Focus: Will You Stink?

Foundation Scripture: John 21:7-14 (NLT)

Prayer Points:
1. Return - Christians are committed to the servant's heart
2. Redeem- Revelation of the redemptive power of serving for the servant and the benefactor
3. Restore - Believers take advantage of the restorative opportunities of serving
4. Powerful Sunday service & impactful Serve Month

Foundation Scripture
8 “But you are to be different from that. You are not to be called master, for you have only on Master, and you are all brothers and sisters.” 9 And you are not to be addressed as father, for you have one Father, who is in heaven. 10 Nor are you to be addressed as teacher, for you have one Teacher, the Anointed One. 11 The greatest among you will be the one who always serves others from the heart.

Matthew 23:8-11 TPT

Now when we talk about serving from the heart, we must be careful, because if the condition of my heart isn’t right, I can go out serving from the heart and cause more problems than what I started with. I can go out there with a heart to serve and turn people away from God.

Know Your Heart

When you think about the human heart from a physical perspective, the heart is central to life & living. Your entire life centers around a beating heart. One way they check to see if a person is still alive is by checking their pulse, which is proof of a beating heart and evidence of life.

In the same way as the physical heart is central to life & living. The spiritual heart is central to every aspect of your life. Every choice you make, every decision you make, everything you do flows out of what is in your heart.

As you can see the heart is central to everything you do and more importantly it is a true reflection of who you are. And when we talk about serving others it starts with serving from the pure heart.

Since the heart reflects what is inside you, you must be true to yourself. You must be honest with yourself. If you don’t like what you see on the outside, then you must recognize that the problem is on the inside. When you change the heart, you change the person.

1. Everything they did was to be seen by man, they acted out the religious spirit Jesus spoke against in the Sermon on the Mount (Matt 6:1-4)

2. Wearing oversized prayer boxes with scriptures inside and tassels on their garments was obedience to what God commanded (Deut 11:18 & Num 15:38-40) The problem was they used those things to make themselves look like they were more spiritual than everybody, and thought they were better

3. They love the best places…greetings in the marketplaces; They not only wanted to look super spiritual, but they also loved it when people admired their supposed spirituality. They wanted the best seats at the best places.

As a Christian this verse challenge you to judge your conduct. Taking every activity of your life, and every word that comes from you lips and checking it to see does it glorify God. Can you bring your constant praise to God?

Too many Christians go about their lives as if the Holy Spirit doesn’t exist. They make decisions out of their own knowledge, they live their lives out of their own strength, but the truly surrendered Christian live by the power of the Holy Spirit. Not by the power of their own knowledge and strength. Surrendered Christians understand the gift they have been given, the Holy Spirit residing inside of them. And they listen and follow!

Conclusion

Jesus made it clear to his disciples that they would never be without His Spirit, so we know that we are not without the Holy Spirit
either! We may not see the Holy Spirit visibly, we may not hear his voice audibly, but He is a powerful force and one that lives in
us. He’s been sent to us as a helper, one who guides us and gives us wisdom and understanding in every area of our lives. When
we follow His guidance we live powerful and effective lives.