Good morning Church to the five of you that responded, have a great morning to the rest of you, Just a Good one. Uh, we have a lot to get through this morning. There's just a lot of great stuff to, to share with you that we can process together through the word of God. So let's just jump right into it. This morning's message is entitled shaped to serve, shaped to serve as really we live in a culture that's defined by the idea of me, everything is about my way, my feelings, my thoughts, my desires, my joy, everything is about me. When really jesus, when he came onto the scene, it really flipped it and made it more not just a me culture, but but a week culture and he has this way of regularly transforming our minds to flip our thinking and to have an impact for his eternal kingdom. And so this morning I want to just wrestle with this tension of where really we've been challenged by culture to live. Me first, me centered when jesus preaches and exemplifies the idea of we and how we at the end of the day is so much of a stronger culture than a me culture. We're in our series entitled What on Earth am I here for? And we've talked about this idea of purpose and how in week one we shared that purpose is discovered, not when you meet expectations, but when you actually experience jesus identity is not something simply you live for, but you live from and that your purpose of being created in God through christ receiving the Gospel should drive us or push us forward into everyday life and how really God has given us five purposes in our life that are foundational, no matter what stage of life that you're in purpose. Number one is this, you were created for worship worship where really we're called to love the Lord, your God or our God with all our heart, with all our soul, our mind and with all our strength, we weren't just created to worship, but rather we were created worshiping. And so the question is not, do you worship, but whom or what do you worship? And then the following week we talked about the idea of fellowship, how really fellowship is this idea of loving one another as jesus has first loved us. And then we see in the third purpose that we saw this last week was this idea of discipleship, where really when you connect your story with God's story, it creates a greater story and the greatest thing you can do on this earth is to invest in the next generation or invest in somebody through the love of jesus. Well this morning we're going to dive into the topic of what's described as your fourth purpose and that is this idea of ministry ministry where you have been shaped to serve. And so if you have your bibles open up to mark, chapter 10 Mark, Chapter 10, Mark is Gospel Rider and he had direct interaction and connection with jesus and the early apostles and so he had this connection and, and and compiled the stories and here in chapter 10 we get an interesting account or an interesting story, the disciples, James and john decided to ask something of jesus since jesus had asked plenty of them, Jesus called them out and said hey follow me, follow me. And so these fishermen, they did, they were following jesus, they were witnessing miracles, they were kind of organizing the crowds as they went and so they reached the point here in the, in the Gospel and said you know what jesus, we're gonna ask something of you, we've we've proven our loyalty, we don't ask for a lot but we just ask one thing and jesus says okay what do you ask said when, when you're in heaven, let us sit on the right and left side of your throne. See they were thinking about position, they were thinking about power, they are thinking about reward and said hey we've been your hype man here on earth, right, we go on stage first, I'm like yo crowd what up, hey check this guy out, alright, jesus, go feed him, okay and like go like so they were following around and so they said okay, jesus, we're serving you were helping you. So the least you can do is just grant us the position of your friends, mind you just just let us sit to save us a seat at the table right next to you ahead of the other disciples. Alright, so when jesus says, you don't really understand what you're asking, so you don't really know what you're asking, you don't know even what I came here for, he says, can you drink the cup that I'm gonna drink, are you gonna be baptized with the way that I was baptized? He's, he's referring to ultimately, he was going to die on the cross, he was foreshadowing his death and he was given a heads up to the disciples, they didn't get it and they're like, yeah, whatever you say, jesus, as long as we get this position we're in, Well, there's 12 disciples and the others heard that the two had asked for a position and they realized man, they called shotgun first, right, I didn't realize that's how it works in heaven, that you just personally go dips right? And so like they were mad, they were mad either that they didn't ask jesus first or they were mad that James and john thought that they were better than the other disciples, but either way, whether James and johns were in the wrong for asking for a position or the disciples were in the wrong for being mad that they weren't the ones to ask for a position, jesus, just flat out says, look, you all have missed it completely, it is not about position, We pick up our story here in Mark chapter 10 verse 42 and jesus called them to him. So he says, gather together and said to them, you know that those who are considered rulers of the gentiles lord it over them and their great ones exercise authority over them. But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. Now, if you have your bible open, I want you to highlight this word four, beginning of verse 45 4, Even the son of man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. So here the disciples are jockeying for position. And if you picture you know the phrase jockeying for position, you picture a horse race and you have jockeys and they're on there going like they're going neck and neck and say no, I want to be first, now I want to be first and then you think it's his race and they want power and they want the association of the name of jesus and the recognition and the fame that comes with it. But jesus says, no, do you understand the very people that are oppressing your brothers and sisters right now? So let's highlight these passages here. He says, I want you to notice this, that people that have position and power right now are lording it over them and that the great ones exercise authority over them. He was saying, look, you want the exact same thing that you're being persecuted for why do you want position in power when the ones who are persecuting you right now have those exact things? He's saying, I'm going to give you a kingdom that is so much greater that anything disposition and power can give you, it says, but it shall not be with you. You will not be like the rulers who are persecuting the others. You will not be like the world. He says no, instead you will be a servant and you will be a slave. And then I can picture the disciples saying, well yeah, but I don't know about that. And then Jesus gives the ultimate reasoning he says for since therefore because says the Son of Man that in and of itself is a loaded phrase by the way, the Son of man was seen as a prophetic declaration of divinity. So whoever claims took that title was claiming to be God okay for even the Son of Man referring to himself, even the savior, the messiah, the creator and sustainer of the universe, even he came not to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many, Jesus gives us the greatest argument for why we're called to serve others in the entire scripture right here. He said, you must you want to be great earth, you want to have power be considered a slave to all four. And here's the first reason he says that God himself, Jesus is our example. So who has more power than jesus? Who has more position than jesus? I'm gonna go with the guy that you created the universe by speaking it. I'm gonna trust those words. If you can speak the world into a distance, I'm going to trust what you say. Is that fair? Right? So the same words, The same power that spoke all of the universe into existence is speaking now and he says even me, I did not come to be served but to serve. So I am the example. And then number two, he says and came to give his life as a ransom for many. Now that didn't make sense at the time, but just a short time later, Jesus would go and die on the cross. This idea of atonement or or paying the penalty for our sins and then he rose again. This is why we celebrate easter. And so not only just covering our sins but conquering death and he rose again to free us. Why? So that we could in turn serve others as jesus served us. It's the greatest single argument in all of scripture for why we're called to serve and love one another, Jesus did it. It's the ultimate example. And then number two, your life is not your own, that's been paid for. Have you ever been at a restaurant where you ordered something or maybe it's a coffee shop and you ordered a drink and somebody tries to steal your drink or your meal. Have you ever been there? You ordered something? And they're like okay venti whatever for for john and the person doesn't here and they go up and grab it real quick, What are you gonna say? Whoa! Hold up, that's mine. I paid for that. I ordered that Jesus paid for your soul paid for your life. He freed you from eternal damnation and freed you to eternal presence in relationship with him in heaven. So your life is not your own. You've been bought with a price. Well what is the price of a human soul? A price is determined by what someone pays for it. Well, Jesus paid his life for you. So the question is if Jesus was willing to die for you, are you willing to live for others? Jesus who had all power, all position, but yet he took on the form of a servant and then he said, I bought your life with mine so that you can now turn do the same. So as a church, we have to stop fighting for position and start finding our pasture. Stop fighting for position and start finding your posture, meaning take the form of humility of a servant of a slave. Because our culture, everything that you hear is you've got to be the best, you've got to be the best, you got to rank the highest, you know, pretty soon the national rankings will be out as well. I love college football, you know, there's Ohio State and there's everybody else. Okay, come on now we have the, we have the in front of our name. I don't know why we felt the need to put the Ohio state in front, like there's other ones out there, but, but look, if you have the in front of your name, you must be the best college football team in the country. But pretty soon everyone's gonna argue for that position and right and everyone's gonna be on pins and needles for the rankings come out in the same way the disciples are kind of having this argument when James and john asked for a position like, hey jesus, you know, when the disciple rankings come out, okay, just, just, just put us one and two, right? Maybe tie, we can tie 11 a one B, I'm okay with that. Remember jesus, you're, you know, I'm the one whom you said that you love, right? That's what john refers to himself in his own gospel account. Mm hmm. So just so when the disciple rankings come out, just put us one too and even if it's not one to just make sure we're higher than our friends, Isn't that how we treat things a lot of times that like your sin management or your spiritual life is kind of subjective to the people around you. Well, okay, maybe not you guys because you guys are super spiritual, but you know it's true and your kids, right? Your child gets in trouble. You try to confront them about, hey, what did you do at school? What's the first thing they say? If it's not, I didn't do it, They did this. They are, they're worse than I am like we we live in a subjective scale. We think man, as long as I'm better than this person, I'm okay. And Jesus comes along and says, it is not about position, it is not about power, it is not about status, it is about your posture. Are you willing to humble yourselves before God? Mhm Paul writes in Philippians, Chapter two verses 5-7, he says, have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in christ, Jesus, who though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God, a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking on the form of a servant being born in the likeness of men. And it goes on to say that he was obedient all the way to the cross. Then in Ephesians, Paul writes to the church in Ephesus, he writes there in Chapter two verse 10. Famous verse verse eight is for you have been saved by grace through faith, so you receive salvation. And so what's the next step? And it says verse 10 for we are his workmanship created in christ, jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. So jesus himself was our example, Paul writes this is why we were created so that we could serve and do good works to bring glory to his name. In fact, if you look most of the letters that paul wrote, two churches in the new testament start with some form of I paul, a servant of the Lord, jesus christ, that is the preferred title that paul wanted to share. Not one of positions but a posture of humility that I am called to serve him. I had a time that I remember as clear as day um when this became real for me, I've been in youth ministry for a number of years, I was feeling pretty good about myself. I was going through seminary and getting my master's degree and had wrote some curriculum with some friends that was getting published into a book. Her ministry was growing, I'm like, man, pretty good, this is, this is, I'm pretty awesome, not gonna lie. You know, like I'm probably gonna get a t shirt that says most humble person and somebody didn't get that, that's okay, we'll get it later. And I was like, man, this is great, it's awesome. I'm taking a group of, I took a group of students down to mission camp, it's called world Changers. I'm a world changer taking teens. They're going to be world changers. This is awesome. A couple weeks prior I got to speak at a summer camp. I was the speaker as if that added anything to my value. And so I was feeling pretty good right? Like the second night of the camp, we were there the first time I've ever been there, the basic premise was a bunch of churches, get together and do all these kind of served projects throughout the day and then we gather at night and worship. So different denominations, different churches, people they've never met before. I gather it's a pretty cool experience. But early on we were there and it was late one night and I, I got up to pray. Okay. Actually was the restroom, but it sounds more spiritual. So I got up to use the restroom middle of the night for like one in the morning and I go and there's only one bathroom for the guys and you know, again, most of this is church people don't know. And so I walk in and one of our leaders will just say what's sick? Um, well say up, not down if that makes sense and uh, did not make it fully restaurants. So I smelled it from the corner. Whoa. And I had that hesitated, are you okay? And clearly the person was not? Yeah, I was like, well, I think I maybe feel better now. Um, I gotta go back to sleep though. I'm like, okay. so he goes back to sleep because he was feeling sick, I'm there in a place I've never been, it's one in the morning, there's will say a mess they're all I have is like paper towels and like a thing of spray, I can't contact any of the camp workers because again brand new to this camp, I'm not there, it's the only restroom for the guys for like 2, 300 guys there and so I'm sitting there and my first thought was to pretend like I never woke up, right, some of you might have that right, like you see a mess, you're like yeah, no, I'm I well I didn't see it and then the next morning when everyone wakes up like whoa, that's crazy, wow, I can't believe, but like we were just preaching on serving, it was a mission camp, we were declaring our kids to be world changers and to serve like jesus served and I'm there one in the morning by myself, no accolades, nobody there, no one knows that I'm there faced with this mess and about to walk out, I almost sense this prayer, thought of jesus going really, really because this right here, this moment by yourself cleaning up a mess with nobody around, this is ministry, this is leadership and I'm not gonna pretend to tell you that like I started playing praise music and start dancing around and I cleaned up but I worked my way through it, it was rough, I'll just put it that way okay the next morning, not a single person knew that I did that I didn't, I didn't share and I didn't even share really with the group the rest of the time and I don't typically share that story because I'm again I'm not trying to make it about me, but I'm telling you this because it was in that moment that for one of the first times in my life I recognized the power of the verse where jesus said no the son of man came to serve not to be served and if you want to be like me you have to put everybody else first and so years later I remember that moment seeing man, I while I was tempted not to do that and how messy that was, Jesus came down in our mess, It says in Romans 5 8 that while we were sinners christ came down and died for us, did you ever stop to think that Jesus came to save the very people that put him on the cross jesus created and was sustaining their heartbeat and their breath and their flesh and their bones, he was sustaining the very people that pounded the nails into his hands before he went to the cross, he had a night with his disciples seen as the last supper and he got down and he washed the feet of his disciples, he said if you want to serve or if you want, if you want to be great in this kingdom, it's not about grabbing trophies. It's about grabbing a towel in the ground, having a posture of humility and putting others ahead of yourself. He said for even the son of man came to serve and we can do this because he died for us. He went so far so that we could trust him that we can in turn be a blessing to others that we can serve. That. I've come to truly believe that one of the greatest titles you can have in this world is one of servants and there's not a notoriety behind it, but there's joy. I almost entitled this morning's message. There's glory in the grind because we like to follow everyone's instagram stories and and viral posts and videos. But the problem is we are comparing other people's finishes to our starts, we are comparing our valleys to their mountaintops and so we see an image or a picture like man, my life's not like that. Be at the daily getting up, reading your bible, praying to God serving, investing in your marriage, investing in your kids, investing in your coworkers and your job, the emails, the meetings, the grind. Does it, does it, do you ever just wake up in the morning and you already feel frustrated before you even got out of bed. Like there are some people that are mourning people that wake up and it's like hello the sun is out right? And then and then there's the snooze button people and those are my kind of people, right? If if you've timed out how many times you can hit the snooze button before you have to get up, you're my kind of person, right? If you need at least two cups of coffee before you talk to a human being, I get you. But sometimes there's not this glorious moment but it's in the mundane, it's in the routine, it's in the rhythm where you build relationship and you serve and you put others needs in front of your own that you connect with God that you are just you have this joy that no one in the world can take away. You know it's crazy how christians look when the world is going after position and power and position and power and fame and then christians come in and like you don't need it why? Because I have all the riches I need in jesus christ, I have access to the God who created the world, who gave his life for me. And if the creator and savior of the world was willing to wash feet and to serve and to love the who am I not called the servant of love. Therefore when you enter a room you don't have to enter a room trying to get something from people, but rather you can enter the room and give what christ has already overflowed in your life sometimes. I think christians act like people do when there's a hurricane coming, right, hurricanes coming. You gotta buy up all the water, got to buy up all the bread, we gotta buy up everything and they buy all these things and the stores go empty. Why? Because they're like oh we better do it now. And as christians we kind of huddle up like oh we better get what we can now. It's like the apocalypse is coming like, oh no, but yet christ says no don't live in fear. The one who is in you is greater than the one who was in the world. If you really want to find purpose in your life. It starts when you serve people and when you find the posture of a servant and you love people the way that I loved you. You don't want money to control you give it away, you don't want power to control. You use that as a platform to lift other people up. I think about all the people who just served weekend week out here who show up before seven o'clock in the morning to set up everything to set up all the rooms and to to prepare the curriculum to prepare the music and the guest services experience and the people who are just every day. I mean I'm up here and you guys see me, but none of this happens without all the volunteers that give and why do they do that? Because they do that. So people can experience God on a personal level. I think there's a blessing and there's joy in that. What does it look like? Well, we're gonna actually give out this test on your way out. So you can find where you can serve and rick. Warren puts it as a, as a shape test that everyone has a shape and that you have been shaped ultimately to serve God. And that shape stands for this shape stands for spiritual gifts. You have spiritual gifts. You can have more than one, but everyone has at least one that God has gifted inside of you the ability to do something to bless the body. You have heart, which is the idea of what are you passionate about? You have your ability? What are skills that you bring to the table that others do not do you have your personality the way that God wired you and then you have your experiences both good and bad, everything from work to family, to relationships, education to ministry, all of those things combined. Give a unique shape that then allows you to impact people to serve. And so we're gonna have actually, there's online, there's on your bulletin, there's a website called free shape test dot com. If you want to go online, you can fill that out and figure out, okay, how am I wired? Where can I serve? Where can I get plugged in? Uh and we also had a paper version, kind of summarized paper version that your everyone in this room is gonna receive on your way out but you've been shaped to serve and then rick warren goes on to say that beyond this, that how do we serve if we are called to serve, we are called to have a posture of a servant, how can we look like jesus? And he gives us four things number one, it says the first thing to be a servant is to be available to be available In Matthew 20 verse 30-32 there are two blind beggars who are calling out to Jesus as the Jesus and the disciples are walking by and the disciples kind of rebuke these beggars say no, no, no, we don't have time for you. But jesus in that moment actually stops and offers healing to them in that moment. You know I battle business and even if not business and stuff business in my mind, I don't know if anybody else does that? They were trying to lay your head down on the pillow at night and your mind just going 1000 miles a second. What what is crazy to me is that jesus and I'm still walking through this and processing through this right now. If I'm just being transparent with you that jesus was running a universe but yet never seemed hurried. Is that crazy? He was gonna provide salvation for the world. But he had a moment to stop. I've never seen hurry. Mhm. How do we get there? He was available now. What are the barriers to being available? I think two things stop us from being available. Number one is self centeredness And # two perfectionism. We think we have to have everything in line to serve or to give. Have you ever had this conversation of like, well I'm not good enough, I'm not smart enough yet. I don't I don't have enough together, I don't have this, I'm too busy. I I one day I will but there's a miraculous thing that happens in your heart when you go from one day to today, when you move from one day someday if then to a two day here now. Okay God, the answer is yes, just give me the question because you don't have to have everything together. You don't have to be perfect. That's what I love about scripture. Everyone in the bible is messed up. It's awesome. I used to read it and get depressed because it seems like everybody in the bible is messed up. I think I'll wait a second if God can use them. God can use me and started with being available. The second thing to serve. Like jesus is to be grateful to be grateful, Paul writes to timothy in first timothy 1 12 he says I thank him who has given me strength, christ, jesus, our Lord because he judged me faithful, appointing me to his service. It's really hard to be bitter and grateful at the same time that when you are grateful for thanking God for what you have, you're more likely to approach situations with an open hand to give back. Now. The barriers to being grateful. Though our comparison and wrong motives, comparison and wrong motives, it's hard to be grateful when you're always pointing to somebody else who has more are pointing down to someone who has less. Everyone does this, don't they? And school. It's like I got a 90 or 91. How fast did you run? You get 10 left? I got 11 right? Oh, you got the iPhone 10. Cool iPhone 11. No big deal. It's right here by the way, right? But we naturally compared all the time parents. You don't you don't want to do this, but we all do it right? You ever compare kids not, not outwardly, but like you go into a public situation and you see something going down, you're like not my kid or you're in a situation and like these kids are like perfectly behaved and speaking in british accents and drinking tea and your kids are taking their clothes off screaming and running from you and you're like, really? I don't know I give up, right? We do this in our jobs, we do this in our relationships. But yet if we were to stop comparing and start being grateful for where we are. I think God would bless us even more and then puts us in a pasture to serve. And then the wrong motives idea is the idea that sometimes people get into service because even that becomes an idol. It's like, yeah, I do serve. I'm pretty awesome. Right? They don't, they don't do that publicly because that's clearly wrong. But you get that in your heart a little bit. What I'm talking about like, yeah, I am pretty good. Right? That, that was me in that moment when I was at the world changers camp and I said really okay, I'll give you something. Let's see if you're proud after that. So, oh, did you ever play pickup baseball as a kid where you would have teams and who gets to go first. You have the bat and you know what you do with your hands. It's like here here here and then one on top Gets to Go 1st. Right? Sometimes we approach life that way and we're like where wherever someone's hand is like, oh yeah, right here. Okay. Oh well I wouldn't know I did this right? And we immediately start going. But if we remove that, we removed the desire to compare. It's really freeing. It's been really freeing for me to enter a church plant where when we hear about a church that has more people or more baptisms or more services or more gifts or more things happen instead of like man, why not here? It's become, wow, that is awesome. When you can celebrate instead of compare, it frees you up to surf third to serve like jesus, you have to be faithful, serve like jesus, you have to be faithful, paul writes, he says therefore my beloved brothers be steadfast, immovable abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain. It's the idea of really discipleship or faith is as long obedience in the same direction. Now the barriers to being faithful is distraction, distraction and then ultimately delayed fruit. Have you ever committed to a diet? And then like you worked really hard for two days and you're like, where's the results? I have a lifetime of poor choices. I've had two days of great choices. I don't know what's up, I give up, right, we either get distracted or we don't see the results right away. But I was reminded, it was interesting because early on in the church planting process, we were meeting, but we just had the same number every time and we were doing ads and service projects and and talking and we just kind of kept at the same pace, same pace every week, same group every week or maybe different people, but same number every week. And then I was reminded thinking about the idea of a growth is that in order for a plan to grow, the initial growth is actually underground just because it's not visible, doesn't mean that God is not working on you. It doesn't mean that you're not growing. So don't give up. The last thing to serve. Like jesus is to be generous to be generous. The beginning portion of second Corinthians nine paul writes, he said you will be enriched in every way to be generous in every way which threw us will produce thanksgiving to God. And that's a recognition that you cannot out give God try it. It won't happen. You very rarely find someone who is genuinely generous and angry. Typically you don't, it's interesting that people who give of their time, talents and treasures and and regularly give to other people actually seem to be the most content. How can we serve? Like jesus will be available, be grateful, be faithful, be generous, you have been shaped to serve and that comes when we stop fighting for our position and we start finding our posture as jesus was a servant as the band comes up on stage. I want to just or the last thing here too with that is that the barriers to being generous or materialism and scarcity mindset when you feel limited, you're hesitant to give away. But when you believe that jesus is your source then you recognize? Yeah, I can give that away because I got plenty of more coming. Okay, so what can we do, what can we do? Well, number one is if you're in this room this morning, you've never prayed to receive jesus. I want to encourage you to do that and you can do that because he was willing to give his life for you in a moment. I want you to pray along with me. But secondly if you've received jesus and you're running okay, what's next on the way out this morning? Everyone's going to receive a shape test that can take home and take and we're gonna discuss in our growth groups this week, but just just find out how are you wired, where might God be working on your heart to where you can jump in And the last thing step three is just just to start serving Move from one day it's a today everywhere from setup to tear down to kids ministry to guest services, to tech, to music, to all kinds of things. God puts his people together as the body that brings glory to him and love to our community. Let's pray dear heavenly father, I just thank you God, I thank you that you, you came to earth not to be served, but to serve God I thank you that you gave your life as a ransom for ours and that because you served us God we can serve others and may we not fight for position but start finding our posture one of love and of humility. I thank you for all those who serve on a weekly basis here in Mission Grove and God. I pray for those who might not know you as Lord and savior when we just accept you now God, we cannot make it to heaven on our own. We believe that you are Lord and that they're dying on a cross and rising again. Our sins are forgiven and we can have access to you and access to heaven and eternal life and God. We commit this day to you. We ask that your spirit will work in this room right now and God if someone is receiving you're trusting you or questioning about their next step that they would mark that connection card and bring that to the guest services table or bring that to the offering box so that we can follow up with them and God when we take that shape, take our personality, our experiences, our abilities, their spiritual gifts God and when we give that to you and serve others because you first served us. Thank you for taking the posture of humility and giving us the example that we have been created to love others the way that you first loved us. Thank you for being our hope God. That's in the sense that we pray, we