’s sitting right over here.

I’m glad he’s not acknowledging

any way that I say, we can have a whole big back and forth, it’d be hilarious.

But theoretically, he should listen when I give these commands, why?

Because in the Father’s Son relationship, I am the authority.

And here’s the authority. Here’s the deal. Church, Jesus is the authority for us. Matthew 28, verse 18, Jesus says, “Our authority

in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” So we make this connection. We say,

“Okay, if Jesus has the authority and Jesus is telling us and acts one-eight to go and

witness, then I better shape up and I better go find a place

and a time to witness.

And I wanna be careful, I don’t wanna throw out

the baby with the bath water here.

Jesus gives us commands, Jesus is the authority,

and we should be obedient to what Jesus is commanded

as to do, and this urge to go and make disciples

is a command given by Jesus to us.

But right here in Acts 1.8, here in Acts 1.8 Jesus is actually not giving us a

command. He’s doing something much, much more. We have to go to the Greek for just a

moment to understand this. Nor can we throw that up on the screen.

See, when Jesus says the words, “You will be my witnesses.”

The words will be, it’s a Greek word called “assessed day.”

And here’s the thing that changes everything.

I need you to have like a few seconds.

Put on your grammar hats with me.

Okay, can we do this?

I’m going to let you take them off real fast. I promise. But for a few moments, put on your grammar hats with me. Okay, can we do this? I’m gonna let you take them off real fast. I promise. But for a few moments, put on your grammar hats.

Because this word assesses they. It is not in the Greek a command. In the Greek, it

is in the future tense, the future indicative for all my English majors out there.

Meaning, Jesus is not telling His people, you will go and be my witnesses the same way I tell

Patent don’t pick up that mosquito but instead he is making a statement about the future

speaking even prophetically about what will happen to Christians when they receive the Holy

Spirit and church this changes everything if the statement you will be my witnesses is not a command,

but is instead more in line with a prophecy,

then what it means is being sent by Jesus is totally different.

Because being sent by Jesus is not something you do.

It is who you are.

And so we can throw that on that. That’s your second point this morning.

So I want you to think of it this way.

Let’s say tomorrow you’re going about your day,

and a car wreck happens right in front of you.

I pray this doesn’t happen to you, but let’s say it

does in this hypothetical scenario.

You see it.

You see a wreck happen? You watched it happen? Who are you?

You’re a witness. No matter what you do, you’re a witness to something that happened. Even if you refuse to talk about it,

even if when the police come knock on your door, they’re like, “Hey, we heard you saw a car wreck. Do you want to talk about it?” If you say no, that doesn’t change who you are.

You’re still a witness to it.

Even if you won’t share, you know what happened.

So then I want you to follow that logic right here

in front of us here.

If you have been saved by Jesus,

if you have received the Holy Spirit,

the Spirit of God lives within you.

And because you have been changed by Jesus,

you are in every

single part of your life now a witness to what Jesus has done.

The only question is are you a witness that does nothing with the news or are you a witness

to what Christ has done and you tell people?

So witnessing or the action of mission is not something to be turned on and to be turned

off in the Christian life,

but God’s mission should instead permeate everything we do

because this is your identity as a follower

of Christ church.

And so five rivers church, orchard Baptist church.

I think we have to ask, what does this mean for us?

What do we do with this? If this changes

things, how do we respond? And I think the easy answer is this, I thought these

numbers out all the time, church, because these numbers blow my mind when I think

about them.

There are over 215,000 people that live within the city limits of

mobile, like city limits. I’m not talking about crossing over Shailonger and

getting into the county. I’m not even talking about going up into Sims. I don’t

think that’s city limits. Somebody may correct me later. But think about city limits

215,000. And do you want to know something? More than 60% of that 215,000 have no relationship

with Jesus Christ, and that’s a conservative number,

meaning in your city.

There are much more than 100,000 people

who do not have the hope in Jesus Christ

that we have here today.

We pray, like Lord, let mobile look more like heaven,

let it be on earth as it is in heaven,

but here’s the reality church,

is that our city is looking less and less like heaven.

And the way that the Lord has ordained for this to change

and for our city to look more like heaven is through you.

So that’s one thing we do is we recognize the problem in front of us.

College students, I say this to you guys all the time. There are more than 25,000 of you and all

of the universities in our city are colleges in our city and statistics from North American Mission

Board show that over 80% of you have no relationship

with Jesus Christ.

Mobile, people live in the city.

College students that live on your campuses, no matter where

you are, your mission field is–

you’re already there.

You are on your mission field.

And in that case, the challenge I put in front of you is this, what are you gonna do about it?

‘Cause the easiest thing that you can do right now

is ask this simple question, who is the one person

in your life that Jesus has placed as a friend,

as a family member, as a roommate, as a coworker,

whatever it may be,

who is that one person that you know

does not have a relationship with Jesus

that God has sovereignly put you in their life to share?

Now, we have, or I’ll tell you right now,

five rivers church, we have a challenge

which is next week, by next week,

we want a challenge five rivers church

to find that one person in your life, tell them your testimony and invite them to church next week we want to challenge five rivers church to find that one person in your life

Tell them your testimony and invite them to church next week I didn’t speak about to this but George at all George

I don’t imagine you would have any problem with orchard joining in with that exact same challenge

They who is the one person in your life that you can share your testimony with tell the story about what God did for, and then make sure that they are here hearing the gospel next week.

We’re not asking the church to turn on a witness switch for one Sunday.

I want to make that very, very clear.

This type of sharing is not an event.

What I’m asking you to do is to do the next easiest thing to recognize the people that God

has already placed in your lives,

and then faithfully, however it is you can,

make Jesus known for them.

The challenge is not, can you invite one person

to church on a Sunday?

The challenge is, will you embrace your identity

as a witness of Jesus and taking a step towards making him

known to someone that God has placed in your life.

Because here’s the deal church. All those things are just read about mobile.

All those things, the statistics that we brought up, all those things, the reality that we live in,

if we are witness, and God has placed us to be a witness here.

Here is why you can have confidence that God is going to move if you are faithful to share.

And it is this reason, God has sovereignly chosen

that his gospel would be spread

by his people he has saved.

God has sovereignly chosen that his gospel would be spread

by the people he has saved.

This is the promise we see in Romans chapter 10.

Could God snap his fingers today and save everyone?

Absolutely.

Could God write it in the clouds like when we walk outside?

Jesus is Lord, follow Him.

Here’s how you do it. Could it be written in the clouds and could God make that happen?

110% yes.

And so why doesn’t he do this?

And I’ll just be frank with you, church.

The answer is I don’t know.

But here’s what I do know.

I trust that God knows better than I do.

And that He has chosen to use you and to use me and to use the church to accomplish His

mission on earth.

So here’s what that means for us, guys.

Here’s what we have to believe in this.

Do you want to see a movement of God in the city of Mobile?

Like, I got an added, do you want to see a movement of God?

God here. Like absolutely like students in the room, whether whether you be

elementary school, high school, college, whatever. Do you want to see a movement

of God by in your generation? Absolutely. Adults like do you want to see the

gospel passed on to the next generation? Like do you want to see a movement of

God like nothing else in orchard by discharge, in five rivers church in our city

because that will never happen from your pastors, me, George, being

the best evangelists. That will never happen from that. It will never happen from your staff

being the best staff. Gospel movement. Gospel movement will happen when God’s people see

their lives as the mission field because God has sovereignly chosen that he would move through you.

So now if this feels overwhelming, and it does for me, by the way,

when I say this, I’m scared, because I’m like, “Oh man, I’m really mad at this.”

But if this feels overwhelming to you, and you’re like, “I don’t understand this

pressure, I don’t know what to do with this, that the responsibility if this were up to you and you’re like, I don’t understand this pressure. I don’t know what to do with this. That the responsibility if this were up to you,

I’m just going to tell you right now,

if God chose to move through you,

then God’s mission would fail.

But praise God for this next news

that we’re going to read here.

Your final point from the passage is this.

So, it’s God does not send you alone.

God sends us with His Spirit and God sends us with His church.

God promises you.

He had again.

A lot of times in Acts 1-8, we like to read past the beginning to get to the end where it talks about Jerusalem, Judea, it’s the marriage of the ends of the earth, because that’s exciting,

but we miss the most exciting and amazing part of Acts 1.8 which is the beginning that

you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you.

Like don’t miss what’s happening here, church.

Jesus, God in the flesh is about to send to heaven.

You want to know how a low, and he’s about to give us the mission?

You imagine how lonesome that must feel?

It’s like you’re watching your favorite sports team

and your quarterback gets injured.

And he’s out of the game and you’re like,

oh, he’s still got to go win.

But I’m amazing here.

The God says, OK, God in the flesh is ascending into heaven.

But now God will not be walking among you. God is going to indowell you in the flesh is ascending into heaven. But now God will not be walking among you.

God is going to in dwell you in the Holy Spirit.

So like Jesus in the flesh is gone.

But God Himself is about to be as close as He has ever been to His people.

When He in dwells them.

God promises you His own presence and then points you outward to the rest of the world.

And He doesn’t just promise to go alongside you. God promises you his own presence and then points you outward to the rest of the world.

And he doesn’t just promise to go alongside you, right?

He sends other people with you.

And church, this is one of the most,

I think one of the most pervasive and sad thoughts

within Christian community is that there’s a temptation

to see the Christian life as individualistic.

And this leads us to seeing every part of the Christian life as only my faith.

This is probably more of a trend in American Christianity.

As Americans, we are very, very individualistic, right?

Like your goals can be your goals. You can change your own life.

And that’s not a bad thing in a lot of senses.

But when it comes to the church, it’s a horrible thing.

‘Cause we then like to think of our sanctification.

So like us looking more like Jesus, that becomes personal too.

It’s all about me.

My salvation, yeah God saves me.

I’m good now, I don’t need anybody else.

But here’s the deal.

You may have been saved by Jesus as an individual,

but you were not saved by him to follow him alone.

That’s why common cultural phrases

that I’m sure many of us have heard.

Like I don’t need to go to church.

I feel just as close to God watching the sunrise with a cup of coffee or I feel just as close to God watching the sunrise

with a cup of coffee or I feel just as close to God

by reading my Bible in my room.

Why do I need to go to church?

Why do I need to be here on other believers?

I understand what you’re saying, but here’s the problem.

Is that understanding, that understanding is so limited

and it also assumes that everything in your life

will always go perfect and you’ll never need anyone else.

Now here’s the deal church. You were made to follow Jesus with others and the others that he made you to follow him with are found in the local church.

saves you. His desire for your life is that your love for him and also your love for others would grow alongside each other. And this is an absolutely necessary part of the Christian life is that you were never meant to be separated from God by his Holy Spirit and you were never meant to be separated from Christian community.

And as you go,

go in life on mission. Those two things happen hand in hand. Look at this quote from J.

I. Packer as it comes on the screen here. I believe I put it in. If I didn’t, my

bad. I did not. That’s on me. I’ll read it to you. What is the motive for evangelizing?

There are in fact two motives that should spur us to evangelize. The first is a love for God,

and a concern for God’s glory,

and the second is a love of man,

and concern for his welfare.

So church, when we love God,

and what his name to be spread,

of course every nation for his glory,

and we love people,

and want them to know and experience the same love

than we have,

then all that does us spur us to go

and tell everyone about what God has done.

This is why God promises these things when it comes to the Christian life.

He knows that we will need to rely on Him and that He also knows that we will need to

be sent with others.

So church, we’re wrapping up, we’re getting to the end here. We’re not just a group of Christians that happen to meet at the same place on Sunday mornings.

In our case, meet at different places.

But who we are.

We are people sent together into mobile, into your neighborhoods.

In your neighborhood. But who we are? We are people sent together into mobile

into your neighborhoods

into your classrooms, into your workplaces

Where into your gyms, into your lives wherever it is you go on a daily basis

God has sent you there as ambassadors for the King. So what do we do?

We pray earnestly for each other. We encourage each other. When this gets hard,

how does the church do this together? We pray for one another. We encourage each other.

We equip one another to teach the gospel. Not every single person here knows how to share the gospel

that they’ve been saved by.

That’s why the church is here to equip one another.

We create opportunities for people to share

and hear the gospel together.

We celebrate when someone comes to faith,

like we are all about doing this together

because this is how God is going to change the nations.

The mission of God is bigger than any one of us

and God has

given us each other for this work. Praise God Church.

So I want to give you then. We don’t go to the Word of God just to hear it and say that

was nice and then go about our lives doing nothing about it but we go to the Word of God

to be changed by it.

So for the you this anyone this morning if you’re hearing this and you almost feel some tension

because you know that this gospel that we’re talking about sharing and I understand this has been a very much for the church sermon but that when you if you have some tension you’re thinking

I’m not even following this Jesus that I’m hearing about.

I want to, here’s what I want to encourage you to do.

That there is nothing you need to do today

to earn this grace that we’re talking about sharing.

Like you’re sitting there and you feel

the Holy Spirit pressing on you,

I’ve got to do something about this.

You can do something about this today,

and that is you can turn and follow Jesus right now.

Like don’t, you don’t have to wait for your life

to be put together.

Like you may look at your life and you think I’m so broken,

I did this just last night.

Like I did this last week.

Why would God ever want me?

I’m gonna tell you that there is nothing you can do

to earn the love of God, and there is nothing you can do

to lose the love of God and there is nothing you can do to lose the grace of God.

And so follow him today, don’t waste another minute.

But if you’re a follower of Jesus, I want to ask you, and I brought this up earlier,

but I want you to leave thinking about this today, is who is that person that,

as I’m talking about the Lord has placed them in your life, who is that first person

that the Holy Spirit puts on your heart?

Because there’s always an excuse,

like, oh, they won’t want to hear from me.

That person I can’t share with them,

they know who I was, they know the things I’ve done.

Like, I don’t want to hurt this friendship.

I want to challenge you.

Do we think our God is so weak as to be stopped

by those types of barriers? And do you believe the Holy Spirit is going to challenge you. Do we think our God is so weak as to be stopped by those types of barriers?

And you believe the Holy Spirit

is going to give you an opportunity to share with them

and I want to challenge you go and do that.

And ultimately, church, I pray

that the Lord would use our congregations.

I pray that the Lord would use five rivers church.

I pray the Lord would use orchard babb just

to do amazing things for the kingdom. And I was also praying with George this morning, I told him this and I mean it and I want

to share it with you.

I pray that there is a day in eternity, that we don’t know and we don’t necessarily get

to see, but I pray that God uses your church.

Both of our churches, for amazing things for the kingdom, that all gathered around the

throne, we get to celebrate what God did, and we get no credit for it because we didn’t

even get to see it necessarily in all of its fullness, but God gets all credit for everything

He has done.

And I pray we would see lives changed in our city, and the lives changed on your campuses,

and I pray that because of that we would see lives changed among the nations.

Church, let’s pray together.

Transcribed by https://soundwise.ai

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Amen.

Prepare yourself.

You know that’s an amazing thought.

Think about that.

Prepare yourself to be used by God.

It’s really what the message is about today.

Prepare yourself to be a servant.

To be a servant for God.

That’s what it’s all about.

God calls on us to serve Him.

That’s what we’re supposed to do.

He put us here to serve Him.

You know, we didn’t put us here to serve ourselves.

We didn’t put us here to be as happy as we can be with our own devices.

He put us here as people made in His likeness

to serve Him, to worship Him, and to share Jesus

with those who don’t know Him.

He didn’t reinforce anyone to come to know Him.

He gave us all that free will.

He gave us all that choice.

As we choose to follow Him, we also need to choose to be a servant.

You see, it doesn’t stop just by accepting Jesus as Lord and Savior.

We say, “Thank you for saving me from the pits of hell.

I’m so thankful, God, that you have saved me and amen to that.

But He didn’t save us to just do nothing.

He saved us to be a servant.

Today we’re gonna have a deacon election at the end of the service.

Oftentimes when people think about deacons,

we think about servants.

Because deacons are servants.

I want you to understand that.

Deacon is not a position of authority over the church.

Deacon is a servant of God over the church. Deakin is a servant of God to the church. Okay?

And so I want you to understand that. But it’s not just Deakin’s. Every single one of us

are called to be a servant of God. And he showed us exactly what we needed to do. He showed us the whole

process of everything that we need to do. And so today I want you to look with me to Philippians chapter 2,

over to Philippians chapter 2.

We’re going to begin in verse 4.

Philippians chapter 2 verse 4.

And it says at that passage, hopefully you can find that in your Bible,

if not it’s on the screen.

It says, “Do not merely look out for your own personal interest, but also for the interest

of others.”

So, let’s clarify that a little bit.

Oftentimes people say, “Well, if you’re going to be a servant, then you have to completely

put yourself aside and only look out for everybody else.”

If you’re taking time for yourself and you’re trying to do things on your own and you’re

trying to prepare yourself, then you’re not doing it right because you’re supposed to

be serving everybody else.

You’re supposed to just be serving to other people that you just don’t even think about

yourself.

There’s no other passage that says, it says do not merely look out for your own personal

interest.

In other words, you are to look out for your own personal interest. In other words, you are to look out for your own personal interest.

I love the illustration.

I have to fly later today.

And so I love this illustration.

If we have a loss of auction or the pressure in the cabin of the aircraft,

an auction mask will fall down from above.

Put on your mask first before trying to assist others.

The reason for that is, if you don’t put your mask on first,

you’re not getting auctioned, and you may pass out,

and somebody’s gonna have to help you.

And so they say, put yours on and then help other people.

We have to take care of our own selves.

We have to do that, but we don’t put ourselves so high on the chain

that we don’t look ourselves so high on the chain that we

don’t look out for others as well. You see, you don’t merely look out for your own

interests, but also for the interests of others, also for other people. So we take

care of ourselves and other that we can serve other people. We take care of ourselves so

we can be better servants so that we can do those things. We want to make sure that we’re

not just taking care of ourselves and forget about everybody else.

You know the old motto, look out for number one,

everybody else is on their own.

We kind of think that’s funny, but at the same time,

that seems to be a mindset of a lot of people,

including Christians.

Well wait a minute, now preach your Christians don’t

act that way.

Do they not? Do they not?

Look around and the people that you know.

I’m sure nobody hears that way, so we’ll just exclude that.

Look around at people you know that you know

that they know Jesus and they claim to be a believer in Jesus Christ.

Look around those people and do they serve anyone other than themself? We can look around and

find examples of people who say they’re believers in Christ and yet the only

thing they care about is themselves.

Do not merely look out for

for your own interests, but also for the interests of others.

That’s the preparation.

That’s what we have to do.

Prepare yourself.

That’s how we prepare.

We prepare to be a servant.

How?

By taking care of ourselves in order that we can take care of others.

But don’t put everything on self.

But also look out for others.

Paul says look, it’s not wrong to look out for your own interests.

You have to look out for your own interests to make sure

that you have the things that you need and that you have the physical health and you have

what you can use to serve God.

But don’t get stuck there.

Still get out and served.

Still get out and do whatever it is that you need to do.

Look at verse 5.

I want you to see what it says here. Have this attitude in yourselves, which was also in Christ Jesus.

Have this attitude in yourselves, which was also in Christ Jesus.

What are we talking about?

This attitude.

What attitude?

We just talked about it.

Servant hood.

Serving others. Have this attitude. Don’t just put

yourself first, but put others first. This was also in Jesus

Christ. Have this attitude in yourself. Be of that mind of

Christ. Jesus showed us that. He showed us that. And so we

have to do that.

It’s a choice.

That’s what I really want you to see in that passage is,

have this attitude in yourself, it’s a choice.

It’s a choice.

People say, “Well, what do you mean it’s a choice?”

It’s a choice.

God saved you.

He’s giving you the direction to go and make disciples.

He’s told you to share Jesus with others. He has given you the direction to go and make disciples. He’s told you to

share Jesus with others. He has given you all of that, but you have to make a

choice. You choose to have the attitude or the mind of Christ. It’s given to us.

But you have to choose whether you’re going to do it or not. Let this mind be in

you also. Let it be in you. In 1 Corinthians 2, 16 it says that we have the

mind of Christ. We have the mind of Christ. If we got saved, we know Jesus is Lord and

Savior, we’ve given our life to Him, then we have been given the mind of Christ, but we

have to choose to use that. We have to choose to think like Christ. We have to choose to have His attitude.

We have to choose to have a certain heart.

We have to choose to after we’ve done everything we have to do, have to do to take care of

ourselves.

Then we need to choose to serve others.

We serve others in so many ways.

In so many ways.

Do you know how much difference that it makes to a person who’s struggling to

get into a building for you to simply open the door and let them walk in? Just open the

door and let them walk in. How much of that cost you? It didn’t cost you a penny. How much

time did it cost you 30 seconds? Maybe a minute? It didn’t cost you time. It didn’t cost you a penny. How much time did it cost you? 30 seconds?

Maybe a minute?

It didn’t cost you time.

It didn’t cost you money.

It didn’t cost you anything.

And if you open the door and smile,

then you’ve doubled what you’ve done.

How many times?

I saw someone this weekend.

I was in a hotel and I was walking down through the hotel

and I saw this woman and she

she wasn’t really smiling and I saw her and I said, “Hi, good morning, how are you?”

And I smiled and man she perked up and she smiled and she said, “Oh thank you, I’m

doing very well and if she walked away I saw her kind of look back like man.”

That was really nice.

That was just simple. It didn’t take anything, but it

made her realize that she could smile. We need to have this attitude, which is in Christ.

Christ’s mind is in us if we have accepted Him, but we choose to live that attitude,

choose to live the mind of Christ, choose to think that way, not to put ourselves first,

but to take care of ourselves in order to take care of others. Jesus did that, let this mind

be in you. It’s easy for us to think about

self. It’s easy for us to forget that we’re not alone, that there are other people.

that there are other people. There are people who literally struggle just to get out of a bed.

There are people who can’t get out of bed by themselves.

There are people who are wondering where their next meal is going to come from.

There are people who don’t have any idea what tomorrow is going to bring and

they’re terrified. There are people that are in a church every week to have on that mask.

You don’t know what’s going on. But simply having that heart of a servant might take

the mask away and allow you to see how you can serve them. This attitude that Christ

had is in us. We have to have this attitude in ourselves. It’s a choice to choose to

do that. We choose it. It’s not automatic. What’s the flip side of that? We can choose not

to have that attitude. We can choose to be selfish. We can choose to do all those things and say,

you know what, I got mine, you get yours. We can choose to do that. Both of those are a choice,

neither one is automatic, neither one is something that must be done. We choose it.

We have a mind and we decide what are we going to do? We make that choice.

That choice affects other people, but it also affects us.

How do we know exactly what it was that Jesus wanted us to do?

Have this attitude in yourselves that was also in Christ?

What do Christ do?

Well, let’s look at verse 6. “Who although he existed in the form

of God did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped.” And it goes on in verse

7 to say, “But emptied himself, taking the form of a bond servant and being made in the likeness of men. Jesus was in the form of God before he came down to earth.

Jesus existed in the form of God in three persons, right?

Jesus is God.

He’s in heaven, he’s in God, He’s in that full form of God. Everything is

there. What an amazing place. How incredible that is. But He made a choice. He made a

choice. What did He choose to do? He made a choice to step down out of heaven and to step down into this world.

When he stepped down into this world, he became Jesus in the flesh. He didn’t look at

himself and say, “Well, I’m God.” So therefore, everybody serves me. He didn’t look at

Hisself to say, “I’m God. I’m on that same equal plane as when I

was in heaven.” So everybody needs to serve me. He didn’t walk

around waiting for people to fall down on their knees and

worship Him while He was here. He came and walked in the

likeness of men to serve people. He left a place where he was all glory and

stepped down into this nasty, dirty, sinful world and became a man. Full flesh.

I want you to understand. He was fully man. They didn’t give up being God, but He was living fully man

while He was walking on this earth.

He stepped down and did that.

It was a choice He made.

He didn’t have to step down and do that.

It was a choice that He made, but He stepped down and He did that.

He became that dirty flesh. He did that on purpose and he didn’t clean to the

privates. It says he did not regard equality with God a thing to be

graft. He didn’t clean to his godliness and walk around again thinking he

needed to be in robes or or being a king in such a way that everyone will

worship. He didn’t do that. He made the choice to step down into man, humbling himself. I want you to understand this. If we’re looking

at Jesus as an example of being a servant, the first step is to humble ourselves. You can’t

humble yourself any more than what Jesus did. He stepped out of 100% glory and humbled himself to become a man and serve people.

You can’t do that any more than He did.

He set the example by humbling himself.

He emptied out Himself meaning He stepped out of heaven and He changed from being that glory of God down into man and became fully man while maintaining His Godliness.

But as He did so, He humbled Himself and He stepped down recognizing that He was living

as a man and that God now was the one that He was answering to.

He humbled Himself and put Himself down in a lower place

than He once was. He stepped down to make sure that we saw Him, that we would see this

example of being a servant. He emptied Himself.

So what I want us to understand here is that during this time that God humbled himself in the form of Jesus and the form of man

When he humbled himself and came down he was setting the example for us

He said he took the form of a bond servant what is a bond servant bond serving as someone who chooses to serve someone

He took the form-le of bonds,

and he chose to step out of heaven and serve man.

You remember Jesus didn’t arrive on a white horse

on the purple robe when crown on his head.

He arrived as a baby in a dirty stable.

They placed him in a feeding trough when he was born. He

was raised the son of a poor carpenter. He didn’t live a life of privilege. He lived

the life that he stepped down out of heaven to live. He humbled himself. He had a humble

beginning as he was raised up in this family. He had a humble beginning. It wasn’t until later that he stepped

out and began to let others know that he was the Son of God. And even then, he still

was humble in everything that he did. He still didn’t walk around demanding worship. He

was still humble. And as he humbled himself in this humility that he had, he showed us how to not think so

highly of ourself because he did not even think that highly of himself, but to serve.

He served God.

He stepped down as a man, humbled himself, and he was obedient.

That’s the second thing that I want you to understand that a servant needs to be is

obedient.

Look at verse 8.

It says, “Being found and appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient.”

We’re going to stop there for a moment.

He humbled himself by becoming obedient. As a servant today, whether you’re a Deacon or a teacher or just a, I want to say an

average believer in order to serve God, we have to humble ourselves and recognize that

He’s God and we’re not, that it’s not all about us.

We humble ourselves and then we are obedient to whatever he calls us to do.

Whether he calls us to wash the feet of man,

whether he calls us to wait a table,

whether he calls us to serve him

through going out in the community,

to teach a Sunday school class,

to just walk into a place where you know

they don’t only hear about Jesus

and tell them about Jesus.

Whatever it is that he calls us to serve Him, He wants us to be obedient.

As a servant, we need to humble ourselves and be obedient.

As a Deacon, we need to humble ourselves and be obedient.

A Deacon is just another name for a servant.

Yes, I’m talking about Deacons today because we have a deacon election, but I’m talking

about every believer needs to be a servant.

Humble yourself.

God’s God, you’re not.

Be obedient.

What does God call us to do?

You’re not sure.

Look to your left.

Go and make disciples of all nations. Pre-simple, great commission. If

you don’t know anything else that He told us to do, go do that. How do you do that?

You serve people. You’re a servant. You go to the people. You serve them where they are.

If you’re trying to tell somebody about Jesus and they’re hungry, are they going to hear

you over their stomach rumbling? No. Serve them. Get them something to eat. Then share with them. The

reason is because of the love of God. If you’re going to serve somebody go and

let them know. The reason you’re serving is because of the way God showed you

through Jesus and his example. Be a servant. Be obedient, whatever God calls you to do. Listen, somebody ask me one

time, how am I supposed to know what it is that God’s calling me to do? Okay, I know the

great commission. You told me that. Go and make disciples. I got that. But I mean, how do I

know on a specific basis? Let me ask you this pastor. I drove down the road and I stopped at a stoplight

and to my right was a man holding up a sign saying,

“I’m hungry.

I need food.”

And I looked at that sign,

“How am I supposed to know if that guy’s a con artist?

Or if he really is hungry and he really needs food?

How am I supposed to know that? You tell me I’m supposed to serve. Well if I’m giving this man money and

he’s just out there conning and he has plenty of food, he’s just trying to get

money for whatever he won’t suspend it for, how am I supposed to know that?

There’s nothing, there’s no light that shines down and says give this man. What

are I

how am I supposed to know that? Well first of all it becomes by humbling yourself

and being obedient to God. What do you mean being obedient? Well how can you be

obedient if you’re not in communion with God? How can you be obedient if you’re not

praying and spending time together with Him? How can you be obedient if you’re not

reading God’s Word? You see if you are in communion with God and you’re following

what He has then that’s when you say, God show me what to do.

I can tell you, I don’t know how many times someone has approached me and said, I’m hungry, I need food,

I need gas money to get here, I need this, I need that,

and every time I’m praying as they’re walking up, I see them,

and I’m praying God show me what to do.

And there have been times when I have simply said, I’m sorry I can’t help you and walk

away because God did not put on my heart to do anything at that moment.

There are other times when I not only gave them what I had, I pulled them up to the gas

from them and filled up their car with gas on top of that to make sure that they had what

they needed because they’re told me to do that.

I prayed about it, I was seeking Him.

I served Him to do that. I prayed about it. I was seeking him. I served him by doing that.

But you have to be in communion with God in order to know what he wants you to do.

You have to be obedient.

One way to be obedient is to be in communion with him.

How else will you know?

Of course we have the Ten Commandments. But there’s not this list that is unabridged that says,

“These are the things you have to do to be a servant.”

God reveals them to you because it’s different for each person.

God reveals them to you.

Humble yourself first.

If you humble yourself and you’re spending that time with God, then you become obedient and you hear Him as He speaks to you. Humble yourself first. If you humble yourself and you’re spending that

time with God, then you become obedient and you hear Him as He speaks to you, then you

become obedient and do what He calls you to do. That’s the two big things of being a servant.

Humble yourself. Become obedient. Make sure that you do that. But there’s more than just

being obedient. He humbled

himself by becoming obedient. He goes on to say to the point of death even on a

cross. Jesus self-emptied. He became humble. He was obedient to follow what God called him to do.

And then he was sacrificial. He was sacrificial. He sacrificed everything, including his

own life on the cross to serve you. To make sure that you would have salvation. To make

sure that the sins that you committed and that I committed were washed away. He sacrificed all the way to the point of sacrificing

himself in order that we might have life and have it abundantly. That is an

amazing part of being a servant. You say you got to be humble, you got to be

obedient, but you also have to sacrifice. Oh, I was with you right ’til the end.

I was all good, now you’re sacrifice.

What do you mean sacrifice?

Well, maybe it’s gonna cost you some money.

Hang on now, I worked hard for my money.

I give to the church now.

I give to the church and all that, but I mean,

surely you’re not asking me to give a beyond that. That’s what we call an offering. It’s a tie, the things that we’re

supposed to give and offering, these things above that. Sacrificial, you may

have to sacrifice some money. You may have to sacrifice some things in your

life. Maybe you have to sacrifice some time.

I’m a busy person.

Do you know what I do every week?

I’ve got all these things I have to do.

I’ve got to be here.

I’ve got to be there.

I’m a busy person.

I’m an important person.

I have all these things going on.

I don’t have time.

Maybe you have to sacrifice some time.

Maybe it means that you need to take some time away from whatever it is you have going

on in order to serve God in this particular place, at this particular time, whatever it

is.

Maybe you have to sacrifice your talent.

What do you mean sacrifice my talent?

I mean give it to others.

Whatever it might be.

What is that talent?

Are you a carpenter?

You have that talent.

You know how to build things.

Maybe someone needs some help building a deck in order

to get in and out of the house because they can no longer

go down those stairs.

Maybe they need a ramp.

Maybe someone needs a vehicle repaired.

And you’re a mechanic.

Maybe that talent is what you need to share and serve

somebody else.

Maybe you’re someone who is a good caregiver. And you know how to go in and help someone and get them to the doctor.

Get them home. Make sure they have food and clothes.

Whatever it is, maybe you need to sacrifice those things in order to serve God.

You didn’t kind of personal here, preacher.

Yeah?

Yeah.

Why?

Because it’s all about God.

And when we don’t put it about Him, then it becomes about us.

Those are your choices.

Remember I said we have to make a decision.

We choose what we do.

It’s either about Him or it’s about us. Those are the two choices you have. If it’s about Him that we humble

ourselves, we obey Him, we sacrifice. If it’s about us, then it’s all about us.

And we don’t care what He says. Those are our two choices. If we’re going to

serve Him, then we have to do those things. If we’re going to be a servant, not

only we have to serve Him, we have to serve others because of Him that others might see Him through our

service. We have to do those things. You know, it’s easy to get out of that too. Well, I’ve done that all my life. I’ve been humble. I’ve

been obedient. I’ve sacrificed. I’ve given my time. I’ve given my talent. I’ve

given my money. I’ve given all those things. I’ve done every bit of that. How long has I mean, you know, it hadn’t not this week, this month, this year, this decade, how long

is it being?

You say it’s easy for us to get to a point where we say, “I’ve done all those things, but

now somebody else has turned.

You know the incredible thing about that is I have never found an inscription where it

said, “Only do this much and it’s enough.”

Only do this much and it’s enough.

When He gave us the great commission He didn’t say until you’re 50.

He didn’t say, “Do this until you just get tired. Do this until

there was no end date. When he called on the disciples to serve, he never said

serve until this point and then you’re released from that. There was no contract.

The contract was because you have been given salvation and you are a child of the King

then you serve until that day when you step into glory.

You serve.

You do all of those things.

You humble yourself.

You’re obedient.

You sacrifice.

You do all of those things.

And you keep doing all those things.

There is no expiration date.

He took the form of a man when he was in fact a glorious creature.

He was humble and born in an obscured dirty place. He humbled himself, submitting

to the parents of this world as a child, even though he was greater than they. He humbled himself even in the

temptations he allowed to happen. Jesus was tempted but he didn’t have to be.

He allowed himself to be tempted. Why? Because you’re tempted. He wanted to show

you you can to feed that.

He humbled Himself in all of that.

He was obedient.

God sent Him to this earth for the purpose of giving His life for all mankind.

He was obedient in that.

He was obedient in everything God told Him.

Listen, He never did anything that God didn’t show him to do.

When he chose to go here or go there, he went when it was time.

When the disciples would say, “What about now?”

He would say, “The time has not yet come.”

When the time would come, and God would say, “He would be obedient.”

And then he would sacrifice.

I gotta tell you, when I think about God and the

form of the Son and the form of man, humbling himself to such a degree that he

got down on his knees and he washed the dirty feet of the disciples and he showed them that’s

being a servant.

That’s incredible.

To me to think about that and some of the disciples act the same way, “No, never would I let

you wash my feet.

You’re the Son of God.

You can’t wash my feet.”

He said, “If I don’t wash your feet, you’re

not clean.” In that case, wash all of me. You know, everything I love that response. Jesus,

if you’re going to serve in that way and that makes me be clean and then wash all of

me.

Well, he does, in fact, wash all of you.

When you humble yourself and give it to him, he cleans all of you.

And then we’re required to sacrifice for him in whatever way possible, whatever way

that we need.

We live in a time in this world where it’s all about oneself.

But because Jesus humbled himself in all of those ways, because he was obedient in all of those ways,

because he sacrificed even to the cross. Listen, the crucifixion,

the crucifixion during that time was such a shameful death that it was not permitted for Roman citizens to even be crucified.

What do you think about that? The crucifixion was considered a shameful death,

and if you were a Roman citizen, ordered to be put to death, they would not allow you

to be crucified because it was so shameful. But yet Jesus sacrificed Himself that He

was lifted up above the people on the cross as He gave His life for you.

As He gave His life for you.

It wasn’t about Him.

It wasn’t about how glory He had.

It wasn’t about how wonderful and the power that He had.

It wasn’t about any of that.

It was about Him taking on your sin and paying the price for it.

He sacrificed everything so that you might have a way for salvation.

Are you willing to sacrifice something that others may come to know Jesus as Lord and Savior?

Am I cautious some time? Am I cautious some money? Am I a cause part of your talent? Am I a cause a lot of things?

Are you willing to do that? That others might come to know Jesus listen.

He did that because without His sacrifice on the cross,

not a single one of us would ever see heaven.

Without His sacrifice on the cross and giving of the blood

that paid for our sins,

every single one of us would be doomed to an eternal hell.

But Jesus sacrificed in order that we might have life

and have it abundantly.

Yet God’s people on a daily basis today do not humble themselves.

They’re not obedient to God. They do not sacrifice. And because of that, there are

millions of people walking around that do not know Jesus Christ even exist. Sometimes I wonder. And I know that it

will be to some degree, but I wonder sometimes if there will be a time when God will say, “You see these people?”

Those are some you had the opportunity to share Christ with and you didn’t and

Dernaduvel’s hell today.

But I was too busy. I had too much going on.

I didn’t really want to talk to that person or serve at that time whatever it was.

You see sometimes there are divine appointments with someone that may never happen again. I continue to pray that God where I failed to share Jesus,

would you please send someone else

to fix the mistake I made?

It might be you.

It might be me to fix the one you made.

Whatever it is, I’m praying for that.

You see, even the death on the

cross shows that there is no limit what God will do to demonstrate His love to man.

To demonstrate His love to man, even this death on the cross. So after all this has

occurred and you’ve been humbled and you’ve been obedient and you’ve sacrificed, let’s see what it says in verse 9.

For this reason also God highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him the

name which is above every name.

God highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name.

Verse 10 goes on to say that every knee will bow at the name of Jesus.

He humbled Himself.

He was obedient. He was sacrificial and because of that God granted

him privilege.

Privilege. Not privilege on the earth to say, “Oh, well, I’m

done all that, and I can walk around all the privilege. Do you understand? There are

some people they get voted in as a deacon, and they walk around going, “Hmm, I’m a deacon

of that church.” Okay? That’s good. That’s not elevated. As a deacon, you’re not elevated

above other people. In fact, as a deacon, you have become the lollysurving.

You have become the one washing the feet.

You have become the one cleaning the dishes.

You have become the one fixing the toilets.

Whatever it happens to be, you’re the one serving God

through serving others.

That’s not a privilege here, but when we step into heaven,

the things that we’ve done and how we’ve served God,

he can elevate

that.

It says there’ll be stars in our crown, right?

God highly exalted Himself through Jesus because of what He did.

Are you willing to be a servant? Serva hood.

Transcribed by https://soundwise.ai

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