I Believe In Serving Part 1

Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith.

Perhaps there is no more poignant picture of Christ as when He took the basin and the towel to wash the disciples' feet. He wanted them to know that the way to greatness was through the pathway of service. And service is our lifetime calling as followers of Jesus.

Stay with us. From the Moody Church in Chicago, this is Running to Win with Dr. Erwin Lutzer, whose clear teaching helps us make it across the finish line. Pastor Lutzer, politicians are all about telling us how great they are. This example of Jesus points us in a completely different direction.

You know, Dave, your question is more difficult to answer than perhaps you realized. Because on the one hand, politicians have to extol all of their virtues, tell people why they should be voting for them. But at the same time, they must do so if they are Christians with a sense of humility because we need to be able to balance that with the example of Jesus and the teaching of Jesus that says, He who would be great among you, let him be a servant. Well, we as Christians struggle with that, don't we? I want to thank the many of you who support the ministry of Running to Win.

You know, it's because of you. You've heard me say this before. We are in 20 different countries in four different languages, and we continue to expand this ministry. Would you consider becoming an endurance partner? That's somebody who stands with us regularly with their prayers and their gifts. Here's what you do. Go to rtwoffer.com.

When you're there, click on the endurance partner button, or you can call us at 1-888-218-9337. And let us remember that no matter where God places us in life, humility is always necessary. I think it's true to say that all of us have aspired to greatness.

We'd all like to mean something to somebody. We would like to be able to live our lives in such a way that we might even be remembered that somehow we want to do what is significant. And that desire for significance is actually God-given.

We were born with that desire because God put eternity in our hearts. The problem is that in our fallenness, we look for significance in all the wrong places. Some try to find it in wealth, for example.

Then they are significant. Some try to find it in such things as fame and becoming well-known, being somebody, and they become addicted to approval. Others find it in power.

They want to be able to control people, and somehow they think that if they can get enough control, they'll have that thing called significance. Well, as you know, this is a series of messages titled I Believe in the Church, and today we're going to speak on I believe in serving because we're going to find out where true significance lies and that all of us can be significant. Take your Bibles and turn to Mark chapter 10, an amazing story in the scriptures of some young men who wanted to achieve significance. Mark chapter 10, we're going to take a little walk with Jesus along the Jericho Road. Actually, they're on their way to Jericho, and from Jericho, Jesus is going to come to Jerusalem. But en route, we notice this in chapter 10 of Mark, verse 35, then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to him and said, teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask.

That reminds me of my kids. Dad, dad, if I ask you something, will you say yes? Well, first of all, tell me what you're going to ask, okay? I want you to notice that this is the search for greatness on the part of these disciples, and Jesus does not promise ahead of time.

He simply says, what do you want me to do for you? Let's get to the point. I like that, bottom line kind of man. You know, he says, verse 37, they said, let one of us sit at your right hand and the other on your left in glory. Now, we may think that that was a little ostentatious.

Haven't used that word for a long time, but it appears appropriate here. But Jesus promised them that they would. If you look at the Matthew account just before this, he said that the 12 of you are going to sit on 12 thrones ruling over the tribes of Israel, and so there was that, there was that promise, and so what they wanted to do is to ask the question, can we sit on your right hand and on your left? Why did they ask it?

Couple of reasons. First of all, we don't get this from Mark, but Matthew shows us that their mother Salome was there. In fact, it says, she came kneeling before Jesus and was part of the question, can these my sons rule with you in your kingdom, one on the right hand and the other on the left?

So, what mother has not aspired that her sons might become great? There's another reason and that is perhaps James and John, whose father was Zebedee, as I mentioned, their mother was Salome, maybe they came from a higher class, they were from a better neighborhood. You know, it says in the book of Mark, chapter one, that Zebedee, for example, had hired servants.

Well, not everyone had hired servants, and so he did. So, maybe, maybe they felt that they deserved that kind of honor. As a matter of fact, I think that also the real reason though was this, they wanted to get to Jesus before Peter did, because they knew that he was thinking this, knowing Peter, he'd like to be both on the right and the left simultaneously. And so what they're doing is they're coming to Jesus and they're doing an end run and they're saying, you know, is it okay if James and John were brothers?

Well, sit on your right hand and on your left, the places of honor. Jesus gives them a very interesting answer. He doesn't blow them out of the water, even though I think we would all agree that their request was somewhat, what shall we say, it catered to a prideful spirit. But notice what Jesus said, you don't know what you are asking. Can you drink the cup I drink or be baptized with the baptism I'm baptized with? What Jesus is saying is you want to rule? Well, you're asking for suffering. You want glory? I want you to know that before you get to glory, there's a lot that has to happen. As a matter of fact, it is going to be the cross that is going to precede the crown.

Are you willing to go that route? What Jesus meant was this, drink the cup. That's the active part of his obedience. And then to be baptized, what does the word baptism mean?

It means to immerse. Can you be immersed in the deep horror and rejection and grief that is going to be part of my experience? If you want to rule with me, are you willing to come with me? That's what Jesus is talking about.

And you'll notice they perhaps too self-confident, but nonetheless, they say we are able. They didn't understand exactly what they were saying, but Jesus in effect confirmed that they would. You will drink the cup I drink and be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with. And Jesus in effect is predicting that James is going to be martyred. That's what church history says happened to him. And John is going to be exiled to the island of Patmos, and he's going to give us the book of Revelation, as it is revealed to him in that context. So Jesus says, yes, you can go through that difficult baptism and you will.

But then he makes another point. He says, but to grant you your request, I cannot, because these places belong to those for whom they have been prepared. What he's saying is my father has already worked out the seating arrangements, and I can't tamper with it. You know, there are some things there's no use even praying about, because Jesus said not even I can change it. Now, if he really wanted to, he'd have to talk to the father and get that worked out. But there are some things that are predetermined, and he says that the arrangements have been made, and that is not my designation.

That's his designation, and I'm not going to tamper with the name plates on the thrones. Now, it's very interesting to notice that the 10, the Bible says in verse 41, they heard about this and they became indignant with James and John. Why? What's their problem? Why didn't they rejoice and say to themselves, now, wouldn't that be wonderful to have James and John sitting right next to Jesus? That's a wonderful idea.

Too bad I didn't think of it myself. I really hope that Jesus grants it to them. What's the problem? A simple fact is you and I find it difficult to rejoice over those who have been blessed more than we have. We become envious of spirit because at root every one of these disciples was thinking the same thing, asking the question why can't it be me?

That's the problem. And that's why Jonathan Edwards says when we get to heaven we are going to be so free of envy that we will actually rejoice over the success and the blessing of others as if that blessing were our own. But the disciples aren't there yet so they are indignant. Well, we've spoken about the quest for greatness.

Now, let's look at the mark of greatness. Notice Jesus said, he called them together and he said, look, let's huddle you guys because there's something we have to get straight. You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them and their high officials exercise authority over them.

Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant and whoever wants to be first, go ahead, be first, you must become the slave of all. What Jesus is saying is worldly people, they do all that they possibly can to be in authority. They want to control. And when they control they hang on to their positions until their knuckles turn white.

There's nothing that they are going to do to let go of that. They will say to themselves, I want to be numero uno. Lucy tried to teach me that this morning and so I thought I'd try it on. I want to rule by intimidation. I want to try to take charge and I will stay here and if you become a threat to me I will destroy you. I will destroy you through gossip. I will destroy you by planting seeds of doubt in other people's mind about you.

I will do all that I possibly can to keep you underneath me. I'm not talking merely about kings and presidents and the like. I'm speaking about people with whom you work. Not people with whom I work because I work here at the church.

We don't have anything like that. And what Jesus is saying is that the people of the world they believe that the more people who serve you that that is greatness, but the opposite must be true that the more people whom you serve is really the mark of greatness. And so you have people in the world who climb the ladder of success wrong by wrong.

They will get ahead honestly if they can, dishonestly if they must, but get ahead they will. Jesus says it's not to be that way among you. As a matter of fact among you it should be entirely different. What you must do is to learn to serve if you wish to be great. There's nothing wrong with wanting to be great. There's nothing wrong with wanting to be first, but please understand how God defines it within the context of his kingdom. Now you asked well can a person run for a political office and be a committed person?

The answer is yes. Jesus is not saying that there should be no rulers, but what he's saying is most of them are there for their own good no matter how often they talk about being for the good of the people. But there is such a thing as servant leadership. There is such a thing as God leading certain people to rule for the best of the community and for the best view and values that he himself as God espouses.

But oftentimes you know that old expression that says power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. There's something within us that says we want to be first. We want our names engraved there. So that's the badge of greatness.

It is service. Ruth Harms Cockin 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. Now let's look at the example of greatness. This is verse 45. Jesus says these words for even the son of man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many. Jesus said I didn't come to this earth to have people run errands for me. I didn't come to this earth as some great potentate and expect all of my servants to grovel before me. I did not come to this earth to bark out orders expecting people to jump. I did not come taking advantage of my awesome power as God a very God. I did not do that.

I could have but I didn't. I came to serve and the way in which I served is I gave my life for the many. Instead of the many I gave them as a ransom. What he means is I gave myself as a payment so that people could be redeemed and that's the way in which I served them. Now you think of all that that involved.

You think of the cross. You think of the fact that he came to die for us and suffer so pointedly and so so directly and what Jesus Christ is doing is he's saying you know use me as your example and that payment that he made was a payment made to God the Father not to Satan. He ransomed. He bought us out out of the slave market of sin.

He paid the penalty. So I have to say this because I may not have an opportunity to do that in the rest of this message. Very briefly if you are here today and you do not know God and you do not know Christ as your savior that ransom then is of no value for you. He said I did it for the many so that we can be saved. He died so that we could be saved on the basis of his merit and that's how we have assurance that we're going to get to heaven. He died for us on our behalf and he says that's the standard and that is the lesson to be learned.

Well we've hurried through the text but what I'd like to do is to give you some life-changing lessons that I think Jesus would want us to know today and apply them to ourselves and to our church. Number one and this is such good news anyone can be great. Anyone can be great. Isn't it amazing you don't need money to be great. You don't need fame to be great. You don't have to be written up in the newspapers to be great. All that you need to do is to serve and in the process of serving you become great because the kingdom inverts all of our values.

It is a pyramid that is stood on its head is so to speak where Jesus is saying that we can be great to serve. One day someone asked Lauren Sanny of the Navigators back when he was president of the Navigators they said how do you know when you are a servant and he said you'll know that you have the heart of a servant by the way in which you respond when you are treated like one. You see in order for us to become servants there has to be a death to self there has to be a dying to to worldly ambition. There is a place I believe in the Christian life where we can be ambitious for God but oftentimes that spills over very very easily into being ambitious for ourselves and as a result we have this drive for power this drive for significance and we're finding our significance in all the wrong ways and in in the wrong places and so Jesus said number one anyone can become great and you can become great by serving in obscurity in a place like the poem I just read where nobody sees and where nobody knows and those kinds of acts are most precious to God.

Let me give you a second observation. Servants see needs and meet them. They see needs and meet them that's what servants do.

Jesus saw our need and came and died for us. Listen very carefully if it is service that makes a person great and Jesus said it's okay to want to be first it's okay to want to be great but if it is service that makes a person great then it is really service that makes a church great. It is not simply coming to the morning worship services it is not simply being involved in perhaps your own little world though we can certainly serve the Lord Jesus Christ on Monday Tuesday and Wednesday but it is a sacrificial attitude of service within the context of God's people and God's ministries. This morning if you were here for the opening you know that we are beginning an awesome ambitious ministry of the Sidewalk Sunday School and as we learned we need hundreds of people to be involved this summer hundreds of people to give up part of their Saturdays and perhaps an occasional meeting through the week and we don't know where those people are all that we're doing is we're praying that God would bring them to us why because he there would be first among you let him be the servant of all those who are willing to expend themselves on the part of others that says Jesus is greatness. We have to think about that a little bit because its implications are far-reaching for every one of us particularly those of us who have public ministries. What we're looking for is people who are willing to say I see a need and I can connect the need with my own particular gift now I could have preached on gifts today I chose not to because all of us are gifted the Bible says that each of us has a gift from God as a matter of fact all gifts have the same source they come from God and they are given for the same purpose the common good said Jesus and as a result of that we fit somewhere in the body. Now I know there are some of you who because of geographical reasons or other reasons find it difficult to get involved but I just want you to know this that as you look at the book of Acts and as you look at thriving churches what you find is this sense of commitment and involvement and sacrifice and a willing to investigate and a willingness to help us to help you to know where you fit so that we can be a serving church sometimes you'll get credit for it sometimes you won't probably most of the time you won't nobody will know about it but what a difference it makes. My friend today often you hear us talk about the ministry of running to win we do that to let you know that God has blessed this ministry but I want to make it very clear based on the message that you have just listened to that we have nothing that we have not received from God we take no credit for all the good things God does through his word through this ministry I'm holding in my hands a letter from someone who says I was sitting in my automobile at the hospital waiting on my wife who is receiving radiation for breast cancer it was early morning I heard Pastor Lucer for the first time your teaching gave me joy during that hard time my wife ran her race valiantly to the finish line I have every hope that she is with her first love Jesus Christ you have a part in this ministry we're so thankful for all those who support us with their prayers with their gifts would you consider becoming an endurance partner that's someone who stands with us regularly with their prayers and their gifts of course you need more info so here's what you can do go to rtwoffer.com that's rtwoffer.com oh by the way when you're there click on the endurance partner button investigate what an endurance partner does go to rtwoffer.com click on the endurance partner button or if you prefer call us at 1-888-218-9337 remember we give God all the glory for what he does through this ministry and I'm so thankful for the many of you he uses to help us get the gospel to millions time now for another chance for you to ask Pastor Lucer a question about the Bible or the Christian life keeping relationships in their proper place that's Deb's concern today she asks is it possible to be too close of a friend with your pastor well the short answer Deb is yes the question is why is a particular person a close friend of the pastor now a pastor needs close friends but he also needs to be very careful in terms of his relationship with the opposite sex so these friendships that are wrong that perhaps are upon a wrong foundation can eventually lead to something that is disastrous obviously I don't know the details that lie behind your question but I would simply say that what we need to do is to be very cautious it's not just pastors oftentimes who have been wrongly befriended but other Christian leaders or any Christian and therefore the whole business of who is our friend and how close they are to us in terms of that friendship we need a great deal of discernment thank you Deb and thank you Dr. Lucer if you'd like to hear your question answered go to our website at rtwoffer.com and click on ask Pastor Lucer or call us at 1-888-218-9337 that's 1-888-218-9337 you can write to us at Running to Win 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard Chicago Illinois 60614 Running to Win is all about helping you find God's roadmap for your race of life next time on Running to Win more from Mark chapter 10 on how Jesus defines greatness and how we can only attain it by serving others plan to join us for Pastor Erwin Lucer this is Dave McAllister Running to Win is sponsored by the Moody Church.