Matthew 2024

Took the 12 aside and said to them, we are going up to Jerusalem and the son of man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the teachers of the law.

They will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified. On the third day, he'll be raised to life. Then the mother of Zebedee's sons came to Jesus with her sons, and kneeling down asked a favor of him. What is it you want? He asked.

She said, grant that 1 of these 2 sons of mine may sit at your right and the other at your left in your kingdom. You don't know what you're asking. Jesus said to them. Can you drink the cup? I am going to drink?

We can. They answered. Jesus said to them, You will indeed drink from my cup, but to sit at my right or left is not for me to grant. These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared by my father. When the 10 heard about this, they were indignant with the 2 brothers.

Jesus called them together and said, you know that the rulers of the gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first, must be your slave, just as the son of man. Did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. Thank you, Tom, and good evening.

Good. You're alive. You're listening. Goodness for that. I'm Chris Tilley.

I'm 1 of the elders here at Cornerstone. Tom's already prayed for us. So thank you for that, Tom. So we'll, we'll get straight into into this. Who knows anything about the new year's honors list?

Or or maybe a better way of putting it, put your hand up if you have no idea what I'm talking about when I say the new year's honors list. Quite a few. I thought that might be the case. So, basically, what happens every new year the king or, really the king. The he does.

The king awards a bunch of, awards of all kinds of different levels. And they these are people that have been recommended to him. By the prime minister and senior government officials. So you see people like David Beckham becoming sir David Beckham and all of this and sir Paul McCartney and all of this this kind of thing. And you can become, a a member of the order of the British empire, which sounds grand, but it's the lowest it's the lowest possible award.

Or you can become an officer of the order the British empire, or a commander, or a Knight or Dame commander, or get this, a Knight or Dame Grand Cross, which sounds a little bit KK ish, so it gets a bit weird at times. If you looked at this year's list, which I'm pretty sure none of you have, under the section OBE, so officer of the British Empire, the second from the bottom, you would find the name Ian Moore, JP OBE. And the reason I'm telling you this is firstly because he's my boss. So my life's become a lot more ridiculous in the last 6 months. And secondly, it gives us an insight or it's given me an insight into what people really value in life.

In terms of recognition, there's only 3 higher awards you could possibly be given. So, you know, he's pretty near the top of of public award and public praise. And in terms of praise, it's come in endless waves from, people within our industry, from friends and and from family. And, you know, rightly so, rightly so in many ways, because it highlights a life that's been spent in service to others. It highlights I mean, he was a falklands veteran.

He's done just more things you can possibly imagine. It highlights a whole load of hard work, and it says a lot about a person's character to a degree that, you know, someone's thought of them highly enough. To do this for them. But what is also interesting, and I'm not gonna name any names here, if you're listening, you know who you are, are the people who've come out the woodwork in the last 6 months. To position themselves, attach themselves alongside his greatness in some way for their own benefit.

Now I realize I'm at serious risk of professional suicide here. So so let's leave that there. But it is interesting to see what people value what people value, greatness, recognition, honor, praise. These are things that if we're honest, we we all desire to to some degree or another. Recent surveys by recruitment companies when they ask people who are going for a job, what what positions do you think you're gonna get to?

60 percent, right? That's 3 out of 5 said I'm gonna be a CEO. Now now if 60 percent of people become a CEO, nothing is ever gonna get done, I can tell you that much, but it does show us something about our, our delusions of grandeur, doesn't it? It does. We want our lives to mean something.

We want to achieve something. We want to be recognized within our field by our peers and as awkward or embarrassing as that might be, depending on your character. It's hard to deny. That to be publicly singled out for praise and lifted up in front of others isn't something that, you know, kinda makes our hearts flutter a little bit at the thought of that. 1 of the easiest ways to do it to shortcut your way is to attach yourself to somebody else's greatness, being close to, or having the favor of someone in high position.

Can hatch can it can have quite an inflating effect, on your on your own self importance. And it can it can open up all kinds of, all kinds of opportunities. I mean, my my boss, Ian himself, attached himself to a guy called get this sir Ken Knight. And the knight is spelled k n I g h t. So he is knight knight.

I just call him Ken, but, you know, that's that's a different thing. There's this immense desire in the human heart to be recognized and praised. And other than the the fact that we're all just real, filthy rotten sinners, The reason for that is that we all have pride and we all have egos that blind us to what is truly important. And that's exactly what we see going on here with the disciples tonight. And Jesus tells them, Jesus says to them, you've got it all wrong.

You've got in yourselves all turned around and and inside out. If you remember, last week with Tom preaching to us, and the preceding passages, Jesus has repeatedly been telling his disciples that his kingdom works very differently to any of the kingdoms of this world, that the kingdom of heaven doesn't belong to the strong and the powerful and the rich, it belongs to the likes of little children who can't take it by force, who can't add anything to it. They just accept it, accept it as it is completely in in home group this week. Marcos was telling us a story about a family he knows, and, and the dad every month, does a daddy daughter date, and he puts on a shirt, and she puts on a dress, and they go to the park, and they get ice cream, and they sit on the bench. And he was there sat on the bench with her this 1 time, and he thought I really wanna tell this girl how much mommy and daddy love her.

So he's racking his brains, thinking how am I gonna do this? How am I gonna do this? And he thought, do you know what? Stuff it? I'm just gonna tell see what she says.

So he turns to her and says, you know, darling, we, mummy and daddy really, really love you. And she sort of pauses, looks like it was, yeah, and carries on it in the ice cream. That is what the kingdom of heaven belongs to, taking for granted that god just loves you. There's no even questioning about it. There's no thinking it through.

They're just there, understanding, accepting Jesus has been telling his disciples that the rich should forsake their earthly wealth to follow him, that the first shall be last, the last shall be first in his kingdom. And he's even just told his disciples in the previous chapter in verse 28, that they will sit on 12 thrones over the 12 tribes of Israel in his kingdom. Basically, that means they're gonna be sitting over the whole of god's people. They've got positions of honor, serious honor already. And yet Here comes James and John.

Oh, James and John, and they put their foot right in it. Or rather they get their mother to put her foot in it for them. And so that's our first point. First point, the way of thunder. Right.

So we got James and John, sons of Zebedee, at the at James and John, and we're introduced to them earlier on They're 2 of the first disciples, along with Peter, to be called by Jesus to come and follow him. And on meeting them, Jesus gives them this nickname, a Greek word, Boanerges, probably butchering the pronunciation of that, But what it means is sons of thunder. That's a pretty seriously cool nickname, isn't it? Now we're not told explicitly why Jesus decided to call them that, but I think you can probably extrapolate it from what we know about thunder. And even if you look in the Bible, when thunder is spoken about, it's usually when god is speaking and his voice is booming gout.

So I think it's probably fair to say these guys are like Rory can add levels of loud. To be able to give them a nickname nickname like this. They, you know, these are sort of the earth fishermen. They say it how it is. They don't take any nonsense from anybody.

They're just, you know, they are who they are, wear their hearts on their sleeve. That's the kind of blokes that they are. And let's face it. They're incredibly unlikely to ever become anything other than salt of the earth fishermen in their lives. Until Jesus comes along 1 day and changes everything for them.

And since that day, they've been listening to Jesus repeatedly talk about his kingdom. There's talk of thrones, positions of honor, and so on, and and it seems that not ones to be content with what they already have. They make this bold play. They pick their moment and they decide to make this bold, bold move. So bold in fact that they chicken out and they put their mother up to it.

If you if you see in the, in in the, in the passage, then the mother of Zebedee's sons came to Jesus with her sons and kneeling down asked a favor of him What is it you want? He said. Grant, that 1 of these 2 sons of mine may sit at your right and the other at your left in your in your kingdom. They send their mother in to do it because they know I think on some level, that they are not doing they're not doing a good thing here. And they also wait significantly until the other 10 are not around.

They're not gonna do this in front of those guys for sure. And you can just sort of picture what the the scene is here. For some reason, in my mind, has anyone ever been to Rome and seen the the old ladies who are professional beggars? For some reason, my mind, that's what their mother's like here, sort of stooped over coming up to Jesus, clasping his hands and pleading with him. Please give my sons these positions of honor.

With the thunder boy standing close behind, on tender hooks waiting to see what Jesus is gonna say. What is it thereafter? They're after positions of extra special honor. In fact, bar Jesus, they are going for the 2 highest positions in his kingdom to be his right and his left hand men to sit on either side of his throne. I mean, That's if you're gonna go for it, you may as well aim high.

Right? You may as well go for the top job. And they're basically negotiating a whopping promotion is what they're is what they're attempting to do. And some people, why not? Pretty good idea, isn't it?

You don't ask? You don't get. So you may as well try. I mean, they've been there since the beginning. After all, they were they were 2 of the first, so it kinda makes sense.

Jesus came to us first along with Peter. Should we include Peter? No. No. No.

No. No. No. No. No.

Not him. It doesn't make sense to include him. There's only 1 of him. There's 2 of us we come as a package. We're on the same wavelength.

You can sort of sort of think through how they're trying to justify in their own minds. Why they are okay to be making such an outrageous request. They clearly think that they're in some way superior to the other disciples, or they're just chancers. They're just chancing it and seeing what happens. Whipping each other up into a storm.

Isn't that what pride and ego are? Puffed up rumbling away. The pride they must have had to think that they are in some way worthy to occupy these lofty positions, that they're better and more deserving than every single other human being. Is quite something, isn't it? When you start thinking it through?

There's a delusion there. It's actually almost embarrassing when you start to really think about that. And the lack of understanding that they had about the way in which god's kingdom works. They hadn't been listening. They hadn't been listening or they're willfully not putting it into practice.

They'd heard so many times about what god's kingdom is like, what god values, but they hadn't been listening properly, and their pride and their ego has got the better of them. So are we listening? We have heard it so many times. We who have have been called by the lord Jesus Christ to follow him. We who have been invited to come into his kingdom.

Are we listening? Are we listening tonight? Can you calm the storminess? The thunder for a bit? Calm your mind and listen to what Jesus is going to say in response to this?

That brings us to the second point, the way of the cup, but the way of thunder, the way of the cup. Jesus turns to the brothers and says, you don't know what you're asking. Jesus said to them, can you drink the cup? I am going to drink. Now that is a serious question if you know anything about the cup Jesus is talking about.

But rather than prompting a a moment of self reflection, in the brothers, the answer is instantaneous. Yes, we can. We can do it. And you can almost in that moment imagine them sort of looking at each other and going, What cup? What have we just got ourselves into?

What what are we agreeing to here? It's a bit like your boss coming to you at work and saying, can anybody, can anybody do this and your hand shoots up? Yeah. I'll do it. Like, great.

I have it on my desk first thing in the morning, and instantly you go, I've got no idea what he's talking about. It's what chat GPT is grateful, by the way, if, you find yourself in that situation. Suddenly, you're way out of your depth. You're way out of your depth, and that's what's going on with the brothers here. You wanna share positions of honor with me, Jesus, says, then you need to know what that means.

You need to know what that's about. Can you do what I have to do? Can you bear the weight I have to bear? You have no idea what you're talking about. What is the cup?

What is the cup that Jesus is talking about here? We've got a couple of references here, Dan, if you could put up the Psalm 75 reference. And there there's multiple references. We're just gonna look too really briefly. Psalm 75 says in the hand of the lord is a cup full of foaming wine mixed with spices.

He pours it out, and all the wicket of the earth drink it down to its very dregs. And then Jeremiah 25, says this is what the lord, the god of Israel, said to me. Take from my hand, this cup filled with the wine of my wrath, and make all the nations to whom I send you drink it. When they drink it, they will stagger and go mad because of the sword I will send among them. It's a serious business.

It's like the cup of despair, if you're a Harry Potter fan that Dumbledore has to drain to the last. If you want a visual image of it. In fact, that's this is where JK Rowling got the inspiration from, was the Garden of gethsemane. She just nicked it from a better story. Bible was way better than Harry Potter.

Don't bother with Harry Potter. Read the Bible. The cup Jesus is talking about is the cup of god's wrath. The cup of god's wrath. But what is that exactly?

It's a big concept But fairly simple, I mean, to to to try and visualize it if it's even really possible, but try just picture the the earth, the globe of the earth spinning in space here. Spinning around, and beneath the earth is a giant cup, a giant giant cup, and it's waiting to receive whatever falls into it. And we're back at the dawn of time. Earth spinning, cup waiting, dawn of time, Adam and Eva are in the garden. And what do they do?

They commit the first sin They turn their backs on god. They don't listen to his word and drop the first drop falls. You can always hear it fizzing as it as it bubbles up and it hits the bottom of the cup. And it's accompanied by another drop of god's wrath. God's anger against that sin.

And then you fast forward, Kain murders able drop. Lamic avenged 77 times the pride drop drop drop. More and more people on the earth drop drop drop drop drop drop drop drop drop. Noah's day when no 1 listened, only 8 people saved, just gushing. And then we advanced through day to day week to week month to month, millennia to millennia.

And the collective sin of humanity is just a gushing waterfall, growing stronger and stronger, never abating. Never never stopping. Never slowing down. And the cup is just filling and filling and filling and filling with god's pure undiluted righteous anger at sin. And what humanity are doing to themselves, to him, to his planet, to his creation.

And there's this cup weighed down with these awful contents straining under this seething mass of degradation and fury and rage and judgment and justice. All there are earlier sins of humanity and all the wrath of a holy god against it. And you think you can drink that cup? You think you can drink that cup? We can.

So say James and Sean. Was trying to, I was trying to understand this a bit about how does god feel about this? And actually, so, you know, many of you know, my mother passed away 3 months ago. And since then, I found myself on many occasions angry. I don't know why.

I don't know what I'm angry at. I'm not angry at anyone. I'm not angry at god. I'm actually quite happy with god, you know, are very thankful for all the things that he gave us out of that, but I was still angry. I wasn't angry at anyone.

I wasn't angry at mom. I wasn't angry at anyone no 1 in the family did anything nuts, but I was angry. Why was I angry? I didn't know. And I've come to realize that my anger, at the loss of a loved 1, at death, and at what causes death sin.

Well, that's something to be angry about. But then I had to be angry with myself because I'm a sinner. God is rightly angry at sin. Sing causes death. Causes misery and suffering.

And that cup, that cup needs to be drunk. It needs to be drunk. Otherwise, did you notice in Psalm 75 and Jeremiah, what happens to it? It is going to be poured out on us on all the wicked of the earth. All of god's wrath, all of the penalty for sin poured out on the inhabitants of the earth.

Brothers' assistance, that is Jesus' entire mission to drain that cup to the last drop so that we don't have to to have it poured on him in place of us. In short, that is what he's doing at the cross. It's it's almost like he's being waterboarded with the collective, like, sin of humanity and the wrath of god. It's a it's a it's a horrendous scene. He takes god's righteous anger of a holy god a pure god relentlessly until there's nothing left, every last drop.

And he stands in that, and he stands in the way of that. For us. Us who are only really, largely concerned with our own betterment at the end of the day. Can you drink the cup I am gonna drink? Here is the amazing part.

Jesus actually agrees with the brothers. You know, for what? That's not what we were expecting. Jesus agrees with the brothers that they will drink from the cup as well. You will indeed drink from my cup.

You will indeed drink from my cup. What does he mean by that? That they're gonna endure the fullness of the wrath of god that he's gonna endure? Can't mean that surely because they're not Jesus. They would be obliterated after the first drop.

What Jesus is saying here effectively is that they're gonna get a taste. They're gonna get a taste of what that is. If you're following me, you will share in part in my suffering, at least in the earthly aspects of it, if not the heavenly aspects. Because as you turn your back on sin, as you flip the narrative of this world on its head, you will come into conflict with it. As you walk around exposing sin just by following me, asking people to repent and change, repenting and changing yourself showing up sin where you go, many are gonna hate you.

And we know what happens to these 2 brothers. We actually know what happens to them. For following Jesus, for leading the church and preaching his resurrection, James is put to death with the sword some 10 to 15 years later by King Herrod Agrippa, probably beheaded. He's the first of the apostles to die. You can read about that in acts.

John is the same John that writes the gospel of John and Revelation, and we know that at the very least he was imprisoned and he was exiled onto the island of Patmos, which isn't a nice holiday destination, not back then. It wasn't. It was a desert, not a place you wanted to find yourself on your own with no supplies. And he's believed to be the only 1 of the 12 apostles that was not killed for following Jesus, but he does suffer intensely in his life for doing so. Jesus says you will.

He will share in my cup of suffering to a small degree. And that will bring you honor and glory in my kingdom, but exactly where that places you amongst the multitudes is is known only to god. I don't I don't, you know, it's not for me to grant. Jesus says, let alone at my left and my right. The 2 highest positions going.

Did you notice that they are prepared for us by the father? The father prepares our places for us, and he prepares Jesus' left in his right hand. How does the father choose to do that? Well, that brings us on to our our third point, the way of the cross. God's currency, his systems of hierarchy, his his values are completely different to us.

His is the is is we've said it many times, the upside down kingdom, or rather His is the right way up kingdom. We're upside down. All the bloods draining to our heads are making us do stupid stuff. Our systems in our kingdoms are based on works and merit Here's are based on grace and what he gives. We clamber and maneuver and position ourselves for for for betterment for furthering ourselves.

He values humility and helplessness. And we've seen that recently as I mentioned at the start, the first should be last, the last should be first. And here, Jesus teaches his disciples another aspect of what it is to be in the kingdom of heaven. He teaches them what a cross shaped life looks like, what it is to be. Now back to the story, by this point, the other disciples have caught up with what's been going on.

And they've heard about James and John's maneuver and they are livid. It says they are indignant. To be indignant is to be righteously angry. Like, in other words, you're angry and you're right to be angry, and you know it. And so your anger can go full throttle.

Yeah. So they think so they think. You see here when the 10 heard about this, they're indignant with the 2 brothers. And, you know, what? You might agree.

You may agree with that, point of view. Think, yeah, right on. I thought we were all supposed to be equals. Thought we're all in this together, James, John. What are you thinking?

What are you thinking? You're saying that we're not as good as you? That, you know, you're somehow better than us. Have you done more than we've done? You can sort of imagine the the abuse, the the 2 brothers we're we're starting to to get.

But I I suspect that, when you really dig down, the majority of their annoyance was just down to the fact that they haven't thought to do it themselves first. They just annoyed that they didn't get in there first. And so they're they're hiding behind this righteous indignation so that they can have a go at the brothers. And so, Jesus sits them all down and teaches them as only he can with a message that gets straight to the point. He can see that they're all thinking about the wrong thing.

Their their thinking's not straight, and he can see that they're all concerned about jostling for position. So he says this to them. You know that the rulers of the gentiles have lorded over them and their high officials exercise authority over them, not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to be, become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave. Just as the son of man did not come to be served, but to serve and give his life as a ransom for many.

First, he gets their attention. You notice he goes for gentiles? He's saying you're basically behaving like a bunch of gentiles. Now for any self respecting Jew, you'd be you'd be bristling and reaching for the weapons by now. He's like, what'd you say?

You're saying we're some sort of gentile Roman. Jesus says, I'm calling you for a for a different way of life. I'm calling you to be different. And what he says next is radical for their times. He's got their attention, but what he says next is radical.

That to be great you must become a servant. The way up is down. To them, that would have sounded utterly ridiculous that the path to greatness lies through becoming a servant Like that you have to understand back in those times that the power, the power distance ratio between being up here in power and great and being everybody else was enormous you know, you just didn't socially climb that quickly. It wasn't that simple to be a poor fisherman from Judea to go to being someone leading at the at the at the top of the world. So how on earth can I possibly progressing greatness by going lower?

They were thinking in earthly terms. They were thinking in earthly kingdom terms. We we recently had a company come into into my work, and they gave a training day on management, managing difficult conversations, that kind of thing, riveting stuff. And then we got this exercise where we had to talk about what makes a great leader. What makes a great leader?

And it was just interesting, listening as it went around the room, you know, it was things like confidence, decisiveness, quality of action. Just just oh, man. I was about ready to puke. So it got around to me, and the guy had already been winding me up a little bit anyway. And so I just said, well, look, mate.

The best leaders are the best servants. Stick that in your pipe. Anyway, we got into a bit of a backwards and forwards. He lost the argument. I didn't win the argument.

I think everybody probably lost in the end, but it's interesting, isn't it? The world looks on servantheartedness. Like, he scoffed at it. And that's what really wound me up. So I was alright.

We're gonna have it out then. It looks on servant heartedness as a sign of weakness when actually it's strength because you're saying I will put aside what's best for me to do what is best for you. The Greek word, used here for servant, actually suggests something a little bit like a waiter, someone who intends on you and anticipates your needs. So next time you go out for a meal, take Tom along, and he can be your waiter. That's what good church leadership looks like.

He won't charge for it either. He's he's covered in his costs. Then Jesus takes it even further. He tells them. He tells them, right, servants low enough.

Yeah. But if anyone wants to be first, they must become your slave. And the Greek word here means slave. Don't mean any different, just slave. Whoever wants to be first must be your slave, the lowest of the low, to have no rights, no legal protection, what's so ever, no way of supporting yourself, you are completely at the mercy of others.

The only way you're gonna be released is to be released by your master, and that's not a given. That's not a given. And you're you're in a position of extreme exposure to all kinds of abuse, to contemplate willingly becoming this. This was the worst thing that could happen to you in the ancient world. To be sold into slavery.

It probably still is, I think, the worst thing that could happen to you. You'd rather go to prison than become a slave. And why? Why is it that Jesus says his followers can willingly become servants and slaves to the needs of other people. It's because this life We live these few days that we occupy this earth for, and not all there is.

There is something altogether better that we should be living for and aiming at. Did you notice what Jesus said earlier about our positions in heaven? They are prepared for us. They are prepared for us. God, the father, has already got a place prepared for you if you follow his son.

I don't know what it is. Jesus doesn't decide it himself, but his father prepares it for you. And what he uses is 1 of his measuring sticks to prepare that place is servantheartedness. The ultimate example of this, of course, being Jesus, interesting, isn't it? That Jesus said whoever wants to be first Whoever wants to be first because only 1 person can become first.

Like, no 1 else can be first. You can't have 2 people who are first. I was trying to explain this to Red class this morning. You can't have 2 winners. Only 1.

Only 1 can be first. Only 1 person can come first, and the way to come first is to have given your life as a ransom for many, according to Jesus. This is the way of the cross. This is what Jesus alone does there. He is the ultimate example of what it is to be a servant day after day as he speaks with heals, teaches people day after day.

He relentlessly challenges the authorities and the authorities and the narratives in this world. No 1 has ever given up as much as he has. He left his throne in heaven to come down here. He left behind paradise. For what I can only imagine is like a sewer in comparison.

He left behind the total security of his father's love to come to people who scorned, ridiculed, and eventually killed him. And he did that for you. For me, Just as the son of man did not come to be served, but to serve and give his life as a ransom for many. Only Jesus can do this, free sinners by dying in their place, only his death is acceptable as a perfect sacrifice because he's a perfect servant, becoming a slave in our place, releasing hostages by becoming a hostage himself, So only Jesus can be first in the kingdom, and that's exactly the way you want it. You don't wanna be first.

Trust me. As for the rest of us, is it not simply, enough to know that we have places that have been prepared for us by god the father. What more do we need? What more do we need? And I should imagine that when we get there, we won't much care about what position we're in.

I think we'll simply be fully content with where we are because we'll understand that god who understands us better than anybody else has judged it perfectly. In line with everything that we were on this earth, in line with our entire life, in line with our servantheartedness, and accordance with the grace that he's portioned out to each of us. He knows exactly where we're supposed to be, and it will be totally fair. Totally fair. So who better to prepare the perfect position for you in heaven than god?

Who knows you better than you know yourself? So what does all of that mean for us now? I've got quite a few points of application, so I was rattling through those points to to get to this really because this is where this all starts to really hit home. Firstly, you are free to serve. You you've been freed to serve.

Fried from bondage, freed as a hostage to serve. Now I'd like us all to really take note of this. The way of the cross is that we live and die in service to 1 another. We are supposed to be waiting on and anticipating each other's needs. That is what we've been free for.

James says Do not merely listen to the word and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Do what it says. Now I wanna I wanna speak to the men here for a second, not that this doesn't apply to the women as well. Feel free to carry on listening.

Don't switch off by any means. But to the men, over the years, we've seen so many young men, mainly but also older who love to talk the talk but won't walk the walk. And it's it's frustrating. It's it's sad. Like, if you're a bloke in the church, be careful of standing around and just getting into the finer points of theology or talking about points in the sermon, were they correct?

Was this stressed right or not? Was it quite right? If you're not serving in some kind of way, Frankly, if you're not serving in some kind of way, I don't really wanna hear your theology because it won't be right. You've missed the whole point. And no, simply standing around, talking theology all day is not really serving.

Fine to do, But back it up with action, please brothers. Not having a go at anyone in this room in particular, but if you're if you're struck by that, maybe I am. Leave that with you. Also, we're never too busy to serve. We're never too busy to serve.

It's it's probably like the biggest reason or excuse that that you hear or in your own heart for lack of servantheartedness. I'm too busy too busy with what. Exactly. Too busy with what? Work?

Oh, okay. You're actively and intentionally looking to support a church ministry, with with with the work that you're doing. Oh, you're not. Oh, okay. So what are you working for, so so hard then?

Oh, a better position in life. I see. If you've heard the word, but think you're too busy to serve, then you have indeed deceived yourself. We may say that the pressures of life stop us from serving. And again, look, if that's where you're at, I'm sorry, but you've deceived yourself.

True, pressures of life, there's kids. There's illness. There's bereavement. There's disabilities. They may limit what we can do at different times.

I understand that, but they don't stop us entirely. Do they? And we're always capable of doing more than we think. Ben, I'm gonna put you on the spot now. I'm really sorry.

So I had I I was assisting in Red class this morning, preaching tonight, had wedding yesterday, wedding last Saturday, absolutely 0 time to write this sermon, and I'm supposed to be running games and activities and all sorts in Red Cross, and I just text Vena and said, Vena, I am so, so, so sorry. Can you please cover all of this for me? And she came back immediately beautiful lady that she is. Absolutely. No problem.

I'll take care of it all. Vena, probably more than most of us. Sorry, Vena. I know you don't like people talking about you like this, has you could come up with more excuses than I can for why you shouldn't do things, but you don't. That's a great example.

There are no excuses. There really aren't. There might be limitations here there and everywhere, but come on. Think it through. Look at it properly.

And remember that serving doesn't have to be about the big grand things. It can be about the small things. In fact, the small things are often the best things. They often get overlooked by everybody. I remember I told this story a few times, I think.

I remember early days at Cornerstone, and, we just had a a sermon similar to this about serving, and, went up to Dave Redington of all people. A lot of you won't know Dave used to be an elder. He passed away a number of years ago. He was, he was he was solid on serving. And went up to him.

I I don't know what sort of grand ideas I had in my mind. I think that I was thinking maybe next week I'll lead a service and probably the week after that, I might preach or something along those lines. And, and he just shoved a black bin liner in my hand, and said you can start with that table over there. That's the best lesson I've ever been taught in in well, not not ever. That's putting an absolute on things, which I'm always guilty of.

But it was 1 of the best lessons anyone's ever taught me. You can start over there. Don't overlook the small things in front of you and just go after these big shiny things. Clear that table. It was amazing after last week.

The first should be last and the last should be first. How quickly this room got cleared? I'm expecting it to be even quicker tonight, like, you know, like, blink and the tables will be gone. Cheers will be gone. Don't overlook the small things in service.

You are free to forego. You're free to forego. You may have to forsake riches now for the real reward. It's like they say, short term pain, long term gain. It really, really, makes sense in this scenario.

Being a servant to others is gonna cost you It's about their benefit at your expense. It means that we can consistently do things for people that others can't or won't. Because for the most part, people in this world just can't do that. It will set them back and their time is so limited because it's all about the the 3 score in 10 years or whatever you get in this life. And so their resources are really precious.

Their time is precious. Their money is precious. Their energy is precious. Their health is precious. And I can't spend too much of that on other people because there'll be nothing there for me.

And this is all I've got. But we are free. We can do what people cannot because Jesus did the same for you first and because this life is not all there is. Because the currency of heaven is based on what we give now, not on what we accumulate or achieve in this life. We are free to pour out our lives on other people.

And amount to nothing in this world, frankly, because nothing material in this world matters in the end. You cannot take it with you. All that you will own at the end, someone once said to Alexander the Great is the patch of dirt that your body lies in. You are free to be content. You're free to be content.

This means that we can be utterly utterly content in life regardless of what's going on. I don't know. Do do any of you get these adverts? Is it just me for, like, I think it's the company's called Omays, and they're, like, raffling off these amazing houses. And it's always some gorgeous person, like, walking you round and You know, it's on the cornish coast.

It's got its own beach and its own, you know, ocean that comes with. It's got 5 bathrooms, 20 kitchens, a huge, and I'm starting to think yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

I definitely need that. That is 100 percent what I need in my life right now. It's just all designed to make you discontent, isn't it? What are you gonna do with all of that? What you should be offering me is a chance to win a sip from the Cup of Christ?

Give me a chance at that. The only place that we need to be preoccupied with is the 1 that god is preparing for us in heaven. Okay? Don't worry about the rest. You are free to do good, and you are free to suffer for it.

It's an interesting thought that if I go out into this world and I only seek to do the good that Jesus has shown me to do, I guaranteed will be hated for it. That's amazing, isn't it? To think that I can be hated for only doing good things? And we know it's true because Jesus and all of his apostles were persecuted and martyred for doing exactly that. I mean, we have a persecuted church slot in the evenings here where we hear about unimaginable suffering going on today.

Today, brothers and sisters around the world have suffered greatly in a way we find hard to comprehend in this country. Jesus only ever did good, and most of what he received in return was bad. But Paul says in Romans, I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. It really, really flies in the face of so much of the wishy washy nonsense you hear about you know, like, do good things and good things will happen to you. What?

Or pay it forward. You know, 1 good deed prompts another and another and another and another, etcetera. I mean, I I used to have thoughts like this before I became a Christian. It was a kind of a way of trying to justify the way I was living my life. I used to think like this, something like this, that if I went about my day, and as far as I could, I only did good things.

I only did good things and took every opportunity to try and do something positive for someone, smile at them. Just smile at them as they walk down the high street or something like that, then then then firstly, it would small piece by small piece make the world a better place. It's a pretty overinflated opinion of my own ability to do that, isn't it? And secondly, then it might have this butterfly effect where, you know, I smile at someone and they might smile at somebody else, and they might smile at 5 other people, and then everybody's smiling. And walking around doing, you know, doing that sort of stuff, and it might change the course of someone's day for the better, and who knows what might come of it, and that I would be more likely to get paid back in kind favorably.

It's a bit like this cosmic ordering nonsense people talk about, where you think about it, you do good things in the universe, and it it somehow spits out whatever it is you're thinking about, sensing to make any sense. Now there might be some truth in some of that. I mean, I'm not saying that's a bad thing to give it a go, but there might be some truth, but the problem is the problem is is that the moment I step out the door, I'm pretty much hating the first person I see. Like, why is he driving like that? What are you crossing the road?

There's a pelican crossing 5 meters away. Some kind of idiot? You know, why is this too so slow? Why are you so slow? What are you doing?

What are you why are you looking at me like that, Naomi? Do you, like, just instantly the world, and your own heart just go to war with 1 another, and you just can't do it. I'm not Jesus. I can't do that. It's impossible.

And also no amount of doing good can stop bad things happening to you. Otherwise, nothing bad would ever have happened to Jesus. He would never have been crucified. He would have been crowned king. Nothing bad ever would have happened.

It, you know, it it it would have been very different. No. What you need is the gospel. What you need is the good news about the lord Jesus Christ because then you can go out and you can truly serve people properly because you've understood what Jesus did for you first. You're not working for reward.

You're working for love because you were loved first. And for that, you will be rewarded. So can you drink the cup that I drink? Jesus asks? You will, if you're following me, you will serve, you will suffer.

But don't worry because these things are temporary, and our father has a place in heaven prepared for each of us.