How are you guys doing today? Blessed. Got in
my car this morning and the battery was dead.
And then I forgot that I only had two miles left
in the gas tank as of Friday and I forgot to
go fill it up. And then I forgot to charge my
tablet all week. So then I get in my car, jumped,
I jump inside and I look down and somehow it
says 25 miles left. I plug in my laptop and the
battery's already at 100%. So I think God wants
me to get here today. And the devil can't do
anything about it, right? All right. Well, hey,
if this is your first time here at Hosanna Christian
Fellowship in the sanctuary, or if you're watching
online for the first time, we want to say welcome.
We're so glad you're here to visit us. and to
worship with us here at Hosanna. I am Pastor
Nathan, and we have just ended our quick study
in the book of Genesis last week after two years.
And, you know, with Easter coming up and family
camp and Mother's Day, and I'll be taking a vacation
in May, we're gonna be taking a break from our
book studies. We will be officially starting
the study of Exodus. on June 7th, okay? So, but
between now and then, we're, with the holidays
messages and all that, we're going to be having
a number of different topical studies, some guest
speakers are coming that I'm excited to have
share with you guys, and then I'll be doing a
couple more kind of overview topical messages
of the entire book of Genesis before we get to
Exodus, but... Today, we are having our first
Serve Day. And what this Serve Day is, is an
opportunity to highlight for you, the body here
at Hosanna, a number of the different ministries
that we have here that provide opportunities
to serve and meet the needs of the kingdom of
God here at Hosanna. You know, one of the values
that we kind of... do ministry by here at Hosanna
that the Lord has given us is the value of self
-sacrifice. You know, I truly believe that when
the body of Christ is all serving the body of
Christ, that all the needs in the body of Christ
get met. And that's kind of how it works. You
know, a lot of times in the church, you know,
the pastors or the, you know, the handful of
servants kind of, you know, sometimes get burnt
out because it's a small group of people trying
to handle everything. And I still laugh to this
day when people go, don't you only work on Sundays?
And that just makes me laugh because there's
a lot more that goes into making Sunday happen.
But we're called as the body of Christ to serve,
to serve one another, to be a part of what God
is doing. But more importantly, when it comes
to serving in the church and in the kingdom of
God, we use terms like volunteer. as synonymous
with the idea of servants or service and being
a servant and all that. But what I want to look
at today in the word before I introduce some
of the ministries to you that provide opportunities,
I want to ask the question, is volunteer and
servant the same thing? And what does the Bible
have to say about that? And what does that mean
for us as the body of Christ here at Hosanna.
So that's what we're going to be talking about
today. But first, we're going to worship God
because he is worthy. Amen? Worshiping God is
what we get to do. It's not what we have to do.
It's what we get to do. You know, it's one of
the things that we're going to be doing for eternity
when we're with our Lord in heaven. And, you
know, it's an expression of our gratitude and
our thanks. And just worshiping God is awesome,
you know. My prayer is that it's not something
you only do on Sunday morning, but it's something
you do every single day as you just think about
what God has done for you, how God has served
you, how Jesus served you in the greatest way
by coming to this earth and living a perfect
life and dying on the cross to pay the penalty
for your sin and my sin, and then rising from
the dead, granting us new life, a life of hope
and a life of peace and joy and a life of...
just knowing that we're going to heaven. And
hallelujah, right? Let's pray. Father, we love
you. God, we know that you, Jesus, have provided
for us the greatest example of service, Lord.
And I pray, God, today as we just want to focus
on what you are doing here in this church, Lord,
that we recognize that this church is your church.
God, that you have created this church. You have
called this church, Lord. You have brought all
of us that are here to this church, Lord, and
we are each a part of the work that you are doing
here at Hosanna. God, this isn't the only church
you're working in, but God, we are here, and
so we want to be used by you to affect the change
in this world that you desire to do, Lord. And
God, we know that we are each called to serve
you. And so Lord, as we look into your word today,
God, I pray that you would just speak to us,
Lord, that God, when it comes to the mindset
in the heart of us and the expected responses
we have to you and the needs of your kingdom,
God, that we would be reminded that we do serve
a king. We serve the king of kings. We serve
the Lord of lords. And God, as your subjects,
Lord, that means that when you call, We should
answer. And so, Lord, speak to us today about
that, God. Encourage us. Challenge us, Lord.
But most importantly, God, be glorified. We worship
you. We praise you because you are glorious.
And we love you, God. We thank you for everything
you've done in our lives, everything you're doing
in our lives, God. We thank you for our church
and what you're doing through Hosanna. We thank
you, God, that despite all the just of weirdness
and evil and wickedness going on in the world,
that you are still God, that you are still holy,
that you are still righteous and just and true
God, and that, Lord, you are still working in
the lives of your people. We love you. We thank
you. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. All right.
We're going to be in Joshua chapter 24, looking
at verse 15 this morning as we're talking about
service. You see, When Israel got to the promised
land, they were told that it was time to go in
and to take the land, to do what God had told
them to do. They were going to have to conquer.
There was going to be conquest. And so the entire
book of Joshua is the story of that conquest.
It's the story of God's people entering into
God's promises, entering into the... The land
that was promised to them, taking what God had
promised to give them. And so we have this whole
book that is the story of this conquest of the
land. Now throughout the book, scattered are
different instances where as they were... going
to do what God had called him to do, that periodically
the people of Israel would kind of waver a little
bit in their commitment to what they were supposed
to be doing. And there were certain cases where
as they were serving that they would drift into
this idea that service to God was optional. And
so when we get to the very end of the book of
Joshua, Joshua is calling them back. to exclusive
worship of God and nothing else. And this is
what he says in Joshua 24, verse 15. He says,
choose for yourselves today which will you worship,
the gods of your ancestors or the gods that your
ancestors worshipped beyond the Euphrates River
or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you
are living. As for me and my family, we will
worship the Lord. Now that word worship there
in that verse in the Hebrew is actually a word
that means to serve. To do work for a deity.
And that is why in other translations like New
King James it says, choose for yourselves today
which you will serve. As for me and my house,
we will serve the Lord. You see the idea there
in that Hebrew word is that serving is worship.
Worship is serving. But what I want you to notice
there in that verse is what Joshua does not say
is choose for yourselves today whether or not
you will serve. Or to use the word in the CSB
translation, choose for yourselves today whether
or not you will worship. Sometimes we have situations
where we're challenged with our own flesh when
it comes to service to God, and we might read
that verse this way. Choose for yourselves today
whether or not you have time to serve, whether
or not you feel like serving, whether or not
the opportunities to serve meet your preferences
or line up with your gifts. It's just the reality
of who we are is that sometimes we deal with
these things. Now, why did Joshua say it the
way he said it? He didn't say choose whether
or not. He said choose. Are you going to serve
the gods of this world? Are you going to serve
the God of Israel? I believe the reason he said
that is because the truth is every single one
of us are already serving something. We're already
living for something or someone. You see, the
reality is that there is a master that we all
worship through our service, by the giving of
our time, by the giving of our energy, by the
giving of our attention, our affections, our
strengths. And when it comes to serving, the
real question is not, Whether or not you'll serve,
as we see with Joshua, what he's saying is the
question really is, who? Are you going to serve?
Who are you choosing to serve? You see, the question
that we're posing this morning to all of us is,
who is the God, the master, the king that you
serve? And does the giving of your time and your
energy and your attention and your affection
and your strength reflect your answer? It's a
really, a very real question for everything when
we say, you know, oh, I'm a Christian. Do you
live like it? Right? You know? I'm a Christian.
Well, you know, if we put you on trial for being
a Christian, would there be enough evidence to
convict you? You know, those types of things
we've heard over the years. And the reality,
even within the church, is that there are some
people that serve comfort first or recognition
first. Maybe it's success or themselves. And
those are all the gods of the land we are living
in. Those are the gods of this world, right?
That's what he says there, the gods of your ancestors,
the ones they worshiped back on the other side
of the Euphrates, right? We just got done studying
Genesis, and you remember Abraham, before he
was called to God, he worshiped in the city of
Ur, the moon god, Nana. He's like, are you gonna
go serve Nana? Are you gonna serve the gods of
the land we're in now, like Baal and Astroth
and all these pagan gods? And Joshua says, for
me and my family, we're going to serve the Lord.
But every time I say that word serve, you can
substitute the word worship for that. Because
serving is worship. And so Joshua, he said, choose.
Not whether you're going to or not, but who.
And that is the question that lies before the
church at all times. That's the question that
lies before us today. You see, the faith that
we have as Christians, and we profess that God
is our Lord and our Savior and our King, that
profession of faith was never meant to remain
in the realm of words only. It's something that's
meant to be expressed. It demands expression.
In fact, James wrote an entire book about that
very topic. where he said, you say you have faith
without any works, I'll show you my faith by
my works, right? Because he says it's not enough
to just say you believe because the demons believe
and they tremble because they know the truth
of who God is, right? And so there's this reality
in scripture where we see that faith works itself
out in service. And service is worship. A faith
that only agrees with truth but never bends the
knee in obedience, never bends the knee into
stepping in and doing what God is calling to
do, isn't the full picture of biblical faith.
And so if we say our hearts belong to the Lord,
biblically we see that means our lives should
naturally move in the direction of obedience.
naturally move in the direction of doing what
God is calling us to do. Now, do we do that perfectly?
No. Can we do that perfectly? No. But does that
mean we don't then intentionally try and move
and strive towards saying, God, I'm here. Use
me for whatever you're calling me to. Now, we
see this example given to us through our Lord
and Savior Jesus in Mark 10, verse 45. This is
what he said about his purpose in coming, or
at least part of the purpose in his coming. He
says, for even the Son of Man did not come to
be served, but to serve and to give his life
as a ransom for many. You see, if there was anybody
that ever existed on this earth in the form of
a human who had the right to be waited on, to
be honored, to be attended to, or who could possibly
say, I'm too busy. It would probably be the guy
who created the universe and runs it, right?
But he never said, I'm too busy. He said, I came
to serve. And then in Philippians chapter two,
verses five through eight, Paul says this, adopt
the same attitude as that of Christ Jesus. who,
existing in the form of God, did not consider
equality with God as something to be exploited.
Instead, he emptied himself by assuming the form
of a servant, taking on the likeness of humanity.
When he had come as a man, he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to the point of death, even
to death on the cross. Did you notice that there?
The form of a servant is the likeness of humanity.
We were created to worship God. We were created
to be in perfect, loving, eternal, perpetual
glory and fellowship and unity with him, right?
That was the beginning. We saw that in the beginning
of Genesis. That God said, here's this awesome
creation. Enjoy it. Just don't do that one thing.
And what did we say? Well, I want to do the one
thing. I was like, bro, I gave you infinity choices
and you want to pick the one I said don't do.
And we said, yep. And of course, you know, that's
the whole story that we've been studying through
in the book of Genesis. We were created to worship.
Using the word in Joshua, we were created to
serve the Lord. That is our purpose, right? That
is the reason for our existence. And so as Jesus
said, I came to serve, and Paul says adopt the
same attitude as Christ Jesus. You see, what
we're to understand in the New Testament when
it comes to service is Jesus didn't merely perform
the acts of service. He took the form of a servant.
That means that service wasn't an occasional
activity for him. His service wasn't governed
by whether he was interested or not or had time
or not or wanted to make time or not. He was
a servant. It was his heart. It was his posture.
It was his identity. A servant is who he was
even to the point of doing what he really didn't
want to do. Dying on the cross. Right? You guys
know the story. Garden of Gethsemane. I'm going
to paraphrase. Yo, Dad, I don't really want to
do this. It's going to hurt. If there's any other
way, I vote for that. But we all know what he
said, right? Nevertheless, not my will, your
will be done. You see, when we see that example,
Jesus is teaching us that serving God, serving
the will of the Lord, was who he was. It wasn't
a thing he did once in a while. And then in John
13, 13, Jesus said this to his disciples. You
call me teacher and Lord, and you're speaking
rightly since that's what I am. So if I, your
Lord and teacher, have washed your feet, you
also ought to wash one another's feet. For I've
given you an example that you also should do
just as I have done for you. Now, this was during
the Last Supper. Preparation for that. We're
like, oh, he washed his feet. How cool. No, we
need to understand the cultural implication here,
right? Foot washing was something that had to
be... because there was no Jordans at the time.
It was sandals or barefoot, right? And so everybody's
feet were nasty. It was just nasty feet all over
the place. And so when you would come into the
house or you would come into a dinner, a part
of the practical as well as symbolic practice
was you would wash the feet. Now, washing the
feet, though, was considered the lowest of the
lowest jobs. So if there was a household full
of servants and there was gonna be a dinner,
It was the lowest of the lowest servant who got
the foot washing job, right? The guy who got
the foot washing job was the one all the other
servants looked at and went, dang, you got the
dirty job. That was the foot washing job. And
what we see here in this, in the story in John
13 is where the God of the universe, the son
of man, the son of the father, the creator of
all things is now. Bowing down and humbling himself
and doing the dirtiest job, the job nobody wanted
to do, the job everybody was like, nope, I'm
too busy, sorry, I don't have time. And he says,
I'm going to do this for you. And of course,
there's a lot of other application in the story,
but for the context of today, we see him doing
what needed to be done in that moment, which
was washing their feet. It was serving the needs
of those disciples in a very humble and practical
and sacrificial and personal way. He was doing
the thing that the Father wanted him to do because
Jesus' life was serving the will of the Father
and teaching lessons and all that, and it was
the dirty, gross thing that other people didn't
want to do. And what does he say to them? I have
given you an example that you should also do
just as I have done for you. You see, as God's
people, we're not called just to admire the servant
heart of Jesus, right? Wow, look at what a great
servant he is. He's just, oh man, what a great
guy. We are called to do as he has done. That's
what he said. I gave you an example. Follow my
example. This is where the tension begins for
us in our modern culture here because the example
of Jesus shows us the very significant difference
between the concept of being a volunteer and
being a servant. You see, volunteer, the concept
of volunteering in our modern context, and we
use that word all the time, right? It's on our
screen. Volunteer for the safety team and volunteer
for this and volunteer for that. In our modern
context, volunteer implies the choice on our
part, right? Does it fit my schedule? Does it
suit my preference? Do I want to do it? Is it
meaningful, right? Volunteering falls in line
with our free will, and it's a free will decision
based upon our availability and our personal
preferences and even our gifts, right? Does it
line up with what I'm gifted to do? And a lot
of times, sometimes the volunteering idea is,
well, I have a little bit of extra convenient
time that I don't really need. And of course,
I want to serve and I want to get involved. So
yeah, I'll give you this little corner of time
after I've done everything else that I want to
do with my time and the things I need to do,
which are real things. But is that what being
a servant is, biblically? You know, as I was
studying this, I found something very interesting.
The word volunteer does not appear a single time
in the New Testament. Not a single time. So the
biblical idea of serving and servanthood goes
much deeper than what our modern idea of volunteering
is. You know, serving, it's rooted in a lifelong
spiritual identity. You know, Romans 6 .22 basically
says this, that we have been set free from sin
and we have become servants of God. Now that
word servant's there in the Greek. It's the word
doulos. A lot of you may be familiar with that
word, doulos, right? We're like, oh, it's such
a beautiful word. And you know, it means servant.
And do you want to know what it really means?
This is the definition of doulos. Someone who
belongs completely to another. It might also
be translated slave. We use the word. which is
a different word, but the idea of I'm voluntarily
giving myself over completely to someone else.
In the context of God being our king, you might
render it subject. And again, these are terms
that we may not be familiar with in our context
because we don't live in that kind of governmental
hierarchy or whatnot. But when the Bible says
that he is the king of kings and the lord of
lords, and we say, we call him lord and teacher,
and it says that we've been set free from sin,
he served us in the most awesome, mighty, and
profound way, and we have become servants of
God, in all of that context, what that means
is my time is his time. Why? Because I belong
completely to him. That means my time is his
time. He is my king. He has absolute authority
over every second of my life. He has the authority.
It also means that my time is not my time. In
the context of king and subject, when the king
comes out and says, I have a need in my kingdom,
there is no such thing as us saying, well, if
I have a spot in my calendar, I'll volunteer
a bit. Now I'm gonna get to more of describing
that in a little bit, but we have to understand
that our life has been given to us. Every breath
in our lungs is a gift from God. And we are called
to yield our entire life in service to the king
of kings. So here's the picture of king subject,
doulos, right? The king puts out a decree to
the kingdom. Kingdom! As the king, I have this
need in my kingdom. And the expected response
is that every single subject in the kingdom lines
up. My liege, I am here to serve at your pleasure.
And then what the king does is look around. Okay,
you. And the rest of the subjects go, cool. I'm
going to go back home, go about my life. And
then the next time the king puts forth a decree
that there's a need in my kingdom, every single
subject lines up and goes, my liege, I'm here
to serve. This is the biblically expected attitude,
right? This is the attitude of service and serving.
This is the attitude of being a subject of the
king. And then if we... When we all line up and
the king goes, you, I am assigning you to this
task. That subject does not go, well, hold on.
That day and time, that's my time. That's a volunteer.
A subject says, yes, my liege, I serve at your
pleasure. And then they go back and go, okay,
I've got to rearrange my schedule because the
king has called me. Does that make sense? We
don't like that, do we? I feel the tension in
the room. I can feel it. We don't like that.
That's my time. That's my this. That's my that.
And don't misunderstand me. There's a lot of...
valid and legitimate things in that. That's my
family time. That's my date night. That's my
hobby time. That's my day off. That's my whatever,
right? There's all kinds of things that are legitimate
that fall within that grounds. But legitimate
or not, does the king have the authority to say,
I don't care what you have on your schedule.
I need you to do this this day. He does. He does.
Now, Romans 12, it tells us that we offer ourselves
as a living sacrifice. Living sacrifice, right?
You go into the Old Testament, you see the sacrifices.
They bring in the cow and the cow goes, whoa,
whoa, whoa, I only want to give a hoof today.
Is that what we read? No. The cow's going, moo,
I don't want to do this. And he's sacrificed.
Now, the idea of a living sacrifice is we come
to God and we say, God, I'm here. All of me.
All of my gifts, all of my time, all of my talent,
all of my resources. Now, in many cases, God
goes, cool, I just want the hoof right now. It's
yours. But he made that decision, not us, right?
Because he's the king. The implication in all
of this, and the reason I'm drawing this difference
between volunteering and serving, is the implication
is that serving is not optional. For us as believers.
It's not optional. We are subjects of a king.
And much of modern Christianity, unfortunately,
has exchanged volunteerism for serving. And that
manifests in these ideas of where the king puts
out a decree and says, I have need in my kingdom.
And the subjects go, well, I'll choose if I'm
interested in that one. You know, am I available?
Do I really want to? You know, and we kind of
filter these things when the expected attitude
is the king has called and here I am. In some
cases, we'll serve and then we'll decide to quit
or decide to continue or decide to move, not
based upon the call of the king, but we'll get
caught up in things of like, well, am I appreciated
here? You know, do I get noticed here? You know,
and yeah, you know, saying thank you and all
that, you know, showing appreciation is a very
important thing, but if the king said go do that,
nothing else matters. And then, you know, and
for a lot of us, and I've been there too, the
decree goes out, the king says call, and we say,
well, I don't have time. Make time. We all do
it already anyways with stuff we want to do,
right? Make time. Well, I want to go do that
thing. You rearrange your schedule so you can
go do the thing. You want to go see that show.
You put things on the calendar. You make time.
And yet when the king calls, we're like, oh,
gosh, my calendar is immovable. Now, a servant
serves because they are a servant. That's it.
They're a servant, and when the king calls, they're
ready to serve. And so, you know, the idea, and
this is the part where the tension is again,
right? A servant doesn't dare put their own priorities
or wants or desires before the king's call. They
don't dare decide whether or not they will serve
when he calls. They don't do that. That's not
what a servant as a subject is. That is not what
someone who says, that is my king, that is my
lord. Now, we're going to get to the other side
here in a moment, so hang with me. But, you know,
the idea is whatever is needed in that moment
when the king calls, that is the holy thing to
do. That is a righteous thing to do. And then
you do it as unto the Lord, as the Bible talks
about. Now, so in all that context, serving is
not because the church has needs. That's not
why we serve, although the church has needs,
right? Serving is not because it makes me feel
useful, although it does that, and it's great
to feel useful. Serving is not even because we're
gifted in a certain way. Well, I'm not gifted
to do that, therefore I won't respond to that
call, even though God is putting it on my heart
to do so. We serve because we belong to Jesus,
and he has the right. To use us and to direct
us as he wills. As he wills. And that means if
he directs us to do something that upsets our
schedule, he has the right to do that. Do we
understand? Now, the reality is every single
season of life will give ample reasons for us
to exchange the mindset of serving for volunteerism.
Every season of life, right? It's, you know,
when you're single. Well, this is my time. I've
got to pursue my will and my career and my stuff
and legitimate things. We're newly married. Well,
I mean, gosh, this is an important time to establish
my home. So don't talk to me, God. I'm busy doing
this. We have small kids. Well, this is family
time. We got to raise them, right? That's important.
They're teenagers now. Gosh, now I really got
to focus because they're going to be out of the
home soon. So this is the time to just stay here.
The kids are gone. Well, I've lived my entire
life for someone else. Now it's my time to live
for us. Grandkids come along. Well, there's nothing
more important than shaping the next generation.
And so, you know, now guess what? All of those
are absolutely legitimate statements. Nothing
wrong with those statements. In fact, many of
you might be legitimately called of God in that
season of your life to do exactly that thing.
And if that is God's call in your life, do that
thing. Right? Do I understand? I'm not saying
family time is bad. So no hate emails tomorrow,
okay? But if we use statements like that, As
excuses to deny the Lord when he puts a call
on our heart. If we use those things. Now I mean
the situation where maybe you're single, all
the way through the thing, right? And God is
stirring on your heart. You feel this tug on
your heart. The king is saying, hey, I want to
call you to... kids ministry, I want to call
you to serve in youth ministry, I want to call
you to serve here and there. If that pull, the
king is calling and you say, no, king, because
this is more important. That's what I'm talking
about. That's the moment where you're acting
not as a subject of the king, but something else.
And then, if you deny the Lord, you're going
to miss the opportunities for the kingdom. You're
going to miss the opportunities God has for you.
And then more importantly, and this has come
up a few times, but if we desire our friends
and our coworkers and our spouses and our kids,
if we desire them to see our faith, And then
our children, if we desire them to live a transformative
faith that declares to the world that they are
subjects of a king, right? If we want them to
live that way, shouldn't we? Yeah, we should.
And this goes down the list with all this stuff,
right? Is coming to church important? Well, if
you don't come to church, your kids are learning
that it's not important. If you never pray, then
your kids are learning prayer is not that big
of a deal. If you never worship, your kids are
learning, right? And this applies not just in
our families, but in the people around us. And
so, how do we proceed? One is just that we start
with considering how greatly Christ has served
us. How great your need was and what he did about
it. He died for you. He died that you can be
forgiven. He died so that you can have the hope
of heaven. He died so that you can live a life,
not just here, under the power of the Holy Spirit,
but a life eternal. And under that knowledge,
as Joshua said to the people, choose you this
day whom you will serve. Choose. It's not whether
or not, because if you don't choose God, you're
choosing something else. And then if you wrestle
with this type of thing, guess what? God knows
that too. So ask God, Lord, Lord, please give
me the heart of a servant. Lord, please change
my heart because God can do that. God, please,
please, please let me have the heart that you
have, not merely as a volunteer, but one that's
fully devoted and given over to the king. Give
me that heart so that when you call, I'll step
up without negotiation and then just trust that
you're either going to assign me or not assign
me to that as you decree because you know my
life, you know my schedule, you know my heart,
you know my priorities, you know all of that.
And so God, if you call me to something that
is difficult or self -sacrificial, then I'm going
to trust you in that. Serve where there is need,
not just where there is preference. And like
I said, God, I am here. And then you let him
filter it out. You know, if every single one
of us stepped up when the king decreed a need,
it wouldn't be the one person stepping up every
time and getting assigned to the thing over and
over and over and over and over and eventually
burning out and saying, I don't want to do this
anymore. Because when everybody is serving others,
Everybody's needs get met, right? So, in the
end, this isn't just about ministry needs and
ministry structure. This is just simply about
the idea of a heart that has bowed to the master.
A heart that has bowed down. And so, yeah, it
is an important question to ask ourselves. Who
do we serve? Who do you worship? Who's your God?
Who do you call Lord? And does your life reflect
that, right? If Christ has served you by his
cross and his mercy and his patience and his
love, then the fitting answer for every child
of God is, Lord, I am yours. As for me and my
house, we will serve the Lord. And then like
Isaiah, Lord, here I am, send me. So with that
being said, we wanted to just kind of bring up
some ministries here at our church to share with
you guys about what the ministry is. And, you
know, this isn't every ministry in the church.
These are ones that regularly have opportunities
for us to plug in and to serve at. And as they're
sharing their ministry, they're going to share
briefly about five minutes. And I just pray that
as you listen, just ask the Lord. If you hear
the call of the King, be willing to say, Lord,
I'm here. And if he's stirring your heart and
calling you, then listen to that. If he's not,
he's not. Because we don't want anybody to serve
out of guilt. That's not what God wants. You
know, nobody's going to get up here and say,
hey, we have need in children's church, and if
you don't serve, why do you hate kids, right?
Nobody's going to say that. Nobody's going to
say that, okay? The idea is just let the Lord
lead you, okay? But I challenge you to listen.
And if he's stirring on your heart, take that
step of faith forward to ask questions and to
be willing and ready to figure it out. And if
he's not calling you to that, that's okay. That
is totally okay. And so, but I just, my prayer
is that you would listen to the Lord and be ready
to present yourself to the king as a ready servant
and step as he leads and he directs. That's it,
okay? So with that. Each person's gonna come
up, share their ministry a little bit. And they're
also gonna be out in the foyer at the tables
after, right? If you'd like to get more information,
they're gonna be there to answer any questions.
They're gonna have a little thing. You could
fill out your name and number, okay? Again, I'm
saying, you put your name and number down, that
doesn't mean it's a contract signed in blood,
okay? It just means they're gonna call and you
could start to inquire about those things. But
I really encourage you guys to just let the Lord
lead you in all this. I'm going to invite up
Pastor Rick first, and then Pastor Rick will
introduce the next speaker. And so if you're
here, you'll be introduced by the previous speaker.
Okay, and then I'll come up and close this out
after. So with that, Pastor Rick. With what Pastor
Nathan just said, I got to delete a note here
real quick. Don't say if you hate kids, you won't
serve. No, I'm sorry. Morning, guys. Yes, I am
Pastor Rick. I run Hosanna's Youth Ministry,
which is junior high and high school. Now, we
follow junior high here in Bellflower, so that
is seventh and eighth. We don't have sixth grade
currently. But I want to start off with saying
parents and or guardians. You have a tough job.
You have a tough biblical call to serve your
kids, right? Proverbs chapter 22, verse six,
train up a child in the way he should go. Even
when he is old, he will not depart from it. That
is tough. And for those of you that are interested
in youth ministry, our job is to come alongside
the parent and guardian and aid them in doing
that very thing. We come alongside and we help
make disciples out of these kids just as their
parents do. We are, in a sense, no offense parents,
the cool guys that aren't as annoying because
we're not with them 24 -7 as you are. You guys
aren't annoying, but it's just the fact that
you're with them so much they think we're cool.
But I'm the youth pastor, so I'm never cool.
I get it. But the job really is coming alongside
and discipling kids, is being an example for
them of what it means to be a Christ follower,
as a servant of God, giving up free time to be
there and show them what it means to live for
God in every way possible. And guess what? You're
dealing with teenagers. Love you guys that are
here, but man. You guys could be very rebellious.
You can deal with your times. And guess what?
Look at your parents right now. Look at your
guardians. Say, you guys were rebellious too.
Right? If you didn't know, how I actually came
to Hosanna was through getting an invite to a
Friday night hangout for youth ministry. And
look at me now. I'm the youth pastor. Right?
God does these great things where it's like,
hey. In youth ministry, your job is to serve
these kids and point them to Christ the entire
time. And currently, every Sunday during normal
service, we're down the street in the youth building,
except for the first Sunday a month. We come
in here so the kids can get to know everyone.
You guys get to see me. I get to see you. It's
this great thing. And then there's Friday night
hangouts. Currently, we do them about twice a
month. This next coming week is going to be rock
climbing. Again, forewarning. Please sign the
waivers. But we just hang out. And we have times
of Q &A and answering questions. And it's this
beautiful time. By building these bonds and serving
these kids, you'll learn more about them and
their faults. And then you'll see, oh God, I
went through that same thing and you brought
me through by having a counselor help me in this
area. So now I get to help them and point them
to Christ. And now, before I leave, I have a
fun exercise to show you how important youth
ministry is. Because for some reason, I don't
think our church has this problem, but some other
areas have this stigma or this idea that youth
ministry is just playing with kids and going
home and that's it, right? And the youth pastor
doesn't do anything or the joke. Real quick,
do me a favor. If you've gone through Hosanna's
youth ministry, raise your hand. Hey guys, look
around. A good amount of the church came through
Hosanna's youth ministry. And I know there's
people at home that are raising their hand right
now. Hi, Eric. Love you. But youth ministry does
lead to the next generation of God's church,
whether that's here at Hosanna or somewhere else.
And so it is very important to serve them, to
raise them in the way they should go and help
the parents do that exact thing, being an extra
hand and resource in that. helping disciple the
next generation. So if you're interested in youth,
I'll be back there. But with that, the next person
up is Christiana Bromley. She is for Hosanna
Kids. Okay, I am Christiana Bromley. I am your
children's church director. So I started at Hosanna
30 years ago, and I stepped up. Gosh, I'm getting
choked up. I stepped up to teach kindergarten.
25 years ago. So I don't know that that qualifies
me for this position, but that's where I started.
So I did kindergarten for 10 years, and then
the Lord asked me to move up to high school.
So I was a high school counselor for seven years.
So that means I have literally watched some of
you grow up. Now, the other thing that Pastor
Rick was talking about is the fact that a lot
of the people serving at our church have gone
through both the children's ministry and the
youth ministry. And I actually was one of Pastor
Rick's high school counselors. So I do not take
any responsibility for that, no. So, but as being
the children's church director, we do have a
lot of needs there. So we have currently six
different classrooms. That would be, that includes
the nursery. And then we have a toddler room,
and we have four -year -olds in kindergarten.
Now, that room is a lot of fun. That is kind
of like Wild Indians, but, you know, we give
them a lot of grace. Let's just put it that way.
And the two teachers that we have working in
there have so much patience. We also have a first
- and second -grade room. and a third and fourth
grade room, and then a fifth and sixth grade
room. I would love to have more rooms just because
I know the first and second grade room is busting
at the seams. So we would love to have you help
with the children's ministry. The commitment
is two weeks on, two weeks off. You're not always
in children's ministry. You do get to come and
spend time with adults. You will get to have
some fellowship with adults, I promise. And then
we also have a really fun, and that commitment
is on Sundays. We only have Children's Church
on Sundays. It would also be great if we had
opportunities for more servants to help for some
of the midweek small groups, such as the Wednesday
night study and There's just other opportunities
for that as well if we had more teachers. The
other thing that we do during the summer, now
this is going to be my shameless plug for Vacation
Bible School. A lot of you have helped with Vacation
Bible School. It is a huge blessing. For most,
it is a one -week commitment in July. This year's...
theme is Emerald Crossing. It's an Irish adventure
through Psalm 23. That commitment has all kinds
of fun stuff to do. We cook for the kids. We
have worship. We have skits. We have teaching.
We have crafts. We have games. There's also opportunity
for decorating for a period of time and then
tear down. So there's a lot of things that you
could do. um so i just want to encourage you
we would love to have you come and help i will
be in the back to answer questions and um yeah
that's what i have to say now i will say this
that sorry this this job is is part of your legacy
so we come alongside for your kids and Speaking
of legacy, I get to now introduce my son, Gavin
Bromley. Hello. You make me tear up, too. So
I'm the tech director. I'm part of running the
team who's doing all the lights, all the lyrics,
the online stuff. So a big part of what we're
doing is just making sure that everything's set
up in a way that just encourages you guys to
worship. encourages you to be able to focus on
Nathan's teaching, make it so that everyone can
hear everything clearly. Obviously, we're very
involved every Sunday. We got a person doing
the sound inside this room. We got a person doing
the lyrics for everything. We got a person doing
the cameras for online. We got a person doing
the audio for the cameras online. We're always
learning. It's a deep, deep, every single position
you can go real deep. There's whole careers around
all this stuff. But most of what we're doing
is learning enough to be able to do it well,
just being good servants to show up every week,
or not every week, but show up when we're scheduled,
do it to the best that we can. We're not just
a... dozing off. And sometimes during worship,
you start worshiping, you're like, uh -oh, forgot
to change the slide. But it is fun. I enjoy doing
the process of actually learning everything.
I've had years and years starting in high school
doing sound. I was on the worship team too, so
I have a little bit of that knowledge. Able to
learn each process, learn how to run the soundboard,
learning how to fix all the problems as the tech
director. But it's been fun. It's been great
hearing people come up and be like, man, worship
was great. And I'm like, yep, praise the team
for sure. But luckily I've got a great team who's
able to mix it well and make all the lights look
pretty and fun. Yeah, part of it is... just the
number of people. Currently, we have most positions
at least. We're able to do every other week.
But ideally, we get it so that it's every three
weeks. You're serving once every three weeks.
During the training part, it is more intense.
You're showing up every week as much as you can
so that you can train and just really learn everything,
get all the timing down, learn the ways to make
the room sound good, learn the ways to make it
sound good online. Some of the stats that we've
got, you know, we've got everyone showing up
in person. We've got, you know, 100, 150, sometimes
200 showing up. But with the videos, just with
posting the worship and the study, and then later
on we just post the study, we're able to get
like 100 to 200 views on those, which is awesome.
And then Gracie will go out and clip. of just
really, really cool things that Nathan shares
during the study. And those can, you know, all
together, they're getting like 1 ,000, 2 ,000
views. So that's really cool that we're just
spreading that word, spreading the gospel. If
you have any more questions, you can come see
me after. We do have some spots available for
running like the cameras, running the sound for
online, just as people move or people bow out
to go do other ministries, you know. Needs keep
popping up, so go ahead and see me after. Now
I'm going to introduce Will for the worship team.
Good morning, church. My name is William Arthur
Yeoman Henderson Vandebrink, and I have the joy
and pleasure of being your guys' worship leader.
Rick kind of spoiled it. Yes, I was a youth here.
I think I've been just joyously serving in worship
17 years now. 18 years, and it's been just an
awesome pleasure, specifically here at Hosanna.
We've had just such a neat host of worship leaders
and just men and women who have been blessed
to disciple me, to pour into you guys, and just
to understand just what it really means to worship.
And so, I've got a question for y 'all. Why do
we sing worship songs on Sunday mornings? Why
do we choose that as a time of our service? Give
me your answers. To praise the Lord? What was
that? To glorify the Lord, glorified, but why?
Right, he is worthy. He's worthy. He's good.
It's because we're told to, because he wants
us to. And in that obedience, as Nathan was talking
about earlier, where worship is just complete
service and obedience unto him, we want to do
exactly what he says. So let's jump into some
of scriptures. We're going to go to Psalm 100.
Shout for joy to the Lord with the earth. Words
of the Lord with gladness. Come before him with
joyful songs. Know that the Lord is good. In
Psalm 136 .3, we have give thanks to the Lord
for he is good, for his steadfast love endures
forever. Psalms 96. Oh, sing to the Lord a new
song. Sing to the Lord all the earth. Sing to
the Lord, bless his name. tell of his salvation
from day to day. So we see in scripture throughout,
we're actually kind of called to sing these songs
of worships to glorify his name in song. And
I want to jump, just so we're not all in the
Old Testament, into the New Testament. One of
my favorite verses and part of why I choose to
lead, it's Colossians 3 .16. Let the word of
Christ... richly dwell within you with all wisdom,
teaching and admonishing one another with psalms,
hymns, and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness
in your hearts to God. And so as your worship
leader, that is kind of my goal, that the songs
we choose to do does exactly that, that it gives
the word of God into your heart, that it teaches
you, that it admonishes you, that it provides
just an appropriate place and time of worship
for you to be just worshiping the Lord. And so
let's continue on. I want to go to Psalm 150
real fast. As much scripture as possible. Praise
the Lord. Praise God in his sanctuary. Praise
him in his mighty expanse. Praise him for his
mighty deeds. Praise him according to his excellent
greatness. Praise him with trumpet sound. Praise
him with harp and lyre. Praise him with tambourine
and dancing. Praise him with stringed instruments
and flute. Praise him with loud cymbal. Praise
him with resounding cymbals. Everything that
has breath shall praise the Lord. Praise the
Lord. Anyone here play trumpet? Anyone a harpist?
Anyone a liar? There's plenty of places for music
and for opportunity to come and serve the Lord
in this. And so that's what I want to open up
and offer to you guys. In that same vein of discipleship,
I want to point out just our worship leader,
Jen. She has been faithfully serving here. Yeah.
She discipled me back in the day. And so in obedience,
she looks for opportunities to serve, to worship,
just, hey, Lord, I'm available. How can I do
this? How can I help? And so the training that
she's given me, the discipleship that she's been
a part of, I and we both and the whole team want
to offer it to you guys as well. Now, with the
worship team, it is. Not as easy as it looks.
It's not such a simple thing. If you want to
go into the Old Testament where God is establishing
the priesthood, he talks about the Levites and
their priestly duties. And then the very next
thing, he talks about the worship leaders, which
has always struck me as a weird thing on the
priority of that. Why is that so up there? And
it's because there's a serious call to it. It's
not just something that is done willy -nilly.
If you dive into the details of it, I think they
had like 250 men that were gifted and capable
families devoted just to the worship. of the
Lord. And so in that same devotion to the Lord
and that same training, we want to open that
up. And so I'll be out there after service. Please
come talk to me. As you've noticed, we had Pastor
Nathan doing drums. We've had a couple different
positions switch around. And that's kind of something
we've been building towards is having opportunities
for people just to plug in one week and have
a few weeks off. It's not an every week type
commitment. And so I want to say, pray about
it. Just talk to me and get more worship in your
life. So to continue on, I get the pleasure of
introducing Mr. Rick Bromley. Hey, guys. Good
to see all you from here. I usually meet you
coming in the door. I pretty much know most of
you have shook most of your hands. It's good
to see you guys. The ministry I'm going to talk
about is the safety ministry. We always have
needs there, and I'm going to read it here. You're
invited to join the church safety team. Our safety
team plays an important role creating and welcoming,
secure, and... peaceful environment for everyone
who comes through those doors whether it's helping
guide guests staying alert during service because
things go on that you guys don't know about that
we catch during service and I lost my place we're
excited to share the opportunity and the safety
team is open to everybody women and men There's
women out there that want to serve, and we can
use you. We encourage you guys. If you are interested
or would like to learn more, come on out to the
table. See me. We'll get you plugged in. Part
of what we do is you see guys outside, out by
the... The toddler room, we're there to watch
that door to make sure everything's safe. And
if you didn't know it, that door outside where
the toddlers go and the high school door down
the street, the person that's down there on the
safety team, unlocks the door to let people in
during service. We don't want it to be open.
We don't want anybody to just be able to walk
in. So that's part of what we do and just keeping
our eye on everything and dealing with whatever
comes up. We will teach you. And pretty soon
we're going to be doing something with de -escalation.
I couldn't remember the word. But I'm excited
to get our guys trained to deal with that because,
again, we have people that show up that aren't
in the right mind or they're just not having
a good day. And we need... to know how to talk
to them calmly and deescalate any kind of situation.
Okay, so I would encourage you guys with any
one of these ministries that have come up here,
especially the children's ministry to help my
wife out. She will, anytime somebody has volunteered
and then says, oh, you know, I got to go do something
else. And I thank you, Nathan, for going through
that. She has to cover it. And when you... Step
up and you worship your God the way Nathan talked
about. And you, when you step up, you just come.
If something comes up, you still come. You don't
just blow it off because something better came
along. You just keep showing up. You're worshiping
the Lord doing that. So here, can everybody do
something for me? Take your hands and put them
under your thighs. What do you feel? Warmth?
Yeah? That shouldn't be the only thing that you
contribute to the Lord. Yeah? Being here, sitting
here, listening, that shouldn't be it. You should
be out doing things, out volunteering. All right,
so bless you guys, and Wilson is coming up next.
Hello, y 'all. I know you, and I know all your
names, so I could see you all there. So if you
don't remember me, I remember all of you. It's
been a pleasure being a greeter for three and
a half years. So it's been really fun. In fact,
I got to meet a lot of you, know you, build a
community, camaraderie. Luann is one of our greeters.
She actually said she enjoys greeting. It's a
blessing because she gets to meet new people,
which I have to, and also remember meet all the
people or talk to the people she usually doesn't
get a chance to. So we do have a need to have
greeters. The commitment is once a month for
a few minutes before church, like 20 or 30 minutes,
and just to make people feel welcome. You know,
we are the first impressions. We make that first
impression. People come. We're the first and
the last people they usually see. We want to
make that first impression, make them feel welcome.
Make them feel loved. And, you know, the Bible
does say greet each other with a holy kiss. Of
course, we're not going to do that, especially
morning breath. Like, oh, I got morning breath.
Sorry about that. No, we won't kiss each other.
Okay. But you can greet each other in your own
way. You could say bonjour. Everyone say bonjour.
Everyone say top of the morning. Everyone say
good day, mate. Everyone say arigato. Everyone
say what's up. Urile. Urile. All right. We're
near Pico Rivera, Montebello, whatever. So what's
another way we could say? So that's different
ways we could say. Everyone say cheerio. Cheerio.
All right. That's a fun way. You don't have to
do all that. So we do have that need for you
to come and just we have fun. The greeting team,
we get to, right? Raise your hand if you've greeted
before in the past. Yeah. So anyway, you know,
if you become a greeter, I'm not going to let
you take over the ministry. Hey, now you're the
head greeter. No. So don't worry about that.
Let's see. So, yeah, once a month. And if we
have more people, maybe once every four weeks
or something. And I know we have several of you
who. who are considering it. But don't worry.
You don't have to be so outgoing. You can be
shy and just do a little fist bump. Just be there.
Just smile. We're just grateful for you to be
there. Yeah. I don't think I have anything else
to say. But being in the front is really great
because you get pastor looking at you. And it's
really great. It's like you're right there. But
the sad thing is if you wanted to close your
eyes just a little, you couldn't really because
he'll look at you like, why are you closing your
eyes? So anyway, thank you guys. I'll see you
guys after church, and God bless you. I'm going
to introduce Amanda. She runs Grounded House.
Hello, everybody. My name is Amanda. Someone
over there really likes coffee, apparently. I'm
just kidding. That's my husband. That's why I
yelled like that. um i'm not the leader of this
ministry for the grounded house that would be
miss heidi king who is not here at the moment
so i'm sharing for her just a bit about what
it's like to volunteer there I've been doing
it for about a little over a year now. It's a
really great way to interact with people that
you might not interact with normally. I'm one
of those people who's been through children's
and youth ministry here, and even then there's
a lot of people that I don't really know or interact
with, and I've definitely gotten to know people
just doing the Grounded House. So if that's something
that's of interest to you, definitely consider
it. Some of what you'll be doing is, like, preparing
coffee, of course. You'll be setting out bagels
and muffins and such. You'll come in about an
hour early, and then around 30 minutes after,
you'll stay and, you know, just be there. If
you've been there before, you'll know a lot of
it is kind of self -serve, so it's not super
arduous, but, you know, it's a good thing to
do, and it's a great way to serve. Schedule can
fluctuate a little bit. There's not like a super
set schedule, so there will be some months where
you'll maybe serve a couple weeks off, a couple
weeks off, maybe every other week. It all depends
on your schedule. There will be a little bit
of an urgent need for this one because I am going
to be joining my husband in youth ministry currently.
Yay. Currently, it is just me and Heidi that
kind of go back and forth. So we would really
appreciate another person. And if we got more
than that, then that offers more flexibility
for your schedule. So, you know, think about
it, pray about it for sure. So, yeah, like everyone
else, I'll be taking applications in the front,
which does mean that the grounded house will
be closed after service. So do keep that in mind.
But, yeah, that's that's it for me and going
to take it back to Pastor Nathan. All right,
thank you guys. So, you know, there's a lot of
opportunity here at our church to just be a part
of what God's doing. And so I just pray that
you just listen to the Lord and meet the guys
out, everybody out front at the tables. If you're
interested, we do have a volunteer application.
And if you're going to be working with kids,
we do do a background check and all that. But
the bigger thing is just to be open to what God
is doing. Another thing, last thing we have is,
a lot of times we'll have different... events
and outreaches and stuff that take place here
at the church, things like decorating for Christmas
and all these types of things, our outreaches
to the city and the horseshoe, where we just
simply need hands to set up stuff and to tear
down stuff and to clean up. We have a faithful
few that do that every... single time we have
something like that, and God bless them, but
if none of the other ministries that were shared
today have kind of, you know, spoken out to you,
you know, if nothing else, we, Deborah will be
outside at the table there. How many of you got
a call from Deborah? Yeah, like I just heard
like thousands of hands go up around the world,
right? What we're trying to do is just kind of
make a list of people who are willing to be called
when we have need for like a setup and a teardown
type of thing for a different type of event.
And what we're hoping to do is just have enough
people on that list. So one, you're not called
every time. And two, there's enough people on
the list where if you do get a phone call and
you're legitimately not available, it's okay.
You don't have to feel guilty or anything. I'm
sorry I can't make it that particular day. But
that we could get all the needs covered for that
type of stuff. And so if you're interested in
having your name and number on that, Debra is
also out there at the tables too to kind of write
you down for that. This all comes down to the
body serving the body and serving the needs of
the kingdom here. Of course, we have things like
it would be awesome if our safety team was just
all these buff dudes out there all the time,
just like ready to handle everything. But sometimes
we don't have enough people, and that's why we're
just like, hey, if you're a lady and you're just
like, I could punch someone in the face, then
we'll have you on the safety team. No, just kidding.
No punchy people in the face. But the point is,
you know, both men and women, we're called to
step up. And so I hope you hear the Lord today.
and step up to whatever it is God is calling
you to do so that we can be a church that welcomes
people, be a church that is keeping things safe,
to be a church that is ministering to the children
and the youth and the next generation of believers
here at Hosanna, to be a church that, you know,
has our coffee shop open with smiles, welcoming
new people, to have, you know, greeters and people
to just welcome people to our church, to be a
part of the family here and what God is doing.
Anyways, with that, I'm gonna invite up the worship
team as we close in prayer here. Oh, for service,
yes, thank you. Okay, yeah, for all of you who
might be going, well, if I serve on Sunday, I
don't get to be in church. right? We do have
a first service down the street on Sunday morning
at 8 .30 that is specifically for you. We do
call it our servant's service. So we have worship
and Bible study so that as you're serving in
other places during second service, you're still
able to sit under the teaching and hear the word
there. And so that takes place at 8 .30 a .m.
down the street in the youth room. And so thank
you for reminding me of that. And so again, listen
to the Lord. If he's saying no, listen to that.
If he's saying yes, listen to that. If he's saying
keep doing what you're doing, listen to that.
If he says, hey, I'm calling you to something
new, listen to that. Because I know you'll be
blessed as you serve your Lord. Amen? Let's pray.
Father, we love you. We thank you, God. Lord,
we're so grateful for the servants that we currently
have, Lord. We're thankful for the pastors on
our staff and Lord, people, like Pastor Ron,
who served here in worship forever. And Lord
was a part of raising up our current generation
of leadership in the worship team and is now
using his gift and his calling to minister to
the body in new ways, Lord. We're so grateful
for our elders who have been a part of leading
this church and guiding this church, Lord, for
many years, Lord. And all of those that are serving
in every way, God, we're grateful, Lord, to you
for their hearts. And God, I am thankful, Lord,
that you have moved on their hearts. And God,
we pray. for those who maybe haven't served yet
or haven't plugged into anything, Lord, that
you would lead them to the place you're calling
them in service to you, God. Because, Lord, whether
we have gifts or not, we are your subjects. We
are your servants, God. And so, Lord, as you
send out the call and the proclamation amongst
your kingdom that there is need within your kingdom
to serve one another, God, I pray, Lord, that
we as your people would be ready to immediately
stand up and say, my king, I am here. And then,
Lord, we would allow you to assign us or not
assign us or move us or direct us as you will.
Because you are the king of kings. You are the
Lord of lords. We know you know our schedules.
We know you know our lives and our families and
our commitments, God. And we submit all of that
to you, to your will, to your wisdom. God bless
our church. Bless your church. Bless your people.
Lord, may many come to know you through the work
that you do here at Hosanna. We love you and
we thank you. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
Well, let's worship, church.