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The Heart of a Servant: Embracing Your Gift for God
The focus of this week's podcast is the spiritual gift of service, as presented by Pastor Josh Massaro. He emphasizes that serving others is not just a calling for those specifically gifted in this area but is a responsibility for all believers. Drawing from Scripture, particularly Romans chapter 12 and 1 Peter 4, Pastor Josh highlights the importance of humility and selflessness in service, encouraging listeners to put others' needs above their own. He uses the example of Jesus washing the disciples' feet to illustrate the essence of true service and urges everyone to seek opportunities to serve within their families, communities, and the church. Ultimately, Pastor Josh reminds us that our service to others is a reflection of our love for God and should be done with the right heart, aiming to glorify Him rather than seeking personal recognition.
Pastor Josh Massaro passionately explores the concept of 'gift' in the context of spiritual service, drawing on the teachings found in Romans 12 and 1 Peter 4. He emphasizes the significance of spiritual gifts, particularly focusing on the gift of service, which he describes as a divine calling to selflessly contribute to the lives of others. Through a detailed examination of Scripture, he articulates that serving others is not merely an act of kindness but a profound expression of one’s love for God. Pastor Josh illustrates the nature of true service, likening it to Christ's humility when he washed the disciples' feet, a powerful reminder of the servanthood that believers are called to emulate. The discussion culminates in a challenge for listeners to reflect on their own areas of service within the church and community, encouraging them to seek God's guidance in fulfilling their roles as servants of Christ, thereby building up the body of believers and glorifying God in every act of service.
Takeaways:
- The gift of service is about humility and putting others before ourselves.
- We are all called to serve others, regardless of our natural gifts.
- Serving is not just for recognition, but a way to honor God.
- True service involves loving others as Christ loves us, with humility.
- The act of service can sometimes be difficult, especially towards those who wrong us.
- Each spiritual gift is given to edify and build up the community of believers.
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This podcast is produced by Ralph Estep, Jr., host of the Ask Ralph Podcast, a daily podcast on Christian Finance you can find it at https://www.askralphpodcast.com/
Transcript
Hello and welcome to the Middletown Baptist Church podcast, where we are proclaiming the truth to the world.
Pastor Josh:In this podcast series, we're going to be looking into biblical words that have great significance to our faith.
Pastor Josh:The name of this series is called the Word of the Week, where once a week we will dive deeper into these words that we are familiar with in Scripture.
Pastor Josh:So come along with me.
Pastor Josh:Let's study the Word of the week.
Pastor Josh:Pastor Josh here.
Pastor Josh:The word of the week is gift.
Pastor Josh:We're continuing on in our series looking at the spiritual gifts listed in Romans chapter 12.
Pastor Josh:And we started last week looking at the very first gift listed here in Romans chapter 12.
Pastor Josh:And that was the gift of prophecy, the gift of proclaiming the truth of God to those around us.
Pastor Josh:So the Bible spoke there of those individuals that are supernaturally gifted to proclaim or to preach the truth of God.
Pastor Josh:That doesn't mean that everyone that preaches has this gift, but we know that certainly some individuals are gifted by God through the Holy Spirit to effectively proclaim the truth boldly in faith.
Pastor Josh:And so the Bible goes on to tell us there in that verse In Romans chapter 12, verse number seven, about the next gift.
Pastor Josh:And that is in the King James Ministry or service.
Pastor Josh:The word their ministry literally means to serve, to do things for other people in the name of God.
Pastor Josh:And so the Bible says here Romans chapter 12 or Ministry, let us wait on our ministering.
Pastor Josh:So basically, what it's saying here is if we're serving, focus on our service and be patient in that service for the Lord to do it for the right reasons.
Pastor Josh:There are many passages of Scripture that speak of this idea of service.
Pastor Josh:We go back to our original passage that we started with in 1st Peter, chapter 4.
Pastor Josh:1 Peter, chapter 4, verse 10, says, as every man hath received the gift, even so minister or even so serve the same one to another.
Pastor Josh:And so the Bible commands us to serve one another as God has gifted us.
Pastor Josh:And so this individual that has been gifted in the area of service is going to naturally have a heart for serving others, naturally putting themselves behind other people.
Pastor Josh:This takes a level of humility.
Pastor Josh:And so it says, even so minister the same one to another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.
Pastor Josh:If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God.
Pastor Josh:That would speak more to the gift of prophecy or the gift of teaching.
Pastor Josh:But then it says, let him do it as.
Pastor Josh:As God has given him the ability.
Pastor Josh:But then it says, really there in, in that passage, those that are going to minister.
Pastor Josh:And so there's going to be people that are going to be proclaiming the truth of God.
Pastor Josh:And there's going to be people serving possibly behind the scenes and not getting noticed, maybe not even getting credit.
Pastor Josh:And so the Bible says it takes a level of humility to be a servant.
Pastor Josh:And Jesus gives us that greatest example of the servant in, in many passages of scripture.
Pastor Josh:But one that really stands out to me is John 13, when he washed the disciples feet there right before he would go to the cross, knowing in in his deity that one fellow there would deny him and another fellow would betray him.
Pastor Josh:But yet he still washed their feet and showed that servant heart.
Pastor Josh:And he even let them know that that was an example for them to follow.
Pastor Josh:We know that other passages of scripture, like Philippians chapter two tell us that we should have the same mind as Christ did.
Pastor Josh:That it says let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, found that robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant.
Pastor Josh:So Jesus took the form of the servant.
Pastor Josh:So therefore as believers we are called to do the same.
Pastor Josh:And may I remind you that these gifts of the Spirit are not just for us to look at and say, well, you know what, I have this gift, so I don't need to think about another gift.
Pastor Josh:No, even if you're not naturally or supernaturally gifted in the area of service, all of us are called to look to not only serve God, but to serve others.
Pastor Josh:I think of another passage of scripture that really highlights this truth and that's in the book of Ephesians.
Pastor Josh:You know, a lot of times in our lives we are willing to serve those that are easy to serve, or maybe we're even willing to serve those that love us, which is a great thing, that's a natural thing.
Pastor Josh:But the Bible tells us to not only serve those that are easy to serve, not not only to serve those that love us, that care for us, but we are also to serve people that might be difficult.
Pastor Josh:We are to serve people that maybe have even wronged us.
Pastor Josh:And at the end of Ephesians, chapter 4, we see a very interesting passage.
Pastor Josh:It's a passage dealing with the idea of putting off the old man and putting on the new.
Pastor Josh:So, so getting rid of bad things in our life, getting rid of the sin in our life, and then replacing that with godliness and so putting off the old, putting on the new.
Pastor Josh:Well how do we do that?
Pastor Josh:Well, we allow the Spirit to take control.
Pastor Josh:It's not our hard work, it's not effort that allows us to sin less in our life and to do more godly works.
Pastor Josh:It's the power of God working through us.
Pastor Josh:And so it's yielding to the Spirit, it's dying to the flesh.
Pastor Josh:And so to be a servant, to effectively serve, we must die to ourselves, to our own desires, to our own wants, and even sometimes to our own needs.
Pastor Josh:And so the Bible talks there in Ephesians chapter four about doing good things in the place of evil.
Pastor Josh:And he gets to the very end there, Paul does in Ephesians chapter four.
Pastor Josh:And he says, and be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.
Pastor Josh:And so there's this idea of being tender hearted, being forgiving.
Pastor Josh:And we know that as the Lord has laid out for us, that we are to love our enemies, we are to show kindness to them, we are to forgive, we are to forbear, we are to not necessarily overlook wrongs, but we are to be willing to serve others that might not be easy to serve.
Pastor Josh:And so that's the element of service.
Pastor Josh:That's the gift of service.
Pastor Josh:Someone being able to serve even when there's no praise, someone being able to serve even when there isn't a earthly reward.
Pastor Josh:We know the Bible tells us that there is a heavenly reward for that service.
Pastor Josh:And we know that as we serve, there might even be elements of praise and there might even be elements of people noticing what we're doing.
Pastor Josh:But ultimately we don't do that for people to notice us.
Pastor Josh:We do that for God to notice.
Pastor Josh:And ultimately we do that because we are servants of the King.
Pastor Josh:And so we do that because we love him.
Pastor Josh:So the way that I would word it is this.
Pastor Josh:The gift of service is a gift given to us to love love others as Christ has told us to love others, to serve others as the Lord has called us to serve others.
Pastor Josh:And we do that.
Pastor Josh:We, we love others because we love God.
Pastor Josh:We serve others because we love God.
Pastor Josh:And so the service to others is service to God.
Pastor Josh:And so we go back to Romans chapter 12 and we look at that passage of Scripture and we see that one of those spiritual gifts is the gift of service.
Pastor Josh:And so I would encourage you to think about and to pray about what areas of service that you can display for the Lord, but also to others around you.
Pastor Josh:Remember, the spiritual gifts are not there just for our own sakes, but actually they're there to edify others, to build up others, to bring glory to God.
Pastor Josh:So when we think about service from that perspective, it helps us out immensely when it comes to those times where we're tempted not to serve.
Pastor Josh:And so for those people that are gifted in that area of service, hey, you know what?
Pastor Josh:You're.
Pastor Josh:You're not going to be as challenged as much as maybe some other people are.
Pastor Josh:You're going to see the bigger picture.
Pastor Josh:You're going to understand that it's not about you.
Pastor Josh:You're going to understand that you don't need the praise.
Pastor Josh:You're going to be willing to say, hey, whatever I can do, I'm going to do it.
Pastor Josh:How can I help you?
Pastor Josh:How can I lift?
Pastor Josh:How can I lift someone up?
Pastor Josh:The word, their service, literally in the Greek, is the word that we get deacon from.
Pastor Josh:So, so we have the office of a deacon within the church, and that that office is there to display service.
Pastor Josh:And so all of us are called to that area of service in our life, whether we're gifted in that area or not, Whether we're in the office of a deacon or not, we are all called to serve.
Pastor Josh:And so serve God and to serve others.
Pastor Josh:And so I would encourage you to think about that, pray about that, and allow yourself to be willing to be challenged by God to say, you know what, Laura?
Pastor Josh:Where would you have me to serve you?
Pastor Josh:Where would you have me to serve within the church?
Pastor Josh:Where would you have me to serve in my community?
Pastor Josh:Where would you have me to serve in my family?
Pastor Josh:Sometimes that's an area that we overlook.
Pastor Josh:But we.
Pastor Josh:We think about these areas of service, and then once God recognize, or once we recognize what God has for us in the area of service, we then need to be willing to follow.
Pastor Josh:We then need to be willing to commit and to put ourselves in a place where we can submit to the Spirit.
Pastor Josh:Because all of these gifts are manifested by an obedience to the Spirit, by a yielding to the Spirit.
Pastor Josh:If we are in our flesh, if we are acting in our flesh and responding in our flesh, we're not going to be doing the things that honor God.
Pastor Josh:We're going to be doing things that honor ourselves.
Pastor Josh:And so we can have the gift of service, but we serve so that we can receive, or we serve for ulterior motives.
Pastor Josh:But when we're acting in the flesh, we are able to serve with that agape love.
Pastor Josh:We're able to serve with humility.
Pastor Josh:We're able to serve with sacrifice.
Pastor Josh:And that's the exact way that Jesus gave us the example of service in.
Pastor Josh:In the word of God.
Pastor Josh:And so I'm thankful for his service, and I'M thankful for my opportunities to serve and I hope that you are as well.
Pastor Josh:Well, next week we're going to come back and we are going to look at the gift of teaching and I hope that that will be an opportunity for you to learn more about these gifts and hopefully discern what gift or gifts that God has blessed you with in your faith.
Pastor Josh:And so thank you for listening here this week.
Pastor Josh:I hope that you have a wonderful Christmas and I hope that you are able to celebrate that wonderful time of the year with family.
Pastor Josh:And let us celebrate the coming of our Savior, but let us look forward to his coming again.
Pastor Josh:Well, we know that God loves us and we're thankful for that love and I hope that you can rest in that here today.
Pastor Josh:Well, we'll look toward talking to you next week.
Pastor Josh:God bless you.
Pastor Josh:Take care.
Pastor Josh:We'll see you soon.
Pastor Josh:Hey, I really appreciate that you listen to the Word of the Week podcast.
Pastor Josh:If you have any questions about the podcast or or about our church, Middletown Baptist Church, you can find more information about us on Facebook or YouTube or you can find the podcast on NBCPodcast.org you can contact me directly at Josh Massaro at middletownbaptistchurch.org stay tuned for future Word of the Week episodes where we dive deeper into words that impact our life according to scripture.
Pastor Josh:Thank you so much.
Pastor Josh:God bless.
Pastor Josh:We'll talk to you soon.
