Service, Slavery, and Death (Matthew 20:17-28)
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Transcript
Well good morning my name's chet i'm one of the pastors here grab your bibles let's go to Matthew chapter 20. we're working through the Gospel of Matthew when it wasn't coronavirus time we had bibles out for everybody to use we have it up on the screen if you didn't bring one with you today but if you can we encourage you to bring one and we encourage you to have a Bible know your Bible love your Bible but we will have the words up on the screen this morning as we go through Matthew 20 we uh i want to talk i think most people have have played the game i'm about to talk about at some.
Point in your life um depending on your ranking among your friends in the social hierarchy or your age among your siblings depends on how much you enjoyed this game how much you remember it with fondness or without but i think at some point growing up you played a game where someone was king or queen or where you got to be king or queen and everybody else was your servants you you played this game someone talked hey we're gonna play this game and i'm gonna be king and and y'all are gonna do what i say.
Now if you're the oldest sibling you're like oh yeah i love that game if you're second third fourth in line you're like oh yeah i remember that game some of you maybe just played this with um stuffed animals and hopefully if it was just you and stuffed animals then you were the royalty and they served you otherwise you may have self-esteem issues but i remember playing this and i remember you know the idea of having someone who served me was was wonderful i usually started off as a servant i had an older brother and i found that by the time it was my turn you know i knew i didn't mind being a servant at.
First because i knew one day i would rise to power because it would be my turn at some point and i remember when it was my turn usually we had played the game long enough and it was time to move on it was getting kind of boring for my older brother he was like yeah okay well we probably we should do something different so i didn't get to be king often but the idea that wouldn't it be nice if i was great wouldn't it be nice.
If i was at the top wouldn't it be nice if everyone else around me served me never really goes away that desire that undercurrent we pretended at it there but you kind of want that you go through life and you think wouldn't it be nice if i could get this raised wouldn't it be nice if i could be the one with that office wouldn't it be nice if i could just have a situation where everybody around me did what i wanted and we're gonna.
See that that doesn't really go away in our hearts and we're gonna see a situation where Jesus is addressing this in his disciples so let's pray and let's read this together this morning God we thank you for your word we pray that you would bless us as we study it together that we would see Christ clearly and fall more in love with him in Jesus name amen so Matthew chapter 20 verse 17 it said and Jesus and as Jesus was going up to Jerusalem he took the twelve disciples aside and on the way he said to them.
So he's got more people following than just the twelve but at some point he pulls the twelve aside he said then he talked to y'all he said see we are going up to Jerusalem and the son of man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the scribes and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified and he will be raised on the third day now he refers to himself as the son of man we saw last week in the section we were talking about he referred to himself as the son of man.
But he made it really clear he was talking about himself so they understood at this point should understand that when he's saying the son of man he was talking about himself and so he says hey we're going to Jerusalem and i'm going to be handed over to be crucified i'm going to be taken by the scribes and the pharisees and i'm going to be giving over to the gentiles that's the romans the non-jewish people i'm going to be giving over to the gentiles and i'm going to be mocked and flogged which is beaten.
And then crucified and then on the third day i'll be raised and so he's telling his disciples this is where we're going and this is the third time he's told his disciples this and it's helpful for us to understand that with as much as Jesus taught he did not primarily come to earth to tell us what he wanted from us i think sometimes we go okay God what do you want from me okay what do i need to do to be.
Okay what do i need to do to be on your good side and the reality is Jesus comes and says no i've come to do something for you that's why the Gospel is good news it's about an event that happened and so he came for us to accomplish something for us to die on the cross for us not so that we might do something for him but first and foremost he comes to do something for us and that is beautiful news.
And so he's telling his disciples and he's bringing them back to it over and over again he's saying look i know i've been teaching you but it's not about your behavior and it's not about what you're going to do it's about what i'm going to do now they wouldn't have understood fully at this point they might have understood he was going to die but they didn't maybe wrap their heads around that he had to die in order to forgive our sins that he had to rise in order to give us hope in him.
But that's what he came to accomplish was not to just teach some things not to just hand off some wisdom if that were the case he could have gone to a cave with his 12 disciples and taught stuff and never run around getting everybody mad at him and never headed into Jerusalem where he knew he was going to be crucified so Jesus came to accomplish something for us this is his purpose i don't want you if you're new to christianity i want you to hear that i want you to understand that.
If you're just visiting today all other religions are going to tell you what you need to do to be okay with God how you get to God christianity is how God got to us other religions are going to tell you what you need to do for God and christianity is about what God has done for us and then we respond after God came to claim us and after he accomplished this for us we respond to it we don't earn or work our way towards it and that's good news we could close the Bible we could pray that could be the end.
Today that's good news it's not though we're going to keep going so he's gonna be raised on the third day then the mother of the sons of zebedee came up to him so the sons of zebedee are james and john uh three of the principal disciples so he had 12 disciples and then he had the three had Peter james and john james and john are brothers at one point they are referred to as the sons of thunder he gave him a nickname maybe thunder was their mom i don't know we're about to.
See then the mother of the sons of zebedee came up to him with her sons and kneeling before him that's Jesus she asked him for something and he said to her what do you want now at first that can seem a little cold but this is she came and said i want to ask you a favor i want to ask you something and one of the ways they would put this a lot of times you see in the Scriptures is like i wanna i wanna i would like.
For you to grant my request so it's similar to if someone comes to you and says hey will you do me a favor you say what is it you don't necessarily just say yes sure any favor you say well what is it what do you want and that's what he says what what do you want what's the request she said to him say that these two sons of mine are to sit one at your right hand and one at your left in your kingdom.
So Jesus earlier in this chapter had said that or in chapter 19 and then carried over into chapter 20. but he said that the disciples would sit on thrones when he was in his glorious kingdom and sat on his glorious throne they would sit on thrones around him and so this went right to their heart this idea they would get to sit on thrones and so they said hey as long as there's going to be thrones we'd like to talk about the location of ours.
And so the mother of the sons of zebedee comes and says and in the other gospels it just says the sons of zebedee came so they're moms involved but it was easy it's just as true to say it was just them because they were the ones driving this but they got their mom in on it i guess maybe they thought maybe he'll say yes to our mom he doesn't always say yes to us but he's nice to women i don't know i don't know what their plan was.
But they get their mom to come and they ask can we be at your right hand or left meaning can we be the chief among the other disciples can we be right hand left hand can we be supreme that's the request Jesus answered you do not know what you are asking are you able to drink the cup that i am to drink so he looks at him and says y'all don't realize what you just asked you think what you ask is a position of power you think what you ask is a position of strength you think what you ask is a position of authority what you've just asked.
For the closest to me is the closest to suffering can you drink the cup of suffering i'm gonna drink this is when he in the garden the night before the crucifixion he says if if it be your will lord let this cup pass from me this crucifixion this wrath this suffering and so he says to disciples can you handle what i'm going to take there is in some sense Jesus in his glory Jesus raised up is on a cross and his right hand and his left hand are two crosses.
But there will be a time when he's on a throne and his right hand and his left hand will be people sitting on thrones that's what they're asking for but they don't realize that the road to that is suffering the road to that is pain he says you don't know what you're asking for can you drink the cup i'm to drink they said to him it's still verse 22 we are able she says are you able to drink the cup and they say we are able he said to them you will drink my cup.
But to sit at my right hand and at my left is not mine to grant but it is for those for whom it has been prepared by my father so he says okay you'll drink my cup you'll take on suffering and they do you will join me in suffering for the sake of the kingdom for the sake of the Gospel for the sake of the name of Christ but i can't give that's not mine to grant who sits at my right my left.
And when the ten heard it they were indignant at the two brothers yeah the other ten hear this and they're like seriously that's what the office little conversation was about y'all y'all went and asked for a promotion you want to be the ones that sit closest to Jesus it doesn't say this i think this is most uh more a shot at Peter than anybody else because he was at least in the top three they thought we got a good run at this as long as we can get Peter out i don't know how much bartholomew thought no i'm in the running i don't know we don't hear much about him.
But the other 10 are just frustrated they're like really your goal is to be chief among us your goal is to be the greatest and the reality is Jesus has been addressing this with his disciples this will be the third time now the beginning of 18 they were having an argument about who the greatest was in 19 Peter says hey what are we gonna get Jesus keeps trying to tell them that's not how this works be like a child be humble like a child the.
First will be last he keeps trying to push on them this isn't how this works and we they hadn't learned it's like they weren't even listening to him when he talked they were like they were dreaming about how they could get their mom to come help now i hope so the disciples were very frustrated i hope after Jesus dies after he's raised after they see how this is going to play out i hope that the disciples genuinely forgave them but i also hope that they forever from a posture of pure forgiveness gave them a really hard time about this i hope that they just brought it up.
So this is just a hope i have i hope that there were times where james said to Peter hey do you know what that last parable was about and Peter was like i don't know if only our mom was here we could ask him i just hope they brought it up some that's just for me it doesn't say that they did but they're frustrated and Jesus is going to step into this situation he's going to help them see y'all are thinking about this wrong.
Now the reality is their request isn't crazy it's not out of the ordinary for us or for them it doesn't seem odd that you would go to your manager or your boss and say hey i know there's room for promotion and i just want to put my name in the hat i think i deserve that hey i know you go to someone who's about to be promoted to from assistant manager to manager and you say hey i just want you to know i'm glad you're getting the manager position.
And when you move up might i be at your right hand can i be assistant manager i just want to put my name in i know you'll be looking to replace that position so don't sit here all bibles smug and be like tischus can't believe they would do that the reality is this is normal for them this is normal for us and it's it's a bit of a plague in our souls that we want to self-promote we want others to see us and value us we want to be exalted we want to be great we want to be.
First we want to be lifted up and so Jesus is going to respond to this verse 25 but Jesus called them to him and said you know that the rulers of the gentiles lord it over them and their great ones exercise authority over them so he says you you know what this looks like you know you look out in the world and you see people and the rulers of gentiles be non-believing peoples he says you look out you know what this looks like yes we know what this looks like they had seen what great ones did how they were weighted on how they were treated how they were elevated uh it reminds me as i.
Was reading through this the story of uh john adams got to be the first ambassador to england to britain after we had won our freedom from them so it's kind of an awkward position to be in to be representing the new country that just won their freedom from you but he was he was the first one there and as in his writings he got to go meet the king he was gonna have to go meet the king and basically the rule was.
When you met the king you had to walk in when you opened the door you had to bow there's a certain special way you walked halfway bowed again when you got all the way up there you bowed again and then you gave a short speech and you tried to be as flattering as possible in his writings he said i asked the other ambassadors if they were messing with me this is true this is the way this works he was like so i was just making sure they weren't just trying to get one over on make america come do something ridiculous he said no this is what it does.
And then on the way out you bowed and you didn't show your back to the king so you walked backwards when you reached halfway you bowed again he walked all the way back to the door about again and left that there's this idea that wouldn't it be great if there's royalty he says you know what this looks like what royalty looks like what people who are chief and we know what this looks like the ceo doesn't go go on coffee runs the person at your job who makes the schedule often has a really good schedule we know what it looks like.
When somebody's in charge we know what it looks like when someone gets a little bit of power we've seen that play out so that's what he says you know what this looks like you know how they lowered it over them you know how they take it to their advantage you know how they use it for their own purposes and then he says it shall not be so among you so you know that model the the pursuit of greatness striving for greatness wanting to be elevated using it.
For your own purposes uh lording it over other people enjoying the perks and the benefits of your position that's not how it's going to work among you it's not how it's going to work among my people i am i grew up on hand-me-downs so i would get the clothes my older brother had worn sometimes it was nice you'd get something nice and you'd think yeah he hit a growth spurt and you'd start plotting on some of his clothes you'd be like nice i'll get to wear that soon we also did i didn't just get hand-me-downs from older brother we also got hand-me-downs from our cousins.
So we would get together for thanksgiving or christmas and then all the ants would bring big trash bags and dump out clothes and that's how we would shop for clothes you would just we'd have to spend every time we got together family an hour or so trying on clothes seeing what fit taking things and so i had one i had this shirt that was my favorite shirt it was a hand-me-down shirt i had gotten i loved this shirt it was kind of my go-to i'm having fun.
Today shirt this is it's going to be a good day kind of shirt and so i often wore it when i was hanging out with friends and i had this one friend who's my next-door neighbor his name is aaron aaron uh that's how they said it his name was aaron and he said uh one time we were hanging out he said man i need to ask you so what he said why do you always wear that girl shirt i was in like.
Second third grade and i was like do what now he said that shirt that you wear all the time is a girl's shirt i was like are you sure he said yeah my sister has one and i remember going home i could still see it in my mind standing at the dresser looking at the mirror looking at myself in that shirt and i thought no i should have been able to tell no this is a girl's shirt now that you pointed out it's it's pretty girly i even later i never wore the shirt again i later i went to even had to have a conversation with mom i was like hey you know you only.
Have three sons tell your aunts not to put girl clothes in the bags like tell your sisters don't do that to us be great because some people can't tell the difference and then they get embarrassed later i remember being at my uh cousin's house and seeing a picture of her on the wall in that shirt and she looked great in it it's not my style anymore i don't wear that kind of stuff anymore when we approach greatness the same way as the world we're taking hand-me-downs from culture that don't actually fit us that were not actually intended.
For us and we can pretend like they look good but on Jesus people they certainly do not they're not meant for us to treat greatness and power and authority the same way we're meant to look different and that's what he's saying this this should not be so among you that's out of place among my people and then he tells them why he tells him why very clearly he says whoever would be great among you must be your servant and whoever would be.
First among you must be your slave so their questions completely backwards hey can we rise to the top he says if you want to be great be a servant if you want to be first be a slave even as the son of man that's Christ came not to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many he says the reason this doesn't fit among my people is because it's not how what i came to do as the chief example the one to follow the one to model your life after i did not come to be served.
But to serve that Christ the exalted king of the universe the eternal king humbled himself in the form of a servant and came to serve and to give his life to rescue people and that's why if we follow him but we live as if others are meant to serve us it doesn't work in some ways when we have that attitude what we're saying is that certainly Jesus should have served others but i deserve to be served and none of us would actually say that.
But we might functionally live that way so the reality is you can walk through life before we get there i want i want to point something out that i think's beautiful this is God's plan for power this is his design for strength this is his design for leadership this is his design for greatness that it would be used on behalf of those under you if that makes sense that Christ is exalted above us but he uses his greatness he uses his power he uses his authority to not rise to the top.
But to go to the bottom and to serve everyone this is his picture for power this is his picture for strength this is his picture for your life and your energy should be used in service to others and the reality is we love this every time we see it we respond beautifully to this because we know this is how it was meant to be it's recently a story of a six-year-old boy he's welcome his name was bridger walker he was walking with his sister i think she was three or four he's six and a dog comes out runs and starts attacking them and the six-year-old boy just jumps in front of the dog and i.
Mean the dog messes him up if you look him up it cut his face real bad but his sister doesn't have a scratch on him he's eventually able to get away from the dog he gets his sister to safety he's bleeding his aunt said she was tending to him and he looked at his aunt six-year-old boy and he said i just thought if someone had to die it should be me yes that's exactly what strength is supposed to be meant for he was faster he could outrun his sister like that he could have pushed her in front of him he could have gotten out of the situation he could have gotten to safety he could.
Have left without getting hurt he could have acted as if his sister was there in order to make him safer but the reality was he said no i'm the strongest one i'm the toughest one i'm the oldest one if someone's got to go it's got to be me and that's God's design for leadership it's God's design for strength and it's beautiful and we ought not to reject it but the reality is every day we have so many opportunities to either embrace it or to reject it you can walk through life with the assumption that i'm here to serve or you can walk through life with the assumption that others are here to serve me.
So let's talk through that for a minute if you have roommates do you approach that situation as if you're there to surf as if you're there to make the house better as if you're a servant to all when it comes time to pay bills when it comes time to clean if you're married and you see a pile of dishes in the dish in the sink do you think i'm here to serve i'm so glad my spouse knew that they lived with a servant.
When there's yard work to be done when the child is screaming do you think let's wait and see if my spouse will answer if i stay real quiet because reality is when your child yells they're screaming for a servant they need an attendant i have a a well how old is he two i have a two-year-old he wakes up at five o'clock in the morning demanding service looking for his servants his slaves that live in his house that will tend to him.
Now i have a role as a parent to correct him but the truth is he needs help if he's getting up at five just to go to the bathroom he needs help he's not gonna do that well on his own you guys and i can either serve him right then or i can serve later by cleaning up but when you're at your house and you're facing who's going to do laundry who's going to cook who's going to take out the trash you can live as.
If the other people in your home are there to serve you or as if you're there to serve them is it just at homeless is it work do you enter your job as if you were a servant there to make the place better there to serve your co-workers i don't know your job but i know this about work there is a distinct way in every job for you to go above and beyond for your co-workers and your and your managers and there's a distinct way.
For you to figure out how not to do that and it just depends on the job i used to work sales we did we were 100 commission but then we had to reset the sales floor we had to set things up we had to restock shelves and every time you were doing that you were making zero dollars the only way to make money was to talk to customers so if you're resetting the sales floor and your salesman co-workers running and talking to customers they're making money and you're not my wife's a bank teller it has to do with.
When you close your drawer down because if you're going to leave at five if you start closing your drawer down at five you've helped till five and you won't leave till 5 15. but if you're gonna leave at five and you start closing your drawer down at 4 40 or 4 45 you can walk out the door at five and so i don't know your work but i know there's an opportunity for you to serve i know there's a way for you to to cover shifts and to care.
For your your co-workers i know there's a way for you to show up early or stay late i know there's a way for you to make life working with you better as the posture of a servant and i also know there's a way for you to be extremely frustrated by your coworkers because they're imposing on your time or your paycheck i know there's a way for you to live with your possessions as if they exist to serve others and i know there's a way.
For you to live as if they exist to serve you i know there's a way for us to live with our finances as if they exist to serve others or if they exist to serve me i know there's a way for us to walk through all of life looking to other people looking to our friends looking to our family as if they're imposing on us and as if they have forgotten that they were meant to make our life better some of you have friends that only call you.
When they need something some of you have friends that genuinely want to be around you but they suck the life out of you when they do they're down they distill some of your happiness and when you get the phone call you get to answer the question do i exist to serve am i a servant am i a slave i think one of the immediate responses to this is okay but won't people take advantage of me if i if i walk through my house you don't understand.
If i walk through my house as if i was a servant to my spouse do you not know how much advantage of me they would take do you not know what they would be like if i was at work and i just was there to serve do you know how much people would take advantage of me do y'all know what the word slave means that's a heavy word that greatness in the kingdom is slavery a true slave only lives to the advantage of their owner and it's horrible.
When it's imposed in a pagan world and it's beautiful when it's assumed by a Christian that Jesus came to suffer as a servant as a slave to everyone and he calls his people to do the same of their own will in their own graciousness as he empowers it let's talk about the Church because we can do this in the Church we don't just do it other places one of the best ways to see whether or not we're approaching the Church this way is.
If you say the phrase why don't they versus how can i why don't they fix that why don't they do this kind of song why don't they do this kind of leadership stuff why don't they do this with our group why doesn't my group keep up with people who aren't around why doesn't my group try to share the Gospel with people why don't they make sure that we have enough food every week why don't they know how to shut their mouth.
So that we can leave on time versus walking around with the question of how can i why don't they figure out how to get kids out of the auditorium versus how can i serve in kid city it's a very different question how can i make that better the truth is some of the stuff that we do as a Church family that's genuinely frustrating is genuinely frustrating we do it because we're sinners or we're bad at things some of the things you're most frustrated about are actually things that you're gifted in that.
God has empowered you with some strength some energy some intelligence and you ought to be using it to serve rather than using it as a position to sit and be upset with your servants some of you have moved from Church to Church relationship to relationship job to job and all you have declared with your attitude and your life is that i am displeased with the quality of servants that i have had in my past churches in my past relationships in my past job they did not understand that i was royalty they did not treat me appropriately they failed to live up to my expectations.
If you would like to be miserable walk around as if everybody around you is meant to serve you it's one of the quickest ways to be absolutely miserable if you want to hate your community group show up thinking that they exist for you because they're terrible at it if you want to be frustrated show up on sundays and sit and think why haven't they come talk to me do not acknowledge the fact that you did not go talk to them that might make you end up in a conversation just sit and wonder why they didn't talk to you don't acknowledge that you could give some energy and you could serve just acknowledge that they haven't.
Lived up to your expectations it's a wonderful way to be miserable but it's a terrible way to follow Jesus Jesus's invitation here is an invitation into joy it's an invitation into freedom it's an invitation to be first and to be great and the truth is every time we've ever just been free enough from ourselves to do this we have had great joy i grew up in a Church we would send out mission teams on sunday nights at times they would get to give a mission report some of you have been on mission trips some of you have been at mission report night some of you are just.
Now learning about these things keep listening every single time it did not matter 60 year old man forearms as big as a honey baked ham 13 year old girl wearing my favorite shirt doesn't matter they were all going to say the same thing we went to bless them we were blessed i went to serve them this is what he sounded like honey baked ham guy i was served every single time because for a week for a weekend they were able to get their mind around i'm just going here to make things better i'm not here to get anything out of this i'm just going here to do what the.
Lord wants i'm just going here to serve and it didn't matter what came up it didn't matter what broke down and it didn't matter what went wrong they had already gotten their mind wrapped around i'm here to be a servant and it's really hard to inconvenience a servant looking for an opportunity to serve and so they had tapped into some joy that was meant to operate in the world as we walk as people who believe the Gospel some of you know exactly what i'm talking about you've been on those trips and you thought yeah it was just such a blessing.
And then you came back i came back i went on those trips i came back i walked into hanging out with my group and i thought why are you all the worst because i had similar attitude to me that they were there to get something out versus to put something in that's why Jesus says it's more blessed to give than to receive that we're actually blessed in the giving up we're blessed in the sacrifice that it actually works for us if you don't feel connected here there's a good chance that you aren't serving that you aren't doing something to make things better this is why some of us and this is how this plays out.
When you begin to serve when you begin to live on behalf of others you grow in love for them you grow in freedom you grow in humility you grow enjoy this is why some of you and some of you right now are parents with small children and you need to listen to me but this is why some of you lived this out you had small children and you fell absolutely in love with those children because in your relationship to them you approached it as a servant i'm here to make things better and you did not expect anything out of them and at the exact same time you grew in increasing frustration with your spouse.
Because you expected them to step up on their serving and step up on making things better and they were not living up to your expectations and the truth is if we want some joy and we want some life and we want some love begin to serve now begin to walk around as if you're here to serve you're here to make things better it's an invitation into joy it's an invitation into freedom and you are in the way the reality is we want this to be the case.
If you're clear-headed enough you actually want to live life this way because it's so much more freedom here than waiting for other people to make things better so much more joy here to just operate as a servant you actually want this to be what our Church looks like you want this to be what Jesus people look like you want this to be what ultimately even people if they could just do this outside you want this to be what politics look like the people in power and people with money they use it.
For the sake of others it's what we want and we can't do it you can't do this not on your own see some of us right now are going okay i'm going to i'm going to do it i'm going to i'm going to serve but the only way we know how to do that on our own is to swell ourselves up to make ourselves bigger i'm going to be better by being a servant and the truth is we need to have ourselves conquered we need to be out of the way.
Jesus did not teach this and then not go to the cross he taught this and said follow me as he went to the cross it says the son of man came not to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many a ransom is the debt that is paid to set slaves free Jesus came and said i'm going to pay the debt so that the slaves can go free i'm going to pay this so that you're no longer a slave to sin.
So you're no longer a slave to self and if you have trusted in Jesus and if he has redeemed you and if he has filled you with the Holy Spirit then yes we can actually do this but only as we lean into him and he does it for us only as we follow after him the one who actually was a servant to all and a slave to all so that we might be free and then in our freedom we get to join him you're not going to be able to do this on your own you're not going to do this in your own strength you're not going to be able to do this in your.
Own power you're not going to be able to do this as you look at your own glory and look at how wonderful a servant i am some of you right now serve you do you work hard at your job but you grow in increasing frustration every time you serve with your spouse you grow an increasing frustration with your coworkers because you're not free you're serving but you're not your heart hasn't changed and we need him to change our hearts we need him to go to the cross we need him to die we need him to pay our ransom we need to be set free.
So as the band begins to come back up i want us to do this i want you to take a moment i want you to to focus in not on yourself not on your need to serve not on your need to be better i want you to focus in on Christ i want you to see him in his glory he says he'll be seated on a glorious throne i want you to know that he has a glorious throne where he rules and reigns as the king of all eternity and i want you to know that he gave that up.
So that he could die so that he could serve so that he could sacrifice i want us to be so enamored so captivated by so blown away by his humility and his service for us that we can actually have the freedom to get out of the way to love and to serve others to walk as if we exist for their benefit some of you have not placed your faith in Jesus you have not accepted the freedom that he offers the the payment that he makes.
For your sin for your slavery for your debt you need to trust him and some of you right now don't need to be sitting there giving yourself a pep talk about how you're going to do better you need to go to the lord and say i need you to help me i need me i need you to help me see the cross i need you to help me to see the blood that you shed for me i need you to help me.
See the path of a servant the joy that is in slavery for the sake of others i need you to empower me to be able to do that this is an invitation into freedom it's an invitation into life my encouragement is that we would take now we thank you that you served that you did not come to be served but you came to serve to give your life as a ransom that you set slaves free and we thank you that you invite us into the joy of humility and sacrifice the.
Lord we pray that we would see your glory you know your humility and we will follow after you as you empower us to do so in Jesus name.