All right. My name is Greg Hampton. If we have
never met, I would love to meet you, maybe grab
you a coffee, some time, hear your story. We
have been in a series for the last four or five
weeks called How To. We're trying to keep it
practical here for a few weeks because next week
we start a series on the Nicene Creed that will
lead us all the way to Advent. And we'll just
have Advent like we do every year, talk about
hope and peace and love and light. So we've talked
about how to pray, how to study the scriptures,
how to fellowship, and today I'm closing it up
with the message on how to serve. Now maybe some
of you are thinking this must be the Sunday where
Greg does all the recruiting. This also, yeah,
yes, by the end of the day we're going to get
out all the lists and you're going to fill out
your name on anything. We're going to lock the
doors. Not really, not really. But listen, serving...
isn't just about what you do in a church right
serving is about what you do with your life serving
is about seeing how your life is connected to
something that is more than just yourself you're
connected to your family you're connected to
god you're connected to this church but you're
also connected to your neighbors to your city
to the world Following Jesus leads us to do more
than just serve in a congregation a couple times
a month. Jesus leads us to serve with our lives
wherever we are. So let's go ahead and jump into
the scriptures. I'm going to read three different
passages. So there's Bibles on the table, or
you can open up the Bible app on your phone.
If you'd like, I'm going to be in John 13. 1
Corinthians 12 and Ephesians 2. So pick one of
those if you'd like, and we can all just kind
of be in different places. John 13, 1 Corinthians
12, and Ephesians 2. And we have a tradition
around here that when the passages are read in
the context of the sermon, that we give them
our full attention. One of the ways you can do
that is by standing with me. If you are able,
you're welcome to sit if you need to. I'm going
to start in John 13. Verses 3 through 5, it says
this, Jesus, knowing that the Father had given
all things into his hands and that he had come
from God and was going to God, got up from supper,
took off his outer robe and tied a towel around
himself. Then he poured water into a basin and
began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe
them with the towel that was tied around him.
1 Corinthians 12, verses 14 through 16. Indeed,
the body does not consist of one member, but
of many. If the foot would say, because I am
not a hand, I do not belong to the body, that
would not make it any less a part of the body.
And if the ear would say, because I am not an
eye, I do not belong to the body, that would
not make it any less part of the body. In Ephesians
2, 8 through 10, for by grace you have been saved
through faith. And this is not your own doing,
it is the gift of God. not the result of works
so that no one may boast. For we are what he
has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good
works, which God prepared beforehand so that
we may walk in them. Let us pray. God of every
tribe, every tongue, every color, every nation,
we thank you for the scriptures that they have
persisted throughout the millennia. We still
have them to learn from and to consider. Pray
that whatever you have. to teach us today that
it would stick, that it would become a part of
the framework of our faith, that our faith would
become stronger as we become more like your son,
Jesus. Amen. Thanks, y 'all. You can have a seat.
All right, let's start with Ephesians. Ephesians
tells us that God already has good works for
us to do. They're already there, but let's be
clear. We're not welcomed into a relationship
with God. If we serve. Amen? We're not welcomed
into a relationship with God if we serve. And
we don't maintain relationship with God with
the works that we do. We don't have to work to
keep God's love. And the same God that did the
good work of creating us, accepting us, welcoming
us, has also created good work for us to walk
in. And if you don't know how to start walking,
I'll give you something simple. All right, this
past July, show of hands, you knew that there
was a monastery in Rock Island, right? It's kind
of like this little hidden gem. And a lot of
us know, we've mentioned it here a couple times,
but it's beautiful. The property is beautiful.
The building is beautiful. The chapel. Everything
about it is really so peaceful. There's paths
that you can walk on. You do not need permission.
You can just go and you can walk around the pond
and through the woods a bit. And this past July,
I was at the monastery for a three -day retreat.
And they said when we got there, you can go really
anywhere that you want. There's a library and
a cafeteria and this and that and the paths.
And they said, but you'll probably see there's
one path that has a sign on it that says sisters
only. So anybody want to guess where I ended
up? All right. So I started in the library. And
the library is like when you come into the property,
when you come into the main building, you walk
in and that's technically already the second
floor because it goes down to the cafeterias
downstairs where the path starts and the pond
is. And so there's a library at the end of the
building. And because the building is kind of
multiple tiers, right outside the library they
have like a rooftop patio that has like a little
table and a couple chairs and flowers. And so
I was sitting out there reading, praying. And
there's a hummingbird came up and was feeding
from a flower just a couple of feet from me.
But eventually, the shade that was shading the
part that I was sitting in, that had all moved.
Because I sat there for quite a long time. And
I was, all right, well, I'm going to go for a
walk now. And so they're on the patio. At the
end of the building, there's an exit. It said
exit, and the stairs, and so I took those stairs
downstairs, and it popped me outside next to
a trail, and I looked over to my right, and I
saw Sister Mary getting some stuff for her garden.
I saw the garden, and I walked down the path,
and I kept walking down the path, and all the
way, I got all the way down here on the path,
and I could see a sign as I was coming, but the
text was the other direction. So I got past the
sign, and I looked back to see what the sign
said. It said, Sisters Only. I had found myself
somewhere that I didn't belong. And so at the
next chapel, I was sat next to Sister Mary, and
I apologized that I had found myself somewhere
that I wasn't supposed to be. And she said, the
garden's beautiful, isn't it? And she's this
little, little lady, little, little, little lady.
And I said, it is. And she said, I'm glad you
saw it. I work hard on it. Sister Mary is 89
years old. She has been a nun since she was 18.
And she still serves. And I'm not talking about
the garden. I'm talking about her kindness. The
kindness that she had when... I found myself
somewhere that I wasn't meant to be, and instead
of chiding me, she said she was glad I was there.
That was an act of service. So if you don't think
that serving is for you, or that you've done
all that you can, maybe something as simple as
kindness is the good work that God has prepared
for you to do, that he's asking you to walk in.
In 1 Corinthians 12, Paul reminds us that every
part matters. Every Sunday, each Sunday that
we take communion. And who notices what happens
when we're done receiving communion? Someone
goes over to the door, and sure, it's probably,
yeah, it's there. Someone grabs the little caddy
that was probably invented for silverware, but
we use it for... communion cups. And quite often,
many of those Sundays during the summer especially,
but also on Sundays like this where kids aren't
treehouse age are still with us in the room,
often the person that's walking that caddy around
is a child. It's a tiny, tiny little kid understanding
that they are a part. of the body, that they
aren't only a recipient of the body, but they
are an active part of it. And we don't schedule
that. We schedule a lot of things. Who's in the
band? Who's going to greet and host at the door?
Who serves the kids? We don't schedule who's
going to pick up the caddy and walk it around
to receive all the communion cups so that we
can wash them. Something about these kids, they
get it. They know, oh, this is a moment for me
to be a part of who we are. Because every part
matters. So maybe you don't think of yourself
as someone that's like the whole arm or the leg.
Maybe you don't think of yourself as a voice
that sings or a mouth that speaks. But every
part matters. A body needs every single part,
big and little, seen and unseen. When I was in
college and my voice was changing, I... That's
a little joke because my voice cracked right
there. Me, me, me, me, me. When I was in college,
I took this class called Age and Aging. And I
remember learning for the first time that when
an older person falls and breaks a bone or hip,
it's usually not because they were weak. It's
usually because they lost their flexibility.
Studies show that improving flexibility can actually
reduce fall -related injuries by as much as 40
% because flexibility is what allows you to trip
but not fall. When you hit the curb or when you
take two steps instead of one, flexibility is
what allows you to push your leg out further
and land on your foot instead of going down.
And y 'all, flexibility... It's found on the
inside, isn't it? It's under the skin. Your flexibility
is hidden. It's in the ligaments. It's in the
tendons. It's on everything underneath. And every
church needs worship leaders. And every church
needs people to work with the children and host
people when they enter at the door. But it is
the invisible acts of serving. Things like giving
and vacuuming and inviting other people to church.
Praying. Being kind to someone. When they find
themselves in a place they don't belong. Remembering
their name. These things help a church be flexible.
Keeps the body from breaking when we trip. And
I'll be candid. Every church you've ever been
to, every church you've ever seen, they've all
made mistakes. Not just as individuals, but as
churches, as the body. They've made mistakes
on how to handle something, how to approach something.
It is the flexibility inside, underneath the
outward facing thing that happened. It's the
kindness. It's the acceptance. All of that invisible
stuff is what helps a church, when they trip,
to not fall and break. So every part needs flexibility.
Finally, let's consider John 13. Hey, will you
bring the water basins in for the foot washing
service real quick? I'm joking. There's nobody
there. But if we had a foot washing service right
now, how many of you would want to get up and
leave? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because ain't nobody
need to see my feet, let alone touch my feet,
right? The truth is that these days, if you have
a foot washing service, it's mostly symbolic.
The person is not washing. The Pope, every year,
washes the feet of people that are homeless or
mentally ill. Every single year, the Pope does
acts of service like that. It is mostly symbolic.
The person doesn't necessarily need their feet
washed. What they need is to see someone with
status to ignore that status. We wear shoes.
We wear socks. I mean, if you're Dave Hodge,
Dave isn't here today, but if you're Dave Hodge,
you wear sandals year -round. If you were Greg
in his 20s, I wore sandals pretty much year -round.
But back then, it was a different story. They
wore sandals. Everybody wore sandals everywhere
that they went. And everywhere that they went,
they didn't have paved roads in Jerusalem. They
didn't have paved roads in the small towns. It
was all dirt and dirt paths. And you know who
else was on those dirt paths? All the donkeys
and all the other animals. And I'm not sure that
they were paying a whole lot of attention to
make sure that they didn't step in different
things. And so when you went to someone's house,
You wanted to have your feet washed. But that
wasn't going to happen by the head of the house.
That wasn't going to happen from the rabbi that
you were spending time with. Culturally speaking,
that was going to happen from a servant or the
lowest person on the chart of that house. It
was completely unexpected for Jesus, who they
looked up to and was their rabbi, for him. to
wrap himself in a towel and to wash their feet.
This is a lesson that he had taught them before.
This lesson is identical to the first will be
last, the last will be first. It's identical
to the message that if you want to be the greatest,
you must make yourself the lowest. But this time,
he's not just teaching it with words, he's showing
it. with his actual body, with his actual service,
showing them that I don't just mean it with words.
I mean it with what I will actually do with who
I am, that serving ignores status. If we are
following Jesus, there is no such thing as something
that is beneath us. Amen? There's a show called
The Bear on Hulu. I'm not saying you should watch
it around your kids. There is a lot of swearing
in it. But other than that, it's a good show.
It's about this guy that was in fine dining and
worked in Michelin star restaurants. And he comes
back. His brother had died. And he comes back
to take over the beef restaurant in Chicago.
It's an Italian beef. restaurant. They just make
Italian beef sandwiches, and he's trying to do
things differently, and he's got a cousin who's
not really his cousin, but in their circles,
you know, you called people that you knew your
whole life cousins, so his cousin Richie is upset
that he's trying to change things. Richie is
hard -headed. He's always making himself in the
way because he's trying to keep things from changing
the way that he thinks that they should be. What
happens is The tides start to change, and Carmen,
or Carmi, who's leading the restaurant, he gets
the money to reinvent this restaurant, to turn
it into something that's elevated. And everyone's
getting trained. Everyone's getting different
things that they need to learn. And he sends
Richie to the best restaurant in the world, who
I think it's based off of Elenia. So Elenia is
actually in Chicago right now. It is a three
Michelin star restaurant. It was considered one
of the... best five restaurants in the entire
world for a while. I will probably never eat
there because it's a ridiculous amount of money
for one person to eat at three Michelin star
restaurant. But it shows him getting to go and
work at this restaurant for a week. And he immediately
thinks that the only reason he's there is because
his cousin wanted to get rid of him. He just
wanted to get me out of his hair. He's tired
of me giving him a hard time. And in that kind
of kitchen, in that kind of restaurant culture,
the thing that you do when you are on loan from
somewhere else is that you clean the silverware.
You don't wash the silverware. You clean the
silverware. It's already been washed. You stand
and you polish every fork until it is perfect.
And he cannot stand it. He's bothered by it.
The first half of the episode, he's clinging
and he's just plunking them down, plunking them
down, plunking them down. There's this moment
where Garrett, the guy that works there, he's
not in charge of all of it, but he's in charge
of that. And he says, come on. And he takes him
outside and he says, listen, I don't need you
to like it, but I need you to respect it. He
says, because this place means a lot to people.
You should see the look on people's faces when
they get to come here, the experience that they've
been looking forward to, what we're trying to
provide for them. He says, every day is like
the Super Bowl here of what we're trying to create
for people. He says, so you don't have to like
it, you have to respect it. And Richie says,
okay, I can do respect. He starts to get better.
He starts to see the point. He starts to see
why things are done a certain way. But he's still
convinced that Carmi sent him there to get him
out of his hair. He's looking for polish to polish
the forks. And he runs into the head chef, Terry.
She is just standing there peeling mushrooms.
And he stands and he says, oh, can I learn how
to do that? And she shows him how to peel these
mushrooms. And he says to her, well, don't you
have? Somebody that can do this for you? You
own the place. And she says, I like starting
the day with this. It feels like respect. It
feels attached. I think that it's time well spent.
And then she explains that when she was younger,
that she had all the accolades. That she had
a restaurant that was doing really well and all
the awards and all the articles being written
about her. And then everything came crashing
down and she spent a lot of time blaming everybody
else that she had been at the top and now she
was at the bottom. She was doing this because
it kept her grounded, because it reminded her
that there was nothing that was beneath her.
And after this little teachable moment, she says,
you know, I know your cousin. And he goes, yeah,
I'm sorry that he pulled a favor. And she goes,
no, I don't do favors like that. She said, well,
let me just say what he said. She said, he believes
in you, you know. And Richie says, what makes
you say that? She says, because he told me. He
said, you're good with people. And he's not wrong.
I don't know why this episode, it makes me cry.
I've watched it three, four times. I was reviewing
it again because I knew I wanted to tell this
story. But as I was thinking about why does this
make me so emotional? I think it's maybe because
we all want someone that we think is important
to tell us that they believe in us. Someone that
we think... is at the top to tell us that we
matter. Someone that in the structure of life
has no reason to have to show us kindness to
show us a kindness. We all need someone to help
us figure out exactly who we are. Sometimes we
need someone to tell us that the person that
sent you to do this thing didn't do it to get
you out of their hair. They did it because they
believe in you. Let me just say, wherever you
are, wherever God has you, he didn't send you
there to get you out of his hair. He didn't send
you there because you couldn't cause any more
problems there. He sent you to that spot because
he believes in you. If you have kids, he gave
you those kids because he believes in you. If
he gave you a spouse, he gave you that spouse
because he believes in you. If he gave you a
rec center or a job at a bank that you never
thought you'd have, he gave that to you because
he believes in you, not because he's trying to
occupy you with something else. He's doing it
on purpose because he has put these good works
out ahead of us for us to walk in. And I personally
believe That Jesus is the top of the universal
org chart. But he's the one that is washing our
feet. He's the one that's forgiving our sins.
He's the one inviting us to sit at his table.
Because serving ignores status. Everyone matters.
And there is good for us to do. So then we ought
to ask, where is God inviting us? To serve. Maybe
it's here. The truth is that Robin would like
two more people on the Treehouse team. Two more
people to help serve the kids. But maybe, even
more likely, it's outside the walls of this church.
It's in your neighborhood. It's in your workplace.
It's in your school. Next week on Thursday, October
23rd, the house is going to be recognized. with
a Hero Award by the Community Caring Conference
here in Rock Island. And I want to tell you something.
I know that we're not being honored or acknowledged
in that way because of all the programs that
we have at this church. I think that they are
offering that honor to us because of all the
serving that the people of this congregation
do in our cities. Closet to closet. is a clothing
provider for children in the foster system. And
what some of you might not know is, well, it's
right here in our building. I'm sure some of
you knew that. But some of you might not have
known is that last year they were thinking about
closing their doors. The kids that had been based
on and founded upon and were leading it, they're
all grown. They're married or they're going off
to school. And it's like, okay, maybe it's time
to be done. Instead, Tashiana McConnell, right
over here, she said, yes, I'll take up that mantle.
I'll take up that important thing. I'll lead
that into the next season. But not just her.
She's not alone. Scott, her husband, is on the
board. And so is Josh Fowler, who goes to this
church, and Alex North, who's here today. They're
making sure that kids in the foster system have
the clothing that they need. And listen, that
is not our church's ministry. But people from
this church do ministry. Or think about the teachers
in our schools. Think about Joe Woods. Think
about Chris Britton. Think about Jake Van Dam.
Lena and Matt Armstrong. Brian McConnell. Cindy
Hampton. Kathy Webb. Kristen Kosky. I'm sure
I'm leaving somebody out. But think about the
impact that they get to have on all of the students
that they touch and come into contact with every
day because they're doing it with kindness, because
they are walking in the path that Jesus has given
them to walk. They're offering kindness and patience
and goodness. They're dedicating themselves to
the development of children that are not their
own. Think of all the benefits that that has
on your city long term. And then not just as
teachers. Kristen Kosky, in addition to being
a teacher at Moline High School, she serves on
the board for a new org called The Third Place
that's in downtown. Rock Island. It's a drop
-in shelter. It's a daytime drop -in spot for
people that don't have a home, that may be experiencing
poverty, that don't have a phone of their own.
They need a place to store something during the
day so that they can go try and get a job or
they need some connection to social services.
She's on the board for that. I think about Destiny.
She works with the project. The project offers
HIV prevention services, counseling, harm reduction,
LGBTQ health care. Think about Andy Boswell.
He's a probation officer, but he's a different
kind of probation officer. He is constantly trying
to find paths for people back to healthy lives.
About Bruce Peterson. He's on the board for the
Christian Care Center. A men's shelter here in
Rock Island. Or Marissa has worked for the Center
for Independent Living, working with people with
disabilities and educating about disabilities
for 20 years. Corey Holloway works in the Rock
Island School District as well, but he also serves
on the board for Narratives QC, which serves
people that are 18 to 24, just trying to get
their feet under them, trying to figure out what
their path is supposed to be. And when the city
of Rock Island introduced... a moratorium against
any new prophet starting for a certain amount
of time, at least 12 different people that call
this church their home were there that night.
Not because we sent out an email and said, everybody
needs to show up. They showed up because they're
connected to all the things that happen in this
city. And they care what happens on the streets
of our town. That is what it looks like when
the church moves beyond the walls. Serving isn't
just about what you do in a church. Serving is
about what you do with your life. Serving here,
it's beautiful. It's necessary. It's wonderful.
We want you to serve the kids. We want you to
greet and host people at the door and use your
voices in worship because transformation happens
here. People learn to rest, to live in Christ,
and then they find out what their work is too.
But the kind of serving that Jesus modeled is
not confined to one spot on a map. So here's
the challenge this week. Ask God to show you
how to serve. This will be my third time mentioning
it. Treehouse needs a couple people to join the
team. That is true. And if that's you, that would
be great. Please do that. If you don't already
give back to God through the local church, Pray
about that. Consider that. After service today,
Jake is going to be leading a prayer walk through
the Greenbush neighborhood. What a great opportunity
for you to do a simple act of service by just
walking through part of the neighborhood and
praying for the neighborhood. Do not reserve
all of your serving for this spot on the map.
Because most of our serving should happen somewhere
else because most of our time is spent somewhere.
else. Amen? Let's pray. Father, we thank you
for every opportunity to serve that you have
already put out ahead of us. Like little breadcrumbs
leading us in the right direction. Pray that
you would help us to listen with the Spirit,
to pay attention, and then to step into the little
acts of service, whether it's kindness, showing
up to a city council meeting, or giving more
hours of our time to serving someone that's in
need. Amen? Amen.