Sunday 10/28/12 RWJ/Pottersville UMC
Sermon: “They sacrifice for the greater good”
(Qualities of a Good Leader Series: Part 3
of 5)
Scripture Lesson: Job 42:1-6,
10-17
Gospel Lesson: Mark
10:46-52
Good morning
brothers and sisters! I greet you in the name our risen Lord and savior Jesus
Christ! I hope and pray that you have all had a blessed week and I am happy to
be worshipping with you here this morning!
This morning,
I am continuing on with my sermon series on the qualities of a good leader. In
light of the presidential election that we have every four years, I thought
that this would be a good opportunity for us to think about leadership. This leadership
is not only leadership that is needed in the government, but all kinds of
leadership. While leadership is needed everywhere, leadership is also very much
needed here in the church. Once again, there are many qualities of good leadership,
and I hope to highlight but a few of these many qualities with this sermon series.
In my first
week of this series, I talked about how good leaders are “humble before there
people.” If we really want to serve the Lord, we must be a humble servant to
each other. Last week I talked about how Christian leaders must be “Amongst the
people.” If we are truly going to serve people, than we must be amongst them.
Jesus was amongst the people, eating with sinners, healing the outcasts, loving
the lost, and etc. To really be good leaders we must be amongst the people like
that.
This morning
however, I want to talk about another quality of good leaders. This biblical
quality is one “who sacrifices for the greater good,” or one who gives to others
of themselves. By this, I mean one who truly understands that “it is better to
give, than to receive.” For the next two weeks, I will be highlighting
additional qualities of good leadership, and will finish this series the Sunday
just after the presidential election. While we have all no doubt been going
through various emotions and feelings through this president election cycle, I
hope that we have also been able to dream about what our ideal leaders could and
should be. Further, what kind of leaders can we ourselves be? Romans 12:1-2 says, "Therefore, I urge you,
brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices,
holy and pleasing to God - this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not
conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the
renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will
is - his good, pleasing and perfect will." Ephesians 5:1-2 says, "Be
imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love,
just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and
sacrifice to God."
You see then in order
to be a good leader we must sacrifice for God, for others, and do so in name of
Jesus. By giving, we truly receive. One of my favorite writings on the topic of
sacrifice was written by our late President Abraham Lincoln. President Lincoln
wrote the following letter to a Mrs. Lydia Bixby of Boston, Massachusetts in
1864 during the Civil War. Here is what the late president said: “Nov. 21,
1864. Dear Madam, I have been shown in the files of the War Department a
statement of the Adjutant General of Massachusetts that you are the mother of
five sons who have died gloriously on the field of battle. I feel how weak and fruitless must
be any word of mine which should attempt to beguile you from the grief of a
loss so overwhelming. But I cannot refrain from tendering you the consolation
that may be found in the thanks of the Republic they died to save. I pray that
our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you
only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must
be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom. Yours,
very sincerely and respectfully, A. Lincoln.”
Sacrificing
for others. Jesus calls us to sacrifice for others. Jesus calls us to live for
others, and give of ourselves, even when it is hard. 1 Peter 2:1-5 reads:
"Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy,
and slander of every kind. Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so
that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the
Lord is good. As you come to him, the living Stone - rejected by men but chosen
by God and precious to him - you also, like living stones, are being built into
a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices
acceptable to God through Jesus Christ." In sacrificing for the greater
good we should not do this just for blessings from God, but because it is the
right thing to do. By giving of ourselves, of our resources, of our time, and of
our gifts and talents, God uses us to transform the world for Jesus. Hebrews
13:15-16 says, "Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God
a sacrifice of praise - the fruit of lips that confess his name. And do not
forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is
pleased."
Whenever we deny
ourselves and give to others, we imitate Jesus Christ. By taking the time and
by doing what is needed to help others we are offering ourselves as sacrifices
to Jesus. By loving others and serving others, we are living the way Christ
taught us to live. In the scripture reading from Job this morning, God restored
all that Job had lost. Job felt like everything he had been taken or sacrificed.
Job learned that God is faithful if we really trust Him. In the Gospel reading
this morning the blind man had faith. He believed and sacrificed for Jesus, and
Jesus said after he made the blind man see, “Go; your faith has made you well.”
The famous writer Ralph
Waldo Emerson said, “Self-sacrifice is the real miracle out of which all
the reported miracles grow.” Here is another really good quote: "You and I know and do not
believe that life is so dear and peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price
of chains and slavery. If nothing is worth dying for, when did this begin...?
...Should Moses have told the children of Israel to live in slavery under the
pharaohs? Should Christ have refused the cross? Should the patriots of Concord
Bridge have thrown down their guns and refused to fire the shot heard 'round
the world?" Anyone here know who this quote is from? This quote is from our
late President Ronald Reagan.
You see brothers and sisters, we are
redeemed by the blood of Jesus, but Jesus wants us to sacrifice for Him. He
wants us to make the hard decisions, and to serve all people. To fully serve
Christ, it involves sacrifice. It involves hard work, late nights, and plenty
of coffee. We do we what do though, because Jesus Christ has died for us, and
because He changes lives. May we seek this week to do for others, and to sacrifice
for others, because Jesus calls us to make disciples for the transformation the
world. With the power of Christ and in continually seeking Him, our sacrifice
will pay dividends. It will pay dividends in growing congregations, in hearts
changed, in lives made new, and in people living for the Lord. When I go to bed
at night even if I am dog tired, I would hope that the Lord would say “Well
done today, good and faithful servant.”
I would like to close with a story
about sacrifice. Here is the story: There was once a
bridge which spanned a large river. During most of the day the bridge sat with
its length running up and down the river paralleled with the banks, allowing
ships to pass thru freely on both sides of the bridge. But at certain times
each day, a train would come along and the bridge would be turned sideways
across the river, allowing a train to cross it. A
switchman sat in a small shack on one side of the river where he operated the
controls to turn the bridge and lock it into place as the train crossed. One evening
as the switchman was waiting for the last train of the day to come, he looked
off into the distance thru the dimming twilight and caught sight of the train
lights. He stepped to the control and waited until the train was within a
prescribed distance when he was to turn the bridge. He turned the bridge into
position, but, to his horror, he found the locking control did not work. If the
bridge was not securely in position it would wobble back and forth at the ends
when the train came onto it, causing the train to jump the track and go
crashing into the river. This would be a passenger train with many people
aboard. He left the bridge turned across the river, and hurried across the
bridge to the other side of the river where there was a lever switch he could
hold to operate the lock manually. He would have to hold the lever back firmly
as the train crossed. He could hear the rumble of the train now, and he took
hold of the lever and leaned backward to apply his weight to it, locking the
bridge. He kept applying the pressure to keep the mechanism locked. Many lives
depended on this man’s strength. Then, coming
across the bridge from the direction of his control shack, he heard a sound
that made his blood run cold. “Daddy, where are you?” His four-year-old son was
crossing the bridge to look for him. His first impulse was to cry out to the
child, “Run! Run!” But the train was too close; the tiny legs would never make
it across the bridge in time. The man almost left his lever to run and snatch
up his son and carry him to safety. But he realized that he could not get back
to the lever. Either the people on the train or his little son must die. He
took a moment to make his decision. The train
sped safely and swiftly on its way, and no one aboard was even aware of the
tiny broken body thrown mercilessly into the river by the onrushing train. Nor
were they aware of the pitiful figure of the sobbing man, still clinging
tightly to the locking lever long after the train had passed. They did not see
him walking home more slowly than he had ever walked: to tell his wife how
their son had brutally died. Now if you
comprehend the emotions which went this man’s head, you can begin to understand
the feelings of our Father in Heaven when He sacrificed His Son to bridge the gap
between us and eternal life. How does He feel when we speed along thru life
without giving a thought to what was done for us thru Jesus Christ?
So this week brothers and
sisters, may we seek to sacrifice for Jesus, may we give to others, may we help
others, may we love each other. For good leaders, Christian leaders, sacrifice
for the greater good of all people. May we serve the Lord sacrificially for
each other in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
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