Thank you for listening to this message from
Lifehouse Church. If you're not familiar or you're
not part of LifeHouse and this is your first
time here, these we call the invitation balls.
These over here are salvation. We get super excited
about these, by the way. Come on, can we give
the Lord a hand? Yeah. Every one of these represents
somebody, right? Truly, this represents a life,
somebody that's been saved. And you could have
clapped longer than that. It's Jesus. I'm sorry
I interrupted. I feel bad now. But these really
represent somebody who's come to Christ. And
these are invitations. So what I want you to
do. We're going to pray over the Word, and we're
going to pray over these invitations, because
these might be people that are far from God and
need to know Him. So I want you to extend your
hand this way. We're going to pray that the Lord
reaches out and goes before and behind and beside
whoever these folks are, and His Holy Spirit
begins to draw them to Him. So Father, we come
today, God, thankful, grateful for the opportunity
to invite people into the kingdom, those who
are far from You. We ask, Lord, that... The Holy
Spirit would continue to go out ahead and speak
and minister to them. And, Lord, we're looking
for that to take place so that, Lord, one day
they'll be in orange. God, one day their name
will be on that orange ball, and they'll be in
the kingdom of God, and they'll know your power,
they'll know your presence, they'll know salvation.
We just give you praise. We give you glory in
Jesus' name. Everybody say it together. Amen.
Amen. We never want to let that go. I can't tell
you the importance of the Holy Spirit going out
ahead of us. Amen? All right, you may be seated
this morning. Thank you. Thank you for hopping
up so quickly and being ready to go. Well, I
viewed something online this week. I saw a video
by Josh Howerton. I don't know if you've ever
seen him. He pastors Lake Point Church down in
the Dallas -Fort Worth area. Really like some
of his videos, and I totally ripped off one of
his stories. I stole it from him, and I'm going
to use it this morning, but it was just so good,
I needed to repeat it. And the story comes from
a college campus from the 1960s. And on this
particular campus, they called all the students
together and had assembly. I don't know if that's
still what they call it. Back when I was in school,
they called it a general assembly. All the students
would come in, and you would have an assembly
in wherever the auditorium was. And they called
them all together, and what they did is they
brought in four branches of the U .S. military.
They brought in the Army, the Navy, the Air Force,
and the Marines. And the purpose for the assembly
was for recruitment. Each recruiter would get
up and, for lack of a better term, kind of give
their pitch about what they're recruiting and
telling a little bit about the service or that
branch of the service that they come from. And
so the students gathered into the area that they
were going to meet, and each recruiter came up
one at a time. And the first one was the Army
recruiter, and he gets up and he says something
like this. He tells the students, if you join
the Army, you can be part of the GI Bill. This
was back in the 60s. And earn a free education
on Uncle Sam's dime, right? The government will
help pay for your education. The Army will pay
for your education. And you will gain experience,
and it's all going to be amazing. And he sits
down. The Navy recruiter then gets up. And he
says something along these lines. He says, join
the U .S. Navy, and you're going to learn job
skills that affords you all kind of opportunities
following your service to your country. And he
promised that this could be an opportunity for
you really to sail across the globe, to visit
great places that you've never been before. And
he sits down. Then the Air Force recruiter gets
up, and he says, join the Air Force, and you
may get the opportunity to fly a jet or work
on aircraft equipment. You will be trained in
highly sought -after skills that will lead to
high -paying jobs in your future, again, post
-military. And then the Marine recruiter gets
up, and he walks up to the podium, and he begins
to look over this group of students, college
students that are before him, and for 60 seconds,
he doesn't say anything. He just stares into
their eyes. He just looks intently across the
crowd, a little bit like I'm doing right now.
Except I'm not doing the awkward silence thing,
right? And he begins to stare. And after a long
period of time, when he finally speaks, he says
something like this. He says, ladies and gentlemen,
I was asked to come and present today as a recruiter
for the Marines. But from the looks of the audience,
I'm wasting my time and yours. I know. Did you
expect me to get up here and tell you how wonderful
the Marines are and that you're going to love
it? You expect me to tell you about the career
advancements, the early retirement, the job skills
that you can put into practice in the private
sector once you finish serving. But I'm not going
to tell you any of that because some of that
may not be true. If you join the Marines, you're
probably going to hate it. You will curse the
day that you were born. You will be mad at God
for the day your mom was made and the day that
she birthed you. You will be shot at. Some of
you will be hit with ammunition, live ammunition.
Some of you will be killed in the line of duty.
Because when you're a Marine, you're the first
one in and the last one out. And I'm wasting
your time and you're wasting mine because I looked
at every single one of you in the eye and I did
not see one person sitting in this place that
would make what we call a United States Marine.
Forgive me for wasting your time. And he closed
his little book. and he walked off the stage.
And after a long, awkward silence that took place,
and the assembly ending in a very awkward manner,
they began to disperse, and there was tables
set up out in a common area for the Army, the
Navy, the Air Force, and the Marines. And a handful
of students were at the Army, the Navy, and the
Air Force. But at the Marine table, they were
lined out the door. To sign up to go into the
Marines. Why? Why? Because what people want is
more than just an easy button for their life.
They want something that's worth living and dying
for. They want something that they can die for,
climb a hill and die for. And when Jesus Christ
came to earth, he did not lower the bar. He did
not dumb it down. He did not give us an easy
button to push for Christianity. for Christianity.
He came and he said, serve, serve, right? Come
and die with me and serve. That's the mission.
If you want to be my disciples, come and die.
Come be crucified with me and serve. This is
Serve Team Sunday. Turn to somebody right now.
Tell them it's Serve Team Sunday. Come on, Serve
Team. This is the mission. This is the call.
To die and serve. This is the call of Christ.
Not only so that we serve those around us here
in this place, but so that we serve outside this
place and so that others come into the kingdom
of God. So other people can get in. It should
be our attitude. It should be our desire. It
should be our heart. It should be our drive when
we get out of bed in the morning. It ought to
be our passion. And on some level, it ought to
be our obsession, truly. We should be dying.
To serve. Just dying to. Dying to serve. Turn
to your neighbors. Last time I'm going to tell
you to do it. Tell them, I think he's going to
preach about serving today. Go ahead and tell
them. I think he's going to preach about serving
today. I'm going to preach about serving today.
Tell somebody one last time. Serving should be
what gets us up in the morning. It should be
on my radar every single day. It should be one
of the primary motivations in my life. I should
be willing and ready to go, die on some hill.
for some eternal cause that Christ has put before
us. But how do we know that's not always the
case? It's not always, sometimes that's not the
case at all, right? The reality is, for some
of us, sometimes we get up, we don't even think
about serving. Sometimes we get up and we rarely
think about serving. Some people never think
about serving at all, in any case. There's probably
Christians who would never, ever make the statement
that's the title of this message. I'm dying to
serve. They'll never say it. Sometimes you will,
right? I'm dying to serve. But if we're Christian,
and Jesus is our Savior, He has commissioned
us to die and serve. And there may be something
fundamentally wrong with our thinking, for those
of us who call Christ by name, if one of our
primary motivations is not to die. and serve.
Jesus said this in Matthew 16, 24. He said this,
and Jesus said to his disciples, if anyone desires
to come after me, let him deny himself. How many
know that's a fun statement, right? Right? I'm
going to deny myself. We only like to deny ourselves.
Well, let me speak for myself, right? I only
like to deny myself of things that I actually
don't like in the first place. That's what I
like to deny myself of. If I'm going to deny
myself something, I would say, I deny myself
coconut. I like just about everything except
coconut. I'd be like, I deny myself. I will deny
myself coconut all day long and twice on Sunday.
Because I don't like it. I'll deny it for 365
days of the year, right? I'll take one for the
team and deny coconut. We like to deny things
that we don't really like in the first place.
But that's not what Jesus was saying here. He
was saying if anyone desires to come after him,
that means denying yourself the things that you
like to do. It may even be some things that you
love, right? That's like me saying, I deny myself
chocolate. I love chocolate. Dark chocolate in
particular. I deny myself chocolate. And he doesn't
stop there. Jesus said to his disciples, if anyone
desires to come after me, let him deny himself.
And then he steps it up a notch. And he says,
take up his cross. It gets even harder. And follow
me. For whoever desires to save his life will
lose it. But whoever loses his life for my sake
will find it. For what profit is it to a man
if he gains the whole world and loses his own
soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for
his soul? For the Son of Man will come in glory
of his Father and with his angels, and then he
will reward each according to his works. Jesus
is returning to reward his disciples. He's going
to return. He's going to reward those who have
followed him, those who have called. But the
reward is for those who have died to themselves.
Those who have taken up the cross, right, not
only denied themselves, died to themselves, but
begin to take up the cross. They begin to take
up the burden. They begin to grab a hold of what
God has in front of them. And it's sweat equity.
It's actually laboring. It's actually diving
in and doing it, right? The Marine had it right,
calling people out to lay it all down for eternal
purposes, for what God has in mind. And can I
tell you, can I say something very clear? There
is no such thing as a sideline Christianity.
There really isn't. There's no such thing as
sideline Christianity. There's nobody on the
sidelines. There's no observation decks in Christianity.
It's not a spectator sport. There's no spectator
sections. There's no park it and see how it all
goes down just to watch the show. It really isn't.
There are no stadiums. There's no stadiums at
all in Jesus' world. What do I mean by that?
Well, think about a stadium, right? We have sports
stadiums all across the United States. And what
do we do when we go to a sports stadium? We show
up to the sports stadium and we go watch the
superstars out on the field, right? The superstars
are going to come out. Those people who are the
athletes, those people who have gone and trained,
those people who have serious sweat equity in
what they're doing, right? There's been deep
sacrifice on their side. They show up for game
day. They show up for practices. They're in all
the way. They've given everything they've got,
right? And everybody comes to the stadium, and
we watch the superstars on the team. And what
do the rest of us do? We get in the stands. We
go get a hot dog, right? We go get nachos and
cheese. We get an 84 -ounce soda so we can wash
it all down just a little bit later, right? We
paint our faces colors, you know, red, blue,
yellow, green, whatever, and we start cheering
on the superstars down on the field. But that's
not how it works in the kingdom of God. In the
kingdom of God, it's not a stadium. It's not
a spectator thing. In the kingdom of God, it's
more like a construction site. It really is.
In the kingdom of God, first of all, there's
only one superstar, right? His name's Jesus.
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, God's the only
superstar in the whole deal. The whole rest of
it's like a construction site. The rest of it
is all of us co -laboring together. It's all
of us coming in. And one person's swinging a
hammer. One person's digging a hole. One person's
painting. One person's setting doors. One person's
putting up the drywall. Somebody's going to the
awful job of putting in insulation. Somebody's
wiring the place. Somebody's putting on a roof.
Somebody's landscaping. Somebody's planting plants.
The engineers are making sure that everything
works right and designing. And it's more like
a construction site in God's economy. We come
together and we serve arm in arm. There's no
big I's and little u's. There's no superstars
except our King and our Lord and Savior. It's
the kingdom. It's a construction site. And God's
at the head of it. The only superstar is the
King of kings and the Lord of lords. And the
rest of us are servants. The rest of us put on
the towel, right? And we put on the tool belt
and we go to work, laboring together to populate
heaven and decrease the population of hell. That's
what we're here to do, right? Arm in arm, locked
together. And to do that, we have to die to self
and come together and work. One of the most gratifying
moments that you'll ever have in your life is
if you ever sign up to go on a mission trip.
And that could be locally. And when I say locally,
inside the border of the United States of America.
Or if you go somewhere outside of the country
to serve on a mission trip. It'll be one of the
most life -changing things you'll ever do. And
it's the most interesting thing because it's
a week where you completely deny yourself. Truly.
When you go on a mission trip. Because you think
about even a short -term mission trip that's
maybe a Saturday to Saturday, a seven -day mission
trip. And think about the people that go on those
trips. First of all, one, they pay to go on that
trip. Right? They shell out a bunch of money
to pay for their housing, to pay for their food,
to pay for land fees. Some of them even give
extra towards whatever the cause is that they're
going to. And they do all that. They take a week
off from their job. They burn up a week of vacation.
So they're spending money. They take a week of
vacation. They go somewhere and they work harder
than they probably did back at home at their
job. They spend seven days exhausting themselves.
and working and laboring, only to come back,
right? Sunday, they'll get Sunday off. If it's
Saturday, it's Saturday. And then Monday, they
go right back to work again. They do all this.
And do you know what 9 .9 % of them will say?
9 % out of the 10 will say to you, or 9 .9 people
out of 10 will say to you, they'll say it was
one of the best weeks of their entire life when
they went on the omissions trip because they
go to serve. They go to serve. There's reward.
God will reward it. And there's reward. I got
to be honest, there's even reward in your own
heart here. When we die to serve, the enemy sells
us a lie. He sells us a lie. He sells us the
idea of live it up for yourself, right? Real
life, abundant life does not begin until we begin
to die to self and we begin to serve with God
and with others. It's true. And just so you don't
think I'm on a tirade, because it's Serve Sunday,
right? And I'm just pumped up and fired up for
today, but I am a little bit. Let's take a look
at what happens in actually the book of Mark,
chapter 10, verse 41. And Jesus is taking a little
time, and he's kind of straightening things up.
Sometimes Jesus straightens things up with his
disciples, and this is kind of one of those moments.
He's got 12 disciples who follow him, right?
They're protégés that are along. These are people
who are protégés, they're trainees, they're hand
-picked apprentices, and there's a dozen of these
supposedly spiritually mature followers. And
here's what they're doing. They're all bickering
with each other about who's going to be the greatest
in the kingdom of God. Right? Now, they kind
of got this idea, like, look at me, look at me,
look at me. You know what I'm talking about,
right? I'm the greatest, I'm the greatest. And
James and John, in this particular two of the
disciples, they're kind of the ringleaders or
the cause of this whole thing. Because what they
do is they try to go to Jesus. And they go to
Jesus and they tell Jesus, hey, Jesus, when you
come into your kingdom and you're fully set up
as king, we want to sit on your right hand and
your left hand. They were positioning themselves.
See, when you're in the right hand or the left
hand of the king, seat beside the king, that's
a place and position of honor. That's a place
of exaltation. It's a place of maybe even entitlement
that comes along with that. And James and John,
two of the disciples, they go to Jesus and they
say, Jesus, when you come into your kingdom,
can we sit right beside you? Can we be the ones?
And the other 10 hear about it, these other 10
disciples, and they're miffed. They're angry.
They're like, what are you guys doing? Come on.
You're maneuvering in the background, right?
Politicking in the background. And they all begin
to bicker like a bunch of kids in the backseat
of a van on vacation. Amen? Know what I'm talking
about. Some of you are like, I know what I'm
talking about. Mark 10, 41 says this, And when
the ten heard it, they began to be greatly displeased
with James and John. But Jesus called them to
himself and said to them, You know that those
who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord
it over them, and their great ones exercise authority
over them. Yet it shall not be so among you,
but whoever desires to become great among you
shall be your what? Servant. Say it. Servant.
And whoever of you desires to be first shall
be slave. Jesus always steps it up. Slave of
all. He's always stepping it up. For even the
Son of Man, this is our theme verse. You heard
it this morning already for serving here. For
even the Son of Man did not come to be served,
but to serve and give his life as a ransom for
many. This is one. And only one position we can
take in God's construction site is serve. It's
dying to serve. It's the attitude of serve. It's
got to be one of my primary purposes in life.
Serve is sprinkled in everything that I do when
I get up in the morning. And I know we all got
positions and we got places we have to be and
jobs that we have to serve in. And I understand
all that. you know, walking out. But in our hearts,
we serve. And I know I'm preaching a completely
countercultural message from the world around
us. I'm aware that the world's going to tell
you the complete opposite. They're going to tell
you to live for yourself. They're going to tell
you, the world's going to tell you to indulge.
They're going to tell you, don't deny yourself
anything. As a matter of fact, grab everything
that you can. Find yourself, right? Anybody ever
hear that? Find yourself? Raise your hand if
you've ever heard that before. Go find yourself,
right? But we also know that Jesus said it's
not about that. It's about dying. And at the
end of the day, if you dive into what the world's
saying, if you jump into the ideology of the
world of grabbing it all for you, indulging in
whatever you want to indulge in, at the end of
the day, you're going to be empty. You're going
to be unsatisfied. I have seen some of the most
wealthy people in the world, some of the people
that we would say were the most successful, and
they are completely empty and void in their lives.
And they won't tell you that until they get alone
somewhere. They're empty. They lined up the door
to sign up for the Marines, to live and die for
something. Abundant life's never going to be
found in ourselves. I tried to find myself once,
and when I got there, I didn't find much, truly.
Wasn't much there to find. Real life, real freedom
is dying to me and living for Christ, serving
him. And if you serve him, you will serve others.
One of the last scriptures I'm going to give
you today, and then I'm going to get dismissed.
I don't want to preach long because I want to
give you time to get out into the square for
the fair, the serving fair. And make sure you
take that card with you. And if you're here this
morning, and maybe you'll go out there and one
of those teams don't seem to fit how you want
to serve the Lord, I want you to stop and talk
with me. I'm going to be out there because I
want to know. Part of what I feel as a pastor
is getting you connected with a way that you
can serve. It might not fit into the teams that
we have here at Life Files currently. Maybe it
will be that we start something brand new, right,
with you and in you. It could be that kind of
thing. I want to give you time to do that. But
John 12, 23 says this, but Jesus answered them
saying, the hour has come that the son of man
should be glorified. This is before Jesus goes
to the cross. He says, Moses, surely I say to
you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground
and dies, it remains alone. But if it dies, it
produces much grain. Jesus said it again. He
says it again here, right? He who loves his life
will lose it. And he who hates his life in this
world, will keep it for eternal life. If anyone
serves me, let him follow me and where I am,
there my servant will be also. If anyone serves
me, my father will honor. Anyone who serves him,
his father will honor. We want to be where Jesus
is, but we got to be like that grain of wheat
that falls into the ground and dies. Die to me,
die to self. And the word of God says, then you'll
produce much grain, right? A seed never produces
anything in the packet. If you've ever got a
packet of seeds, I remember doing this when I
was a kid, right? You get a packet of seeds and
you put it. How many of you ever got a cup, right?
Got a little bit of soil, stuck your finger down
in there, put a seed down. A seed never produces
anything in the packet. It has to die. It has
to be buried in the ground and then covered up.
And when that happens, it begins to germinate,
and it begins to open up, and it begins to take
root, and then it grows, and it produces fruit
of some kind. Something comes forward, and it
has to be that process. We've got to die to ourselves
so that we can grow in Christ if the worship
team would come. I read an excerpt from a story
this week, and I think it may be kind of sum
up exactly what I'm saying. And this story is
actually from the 16th century, and I think it's
fitting. Historians of a certain small village
named Eom in the 16th century England reminds
what it means to serve in its purest form. Throughout
the 13th century and into the 16th century, the
Black Plague or Black Death ran in various forms
and killed at least 25 million people in Europe
and anywhere from 75 to 200 million worldwide.
The symptoms were flu -like after an incubation
of three to seven days. And in September 1665,
a tailor's assistant brought a bunch of flea
-infested blankets from London. Soon, many of
the estimated 800 residents of Eom were perishing
from the disease. Eom's rector, William Montpresson,
also with his previous rector, decided to quarantine
the entire village to contain the disease. in
an important trade route between two prominent
cities, and if the current plague was brought
to those cities, many, many more would die. Together,
they persuaded the villagers to voluntarily self
-quarantine. According to eyewitness accounts,
a quarantine cordon was established with a one
-mile radius marked by a ring of stones around
the village. For 14 months, nobody went in and
out of the village. Food was left at that boundary.
Stones and nearby townspeople would bring the
food, and they would place it there, and they
would exchange that for gold coins set out there
submerged in vinegar. They believed that the
vinegar would kill off anything that would be
on the gold coin. The villagers did this throughout
the 14 months. The death rate skyrocketed. One
woman, Elizabeth Hancock, buried six of her children
and her husband inside of one month. To limit
the infection within Eon, church services were
held outdoors. We remember that, right? Some
villagers left their homes to live outdoors nearby,
but by the plague's end, 260 of the Eon's estimated
800 residents died, more than double the mortality
rate of the plague in London. The villagers'
self -sacrifice had worked. The plague never
spread to the nearby towns, and 14 months later,
November 1667, The quarantine was lifted. E .M.'s
survivors, descendants write in the history of
the village that is succeeding generations that
E .M.'s villagers should admire their ancestors
who in sublime, unparalleled resolution gave
up their lives. Yea, doomed themselves to pestilential
death to save the surrounding country. They died
to serve. To serve people in villages. or in
communities they didn't even know, in cities
beside them. Jesus died to serve you. Jesus died
on a cross. He served while he lived here, and
he served by his death on a Roman cross. I'm
going to ask you to stand. He lived and died.
Jesus was the first. When the disciples would
be arguing with one another, He would be the
one who would take the towel and lay it across
his arm and get a basin of water and wash the
disciples' feet. They're griping and complaining
and bickering about who's going to be the greatest,
and Jesus is down on the floor washing their
feet, the Son of the living God. He died. He
went to a cross for your sin and for mine. He
served us. He served us. We pray that you were
impacted powerfully by this message. If you have
been personally affected by our ministry and
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