Speaker 1: 0:06

Welcome to Made for Good, a podcast where we explore how to live out our purpose through good works out of a biblical truth.

Speaker 2: 0:13

Hey, I'm Josh and I'm Mark. Today we're talking about serving together. You know, good works are not always meant to be done in isolation. We're called to encourage and to inspire one another to make a greater impact in God's kingdom. So, Josh, I got a question for you today. Have you ever noticed how much easier and really more enjoyable it is when you work with other people, Even if it's the church workday? You know where you're shoveling the mulch and cutting grass and trimming the shrubs, how there's a sense of joy in serving together.

Speaker 1: 0:49

It's interesting how you feel during it and after relationships being strengthened. You feel a sense of being more motivated when you're together. I can think about a couple of relationships that I have you and I have some other close friends as well that I think about, and there is this thing. This is a sense of spiritual competition, and I don't mean that in an ugly way I know that sounds ugly when I say that but there's a sense of excitement that happens and I want to do something more because you're doing something more. That motivation that happens and it happens because we're together.

Speaker 2: 1:25

Yeah, that's really. I think that that's biblical. I think that's exactly what Hebrews 10, 24 is talking about. It says let us consider how to stir one another up to love and good works. So you know, serving together doesn't just help other people. You know the recipients of the work, the beneficiaries of the work. It inspires and it strengthens the people who are doing it. Yeah, not just in our faith but in our relationships. You know, I'm seeing you do good and you're seeing me do good, and we can show each other that we're living out our faith, that we're on the path, and plus the fact that some things are heavy and we need two people to carry them, yeah, that's both physically and philosophically. You know, josh, you mentioned their spiritual competition. That's a concept that's in the Bible. I mean, if you look at the ESV version of Romans 12, verse 10, it says love one another with brotherly affection, and here it is outdo one another in showing honor. So I think maybe that it's obviously lighthearted in a way. But if you're outdoing one another, trying to show each other honor, man, that's just an upward spiral of a relationship. You also have the concept of iron sharpening iron in Proverbs 27, 17. As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another. If we're serving together, we're actually sharpening each other as well. So I really love that element of serving together.

Speaker 2: 3:04

Our starting point in this episode today is going to be in Hebrews 10, 24. And it's a verse for those who are Bible students very familiar Let us consider how to stir one another up to love and good works. So there's two elements to this. There's the goal, and that's love and good works. The goal and that's love and good works. But there's a, an instigator, um, an action to take to cause those things to happen. And it's really, in a lot of cases, serving together. Now I could cause you to do something by saying something to you and you go off and you do it by yourself. But that does this does not exclude us getting together and doing it together. So when you do it together, as we talked about, we strengthen each other, we sharpen each other. It inspires us in our own faith. So we're going to talk more about that, this power of group service.

Speaker 2: 3:56

But we want to go back to Hebrews 10, 24 and look at the context. In what context are we stirring one another up to love and good works? If you go look at Hebrews 10 and just go back a little bit in the other verses there. Hebrews 10, starting in verse 19, you see that the Hebrews writer is saying Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus I'm reading from the ESV and by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, all these things are true. Verse 22. Verse 23. Let us consider here we are, let us consider how to serve one another up to love and good works. And then verse 25, I think, gives us the context Not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another all the more as you see the day drawing near. Okay, so let's unpack verse 25 a little more.

Speaker 2: 5:26

So there's two elements to that verse. I think. It's talking about meeting together. This is when the church families together for Bible study, for worship service. The things that we're going to talk about today should be happening in that environment. And just to complete the thought, the other part of that is it's all the more as you see the day drawing near. What's the day? Well, it could be judgment day. Some versions have the word day capitalized. I think it could be the day of the end of our life, as our life closes. Or it could be the first day of the week, which I believe is what this verse is talking about, when they assemble together. So it could be that day. It's one of those three. The idea is we ought to be meeting together. We're going to encourage one another and strengthen one another, and we're going to talk about what those spiritual benefits are in being together and doing these good works together.

Speaker 1: 6:27

We're going to get into our Bible basis segment now. The Bible is clear that serving together brings spiritual and relational benefits. We're going to look back at really where our podcast was built off of, and that's Ephesians 2.10, where it reminds us For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. We aren't just called to do good works. God's already prepared opportunities for us to serve. But what's interesting about this is our lights can shine even brighter when we work together.

Speaker 2: 7:02

That idea is clearly conveyed in the Old Testament as well. If you look at Ecclesiastes 4, verse 9 and 10, it tells us why working together is so important. It says two are better than one because they have a good reward for their toil, for if they fall, one will lift up his fellow, but woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to Now. There's some really interesting elements here. The two are better than one because the first thing is they have a good reward for their toil. It's almost like they're celebrating together. You know the reward is we did this together and like you know, good job, good job, and there's a reward from the work that's shared between the two. And then the other is having somebody there to pick you up when you fall, and not having that is very lonely, of course.

Speaker 2: 8:03

So serving with others provides support. If you fall, it supplies encouragement. I think you see that in the good reward for their toil. And something we really haven't hit on it provides accountability. Show up at 7.30 to work on sister so-and-so's yard and you agree to that. I'm like, okay, well, I need to be there. I mean, that's a really simple example. But accountability, it keeps us from, I think, burning out, and I think that it shows the bigger picture of God's work in having his people working together in the kingdom.

Speaker 1: 8:43

That's really interesting. Just the thought was you were talking, I was just thinking how Jesus also sent folks out two by two. So there's, we just see this all throughout the Bible. Let's shift into our mission profile and let's talk about why group services matter, and I want to work shop these together. We have kind of really built to this moment If we think about all of the episodes we've had before, and we're going to touch on some things of why these things matter, but in context now to us doing things together. So the first one let our light shine so that we can glorify God. What does that look like?

Speaker 2: 9:17

Going back to our Hebrews 10 context, where we've assembled together, we're at our worship service, we're at a Bible study. There's an element of letting our light shine that almost conveys our demeanor, right? So if you show up sad and downcast, somebody may ask hey, are you fasting? No, that's actually not what we're supposed to do. You know what's going on. So if you want to go to the worship service, to the Bible study, you're going to have to go to the Bible study and let your light shine. Number one you need to be there, Right? Because in Hebrews 10, 25, they weren't showing up, they were forsaking the assembly. So be there and be happy. You're meeting with your people, Right? You're meeting with fellow travelers on this journey of sanctification towards a home in heaven. So letting your light shine, being positive and being encouraging to other people, man, you can do that when you walk in the front door, greeting people, smiling and just exuding, I am happy to be here.

Speaker 1: 10:22

I agree with that, and one of my favorite things we've talked about from the beginning is love and compassion turning into action rather than us just feeling it.

Speaker 2: 10:32

Well, you know. And so when you see that person, you're coming in, you're happy, you're up, you're charged, you're excited about being together with fellow believers, and you see someone who's not someone who is downcast. They're there, great, maybe they're there because they need the boost, yeah, and if you love them and you have that compassion for them in other words, as we've talked about, you have a relationship with them Stop and ask them how they're doing. Fine, I'm okay. Why don't you tell me what's going on? We'll get into this, but you know, ask the question Right, and not just see it and go. Man, they look really sad. I wonder what was going on and you're having this conversation in the car, going home rather than seeing it and, in the moment, taking action and going, going to the person and going how are you doing? Maybe they just got a bad diagnosis of cancer? You can very quickly and clearly see where they are and those who need compassion and love go, surround them and boost them.

Speaker 1: 11:37

I can see how some of these are easier in our comfort space of the building, for sure, but think about serving as a group or serving, you know, with a friend or brother. In regards to redeeming the time, what does that look like?

Speaker 2: 11:52

Well, I think you're redeeming the time in the context of worshiping together is understanding, making a commitment in your schedule to be at these scheduled times of assembly. Sunday, first day of the week, there's a time to gather and worship and remember Jesus' sacrifice. On the first day of the week. There's a time to gather and worship and remember Jesus' sacrifice on the first day of the week when he arose. It might be a midweek Bible study sometime. These are times that are established and redeeming the time. There's, in my opinion, no better use of the time than studying God's Word. I mean, we don't do that 24 seven, but redeeming the time is making time for that. And just I'll add a little bonus to that Part of the redeeming of the time is showing up prepared. So if you've got a Bible study, read the chapter. I mean, go over. If there are questions the teacher's prepared. Go over those questions. I'll admit I don't always do that, but I should always do that.

Speaker 2: 12:50

Let's say, you and I have a role of leading a public prayer or reading scripture. Commit the time to prepare for that ahead of time, understanding that you're not just praying for yourself. You're praying for 20, 30, 50, 100, 200, 300, 400 people. You're leading all those people Conceptually. You're leading all those people to the throne of God and to give him praise and to make a petition, to give him thanksgiving for the things he's provided. We need to be prepared, so we need to put in the time for the preparation, same way we do. You know the sports analogy is you put in the time in the gym so that shows, you know, in the game, putting in the time ahead of time for something that's so important when you are leading other people in worship. I'm going to read through that three, four, five times so that I get. I don't stumble over. You know Sentai's name and and so you know, just to make sure that I knew how to how to say it correctly. But it's preparation and it's putting in time to prepare.

Speaker 1: 14:03

I can see how we can do that on a number of levels. You know, even sometimes I think when, when I think of a group, I'll think of certain brothers and sisters that I may do things with at the building, but even within our own homes, we can set the bar, as a husband, as doing the things you just talked about preparing for Bible class, making that a priority.

Speaker 1: 14:18

Make sure your kids have their Bible lessons as a mom and a dad, letting them know why things are important and redeeming that time that's very special and precious with your children, so that they know that they'll be ready for Bible class as well. Love all that. A couple weeks ago now, we talked about the poor, and you made the comment that the Bible talks about the poor over 200 times, which is really wild, right, when you think about that. And so in that same context and even in that same episode, we did talk about the widows as well, and James 1, I think it's verse 27. And so, when it comes to remembering the poor and the widows and others in need, what does that look like?

Speaker 2: 14:59

Well, unfortunately, sometimes the poor, and almost always widows, are right there in the assembly with us, right, you know that could look like. Sometimes maybe your church family helps out financially a poor family that's in your midst. But it doesn't always have to be money, you know from the church assembly. It could be something so simple as bringing a meal or giving somebody some money. Hey, I know that you got a lot of expenses going back and forth to the doctor, maybe in another city here's $50 for some gas. Just do that privately, do that off, but you can do that and we see it at our church family. We see people in the parking lot going from one car to the other where they're sharing produce. I mean, sometimes we've got a basket outside our, the entrance to our, the building, and there's, there's fruit and vegetables there that one of the members brings and shares. And so those who are poor and those who are widows, and just let's combine those poor widows who have the need and they don't have anybody necessarily to provide that, I mean what a blessing. You know, it's just there, it's just free.

Speaker 2: 16:19

This meeting together is such a great time to do that, because you can, if you're observant, if you're aware, you can see the potential need around you with the people that you worship with. I mean, when we're called to account on the day of judgment. We've talked about this before in other discussions where when we stand before Jesus at the judgment day, he's going to ask did we visit the sick in their affliction? He's going to ask did we help those who are in prison? He's going to ask if we've done these things in our lifetime. It doesn't say that. He's going to ask can you name all 14 apostles? Not that those things are not important, but the focus why we are created in Christ Jesus is to do good works, and the good works is again to reflect the glory of God on others around us. Being aware and knowing the poor and the widows in your own church family and the ministering to those needs, I think is very, very important.

Speaker 1: 17:32

One of the things you touched on in that was being discreet. I really appreciate you saying that. I think that there will be times where, if you were to ask someone who you perceive to need some help, they may tell you they're fine. They may say that we're okay, thanks for asking because you they're fine. They may say that we're okay, thanks for asking because maybe they're uncomfortable. In those moments we still can do good even when they say they're okay.

Speaker 2: 17:57

Yeah, that leads me to a thought, sometimes, asking the question we feel we've done our part. Do you guys need anything? No, we're good. Okay, I think it's better to just do the good. Amen. If you did it for someone who really probably was okay, who probably didn't, maybe didn't need the financial help or whatever, is it still a blessing? Yeah, you still bless those people with whatever action that you took to help them. So maybe do it without asking Because, as you said, a lot of people, their pride, would cause them to say, no, no, really I'm good. In other words, I'm going to suffer through. I absolutely could use the $50. Have you seen the price of gas? I absolutely could use the money for gas, but I'm not going to convey to you my situation. The reason behind that, I think, is there's probably not a level of trust or a strong enough relationship between the two people.

Speaker 2: 19:00

And if there, if there were, I'm like yeah, man, you know you, you know, you know what's going on. I mean, you know I'm, I'm having to go take my wife, you know, four times a week to, you know an hour and a half away, for chemo treatment. Yeah, absolutely, you know I can use it and I appreciate it. So just just do the good and maybe even without asking, Agreed, yeah.

Speaker 1: 19:22

What brings us to the next one that I have as far as why group service matters is just something simple. At least it can be Encourage and uplift fellow believers.

Speaker 2: 19:31

Yeah, I think our very presence at a worship service or a Bible study can be uplifting and encouraging to other people. And what we do while we're there, our presence, is the first thing Show up, participate energetically participate, engage with others there. These are things that do encourage and uplift fellow believers.

Speaker 1: 19:57

Last episode we talked about how things can be therapeutic when we do good. Specifically, we can improve our emotions and our spiritual well-being.

Speaker 2: 20:07

Well, I don't know about you, but if the singing has been exceptionally good at a worship service or someone's come up to me and said man, I really appreciate that prayer. I really appreciate how you tried to paint a picture of us this morning at this worship service, all standing before the throne of God. You tried to paint that picture in your prayer. When I get in the car to go home, I feel good. I feel that my emotional and spiritual well-being has been boosted just by being there, and maybe at that particular time all I did was sit in the pew and sing. Maybe I didn't do anything. Maybe somebody said something from some other time where you or I had served in a public way in the worship service.

Speaker 1: 21:01

And the last thing is just building close relationships within the body of Christ.

Speaker 2: 21:06

Yeah, I mean familiarity, getting to know people you know builds stronger bonds, particularly if you're in a Bible class and you know you've had a really deep biblical discussion and someone has made a comment and you're like, oh man, that is so insightful. I really appreciate that I've not thought of that aspect before. There's a mutual respect there and there's almost an interdependency on their faith that now you can rely, maybe trust, that person a little more to help you. They demonstrated some wisdom maybe in that comment and so that can be so helpful. And, again, just a really really close relationship. We've mentioned the term encourager and we've likened it in our class that we taught to an encourager, to a person who's got this thread, and that thread represents the love that we're to have for one another and that encourager goes and talks to this person and talks to that person and encourages this person, and what they're really doing is stitching that love. They're stitching all these people together. Oh, josh said that to you, he said that to me too, and if you do that enough and you thread that needle around through all the people attaching each other together with love, then you become closer and closer and tighter and tighter, and I think that that's an element of assembling together that God really expects from us. You know these are great, josh, going through this and looking at how, when we meet together, how we can serve and do good works at the assembly, you know, before the assembly, during the assembly and even after the assembly in the parking lot potentially, during the assembly and even after the assembly in the parking lot potentially. But I don't think that we should limit what Hebrews 10 is talking about. It's certainly, I believe, talking about these things as it pertains to assembly, but there are other passages that we can talk about and other examples where the good works were not confined to the four walls of the church building.

Speaker 2: 23:29

A lot of congregations will divide up, particularly larger ones, into working groups or small groups, whatever you want to call them. It's a subset of the assembly where they go out and they do good together. Sometimes that's social, sometimes that's meeting together and just praying for a long list of people who need prayer. Sometimes that's going and maybe singing at an assisted living home or a nursing home, or getting together and writing cards and mailing them out to visitors. There's so many ways that we can serve really outside the building and it could be an organic thing where we could just get a group together. It doesn't necessarily have to be the same group of people every time, and we're going to talk in a moment about what that might look like.

Speaker 2: 24:18

But let's look at one more passage. We had mentioned Romans 12 earlier about outdoing one another. In Romans 14, verse 19,. It says let us make every effort to do what leads to peace and mutual edification. There's that word effort. We talked about this before. It doesn't require a lot of effort for me to eat a bowl of ice cream.

Speaker 1: 24:43

By the way, twice you've mentioned that, so I think you like ice cream.

Speaker 2: 24:47

That is true. I am my father's son. If we are looking to do something good, this is work. We also talked about that as well. Serving together is work, but it creates a lasting impact.

Speaker 1: 24:59

But it creates a lasting impact and it's not just for the people who benefit from it, but for the people who serve as well, right, let's get into our reality check and with our focus really being and we've gotten to a point now where we can get more in the weeds on it commitment to group service. So I think we often have good intentions when it comes to serving, but without commitment, those intentions fade. And here's what commitment to group service looks like. Three things making time for service it's not going to happen if you don't prioritize it Right Joining or organizing a service project. Be proactive in finding ways to serve. And the third thing being encouraging others to join. Bring people together so that you can strengthen the experience.

Speaker 2: 25:47

Sometimes just putting it out there, saying it, causes it to happen. If you say, for instance, to a friend maybe named Josh, what do you think about doing a podcast? Okay, now it's out there and it begins to be worked towards a manifestation, it starts to actually happen. So if you say, if you, if in your mind, without saying anything to anybody you know what I heard the other day on the news that the food bank is really cutting back because they don't have a lot of volunteers and you think to yourself, man, I should get four or five of these guys and we just go one morning and work there. You think it and it just sits there and you'll never do it. Do those guys know about that opportunity? They don't about that opportunity, they don't. If you open your mouth and say it and speak it, then now you've made it visible and you've also maybe created a little bit of accountability, not just to you to follow through, but you challenged maybe some of your buddies to go with you as well and putting it out.

Speaker 1: 26:59

There is a way to cause it to happen. We need to do that in all aspects of our lives, spiritually. There's been times where well, here's an example I needed to talk, I needed to have a difficult conversation with someone. I knew it and there had been times in my life as a young man where it, as we talked about earlier, started to fade because I didn't act on it. But as soon as I talked to my core people about what I needed to do, they knew. So I spoke it into existence.

Speaker 1: 27:27

As you mentioned earlier, they started to pray about what I needed to do and there was accountability. I did have that conversation because people knew I was not going to come back to those core group of people and then ask me how did I go? And then we have an excuse. So I know that we are talking about serving as a group, but I just think it's important to just kind of stop and pause for a minute and think, wow, we really need to do this, to put pressure on ourselves so we stay motivated and doing things in the kingdom.

Speaker 2: 27:56

Yeah, you know. Let's look at Ephesians 4, verse 16. This is really talking about how the church works best Ephesians 4, 16. For whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. We were talking about before the encourager and kind of stitching together love. You know, that's how that verse ends up. But the whole body working together, joint, held together by every joint with which it is equipped. I think that God has designed the church to work together as a multi-part organism, if I can use that word. It's designed to work together. We should be working together in the kingdom and it's very, very powerful for us to do that because of all the reasons we've talked about and encouraging one another. But when we commit to serving, then we're going to grow together.

Speaker 1: 28:59

We obviously have talked about our mission profile. Let's get into your challenge this week, your mission challenge, and it's going to be a group service activity. So here's the challenge for the week. It's time to get together with a group and serve, and here's how we want you to do it. We want you to organize a group project and, by the way, this can be with friends, it can be with your family, it can be with extended family, it can be with some folks you know from church and get a group of those together, people that you love, and pick a service activity. And the second part of this is we want you to make it hands-on and meaningful. Meaning, choose something that requires teamwork and has a lasting impact.

Speaker 2: 29:40

Let's give our listeners a specific.

Speaker 2: 29:42

Okay, those are great conceptual ideas and maybe, as you were saying, that people already started formulating what they may want to do and they've already got, even now, what they want to go.

Speaker 2: 29:53

Maybe they've already been thinking about it, right, and it just popped in their head when you were going through a group project, hands-on and meaningful. Well, here's a specific one. If you didn't have an idea, we'll call this the community encouragement project. It's still a little flexible as to who you're going to do this for, so this could be for a nursing home, it could be for assisted living, it could be for hospital, it could be even the fire department down the street. Here's the activity Gather your group, get your people together and write an encouraging note.

Speaker 2: 30:28

Okay, I don't always know exactly what to say. What do you say? Well, you don't really have to come up with something. You could just write down a Bible verse, an encouraging Bible verse, or maybe write a prayer. Maybe say the prayer as you're gathered around. What would our prayer be for? I don't know one of the firemen. Yeah, I prayed for you for the next time you fight a house fire that you are safe. I gave thanks to God that you are in our community and are there to keep our homes safe. Or maybe it's to a nurse Thank you for your work, and you're going to take it to the hospital.

Speaker 2: 31:06

Maybe you write three, four, five verses or prayers, just these are I pray to God, and maybe you write it out I thank God for you, for the work that you do in our community, working every day to save lives. You prayed it and then you wrote it down and put that in a card. Or it could just be particularly if you've got younger kids and we'll talk about in an upcoming episode how to involve your kids in good works kind of setting that example. You could just pick out some Bible verses and have them, just copy the Bible verse onto a card and then go, you know, deliver those and if you want kind of a just to add a little bit to it, maybe you bake some cookies or some cupcakes or buy them, whatever, and bring those, with the cards you know, again to the nursing home or to a hospital or to the, you know, the fire department. But it's, it's very simple and I guarantee you're going to have fun doing it, Seeing kids light up when you see their work in the kingdom. It's just, it's very, very special.

Speaker 2: 32:10

I think it's good maybe, before you go to deliver them is to pray as a group for the people that you're going to encourage. And if you want kind of a bonus, like we do sometimes a bonus challenge is, bring somebody into that group that you don't normally serve with. Maybe it's a more shy person, maybe a little more introverted, maybe a college student or maybe a widow, someone who's possibly lonely, maybe their family doesn't live in our community and they're kind of by themselves. So invite them to come in and do that. So you've got this smaller group of people writing notes and delivering to one of these groups of people, either at a nursing home, assisted living hospital or fire department. So that's the specific community encouragement project. Again, it doesn't have to be specific to this. It could be something else that you've already thought of.

Speaker 1: 33:09

By the way, I love that you said invite someone that you don't know as well. You know, um, and there's no better way to build a relationship with someone than serving with them. Yeah, and so this is an awesome added piece to this, and I hope that people don't forget that.

Speaker 2: 33:25

Okay, so that's the, that's our, that's our mission challenge for the week and actually that's it for the whole episode. Thanks for tuning in, listening in, clicking on play for this episode of made for good. If this conversation encouraged you or challenged you, be sure to subscribe so you don't miss the next one.

Speaker 1: 33:46

Well, we hope you found this helpful. Consider sharing it with a friend. Until next time, gather your group, serve together and remember you were made for this. You Thank you.