The Christian Café
Serving up fresh bread of the word of God. It shows us the path that we should travel in order to be with God. We will study the word of God to help us learn more about Him and all His goodness
The Christian Café
Prepare by Witnessing & Serving
Hello, this is your host, glenn Kivett, and welcome to today's episode of the Christian Cafe, where the bread is made fresh and delivered right from the Word of God. To keep up to date with what's coming up, be sure to follow me on Facebook, at the Christian Cafe, also on Twitter. Feel free to email me with your prayer request at thechristiancafe2022 at gmailcom. I would love to hear from you. So grab me a seat, place your order and we will deliver it fresh and hot, just for you. Well, hello everybody. Guess what time it is. It's that time again. It's time for the Christian Cafe. Hope you are having a great day. Sit back and enjoy as we come to you for another episode of the Christian Cafe. We're here to see that we deliver the Word of God to you and that you are blessed. It's great to have you here today. It is a special day for us. I'll tell you what God has been good and he's blessing. I just thank God for what he's doing and how he is blessing and moving in our midst, and how he's just doing great and marvelous things. We're thanking God for that every day. I've got a special broadcast for you today. We're going to break away from the book for just a little bit, for this one episode, and I'm going to bring you a message that I preached at my local church a week or so ago and it was a blessing to me. It's really something that I'm passionate about, but it talks about how we are empowered to be a witness for Jesus Christ and to serve Him in the best way we can by getting His Word out, and I'm just thankful for this message. It was a blessing to me and, like I said, it's something that's dear to my heart, because we've seen God do great things and if we can't keep it to ourselves, then how is the world supposed to know about Jesus, when we're supposed to take the message to the ends of the earth and we are to tell the people about the truth, about Jesus Christ and how he loved them and how he has come to set the captive free? I'm just so thankful for this and I want you to hear this message today. I do want to just say you know, drop us a line to our email at W. Well, excuse me, I'm about to give you the wrong email there, but it's thechristiancafe20 2022 is gmailcom. I would love to hear from you and pray with you, so just drop me a line and join us on our YouTube page at the Christian Cafe and TikTok. We're on TikTok also, and Instagram and YouTube, as I said so, and plus our Facebook page. Drop us a line on there. If you don't want to email, go to our Facebook page. Drop us a line on there. If you don't want to email, go to our Facebook page and drop us a line. You can message us there and we'll be glad to pray for you.
Speaker 1:I'd love to hear from those that are listening. I was looking the other day. We are in a lot of countries that's listening to us and downloading our podcast, but we don't hear from anybody. We would love to hear from you and if God tells you, asks you to support us, we'd love for you to support us. We do have a link on our webpage where you can support the ministry.
Speaker 1:Everything that comes in goes right back into the ministry. They help pay for what we use for our podcast. Now, if you want to watch this episode coming up, you can see the episode on the YouTube page where I was ministering in our local church if you want to do that. But I want you to sit back and listen to the message here. It's a little lengthy, but enjoy it and I hope you can get something out of it. But enjoy it and I hope you get something out of it. When we come back, we'll get started right back into the message that we give at our church. A couple Sundays ago, we're going to take a break and we'll be right back.
Speaker 2:Here at the Christian Cafe, we believe in serving up a hot, fresh word for our listeners. We recently read a new book titled Revival Makers Stop Chasing a Move of God and Be One by Pastor Tony Suarez. We would love to send you a copy of this book for free. All you need to do is contact us through email at thechristiancafe2022 at gmailcom with your name and address, and we will send it to you for free. Also, be sure and tune in to all the latest episodes of the Christian Cafe wherever you get your podcasts. Again, email us at. Thanks, and have a great day.
Speaker 1:Good morning, everybody awake, alive. Blessed day that we're above ground. Amen here to do something that God has called us to do today. If you're alive and well, then you're ground. Amen here to do something that God has called us to do today. If you're alive and well, then you're called amen. Shake your head, it won't fall off. Give me a minute. My thing does not want to work this morning for some reason, but it's an honor to be here this morning. I'm not normally down here. I'm usually stuck up there in that hole over there looking down on everybody, but I get to see a lot of things.
Speaker 1:But, here we go. I'm always nervous when I first get started, but if you'll give me a few minutes I'll get my horses going and we'll get through this thing. Bishop done told me I need to slow down and not talk so fast and stay on point. Now you guys that have been in our Kingdom Connection class, you know how I am. If I don't follow my notes, you'll see my wife over there telling me she can't come and slap me on the leg today, so, but you might see her. You do this right here or this right here or something like that, because I have a tendency to get away from my notes and when that happens there's no telling where I'll go. So we'll hopefully stay with our notes because, as I was talking to a friend of mine just last night, I told him, every time I sit down to go over my message, the Lord just keeps feeding me more and I keep making it longer and longer and longer and longer, and so I'm going to try and stick with my notes and kind of cut out what I'll need. But first of all I want to give honor to our bishop and pastor Tammy for allowing me to speak this morning and our pastoral staff that allowed me to take part in this series.
Speaker 1:It's an exciting series. When Bishop told us about it, I got excited, because a lot of the things that we have been talking about preparing the church we discussed in our Kingdom Connections class. Let me just throw a little plug in for our class. If you've never been in a class, I don't care how long you've been here, sign up. We have people in our class now that's been here for coming here for years. We got ones been here since the beginning of the church. That's in the class. Why are they taking the Kingdom Connections class?
Speaker 1:Well, there's a lot in it, and some of the things we've been talking about in this Prepared the Church series is what we teach, you know, and so it's good to get, I guess you might say, refilled, kind of rejuvenated, because sometimes we forget about the basics of what we're supposed to do as a child of God. Right, we forget and we begin to just say, well, I'm not needed any longer, I just sit here, be myself and not worry about, let everybody else do that. But God did not call us to do that. God called us to do a certain thing and that was to win souls, and that is our mission here at the Rising Church is to make disciples and win souls. Well, reverse that win souls and make disciples. That is our mission. And if we're not doing that, then we're disobeying what the Word says.
Speaker 1:Reading the Bible, equipping ourselves with the Word of God that was the very first thing we'll talk about. So if we call ourselves Christians, we should be obeying what's between those covers, right? And the next thing we'll talk about is very key is prayer and fasting. And I can tell you from experience and myself and your honesty and self we never do enough praying. We never do enough fasting, because the scripture tells us if we pray and fast, then things begin to happen. Right, without those things, it don't happen. And all the way to know that is to read the Word. And then last week, pastor Dustin talked about praise and worship, which is a very key. Praise and worship will bring us into the presence of the Almighty God. It will take us to a place that we may never go. Can we turn these?
Speaker 2:monitors off.
Speaker 1:I'm getting a lot of racket here, please, I don't like to hear myself talk so, bringing ourself into the presence of God, we begin to see things. We begin to see the scriptures opened up to us. We begin to see things that we have read and read and read and read through the Word and never really thought about them, right? How many of you have read a book that is your favorite book? Now, my daughter is here this morning.
Speaker 1:I'm glad to see my daughter, my new son, in love with us today. She loves to read and she will read a book in two hours, and that's not small ones either. She'll sit and read and read, and read. But if you'd ask her if she went back and read that book again, if she got something outside of it, I guarantee you she'll say yes. When you start reading things over and over, you begin to see other things you didn't see before because it's new to you, right? So if you've read the Scriptures one time, go back and read it again and I guarantee you there's going to be something new there.
Speaker 1:And that's what has been with me ever since Bishop had. Well, actually, bishop didn't ask me. I went to him and he showed us what he wanted to do, and this part kind of just slapped me in the face because it's one of my passions I love to talk about, because it's very important in a child of God's life, not just in the body of Christ, but also in every child of God's life, and I want to talk to you this morning about witnessing and serving. Did I say a bad word? I?
Speaker 1:saw somebody grabbed their pocket but ready to leave. No, I'm just kidding, but it's very important in a child of God's life. What do we know about witnessing, serving what do we know? I know we've heard a lot of things about it. I know we've heard that you know we need to go out and knock on doors and witnessing, but did you know that witnessing is more than just going and knocking on doors? There's more to it, and for a long time in my Christian life as a child, that's what we used to do every Saturday morning. We was meeting at the church and we was going out and we'd knock on doors telling people about Jesus. It was not until later in my life that I realized that witnessing was more than just doing that. There was a lot more to it. Let me ask you this question how many of us are actively going out and spreading the word? How many of you have added to the kingdom this week? What about last month? What about last year? What about last month? What about last year? What about ever? God called us to do this very thing. That's why Matthew 9, verse 37, says that the harvest truly is plentiful, because God knew that a lot of us wasn't doing it. That's why there's so many people out there that are lost and on their way to hell, because we as a child of God, as a church, are not doing what we're called to do. But you say, brother Glenn, how can I do that? We're going to answer that question this morning In our first text today, acts 1, 1, verse 8, new Living Translation.
Speaker 1:Jesus said but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you will be my witnesses telling people about me everywhere, in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria and to the ends of the earth. These are the very last words Jesus told the disciples before he ascended to heaven. He said that you will be endued with power. Now I was looking at and I was at work yesterday and I told you that things just keep coming back to me and I thought it was very interesting. I went over to one of my favorite translations of the Bible, and it's the Passion Translation, and that word received was replaced with the word seized. In other words, the Bible tells us that we will be seized with power. What does that word seize mean? I looked it up. It says it means to take hold of suddenly and forcibly. In other words, bishop, it's going to come on you and it's going to just grab you and it's going to move you forcibly. In other words, you're not going to sit still, all right, you're going to have so much power in you that you want to know you're going to feel something. It's not going to be something that just sits on you like let's see a weight. Right, it's going to move you, so it's going to seize you. In order for us to understand what Jesus is talking about, let's go back to Acts 1, verse 6. It says so. When the apostles were with Jesus, they kept asking him Lord, has the time come for you to free Israel and restore to our kingdom? This was a question that they had asked Jesus many times. Lord, when are you going to free Israel, when? But see, jesus was looking at it a different way. It was just not only about the children of Israel, freeing them, or the church or Israel. It was about the kingdom of God. It was about everybody. He was wanting to free everybody. It was the kingdom of God, which does not have physical or time boundaries. So Jesus responded in verse 7. He says he replied the Father alone has authority to set those dates and times, and they are not for you to know. Then he continued in verse 8. And he said but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you will be witnesses telling people about me everywhere, in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria and the ends of the earth. There are two foundations truths that we need to talk about this morning. Number one is we have been empowered by the Holy Spirit to witness. We have been empowered, we've been given that power. Number two we are to be God's witnesses everywhere, not just here, but everywhere.
Speaker 1:Well, brother Glenn, I'm scared. Yeah, we all are. But I just told you that we have been empowered by the Spirit. It's in us, it has seized us. If you're a born-again child of God, the power of God has seized you and it's going to move you forcibly to do that. Why are you moving? Well, that's the question between you and God. We have to desire to be empowered. We have to desire to go out and do the things that God has told us to do. We just can't say well, I guess I've been, the pastor asked me to go do this, I guess I'll go do it. Not going to work that way?
Speaker 1:I believe that when we do something out of desire, then the anointing has already been before us and it is profitable. But when we're doing of our own strength and because our own might, then God does not see that. That's what I believe. You may be me say it differently, but I believe everything that we do is done under anointing of God and God will bless it. God will use it for his kingdom and his glory. Who am I to say that what I'm doing is not good? We've been empowered.
Speaker 1:The first part of the verse Jesus said but you will receive power. Well, the word power means to be able or to have strength. You have the strength, pastor, johnny. You have the ability. You are able to do it. Do we always feel like it? No, no, there's going to be times that we just God, I just can't do this. But you never know who's going to need what you have. You never know it. You can just say well, you know, I'm going to keep that in my soul and I've done this. I don't know how many of you have, but I've done this.
Speaker 1:God, speak to me, tell them about my story, and I say, god, they don't want to hear that. I said God, they don't want to hear that, but guess what? Someone else comes along and tells them their story. See, if you don't do it, god's going to have someone else do it. His word's going to go out. The good news of what he's done is going to go out. You just need to decide whether you're going to be part of that or not.
Speaker 1:But, brother Glenn, I'm not recognized for what I do. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter whether you recognize it or not. The only person you need to care about is what God thinks of you, what he says. We have the strength.
Speaker 1:When did they receive the power? The day of Pentecost, they were in one mind, one accord, in the upper room waiting because Jesus told them. He says you go to Jerusalem and you tarry there and you will receive power after the Holy Ghost has come upon you and you'll be witnesses. If he didn't want us to be witnesses, why is it in his word? Why is it there? Everything that God has put in the precious pages of the Bible was meant for us. Every word, down to every T, it to am. There's a purpose for it. It wasn't just put there by accident. It was divine revelation from God. And when it's divine revelation, it means we better pay attention to it.
Speaker 1:It was not a command, but it was something he asked us to do. Well, this is my thinking. If I'm asked to do something, it means I'm commanded to do it. That's my thinking. Because why else? Why else would they ask so many times that we look at our leadership, our pastors, and they tell us and ask us to do something, we think, well, they just asked us, it didn't mean anything. But see, what we don't realize is that our leadership, our pastors, have a direct connection with the Father and they're there to lead the sheep. And when they ask us to do something, it may be asking, but I believe it's command. And God commanded us to witness to everybody, not just a certain few.
Speaker 1:The disciples had been with Jesus for a while. They had watched him heal the sick, cleanse the leper, open blinded eyes, had dead to raise, feeding 5,000 with just a minimal thing. They saw this with their very eyes. It was not nothing that wasn't true. A witness is someone that tells the truth about things because they've seen it. How many have been to court Been a witness? What did you have to do? Promise to tell the truth? Nothing true, for the sake of God Same concept.
Speaker 1:The disciples had seen everything that Jesus did. And so he says when you're in Jerusalem, I'm going back to heaven. He said, but wait for me right there because I'm going to send you something. I'm going to send you a gift that you're going to be able to tell everybody about what I have done. Paul says you'll be a witness that you were freed from prison. Lazarus, you're going to be able to tell everybody that you were raised from the dead. All these things that the disciples saw and heard and experienced.
Speaker 1:They were to go out and tell everybody, same as us, whatever God has done in your life you share with others and we could go around to everyone in this room and I know that God has done something for you and if you told it, someone would be blessed, someone's life would be changed, because they're in a state right now that they're hopeless. They don't see any change, they don't see any way out of their situation. But someone has experienced it, someone has walked in it, someone has been free from it and delivered from it. You're the key to help them break hold, to break that chain. But when we just sit back and say God, the pastors will handle it, the leadership will handle it. I don't need to worry about it. You're not the pastors, you're not the leadership, you're not God, you're you.
Speaker 1:I could stand up here today and tell you testimony to testimony that's happened in my life where God has moved and I've seen people change because of testimony. When I was, I guess, 17, 17 years old, I can take you to the very spot in a church that I was attending back home I always had everybody remember testimony service. Yeah, I always had testimony service. I stood up and testified and I testified about how I had quit paying my tithes and I began to see my finances go down the tube and nothing was going right. And I went to the altar and I got forgiveness for not paying and I stood up and testified about that. The gentleman in the back I knew him very well. He was dating one of my best friends. He came running down the aisle and gave his heart to Jesus. He stood up and testified. He said if that brother had not testified about what God done, about just not paying tithes, he says, I'd have walked out the door, lost A simple thing.
Speaker 1:It's not nothing from a broken leg that was healed or being raised from the dead, blinded eyes open, brother Tyler, but it was just a simple thing. A simple thing that you talk about that could change someone's life. And it's not always about what you talk about. It's the way you live. Remember, I told you that a lot of people think about when you witness. It's about what you say or tell them about Jesus. It's not that People know who you are in your community.
Speaker 1:They know exactly what you're going, what you do, where you go to church at. They know how you live and all of a sudden you do something that's not according to what you say you are. And all of a sudden you do something that's not according to what you say you are. Your witness and testimony just went down the drain. Now they have no confidence in you any longer. You can't tell them about Christ because you've ruined your witness. You've ruined your testimony.
Speaker 1:It's more than just talk. It's how we live, because when we live according to the Scripture, I believe it emanates from us. It brings out what God wants people to see. When we can get out of ourself and let Jesus shine through, then we can see the kingdom of God be built. But as long as we do it in ourself, as long as we let people see who we are and not God, we can't reach nobody. We have to be witnesses in Jerusalem and all Judea and Samaritans. Jesus expected all of us to do the same. All of us to do the same. Dan, will you put that first slide up for me, please? Where do we witness? Does Jesus actually expect us to go to all these places to witness? Jerusalem, samaria, samaria.
Speaker 1:Let me break it down just a little bit. Jerusalem is our family, neighbors, people who are work associates, people that we regularly come in contact with on a daily basis. In addition, we speak their language, we know their culture right. So this should be the most natural place for us to start sharing the Christ with someone, people that we know we feel more comfortable with right. So it's not something that we're uncomfortable with. But then let's break a little further.
Speaker 1:Let's go on to Judea. These are people in our socioeconomic and ethnic groups, people that we have nothing in common with at all. We have no relationships. They could be people that we work with. We never talk to neighbors, club members. I know a lot of people are a member at the Moose Lodge in Morganton. You don't even know them that good. We can witness to them, right? Other parents that our kids go to school with, we can be a witness. What about Samaria? These are people whose lifestyle, their culture, our economic standing is different than ours. Does that mean we don't talk to them? They need God too. How are they going to get it if we don't share it with them? How do we share it with them? We love them, it doesn't matter. We have to love them with unconditional love. Unconditional I have unconditional love for all of my kids, with nothing in the world I wouldn't do for them, because I love them I don't care where they're at, what they're doing, whatever, it doesn't matter.
Speaker 1:Just because they don't live for God doesn't mean I cast them aside. We love them. Jesus did Last ends of the earth. We might be intimidated when we consider the challenge of going to the ends of the earth. Now I'm going to make a plug for Tyler and Miriam right here. Missions that would be considered ends of the earth Pretty close. If you've never been involved in missions, trust me it would change your life.
Speaker 1:How do we reach everybody? The Bible says that we will reach everybody before the time comes. There's a thing called technology. We do it every Sunday through live stream. We reach people that you have not fathomed. The last time I checked, we are in 19 countries. This church alone, People from 19 countries are watching us every single week. Ends of the earth. We're witnessing people. People's lives are being changed because what we do here at the Rising. People's lives are being changed here because what you are doing Sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ. We should never lose sight of the fact that the Lord's intentions is for us to witness. Never lose sight. I told you that the word power means to be able and to have strength. We have the power. Power means to be able and to have strength. We have the power, we have been empowered.
Speaker 1:According to Acts 1 and 8, we have been empowered with the Spirit of God. It was put in us on the day that we was born as a child of God. It's there. So why are we keeping it bottled up? Why? Why, afraid of what someone's going to say? We shouldn't be that way, should we? Being a witness for Christ is something that we should enjoy to do. We love what God has done for us in our lives. We shouldn't be here, we should be someplace else. But because of the love of Jesus Christ and the death on the cross, we are serving a power of an almighty God that has taken us and changed us from who we are to where we are now and has greater things in store if we will follow what the Word says. But it takes a desire. It takes believing in what we know is truth, not something fake, because there's a lot of fakeness out there today.
Speaker 1:But if we follow the plan that has been laid out for us in the Word, we'll win the kingdom more people to the kingdom. See, I'm being obedient to my pastor. I'm moving on, because I could go on there. I'm trying, I'm doing good. I'm staying on my notes, so you know we're doing good. I'm trying, I'm doing good. I'm staying on my notes, so you know we're doing good. I'm trying to stay there. Like I said, I have a tendency to get away from my notes and when I do, I do what Bishop told me not to do get on rabbit hole, rabbit chase and go chase rabbits. So we're going to move along. The next bad word that we're going to talk about this morning is serving Serving. When you talk about serving people, just get up and start running, you know. But again, it's something God's called us to do. Being a servant is not always what people think as a path to greatness. Many think that having servants would better signify a greater life. That would be nice, wouldn't it? You sit back.
Speaker 2:I can't get my wife to do that.
Speaker 1:She says no, you go and do. And of course I pay attention. I don't want to be buried in the basement one day, so I pay attention. That's why we got a basement. For those of y'all who don't know, if I misbehave, if I don't show up on Sunday, you'll just come to my house, you'll see. That's where I'll be. But no, seriously, it's nice to be served, but Jesus didn't come to serve, to be served. He came to serve. He tells us that whoever wants to be great will be a servant.
Speaker 1:Bishop told me something I want to use here. You really can't serve without witnessing. Serving testifies to what you're witnessing about. That's powerful. Serving testifies to what you're witnessing about. If you're serving God, that means that you love him. That means you'll go to the ends of the world for him. You'll suffer like he suffered, you'll die like he died and you'll do the things that he did. Mark, chapter 10, verse 35 through 45.
Speaker 1:Jacob, john, sons of Zebedee, approached Jesus and said Teacher, will you do us a favor? What is it? He asked? We want to sit next to you when you come into your glory. They said, one at your right hand and the other at your left. Jesus replied just don't have a clue. You don't have a clue what you're asking for. God ever told you that you don't have a clue what you're asking for. God ever told you that you don't have a clue. What you're asking about, you just think you do. Are you prepared to drink from the cup of suffering and be immersed into my death? But to have you sit in the position of highest honor is not mine to decide. It is reserved for those especially prepared to have it. Now.
Speaker 1:The other ten disciples overheard this and they became angry and began to criticize Jacob and John. Jesus gathered them all together and said to them those recognized as rulers of the people and those who are in the top leadership positions rule oppressively over their subjects. But this is not the example you are to follow. You are to lead by a different model. If you want to be the greatest, then live as one called to serve others. The path to promotion comes by having the heart of a bond slave who serves everyone. For even the Son of man did not come expecting to be served by everyone, but to serve everyone and to give his life as the ransom price for the salvation of many.
Speaker 1:This story was in Matthew. If you remember about, the mother had come to Jesus and asked the privilege for her own sons. It's the very same thing. So when Jesus asked them whether they could be baptized with the same baptism that he suffered, jesus answered, said that they could. Why? Because of their faithfulness, because of their loyalty to him. And when James became, we know, james became a martyr and John was exiled to Isle of Patmos. We don't believe, know, if he was executed or not, we just don't know. But they were great men of God and they wanted to sit there beside him.
Speaker 1:But it was not for Jesus to give, it was those that had what Prepared. Isn't that what we're talking about? Preparing ourself for a certain thing, preparing ourself to be greater in the kingdom, preparing ourself to bring people to the kingdom? Salvation is free, saints, I got two amens. Salvation is free, see, we didn't have to die for it. It was given to us.
Speaker 1:Heaven is a gift, but your place in heaven, you work for that. There's something you got to do. A gift, but your place in heaven, you work for that. There's something you've got to do. Everything that is in the word we're supposed to do.
Speaker 1:And I ain't got time to go here, but last night I was looking at this again and again. As I said, something popped in my. God just gave me something else, but I ain't got time to talk about it, I'm just going to mention it. What are our rewards that we receive if we serve? What is it we're going to get? There's five crowns. You can go back, you can look them up and study them. I suggest you do. They're great. But the one first one is the victor's crown. Second is the crown of rejoicing. Third, the crown of righteousness, the crown of life and the crown of glory. If you want those scriptures after service, leave me, I'll give them to you. These are five crowns, your rewards. If you want to serve for God, we can get to heaven, not a problem, it's a gift.
Speaker 1:What about our place in heaven, pastor? There's people that just want a title, but they don't want to do anything for it. They don't want to work for the position. I'm going to tell you. I'm going to be transparent with you. Okay, I'm not proud of this. I'm actually ashamed of this and for many years I repented of it until I finally got victory over it, because I can't put myself down over it. But I have been in church my entire life. There's not a position that I have not held in the church, from Sunday school teacher, sunday school school teacher to pastor, you name it. I've been a part of it. Musician, whatever.
Speaker 1:When I come here to the rising, my first thing and Bishop Tessie, I come and told him who I was, told him my title, went to our praise worship leader, told her what I could do, boasting myself up Again. It was what I know. I didn't have no option not to serve in a church, my dad being a preacher, a pastor, I had no option. It was something I was made to do and as years went by, I was trained to do that, got very good at it. But then there's one thing that happened. Every church I go to I say I can do this, I can do that, and never was used. It was a long time before I started serving here.
Speaker 1:Serving is more than a title. Serving means that you've proven yourself. You're being faithful, you're doing everything that you can that you've been called to do, being obedient, tithing, attending church Did I say tithing? Giving, giving, reading the Word, praying, fasting, praise and worship. See all this ties in All the other disciples. They were upset because Jacob and John wanted the position, they wanted the title of being the greatest. But Jesus I think Jesus rebuked him right here. He said if you want to be great, what did he say? Do Be willing to serve others. I told you, jesus came to serve, not to be served.
Speaker 1:People who refuse to get involved in problems of the community are like two shipwrecked men in a lifeboat. From their end of the boat, they watch as those at the other end bailed frantically to keep the boat afloat. The one said to the other thank heaven, the hole is not on our end of the boat. Unfortunately, that seems to be all too typical of most people in our society. The trouble with so many in our society is that they don't realize that just because the hole's not on their side of the boat doesn't mean the boat's not going to sink. It's still going to sink. Every boat I ever seen with a hole in it sunk. Titanic went way down. It had. With a hole in it sunk. Titanic went way down. It had a big hole in it.
Speaker 1:We should be using everything God gives us, every one of you. God has given you something to do. You're a child of God and if we're not using what, we know what God has given you something to do. You're a child of God, and if we're not using what we know, what God has given us, then what good is it? It's not benefiting anybody. You're just holding it down, thinking well, you know, I just got this talent that God gave me. Should I use it or just let it go? Deanna, pull up that next slide for me, please. What is it that we have hard? Why is it we have a hard time serving? Why is it that we have a hard time serving other people? I like this. I found this on the World Wide Web. You know, I like this. I found this on the World Wide Web. I like this If you take in and don't give out, you become fat.
Speaker 1:I heard some laughter. If you give out and don't take in, you become faint. If you give out and don't take in, you become faint. If you give out and take in, you become fit. I like the last part, because if I'm giving out what God has given me and taking in every Sunday more, then what does that do, pastor Johnny? He just gives me more to give out. It's a constant cycle, right? If we just take it all in and never give anything out.
Speaker 1:What good is it? You see, going to church and learning about Jesus and all that he did for others is a good thing, right, but if we don't do anything with it, it's useless to us, it's useless to anybody else. It's kind of like getting something from the store or your order online or Amazon, as my wife does constantly. There's two of us, right, and it comes with instructions. She said, honey, we put it together and I'm taking instruction. I said I can take care of this, I don't use it, nothing. But to start a fire with what good is it? And I mess it up. And then I got to reorder another one because I messed it up. If we learn about God and don't share it with others, what good is it? It does anybody no use.
Speaker 1:In Ephesus there were a lot of people who just loved to sit and read, study and debate the Bible. Paul wrote a letter to Timothy and told him that not the purpose of going to church. Did you know that? Did you know coming to church is not to sit? Read him that not the purpose of going to church. Did you know that? Did you know coming to church is not to sit, read and debate the Scriptures. Paul said the purpose of learning the Bible is not just so you know the Bible or so that you could win a debate or persuade someone to your side. Paul told Timothy that just studying the Bible just leads to endless discussions and debates, which really doesn't do anybody any good does it Does nobody any good whatsoever.
Speaker 1:Paul told Timothy that the people needed to change their purpose in studying the Bible. We study the Bible to learn how to love God and our fellow man. Love is witness. Love is serving. Without love, none of this works. If you can't love the person you're witnessing to, if you don't love the person you're serving, we have a problem. So it first starts with love. The first commandment is love. Everything else falls underneath it.
Speaker 1:We seem to make a lot of excuses why we're not serving. Shake your head. We always do. We don't want to serve if the hole's not on the end of our boat. We don't want to sit there. We don't want to serve if we don't know enough about the Bible. We don't want to serve if people don't appreciate what we do. Cleaning toilets is serving. Somebody's got to do it. I remember that's the first thing I did when I come, started started here very first thing. I went to pastor john and pastor roma they can be my witness here and ask them what can I do if I can help clean the church? Very first thing I did here at Rising six years ago. It's been that long or longer. She's counting on fingers. Everything is important and everything is appreciated. We don't want to serve if we don't think we have any talents. We've all got excuses and why we don't want to serve.
Speaker 1:If anyone had a reason not to serve, it was Jesus. I mean, look at his life. Look at how many times he was ridiculed, despised by his own people, rejected by men, crucified. The Pharisees how many times tried to kill him. He deserved to be served. But the Scripture tells us in Mark 10, 45, that he came to serve, not to be served. Jesus' ministry was a ministry of humility and humble service. There was nothing about Jesus that was weak or timid and yet, in the midst of all his power, there was an underlying attitude of humility and servanthood toward others. All the power Pastor Johnny had just to speak at the wind and say Be calm, to open deaf ears, blinded eyes. All that power. But yet he came to serve the greatest servant that ever lived, pastor Dustin, the man that went to a cross and died so that you and I could be here this morning. He served us by doing that. The biggest servant ever lived was also the most powerful person.
Speaker 1:So it doesn't matter about your position in life, it doesn't matter where your position is in the church. All that matters is I'm willing to do what God did. I'm willing to sacrifice my time. I'm willing to sacrifice myself for the better of the kingdom. I encourage you if you're not serving here at the Rising, there is a lot that we can use, a lot. What better time than this morning that I go back there after church and I see a list of people that's wanting to serve. I would shout for joy and I'll make a bold statement, but unfortunately this morning I won't see that. Why? There's a lot of reasons, but I believe the biggest reason is fear, fear. I'm afraid of what people are going to say. I'm afraid I'm not going to do a good job. I'm afraid.
Speaker 1:I don't know enough to do it, it doesn't matter. Your willingness and your desire to serve is what God looks for. God will train you, god will teach you of what to do and how to do it. All you need to do is walk according to the word of God. Everything else flows like it's supposed to be. Do you want to be great in the kingdom of God? Do you want to be that one that Jesus looks at and says well done thou, good and faithful servant, then serve. Jesus told his disciples if you want to be the greatest, then live as one who serves. If we are expected to earn our spot beside the king, then we need to serve. That's what Jacob and John wanted, right? They want to be known as the king, then we need to serve. That's what Jacob and John wanted, right? They want to be known as the greatest.
Speaker 1:I don't care about title. I don't care about position. All I care about, bishop, is to know that I am in the will of the Father, doing what I've been called to do. I have been equipped to do. I have been equipped to do. I have been empowered to do. That's all that matters to me In our life as a Christian.
Speaker 1:We're going to be rejected. We're going to be talked about Pastor Roma. We're going to be called all kinds of names. I was called all kinds of names in school because my dad was a preacher and I was held to a very holiness-strict background. It hurt me when I was young, yes, but as I got older I realized that names doesn't matter. All that matters is that my name is written in the Lamb's Book of Life. That's all that matters is that my name is written in the Lamb's book of life. That's all that matters.
Speaker 1:If you're here this morning and you don't know about Jesus, if you don't know what it's like to serve an almighty and powerful God, one that can take your life and change it to the better, someone that can deliver you from all the bondage that you're under, I invite you to this altar this morning. Right here is your freedom. Right here is where you can meet the one that died on the cross for you, that shed His blood that you can be saved. Not only did he die for the saving of our souls, but he died for the healing of our bodies. He suffered every stripe, that was, every disease known to man. He suffered on the cross. You want to be a part of the kingdom, a part of the family of God.
Speaker 1:Come lay it down at the altar, every head bowed, every eyes closed. Man, what a powerful word. Nothing about something about witnessing and telling people God's mercy and his goodness. I just thank God that you know. He called me out of darkness into a life of hope and everlasting love. This week, go out, tell something about Jesus. Let your light so shine that others might see Him, and I just know that God will bless you for it.
Speaker 1:God will put somebody in front of you that needs some love. All we can do is just show it to them. It doesn't matter where they're at, what their condition is or their lifestyle. We're to be like Jesus Christ. That's the problem with the world today. We want to judge them because of their lifestyle and what they believe, and if they don't believe like we do, then we have no use for them. That's not the way Jesus did. Jesus loved them in their sins. Jesus loved them in their sins. Jesus loved them no matter what they were in. He died for every and each and every one. It doesn't matter If we expect to win the loss. We've got to love them. We can't spread hate, like it's going around today. Just love them.
Speaker 1:Guys, thank you for joining in again. I hope that you are blessed and you receive some of this message. I hope that you are blessed and you receive some of this message. Until next time. This is the Christian Cafe saying the bread is fresh and I hope that you ate from God's table today. God bless you. We love you. Have a great day.
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