I'm glad you're here today. Hey, listen. What are you doing tomorrow at 6:00 AM? The answer to that is coming back tomorrow morning, 6:00 AM, for our day of prayer. And I'm excited because we're gonna be talking about— we're gonna be talking about vision for 2027.

Like, I'm just inviting you to come and join myself and our key leaders in praying. First, for our leadership. But praying for what I believe God is gonna do in 2027 in the life of our church. And so today, at the front nosing, I've got some new blank prayer request cards. And these are so important.

This is an opportunity for you to give us something to pray for. During the day of prayer, what we do is we come in and we sing. And then we pray. And we spend about 30-40 minutes. I know you're thinking, wow, that's a long time.

But it really isn't. It goes by so fast. But these cards are all laid out here on the front. And people come by and they take that card and they pray over it. And then they get another one and they pray over it.

So we're constantly praying over the needs of our people. And we promise, 6:55, we're heading out that door. So if you've got to be at work, if you got to take kids to school, we'll get you where you're going. So during invitation today or after church, come get a prayer card, fill it out, put it on my chair right there next to my beautiful wife. And, uh, we'll, we'll take those and tomorrow we will put those out.

I want you to turn to Mark chapter 10, verse number 41. In a couple of weeks, we'll wrap up this series. And I want to do hopefully a good job that day just reminding us of where we've been. But as a quick reminder, for the last few weeks we've been talking about how we are explicitly called to certain things in Scripture. And up till last week, we talked a lot about how God's called us to relate to Him.

We've talked about, you know, repentance. We've talked about faith, baptism, and the sorts. Last week we talked about giving. And we talked about— we made the point that, you know, God owns everything. Like everything here in this room.

The breath we breathe belongs to God. But God is a very generous God. And He gives to us freely. And so what He wants in us is to have a heart of giving as well. And when we give, he promises to not only provide for the gift, but to sustain and bless the giver.

Well, we do more than just give money. Right? All of us in this room, we have a lot of commodities in our life that don't involve just our possessions. We also have time.

And we have ability. And you can't talk about being generous with money without talking about being generous in serving.

I mean, let's don't complicate the definition. But if I'm going to be generous in my heart, it's more than just putting money in an offering plate or handing a dollar bill to someone that's begging on the street corner. There is a great big difference that when I see someone in need, To just give them something and walk away. But to maybe go and sit with them.

To be so aware of my surroundings and my neighborhood that I know what's going on. And I want to go and help somebody out. If giving is generosity with money. Then serving is being generous with my possession and my action for the benefit of somebody else. As one dictionary states it, to render assistance is what serving means.

By helping performing certain duties. Often of a humble and menial nature. In other words, you can't really serve if humility's not in the picture.

Remember last week in Luke 6. We talked about how that people in the world know how to love. Christians should exceed that. That people in the world know how to lend. Christians exceed that by not only giving, not expecting in return, but doing so for their enemy.

That we give. Because even the people in the world know how to give. And serving should be that same way. We see serving in our world. People in the world know That serving other people is a good thing, but we the people of God, shouldn't we go above and beyond?

Like, what is that standard? What is that mark? Well, in this passage in Mark, this is recorded in the synoptics— Matthew, Mark, and Luke— but in each case, Jesus is making a statement about the call to servanthood Because his followers, his 12, are arguing about who is the best.

Isn't that like us? Before you sit here and judge the disciples for arguing about who should sit at Jesus' left and right hand, I'm telling you, if you would have been in the room, you would have been arguing too. Well, wait a minute. You know, the other night when Jesus needed that cup of water at 10:30, I'm the one that went and got it. That was me.

I did that. Did y'all see that? If you didn't, I took a picture and put it on Instagram.

Let me back up to 39. Y'all go ahead and stand with me. Let me just read this, 'cause I know if I don't— I am gonna get a t-shirt with Captain America that says, I can do this all day.

Then they said to him, we are able. And he was talking about how they were like, well, let James and John sit at your left hand and your right hand. And He said, well, are you able to drink the cup that I can drink? And they said, well, yeah, we can. And He said, the cup that I drink, you will drink.

And you will be baptized with the baptism which I am baptized. What is He talking about there? This water back here? No. He's talking about suffering and death.

And He said, but to sit at my right or my left hand is not mine to give. But it's those for whom it has been prepared. Matthew says, the Father prepared it. It was the Father's will. Hearing this, the 10 began to feel indignant with James and John.

The root of division is jealousy. Calling them to himself. In other words, you get this picture that they were murmuring among them— among each other. He said, you know that those who are recognized as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them. And that their great men exercise authority over them.

But it is not this way among you. And it shouldn't be that way in our churches. If you go to a church and the word ruling comes before deacon or elders, get out.

Yes, I'll meddle with that one. Because Jesus said we don't rule over each other. Paul said, I don't rule over your faith. No one rules over you in the house of God except one. His name is Jesus.

He is the Lord. But whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant. Say, servant. And whoever wishes to be first among you shall be the slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and give his life a ransom for many.

Father, Lord, you know how this is burning in my heart. No, by no means, Lord, do I want to come across arrogant or or condescending. Lord, you said the first would be last, and God, we need to adapt that in our life. Oh, the problems that would be solved in our lives if we just followed that one rule to elevate the needs of others above our own, to not think more of ourselves than we should, and to serve the same that you did. We love you in Jesus' name.

Amen. I know that statement came across a little bit harsh. I'm not saying every church that practices ruling elders or deacons are bad. Please forgive me for that. But I have never seen it go well when somebody taunts it.

That's why I'm, I'm not your ruler. Your pastors are not your rulers. He is our King. That's whom we follow. 3 years ago, Lifeway Research discovered a gap between intention and action.

Says most Protestant churchgoers say their churches encourage them to serve people not affiliated with their church and that they would want to do so. You're following what the Senate said? Like, most people in church say they're encouraged that we should go out and serve mankind, but few have volunteered in the last year. More than 4 in 5 churchgoers say their churches encourage every adult to serve people outside of the church, 84% would say yes, amen, and that they would want to serve these people with the hope of sharing the gospel. 86% agreed with that.

However, 2 in 3 in the same survey say they have not volunteered for a charity, a ministry, church, or non-ministry in the past year. That was— this survey was conducted 2 years ago. So you got 87% of churchgoers saying we are encouraged to and we should go serve with the intention of sharing the gospel, but only 1 out of 3 went and did it. In fact, when you expand that to the world, Barna discovered and reported 49% of American adults say that people should volunteer regularly and help other people. If the world knows how to give, if the world knows how to lend, if the world knows how to love, and they're saying serving is important, but I don't reinforce what I say with what I do, have I really served?

Is serving vital and important? Is it a value And it has to do with motivation and the reason. Like, why would you and I ever care to serve? Well, I'm gonna give you the simplest answer that you could ever get. When I say this in a second, you're gonna be like, that's it?

That's the reason why I should serve? Well, yeah, it is. It's really that simple. In fact, if you— I believe in it so much. If you want me to, when I say this statement, I'll say amen and pray and we'll go out the door.

Y'all laugh because y'all know that ain't true.

Because Jesus did.

He said, the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many.

In our day and time, we talk a lot about what I've earned, what I deserve, and what I'm entitled to.

Jesus said, I'm entitled to death on behalf of mankind.

And my followers, if they truly understand my heart, if they truly get the purpose of why I came to start with, then in their generous heart, they will serve as well without expecting anything in return.

Many, many years ago, Forbes magazine wrote this. That the measure of the integrity of a man is what he will do for someone else without expecting return. You see, the way a lot of us sometimes practice serving is we will serve our families as we should. They are a priority. In our lives.

Then we will go to our next circle, which might be our friends. But anything outside of that, I don't know that I can, I can do that. I, I don't know that, that I can go that far. What most of us, if we're honest in our flesh, is that we— if we serve, we want to be seen serving, and we want a benefit from that serving. Like, we, we want notoriety.

We want position and we want power. That's exactly what the disciples were doing. Do you realize that when Luke writes this account of them arguing, it was at the Last Supper?

I mean, that one needs to hover for a moment. Up until the end. Again, before we start criticizing the disciples, we need to understand we probably would have been doing the same thing. Everybody likes a good fight, don't they?

They're at the Last Supper, the last physical meal they would ever eat with Jesus before his death, and they're arguing about who should sit at the right and the left hand of Jesus. Matthew's Gospel reveals they didn't just go and ask Jesus, they sent their mama. Like most of you, you get a bad test grade— grade on a test, and you get your mama to go to the school and fuss the teacher out thinking it's gonna get you a better grade.

They sent their mama to ask Jesus, like, can my son sit at your left and your right?

Why would they ask that? Maybe they were like, well, we followed you longer than some of them on this team. I mean, take Simon the Zealot over there. I'm like, like, what? Who is he?

And then Matthew was stealing from people. Like, we've never done those things. Look at me. Jesus taught in Matthew 6 that when you give, when you pray, and when you fast, don't make a public spectacle of it because when you do, you have your reward.

It's one reason why you're not going to see me on Facebook going, hey, I want you to join me at church today. I'm going to be preaching on blank. I'm not tooting my horn.

And we shouldn't either. One of the things I loved and appreciated about my mother-in-law— Laura and I were talking about this this week— was she served silently.

But on the day of her funeral, and we were at the funeral home, we began to hear people talk about how her mom did this and her mom did this and her mom did this and her mom did this. And we were— we We were in her family and some of the things we learned, we didn't even know she did. Like, what if you served that way where your right hand didn't know what your left hand was doing? You just did it because of a love for our Savior and an understanding of what he's done for us and that in my sacrifice, I'm proclaiming the gospel to the world. Now, hold on a second.

Is it enough in the gospel ministry to just go and do some good deeds? The answer to that is what? No. No one can know the gospel unless they hear the gospel. They're not going to figure it out by going like, hey man, so-and-so just brought me a cake because— no, you need to tell them, I did this because I love my Savior, and if you don't know him, let me tell you how you can.

Serving opens the door for us to be able to spread and exhibit the gospel with hopefully the opportunity to speak it. Those of you that participated in our Wednesday night, was it not refreshing to hear that we could share Jesus without freaking out? You know one way you could do that? To get on your hands and knees and serve somebody. Don't worry about what comes out of your mouth.

And you may build a trust relationship to where that person would say, why are you doing that? When our team was going down near Augusta and doing work years ago, one of the guys that they did ministry for asked that very question. Why are you doing this? It didn't make sense. But our team knew why they did it.

Because they love Jesus and they love the gospel. So I think I'm going to give you today 4 keys to having a servant's heart. You'll see at the top of your study guide 4 words. Or maybe you might have 4 blanks. I don't know.

Let me give you those words. I want you to know them. They're up on the on the screen. Motivation. You need a proper motivation.

I've already given you the reason. Jesus served. He didn't expect to be served. And that's the attitude that we should adopt, is the attitude of serving other people. That because I'm motivated, then I'm going to be ready.

That every day I get up, I may have opportunity, but not if I'm ready. Like, I got up this morning and I, I've got this really fancy app on my phone for radar. So I pulled up my radar to see if it's going to rain because I thought I probably need to take my raincoat in case it's raining after church because I don't like to get my Bible wet. I'm a little OCD like that. And so, so I looked and I'm like, you know what, I don't think it's going to come.

And so far so good, my prediction's right. But I wanted to be ready. Do you get up ready every day for an unexpected opportunity? To serve somebody? You guys know crises don't make appointments, right?

Death doesn't make appointments. Sickness doesn't make appointments. Car wrecks don't make appointments. And if the person that's in need didn't make an appointment to be in need, then we shouldn't be thinking, well, I'll get to it when I can. People need us to be ready when they're ready.

Because if they're not ready, then we should be ready to be able to help. Be ready. Then number 3, we need to expect that there's going to be opportunity. I get ready for it, but I need to expect it. I bet none of us in this room— this is no condescending.

It's not condescending. I'm just saying, did you get up this morning and think, you know what? I may encounter somebody at lunch today that may be in need. Let me take a little extra cash in my pocket.

Somebody sitting beside me might be crying in church. I need a little paper towel with me. I mean, You get what I'm saying? Like, do we expect it to happen? Because when I expect it and I'm ready and I'm motivated, then the initiation is a no-brainer.

I will act. Does that mean that every person that comes up to me and puts their hand out that I'm going to give them money? No. Acts chapter 3. When Peter and John were going into the temple, the lame man put his hand up for an alms.

And they said, no, we don't have anything. What he got was better than gold and silver, right? He got healed. Sometimes the people we come in need don't need you to just give them something, pat yourself on the back, and go on your way. They might just need you to sit with them.

They might just need you to show up. They might just need to know that you've built a relationship with them so that when the need comes, you're ready. So number one, one key. First key to a servant's heart is awareness.

Motivation. How am I moved to be concerned for others?

In Matthew 9:36, when Jesus looked at the people, it said he was moved in his gut. Moved. Like, you know what it feels like to be moved in your gut? I mean, like some of you when you were dating, you girls would get butterflies in your stomach. You know?

It's kind of that feeling. Or like How many of you know that feeling of an adrenaline rush when a dog runs out in front of you or somebody slams their brakes in front of you? You miss that wreck and you're like, Whew, man. Are you moved physically when you see somebody suffering or do you step back as Jesus addressed last week? Well, I know how they spend their money.

I ain't giving them a dime.

I know who their mom and dad were. I'm not touching that. And we start judging people by the color of their skin or where they lived or who their parents were or maybe the problems that they had in their life. And rather than meeting that with compassion, it's met with judgment and condemnation. And I cut off any generosity that might even be expressed because I think I know better.

Aren't y'all glad Jesus looked down and while we were still sinners, he chose to die for us? I mean, if, if Jesus sat there and reasoned out every stupid thing you did and I did, anything's up— well, I don't know that I'm going to forgive that one. Aren't you glad he forgives you freely? So what about us? Don't you want to become so generous that, that there's no question?

I'm not saying put yourself in the poorhouse because you're giving out all your money, but you may. I don't know. Because you discover the joy in giving and serving. And when I wake up, if I'm like Jesus— the text said seeing the people. Say seeing.

Are your eyes open? Or are you like a horse at a race with blinders on? Oh, I got to run my race today. I don't have time for that. I can't deal with that.

Oh gosh, they're calling me again. Like, if my blinders are always like this, that my destination is my success and I never look at what's on my left and my right, I will never see the needs.

Psalm 100:2 says, serve the Lord with gladness. If Paul instructed us to give not begrudgingly, then we shouldn't serve begrudgingly either. We should serve freely, with humility, with compassion, With love. Now, if you're serving out of guilt, that comes at a price. If I'm serving out of shame, that comes as a price.

You're serving because you are a redeemed child of the King. And I want to see— I want people to see Jesus living inside of me. And it starts right here in my heart. Do I love? Galatians 5:13 says this, for you were called to freedom.

Freedom from the prescription of the righteous requirement of the law. You cannot be righteous enough in and of yourself. You're free from that. He said, but not— but hold on. Only do not turn your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh.

In other words, what a lot of us have this mentality is, well, Jesus died for my sins. I can just ask him to forgive me. My behavior doesn't matter. Well, it does matter. If you've truly repented of your sin, why are you still walking in sin?

Why? Why are you still trying to keep rules if Jesus kept all the rules and gave it to you freely? What you're doing now is you're not serving out of obligation. You're serving out of relationship. So he says at the end of that verse, but through love serve one one another.

So I'm just going to ask you, do you love? We've already talked about the command to love. I can't force you to love. God can't force you to love. But when you accept Jesus, love comes into your life.

How is the love of God growing you to this place where it doesn't matter if somebody's black, white, short, tall, poor, rich, lives here, lives there, is a Georgia fan or a Georgia Tech fan? You love them, period.

That's the kind of love that ties us together. And when I do that, then I think about my day and I'm looking and trying to be aware. Because number 2, I want to be available. Availability. How free am I to help others when the time comes?

Now I am going to meddle. Most of us in this room leave about this much margin, this much margin for unexpected things to happen.

Right there. My daughter Caroline used to take bets on how long it would take me to go to Walmart.

I think one time I literally ran into 16 people that I knew, and an hour and a half later I got home with the milk. I'm not ashamed of that.

I would that every person in Stephens County, the 26,000 people that call this home, would know my name. But greater than that, I want them to know his name. I would love it that if I went to Walmart, every aisle that I went down, I'd run into somebody. But not if I don't have this much margin in my time. Because when I only have this much margin in my time, when I do get that call from somebody who has a need, either A, I feel guilty because I have to tell them no, or Or B, I have to tell them no because I don't have time.

I want you to turn— look at a couple of these. 1 John 3:17-18. 1 John 3:17-18. It says this, but whoever has the world's goods and— here's that word again— sees his brother in need and closes his heart to him, How does the love of God abide in him?

Little children, let us not love with word or tongue, but in deed and truth. You know why this is important? Because what did I just tell you that John was doing in the upper room? I want to sit at your right hand. He learned the secret.

He learned that secret of humility. That if you look at somebody. And he didn't say you look at somebody, see their need, and go, okay, can I really meet that need? Do I? What could I do?

I mean, that's different than that's, all right, God, what can I do? But to close your heart. He said, how can the love of God live? I need to make myself available when the time comes. When the time comes.

So I ask you today, how available are you? Are you waking up every day and looking around to be aware? But then how available are you? Have you said in your heart, look, I'm not going to be available to anybody. They can have me at 7 o'clock and at 8:30 I'm going to clock out again.

How practical does that work?

It doesn't.

And knowing as the family of God that we've got other people that we can call on when I'm in trouble.

Matters. And I want to make myself available as I want you to make yourself available when the time comes. Look at— listen, listen, don't look there. Galatians 6:9, let us not lose heart in doing good. He's talking about sowing for the Lord.

That if I sow to my flesh, I sow to death. If I sow to the Spirit, I'm sowing to life. He said, for in due time we will reap If we do not grow weary. What did he say there? Due time.

There's a persistence in daily sowing. Do you see that? I sow. I sow. I sow.

I sow. Expecting that something's gonna come from it. So then look at verse 10. He says, so then while we have opportunity. When does opportunity happen?

When you least expect it. And if I do not build margin in my time.

I can't help. I'm crippled. I'm shackled. And most of the stuff in your life, if you would be honest, are choices you've made. The hunting clubs, the sport gigs, all the things are choices that you made.

So you got one of two choices. How available am I when I'm in these things? Which you should be as a light of the— to the world. You should be a light on the ball field. Or at the hunting club or at the race or wherever you're going, at the cow show or whatever it is, on vacation.

Be a light when you're there. Be available.

But if my mindset is such that, oh, I got to go to this and then this and then this and then this and then this and then this and then this, by the time you get to 8 o'clock, you have nothing to pour out. There's nothing left. God's calling us to be mindful of our time and to be ready when called upon. So number 3, anticipation. Now listen to this.

The question here, am I proactive or reactive to help others? The answer to that question is both. Because again, I can't— I may walk out of here in just a moment and somebody fall at that door. Hopefully not me. But if somebody were to fall, am I going to step in and help?

The answer to that is yes. Every one of you would.

But how much greater if I'm proactive to help somebody? I mean, think back to 2005 when Katrina hit New Orleans. You see, the Congress report that came out in 2006, which was entitled A Failure of Initiative, found that there were things they could have fixed in those levees that would have stopped some of the flooding. Have you ever seen the levees? It's really interesting because most of New Orleans is below sea level except New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary.

It sits on Gentilly Plain, the highest point in the city. And when the floods came, they actually— the seminary didn't flood. The government used it as a staging area. Did y'all know that? I bet you didn't.

I love to call it my alma mater. I'm telling you, it's great. But they could have fixed some of it.

They could have fixed some of— that's called being proactive. Proactive. If you see your gutters stopped up. And every day you walk up— wake up and you go, you know what? I probably should clean those gutters out.

And you don't. A year goes by. And 2 years go by. And then you find out that your soffits are rotted.

When I'm proactive, I'm ready to act when the time comes. James 2:14 says this, what use is it, brothers, if someone says he has faith but no works? Can faith save him? In other words, the works that I do reinforce what I believe. Out of all the things that James could evidence this with, here's what he said.

If a brother or sister is without clothing, in need of daily food, and one of you says to them, go in peace, be warmed and filled, and yet do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is it? Can I answer that question? Zero.

Oh, I'm so sorry you're hungry and starving and are naked. I hope you do well. I'll pray for you. Well, what good does that do? I mean, if you legitimately don't have the money to give to somebody, just be honest and say, listen, I can't give you any money.

Sometimes you may discern, hey, like, you know, this guy's going to go take my money and buy alcohol with it. Well, take them inside Captain D's and get them a fish meal or something. Like, but when I close my heart completely and just, I ain't giving anybody, am I choking off the love of God that could be living through me? Aren't you glad the Good Samaritan I mean, the priest came by. The Levite came by.

And they looked at the man who had been beaten. And they just kept going. They didn't have the time. They thought they were better than him. They couldn't touch something dirty.

Right? But the Samaritan came by. And here's what's cool about it. Not only did he pour wine on his wounds. And then put him on his own beast.

Took him to an inn. Paid 2 days' wages to take care of him. Then he said, And when I come back, if he owes more, I'll take care of it. Folks, that's generosity in serving. And he didn't do it expecting that that man would ever pay him back.

That's what we've got to remove out of our vocabulary. If I'm proactive or reactive, I just want to help somebody and I'm not doing it expecting a favor in return. Remember how people sometimes they'll say to you, well, you owe me one. No. Just take that out of your— just do it for the goodness of doing it.

Why? Because it shows the attitude that the Savior had for us. Number 4, action. Am I taking responsibility to help however and whenever need arises? Those are those 4 keys.

I'm motivated because Jesus. I'm ready. I'm expecting it. And now I'm taking the initiation. At the Great White Throne Judgment.

When When Jesus says He's going to separate the sheep from the goats. He's going to look at the sheep and He's going to say, y'all come on in for what's been prepared for you since the foundation of the world. Because when I was hungry, you gave me some food. When I was thirsty, you gave me drink. When I was a stranger, you invited me in.

When I was naked, you clothed me. When I was sick, you visited me. When I was in prison, you came to me. Now check this out. This is the The thing that blows my mind the most about this passage.

They did this so unaware. They looked at the Lord and said, when did we do that for you? And Jesus said, when you did it to the least. Not the greatest. But the least of these.

You did it to me also. Serving is a position here. Not up here. We can go through the motions of worship. We can sing the songs.

We can play Christian music in our cars. We can read devotionals. We can sign up for the Bible app. But if I tangibly want to give evidence for the love of God in my life, then I will elevate serving. The command here is clear.

It's serve. He told us in Galatians 6:10 to serve, do good, especially to those of the household of faith. So that gives us 2 opportunities. We serve inside the church. And we serve outside the church.

I serve in my daily life. I serve when opportunities arise. I serve each week in my church. I serve at events. Let me tell you about 2 events today that you can sign up for.

You saw the boxes when you came in the door today. It's Operation Christmas Child season. And if you don't know this, now you do. We are a collection site for Operation Christmas Child. Which means people bring boxes.

From other churches in the community. They bring them here. And for 8 days, we have volunteers that stand out there. And they take those boxes and put them in a bigger box. And then we send them to the distribution center.

That goes live today. If you're interested in helping for Collection Week in November, sign up. And if you plan to pack a box— if you've never packed a box, see one of our team members. They take this box. And Samaritan's Purse sends that around the world.

And it may be the very key that shows a child The love of Jesus. The second thing is going to be new to Ebenezer. This is a come event. Like, we're wanting people to come to hang out with us, and it's called Christmas at Home. Here's what I want you to think about it.

It's like a block party and a fall festival and a trunk-or-treat had a baby with Christmas lights.

Hey, listen, I know, I know you will drive to Seneca and down to Cumming to see these light displays. We're going to have one here. So, but we need help. What if 1,000 people show up on our campus that night? We need people greeting.

We need people handing out stuff. We need people this and this and this and this. We need you to serve. And you might just catch the serving bug and want to do it again. I can tell you right now, Timothy needs 4 teachers in the kids area.

You know why? Because if you haven't looked around the room, we've grown a little bit. But our teaching team has not. We need you to pray about serving in the kids area. In the preschool area.

And those needs are always there. But maybe you want to serve coffee. Drive the golf cart. Greet. Whatever.

We've got needs. We just need you to say, Lord, what is it that you want me to do? Now let me encourage you to think something. This is a pet peeve of mine. Years ago we had this person.

We asked, hey, would you help us in our rotation in the preschool? And they were like, No, God's called me to be in the choir. Hey, that's great, but I'm gonna tell you something. There's just certain needs in the church. It don't matter what you're called to do, it just needs to be done.

I'm not being your pastor now. I guess I'm being like your boss. I'm sorry, that sounded a little harsh. No, I'm serious. There's just certain things that needs to be done.

I've never heard anybody say, yes, I'm called to be the swirler of the toilets.

But aren't you glad somebody does it? Aren't you glad somebody vacuumed this floor before you came in today?

And when we all jump into that, boy, it makes a difference. Because every opportunity to serve is an opportunity to connect with somebody.

Because in John 13, Jesus got up from the table.

And he got a basin of water and he washed his disciples' feet. Y'all know that story, right? Jesus could have done this and said, there you go, boys. Step in that and get your feet clean.

Sometimes that's the way we serve. We just kind of do the act and go, alright, you good. But do you know if I dip my feet in the water and bring them right back out, I get more dirt on my feet?

It took the towel. Not only did it take the towel, the Master of the universe got down on his knees and dried their feet so that when they stepped on the ground, their feet were clean.

See, the basin without the towel does you nothing.

The towel gives you the connection. Who knows what opportunities will arise if you start to open your eyes and are aware that you get up every morning and praise. And God, do I have an opportunity today? Expect something to happen and then take initiation. Jesus said to Peter, if I don't wash your feet, you have no part of me.

What part could you have with other people if you stop just using the basin and start using the towel too?

Pick up the towel. And see what God can do with it. So I'm gonna give you 3 Ps, 3 Ps that I want you to take away from this today. Pray, plan, and pursue. You're welcome, Kevin Hurt, the master of alliteration.

See, each day I can pray that God will show me opportunities. Every day I can get up before I put my feet on the ground and say, God, I give this day to you. Would you show me opportunities today that I can serve somebody else? And we need to make plans. You need to plan for interruptions.

But plan for regularity. If I've got too much in my life to where I'm inhibited from being able to serve regularly in the body of Christ or in the community. I got too much on my plate. Start making some sacrifices to elevate some other things that have eternal value. And number 3, pursue every door that opens.

Because you don't know when that door is going to close.

Oh, you're hungry. Well, let me pray for you and hopefully you'll be okay. No. Seize the moment. Because by seizing the moment, you don't know what it may do in the heart of that person.

That doesn't know Jesus Christ. Father, this is heavy and it's a lot. We want to be good servants of you, so teach us, Lord, how to be humble. Teach us, Lord, how to, to be aware, to look. Lord, help us if we're so busy and so distracted that we don't look, that we, we just live life and let it lead us.

But Lord, for a moment, could we commit ourselves To help us to see, to help us to realize, to be ready, to anticipate what may come. But Lord, then to take the initiation that we would be like those goat— those sheep on the end day, that we'd be like, Lord, when we do this, and to hear you say, when you did it to the least of these, you did it to me also. Lord, help us if we serve out of wanting to be seen. Forgive us for that. But also at the same time, forgive us when we've just given out of guilt and shame.

Because that doesn't profit you. Lord, let us be joyful, heartfelt, generous givers. In Jesus' name. Amen.