Serve the Lord with gladness part 1. The Servants Master. Mark 8:34. Introduction

Transcription

1 Serve the Lord with gladness part 1 The Servants Master Mark 8:34 Introduction As a church we are going to focus on a specific theme that will direct our preaching called serve the Lord with gladness. It s going to be a 6 week focus, Pastor Charles will preach on this theme from the Old Testament book of Habakkuk and then different preachers will preach on topics related to our theme in the evenings. I get to kick this off tonight. We are also going to be going deeper into this idea of serving the Lord with gladness during our Bible study time and so we d love for you to join a Bible study group if you are not in one already. And we would like to encourage you to be faithful so you can get the full impact of these next 6 weeks. After this 6 week focus I would like to preach some more sermons on a theology of the Bible, answering some questions around the authority, inspiration and inerrancy of the Bible like we began to do a few weeks back. So that s where we headed for the next few weeks, we believe God is guiding us and at work here and so let s jump straight into tonight s message which has this simple title: The Servants Master Turn with me in your Bible s to Mark 8: The key question I d like you to think about tonight is who are you really following? This question is actually deeper than what you might, don t just write this off. There are many subtle alternatives that distract us from following or serving Jesus. It could be this church. Let me tell you we are not called to serve the church as our master we are called to serve Jesus as His church. We are not called to serve our family as our master. We are not called to serve our discipleship leader as our master. We are not called to serve ourselves we are called to serve Christ. Jesus said if anyone will follow me let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me. That is the definition of Christianity. Those are the terms and they are non-negotiable. It does not say bypass the cross and empower yourself,

2 it does not say pick up your crown and enrich yourself it says deny yourself, pick up your cross and follow. Think about it. Are you prepared to give Christ this kind of exclusive ownership of your life? Complete submission? Singular devotion? I want to walk you through this passage and pay attention to the instruction given by Jesus he is stating the terms of discipleship. First I want to talk about - 1. Denial & Death Jesus gives these words of the back of his disciples recognizing Him as the Messiah. In verse 29 Jesus asks them point blank Who do you say I am? Peter answers: You are the Christ. Jesus you are that prophesied Messiah, you are God s anointed. Peter confesses it and Jesus confirms it. The long awaited arrival of Israel s Messiah has finally come. And the disciples were right there with Him. You can imagine that this was a significant moment for the disciples. But then something odd happens. As soon as Jesus confirms that He is indeed the Christ, he begins to talk about His death. How the Messiah must suffer and be killed, then after 3 days be raised. Peter did not like this one bit and it says that Peter rebuked Jesus. There is no victory in death, you are the Messiah, you must rule, you must reign, you must conquer you are the Christ. See Peter still had no idea of why Jesus really came. And immediately Jesus tells people get behind me Satan - you are not setting your mind on the things of God but on the things of man. I think Jesus knew that this was not only Peter s problem but it was everyone s problem. And so he gathers everyone around Him and he drops the bomb on them If you want to follow me; then do the following - deny yourself, pick up your cross and follow me. Let s look at each of those 1 by Deny yourself This command to deny yourself speaks about the desires of our heart. Peter at this moment never really desired Jesus, all he wanted was power and glory.

3 Thankfully Jesus did not give up on Peter and later on Peter really embraced what Jesus was saying and when you read the book of Acts Peter is a great example of someone who denied self, picked up his cross and followed Jesus. But in this moment the thought of the Messiah suffering and dying did not appeal to Peter, this was not the kind of Christ Peter was too keen on following. He wanted greatness, not humiliation. He wanted to rule, not serve. I think we are the same in many ways, when we think of a great leader we immediately think about someone with position, strength and power, not someone who will suffer and die. But Peter s mind was on earthly things, not the things of God. God s plan was for the Christ to suffer, die for sinners, and then be raised to glory. For God the path that leads to true greatness is through humility, love, service and sacrifice. If you want to have it your way, you cannot be a disciple of Jesus. So here s the thing if we are going to serve the Lord with gladness we need to check our own desires. What is it that you desire more than anything else. And please don t give the pious I m in church now kind of answer. What is it that you are really pursuing? Are you really pursuing Christ above all else? One of the disasters in modern day Christianity is that we have made Christ an app and not the operating system. An app is like an add on to your life. You can install, delete as you wish and it is right there with all the other apps. I ve got my job app, my love life app, I ve got my money app, my social apps, over here is my study app, my family app, my entertainment apps and over there in the top right corner I have my Jesus app. And I click on it when I come to church, or when I m around my Christian friends. It doesn t work like that. Jesus is not an app, He s the operating system. He s the one who should have complete control and power over every aspect of your life, he cannot be a add on feature. Is your desire for pleasing Christ, greater than your desire for pleasing self? Is Jesus a add on to your life, or does everything in your life revolve around Jesus? Let s think about this practically. Are you denying yourself in the way you spend your time? In the way you spend your money? In the kind of entertainment you enjoy? In the kind of language that comes from your mouth? In the kind of relationships that you pursue? In the kind of causes you join? In the ways you respond to not getting your way?

4 Are you denying yourself in order to win the battle against sin? Are you putting your own desires behind the priority of serving the Lord with gladness? What is it that you desire the most? And if it is not Christ - are you willing to deny that idolatrous thing, for the sake of serving the Lord with gladness? The second criteria for being a follower of Jesus is to take up your cross. 2. Take up your cross Sometimes we hear people use this as a kind of expression for some or other difficulty. I have a mean boss that s my cross to bear. I have a difficult family member that s my cross to bear. I got the flu or some ingrown toenails - ooh that s just my cross to bear. That s not what Jesus is saying. Don t think of this as Christians embracing a little bit of random suffering here and there. We need to remember that it s not only Christians who suffer. Every human being in the world faces or will face some kind of suffering. When Jesus says pick up your cross, he is saying - identify yourself with me. Paul in Galatians 2:20 said I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live Denying yourself means taking this kind of action, picking up your cross. It means suffering the way Jesus suffered not for doing evil but for doing right. Jesus said in Matthew 5 blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake. Now believe me the cross speaks about suffering and death. The cross is a symbol of death. Jesus is giving a invitation for us to come and die. But not any kind of death. But a death of self, in order to serve the Lord with gladness. Just like Jesus walked in obedience to the Father, just like He walked the path of service, love and humility - we need to walk the path of service, love and humility. Random difficulties are not a indication of cross bearing, only difficulties that arise from following Christ is a indication of cross bearing. Now again how does this work practically? When Jesus says pick up your cross it also implies that you have the choice.

5 You can leave your cross over there in a corner, or you can pick it up and serve the Lord with gladness. You can pick up the cross of possible humiliation and insult because of sharing the gospel. You can decide to pick up the cross of possible rejection when you speak out against a certain sin. I have a friend who has a powerful testimony about how the Lord pulled him from a homosexual lifestyle and his friends are shunning him for it. You can be ashamed of Christ and leave your cross sitting in the corner, but listen to the warning if you choose to do that Whoever is ashamed of me and my words of him will the Son of man also be ashamed. You can decide to affirm yourself and drop your cross or you can serve the Lord with gladness by denying yourself and picking up your cross. It s a very practical thing. But here s one more element of picking up your cross that we don t always hear from this passage and I think it s important. The cross of Jesus Christ does not represent suffering it represents self-sacrifice for the benefit of others. Jesus gave up his life out of love for you and he calls us to do the same to gladly, joyfully, lay down our lives out of love for others. Have you got any of that? Here s a quote I heard this week: Our greatest fear should not be failure, but of succeeding at something that doesn t really matter. Can you imagine standing before Christ one day, standing before our master Jesus who gave himself for sinners in the most complete way and He asks us what have you done as my servant. How have you served me with gladness? How have you loved others? How have you served others? How have you been my ambassador in the world? You know what. How much money you ve made will mean nothing! What position you had in your company will mean nothing. The car you drove will mean nothing. All that will matter is how you have given yourself to Jesus and His mission. All that will matter is how you served Jesus with gladness. Life is too short to waste it on yourself - rather spend it on serving Jesus who gives eternal rewards.

6 Finally After denying self, after picking up our cross, Jesus says follow me. 3. Follow me There are other religions that tells you to deny yourself and live a life of self sacrifice but not in the name of Jesus. Buddhists believe this, many Muslims believe this, many self proclaiming good people believe this. There are very many good causes in the world that you can align with. Feeding the hungry, helping the poor, stopping human trafficking, helping the orphan, those are all worthy causes but they hold no real eternal value if they are not rooted in Jesus Christ who gives us real life, and real hope that goes beyond this world. This is why we need to hear these two very important words from Jesus lips follow me. Do you want a meaningful life? Follow me. You want to give yourself to a real worthy cause? Follow me? You want to stop wasting your life on things that are not important? Follow me. Why? Because Jesus said I am the one with all authority. I am the one who purchased you from death. I am the one who rescued your soul from darkness. I am your master. Jesus is the head of our church, Jesus is the head of your family, Jesus is the Lord of your life, Jesus is the person of your worship, Jesus is the captain of your life s purpose. So, deny yourself for His name sake. Serve for His name sake. Give of yourself for His names sake. Do not follow another. Jesus is our Lord. Follow him. But now here s the question that the disciples didn t really get until later where is Jesus going? Where are they following Jesus to? What path is Jesus walking? We know what that path looks like. It s the narrow, humble, serving, loving, self sacrificing pathway that moves through suffering to glory. That s what serving the Lord with gladness looks like. Do you have any of that? Now I don t want any of us to leave here tonight not knowing or appreciating that this path of denying self, picking up our cross and following Jesus is a path filled with real joy and gladness.

7 The only things Jesus asks us to deny ourselves are the things that will actually rob us of eternal joy and gladness. That s why Jesus says to us - What does it profit a man to gain the whole world but lose his soul. We need to look beyond this world towards God s eternal kingdom and we need to join in on that gladness and joy. The chapter ends with the fact that Jesus will return with glory. A new life of exuberant joy with God forever will be ushered in, that s the future grace we should hold on to today. May our motivation be to hear those words from God one day - Well done, good and faithful servant. I ve said what I felt the Lord wanted me to say and now I think we should respond to this message in a time of prayer. As we bow in a attitude of prayer Where do you stand with regards to these things? Do you have the desire to serve the Lord with gladness? Do you want to follow Jesus on this road through suffering towards Joy? If you feel like you want to respond and say yes Lord I feel something tonight wont you raise your hand just so I could pray for you specifically. Anyone like that? Is there maybe someone here who feels that there is something that is competing against your obedience to Jesus. Maybe it s a love for something else, maybe it s a besetting sin, maybe it s the fear of rejection for sharing your faith, maybe there is a bit of shame in your heart, if that s something stirring in your heart could you raise your hand for prayer?