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Selfishness is sneaky—it feels like commonsense in the moment. As the disciples sat right in front of Jesus, they struggled with the same self-centered question we all are challenged: “But what about me?”
The following study questions are AI generated and may contain errors.
The pastor uses the toilet paper shortage as an example of how selfishness sneaks up on us even when we know better. What are other modern examples from your own life where you’ve felt the tension between serving others and protecting yourself?
Why do you think the disciples repeatedly argued about greatness right after witnessing Jesus’ glory and his example of servant leadership? How can we guard against similar impulses, especially after spiritual highs or moments of recognition?
Jesus contrasts worldly “benefactors” who seek titles with those who actually live as benefactors through action. In what ways might we be tempted to chase recognition or status in the church or workplace rather than quietly serving like Christ?
Jesus told the disciples not to stop the person casting out demons in his name, even though he didn’t follow with them. How should this principle shape the way we relate to other Christians or churches that serve God differently than we do? What does it look like to equip rather than exclude?
The pastor suggests that God’s love and the opportunity to serve are not scarce resources—unlike toilet paper, flowers, or job promotions. How does truly believing in God’s unlimited resources change the way you approach serving alongside other believers?
This transcript has been automatically generated and may contain errors.
I promise you that.
If every snake that was sneaky in our lives also had a theme song to it like that, we’d be much better off, wouldn’t we? But it doesn’t usually work that way, does it? I wish it did. It would be like in a movie, you know? The people in the film don’t know to avoid that barn that looks like it’s collapsing. It looks like a great place to hide, right? But you know, you’ve heard the music before, you know it’s a bad idea, but that’s not how it goes, right? And so our sneaky snakes of selfishness, of self-interest, they sneak up on us in bizarre ways.
One way, if you told me, say, six years ago or five years and two or three weeks ago that I never would have guessed would sneak up on us is toilet paper. Do you remember what happened about five years ago with toilet paper? Do you remember when it was that you could buy a car by handing over some rolls of toilet paper? Because everyone was afraid we were going to run out of toilet paper. I remember trying to figure out where to get some toilet paper, and I had some toilet paper, but everyone was running out of toilet paper or was afraid of running out of toilet paper. So one of the questions was, well, what happens once we do run out? Maybe I should get some more right now. And internally, I think all of us knew that, well, if all of us would take a deep breath and realize we won’t use that much that quickly, we won’t have a toilet paper shortage.
And then the thought creeps into the mind, well, if only everyone else won’t buy toilet paper, we won’t have a toilet paper shortage, but I’ll have toilet paper, because I’m going to need to buy some, right? And so what do we do? We know internally it’s not really rational if there’s a panic buy like that for us to join in it, and yet I have a warehouse, like industrial box of not very pleasant toilet paper, still, just in case, just in case. Isn’t it funny? We know what would be the right thing to do, and yet we say, but what about me, what about me?
Tonight, we’re turning to the New Testament. We’ve been in the Old Testament looking at some of the sneaky snakes of sin. Tonight, we’re turning to the Gospel of Luke, to Luke chapter 9, and as we do, we see the disciples, here are 12 men who are right there with Jesus, Jesus has been ministering to them, they didn’t even just go to Jerusalem University, they went to Jesus University, right? They’re getting the best training. The problem is, when the toilet paper looks like it’s going to run out, then what are they going to do? Are they going to feel secure? Or are they going to say, well, it’s fine if everyone else does what is right, but what about me? And they’re human beings, like you and like me, and so they say, what about me?
That’s where we’re going to be challenged tonight, because Jesus calls us to serve, but serving is risky. Serving risks maybe running out of toilet paper, because I think, well, maybe someone else actually needs that roll, and I already have a box, maybe I don’t need to get more. You’re one of the disciples, you’re there, you’re in the inner circle of Jesus, you’re hearing about the gospel before anyone else, you actually have God incarnate in the flesh teaching you. You’re going to ask, well, maybe I should see if there’s a little something more. Maybe I shouldn’t be so focused on serving, because I still need to make sure that I’m okay. That’s an impulse that we have to battle all of our lives, so let’s pray that God would help us as we look at the disciples’ foibles, that we would see how they are in our lives and be able to escape this particular sneaky snake.
Let’s pray. Father, would you help us? We know that you call us to service, you call us to being selfless, and yet we find ourselves worrying about ourselves. We want to know what’s good for ourselves, we want to make sure that we don’t run out of the toilet paper. And even once we have it, we want a little more, just in case, or who knows, maybe it would be good for bargaining if everything else goes wrong. Would you help us to instead think about the mission that you’ve called us to when we are being self-interested? We pray in Jesus’ name, amen.
Let’s go ahead and take a look at Luke chapter 9, verse 46. The disciples are here, having a nice conversation. An argument arose among them as to which of them was the greatest, but Jesus, knowing the reasoning of their hearts, took his child and put him by his side. He said to them, “Whoever receives this child in my name, he receives me. Whoever receives me receives him who sent me, for he who is the least among you all is the one who is great.”
Disciples say, yeah, you know, I do have the official Jesus’ disciple name card, ID, I can show it to you here. I’m a pretty big deal, but there’s something that bothers me in life, and that’s, I don’t know if I’m the biggest deal of the big deals. We need to get this sorted out. We need to know who does Jesus really love most? Who is it that matters most to Jesus? He has to have somebody amongst us that he really, yeah, there’s my number two, right? Plan of succession for when Jesus decides, okay, it’s time to just take my place in the temple and sit back and send my disciples out to do stuff. Somebody’s going to need to be in charge. Chief operating officer of this enterprise. We need to figure this out so everybody else knows to listen to me.
Now, that’s a profoundly human tendency. We also might say that it is a profoundly human tendency that we know is bad, and also a profoundly human tendency that we fall into in any context, but it’s helpful to remember where we are in chapter nine. If we look at the overall chapter here, Jesus has just shown his glory to his disciples. This is right after the transfiguration, when Peter and John and James, they go up on the mountain with Jesus, and whom do they see? They see Moses and Elijah with Jesus, and they hear the voice of the Father say, “This is my Son with whom I’m well pleased.” So they’ve seen glory, and I think they’re holding on to that part, right? Here is, we’re part of the inner circle of somebody who, God the Father shouts down from heaven, “This is my Son with whom I’m well pleased,” therefore if he’s well pleased with him, he’s well pleased with us. They got that part, but they don’t pay attention to what happens between that part and where they start to have this argument, because they come down the mountain, and what does Jesus do? Jesus immediately goes back to healing, goes back to serving. There’s a boy with an unclean spirit possessing him, and Jesus heals the boy.
He doesn’t say, you know, I’ve just been kind of through something pretty special, and you commoners, yeah, I’ll heal you someday, but stay away from me for a while. No, what does Jesus do? He comes right back down into the nitty-gritty, dirty messiness of life, and starts healing. And then the disciples, the disciples watch, and then they hear more, we’re going to get to in a moment what Jesus shares, but Jesus shares more about what’s to come, and their next thought after seeing both the glory of God, but also how the one who has that glory comes and serves, their next thought is, let’s argue about who’s really important. So it’s more than that they’ve missed the point that they should serve, it’s that they’ve encountered the glory of God, and they miss what they should serve.
It’s not the only time they do this. We have other records of these sorts of arguments amongst the disciples. At one point, the sons of Zebedee, their mom comes and argues for them that which one of them should be the greatest and most important. Then at the Last Supper, what do they do? They argue again. Who’s most important? Luke 22, verse 24. A dispute also arose among them. This is at the Last Supper. You know, we think of the big, you have the Da Vinci painting, imagine that beautiful scene, right? They’re having this Passover meal together, this is what they’re talking about. A dispute also arose among them as to which of them was to be regarded as the greatest. And he said to them, “The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and those in authority over them are called benefactors, but not so with you. Rather let the greatest among you become as the youngest and the leader as one who serves. For who is greater, one who reclines at the table or one who serves? Is it not the one who reclines at the table? But I am among you as the one who serves.”
So they keep having these arguments, and I imagine simply for lack of space, because there’s an awful lot to tell about the life of Jesus and his ministry, and John, at the end of his gospel, sums up, there’s no way you could fit in everything that Jesus did and everything that should be told. You can’t tell about every time they had some argument. So the fact that we see it several times I think indicates this is a running theme with the disciples. And they pick these inopportune moments when something really grand is happening before them, and all they can focus on is how important am I in this? Jesus doesn’t say, well, why would you do that? What’s wrong with you? He says, no, you’re acting like the world, because this is what the world does.
The leaders of the world, the kings of the world, what do they do? They constantly worry about what titles they receive and how important they are, and if people give them enough respect. They do all that because why? Because whatever their titles may be, they are to be served. You look at royal titles, sometimes they’ll have nice ones about serving the people, protector of the people, or guardian of the people, or something like that. Occasionally we’ll see genuine service, but why would someone want to be king usually? Because you’re important, because people look up to you, because people serve you, right? If you’re anyone less than the king in the land, you have to serve someone else, but if you’re the king, you’re the one who is to be served.
Now you don’t want to look too selfish about it, so many of these important leaders, whether the kings or other officials, they would give themselves titles like benefactor, and there’s a whole system of this in the Roman society, but this was an actual technical term they could receive, benefactor, and they would seek to give this title to themselves, and the title, in other words, is announcing, hey, I’m a really big deal, I’m a really big deal because I’m the benefactor of the people, now serve me, right, because you should serve me if I’m so good.
Jesus says, I know that you know that this is what people do in society, they seek after titles, they seek after honor, they seek after glory, they seek after recognition, and oftentimes when they demand it, we don’t even think anything because, well, after all, we’d want it as well. He says, I know that is normal, but it’s not the way it’s supposed to be with you. Just look in front of you. I’m here to serve you, even though I’m the one who made you. And if I’m the one who serves you as the one who made you, the only one who really deserves any honor at all, the only one who is holy, the only one who is good, if that’s whom it is who’s serving you, don’t take that to mean now you’re an even bigger deal because, you know, God the universe serves us. No, do like I do. Be a servant.
We like wearing titles. But here’s, I think, the challenge we have to ask ourselves, do we like doing the action? These people that put the title benefactor on, they may have done some beneficial things for the people who would recognize them with that title, but all in all, it was about getting served themselves, right? I’ll help you out in some way that my power allows because you’re giving me enough of something I need in order to make it beneficial to me to do that. Not because I love you, not because I just want the best for you, but because you serve me.
What did Jesus need from the disciples? He didn’t need anything. What did Jesus need from anyone? He didn’t need anything. He loves them. He loves you and he loves me. So he wants that relationship with us, not because we’re doing something for him, we’re earning the right to receive benefits from our benefactor, but because he chooses to give it to us even though we can’t offer him anything. And one thing you could definitely be assured of in the ancient world, benefactors weren’t just giving things away if they didn’t think they were the benefit, but God does.
It’s interesting if you look, this is in the Gospel of Luke, this word that’s being used here. Move into Acts, Acts 10, it says how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil for God was with him.
And look at that phrase, doing good, it may not, it doesn’t jump out in the translation, but in the Greek, the noun that Jesus uses to say, don’t be like the world, don’t seek to be called benefactor, the verb of it, the action of it is what’s being used here. You see, Jesus didn’t need to be called benefactor, he was going to live as a benefactor. He was actually going to do it.
Because when you’re actually doing it, people often don’t recognize it because you’re not busy bringing attention to yourself, you’re not busy saying, look at me and how good I am because I’m serving you, give me respect, give me honor, give me thanks, you’re simply doing it.
And how often is it that God is blessing us in ways far more wonderful than we can imagine and we don’t think to thank him, much less do anything that could possibly repay him for it. And you have to think about that. If God said, okay, one day of your life, you have to give me enough thanks for everything I do for you. The rest of the days, fine, but one day you have to get that right, I couldn’t make it past that day because I could never thank God for everything he does for me, even for one day. We never could. And yet, what does he do? He acts as a benefactor.
And in that, he’s showing, and I sort of imagine as the disciples reflect on this and they’re sharing that message in Acts, that this conversation is ringing in their heads. You know they’re replaying everything they talked about in that last supper, that room, the upper room, as they’re thinking about what’s happened since and Jesus being sent to the cross and dying and triumphing over death, and now he sent them out and the Holy Spirit has come upon them, they’re replaying what’s happened in that room.
I imagine they hear those words ringing in their heads, and then they want to go and tell the only one who actually is a benefactor, not in title, but in action, and that’s what he calls us to do, we should be those who serve.
In fact, Peter, who I think we could say in his earlier years was maybe just a little impulsive and a little too focused on everything other than what Jesus wanted him to be focused on in a given moment, Peter, as you go into his epistles towards the end of his life, you can see a man who has spent his life reflecting on what the Savior taught him, and the work of the Holy Spirit in his life produces these beautiful, beautiful letters that speak of how we should live, speak of what happens when you go from getting it wrong, and here’s the beautiful thing, Peter gets a lot wrong, God uses him, and then he says, and here’s what we really should do, here’s what I know we should do, that I didn’t always get right.
What did he say in 1 Peter 5, verse 3? He’s speaking to the newly established leaders of the church, the elders, and he says, “You should not be domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock.”
And this is a challenge, I think, for us, because we do have titles in the church, someday, my prayer is God’s continuing to grow us as a church and establish us as we continue to transition from being a church plant into an ongoing church. Someday we will actually ordain elders, and I’m excited for that day, I look forward to that day, someday we’ll be deacons, and we’ll talk more about that as things come, or if you have questions about what all that means.
But needless to say, going back to the early church, you do need people appointed that help to lead the church, and Peter already recognizes it because he sees it in himself, he knows what he struggled with when he was just one of the 12 in that upper room, just one of the hand-selected people of Jesus, and he knew what his impulse was, and I may be the one that’s the greatest. Peter in his old age says, to those who are going to be carrying on long beyond his youth, as you lead this church, as you lead the new churches that will be established, don’t be focused on title, be focused on the reality behind the title.
Why should someone be called an elder? Because he’s shepherding a person, shepherding, leading, guiding, caring for the flock, not because you’ll receive honors. Are there worldly honors at times when we get an office in the church? Yes, and they’re one of the most detrimental things to serving God in the church, because temptations start to think, hey, I’m kind of important.
Thinking back today, I’ve been thinking a lot about when I was ordained, because one of the men who laid hands on me was Galen, another one was Tom over there, so we have several who laid hands on me here, and I know a number of you also were just there experiencing it with me, and what a blessing that was.
And I’ve been thinking about that, though, because I have a picture, and I can picture Galen in that huddle as the elders laid hands on me, and thinking about what I appreciate about him and his example, and some of the ways he encouraged me, and you know, as you enter into a position of leadership in the church, it’s sort of like, well, now what do I do, and it’s a whole bunch of different emotions.
Some of them are those ugly things, like, oh, hey, now I’m important, and some of them are just overwhelming and terrifying, because it’s like, well, now I’m actually supposed to do this stuff. My second day as a pastor, there was someone who was angry and wanted to leave the church, so he wanted to talk to the pastor, and I was the only one available, and it’s like, wait a second, I’m not ready for this, but I thought about Galen, and Galen, I know if you knew him, you’d know this, was such an example of humility.
He saw his own flaws deeply and clearly, and even when he wasn’t in an official capacity, he shepherded God’s flock. He would reach out to me if he knew something was discouraging me, long after we weren’t even in the same church together, he would just do that, and likewise, we were friends. I would do that as well, it became that, but he would do that when I was just starting at this, and then I saw that with others, there were like, when he was in the Tuesday night Bible study, I’d see someone struggling, and Galen would bring up something from scripture that he knew would provide comfort, and he wanted to provide comfort.
It’s the doing, it’s not the title. Most of the time, I actually knew Galen, he wasn’t actively serving in an office, he had been ordained as an elder, but he wasn’t actively serving in that office, he didn’t throw the title around, I would imagine most of the people that knew him later on had no idea he had been given the title, he just did it, and that’s what God wants us to do, to live shepherding, and you don’t need the title.
If you’re thinking, well, I don’t know if I ever want a title like that, I don’t know if I’ll ever be called a title like that, the title’s not the point anyway, the point is to go and do the service that God calls us to, to love the people around us, that God has placed in this church, in our neighborhoods, in our workplaces, in our schools, to be the person who says, it’s not about what’s going to benefit me at this moment, it’s not about whether it helps me to achieve the status of greatest in my circle, but to serve.
Jesus said, live as a benefactor, don’t take the title of benefactor. And Peter, as he talks to elders, people who’ve been given a title in the church, says, here’s how you do it, don’t lord it over them, don’t try to be important and make sure everyone knows that you’re important, just be an example by living like Jesus. Love the people like Jesus.
It’s the far dirtier, more painful, messier, painstaking part of the call. Title, people look up at you, say, oh, you’re one of those people that, you’ll know answers for me, you know things. No, be an example.
C.S. Lewis, in one of my all-time favorite books, if you haven’t ever gotten around to reading Mere Christianity, you should do it. Be the next thing you read if you haven’t read it. It’s, I think, one of the best things ever written reflecting on the Christian life. And he has an example very early on. He debates over the topic of what the word Christian means.
And he uses, by way of example, the term gentleman. If you’ve read it, you may recall that discussion. He notes that originally the word gentleman meant that you were landed, that you had land, that your family had a coat of arms, that you were someone in society. You could be a rotten scoundrel and be a gentleman because it was about this objective thing. Do you have the deed or not? That’s what determined it. And so it had a meaning to it. It’s not the meaning that we think of today.
If someone tells you, for the men here at least, be a gentleman or be a lady, right? You put one of the titles. We mean be respectful or be good and kind and proper. We’re not telling someone, go acquire a piece of land in England. But that’s more what it originally meant.
And Lewis said, but then people said, well, I know someone who doesn’t own land but exemplifies the noble character of having land, of having a coat of arms, of having status in society better than someone who actually has the land. That person should be called a gentleman. And over time you see the morphing of a term like that where at one point it meant something very clear and objective to now it basically means nice, but it’s a nicer term for nice. It doesn’t really mean a whole lot. It’s not rooted in the concrete thing.
And Jesus wanted his disciples to understand a very similar dilemma. That if you’re going to be my disciple, if you’re going to be an elder or a deacon, if you’re just going to be anyone amongst my people, title or no title, what you need to understand is that there’s something behind that and it’s not just a compliment. We don’t just hand this out so people can feel important. It’s not a participation trophy to be called a follower of Jesus. What does Jesus want? He wants us to understand that the land, the thing that gives us the title, is humility. If we want to be someone in the church, we serve. And that the crest, the thing that gives us that status, isn’t that everyone really likes us, people show respect to our crest as Christ. Our land is humility and our crest is Christ. If we can remember that, it transforms what we’re seeking after. It’s not about how many people look up to me or if people look up to me in a very large church or a small church, if they look up to me at my workplace or not, it’s am I serving them? Am I living as Jesus does? It’s not about serving myself, making sure I have all the toilet paper. It’s about making sure everyone else has the toilet paper.
Here’s something that happens if we can hold on to that mindset. It’s a hard mindset to hold on to because we get right back off the rails again and we see that here as we go on to the next part of Luke chapter 9 because then we say, okay, so I’m called to serve. We’re called to serve here. Okay, we are commissioned troops in Jesus’ service army, right? We’re gonna go out. What about other people that say they want to serve too? And one thing that Jesus wanted the disciples to understand is that being a servant of the Lord isn’t something that is exclusive. He is exclusive, right? There’s only one that we should be seeking after is Lord, but to serve him is not something that’s exclusive. But that’s not where the disciples go.
Verse 49, John answered, “Master, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him because he does not follow with us.” But Jesus said to him, “Do not stop him, for the one who is not against you is for you.” You see, one of the problems, we can turn service itself into some kind of status for ourselves because we say, okay, I’m going to serve. I’m going to be the best servant. Everyone’s gonna know I’m a servant, and you better not serve because I’m serving.
We do that in all kinds of different ways in our Christian walk individually as a church. We can fall into that trap as a group of churches, whether we’re just sort of talking about similar theology or denomination or lack thereof or the style that we have, say, in American Christianity versus, say, Christianity in Africa or South America or Asia where it looks different, right? There’s all the kinds of different categories we can come up to divide one, and we say, well, okay, I know it’s not about me and my status, but I’m a servant. Those other people, they’re not serving right, so they shouldn’t serve.
Jesus just talked about how they’re not supposed to be focused on themselves, and John says, okay, we’ve got it. We’re serving, but these people, they’re not quite like us. Yeah, they’re going and ministering in your name, Jesus, but they’re not quite like us, so we told them to stop. They don’t have a license. They didn’t sign up for the franchise system. How dare they violate your trademark, Jesus, by serving? He says, let them serve.
Now, you might say, why are they different? What’s different about them? It’s an important question to ask. We have other examples. For example, if we went over to Acts chapter 19, we’ve seen an example of someone who tries to cast out demons in Jesus’s name, doesn’t really understand who Jesus is, doesn’t really understand what’s going on, but realizes it’s kind of cool if you can cast demons out, and I know the magic word. It’s Jesus, and so he’s not really trying to follow Jesus. He just thinks sort of like abracadabra. I can just say this word, and out goes a demon, except it doesn’t. It goes very badly for him, because he’s not actually following Jesus.
Here, we have every reason to believe there must be something more to these people. Now, is it that they haven’t quite committed all the way yet? They still have a day job, and they don’t follow everywhere the disciples go? Are they still learning exactly what it means to be a follower of Jesus, and they know they should follow Jesus, but they haven’t gotten completely there yet? You know, they’re sort of baby Christians, maybe? We don’t know exactly, but it must be something like that, because the thing that we see, it’s not that the demons are turning on these people, and they’re being attacked by the demons like we see in Acts.
Jesus doesn’t say, I’m so glad you stopped them, because they could have gotten hurt doing that. Jesus said, don’t stop them. They’re not against you. And one of the challenges we face as believers is trying to figure out who’s for us and who’s against us, and we start trying to figure out who’s the in-group and who’s the out-group.
And I think those two examples of people who try to cast out demons in Jesus’ name are really important to hold in tension, because yes, there is an out-group. There are those who don’t actually know Jesus, who aren’t actually following Jesus. But here we see someone who just isn’t quite up to the snuff that the disciples would like to see. And maybe they’re even right.
I mean, if you’re actually with Jesus all the time, and you’re learning from Jesus all the time, and you look over and there’s someone else who says he or she’s a follower of Jesus, but it doesn’t quite do it the way that you’ve been learning from Jesus, you might be right that this person needs to progress. But the answer there is to help them, to disciple them, to not be trying to hold on saying, hey, I’m holding on to this exclusivity for you, Jesus, but to say, I want to help more people. I want to serve these other servants, to help them be better servants. It’s not about me being recognized as the greatest servant. It’s about more people being served by God’s kingdom. We’re servants together.
So we may not know exactly why the disciples viewed them as other, but the key thing we see is that Jesus says, if you see other people, maybe they go to a different church, maybe they like to sing different songs, maybe they’re not quite as mature as we think they should be, or they don’t dress the way we think they should, or whatever it might be, Jesus says, if they’re serving me, they’re following me, your purpose isn’t to stop them, but to equip them.
Take a look at Luke 11 23, though, we say, but Jesus said, “Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.” We say, but Jesus, here it sounds like, if you’re not fully on board, if you’re just sort of halfway, I mean, I’ve read Revelation already, right? Disciples may not have, but I’ve read it. There are people who Jesus is going to spit out.
What if these people are lukewarm? What if they’re people that God is rejecting? And again, there’s a distinction here, and Jesus isn’t denying that there is a reality of some people who genuinely are outside of his circle. What he’s saying, though, in Luke 9 is, our hearts go there too quickly, and part of the way that we kind of get halfway to service is we get far enough that we say, okay, I know I shouldn’t tell everyone my title the first time they meet me. Let’s figure out how I can add more to it.
Okay, I got that, but at least I’m going to stop them from being important, so that I’m still important. And Jesus says, if that’s where you’re falling, if that’s where you are, that isn’t where you are to be. That’s not where I am to be.
He wants us to be zealous in living for him, not zealous in keeping him from others.
So what should the disciples have done? If they encountered someone who wanted to follow Jesus, is trying to follow Jesus, but doesn’t fully understand it, you help him. You help her to understand better, and you don’t worry, well, will I be less important in the church? Will I be less important in the world if suddenly I’m not the one who’s serving by myself? There are a lot of things in life that are limited, and we approach being a servant of Jesus almost as if it’s like this limited quantity thing.
I was thinking, looking out at our parking lot, I can’t wait for our flowers to return. You know, this beautiful cosmos we always have in the planter outside, and suddenly the drab parking lot just looks beautiful, and you see butterflies flying, and bees, and it’s just wonderful. I can’t wait for it to be back for the year.
Last year, we had a particularly great crop of flowers, and we had people discover it outside the church. Great thing, we wanted that, right? We want people to come and enjoy the flowers. But then they started picking the flowers. And then someone even went and started digging up the flowers.
And I thought, well, you know, we wanted to share the enjoyment of it, but somewhere in there I think we’ve gone further than what we were intending, because the thing I know is if everyone’s digging up and picking the flowers, there won’t be any flowers, and no one will enjoy them. And in that case, that’s an accurate thing, right? If everyone that walks down the sidewalk there picks a flower, the flowers won’t receive. If everyone digs up a flower, the flowers won’t even be there to think about receiving.
So we put up little signs, please enjoy the flowers by admiring them, please don’t take them. And I think that mostly worked, at least.
But it’s a limited quantity. And that’s what we know in everything in life, right? Even if we think about friendships, well, do we really want to introduce people together, because everyone only has so much time, and they can only spend so much time with other people, and so much emotional energy. Maybe I’m giving up too much of a friend resource if these people connect, or whatever the case may be. At work, maybe if I help a coworker, that coworker might get a promotion. And there are only so many promotions, so maybe that promotion doesn’t go to me.
We know that we live in a reality that everything is to some extent scarce, and so we hold on to that.
And yet that’s a lie, because not everything is scarce. God’s love isn’t scarce. The opportunity to serve in his kingdom isn’t scarce. And so when we start feeling like people are picking the flowers because they’re starting to find ways to serve, or maybe they’re doing something that we sort of feel like is our domain, the challenge can be, say, well, I gotta pick all the flowers.
What God’s saying is, quit more, and serve more, and help see that you will never pick all the flowers. My love is unlimited. It’s not going to run out. No one’s going to get the last bottle of God’s love to be refreshed by that living water, because we accidentally gave it out and didn’t leave any for ourselves.
So what are we to do? We need to be people handing out flowers. We need to be people handing out rolls of toilet paper. We need to be people who are eager to say, I want to be a genuine benefactor, not known as a benefactor, not known as a gentleman. I want to be someone who is, by action. I want to serve.
I think in the church, it certainly looks like us discipling each other and equipping each other, that those who are called to do something, we’re helping each other so that everyone here, my prayer is everyone here has a place to serve and feels a calling to that service, and is encouraged in that.
We do that, and that’s how we stay as a church. It’s a little easier to do when we’re small, that we can think, where does this person plug into that? But as God works, and as different folks come in the door, one of the challenges is to hold on to that, and not to get into a more commercial mentality where there’s people, okay, here are the people there, the people who are serving, and then there’s the people that we serve, right?
How do we do that? How do we go beyond that? How do we keep in mind that it’s not about building up this church? It’s not about building up some kind of movement that this church is a part of. It’s about building up God’s kingdom.
And anywhere we see that happening, if we can assist in that, if we can encourage that, if we can be praying for that, if God opens a door that we can be those seeking to not be known as benefactors, but those who are benefacting, that’s what God’s called us to do. Not for the recognition.
In fact, the recognition can be awfully harmful because then suddenly it goes to our heads and our pride, and we start to want that and not the service.
I hope quietly, when people even realize that that’s the nature of this church, that God would use us to be those who serve. Serve each other, serve our neighborhoods, and serve the rest of the body of Christ, doing whatever we can to nourish. Because here’s the sneaky snake. We want to lord it over. We want to be important. We want to hoard the toilet paper. God says, that’s not what you’re called to do.
You see, as the disciples were arguing that, the one part I skipped over. Jesus tells them that he’s going to be betrayed, and he’s going to go and take on the sin of the world. And we see that in both cases where they’re arguing about this. It’s right in front of them. Ultimate service.
Follow me. We want to lord it over, but the Lord wants us to serve, and may that be what we do.
Lord Jesus, would you help us to follow you. We seek what will bring us status. We seek what will bring us importance. We seek what will bring us praise. But Lord, you guide us towards something different. Would you help us to be those who equip and disciple and strengthen, rather than those who seek to build up ourselves. May you help us to do that as individuals here at this church, and in our communities, and our workplaces, and our schools. Would you help us to do that as a church body together, that we would be those who encourage the broader church, our brothers and sisters in Christ and other churches and ministries in this community and in this world. Would you help us to be those who build and pour into, not for the recognition, but because we know that we’re already recognized by the only one who matters. Would you help us to be those who pour out the love that you have freely given to us, that we would love others with it. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
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