The Secret Growth Accelerator - Saddleback Weekend Service

Everybody, welcome to Saddleback Church! Anybody excited to be in the house of the Lord? We are so glad that you're here And we're so excited that we get to worship with you today So come on, let's lift our voices, let's clap our hands And give Jesus praise! Come on! I was buried beneath my shame Who could carry that kind of weight? It was my tomb to have laid And I was breathing but not alive All my failures I tried to hide Oh, it was my tomb, Jesus, till I met you Oh, you called my name And I went out of that grave Out of the darkness into your glorious day You called my name And I went out of that grave Out of the darkness into your glorious day Now your mercy has saved my soul And now your freedom is all And I am the only new Jesus, when I met you You called my name And I went out of that grave Out of the darkness into your glorious day Oh, you called my name You called my name And I went out of that grave Out of the darkness into your glorious day All over the room, let's clap our hands

For how about this one? I needed a rescue, my sin was heavy But chains break at the weight of your glory I needed shelter, I was an orphan Now you call me a citizen Of heaven, I was broken You were my healer, your love I have a future, my eyes are open When you called my name I went out of that grave Out of the darkness into your glorious day Oh, you called my name And I went out of that grave Out of the darkness into your glorious day What a glorious day What a glorious day Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah You're worthy, Jesus There's no one like you, we lift our hands, we lift our hearts, and we bless your name, Jesus How great the chasm that lay between us, how high the mountain I could not climb In desperation I turned to heaven and spoke your name into the night Then through the darkness your loving kindness tore through the shadows of my soul The work is finished, the end is written, Jesus Christ, my living hope Who could imagine, so great a mercy, what a heart could fathom, such boundless grace The God of ages stepped down from glory to wear my sin and bear my shame The cross has spoken, I am forgiven, the King of kings calls me his own Beautiful Saviour, I'm yours forever, Jesus Christ, my living hope Hallelujah, praise the one who set me free, Hallelujah Death has lost its grip on me, you have broken every chain There's salvation in your name, Jesus Christ, my living hope

Hallelujah, praise the one who set me free, Hallelujah Death has lost its grip on me, you have broken every chain There's salvation in your name, Jesus Christ, my living hope Then came the morn that sealed the promise You're buried by and began to breathe Out of the silence the roaring lion Declared the grave has no claim on me Come on, if that's your testimony today, go ahead and let's lift our hearts Let's lift our voices and sing the truth today Then came the morn that sealed the promise You're buried by and began to breathe Out of the silence the roaring lion Declared the grave has no claim on me Jesus, Jesus, he is the King Hallelujah, praise the one who set me free, Hallelujah Praise the one who set me free, Hallelujah Death has lost its grip on me, you have broken every chain There's salvation in your name, Jesus Christ, my living hope Hallelujah, praise the one who set me free, Hallelujah Death has lost its grip on me, you have broken every chain There's salvation in your name Jesus Christ, my living hope Jesus Christ, my living hope God, You are my living hope Come on, let's worship the King! His name is worthy of praise today! His name is worthy to be lifted up! We lift our voices and give You glory, Jesus We give You glory, Jesus To Your name!

Your name is the highest Your name is the greatest Your name stands above them all All thrones and dominions All powers and positions Your name stands above them all Jesus, Your name is the highest Your name is the greatest Your name stands above them all All thrones and dominions All powers and positions Your name stands above them all And the angels cry Glory, glory, glory to Christ Glory, glory, glory to Christ Holy, holy forever Come on, let's really sing this part! Hear your people! Hear your people sing Holy To the King of kings King of kings Holy Holy You will always be Holy Holy forever Your name is the highest Your name is the greatest Your name stands above them all

All thrones and dominions All powers and positions Your name stands above them all Jesus, Your name is the highest Your name is the greatest Your name stands above them all All thrones and dominions All powers and positions Your name stands above them all And the angels cry Say, holy All creation cry Holy You are lifted high Holy forever Hear your people! Hear your people sing Holy To the King of kings Holy You will always be Holy Holy forever Holy forever You will always, you will always be Holy Holy forever Christ is our living hope And as we gather together and worship Him We are reminded of His goodness

That He is a loving Father That He sets us free That He is healer And He redeems our lives And it's so wonderful That we get to sing songs of praise To be reminded of His goodness And to celebrate and to rejoice His name Well, church family We are so glad that you're joining us for church this weekend Welcome to Saddleback If we haven't had the chance to meet yet My name is My name is Carissa, and I get the honor and privilege to serve our online community. I can't wait to get to know you if you're new here. And if it is your first time, we would love to know about it so that we can get to know you and also help you to get connected to our church. So you can let us know it's your first time. If you're watching on YouTube, there's a link in the description that you can click and fill out a new here form, or we have a Saddleback app that you can actually download, set your campus to online community, and then click the new here button. But that Saddleback app is a great way and tool and resource to also follow along with the message notes today

and stay up to date with all the things that are going on in the life of our church. So that app is a great resource for everybody. But if it's your first time here, we wanna encourage you to let us know and someone from our team would love to reach out to you. Well, Pastor Andy is preaching a great message this weekend as we continue our series, Get Growing. And in the message, he is gonna lead us to respond to what he's gonna be saying today. And so we wanna encourage you to get out your Saddleback app because there you'll be able to respond when that moment comes, you'll be able to fill out a next steps form to let us know how you might want to grow in your faith during this message. Well, church family, we also believe that church is more than just coming and showing up and watching church, but it is doing life together and it is growing in our faith. And that's why we have Activate. If it's your first time, or maybe you haven't taken the step to get plugged into the life of our church yet, Activate is a great starting point to find out more about what our church is, what it looks like to grow in your faith here and to belong in community at Saddleback. And so we wanna invite you next weekend, we are having a Zoom Activate session.

I would love to meet you on the call and so would Nicholas, our groups coordinator on our team as well. We would love to see you there. But to find out more about Activate and the other things that are going on in the life of our church, let's watch this video together. ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ Hey, Saddleback. Many of us are active when it comes to our physical health. We'll wake up early for a workout class, train for a race, track our steps, all because we know that growth takes intentionality. But what if we approached our faith in the same way? Well, that's exactly why we created Activate. Activate is our starting point here at Saddleback to help you grow spiritually, get connected in community, and find ways to make a difference. If you've been wanting to take a next step in your faith, Activate is the best place to start. And one of the biggest ways that we continue growing spiritually here at Saddleback is through community. That's why we're excited that our Saddleback that our Summer Small Group Semester starts on June 13th. Whether you're looking for people to study the Bible with, to pray with, to hang out with, or just do life with, we have a small group for you.

And if you've ever thought about leading a group, this summer could be your time to step out and start one. Don't worry, we'll give you all of the training, resources, and we'll support you every step of the way. And honestly, the heart to step up and to make a difference is something that I love so much about our church. Here at Saddleback, we call that the Dream Team. Dream Team is made up of ordinary people using their God-given gifts, passions, and abilities to help others encounter Jesus and to build up the church together. Right now, we have more than 3,500 volunteers serving on over 750 different Dream Teams across all of our campuses. Everything here at Saddleback is made possible by people who serve on a Dream Team and give regularly. Some serve behind the scenes every weekend, others invest in kids and students, and many lead small groups. Some give generously so ministry can continue happening across our campuses and communities. And as every person plays their part, we are seeing lives changed. We have the chance to be part of what God is doing here through the giving of our tithes and our offerings. We believe that giving is one of the ways that we worship God together and demonstrate our trust and our obedience to Him. If you'd like to give today, you can do so easily through the Saddleback app

or by using one of the giving envelopes. Now, today is a special weekend here at Saddleback because Pastor Andy is going to talk about what it means to be part of a Dream Team and how God wants to use each of us to make a difference. So let's hear now from Pastor Andy. Well, hey, church family. It's so good to be together. I want to welcome those of you who are joining us online and all of our campuses. This is a great weekend because we're rolling out, we're launching the Dream Team. And as Jacob said earlier in the video, there are already 3,500 people that serve on a regular basis who are part of our church family. So many myriad of ways that they're using. using their lives in a powerful way. And there are many of you today that you're gonna take that step. You're gonna get into the game and experience the joy of watching God use your life. But I do wanna take a minute just to honor all of our Dream Team, those who serve in various capacities, if you will, at all of our campuses. Will you put your hands together for our whole team that serves and pours out their lives? And today, as we talk about growing, we've been looking at this conviction

over the last three weeks. It's this, growth is God's will for you. God wants you to experience the fullness of life that comes as you grow over the years. And if you're a follower of Jesus, that means that you look more like him over the course of time. That means that your life is formed and shaped, that you grow to become who he's created you to be. So we've been looking at these key areas. We looked in the first week at how, as we read the Bible and pray and we get God's word into our hearts, it produces growth. And then last week, we talked about relationships and we labeled it the secret killer of growth when you get the wrong people around the table. Now, today, I wanna talk to you about the secret accelerator of growth in your life. And I wanna show you a little picture right here. This is cabbage. I wonder if there's anybody that likes cabbage. Out of curiosity. Okay, last week, there were some people that like broccoli. It's the same people, both weeks. Now, one of the things that you'll notice about this nasty vegetable called cabbage is underneath the dirt, it's kind of this lighter brown color, but at the top, there's this nutrient-dense soil. That's cow manure, by the way.

And what happens with cow manure is if you let it sit for a time, it becomes aged, and then there's a nutrient in it that causes growth. It accelerates the growth. Close to 25% the growth happens as a result of that acceleration of the nutrients. Now, when it comes to your journey spiritually, there is a way that growth can be accelerated. The way that God does that is through a life that's poured out over and over again. And Jesus talks about this in John chapter 12, verse 24. Look at this verse with me, and I wanna invite you to read it aloud. John 12, 24 says, "'I tell you the truth, unless,' I think we can do better than that. All right, you guys ready? All of our campuses. "'I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat "'falls to the ground and dies. "'It remains only a single seed, "'but if it dies, it produces many seeds.'" So baked within how God has created life to work, if you're a follower of Jesus, there is a death to ourselves that produces life. So when we learn to live with a life of service, it creates growth. So a life of service really is a secret accelerator of growth. I wanna say it one more time, this is so important.

A life of service is a secret accelerator of growth. And I've seen this over and over again. I've watched people that kind of plot along in their journey spiritually, maybe they're kind of incrementally growing, and then they learn to pour their lives out, and they experience more growth in several months than they had in years before. Today, I wanna make an invitation for you to experience the fullness of life that comes through service. Now, as I was thinking about this, this week preparing, I thought about all the reasons why people often choose not to serve. And maybe one of the reasons why, if you haven't taken that step yet, is because you don't know where to start. Like you don't know, where do I begin to let God use my life? And we're gonna talk about that. Maybe for some of you, you don't yet, you yet to have a big enough vision that would compel you forward. And God wants today to put a deeper dream in your heart. We're gonna talk about that. Maybe for some of you, there's the reality of your life being very full. And sometimes the busyness of life keeps us from taking the step to let God use us. And we're gonna talk about that.

And then finally, a lot of people don't believe that God could use someone like them. And maybe for you, there's a part of you that said God can use other people, but God can't use me. And through all of this, we're gonna look at three very important reasons to serve. We wanna deal with those reasons why we don't serve with the truth that comes from God's word of why we do serve. So I wanna share with you three reasons why we serve, starting with Ephesians chapter two. And this principle is that God saves us for service. So God saves us for a life of contribution. Now, when Jesus enters into the scene of our lives, he transforms us from the inside out. And the book of Ephesians says that it really does start with the love of God. And it says this, because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ, even when we were dead in transgressions. What that means is that the problem for humanity is not that we're bad people. The problem is that sin produces death and it separates us from God. It says though, it's by grace you're saved. So it's not by trying harder, it's by the love of Jesus, it's the grace of God. And God raised us up with Christ, seated us with Him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus,

in order that in the coming ages, He might show the incomparable riches of His grace expressed in His kindness to us in Christ Jesus. So God is a God of love, and His love is what produces a heart that wants to respond to Him. And it's out of that grace that we have relationship with God. In Ephesians 2, verse eight, it explains it further and says, it's by grace you've been saved, through faith. And this is not from yourself, it is a gift from God, not by work so that no one can boast. So the message of Jesus is contrary to every other religion in the world. All religions are about earning your way to God, that if you try a little bit harder, that if you would keep these rules, somehow you can get to God. But the message of Jesus is that God came to us, and through His death on a cross, His resurrection from the dead, when you put your trust in Him, the Bible says that you are saved. And notice what this verse says next. It says, God saved us, for we are God's handiwork created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared in advance for us to do. Now, notice this, this is very important. Good deeds are not a requirement for salvation. I wanna say that very loud and clear,

that there is no amount of religion or good deeds that could ever earn your way to salvation in relationship with God. The salvation that we need comes through Jesus dying on a cross for our sins. But the decision for us to serve in good deeds, but they are a requirement for our growth. So good deeds are not a requirement for salvation, but they are a requirement for us to grow. And we're gonna look at how that happens. Because when you pour out your life, you do experience the fullness of growth, and a lot of people don't, because they hold back. Now, I love how this verse frames what God has for us in terms of receiving from him salvation. Salvation is a free gift that God gives to us. And it's not just about what God saves us from, it's about what God saves us to. And I believe with all my heart, the more we understand salvation, the more we're gonna want to serve God. The more I understand the depth of what Jesus did for me on a cross, that he has ownership in my life and when I surrender to him, there's this internal desire. The Apostle Paul says, I'm compelled from within. So the more I understand what he saved me from and to, the more I want to serve him. And these are some of the reasons why God saves you.

God saves you ultimately for relationship with himself that you might know him. And he saves you for worship and the delight in his presence. He saves you so that you might walk in freedom and that you might live a life of significance and that you might make a difference with your life. And in that, he saves you for a life of service. So God wants to use your life. This is so important. Whatever your background is, whatever personality you have, God has a plan that he put into orbit before you were born that he planned in advance these good deeds that your life would do as an act of worship back to him. Now, it's important for us to also see as God wants to use us, he doesn't need to use us. So God could accomplish his purposes on planet Earth with or without us. And the Bible is full of examples of this. I think about stories like Elijah in the Old Testament who would pray and as he prayed, God shut the heavens and no rain came. And then he prayed for rain to come and it came and God used Elijah, but he didn't need to use Elijah to stop the rain or to start the rain. I think about Esther in the Old Testament when she would pray that God would save the Israelites and God responds. He didn't need to use her, but he chose to use her and responded to her prayers. Jesus didn't need the boy's lunch in the Gospel of John

to feed the masses, but he took a little boy's lunch and multiplied them so that thousands of people could eat. Jesus didn't need to use his disciples to roll away Lazarus' stone, yet he engaged them in a miracle, rolling away the stone and then unraveling the linens on his body after he had been brought from death to life through the words of Jesus. So God has a way of engaging ordinary people in his work so that we get the joy of participating in his purpose being accomplished on planet earth. And what happens is that when you and I as ordinary people say yes to him, God gets recognized and glorified when we serve. So there's a kind of glory that comes out of God taking a person like me and a person like you and using our lives that people would look and say that there's only one reason why that would happen, it's because God did that through their life. And I love how Ephesians 2 10 in the ESV says it, for we are his workmanship. created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we might walk in them. Now that word workmanship literally means a poem. The original word is poema. And it's saying that God is writing a poem. He's creatively displaying his power and his goodness through a life of service that's surrendered to him. So God has a unique set of good deeds he wants to do through your life that he hasn't planned

for anybody else's life. And the goal for us then becomes to walk into that, to say, God, I wanna surrender my life to a life of service to walk into the dream that you've placed inside of my heart. Now, I believe with all my heart, there's a dream inside of you that's unique to God's call on your life. And it's different than the person to the right and left of you. It's different than your spouses. It's different than your parents or your kids. There's a dream inside of you that God wants to unleash. And when that dream comes to fruition in our lives, the Bible calls it like a tree of life, that the more that dream comes to fruition, the fullness of life is experienced in and through you. And I wanna encourage you, like as we think about our church, one of the questions that I've gotten over the last four years since coming to Saddleback is what's your vision for, and fill in the blank, like what's your vision for the color of paint in this room? Like, I don't have a vision for the color of paint in that room. Somebody does, but I don't. And the truth is there's so many parts of our church that are wonderful, and there are certainly things God has put a burden

in a vision in my heart that burns, but he's also put a vision, a dream in your heart. And that dream he wants to bring to life. And that's why right now we have a very crucial moment where we're taking everything that we've done with serve teams over the years, and we're putting it into this team called the Dream Team. And the reason why is because that dream inside of you, God wants to unleash, and we as a church exist to help unleash that dream inside of you. And the cooperation is this beautiful dance of you saying yes to God, and then us as a church coming alongside of you and resourcing. It reminds me back of the first Olympic basketball team for the United States of America that was called the Dream Team. And it was all the best players from all over the country that came together. Well, the Dream Team is all of God's kids coming together in his church and letting God use their lives because there's something inside of you that's unique to you that when it gets unleashed, the church gets stronger, God uses your life in a powerful way, and the community is impacted. So we're gonna invite you to be a part of this vision, to be on the Dream Team, and to be a part of what God is doing in our day, in our generation. God saved you for service. And if you wanna live the fullness of life

that God intends for you to, and to experience the fullness of growth, it means a life of service. Now, with this, God also shapes us for service. God shapes you and gives you a design. And I wanna invite Pastor Jacob Wilson. He's gonna come forward. He's gonna unpack this point. Will y'all welcome him as he comes to the stage? I wanna share a little bit about him before he shares with us tonight. Jacob is actually the leader of all of our Dream Team efforts and has done a fantastic job preparing for this moment. So one more time, give him some love. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you, Andy. God shapes us for service. Now, I wanna tell you a story, and then I wanna unpack this point a little bit more. About 11 years ago, my family and I came to Saddleback for the first time, and I was brand new to being a pastor. I was a 20-something down at our San Juan Capistrano campus, and I had zero idea what I was doing. And one weekend, a woman named Mary came up, and she asked me, she said, "'Pastor Jacob, I wanna start serving. "'Where can I serve?' Now, this was awesome

because I needed a lot of help at the time. And so I told Mary, I said, "'Hey, why don't you go serve at this team?' And I sent her off. I helped her get plugged in. The next week after, she came up to me, and she said, "'Pastor Jacob, is there anywhere else I could serve?' I didn't really enjoy serving on that team last weekend." And I said, "'Sure, sure, of course.'" So I put her on another team, and she went out, she served, and she came back the next weekend after, and she said, "'Pastor Jacob, "'I don't really like talking to people, "'and you keep putting me on teams "'where I have to talk to people a lot.'" And I said, "'Okay.'" And truthfully, I had zero idea what to do in the moment. So I took her, we said, "'Meet me at the office, and we'll chat.'" And I actually introduced her to another volunteer named Trish. Now, Trish had more ministry experience in her little pinky than I had in my entire body. And so Trish met with Mary. A few weeks later, Mary ended up serving. On our data and admin team and she's processing financials. She's doing expenses. She's doing all of this incredible stuff Fast forward a few more weeks, and I'm sitting in my office and I'm typing away on my computer and Mary is behind me and she's typing away on her computer and

I start hearing this sniffling and I'm like what am I gonna do? I don't know what I don't know how to what am I? She it sounded like she was crying and I thought to myself well I'd be crying too if I had to do invoices and accounting That's just not my thing and so I turned around to her and I said Mary are you okay? Like is everything okay, and she turned her chair around and with tears coming down her face She said I think I finally found my purpose And I said Mary that's amazing and she said yeah, I feel like I was made for this and Then the truth of the story is that I almost missed her. I Almost looked past this moment To discover more about Mary's shape to help her get plugged into the area that she was gifted in rather than the area that I needed a spot to fill and The truth is that God shapes all of us for service that God has been planning your life from before your life began He gave you a unique shape to serve him and He wants to use your shape to use to serve others and to serve him in his kingdom Now shape at Saddleback is actually an acronym and I want to walk through each of the letters of shape And these are different components of how God put you together So that you could serve him and the S in shape stands for spiritual gifts Spiritual gifts 1st Corinthians 11 says that the Holy Spirit gives every believer a spiritual gift at the time of salvation Every believer is given the spiritual gift to use to serve others now Here's what I want you to understand spiritual gifts are not just talents. They're Specific abilities which the Spirit enables you to serve in a specific capacity and the Spirit moves in such a way That is unique and that is powerful Just as an example I think one of the reasons we love when pastor Andy and pastor Stacy teach is not just because they're great teachers It's because they have the gift of teaching and when they teach the Spirit moves through them in a way That is unique and is powerful

So spiritual gifts are given to us by the Spirit to aid us and for the Spirit to move through us when we serve The H in shape stands for your heart and your this describes the ways that your heart breaks for things the things that Tug at your heart and these are unique to you as well Where do you find yourself drawn back to the things that stir it round in your heart are not just accidents They're signals for how God made you You might be a heart for certain group of people. It might be a heart for a role It might be a heart for a cause but all of these things are designed so that God would draw your heart into Something the a in shape stands for abilities Now these are the natural talents that you're just like naturally good at and you may not even consider them to be special or unique In any way, but all of us have abilities which God can use for us to serve him by serving others I grew up in a finance family We have a lot of financial people accountants CPAs financial analysts in my family and you may think that finance and being good with numbers just runs through our family's bloodstream and you would be wrong because I cannot Deal with numbers. I am NOT gifted in this area There is no amount of prayer that will help me find my way out of a spreadsheet. I just cannot do it But the reality is that that's okay because I'm a 10 at other things I might not be a 10 at finance, but I'm a 10 at other things and We might not be tens at everything in our life But the truth is that you are a 10 at something and God wants to use that something to serve him by serving others the P in shape stands for Personality and this describes the way that God has wired you now I've heard it all. I'm too shy for God to use me. I'm too loud for God to use me. I'm too Energetic for God to use me. I'm too talkative I want to just be behind the scenes and there's truth to all of that that yes, you are wired in a specific way But the reality is that God can use every type of personality to accomplish every type of ministry Not everyone wants to wake up at 6 a.m. And take on the world. Some of us are slow getting up, and that's part of our personality. Some people are stage people.

Other people like to be behind the scenes and do things without anybody ever noticing them. But God can use every type of personality and every type of person to accomplish every type of ministry. The E in SHAPE stands for your experiences. Your experiences are not just something from your past that you have to deal with. They are the building blocks of who you are. And we have tons of experiences that we've gained throughout our life. It could be your professional experience. It could be your family or relational experiences. It could be your education. It could be the difficult seasons of your life that you've walked through that have given you a perspective that other people need to hear. God can use all of your experiences, even the hard ones. Paul says it like this in 2 Corinthians 1.4. He says that God wonderfully comforts and strengthens us in our hardships and our trials. And why does he do this? So that when others are troubled, needing our sympathy and encouragement, we can pass on to them the same help and comfort that God has given us. You see, in the hands of God, your greatest wound can become your greatest ministry. And those experiences that you've learned,

you get to now pass on to others. There are opportunities here at Saddleback for you to discover your shape. The moment is waiting for you to have that same moment that Mary had, where you can say, I was made for this. But it requires you to take a step. It requires you to take a step towards what God wants you to do. So God saves us for our service. God shapes us for our service. And then point three is that God grows us through service. And Pastor Andy's gonna come and teach about how God grows us when we serve. Mm. Thank you, God. Well, God clearly gave Jacob the shape to preach on stage, didn't he? He did a great job. He spoke in our staff meeting a couple of weeks ago, and I was like, oh man, he needs to stand on the stage and share that. So as you look at that shape concept, maybe some of you have heard it before, but in Activate, we go deeper into shape. And we have a whole team called Shape Guides. I'm so thankful for them. They're part of the Dream Team, and they get this. They have it deep in their hearts, and they love to sit with people and walk through.

What does it mean to use the shape God's given you? Now, I remember earlier, about 23 years ago, right after Stacey and I got married, we went to a church. There was a short period of time between college, and then we started a church during seminary, where we went to this church. They eventually sent us out to Plant a Church. But at first, we had gone through their Activate style class and then at the end of that, they put us on a team, put both of us on a team, and they decided to put me in the sound booth, working the slides, pressing the buttons for the slides to come up on the screen. And the sound booth just so happened to be right by the door and because I'm an extrovert, every time somebody would walk through, I'd just start talking to them. And the person next to me in the sound booth would be like, hey bro, the song is like 14 slides behind, come on. So then they took me from the sound booth and put me at the door the next week, and then I would just talk to the people at the door and created a bottleneck. And so finally, they're like, I think you should be a small group leader. So I moved over to be a small group leader and then that eventually grew and they sent us out to Plant a Church. Now, the moral of the story is that wherever you are,

just get started. And it's so much easier for a ship to turn when it's moving. A lot of times we're trying to find that perfect place to serve, but really it's our yes to God. And it doesn't have to be this massive thousands of hours of commitment. It can be you're serving an hour to two hours a week, you're involving your family in that, you're engaging in the life of the church and using the shape that God has given to you. Now with that, there's a kind of growth that comes in three areas. And the first one is with our character. So as we serve, God is growing us on the inside. And in Philippians chapter two, there's this beautiful picture of Jesus laying down his life. And it says, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus who being in the very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage. Rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant. It goes on to say, he became obedient even to death on a cross. So the creator of the universe became one of us, fully God, fully man. He humbled himself and walked among us. And that character of Christ, the character of a servant

is what God wants to form in us. If you're a follower of Jesus today, what God wants from you and what God wants for you is that your life would represent his character. So that when the world looks at you, it would see. It would see the character of one who serves and loves and put the goals and interests of others above their own. And as you do, as you serve, God is forming that on the inside. The more we lay down our lives, the more we're becoming like Jesus. Now we have some amazing Dream Team members here. As you already know, of these 3,500 people that serve across our campuses. But I want you to hear just some stories, brief stories of people across campuses. They're going to come forward and share a little bit about how God is using serving to grow them on a personal level. Let's welcome them as they come to the stage. So one of the things I love right now is that we have multiple campuses represented. We also have international campuses that we couldn't fly anybody in for this. So you'll get to hear at your local campus. But I want you to hear some stories. Tell us your name, what campus you serve at, and what team you guys are on. I'm Bob. This is my wife, Bonnie. And we're at the San Juan campus. And we serve on the Weekend Experience Team. Yeah, the Weekend Experience Team, which means they welcome people as they're coming in. And tell us a little bit about how God's used serving in your lives to grow you. Well, what I, why I love serving is 27 years ago when I came here, a greeter welcomed me and said, I'm glad you're here. And I know now that was the hands and feet of Jesus.

It so impacted me. I've had the privilege of welcoming others for 27 years. Wow. Wow. That's incredible. And, and to think about, you know, the joy that we get to have when you welcome somebody onto a campus. If you're not an extrovert, you don't think of it as joy, but I do. So all right. And tell us your name and what campus you're at. Yeah, I'm Brandon and I serve at Irvine South in the student ministries. I lead a high school, a small group of 11th grade boys. Well, they're seniors now, so. Awesome. Yeah. And, and you can do more pushups than them, right? I try. Yes. That's one way I grow by serving. Your biceps are growing. Yeah. Yeah, my biceps. So tell us a little bit about how God is using serving to grow you. Yeah. I would say, you know, before serving, it was hard making community friends at church, but when I joined the student ministries team, I was on a team with other volunteers who share the same values and the same goals, and that just always inspired me to also deepen my faith. That's awesome. That's incredible.

So the community around you as you're serving, God's using that to strengthen you. Yeah. Awesome. Stephanie. Hi there. I'm Stephanie. I serve here at the Lake Forest campus. My joy. My favorite thing to do ever. I serve in the women's community. So on campus Bible studies, all the fun things women. I serve out the hub on the weekends, and I lead a HSM life group as well. My girls are going to be juniors next year. Awesome. Tell us a little bit, as people are thinking about serving, how is God using serving in your life? Well, God has really grown me to help prioritize my time. I have a lot of free time now with grown kids. I was reminded that I did serve as they were growing up, but just not at this capacity. So don't be afraid to jump in and serve. I served, we called it Summer Spectacular. I think it's called Summer Blast now. So I served there just wherever they were. So jump in and join a team. I love being at the hub. I love welcoming and helping people find their niche, you know, where they want to plug in and serve. There's nothing like being on a dream team. What I love about what you're saying is every season of life is different, right? So it looks one way in one season and different in the next.

Awesome. We're grateful for you, Stephanie. Thank you. All right. Tell us your name, what campus you're at. Hey, everybody. My name is Eddie. I'm from the Brea campus, North OC. Yeah, I've been serving at the worship team over there since 2018. Awesome. And tell us a little bit more about why you serve and how God used it in your life. Well, why I serve, I think it's in our DNA to serve God and to serve others. And I believe that, you know, just God has just used me tremendously in serving. It actually revealed what your true spiritual gift is. So if you're... I'm that type of guy that gets lost, like, what am I supposed to do, God? Like, what's my purpose? Jump in serving because guess what happened? God will just speak to you directly, give you that gift, and also give you a heart for something as well. So it's great. And it's community as well. Awesome. Awesome. And on behalf of our whole church family, to you guys who represent over 3,000 of our team members, we honor you. Thank you for pouring out your life. God is using you in such a powerful way. Can we put our hands together one more time? Love you guys.

If you know somebody who's serving, you might ask them, how's God used serving in your life to grow? you to grow your character. God wants to grow us through service. And I look even at family members of mine. I think about my kids who've been in serving and actually my dad over the last decade started serving in his local church. He's an entrepreneur, business owner. He serves in his church. He also serves outside of his church in the local community. And what I saw happen is when he got a vision for service, he started growing faster. I believe he's grown more in the last decade than I watched him grow in many years before that. And it happened through service. Now the other part of this is that when we lock arms together, God does more through our lives together than any of us can do on our own. And God has a way of growing his church through service as well. So God put something inside of you that he wants to use to grow his church. Ephesians chapter 4 verse 11 says, Christ gave himself to the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors, and teachers to equip his people for works of service so that the body of Christ might be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Now watch this. So what Paul is saying is that there are some spiritual gifts that God gives that are these kind of equipping leadership gifts. You could think of these in many ways of like the pastors and the staff members of a church. And he says what they're to do is they're to equip the saints for ministry. So God wants you to be a minister. Every member a minister. That's God's design, is that every person with the dream, the wiring that God's placed in them, the shape he's given them, that they would use. And the body, the church, gets stronger as a result of that. Now in verse 16 of chapter 4 it says, From him the whole body, joined and held together, grows as every supporting ligament grows and builds itself up in love, each part doing its work. So as each of us does the part that God has assigned for us to do, the church gets stronger. Now what I love about all of this is God can use any church to accomplish his mission on planet earth. Like God can use big churches and small churches and everything in between. If the Bible is opened and the gospel is preached and we're true to his word, we teach about the love of Jesus, God can grow a lot of different types of churches. And what I pray for for us is that as God is moving on planet earth, as God is blessing churches and reaching

lives, that God would not pass up our church in this generation. That we would be a part of the movement of God today. And what that requires for us to step into the fullness of what God has for us in this day is every person who says yes to Jesus, that they would engage fully in the life of the church. You know, somebody said one time that church can be a lot like a football game with 22 people on the field in desperate need of rest and thousands of people in the stands in desperate need of exercise. And so often it can happen like that, but not so with us. In fact, our church would never be what it is today had there not been many people have gone before us that said, yes, God used my ordinary life to make a difference. And there are some of you that you've been sitting in the stands and this is your week to say yes to Jesus, to say, Jesus, use my one life. I know that I only got this one shot and I want to be used by you to make a difference here on planet earth. The church gets stronger when you engage with your gift. There's something in you that's unique to you that God wants to use. And not only does he grow his church, but he also grows our reach together. So as we say yes to God, he reaches more people through us together than any of us could reach on our own. And I love how Acts chapter two speaks of this. It talks about how the early church, they met together. I'm summarizing the verses, but it says at the end, each day the Lord added to their fellowship those who were being saved. So as the followers of Jesus who were gathered together were serving, they're meeting the needs of others. God used that to reach more people. So there's something about the beauty of the local church that when we lock arms, God uses us to reach people who would never have been reached as we're working together. So as you're hearing stories, even on stage this weekend of somebody standing at a door, smiling as people walk through, that that smile, that welcome could be one thing that God uses as a link in the chain of somebody's life being changed for all eternity. And there was another friend that prayed for that person for that daughter or son for years on end, and the weekend that they came to church, thank God we had a greeter at the door that welcomed them and loved them. This is also true as God unleashes your gifts into the community, that there are people in our church that serve, they love, they roll up their sleeves to love on a local level in business and in community events through the church, and God is using us together. Now I want you to see a picture here.

This is a little bit. of a sad weekend for us, because our good friends, Pastor David Hibiski and Kendall Hibiski, who are on our team, moved here with us when Stacey and I came almost four years ago. We've served in ministry for a really long period of time, over 16 and a half years we've served together. Kendall was Stacey's roommate in college. They actually met in seminary, where Stacey and I were going to seminary as well. And then when we moved to the Bay Area in 2008 to plant a church, about 18 months after we moved there, they came to be a part of the team to help build the church. Now God is calling them to move to Virginia. David is going to be a senior pastor at a church in Virginia called Waymaker Church, and we're very excited for them with a call that God has placed on their life. But there's so much joy when I reflect on these years that we've had together, and I think about what God's done through us, from a church that was about 300 people when they came, to over 3,000 when we left, and all the lives that got changed along the way. And to see how, when we lock arms with people who are different, different personalities, different gifts, that we as two couples got to experience so much more together than we ever would have apart. And now God's going to use us in different spaces now. But there's something so beautiful about the partnership that comes when you lock arms in God's kingdom to say, God, use my life. It's a different kind of relationship than what you have anywhere else on planet Earth. It's my favorite type of relationship, is when I'm arm in arm with another human being saying I want to be used by God with this dream and vision that God could use our ordinary lives to do more than we could ever think, ask, or imagine. And some of you who are journeying with Jesus, you're missing out. You're missing out on the fullness of life that comes when you roll up your sleeves. And I understand there's so many reasons that go through our mind of why we can't be used by God.

And again, maybe it is your background. And what I hope you hear is God wants to use all of that. God takes all the mess and turns it into ministry. God takes your quirks and uses them for good. God takes all of your spiritual gifts and multiplies them through the power of the Holy Spirit. But it requires your yes. It requires you to say, God, I want to be used by you. Some of you right now, even in your mind, you're too busy, think I don't have enough time. And what I would say to you is you don't have time to not serve. Because in reality, one of the greatest decisions that you will make is to engage some of you who are parents right now. You're thinking to yourself, I've got all these kids' activities, I've got to go back and forth to, and I've got, you know, seven immersion language schools and 14 sports my kids are in and seven instruments that they play. And you're doing all these things, and yet one of the greatest contributions that you can give to your kids is that you would raise them in the life of the church and they would see you serve. Because studies show that when they go off to college, one of the things that's going to make the biggest difference whether or not their faith sticks is one, if they had a relationship with an adult who loved Jesus from the church, and two, if they got engaged in serving and let God use their life. So one of the greatest things that you can do is enter into the chaos of it and let God use your life. Stacey and I have so many memories of other families with kids and snot running down faces and dirty diapers and missing naps, and I tell you what, now as they're teenagers and they're turning into their 20s, all of it seems like such a small sacrifice when we see them loving the church and serving now. And so I want to encourage you, if you are a parent with a young kid, I've been there.

It's one of the hardest seasons of life with busyness, but I will just tell you, if you just throw your kids into the mix and you love them and you share the stories of God's grace and they get to watch God move, they'll miss a few naps, but at the end of the day when you mobilize them into the world, they're going to love Jesus and His church, and it's worth it. So the last thing I want to say is God wants to use our church. The question is, do we want to be used by Him? Do we want to step into the fullness of what He has? He doesn't need us. He can do it without us. But don't you want to be a part of what He's doing on planet Earth? If there's a revival happening on planet Earth, don't you want to be a part of it? Don't you want God to use your life to accomplish His movement in a generation? Well, I want to just share with you very practically a step that you can take today. So I want to invite you to pull out that card, and perhaps you've already started filling out the top. It's a little green card. On the top of it, it says, Get Growing. If you flip it over, you'll notice on the back there's a place where you can let us know your name and email and those practical parts of us being able to help you take that step. But you'll see three boxes. I want you to know that these three boxes... are not sequential, so you can do one or all of them. And I wanna encourage you, if you've never taken the step to come to Activate, we talk in depth about the church, how to get involved, how to make this your home church, how to use your gifts. That's happening next weekend at all of our campuses. You can sign up for that there.

You'll also see the shape guides, the people that meet individually with folks in the church. They would love to meet up with you. We're gonna do a training on this. We're gonna have a online training, so we're gonna walk through more how you can discover your spiritual gift and these other parts of who God made you to be and unleashing that dream. So you can check that box. And then third, you'll see the last one is to join the dream team, to be a part of what God's doing. And I will say to you, if you step into a team, it's not a lifelong commitment. You can try it one time, and if you don't like the person that you serve with, you can just be like, I'm going to another team. Sorry, see you later, Joker. But you can take that step and you can keep moving, but it's so much easier if you're going, if you're moving to watch God get you into that spot where you're experiencing the fullness of life that comes from letting God use your shape to make a difference. Now, I wanna give you just about 20 seconds to fill that out, because after I do that, I'm gonna lead us in a time of response to the Holy Spirit and what I believe God wants to do as we wrap up. So just take about 20 seconds right now, and then I'm gonna lead us in a moment of response.

And then I'm gonna lead us in a moment of response. Some of you may already be a part of our teams here, and I would just love for you still to let us know, what team are you on? What part of the church are you serving in? And in just a few moments, we're gonna pass some buckets and you can drop those cards in. But I wanna ask you, if you would, after you fill that card out, just to empty your hands for a moment. And I wanna invite you just to kind of put your hands in front of you as a moment of surrender back to God. And you know, the reality is that God gives to us gifts. And the gift that we looked at today that God most importantly wants to give to you is the gift of salvation. And it requires for us to receive. And sometimes in our lives, our hands are so tightly clenched that we can't receive. And the gift of salvation is one that is received by faith in Jesus. What he's done on a cross, his death, burial and resurrection. The Bible says that by faith in him, you can be saved. And today, you can open up your hands to him and to surrender your heart to begin a relationship with Jesus. And I wanna invite you if you've never done that today, just from your heart to say, God, I wanna receive from you the gift of salvation.

And I'm gonna lead you in a prayer of response if that's you today to receive the gift of salvation. But there's some of you right now that maybe God's given you an assignment. And you know what that assignment is and you feel inadequate for that assignment. Maybe it's a dream that he's placed inside of your heart and you're like, I need a gift for that. I need an anointing from God for that. And one of the things that we talked about earlier is how all of this is really based on the Holy Spirit's work inside of us. That the moment we put our trust in Jesus, the Bible says if the spirit comes and lives inside of us and takes up residence and then gives us the power to live a different kind of life and gives us gifts. And there's a desiring of those gifts that the Bible talks about in 1 Corinthians 12. I want you to see this. It says, so you should earnestly desire the most helpful gifts. And then Paul goes on to say, let me show you the best way as he talks about love. But I want you to notice this longing for the gift that is needed in this season. And you might today have a deficit in your heart that you feel. You're like, I need the gift, God. I need wisdom or I need some kind of strength or ability that the Bible talks about,

these spiritual gifts that you might come to the Holy Spirit and just say, I need you. I need you to give me a power that I don't have in of myself. I have for the last four years cried out to God for the gift of wisdom. I've said, God, I need wisdom in this role. It's way beyond me. And I remember there was a season earlier in ministry where I would share the gospel and I would feel like I'd get to the end right where I was leading people to Jesus and I'd get all tongue tied. And I remember just crying out, God, I need the gift of evangelism. I need you to use me in a way that's not ordinary based on my power to lead people to you. I'm asking for a deposit of that gift. And there was a very clear marker where God started to use my life at a different level with reaching people who don't know him. And I believe it was that God was responding to that request. So what I love about the living God. is that he is present with us right now. And if you're a follower of Jesus, he's on the inside and the Holy Spirit is the giver of gifts. So he wants to give you the gift of his presence and he wants to give you spiritual gifts that he unleashes.

And the invitation from God is not to live an ordinary life. The invitation from God is to live a kind of life that when people look at us, it could only be described by the power and the grace of God upon us. Don't you wanna live that kind of life? That when people look at you, they see it's not just an ordinary person, it's an ordinary person anointed by an extraordinary God using their life. That's the Holy Spirit working in and through us. So if you will, I told you to put your hands out like five minutes ago and I just kept talking. So if you will, at all of our campuses, if you'll just put your hands in front of you, two invitations, I wanna invite you to close your eyes. If you've never received the gift of salvation, right now you can do that. And between you and the living God, with your hands open, just say, oh Jesus, I surrender my heart to you. Just tell him right now, I surrender my heart to you. Have your way in me, I give you my yes. Just tell him, I believe you died on a cross for my sin. I believe you rose again from the dead. And just invite him in. He's taken over, he's forgiven you of your sin. There are others of you today that you just need help from God. You need the Holy Spirit to come and empower you.

There might be some specific gift, you just need to ask him for it. Just from your heart, just tell him, I need you. The Bible calls the Holy Spirit a helper. And he wants to come alongside and help you with the assignment that God has given to you. So we welcome you, Holy Spirit. We need you. We need you to open our eyes. We need you to empower us so that streams of living water would flow from within us. We need gifts. We invite you to empower us. Jesus, we believe with all our heart the same things that you did in the Bible are the things that you do today. And Lord, I'm asking you to unleash your gifts in our church. I'm asking you to give gifts of wisdom and healing and the ability to speak bold prophetic words for you. The ability to be used by you in ordinary ways with acts of service and leading and wisdom. But God, I'm asking you, in a day like today in our world, in our nation, that needs the power of God, I'm asking, Holy Spirit, that you would give your power to Saddleback Church. I'm asking you, Lord. If you agree with me, just ask in your heart, Lord, give your power to my life. Come, Holy Spirit, help me.

And Lord, we honor you today. Thank you, Jesus, that you're with us. In the mighty name of Jesus, we pray, amen, amen. I wanna invite you to stand with me. And the ushers are gonna come forward. They're gonna pass that bucket. Make sure to put that card in as the bucket goes by. We wanna declare right now how much we need God. The prayer team is gonna come forward at the end of this song, and maybe something in you just resonates that you need prayer for. I love this song that we're about to sing out. God, I need you. God, I need you. I wanna ask you, if you will, from your heart to God, just tell Him today, I need you. Those are some very powerful words, aren't they? Let's sing together. Let's worship God, come on. ♪ Oh God, my God, I need you ♪ ♪ Oh God, my God, I need you now ♪ ♪ How I need you now ♪ ♪ Oh rock, oh rock of ages, I'm standing on your face ♪ ♪ On your faithfulness, on your faithfulness ♪ ♪ Oh God, my God, I need you ♪ ♪ Oh God, my God, I need you now ♪ ♪ How I need you now ♪ ♪ Oh rock, oh rock of ages, I'm standing on your faithfulness ♪ ♪ On your faithfulness ♪ ♪ You hear your children then, you hear your children now ♪

♪ You are the same God, you are the same God ♪ ♪ You answered prayers back then, and you will answer now ♪ ♪ You are the same God, you are the same God ♪ ♪ You were providing then, you are providing now ♪ You are the same God, You are the same God, You moved in power then, God moved in power now, You are the same God, You are the same God, You were a healer then, You are a healer now, You are the same God, You are the same God, You were a savior then, You are a savior now, You are the same God, You are the same God, Oh God my God I need You, Oh God my God I need You now, Oh I need You now, Oh rock, oh rock of ages, I'm standing on Your faithfulness, on Your faithfulness, Oh God, I need You, I need You now, Oh I need You now, Oh rock, oh rock of ages, I'm standing on Your faithfulness, on Your faithfulness. What a great message from Pastor Andy and how awesome was it to hear from Pastor Jacob and also a couple people that are part of our Dream Teams as well. And you might have been watching this message and listening along thinking, well how can I serve if I'm not physically by a campus in person? I want to let you know there are ways to serve with our online community and that's why we want to invite you to fill out one of these forms that Pastor Andy was talking about at the end of his message. You can open the Saddleback app and then look for the What's My Next Step prompt and click on that so that you can either join us for Activate, Discover Your Shape or get directly plugged in with a Dream Team. Our team would love to personally connect with you, help you to discover your shape so that you can use your gifts, your talents, your heart and abilities to serve God's kingdom. So make sure to fill this out by going to the Saddleback app. And if there's something else that you might need prayer for or maybe another next step that you want to take, whether it's joining a small group or taking the step of baptism, we want to invite you to let us know through the Saddleback app as well. Church family, we are so grateful that you were with us this weekend and we hope that you'll join us next weekend as we continue our Get Growing series. We'll see you then.

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