13 Mar March 16, 2025 Matt. 20:20-28 “Do You Have an M.B.A.?”
March 16, 2025 Matt. 20:20-28 “Do You Have an M.B.A.?”
I think that there are times is all our lives when we have to do things we don’t want to do so we can get to the place where we want to be. What I mean by this, is that if you want to be a good basketball player, then you have to first practice a lot to get there. If you dream of being an engineer or computer designer, then you have to successfully go to a lot of schooling to get there. I don’t know of too many things where this isn’t true. Every once in a while we run across someone who has a natural talent for something, but even they have to practice to make it good. It is the same way with our walk with Jesus. You will not live up to your Christian potential if you don’t pray. You will not know what direction to take unless you read your Bible. And by the way, if you pray and read your Bible, your pursuit of other vocations will go a lot better and that is a promise. Today, we are going to go on a little journey as we look at our spiritual gifts. This will be a short sermon series and not a Bible study or class on gifts. Hopefully that by the time we finish, you will have some idea of what your gifts are.
Sometimes I run across things that I just can’t help pass on to you. Brian Bill asked these questions so see if you can answer them. What do you call a chicken crossing the road? Poultry in motion. What do you call a boomerang that doesn’t work? A stick. What do you call 4 bullfighters in quicksand? Quarto sinko. Where do you find a dog with no legs? Right where you left him. What do you call cheese that isn’t yours? Nacho cheese. What do you call a man who falls into an upholstery machine? Fully recovered. And finally, what do you call a Christian who isn’t serving? A contradiction.
One of the beautiful things that happen in a small church is that most people serve in some fashion. This isn’t always the case in the larger church. Sometimes people come to hide in a larger church so they don’t have to serve. They feel that the church is only for Sunday mornings and then only once in a while. No one will miss them in a large church. When Sharon and I left a church in West Fargo and started to attend another church, we did so because we needed to rest. I was not a pastor yet and we were very active in West Fargo but we were kind of burnt out. We got a nice rest and then after 2 months I found that I was leading a class of 50 as we studied “The Purpose Driven Life” by Rick Warren. God told us that a shorter rest was all we needed and of course He was right. Praise the Lord!
Another class I led at our new church was a spiritual gifts class based on the series by a man named Bugbee. This was another great learning opportunity for me and hopefully the class got something out of it also. But there was one glaring problem with any class like this. It seemed that people took it so that they could say they had taken a spiritual gifts class. They found out what their gifts were and I would guess that they still think they have them after all these years. Heaven forbid if they should ever try to use them. It was just good enough to know they had them. This is the reason that I’m not sold on gifts classes even though there are some good ones out there. Therefore, as we begin today, we are going to look at what it takes to be a servant because if you use your gifts, then you have to first be a servant.
I would like us to begin by seeing how the mother of James and John comes to Jesus to ask a favor. She asks Jesus if her sons could be on the right and left of Him in His kingdom. This mom realizes that Jesus is someone who is real important but she doesn’t quite understand the scope of Jesus. I’m giving her the benefit of the doubt as there are many who will pile the negatives on her. As far as I can see, she just doesn’t understand and wants what is best for her sons.
And this is the same way with our society as a whole, we don’t understand. This is probably the result of poor pastors leading churches that are going backwards. We have had to put up with this for several decades. Millions of Americans think that Jesus is this touchy, feely God that would never pronounce judgment on anyone. They think that as long as cheap grace is seemingly good for them, it should be good for everyone. People, we have a huge job in front of us. We don’t have to just present the Gospel; we also have to take apart these false beliefs. I think that ministering in this country is a lot like ministering in a Muslim country where we aren’t wanted either. You may think that is a little harsh, but I think it’s getting to be the reality of the situation.
Before we can go any further, we have to check our motives for wanting to know our spiritual gift or gifts. As Christians we have to be reminded that a blessing, in this case a spiritual gift, is not dependent on what you want. I have known people who have wanted to be a preacher and insist that they have this gift when they really don’t. They come wanting to reinforce the idea that they have a gift that they don’t have.
Pride is involved in this false journey. The mother of John and James was suffering a little from motherly pride. Some people come away from a gifts class wearing an imaginary badge that tells everyone how good they are because they took this class. They will probably wear it 20 years later and they forget that gifts change.
But I think the most important bad thing that can come from this is that you don’t use your gift once you know what it is. This really isn’t that uncommon because this happens in other areas all the time. I come to church and the church had better not count on me because I’m too busy. Or I have given all my life to the church and now I’m not giving any more. Did you know that the word vacation is not mentioned once in the Bible? The word retirement is also not mentioned. Once we are Christians, we are in a lifelong engagement. It doesn’t end and it just keeps getting better. I don’t have plans to retire. However, I do have plans to shift my focus because I cannot retire from God.
So we need to know our motives for wanting to know our spiritual gifts. This means that we have to put aside our preconceived notions and let God work. Here is a foggy example of this as I don’t remember the exact circumstances. I remember someone who thought they were gifted in let’s say helping and hospitality because they had done this for so long. It turns out they were gifted in another area, let’s say discernment. This is the ability to know when something is of God. This made a huge and positive impact in her life because she was one who acted on her gifts.
Now the second thing we see in this reading is that there will be difficulties. Can you imagine this? We have 2 of the disciple’s mom come to bat for them to get a better spot in heaven. The version of the Bible I read this today says the other disciples were indignant about this. This might be a case of a Bible version trying not to be offensive as other versions say they were displeased or angry. Whatever it was, it wasn’t good. They had hit a speed bump that could have separated this band of disciples. Fortunately, their leader was Jesus and He knew what to do. The disciples had difficulties right in their own group.
Jesus asks them if they can drink from the same cup that He is going to have to drink. Jesus knows that they will drink from the same cup. It is the cup of persecution. All the disciples will be persecuted and all but John will be persecuted to the death. And even though this will happen, they will not be seated at the right and left of Jesus in heaven. This decision is up the God, the Father. Jesus knows this isn’t possible so He tells them. It will be only after the death of Jesus that the disciples will finally get it and then they will drink from this same cup. Right now they aren’t ready. We will talk next week on some of the safeguards that we need if we are going to drink from the cup of spiritual gifts.
So that is the question I have for you today. Are you ready to drink from the cup of Jesus? In this country I don’t think that this means that we will be put to death for our beliefs but it does happen in other countries. In this country we have to be willing to stand up for Jesus. We have to be ready to proclaim the gospel as it is written and not as it has been rewritten. We have to be willing to go to bat for the person who is totally downtrodden from their own mistakes. We have to look the person in the eyes who looks totally different from us and say, “I love you.” Are you ready to do this to everyone?
Another thing we have to remember about spiritual gifts is that they are not for us. Jesus tells us that we are to be slaves. We are to be the servants of others. We read in John where Jesus washed the feet of the disciples in the upper room to show them that He was their servant. If you remember, washing people’s feet was the custom and the lowest of the slaves or servants was in charge of this when there was company. Here we have the Lord of lords and King of kings lowering himself to the level of the lowest slave. Whenever I think of this scene, it almost brings a tear to my eye. I think it is one of the most moving scenes in the Bible. I think this shows us the depth of the love that Jesus has for us. It shows us a love that we cannot understand. How can our King be washing our filthy feet?
The disciples didn’t get it at this time. They weren’t going to let Jesus wash their feet. He was their leader. This was slave work. It wouldn’t be until after the resurrection that they would finally understand what Jesus was doing. Then they took the gifts that Jesus had left them and they went out and turned the world upside down.
Today, we have exactly the same calling. The only difference is that there are about 8 billion people in the world that need the message. I say that everyone needs the message because even those of us who believe, need it to be reinforced. Anyway, we are to take our gifts and use them for the benefit of others. When you do this, blessings will come, both for you and those to who you are ministering.
This is how this works. Jesus wants you to go out and use your gifts on others. Don’t stop and think about who or why or how the blessings will work, just go out and do it. No matter what your gift, just go out and use it. Use it far and use it wide. Use it on the poor and use it on the rich. The need for the use of your spiritual gifts in this country is at a critical point. There are more heretics trying to preach the Bible than there have ever been. More than ever people believe in God as long as I they can invent the rules of God. People, you and your gifts are needed today more than ever before. Go forth and use them and let happen whatever is going to happen.
Jesus goes on to tell them that He, the Son of God, came to serve and not be served. This is what He is telling the disciples. They are to do what Jesus had been doing. They were to go out and serve everyone who they met, in the name of God. And that is exactly what all of them did. If you remember, they healed the lame and cured the sick. The preached everywhere they went, even if it meant physical peril for them. They even raised people from the dead. Every one of the disciples, except John, met with a martyr’s death. We have a tendency to forget the power these people had as they used their spiritual gifts.
And you can do exactly the same things as the disciples did. All you have to do is follow Jesus and do what He showed you to do. The only thing that holds us back today is our lack of faith. I know that we have faith but we don’t have the 100% faith that someone like Mother Teresa had as she ministered to the poverty stricken of India. She just went and let God care for her. Many missionaries are the same way. As for me, I’m going to keep preaching faith and when I get done preaching faith, I will preach it some more. Maybe God will raise someone up from one of our congregations that will turn the world upside down. This is something for our prayer warriors to pray for as we set out to change the world for the better as we follow Jesus Christ in all we do.
Today’s passage is one of those where if you feel comfortable after you have read it, then you don’t get it. It is one of the many passages that are meant to turn our world upside down. We are called to be servants and not CEO’s. We are called to get down and dirty with the poor and not high and mighty with gated communities of the rich. Here is a good example of this in a story told by Brian Bill about Dave Thomas who founded Wendy’s. Many of us remember Dave as he was on many of the ads for this fast food hamburger joint. He portrayed himself to be just a regular guy like the rest of us. He probably was. Anyway, one year on the cover of Wendy’s annual report, there was a picture of Dave in a knee-length work apron holding a mop and a plastic bucket. Here’s how he described the picture: “I got my M.B.A. long before my G.E.D which is a high school equivalency degree. At Wendy’s M.B.A. doesn’t mean Master of Business Administration. It means Mop Bucket Attitude.” Dave Thomas, the founder and owner of Wendy’s, got his M.B.A. from following Jesus Christ. He put others first and served.
This is how everyone is to take their gifts to the world. Don’t be afraid. God has given you this gift to use and He will help you all the way. Most of the time our gifts seem easy because it is what you love to do and what you are good at doing. Jesus loves you so much that He gave each one of you at least one spiritual gift. Along with this gift is His love that never ends. When you put His gift and His love together, you will be unstoppable. Praise the Lord. Thank you, Jesus, for first loving us. Let’s pray.
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