is as a prayer meeting night. And a lot of, we've gotten away from that many times, but it's still a great opportunity for us to come and pray and seek the Lord's face. And so we have a great privilege in prayer, do we not? And I've got two verses down. I've got verse one and verse two. Of course, I don't know which ones they are in your book. How many do we have in the hymnal? Three? All right. Well, the first one I have is sweet our prayer that calls me from a world of care. Is that verse one? And the second one I have is sweet our prayer, thy wings shall my petition bear. Is that three? That's two. Well, what's three? Oh, that's a good one. We may have to do that one anyway. Y'all may have to do that one for me. I got a songbook somewhere if all else fails. All right, let's do the first verse if we can. Let me find a chord that's gonna work for me here. That might help, right? Are you ready, wife? Sweet are a prayer, sweet are a prayer That calls me from a world of care And bids me at My Father's throne make all my wants and wishes whole. In seasons of distress and grief, my soul has often found relief. And oft escaped the tempter's snare, By thy return, sweet hour of prayer. Sweet hour of prayer, sweet hour of prayer, Thy wings shall my petition bear To Him whose truth and faithfulness Engage the waiting soul to bless And since He bids me seek His face Believe His word and trust His grace I'll cast on Him ♪ My every care ♪ And wait for thee ♪ Sweet hour of prayer Well, amen. Amen. Open your Bibles. Let me put this, my daddy used to call it a starvation box. Let me put that thing down there. Sweet ire of prayer. You know, I didn't learn a lot of sign language, but many, many years ago, I took a, what was it, a two-week class we took before I ever went and pastored when I was just 30 years old, so that's a long time ago, all right? We learned in that two weeks time about an 800 word vocabulary, they said. At least that was the goal. That's what we were aiming for. And I actually translated the first Sunday night after that two weeks. Now that was a sight, let me tell you. And thankfully we had some very patient deaf folks who came and joined us that night and they helped out a lot. But one of the words I do remember in sign language is the word prayer. And the word prayer, or the sign for prayer, and the sign for asking is the same thing. It's the same sign. And isn't that what praying really is? It's making our petitions known unto the Lord. And I know there's more depth to that, but I think that's a simplistic way of viewing prayer. It's a matter of asking. And I encourage folks, and I'd encourage you, I've encouraged folks for years, just ask God. Man, you have something that you desire, something that you feel is right that you need, or whatever it might be, just ask God. I've asked God for so many things over the last, well, over the lifetime. that I couldn't start to tell all the stories of prayers answered. One of the earliest times, and you're going to think this is just as corny as can be, but I was just a little boy. Well, let me take that back. I was never a little boy, okay? But I was a young child, and across the street from us was five acres of wooded that was our playground. We built our forts in there. We played soldier in there and all of that. The Church of Christ came and bought that and leveled it and built a church. I didn't like the Church of Christ from that day on. But anyway, we'd play football and stuff out there in their front lawn and they let us do that and in the parking lot and what have you. We were out there one time trying to fly our kites and I couldn't have been any more than 8 or 10 years old. And we were all trying to get our kites up that day, and we couldn't get our kites up. I mean, you know how you do with a kite, especially when you're a young kid. You'd let out a little twine, and you'd run and try to get some wind under it, and nobody's getting their kites up. And here's what you're not gonna believe. As a little 8-, 9-, 10-year-old boy, I prayed a simple prayer. I said, Lord, why don't you just let my kite fly? That sounds selfish, doesn't it? I'm just telling you how I prayed. Lord, would you let my kite fly? and without any running I turned around and held that thing up and my kite took off into the sky. And I flew that thing, the other kids, my friends were watching, you know, and how'd you do that? I said, just pray, you know, what can I say? But from childhood I learned to just ask God. And sometimes it's something that may seem that corny, or that insignificant, or that unimportant, but I cannot begin to tell you the prayers that I've had answered over the years just by asking God. You know, the last pastor that I had there in Rogers, God allowed us to relocate and buy a Nazarene building in Rogers and move in from Outrule a little bit into Rogers. And I used to drive by that church right after I got there. We'd drive by that church, head out to where our church was, And I prayed many, many times, just almost a silly prayer, Lord, why don't you let me have that and let them have something nicer? I always believed if you ask for them to get something nicer, then it's not covetousness, right? I don't have a verse for that, all right? I just always thought that was good. And so, I said, God, why don't you let them have something nicer? Let me have that. It looks like a Baptist building, and I prayed for that. And I asked for that almost, I don't want to say insincerely because I was more sincere than not, but almost that casually, I'll say it that way. And one Sunday morning Brother Harold Webster, he's been in Heaven a long time, Brother Harold walked down during handshaking time and says, Brother Claude I want to tell you about a building that's going to be for sale. And it was that building. And I said, Lord you're going to do it again aren't you? He had done it so many times. He gave us a 500-seat auditorium in Alamogordo, New Mexico that was debt-free, and along with it came a checking account with $20,000 in it. And that was in 1986, 87, when $20,000 meant something. Still does to some of us, by the way, all right? But he gave us a 500-seat auditorium. He's just done so many things over the years. Just, just ask him. If he says no, he said no. You know, you gotta learn to not pitch a tantrum if he says no, or if he chooses to answer in some other way. But anyway, that's a song, that's not our sermon tonight. You open your Bibles to Mark chapter 10. Now I don't know how much you asked the Lord tonight, or prayed tonight, but Sunday night I was preaching in Lebanon, Missouri, and I preached for all of 20 minutes. Now, did anyone ask for that tonight? No, but you're doing it right now, aren't you? Too late, too late. I'm sorry, it's gonna be a little longer now. But yeah, they were surprised too. I think my wife was the one most surprised. Mark chapter 10. I wanna start with just a couple of questions, if I can. When this service is over, or any service, Sunday morning, Sunday night, tonight, Do you feel like you've been to church? Or if it's about tonight's service, will you feel like you have been to church? Or here's a question along that line. How will you serve the Lord this week? How will you serve the Lord in your home, in your community, here in your local church or on your job? A number of years back, I was struggling with a couple of things and I was in four different church situations in just a matter of a very short time, three or four week time period. I'd been in the church. I was pastoring there in Rogers, of course, on a Sunday, I believe, and on a Wednesday, and then I left town and I drove to Denton and down in Texas, and I did a Sunday school conference there and then preached all day Sunday. And then Monday, headed to Galveston by way of El Paso, Texas. Now, if you know logistics, that's not a very good way to go. But my pastor was in El Paso, and he was getting close to the end of his life, and I wanted to go see him. So I went out there, and I was in church there at what I call my home church. I believe it was a Wednesday evening. And then we went on to Galveston, got on a ship there and went out to sea. And we travel, when we go out of Galveston, we go with a church group. Actually, there's about a hundred of us that go. It's not always the same hundred, but about that number. And so we have services while we're at sea. And then we have devotions at night. So I was in that environment as well. So there was my home church, the church in Denton, my home church in El Paso, and then there on the ship. And as I always do when I travel, I try to observe and learn. And so in my time of meditation during that particular trip, I was considering why I felt like I had been to church the Sunday before I left town. And I felt like I'd been to church the Sunday I was in Denton. But when I was in my own home church, I didn't feel like, now I'm dealing with feelings here for a minute, all right? I didn't feel like I had been in church. And then when I was on the ship, though I was in services multiple times, probably at least a half a dozen times that week, I didn't feel like I'd been in church. Have you ever been there? Where sometimes you're in church and it's all over, boy, you just felt like you'd gone to church. You know what I'm saying? And then other times you've been in church and you leave and you just didn't feel like You'd been in church. Well, why is that? And so as I considered that and meditated on it, I considered several things. First thing I thought about was the building. I thought about our church building there in Rogers. I thought about the church building in Denton. I thought about the church building in El Paso. And I thought about where we held services on the ship. So I thought about the building. I thought about the music. and considered that. And everywhere we were, it was scriptural. Everywhere we were, it was good. It was uplifting. It was encouraging. So I thought about the music. I thought about the preaching. And every place that I was, I believed that there was biblical preaching and biblical application of the scripture in all of the locations. I thought about the fellowship. And the fellowship was excellent everywhere. I mean, isn't that one great thing about being amongst God's people? You can be with folks that you hardly know and still enjoy the fellowship. Why? Because we're brothers and sisters in Christ. So everywhere I was at, I enjoyed the fellowship. And then the last thing I considered was my personal service to God. What I had done at the church there in Rogers, what I had done at the church in Denton, what I had done in El Paso, what I'd done on the ship, and that was it. That was it. I came to the conclusion that when I was at the church in Rogers, and when I was at the church in Denton, I had a definite purpose of service. I was there to serve. I was there to minister to others. I was there to try to help meet the needs of others. However, when I went to my home church, and when I got on the ship, I went as a spectator. I wasn't specifically there as a pastor or as a preacher, and I wasn't preaching the services and what have you. I wasn't involved in the services. I was there as a spectator. So say what you will, but I believe that when we go to church, if we're going to feel like we've been to church, then we must of necessity be involved in serving. We've got to be involved in serving others. I believe that's vitally, vitally important. We're just not going to feel right when we're spectators. The happiest people at Crimson Avenue Baptist Church, just like at the church I'm a member of now and the churches I pastored, the happiest people there are the ones that will go away feeling like they've been in church and they're those who served while they were there. They were busy about the master's business. What a tremendous truth. See, the problem is God made us to serve. God caused us or put in us a heart to serve. So I want to speak tonight on a servant to the chief servant's servants." Did you get all that? A servant to the chief servant's servants. Mark chapter 10, you found that. Follow along as I read. Beginning in verse number 35, the Bible says, in James and John, the sons of Zebedee, coming to him and to Christ, saying, Master, we would that thou shouldest do for us whatsoever we should desire or shall desire. And he said unto them, what would ye that I should do for you? They said unto him, granting to us that we may sit one on thy right hand and the other on thy left hand in thy glory. But Jesus said unto them, ye know not what ye ask. Can ye drink of the cup that I drink of and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with? And they said unto him, we can. And Jesus said unto them, you shall indeed drink of the cup that I drink of, and with the baptism that I am baptized with, oh, shall you be baptized. But to sit on my right hand and on my left hand is not mine to give, but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared. And when the ten heard it, they began to be much displeased with James and John. But Jesus called them to Him and saith unto them, ye know that they which are accounted to rule over the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and their great ones exercise authority upon them. But so shall it not be among you, but whosoever will be great among you shall be your minister. And whosoever of you will be the chiefest shall be the servant of all. For even the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give his life a ransom for many. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, bless, please, the reading of your word. Lord, I ask tonight that you'd help us to be a help, and may you be honored in Jesus' name, amen. You may remember in the chapter preceding this that we find the account of the great transfiguration. Wouldn't you have liked to have been there and experienced that? Peter, James, and John had gone up the mountain with Jesus, and there on top of the mountain, Jesus was transfigured in chapter 9, verses 2 through 4. And present also there was Moses and Elijah. What an experience. to witness that day. However, it wasn't long, that same chapter, chapter nine, down in verses 33 through 37, they were wondering who was going to be the greatest, who was going to be the most important, if you would, in the kingdom. Listen to what Jesus tells them in verse number 35 of chapter nine. He sat down and called the 12 and saith unto them, if any man desire to be first, the same shall be servant of all. And, excuse me, shall be last of all and servant of all. Isn't that an amazing statement? Here they were trying to discuss who's gonna be the greatest. He said, if you want to be great, you need to learn how to serve. Then notice his illustration in verse 36 and 37, chapter nine. He took a child and set him in the midst of them. And when he had taken him in his arms, He said unto them, Whosoever shall receive one of such children in my name receiveth me." Isn't that an amazing thing? Here's these powerful men, if you would. These men who were walking with Christ. And Christ says, if you want to be great, then you need to become as this little child. Now we come to our text in chapter 10, and we find James and John still struggling with this issue. The Lord already dealt with it in chapter 9, but now then they're still struggling with it here in chapter number 10, this matter of greatness. Aren't we all guilty of this occasionally? I mean, I think if we'd be honest and be candid, we struggle with that. Why does so-and-so get to do this or get to do that? Why are they here? Why are they there? And we all struggle with it from time to time. But notice Jesus' response once again in our text now in verses 43 and 44. He says, but so shall it not be among you, but whosoever will be great among you shall be your minister. You might underline or circle that word minister if you mark in your Bibles. And whosoever of you will be the chiefest shall be servant of all." And you might highlight or mark that word servant. There are three things to note from our text this evening. First of all, in the two verses I just read, I draw this conclusion, we are all servants. we are all servants. No matter what your lot in life, no matter what you feel your status is, bottom line is we're all servants. That word minister in verse 43 is a word that means an attendant or a waiter. An attendant or a waiter. So he says, if you're going to be great, then you need to be an attendant. You need to be a waiter. And then that word servant in verse 44 is a word that means a slave, but more specifically, it's referring to a volunteer slave. It's someone who was a slave but was released or freed and voluntarily put themselves back in that position of a slave to their master. So what we learn here, every one of us are servants. First of all, if you're here and you've received Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, you're a servant. Excuse me, if you've not received Christ, you're a servant of sin. You've not been born again. There's no getting around it. That's what the Bible says. You're a servant of sin. And in the words of Scripture, you're a child of the devil. In John 8, verse 31, the Word of God says, Then are you my disciples indeed, and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. They answered him, we be Abraham's seed, and we're never in bondage to any man. Now that's not the sermon, but what a statement. Have they forgotten? how quickly they had forgotten of all the times, not just the one time. You know, we can think of multiple times that they had been in bondage, but they said, we've never been in bondage to any man. How sayest thou you shall be made free? Jesus answered them, verily, verily, I say unto you, whosoever committed sin is a servant of sin. Well, who's a sinner? Yeah. So we're all servants. John 8, verse 44, he goes on, he says, you are of your father the devil, and he's talking to religious folks, by the way, and the lust of your father you will do. He was a murderer from the beginning and abode not in the truth because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own, for he is a liar and the father of it. So if you're saved, You've been born again, you're on your way to heaven, you're a child of God, you've still got to choose who you're gonna serve every day. Because as long as we yield ourselves to sin, we're a servant to sin. So we have to choose whether we're gonna serve sin, serve Satan, or whether we're gonna serve God. Now I'm not talking about maintaining our salvation. Thank God that was settled on Calvary. Thank God He gave us everlasting life. We rejoice in that. But with that being said, every morning I have to get up and make a decision as to who I'm gonna serve today. Am I going to serve my own flesh? Am I going to serve Satan? Or am I going to serve the One who owns me, and that is the Lord Jesus Christ? John 1, verse 12, it says, "...as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name." So we're saved with the sons of God. Now, listen to what Paul says in Romans 6, verse 15, what then? Shall we, we are saved, we are the sons of God, shall we sin? excuse me, what then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? God forbid! Know ye not that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey, whether of sin unto death or of obedience unto righteousness? But God be thanked that ye were the servants of sin. But you have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which has delivered you, being then made free from sin, you became the servants of righteousness." What a wonderful choice and option we have to be the servants of righteousness. But saved or lost, we're yet servants. So the first thing to settle in our hearts and our minds is that we're servants. That only leaves one question, who or what will you serve? It's a choice, as we've said, that every one of us must make. If we choose righteousness, then we're the servants of Jesus Christ. I love what it says in Jeremiah 23, verse six. This is the name whereby he shall be called the Lord our righteousness. So we can choose to serve the Lord righteousness. So, the first thing tonight is every one of us are servants. The second thing I want you to notice is in verse number 45 of our text, Jesus Christ is the chief servant. We're all servants, but Jesus Christ is the chief servant. That word chief means foremost. It means having the most influence. It means commanding the most respect. Notice verse 45. He says, for even the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give his life a ransom for many. So he came to be a servant. How did he choose to do that? He chose to do that by offering his life on the cross of Calvary for you and me. Philippians chapter two, verse five, the apostle Paul says, let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, do we see humility there, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men, and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross." So we see Jesus Christ is the chief servant. And He chose to do that. He chose to come. He chose to lay His life down. He chose to die in our place. He chose to die daily, if you would, in the words of Paul. He chose to die. And then Paul writes to us, he says, Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ. In other words, let us who are saved learn how to think like Jesus Christ thought. Let us have that same mind. Let us have that same desire, that same heart. What heart is that? That's the heart of service. And the only way that's gonna happen is through humility. Well, pride's a horrible thing. I preach quite often on the simplicity of the Christian life. And there's several ways that I'll demonstrate that. One, I believe that the Christian life is as simple as obedience. I believe that. We are saved by obeying the Gospel. Immediately after we are saved what are we to do? We are to obey and believe His baptism, follow the Lord and believe His baptism. After that what are we to do? We follow Him, we obey Him day by day as He leads us and guides us through His Spirit and through His Word. So the Christian life is as simple as obedience. And now that we are seeing the same thing here the Christian life is as simple as having the mind of Christ and having a desire to serve others. humbling ourselves to that point of service. How did Christ minister? What does that mean for Him to be a servant? Keep in mind the definition of minister, it�s a waiter or a slave. It�s a waiter or a slave, and that�s another thing back to sign language. is the term or the sign for serve is this. It's the same as the sign for wait, like a waitstaff. It's the same, all right? So we're servants, we're waiters, we're attendants on the Lord Jesus Christ. And so He ministered by surrendering His life for the cause of others. He went to Calvary not for His own benefit, if I can say it like that, not so that He could be saved, but He went to Calvary for our benefit, that we might be saved. He went to Calvary that we might have our sins forgiven. And in order to pay sin's debt, He had to become a common man or like a common man. I've heard folks say, well, He was half God and half man. No, He was all God and all man. He was all both. And so He became man. He reached down to us. When you consider serving, you have to consider reaching down. Did you hear the missionary's letter? We went to a poor section of town. Well, folks don't want to do that much anymore. You know what I'm saying? I know when we bought that church there in Rogers, my wife's doctor is a Methodist. And the Methodist church went through a split. I know you can't believe you thought Baptists were the only ones that did that. All right, the Methodists did too. And they had a church building in church downtown Rogers, and they bought property out by Pinnacle. If you're familiar with Rogers at all, they bought property out by Pinnacle and built this massive, beautiful building out there. All right. Well, her doctor, when we bought that building in, It wasn't in downtown Rogers, but it was in the old part of Rogers. He was so happy. I mean, he became my bosom buddy. My wife would get so upset because I'd go with her to her doctor's appointments. He would talk to me for 15 minutes and then say, now, why are you here? And that used to bother her, you know? And so, but he just, he was so appreciative that we had stayed in that part of Rogers. He stayed in the old part of Rogers with that old church. He says, when they left, he said, I stayed downtown. Someone's got to reach these folks. Do you know that's what service requires sometimes? It's a stooping down. And when you say, well that's below me, or that's lower than what I want to think, then what you need to consider is how far Jesus Christ Himself stooped. He left the splendor of heaven. I mean, we dream of getting there. He left there. I got my little part-time job over here at Silver Dollar City, and because of health, I can only work part-time. I mean, I'm that guy that I'm at home wishing I was at work. Nothing personal there, nothing personal. I just love being there. I love the witnessing opportunities. I love the fun time I have. I just enjoy being there. I'm that guy that I just love to be there. Now then when I get to work, I'm working with a few folks, not many, most of us who work there love it. Most of my coworkers just love being there. They're the same way I am. But there's some, they're there wishing they was at home, right? Now think about this, here we are, longing for that day that we'll be there. We think about heaven. I have more friends in heaven now than I have here on earth. I have more loved ones and family in heaven now than I have here on earth. And so I long to be in heaven someday. But Jesus was there and He humbled Himself and He took on the form of a man and He came to earth to be despised, to be lied about, to be spat upon, to be crucified, to be hung on that old cross, to be taken down and placed in a borrowed tomb. Why? Because he was a servant. And then we're told by the Apostle Paul, let this mind be in you, which is also in Jesus Christ, that mind of a servant. So first of all, we're all servants. Secondly, Jesus Christ is the chief servant. And then thirdly, I'll talk to you about how we serve Christ. How do we serve Christ? How do we, you know, most of us would say, that's my heart's desire. I want to serve the Lord. This is a Wednesday night crowd, right? We're that group that's at Silver Dollar City wanting to be there, right? We're the ones that are at church wanting to be there. We're the ones that, that we're here on Wednesday night. I'm probably not saying anything new to any of you. Many of you have been in church longer than I have or as long as I have. And so I don't have anything, but here you are. Why? Because you'll love the Lord, you'll want to be here. So I can't tell you nothing new. But how can we serve the Lord? How do we do that? What does that mean? Does that mean I need to be a missionary? Does that mean I need to be a pastor? Does that mean I need to be a missionary's wife, a pastor's wife? Does that mean I need to sing specials? Does that mean I need to play an instrument? Does that mean I need to teach a Sunday school class? What does it mean? Have you ever heard preachers say, you need to find a place of service? When I joined Hillcrest, I was in the military, and I'd gone in the military running from the Lord, and I was away from the Lord, I wasn't right with God, but I still got in church. A lot of people not right with God get in church, you know what I'm saying? So I got in church, and my daddy, he believed in small church America. And he used to say this, he'd say, son, the only reason anybody goes to a big church, now a big church to dad was 100 people. All right? It wasn't the mega church stuff. I'm talking, if he was 100 people, if Dad had ever got to 100, he'd have split it on purpose and started another church. That was just Dad. He believed in small church America. And so Dad, so I got to El Paso, and I thought, I'm going to find me a big church. He said this. He said, the only reason anybody goes to a big church is so they don't have to be involved. They can get in there and hide, and nobody will know they're there. So I thought, OK, that's what I'm going to do. I'm going to get in a big church. I found a big church. Mega church, I think there's running 250 or something. It is huge, you know what I'm saying? Compared to what I'm used to, right? I was raised in a church like this. This was my bread and butter. This is what I grew up on, and so that's all I knew. And all of a sudden, I'm in this huge church. About the first Sunday night or the second Sunday night, we were having baptismal service. Well, during baptism, the preacher and the candidates would go back and get changed, and they would take testimony time. And so there's an eighth grade boy stood up, Manny was his name, Manny stood up. And he says, we need some help in the bus ministry. If somebody will just drive us around, there are several of us teenagers that will visit the kids and invite the kids to church. If somebody will just drive us around. And I'm sitting there with several thoughts in my mind. First of all, who's he think he is? We're here to hide, not to work. And my second thought was, why don't some of these lazy adults do something to help this kid? That's my second thought. So I'm sitting, I was 22 years old. So I'm sitting there and all this going on. So another week comes, same thing. Man, he got up, some of you adults. So that went on several times. And finally, it's like the Holy Spirit whispered in my ear, said, hey, you lazy adult, what are you doing on Saturdays? Okay, all right, all right. So then it wasn't a week or so after that, Brother E. L. Mitchell's up there saying, we need more people in the choir. Can anybody sing in the choir? We need you in the choir. And I'm thinking, what in the world is this about? And it wasn't long after that, Brother Bob, our pastor was up there saying, we need some Sunday school teachers. And I'm thinking, isn't anybody doing anything? One old preacher called us in his office and said, Brother Claude, That's kind of how he talked. He is a Louisiana plow boy, is what he would say. He says, Brother Claude, I'd like for you and Miss Carol to teach Sunday school. If you could teach third grade boys and she could teach third grade girls, that would just be awesome. Okay, so we weren't in church three months, both teaching Sunday school, singing in the adult choir, running a bus route, leading the teen choir, thinking, where's everybody else? But can I tell you something? I was happy. Man, all of a sudden I found myself with a desire to be in church, and a desire to serve the Lord. But what does it mean? Does it mean was I serving the Lord because I had a Sunday school class? Was I serving the Lord because I got involved in the bus ministry? Well let me just show you what the Bible says. I hate to bring that in on you, okay, but Matthew chapter 25. I'm gonna go down to verse 34. It says, then shall the king say unto them on his right hand, come you blessed of my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was in hunger, and you gave me meat. I was thirsty, and you gave me drink. I was a stranger, and you took me in. Naked, and you clothed me. I was sick, and you visited me. I was in prison, and you came unto me. Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, When saw we thee and hungered, and fed thee? Or thirsty, and gave thee drink? When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in, or naked, and clothed thee? When saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? All right, now listen, here's the picture. The king, who's a type of Jesus Christ in this story, okay? The king says, I was hungry, you fed me, I was thirsty, you gave me to drink, I was in prison, you came to see me, I was naked, you gave me clothes to wear. And he goes through several things like that, and the disciples are kinda like, when did that happen? When did we do that for you, the king? Notice the answer. Verse number 40. And the king shall answer and say unto them, verily I say unto you, inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. Okay, listen to this statement. It's about purpose, not position. It's about purpose, not position. The church isn't corporate America. We didn't get in the church to work our way up to whatever we perceive the top as being. We're all servants. I've said this many, many times over the years. I was just as happy pastoring or teaching pastoring teaching that third grade boys Sunday school class as I was pastoring the churches that averaged 300 or so in attendance. I was just as happy with third grade boys. I was just as happy going out on Saturday and visiting some little snot-nosed bus kids we used to call them back in the 70s and 80s. I was just as happy doing that as I was, stepping into a pulpit on Sunday. It's not about position. It's about purpose. I don't have a pulpit anymore. I don't have a pastor anymore, but I'm just as happy today serving where God allows me to serve as I was in that other position. Why? Because it's not about position. It's about purpose. I think since I was here last time, I became a deacon. I don't know what I think about that. You know what I'm saying? All the things I said about deacons all through the years, and now I are one. I don't know what I think about that anymore. I'm trying to behave myself. I don't want to live up to what I used to think. I want to be a good deacon now. But I'm just as happy. You know what a deacon is? He's a servant. That's all. Do you know what a pastor is? He's a servant. Do you know what you are? You're a servant. We're servants. Someday we're going to stand before the Lord, and He's going to say, well done. I was hungry, and you fed me. I was thirsty, and you gave me to drink. I was naked, and you clothed me. I was in prison, and you came to see me. I was sick, and you visited me. And we're going to say, Lord, I lived in the 20th and 21st century. I wasn't there when you walked on the earth. When did I do that? Oh, that time you went up to the hospital to visit a church member. That time you went to see a bus kid's mama or daddy. That time that you took some clothes from your kids over to some of the bus kids to help them out. So how do we serve him? we serve others. Just a servant of the chief servant's servants. One more verse. Do you remember the story of the great banquet in Luke 14? And they had been invited to this banquet. The king had sent out to invite folks to this banquet and they all made excuses. One says, I bought a piece of ground. Another one said, I've bought five yoke of oxen. Another man said, I've married a wife. So in verse 21, the master said to his servant, go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city and bring in hither the poor. and the maimed, and the haught, and the blind. They'd gone out and they'd invited the wealthy, and they'd invited the well-dressed, and they'd invited the elites of society, if you would, and nobody came, everybody had excuses, and so the master said, you just get out there as quick as you can. Get out in the streets and the lanes. Bring in the poor, the maimed, the haught, and the blind. What was Jesus saying? I believe it's this simple. He was saying to you and me today, don't limit, don't limit your area of service. Don't limit your area of service. Well, I'm a, I'm just a Sunday school teacher, or I'm a whatever. Don't limit your area of service. You see a job that needs to be done? Just help out. Just help out. One more story. I love stories. Jesus was a master storyteller. I'm not the master of it, but I love telling stories. I was there at Hillcrest, and this just came to mind. It's not in my notes or nothing, but I was there one day, and I was 22 years old. I was young, energetic, healthy, and all that kind of stuff. Brother E.L. Mitchell was the associate pastor. Brother E.L. Mitchell had my assistant, Mr. Gravis, and they had accidentally cut his vocal cords back here, so he talked like this, real raspy voice. And when he sang, he sang like that. I never heard him sing in his real voice, except on a cassette tape years later. But E. L. Mitchell was loved. He and Brother Stewart served together for 40 years or so, and they're both in heaven now. But E. L. Mitchell. So I'll never forget one Sunday morning I thought to myself, I'm the new staff member here. I'm going to get up and I'm going to get to church early. I'm going to be the first one there. And I did. I got up and I got to church early. And I pulled into the parking lot and there sat the car, Brother Yale Mitchell. And I get out, and Yale Mitchell had already been there probably a half hour, I don't know. He had already been there. So I thought, okay, I don't know what to do. I didn't have an office, so I was just kind of hanging out with him in his office, you know, and just kind of there. And I said, what do we do? And he goes, well, we just make sure things are ready. I said, okay. So he gets up a little bit later, and he's walking around. We're walking through the auditorium, and I'm just following him. I don't know, I'm just a new kid on the block. I'm just following E.L. Mitchell, this sick, he was a very sick man. I'm following him. I'm following him. All through the auditorium, he's walking around picking up trash, straightening songbooks. By the way, the janitor had already cleaned. The building, I'd already walked through once. I didn't see nothing. You know what I'm saying? You're guilty. Didn't see nothing. But the rest of that morning until church time, until Sunday school time, I walked around classrooms, I walked in and out of halls looking for any piece of trash I could find, looking for anything I could put back in its place. Why? Because it wasn't about being the new assistant pastor, bus director, youth director, whatever title came with it, it wasn't about any of that. It was about serving him by serving others. When they came in, we wanted things to be right. We wanted the building to be right. We wanted it to be clean. We wanted it to be nice. And my, what a powerful lesson I learned that day of what it meant to serve the Lord. It's not about a title. It's not about prestige. It's about serving others. Let me ask you, do you feel saved today? Will you feel like a Christian as you live your life this week? Will you feel like you've been to church this next Sunday? I can tell you the secret. Serve somebody. Let's stand to our feet, Heavenly Father. This has been a simple message, but I pray it's been helpful. Lord, I know what it's done in my own heart, even as I've brought the message. I've been out of our church for the last couple of Sundays, and now this Wednesday night, and Lord, I can't wait to get back to my place. And Lord, when I get there Sunday, help me to be a servant. Help me to go with that heart of service to serve others. God help all of us. What I know this, and a lot of times folks tend to get critical, or we have that ability, or we can tend to be judgmental, but what I know personally, and as I've watched others now for a lifetime, that normally folks who are serving don't have time to be critical. Normally folks who are serving don't have time to be judgmental. So Lord, tonight, would you give us a heart of service in Jesus' name. Our heads are bowed and our eyes are closed. We're gonna have just a little brief time of invitation tonight. God's spoken to your heart and invites you to come kneel here at this altar or even there in your pew in your seat where you're at. Maybe pray a simple prayer, something like this, Lord, help me to be a servant. Help me to be like you. Help me to stoop down and come to serve others. My, what could our churches be if we were filled with Christians who served? So only be blessed and find peace and sweet rest as you yield Him your body and soul. This is Father Terry. Just while we tarry, I think back. It's been almost 50 years ago, 48 years ago, since that eighth grade boy stood up and said, will somebody help us? It's been about that long since that psalm leader said, we need some folks in the choir. I'm so thankful for those who put out that little bit of a challenge, that nudge, if you would, Maybe that's a little nudge that's come your way tonight. Amen. Alright, let's look to the Lord and be dismissed. Brother Bond, I believe you're going to pray for us. Please, sir. So heavenly Father, Lord, we just thank you for this evening. Lord, we thank you for the word of God. Lord, we thank you for your love.