I Will, Serve

Last week we learned about togetherness. God has designed us not only for worship, but he had also designed us to be together. If you remember, “Coming together is the beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success.” Every step of the way, our greatest goal is to meet the living God when we meet together. Not programs, not to make sure we have this or that in place. Our first goal is for us to be obedient ourselves in hearing and listening and worshipping and praying and proclaiming God in this service and to hear the still voice of our creator, calling each of us deeper into His plan to a part of the kingdom.

This morning, let’s go a little deeper into the one topic that if I had to pick is one topic that all churches struggle with after giving and money, it would be serving. For me, it took me awhile to learn that serving isn’t something I do, it’s something, I am. Right. I don’t do service, I am a servant. You see, serving is more than just doing, it’s being. It’s being Jesus.

It’s surrendering to Jesus in my life to become a servant unto him. And that can look different in many ways. It could mean different callings, or different positions and jobs or different ways of living… but if you boil it down to one thing… serving is Christ manifesting himself in my life, to do to others, what he was doing for others 2,000 years ago. That’s the life that I pursue.

And it’s called holiness. Holiness simply put, is Christ in me. But not just Christ in me, but he has a hold of me.. all of me. Everything that I am and all that I have, is Jesus’s. That’s all I desire. So my prayer this week while I was at holiness camp was Jesus, have all of me. All of my senses. Have you ever prayed, Jesus not only have all of me, but have all of my sense.

I want to see, hear, touch, smell and taste Jesus in my life. I mean, isn’t that how we process and experience this physical world of ours. I want Jesus to have my eyes so I can see what he sees. I want to be aware of the work Jesus is doing in my own mind and heart, but I also want to see with my own eyes the marginalized and the hurting and the broken in the way Jesus’s sees them.

I desire Jesus to have my ears. I want to hear the things Jesus heard. I want Jesus to have my ears so that I can have them tuned to hear the heart beat of his heart. To hear the voice of God, to witness voices being lifted up in adoration. Do you ever get emotional when your in a room filled with people lifting hands and voices to God and surrendering!

It’s amazing. At camp this week, I took a moment to watch people worship and in but a moment as the Spirit began to move hearts, you can witness moments where people were encountering the living God. I desire Jesus to have my hands, and to have them feel and to work as he would want them to. Jesus was a touching savior. He touched the eyes of the blind to heal, and the faithful reached out to touch him to be healed.

He’s a touching God. What about smelling Jesus? Have you ever wondered what he smelled like? I mean, this was 2000 years ago, hygiene has gotten a whole lot better since then. But what did he smell like? I was thinking about Israel and when we were there I learned that they planted rosemary all around the garden of Gethsemane. Rosemary is believed to be a memory aide.. so they planted it all over gethsemane so that when you would smell the rosemary you would remember Christ.

And I even wanted to taste Jesus… now.. this was a hard one. Because, how do you taste Jesus? If Jesus tasted anything like communion bread and juice well, he doesn’t taste all that good does he? Sometimes he’s dry, or stale. This was the hardest part for me. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t figure out how to taste Christ. Until the Lord reminded me of the garden in Gethseneame.

I couldn’t taste Christ because he drained the cup I could not drink all the way to the bittered last drop and took it to calvary in my place. Because of Jesus all I get to taste is the sweetness of his grace and His mercy and love. Now, I tell you all this because to me, my goal is to live in holiness. If we claim to be holiness people but yet we’re not pursuing Christ with all of our lives, and to be our life.

Then are we truly holy people? Let’s read this Scripture in Matthew chapter 20 and find verse 20 to verse 28. The greatest battle for holiness is our unwillingness to dethrone the sovereign. The most destructive force in this world is our carnal nature to be self centered. That’s sin. Sin isn’t just, Oh I looked over there and saw a woman and lusted for her. Oh, I had a bad thought, or I said a bad word, or I was angry.

Sin, at the deepest core is the fact that we are self-centered. And that is the most dangerous reality because this is what self centeredness does. Self Centerness stands opposed to any kind of love that doesn’t love me first. When we are self-centered, it often guarantees the failure of love. Self centeredness is opposed to all decency. There is no standards other than personal standards. You must love me to my standard.

And boy let me just tell you I got some high standards. Someone who is self-centered may be preoccupied with their own thoughts and feelings and may not be very attentive to the needs and perspectives of others. Honestly, If we only lived our life expecting others to live to our standards, there will never be peace or unity in this world. Never.. ensues our standards are meant to bring us glory, or praise or comfort.

Self centeredness is opposed to relationships. There is not one marriage that I know where two become one where both people are at odds with each other all the time. Self centered carnality is not restricted to certain parts of our life. It permits every function of our living. Every relationship, every standard, every public and private moment, all our thoughts and attitudes are effected by self centeredness. There is nothing, absolutely nothing untouched by the self centered carnality of our mind, and our hearts, and our service towards others and our relationship with others.

It’s problem. And it’s was a problem for the disciples as well. The sons of thunder were seeing a prominent role in the kingdom. Their mother was coming to Jesus and taking a moment to see an opportunity for them to sit at the right and left hand of Jesus and, it caused a lot of things to happen within the group. It was a self centered request. And anytime we are self centered and we make a request that is self centered, there are major implications that become tragic for us and others.

For instance, Look with me in verse 24. And when the ten heard it, they were moved with indignation against the two brothers. The first thing we learn is this… Self-centeredness is a guaranteed recipe for tearing the body apart. These men are the core of the first church. These 12 men were to be the seeds, in the core of the apple of the first church. And you have two disciples going behind the back of the other 10, to try to gain a prominent seat in the kingdom.

And the other 10 got angry because they didn’t think of it first. The result was division. This one word in greek means two things, it means to annoy, and it means very much. When we put indignation together it means to be very much to be annoyed. Which also translates to, seized with anger. The same thing happened in Corinth. They were immature, carnal church. They were divided over loyalty.

This is my pastor, and the other person would say, this is my pastor. There was division over apostleship and leadership. These divisions came from a carnal self centered life. Paul comes into Corinth and says, For where there is envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like mere men. He’s saying, there is no spiritual life in you. I always love this… he never calls them unchristian either.

He never says, you unchrist-like heathens. He calls them Carnal Christians. And whenever there is strife, and division among you, and envy, then the presence of self-centered carnality is always among you. Can you just hear the 10 in this moment? Jesus, that’s not fair. Those two guys went behind our backs and they used their family connections to get this honored seat beside you. And who can blame her! Any mother would want to see her two sons, who were walking with a rabbi without the comforts of life to have some sort of greater role in the kingdom.

I don’t blame her. I want my kids to have every opportunity in life. I mean, isn’t that a part of love. To see others receive? The second thing self centeredness does is that it dethrones the sovereign. We sing this song, I’m sure you’ve heard it… Let the King of my heart, Be the mountain where I run, The fountain I drink from, Oh, He is my song, Let the King of my heart, Be the shadow where I hide, The ransom for my life, Oh, He is my song…

right… Who’s the king of your heart? No where does that song say Jesus! I love the song, don’t get the wrong…, but when I sing it, I’ve got to add Jesus in there, somewhere, anywhere because it’s really easy to sing those verses to the king of my heart, and think only of myself, not Jesus. Am I the king of my heart?? If I am, then the fountain I drink from is from my self centeredness.

The mountain I run to isn’t Jesus, it’s things in this life that I have accumulated and made to become mini idols to the greater idol. Look with me in verse, 22, “You don't know what you are asking, will you be able to drink the cup I’m about to drink? What was their answer? We are able! Oh man… when I read that this week, I was thinking of that old song….

Anything you can do Jesus, I can do better… no you can’t, yes I can. Do you remember that as a kid? This is such an important question by Jesus because this is what he’s asking… James… John… are you able to drink from the cup I’m about to drink? Disciples, are you able to take one sip of the cup that I am about to drain to is bitterest ends.

This was why this week, as I was praying to taste Jesus. It was very clear that I couldn’t taste what he tasted and finished it to the end. Because not one drop was left. He drained it! There response was, We are able. And to be honest, that’s not how the greek word is translated… in the context of this moment when they said, I am able, what they are really saying is this, We are always able.

So many times we are so quick to believe that we are always able, until the suffering comes, and then we begin to doubt our ability to do what we say we can do. Our failures scream of our inadequacy. Our programs don’t work, and were not winning the lost to Christ. But yet, we, just like them find ourselves many times coming into church saying were always able, but were not able.

Honestly, so many times we say we’re able, but we’re unwilling as well. We’re able Jesus … yet They were unwilling to even stay awake in the garden, for one hour to pray. We’re always able Jesus, but yet, How could they go to the cross with Jesus? Once a moment of fright and fear came to them, they ran in fear. Their ignorance was their own dependancy. That’s not faith.

Thats not dependent upon the sufficiencies of Christ and the cross for forgiveness and love and mercy towards others. When it comes to serving, there is no serving with a right heart when your hearts are self centered. So what does Jesus say? He says, in verse 26, Yet it shall not be so among you: but whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your servant. Being a servant means being submissive.

You see, Jesus was trying to tell them that in this world, they work to try to get ahead of each other. Jesus turns the ideas of this world around and says, no, in my kingdom, we lower ourselves to be below one another. And everyone is to live in this way, in this pattern. Its our style, our way of doing it, it’s to be submissive. Haven’t you noticed that in all of Jesus’s sermons, there is this thread of servitude.

We’ve got to be careful when we say we want holiness because if that is true, that means we’ve got to be like Jesus. And Jesus had God the father at the center of his heart, and Jesus came to be a servant. How does that apply to our lives? Well, Jesus calls us to step from a position of equality, to lower ourselves to serve the person next to us.

That’s a servant. A servant is equal with another person, but they lower themselves, to serve another. Wouldn’t it be something… just think about this for a moment… wouldn’t it be something… if this is what church membership really meant? That when I take membership vows it’s not so I can make decisions. My membership isn’t about deciding what color we change the carpet to, or so that I can have my favorite kind of preference for this or that so I can be more comfortable.

But what if, membership truly meant that I was going to come into church, every Sunday, and every event, and roll up my sleeves to say, “I just want to become your servant. I am equal with you. However, the moment I see a need in your life, I will forfeit my equality and become your servant.” How different would the church be if we did that? Hcurhc, “You cannot be a Kingdom person and live for yourself.

Isn’t this the holiness message? But that’s not all Jesus says right? Look closely to verse 27, he says, and whosoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave. If you want to know what that means… it means this… A servant is equal with another person, and they lower themselves to serve another. But after they serve, they can rise and become equal with them again. However, to become a slave is different.

To be a slave means they are lower and they stay lower. It’s like a picture of a galley ship. This person sits on a bench in the bottom of a great sailing ship. Everyone is shackeled together, and they are property, they are owned. The owner has a piece of paper that says, I own them. There is no sick days, there is no let’s call in sick. There is no complains, or rights.

This person doesn’t go, Im not coming into work today because there are hypocrites in the boat. This style of servitude means they have no rights. I imagine a new membership vow within church membership. Wouldn’t it be different… if God’s people declared to be a slave of Christ. I often wondered if Peter in his letter was thinking of this moment of James and John and Jesus and the 10 when Jesu says, if you want to be greater, of you want to go further in being a servant, becomes a slave.

He says, “Simon Peter, a bond-servant and apostle of Jesus Christ..this bond-servant word means slave. But what would happen, if people came to the altar, stood up and declared to the entire congregation, I desire to lower myself to everyone here? What would happen, if our one focus will be to meet the needs of others, to pour out our energy for others? And require no appreciation and encouragement from others?

To have others not understand you, or to even be liked by others? All because you’ve given up your rights to be served in return, and you are became a slave? I think of my marriage. Its not 50/50. I declared myself to my wife to be a slave, and my one focus will be to meet her needs. I will not live for myself, but for her. My first thought will not to be for me, but for what is good for her.

I surrender all of my rights and submit to be your slave… I am losing my life to you.. and I’m not expecting anything in return form her. How different would our marriages and relationships be if that was our desire? Listen church, I have one observations about being a servant that I want to end with. Servants see needs and meet them. That’s what servants do. Jesus saw our need and came and died for us.

There is a lady named, Ruth Harms Calkin wrote these wonderful words: “You know, Lord, how I serve you with great emotional fervor in the limelight. You know how I eagerly speak for You at women’s clubs. You know how I effervesce when I promote fellowship groups. You know my genuine enthusiasm at Bible study. But how would I react, I wonder, if you pointed to a basin of water and asked me to wash the calloused feet of a bent and wrinkled old woman day after day, month after month in a room where nobody saw and nobody knew?” Jesus said, “You want to be great, you be a servant.” *