The following program  is paid for by the friends
  and partners of Touching Lives.
  Most of what we do in life  doesn't really matter.
  It didn't matter  much yesterday,
  it won't matter much today,  it won't matter tomorrow,
  it won't matter next week,  it won't matter next year,
  it won't matter next decade,
  it won't matter  after you're gone.
  However, any service  you give to God,
  anything you do for God  and you do for God's people
  and you do for anyone,  any service you give to others
  will matter for all eternity.
  Teaching people everywhere  who Jesus is
  and why they need Him.
  This is Touching Lives  with James Merritt.
  ♪ ♪
  What am I going to do  with the life
  that is still in front of me,  however long or short it may be?
  And oh, by the way,  as I'm asking that question
  let me get deeper.
  How do I determine  what's most important?
  How do I make  the greatest impact
  with what life that I have?
  That's really what inspired  our mission statement
  that we had just recently  revised, if you remember.
  It goes like this:
  Is pointing to people to Jesus  and inspiring them
  to live the cross-shaped life,
  and we really believe there's  nothing greater we can do
  for those of us who have  been led to Jesus --
  There's nothing greater we can  do than to lead other people
  to Jesus and to inspire them  to live the cross-shaped life.
  Now, if you're a guest  of ours today,
  you may be asking, "Well,  what is the cross-shaped life?"
  And that's the series  that we're in.
  And what we've done is we have  devised a list of five questions
  that if you answer them,  and when you answer them,
  it will tell you whether  or not or how much
  you are living  the cross-shaped life.
  Now, if you've missed  any of the series
  or all of the series,  we've done something for you.
  You can actually go to  a website, crossshaped.life.
  That's crossshaped.life.
  You can go back and pick up  all the messages
  we've been preaching,
  and you can go and find out  what those questions
  are that you can answer  to determine whether or not
  you're really living the life  that you ought to live.
  So, today we're actually  dealing with a forth question.
  Am I in my sweet spot?
  That's the question I'm asking  every one of you right now.
  Are you in your sweet spot?
  If you wanna get the most  fulfillment out of the life
  that you're living,  it is absolutely imperative
  that you find your sweet spot.
  Now, biblically speaking,  we know what that means.
  I'm gonna tell you in one word
  how to find and what  your sweet spot is.
  And it's found in  the word "serving".
  That's your sweet spot.
  And when you are serving  where you ought to be serving
  and who you ought to be serving
  and when you ought  to be serving,
  you have found your sweet spot.
  Jesus was in His sweet spot  when He was serving.
  As a matter of fact,
  one of the most amazing things  that Jesus ever said
  about Himself and about  His life was this.
  In the Gospel of Mark, He said,
  "For even the Son of Man  did not come to be served."
  Now, think about that.
  He said, "I did not leave  heaven and come to earth
  to see what you could do for Me,
  I came to serve and to give my  life as a ransom for many."
  That's amazing to me.
  Jesus said, "I found  my sweet spot
  when I came to planet earth,  not by your serving Me,
  but My serving you."
  And just as Jesus came  to earth to serve,
  He has left us  on earth to serve.
  Now, one of his disciples, you  may remember the name
  or you may know the name,  his name was Peter;
  Peter wrote a letter  to a church 2000 years ago
  about this whole business  about finding your sweet spot.
  So, if you brought a copy of  God's Word or you have an iPhone
  or a Smart Pad or whatever  it is you wanna use,
  I want you to turn  to a book called 1 Peter.
  It's a book in the Bible  called 1 Peter.
  I know what you're saying,  I have no idea where 1 Peter is.
  It's easy, it's right  before 2 Peter, all right?
  So, if you'll just find 2 Peter,  you'll hit 1 Peter.
  Now, if you don't know  where either of those are,
  go to the New Testament,  start going to the maps,
  and before you hit Revelation  you'll hit 1 Peter, all right?
  I want you to look at 1 Peter 4,  let me kind of set this up.
  Peter's writing  to this early church
  and he's giving them  words of instruction
  and trying to tell them,
  "This is how you ought  to be living your life.
  This is what your Christian  life ought to look like.
  And oh, by the way, you've only  got a short time left
  before either Jesus comes  for you, or you go to Him."
  And so, He's kind  of trying to tell them,
  "This is what you  ought to be doing
  because you don't know how much  time you've got left.
  He may come back today,  He may come back tomorrow,
  or you may go to Him  today or tomorrow.
  So, before He comes  for you or you go to Him,
  this is how you ought  to be living your life."
  So, he begins by telling  this in 1 Peter 4:7,
  "The end of all things is near."
  And that's always true,  "Therefore, be alert
  and of sober mind  so that you may pray.
  Above all, love  each other deeply,
  because love covers  over a multitude of sins.
  Offer hospitality to one another  without grumbling."
  Now obviously,  he's talking about
  the second coming of Jesus.
  One day, Jesus is coming back.
  And he says, "Look,  until Jesus comes,
  we ought to be watching  for His coming,
  we ought to be waiting  for His coming."
  But then he goes down  in the next verse
  and he says we ought to be  working until His coming.
  He says in verse ten,
  "Each of you should use  whatever gift you've received
  to serve others as faithful  stewards of God's grace
  in all of its various forms."
  Now, in that one statement,
  Peter just tells  every one of us,
  "This is how to find  your sweet spot."
  One of the marks  of a crossshaped life
  is serving others.
  So, if you want to know
  whether or not you're in  your sweet spot right now,
  I'm gonna help you  determine that.
  I'm not gonna --  Right now,
  we're not talking about  where your sweet spot is,
  we're gonna get  to that in a moment.
  What I want you  to find out right now,
  what I want you  to ask yourself is,
  "Am I even in my sweet spot?"
  and, "How would  I know if I am?"
  Well that's real easy.
  Answer three questions and  you'll know whether or not
  you're even in the neighborhood  of your sweet spot.
  Here they are.
  Number one:  Where am I serving?
  Now, if the answer  to that question is,
  "Well, I'm not  serving anywhere,"
  you're not in your sweet spot.
  All right?
  Question number two:  Who am I serving?
  "I'm not serving anybody,"
  then you're not  in your sweet spot.
  All right?
  When am I serving?
  "Well I'm not  serving any time,"
  then you're not  in your sweet spot.
  What I wanna do this  morning is simply share
  three reasons why  every follower of Jesus
  should be able to answer,  in the affirmative,
  all three of those questions.
  They're right here in what  Peter tells us, okay,
  and what I'm about to say now,  true for everybody.
  Number one: God expects  me to serve.
  That's the first thing  I want you to get
  in your heart right now.
  God expects me to serve.
  Now let's go back and listen  to verse 10 again.
  He says, "Look.
  Each of you,"  he's talking to you.
  "Each of you should use  whatever gifts
  you have received  to serve others."
  Now, each one means everyone,  and everyone means each one.
  The point is all-inclusive.
  In other words,  here's what
  Peter's telling  the church right now.
  "Hey, nobody gets left out.
  Nobody gets left behind.
  Everybody's got a gift,  everybody's expected to use it,
  everybody's supposed to serve.
  And by the way, you don't get  a vacation from serving,
  you don't' get a break  from serving.
  You may have a 9-5 job,  serving's not a 9-5 deal.
  You're to serve God  and serve others
  every time you get  the opportunity, 24/7.
  Now, here's the problem.
  We've got this idea  that serving is what you do.
  Serving's not just what you do,  being a servant is what you are.
  Serving is not just an action,  it's an attitude.
  And the reason why we ought  to have servant hands
  is because we have  a servant heart.
  And if Jesus is in your heart,  you have a servant heart
  because He had a serving heart.
  Now think about this,  Peter's talking to the church
  and He says, "Okay,  you all have a gift."
  Now, when he said that,
  He didn't know  who had what gifts.
  He didn't know what  particular people
  or what particular persons  had what particular gifts.
  He said, "Look, I don't  know what your gift is,
  I don't know what  your gift is,
  I don't know what  your interest is,
  I don't know what  your passion is.
  I do know this:  You've got one;
  every one of you has a gift."
  Now, that ought to  tell you something.
  And you've heard this before,  and it sounds so tried,
  but it really is true.
  The greatest ability  in the world is availability.
  Listen, ability without  availability is no ability.
  And let me just say this,  I know there's some of you
  sitting there and this is what  you're already saying right now,
  you'd love to say  this to me,
  "Do you know who  you're talking to?
  I'm an introvert,  I'm bashful.
  I don't like to smile,  I don't like to talk,
  I'm not good with my hands,
  I can't even put  a Lego together.
  And you're asking  me to serve."
  Can I just stop right there?
  Can I just be honest with you?
  If you're available,  God can use you.
  If you're not available,  God can't use you.
  The only person  God can't use
  is the person who  is not available.
  And once you understand  how Jesus served you
  coming to die for you,  then you'll understand
  serving is not  what you have to do,
  it's not what you get  to do or should do
  or have to do  or do out of guilt,
  serving is actually  what you should want to do.
  One of my favorite verses  in Psalm 100 is,
  "Serve the Lord with gladness."
  And what the psalmist said was,  "Look, God not only expects
  you to serve Him, He expects  you to serve Him gladly.
  He expects you to serve  Him gratefully.
  He expects you to say,  'You know what,
  if you love me  enough to serve me
  by coming to die for me,  the least I could do
  is live a life  of serving You.'"
  And by the way,  it's not just what you do,
  it's how you do it.
  Because remember,  Jesus did not die for His sins,
  He died for yours.
  He didn't come just so you'd  serve Him, He came to serve you.
  So, the cross-shaped life  is a life of serve.
  And here's all I'm telling you,  whether you leave here tonight
  and decide to change your ways,  whether you leave here tonight
  and decide to serve,  I'm just telling you
  God expects you to serve.
  Here's the second thing:  God equips me to serve.
  Because again,  there are some of you going,
  "Look, dude,  I didn't go to seminary,
  I didn't even finish college."
  Maybe you didn't even  finish high school.
  Okay.
  "You know, there's just  not a lot of things
  I'm very good at doing."
  Listen to me, God never  asked us to do anything
  that He doesn't  give us the power
  and the equipment to do it.
  He always says, "Look,  I'm ahead of you."
  Listen to what  he says, listen.
  He says, look,  "Each of you should use
  whatever gift  you have received."
  In other words,  here's the plain truth:
  Everyone that I'm  looking at right now,
  and everyone watching me  at our campus,
  look right here,  look into my eyes,
  you have a gift.
  At least one.
  You are a gifted child;  all of you are gifted.
  Under God's Christmas tree,  every follower of Jesus
  gets at least one  gift-wrapped package,
  and it's your name --  Your name is on it.
  And just as the gift  is to be unwrapped and used,
  so is our spiritual gift.
  Look, I get it.
  We all have different gifts,  we all have different abilities,
  we all have different passions,  we all have different interests,
  we all have different desires,
  we all have different  directions we wanna go in.
  That's okay, but there's  a reason for that.
  God made you the way you are  so that you could do
  what He wants you to do  through serving others.
  See, everybody has a spiritual  job description, everybody.
  I don't know what yours is,  you're kind of seeing
  what mine is, I don't know  what yours is.
  But, we all have  a spiritual job description.
  We've been given not only  a job description,
  God says, "You know what,  I've not only got
  a job description for you to do  while you're on planet earth,
  I have already given  you the abilities
  and the gifts you need to  fulfill that job description."
  See, the biggest problem we face  in the church in this area,
  and it's been true of every  church I've ever pastored,
  and it's true of every  church that exists.
  I'm looking right now  at a lot of unwrapped gifts.
  Peter goes on to say  something, I thought,
  "This is so appropriate  for what we're talking about."
  Listen to what Peter  goes on to say.
  He says, "Look,  if anyone speaks,"
  he's talking about me  right now, "If anyone speaks,
  they should do so as one who  speaks the very words of God.
  If anyone serves, they should  do so with the strength
  that God provides,  so that in all things
  God may be praised  through Jesus Christ.
  To Him be the Glory  and the Power forever
  and ever, amen."
  Now, let's listen to what  he said, it's interesting.
  He divides these gifts up  into kind of two categories.
  He says, "You know there  are speaking gifts,"
  that's what I'm exercising.
  And he says, "There are  serving gifts."
  Now, I'm exercising  a speaking gift right now.
  It's not that my words  are God's Words,
  but I'm preaching God's Word.
  That's my job.
  But here's what I want  you to understand.
  The only reason that right now  I am able to exercise my gift
  is because other people  are exercising their gift.
  The only reason I'm up here  exercising my speaking gift
  is because other people  exercising their serving gift.
  So, I wanna take  a moment in the service,
  and I don't do  this often enough,
  I just want to take  a moment, first of all,
  I wanna thank all of you  out there, all of you.
  You're watching, you're looking,  doing it right now.
  I wanna thank you for the people  that run the sound,
  for the people  that do the lights,
  for the people  that run the cameras.
  I wanna say thanks to  our ushers and our greeters,
  I wanna say thanks  to our first impression team,
  for those who just  kind of meet people
  and help them get to their car  or bring them in from their car,
  I wanna thank the people  right now that are down
  in the nursery and they're  taking care of our babies,
  and the people who are working  with our children,
  and the people who work  with all of our Next Gen.
  I'm in my sweet spot right now  because they are in
  their sweet spot.
  I'm unwrapping my gifts because  they have unwrapped theirs.
  I'm using my gift because  they have used theirs
  and are using theirs.
  And I just wanna say thank you  for all of you
  who have found your sweet spot  and you are serving.
  God not only  expects us to serve,
  He's equipped all of us  to unwrap our gift
  so that we can serve.
  But it gets better.
  Peter says, "Not only does  God expect you to serve,
  and not only has God  equipped you to serve,"
  watch this, God encourages  me to serve.
  Listen, this is  so good right here,
  notice the last part  of this verse.
  You know, this is  the part of the verse
  that if you're ever  reading your Bible,
  we tend to kind of skip over.
  Don't skip this part.
  He says, "Each of you should use  whatever gift you've received
  to serve others,"  and then he adds these words,
  "as faithful stewards.
  Now what is a steward?
  A steward is a manager,
  a steward is someone who takes  whatever's been entrusted to him
  and does the best  that he can with it.
  You have been given  a spiritual gift, at least one.
  And you're gonna give  an account to God one day
  whether or not you even  used that gift
  and how you've used that gift.
  And God's made a promise.
  He says, "Look, I promise you  if you will be a good steward,
  if you will be  a faithful steward,
  if you'll just serve in the area  that I've gifted you in,
  if you serve where I've given  you a passion to serve,
  you will be rewarded."
  There are certain  verses in the Bible
  that every time I read them,  I'll just tell you,
  they just kind  of light a fire in me
  and they just encourage me.
  And trust me, pastors  need encouragement.
  Because I'm telling  you right now,
  there are times  a pastor does wonder,
  "Am I making a difference?
  I mean, am I moving  the ball down the field?
  Is anybody's life being changed  at all because of what I say,
  or is it just kind of a thing  that people just do?
  It's just kind of, you know,  'Check of the Sunday,
  go hear the pastor,  laugh at his jokes,
  go home, and don't do  anything else'" right?
  So, you wonder sometimes,
  "Am I really making  a difference."
  And then I read  a verse like this.
  "God is not unjust.
  He will not forget your work,"
  He will not forget your work,
  "and the love you have shown him  as you have helped his people
  and continue to help them."
  See, you may think serving's  just not a big deal.
  You may think, "You know,  I just don't understand
  why a menial thing like changing  diapers in a nursery,
  or parking a car  on a hot summer day,
  or handing out a worship guide  as people walk into the door,
  or giving out food and clothes  at our Carepoint Ministry,
  I just don't understand  why that's such a big deal."
  I'll tell you why it's such  a big deal, because God sees it.
  And God says, I don't  care what you do.
  Whether you think it's  a big thing or a little thing,
  you know what God says?
  "I won't forget that.
  You think you got  a long memory?
  I've got an eternal memory.
  I won't forget it.
  I'll remember it.
  I'm writing it down,  I'm taking names,
  and when the time is right,  you will be rewarded."
  And let me tell you why,  let me just kind of put
  all of this in perspective.
  I wanna say something right  now you're not gonna like,
  but it's true  and you know it's true,
  so we may as well  just admit it, okay?
  Most of what we do in life  doesn't really matter.
  Most of what we do in life  doesn't really matter.
  It didn't matter much yesterday,  it won't matter much today,
  it won't matter tomorrow,  it won't matter next week,
  it won't matter next year,  it won't matter next decade,
  it won't matter  after you're gone.
  However, any service  you give to God,
  anything you do for God  and you do for God's people
  and you do for anyone,  any service you give to others
  will matter for all eternity.
  Matter of fact, I wanna give you  one verse of scripture.
  This comes out of The Message,  because I just happen
  to like the way  this translation puts it.
  But I want you  to listen to this,
  it's out of the Book  of 1 Corinthians.
  "Throw yourselves into  the Work of the Master."
  Listen to what he just said.
  Don't' just do it haphazardly,  don't do it out of guilt,
  don't do it because,  "Well, they expect me to do it,"
  or, "I guess  I gotta do something."
  Throw yourselves into  the Work of the Master,
  "confident that,"  say that word with me,
  "nothing you do for him  is a waste of time or effort."
  You know what the word  nothing means there?
  Can I tell you what it  means in plain English?
  It means nothing.
  [Laughter]
  In English,  it means zero.
  In Spanish, it means nada.
  Here's what God says.
  "There is no such thing as an  unimportant work you do for Me.
  There is no such thing  as an insignificant work
  you do for Me."
  You pick up a piece of paper  when you're coming
  in off the parking lot  to walk in this church,
  God says, "That's not  insignificant to Me.
  You go down into a nursery,  and nobody ever sees you,
  and you sit there  with those same babies
  week in and week out,  and you give them their bottles
  and you change their diapers,  and you sing lullabies to them,
  that's a big deal to me.
  You stand out there  and you just kind of hand out
  Order of Worship guides  as people come in,
  and give them a smiling face  and a warm handshake,
  that's a big deal to me."
  Thirty years ago, if I had  said the word apple,
  you'd have thought  about a fruit.
  Today when I say apple,  the first thing
  you think about is not a fruit.
  I mean, there are a lot  of us today that wonder
  how can you even  exist without Apple.
  How can you even make it  in life without Apple,
  because as we now know,
  it refers to one of the most  successful companies
  in the history of the world.
  Well let me tell you something  I found out about Apple,
  as a matter of fact I was  telling one of our tech guys
  this morning who used  to work at Apple
  and he had gone over my message,
  he said, "Man, I didn't  even know you knew this.
  I didn't know anybody knew this.
  I can't wait for  you to share this."
  When you become  an employee of Apple,
  or even if you're a customer,  everybody knows the treatment
  you get from Apple  is just world-class,
  it's almost unrivaled  by any other company.
  Well, what you may not know is,  if you ever decide
  to go to work for Apple,  it doesn't matter what job
  you're applying for --  you can go to IT,
  you can go to management,
  you can be working the custodial  department sweeping floors,
  it doesn't matter --
  everybody that goes to work  for Apple is given a note.
  That note encourages you  to swim in the deep end
  and to do something big.
  When I read the note, I said,  "That is so impressive."
  I thought, "I gotta share  that with our folks, okay."
  So, you go to work for Apple,  first day at work,
  this is the note that you get.
  There's a work,  and there's your life's work,
  the kind of work that has your  fingerprints all over it,
  the kind of work that you'd  never compromise on it.
  You'd sacrifice  a weekend for it.
  You can do that kind  of work at Apple.
  People don't come  here to play it safe,
  they come here to swim  in the deep end.
  They want their work  to add up to something,
  something big, something that  couldn't happen anywhere else.
  Welcome to Apple.
  Well, kudos to Apple.
  Props to Apple.
  Man, what a great way  to introduce somebody to Apple,
  but can I just let  you in on a secret?
  One day, Apple is going to be  in the dustbin of history.
  One day, even the great  company called Apple
  will be on the ashes  of everything
  this world has to offer.
  But, when you serve God,  and you serve God's people,
  and you serve God's church,
  you don't just swim  in the deep end,
  you don't just do  something big,
  you do something eternal.
  You contribute to something  that has the possibility
  of transforming  someone's life forever.
  You have the opportunity to make  a contribution to Clinton.
  Clinton, no, not the president,
  [laughter]
  but a man who came up to me  after the 9:00 service.
  Clinton walked into our church  offices this past week
  a totally broken man.
  Because of some things going  on in his personal life,
  he couldn't even talk for just  absolutely bawling his eyes out.
  One of our staff  went downstairs,
  brought him up to his office,  listened to Clinton's story,
  and then told him The Story.
  Clinton got on his knees  and bowed and asked Christ
  to come into his heart.
  Clinton was at church  this morning.
  I had my picture  made with him outside,
  tweeted about it.
  Walks up to me,  smile as big as the moon,
  radiance on his face,  telling me is so thankful
  for all of the bad stuff  that was going in his life
  because it was all worth it  to bring him to Jesus.
  You know why that happened?
  Because people find their  sweet spot, like you.
  Because you give your money --  not your money, God's money;
  because you support what  we do here financially,
  because you come here on Sunday  and you do change the diapers,
  and you do park the cars,
  and you do give out  the worship guides,
  and you do counsel teenagers,
  and you do teach children  bible stories,
  and you do give your work  to the greatest Work of all.
  You do something that has  an eternal impact
  in transforming lives forever,  and that's why,
  you wanna really get  the most out of life,
  you find your sweet spot.
  Jesus did, and so can you.
  Stay tuned for a final  word from Dr. Merritt.
  I'm holding in my hand  one of the coolest devices
  for spreading the Gospel  I've ever seen in my life.
  It's called the Encourager,  and let me explain to you
  exactly what this is.
  The Encourager is a solar  powered device that contains
  the entire Bible in audio form  in both English and Spanish.
  It also contains space for many  of my messages in audio form
  to be loaded right  into the device.
  Now, here's the best part,
  Touching Lives  can place Encouragers
  into the hands of people in some  of the remote parts of world
  for only $35 each.
  Now just imagine  allowing someone
  who may not even read or write  to hear God's Word spoken
  perhaps for the very first time.
  You can partner  with Touching Lives
  to help us expand projects  like the Encourager.
  To learn more about  the Encourager
  and how to support our ministry  efforts all over the world
  go to our website  at touchinglives.org.
  Thanks for watching  the broadcast.
  Thanks in advance  for your support
  of the Encourager Gospel device,
  and remember every time you  watch us pray for us.
  Join James and Teresa Merritt  in the beautiful
  Smokey Mountains
  November 27th through the 29th  for the 8th Annual
  Mountain Top Conference.
  This year features an  outstanding new venue,
  powerful teachings sessions  with Dr. James Merritt,
  a special concert with  Charles Billingsley,
  and a night of comedy  Dennis Swanberg.
  Start the Christmas season  in the Smokeys and join us
  for these year's  Mountain Top Conference
  November 27th through the 29th.
  Call 1-800-413-1131 or book  online at touchinglives.org.
  In 1938, a movie titled,  "You Can't Take It with You"
  won the Academy Award  for Best Picture.
  You've no doubt heard people  say from time to time
  that old adage, "you can't  take it with you,
  I want to offer  some biblical insight
  to see if that saying  is really true.
  The Bible says we should lay  up treasures in heaven,
  so there is a way  for us, in a sense,
  to take some things  with us to heaven.
  I believe if we seek to  understand our spiritual gifts
  and put those gifts to work  for others every day,
  we'll find ourselves serving  others with gladness.
  And as we serve,  we'll be storing up
  those treasures in heaven,  where neither moth not rust
  can ever destroy,  where thieves can never steal.
  As we close out this series  on the cross-shaped life,
  I wanna encourage you.
  Find the place of service  in your church and community,
  find your sweet spot,
  look for ways to help  your neighbors
  with practical day-to-day needs,  and pray for opportunities
  to share the Gospel with those  who need to hear it.
  Thanks for tuning  into T.L. today,
  I love touching lives,  and I know you do,
  and incidentally do you know  what movie won best picture
  the very next year after  "You Can't Take It with You"?
  A little movie known as,  "Gone with The Wind"
  So remember this,  you can't take
  your acts of service  for the Lord with you,
  but you better get busy before  your life is Gone with The Wind.
  And incidentally, every time  you contribute financially
  to the ministry  of Touching Lives,
  you're sending  treasure in heaven
  because every eternal soul  that calls into this program
  to receive Jesus,  you had a part in it.
  So, may the Lord  bless you today,
  and I look forward to seeing you  next week as we start
  a brand-new series called,  "The Elephant in the Room."
  Teaching people  everywhere who Jesus is,
  and why they need Him.
  This program is sponsored by  Touching Lives Ministries,
  and is made possible  by the Grace of God
  and your faithful  prayers and gifts.
     
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