Refreshing Our Service

This Saturday we're having our first Ministry Team & Volunteers Appreciation Half Day Retreat (MTVAHDR for short ha ha! Just kidding. It's a long name)...

But we're so excited about this time together to refresh our service...

To come together as those who have served the Lord, and served this church, and served one another...

To receive afresh from the presence of God. 

To encourage one another with affirmation and honor. 

To remember our serving is really One Body under One Head, Jesus...

One of the most baffling passages that Jesus says is:

“‘For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me’” (Matthew 25:35–40).

Jesus takes our service personally. 

He takes our effort, care, and commitment to love others, as if it was done to His own body. 

It's as if our love for one another is a direct line to He who reigns and rules in heaven. 

It's as if, when we love on earth, Jesus feels it in heaven. 

Our pure servant-hearted love can love Him so deeply. 

Do we really see our ordinary service as this significant to Him?

He calls the Church His body...

Do we realize that when we love the Church, we're loving His body?

When we go low, when we serve like Jesus, we commune with Him.

When we feel disconnected from His heart, just join Him on the floor again:

“Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going back to God, rose from supper. He laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him....When he had washed their feet and put on his outer garments and resumed his place, he said to them, ‘Do you understand what I have done to you?’" (John 13:3-5, 12).

I love Jesus' question here: “Do you understand what I have done to you?"

We'll spend the rest of our lives realizing what it meant for Jesus to serve us, to serve me.

And He also ruined us for anything else. 

We can't not serve. 

We have to go low, too...

If not for others...at the least, to be with Him.

So, come Saturday from 9-12 for MTVAHDR ;) and be refreshed in His presence, be refreshed with others, be refreshed to be aligned again with Jesus' love for you.

Because that is the richest place to serve from!

See you Sunday, too,

Pastor Dave