Inland Empire: Riverside
What Do You Want Me to Do For You - Audio
(upbeat music) - So we're excited to have you here if you're visiting, welcome. And today's a special day where in so many ways our church comes together to cook and set up and just welcome the community. And just really, it's kind of what we want to be all the time, but we only can kind of do it like once a year, right? So everybody working together, everybody, welcome. Obviously we want to be that way all the time. If you come back next week, there'll be no food, carnival, jumpy houses, probably half the amount of people. We're just trying, we're just the people that want to serve God and want to do our best. And hopefully that's where you are today as you're here. So thank you so much again for coming. We've been going through a series on the book of Mark this year, we're on Mark chapter 10 where you could turn over now to verse 35 if you have your Bible there. And we're going to be continuing through Mark in the next couple of months through the end of November before we get into Advent and kind of looking forward to Christmas. But just as a little review here that Jesus is writing to an audience, or Mark is writing about Jesus to an audience of people that already knew Jesus, right? So he doesn't go into much of the teaching. He goes into the parable, the soils and you might remember the path and the rocky soil and the soil with the weeds and the good soil, which is where we all want to be, right? Of course, but he doesn't really get into that because everyone that he's writing to has already heard the message and the thing that's kind of the upside down part of the book is the ones who are his followers are the ones that tend to doubt and are fearful and don't quite understand what Jesus is saying. And there's many instances of people that haven't followed Jesus for long, that can see who he is, that come and worship him and even beg him to heal people and their families and come to him for help. And they saw him who he really was. So that's kind of the theme is that sometimes when you feel so comfortable with Christ, you might not be in a good place. And sometimes if someone that doesn't know much about Jesus could actually see him even in a better way than some of us who have been around him for a long time, including preachers. And so they're heading today, we tune in, is they're heading to Jerusalem and Jesus is heading to the cross. And as they're going, he tells them the third time he predicts his death and resurrection the third time. And I know Jason spoke about that last week of the three times where Jesus told them that he was gonna die and the three times that they either argued with him, either said you're wrong, that's not gonna happen that way, or we'll see it today and they start arguing, well, since you're gonna be gone, maybe we can take your place and maybe we can be the greatest. So still the disciples aren't quite getting it and then Jesus has to correct them. And as we get started here, I wanted to share this story that I hope relates a little bit. This past week, my son and I and his cousin went on a hiking trip. We did a four day trip through Yosemite and this was where we camped on the very first night. It's called Booth Lake. It was so still and there was a comment there that we just got to watch go behind the mountain and I took this picture and this was like the glory moment of the trip. Like, wow, this is why we came out here. And then, you know, today we're gonna talk, Jesus is gonna talk some about his glory and what true leadership is all about. And so here's us at the end of the trip there, fashion aside, you know, we finished. So we were excited. We came down the final stretch and it felt like I was entering heaven itself. It was an amazing feeling. And then I realized as I was going over this lesson on servant leadership that my son, you know, as a parent, right, you're used to doing everything for your kids, right? When they're little, you do everything for them and they get older and they start doing a little bit more and a little bit more. But you're still kind of always looking out for them, even in the, you know, 20s or whatever, like my son's 22. But I realized on this trip, he was the one who was serving us the entire time. First of all, he was about five times in better shape than all of us. At least me, he planned the route. He bought his backpack and my backpack. He gave the two of us a list of all the things we needed to buy. He bought all the food for all of us. Don't get too excited. It's not exactly, I'm actually here today because of the food after this week. We had two oatmeal packets for breakfast and we had either instant mashed potatoes or rice for dinner, right? Those were like the two really meals that you looked forward to during the day. And then throughout the day, you could eat whatever you wanted and it was like granola bars, trail mix, dried fruit, cherries, strawberries, mangoes, candy bars, snickers, twigs, and three musketeers, but nobody likes three musketeers, right? No. (audience laughs) So that was pretty much our meal. So I'm looking forward to the food today, for sure. And then we got to this campsite. He set up all three of our tents. Showed us how to do it. He showed us how to pack our packs. So how to put all the stuff in there and it ended up weighing about 55 pounds, right? 30 miles, 55 pounds, sleeping outside. You get the idea. We held together. And he was the one that had the GPS. And so the only one that could call for help, if anything happened, and he's the one that knew where we were going. So we were pretty much completely dedicated to his plan. And so he was the servant leader for the trip. And also, he had gone on about a 10 day hike before he even met us. So like he had like a pre-trip. And then one day, as we were so exhausted, he went on a bonus trip of like 10 extra miles to go on top of what's called Cloud's Rest, which is pretty famous up there, although I had never heard of it. But it was pretty amazing. And I'm not sure, but hopefully today. And while we rested, he worked, right? He was cleaning the water, you know, purifying the water for us. While we're just like exhausted and trying to make it look like we were busy, but he was doing everything. (audience laughing) I'm not sure if you can see it, but how this connects to Christ, but hopefully you will, right? He leads us to glory. He had a pre-trip too. He came down here from heaven. And he has another special trip plan that he raised from the dead, right? He's the one that has the GPS for our lives. He's the one that knows where you're going. He's really the only one that knows where any of us are going, right? In five or 10 or 20 years from now, he is guiding us and he is the servant leader that's taking care of everything we need along the way. And so hopefully you will see that today from this passage here in Mark 10. Let's say a quick prayer and we'll start. Father, we're so grateful to be here. I pray that you open up your word to us, God. Help us to feel loved by you, to feel led by you, to know that you are trying to meet our needs in so many ways, God. I pray that you open up our hearts to the scriptures, that you get me out of the way that we can see you. We love you, we pray in Jesus' name, amen. Well, my title today is what do you want me to do for you? And Jesus actually asked that in this passage and in the following passage. And so, since he asked it twice, I'll ask you, what do you want Jesus to do for you, right? Isn't that what we do in our prayer times most of the time? Jesus, these are the things I want you to do for me, right? And we don't ever say it quite in that way, but that's kind of what we're doing. And so let's start reading in verse 32. He said, "They were on their way to Jerusalem, with Jesus leading the way, and the disciples were astonished, while those who followed were afraid." Again, he took the 12 aside and told them what was gonna happen to him. "We're going to Jerusalem," he said, "and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priest and the teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the Gentiles, who will mock him and spit on him, flog him and kill him. Three days later, he will rise." Amen, that's a good part. Then James and John's sons of Zebedee came to him, "Teacher," they said, "we want you to do for us whatever we ask. What do you want me to do for you?" There's the title, he asked. They replied, "let one of us sit on your right and the other on your left in your glory. You don't know what you're asking," Jesus said. "Can you drink the cup I drink or be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with?" "We can," they answered. Jesus said to them, "you will drink the cup I drink and be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with. But to sit on my right or left is not for me to grant. These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared." When the 10 heard about this, they became indignant with James and John. Jesus called them together and said, "you know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lorded over them and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must become your servant and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the son of man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. And so Jesus teaches them the way, the Jesus way. They didn't quite have it figured out. As he was going to Jerusalem, it says that the disciples were astonished, not in a good way. It wasn't like they were like, "Man, this is amazing." They were like, "What are we doing?" Those guys hate us over there. They want to kill us. And you can imagine them walking there talking to each other like, "Can you believe what are we doing? This guy is crazy." Taking us to Jerusalem. And then there was others that were following, that were just, they were an astonished, they were just afraid. And so much of this gospel talks about the difference between faith and fear, right? We live between faith and fear, right? We're afraid of so many different things. And Jesus is calling us to put our faith in him. And even follow when we're afraid. They were still following, they were afraid, but they're like, "I don't know about this, but let's see what happens." That's how we are many times, right? As he's going along, he predicts his death and resurrection. And I love those words, he will rise. That's a call for us, a reminder that whatever we're going to go through, we're going to rise someday. That we're going to be raised, that it's going to get better, that we're going to have victory. The cross without the resurrection is a wasted life. Just suffering for suffering's sake. Unless we're doing it out of love for Christ and for others. Amen? I'm going to skip down where he says to the ask them what they want. And today may be a time to think about it. I know we got a lot going on. But think about that question even this week. What do I want from God? What do I want from Jesus? Like if I'm really honest, like if no one's going to ask me what it is. 'Cause I think for me, it's not what Jesus says. Right? What he's saying here is not really what I want. Like I'm going to go to the cross and guess what? You're going to follow me. I'm going to drink this cup of suffering and guess what? If you want to follow me, you get two too. And I'm like, no way. I don't want that. Right. I want victory Jesus. I want, you know, feasting Jesus. You know, I want to walk on water and he's like, well, that's not your job, right? God's going to raise this up, but we don't get to only have those things that are powerful and that are awesome and that we're excited about. You know, this idea of drinking the cup. And again, he's writing to people that already know what happened. They already know that Jesus died. He rose again and that these 12 apostles were leaders in the church and some of them were dead and some of them were going to die and all but one of them was going to die. And so he's just reminding them, remember Jesus' life. Remember what he did, how he lived. Remember the Beatitudes where he said, you're happy or blessed when you mourn, when you're poor, when you're meek, when you hunger and thirst, when you're pure in heart and when you're persecuted. He's like, remember that was Jesus. He carried people's burdens. He got in the dirt with people. He saw him at their lowest points. He cried. Says he was blessed when we're merciful and when we're peacemakers. We have a time in these next few weeks to be peacemakers. We could divide or we could bring people together. We could be merciful or we can be angry. We can be argumentative or we could be like Christ. What a light that we get a chance to be is his followers. It says that when we are this way that these blessings come, that we're comforted, that we inherit the earth, that we're filled, that we're shown mercy, that we actually see God that we're called children of God and we belong to the kingdom of heaven. Imagine them thinking about Jesus' life up to this point and him saying, if you wanna go up, you gotta go down. If you wanna go to glory, you gotta choose the path of Christ that I'm showing you. That he healed people. He freed people from their sufferings. He fed people. We like that part. He noticed people that no one else noticed. He valued people that no one else valued. And he challenged people for not being that way with their fellow humans. He prayed for others. He patiently taught. He didn't get frustrated when they didn't get it over and over and over. I'm happy about that. He protected people. And that was just up until this point and he still was gonna go right into Jerusalem, not as a conquering king on a horse, but on a donkey, not with an army with people putting pom-frons after. It wasn't glorious. He was gonna wash their feet at the last supper. He was going to humble himself before the rulers of the day and before his people that wanted to kill him. Here he says that he had come to give his life as a ransom for many. And we're gonna focus on this as we get ready to take our communion. To ransom or redeem is to secure the release or recovery of people or things by payment of a price. That he had come to be that Passover land that got the Israelites out of Egypt. He had come to be the one who paid for our freedom to bring us to God. And he says it very casually there that the Son of Man did not come to serve. And I always thought, you see that word, the Son of Man in there and it's kind of, I don't know what, I never really know what to think about it. It comes across really humble, right? Jesus doesn't have to say he's the Son of Man. He could say he is the man. I am the I am, but he just says I am the Son of Man and I always thought that was like a humble thing. But not to those who understood what the Son of Man is. In Daniel chapter seven it says that the Son of Man will come down on the clouds of heaven. So he's giving a picture of him coming back in glory. It says that the Son of Man has authority, glory, sovereign power over all nations. And people of every language will worship him. And he has everlasting dominion and his kingdom will never be destroyed. So when he says he's the Son of Man, he's like I am everything and I became nothing for you. And that's what the communion table is all about. Jesus giving his body and his blood for us. For us to be reminded of what true greatness is, of what the path of Jesus is. Not what we want, not where we want to go, but where he wants to lead us. And we're reminded that he's the one with the GPS, that he's the one that provides for us, that he's the one that's done all the hard work. And we're reminded that we're not very good at this. We're not very good at loving others. We're not very good at being selfless and laying down our lives. It's like the more you walk with Christ, the more you're reminded that we need that forgiveness, that we need him. The communion table says that all are welcome. Everyone's equal. No one has pushed away as we all are looking to Jesus for life. I pray we can live that way. Jesus took the bread and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave us to his disciples, saying take it, this is my body. Then he took the cup and he said, this cup represents the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for many. So as we take communion today, let's recommit ourselves to the way of Christ, to this path to the cross that leads to resurrection and to the servant leadership, where if we want to be great, we have to be like Christ. Amen, let's pray. Father, we thank you for this time to come before you. We thank you for this amazing day to be together, to be reminded that all are welcome at the table of Christ, to be reminded that we're all the same, that we all need a savior, that we all need forgiveness, that we all need grace. God, I pray that we can recognize that as we take the body and the blood that you lead us to what you want from us and what decisions we need to make or what we need to do or who we need to be to please you. Thank you for this time. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.
Inland Empire Church of Christ