← Lakepointe Church with Josh Howerton
Lakepointe Church with Josh Howerton
Your Selfish Life Is Holding You Back | Boot Camp | Pastor Mike Breaux
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Hey, guys, thanks for checking out this Bible teaching. Every week, we release a podcast that corresponds to the sermon. It's like a little bit of a deeper dive where we hit some things that didn't make it into the sermon, some theological concepts. We talk about things that are going on in our culture and how to think about them from a biblical perspective. We call that podcast Live Free. An episode releases every Monday that corresponds to the sermon. If you would like to check out Live Free, just go to the Lake Pointe YouTube channel and look for the podcast tab there. We'll see you at Live Free. Now enjoy this Bible teaching.
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All right, what is up, everybody? Welcome to Lake Point, man. So great to see you all. My name is Bro, by the way, and I get to be on the teaching team at this wonderful place and one of the highlights of my life. And before we jump in today, I just want to add my encouragement for you to jump into Rooted. It's a great next step. Wherever you're at, on your spiritual journey, no matter what mile marker you may be at, you may be just getting started or maybe you've been doing a long time. I've been through Rooted twice now. Loved every bit of it. I had a buddy of mine who's a retired detective. He. He joined our rooted group, never cracked open a Bible in his life, and now he's in his third year of leading a rooted group. So, I mean, it's just a great way to experience life change. And the cool thing about you get in, like Josh and Jana talked about last week, you get in a community where you're, like, doing this together, and you realize, man, you're all just trying to grow closer to Jesus, grow closer to God. As you do this thing together, it gives you daily disciplines. It gives you daily rhythms to build in your life. There are daily devotions along the way. And all this gets started in just a couple of days. February 3rd, it all kicks off. So today is a day to sign up for Rooted. On your way in, you were given a card like this, says Rooted. And if you can just pull that out and look at the QR code, you can scan that and get information about it. We also have a tent set up in the lobby where you can go by and ask. Ask questions, be. Be happy to help you answer questions you might have about it and get you going. Let me one more encouragement. If you've already signed up, show up. Don't back out now. Don't go. Ah, you know, I don't think I'm really going to do that thing just show up. I'm telling you, as we do this thing together, we will all grow closer to God and to and each other. Well, we are in the middle of what we've been calling boot camp where we are simply learning and training and stretching and applying and practicing the life of our leader, Jesus. When I was 25, probably what, seven, eight years ago now, I sat down and I wrote one of those life mission statements. Somebody told me, bro, you need to write a life mission statement. So I tried to wordsmith it, I prayed about it, I just sat there for a long, long time. And this is what I came up with as a 25 year old young dad. I just want to look, love and live like Jesus. That's it. And man, I got a long, long way to go in that. But it sure is a worthy pursuit because I'm just telling you there's no one like him. You want to know what compassion looks like? Look at him. You want to know what kindness looks like? Look at him. You want to know what courage looks like? You want to know what toughness looks like? You want to know what resolve and resilience and focus and confidence looks like? Look at him. You want to know what security looks like? What joy looks like? What humility looks like? What peace looks like? What sacrifice looks like? Just look at him. We've seen so far in this series that followers of Jesus are men and women who humbly embrace what he did for them on a cross. They surrender to his loving leadership. They are people who are humble enough, like we've watched already today, humble enough to go down in the waters of baptism like he did. And they walk with the Holy Spirit like He did. They recognize the lies of the enemy like he did, because they have a deep relationship with the truth like he did. They know the importance of community and they surround themselves with good friends like he did. And today, if we're going to look and love and live like Jesus, we got to serve. Yeah, like he did. Now, many of us have seen this passage before From Mark, Chapter 10, for some of you, might be the very first time you've ever seen it. Or maybe this will be the first time these four words jump off, off the page at you. The scene unfolds right after a couple of his disciples. Two brothers named James and John, which Jesus nicknamed the Sons of Thunder. Isn't that a great nickname? I imagine these guys riding like jacked up camels and got a black leather jacket, Sons of Thunder on the back, you know. Well, they come to Jesus Go. Hey, yo, Jesus, we got a favor to ask you. We were, like, wondering when you come into your kingdom and you sit on your throne, could we maybe sit at the places of honor on your left and right? We just wanted to get our names in early. Well, word gets out about their request and the other disciples are not happy and they're grumbling about it. So Jesus calls them all together and he says this. Hey, you guys know. You know how those who is regarded as, like, the rulers of the Gentiles or the Romans, you know how they, like, lord it over people and their high officials exercise authority over them? Here's those four. Not so with you. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant. Whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of man talking about himself, did not come to be served, but to serve and give his life as a ransom for many ambitious power plays. Not so with you working the system. Not so with you climbing the ladder. Not so with you lording authority. Not so with you bucking authority. Not so with you Flexing position, flashing credentials, boasting greatness, craving applause, chasing likes, grabbing the spotlight. Not so with you. You want to be great, then go serve somebody. Now. Like Pastor Josh said last weekend, there is a plethora. Yes, I said plethora. Shout out to three amigos. A ton of research that shows overwhelmingly that the happiest people on the planet are people who are connected to other people. God designed us, like Josh said last week, for community. In fact, research shows that meaningful relationships and friendships have been found to be a greater predictor of good health than diet and or exercise combined. Which leads this independent researcher to conclude, better a water burger with friends than a salad alone. Can I get an amen? Right. But God designed you and me for community. And I love how secular research is supporting what he's been saying since the very beginning of creation. It's just not good. It's not good that human beings be alone. And you need to know. There's also been a plethora of research that reveals a huge connection between happiness and serving. In one study that was done at University of Chicago, people were asked, what are the most fulfilling jobs or careers? Guess what kind of jobs made the top of the list? Vocations where you teach others, help others, care for others, protect others, and serve. And the other thing they found was that there was no, like, income level associated with their job satisfaction. Once a person reached a point where they basically could eat and pay bills, and live indoors with a flush toilet. They were happy with their job and as they got little bumps in salary along the way, they were grateful for it. But there was no significant increase in their happiness. The deep level of satisfaction and fulfillment came from serving other people. There was another study done over in Oxford. They did like 40 different studies over a 20 year period. And they asked the question, is there a connection between happiness, health and fulfillment and this living beyond yourself in service of other people? Well, the answer came back a resounding yes. And these weren't people who like volunteered a couple hours once a year for some events. These were men and women who carved out time to make serving their lifestyle like somewhere in their church, somewhere in their community, somewhere in their neighborhood, somewhere in their family, somewhere in their school, somewhere in their life. They just chose to consistently show up and serve other people. Studies show that those people, the not so with you kind of people, the kind of people who live beyond themselves, had less depression, less stress, less anxiety, less heart disease. And they enjoyed much higher levels of satisfaction, contentment and happiness. And it was really amazing for kids and teenagers. They found that students who regularly serve other people regularly volunteer somewhere to help out. They experienced far less drug abuse, far fewer unplanned pregnancies, and they had higher self esteem. They were healthier mentally and physically. In fact, the study concluded that even if you have to force your kids to volunteer, you ought to do it. Cause it is so, so good for them, it shapes them. They found that kids who serve early on kind of take that into adulthood because they bring that same kind of heart and lifestyle. They've just grown up knowing that's just what you do. You serve other people. I mean, research all around the world comes with the same counterintuitive, same Jesus inspired conclusion. As long as you are about you, you will never be happy. As long as you are all about you, you will never be happy. You see, we tend to get sucked into these suburban legends, if you will. If I could just get that, if I could just drive that, wear that, look like that, live there, get that job, get in that school, have that salary, have that family, have their life, then, then I'd be happy. And don't you know by now all that's a sinister lie. It's just a lie straight from the father of lies who only wants to kill, steal and destroy our fulfillment. See, here's the deal. You can get you exactly the way you want you and you still won't be happy. Cause the truth is we cannot compare envy or Lust our way to happiness. We can't acquire, consume, purchase, renovate, or even exercise our way to happiness. As long as you are just all about you, you will never be happy. Because there will always be this huge piece missing from your life. A huge piece that your creator put within you. You see, we might not be able to purchase our way to happiness, but we can serve our way there. We can serve our way there. So you might be thinking right now, okay, dude, I don't get this. How can living selflessly make myself happier? How can emptying myself, how's that gonna leave me feeling full? And it is counterintuitive, I'll give you that. On the surface, it doesn't make much sense. And that's why most people don't do it. But those who do, in fact, like many of y', all will tell you the absolute best way to fill yourself up is to pour yourself out. You see, you and I have been made in God's image. So we have been divinely pre engineered to give ourselves away because that's what he does. So when you and I live like that, it's why we stand back and say, man, that felt so good. I think I was born for this. Jesus modeled this lifestyle. He talked about this lifestyle, this not so with you lifestyle a lot. He said things like, you know what? It's just better. It's just better to give than it is to receive. And Jesus wasn't unpacking a sermon on tithing when he said that. He was just acknowledging a fundamental reality of life, one that all this research backs up. It's just better. It's just much more fun. It's much more fulfilling. It's much more satisfying to give of yourself than to get for yourself. There's a really cool passage over the Old Testament of the Bible in the book of Isaiah. It's chapter 58, and this is God talking. God's talking to a bunch of people who were out there chasing Happy. And they were doing so by trying to do all these religious rituals that just might please the Lord. And check out what God says. He says, this God talking. You dress in burlap and you cover yourselves with ashes. Is this what you call fasting? Do you really think this will please the Lord? No. This is the kind of fasting I want. Free those who are wrongly imprisoned. Lighten the burden of those who work for you. Let the oppressed go free and remove the chains that bind people. Share your food with the hungry and give shelter to the homeless. Give clothes to those who need them. And do not hide from relatives who need your help. Then, then your salvation will come like the dawn, and your wounds will. Will quickly heal. Here's God saying there's healing for yourself by not focusing so much on yourself. Give yourself away, and then, then your light will come on again. God has to remind me of this stuff, like, all the time, because left to myself, I would be all about myself. So throughout the day, I can hear the Holy Spirit whisper to me, bro, listen, you need to be intentional today about looking for ways to live beyond yourself, because there's going to be opportunities all around you to serve today. So don't live your life today like you came to be served. Go serve somebody today. Find someone where you can just give yourself away. I had the chance to go to the Holy Land a few years back, do a little video shoot. It was really, really cool to walk where Jesus walked. If you ever get a chance to do that, you really ought to do that. But over there, there's this mountain called Mount Hermon, and it's got snow on the very top of this mountain. It's a beautiful sight. And the snow eventually melts from the peak and it flows down into a body of water known as the Jordan River. That's a place that Josh talked about just a few weeks ago, where Jesus was baptized by John. It is not super impressive, but the Jordan river has been a significant source of life for thousands of years. And it's a significant river in the whole story of the Bible. But as the Jordan river flows southward, it flows into what's called the Sea of Galilee. You've probably heard of that. Jesus taught around it a lot. He walked on it. He calmed its waves. But the Sea of Galilee, I'm telling you, it's spectacularly beautiful. It receives all this fresh water and it is teeming with fish and life. And it's clear, and people vacation there, and people boat there, and people swim there. Then the Sea of Galilee flows back into the Jordan river again, and it continues to flow south into a body of water known as the Dead Sea. And there's a reason it's not so beautiful and nothing can flourish there. Now, the Dead Sea also receives the fresh water all the way from the north, all the way from the snow caps of Mount Hermon to the Jordan to the Sea of Galilee, to the Jordan to it. The difference is there's no outlet to it. The Dead Sea doesn't give, it just takes. And as a consequence, nothing can really live in its bitter, stagnant, salty water. Two seeds Fed by the exact same source. One gives and lives, the other one hoards and dies. You know where you will find the happiest people in the world right now? I'll tell you where you'll find them. You'll find them working in makeshift emergency shelters, serving scared, lonely and displaced people. You'll find them these days on the other end of a chainsaw, clearing ice covered branches that have fallen on power lines in houses, checking on neighbors, fixing busted pipes, restoring power to people's homes. You'll find them feeding and clothing homeless folks. You will find them giving their resources and volunteering their time to provide for the under resourced of their community. You'll find them on a mission trip somewhere, swinging a hammer, building houses for people who might be like living in a cardboard box with a tarp on it and only dreaming of someday having electricity and clean water in their lifetime. You'll find those people like giving their day off to do a car repair for a single mom, or fixing like a hanging gutter for an older neighbor. You'll find those people taking a boy with an absent father to a ball game. You'll just find them channeling significant portions of their resources to help reach and teach people about the love of Jesus Christ. And I'm just telling you, you will find those kind of people all over the place. At every single Lake Point campus. You'll find these selfless people just leading groups and parking cars and holding babies and making coffee and praying with people and leading mission trips and packing food and playing music and doing tech related things and making people feel welcome and teaching classes. I mean, you name it. So many people around this place who just give of themselves all the time, expecting no praise, expecting no applause, not even a thank you note. And they do it because they just want to look, love and live like Jesus. It's the way God designed every one of us to live our lives. And as you might imagine, it's the way he designed his church. Now, without delving into like centuries of church history, somewhere along the line the church decided to hire a few professional Christians and then passively watch them carry out their priestly duties. And everybody else would sit on the sidelines and sit on their gifts, reviewing the priestly performance, saying, why are you asking me to get involved? You're the clergy, we're just lay people. That's what we pay you for. And gang, tragically, this is still reality for far too many churches. And as a result, people go hugely unfulfilled. The church limps along, powerless, frustrated and Very ineffective in its mission. And guess what? There is not an ounce of biblical support for that type of structure. That's not what God had in mind for his church. You gotta believe God is smarter than that to set it up like that. Well, he is. And there is a ton a plethora of evidence in scripture that God has gifted and called every follower of Jesus to be a priest. He has called ordinary men and women who are just out there living humble ordinary lives to become real players on a real team of world changing people. Look what it says in 1st Peter 2, 9. But you are a chosen people, A royal what? Priesthood, A holy nation, a people belonging to God so that you may declare the praises of him who called you out darkness into his wonderful life. Isn't it awesome? And Peter wasn't speaking it like a pastor's conference when he wrote that. He was writing to everyday ordinary people like you and me. There is absolutely no distinction between a few elite spiritual superstars and the rest of us, gang. All of us are chosen, all of us are called, all of us are anointed, all of us have been saved, redeemed, recycled, equipped and gifted to make the wonderful light of God known in this dark world. I've told you before, I like to play golf. People ask me so what kind of golfer are you? And I usually say, well yeah, I play somewhere in the 70s, occasional dip into the 60s. If it get much colder than that, I don't play at all, sorry. But sometimes if the weather is threatening, like the rain, or force them out, inevitably, no kidding, somebody will turn to me as the pastor in the group and they'll say, come on man, do something. You got connections. And my standard response is, hey, I'm just in sales, not management. I got no special connections, just being connected in spite of my sin. That's special enough for me. Now as a pastor, I have been given the task of teaching and leading and equipping people for ministry. But that's just the way God called me to use my gifts in this world. You may have very, very different gifts and a very different passion, but every follower of Jesus Christ is a chosen priest with an extremely high calling. Now, before Jesus showed up on the scene, God's spirit worked through a select group of people called priests. Actually, actually, God's spirit has always flowed through any ordinary person who will humble themselves and open themselves up and be available to him. But these Old Testament priests would serve as like a mediator between God and his people. And the average person didn't feel like they had a direct line to God, so they had to go through the priest. But when Jesus, our high priest by the way, arrives on the scene, the religious culture gets turned upside down as he starts making statements, radical statements to normal everyday people saying, you, I'm talking you, you are the salt of the earth. You, yes, you, you are the light of the world. Yes you, you, you were called to love your neighbor and love your enemies and thus accurately reflect the love of God through you will be my witnesses all over the world. He said stuff like that right in front of the official religious professional priests. Then on the day of called Pentecost, a bunch of these non priestly types, ordinary men and women who had walked with Jesus, they're huddled up to pray in an upper room. And the New Testament book of Acts says that the Holy Spirit invades that room and blows through their lives like a mighty rushing wind. And something that looked like tongues of fire, symbolizing the gift of God's spirit, settled on everybody's head. Not just on a select few, but on everybody. And from that moment on, the message was clear. This is for everyone who follows Jesus. Everyone has direct access to God. Everyone has a supernatural power of the Holy Spirit living in them. Everyone is extraordinary. Everyone has been given gifts to serve and love and throw a floodlight on God. Again, Peter, who's one of those guys in the room when the Holy Spirit fell on them, he would later write this in First Peter, chapter four, verse ten. I love it. God has given gifts to each of you from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Manage them well so that God's generosity can flow through you. There's an interesting sign outside a Colorado dude ranch that reads, we have horses for everybody. For fast people, fast horses for slow people, slow horses for big people, big horses for little people, little horses for people who have never ridden horses before. We have horses that have never been ridden before. But God gives us all different gifts. There are gifts for big people, gifts for little people, gifts for young people, gifts for old people. It doesn't matter. Peter is saying here, embrace your gift. Just embrace your gift and manage it well so that God's generosity can flow through uniquely you. I can remember the challenge of trying to teach this principle of every member, a minister, every follower of Jesus is a priest in a church that I was serving. And when I first got there, there was an expectation that was placed on our staff kind of to be everything to everybody. And one area of expectation was that if somebody was in the hospital, a pastor, like a professional, like a real Minister needed to stop by, and none of us minded doing that. In fact, we actually enjoyed doing that, helping people and brightening somebody's day. But there was also a bunch of other people, just ordinary people who had the gift of mercy and the gift of encouragement. And they were really, really good at this. And they were just sitting on the sidelines because nobody ever invited them to play. So we started to put together a team of volunteers who absolutely loved going to hospitals and nursing homes and visiting people who were shut in and needed a touch from God. It was a way for them to uniquely live beyond themselves and flourish with the gifts that God had given them. And our team grew to over 60 people who covered all the local hospitals. And they just brought joy and prayer and comfort to anxious families. Heather was one of those extraordinary volunteers. She was single, college age girl, highly capable person, and she was really, really good at this. So she would tackle some of the tougher assignments. And one time she went every day for two weeks to be with a family who had a loved one in the critical care unit at the hospital. Their loved one eventually died and they called the church asking for Heather. They didn't ask for a pastor. Heather was their pastor, Heather was their priest. How do you think that made Heather feel? How do you think it would have made Heather feel if the clergy would have stopped in and said, oh, let us handle this one. We're the pros. We'll step in now. Thank you for your service again. 1st Peter 4:10. God has given gifts to each of you from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Manage them well so that God's generosity can flow through you. God says, let the variety. Let the generosity flow through everybody. Men and women, young and old, let it flow through uniquely you. I like the way the message puts First Corinthians, chapter 12. God's various gifts are handed out everywhere, but they all originate in God's spirit. God's various ministries are carried out everywhere, but they all originate in God's spirit. God's various expressions of power are in action everywhere, but God himself is behind it all. I love this. Each person is given something to do that shows who God is. Each person is given something to do that shows who God is. Everyone gets in on it. Everyone benefits. All kinds of things are handed out by the Spirit and to all kinds of people. The variety is wonderful. Isn't that cool? Only God, long before Oprah shows up, God says, you get a gift, you get a gift. You get a gift, you get a gift. Every follower of Jesus, a grace Gift of the Holy Spirit has been given for the mission of the church. Everybody gets in on it and everybody benefits. You benefit because you start to be fulfilled by living beyond yourself and being used in your own unique way. The church benefits because now we're playing as a team. And the world benefits because the church is now functioning as the agent of God's truth and love and compassion and generosity as it was meant to be. And we all get to be a part of it all part of the wonderful variety. Now, you might be wondering, okay, I've heard you mention spiritual gift a couple of times. What's a spiritual gift? What are you talking about? Well, here's a shot at a definition of what a spiritual gift is. A spiritual gift is a special supernatural ability that God gives to each of his children so that together they can advance his purposes in this world. And this supernatural gift is given to every person who invites Jesus into their life to forgive their sin and lead their life. The Bible says that once a person is in Christ, he or she is empowered to use this gift alongside everybody else to advance the kingdom of God. Together. Now, you and I, we're responsible for identifying, developing and growing and using our unique gift. For instance, God hadn't given me a bunch of gifts. One of the gifts he gave me was a gift of teaching. Now, I know the degree of effectiveness of that gift is debatable. I know. But I'm responsible for developing that gift. And through the years. I've had several preachers say to me, through the years, dude, I don't get it, man. Why do you work so hard on your messages? I just get up and let the spirit move me and I respond, well, I do, too. On Tuesday morning and Wednesday morning and Thursday morning and Friday morning, I'm studying, I'm writing, I'm reading, I'm pouring over God's word. I'm trying to listen to God's voice. I'm trying to brainstorm creative ways to make a connect with people. You know what? God's going to hold me accountable for developing and using the gift that he has given me. But make no mistake about it, it's not something I manufactured on my own. It's just a gift that he gave. First Corinthians 12 again, verse 11. It is the one and only Holy Spirit who distributes these gifts. He alone decides which gift each person should have. You see, God is the one who determines which gifts we receive. God doesn't, like, give us a catalog and say, pick out a few. Rank them in your order. Of preference and I'll see what I can do. You and I had no more to do with determining what spiritual gifts we receive than we did in determining who our appearance are, what our skin color was gonna be, or the shape of our nose. God distributes the gifts of his spirit just as he determines. And gang, guess what? He's our Father. He's our creator. He knows what he's doing. He knows us better than we know ourselves. And that's why the gift he gives is usually a gift that meshes with and completes the unique package of who God created you and I to be. So what do you like? What's your personality type? How's God wired you up? How many of you are extroverts? Extroverts? Yeah, introverts. Not even going to ask you to raise your hand and go, I'm not going to raise my hand. How many of you, like, tend to lead with your heart or maybe your head? Are you a hugger or are you turned into a sheet of plywood when you see a hugger approaching you? Are you the last one to leave the party? Are you the first one to say goodnight? Do you dream of being in a jam packed crowd on New Year's Eve in Times Square in New York City? Or do you dream of a secluded cabin somewhere high up in the mountains? It's good to honestly acknowledge what kind of personality you really have. Not the kind you wish you had, but how God uniquely wired you up. When you settle that and you embrace that reality, you can see now how the spiritual gift that God has given you might just flow out of who you uniquely are. Plus, you know how God gives us all different innate abilities and talents. I mean, some people can really sing. They have an aptitude for music at a very early age. I mean, you can just tell. Some people don't. You can just tell. Like the poor guy that got up and he sang a solo in his church and it was really pretty horrendous and everybody was embarrassed for him. It was super awkward. Nobody knew what to say. Finally, after the service, a guy walked up to the young guy and said, hey, hi, son. I really, I appreciate your courage. You tried really hard. I appreciate the courage you had to get up there and sing. But whoever asked you to sing ought to be shot. At least I think that's what he said to me. I can't really, I can't really recall, but some people early on just have that ability to like look at a picture on the box and put all the pieces nuts and Bolts in the right place without ever looking at the directions. Now, most dads think they have that ability. But you, as you watch some of those kids grow, they often become like really good problem solvers. So maybe you take that innate talent that God put within you and you go to school and you learn more about that, or you hone that skill on a job and you get really proficient with it. And then you add to that the spiritual gift that God has given you. Can you see how powerful that combination might be? Then add to that all the life experiences, all the things you've been through on this journey, all those accomplishments, all those failures, all the tragedies, all the heartbreak, all the life learnings. Add to the uniqueness that you bring. I mean, who better. Who better to sit down with someone who's going through a divorce than someone who's been there? Who better to help another parent struggling with a prodigal kid than somebody who's been there too? Who better to help someone reach down and bring them out of a deep hole of addiction than someone who, with God's power, climbed out of that hole as well? So here's what you do. You figure out what you're really passionate about. That usually doesn't take too long, what really flips your switch. Then start meshing together all the parts that make you uniquely you. You look at the journey that God has brought you through. How could he recycle all your life experiences? You take your talents, the ones you know that God has given you, the ones that you've been working at, the ones you've been sharpening throughout the years. You ask some trusted people around you in your life, what do you see in me? I mean, honestly, what do you see in me? Honestly, Embrace the way that God has wired you up with your personality and. And let that supernatural gift flow through that unique creature called you. Gang, this is the genius of the same God who made snowflakes and spider webs and DNA and the cardiovascular system. In fact, the way our incredible bodies function serves as a great illustration all the way through scripture for the brilliance of God's design for his church. Again, First Corinthians 12, verse 18 and 19. But God made our bodies with many parts, and he has put each part just where he wants it. What a strange thing a body would be if it had only one part. That's why the church referred to as the body of Christ is not a one man, two man, or five woman show in God's eyes. Listen, you matter to this body every bit as much as Josh matters to this body. Some of you don't believe that, but it's true. You really do. See, Paul goes through this hypothetical dialogue between parts of the body. He says, if the foot should say, well, I'm not a hand, therefore I'm not part of the body, or the ear says, well, I'm not an eye, therefore I'm not really important. He says this, the way God designed our bodies is a model for understanding our togetherness as a church. Every part dependent on every other part. The parts we mention, the parts we don't, the parts we see, the parts we don't. If one part hurts, every part is involved in the hurt and in the healing. And if one part flourishes, every part enters into the exuberance. You are Christ's body. That's who you are. I just lost a really good friend who was a servant with a capital S. And I say lost. I didn't lose him. I know where to find him. I got to be a part of his journey with Jesus. Started coaching his son in basketball when he was a kid, and he came up to me one time after a game, said, what do you do when you're not coaching basketball? I said, I'm a pastor. He goes, really, like, shocked him and we became buddies. He started coming to our church and eventually gave his life to Christ. And he jumped right in. He was one of those guys just behind the scenes, encourages everybody, willing to do whatever was needed. Never wanted any acknowledgment, never wanted any spotlight, no applause. When he discovered this teaching about the church being like our body, I'll never forget, he came to me and said, you know what, bro? I'm just so grateful to be a toenail on the body of Christ. And for the past 30 years, I can show you on my phone, every text he sent me, every note he sent me, it was signed toenail. Toenail. Don't play the deadly comparison game with other people about what gifts they have and what gifts you don't. One of Satan's greatest schemes is to get you and I to compare our gifts with each other and start envying one another's gifts like little kids at Christmas. Oh, I wanted that gift. I wanted that gift. Oh, I wanted. I wish I was more like, yeah. First of all, Jesus said, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey. Not so with you. Not so with you. We don't do that. Plus, the Bible is clear that there is no, like A list and B list of gifts. They're not like name brand gifts and some generic gifts. They all have the same designer label. There is no distinction. Remember, just like our bodies, God has put each part just where he wants them. And the variety is wonderful. And if everybody just humbly embraces who they are and they humbly allow God to use them, then all the needs get met. Nobody's overworked in the process, nobody burns out, and nobody gets jealous of somebody else's gifts because it's apparent that the Holy Spirit is the one who distributed the gifts in the first place. And in the process, the watching world stands back in awe of God, the God behind the gift, and says, oh, I think I just saw a glimpse of God through you. So I just want to encourage you, if you haven't already, come out of the bleachers onto the playing field and start serving. It's just what people on Team Jesus do. You can text serve to 20411 and we'll help get you plugged in with a bunch of amazing people around this place. You know, Lake Point really is an amazing place, but I don't think we have any idea how amazing it could be. I think it'd be cool one day to be able to, like, pass a microphone around a service like this. Have every single person stand up with great humility and say something like, hey, my name is John, and I'm a follower of Jesus. He gave me the spiritual gift of mercy. And so I just serve at the food pantry, and I work with homeless guys every other Thursday night. And, man, I just love helping people. I. I mean, I feel like I was, like, made for this. Hey, my name is Deshauna, and I'm a follower of Jesus. I got the spiritual gift of administration, and I just serve by organizing activities for kids so their moms can attend a morning Bible study. I feel so alive using my administration gifts. I just feel like God is using me. It feels like I was made for this. Hey, I'm Jeremy. I'm a follower of Jesus, and I have the gift of helps. And I clean the bathrooms at my campus. I shovel snow, I mow grass. I fix stuff that needs fixing. I build stuff. I just love working with my hands and helping out. Feel like I was made for this. Hey, my name is Emma. I'm a follower of Jesus. I got the gift of evangelism. So I lead a little Bible study at my local high school for my friends who've got a bunch of questions. I don't know everything, and it was a little scary at first, but, hey, we're learning together. And I feel like I was like, made for this? Or, I'm Maria, and I'm a follower of Jesus, and I have the spiritual gift of leadership. So I'm leading a small group at a coffee shop right now. I've never been more alive. Never. Never felt like I was where I needed to be. Then. Right now I feel like I was, like, made for this. Hey, my name is Roberto, and I'm a follower of Jesus, and I got the spiritual gift of encouragement. So I've just been taking my dog to visit nursing home residents every Monday afternoon, and I get such a bigger blessing than they ever get. I feel like I was, like, made for this? Or, hey, my name is Samantha. I'm a follower of Jesus, and I got the gift of hospitality. And so my husband and I, we just love hosting parties and dinners for other people. We open our home all throughout the year to the visitors and interns and college students and missionaries that might be traveling. Anybody, really, who needs a place. We just love sharing what God has blessed us with. We feel like we were, like, made for this. Or, hey, my name is Dustin, and I'm a follower of Jesus. And I basically grew up just, like, beating on things. So when I got into high school, I joined a garage band and I made some bad choices, but Jesus got a hold of me. He turned my life around. Now I play drums most weekends at my church. I feel like I was made for this. Or, hey, I'm Alice, and I'm a follower of Jesus. And I've been walking with him for as long as I can remember, Remember? And, you know, honestly, I can't get out much anymore because of my health, but God has given me a gift of intercession. So I just pray for lists of hurting people every day. God is using me in my home. Feel like I was made for this. Hey, I'm Tyler. I'm a follower of Jesus. And I guess if there's a gift of goofiness, he gave me that because I just hang out with junior high kids and I pour the love of Jesus into them. Dude, I feel like I was made for this. Wouldn't it be amazing, like, if every single person, every single person could stand up and talk about how God is using their life now? Most would never stand up and talk about it, because servants, they just serve. But just to know that everybody is living a deeply fulfilling life of purpose and passion, that everybody is saying, man, I want to live beyond myself. I just want to look and love and live like Jesus, the one who came not to be served, but to serve. And give his life as a ransom for many. Jesus, thank you for modeling that lifestyle. And we want to be men and women who do the same. So God, take us beyond our self centered ways, our focus on ourself all the time and move us beyond ourselves health to becoming servants of all like you, just like you. Father, I pray that you would stamp this in our hearts and our minds this week, even today, as we leave this place. That you would put somebody in our path that just needs a touch from you. That we would humble ourselves and we would serve them. And I pray all this in your name. Amen.