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Sometimes when things aren't going right in our lives, it could be a test or an attack from the enemy. We might be facing consequences from bad decisions or working against ourselves by seeking our own glory. We need to disconnect from the world and reconnect with God through spiritual disciplines like prayer, fasting, Bible study, Sabbath rest, worship, simplicity, and service. Serving others is important because it allows God's love to flow through us and keeps us from becoming stagnant. We need to have a balanced relationship with God, not just expecting Him to grant our every request. In Mark 10, James and John asked Jesus for the highest positions of honor in His kingdom, but they misunderstood what it meant to follow Him. We all crave power and importance, but true discipleship is about serving others. Do you ever feel like nothing's going right in your life? Sometimes it could be a time of testing. Sometimes you just might be under an attack of the enemy. Maybe you're just reaping the consequences of some bad decisions, or you could be working against yourself because you're seeking to make a name for you and you're seeking to exalt you and you're wondering why things are falling apart because we're not allowing God to bring his favor on our lives through our humility. Welcome to Elevate from Authentic Life Church in Mobile, Alabama, with Pastor John DiQuatro. We hope it builds your faith and helps you to live a life for God that you've always wanted to live. We hope it inspires you to be a fully devoted, authentic follower of Jesus Christ. Enjoy the message and welcome to Elevate. We have been in this sermon series called Airplane Mode, and you all know by now, if you didn't already know what Airplane Mode is all about on your phone, that little button right there, you turn it off and it disconnects you from the world, right? And we do that so that we don't mess with the airline navigation systems, but Airplane Mode disconnects us from Facebook and from Instagram and from Snapchat and from texts and emails and phone calls and all those things. And it's good once in a while to disconnect from all those things. And so in the world of being a follower of Christ, we need to take time to disconnect from this world so that we can reconnect with God. Amen? And so our Airplane Mode, as believers in Jesus Christ, is truly spiritual discipline. It's intentionally doing things that are going to cause us to grow in Him. Amen? If you want to have spiritual results in your life, you have got to do spiritual things. And when we say spiritual disciplines, just know that discipline simply means to train oneself to do something in a controlled and habitual way. If you don't train yourself to pray every day, you're not going to pray every day. If you don't train yourself to worship God, if you don't train yourself to live a life of simplicity as we talked about last week, or if you don't train yourself to do those things, they're not just going to come naturally to you. You live in a fallen tent. The Bible says that your heart is desperately wicked. Your default mode is not to connect with your Creator. But that's what God's placed in you, and through these disciplines, we train ourselves and we shed this flesh and we shed all of these things that are trying to keep us from God, and we allow ourselves to come into that harmony and that community with Him. Our mission statement for Authentic Life Church is to build a community of fully devoted, authentic followers of Jesus Christ. In a word, we are committed to making disciples. And so that's what we're doing here. This is the disciplines of discipleship. And so, so far we've covered prayer and fasting. We've covered Bible study. We've covered Sabbath, rest. We've talked about worship. And last week we talked about simplicity. And if you have not had a chance to hear all of these messages in airplane mode, I encourage you to go onto your Church Center app. You can pull it up there or go onto our website. You can find all of the messages there or even just scroll through the timeline on Facebook and find the date that you missed and catch the live stream. These are things that are gonna help you as you continue to grow in your relationship with Jesus Christ. But today we're going to talk about the spiritual discipline of service. You know, serving causes us to reach outside of ourselves and begin to give our time, our resources, and our love to other people. You know, I don't think that what God has given us when we came into relationship with Him, I don't think that what He's placed in us is meant just for us. It's not meant to be kept to ourselves. And if we're not giving out what He's placed in us, if we're not actively loving and serving, right? What happens is we become stagnant. It stops the flow. And if you know that a body of water that does not have a regular in and inflow and outflow, that body of water will become stagnant. It will be something that does not give life. Eventually, fish will not be able to live in a stagnant body of water. And so serving is extremely important in the life of a believer because as the Lord fills you, as the Lord gives to you, as the Lord sheds His love in your heart and shows you His mercy and His grace and His love, He wants us to take that and just begin to give that away in whatever way that He has called you to do it. And that keeps the flow going. We talk about the three areas, the authentic attributes of saved people seek God, right? The third one is saved people save people. But the second one is that saved people serve people. Everybody say that with me. Saved people serve people. That's right. We're gonna look at Mark chapter 10, beginning in verse 35. And it says this, and James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came up to Him, Jesus, and said to Him, Teacher, we want You to do for us whatever we ask of You. Now let's stop there for a moment. What a jaw-dropping, audacious request. Oh, Jesus, Son of God, Messiah, Savior of the world, Creator of all things, we'd like You to do for us whatever it is that we want You to do. I mean, they're asking Jesus for a blank check. And you know, many of us have learned to relate to God like we see James and John doing here, that He exists in order for us to ask Him for things and expect that God will grant all of our requests. And let me tell you, that's a real shallow and shifty foundation for any relationship. Just like any relationship, there has to be a give and a take involved. If you've ever been in a relationship where all they did was take from you and they were just a leech on your life, it got old very quick and you most likely sought a way to end that relationship very, very quickly. But from our side, in our relationship with Christ, if we only gave to Him and He never gave anything back, we would just have to be okay with that because you know what? He has already given us everything that we need. He gave us His Son, Jesus Christ, who became the final ransom for sin. He purchased our forgiveness and our salvation, ensuring us eternal life in His presence. And so we can't come to God expecting Him to be our lottery machine because if you do that, you will be quickly disappointed. The Bible says that He gives us everything that pertains to life and godliness. He's given everything to you already. And so when we make Him our lottery machine and we're just pulling that lever and just asking God that you're going to be disappointed and many people that have learned to relate to God in that way have fallen away from faith because of a weak foundation. Because a faith like that does not stand the tough storms. Because you know what? Life is going to throw you some really crazy stuff. It's going to happen, right? You live in a fallen world. It's not all going to be peaches and cream. I promise you that. And God promises you this, He will be with you through every storm. But let's not look to God as being a lever that we can just pull and get whatever we want. But Jesus is gracious to James and John when they ask Him for a blank check. In verse 36 it says this, and He said to them, well, what do you want Me to do for you? And this is the graciousness of Jesus here. You know, even when we get stupid and juvenile and try to relate to Him in this way, He still welcomes us. He still loves us. He still embraces us. He doesn't push us away and rebuke us. They're like, Jesus, we want You to do whatever we want for You to do. And He's like, okay, what is it that You would like for Me to do? Right? He's just so gracious. But here is what they want. In verse 37 it says, And they said to Him, this is their request, Grant us to sit, one at Your right hand and one at Your left, in glory. Now, this request doesn't quite translate in our culture today. Like, who cares where you sit, except for when you come into church. If somebody sits in your seat, my goodness. But understand what it was that they were asking. They were asking for the highest positions of honor in Jesus' kingdom. You see, the person who sat at a ruler's right hand enjoyed the highest position. And the person who sat at a ruler's left hand enjoyed the second highest position in that kingdom. But these guys did not quite understand what they were asking. You see, first of all, they initially thought that Jesus was going to set up a kingdom here on earth. They thought that the Romans would be gone. They thought that the Romans had come, they were occupying Jerusalem at the time. And they thought that Jesus would come and He'd kick the Romans out of Israel. And that these guys would now be on the inside, the inner circle of this new regime. They believed that Jesus was the Messiah, but they misunderstood what that meant. Because they thought that they were going to be big shots in Jesus' kingdom. Now think about it, because we might feel this way too. You're getting chummy with the guy that you think is going to take down the enemies of Israel and set up a new kingdom. I mean, that feels good. Hey, we're on the inside. We can really be somebody here. We can have some real power for once in our lives. I mean, what a rags to riches story that would be. We go from fishermen to the two highest ranking officials in the kingdom. So, let's get the word from the big guy and secure our spots in this kingdom. James and John are no different than most of us are today. We crave power. If we have the opportunity to be on the inside, boy, we love that and we'll take it every time. We all want a little power and we all want to feel important. We all would love to be in the inner circle and we want everyone else around us to know just how important we are. You ever talk to somebody and all they do is name drop? All they do is tell you everything they did. They probably told you 35 times already, but they're going to tell you one more time because they want you to know just how important they are. But Jesus sees right through this. And so he says to them, beginning in verse 38, he says, Jesus said to them, you do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized? And they said to him, we are able. And Jesus said to them, the cup that I drink, you will drink. And with the baptism which I am baptized, you will be baptized. Now, you know what he's talking about is his death, his crucifixion that he's about to go through. And these guys are eventually going to be martyred as well. So he's saying, yeah, you're going to go through it. But then he says this in verse 40, but to sit at my right hand or at my left hand is not mine to grant, but it's for those for whom it has been prepared. You can almost hear James and John deflating like a balloon right here in this moment because they've hatched this plan to get to Jesus before any of the other disciples so that they can have the top spots in the kingdom and they're so confident they think that they got Jesus already to agree to give them whatever they want. And then Jesus tells them, listen, guys, that's above my pay grade. Sorry, kiddos. I can't grant you that. But then we move on to verse 41 and it says, and when the ten heard it, they began to be indignant at James and John. Now, I always find this a little bit funny because the other disciples overhear this conversation and now they're mad. Why are they mad? Because they didn't get to Jesus first. They wanted the top spots. They wanted to be the ones with all the power and with all the clouts. But James and John got to Jesus first. And you see this dynamic happening among the disciples, right? It's a jockeying for power. One of them is trying to be greater than the other. And you see this in other portions of Scripture where they're actually arguing who's greater than the other one. And so that's what they wanted. But Jesus was just so patient with them. You know, He's teaching them a new kingdom. And even His 12 closest, they still think like the rest of the world thinks. And so, Jesus, you find throughout the Gospels that He's constantly reiterating Himself. He's teaching the same lessons over and over, but He's patient with them. And He's patient with us as well. How many times have we faced the same situation, had to learn the same lesson, yet He's patient with us. Listen, He's not mad at you when you repeat the same mistake. We get mad at ourselves. We get disappointed and frustrated with ourselves. But He's not mad at you when you fail to learn the lesson that He's trying to get across to you. Because He'll just keep on walking with you and teaching you and helping you to grow. And we see that with Jesus here with the disciples. And so, He says to them in verse 42, so now we've got James and John, right? And Jesus says, sorry, can't do that. Now you've got the other ten overhearing, right? And now they're upset because they want the top spots. And then He calls them all together and says, Jesus called them to Him and said to them, you know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles, lord it over them. And their great ones exercise authority over them. Jesus is letting them know, listen guys, this is not behavior fitting for a son of Israel. This desire for power to be somebody, it's not behavior fitting of a son of Israel. And it certainly is not fitting for a follower of me. If you're going to follow me, the Messiah, Jesus Christ, this is not what I'm teaching you. So because what you guys are doing right now, this is Gentile behavior. This is pagan behavior. Because everybody wants power. Everybody wants to be lord over someone else. You know, there's another time in Scripture when Jesus pulls His disciples together in Matthew chapter 23. And He's talking about the scribes and the Pharisees here. It says they do all their deeds. Now these are religious people. These are people in Israel. They're Jews. They're the leaders of the Israelite people, the scribes and the Pharisees. And He says they do all their deeds to be seen by others. They make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long. A phylactery is just a little box with like scriptures and stuff in it. But they made them bigger and more ornate so people could see how pious they were. And they love the place of honor at feasts and the best seats in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces and being called rabbi by others. But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher and you're all brothers. And call no man your father on earth, for you have one Father who is in heaven. Neither be called instructors, for you have one instructor, the Christ. The greatest among you shall be your servant. Whoever exalts him will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted. You know, Jesus is telling them, stop looking for titles. Stop looking. I get really confused, but also frustrated sometimes where it's like you're talking to somebody or you go to a church, everybody's got a title. Whether or not they do anything or not, everybody's got a title as minister so and so, bishop this and pastor that, and everyone has to have a title. But Jesus says don't even look for titles. Don't let that be the goal and what you're seeking after is to have a title so that when people see you at Walmart, they'll be like, hey, pastor so and so, hey, minister so and so, right? Everybody gets to see that you're somebody that's important. He says don't do that. You ever wonder why so many people in this church just call me John and not Pastor John? It's because I don't demand it. I take this verse seriously. I read this a long time ago in the very beginning of ministry and it says don't be looking for titles. And so I never made an issue of it. Have I earned the title? Yeah, but so what? So what? Because my job, as Jesus says here, is not to lord anything over anyone else. My job in this church is to be the chief servant and to model what it means to be a disciple of Christ. Jesus was very clear here. He said your goal as a disciple of Christ is not to try to be someone of importance or significance. Rather, it's to serve others. He says you want to be great in my eyes? I'm not interested in titles. I'm not interested in your fame and your popularity. That's not what I... I'm not interested if you have your name on a sign somewhere or as the author of a book or you gain fame and you're on TV. He's like that doesn't mean anything to me because if you want to be great in my eyes and my eyes are the only ones that you should be looking to be great in, then you're going to model your life after the life that Jesus demonstrated for us and that is to serve. So back to James and John in Mark chapter 10. And so he says a similar thing here. He says, verse 43, but it shall not be so among you, right? He was just talking about how the Gentiles lord things over others. It shall not be that way among you. But whoever will be great among you must be your servant. And whoever will be first among you must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve and to give His life. And to give His life as a ransom for many. You know, Jesus is teaching them here about the true nature of the kingdom of God. Things work differently in God's kingdom. We know a lot of these principles. Love your enemies. When you face difficulties, be thankful, right? Things seem a little bit different. We talk about when we're willing to give that the window of heaven will be open over us so the way to receive really is to give, to be freely, to give whatever it is, your time, your resource, whatever. And that's the way to have it come back on you. When people hurt you, forgive them, right? These are backwards from the world. The world doesn't think this way. And so here's another thing that he's saying, and they're learning another one, that true greatness in the kingdom comes through humility and service. You know, we live in a society that puts a high price on fame. There's so many Swifties out there. So many people look into this singer, or this politician, or this motivational speaker, or this actor, and we all look to them as though they've got life all figured out. And so with fame, right, we all look to that, and we know that with fame comes money, and with fame comes respect, and we all love to be respected. With fame comes this life of leisure. It's kind of wired into our DNA, it seems, because we have the celebrity lifestyle that's always forced in front of us. It's thrust into our faces all the time. We all wish that we could be famous. I mean, maybe not now, but when we were all younger, we all wished that we could be famous. We saw actors and musicians and comedians, and we thought, I want that. That could be me one day. I want people to respect me. I want people to think that I'm special. But then we read the words of Jesus. Whoever wants to become great must be a servant. Whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. I mean, you're killing me here, Jesus. You mean in order to be somebody special in your kingdom, I have to serve? I have to humble myself? Listen to what James tells us. He's quoting a proverb. Here, James 4, verse 6, it says, But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says, God opposes the proud, but shows favor to the humble. Wow. God opposes the proud. That means that if you are seeking to exalt yourself, God stands in opposition to you. If you're trying to make a name for yourself, for your glory, for your fame, then He is now opposing you. If you try to get others to serve you, rather than you serve them, He says, I oppose that. And I don't know about you, but I do not want God opposing me. The God of creation, the all-powerful, all-knowing, eternal God, I do not need Him not to be in my corner. I don't need Him to be the guy in the other corner. I need to be on His side, because He's automatically on the winning side. I don't need to be in opposition to my Creator. But it says, He opposes the proud, however, He shows favor to the humble. Some translations say grace to the humble. See, that sounds good to me. That's what I want. I want God on my side. I want His hand to be on me. I want Him to be working for me, not against me, but on me. Blessing me and helping me and protecting me. That's so much better than God opposing me. But it requires humility. He gives grace to the humble. Here's the deal, humbling ourselves is hard. It can be very hard. Serving others is humiliating at times. That's kind of the point. But until we're willing to do it, what the Word of God says here, we will not see God's favor on our lives. He gives favor. He gives grace to the humble. In fact, He may be opposing us if we're trying to exalt ourselves. Ever feel like nothing's going right in your life? Sometimes it could be a time of testing. Sometimes you just might be under an attack of the enemy. Maybe you're just reaping the consequences of some bad decisions. Or you could be working against yourself. Because you're seeking to make a name for you and you're seeking to exalt you and you're wondering why things are falling apart. Because we're not allowing God to bring His favor on our lives through our humility. So I would ask you this today. Search yourself. Search yourself today. Do you have a heart of humility? Are you serving? Are you one that is actively giving of yourself and serving others and humbling yourself before others? Not on your terms. Not to be noticed. But are you truly serving? Are you losing so that somebody else would win? Are you losing so that God's kingdom will win? That's what He's looking for. Because the way up in God's kingdom is down. Whoever would be first among you must be the slave of all. But I want you to know something. That everything you need to serve, everything that you need to pour out God's love and God's grace and God's mercy, everything you need to serve in the church, at your job, to your family, all of it has already been placed in you. For James and John, they received a lesson about serving. They may not have fully understood Jesus yet. They may not have fully gotten the concept that Jesus was going to die. They eventually got it. And they understood after Jesus' resurrection what He meant. Now Peter, which was one of the twelve disciples who was having a hard time understanding what Jesus was teaching, but eventually he does. And this is what he writes in 1 Peter 4, beginning at verse 10. He says, Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others as faithful stewards of God's grace in its various forms. If anyone speaks, they should do so as one who speaks the very words of God. If anyone serves, they should do so with the strength that God provides so that in all things, God may be praised through Jesus Christ, to Him be the glory and the power forever and ever. Amen. Do you see that this serving and this giving and what God has placed in you, it's all ultimately for His glory. That God would be praised through Jesus Christ, through our service, through the way that we honor Him by humbling ourselves in service. And Peter says here that you are to use whatever gift you have received to serve others. That means that God has given us gifts. Gifts that are meant to be used to serve. Now listen, sometimes, oftentimes, the American dream creeps into our walk with Christ. And I'll tell you this, the American dream is a self-serving dream. I'm going to work hard so that I can have. I'm going to work hard so that I can benefit, so that I can have the house and the cars and the luxuries, and so that I can live the good life. And so we take whatever it is, whatever gifts that we have, and we use them to benefit ourselves. That's what the American dream is. Look out for number one. But Peter is telling us that the gifts that God has given you are not for you. They're to serve others. They are to serve the Kingdom of God. Now is it wrong to earn a living from the gifts that God has given you? No, of course not. But is that all that we're doing? Are we just living out the American dream and going to church on Sunday? Are we taking some of that living and are we returning it back to God as His Word instructs us? Are we using our skills not only to serve in my career, but am I also using my skills to serve the church and to serve others and to serve my community? And I know that sometimes we may wonder, what do I have to offer God? It's a legitimate question. What is it that I have to offer God? And I get this question a lot. I don't know. I don't know what I'm supposed to do. What is my purpose? People ask me that question. What am I supposed to be doing? It's a legitimate question. Consider this story from a former Marine. It says this. My gunnery sergeant and I were inspecting a Marine training exercise when we spotted a second lieutenant just kind of ambling about. Where is your foxhole, lieutenant? I asked. He snapped off a salute and responded, I don't know, sir. Turning to the sergeant, he asked, Gunnery, where's my foxhole? You're standing in it, sir, said the sergeant. All you have to do is remove the dirt. If you're asking the question, but where can I serve? The answer is right where you are. All that lieutenant needed was a shovel and he had his foxhole. But see, he was looking for somebody to provide a foxhole for him. And sometimes we, we kind of treat the church that way. Right? People will say, I come to church and I'll get my needs met. And I want to ask those people, are you meeting other people's needs? Right? Or is there something that is lacking in this church that you have the skills to help build up? The church doesn't exist without the body, without the people. And so anything that gets done does not get done by this one man. I've only got two arms, two legs, and one brain. This church is a lot bigger than I am. And I'm not going to let that happen to me. This church is a lot bigger than I am. It's you. And so when we say I'm not getting my needs met, what we're saying is, where's my foxhole? And we go looking for the church that has the place that checks off all the boxes for us. But sometimes we just got to grab a shovel and start digging. Right where we are. And we'll find our purpose and we'll find what it is. All you need is whatever God has already placed in your hands. Are you a gifted mechanic? Great. Use it to serve. Do oil changes for single moms. Do you know how much of a blessing that would be to the people around you? I would do that, but you don't want me touching your car. I'm being dead serious. That is, I am not gifted in that way. Are you administratively gifted? Volunteer in the church office or help bring some organization to an existing ministry in the church. Do you have a knack for finances? Great. Help us raise money. Or become the most generous giver in the church. Can you teach? Great. Start a small group. I mean, God has given you something. The point is, dig in wherever you are and use that gift to serve. Don't wait for the church to come up with something or to start a new ministry. Just get in there and make it happen. And I know I'm talking in terms of the church right now because we're all sitting here in the church. But wherever you are, there's opportunity to serve. You know, I know that when you go to work, you go to receive a paycheck. And the mentality is, I'm just going to do whatever I got to do in order to keep that paycheck coming. But you know, the Word of God tells us whatever we do, whatever we put our hands to, that we should do it as unto the Lord. You know, you ought to be in that wherever you work. If it's an office or a warehouse or a store or wherever it is that you are, your mentality should be, I'm doing this as unto the Lord. I'm here to serve. I'm grateful for the paycheck, right? But I'm here to serve. Go above and beyond. Show people that you have the love of Christ and you show your boss that you're different than everybody else. Find a place to serve wherever you are. Make everybody else's life better. Some of us are standing on our foxhole looking for where the foxhole is and it's time to start digging. And the place to start is right here at home. If you don't have a servant's heart, if that's not something that you do and serve others, this is the place to start. Look what it says in Ephesians 4. We're going to wrap up here with this. Beginning in verse 11, so Christ Himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors, and the teachers, right? These are just leaders in church, in the body of Christ. These are just leaders, right? So He's given these leaders. Why? To equip His people for works of service so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Let me tell you something. Your purpose of your relationship within the church is to be equipped for works of service. When we come here, this is not to have your weekly worship experience. You ought to be worshiping all week long. When you come in here, this is not to have your chance to learn from the Word of God and to pray. You ought to be praying and being in the Word all week long as we've talked about in this series. The purpose of the church, it's not here to help you punch your ticket with God. It's not here to make you feel good about yourself. And the church exists to point you to Christ and to help you be more like Him and to equip you to do works of service. To be a servant in the house because you learn at home, right? It's how our kids learn. We teach them manners. We teach them how to behave. And so hopefully, when we send them out to school or we send them off and they leave our home, they'll know how to do these things that we've taught them, right? Everything starts at home. You learn at home. And so with serving, we learn here. This is the best place to start. But I just want to admonish you today. Don't stand in your foxhole. Pick up a shovel and start digging. Let God use you to express His love to your church and to your community and to your family and to your friends and your co-workers and your neighbors. Be a servant of all because that's true greatness in God's kingdom. It's true greatness. It doesn't matter what I think of you. It matters what God thinks of you. It doesn't matter what the person sitting next to you thinks of you, what your co-worker thinks of you, what your neighbor... It matters what God thinks of you. And what He says is, if you want to be great in My eyes, this is how you will live your life. That you will give, that you will serve. You will give of your time. You'll give of your efforts. You will use the gift that He's placed within you to serve first the body of Christ and then everywhere you go. To spread that fragrance, that sweet aroma of Christ wherever you go. Showing people, what does the Bible say? That they will see your good works and then praise your Father in heaven. People are watching you. And when you profess to go to a church or you profess to be a believer, they're watching your life. And unfortunately, most are looking for something that is going to be able to allow them to call you a hypocrite. Let's show them that they're wrong. Let's live the life that Christ has called us to live. Let's live the life that Christ has called us to live.
