September 27 "Slay and Serve!" (Mark 10:35-45)

Mark chapter 10.

Mark 10 · chapter mention

My title of my sermon this morning is basically two words.

These will be the two thrusts of the emphasis of the text in my sermon, and that is slay and serve.

Slay and serve.

Of all the words in the English language, there just might be one that could give it an opportunity, really generate some sharp debate, some intense discussion.

And that's the word greatest.

For example, if I were to ask a Duke fan and a Carolina fan, which school has the best all-time basketball program, I guarantee you Sparks would fly.

This crowd, you're just as rebellious as the nine o'clock crowd.

Maybe a little lesser, but because I had like four or five Carolina, Carolina, Carolina.

And for the Yeah, I'm getting the booze now.

Okay, let's calm this down.

For those of you who are guests, we don't normally lose control this early in the service.

Um I mean, you know, obviously there's there's a lot of debate about that.

So similarly, if you were to have a discussion with somebody about who's the greatest basketball player of all time, I a Duke fan would argue it is Michael Jordan.

I think he's the greatest of all time, but there's debate on that.

So some other things.

So let's suppose that we've got somebody from North Carolina and we got somebody from Texas, and we're gonna have a barbecue showdown.

Which barbecue's better?

There would be debate.

Um, if those of you who are NASCAR fans, you're you're into automobiles, I guarantee I could get you in a debate on which model, which make of uh car brand is the greatest of all time.

Can you imagine if we took a poll in our church on who would you say is the greatest singer in our church?

Or the greatest Bible teacher in our church?

Well, I can tell you one thing.

We wouldn't need a nine o'clock service next week.

We'd only need one because we'd have a split in no time.

Greatness.

What is it that kind of um causes us to debate, to discuss with some intensity this whole concept of greatness?

I think part of it is because in all of us there actually is a desire for greatness.

I think all of us have, well, whether you thought about it in this way or not, there's a desire all of us to be considered great about something.

Maybe it's it's your um uh your the the job that you do.

Suppose it's photography.

You would like for people to think, wow, that dude, man, he takes great pictures.

Or maybe your job is to um procure efficiency at your business and and competitors think, wow, that guy does a great job at doing this, this, or this.

And don't don't all of us have a desire to have a great family, a great spouse, great kids, great grandkids?

Is it is it wrong for us to have a desire for our church to be thought of by those who attend that this is a a great church?

Doesn't mean that we don't have deficiencies in all those other areas, but a desire for greatness.

Well, guess what?

This pursuit of greatness does not have to be sinful.

It seems as though it would always be, but not necessarily, because Jesus Himself says in Matthew chapter 5, there are some who will be considered least in the kingdom, and there are others who will be considered great in the kingdom of God.

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

So the question then is, and we're gonna find part of the answer in our text this morning, what is the pathway to appropriate God, God-honoring greatness?

That pathway is in our text.

It's gonna involve slaying some things, killing some junk in our lives, and it's gonna also involve serving.

So in Mark chapter 10, if you were here last week, you'll be reminded that uh Jesus and the disciples, they're on their way to Jerusalem.

Mark 10 · chapter mention

It is time to celebrate Passover, which means hundreds of thousands of people are making their way into Jerusalem.

Estimates say that Jerusalem would swell.

I mean, again, by tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of people during uh Passover.

Jesus has reminded his disciples, he didn't explicitly say this, but Jesus knows this time he's going to be the ultimate Passover lamb.

He's gonna be that lamb slain before the foundation of the world, slain so that the sins of the peoples of the world can be forgiven.

And Jesus has told them for the third time, I'm gonna be mocked, scorned, I'm gonna be beaten, I'm going to be killed.

And it's almost, based on what we're about to read, as though it goes in one ear and out the other, even for the third time.

I don't know how much time elapses between Jesus' third announcement about his passion and what we're about to read, but for however much time it is, it is nonetheless stunning.

Look with me, Matthew chapter 10.

Matthew 10 · chapter mention

We're going to see an outrageous request made in verse 35.

And James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came up to him, to Jesus, and said to him, Teacher, and that that's a special word there.

It's almost like you take the idea of rabbi and you ramp it up.

There's just this, um, it's almost like, you know, we're just kind of not that Jesus needs it or is never not deserving of it, but boy, a term of endearment.

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

Um are you familiar with this recent concept called Yesterday?

Um it's kind of made popular because I think of a book and then a recent movie.

It's the idea where for a 24-hour period, parents are supposed to say yes to any reasonable request of their kids for that period of time.

Now, my son Jake did that just uh a few days ago.

I don't think it was a 24-hour period of time, I think it was a 12-hour period of time.

Ask anything, and within reason, my answer will be yes.

Well, James and John must have been way ahead of their time because they're asking Jesus for a yes day.

But it's really, they're not even looking for a yes day.

They would like just a yes hour, a yes answer.

And so they ask him audaciously, would you do for us whatever we ask of you?

Now, maybe they were hoping to hear something like what Herod said when this woman was dancing provocatively, and he said, Whatever you ask of me, I will give it to you up to half of my kingdom.

Well, folks, obviously Jesus is wiser than Herod, and he is not going to be pulled into such a stunt.

Verse 36.

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

Now Jesus is not playing games.

It's not like he's about to say, okay, yeah, yeah, yeah.

I'll no.

He's simply trying to get down to business with this question, verse 37.

And they said to him, Grant us to sit, one on your right hand and one on your left in your glory.

The only thing good about that statement is they do recognize that despite whatever else is coming, they did believe that one day Jesus will have a glorious, elevated position.

Their problem is they want to be elevated right beside him.

And so I guess they're thinking, go big or go home.

If you're gonna have a glorious reign, we want to be right there with you on either side of you.

And so, how about granting us the most important positions in the kingdom?

How about lauding us with honor and power and prestige and recognition?

How about giving us some fame and fortune that will come along with you in your kingdom?

How about that kind of greatness?

And we're thinking, what gall, right?

What audacity.

And yet, and yet the same sinful desires can creep into our hearts.

The same sinful desires for status and notoriety, for fame, for fortune, can be a part of God's people today.

And because it is, because it can manifest itself, my first urging of you, my first exhortation about what you need to slay, you need to slay selfish ambition.

You need to slay selfish ambition, that desire to be noticed, for people to see what you do.

Jesus, remember, warns us about doing righteous things to be seen by others.

He says, Don't do that.

Slay the ambition to be important just for importance's sake.

Slay the ambition to be praised, slay the ambition to be admired, to always be right, to be in control.

If you want to discover how much selfishness is still active in your heart, just view and analyze what happens when someone else gets what you wanted.

I mean, we see that with kids.

No, I won't bet.

Hadn't even thought about it.

But as soon as your sibling or a friend sort of using that, well, that's what I wanted.

And unfortunately, we don't automatically outgrow that.

Selfish ambition needs to be slain in our lives.

How do you respond when someone else gets the promotion?

How do you respond when someone else receives the recognition?

When someone else receives the opportunity that you were hoping for, when someone else's ministry grows.

Jeff, how do you respond when a brother pastor, his ministry is thriving, his church is growing a whole lot faster, excuse me, a whole lot faster than yours?

Umone else gets faint and you don't, how do you respond?

When someone else is praise for something that you helped accomplish and you haven't heard anything, that's where selfish ambition reveals itself.

And so the question to ask is who is my my ambition ultimately about?

Christ and others or me?

Philippians 2.

Man, listen to these scriptures.

Philippians 2, verses 3 and 4.

Philippians 2:3

Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.

That's right, from me.

Whoop-de-doo.

I'm the lead pastor here at Unity, have been for 30 plus years.

Whoop-de-doo.

Me and everybody else count others more significant than yourselves.

Let each of you look not only to his own interests.

You you need to do that.

There's responsibility there, but also to the interests of others.

So selfish ambition says, promote me.

Servant ambition says, How can I lift up others?

Selfish ambition, I want the best seat.

Servant ambition, you know, just just give me a place to serve.

Selfish ambition, how how can I benefit from this?

What what will I get out of it?

Servant ambition, how can I bless?

How can I bless others?

All right, back to James and John's outrageous request.

Guess who else is in on this plot for status and notoriety?

Mama.

Their mother is.

We don't see it in Mark's gospel, but in Matthew's gospel.

Listen to what we read.

Matthew 20, verses 20 and 21.

Matthew 20:20

Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee came up to her, up to him with her sons, and kneeling before him, we're going to assume this position of adoration and worship, just for effect, I guess.

And she asked him for something.

Say that these two sons of mine, these precious boys, these precious sons of mine.

Say that these two sons of mine can sit one at your right hand and one at your left in your kingdom.

Now, it is highly likely that when you study the scriptures, you do a cross-study of the gospels, it's highly likely that Mrs.

Zebedee is a sister to Jesus' mother, which would make her Jesus' aunt, and James and John his cousins.

And so now, not only do we have an audacious request, but we're going to throw a little family weight around.

And it's so in my sanctified imagination, I can see her bowing down, but I can see her looking up, wink, wink.

I mean, come on, Jesus, you know, it's family.

Now, in that ancient Near Eastern culture, it was common for people with authority to put family and closest to friends in positions of authority.

But Jesus is not into that.

And so this is another time for us to slay something.

Moms and dads, you need to slay parental meddling.

You need to slay parental meddling.

There are few things that you're that will hurt your kids more than you developing in them a sense of entitlement.

That sense of entitlement, it permeates our culture and it is so detrimental to our overall well-being and way of life.

Don't dare teach your kids, well, guess what?

Because of our last name and because of this or whatever, and we're Christians and a sense of entitlement.

Don't do that.

Don't do that.

It's unhealthy.

Teach them that in God's kingdom, guess what?

God's kingdom and faithful service to the Lord could very well cause a whole lot of hardships and even suffering in your life.

Don't dare communicate to them that if you know Jesus, you can call in some favors and get exempted from some of the hardships of life that the normal people have to deal with.

Don't do that.

You're going to set them up for such bitter disappointment potentially.

I realize that, I realize that not that many of you know them well, but it's because of the circumstances that I'm about to mention.

It was just a little over a year ago.

I'm having a conversation with Brent and Blair Umflett.

They had been to my prospective membership class, and we were having our membership conversation just to talk more about becoming a member of our church.

And while we're talking, we're in the conference room, and there are two on this on the on one side of the table, and I'm on the other side.

Blair kept coughing.

I'm sorry, I'm sorry.

I can still I can see her reaching to her pocketbook to get a tissue just to kind of I'm so sorry.

She said, I I've had this nagging cough.

I've had it for like, I think she said a couple of weeks, maybe three weeks, and been to the doctor, and the doctor thought this.

That was the early indication that she had lung cancer.

Stage four lung cancer.

Um I saw I saw Blair this past Wednesday.

Brent was there.

And um, man, when I saw, I when I as soon as I walked in the room, I thought, oh boy.

Blair, she looks, she looks significantly worse than she did the last time I saw her.

I went home and I told Jennifer, I said, Jennifer, I my pastoral gut tells me that Blair has already seen her last Christmas.

So I was at a God's man conference in Indiana this weekend.

Um we had had the first session on that's on Saturday morning.

Another brother had preached that.

I was due to do uh a breakout session in the next session, so I was on my way to just go to the restroom real quick, and I just thought I'll just take my text messages and I saw one from Brent.

And um Brent would tell me that his lovely wife had seen Jesus that morning.

And um, Brent, are you sitting?

Yeah, you're sitting there where you normally do.

I was I was kind of shocked to see him and his son here this morning.

Now, folks, if you are raising your kids with a sense of entitlement and that God's people don't go through stuff like that, you know, you set them up for just sheer failure and disappointment and anger with God.

I don't know.

I don't know why the Lord would allow Blair to go through what she went through and to take her in a short, relatively period, short period of time.

We've got others.

I mean, Faith, I um I know you and your family, you're just wondering, okay, Lord, we know you're sovereign, we know you're in control.

But just don't don't develop um entitlement in your kids.

Teach them to serve the Lord.

Teach them to be selfless.

Um and don't just teach them, but model it.

Model it.

And Brent Man, I I commend you for how you're handling this so far.

And I I know you're gonna probably have some very, very hard days moving forward.

But there are others in our church.

It's amazing.

Sometimes I think about how many, how many spouses in our church are by themselves now because their spouse of less than 50 years of age is no longer here.

So you see how dangerous it is for a mom or a dad or a grandparent to have this entitlement mentality?

No.

Teach them service and surrender.

Teach them, teach them that Jesus is faithful no matter what.

No matter what.

Um, verse 38.

Jesus said to them, You do not know what you're asking.

Are you able to drink the cup that I drink or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?

I think Jesus' patience here is outstanding.

It's incredible.

Just the simple fact he didn't laugh in their face.

Because I mean, it wouldn't shock me.

Well, my response would have been like, what are you talking about?

Are you crazy?

Um, when Jesus talks about the cup, are you able to drink the cup that I'm gonna drink and be baptized with the baptism?

The cup, metaphorically, it pictures God's holy, just wrath, hot but holy wrath in that cup.

And Jesus, when he is on the cross, he will drink every single drop of it.

And and knowing that that was coming, most of you know it's the same cup metaphor imagery in the Garden of Gethsemane, hours before Jesus will be lifted up to pay for the sins of the world.

He there, his uh blood vessels, that they're they're dilated, and and the next thing you know, they burst and blood comes forth.

And he's asking in agony, Lord, Father, is there any way this cup can pass from me?

Is there any way we can secure salvation short of me drinking it?

And he knew it wasn't.

And so therefore he said, Not nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done.

The baptism, Jesus is not talking about water baptism, he's talking about being flooded, flooded under God's wrath against our sin.

And so Jesus says, Do you think you can drink what I'm about to drink, be submerged in what I'm about to be submerged in order to have that position of supremacy that I'm gonna have?

Can you do that?

And so, with such clueless confidence, James and John said in verse 39, we're able.

Yeah, we're able.

Oh, my dear friends, here we find something else that we need to slay.

You need to slay arrogance, you need to slay arrogance.

How often do we overestimate our abilities?

How often do we think too highly of ourselves?

How foolishly do we think that we're self sufficient?

That we're self sufficient.

So, I I mean, I I've been doing this pastoral thing, this preaching thing for over 30 years.

Do you have any idea how utterly arrogant it would be for me to get up from that seat, from that seat that I've been getting up from all these years, as it were, and to come up here and think, you know what?

I can do this.

All this experience, education, all that kind of stupid thinking.

Stupid thinking.

I don't care who you are, how intelligent, how skilled, how experienced, we should always slay arrogance.

And I'll say more about that on the positive side in a few moments.

Probably when they said we're able, from their perspective, they're thinking, yeah, we're able because they maybe thought Jesus was going to go in, clean house, set up the kingdom.

They might get some bumps and scratches and bruises.

Yeah, we're able.

Verse 39.

And Jesus said to them, But the cup that I drink, you're gonna drink it all right.

And with the baptism with which I am baptized, yeah, you will be baptized.

But to sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared.

I'm not here to be delegating authority and who's gonna sit where.

My father's already got that taken care of.

And so now for clarity, only Jesus could drink the cup and experience the baptism in its totality.

Only the God man, our kinsman, redeemer, Jesus, could drink that and be submerged in that and survive, thrive.

But since we are in Christ, there is the very real possibility that you and I will experience some of what he experienced.

And sure enough, old James, he was the second martyr ever in the Christian church.

Stephen was the first, James was the second.

John, he spent the last however many years of his life in exile on the Isle of Patmos.

And when I say the Isle, the Island of Patmos, don't think about Hawaii Islands, think about Alcatraz.

Isolated from family, isolated from friends, and that's where he died.

Just like all believers, we need to be prepared for what may come our way as a result of living for Jesus.

The outrageous request of James and John leads to a furious reaction in verse 41.

And when the ten heard it, they began to be indignant at James.

You know what else this shows us needs to be slayed if we're gonna follow the pathway of God honoring greatness?

You've got to slay petty competitiveness.

You've got to slay petty competitiveness.

You see, the rest of the apostles, they're not furious at James and John because of the arrogance with which they asked that question.

No.

They're upset that they thought about it first.

They're thinking, man, a lot of what do you mean on either side?

We want that position.

Petty, petty, petty competitiveness.

And it doesn't end here.

It doesn't end here.

It rears his ugly head again during the Last Supper, hours before Jesus is going to be crucified.

The scripture tells us it tells us in Luke 22, 24, there arose also a dispute among them as to which one of them was regarded to be the greatest.

There's still arguing who's the greatest.

So, folks, don't get bent out of shape.

Praise team members, don't get bent out of shape.

If Ryan asks somebody else to sing the solo.

Man, that destructive petty competitiveness can rear its head in a thousand different ways, and we need to be on guard for it.

Now notice it says they began to be indignant.

But evidently, Jesus, in the words of Barney Fife, he nipped it, nipped it, nipped it in the bud.

They began to be indignant, but he did not let that go on for long.

And that gives us this marvelous response and rationale that Jesus gives, beginning in verse 42.

And Jesus called them to him and said to them, You know that those who were considered rulers of the Gentiles lorded over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them.

The prevailing leadership style of the world at that time, not unlike today, was, you know, those who were in charge, they rule with an iron fist.

They rule with a rod of iron, and they appoint whomever they want wherever.

And our world is still filled with ambitious, overconfident, competitive self-promoters.

We see it all over the place.

But Jesus, look at verse 43, but it shall not be so among you.

Jesus says, that's the way the world may be.

I'm not putting up with it in my house.

We're not going to do that.

Verse 43, but whoever would be great among you must be your servant.

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

Wow.

Just meditate on that for a little while.

The Lord's point here is that believers, all believers, are to consider everyone, their master, and themselves slaves to all.

That's what he says.

I'm not stretching the truth any, I'm not exaggerating.

That's what he says.

And that's exactly what Jesus did.

Jesus said, in order to be great, you've got to be small.

In order to be exalted, you've got to be abased.

In order to be viewed with greatness in the kingdom, you must excel at service and slavery.

And look at what he did.

Verse 45.

For even the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.

Jesus didn't just teach it, he lived it.

He set the bar of perfection.

And now granted, you and I will not reach the same bar of perfection with our service in our slavery.

But may the Lord put within us a desire to become more and more like him in our service and in our slavery.

Now, before we move on into the final super applicational section this morning, I want you to notice where it says, the Son of Man came to give his life as a ransom for many.

When we think about the word ransom, we think often of somebody being kidnapped and they're held for a ransom.

You're going to have to pay money.

I was talking with Greg Nudall before the service, and there's a couple of businesses in town, and this happens regularly, where hackers hack into a system and they demand a ransom, a payment before they'll let you have access to your files again.

Foolishly, there were some in the early church who thought that when Jesus gave his life as a ransom, he paid the ransom price to the devil.

The devil had us in chains and slavery and Jesus paid a price.

That's nonsense.

Jesus didn't pay Satan anything on the cross.

He crushed his head.

He crushed his head.

The payment, if you will, the ransom was paid to God.

There was a price for our salvation.

That's why we sometimes sing Jesus paid it all.

That's why the Bible says you were bought with the price.

And the price was perfection of a sacrifice, a sinless sacrifice in Jesus, upon whom God's wrath was poured out so that we could be set free.

Now, I want us to finish our time together, revisiting two verses, 43 and 44.

Notice, but whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all.

So I want to encourage you, and then I want to challenge you.

First, the encouragement.

Notice twice.

Whoever would be great.

Whoever would be first.

Guess what?

Kingdom greatness, it's it's it's it's possible for anybody.

For anybody.

Whoever.

There's no age requirement, there's no educational requirement, there's no giftingness that's required.

It's open for anybody.

So, folks, this lets us know something vitally important.

There's nothing inherently wrong with wanting to do something meaningful with your life.

If you have a sincere desire, I I want to do something meaningful with my life.

Not not for fame or popularity, but just to promote the name of Jesus, to bring other people to the God.

There's nothing wrong with that.

All you have to do, all you have to do is serve others.

That's all.

Just serve others.

But boy, is that a lot.

So let's think through real quickly how this serving is to be done.

Number one, serve humbly.

Serve humbly.

Philippians 2.8 tells us that Christ humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

And verse 5 in the same chapter says, have this mind in you likewise.

Have this mindset in you.

The cost of true God-honoring greatness is humble, selfless service.

The one who is willing to serve in the hard place, the uncomfortable place, the lonely place, the demanding place, the place where you might not be appreciated and you might even be mistreated.

Knowing that time is short and eternity is long, I urge you, all of you, all of us, to spend and be spent.

Spend time serving others.

Pour your life out serving others, being a slave to others, and letting them be your master.

To pursue excellence without becoming proud.

To withstand criticism without becoming bitter, to be misjudged without complaining, without becoming defensive, and to withstand suffering without succumbing to self-pity.

Listen to 1 Corinthians 4, verse 7.

1 Corinthians 4:7

Rhetorical question.

What do you have that you do not receive?

Nothing.

Every giftedness you have, guess where it came from?

Look at verse 7 and continues.

If then you received it, what?

Why do you boast as if you did not receive it?

Humble service.

When faithful believers have done, think about it.

When faithful believers have done everything they can possibly do for the Lord to the limit of their abilities and energy, you know what they're supposed to say then?

We are unworthy slaves.

We have only done what that which we ought to have done.

Luke 17, 10.

Number two, serve dependently.

Serve dependently.

As you seek to serve the Lord and others, don't, I'm begging you, don't do it in your flesh.

I don't care whatever it might be, however small it might be perceived, do it dependent upon the Lord.

Remind yourself, without Him you can do what?

Nothing.

You're saying to yourself, well, right now I'm breathing and it's talking about you can do nothing of kingdom value.

You can do nothing of eternal significance without him helping you.

And so, folks, I've mentioned this more than once, especially since the song came out three or four years ago.

I lose track about that part.

Oh God, my God, I need you.

Oh God, my God, I need you now.

How I need you now.

That is pretty much my heartbeat when I get up from that seat and walk up here.

When I come up here and I put my hand on this podium to bring it around, man, I'm saying, God, I need you.

I need you.

And I'm sincere in that I need you.

And I want you, my brothers and sisters in Christ, whatever you do to serve anybody in any way, do it dependently.

Third, serve sincerely.

Don't serve with ulterior motives.

Don't do the old scratch somebody's back so they'll scratch yours.

Don't be manipulative.

Don't try to do acts of service just so you'll be well thought of.

Serve sincerely with love and compassion, with a sincere desire for God to use you.

Yeah, little old you.

I know that's how some of you view yourself.

And I get it.

I get it.

But you're made in God's image.

And he gifted you exactly how he wanted to in his sovereign wisdom.

And so when little old you offers to do something to be a benefit for somebody else and for his glory, just do it sincerely.

He can use you.

He can use you.

There's not a person in this room who knows Jesus that God does not want to use for his honor and to be of service for other people.

And then serve anonymously.

Serve anonymously.

Don't worry about who gets the credit.

Don't flash your own name and accomplishments for everyone to see.

I confessed in the first service that I don't know for sure when I last shared this in a unity context.

I can't I don't know if I did it on a Sunday or not.

If not, it would have been on a Wednesday morning.

But nonetheless.

This was probably 15, 20 years ago.

I was asked to preach at the Bible College in Nashville, Tennessee.

Afterwards, I mingling with people.

I looked at my phone.

I checked my social media feed.

And somebody, I have no clue who in the world it was.

Somebody said something complimentary.

And so I retweeted it.

And I don't know how many minutes later it was.

I I don't remember that part.

I just remember that I got a direct message from Kim Everts.

Kim is the one who normally sits beside Jennifer in the 9 o'clock service.

She sent me a message and she said, um Jeff, don't you don't you think that's kind of like bragging?

And she was right.

She was right.

And so with the Lord's help and by God's grace, I have, to my knowledge, I have never retweeted anything like that again.

Now I'm I'm willing to admit to you that when I first read that message, I'm thinking to myself, who does she think she is?

Good thing I'm in Nashville and not Greenville, snap jug.

She was right.

She was right.

Now, folks, some of you perhaps might want to look at your social media feed.

I mean, have you kind of hey hey, by the way, can I get another spotlight right here?

Can I how does this light look?

Can I get another spotlight and you're shining it on yourself and your accomplishments?

It's not good.

Let another man speak well of you but not your own lips.

That's Bible principle.

So if you're gonna serve, you're gonna do whatever you're gonna do, do it anonymously.

Don't care if you ever get credit for it or not.

Um, and then finally, serve sacrificially.

Serve sacrificially.

Um, serving others sacrificially means giving of time and energy to be there when you're needed, to have a listening ear, a compassionate heart, giving your money and investing your gifts and abilities to advance the cause of Christ.

Um, I did it with him in the room in the first service, and he's not the only one that I could do this with, but the Holy Spirit gave this to me in the 9 o'clock service because it was not in my notes.

But in the 9 o'clock service, Jimmy Garrett sits just about exactly where James and Linda Rhodes sit.

And for those of you who know Jimmy Garrett, by the way, uh Tim DeCreese did a podcast interview with him two Thursdays ago, I think it was.

Man, Jimmy Garris.

Prince of a man.

Um, Jimmy Garris would probably be considered one of the greatest Bible teachers our church has ever had.

He taught uh a Sunday school slash life group class for two plus decades.

Good number of people attended his class and benefited from it.

Um Jimmy Garris retired, um, had a level of executive leadership at DuPont, and uh he was our church treasurer for 20 plus 25 years.

And I did not know this about Jimmy until somebody told me.

But Jimmy Garrus visits nursing homes and rest homes and takes goodies or whatever to help brighten somebody's day.

That's how he spends a good chunk of his time being the lifter of other people's heads and spirits.

His wife, Miss Carolyn, passed away.

Oh man, I lose track of things five, six years ago, seven.

And now he goes around and probably visits people that are lonely.

And maybe some of them haven't had anybody to visit them in a while.

And he goes around and does that.

I thought, wow, that's kingdom greatness.

And he'd never probably told a soul, that's kingdom greatness.

May the Lord help you and me to slay what needs to be slayed so we can serve in ways that bring glory to him.

Let's bow our heads together.

In just a moment, we're going to sing a super simple hymn.

Brian's going to lead us in it the first time, and then we'll join him.

And many of you, you'll recognize it, but it's it's the hymn, Make Me a Servant.

And so with that in mind, Lord, would you continue to work in my heart and my life?

Would you continue to work in my precious people's lives, those who were members of our church, and those who are regular attenders of our church, those who were thinking about kind of making this home.

Lord, work in all of our lives to make us humble servants of yours, to be used in whatever way to make a difference in people's lives, to make a difference for the cause of Christ.

And so, Lord, all of us, we have stuff that needs to be killed, that needs to be slain.

Help us to do it.

And then help us to serve humbly, sincerely, sacrificially, anonymously, dependently.

For just a moment, would you just continue to pray in your own heart for your own soul, your own life?

Father, thank you for hearing our prayers.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.