Whats The Point? | Daily Devotional 1636

You're listening to the My Morning Devotional Podcast, episode 1636. Today's Devo is called What's the Point?

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, the to-do lists get longer, it can be hard to find devotional time. That's why every weekday we share a five-minute daily dose of heaven. This is the My Morning Devotional Podcast.

Happy Monday, Stephanie here, and I am so glad to be back in my routine of making podcast devots for you guys. I just had my baby, my third baby, Joshua Stephen, and it went really, really well. Thank you guys for your prayers, for your support. I've definitely missed being in the podcast booth, but the rest and the time with my baby bonding with him has been so nice. I have valued every minute with my baby. He's so, so sweet. The delivery was easy. Well, it was a little hard, but we're good. We were covered, and it's always definitely a step of faith having to go give birth to a baby. And God, He strengthened me every step of the way. So I'm very excited to be back, and I'm very excited to dive into our devos about the book of Philippians. So I'm reading from Philippians 2, and today I want to specifically focus on Philippians 2, 3 through 4, which says in the NIV version, do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility, value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests, but each of you to the interests of others. I love that verse because recently I've uh been thinking about encouraging the Christian world, encouraging Christians to remember what the point of serving is. You know, it's very easy for us to forget why we do what we do. If you've been a Christian for a long time, sometimes you can hit a wall and seriously question, why am I serving all the time? Why does God require us to serve? Why does God require us to give? Maybe you're a new Christian and you're trying to jump into this new lifestyle of serving at a church in a Christian church, and you're wondering, well, what is the fruit of it? What's this going to give me? What's the point of serving and giving in as a Christian? Well, I want to share with you a story. My daughter, Gianna, she is learning, she's four years old, how to clean up her room and how to make her bed. And I have been pushing her every single morning, baby girl, right as before you start getting dressed, go and make your bed. And if you have children, you understand that their favorite question to ask you is, why? Why do I have to make my bed? Why do I have to brush my teeth? And I'm not asking her to mop the floors. I'm not asking her to take out the trash every day. Not yet, at least. That's coming. It's coming very soon. But right now, all I am asking Gianna to do is make her bed. And I had to explain to her, Gianna, you make your bed because it keeps your bed clean, which keeps your room clean, which keeps this part of the house clean, which then eventually keeps the whole house clean, which eventually makes the whole house and the family very happy because we walk in after a long day of work, or we wake up to our beautiful clean home, and it creates peace. Well, it's the same thing with serving at the Christian church. I want to remind you and encourage you that your little bit of service, your hour of opening doors to the guests on a Sunday morning, your 30 minutes of serving coffee to the guests at church, your 25 minutes of singing on a Sunday morning, I truly believe and I have the numbers to show that it affects the global church all around the world. You know, I found these statistics and it says that according to the Wycliffe Bible Translators, it reports that its current translation project spans more than 3,100 languages and 169 countries and territories with the potential of impacting 2.1 billion people. And this happens because it operates through a network of more than 20,000 individual field partners, churches, and organizations, which means one person serves, one church becomes stronger, one church participates in mission, which means thousands of churches work together, which means billions of people can hear the gospel of Jesus Christ. Let me share another statistic with you. Same place from Wycliffe reports that 352 people from the UK and Ireland, mission partners, staff, and volunteers are serving work connected to 583 million people, 323 languages and 62 countries. And they say that the work is possible because of the financial support and prayers of churches back home. This is what I believe. Who sends missionaries? Churches do. Who financially supports them? Churches and Christians. Who raises future pastors and missionaries? Churches. Who teaches their children? Churches. So if you stack the chair, someone has a place to sit and hear the gospel. If you serve their child in the children's ministry, their parents can hear the sermon and the gospel. When you run the camera, someone who could not attend could hear the message. When you disciple a teenager at the youth group, that teenager may become a future pastor. When you give your church, can send a missionary. So when Philippians says to rather in humility, value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interest. Don't look to your own schedule. Don't look to your own needs too much. Don't look too, don't stress out too much about what you need on a Sunday morning. Instead, flip the script. And each of us look to the interests of others in church. Because one small prayer for somebody on the front row of a church on a Sunday morning, a two-minute prayer, can completely change the trajectory of that person's life, which can then pour over to changing the trajectory of that ministry and then that church and then that city and then that country. And I do believe in my heart of hearts that your impact on a Sunday morning can pour over to impact the global church. If we just continue to serve our local church, we continue to put others' interests before ourselves. And if we continue to believe that the reason we do it all is to serve God ultimately, not our own dreams, not our own interests. Even though those are cherished and God knows the desires of our hearts and He will give you the desires of your hearts. So that we can continue to pour out and to give and to impact our local church so that it can impact the global church. And I hope that encourages you today. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you that you have called us to the greatest mission ever on this planet, which is to expand the kingdom of God. Lord, I pray that you will just give us a fresh vision for why we do what we do. You will give us a fresh drive, that the ones that are listening that have been Christians for a long time will not grow weary in doing good, but that they will see why they continue to serve day after day, year after year. And for those that are new Christians that are wondering why we do what we do, I pray that you will give them a calling on their life that they cannot ignore and deny. And that they will have a fresh excitement to serve your local church. So that you will be the hands and feet, and you will make us the hands and feet of the church to serve those who need you the most. And in Jesus' name we pray, amen.

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