The Secret Ingredient of Spiritual Formation: Living a Life of Service
Here’s a summary of this week’s sermon:
In our lives, filled with ceaseless demands and a relentless pursuit of success, we often overlook the most transformative principle capable of reshaping our existence and spiritual journey: service. Yes, the act of serving, often relegated to the sidelines of our priorities, holds profound power in steering our spiritual formation and leading us towards a more fulfilling, wholesome life.
Discovering Life's Secret Ingredient
Reflect on the moments when you've felt a deep connection with your purpose, a sense of fulfilment that transcends the ordinary. These are not found in the achievements we chase but in the simple acts of service. It's in these moments of giving that we receive, shaping our character and deepening our relationship with the divine.
The Biblical Blueprint for Service
The scriptural mandate for service is clear and compelling. Paul's exhortation to the Philippian Church to adopt a mindset of humility and value others above oneself echoes the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. Christ, the epitome of divine love and humility, chose to serve rather than be served, setting a precedent for us to follow. Serving, then, is not just an act of goodwill but a fundamental aspect of our spiritual DNA, a catalyst for personal and communal transformation.
The Transformational Power of Service
Living a life of service is intricately linked to our spiritual formation. It moulds us into individuals who embody humility and love, two pillars of the Kingdom of God. As we shift our focus from self to others, we undergo a metamorphosis, shedding layers of inherent selfishness and adopting a spirit of generosity and compassion. This journey not only refines our motives and character but also deepens our relationship with God, making us more like Jesus.
Serving in the Everyday
In the modern whirlwind of commitments and the relentless ticking of the clock, the notion of adding yet another task can seem daunting. Yet, serving need not be an addition to our schedules but a seamless integration into our daily lives. It's about prioritising the person in front of us, seizing the moments of connection and kindness. Whether it's through acts as simple as litter picking in your neighbourhood, mentoring others using your skills, or supporting the vulnerable in your community, service is a versatile expression of love and humility.
Embracing the Call to Serve
Service is the secret ingredient to a meaningful, spiritually enriched life. It beckons us to look beyond our desires, to the needs of others, and to the heart of God. It challenges us to live not for the accolades or acknowledgment but for the sheer joy of giving. In service, we find life's secret ingredient, transforming not just the lives of those we help but our own, drawing us closer to the wholeness found in Christ.
Let's embark on this journey together, exploring the depth of service and its impact on our spiritual formation. It's in giving that we receive, in serving that we find purpose, and in loving that we mirror the heart of God. This is the secret ingredient to a life of profound spiritual richness and fulfilment.
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Matt Edmundson: [00:00:00] Welcome to this week's Crowd Church service. We are a digital church on a quest to discover how Jesus helps us live a more meaningful life. We are a community, a space to explore the Christian faith and a place where you can contribute and grow. Our service will last about an hour and in a few seconds you'll meet our hosts for our service who will introduce today's talk.
After the talk, we will have a time of worship and reflection, after which we head into Conversation Street, where we look at your stories and questions that you've posted in the comments. Now we want to invite you to connect with us here at Crowd Church, and we've got a few ways in which you can do just that.
Firstly, you can engage with Crowd from any device during our [00:01:00] live stream, and if you're up for it. Why not invite a few friends over and experience the service together? Church is all about connecting with God and connecting with others, and one of the easiest ways for you to do that is join one of our mid week groups where we meet up online together to catch up and discover more about the amazingness of Christ.
You can also subscribe to our fairly new podcast called What's The Story, where we deep dive into stories of faith and courage from everyday people. More information about All of these things can be found on our website at www. crowd.church. Or you can reach out to us on social media at Crowd Church if you are new to Crowd or new to the Christian Faith and would like to know what your next steps to take on.
But we're not. Head over to our website, [00:02:00] crowd.church/next, for more details. And now, the moment you've been waiting for is here. Our online church service starts right now.
Dan Orange: Evening all.
Anna Kettle: Good evening, nice to see everyone. Yes,
Dan Orange: we were just saying as the sort of the music was building, I felt a little bit like cool.
Someone should be like doing our makeup and getting ready for
Anna Kettle: use itself as a news anchor. Everyone. I need,
Dan Orange: I need some papers to go Trevor McDonald for those. Not in the UK. You have to YouTube. Yeah. Trevor McDonald. He's a legend.
Anna Kettle: So Palm Sunday, isn't it? It
Dan Orange: is, yeah. Yeah.
Anna Kettle: Happy Palm Sunday everyone.
Dan Orange: Yes.
Anna Kettle: It came up right here.
Dan Orange: I might have to Oh, this,
Anna Kettle: we're really slick. Yeah, we're really slick here. Unfortunately. Know.
Dan Orange: Yeah. Palm Sunday, so Yeah. The week before Easter.
Anna Kettle: Yeah. One week to go.
Dan Orange: Yeah. And so next week John Harden's gonna be [00:03:00] talking. Doing at Easter. A service for us would be awesome.
Easter special. Yeah. Yeah.
Anna Kettle: That would be good. So a pause from the usual Yes. Series that we've been following. But yeah, for next week,
Dan Orange: Easter's. Whether you're whether you follow like the Christian calendar or not, Easter is the most important thing that ever happened to this world, isn't it? It's a big deal.
It is a big deal. Yeah. Oh, man.
Anna Kettle: Somebody send Dan some new earphones, everyone. He's going to be like I've got tiny little
Dan Orange: ears. These are made for Matt's slightly bigger ears. I need to get some smaller earbuds. They just don't fit in.
Anna Kettle: It's what you call first world problems, isn't it? It is, yeah. So what's happening today then, Dan?
Tell
Dan Orange: us. Yes, so today Matt is talking to us about Acts of Service, following on in our series. So yeah, really looking forward to that.
Anna Kettle: That's going to be good. That's going to be good.
Dan Orange: And as we mentioned next week, Dave Connolly I'm doing what Matt gave us a [00:04:00] incorrect order last week. I was about to do the same thing this week.
Matt talking this week and then John Harding next week, Easter. And then Dave Connolly after that, we'll be continuing the series. Perfect. Yeah.
Anna Kettle: Oh, I'm having a bit of a problem. It's the talking as well. It makes your ears
Dan Orange: move and then they just. Isn't this correct?
Anna Kettle: Ears move when you talk? Maybe.
Tell us everyone. Anyone watching out there, tell us your ears move when you speak? I don't know. I don't know. These are the important issues that we cover off in Crowd Church, aren't they?
Dan Orange: Anyway. Yes. Good to see people on the comments. Yeah, Matt says, yeah, any one of us, we do. Yeah, I'll get some moulded to my ears, to my tiny ears.
Anna Kettle: Yeah, maybe that's the solution. Have you had a good
Dan Orange: weekend? A good day today?
Anna Kettle: Yeah, you know what? Yesterday we hung out with some friends, Jack and Jenny, some of the pastors in our church. They're little boys the same age as our little boys. So that was nice hanging out. Today we [00:05:00] had church this morning and, you were saying it was a very busy service, wasn't it?
Yeah, it was really busy because there were some baptisms. Yeah, quite a few, there must have been,
Dan Orange: I said there's about 20 or something? Yeah, I'm not quite sure how many. Yeah, we, so we in our church, we've got our congregation, then there's a Polish congregation and an Iranian congregation as well. All normally have different services, different times, different languages.
But we all came together for the baptismal service, so it was quite busy, and there was lots
Anna Kettle: of extra guests as well, they'd come just to see friends and family get baptised. But we should probably add that they're separate services because of the language. Yes, we don't just segregate. So they're Iranian speaking, it's not that Iranians can't come
Dan Orange: to the English speaking church, it's just that.
It's a language thing. Yeah, a language
Anna Kettle: barrier thing. Yeah, so that was good. And then this afternoon, we've just been hanging out and chilling at home. Yesterday so I did some skiing with my little boy. He's learning to ski at the moment.
Dan Orange: Very [00:06:00] nice.
Anna Kettle: On the indoor ski centre in Manchester near us.
So yeah, that was fun.
Dan Orange: Proper snow. Proper indoor. Yeah, indoor
Anna Kettle: snow in Manchester at the Genufactor. Yeah, product placement for Genufactor, sorry everyone.
Dan Orange: Crowd brought to you by Indoor Fake Snow. We could do a sponsorship, couldn't we? Maybe we'd
Anna Kettle: get free passes.
Dan Orange: Yeah.
Anna Kettle: Anyway, we're deviating off the point.
We should probably play the video, shouldn't we? I think we should
Dan Orange: play the video. We're going to play the talk now from Matt. If you've got any questions please just send them. Send them in and we'll endeavour to answer them. Yeah. Yeah.
Anna Kettle: Post if you have any thoughts as well.
Without further ado,
Dan Orange: I'm going to use this box here rather than clicking the mouse. Check me out.
Anna Kettle: Do it.
Matt Edmundson: Have you ever found yourself in a place you never expected to be? Only to discover it's exactly where you needed to be. I have many types. Like for example, when I took a gap year before heading to university, I ended up volunteering. At a place called Nazareth Children's Home, which is in North Carolina.[00:07:00]
Now, I was not a Christian at this point, but if I look back, I can definitely see that God orchestrated the whole affair. I got to hang out with and serve with these amazing kids and staff, but these kids, for whatever reason, couldn't live with their families, and it wasn't where I personally planned to be.
It wasn't where I expected to be, but it was where I needed to be because it was here that God met me and I became a Christian. It was in this place where my personal journey to wholeness began. But it all started with me serving. Now, Paul, when he wrote to the Philippian Church, wrote this, he said, Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit.
Rather, in humility, value others above yourself, not looking to your own interests. But each of you, to the [00:08:00] interest of the others, in your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus, who, being the very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage, rather he made himself equal.
Nothing by taking the very nature of a servant. Sometimes, when reading a scripture, all you can do is just go, wow, right? We are told as Christians to have the same mindset as Jesus. Which tells me that's possible, another story. But the same mindset as Jesus, who, though he was God, and let's face it, that's a pretty big deal, still made himself a servant.
Regardless of our position, we should still take on. The position of a servant, which is a pretty powerful statement. Serving then is a transformational journey that shapes who we are [00:09:00] and aligns us to the heart of our servant God. And so that's what we're going to look at today. I want to ask a few questions like, how does living a life of service contribute to our spiritual formation? How does it actually make us whole?
Why is Jesus so focused on us serving others and what does living a life of service actually look like in the day to day, especially if we are busy and maxed out already? Can I get an amen? Now, these are all great questions, right? Because when we understand the answers, man alive, do we start to see how serving is essential to becoming more and more like Jesus, to becoming more and more whole as it transforms both the server.
And those served. That's what I discovered in North Carolina. I helped the kids, but I got [00:10:00] transformed in the process, right? Which all sounds fantastic, but I think we can often find ourselves in places where what we do just seems to vanish into the ether, where what we do goes unnoticed, or maybe even.
Unappreciated. Ever had that happen to you? I know I have on a regular basis where maybe the thanks I thought I deserved didn't come to pass but you know we've all been disheartened haven't we? We've all been discouraged because what we do goes unnoticed. We don't get that thanks that maybe we thought we should get.
In fact, we can often get the opposite. We can get complaints and this may be because. We have poor boundaries in place. So if that's you, I recommend reading Henry Cloud's book, Boundaries. And yes, it might also be our managers, whether at church, whether at work, who might be utterly useless in positive affirmation in terms of [00:11:00] positively affirming what we do.
But often, I find it comes down to my motive. And this is an ouch, because motive starts in my heart and not in the thanks that I think I should get. Sometimes our motive might be seen, or sorry, let me put this a different way. Our motive might be to be seen. This is what Caesar Kalinowski calls the do to be lie.
If we head back, for example, to the Garden of Eden, The devil promised that if Adam and Eve did something, they would be something, eat the fruit and be like God. Do to be. And it was a lie, a massive lie, that Adam and Eve bought Hook, Line and Stinker. Haha, Line and Stinker, I like that. And we are still doing it today.
Now, we find ourselves believing that our worth is measured by our works, our identity shaped by our achievements, and [00:12:00] that we have to do something in order to be something. That to be someone of value, we must do more, serve more, achieve more. But when we believe that, it feels like pain. Feels like we're on a treadmill that goes faster, the faster that we go, and we're trying to keep up, but it's going faster and we're going nowhere.
And so we're stuck, exhausted, and unfulfilled. Here's the thing. Adam and Eve were already enough. God made them enough. He has made you enough. We don't serve to earn God's favour and hope that if we do enough good things, God will make us righteous. That's the do to be lie. I have to do to be righteous.
Instead, God flips the whole script and he's already made us righteous. We talked about this in the series.[00:13:00]
God cannot love you anymore, He is maxed out already, so we serve not to be, but to genuinely help bring God's kingdom on earth. So how does then living a life of service contribute to our spiritual formation? Let's look at that, because as we read through scripture, we see that serving others is not just about the acts we perform, but it's about the transformation that happens deep within us as we serve.
What happened to me in North Carolina. Which is good news, when you think about it, because as we are talking about serving in the context of wholeness. Serving, then, becomes key. Whole people serve, and people who serve become whole, as serving is established on two key principles of the Kingdom of God, humility and love.
The Bible tells [00:14:00] us this, to serve one another, Humbly in love, Paul talking to the church in Galatians. Now humility then teaches us to look beyond ourselves, to see the needs and the values of others as equal, if not more important than our own. Then there's love, the driving force and motivation of serving.
Love gives without seeking anything in return. It's as though God is using our hands and our feet to extend his love. To others, we get to be a part of that, which is incredible, it's a privilege, and I don't always see serving in that way, if I'm honest, often it can feel like a chore, so I have to remind myself that what I'm doing is a privilege, and it is in fact very godly.
That's why serving is a key contributor to spiritual formation. It challenges us, and it gets rid of our inherent selfishness by replacing [00:15:00] it with a spirit of generosity and compassion. And as we serve, our motives are refined, hopefully, and our character is shaped, hopefully, and our relationship with God is deepened.
Which all sounds wonderful. Wonderful, Jesus put it this way, whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all, for even the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. That's a powerful statement, isn't it, from Jesus.
Again, you've just got to go, wow, right? Jesus tells us that greatness is all about serving, which kind of turns the whole success, the success, can't even say it, the whole success ladder on its head, doesn't it? The way up in the kingdom of God is, it [00:16:00] seems, astonishingly, The highest honour is achieved not by towering over others, but by lifting others above ourselves, which is, as they say, revolutionary.
So what does Jesus mean by this phrase, being great? If you want to be great in God's kingdom. It's someone who is esteemed, and excellent, and splendid, and stately, according to Strong. Love that. Splendid and stately. Essentially, it's a person who is biblically whole. Trusted and used by God for his plans and purposes.
Which, as Christians, should be, in theory, what we're all after, right? So what would our world look like if we pursued greatness, wholeness, through serving? What would my life look like if I truly got a hold of this principle? And it's a hard question to ask yourself. [00:17:00] Because even knowing that we might be taken advantage of, Jesus still challenges us to take the leap that biblical wholeness is about giving first and letting God take care of the rest to serve is to love and to love is to serve so why is Jesus so focused on this whole serving thing Why?
Why is this a big deal for God? See, from healing the sick and feeding the hungry, to comforting those who mourn, to washing his disciples feet, Jesus's every action reflected a heart devoted to serving others. I have not come to be served, I have come to be loved. I have come to serve, he said. Now these are the words that Jesus said to his disciples after famously washing their stinky dirty feet.
Now let me tell you, it does not sound fun today, does it, washing somebody else's feet. [00:18:00] But it was definitely not fun back then when you think about it. Open sandals, everything that would be on their feet, if don't wanna spoil your dinner, but I would not wanna wash those stinky, dirty feet.
But this is what Jesus said after he did that. Do you understand what I've done to you? You address me as teacher and master and rightly that is what I am. So if I, the master and teacher washed your feet, you must now wash each other's feet. I've laid down a pattern for you. What I've done you do. I'm only pointing out the obvious.
A servant is not ranked above his master. An employee doesn't give orders to the employer. If you understand what I'm telling you, act like it and live a blessed life. So in other words Jesus was so focused on serving others because he wanted to lay down a pattern for us to follow. Why what [00:19:00] he did why we should do that?
Why should I wash somebody else's feet? Not necessarily walk down the street watching other people's feet. You get the point, right? The one task that no one wanted to do, Jesus did. And it's that, the humbling of yourself. Why? Because when we do, we are blessed. In other words, we find wholeness.
Serving transforms the server. It's a double whammy, a genuine win. We bless others and in so doing we are blessed, we are transformed, we become whole. That's why Jesus was so focused on it, to help you become whole. So what does living a life of service look like in practical terms, especially if we don't have the time?
It's a very genuine question I think in the modern age. Now I know that many of us want to serve as Jesus commands us to but we do live in this world which spins faster and faster with every passing day where [00:20:00] the proverbial New York Minute, if you like, is now a global phenomenon everywhere.
We are working longer, we are working harder, and it is relentless. So we feel guilty for not spending enough time with the kids, or we don't have the energy to hit the gym. We have priorities and commitments coming out of our ears. How do we even begin to think about finding the time to serve? The very uncomfortable truth here is that we have to come to terms with, we all have the same 24 hours in the day.
We are all equal in terms of time. Time is not affected by my position, by my race, by my gender, by my nationality. It's not. It's not. It's not impacted by any of that. We all have 24 hours in the day. Once it's spent, it's gone. And there is no secret out there that is going to give us more time. So what that means is I have to be intentional in how I spend my time.[00:21:00]
In other words, I have to prioritize. And let's face it, we don't the word prioritize. I don't because it means making choices. that I don't really want to make, normally prioritizing means giving up something hopefully better in the future, right? Different things, different people, but in my head, and if I'm really honest, I can get all kinds of creative with my excuses, about how this whole thing doesn't apply for me.
I can spend some time and come up with something great I run my own business, I work crazy hours, I already do this over here, or I need some me time, some me time. I have to take the kids to football training. The list is both endless. Endless and actually quite genuine all legitimate and there are definite seasons that I think we go through in life where we have to pull back from other things.
I get it and I think it's essential that we do that. God's okay with [00:22:00] that. I have those same internal battles all the time but I do have to be honest with myself about them and I do have to be intentional with my time but beyond that. I think Jesus shows us something a little different. I think he shows us that serving others isn't just about finding more time in our already packed schedules.
It's about serving in the moment. And we have those. Every day, all the time, Jesus's ministry was often about moments of genuine connection in the midst of his day to day journey. Whether it was a conversation with a Samaritan woman at a well or a healing as he's walking to a different destination.
Jesus showed us that to serve can and should be part of everyday life. And it's in these small acts of kindness and the moments of listening that we find some incredible. Serving, I don't think it is just about what we do [00:23:00] between the hours of 7pm and 8pm on a Thursday night at our local church, or maybe on a Sunday morning.
They may well be events that we could sign up for and help with, and maybe we should. But I think serving is much more about prioritising time, and it is about prioritising the person in front of us in that time. Practically, what are some of the things that we can do? I think we start by asking ourselves three questions.
Number one, what has God put on our heart to do? Number two, what are the talents that God has given me? And number three, where can I help in a Christian community? First, ask, what has God put on my heart to do? Then I think you look for areas in your community where you can do just that. And this can be super practical, like Matt who is often on the live streams will go litter picking in his local neighbourhood.
Dion serves with sign language. You could visit or be friendly elderly or the sick or help single parents who are struggling to cope with life by [00:24:00] cleaning their house or babysitting. The list is endless because there are so many people around you in need of help. Right now, there just is. The second question, what are the talents that God has given me?
Me I think I'm okay at the whole business thing, having done it for a while. I can serve in that area and mentor others. But what about you? What are your gifts? Sharon, for example, is awesome at teaching English. She gives her time to help refugees and asylum seekers learn the language. But she also goes beyond that.
She helps them move furniture and fill out forms, all super practical stuff, but often requires her to do stuff out of her working hours. Now I know if you're a self employed electrician, for example, you have to charge money for your services as you have to create an income. I appreciate that you might want to keep work separate from everything else.
That's totally cool. [00:25:00] It's not a hard and fast rule, but I do guarantee that there is someone in your community. Who needs your help and who can't afford to pay you? The question is, could you help? Definitely no pressure, just a question. So finally we then ask ourselves, where can I help in the Christian community?
You want to serve the Christian community, right? You want to serve the wider community. You want to serve both, okay? As this demonstrates, I think the love of God, both inside and outside the Christian community. And again, it doesn't have to be super. Complicated. Oh no. When our kids were born, for example, the church community were wonderful.
For several weeks, people would bring a meal to our house every night and they would come in and do all kinds of things like cleaning, for example, and that was such a massive blessing. Simple and practical. So my advice is this, to me as much as you, help where you [00:26:00] can, roll up your sleeves and get stuck in. Prioritise your time and give some of that time back to God, bless your local community and fellow believers and see what happens.
And of course, one of the biggest acts of service. is simply to pray for people, to connect with them and then see how they are doing, to encourage them. The Bible talks about the ministry. Ministry just means to serve, by the way, it's just a fancy word for serving. So the act of serving through helps through being generous and through being an encouragement, always we can serve.
So here's my challenge this week, over the next seven days, do what I what I'm now calling a serving audit. This isn't about crunching numbers like an accountant. No. This is about introspection. This is about asking God in prayer, if there's anything, your service to others that needs tweaking.
Thank you. That [00:27:00] didn't make sense. Is there anything in your serving that needs tweaking? That makes more sense. Or perhaps maybe God's got an entire new serving venture for you. Maybe he's nudging you towards something different. Write it down. Write what God is saying and share it with us. Keep your eyes Peeled and your ears open to the needs of those around you.
And when you spot an opportunity to do good, don't hesitate, embrace it. Do one small random act of service this week, at least one. You can do more. Don't just do one and stop. You know what I'm saying, right? And if you haven't done so already for some more information on this kind of thing, I would recommend wholeheartedly listening to episode 22 of the What's The Story Podcast, where I got to chat with Ed Walker who heads up HOPE Interaction about how serving can take you on a whole new life adventure.
Let me tell you. Now, I don't know about you, but I am enjoying this series on wholeness. It's been great. It's been great. [00:28:00] Edifying, it's building me up and it's deeply challenging all at the same time, tends to be what happens when you get into the things of God. But I tell you what, I do just, I just see Jesus in the whole thing and I'm looking forward to what's coming up.
So make sure you subscribe if you haven't done so already. Head to our website, www. crowd. church and fill in the little email form and every week we will email you the notes to the live streams. Don't want you to miss any of them, right? So just sign up with your email and you'll be cool. Now, before we go, one final story, because why not, right?
After university, I volunteered again. I took another year out and I volunteered for our local church for this year. And I just graduated in accounting. I've been a Christian three years at this point three or four years. And so I volunteered for the church, got involved with the church finances amongst other things.
And I love that year, despite not really having any money, if I'm honest [00:29:00] with you, it was an experience that was both transformative and deeply satisfying in ways that I hadn't really anticipated, if I'm honest with you. But here's the kicker. It was during that year. That I met Sharon, the wonderful woman who would become my wife.
It was during that year that I got spend time with her as she was doing a year team with the church. It was in those moments that God spoke to me about going out with Sharon now. If you know the story, sure, I engineered a few things along the way, but because that's just who I am. But let me tell you, if I hadn't have served, I don't know if we would have spent that time together that we did.
Dating apps are okay, but for me, it was in serving that I met my future wife. Something that I'm grateful for every single day.[00:30:00]
Anna Kettle: There we go. That was a great talk, wasn't it?
Dan Orange: There was a lot in there. Yeah. Yeah.
Anna Kettle: Yeah, I always love that. My fingers are,
Dan Orange: Aching from Dan's been like,
Anna Kettle: Scribbling, and I didn't even come with a pad of paper tonight, so I've just had to rip a piece out of him. Yeah, there was so much in that, I always really enjoy it when Matt speaks, because he does pack a lot of content into the short talk, doesn't he?
But what really struck you? What's one thing that jumps out at you, Dan?
Dan Orange: I think again, just going back to what you said it well, while Matt was talking he spoke to me and said, it's just, it is very, Jesus was counter culture. Yeah. Imagine a leader now, imagine Prince Charles, Rishi Sunak just saying, Oh yeah, I'll come around and I'll come around and clean your floor.
Yeah, I'll come around to do yeah, clean your feet or saying, as an employer, We shouldn't be telling the employee what to do. It's just, if you're an [00:31:00] employer and you show your employee that you can serve, how much more are they going to want to work for you?
It just, it makes sense, it doesn't it? Even though it's upside down to what we normally think. Yeah,
Anna Kettle: I think at the same time, everyone loves a leader who Walks of talk, it's like people love a salt of the earth leader who's a person of the people who like, will get down and do the ordinary things with their staff, as well as sit in an ivory tower.
I think those kind of leaders are often respected, aren't they,
Dan Orange: because
Anna Kettle: they know how to do that.
Dan Orange: Yeah, there's, in the UK and probably all over the world, you'll have these different types of TV programmes, and in the middle it might be X Factor or something like that, in the middle, they'll have this sort of emotional piece about this person who, I just used to stack shelves.
I don't want to do that anymore. And I was a cleaner and I don't want to do now. I get the chance to do this and it [00:32:00] just it put to me. I always see that and think nothing wrong with stacking shelves. There's nothing wrong with being a cleaner. Yeah, it's great to do a job and do it. Yeah, and I think it just turning those things into What we're always taught, oh no, go for the better life, go for the bigger job.
Serving's awesome. And there's some jobs which are naturally that is what you do, isn't it? It might be cleaning, might be doctor, something like that. It's more of, yes, you're getting paid for it, but it is more of an act of service. Yeah,
Anna Kettle: I think I always think of nurses. I work in the health service work, I'm not a nurse, but I work alongside a lot of nurses, and I just always think they're incredible people who don't get paid ever so much, but just serve people all day long. I know you get paid, but it's not easy, and it's quite humble work in a lot of ways. Yeah, I just think there's a lot of amazing people out there that are really good at this.
But it is very countercultural, really, [00:33:00] isn't it, in terms of what we're taught by our culture like you say, gave the big job and lots of money. Have someone to do all the menial tasks. Yeah, the people that we really look up to are the people on stage with a big platform, a big online following. I love that verse that Matt started with that says, do nothing out of selfish ambition.
And I just think, wow, that's, it's just such a high order, isn't it? So much of what we do is selfish ambition, I want to have a nicer house. I want a better quality of life. I want more money in the bank. I want to be more comfortable. I want my kids to go to a better school or live in a better neighborhood or all of that.
None of these things are wrong in themselves, but they all are
Dan Orange: it's where, yeah. Where is your motive? Yeah, exactly.
Anna Kettle: It's about the heart. And, but I think that second part, consider others more highly than yourself. Yeah, that's the bit that matters, isn't it? Yeah yeah,
Dan Orange: yeah. I think at the end, I wrote it down in the UK.[00:34:00]
We always say instead of if I saw you in the street, I'd say, Hi, how are you doing? Yeah. And you'd say, I'm fine. Yeah. And we are fine. Thanks. And that's the conversation. We ask a question, how we're doing. And we will reply, we're fine.
Anna Kettle: And you don't really want to know, nobody's got time to listen.
Yeah.
Dan Orange: And I just thought in that, when Matt was saying, what could we do this week in serving, perhaps me, I could be a bit more intentional in my questions and in my listening. So when someone says, I'm fine, just ask another question or How's work been? What have you done? Just to move that conversation to be in an automatic response to actually caring and spending time thinking about someone else.
Anna Kettle: Yeah, because when we talk about serving, like Matt did make this point, we often think about doing the big things like, it's great to do those big projects, go and volunteer for [00:35:00] a charity or a soup kitchen or go and feed the homeless or help with some like youth work or something big.
But it's also those small moments. I think I came across really well in this talk that you can actually really serve people and encourage people and make a difference in someone else's day. Thank you. In those small moments. Yeah. But I think so much of it is about being present. Like it's about, again, that intentionality, isn't it?
I think that word was mentioned and I think in order to do those things, ask people how they are. Yeah, you've got to be more present in the moment. And I'm so often I'm terrible for this I'm always like half here, half checking emails, waiting in a queue in the supermarket, but also doing something else on my phone at the same time, catching up with something else and then I'm not fully present to the person that's serving me.
I'm not having that conversation because I'm also somewhere else. And that, that for me is a massive challenge in our culture and in my own life. If I could just be a bit more present in the moment, I might not miss these opportunities [00:36:00] Serve people in small ways. Yeah,
Dan Orange: yeah. I think if you read the Gospels, there's so much out there where Jesus sees people in that moment, doesn't he?
He doesn't ignore them. He doesn't ignore the lady that came and just gave that small amount and put it in the in the synagogue for her gift. He wasn't just in his own world, he was watching all those little things that happen. Yeah. Yeah. And that's something that struck me. I thought, yeah, I need to, Yeah.
I need to be more present. Yeah, definitely. And we've got, we have got loads of excuses and lots of them are valid. In our working day, there's lots of things going on and we're thinking about other stuff. But sometimes there are times when That moment could be given over to the person that we're with or we're standing next to.
We don't have to fill our time with fail videos or cats or whatever it might be.
Anna Kettle: Yeah, I think if we're all [00:37:00] totally honest about ourselves. Or Candy Crush
Dan Orange: Saga. In Matt's case.
Anna Kettle: Yeah, Candy Crush. I got mentioned. Yeah, I agree. I think if we're all totally honest with ourselves, we're all busy, aren't we?
We're all super busy, but also we all waste some time like, you and I are here tonight in Crowd Church and we could be doing something else with our families this hour, couldn't we? But we've chosen to serve in this way. And that's you know, because we've not wasted this now we're doing something else.
Yeah. Yeah. I,
Dan Orange: and it's amazing that God, He asks us to do things and asks us to serve, but there's always something that even there's that phrase or, don't know what the parable, you can't do anything completely selfless because it always gives back and serving is one of those things, no matter what you do, you always learn, at the very least, you learn from it, don't you?
Or you might, like in Matt's case, you might find yourself a wife, or even doing so, [00:38:00] doing this for me, I'm not an outwardly, I'm not a person, I'm not very good with my words and it's, I've been able to serve and do something but God's helping me and I can use these skills in other places. It's helping me finish my sentences.
I have to actually keep going and say something and not mumble, which normally I do if I'm talking to people. Different things can happen. You can't mumble
Anna Kettle: on Crowd Church. Yeah, no. I, yeah, I loved what Matt said actually about that whole thing of, We serve out of love and out of that overflow and overspill of what God's done for us and his love.
And we're transformed and we want to partner with him and transform the world around us. But I also love the fact that you said that there is that transformation in us that happens as we serve, that we become whole by serving. And I think that's really true. I wondered, have you got any examples of, I suppose that is one, [00:39:00] isn't it?
In a small way of how you grow when you serve or you learn new things. Yeah, definitely. I wondered if you'd got any other examples of that? Putting me, yeah. Putting you on the spot.
Dan Orange: On the spot. One thing is that if I hadn't served in different ways, I wouldn't get to meet people. I very easily could just be quite insular.
For me, it's very easy to sit in the corner of a room. Yeah. And just
Anna Kettle: you're more naturally introverted as a person. Yeah.
Dan Orange: But serving and having to go out there, having to do at church I in control of the PA on certain weeks. And it means that I have to be out there and telling people, oh, okay, I've gotta sound check.
You gotta do this. Yeah. And sometimes that can be, it's great to be able to serve but also has taught me to be more forthright in what I'm saying and yeah it's great to be able to do and I've never come away thinking, I wish I didn't do that job. Volunteering almost
Anna Kettle: always gives you an opportunity to grow or learn [00:40:00] new skills or develop.
Some area of your character or your expertise, I think, but I also feel like when you serve in kind of a context with God, like it's also an opportunity. I think Matt touched on this for it to transform your heart as well. So I think of example when our church Frontline used to run a outreach to street sex workers and homeless people.
Called Streetwise and I used to go out once, just once a month on this van and we used to give out like food and hot drinks and stuff to women who were out on the streets at night and I think, that, that experience put me in a scenario meeting people who's past, I would never meet people like that in my normal day job, in my normal life and it gave me something that was totally out of my context and normal life, but it also taught me to love people who really different to like my life and had a really different background and to actually see who they were and just have a real, it really gave me a compassion that I didn't [00:41:00] have before for people who had a really tough background, made me realize how blessed I was to have the starting life that I did coming from a loving home, but also gave me so much more compassion and grace for people who.
struggle in life, because perhaps they've come from really broken backgrounds. And yeah, I think when you serve in these kind of, particularly out of your comfort zone, it can't help but change you and change your heart. And I think God grows and enlarges our perspective. And that's a
Dan Orange: really good thing.
God is love, isn't it? I wrote that in capital letters that we're here, because God is love. And Sometimes people don't see that God is love. They might see preachers, they might see people preaching at them, they might see in the media what is, what could be the truth, but to them it's just, it's hitting them in the wrong place.
I [00:42:00] used to help run like we'd give out teas and coffees. To people at nighttime in Liverpool till about two in the morning. So people go in clubbing those that were homeless as well. And a lot of the clubbers would be like, why are you doing this? Why don't you just give it to the, to give it to those that are homeless, but they'd love having a hot cup of tea or coffee.
And so God, You might be going out for a fun night out, but God still loves you and will happily talk to you and tell you about Jesus, but will happily just say, here, have a cup of coffee. And it's just a different experience of who God is. Yeah.
Anna Kettle: Yeah. Yeah. I loved what Matt said at the end about like doing a.
Serving order, that's a really good idea. I think somebody said, was it Nicola in the chat said before that sometimes when you serve, you can feel like you're a bit taken advantage of or yeah, just people use you as a bit of a doormat. And I think that can be true. Yeah. It's [00:43:00] sad when it happens, but it can happen.
And, but I think that was a really good point that Matt made, which was that It's good to have a regular audit of your service and what you're doing. That's not just about, that is bigger than just looking after number one, like yourself. And I really liked the idea of going away and thinking about it prayerfully regularly and saying how much of my time am I serving others and what ways, and is this still working or do I want to serve somewhere different for a while?
And I don't want to invest my time because we do have finite time, don't we? Yeah, we get to choose how we invest every hour, every waking hour of our day. I know we have to earn money and pay the bills, but outside of that, in our personal time, it's up to us how we spend it. And yeah I really like that idea of going away and thinking what's working, what's not.
I'm definitely going to do that this week yeah, I'm going to do that too, I think it's good, yeah, because you can just, you can't just keep on taking more and more, that's the point we all have a limit, don't we?
Dan Orange: Yeah, which I think I might see if that book's on [00:44:00] Audible, I do all my books when I'm driving around boundaries, because I think we do have to, we have to be careful, because If we're just saying yes to everything, then we will get burnt out.
But it's about always listening to what God's saying. If he says do something, then we better listen up and do that. But don't do stuff just because doing things won't get you closer to God. Like we always say, you're good enough. God can't love you anymore. He loves you. So much that he sent his son to die for you, he loves you, the ultimate price he paid for you.
So doing things won't save you anymore. But to just to do stuff just because we can, and because we love others is just, yeah. That's what he wants us to do.
Anna Kettle: I guess it's that do things out of love, rather than do things to be loved, isn't it? It's a subtle difference, but it's massive as [00:45:00] well do things because you know you're loved by God, to earn God's love, because you already have it, and yeah, I think it's motive so important to consider, isn't it?
Also, not making excuses, like with saying I'm too busy or I haven't got time, because I think we all know that we could spend less time scrolling on social media and watching Netflix and what have
Dan Orange: you. Maybe that's just me. All these talks the last few weeks of me and Matt talked and Dave Connolly did the talk about fasting.
And it's the same, he's asked us at certain times to fast and do things, but that fasting isn't, doesn't save us. It's just, it's a request at certain times to do, it's not. We don't have to do so many fasts, tick this off, I've done five fasts therefore I'm a bit closer we can't make ourselves good enough, it's only God that can make us
Anna Kettle: good enough.
Yeah. But with serving, I feel like Matt said, it's a real privilege, so it's it's not that I have to serve, it's that I get to serve [00:46:00] God, and that is actually a privilege, it's a fun thing I love doing this, I love some of the other ways I serve through the week, I love different things that I do and different acts of service, I love that I get to partner with God in small ways, that is a privilege and I don't have to do it, I get to do it and that's great. Yeah. Yeah.
Dan Orange: Yeah. So yeah Active Service Audit, I think. Yeah. This week. Do one this week. Yeah. And next week we're going to hear from John about Easter.
Yeah. And there'll be lots of, lots of Easter eggs around lots of chocolate, but not very much talking about the real Easter. So come and come along and have a listen to what this is. When you're
Anna Kettle: in your kind of chocolate camera around 6pm.
Dan Orange: Come and see what the real reason the new life, not the little bunnies and eggs.
It's this transformation life, the life that can only become. You can only get through Jesus dying for us.
Anna Kettle: Yeah. [00:47:00] Resurrection Sunday next week. Yeah. And then also we've got a midweek Alpha, haven't we, at the moment, that's running, which we should probably
Dan Orange: plug before. Yeah, so if you're interested in alpha, interested in finding out more about Christianity, becoming a Christian, then just go to crowd. church, sign up. And we'll yeah, we'll send over the information.
Anna Kettle: Yeah, exactly. It's like a, it's a course and that's just, yeah, and you can jump in, you don't
Dan Orange: need to start. At the beginning, you can always catch up and just jump in where, and
Anna Kettle: I think it's basically like a short talk on a subject like prayer or how do I know God is real or just basic questions about Christianity for people who want to just learn a bit more and then you get an opportunity in a small group to have a bit of a discussion about it.
Afterwards, and that's great because everyone comes with a different point of view and you just get to thrash around questions. What we're doing now, but a bit more, a lot
Dan Orange: more in depth. So
Anna Kettle: yeah, Alpha is really good. I [00:48:00] haven't done one in years, but I did do one a long time ago. And I just think it's really helpful, really worth doing.
Dan Orange: Definitely. And if you've got any prayer requests please send them in. Lots of people have sent in requests and we've got a WhatsApp group To capture those and to do it so we can as hosts we can be praying for you. Yeah, so yeah, please do we'd love to.
Anna Kettle: And if you enjoy podcasts, we should also mention the podcast, so we've got, there's plenty
Dan Orange: out there, keep going in for hours, yeah,
Anna Kettle: it's new, we're releasing podcast every week or so, where someone just talks about their life story and yeah, there's some really great ones out there, so if you're looking for podcast content, something to listen to in a week, check that out as well,
Dan Orange: subscribe,
Anna Kettle: Yeah.
Yeah. So lots of good things going on. Yeah. And then Matt Crew's just added, have a great Easter, everyone. The story doesn't end on Friday, Sunday is coming, isn't it?
Dan Orange: Yeah.
Anna Kettle: Very true. Yeah. But yeah.
Dan Orange: Thank you very much, everyone. [00:49:00] And we will see you next
Anna Kettle: week. See you next week, everyone. Take care. Have a good week.
Matt Edmundson: Thank you so much for joining us here on Crowd Church. Now if you are watching on YouTube make sure you hit the subscribe button as well as that little tiny bell notification to get notified the next time we are live and of course If you are listening to the podcast the live stream podcast, make sure you also hit the follow button.
Now, by smashing the like button on YouTube or writing a review on your podcast platform, it helps us reach more people with the message. That Jesus really does help us live a more meaningful and purposeful life. So if you haven't done so already, be sure to check out our website, www. crowd. church, where you can learn more about us as a church, more about the Christian faith, and also how to [00:50:00] connect into our church community.
It has been awesome. Awesome to connect with you and you are awesome. It's just a burden you have to bear and hopefully we'll see you next time. That's it from us. God bless you. Bye for now.