Washing Feet

So, we are beginning a new series this week called Love Like Jesus. And we are entering into the Easter season. So, the plan here is to kind of work this series, looking at some of the final snapshots of Jesus right before He goes and does the ultimate payoff for our sins. But I just want to give you, we're going to hit it, we're going to hit little pieces here.

But on Palm Sunday, we're going to have our communion service. We have communion periodically. We don't do it every Sunday. Some churches do it every Sunday. But we do it on Palm Sunday.

So, I just want to give you all a heads up about that, you know, that we'll be here participating in that, a time that we celebrate and honor God. But in this new series, we're looking at snapshots of Jesus. And Jesus was constantly shocking people with acts of love. Shocking people with acts of love. I mean, just these things that just the normal person wouldn't do.

In fact, our theme verse is John 15, 12, my commandment is this, love each other as I have loved you. So, with these shocking acts of love, these irrational acts of love that Jesus showed us, He's also asking us to do the very same. So, we're going to look at three events that will perhaps challenge us, help us think differently about how we live. And so, next week, we're going to be dealing with breaking bread. We're going to talk about breaking bread.

Jesus often broke bread, fellowshiped, and was with His disciples even at the end, breaking bread. And the following week, we're going to talk about forgiving sinners. How hard is it sometimes to forgive those who sin against us, right? But God calls us to be forgivers of those who are sinners. But this week, I want to talk about washing feet.

Washing feet. John 13, this will take place in John 13, so if you have your Bibles, you can turn to John 13, and we're going to deal with verse 1 through 5. But I want to share a little story with you. There was a woman who accompanied her husband to the doctor's office, and the doctor called her in the lawn after he did the men's checkup and stuff. She says, I got to tell you this, your husband has a very severe illness, and it's going to require a lot of you.

So, for the next 10 months, I want you to do these things. I want you to cook his meal every day, and I need you to provide healthy meals. You know, cook those meals and do them well. I want you to take care of all of the chores. I want you to keep all the pressure off of him for the next 10 months.

And I want you to go out and do the grocery shopping. I want you to go out and do all the things. I want you to, whatever you can do, I want you to wake up early in the morning, take care of him all the way to the end of the day. And if you do this for 10 months, he just might come through this. So, as they're walking out of the office, the husband asks, so what did the doctor say?

What were y'all talking about? She looked over at him and says, you're going to die. And that's kind of a funny story, but in a lot of ways, we kind of act that way, don't we? You're just going to have to die. I mean, I'm just not going to do all of that.

But when we look at Jesus, we look at something completely different. And there's reasons why, and hopefully these things, there's a lot of reasons why we don't serve, why we don't do the things that we know what we should do, like getting down and actually washing people's feet. And we'll talk more about washing people's feet, washing feet in a second, because some of you are like, what are you talking about washing feet? But there's reasons we don't serve. And I just kind of wrote down some of these things that kind of came to mind.

And you guys are probably like, oh yeah, there's a whole other list of these things. But I think the most common reasons is, and the first one is, it's not my gift. We use that statement. If you have your notes, you'll see there's some blanks there to help you, help you follow along, along with that. So it's not my gift.

And what we do is we take Romans 12 and 1 Corinthians and we look at the helps gift and we say, well, people have this gift and there's people that actually are called to do this. And you know, that's not really my thing. So, you know, why not? You know, I don't really need to serve. We take it completely out of context.

But when we look over the life of Jesus, we see nothing but that. You're called to serve. You're called to be this and called to be that. But we tend to just focus on that. Well, it's not my gift, so I guess I'm out.

The next thing we probably think about is I'm not needed. I'm not needed. And that's just a myth. Because there's always a need. Jesus even said the harvest is plenty, right?

And the laborers are few. And there's always opportunity to work and help and serve and do whatever. But we usually say, well, I'm not needed. They have plenty of help there. There's plenty of people to do that.

It seems like it's going well. It seems like church is going well. It seems like that ministry is going well. It seems like that institution is doing perfectly fine. So, you know, they don't really need me.

So, you know, I'm off the hook, right? We use that excuse. Another excuse we use all too often is I'm too busy. I just got a lot going on. Man, I mean, I've got the kids.

I've got, you know, pay bills. I've got work. I work, you know, 48 hours a week. And the funny thing, usually when people say that, the next day they'll post on Facebook that they just binged watched the whole series of whatever, you know? And you're like, really?

I mean, you put that on Facebook when you just got through telling everybody you're so busy and you don't have time? And I think a lot of that is about priorities and putting priorities in place. And that's for another message in another day and just kind of talking about how your life is maybe not prioritized properly so you always feel like you're behind. So, we have this idea that we're too busy. And another reason is, and this is just straight up, and I appreciate people for saying this, honestly, is I don't want to.

I just don't want to. It's beneath me. Maybe that's you. I just don't feel like, you know, I'm better than that. I should be.

So, we just kind of pull out of our pockets and give money to whatever the cause is, and we never really actually get down and dirty and help people. Or we just don't have the desire to do it at all. And a lot of us probably don't have the desire. A lot of us that do it at times don't have the desire to do it either. And that's just one of those things that we do.

And then the last one, I just don't know how. A lot of people, it probably really just comes down to, I don't know how. But when we look at Jesus, and hopefully as we go through this, you'll discover ways of actually how to serve in a way that kind of fits you. And that it's not just You know, what your thinking service is. Service is a lifestyle.

Service is much more than that, and Jesus shows us that. So, in John 13, he talks, just to set up this, this is right before the Passover festival. This is right before Jesus is going to the cross to die for our sins. He's getting ready to be taken. And he says this, and the story says this, John's account says this, it was just before the Passover festival.

Jesus knew that the hour had come to him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them till the end. Now, just let that sink there. He loved them till the end, till the very last end. Even though they're messy people, even though they did stupid things, he loved them till the end.

The evening meal was in progress, and the devil was already prompted, had already prompted Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus. So, this was already happening. Judas was ready to betray him, and all this thing, this story was setting up. So, let me give you a little more context here. Jesus had a pretty tough week.

Because, if we look back, Monday was the cleansing of the temple. When he walked into the temple, the money changers were there. And what these people were doing, what these priests were doing, were actually bidding and selling on clean lambs. Hey, buy this lamb. This lamb's pure.

This lamb's clean. And it's a big price. So, they were charging people to actually do the duties that they were supposed to have. It was like a penance, sort of. If those of you who are Catholic, or know the history of the Catholic Church, kind of went through that phase, where there was some corruption in the church, and there was, you know, you pay your penance, and then your sins are forgiven.

It was kind of like happening like that. I probably misspoke there. I love the Catholic Church, okay? Amen. Hallelujah.

I'm not saying they're corrupt now. I'm just saying there was a period of history in which that happened. So, and this was happening. And Jesus came in and just furious and angry. He turns over the tables.

He says, get out of here. You've turned this place, this place of worship, this house of worship into a den of thieves. And I'm sure he was frustrated to no extent. And Tuesday had a massive fight with the religious leaders. Just over and over again about religion versus, you know, what he was doing.

And then Thursday, which was the day that he was in the upper room when this began, he's talking about giving his life. Giving his life for the sin of mankind. And then the next day he would be betrayed, and he would suffer, and he would die. So, Jesus' life, Jesus' week wasn't very easy. And according to Luke's Gospel, an argument broke out.

And here are the disciples fighting over who was the greatest. So, I could just picture these guys, these roughneck guys, just kind of sitting around the table. Jesus is still working on them, as usual. He's always, he's told them all this stuff about being least in the kingdom, you know. You're great if you're least in the kingdom.

And here they are fighting about who was going to have the better position in the kingdom. I'm sure John was saying, you know, I'm the one that he loved, right? So, I must be the greatest in the kingdom. And then Peter's like, well, I walked on water, buddy. You know, like he actually had me walk on water with him, and that's a pretty big deal.

And, you know, and then Bartholomew, you don't have anything. I mean, you don't even have anything, you know. And so, they're having this discussion. And I don't know how that discussion happened. Those are just, but I bet that was happening with these guys, because they were just regular old guys, right?

And they were having these discussions about who's the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And Jesus, I'm sure he was just grabbing his hair, just like, I've been teaching you all this time, that he that is least is greater. The greatest among you will be your servant, Matthew 23, 11 says. And so, they're here at the final meal. And what he sees, Jesus looks across the room, and all he can see is proud hearts and dirty feet.

Proud hearts and dirty feet. So, what does Jesus do? In verse 4, he says, So, Jesus got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a tile around his waist. After that, he poured water into a basin, and began to wash his disciples' feet, drying them with a tile and wrapping, a tile that was wrapped around him. So, what did he do?

He got up, he stopped what he was doing, eating, fellowshipping, whatever they were doing that day, having meal, they just got through with the Lord's Supper. Unbelievable. Just got through with the Lord's Supper. And what did he do? He didn't, he just, he didn't do any big emotional talk.

He got down and started washing their feet. Washing their feet. Now, what did that mean in that day? Washing feet. Washing feet is already kind of disgusting to me.

I'm going to be honest with you. I'm not a foot person. All right. My wife hurt her, hurt her ankle yesterday. And, and Savannah comes walking in the room.

Mommy, you hurt? Savannah's my little daughter, my three-year-old daughter. She says, Mommy, you hurt? She says, Yeah, I'm hurt. You want me to kiss it?

She said, Yeah. And she goes and she kind of does a little peck there. And then, Miranda looks over at Daddy and says, You want to kiss it and make it better too? And I'm like, It's just going to have to hurt. But I did.

But it was really hard. It was like one of these things. Feet, feet, feet. Feet are not the greatest part of the body, I would say. I'm not a foot fan.

You know, they, they tell you, you know, these, these, these marriage guys, these marriage gurus, you need to give your wife a foot massage, you know, once in a while. And I just, I've, I've tried and she's begged me and, and I do it. And it's like, you know, I just, just feet aren't my thing. And I think if I was living in the time of Jesus, it definitely would not be my thing. Because in that day, it was common courtesy to set a basin beside the door and have someone wash the feet of the people who entered in the home.

It's, it's much like us inviting somebody over. And when they come in the door, we offer them a drink or offer them a place to sit, take their coat. So, and, and often the guest, or not the guest, the house, the person hosting would, would have a servant actually wash the feet of that person. So it wasn't, it was such a belittling job that a servant actually washed the feet. And the roads weren't nice and paved in that day.

It was nasty with dirt and salt and grind and, and people had black feet back then, you know, because the, the, the, the dust and the dirt and the mud was all over them. It was, it was kind of gross. It was gross. I would not do well in that day. Wash your feet, you know.

So he came in the house. They came in the house. They washed their feet. And, and, and, and Jesus got up and did the very same thing with his, his disciples. He got down just like a servant.

And I'm sure the disciples were looking at him. And in fact, Jesus, Peter even, even says it himself. Do not, you, you are not going to wash my feet. And what does Jesus response? Well, if you don't let me, you have nothing to do with me.

He says, Oh, Jesus washed my whole body then. You know, that was Peter, you know. You know, wash me, wash everything, you know. But, uh. Jesus got down and He washed feet.

Imagine this, the Son of God. Scripture calls Him the Son of God, the bread of life, the prince of peace, the living water, the light of the world, the great high priest. He is the Lamb of God, He is the living stone, He is the true vine, the King of kings, the chosen one, the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. He is the righteous one, He is the redeemer, He is the rock. All of these things are said about Jesus, the most highest.

And here He is washing dirty, nasty feet. I didn't come to serve, be served, but I came to serve. And this is how much I love you. Jesus loved them until the end where He was literally on the floor washing their feet the night before He was to go to the cross. I am reminded of my, as I was preparing this message, I was reminded of my grandfather and kind of brought me to tears just thinking about him and how he sacrificed, he and my grandmother sacrificed everything they had for ministry.

And he was a man from Chicago and grew up in that area and was called to move all the way across to the East Coast and North Carolina in this little, little bitty town called Falcon, Falcon, North Carolina, right off the interstate. If you're going down to Florida, if you're going down to Florida, you'll pass right by it, right before you get to Fayetteville. A little place, and they had this home called the Falcon's Children's Home, and he gave his last penny, everything that he had, to come down and serve children that didn't have a father, didn't have a mother, that didn't have a family. And he served in an orphanage for most of his life. That's where my grandmother and grandfather met, so it's kind of precious to me.

He gave, he washed feet, so to speak, by giving up everything he had. And my parents, my father and my uncle, and he has two sisters as well, sang this song, an older song called, Thank you for giving to the Lord, I have a life that was changed. I don't know if y'all know that song, it was cool, like back in the early 90s, late 80s or whatever, it was like a, it was like, But the children's home actually did a big celebration for him, about a few years before he passed away. And he hung a plaque on the wall, and they were up there singing, they couldn't even make it through the song. You know, it talked about giving your last dime to get on the bus and head across country.

Everything was in the song, that was my grandfather. And my aunts and uncles and my dad, they just, they were crying during the song, and they couldn't even make it through the song, because it just kind of hit home so much. And I'll never forget him coming up to dad and says, Can I have a copy of that song? He said, What do you mean? He says, Y'all wrote that song, didn't you?

He says, No, we didn't write that song. That was a song that was already out there. It was so much like him. He was just teary-eyed. But he did, but the reward that came, the greatness that came from that, and what has come about in our own family by their faithfulness and their love for God and giving up what the precious things that we seem to think are the precious things in life for something greater.

Even though the world doesn't see that, he saw that, and he experienced that. So, we need to be feet washers. Are y'all ready to wash some feet? Well, let me give you three points. Let me give you three quick points about this.

First of all, we need to pray and seek opportunity. If you're following in your notes, you can write that down. Pray and seek opportunity. So, start praying. You need to actually pray that God would open your heart.

That the Holy Spirit would reveal to you opportunities. I start out every day with that. When I pray, I'm like, Lord, give me an opportunity to help somebody today. Give me an opportunity to speak into somebody's life today. Give me the opportunity to run by somebody, wherever it is I am today, and minister to that person.

Maybe I don't even know I'm ministering to that person, but give me opportunities. Give me opportunities. And we not only need to pray for the opportunities, we need to seek the opportunities. We have to have our eyes open to the opportunities. Maybe put yourself in places.

I had somebody tell me one time that you have to put yourself in places where you know you have to depend on the Holy Spirit and for the Holy Spirit to show up and work. When God works, He always works in interesting situations, but we've got to put ourselves in situations. As a pastor, I can't, you know, obviously there's a lot of administrative work to do and things like that, and you can easily get yourself shut off in an office, but I can tell you the world is not going to be changed by anybody if they sit in an office all day, right? I can have the best messages. I can do the best Bible study.

I can do all that. But if I'm not seeking opportunity, if we're not seeking opportunity, wherever we go, if we're doing yard work, if we're doing housework, if we're in the job, if we're in the church, if we're in the community, wherever we are, if we're not seeking opportunities, then what good is it? We're letting them ride right by us, running right by us. Pastor shared one time, I love this, he said he was in a Lowe's, and this lady was in the Lowe's, and she was an older lady, and she was trying to get these huge hedge clippers. You know, she was pulling down these huge hedge clippers, and he was like, well, I've got to help this lady.

So he walks over and starts helping her, and says, man, what are you doing? And she said, well, I've got some hedges to clip in my yard, and I've got to get these big hedge clippers to do it and stuff. She says, ma'am, do you have anybody to help you? She's like, well, actually, no. He says, you know what?

I'm going to go over and help you today. I mean, a pastor here, pastor of a very large church, one of the largest churches in America. He says, I'm going to go and help you today. I'm going to go help you clip your hedges today. And she looked back at him and says, are you a yard boy?

And he responded, today, I'm a yard boy. Today, I'm a yard boy. And that's what we need to be like. Today, I'm this. Today, I'm that.

Today, I'm a yard boy. Today, I'm a foot washer. Today, I'm going to fix your house. I'm going to move furniture today. That's who I'm going to be.

I'm going to be a furniture mover today. Whatever the opportunity is. And just to add to that story, later on, years down the road, somebody came up to him and said, you know what? But you touched my heart by helping my mother that day. And I decided, hey, I don't like church, but I'm going to go to church today.

Because this man went to my mother's house and helped her. I wasn't able to help her that day. And he went to my mother's house helping. He came into the church, and he got saved. And his family got saved.

And he brought other people in and got saved. So you never know what you're doing, you know, when you honor God by seeking opportunity and actually doing. Maybe that's moving. Well, okay. You got muscles to move?

Stefan. Stefan's my master mover back there. He helps people move all the time. If you're a mover, that's yours, right? That's your thing.

If a teen needs spiritual guidance, maybe that's your call. Maybe that's your thing. Go for it, you know. Maybe you're good with babies, or maybe you're not so good with babies, but you can wipe butts, right? Get in there and help.

Roll around on the floor with some babies and help out. You know, whatever it is. A friend needs help with a business plan, and you're a business person, maybe you need to help out that friend with a business plan so they don't have to pay big bucks to somebody who has a business, you know, to get their business proposition out there. Whatever it is, if you have that ability, if you have that gift, help somebody out. I can do that.

I can do that. That's what we need to do. I can do that. I can be a yard boy today. The second point is, feet washers seek God's glory, not their own.

The name of our church is Salt Church. No surprise there, right? Y'all came up, saw the signs, and you see the t-shirts. But there's something behind salt. It's not just a cool beach name for a church.

Jesus said, you are the salt of the world. And he goes through this prologue about being the salt of the world. And if the salt has no flavor, what is it good for but to be thrown on the ground and walked upon? And then he ends into this. He comes back into this.

You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. And he says, neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. What's the purpose of lighting up a light if you're just going to hide it? Instead, they put it on a stand.

They put it way up in the air where everyone is given light, where the whole house is lit. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify the Father. Why do we do this? Because of our Father in heaven. So when you do good deeds, don't take selfies.

I mean, I'm not saying not to take selfies, but don't take a big old selfie and say, Look at me! Look how good I am! And you're doing it for that sole purpose, right? Yeah, look at me and hashtag I'm the good guy. Hashtag I got it going on.

Hashtag, you know, everybody pat me on the back, you know. I went and helped the old lady in the yard, you know, look at me. You know, it's not about that. Do things just because you should do it. And don't go out and make a big production about it.

The production happened on its own because Jesus is going to be glorifying you because you're glorifying him. And my only desire is to look to Jesus and earn Jesus' favor. Haters are going to hate. I've said that about ten times this morning. I don't know why haters going to hate is in my head.

But haters are going to hate. A lot of people are not going to like... Did my mic go out there for a second? Okay, because this is a recording, I'm going to say this again. Some people are not going to like what you're doing, not going to like what I'm doing.

You can cut that out, can't you? Can't you, Matt, or whatever. I know one of those guys works on the media back there. Okay, I'm just, something's wrong with me this morning. I don't know what it is.

Not enough coffee, maybe. So, when you serve with the right heart, that's really what it comes down to. We're serving with the right heart. It's not about you. Your gifts are not about you.

Your talents are not about you. It seems like it's about you. But it's really not. It's about him. You don't need to be seen.

You don't need to be acknowledged. You don't need to be repaid. You should be doing it with that attitude. That it's not about what I'm going to get out of it. Last week, I talked a little bit about, like, people come to church sometimes because they want to get, they want to, they're working out a business deal or a relationship or network something.

And that shouldn't be our intention. Yeah, there's good things that come out of being in a Christ-filled community. You know, we help each other and we build each other up. And when we start businesses, yeah, we want people to flourish in our church. Right?

We want people to be helped and we do that. But that's not why we come here. We come here to glorify Jesus Christ. We come for him alone. We do for him alone.

It's not just about action. It's about attitude. It's about how our attitudes are working. It's not just about what we're doing. Serving is not what we do.

It's who we are. It should be who we are. I heard another story from a pastor that was talking about when they were starting their church, they got into a little fender bender car accident or something. You know, just a little bump. And the police came and the report said that everything was good and there was no dents, there's no scratches or anything like that.

They were on their way, but they exchanged information. And then the person in the other car called them up and says, hey, we've got about $700 worth of damage here and we need you to fix it. His first response would have been, absolutely not. I saw that. The police even reported that.

Whatever. They were a poor family with quite a few kids starting a church and didn't have anything. But instead of reacting the way they should have, they reacted with, I'm going to pay that. And they paid it out to that person. They were kind to them.

They loved them. They said, let's take care of that for them. It's a huge sacrifice. Same story. A few years later, the guy comes up to them and says, I remember, or the daughter of the guy that they hit came up to the pastor and said, you know, back when that event happened and you were so loving to our family, you did such a great job, you know, just poured out and just gave us the money and helped us out.

Well, we ended up coming to your church because of that. Now, not only am I, my whole family saved, I'm saved as well because of your church. Amazing, amazing, amazing stories. Wow. You just, you don't have to be seen.

It's not about being seen. It's about the other person. It's about what God's doing. It's not the action. It's the attitude.

And if you want your, your kids, let me just say this about your kids. Because we're a family church. We, every, every level, every generation, we pour into our kids. And if you want your kids to be passionate about serving Jesus, you need to model that. You need to model service.

You need to model it. And it's not in some religious way. Hey, you need to be at church. You need to do this. You need to do that.

You need to not speak about it, but actually do it. Model it. Do it. Let them watch you. Enjoy it.

If they see you enjoying serving God, they're going to serve God. If you bring them with you and get them involved in what you're doing, they are going to enjoy it. You want them to love church so much. They want to see you love church so much. They want to see you serve.

They're going to start serving. And then they're going to start participating. And they're just going to start getting involved. And then you're going to have to ground them from church because they want to be at church so much. You know?

Because you're pouring into them. It's a family effort. It's a ministry effort. My kids and I, we do everything together. When I go out and visit with people sometimes, I'll bring Max with me because I want him to be a part of my life while I'm ministering.

I don't put them to the side. You know, we're a young church. We don't have all the great, you know, teenage programs and stuff like that. And here's kind of what I say to that. I say, you know, when are we getting a teen program here?

I said, or a teen ministry here. And I'm like, yeah, it's coming. It's coming. We care about our teens and we're forming small groups for our teens outside the church. We don't have a full teen program here with a separate service and worship band and all that kind of stuff.

We don't have that yet. But I can tell you this. Teens love to get involved. They want to be a part of something that's happening. And our church invites that in.

And when you're modeling that and you're bringing them in and you're letting them take over. And we don't have, I don't know, we have a lot of 20-somethings on the back board over here. And I have to listen to them because I don't know all this new technology stuff. I'm real ignorant of it. And they'll straight up tell me when I have an idea.

I say, that's a horrible idea. But that's so cool. It could do. No, no, that's a bad idea. Yeah.

Yeah. I see you raising your hand back there. I know exactly who you are. I'm not going to call you out. But they do that a lot.

That's a horrible idea. I don't like that. You need to do this. And I have to listen to them because they like being, they want to do this. They want to be a part of this.

They want to be a part of changing people's lives. And when we all... Come together and change people's lives together. We do it. We do it together, which leads me to my next point.

Get your kids involved. That's that's the point. That was the sub point I wanted to make there. And the third point is know that feet washers know they do infinitely more in a team. Infinitely more in a team.

We can't be Long Ranger Christians. We can't wander the world and wonder. And I'm a surfer, so I understand the whole concept of getting out in the water and letting nature, you know, getting along with God and letting nature speak to you. I love the outdoors camping. I'm a I would I could just live outside.

I just would love to go out there and get smelly and grow my beard out and just kind of be John the Baptist and do my thing. You know, I would love it. It would be awesome. But God didn't call us to do that. God didn't call us just to go out.

Yeah, there's times we have to get away with God alone and be with him quiet times. I'm not saying that. But we can't do the work that God called us to do apart. We have to do it together. We have to do it as a church.

We have to do it as a team. We have to do it as a family. We do it together. That's why we we do life together. That's that's why that's why we need to get involved.

And my greatest joy in life. My greatest joy in life is having the opportunity to serve you. To serve you. To serve Salt Church. To serve the people here.

And it's hard at times. It really is. It's hard. It requires a lot of hours, a lot of time. To be honest with you, I probably spend 70 hours a week sometime just working and putting things together, meeting with people, going to things just to teach me how to do church.

You know, us pastors, we're always always learning. How do how do I best disciple people? How do I best, you know, offer an opportunity to connect with opportunities in the community? How are we going to do this thing, this thing that we grew grassroots? You know, how is it going to make a dynamic impact on this community?

It takes a lot of work. Sometimes my health suffers. Sometimes, you know, it's sometimes I question, honestly, was this the right choice? Is this the right choice? Is this is this what what I'm supposed to do?

But God always comes back and pours into me. I would have it no other way. I think about not doing it and I can't think of doing anything else. I have to do this because it's my gift. It's my love.

It's my heart. And you have that. And guess what? You have things that I don't have and I have things that you don't have. And together we can make a difference in this community.

We can make a difference in this world. That's why Jesus set the church up the way it is. Jesus brought the church together. He said, upon this rock, I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail. What does that mean?

It means that based on this gathering of people that will be gathered around my name, I will make a great impact in this world. I will start a movement, that movement that will not end. It's still a powerhouse movement that even is going to stay. We are a result of the movement. We are a result of the thing that happened on that hillside.

When Jesus said, I upon this rock, Peter, I will build my church. We do it as a team. And if you aren't using your gift somewhere in the local church, you are robbing yourself of blessings. You are robbing yourself of blessings in yourself and in someone else's life. So I want to challenge you.

Get involved in the local church. I'm not saying salt church. I say if you have another church that you call your home church and you're just visiting today, or you're just trying to say, you're like, this isn't for me. You know, the pastor's kind of too goofy for me, so I have to, you know, go somewhere. I get that, you know, that's okay.

But get involved somewhere. The greatest blessing you're going to get out of life is being, is using your gifts for the glory of God. And if you spend your days doing things for yourself, you will be empty the rest of your life. You will be unfulfilled the rest of your life. If you invest in others, you will be great because the least is the greatest, the least.