2024 September

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September 2024

September 14, 2024

in Discipleship, Jesus, Local, Outreach, Serve Teams

by cefiggins

1 Comment

A Little Raw & Honest Truth: Do We Need A Serve Week?

I will get right to the point. I debated for a long time this year on whether it was a good idea or not to organize another Serve Week for our HCC family. Let me be clear. My ping-ponging in my head was not about whether it was a good idea or a needed thing much less a commandment to serve. The Bible is pretty clear on that one. If you need a list of biblical proof you can find a growing list here.

My concern is if I was giving people a reason NOT to serve. I worried that if we focused all of our attention and energy on this one week would we be fooled into thinking we had done our duty for the year. That somehow there was a spiritual checklist that we checked off serving one time that we were good to go until next year. I debated on perpetuating the idea that serving in this day and age had to be convenient, it had to fit in between this soccer game, this trip to the lake, this business engagement, and these two birthday parties, and if it was a full moon, and if it was not too hot and not too cold and with the people I know, doing a thing I know how to do that wasn’t too hard or too strenuous or too involved or too messy or if it interfered with my work-life balance. We tend not to commit to something ongoing or even one time as we wait to see if something better or more enticing or entertaining comes along.

Did I mention this post was a little raw and honest this time?

I am genuinely worried that we are selling ourselves short of all the blessings God truly intends for us by offering ourselves up as a living sacrifice obedient to Him. There are loads of “feel good” reasons to serve. You no longer feel guilty about sidestepping your Local Outreach Pastor (wink, wink). It makes for some very likable Instagram posts. Science also tells us that serving makes us healthier, it helps us live longer fulfilling lives because we have a sense of purpose and identity in something greater than ourselves. Our service directly glorifies Him. Serving isn’t a clickable option for living as a Jesus Follower. God hard-wired us to serve. Serving others is a form of worship. It puts us in our proper place and posture to God. But it’s also messy, And it doesn’t always work out into a neat social media post. And the people we serve are not always dripping with gratitude. And the people we serve with are just as likely to be stinky, biting, obstinant sheep like us. Serving is probably going to test our boundaries and push us way out of our comfort zone. It usually takes place during a time that doesn’t fit the family calendar.

Serving allows us to experience God’s presence in a new way. If we stop relying on an annual serving event to remind us that we are to love our neighbors as ourselves and rather allow ourselves to be led by the Holy Spirit to serve others we start to see that the small, cumulative intentional acts of kindness, gentleness, and love in God’s name are what are truly pleasing to God. When we are real and authentic about serving, the cost of serving, the reason why we serve, and WHO we serve, this is what will lead our neighbors to find and follow Jesus.

we start to see that the small, cumulative intentional acts of kindness, gentleness, and love in God’s name are what are truly pleasing to God.

So here’s the confusing part about being raw and honest. God has cleared the way for Serve Week. 🙂

Our Good Neighbor Serve Week is September 28-October 3. I hope you will take advantage of some of the serving opportunities we have lined up to use your gifts and talents for God, connect to other HCC members, meet our neighbors at Fieldview Church who are also serving with us, to unleash the hope of Jesus. I also hope you and your life group will seek God and see where He wants you to consistently serve your neighbors again and again.

But my ultimate prayer is that you will wake every day asking God how you can love and serve others in His name through the everyday seemingly small but intentional acts of love. I hope you can’t help yourself because of what Jesus has done for you.

Click the link below to sign up for one of our

Good Neighbor Serve Week

serving opportunities here ==>

https://harvestercc.ccbchurch.com/goto/forms/487/responses/new

September 12, 2024

in HCC, Outreach

by cefiggins

1 Comment

Bible Verses About Serving

The Bible is an incredible source of wisdom, truth, and motivation to devote our lives to service to God. We must remember that serving others may not always be easy, but God’s grace and strength will help us. We also need to remember that no act of love in the name of the Lord is too small that God will not use it. We are praying these Bible verses about serving encourage your spirit and strengthen your resolve to unleash hope every day in every way.

Matthew 25:35-40 – “For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me. Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.”

Romans 12:10 – “Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves.”

1 Peter 4:10-11 – “Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms. Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord.”

Mark 10:45 – “For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.”

Galatians 5:13 – “For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.”

Ephesians 6:7-8 – “Rendering service with a good will as to the Lord and not to man, knowing that whatever good anyone does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether he is a slave or free.”

Joshua 24:15 – And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

Proverbs 19:17- Whoever is kind to the poor lends to the LORD, and he will reward them for what they have done.

Acts 20:35 In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ ”

Matthew 5:16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.

Hebrews 6:10 God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them.

Philippians 2:4 not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.

Acts 26:6-7 And now it is because of my hope in what God has promised our ancestors that I am on trial today. This is the promise our twelve tribes are hoping to see fulfilled as they earnestly serve God day and night. King Agrippa, it is because of this hope that these Jews are accusing me.

Galatians 5:13

You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh ; rather, serve one another humbly in love.

1 Peter 1:12 It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you, when they spoke of the things that have now been told you by those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. Even angels long to look into these things.

Romans 12:1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.

1 Samuel 12:24

But be sure to fear the LORD and serve him faithfully with all your heart; consider what great things he has done for you.

Romans 7:6 But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.

Hebrews 9:14 How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!

John 12:26 Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me.

Joshua 22:5 But be very careful to keep the commandment and the law that Moses the servant of the LORD gave you: to love the LORD your God, to walk in obedience to him, to keep his commands, to hold fast to him and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul.”

Romans 12:11 Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord.

1 Chronicles 28:9 “And you, my son Solomon, acknowledge the God of your father, and serve him with wholehearted devotion and with a willing mind, for the LORD searches every heart and understands every desire and every thought. If you seek him, he will be found by you; but if you forsake him, he will reject you forever.

Matthew 23:11 The greatest among you will be your servant.

Luke 6:38 Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”

Mark 10:45 For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

2 Chronicles 15:7 But as for you, be strong and do not give up, for your work will be rewarded.”

Matthew 6:33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

1 Peter 4:10 Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.

Matthew 20:27-28 and whoever wants to be first must be your slave— just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Romans 12:9-13 Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves. Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality.