{"id":622,"date":"2023-11-19T00:36:20","date_gmt":"2023-11-19T05:36:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/willisburgcoc.com\/?p=622"},"modified":"2024-01-28T01:00:32","modified_gmt":"2024-01-28T06:00:32","slug":"lighting-the-world-in-service","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/willisburgcoc.com\/?p=622","title":{"rendered":"Lighting the World in Service"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

11.19.23 Willisburg Bulletin<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A Servant’s Heart<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you have a servant’s heart? We\u2019d all like to say we do, but most the times our attitude is I serve because I have to. How many times do you see the chance to serve, and you think about all you have to do, and you are just too busy… or I already did my time serving the classes… or I just can\u2019t do it, I don\u2019t know or have enough experience. These three responses are the result of a mindset issue. Usually, our problem is not the work but it\u2019s our approach. We stop looking for opportunities and create hinderances for ourselves and then it seems too difficult for us to serve, right? It\u2019s time to have a mindset reset – from saying \u201cI have to -> I get to. from saying I have already done it -> what more can I do? from I\u2019m not enough -> God is enough. It\u2019s a simple change to positively approaching the chance to serve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Obligation –> Opportunity<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Service is a gift of love. Love is defined as actively seeking the good will of others, which is what Jesus\u2019 purpose was on earth – seek (Lk19:10) & serve (Mt 20:28). He knew He was going back to the Father after a terrible death, still He served, even knowing some people would rebel (Jn 13:3-35). If we are called to imitate Christ (1 Cor 11;1) and His purpose was to serve, that makes our purpose to serve. We want other people to know God through our service done in love (1 Pet 4:8). This means we MUST look for and take the opportunities, but how? Heb 12:8 – we change our thinking! We remember who we were before Christ, what He has given us, and then we see who we are in Christ. We will understand gratitude and be willing to see that not only did Christ\u2019s sacrifice forgive our sins when we obeyed the gospel, but He continually does – FOREVER. When we grasp the fact that we have been liberated, unshackled, and redeemed, we start realizing it\u2019s a chance \u201cI get to give back to Him (the ultimate servant of love).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Served –> Service<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes we get into this checklist mentality, where we pack our day with everything we have to do and then once it\u2019s all been checked off, we are done and we aren\u2019t doing anymore, right? Which puts us in the mindset of \u201cI\u2019ve already done this and that\u201d so we don\u2019t take any opportunities, especially if they\u2019re disrupting our routine. This is quantifying how much we give back to God. Can we ever give enough? Definitely not because service should not be just a part of our day, but rather is our day, it\u2019s what we do, it\u2019s our identity as Christians – we\u2019re God\u2019s servants. In Acts 2:44-47 the Christians didn\u2019t wait until after completing their checklist or at the end of the day; they gave what they had and had the mindset: \u201cWhat more can I do to serve?\u201d We must see interruptions in our day as a chance to help God. Have you ever thought that maybe God needed you to do this certain thing so someone would see Him? When you\u2019ve picked up the same toys multiple times that day, or when you\u2019re teaching Bible class for the second week in a row, or when you\u2019re kids have invited their friends over for the third time this week, it\u2019s a chance to serve. TAKE IT! Do it as to the Lord (Col 3:23) because people will see what they thought only existed on TV\/ social media in us because we have the love of Christ. Service is inconvenient, it\u2019s messy, it\u2019s imperfect, and it\u2019s hard, but it\u2019s also the way to grow! Guard against that martyrdom mindset of \u201cI have to teach again…I already have\u201d and change to say, \u201cI get to the opportunity to teach God\u2019s children about His love.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Disbelief –> Confidence<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are all busy, especially this time of year so sometimes when we are given the opportunity to serve, we feel overwhelmed and think \u201cI just can\u2019t do it all, I\u2019m not enough\u201d and honestly, we aren\u2019t enough, but neither were the fishermen or the hated tax collector or the murderer of Christians. However, with Christ, we all are enough, and we can do it (Phil 4:8)! Remember Moses and all the excuses he gave God, but every time God knew Moses would think he wasn\u2019t enough, but He equipped Moses with all he needed to serve the people, and He does the same thing to us. We must also remember that our service is required by ability (Mat 25:22-23) and we can serve even if we have limitations. Limits do not stop us; the push you even more! Service is a way to cleanse and refine us, as we learn to decrease as Christ increases (Jn 3:30; 2 Cor 15:9).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fulfill God’s Purpose<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We must focus on growing our light, which will in turn remove those excuses that we usually disguise as reasons. The good Samaritan is not known for the exact acts, rather for his service. He saw the opportunity and took it, even at his own expense of being inconvenienced in time and money. Be sure we are fueling our zeal of service with the right fuel (the Bible – 2 Cor 12:9-10) or we\u2019ll become burnt out. The world will never fill us up. Must empty ourselves and be filled with the love of Christ (Eph 3:8-13).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

11.19.23 Willisburg Bulletin A Servant’s Heart Do you have a servant’s heart? We\u2019d all like to say we do, but most the times our attitude is I serve because I…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-622","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/willisburgcoc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/willisburgcoc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/willisburgcoc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willisburgcoc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willisburgcoc.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=622"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/willisburgcoc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":659,"href":"https:\/\/willisburgcoc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622\/revisions\/659"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/willisburgcoc.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=622"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willisburgcoc.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=622"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willisburgcoc.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=622"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}