Latest / Max Lucado Daily Sermons / Lived A Selfless Life - Minister Max Lucado
Transcript
- 1:01Speaker 1: Welcome to Daylight Savings Time Sunday. And if you intended
- 1:05Speaker 1: to be at the early service and here you are
- 1:08Speaker 1: at this one, no one's asking, We're just glad you
- 1:12Speaker 1: made it. We're trying to be that ice cream truck.
- 1:15Speaker 1: We're trying to bring joy and lighten the loads and
- 1:18Speaker 1: brighten the days of people as we see them throughout
- 1:23Speaker 1: our day. In fact, we're trying to brighten the day,
- 1:27Speaker 1: enlighten the load of one hundred people over a forty
- 1:30Speaker 1: day period. We began in February. You can start whenever
- 1:34Speaker 1: you want, but the idea is to help one hundred
- 1:37Speaker 1: people by just going the extra mile with them. And
- 1:40Speaker 1: we're asking you even to share your experiences at one
- 1:44Speaker 1: hundred Happy People at Oak Hills Church dot com. We're
- 1:48Speaker 1: getting some wonderful emails. Some are heartwarming, some make as chuckle.
- 1:54Speaker 1: Here's one. My wife works at the athletic office at
- 1:58Speaker 1: UTSA with students who are work to study or graduate assistance.
- 2:04Speaker 1: They perform what she describes as grunt work for little pay.
- 2:09Speaker 1: All of them missed the comforts of home, so my
- 2:11Speaker 1: wife invited them over for dinner last Sunday night at
- 2:16Speaker 1: the end of three and a half hours, we were
- 2:18Speaker 1: saying goodbye to seven very happy people. But now the dilemma.
- 2:24Speaker 1: Does my wife get to count all seven since it
- 2:27Speaker 1: was her ideas she prepared the meal. Can I count
- 2:30Speaker 1: them too? Since I contributed by paying grocery and other
- 2:34Speaker 1: bills necessary to host the dinner? Is that double dipping?
- 2:39Speaker 1: We could cling three apiece and do rock paper scissors
- 2:42Speaker 1: to see who gets the seventh person. We will continue
- 2:46Speaker 1: to seek opportunities to make more people happy regardless of
- 2:51Speaker 1: your decision. We formed a committee to evaluate this question. Now.
- 2:57Speaker 1: The challenge is simple, develop unselfish muscle by intently and
- 3:04Speaker 1: purposefully dedicating forty days to create healthy habits of helping
- 3:10Speaker 1: other people. Many of you are posting your experiences on
- 3:13Speaker 1: hashtag one hundred happy People on Twitter. Others of you
- 3:17Speaker 1: are sharing your experiences with your neighborhood groups and your
- 3:20Speaker 1: friends and your family. I encourage you to keep a
- 3:23Speaker 1: journal and keep up with some of these. In fact,
- 3:25Speaker 1: I'd like to invite you to send your experiences to
- 3:28Speaker 1: us at one hundred Happy People at o'killschurch dot com.
- 3:32Speaker 1: Someday I might write a book and include that story,
- 3:35Speaker 1: along with others, about the way our church tried to
- 3:38Speaker 1: make one hundred people happy over a forty day period.
- 3:42Speaker 1: It's just a good exercise. We're using scriptures to help
- 3:46Speaker 1: us in this process, each week looking at a different
- 3:50Speaker 1: one another passage. And this week we find ourselves in
- 3:54Speaker 1: the Book of Galatians Galatians, Chapter five and verse thirty.
- 4:01Speaker 1: For you, brethren, have been called to liberty only do
- 4:06Speaker 1: not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but
- 4:12Speaker 1: through love, serve one another. We're going to look at
- 4:17Speaker 1: that passage in just a moment. I apologize for my
- 4:21Speaker 1: hoarse voice. You should have heard it last Tuesday. It's
- 4:25Speaker 1: pretty good by now. But if you can bear with it,
- 4:27Speaker 1: soil can I let's pray together and then we'll get
- 4:30Speaker 1: to work. And so Lord, here we are again needing
- 4:35Speaker 1: your blessing and understanding, just to be more and more
- 4:38Speaker 1: like you. You did not come to be served, but
- 4:42Speaker 1: you came to serve and to give your life as
- 4:44Speaker 1: a ransom for many. That's very counter cultural to us,
- 4:48Speaker 1: but we pray that you'd help us to imitate you. Forgive.
- 4:52Speaker 1: Our speaker today has sins your many help us to
- 4:55Speaker 1: see Christ, just Jesus. Through Christ. We pray and all
- 5:01Speaker 1: the church said, I remember him as a large man,
- 5:09Speaker 1: concrete block of a fellow. He wore a crew cut,
- 5:17Speaker 1: a short sleeved white shirt, a narrow black tie, and
- 5:23Speaker 1: he had an ever present pocket protector. He taught a
- 5:30Speaker 1: midweek Bible class for ten year olds in Odessa, Texas,
- 5:38Speaker 1: at the Park View Church of Christ. I was one
- 5:42Speaker 1: of his students. The classroom was built large enough to
- 5:47Speaker 1: hold twenty. There are at least that many, and many desks.
- 5:51Speaker 1: I can only remember at most four of us. It
- 5:56Speaker 1: was a sleepy class. He was prone to stone umble
- 6:00Speaker 1: over his words, stare at his notes. I don't remember
- 6:04Speaker 1: him as very enthusiastic, just very earnest. I don't remember
- 6:10Speaker 1: anything else about him, to be honest, I don't remember
- 6:13Speaker 1: his name. I don't know if he was a plumber
- 6:16Speaker 1: or if he was a postman. But what I do
- 6:19Speaker 1: remember with surprising detail is the evening of February tenth,
- 6:27Speaker 1: nineteen sixty five, in which he set out to teach
- 6:31Speaker 1: that group of four year old boys. The significance of
- 6:36Speaker 1: the seventh chapter of the Book of Romans. Romans is
- 6:41Speaker 1: a difficult book for the most mature believer, and the
- 6:46Speaker 1: seventh chapter of the Book of Romans describes the civil
- 6:49Speaker 1: War of the Soul, where the apostle Paul talks about
- 6:52Speaker 1: the ongoing struggle. We have to do what is right.
- 6:55Speaker 1: But then he declares at the end, really the beginning
- 6:57Speaker 1: of chapter eight they of God. It's a wonderful chapter.
- 7:03Speaker 1: Yet it's not easy to comprehend. And I did nothing
- 7:07Speaker 1: that night to make the teacher think that I got it.
- 7:11Speaker 1: I don't remember asking any questions, and I sure didn't
- 7:14Speaker 1: go up to him after the class and thank him
- 7:16Speaker 1: for his hard study. I'm sure he went home thinking, well,
- 7:20Speaker 1: that was a wasted effort. If his wife asked him
- 7:24Speaker 1: how the class went, he probably said something like, I
- 7:26Speaker 1: don't know. Those kids never talk. What he had no
- 7:33Speaker 1: way of knowing is that that kid on the second row,
- 7:35Speaker 1: the redhead with the freckles, he was listening. And I
- 7:40Speaker 1: went that night after the service into my father's room,
- 7:46Speaker 1: found my father in the restroom shaving, and asked my
- 7:51Speaker 1: dad about forgiveness about Heaven. And my dad stopped what
- 7:57Speaker 1: he was doing and he sat with me on his
- 7:59Speaker 1: bed and we had to talk about Jesus, and I
- 8:05Speaker 1: became a Christian that night. My dad baptized me. The
- 8:11Speaker 1: following Sunday, February fourteenth, as it turns out, Valentine's Day.
- 8:17Speaker 1: I've thought much about that teacher in my life. I
- 8:24Speaker 1: thought about whatever happened to him, did he have any
- 8:29Speaker 1: way of knowing? I thought about what made him do
- 8:36Speaker 1: what he did. He wasn't a pastor, it wasn't dynamic.
- 8:46Speaker 1: I don't think he ever wrote a book or started
- 8:49Speaker 1: a church. Maybe he left a bunch of money to
- 8:54Speaker 1: some organization somewhere, but I never heard about it, never
- 8:59Speaker 1: seen him since. But then again, I've seen him a
- 9:04Speaker 1: thousand times over. At least people like him quiet servants.
- 9:12Speaker 1: Quiet servants they don't seek the limelight. They just seek
- 9:18Speaker 1: to do what's right. They show up, they unlock doors,
- 9:27Speaker 1: they stack chairs, They pray for the sick, they care
- 9:33Speaker 1: for the poor, They deliver meals. Most of them are
- 9:43Speaker 1: not interested in being in front of people. Quite often,
- 9:46Speaker 1: that's the last place they want to be. They would
- 9:51Speaker 1: never want to stand behind a pulpit, but they're happy
- 9:53Speaker 1: to make sure the pulpit's there. And they don't want
- 9:57Speaker 1: to wear a microphone, but they'll make sure the microphon
- 10:00Speaker 1: is turned on. They just want to serve. The quiet
- 10:07Speaker 1: servants of the church. It's about people like this that
- 10:14Speaker 1: the passage is written that the apostle penned at the
- 10:18Speaker 1: end of chapter five in the Book of Galatians. For you, brethren,
- 10:24Speaker 1: have been called to liberty. Only do not use liberty
- 10:28Speaker 1: as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love, serve
- 10:34Speaker 1: one another. This passage appears at the end of a
- 10:40Speaker 1: book about liberation. That's why Paul says, you have been
- 10:44Speaker 1: called to liberty. For five chapters Paul talks about how
- 10:48Speaker 1: we are free from sin or free from guilt, and
- 10:51Speaker 1: then free from rules, and then free from regulations, and
- 10:54Speaker 1: then even free from expectations and free from religion. But
- 10:59Speaker 1: then he says, now, but don't use this liberty as
- 11:02Speaker 1: an excuse for self promotion or self indulgence. Quite the opposite.
- 11:08Speaker 1: Use your newfound liberty as motivation to voluntarily indenture yourself
- 11:15Speaker 1: to other people. Since you're free from rules and regulations,
- 11:21Speaker 1: then serve with joy, make yourself a servant of others.
- 11:28Speaker 1: There are a few people in the Bible who really
- 11:31Speaker 1: model this, and then there are two who really didn't.
- 11:35Speaker 1: Let's look at a couple who do, and then a
- 11:37Speaker 1: couple who didn't. If you like to fill in the blanks.
- 11:39Speaker 1: Let's look at the portraits of servanthood. Andrew would be
- 11:44Speaker 1: one of these. Andrew the apostle. When we think about apostles,
- 11:49Speaker 1: Andrew is not the first name that comes to our mind.
- 11:54Speaker 1: In fact, when you see the list of apostles in
- 11:56Speaker 1: the Bible, the name Andrew is never At the time,
- 12:01Speaker 1: Andrew was from the same town as James and John.
- 12:07Speaker 1: Andrew was a brother to anybody know, Peter Peter. When
- 12:16Speaker 1: you think of the Inner Circle, you think of those
- 12:18Speaker 1: three Peter, James and John, but you don't think of Peter, James, John,
- 12:24Speaker 1: and Andrew. Andrew was in the background in the photo
- 12:33Speaker 1: of the apostles. Andrew is on the side with his
- 12:36Speaker 1: hands in his pocket. Peter's right in the middle. Well,
- 12:40Speaker 1: maybe he's not in the photo. He's probably holding the camera.
- 12:45Speaker 1: He was a servant. He was a quiet servant. But
- 12:50Speaker 1: just because he didn't demand the lime light, that didn't
- 12:53Speaker 1: mean he didn't have an inner fire. He sought out
- 12:57Speaker 1: John the Baptist, and when John the Baptist pointed James
- 13:02Speaker 1: and John and Andrew to go find the Lamb of
- 13:07Speaker 1: God who takes away the sin of the world. Andrew went.
- 13:12Speaker 1: Andrew went, and he and John became some of the
- 13:15Speaker 1: first disciples of Jesus. But Andrew didn't stop there. Andrew,
- 13:22Speaker 1: even though John went on to write epistles, even though
- 13:25Speaker 1: John went on to write his Gospel, even though John
- 13:28Speaker 1: went on to write the Book of Revelation, Andrew did
- 13:31Speaker 1: none of that. But he did something equally important. He
- 13:34Speaker 1: went and he found his brother. The scripture says he
- 13:40Speaker 1: took his brother to meet Jesus. Who was that brother Peter.
- 13:48Speaker 1: Peter would go on to preach the First Gospel sermon.
- 13:51Speaker 1: Peter would go on to lead the Jerusalem Church. Peter
- 13:55Speaker 1: would go on to be a minister to the Gentiles.
- 13:59Speaker 1: Peter would in the Apostle Paul. Peter would become a
- 14:03Speaker 1: great proclaimer of grace. Any of us who appreciate the
- 14:08Speaker 1: grace of Christ can appreciate Peter. But any of us
- 14:14Speaker 1: who are indebted to Peter are really indebted to whom Andrew,
- 14:20Speaker 1: Because in the sovereign linkage of chain links, Andrew is
- 14:26Speaker 1: right there, the quiet servant who brought his brother to
- 14:32Speaker 1: meet Jesus, just a servant like Mary, Mary, the mother
- 14:40Speaker 1: of Jesus. We think of Mary, and we think mother
- 14:44Speaker 1: of Jesus, but really Scripture. When Scripture refers to Mary,
- 14:48Speaker 1: Mary refers is referred to as the servant, the servant
- 14:52Speaker 1: of God. What's most impressive about Mary is her unimpressive resume.
- 15:02Speaker 1: Were you to meet Mary before she was the mother
- 15:05Speaker 1: of Jesus, you wouldn't ask her about her jewelry. You
- 15:10Speaker 1: wouldn't be impressed with the house in which she lived.
- 15:13Speaker 1: You wouldn't be intimidated by her bloodline or her ancestry.
- 15:20Speaker 1: The most extraordinary thing about Mary was her ordinariness. On
- 15:28Speaker 1: the social ladder of her day, Mary held to the
- 15:31Speaker 1: lowest rung. Since she was female, she was subservient to
- 15:39Speaker 1: the males. Since she was a younger woman, she responded
- 15:44Speaker 1: her answer to the older women. And since she was
- 15:47Speaker 1: a younger woman of poor economic status, she was in
- 15:54Speaker 1: the lower class, not the upper class. And since she
- 15:57Speaker 1: was in the lower class, out in the podunk town
- 15:59Speaker 1: of Nazareth, out in the outskirts, you'd find it'd be
- 16:07Speaker 1: hard pressed to find anyone on the planet further down
- 16:12Speaker 1: the pecking order than Mary. Of all the people in
- 16:17Speaker 1: the world, of all the women in any generation that
- 16:21Speaker 1: God could have used to be the mother to Jesus,
- 16:27Speaker 1: why did he choose Mary. The only possible answer we
- 16:34Speaker 1: are given comes from the words of Mary herself, who said,
- 16:40Speaker 1: I'm the servant of the Lord. May it be, or
- 16:45Speaker 1: let this happen to me? As you say. You know,
- 16:50Speaker 1: when God wants to bring Christ into the world, he
- 16:53Speaker 1: looks for servants. Your pedigree doesn't matter, No diploma is required.
- 17:01Speaker 1: Heaven doesn't check your bank account. God just looks for servants.
- 17:09Speaker 1: So let all simple people be encouraged. God can use
- 17:13Speaker 1: someone just like you. Let all proud people be cautioned.
- 17:20Speaker 1: God would correct someone like you. At least he did
- 17:26Speaker 1: correct James and John when the mother of James and
- 17:30Speaker 1: John came with this outlandish request Matthew twenty, Verses twenty
- 17:37Speaker 1: and twenty one. Then the mother of Zebede's sons, that's
- 17:42Speaker 1: James and John, came to Jesus with her sons, kneeling
- 17:48Speaker 1: down and asking something from him. And he said to her,
- 17:52Speaker 1: what do you wish? She said to him, grant that
- 17:56Speaker 1: these two sons may sit, one on your right hand
- 17:59Speaker 1: and the other on your left in your kingdom. Do
- 18:03Speaker 1: you ever think the disciples just quit listening to Jesus?
- 18:07Speaker 1: This is Matthew Chapter twenty Matthew Chapter nineteen and verse
- 18:11Speaker 1: twenty are dedicated to the theme of humility. Jesus begins
- 18:17Speaker 1: Matthew nineteen by telling people imitate children and their humility.
- 18:23Speaker 1: Then he talks to the rich young ruler and tells
- 18:25Speaker 1: the rich young ruler to quit trusting riches and to
- 18:27Speaker 1: trust him. And then at the end of Matthew chapter twenty,
- 18:33Speaker 1: he says the last will be first and the first
- 18:36Speaker 1: will be last. Then he predicts his own death Beryl
- 18:38Speaker 1: and resurrection for the third time. But do any of
- 18:41Speaker 1: the disciples come up and say, Jesus, tell us about
- 18:44Speaker 1: humility or tell us about your death Beryl in resurrection. No,
- 18:49Speaker 1: just goes over their heads. What happens is the mother
- 18:54Speaker 1: of Jesus, I'm sorry. The mother of James and John
- 18:58Speaker 1: approaches Jesus with this request. Oh as, Jesus says, you
- 19:01Speaker 1: don't know what you're asking. He says that to James
- 19:03Speaker 1: and John. James and John say, oh, yes, we do.
- 19:07Speaker 1: They say, we really want to be on the right
- 19:10Speaker 1: hand and on the left hand. It's not enough that
- 19:12Speaker 1: their apostles. It's not enough that they've seen miracles. It's
- 19:15Speaker 1: not enough that they were in the Inner circle and
- 19:18Speaker 1: witness Jesus on the amount of transfiguration. It's not enough
- 19:25Speaker 1: that they've had the privileges that they've had. They want more.
- 19:29Speaker 1: They want mount rushmore, to have the face of Jesus,
- 19:33Speaker 1: and then the face of James, and then the face
- 19:35Speaker 1: of John. They just want more credit. Spiritual ambition always does.
- 19:45Speaker 1: Spiritual ambition always wants more applause, more titles or recognition,
- 19:52Speaker 1: more rewards. And so Christ firmly corrects them and us
- 20:01Speaker 1: by giving them and us this the principle, the principle
- 20:07Speaker 1: a servanthood. He says, it shall not be so among you.
- 20:10Speaker 1: But whoever desires to become great among you, let him
- 20:13Speaker 1: be your servant. And whoever desires to be first among you,
- 20:19Speaker 1: let him be your slave. Just as the son of
- 20:21Speaker 1: Man did not come to be served, but to serve,
- 20:24Speaker 1: and to give his life as a ransom for many,
- 20:26Speaker 1: let these words be chiseled over the entry way to
- 20:29Speaker 1: every church. The son of Man did not come to
- 20:34Speaker 1: be served, but to serve. Jesus was called and content
- 20:39Speaker 1: to be called a servant. What relief, Oh, we don't
- 20:44Speaker 1: have to win everybody's approval. We don't have to climb
- 20:46Speaker 1: to the top of any lighter we are hereby released
- 20:50Speaker 1: from the rat race of humanity. We don't have to
- 20:54Speaker 1: get to the top. If you want to be like Jesus,
- 20:58Speaker 1: there's plenty of room at the lord level. Just be
- 21:02Speaker 1: a servant. Whoever wants to be like Jesus, let him
- 21:04Speaker 1: become a servant. Let him become like Andrew, let him
- 21:08Speaker 1: become like Mary, Let him be like Jesus. Jesus didn't
- 21:12Speaker 1: carry a business card, I don't think, But had he
- 21:16Speaker 1: carried one, that would have said Jesus Christ, servant of humanity.
- 21:23Speaker 1: What if you took that role in your house, servant
- 21:29Speaker 1: of the household, that's me servant. What if you took
- 21:34Speaker 1: that role at church or at your work. What if
- 21:39Speaker 1: your main goal every day when you woke up and
- 21:41Speaker 1: went on to the school campus was who can I
- 21:43Speaker 1: serve today? What would that look like? How does that
- 21:50Speaker 1: change the way we live? Well? A couple of interesting
- 21:53Speaker 1: points come out of this verse. Let's look at the
- 21:57Speaker 1: practice of servanthood. What does a servant do? How does
- 22:02Speaker 1: a servant behave? Well? First of all, servants shift their expectations.
- 22:08Speaker 1: They shift their expectations. The son of men did not
- 22:12Speaker 1: come to be served, but to serve, So Jesus did
- 22:16Speaker 1: not come with the expectation that anyone was going to
- 22:20Speaker 1: serve him. Hello. A servant shifts his or her expectations.
- 22:28Speaker 1: They wake up every day not assuming that they're going
- 22:30Speaker 1: to be served, but seeking opportunities to serve. Once upon
- 22:35Speaker 1: a time, there were two men, a man by the
- 22:39Speaker 1: name of Mo and a man by the name of Joe.
- 22:44Speaker 1: Mo loved to be served. Joe loved to serve. And
- 22:51Speaker 1: when you contrast their two lives, what a difference you see.
- 22:56Speaker 1: Moe woke up every day thinking, who's going to serve me,
- 23:00Speaker 1: Who's going to bring me some coffee, who's going to
- 23:05Speaker 1: take care of me, who's going to notice me, who's
- 23:09Speaker 1: going to applaud me. Moe had high expectations. Moe expected
- 23:17Speaker 1: everyone in the traffic to move out of his way.
- 23:21Speaker 1: Moe expected every flight to be on time for him.
- 23:26Speaker 1: Moe expected the restaurant to give him the best table.
- 23:29Speaker 1: Moe expected the parking lot attended to remember his name.
- 23:33Speaker 1: Mo expected everyone at work to cater to his plans,
- 23:36Speaker 1: and if anybody asked too much, Moe was not very happy.
- 23:41Speaker 1: In fact, Moe often went to bed at night grumpy
- 23:49Speaker 1: because his goal was to be served, and since his
- 23:54Speaker 1: goal depended upon other people serving him and he couldn't
- 23:58Speaker 1: control that, he often felt like he had had a
- 24:03Speaker 1: poor day. Moe expected to be applauded, to be recognized,
- 24:09Speaker 1: to be acknowledged, to be rewarded, and he was never acknowledged, recognized,
- 24:15Speaker 1: or rewarded enough. That's why Moe's name and the word
- 24:22Speaker 1: miserable start with the same letter. Moe was miserable. Joe
- 24:29Speaker 1: had a different approach. That's why Joe's name and the
- 24:35Speaker 1: word joy start with the same letter. Because the first
- 24:40Speaker 1: thought Joe had every day when he woke up was
- 24:42Speaker 1: who can I serve today? He served his spouse coffee,
- 24:48Speaker 1: He served his kids with kindness. Now when he drove
- 24:52Speaker 1: to the convenience store, didn't bother him. If the clerk
- 24:55Speaker 1: was cranky, he wasn't there for her to serve him.
- 24:57Speaker 1: He was there to serve her. Traffic bad, that's okay.
- 25:01Speaker 1: He'll get out of the way and serve people, just
- 25:03Speaker 1: another opportunity to serve. Didn't bother him. If the weather
- 25:08Speaker 1: was messy or the flights were backed up. The world
- 25:10Speaker 1: didn't exist to serve him. He existed to serve them.
- 25:13Speaker 1: Parking lot attendant doesn't know his name, doesn't even cross
- 25:16Speaker 1: his mind. He's trying to learn the parking a lot
- 25:18Speaker 1: of attendant's name. The guys at work need help. Good.
- 25:23Speaker 1: That's what I'm here to do, he thinks. And at
- 25:28Speaker 1: night he wouldn't go to bed thinking, Wow, what a
- 25:31Speaker 1: wildly successful day I've had. I was able to serve
- 25:38Speaker 1: all day long. Moe was always miserable. Joe was always joyful.
- 25:49Speaker 1: Why because if you make your happiness depending upon the
- 25:54Speaker 1: way other people treat you, you're always going to be disappointed.
- 25:59Speaker 1: But if you take the initiative and say no, I'm
- 26:02Speaker 1: going to be the one who serves first, you're gonna
- 26:04Speaker 1: be like Jesus and you're gonna find the secret to
- 26:08Speaker 1: Joe to joy. So my question to you is, are
- 26:12Speaker 1: you more a mo or a Joe? Maybe you're a
- 26:18Speaker 1: Mojo somewhere in between. The secret to joy is giving
- 26:32Speaker 1: it away. So few people get this that we wonder
- 26:39Speaker 1: why more don't. But the happiest people are those who
- 26:45Speaker 1: have the fewest expectations, because those people are never disappointed.
- 26:53Speaker 1: Shift your expectations and then something else. Jesus teaches us
- 26:58Speaker 1: here that servants do Servants not only shift their expectations.
- 27:04Speaker 1: Servants know their unique assignments. They know their unique assignments.
- 27:09Speaker 1: The son of Man did not come to be served,
- 27:11Speaker 1: but to serve. And look at this and to give
- 27:13Speaker 1: his life as a ransom for many. That was a
- 27:16Speaker 1: unique assignment to Jesus Christ. I couldn't do that. You
- 27:19Speaker 1: couldn't do that. The only one who could do that
- 27:22Speaker 1: was Jesus Christ. He did what was uniquely assigned to him.
- 27:26Speaker 1: Don't think that a life of servanthood is a life
- 27:28Speaker 1: with no definition, a life that just moves haphazardly, randomly
- 27:33Speaker 1: from whatever needs to be done to whatever needs to
- 27:36Speaker 1: be done. A life of a servant says, now, what
- 27:39Speaker 1: is my unique role? What can I do best? And
- 27:43Speaker 1: where can I do it the most? How can I
- 27:45Speaker 1: serve most efficiently? The apostle Peter said, if anyone ministers,
- 27:51Speaker 1: let him do it with the ability with which God supplies,
- 27:56Speaker 1: that in all things God may be glorified through Gesiusjesus Christ,
- 28:02Speaker 1: at the end of his life, there were still hungry
- 28:04Speaker 1: people to feed, there were still sick people, there were
- 28:07Speaker 1: still lonely people. Yet at the end of his life
- 28:10Speaker 1: Jesus said, it is finished. What was finished well, the
- 28:16Speaker 1: unique assignment given to Jesus was finished, the assignment of
- 28:21Speaker 1: serving as ransom or the redeemer of the world. What's
- 28:24Speaker 1: your unique assignment? You see, to be a servant is
- 28:28Speaker 1: not a title, it's an attitude. You can still be
- 28:32Speaker 1: the CEO, but be the CEO with a servant's attitude.
- 28:36Speaker 1: You can still be a general, a four star general.
- 28:38Speaker 1: Who wouldn't want a four star general who had a
- 28:40Speaker 1: servant's attitude. You can still be the coach, you can
- 28:44Speaker 1: still be the quarterback, you can be the leader, but
- 28:46Speaker 1: you can be that with a servant's spirit. So what
- 28:50Speaker 1: is your unique assignment? Determine that. Couple that with a
- 28:57Speaker 1: servant's attitude, and you've got the combination the dosage of
- 29:02Speaker 1: a life like Christ. In post World War II, much
- 29:08Speaker 1: of Europe was decimated by the bombings. The social structures
- 29:14Speaker 1: of the major cities were undone. They simply didn't have
- 29:18Speaker 1: the capacity to take care of the families that were
- 29:21Speaker 1: in need. As a result, many orphans roamed the large
- 29:25Speaker 1: streets of Paris, in Berlin and London. An American soldier
- 29:33Speaker 1: came across an orphan on the streets of London in
- 29:36Speaker 1: the days after World War II, he was walking down
- 29:40Speaker 1: the street, walking through all the rubble of the bombed buildings,
- 29:45Speaker 1: when he noticed a young boy, maybe eight or nine
- 29:48Speaker 1: years of age, disheveled and dirty, standing in front of
- 29:52Speaker 1: the window of a bakery. Over the boy's shoulder, the
- 29:56Speaker 1: soldier could see inside the bakery, and he could see
- 29:59Speaker 1: the baker and eating the dough that was about to
- 30:02Speaker 1: be turned into donuts, and the soldier could almost hear
- 30:07Speaker 1: the boy's lips smacking. He went up and stood next
- 30:12Speaker 1: to the boy and said, son, would you like one
- 30:15Speaker 1: of those? And the boy looked up at the soldier
- 30:19Speaker 1: and said would I Ever, so the soldier went inside
- 30:23Speaker 1: and he bought a dozen donuts, put him in a box,
- 30:27Speaker 1: brought him out, and gave the box to the little boy,
- 30:31Speaker 1: and he turned to leave, and the little boy came
- 30:34Speaker 1: up behind him and tugged on the soldier's jacket. The
- 30:39Speaker 1: soldier turned around, and the boy looked up at the
- 30:41Speaker 1: soldier and said, sir, are you God? May we serve
- 30:50Speaker 1: in such a way that little ten year old boys
- 30:54Speaker 1: and Bible classes get to hear about God. And may
- 30:58Speaker 1: we serve in such a way that that people look
- 31:02Speaker 1: at us and wonder if they've seen the presence of God. Amen,
- 31:08Speaker 1: thank you Lord. May we do that Father. May we
- 31:11Speaker 1: be the kind of people who bring the presence of
- 31:14Speaker 1: God into every circumstance in which we live. Forgive us,
- 31:19Speaker 1: forgive me for expecting to be served. We resign from
- 31:24Speaker 1: that role, and we volunteer to be a servant. We
- 31:28Speaker 1: volunteer to be like Jesus, to lead lives in which
- 31:33Speaker 1: we seek to serve and not be served. And granted
- 31:38Speaker 1: this week, we can make people happy as we serve them,
- 31:42Speaker 1: and we know in doing so, we'll make ourselves happy
- 31:45Speaker 1: as well. Through Christ, we pray, and all the church said, Amen, Amen,
- 32:08Speaker 1: a A, I think.
- 32:32Speaker 2: I am.
- 34:35Speaker 3: I'll be all right. You don't have to stay if
- 34:43Speaker 3: you've already chosen. I won't stand in your way. I
- 34:51Speaker 3: can feel it in your distance and the way you
- 34:55Speaker 3: barely speak, like your heart is somewhere now, somewhere I
- 35:03Speaker 3: can't reach.
- 35:05Speaker 1: I was strange just to hold us.
- 35:09Speaker 4: Why are you slowly slipped away?
- 35:13Speaker 1: Now?
- 35:13Speaker 3: I'm gonna left with all the silence.
- 35:17Speaker 1: You didn't want to say. Maybe I just held long
- 35:28Speaker 1: to something already gone. I'll be fine.
- 35:36Speaker 4: You can't leave. You don't hold me anything.
- 35:42Speaker 1: If your heart is found.
- 35:44Speaker 4: Louise, how up we used to be? How be fine?
- 35:51Speaker 4: Don't look back? How survived this empty space?
- 35:57Speaker 1: Not tonight?
- 35:58Speaker 3: Maybe not soon?
- 36:00Speaker 1: But hollor.
- 36:03Speaker 3: To be okay. We don't need to fake the feeling.
- 36:12Speaker 3: I can see it in your eyes. There's no reason
- 36:16Speaker 3: left the stand when the.
- 36:19Speaker 1: Love already died.
- 36:24Speaker 3: Through the quiet and your voice.
- 36:32Speaker 2: I can hear your joy.
- 36:38Speaker 1: Be fine.
- 36:39Speaker 4: You can't leave. You don't know me anything?
- 36:45Speaker 1: If your heart has found no?
- 36:48Speaker 4: How do what we used to be? Be fine?
- 36:54Speaker 1: Don't look back?
- 36:56Speaker 4: How survived this empty space?
- 37:00Speaker 1: Not tonight baby, not so, but I'll learn to be okay.
- 37:08Speaker 1: I don't need a reason why. I can see it
- 37:13Speaker 1: in goodbye and it breaks me in Dutch. But I
- 37:19Speaker 1: won't ask you to stay.
- 37:25Speaker 4: I'll be fine. You, Kelly, you don't don't know me anything.
- 37:33Speaker 4: Give your artist found way? How do what we s
- 37:39Speaker 4: to be?
- 37:40Speaker 2: Have?
- 37:40Speaker 4: Be fine?
- 37:42Speaker 1: Don't look back?
- 37:44Speaker 4: How survi have is sempty space? Not to night baby?
- 37:50Speaker 1: Not soon?
- 37:51Speaker 4: But I'll learn to be okay.
- 38:02Speaker 3: I'll be all right,