How to Serve Others Like Jesus | Sacrificial Secrets That Change Lives

TRANSCRIPT

I've discovered there is some incredible power that flows when you serve, when no one's watching, when no one's watching. I remember one night we had a big event here and all the stuff was. Usual stuff that's gotta happen. And anyway, we closed it up and we turned the lights off. But then I wandered around, I realized there's a whole bunch of stuff that didn't get done.

And I know we get a cafe and it opens the next day. So I just, after everyone and gone, I quietly came back and there's just me and my mop mopping around and a bucket and cleaning and making sure everything's ready. And I was sitting there and I was walking along and I was doing a bit and I was, I ended up saying to the Lord, I said, this is this is so small. Lord, what I'm doing here, it's really not, doesn't matter that much, does it? And it's gave me a bit of a slap. He said, this matters more than you realize. It matters. This matters so much more. And as I was cleaning and that I got a, I got an adjustment about what was going on. I said, this is not about cleaning the space.

This is about what's going on inside you. It's about what I'm changing inside you. This is serving in secret when nobody sees 'cause. Every time we do something in secret, something happens. Pride in us is dethroned and love in us is enlarged. So all those hidden kind of small things of quietly giving and praying secretly and helping someone without getting any credit.

In those moments I've discovered that's when I sense God's presence the most, in the most unlikely of places. And I have learned that through serving, sacrificial serving. It's like having a candle if I've got a candle and it's lit. And you've got a candle that's not lit. I have to go serve you. I have to go to you and then light your candle.

And then when I've lit your candle, your faith ignited. But mine, it doesn't diminish mine at all. And then I can go and light another one, and then I can go and light another one. And there's something incredible in that, that in sacrificial service, the flame of faith is imparted. So there's an, there's the tension that comes with this serving doesn't just bless others.

It refines us. Serving, refines us. When I've seen people running and go, ah, just, I don't pick up a towel, I don't serve. I know exactly where they are at, and I know exactly where they're gonna stay because that's the end of the road. If you wanna do it, that's where you get stuck. It exposes in us. What it does.

It refines us. It exposes am I serving to be seen? Or am I serving to be shaped? They are two different things you can serve to be seen, so you get the accolades of people you can serve 'cause you enjoy that it does something in your own ego or you are serving to be shaped. That night I was learning some things that more was going on inside me than was ever about what I was doing, but it was changing me and it was transforming me because.

When you are serving to be shaped, you're actually following our master. Now, I have found that God's the closest to me when I'm sacrificially serving, so I do it a lot and I've also seen that little sacrificial servant things lights another person's candle of faith really fast. Here's what we're up against today, because we all know now you guys would never do this.

I know none of you would ever do this. We celebrate serving today, but it's got strings attached to it. 'cause we like to post our good deeds, hashtag our generosity. It's kinda build our brand of look at me while I'm doing a great thing for these poor people. It's serving has turned into a social currency.

That we used to trade with. And it doesn't really help that much when God from God's perspective. So when you see someone that's doing that, I call them selective servants. So a selective servant serves when they want to, how they want to what time they want to, and they have their agenda in the background for wanting to do it.

But the servant of all that we're talking about, I'm talking about this, the servant of all. That's when they serve wherever, whenever, however, and they're ready to do anything. It's completely different. 'cause there's something being shaped in that, one that's not being shaped in the selective serving. So when it comes to the kingdom, it's not about recognition, it's actually about resemblance.

It's about resemblance. Because when you serve, you resemble someone. It's not about applause. It's about becoming more like Jesus every day. It's about a healthy spillover that affects other people and it's coming out of a pure heart rather than out of, if it's selective, it comes out of a tarnished or broken heart.

Still, we've all seen. We've all seen sacrificial servants. You could, you know them. You live with 'em, you, some of you got friends. This is the ones you know like that. Hey man, I am sick and tired of this relationship. I really want to leave. But for the sake of my family and my kids, I serve in the background.

Nobody sees it except God, but it is shaping you. It is changing you.

We got people that sneak in here, put all the chairs out that you sit on, take 'em away afterwards. We've got people that do coffee, got people that clean. We've got people that forget some things that they should be doing and then have someone has to go around and turn 'em all on. But we're trying. There are people that are seing in surfing in Secret all the time.

Volunteers that turn up every week and they don't turn up because they want to get accolades and they want to give thanks or something, they turn up because they love God and they want their love for God to be shown. And it reminds me when I really think about servanthood and sacrificial service, it reminds me that it's not convenient and it's always costly.

It's not convenient, and it's always costly. It costs you something. When Jesus made the statement that upset the religious people of the day, he changed everything. He changed everything he said, the greatest, which in their mind, oh, the greatest. Let me get up the top of the ladder. I gotta be on the pinnacle.

That's the greatest. Jesus says no, you wanna be great. And if you wanna be the greatest, learn to be the servant of all. Dad doesn't really fly on social media. Jesus. It doesn't really work. People wanna be this. Yeah, but you're not trying to be like people, I thought you wanted to follow me and resemble me, and I'm doing this.

So this is really interesting. Like even it spills over even into our values. When you think about our values, sometimes we think about those values even from a selective servant rather than a servanthood mindset. Like honor and respect is not just about being polite and nice to people. Honor and respect is with, is you choosing to lower yourself to meet the needs of someone else that is stuck.

It's you going with your candle and lighting someone else's flame.

Selective servants only want to serve where they wanna serve and so they can be seen. There's always an agenda in the background. It has to fit into their schedule. It's gonna fit in their time, their plans can't cost them anything. And if it's not my job, it's not my job. That's it. Someone else's job, selective servants.

But Jesus he just didn't give his spare time. He gave all. He gave everything he gave his life. He didn't go, oh listen, I'm coming down here to serve. I got a little bit of spare time on the side. On the side while I'm running the universe over here, but I'll give you a little bit. He didn't give his spare time.

He gave all everything of who he was and this service, I'm telling you, sacrificial service is uncomfortable. It's really uncomfortable 'cause it's never gonna fit into your nicely schedule. It's gonna be uncomfortable at times. You're gonna feel overlooked. Nobody sees me. No one knows what I'm doing. Wo is me.

That's how it's gonna feel. And you're gonna, and see, but then that's where you gotta get you a heart rate. Why are you doing this and you wanting someone to tell you? You did a great. Pat on the back that's your reward or you're doing this so that your Heavenly Father can shape you so you conform to the image of Christ.

So you are a, you gotta bed a brighter candle that you can go and sh light someone else's life. And it's difficult because deep down we all crave recognition, but God is shaping our motives and that's what transforms our night, our lives. When you serve in secret and you do something like that you soon find out whether you're doing this for applause or whether you're doing out of obedience.

Whether you're doing it 'cause you want a platform, or whether you're doing it because you are resembling our master. Jesus. I first was confronted this when I was pastoring in another church at Ipswich. And I had a CEO that came in there and he was the CEO of Boeing and say his income was, let's just say more than my house every year.

And he was a very switched on guy and he said he wanted to serve. And I was thinking, oh, okay, you're a real bright guy, Kevin here and worked there. Said, he goes, no. He said, I want to serve in secret. I said, so what do you wanna do? He goes, I will, this is the thing. I won't do anything that involves a platform or leadership of people, but I will clean toilets and I will mop and I will mow and I will hang around and I'll do all this kind of stuff.

And I go you've trained so much and you're up here. Why would you want to do that? And he said, because that's when I feel closest to God. And it's that moment there that makes me effective in my CEO position. Yes. If I lose my sacrificial servant heart here, I become an obnoxious dictator of A CEO.

And so he said, that's what I, that's what I wanna do. So I said, sure, we got seven acres. Knock yourself out. There was plenty to do. So let ask yourself a question. Ask yourself a question. Now this morning, you guys are online as well. If God never thanked you for serving, would you still serve? Would you still serve if no one ever noticed your generosity?

And that could happen around here because one of the, one of, if you're fairly new to us around here, one of the things that I decided really early outta conversations with Jesus was that I would never know what anybody gives. So I'm the senior pastor, I don't know what anybody gives. We've got a great financial team and they can say, but I, as the pastor don't know 'cause I wanna treat everyone the same.

So you could actually. I could never, you could give a big donation. I might never come to you and shake your hand and say, thank you very much. It could happen in here because that's the way that we're leading. Let's have a look at some things about what God has to say about servant, and let's start with his spillover model.

Never spillover. You only got one or two things coming out of you. Either you have a healthy relationship with God and his love is coming out of you that spills over into someone else like lighting the candle, or you will come outta the brokenness of this world and the brokenness of your families and things like that.

And then you're trying to help someone, but then you do this and all the good that God's trying to do gets lost. So this is so important. Look at what Jesus, what they said about Jesus. This is from a guy called Mark. He was one of the apostles and one of the subs he wrote, it's got an ancient manuscript that formed part of the Bible, which was come together on about 350 ad, something like that.

But these were considered to be so important documents for the church and for life. And this is what Mark said in chapter 10. He said, for the son of man did not come to be served, but to serve. So he said, Jesus communicated to us. He didn't come to be served. He came to serve, but how? By giving of what?

His life for what to ransom. Many. This is our model. This is our master. He says, I did not come to be served. How often do we do things and we want people to serve us? No. He said, I came to serve. How are you gonna serve? You gotta give and what have you gotta give? The only thing you can give is your life, because that's what lights another's candle.

But if you do that. You can ransom some people that are sitting in darkness strapped in brokenness that don't know Christ, don't know the God that loves them passionately, but you can ransom them by your sacrificial servanthood. That's amazing. And we all think it's big things that change people. I have been doing and pastoring long enough to know big things don't change people.

I've seen people have massive healings. Absolutely. I'm thinking they'll be right for the rest of their life. Two years later, they're not even walking with the Lord. Miracles don't hold people, doesn't hold people. It's a living relationship with the God of the universe. Through Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.

That is what holds us. So Jesus is saying, you just gotta follow me. Do what I do. Don't make it about people serving you, you serve them. You give of your own life for them and watch what I might do. We might ransom a few. It's amazing if anyone deserved to be served, Jesus. He actually deserved to be served, and yet he picks up the towel.

So there's a servant. There's a service that shines and shatters all at the same time. You think about Jesus, some of the things that he did in serving of people, it shattered preconceptions about people. Had a woman caught in adultery. The religious people, they're all lined up with their stones ready to stone it 'cause that's what it said to do under the law.

And he goes and positions himself between her and them.

That's not comfortable service, that's sacrificial. They could have turned on him, but God was doing something. And he saved this woman. He still tells her Stop sitting. He's not lowering the bar, but he stay saves her. He goes and sits with tax collectors and sinners. Nobody sat with them. Nobody liked them.

Everybody hated them. They were considered to be two below a standard of ever coming to knowledge of God. He lets lepers touch him. That would make him unclean. That's uncomfortable Servanthood. He was on the Sabbath choosing compassion and love over the law. He welcomes children to come in touch, come hang out with me when they were considered nothing in the first century, and one woman who was mourning her dead son because she knows.

She's gonna starve to death. There's no welfare at this time, and that traps him away in a coffin. And Jesus just taps on the side of the coffin. The guy comes back to life. It's a sacrificial service that's going on because he knows that woman who's got no one and nothing. It's amazing. So the kind of service that Jesus talks about that spills over is love that serves when it costs.

And you see this right up to the very end when he is having his last meeting. And John records it in his ancient manuscript and he says, we're all in the room. Everyone's hanging around. This is great. We're having the last kind of things going on and then Jesus picks up a towel and goes and washes their feet.

He's taken. From the rabbi teacher thing and goes and becomes the servant even again. And he has to wash their feet. And Peter's all upset. You can't do that. You can't wash my feet. He said, if I can't wash your feet, buddy, you got no part in me. So then he goes, oh, wash my feet and my hands and my head. He said no, just your feet.

'cause your feet are keep walking you in the wrong direction. So he's just, and then he goes, now you know what? You should do this to each other. You just do what I've already done. He didn't. He did nothing for applause. The king picks up a towel. The creator of the heaven's earth stoops down to wash the created.

There's something about sacrificial servanthood, even in the very heart and the character nature of God. You gotta remember, Jesus did not come to be admired. He didn't come to be admired. He came to be imitated.

That's what I mean. It's about resemblance. He says, you've watched me do this. You've seen me do this. This is not hard. Yes, it's uncomfortable, but it's not hard. You need to do exactly the same if you are representing me, if you're not, knock yourself out. If you don't wanna represent Christ and you're happy with that way, fine.

You're off the hook today. But for those of us that say we do wanna represent Christ and we wanna follow him, and we want to have a great light that's gonna light people's candles, then we've gotta make sure that we are resembling our savior. So Jesus served till it hurt, and then he serves them all. The world says, climb higher, says climb higher.

Jesus says, stoop lower. He's so counterculture, not even just to the world, to the religious system of the day. World says, build your platform. Get those likes. Jesus says, carry a basin. Carry a basin and tell you never know when you might need one. World says be served. Jesus says, serve, and here it is.

Serve even your betrayer. Jesus Betrayer was actually with him when he was serving, washing their feet.

I don't know about you, but when I know someone's gonna betray me, I don't even wanna be in the room, and I'm certainly not going for a car ride or anything like that, but he says, pick up a towel, wash his feet. But see, this is the serving that shines the love of Christ, but it shatters all of the arguments that people have that have been hurt by the religious establishment, that have not represented Christ well, changes everything while he's gone to serve washed feet.

What are the disciples doing? They're arguing about who's the greatest. That must have been terribly frustrating for Jesus. I've just spent three years with these guys. I'm now going to the cross. I gotta go back to the father. And these bangler still don't get it. It must have been so frustrating. But Jesus just picks up the towel and he serves.

Why? Because he said, I didn't come to be served. I came to serve. How Jesus, by giving what Jesus my life, what for Jesus That I might ransom some that some out of this sacrificial service might see my father that loves them, that created and loves them. I want you to have a look at a short video.

It's about eight minutes, but I want to bring this whole thing of sacrificial servanthood down to really small, practical kind of start where it's really about taking the little bit that you have and using it to light someone else's faith, and it's in the small and it's unseen, but that ripple effect, that spillover is huge.

So have a quick look at this.

Speaker 2: There are many ways of serving the Lord. Some people do great things. Some people are good teachers. Some people contribute lots and lots of money. But when we talk about this handful of rise is very humble. The self is done in the corner of the kitchen that nobody sees.

Speaker 3: Rice has been the staple food of the people of Israel, the main life of the people you are giving what is basic, essential, fundamental to your life. You are sharing that with God.

Speaker 5: Is a practice where each miso family. Puts aside a handful of rice every time they cook a meal and later gather it and offer it to the church.

Speaker 6: That rice that has been collected is then later sold to people who cannot afford rice at the market rate. In that way, it's more accessible to people, but in the same time, it generates income for the church as well so that we can be more independent and not rely on other people.

Speaker 5: This concept of Phi Tam became so popular throughout Misra over the years that giving was not limited to some individuals. The whole of Misra, rich or poor, young or old, everybody contributed to it.

Speaker 4: Oh Rice.

Speaker 3: Here the handful of rice offering inspires us that God has called us to share what we have with God for girls ministry.

Speaker 8: Is the most backward state in India and we are the poorest of the poor, but still, we can raise fund for the ministry of the Lord, we can support mission workers and in the meantime we can also send overseas missionaries.

Speaker 9: Zora Sinat has been making use of all the money and has benefited the people in all ways.

For the construction of schools, for the hospitals is saw theological college, wherever it's needed, it is freely used.

The Women's Center was set up and that's a center where 40 to 45 students are annually admitted and taken care of.

Speaker 10: The purpose of Women's Center. He used to uplift the underprivileged women, especially from the rural background, those who cannot stand on their own feet. It was funded by the sinat itself, so especially through the women department

here, everything including their own material for their teaching and for their own course, everything. Completely supported by the church.

Many students, they revived themselves. They stand in their own fold and they start support families. So this is the transformation that we experience so far. Many of our students who graduated from Women's Center, they happily inform us that now they are the bread winner of their family.

Speaker 9: One of the wonders of this collection of rice is that we teach each and every one of us to not only collect the rice so that we can do something good for others. It also helps us spiritually because as we go on collecting the handful of rice and keep it aside for the Lord, we have a vessel in every home, a vessel, and we say, this is God's vessel.

It's not simply randomly collect it and put it, we pray and keep ourselves in the hands of the Lord each day, each evening, each morning. That's the spiritual richness. The power that we feel, it's not only the amount, it's what is passed through

Speaker 4: us.

Speaker 8: We miss people say, as long as we have something to eat every day, we have something to give to God every day.

Speaker 6: What I've learned from BFI Trump is not about how much you have, but it's giving from the heart. And not have any expectations in return. Then only we'll be able to see what living a generous life is.

Speaker 9: So long as a river flows, there's space for other waters to come in and flow in. The same thing with us human beings, especially as Christians, unless we give out, we are not able to receive.

I am very much proud to be a woman proud because I have seen the ways of God.

Way back when the amount from handful of rice was first collected and handed over to the Mram Sinat, it was 80 rupees, which is to say less than a dollar. And now currently we raised more than 25 million US dollars.

We know that it's not enough. It's with only the help of God. Our father,

Speaker: handful of rice little

has made a mag magnanimous impact on that community. Did you get that? 1% of that place was Christians now 95% and all they're doing is using rice.

I love how they've caught the fact that no matter what little we have, we can be generous with it. We can be generous with it. And I love it. 'cause it's coming out of their, it's coming out of their life. It's not coming out of all this massive abundance. It's like there's so many accounts of this in the scripture.

It's like the little boy with a lunchbox and what I got this, Jesus, I don't know if you could do anything with it. And Jesus. Fees five thousands like, or it's like the woman that comes to the temple and she's sold and she's got something of an offering and she throws in a few cents and Jesus goes, whoa, check this out guys.

Meanwhile, he's been watching all these other rich dudes coming in. They're throwing large amounts of money in there. He doesn't seem to take pay much attention at all. I'm sure the disciples are going, Jesus, we can do a lot with that. But this. He goes, you have no idea what we can do with this. What my father can do with this is way more than that.

They're just given outta their surplus. She's given out of everything that she's got here is a whole community. They're just giving out of what they have, part of the sustenance of their life and they've moved. They've moved away from just a serving, being an intention. They've actually moved it into action.

It's gotta move into action. Sacrificial servanthood. So important. So I guess for us it's what are we gonna do about this? What have we got in our hand? What can we do? And I think, keep going back to what Jesus said. I did not come to be served. I came to serve how? By giving of what my life.

Why? So I could ransom, sum. Yeah. This is how we light other people's candles of faith. This is the serving that shatters and shines. It shines the love of Christ, but it shatters them people's misbeliefs and misconceptions because of religiosity that has represented God not so great. So here's my challenge for you.

Maybe do one unseen, intentional act of service, one unseen. Intentional act of service. Something that costs you something that's uncomfortable, something that interrupts your routine, something that is uncomfortable and I dunno what it could be, who knows? But God will show you. He might have you pay for someone's meal that you don't even know that could get expensive.

I went to Hillcrest the other night to see the coral car, the coral singers. It was wonderful. I had to stop by KFC. Two large chips, five little sliders in the gravy. 30 bucks. 30 bucks. What a rick. I said to the lady there, I said no, I'm not buying shares in the farm. I just want a few chips. She didn't get it.

They could cost you taking someone out. I don't know what might be. The Hillcrest students came in here and they wrote kind little messages on the tops of their coffee cups. They had nothing to do, so we just sitting there to do that and they go choose kind, live courageously. They're writing all these wonderful things, not religious things, but really wonderful things.

I bumped into someone on Saturday. They came in, she says, oh, I was feeling flat today. I was hoping there was some more messages on the cups. I said standby. I go right one. No, what I'm saying is that those people felt like they were just doing something to do with school. No way. They were sacrificially serving in the background.

They had no idea who that message was for, but it was for that lady. And guess what? She's back looking for more. So if you happen to be here and you wrote it, keep writing. We've got plenty of coffee cups. Make it part of the ministry that's part of a sacrificial ministry. If you're young, you might decide, I love my siblings so much and it's really, it's his or her time to do washing up tonight.

I will go before anyone sees and I will wash those dishes and I will unpack that and I'll put it all the way nice and clean and I'll do it while not looking and then I'll just walk away. Yeah, as if that's ever gonna happen. Some examples don't translate. Okay. Here's one. Come early to family gathering, stay late.

'cause sometimes in our society now, it's ah, I've come and I've got from God what I needed to get, and now I'm on my journey. You shouldn't be coming to get from God here. You should be meeting with God through your soap devotions every day. You should come here full looking for people that need their candle lit.

So come early, hang around, see us around. Hey, come on. Sit, talk to you. How was your week? Oh, I'm not doing good. Can I pray for you? Light their candle. Stay back late. Stay back LA and see all the ones that are just hovering around. Maybe that's something you could do, but whatever it is, and whatever you don't post it.

Don't tweet it. Don't tell anyone about it. Just keep it between you and God because the scriptures tell us that your what you do in secret and your father sees he'll reward you when you do it up here, yeah, someone says, great message Pastora. There won't be many doing that today, but you know what, you know that's okay.

'Cause I'm not worried about that. But the point is, that's the accolade. That's it. That's my reward. Gone. When you do it in secret and God sees it in secret. That reward has exponential blessing that goes on and on, like a cup of rice. These ladies doing this in their home, got no idea where it's going, what's happening yet it turned from like 1% of the population, knowing Jesus to 95%, all with just a practice of giving a little bit out of their sustenance of who they are.

It's amazing. I think the sacrificial side of servanthood, which is about the spillover, I think it is so important. I actually think it lands on almost spiritual warfare because it deals with pride, it deals with pride, and it deals with humility in us. And it moves us away from, what about me? What about me?

What about me? That's not my job. I don't wanna do that. I don't want to go the extra mile. It deals with it. And you remember, I'm a servant like Jesus. Jesus. I didn't come to be served, but I came to serve how? By giving what my life. So if you're precious, if you're precious about your life and you don't want to be interrupted, and this is my private space, don't call me this, that, and the other.

You know what you're not in the, you're in the selective servant. You're not in the sacrificial servant, and you've gotta deal with that with God because there's no blessing on that. There's no blessing on it. But it's spiritual warfare because this is what's going, it's dealing with this pride, and I know it's gonna make people feel uncomfortable.

And maybe you've got people in your world that you don't like. All the people that Jesus helped, nobody liked them, and he still engaged. He still pressed in. He still loved them, and he cared for them and concerned and he gave of his life. Maybe there's people in your world that you've been stepping around and stepping over and maybe you just need to lean in and see if you can't light their candle.

We are just a simple serving thing that breaks down. It shines the light of Jesus, but it shatters down the preconceptions that God's got something against them or God's angry with 'em, or God wants this from, and God wants that. But why is God sending you to serve me and you're giving something out of your life?

Why would you do that? We hear this all the time. Why would you guys come here and do this? Why? Why would you do that? What's in it for you? Nothing. We do that because Jesus said to do that. He said, you go love one another the way I've loved you. How did he love us? You've only gotta turn your attention to the cross.

And you see the extent of that love self-sacrificing for people that didn't really like him at all, but needed him desperately. And it's the same thing for us. So I would say do one this, do one just secret, sacrificial thing this week. Don't tell anybody just between you and God. But then what I want you to do is I want you to pray this prayer as you're doing it, Lord, make this my new norm so that it doesn't just be one here and there, but take me to the place where I can do this every day.

Where I am as the scriptures say, a living sacrifice here to show my love for God through others, asking to make it the new norm because some of us have a trail following us. Some of you have a trail of disaster. I hear about it all the time. Switch it. Switch it to a trail of generosity. I know some of you, the people go, oh no, here they come again.

Oh, I wish I could go the other direction. Switch that thing up, and the way you switch it up is you go to being a sacrificial servant. What can I do? How can I help? And then God can use it. And then you wash. What happens in the relationships? The relationships change because you've actually moved away from a brokenness model.

And don't get me started on hr. HR is accentuating this terribly. I am serious. It's accentuating terrible where people will not do anything that's outside of what they're paid to do or if it's inconvenient. I'm not against HR 'cause I know there's some things there, but the manipulation of HR by people that don't want to contribute and just want to consume is terrible.

But that's the story for another day. Here we go with this. Our city doesn't need any more random acts of kindness. They don't need it. What they need is people of kindness that dispel the kindness of Christ every day. And I hope my words are getting into your head so that you wake up in the morning and go, how can I display the kindness and love of Christ?

Paul summed it up. He said, this is our act, spiritual act of worship. Singing is not our spiritual act of worship. I love singing. It's an expression of worship, but living as a living sacrifice, giving and serving and loving and caring and supporting, that is our spiritual act of worship. He tells us and as wherever possible, do it unseen in secret so that God gets the rewards.

And I think if we could all do that, I reckon. I reckon everything would change within the concept in the lives of churches. 'cause people would feel loved and their needs would be met and they feel supported. It would change churches, it would change schools, it would change reli all religious establishments if you could just get 'em to do it.

But you, we seem to be having a problem getting some people to actually do that. But if you can do it, everything will change. Everything will change for you. Everything will change for the church, the first Century Church. People didn't understand it. They did not understand what Jesus had done. They knew they about the law.

They had no idea what the heck he was talking about. But what they did love is that they loved the way that they were loved with a sacrificial love. And so people out there, they might not fully understand why they, I dunno, these guys believe in some guy that raised from the dead. I dunno what it's about, but man, I sure love being around them.

Because they know how to love. If we hear that at the junction once a day, we hear it 10 times a day. I just love being here. Why do you love being here? It feels like a place where I can belong while I work out what I believe. And if I don't believe what you believe, you're gonna love me just the same.

Absolutely. Welcome to the family, and it comes through a cup of coffee. A cup of coffee, a bite to eat. Someone sitting, someone riding on the lid of a coffee, give a nice message. That's really all it is. So overflow has come to the end, which is actually really the beginning. It's really the beginning.

'cause now I actually hope that some of you will go back and maybe. Talk to some friends that you've got and they say, I know you're struggling in your marriage and they got things going on in your work and your business and school and all that kinda stuff. How about we work back through this series together and see if we can't change this, see if we can get rid of this mixture thing that's going on, see if we can't get some genuine love going, genuine support and genuine care because that's really, overflow is really the pattern of discipleship.

We learn to be filled. We learned to listen really well as part of their gift, we learned to speak well. We carry a spirit of forgiveness. We forgive as Christ has forgiven us. And then we are just these sacrificial servants that imitate Jesus. Not coming to say, he serve me now. I'll serve you. And how are you gonna do that?

I'm gonna give, and what are you gonna give? I'm gonna give my life. That's just my time, my talents, whatever's required. Whatever you need. Why? Because I wanna ransom you. I want you to see the God that loves you so much that sent Jesus to die for you. I want that's why we exist. If this was not a real if Jesus didn't want this, when you receive Christ the first time, he might just as well have killed you and sent you straight to heaven.

What's the point of hanging around here? Because there is a lot of people that don't know me. There's a lot of people that are confused about me. There's a lot of people that's heard a lot of nonsense about me, and it'd be nice if someone would just imitate me so they could actually see how much I care about them and how much my Heavenly Father cares about them.

So final thing is this. We don't need any more opinions about God. We don't need any more opinions about God. The internet is filled with them, and most of them are wrong, filled with opinions. Podcasts are filled with opinions. What we need is more reflections of him, and that can only come from a Christ follower that's committed to be a sacrificial servant so that the love of God spills over onto everyone.

So let me pray. And then I'm gonna invite Anita to come up for a moment 'cause she wants to talk to you a little bit about that video. Father, I just thank you for this series. It's been. It was one of those series, Lord, that wasn't planned. It was kinda came outta nowhere. We were thought a different direction and you just said, no, this is the time for this.

So I have to believe that there is a divine moment for this and this is what's needed now, not just within the context of our church, within the context of every church and in the context of society. People need to learn to love well again, but they can't love well unless they first experience your love and they experience your forgiveness and they experience your life and then that can spill over out of them.

Lord, would you just continue to help us stay on the journey of being conformed to the image of Christ? Help us to continually just love people with the best that we've got in our life and our hope is that they might come to have their faith. Candle lit that they might see just how much you love them, just how much you care about them, that one of their, one of your followers might serve and imitate you the way that you served us.

So Holy Spirit, I pray that you would lead us and you would guide us in Jesus' name, amen.