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Amen all right well it's once again great to be here and I once again appreciate the opportunity to preach for y'all had a great time fellowshiping today the food's been fantastic the fellowship's been great just want to say thank you once again to the deacon and his family and also of course all of the people who have come to the camp and I hope you've had a great time I definitely have and I know my wife has so we're gonna we're gonna try to keep it a little shorter than we did last night when I say we I mean me okay let's see what time is it all right it's 730 we try to be done at 830 hours 830 tomorrow morning all right no the title of sermon tonight is serving Christ with your life serving Christ with your life and so if you want to look down at verse number 17 the Bible says and whatsoever you do in word or deed do all in the name of the Lord Jesus giving thanks to God and the father by him wives submit yourselves to your own husbands as it is fit in the Lord husbands love your wives and be not bitter against them children obey your parents and all things for this is well pleasing unto the Lord fathers provoked on your children to anger lest they be a discouraged servants obey in all things your masters according to the flesh not with eye services men pleasers but in signalness of heart fearing God and whatsoever you do do it heartily as to the Lord and not unto men knowing that of the Lord he shall receive the reward of the inheritance for you serve the Lord Christ but he that doeth wrong shall receive for the wrong which he hath done and there is no respect of persons so obviously the title of the sermon again is serving Christ with your life and in verse 17 it says you know whatsoever you do in word or deed do all in the name of the Lord Jesus so the the main thing I want to focus on tonight is the fact that no matter what it is that we're doing no matter what capacity we're serving in no matter what it is we're serving into the church or in our families or in our occupation we're really supposed to serve in those areas as if we're serving Christ because ultimately that is who we are supposed to be serving so you know people will have bad jobs and they'll be like well you know this boss he's this or he's that or this job isn't paying off or or whatever but you know the way a Christian is supposed to look at their occupation even if it's just a short time that you're working for a specific job you know we're not supposed to look at that boss as if he's the ultimate boss the ultimate boss that we're supposed to look towards and though we're supposed to please in all things is the Lord Jesus Christ so and that's the same thing in our roles within our family and the roles within our family we have our own areas that we serve in whether that's children teens you know even if you're just a single but also dads and moms husbands and wives we all have a role to play in our family and you know what we're supposed to play that role in our family as if we're serving unto Christ and so because everybody serves in one capacity or another in this life everybody has a boss in this life everybody has somebody that they're supposed to look up to in this life but ultimately that person that we're supposed to be serving is Christ and look down to verse number 25 or verse 24 again it says knowing that of the Lord you shall receive the reward of the inheritance for you serve the Lord Christ so that's the main point I want to really hone in on tonight is that we're ultimately responsible to serve the Lord Christ now what is a servant well a servant is a person who performs duties for others especially a person employed in a house on domestic duties or as a personal attendant so when we say we're serving Christ we're performing duties now that's that would be for others right so but also as a Christian we're supposed to serve others so Christ came to serve others you know use that acronym joy Jesus others you and so we're supposed to ultimately serve Jesus first but obviously there's other people in our lives that we would serve and then of course ourselves we can't we can't slack on our own duties to keep ourselves sharp and in the faith but you know it says to be someone employed so it's somebody that's employed somebody that that actually earns things for the things that they do and see God doesn't save us and say you're my slave that words not used in the Bible you know for a Christian we're not slaves you know people will say that and in other modern translations will say that in the Bible says we're the slave of Christ we're not the slaves of Christ because slaves are forced to do things and usually they don't get paid so if a slave is getting paid it's usually just room and board or some type of thing but you know obviously we're servants we work for God we're supposed to work for the Lord he saved us on two good works so we're not saved by works but we're saved on two good works so there is a difference and you know what God is gonna pay us here on this earth for the things that we do and also he's gonna pay us in heaven for the things that we do here on earth but you know what we only got one chance in this life to earn rewards and I was kind of liking the reward system that God has as better than any other reward system on the planet obviously once you become a child of God you instantly get this special rewards program that God gives you where he pays you he takes care of you he offers you all these things for the work that you do see God's not a respecter of persons everybody has to pull their own weight everybody has to do their own part he says there's no respecter of persons so we have to do the most we can do in this life in this on this earth that we can and you know what how we do that we do it by serving Christ we do it by serving Christ but also we do it by serving others I'll get more into that as a sermon goes on but a servant is also a devoted and helpful follower or supporter so we have multiple times the word servant is used in the Bible hundreds of times service servant hundreds of times in the Bible but there are many examples of great men in the Bible that we've seen and you know great men and women who serve God in the Bible but the Lord Jesus Christ is our ultimate example of service to God and man so let's look at Philippians chapter 2 verse number 5 Philippians chapter 2 verse number 5 see those that serve Christ the most will receive the greater reward I mean that's the way everything works right whoever's the hardest worker usually gets the most accolades most usually gets the boss position things like that so the people that work the hardest you don't get the most rewards that's kind of how that works so you're in Philippians chapter 2 verse number 5 the Bible says let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus who being in the form of God thought it not robbery to be equal with God but made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of what what to say there a servant he took upon him the form of a servant was made in the likeness of men so what's it saying let this mind the mind that was of Christ be in you so God wants you to have that mindset that Christ had well what's Christ mindset he made himself of no reputation there's a lot of people that want to have the accolades here on this earth and what did what did Jesus say about those people barely they have their reward when people want to just show boat and show about how great of a servant they are to Christ and all this other stuff they're really just it's just a detriment to them it's better to be in the form of a servant to make yourself of no reputation and not sit there and brag about all the things that you do for God because you know what when you start wanting the praise of men and then your main goal is to have men praise you and say all these great things about you and there's nothing wrong with people saying great things about you if you're doing great things but if that's your goal then you already have your reward if you give $60,000 to the church because you just happen to come in some inheritance and you're like well you know I gave $60,000 to church last year you're like you just always bring that up to everybody I've seen people to do that and then they want to earmark the money like you know they gave it to the Lord but then they just want to say well you know I don't know he didn't really do with the money what I thought he should have done you know it's just like well why did you give the money so you could just sit there and just Lord it over the pastor the whole time that you gave that big chunk of money we shouldn't operate in that fashion so Jesus what's the mind that we're supposed to have in us that we're supposed to have no reputation and it says took upon himself the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of man we're already made in the likeness of men but he took upon himself the form of a servant imagine that the King of Kings the Lord of Lords has always been has will always be the Alpha and the Omega the beginning in the end humbles himself becomes a man born in a where you feed cattle he has no reputation he's not rich you know at certain points in his ministry he would he said you know foxes have have holes and birds have nests with the Son of Man have nowhere to lay his head so Jesus Christ just went around and preached the gospel and you know did wonderful things for people healed the sick healed the lame you know cured blind people from their blindness and deaf people from their deafness and you know fixed people's hands that were were messed up he rose people from the dead he healed the lepers all these different things but look what it says in verse number eight and being found in fashion as a man he humbled himself and became obedient unto death even the death of the cross so Jesus Christ you know he's gonna get the most accolades why because he did the most work you know and his ministry was really about three three and a half years right so but in that time period he earned the greatest name on the on earth that ever is that ever will be he earned the most rewards that anybody could ever you know gain you know you're like well Jesus said you're gonna do greater works of me but he died for everybody's sins God says he would inherit the heathen you know we get to inherit with Christ as God's sons he is God's only begotten son but we get to inherit with him like were his sons also sons and daughters right so he was he humbled himself see here's what here's where a lot of people have problems to let this mind be in you which is also in Christ Jesus you know what he did he humbled himself and a lot of people have a hard time being humble but you know what you know the opposite of humble is proud and God hates pride God hates proud the proud look and people that would be prideful in the way that they you know you can't even get saved with if you're filled with pride you have to humble yourself and it says it became obedient unto the death unto death even the death of the cross so you know you might be saying well you know rewards don't really motivate me well that might be true you know I don't go out so many because I'm like what rewards am I gonna get today but it wouldn't really be wrong to have to say that I mean I don't feel that way necessarily I don't think about it like that you know I just feel like well hey whatever the rewards are stacked up when I when I end up going to heaven then I'll be happy with what I get but if you want to get high yielding rewards you have to have a lowly attitude you have to work hard you have to humble yourself you have to obey God and be willing to die for what you believe was Jesus willing to die yes he was he was willing to die he became obedient unto death and you know what he always did those things which were pleasing to the Father so even though his will wasn't necessarily for him to be spit upon and beat up and struck in the face and a crown of thorns put on his head and whipped in the back and carrying his own cross to his own execution nails driven between in his hands and his feet that wasn't his will in the Garden of Gethsemane he asked you know if it'd be possible this cup would pass from him but he was willing still to do what God asked him to do and so that's why he has the highest accolades look what it says in verse number nine it says wherefore God also hath highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name whose name is above every name Jesus Christ what name are we saved by it what whose name do we call upon when we call upon the Lord we call upon the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation why because his name is highly exalted above everyone else and it says that the name of Jesus Christ every knee should bow you know I never and at some point every knee will bow and that's what you can tell these atheists that really upsets them when you say you know well one day you're gonna bow whether you like it or not no I'm not yeah yeah yeah that's what the Bible says so and it says that every knee should bow of things in heaven of things in earth and things under the earth and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father so at some point every tongues gonna call him Lord too and you know what it's gonna be too late for some people it's gonna be too late for some people it's like well you know you were so resistant but you're gonna do it anyway so like why why resist in the first place why not just submit yourself and humble yourself to God and call upon his name for salvation but you know servitude is not it's not slavery like I said before servants are paid slaves are forced and he that God doesn't force us to serve him does he want us to serve him should we serve him absolutely we should serve him and you know but some some Christians just don't feel like they have to do that you know or they need to do that and so there's a lot of Christians out there just not doing anything you know they say they're Christians they might even go to church but they just might not do anything you know very that's very substantial for the Lord servitude and taking on the form of a servant made Christ to be greater than any other man and gain the greatest accolades and to have the greatest name and the greatest inheritance and rewards of any man in history by far right so turn to Matthew chapter 16 verse 24 Matthew chapter 16 verse number 24 the Bible says and then said Jesus unto his disciples if any man will come after me let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me see what does he want us to do he wants us to deny ourselves because sometimes our will is contrary to what God's will is and sometimes we choose me over he we choose me over him and you know Jesus said hey if you're gonna come after me you need to learn to deny yourself some of the things that you want to do some of the things you see your friends doing some of the things you see family members and things like that doing and you're like well you know you're kind of like the Kermit the Frog kind of you know that meme where he's like looking out the window and there's like rain and you're just like all sad or whatever you know but that's not how you should feel we should we should not look at it that way because you know what the things that we do on this earth while other people are playing while other people are laughing you know what at some point they're gonna be crying about the fact that they didn't get more done the fact that they didn't serve Christ with their life like they should have and you know what that's gonna be a sad day for some people when they realized that you know they thought they might be first but in reality they're gonna be last look at John chapter 12 verse number 26 John chapter 12 verse number 26 John chapter number 12 verse number 26 the Bible says if any man serve me let him what say follow me and where I am there shall there shall also my servant be see what what am I talking about tonight serving the Lord and so if you're gonna be his servant guess where you're gonna be with him and it says if any man serve me him will my father honor so see there's different you know there are some people that are Christians but are they serving Christ are they serving God you know some people are not serving God and maybe some some people are not serving God the way they could be you know because nobody 24-7 365 serves God at every moment in their life but you know what we can actually you know like Pastor Mahina was talking about a sermon we could make you know ways to where we're doing more than we did before and we sometimes we need to take stock in our lives and where are we at right now like was am I a better Christian this year as opposed to last year am I am I getting better or am I getting worse am I staying the same can I get myself better can I sharpen myself can I serve more can I serve in different ways can I serve the Lord better this year than I did last year go ahead and turn to Colossians chapter 3 verse 22 back in our text our original text but I'm gonna read a verse for you it says in Revelation 21 7 says he that overcometh shall inherit all things and I will be his God and he shall be my son see we get to inherit all things and so we get to be the son of God or the daughter of God you know and when it says he he that overcometh it's talking about those people to get saved so number one thing I want to look at tonight is our service in our occupation the service in our occupation Colossians 3 verse 22 says servants obey in all things your masters according to the flesh you're like well pastor Thompson you just said that you're supposed to ultimately serve Christ yeah but you ultimately serve Christ by serving your masters according to the flesh so being wherever whatever job you work at whoever your boss is that's what it's talking about right there and you know if I would say well hey those your ladies your occupation is to be at home and serve your husband and your children and so you would be you know in the same you know as far as occupation goes we you should also you know serve your masters according to the flesh but ultimately what are you doing when you serve your husband well you're serving Christ aren't you if you're if you're if you're serving Christ and you're serving your husband you're doing the right thing if you're serving your children and teaching them to walk in the ways of the Lord that's great but I mean I'm kind of getting into the family part of it so I want to revert back over to the occupation part of it look what it says in verse 23 says and whatsoever you do do it heartily as to the Lord and not unto men so men you're working for whatever aka whatever company you're working for okay whatever it is you know we're supposed to serve and and and do things heartily as unto the Lord and we're supposed to not serve men you're like well that's kind of contradictory as to the verse in verse 22 but when you in the grand scheme of things the way God wants us to look at it is that we are serving him when you look at it like I'm serving Jesus at this job then all the other things are going to take care of themselves you're gonna you're gonna respond to your thought your God-given earthly authority you know and and then that's gonna please the Lord when you serve him the way he asked you to when you serve in your job the way you're asked to look at verse 25 it says but he that doeth wrong shall receive for the wrong which he hath done there is no respect of persons so look if you're not being very good at your job then what do you think it's gonna be like for you as you know it reflects on how you serve Christ doesn't it because if you're really bad you're always you know late for work you're always missing work you're always just calling in sick every day you know all this you know you're when you're there people don't think you're the greatest person that's working there they think that somebody else is some atheist is a better a harder worker than you that ought not to be so you know Christians need the Christian men need to be the hardest workers in their job and you know the ones with the most integrity the ones that aren't milking the clock the ones that you know aren't just there as as men pleasers just serving you know while the boss is there then you're working hard oh the boss is here you're just like sleeping you know you pick up a broom you're like looking for something to do you know what's good is when your boss catches you working you know what sucks is when your boss catches you not working it's just like that one moment you just took a second and then all said your boss is there like dang it you know but we want to be people that our boss is like hey I can't afford to lose that person you know right now there's a really durst in the land for people that actually just want to work people won't even work at easy jobs anymore it's like you see these revolving signs where people are just like just permanently hell-planted because a lot of people this is what I've heard this a lot that people are going and they get interviews set for them and they don't even show for the interviews so that's how lazy people are now is that they've had you know the COVID thing really kind of set people in this mindset it seems like it was already kind of like that before but it even got worse during the COVID stuff where now people just feel like hey the government should just be doling it out for me and that seems to be the attitude with a lot of people or I'm not even gonna work for a job unless it's 30 bucks an hour or something it's like bro you work at McDonald's I mean you know you want you want 30 bucks an hour to put a burger on a bun with some ketchup on it I mean walk it up to the front wrap it up with some paper I'm not saying it's not a job it is a job but like you know if someone's a skilled laborer making $30 an hour that person should be making the same as a McDonald's worker so you know and obviously things have gotten tight with a lot of things but you know what who God's not gonna get who's not he's not gonna let fail the men that go to work and have integrity and show up for their jobs don't call in sick all the time the best workers there who are they gonna get rid of first they're gonna get rid of the lazy good-for-nothing workers before they're gonna get rid of the good ones so keep that in mind the people that you know just you know a dearth can come about the land a dearth for work high gas prices high inflation it's starting to hit everybody but you know what if you want to make it through it then you've got to be the best worker and you know what that's ultimately doing that's that's working for Christ because that's how he wants you to work so look at it that way instead of whatever company you work for you know work for God that's what he expects look at 1st Corinthians chapter 7 verse 20 1st Corinthians 7 verse number 20 the Bible says let every man abide in the same calling wherein he was called art thou called being a servant care not for it but if thou mayest be made free use it rather for he that is called in the Lord being a servant is the Lord's freemen likewise also he that is called being free is Christ's servant you're bought with a price be ye not servants of men see God just repeats this that hey even if you are some kind of a bond servant you know you're still the Lord's freeman because you're saved you're still free in Christ bro you're still freaking Christ so but if you're free you know you're still Christ's servant you know we're supposed to serve Christ you know he's the one we're supposed to serve so Matthew chapter 6 verse 24 Matthew 6 24 and see here's the thing a lot of people think that they're they're going to serve for money yeah we make money but ultimately who is the one that takes care of us who is the one that we're supposed to depend on it's not your arms it's not your you know two guns or whatever that that are supposed to be what you depend upon I mean you ultimately do but who are we supposed to be depending on we're supposed to be depending on God to take care of us right look what it says no man can serve two masters for either he will hate the one and love the other or else he will hold to the one and despise the other you cannot serve God and mammon you cannot have two masters you cannot serve God and the devil that's just not possible and you can't serve God and things you know one thing is going to dominate your life if you're just all about things and my new motorboat my new four wheel drive my new jet ski my new side by side my new sewing kit my new sewing devices I don't know I'm I'm at a loss when it comes to women I'm sorry about that my new whatever my new berkey my new my mind never mind I'm not gonna go down this trail but anyway you know what I'm saying like we can't serve the you know your house you know a lot of women their dream is to get the American dream house with the white picket fence and all that stuff and you know what that stuff is fleeting that stuff is just vanity you know and obviously we need houses living we need cars to drive and things like that but I mean ultimately some people they get caught up in this serving mammon which is basically just serving things we don't want to get wrapped up in that turn to Titus chapter 2 verse 9 Titus chapter 2 verse number 9 and I'll leave you with this as our the last part of our first point here the Bible says exhort servants to be obedient unto their own masters and to please them well in some things that what it says no it says in all things not answering again so when your boss is yelling at you not answering again not talking back to them you know what sometimes that's hard when you're a grown man some other dude is yelling at you it's it's hard to take sometimes especially maybe you're right and they're wrong you know but to not answer again that's the hard part because even you know and maybe you are wrong just learn to take it learn to take a chewing out and if you can get chewed out by the worst bosses ever then you can take anything you can get chewed out by people at the door you can get chewed out by sodomites or whoever it is that's going against you you know uh what does that say that well you know those people that are offended over over uh being yelled at or whatever never held their dad's flashlight or whatever i think that's how it goes but you know sometimes you're gonna get chewed out and sometimes it's your the people you love the most they're gonna chew you up uh but you know what we should not be answering again that's what the Bible says not purloining that means like kind of you know taking advantage of of situations not that's kind of like milking the clock or maybe taking home company things or whatever and it says but showing all good fidelity that they may adorn the doctrine of Christ our savior in all things so hey if you're obedient all things and you're not answering back and you're not purloining you're showing good fidelity in the workplace you know that's a thing that will help people to adorn they're going to look at you and be like hey there's something different about this guy and i'm not saying you know let's let's just do lifestyle evangelism but like if you're preaching and then you're doing the opposite of everything that you're you're preaching to them then it makes you look bad it makes God look bad it makes Christ the stink in the workplace and we don't want that to be the case number two tonight serve God in your role in the family serve God in your role in the family so the first thing we need to serve is serve God in the occupation that we are in but also we need to serve God in the role that you have in your family look back at our text at Colossians 3 verse 18. Colossians chapter 3 verse 18 and people are like you knew i'd be pastors all you ever do is just talk about why i'm submitting well this is what the first thing it says right here okay i didn't write the bible i didn't write the order of it but what does it say right here wives submit yourselves unto your own husbands as it is fit in the Lord sorry not sorry that's what it says wives submit hey as a servant we're as a servant of Christ are we called to submit to God should we be submitting to Christ yeah and so why would it be weird in a chapter in a in some chapter and some verses that are talking about serving Christ would he just bring this up out of the blue it's not out of the blue folks it's there for a reason wives submit yourselves unto your own husbands as it is fit in the Lord so it's not talking about other people's husbands you know and this verse wasn't written for new ifb punks you know that are single dudes that think all women should obey them or something you know God didn't put maybe he did put that in there for that reason but it wasn't the only reason okay why does he say it and he says it multiple times in the new testament because a lot of times women will go and submit to other men instead of submitting to their own husbands they'll submit to anybody but their own husband and that's wrong and if you're going to serve Christ Christ expects you to serve in your role in the family and what's the wives role in the family what's it say right there wives submit yourselves to your own husbands all right so it's not stuttering that's what it says but then it says in verse 19 husbands love your wives you know and and I think that you know pastor Menes has a really wise thing that he says about these statements here that why does God put these things here because these are the things that we struggle with why does it say wives submit well because wives have a struggle with submitting sometimes why does it say husbands love your wives well because sometimes we're not the most loving people in the world men we're a little you know yeah especially when we're grumpy and we come home you've had a hard day's work you bring all your problems into the house you know look we've all been there guys you're grumpy you're grouchy you're not exactly the most loving person in the world when you come home from work sometimes but you know why don't you just hang that at the door before you walk up walk in and and just say you know what I don't care what's what's happened for this this day I want to come home and like be loving to my family be loving to my wife husbands love your wives and not be bitter against them for not submitting to you now it doesn't say that but I mean it kind of implies it doesn't it a little bit it's like don't be bitter why would they be bitter because they didn't submit you know it's it's a vicious cycle that happens and this is a vicious cycle that can take place in marriages where you know the wives not submitting you're like you're supposed to submit and then like there's like well you're supposed to love me you know and then it just kind of like just keeps going back and forth right so but why don't we just both do what we're supposed to do and let the rest take care of itself because if we would just learn our own roles like the husband is supposed to be the leader of the home and we have a lot of responsibility on us because of that and so ultimately if our family fails whose responsibility is it it's ours man it's our responsibility to lead and guide the home so don't just throw everything well it's because you you know you don't do this you know while I'm off at work you're doing this with the kids and they and they're not listening and you know I got to come home and spank him because you're not spanking them and you guys have heard this before haven't you anyway it happens you know but here's the thing we can't be just blaming letting let you know we can't be blaming our wives for everything that happens like ultimately we're the leaders everything rises and falls upon leadership and so husbands and dads we got to own it and just say hey we got to do better and you know how do you how do you do better well you you do better in the role of serving in your family that you're supposed to do see we have somebody that's our boss also don't just think that I'm the boss I'm the king of this castle where's my dinner and you know it's okay for you to say that but really who's the king of your castle the ultimate king is king Jesus right and Jesus is the one that we're supposed to be underneath and so we're supposed to respond by you know leading our family like Christ would lead us right Christ is leading us and so we should lead our family in Christ and obviously like I said everybody has their bosses and speaking of that children I'm verse number 20 children obey your parents and some things the things that I think that I'm that I'm right about I shouldn't have to do no no it says in all things children obey your parents in all things and guess what you're pretty much a child until you're almost 20 years old and even after that it's it's kind of debatable you know I've seen some 20 year olds and you know men like develop slower they really do you know they were talking about you guys were doing that little skit today where like this is the the the kind of food that makes some bad things happen to you and I was thinking I'd come out and go but because we we we we guys can act pretty stupid sometimes it's like we don't need a radioactive you know piece of food to make us act like that but listen children obey your parents in all things that's what it says for this is well pleasing unto the Lord and look you don't get to get off scot-free here tonight because you know you have a role to play in your family also and guess what your role is your role is to obey your parents in all things and you want to please God you're like well you don't understand my parents are really strict is that does it say unless they're really strict no it says you're supposed to obey your parents in all things for this is well well pleasing unto the Lord so when children are in obedience to their parents you're pleasing the Lord you're doing your part in serving Christ in your home and you know it's if you have a hardcore parent maybe they just know that you need it you know maybe they know you need it maybe they know that you need a strong hand because left to your own devices you're just going to sit there and play video games and eat pizza all day I mean we have to have some strict structure in our homes otherwise children will just children will also themselves will bring their mothers to shame that's what the bible says right so we can't leave you to yourself and we know that you're you know not exactly always in your right mind so we have to help you along your children your your you know you don't have the ability to always make the right decisions if you had to make the decisions of what you're going to eat every single day I guarantee you you would not always make the right decisions pizza ice cream gummy bears gummy worms and chocolate you know or whatever I don't know syrup cinnamon toast crunch but like that's not good for you like your parents you know there's these things called vegetables and yes they are real vegetables are a real thing and you should eat them you should have a balanced diet right so but it says fathers provoke your children provoke not your children to anger lest they be discouraged hey you know and as dads we can be a little teasy we can tease our children to the point where they get kind of you know upset and we we got to be careful with that guys and it's sometimes we get into tease mode and it's hard to get out of it but as dads we're not we're not to provoke our children to anger so as dad you know we got to serve our role and in the family and that is to lead the family and to lead them in the ways of the lord right as mom you're supposed to serve your husband and and take care and love your children as a son or daughter you know you serve your parents and your siblings yeah your siblings too well they're stupid well it doesn't matter if they're stupid you still have to help you know it's it's you know as an older child you know you're the one that should be the most responsible a lot of times the oldest child goes astray and leaves the family and that's a bad example to the rest of the kids why don't you if you're the oldest in your family why don't you strive to be the best sibling you can be in the house and you lead by example and then maybe they'll turn out right you know obviously it's the parents job to make kids turn out right but you know you as the older sibling why don't you be the best example you could be why don't you be a leader amongst the children and and and then show them how to be a good child and to please the lord in all things so and i don't want to leave singles out because you know singles have their own role there's a lot of singles and and and churches especially because guys for some reason don't like to talk to girls anymore uh it's all text language and you know lol and luv i love you but it's just people forget how to talk to each other because they're talking to a screen a lot of times you know but singles there's nothing wrong with being single the apostle paul was single and maybe you're just called to be single for the rest of your life but that's a very rare thing so but as a single why don't you say you know what as long as i'm single i'm not going to just go off and sow my royal oats or i'm not going to go off and do you know all these these stupid things these vain things these vain activities i'm going to just prepare myself to be a future spouse if you want to get married why don't you start preparing now to be a good spouse instead of just coming in and then someone having to do damage control with you because you just kind of let your life go out of order you know be someone that someone wants to marry you know someone doesn't want to marry some kind of a slob or somebody that doesn't take care of themselves or someone that doesn't clean or whatever you know look be the best single that you can be and you know what serve the lord with all your might while you're single because you know what when you when you're married and you have children you can't serve the lord like you would if you were single and i'm not saying stay single i'm just saying while you know whatever part of life you're in why don't you serve the lord to the best of your abilities don't waste your life on vain things i want to be a video game you know player that gets paid to get that's a stupid career guys don't don't look that's just lame why don't you go work with your hands why don't you go get some dirt on yourself why don't you go you know learn how to work hard because you know what christ worked hard christ worked so hard that people were like you're he's beside himself there's something wrong with this guy well you know there's nothing there was nothing wrong with him he was perfect but here's the thing he was being an example as to what we should be he's being a leader that we could follow and say you know what i want to follow that because he's our greatest example why does he say follow me because he's somebody worth following you know be somebody worth following if you want to serve christ you know you're going to have to follow him and you're never going to be a good leader if you don't become a good follower first that's a fact you know people say i want to be a pastor someday i want to be this every day well learn how to follow before you learn how to lead it's just it's just the way it is you're not going to be an automatic leader you know and maybe some people are more prone to be leaders than others but you're still going to have to learn to follow somebody else so that you can be a great leader in your life someday so whatever role you play in your family or society when you have the mindset that christ is the one that you serve then that'll make your life a whole lot easier and so let's move on to our third and last point here you're like amen all right my third and last point is we need to serve god in our church as a you know we need to serve god in our church we need to be a servant of god in our church so in our occupation yes in our family in our roles in our family yes we need to serve christ but we also need to serve god in our church let's look at luke chapter four verse number six turn to luke chapter four verse number six i keep checking the time oh man i gotta move luke chapter four verse number six the bible says and the devil said unto him all this power will i give thee and the glory of them for that is delivered unto me and to whomsoever i will give it this is the devil talking to jesus christ of course if thou therefore will worship me all shall be thine so what's satan doing he's offering him all these things that he's shown him if he'll just bow down and worship the devil and jesus answered and said unto him get thee behind me satan for it is written thou shalt worship the lord thy god and him only shalt thou serve so he says him only thou shalt serve and so but like i've been talking to you about serving other people and doing all these other things but ultimately once again you're serving by doing all these things you are serving christ you are serving the lord because this is what he's called us to do so how do we get how do we serve god in our church well of course soul winning is always number one you know to be a soul winner and we get rewards for that we get rewards when we go out we get rewards when we're warning people when we're winning people when we're sewing when we're watering when we're reaping we get rewards for the things and the labor that we put forth and maybe you haven't seen someone saved in a while well you know what if you're still steady going out you're still going to get rewarded for the labor that you do and so god looks down at the labor you're doing not necessarily how many souls are getting saved okay so what else do we get rewards we get i mean what else can we do to serve christ in the church how about obedience jesus said if you love me keep my commandments and so if we're supposed to be following him you know obviously we're supposed to love god with all that's the first commandment to love the lord our god with all our mind with all our soul with all our strength with love the lord with all your your mind soul strength anyway you know you know the thing no i'm just kidding i forgot how the verse goes i'm sorry but anyway you know the thing all right so but you know we're supposed to you know love god more than anything and we're supposed to love our neighbor as ourselves right so soul winning is loving our neighbor as ourselves we're saved we should want other people to be saved but we also are to obey god and keep his commandments and you know once again we can't we don't keep god's commandments to be saved we keep them because we are saved the bible says his commandments are not grievous unto us and you know the things that we do for the church to serve you know we serve out of faith we serve uh you know good works love good deeds alms these types of things and you know just serving with our time you know with our effort with our labor um you know i talk about cleaning the church a lot because it's kind of a big thing you know every week it needs to be clean doesn't it it's just like every you know three times a week the deacon has to get up and preach three sermons right so that's always a deadline for pastors for preachers for deacons for people that preach on a regular basis we got to get up and we got to do it every week but you know what the church has to be cleaned a couple times a week at least twice right one after sundays one after thursdays so these are things that we can do to serve the lord in our churches now turn to matthew chapter 25 verse 31 and i brought up that that acronym jesus others you say if we're serving jesus first above all things you know and we're we're looking at others and serving others also but we also got to take care of our own maintenance bible reading prayer soul winning you know church attendance these things are going to keep your life in balance you know it's just like if you have a car and you have four tires you know if one of those tires starts to go flat you get that little light that comes on and it's telling you hey your car your cars you know your one of your tires is low which is going to start messing with other parts of your car so you have to have a balanced christian life you have to have a balanced life to serve him you can't have you know all all four of those things and just stop doing one of those and just your and then your car is still going to be well maintained it's just not going to be and so if you're the car you got to maintain your good works like i was talking about last night matthew chapter 25 verse 31 says and when the son of man shall come in glory and all the holy angels with him then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory and before him shall be gathered all nations and he shall separate them one from another as a shepherd divided his sheep from the goats and he shall set the sheep on his right hand and but the goats on the left then shall the king say unto them on his right hand come ye blessed of my father inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world for i was hungered and he gave me meat i was thirsty and he and he gave me drink i was a stranger and he took me in naked and he clothed me i was sick and he visited me i was in prison and he came unto me so you know he mentions all these things and then what's it say in verse 37 then shall the righteous answer saying lord when saw we the hungered and fed thee or thirsty and gave the drink when saw we be a stranger and took the in or naked and clothed thee or when saw we the sick or came or in prison and came unto thee and the king shall answer and saying to them verily i say unto you for as much as you had done it onto one of the least of these my brethren you have done it unto me so what's he saying well he's saying that when you serve others just like i've been saying through this whole sermon when you when you're doing service for others you know whether it's your job or your family members or in your church then you're doing it it's when you do it for them it's like you've done it unto me so that's ultimately the the full point of this sermon is to say that hey when you're doing things and you're doing it as unto the lord but you're doing things for other people it's like you're doing it for him and so just have that mindset that when you serve others it's as you did it it's as if you did it for christ now the bible talks about servants a lot i'm just going to kind of rattle off some verses i'm almost done uh in numbers chapter 11 i'm just going to run through these you don't have to turn to them you can just listen numbers 11 28 and joshua the son of none the servant of moses one of his young men answered and said my lord moses forbid them what's it say joshua the son of none was the servant of moses see we should serve other people there's nothing wrong with being a servant for other people numbers chapter 12 verse 7 my servant moses is not so who is faithful in all mine house so you have god calling moses his servant and really the point i'm trying to make by reading these verses i want you to understand that in the bible god calls certain people his servant but sometimes people would say i'm the servant of god and we need to strive to be servants of god and hey don't you want your name to be hey deacon wrestle a servant of god a servant of christ or brother gabriel a servant of god a servant of christ numbers 12 8 says with him will i speak mouth to mouth even apparently and not in dark speeches and in similitude of the lord shall he behold wherefore were you not afraid to speak against my servant moses so god is there saying moses is my servant this is my guy titus 1 1 paul a servant of god hebrews chapter 3 verse 5 and moses barely was faithful in all his house as a servant for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken of after james 1 1 james a servant of god and of the lord jesus christ to the 12 tribes which are scattered abroad greeting second peter 1 1 simon peter a servant and an apostle of jesus christ to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of god and our savior jesus christ jude 1 1 jude the servant of jesus christ and brother of james to them that are sanctified by god the father and preserved in jesus christ and called revelation chapter 1 1 the revelation of jesus christ which god gave unto him to show his unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass and he sent and signify it by his angel unto his servant john see john is his servant revelation 15 3 and they sing the song of moses the servant of god so my point again of reading all these scriptures to you is that you know what throughout the bible these men are called god's servants and what is the point of my sermon i want you to understand that hey you should be a servant of christ if you're not a servant of price right now get busy and start serving him because you know what this life is where we get our rewards the reward system is great you know what he pays us better than anybody else is ever going to pay us we're like on the best team you know you want people talk about getting higher on these teams and i work for this company look there's nothing better than working for god there's no better rewards there's no better royalties there's no better medical care plan i mean you know the medical care plan is that he makes your body perfect for all eternity you can never get hurt or cut or die ever again i mean that's a great medical plan right that's better than kaiser that's better than blue cross blue shield right and not only that we get the fellowship with our brethren for all eternity and you know what sometimes maybe you might not want to see something for 10 000 years that's okay you still got all eternity i'm just kidding you probably will all this attitude is going to be gone but hebrews chapter 12 verse 28 i will have you turn there real quick hebrews 12 28 the bible says wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved let us have grace whereby we may serve god accepted acceptably with reverence and godly fear look we need to move we need to get busy we need to start now kids you can start right now and earn more rewards than i will ever earn because you started early see i didn't get saved till i was 25. i couldn't start getting rewards until then but you know if get sick you know if you're not saved get saved start serving christ now mark chapter 10 verse 31 or verse 29 i won't have you turn there but the bible says and jesus answered and said verily i say unto you there is no man that hath left house or brethren or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands for my sake and the gospels but he shall receive in hundredfold now in this time houses and brethren and sisters and mothers and children and lands with persecutions and in the world to come eternal life but many that are first shall be last and the last shall be first well why is that because there's some people they're going to do more than others there's some people they're going to you know there's a lot of people that think they're serving christ and the things that they're doing but they're not really you know they're not really something that god holds as this great thing that they think it is they think that you know having a son you know what's a good example that handing out invitations is better than soloing they think that people get saved by invitations they don't so who's going to get more rewards the person that actually did what god said and went and knocked the doors or the person that stands there they're too afraid to boldly open their mouth right so there's a perfect example right there but last couple scriptures here matthew chapter 25 verse 23 says his lord said unto him well done good and faithful servant thou hast been faithful over a few things i will make thee ruler over many things enter thou into the joy of thy lord that's what i want to be said to to me that day that god would say you know well done isn't that isn't that like the best thing you could hear from god because in the end it's like what did you do with your life and it's like when when jesus is saying well done hey come on in enter enter into the joy of your lord and then the other person is like well you know it's a rough road you know you really do that much but you do have eternal life and you know which you know that's good enough right but if you want if you want to have a more fulfilling life hey serve christ with your life and and and if you're not doing that get busy on it last verse revelation 22 3 it says and there shall be no more curse but the throne of god and of the lamb shall be in it and his servants shall serve him his servants shall serve him and we need to be servants of christ now i want it to be said about me that i serve christ and you know what it's not you know the way you finish is better than how you start okay the way you finish is better than how you start you know we should start good but you know some people don't some people start bad tell for 25 years and then you know but it's how you finish see i don't know how i'm going to finish but you know i want to finish i want to finish serving christ that's how i want to finish i want to finish you know and have my family be different than the family that i had before me that didn't serve christ i want my children to serve christ i want my grandchildren to serve christ i want my wife to serve christ i want you know i want to leave a legacy of serving christ not a legacy of well he was you know good at putting lines on roads he was good at hammering or whatever you know i mean that's not what our life's all about that's just an ends to the means of the things that we need in this life but you know what what we really need is to serve christ in our occupation we need to serve christ in our families and we need to serve christ in our church and so we must serve him to do that so we must serve christ and if you don't you're not going to gain the great rewards that you could gain you know when you do serve him so let's pray heavenly father we thank you lord so much for the fact that we can serve you lord and and that you're the god of heaven and earth and lord sometimes i think why would you love somebody like me why would you love people like us but you do and it's just unexplainable sometimes why that is but i just pray that uh you'd help us everybody in this room under the center of my voice that lord we would take these things to heart and lord that we would say you know i'm going to serve christ in in in all aspects of my life and i'm going to serve others and by serving others know that it's serving you in jesus name we pray amen