Follow JESUS: Sustainable Servanthood
Mark 1:21-39
How many people remember our church's annual theme? Two words: Follow Jesus. Jesus invites us to follow him. He starts with, "Come and see." And then, "Believe."
Have you thought recently how unbelievable it is what we believe? We believe that the Creator of the universe descended from Heaven and took on the form of a helpless baby. Here's what else: We believe that the Creator of the universe came to serve rather than to be served.
Jesus said of himself in Mark 10:45, "For even the Son of Man (Jesus referring to himself) did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."
Some of you may remember the praise song from the 1980s by Graham Kendrick, titled, "The Servant King"? The chorus was:
From heaven You came, helpless babe
Entered our world, Your glory veiled
Not to be served but to serve
And give Your life that we might live
This is our God, the SERVANT KING;
He calls us now to follow Him
To bring our lives as a daily offering
Of worship to the SERVANT KING.
The Bible recorded the tireless service of Jesus' public ministry. Jesus taught, healed, cast out demonic spirits. He also taught and trained his disciples privately.
Toward the end of his earthly life, Jesus washed his disciple's feet. He set an example of servanthood for his disciples to follow. Since that time, servanthood has been a mark of Christian maturity.
When understood correctly, Christian serve as a lifestyle, not just in the church and through church programs. Christians serve in the home and in the marketplace. And the unique Christian motive to serve is recorded in Ephesians 6:7, "Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not people...."
But servanthood has been warped, manipulated and abused. Some serve in the church for the praise of people and neglect family responsibilities. Some work 60 to 80 hours on the job and neglect personal and spiritual health. Some care for their elderly parents, while they raise our young children, and neglect their spouse.
Some reason, "If serving is good, then serving more must be better." Being busy can be equated with being important or godly. Burnout, broken relationship and busyness can easily replace servanthood that glorifies God and blesses people.
Our text this morning is Mark 1:21-39. (READ)
This text records the early ministries of Jesus. This is a dangerous season when service results in success. Pride and people pleasing could turn serving others into being self-serving. Instead we see sincere sustained servanthood in Jesus' life to the very end.
I want to suggest three disciplines in the life of Jesus that enabled him to sustain true servanthood that glorified God and blessed people. These are simple choices that will sustain us physically, emotionally and spiritually as we serve others. Let's look together.
First is the choice to be served. We see this in verse 31.
After an exhausting day of serving, Jesus went to the home of Simon and Andrew. Instead of resting, he found Simon's mother-in-law sick with fever. As expected, Jesus healed her fever. Here was what was not expected: Jesus allowed her to immediately serve him and the disciples.
Yes, Jesus said that he came to serve and not to be served. That meant everything he did was not self-serving but motivated by his want to serve others. So even the choice to be served by Simon's mother-in-law was motivated by his want to serve others.
Some call this self-care. Caregivers know that they need to receive care for themselves if they are to provide care for others long-term. The choice to be served by other is the choice to be refreshed, re-energized, refueled.
One obstacle to being served is cultural. In the Chinese culture, to be served by another is interpreted as troubling others or owing others. In the Christian culture, to be served is often wrongly interpreted as being weak.
The truth is, when we let others serve us, we are allowing them to mature, to express their care and concern. And we mature in humility, and experience their love and encouragement. Let others serve you. Both, they and you will grow
I had a conversation with Pastor Steve this week about our people serving in 2, 3, 4 ministries. He said ideally each person should wear 2 1/2 hats. One hat is the "servant leader" hat, such as a worship team leader. The 1/2 hat is the "team member" hat, such as a worship team member, serving but not as the leader. The second hat is the "being served" hat, such as a Sunday school student, where you are receiving or being served. The 2 1/2 hat model makes serving sustainable.
Another obstacle to being served is financial. Some couples work full-time stressful jobs, raise young children, and care for elderly parents. To save money, they cook every meal, press every shirt, hand-wash their cars. If we would budget for take-out once or twice a week and a car wash once a month, our lifestyle of service would be more sustainable.
Second is the choice to be still. We see this in verse 35.
I believe the key verse in this record is Mark 1:35, “Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.”
Jesus had an exhausting day of ministry. He probably knew another grueling day of ministry was ahead of him. He chose to meet with God before meeting the challenges of his new day.
Mark correlates Jesus’ prayer life with His sustained servanthood. We don’t know how or for what Jesus prayed. But we do know Jesus recovered from the previous day. And He refocused on God’s plan for a new day.
These would not be the only goals for meeting with God. But these would be two good goals for meeting with God. To recover from yesterday. And to refocus on God’s plan for a new day. Let's look at recovering from yesterday.
Most of us end our day by surfing the television or Internet. Some try to get just one more thing done. Others are exhausted and can’t wait to get into bed.
And when we wake up, we gear up to speed through another day. Wash and dress. A quick breakfast. Drop off the kids at school and off to work.
No time to recover from the previous day. And no time given to refocus on God’s plan for the new day. Someone said, “Fatigue makes cowards of us all.”
Jesus might say, “Take time to meet with God. If you’re night person, meet with God at the end of the day. If you’re a morning person, meet with God at the beginning of your day.”
Read the Bible to get a flavor of God’s power, goodness and love. Listen to worship and praise music. Open up a devotional reader like the Daily Bread.
The goal is learn and affirm that God is bigger than our problems. To get to the point where God’s love and forgiveness is more real than our sins. To cast our cares upon God because God cares for you. Being still with God is a choice that can sustain our lifestyle of serving.
Third is the choice to be selective. We see this in verse 37-39
People were looking for Jesus the next morning. They wanted Jesus' service, either to be taught or to be healed. But Jesus had other plans instead.
Not every need or cry for help is God's call for us to respond. But how do we know which we are to respond to or not? This is where meeting with God to refocus on a new day helps. We can't do everything there is to do. Here are three questions that can help us be selective and to sustain our service.
Question 1: What has God called me to do that only I can do? I cannot outsource my responsibility as my children's father or as Susan's husband. Someone else cannot do pushups for me or eat healthy for me. The church hired me to pastor the young adults. So I need to be involved in discipling young adults. What has God called you to do that only you can do?
Question 2: What has God not given me the capacity to do? Even when there is a desperate need for choir or worship team members, I will not volunteer. Otherwise, I would be doing you, me and God a disservice. What has God not given you the capacity to do but you were pressured into doing?
Question 3: Who has God put in my reach to do better or well enough what I feel the need to do? My older daughter can do the dishes well enough. My younger daughter can fold the laundry well enough. The highway patrol can do better for a stalled car than I can. So I don't pull over to help, but I call 911. Who has God put in your reach to do better or well enough what you feel the need to do? Delegate or call on these people to serve.
Let me close with a story. A father asked his 12 year-old son to move a pile of rocks from the back yard to the front yard for landscaping purposes. The son moved all the rocks he could carry, but there were many more large rocks.
The father said to the son, "What else could you do to move the rest?" The son thought for a moment but couldn't come up with a solution. The father smiled and said, "You could ask for my help."
Sustainable servanthood recognizes the One we serve, serves us and serves with us.
