Serve to Lead
Simple Life

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It’s great to see you! It’s such an important day in the life of our church. Praise the Lord for these 32 years, but we’re not finished. The Lord is still moving in our church and we’re still reaching out to see more people follow Jesus. We’re finishing up the series that we’ve been calling, “SIMPLE LIFE: How Simple Commitments Create Great Life Change.”

How the church started is with a simple commitment. A simple commitment is to say, ‘You know, Jesus, whatever You call me to do , I’m going to do it.’ It is to put your “yes” on the table; to give God your “yes.” That’s how great life change happens.

You might be saying, ‘Yeah, but I don’t know what He’s going to call me to do.’ He doesn’t tell you that; you just have to say, ‘Lord, I don’t know what it is, but I say “yes” in advance;’ then, He tells you along the way. That’s what we’re talking about today.

One of the best ways to make your life full and overflowing and to have this simple life that we’re talking about in this crazy complex chaotic world, is to ask yourself the question, Why am I here and what does God want from me to find my purpose in life? and then to streamline all of the “yeses” and “nos” in your life around that. To say, ‘I’m going to say, ‘yes,’ to the things that are in alignment with God’s purpose for my life and I’m going to say, “no,” to the things that don’t align with His purpose. This simplifies life, so that you make room for what’s important and you can get rid of those things in your life that are cluttering up your life, that are distractions from what God is calling you to do.

We live in a day when many of us are just drifting along without any sense of life purpose. We live in a day where we’ve bought into the culture’s idea about owning a lot of things and staying busy. It’s the so-called American dream. We think if we could just do everything on our “bucket list;” if we could go here and experience that, but, what do you do when the “bucket” comes up empty? What do you do after you’ve done all of those things and you say, Now what?

We have people that are feeling empty and unfulfilled.We think, If I could just be number one. If I could just be successful. If I could win American Idol. If I could win the Super Bowl. If I could be number one… But then, when you talk to people who’ve climbed to the heights, you often observe that they’re very lonely up there, because in climbing the ladder of success, they’ve stepped on all the important relationships in their life, on every rung of the ladder, and now they’re alone because they’ve left behind family and friends in their pursuit of worldly success.

How do we find this purpose? How do we find the reason God made us? Why am I here?

Mahatma Gandhi once said, “The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.” If you are trying to discover yourself and find a sense of fulfillment and purpose, there is no better way than in serving others. He had this idea. He was a student. He was a Hindu, but he was a student of the Gospels and he was a student of Jesus. He never came to faith in Jesus, but he greatly admired Jesus as a servant leader.

That’s what we’re talking about today – this idea of finding yourself by losing yourself and following Jesus and serving others. I like to look up things and to find out if there is a scientific basis that proves this out. God teaches us this, the Bible teaches us this, but has anybody looked into this to see if serving others, helping others, actually is beneficial? I went on Google and I found in this article seven scientific benefits of helping and serving others. I’ll give them to you quickly: “7 Scientific Benefits of Helping Others” –– https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/71964/7-scientific-benefits-helping-others 1. Helping others can help you live longer. Research has shown that serving others improves health and longevity. 2. Helping others is contagious. One study found that people are more likely to perform feats of generosity after observing another do do the same. 3. Helping others makes us happy. One team of sociologists tracked 2000 people over a five-year period and found that Americans who described themselves as “very happy” volunteered at least 5.8 hours per month. 4. Helping others may help with chronic pain. According to one study, people who suffered from chronic pain tried working as peer volunteers. As a result, they experienced a reduction in their own symptoms. 5. Helping others lowers blood pressure. One piece of research showed that older individuals who volunteered for at least 200 hours a year decreased their risk of hypertension by a whopping 40 percent. 6. Helping others promotes positive behaviors in teens. According to sociologists, teenagers who volunteer have better grades and a better self image. 7. Helping others gives us a sense of purpose and satisfaction. Studies show that volunteering enhances an individual’s overall sense of purpose and identity—particularly if they no longer hold a life-defining role like “worker” or “parent.”

Science indicates that it improves your well being, your longevity, your happiness… it gives you a purpose, but more important than that, there’s an even greater benefit and it’s following Jesus. Jesus said that’s why I made you. I made you for a purpose. I made you so that you could serve God and serve others. There’s just such joy found there; Jesus calls us to be servant leaders.

Now, we’re going to be looking at the book of Matthew. In the book of Matthew, a mother came to Jesus. She had two boys and she was really proud of them. Their names were James and John; they were two of the twelve disciples following Jesus. The mother came to Jesus and she said, ‘Jesus, I know that you’re going to be the king of a kingdom. I was wondering if you would look at my two boys. They are good boys. What if you gave one of them a seat on your right hand and the other a seat on the left. How about that?’ She’s kind of like “that mama” that would go down to the little league coach and ask him to start her little boy. So, this is what she asks Jesus and Jesus tells her that she doesn’t understand the path to leadership. She doesn’t understand the way they’ll have to go. Then, He gave this teaching that the way to lead in the kingdom that He is founding is upside down from the way that the world’s leaders lead. It’s the path of servanthood. It’s the path of servant leadership.

I believe, as we look at the text today, God’s still calling us, Jesus is still calling us to be servant leaders. How can we do that? As we look, we’ll see three ways. Let’s dig in; remember the context. This is Jesus. He’s given this teaching after this mama has come up looking for these two roles for her sons.

Matthew 20:25-28 (ESV) 25 But Jesus called them to him and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. 26 It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, 27 and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, 28 even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” This is God’s word . Amen.

We’re looking for three ways on how to be a servant leader. I’m going to follow something that maybe you’ve heard of; there is this “leadership guru,” whose name is John Maxwell. John Maxwell offers these proverbs, if you will, about leadership. Here’s one that I’m going to be using as a kind of template to look at the Jesus model for leadership: “A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.” Let’s look at his three observations there, about a true leader and apply it to what Jesus is saying. This is how I’ve worded it:

HOW TO BE A SERVANT LEADER

1. Know the way of the Son.

Look at verse 28; notice how Jesus refers to Himself. He refers to Himself as “the Son of Man.” What does this mean? Notice, in the translation, that those words are capitalized. That’s because it’s a title and this is how Jesus referred to himself, often in the gospels. It was a Messianic title. It was a way of saying, ‘I am the Christ.’ It was often used in the book of Daniel in the Old Testament to describe the “Ancient of Days” that was to come. the Messiah that was to come. When the Jews heard it, they knew He was talking about His identity as the Son of God, Who became the Son of Man, the Messiah, the Christ.

How to know the way begins with knowing Jesus. To know the way is not to know the path. It’s to know the person and He says, “Come follow me.” Knowing the way means to know the person Jesus. He is the way and He’s calling us to follow.

It says in John 14:6 (ESV) Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” The path is not that which we’re to follow; we’re to follow a person. His name is Jesus.

Notice that Jesus begins by contrasting the way that the world leads. He talks about the rulers of the Gentiles. He said, in verse 25, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them…” In other words, they walk all over people, they stand on other people’s shoulders and press them down in order to lead. They might do it through political things or backstabbing and maybe even violence, but they lord it over them. That’s how they rise to the top.

Then He says, in verse 25, “and their great ones exercise authority over them.” So, the ones who are great are the ones who put themselves first. They do whatever it takes to win. Maybe, that’s what James and John’s mom was thinking Jesus was going to do, but that’s not what he’s getting ready to do.

He says that the pathway to the kingdom of Heaven is not what you think. It’s not climbing the ladder of success. It’s not climbing to greatness. It’s descending to greatness. It’s that, in verse 26, “But whoever would be great among you must be your servant,” This is radical; it’s “upside down.” But, maybe, it’s actually “right side up.”

Maybe, you’re here this morning and you’re thinking, But I’m not a leader. I’m more of a follower. But what if Jesus is calling you to use your gifts, to use that which God has gifted you to serve others and in serving others, He actually elevates you to servant leadership. That the pathway in the Kingdom of Heaven to being a leader; it is actually to be a servant . This is the new way; this is the way of the Son. This is the new way.

If you’re in the corporate world today or any kind of world where you’re studying leadership principles, it’s like people have just found the leadership model. They think it is a new thing, but this idea of servant leadership has been around for 2000 years. This idea of, instead of trying to press people down in order to be a leader, you lift them up. This is the way that He says to know the way of the Son. This is really interesting.

As we look at this, in verse 25, He says the great ones (in the Greek, the “megas) press down. But Jesus says, ‘If you really want to be great, if you really want to be “megas,” the path is to descend to greatness. To go down and be a servant of others.

And as we think about following Jesus, what does He tell us to do? Well, we don’t have to guess. He gives us two thoughts on this. Both of them are great. He gives us two great ways to greatness: One is the Great Commission and the other is the Great Commandment. Our church is based on that; our church is not the steeple. Our church is the people; it’s us. We’re the church. The Great Commission says this, Matthew 28:18-20 (ESV) 18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” The Great Commission is that we’re to make disciples , followers of Jesus, servant leaders. I think we’re all called to this servant leadership thing; the way that we lead is by serving. We become people who lead others to follow Jesus. We make more servant leaders. We make more disciples. That’s the Great Commission.

Then He tells us what these disciples should look like. They should look like Jesus, but He gives us more detail. So, what is that? It’s the Great Commandment. He says in Mark 12:30-31 (ESV) 30 And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ 31 The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” Now, we didn’t plan for the children to have that scripture today as their “prove it” verse. At least I didn’t know about it. We’re not that smart to plan this, but it happened today. Praise God. That was awesome. Our children are learning this verse. Maybe you know the verse. But, it’s not enough just to know it in your head. He wants this in our heart – that we would love God with priority, with our heart, soul, mind and strength and that we would love others as ourselves. That’s what it looks like to follow Jesus.

What should Jesus’ disciples look like? They should look like people who love God and love each other as they love themselves. Eastgate Church exists to make disciples of Jesus Christ who have a growing heart for God, expressed in passionate worship and generous giving , a growing heart for each other, expressed an authentic fellowship and devoted discipleship and a growing heart for our world, expressed an intentional evangelism and sacrificial service. We just put into words, basically, what He said in the Great Commission and the Great Commandment. If you want to be great, you need to serve and make disciples who love God, love each other and love our world.

Learning the way of the Son begins with knowing the Son. By knowing the Son, we follow His purpose. This is about the “why” you do stuff. This is about the “why” you do what you do. Let’s say you’re serving in our church; you have said “yes” to being on the guest services team. Your job is to stand at the front door and to wear a lanyard with your name on it that says “welcome.” You stand in front of the placard that says “Guest Services.” You may be thinking, This is not a highly skilled position.They told me to smile and to say good morning and I do it. But, you need to know the way of the Son. If you know the way the Son, then you start thinking, I’m involved with making disciples of Jesus Christ who have a heart for God, heart for each other and heart for our world. What I’m doing right now is making it possible for that first-time guest, that second-time guest, that mother who’s coming in, her husband has left her and she’s coming in with her kids. You are that gentle person at the door that helps her check those kids in, smiles and remembers her name when she comes back out. She makes a decision that day, on her first visit to that church, whether she’s ever coming back. She doesn’t make that decision based on the music. She doesn’t base it on the preacher and his preaching. She bases it on these things: They were good to me. They remembered my name. They smiled. They helped me with my children.

What you are doing is integral. It’s part of making disciples of Jesus. Think about the nursery worker, the one working with the children. Think about every aspect of what we do, but then expand it outside the church, because the church is us and wherever we go, we are the church. If you think about serving in your neighborhood or serving wherever, it’s not the “thing” you’re doing. It’s the “why” you’re doing it. Why are you doing it? It’s because I am a follower of Jesus, I serve other people because He came to serve. Now that I’m following Him, I’m doing it the same way. You become a servant at the school. You become a servant on your sports team. You become a servant in your neighborhood. You become a servant at your workplace; you might be surprised that you get promoted. It’s because you’re lifting others up and then God lifts you up.

This is the way of servanthood that Jesus is describing James, John and the other disciples. It’s radical. It’s the opposite of the world. He says that the way to become great, the way to come in first is actually to serve others. This is what he says, which leads us to the second way that we can be servant leaders:

HOW TO BE A SERVANT LEADER

2. Go the way of the servant.

Do you want to be a great servant ? Do you want to be first or to be a slave? He makes it harder here in verse 27. He says, 27 “and whoever would be first among you must be your slave,” Do you want to be the first one across the finish line? Do you want to win the Super Bowl? Do you want to get the trophy? Then, be a slave. He took it to a new level. It says in the Greek, if you want to be great “diakonos,” you want to come in first be a “doulos.” In fact, in the Greek, he says if you want to be a “prōtos,” be a “doulos.” “Prōtos” is first, “doulos” is slave. If you want to come in first, treat yourself like you are last; put others first. That’s upside down. That’s opposite. What happens is, as you begin to lead this life, it fills you with joy and God is the one who elevates you. He’s the one who promotes you. He’s the one that gives you influence and others begin to see you as that indispensable member of the team, that indispensable fellow employee, that indispensable neighbor who, when you’re blowing off your curb, you go ahead and get their curb too. Whenever your neighbor does something to irritate you, instead of bringing that to their attention, you do something kind to them. You become a servant and little by little God elevates you and gives you more influence. This is the pathway to servant leadership.

Look how the disciples describe themselves in their letters: Romans one verse one, this is the Apostle Paul. He says, Romans 1:1 (NLT) “This letter is from Paul, a slave of Christ Jesus …” a “doulos” of Jesus. This is from Peter, 2 Peter 1:1 (NLT) “This letter is from Simon Peter, a slave and apostle of Jesus Christ …” They went ahead and bought into this, saying that they are blood bought; Jesus owns me. I am a slave of Jesus; I’m proud to be a bond servant of Jesus because He bought me by His blood, saved me and set me free. I’m His; I’m a follower of Jesus. I’m sold out. That’s what they said.

Now, I’m even more impressed by these other two “dudes.”These two guys, James and Jude, are the half brothers of Jesus. Don’t you know that they saw something in Jesus! I don’t know how many of you have a big brother, but for you to say you’re His “slave?” James is Jesus’ half brother. James 1:1 (NLT) “This letter is from James, a slave of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ …” Jude is Jesus’ other half brother. He says in Jude 1:1 (NLT) “This letter is from Jude, a slave of Jesus Christ and a brother of James …” Now, Jude wasn’t going to say anything about being a slave of James; he made sure of that, right? He said that he was a slave of Jesus, but I’m just a brother of James. They must have seen something spectacular. They must have seen the risen Lord Jesus and realized, You know what? He’s the Son of God and I’m His follower. I’m a slave. These are men of God who identified themselves as slaves of Jesus; they were sold out and blood bought by Jesus.

A good leader serves others and is an example of this servanthood in the way they do excellent service, no matter who’s looking in. Luke 22:26 (ESV) “But not so with you. Rather, let the greatest among you become as the youngest, and the leader as one who serves.”

Pastor Jonathan Minter leads our children’s ministry and he recently got this book that has a list of prayers and liturgies for different practical life experiences. He’s been reading them to me lately and he found one called, “A Liturgy for Changing Diapers.” It is like a prayer for for mamas, daddies and nursery workers at the church. Pastor Minter printed out this liturgy, framed it and hung it over the changing table in our nursery to inspire our nursery workers. It is an encouragement for why they do what they do. It is to inspire them that they are doing this for Jesus and that they are doing it so others can come to faith in Jesus, to do it with excellence because they are doing it for Jesus. I’m doing it. That is their motivation. Sometimes, doing the little things and the lowly things just stinks. It’s small, frustrating and obscure; who cares? I wanted to be a star and, instead, I’m a nursery worker. You tell yourself things like this. But to serve, especially, those who can’t serve themselves is the greatest act of service in the building this morning. No one’s watching. They’re back there with your children and they’re changing diapers, so pastor Jonathan hung that in a frame so that, as they change a diaper, they pray for this little one: ‘Lord, I pray that You would cause them to grow up to be Your follower and that they would do great things in the name of Jesus. Protect this little body. Help me, also, to serve with love and to do it with excellence.’ If you go the way of the servant, you’ll do the little things. The pathway to doing greater things is to first do the little things . In the book of Zechariah 4:10, he told them, when they were rebuilding the temple, “Do not despise the day of small beginnings.”

We watched a video earlier of what the church looked like when it started in my living room, when we were doing baptisms at the Tar River reservoir, when your pastor was too poor to buy contacts and he was wearing those old aviator glasses from the eighties. Somebody said to me after the first service that we should bring aviator glasses back. You don’t need me to bring them back; they’re too heavy on your face. But yes, there were the small beginnings back then and the Lord’s not done with us. As long as we hang on to Him and we keep serving, we don’t have to aim at being great. We aim at being small and He decides who to elevate. If we aim at being great, we’re doing it the way the world does it, but, if we aim at being small. We aim at serving one another and serving our city. Then, He will give us the power of influence.

It’s simple: Serve God and serve others. It’s a great calling. Do it with excellence, with God’s way. It means understanding why you’re doing it, but also knowing how to do it and then to do it with excellence, with joy and with cheerfulness. It means that I serve in the nursery for Jesus and for these babies, to give them a safe and clean environment, so that their mamas and daddies can feel safe.

Last week, I told you that one of our couples in the church was with their first baby and standing outside the nursery. They were standing just inside the glass doors, looking into the nursery and then looking at their baby, then looking into the nursery and looking at their baby. I came out and I saw them standing there. I asked them if it was their first time. They replied, “Uh huh.” Working in the nursery is such an important job.

We are offering a seminar next week, a very practical seminar next Saturday, called, “Munch and Learn.” You can sign up on the event tab in the Church Center app. We will provide snacks and, also, “feed” you facts and teachings about parenting. We have many classes that we’re offering next Saturday. Here are a few: Parenting in a digital age. Parenting the active child (the hyper child), parenting through a mental crisis, which we see more and more , especially among our young people, parenting teens and other impossible tasks, how to have “the talk.” I hope, if you’re a parent, that you will want to go the way of the servant and learn more about parenting God’s way. One of the ways you do that is you “tool” yourself up and learn. Go to the Church Center app and register for this; it’s next Saturday. I hope you’ll be there.

HOW TO BE A SERVANT LEADER

3. Show the way of the Savior.

So, know the way of the Son, go the way of the servant and, finally, show the way of the Savior. Jesus told us that we must be servants if we want to be great. We must be slaves if we want to be first.

Then, Jesus took it down, down, down because you see, Jesus came down, down, down. He was at the right hand of the Father; the book of Philippians talks about it. He was surrounded by the angelic host singing, ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty.’ Philippians 2:6-8 says this, “Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; 7 rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!” Jesus became a servant, but He wasn’t done. He kept on climbing down the ladder of love. He humbled Himself unto death, even death on a cross. He humbled himself and became a man; He limited Himself and became the Son of man and hung and became a curse.

Then that chapter concludes with Philippians 2:9-11, 9 “Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

We see here, in verse 28, “even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” He poured His life out. He gave Himself as a ransom for those of us who had been “kidnapped” by Satan and by the world. He bought us; He ransomed his life in exchange for ours. He offered Himself in our place. He came down the ladder of love. “Therefore, God has exalted him…”

This is our Savior who said, “Come follow me.” He invites us to give our lives for others and to pour out our lives for others. You can’t really say you’ve really lived to the fullest until you’ve poured your life out for it. Jesus, without apology, was the master teacher of servant leadership. Jesus is, ‘do what I do; come and follow me.Pour your life out. It’s worth it.’ This is what He calls us to. He says, ‘I gave My life as a ransom. I poured my life out. Give your life to this. It’s worth it.’

We live in an age where psychologists are telling us that our young boys are suffering from a condition that they’re calling, “failure to launch .” Young boys are not launching into manhood. Maybe it’s because, as parents, we’ve forgotten how to raise boys. Maybe it’s their culture, but I think a part of this is that they don’t know what their purpose is. It could be the way the culture has painted being male as some sort of negative thing and so there’s no space left for them. This is why we have gender dysphoria and sexual dysphoria. It’s bad for girls in a different sense, but for boys, it seems to be about purpose. They don’t know why they exist anymore and so, they just continue being boys all the way into their twenties, thirties and on and on. They never leave home. They have a “failure to launch;” they don’t know the way. They don’t go the way and they certainly don’t show the way. They don’t know how to pour their lives out.

Let me just ask you ladies, “Don’t you want to have sons, husbands and fathers that are willing to pour their life out for their families, for their city and for their nation? Don’t you want them to be willing to give their lives?”

This sacrificial way of being a leader is not to be a dominator, but to be a servant and pour your life out. We must raise our young men to do this and our young women to support men being like that and being servants.

When Paul was trying to teach his young son in the Lord, Timothy, (this Timothy was not his biological son, it was his son in the Lord) whom he had led to Jesus, Paul had Timothy follow him around as he ministered. Paul invested his life in Timothy. He was developing a servant leader in Timothy. Paul writes this to him in second Timothy. This is a letter. It’s his second letter to Timothy. He says in 2 Timothy 2:2 (NIV) “And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others.”

Paul used to kill Christians. He was a zealot. He was a persecutor of Christians, but Jesus saved him. He was the least of the apostles and, and the worst of sinners, but, because of His grace, He saved me. Timothy was a witness to this. Paul has poured out his life. In fact, he goes on in this letter to say, ‘I’ve poured out my life like a drink offering to the Lord.’ Now, Timothy, I want you to do what I’ve done. I’m, I’ve poured my life into you, Timothy. Now, you go, find men and women and pour your life into them.

If we do that with our children, if we do that with our schoolmates or if we as teachers do that with our students, what might happen is they might grow up under us and be greater than us. In fact, you might invest in somebody at work, teaching them your job and teaching them why you do it. You teach them to know the way, go the way and show the way. You show them how to do your job. They might get promoted and you might be working for them. You should celebrate that. You should be like Paul, who says, ‘I want you to do what I’ve done. I’ve poured my life into you. I’ve shown you the way. Now, you go the way. You know the way; now, you go the way and you show others.’ I just believe that we’re supposed to be a “leadership factory” here at the church. We’re to be producing disciples that are servant leaders. The pathway to this leadership is servanthood, to serve others. Jesus led the master class on this.

I’ve got a little chart for you. You guys know that I love charts. I haven’t popped a chart up in a while. I just feel like a chart is overdue. Here comes one; here’s a little chart. It’s called “The 5 Steps of Leadership Development.” It’s really simple: 1) I do. You watch. We talk. 2) I do. You help. We talk. 3) You do. I help. We talk. 4) You do. I watch. We talk. 5) You do. Someone else watches…

This is the five steps of leadership development. Church, we should be doing this. First of all, we’re following Jesus. He’s teaching us, we’re following and then we’re bringing someone with us, like our mom and dad. We are bringing our children. We are doing this in every area at work. We are pouring our life into other people. It’s the greatest thing on planet earth to serve others. It brings you wholeness and happiness; it’s just a wonderful thing. You’re helping and then you gain influence because you’re pouring into others, showing the way of the Savior, showing them that He’s the one that made me like this and answering their questions when they ask.

The church is 32 years old; today is our 32nd anniversary. Are we a church that’s making disciples who are servant leaders, who have a heart for God, heart for each other and a heart for our world? The word for the year is leadership.

I was just thinking about our church going into 2024. I have been reading the newspaper and talking to some city leaders. There is more new construction in Wilson County of residential houses being built than in any other time. There is talk about a baseball stadium coming downtown. What’s going on here? It looks like there’s a great demographic shift coming to the city; our city is becoming a fast growing place to live and work.

What’s our church going to do? Are we just going to sit here and maintain? You know that I’m getting older; it would be tempting for an older pastor to think, You know, I’ve worked really hard for the last 32 years. I think that I will just ‘coast;’ I’ll just take care of this flock. All those other people coming into town can go their way without hearing about Jesus. I can’t do that. Can you do that? I can’t do that. So, what do we do?

I started thinking, in order to take care of whoever new is coming to our area, whoever new is coming this way, we need to build a bigger “barn” for a bigger “harvest.” Now, I’m not talking about the building because “the church is not the steeple, the church is the people.” In order to have the capacity, in order to have the barn to contain the harvest, we must have more leaders, more servant leaders. Can I give you a couple of examples?

Right now, we have twenty community groups in our church. These groups meet in twenty different homes every week. I hope you’re in one. It’s a way of, of growing closer together to God and to one another. These community groups meet in living rooms all over eastern North Carolina right now and I hope you’re in one. We have sixteen community groups that provide that kind of service for the Wilson campus and four that serve the Rocky Mount campus. They’re devoted to the teaching of the word of God, to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and prayer and they practice this every week. Now, what if, in every one of those groups, the shepherd of each of those groups says, ‘I’m going to train an apprentice this year. I’m going to do and my apprentice watches me do. Next week, you’re going to do and I’m gonna help you do. The following week, you’re going to do and I’m going to watch you do.’ Do you see where I’m going with this? What if every one of our shepherds started thinking, Who’s my replacement? Think of the team you’re on, whether it’s at church, at work, in your neighborhood or at your school; whatever team you’re on, how can you replace yourself? What I mean by that is , how can I pour my life into someone else to develop them to be a servant leader?

I believe if we do this in our community groups, I’ll be standing up here next year, if the Lord delays His coming, and I will say, ‘Now, we’ve got 30 community groups.’ We’re going to keep trusting God, because if we don’t have the capacity to take care of the next persons that walk through our doors, then we won’t be able to care for them and then they’ll walk right out the back door. Who will care for themthen ? The Lord loves them and He trusts us with them. We have to have the capacity. We need more leaders in every area of our church.

We’re, also, praying about planting a third campus. You’ve probably been hearing me talk about this so long that you’re thinking, Yeah, you’ve been talking about that for a while. We’re still believing it. The reason that we named our church “Eastgate” is because we’re interested in leading people to Jesus in eastern North Carolina because that’s where we are. Everything east of I-95, I feel like God is telling us to do something about it. That means we need more leaders. We need more people that are feeling called to missions, local missions and international missions. We need so many more leaders. Some of us are just “sitting on our hands.” We’re just “sitting” on our leadership gifts and our serving gifts. God has told you; He wants you. Maybe, you’re afraid or maybe you just don’t know . ‘God, I’ll give You my “yes” if You just tell me what You’re gonna do, but He never does it. He always says, ‘I need your “yes,” then, I’ll tell you where you’re going.

It’s hard to drive a parked car. You must start driving and then God will give you the direction. You need to start saying “yes” and then He’ll give you direction.

Jesus is coming soon. I want Him to find us busy, Amen. What are you doing? Is your “yes” on the table? Are you ready to serve the Lord and to serve His people where God has called you today? This is what God’s asking us to do. This is what I believe. He’s called us to know the way of the Son of God, to go the way of the servant and to show the way of the Savior. We need that on a T shirt, don’t we? “Know the way, go the way, show the way.” But more than that, we need in our hearts.

Let’s pray. Lord, thank You for Your word. We’re praying for leaders. We’re praying for people that would recognize the pathway to leadership is servanthood. Lord help us to do the little things, help us to be the people of God that are willing to do the little things and allow You to lift us up to greater things. Lord, we love You. I pray, first of all, for that person that might be in my hearing right now that has never said “yes” to Jesus. That’s the first step of knowing the way is to know the Son, to know Who he is and to follow him. Have you ever done that? Have you ever said, ‘I want to follow You, Jesus.’ You can do it right now, in prayer. Prayer is just expressing your faith. Right in your seat, just pray with me, ‘ Dear Lord Jesus, I’m a sinner. I need a Savior . I believe You died on the cross for me, that You were raised from the grave and that You live today. I believe that. Come and live in me, forgive me of my sin and adopt me into Your family. I want to be a child of God and I want You as my Lord and Savior.’ If you’re believing that, in prayer right now, asking Him, He’ll save you. Others are here and you’ve given your life to Jesus, but you’re “sitting” on your service. You’re withholding your service. It could be fear; it could be something else. It could be a hurt right now. Would you say, ‘Lord, forgive me. My “yes” is on the table. I put it there afresh, Lord; I will do what You’ve called me to do. Just tell me what to do, Lord. I’m ready to do the little things to serve You.’ We pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.