Episode 62: "Saved People Serve People"

Welcome to the Growing and Grace Podcast, a podcast of Grace Hills Church where we take

a deeper dive into the previous Sunday morning's message.

My name is Matt.

Send down here once again with Pastor Brandon today on Growing and Grace.

We're continuing our family portrait series by asking a simple, but lady question, what

will we be known for?

In Matthew 25, Jesus describes a future moment when He returns as king and separates the

sheep from the goats and the difference comes down to how they serve those in need.

So today Pastor Brandon, I'm going to talk about why service isn't about earning salvation,

but revealing transformation.

If the gospel has truly changed your heart, it will move your hands.

Our prayer is that this episode challenges each of us not to just love and word or speech,

but in action and truth.

The Pastor Brandon Quick, I ask for your question for you this morning.

What's one act of kindness or service as someone did for you that really made an impact

on your life?

That's a good question.

You know, I don't know if there was ever like a really big thing necessarily, like, let's

seem to have unfortunate enough that I haven't really experienced like, let's say, massive

crisis or whatever to where I had large needs, but I have had people in my life that have

provided things at times and in ways that many of them don't even know.

Some of that has even happened here at the church to where we've received cards or letters

with gift cards or just even money that had no purpose, like there was no, they didn't

know there was a need, but things that happened in our life that were, again, in this grand

scheme of things, that major washing machine unexpectedly goes out, dry out, somebody goes

out, have a major car repair that we weren't expecting, didn't budget for.

And a lot of that's gotten covered just, you know, really through God's hand, through other

people in that sense.

You know, at times when we were kind of in between jobs or whatever, did get some opportunities

to do some work for people that maybe normally wouldn't have had to do, but I don't have

anything that's major that had just like, oh man, this is incredible or, and I think that's

more a testament to the fact that the Lord has just been very gracious to us in that sense,

you know, God just provides in some really crazy, mysterious ways at times when kind of you

least expect it. Cool, let's jump into today's questions, looking at this idea of the snapshot

question. You said when Grace Hills is healthy, we'll be known as a people who serve. If someone

described our church today would service be the first thing I mentioned? And what does that reveal

about us? I believe it would be one of the very first things, especially if you're not connected

internally to our church, but maybe you know about it externally in the community. You know,

I've run into people who ask what I do and you tell them, oh, you know, I'm a pastor over it,

over at Grace Hills. And they immediately respond with, oh yeah, we've driven by, we've seen

this sign. We've, you know, we've been to some of your outreach events or, you know, trucker treat

or back to school bash, things that we've done for the kids, Easter egg drop. And you know,

they hear about what we've done with meals, Thanksgiving and Christmas and even recently we were

recognized by the school board for one of our serve days where we went and we helped with some

projects within, within the school district. And so I think at this point, yeah, I think people

would definitely recognize this as such and would know that we care about our community that we're

looking to be intentional in serving people. And you know, we have some, we have to be more,

this is going to sound really weird. We have to be more individualistic in that in the sense that

like as a church, I think we plan events and large scale serving projects and do things really

well, kind of as a church. I think there's definitely some room to grow on an individual basis for

individuals to be intentional in serving in their community and serving people that is kind of

outside that framework of what the church puts together. And so there's some room to grow there,

but I think ultimately, you know, fortunately, I don't, I never have anybody that's like, why are

we doing this? Why are we serving those people? And I've been in places like that before. So

you said the saved people serve people and you see that phrase before. So why is service not optional

for believers, but evidence of transformation? You know, we see this all throughout scripture.

Even starting with Jesus and Jesus actually go back to the Old Testament

when God talks about justice for the orphan and the widow and the fatherless and then Jesus comes

and talks about the compassion that he has for the people because they were a sheep without a

shepherd. And then we see Paul's commands to the one another statements, the 50 plus one

another statements in the New Testament. And we see things like the Good Samaritan. And so all

throughout scripture, we see this understanding of loving, serving and caring for people as a

reflection of the relationship with God or the relationship with Jesus. And so it's not optional

for us. And it's not in the sense, again, it's not we're earning something from God or earning

salvation, but it is a transformation that takes place because of our salvation where needs are just

naturally recognized. Seeing people in need is something that we're intentional about. And

because of a changed heart, we have a desire to meet those needs. You know, I talked about this

on Sunday. It is only humans that were created in the image of God. We were all image bears. And so

that gives us a distinct value that other parts of the creation do not have. And

they're just as much a part of the kingdom as the healthy, wealthy, educated, whatever you want to

call person. And that's very important for us. They're all valued. We're all needed. And

if you truly transform with a gospel, then you're going to want to see people enter into the

kingdom. Like if you don't, if you don't care, if you don't have a wonder, like why, why is that?

You know, the American churches lost a lot of that. I would say passion or a lot of that

urgency when it comes to seeing people come to Christ. Maybe some of that comes because many

people's hearts haven't been transformed. Many people don't think that maybe Jesus has anything to

offer because of the wealth of our country in many ways. And so there's a there's a lot of that.

I mean, we could spend a couple probably podcasts and maybe we will someday just unpacking

some of those things in our American church. But yeah, if you're claimed to know Jesus,

then you're going to serve people. It's not it's not something. It's part of that transformation,

that sanctification process. In Matthew 25, Jesus separates people based on how they treated

the least of these. Why do you think he ties visible service to invisible heart transformation?

You know, it goes back again to the the creative and the image of God that they're valuable the

part of God's family. And God doesn't. He doesn't assign value based on

gifting based on your financial status based on your ethnic status. He assigns value

based on the fact that you're created in his image. And so within the church, like

we Jesus always met a practical need or a physical need in order to meet a spiritual need. And

that's just kind of the pattern that we see throughout throughout scripture. And so

he ties that together because he wants us to go after people like he is commissioned in the

church. He is he's allowed us as followers of Christ to be a part of his mission of drawing all

people to himself. He doesn't need us, but he allows us to be a part of that. And that's a huge

privilege that we sometimes forget that we are a part of that. And I mean there's there's a joy

that that comes with serving people in need and then seeing those people come to come to Christ

and seeing though their lives transformed. And so it's very important for us.

Because it's a visual representation of the gospel. And like in our spiritual

property, God came to us through Jesus and allows us to kind of partake in all the riches of

his grace and all the riches of his kingdom as his children. And so it shows the world that we

are different. It shows the world that people are valued. It shows the world that God loves them

right where they're at. You were clear that service doesn't earn salvation. It reveals it.

So how can believers guard against serving to impress rather than serving from gratitude?

Yeah, the best way to do that is serving people without needing any type of

applause. You can in most cases, there's some exceptions, but in most cases we can meet a need of

somebody and do so privately. And that might be, and privately might mean one-on-one,

not meaning that there are many circumstances where people don't know where the money comes from

where people help them. But there are circumstances where they do know, and it's between you and that

person or your family and that family, and you're not trying to tell all these other people about

it. You're not trying to, you know, if you're posting it on social media and you're taking videos

about it and you want to let the world know like what you were doing. You might want to check

your heart on that. I mean, this is something that we see all the time in our culture of just like,

if you care so much about a person, why do you have to tell everybody else about it? And so,

try, you know, Jesus talks about this. It's not letting your left hand know what your right hand

is doing, and that's important because that keeps us from becoming really self-centered and me-centered

and looking for the glory ourselves. And it can, it can many times be a deterrent to really,

you know, after meeting that physical need, it can be a deterrent to then, you know,

being able to have those spiritual conversations and tell them about Jesus. But if you need

the spotlight, you probably need to check your heart. Yeah, the conversation with somebody

earlier this week, a newer believer, and I would say it was a, it was practicing with a different

faith for a majority of their lifetime, which definitely encouraged this kind of works-based,

you know, salvation type thing. And, you know, he texted me about it, and then I was getting

ready to talk to him about it next time I saw him. Then I also saw him post the exact same thing

like on social media, like, like, almost verbatim, like, text thread, right? Post it on it. And so,

again, we had to approach this in the right framing with our brothers and sisters in Christ.

And so he's recounting the story, and I'm like, yeah, I saw that, you know, I was like, I was like,

I guess where you did that? I was like, because a lot of other people wouldn't have, right?

In this context, some people were off the side of the road, the car was kind of broke down,

and this gentleman has a vehicle that's able to pull vehicles out of the ditch, you know?

And so, I guess they asked him, as he was passifying, he said, no, and then I guess he thought about

it again and actually did help, but hadn't had to get muddy, and, you know, had to put clothes down,

it was in the muck, you know, with this, and he was happy that he had done it, and I really think

that's where, like, as hard it was with this stuff, like, he wanted to kind of like spread some

joy on this, but there was, like, the way it was done, you could see that, like, it was a little

bit of like, because the last sentence was like, oh, which people would do this for me,

it's the same thing. And I was like, I was like, bro, like, this is where we really got to understand,

like, the reason behind us, like, doing this stuff. And again, he received it well,

but it's because we have their relationships while I was able to, like, you know, kind of talk

about that. And, but definitely wanted to, you know, praise him in terms of like, hey,

you could have just kept on driving by, like, the five other cars in front of you, you know,

on that. But it's again, knowing how to, like, accept what was done well, and then continue on,

like, from the heart check part, because that could be a difficult conversation to even have with

with a brother or sister, like, believe me, it would have been easy just to not say anything,

you know, and just put back at a boy, you know, go ahead. Yeah, man, if you're helping somebody

in the middle of it, you stopped to take a selfie with them, you know, you may need to,

many to check your heart a little bit on that one. There's nothing, there's nothing better

being like, hey, look at these people and get your face in the front and then behind you. Yeah,

that I stopped and helped today and, um, yeah, the good Samaritan didn't, didn't put it in the papers,

right? That's right. That's right. You did not. Move it all in here. Look at this idea,

and like we've been talking about today, of, you know, not earning, but revealing. And again,

you're clear that that service doesn't earn salvation reveals it. And so you give us some,

such great tips there on, on how we can you guard against serving to impress rather than from,

from serving from gratitude. So this idea of the least of these, Jesus lists the hungry,

the thirsty, the stranger, the naked, the sick, and the imprisoned. And our context today,

who might represent the least of these and how might we be overlooking them?

Um, in our context today, the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the naked, the sick, and the

imprisoned. Imagine that. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, I would say it's probably not, uh, that far off,

you know, in the sense of, obviously we live in, in Cincinnati, which is a, uh, in a larger suburb,

which has a high homeless population. Um, you think about, I mean, how many prisons are within

just a small, um, not a long drive from us, you know, I've visited one of those up on,

up on 63 in Warn County and doing some church services with another, another organization and,

we have more incarcerated than any animation. Yeah. So we are. We are, that is definitely true

per capita. We incarcerate more people in our country than anywhere else in the, in the world.

And, um, and so like, it just really comes down to people that are, that are maybe rejected by,

by society or look down upon in society. And, um, I would say that even the church kind of has

its own list that might be a little bit different than the world around us.

So, you know, um, sometimes the world does a better job of maybe helping people who are hungry or

thirsty, uh, the, the, the stranger, I mean, that the word using the Greek is also translated

foreigner. And so you have to decide like, what does that mean for the church when it comes to

the foreigner, especially in our current, um, you know, culture debate when it, when it comes to

immigration. Um, you know, those who just don't, don't have enough money to put clothes on

their back, uh, those who are maybe sick from, uh, you know, for, for years ago in the 70s,

80s, uh, the AIDS epidemic, they didn't know a lot about it. I mean, those people were just

really rejected. And it took, it took some people loving and caring for them to kind of help change

that the stereotypes around that, uh, people who were in prison, uh, you know, there's a lot of,

I think the things that people have to understand, the church has to understand that loving

and caring for somebody in, in prison doesn't mean that you somehow, uh, disagree with the, the

sentence, like, you can love and care for somebody and say, Hey, brother, like, I want you to know

Jesus, but you're exactly where you need to be. I think some people are afraid that they're,

that by loving or caring for somebody in a certain, uh, lifestyle or somebody who, um, has a

certain immigration status or somebody who's in prison for a certain reason that others around

them are automatically going to think, Oh, you're okay with what they did or you're okay with

while they're there. You're okay with what this lifestyle that they're in or, or you're okay with

the choices that they, and that's just simply not, not what we're saying. Uh, we're saying that there's

hope and that hope is in a person whose name is Jesus. That doesn't mean that it absolves us from

the consequences of our actions or that, uh, in no way should perform to, I believe that, uh, that,

that the, that, uh, they should, you know, that should keep them from having to submit to the laws

in our, in our country. Other times where mercy is, is necessary. Absolutely. Um, we can show mercy

to people, but, um, I think that's kind of the biggest part that people have with, with really

serving people that are in one of these categories. And so, uh, you know, we, we overlooked them

quite a bit in, I think our church is because most churches aren't seeing this on a regular basis.

Yeah. And we're not affirming anyone's, you know, past decisions on that, whether they're behind bars

or not, you know, I mean, they could be somebody made a poor decision on their phone last night.

We're not affirming any of that, right? You know, absolutely. Absolutely. It's never an

affirmation to, to serve somebody, uh, who's in need. I remember, um, that, uh, I was reading the

story on the, the, the Raiders wide receiver who, uh, was drunk, drove his car, hit somebody,

the car caught a fire, killed a lady and he got, got in prison for it. And his name is slipping

in my head right now. Um, but, uh, I think I remember like, Derek Kars response to that was talking

about, Hey, we, you know, we're caring for him. We, we still love him despite the circumstances

of this. And remember somebody commenting, he's like, he doesn't deserve love and you're going,

yeah, you're right. That's why it's love. Like if you, if somebody deserves love, it's not love

anymore. Uh, love is, love is an action. Love is something that we show to other people. Um,

you know, hopefully we have a mutual love relationship with friends and family and spouses and

kids. We, we get that, um, but it was just really kind of heartbreaking and to see the comment,

like he doesn't deserve, like, absolutely. We don't deserve Jesus. We don't deserve the gospel.

And when we understand that, that, that kind of drives us to then go and, um, uh,

and serve these people, serve the least of these to let them know that hey, they're still hope.

They're, they're still valued by God. Um, and then there needs to be some repentance there.

Then there needs to be some humility, even for them to coming before the Lord. Um,

there's a lot of times bad, bad circumstances are a result of lack of humility in many,

many ways or pursuing after pleasures of the world that, that aren't truly satisfying and, um,

but the, it's all intentional. It's got to be intentionality and our culture just kind of

wants things to come to us and wants it to be easy and wants it to be obvious, um, as opposed to

maybe going and, and kicking in some doors. Yeah, based on that comment you mentioned, uh,

of the person that mentioned it said, uh, like, oh, he doesn't deserve love, right? That I

immediately think like, Oh, there's something behind that. Like either this person has made a

decision in their life that did not receive love or grace or mercy in any way, shape or form,

and you know, it's clinging to that as well of like, I didn't get this or this person to, you know,

and, and so that, that's always like my question. My head is like, what happened to them? Like,

what is their story? Absolutely. What have they been through to say, to take such a stance like

that? Cause that sounds like someone has been unloved. Right. Absolutely. And, and it's probably

somebody who has a very much, without going too far down a rabbit trail here or assuming things,

but typically with, with people who say somebody doesn't deserve something. They're very much

a, uh, have a works based, uh, they're very much driven by achievement. They're very much driven

by being better than everybody else and being the best at something. And, um, to a point where they

they, they, they find their value and they find their worth and, and just being better than the

next guy, whether it's that work, whether it's in morality, whether it's just playing games with

friends, it could be a lot of things. And so, uh, that can be another, uh, another kind of a

stranglehold on somebody's life when, when that's what they pursue after that, they have to find

their identity and their value and just being better than everybody else. Right. Look at this

idea of this heart check at the spotlight. You asked about the homeless man on the corner.

Where does our heart go first? What attitudes do Christians need to repent of when it comes to

people in need? The, the number one attitude I would say is when you see somebody in need,

is your first response to, hey, how can I help them? Where's your first response? How did they get

here? Now, the, how did they get here? Question is not a bad question. If the ultimate goal of that

is to help somebody get out of a situation where the reality is there are baking bad choices and

you're going, hey, look, how did you get here? You're an addict. You need help. You need to go to,

you know, rehab. You need to go to therapy to do whatever kind of needs to be done. If we're asking

that question to help them, to help them kind of move forward in life and recognize whether there's

issues in their, in their life and helping them recognize like who Jesus is. It's not a bad question.

But if you're asking that question as an excuse not to serve somebody, okay, now you've got a

hard issue. If I'm, if I'm driving down, I've seen a guy in a corner who's homeless and just want

something to eat and you're like, oh, I wonder, I wonder how he got here. He's probably an alcoholic or

he probably just is lazy and doesn't want to work or which could be true, which could be very true.

Absolutely. It could be true. But Jesus doesn't always qualify this. Amen. And he, he doesn't,

we don't know the circumstances of why they may be in that situation, you know, there's,

there's a lot of mental health issues that is tied to homelessness in our country and there's,

I believe that there's a need help. I think some of that maybe a majority of that could be just

even a spiritual thing as well. But, but again, checking our hearts in those situations when those

opportunities come up and, you know, we want, sometimes we want to help people that benefits us.

We want to help people when it's easy. We want to help people when we think that there's going

to be more of a return. And we miss a lot of opportunities because of that. You emphasize that

everyone in need is an image bearer. How would our schedules, our budgets and our conversations

change if we truly believe that? Well, I mean, if we're really driven by the gospel and we're driven

by, I say, kingdom initiatives, then our budget and our time would reflect that. I mean,

we would budget specifically to help people in need. We would schedule opportunities to meet

people in need, maybe getting involved in certain organizations. Maybe it's something just even,

it could be even simple, like, you know, your kid's friends who maybe is missing one parent.

And you're just going to be more intentional and having them over. And maybe they just don't have

a lot when it comes to food. And you're just like, Hey, why don't you just come over once,

once a week and come eat with us or another family that doesn't have a lot or, you know,

passing down clothes, passing down totes, so many different ways that you can just kind of help

me to un-need for somebody. But we have to again, it all comes down to this idea of intentionality.

And as we're changing, as we're having conversations, man, our conversations vary just,

you know, every day, you know, how was your day? What do you do for a living? Or are we willing to

take some risks and be like, you know, let me tell you how God's working in my life. And just

say, Hey, what do you think about God or how can I pray for you right now? Like, what can we

pray for? And starting those conversations, those spiritual conversations to maybe open a door

to a bigger conversation and to share the gospel with somebody. You asked a hard question.

If someone has no desire to serve, has their heart really been transformed?

So how can someone evaluate that honestly without falling into fear or legalism?

Yeah. So ultimately, when, if your life has been truly transformed, if you believe that the

gospel is transformational, that it's more than just, Hey, I'm a fire insurance policy where,

you know, I'm no longer going to hell. Then the way that you kind of view other people is going to

change. You're going to look at them differently. And you're going to be looking for opportunities to

share the gospel oftentimes underpinned with meeting physical needs or meeting meeting people

where they're at. And, and so if that's not like part of your regular rhythms in life,

why why is that? Now, I don't mean that you have to be at every opportunity, the church, or you

have to, you're going to drive by multiple people one day that maybe you're homeless. And you're

just not going to have the resources to necessarily do that. But if you're, if you're going, and I,

if you're going like, well, I'm supposed to, I can't give him my my lunch money and then go get

lunch myself. Okay. So, you know, if you're, if you never serve in any capacity other than, well,

maybe not even just other than, but if you just never serve any capacity, if you don't see the

value of helping people in need, or I say this too, like for people, like if you only time that

you serve is when you show up to a church thing, then then there still needs to be some,

some transformation taking place. Because that, because our goal in many of these things is to show

people, these are the needs in our community. Your neighbors have these needs. Now, we can go to

Matthew 25, but doesn't mean that you're two doors down or isn't somebody that has a similar

clothing and food need. And, and our, and our prayer life should, should, should, should look

like this as well, praying like Lord, like what, where, who was someone in my life that has a

need that I could meet in order to share the gospel? Those are all things to be creative. And I

went to, I just went to a lunch with a friend yesterday. And before we even started, he has to

wait for what her name was and just ask that we could pray for her. I mean, she went to a church,

she went to a church around the corner that I actually knew the pastor is. And I just thought,

man, I was, I've done that before, haven't done it in a long time, usually because I get a very

standard response. But just the intentionality of just being able to pray for somebody in that

moment. You know, there's been times when you and I have been to launch, I don't know if you,

like it was one of our favorite places that we always go. There was a waitress that was clearly

pregnant there. And I just, I just asked her, she needs anything. And, you know, she had, and I

asked her to show you, somebody thrown you a baby shower. So I told her our church would do it.

She had somebody who's going to do it for, so which was cool. But things like that, and I don't,

again, I don't say that to, you know, to lift myself up. I learned all that from other people,

other men and women who, who served much, much better than I do. And, and so those are the,

those are those things that we, we attempt to do to really help and see people's lives transformed.

You challenge listeners to intentionally serve someone this week. So what's one simple,

practical way anyone listening can meet a real need in the next week.

There's a lot of ways to read, to meet real needs. I would say this, this is, this is would be my

challenge. You may not know of a physical need. But I think there's a lot of relational,

emotional needs that people have that where maybe just writing a simple note or letter to a friend

or a coworker and just saying, Hey, I love you. Appreciate you. I'm praying for you.

Maybe it's a coworker that maybe did a really good job on a project. You just say, Hey, man,

you nailed this. Thank you. Like I thought you did a great job or, you know, somebody who maybe

lost a loved one or dealing with some health issues. And you're just saying, Hey, we're here.

If you need something, can I bring you a meal? There's, there's, we don't always see the immediate

physical needs because not people don't always open that up. They don't always tell anybody.

Some people are just embarrassed. They don't want help from other people. They don't other people

know about what's going on in their hearts and their lives. So those things are, those are just

practical ways you can do it is, is starting with like the, the emotional, the, the relational

side of things and, and just letting them know that they're, that they're known.

When you think about standing before Jesus and hearing well done, good and faithful servant,

how should that future moment shape how we live today?

Yeah, I think in a, in a real sense that we can hear well done, good and faithful servant today.

Um, it isn't just about when we leave this earth, uh, the, the, the, I mean, that comes from

a parable when Jesus is talking about the workers and he gives each one of them talents and

10 talents, five talents, you know, three talents. The first two do what they're supposed to do with

God's, with what God has given them and multiplies it and, um, and then they, they receive more

opportunities for the last one takes it in berries and does nothing with it. And, um, that person

is pretty, it's condemned for not using what God has given them, basically showing that that

he didn't really love the master, didn't really love, uh, Jesus at all. And, and so for us, um,

as we're waiting for this, this, this return of Jesus, uh, we have responsibilities, we have been

given, um, a challenge we have been given a purpose in order to, to go and make disciples of all

nations. And so we don't have to wait until we leave this like when we're doing what we're called

to do when we're being obedient, um, you're gonna have a, you're not gonna hear an audible voice,

but there's going to be, for those of us who are followers of Christ whose lives have been transformed,

when we are, when we are obedient doing the things that God has called us to do, there is a presence

of the spirit in our lives that I think whisperers well done, good and faithful servants. And, um,

it's something that I, that I long for, like, I want to serve people in the name of Christ,

not for my own name, not to say there aren't moments where I, you know, I have my moments too,

man, like I'm not perfect in this many means, but, but ultimately it's really not about, um,

it's not about me, it's not about anything that I, uh, any, any value that comes to my life

or, uh, about my own name or anything. So you can hear that now. It isn't just about a future thing.

What are you doing right now to hear good and faithful servants today and then, and then

Amen. Let's pray. Father, thank you for the gift of community and for placing us in the

body of Christ. Help us to see ourselves not as independent individuals, but as interconnected

parts of your church, each with gifts and roles to play. Give us the courage to commit more deeply

to biblical community, to speak truth and love to one another, and to use our gifts for building

up the body, where we have been trying to grow alone, help us to recognize our need for others,

where we have been passive stir us to action. Make us a church that truly reflects your love and

unity to a watching world in Jesus name. Amen. Thanks for listening to Growing and Grace. Until next time,

keep your eyes on Jesus and keep growing in grace.