I Believe In Serving

Perhaps there is no more poignant picture of Christ as when He took the basin and towel to wash His disciples' feet. He wanted them to know that the way to greatness was through the pathway of service. From Chicago, this is The Moody Church Hour, a weekly service of worship and teaching under the ministry of Dr. Erwin Lutzer. Today we bring you the third in a four-part series of messages on the topic, I Believe in the Church.

Stay with us as Dr. Lutzer speaks on I Believe in Serving. Pastor Lutzer comes now to open our time of worship. Because I have a devotional from Spurgeon, which is morning and evening for every day of the year, I think that often as we begin the service, we're going to get a line from Spurgeon's devotional. I was reading this morning, he was talking about the imperfection that is in our hearts, and then he says, but there is another kind of perfection, and then listen to this, the church will be so pure that not even the eye of omniscience will see a spot or blemish in her, so holy, so glorious, and then he quotes the words of a song, with my Savior's garments on, holy as the Holy One. That's the message of the gospel. I believe, that's our theme today, we believe the gospel, we believe in the transformation of lives. Let's all stand together as you participate in the scripture reading. Let's all stand, then we'll remain standing to sing.

Notice on 403, I will read the first part, and you respond, of course, as indicated, and we shall read those sections that are designated together. Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we exult in hope of the glory of God. And hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. For while we were still helpless at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly.

Much more then, having now been justified by his blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through him. For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. In the same way God, desiring even more to show to the heirs of the promise the unchangeableness of his purpose, interposed with an oath in order that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we may have strong encouragement, we who have fled for refuge, in laying hold of the hope set before us. This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and one which enters within the veil where Jesus has entered as a forerunner for us, having become a high priest forever.

This is God's word. Let us now pray together, and then we shall sing. Our Father, we thank you for your faithfulness. We thank you that we have been introduced to you through the grace that is in Christ Jesus. We thank you today that when we were helpless, Christ died for us, and for that we rejoice. We thank you, O Father, that we have a living hope, that we have a solid rock upon which we have come to stand. Transform this worship service, we pray. Come by your presence and meet with us, we ask, in Jesus' name.

Amen. We will sing just the marked verses on each one of the hymns so that we can clarify that. We like to all sing together with the same words, okay? On Christ the Son and God the Son, all other ground is sinking sand, all other ground is sinking sand. His holy Son and His house, all for Thee in the coming flood, when all around Thy soul is made, He ends all Thy hope and stay. On Christ the Son and God the Son, all other ground is sinking sand, all other ground is sinking sand. If He shall love it from His Son, Lord, may our faith in Him be found, present His righteousness to all, all us who stand before Him. On Christ the Son and God the Son, all other ground is sinking sand, all other ground is sinking sand. On Christ the Son and God the Son, all us who stand before Him, all us who stand before Him, Jesus, the King shall be, Thy people are the right men, Thy people are the King. It is enough that Jesus died, and that He died for me.

Be holy as Jesus is, listen what we have found. The sickle soul I love to be, will never pass me out. I need no other who I remain, I need no other in me. It is enough that Jesus died, and that He died for me.

I don't miss Him, O Lord, who made Him sound for me. And made the price of all my sin, and now for me, for me, I, for me, and ever thus in my path I'll be free. And now for me He stands, before the Father's throne, He shows His rule in hence, and gives me as His own. For He is God, for He is, and ever thus in life I'll be free. His grace is like their own, He is my God to be, and ever thus His work above let us be seen.

For He is God, for He is, and ever thus in life I'll be free. Lord of all the heights, where faith can lift a trusting light. Lord of all the depths, where fear would tear such faith apart.

Lord of all the nations, quick to make their bearing arms. Lord of all the heat, shall build by its mother's name above. Lord of all the most sacred and safe things, of the universe that sings and calls you Lord of all. Lord of all the power not to sin, you have always been and always will be Lord of all.

Lord of all the peace, that we can draw with every breath. Lord of all the provision, for each meal in life and death. Lord of all of the journeys, of the seasons and the earth.

Lord of all of the love, that purchased and the second birth. Lord of all the most sacred and safe things, of the universe that sings and calls you Lord of all. Lord of all the power not to sin, you have always been and always will be Lord of all. Lord of all, in grateful praise we call you Lord of all.

Lord of all, in grateful praise we call you Lord of all. Would you join me as we pray? I'm going to use Psalm 46 today as kind of a basis for our prayer. I hope that you've learned to pray that way. It'll revolutionize your prayer life. You'll never pray the same again when you pray scripture. Our Father, we want to thank you today for your majesty and for your grace.

Father, but we have to admit very candidly that you are mysterious. We do not understand your ways. I'm reminded of the words of Isaiah that says very clearly that my ways are not your ways and my thoughts are not your thoughts, says the Lord God, and how true that is. We do not understand such things as the earthquake that has taken place devastating so many tens of thousands of people. But we thank you today, Father, that you are our refuge and strength and ever present help in trouble.

And that applies to the dear people in India as well as the dear people in the United States and around the world. Therefore, we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though the waters thereof roar and foam and quake at their surging. Our Father, we thank you that we have found an anchor that stays in the midst of the earthquakes, the floods of life, the cancers of life, and the accidents of life, and the happenstances.

And we thank you today that you are our refuge and strength. Yes, O Father, refresh us today because there is a river whose streams will make glad the city of God, the holy place where the Most High dwells. Father, show us that river today because there are some people here who feel like a flower that has been crushed into the earth. And Father, they need some refreshment. They need dew from heaven.

We all do. How hungry and thirsty we are for you. God is with her. She will not fall.

God will help her at the break of day. Certainly nations are in an uproar. We think of the Middle East today with its turbulence. But we thank Father God also of the potential that exists for various conflicts where young people are being sent into battle and killed.

Father, again, we cannot understand, but we cleave to this. Nations are in an uproar. Kingdoms fall. He lifts his voice.

The earth melts. O Father, we take comfort in the fact that the Lord God Almighty is with us. The God of Jacob is our fortress. I pray that that may be true for the person who is here today going through a severe trial, having been betrayed. Those, Father, who expected letters and mail to arrive in their mailbox this week that did not come.

Those who had hoped, Father, that you were leading them in one direction, who have found the door slammed in their faces. We ask today, Father, that they might know that the Lord God Almighty is with us and the God of Jacob is our fortress. Come and see the works of the Lord, the desolations he has wrought on the earth. Our Father, help us in this moment to give all that we have to you our anxieties and our cares.

We pray you will wake us powerful witnesses of your love and grace. In the name of Jesus. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

Amen. Isn't it good to be here with God's people singing to him? To realize that he is God. We have so much to sing about.

Look in your bulletin, and the song is called Shout with Delight. Shout with delight to the Lord on ye who worship the Lord with full gladness of heart. Come down for him with songs full of praise and worship of the Lord. Know that the Lord is God. Know that the Lord is God. For he made us sing on his part.

The sheep of his pasture is our God. Know that the Lord is God. Enter his face.

Enter his face with the song of his name. Enter his course with your tongue tuned to praise. Our God is good and his love lasts forever.

Faithfulness marks up his face. Know that the Lord is God. Know that the Lord is God.

For he made us sing on his part. The sheep of his pasture is our God. Know that the Lord is God. Know that the Lord is God. For he made us sing on his part.

The sheep of his pasture is our God. Know that the Lord is God. Know that the Lord is God.

Know that the Lord is God. We lift our voices. We lift our hands. We lift our lives up to you. We are an offering. We lift our voices.

We lift our hands. We lift our lives. We are yours. We are an offering. All that we have. All that we are.

All that we hold to be. We lift to you. We lift to you. We lift our voices. We lift our hands. We lift our lives up to you. We are an offering. We lift our voices.

We lift our hands. We lift our lives. We are yours. We are an offering. All that we have. All that we are.

All that we hold to be. We lift to you. We lift to you. We lift our voices.

We lift our hands. We lift our lives up to you. We are an offering. We are an offering. 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, OK? 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 is 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 that which 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, he says, to grant you your request, I cannot. Because these places belong to those for whom they have been prepared. The thing is, my father's 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 ten, 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 Christian?

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 instead of a ransom.

Let me clarify that. 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 directly and we're going to be speaking on the cross in just a couple of weeks and all of its implications.

But 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're 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, so to speak, where Jesus is saying that we can be great to serve. One day someone asked Lorne 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 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 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. What we're doing is we're praying that God would bring them to us.

Why? Because he that 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.

I think, for example, of the Phillip teams. You know, we have greeters and we have parkers and those who are helping in the ministry. Now, that's only a small slice, but 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. This past week, I read a story about a man who had been so angry with the church, he never attended church. He said, all that they want is my money. All that they want is they want to save me so that I can be another statistic. And he had a deep bitterness in his heart, but as he was dying of cancer and was 75 pounds, when he was unable to speak, and he looked at all of the flowers that were there in the hospital room, and he saw all of the cards that the people of the church had sent him, and he saw all of the outpouring of love, he took a pen and wrote on a Kleenex box, with his daughter present, I was wrong. Dear friend, there are a lot of people out there. We have to prove her wrong. They have conceptions of us that aren't true.

They think that all that we want is numbers, or all that we want is them for this or that, and they don't understand that we really do want to love. We really do want to serve. We want to really represent Jesus well in this community, as we frequently say in this church, because we understand that even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many.

And he said, that's the standard. That's the way you evaluate service. Be first, but be first to be a servant, and then you will be great in the kingdom. There's a third lesson, and the third lesson is this, that those who serve are the ones who rule. Those who serve are the ones who rule. You say, well, thankfully, Jesus served when he was here on this earth, but now that he's in heaven sitting on his throne, and now that we are going to get to reign with him, no more of this service anymore.

That's what I would think. You know, some of you may struggle with whether or not the Bible is the word of God. That's okay to struggle with it as long as you keep reading it. But I'll tell you something, there's no way that anybody would make this stuff up. There is absolutely no way that anybody would come up with what is in the Bible unless it were inspired by God. Because there's a passage in the book of Luke that says this. It says, be dressed and ready for service and keep your lamps burning like men waiting for their master to return from a wedding banquet so that when he comes and knocks, they can immediately open the door to him. They're just talking about the second coming of Jesus Christ. It will be good for those servants whose master finds them watching when he comes. I tell you the truth that he, the master, that is Jesus, will dress himself to serve and will have them recline at the table and will come and wait on them. And I say, God, I cannot, I cannot believe it. I believe it, but there's a part of me that says, how can this be?

Do you realize what it's saying? That when you and I are in the kingdom, Jesus is going to say, well, you know, you had a hard time on earth. You lived in the city, Moody Church wasn't all that you thought it was. You went through a lot of heartache, people around you died.

You went through a lot of suffering. You know, it's time for you to just relax. You recline and I'm going to put on my garments and take a towel and I'm going to serve you at the dinner. Jesus doing that. And some of us will walk out of this church today without ever having really genuinely sacrificed for anyone in the last month or two. And Jesus said, I'll serve you. That service does not even end in the coming kingdom. I was thinking to myself, what would happen if everyone who is a member and a tender of Moody Church honestly and truly began to take upon themselves the role of the servant?

I'm talking about beginning with myself and the staff and the elders and the leadership and then all the way down. Can you imagine the number of lives that would be touched if every one of us were to say, I want to touch two or three lives by service significantly, significantly, sacrificially this year. Two or three.

Some can do a half dozen, some can do ten. Some who are involved in children's ministry is going to do it for hundreds. But what if we all began to say, when I see a need, I'm going to meet it. If there's someone in the hospital, I'm going to visit them or write them or give them a card. If I see a specific financial need, I'm going to help. I'm going to look for opportunities to serve.

Yes, those who serve are the ones who rule. A.E. Whittam has an imaginary report on a visit to the New Jerusalem. He says, in my wandering I came upon the museum in the city of our dreams.

I went in and the attendant conducted me around. There was some old armor there, much bruised with battle. Many things were conspicuous by their absence. I saw nothing of Alexander's or of Napoleon's.

There was no pope's ring, not even the ink bottle that Luther is said to have thrown at the devil. I saw a widow's mite and a feather of a little bird. I saw some swaddling clothes, a hammer, three nails and a few thorns. I saw a sponge that at one time had been dipped in vinegar and I saw a small piece of silver. And while I was turning over a simple drinking cup which had an honorable place, you know, Jesus did say that if you give a cup of cold water in my name, you'll not lose your reward. While I saw this cup which had an honorable place, I whispered to the attendant, Do you have a towel and a basin among your collection?

And he said, No, because they're still in constant use. Jesus said, Look, why don't you relinquish your desire for power? If God gives it to you, fine, but don't worry about the people at work who are trying to undermine you.

Don't worry about the people who would like to try to do something, to cut you down. The scripture says, Seekest thou great things for thyself? Don't seek them. Don't seek them. Seek them not, God says to Jeremiah. If God wants to give you great things, let God give you great things.

Be released from that hassle. Because he who would be first, he who would rule, let him serve. Because even the Son of Man, Jesus said, did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many. And Jesus is saying, Please, please use me as your standard and example.

Let's pray. Our Father, today we do want to thank you that Jesus came to give us an example of greatness. We thank you that even in the kingdom, though we do not understand it, he shall gird a towel and ask us to recline at the table and come and serve. Oh Father, today break us down from our selfish, narrow lives and make us a church that flourishes with good deeds and sacrificial service. We pray today, Father, in those needs that are represented, some of which we've referred to, grant, oh God, many to come our way and to say, Whatever it takes, whatever the cost, I'm here to serve. Do that, Lord, unleash the power of your church by becoming great through service.

In Jesus' name, Amen. Thinking of what the challenge that Jesus Christ gave us, I was thinking of 387. 387, Owe to be like thee, blessed Redeemer. And that's our calling, folks, is to be like Christ in the neighborhoods, in our work, in our communities, in our churches, to represent him. And to serve like he did.

387. Jerry, come and lead us, please. On today's Moody Church Hour, Dr. Erwin Lutzer brought the third of four messages in his series, I Believe in the Church. We heard about how serving one another is a visible mark of our being true Christians. Baptism and the Lord's Supper are vital components of every believer's spiritual life. Next week, join us as Erwin Lutzer speaks on I Believe in the Ordinances.

Gambling, pornography, greed, and lust, they're all pathways to addictions that can cripple any of us. We need to understand the devil's tactics. Dr. Lutzer's book, Seven Snares of the Enemy, is our gift to you in return for your gift to support The Moody Church Hour. Call 1-800-215-5001 and ask for your copy. That's 1-800-215-5001 or you can write to us at The Moody Church, 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois, 60614. Online, go to moodyoffer.com. That's moodyoffer.com. Join us next week for another Moody Church Hour with Dr. Erwin Lutzer and the Congregation of Historic Moody Church in Chicago.