6 Steps to Growing More: Service | Pastor Mike Holwerda

Mark 10:42-45

Mark 10:42–45

And Jesus called them to him and said to them,

you know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles

lorded over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them.

But it shall not be so among you.

But whoever would be great among you must be your servant,

and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all.

For even the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve,

and to give his life as a ransom for many.

Well, good morning again, and welcome to Christ Community Chapel.

My name is Mike, one of our pastors here.

And really great to be with you.

I was convinced I would never sleep through the night again.

This wasn't going to happen.

Our oldest son, Brayden, he was five months old

at the time and two hours, three hours, maybe four hours

stretches at best. This is it.

This is just how it's going to be.

Maybe you've had one of those moments.

Maybe you're in one of those moments right now. Can happen at work,

you just feel stuck. Happen in relationships,

they're just not going anywhere.

This is it.

This is just how it's going to be.

And I wonder how many of us have that thought about ourselves.

We think this is just who I am.

This is just who I'm always going to be.

There is a building at the corner of State Road in Portage Trail

and Cuyahoga Falls. Cathedral Tower.

You're probably familiar with it.

It's been half built for 54 years, and I wonder if that's our fear.

We are half built, half made, half finished,

but really never going to change.

Never going to grow any more.

Scattered

throughout this year, we're doing a six part series

called Six Steps to Growing More.

Over the course of this year is six different ways that you can grow.

Part one was in January.

Pastor Ken did a great job on prayer.

Part two is this morning on serving,

and we're doing this series for two reasons.

First is to remind us, to assure us

that God never says this is it.

God never looks at you and says, this is just who you're always going to be.

God has more for you.

God has more for me.

And the second is to participate with him, to take steps.

There are things that we can do to actually grow.

Starts with prayer.

And now the second one is on serving.

So turn with me, Mark.

Chapter ten.

That's our passage today.

Mark 1042 to 45.

There's Bibles in front of you.

Page 806.

Or you can find it on your phone.

But three points as you're making your way to mark chapter ten,

the life that we are vulnerable to,

the life that we are invited to, and the life we say yes to,

the life that we are vulnerable to, invited to, and say yes to.

Let's start with the life that we are vulnerable to.

When I say vulnerable, I mean a life that is comes easy for us.

It's not hard to find ourselves living this way.

In the early 1960s, there was a psychologist

named Solomon Asch, and he ran a study that he would stage in an elevator.

So he would have five, six, maybe seven people who would go in the elevator

and they would all turn around and face backwards.

Right.

Normally you walk in and you're facing the front and five,

6 or 7 people, they would turn around, they would face backwards.

And then one poor participant in the study would walk into the elevator

and he would see what would happen.

Would that person turn around and join others

or stand in the elevator the normal way?

And almost every single time, what do you think happened?

They would turn around and they would be backwards.

And the I mean, if you walk into this service and everyone

had their back to the stage, what would you do?

Right. Don't lie.

You would also turn around to have your back to the stage.

We are a vulnerable people, to conforming to those around

us, to thinking and acting and living just like anybody and everybody else.

That's what this passage is about.

Let me show you what I mean.

Mark ten, verse 42,

And Jesus called them to him and said to them,

you know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles

Lord it over them, and their great ones

exercise authority over them.

Jesus is talking to his disciples there, to them in this passage.

He's talking to his disciples about the Gentile rulers and leaders.

Gentile, just a term for non-Christian.

And so he's talking to them about the culture of that time,

the leaders, what they value, how they think, how they live, how they operate.

And notice the emphasis.

Notice the way the leaders are living the rulers of the Gentiles

lord it over them, and their great ones

exercise authority over them,

over them, over them, over them.

There are three kinds of relationships that we can find ourselves in.

You can be in a relationship that's side by side.

You can have a relationship where you are under someone,

or a relationship where you are over someone.

Side by side.

Under or over.

And Jesus is looking at the culture.

He's looking at those around the disciples.

He's looking at the world and the culture.

And the world celebrates, loves, encourages, desires.

One kind of relationship to be above.

That's the great life.

That's the significant life.

That's the important life.

That's when you've made it.

When you are here and everybody else is here, and they love

that kind of life for the same reason that we love that kind of life.

Because when you are here and other people are here,

then life gets to be about you.

Your preferences, my desires,

your wishes are ways when you're here and everybody else is here,

life is about you.

And Jesus was talking to his disciples

about this, not just because it's a other people issue.

It's because it was a disciples issue.

It wasn't just the world around them.

It was the people that were following Jesus.

You see, the passage today is it's part of a larger conversation.

Right?

So we were in verses 42 to 45, the conversation, it extends itself back.

And right before this passage, two disciples, James and John,

they come to Jesus and notice the way they come to Jesus.

Look with me a few verses up Mark 1035

to 36.

Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.

And he said to them, what do you want me to do for you?

And they said to him, Grant us to sit one at your right hand,

at one at your left, in your glory.

What kind of relationship do you see?

Teacher, we want you to do for us

whatever we ask of you.

Disciples are here.

Jesus is here.

Grant us to sit one at your right hand and one at your left in your glory.

Hey, we want to be here.

We want the rest of the ten disciples to be here.

It's a me first, other second kind of life.

It's we want to be above.

And other people should be below, right?

That is the tendency of the culture.

That's the tendency of the world.

That's our tendency, right?

That's my tendency.

A little embarrassed to admit this, but when Brayden, my son, was struggling

to sleep, there would be nights that I would pretend to be asleep.

He would wake up,

I would hear him wake up and I would pretend to be asleep.

What was I doing?

I was telling my wife, I'm here and you're here.

My sleep.

My next day is more important than your sleep

and your next day.

When you think about your relationships,

where would you put yourself?

Do you operate really well?

Below on the side or above?

Where would other people say?

What would they say is your sweet spot?

Where do you most naturally find yourself?

And here's my guess.

There is pain and conflict in our relationships

because we have told someone you are not as important as me,

or they have told you you are not as important as me.

It's like, it's like driving a car with no brake pedal.

If you drive a car with no brake pedal, you are just hitting the gas again

and again and again. That's this kind of life.

You hit the gas pedal on what you want and what you prefer and what you desire.

And if you're all gas and no brake, then

you're going to have collision after collision after collision.

This is the life that we are vulnerable to.

Thankfully, Jesus invites us to a different way of life.

That's my second point.

The life that we are invited to see Jesus is inviting.

And let me show you what I mean.

Mark 1043 and 44

but it shall not be so among you.

But whoever would be great among you must be your servant.

Whoever would be first among you must be slave of all.

There's a there's a strength to this tone, but it shall not be

so among you, among me, among us.

The kind of life where we are here and others are here.

It just shall not be so among us.

And then Jesus, he flips it, and he flips it completely.

Right. You notice the language.

If you want to be great, you must be your servant.

Whoever would be first among you must be slave.

What Jesus is saying here is Christians, your natural habitat,

the place that you were born to be and the place that I saved you to

be and is not above people.

And it's not even side by side people.

The natural habitat for Christians is to be here.

It's to be under.

It's to be a servant.

And that language really struck me.

He's not saying Christians go and serve as an action.

He's saying, go and be a servant as an identity.

Right.

There's a difference of how we view ourselves, things that we do,

and then things that are central to who we are.

Actions versus identities. Right.

Somewhere to ask you, hey, are you a golfer?

If it's central to who you are, you'd say yes.

But if it's just something you do, it's

just an action that's just kind of a part of my life. It's.

It's different. Right?

If somebody asks you, hey, are you a musician?

Right?

If it's central to who you are, you say that's that's part of who I am.

I'm a musician.

But if you just play an instrument

from time to time, that's just something that you do.

There's a big difference between an action that you do and identity that you have.

So Jesus would

ask us, hey, are you a servant?

He's not asking.

Hey, do you serve a little bit here and there?

But is it part of who you are, how you see yourself that fundamentally,

as a Christian, you are a servant,

and that is such a different kind of life that is so different.

That's not turning around in the elevator.

That's being the one person who stands the other way.

It's being so different. It's thinking different.

It's wanting different things, desiring things in a different way.

The mindset of a servant is just so different.

And the mindset of a sermon I've summarized is just simply this

a servant thinks like this.

It is most important

not to be most important.

That's the narrative that a servant has.

That's the mindset of a servant.

It is most important

that my ways are not most important.

It's most important that my wishes in my sleep and my desires

in my plans and my agenda

are not most important.

That's the invitation.

Jesus is calling us to be different people, to be servants,

to say it's most important that we are not most important.

And what he's actually doing in this passage, he's inviting us to his life.

He's inviting us to how he thinks.

He's inviting us into his narrative for Jesus more than anyone.

Live this life of saying it's most important not to be most important.

That's exactly what he says in this passage.

Let me show you what I mean.

Mark ten, verse 45, the last verse in our passage.

Notice how Jesus describes his own life.

For even the Son

of Man came not to be served, but to serve,

and to give his life as a ransom for many.

The key phrase there is the Son of Man.

It's a title for Jesus.

It's a title that comes from the Old Testament Daniel

chapter seven speaks of this Son of man.

It's, verses 11 through 14 if you want to look it up later.

But this title is a title of someone who's a king.

It's a passage that just it's bursting with importance,

like a red carpet passage.

And it just highlights.

This is a king who was greater than any other king.

He has a kingdom that is greater than any other kingdom.

He has power and authority greater than any other power, any other authority.

It's a passage that describes Jesus as the most important person.

And notice the argument

for even the Son of Man, the most important person,

considered himself not to be most important.

He gave his life as a ransom for many.

The argument is from greater to lesser.

And this is what I mean.

I did a wedding a few years ago that was going really well

until the end, right?

So the ceremony I think, went well.

Most of the reception went really well.

And then at the end of the reception, things fell apart.

The caterer bailed completely, bailed 200 people.

All the food, all leftover food, all the dishes, all the things at a reception.

And the caterer completely bailed.

Not going to clean up.

And so here we are.

Family and friends started to pick up dishes in place.

He started to do things, and I was looking around

and I kind of just wanted to go home, you know, it was like 1030.

It was like an hour drive home.

I thought, we can just go home.

Family and friends, they got it.

But then I noticed it wasn't just family and friends who were picking up

the bride and the groom were cleaning up plates

and dishes from table to table.

They were doing the people who were most important that day,

the people that were supposed to be serve that day, they were serving.

And so who was I not to serve?

That's that's the argument.

That's the flow of this passage, right?

Jesus Christ, the Son of God, he's here above us.

And he came to earth not just to be side by side with us.

He came to earth to be under.

He came to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.

And that's what he did.

Ransom is a term that he purchased our freedom.

He served us in the most wonderful and powerful way.

He gave us life.

He purchased our freedom, our freedom from sin,

our freedom from guilt, our freedom from death, our freedom from judgment.

Jesus Christ

the King came to serve sinners.

So who are we as sinners not to serve like Jesus the King?

That's the argument.

That's the actually, the invitation of this passage

is to be like Jesus, to serve and be a servant like him.

The question is, well, will we say yes?

I mean, what would it take?

Right?

What would it take

for me to be a husband and a father who doesn't pretend to be asleep?

What would it take for you and us as a church to be people

that don't just serve a little bit, but we become different people.

We become servants.

There are probably a number of reasons we could talk about two

I want to draw attention to.

We will become servants when we have hearts that are changed

and minds that are convinced.

Hearts that are changed, and minds that are convinced.

Those are two reasons.

Let me start with hearts that are changed.

Right.

So let's just see where we are, right?

Our our world tells us right.

The narrative, the story of our world is if you want to be great,

if you want to be important,

if you want to be significant, you have to be one spot.

You have to be here, right?

This is where significance is.

This is where importance is.

This is where you know you really matter.

And so we want those things.

And so what do we do.

We work hard to get those things to achieve and accomplish

and perform and be successful so that we can be here.

But it's really, really hard to be going here above people.

I'll also going underneath people.

You can't be in two places at once.

In other words, you can't be someone's servant

if you really want to be somebody's king, right?

That's the problem.

And so we need a heart change.

We need something to change within us.

We need something of our significance to actually change.

And I love how the Bible is put together.

You see, right after this passage on serving,

there is a story about significance.

I think this is the key to our heart change in the key to serving.

You see, right after this passage, there's a story of a blind beggar

named Bartimaeus.

You can read about him later.

It's a wonderful story.

It's blind beggar named Bartimaeus.

So in first century culture, he is as low as you can be,

as absolute low as you can be.

And Jesus is coming to town and he is calling out to Jesus.

He is crying out to Jesus to get his attention

just for Jesus to notice him, to pay attention to Him and his friends.

The friends of Bartimaeus tell him, be quiet,

be quiet.

You're not important enough.

You're not significant enough.

Why in the world with Jesus, the Son of Man, stop for you.

Look at who you are.

You have nothing to contribute.

Your life is going nowhere.

You couldn't be any lower.

Why in the world would Jesus the King

stop for you?

And they couldn't have been more wrong.

When you read the story, Jesus stopped, Jesus served,

and Jesus healed the blind man.

I wonder how many of us have that voice in our head.

It just says, be quiet.

Someone has told us.

Or maybe we tell ourselves, you don't matter enough to Jesus.

You're not significant enough for him to stop.

Not for you,

not for your past, not for your issues, not for your brokenness.

Look at who you are.

Look at what you've done.

Why in the world would Jesus Christ,

the Son of God, care about you?

You don't matter enough.

And if you are here and that's

what you think you are, that's what's deep within you. I'm.

I'm really glad that you're here, because I get to tell you that you were wrong.

You're wrong

because Jesus Christ, he stopped.

He served, and he sacrificed his life for you.

He gave his life as a ransom for many.

He gave his life for you.

And you are not significant because you climbed the ladder.

And you are not insignificant because you didn't.

You are significant because Jesus Christ, you climbed the cross

and there's a heart change.

The heart change comes when you believe

you are so significant to God that he gave his own son.

And when you are so significant to God,

you don't need to go chasing significance anywhere else.

A heart that's changed.

The second is a mind that's convinced, a mind that's convinced.

This is what I mean.

When people talk about change

or influence in this world, they usually say, hey,

if you want to change, you want to be an influence.

Or in this world, and you need to be here, of course, right.

That makes sense.

You need to be in the right meetings with the right decisions

and the right power and the right authority, all those things

right you need to be above if you're going to change anything.

And I think Jesus would just say, hang on a minute,

hang on a minute.

That's not how I change the world.

That's not how I changed you.

I did not change the world through a display of power, but of powerlessness.

I did not change the world

through a display of my authority, but laying my authority down.

I changed the world as a servant.

As a servant.

So I just wonder what I would look like if our minds are convinced the best way

for you to shape your marriage, your kids, your friends, your classmates.

The best way for us as a church to continue to have an amazing impact

on our community and region and the world around us.

It's not going to be as kings.

It's going to be as servants, as when our minds are convinced

and our hearts are changed at the best place for us to be

down here

and to say it's most important, you know what?

It's most important that we or not

most important,

we are a vulnerable people.

We are living in a world that tells us the only way to matter.

The only way to have influence is to be above.

And Jesus says, it must not be so among you,

or among me or among us.

He is telling us that he is showing us a different life,

a life that's not above a life.

It's not even side by side.

A life that is beneath.

We serve because he first served us.

Let's pray.

Father in heaven, you know my heart.

In my tendency.

God, it is easy for us to get caught up in the world's ways

and to be people who chase after all kinds of things.

I thank you that you are so different from us

that you came not to be served, but to serve.

And I pray as we experience your love,

we realize how important that we are to you, that we will be freed

from chasing it anywhere else, and that we will join you

in realizing it's most important not to be most important.

In Jesus name I pray. Amen.