Autoshop Ministries - Devante Tidwell K2K 6/21/26 Sermon on Gifts, Grace & Service

What's up, players? This is Joe Adams with Adams Automotive, the number one shop in America. This is Master Tech to Millionaire, presented by Auto Shop Answers, where we talk about the transition from technician to business owner and CEO. As the podcast continues to grow, we're expanding the formats a little bit. One of the new formats we're adding is live chapel Sunday mornings from key to key to callbacks, featuring our new Auto Shop Ministries chaplain, Devante Tidwell. So this episode is a little different. It's a live recording from one of our in-person chapel services, and we're excited to share Devante's message with you. So without further ado, here's Devante Tidwell. Man, listen, if you're happy to be alive this morning, just give them one more hand clap, one more hand clap. Let's go, let's go. Come on, come on, come on. Oh, there you go. There you go. No, I'm super excited to be here. Thank you so much to the whole

Adams family, to Todd. I mean, I'm so grateful to be a part of the fam now. You know, this is something that we've been working on and, you know, really praying through. And listen, I'm gonna give you some things that I really feel like the Lord has put on our heart to, you know, connect with Him, but also to give you some tools that you can use practically in your life today to be not only a better follower of Jesus or a follower of Jesus or a better business owner, better employee. Like, these things are practical for you to be a better person that orders a coffee at a Starbucks. This is not just, you know, like this big woo-woo spiritual thing. I promise you, like a lot of this is really, really practical. And that's what I believe that Jesus wants us to do. So like we were talking about earlier, my name is Devante Tidwell, and I'm just happy to be here with y'all. Happy Father's Day again to all the

fathers in the room. I know it's a little early. A lot of y'all didn't even realize it was Father's Day when I was like shaking people's hand. I was like, oh yeah, it is Father's Day. Oh yeah, what time is it? It is Father's Day. Yeah, so happy Father's Day again. Dads need love too. Dads need love too. But I just want to jump right in because I don't want to spend a whole lot of time, but I want to give you something that I believe is going to be worth your time. Amen? Let's pray. Speaking of Father's Day, let's go to the Heavenly Father one more time. Heavenly Father, thank you so much for today. Help us to be closer to you. Amen. Amen. I pray quick. I'm the person you want at Thanksgiving, I promise. Like if you need somebody to come pray at your family Thanksgiving, I am available. Get my number from Todd. I promise we'll be eating. If they say food is ready at 3, we will eat at 302. I promise. I

promise. But first, I want to just read a scripture for you. One verse today, and it's a really simple verse, but I think it has a lot of truth in it, and it's out of 1 Peter 4.10, and I'll read it for you. It says this. As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. As each one, each one of us, has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. I really want to give a title to this talk so that you can help, you know, remember it, and it really is this. Saved to serve. We are saved to serve. There are two words that show up a lot in business, a lot in life, a lot in work, especially for entrepreneurs that are working extremely hard and trying to build something. There are two words that show up that I understand what people mean by them, but I think they do a little bit more harm than good sometimes.

Those two words are self-made. Anybody ever heard somebody say, I'm self-made? I'm self-made. Do you realize that none of us are actually truly self-made? Like, do you realize how much in your life had to go right for you to even be in this room today? Like, I think sometimes, and I don't want to diminish people who have come from an environment where they've had to work hard to develop some things and to connect with some people and all of those things. I'm not diminishing that, nor am I diminishing the ones who may have come from a background with resources, but you were a trailblazer. What I am saying is there were still things along the way that God had to do for you. Even if you didn't know him, even if you don't know him, even if you didn't follow him, he still was looking out for you because just because we haven't connected with him yet does not mean he stops being our dad. You will never outgrow being God's baby. No matter how

old we get, it's Father's Day. Some of you have kids. Some of you have grandkids. You know, I've told my mom. I had a conversation with my mom one time when I started to feel myself a little bit. My chest started spreading. My shirts got a little tighter. I was like, okay, mom. Like, yeah, I'm your child, but I'm not a child. She still hit me in the tooth, but I like, you know, I at least said it. You know, I at least said it. I felt myself for the few seconds before she reminded me that she's still my mom, right? But what I mean by that is this. There are things that God has placed in our life, whether we realize it or not, that have only happened because of him, not because of us. So self-made doesn't actually really work. The Bible says in 1 Peter 4 that we were given gifts. I love that word gifts because that tells me that somebody had to give it to us. And everybody in the room, whether you feel like it or not, you have a gift. You are

a gift. Your communication skill is a gift. Your administration skill is a gift. Your ability to scale is a gift. Your ability to build relationships is a gift. Your ability to nurture those relationships, that's a gift too. You may be gifted in a lot of different areas. You may be a great father, great mother, great friend. That's a gift. You were given opportunities. Those are gifts too. And so we hear this word self-made, and it acts as if we are our own gift givers, like we gave it to ourselves. Let me prove it to you. How many people in here asked to be born? Nobody? Oh, okay. So you didn't make you. You didn't even ask to be here. You could not show up to your mom and dad and say, hey, mom and dad, I really want to be there this time next year. Okay? And that didn't happen. There are some people who have gone through some things in life that should have taken you out. The accident wasn't the end for you. The debt wasn't the end for you. Things and decisions

that we've walked into and things that we've seen and things that have happened in our homes and in our lives, God was still protecting us whether or not we knew it was Him. So the self-made idea is I just want to adjust it some. We might've worked hard. We might've gotten the degrees, networked, but there are so many other things that are in the world that actually would point to us being gifted from God. Some people actually call it as luck. And I don't really believe in luck. I believe in the intention of God. I believe that God is so intentional with you that it can't be luck. Luck doesn't even describe how good God is. I love that. I love that Todd pointed out that story because we literally, he had this idea and I literally was speaking that Sunday, which I speak on Sundays every so many weeks or so, right? So just happened to be there with that idea. And then God then puts me in the seat right

in front of him. Like that's not luck at all. You couldn't make that up if you tried. That's God saying, I am strategically moving the chess pieces around the board for a mission that I want to accomplish. And what is that mission? Because you may say, man, I don't speak on a stage. I don't have a microphone. Like what's your mission? I want to tell everybody in here right now, something that you may not have heard in a long time or ever. You have a purpose and your purpose is to serve. I'll say it again. You have a purpose and your purpose is to serve. And my goal today is to unpack a little bit more of what it means to be saved to serve. Because yes, God is a good father. And the Bible says, because he's a good father, he gives us good gifts. I like the gifts he gives me. I like when other people give me gifts. Like if you want to give me a gifts, I am a shoe size 11. I love a good watch. You know, I got two toddlers that I

got to feed. Listen, whatever. I love a good gift, but it's not just for me to look good, feel good, or be good with. It's true. It's just incomplete. When we get a gift from God, it doesn't just stop with us. It's actually supposed to come to us so it can flow through us. I'll say it again. It's supposed to come to us so it can flow through us. So when he's saying that we've all been given a gift, you can fill in the blank on what that gift is because he's always up to something and it's not luck at all. You have a purpose. See, service is the thing that I'm talking about today. It's the thing that changes people from feeling like they're a means to an end to, wow, I mean something to somebody. Service is the thing that changes people from feeling like, man, I'm just a means to an end to, wow, I actually mean something to somebody. And I don't know about you, but I love good service. I don't only love good gifts. I love good service too. Has anybody ever walked

into a restaurant and been like, man, I love when they leave my drink empty. I love when I order a steak and it's ice cold. I love it. I love when I've been asking for the waiter to bring me a straw. And I asked three times, I love bad service. Has anybody ever said that? No. Have you ever, how would you look at somebody that said that? You look at them like something's wrong, right? Yeah, I know you would because y'all are looking at me like something is wrong. If I was like, man, hey man, I love when they just let the ice sit in the cup. I love when they forget the silverware and the waiters aren't even coming over to the table. They're over there laughing with each other. I love bad service. Nobody says that. So this is how we know good service. We all know what it looks like in a restaurant. We all know what it looks like in our businesses. We all know what it looks like in our companies. We all know what it looks like in the spaces that we occupy. So why aren't

we the ones to say, okay, I know how that makes me feel. So how much more can I do it for everybody else around me? How much more can I do it for everybody around me? I know how much I hate bad service and I know how much I love good service. I know how fast I run to leave a Google review or a Yelp review. But if I understand that, my next challenge and question to us, because we're big leaders in the room, right? If you're a big leader in a room, like you're a leader in some capacity, raise your hand. You're a leader, right? So if we're big leaders in a room and you understand what it means for somebody to review and say you had good service, my challenge to you is, is that a mark of your work or is it a mark of your character? Because if it's a mark of your character, it'll always bleed into your work. If service and servant is who you are, it has no choice but to go into everything you do. It has no choice but to go into your parenting.

It has no choice but to go into the way that you interact with your co-workers or your employees or your peers. But I want to go a little bit deeper because some people still are looking at me a little crazy. Like they're like, well, what can I serve with? Devante, I'm glad you asked. I know nobody asked, but I figured you might be. You know, I have not only gifts like homes or families or things and the gift of, I have the gift of being important to God, but I want to talk about three T's, okay? Can you say three T's? Three T's that all of us have that we can be servants with. T number one is this, your time. You may not have a lot of the other stuff, but you have time. T number two, I love that y'all are taking notes. I like the note takers. Note takers are world changers. T number two is talent. You have time, you have talent, and number three is treasure. All of us have something that falls in this category. You have your time, you have your talent, you have your treasure. Let me break

down what each of those are. Your time, pretty self-explanatory, right? We got space, space that we can create for others. How much do we create opportunity to connect with the people that we love and even the people that we unsure about? How much time do we create for those individuals to serve them? Do we actually make the phone call to say, hey, how are you doing today? Or is every phone call about a transaction? Do we create the space to say, man, you know what, I was just thinking about you. I just wanted to send you a quick text message and say, happy Father's Day. Do we create those spaces with our time? You can be generous in your service with your time. What about with your kids or with your peers? It's like, listen, let's go hang out, not to accomplish anything, but just because community is important. Just because I need my brother or my sister or my friend or on the right or the left and just say,

you know what, it's been some time since we spent some time. Let's go hang out. Let's go get on a golf course. Let's go play basketball. Let's go bowling. Let's go fishing. Just so I can get some time with you. You can be generous with your time and that service. Next one is with your talent. Some of you have some amazing abilities and everybody in here is not wired the same way with all of their abilities. God is so special that he created you, thought about you and broke the mold and said, I don't need to duplicate you. You are exactly who I intended for you to be. Isn't that beautiful? Like if it's one thing, if God would have said we need to all be cookie cutter, but he said, no, you're a masterpiece. And then said, now you're such a masterpiece. I'm not going to do anybody else like you. I'm going to start over. So you are uniquely wired with your talent, with your ability. And since you have these unique gifts, since you have a purpose, since you have these unique

abilities, you can use those to serve people too. You can use your ability to say, you know what? Hey, I know this person really would be better if they were more organized, but organization is just not their strength, but it's mine. Hey, can I, can I spend some time and just help you organize your desk so you can find some things a little bit better? You know what I mean? Hey, can I, can I spend some time with you to help you organize the files on your computer so that you can find them a little bit easier? And it costs you nothing. It costs you nothing, but that's another way that you can be generous with your talent, generous with your ability. You, you may have been an accident to your mom and dad, but you are not an accident to God. Everything He put in you, as far as a gift, as a talent, as an ability, it's their own purpose. And that purpose is to serve. It's to serve somebody else. But last, on the last T, you also have treasure. And I don't want you to just think of treasure

as money. And listen, if you have, you know, if you have liquid, that is amazing. And you can give to ministries, you can give to charitable donations, you can give to missions, you can give to initiatives and community outreach and all of those good things. And you should, but you also can buy somebody a meal. You also can just say, Hey, let me just take you to lunch. Like, Hey, you know what? I know that, you know, I heard that you were having these issues like that, man. I just wanted to send you something just to help you. But not just your money. Treasure is also our relationships. I like to see treasure as relationships. Relationships are the most valuable thing that we really have. Money comes and goes, money gets spent, money gets made. But you know what you will have forever, if you do it well? Your relationships. The people in your life that make a difference. And you can serve those relationships. You can serve with those

relationships. Now, I'm not saying everybody needs access to your whole contact book. People don't have the maturity. People don't have the respect for people's privacy. I'm not saying do that. But what I'm saying is there are some relationships where you say, you know what? Hey, I know somebody that can fix that. Hey, I know somebody that could help with that idea. I know somebody who can build that. I know somebody who can set that website up. Because we have not only our funds, but we have our relationships. And when we put everything in this context, in our time, talent, our treasure, we start to look around and say, man, God, I actually, uh, oof, I don't really have too many things that I can say I'm not able to serve with anymore, huh? Like, it was cool when I just thought, well, God, I just don't have the money right now. And God's like, yeah, but you got time. Yeah, but you got talent. It's like, oh, well, God, I got some money, but man, I just don't

have the time. I'm working so hard. It's like, okay, but you got ability. There's always something in our hands and in our hearts that God has pre-wired into us that is not only for us, it's for us to share. And that service is the way that other people are going to see that Jesus loves them too. That service is the reason that I'm here. Somebody stepped out on a limb when I was a teenager to really invest in me. I remember being in a space where it was dark, where I was hopeless, where I felt like I couldn't even connect with my parents, where I wasn't sure what, I didn't even know what the language for depression and anxiety and poor mental health was. I didn't have any context for any of that, but I had a mentor who literally saw the best in me and said, no, there's more in you and your story doesn't end here. It can't end here. And if it wasn't for somebody stepping out to serve that way for me, I wouldn't be here to

encourage you. If it wasn't somebody to jump out there with you and you can think back on some of you had coaches and some of you had instructors and people who taught you how to play the piano and people who taught you the business that you're in right now, that you could look back and say, man, if they didn't take a chance on a young, dumb knucklehead like me, if they didn't serve me with their time, if they didn't serve me, if they weren't paying for the meals when I said, yeah, I don't got it again. If they weren't saying, hey, yeah, I know you've got a wedding coming up. Here's, here's some cash to pay for. If they didn't, if there wasn't those moments, you wouldn't be here either. When's the last time you take an inventory to go back and say, man, I'm grateful for who God sent to serve. But now you have to move from taking the inventory of what happened to saying, I'm God, I'm assessing what do I need to do now?

Who can I go serve? Who can I make feel that way? Who can I make sure that 20 years from now, they're sitting in a room and saying, man, if it wasn't for Devante taking time and being obedient to God and saying, Jesus, thank you so much for what you've done in my life. I'm going to make sure that I try to help as many people as possible. If it wasn't for Devante, who was obedient to Jesus, I wouldn't be sitting in this room 20 years from now. Some of you have the same proximity. Some of you got coworkers that are sitting in an office, 20 steps from you, that all they need is for you to sit on their couch or sit on a, sit in their office and just encourage them, not belittle them or berate them about how good or how bad they're doing or anything like that, but just to sit and say, Hey, I see you. Hey, you don't have to struggle like this. Hey, come to church with me. Hey, I mean, I have all the answers, but look, remember treasure my relationships.

I'm, I may be able to like connect us with somebody over a coffee or over a lunch that can try to help you a little bit better. Those are the things family that I'm trying to get us to understand that we are saved to serve. Even if you don't understand what save me, just give me a few minutes. We're going to get there. I promise. Because selfishness serves too. It just serves one person. Selfishness does serve. It only serves one person though. That's you. And what I know about selfishness is that it's not what we're designed to be. It's what we will default to sometimes because we're trying to protect ourselves. We're trying to protect what we've built. We're uncertain. We have trust issues. We got home issues, whatever it may be, but I'm challenging you to not be selfish because service is actually the thing that makes us more free. I'll prove it to you. The Bible says that the world of the generous gets

larger and larger. What? How does that make sense? The more that I give away, the bigger my world gets. Why? Because God can trust that if he can get it to you, he can get it through you. If he can get it to you, there's a whole community of people that are going to benefit from it. If he can get it to you, there's a whole company of people that are going to benefit from it. If he can get it to you, there are families and kids and bloodlines that are not going to have to repeat the same mistakes that you had to experience. If he can get it to you, he can get it through you. So here's the hope. You may not realize this, but Jesus served us first. Jesus died on a cross and every minute of it, he had you and I in mind. He was beaten because he was here to serve us. He said, I'm going to die to give them an insurance policy in 2020-26. I'm going to give them an insurance policy. I'm going to die so that they

have grace in advance for when they make a mistake because they're going to need me. So I'm not going to cheat my way out of this process. He took a death that only he could take to pay a penalty that we couldn't pay and said, you know what? It's all because I'm here to serve them. This is God in the flesh. He didn't need anything. The universe bows to him. At the snap of a finger, he can make anything happen. That's so mind-blowing to me that he stayed on a cross and could have snapped his finger and just wiped out the earth and said, I'm not going to let y'all do me like this. And he didn't because he had you and me in mind and said, but I got to pay their debt. I got to pay their penalty. I have to serve them because they're special to me. I don't know if you realize this, you may have never heard this, but you mean everything to God. You mean the world to Jesus. You mean everything to him. So because he served us first, now we are saved. Should we accept

Jesus? He makes it really easy. It's a free gift. Remember that gift that I talked about in the verse of the day? It's a free gift. He's given us the gift of grace. All we have to do is two things, accept it as we enter into a relationship with him. And then number two, connect with the people around us so that what we've experienced and felt and loved and enjoyed and felt peace about and rewired and gave us a second chance and saying, man, I'm not who I used to be. I'm not where I want to be, but I'm not where I used to be either. Now I get to put it on a platter and say, hey, there's this man I know named Jesus. I'll end with this for the people who may be on the fence or may not be certain about what this looks like. I was told this by somebody who was an older gentleman and I never forgot it. He said, Christianity is just one beggar telling another beggar where he finally found bread. And that's all we're doing is telling people, hey, you don't

have to be hungry. You don't have to be thirsty anymore. You don't have to make the decisions that you make. You don't have to cope the way you've been coping. There's freedom available for you. And once you receive it, use it to go surf. Can you just bow your heads and close your eyes right where you are? Maybe you're in the room under the sound of my voice and you're saying, man, I'm not sure about this Jesus guy, but you make him sound pretty good. Maybe you say, I've never really heard it like this. You say, man, I'm ready to give my life to Jesus. I don't really know what it all means yet, but I'm ready to experience that freedom, that peace that you talked about. My world getting larger and larger because I'm not trying to hoard things, but I'm trying to give everything away to the best of my ability to serve people so they can have the experience I had with that coach or that mentor or now with Jesus. If you don't know Jesus and

you're in here on the sound of my voice, I'm just going to ask you on the count of three, if you want to make him your Lord and Savior, say, you know what? I'm not sure what that all looks like yet. Hey, don't worry about it. We're going to help you. Jesus made sure that you belong before you know how to behave or believe. If you say, I want to make Jesus my Lord and Savior, I'm just going to ask you to lift your hand on the count of three. Nobody's looking around. It's family in here anyway. Warren, the Bible says that today is the day of salvation. Don't put it off. You can make a decision today that will change the rest of your life and your eternity. Two, if you believe that this is for you, your heart's beating fast, hands are a little sweaty, three, just hold your hand up. Anybody in the room? Amen, amen, amen, amen, amen. Hey, I just want to pray, and we're just going to repeat this prayer after me. If you raised your hand,

I already believe that you identified yourself and you are saved, but I genuinely believe that the power of God is going to move right now as you start to unpack what it means to walk with Jesus. Just repeat this prayer after me under your breath. You don't have to say it loud. He can hear you because he's already here. Say, Lord Jesus, I repent of my sins. I don't know what all of this means, but I'm so grateful that you do. You didn't ask me to be perfect. You asked me to connect with you. I believe you died, and I'm grateful that you did it with me in mind the whole time. Help me to walk with you from this day forward in Jesus' name. Amen, amen. For more information, reach out to Todd Westerlin at 925-980-8012 or visit autoshopanswers.com. You can get more information about key to key to callbacks, court side. We have a VIP rack attack day where you spend an entire day in the trenches with our team learning this

perfected business model. We offer leadership classes. We have an AI Academy, and also get more information about auto shop callbacks. We have auto tech training. We are literally your one-stop shop. Once again, that number for Todd Westerlin is 925-980-8012.