Future Church Brisbane
Join Luke Kennedy and friends at Future Church in Brisbane, Australia.
Talks from our gatherings as well as deeper discussions and Application panels around the practicals of Following Jesus.
Future Church Brisbane
Serving others though giving of myself: Principles and Practice
Have you ever wondered how serving others can transform your heart and life? Join us as we share our personal journeys from reluctant volunteers to passionate servants, fueled by moments that brought us humor, humility, and profound insight. We kick off with stories of early, often awkward, attempts to serve, like our trials and errors on a frustrating greeting team, and the unexpected ways God spoke to us, turning our superficial efforts into genuine acts of love.
Inspired by the teachings of Jesus and wisdom from luminaries like C.S. Lewis, we dive into the greatest commandments: loving God and loving our neighbors. Acting with love, even when we don’t feel it, can create genuine compassion over time. Hear how following Jesus transformed our hearts, making us eager to support causes like Destiny Rescue. We reveal how true service can elevate our actions beyond mere social obligations, fostering a deeper, Christ-like love in our communities.
We wrap up with a powerful exploration of humility and selfless service, drawing on the teachings of Tim Keller and the actions of Jesus Christ. Reflect on the poignant moment when Jesus washed his disciples' feet, including Judas’s, as the ultimate act of humility. Through modern-day stories, like Ali sacrificing her time and career to support a colleague, we highlight the joy and fulfillment found in serving others without expectation. Join us in a heartfelt prayer for transformation, seeking to spread Jesus' love through our actions and influence.
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I'm excited for this little mini-series that's been done. I think finances and giving of yourself self-services are really important. This generosity is something that really comes from a heart that's been changed by Jesus. It's that outward show that something's actually different in you. I think the more you walk with Jesus, the more it changes your heart to want to do more and you actually get more excited about it. And so, yeah, I'm excited for it. It's something that I've seen change in my life and I've seen being able to impact others, and that's why it means a lot to me. That's why it's something I love.
Speaker 1:But it's not always been like that. It's been a bit of a journey for me. I remember when I was younger, at my dad's church, he used to put your tithes in a little purse that went around, put like a couple of pound in or whatever, and feel good about myself. Oh lord, you should be grateful for me giving my little um, and so just really tipping god, and that's pretty bad, right, uh. And then service wise, not doing a lot, um. I remember when we were down in melbourne at a church down there I got put uh, we got asked pretty early to serve, because then you've been around church for a while and, um, they asked me what team I wanted to be on and I said oh look, I'll let you choose, otherwise I'll just stick to what I've done previously and it'll be pretty easy for my life. So they put me on the greeting team. Now some of you know what the greeting team is. Obviously it's probably the worst team and in this church they seem to put all the young men, like late teens, maybe early twenties, on this team. And if you know young men, they never turn up on time and refuse to help set up or pat down. So it was pretty annoying. But you'd go out on this team and you'd set up some bollards and all go run over, um, but then you'd welcome people, so you'd go to that, meet them at the car and walk down with them.
Speaker 1:Some people, you have a conversation. Other people didn't want to talk so we walked in awkward silence, um, but you could also have a bit of a joke. So we had this old lady once you know, melbourne's pretty cold, it's the middle of winter and she came and she said oh, I hope the heating's on in church today. I was like, yeah, yeah, we've got heating, but we're actually going to do worship outside. So we're in full belief that if you're worshipping hard, you're going to be filled with the Holy Spirit fire for the Lord, you're going to be warm. And she's like oh, I guess that makes sense. So we walked in a little bit.
Speaker 1:I was like, I don't know, I'm pretty sure I can get it, but I used to, in my heart, be like whinging and complaining about this. It's raining or it's cold, people don't want to talk to you, the kids don't turn up. You've got to set up a pact on yourself. And you're just like this is frustrating, come on. Like this is frustrating, like, come on. And it didn't change for me until one day, I believe, the Lord really spoke to my heart and it was pretty simple in his rebuke of me, and it was I died on the cross for you. And you're whinging about putting out some bollards and going to welcome people at their car. And for me, that's when things began to change. I was like, oh, I felt pretty embarrassed for the rest of the day. I'm like what an idiot. Like I'm not even really doing anything that hard. And so it was from that that my journey of serving others really started to change, where I actually started to have a fire lit within me to start serving, because some of the stories afterwards that I had from serving people, just having that simple conversation, was amazing and that really sort of pepped me on.
Speaker 1:So today we're talking about selfless service. And, to start with, you know I do understand that some of you may be tired or hurt from other churches, but I do want to say that it's not Jesus's church that's done that to you, it's people. We're all idiots, we all make mistakes and we all don't do great things to each other. It could have also been maybe serving, but not with the right heart intent, so not serving Jesus, but thinking I'm serving the pastor or serving people or whatever it might be. Or it might've been serving in more areas than God's actually asked you to do. He may ask you I just want you to rock up and set up, but then you've decided to do all these extra things and then you start to get worn out and you wonder, oh well, why have you tied me out, lord? And I could just imagine him in heaven like well, I only asked you to do one simple thing because I knew that's what you could do.
Speaker 1:But I would say to that, though, that if you're keeping back from serving because of past hurt, if you're living in the pain of previous hurts, then you're really just you're going to hurt yourselves and you're fighting against your purpose and your design. You've got something to give. You've got something to give that no one else has been asked to give in this church, and so not only are you missing out, you're actually making other people miss out, and you're sort of propagating that hurt that maybe you've had previously. And hopefully, as we go through, we'll see that serving is actually part of our mandate from God, part of our design, part of our creation, what we were made for, and so when we don't fulfill that, we're actually, you know, the tool that's not being used for his job, and it's not, it's not going to be happy.
Speaker 1:And so we see here in Ephesians two to eight, this is Paul speaking to the Ephesians. He says I think a lot of you will know this first bit for it is by grace. You have been saved through faith. It is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God, not by works. That so no one can boast, and normally a lot of us stop there and be like, yep, don't have to do anything. I'm saved, sorted, good, I'll just kick back, sit back, let someone else do all the work.
Speaker 1:But Paul ends it here. For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared for us in advance. If we look at the wider context of Ephesians this part he's talking about he was saying you're one way you were of the world, you had worldly desires, and he's saying you've been changed, you've been changed through Christ Jesus. And it sort of all comes to an end the way Paul normally does. He gives you a sort of a reason of what's happening, what has happened to you, what's changed, and then the why. The why is normally at the end, and the why is here, whereas handiwork, or as some versions have it, is workmanship and it literally means you're made, you're created, designed for a reason, designed for a purpose.
Speaker 1:We're adopted into God's family. I think that's a pretty powerful thing. We're saved, we're adopted. We're not just adopted to sit back and live off the fruit, we're adopted to join the family business. And that family business is pretty powerful. That family business is here to spread the kingdom of God throughout the world, throughout our bits of influence in the planet. We all have small spheres of influence that we get to join in and actually spread the kingdom. I was thinking when Luke was praying your kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven. Well, how do we bring that kingdom here on earth? By being like heavenly beings which, which don't self-serve, they serve others, serve the Lord.
Speaker 1:We really need to, I think, change what we think of as worship, and this is where we start off. We think a lot of the time worship is standing here, raising some hands, having a sing, feeling good about ourselves, maybe getting some feels in the moment because the piano is really good, or some good strumming of the guitar or something I was going to say the piano is usually really good but just trying to give some grace. But you just lost that. We're all on a journey. We're all on a journey, but that's what we think of as worship. But that's not it. Worship is actually in every single thing that we do in this world. That's where we bring in worship. Everything we do should be as if we're doing it for the Lord, and then that starts to have that small change in our hearts and change our mind.
Speaker 1:Paul tells the church in Rome have that small change in our hearts and change our mind. Paul tells the church in Romans, in Rome. Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. This is your true and proper worship. So that's everything, your whole body, your everything. Present yourself as a living sacrifice, not just on a Sunday for 30 minutes, but just once a week, or when you pray, or when you maybe do a devotional. Everything, your whole life, is a living sacrifice. And so let's delve a little deeper.
Speaker 1:Here. We're going to talk about a thing called the divine dance and how we join it. So if you want to learn a bit more about this, tim Keller talks a lot about it in his book the Reason for God, but it comes from Jonathan Edwards when he's reflecting on the triune God, what's it all about? And so he reasons about this thing called the divine dance, where each member of the Trinity Father, son and Holy Spirit are actually all sort of circling around each other, doing what's necessary for each other without thought for themselves, completely giving of themselves to each member of that Trinity, purely, totally, adoration, selflessness, and so that just brings complete and utter joy into the trinity, and it's from that that joy, that divine dance, that god wants to share it, and so he shares it by creating the whole universe for us to be a part of all, set up for us to be here. Um, he created us in his image. To now I've got this highlighted and bolded, so I make sure you want to know this we're created in his image. Therefore, we share some of his attributes not all of them. We will never be god, we will never be totally like him, but we share some of his attributes. We share some of the things that make him wonderful and amazing, and we share them for a reason because we're supposed to join in this divine dance, and part of that is bringing life to everyone else. So you can see from that sort of straight away how the Godhead is, how he created the world to join this divine dance. Therefore, we were created for a purpose. We're created to do something, and it's not self-service, it's to serve others and that's where we get our true joy from. So we can see, when we don't follow the law, we don't follow our purpose, then we're not going to be happy because we're doing it wrong. Don't be like so.
Speaker 1:Jesus was asked once by some of the Jewish leadership, really trying to trip him up but what's the great command and what's the best command? What's number one? What should we follow? Above all else, a bit of legalism there, right? So if I do this, everything else will be all right. This is the one I definitely need to follow. But Jesus said it like this In Matthew 22, 37 to 40 said love the Lord, your God, with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind.
Speaker 1:This is the first and greatest commandment, and the second is like it Love your neighbor as yourself. All the law and the prophets hang on these two commandments Sounds a bit like that divine dance to me. Love the Lord, love everyone else, and everything else falls into place because we're not all about us, which is pretty hard in this world, I think, especially if you look at social media. But it's pretty hard to love your neighbor, considering everyone is your neighbor, even the people you don't like, even the people that do things that you disagree with, even the people that have hurt you and damaged your life and you've got some sort of you know, hurt, hurt, hurt, hurt against them. But Lewis puts it like this and I think it's a. It's a good way of saying it.
Speaker 1:Don't waste time bothering whether you love your neighbor. Act as if you did. As soon as we do this, we find one of the great secrets when you behave as if you love someone, you will presently come to love them. And what a practical way of actually starting to love people that maybe you don't think about loving. Practical way of actually starting to love people that maybe you don't think about loving. A lot of the time when we want to learn a new habit, we have to start doing the thing that we want to learn, not just think, oh yeah, I'd like to learn that one day. That's going to do nothing. It's by doing it, it's by action that we actually start to draw ourselves in and start to make that change. And that's what Lewis is telling us here Even if you don't love them, love them, act as if you love them, serve them, and you'll start to actually have a changed heart for that person.
Speaker 1:Words aren't really real. You can say them, they do have an effect in this world, but it doesn't really show your true heart. I think it's actions that really prove our theology. It's actions that will show our heart's intent when we actually go around and that's why when Christ came and died for us, he died for us to give us new hearts. And all the way back in the old testament, ezekiel talks about I'll give you a new heart, put a new spirit in you, I'll remove from you your heart of stone and give you the heart of flesh. So clearly, without jesus, we've got pretty not cool hearts and I know for myself that was definitely the way I know.
Speaker 1:When I was in the armed forces I was pretty, um, pretty rough. I didn't love people at all. Definitely saw people as tools to get the job done. Uh, didn't have empathy for people who were in hurtful situations or struggling. Um, I seriously couldn't care less, didn't bother me at all. I knew my sort of family, which was my squadron, and if you're a part of it you get looked after If you weren't whatevs. And I know after starting to follow Jesus properly, giving him my life, I started to actually love people more than I did before. I started to have a heartbreaking for situations.
Speaker 1:One of my favorite charities is Destiny Rescue. Heartbreaking for situations One of my favorite charities is Destiny Rescue because of the work they do to transform women's lives who are in real hardship that have a terribleness that you could not imagine, and people go in there, rescue them and actually show them jesus and show them actual hope for a life and a life abundance. And I think is absolutely an amazing thing, and that's something that stares my heart now, ali, and I talk about it quite a lot and it's something that we, you know, we often talk about and often sort of say how amazing it is and how we want to partner with them and how we can help them. But the next part we're coming up to is, um, selfless service, and so selfless service it removes disappointment and so, as a bit of an example, um, as you may have guessed, I'm english, which means I'm very polite, and so generally most occasions I'll open the door for you, let you through, could be there for quite some time, because then more people come, try and walk on the roadside and let people walk on the inside, protect them. In fact, I'm so polite that when I open the door and let you through, we'll let you go through and you don't say anything. I'll be so polite to say you're welcome, just loud enough that everyone in the vicinity can hear and that you can hear, just in case you forgot um, you know you're welcome. Well, yeah, but I think those who laugh probably do the same thing. Right, um, man is, make it the man. But that scene there, it's maybe built into me to hold the door open, but there's still that expectation of that sort of social transaction that I do something for you and you at least say thank you. And that gives you a bit of disappointment when you don't get what you believe should have happened. Right, but that's not selfless service.
Speaker 1:Tim Keller says about humility. So this is part of selfless service. Here. Humility is so shy if you begin talking about it it leaves. And how true is that we all go for maybe a bit of a humble brag? And how true is that we all go for maybe a bit of a humble brag? Oh, just such a hard weekend, just sacrificing my time for the children or whatever it might be Like. Oh, fed some homeless people today, but make sure you catch me on camera doing it, otherwise it didn't really happen today, because you have to know how amazing I am. And that's not really selfless service, that's not humility, that's just oh, yeah, I've done something and I've got my reward now on earth, because that's really what I care about. Are you laughing at me? There you go. We should check your social feed.
Speaker 1:But service without bounds, with a heart pointing towards God without expectation, leads to joy of life and abundance of life. That abundance of life isn't abundance of things or experiences, it's actually starting to join that divine dance. Giving up of ourselves for each member of the trinity, for our community, brings joy to our lives without expectation. And then we start to have such a wonderful life because that's the way we were created to be. Um, I love john lennox. I think he's a. He's a great sort of theologian mathematician. I don't really care about math, so nerd. But he says understanding that we are created by a good and loving God should inspire us to reflect that goodness in our own lives by serving others selflessly, following the example set by Jesus. So we've got to. We don't just have to make this up. We know who we can follow. We know who we can sort of replicate. Here Jesus shows us the way.
Speaker 1:I'm not going to get the whole verse up because it's a long one, but maybe mark it down John 13, 1 to 17. It's all about when they're up in the upper room. This is the night before Jesus is about to be crucified. They're all about to have the Passover feast, the meal's in progress and it even mentions in verse 2, the evening meal's in progress and the devil had already prompted Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus. And then it goes on to say that Jesus got up, took off his outer garment, put a towel on and started to wash his disciples' feet. So we know that Judas was there and that he had his feet washed.
Speaker 1:And then there's a part about um peter jumping up. As you can expect, I won't wash my feet, I'll never, never let you do it. Jesus, like, sit down, mate. Um, do as you're told. So I think, I think that's what he needed a lot of the time, right, um? And then, after he'd done all this, jesus said now that that I, your Lord and teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another's feet. I have set an example so that you should do the same as I have done for you. Very truly, I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them also. And so what's Jesus doing here?
Speaker 1:Usually in that setting it would be a servant saying that would wash people's feet before they got into the meal. So they weren't sitting at a nice table. Feet hidden away, feet are pretty disgusting as it is even worse. So in Jesus' time they got their sandals on, could have stepped in some camel dung, dust, muck, dirt, pretty nasty. So it wouldn't be a job I would want to do. Washing people's feet, that's for sure. But usually it's a servant or the lowest in the pecking order would have done this job. In fact, they sort of believe that later on in Jewish life they said that a Jewish servant wasn't to wash other people's feet, it was just going to be a Gentile, us stinking gentiles, that's us that would be doing that job, because it's so lowly they wouldn't have a jew doing it. But it was jesus, who was presiding over the passover feast, that actually got up and went to do it.
Speaker 1:You must, you must think, like. Think about being one of the disciples. Imagine, I don't know, the king having dinner with him at the palace. Oh, pretty amazing, this is wonderful. And he comes down and like starts washing your feet. Be a bit embarrassing, I think, that someone of high importance comes to serve someone of low importance that's me and so even worse, knowing that Jesus is God and he's coming to wash your feet and you should have maybe volunteered to do it Like it'd be a bit of a sweaty time, wouldn't it, sitting there in silence getting your feet washed until, obviously, peter pipes up. And even worse so if you're Judas, knowing what you're going to do and you've still got God coming to wash your feet, what you're going to do, and you've still got God coming to wash your feet. So a few points on that story.
Speaker 1:I think that Jesus, knowing that Judas was going to betray him, still washed his feet, and I think part of that is still giving him that opportunity to say, no, I won't do this. How wonderful is that that we still, before we do the thing that could be bad, jesus gives us that opportunity to actually say oh, actually, no, I'm going to follow you properly and, yep, do what you want. Um, jesus leads by example. He shows that even he doesn't mind getting down and washing your feet, washing the sin, doing the hard thing that other people don't want to do, and so that should change our hearts to be like well, actually, if Jesus can do it. Pretty sure I can go do the car park job and just welcome someone at the car. It's not actually that bad, I'm not getting down and washing some dirty feet.
Speaker 1:And so how are we at the end there? I love what it says you will be blessed if you do them. And so how are we going to be blessed? I don't think we're going to be blessed because we start to join that divine dance, because we start to fulfill our created purpose, because we start to do what we're made to do. And that's where we start to get joy by serving one another with a loving heart, with an open heart, with a caring heart. And then, secondarily, that's where we start to get the blessing of the joy and of abundant life. Not through I'm doing this because I want to have the feel goods. I'm doing it because I love the Lord, my heart's pointed towards Him and he's asked me to love his people. And then, after that, we start to feel good and I think that's where we start to see a real abundance of life.
Speaker 1:Paul puts it like this in the Philippians in your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ. Christ Jesus, he who, being in the very nature of God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage. Rather, he made himself nothing. By taking the very nature of a servant, being made in the human likeness and being found in the appearance of man, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross. And that even death on the cross there is because death on the cross would have been the most embarrassed. It's the last thing they could do to you before you were dying, to really embarrass you and to make you nothing, that your name would never be remembered at all because you were a criminal. You were the lowest of the low. If we put you up there, we'd put you up as an example. Then no one's gonna wanna follow, no one wants to be like you. You're a disgrace to humanity and Jesus was up there, humbled for us, and I think that's absolutely amazing. I think that's absolutely amazing.
Speaker 1:You know, the ultimate reality is, as Tim Keller says ultimate reality is a community of persons who know and love one another. That is the universe God, history and life is all about. If you favor money, power and accomplishment of human relationships, you will dash yourselves on the rocks of reality you are not going to have an abundance of life if you are self-serving and not selfless. You are not going to have a blessed life if it's all about you and not about everyone else. We're saved, and we're saved for a reason. We're not saved so I can say, whoosh, skipped that one, like I'm safe, that's my insurance policy, safe it's actually. We're saved to make a difference and to bring little pockets of Eden to here where we live.
Speaker 1:And so, just closing up there, you go Pretty happy with myself because, way ahead of time, luke's always worried about me going over, so I could have like a 10 minute break now and then about five minutes to go to practicals, um, but practicals things you can do. So what can we do practically? And I've got three things here serve your family sometimes this often gets forgotten. So serve your wife husbands, serve your wife's husbands. Serve your wife's. Maybe make dinner for them and do the washing up and nothing. Oh, well done, we don't need any jumping in, I'm certified sick. And do the washing up, truly, care for them, give them your heart Like what a way to bless your partners Wives. Serve your husbands.
Speaker 1:Spend time, um, and show an interest in something he really loves, even if you don't think it's that good, because we do things with you that we don't think are worthwhile either. But show an interest in their activities that they love to do, who mean the world to people. Often we don't need gifts of things. It's actually just showing that you care, that you understand, you know what we enjoy, show an interest in it. Serve your kids I think this is an important one. Spend timeend time with them, attend their events, sporting events and whatnot. I think it'll mean more to them than you could ever imagine. Those memories will last with them into adulthood. Just doing extra shifts so you can buy them something means nothing Because, as you know, you give a kid a toy, next week something else will come out and they've already forgotten about the last thing. You got them and I don't even have kids, we've got a dog and he's just as bad. Um, but they'll remember the time you gave up to be with them. That's something that will last from for eternity.
Speaker 1:Serve your community. This is your community, this part of your community, and this is your community. This is part of your community. Here, if you want to learn some humility, clean the toilets and don't tell anyone. That's humility. Trust me Pretty disgusting sometimes. Do you want to learn to uplift people and encourage them? Join the hosting team. Go, welcome people at the door and start to say nice things to them. Welcome them, actually show an interest in their lives, listen to them. Don't stand there telling them how amazing you are. Learn how amazing they are. Invite them to be a part of this community.
Speaker 1:Some people might come through that door and it might be, for them, the last thing they're going to do. They might be, for them, the last thing they're going to do. They might be like well, I've tried everything of this world and it's just not working. Let me try this church stuff. And if they come in and we all ignore them and don't care for them, and then they leave, well, that's just as bad as everything else. How terrible. That's not the heart of Jesus. That's not the heart that we've been given. That's not what we're in this to do. And if you want to learn patience, join kids team. There's what a great way to absolutely start to build people's relationship with Jesus than on the kids team, though. What a way to help build a foundation for the rest of their lives to be on kids' team and actually show them. This is what Jesus has done in my life. This is what he can do in your life and a great foundation for the rest of their lives, rather than trashing it all up and then having to come back to it later.
Speaker 1:And serve your workplace. Be the one who's positive when everyone else is negative about how rubbish their job is or how rubbish the boss is. That can change the dynamic of community. When you actually start to be positive and you take the negativity away, people start to latch on to that and they'll start to change their sort of idea of the workplace. That and they'll start to change their sort of idea of the workplace. Um, turn the other cheek when people are mean about you or mean to you or cranky, when maybe you've done the wrong thing or they've done the wrong thing. Help others with their careers, even if it may hamper you.
Speaker 1:And I've got ali as an example here. She probably won't remember, but she was on a call past work time, so missing time with me. But there you go where one of the girls from the team asked if she could have a chat, and so Ali was giving her advice about how that she should have been, say the lead or the manager in that team, and someone else was there. Ali was trying to help them get that position, even though I think it was detrimental to her own positioning, even though Ali's been passed over a few times and not given the right position, I believe.
Speaker 1:But that's having a heart for other people, and that's having a heart for other people without even thinking about it, because you want to see the best for other people. And that's having a heart for other people without even thinking about it, because you want to see the best for other people. And I think that's what we get to do in this world, and I think that's what we're called to do, that's what we're made to do and that's what we should be excited about. Because when you see that, when you see other people flourish, you get an excitement about life. You get to see Jesus do things in other people's lives. How much does that really cement Christ's love for you in your own lives? I think that's pretty cool. That should spur you on to want to do more and more. So that's it.
Speaker 1:So I hope this week maybe you think about how can I serve? Where can I serve? What can I do? Who can I help? It's not all about me, it's about others, and Christ's already done the work, and so I will just go for a quick prayer. I hope everyone's all right. No one's fallen asleep, hopefully. I think it's some doughy eyes, but that's all right. Jesus, we just want to thank you so much that we get to serve, because you served first. Lord, I pray that you just transform our hearts to really want to follow you and in that following you, we get to see a transformation in other people's lives, lord, and that we get to just spur on and keep trying to spread your gospel and kingdom message through our spheres of influence. Lord Jesus' mighty name, amen.