Matthew 16:24-28
Then
Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me,
let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but
whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”
Does this message work in a culture that is self absorbed, a
culture that has little or no tolerance for waiting, a culture that sees little
or no value in serving, but only looks to be served? Jan and I were privileged to attend the Willow
creek global Leadership Summit at River City Community Church, what a great
body of believers in Christ, and as soon has you drove on to the property they
had a team of men, women, boys and girls, who served us, in too many ways to
list. You might say that was their jobs, and I will not disagree but if you had
been there you would have seen the joy serving others was bringing to them, for
their actions did show that they knew they were not serving man, but God.
At lunch, the Oakwood team had our own room to make lunch
work in such a short time, and each day someone sat at the table with Jan and I
that we had not met. Roy sat with us,
and I found out he was the administrator of a large hospital in our area. He is a neat Christian, and I enjoyed
visiting with him, but another man also sat at our table who I had not met, his
name was Kevin, and when we got through eating he picked up all out plates, and
then he came back and ask Roy if he could bring him some of the peach cobbler,
Keith was being a servant, like Jesus.
The only reason I told that story is in our church culture
there are fewer and fewer Keith’s, but I’m ashamed to say many Bob’s that enjoy
being first, being waited on, like to be noticed, and always has something to
say, even if it is totally wrong. The
message Jesus gave to his twelve disciples can change the culture we live in,
and I’m praying we will obey his message.
Maybe we need to revisit what Jesus has told us, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself
and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save
his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find
it.” This
generation, just like the ones that came before it, is looking for something of
great value, something to give its self to, and Jesus is the answer but they do
not understand that losing their life for His sake will give them life, which far
exceeds anything the world of “me first” has to offer. Listen to the career offer
from the mouth of Jesus; “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole
world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall
a man give in return for his soul? For the Son of Man is going to
come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will
repay each person according to what he has done. Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will
not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in his
kingdom.” John, the
beloved apostle, was that man, and he wrote under the leadership of the Holy
Spirit the account in the Revelation.
From the Back Porch,
Bob Rice
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