We Serve

You're listening to the My Morning Devotional Podcast, episode 1580. Today's Devo is called We Serve.

Hey there, we're the Alessis, a ministry family working together in our church in Miami, Florida. And if you're like us, when days get busy and to-do lists get longer, it can be hard to find devotional time. That's why we've partnered with our friend Allison to produce a five-minute daily dose of heaven. This is the My Morning Devotional Podcast.

Well, hello everybody. Happy Friday. This is your host for the week, Gabby, as we close out the focus, which is why do we go to church? I hope this has blessed you. And I also will say, if you haven't listened to any of the other episodes from this week, please go back and listen to them. You don't need to listen to them in order, but you want to go back to listen to Mondays because there's a fun announcement. But it's good for us to hear and receive everything that's here because I truly believe that this is the Lord showing us and reminding us the importance of his house. And we should always remember the church is not just a gathering of random people, it's the gathering of God's people. And it's a place that he calls his house. So I want to talk about today one of the last reasons or the last reason for the week that we go to church is because we serve one of the titles that the Lord gives us when we are adopted into Christ is that we are servants of Christ. You see, if Christ served and we are to be like him, that means we should serve. And he did the ultimate act of service, which was wash his disciples' feet. Thank God there's not a feet washing team on Sunday mornings. Praise Jesus. That would be that'd be crazy. But you know what? If Jesus did it, we'd all have to do it. But he did the ultimate act of service, which was serving and humbly coming low before his disciples and cleaning their feet. And so all of us should see, God, if you serve, I serve. And even if my time might not allow for me to always serve God, whenever I can serve, I'm gonna serve you. Because in 1 Peter 4 10, it says this just as each one has received a gift, use it to serve others as good stewards of the varied grace of God. Why do we serve Peter? Well, 1 Peter tells us that we are to steward the grace of God. And one of the ways that we do that is by serving. And it's not just serving in a generic way. No, he's saying serve one another. When we go to church on Sundays, I do believe it's a call in our lives to serve. Wherever that might be, whatever team works for your personality. I said it yesterday, but we're all part of the body of Christ. So that means we are all different members, right? And people like to make the joke about being the members of Christ that, you know, you might be the shoulder and somebody might be the pinky toe, but the shoulder doesn't have more value than the pinky toe. And just if you were to lose your pinky toe, how would your life change? You know, if whenever we stub, the worst pain that we experience is when we stub our pinky toe, all right? So it's just show you how valuable that is as the body of Christ. But we are a part of this body, and every one of us has a different function. That means we all have different gifts, we all bring different things to the table. I love working with family because we all have those gifts. We're seeing it play out. And so my brother has the gift of being a visionary and he could see things in the future. He comes up with ideas and he can just stir something up out of nowhere. It's the most incredible gift. I wish that I had that. Whereas I have a very strategic mind where I don't think of ideas, but if you give me an idea, I can build off of it and create the system or create the plan that you're wanting to do. Now, me on my own, we'd have no new ideas. My brother on his own, we'd only have ideas. But when we come together, we are working together as a body of Christ to have ideas and then execute those ideas. And that's an example of how all of us are when we serve on a Sunday morning. You see, we need people in the kids' ministry to watch the kids. We need people on the worship team to lead us into worship. We need the media team. We especially today, with technology the way that it is, if we want to reach more people, we've got to put all of our effort into our production and media teams. We need people at the front door welcoming and greeting our new guests and calling them to get back next Sunday. We need people walking around praying for the room, praying for our people, people giving out gifts to the new salvation converts. You see, we are all needed. If one team did not show up that Sunday, the service would not be what it needs to be. So we're all needed. And just like I said yesterday, church cannot become where we get our needs met and then we leave. It has to be where I go and I serve God. What does your church need? What do you need from me? And in that serving, God fills up your cup. See, the word of God says, when you refresh others, you will be refreshed. So when you refresh the church on a Sunday morning by service, in the meantime of that serving, God will refresh your soul. And God will give you what you need. So I want us to remind ourselves today. I want to remind you today that we are called to serve God's house. Not just because our pastor's calling us to do it, not because our church needs so much from us. No, that's what God gave us. The label, the identity he gave us was a servant of the Lord. And if Jesus served, count on me to serve this Sunday. If that's you, if you need prayer for it, come on, let's end in prayer. Let's pray for this entire week. Father, I just thank you for the reminder. And I thank you for your word that always tells us and challenges us and remind us of why we go to church on Sunday. Lord, this might seem minute, this might seem elementary or even not needed. But Father, we're seeing a lot of Christians fall away from attending your house and ultimately leaving a relationship with you indefinitely. And as believers, God, we need to align ourselves and remind ourselves of the importance of gathering together as a body of Christ. It is not just a church that's controlled by man. No, God, the church and the body of Christ is controlled and led by you. God, you lead our church. You are the one that shepherds us and you appoint leaders for each house, God, that you hold accountable to take care of their people. So let us be reminded, Lord, that church is not just about us. It's not about our needs. No, Lord, it's about meeting the needs of your people and it's about worshiping and honoring you. And so I just pray that you would use this Devo to challenge us and remind us and use us, God, to serve greater, to worship more, to belong and feel that sense of belonging to encourage and to grow at church this Sunday. Bless everybody listening, bless their weekend, God. I'm praying for miracles, blessings, breakthrough, testimonies, whatever they need, God, let it come to them in Jesus' name. Amen.

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