Mark chapter 10, we're gonna look at verse 35, Mark 10, 35. Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to him, saying, teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask. And he said to them, what do you want me to do for you? They said to him, grant us that we may sit, one at your right hand and the other on your left in your glory.
But Jesus said to them, you do not know what you ask. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with? And 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 that I am baptized with, you will be baptized. But to sit on my right hand and on my left is not mine to give, but it is for those for whom it is prepared. And when the 10 heard it, they began to be greatly displeased with James and John. But Jesus called them to himself and said to them, you know that those who are considered rulers over the Gentiles and lorded over to them, and they're great ones exercise authority over them.
Yet it shall not be so among you, but whoever desires to be come great to among you shall be your servant. And whoever of you desires to be first shall be slave of all. For even the son of man did not come to be served, but to serve and give his life as a ransom for money. So Jesus lays out this whole scenario.
He deals with this issue of what's going on. And he's like, you want to be great? You want to sit in these seats of power and authority? He said, listen, I did not even come to be served.
I came to serve. Could Jesus have come and might and power and taken authority and looked to everyone to serve him? Could he have done it? Did he have the authority?
Did he have the power? Did he have the position to do such a thing? If anyone ever could have done that, he was the one and he had every right to do it. But that's not why Jesus came.
He told us he came to serve. So I wanna ask you today, why do you come? Why do you come? Why do Christians around the world come to church every week?
Is it to be served or to serve? And this is far above corporately gathering together on Sunday mornings. Jesus didn't just talk about, he came to the synagogue that one day to serve or be served. He's talking about his life, what his purpose was, what his directive was from the Father.
What is our purpose? Why do we come? Why does so many people come to church on a Sunday morning? What do they want or expect?
Some come and they say, serve me a concert. Some come and they say, serve me an inspirational message. Serve me an experience. Serve me some free daycare.
Huh? Don't tell me it doesn't happen. I didn't say here. I didn't say any of these things happen in harvest.
I mean, other churches where they got some issues. Some people say, serve me some attention. Some come and they say, serve me some snacks. But what do they bring with them to serve others?
If everyone only wants to be served, then who is there to do the serving? You know, pastor's been saying it for a long time. You don't have to, but you get to. It's a privilege to be able to come together, to join together, to unite in spirit and in faith.
Go to John chapter 13. John chapter 13, why do we come? Why do we gather together? But why do we do what we do?
What is our charge? What is our purpose? What is the underlying driving motivation of our lives in God? Is it to serve or to be served?
John chapter 13, verse one. Now before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come, that he should depart from this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. And supper being ended, the devil having already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray him, Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands and that he had come from God and was going to God, rose from supper, laid aside his garments, took a towel and girded himself. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with a towel with which he was girded.
Then he said to Simon Peter, it came to Simon Peter, and Peter said to him, Lord, are you washing my feet? And Jesus answered and said to him, what I'm doing, you do not understand now, but you will know after this. Peter said to him, you shall never wash my feet. And Jesus answered and said, if I do not wash you, you have no part in me.
So Simon Peter said to him, Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands in my head. And Jesus said to him, he was bathed only to wash his feet, but is completely clean. And you were clean, but not all of you, for he knew who would betray him. Therefore he said you were not all clean.
And then when he had washed their feet, taken his garments and sat down again, he said to them, do you know what I've done to you? You call me teacher and Lord, and you say well, for so I am. If I then your Lord and teacher had washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example that you should do as I have done for you.
Most assuredly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is he who is sent greater than he who sent him. If you know these things, bless her you if you do them. So Jesus takes on the garments and the station of a servant and washes his disciples feet. Why did he do this?
To teach them a lesson about how great he was and how much God loved them. Well, he said he did it to give them an example. To show them what they should do, how they should serve one another. We have the greatest of masters doing one of the loneliest of tasks.
Jesus could have given all sorts of reasons for this, but he did it to show them that he, even though he's Lord, even though he's their master, was not above serving. So that how could any one of them or us at any point down the road in history, be able to stand up and say, well, I'm too good for that. I'm too good to serve. I'm elevated too high.
My rank is too high. My career is too high. My position in the church is too high. That's beneath me.
Well, Jesus God, as low as you could get, onto the ground, with the water, with the towel, as low as you could get. So how could we ever say something is beneath us when he stooped to the lowest place that one could stoop? He did it so that we could never reach the point where we were boastful and come up in pride or self-centeredness and say, well, I'm too good for that. I'm too good to do this thing.
Well, if the master washed the feet of his disciples, there is nothing that we should ever say, oh, well, that's I'm too good for that. I've come too far. I've come too high. And yet, and yet, believers around the world are recoil at being asked to serve.
Not realizing that being asked is both a privilege and an honor. And in some cases, they should have probably already volunteered, but the request comes graciously. We hear stuff all the time. People are asked things all the time, hey, the people who help get the church clean for service are sick today.
Can you help us vacuum and clean up? Baa, I was going to vacuum. I'd stay home and vacuum my own house. It's dirtier than this one.
What? Are you serious? Or hey, we're short staffed in the nursery. Can you come help today?
Psh, I served in the nursery for years. I've done my time. You've what? You've done your time.
Hey, we need people to help with this outreach. Can you come? Well, sounds like you should hire more people. Should do what?
Shouldn't. Excuse me. Friends, when someone, or when this is happening, when someone offers you a broom in the service of the kingdom of God, they're offering you an opportunity to serve the king of kings, to take part in the most sacred service that ever was. And even beyond that, to gather fruit and reward for eternity.
And sometimes in this life also, to sow here and now, it's an opportunity. And sometimes it's also a test. Go to Luke chapter 19. Luke chapter 19.
David said it like this. He said, I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than to dwell in the tents of the wicked. He said, I'd rather take the loneliest job and be the guy that opens and closes the door than to live in rest and ease and luxury with those that don't know God. And he was on to something.
Luke chapter 19, verse 11. Now as they heard these things, he spoke another parable because he was near Jerusalem and because they thought the kingdom of God would appear immediately. Therefore he said to them, a certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and to return. So he called 10 of his servants, delivered to them 10 menas and said to them, do business till I come.
Now this is very important. He delivered to up 10 servants. He gave them 10 menas. Now I did a little research and from what I could find, a mena was a chunk of metal and where I saw it, they estimated probably between one to two pounds.
The value of that piece of metal depending on where you look at varies. I saw estimates anywhere from $60 to 100 days wages. But the margin of my Bible says 90 days wages, three months wages. So we'll go with that.
And so what's the working wage of a parable? This would have been the salary of someone that works in the field, of a laborer, not somebody who's in a, you know, not a doctor, not someone who is a merchant or a business owner. It would have been most likely a laborer's wage. So we translate that in today's dollars to make the numbers round and easy.
We'll say the average laborer's wage is $40,000. So this would have been maybe around $10,000 worth of today's money. So we call 10 servants, gave each of them $10,000 worth of metal, worth of coin. And he tells them go and do business until I return.
But his citizens hated him and sent a delegation after him saying we do not want this man to reign over us. So it was when he returned having received the kingdom that he commanded these servants to whom he had given the money to be called to him. That he might know how much every man had gained by trading. Then came the first saying, master, your meaner has earned 10 meaners.
I took your $10,000 and 10xed it to $100,000. And the master said to him, well done, good servant, because you were faithful in a very little, have authority over 10 cities. Well now hold on, now hold on. He took one thing of money and turned it into 10 things of money.
His reward was not the 10 things of money. It was to be the ruler over 10 cities. OK, put this in your mind in perspective here. Took $10,000 invested it well, turned it into 100 grand.
You would think in the natural, OK, he should get a piece of that money as his reward. He should get a percentage of the money that he gained as his reward. 10 grand into 100 grand. I don't know what should he get.
10%, 20%, half, whatever. He should get a percentage of what he gained. But now he turns 10 grand into 100 grand. And so the master says, OK, you go ahead and be ruler over Pittsburgh, Harrisburg, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Cleveland, Wheeling, several other cities with him.
That's your reward. This is not just disproportionate compensation. This is unimaginable. OK, how much money is the city of Pittsburgh worth?
Way more than $100,000. There are many cars driving through the city that cost more than $100,000, just one of them. What does a sidewalk cost if you have any idea? For a city block sidewalk, listen, we're talking about, he took almost nothing.
And he's been rewarded with 10 cities. I'll talk more about that in a moment. Then came another. Or then the second came, saying, master, your meaner has earned five meaners.
Likewise, he said to him, you also be over five cities. Then another came, saying, master, here is your meaner, which I have kept put away in a handkerchief. For I feared you, because you were an austere man. You collect what you did not deposit and reap what you did not sow.
And he said to him, out of your own mouth, I will judge you, you wicked servant. You knew that I was an austere man collecting what I did not deposit and reaping what I did not sow. Why then did you not put my money in the bank that at my coming, I might have collected it with interest? He said to those who stood by, take the meaner from him and give it to him who has 10 meaners.
And we might say 10 cities at this point. But they said to him, master, he already has 10 meaners. For I say to you that everyone who has more will be given. And from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away.
There's so many things that are happening right here. He gave each servant the same thing. It was an opportunity. And it was a test.
Those who took it seriously valued it and were diligent received tremendous reward. And those who did not take it seriously, they experienced loss. But now something's going on here beyond what we usually see as the face value of this tremendous parable. This nobleman, he's going to do what again?
What's he leaving to do? Receive a kingdom. He's going to come back with a country that he now rules over. So he's leaving town.
And he's going to come back with a country, not a new business, not a business venture, not some money, not a load of gold from the mines. He's coming back with a country. So he calls 10 of his servants and gives each of them 10 grand and says go and do business. He doesn't need the money.
What's 100 grand when he's going to come back with a country? It's a drop in a bucket so small it evaporate before you even knew it was in there. He doesn't need the money. What's a hundred, if they double a triple at 10 exit, what's a million dollars to somebody who's coming back with a country?
It's nothing. It's nothing. It's insignificant. If he needed the money all this time, he could have just had them doing business for a long time.
It's not about the money. He has no need for the money. What does he need? He's going to come back with a nation, with a country full of cities.
And he's going to need people to lead and govern those cities. This is not a financial decision. He's about the leave town to get a country. He says, all right, who's going to rule this country for me when I get back?
Let's call my top 10 servants, give each of them 10 grand, and send them to go and do business. And when I come back, it'll be a parent who was faithful. It will become a parent who did what I asked them to do. And who is qualified to be the leader of the cities in this new country that I'm coming back with.
So he calls them up. The first one, he goes out. He does business. We don't know what he did.
We don't know if he bought and sold real estate or ox carts or whatever. But he 10 acts that money over some period of time. He was faithful. Another came, and he went.
He did 5 exit. He was faithful. And then the last one comes, and he takes the money and hands it back to the master. Was he faithful?
No, not faithful. But it's not because of what we usually think. In our modern vernacular, the word faithful means something different than it does in the scripture. When we say faithful, we tend to think of someone who is dedicated or diligent.
And while there's some overlap in the definitions, the word faithful in the scriptures is usually primarily meaning something that's a faithful representation. We might say a faithful painting or a faithful copy of something. While that painting looks just like the real scene. That looks just like that.
Someone who's faithful, there's someone who represents whatever the thing that was that sent them accurately. A faithful ambassador represents the nation who sent them, represents the leaders who sent him accurately. Someone who does what they were told to do the way they were told to do it. And so then he said to them, go and do business.
And what amazes me and stood out to me for years, and I never fully grasped it, was he says, why didn't you put it in the bank? Now we got a 10x. We got a 5x. What kind of interest does the bank pay?
What kind of interest do you get in the bank? Well, best rate I could find is about 4%. Ethan, you know of any better rates? I've read around 4%.
And so say the master's gone for a year. He's going to come back to what? 1.04%. But more is more.
Now how much more effort would it have been to put the meaner in the bank versus to wrap it up and hide it somewhere? Would it have been more work to go to the bank? Highly unlikely by the time you wrap it, and you find a place, and you think about it, and you get paranoid and move it to another place, and then you move it to another place, and you're like, somebody might see it there. Let me move it somewhere else.
Very little difference in effort here. But you could have, with a right heart, and a right spirit said, OK, the master said, new business, he's going to come back wanting more money than he left me with. Now I see Steve over here. He's buying broken carts and flipping them to make money.
But I can't do that. I'm not good with my hands. And this guy over here, he's buying real estate, and flipping land, and selling it, and making money. But I don't have my real estate license.
And this guy over here, he's doing this. He's like, what I can do? I'm going to play the market. Interest rates are good.
I'm going to put it in the bank, depending on how long the master's gone, compound interest. That thing will grow some, but it's low risk. Joe might lose all his money on carts. Something might happen.
Somebody might come and steal his carts, whatever. So it's a safer, better, lower risk investment. We'll turn this into a little bit more money for the master. And the master gives us every indication that he would have accepted that course of action.
It wasn't about diligence. It wasn't about dedication. It wasn't about who could move the most stuff the fastest. It was about being faithful.
Being faithful was to turn that money into more money. That was the charge. He decided to do it his own way. I'm just going to hide the money.
I could put it in the bank. But I'm just going to hide it, because that's what I feel like doing. So I'm going to hide the money and make sure I give it back to the master when he comes. But was his charge to hide the money?
Was it to keep it safe and give it back to him when he returns? Know what the master said to do? Do business until I come. So he's got a charge.
He knows what to do. And he chooses to do it his way. And the master calls him a wicked servant and takes away the money and gives it to one of the other servants who proved that it's faithful that they did what the master said to do. There are people in churches today that people say, oh, well, so and so, they're faithful.
They come to church every week. Well, dedicated, yes, diligent, yeah, faithful, maybe, maybe not. If God spoke to them and said, go to church every week, and they come to church every week, then they're faithful. If God told them to do some other things, and they don't do none of that, but they show up every week, diligent, dedicated, but not faithful.
Because faithful has to be in relationship to something that was given to us to do or to represent. Here, we've got a guy who is not faithful, who would have taken no more work to be faithful, but he had to do it the father's way and to do it the master's way. And so the ones that were faithful that did it the master's way, they were brought into something bigger than themselves. I remember, oh, it's got to be about 15 years ago.
I was watching a particular news program. And it was a particular news celebrity at that time. If I called their name, most of you would probably know it. And they had their own daily hour news show on one of the big major news networks.
And so every day, they've got an hour. They're famous. They're making big money. They've hit the prime.
They're doing their thing. And one day, they're on their show. And they start to begin to talk about how terrible and just horrific their life was before they came to faith in Christ. And they begin to tell some of their testimony.
And they said, they were making a bigger point. But for time's sake, I'll just focus on what we need to today. They started talking about how shortly after they came to the Lord, they went to their pastor and said, what do I need to do? What should I be doing?
And they expected the pastor to say, well, you need to start writing big checks. Because you're a famous celebrity, and you're raking in money, you need to fund the kingdom. And they were basically just waiting to be told how much should they be writing checks for? And you know what the pastor did?
Handed them a broom. Handed them a broom. So you need to start serving. You need to start cleaning up.
Now friends, I could give you more details if it was helpful. But I just know enough about the group to know that floor did not need, sweet. You could probably eat off that floor, and he handed them a broom. The church didn't need another person pushing a broom.
God needed one of his people serving. Needed him to step down on one knee to get out of the spotlight that he got used to being. He could pay people to sweep, to clean up a whole cleaning staff to come in every day of the week, whether there was a service or not, and clean that same floor that had not been touched since the last time it was cleaned. It would have been effortless.
He could have wrote that check all day every day. That's not why he was handed the broom. He was handed the broom because he needed to serve. And now today, some 15 years later, he's no longer the host of a one hour news show on a news network.
He now owns his own news network that is filled with hosts that have their own one hour shows. Does that my coincidence? Is there any connection do you think between one who served, one who was willing? It was what happened there.
He was faithful, and not just that thing, many other things. But starting with that thing, he was faithful. And then he was entrusted with much more, even here, even now in this world. And you know what God does not always bring things to us, that we feel like that's my thing.
You know, you could say, well, that's not my gift. That's not my area. Let me ask you a question. Was Noah a master arc builder when God tapped him on the shoulder?
Was he a master arc builder? We have no reason to believe that Noah had ever built an arc before or wanted to. Let alone was any good at it. OK, there were no arc industry.
This is not what Noah was doing. And then God taps it, hey, Noah, need you to build this arc. Here's the specks. He lays out this whole spec sheet, what you need to do, how to keep it waterproof, all of these things.
And so what did Noah do? Oh, Lord, that's not my ministry. I'm not a builder. I don't build an arc.
I don't build an arc. I don't know what an arc is. No, what did Noah do? He built it to spec.
When the Lord says x-cubits by x-cubits and this tall and this high and this many floors, you know what he did? He built it to that many cubics and that high and that many floors exactly as the Lord showed him. We don't always get asked to do stuff we want to do or feel good at doing. I can tell you from some personal experience.
You know, when I was asked to help with the children's ministry periodically, I did not jump up and down at the prospect. I didn't do it. My flesh didn't want to do it. I have never felt like I was good with kids or called to minister to kids.
I'm just trying to train up my one. I'm marvel at you all that have multiples. Man, wow. Like, you don't understand the level of respect that I have.
But let alone a room full of 10 energetic 8 to 12-year-olds who literally eat you alive if you fall over because now you're at their level and look out. And on the other hand, I do feel called and graced to minister to adults and enjoy doing it. So for me, that request was a challenge on multiple fronts. But I responded that same day out of my spirit and out of faith, not out of my flesh or out of my head.
I said, if that's what's needed, we are happy to help. Now I didn't feel happy, but I wasn't going by my emotions. I was going by the inner man. And the scripture says that it is a joy to serve the Lord.
And I didn't just try to skate through it and survive doing it. I pray, I meditate, I study, I prepare. I might spend hours getting ready to speak for 10 or 15 minutes to those kids, because that's about all the attention span that they have. And I try to find the best way to say things, to relate to them, to give them something that their hearts or minds can latch onto.
I treat that 10 to 15 minutes like it's an opportunity to impact their lives for eternity. Why? Because I was handed a meaner. And while I could easily have said something like, well, that's not my ministry.
I wanted it to be faithful in what I was given and the opportunity that came to me and to help however that I could. Go to Hebrews, chapter 5. Hebrews the fifth chapter. We're going to look at verse number 12.
And it says, for though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God. And you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who takes only of milk is unskilled and the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. But solid food belongs to those who are full age, that is those who by reason of use say use.
By reason of use have their senses exercised, say exercised, exercised to discern both good and evil. So he's talking about here, those who mature, they do it how? By just showing up. No.
By reason of use. Or the margin says practice. By reason of doing something. They have their senses exercised.
Now I looked up that word because different people have different definitions of exercise. I've seen some people exercise and I'm like, I don't know if I would call that exercise. And I've seen other people exercise. And I'm like, I can't live up to that definition.
So I'm going to go with my own definition. So I looked it up. What does this word mean in the Greek? And this word exercise figuratively means to train with one's full effort, with complete physical emotional force, like when working out intensely in a gymnasium.
It comes from the root word that we get the word gymnasium, which is where they trained for the games. So this word exercise here, this means doing something with your full inside and outside ability, focus, and discipline. So those who are matured by practice have exercised themselves to discern the difference between good and evil. That means doing something.
You can't accomplish that without doing something. Not just sitting comfortably and daydreaming or criticizing. Now there are some that can't do anything. They can only be served.
They're spiritual newborns. All they can do is drink a little milk, burp, sleep, drink a little more, and repeat week after week for a little while. But as soon as they get a little strength, they should put their hand to something. Applying yourself is critical for spiritual development and for being fruitful.
Everyone can do something. You never age out of the kingdom of God. You may out age out of digging ditches. But you're likely then to age in to other things, like being able to visit orphans and widows during the day when the ditch diggers are working.
Some people say, well, I'm a shut in. I can't do nothing. Well, if you have the mental acuity to complain, you could call people and encourage them. Huh?
I mean, you're sharp enough to be able to complain and criticize and tear something down. You could turn that and do the opposite. Couldn't you? Instead of turning it down, you could turn that and build someone up.
This isn't about sweating. It's about fully applying yourself. Seeking first the kingdom of God. We can all do something and must if we want to grow the kingdom of God.
Now you remember, they came to Jesus. And they said, let us sit at your right and your left hand. They want to sit. They want to sit in prestigious chairs.
What are they asking for? They want a position of prestige and honor and they want to sit down so they don't have to do anything. Isn't that just like how we think? They just want to sit and be served.
Play us another song. Preach us another sermon. Pass them more snacks. Just play a movie.
Do something. Tell us a story. Just we want to sit. And we want other people to see where we're sitting because we want to be seen sitting in this prestigious seat.
But where did Jesus go with that? He said, no, no, it's not about sitting. It's about serving. It's about getting up off the seat and doing something to advance the kingdom of God.
They wanted to be honored and to sit. There's a scripture that tells us that we should earnestly desire the best gifts of the spirit. But God doesn't give spiritual gifts so that we can use them and just watch TV better. Just sit on the couch for three, four, five hours and just zone out watching game shows.
Or you could do worse. No, what's it for? It's for serving. It's for doing something.
It's for gathering together. Go to 1 Corinthians 12. 1 Corinthians 12. Let's just take a look at this here.
I think we might wrap up here. Maybe. Maybe. So most people are very familiar with verses 1 through 11, where he's talking about the gifts of the spirit.
We're not going to read most of that because you're familiar with it. It's the part that people are unfamiliar with we should focus on. Verse 7, chapter 12 verse 7. But the manifestation of the spirit is given to each one for the prophet of all.
So why is it given? It's given to you for your benefit. It's given to you to benefit others. Given to you to benefit others.
Go to verse 12. For as the body is one and have many members, but all the members of that one body being many are one body, so all so is Christ. For by one spirit, we're all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves are free and have all been made to drink into one spirit. And in fact, that body is not one member, but many members.
And if the foot should say, because I'm not a hand, I'm not of the body, is it therefore not of the body? And if the ear should say because I'm not an eye, I'm not of the body, is it therefore not of the body? If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing? If the whole we're hearing, where would be the smelling?
But now God has set the members of the body, each one of them in the body just as he pleased. And if they were all one member, where would the body be? And now indeed, there are many members, yet one body. And the eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of you.
Nor again the head to the feet. I have no need of you. Much rather, those members of the body, which seem to be weaker are necessary. And those members of the body which we think, think being the key word, are less honorable, on these we bestow greater honor.
And our unpresentable parts have greater modesty. And our presentable parts have no need, but God composed the body, having given honor to the part which lacks it. That there should be no schism in the body, so that the members should have the same care, one for another. For if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it.
Or if one member is honored, all the members are honored with it. And now you are the body of Christ, and members individually. And God has appointed these in the church, verse apostles, second prophets, third teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps administrations, varieties of tongues. Or all apostles or all prophets or all teachers who all work miracles to all of gifts of healings, who all speak with tongues to all interpret, but earnestly desire the best gifts.
And yet I show you a more excellent way. I was wrong, good with Ephesians. We got one more, at least one more. Ephesians chapter four.
You ever been wrong before? I did, happened to me. Ephesians chapter four, these go, they could almost be the next chapter. Ephesians chapter four, verse one.
Well, for times sake, let's go down to verse seven. But to each one of us, grace was given according to the measure of Christ gift. Therefore he says, when he ascended on high, he called captivity captive and gave gifts to men. Now this ascended, what does it mean?
But that he also first descended into the lower parts of the earth. He who descended is also the one who ascended far above the heavens, that he might fill all things. And he himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. Why did he give those five offices?
Did he give the apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers to do the work of the ministry? No, he gave them to equip the body, the saints to do the work of the ministry. So the role of the ministers is to equip the saints to do the ministry, which then makes all of us ministers. But now, if you've got all this equipping going on, at some point somebody's gotta do something, right?
I mean, how many of y'all have ever played a sport? Any sport? At any point, I played a few, okay? Now, if you're saying maybe you play basketball or did, you know, you practice five days a week, six days a week for weeks and months, and you keep going to practice and the coach keeps doing running you through drills, and you keep running, you keep shooting and practicing and practicing and running and shooting and drills and practicing and running.
Eventually, at some point, somebody needs to play some basketball, right? If we just practice for six months and then call it a season, and there's no games, what are we doing that for? What's the point? Well, we just wanna be in good shape.
Okay, well, that's just, that's another thing. That's not playing basketball. You wanna just go to the gym and be in good shape, to be in good shape, you can do that, but we're shooting hoops five, six days a week so that we can do something. It's not just that after six months, we can end the practice season and go home and sit on the couch and say, yeah, we practiced.
No, the whole point is to compete, to win, to go out and take what you've done and take that practice and take those drills and all that running and put that to use accomplishing something. In the kingdom of God, it's the same way. All of this Sunday mornings, Wednesday nights, Bible studies, reading, watching extra stuff on the internet, it's all building us to do something, to do the work of the ministry, verse 13. Till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro, carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men and cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting.
Who speaking the truth and love may grow up in all things, into him who is the head Christ, from whom the whole body joint and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working, working, by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love. All of this equipping, all this teaching, all the practicing is to result in working. It's to result in every part doing its share. If you're a Christian and you believe on Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you have a share.
You have a share. There is something in the body of Christ that is there for you to do. You have a purpose. There is something that is destined for your hands to be able to do whether you know it or not, whether you've ever done it or not, whether you like it or not.
I don't know if Noah liked ark building on day one. I think he got into it eventually probably. He did a real good job. We're all here because of it.
But you have a share. It says every joint supplies something, according to the effective working, by which every part does its share. And when we all do our share, the body grows and is edified in love. Every believer has a share.
Jesus came to do what? To serve. Why do we come? Why do we live?
Why do we do what we do? On a Sunday morning or a Wednesday night or a Tuesday afternoon? What is our purpose? We are members of the body and we all have a share.
Worship team, you can make your way back up here. This is not just about church services. It's bigger than that. But if we can't get it right in church, where will we?
If you can't get it right in practice, are you just gonna suddenly be amazing in the game? No, it's not like that. I practice beyond what I intend to do so that when I go to do the things that I plan to do, I'm well prepared to do them. Same thing is true in sports.
You run harder and longer in basketball, in football, in soccer, in practice, than you ever intend to run during the game. Because you don't wanna run out in the middle of the game. In the ministry, we should plan and prepare and refine ourselves. And then we should discipline ourselves towards righteousness and godliness and love with one another at to a degree that is aiming at the highest possible standard so that when we're in the world and something catches us sideways on a Tuesday afternoon, we've got a depth of love that we practice.
And we don't need to cause that person out at the traffic light because we have practiced love. And this is an easy thing. This is, we got, this doesn't even phase us. Then when you go into work and this blows up and this explodes, like nope, nope, we're good.
We got this, we got to store a supply of love because we've practiced. We've exercised ourselves towards love. We got more than enough to endure this thing and to push forward and to pour love into somebody else who's obviously having a really bad day. We discipline ourselves and we practice and we exercise ourselves towards the kingdom of God so that we can do the things that God calls us to do.
So I wanna pray over you here in a moment. I wanna pray a couple of things. Some of you, you may not even heard before that you had a share. And so you need to get clear from God what that thing is or what the first thing is.
Oftentimes we try to figure out the whole thing before we even start. No, you just need the first step. What's the first thing that I should be doing? Two, there's some, you may have heard of it and you said, no, that's not my ministry.
No, I don't do stuff like that. I'm, no, washing feet. No, that's not me. I don't do that.
And you need to be open to God working in you and through you. You know, I ran from God for years. Ran from God for years in my teenage years and into college because I just somehow knew in the back of my mind that if I ever surrendered my life to God, he would call me to preach. And I'd have to preach to people.
And the thought of that terrified me. But it wasn't weeks or months after getting born again and surrendering my life to God that I realized, oh, this is like the joy of my life. This is one of the things I enjoy doing more than almost anything else. Well, so often the devil will work on you to say, oh, you don't like that.
You're not good at that. That would be terrible. That would be horrible. You'd be so miserable doing that.
Well, my Bible says that we serve a joyful God, a God of hope, a God of joy, a God of peace. He knows what we like better than we do. He knows what's good for us better than we do. There's a lot of things you may think I could never get into that.
And then you do it treat two, three, four, five times. And you're like, you know what? Actually, that's not so bad. You start to get the hang of it.
And oh yeah, by the way, where he calls, he gives grace. So God doesn't give you something to be one of the central focuses and abilities of your life without pouring in the gifting and the talent to do it well. And you begin operating that grace and you realize, oh, hey, this is, I kind of like this. I'm getting into this.
And before long, you're all in. You do it just because you enjoy it. But the devil will work on you endlessly to dread it, to not look at it, to not think about it, to not be open to it, to just be completely closed. And we're gonna break that down.
We're gonna get rid of that. You've got to share and it's good. And here's a good God who'll give you the good ability and the enjoyment to do that with grace, with diligence, with effectiveness, and faithfulness to what he's called you to do. And then there are some maybe, you've grown weary in your share.
And it could be that you're carrying the share of three or four or five, 10 other people who aren't doing their share, because they never so much as even knew that they have one. And that's a real thing. And I wanna pray that God would strengthen and encourage and build you up and grace you and enable you to do everything that's under your hand until he's able to bring in the other people who ought to be doing that thing. And then because you've mastered it, you can train them in it and hand it over to them and guide them in it and nurture them in it so that they can excel.
Let's go ahead and bow our heads. Father God, Lord, I thank you today. I thank you that you sent Jesus not to be served, but to serve, to be our example, to be a servant of love, humility, and honor to show us the way to walk. Lord, I stand today in front of your sons and daughters.
Father, I ask today, Lord, that you would reveal to each and every heart and every mind what you desire, your plan, your goal, your objective, what you've created, our hands to do, what you've given us the grace and the talent and the ability to do, even if we've never known it. Lord, I ask that you would give us eyes to see, ears to hear, hearts to understand. Lord, I ask that your light and your love and your goodness would shine through the darkness that the enemy has tried to blind people's eyes with, has tried to bring confusion through. Lord, that you would wipe away those things, that the truth would penetrate, and that it would bring life into hearts, into minds, into lives, Father God.
Lord, I ask that you would fill people with grace, with ability, with strength, to do each and everything that you've put into their hands and hearts and lives to do. Lord, that you would cause them to flourish in it. That you would give them courage to step out, that you would give them ability to do it even when they seem to not have any predisposition for it. Lord, I ask that you would guide their hands, that you would direct their steps.
Lord, I lift up to you, those who have grown weary. Father, I ask that you would multiply strength to them, that you would raise them up, that you would stir zeal into their hearts. Lord, that every time they step up, every time, that they come in every time, Lord, that they put their hands to the plow, I ask Father that you would bring to their mind and to their remembrance, the story of these 10 servants. Lord, multiply the effectiveness of their work.
Lord, bring them up, raise them up, Father. Place them over things. Place them, Lord, Father, in the positions that you've planned, that you've desired. Lord, I ask that no one in this place, from these days forward, would fail a test of an opportunity given to them to serve the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, to serve and advance the kingdom of God, to have a part and a share, and the most important thing happening under this sun.
Lord, I ask that you would guide and empower your people, Lord, that you would give us discernment for opportunities, that you'd help us to exercise ourselves spiritually in the inner man, in our hearts, in our souls, that we would develop, that we would mature, that we would rise up. Lord, I thank you today for your word, for your son, and for your spirit. I give you praise. I give you honor in Jesus' mighty name.
Amen. Why don't you stand up with us? As we sing this last song to our good Father, who's a good God, who gives good things, who has good plans for each and every one of his children, let your heart be open. Let your mind and your eyes be open to see what he would show you, what he would give you to see and to know and to do the steps that he would have you to take, what he's put into your hands today and for the days ahead, to rise up and strengthen.
Amen. Glory to God.