Pastor Gail – Welcome
1. Good morning. This morning, as we worship, we’re going to do two songs of a very anointed worship minister that just passed away. His name was Brian Dirksen, and he was one of mine, and Pastor Brian’s favorite worship leaders. His songs are very anointed. So, our first song today, he had a heart for worship, and let’s worship him.
2. Would you remain standing for the Word? We’re going to be reading, (There’s a Bible on the back of every seat) from James 4. If you don’t know where it’s at, it’s towards the back of the Bible. Starting with James 4:8-10. “Come near to God, and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Grieve mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.”
3. The Lord knows often there will be difficulties. And so, in the time of great difficulty, it’s a time to just surrender to God. God can do even greater things. Even when you’re at, I invite you to just bow your head as we invite the Lord. Lord, we do not want to lift ourselves up. Lord, so many world leaders and just many people in the world today want their way. Lord, individuals lifting themselves, exalting themselves. Lord, people wanting to be known, wanting their reputation to be, lifted up. But Lord, today as we come together, Lord, I pray that we will humble our hearts. And we will make You, number one. That we will worship you, Lord. Because Lord, when you lift us up, Lord, it becomes about You. It becomes about the miracles You do. It becomes how great You are. That You are there in the good times and in the difficult times. So, Lord, today we come to you and we ask, Lord, to see our hearts, Lord, as we humble ourselves in your presence. That above all, we desire to praise You and to lift You up. Be glorified, O God. Be glorified, O God. O Lord, not just in the heavens, but Lord, be glorified in this building. Be glorified, Lord, in this church. Be glorified in our hearts, Lord. Lord, we want to make you famous in the name of Jesus. Amen! Amen!
4. Lord, we exalt you. Yes, Lord. Surely, you are here. Yes, Lord, you are here. Holy. Holy. We bless you. We bless you, Father. You may be seated. Isn’t it wonderful to know a name that is so beautiful, the mention of it? Even when you don’t yet see it you know, that he already knows all you need, and for those of us that know him, you already know, he will answer perfectly at the right time. What a God, what an amazing God, amen, amen, amen.

Pastor Gail – Prayer for healing
5. I know that there are physical needs in our room today. Brian needs a healing, Stavros needs a healing, and I’m really struggling with my asthma today. We know that Mary needs healing. Armand, we believe that the Lord is giving an answer. He’s going to be able to get out of the bed and the wheel chair, and walk, amen. You may know someone else that is sick today, or has a need, a physical need. Sometimes, when we don’t yet see the answer, it’s hard for us to say, ‘Your name is worthy.’ But when we don’t yet see things, we tell Him, ‘You are worthy.’ Could we pray for these that need a physical healing right now. Wherever you’re at speak their names to the Lord, let’s pray for healing to take place. Lord, we come into Your presence right now. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Matthew – Testimony
6. So today we’ve asked Matthew, he’s from the Brazilian team, he’s with us just a little bit longer, and he’s going to share a short testimony with us today. No, not 20 minutes.
7. Hello, everyone. Can you hear me? As Pastor Gail said, I’m Matthew from the Brazil team. I’m the last one remaining for now. And Pastor Gail said to me to share the testimony, but I forgot it, so I was not prepared. But God bless.
8. So, I am a child of a pastor. My dad was a pastor for, I don’t know, 15 years. So, when I was a kid, I was kind of obligated to go to the church. And I prayed every night, I accepted Jesus, I was close to God, but when I started getting older, when I got to, I think, 17, 18, and I started working and I had more freedom, I stopped going to the church. And yeah, it was crazy times of my life. I did, I was, well, wondering? Yeah, well, yeah. I’ll try to make short, but on 2017, on my first job, I came to Matt a co-worker and I really liked him, was super close to me. But I wasn’t still in the church and nothing like that.
9. So, seven years later, 2024, I wasn’t going to church, and suddenly, a friend of mine that doesn’t even go to Zion Church asked me, oh, let’s go to Zion. So I was, yeah, let’s go, why not? At church I go, when we have the donation time, we all get out of our seats and do a turnaround. So, everyone, if someone in the middle of the seat needs to go out, it doesn’t block them, so everyone goes out, even though they don’t want to give anything.
10. So, when I was doing this turnaround, I suddenly saw this friend of mine, and he looked at me like that. And he was serving at this day, so he was part of the thing that was trying to, you know, make the people go the right way. But when he saw me, he immediately left his position and went running and jumping to me.
11. And he was, ‘I’m so, so happy to see you. Go meet me at the end of the service so I can pray for you.’ So I went, and they prayed for me, him and his spouse. And it was wonderful to me, because I really, really, really, really loved this friend. And after that, we got closer, since we didn’t talk for a long time. And he started inviting me to his birthday, to his wife’s birthday.
12. And I know that God used him, because he’s a person that I would go anywhere with. So, when I went to his birthday in May 2024, he and everyone from his small group prayed for me. And later, I think September, was his wife’s birthday. And they were like, oh, we have a small group now, it’s ours. We are leading now this small group. Don’t you want to come? And I went. It was a food day, every first small group day of the month. They do a food day. So, at this day, I accepted Jesus.
13. And I want to say that this was not even two years ago. And in two years, God completely changed my life in every way you can think. I got baptized after 26 years of going to the church. At that day, my father cried like I’ve never seen before. And one thing that he brought to my mind when I saw my father crying like that, and I went to him, I started to realize if my father on this earth is like that. Yeah, so it was a wonderful, wonderful time. And God has been doing so, so, so much in my life.
14. Just under two years, I’ve been to Greece two times as a missionary. I met a lot of wonderful people here. And I’m so, so glad to be here. And yeah, this is a short version. And I cannot lie that I’m kind of afraid of what God has to mean the next few years, because if in two years he did all of that, I don’t know about the next ones. Now I’ll end. Otherwise, Pastor Gail will kill me.

Pastor Gail – Announcements
15. We love you. We love you. In the first church, my former husband, my pastor, there was a young man similar to you, Mateus. He got saved. And his wife got saved. And within six months, their child almost died and a miracle happened. Their child was raised to life. It’s actually pronounced dead, and their little boy was raised to life. And in six months, he went to pastor a church. God could do a big work, amen, amen. Who knows? I’d love to have him back, wouldn’t you? Amen, amen, amen.
16. So, we’re really happy to have April. I don’t want to embarrass you, but I do want you to stand back here for please. This is April’s last Sunday with us for a while. For a little while. And if we could ask several of the ladies, Sarah, I know you’re very close with Evy, Marina. I’d like some of the ladies just to come and stand around April. She’s going back to the Philippines, thank you all. Whoever would like calm, feel free. And we just want to pray an anointing on her as she goes.
17. She’ll be ministering to her parents in the Philippines. And we’re going to pray for her son, Angelos, that is here, remaining in Greece. He’s now in the army, and he’s sick today. OK. No, we will. I really want us to pray for him. I will say, I feel like the enemy is trying to hinder him because he came to church about a month ago. And he just really opened his heart to the Lord. So, we want to pray that that strengthens in his life. That he will know God is with him.
18. Let’s pray for healing. Let’s just reach our hands out. Father, in the name of the Lord Jesus right now, we pray for April-Faith. We love this woman who is our sister, Lord. She is part of this family, God. For so many years, she’s been faithful and loved you and served you, Lord. And we know for a season, Lord, she is called to be with her parents, Lord. So, we pray that you’ll encourage her. You will, Lord, give her wisdom, give her an anointing from the Holy Spirit.
19. Give her comfort about Angelos. Lord, we pray for Angelos right now, Lord, that you will… Oh, Lord, as he will ask you to heal him, he will see the miracle of your healing, God, that you’ll bring him peace for these months he has in the military. God, we pray for this, Lord. We pray for peace. We pray just for him to feel like he’s been shut in with you, and you are protecting him, Lord. You’re guarding him, Lord. Bring him a joy he didn’t expect. Bring April a joy, God, even as she gets ready to leave, and her son is so discouraged. We ask this right now. We ask it, and we believe in the name of Jesus, in the name of Jesus. Amen. Today, during the coffee hour, we’re going to ask you to please give lots of love and hugs to April.
20. Praise the Lord. We want to make some announcements and receive our offering this morning. I cannot believe it. July is almost over. This is one of the fastest summers of my life. For the month of August, we just invite people to church. I think we’re going to have some very exciting services in August. We’re going to have, I believe, a young person preaching for us one Sunday morning.
21. And I think it’s the third Sunday, but it’ll be on the WhatsApp group and Facebook. We’re going to just meet all together upstairs, have a little brunch together. But we’re going to give time for each one of us to share something good God has done in our life. It’s time for this church. Amen.
22. Our church will still be open Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday morning at 10 a.m. for prayer. Please drop in. It is a rich time for those that come. For August, we will not have our prayer in the building. We’ll be doing prayer time on Zoom because so many people are away and traveling. But honestly, I want to ask you to stop if you’re at the beach, even at the beach. Open up your phone and join the prayer time for a little time and talk to the Lord.
23. And please don’t forget the needy always all year long. We have people coming by the church that would like some food and some hugs. So please don’t forget to bring them. And just send us an email at prayer@glyfadacc.org, a prayer request, and we will remember them in the morning and also on our Zoom calls.
24. So, it’s time for us to give the Lord our tithe and offer. For those of you that might have noticed, we were going to do a business meeting, a financial report, because so many are traveling, we’re going to hold off till September. Stavros, please pray for the offering and tithes.
25. It doesn’t look like we’re going to have children’s church today. Please make it a special prayer that the Lord will bring families with children, that we’ll be able to, we need to reach the children in Greece. Amen, it’s… Where you’re seated, I’d like you to worship with the next song.

Pastor Gail – Main message Introduction
26. This song is always, for me, it just touches my heart so much. You know when you refine gold and its pure gold, everything in there that’s not pure, is burned away. And I need that often in my life. Attitudes that are not clean exactly. Thoughts that are not always beautiful. And mistakes that I make that I don’t even know that I’ve done.
27. I have to choose for the Lord to put his fire on my life to burn those things away. I invite him, I have to invite him. And when that happens to gold, and all the impurities are burned away, when you look at it, you see a reflection. You see a beautiful, pure reflection. And our prayer as we talk this morning about being servants of the Lord is that anything in our life as we journey through this life, that anything not like him, and I will be honest, I think it takes all of our life. That it will be purified out of our lives.
28. So that when we look at the reflection, we don’t see ourselves. We see Jesus. Because that’s what we’re called to do. To be servants. But I don’t know that we always understand what being a servant of the Lord is. Really being servants for Jesus, is probably the most powerful expression of love and humility that the world can see this side of heaven.
29. This is one of those things many of you call me Pastor Gail and I appreciate that. And I was thinking about that this morning. I really appreciate that that’s sweet of you. And I choose not to receive that as an honor of myself. But rather as an honor of the one that really pastors us. I just get to do that job right now.
30. Because my prayer for you and me, as we serve him, whatever our call would be, is that we would embrace the role of a servant. A pastor should serve and care for the sheep. The one who, and I know Evy exemplifies this beautifully, as she cleans the church and makes coffee every Sunday.
31. She serves the Lord in doing that and by that she serves us. And it would seem to me that as we embrace the role of being servants like Jesus, that we will touch lives in a way that they cannot be touched in any other way.
32. The world glorifies self-promotion. But having a servant’s mindset, it sets us apart from the world. It allows us to connect on a deeper level with people in this world today. It allows us to have compassion. I think the more we embrace the attitude of servanthood, the more we become transformed into the image of Jesus Christ. The Lord calls us to be servants as he is.
33. John 14:15 says, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” Mark 10:45. But in Mark 10:45, “For even the Son of man did not come to be served, but to serve and give his life as a ransom for many.”
34. This little verse right here, it’s like in just that little verse there, we have the essence of servanthood. Jesus didn’t come to be served, but to serve. He set the perfect example for us to follow. Servanthood is about putting others before ourselves, reflecting Jesus’ selfless love and compassion.
35. It means, I’m willing to prioritize to put first your needs above mine many times even when it is challenging or inconvenient. For God so loved you, for God so loved me, that he came to bring his love. And he’s calling us to radiate that love and mercy that he gave to us.
36. Being a servant means the good things you do may not always be noticed. And too often we want people, didn’t they see what I did? We get in our little minds and our little thought processes so easily. Jesus put our needs before his. It’s true. He laid down his glory to come and rescue us. It means I’ll put your needs before my own.
37. The world does not define leadership this way or leading your own life at all. Jesus defined being a servant is about sacrificial love. Not personal gain. There is a natural tendency in us. We want to receive recognition of rewards. We are challenged in every society to climb the ladder, to be recognized. But Jesus challenged us as his followers to do the opposite. Jesus washed the disciples’ feet. That was a task that was reserved for the lowest servants.
38. James 4:10 says, “Humble yourselves before the Lord and he will lift you up.” Having the heart of a servant, having the mindset of servanthood is the opposite of arrogance. The opposite of pride. The opposite of self-promotion. Jesus showed us true greatness comes from serving others. And when we open the door of our heart and tell the Lord, ‘I humble myself before you, Lord, purify my heart.’
39. He begins to work on us in ways that we understand none of us are above one another. We’re all in need of grace. And when we embrace humility, we give God the room to elevate us in his name. And when he does it, we lead with greater influence because it’s him working through us. Humility frees us from the trap of comparing ourselves to one another. It allows us to lead with a pure heart.
40. Jesus chose a lowly path. He served others in love, even to the point of death on a cross. 1 John 5:3, “For this is the love of God that we keep his commandments and his commandments are not burdensome. He calls us to be servants.”
41. Matthew 16:24, “If anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.”
42. Romans 12:1 (NLT) “And so, dear brothers, I plead with you to give your bodies to God, because of all he has done for you, let there be a living and holy sacrifice, the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way we worship him.”
43. Matthew 6:33, says, “Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you.”
44. God calls us, Jesus calls us, to seek his kingdom heart by placing God’s mission above our desires. This means making decisions, based on faithfulness, not what benefits us personally. The Lord, I believe through this Word today, and Pastor Brian’s going to come in just a moment, is challenging us to lay all of our programs, all our agendas before him. It means asking him, how can I serve God? How can I serve your purposes? It is not asking, what can I get for this? We are called to serve him by sharing his love.

Pastor Brian – Continuing the Main Message
45. Now, Lord, as we move further into the word, we just pray that you continue with us in your spirit. And we continue to bless you. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
46. Victor, would you do me a favor? I think in that room there’s a wooden stool. Would you bring that out for me? I’m going to make a couple of apologies. I had two accidents over the last couple of weeks, and so I need a little assistance. One is that it’s very hard for me to stand for very long. And the other is, you’ll probably see my arm up here for quite a lot, because if I don’t keep it above my heart, it throbs painfully. So, pray for me, my body is collapsing.
47. If you could go back to the second slide that Pastor Gail had. The Greek and English side by side with the title of the sermons today.
48. Pastor Gail talked to us about the need for a heart to serve. But we’re going to take that a little beyond that. There’s the will to serve, then there is the act of actually serving. And history, in almost every area of life, history has showed us that those two are not the same.
49. At the end of the 1800s, there was a professor in Zurich, his name was Wilfredo Pareto. And he developed something that became known as the Pareto Principle. By the time I got to university, they were teaching it as the 20-80 Principle. 20% and 80%.
50. It started because he discovered that 80% of the land and production in Italy was owned and produced by 20% of the people. And so, he started looking into that principle in other areas of life and discovered that within certain margins, you could pretty much apply the 20-80 Principle to anything.
51. 80% of sales are done by 20% of sales people. 80% of production in a business is done by 20% of the employees. And even in measuring churches, they have seen that it holds pretty close, that in most churches, 80% of everything is done by 20% of the people.
52. Somehow it seems born into our human nature. And that doesn’t mean that the other 80% don’t want to produce. If you go down here to Kotsovolos, I guarantee you that the 80% want to be as productive as the 20%. They have the desire, but the next question becomes, do they have the energy and the output to see that desire accomplished?
53. Many Christians genuinely want to serve God. We heard the Scriptures earlier and we genuinely want that. We love people. We love the church. We appreciate the ministry. And we hope to make a difference.
54. But still there is a very important distinction between wanting to do something and actually doing it. This is why James told us in James 1:22, “Do not merely listen to the words, do what it says.” Maybe it’s important if the Lord felt like it needed to be in the Bible. And the same principle applies to our service to God. Good intentions by themselves never meet needs.
55. Maybe you grew up hearing the same phrase I did. The road to hell is paved with good intentions. Good intentions don’t meet needs. Good intentions don’t reach the lost. Good intentions don’t build ministries or churches. But we will hear from the pages of the Bible that God is looking for people who move from the desire to the action.
56. I grew up playing a lot of sports. And more than one of my coaches would say, ‘the best ability is availability.’ In other words, he was telling us, if you don’t come to practice, I can’t use you. If you always have something else to do, I can’t play you. And for that matter, if you’re sick all the time and because of that you can’t be here, I can’t use you. And I was always one of those who really wanted to play. I hated being on the bench. So, I made sure I was the first one at practice and the last one out.
57. It’s true in the Kingdom of God. The best ability is availability. We lose out of some of our best giftings not because they’re not available but because people won’t use them.
58. Isaiah in Isaiah 6, encountered God’s holiness. The angel came and put coals to his lips and purified him. We just sang, purify my heart. And the last line in that is, ready to do your will. So, the Lord then asked Isaiah “Whom shall I send and who will go for us?” God did not ask for the most gifted or experienced person. He asked, who will go? Who’s going to do the deed? And of course, we all know Isaiah’s response. “Here am I, Lord. Send me.” Somebody who wasn’t prepared, who you had to come and cleanse. “Send me.”
59. And throughout Scripture, God used ordinary people. We know this. Moses could not speak. Yet God used him to deliver his people. Gideon, the great warrior, felt insignificant. He had no army. But God used him to send to flight tens of thousands of enemies. Peter was a rude and impulsive fisherman. Yet God said, I’m going to build my church on what you have to come to realize about me. So, their availability became God’s opportunity. I just lost my notes here. And you don’t want me to be without my notes, I promise. Here we are.
60. So, their availability became God’s opportunity. God is not looking for you to be great at what you do. He’s just looking for you to do what he asks. He’s just looking for you to do what he asks.
61. Jesus demonstrated the act of servanthood. We know this. He could have sat in front of the disciples and taught them about serving. But what did he do? He grabbed a towel. He got down and he washed their feet. They’re dirty, stinky, been on the roads of Jerusalem and sandals feet. And then what did he say to them? I’ve set you an example, that you should do what I have done.
62. The world measures greatness by status. We all understand that. And we all know people, sometimes ourselves included, trying to achieve status. Not bad in itself. But it’s not the motivation. Jesus measured greatness by service.
63. One writer wrote it like this. I like this. When we kneel before people, we stand tall before God. And then we have to realize the Holy Spirit, if we really have relationship with him, he gives us, the Bible says, he gives us the desire to serve and the action according to his good purpose.
64. Philippians 2:13. “For it is God who works in you to desire and to act according to his good purpose.” So, notice those two things. According to the Scripture, he gives the desire and he gives the strength to act. So, I give us this challenge today. If you have no desire to serve, you are cold in your relationship with God. You are far from his will. Because he says this is his purpose.
65. And we all withdraw from this for different reasons. Maybe we don’t like doing what we feel is being asked of us. Maybe we got hurt by somebody we were serving with. Maybe our preferences and our desires aren’t being met. Or maybe it’s as simple as these excuses. I will wait for the right time. Or I’ll serve when my schedule slows down. When I have the pieces in place, I’ll have more time. But consider this. God’s opportunities usually arrive in ordinary moments.
66. The good Samaritan was not on a quest to find some wounded person to help today. A young boy who went to a hillside with some bread and some fish didn’t intend to feed 5,000 people that day. And David was just taking some food to his brothers when the Lord said, hey, while you’re here, kill a giant. I don’t hear any plans being made. It was just opportunity. And opportunity met availability.
67. So, we finish with this. Serving doesn’t just bless others. Acts 20:35. “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” And that’s not just, hey, give some money and you’ll get money back. No, when you act in blessing, you receive into yourself the ministry of the Holy Spirit. It’s the action of God to put his blessing into you and into your life when you serve. Imagine the impact if every believer had a desire to serve and then acted on it.
68. The Holy Spirit still asks today. Who can I send? Who will go for us? The greatest obstacle is not the lack of time, the lack of giving, gifting, the lack of anything. The obstacle is the lack, the delay in responding. Move from desire to action. And by the way, it’s not enough to just say, I serve the world. I helped my neighbors move yesterday. I gave a gift to the beggar at the corner.
69. Galatians 6:10 says this. “Do good to every person. The best that you can. But especially begin that in the house of the family of faith.” We are to serve one another. That will teach us to serve the world. And when we get to that place, we will become that light on a hill that cannot be hidden.
70. So, I encourage you today. Ask the Holy Spirit. What can I do? What do you ask of me? How can I serve my family? How can I serve my world? Guaranteed. You ask, he will respond. But don’t just desire. Have the will to serve. And then act in service. Can God’s people say amen? That’s a little bit of a light amen this morning.
71. I believe we desire. Let’s just ask, how do we act? In Jesus’ name.