If you’ve followed the NBA at all
this year you know the name Jeremy Lin.
The story of Jeremy Lin is awesome.
He didn’t receive any athletic scholarships to play basketball out of
high school. He played college
basketball at Harvard University—not exactly a big name school like Duke,
Kansas or North Carolina. Jeremy Lin
went undrafted in the NBA draft, but was picked up with an unguaranteed
contract by the Golden State Warriors later that year as a point guard. He was traded from Golden State to the Houston
Rockets and then finally landed to the New York Knicks where he was fourth on
the depth chart. Then, one night, since
every other point guard on the Knicks was either injured or playing poorly, Lin
came in and blew everyone’s mind scoring 25 points, getting 5 rebounds and
having seven assists. His point total in
his first five career starts were the most of any player since the 76-77 merger
beating names like Shaquille O’Neal, Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant.
But
Jeremy Lin is a point guard and, as he has mentioned in interviews, scoring
points isn’t really what he is called to do on his team. His job is to run the offense and find open
players to give them easy shots. A great
game for a point guard isn’t getting double digits in scoring as much as it is
getting double digits in assists. Famous
point guards are people that serve the ball to others who often get much more
glory getting easy layups and dramatic dunks.
Point guards like John Stockton had Karl Malone, Steve Nash has Dirk
Novitski and Rajon Rondo has Keven Garnett, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen. The best point guards make the people around
them look good almost to the detriment of their own fame and fortune.
Jesus
told his disciples to be point guards-not power forwards. Jesus encouraged his disciples to serve
others the ball, not be a ball hog and score bazillions of points to adoring
crowds. The problem is that in sports
like in so many places in this world, those who serve get much less recognition
than those who are served. It’s just the
way it is. But Jesus said, “It should
not be so with you who follow me.
Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant,
and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all.”
The
problem is that while we like the idea of being a servant, most people don’t
actually like BEING servants or slaves.
No matter what Jesus says, it certainly doesn’t FEEL great. It’s hard to just work hard while other people
get the glory hoping for that day in heaven when you finally get your thanks. Even the people in our lives who we think are
the best servants often aren’t—they are standing on the backs of other people
who are never talked about.
My
best example of this is very personal. I
love visiting with people who are grieving, or counseling those who are
struggling through issues, or going to the hospital when somebody has been hurt
at a moment’s notice. And I often get
thanked for it. People will say how great
I am for taking time from my family to go to Des Moines or for doing a funeral
or something like this. Often, pastors
are looked up as being servants of their community and I believe a good pastor
must be a servant to his church community.
But, along the way, I realized that I get the glory, but I really don’t
deserve it. The reason that I can go to
hospital on a moment’s notice, or show up to a funeral on any day, or stay up
late counseling is because my wife, Kristy, is at home with my children. She cooks when I can’t. She puts the kids to bed when I’m not
there. She drops everything to serve me
so that I can serve the church. But no
matter how many times I say that, people see me out doing things and I get the
glory. But, in God’s eyes, I believe
that she is truly getting the glory because she is following Jesus’ example.
All of you have
been given gifts to serve in the church.
Some of you are called to be up front—singing in the praise band,
reading scripture, leading ministry teams—while others work behind the scenes in supporting roles
such as the media team, altar guild, custodians and circles. The only way that this works is if both types
of people are seeking to serve one another.
Not to be above another person, or to stay out of the limelight, but to
support each other so that the kingdom of God is nourished and grown.
If you have spent
your life serving others, have you ever realized that you are considered great
in the kingdom of God by none other than Christ himself. You are the stars of the show whether you
want to be or not. And for those of you
who are leaders of the church, you are called not to glory but to
servanthood. Only in this way does our
work in the church lead to the glory of God.
Amen.
“In
your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:
Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to
be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the
very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he
humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!” Why.
Why would he do that?
Let’s
change sports analogies from basketball to football. How many of you have heard of Drew
Brees? He’s the quarterback for the New
Orleans Saints. This past season, he
broke the single season record for passing yards most recently held by Dan
Marino who was probably the most prolific passer in the history of the
game. After the game where he broke the
record, what did Brees talk about? He
talked about the importance of his offensive line and how he couldn’t have done
it without them. He said that his glory
was really due to his defense which made it possible for him to play so well in
every game. He didn’t just thank his
wide receivers and running backs, he credited his award to them for their hard
work. While the media was making Drew
Brees look like some kind of a quarterback god, he didn’t use that to his
advantage, but he humbled himself and gave the credit to everyone around him.
In
football, the quarterback MUST lead by being a servant. In a game, quarterbacks, especially pocket
passers like Brees, don’t run the ball all that much and they never catch a
pass they throw. They hand the ball
off. They serve the ball in the hands of
their receivers. The best quarterbacks
are the greatest servants to the offense when you think about it. But why do they do it? We don’t consider them selfless, do we? No, not really. Because we know that they are trying to
win. Drew Brees is a servant leader
because he wants to be part of something special—he wants to win the Super
Bowl. And he knows that the best way of
doing it is to serve the offense in the best way he knows how.
This
doesn’t only happen in sports either. In
the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, JRR Tolkien wrote about how this works in other
aspects of life. In the story, the
ringbearer, Frodo, was charged with the task of destroying the One Ring of
Power so that Sauron, the epitome of evil, could not have the ring for
himself. If Sauron had the one ring, he
would destroy all of Middle Earth. But
while Frodo eventually did destroy the ring, he couldn’t have done what he did
without Samwise Gamgee, his trusted friend.
Why did Sam follow his friend through the horrors of the land? He wasn’t going to win any Super Bowl. There wasn’t a pile of treasure at the end of
the journey to look forward to either.
But Sam knew that there was a reward.
The reward was to be a part of something important—to save the world
from falling into the hands of evil. So
he became Frodo’s servant in order that the world might be kept safe for not
only himself but for future generations.
Jesus
also gave his life for a purpose—to give you life. That’s why he was willing to do what he
did. Because God so loved the world. You are important enough in God’s eyes that
Jesus came to die for you. In order for
you or I to follow Jesus into servanthood for others, we also need to
understand what we are doing it for.
What is the reward that we are working for? Jesus tells his disciples one of the rewards
in Matthew chapter 19, “Everyone who has left houses, or brothers or sisters or
father or mother or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times
as much and will inherit eternal life.”
In other words, following Jesus will change your life and give you a new
one. But there’s more.
Why
do mothers stay up all night to nurse their children? Why do Sunday School teachers and our GROW
volunteers take the time to shepherd tons of rowdy kids? Why serve others as Jesus did? Ask yourself this question: whose life will
change when God works through you?
Judgment
Day is bigger than the Super Bowl. The
battle against evil isn’t just some story in a book. If you’ve ever wanted to become part of
something big, Jesus tells you how to succeed in the kingdom of God. “Whoever wants to become great among you must
be your servant, and whoever wants to be first, must be slave of all.”
No comments:
Post a Comment