Somebody... Nobody (Service) Series

Joshua 24:14-15

14 "Now fear the LORD and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your forefathers worshiped beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD. 15 But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD."

Matthew 20:20-28

20 Then the mother of Zebedee’s sons came to Jesus with her sons and, kneeling down, asked a favor of him. 21 "What is it you want?" he asked. She said, "Grant that one of these two sons of mine may sit at your right and the other at your left in your kingdom." 22 "You don’t know what you are asking," Jesus said to them. "Can you drink the cup I am going to drink?" "We can," they answered. 23 Jesus said to them, "You will indeed drink from my cup, but to sit at my right or left is not for me to grant. These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared by my Father." 24 When the ten heard about this, they were indignant with the two brothers. 25 Jesus called them together and said, "You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. 26 Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, 27 and whoever wants to be first must be your slave-- 28 just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."

“Somebody… Nobody”

1) Doesn’t everyone want to be somebody?

The world population as of this morning is (in billion) 6,854,489,535 and counting. That means, if it is you against the world… you are outnumbered by… a lot! In the vast sea of people… amongst the mass quantity of the human race… deep down, do you ever want to stand out? Be unique? Be… an individual. I imagine many of us do… I mean… just look at how major companies try to sell us their stuff. Buy this… and stand out from the crowd! Buy this… and get ahead! Buy this… and be… somebody!

Being… somebody! Isn’t that something we want? We want to be… somebody! It’s an odd concept… so many people in the world… and there is a desire deep down to stand out… to be noticed… to be remembered… perhaps even to make a difference. Amongst 6 billion people… we want to be one of the known!

Even if that isn’t what you desire… I would bet… that for many of us… our mothers had very high hopes of us being a somebody.

2) Didn’t your mom want you to be somebody? (Doctor… Lawyer… President)

I think a lot of Moms are just naturally like that. Maybe they want a legacy… maybe they want bragging rights, maybe we can look on the bright side and say they just really want what’s best for us. Whatever it is… isn’t there a lot of “high hopes” placed upon us? It has always been that way for me at least.

I remember, right after Alyssa and I were married… we had moved to Fargo and we were both looking for Jobs. Well, I was being picky about the kind of Job I wanted, I wanted to have a really good job that would really get Alyssa and I on my feet. And I wasn’t moving fast enough for my mom, it was driving her absolutely NUTS that her son was “unemployed.”

So she did her part… daily phone calls to remind me that I didn’t have a job. It was a good thing because I probably would have forgotten that I was unemployed without her reminding me constantly. Finally, my mom just couldn’t stand waiting anymore… she found out about a job opening that her friend Jeff had at Gabriel Metal Casting. She even used her influence with Jeff to get as much inside information about the position as she could to give me that extra edge on the competition.

Before the interview, she gave me instructions saying that the owner, Dennis, was a good man, a Christian… and that he really preferred Christian employees, so I should really play up my religion and my church involvement in the interview process.

So I went in to the interview… and got my Christian on. I told him all about my Religion/Philosophy degree… how I attended church, volunteered, and even served on church committees. However, I could sense the interview wasn’t going nearly as well as I was hoping so I really laid it on really thick… talking about my prayer life and my devotion to being led by the Holy Spirit! The owner Dennis, thanked me for my time and excused me… letting me know he would call me and let me know. I thought, “Man… what kind of extreme crazy Christian does it take to impress this guy?” Well very luckily… even though the interview really did not go very well… I got the job.