Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Hey, cc. Midweek, I'm going to say a prayer for us. Dear Father, you are a God who is so, so good. I thank you for all that you do to bless us and find us and remind us of who you are. I pray that tonight you would be at work in our hearts. Help us to see Jesus in a new kind of way. Help us to follow him to build the kind of church that glorifies his name in all that we do. In Jesus name I pray. Amen.
[00:00:28] So last year, I read a book called Build the Life youe Want by Arthur Brooks and Oprah. Because you know Oprah. And it's interesting. Arthur Brooks actually is a professor at Harvard's Business school, Harvard Business School. And he teaches a class on the science of happiness. I've heard him speak. He's a brilliant guy. And in his book, he says, you know, we all want a happy family. But what does that actually mean? He says, in truth, happy families exist only in the minds of the writers of the wholesome family television shows. They don't exist in the wild. In real life, families are made up of people mashed together, right? Like, we all have the family sitcom picture in our mind. Like every show, something bad happens, but then they figure it out and there's that moment at the end, right? But real families don't behave that way. They said it can lead to amazing love, but also plenty of conflict. And that's one of the challenges that families face, is conflict. But here's what he said that's fascinating to me. He said, challenges are actually opportunities to learn, to grow in this unique and powerful area of love. Here's the tension. When we feel conflict, usually we see it as evidence that we're doing everything wrong, right? Like, everybody's grouchy or fighting or frustrated or something's not working, and we're like, yep, I knew it. I'm a failure doing a terrible job. This isn't working how it's supposed to. He said, actually, family unhappiness due to conflict should be a signal that something is important, right where it should be. You're upset because your family matters to you. And listen, how powerful this conflict is. The cost of abundant love.
[00:02:14] I don't feel that way. I've never been in the conflict and be like, you know what this. This means something is right right now. Have you? Like, I've never been in a fight with somebody I love and be like, you know what? You love me so much. Look how hard you're fighting with me right now. Like, usually I Feel like the discomfort and the not great about it. But he says you have to acknowledge it, it is good because it improves your communication and gives you the opportunities to solve problems. Denying it is unhelpful. Cause he said, what happens is family conflicts don't die of old age. Some of us are older and we're like, yeah, I know what that means. It didn't actually go away over time. It's still there, right? So I love this because he says it needs to be addressed, it needs to be worked on. And you see it as an opportunity to grow and learn how we do life with other people. Because you can't do life without conflict, right? Unfortunately, no matter how great the people are around you, everybody's got opinions, and sometimes they're louder and sometimes they don't mash up with your opinions. And in our families, when we're all bumping into one another, it can hurt us or it can grow us, it can help us and challenge us, or it can stunt us.
[00:03:32] What about when it happens in the church? Because just like the family is a group of people all mashed together, so is the church. And we get all these people coming from all these different places and all these different backgrounds. What do you do when we bump into each other here at the church? So the last few weeks, Sarah's kind of been talking about what are the values that go into creating a healthy family? How do you fight for those values and work for those values? And I want to step us a little bit further today because one of the best groups that God gives us to be a part of is the church, and it's his good idea. And how do we build the church in a healthy way, even though we're all these different people coming together from different backgrounds, different life experiences, different opinions, different things we've learned along the way. I'm a girl who's grown up in the church. Preacher's kid.
[00:04:26] Started coming to church here when I was 2. So if you're counting, that's a couple of decades. Just a few, maybe more. Maybe like four decades, guys. Four decades I've been in this church. And we spent a lot of time at church. When you were kids that didn't go to church, you would go home after school or do after school activities. We would go back to church. Like, dad would pick us up and we'd go back to church. And at one point, we did church twice on Sunday and once on Wednesday. Because you love Jesus. If you went to church three times a week and there really hasn't been a part of church that we haven't been a part of. Like back in the day we were the team that folded bulletins. Thank God we don't do bulletins anymore. Back in the day we were the kids ministry. Back in the day we were, that was, it was our family and we grew up and I've seen a lot of things happen in the church, seen some incredible things happen.
[00:05:19] My dad was in an accident years and years and years ago and it was pretty bad. He had to be life flighted, had a bunch of surgery done, there was a shortage on blood and the church rallied together and they all went and donated blood for my dad. Isn't that incredible? Like nobody asked them to do that. They just wanted to. That's why he's so adamant about giving blood, because it saved his life. I've seen these incredible moments where people have sacrificed and given beyond what they could imagine to see the work of God done. We have great stories to tell in a lifetime of being a part of the church. But we have hard stories to tell too. We have had beautiful, take your breath away moments, We've had really sad ones. We've had life changing experiences and we've had heart hurting ones all in the many, many years of being part of the church.
[00:06:11] But here I am. It's my happy, safe place. I love the church, but it's not everybody's happy, safe place. You'll talk to people, maybe it's been you at one point or it's you today. And the church didn't feel like a happy place, didn't feel like a safe place, didn't feel like a place that was really for you. It was more the place that was hard to be or hard to be around or just didn't feel great.
[00:06:38] So we have to ask ourselves what is the church? Because it's more than just this beautiful building, which is beautiful. It's more than just the multi campuses in different cities. It's more than just just four walls that people are inside of. The church, as it turns out, is you and me.
[00:06:56] We are the church. The people who say we love Jesus and are trying to follow him.
[00:07:02] We're the church. And just like with our families, we have this baggage that we carry into us that we've picked up and acquired over the years. The same thing comes into when we show up at church. We bring a lot of life baggage along with us and it affects how we see the church, it affects how we think about the church. We have past hurts or insecurities or Disappointments, it all shows up in how we think about the church.
[00:07:29] And sometimes that baggage we take into church with us creates a distance where we miss out on this incredible opportunity that God has for us. Because to really grow into the potential that he's given us, that he's created us with, we absolutely need connection. We need people in our life.
[00:07:52] See, conflict with people is inevitable, but division isn't. Division is a choice. Conflict is, we have difference of opinions. We're going to bump into each other. You see it one way, I see it another. You have one value, I have another. Division is, you can't be in my life because you think differently.
[00:08:10] Division is critical. I'm here and you're there, and there's something better about me. Division is separating, and it's never who God called us to be in the church.
[00:08:22] And so when we think about the church and connection and doing life together, it always starts with me. What values am I working towards? What standards am I holding myself to? What kind of church am I helping the place? What kind of place am I helping the church to be? See, we all can talk about what other people have done wrong, right? Like, don't even, like, set a timer. I can come up with a dozen things, right? Like, you don't even have to think hard about something someone else has done wrong. It comes to mind, but it's a lot harder to challenge what am I actively doing to make something better. It's easy to point out where people have let me down, but it's not a lot of good change that can happen there. I can control me, right? We've talked about, what's the circle of control. I stand in my circle of control. That's who I have control over. You know what, I don't have control over everything else. All of these people in the world, okay, I can change me. And so when we talk about the church and who God's called us to be, we always have to turn the lens on ourself first. First to say, how am I helping God build the church, and what kind of church am I helping to create? So to give us a healthy framework for this, to give us some ideas to think through. You don't have to start from scratch. Turns out God is really smart. And there's something called a Bible. And in the Bible, there's these great ideas that God gives us on living a blessed life and building the church. We're actually going to look at a letter that Peter wrote. It's First Peter, chapter four. Starting at verse eight, he says, above all, love each other deeply. Because love covers a multitude of sins. Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others as faithful stewards of God's grace in its various forms. If anyone speaks, they should do so as one who speaks the very words of God. If anyone serves, they should do so with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory, the power, forever and ever. Amen.
[00:10:37] So it's interesting because Peter's writing this letter. Who are. It's the people who are trying to figure out, like, how to do life with Christ. Because the old way of life is gone and they're in this new life and it's hard and they're far from home and nothing is easy and nothing is comfortable and they know Christ, but how do they follow Him? How do they live this out on a daily basis? So Peter writes this letter to help them, and he says, here's what you can do next. You can love deeply, you can offer hospitality, and you can serve other people. And it's a good framework for us how to do life in the church. How is God calling me to treat people around me in this life that he's given us to do together? So we're going to start with this idea of loving deeply. I love the qualifier, like, don't just love superficially. Don't just love fakely. Don't just love when it's easy. Actually love deeply. And Peter can teach us this because it's what he learned from Jesus. I love if you study the New Testament and the Gospels and the life of Peter, his progression from being this fisherman that Jesus called to follow him, he's real impetuous. He's like, all in for this one second and then all of this for another second. And sometimes he speaks without talking. And you see this progression of Christ at work in his life. And it's interesting because all of these moments where Christ was teaching his friends and demonstrating who he was and what it looked like to follow him. Peter was there listening, and we see it showing up in his life. Like one time he's like, yeah, but Jesus, how many times do we have to forgive somebody? Like seven. Let's just put a number on it, right? There's a cap. Like, maybe not seven, right? And Jesus is like, no, like seven times seven. Some say 70 times seven. Like he's challenging Peter. Like, yeah, keep going, bud. Like you can do better. You have these moments where Peter's like, even if I have to die with you, I'll never turn my back on you. And then the next thing you know, a middle school girl intimidates Peter and he's like, I don't even know who Jesus is.
[00:12:44] Know him.
[00:12:46] And then you have this moment where Jesus shows up in Peter's life after the heartbreak of denial, after this wrenching guilt moment of like, what was I thinking? I abandoned my friend. I denied, I swore I didn't even know him.
[00:13:04] And Jesus shows up in Peter's life and says, do you love me? And just like he denied him three times, three times, he gives him the chance to say, do you love me? Now here's your job. Go feed my sheep. Go take care of my flock. Here's what I'm calling you to do. And Peter is changed by it. And then you see in the New Testament, this impetuous guy who would sometimes be like, yes, Jesus is the Messiah to other times, like, Jesus is calling him Satan. Like, I don't know what an insult looks like to you, but if Jesus calls me Satan, I would feel insulted, right? He has these moments, but then all of a sudden he out preaching the word and thousands of people are giving their life to Christ.
[00:13:44] Peter knew Jesus and he was so deeply affected by the love of Jesus Christ that now he gives it to us as a just like rock solid piece of advice. If you're going to figure out how to do life in the church, start here. Because Jesus said, how are people going to know that you're mine? How are people gonna know that you're connected to me by how you love one another? And then he said, you love, right? You know, the commandment, but love as I have loved you. So this love deeply isn't just the easy stuff. It's the dig down deep action, sacrificial kind of thing. It's not the I say I love you when it feels good or I use my love to manipulate you to get you to do what I want you to do. It's not, I love you when I feel like it, and I don't love you when I don't. I love you when you're performing, I don't love you when you're not. It's this constant, how did Christ love me?
[00:14:47] Because we know that Christ loved us in a forgiving, gracious, wonderful kind of way. And the more we connect to the love of Jesus Christ, the more that fills us up, the more that's what comes out of me.
[00:15:02] See, what I fuel up on is what comes out of me, out of the abundance of the heart. The mouth speaks. If you want to know what's in somebody, just surprise them. See how they react. That's probably always not great, is it? Right. I've been caught off guard before, but what's inside of us is what's going to spill out. And if I'm connecting to Christ and thinking about him and his love and who he is, that becomes what comes out of me more.
[00:15:30] Or I'm focused on me, my selfishness, my fear, trying to avoid problems or avoid pain or discomfort, trying to just make life easy and not have to worry about hard.
[00:15:46] Some of us choose to do life that way, and it shows up by what comes out of us. But Peter says to love deeply, we have to be connected to the love of Jesus Christ because that motivates who we are and how we treat other people.
[00:16:02] Because God loved us first, we're capable of loving other people.
[00:16:09] And sometimes we just need the reminder. Like, how did God love us?
[00:16:15] He didn't hold back. He gave us the best of himself in Jesus Christ.
[00:16:22] He didn't, like, portion it out in small measures. He didn't hold anything back in the extravagant love that he showed for you and I. And Peter knew this because he was there the night that Jesus washed his friend's feet. And he showed him that because he was their teacher and their Lord and he humbled himself in the position of a servant. Even the people he knew who would betray him, even the people he knew who would turn their backs and run when things got hard, Christ loved them still.
[00:16:53] And then I think about myself and I'd be like, do I really want to wash your feet knowing you're a jerk? Right? Like, no, maybe I want to dunk it in more mud. But this is where Peter connects us to the heart of Christ. Christ didn't love us with scarcity. He loved us with abundance, with grace upon grace upon grace. Christ showed us love. And now he says, your job is to love deeply other people, and love is unselfish service to other people. Love is not me focused. It's other focused.
[00:17:30] Love isn't a feeling. It is, but it's also action. We love deeply, striving to be who Christ called us to be.
[00:17:42] I love Megan Fate. Marshman said what God values. Kindness over comparison, celebration over envy, reconciliation over being right, eternal treasure over material joys, listening over needing to be heard, and love over self consciousness. See, that's a marker I can use for myself. How do I love? Like Christ is telling me to love. Because what does Peter say? Love covers a multitude of sins. When somebody's trying, it shows. When somebody's checked out, we know it, you know it, I know it, we all know it. But when somebody's in it and trying, it shows up. It shows up in what they do and what they say and how they act. And when they're acting in loving ways, it covers up a lot of mistakes, doesn't it? Like the idea isn't you have to be perfect because none of us are perfect. The idea isn't even be just like Jesus, it's follow Jesus. And as you follow Jesus, nobody wants your heart to be better than Christ wants your heart to be better. Nobody's working harder for your heart than Christ is. And it's letting him transform us into the people he's called us to be. We don't expect perfection from the people that we love. We expect them to try.
[00:19:01] And what happens is when we're trying, when we're working with love and connection, and it shows up in being patient and kind and never giving up. So the first question we have to say is, are we creating a church that loves deeply?
[00:19:18] When people come to Christ's church, are they seeing a God who loves ferociously and extravagantly and how do we help share that more and more?
[00:19:31] So Peter says love deeply. And then he goes into this idea about offering hospitality. Hospitality isn't word we use a lot unless you're like in the service industry, like hotels, restaurants, right? Like the kind of service that you get. Horst Schultz was actually the co founder of Ritz Carlton and he wrote a bunch of stuff and spoke at a bunch of stuff. And he said having employees that are nice can be the largest growth engine for an organization. He said being nice is the largest driver of customer satisfaction and leads to loyalty. The very thing that doesn't cost anything is what can be the biggest advantage for your organization. That's what he taught people in the service industry. Like when they're asking about, like, hey, like you built this huge business in this fancy hotel, like, what, what's, what's your advice for success? And you know what he said? Be kind.
[00:20:20] The thing that actually doesn't cost you anything makes a huge difference in an organization. And the same is true for us. Being nice makes a huge difference in a lot of stuff. There's so many things going on in your life, in my life, in the world. We've been places right where we felt welcome before. Like, man, it instantly been felt like home. Have you been there before? Like Maybe at somebody's house or a friend's house or family, or you go somewhere and you're like, oh, this feels great. Can breathe, can relax, can feel like, you know, like, unwind or. We've also been places where we felt miserable, and we were, like, looking at the clock, like, when can I go? Did I get my hour in yet? It feels like 10 hours. And you felt uncomfortable and you just didn't want to be there. We've been in both places, and Peter's using this idea of hospitality. Like, when you offer somebody into your house and you take care of them, you want them to feel welcome, and you make them feel. Feel welcome by being kind to them. This is how it's supposed to be in the church. People should walk into church and feel welcomed. They should be seen and valued.
[00:21:34] That's how it should feel. Not like, oh, my gosh, I'm so uncomfortable. When is she gonna stop talking already? It's been five hours, right? Life slows down when things are uncomfortable. Just me, Anyone else, like, miserably uncomfortable. And you're looking at every second on the clock. Peter says, because we know Christ, because Christ has welcomed us in to his life, his heart, his purpose for us, we become the people who welcome others. And when we talk about hospitality, we're talking about generosity and kindness and being friendly and welcoming.
[00:22:14] What if we made it a goal to treat people generously? You're generous with your attention. You're generous with your focus, your time, your actions, your thoughts. Do you ever think about being generous with your thoughts before?
[00:22:28] Instead of immediately thinking the worst of somebody, what if I say, I don't know that to be fact? What if I think the best of them instead of just, like, blanket statement judging people who are around us? What if we start with, we're all trying to do our best?
[00:22:46] I love. I heard one speaker, he's like, what's the least creepy explanation I can come up with for why this happened? Because we're pretty good at picking the creepy explanations. Like, oh, my gosh, this person is a creeper. I don't know. We have all of these ideas, but what if instead we said, what's the actual least creepy reason I could come up with?
[00:23:07] Instead of being defensive, what if we work towards being open instead of reacting defensively to everything or hurt? Maybe we say, somebody's not trying to attack me here. Maybe they just had a bad day. And in our thoughts, we start being generous about other people, and we even turn that into God. I don't know what they're going through. Maybe help me understand better. God help me to be more kind when I feel grouchy. God help me to be more open when I feel defensive or critical.
[00:23:43] Part of being generous with our thoughts is, what can I let go of? We're really good at holding on to hurt, aren't we? Like, I will set up this tent. I will live in this tent. I will make my camp here, and I won't let go of it. And then we build all of these defenses for why it's okay for us to live in that hurt. And you know what? You're right. They were terrible. If you explained it to anybody, they would all be on your side. That is probably 100% true. But still, what if you let go of it?
[00:24:14] What if you forgave somebody for it?
[00:24:17] Wouldn't life feel better?
[00:24:19] Wouldn't you feel better? Do you ever let go of something? It just almost feels like you can catch your breath Instead of trying to be the people that prove everybody wrong or how smart smart we are or how right we are. What if we worked from the opposite assumption? There are people who are a lot smarter than me. What can I learn from in them? I actually learned this idea. I can't remember where it came from. But, like, when you're in a conflict, like when you're fighting with somebody, instead of getting defensive, instead of arguing the point, you're supposed to say, wow, that's interesting. I'm curious. Could you tell me more? I've never felt like saying that in a fight before. I'm just going to be really honest. I'm really impressed with people who can be angry and be like, oh, wow, what an interesting point of view. Please tell me more. Right, Because I so want to, like, fight to win. Like, I want to be right. I got. I can quote books, I got facts on my side. But have you ever noticed what that looks like for the people around you when you go into that mode? You guys are probably not as intense as we are. You know, my family, we're loud, we have opinions.
[00:25:26] There's a lot of us. You just learn to yell louder to get heard in the group. Like, you didn't wait your turn. You just yelled louder. And so what happens is, like, we all want to be right. But if you've ever watched what happens when you go into that mode, we squash people around us when we go into fight. Prove I'm right, you're wrong, I'm smart, you're not mode. And it really is hurtful to people around us.
[00:25:54] What if we just practiced kindness, it's such a small, simple, basic idea. But when people are kind to you, it makes all the difference in the world. I've been in foul, grouchy moods before. I had to go return something which I hate, returning things. It's never easy, but I had to. And I'm telling you, it's like the person wanted to argue with me and she's like, well, I don't know what I can do. I'm like, just give me my money back. That's all I want. And I'm like, it's like, it's not her fault. She works in customer service. I'm doing everything I can in my power and I'm like, amping up because I just want to fight. But I'm like, don't do it. I'm not going to feel good afterwards, Right? But then I've been in places where people were just so genuinely kind. Like, I'm so sorry that happened. I'm so sorry that was difficult for you. Let me fix it. And I'm like, you are. Are a hero, right? Like, the grouchy people that want to argue with me, like, make me want to lose my mind. And the kind people, I'm like, oh, right, okay, you guys. The same is true here at the church. We're either the kind people that make other people be like, I can catch my breath for a second. Or we're the grouchy, miserable people that make people go, oh my gosh, I knew it. The church is awful. Why did I even try?
[00:27:08] But we get to pick who we are and how we treat other people.
[00:27:16] Can I ask you, when was the last time somebody felt welcome around you?
[00:27:20] When was the last time somebody felt included? Like, they could just relax and catch their breath?
[00:27:27] They weren't going to be argued to. They weren't going to be guilt tripped or shamed or told they were going to hell. Like, they just got to be be around you and comfortable. They didn't have to pretend to be something they weren't.
[00:27:41] If we want the church to be a welcoming, kind place, you guys, it starts with me and you. We become welcoming, we become kind. We set the example by talking to people and connecting with people and including people. And kindness and courtesy and respect go so far.
[00:28:03] Instead of seeing people as being different in all of the things that separate us and divide us and tear us apart, we're looking for the best in each other. We're looking for the common good in one another.
[00:28:17] We're looking for, there's Something about you that's human. And I see that. And I'm here for that. Even people who aren't for the church. Guess what? People don't have to be the church for the church. No problem. We can still be for them. Because Christ was for me when I didn't even know he existed. Do you know that before I even got it into my mind that I needed help from God, God was already for me. He was already for you, which is why you're here right now. And if we want people to know that there is a God who is loving and kind and welcoming, it starts with us. You don't have to agree with me. You don't have to be on my same team. You don't have to have the same opinions as me. You don't even have to be for the things I'm for. I can still be kind to you.
[00:29:08] We can still be kind to one another.
[00:29:12] We love deeply. We offer this idea of hospitality. And then he says, we serve others. He says, use whatever gift you have received to serve others as faithful stewards of God's grace in its various forms. What's a steward? They're overseeing something. You're overseeing the grace that God has already given you. And as a good steward, you use what God has given you for other people. See, everything you need right now to serve someone else. You've already been gifted to serve all the grace that you need to help somebody else. God has already given it to you in abundance. You're stewarding the grace and the gifts and the strengths that he's already given you. Which means every one of us can make a difference right now where we are. This isn't a someday thing when my life gets figured out. Someday when I get organized, someday when I have enough time, someday when I'm out of this phase and in a different phase, or someday when the bills are paid, or when I have enough money, or when I'm married, when I'm settled, when the kids are older. Right? We can someday ourselves out of our actual life because there's always going to be a someday that we can put things off until. You can always put it off for another day. But you could also do it right now. And you could do it right now in the kind of way that makes an impact for good, in ways sometimes you can't even understand or measure. Because service is really just the value of caring for other people. It's taking time and space out of your everyday life to help somebody else. Every day somebody needs help with something. It could be a big thing, it could be a small thing. But when you're committed to serve, what you're looking for is other people. How do you help relieve some of the burden of life that is too much for them to carry? See, the way life happens is we all have different loads. Sometimes my load is heavy and your load is light. And when we walk together, you help me carry what's too heavy to do on my own. That's God's good idea of the church. We build one another up, we carry one another's burdens, we lean on each other to do life. And then guess what happens. You're gonna have a phase in life that your burden is too heavy and someone comes alongside of you and they help you lift that burden up. And in doing life with one another, serving together, serving alongside each other, serving one another, life feels lighter, feels more hopeful, feels more like possibility instead of too much. And I just can't take one more step.
[00:32:02] Service also helps us see people better. Do you know it's really hard to hate up close? It's really easy to hate from a distance. When we make people issues, it's easy to hate issues and turn that into what we hate about people.
[00:32:17] When we make people burdens or problems, it's really easy to feel annoyed and be like, I don't want. Want anything to do with that. But when you actually get up and do life with people, it's really hard, really hard to hate up close.
[00:32:32] Because each of us carries the image of the God who created us. And when you look somebody in the eye, when you spend time with them, when you show up again and again and again and you get to know somebody, they're less a burden and less of an issue. They're less a problem and they're a person just like you and me.
[00:32:54] And yeah, the world is full of difficult people. I know. But you know what? I'm difficult sometimes, and so are you.
[00:33:01] And God loves me even when I'm being difficult.
[00:33:05] I'm never going to be as perfect as God is, but I can do better at loving difficult people.
[00:33:10] World is full of mean people.
[00:33:13] People have said some hurtful stuff.
[00:33:15] Isn't it ridiculous? Like, you can forget 90% of the nice things that people said to you. You guys, I can still remember something somebody mean said to me in eighth grade. Like, I still remember how stupid it made me feel. And I still, like, cringe and like, shrink a little bit because it made me feel stupid. Yes, there are mean, hurtful people, but we've been mean Hurtful people, too.
[00:33:38] And we can do better and serve one another.
[00:33:43] Sometimes people won't appreciate what you do. You'll be like, did you. I'm out here working my tail off for you. Would you just hurt you to say thank you? Right? Like, you've been there before. Like, you're like, God, I'm in. Let's do this. I'm going to show up. We're going to do some hard stuff together. I remember the first mission trip I went on with our high school ministry. This was quite a few years ago. And we did it with a group. I didn't realize, like, I brought an awesome group of people, kids. And didn't work with any of them. And I worked with other people's kids. Just, no problem. Like, I'm here for it. Let's go. And we had to paint this house, and none of the kids on my team wanted to paint. And I'm like, I'm pulling out every trick in the book I got. Like, I'm in my 20s at this point. I'm like, I'm fun. We're here for this. We're gonna make it a contest. We're gonna do games and bring in prizes. We're painting this house. I am, like, slaving away also, it was Missouri. The heat index was over 100. I'm dying. It rained, and then it stopped, and it was muggy, and there was bugs. It was not ideal conditions. We got to the end of the week, and the woman whose house we were painting, she came out and started complaining.
[00:34:46] And she's like, well, my husband was here. My son was here. And he said, this is wrong, and this is wrong, and you need to do this, and you need to do this. I'm like, jesus, take the wheel, because I literally have nothing left. You know, the end of the week, they sent, like, two more groups. Rachel was on the group. Rachel showed up, and she was like this delightful joy. And we finished the job. But you're gonna do some stuff sometimes, and people aren't actually gonna be grateful for it. They're gonna criticize you and tell you you could do a better job.
[00:35:13] We can serve anyways. Because sometimes the greatest work God is doing in that moment isn't in them. It's in me.
[00:35:21] Sometimes the greatest heart that needs changed isn't theirs from the service. It's me, because I'm the grouchy one that God is trying to chip away at and show me we can do better.
[00:35:34] We can serve one another. Jesus said, here's how the world's going to know your mind by how you love one another. We know the love of Christ because He demonstrated it by serving us.
[00:35:47] He held nothing back and gave all of himself in the service of humanity.
[00:35:53] Surely I can show up here and there and find time to help somebody else.
[00:36:00] And service is always going to make you a more humble, a more loving and a more thankful person. Because sometimes it's so easy just to take for granted how much good that we have.
[00:36:11] We see it every day and we take for granted that that's not normal. And then we're in a different context and we're like, God, forgive me for taking this for granted. I. I'm so thankful for what you've done.
[00:36:23] We should be the church at the front lines of kindness, of service and generosity.
[00:36:31] And if we really think like the church is the hope of the world and going to make a huge difference, then we have to be the ones shining the light for Christ. We have to serve every opportunity we can. And Peter just gives us two quick examples how to do that. He says, you can serve with your words and you can serve with your actions. So by serving with your words, what you're saying is like, our words are powerful things. They matter. We throw away thoughtless words that hurt and we didn't even realize it. But we can be intentional. We can lift people up instead of tearing them down. We can encourage, instead of discouraging, we can say, my words can serve somebody else for good. Today, I'm going to encourage them. I'm going to offer something kind. I'm going to say something about joy or goodness. You have a contribution to make. Use your words to serve somebody else. And then serve with your actions. Find a way to help. Every week, say, I work this many hours, I cook this many hours, I sleep this many hours, I go to school this many hours. Maybe I can find one or two hours. That's not about what I have to do for me. And I could give it away to help somebody else. You can serve in the church. You can serve in your community. You can serve at awesome organizations that are fighting the good fight to make awesome good things happen in the world. Here's what I want to challenge us tonight.
[00:37:53] We're the church. It's who God called us to be. The church isn't the building, the church isn't somebody else. The church is you and it's me.
[00:38:03] And if we want to glorify the name of Jesus Christ in our generation, then we live intentionally with Christ by loving deeply, by showing kindness and Looking for ways to show up and help. I can't change what other people do, but I'm always in charge of me. I'm always in control of what I do. Even when people aren't doing what I think they're supposed to do, do. I can still be the girl. You can still be the guy or girl that Christ has called you to be. What we do, what we say, how we act, can all be driven by the incredible love of Jesus Christ. I love this quote from Don Carson. He said the church itself is not made up of natural friends, it is made up of natural enemies. What binds us together is not common education, common race, common income levels, common politics, common nationality, common accents, common jobs or anything else of that sort. Christians come together because they've all been loved by Jesus himself. They are a band of natural enemies who love one another for Jesus sake.
[00:39:10] That's who Christ calls us to be. It's the love of Christ that connects us. It's the incredible saving grace of Jesus Christ that draws us together. We're going to mess up. We're human, but we're going to love so deeply that love will cover a multitude of sins. When the church is driven by hope, filled with love, service, kindness, generosity and a welcoming attitude, friends, it is the most powerful force in the world. There's nothing God can't do. When you and I show up and say yes to following him. Let's be the church. Let's show the world how awesome Jesus Christ is. Dear Father, I pray that you would help us. I recognize that doing life isn't always easy and we need more of you and less of us. I pray, Father, where we haven't gotten this right, it wouldn't feel like one more thing on our to do list. It would feel more like us turning closer to you, opening our hearts that you might work, be at work in our hearts. Change them for good in only the way that you can. Father, I pray that you would build your church here at Christchurch. I pray that it would be a place of hope and light and a beacon of the good that you want to accomplish in this world. Father, I pray that you would build the kind of church that affects change for good in this world, that is at the front lines of kindness and generosity and helping and making a difference, glorifying the name of Christ in all that we do. We cannot do this without you. Help us. I pray in Jesus name. Amen.
