← ArchiveWhat is Church?Sunday, March 12, 2017DateMarch 12, 2017Speaker—TextMark 10Passages in this sermonMark 10:351:22Mark 101:31Acts 22:30Matthew 203:30Isaiah 537:44Matthew 610:28Romans 823:20Mark 329:38Mark 530:47Mark 733:04Colossians 335:17TranscriptMachine transcribed. Click any line to jump there.0:00Lately, it seems that we are getting more and more confused about what a church actually is. So let's take some time to set the record straight. Church is not a building, though a building can be used by a church. Church is not a denomination, though a set of beliefs should be important to a church. Church is not about Sunday, though a church should not forsake meeting together. Church is not about one person or personality, though every church should be pastored. And church is not about size or growth, though every church is called to make disciples.0:27So don't think of church as an address or a location, but rather think of church as mobile and on the move. Don't think of church as something built or planted, but rather think of church as something deployed. Don't think of church as where you are for an hour each week, but rather what you are every day of the week. Because the church is the hands and feet of Jesus Christ. Feet shouldn't sit still. Hands shouldn't be idle.0:56Feet go. Hands do. This is the church. Church isn't what you're sitting through right now, because you are the church. Now go and be the church.1:22If you have a copy of God's word with you, please turn it on or get it out and turn to Mark chapter 10, verse 35. Mark chapter 10 and verse 35 this morning. We are in our third part of a series that we have entitled, This is Church. This is church. If you've ever wondered, well, what is church? We really have not tried to answer that question as much as we have looked into God's word and said, Lord, what should we be doing? So we have seen the importance of God's people worshiping together regularly.1:50So where does worship come from? It comes from a heart that is filled with the goodness of Jesus Christ. As our youth have shared, if he is ours and we are his. And I have a now a spiritual desire to overflow with worship. And that's not solo worship on the fishing boat by myself. That is a worship with God's people. That it gives me great joy to worship with you guys. And it should give you great joy to worship with us because God has called us to community.2:18And that's the second thing that we see in God's word is that we are now saved through Christ individually. But we are saved into Acts 2 that God added to them their number daily. That we are now in a body of Christ. So we should not try to live a solo missional life for God. We are in this together for the glory of God. And today we're going to conclude our series with this.2:47God, how can we serve you? What if I am living as I should be for your name, what should service look like in my life? But before we look at service, we're going to have to tackle something that hinders us from service. And that is self. That is self. Now for me, that is Josh. For you, that is whatever your name is filled in the blank. That we're going to see that a hindering, stumbling block to our service to the Lord is us.3:12So with that, let's look at Mark chapter 10, verse 35 together. Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to him. And if you want to go back and read, there's another parallel, I believe, in Matthew chapter 20. The same account. But here in Matthew, we have their mom asking the question. And then James and John are nearby.3:40So I think mom is here, and it's the family asking, Lord, do this for us. And they ask him, teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask. Now keep in mind, they are asking this of God. So they are going to God and saying, I have a question, God. I want you to do whatever I ask. Well, verse 36. Jesus said to them, what do you want me to do for you?4:07And they said to Jesus, grant us that we may sit one on your right and the other on your left in your glory. But Jesus said to them, you do not know what you ask. And many of the parents here have looked at your child at some point in their life, and you've looked at them and said, you don't know what you ask. Ask again. Jesus says, are you able to drink the cup that I drink and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?4:37Now, the construction in the Greek is presupposing a negative answer. So the answer to this question should be no. And we see here in verse 39, they said to him, we are able. So Jesus said to them, you will indeed drink the cup that I drink. And with the baptism I am baptized, you will be baptized. But to sit on my right hand and on my left, it is not mine to give,5:07but it is for those whom it is prepared. And then the other ten heard it, and they began to be greatly displeased with James and John. But Jesus called them to himself, and he said this, You know that those who are considered rulers over the Gentiles, Lord over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. Yet it shall not be among you, but whoever desires to become great among you shall be your servant.5:33And whoever of you desires to be the first shall be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many. Let's pray, God. Lord, to the very division of the joint and the marrow of our bodies.5:54So Lord, we ask right now that you move us in a way as we have heard your word. That we will respond in grace and truth with the power of the Holy Spirit. So Lord, even right now, help us respond by living out your word. That we would not be unchanged, mere hearers only, but that we would be doers of your word.6:22That is only through your wisdom and through your might. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. And amen. Well, we see this truth in Scripture that selfishness in our lives leads to selfish questions. Selfishness leads to selfish questions. Look at verse 35. James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to Jesus, said, Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask.6:52So immediately in the narrative, we see a predisposition in these men for selfishness. And you might will say, well, who are these men? Why is this important? These are not ordinary men. James and John were with Christ from the very beginning. These are men that lived for three years with Jesus Christ. And now they brought their mom along, we see in Matthew. And they who have lived with Christ are asking selfish questions.7:20So here we should pause a minute and say this. If those who live with Christ daily heard him preach constantly and heard his heart, if they are predisposed to selfishness, then what should we be on the lookout for? Selfishness. And we're reminded this is not just a first century issue. Isaiah reminds us in Isaiah 53, verse 6, hundreds of years before Jesus Christ, hundreds of years before the disciples, that we all, like sheep, have gone astray,7:50each of us to his own way, but the Lord laid upon him the iniquity of us all. So Isaiah, the prophet in the Old Testament, reminds us, like sheep, we are prone to doing our own thing. And not only does the New Testament remind us of our selfishness, not only does the Old Testament remind us of our selfishness, but modern, modernity also reminds us of our selfishness. And you say, well, how do we see that? When you leave this afternoon,8:19I say this afternoon because my wife's in the nursery, so she said, I'm in the nursery today, preach as long as you need to. I said, thank you, dear. So when we leave tonight sometime, as you stop at the stop sign to turn to go home on the highway, I want you to just pause for 10 seconds. Make sure it's clear. And when it's clear, just stop. Don't go. And if there's a line of cars behind you, as you stop at the red light or the green light now,8:46or as you stop at the stop sign, what will people behind you remind you of? You need to go. Right? We don't care where you go, just go. We have a natural desire. I don't care if I'm going to the gas station or the grocery store or I'm just out for my Sunday stroll. If you stop longer than I think you should be stopped, I'm going to let you know you need to move. So if this plays out in your life, if you see a little blue Toyota behind you,9:16go ahead and wave at me because I might be the one honking. But what does that exercise remind us? We are prone to selfishness. And most of us in that moment of selfishness, we're not in emergency. We are not running to the hospital because it's life or death. We just want to get on with our agenda. This is selfishness at play in our life. And this is exactly what we see in the disciples' lives.9:42So as we look at James and John, we ask this question, why does their selfish nature actually scratch that? Why does our selfish nature lead to selfish questions? And then how in the world do they have the spiritual boldness to look at God and say, God, I want you to do something for me. And I want you to do something that is whatever I ask.10:09Think of the boldness. Some of you growing up might call it something else, guts, intestinal fortitude, to look at Jesus Christ and say to him, Jesus, I want you to do whatever I ask. Now, before we point a finger at the disciples and we're harsh on them, remember in Matthew 6 on the Sermon on the Mount what they've already heard Jesus proclaim. He says, seek ye first the kingdom of God and all these things will be added unto you.10:38So they've already heard, look, if you are seeking me, then I'll give you anything. And so now it's time to ante up. The disciples say, Jesus, teacher, we want you to do whatever we ask. And how prone are we to ask the similar question of God? God, I want you to do whatever I ask of you. We come to the throne of God without thought of his holiness or our sin or our shortcomings.11:07We just come to the throne of God and say, God, right now I'm going to pray a prayer. And this prayer is going to be about me. See, Jesus reminds us that when we come to the Father, we should say, Lord, your name is holy. When I come to Christ in prayer, it should not be, God, I want you to remember that I'm here. It is, God, I want to remember that you are there and I am not. How quick we are to selfishness.11:37And James and John and also mom here remind us, I believe, of this spiritual truth. We cannot stop fighting against our selfishness. We cannot stop fighting against our selfishness. You say, well, why not literally? The disciples here are walking the road. The next stop is into Jericho. And from Jericho, they are making, they're following the road from Jericho up to Jerusalem.12:02And after they get to Jerusalem, they have the triumphal entry. And after the entry, they have the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Literally, the disciples are walking the road to the cross with Jesus. And all they're concerned about is what? Me. And can you imagine in that moment how lonely the Son of God must have been? To think, God, I am walking to the cross.12:32And all of these disciples, all they want is to sit on my right and left. They have no clue what I have done for them and what I will do for them. And in the same vein, how much more important is it for us to look up from the road that we're traveling and remember that we are walking towards the cross? Dr. Sostom says it this way. He says they were expecting him to enter into the kingdom, but not to go to the cross and to death.12:58See, I believe we need to look every day in the mirror. This is a good, for some of you who don't like to look in the mirror, turn off the lights and look in the mirror. We need to look in the mirror daily and remind ourselves it is not about us. I need, that's good for my soul to look in the mirror daily and say, Josh, it is not about you. It's good for my heart to hear that coming out of my mouth.13:27And then that we hear this, it's not about you because if you have put your faith in Christ, to live is Christ and to die is gain. So I can say, I'm not living for Josh, I want to live for Christ. And the days I find that difficult, the days that I am fighting on where I get to sit, that I look at myself and say, it is not about where I sit in the kingdom. It is about Jesus Christ. And that we say, Lord, radically transform our lives.13:58See, a selfish heart will always lead to selfish requests. And their quest here was simple. Teacher, just let us sit wherever we want to sit. This was the, this was the ancient Baptist equivalent of this is my pew, right? Lord, that's the, some of you like to sit up front. God bless you. I'm so distracted. I have to sit up front because I, if I see anything move, my eyes are going to go to that.14:27Like if I see a squirrel run through like a dog, my eyes are going to the squirrel. Some of you want to sit back in the darkness, in the back. And I think James and John were saying, Lord, we want to sit where we want to sit because that's where we're comfortable. And we only, we want even more than that. We want a seat of prestige. You see, in the ancient world, the right hand was a seat of prestige and the left was second place. Now we don't know who gets what. We don't know if John's on the right or James is on the left.14:55But you see what they're asking. Lord, make us great in the sight of men. And Jesus says, it is not for you to ask and it is not for me to give. And so we ask this question, Lord, are we behaving selfishly? Are we behaving selfishly? And how do we know? I think we know by the questions we ask of God. Are you asking when you pray, are you asking selfish things mostly?15:22When we pray, and it's okay to ask for yourself. It's okay. James says, if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God and he will graciously, abundantly give. It's okay to ask, but it's not okay to only be concerned about me and you. So go back through and look at your prayer life and say, Lord, I spent time praying today, but it was only about me. It wasn't about your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it was in heaven.15:50It was, God, give me, give me, give me. Maybe your life is wrapped around you and we should say, Lord, change me. Because I believe the answer to self, the antidote, if you will, is sacrifice and it is Jesus Christ. So are you asking selfish questions in your life? Have you daily gone to Jesus and said, Lord, I know you're going to the cross and I know you're struggling.16:17There's going to be agony. I know it's going to be difficult, but can you just let me sit where I want to sit? Think of how petty and irritating some of our questions are. Lord, I know that there are people that are struggling and dying because they don't have food around the world and that there are lost souls. But you know what? The phone, the screen on my phone really cracked and I'm upset about it. It changed my heart.16:48Maybe our prayer should be, Lord, take the phone away. Maybe we say, Lord, my house, I just struggle with that. And maybe we should pray, Lord, give me a smaller house. Or, Lord, you don't understand the debts I have. Maybe the answer is instead to say, Lord, I don't want more. I want less. And stop saying, Lord, give me, give me, give me. And saying, Lord, what can I give to you, my Savior and my God?17:14But selfishness doesn't end at the questions we ask. We see in James and John, selfish hearts lead to selfish answers. So we have in verse 36, Jesus, God himself. Right? We have two men going to God and saying, God, give us whatever we ask. And God answers. So I would remind you this. Be careful when you ask selfish questions of God, because sometimes he answers our selfish request.17:41And so the response of the Savior to them in verse 36 is, what do you want me to do for you? Some of you have had kids that have come up to you and demanded things of you. You kind of cross your arms. You say, okay, let's play this game. Right? Tell me what you want. That's what's going on here. And when Jesus answers them, I don't believe they get it. You know, we have a four-year-old, four and a half now, and we're trying to teach him how to have manners.18:11I think that's a lost art nowadays. So we're teaching him, you know, when you need things, you say, please. And when somebody gives you, you say, thank you. So hook him up to us and say, Dad, give me this. And I'll look at him like, did you really just, do you know who you're talking to? And sometimes he'll get it and say, Dad, can I please? I think that's what's going on here in the mind of Christ, in the life of the disciples. They have come to Jesus and said, God, give us anything.18:40And Jesus kind of gives them that look. Why don't you re-ask the question? In verse 36, leads to verse 37, and they say to him, grant us that we may sit on your right and on your left in your glory. You see, I believe that our selfish requests lead us to selfish answers. And they don't understand that they are being selfish. And when Jesus answers them, they answer Jesus.19:10And now we lead to verse 38, where Jesus said to them, you don't know what you ask. So this is the third time Jesus has said, why don't you rethink the question? You don't know what you ask. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptizing you with? And they say to him, we can do it. Jesus is saying, I am walking to the cross to die for the sins of the world. And you're worried about this?19:40And then Jesus says, okay, let's play this game. Do you think you can walk to the cross and die on the cross? And they say, Lord, we can do it. How often in our selfishness do we answer God with pettiness, that we do not even realize that we are answering? You see, we are all guilty. Selfish hearts lead to selfish answers. We play the game. We play the barter game with God, don't we? We say, Lord, if you would just give me a new house, then I'll serve you in it.20:08Lord, if you would just give me this job that I am desiring, then I would be happy. Lord, if you would just give me health, or Lord, if I just had this amount of money in my bank account, then I would serve you. Lord, if you do this, then I will. Right? If you answer my selfish question, then I will answer God your promise with a selfish response. We're all guilty, aren't we, of bargaining with God.20:39God, if you do this, then I will. And what happens when we bargain with God in selfishness? It leads to selfishness. We say, God, if you do this, then I will. And then when God does what we ask, what do we do? We go back to living a life that is selfish. And you say, well, Pastor, I thought this was about service. Yes, we have to root out selfishness in our life. You know, I believe sometimes in the church world, we tend to fantasize about heaven and the streets of gold and the gates of pearls.21:06And we desire our mansion over the hilltop. And that's why we desire Christ. Right? We say, Lord, if you just give me my mansion, that sounds pretty good. I've never lived in a mansion before. I've been in some. I've been in some estates or some plantations in Louisiana that I'm like, this would be awesome. Lord, if my home in heaven is going to look like this, I'm in.21:34But you see, desiring heaven is not the same thing as desiring Christ. And the opposite is true. We've grown up, I have, in a tradition where we try to scare people to Christ. Right? If you died right now, where would you go? There's a place called hell. And it's a real place. I believe it because the Bible says it is a real place. And if you don't make a decision right now, you're going to burn forever.22:03It's going to be really bad. And then with kids, what do we say? You'll never see your parents again. That's how we, we might not say it that way, but that's what I felt as a child. But if you make a decision right now, you'll get to see your parents one day. And we forget that turning and running from hell is not running to Christ. That the atrocity of hell is that Jesus is not there.22:30And if we're not careful, we run from hell, but we're not running to Jesus Christ. And we're just as lost as we were before. You see, that leads us to, again, a selfish response. Do I believe in hell? Absolutely. I believe hell is real as much as I believe heaven is real. And I believe if I die in my sins without making him Lord and Savior of my life, it will lead me to hell because the road to destruction is wide.22:55But that is not the reason that I ran to Christ. I ran to Christ because he died on the cross for my selfishness and my sin. And that is a beautiful promise is that I don't have to be scared or dangled over my destruction and death anymore. That I am now made new by the law of the spirit of life, not the law of sin and death, as Romans 8 says.23:20But we must be very careful not to run from hell and still not run to Jesus Christ. See, that is a selfish response, a selfish answer. Augustine says it this way, For the homeland is on high and the way to it is lowly. The homeland is life in Christ. The way is dying with Christ. The way is suffering with Christ. The goal is abiding with him eternally.23:50Why do you seek the homeland if you are not seeking the way to it? Why do we seek the homeland if we do not seek Jesus Christ? You see, a selfish heart will always lead us to a selfish answer to God. It will lead us to a place where we say, God, I can do it. And not to be outdone, we see now some other characters join the fray. So look more at the selfishness of the disciples.24:17Verse 41, When they heard it, the other ten, they began to be greatly displeased with James and John. So you ask yourself, why were the other disciples mad? Were they mad because James and John just didn't get it? No, I don't think they were mad because they didn't get it. I think they were mad because James and John were trying to take their place of importance. You see, I think we see a spiritual truth here. One is what I learned as a kid. When brothers getting in trouble, stay away.24:47We're trying to teach our kids that when we're disciplining your sister or your brother, it's best for you just to leave us alone for a while. You would think that when James and John are now being disciplined by the Savior, that the other ten would say, you know what? It might not be the right time. But they don't. But I think a spiritual truth we see here in this passage is that the selfishness of other people does not give us liberty to ourselves be selfish.25:12We live in a selfish world. We live in a world where marketing displays that. You can go to fast food and you can have it your way. No, you can't. You only get ten menu items. It's still their way. You can do things on your time. You can even go online and you can order M&M's in your favorite color.25:38You can even order M&M's with your initials on it. So we've kind of catered everything to us and to selfishness. And that's not just a world issue. Now look at our churches. So we now ask the question when we worship, it's about me. What can the church do for me? And that is a very dangerous question for you to ask. But think about this. How much more dangerous is it for me as the chief shepherd, the under-shepherd to the chief?26:06How much more dangerous is it for me to ask? That we are not singing songs because I want. We are not doing things because I want. Because this is not about me. It is not about you. It is about Jesus Christ. And that we say, God, rid selfishness. So how do we know that we are selfish? And how do we rid our selfishness?26:35Are you giving selfish answers to God? Are you saying, God, I will serve you, but I want to do it on my terms? Right? Or we pray prayers. Lord, I'm going to share Christ. If you just open up the doors blatantly, I will share. But maybe God is saying, but don't you realize I put you by your neighbor? And you've been with them for two or three years? You're supposed to share Christ with them. And I know their door's closed. I know it's difficult. Go knock on the door.27:04They have a doorbell. Ring the doorbell. And I'm thankful for people in my life that when I was closed off to the gospel, they didn't let me close myself off. That they came to me and said, this is going to make you uncomfortable, but you need to hear the truth. And I'm thankful as a young man that God opened my heart and I saw the truth of the gospel. I saw that I was selfish in my questioning of God. I saw that I was selfish in the way I lived. And I saw that the answer to my selfishness was Jesus Christ.27:33So that leads us then to the third truth we see here. The answer to ourself and the reason we are here is a selfless Savior. A selfless Savior. So let's look at Jesus Christ and how he answers and what he then pushes us deeper into. Verse 40, Jesus says, But to sit on my right hand and on my left, it is not mine to give.28:01Now let me just stop and say this. If Jesus is submitting to the will of his Father, what should we also do? If God is submitting to the will of someone else, God the Son submitting to the will of God the Father, what is our example then? We'll get back to that. And then verse 45, Jesus said, The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom. So let's just set some things straight. You and I are not Jesus.28:32We are not Jesus. I'm not going to ask you to raise your hand. And if you would say you are, raise your hand. Come see me after church. That's a Connect card issue. Fill that out on the back of the Connect card. We will follow up with you. But when we live in selfishness and sin, we are playing God in our lives. So Jesus says that he is bowing to the will of others. If Jesus has not come to be served, and we are not Jesus Christ, then what should be our mantra?28:59We have not come to be served. So how does Jesus Christ serve? First, we see that he served the world. He physically served the world. And I just went through Mark very quickly and looked at some ways that Jesus served. So I want you to listen to this as I run through, and I'll give you the verse markers here. When Jesus saw a man with a withered hand on the Sabbath, he said to the man, stretch out your hand.29:27And the man's hand was restored whole. In Mark 3, verse 5. Jesus walks up to this man on a day where he's supposed to be resting. And Jesus says, dude, stretch out your hand. Now, isn't that not a strange question for someone to ask a man that has his shriveled hands? But the Son of God has power that the world has never seen.29:56And Jesus walks into a day of rest, and he works on the day of rest. Now, remember, you are not Jesus. And Jesus serves the world, and the man's hand is healed. And you know what the religious people do? They throw a fit. They say, who healed you? Actually, don't even worry about the healing. Who did that on the Sabbath? And Jesus says, man was not created for the Sabbath.30:24The Sabbath for a man that we would rest and worship and find comfort in the Lord our God. Jesus physically served the world. When the demon-possessed man living in the tombs ran up to Jesus, Jesus rebuked the demons and proclaimed, come out of the man, you unclean spirit, in Mark 5. It was a man that the world had cast off because he would cut himself.30:53I mean, they threw him in the tombs. They said, we don't know what to do with him. Let's let him live in the graveyard. And these aren't graveyards that were well-manicured and had nice fences like we have. I mean, these were just empty tombs where they said, you know what, let's just kind of put him there and let him live out his existence. We can't do anything with him. This crazy, demonic-possessed man runs up to Jesus and screams out, what do you want with me? And Jesus looked at a man that the world had said, we don't know what to do with.31:20And he said, you come out of him, you unclean spirits. And this is the power and the mercy of our Savior. The spirits fled. Jesus served the world. When Christ retreated to a deserted place for rest, and when he gets to the other side, he sees thousands and thousands of people. Jesus is retreating for rest, running away from people for rest.31:48And he gets to the other side, and there are thousands of people. You thought your Monday morning that your emails were bad. Jesus didn't say, you know, really not a good day, guys. Go home. Jesus looked at them and said, they're hungry. And he looked at the five loaves and the two fishes, and he said, you know what, let's pray. And the power of the Spirit of God divided the loaves and the fishes that none were without,32:15and that they picked up enough, 12, for the disciples. Jesus served the world even when it was not convenient. When the Gentile woman asked Jesus to heal her daughter, and Jesus said, no, I've come for the Jews. She said, even the dogs beg for crumbs at the table. What a strange response to Jesus.32:45She said, even, Lord, just throw me a crumb. I don't want to sit at the table. Well, I just want to crumb from the table. And Jesus looks at her and had compassion on her and healed her. In Mark chapter 7, we see modeled in our Savior, not a man who served when time allowed or served when the moment was right. We see a man who served because he was called to serve the world.33:14And if Jesus Christ is our Savior, if he is our model for life, how much more now are we called to serve the world? And I know what we're going to say. We're going to say, Lord, I'm tired. I know there are thousands of people, but I am worn out. And I know what we're going to say. Lord, it's just not a good time. Lord, my house is not in order to bring people over. Oh, Lord, I'm just not feeling like it right now.33:44Oh, Lord, you know that guy. You know he lives in the tombs. And, you know, he's not a good dinner guest. But you know he cheers for the wrong team. Lord, have mercy on his soul. But God is saying, I have called you to not be served, but to serve. Because I gave my life as a ransom. Here are some practical implications for you. If you work in the world, if you're not in a church setting, one, you should say thank you.34:11Because I struggle sometimes because everyone I work with is saved, mostly. And so we have to go outside of our doors to find those that aren't. Now, we might act like people who live in the tombs. We might act demon-possessed, right, Brad, sometimes. But we have the struggle. We have to get out to find those that are in need.34:39Some of you, God has placed with you daily as you work the world to serve. And if you struggle daily, you say, God, you know this is an ungodly work environment. I can't believe you put me here. Maybe you should spend some time this morning in prayer and say, God, it's a struggle and it's a daily struggle. But, Lord, thank you for the reminder that I have not come to be served. But I have come to serve this world and serve these ungodly people of whom I used to be.35:08That they might see Christ in me. That they would see Colossians 3 worked out in my life. If God has put you in that situation, if God has put you in the world, maybe spend some time this morning and say, Lord, thank you for that.35:21That I can serve them. And that they might see Jesus Christ in me. Knowing that when you go, you're going to have to suit up with the armor of God. Knowing that some of you are going to people who are going to shoot arrows in your back if you turn around.35:50But knowing that he gives us the helmet, the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness to protect us from the fiery darts of the devil. That we can stand here and say, God, we are denouncing self and we will serve the world through Jesus Christ. Jesus served the world. He also served under the will of his father. And that's important for us. The second way we serve is a bowing of the will.36:18You see, Jesus looks at them in verse 40 and says, It is not mine to give. And so we question, well, isn't Jesus God? And if Jesus is God, does he not have all authority under his will? Even Jesus Christ bowed to the will of the father. Even Jesus Christ said, Lord, take this cup from me, but not as I will, but father, as you will.36:41You see, it's not just enough to serve if we're serving in our strength. We must constantly model in our lives that we are serving in the will of God. We are serving in the will of God. To serve the Lord, we must say, Lord, I can't do it my way, but it is your way. So what does submission look like?37:11You know, I've found often in my life, the days where I do not bow my head and bend my knee are the days where I normally don't bow to the will of God. The days where I'm rushed or the kids wake up early or the weight of what I have to do for the day or for the week is weighing on me and I wake up and I say, Lord, I just have to get to it. I got to get my shower, get my coffee and get out the door. The days where I don't bend my knee are the days where I don't bend to the will of the father.37:40And those are the days where I am just worn out. And I say, Lord, why am I so worn out? And those are the days that God looks at me and says, maybe you were not serving in the strength of the spirit, but you are serving in your strength. You see, if we're not careful, many of us will serve in the church and we will serve ourselves to death. And we will say, God, look what I'm doing for you. God, why am I so tired? And God says, don't I promise you rest if you serve in my strength?38:09That if you bow to my will and to my authority, I will give you strength that you didn't know you had. You see, it's not enough to serve the world. We must serve in the authority and the will of God. So when you serve, are you bowing your head and bending your knee to say, Lord, it is not of me. It is of you. And third, we see this about service. Verse 45, the son of man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many.38:40We see in scripture that when we serve the Lord, it is eternally of value. But we also see that service to God is sacrifice. Service is sacrifice to God. You say, well, pastor, how do you know that? Because this verse points us to the cross. The way Jesus served the world is he died on the cross for our sins, right?39:07We all like sheep have gone astray, each of us to his very own way. And the Lord has laid upon Jesus the iniquity of us all. Service takes sacrifice. So I ask you, are you sacrificing for the Lord? And you say, well, I don't want to do that. Good. We're getting somewhere. You say, well, I don't have time or I can't do this.39:36That's when the spirit takes over and it says, let me move over flesh. Let me do. So we get to a point where we say, Lord, that's uncomfortable. And God says, good. Spiritual growth takes sacrifice. I remember the fable growing up that I was taught. The pig and the chicken were walking down the road. And the chicken looks at the pig and says, you know, pig, we should open a restaurant. And so the pig tells the chicken, well, what should the name be? And the chicken says, ham and eggs.40:05And the pig looks at the chicken and says, I don't think we should name it that. For me, it requires sacrifice. For you, it's only involvement. But I think there are times in our life where we barter with the spirit, don't we? We say, Lord, I don't really want to give of myself, but you know what? I'll lay an egg. I can do that. And that we forget that Jesus Christ says that he laid his life down as a ransom for us.40:33If he sacrificed for us, who are we to say, Lord, I'll serve, but I'm going to serve in my strength, on my terms. And Lord, you know what? While we're at it, I want you to give me the seat that I can serve in. You know, I want the right seat or the left seat. And God says, you get it all wrong. But that I sent my son to ransom you. So maybe you're here this morning and you have never fully trusted Jesus Christ.41:04See, the answer for our sin, the answer for selfishness is not sacrifice. You can't serve God enough to rid yourself of self. The answer to selfishness is to trust Jesus Christ. And the metaphor, the image that Jesus uses of ransom is a picture of a POW. It's someone giving his life to let someone else out of debtor's prison or POW.41:32Sometimes we see the news where we have traded POW with Iran or another country, where we will trade a spy that was caught in exchange for another spy or another person. That's exactly what Jesus Christ did for us. That we who were enslaved by our sin and in jail, Jesus set us free when he died on the cross. That he traded his life for our lives.42:01That is the answer to self. The Bible calls that sin, unfaithfulness, iniquities. That we have fallen short and we're all in the same boat. We all fall short. We all are like sheep that have gone astray. And yet the Lord laid upon him the iniquity of us all. And I know there are people in this room today that Jesus Christ has set you free from your prison and you are staying in that prison. That you've been clanging on the jail cell for too long and Jesus said, you know what, I took the key and I opened the cell.42:31But I need you to trust that I'm the one that can free you from your sins. I need you to trust that the sacrifice on the cross was the freedom that you need, the forgiveness of our sins. The adoption into a new family, into a new way of life. See, Jesus doesn't just set us free from our prison. He gives us a new life. Behold, the old has passed and new things have come, the New Testament says.43:01And if you're here today and you feel like you are just enslaved and you are stuck in your sin, know that Jesus Christ died for you. And that he took the key of hell and the prison of your sins and he unlocked the door. And he said, if you believe in your heart that I rose from the dead, if you will confess with your mouth that he is Lord, he will set you free.43:25And where the spirit of the Lord is, you are free indeed. If you have not put your faith in Christ, I'm going to ask you to do that today. What are you waiting for? You are not waiting on him. He is dying. The spirit of God desires that no men perish, but that all have everlasting life. He traded his life as a ransom for you. So won't you respond today? Maybe you're here and you are, you've seen the freedom that Christ and only Christ can offer you.43:56And yet you still struggle with selfishness. Maybe you need to lay down something today and say, Lord, I'm tired. I've been asking selfish questions. And Lord, I've been answering selfish answers. And Lord, I've told you I will serve, but on my terms. Maybe today God is calling you to serve on his terms. To say, Lord, I'm tired of, I'm just tired. And God says, you're serving not in my spirit, but in your strength.44:25Maybe you need to lay down self today and say, Lord, it is about you. And when it is about you, your will be done, your kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven. We're going to have a time of response. We're going to invite you to respond now. We're going to open up the altar here to pray. We will have people on the sides and I'll be down front. If you need to put your faith in Christ or to make your faith public, I'm going to ask you to do that this morning. Or maybe you want someone to follow up with you later.44:55Take out that connect card. Fill it out. Put it in that plate at the end of the service. We will come to you and encourage you in your faith and walk you through the glorious word of God together. But do not miss a chance to respond to the mercy that is freely offered to us. Let's pray together, Father.← Previous in What is Church?Sunday, March 5, 2017Next in What is Church? →Sunday, March 19, 2017More sermons on Mark →
