SPEAKER_00 0:26

Welcome to the Monday Morning Men podcast. Our goal here is to bridge the gap between your Sunday morning service or your Sunday morning message and your Monday morning real life. That's right. Uh we are just it's real life right now, too, dude. It is real life right now. Yeah. We're just two dudes who love Jesus and love his word and want to apply it in a practical way each week and want to help you to do the same. So with that, I think we got a great message

Why Serving Actually Matters

SPEAKER_00 0:53

for this morning. Thomas has got me here real early. Always. And I am I'm here for it. But um today we're talking about serving.

SPEAKER_01 1:05

Yeah, it's it sounds like a simple topic. I mean, we're coming off of the importance of theology and doctrine, and you're like, oh my goodness, now I'm gonna be serving. But remember, if you've listened to that episode, we know who God is. We're gonna find out he's a servant, right? Servant of all. He is the servant of all. And then we see that this is a doctrine that we need to apply to our life, right? We we kind of attribute a lot of those things as to knowledge. No, it's application. So yeah, I'm excited for this. Sounds simple, but hopefully it's super motivating and kicks us in the butt a little bit. Yeah, let's get to it. Uh, I think that when I think about serving, that one of the thoughts

The Competitive Nature of Men

SPEAKER_01 1:42

comes to mind, we'll get into Mark chapter nine. Like if you're listening to this and you have a Bible, you're welcome to turn there. But there is this inner man that is super competitive. Um, I am not competitive on some things, and I've learned that when men say that they're not competitive, this is just the theory. Uh, you're not competitive in it, it's because you're bad at it. Or you don't think you can win. Because when people go, Are you competitive? I'm like, no. And then I'm like, it's because you're gonna win. It said like somebody who is competitive. Exactly. Exactly. I'm not competitive. I'm bowing out early. Exactly. It's like, you know, there are certain games and I'm super competitive with my wife, and then there are things that in their board games she wins that I'm just I don't really care. Yeah. Because I'm not gonna win. But there is this desire, right, to be the best athlete, to be the best at your business or your job, the smartest person, the strongest. We always we all want to be the best. Um, most of them, unfortunately, are superficial, and that is problematic. Most of those are birthed in pride, selfish ambition, which we know there's a huge uh, you know, problems, problems there. You're welcome to look up James 3:16 if you want to. Huge issues with that kind of mentality that that I want to nip, right? We're not supposed to do those things. We should want to do things though well. I I think that those things

“Doing It for God” vs Selfish Ambition

SPEAKER_01 3:02

kind of um be tactful here. A lot of the whole, whether it's your church, uh we want to do things well, they use that as an excuse to maybe invest a lot of money and stuff that probably shouldn't be. I've seen Christian entrepreneurs, I want to do things well. It's just an excuse to make more money, right? So you got to be really careful because that's Colossians 3:20, uh, three and twenty four. When we say we want to do everything well as unto the Lord, please make sure you're not abusing that scripture. I mean, private jet unto the Lord. Unto the Lord, exactly the best. Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 3:36

The wellest.

SPEAKER_01 3:37

And you're looking at somebody too that like this is not me just judging everybody else. This is a personal thing. I understand that. I say I'm doing it well, but I'm doing it well. But there's a part of me because I want everybody to know I can do it well. Have you seen the amount of sidewalks at your house? You're doing something well. I have so many sidewalks. We don't know where they lead, but they are they are everywhere. Um, and the best way I've kind of differentiated between the two, and this is super simple, that you can just challenge yourself right now, am I doing things well for God or for others? Ask yourself why. Why are you doing this thing? And not saying, well, I'm doing it to God. I'm saying check that inventory of your heart. Like if you want to be successful, you know, whatever, if you're at your workplace or your gym or whatever, why do I want to be successful? Right? If we're to do everything so that they glorify the God, you know, our God in heaven, is your success actually uh allowing you to do that? Or are you allowing yourself some freedom that is just ultimately self-fulfilling, selfish ambition? This will question really will challenge the status of your heart. I am telling everybody, ask yourself what is the goal or why? It's one of my huge passion, you know, passions that I'm kind of into right now. We should be asking ourselves

Can You Be the Greatest?

SPEAKER_01 4:47

that question every day about being a Christian. Why are we doing this? This will kind of set our posture right towards viewing God rightly, as we talked about earlier. Um, but there is a sense that we should want to be the greatest Christian ever. We should want to be the greatest in the kingdom. And if we're doing it in the right posture, it's not because I want to be better than you. It's because I have such an you know affection and or not affection, affection. Oh my gosh, affection for Jesus that I want to be like him, that I want to serve him with everything. It's not about beating other people, it's not about setting myself as better. If we have a true humility and a love for Jesus, why would we not want to pursue him and be the I told the kids last night, a super Christian, if you want to call it that, if you want it super simplistic, why would we not want to be that way? It should come from a place of gratefulness and love that we want to lay down our lives daily to walk more in the likeness of Jesus. You should want to be the best Christian ever. Scripture's for that, right? Like, but it's not again, check the posture of your heart. I put this just kind of as a quotation, so always as a disclaimer. Please remember everything in this podcast may be helpful, but it's only fruitful if you do it from the right heart disposition. If it's rooted in love and gratefulness and humility and kindness, everything that you applied is perfect, right? That's fruitful. But if you

Jesus Redefines Greatness (Mark 9)

SPEAKER_01 6:13

are doing it out of any sort of selfish ambition, we have a problem. But on that, let's check out Mark 9, 33 through 37. Again, we'll always say this. We give space to read the entirety of the scriptures. We're not just here to give our opinion, but to see what the scripture says. They, the disciples, and Jesus came to the Capernaum. And when he was in the house, he asked them, What were you arguing about on the road? I love this. Like, I do this as a dad. Like, you know what your kids are talking about, but you just want to hear what they have to say. But they kept quiet, just like my kids. When they know they're in the wrong, they shut up. They know. I love how they were arguing. He's right there, they think he doesn't know, and then they're just like, Well, we're not gonna talk about it. Because on the way they had argued about who was the greatest, and I love this part. Sitting down, Jesus is getting comfortable. Jesus called the 12 and said, Let's pause before he says this and we'll get into what he says. But I'll tell you what he doesn't say. He doesn't rebuke them for wanting to be the greatest. He doesn't correct that mentality, even though he probably knows their heart disposition's wrong, right? Jesus kind of kind of tongue in cheek tricks them, not in a deceitful way, but he tricks them into something. He says, Anyone who wants to be first must be the very last and the servant of all. He took a little child whom he placed among them, taking the child in his arm, and he said to them, which by the way, I just love that Jesus is dining with a family. And hopefully we're the family hosting Jesus, right? Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me. And whoever welcomes me does not welcome me, but the one who sent me. Jesus was like, You can be the best Christian, you be the super Christian, you want to be the greatest? It's achievable. Servant of all. Right? Out of all the things in scripture, be a servant of all. And on that, I just want to give a couple of quick thoughts on serving. So hopefully, I'm painting a picture of just how important this is to the heart of God. Remember, we are painting what God is saying about Himself, how He wants us to apply it, and now we're applying it hopefully Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. One, I mentioned this before. God didn't challenge them. Uh, God didn't stop them from wanting to be the best. He challenged their version of what it meant to be the best. This is really important. We obviously read in verse 35 anyone who wants to be the first shall be the last and the servant of all. God operates in a complete reversal of our metric system, of what we value, of what we think is important. Scripture always says that his ways are higher than our ways. So as you're processing this and thinking this, just remember as you're chasing success in whatever way, and I hope your business is successful. I hope your personal life is going well. I hope you're at the gym. Maybe you're listening to this at the gym. Go get it, right? Be healthy. But remember, right, what the value system of God is always. And this will help correct your heart and its right posture. Two, Jesus was the greatest servant of all. You can sit here and be like, well, this is a great little attribute that I'm gonna try to apply to my life. No, you don't understand. We are to walk like Jesus in everything. He was the servant of all. In fact, if we jump

Jesus: The Ultimate Servant

SPEAKER_01 9:18

one chapter over, Mark chapter 10, James and John, right? They've heard him, hey, he didn't rebuke us when he said we could be the greatest. Let's let's just ask him. We're gonna, we're gonna, we're gonna sit beside him. I mean, these guys are going at it. They were the, as scripture says, these were the sons of thunder. Zebedee was their dad. So probably runs in the bloodline here. And they're like, Sons of thunder, we're gonna be the greatest. But once again, Jesus challenges their viewpoint on greatness and success. Look at verse 41. And when the ter the ten heard about this, they became indignant with James and John. I just want to pause. I'm gonna pick this up. At this point, they've asked Jesus, hey, we want to sit beside you in heaven. And Jesus has this little test, you're gonna suffer. And then he, are you willing to suffer? They say yes, and then God still says, That's great. You're gonna suffer. Oh, by the way, I still can't guarantee this position. So James and John at that point. But there was something, there was some sort of involvement where the other ten were just mad for them asking, or seeming like Jesus appreciated their question. So they're upset at James and John. And Jesus called them together and says, All right, boys, let's get it in here. And he says this. He's repeating what he just repeated in the chapter before. You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them, not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be the first must be the slave of all. For even the son of man himself, he's talking about himself right here, did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many. We want to walk like Jesus, while we want to emulate the greatest one to do it of all. So good. Jesus is serving. We want to walk in those exact same steps he did, which means laying down our lives to love God and to love others. Three, your blessings or your talents, right? If you're listening to this and you're gifted with something, we all are to some degree, even if you're discovering it. I put in parentheses too, you could be an answer to prayer. This is a unique topic because your very identity, well, which should be found in Christ,

Your Gifts Are for Others

SPEAKER_01 11:39

but the identity of what makes you up, of what makes you know, Josh Swartz said, you know, who you are, the success of certain things in your life is for others, not for yourself. What a unique position to think about. This is 1 Peter 4, 10 and 11. Each of you should use whatever gift you've received to serve others as faithful stewards of God's grace and its various forms. If anyone speaks, they should do so as one who speaks the very words of God. If anyone serves, they should do so with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be glory and the power forever and ever. Amen. Your gifts are to be used for others. I always say, you want to prove that you love God? Let me see how you love others. You claim it, you should be able to show it because everything about who you are will allow you to love on others. God made you to actually be a blessing to others. Think about everything in your life, just even if you need to pause for a second, think about who you are, what makes you, you know, tick,

Story: Serving & Answered Prayer

SPEAKER_01 12:45

what makes you breathe, what are your talents, and think about how you can view that as a blessing for others. I want to just I'm gonna give a little space for a story. We need to probably incorporate a little bit in the stories. Oh, this is a lot of information sometimes. But I was probably 11 or 12. We lived out kind of in the country, and um my dad asked me to go rake the front yard. We had like an acre, like this is a ton of leaves. Like we had a blower, but I was 11. My dad's just like, go rake the front yard. So I'm raking the front yard. And and in that time, this is before I had no audio, there was no ability. It was just me and my thoughts. What a terrifying place for everybody to be. Yeah. But I was in there, but my dad always would encourage us to talk to the Lord. There was this sense of like when you're working, think, process, and my dad was just an excellent servant. My dad was always looking to serve others, and so I'm raking the front yard, and and across the yard was this little small, uh, not even a like a garage apartment. It was like a detached garage apartment. This lady lived there, and she was a single lady. She was old, but she was probably late 40s. She was a nurse, um, and she worked a lot of shifts, and we didn't see her a lot. And I looked over at her yard, and her yard is covered in leaves. I mean, just covered. And as I'm raking, I'm like, how is she gonna rake her leaves? Because she was a small lady, she was never home. So maybe she didn't care. And as I'm raking, and this just allows you when you guys are looking for opportunities to serve, if you just keep your eyes open, you'll find them. They're right there. And I immediately had this thought we should rake her leaves. So I go inside and I interrupt my dad. He was working on a sermon, which by the way, he was very patient with me, which I can just tell you right now as an adult. That that portion of the story should never be glossed over. A dad being interrupted into responding patience is a beautiful thing. Um, and he responded, he heard me out and he looked at me and he said, That is a great idea. I love it, and we're gonna do it. But here's what he said first. He said, First, we're gonna finish our job that I gave you. Right? You need to take care of your own house before you do serve. If there are things in your own personal life that need to be cleaned up, this is just a little attribute. This is not in my notes, this is not a scripture I'm gonna work to delve into, but just pause. If there's some things in your house that you need to be cleaned up first, you do that job first, right? You don't neglect your wife and your kids in order under the you know the guard of we're serving other people. Yeah. And he said, then when you're done, come get me, and we'll go rake her leaves. I finish up like four hours later, I go and get him. We go to rake her leaves. And at this point, I'm regretting it because I'm exhausted. I was like, I definitely should not be doing this. But we're raking her leaves. This lady pulls up in our uh in our house and she's choked up and she's teared up. And um and I just thought she was just so grateful that we were doing it. But little did I know what was coming out of her mouth would actually strengthen and grow my faith. And she she she thanked me for uh raking her leaves, and she goes, And do you know what happened today? And I was like, uh no, I don't. And she said, I was at work and I have a women's Bible study that is coming tonight. And I asked the Lord, if you can get me off early on my shift, I would love to go rake my leaves so that my yard doesn't look so bad.

SPEAKER_00 16:02

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 16:03

And she said, God did not answer that prayer. I did not get off my shift early. She goes, Because I did not know he had already answered that prayer by having you rake my leaves. Wow. So all of a sudden, when you serve people, you not only grow your faith, you grow theirs. Yeah. I mean, these are beautiful testaments. Like when your eyes are open, I was 11 years old, and this like story defines a lot of how I view things. Talk to your kids about serving, serve, and let the God actually uh move through you. One quick little um disclaimer and little caveat I just want to kind of put in there. Money versus serving. Uh you should give your money. That is a form of service. Hebrews 13, 16 says, and do not forget the good and to share with others,

Money vs Real Service

SPEAKER_01 16:45

right? Share your finances for such sacrifices, God is pleased. Um what you've been given, you definitely can share. I just kind of want to like just I have noticed your money is not an excuse for you to get out of physically serving. Because the reality is this, and I've noticed this, especially if God's blessed you with finances, hopefully you realize the importance of time, right? It's the one commodity we can't make up more, you know. It's you can earn more money, you can't earn more time. And so it's easy, especially if you're listening to this and you're financially successful, to be like, I'll throw money at it and think that you served. Sometimes, yes. Sometimes you know what you're doing is making your problem go away, or I'm checking off a box, but I'm really not sacrificing. I mean, think about this for with such sacrifices. Are you giving out of your excess and your abundance, or are you giving out of your poverty? That's Luke chapter 21. That's a whole nother conversation we'll get to one day. But you need to be giving something that requires some sort of sacrifice. Everybody should give, fund ministries, fund missionaries. I'm a pro, I'm a fan for it, pro that. But this is specifically with your time and your effort and your blood and your sweat and your tears. Galatians 15 or excuse me, Galatians 5.13 and James 5.4, communicate the indulge, uh communicate the dangers of indulgence and using our blessings for ourselves. So there is a sense of like if you want to refer to those verses and just kind of do a deep dive on yourself, which we always encourage you to do. Remember, your financial blessing is not so that you can serve yourself and then also serve people and check off this box. It is ultimately give to others, right? Your self-indulgence is not create more time. Instead of like, as an example, instead of me just paying someone to rake this lady's leaves, right? I got to learn a lesson by putting that hard work in. I don't learn that lesson by just paying for somebody necessarily. So these are just things to kind of process and to think about. Uh, so here are two quick um kind of like, or excuse me, uh, one of the other quick notes that I just kind of want to refer to. Serving is a real easy way to um, and we'll kind of wrap up here. Serving is one of the easy ways to see if you're walking in your faith. We know in Hebrews that we're supposed to examine ourselves daily. Serving others is an easy way to do that. I've noticed that people are in two camps, just by the way, I'm kind of put this as a there's a lot of thoughts when it comes to serving. It's actually not as um detailed as you would think, just because it really flows into every aspect. I I have learned that people seem to who they claim they love God, but then they don't love their neighbor, right? They read their Bible, but they think they're better than everybody else. And then I have these this other camp of people that say they love people, and then I realize they leave a false version of God, right? They're not standing on truth, they're accepting of belief and behaviors that are simply immoral and wrong under the cloak of love, right? The best way to show that you love others, you're rooted and grounded in the word, and then you love others by serving them. John Wesley said this one of the principal rules of religion is to lose no occasion of serving God. John Wesley, famous preacher, he's saying to lose no occasion of serving God. And since he is invisible to our eyes, we are to serve him in our neighbor, which he receives as if done to himself in person, standing visibly before us. What a beautiful picture he's painting. Like, you may not have, you know, you want to you want to communicate with God and be in unity with him, serve others. Like, this is a great start. This is super simple. You talk about Monday morning men, practical. You can do something today to serve others. John 13, 34 and 35. A new command I give to you. Love one another as I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this, everyone will know that you are my disciples if you love one another. You could even invert the word serve, right? Love is serve. If we understand that concept, we're serving one another. 2 Corinthians 13, 5. Examine yourselves to see whether you're in the faith. Test yourselves, or do you not realize this about yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you unless you indeed fail to meet the test? You are testing yourself here in 2 Corinthians. An easy way to find out, are

Practical Ways to Serve (Church, Community, Family)

SPEAKER_01 20:56

you serving others? Super simple, guys. Here's your application for the week, though. One, serving your church. We just read 1 Peter 4, 10. That could be applied both into your community and church, but specifically it is seeming to refer to your church. You serve in a local body. That local body is not what you can get out of it, it's about what you can give to it. It is that simple. So if you're going to a church, I don't care if you disagree with half of it. Whatever you're doing, it doesn't mean you have to do anything. Are you you could be on the surfs team and take out the garbage, you can serve in the kids' ministry. I don't care how unappreciated it is, you should be serving in some sort of capacity. If you're not, like I have a it's a red flag for me. Like I don't understand. Because at that point, what I think you've drifted into is the tithe guy. Yeah. I'll I've I've sent my money and I've checked that box. You do not get that freedom based on scripture. You are to serve. And it doesn't even have to necessarily, if that church has an outreach ministry to help widows and orphans or something, that could be your serve, but serve in some capacity. Serve your community, Galatians 6, 10. So then as we have the opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially those of the household of faith. We just refer, we're serving in our church. God really wants us to serve the church. There's another verse that's compounding that, but we're to do that opportunity for everyone, right? If that is, that could be that could be legitimately anything. I'll let your mind be creative on this. I won't give you just all the ideas. I don't want to kind of push you in a vein. There's so many ways that you can serve, and that can look like different things. Because if you're listening to this and you're in the foster care system, you're probably serving enough, right? Like there's a certain amount of time that you have. But but if you're not and you have the free time or the freedom even to sacrifice a little bit, why would you not serve your community? We want them to glorify God. We want to be able to show them who He is and Jesus is a servant of all. What a great, great witnessing tool. And then uh third and finally, serve your family, right? And you probably think that you are um it's just provision. You know, 1 Timothy 5.8 does say that we are to provide for our family. And that is, I'm referring to just, you know, financially, we should we at least to work. We know that God ultimately brings provision, but we are to work, and that's a whole nother conversation. But specifically Deuteronomy 6, I think about when it talks about serving your kids, specifically in the way of discipleship, that you're to be teaching them all the time. Serving your family means growing them in the Lord, right? Jesus asked, Do you love me to Peter? Right? We we we we've said we love you. So, you know, we look at Corinthians, it says, Are you loving others? Are you failing to meet the test? How do we love others by serving them? He asked Peter, Do you love me? And he says, Feed my sheep. Or as I'd like to say, serve my family by pouring into them with the word of God, right? I'm paraphrasing there. Serve your family, and a great way to do that is by family devotions. And then we're gonna wrap this up with a final thought from Billy Graham. May our gratitude find expression in our prayers, right? We're grateful to God for everything, may it just emulate through everything that we pray. And he says this, and our service for others. I love that he put that. You're really grateful to God, serve others. And in our commitment to live holy for Christ, we're trying to do that on this podcast. Monday morning men, we are men that love Jesus and we want to walk everything out. The most practical way to be the greatest in the kingdom, to be the greatest practical Christian ever is to serve.

SPEAKER_00 24:26

That's all I got. Amen. Um you mentioned earlier about your gifts being for others. What's one way where when that is demonstrated, uh, if you're talented in a certain area, really good at your job or whatever it is, to where the the blessed that process of blessing somebody else doesn't become something where you get glorified? How can you deflect appropriately?

SPEAKER_01 24:51

It it's hard. We're actually gonna, yeah. We'll get into joy here in in a little bit, but it's hard to, you know, your right hand, Shannon know your left hand when it's doing. Like, I mean, we understand this concept. It is hard, right? It's not always the ability to do it, and sometimes there's a sense of where people can see it. You want them to glorify God. I I I think it this is these are hard questions because they're ultimately a disposition position again, right? The person that knows the the your heart and why you're doing what you're doing is you. Nobody ever nobody else knows that. Yeah, and so um I I think that if you have the ability though to do things anonymously, always do them. If you can, even if that's financial, always give anonymously if you can. If you can serve, you know, a a great way that that I love is like if you can serve in your like let's take your church, for instance. Obviously, if you have a talent that God's given you that you need to walk in, do that thing. If you know God's gift to you with a great voice and a guitar, do then do that, right? But but if but if there's not something specific, maybe challenge yourself and find the one job that you knew nobody will know you're doing and it kind of just stinks and do that thing and then do it unto the Lord. Everything's to him. And I promise you, if we believe that scripture that's more blessed to give than receive, there's so much fulfillment in that.

SPEAKER_00 26:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 26:08

So but it but it is a hard thing, it's not an easy answer, you know, for that question. Um, but yeah, I would I would strive to do everything that you could anonymously. I think that's a biblical principle at that point. You know, that's good.

SPEAKER_00 26:18

Uh have has there been times where you've tried to implement this with either personally or with your family where it's been just a total failure? Oh, I think I'm about to do one.

SPEAKER_01 26:30

Um we are we're actually taking the kids uh on a missions trip, which I think is just gonna be me and my wife testing our marriage and our patients with our children and probably doing nothing for these poor people. Um, but but that I think that ultimately if you're looking at serving others as a the outcome to be a success, then we probably already have a wrong disposition to the serving of others is laying down your life and and and just attempting to do it, right? Um it can be a disaster where I think that if you if you're not allowing the spirit to lead you, maybe you've involved yourself in something that someone really didn't want their help with. Um, but this is again, if we're walking with Jesus, that we just trust that we're gonna walk in faithfulness and obedience, and we'll leave the outcomes to him. Yeah, you know, if we go to the nursing home with the kids, which we have done, I don't think any of those people hurt us. It kind of feels like a waste of time. But if I could give you this, uh, this is kind of in parallel, just to give you guys the right mindset and that we want to create here. Um, one of my my buddies, Flip, and he's just he's a mess in so many ways, in a good way. But he we would go to an abortion clinic to to minister to the women there, and he would always say, Go preach to the wall. And I was like, What are you talking about? And there was this huge wall to block out our preaching and to plead with these women to come out. And so we would, I would stand at this wall, I had no idea if they could hear me. And I told him one time, I was like, you know, we probably could do this better. And he said, Well, you know, maybe we'll figure that out. He said, But we preach to the wall because we're walking in faithfulness and obedience and we're not worried about the outcome. When we serve, we don't sit there and go, is this having a huge impact? If we're valuing the fruit that we know comes from scripture and walking out serving, I wouldn't worry about the mess that's there. Yeah, just walk out serving.

SPEAKER_00 28:18

Yeah, that's good. Awesome. Well, in closing, thank you guys for listening. Hope you guys were blessed by uh the words with the word of God this morning and the word of Thomas. Let's just stick with God. Stick with God, please. Um please like, subscribe, uh, share this with somebody who you think could be better at somebody who wants to you want them to serve you. Send this to your wife.

SPEAKER_01 28:51

We'll see you next week. All right.