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This edition of Ask the Pastor features Pastors Ben Poole and Gary Schick.
Ben Poole
So, yeah, talking about serving Christ and what that looks like. Being pastors, it kind of comes with the territory of, serving Christ is kind of our life. But our listeners, you guys out there, are not all pastors. And so what's that gonna look like for you? Not everybody was meant to be a pastor. You know, the scriptures teach about the different gifts that people have, that some should be teachers, some should be leaders, but not everybody. And so what's that gonna look like beyond what happens on a Sunday morning or a Wednesday night, or just what happens at the church building? What does it look like to serve Christ?
Gary Schick
Well, and our larger topic is spiritual disciplines that help us grow. We started with prayer and we're using the acronym G.R.O.W.S. So we're getting to the end of it actually, we're going do a double S at the end here. So, Go to God in prayer, Read the word, Other believers (we need fellowship and to be discipling and discipled together in Christ), Worship (our topic last week), and now Serving God and serving others. You know, Jesus calls us, what's the great commandment? "You shall love the Lord, your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength," and "Love your neighbor as yourself." And what does that look like? Well, what did look like in the life of Jesus? He came as a servant. And really it's kind of an interesting thing, how eventually even the common culture catches on. You know, there's tons of books out there on leadership, and just within the last, I don't know, a couple of decades, this idea of servant leadership has caught on. Kind of leadership, and what would seem to be reversed from the bottom up. But really what's something we all want from our elected officials? We want them to serve our needs as the people they are representing. What did Jesus do? You know? One day, while the disciples, they were walking down the road and they're arguing. I guess they thought, maybe Jesus was far enough ahead or far enough behind, or you know, out praying. I don't know, they just maybe didn't think he was listening. And so they're arguing about who's the greatest, or maybe they're arguing, like, you know, "So come out, Lord," you know, "When are you gonna chip into this little argument and tell us, you know, what you think?" And so finally He does, and he's like, "You know what? The greatest is the one who serves." And then He concludes with this, He says, "For even the son of man," speaking of Himself, "did not come to be served, but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many." And so much of what He was doing, it was kind of a common thing. You know, there was a teacher, a rabbi who would have around him, a group of disciples who would learn the ways of the teacher and then emulate that. And He's saying, "So here's what you emulate, guys, I've come to serve," and if you look at the life of Jesus from start to finish, He's serving the needs of others. You know, people would come to Him with an illness, He could do what we can't, but He would use His divine power to serve their need in terms of healing or whatever it was. And even right down to, you know, we're just couple weeks out at this point from Easter, although if you're of the Orthodox persuasion, you just celebrated Easter on Sunday. So what is it that Jesus did just a couple nights before that at the last supper? Well, John's gospel tells us that He took off His outer garment, put on the garments of a house slave and got down on His knees and washed the disciple's feet. And they were taken aback, they were appalled. Peter was like, "Uh, ah. You're not gonna do this," until Jesus said, "Well, Peter if I don't wash your feet, you have no part in me." And then he's like, then basically give me a bath, you know? "I want you to wash my feet and my head and my hands, cause I want you Jesus. I wanna be whatever you're about, that's what I want." And Jesus is like, "Well, here's what I'm about. Now what you've seen me do, and you call me Lord and master. I've washed your feet, do this, do this for each other." And there are, it's pretty cool, there are churches where they do more than just communion, they actually do foot washings. And I'm not in a church where we do that on a regular basis, but I have done it in churches and it's always, I think a very humbling experience on both ends. Humbling for me to be, really, literally down with the smelly feet of my people, who maybe weren't necessarily planning to have their feet washed, but were like, "Yeah, I would like that." On the other hand, it's a very humbling thing to have your feet washed, you know? To take off our shoes and our socks, I mean, let's face it our feet aren't exactly the prettiest parts of our bodies you know? And to have somebody actually getting down with a little soap and water and a towel. But you know what? We are called to take care of each other, and one of the most powerful ways to love others is to serve, and you don't have to be an expert in anything. You just have to kind of have your eyes open (Is there a need?), you have to be available (Can I help you?), and you have to be kind about it. You got to do with the heart that doesn't make them feel like, "Well, I guess I interrupted their day," you know? And those three things are powerful, and when somebody with kindness goes out of their way for us: whether to hold a door, whether to help you across the street. You know, whatever it is, it's simple and it's powerful. And actually there was a book written by a fellow named Steve Sjogren, I think several years back called, what was it? Servant Evangelism. And he had this concept, and the church has, we have practiced it a little bit, where you would just go out and do things in the community for no charge. Which always throws people, cause I always want to pay it, you know? And so, we did as a youth group, we did a car wash, and we wouldn't accept payment and people really wanted to help support the youth group. We did it as a men's group. We did a brat giveaway, you know? We were out there cooking brats, people come up, "What do you want for it?" Nothing, we just want you to know, Jesus loves you.
Gary Schick
This is how God loves us. You can't buy God's love. And it was interesting, we never had, I don't think one person that we served, show up at the church while we were doing those things. But the church grew at the time, and it was like God saying to us, "You go out and serve my community and I will bring in people. So you serve those people there and I'll bring people from over here." And it was just a real testimony to me of how: it's all about faith and about faithfulness and about serving God and serving others; and when our heart is about that individually, as a church, what have you, God blesses it. And are we there? You know, I mean, I've been in churches where, "Well I don't know, can we do a funeral for those people, they're not part of our church." Exactly wrong! Somebody comes to you with a need, this is your opportunity to be Jesus for them. And that is when you have a, "Maybe they will come back. Maybe they'll become, maybe they won't." That is irrelevant. Our job is to be the hands and feet of Jesus. Just one more last thought on this. I'm reminded of, again, just thinking of the first church I was at, the local hospital was actually a Catholic hospital. And so that had a little different feel to it than just a regular secular hospital, kind of like we have here. And so one of the things, you know, the nuns were part of serving the patients, and somebody, you know, asked one day, "What's different here? You know, like, you treat us so well." And they're like, "You know what? We are trained to serve every patient as if we are serving Jesus." Well, that's not just a nun thing, that's not just a monk thing. That's a Christian thing, you know? In my lifetime, one of the most powerful people in terms of an impact in the world, and she's gone now with Mother Teresa. She just quietly went to a corner of Calcutta and served the poorest of the poor and impacted the whole world for Christ along the way. You know what? You don't have to be a rich person, a powerful person, a famous person, an influential person. You just have to be a loving person, who does it in the name of Jesus and you will rock your world. You can impact your family, you can impact your neighborhood, you can impact your church. You can impact the community in a powerful way. You and I can, when we take off the tie and pick up the towel.
Ben Poole
Right. Yeah, that's so good. You know, I was thinking about this, as you were talking about, what does it mean to serve? What's that look like? How is that a spiritual discipline? I really gained a lot of wisdom from some of my professors when I was going to Bible college. And one thing, so one of my professors, he and his wife were missionaries to Papa New Guinea. Working for pioneer Bible translators, translating the scriptures into the common language for the people for years and years and years. And he's from a town in Wyoming, country boy, and I remember going on a trip with him and his wife and I said, "What? How in the world did you get there? How did that happen? How did you get to the point, like, 'that's how you're gonna serve Christ?' And they both just, I remember this as such a beautiful memory of mine. They just looked at each other in the car and smiled and just said, "We decided as Christians, if God asks us to do anything, we say 'yes,' we just say, 'yes." And their testimony from their life shows, there's no regrets, there's no, "I wish we hadn't done that." Just a few years ago, actually, they completed the whole New Testament in this language, it took over 30 years and they were part of that from the beginning and served in different ways, built and grew their family there. It's just a beautiful picture of, what is it gonna look like to serve Christ? I can't tell you that. Maybe you'll end up being a pastor or a missionary or a Sunday school teacher or whatever it is. But I think that would be the word I would leave with you is, when God calls you to anything, just say, "yes." Because you're never gonna regret serving Christ, it is so worth it. And yeah, there's gonna be hardships and struggles along the way, but at the end, I mean, I know even for me, and in our situation and things are changing in our life and our family, I don't regret saying 'yes.' I mean, I am excited for what God is doing now and what I can see down the road that He is preparing for us. And so, it can be scary to say 'yes' to God, but when you get in that mix with Him and you are just serving wholeheartedly, knowing that He's leading you, like Ben's not truly leading my family, I'm letting God be the leader here.
Gary Schick
You're just following Jesus.
Ben Poole
I get to sit back and watch the show. I get to be, almost a spectator of the work that God's doing, and then I get to take that and share what God is doing with people. And that's how I can serve Christ best with my life.
Gary Schick
You know, and it's so good because, you know, we're not all called to be pastors or missionaries or teachers, but we all have gifts. And the question is, what are we using the gifts and the talents that God has given us, and who He's made us to be? Are we using it to serve ourselves? Are we using it to serve in the name of Jesus and bless others? And that's kind of an attitude shift, but it's all the difference. And, you know, we're talking about growing in our relationship with Christ's spiritual disciplines to help us grow. Well, nothing's gonna put us more in the image of Christ than putting on His sandals and doing what He did, which is to serve. And you know what? It starts at home for those of us who are husbands, with our wives and our kids. It should be in our workplace. Just where we are and like you said, what a great way to close with that. Just, what is God asking? Just say, 'yes' to Him and do it for Him.