Are you serving for Jesus or from Jesus?

Good evening. I want to thank Mike Newman for inviting me to come and be a part of your revival. I also want to thank you for accepting me into your body to bring you God’s Word this evening.

When Mike asked me to bring the message this evening I asked him is there a theme for the revival, he said no preach whatever God lays on your heart. I said okay is there a time limit, he said no whatever God wants you to bring, bring that.

Now I realize this is a baptist church and it is good to be in a baptist church....you may or may not know that I am the pastor at Community Christian Church in Nevada mo. I was saved at the age of 9 at Calvary Baptist in Nevada and we attended First Baptist in Nevada for many years. I went to college and fell away from church and God brought me back to Him through a wonderful, beautiful redhead and her young son. I should also add crazy to that list because next month Melody and I will be married 22 years. I wake up everyday and thank God that He blessed me with her and that she has yet to come to her senses because living with me for any length of time, especially 22 years is beyond hard!

Before we get into what God has for us tonight I want to share a bit of my story because it ties in to where we are headed this evening. My parents were divorced when I young and that is how we ended up here in Nevada. My mom actually was hired to be the 5th grade teacher at Schell City by Glen Wilbanks. She taught there for a short time before being hired at the Nevada State Hospital in Nevada. We attended FBC in Nevada and that is where she met my step-dad, Kenny. What a blessing he has been and still is in my life.

I had the pretty typical life, I was a three sport athlete for NHS and all the time attended church and youth, even was part of the youth choir and was a clown make up and everything as part of the youth missions. Some say I still am a clown but that is okay.

I lived a double life however. I was one way at church and home, the good Josh and another way at school and sports, the bad Josh. I knew Jesus but for sure never lived from Jesus. I was saved but I was not living from that salvation and love Jesus showed me on the cross.

I found pornography as a young teen and it was a part of my life for 20 plus years off and on but for sure an addiction. God delivered me from that addiction and so many other things in November of 2015 when I attended Men’s Encounter and figured out what being a follow of Christ was all about!

I think I have always felt the call of Christ on my life to be a pastor but He really cemented that during that weekend and the following months. After Encounter my family and I ended up at Sheldon Baptist Church with Pastor Jerrod and Josh Lamb. I was in the mens group with Josh and also played guitar on the praise band. It was then that God prepared me to be ready to answer the call in August of 2018 when He called me to CCC in Nevada.

As I was praying about what to bring tonight God laid a sermon on my that I preached back in Nov of 2021. I went back to that sermon and revised it for tonight and I am excited to see what God is going to do with His word this evening.

This message came as a result of a devotion plan on the Bible app for pastors. There were 4 statements in the plan that hit me and led me to the message I am bringing tonight.

God intended to get His Kingdom plans to operate in the earth by flowing through us

God’s original design was for me to do things from Him, not for Him

Effective ministry is more about what Jesus can do through us than what we can do for Him

Our churches are in desperate need of leaders who no longer minister for Jesus but instead minster from Jesus

Before we begin, however, I feel it is very important to realize that we serve in Christ because of Christ.

I want to start at the cross and make sure we have a clear understanding of what happened on the cross. So many times today the cross is just a necklace or a bumper sticker or something we have hanging in our churches but it is not looked at or remembered for what it truly was.

Jesus, while he was on the cross, became your sin....became my sin.....not just taking our sin but became our sin.

That means He knows your sin intimately.

He knows your sin better than you do

When the devil tells you no one understands

Jesus understand because He felt exactly what you feel in your sin

The pain

the anguish

the embarassment

the hurt

the desperation

the hoplessness

He knows because he felt it

He became it

He forgave it and He defeated the power of sin in your life

That is where we must start this evening

Matthew 27:45-50

______________________________________

“From noon until three in the afternoon, darkness came over the whole land. About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out with a loud voice, “Elí, Elí, lemá sabachtháni?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?” When some of those standing there heard this, they said, “He’s calling for Elijah.” Immediately one of them ran and got a sponge, filled it with sour wine, put it on a stick, and offered him a drink. But the rest said, “Let’s see if Elijah comes to save him.” But Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and gave up his spirit.”

This is the moment when Jesus became our sin.

He felt two things He had never felt before

Sin

And the Father looking away from Him

As I said earlier He felt your sin

He felt my sin

He felt the sin of the past, present and all sin that will be committed until He returns

He became that sin so that He could die as a payment for that sin

He was perfect

He had never sinned but yet chose to become sin

The second and much more painful was that when He became sin God turned away because God is holy and cannot look upon sin

As Jesus became our sin God had to look away

God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit have been together for eternity and this is the first and only time God had ever looked away from Jesus.

Think of the hurt that had to cause, the rejection He must have felt.

I believe this moment is what Jesus was praying about in the garden, remove this cup…He was praying so intensely that His sweat was blood.....remove this cup but nevertheless your will not my will.

That is the price that Jesus paid to reconcile us to God. That is the price God paid to have us reconciled back to Him

Your sin

My sin did that to Jesus

What does all that mean and how is that tied to the question are you serving for Jesus or from Jesus?

Great question. Here is what Jesus becoming our sin and then dying for that sin means to you and me…look back at

Matthew 27:51

_____________________

“Suddenly, the curtain of the sanctuary was torn in two from top to bottom, the earth quaked, and the rocks were split.”

The curtain that separate the holy of holies from the people which separated God from the people was torn in two from top to bottom by God himself to signify that the wall between us, God and people was gone

Through Jesus, from Jesus we have direct access to the Father. That is huge

We pray directly to God

He speaks directly to us

There is now nothing including sin that blocks us from God. Your sin and my sin is already paid for

That then gives us freedom to live from Christ.

II Corinthians 5:17

_____________________

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, and see, the new has come!”

If any man be in Christ he is a NEW creature.

All of the old is dead and gone. Old thoughts

Old attitudes

Old behaviors

Old beliefs

old sins

old everything is gone

You are no longer a physical being bound by the physical world and satan and death

From Christ you are a new spiritual being set free by Christ to live from Christ

That changes everything

So lets look then at the question are you serving for Jesus or From Jesus

Luke 10:38-42

_____________________

“While they were traveling, he entered a village, and a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. She had a sister named Mary, who also sat at the Lord’s feet and was listening to what he said. But Martha was distracted by her many tasks, and she came up and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to serve alone? So tell her to give me a hand.” The Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and upset about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has made the right choice, and it will not be taken away from her.””

Let’s break this down and look a little deeper together

Martha received Jesus

That means that she must have sat at Jesus’ feet as well. She welcomed Him into her home but she choose to get up and serve instead of sit

Mary “left me to serve alone”

That means that at some point Mary was also serving but she choose to stop serving and sit at Jesus’ feet

Both made a choice, one to serve Jesus and one to be with Jesus

Jesus’ reply to Martha’s complaint

Martha, you are worried and consumed with serving me. Mary is consumed by me. That is the one thing that is needful.....Jesus

What does this all mean?

If I stopped right now you would leave here believing you should stop serving for Jesus and be with Jesus and you would be correct but let’s explain this a bit more and dig even deeper

You may be asking yourself does it mean I am to stop working?

Am I supposed to stop doing the things in my life and my church that I am currently doing?

Nope it doesn’t mean that at all. In fact it probably means the opposite that you will end up doing more.

What are we to do?

Love Jesus

Chase Jesus

Allow Jesus to minster you as you grow closer to Him and gain a better understanding of who He is and what He wants to do through you!!!!!!!

As you saw in the story of Martha and Mary you also have a choice to make.....serve or sit

I want to do my best to articulate the difference

To serve Jesus you are doing good things, probably Godly things but you are depending upon your own abilities to do those things.

Your service comes from you not Jesus

Choosing to sit is not choosing to serve or choosing to be lazy. It just means your direction and power come from being in Jesus’ presence.

Tell me if you have ever been here....

you make plans

great plans

plans to impact people for Jesus

then you ask Jesus to bless those plans

that is ministering for Jesus

The difference here is when you serve for Jesus you call the shots and make the plans and expect God to bless them

Choosing to sit means you seek Jesus and His plans and then allow Jesus to minister or serve through you!

Matthew 6:25-34

_____________________

“Therefore I tell you: Don’t worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Isn’t life more than food and the body more than clothing? Consider the birds of the sky: They don’t sow or reap or gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Aren’t you worth more than they? Can any of you add one moment to his life span by worrying? And why do you worry about clothes? Observe how the wildflowers of the field grow: They don’t labor or spin thread. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was adorned like one of these. If that’s how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and thrown into the furnace tomorrow, won’t he do much more for you—you of little faith? So don’t worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be provided for you. Therefore don’t worry about tomorrow, because tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

What a wonderful example of Jesus teaching us to sit with God

Rely upon God and minster from God not from us or for God

Martha was so worried about serving Jesus she missed being with Jesus

Here in Matthew 6 Jesus tells you not to worry about the small stuff

Wait pastor Josh food, drink, clothing is not what I call small stuff

Jesus calls them small things and tells you not to worry about them

Birds don’t plant or harvest yet they are well fed. Flowers don’t make clothes yet they are beautifully dressed.

God loves you

God has you

Sit with Him and He will provide

It may be the actual things themselves or it may be a job to provide you with the means to get those things

God’s got you so don’t worry about those things and miss out on God Himself

Psalms 27:4

_____________________

“I have asked one thing from the Lord; it is what I desire: to dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, gazing on the beauty of the Lord and seeking him in his temple.”

You have to choose to seek God

You have to choose to find time to sit with God

The secret place time is awesome but this scripture points to more than that

The secret place comes from Psalms 91 where God calls us to dwell in the secret place. The secret place is anywhere you meet God

That time is awesome but this scripture in Psalms 27 points to more than that.....more than 15 minutes a day…more than an hour a day…more than multiple hours a day

This points to a lifestyle of seeking to dwell with God

I want to make a statement here.

I hear all the time we need to return to how the 1st century church was and I agree wholeheartedly but for a different reason.

Usually when people say that we need to return to the 1st century church what they mean is

I am tired of church, let’s just be the church like the first century …again do not disagree with that.

God doesn’t call us to be a building or a church so we can sit in the pews on Sunday morning or Wednesday nights or for a week during revival time and then walk out and forget about it until next week

That is the modern western church and look where it has gotten us

I believe we need to return to 1st century Christians. They were all in. It cost them something to follow Christ

Friends

Family

persecutions

business opportunities

even some of them it cost them their lives

We live as comfortable Christians who look to serve God when it is convenient for us.

We look to serve God where we are comfortable.....that is Christian lingo or slang for where I am called

God will bless you and give you the ability to do what He has called you to do but if you are doing just the things in areas where you are comfortable then more than likely you are calling you not God calling you

God doesn’t operate in the comfortable

The 1st century Christians were so all in they sold everything and gave it to the church to distribute as needed....not with strings attached....now I gave you x amount of dollars so I need a say in how it is spent or my name on an award

They didn’t matter to themselves anymore

Their entire days were consumed with Jesus, the Bible and each other

How I long for a return to that

What a foreshadowing of heaven

God is the main thing, not your ministry....not your church…not busyness....Martha missed Jesus because she felt she had to minister to Him

Jesus doesn’t need you to minster to Him

He does, however, long for you to be with Him

Mary got it. She was where she needed to be at Jesus’ feet!

The lost need you to do things from Jesus not for Jesus

Your brothers and sisters in Christ need you to do things from Jesus not for Jesus

Your friends and co-workers need you to do things from Jesus not for Jesus

Your family needs you to do things from Jesus not for Jesus

If you desire to grow and mature in Christ, which we all should desire, you must desire to sit with Jesus

Let that relationship drive everything else in your life!!!!!

Invitation

I want to invite you to the altar tonight to sit with Jesus

If you have never accepted Jesus into your life as your Lord and Savior come.

Today is the day

Maybe you realized that you are serving for Jesus therefore serving in you and not from Jesus

Come give that to Jesus this evening

Maybe you realize that you have been justifying telling God no to something He is calling you to because you are operating in you and not from Jesus

Come get with God and get right with God

Whatever it is that you are dealing with this evening....come and live here living FROM JESUS!!!!!!!