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National Theme: Serve
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Good morning, church family. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Today we're examining how we serve, particularly as part of our national theme of service. Before we dive in, I'd like to invite you to turn to your neighbor and say, "I'm going to examine how I serve."
We're going to look at two main areas: first, why we serve, and second, how we serve well. Then we'll discuss a practical application so that what we hear today doesn't just pass over our heads, but becomes alive in our behavior and affects those around us, so that God's kingdom can be glorified.
When we think about serving, we might imagine different ways in which we serve. Some of us serve in formal capacities—perhaps as leaders, ushers, or members of the pastoral team. Others serve in what I call unofficial roles: dropping people to and from church, checking in on people during the week, or simply praying for those on your heart.
We may be in different seasons of serving. Some of us are stepping down, ready to pass the baton and mentor those coming up. Others are stepping up into new roles, looking for that mentorship and guidance. Some of us took a break from ministry and are returning. And some may be new to Christ, still building our relationship with the Lord before we have the time or opportunity to serve.
However, as scripture makes clear, we are all called to serve. We are not called to be served; we are called to serve. But it's important to understand not just the how, but the why.
Let me give you some background on Moses, because I think it's important we don't assume everyone knows everything about the biblical figures we discuss.
Moses was a foundational Hebrew prophet and leader. When he was born, the Pharaoh was concerned about the rising number of Hebrew boys and feared a revolt, so he ordered them all killed. Moses's mother wanted to protect her son, so she hid him until she could no longer, then placed him in a basket down the river. Pharaoh's daughter found him, took him in, and he was essentially adopted and raised in the royal palace.
Although Moses was raised in Egyptian royalty, he was ultimately called to lead the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt to the promised land. This is important context for understanding his calling.
I discovered something significant at our youth national convention in May. I went there thinking I wasn't on shift, ready just to enjoy myself. But that week, every issue and problem from the youth department seemed to accumulate. By the final Sunday session, I was overwhelmed. I sat down crying and told my friend Whitney, "I don't want to do this anymore. I'm not equipped to deal with the things these young people are going through. I've never been through what they're experiencing."
Whitney looked at me calmly and asked, "Why?" When I explained my reasons, she simply said: "But Moses wasn't a slave."
In that moment, everything changed. She continued: "In fact, Moses grew up in Egyptian royalty." When she said that, I understood what God was saying through her. Although I felt overwhelmed, underqualified, and disillusioned, I had been mistaken in thinking I needed to have lived the same life as those I was called to mentor. I didn't need to have gone through exactly what they were going through to bring them where the Lord wanted to take them.
In that moment, I realized: I serve because my serving is not about me. I serve so that God can be glorified through me.
When we do things in our own strength and ability, we can take the credit. We say, "It's because I did this. It's because I've been there. It's because I have this qualification or completed that training course." But when God puts you in a situation so far outside your ability—when you lack the skills, resources, and ability to do it yourself—you must depend on Him. And that is when He is glorified in your life.
This is an uncomfortable place to be. It's not comfortable to think, "I've never been here and I don't know what to do." But I tell young people often: discomfort is not always bad. It's not always dangerous or destructive. Growing pains are uncomfortable. If we go by our feelings alone, we won't do anything meaningful.
When we look at Moses, we remember he was a murderer. He had a speech impediment. On paper, he's not someone we would choose to lead. And it wouldn't have been comfortable for him to be told, "You need to go to Pharaoh repeatedly. You need to lead these people out. While they're grumbling, you'll organize them, appoint leaders, and build a tabernacle. And when I come down, they'll be worshiping a golden calf."
But when we look at many people in Scripture who served outside their ability, it wasn't comfortable. I can't imagine it was comfortable for Gideon, told to destroy the Midianites with only 300 men. I don't think it was comfortable for Jesus to die on the cross. Yet all of these things were done so that God could be glorified through them.
So I encourage you: do not let your comfort zone be the indicator of whether you're in God's will. As soon as you step outside your comfort zone, that may be exactly where God wants you, because that's where you must depend on Him.
This is new understanding for me. I found this out on May Bank holiday. Before that, I thought serving was about having the right tools and knowledge—"we have our books in Sunday school, I'll teach you how to pray." But then I realized: it's not about me.
There are many reasons we serve, which we see throughout Scripture. But one foundational reason is so that the Lord can be glorified in your life. What a privilege! What a blessing!
Consider: Why do we go to work? To get money. Why do we parent? Because we care for our children. But when we think about who is most worthy of our service, I don't want to put the Lord in second place. I want to look back at the end of my life and say, "Actually, my life was a testimony to the goodness of God."
While I have my youth, my strength, my health, my support, my availability—I want to give God my time. I want to give Him my best. I don't want to look back and wish I had.
After convention, I decided to follow the Exodus story carefully. I had read it before, but you know how Scripture is—it's alive and living. You can read the same passage ten times, but when you read it at a certain time, the Lord highlights particular things and you see it in a completely new way.
As I read through Exodus, I encountered the laws about slavery. Initially, I thought, "Should I skip this part?" But a scripture came to mind: 2 Timothy 3:16 says, "All scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness." So I can't pick and choose which parts entertain me. That's not what reading the Bible is about.
I decided to read it, and I opened to laws about slaves. And what I found was striking.
In biblical times, slavery wasn't what we think of as transatlantic slavery. It was more like indentured servitude. If someone had severe debt, they could work it off. They were more like hired workers.
When you buy a Hebrew slave, he shall serve six years, and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing. But if the slave plainly says, "I love my master, my wife, my children; I will not go out free," then his master shall bring him to God and bring him to the door or the doorpost, and his master shall bore his ear through with an awl, and he shall be his slave forever.
I'd never really taken note of that before, but I started looking at the difference between the slave who works six years and then is free, and the one who says, "I want to serve for a lifetime. I want to serve forever."
Consider the one counting down: "Four more years. Three more years. I'm nearly done. This is my last year." And then there's the one who says, "It doesn't matter what year I'm on, because I'm doing this for the rest of my life."
The scripture is clear: "But if the slave plainly says, 'I love my master'"—it is simply love that brings about a lifestyle of serving.
That realization was so simple, yet so profound: To love God means that I desire to serve Him all of my days. I want that to be my lifestyle. I want that to be my testimony.
So even when we're stepping down from a formal role, we're never really stepping down. The knowledge and experience you have is still invaluable to the next generation. There's no age where we say, "I'm no good anymore to God." If He's breathed His breath in your lungs, you have a purpose with Him still. We don't retire in Christianity. We keep going.
But what does it look like practically? This love for God should manifest outward. It shouldn't just stay inside us; it should come out.
There's a scripture often misinterpreted: James 2:26 says, "Faith without works is dead." I used to think this meant I could have faith, but I also needed to do my part. But what it really means is that true faith isn't passive. If someone really believes in God, if someone really loves God, that should be expressed in their attitude, their communication, their active love, active obedience, and active servitude.
Now, practically speaking, what stops us from serving? There are barriers, and I've experienced several of them. Let me be honest with you about these.
The first barrier is that we don't always like people. Sometimes I want to say I like everyone, but we don't. We come, we worship, we speak in tongues, we praise the Lord—but sometimes we don't like the person sitting next to us. It's just the truth.
But our bishop said something profound: "We don't have to like them first. The liking can come after the loving."
Think about our children. We would never say to their parents, "I love you, but I don't like your children." We couldn't do that. Yet we do this with God all the time. "I want to serve in the community, but I don't get along with Sister So-and-so, so I'm not coming. I want to be on the evangelism team, but I don't like how that person speaks, so I'm not coming."
Your dislike for people blocks what God could do in your life.
Reverend told me this week: "Our love should cover a multitude of sins." When I make a mistake, yes, we need to work it out together. But it shouldn't mean I then go murmur about it to someone else. Let my love cover that, and we can work through it together. Ultimately, we're one body with the same goal, objective, and mind.
If you're thinking, "I do want to serve, but there's that person"—I encourage you to extend grace. The same grace God extended to you. The same grace we ask for from Him every day when we make a mistake. Grace that has covered you for much more than what you dislike them for.
If you can't extend that grace, go to the Lord and ask Him to help you. Say, "Lord, give me the grace I don't even have right now. My flesh is very weak, but my spirit, Lord God, is willing."
And often, when you actually talk to people, you realize, "Oh, they might have a hard exterior, but actually they're really nice. We have a lot in common." People often say about Sister Rihanna: "Is she here? She's so nice. She's lovely. We call her marshmallow. The sweetest person." And she says, "People are always surprised I'm nice." Talk to them. Ask them how they are. See how they're doing. They might surprise you.
The second barrier is being distant from God.
My mom sent me a video that said: "We're called to care for people, but not carry people." When we carry people to God, we get very tired, very weary, very frustrated. But when we're distant from God and trying to do things in our own strength, it's very hard to lead people to God when we don't know where we're going ourselves.
If I'm trying to lead you and you're trying to lead me, we're just going in circles. No one has direction. No one has a compass. No one has a map.
Unfortunately, as Christians, we can easily do this. We see someone who's joined the church, or a young person with potential, and we throw them into serving. But they haven't even had a chance to enjoy their relationship with God. They haven't had time to be with Him, to learn about Him, to experience Him, to see when He comes through for them. We've bypassed all of that, but now we're saying, "You can do this."
So now they don't have confidence in God. They don't have a lived experience of God's goodness, but they're trying to tell someone else about it. That's when we often see burnout, and people just disappear.
If you feel you love God and want to serve, but you're quite new to this or you've been away for a while—know this: we are all called to serve, but maybe not right now. Maybe first, enjoy your relationship with God. Enjoy it. It's the enjoyment of my relationship with God that helps me withstand the challenging times, because I have confidence in the God I serve. I've lived it.
So if you feel distant: it's okay to step down. Say, "Actually, I need to go back to Him. I'm doing this in my own strength and I'm getting weary."
The third barrier is cherrypicking—choosing which parts of God we want.
I almost did this when deciding whether to skip over the "boring" parts of the Bible. We can cherrypick which parts of God feel really good. "I love the grace. I love the mercy. I love the joy. I love the peace. I don't like the righteous side. I don't like that You're jealous. I don't like that You're going to convict me or rebuke me."
But God rebukes us because He loves us. He tells us we're wrong because He loves us. Some of us think, "It's okay for me to sin because where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more." That's an abuse of grace.
Sometimes we cherrypick what we want to hear from the Bible, what we want to hear from God, and we close our ears to the parts that feel uncomfortable. We're feelings-led. We let our feelings lead us away from where God calls us. Sometimes a person is standing there speaking truth you know applies to you, but you don't want to hear it, so you don't acknowledge it. You think, "When I read that scripture, I feel so convicted, but that's a problem for another day."
To know who God is, is to love Him in His entirety.
If you've created a version of God—what I call a Build-a-Bear God, with all the best parts you like—and that's who you worship, you're worshiping an idol that you've created. You're not worshiping God.
If you realize you've been cherrypicking, if you've been picking which parts of God you want to hear and avoiding discomfort—I encourage you: go back to the beginning. The journey with God is not always linear. Sometimes we have to start again and say, "You know what? The foundations are wrong. Let's knock the whole thing down and start again. Because the more I try to build higher, the more unstable it gets."
It doesn't matter if you've been in church for 10, 20, or 50 years. If you got it wrong, but you're willing to try and get it right now, then start again. When you come to know who God is in His entirety, you realize how worthy He is—there are no parts of Him you want to omit.
When you realize that He is the God who can transform your life—so you become a new creation and the old has gone and the new has come. When you realize He will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus. When you realize He strengthens us and upholds us with His righteous right hand. When you realize you can cast every fear, every anxiety onto Him because He cares about you. When you realize who God is in His entirety—loving and merciful, but also just and righteous, worthy of fear and respect—it will completely change how you approach what He calls you to do.
There's a level of honor and reverence you'll have toward the Creator of the universe. It's not a small lowercase g god. It's God.
And here's something we need to realize: whether we acknowledge it or not, He's still God. It doesn't do Him a disservice. He's still God whether we recognize it or not. But the disservice comes in our lives. The consequences show up in our lives.
Learn who He is so you can experience His blessings. He's a very generous Father. Many of us have experienced His generosity, and that's why when we think about God, we smile or laugh and remember, "When I was in that situation, God, You came through. You did that, Lord." He's not one to withhold His gifts.
But when you limit Him and put Him in a box—as I said, that's an idol. It's a very dangerous thing to do. It not only quenches what can happen in our lives; it can hurt the reputation of His kingdom and hurt His children. We are ambassadors of Christ. We represent the Lord.
There are people who never grew up in church, never knew Jesus, know nothing about Him. The closest thing they might get to seeing Him is you. Is us. When we go out and do a disservice to Him, it can cause such damage to His kingdom that we don't even realize.
When we become ambassadors of Christ, it's not a light thing we put on. It's a very serious thing. It's life or death—sometimes between someone spending eternity with Him and eternity away from Him. We have to take it seriously. We have to represent Him well.
I want to point out something important: we have all been blessed by serving. Even if you don't believe in Jesus, even if this is your first time in church, all of us have been blessed by serving.
Philippians 2 talks about the serving of Jesus. Jesus didn't see equality with God as something to rob or hold onto. Instead, He came down in the likeness of man and served us to the point of dying on the cross. Whether you know who Jesus is or not, you have access to eternal life through His serving.
When we realize that the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord—the gospel story of how Jesus died for us, paid our price, and through His mercy we now have eternal life—this is a beautiful example of true serving.
All of us have access to that. Not all of us have taken it yet, but all of us have access.
So one of the reasons we serve is this: His serving saved us.
There is nothing we could have done to deserve what He did. There is nothing we could have done without Him to enter heaven. No matter how many good works you think you can do, no matter how many times you try to be a good person, say the right thing, wear the right thing, pray the right prayers—it's not enough. It was never enough.
He knew that. And in His love and mercy, He sent His Son to die for us so that we can have eternal fellowship with Him. And eternal fellowship with God doesn't start when we die. We have access to Him right now. That's such a blessing.
We serve so that we can be known as the hands and feet of Jesus.
Some people have never experienced the love of God. They've never experienced it. We have. What a privilege! When you experience that love, you can't keep it to yourself. We have to share it with those around us.
We serve for those who didn't know that someone loved them enough to die for them even before they were born. We serve for those who didn't know that every mistake they've made or will make, He took into account and had on His mind at Calvary. We serve for those who think they're so broken or terrible, yet He still says, "I still love them. I don't ever want to be separated from them. I know they've made all these mistakes, but I don't want to be separated from them."
That serving changes lives. Although our serving will never match what was done at Calvary, our serving can still change lives.
Think of our evangelism team—that serving changes lives. Think of our soup kitchen—that serving changes lives. Think of our older community members who could be lonely. Loneliness kills. But they have a place where they can go, talk, laugh, be together.
I can speak for many of us in the bridge: for some of us, the bridge is what kept us in the faith. From there we have roots and can grow. Don't minimize your serving by thinking it's not important or not a big thing.
We are all part of the body of Christ. Even the smallest parts, the things considered least, are great. There is not an unimportant part of the body of Christ. When you're in the body, you have a real, important role. Don't undervalue yourself.
The value of you was the death of God. Don't sell yourself short.
Before we pray, I'm going to give you a challenge, an application.
Spend time this week examining your serving. Not just asking, "Do I serve or don't I serve?" Many of us serve in this church. But examine how you serve.
Spend time examining your serving with the Lord. Ask God: In this season of my life, where does He want me? Where does He want me positioned so that He can use me in the best way possible?
As we pray, I'm going to invite anyone to come to the front. If you don't know who Jesus is—maybe you've heard of Him, but you don't know that He loves you, that He died for you, that He rose again on the third day and is sitting in heaven, and that He has a desire for you to receive Him, to cross from death to life, to spend eternity with Him—not so that you have to do things for Him, but purely out of love for you—I encourage you to come.
If you know who Jesus is but you've stepped away, you're not sure, and you want to give your life to Him—if you want to come into the knowledge of this God who is relational, who loves you despite everything you've done, all the mistakes you've made—I encourage you to come to the front. We have people here who will pray for you and support you.
And I also encourage those of us who serve in the church. Perhaps you've been thinking, "I'm tired. I feel weary. I don't really know what I'm doing." Some of those barriers are a real thing for you. You don't always like people and it shows up in your serving. You're quite far from God right now and want to come back. You don't want to cherrypick the Lord anymore—you want to experience Him in His entirety. You want to enjoy your relationship with God.
The altar is open.
