00:00:38.000 Now, big picture, they’re better fans, I think, because it’s hard to be a fan when
00:00:41.000 you lose all the time. But when your team wins and you got six Super Bowls, it’s
00:00:44.000 easy to be a Steeler fan. But Pirates fans, that’s a whole other story.
00:00:47.000 We don’t have time for all of the prayer that they need.
00:00:50.000 But anyways, you can watch football and not be on the team, right?
00:00:55.000 Any of you like watching HGTV or home building projects? None of you. Really?
00:01:01.000 I know you. Okay, thank you. Thank you for the participation.
00:01:03.000 You can watch contractors and house flippers, and they remodel a house in 30
00:01:07.000 minutes. It’s amazing. But you can watch all that and not be engaged in it.
00:01:12.000 Unfortunately, we can also be Christians who show up to church on Sunday, and we
00:01:16.000 watch, or we try to be entertained, but we’re not engaged and participating with
00:01:20.000 the work of the ministry. And Ephesians 4 talks about the primary responsibility of
00:01:25.000 a pastor, myself, is to train and equip the saints, that’s all of you people, to do
00:01:31.000 the work of the ministry so that the church is healthy, so that more people can
00:01:36.000 know Jesus, so that more people can discover their God-given purpose and be able to
00:01:41.000 make an impact in other people’s lives as well.
00:01:44.000 So we’re in this series, well, it’s the last Sunday of the series, that we titled
00:01:48.000 Morning, Noon, and Night, talking about spiritual disciplines, rhythms of our life,
00:01:53.000 things that we can do morning, noon, and night.
00:01:55.000 So three weeks ago, we talked about reading the Bible, how it is so important.
00:01:59.000 It’s the most important thing you can do, reading the word of God, reading
00:02:03.000 and hearing from God, having a daily devotion time.
00:02:06.000 Then we talked about prayer, about communicating with God, the God of the universe,
00:02:10.000 the Creator, that we can have communication with him.
00:02:14.000 Then last week, we talked about worship, and how worship is not just 20 minutes or
00:02:18.000 so on a Sunday morning, but worship is something you can do morning, noon, and
00:02:22.000 night by ascribing worth to God, by focusing on him, by lifting him up, by thanking
00:02:28.000 him, and ultimately worshiping him.
00:02:30.000 And what’s interesting, all three of those you can do by yourself.
00:02:34.000 You should be doing by yourself. You can read the Bible, you can pray, you can
00:02:37.000 worship Monday through Sunday, every day of the week, morning, noon, and night.
00:02:41.000 But the fourth one, the one we’re going to talk about today, is something that’s
00:02:44.000 really hard, if not impossible, to fully do by yourself, and that is serving, being
00:02:50.000 a servant, and being connected to the body of Christ in a functioning way, because
00:02:54.000 Christianity really isn’t me and Jesus.
00:02:58.000 Now, just theologically, you can be saved, you can go to heaven by putting your
00:03:04.000 faith and trust in Jesus. It’s by grace alone that we are saved. You can be saved.
00:03:09.000 You can be a Christian where it’s just it’s me and Jesus.
00:03:12.000 But really, Christianity is me and Jesus and his church.
00:03:17.000 And his church encompasses, includes his people and his mission.
00:03:22.000 So it’s got to be more than just me and Jesus.
00:03:25.000 And just had a conversation with somebody this week. They’re saying, “I’m good.
00:03:29.000 I’m saved. I know where I’m going. I don’t need church.” And I said, “That may be
00:03:33.000 true, but you’re not able to honestly fulfill and obey all the commands that Jesus
00:03:39.000 gave by yourself.” All the one another verses.
00:03:43.000 There’s so many verses in the Bible that say, “Love one another, serve one another,
00:03:47.000 pray for one another, encourage one another, and be involved with one another.”
00:03:52.000 I love what Jared was talking about, family, that this is a family, it’s a
00:03:55.000 community. And it’s not just Freedom Church, but Freedom Church, we encourage and
00:03:59.000 support healthy community and family in his church.
00:04:04.000 So true Christianity is Jesus and his church and his people.
00:04:09.000 So this morning, we’re going to talk about how do we make an impact?
00:04:12.000 How do we use the gifts that God has given us, the resources, the abilities?
00:04:17.000 I want to help you see that you have gifting. You have a purpose.
00:04:21.000 You have plans that God has put inside of you, and I want to see those come to
00:04:26.000 fruition. Maybe you’re already living it.
00:04:28.000 You’re like, “I’m serving exactly where I’m called to serve.” God bless you.
00:04:31.000 That’s amazing. Keep doing that. But how much more can we help other people come
00:04:36.000 alongside as well? I want to start with Genesis chapter one, and trust me, I’m not
00:04:40.000 going to go through the whole Bible.
00:04:41.000 But Genesis chapter one, I find it very fascinating as I read through the creation
00:04:46.000 story. So God created the heavens and the Earth in six days, and on the seventh
00:04:50.000 day, he rested. The first six days start with the phrase, “Then God said.” And
00:04:56.000 God actually speaks everything that we know and see into existence.
00:05:00.000 He says, “Let there be light,” and there’s light.
00:05:03.000 He said, “Let there be a chasm between the heavens and the Earth,” and there’s a
00:05:06.000 chasm, there’s a vault. He said, “Let there be animals,” and there’s animals.
00:05:09.000 “Let there be vegetation.” God’s speaking for six days.
00:05:12.000 God said, and creation happens. But on the sixth day,
00:05:18.000 he says it a second time. The only time he says it twice, “Then God said, ‘Let us make
00:05:22.000 human beings in our image.’” So something fascinating happens when he creates Adam,
00:05:27.000 the first man. He doesn’t speak him into existence.
00:05:31.000 Genesis two, verse seven, it says, “Then the Lord God formed the man from the dust
00:05:36.000 of the ground. He breathed the breath of life into the man’s nostrils, and the man
00:05:42.000 became a living person.” The only time in the creation story God did something
00:05:47.000 different was when he created man.
00:05:50.000 He got his hands dirty, kind of
00:05:53.000 figuratively speaking. He took dirt, he took dust from the
00:05:56.000 ground to form man. He didn’t just speak him.
00:05:59.000 And why I think this is so important is God did some work.
00:06:02.000 He didn’t really have much effort, I don’t believe, but God, he did work.
00:06:07.000 He said he rested on the seventh day, not because he was tired.
00:06:10.000 I think it was as a demonstration, a model for us, that we can work six days and
00:06:14.000 rest on the seventh day. But God is not afraid of work.
00:06:18.000 In fact, he calls us to do work. In Genesis 2:15, “The Lord God then
00:06:24.000 took Adam,” took the man, “put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and keep it,”
00:06:30.000 to cultivate it, to tend it, in perfect paradise.
00:06:35.000 So this is before Eve, this is before sin, this is before the Fall.
00:06:39.000 This is perfect paradise as God had created it on the Earth in the Garden of Eden,
00:06:44.000 and there was work. Work is good.
00:06:48.000 Can you all say that? Work is good. Work is good.
00:06:52.000 Now, you probably don’t like to do work.
00:06:53.000 We don’t enjoy work because sin came along, and it made work a lot harder, right?
00:06:58.000 There was already work, but now there’s thorns, now there’s difficulty.
00:07:01.000 Now there’s more effort required to do the work.
00:07:04.000 But ultimately, we are still called to work. We’re still called to cultivate.
00:07:09.000 That’s to grow and to produce something from our work.
00:07:12.000 Colossians 3:23, stepping out of Genesis for a minute.
00:07:16.000 It says, “Work willingly at whatever you do as though you are working for the Lord
00:07:20.000 rather than for people.” Now, don’t show your hands because your boss might be
00:07:25.000 sitting in the room. But how many of you know you don’t like working for your boss?
00:07:29.000 Right? You have a bad boss, or you have a bad work environment. Right?
00:07:32.000 You can have a bad boss and still work willingly at whatever you do as though you
00:07:37.000 are working for the Lord. Why is that? Because God gave you the gifts.
00:07:42.000 God provided that job for you. God provided the ability for you to do the job that
00:07:47.000 you’re doing, to produce the income, to provide for your family, to be generous,
00:07:52.000 to, yes, pay your taxes, to do all the things that your work and your income comes
00:07:56.000 with that. But working willingly for the Lord, this change in your perspective will
00:08:01.000 not maybe make you go joyfully to work tomorrow, but you can have a different
00:08:05.000 perspective. You’re not going to serve people or to serve your boss or to please
00:08:09.000 people, but when you go to please God first, then the right heart comes, then the
00:08:14.000 right perspective. And I believe as Christians, we’re supposed to be the best
00:08:18.000 employees on the planet. We’re to be the best stewards, the best examples of joy,
00:08:24.000 even in a difficult situation or a difficult work environment.
00:08:27.000 “Work willingly at whatever you do as though you are working for the Lord rather
00:08:31.000 than for people.” But not only are we supposed to work, but God said something in
00:08:35.000 Genesis 2:18. He said, “It is not good for man to be alone.” The only time that God
00:08:41.000 says in the creation story that something was not good was that Adam was by
00:08:45.000 himself. Man was by himself. Now, he created Eve, and obviously for procreation,
00:08:50.000 for populating the Earth. But I believe this lesson applies to all of us.
00:08:54.000 We’re not meant to be lone rangers. We’re not meant to be lone Christians.
00:08:58.000 We’re not meant to be isolated and by ourselves.
00:09:01.000 If we learned anything from 2020, we learned isolation, loneliness, and separation
00:09:05.000 causes way more problems than good.
00:09:08.000 Social media has done the opposite of what it was meant to do with creating social
00:09:13.000 organization, social time, but has separated and isolated so many people.
00:09:18.000 So we’re called to be in relationship.
00:09:21.000 First and foremost, we’re called to be in a relationship with God, the creator of
00:09:25.000 our souls. Second thing, we’re called to be in relationship with one another, to
00:09:29.000 serve one another, to love one another, to be working with one another.
00:09:33.000 So how do we do that? Well, our desire is to have the greatest kingdom impact.
00:09:39.000 Now, impact and kingdom are two different words.
00:09:41.000 We’re going to unpack just definitions.
00:09:43.000 Kingdom, by definition, is a compound word that means king’s dominion.
00:09:48.000 King’s dominion is anywhere the king has rule and reign over a territory.
00:09:53.000 So there’s kings in different nations and different countries around the world.
00:09:57.000 There’s kings throughout history.
00:09:58.000 Their kingdom is the kingdom of wherever that king has rule and reign.
00:10:02.000 Impact is a collision of two opposing forces, okay?
00:10:08.000 Two colliding forces. So kingdom impact
00:10:13.000 happens when God’s rule and reign in every area of our life collides with and
00:10:18.000 overcomes the kingdom of darkness.
00:10:22.000 So true kingdom impact, there’s a rule and reign of God in every area of our life.
00:10:28.000 That’s his domain. It’s the king’s domain.
00:10:31.000 If he really has your heart, you surrender to him, you follow him.
00:10:35.000 True kingdom impact is God’s rule and reign in our life colliding with and then
00:10:39.000 overcoming the kingdom of darkness. What is the kingdom of darkness?
00:10:43.000 The kingdom of darkness is your old self.
00:10:45.000 It’s selfishness, it’s sin, it’s our sinful nature.
00:10:49.000 It’s all the things we want to do in our flesh, because guess what?
00:10:53.000 We all want comfort, right? It’s okay that we understand we want to be comforted.
00:10:58.000 We want convenience. We want instant gratification.
00:11:01.000 That’s all part of the kingdom of darkness.
00:11:04.000 The kingdom of light, God’s kingdom, is where we overcome those natural desires
00:11:10.000 with God’s desires, God’s will, God’s blessings for us, and faithfully
00:11:16.000 stewarding what God has given us, where he’s placed us to be a blessing to others.
00:11:23.000 Everything we’ve been given is meant to be given away.
00:11:26.000 Christianity is really about being selfless.
00:11:29.000 I say it in the simplest way to demonstrate what it means to move from a
00:11:33.000 non-Christian to a Christian, and how do you grow in your sanctification, become
00:11:37.000 less selfish and more selfless, because Jesus modeled that perfectly.
00:11:42.000 He was selfless, he was sacrificing, he served, and as we want to become more like
00:11:48.000 Jesus, that’s the trajectory we must take.
00:11:51.000 But serving isn’t first about what you do for God.
00:11:55.000 It’s about surrendering yourself to God.
00:11:59.000 Big difference in those two words, not for God, but to God.
00:12:02.000 That it starts with us surrendering ourselves to God.
00:12:06.000 If we’re trying to do things to earn God’s love, to earn God’s acceptance, we’re
00:12:10.000 going to be doing it with the wrong heart, wrong motivation.
00:12:12.000 We’re going to get angry, resentful, bitter towards God.
00:12:16.000 Serving is not to earn something from God.
00:12:19.000 It starts with that when we surrender to God, then serving becomes a natural
00:12:24.000 result. Now, I’m not talking serving just in the church.
00:12:27.000 We are going to talk about that. I’m sharing some practical opportunities for that.
00:12:32.000 But it goes to so much more than just Sunday morning.
00:12:34.000 It goes to so much more than just Freedom Church, because Jesus lived his life as a
00:12:39.000 servant. We see this in Mark chapter 10, verse 45.
00:12:42.000 And his disciples, this is Jesus’ disciples at the time, they’re arguing with each
00:12:46.000 other about who’s the greatest disciple. They’re like, “I’m better than you.
00:12:49.000 I do more than you. I serve more. I’m going to be closer to Jesus on the throne in
00:12:53.000 heaven.” And Jesus responds to these guys, and he says, “For even the Son of Man,”
00:12:58.000 speaking about himself, “came not to be served, but to serve others and to give
00:13:04.000 his life as a ransom for many.”
00:13:08.000 If anybody in the history of mankind had the right to say, “Serve me,” it would
00:13:14.000 be Jesus, the King of kings, the Lord of lords, the one who is
00:13:20.000 God in the flesh. He had every right to say, “Serve me, bow down, worship me,
00:13:26.000 wash my feet, feed me, take care of me, fan me with the palm branches,” right?
00:13:31.000 But what did Jesus do? Jesus washed their feet.
00:13:34.000 Jesus stopped for those who were hurting. Jesus laid hands and prayed for people.
00:13:38.000 Jesus cared for the widows and the orphans and the down-and-out, and the ones who
00:13:42.000 were outcast by society. Jesus stopped and welcomed the children.
00:13:47.000 He gave his time. He gave his strength.
00:13:50.000 He gave his compassion, and ultimately, he gave his life.
00:13:54.000 Following Jesus doesn’t mean believing what Jesus believed.
00:13:58.000 It means following Jesus to become more like him.
00:14:02.000 Jesus ultimately said, “Follow me.
00:14:04.000 Do as I do.”
00:14:06.000 He modeled for us. Jesus modeled a surrendered life, sacrificed and serving
00:14:12.000 everyone around him. So if Jesus lived with a servant’s heart, how much more should
00:14:18.000 we live with a servant’s heart? And that’s not just Sunday mornings, it’s every day
00:14:23.000 of the week, stopping to help somebody, stopping to care for somebody, stopping to
00:14:27.000 meet somebody where they are. Really the question is, am I willing to live like
00:14:31.000 Jesus?
00:14:33.000 I’ll be honest, I’ll confess, I’m so busy most of the time, I don’t stop for people
00:14:37.000 enough. I have so much on my plate, I’m on my schedule, and it’s my own doing.
00:14:41.000 I schedule it, and I want to go, go, go, go, go.
00:14:44.000 Just this week, I had a 15-minute meeting at the bank that took an hour and fifteen minutes,
00:14:49.000 because somebody started asking me questions about Jesus. I said, “You know what?
00:14:52.000 I’m going to text my next meeting and say I’m going to run late.” And I stopped and
00:14:56.000 had an hour-long conversation with somebody about Jesus, about faith, and they’re
00:15:00.000 into spirituality and crystals and other stuff and I said, “You know what?
00:15:04.000 You’re looking for truth, but you’re looking in the wrong places. Let me help you.
00:15:08.000 Let me help you understand what the Bible says and why Jesus makes the difference.
00:15:13.000 In every other religion, Jesus is the difference maker.” And I’ll tell you what, as
00:15:18.000 tired as I am some days, every time I have a conversation, that day when I had that
00:15:22.000 conversation with her, I was so filled up with energy and life and joy, and I came
00:15:27.000 to the realization when Jesus said in John 4, “I have nourishment you know nothing
00:15:31.000 about.” He goes, “It’s doing the will of my Father.”
00:15:35.000 We all have this mindset in our human nature that we think if I give, if I serve,
00:15:40.000 if I do more, if I try to do something more for God, it’s going to be too much.
00:15:45.000 I’m going to get burned out, I’m going to be tired out.
00:15:47.000 Now there is some truth, there is some validity to stewarding your time, so I’m not
00:15:51.000 trying to say be abused. But I think all of us have more in us to truly say, “I
00:15:56.000 could do more for God. I could do something for God or with God.” And this isn’t
00:16:00.000 about getting something from you.
00:16:02.000 I really want you to experience that nourishment that comes from doing the will of
00:16:07.000 our Father, and the reality is, if we do the things we talked about the last three
00:16:10.000 weeks, if you’re reading your Bible every day, if you’re praying and hearing from
00:16:14.000 the creator of the universe and you’re worshiping him Monday through Sunday, not
00:16:18.000 just on Sunday, you’re going to have something filling you up, the Holy Spirit
00:16:22.000 filling you up, so you have something to give, so you have more to pour out, so you
00:16:26.000 can serve with joy, not serving from an empty tank.
00:16:31.000 I’m going to give you just a little snapshot of something Jesus made very clear to
00:16:35.000 his disciples. It’s Matthew 25. Just for time’s sake, I’m truncating.
00:16:39.000 I’m going to summarize this story, this parable, that Jesus shared.
00:16:44.000 It’s called the Parable of the Talents. Now, he gives a story.
00:16:47.000 It’s an illustration he’s trying to help us understand.
00:16:50.000 There’s three servants, and the master’s going away.
00:16:52.000 He gives each of the three servants different talents.
00:16:55.000 The one, he gives five bags of silver talents. That’s an amount of money.
00:16:58.000 The other one, he gives two bags of silver, and the one, he gives one bag of
00:17:01.000 silver. The master goes away, doesn’t tell them what to do with this, says, “Here,
00:17:04.000 you’re in charge of this,” and he goes away.
00:17:06.000 After a long time, he comes back to the first servant who had five bags of silver,
00:17:10.000 and says he doubled it. He turned it into 10 and gave it back to God, back to the
00:17:14.000 master. The master is God in the story.
00:17:16.000 And the master says, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” He goes to the next
00:17:20.000 servant. That one had two bags of silver, and he turns it into four bags of silver.
00:17:24.000 And the master says, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” He goes to a third
00:17:28.000 servant. The third servant buried it and hid it, and he gave back the one bag that
00:17:33.000 he was given. Now, listen, he didn’t lose the money. He didn’t go spend it.
00:17:37.000 He didn’t do something wrong and sinful. He didn’t blow it on something.
00:17:41.000 He just gave God back what he was originally given.
00:17:44.000 And the master’s response, as Jesus tells it, is he called him a wicked and lazy
00:17:48.000 servant. The big picture of the story, the lesson from this, is that God didn’t
00:17:53.000 give you gifts just for you. He gave you gifts for others.
00:17:57.000 So every single one of us have been given talents, have gifts, have abilities, have
00:18:02.000 resources, and if we just sit on them and say, “Here you go, God.
00:18:05.000 I gave you back what you gave me.” I’m afraid God would say, “Wicked and lazy
00:18:10.000 servant.” Instead of saying, “What did you reproduce? What did you multiply?
00:18:13.000 How did you invest this to be a blessing for others?” That everything we’ve been
00:18:19.000 given by God is meant to be a blessing to others.
00:18:22.000 How do we cultivate, how do we work the gifts and the resources God’s given us to
00:18:27.000 bless and be a blessing to others? In Galatians 5:13, one of our core
00:18:33.000 verses of our church, “For you have been called to live in freedom, my brothers and
00:18:38.000 sisters.” He says you’ve been called to live in freedom, not bondage, not slavery,
00:18:42.000 not getting tied up into religion and just good works, as he talks about earlier in
00:18:47.000 Galatians 5. He says, “Instead, use your freedom to serve one another
00:18:53.000 in love.” We’re to serve one another.
00:18:55.000 Again, not just Sunday morning teams, but throughout our day-to-day lives, using
00:19:00.000 our freedom to help others get free, to serve one another.
00:19:05.000 It looks like when you see somebody struggling, stop and help them.
00:19:09.000 I love going to the hardware store, and sometimes I just help somebody load
00:19:12.000 something, and it’s like you would think I gave them 1,000 bucks.
00:19:15.000 They’re just like, “Wow, thank you so much.” Because I know I’ve been there
00:19:17.000 struggling to lift something, and I look around, and nobody’s coming for my help,
00:19:21.000 right? Or you told the worker to come help you, and then you never see them.
00:19:24.000 But we serve one another in love. It can be on a day to day, giving somebody a
00:19:28.000 hand, holding the door for somebody, picking something up when somebody drops it.
00:19:33.000 What if we lived our lives every day looking for opportunities, how do we serve?
00:19:38.000 How do we be like Jesus? How do I live like Jesus every day of the week?
00:19:44.000 But here at Freedom Church, there are many ways that you can serve.
00:19:47.000 It may look like somebody holding the door and welcoming somebody, as all of us
00:19:50.000 have experienced. Even if it’s your very first time here, you experience somebody
00:19:54.000 helping you park your car, helping you get inside the front door, helping serve you
00:19:59.000 a cup of coffee. All those things, maybe for you, but maybe for the next person,
00:20:04.000 are going to make an eternal difference.
00:20:06.000 When somebody comes into a new place and they’re scared, or maybe this is their
00:20:09.000 first time ever in a church, and there’s a lot of preconceived notions or ideas
00:20:13.000 about church and religion, unfortunately, because of so much past and things that
00:20:17.000 have happened in other churches, that people can come in very apprehensive.
00:20:21.000 You sharing a cup of coffee and a smile, you welcoming somebody can make all the
00:20:25.000 difference to change their perspective, that maybe they open up their heart to
00:20:29.000 receive the word that God is speaking to them.
00:20:33.000 Ultimately, we don’t grow by listening to sermons.
00:20:36.000 You grow when you practice what is taught in the sermons.
00:20:40.000 And I emphasize that in teachings.
00:20:42.000 We teach on prayer, and then we emphasize prayer. We practice prayer.
00:20:46.000 We teach on worship, and then we have worship time.
00:20:48.000 Today, I’m teaching on serving and living servant lives.
00:20:51.000 Afterwards, we’re going to have a serve team fair.
00:20:54.000 If you didn’t go in the cafe, cafe’s going to be set up, and I’ll give more
00:20:57.000 instructions on that later in just a few minutes of how we can serve, how we can
00:21:01.000 get involved, how can we learn about all the ministries that are offered here at
00:21:05.000 Freedom Church, because we want to give you an opportunity to practice what I’m
00:21:08.000 preaching. Ultimately, this is the question for all of us to answer.
00:21:12.000 Where is God asking me to say yes?
00:21:16.000 Where is God asking me to say yes? Not where’s Pastor Eric, not where somebody else
00:21:20.000 is telling you to serve. What is God asking you to do?
00:21:24.000 My heart, my encouragement for every one of us is no matter what God says, the
00:21:30.000 answer should always be, “Yes, Lord.”
00:21:32.000 It doesn’t matter what he says. Even before we ask him, “God, whatever it is I’m
00:21:36.000 now going to ask you, whatever your answer, I just want to say yes, Lord.” I want
00:21:39.000 to say yes to whatever he’s asking me to do.
00:21:42.000 What I’m asking you to do is to ask God that question.
00:21:45.000 Maybe it’s to join one of the worship team or the kids ministry team or the welcome
00:21:49.000 team, or to sign up and ask questions of how can I be involved?
00:21:53.000 How can I make a kingdom impact and be used by God to make a difference in somebody
00:21:58.000 else’s life? I’m asking you to, will you stop spectating and start getting into the
00:22:03.000 game? Stop sitting on the sidelines and say, “I’m ready to jump in.
00:22:07.000 Put me in, coach.” Right? Are you willing to say, “God, where are you asking me to
00:22:10.000 say yes?” Ask God and let him speak to you.
00:22:13.000 Maybe he speaks through me, maybe he speaks through somebody else, because
00:22:16.000 ultimately, attendance isn’t the goal. Engagement is.
00:22:20.000 Engagement, work, doing the work of the ministry.
00:22:25.000 In my past, I used to work 80 to 100 hours a week.
00:22:28.000 I had two full-time jobs, school. That’s been my MO my adult life.
00:22:32.000 I always work. I knew there was 168 hours in a week.
00:22:35.000 I only needed this much sleep and this much travel time, and I could work every
00:22:38.000 other hour. I did that for years and years and years of my life, where work was an
00:22:41.000 idol. I worked for myself. I worked for money. I worked for me to get ahead.
00:22:47.000 Then I met Jesus, and God used my work ethic, and I realized there’s something
00:22:51.000 so much greater to live for, to work for, to give my life for, than money, than
00:22:57.000 stuff, than whatever I’m trying to build in my name or my reputation or my safety
00:23:02.000 net. I said, I find safety in God, and the Kingdom of God is the best place, the
00:23:07.000 only place worth giving your entire life for.
00:23:10.000 Doesn’t mean everyone quits their job and goes to be in ministry full-time, if
00:23:13.000 maybe God’s telling you to do that. But ultimately, let me tell you this.
00:23:17.000 The last two weeks, something that’s gripped me, I was just asked to share on a
00:23:20.000 podcast about a horrible thing I went through with my younger brother who died by
00:23:24.000 suicide. This past two weeks, two kids right here in this area, one in Norwin, one
00:23:30.000 in Penn Trafford, took their own life. In the last two weeks, two 15-year-olds.
00:23:36.000 As I heard about the second one on Tuesday, I just started crying.
00:23:38.000 I said, “God, this is why we need to get Jesus to more people.
00:23:42.000 God, this is why you are putting Freedom Church here in Murrysville.
00:23:45.000 This is why we need to have more people involved in ministry, and serving, and
00:23:49.000 giving, and contributing, and engaged.
00:23:51.000 Not just sitting on the sidelines, but getting in the game, getting involved in the
00:23:55.000 kingdom of God, so that we have this kingdom impact where the kingdom of darkness
00:23:59.000 is winning in many battles because Christians aren’t stepping up and doing more,
00:24:03.000 that the kingdom of God would overcome the kingdom of darkness.” Now, I’m not
00:24:07.000 trying to condemn you or convict you.
00:24:08.000 I am believing if God’s convicting you, what is God asking you to say yes to and
00:24:14.000 simply obey? That’s all I’m asking you to do.
00:24:16.000 But man, we can’t just let the enemy keep winning.
00:24:20.000 Kids taking their life, drugs, depression, anxiety, fears, all the stuff that’s
00:24:24.000 running rampant, especially with young people.
00:24:26.000 We’re going to do something about it. I’m inviting you to be involved.
00:24:30.000 Maybe it starts with serving coffee.
00:24:32.000 Maybe it starts with being involved in kids ministry.
00:24:34.000 And it seems like it’s not connected, but it’s all connected in the work that God
00:24:39.000 is doing. So I’m going to close with this. Ephesians, chapter two.
00:24:43.000 I’m going to read through 10 verses, and you can follow along on the screen.
00:24:49.000 Follow along if you have your Bibles, open up Ephesians 2.
00:24:51.000 I’m just going to read these 10 verses, and we’re going to close with some
00:24:54.000 announcements here. Ephesians 2 says, “Once you were dead because of your
00:24:59.000 disobedience and your many sins.” You were dead in your sins.
00:25:04.000 “You used to live in sin, just like the rest of the world, obeying the devil, the
00:25:10.000 commander of the powers in the unseen world.” This seems a little harsh.
00:25:14.000 This is the Bible. It’s the Apostle Paul writing to the church in Ephesus.
00:25:17.000 “You were dead in your sins. You used to live in sin, just like the rest of
00:25:21.000 world, obeying the devil. He is the spirit at work in the hearts of those who
00:25:26.000 refuse to obey God. All of us used to live that way.” Every
00:25:32.000 single one of us used to live a sinful, selfish lifestyle.
00:25:37.000 “We followed the passionate desires and inclinations of our sinful nature.
00:25:41.000 By our very nature, we were subject to God’s anger just like everybody else.”
00:25:46.000 There’s no better or worse. There’s saved and there’s unsaved.
00:25:50.000 There’s saved and there’s the not saved yet.
00:25:53.000 In verse four, “But God is so rich in mercy, he loved us so much that even though
00:25:59.000 we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised us from the dead.”
00:26:04.000 When he raised Christ from the dead, he raised us from the dead.
00:26:07.000 We were dead, and by his grace, we are saved.
00:26:12.000 It’s only by a work of God that we can be saved. We can’t resurrect ourselves.
00:26:17.000 Only God could resurrect us from the dead.
00:26:20.000 “He raised us from the dead along with Christ.
00:26:22.000 He seated us with him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ
00:26:27.000 Jesus. So God can point to us in all future ages as examples of the
00:26:33.000 incredible wealth of his grace and kindness toward us, as shown in all he has done
00:26:38.000 for us who are united with Christ Jesus.” God points to us as his children, as his
00:26:43.000 sons and daughters, as his wealth of grace and kindness and love and
00:26:49.000 mercy. When people see us, that’s what they should see.
00:26:52.000 God’s mercy, his love, his forgiveness. We’re not perfect people.
00:26:56.000 He goes on and says in verse eight, “God saved you by his grace when you believed.
00:27:01.000 You can’t take credit for this. It is a gift from God.” You can’t boast about it.
00:27:07.000 We can’t brag about our salvation. We simply say, “He saved me.
00:27:12.000 He forgave me. He died on the cross for me.” I can do nothing on my own.
00:27:18.000 I am dead apart from Christ. I am nothing apart from Christ.
00:27:24.000 It’s only by grace that we can be saved.
00:27:27.000 Salvation is not a reward for good things we have done.
00:27:31.000 None of us can boast about it. None of us.
00:27:34.000 It’s not about the preacher or the person sitting.
00:27:37.000 None of us can boast, for we are God’s masterpiece.
00:27:42.000 You know, a sculpture, a painting, or a creation, it can’t brag about itself.
00:27:45.000 It points to the one who created it. We are God’s masterpiece.
00:27:50.000 God gets the glory. God gets the honor. God gets the praise.
00:27:55.000 We boast in him because he created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good
00:28:01.000 things he planned for us all along, a long time ago.
00:28:05.000 The good things that we’re doing, the work that we’re called to do, to cultivate,
00:28:09.000 to create life, to be a blessing to others.
00:28:12.000 We can’t do that unless we go from dead to alive by his grace.
00:28:18.000 Then we can do the work. It can’t be out of order or it gets all mixed up.
00:28:23.000 We have to come to this realization that we are dead in our sins.
00:28:28.000 And maybe you’re here today and you’ve never realized that the sins and the bad
00:28:31.000 things you’ve done, the result of those things is death.
00:28:35.000 The result is you
00:28:38.000 deserve death. You deserve separation from God.
00:28:41.000 Hell ultimately is separation from God.
00:28:45.000 It’s not just a place to send you to punish you. No.
00:28:47.000 It’s choosing not to be with God for all of eternity.
00:28:51.000 God doesn’t send anybody to hell. We simply either choose to accept him, to believe
00:28:56.000 in him, or we reject him. And if we reject him, there’s a place called hell where
00:29:01.000 it’s separation for all eternity. But we can choose to believe in him.
00:29:05.000 We can choose that by his grace, we can be saved.
00:29:08.000 He is so rich in mercy and love that he forgives us.
00:29:12.000 But it has to be acknowledged that we have sin in our lives. We’re dead in our sin.
00:29:17.000 To be made alive in Christ means to say, “God, I repent of my sin.
00:29:22.000 I don’t want to sin anymore. I don’t want to live this life anymore.” Maybe there’s
00:29:26.000 some lifestyle choices you’re living that you can turn away from and say, “God, I
00:29:30.000 don’t want to live this way. I want to live for you now.” Are you going to be
00:29:33.000 perfect? No. But you can be made alive in Christ, and it’s by his
00:29:38.000 grace and only by his grace that you can be saved, and then you start to do all the
00:29:43.000 good things for God. I talk to people many times, they’re like, “I need to do more
00:29:48.000 good. I need to get cleaned up first.
00:29:49.000 I need to be a better person before I can come to God.” And it’s backwards.
00:29:53.000 God says, “Come right now. You’re here on purpose, for a purpose, in this very
00:29:58.000 moment.” So I’m going to pray. I’m going to ask you to bow your heads and pray with
00:30:01.000 me. Heavenly Father, God, we thank you for your grace.
00:30:06.000 God, I thank you.
00:30:09.000 It’s by your grace we can be saved. It’s only by your grace.
00:30:12.000 It’s not through our works. It’s not by our church membership or a baptism.
00:30:17.000 It’s not by anything we can do to save us.
00:30:21.000 But God, it’s all up to you, God, and I thank you for your mercy.
00:30:24.000 I thank you for your love. I thank you for your grace for us, that empowerment that
00:30:29.000 forgives us our sins and makes us white and anew in Christ Jesus.
00:30:35.000 God, I thank you that we all once were dead, but now we can be alive in you.
00:30:40.000 And God, I pray for every single person in this room.
00:30:42.000 If there’s anybody here right now or listening to the sound of my voice online, I
00:30:46.000 pray if they don’t know you, they don’t know that their sins have been
00:30:50.000 forgiven, that they’ve never entrusted you as the only way they can be forgiven, as
00:30:56.000 the only way that they could earn your love is nothing they can do but simply by
00:31:00.000 receiving your grace.
00:31:03.000 They can’t be good enough. They can’t be cleaned up.
00:31:05.000 They can’t do enough good on their own.
00:31:07.000 But God, I pray you’d show them how you’ve already done everything that needs to be
00:31:11.000 done on the cross through Jesus Christ.
00:31:14.000 That you did not stay dead in a tomb, but you rose back to life.
00:31:18.000 God, I pray that resurrection life is the same power that raises us back to life.
00:31:22.000 That same grace, that same power, that same spirit is available to us today when we
00:31:28.000 say no to ourselves, no to our sin, and we say yes to you.
00:31:33.000 Father, I pray that there’d be people today taking that step to give their life to
00:31:37.000 you. God, I pray for every single one of us that we would die to our old selves
00:31:41.000 more and more. God, we repent of any sins that we’ve been doing lately.
00:31:44.000 God, anything we’ve done this morning, this past week, God, that we would get right
00:31:48.000 with you again. God, that we’d surrender our lives back over to you.
00:31:52.000 God, that we’d say, “God, what are you asking me to do?” And let our answer be,
00:31:57.000 “Yes, Lord, no matter what it is you’re speaking.” God, I pray this all in the
00:32:01.000 mighty name of Jesus. Amen. Amen. Jared’s going to share a couple announcements,