Glorious Way Church

A Heart to Serve Well | Selena Greiner

• Selena Greiner

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A Heart to Serve Well explores how guarding our hearts (Prov. 4:23) looks like a lifestyle of grateful, joyful servanthood—not a Sunday checkbox. Rooted in Jesus’ example (Matt. 20:28), we learn that true greatness in God’s kingdom comes by serving others (Luke 22:26–27), and that the way we serve—our attitude and motives—matters (Heb. 4:12). With practical calls to serve at home, work, and church, the message celebrates diverse gifts (Rom. 12:6–8) and invites us to live surrendered, thankful, and radiant so our good deeds point people to the Father (Matt. 5:16).

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Amen.

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Let's start in prayer. Father, we just thank you, Lord, for tonight. We thank you for your word. It's alive, it's powerful. And so our hearts are open to your word, Lord. Holy Spirit, we welcome you tonight here into this place. Not our will, but your will be done. Not my words, but your words, Father. And so we just thank you. We we focus on your word. We're not going to allow any distractions or thoughts of what we need to do or thoughts about this past week, but we're going to focus and meditate on your word because it's your word that produces good fruit in our lives. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Amen. So let's see. If you're taking notes, the title of my message is A Heart to Serve Well. A Heart to Serve Well. And I've been meditating on this just one very uh basic but profound scripture for this past month. I mentioned it in one of my um when I received the offering like two Sundays ago. Um it's a very familiar verse. It's Proverbs 423. Um, guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life. Um and so a lot of times we uh we say these verses like flippantly. We just, you know, you see them on the letterman jacket and and guard your heart. Uh well how? How do we um guard our heart? And uh last two Sundays ago, I taught, I mentioned um how you how one of the ways to guard your heart is by being thankful. Um, because if you're full of thanksgiving, um and you have a uh a heart uh you know full of gratitude, um, you're not gonna get offended. You're not gonna get hurt, right? Um, because your heart is so full of thanksgiving and thankfulness that there's no room in there for offense or um anything else. So so when we read these verses, it's easy to just go by a verse and like quickly read it or quickly say it guard your heart above Allah determines the course of your life. Okay, check. Well, how? Well, how do I guard? Um, and so thankfulness is one way that you guard your heart. Um but as I was meditating um and just praying, um I just what came to my spirit was just serving to serve, um, to live a lifestyle of servanthood. Um and so serving is a way, it's another way that guards our heart. And so why is it important to keep our heart? It's it's how we live. Um we live out of our spirit, and so what we put in our spirit determines how we live out of that, right? Love in, love out, hatred in, hatred out. Uh, you know, wrong thoughts. If we're meditating on the wrong thing, it's it's gonna come out out of uh the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. Like, oh, was I harsh? Well, yeah, I didn't mean to say that. You know, if you were caught yourself saying something, oh, I didn't, man, that was kind of harsh. Well, it was in there, what's in your heart is eventually gonna come out. And so we want to make sure, no matter who you are, no matter what leader, uh what kind of leader you are, no matter what kind of position you are, no matter what kind of title you have in life, um, everybody has to do the word. Everybody needs to apply the word and guard their heart. Um, and so we need to live out of that because it says with all diligence, so a lot of times our eyes will deceive us or what we hear will deceive us. Um and but it affects your heart, right? And so um, so we have to make sure that we guard it, and so that's where we're we become fruitful, um, is when our heart's pure, when there's nothing in there that's gonna um, you know, uh just get in there and and um foul up our heart. And so we want to make sure to guard it. So next scripture is Deuteronomy 10, 12 in the New King James says, and now Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you? But to fear the Lord your God, to walk in his ways, and to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. And to so to serve there means to submit, to surrender, really to minister to the Lord. And so I don't want you to think of just to serve means just a church thing, because it's so much more than that, it's a living thing. You serving is living it out. It's not just I I don't sometimes that's churchy people we think of to serve and to serve, and I'm not here to recruit volunteers, that's not my that's not that's just God put on my heart. Um, but but it's a it's you live, it's it's who you are. It's not just I serve at church. You serve your family well, you serve your husband well, you serve your kids well, right? So it's like a you live it out. It's not just a serve on Sunday morning from 10 to 11. I, you know, I checked a box, I served. No, it's a it's a it's a livelihood, it's a living it out. Yes, it's a lifestyle. So serve means to submit, to surrender, to minister to the Lord. And so here in this scripture, it says, you'll fear. So what does he require? What he could have listed all kinds of things. And so, hey, love him, to fear God, to love him and to serve him with all of your heart and all of your soul, with everything that you have to serve God. And so that's one reason we lift our hands as a sign of surrender. Yeah, it says that in the Bible to lift your hands, but just as a sign of surrender. Hey, I'm sold out. I surrender to you. My life is not my own. And so um, a heart that serves well is a heart fully surrendered to God. Uh, Matthew 5, 16. Let me put on my glasses. In the same way, let your light shine before others that they may see your good deeds and glorify your father in heaven. So, again, um, I've been called not just to attend a service, not just to be here in a church building, but I've called I've been called to serve God Monday through Sunday, right? It's not just coming to church. We've been called to serve God in our house with our kids, in our parenting. Um, and so the more we serve Jesus, the more his name is lifted high. When we live out of that servanthood, of not my will, but your will be done, his name is lifted high, right? And so it's all about the attitude and heart of a servant. So, a couple points. Number one, when you serve, you become more like Jesus, right? When it's not my will, but your will be done. When you serve, you become more like Jesus. He had it all, he gave it all, right? And so he here he said, so he came to serve and to bless. So we we shouldn't, it's not about becoming more like our pastors, it's not about becoming more like our parents, it's about looking like Jesus, looking like him, right? Um, Matthew 20, 28 says, for even the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve others, and to give his life as a ransom for many. So Jesus wasn't just sitting around like, feed me grapes, go get my food, right? Shine my shoes, shine my Jesus sandals. Okay. No, no, here it says, for the Son of Man didn't come to be served, but to serve others. And so that we that's what we should be doing, right? And so we're here to serve others, not to be served, but to serve others. The life of a Christian is about serving, it's about serving others, right? What we do through Monday through Sunday, what we do throughout the week. And so, according to the world system, I mean, that's opposite, right? You've made it when you have servants. The world system, like, I'm rich when I I got people to watch over all my stuff. But Jesus is like, nope. Nope, that's not it. Right? We came, we don't, we don't live in that kingdom. We don't live in the kingdom of darkness, the world system. It's a crooked and perverse system. We look to God's word. What are his values? What are his standards? What does he say? He says, serve. Number two, serving is how you become great in God's kingdom. Serving is how you become great in God's kingdom. Luke 22, uh 24 through 27 in the New Living Translation says, then they began to argue among themselves about who there was arguing going on, believe it or not. They began to argue among themselves about who would be the greatest among them. Jesus told them, In this world the kings and great men lorded over their people, yet they are called friends of the people. But among you it will be different. Those who are the greatest among you should take the lowest rank, and the leader should be like a servant. Who is more important? The one who sits at the table or the one who serves? The one who sits at the table, of course, but not here, not here, for I am you as one who serves. So here they're debating, like, hey, who's the greatest, right? And so Jesus just walks up and says, Hey, I'm gonna show you who's the greatest. Not the one who's sitting at the table, but the one who is serving, right? And it made me think of um the kids growing up, and we would go, you know, Thanksgiving, and usually we would have a an adult's table. And then we have the kid table, right? And I gravitate towards the kids' table because it's just fun, you know. I love my kids and being around kids, and and I don't know, just this reading this story, it made me think of, you know, um, well, I don't want to sit at the kids' table. What are they gonna talk about? I want to sit with the important people, I want to sit with the adults, and sometimes we can have those things creep in where, like, you know, um just those little things, those little ideas that can creep in and and where you want to be around the important people. You want to be, but but really, what what's greatest in the kingdom? Right? What what how do you become here? He it says how you become great in the kingdom by serving. Another scripture is you know, let the little children come to me, children come to me. So such is the kingdom of heaven, and so a lot of times we put, we think, such is the kingdom of heaven. It's all these important things when really when we get to heaven, God's gonna be like, You thought that was important? What's he really gonna say, right? How about those little ones? Right? Such is the kingdom, and so sometimes we can uh life happens and we we can you know have these reasonings and these things that we think are important, and really God's saying, Hey, no, this is important. And so this the more we we stay close to God and the more we're sensitive to the Holy Spirit, He shows us, um, He shows us what's important. And so again, serving's not a church thing, it's a lifestyle thing. And sometimes we have to die to ego, we just do. It creeps up, right? It creeps up, we get hurt, we get whatever the situation. People say stuff, we get hurt, we get sideways, and oh well, who do they think they are? No, we have to die to that. God hates that. And we see it at church. Surprise, surprise, surprise, surprise. We have to die to that. We have to die to ego. Uh, you know, it makes me think of, I think in Mark 11, we talked about the fig tree. Jesus was hungry. He's like, I need some figs, give me some fig newtons, and he looked at the tree, it had leaves. What looked like was full of life was actually lifeless. Oh, that's a tree. It's looking good. It has some leaves, there's some hope there, but then what did he end up doing? It had it was not bearing fruit. So, what like looks like something is bearing fruit or looks like it's full of life, Jesus, like I'm I'm gonna curse you because you did not give me any fruit. I didn't get no big newtons, right? And so sometimes in life, what we think is important or great or is bearing much fruit in our lives really isn't, right? And so we have to make sure to examine our lives and God, is this bearing fruit? It might be an okay thing, it might be a good thing, but is it bearing much fruit, right? At the end of your life, will Jesus say, Well done, thou good and faithful servant. He's not gonna say, Well done, thou good and faithful church member. You can be church all day, every day, all week, and live like a fool. Well done, thy good and faithful servant. That's what we want to hear, right? But a lot of times we don't live it in our everyday life. We get crossed with people and we get an ego, but we really don't serve. And so, really, God wants us to have a heart that serves with nothing in return. Uh-oh. Right? Uh-oh. To really serve with nothing in return, and not to serve so somebody can notice, or not to only serve so pastor or whatever leader or the boss, but really serve, right? Really have a heart to serve. And so serving is how you become great in God's kingdom. That's what's great. Number three, serving is about spirit and attitude. So it's not only if you serve, but it's how you serve. You know, and being a youth pastor, this comes up quite often. Um, I love the teenagers, you know, one Sunday they're great and chit-chatty and all the things. And then the next Sunday, the same teenager could be like, Well, hey, you know, why aren't you talking? What's up? Right? And so I love them. I love working with the with the kids and the teens because it's the opportunity. It's an opportunity to to um share the word with them and share the testimonies of what what God's done in my life, and and to get to hear what God's doing in their life. And um, and so uh I do teach on quite a bit on attitude because it really it you can be so talented. You can see a teenager that's so talented, but their attitude is bad, right? And then you see this other teenager that maybe doesn't have quite the ability or quite, but it's there, but the heart is there. Man, which one do I want to promote? Which one would God want to promote? He's looking for the heart, he's looking for a good attitude, a godly attitude. And so serving is about spirit and attitude. And so it's not only if you serve, it's how you serve. I always say this: your attitude is your altitude. Yes, that is the name of our youth group, altitude, but your attitude is your altitude. How well you do in life is all about attitude. It's not how much money you have in the bank. It's not how many, how nice of a car you drive, it's not how big of a house you live in. It is about your attitude. And so that'll take you far. And so a positive attitude is not an emotion, it's a decision, right? It's not an emotion, it's a decision. And so we want to make sure that we value serving, right? That we value it, that it changes when you value to serve every day, when you just have a heart, what can I do for you? What can I how can I make somebody's life easier, right? You become more like Jesus. Hebrews 4 12 in the New King James says, for the word of God is living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and the joints and the marrow. And it is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. The intents of the heart. So the word is a discerner. So it shows you here. So what he's saying, it shows you how to discern between soul and spirit. So he's he's talking about like bone and muscle and marrow. Like it's hard sometimes to separate that, right? Um, like if Jay has a shoulders hurting. He's like, What is that? That's is that my bone? Is that my tendon? I was like, I don't know. Let me just push on it a little bit. Snap, crackle, pop. And so that's how I see the scripture. Like sometimes you're like, oh, is that the tendon that's hurting? Is that my what is what is that? And so the word of God here, he's saying it's living, it's powerful. It divides what is um your thoughts and the intents of the heart. So how do you discern, right? It's a discerner between the heart and the intentions. So you can have a thought, but does that thought have a wrong intention, right? Did it come from a bad heart? You always have to check your thoughts. I had that thought. What it what is my intention behind that thought, right? Am I doing that out of guilt? Am I keeping that relationship in my life out of guilt or out of some kind of whatever? Some people are meant to be in your life, and then some people are for a season and they're you're meant to say bye-bye. And sometimes we just hold on to them. We just hold on to them. Is that person really? Because if you're focused on that person and God's called you over here to these people, you're focusing your time on the wrong thing. And that's where the enemy wants to keep you on the wrong thing, right? Because he wants to propel you forward into something great, and he has so much for you, but here you're focused on the wrong thing. That person ain't even listening to what you're saying. Casting your pearls before swine. Why even go there? Right? And so you have so the word, if you really dig into the word and you pray, it discerns those, it'll show you, you know what? I'm pouring into the wrong thing. I'm wasting my time with that. God can take care of that situation. You don't need to be the hero in that situation. And so the word of God, it's powerful, it's a discerner. And so the intentions of your heart matter. The why of what you do, the intentions. And so we want to make sure. So again, going back to the first, very first Proverbs, the first verse that I said, if you keep your heart, so I put this down, if you keep your heart with all diligence, then the intentions of your heart will be correct. But if you don't keep your heart, if you allow whatever to come into your life, if you allow bitterness and jealousy and envy and strife, if you allow that, unthankfulness, me, me, me, you're not guarding your heart, then your intentions are wrong, right? And so the motive of why you do what you do will be on a wrong foundation. And so you want to make sure that we keep our heart with all diligence, right? So then our intentions of our heart will be correct. They'll be lined up with the word of God. And so again, I'm talking about serving. Serving is about spirit and attitude. We want to make sure we have the right attitude, right? Because somebody can serve, but then they can just moan and groan about it and have a sad look on their face, but they served. Roll their eyes. I'm not thinking about anybody, just by the way. I'm just saying, right? I'm not seriously, I'm not thinking about anybody. I'm just saying, like the heart of a certain of really serving with your whole heart and doing it cheerfully. That's what God's after. God's after whether it's on your job to serve, whether it's taking care of somebody, you're serving, you're loving. That's the hands and feet of Jesus. When Miss Gladys uh last year, whenever she was in the um, she had that one really good Joey, physical therapist. I'm like, he is the hands and feet of Jesus. People who are in physical therapy, people who are caregivers, they need a gold badge. They are heroes. Heroes. Anyways, but um they they are the hands and feet of Jesus, selflessly helping somebody get back on their feet, serving, putting them first, right? And those jobs, you don't you if you're hungry or you or you, you know, you you you gotta go to the restroom, you you just keep getting, man, the medical field, this is just it's tough. It's tough. And so um just seeing that, that was just the hands and feet of Jesus. And so um, so having a heart to serve, am I leading well? So that's what good questions to ask ourselves. Am I pouring into the right people? So we're always to be examining our heart, the intentions of our heart. Psalm 139, 23 and 24 in the new living says, Search me, O God, and know my heart. Test me and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends you and lead me along the path of everlasting life. That's a good prayer to pray over yourself, right? Search me, search my heart. You know what's in there, right? Point out anything that offends you. What offends you, God? Why am I saying those things? Why am I saying them when I'm saying them? Why do why do I have that emotion come up when that person comes into the room? Why do I I should that's not freedom? We should walk in freedom, in the freedom that God has called us to walk in. And so that's a good, this is a good prayer. Search me, Lord, and know my heart. Know my thoughts. Point out anything that offends you. Anything that offends you. What am I meditating on? Is that offend you, offended you? Just like the word says, if it's your thoughts, if they're pure, are they, you know, holy? Think about those thoughts. Whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, righteous. If it's of a good report, meditate on that. And so we have to make sure to be meditating on uh the word of God, meditating on what God says about us, who He's called us to be. He's called us to be servants. He's called called us really it's servant leadership. You lead well by serving. Pastor Um, I don't know the testimony, but Ed Dufrain, he's in heaven now, but Nancy, Pastor Nancy uh tells a story, and I don't remember how it goes, but he started out cleaning toilets before he was the pastor in a church. What do you, what do you, what do you need? We need somebody clean the toilets. I don't sign up for that. He didn't say I don't sign up for that. I'm too good for that. I just gotta have a mic. I gotta be heard. He's cleaning the toilets, right? Talk about servant, talk about a true heart of just serving. And so that's what that's how we want to be. That's just a good example of hey, I'm not, it's not about ego, it's not about pride, it's not about being seen, it's not about any of that. It's just about how can I serve? How can I be the hands and feet of Jesus? And that's how you do it. You serve daily. Not my will, but your will be done. And so when you serve, serving is not something you grow out of, it's something you grow into. It keeps your heart, right? And so it wards off any kind of dangers of like rejection. Um, you know, when you're sitting, when you're not doing anything, right? It makes me think of that scripture. You're scornful, you're just there, you're sitting, you're not working, but when you're serving, a lot of times we just have a pity party because we're just sitting, we're thinking about certain things, and but when you serve, when you think about others, when you give, when you bake a cake, when you when you just pour yourself into what you're doing with your whole heart, you don't have time for all of that. Right? You serve, you serve, it keeps your heart. And so we want to make sure that it that it keeps our heart, that we're doing our part to keep our heart. And so, and another thing, you know, Martha and Mary, we want to make sure that we're not like a like a Martha and like, well, I did all the work and they didn't do anything, you know, because then that's not guarding our heart. I did you I emptied out the dishwasher this time, you did not. I took out the trash last week and you did not. That's just scorekeeping. God doesn't, okay, God doesn't keep scores of us, all our faults, right? So we shouldn't be like that. We shouldn't be, you know, scorekeeping on everybody just to live. That's not freedom. That's not the freedom that God has called us to. We just live a free life of just loving and serving and giving and and encouraging and all of those things. Amen. Last point, number four, serving looks different for everybody. You are God's masterpiece. Romans 12, 6 through 8, and the God's word translation. God is in, his God and his kindness gave each of us different gifts. It is, if your gift is speaking, what God has revealed, make sure what you say agrees with the Christian faith. So if it's prophesying, if your gift is serving, then devote yourself to serving. If it is teaching, devote yourself to teaching. If it is encouraging others, devote yourself to giving encouragement. If it is sharing, be generous. If it is leadership, lead enthusiastically. If it is helping people in need, help them cheerfully. And so a lot of times we can compare ourselves in serving. You know, we're all on the same team, but it just looks different. We're all I'm on the same team as you. Just to let you know. I'm holding the mic, but I'm on the same team. Saying we're on the same team, right? And so it all looks different. So a lot we can't compare ourselves, and um, we're on the, you know, it's called the beautiful body of Christ, right? It's the beautiful body of Christ. But a lot of times it can look, you know, disjointed if we're just comparing ourselves or or looking to that person. Well, they do that, and I don't do this, and they no, no, no, no, no. We have to stay in our lane and we have to make sure, hey, God has each one of you here has a different gift. God has equipped you, God has called you. And so here the word says that we all have different gifts, and so do that well. Whatever God has called you to, do it well. Some of y'all are great encouragers, encourage well. If you know how to use words, why do you keep your mouth shut? Encourage well, right? If you lead, lead well, right? If you know how to work with your hands and build stuff, build well. We need those people. If your mechanically brain is mechanical, then do that well, right? If you know how to fix a car, do that well. I do not. Thank you, Jay. Fix my car. It's not broken. Just saying, I wouldn't know how to fix it. But God has given us each gifts, and so do that well. Do that well, and so don't compare. The enemy wants you to compare to other people and nitpick. Do not like nitpicking, but that's a side thing, right? If you never pour into somebody and To and and tell them they do good and all you do is nitpick, like I don't hang around you. If that's all you hear, I'm sorry. If you go to work and that's all you hear, encourage yourself in the Lord. Encourage yourself in the Lord, right? And so serving looks different for everybody. You are God's masterpiece, you're unique. And so lead well, serve well, um, encourage well. And so again, we're the beautiful body of Christ. Don't don't compare different personalities uh with others. You know, I just and Joseph had to take this person. Can I redo my personality test? Don't just kick. I'm like, some of the questions, actually, I only had like seven seconds or a couple of seconds, and I I had lost time on like four questions. Oops. But two of those questions, I was interrupted. Um, but um, but we'd have we the whole staff has taken this personality test and it and it um the strength finder test and it shows you just like you know where your strengths are and all of that. Um but one question was like, are you generous or are you thrifty? I'm like, what? I'm generous and thrifty. No, really, I put I'm more into the generous. I'm generous. By heart, I'm generous. I just like the find of the thrift. I like the deals, yeah. But um, but no, no matter the word of God doesn't like, don't compare your yourself with other personalities, right? So um when we serve, when we use the spiritual gifts that God has has placed on the inside of us, um, God will help us. God will help us to excel in those spiritual gifts. Like he will. And so we don't compare ourselves um to others. And so um that's how we serve. Um, okay, so let me go over my points again. Number one, when you serve, you become more like Jesus. Number two, serving is how you become great in God's kingdom. Serving is about spirit and attitude, and then serving looks different for everybody. You are God's masterpiece. You know, um today we got, and I didn't this didn't go, but it went perfectly because today, so so we had a meeting. It wasn't really a meeting, it was more of a volunteer. I mean, it was a meeting, but it was a volunteer appreciation um children's church for our children's church workers, and we had it here down the road at a restaurant, and it was so good. It was uh, you know, our children's church workers, they're just um faithful. And um Allison honored Miss Gwen. She's been working over 20 years, 25, I don't know how many since the beginning. Um, but Allison passed out these papers and asked different questions, and she had a couple of them come up. And Miss Yvonne, uh, she's not here tonight, but she shared, um, she just shared just a testimony of God's faithfulness, and uh she was just reminded of God's faithfulness and all the years she's worked back in children's church and how it just blesses her. Like to work with the kids, like she learned so much from the kids and reading the lesson and getting to pour into them. Um, but uh it was just an honor to be there at the volunteer appreciation and to see all of the uh the volunteers, everybody who commits their time, their effort, their money, their their resources to pour into our next generation. And so that's really the heart of a servant, not only with the kids, but just really in a lifestyle. We can have again, going back to what I said at the beginning, um, it's a lifestyle of serving. When you live, uh, you know, waking up Monday morning, hey, how can I serve somebody? How can I help? How can I make their life easier? You know, and it goes back to guarding our heart. It's how we do it, it's how we serve. We have to make sure that in life we don't uh become bitter. You know, I've said this before. You can become something can make you better, or it can become or you it can make you bitter. And so life is tough sometimes, and you may want to make sure that you don't become bitter. You don't want to be an old bitter person, right? You don't. I was gonna call them something else, but I won't say grouchy. You don't want to become grouchy, you don't want to become the Grinch. You want to make sure that you live a carefree life. You know, I don't watch much TV, um, but I did watch uh if I do turn on the TV, usually it's like a home improvement show, um or like a fixer upper or just uh somebody's building a house. Anyways, I'll just like all of that stuff. And there was this one couple, I think they were in Sweden, but um they were architects, and I was amazed at just it was first of all, it was beautifully edited, and um the house that they uh it showed the it was like an old house from probably the 1800s, but they totally gutted it. Totally, really, it was a if I would have seen that house, I would like be starting new, but they they didn't. They kept the walls, the cement wall, like the the walls were so wide. Um, but it showed their family, and they had a daughter um that was in a wheelchair and she had cystic fibrosis, and they were the happiest couple I think I had ever seen. I don't know if they were saved or not saved. Um, but I'm like, look at their lives. They are just, I mean, they're in it for the long haul, right? They it showed them swimming with their daughter. They had to pull in the back and just, you know, uh swimming with her and working with her. And then she used her body to do like this art sculpture thing. And anyways, it just at the end of the of the TV program, it just made me think of how um, you know, their life, they could they could have said, hey, you know what, this is tough. This is tough, but really I'm here to serve. I'm here, like their outlook on life was just a a wonderful outlook. And like, man, I don't even know if they know Jesus and they're happier than some of the Christians I know. Like they were just wow. Uh, but they were so just grateful, and the dad teared up. He was just grateful for life, just grateful, living life, loving his daughter, living day by day, just making the most of life, making the most of it. And so that um that's a servant's art, right? You don't look at what you don't have, you don't look at, you know, what could be, what what what should have been, but you look, you look at, hey, you know what? I'm thankful that God has placed me here in 2025 for such a time as this. I'm thankful that I'm alive. I'm thankful that I'm breathing. I'm thankful that, you know, I get to come to church. I'm I'm thankful for all of these things. And so then it turns into a hey, how can I give it? I'm thankful for what God has done for me. And then how can then that turns into how can I serve better, right? And so I just want to encourage you, you know, in the daily, in the um, when going through life to to make sure, you know, you guard your heart against the things that try to bombard it. But when you keep it full, there's when you keep it full of thanksgiving and servanthood, when you're just thankful, then nothing else fits in there, right? And then things that come out of your mouth are wonderful for the hearer, joyful for the hearer, loving, because your heart is so full of thanksgiving, it has not no room in there for anything else, any bitterness or anything. It's so full. So when we guard ourselves against those things and we keep it full with what should be in there, then you live a life that's really free. Then nobody can take that away, right? Jesus laid down his life willingly. Nobody took it, he laid it down. Nobody took it from him. Willingly, he laid it down. That's freedom. Where nobody takes your life for you. Nobody can, you don't have to allow anything to come into your heart because you're so full of gratitude and servanthood that it doesn't matter what anybody says or does or will do or won't do now or in the future, because your heart is full. Right? So I would encourage you to meditate on the goodness of God. Meditate on the things that He's done in your life. Don't meditate on the bad, don't meditate on the things that should be. Don't focus on the wrong, because there might be a lot of wrong, right? But we don't focus on that. We focus on the Word of God because it's powerful, it's sharp, it discerns, and it'll show you the intentions of the heart. Because I can't fix your intentions, I can only fix mine and keep mine right, right? And so that's the freedom that God has called us to live in. That's the freedom. And so when we shout, it's a shout of victory. When we dance, it's a dance of victory. Not because we're mad, because we're glad. We shout from victory, we shout for victory, right? Amen. So it's not a cry of defeat, it's a cry of victory. Like God, I thank you for what you you've done. I thank you for what you're doing now. I thank you for what you've done, and I thank you in the future for what you will do. Even though when I don't see it, right? Because our eyes can deceive us, it's by faith that I raise my hands in victory. Amen. Amen. So let's pray. Father, we just thank you, Lord, we come to you by the blood of Jesus. We thank you for the blood of Jesus, the greatest sacrifice, that he lay down his life willingly. No man could take it from him. And so we thank you, Father, for what you're doing in our hearts. We thank you for what you're doing in our lives. We keep our heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life. And so we thank you, Father, that we geed it, we we we keep it, we guard it, we overflow, our mouth overflows with thanksgiving. May we use the time that we have on this earth not to fill it with strife. May our words not be words of strife or bitterness or harming others. May it be edification, may it edify others. We thank you, Father. We thank you, Lord, for what you've done. You gave us your best, you gave us Jesus. And so we don't take it lightly. We value, we value to serve for it's the greatest. Well done, thy good and faithful servant. May we not lose track of what's really important in our lives. May we keep our heart full of thanksgiving and gratitude. May we have a heart to serve, to serve you, to serve the people out there. So then thou want to come in here. Father, I thank you, Lord, that we're lights that shine bright for you everywhere we go, Father. May our words add and not take away. In Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. I pray that encouraged you. Um, I love the word. The word works when we put it to work. Amen.