Title: Serve your neighbor (Mark 10:35)
serve your neighbors
Mark 10:35-45
The Chinese [Wang Yangming] said that there are four things in life that are the most difficult to bear. This is a very plain truth, but I think it is a lesson we need to ponder over and over again.
The first thing that is difficult to endure is said to be physical pain. It is said that it is difficult and painful for a person to be hungry and cold, but there is no physical pain that is more difficult to bear than being sick.
He said the second most difficult thing to bear is being treated with coldness. Being alienated from people and being despised by people is really hard to bear.
And third, it is said that worrying is difficult to bear. Worrying, this refers to inner suffering. In fact, if you have troubles and anguish in your heart because of various things, you don't know how hard it is to endure.
Now the fourth is important. It is leisurely. To have nothing to do is to be useless, to be useless is to have no reason to live. There is nothing more painful than living without a reason to live. It's really pathetic if you're snooping around, meddling, and nagging because you don't really have anything to do, even when others see it. To a person who has nothing to do and is idle, he sees only other things to do. A lazy person nags a lot. Stay busy with your work. Where do you have time to meddle in other people's affairs and nagging? Saying that I have nothing to do is painful for me, but it also bothers others. How painful and unbearable is this?
In that way, how happy is a busy person because he has work to do every day? Therefore, everyone, being busy is not a reason for resentment. Those who are retired and are in old age. He said that he should have done a lot of work when he could, but he said he couldn't. I regret that I should have devoted more time and passion to work especially for others, but I didn't. They say that life has come to an end because I only work for myself and work for myself, knowing only my family and my children. Now that I have come to realize that it is difficult to bear in life that there is nothing to do. When I think about working for others, I regret that I have nothing to do and I cannot do it. So, you have to work hard when you have work to do and can do it. You will do a lot of work of special value. But what is worthwhile work? It is really worthless to hold on to just for myself and my family, and to ignore others and despise neighbors only for my honor and face. It's something you'll regret later.
What are some things of religious value that can be found in the Bible today? It's about serving. However, there are times when we are greatly misunderstood about these words, “You must be a servant, you must be a servant, you must exalt others and humble yourself, and you must become a servant.” This is something that special people, superhumans, such as saints, can think, but how can an ordinary person live with such thoughts? In a world where people take away what others have, I think it is absurd to give away what is mine. To find and protect my rights, I risk my life to protest, strike, and fight, but to give up my rights and become someone else's servant, I question whether the Bible's standards of faith and ethics are too far apart. How are you? Have you ever thought about being someone else's servant? Have you ever thought that you should live as a servant? ‘Let me yield, let me humble myself, let’s be a giver, not a receiver.’ Do you live with this in mind?
Ladies and gentlemen, to serve, to become a servant of yourselves, has a very important psychological meaning. Think carefully. Those who want to serve are free. I'm always the one who gives, so I'm just happy regardless of the outcome. But those who want to be served are nervous and tormented. While you are always bound by the consequences, you are psychologically already immersed in slavery without realizing it. Therefore, a person who wants to be served can never be happy as long as he is bound by that thought.
Humans are often said to be driven by basic instincts. Of these instincts, if I can give three examples, the first is survival instinct. It's about being conscious and working hard. If we could make a living without making money, people would not want to work or would not want to go to work. However, people work because they have the instinct to wear and eat.
The second is the social instinct or the equality instinct. I want to be like other people. The idea is that you should enjoy the minimum standard of living as much as others do. When other people buy a car, I want to buy it, and when someone else buys a house, I want to buy it too. When someone else has what I don't have, I hate it and feel jealous.
The third is political instinct. This is a desire that appears stronger in men than in women, and it is the desire to dominate. It is the instinct of the heart to want to rule and rule as I please, whether playing with the house or whatever. So there is a clear difference between husband and wife even between husband and wife.
This is not to say that many of these desires are wrong. Because even this was given by God. And on the contrary, it is these desires that make the world come true. No amount of food is good if there is no desire to eat. Without possessiveness, the material becomes unnecessary. If you don't even have the desire to rule and be respected by people, your life is meaningless. Let us acknowledge and accept all these desires as God-given. Let's not pretend that I don't. Humans are much more free to stand in human positions. The problem is that we are different from the people of the world in how we manage and obtain those desires.
What motivates you to believe in Jesus? He said he was following Jesus. What is the purpose of following it? Did you believe in order to get rich and succeed? Or did I believe because I was thankful for the love of the Lord who saved me and wanted to imitate and follow him? They came out determined to believe in the beautiful life of Jesus and to establish the wonderful kingdom of God. If we go to church and try to satisfy our worldly motives, our faith is still impure. The Lord does not want us to follow the Lord even in the church, always trying to be served or accepted with worldly expectations, envying and hating others for the sake of my own face. Today, if you want to live like the Lord, you must live as a servant. To do so, be prepared to give up worldly glory. Give up on revealing your name. Give up on fulfilling your desires. This is what true service looks like.
There is a poem called Song of Poems by one of the Christian poets [Rus Calkin].
We try to show this kind of service, but the Lord doesn't want to reveal my name through worldly desires. That's why he tells me to rather be a servant.
In today's verse, we see the disciples arguing over who will be the highest. First, James and John come to the Lord and make a request. In the future, if the Lord becomes king, he will remember the two of us and ask them to sit in a good place. The ten disciples who were watching this became angry and their faces turned red. Today's text is what the Lord said to all the twelve disciples at that time. The Lord wanted us not to have this sense of class in our lives. This is not to say that we should not create seats. The community needs a place. But for Christians, you should know that it is a place of thorough service. It is true that it is the seat of a servant, not a seat of rulership. Here is the essential difference between Christian leadership and secular leadership.
Let’s look at verse 42. “Jesus called and said to them, “You know that the so-called rulers of the Gentiles have arbitrariness over them, and their great men exercise authority over them.” They call it.” These are the words. In other words, secular leadership is the desire to dominate one's own accord. But look at verse 43. “It is not so among you, but whoever wants to become great among you, let him be your servant.” Christian leadership is in serving. Let’s look at verse 44. “Whoever wants to be first among you must be a slave of all”, he says thoroughly about servant leadership. Rather, it sounds like the possibility that the servant who serves may become the first.
What does paper mean here? It is not a species of physical phenomena. Nor is it a species of sociological status. The state of the soul is a servant, so he is a servant. Please think deeply. Those who have chosen themselves to become slaves are no longer slaves. I am a servant when I am forcibly tied to a place I do not want to be. If I want to be here, I am not a servant. I don't know what other people think, but I'm a free man. No matter how hard I suffer or what kind of contempt I get, the moment I choose, I am already a free man. Please remember. A self-servant is a free person, but a person who seeks to be served is a slave who is always bound by it.
Dear saints!
Who are our neighbors today? Everyone, not me, is a neighbor. Today's sermon is the third word among our church's motto in 2006. All these people around me today are my neighbors and the people I have to serve. Rather than becoming a miserable servant while trying to be served, there is a faith that allows you to be free while serving yourself as a servant.