Greater Serving

Well, guys, thank you so much for being here tonight. This is this is a month of greater serving. Um, you know, it'd be a real good plan to have like, I don't know, opportunity to go out and chop down trees. But like half of y'all would be like, "Nah." And then the other half would be over excited and think, "All right, we got tone that down just a little bit." But in in this month of greater serving, we think of doing. We really do, right? I mean, when we talk about that, we think, "All right, what can we do? What are we doing?" I I'll be the first to admit pastors really challenged me this month on on how to think about serving. I uh I personally and and this is I personally don't give a lot of thought to it.

Is that fair? I I feel like that um my I was brought up in in in the culture that I was brought up in in the home I was brought up in. I was taught all right, this is just what you do, right? and serve and and I mean that in in the in church in the home and and wherever I was and and as he started challenging me this month on this uh I realized I didn't have a really good philosophy on serving if I'm just being honest like I've just done and that's part of being busy right is uh and maybe part of my personality is being a little too busy a busy body maybe you can say yeah Okay.

Uh, and sometimes about the dumbest things, but I had I'm I'm not done with it, but I'm endeavoring to dig into it and and and maybe reestablish myself a little bit and not in not necessarily and I don't want to I don't want to talk about necessarily the things we do to serve. We'll get there tonight. But I do want to I do want us to reorient ourselves in serving because chances are you're like me and you you may have visited it once or twice in your life, but intentional serving. When was the last time you really were intentional with it? Now, some of you guys, it may be it's every day. Yeah, y'all probably are. Y'all probably Jesus just, you know, it's it's probably it's Jesus. Did you say Jesus? >> Yeah. Well, you know, y'all y'all probably that made over.

Uh, but I did want to I wanted to go to Leviticus. I wanted to start um in the in the law because the law was the school teacher. It's right. And so I wanted to start to understand the heart of the law so that then we could get to the spirit of the law or understand the letter of the law so that we could get to the spirit of the law and the intention get Leviticus chapter 19 and verse 9 uh it starts to mention this and it doesn't really it's not talking about serving but it is serving. Leviticus 19:9 says, "When you reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not surely thou shalt not surely, oh Lord, wholly reap the corners of thy field, neither shalt thou gather the gleanings of thy harvest.

And thou shalt not glean thy vineyard, neither shalt thou gather every grape of thy vineyard. Thou shalt leave them for the poor and stranger. >> I am the Lord your God. You shall not steal, neither deal falsely falsely, neither lie one to another. Shall not swear by my name falsely, neither shalt thou profame the name of thy God. I am the Lord. You shall not defraud thy neighbor, neither rob him. The wages of him who is hired shall not abide with thee all night until the morning. Thou shalt not curse the deaf, nor put a stumbling block before the blind, that but shalt fear the Lord thy God. Fear thy God. I am the Lord. Very simply, those first two verses there, you shall reap the harvest. You You're not to You're supposed to leave some things in the corner.

You're supposed to not gather all the grapes. D Deuteronomy chapter 24 reiterates it this manner. But thou shalt remember that thou was a bondman in Egypt, and the Lord thy God redeemed thee thence. Therefore I command thee to do this thing, when thou cutest down thy harvest in thy field, and hast forgot a sheep in the field. Thou shalt not go again to fetch it. It shall be for the stranger, for the fatherless, and for the widow, that the Lord thy God may bless thee in all the work of thine hands. When thou beatest thine olive trees, thou shalt not go over the bows again. It shall be for the stranger, for the fatherless, and for the widow. When thou gatherst the grapes of thy vineyard, thou shalt not glean it afterwards. It shall be for the stranger, for the fatherless, and for the widow.

Thou shalt remember, thou wst a bond man in the land of Egypt. Therefore, I command thee to do this thing. He said, don't forget where you came from. Don't forget where I brought you from. Don't forget all those things. Uh that that story is brought to life very or that that principle that law is brought to life in the story of Ruth. Uh the example of quite literally of Ruth needing something a widow who her mother-in-law was also a widow. She had no one to take care of her. She had she couldn't make a living on her own. And here she is needing food. And Boaz uses the letter of the law to his advantage. He was like, "Y'all see her. Give her a little more." You know, like can't tell me he wasn't doing that. Like, "Yeah, yeah.

get you know this one guy he probably put his laziest hand like working her path you know the guy he knew wasn't going to get much of it just like all right you see that corner you always cut those corners anyway so maybe that's where we get cutting corners from >> yeah but it has a different meaning >> I don't know I don't know maybe it has a double meaning there >> uh he he he looks at in And he's he is serving someone without them even knowing it. >> That's that's what he's talking about here. The law was given in an error in a and and to a people and to a culture. I'm going to be very careful with how I say that or it's going to be a joke that is quite stingy. See what I'm saying?

Trying to be very careful there. Like didn't mean to I didn't think of that till I got into it. Thanks, Eli. I appreciate that. But but that culture uh and and if you're a sustenance farmer, you're not really known for your liberality, right? That is I mean, even today, a farmer is the epitome of what the what a conservative movement movement is. Now, not mean people, but frugal. Count every penny, know every dime. And it's it's talking to people that that are not just frugal, but to people that that may have an issue with giving, with serving someone. He says to the fatherless, to the stranger. I I think about often think about anybody ever thought about time travel like I want to go then. I want to go back there. here. I want to see what that was. Sister Jen just thinks about travel.

That's it. Not even time travel. Just travel in general. If there was time travel, good lord, she'd wear it out. They'd be like, "All right, you've expire. You've exceeded the mileage limit here." >> Uh time travel, you go back, if you if you traveled from city to city in that day, it was not like it is now. In fact, well, I say that it's like it's pretty much like what it was in the Middle East what it is now. You know how hard it is to travel from city to city in the Middle East? Depending on the region you're in, the the valleys, it's village to village. And if you don't have if you do not have the right dialect, you're a stranger fuel >> or enough fuel.

or if you're and and there's that was very much that was a very common theme especially and and some of you guys that were not raised in in uh rural America probably don't have a really good reference point for this outside of like the movies but rural America and rule anything gets real clanished real quick. Anything that isolates itself gets real clenished real quick, right? I mean, guys, I love West Virginia. I love It's the most beautiful place in the world that I've ever ridden a motorcycle. I mean, beautiful. But I'll just tell you, I've never been more wigged out, weirded out, scared getting off my motorcycle to go into a coffee shop than when like this random dude was just like, "Hey, man. What's up?" And I'm like, "Dude, back off, dude.

I don't know what you're doing, but back up." And it was super weird. Like, I don't I don't I was like And then the next town the same way. I was like, "What is in the water?" I was I was like, "This is not cool." And I was just like a passer through her, right? And this is in America. Like now that back a few thousand years and everyone's scared of everyone. The stranger is danger. And that's real. He's telling them to be kind to strangers, to serve the stranger, the traveler. That's so counterultural, almost counterintuitive. says, "Also look at the fatherless and the widowless and the widows, the people that cannot repay you serving them." The mindset of that he gives them a very practical example of that. But the reality is that that is that is just the letter of the law.

The spirit of the law delves into that. How do we serve each other? How do we serve those that are without? How do we serve dayto day? Um, there's me. How do I get it to there? All right. Hang on. I got a video. I got us. Hang on. I got us. Hang on. Now I got to disappear behind the computer. Can you? >> No, >> it's not mine. I just sent this to them and they couldn't play it, but I may can play it on this. Let's see if we can hear it. All right. >> Where's my link? >> Where's it at? Ah, wrong one. There we go. All right. Great Depression. It's a very interesting time in we we don't we now no longer have have people alive that live through the Great Depression essentially. All right.

So, this lady Margaret, not Margaret, Margaret. I get Let's see if we got sound here. No, man. H. All right. Well, >> I messed it up. >> All the way to the very bottom right. Is it on? >> What is this thing >> in the audio room? There's sound and they're freaking out. >> They are. >> They're like, "What is he doing? Why didn't he practice this? And my dad used to let them >> volume. >> No. All right. I'm going to tell you, Margaret. >> It is. It's in this TV, but I don't have the remote for the TV. >> Oh, >> yeah. You take the volume thing and >> just caress all the sides and see if you can find the >> I'm done. I'm giving up on it now. >> The I'm giving up on it now.

It's probably It probably is >> just and just I'm just email this to everyone. >> I don't see it. >> There's a little speaker that pops up on the sidear. Yeah. >> See? No, that's just settings. >> Okay. >> Regardless, Margaret lived through the Great Depression. All right. Margaret and her family, like she was young in the in this she was young during the Great Depression, if that makes any sense to you. Um it was she she talks about her family and how people would come to them or they would go to and what would happen is someone would need some food. And so her mom would say, "Well, why don't you chop some wood for us?" And then they would feed them. Something else during the Great Depression I found I found several excerpts.

I didn't just rely on this video that doesn't come out with sound. But um there was no sitting around waiting for things to improve after the stock market crash. After a while, people began to realize this was their new normal. This is firsthand experiences here. Entire families packed up and thousands of them followed the work, sometimes hundreds of miles, picking cops from harvest, one harvest to the next, moving on when the season ended. Uh Jay's family ran on that model from top to bottom. When it snowed, someone grabbed one of the their their three shovels and started knocking doors. And his family, the oldest boy, finished concrete for almost nothing. And a younger brother, got hired to lock up lock up shop at 14 for cheap wages. But the family was grateful.

The girls took in washing, ironing, sewing, and did whatever odd jobs came their way. Every person in the household had a role finding a way to bring in some money. Um, Susan Hegstad's father, a poor immigrant outside of Boston, apprenticed as a silver smmith as he got older. His sister danced, sang, and performed in line production for pay. The family used what they had, in their case, talent, and turned it into income the only way they could. Uh, Linda Bryant's father grew up in an Appalachin holler, so poor he wore old tires laced around his feet for shoes. interesting thing, really cool thing. Engineer, uh, MIT engineer went to Africa, was there for a little bit like during college and then he actually engineered growable shoes, uh, out of tire for orphanages in in in Africa.

And actually, we bought some, Lauren bought some uh for the orphans in Haiti. Super cool. But anyway, he engineered so it would grow with their feet. It would It was latched >> and last a long time. >> I was wondering what it might >> Yeah. >> But it Yeah, >> it was super cool. >> Um and like you can't buy them retail. You have to like buy them for a purpose and then they manufacture them and Yeah. >> Um he and his father mined slate from a cave on their own property and sold it for chalkboards. when he was old enough, he worked with the railroad and there was always something if you're willing to do it. Many people were willing to do just about anything to help keep their families from starving.

Um there there a whole bunch of whole bunch of stories very in some communities the people had just a little more than others managed to find ways to create work for their neighbors like odd jobs on the property tasks that needed doing small wages that meant everything to a family with nothing coming in the kind of work that preserves a man's pride nobody called it charity it was what you did for your neighbor it was just what you did for your neighbors if you Pride. We always look at that as a negative thing, right? Prideful. There is something about giving someone an opportunity to preserve their pride. Serving someone cannot man. I'm I'm going to be real real straightforward with this. And I think I think in the room you guys understand this.

I'm not teaching teaching the youth class, but there was a reason that it was for he said for the ladies or for the widows and for the fatherless. He didn't say for the men. You know what that means? We're men. I mean, you guys know that. I'm I'm I'm speaking to to men that understand that except for Seth. I mean, um but in the serving Yeah. in that serving mentality there in in the desperation of the great depression. The reason I went there in this is because it's very easy for us in our in our current state. Sure, money's tight in places. Sometimes it's not, sometimes it is, but our culture is not the same. There was a lady that said something here.

Carol's grandmother in Payneesville, Ohio turned 92 and said the depression was the best years of her life because nobody was better than anyone else. They had block dinners where every family brought what they could, a vegetable, a covered dish, a loaf of bread, a cake, made sure every family in the block had food. They ate together, watched the children play, and talked about the day. When someone was sick or having a baby, the woman showed up, women showed up. And in families where the men had left to find work, the neighbors watched out for the wives and the kids left behind. That's that's been neighborly in a different fashion than we even realize now. >> But it had to be desperate times for people to really start to grasp that. It really did. It had to be I mean that wasn't that wasn't easy times.

That was desperate times. There was a It was just a whole cascade of bad things happening. And it took that to get people to realize something. I'm going to say a word here. Hospitality. Being hospitable. Serving someone. I think I think that I doubt that Carol's grandmother in Payneesville how really thought the depression was the best years of her life. I doubt that truly was the best years of her life. But what she does remember from that was nobody was better than anyone else. She didn't feel less than or more than. She loved someone. She loved they loved one another. They looked out for one another. They served one another. didn't matter where they came from, who they were, they served. That dynamic, being better than, less than. That gets in our minds.

And honestly, I think it's probably one of the biggest roadblocks to us truly serving one another. Well, if I do this, they'll think I just I think less of them. or if I if I go this way, they'll just they'll just think, "No, I couldn't do that." Maybe, I don't know. But what what would love cause us to do? How would love move us with compassion towards and and I'm going to say this towards one another, but but I mean this in the in the sense of towards humanity because Jesus didn't just come to the synagogues. He was moved on with compassion by the people and they just needed something to eat that day. And they stole from one little guy that was smart enough to bring his own food. I don't know. >> He was smart enough.

He had a good mama who's only She was the only good mama in the crowd apparently. So, and then Jesus stole his food. That would be the news handlines today. Not 4,000 were fed, but stolen. >> Stole from a kid. >> Yeah. Robbed by Jesus. It's like what? >> There's there's a book I have in in preparation for this. I kind of I went back. I didn't read through all of it again, but I leaned back on it. It's called The Gospel Comes with a House Key, and it talks it's it's a story of radical hospitality. She uses that word a whole lot in this. It's a female writer, so it it comes out with all the feminine things and traits. And I'm saying that because I I'm going to read something an excerpt from her book here in just a moment.

But the heart of the matter is she takes a very a very honestly highly recommend this book. Um, I don't I don't know the lady at all, but in her writings, she was in the 90s, she was a uh an active member of the early LGBTQ movement and like a very a very almost a prominent voice in their movement. And then somewhere along the way, someone showed her radical hospitality in her messed up state and and it converted her. It wasn't a it wasn't a booming voice from heaven. It was love. >> It was very interesting. And so then she didn't just take that and consume it.

She she turned it and oh if that if if this did this for me how can I do this for someone else very very very without taking much from this but I did she talked about having a a hospitality is a list the list that I have I work over throughout the week and the manner that I need the communion bread I make every Saturday night includes my grocery list the grocery and the grocery list of my neighbors hands and the meals I will be delivering the people I anticipate serving that week. See, not a day goes by when I do not think about hospitality and table fellowship. She calls it the lost Christian art of loving inclusion. The lost witness of what Christian family really means and the lost lifting of a heart that breaks so that it can be made by God.

Can I can I just put a personal dig in here? The family table matters. >> Yes. Can I just Can I just put that in there? Your family needs a family table. >> They need that. You need that. The family table matters. She took it a step further and invited people to her family table on a regular occurrence. It's uh very very interesting. the uh I pray the works of my hands and my heart will shake the place where Jesus lays his head as strangers and friends fill my table and hear the words of life as we break bread together. She said, and this is her list for a week, okay, the Lord's day. We are sabotarians. I didn't know that was just people that went to church on Sunday, you know, that that believed in the Sabbath.

So, we enjoy the whole day as set apart for worship and fellowship. I finished preparing food for our weekly fellowship meal at church and our home fellowship which includes the meal in the evening for any for anywhere from 10 to 30 people Mondays are hard days for homeschooling that listen I I was like oh man this this might be to the to the moms to our church here I don't know so we end with friends coming over and going on a long dog walk or bike ride when we return while the kids play outside sometimes I put together and deliver a meal for neighbors in need. Tuesday, homeschooling and piano lessons followed by dinner with our neighbors and church friends are the Tuesday routine along with extended prayer time and Bible study because we are all struggling with something.

These days, we talk about the way that that public policy squeezes Christianity in a into a false box we hardly recognize. So I try to be ready for others to join us and prepare for 10 because Tuesday nights are turning into a community prayer time as well. This is her life. This is just her little boring little notebook here. We we talk about these things, right? She says public policy and it squeezes Christianity, but she's forming Christian. She's forming the public perception on a individual basis. You and I are all guilty. We have a very busy church. All right. This is not but in the busyiness we we get a task list over chief center here. We get a task list over serving. Is that fair? Wednesday. We're homeschooling on Wednesdays. Lord Jesus. All right. Shouldn't they graduate already? Cleaning the house after school.

So sometimes we run out to the local jail, put money in the commissary fund for of a prisoner friend, Amy. So man, she just called Amy out like that so that she can purchase us a sweatshirt as the nights get cooler. And detoxing from meth is awful. It's like, oh, all right, Amy. >> Yeah. Key part here. My children accompany me on the task because they accompany me in praying for our neighbors in prison. The day ends with prayer meeting at the church at 7 o'clock. That's that's cool. My children accompany me. I I want to I'm going to make a personal plug here. All right. Because this is this is me. All right. This is my personal experience. My My family was involved in ministry. I remember taking people to we had we would take people to rehab out in Arkansas. God forbid.

All right. God forbid because it was Arkansas. Like not because it was rehab, just it was Arkansas. It's always hot. I don't know if I've ever been to Arkansas when it wasn't a thousand degrees. Okay. And flat and dry and humid all at the same time. I don't know how.

always we would and I just say this as a core memory because that's not something you do in an afternoon that was that that was at least a full day of hard driving out and hard driving back and that was like a 12-h hour day at least maybe longer here's the thing I went along on those rides not all of them but a lot of them and you know why I remember that because that was time that I couldn't spend with my that If I may, somebody was stealing from my dad time with my dad from me for good or bad. They didn't know they were out of their mind. So, they were stealing that time from me.

If that was time to be spent with my dad, I would I me I am not a good enough person to just write that off if I did not know the hurt that they were going through and the pain that they needed to be healed from. I am not a good enough person to be like, well, you took that time away because that's valuable time to a little boy. That's valuable time. Take that. And and I got to see what my what why my father was making that sacrifice. I wasn't making that sacrifice. But if it y'all with me? Y'all understand? I got to see why I wasn't getting to go four-wheeler riding that day or whatever it was. I was going to do that day. I got to see that firsthand.

And because I know I battled with those with those things of, "Oh, oh, my family's doing this. I can't I promise y'all. I I kid y'all not, guys. Every time we started to go on a trip, somebody would die >> or get sick." Yeah. Go ahead and laugh. You It's fine. It happened. It was It was awful. I hated going somewhere because it was going to It was just going to get cancelled. Even today I I don't even have fun till I'm back from a trip. >> It's so true. >> Anxiety. >> Yeah. Every time I remember we were in Atlanta airport. I was going to Germany when I was in eighth grade. We'd been planning it and going big deal. And my dad started he picked up the phone to answer it and I was like why'd you answer a stupid phone? Like no.

Luckily no one had died. So, we were good and we still went, but I I just knew that somebody something was going to call and pull on that. Here's the thing. That resentment's real. That's going to be there over anything. Okay? The only thing that kept me from that building up bitterness in me is because I saw the need. I was exposed to the need. I I I encourage you guys in all the serving that you do and all the things that you do. I'm going to put this selfless plug here. Make sure your kids are involved. If you're taking someone to rehab, trust God with it. God will protect you. Well, they might not be out of their mind. They probably are. Your kid needs to see people out of their mind so they don't do drugs. They really do. All right?

Like that's the number one thing to keep you from doing drugs. It ain't a good conversation. It's seeing the desperation in people >> and knowing that you need to you that's that's a plug there. I I I applaud this lady and I applaud those of you that do that. But I do want to look at this. The heart of the matter was not the checklist. The heart of the matter that she's writing here is how am I serving these people and these needs this week. Now for some of us that that you know compassion motivated that's fine some of us it's anger motivated I'm talking to you on the back row I know stop calling make them shut up so I'll do it like okay well what's our real motive for serving what's our real what why why are pulling ourselves to do it.

Because the reality is if we don't have the right motive in it, it's going to shine through in us. It's going to shine through in those we're around. The product of it just it's going to leave a sour taste and honestly in those closest to us mouths. It really will. It will it will affect our families because here's the thing. hospitality. I'm taking I'm I'm taking this excerpt from here. So, if you read it, don't just think I was I was stealing. All right? It's spiritual.

You don't just ask people around your family table and not and not have your family prayed up and ready to go for it >> and not have them understanding what the word and I'm I'm using family table because I I think of I I know how important it is and how valuable it is for that that daily habit that just that time but also of it's it's just a symbol That's just a symbol in this conversation of how we serve someone. We don't serve them at arms length. It's as close as we can get to them. Now, it looks different. Here's the thing. Jesus approached by the leper. What did he do? Touch the leper. You don't touch a leper. Not in your own self.

You don't you don't touch those things spiritually in your own self to build your own self up cuz it will wreck you. Not not to be fearful here but to be to be preparing. You don't just we can't just willy-nilly it. We have to be intentional. Greater serving comes when we allow our hearts, our minds and our souls, our whole being. What all it's the very foundation of it. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. It's your whole being.

That's every part of you that then drives you to serve that then drives you to with compassion that then drive not just not just unrestrained unfettered compassion but with love with diligence with a sound mind and I know like all of those all of those pieces of of our day of our life we're going to talk honestly we're going to talk about more more about this in the coming months because it's at the core of who we are and should be as a church. This is a very core of of our mission. It's guys, Sundays are great here. We we are we are professional Pentecostals. Cool thing about Pentecostals, right? uh some guy on the internet. I liked it and so I stole it from him. But he said Pentecostals are always good at making sure that God is present. I like that. That's good.

He said evangelicals are good at making sure people are present. Somewhere along the line, we've got to marry those two ideologies. We've got to make sure that God and people meet. We have to. Cuz here's the reality. I can I can have a move of God driving down down down the road in my truck >> because that's where I like to pray. It it just it gives me a it helps me to get past all the the distractions because I'm having to drive but then I can pray. But that don't do everybody else a lot of good, does it? We can have a move of God here because we can we can tone death out all the the distractions, but if it doesn't affect the world, we're just at Ryan's Buffet. >> Ryan's I know. I took it back right there.

I was I was trying to snap y'all out of it. Ryan's buffet. We're just We're just there eating. I used to go get the salmon. I mean, you used to eat all of I probably ate four fish while I was there. Like in greater serving, the very center of it has to be our walk with God. And then when we as we allow that to drive into us, we will pick up the values of God. And the values of God are love for others. Right? Very easily. For God so loved the world so simple that he gave his only begotten son that >> whosoever whosoever believeth in him should not perish but should have everlasting life. Very simply guys, that is part of greater serving. Would you stand with me? It's part of allowing God to move on us to arrange.

Can I can I say in practice here? I I use those as practical examples, but that that the practical is the is the law is the letter of the law. Let the spiritual let the spiritual guide us. Each one of us, God God has put in each one of us something. And every day, I believe he gives us opportunities to serve. Here's the thing. When we orientate ourselves with the value system of Christ, we no longer have to be instructed on, and I'm going to I'm going to say this. I I want us to do a a uh or we we want to do whatever the the the food pantry is at whatever level we can sustain and do it at. Okay. But that's a task until we get it into in ourselves of serving. Well, that's just a task.

Oh, we got to go stack these boxes. The reality is that's somebody's food. Then the reality is Jesus said, "Right, if you have two coats, give one to your brother." We like to think of serving from a place of abundance, but the real He didn't call us to serve from a place of abundance. He called us to serve where we're at. Would you pray? Jesus, we love you. God, we're so thankful, so grateful for all that you've done for us, God. So so grateful, so thankful for the >> for where you've brought us from, God, to where you're bringing us to.

God, I pray Lord that as a church body, God, you would allow us to navigate all the things in this world that we're surrounded by, to navigate all the pieces and the world, the the lives we're living, God, but to navigate to the point that we find our purpose in serving others, God. God, lead us, God, not to not to busyness, not to task, but God, lead us, Lord, to serving with compassion. God, lead us, Lord, to loving. God, let let it be the very foundation of when we of why we wake up and why we go to sleep, while we get up, while we go to bed. God, let it be the very foundation of who we are. God, let let serving through love, through compassion, through godliness, through righteousness. Help it, God. Help us, God. Help it to motivate us, to drive us.

Let it be the lens through which we see the world. God, we'll be careful to give you the praise, the gore, and the honor. And the church said, >> "Amen." Thank you guys so much.