The idea of this open-house series is that being open-house people in an open-house church is not a program at some mentality.

So there is a program a little bit at the end of this talk today called Love Atlanta,

and I desperately want all of us to be a part of that week of serving our city together.

But open-house is not something you put on a schedule. It's an attitude that God cultivates inside of our hearts.

And so we've talked about, here's my stuff, not here's my money, but here's my time, my energy, my focus, my attention.

We talked last week, here's my voice, so when I get the opportunity, I want to speak up for Jesus.

And today we're talking about, here are my hands.

So today we're talking about being open-house people by the way that we serve people around us.

And the reason why we're doing that is because we're following Jesus today, and Jesus did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for you and for me.

So if I'm a Jesus person today, I have already onboarded with this idea.

The one I proclaim, the one who is my Lord, the one I adore, the one who raised me from the dead, the one I served, the one I worship, the one I proclaim, the one that my life theoretically is all about.

He did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for the world.

Now you and I can't give our lives as a ransom for the world, but we can't take up the rest of that mantle.

I'm not here to be served, I'm here to serve.

I'm not here to absorb and soak in all the goodness of the kingdom of God.

I'm here to be a conduit through which and by which God can outflow the kingdom of God to the world all around me.

And one of the most powerful ways God is inviting you and me to do this is by serving the people around us, by touching the poor, by caring about the needy, by taking time for those who have been pressed down by life circumstances,

to notice, to care, to lift them up in Jesus' name.

And there's several key reasons why you and I want to be excited about doing that today.

And it's not because of a guilt trip, it's not because of an ought to, it's that we can and we may,

and because there are benefits in it for you that are going to change your life.

I want to touch on a few of those today and I want to talk briefly about why we're going to be continued to be, because we are, but why we're going to continue to be a people who help and serve those around us, because we may.

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