FBC Daily Devotional – May 3, 2021

Faith Baptist Church

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

00:06

Well a good first Monday of May to you. How did your weekend go?

00:12

You get the month of May off to a good start, I hope. I trust you did. I hope you were able to get to meet together with God's people yesterday at at the

00:22

Lord's house and church gathering together if that was possible. If not, I hope you were at least able to worship with God's people, you know virtually if you will through live stream and you know at least be ministered to by the word on the

00:39

Lord's Day. Well, we're off to a new week and this week today in our reading in the

00:45

Gospel of Mark and I was struck with how how easily we can be so consumed with our own agenda and you know what's most pressing and upon our mind and what we're what we're dwelling upon what we're most thinking about and we can be so consumed with that that we pay little if really any attention to what's going on around us or to what what else is being said or what somebody else is going through what someone else is trying to tell us.

01:20

Now we see that illustrated for us pretty vividly in in today's text.

01:25

So Jesus once again he gets his disciples aside and he says look this is what's coming when we get to Jerusalem.

01:32

You see I'm right at the beginning of our reading in Mark chapter 10 says they were on the road going up to Jerusalem and he pulls the disciples aside the twelve aside and he says to them behold we're going up to Jerusalem and the

01:45

Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and to the scribes and they will condemn him to death and deliver him to the

01:53

Gentiles and they will mock him and scourge him and spit on spit upon him and kill him and the third day he will rise again.

02:03

Now that's pretty some pretty heavy stuff that he tells the disciples and we don't really have much of a recording of how they've responded to that.

02:16

Although we we know later on that they didn't really get it. They seem to be totally blown away by the events of the betrayal the crucifixion and so forth weren't expecting a resurrection.

02:28

We know all that. So I don't know what they were going through what that was going through their mind during that time.

02:36

But what happens next is illustrative of what I was saying earlier that we can be so focused on what's consuming us what we're thinking about what we're dwelling upon that we completely miss something as significant as what

02:52

Jesus just told his disciples. So what happens next is that James and John come to Jesus and they said to him teacher we want you to do for us whatever we ask.

03:03

Well, what's that? We want you to give us these positions of honor when you come into your kingdom one of us at your right hand one of us at your left hand when you get into when you get when you come into your kingdom.

03:16

So it's like with all that Jesus just told him what what they're really interested in and focused on is getting prime positions in the kingdom.

03:27

Wow, you know I read that I see that and I realize it's pretty easy to be self -absorbed isn't it to be just so focus on ourselves and consumed with what we want and what we think is important and what what our agenda is that we completely are oblivious to somebody else what somebody else is going through or whatever.

03:58

Well, you know rather than allow that to frustrate him or allow him to get angry with the disciples and and chew them out for that what the

04:07

Lord does instead is he uses that that uses that distraction if you will and part of James and John as a teaching moment to teach the rest of the disciples about what true greatness is.

04:22

You see James and John had fallen prey to what most human beings fall prey to and that is that greatness comes with position.

04:30

I'm in a great I have a great position that I'm a great person if I'm a great person I'll have a great position you know that kind of thinking.

04:36

But Jesus says no listen the path to true greatness in my kingdom is through service to others having a servant's heart.

04:48

This is what he goes on to say. He says in verse 42 and following he says you know that those who are considered rulers over the

04:57

Gentiles lord it over them and Their great ones exercise authority over them exactly the very thing

05:04

James and John were asking for positions of authority to rule over to reign over others.

05:10

But Jesus says it's not the way it is to be among you. He says but whoever desires to become great among you shall be your servant and whoever of you desires to be first shall be slave of all.

05:24

Why? Because he says even the Son of Man didn't come to be served but to serve and then he goes on to say and to give his life a ransom for many.

05:36

So he circles back to that instruction that that foreshadowing of what was to come that he had given to them before this distraction about greatness.

05:49

The the Son of Man gave us an example Greatness comes through service and what a challenge that was to these individuals who had become so self -absorbed thinking of themselves and what they wanted.

06:05

But how much of a challenge that is to us as well. How easily we can be like James and John self -absorbed thinking only of ourselves only what we want and how misinformed we can be how misled we can be by the thinking of the world to believe that greatness comes through some kind of position some kind of place of honor some kind of some kind of respectable role in the church or in society

06:36

Jesus says no you want to be great in my kingdom serve others serve others.

06:43

So let's heed these challenges today. Let's heed these encouragements to not be so self -absorbed but to pay attention to what others are saying what others are needing what they're trying to communicate to us and then not to be misled by our culture in the definition of greatness.

07:02

So our Father and our God I pray give us servants hearts hearts that are willing and ready to give of ourselves to meet the needs of someone else.

07:17

Help us Father not to be so self -absorbed. We pray this in Jesus name and for his sake.

07:24

Amen. All right. Well, I hope you have a good Monday. Your week gets off to a good start.

07:30

Your month gets off to a good start this merry month of May. Have a good day.