The 5 Habits of a Christian Life: Serving and Sharing Hope

This morning, we’re continuing our series, The Five Habits of the Christian Life, and we’re talking about serving and sharing hope out of Mark chapter 10, Mark chapter 10, verse 35 and 45. And we’re also going to look at the story of Joseph, the story of Joseph in Genesis chapter 50, verse 20. So let’s read those two passages of Scripture. If you have your Bibles with you, turn to Genesis chapter 50, verse 20. Genesis chapter 50, verse 20. And so if you don’t have your Bible and you’re not looking up here, turn to your neighbor and say, hey, look at the pastor. Phil and Mary, look at the pastor. I got to start calling names here. Lord help me. Okay. Genesis chapter 50, verse 20. Let’s read this together. These are the words of Joseph, you intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. And then turn in your Bibles to Mark chapter 10, and we’re going to be looking at verses 35 through 45, but I’m just going to read verse 45, Mark chapter 10, verse 45, for even the son of man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. Let’s pray. Lord Jesus, thank you for your word this morning. Thank you for the truth and the light and the life that flows from the written word of God. Lord Jesus, we know you’re the living word and we pray that you would fill up our lives with your word today. Help us to live in the word. Help us to live by the word. Holy spirit come and make the word of God just be alive for each person in this house today in Jesus name. Amen. Praise the Lord. God bless you. You may be seated this morning. We’re talking about sharing hope. How can I share hope with my family? How can I share hope with my friends? How can I share hope in the neighborhood? Human beings need hope. We need hope. When we lose hope, we turn to other things. We lose joy. We lose that kind of jump in our step. We are designed in such a way that we need hope. And I’m so thankful that the Bible tells us that God is a God of hope. Romans chapter 15 verse 13, Paul writes these words, may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him so that you may overflow with hope. So the God of hope as you trust in him can make you overflow with hope. If you’re a Christian in the house this morning, God wants you to live with hope. God wants you to have hope. And sometimes we go through days and weeks or seasons where we lose our hope. I understand that. I’ve been there. But Romans 15, 13 reminds me that God is described as a God of hope. He wants to put hope in your life so that you can overflow with joy and hope. And God will do it in your life. Paul, when he talks about the big three, faith, hope and love, isn’t that amazing how he puts those together? First Corinthians 13, 13 says, now these three remain faith, hope and love. Here’s what I believe. If you’ll go to God by faith, he will give you some hope. And if you will allow the hope of God to begin just to trickle into your heart and trickle into your life, you will begin to live a life that is focused on others, a life of love, faith, hope and love. Faith produces hope. It’s a gift of God. And hope produces a life of love. That’s why Paul said these three remain faith, hope and love. Now we’re not going to spend a lot of time this morning in the story of Joseph, but I do want to keep referring us to his story. Joseph, if you know his story, Genesis 37 through chapter 50, God gave him a dream and then everything fell apart. I mean, you’ve read the story, right? I mean, God gave him this wonderful dream as a youngster, probably a teenager, and then his brothers sell him. First, he’s in a pit. They sell him into slavery. He ends up in Potiphar’s house where he’s lied about and falsely accused. And then he ends up in prison where he’s forgotten. But eventually he’s in the palace because God’s promises always come true. But in the midst of that, there’s a few things that we see in that story. One is that multiple times, especially in Genesis 39, the Bible tells us that God was with him. God was with him. I want you to just speak that to yourself this morning. If you’re going through trial or trouble or you feel like I can’t hear God, I don’t know what God’s up to in my life. God, I thought was going to do this and I don’t think he’s doing anything. I just want you to speak to yourself. I want you to hear that God is with me. Just say that to yourself, God is with me. I don’t even know what God’s doing right now, but God is with me. I mean, can you just put yourself in Joseph’s shoes? Can you see how many times there would have been the opportunity to have a bad attitude or to feel like you’re abandoned by God? I mean, his brothers faked his killing and threw him in a pit in Potiphar’s house, even though he was faithfully serving. He gets falsely accused by Potiphar’s wife and Potiphar, although Potiphar, you can tell is really like Joseph. Potiphar says, OK, off to jail you go. Nothing seemed to be going right in Joseph’s life, but somehow or other, Joseph never gave up hope. He trusted in the goodness of God. And so we’ll talk more about the story of Joseph, but the message this morning is really this. How can we share hope? Let’s serve others. Let’s focus on others. And that will help us share hope in their lives. Jenny, would you mind giving me that water? I thought my voice was doing so good today. Pray for my voice. I don’t have time for this. Come on. Come on, voice. As we live with the attitude and actions of a servant. We share hope with those around us. You know, a lot of times we think about sharing hope, we think, well, I’ve got to say something. I’ve got to do something. I’ve got to share the gospel. That’s wonderful. But maybe just maybe if you began to serve people around you. If you began to take on the attitude of Jesus, the attitude of a servant in the church, in your home, where you work, maybe people would take notice and say, hey, this is the person I can trust. This is the person that I could share my troubles with. Here’s a little story about the greatest sermon. The story is told of a young man who desired to become a monk under the leadership of St. Francis of Assisi. St. Francis took the young fellow along with him on a preaching mission to a nearby town. They walked through the town from one end to the other. They helped people along the way, but did not stop to preach. The young man questioned St. Francis. I thought we were going to town to preach a sermon. St. Francis responded. We did. Our lives are the greatest or worst sermon that we will ever preach. Lord, help us. And so this morning, we’re going to look into Mark, chapter 10, verse 35 through 45. Looks like someone made a typo there. Thirty five to forty five. That’s someone be me. And we’re going to look at truths on serving and sharing hope. So the first truth is focusing on yourself leads to unanswered prayers. Focusing on yourself leads to unanswered prayer. Look with me at verse thirty five through thirty seven. Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to him, teacher, they said, we want you to do for us whatever we ask. Wow. They were bold, they were clear. And if we’re honest this morning, who hasn’t asked that prayer of the Lord? I want to speak especially to the young people, and I just want to free you up and say, when I was young, I was I was just like them. And so if you’re young and you’re saying, Lord, I want to be like you, I want to be like you, I want to be like you, I want to be like you, I want to be like you. I was I was just like them. And so if you’re young and you’re saying, Lord, I want to I want to have purpose in my life, Lord, I want to be significant, Lord, I want to have a fulfilling marriage. I want to have a fulfilling family one day, I just want to let you off the hook and say, good for you, because that’s right where I was. That’s where most of us are when we’re young. And God knows that God knows your needs. He knows your wants. But as I was reading this passage, passage of Scripture, it just it just sort of hit me. That when we focus on ourselves. We end up with unanswered prayers, our focus is wrong, our perspective is wrong. You see now, James and John, the Bible also tells us, I think it’s in Mark, they were known as the sons of thunder, they had a fiery kind of bold personality. They were fishermen and they were some of the first followers of Jesus. But when they came to Jesus. They wanted significance, but they didn’t understand the path to significance. Here’s the truth. If you talk to any successful business person, you talk to anyone. When we went on this trip together, we partly went on this vacation because we’ve been married 35 years this year. And yeah, we’re proud of that. We’re I mean, I don’t think we’re surprised. But there’s been some difficult days, there’s been some trials, there’s been some troubles. And if you talk with anyone who’s had a successful marriage, you talk with anyone who’s had been a successful business person. And you really sit down and talk to them, they won’t just talk to you about their successes. If you talk about someone who’s done really good as an athlete, you know, like they went to the Olympics, they will also talk to you about failures. They will talk to you about broken hearts. They will talk to you about times where something didn’t work out, where they thought God had blessed this business venture, and they were go, go, go. And then it didn’t work out. Successful people have also had big failures, big setbacks, big difficulties in their life. So again, it’s a wonderful request to say, Lord, I want to be significant. Lord, I want to be significant for you. I want to, I want to be successful in life. But the problem with the request, yes, they were bold, and they were clear, and they went right to Jesus. And that’s what prayer is. Amen. When we pray, we’re going to the Lord in prayer with our requests. We should be bold. We should be clear. But the problem wasn’t the request. The problem was their focus. Their focus was me. It was a me-focused prayer. And so it ends up unanswered. Before we move on to the next truth, I want to just ask us, well, how should we pray? And I went, I didn’t put this on the slides, but I went through a few scriptures, because when I pray, I want to receive answers to my prayers. So I don’t want to pray amiss. I want to pray in such a way that when I pray, God hears me and he can answer my prayers. So first, the Bible teaches us in Hebrews 4.16, we should come confidently into the throne room of grace. I love that God’s throne is a throne room of grace. It’s not a throne room of, well, let me see. Did you do this, this, this and this? OK, check, check, check, check. I’ll answer your prayer. That’s not God’s throne. It’s a throne room of grace, meaning when I come to God in prayer, he doesn’t even see my righteous works or unrighteous works. All he sees is Jesus. When I go to the father in prayer, it’s a throne room of grace because of what Jesus has already done for me. And so he sees the righteousness of Jesus. And I’m a child of God, not because of my own merit or my own goodness, but because of what Jesus has done in my life. The Bible also teaches us to ask by faith. Yes, we’ve got to have faith. We’ve got to believe that when we ask God that he’s going to act and we’re going to receive what we’re asking. The Bible also teaches us in 1 John 5.14 that we should ask according to his will. And I’m sure there’s been many times just like James and John here in our passage this morning. I’m sure there’s been many times in your life and my life when God simply didn’t answer that prayer because it was a me-focused prayer or it was a prayer that was not according to the will of God. God has a plan, he’s got a will, he’s got a purpose for each one of our lives. And sometimes when we pray, God is listening, but he’s not going to answer the way we think he is because it’s not according to his will. And then the Bible teaches us to pray persistently and without ceasing. We should pray with thanksgiving. Philippians 4.6 says we should pray in Jesus name and in the authority of Jesus. There is power in the name of Jesus. But James chapter 5, verse 16 and 1 Timothy 2.1 also remind us that we should pray for others. And I know in my heart this morning, as I have looked at Mark chapter 10 and these verses, I felt in my own heart, Lord, help me to pray more for others. Help me to spend less time praying for me and what I think I need or what I think I want from you in our relationship. Well, Lord, help my prayers to be filled up with prayers for the city, prayers for people who are hurting, people who are struggling, praying for our nation, praying for our church, praying for my family members. Lord, help me not just to spend all my time praying about me. Lord, I’m sick. Lord, I need finances. Lord, I need my wife to treat me the way I want to be treated. I just talking to myself this morning. But help my help my prayer life to be filled up with Lord, bless sister so and so. Lord, help brother so and so who’s who’s really going through it right now. And they need your favor. They need your mercy. Help me to spend time praying for others. Focusing on yourself often leads to unanswered prayers. The second truth I see in this passage of scripture is the path to greatness can be a difficult baptism. See, the young person, there’s nothing wrong with wanting to be significant. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to have purpose and meaning and be successful and have a meet the love of your life and have a great companion. All of those things are blessed of God and good gifts from the Lord. It’s a wonderful thing to want to be successful. And when I was young, I was right there with you. There’s still some days I want to be significant. There’s other days now I just want to take a nap. It’s a wonderful thing to want to be significant and successful. But here’s the truth. What we see in this passage, just like James and John, we often don’t see the path. We don’t understand the path and we don’t understand how difficult the path is going to be to greatness. Look with me at verse 38 through 40. You do not know what you are asking, Jesus said. Can you drink the cup I drink or be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with? We can, they answered. Jesus said to them, you will drink the cup I drink and be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with. 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. You see, Jesus baptism was a difficult baptism. The early disciples, their baptism was a difficult baptism. And the cup here surely means death on the cross. Because you remember the garden of Gethsemane? Even Jesus, the son of God, prayed to his father, if you could or can take this cup from me, please take it from me. But if not, if I want to do your will, father, I want to do your will. So what is Jesus talking about here? Jesus is saying to them that you don’t really know what you’re asking because I’m going to the cross. I’m going to be crucified for the sin and the evil in the world to be the savior of the world. And if you want to sit at my left and right hand, you’re going to have to share in that baptism. You say they wanted to be great. They wanted to be significant. What a great request. But they didn’t understand the path to that greatness. They didn’t understand the baptism that they would have to endure. And again, I want to underline or emphasize that I think that’s true in almost all endeavors in life. If you want to be a great teacher or you want to be a great wife or homemaker or parent or husband or all of these things are going to take a baptism, that’s going to be difficult. They’re going to they’re going to lead you places and you’re going to have experiences in life that you weren’t expecting. When I became a pastor, I had this vision, this idea of the church I would be pastoring. I had no idea what pastoring a church would really be like. I certainly didn’t think that I would open a church at one point in my journey and close that same church 10 years later, would have never would have never envisioned that. In fact, when that happened, I would often sort of negotiate with God, say, God, I don’t know what you’re thinking, but I know that I didn’t need this. So I don’t know why you think I did. But God knows, God knows what we need. God has a path and a plan that sometimes can feel like a difficult baptism, but he’s accomplishing his purpose for you. A third truth that we see here is that carnal pursuits produce carnal results, and this is a warning to us. Look with me at verse 41, Mark 45, verse 41, when the 10, this is the other disciples, when the 10 heard about this, they became indignant with James and John. And so another way to say is they got angry. The Greek word here is this idea of being vexed or not understanding, but being kind of upset about it. Like, what did you just hear what they asked Jesus? And so in many ways, because James and John were focused on themselves, it was a carnal request. They weren’t thinking spiritually, they wanted to be great, they wanted to be significant, but they were really thinking in carnal terms and natural terms. And so what’s the response that they get? The other disciples got just as carnal. Isn’t this the way life is in your marriage? If you lean into being carnal and allow your carnal emotions to rule the day, anger and pride and jealousy and envy, what is usually the response? When you get angry, then the other person gets angry. And that’s true in so many situations in our lives that when we walk in the flesh, then we get fleshly outcomes. I love what the Apostle Paul says in Galatians, chapter five or 17, he says, for the flesh desires what is contrary to the spirit and the spirit, what is contrary to the flesh, they are in conflict with each other so that you are not to do whatever you want. And then Romans 8, 13 reminds us that we have to put to death our flesh. If you want to live a spiritual life, if you want to understand the will of God in your life, if you want to walk in the will of God for life, you have to partner and it is a partnership with the Holy Spirit to put to death the earthly, the carnal, the fleshly desires. And allow spiritual desires and friends, that’s not Buddhism, right? If you’ve ever taken a world religions class, Buddhism teaches you just need to be free of all desire, and that’s how you can be free of all suffering because you don’t have any desires. But that’s not what the Bible teaches. The Bible teaches that God wants to give you some new desires. He wants you to live with passion. He wants you to live with desire. He wants you to have some desires that you never thought you could have. But first, you’ve got to put to death your old desires. You’ve got to put to death the carnal, the fleshly, the things that aren’t pleasing to God, the things that will destroy your marriage and your family, those carnal things that will lead you astray. And in place of that, when you put to death the flesh, the spirit comes in and begins to give you new desires for God that can transform your life and have an impact on other people. Romans 8, 13, for if you live according to the flesh, you will die. But if by the spirit you put to death the misties of the body, you will live. Friends, I want to live and I want to live for God. I want you to live. And Paul is saying, if you if you really want to live for God and if you really want to be significant for God, then you can’t be focused on yourself. You can’t be walking in your flesh and in your carnal thinking. But you have to, by the spirit of God, get your focus on God, get your focus on other people, get your focus off yourself and put to death with the help of the spirit of God, put to death your carnal thinking and your fleshly desires. You see, the flesh will make God seem very distant. When you give way to your flesh, things like lust and pride and anger and anxieties and fears, all of these negative emotions that might even seem pleasurable. At first, like a lot of people use anger because it works. Like maybe you went through some hurt when you were young and now you’ve decided that what a way to keep me from getting hurt all the time, I’m just going to get angry every time someone even comes close to hurting my feelings. And so don’t you even try it, because I had to go through that when I was 15. And so next time somebody tries to even act like they’re going to hurt my feelings, I’m going to get really angry and I’m going to scare them and they’re going to distance themselves from me. But I go away feeling, well, that kind of worked. That person can’t even get close enough to me now to hurt my feelings. You see, that’s how the negative emotions of the flesh work. But they hinder the spirit of God in your life and they hinder same thing with lust. Young person and I, I know for sure it’s not just young men anymore. We’re living in a world today where young women are also encountering things and life choices and where sexuality and lust, there’s this sort of immediate pleasure of, oh, that’s going to make me happy. That’s going to make me feel good. If I can be sexual with someone else or I can look at this or look at that and, oh, it might just have this, oh, it feels so good. But long term, it’s going to destroy you. It’s going to destroy you. It kills what the spirit wants to do in your life rather than killing what the enemy wants to do in your life. And Paul is saying in Romans 8, 8, 13, you’ve got to, with the help of the Lord, you don’t have to do it all yourself. With the help of the Holy Spirit, you’ve got to put to death the flesh. It’s a lifelong journey. But I can tell you, friend, if you will start today, if you will start today saying no to your flesh and saying yes to the spirit, it gets better. It gets better. There is spiritual life that overcomes the flesh. I’m going to keep preaching. Number four, natural leadership, Lords over others. Look with me at verse 42. Jesus called them together and said, and this is where he wants to teach them about servanthood. Jesus called them together and said, you know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lorded over them and their high officials exercise authority over them. And so Jesus is going to teach them another way to lead, another way to live, another way to interact with people. And what we see, and we’ve all experienced it, natural leadership and what Jesus was talking about among the Gentiles and the Roman empire, and even today, right? Natural leadership is really often more focused about authority and control, like, I’m the leader, so I get to control what’s going on. And can I just confess something that I think that’s how often as leaders were wired. And so deacons, I want you to listen to what I’m teaching today. Pastors, ministry leaders, parents, any parents here, any grandparents. You see, all of us were leading somewhere. All of us, whether it’s in the church or in our homes or where we work, we all have some responsibility to lead. And Jesus here, before he makes his real point, which is we need to serve in the way we lead, he’s first identifying that the way it works in the natural world is we lord it over others. Meaning, hey, I’m the boss. I remember the first time I was in an environment and someone called me boss. I didn’t like it. I was, oh, no, don’t call me that. I might start acting like your boss. Then you won’t like me. Because I’ll start barking orders and telling you what to do. And no, I don’t want to really be your boss. Jesus is saying that’s the way it is in the natural world. The Greek word for lord it over is just this idea of dominion control and really focusing on authority. Now, the truth is God is into authority. Amen. You can read all through scripture where God is into authority. He is a God of authority. But authority that is given is also held accountable. So to the one who much has been given, what? Much is going to be required. So in many ways, it is a scary thing to be a leader. Mom and dad, it’s a scary thing to be a parent because God’s going to hold you responsible for how you’re leading your kids. In the Bible, I believe it’s clear that God gives the man leadership in the home. Now, it’s a shared leadership between husband and wife. But in scripture, the man has a responsibility to lead men that should scare us a little bit, right? You know, because God’s looking at you and saying, are you going to lead spiritually? Are you going to lead your your spouse? Are you going to lead your children and your grandchildren spiritually? And it should put a little fear of God in us, because when God gives us leadership authority, he holds us accountable for how we lead. Here’s what Jesus really wanted us to understand in this passage, and that is spiritual greatness grows as you serve, as you serve. I must have been a little tired after my vacation. That’s the second typo. Number five, spiritual greatness grows as you serve. Mark 45, 43 through 44. Jesus continues, not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you. Don’t you love that Jesus didn’t just throw out greatness and say, hey, just forget about being great. He didn’t do that. Instead, he says, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be the first must be slave to all. What a lesson. And Jesus, of course, modeled it in John 13 when he washed his disciples feet. And they were shocked, like, you’re the rabbi, you’re the leader, and you’re stooping down to wash feet. Now, I want us to see the two words here in Greek, the first, when it says, great among you must be your servant, that is the word diakonos, so that’s our word for deacon. So if we’re a deacon, what is a deacon? A deacon is a servant. Before they’re an overseer, before they’re a leader, before they look at the finances, before any of that other stuff, a deacon is a servant. A deacon is a servant. That’s the Greek word, diakonos. So, and the second word here for slave, that’s the right translation, not servant, because it’s doulos, it’s actually bond, servant, or slave. So I want to read it again like that. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your deacon, and whoever wants to be first must be bond slave to all. That’s quite a teaching. I’m not sure I always live up to that, as a husband, as a dad, as a pastor, I mean, that’s quite a teaching, that’s challenging. Jesus is helping us understand that it’s how you treat other people, whether you’re a leader or a parent, or just a friend, it’s how you treat other people, that’s what’s going to give you an opportunity to share hope. So I’m praying today, Lord, give us a new heart for servanthood in our church. Lord, may we, as a church, may we become a group of people that is just passionate about serving, passionate about being that person that comes alongside and says, hey, I’m ready to help, how can I serve? Because when we do that, people are, I really believe this, people are attracted to those who serve. And then we have an opportunity to share hope. Number six, Jesus came, of course, to serve and to give his life. Look at verse 45, Mark 45, 45, for even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. And I love that word ransom, it refers to the purchase price that satisfied the justice of God. Jesus was the ransom price when he went to the cross, he satisfied the justice of God. You know, many people today, when you’d want to talk with them about the gospel and share with them about sin, our culture is not often interested in hearing about personal sin. It’s like, don’t talk to me about my personal sin. But they’re more than ready to talk about injustice and evil in the world. I’m talking about non-Christian people, right, just people we rub shoulders with. Everybody is willing to focus on justice and injustice and evil. They just don’t want to talk about personal sin. So I want to encourage us as we’re out talking with unbelievers, start with that. The God of the Bible is a God of justice. The God of the Bible is very concerned about injustice. The God of the Bible is very concerned about how we treat people. How we treat the foreigner among us. Come on, church. God’s very concerned about that. He’s concerned about your heart and how you treat the people around you. I know there’s a whole nother layer of politics and legality and all these other things that we have opinions about and concerns about. But at the very heart of this message in Mark 10, 35 through 45, God cares how you treat people around you. And he doesn’t want you going around lording your authority over them, saying, I’m in charge, I’m in control. So you have to meet my needs and you have to do what I want done. That is the way the natural world works. Jesus is teaching us that in the kingdom of God, it’s a completely different way. If you want to be great, you’re going to have to be a deacon. And if you want to be really great, you’re going to have to be slave to all. Slave to all. And even Jesus came to serve and to give his life as a ransom. Have you ever looked at Philippians chapter two? Philippians chapter two talks about Jesus and his willingness to come down and to give his life. Let me read just a few passages, Philippians, a few verses, Philippians two, verse five. In your relationship or attitude with one another, have the same mindset of 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. There it is again. 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. So Jesus is our example. Jesus didn’t win converts by putting a sword at him and saying either convert or die. Right. Jesus came to us as a baby in a manger, very humbly. He went all the way to the cross and gave his own life so that we could have new life, that our sins could be forgiven, that injustice could be dealt with in the world. That’s our king. That’s our king. That’s our Jesus. He is a humble Jesus. He is a serving Jesus. And when I read this passage of scripture, I’m again challenged, Lord, help me to be more like you. I haven’t arrived yet. I’m not there yet. I still have times when I want to be in charge. I have times when I want to do it the natural way. And some days I even feel like I’m wired like that, like I’m hardwired to Lord over. Just me, huh? Thank you. Amen. Just me. Yeah. Even the son of man did not come to be served. But to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many, Jesus is our example. Jesus is our model. Here’s what I believe. When you begin to position your life in your home and in your church and where you work as a servant, it attracts people. It doesn’t repel people. There’s a lot of people who respect the boss because they’re the boss. Well, you’re the boss. But then when the boss isn’t there, hey, that guy, boy, I tell you what he’s. So they respect the position, they don’t respect the person. Because when you Lord it over someone, it repels them, it creates distance. But when you love them enough to serve them, it attracts them. So how can we share hope in our homes? How can we share hope with our grandkids? How can we share hope where we work in our church, in our community? Let’s become a church. Let’s become a group of people that are so passionate about serving other people that it just attracts people and then gives us opportunities to share the hope of Jesus Christ. I want to turn now back again and just think about Joseph before we wrap up this morning. Because a life of service shares hope with others, if you turn in your Bibles to Genesis chapter 50. I already read verse 20, but I want to read and look at some of these other verses as well. Genesis chapter 50 verse. I’m going to start in verse 19. It says, And again, if you know the story, now God has fulfilled his promise. Joseph is at the right hand of Pharaoh in Egypt, and he has been used mightily to not only help the Egyptians, but he’s been able to save his whole people, all of his relatives from a great famine. And his brothers now realize that Joseph knows what they did, and they’re shaking in their boots, right? They are fearful. Verse 19. But Joseph said to them, don’t be afraid. Am I in the place of God? Hope removes fear. And so I want to encourage you today by the word of God and the spirit of God. Speak hope into your life. Receive hope into your life. Live with hope because hope will remove anxiety. Hope will remove fear. Hope will remove a life that is under a fear that’s keeping you from being the person that God wants you to be. And then in verse 20, how could Joseph, after all that he had been through, all the trouble, all the trials, all the setbacks, how was he able to say God meant it for good? It’s because Joseph lived, he never let go of hope, and hope came from knowing that God is good. You see, hope sees the goodness of God. Joseph understood that even though he was in prison or even though he was in a pit, even though he was going through great difficulty, God was still at work. And hope helped him remember the goodness of God. So much so that Joseph is not focused on himself in verse 21, but he’s focused on others. Genesis 50 verse 20, 21. So then don’t be afraid. I will provide for you and your children. And he reassured them and spoke kindly to them. Now, these are the ones who put him in a pit, who lied about, they said to his father, oh, some wild animal has torn him to pieces. This is Joseph who had been falsely accused. This is Joseph who had been falsely accused. Have you ever been falsely accused? Oh, it’s no fun. It’s no fun. I mean, when someone totally misunderstands your heart and they start labeling you things that is like, whoa, wait a minute. I don’t know where you’re getting that from, but you weren’t in the meeting. So whoever you’re hearing that from, like the third person, that’s not what happened. If you’ve never been through that, I hope you never go through it. It’s painful. That’s what Joseph went through. He was being faithful. He was being righteous. He was making godly decisions. And Potiphar’s wife still said, hey, yeah, you know, he tried to come on to me and he ends up in prison. And at that moment, you would think that Joseph in his prayer life is saying, thanks a lot, God. And the truth is, we don’t know exactly what he was feeling. I’m sure he felt a lot of things, but we know at the end of all, end of it all, he was still able to look to the goodness of God and he was still able to focus on others. Verse 21, he says, hey, all this has happened because you mistreated me, but I’m going to look out for you. That all comes from hope. And then in verse 22 through 24, hope sees God’s promises coming true. Come on, guys. Coming true. Come on, church. If you’re in that valley where you’re like, God’s not hearing me pray, God’s not answering my prayers. Why is it always trouble? And why is it always trial? I want to speak just a little bit of hope into your life today. Let that seed of hope grow and grow and grow in your heart, because hope sees the promises of God coming true. Verse 22 through 24, Joseph can see the day when God comes and delivers his people and he says to them, hey, don’t forget to take my bones with you. Because I’m going to be dead and gone. But take my bones with you when you leave slavery in Egypt. Joseph, because he hoped and trusted in the Lord, he could see the deliverance of God coming. You just had to hold on for God’s timing. It’s coming. I want to ask that the worship team would would come. I really believe that a life that’s focused on others and a life that’s focused on serving is a Christian life. It’s the life that God wants us to live. And when we begin to focus on others and not focus on ourselves and we begin to live a life of service, how can I pray for someone else? How can I serve someone else? How can I add value to that person’s life? How can I help this person over here? What begins to happen is something changes in our own heart level perspective. And we don’t have time to be discouraged. We don’t have time to be depressed. We don’t have time to be full of anxiety or fear because we’re so focused on helping and serving someone else. That now we’ve got purpose and we’ve got significance because God is using you and God is using me to make my marriage better. To help my children, to bless my grandkids, to be a blessing in the church. Friends, that’s what God is calling us to in 2026. Would you with me consider adding the habit of being a servant into your daily lives? Would you do that? Would you begin to look for ways to serve at home, at church, where you work? You know, there’s a lot of people at work and I get it. We’re just like, yeah, that’s not on my job description, so I’m not doing that. The truth is that person usually doesn’t get the promotion and there’s a reason why. And I already shared, it’s because servanthood attracts and not being a servant repels. Lord, help us to be a servant. I want you to stand with me. We’re going to begin to play. And I just want God to do really something very simple in our hearts today. I want God to nudge us into servanthood. And I know that’s going to look like different things in all of our lives. I know in my home, and I want to be very careful I say this because I’m not trying to incriminate anybody. But I know when we were young, one of the commitments we made, we made the marriage commitment, don’t let the sun go down on your anger. That means sometimes we had to stay up a while to talk it out. But we also said, I want to out give you in love, like I want to out serve you. And I know 100% I’ve lost that battle. And I used to share that because Jenny is a wonderful servant to our children, our grandchildren. I was really blessed when we visited Lily about a year ago and she came over, Lily is one of my granddaughters, and she came over and I had sat down to eat, I already got my plate. And she came over to me and said, pal, pal, do you need anything? I was like, Oh, man, somebody’s doing something right. That’s pretty cool. But from time to time in small groups, because marriage groups and stuff, because my wife is such a servant, I will always like say, Oh, yeah, I know you men out there. You’ve just your wife is just an amazing servant. And I’ve, I’ve had occasionally some guys come up to me later and go, pastor, I’m doing everything. So I don’t know if that’s for you, or for him or for her, her or who that’s for. But I do know this, every one of us, we if we will ask God, Lord, make me a servant, things will begin to change in your life. Things will begin to change in your relationships for the better. Are you living a life where you’re expecting God to serve you and answer all your prayers? Are you living a life where at home, it’s like everybody in the house is supposed to make sure you’re okay. God wants to change that in our hearts. God wants to change that in our lives. And so the simple reach this morning is, do you want to be a servant? Would you allow the Holy Spirit to identify an area of your life where you could step into servanthood? It could be at the church, it could be at home, it could be at work. We’re going to worship. If that’s you, I want to invite you to come and join me in the altar this morning. Say, Lord, I want to be a servant. I want to be more like you. I don’t want to focus on myself. But I want to find significance and greatness by focusing on you, Lord, and focusing on others. Let’s begin to step out and say, Lord, I want to be a servant. Worship team, would you lead us? I want to be a servant, Lord. I want to be a servant. Thank you, Lord. Amen.