Faith Expressed…Serve (Revelation 2:19)

I know your deeds, your love and faith, your service and perseverance, and that you are now doing more than you did at first. – Revelation 2:19

Introduction
These past couple of weeks, we’ve been talking about church: How, at Cornerstone, our faith is expressed when we love, serve and give.

Do churches need purpose statements? Is it even worth the effort? Now I know that most of you have so much spare time that you sit around on your lounge chairs thinking about church. It dominates your thoughts, right? Or maybe church dominates all of two hours of your week. When you stop by the gas station tomorrow and the gas station attendant asks you, “So, what did you do this weekend?” Do you say, “Oh nothing.” or do you say, “I had a fantastic time at church!”

Hey, you know, that’s ok. What’s important about the church is not the church: it is the God of the church. We don’t come here on Sunday mornings to celebrate us! We come here to celebrate God together; to worship together; to marvel together at His goodness and how He changes our lives. It is not about us and if it ever becomes about us we will spoil it.

In the first week, Pastor Henry talked about our faith. It is our faith—our trust—in God which gives us that bedrock of security that allows us to take risks; to experiment; to live the life of freedom that comes, not from throwing off all restraint, but from finding the right master. You’ve gotta serve somebody. Put your faith in the wrong place, and you will be disappointed. Put your faith, in the wrong place and your enthusiasm can carry you for a little while, just like the sugar pill can make you think you are all better. Put your faith in God and he gives you his guarantee that, in the end, you will be with him forever. Better than FDIC insured, baby.

That’s a powerful motivator.

Then, last week, Pastor Henry talked to us about how our faith motivates us to love. Colossians 1:4-5:

…because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all the saints—the faith and love that spring from the hope that is stored up for you in heaven and that you have already heard about in the word of truth, the gospel. – Colossians 1:4-5

We got the message! The good news. God will never love you more than he loves you today. God will never love you less than he loves you today. That certainty-that bedrock certainty-is what we need to love. Because out of the overflow of God’s love we can be lavishly generous with our love. That love expresses itself in so many ways: patience, kind, helpfulness, selflessness and helpfulness.

I went to the notary the other day for a travel authorization so that they would let Helen, my wife, out of the country by herself with my daughter. They checked my driver’s license and I had to sign in their presence and then put my thumbprint in their book. That thumbprint is not me, it is just the recording of the ridges on my finger. But it sure shows I was probably there. Likewise your love is the imprint of your faith on your day to day life. It isn’t your faith, but it sure shows that the heart of faith is really there.

When Adam Smith wrote the book The Wealth of Nations, he laid down the foundations of what we know as capitalism. Rather than depending on the goodness of people, capitalism laid down a system to harness greed. Essentially, if you put a bunch of greedy people in a room, they generally beat each other up enough to give a fair market economy. Except for monopolies and bailouts and small stuff like that.

Well that sort of greed can be found in the spiritual world. Spiritual greed takes the sun moon and stars out of their normal trajectories and places them in orbit around the capital I. But Jesus was one step ahead of us in our self-centered spiritual astronomy, when he said:

Instead, whoever wants to become great among you (dot. dot. dot) - Mark 10:43

Oooh! Oooh! I want somma’ that! Well, get in line because I saw this verse first!

We have corrupted faith. We read in the newspaper or People magazine about how someone’s faith got them through the tough times. No, God got them through the tough times. Faith is not about us, it is about God.

We have corrupted love. “Love your neighbor as yourself” with the accent on the “self” Love is patient: look how much I have to put up with you! Love is kind: look how I bit my tongue when you were talking. Love is not about us, it is about the beloved.

We would like to be spiritual superstars. We would like miracles to shooting from our fingertips, people in
awe of the words which drip from our lips, the spotlight of heaven tracking our every move, a shower instead of a bathtub because we always walk on water. Cele-bri-ty!

My step-mother Barbara is a hard-working volunteer down in San Benito County, where she works on everything from elder care, to raising money for the hospital and fitness and nutrition for minority children . A few years ago, she was nominated for “Volunteer of the Year” But the catch was, she had to write out an essay describing why she should win. Self-promotion is everywhere, even for volunteers.

But Jesus said:

Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant. – Mark 10:43b

If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last and the servant of all. – Mark 9:35b

Wait, Jesus, don’t you know that unless you are the lead dog, the view never changes? Wait, Jesus, I’ve got the killer testimony. Wait, Jesus, I’ve got the guitar riffs of Eddie Van Halen. Wait, Jesus, I can teach like Billie Graham. You don’t really want me to go to the back of the line, do you?

There is greatness in God’s kingdom. There is power in God’s kingdom. There is wisdom in God’s kingdom. But it comes to the servants. Higher than “king” or CEO or Ph.D, the people of God delight to be called servant (deacon) and messenger (apostle) That’s what Jesus called himself, and Pau and Peter and James and Timothy. How about you?

The first thing servants do is

Adopt God’s Agenda
There will be no progress for you spiritually if you insist on your agenda for life. In the book of Mark, chapter 10, Jesus has just told his group of followers-his disciples-that whatever they gave up for God would be repaid when Jesus came into his kingdom. We pick up the story a few verses later in verse 35:

 

Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to him. "Teacher," they said, "we want you to do for us whatever we ask." "What do you want me to do for you?" he asked. They replied, "Let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left in your glory." - Mark 10:35-37

Jesus, we’ve got it all figured out. When you come into your kingdom, there are going to be some choice cabinet appointments available and we figured, since we’ve been with you pretty much since the beginning, you kinda’ owe us.

They had a plan, but it wasn’t God’s plan. Servants don’t set the agenda; they follow their master’s agenda-God’s agenda.

What do I desire to do most? What do you desire most in life? To get married? To be financially independent; to make a million? To retire? To make my mark on the world? You had better have a greater purpose in your life than any of those or you're going to miss the boat. They're fine, they're good -- but they're not the purpose of life.

Service is saying: I want to do what God wants more than anything else. You've got to say, "I want God's plan for my life." God has a plan for you, but it's not automatic. God made you for a purpose but you could miss that purpose. These are the best days of your life…if you will let go of your dreams and hopes and desires and grab on to all that God made you for. Are you ready to say: "God, I really want You first in my life and I want to be what You made me to be?"

We would like for God to be the cosmic vending machine: put in a couple of good Sunday’s and you get a pay raise. Put in a year of good Sunday’s, tithe and help in the nursery, you get a new car. Throw in working at the rescue mission, adopt two foster children, dig out the church sewer line and you get a happy in-laws.

That’s what James and John were trying. But they didn’t get it. We don’t set the agenda.

For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. – Ephesians 2:10

So, how do I know God’s agenda?

1. Do What You Know. There are hundreds of choices in front of you this week. Other people have their agenda for you. Your selfish self has its agenda for you. God’s agenda often consists of taking what God has already taught you and actually using it.
2. Do What God Is Doing. If you look around and see God is active that is your invitation to join him. You know God is active when peoples’ lives are being changed (John 15:8), when there is a unity of purpose (John 17:23) and when people are caring for each other (John 13:35).

Sometimes you and I have our agenda and when God or another person is slow to respond, we decide that we’ll just go ahead. Or we start to ratchet up the pressure, twist their arm, manipulate the outcome. People start looking like cars going 45 miles-an-hour on the highway. We want to switch lanes and pass them and get to our destination, but they are the ones who just saw the glorious sunset God prepared. It is not our plan; it is not our agenda; it is not our timetable; it is God’s. Servants adopt God’s agenda.

Next, servants have to:

Adopt A Learner’s Attitude
Jesus listened to the request of James and John. Now look at what happens next:

"You don't know what you are asking," Jesus said. "Can you drink the cup I drink or be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with?" "We can," they answered. Jesus said to them, "You will drink the cup I drink and be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with, but to sit at my right or left is not for me to grant. These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared." - Mark 10:38-40

You don’t know what you are asking. James and John thought they knew what they were getting into. Jesus was going to establish his kingdom and they wanted to share in the glory. But they didn’t know that the ‘cup’ and the ‘baptism’ that Jesus referred to was the shame and agony of the cross.

As servants, we need to be humble about what we know. Humility is the posture of learning. Pride is the posture of ignorance. There is so much that God can teach us; there is so much that our brothers and sisters can teach us if we are willing to learn; if we are willing to set aside our ideas long enough to be enriched by theirs. Not one of us has the full wisdom of God. Not me. Not you. If that were the case, you’d be sitting here in the church of the Holy Timothy. God forbid! No, God has parceled it out among all the saints.

God’s purpose in all this was to use the church to display his wisdom in its rich variety to all the unseen rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. – Ephesians 3:10

Some people would like to tell God how things ought to be. We are surprised when God doesn’t seem to agree with us on key points. We keep waiting for Him to come around to our point of view. We would like a set of rules because rules mean loopholes (just ask your kids). We would like to pick and choose the rules so that our faults are virtues and our pet peeves are sins. We would like it to be God said it, I believe it, that settles it, but it really is “God said it, that settles it. I’d better believe it.”

So how do I adopt a learner’s attitude?

1. Shut Up and Listen To God. He has something to teach you. Can you give him 15 minutes of your undivided attention tomorrow? Open up the Bible, pray to him, think about what he was teaching you through yesterday.
2. Shut Up and Listen To God’s Saints. We…no I am so quick to talk and give my opinion. You are talking and I’m already composing my reply. But every moment my mouth is open is a chance for me to insert my foot. Every moment my mouth is open, I am not paying attention to the voice of God speaking through you.
3. Hang Around Some Saints. I have found that some of the most valuable lessons I have learned from God has not been during the Bible study discussion, but over the dinner table or at the basketball game. It takes time. Watching and sharing and learning how God and their life mix teaches me. There are tears. There is laughter. There is encouragement.

You need to adopt God’s agenda. You need to adopt a learner’s attitude. And then you need to:

Adopt A Build-Up Strategy
Let’s follow the story a little further.

When the ten heard about this, they became indignant with James and John. Jesus called them together and said, "You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. – Mark 10:35-43a

You bet the ten other disciples were a little ticked off. Jesus just finished with one of his most challenging sermons; they are trying to figure it out; James and John try to sneak in a little face time with Jesus, and grab the top two spots in the kingdom! How about you? Ever get upset at people who are always trying to find an angle? Kissing up to the boss, taking extra credit when it’s not theirs, sneaking into your lane at the last moment, cutting in line; shallow apologies for their rude behavior?

Jesus calls a timeout—tells them to huddle up—right there on the road to Jerusalem, and tells them, in effect, “Do you really like the way that the Romans; these foreign pagan invaders run the country and abuse their power? Then why are you trying to imitate them? Are Herod and Caesar and his cronies really the model for leadership?” Is it your goal, when you grow up, to be just like the boss you complain about?

Jesus knew that we would be tempted to take their standards, so he says: “Not so with you!”

The world’s strategy is that is a top-down, push-down strategy. It is a pyramid scheme. Look at what Jesus says:

"You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them.

You have the low-level officials and they report to somebody. And they report to someone else and so on, up to the top. You have to admit, the view from the top of the pyramid looks pretty good.[1] But to get there, you climb over other people and push them down. Like a game of King of the Mountain, you find that maintaining your spot at the top is precarious because someone can trip you up and it’s a long way down. When you finally do reach the top, you find that God is already established there and he doesn’t share glory with anyone.

Jesus says, “Not so with you!” The kingdom of God, the church is different. Our strategy, the strategy of the servant, is the bottom-up, build-up strategy. Rather than fighting our way to the top, we lift up someone else to the top. We make them look good, we support what they are doing, we bind up their wounds; we put ourselves at their service. And they do the same for us. By serving each other, we all succeed. We all become “great”, not by serving ourselves, but by serving each other to greatness.

Now some of you are saying: This sounds a lot like “You scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours.” No! The way of the gospel; the way of the servant is: “I’ll scratch your back. Period.” We are all servants of the same Master. We, the people of God, cannot afford to emulate the model of leadership and authority derived from the latest business self-help fad. A recent article in Christianity Today called it “The Leadership Cult”[2]
In the book of John, Jesus took the bowl and the towel and washed his disciples’ feet like a slave would.

Then he told them:

"You call me 'Teacher' and 'Lord,' and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another's feet. – John 13:13-14

We have different jobs; God has gifted us differently; but servants don’t have dignity. We can’t use our position or job description or title as an excuse. Jesus had and has every title and honor God could bestow, but he became a servant; to lift us up. We do the same.

First, servants adopt God’s agenda. Second, servants adopt a learner’s attitude. Third, servants follow a build-up strategy and, finally, servants…

Adopt Second Place To Be First

Not so with you! Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. - Mark 10:43-45

Henry Pearce of Australia was competing in the single scull rowing event at the 1928 Olympics. He was leading when a duck and her string of ducklings came into view up ahead. They were on a collision course and Pearce reckoned that his scull would cut the string in two and sink a few ducklings in the process, so he pulled in his oars. When the ducks passed, Pearce again bent his back to the task. There’s a happy ending to the story. Pearce won.

Usually, acts of sportsmanship result in defeat. Remember Leo Durocher’s pronouncement, “Nice guys finish last”?

It happened a couple of years ago in the marathon tandem kayak racing event at the world championships in Copenhagen. Danish paddlers were leading when their rudder was damaged in a portage. British paddlers, who were in second place, stopped to help the Danes fix it. The Danes went on to defeat the British by one second in an event that lasted nearly three hours.

But there’s a happy ending to this story too. According to The Wall Street Journal, the British kayakers won what many people regard as the highest honor in sports. They became the winner of the Pierre de Coubertin International Fair Play Trophy. The trophy is named for the founder of the modern Olympic Games, and it has been awarded annually for the past 28 years to people in sports who have demonstrated nobility of spirit.

It is big news in Europe, but it has not been given much recognition in the United States.

In the past, the trophy has gone to a Hungarian tennis player who pleaded with officials to give his opponent more time to recover from a cramp, and to a high school basketball coach who forfeited the Georgia (US) state championship after he found out that one of his players was scholastically ineligible. The first trophy went to an Italian bobsledder named Eugenio Monti for a gesture that exhibited a touch of class. In the two-man bobsled event at the 1964 Innsbruck Olympics, Monti was the leader after his final run. The only one given a chance to beat him was Tony Nash of Great Britain. As Nash and his teammate got ready for their final run, they discovered that a critical bolt on their sled had snapped at the last moment. Monti was informed of the problem and immediately took the corresponding bolt from his own sled and sent it up to Nash. Nash fixed his sled, came hurtling down the course to set a record and won the gold medal. [3]

Servants don’t need first place. They need to give away first place. Even Jesus did it. He came to serve.

Philippians 2:6 (NLT) says: “Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave…”

Conclusion
Leadership seminars are all the rage these days. Even Disney has gotten into the act with the Disney Institute — Their web site says it "Highlighting the vision and ideals of Walt Disney, Disney Institute is a recognized leader in experiential training, leadership development. …" I’m sorry, but I’m not going to Mickey, I’m going to Jesus

Maybe you’ve never gone to Jesus. You’ve tried life yourself and you failed. Jesus said he came to serve and pay the ransom for you, to buy you back and give you a life of significance; a life of service.

Maybe you are tired and the thought of service seems overwhelming, because you barely make it through as it is. God can provide the resources. Paul said, “That’s why I work and struggle so hard, depending on Christ’s mighty power that works within me.” (Colossians 1:29, NLT)

I don't know how to say it any clearer, but I come here week after week and I know so many of you. Many of you have enormous spiritual potential, you just don't see it. I can see it. God can see it. You have enormous spiritual potential. God has gifted you and talented you and given you health and freedom, a sharp mind and an education and talents and abilities. He doesn't mean for you to just use them on yourself. One day you will stand before God and He will say, "What did you do with what I gave you?"

Are you willing to be used by God? To say "God, anytime, anywhere, any place, use me. Whatever it means. If it means putting my agenda, my goals, my dreams, my plans, my financial package all on a line -- go ahead. I cannot stand another day without being in Your will completely."

But it starts with a desire. It's as if I were to hold your head under water until you were gasping for breath and with the last ounce of energy you sprung up against me to force yourself up so you could breathe. That's the kind of desire you've got to have.

I can't go on another day without saying, Jesus Christ, own me completely and make me what You made me to be in the first place. I'm willing to give up whatever it takes to give up to be the person I was designed to be in the first place.

Does that scare you? The secret of overcoming the fear of the unknown is by focusing on what you do know. What do we know? We know God loves you, God says you matter to Him, God has your best interest at heart, He cares about you and He knows what will make you happy more than you do. That I know for sure. So I don't have any problems trusting a God I know is like that.