From Hustle to Harvest - Hector Nieves

Awesome. Well, who's excited to get into the Word today? Woo! Yeah. So we've been in a series, as you might have known, we're in week four of a sermon series called, everyone? Planted. That's right, planted. And we have been using this statement as our thesis for the entirety of the message of this series. And I'm gonna have you guys preach today. So what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna put it on the screen and we're gonna read it together. Are we ready? Yes. All right, so all of us together, what gets planted? What gets planted? To be? To be? Or you'll never? You'll never see the fruit of it. You'll never see the fruit of it. Think about that statement for just one second. What does that statement mean? What does that, how does that statement rely, how does that statement relate to us? And it's very simple. If you plant a seed into the soil, that's just one part of many different other steps

that it takes for that seed to grow. And so if you just plant the seed on the ground, but you don't water it, you don't get your hands dirty, come on somebody, life is a little dirty. If you don't get your hands dirty a little bit, or if you don't tend to that seed, you know what happens to that seed online? You know what happens to that seed? It doesn't die quickly, but it doesn't grow either. And a lot of us who are walking this Christian life, this spiritual life, if you're stuck, spiritually, it may not be the devil, it just might be that there's a seed that hasn't been tended to yet, that is in your life. What I'm doing right now, I'm planting a seed. That's the word of God. I'm planting a seed, but all of us have to have a part in growing the seed. In fact, there's an ancient Christian tradition called the Eastern Orthodox Church, and they have this thing that they believe in called synergy. And synergy basically says something like this. God saves, but you cooperate in the growth of your faith. What does that mean? It means that God does the saving. There's nothing that you and I could do to earn salvation, but there is a lot of things that we can do in order for our salvation to play out in our lives.

That is synergy. And the way that we do that is by doing what Pastor JJ has been talking to us about, and that is for 2,000 years, Christians have been doing what's called spiritual disciplines. Spiritual disciplines are those practices that we do in order for that seed to not just stay in our heart, but also continue to grow. Why is that? Why do we want seeds to grow in our life? Well, it's not so that we can have a bigger platform, or we can be rich, but it's so that we can bear fruit for other people. I don't know if you knew this, but the Bible tells us that you and I are the light of the world, which means that we shine, we shine bright so that other people can see the light of Jesus. I like to say it this way, the gospel comes to you on its way to someone else. And so the reason why we do spiritual disciplines is so that we can bear fruit so that other people can come to Christ, amen? And so what are those disciplines? Well, I'm glad you asked. So here they are. This is what we've been talking about and what we're gonna continue to talk about, and the spiritual disciplines go as follows. We have nine of them that we want to talk about, and so here they are.

We have community, we have witness, prayer, scripture, fasting, Sabbath, solitude, service, and then we have generosity. And the reason why we put these up on the screen is so that you guys can develop fruit in life. It's not a checklist for you to do, okay? These spiritual disciplines are not Bible reading plan check marks. I did my prayer, check. I did my Sabbath, check. No, no, no, that's not the purpose of that. The purpose of these disciplines is so you can stay rooted and continue to bear fruit for yourself and for other people in the world. And so today I have the privilege to present to you what I believe are the three most counter-cultural spiritual disciplines in our society. Why is that? Before I present the three, I wanna talk to you guys about something that we are all living in, this phenomenon that we're all living in, that relate to these three spiritual disciplines. And say amen if you've heard this, but I wanna talk to you about the grind of hustle culture. Anybody know what hustle, mm, amen, come on, pastor. Ah, type that, hustle culture, amen, love that. And here's how I know we are in the midst of hustle culture. Answer me this question and answer me honestly. How many of you in the last day or week, or maybe even today while you were greeting somebody inside,

when they asked you how you were doing? What did you tell them? How did you respond? I'm good, I've just been busy. Somebody said that with bass in their voice, come on. I'm good, I've just been busy. And let's be honest, some of us when we say that, it feels like we won the Oscars, right? We say that I'm busy, I got it, I'm grinding, I'm hustling, come on. Look, y'all, and some of us, even me, including myself, I like to flex my busyness. You know how I flex my busyness? By showing them my calendar. Uh-huh, you show your calendar and it's got more colors on it than the rainbow. Let's go, you got back-to-back meetings, you got this, you got that, you are over-scheduled. And we wear that like a badge of honor. Now, I do want to put a disclaimer. I'm not bashing, I'm not here to bash hard work. I'm not here to bash the work on your hands. In fact, the Scriptures tell us to celebrate the work of your hands. That's not my concern today. But you want to know what my concern is? This is my concern. Who or what is actually in charge in your life? Is it God or is it your Google Calendar? Who is in charge?

Now, why do we do this to ourselves? Why do we overbook, why do we over-schedule, why do we over-commit to things that we know we should say no to? Well, look at the author, Melissa Clark. She wrote a book called, Never Not Working. Look what she says, people work too much because our world teaches us that being busy means being important. Did you catch that? We work too much because we think that it makes us important. In other words, we are hustling more than ever, and yet we're not producing the kind of fruit that our soul is craving. In fact, look at this university study from Stanford. Look what they found. That productivity per hour drops sharply after 50 hours of work per week. Check that out. You know what that means? This is what our life looks like. We're running, but we're running on a treadmill. We receive the benefits of running. We sweat, we're grinding, we're hustling, but you know what's not happening? You're not going nowhere. You are hustling and hustling and running and running, but you're running in place. You're not running the race.

You're just running. What about monster.com? Look what monster.com says. 73% of full-time workers are logging more than 55 hours a week. You know what that means? It means that most of us are not just working a full week. We're working so much that our jobs are starting to spill over our nighttime, it's starting to spill over our weekends, and it's even starting to spill over our personal lives. But if you think this is an American phenomenon, especially those watching online, if you're watching around the world, you ain't off the hook too. Hustle culture also reaches the world, y'all. Listen to this. 64% of employees report being unsatisfied with their work. Pastor, what are you trying to say to us this morning? We're producing a lot of achievements, but we're not producing fulfillment. We're grinding, we're hustling, but nothing's coming out of it. And this morning, I wanna address that crowd, that cohort of people. But there's also a cohort of people that find themselves today who are not grinding, who are stay-at-home parents. No shade at stay-at-home parents. It's work.

I get it. But I'm talking to students, I'm talking to those who don't have jobs, I'm talking to those who are retired, and you're looking at me and saying, well, I'm checking out. Today was not a message for me. That's not Pastor JJ. I ain't listening. One, I rebuke you, and two, two, check this out. I got, I'm coming for you. You know that you don't have to be employed to feel exhausted? You ain't gotta work to feel the grind. You know how I know this? Check this out. Because busyness is not just about your job. Busyness is about a lifestyle. When busyness becomes the way of life, and here's how it manifests in your life. Are y'all ready? Let's see if you got one, two, or all four of it. The first one. Autopilot, anybody ever been on Autopilot before? Y'all watched the movie Click with Adam Sandler? If you haven't watched it, spoiler alert, he wins at the end. But the movie, he's sitting there and his wife comes to him and he tells him

and she tells him about all the schedule and all the things that they signed up for. And he goes, well, I didn't sign up for that. Where did that come from? Why is that on the schedule? I didn't say yes to that. And then, in my Mount Rushmore, by the way, Christopher Walken is my Mount Rushmore. Christopher Walken, who's the angel, comes to him and says, this is when your wife talked to you. And you know when she talked to him? When he was on Autopilot. And this is what Autopilot means. It means that your body is at the dinner table, but your mind is on the inbox. You're here, but your mind is somewhere else. And then when you look at your calendar, you're like, when did I say yes to this? What is this? That's Autopilot. But maybe you're like, no, Autopilot, I'm cool, I'm chill. I got it all under control. Okay, what about this one? Overcommitment. What is overcommitment? You can't say no. And it's not always because you're pleasing people, but it's because you're afraid that your no is gonna lead to some type of failure. What does that look like?

Especially in church. It looks like you're signed up for two teams already. One team is asking you to serve, but you're afraid to say no because you feel like you're gonna fail God saying no, and so you say yes. So that's overcommitment. But what about this one? This one I struggle with the most. So pray for my wife. I struggle with this one. And I call it performative rest. Well, what is performative rest? Performative rest is even your hobbies feel like work. How many of you like running? Okay, how many of you like running as a hobby? Not many of you. You made the illustration work, praise God. I thought I was gonna do something else. Do you know that the average, that the person who loves to run starts running as a hobby, but then ends up becoming something they train for a marathon for? And so your hobby is no longer something that you can enjoy, it's something that you gotta grind. I'm a gamer, I love playing video games. And there are times where I play video games not for the enjoyment, but for the achievements. And so that's what performative rest is.

It's taking that hobby, and eventually it becomes something that you have to work towards. Now, maybe you're sitting here and say, well, all three of those don't apply. But statistically speaking, this last one is going to. Are you ready for it? Perfectionism. Ooh, that's the, ooh. Type it on the chat, that's me. Raise your hand, that's me. Perfectionism. What is perfectionism? Good isn't good enough, it has to be flawless. But because life isn't perfect, and you aren't perfect, it never arrives, and the work never ends. Constantly working to try to look for perfection, but perfection, I'm sorry to tell you, will never, ever come. And when your life starts to look like one of these, constantly on, never satisfied, always chasing more, it's no longer just about being busy. You know what it becomes? It actually becomes these three or these four things, that unseat the Lord of your life, and one of those becomes the Lord of your life. They start to run your life. In fact, I wrote it like this. The biggest threat to your soul isn't just the devil, it's your schedule.

Oh, that's nice, I'm gonna say it twice. The biggest threat to your soul is not just the devil, but it can also be your schedule. Now, that sound might sound strong, but hear me when I say this. Do you know that not every single believer who falls away from the faith, falls away because they tore it up on Saturday, and then they come to church, and they're trying to ask for forgiveness? That's not always the case for believers who abandon their faith. But you know what also is the number one reason why people leave the faith? Is because your faith starts slowly drifting away because you're too busy. Slowly, quietly, and before you know it, guess what? You stop praying. Not because you don't wanna pray, you're just tired. Or, going to church. to a small group. We got two or three, we got people in here who signed up for three or four small groups and you haven't attended one of them. And it's not because you don't love community and you don't love people. You wanna know why you don't attend small groups? Because your schedule is just too full. You overbooked your schedule

and your faith starts slowly drifting away. You do realize that sin doesn't always starve your soul. You know what starves your soul? A busy soul. A busy soul will starve your soul. And so pastor, how do we fix this? How did I get here? How can I go from this to that? How can I slow down my life? How can I be meaningful and intentional with my life and with my schedule, with my calendar? Well, in the remaining minutes I have left, I wanna present to you the title of my message and it's this, From Hustle to Harvest. From Hustle to Harvest. And the three disciplines that I mentioned at the beginning, the ones that we're gonna talk about today are designed to do this very thing and I wanna present those three to you. If we can go ahead and pay attention to the screens. These are the three that I believe if you practice them, they're going to not only change the way that you approach your calendar, but you're gonna bear fruit and your life is going to be that much easier. Problems are not gonna go away, but you're gonna get a new perspective. And these are Sabbath, solitude, and service. Sabbath, solitude, and service. And the reason why I chose these,

especially when pastor JJ asked me which ones I'd like to do, is because when you practice these three, they do two things in your life. Practice all of them. You ready for it? What they make you do is this. They make you slow down and be more intentional. They allow you to slow down and before you make a decision, before you say yes, before you put it on your calendar, when you practice Sabbath, solitude, and service, those three things are gonna help you become more intentional with your life and with your calendar. In fact, this is what I'm gonna do. To talk about these three, I'm gonna root them in the word cultivate. Why do I wanna root them in cultivate? Not only are we in a garden planted series, because what do you do when you cultivate? You're tending, you're taking care of. And so cultivate, I wanna relieve the pressure off of everyone here today. When you cultivate something, you're not creating something new. You know what you're doing? All you're doing is taking care of what's already planted inside of you. That's all cultivation is.

God does the growth, but you know what you do? You take care of that growth. And that's all we're asking for you today is for you to just take care of what God has put in your heart. And so the first thing we're gonna do today is we're gonna cultivate Sabbath. We're gonna cultivate Sabbath. I lead a UCF small group over at East Orlando. Shout out to my UCF small group. And what I love about that group is that they have a lot of questions about faith. They have a lot of questions about theology, and I love theology. I love church history. I love this stuff. I eat it alive. And one of my guys, shout out to Eric, who's the guy that challenges us all the time, and he asked this question that was super good. So we're talking about Sabbath, and he goes, and he says this. The reason why I struggle with Sabbath is not because it's biblical, but because I believe Sabbath means doing nothing. And I'm like, that's it. That's why I think people struggle with Sabbath. That's why I struggle with Sabbath. Why? Because we equate rest with inactivity.

We're thinking that God is telling us to just sit there and do nothing, especially for us hard workers who love to move and who love to work with our hands. We just can't. But can I tell you that that is not what Sabbath, the word in Hebrew, Shabbat, that is not what Sabbath is all about? Sabbath actually comes to us from Genesis 2, verse 12. Look what it reads. By the seventh day, God had finished the work he was doing, so on the seventh day, he rested from all his work. Now, when you read that text, is it telling us that God got tired? That God simply created and then just sat back and is doing nothing right now as we speak? He just winded everything together. He put all the stars and the moon and everything together, and God is just sitting there and doing nothing? No, because that's not what the ancients. believed about rest. In fact, I wanna show you exactly what Sabbath looks like in Genesis chapter one. If you ever read Genesis chapter one, you'll read that in day one and day three, God is establishing all of the created order, the moon and the stars and everything. Day four and day six, God creates the sun, God creates the animals, and then God creates us. And not only do I have this because I'm a girl dad,

shout out to my oldest daughter, but this is a perfect picture of what creation is like because the ancient Israelites believed that God didn't just create a garden, God created a temple. The Garden of Eden wasn't just a place where trees grew, but it was where the presence of God dwelt. It was a temple. And so I wanna illustrate what God is showing us when he himself took Sabbath. And so I've got here, so we're gonna do this, we're gonna create the world in seven days. Day one and three, God set up the TV and the chimney. This is day one and day three, God set up a place to, yeah, we gotta have a place to cook, right? We gotta wash our clothes, you know? We'll set that up here. This is day one and three, God is working three days, four days, we gotta be able to sit down and watch TV. We got some friends that are coming over, and if nobody wants to watch TV, they can sit under the palm tree. That's day one, day three of Sabbath. This is God working for three days. Then on the fourth and sixth day, four, five, and six, God is now doing something else with his work. And so here we have, we got Kasimi Ken, who's brown this time. Come on, somebody. We got Kasimi Ken.

Kasimi Ken had a long day because he was setting up and tearing down at Kasimi, so we're gonna get him to sleep. And then we got Fern Park Freddy. Come on, Fern Park Freddy. So God in day one and three established everything, now day four and five, it's time to move in. And so we're gonna move Fern Park Freddy, I think we're gonna put him in the toilet. Yeah, yeah, calm down, calm down, he's okay. Had a long day. Then we're gonna invite their girlfriends over. We got East Orlando Emily. East Orlando Emily is just waiting for Fred to come out. And then we got Online Olivia. Let's go Online Olivia. Online Olivia, she just came in and she's gonna do some dirty clothes. All right, awesome. So day one, day two, day one, day three is establishing the created order. Day four, day six is about filling the created order. But guess what my daughter does when she's playing with her dolls? Day seven, you know what she does? She sits back and she enjoys the work of her hands. You see, that's the idea of Sabbath. The idea of Sabbath is for us to work one, two, three, four, five, six days. We're establishing, we're creating, we're working,

we're grinding so that on day seven, you can do this. You can sit back, relax and enjoy the work of your hands. You can sit back, relax and enjoy the grind. You can sit back, relax and enjoy what you have done. See, that's what God did. That's what God is asking us to do. And you know the best part about this is on day seven, my daughter asks, Dad, do you wanna come play with me? You see, that's what Sabbath is all about. Sabbath allows us to work for five days so that on the seventh day, on that day of rest, we're not thinking about the email. We're not thinking about the conversation we're gonna have with that coworker. We're not thinking about the work of our hands. You know what we're doing? We are enjoying the work of our hands and we're asking the Father to also come sit and enjoy the work of our hands because guess what? Without God and without him and his strength, we're not able to do the work. And so Sabbath is an invitation. Look at Ecclesiastes chapter three. Look what it says. It is also the gift of God whenever anyone eats, drinks and enjoys all his efforts. God calls us to enjoy the work of our hands and that's what Sabbath is all about.

We grind so that we can enjoy the good life and invite the Father. In fact, that's what Jesus did. Did you know that Jesus 12 times took a break from ministry so that he can go party? Jesus loved to eat. They accused him of being a glutton. Jesus loved to be. with sinners. You know what got him killed? They called him, they accused him of being a friend of sinners and tax collectors. Jesus loved to chill. Jesus loved to hang out. Jesus loved to be with people. You see, the reason why Jesus did that is because he didn't just take Sabbath. You know what he did? He lived it. He didn't just take Sabbath. He lived it. And if we are truly going to be a planted people, a rooted people, a people who want to, who are gonna bear fruit so that others can enjoy the fruit of our labor, we don't just schedule rest. You know what we do? We cultivate a lifestyle of rest. We don't just schedule it. It's gotta be the way that we live so that the world can see

that this is how Christianity works. This is how we worship God. This is how we serve God. We were able to survive the grind because we have a good father in heaven who gave us the ability, who gave us the strength, who gave us the tools to be able to do the things that we do, amen? Amen, that's Sabbath. What about solitude? We need to cultivate solitude. What do we do on Sabbath day? One of the things that I invite you to do is to cultivate solitude. Now, let me give you a disclaimer. Being alone is not the same as practicing solitude because how many of you know that you can be alone and still be busy? Exhibit A, you lay down on the couch and you're doom scrolling for 45 minutes and you call that rest. Or you lay down on the couch and you are binge watching Netflix and you call that rest. That's not rest, that's just noise without people. That's noise without people, that's not rest. You're just surrounded by noise and you don't have anybody else to share that with. But unless you're sharing it with the wrong person and that's what Ruth Haley Barton

who writes a lot about spiritual disciplines, look how she defines solitude. Solitude is a place, a time that is set apart for God. And who? Not your phone, not your friends, not Netflix, God alone. That is the definition of solitude. In fact, Jesus models what solitude is like. Look at Luke chapter five verse 16. Jesus, what does that word say? Jesus often withdrew to lonely places to pray. Jesus often did that. You know how many times he did that in the recorded gospels, in all four gospels? He did that 10 times. Jesus did that 10 times. And you know when he did it? Three keystone moments. Number one, he practiced solitude before a big decision. Before he picked his disciples, before he picked his 12, Jesus practiced solitude so that he can align his heart with the Father and not just pick people who are most talented, not just people who are the most qualified because if you look at disciples' profile, they ain't super qualified to transform the world. I mean, we got one who cussed named Peter. Come on, somebody. We got Judas who betrayed him. But in spite of all of those flawed character traits that the disciples had,

you know the one thing that Jesus did? He handpicked them. But he did it before a profile, before a resume, before going on monster.com to look at, before any of those things, he went to the Father to consult. Should I pick him? Should I pick her? Should I put this on my calendar? Should I leave that off of my calendar? The second time that he did that is he did it after a miracle. He oftentimes took solitude after a miracle. Why is that? Because a lot of us, including myself, whenever a big moment happens in ministry, where is the first place I go? Instagram. Oh, I gotta put it on the gram. I gotta put, I gotta show people what God is doing here in East Orlando. But not Jesus. Jesus didn't do that at all. After the miracles, Jesus would go into a place of solitude and he would pray, why? So that it didn't get into his head. And hear from the Father, who else needs this miracle again? And the third time he did it is before the cross. He went to the Garden of Gethsemane.

And I love that story because that story reveals a Jesus who sat there and struggled with the decision to die for the world. You know that Jesus told the Father, I don't wanna go. God, I don't wanna do this. God, if this, if it's possible. Would you let this cup pass from me? But what did he say? Thank God, not my will be done, but your will be done. Let your will be done. Why would Jesus do that? Yeah, give it up for Jesus. That's what solitude does. Solitude isn't about isolation. Solitude is alignment. It aligns us with the will of God so that we can hear his voice again. Recently, I was going through a lot, and I love pastoring. I was called to this. But recently, I've been through so, so much in the month of April. There's a lot of deaths that happen. A lot of my friends were in the hospital. I went to go visit my daughter. She's having issues in school. And finally, my car of 13 years went to be with the Lord. All took place in the month of April. And I thought, well, you know what? I just have to grind.

I just have to fix it. I just have to, I have to do this on my own until I took my personal solitude time, and I went to the beach for about four hours, and this is what I saw. Isn't that beautiful? For a moment, God was reminding me that the sun in all its beauty still rises without my help. Come on, come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. The beauty of the sun, the beauty of creation, the beauty of everything that God creates doesn't need my help. The sun rises with, without me, and guess what? When it's dark, the sun is rising somewhere else. All of that, not because of me, but because God is good, and God is still in control, and God is still powerful. And I just need to tell you, that's what solitude does. Solitude realigns your vision. It realigns your purpose. It realigns the reason why you put things on the calendar to let you know that as busy as you are and as hardworking as you are, you gotta take time to let God know, I can't do this all the time. God, this is, man, I need you to get this. I need you to get this.

If there's anything that you forget, don't forget this point. Thomas Merton, who was a Catholic monk, wrote it like this. Solitude helps you see everything in light of eternity. It allows you to see the behind the scenes of what God is doing when you take a moment to just sit down, say nothing, and just let God speak to you once again. In fact, I'm gonna teach you three things on how to practice solitude, and then we're gonna go into the last point. The first thing you wanna do is you wanna pick a place. Very simple, pick a place. What is that place? That place can be the beach. That place can be your car. What I do in the car sometimes is I leave the passenger side empty. I open the door, I say, God, let's take a ride. And we just, me and God just drive, and I don't say anything. So you could pick a car, you could pick a park, pick a place. The second thing you wanna do is you wanna pick a time. Could be early morning, it could be after work, it could be any time, and do 10 minutes, 15 minutes, and eventually graduate to an hour. And what you're doing is you're not asking God for anything. You're doing what's called centering prayer, and all you're doing is just what's called abiding.

Abiding just means is you're just sitting there and enjoying the presence of the person that loves you the most. My wife doesn't have to say anything to me. We can be on a date, and we're not talking about anything, and we had the best time in the world, why? Because we're abiding in each other's presence. And that's what you do in solitude. And the last thing you do in solitude, put your phone down. Put the phone down. Remember the definition of solitude. It's you, God, not you, God, in elevation worship. Sit in silence, hear the birds chirp, hear the waves crash. Get in tune with creation. We are part of creation, did you know that? God created you out of creation, out of the dust of the ground, which is why we can merge, we can combine, we can be in tune with creation because we are a part of it. And that's where sometimes God speaks to us the most. I didn't hear God audibly in that sunset or in that sunrise, but I felt him. And I felt him tell me, I'm in control of your life. The same way the sun doesn't depend on you is the same way you need to depend on me. I didn't hear that audibly, but that's what he said. what I got. And so the last thing I wanna present to you is we cultivate service.

We cultivate service. Now that seems kinda counterintuitive, right? We just spent all, almost 45 minutes talking about taking things off your calendar, convincing you that you are a busy person, and pastor, now you're telling me that I've gotta add more by serving? Hold on, that's not what I mean. That's not the discipline of service. You know what the discipline of service is all about? It's all about changing your mindset on what serving is like, so that you can take that mindset of serving and you can apply it to your job. You can apply it to how you parent. You can apply it to how you spouse. You take the concept of serving, which I'm gonna teach you, and you apply it to everything so that you can go back to your calendar and see what is draining you and what you can add to build you and fill you up. Does that make sense? In fact, John 13, four through five, it reads like this. He got up from supper, laid aside his outer clothing, took a towel, tied it around himself, and look what he did. Next, he poured water into a basin

and began to wash his disciples' feet and to dry them with the towel tied around him. Why did Jesus do that? You know that Jesus, in that culture, he didn't have to do a job like that. That was reserved for the slaves. That was reserved for the lowest person in the room to wash everyone else's feet. But Jesus, being the rabbi, the teacher, the most honored person, gets down on his knees to wash his feet. What is Jesus teaching us? He's teaching us this mindset, the difference between choosing to serve versus choosing to be a servant. Choosing to serve versus choosing to be a servant. Look at the difference. Choosing to serve means you help people, but you help people with conditions. I'll give you an example. My daughter and I were hosting an event two weeks ago at a neighborhood, and we had purchased bouncy houses for the neighborhood. We purchased all kinds of activities. It was a big festival. And afterwards, my daughter comes up to me and she says, dad, we're done. Can I hop, can I go jump now? And I told her, no, you can't jump because at 5 p.m., that's when the bouncy house is open.

You know what my daughter tells me? She goes, uh-huh, that's for everyone else, but I'm the pastor's daughter. Pray for her. Don't laugh, pray for her. I rebuke the pray for her. I'm the pastor's daughter, that's for everyone else. Did you catch that? She showed up, she served, she did what she was supposed to do, but she expected something in return. How do we do this? When somebody at church asks us to serve, we say, we serve, but only if I can lead. Or if you're a spouse, hey, I'm gonna wash the dishes, but you gotta first tell me thank you. You gotta first show me gratitude. You gotta first show me that you appreciate me. And guys, that's not serving. Here's the cruel irony about doing that. When you choose to serve with conditions, you're still working. You know how you're working? You're working for recognition. And you just got back on the treadmill. But when you choose to be a servant, this is what being a servant looks like. It means you do the work even if no one sees it, even if no one says thank you, even if there's no phones up recording you

while you're serving and while you're doing your thing. That is choosing to serve. And this is what it looks like. It looks like picking up trash when no one sees it. And it's not your trash. If you're at the gas station and you see a paper, pick it up and throw it in the trash. You don't have to receive credit. Here's another one. Wipe down the equipment at the gym after you use it. Wipe down the equipment. That's how I got somebody to come to Journey East Orlando, by the way. I wiped down the equipment for them and he asked me, why did you do that? And I said, because that's how Jesus wipes away your sins. You ain't gotta work for it. You ain't gotta impress him. You ain't even gotta come to church for it. All you gotta do is just receive the service and the work that Jesus did for you and he will wipe the sins away right here, right now. The guy gave his life to Jesus at the gym and he goes to East Orlando. And here's a good one. Put the shopping cart back. Come on, somebody. I just saved a grocer who works at a Publix or a Walmart. Put the shopping cart back. Here's the last one, and then we'll close with prayer.

Call people by their name who's wearing a name tag. You know that we went to Disney one day, and I met a guy, his name is Mark. And Mark has been serving at Disney for 20 years. And he was checking us in, and I said, Mark, thank you so much for what you do. Mark looked at me with tears in his eyes, and he said, you know that I've been working at Disney for 20 years, and you were the first person in 20 years to tell me who I am and what my name is. There are people in your job, there are people in the gas station, and at the restaurant that you're gonna go to today that just need to be seen and heard. And what better way to be seen and heard than by a servant like you, than by a follower of Christ like you, than a believer like each and every one of you standing out there. You wanna know why I'm so passionate about this? Because when you think like a servant, you schedule the things that matters. So when you schedule time, think like a servant, and not think how I can be served. Ask that question. When I put you in my calendar, who does this serve? Who does this serve? With every head bowed and every eye closed, I wanna make two callings here. Number one, I wanna call the person

who's just going through the grind. They feel they're going through the grind, but you just need to slow down. How do you slow down, pastor? Well, those are the three that I just presented to you. But how can I be more intentional with my life? I wanna go ahead and pray for you right now, and I wanna invite the presence of God to come before you so that he can convince you, so that he can be the person that you can lean on and rest on. I wanna pray for you at this moment. Heavenly Father, if there's anybody here who is on the grind, who has been taken aback with hustle culture, who is being driven by hustle culture, I just pray, God, in the name of Jesus, that they come to you, the Prince of Peace, the one in Matthew 11 that says, come to me, all those who are heavy, and I will give them rest. We thank you for the work that they're doing, but we just pray that you be the Lord of their life and not their calendar. And it's in Jesus' name I pray, amen and amen. And there's the second one. With every head bowed and every eye closed, the second one is anybody who hasn't given their life to Jesus, I wanna go ahead and make that invitation

that if your soul is just tired and you've been doing it on your own, and you don't have a savior to pick you up, to provide you that rest, the Bible says that he is the Lord of Sabbath, he is the Lord of rest, and you haven't made that decision to follow Jesus, but you want that supernatural rest, then I wanna invite you to make that decision right now all across our locations. If you go ahead and raise your hands on the count of three and you wanna make that decision, I wanna invite you to the Lord of all rest. On the count of three, one, two, three. I see your hand already, I see your hand. I see your hand, I see your hand. I see your hand in the back, I see your hand. Come on, Journey Church, I see your hand, amen, amen. Would you pray the simple prayer with me? Pray, Lord, I confess that I have been in the grind, not just with work, but doing things my way. And today, I recognize you as the Lord of my life and the Lord of my rest. Thank you for taking on the sins of the world so that I can rest in you and you alone. And it's in Jesus' name we pray. And all God's people said, amen, amen. Journey Church, can we give it up for those who gave their life to Jesus? Hey, we're JJ and Liz Vasquez.

We wanted to say thank you so much for watching and engaging in today's content. Maybe today you made the decision to follow Jesus. We wanna celebrate the incredible decision that you made. All you have to do is text Journey to 55498. We would love to walk this journey out alongside you. Hey, and don't let the journey stop here. We'd love for you to do one of three things, subscribe, share, or support. If this ministry has blessed you at all, subscribe so you don't miss out on any new videos. Share with a friend, you never know what the people closest to you are going through, or you can choose to partner with us which helps bring these videos to people just like you. Thank you so much for connecting with us. Be blessed. you