Whoever Wishes to Become Great | Week 74

Today we’re going to be introduced to something in the ministry of Jesus that I love. It’s perhaps the most powerful. It’s the most transformative, certainly the most inspiring to me principle in all of the Bible. In fact, it’s so transformational. This principle that we’re going to study out today from the ministry of Jesus. This principle that we’re looking at this morning is so transformational that it helped, in part, to explain why this first century Jewish sect following this crucified leader, it helps explain why these disciples, these people who had a kingdom, but they had no territory and no military and no authority, that they not only survived, but they thrived. The Bible would go on to say that they would eventually be embraced by, or sorry, history would tell us that they would eventually be embraced by the very empire that tried to eradicate it. The principle we’re talking about this morning is how we would explain, or how I certainly would explain, how God’s kingdom grew, even though it looked like it shouldn’t. What we’re going to look at is a principle that literally reshaped the world, and I believe it has the power to reshape your life as well.

 

Mark 10 is where we’re going to be this morning. We’ve been in a series called The Ministry of Jesus, as I’ve mentioned before. Amen. Mark 10 is where we’re going to be this morning. We’re going to talk about briefly where we’ve been in the Ministry of Jesus as you’re turning to Mark 10. A few weeks ago, we talked about the resurrection of Lazarus. That was in John 11. You might remember that. But at the end of John 11, we are told this. This is John 11:45. It says this.

 

It says many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary and had seen what Jesus did believed in Him. What is this telling us? This is the end of the resurrection of Lazarus. Basically, all of a sudden, Lazarus becomes like this person that everyone wants to go see. There was a guy who was dead and now he’s alive. Let’s go find this guy. People throughout the towns and villages would come over to Bethany to find Lazarus. They would see him. When they would see this guy that was dead and is now alive, they believed in Jesus Christ. This became a point of frustration for the religious leaders. It was a little bit too much for what they call the Jewish rule and counsel. This was the last straw. They set their sights on killing Jesus. They’re like, too many people are turning to Him. Too many people are coming to follow Him. Too many people are believing in Him. We’re going to kill the guy. Because of that, the Bible tells us this in John 11:54, Therefore, Jesus no longer moved about publicly among the people of Judea, and said he withdrew to a region near the wilderness to a village called Ephraim, where he stayed with his disciples.

 

Jesus ends his public ministry. He’s like, No more hanging around in public in Judea because they’re coming to get me. He’s going to be on these little country roads outside of Jerusalem in between Jerusalem and Jericho. This map, you can go to the next slide. This is a map we’ve been looking at. This is where Jesus is. I want to just highlight for you what’s going on. Jesus was in Jerusalem. Jesus was in Bethany, then was in Jerusalem. He’s going to make a little pit stop in Jericho to talk to Zaccheus in a little bit. But basically, they’re traveling up and down these little country roads, staying away from the public eye. That’s their goal, because eventually Jesus is going to make his way back to Jerusalem for the very last time where he will be killed. It’s on this road, as Jesus is actively being hunted down by the religious leaders, where we find our next text, Mark 10, starting at verse 32.

 

It says this, They were on their way up to Jerusalem with Jesus leading the way. The disciples were astonished, while those who followed him were afraid. Again, he took the 12 aside and told them what was going to happen to him. I want you to just notice and highlight the word again. Again. This isn’t the first time Jesus is having this conversation with his disciples. In fact, if you look at the heading above it, it says this is the third time he’s having this conversation with the disciples. They’re on the road. Jesus takes his guys. They’re walking along the road. He goes, Hey, it’s time for us to have a quick conversation. He pulls them aside so that no one else sees them. He has this conversation, and this is what he says. They’re on the way to Jerusalem. This is what he says, verse 33. It says, We are going up to Jerusalem, he said, and the son of man will be delivered over to the chief priest and to the teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the Gentiles, who will mock him and spit on him, flog him, and kill him. Three days later, he will rise.

 

I imagine after that, he says, You got it? I’m going to be killed and killed in a brutal way, and then I’m going to rise again. You got it? You understand it? I know that you don’t know what’s going to happen when we get to Jerusalem, but I want to tell you before we get there. I imagine all the disciples nod, Yes, we get it. But what happens next tells us, regardless of what they said, they did not get it. The disciples didn’t really understand. This is what happens. Jesus finishes this little talk, and then He stands up. They get back onto the country road and they continue their journey. It’s a dusty road. A couple of the guys are right beside him, and they’re like, Hey, Jesus, can I talk to you for a second? The next line is what it says, then, and I want you to notice the word then, like right then. We’re not talking about two months later. We’re not talking about a week later. Then. As soon as Jesus just finished a conversation, as soon as Jesus finished talking about being hunted down, as soon as He finished talking about being flogged and being spat on and being killed and all of that stuff, right then, right then, James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to him.

 

Teacher, they asked, We want you to do for us whatever we ask. These are two of his disciples. They stopped Jesus and they say, Hey, I know it’s bad about the whole spitting thing. I’ll take it. Bad about the spitting thing. I was just informed that the clicker was in my pocket the whole time. Josh, thank you, bro. Wow. All right, here we go. We’re good. We’re in good shape. You’re still with me? We’re walking. We’re moving. Alright, so okay, what’s happening so far? Someone want a quick review? Anybody? All right, yeah. All right, so they’re walking along the road. They’re walking along the road. They stop Jesus. They pull them back and they go, Hey, Jesus. Hey, I want you to do for me whatever I ask. I know you said that you were going to be spat on and mocked and flogged. I mean, that sounds terrible. But just do for us whatever we ask. In fact, it’s pretty broad request. Do for me whatever I ask. You don’t know what he’s going to ask, but they’re just saying, Hey, whatever I’m about to say, I want you to do, and I want you to promise me before I ask you.

 

This is like a trap a seven-year-old would make. But Jesus is so gracious. Jesus is so kind. Jesus just answers simply, What do you want me to do for you? To which I imagined they look back to make sure that no one else is looking, no one else is judging. And they say this, they replied, Let one of us sit at your right-hand, at your right, and the other at your left, in your glory. Hey, after the spitting and after the mocking and after the flogging, in fact, I’m not even going to hang around for that bit. After all that’s done, whatever all that means, once you show them that you’re the boss, once your kingdom is established, can I be your number one or your number two and your number three? Can I be that? Now we know you’re number one, so I’m not going to be number one, but I’ll be two and three. That’s a fair deal. What are they saying? What did they desire? If I had to narrow it down to one thing, it’d be this, we want to be great in your coming kingdom. They’re just saying, I want to be great.

 

I want to be seen as awesome. I want to really matter at the end. I know your kingdom is coming. I want to matter. I want to be the guy who’s able to be your lieutenant, to able to make decisions with you, your advisor, where you come to me and you go, What should I do? I go, You should do that. That’s what I want. I want to be great. I don’t want to be any of that lame stuff where I’m like a servant. I don’t want any of that. I want to be awesome. Jesus is just so patient with them. He says this, You don’t know what you’re asking. You don’t know what you’re asking, Jesus said. Can you drink the cup I drink or be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with? He’s talking about his death, but I don’t think they exactly get it. Jesus is trying to teach them what they will eventually discover, which is that suffering precedes glory. Jesus is asking them simply, Can you do what it takes to be great? Can you do it? Can you sacrifice the way you need to sacrifice to be great? Can you give up what you need to give up to be great? They respond probably without even thinking, We can. Of course we can. Let’s do it. Right now, sign me up. I’ll be two. James, you’re cool with three. John, I’ll be two. Let’s make it official. We can handle it. We can do it. We’re with you. Let’s shake our hands before any of the other disciples see.

 

Let’s lock it into place. Right now, we can do it. We can do it. And Jesus’s response to them, we won’t study it out, but he says basically, Look, number two and number three is not even for me to give. That’s God’s to give. But you will suffer. You will suffer. To which I would imagine the disciples go, Thanks. Thanks. We skip down to verse 41, though. Skip down to verse 41, and here’s where we learn the principle. They’re a bit further down the road. I would imagine the disciples pulled Jesus back to have that conversation, but now the group’s coming together. Obviously, somehow the other disciples, the other 10, have overheard this discussion. Maybe they heard it because they were talking too loud.

 

Maybe they overheard it because Jesus brought it to their attention. We don’t really know. But what happens is that they understand what’s happening. The other 10 understand what’s happening, and they are furious. They’re furious. Verse 41, When the 10 heard about this, they became indignant with James and John. Indignant with James and John, and then Jesus calls them again together. When the others learned about this, they are mad. They’re so angry. Why are they angry? You might ask. You might think, Well, they’re angry because they are being insensitive, after Jesus told them that he was going to die. Maybe that’s why they’re angry, but no, that’s not why they’re angry. They’re angry because they want to be two and three. That’s the reason they’re angry. They want to be like, Man, did you ask before you asked me? Peter’s like, I was here first. I’m in charge. I’m obviously number two. That’s the fight that they’re having. Again, I want to just tell you where we are in the story. We are days before Jesus enters Jerusalem. We are not very far from when Jesus is killed and His closest followers are arguing about who is going to be the greatest.

 

Jesus, knowing their minds, the text says he calls them together. It’s like, All right, everybody, come on, let’s go. Let’s have a quick meeting. Let’s get off the road one more time. Sit down in the grass, sit down in the dirt. Let’s have a quick conversation. I want to tell you what it really means to be a disciple and what it really means to be great in the kingdom of God. He looks at them like I would imagine he looks at you and me, and he speaks to us with the same language that we should really be listening to and heeding as well. Again, there are just a few moments from death, from the death of their Messiah. They want to be great, and in the context of desiring to be great, this is what Jesus says. You know, remember, He’s pulling them aside. He’s just talking to them directly. You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles, lorded over them? You know how the people who are rulers take all the power and dominate their subjects? You know how that works? Their high officials exercise authority over them? You know how this works, right?

 

You know how greatness works, right? Disciples, you get this? You know how greatness works, right? The person at the top gets all the resources. That’s what happens. They have all the power, and then the stuff flows down from them if they choose to allow it to flow down from them. The person at the top gets the benefit of all the power, all the money, all the authority. To be great is to have all the power, all the money, and all the authority. You know how that works, right? You get that. When someone has it all, they are able to use it all and then abuse other people, and that’s the way it works. The disciples who are listening would have said, Of course, we know how that works, which is exactly why we asked to be two and three. We know exactly how that works. We want to be at the top because we know when you’re at the top, you get all the stuff, and the people at the bottom, they don’t get anything. We know exactly how it works. Then Jesus looks at them, and I would say that He looks at me.

 

He looks right at their heart, and He gives these next four English words, these five words in the Greek, and they’re so, so powerful. They should cut you in your heart. They should be something you take with you for the rest of your life. Here’s what he says. You know how the rulers and the authorities use their power? You get that? Okay, here’s something for you. Not so with you. Not so with you. What he’s introducing is a countercultural, revolutionary, completely different idea. What he’s introducing is a departure from the structure of culture in their day and certainly in our day as well. What he’s saying is that resources and power and the authority that people think about in the world is radically different than what we think about it in God’s kingdom. What he’s telling them is that greatness, in Jesus’ kingdom, greatness is judged differently. Jesus says, Okay, if you’re going to be great in my church, if you’re going to be great in my movement, you’re going to have to get this right. You’re going to have to get this straight. You’re going to have to learn a totally different principle. Here is how greatness works.

 

He says, Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you, stop there for a second. Notice He’s not telling them, don’t want to be great. Don’t desire greatness. He’s telling them, look, it’s okay. Whoever wants to be great, there’s no issue with being great. There’s no issue with wanting to be great. I hope you want to be great. Do you want to be great? Boo. I hope you want to be great. I legitimately hope you think to yourself, You know what? I want to have impact in the world. Do you want to have impact in the world? Hopefully you do. Hopefully you think to yourself, I don’t want a lame old life. I want a life where people feel the presence of God because of my life. Hopefully you want a great life. If I say, You want to have you want to have impact? You go, 100% of us go, Yes, I want to have impact. 100% of us want to be great. Now, let me just make a little caveat. There’s a difference between being morally good and being great. No one is morally good. That’s what Roman 3 says.

 

But all of us can be great by doing great things. All of us can be great. There’s nothing wrong with being great. But how are you great? Here’s what Jesus says. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant. Whoever wants to be great must be your servant. In God’s kingdom, you don’t use the power at the top to be served. You use it to serve. Greatness isn’t about having things and then using them for yourself. It’s about having things and using them for God’s glory and for the benefit of other people. This, by the way, isn’t the response the disciples were imagining because the way they thought about greatness had everything to do with power and authority and privilege and dominance. But the words that come out of their Lord’s mouth are totally different. What does He say? Basically, greatness is like this. To be great is to serve. You want to be great? Serve. To be great is to give. To be great is to provide for someone else. See, for us, a servant is just a concept, but these guys knew servants. They actually knew people who were servants.

 

Many of them had families that were servants. They understood that being a servant wasn’t considered great. What did you have when you were a servant? You served other people all day long. Servants weren’t great. Servants weren’t important. Servants were rather lame. You didn’t want to be a servant. Why would you want to be a servant? Jesus just flips the whole equation upside down, says, No, you totally, totally missed it. Greatness is connected to service. Then Jesus could have said, I’m not done, because look at the next line, and whoever wants to be first must be a slave of all. Servants at least get paid. To be a slave is to be in the back of the back of the line. It’s totally countercultural principle. You want to be great? You should want to be great. You should want to be great. How you become great, though, is nothing like our culture. To be great in the kingdom of God has nothing to do with your education, has nothing to do with the amount of money you have, has nothing to do with the amount of power you have or the amount of authority you have.

 

Great in the economy of God is totally different. In the American culture, it’s easy to tell if someone’s great by just looking at them. In the eyes of America, all you have to do is look at the car they drive. That guy’s great. That girl’s great. Look at what they wear. Oh, wow. Look at how they look. Wow, look, they have great skin or whatever. Look at the degrees on their wall. Look at the places they visit and the pictures they take that they post on Instagram. Look at the scores of the test that they take. That’s how you can tell. You can look around and go, Wow, that person’s great in the eyes of the American culture. But greatness in the kingdom of God is radically different. You can’t tell by what car people drive whether or not they’re great. You can’t tell by what’s in their bank account or what their intellect is. You can’t tell. In the kingdom of God, you know how you can tell if someone’s great? You watch them serve. You look at them serve and you go, They’re not complaining about serving. They’re giving their whole life to service.

 

That person is great. That person is great because in the eyes of God, to be great is to serve. That’s it. That’s the equation. You want to be great, you learn to serve. The text just gets better because before they could even object, before they could say, No, no, no, no, no, no, hold on, I have a couple of questions that I want to ask Jesus. Jesus looks at them and He says this, For the son of man, the number one, did not come to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. My opinion, I think every single Christian should memorize this scripture. Let’s practice, ready? For son of man… He did not come to be served but to serve, and to give you life as a ransom for man. You should know this verse. This should be in your heart and in your mind. If you’re a leader in this congregation, if you’re a community group leader, if you’re a deacon, if you’re an elder, if you’re on staff, if you work in a ministry here, if you volunteer with Kingdom Kids, if you serve in any capacity in this congregation, you should know this verse.

 

Even the number one guy didn’t come to be served. I’m your leader, Jesus could have said, right? I’m your leader. I’m the guy at the top of the heap, and I give my life for you. I gave my life for you. They didn’t understand it at the time, and one day they would understand, but he literally was going to lay down his life for these people. It’s overwhelming. It’s a transformational idea that Jesus was bringing that Jesus was the King who came to reverse the order of things, that he would be the type of King who would lay down his life for His subjects. He would lay down his life for his subjects. I’m not asking you to lay down your life for me, Jesus might say. 1 John 3:16, this is how we know what love is. Jesus Christ laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. Church, we can be great. You can be great. You can be great, great. It doesn’t take a degree. You don’t have to go back to school to be great. It doesn’t take authority. You don’t have to have any power.

 

It doesn’t take money. You don’t have to have any money to be great. You don’t have to have followers on any of the social media sites. You don’t have to have a high IQ. You don’t need to have your life in perfect order. You don’t even need to have your faith perfectly squared away. You don’t need any of that. You can be great. You should want to be great. You could be great. All it’s going to take is for you to give God your life and serve, or rather you give other people your life and service to them. I want to draw out this principle a little bit more because it literally could reframe your entire life. Look at this passage. This is Ephesians 2:9. I want to read it to you. It’s actually verse 10. It says, For we are God’s handiwork. What does it say? You were created by God. That’s what it’s saying. Do you agree with that thought? Yes. Why were you created? In Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do? Why were you made to do good work? You were made to serve other people.

 

You were made to serve people, to visit the sick, to serve the lowly, to encourage the weary, to elevate human dignity where it’s lacking. You were made, if you’re a husband, to love your spouse. If you’re a wife, you were made to honor your husband. You were made to serve your roommates. You were made to elevate your boss and to elevate his dignity or her dignity. You were made to be an encouragement to your parents, to your enemies. You were made to lift the spirits of those who are suffering. You were made to be great. You were made to do good works. You weren’t made to please and to comfort yourself. You were not made to live on a beach somewhere and to have a shell collection. You weren’t made to improve your golf swing and to be really great at hitting a ball in a hole. Now, none of those things are wrong. You can do that. Have fun. But that’s not the reason you’re here. You’re here to do great work for other people. You aren’t here for yourself to live a comfortable life, to be pacified by vacations and whatever and watching Netflix.

 

That’s not why you’re here. You’re here to do good things to impact the world. That’s why you’re here. I literally was writing this. I was writing those exact words when my daughter knocked on the door of my little office, and I could tell she wanted to come in, so I opened the door and I hugged her and I thought, How can I do good work for her right now? I just hugged her and I said, You know what, babe? You’re going to be great. You’re going to do great things, and God’s going to use your life to bless so many people. She says, How do you know? I said, Because God told me in his word that you were made for good deeds. You were made to do that. She said, How do I do good deeds? Good question. I said, You serve other people. You serve other people. I’m trying to figure out what I’m preaching on. I’m like, Oh, yes. And then she said, and this is profound. She says, How do I serve other people? I thought it’s a good question. I think Jesus wants you to give of what you have.

 

To give of what you have. I thought that was a good answer. She responded in a way that I would imagine many of us respond in our hearts. She said this, But, Daddy, I only have one doll to give. If I want to give more dolls, I need more dolls. I said, Okay, I get that. But you have food and time and energy and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I noticed something at the time, and I think it’s something like this. It’s the question that many of us have asked. How can I bless someone else when I don’t really have a lot, when I’m lacking? I get that. I get that. Here’s a question for you. Here’s a question for you to think about. If you really believe your life was made to do good works like God said it was, here’s what you can be thinking. What do you have? What do you have to give? What do you have? What time do you have? Do you have days off work that you can take a vacation and serve the poor? What resources do you have? Do you have intellect that you can teach someone else about the Bible?

 

What words do you have that you can give as encouragements for someone who’s going through a challenging time? Do you have a car that you can give someone rides? Do you have the ability to cook or you could prepare a meal for someone? What do you have? What do you have and how can you use it to do good things? Look, we all struggle with this. We all struggle with this. Look, this gets to the heart of our selfishness. All of us struggle with this. It’s like, I don’t have a lot. What we’re really saying is I don’t want to give a lot. I don’t have any more left to give because I don’t want to give. I get that, but man, we all struggle with this. But here’s an encouragement for you. Selfish ambition and rivalry were the raw materials that Jesus used to make leaders in the church. If Jesus can take those two guys, James and John, and make them great, he could take you too, and he could take me. He could take you and he could take me. We have some great people in this church. Really great people in this church, man.

 

I could name names that I’d be here all day. People who work tirelessly, who give their whole heart to serving the poor or to giving money to reach the lost people or volunteering in places. We have some really, really, really, really great people. For you, if you’re thinking to yourself, Man, I don’t really know how to do that. I want to help you. I want to help you by giving you a couple of things to think about. So sit with me for two more minutes. We’ll walk through this and then we’ll pray. This is going to be a way to help you arrange your life a little bit. This is like a self-help session. You’re here? Okay. Or not a self-help session. It’s like an others help session, I guess, is what it is. Here’s what I want you to consider. As disciples, I’m going to read the sentence and I’m going to say it again, we should organize our lives to maximize the potential impact of our good deeds. I’m going to say it again. As disciples, those who are followers of Jesus, we should be organizing our lives. We should be thinking about how we use our lives to maximize the potential for good works.

 

Does that make sense? You should be thinking, How can I use my time right now to impact more people’s lives? Right now, what we do subconsciously is we organize our lives to maximize our comfort level. All of us struggle with this, including myself. We all struggle with this. How do I make sure I arrange my schedule so I have enough time to myself? Rather than doing that, we should be thinking, How do I maximize and organize or how do I organize my life to maximize the output of good deeds? Scripture tells us that those who are generous plan to be generous. You should be planning to be generous. How can I use my career? You may need to sit down tonight. How do I use my career to impact more people’s lives? What do I do? I’m an accountant. Okay, what can I do? Okay, what do I do? I’m a whatever, I’m a student. Okay, what do I do? I just started at a new law firm. Whatever it is that you do, you should be thinking, How do I maximize what I have to have the most impact on people’s lives? Your education, your resources, your time maximize the potential for good works.

 

When you’re going home, you should be thinking, How do I maximize the goodness of this home? Do I want to come home with an attitude, or do I want to pray before I even walk in that house? Am I about to raise my voice? Should I do it? Hold on. If I raise my voice, it’s not going to maximize good deed outcomes. This is what you should be thinking. You should be planning, planning how can you act with your kids in such a way that produces good work, your coworkers, your parents, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc. Here’s what I’m trying to do. I’m literally trying to do this in my life. I’m trying to organize it. I’m not doing it well, but I’m trying my hardest. Here’s the things I’ve noticed. One is I need to pray every day and read every day because if I don’t read every day and pray every day, I’m not actually sure what’s good. I’m just making up what’s good in my own mind. I need God to tell me what’s good, yes? I need to be in relationships with people because that’s the only way to do good things is to be in relationship with somebody else.

 

Yes? I need to get a good night’s sleep because I’m at my worst when I’m tired. Maybe you are too. I need to have a Sabbath rest because when I’m exhausted, I’m short and I can’t actually give of myself. Does this make sense? I’m organizing my life not so that I would feel better and not so I would have all the things I’ve ever wanted, but so that other people can be blessed through my life. That’s what we’re called to do because even the son of man did not come to but to and to give his life as a ransom for many. Don’t settle for selfishness. Don’t do it. Let me make a quick note before I close. This is not a salvation issue. I’m not saying to you if you don’t fill your life with good works, you’re not going to heaven. You’re not saved by good works. You’re saved by God’s grace. Amen. But after you are compelled by God’s grace, you should be pursuing a life of good works. One last thing. What’s a question you can ask yourself right this second? Here’s a question you can boil everything down to. You can ask this question of yourself, How can I help?

 

How can I help? What can I do to help? What can I do to help? My friends, this idea changed the world once. I think it could change it again. Let’s practice it together. How can I help? How can I help? One more time. One more Gusto. How can I help? I’m so thankful you asked. At the back table, we’re doing this thing called Hope Month. We’re signing up people for Hope Month. Let me tell you what Hope Month is. We’re encouraging everybody in this church to volunteer. Everyone here to volunteer. Volunteer. Just volunteer a couple of hours of your time. A couple of hours of your time to something back there. Sign up for it. Right now, we have, I don’t know, like 40 people have signed up. We have a congregation of about 600 people. Let’s do it. Every one of us. Every one of us has an excuse. I have work, I have this, I have that, I have whatever. I get it. I get it. I get it. All of us have that stuff. I have that stuff too. But here’s what I’m saying. We have to find a time where we go, You know what?

 

I’m going to leverage what I have to serve someone else. There’s never a better time to do that than right now. Right now. At the end of service, you can walk back there and sign up for Hope Month. There’s these amazing women in pink T-shirts. Sign up for something. Sign up for something and then keep it going and keep it going. Try to figure out how do I maximize the output of good deeds in my life. We’re going to take communion right now. The Bible says that he gave his life as a ransom for many. That speaks about this idea that really Jesus gave his whole life in service to everyone, and not just in service, but he literally died so that we would have a chance at redemption. What a great savior we have. Let’s pray together as we take a bread that represents his body and the juice that represents the blood. Father, we just want to say thank you, Lord. Thank you for creating us to do good deeds. Father, I thank you for the adventure of living a selfless life. I know there are times when I look and I think to myself, Man, I’ve already given so much, I can’t give anymore.

 

Then I remember the cross and I remember my Lord who gave to the point of His own death. Father, I realize that I have a long way to go in my willingness to give of myself. Father, help me and help everyone here to have the heart that you had as you hung on the tree. Help us to have the heart that you had as you thought about a world that needed your help, that you were willing to give up everything. You’re willing to die on a cross to endure that shame, to endure that suffering so that we could live. Father, and I pray that as we take the juice and the bread, that we’ll be reminded of the incredible sacrifice you made and the sacrifice we should make for others. We love you, Lord. We thank you Christ Jesus name, Amen.