Serve God

You know, English can be a funny language. You guys have probably figured that out. You know, I sometimes I tell people, you know, that I'm mostly fluent in English. Because I mess it up sometimes I say silly stuff sometimes, but it can be a funny, funny language. Because sometimes words that mean something end up changing their meaning, even though the word hasn't changed, right. I, I'm not gonna give you a ton of examples of that. But for instance, if I were to say that someone were the goat, there'd be a whole host of people in here that would have different interpretations of what I just said. For some of you, you would be thinking to yourself then he must be referring to someone who was the reason that something bad happened. They struck out to end the game, they were the goat. They missed the field goal at the end of the game, they were the goat. Or whatever, right. Like that's, we kind of think in some of those terms. Or in the story, someone was the goat in the story. They weren't the hero, they were the goat. But for most of us, probably at this point, if you heard me say that someone was the goat, you would understand that to mean that they were the greatest of all time, right. Because the same word used has actually changed its meaning, somewhat, over time. Now, it's interesting because our culture is infatuated with greatness. This is what our culture is attracted to, it's what we talk about, we're infatuated with greatness. And that's why the acronym was actually formulated in the first place. G-O-A-T, greatest of all time. Because it gives us an opportunity or an excuse to argue about who the greatest of all time in a variety of different disciplines are. Now, most of the time we apply it to sports, right. And it's, there's some that are pretty easy. There's others that are maybe debatable as to who the goat is, right. But like in gymnastics, it's Simone Biles, she's the greatest of all time. In hockey, it's Wayne Gretzky, he's the greatest of all time, right. You've got all of these that are somewhat. In golf, it's either Tiger Woods or Jack Nicholas, one of those is the greatest of all time. I'm not a hundred percent sure. In tennis, it's Serena Williams, she's the greatest of all time. There's a whole bunch more we can name in soccer, right. I don't know much about it, but Messi is the greatest of all time. Some would argue with that, you shouldn't. In basketball, it's Michael Jordan, he's the greatest of all time. Some of you would say, LeBron, you're wrong, it's Michael Jordan. He's the greatest of all time, right. But people take this argument about sports of being the greatest of all time, and they'll transfer that into like the business world. And people might argue, is it Jeff Bezos the founder of Amazon, or is it Mark Zuckerberg or is it Elon Musk? Which one of them is the greatest business person of all time? Maybe it's somebody else. Or you could make the argument in music or in art or really anything else that you wanted to put your hand to or your mind to, you could argue this point of who the greatest of all time is. But here's a question for us today. What is greatness anyway? Like, what exactly is greatness? You see, that's what I think is interesting because when we look at the idea of greatness, we find another interesting thing about the English language, and it's this, is that sometimes we take the definition of something else and apply it to the definition of the word that we're talking about. For instance, when we in our culture are having these arguments over who the greatest of all time is, and we're talking about greatness, really what we're talking about is success or accomplishment. You see, what we've done is we've taken the idea of success and accomplishment, and we said that that is now the definition of what greatness actually is. But if we were to look at the idea of greatness through the eyes of God, it may take on a different definition. You see in God's eyes, I think that someone could be successful in the eyes of the world and yet not be great in the eyes of God. I think someone could be great in the eyes of God and not be successful in the eyes of the world. I think that someone could be great in the eyes of God and successful in the eyes of the world. I think someone could not be great in the eyes of God and not be successful in the eyes of the world. You see how this goes? When we talk about the idea of greatness, there's a word that's not often associated with the idea of greatness, and that's the word service. It's not often associated with the idea of greatness, because greatness now means success, achievement, attainment, accomplishment. And usually that success is self-motivated or self-interested. If you use the search engine, which I've done, to look up just this phrase, "How to be great?" What you'll find is you'll find a whole bunch of entries that are 10 tips or eight rules or 23 steps. Those literally were because I looked them up in a search engine. And what most of those rules or tips or steps are about, is about how you can successfully attain certain things. Now, don't get me wrong, in some of these lists, there's probably a lot of good disciplines that we could embrace that could actually make our work better in terms of some of the things that we're doing, maybe even make our life a a bit better as well. But it's interesting because almost all of them are about attainment and about success. That's really, really important to the culture that we live in. Attainment and success and achievement is really, really important. It's why you've got parents all the time with their young kids, bragging to everyone else how quickly their kid walked or how quickly their kid talked, or how quickly their kid read their first word, or how advanced they are in school, or how advanced they are in this or whatever. Why? Because achievement and attainment and success is really important in the culture that we live in. But you know what? We're not the only culture that's ever been, and we're not the only culture that this has ever been important to. It's been important to a lot of people at a lot of times. In fact, even if you were to go back a couple of thousand years into the time of the Bible, when the Bible was actually written, you would find that there were cultures then that were really hung up on the idea of achievement and success and greatness and all of those things, and kind of the way that they identified it. For instance, if I took you back to the town of Corinth, right, which we're gonna be looking at in just a minute, one of Paul's letters to Corinth, and we're gonna be in chapter 15 in just a moment. If I were to take you to the city of Corinth, what you would find out is it was a city of great wealth. It was a city of great prestige. It was a city of great influence. It was a city of great power. It was a city of great geographic importance because of where it was on a water trade way. So Corinth had its own set of values. If you could just imagine for just a moment that Corinth had Rome's wealth, they were part of the Roman Empire, they had Rome's wealth and Rome's power and had Greece's philosophy and sophistry. This was an interesting combination in Corinth, if you ask me. And what Paul does is he writes to a church that has been birthed in a place like this, that is after success and achievement and fame and fortune and wealth. And he writes to this church and writes about all sorts of things in the first 15 chapters, basically also trying to remind them that self-interest and self glory is not really the way of God's life and not really the way of greatness. And then he gives this summary statement at the very end of chapter number 15, and this summary statement is straightforward. And here's what Paul says. He says, "Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, "stand firm, let nothing move you. "Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord "because you know that your labor in the Lord "is not in vain." You see, maybe if I were talking about this in the context of greatness, I would summarize this by simply saying that greatness is serving God. This is what greatness actually is. We are consumed with achievement and consumed with attainment and consumed with an idea of success that maybe God's not so consumed with. What God is telling us and showing us is that greatness is serving God. Now, this verse specifically is not talking about greatness. But what Paul is doing in summarizing, not just what he wrote in chapter 15, but I think what he's been writing throughout the entire letter, is that he is cooperating and building upon the writers of scripture who have been telling us all along that really where greatness comes from is serving God, who is the great one? If you were to look in the Old Testament, and we're not gonna take the time to survey the entirety of the New Testament, but over and over and over and over again, what you have in the New Testament are the writers of scripture calling us to serve the true in living God and to put away the idols that are meant to serve our own purposes. Over and over and over again, whether it is Moses or whether it is the prophets, they are all telling us to serve the true in living God because this is the way that God discerns greatness and to put away the idols of self glory and self-interest. This is the point of kind of one of the main themes of scripture itself. And in fact, Jesus stood on the shoulders of the prophets and and Moses and he began to talk about the same things. Jesus said, "You cannot serve God and mammon." You can't do these two things. There's only one way to life. There's only one way to greatness, and that is serving God. If you are serving anything other than God, you are serving something less than God, and it is not the way of greatness. Jesus said this, Moses said this, the prophets taught us this. And now Paul here at the end of 1 Corinthians 15, is standing on their shoulders and he's reinforcing this idea that really what greatness is is serving God. So maybe the question is this, why is it great to serve God? Why is it great to serve God? Let me offer you just a few things from this verse to be able to think about and and allow to minister to us. And we're gonna talk about how we can practically apply that. Here's the first reason. It's great to serve God, because what it does is it steadies us in this shifting world. What it does is it steadies us in this shifting world. Look at how the verse begins, "Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters stand firm." Then he goes on to say, "Let nothing move you" right. "Brothers and sisters, stand firm. "Let nothing move you." You see, the world that we live in and the world that they lived in screams for us to be self-centered, to be self-focused, to be self-interested. Now, our desire, by the way, for greatness is not a problem. A desire for greatness, I don't think, is the problem. The problem is the corruption of that desire because the corruption of that desire has been toxified by the pride in our own lives. And when pride gets involved in our desires, they become for self glory and self-interest. And they are self formulated. This is not the pathway to greatness. You see, Corinth was wealthy. Corinth had influence. Corinth was probably, listen to this, Corinth was probably tempted, the church at Corinth, tempted to be moved by wealth and power and fame. And Paul says to them, "Stand firm, let nothing move you." You see what happens, friends, is that we get entranced by the siren song of self-interest and self glory. What we want is we want to be known, we want to be accepted, we want to be admired. We want to be praised maybe for what we've done. We want to be adored. And so what do we do as a result? We chase likes. We chase impressions. We chase acceptance like it's a drug. But friends, brothers and sisters, all of that can change in a moment because the world is always shifting. It's moving. It's unsteady. The world that we live in, anybody who's lived a minute or two, you know how unsteady the world is that we live in, don't you? You know how everything is constantly shifting and moving. Why? Because the world is not anchored to God. The narrative of the world that we live in, it's not anchored to God. And so it's constantly shifting and moving. And what happens is if we serve self in the midst of this world, do you know what happens to us? We get seasick. We're constantly moving and floating and not knowing where life is and what we're supposed to do because everything changes so quickly. By the way, the followers of today are the critics of tomorrow. It changes like that. The empire that you built can crumble in a day. This is just the nature of the world that we live in. But when we serve God, it steadies us in a shifting world because now our perspective is not so shortsighted and our perspective is not so centered on ourselves. Our perspective is an eternal one. And we realize that in this shaky world, we're playing the long game. We're not just here for these shaky moments. We're playing the long game. And when we serve God, we have an eternal perspective. You see, what we realize is we realize that it is God who is holding all things together. It is God who is sovereign over the course and the consummation of history. It is God himself who is the immovable foundation and who is the creator and the sustainer of everything that is. And when we serve him, our lives are not so shaky. Maybe you've had a really shaky last couple of months. Maybe you've had a real shaky last couple of years. I wanna remind you something, It's great to serve God. Because when you do, it steadies you in a shifting world because you are anchored to the immovable, which is God himself. You are anchored to the foundation which will never be shaken. And do you know what's interesting about this is that people who are immovable in a shaky world, they're the people that others want to cling to when the world is shaking. What an opportunity for us. Paul says to the church at Corinth, "Stand firm, let nothing move you." Even though you've got all of these things that are pulling for you, right, fame and wealth and power and every other lust that can be from the the heartbeat of self-interest and self glory, they can all be there and they're all looking to move you. And Paul says, "Let nothing move you. "Stand firm, let nothing move you." That's why it's great to serve God 'cause it steadies us in a really, really shifty and shaky world. But secondly, it's great to serve God because we get to join God in his work. We get to join him in his work. This is why it is a great thing to be able to serve God. In fact, notice what Paul says, the latter part of the verse, "Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord "because you know that your labor in the Lord "is not in vain." Now, just pause there for just a second and listen to what Paul has said. "Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord "because you know that your labor in the Lord "is not in vain." Now, the reason that I point this out to us is because those two phrases, "Work of the Lord" and, "Labor in the Lord" whatever else they mean, here's what I can tell you, they're not just generic. This isn't just a catchall phrase that's being used. Paul is actually bookending an idea of how he worked as an apostle and how we are supposed to work as the people of God. In fact, earlier in the text in 1 Corinthians 15, listen to his words in verse number 10, it says, "But by the grace of God, I am what I am. "And his grace to me was not without effect. "No." Watch this, "I worked harder than all of them." He's talking about the apostles, "Yet, not I, but the grace of God that was with me." You see in the first part of the chapter, Paul is actually talking about his apostolic work. And now at the end of the chapter, he's coming back to that same thought. And he's bookending that thought because he's reminding us that we are to participate and they were to participate in the apostolic work that God had called him to. In other words, Paul was saying, "Hey, I'm not just a professional out here "doing everyone's job. "This is our job. "This is all of our job." And what was the apostolic work that Paul was engaged in? It's pretty simple. Extending the gospel and building up the church. This was the apostolic work to which Paul was called, extending the gospel and building up the church. But Paul wasn't called to do that by himself. And he's writing to the church and he's saying, "Always, you folks, all of you church folk there in Corinth, "give yourself fully to the work of the Lord." This doesn't just talk about our job, this is talking about the work of the Lord. The same work that Paul was referring to in his apostolic witness, that we are to be about extending the gospel and building up the church. This is everybody's job. In fact, I know this, that in the next chapter, Paul reinforces this idea again. And in 1 Corinthians 16, listen to what he says, "You know that the household of Stefanas "were the first converts in Achaia. "And they have devoted themselves "to the service of the Lord's people. "I urge you, brothers and sisters, to submit to such people "and to everyone who joins in." Watch, "The work and labors at it." Who's that? Everybody. Was Stefanas an apostle? Nope, he was a convert. He was part of the church. How about the people he was hanging out with, were they apostles? Nope. Who were they? Church members. And what was their job? To be a part of the work and labor of the Lord, that was their job. You see why it's great to be able to serve the Lord is because here's what we get, we get to join God in his work. You see, some of us have wrongly thought because maybe we've had a wrong idea. And man, I wish I was an apostle, I'd put that on my business card, I'd hand it out to people. How you doing? Jerry, you can call me Apostle Jerry. It's capital A, right. This is kind of the idea sometimes that we had, I really wish that I had a name and I really wish that I had a title and I really wish that I had, yeah. You know and that's kind of how we're wired. When what Paul is saying to the church of Corinth is, "Yeah, God's called me and I've worked hard, "but it's the grace of God that's in me. "And you know my background, by the way." And Paul talks about that in other ways, right. Paul kind of says, on one hand, "I'm not deserving to even be an apostle, "like you know that and I know that. "But on the other hand, "I've worked harder than the other apostles "by the grace of God." But he's saying, "It's not just about me, it's about us." So he's saying to them, "Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord. "Because you know that your labor in the Lord "is not in vain." It's not just the apostles. It's all of our responsibility to extend the gospel and to build up the church. That's why it's great to serve God because we get to join him in what he's doing. But thirdly, what I think Paul suggests here and he says, "It's great to serve God "because our labor is not in vain." Our labor's not in vain. Listen to what he says there in the end of the verse. He says, "Because you know, "you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain." Now, anybody who has served God for any period of time, whether that's whatever it may be, maybe you've served God through, you know, visiting shut-ins and ministering to them because they couldn't get out. Or maybe your hospital visitation or maybe you served in discipling, you know, children or students or young adults or whatever it may be. There could be a myriad, a host of activities that you have engaged in, in serving God. And anybody who served God for any period of time, it's possible that you've gotten discouraged while doing it. It's possible. 'Cause you've thought to yourself, "Man, I'm not seeing the results "that I thought that I should see. "I'm not having the success that I feel like I should have." Or, it's been tough like you, you said yes to what the Lord led you to do and it's been a little bit of a challenge, it's been a little difficult. And you feel like, "Man, I don't know. "Is it worth it?" Paul says, "You know that your labor in the Lord "is not in vain." Why could Paul say such a thing? Because of what he said in chapter 15. This is why Paul could say that your labor is not in vain. Let me give you three reasons why it's not in vain. Here's the first, because Jesus rose from the dead. That's why your labor's not in vain. 

Anybody who served God for any period of time, it's possible that you've gotten discouraged while doing it. It's possible. 'Cause you've thought to yourself, "Man, I'm not seeing the results "that I thought that I should see. "I'm not having the success that I feel like I should have." Or, it's been tough like you said yes to what the Lord led you to do and it's been a little bit of a challenge, it's been a little difficult. And you feel like, "Man, I don't know. "Is it worth it? Paul says, "You know that your labor in the Lord "is not in vain." Why could Paul say such a thing? Because of what he said in chapter 15. This is why Paul could say that your labor is not in vain. Let me give you three reasons why it's not in vain. Here's the first, because Jesus rose from the dead. That's why your labor's not in vain. Listen to what Paul says in the very beginning of the chapter. He says, "For what I received, I passed on to you "as of first importance, "that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures "that he was buried and that he was raised on the third day "according to the scriptures. "And that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve." And then a little bit later on in verse 14, he says, "And if Christ has not been raised, "our preaching is useless and so is your faith. "More than that, we are then found "to be false witnesses about God, "for we've testified about God, "that he raised Christ from the dead. "But he did not raise him, "if in fact, the dead are not raised. "For if the dead are not raised, "then Christ has not been raised either. "And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile, "you're still in your sins. "Then those also "who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. "If only for this life we have hope in Christ, "we are of all people most to be pitied. "But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead. "The first fruits of those who have fallen asleep." Here's why, here's why your labor is never in vain in the Lord, when you are working toward extending the gospel, when you are working toward building up the church. Your labor's not in vain because Jesus has risen from the dead. And that means that there's gonna be a resurrection of people. And that means that this life is not all that there is. And what you see in your labor is not all there is. It can extend way beyond what you have seen and what you have done. Because Jesus has risen from the dead. Your labor's not in vain. You know why else it's not in vain? Because Jesus is coming again. This is what Paul tells us in this chapter as well. Listen to what verse number 21-24 says, "For since death came through a man, "the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. "For as in Adam all die. "So in Christ, all will be made alive. "But each in turn, Christ the first fruits, "then when he comes, those who belong to him. "Then the end will come "when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father, "after he is destroyed, all dominion, authority and power." You see, here's why your labor's not in vain, because Jesus is coming again. And by the way, when he comes again, he will bring his reward with him. That you who have been faithful in serving God will find out just how great that life actually is. Because he's going to return and his reward is going to be with him. Your labor's not in vain because Jesus has gotten up from the dead and shown us that there's more to this life, that this isn't it and we can't see everything that's happening, there's going to be more. And secondly, because Jesus, the one who raised from the dead, he's coming back and he's gonna reward his people who have served him faithfully. Thirdly, though, you ready for more? Our labor's not in vain, simply because Jesus is worth it. He's just worth it. Listen, in fact, to the verse prior to verse 58, it says this, "But thanks be to God. "He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." You know what that says? Jesus is the victor. He is the victor over sin. He is the victor over death. He is the victor over the enemy. He is the victor over sickness and depression and disease. Jesus is the victor. And Jesus himself is gloriously worthy. Kings will bow, every knee will bow, every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God, the Father. Jesus in and of himself, in very essence, God with skin on, who died for our sin and rose from the grave. He's worthy. He's worthy. Your labor will never be in vain in serving him simply because he is worthy of it. Greatness, friends is serving God. That's what greatness is, serving God. So lemme ask you something, have you confused greatness and success? It's a possibility in the culture that we live in, that that is the case. That what you've done is you've allowed the life of your, your very life and the energy of your life to be expended in the wrong direction. And maybe what's happened to you is you've allowed your world to shift you, to move you, instead of serving God who steadies us in this shifting world. But let me ask you this, maybe more pointedly, more specifically, are you actually serving God? You see, just your existence doesn't mean you're serving God. This is an active term. Paul says it's the work of the Lord and requires labor in the Lord. Like, that you're actually doing something to serve God. That in some way you are engaged in extending the gospel and building up the church. See, some of us think that just because we exist, we're serving God. But that's an active term. You're doing something, you're laboring in something. Some of us think, "Well, you know, I show up once a week "and worship with the body of Christ." Listen carefully, if we're being honest, the average person shows up once a month, not once a week. Some of you're like, "He's onto me." Yeah, I'm onto you. Like we just know this because of some of the studies that we have seen and been a part of nationally. That's not it. Gather to worship, and he is worthy of it, right. But he's called us to actively be participating in extending the gospel and in building up the church. Can you do that for through your work? Sure. Yeah, you can do your work as unto the glory of God, which you should. Everything that we do should be done to the glory of God. And then through that, have opportunity somehow to be able to extend the gospel and somehow to be able to build up the church. Maybe it's through the resources that God provides to you that you can utilize those resources as a stewardship to say, "I want my resources to go toward extending the gospel "and I want my resources to go "toward helping build up the church." Or maybe it's discipling somebody in your world that you, you're like, "I don't know. "I mean, am I qualified to disciple somebody?" Listen, if you're a step ahead, that's all you need. Just be one step further than the person that you're working with so that you can bring them along that step. Just figuring out a way to pour into and bless the body of Christ. Or maybe it's sharing your faith and extending the gospel that way. Maybe it's a friend or a family member or a coworker or somebody you go to school with, whatever it looks like. How are you actually serving God actively? You know, some of us, if we just, we were talking about today at all of our campuses about community groups. If you just got into a community group, that's an aspect of serving God. Because here's what you're doing. You're helping in the process of building the body of Christ. You're helping in the process of discipling one another for the glory of God so that we can be people who live lives on mission. And by the way, if you got engaged in serving, you would find a community real fast. It's happened a lot of times. In fact, it's happened pretty recently with a group of people in our church. And I want you to take a quick look at their story.

- Hi, I am Daniel.

- Hi, I'm Alexa.

- Hi, I'm Zach.

- Hi, I am Michelle.

- Hi, I'm Angela.

- And I'm Alex.

- We all met at various serving opportunities through The Chapel, whether it was Serve Day in 2022 or Winter Fest in 2022. 2022 was just our year. And we've really been friends going into 2023. And it hasn't ended yet, so.

- Yeah.

- And it's not gonna change.

- It's not.

- And we kind of all just decided to serve individually, right, we didn't really know anybody else that was going.

- I remember specifically like crying to my mom and sister, like I really cannot like find community, like I'm just not connected. But I was like, I'm gonna go ahead and I'm gonna choose to serve.

- Like we had all for a while had been praying, like, God, would you give us friends who we can do life with? Would you give us friends that we can, you know, that I can serve with and do things together? And then we said, okay, hey, let's go serve, didn't know anyone, show up, and then boom, God says, "Here's the answer to your prayer."

- So now we all go to 20s and 30s and now like we all go to, I think, a fair amount of the events that The Chapel hosts, we try to serve at.

- I think at this point it's just kind of like a give it, it almost feels that way. It's just like, "Oh, hey, we need help at this event." Okay, we're there. Or, "We need help at." The church picnic for example. Like, yep, we're there.

- Absolutely. We all just kind of know that we like to do it. We know that we like to do it together. We know that we're available to help and we know that we have that heart for what really serving is, right, it's not the obligation, it's not just show up and serve, but it's building community throughout serving.

- And more you serve, like, the more you want to serve. Also, I found, because the beginning I was like, hmm, but the more I've served, the more I want to serve.

- When you're with people who want to serve, you want to serve. And then when you're with people who you're really close with and really good friends with and they're like, "Hey, I'm gonna serve. "Would you like to join me?" You want to do it. It's about the comradery in the community. So you get to invest in the group, and you also get to invest in the kingdom. There's a little bit of both in that.

- Most recently we did 8 Days of Hope together. And for me, I'm not gonna lie, it was a struggle for me to bring myself to do that because, you know, I am a trauma nurse and in my thoughts, I was like, I serve the Buffalo area every week, right. But my community was going, so I went. And at that event, I really learned the difference between doing something out of obligation and doing something with the intention of loving your neighbors. And I think that's really the same way with our community, right. Like sometimes we're all tired and we don't always wanna hang out, but you know, when one of us is having a rough day, it's like, listen, we gotta be there for that person because we're gonna be intentional about loving them and making it known to them that we are here to do this with them.

- Looking back, every time we served together or every time we got together, each time, like, we were able to draw out more of each other's gifts and just encourage each other, build each other up. It's so beautiful to just do that in a group setting. When you just can't do that alone, something you can't get by yourself.

- I came from a place of hurt and really kind of, you know, I know I want to go to church, I wanna hear the word, close my Bible and then leave. And I've seen how God has changed my heart through others.

- Yeah.

- Towards community now and serving even because, you know, like in serving, we're worshiping God, right, we're ushering in the presence of God so that we see it, but ultimately others see it too.

- Every person in this group put their yes on the table. And then when the call came, answered it, we would've never met if it hadn't happened.

- It's a great story of people that are just in our church and this is how God has brought them together and they're investing in serving God through the church, and they're also investing in serving one another and building up the church so that they can extend the gospel as well. And if you're not in a community group, then on all of our campuses, when you leave today, you're gonna find people that are out there and tables and balloons and other kind of stuff, make sure that you check in and get engaged and get involved. But I've got another way that you can serve God, it's called Serve Day. Wow, amazing, right? Even creative on the name, Serve Day. In fact, what's interesting is that all of our campuses are doing some unique things at each place. Our brothers and sisters at Lockport, even though they're gonna be engaged in a number of different things. Last year there was a fire at a school there in Lockport, and our church got involved in serving them, and it opened a door so that now on Serve Day, they're gonna be able to be engaged in that particular school, serving them and demonstrating the beauty of the gospel among them. What an incredible opportunity for them. In Niagara Falls, they're also gonna be engaged in a school, but they're gonna do something specific because the Department of Social Services and our Niagara Falls Campus were able to connect and they said, we've got foster parents that we need to help care for. And so at our Niagara Falls Campus, they're gonna be taking care of foster parents through giving them car care, working through stuff and helping them with stuff that's related to just practical kinds of needs and building relationships in that context. At our Cheektowaga Campus, among all the other projects that they're gonna be involved in, they're gonna be involved with senior adults who don't have a lot of people maybe in their lives checking in with them. And they're gonna be doing some projects, both indoor and outdoor, kinda small projects for some senior adults that have been identified there. And also bringing by care packages to begin relationship with them, to show them the love and the grace of Jesus Christ. And here at Crosspoint, as we've been talking with the variety of folks that are here and the school districts saying that they were overwhelmed with some of the refugees that are in Amherst and not having an ability to figure out how they can help in the care for them, we're gonna try a Day of Dignity among many other projects that we're gonna be involved in through Crosspoint, that's gonna be helping them. We're gonna be helping them, you know, giving haircuts, helping with nail care for some of the ladies that need that, vision care, all kinds of stuff that we're gonna be involved in, photos for the family, dinner for them afterwards. Like, this is what we're gonna be engaged in. So let me just ask you, are you serving the Lord? And if you're not, what are you gonna do about that? Because greatness, greatness is serving God. He sees it all. Even if you've been discouraged sometimes when you've served God. Look let me, he sees you, he knows what you're doing. And when you serve him, your labor is not in vain. And this is an opportunity to do that. And I hope that you will. Serve Day is a great opportunity to be able to do that. And I hope that you'll register right away so that we know that you're coming. But just know this, that when we serve Jesus, we're serving the greatest of all time. Nobody's arguing that he's the goat. The lamb is the goat. We're serving the greatest of all time. And you know what we find out when we do that? The greatest of all time is also a servant, who laid his life down for the sins of the world so that he could bring you and I to the Father through his death on a cross and his resurrection from the grave. He's worth it. Let's make sure that we are serving God because that's what greatness is. Let's bow our heads together for prayer. We'll be dismissed in just a moment. But before we do, if you're here and you have yet to entrust your life to Jesus, then in a moment there'll be some folks that'll be right down front down here. And if your need is to know Christ, to have your sins forgiven, your life made new, and to be put on the path of greatness, not greatness as the world defines it, but greatness as God defines it. And that's really the only definition that matters, then I hope that you'll take one of these men or women that'll be down here by the hand, and you'll say to them, "I need to surrender my life to Jesus." They'd love to take a few moments to pray with you and pray for you. To know what it means to put your faith in Jesus for what he's done, in dying for your sin, and rising from the grave so that you could be reconciled to God. You can't do that on your own, you can't earn your way there, you can't do a number of works that somehow tie God's arms behind his back and say, "Oh God, you now have to do the following." That's not how this goes. So I wanna encourage you, if that's your need, that you will make your way down here and take one of these men or women by the hand so that they can talk to you about what it means to know and love and serve Jesus. Or maybe you just need somebody to pray with you because maybe you've been shifting, you've been moving, and instead you wanna be steadied on what it really looks like to pursue God and to pursue greatness. Let them take a moment to encourage you and pray with you. Or maybe it is, you need to take an action step and you need to walk out of the doors and you need to find a small group, a community group that you can get plugged into so that you can be a part of serving God in some way, so that you can be a part of discipling other people and being discipled, so that you can be building up the body of Christ. Whatever it is that God's asking you to do, I pray you listen to his spirit. Father, would you please do your good pleasure among your people for your glory. I ask in Jesus' name. Amen.