We're in this message series called One More. And as I speak about this message series, I think I'm going to get a little bit more excited about it, too. Because this message series is all about us.

All about how God can use each and every one of us to make extraordinary differences. Do you believe that. Do you believe that God can change people and that changed people can then change other people. That is the extraordinary work of the kingdom. That God uses ordinary people to make extraordinary differences.

And I know that God is going to use every single one of you to make an extraordinary difference because you are at church on Labor Day weekend. So, congratulations for being here on Labor Day weekend. This is a a weird thing for me because at the last church I was at we took off every single Labor Day weekend. And so this is my first time having a Labor Day weekend service in over six years.

And so it's cool to see that you guys are here because while this weekend is about celebrating and taking an extra day off and an extra break from our labor, what we're going to talk about is the opposite. We're going to talk about labor. And it's a labor of love that we call serving.

And so today's message is about serving and how serving can change the kingdom. How serving can reach just one more person. And I want to show you kind of what I mean by that with a story kind of picking up from the first story that I told in this series last week.

I had shared how I became a Christian at age 15. Didn't know a thing about the Bible. Didn't know anything about anything.

I just knew I was depressed and I knew I I needed some kind of hope and that Jesus was the answer to that hope. And so that was the basis of the ground that I had found myself at at age 15. Now I started to do this thing called praying. It's kind of something that we do in in the church and in the service.

I mean we have a big prayer banner here. And so we want to pray for you and we want others to be in prayer because it connects you to Jesus in in really awesome ways. And I remember starting to pray to Jesus that he would just bring me something or bring me someone that could show me what it meant to follow Jesus.

And this is a whole side kind of message here. You know, when you pray that, just know that sometimes God delivers in a package in an answered prayer that you were not expecting, you know, like it was. So, he gave me Alex and Alex was one of my friends younger brothers and he was the kid who sat in the back of the car who honestly we would goof on and kind of make fun of a little bit. And Alex and I both played instruments and so we kind of hit it off and talked about music a lot and we started playing music together and as I'm praying this and he's hearing that I'm a new Christian. Alex has been a Christian for a little bit now and he said, "Hey Josh, would you ever consider coming to my church and playing guitar in our youth band.

" Okay, first of all, had no idea what a youth band was, a youth group, any of that. Okay, but I liked playing guitar and I liked Jesus. And so I said, "Sure.

" And so I show up to this youth group and I'm I'm looking at chord charts for songs that I've never sung before or looked at before. Maybe you feel like that sometimes on a Sunday morning, and that's okay. I' I've been there, too.

And so I was there in that place and and the pastor the youth pastor at the time walks in and he's like, "All right, worship team, I want to lead you in a little bit of a devotional. " Again, a word that I had no idea what it meant. And he starts sharing about this group of people from the Bible called the Levites.

And he starts sharing how they were the worshippers, how they would lead the tabernacle in worship. And he was comparing that to what we were doing. And I was just totally entrenched in actually being able to learn from someone from something other than just sitting in a chair on a Sunday morning.

And so right away after we were done with practice, I went and introduced myself, reintroduced myself to the youth pastor and I started asking him all of these questions that I had locked and loaded and ready to go. And he was there to answer everyone. One of them.

Now, this is what I want you to get out of that. That the gospel made its way to me on the way to someone else. And this time, the vehicle in which it did was through serving. Did you know that God can change your life as you are changing others. As you are affecting others.

You see, because I didn't go looking for that person. And I was praying for that person, but I didn't go looking for that person. Instead, God used Alex to present me with an opportunity of a role. And in that role, I found a responsibility. And in that responsibility, I found a team, a pastor, and eventually because of that youth pastor, I got to deepen my faith.

The same is true for you. And the tension that you and I will sit with is that many of us just see serving as a responsibility. We'll see it as just a job and something to check off the checklist. But my prayer for you today is to see that not only just serving, but the power of Jesus working in us has the ability to change the course of our lives.

To take ordinary people like you and I and use them for something extraordinary. So, you want to look at that together. You want to you with me.

So, here's our big question for today. How does serving grow your faith and reach one more. And to answer that, we're going to do what we do every week.

We're going to pull out the word of God. We're going to be in First Peter 4:es 10-11. It's on page 149. By the way, if you don't have a Bible, please take this one home with you.

It is our gift to you. And we're just praying that you open it and you see how the word of God can just transform your life. And while you're finding your place, because context is crucial in a topical series like this.

Usually, we're going through a book of the Bible, but just for a couple of weeks, we're doing a topical series. And so, here's your 30 seconds of context. We're hearing from Peter.

Peter is one of my favorite Bible characters because he's the disciple that always screws up. He's the one who f he gets to follow Jesus from the beginning until the end. And then God uses him to build the church.

And Peter writes a couple of letters to believers. And in this particular section of his letter, he's kind of wrapping up his first of two letters that we get in the Bible. And he's giving us all of these kind of random statements, but connected in a way where it's saying, "Hey, here is how you grow as a believer, how you grow in your faith. " And he gives us this very important one starting in verse 10. So if you follow the numbers down to 10, it says this.

Each of you should use whatever gift that you have received to serve others as faithful stewards of God's grace in its various forms. If anyone speaks, they should do so as one who speaks from the very words of God. If anyone serves, they should do so with the strength that God preva provides.

So that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power forever and ever. Okay, so this is I I love that everybody's like, "Amen. " All right, that's actually what it says here in the scripture.

Now, what's really cool about this is in this short section of scripture, Peter answers this big question for us. He answers how serving grows our faith and reaches one more. The first thing that he shares is that by serving, you and I are going to be able to discover our gifts.

Discover the things that God has gifted to us. That whatever gift you have, whatever gift you have, say it like a teenager, whatever, whatever gift you have, okay, is has a purpose. And that purpose is to build the kingdom.

And each and every one of you have been given great and good perfect gifts from God. And those gifts can build the kingdom. Let me give you an example. There was one day around this time of year when I was about 13 years old that I wanted nothing more than to learn how to play guitar. As I shared, obviously I got to that point.

But I had this old crummy acoustic. You couldn't like press down on the strings and my the hands would bleed every single time I played this acoustic. So I begged mom and dad, please would you buy me an electric guitar.

Please, for months I asked and I asked and I thought it was never going to happen until one day they told me to look behind the couch and behind the couch was my first guitar. And so that's little Josh right there. , so I I got given my very first guitar. It was a it was an squire. It was a starter guitar.

And that is the first guitar. I couldn't find a picture of this. The guitar that I ironically played on my first worship set, too. And so here's the connection here is that I was given this gift. And this gift as it it felt like it was for me was used for a greater purpose.

And your heavenly father gives gifts to build the kingdom, too. You can take that picture down if that way people aren't staring at me when I was 13 the whole time. But this is this is true for each and every one of us. In Romans 12, Paul compares it to a body. He says it's like the anatomy of a body.

Each of you holds a purpose in the body of Christ, right. Okay, let's let's do some weird metaphors here. Okay, you wouldn't point with your elbow. You wouldn't say like look over there, right.

You wouldn't start walking on your hands, right. Like each body part has a purpose. And each body part apart from the body is not really a a good thing, right.

I I don't think we need to be this this one is not a stretch to say that if you walked out into the parking lot, I swear this is a weird metaphor, but just stick with me, okay. I've heard other pastors do it. If you went out into the parking lot and you just saw a toe sitting on the ground, you you'd scream, right. You'd scream.

You'd be a little freaked out and you'd have two concerns. The first concern would be, -oh, who does that belong to. We need to find them cuz they might be in some trouble. And number two, you might think, "Oh no, that's going to shrivel up and it's going to be really gross in about 2 seconds, right.

" And that is what disconnected looks like from the body of Christ. That you have these gifts, but these gifts are made to be used for a greater purpose. And yes, sometimes that greater purpose does in God's goodness benefit you.

But ultimately, God wants to use those gifts to see how he can extraordinarily work through ordinary people like us. But here's the question that always comes to mind, especially if maybe you're a little younger and you're still trying to figure this out. But how do I know what my gift is and what happens if I don't like it.

Here's a whole another sermon series, okay. But we're going to do this really quick because I think it is so important that we talk about the how and the what. The how do I know what my gift is. I love this acronym and I use it often especially when I'm working with youth or young adults. I'll tell you that God has given you a shape.

And what this shape is is that God has given all of you the children of God a spiritual gift. It is something that you have been supernaturally by God gifted to do. Each of you has a heart for something or someone. Maybe your heart is for prisoners.

Maybe your heart is for single moms. Maybe your heart is for victims of sex trafficking. There's something that makes your heartbeat a little bit more that brings a little bit more, you know, of that wet, you know, kind of feeling to your eyes where you get the tears going.

And that each of you has also abilities. Each of you has certain abilities of things that you gravitate towards naturally, things that you can do naturally. And each one of you also has a personality. Some of you are more blunt and stren straightforward. Some of you are encouraers.

Some of you are introverts. Some of you are extroverts. And lastly, each of each and every one of you has different experiences.

And so you get to be able to speak into people that are also experiencing the same thing. And so for example, for me, I can speak into people who have struggled with depression and anxiety and things like that because I have also struggled with those things. But that doesn't mean that I I don't have a heart for other people.

I have a heart for people who have came out of addiction. I have never personally came out of addiction, but I can have a heart for that. And so what happens is sometimes we we can even take something as good-hearted as this and we can start pinning things against each other. Well, God has wired me like this, but I really like to do this and I really want to learn more about this and I'm interested in this, but I'm really naturally gifted in this.

So, we kind of do this back and forth thing. And what we end up finding is, well, what if I don't like the gift that I've been given. Like what if I wouldn't have liked that guitar. I want a different one. But I want you to think about it like this.

In Christian culture, I think what we've done is kind of glorified certain things. And I want to just like put a stop to that right now because here's the truth. If I grabbed this guitar right now, I could grab this guitar.

I could pull up any single one of you for onto stage and I could get you to stand here and then I could put the guitar on you and you would look 10 times cooler. It's just a fact. It's just a fact.

And so people will start to glorify the things that, oh, let's glorify the instruments or the person holding the microphone. But I'm going to tell you something that every single role in the kingdom matters. Every single body part in the kingdom matters.

God doesn't have an appendix. He is ready to use every single one of you for every single gift that he has to make an extraordinary difference. Let me give you this example.

Every single morning, we have people like Brian and Lynn and Christy and Erica and people who are waving and smiling at people as they walk in. They're putting up signs so you know where to go. There are people that are setting up this stage sometimes shouldertosh shoulder just like that.

That's how they're setting up the stage because that's sometimes how they got to reach it. Each and every morning this is what we see. Every single chair that you see is set up.

Every single stage piece, every single light, every single thing is set up by hands that said yes. And that doesn't mean that just because the ones that are on this stage are important. Because I'm telling you, I cannot Oh, I've proved it this morning. I cannot show up here and set this all up by myself. That doesn't happen because God uses each and every person to accomplish this whole purpose of this church which is helping to helping people find and follow Jesus.

And so each chair that our setup team sets up is a chair that somebody could be finding Jesus in. Each Bible that we put out on the chair could have the power to unlock something for somebody during the week. Each growth group that we have, all of those things.

And so, I just want to encourage you to sign up to serve, okay. It's the only time I'm going to give you this action step, okay. This isn't just a call to serve, but I want you to consider where you might be able to serve because I believe that God has a spot for you.

I believe that God wants to show you something and teach you something through serving. Here's the hangup, though. The hangup is, well, let me let me try it as a question. Have you ever been tired.

I mean, okay, let's be honest, right. Have you ever felt like you're doing too much. Like you took on too much.

That's kind of what the hang-up is. When we think about serving and we think about, man, that sounds good. I would love to discover my gifts. What the hangup then becomes is, "Yeah, but I don't have the time.

And maybe you're thinking this, and what's crazy about this is if we go back to the 1960s, they were saying, as futurists were predicting that, guess what. You were all going to work 22-hour work weeks. And you were all going to only work 27 weeks a year. Is that true.

Did that come No, absolutely not. We work way more than that. It's because every technological advancement has required now more output from you. Now, instead of taking 3 days to recall, you're expected to return it within the next 24 hours, right.

And so, how can I serve when I'm already feeling tired and burnt out. And this is what Peter says. Look at what he says in the next part of this verse. If anyone speaks, they should do so as they speak from the very words of God.

And if anyone serves, they should do so with the strength that God provides. So here's number two. Number two to how we do this, how we serve and grow our faith is to stay connected.

We need to be able to serve by God's strength and not our own. Okay, this is going to be a really po important point just outside of serving. Do you know that God has the ability to restore you like to really restore you destination to really not have this expectation of output of constant output. I want you to think about it like this.

If I were to pull out my phone right now, I could go to settings and I could look at all of my apps. I could see a list of them all and I could look and I could see what apps that I have running are taking up memory and which ones are taking up the performance of my phone, the speed, which ones are using tons of space. I can even see how many of them I'm spending too much time on.

And what we look at when we look at serving is it's just another app. The funny thing about this is we use an app for our serve team. So that's the funny thing. But your relationship with Jesus is not like that.

Your time with Jesus is not like that. You see, all of these apps are doing is output. But Jesus is not just another app. He is the charger.

He is the charger that we plug into. And the cool thing about this is I can plug this in and I can use it, but I'm being charged. You see what I'm saying here. The same is true about serving. That when you serve, yes, you are using your energy, but that does not mean you are expending your energy.

That God is restoring you as you stay connected to him. Jesus calls it staying connected to the vine in John 15. He says, "Abide in me, remain in me.

" Just like a vine is connected to the tree. If the vine is apart from the tree, just like the the toe, right. It it's not going to last.

And so stay connected to Jesus. And the big idea here is that serving shouldn't burn you out, but it should charge you up. That is my prayer as we serve and we build the church together.

Do you know how excited I was to hear certain members of the setup team say, "Gosh, I'm so excited that we are setting up and tearing down again. " That is a weird statement, right. But here's the reason is because they get to work shouldertoshoulder every week and see the fruit of their labor every single week.

They get to see the chairs that they set up. Somebody is sitting in the stage that they set up. Somebody is presenting the gospel from, right.

And so every single week, this holds this bigger purpose. And so you might be thinking, "Yeah, but what if I'm still burning out. " Then I would say bluntly, check your connection.

Check your connection to God. Check and make sure that you are really plugged in and serving and reading and engaging in your relationship with God in the right ways. And I would say the other thing about this about staying connected, one of the best ways that we do that is to always remember why we are serving.

That is probably one of the most important things. Okay, let me say it like this. When I was a kid, , my dad would drop me off at a friend's house or at like a babysitter and they would look at me and they would say, "Josh, when so and so's dad or mom says jump, you say what.

" Oh my gosh, other kids here. And it was a sign of respect, right. That I respected and was ready to jump for them.

But when I tried this on my oldest, I said, "When you go over to so and so's house and they say to jump, I want you to say, and she goes, why are we jumping. " Okay, so that's the generational little gap here that we have. But here's the truth.

You need to know why you are doing what you're doing. And if you lose that why, then you won't you won't be able to come in and really fully charge and really fully get this connection that I've been talking about. Peter tells it to us like this.

Look at how he ends this section. He says, "So that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. " And so here's the big idea. Here's the third point and probably the most important thing today. Serving praises God.

It is your worship. Every time cafe team you are serving coffee, it is worship through serving. Every time we set up chairs, every baby that's rocked, every kid that's taught in kids ministry, every youth, which by the way, man, I cannot wait for youth group. Every youth that's going to learn about the gospel from somebody like I did, every time somebody puts out a yard sign, all of those things are worship. It is taking your time, your sacrifice, your attention, and saying, "God, I want your name to be known.

God, I want to see what you can do through me. " And the way that you serve has the ability to change lives. You and you may not think that you may still see it as just a small role.

And so I want to end here. There is a man in history in in Christian history that is so vitally important but nobody knows his name. There was a story in 1934 of a tent revival.

And this tent revival came through Charlotte, North Carolina. And there was two 14-year-old boys who showed up to this tent revival. But by the time they got there, it was like destination church last week.

There was no seat. There was no seat available. And so they walked off to leave. And as they were leaving, a man who nobody knows, nobody knows his name, nobody wrote it down, but he was serving as an usher, ran after them and helped these two teenage boys find a seat front and center. Okay, best seat in the house.

And later, one of those boys during this tent revival gave his life to Christ. That boy's name was Billy Graham. And maybe you recognize this name. Billy Graham is one of the most influential evangelists in American history.

He brought more people to know and follow Jesus than a lot of others. And here's the crazy thing about this is that nobody remembers the usher's name, but everybody remembers Billy Graham's name. But Billy Graham doesn't exist, at least in the way that we know Billy Graham, without the usher that was willing to go after one more, one more serving.

And that's what he did. And I believe that that is what God wants to do through you. The way that you serve could be the way that one more person finds and follows Jesus. And can I just tell you, it is such a joy. It is such an incredible joy to be able to work side by side with somebody while growing their relationship in Jesus.

It is so good, you guys. And I don't want you to miss that opportunity. Every act of service that we talk about though, everything that we talk about in the ways that we serve is only done because we are trying to emulate Jesus who first served us. And I want you to think about that that we have a God who left heaven, took on flesh, brought hope and healing and purpose. He washed feet and he did so many things to show that he was willing to give his life so that we could have one, right.

And so Jesus is this perfect example of serving that we live that we live and aspire to. And why we serve really is because he first served us. And so if you don't hear anything that I've I've said today, I want you to hear this. That Jesus has hope for you, that Jesus served you in this way, and that your invitation to serve is participation in in just really what Jesus has done. And so, what we're going to do together as a way to reflect and respond to this is we're going to take communion.

Now, communion is done as kind of like this remembrance of Jesus's sacrifice. So, there was this night that Jesus brought all of his disciples together and he served them by washing their feet. That's a whole another sermon that we'll get to later this year. And he served them and then he ate with them and he took this bread and he said, "This is my body given to you. " And then he took the cup and he said, "This is my blood shed for you.

Every time you take this and drink, do this in remembrance of me. " And so when we come to the table, we reflect on how God came down and served us in this very real sacrificial way. And so to us though, serving could just look like a job and communion could just look like a cracker and juice. But here's the cool thing. In the context of the kingdom, serving is worship and communion is a remembrance of who and why we are serving in the first place.

And so I want to invite you just to bow your heads and close your eyes for a moment of reflection. I'm going to bring the worship team up and they're just going to play instrumentally for a while. And I want to invite you if you are a believer, if you believe in Jesus, I want to invite you to the table to just take communion. You can bring it back to your seats.

You can reflect at the table, but wherever you choose to do so, I just want to encourage you. I want to encourage you in the way that when Jesus made that sacrifice, he was making it for you. That Jesus gives good and perfect gifts and that Jesus can restore us when we are tired, when we are burnt out. And so I just want to pray for you as we transition.

God, I just thank you so much for everybody in this room. God, I thank you for the gifts that you have given us. And God, maybe there is somebody in this room who just isn't sure yet, who just hears these messages and and just thinks that it's it's still just another thing to do. God, I pray that that we would all take steps closer in relationship to you.

Whether that means joining a growth group, whether that means serving, but or whether that just means having time with you. That God that we would take those steps and that as we do God you would use those experience to help us reach one more. So we lift that up to you in your name.