Sermon

Christ Is Servant | February 15, 2026 AM

Sermon Podcast—LBC Easton

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  1. Welcome to the Liberty Baptist Sermon Archives.

  2. The message you're about to hear was preached at Liberty Baptist

  3. Church in Easton, MA. You can find out more about us

  4. or contact us at my libertybaptist.org or just look

  5. us up on Facebook. And now we hope that this

  6. message from God's Word will be a blessing to you.

  7. Well, again, we're in Mark chapter 10, and I alluded to

    Mark 10 chapter mention

  8. just a few moments ago, not just in the introduction but also in

  9. the song as well, that we're going to look at the fact that

  10. Christ is servant. Now, this might be the most

  11. startling of all of the titles of the messages we've looked at

  12. so far. And I was talking about actually

  13. this morning with the men during men's prayer, because when we

  14. consider that Christ is omnipotent, we remember looking

  15. at that last week, the idea that Christ is all powerful.

  16. That doesn't surprise us. We know that Christ.

  17. Is all powerful. We're not surprised of the fact

  18. that Christ is healing. We know that through the Gospels

  19. that Christ is the healer. In fact, we're not even really

  20. surprised that Christ is meek. Well, we might be at first, but

  21. that's because we don't understand often times what true

  22. meekness is. But we understand that it's

  23. power under his control. Of course, it just makes sense

  24. that Christ is healer as well, or rather, Christ is meek as

  25. well. But yet you get to the place

  26. where we say Christ is servant. And we got to stop for a moment

  27. ago. What the fact that Christ is a

  28. servant because it doesn't seem like omnipotence and meekness

  29. with power being under control would seem to go together with

  30. the fact that Christ is a servant.

  31. But yet, as we're going to see from Mark chapter 10 this

    Mark 10 chapter mention

  32. morning, the concept of Christ being servant is not something

  33. that someone else has laid upon Jesus Christ, but rather

  34. something that he is going to communicate to us through his

  35. own words. And those red letter words that

  36. we're going to find in the book of Mark in chapter #10 that

  37. Jesus reminds us that he, he is a servant.

  38. And this morning, as we see the fact that he is the servant of

  39. all, we need to be reminded that the servant of all is calling us

  40. to servants, That the servant of all, Jesus Christ is also

  41. calling. Us to live the servant's life as

  42. well. For truly, if he can live the

  43. servant's life, we should be able to live the servant's life.

  44. So let's all stand together again.

  45. Mark chapter 10, beginning in verse #42 And as always, we'll

    Mark 10 chapter mention

  46. read a shorter section, focus on what the word we're looking at

  47. is, and then we will broaden our scope to be able to understand

  48. why Jesus is even saying this in the 1st place.

  49. Mark chapter 10 beginning in verse #42 As soon as I get there

    Mark 10 chapter mention

  50. and I am there, all right. The word God says, but Jesus

  51. called unto, called them, rather than understanding them, being

  52. the disciples to him, and saith unto them, You know that they

  53. which are accounted to rule over the Gentiles, exercise lordship

  54. over them, and they're great ones, exercise authority upon

  55. them. But so shall it not be among

  56. you. But whosoever will be great

  57. among you shall be your minister, and whosoever of you

  58. shall be the chiefest shall be servant of all, for even the Son

  59. of Man. Came not to be ministered unto,

  60. but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.

  61. Let's look again at verse #45. For even the Son of Man came not

  62. to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give his life a

  63. ransom for many. That word ministers often

  64. communicated just as the idea of, well, what I do as a

  65. minister, a pastor. But it really gets down to the

  66. idea of being a servant. And in that case, we're all

  67. called to be ministers and we're all called to be servants of

  68. Jesus Christ. For if the servant of all can be

  69. a minister, that we must be ministers and servants as well.

  70. Why don't you be seated as we pray together?

  71. Heavenly Father, we do thank you for this morning and I do thank

  72. you again for the opportunity to preach and understanding what a

  73. privilege it is and what a responsibility it is to be able

  74. to stand behind this desk. I pray that you give me the

  75. words to communicate the words of life, the words of healing,

  76. or this comes from your gospel. Be at the same time to

  77. understand that that gospel comes through a Christ who was a

  78. minister who gave his life as a ransom for many.

  79. And Lord, may we focus on this, dwell on this, and may it change

  80. us this morning to be the servants that we are called to

  81. be. And we ask it in Jesus name and

  82. Amen. Mark 10 verse 45 has been called

    Mark 10:45

  83. the key to the book of Mark, and some could even argue that it

  84. would be the key to the entire gospel as well, where it says

  85. for even the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to

  86. minister and to give his life a ransom for many.

  87. And in that short sentence, in that short verse, Jesus tells us

  88. three different things. He says what he didn't come to

  89. do. He says what he did come to do.

  90. And why he came to do it. And all three of these are.

  91. Important for us to understand not just the gospel, but our

  92. relationship with the gospel as well.

  93. First of all, he said what he didn't come to do.

  94. Well, what is that? For even the Son of Man came not

  95. to be ministered unto. If there was anyone who deserved

  96. to be ministered unto, it was Jesus Christ.

  97. Why? Because he is the Son of God.

  98. Why? He is God the Son, the Son of

  99. God, God the Son, the triune God in the flesh here on this earth.

  100. If there is ever anyone who should have been minister,

  101. ministered unto, it was Jesus Christ.

  102. But what does he say? Right after the chute?

  103. He says this I didn't come to be ministered unto.

  104. So he says, this is what I did not come for.

  105. But then he says in a very brief phrase, what He did come to do,

  106. and that was but to minister. The idea of the contrast that

  107. the Creator of all things came to serve His creation.

  108. Let's just stop about that for a moment, because it is.

  109. And a lot of times we get to this place where we just are

  110. used to the fact that Jesus did what He did.

  111. And certainly it should be something that we dwell on in a

  112. way that becomes commonplace. But even as we commonly dwell

  113. upon it, it should never become a common thought in our life.

  114. The idea that we just get used to the fact that the Creator of

  115. all decided to dwell with mankind and literally minister

  116. to that same mankind is something that ought to blow the

  117. mind of mankind if He really dwells on it for any length of

  118. time. He says I didn't come to be

  119. ministered unto even though He deserved that ministration.

  120. However He came to be a minister and then He said why He was

  121. ministering? What was that reason to give His

  122. life a ransom for many? The word ransom for many needs

  123. special attention. That word ransom, it comes from

  124. the Greek word lutron, which is the price for redeeming the

  125. ransom paid for slaves. There was a price that would

  126. need to be paid that was often talked about with slavery, that

  127. there would be this idea, this concept of someone who had been

  128. enslaved and a price would need to be paid to free them.

  129. Julius Caesar, at one point, before he was the first, Caesar

  130. was attacked by pirates on a ship and was held captive.

  131. During that captivity, he was told that he had to raise funds

  132. to be able to be freed. And so he had those who were his

  133. associates, those who believed in him and his leader.

  134. Leadership ability and they raised what the called what we

  135. would call the ransom to be able to pay so that he would be

  136. freed. By the way, when he was freed,

  137. he ended up killing all the pirates who took him.

  138. And so there's a whole different story that probably doesn't want

  139. to take us in a direction that we're going here with our text,

  140. but that is that is literally what happened.

  141. The idea of a ransom is something that Jesus is

  142. presenting to us for us to understand because it helps us

  143. to understand not just why Jesus did what he did, but also the

  144. predicament of which we have. Well, who is the one who's in

  145. captivity? Who is the one who has judgment

  146. laid upon them? Who is the one that has no hope

  147. for eternity? Friend, that's you and that's

  148. me. This is where we are and we need

  149. someone to pay the ransom. And here's the problem, not many

  150. people want to pay the ransom. And even if they could pay the

  151. ransom, they couldn't pay. Only Jesus has the ability to

  152. pay through his precious. Blood.

  153. How do you remember the old song, that old folk song?

  154. Charlie and the MTA? They may remember that.

  155. There's a few of you that do. All right.

  156. I do. I didn't hear, I've never heard

  157. of it till I moved up to Boston for obvious reasons.

  158. But the story was based on the fact that there's this guy named

  159. Charlie back before he was even called the MBTA and he's riding

  160. down on the Green Line. I think it's going down to

  161. Leechmere or something like that and he has enough money for the.

  162. Fair. But back then you also had to

  163. have a token for the exit fair as well.

  164. Well, Charlie went down to the green line and he had a token

  165. for the fair, but he had no token for the exit fair.

  166. So what happened to Charlie? You just kept riding around on

  167. the MTA over and over again, day by day because he couldn't get

  168. out. You know what the interesting

  169. part about that song is? Somewhere near the end where it

  170. says that his wife came down every.

  171. Every day and gave him a sandwich and a bag of lunch.

  172. And I'm thinking, you know what, if his wife really loved him,

  173. why didn't she give him a token to get him out?

  174. Forget the sandwich. Put a token in that bag.

  175. Lady, I want to get out of here. There's a lot of people who are

  176. just like that. They're trapped and there's

  177. nobody that can pay the ransom. There's nobody that wants to pay

  178. the ransom. Nobody even understands what the

  179. ransom is, but there's Jesus Christ that here we are.

  180. We're riding around in the endlessness of life and we don't

  181. know which way to go and we don't know which way to turn it.

  182. Here's people who try to give us the advice of self help.

  183. Maybe that will get you out. And here's the someone who will

  184. give you the advice of false religions and maybe that will

  185. get you out. And there's some people who will

  186. give you the advice of just trusting the God within you and

  187. maybe that will get you out. And that's just the same as

  188. someone coming down and giving you a sandwich and having you

  189. keep riding around and. Circle but nobody wants to help,

  190. but there's Jesus Christ who gave his life as the ransom for

  191. many. By the way, we believe in a

  192. whosoever gospel and Jesus believed in a whosoever gospel

  193. when it talks about many who is that many people?

  194. Well, the many people of the all people who ever lived.

  195. That's many people. That's all whosoever gospel we

  196. believe. Don't get worried because it

  197. says many how many people lived on this earth?

  198. Many and Jesus died for them all.

  199. Amen. He gave his life a ransom for

  200. many. He paid the money he paid, or

  201. rather He paid the ransom of which we could not pay.

  202. How did He pay? Well, first Peter one verse 18

  203. and 19 say, for as much as you know that you were not redeemed

  204. with corruptible things as silver and gold from your vain

  205. conversation, retrieved by received by tradition from your

  206. Father's, but with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb.

  207. Without blemish and without spot, that is what the ransom

  208. was paid with, not with silver or gold.

  209. Corruptible meaning this it goes away, but with the precious

  210. blood of Jesus Christ. And what's amazing about this is

  211. Jesus didn't just do this for the people who loved him.

  212. In fact he did it for the world who did not love him.

  213. You say, well I love Jesus and my answer to that would be you

  214. love him now, but you didn't always love him.

  215. I didn't always love him before we knew him.

  216. First John verse four, or First John chapter 4 verse 19 says we

    1 John 4:19

  217. love him because He first loved us.

  218. Romans 5, verses 6 through 9. For when we were yet without

    Romans 5:6–9

  219. strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.

  220. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die, yet for

  221. peradventure a good man, some would even dare to die, but God

  222. commendeth. God showed His love toward us in

  223. that why we were yet sinners, even knowing who we were.

  224. Christ died for us much more than being now justified by His

  225. blood. We shall be saved from wrath

  226. through Him. Some of us have been in

  227. situations before where perhaps debts have started to mount up,

  228. where there was difficulty in being able to pay those debts

  229. that start to accumulate through credit cards or through loans or

  230. whatever it might be. And you get in those situations,

  231. what do you have to do? Well, I've always been told that

  232. if you have a income problem, your income needs to go up or

  233. your outgo needs to go down. And when it comes to debt, all

  234. you got to do is get your income up.

  235. So what do you do? Maybe start working nights,

  236. maybe start working overtime, maybe find a second job.

  237. Maybe you get a side hustle. That's what they call that

  238. today, going out and do an Uber or those kind of things.

  239. Maybe that's what you need to do and you do that because you need

  240. to be able to get yourself out of that financial hole.

  241. But imagine that you did that. You work nights, you worked

  242. overtime, you worked a second job, you worked yourself down to

  243. the bone, not just for days or weeks or months, but for years.

  244. But you didn't do it for yourself, you did it for

  245. somebody else. How many people would do that?

  246. I'd say very few. Let me ask you this, How many

  247. people would do that for someone that actively hated them?

  248. Nobody do that. Nobody in their right mind would

  249. do that. Be it.

  250. Jesus endured hardship of which this world has never seen before

  251. and this world will never see again.

  252. The brutality. Of the cross.

  253. And yet he did it. The Bible says in Hebrews

    Hebrews 12:2

  254. chapter 12 verse 2 for the joy that was set before him.

  255. Not the joy of the pain, not the joy of the suffering, not the

  256. joy of the mocking, but the joy of having restoration with

  257. mankind because he was able to pay the ransom.

  258. This is what our servant did for us.

  259. This is what he came to do. He didn't come to be ministered

  260. unto, but he came to minister. And why do you do it?

  261. To give his life as a ransom for many.

  262. And listen, if that was the end of the message right there,

  263. praise the Lord, but you're not that lucky.

  264. You're not even close to. That lucky you, say pastors. 20

  265. minutes left. You go circle around for 20

  266. minutes. I got plenty more.

  267. Like they used to say, I got a lot of MO.

  268. I can go for a while all right? But there's there's a couple

  269. things that you have to understand because really we

  270. need to kind of plant a flag here for just a second and

  271. remind you the Bible says you must be saved and that you must

  272. be born again, that you are a Sinner, that judgment is real.

  273. Did you see that word wrath? That the wrath of God abideth on

  274. you if you don't know. Jesus Christ, your Savior,

  275. because you have a penalty to pay that you can't pay.

  276. You can't work enough nights, you can't work enough weekends,

  277. you can't work enough overtime, you can't work enough Grubhub,

  278. Uber, or whatever you want to call.

  279. It to pay for the sin debt that's upon your life In fact,

  280. you can't work at all to pay the sin debt of your life because

  281. the Bible says that salvation is the gift of.

  282. God not of works. Best any man should boast if you

  283. work for your salvation, you can be proud of what you earned and

  284. what you achieved look at the salvation that I have achieved.

  285. But all we can do is say, look at the salvation that God has

  286. given me, that I am undeserving of, that I am but a worm.

  287. But. I'm to dust, but he took pity

  288. upon me. He brought me up out of the pit,

  289. out of the miry clay Psalm chapter 40, set my feet upon the

    Psalms 40 chapter mention

  290. rock and established my goings. This is what God did for us.

  291. And if you don't know where you're going to spend eternity,

  292. you may have been coming here for months or even years, and

  293. you just still, maybe you would just try to put this part of the

  294. message out of the way. You like the parts where I'm

  295. funny and there's a lot of those.

  296. Amen. But you, that wasn't one of the

  297. funny parts, all right. I wasn't expecting you to laugh

  298. there. There's a lot of parts where

  299. there's places that maybe make you feel good inside and helpful

  300. for you, but you just want to put away this idea that you

  301. don't know where you're going to spend eternity.

  302. You cannot take just part of the message and focus on that,

  303. because the parts that you like about the message, the parts

  304. that encourage you, the parts that help you, the parts that

  305. motivate you are only dependent upon the fact that you need to

  306. be saved. Because there's not enough

  307. motivation in this world to be able to have you pay the ransom

  308. yourself. Only Jesus paid that ransom.

  309. And so you could try to put it off to the side as much as you

  310. want. But the fact of the matter is,

  311. you will be presented with the fact, And we saw in Revelation

    Revelation 20 chapter mention

  312. Chapter 20 on Wednesday and Revelation chapter #21 that if

  313. you refuse to be confronted with this idea, this reality of the

  314. Lake of Fire, you will be confronted with the reality of

  315. the Lake of Fire once you were at the Great White Throne

  316. Judgment, and it'll be everlastingly too late to do

  317. anything about it. What do you need to do?

  318. The ransom's been paid. You just need to accept the free

  319. gift of salvation. When ransom is paid, when a

  320. pardon is given, it still must be received, still must be

  321. accepted. We talked a few days ago during

  322. our Soul Winning conference about the idea that particularly

  323. during Civil War times, there were issues and times when

  324. Abraham Lincoln would issue pardons for men who had done

  325. certain deeds, maybe had been on gallant on the battlefield, but

  326. yet for some reason had received a pardon to spare their life.

  327. And they refused it because they said I deserve that which I'm

  328. about to receive. A pardon is no pardon if it's

  329. not received, and a ransom is not your ransom if it is not

  330. received. So you must receive the gift of

  331. salvation today. You must trust in Jesus Christ

  332. as your Savior today. But as usual, we have to ask

  333. ourselves this question. It's incredible that Jesus said

  334. that. The amount of truth in just

  335. verse 45 is immense. But why did he say it?

  336. Where did this come from with his walking down the road one

  337. day and all of a sudden he turned around and he said, let's

  338. talk about ServiceNow. There were times that he popped

  339. some questions on the disciples just like that.

  340. But in this case, this was precipitated by a conversation

  341. that took place that showed the disciples truly didn't

  342. understand what ministry and service was all about.

  343. So what I need you to do is I need to go back up to verse #25

  344. we're going to stay in Mark chapter 10.

    Mark 10 chapter mention

  345. Actually, I want you to verse 35.

  346. Don't go to verse 25. Verse #35 and let's review this

  347. because as we've done before, we kind of focus on the word.

  348. We focus on what the characteristic is, but then we

  349. broaden our scope to see why is this here?

  350. Why is this even a discussion? Because as we broaden, it helps

  351. us to understand how this applies to our life.

  352. Verse #35 says And James and John the sons of Zebedee, come

  353. unto him again, being Jesus, saying, Master, we would that

  354. thou should US do for us whatsoever we shall desire.

  355. Now this is a bold statement to make to Jesus Christ right off

  356. the bat, but I will tell you there is something that is not

  357. found in the book of Mark that is found in an adjoining passage

  358. in Matthew chapter 20. And that is the fact that it is

    Matthew 20 chapter mention

  359. not just James and John who are approaching Jesus Christ.

  360. It is also their mother. Now James and John probably

  361. thought, you know, maybe Jesus isn't going to hear this request

  362. as well, but I bet he'll say yes to our mother.

  363. This ought to tell you this is a bad start right here.

  364. This is when you're trying to manipulate Jesus Christ, say,

  365. well, he couldn't say no to an old lady.

  366. It's not a good start. And it says, And he said to

  367. them, What would ye that I should do unto you?

  368. And they said unto him, Grant unto us that we may sit one on

  369. the right hand, and the other on thy left hand, in glory.

  370. Now there's a fundamental problem with what they are

  371. asking here. One, they are asking for

  372. something of which they have no understanding of, because

  373. they're talking about glory. We could even put it this way.

  374. They're talking about the Kingdom, but yet they don't even

  375. understand what the Kingdom is. In fact, you're going to get to

  376. Acts chapter one, verse 6, and Jesus is ascending into heaven

  377. and they're still asking is it time for the Kingdom?

  378. And they do not understand the concept of the Kingdom that is

  379. to come as they should. So they're asking for something

  380. here. They do not know the time, they

  381. do not know the place, and they don't even know what they're

  382. asking for. And it says next in verse 37.

  383. Verse #38 rather, But Jesus said unto them, You know not what you

  384. ask, Can you drink of the cup that I drink of and be baptized

  385. with the baptism that I am baptized with?

  386. Now he's Speaking of the suffering that is to come to

  387. baptize, to be immersed in the suffering that is to come.

  388. Can you drink of the cup of suffering of which is to come,

  389. that cup of suffering that Jesus even prayed in the garden that

  390. it could pass from him? But nevertheless, not my will

  391. Father, but your will be done. And it says are you able to

  392. Verse 40 sit on my right hand and on my left hand.

  393. It's not mine to give, but it shall be given to them for whom

  394. it is prepared. Now this conversation was one

  395. that showed these two men were concerned with what leadership

  396. and not service they were wanting to serve.

  397. They were wanting to be served. They had some fundamental

  398. misunderstandings. Now this is bad enough, but look

  399. at what it says in verse 41. And when the 10 heard it, they

  400. began to be much displeased with James and John.

  401. I bet they weren't because here's in James and John behind

  402. their back going to Jesus and saying basically when it comes

  403. to glory, when it comes to Kingdom, could you make sure

  404. we're ahead of the other 12 or the other 10?

  405. Now they're going to be ahead of one of them, that's for sure,

  406. because one of them was the devil.

  407. But there's nine others that definitely had some issues with

  408. what's being said. I can only imagine.

  409. I wish the Bible had told us. I would love to ask the Lord

  410. when we get to heaven someday. What did Peter?

  411. Have to say about this. Perhaps it's not recorded

  412. because we should know what Peter said about this here in

  413. this life, because it probably wasn't good.

  414. James and John, the sons of Thunder, please put us on your

  415. right hand and on your left, and Jesus says, do you think you can

  416. handle? It they say we can handle it,

  417. but they don't know what they're handling, They don't know what

  418. they're talking about, and they're asking a fundamentally

  419. flawed question because we understand from what we just

  420. read in verse 45, they're called to be servants, not to be

  421. served. And so Jesus has to get the

  422. disciples. That's why he tells them all to

  423. come to him. And he says, you know, that

  424. they, which are accounted to rule over the Gentiles, exercise

  425. lordship over them and they're great ones, exercise authority

  426. upon them. He says this type of thinking,

  427. boys, it comes from the world. What you guys are talking about

  428. right now is exactly the way the world thinks.

  429. You ever wonder why people pay, why people donate?

  430. People give billions upon billions upon billions of

  431. dollars to be able to win a presidential race, of which the

  432. salary costs only $250,000 a year.

  433. Why would people pay billions and billions and billions and

  434. billions and billions of dollars donations, all of that?

  435. Because it's all about power. You know, I'm not talking about

  436. politics. I'm just talking about the

  437. reality of the situation. That's just all about power.

  438. And here's what Jesus says. Say you're thinking like the

  439. Gentiles think. You're thinking like the world

  440. thinks. Your thought process as a

  441. believer is fundamentally flawed.

  442. And he says it in this phrase in verse #43 but so shall it not be

  443. among you. He says let them think that way,

  444. but you think differently. They're going to think that way,

  445. but you think differently. But whosoever will be great

  446. among you shall be your minister, and whosoever you will

  447. be the chiefest shall be servant of all.

  448. Jesus is asking to do the exact opposite of what their flesh

  449. wants to do. What does their flesh want?

  450. Their flesh wants to be at the top.

  451. And Jesus says if you want to be at the top, be at the bottom.

  452. If you want to be served, then you just need to serve.

  453. Now coming from Jesus, that could be something that maybe

  454. they would be even offended by. Well Jesus, who are you to give

  455. us this kind of teaching? Why would you ask us to do

  456. something like this? Nobody teaches this way.

  457. But then in verse #45 Jesus gives them the kicker.

  458. He says, you may not think this is the way to live, but I'm

  459. telling you this is the way that I live.

  460. And if I can live this way, I came not to minister unto or to

  461. be ministered unto, but to minister and to give my life a

  462. ransom for many. It's as if Jesus saying, if I

  463. can do this, you don't think that you can do this.

  464. If I can come and serve my own creation that will by and large

  465. reject me, then you think that you have a right to do that

  466. which is above even that which I am doing.

  467. It's lunacy, but yet Jesus makes clear this is what He was called

  468. to do and what we're called to do.

  469. That last part is important. It's what we're called to do.

  470. So you thought this was just about the disciples?

  471. He called the disciples to come. He talked to them, but no doubt

  472. He's also speaking to us today. The idea of servanthood and

  473. ministry is not just for rugged fishermen some 2000 years ago,

  474. but it's the calling that the Lord has placed upon us today as

  475. well. For certainly if Christ was a

  476. servant, then we must be servants as well.

  477. But Pastor, you say if I serve like Jesus said, that I'll never

  478. get anywhere in life, I'll get run over, I'll get abused, I'll

  479. never get ahead. And certainly there'd be many

  480. that would think that. And I would agree with you

  481. except for the fact of, well, I'd answer by saying this, it

  482. depends on what you define as getting ahead.

  483. Do you define it the way James and John we're trying to get

  484. ahead, which was trying to bypass 10 other disciples and

  485. all other believers and to become sitting at the right hand

  486. and the left hand of Jesus? Do you define as the Gentiles,

  487. as Jesus said, as he talks to the disciples, which of the

  488. Gentiles exercise leadership and lordship over all?

  489. This is what they want. If you define that as getting

  490. ahead, then yes, as a servant of God you will not get ahead.

  491. But what does he do? He readjusts their thinking of

  492. who he is to remind us how who he is effects Our Calling.

  493. He says I want you to be reminded who I am because who I

  494. am should make you rethink how you are called and what your

  495. calling is to this world. That is to be a servant.

  496. In essence, he's saying if I can serve.

  497. You can serve. Jesus was the one who washed the

  498. disciples feet. Jesus was the one who fed the

  499. 5000 and by the way, that 5000 with 5000 men when you had women

  500. and children, it likely was well over 10,000 that he served and

  501. that he fed. Jesus was the one who healed and

  502. touched the leper, the one who was physically and spiritually

  503. compromised, but yet Jesus reached out to him.

  504. Jesus is the one who calmed the storm when he was trying to rest

  505. but yet saw the needs of the disciples.

  506. Jesus was always serving. You find Him in man, Matthew and

  507. Mark and Luke and John, and all He ever did was serve and serve

  508. and serve all the way to the cross, when He gave His greatest

  509. act of service that He ever gave and that mankind will ever see,

  510. and that is to give His life on the.

  511. Cross so that we could be saved to give his life a ransom for

  512. many. So I ask you, what do you have

  513. to give up compared to him? So I got a lot to give up

  514. Pastor. I mean, he gave up the

  515. prerogatives of glory, proximity with the Father to spend around

  516. 33 years with people who by and large didn't listen to him and

  517. it crucified him. But if knowing the end from the

  518. beginning as He did, may I remind you that Jesus in his 33

  519. years was not on the edge of His seat wondering what would happen

  520. next? You know, I'm not trying to be

  521. sarcastic about it. I'm trying to remind you it

  522. wasn't as Jesus was walking around during His earthly

  523. ministry and was wondering what was ahead around every corner.

  524. Jesus knew before the beginning what the plan was, and yet

  525. knowing what the plan was, was willing to do it and knew that

  526. He'd be mistreated and mischaracterized and ultimately

  527. give his life on the cross. But how can we understand this

  528. further? You're called to be a servant.

  529. I'm called to be a servant. How can we understand this

  530. further? There's a text that we have to

  531. go to this morning. I mentioned I believe on Friday

  532. night. There's a text we have to go to

  533. today because I really governs the way we understand the mind

  534. of Christ and how we are to be able to have that mind of

  535. service ourselves. So if you would turn to

  536. Philippians chapter #2 we don't have to go back to Mark chapter

    Mark 10 chapter mention

  537. 10. You don't need to hold your

  538. place there. Philippians chapter #2 For some

  539. of you, this is a foundation, foundational set of verses.

  540. You've read this many times. I'm always reminded there are

  541. new believers that are with us. There's some who are younger in

  542. the faith. And I want to reintroduce you or

  543. rather to introduce you to some of the foundational passages of

  544. the Word of God. What we're about to read right

  545. now, new believer, is 1 of what I would call the foundational

  546. passages of the Word of God. Who is Jesus and how does it

  547. affect how we live, particularly in this area of service?

  548. Let's start verse #1 it says Philippians 2 verse one.

  549. If there be there for any consolation in Christ, if any

  550. comfort of love, any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and

  551. mercies fulfill ye, my joy that ye be like minded having the

  552. same love being of 1 accord. Of one mind, he's talking to the

  553. church and he's saying this. I want you to be have the same

  554. love be of 1 accord, of one mind.

  555. He's saying this. You need to have the right

  556. mindset as a church and as a church.

  557. Liberty Baptist Church today, we're not the Church of

  558. Philippi, but we are a church that should also have the same

  559. love being of 1 accord and one mind.

  560. This should be the most harmonious place on the.

  561. Planet at least tied with other Bible believing churches.

  562. Often that's not the case. I thank the Lord for the

  563. wonderful unity that God has given us at liberty, but at the

  564. same time, we must guard ourselves because this is not

  565. what the world wants us to have, certainly not what Satan wants

  566. us to have. Let nothing be done through

  567. strife or Vainglory, but in lowliness of mind, there we go,

  568. lowliness of mind that we could start to see something forming.

  569. When it comes to service, let each esteem other better than

  570. themselves. Isn't service about the fact

  571. that I see your needs to be more important than my own needs?

  572. Look, not every man to his own things, but every man on the

  573. things of others. Now maybe you'd get to verse #4

  574. and you'd say, how is this even possible?

  575. How could I even get to the place where everyone else's

  576. needs are more important than my own?

  577. Well, that's where verse 5 opens up and again, if you're in the

  578. habit of marking your Bible, you could just underline from verse

  579. 5 and verse 10 and don't stop. In fact, I just take out a

  580. highlighter and highlight till it runs out of highlighter

  581. because that's what we're looking at in the Word of God

  582. right now. It's that good.

  583. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who,

  584. being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be

  585. equal with God. That talks about the deity of

  586. Christ, but made himself of no reputation, took upon him the

  587. form of a What's that next word, servant, and was made in the

  588. likeness of men. Being found in the fashion of a

  589. man, he humbled himself, became obedient unto death, even the

  590. death of the cross. Wherefore God has also highly

  591. exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name,

  592. that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow.

  593. Of things in heaven and things in earth and things under the

  594. earth. To be able to from verse 6 to

  595. verse 8 truly to understand how low Jesus Christ brought himself

  596. to be to this earth is unbelievable.

  597. That yet is 100% God and 100% man.

  598. All God and all man at the same time came to this world, humbled

  599. Himself as a fashion of man, became obedient unto.

  600. Death. Look at He was not forced to

  601. death, he was not tricked into death, A Judas did not put him

  602. in a corner and there was no way for him to be able to extra

  603. extradite himself. This is not checkmate placed

  604. upon Jesus. He became obedient to that which

  605. his Father had even the death of the cross.

  606. Consider what the psalmist said about God and His greatness.

  607. Psalm 113 verses 4 through 6. The Lord is high above all

    Psalms 113:4–6

  608. nations, and His glory above the heavens, who is like under the

  609. Lord our God, who dwelleth on high, who humble with himself to

  610. behold the things that are in heaven and the things in earth.

  611. Contrast those words to and being found in fashion as a man,

  612. he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the

  613. death of the cross. This explains what kind of

  614. minister he was. This explains his mindset.

  615. But what does that have to do with us?

  616. Go back to verse #5 will you read it with me?

  617. Let this mind be in you. Well, let's try that again.

  618. Let's just pretend I just said, will you read that with me?

  619. OK, good. All right, will you read verse 5

  620. with me? Let this mind be in you, which

  621. was also in Christ Jesus. Read it again up to the comma

  622. and stop. Ready.

  623. Let this mind be in you. Stop.

  624. What's this message about? Could you summarize it in one

  625. sentence, Pastor? If I was to summarize it, I

  626. would let the Word of God summarize it and it would be

  627. this, let this mind be in you. What are we to do?

  628. Let this mind be in you. Now let me make some application

  629. and we'll be done. Just say there's some of you

  630. that are probably thinking, oh, pastor, I know what I know what

  631. this message is about. You need more people to help out

  632. the church. And so this is one of those

  633. messages where you know you. Just afterwards, you can say,

  634. oh, if people want to help clean up, how many people want to be

  635. greeters? How maybe you want to go in the

  636. parking lot. And guess what?

  637. We need people to help clean. We need people in the parking

  638. lot. We need people that are

  639. greeters. We need people to help with

  640. visitation. We need people in the nursery.

  641. We need junior church workers and Sunday school workers and

  642. helpers. We need all that.

  643. We need all of that and more. But that's really not what the

  644. thrust of the message is about because we can be busy around

  645. the church doing all of those things and more, where everybody

  646. has an agenda that's filled with this and that going here and

  647. there, doing all the things at the church and everything is

  648. field. We don't need any workers

  649. because everybody's working. But yet that doesn't mean that

  650. we are truly servants at heart. Because really, if we want to

  651. solve the problems of having enough people at church doing

  652. that which is needed, or problems of being servants in a

  653. home or servants in a workplace or servants at a school, what we

  654. really have to do is this. We have to address.

  655. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus,

  656. because otherwise we just get you performing for the sake of

  657. performing instead of really getting down to the heart of I

  658. want to serve because I want to be like Jesus.

  659. I want to serve because I want to think like Jesus thinks.

  660. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.

  661. It's not just about the church. Sure, we need help with the

  662. church. I can't imagine a time when we

  663. didn't. Need help with the church but

  664. it's so much. More than the church.

  665. Husbands, you know what your wife needs.

  666. She needs you to be a servant. Oh, Pastor.

  667. OK, I know what the proper order is biblically, pastor, that the

  668. man is the head, that he is the one that is in charge and he is

  669. the one that takes care of the little woman.

  670. All right. And like it's often said that

  671. the man may be the head, but the woman is the neck that turns the

  672. head. Amen.

  673. Some I'll give you a minute. Let that roll through.

  674. All right, go through one more time with that one.

  675. Is there a biblical order to the family?

  676. There is. That doesn't mean that there is

  677. a difference in value because the man and the woman are of the

  678. same value. Yet God does assign positions of

  679. authority. So yes, Sir, you have authority

  680. in the home. Checkmate, you got me.

  681. But who else had all authority? Hold on a second, was it Jesus

  682. and he decided to be a servant to those that he led And if we

  683. are to in our marriage relationships, Ephesians chapter

    Ephesians 5 chapter mention

  684. 5, go home and read it yourself if you'd like.

  685. We are to be that which is like Christ in the home.

  686. No, no, I'm not trying to give you weird theology.

  687. I'm just telling you that we are to be His representative in the

  688. home. Then what are we to do?

  689. Well that we are to be the chief servant in the home and that's

  690. not popular teaching, but it's Bible was first Peter 37 say

  691. likewise he husbands dwell with them according to knowledge,

  692. giving honor unto the wife as unto the weaker vessel.

  693. Whoa, hold on, pastor, the lady say the.

  694. Weaker vessel. Haven't you heard of feminism,

  695. Pastor? Oh, yeah.

  696. Yeah, Ralph and I've. We've heard of feminism.

  697. I'll tell you what he he'll tell you about after church if you

  698. want to. But I would tell you this.

  699. Is the woman the weaker vessel? The Bible says yes, but does

  700. weaker mean of less value? In fact, I could make an

  701. argument that a lot of things that are quote UN quote weaker

  702. are actually a very high value. But the God understand there's a

  703. need for protection and then he's an honor and of love in a

  704. very unique and special way. And Sir, God has called you to

  705. be that servant to your wife. Wives, God has called you to be

  706. a servant as well, to serve your husband, to serve your family.

  707. Ephesians 524 Therefore, as the church is subject unto Christ,

  708. so let their wives be subject unto their own husbands.

  709. And everything get not popular today.

  710. Get the Bible gives us the order for life.

  711. And really the way it makes sense is if the husband serves

  712. the wife and the wife serves the husband, doesn't it just kind of

  713. work itself out? This is what God has called us

  714. to do. So I'm not going to serve her

  715. until she serves me. Maybe you ought to start and do

  716. your part and not worry about what other people are doing and

  717. got to work out the rest. Matthew Henry put it this way,

  718. and I love this. The woman was made of a rib out

  719. of the side of Adam. Not out of his head to rule over

  720. him, not out of his feet to be trampled by him, but out of his

  721. side to be equal with him, under his arm to be protected, near

  722. his heart to be beloved. I believe that's what God has

  723. intended to have in the home. I don't care if it's popular out

  724. there. I don't say, well, the world

  725. doesn't like that. Well, the world doesn't like

  726. anything in this book, to be quite honest with you.

  727. So I'm not going to change this to make them happy, because if I

  728. change it to make them happy, they're going to be unhappy with

  729. the rest of the stuff in the Bible.

  730. So why don't we just believe the Bible?

  731. Young people, God served you to called you to serve your parents

  732. and your teachers well. I'm, I'm very busy.

  733. I, I don't know I can serve my parents well.

  734. You, you, you can find some time.

  735. I don't know if I could serve my teachers.

  736. That's not what that's not what students say.

  737. That's that's what teachers pet does.

  738. No, that's what someone who's trying to be like Christ will

  739. do. You're trying to be a servant

  740. employees. God's called you to give an

  741. honest day for an honest wage. You.

  742. Need to be the best servant that you can in the office or in the

  743. job site. The Christian ought to be the

  744. hardest worker at every job. The Christian ought to be the

  745. most honest person at every job. The Christian ought to be the

  746. one that everyone in the workplace can say, that is

  747. someone who understands what it is to be an employee.

  748. Why? Because they understand how to

  749. be a servant. Colossians 322 Servants obey in

  750. all things your masters according to the flesh, not with

  751. eye service as men pleasers, but in singleness of heart, fearing

  752. God. You see, service isn't just

  753. something that we do at church, it's a life.

  754. And if you only serve when you want to, you're really serving

  755. yourself more than you're serving others.

  756. I even challenge you, the places that you enjoy to serve.

  757. If you only serve and the places you enjoy serving, are you

  758. really serving the way that God intends you to?

  759. Because service is about, I'm going outside of my comfort

  760. zone, trusting that the Holy Spirit will help me with that

  761. which He's called me to do. This should be something we do

  762. on a daily basis, serve even to strangers.

  763. We show deference in all things. Letting someone ahead at the

  764. checkout, holding the door for somebody that's behind you,

  765. offering your seat to someone who is elderly, listening

  766. without interrupting when someone else is speaking,

  767. allowing someone else to merge into your lane and traffic.

  768. I know I had a hard one driving that one too.

  769. Take the less desirable task so someone else won't have to do

  770. it. If there's one piece of pizza

  771. and two people, you don't have to be the one to take it.

  772. This is what services. But you see our mindset.

  773. There's one piece. I'm kind of edging my hand up

  774. like Diane, you don't want that, do you?

  775. You don't want that, do you? What is that?

  776. Service is something of the mind before it's something of the

  777. body. Let this mind be in you, which

  778. was also in Christ Jesus. And when you know who you serve

  779. and why you serve, it changes everything.

  780. Let me give you this illustration.

  781. We'll be done. I read this many years ago.

  782. It's it's so good. John Kenneth Galbraith, in his

  783. autobiography A Life in Our Times, illustrates the devotion

  784. of his family's housekeeper named Emily Gloria Wilson in

  785. this way, he said. It had been a wearying day, and

  786. I asked Emily, his housekeeper, to hold all telephone calls

  787. while I had a nap. Shortly thereafter, the phone

  788. rang. Lyndon Johnson, the president,

  789. was calling from the White House.

  790. Get me Ken Galbraith. This is Lyndon Johnson, she

  791. responded. He is sleeping, Mr. President.

  792. He said not to disturb him. We'll wake him up.

  793. I want to talk to him. No, Mr. President.

  794. I work for him, not for you. When I called the president

  795. back, he could scarcely control his pleasure.

  796. Tell that woman I want her here at the White House.

  797. Why? Because she understood who she

  798. served. Who do you serve?

  799. One higher than the President, the King of Kings, and the Lord

  800. of Lords. How many of our problems will be

  801. solved if we would just let this mind be in you, which was also

  802. in Christ Jesus, the servant of all is calling us to service.

  803. Will you answer? Thank you for listening to the

  804. sermon from the pulpit of Liberty Baptist Church.

  805. If this message was a blessing to you, or if there's any way we

  806. can serve you, please let us know by contacting us at

  807. [email protected]. Or you can visit us this Sunday

  808. at 800 Washington St. in Easton, MA.

  809. May the Lord bless you as you grow in His Word.