How Serving Actually Serves You - Archie Callahan
Today, we're going to look at Ephesians chapter 4.
Are my relationships real?
I think many of us ask that question.
Are the relationships that I'm presently in, are they real?
I believe we live in a world of connectivity where we're connected like never before.
We have cell towers everywhere that connect us through cell technology.
We have cell phones.
We have smartphones.
Mr. Sound Man, I'm ringing a little bit back here on the stage.
And we have things that keep us connected.
These cell phones, man, they have FaceTime technology.
They have social media all over them, whether it's TikTok or Instagram, Facebook, X. With the push of a button, man, we can be connected to any part of the world.
I have friends that travel a lot and they can be in the UK, they can be in Africa and in an instant I'll get a picture from them.
That's how connected we are.
But though we live in a world that is very much connected, we are the most disconnected generation to ever live on planet earth.
Because what we believe is connectivity and relationship is often an illusion that has no ability or power to give us life.
We live in a world where people are suffering from loneliness.
Surgeon General back in 2023 declared that loneliness was an epidemic.
2025, it had gotten no better.
It actually got worse, up by 20%.
Loneliness is a plague that plagues the soul of humanity.
From the very beginning of time, God said in the garden, it's not good for man to be alone.
You were not built, you were not designed to be isolated.
You were built and designed to be in community, in fellowship, connected with other living, breathing, vibrant human beings.
Gen Z, those people that are 14 to 29, they are suffering from great loneliness.
I think that's why suicide is on the rise.
Depression is at an all-time high in that generation.
The millennials after them, 29 to 45, 30 to 45-year-olds, they suffer.
You know the group of people that are not suffering from loneliness as hard is the senior adults.
We often think senior adults get really lonely because nobody comes by and sees them.
Or they're in an assisted living home.
But statistics do not bear that out.
I believe it's because their generation did not grow up with a smartphone in their hand.
Now they have adopted that.
But they learned to connect with other human beings.
There is a study that's going on right now with young men.
And I'm not young, but I'm concerned about men.
Young men at this moment in history are dating less and less.
In fact, the studies prove that the cell phone technology and social media technology
platforms have taken away young men's ability to actually communicate face to face with the opposite sex.
Young men cannot even look a young lady in the eyes because they have lost all forms of
Of ability to communicate.
Verbal communication.
Body language.
A smile.
Thus.
They're staying home longer.
And mom and dads.
Up a room.
We call it a frog.
Room over the garage.
Chilling out on Instagram.
Playing video games.
Until their brain is fried.
And they have lost connection.
Connection.
What kind of world is that?
A world where people can't speak.
A world where you go out to eat and you never look up at the person in front of you.
Open Table is a company where you make reservations.
Anybody ever made reservations through Open Table?
Come on, if you're going out to eat at a high-end restaurant, you usually have to do it through Open Table.
Open Table just came out with a study, and the Washington Post actually put this study out.
It says that solo dining has gone up 23% in the last year.
People are going out to eat by themselves.
And you know what the average ticket price is?
Their receipt price?
$94.
Food will never satisfy your desire for connection.
$94.
Now, they're not going to Chick-fil-A, bro.
They're definitely not going to McDonald's.
But they're dining alone at a greater rate than ever before in human history.
I think Jesus would go crazy in our culture.
Because Jesus was a foodie.
Jesus loved eating.
He saw a short man in a tree.
And he said, come down out of that tree, Zacchaeus.
I'm going to your house.
I'm going to your house to eat.
How many of you know Jesus was all about sitting around tables with people, conversing and getting to know other people.
I grew up in a home that loved to eat.
Can't you see?
My parents always had people over, always loving on people, always around dinner tables.
I grew up in a church, man.
We would have church on Sunday night, Wednesday night, Sunday morning, revivals.
But after Sunday night, everybody would gather somewhere and eat and talk and create relationships.
We've lost the art of relational connections.
Jesus said in Matthew 24 that in the last days, many would be deceived.
I believe we've entered that where we're deceived even at the level of our relationships of thinking that our social connections are real relationships.
Just because I peer into somebody's life and I follow family members on Instagram and Facebook and other platforms doesn't mean I have a relationship with them.
It's an illusion.
Some of you will see Pastor Tangie, man, singing on the internet and talking on the internet.
And you say, I know her.
No, you know about her.
I know her.
Hallelujah.
Amen.
Praise God.
I know her intimately, close, personally.
I know Tangi Riri.
I know her.
And so don't be confused about knowing about somebody and knowing them personally.
It's happening in our marriages.
It's happening in our relationship with our kids.
It's amazing.
We go on a trip and the first thing we hand our kids is an iPad, a phone.
Here, shut up and be quiet.
That's what we're saying.
And it's destroying family dynamics where we can't communicate.
And so when we have a problem because we haven't learned to communicate, that suffers and families become fragmented because...
We have not taken the time to develop relationships through communication.
Did you know when God in the garden told Adam and Eve, if you eat from this tree, surely you will die.
That word die is not just a physical death.
It is actually the cessation of communication.
With who?
Their creator.
Their creator.
So when Adam and Eve ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they died.
How?
Their relationship with God was broken because communication was broken.
I mean, you know, communication is the lifeblood of relationships.
So if I was the enemy, I would attack communication.
If I was the enemy, man, I would get people not talking.
And then I could destroy them.
Today I want to talk to you just for a few minutes on how serving actually serves you.
That seems like a paradox, doesn't it?
How serving and volunteering actually serves you.
Let's look at Ephesians chapter 4.
We're going to look at 11 through 16 and some powerful verses of scripture.
Paul is writing to the church at Ephesus.
He says, so Christ himself gave some to be apostles.
Look who gave them.
It doesn't say Jesus, does it?
It says Christ.
Why?
Because Christ is not Jesus' last name.
It's not like Jesus Christ.
It's not like Archie Callahan.
He was Jesus the Christ.
Christ was his assignment.
He was the anointed one, the Messiah, the Messiah, the one who came to save people from their sin.
So it's Christ here, the anointed one, and his anointing himself gave apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers to equip the people for works of service.
So right there, you see the job description that God gave me to equip.
That word equip comes from a word that actually comes from a medical term that means to put two bones that have been broken back together.
It means to restore.
It means to mend.
And so the job of a pastor is to mend or restore people.
Why?
So that the body of Christ may be built up.
Until we reach unity in the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
Then we will no longer be infants tossed back and forth by the waves.
And look here.
And blown here and there by every wind of teaching.
Man, there's a lot of wind of teaching going on, isn't it?
There's a lot of craziness in the world.
And by the cunning and craftiness of people and their deceitful schemes, instead, speaking the truth in love, we grow up to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is Christ.
From him, this is where I want to focus in on, from him the whole body joined and held together by every supporting ligament grows and builds itself up in love as each part does what?
It's love.
Work.
Say work.
You know, Paul is writing to a church in Ephesus.
He writes this letter between 61, 62 A.D.
He first visited that city back in 52 AD.
Starts a church.
He leaves.
He keeps on his missionary journey.
He finds himself in prison in Rome.
He writes four letters.
He writes Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon from prison.
And he's in prison.
He's writing about Christ to people who are free on the outside.
And the book of Ephesians talks about the wealth of the believer.
The first three chapters is the wealth of the believer.
What we've been given in Christ.
It's a theological foundation that has practical ramifications in our lives.
to know the theology of what happened when christ died when he was buried and when he was resurrected and i am in him and i'm established in him and we've been put in christ at the moment we get saved the bible says if any man be in christ he is a new creation so salvation is not just fire insurance that keeps me out of a place called hell it is a way of life it is life giving to me
And then the next two and a half chapters, he talks about the walk of the believer.
The last half of chapter 6 of Ephesians, he talks about the warfare of the believer.
Now when you think about Paul's writings, you've got to understand that Paul's writings are established on the foundation of the Gospels.
It's established on the foundation of the Old Testament.
The Old Testament from Genesis to Malachi is the preparation for the entrance of Jesus into the world.
Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John is the manifestation period of Jesus in the world.
It teaches us about Jesus.
The book of Acts is the activation of Jesus in the church and the church is activated.
It's formed in Acts chapter 2.
But when you look at Romans through Jude, it's the appropriation of the gospel.
It's how I apply biblical truth to my life.
It's how I apply what Jesus taught in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John to my life.
So Paul was teaching the church how to apply the gospel to their lives.
And we know the book of Revelation is the consummation of all things.
But when we look at Ephesians chapter number 4.
Paul begins to discuss the church as a body.
A body.
It's almost spooky that he would call the church the body of Christ.
It goes into communion.
And when we take communion, it's like the body of Christ.
We don't believe in transubstantiation here.
We don't believe that the wine and the bread literally become the body of Jesus.
But we believe it is very sacred.
It's a holy moment of communion when we recognize what Jesus did for us on the cross.
And so he comes to chapter number four in Ephesians.
And he talks about the walk of the believer.
And that Christ gave some to be apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers.
For the equipment of the saints for the work of service.
And he shows us.
That the body of Christ is made up not of brick and mortar, not of steel lights and cameras.
It's made up of individual people that come together under the headship of Christ.
Who is the head of the body of Christ.
And we are his body in need.
Not only of the head, but we're in need of each other.
I need you and you need me.
Can I tell you something today?
You make me better.
My wife made me better.
And all y'all said amen.
He who finds a wife finds a good thing and receives favor from the Lord.
Amen.
I got some favor on my life because I met a beautiful girl.
Got married.
But when you begin to think about this.
You begin to think about serving in the body.
Jesus came to show us how to rule in this life.
Jesus did not come to rule with military power.
He didn't come to rule with political power.
He came to rule by serving.
picked up the towel, and began to wash feet.
If serving is beneath you, leadership is beyond you.
Jesus came to serve.
Say, how does serving help me, pastor?
Well, number one, serving helps you find your people.
Say your people.
Now you got to understand something about your people.
Jesus came in the New Testament and he redefined family.
It's amazing how he did this because, you know, they ask him, who is your brother and sister?
He said, my brother and sister are those who do the will of the father.
Jesus was saying there can be people in your life spiritually that you're more connected with because they're fulfilling the purpose of God in their generation than your natural family.
You are brothers and sisters in Christ.
You're connected under the headship of Christ.
And when I begin to get into this connection, God begins to do something supernatural in my life.
He begins to fashion my life.
He begins to chisel my life.
He begins to form my life.
Look what it says in 16a.
Verse 16a.
Joined and held together by every supporting ligament.
Look, he says the body is joined and held together.
That is an architectural term.
It is a construction term.
It's where two pieces of wood would come together and lock in and it would support the body.
It would bring health to the body.
But how many of you know, those connections are no good unless there's ligaments.
The ligaments are the very area where it supplies life to the next piece of bone.
So if I don't have ligaments here, if I don't have blood flow from my knee down, guess what?
My leg will die.
It's the connective tissue that is very important.
See, oftentimes when we see a building collapse or we see a bridge collapse, we think it's the big beams that cause the collapse.
The Minnesota I-35 West Bridge, it collapsed.
We saw that a few years ago.
After much investigation, they determined it wasn't the big beams that caused the collapse.
It was the small little connecting points and joints and bolts that held it together that caused the whole bridge to collapse.
Let me tell you something today.
The church is not held together by the big beams, the pastor, the budget, and the building.
It's held together by the joints that supply.
It's the relational connections.
That's an illusion that we think if we got a good pastor, man, we'll grow a church.
If we got a big budget, we'll grow a church.
If we have a beautiful building, a cathedral, we'll grow a church.
No, no, no, no.
Let me remind you today, God and God's kingdom, there is no big I and little me.
We're all important in the kingdom of God.
It's not the big beams.
It's the small connections that make a church powerful.
Let me tell you, America is littered with great pastors in big buildings and no power in the church.
Small congregations.
Why?
Because it ain't the pastor that grows the church.
Jesus grows the church.
And he said, upon this rock, Peter, I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.
So the health of the church is not found so much in the pastor.
It's found in the relational connections in the body.
Say, pastor, is that why you push small groups?
Yes.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Pastor, is that why you want us to serve?
Yes.
Because I understand the health of your life is directly connected to you being planted in a house.
Psalm 92, those who are planted in the house of the Lord will flourish in the courts of our God.
Your flourishing is connected to a local church.
It might not be Bridge.
It might be another local church.
But wherever God plants you, be planted.
Wherever you are, be there.
Not just once a month.
To soothe the conscience.
You get connected.
Don't come just see a guy preach his brains out.
Get connected into a local body.
Get connected in meaningful service and meaningful relationships and small groups and teams.
Teams are important.
Together, everyone achieves more.
We've heard that.
There's no I in team.
Teamwork makes the dream work.
Get on a team.
Stop being an island because islands soon die without connectivity.
Look what he said.
I alluded to this earlier, but Mark 3.33 says this.
Who are my mothers and my brothers, he asked.
Then he looked at those seated in a circle.
Notice how they were seated.
They were seated how?
in a circle around him and said, here are my brother.
Here's my mother and my brothers.
Whoever does God's will is my brother and sister and mother.
Notice how he has them in a circle.
I don't believe you grow so much so in chairs like this.
I believe you grow in circles.
Let me ask you this.
What circle are you running in?
What relational connections do you have?
Relationships can empower you or disempower you.
Relationships can give you life or they can produce death in you.
They can be God honoring and pushing you toward the purpose of God or they can pull you away from the purpose of God.
You have to manage your relationships.
There are times in your life you have to prune your relational connections because they're no longer adding life to you.
Because some people come into your life for a reason.
Some people come in for a season and others come in for a lifetime.
Don't keep the seasonal relationships.
Keep the lifetime relationships.
God will add relationships to your life that will push you toward the purpose of God for your life.
I was asking my son who just recently got a new job.
I said, what's the difference in your last job and this job?
He said, dad, my last job was I was isolated.
I was on my own.
This job is a team.
He grew up playing football from the time he was seven to college.
He said, this is a team.
And I love working with a team.
I love people pushing me.
I love competition.
It is a team.
How many of you know we need to be on teams?
Can I ask you this?
How long have you been coming to Bridge Church?
Are you connected?
Are you serving?
Are you in a small group?
Pastor, I thought this was at the movies.
No, this is at church right now.
Are you connected?
Are you just coming for the show?
No.
Or am I saying, hey, I want to be connected.
I want to serve.
I want my life to count.
I want to make a difference.
When I die and stand before God, I don't want to say, Lord, I just went to church.
No, I want to say, Lord, I was the church.
I was the church.
I was meaningfully connected into the body of Christ.
I don't want to be disconnected.
Number two, serving does this right here.
Serving helps you find your purpose.
Helps you find your purpose.
I mean, most of us want to know our purpose.
Your purpose is never realized in isolation.
It's always realized in community.
Because in community, people will say something like this.
You know, I see this in your life.
Man, you're great.
You have a great smile.
I think you would be good at some type of hospitality or you're a people person.
You're not a behind the scenes person.
You're a people person.
I want to draw that out of you.
It happens all the time.
That when I get in teams and when I get in small groups and I serve and I lead, God begins to show me my purpose.
I begin to realize that, hey man, there's something different about me.
God is using this to draw out a greater purpose, a greater dynamic in my life.
Look what he says in 16 part B. He says, grows and builds itself up in love.
How?
When we're joined together.
The body naturally grows and builds itself up in what?
Love.
It's not a slick ad campaign that grows the church.
It's when the body gets connected and it builds itself up in what?
Love.
Say love.
Love.
So love, it gives me the ability to love people even while they're growing.
They might have their baby diapers on spiritually, but I can love them.
Because the fact is, folks, all of us are at different spiritual points in our lives.
And I'm not going to expect somebody that's been saved for a year, came to Christ a year ago, to act like somebody that's been saved 20 years.
Well, sometimes when they're saved 20 years, they haven't grown because they're not connected.
We are called to grow up in the faith.
1 Peter 4.10 says this.
Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others.
The purpose of the gift is not self-gratification.
The purpose of the gift is not saying, look at me, guys.
Look at me.
I glow in the dark.
Is to serve who?
Others.
As faithful stewards.
That word steward is manager.
In the first century in Rome.
Stewards were given the keys to the house.
And access to all the accounts.
The finances.
But they owned none.
They had to manage well.
You've been given access.
And you've been given authority.
leadership, but you have to manage well.
Amen.
As faithful stewards of God's grace in its various forms.
What does that mean, various forms?
That two words right there is a Greek word that means multicolored forms.
That gifts are multicolored.
We all have different gifts, different abilities.
We all have likes and dislikes.
And we all have personalities and traits.
And some of you have gifts I don't have.
And that's what makes us so unique.
How many of you know, if God wanted everybody the same color and skin tone, he would have did it.
Because he's God.
But God loves creativity and diversity.
What if God would have made everybody like me?
It'd be terrible.
It'd be terrible.
My wife, I just heard my wife.
I can't handle but one.
What?
He's given us all different kinds of gifts.
Gifts.
You were born with gifts.
They're called motivational gifts.
Romans 12.
Gift of leadership, teaching, hospitality.
These are motivational gifts.
What are motivational gifts?
Those are the gifts that you were born with.
At conception, God gifted you with an ability.
Then there's manifestational gifts, which are in 1 Corinthians 12.
These are the nine gifts of the Holy Spirit.
They're totally different.
They're given to us by the Spirit.
Motivational gifts are given to us by God the Father.
But in Ephesians 4, we see the ministry gifts given to us by Christ to equip the saints for the work of ministry.
You say, how does serving help you find your purpose?
I'm glad you asked.
When you choose to serve, you're planted in the house of God.
Serving plants you in a local church where you can be accountable, where you can grow.
Not manipulated, not controlled.
How many of you know this is not a place of control?
You can come and go freely as you want.
Nobody's coerced here to serve.
You come and go.
People leave and they come all the time.
We bless them.
Come on.
We're not some other type of group that manipulates and controls and dominates people.
That is ungodly.
That's actually witchcraft.
But you come here and you get plenty.
You say, this is where God's planted me.
And I'm going to serve.
So in my serving, I grow.
Number two, serving reveals hidden gifts.
There are some gifts in your life that are never revealed until you get in a place of service and community.
Number three, serving builds relationships that clarify your calling.
Come on.
If you say you're a great leader, but nobody around you says that, you ain't a great leader.
If you say you're a great leader and you're leading and nobody's following you,
You're just taking a great walk.
The people around you confirm the gift that's in you.
And that happens in community.
Number three, serving helps you make a difference.
Helps you make a difference.
The end of that verse, verse 16 of chapter four says,
After Paul says all that, he says, as each one does his or hers work.
His work.
So that means if I'm not in community and I'm not growing, something happens in the body of Christ.
It becomes less effective.
Because I'm not doing what I was created to do in Christ's body.
So something is lacking.
I believe if the American church would grab this and take it and understand it, that the American church would explode.
In the American church, we have the idea that we hire a professional to do the ministry.
I just want to remind you, professionals built the Titanic.
Amateurs built the ark.
Which one would you want to get on?
God takes ordinary people and brings them together.
But I got to do my work.
For instance, when our kids were growing up, they had chores.
Some had to do the dishes.
Some had to take the trash out.
Some had to mop.
Some had to vacuum.
If you're a young parent in here, come on, don't do it all for your kids.
Teach them responsibility.
Did you know the family structure is designed for maturity?
So when your kids leave, they're mature enough to handle society.
And so if we don't give them jobs at home, why do we expect them to keep a job when they leave?
That's a whole nother sermon.
We'll keep going.
But we gave them jobs.
Why?
Because they were in a household.
So one of my son's jobs was to take out the trash.
And if he didn't take out the trash, guess what would happen?
The howl she could smell after a day or two.
What is that?
Is that Raylan's feet?
No, I'm just kidding.
What is that?
You're walking around.
Just kidding.
She's going to kill me today.
Walking around.
Finally discover that it's the trash.
Somebody didn't do their job.
Somebody had to hand me their cell phone until they learned to take the trash out.
In the church, when one part of the church stinks, it's because somebody's not doing what they were designed to do.
They're not fulfilling their role in the body of Christ.
They're just coming and sitting on their blessed assurance.
Pastor, I really do love the way you preach, man.
I'm right behind you.
Show up once a week.
Eat.
Go home.
And do not give into the body.
It's more than that, folks.
I'm not criticizing anybody.
If you're new here, yeah, you can come and you can sit.
But I'm saying, if you've been here a while and you're just sitting and you're saying, oh, I love you, man.
You're good.
Pastor, you just keep working.
Keep it.
Are you really growing that church?
No, I'm not really growing the church.
Jesus is growing the church.
I'm just doing my part, folks.
You know why preachers quit?
Because they're doing their part and everybody else's part.
I'm preaching hard because At The Movies is next.
I just want you to understand that this is a body.
It's a household of faith.
Look here.
It's a place where you make a difference.
Your contribution is making an eternal difference.
Not just on Sunday mornings.
Not just in small groups.
But where you live, where you shop, where you work, come on, let your life be the same on Monday through Saturday as it is on Sunday morning for one hour.
Pastors ask me and people ask me, man, you know, how do you keep your kids, man, loving God's church?
Because they didn't see...
Dad on Sunday morning one way and dad one way another time on Monday.
They saw in the pulpit.
They saw it home.
Was I perfect?
No.
Did I make mistakes?
Yes.
Did I apologize?
Yes.
But I want our character strong.
When you serve.
God begins to unlock the blessings that's in your life and around your life.
I want you to stand.
Jesus came to give his life as a ransom for many.
He was crucified.
He died, was buried.
So those that are alone,
would no longer have to be alone and lonely.
He brings us into a family.
He brings us into a family.
Maybe you're in here today, you're just lonely, man.
God cares.
He really does.
He really does care.
Let's bow our heads.
Lord, I just thank you for your grace today.
Thank you for the power of the cross.
That connected us to God through Christ and to each other.
Because not only are we reconciled to God, but we're reconciled to each other through the cross.
So I pray blessings on your people today.
