Investment Secrets From Heaven – Part 7

Review

• Investment Secret # 1: Invest in people’s lives.
• Matthew 20:28
• An is one who comes to serve.
• A is one who comes to be served.
• The measure of a church’s success is not the quality of a pastor’s sermon, but in the quality of a congregation’s service.
• Service is a source of .

The Practical Benefits of Service

1. The pastor’s ability to spiritually nourish you is exponentially increased when you start serving
2. When you serve, you receive inside information 
3. When you serve, you receive practical ministry training.
4. Everything you believe about God is tested in your relationships with people

Five Levels of Service

1. Contributing an individual talent or skill
2. Submission to a collective vision.
3. Helping others complete their tasks.
4. Creating vision within the vision.
5. Producing other leaders.

Reasons Why People Don’t Serve

• Not seeing a call to serve as a call from Jesus Himself
• Seeing the church as a time thief
• Not seeing positive results from your service personally or collectively
• Church hurt
• Authoritarianism
• Unused gifts

The Costs of Discipleship

• The call to service must be evaluated in light of the initial call and cost of .
• Luke 14:25-33 
  • Jesus is not desperate for .
  • Before you commit to Jesus, you need to intelligently evaluate what you are willing to do.
  • Jesus asks for .
  • To follow Jesus, you must renounce claims to all of your rights and entitlements.

Earthly Bread Vs. Heavenly Bread

John 6:1-6

• Jesus identifies and responds to the felt needs of the crowd.
• He does not feed them to add to his popularity, but because He has compassion on them.
• The Scripture never tells us to stop seeking things altogether; it only tells us to seek the Kingdom first.

John 6:22-27

• Lust vs. True hunger
• The Blessing vs. The Bless-er
• The deception of blessings
• Working for things vs. Receiving what God adds

John 6:35

• The power of seeing Jesus as bread

John 6:52-55 

John 6:60

John 6:66

• The absurdity of Jesus’ request by human standards
• Absurd = Wildly unreasonable, illogical or inappropriate
• When Jesus asks for the absurd, will you still follow Him?
• Jesus’ requests are not literally absurd.
• Jesus’ requests are only absurd relative to what we value.

Acts 2:41-47

• God’s addition is always our .
• God adds when we seek His kingdom first.
• Seeking the Kingdom means to serve .
• Serving Jesus means to serve people.
• Service begins at our spiritual .

© Joshua D. Smith, Ph.D., 2021