Success is Service

Notes from a sermon I heard:

Maturity and Success

Success = Service

As we mature, we develop in:

• Precision
• Power

This takes:

• Discipline
• Focus

How did Jesus Serve?

Mk 10:35-45 (NIV):

 ³⁵Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to him. “Teacher,” they said, “we want you to do for us whatever we ask.”

 ³⁶“What do you want me to do for you?” he asked.

 ³⁷They replied, “Let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left in your glory.”

 ³⁸“You don’t know what you are asking,” Jesus said. “Can you drink the cup I drink or be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with?”

 ³⁹“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, ⁴⁰but to sit at my right or left is not for me to grant. These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared.”

 ⁴¹When the ten heard about this, they became indignant with James and John. ⁴²Jesus called them together and said, “You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. ⁴³Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, ⁴⁴and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. ⁴⁵For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Characteristics of a True Servant

• Willing to be anonymous
• Committed to God: once and for all
• Rights given up
• It comes from the gut: Jesus *wanted* to wash the disciple’s feet.

Becoming a Servant

If you don’t want to serve, you have an impure heart: but Jesus can purify our hearts. Be truthful. Repent.

The question is not ‘do you want to serve?’, but ‘do you want to change?’

 Talent / intellect / training / money / success / maturity are not required to make a start.

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