May 31, 2025 • 41 mins
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
So, you probably all know Elder Ed Keyes.
In fact, I'm going to invite him forward.
I'm going to share a little bit.
I texted him yesterday and said,
Hey, I want to introduce you and I want to share something.
What can't I share?
He said, let the Lord lead.
So watch out.
(00:21):
Anyway, of course, we all know him as our conference, Arizona conference president.
We are so happy that he's here today.
But I know him by a lot of other names.
And one is Pastor Keyes.
The other one is President Keyes or President Ed.
(00:42):
And then, of course, I know him best by Ed.
Because Renee and I were youth leaders at our church in Medford, Oregon,
and back in probably, I would say, 1994, maybe 95, I could be wrong,
I heard about him.
He was a pastor on the Oregon coast,
and we invited him for a youth rally at our church
(01:03):
to share his testimony, how God led in his life.
God continues to lead in his life.
That was a start of a friendship.
And a few years later,
we invited him to be our pastor at our church.
So I got the opportunity to know him really well,
him and Lily, and watched his kids grow up.
He watched Michael grow up, our son.
(01:25):
And then he went to New Jersey as, I think, the ministerial director.
And so I thought, oh, that's a long ways away.
And he had already said that he would love to call Michael at that time, who was preparing to go to college and maybe study for the ministry, into his conference.
And I was thinking, oh, Lord, don't let him go clear to New Jersey.
(01:46):
So then he came to Arizona.
And I know he's worked in many hats, ministerial director.
I think executive secretary.
And then he got called away from Arizona to be a president at the Utah-Nevada conference.
But then we called him back.
And so we are so happy that Elder Ed Keyes is here.
(02:08):
And thank you for your friendship.
And it's all yours.
Alan,
Speaker 2 (02:12):
God bless you.
Thank you for that amazing introduction.
Alan could have said a lot of other things that wouldn't have been so, you know, flattering.
But thank you. I appreciate that. Yeah, I've known Alan and Renee quite a while. He's right. He,
I think it was 93 or 94. He asked me to come and speak for one of his youth rallies there.
(02:35):
And we've been friends ever since. And, uh, and I ended up pastoring the church without Alan and
Renee and their son, Michael was at, and I've been a part of two very important events in their son's
life, which was their wedding, his wedding, I should say, and also his ordination. So yeah,
We're connected, connected by the elbows, I guess.
But I'm really thankful to be a part of this service today at the Mesa Palms Church.
(02:59):
And I'm thankful my wife is able to join me today.
And we've had a long history with this church.
When you mentioned Carol Kreider, when I came to this conference in 2003,
I held a series of meetings here as an evangelist.
And Carol Kreider was doing Alice's job at the time.
(03:20):
And she did a wonderful job making sure all of those papers and things were produced properly.
And all of my newsletters went out to the visitors and the guests and so forth.
And since then, I've been here a number of times.
And I'm really thankful to be back and to see all my friends here.
So as my custom is, I want to begin with a word of prayer as I open God's word.
(03:40):
Just ask you to bow your heads with me for a moment.
Father in heaven, once again, we thank you for your blessings, your goodness, your love.
And Lord, we thank you most of all for that indescribable gift of eternal life through
Jesus, your son.
We pray, Lord, today as we open your word, that your spirit would guide and direct us,
we pray in Jesus' name.
Amen.
Title of the message, In His Majesty's Service.
(04:03):
What does that remind you of?
Okay, someone said UK.
You're in the right direction.
Okay.
Well, that term started, believe it or not, a couple of hundred years ago when letters
were sent out of Buckingham Palace, they did not need any postage. As long as it came from
(04:24):
Buckingham Palace, it was sent anywhere in the world. The United Kingdom would pay for it to go
anywhere in the world, package, letter, or whatever. Well, that turned into a byword for the military
of the UK. In other words, British soldiers would say, we're fighting in the King's service,
(04:45):
in His Majesty's service, or maybe in the Queen's service, depending upon who was sitting on the
throne at the time. And it was important for them. They wanted people to know that the reason why
they were there, they were there protecting king and country. Now, I want you to think about this.
That's important to stand for king and country and stand for our nation. My father was an infantryman
(05:09):
in the 28th Infantry in World War II, saw some of the bloodiest battles you can imagine, fought in
the Battle of the Bulge. He was at Normandy and so forth. He fought for his country. He fought for
his fellow man. But have you ever thought about standing up and defending and fighting for God's
honor in the true majesty service? Who's the real majesty of this world? God himself. So we're going
(05:35):
to look at this today. I want to go back to the scripture that Rusty read earlier. And it is 2
Timothy chapter 2, verse 20 through 22. It says, but in a great house, there are not only vessels
of gold and silver, but some of wood and clay, some for honor and some for a lesser purpose.
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Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from the latter, he will be a vessel of honor,
sanctified, and useful for the master. How many of you want to be useful for the master? Amen.
It goes on to say, prepared for every good work. Flee also youthful lust, but pursue righteousness,
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faith, love, peace with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.
When we embrace the call to serve with humility, love, and purpose, we are embracing the call
to serve in His, His majesty's service.
(06:43):
Now, I know a lot of you in this room.
I look out and see some of my friends, and I can tell you that is what you've been called
to do, to serve in His majesty's service.
I had an experience some years ago.
I was driving my car, driving.
This was in Washington State.
You know, I was pastoring in Oregon, but my wife and I would go up to Washington sometimes
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to see her cousin of hers.
And while we were driving, we passed a church, big church, beautiful-looking church.
It was like this beautiful church.
It had a sign outside, such and such Baptist church.
And it said, 300 members, 300 ministers.
What do you think about that?
Was it a minister per member or was it a minister for every member?
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In other words, what they were saying is every single person in that church,
they considered a minister.
Shouldn't that be true of any of our churches?
Every member is a minister.
I had someone tell me some years ago, if you're not working for the master,
or I should say, if you're a mission field, that means you don't have Jesus in your heart.
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You know, okay, you're a mission field. But if you have Jesus in your heart,
then you're a missionary. And I kind of botched that a little bit, but that's what it means.
We are called to be ministers and missionaries for God. So I want to share with you today four
elements of what it means to be a Christian servant, to do what God calls you to do in
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his majesty service. First example. First one is the example of Jesus in our service. The greatest
example of all, and Sharon almost stole my first point in your Sabbath school lesson this morning.
The greatest example of Christian service is Christ himself. Mark chapter 10, verse 45. You
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want to read along with me? You can read along. Mark chapter 10, verse 45. You want to read it
later, write it down and read it later. It says this, in the New King James Version,
for even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom
for many. We all know the story in John chapter 13 of Jesus washing his disciples' feet,
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and I'm going to read a little piece of it. It says, you call me teacher and Lord, and you say,
well, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought
to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example that you should do as I have done.
The main point Jesus was trying to make to his disciples is true leadership begins with humble
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service. Appreciate Donnie's announcement about sunshine. Think about it. What are they doing?
they're not asking anything in return when they do the sunshine program. They're not saying,
okay, if I take care of your teeth or if I help you with your blood pressure or give you whatever,
they're not saying now you have to be a member of our church. Now that may happen. By default,
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it may happen. But what they're saying is we love you enough, we're going to serve you,
and Jesus was our example. Now think about this. I want you to think about this foot washing
because there's only a couple of churches in the world that actually do a foot washing. They all
communion. It seems like every Christian church does some part of the Lord's Supper, but there
(10:10):
are only a couple. The Adventists are probably the main ones that do a foot washing. Why do we do it?
As a reminder that Jesus served and we should serve. Now, we all come to foot washing with
clean feet, don't we? Okay. On foot washing day, I get down and literally scrub my feet with that
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old lava soap. I'm going to make sure it's really nice and clean when I come to foot washing
service. Now, the truth is, though, it's a symbol of what we should be doing for other people,
caring for others, reaching out to them, touching them in their needs. When Jesus came to Peter,
do you remember Peter's reaction? Jesus said, I'm going to wash your feet. He had girded himself
(10:51):
with the towel. He went to wash Peter's feet, and Peter said, oh, thank you, Lord. Is that what he
said? No. He said, not me. No, you're not never going to touch my feet. I'm a filthy, dirty sinner.
You're the savior of the universe. You're not cleaning my feet. And then Jesus says,
well, if you don't let me do this, you have no part of me. Now, I love Peter. What's Peter do?
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Well, then don't just wash my feet. Wash my whole body. That's the kind of, that's the kind of,
he was a real sanguine Peter. He wanted it all. So sure enough, Jesus says, no, you don't need
your whole body to be washed right now, just your feet. What Jesus did was really out of the ordinary.
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You know, when a group of master, a rabbi, someone was discipling people, teaching people,
if they used a home for a special event, a dinner or some teaching, you know what they did? They
hired a servant to wash their feet. Jesus took the role of the servant and bent down and washed
those disciples' feet. Jesus, our Lord and teacher, the master of the universe, stooped to do a
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servant's task. The challenge he gives us today is, are we willing to do the lowly things in order
to lift others up? I mentioned my father was a frontline infantryman, private first class Walter
A. Keyes, on the frontline in the Battle of the Bulbs. He started the war in Normandy as a 30
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caliber water-cooled machine gun operator. One day into the battle on the beaches of Normandy,
his tripod ammunition man was killed. They turned him into the company sniper. Now, I won't get into
all the details. That's a pretty gory job. You actually see the person go down when you're a
sniper. So he was the company scout sniper for D Company there in the 28th Infantry for the rest
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of the war. He was scouting with a couple other guys, enemy positions during the Battle of the
in a hurricane forest and as he's scouting these enemy positions he sees a general's jeep rolling
along and he looked to one of his buddies and he said someone some idiot stole the general's jeep
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they're going to get hit with artillery and killed out here in the front lines
turns out as the jeep rolled by it was good old george blood and guts pet he waved at the troops
that said give them blank blank blank i won't get into this wording my dad gives the whole wording
but give them blank you guys fight for your country we're gonna beat these nazis today
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sure enough the jeep drove by now what in the world would it you know if you were the general's
liaison or you know working with general patten you probably had a good chance of getting killed
because he's the kind of guy that pull out a pistol and try to shoot down a plane.
He had no fear.
But why was he on the front lines of a battle?
Generals don't do that.
He was there to motivate his troops.
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When we serve others as Jesus did, as an example, we motivate others to do the same.
That's one of the great things that God calls us to do, to serve like Jesus served.
You know, I don't know if any of you have read the book, The Five Language of Love.
Any of you ever read that five languages of love?
So I read that some years ago, and I was a little disappointed.
(14:18):
Here they are.
Affection, affirmation, words of affirmation, giving of gifts, quality time, and acts of service.
Now, the reason why I was disappointed is my gift is words of affirmation.
I like when someone passes me and they're like, oh, thank you, Pastor.
You're doing a great job.
My second one is affection.
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I love to be affectionate with my special lady.
Now, here's the interesting thing.
My wife's is acts of service.
Now, that means if I want to make her happy, I have to scrub the floor, do the dishes, mop, vacuum, and clean.
Those are not my favorite things to do.
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But that's her language of love.
She'll do that for anybody, people she don't even know.
acts of service one of the languages of love and it's what jesus taught us he was our great example
i had an experience a couple of years ago we had a um education director who was leaving she took a
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call to be education director in the lake union so she was leaving us for a different position
and as her farewell party what she wanted was to go to an arizona diamondbacks game i said okay
that's a great farewell party. I have a friend who's very good at getting tickets, so he worked
it out to get tickets for all of us to go to this ballgame and treat her to a ballgame and so forth.
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While we were there at the ballgame, she had a great time and so forth. But what was interesting
was instead of paying $15 for a burrito, I decided to go to the Taco Bell close by,
Okay, really close by.
So I walked over there, and you could get four burritos for $15 at a Taco Bell.
So I went to Taco Bell and got a couple of burritos.
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I'm sitting in the window, and I'm looking outside, and I see a car roll up,
and a girl jump out the car and run into the Taco Bell.
Now, they had a sign outside that said, hiring, apply within.
So the girl comes running in.
She wasn't looking for a meal.
She runs to the counter, and she said, I'd like to apply for a job.
I see you're hiring.
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She looked like she might have been 19 years old.
She was pretty young.
And sure enough, the manager comes out and says, well, you know, here's how you apply for the job.
You go online, you take your laptop, your computer, go online and type in, and here's our store code, and you apply this way.
Now, what was interesting was she said, I don't have a computer.
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Okay, well, no problem.
Use your laptop or your tablet.
She goes, I don't have one of those either.
And then the lady looked at her and said, well, you can do it on your phone.
And she goes, I don't have one of those either.
The manager at that Taco Bell looked like she was going to die.
To think there's one person left in the world that doesn't have a phone.
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And she goes, well, I'm sorry, I don't know how to help you then.
And she wasn't mean, but she was ready to get back to her work.
Now, what I noticed, there was a guy in there scrubbing the floors,
probably the lowest rung of the totem pole in the Taco Bell, you know, economy. He was working. He
was at the bottom level. He was cleaning the floors. He got up and he went to the manager and said,
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hey, can I help her? I've got a tablet. She goes, okay, just as long as you get your job done,
that's fine. So sure enough, went over there and helped her type it in and put in, you know,
what she needed, all the information and so forth and do the application. That girl was so happy
when she went outside. Someone cared for her. Now, it was interesting, though, it was the
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lowest on the totem pole that took care of her. He didn't care. He just cared about her.
So the second thing, the second reason why we are in His Majesty's service, or the second
thing is how we are motivated. Are we motivated by love? Think about it. This guy didn't really
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know her, but he was a loving, caring guy. I don't know if I'd like to say he was the elder of the
such and such church. No, I don't know who he was. I don't even know if he was a Christian,
but he was motivated because he cared about someone. He had love in his heart. Do you love
people? Well, if you love people, that should be your motivation to care and to serve. That's the
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second element of Christian service, the motivation behind it, which is love. Mother Teresa took a trip
to India when she was a young girl. Think about this. Took a trip to India when she was a young
girl, and she said, Jesus died for me. He was willing to serve me. I should be willing to serve.
These people really need help. She spent her whole life helping the people in Calcutta, India.
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Her motivation, love for Jesus and love for her fellow man. And she touched hundreds and hundreds
and thousands of people's lives. 1 John 4, verse 11 says this, Beloved, if God so loved us,
we also ought to love one another. Amen? Here's another passage for you. 1 Corinthians 16,
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verse 14. Let all that you do, that's you and me, those who call on the name of Jesus,
let all that you do be done with love. 2 Corinthians 5, 14, 15, it says that it's the love
of Christ that compels us to work for him. The main point here is love for Christ is what fuels
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our service. We don't do it out of obligation or recognition, but out of love. That is the driving
force. Jesus gave everything. Our service is a response to that love. Amen. So sometimes we have
to check our own hearts. Are we serving out of love or are we serving out of duty? Do we serve
because we care about people? When the motive is love, it is far less likely that you will get
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burned out or stressed out. That's for sure. I'll tell you a story that was amazing to me. And this
was in Allen's neighborhood, basically, Medford, Oregon. I remember, thank you, Robert. I remember
when I was pastoring in Medford, Oregon, I lived on the streets. My neighborhood was Fairbanks,
Alcan, and Yukon. Okay, so we were living in Medford, but we had these Alaska names.
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Well, I lived on 2209 Fairbanks Avenue. My next door neighbor, his name was John Meyer,
had the exact same birthday as me, May 16th, only he was two years younger.
So a couple of times I invited him, hey, on May 16th,
why don't we go hang out and, you know, go play golf together?
I'll pay for you.
He goes, well, then I'll pay for you.
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So it worked out.
Neither one of us paid for ourselves, but we paid for the other person.
So we gave a birthday present and got something out of it.
So it was kind of fun.
We did that a couple times, but we got to know each other,
and we had a good experience.
and their kids were about the same age as our kids, so they hung out and played together and so forth.
John had an old Chevy Suburban, and I remember one day coming out and watching him
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pulling pieces off and working on this car, and I'm going, oh, this poor guy. I said, but I don't
have time. I'm a pastor. I have to go to work. So I'm driving to the office, and I get to the
office, and I say, oh, poor John. See him out there again, day after day after day, trying to get his
old Chevy Suburban working. As it turns out, I remember one day going over there, I said,
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John, the mistake you have is you bought a Chevy. You should have bought a Ford,
you know. And he looked at me, he goes, oh, and I know your Fords all have a million miles on it,
but you're a miracle guy. So we talked about it a little bit. We joked. And I said, and it's just
a joke, of course. I said, hey, let me help you work on your car. And then I looked at it, went
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in, check, pull the spark plug wire off, stuck a screwdriver in, see if he was getting spark. He's
getting spark. I did, you know, the typical things. I was, I worked for Pontiac, by the way, if you
remember Pontiac. I was a mechanic with them before I went into ministry. And so I tried to help him
get it going. I said, you got a fuel problem, but I don't have time to work on it today. So sure
enough, I drive off to work. Then one day, you know, Holy Spirit touches, you got to listen.
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So one day I'm starting out of my driveway and the way my neighborhood was where it was kind of
a little cul-de-sac, but really one street and then two streets going this way and that way.
So as I pull out, the way I'm driving down the street, I could see in my rear view mirror,
John working on his car. And I thought, oh no. So I tried to turn the mirror so I couldn't see it.
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And I kept driving, but he was still in the mirror. It seemed like that block was four miles long. I
could not get him out of my mirror. So I said, I know I'm busy, but I need to turn around. So I get
the corner, make a U-turn, drive back. I said, John, let me help you. So I pull his carburetor
off. And a long story short, it took me about a day and a half to rebuild his old carburetor,
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but I got it rebuilt, put his car back on the road. He was so excited. Now I have to tell you,
I had invited him to church, to evangelistic meetings, to Sabbath school, to social things.
The entire time I lived there, he never came one time.
I worked on his car.
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The next week, he says, hey, can I come to your church this week?
Think about that.
Now, when you serve someone, that's not why you're serving them,
but sometimes it has those reciprocal results.
He came to one of our series of meetings.
He came to one of the best Super Bowl parties we ever had.
He started coming to different things, and then he even went to the Central Point Church
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because where he worked was close to that church, and he worked on Saturday so he could sneak out
and go to church and then go back to his work, his job. It was amazing. He had no desire whatsoever
to go to my church. I invited him a bunch of times until he saw I was willing to help him.
Service has an impact, and we need to serve out of love. Point number three, the power to serve
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is through the Holy Spirit and the gifts that God gives you. That's the third element of Christian
service. 1 Peter 4, verse 9 through 11 says this, be hospitable to one another without grumbling.
As each one has received the gift, minister it to one another as good stewards of the manifold
grace of God. God has given you a gift. Use it. Dave uses gift. Play that guitar. When he was
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playing that guitar, I saw scenes of beautiful, you know, birds flying and have you ever gone on
a YouTube and put on one of those YouTubes of nature scenes and there's someone playing acoustic
guitar in the background. That's what I was seeing when Dave was playing. Use the gift that God gives
you, whatever that may be. He goes, if anyone speaks, let him speak of the oracles of God.
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If anyone ministers, let him do it with the ability which God supplies, that in all things,
God may be glorified. Amen? Through Jesus Christ, to whom belong the glory and the dominion forever
and ever. God equips us with spiritual gifts and with grace to serve. You know, we're not called to
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serve in our own strength. When I was a literature evangelist, I did this for a couple of years,
going to college.
Speaker 1 (25:52):
Any
Speaker 2 (25:52):
of you ever done LE work? Any Cole Porters in the room? It's, there you go,
It's one of the most difficult jobs in the world because you never know who's behind that door.
And I can tell you, doing it in New Jersey made it even extra hard.
When I would open that door, or when they would open that door, I would be back there saying,
boy, I hope they don't come out with a shotgun, a switchblade, or throw something at me.
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But sure enough, they'd open the door and I'd start talking to them.
Hi, my name is Ed Keyes with the Home Health Education Services.
I'm here today to give you a very special offer.
You know, you have this thing memorized.
Well, I wasn't really good at that.
You can see I'm not really a note preacher, nor was I a note literature evangelist.
So I got off the script a bunch of times.
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But I remember a whole bunch of times people inviting me in their home,
sitting me down, even giving me food and water and drink and meal and so forth.
And we talked about these amazing books that God had for them.
I could not do that if it wasn't for the power of God.
It's not something that's in me to do.
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And God did it.
God did amazing things.
Probably the greatest example of someone who didn't have much to begin with,
letting the Holy Spirit inspire them and empower them to do God's work,
is one of the founders of this church, a lady named Ellen G. White.
Have you heard that name?
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Third grade education, sickly girl, didn't have much going for her,
not even really the most attractive person in the world.
But as it turns out, God used her in order to inspire a whole church.
I can't imagine this church having someone like that.
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Well, obviously the Holy Spirit using, working through her, giving her visions and so forth.
I can't imagine how far this church has gone.
Second largest school system in the world.
I mean, Christian school system.
Second largest healthcare system in the world.
We have hospitals and clinics all over the world inspired by a girl with a third grade education.
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That had to be God working through them.
No question.
That's a miracle.
Amen.
She let God use her.
Now, I won't get into the whole story.
You know your church history.
There were two people God spoke to before Ellen White that said, no, I can't do this job.
She was a humble, willing servant.
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If we're willing to let God work through us, he will do amazing things.
Rely on his strength, not just your own skills or experience.
I encourage you in your ministry, whatever it may be, to discover the gifts of God and use them for him.
I remember being a security guard.
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This was shortly after Pontiac said, we can't have you if you can't work on Sabbath.
I didn't know all the religious liberty laws.
I could have gotten a letter to let me continue to work there, but I didn't know that, so I just quit.
But I remember working as a security guard for Tropicana Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
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I had the uniform. I had the equipment.
I didn't understand the conscientious objector thing.
It didn't work, I guess, with security guards.
But, you know, I had my weapons and so forth.
And my job was to take care of the shuttle stop where the employees would come in and get distributed to go inside the casino to blackjack dealers and waiters and waitresses and whatever else they did.
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But I was to protect them.
That was my job.
Every night around 3 o'clock in the morning, 3 to 4 o'clock in the morning, a whole bunch of people would come in there and get shuttled out to their cars out on the Atlantic City Expressway about, you know, six, seven miles away.
They couldn't park there.
They weren't allowed to park in the regular lot.
So as it turns out, one evening I had my Bible.
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I called it the mechanics version of Bible because it was all greasy and falling apart.
Okay.
So I had my Bible there and I started talking to some of the people and they shut me down
so quick.
I said, okay, I'm done with this.
I put the Bible underneath my jacket and I said, I'm just going to leave this alone.
You know, that's God's business.
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He needs to save them.
I'm not the savior of the world.
I'm just trying to share my faith, and people are mad at me for doing it,
so I'm not going to do it.
So I have my Bible in my jacket.
They all come in.
They're ready to get shuttled out,
and their shuttle buses came about every 15 to 20 minutes.
They just missed the last one that went out.
Here's this group there, and I'm sitting there feeling bad
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because I told God I ain't going to talk to them, right?
And so I'm sitting there saying, okay, I'm not going to do it, Lord.
I'm not going to do it.
And sure enough, a page of my Bible falls out onto the floor.
so i thought okay no problem i'm gonna pick it up without anyone seeing it so i kind of watched
it look around and i kind of slid it over and went to put it back in my jacket and it fell
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through the bottom of my jacket fell back out on the floor god has a sense of humor right
so i reach for that page again and this time the lighting i swear this has to be a god moment
the lighting in that room was such that i could not see the lettering on the page except for the
words in red the words in red are from acts chapter 18 if you have a bible you want to look at it
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you'll be pretty amazed what they say acts chapter 18 verse 10 it says this the words in red not the
rest of the chapter but the words in red said do not be afraid but speak do not keep silent for i
am with you, and no one will attack you or hurt you, for I have many people in this city. Isn't
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that amazing? How many pages are there in a Bible? There were an 800-page Bible, and that was the
page that fell out on the floor. How many words of red are there in a Bible? All of Jesus' words.
Why that page? God said, okay, Ed, you need to speak. Now, here's the funny thing. When I went
and picked that page up off the ground, I put it back in my jacket. I actually pulled my Bible out
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at this point, put it in the Bible to make sure it didn't fall back on. I said, okay, Lord,
you want me to speak? Fine. You got to get the conversation started. I put my Bible away and
someone said, next words, guess what they were? Is that a Bible? I said, yes, it is. Now here's
the amazing part of the story. 15 minutes later, when the shuttle came to take these people away,
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about half of them stayed and continued in a Bible study.
Now, the Bible study was simply about where did the Bible come from?
Why do we have a Bible?
What's the main theme of the Bible?
I mean, it was as simple a Bible study as you could possibly give,
but God opened the door.
Someone needed to hear that.
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Someone needed to hear those words.
Think about it.
God used his power to work through me.
It wasn't me.
I had no desire to do that, and he could use that same power for you as well.
Whatever gift you have, God can use it.
Now, you may have the gift of hospitality.
Use it.
Invite people.
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You may have the gift, as my wife does, gift of service, serving people, cleaning, helping, whatever.
Do that.
Someone needs a loaf of bread, give them a loaf of bread.
You'll be surprised how God uses that to build his kingdom.
Now, the fourth thing. I said there were four elements of Christian service. The last one is
this. What is the reward of Christian service? I won't read the whole story, but Matthew 25,
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we come down to the end of this incredible story, and Jesus looks and says, well done,
good and faithful servant. You remember that story? You've been faithful over little,
you'll be faithful, or you've been faithful over little, I'll give you much. Well done,
good and faithful service. Think about that. God has a reward for those who are faithful. Now,
we may not even see it in this life, but what an amazing reward that is. God honors faithfulness
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over fame. Every unnoticed act of service is seen by God and he rewards it. And your reward is
eternal for the work that you have done here in this perishable earth. Now, I want you to consider
this. Here's an application for you today. Stay the course, even though the fruit may not be
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immediate. My mother and father prayed for me. I have no question about it for years and years when
I was running around with a street gang in New Jersey. I know they were praying. I know they were
doing everything they could to touch God's heart, if you will, so that he will come and get me,
and he did. God went out of his way to find me and save me, and I know a lot of you
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have that same experience. But now, had they prayed their entire life, and it was,
yo, 50-something years old before I gave my life to Jesus,
still they would have got their reward, amen?
We need to be doing the same for our family and friends as well.
And here are the questions, my challenge for you today.
Are you serving like Jesus served?
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Are you willing to do the lowly things in order to touch people's life?
Is love your motive?
Is that your motivation for serving people,
or is it some sort of gift that you might get back?
Am I drawing on God's strength or on my own strength?
Am I willing to have that spirit of never give up,
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knowing that the reward may not be today but in the future?
Am I willing to never surrender and never give up?
I'm going to close with a story.
Exactly, well, not exactly, almost exactly 30 years to the day,
June 2, 1995, an F-16 fighter plane was flying over Bosnia-Herzegovina.
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He was doing a reconnaissance mission, and while he was flying,
a surface-to-air missile went up and shot him out of the sky.
Captain Scott O'Grady was the pilot's name.
When the plane went down, he injected, he got out,
and after that he spent a week living off of bugs, berries,
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and whatever he could find while the enemy was pursuing him,
planning on killing him because they did not want him to share with the world what he had seen,
what his camera took pictures of out there in the fields,
open graves of mass slaughters in this incredibly sad civil war.
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He had to hide.
There's a movie loosely based on it called Behind Enemy Lines with Gene Hagman and Owen Wilson.
It's loosely based on that story.
As it turns out, he survived.
He really studied his S-E-R-E.
For those of you in the military, you know what that is, his survival, evasion, and so forth.
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He knew what he was doing.
He was told if you get on your radio and contact help, you better be in the spot you're supposed to be
because as soon as you hit that activating button, the enemy is going to know where you're at as well.
So he waited until he was in spot number one.
the landing zone where he was supposed to be picked up.
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He hit the radio, turned it on, and said,
I am at location one or whatever he said.
I didn't read the whole story, but yes, I am here.
He said, okay, we're coming to get you.
During the week he was hiding in the woods,
the United States military, this was a NATO operation,
but this was a United States military,
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was preparing a rescue operation.
The special forces group was a 24th Marine Expeditionary Force.
They sent 64 men to go save this one guy's life.
Now, I want you to think about this.
It does not sound logical to risk the lives of 64 guys to save one person, does it?
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It just doesn't seem logical.
You're going to let 64 people die to save one?
Well, I want you to think about this logic.
You're going to send God the Father, His majesty is going to send the darling of heaven,
the Son of God Himself, Jesus Christ, one with the Father to this earth to save us.
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And we may have rejected that love, but willing to send Him to die for even one person.
Wow, that's amazing.
Those 64 Marines went out.
They were able to rescue Commander Scott O'Grady, who, by the way, after he was rescued,
I'm going to tell the end of the story before I get to the middle.
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Went back to college, studied theology because he knew God saved him.
He wanted to touch other people's life with the gospel.
Well, as it turns out, they interviewed some of those Marines and asked,
hey, was there any reward?
Did you get any medal to put out, you know, for going out to save this man?
And you know what their answer was?
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Our reward was to see a soul saved.
Now think about that.
Our reward for service for our majesty, God himself, is to see someone say yes to Jesus,
to see a smile on someone's face when you give them something they really need,
or to touch somebody's life who's really hurting, or to hug someone who hasn't been hugged.
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Someone mentioned that in our Sabbath school.
That's our reward, to see the great joy in a person's life.
Today, my call to you is to recommit to serving God out of love without condition and trust God
to have him bear the fruit through your obedience. I believe that God can fill this church. What do
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you do? You believe that's true? Amen. I wouldn't be surprised if everyone took up that fire of
loving Jesus and loving fellow man and saying, hey, use me, Lord, that this church would be filled
in no time. He can do it. I know we're in a heavy, you know, Latter-day Saints community, but you know
what? Those people love Jesus too. Amen? So we can do it. We can do it. We just have to be ready and
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be faithful to be used. You want to save souls for the kingdom? Jesus is the only one that can do that,
but you can be one of his missionaries. Smile at someone. Care for someone. Show someone love.
If someone needs help, be in his majesty service.
That's my prayer for you today.
Let's pray.
Father in heaven, we thank you for your goodness and love to us.
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Thank you for all that you do for us, all that we have in Jesus.
And Father, today we pray that we would use that example of your son Jesus to serve others.
Lord, not out of obligation, but simply because we love people.
You motivate us by love for Jesus and our fellow man.
And Lord, let your Holy Spirit be the power that helps us to teach and reach others for you.
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And finally, Lord, we know that that reward will come someday, whether it's today or in the future.
But we trust and we want to hold the forward and hold the ground until you come again, we pray in Jesus' name.
Amen.
So, you probably all know Elder Ed Keyes.
In fact, I'm going to invite him forward.
I'm going to share a little bit.
I texted him yesterday and said,
Hey, I want to introduce you and I want to share something.
What can't I share?
He said, let the Lord lead.
So watch out.
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Anyway, of course, we all know him as our conference, Arizona conference president.
We are so happy that he's here today.
But I know him by a lot of other names.
And one is Pastor Keyes.
The other one is President Keyes or President Ed.
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And then, of course, I know him best by Ed.
Because Renee and I were youth leaders at our church in Medford, Oregon,
and back in probably, I would say, 1994, maybe 95, I could be wrong,
I heard about him.
He was a pastor on the Oregon coast,
and we invited him for a youth rally at our church
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to share his testimony, how God led in his life.
God continues to lead in his life.
That was a start of a friendship.
And a few years later,
we invited him to be our pastor at our church.
So I got the opportunity to know him really well,
him and Lily, and watched his kids grow up.
He watched Michael grow up, our son.
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And then he went to New Jersey as, I think, the ministerial director.
And so I thought, oh, that's a long ways away.
And he had already said that he would love to call Michael at that time, who was preparing to go to college and maybe study for the ministry, into his conference.
And I was thinking, oh, Lord, don't let him go clear to New Jersey.
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So then he came to Arizona.
And I know he's worked in many hats, ministerial director.
I think executive secretary.
And then he got called away from Arizona to be a president at the Utah-Nevada conference.
But then we called him back.
And so we are so happy that Elder Ed Keyes is here.
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And thank you for your friendship.
And it's all yours.
Alan,
Speaker 2 (02:12):
God bless you.
Thank you for that amazing introduction.
Alan could have said a lot of other things that wouldn't have been so, you know, flattering.
But thank you. I appreciate that. Yeah, I've known Alan and Renee quite a while. He's right. He,
I think it was 93 or 94. He asked me to come and speak for one of his youth rallies there.
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And we've been friends ever since. And, uh, and I ended up pastoring the church without Alan and
Renee and their son, Michael was at, and I've been a part of two very important events in their son's
life, which was their wedding, his wedding, I should say, and also his ordination. So yeah,
We're connected, connected by the elbows, I guess.
But I'm really thankful to be a part of this service today at the Mesa Palms Church.
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And I'm thankful my wife is able to join me today.
And we've had a long history with this church.
When you mentioned Carol Kreider, when I came to this conference in 2003,
I held a series of meetings here as an evangelist.
And Carol Kreider was doing Alice's job at the time.
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And she did a wonderful job making sure all of those papers and things were produced properly.
And all of my newsletters went out to the visitors and the guests and so forth.
And since then, I've been here a number of times.
And I'm really thankful to be back and to see all my friends here.
So as my custom is, I want to begin with a word of prayer as I open God's word.
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Just ask you to bow your heads with me for a moment.
Father in heaven, once again, we thank you for your blessings, your goodness, your love.
And Lord, we thank you most of all for that indescribable gift of eternal life through
Jesus, your son.
We pray, Lord, today as we open your word, that your spirit would guide and direct us,
we pray in Jesus' name.
Amen.
Title of the message, In His Majesty's Service.
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What does that remind you of?
Okay, someone said UK.
You're in the right direction.
Okay.
Well, that term started, believe it or not, a couple of hundred years ago when letters
were sent out of Buckingham Palace, they did not need any postage. As long as it came from
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Buckingham Palace, it was sent anywhere in the world. The United Kingdom would pay for it to go
anywhere in the world, package, letter, or whatever. Well, that turned into a byword for the military
of the UK. In other words, British soldiers would say, we're fighting in the King's service,
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in His Majesty's service, or maybe in the Queen's service, depending upon who was sitting on the
throne at the time. And it was important for them. They wanted people to know that the reason why
they were there, they were there protecting king and country. Now, I want you to think about this.
That's important to stand for king and country and stand for our nation. My father was an infantryman
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in the 28th Infantry in World War II, saw some of the bloodiest battles you can imagine, fought in
the Battle of the Bulge. He was at Normandy and so forth. He fought for his country. He fought for
his fellow man. But have you ever thought about standing up and defending and fighting for God's
honor in the true majesty service? Who's the real majesty of this world? God himself. So we're going
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to look at this today. I want to go back to the scripture that Rusty read earlier. And it is 2
Timothy chapter 2, verse 20 through 22. It says, but in a great house, there are not only vessels
of gold and silver, but some of wood and clay, some for honor and some for a lesser purpose.
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Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from the latter, he will be a vessel of honor,
sanctified, and useful for the master. How many of you want to be useful for the master? Amen.
It goes on to say, prepared for every good work. Flee also youthful lust, but pursue righteousness,
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faith, love, peace with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.
When we embrace the call to serve with humility, love, and purpose, we are embracing the call
to serve in His, His majesty's service.
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Now, I know a lot of you in this room.
I look out and see some of my friends, and I can tell you that is what you've been called
to do, to serve in His majesty's service.
I had an experience some years ago.
I was driving my car, driving.
This was in Washington State.
You know, I was pastoring in Oregon, but my wife and I would go up to Washington sometimes
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to see her cousin of hers.
And while we were driving, we passed a church, big church, beautiful-looking church.
It was like this beautiful church.
It had a sign outside, such and such Baptist church.
And it said, 300 members, 300 ministers.
What do you think about that?
Was it a minister per member or was it a minister for every member?
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In other words, what they were saying is every single person in that church,
they considered a minister.
Shouldn't that be true of any of our churches?
Every member is a minister.
I had someone tell me some years ago, if you're not working for the master,
or I should say, if you're a mission field, that means you don't have Jesus in your heart.
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You know, okay, you're a mission field. But if you have Jesus in your heart,
then you're a missionary. And I kind of botched that a little bit, but that's what it means.
We are called to be ministers and missionaries for God. So I want to share with you today four
elements of what it means to be a Christian servant, to do what God calls you to do in
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his majesty service. First example. First one is the example of Jesus in our service. The greatest
example of all, and Sharon almost stole my first point in your Sabbath school lesson this morning.
The greatest example of Christian service is Christ himself. Mark chapter 10, verse 45. You
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want to read along with me? You can read along. Mark chapter 10, verse 45. You want to read it
later, write it down and read it later. It says this, in the New King James Version,
for even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom
for many. We all know the story in John chapter 13 of Jesus washing his disciples' feet,
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and I'm going to read a little piece of it. It says, you call me teacher and Lord, and you say,
well, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought
to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example that you should do as I have done.
The main point Jesus was trying to make to his disciples is true leadership begins with humble
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service. Appreciate Donnie's announcement about sunshine. Think about it. What are they doing?
they're not asking anything in return when they do the sunshine program. They're not saying,
okay, if I take care of your teeth or if I help you with your blood pressure or give you whatever,
they're not saying now you have to be a member of our church. Now that may happen. By default,
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it may happen. But what they're saying is we love you enough, we're going to serve you,
and Jesus was our example. Now think about this. I want you to think about this foot washing
because there's only a couple of churches in the world that actually do a foot washing. They all
communion. It seems like every Christian church does some part of the Lord's Supper, but there
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are only a couple. The Adventists are probably the main ones that do a foot washing. Why do we do it?
As a reminder that Jesus served and we should serve. Now, we all come to foot washing with
clean feet, don't we? Okay. On foot washing day, I get down and literally scrub my feet with that
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old lava soap. I'm going to make sure it's really nice and clean when I come to foot washing
service. Now, the truth is, though, it's a symbol of what we should be doing for other people,
caring for others, reaching out to them, touching them in their needs. When Jesus came to Peter,
do you remember Peter's reaction? Jesus said, I'm going to wash your feet. He had girded himself
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with the towel. He went to wash Peter's feet, and Peter said, oh, thank you, Lord. Is that what he
said? No. He said, not me. No, you're not never going to touch my feet. I'm a filthy, dirty sinner.
You're the savior of the universe. You're not cleaning my feet. And then Jesus says,
well, if you don't let me do this, you have no part of me. Now, I love Peter. What's Peter do?
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Well, then don't just wash my feet. Wash my whole body. That's the kind of, that's the kind of,
he was a real sanguine Peter. He wanted it all. So sure enough, Jesus says, no, you don't need
your whole body to be washed right now, just your feet. What Jesus did was really out of the ordinary.
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You know, when a group of master, a rabbi, someone was discipling people, teaching people,
if they used a home for a special event, a dinner or some teaching, you know what they did? They
hired a servant to wash their feet. Jesus took the role of the servant and bent down and washed
those disciples' feet. Jesus, our Lord and teacher, the master of the universe, stooped to do a
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servant's task. The challenge he gives us today is, are we willing to do the lowly things in order
to lift others up? I mentioned my father was a frontline infantryman, private first class Walter
A. Keyes, on the frontline in the Battle of the Bulbs. He started the war in Normandy as a 30
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caliber water-cooled machine gun operator. One day into the battle on the beaches of Normandy,
his tripod ammunition man was killed. They turned him into the company sniper. Now, I won't get into
all the details. That's a pretty gory job. You actually see the person go down when you're a
sniper. So he was the company scout sniper for D Company there in the 28th Infantry for the rest
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of the war. He was scouting with a couple other guys, enemy positions during the Battle of the
in a hurricane forest and as he's scouting these enemy positions he sees a general's jeep rolling
along and he looked to one of his buddies and he said someone some idiot stole the general's jeep
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they're going to get hit with artillery and killed out here in the front lines
turns out as the jeep rolled by it was good old george blood and guts pet he waved at the troops
that said give them blank blank blank i won't get into this wording my dad gives the whole wording
but give them blank you guys fight for your country we're gonna beat these nazis today
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sure enough the jeep drove by now what in the world would it you know if you were the general's
liaison or you know working with general patten you probably had a good chance of getting killed
because he's the kind of guy that pull out a pistol and try to shoot down a plane.
He had no fear.
But why was he on the front lines of a battle?
Generals don't do that.
He was there to motivate his troops.
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When we serve others as Jesus did, as an example, we motivate others to do the same.
That's one of the great things that God calls us to do, to serve like Jesus served.
You know, I don't know if any of you have read the book, The Five Language of Love.
Any of you ever read that five languages of love?
So I read that some years ago, and I was a little disappointed.
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Here they are.
Affection, affirmation, words of affirmation, giving of gifts, quality time, and acts of service.
Now, the reason why I was disappointed is my gift is words of affirmation.
I like when someone passes me and they're like, oh, thank you, Pastor.
You're doing a great job.
My second one is affection.
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I love to be affectionate with my special lady.
Now, here's the interesting thing.
My wife's is acts of service.
Now, that means if I want to make her happy, I have to scrub the floor, do the dishes, mop, vacuum, and clean.
Those are not my favorite things to do.
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But that's her language of love.
She'll do that for anybody, people she don't even know.
acts of service one of the languages of love and it's what jesus taught us he was our great example
i had an experience a couple of years ago we had a um education director who was leaving she took a
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call to be education director in the lake union so she was leaving us for a different position
and as her farewell party what she wanted was to go to an arizona diamondbacks game i said okay
that's a great farewell party. I have a friend who's very good at getting tickets, so he worked
it out to get tickets for all of us to go to this ballgame and treat her to a ballgame and so forth.
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While we were there at the ballgame, she had a great time and so forth. But what was interesting
was instead of paying $15 for a burrito, I decided to go to the Taco Bell close by,
Okay, really close by.
So I walked over there, and you could get four burritos for $15 at a Taco Bell.
So I went to Taco Bell and got a couple of burritos.
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I'm sitting in the window, and I'm looking outside, and I see a car roll up,
and a girl jump out the car and run into the Taco Bell.
Now, they had a sign outside that said, hiring, apply within.
So the girl comes running in.
She wasn't looking for a meal.
She runs to the counter, and she said, I'd like to apply for a job.
I see you're hiring.
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She looked like she might have been 19 years old.
She was pretty young.
And sure enough, the manager comes out and says, well, you know, here's how you apply for the job.
You go online, you take your laptop, your computer, go online and type in, and here's our store code, and you apply this way.
Now, what was interesting was she said, I don't have a computer.
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Okay, well, no problem.
Use your laptop or your tablet.
She goes, I don't have one of those either.
And then the lady looked at her and said, well, you can do it on your phone.
And she goes, I don't have one of those either.
The manager at that Taco Bell looked like she was going to die.
To think there's one person left in the world that doesn't have a phone.
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And she goes, well, I'm sorry, I don't know how to help you then.
And she wasn't mean, but she was ready to get back to her work.
Now, what I noticed, there was a guy in there scrubbing the floors,
probably the lowest rung of the totem pole in the Taco Bell, you know, economy. He was working. He
was at the bottom level. He was cleaning the floors. He got up and he went to the manager and said,
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hey, can I help her? I've got a tablet. She goes, okay, just as long as you get your job done,
that's fine. So sure enough, went over there and helped her type it in and put in, you know,
what she needed, all the information and so forth and do the application. That girl was so happy
when she went outside. Someone cared for her. Now, it was interesting, though, it was the
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lowest on the totem pole that took care of her. He didn't care. He just cared about her.
So the second thing, the second reason why we are in His Majesty's service, or the second
thing is how we are motivated. Are we motivated by love? Think about it. This guy didn't really
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know her, but he was a loving, caring guy. I don't know if I'd like to say he was the elder of the
such and such church. No, I don't know who he was. I don't even know if he was a Christian,
but he was motivated because he cared about someone. He had love in his heart. Do you love
people? Well, if you love people, that should be your motivation to care and to serve. That's the
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second element of Christian service, the motivation behind it, which is love. Mother Teresa took a trip
to India when she was a young girl. Think about this. Took a trip to India when she was a young
girl, and she said, Jesus died for me. He was willing to serve me. I should be willing to serve.
These people really need help. She spent her whole life helping the people in Calcutta, India.
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Her motivation, love for Jesus and love for her fellow man. And she touched hundreds and hundreds
and thousands of people's lives. 1 John 4, verse 11 says this, Beloved, if God so loved us,
we also ought to love one another. Amen? Here's another passage for you. 1 Corinthians 16,
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verse 14. Let all that you do, that's you and me, those who call on the name of Jesus,
let all that you do be done with love. 2 Corinthians 5, 14, 15, it says that it's the love
of Christ that compels us to work for him. The main point here is love for Christ is what fuels
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our service. We don't do it out of obligation or recognition, but out of love. That is the driving
force. Jesus gave everything. Our service is a response to that love. Amen. So sometimes we have
to check our own hearts. Are we serving out of love or are we serving out of duty? Do we serve
because we care about people? When the motive is love, it is far less likely that you will get
(20:22):
burned out or stressed out. That's for sure. I'll tell you a story that was amazing to me. And this
was in Allen's neighborhood, basically, Medford, Oregon. I remember, thank you, Robert. I remember
when I was pastoring in Medford, Oregon, I lived on the streets. My neighborhood was Fairbanks,
Alcan, and Yukon. Okay, so we were living in Medford, but we had these Alaska names.
(20:47):
Well, I lived on 2209 Fairbanks Avenue. My next door neighbor, his name was John Meyer,
had the exact same birthday as me, May 16th, only he was two years younger.
So a couple of times I invited him, hey, on May 16th,
why don't we go hang out and, you know, go play golf together?
I'll pay for you.
He goes, well, then I'll pay for you.
(21:08):
So it worked out.
Neither one of us paid for ourselves, but we paid for the other person.
So we gave a birthday present and got something out of it.
So it was kind of fun.
We did that a couple times, but we got to know each other,
and we had a good experience.
and their kids were about the same age as our kids, so they hung out and played together and so forth.
John had an old Chevy Suburban, and I remember one day coming out and watching him
(21:31):
pulling pieces off and working on this car, and I'm going, oh, this poor guy. I said, but I don't
have time. I'm a pastor. I have to go to work. So I'm driving to the office, and I get to the
office, and I say, oh, poor John. See him out there again, day after day after day, trying to get his
old Chevy Suburban working. As it turns out, I remember one day going over there, I said,
(21:57):
John, the mistake you have is you bought a Chevy. You should have bought a Ford,
you know. And he looked at me, he goes, oh, and I know your Fords all have a million miles on it,
but you're a miracle guy. So we talked about it a little bit. We joked. And I said, and it's just
a joke, of course. I said, hey, let me help you work on your car. And then I looked at it, went
(22:18):
in, check, pull the spark plug wire off, stuck a screwdriver in, see if he was getting spark. He's
getting spark. I did, you know, the typical things. I was, I worked for Pontiac, by the way, if you
remember Pontiac. I was a mechanic with them before I went into ministry. And so I tried to help him
get it going. I said, you got a fuel problem, but I don't have time to work on it today. So sure
enough, I drive off to work. Then one day, you know, Holy Spirit touches, you got to listen.
(22:42):
So one day I'm starting out of my driveway and the way my neighborhood was where it was kind of
a little cul-de-sac, but really one street and then two streets going this way and that way.
So as I pull out, the way I'm driving down the street, I could see in my rear view mirror,
John working on his car. And I thought, oh no. So I tried to turn the mirror so I couldn't see it.
(23:04):
And I kept driving, but he was still in the mirror. It seemed like that block was four miles long. I
could not get him out of my mirror. So I said, I know I'm busy, but I need to turn around. So I get
the corner, make a U-turn, drive back. I said, John, let me help you. So I pull his carburetor
off. And a long story short, it took me about a day and a half to rebuild his old carburetor,
(23:26):
but I got it rebuilt, put his car back on the road. He was so excited. Now I have to tell you,
I had invited him to church, to evangelistic meetings, to Sabbath school, to social things.
The entire time I lived there, he never came one time.
I worked on his car.
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The next week, he says, hey, can I come to your church this week?
Think about that.
Now, when you serve someone, that's not why you're serving them,
but sometimes it has those reciprocal results.
He came to one of our series of meetings.
He came to one of the best Super Bowl parties we ever had.
He started coming to different things, and then he even went to the Central Point Church
(24:09):
because where he worked was close to that church, and he worked on Saturday so he could sneak out
and go to church and then go back to his work, his job. It was amazing. He had no desire whatsoever
to go to my church. I invited him a bunch of times until he saw I was willing to help him.
Service has an impact, and we need to serve out of love. Point number three, the power to serve
(24:34):
is through the Holy Spirit and the gifts that God gives you. That's the third element of Christian
service. 1 Peter 4, verse 9 through 11 says this, be hospitable to one another without grumbling.
As each one has received the gift, minister it to one another as good stewards of the manifold
grace of God. God has given you a gift. Use it. Dave uses gift. Play that guitar. When he was
(24:59):
playing that guitar, I saw scenes of beautiful, you know, birds flying and have you ever gone on
a YouTube and put on one of those YouTubes of nature scenes and there's someone playing acoustic
guitar in the background. That's what I was seeing when Dave was playing. Use the gift that God gives
you, whatever that may be. He goes, if anyone speaks, let him speak of the oracles of God.
(25:21):
If anyone ministers, let him do it with the ability which God supplies, that in all things,
God may be glorified. Amen? Through Jesus Christ, to whom belong the glory and the dominion forever
and ever. God equips us with spiritual gifts and with grace to serve. You know, we're not called to
(25:47):
serve in our own strength. When I was a literature evangelist, I did this for a couple of years,
going to college.
Speaker 1 (25:52):
Any
Speaker 2 (25:52):
of you ever done LE work? Any Cole Porters in the room? It's, there you go,
It's one of the most difficult jobs in the world because you never know who's behind that door.
And I can tell you, doing it in New Jersey made it even extra hard.
When I would open that door, or when they would open that door, I would be back there saying,
boy, I hope they don't come out with a shotgun, a switchblade, or throw something at me.
(26:15):
But sure enough, they'd open the door and I'd start talking to them.
Hi, my name is Ed Keyes with the Home Health Education Services.
I'm here today to give you a very special offer.
You know, you have this thing memorized.
Well, I wasn't really good at that.
You can see I'm not really a note preacher, nor was I a note literature evangelist.
So I got off the script a bunch of times.
(26:35):
But I remember a whole bunch of times people inviting me in their home,
sitting me down, even giving me food and water and drink and meal and so forth.
And we talked about these amazing books that God had for them.
I could not do that if it wasn't for the power of God.
It's not something that's in me to do.
(26:56):
And God did it.
God did amazing things.
Probably the greatest example of someone who didn't have much to begin with,
letting the Holy Spirit inspire them and empower them to do God's work,
is one of the founders of this church, a lady named Ellen G. White.
Have you heard that name?
(27:16):
Third grade education, sickly girl, didn't have much going for her,
not even really the most attractive person in the world.
But as it turns out, God used her in order to inspire a whole church.
I can't imagine this church having someone like that.
(27:37):
Well, obviously the Holy Spirit using, working through her, giving her visions and so forth.
I can't imagine how far this church has gone.
Second largest school system in the world.
I mean, Christian school system.
Second largest healthcare system in the world.
We have hospitals and clinics all over the world inspired by a girl with a third grade education.
(28:03):
That had to be God working through them.
No question.
That's a miracle.
Amen.
She let God use her.
Now, I won't get into the whole story.
You know your church history.
There were two people God spoke to before Ellen White that said, no, I can't do this job.
She was a humble, willing servant.
(28:23):
If we're willing to let God work through us, he will do amazing things.
Rely on his strength, not just your own skills or experience.
I encourage you in your ministry, whatever it may be, to discover the gifts of God and use them for him.
I remember being a security guard.
(28:44):
This was shortly after Pontiac said, we can't have you if you can't work on Sabbath.
I didn't know all the religious liberty laws.
I could have gotten a letter to let me continue to work there, but I didn't know that, so I just quit.
But I remember working as a security guard for Tropicana Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
(29:06):
I had the uniform. I had the equipment.
I didn't understand the conscientious objector thing.
It didn't work, I guess, with security guards.
But, you know, I had my weapons and so forth.
And my job was to take care of the shuttle stop where the employees would come in and get distributed to go inside the casino to blackjack dealers and waiters and waitresses and whatever else they did.
(29:31):
But I was to protect them.
That was my job.
Every night around 3 o'clock in the morning, 3 to 4 o'clock in the morning, a whole bunch of people would come in there and get shuttled out to their cars out on the Atlantic City Expressway about, you know, six, seven miles away.
They couldn't park there.
They weren't allowed to park in the regular lot.
So as it turns out, one evening I had my Bible.
(29:53):
I called it the mechanics version of Bible because it was all greasy and falling apart.
Okay.
So I had my Bible there and I started talking to some of the people and they shut me down
so quick.
I said, okay, I'm done with this.
I put the Bible underneath my jacket and I said, I'm just going to leave this alone.
You know, that's God's business.
(30:13):
He needs to save them.
I'm not the savior of the world.
I'm just trying to share my faith, and people are mad at me for doing it,
so I'm not going to do it.
So I have my Bible in my jacket.
They all come in.
They're ready to get shuttled out,
and their shuttle buses came about every 15 to 20 minutes.
They just missed the last one that went out.
Here's this group there, and I'm sitting there feeling bad
(30:34):
because I told God I ain't going to talk to them, right?
And so I'm sitting there saying, okay, I'm not going to do it, Lord.
I'm not going to do it.
And sure enough, a page of my Bible falls out onto the floor.
so i thought okay no problem i'm gonna pick it up without anyone seeing it so i kind of watched
it look around and i kind of slid it over and went to put it back in my jacket and it fell
(30:59):
through the bottom of my jacket fell back out on the floor god has a sense of humor right
so i reach for that page again and this time the lighting i swear this has to be a god moment
the lighting in that room was such that i could not see the lettering on the page except for the
words in red the words in red are from acts chapter 18 if you have a bible you want to look at it
(31:24):
you'll be pretty amazed what they say acts chapter 18 verse 10 it says this the words in red not the
rest of the chapter but the words in red said do not be afraid but speak do not keep silent for i
am with you, and no one will attack you or hurt you, for I have many people in this city. Isn't
(31:46):
that amazing? How many pages are there in a Bible? There were an 800-page Bible, and that was the
page that fell out on the floor. How many words of red are there in a Bible? All of Jesus' words.
Why that page? God said, okay, Ed, you need to speak. Now, here's the funny thing. When I went
and picked that page up off the ground, I put it back in my jacket. I actually pulled my Bible out
(32:09):
at this point, put it in the Bible to make sure it didn't fall back on. I said, okay, Lord,
you want me to speak? Fine. You got to get the conversation started. I put my Bible away and
someone said, next words, guess what they were? Is that a Bible? I said, yes, it is. Now here's
the amazing part of the story. 15 minutes later, when the shuttle came to take these people away,
(32:34):
about half of them stayed and continued in a Bible study.
Now, the Bible study was simply about where did the Bible come from?
Why do we have a Bible?
What's the main theme of the Bible?
I mean, it was as simple a Bible study as you could possibly give,
but God opened the door.
Someone needed to hear that.
(32:56):
Someone needed to hear those words.
Think about it.
God used his power to work through me.
It wasn't me.
I had no desire to do that, and he could use that same power for you as well.
Whatever gift you have, God can use it.
Now, you may have the gift of hospitality.
Use it.
Invite people.
(33:17):
You may have the gift, as my wife does, gift of service, serving people, cleaning, helping, whatever.
Do that.
Someone needs a loaf of bread, give them a loaf of bread.
You'll be surprised how God uses that to build his kingdom.
Now, the fourth thing. I said there were four elements of Christian service. The last one is
this. What is the reward of Christian service? I won't read the whole story, but Matthew 25,
(33:40):
we come down to the end of this incredible story, and Jesus looks and says, well done,
good and faithful servant. You remember that story? You've been faithful over little,
you'll be faithful, or you've been faithful over little, I'll give you much. Well done,
good and faithful service. Think about that. God has a reward for those who are faithful. Now,
we may not even see it in this life, but what an amazing reward that is. God honors faithfulness
(34:06):
over fame. Every unnoticed act of service is seen by God and he rewards it. And your reward is
eternal for the work that you have done here in this perishable earth. Now, I want you to consider
this. Here's an application for you today. Stay the course, even though the fruit may not be
(34:28):
immediate. My mother and father prayed for me. I have no question about it for years and years when
I was running around with a street gang in New Jersey. I know they were praying. I know they were
doing everything they could to touch God's heart, if you will, so that he will come and get me,
and he did. God went out of his way to find me and save me, and I know a lot of you
(34:50):
have that same experience. But now, had they prayed their entire life, and it was,
yo, 50-something years old before I gave my life to Jesus,
still they would have got their reward, amen?
We need to be doing the same for our family and friends as well.
And here are the questions, my challenge for you today.
Are you serving like Jesus served?
(35:12):
Are you willing to do the lowly things in order to touch people's life?
Is love your motive?
Is that your motivation for serving people,
or is it some sort of gift that you might get back?
Am I drawing on God's strength or on my own strength?
Am I willing to have that spirit of never give up,
(35:32):
knowing that the reward may not be today but in the future?
Am I willing to never surrender and never give up?
I'm going to close with a story.
Exactly, well, not exactly, almost exactly 30 years to the day,
June 2, 1995, an F-16 fighter plane was flying over Bosnia-Herzegovina.
(35:54):
He was doing a reconnaissance mission, and while he was flying,
a surface-to-air missile went up and shot him out of the sky.
Captain Scott O'Grady was the pilot's name.
When the plane went down, he injected, he got out,
and after that he spent a week living off of bugs, berries,
(36:15):
and whatever he could find while the enemy was pursuing him,
planning on killing him because they did not want him to share with the world what he had seen,
what his camera took pictures of out there in the fields,
open graves of mass slaughters in this incredibly sad civil war.
(36:36):
He had to hide.
There's a movie loosely based on it called Behind Enemy Lines with Gene Hagman and Owen Wilson.
It's loosely based on that story.
As it turns out, he survived.
He really studied his S-E-R-E.
For those of you in the military, you know what that is, his survival, evasion, and so forth.
(37:00):
He knew what he was doing.
He was told if you get on your radio and contact help, you better be in the spot you're supposed to be
because as soon as you hit that activating button, the enemy is going to know where you're at as well.
So he waited until he was in spot number one.
the landing zone where he was supposed to be picked up.
(37:22):
He hit the radio, turned it on, and said,
I am at location one or whatever he said.
I didn't read the whole story, but yes, I am here.
He said, okay, we're coming to get you.
During the week he was hiding in the woods,
the United States military, this was a NATO operation,
but this was a United States military,
(37:42):
was preparing a rescue operation.
The special forces group was a 24th Marine Expeditionary Force.
They sent 64 men to go save this one guy's life.
Now, I want you to think about this.
It does not sound logical to risk the lives of 64 guys to save one person, does it?
(38:08):
It just doesn't seem logical.
You're going to let 64 people die to save one?
Well, I want you to think about this logic.
You're going to send God the Father, His majesty is going to send the darling of heaven,
the Son of God Himself, Jesus Christ, one with the Father to this earth to save us.
(38:28):
And we may have rejected that love, but willing to send Him to die for even one person.
Wow, that's amazing.
Those 64 Marines went out.
They were able to rescue Commander Scott O'Grady, who, by the way, after he was rescued,
I'm going to tell the end of the story before I get to the middle.
(38:48):
Went back to college, studied theology because he knew God saved him.
He wanted to touch other people's life with the gospel.
Well, as it turns out, they interviewed some of those Marines and asked,
hey, was there any reward?
Did you get any medal to put out, you know, for going out to save this man?
And you know what their answer was?
(39:09):
Our reward was to see a soul saved.
Now think about that.
Our reward for service for our majesty, God himself, is to see someone say yes to Jesus,
to see a smile on someone's face when you give them something they really need,
or to touch somebody's life who's really hurting, or to hug someone who hasn't been hugged.
(39:32):
Someone mentioned that in our Sabbath school.
That's our reward, to see the great joy in a person's life.
Today, my call to you is to recommit to serving God out of love without condition and trust God
to have him bear the fruit through your obedience. I believe that God can fill this church. What do
(39:54):
you do? You believe that's true? Amen. I wouldn't be surprised if everyone took up that fire of
loving Jesus and loving fellow man and saying, hey, use me, Lord, that this church would be filled
in no time. He can do it. I know we're in a heavy, you know, Latter-day Saints community, but you know
what? Those people love Jesus too. Amen? So we can do it. We can do it. We just have to be ready and
(40:19):
be faithful to be used. You want to save souls for the kingdom? Jesus is the only one that can do that,
but you can be one of his missionaries. Smile at someone. Care for someone. Show someone love.
If someone needs help, be in his majesty service.
That's my prayer for you today.
Let's pray.
Father in heaven, we thank you for your goodness and love to us.
(40:41):
Thank you for all that you do for us, all that we have in Jesus.
And Father, today we pray that we would use that example of your son Jesus to serve others.
Lord, not out of obligation, but simply because we love people.
You motivate us by love for Jesus and our fellow man.
And Lord, let your Holy Spirit be the power that helps us to teach and reach others for you.
(41:04):
And finally, Lord, we know that that reward will come someday, whether it's today or in the future.
But we trust and we want to hold the forward and hold the ground until you come again, we pray in Jesus' name.
Amen.
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