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No one is meant to be a mere fixture

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in a church meeting,

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just like a piece of the furniture,

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a spectator,

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a consumer.

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You know, as Americans we develop

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kind of naturally to fall into

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this consumer mentality,

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where we in the case of a church

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or a congregation,

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we arrive, we hear a sermon,

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and then we go home

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and there's no thought about:

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what can I do to serve?

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What can I do to help?

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It's a consumer type of mentality.

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I'm there to be fed.

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I'm there to be cared for.

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And you'd be surprised how many people

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leave churches in bad ways

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because they think that they're not

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being cared for

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or they're not being fed

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and it's all about them.

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But I say beware of negligence.

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Let yourself be served by God.

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You don't have to be able 
to fill a pulpit like this

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or have a grand ministry

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to be used by God in the church,

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to be gifted to be used 
by God in the church.

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Spurgeon said, as only he can say things,

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he said, "Good wheat 
grows in little fields."

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In Missouri, we've got little fields.

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Here you've got ranches

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that take up a whole mile.

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Good wheat can grow in little fields.

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He says, "Little pigeons 
can carry great messages."

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And you know, in the past history

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of the world wars,

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there were wars that were turned around

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on the message received 
by a carrier pigeon.

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Little pigeons can carry great messages.

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He says, "Even a little dog

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can bark at a thief 
and wake up the master

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and save the house."

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And it's true.

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A spark is a fire.

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And a sentence with 
truth has heaven in it.

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Now, the way our congregation works -

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it might not fit in here in San Antonio,

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but we have what's called

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an open-participatory type of a meeting

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in which during the song singing

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anyone can offer a comment on a verse

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or give a brief word, a testimony,

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or something they read in a book.

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And you would be surprised -

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maybe you wouldn't be -

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I was surprised at how frequently

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those little interjections

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that the Spirit moves on a person to say

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have turned out to be more important

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in my estimation than anything I said

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for the whole 45 minutes I preached.

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God uses people that way.

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And we ought to let 
ourselves be used by God.

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Serve the church.

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Serve God. Serve the church.

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The household of faith.

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We're told to do good to them.

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I was having a conversation

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around the table with Kenny Lee

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over at Tony's house.

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I asked him where he 
saw himself in the future.

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He just made a comment off the cuff

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about how he just wanted to

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through trial and error figure out

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what God's gift is for him

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and try and use it in the church

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however he could.

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That fits right here.

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Yesterday, I got a text from Raoul

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and he wanted to know

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what my sermon notes might be

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because he's going to try and interpret it

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to the Spanish-speaking ones that are here

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and I thought there is a perfect example.

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Here is someone who's been gifted.

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He's got something to do

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and he's anxious to do it,

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desiring to do it.

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Regretfully I had to decline

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because my notes are all in hard copies

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and he probably couldn't make 
heads or tails of them anyway.

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But I like the attitude there -

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an attitude of serving,

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wanting to serve.

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Romans 12, Paul said,

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"All the members don't 
have the same function."

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He said, "We have gifts that differ

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according to the grace given us."

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But the implication is everyone -

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not just apostles.

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In fact, he says, "Each of us

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is to exercise them accordingly."

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And he gives just a few examples.

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He says, "If service, in his serving."

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And that word literally 
just means helping.

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Do you realize you could be gifted

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just to help people?

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When Tony went to move down here

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to San Antonio,

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Matthew McDonnell took time off,

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took his own vehicle,

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drove from San Antonio

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all the way to Sedalia,

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so that we could load 
up Tony's belongings,

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hook up a trailer on the back,

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and three days later, two days later,

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he turned around, drove all the way back

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to San Antonio,

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gave Tony the service of moving here.

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Now you see, some might say -

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we have a tendency to 
overlook those things

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as not being gifts of the Spirit,

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but you might be surprised,

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there's something that you can do,

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something you can help with,

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and it might just be that the Holy Spirit

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has gifted you that way.

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That's serving.