09/22/2025
By Steve Huber
The Question of a Better Life
The question we're going to look at today, what's your answer to this question? To make your life better, to improve your life, find deeper joy, peace? Should you put yourself first, more so that the need of your life or others first, more what's going to make the world better? What's going to make your life better? Serving yourself more or serving others more?
So it's a story in our culture right now, but actually what we really need to do the most of is listen to ourselves. There's right ways to listen to yourselves and actually like what you think you can lose. You can serve other people out of fear or anxiety from other dark places. But this story is out there. Hey, have you ever seen this online?
You do. You you do you. That's going to be best for the world apart from how it affects anybody else or what other people are saying, the most important thing is you putting yourself first. I saw I was reading some self-help blogs, this week in preparation for this, and I saw this quote from a writer named David Stafford.
And I thought it was striking. He suggests it's dangerous to put others first. Listen to what he says. David Stafford, whenever you feel compelled to put others first at the expense of yourself, you are denying your own reality, your own identity. Don't deny your identity, your reality. He's even going so far as to say, hey, that's dangerous.
Well. What's Jesus have to say?
Jesus Teaches About True Greatness (Mark 10)
What's Jesus? Tell us? What's his invitation to us? Now we're doing a series on the rhythms of discipleship and a disciple. We've said again, again, it's a learner and a follower. So there's things to learn from Jesus and to follow him in. And I'm going to read some words of Jesus. And here's the set up. James and John, two of his apostles, basically asked Jesus, can we be great and greater than these guys?
And they say in glory, when you're in your kingdom, could we sit by you? They ask, hey, can we would you please put me and my brother in places of honor in your kingdom? And it's frustrating. To the other disciples, they were like, they they're seeking. It seems like they're seeking to serve themselves and put themselves first. And Jesus says, this is going to be the intro passage for the sermon.
This is Mark ten. Let's bring up the the slide. When the ten Jesus called them together. So it's all the disciples and they're mad, says the verse right before the says they were indignant at James and John and like, can you believe these guys trying to be first? Jesus called to them, called them to him, said to them, you know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lorded over them.
Their great ones exercise authority over them. But it shall not be so among you. Whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.
So these are the words of Jesus. And he says, hey, you want to be great, you guys. You want to be great. You know what serve and you want to be really great. There's actually not one human being. You can say, hey, that person's actually beneath me helping. And so in a way, you're the servant of all, the slave of all.
There's not one human being where if you actually have opportunity to help, we're not allowed to say, hey, actually, that's just beneath me.
And Jesus, he's speaking about himself in the third person. Okay? The Son of Man is Jesus. And it's this epic title in the book of Daniel for this godlike figure in Daniel, he's a human being, but he receives the worship of the world, the Son of Man, son of a human who receives worship. So Jesus is like this glorious title which he knows applies to him, even the son of Man came not to be served, to be waited on.
But came to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. So this is directly against our cultural moment. This cultural moment says, have you ever heard the term expressive individualism? Expressive individualism is sort of that catchall? It's naming and putting a name to the philosophy of the most important thing for you as an individual is to see what's inside and apart from apart from how it affects other people or what other people might think is true, real.
You need to define reality for yourself and express what's true about yourself, and that will lead to the deepest fulfillment. And look, there are truths to this. You are made in the image of God, and there are things within you that need to be recognized. And also and also the self focus of our culture is making a lot of people sad.
You guys know about this. Self focus is leading to loneliness, entitlement. It's actually leading people to be miserable and leading more people to be narcissists. Narcissists are dangerous, dangerous self lovers. They just fool yourself. I love myself, I think I'm right. I can own anything that I did wrong. Things are always other people's fault. Life is about me and there's more of that.
There's some of that in all of us, okay. But there's more of that in our culture. So people are writing about it. A psychologist named Jean Twenge, partnering with another PhD in psychology, wrote a book called The Narcissism Epidemic: Living in the Age of Entitlement.
The narcissism epidemic. Just pointing out it's getting bad. And the self focus is making us, as a culture, unhappy and anxious and depressed. I love this quote from the book. She's speaking about American culture. We're not number one, but we're number one in thinking we're number one. It's great. Yeah, we're not really number one, but we are number one thinking we're number one.
We win that race.
Formation Through Service
And so I say all that to just point out what Jesus invites us to is different is different. Remember the old school skating rinks and all night you're skating the same way, we're skating the same way. And Jesus is like the DJ who comes out was like, actually different song. We're going to skate the other way now. We're going to skate the other way.
In terms of service, Jesus asks us.
Look, this is about formation. The culture in our world, in our own broken and dark desires deform us. And Jesus invites us to be his disciples, to learn what's true and real and good, and to follow after him and be formed by him so that we're not deformed by the world in our own sin. Jesus invites us to be formed by him.
And yes, in regards to service, he's asking us to skate a different way. It is different. It's as if if we knew how Jesus serves us, and if we connect with Jesus and know him and come to know his love will actually not just know him, will serve like him. So what do we need to see? What do we need to see to serve?
Three things okay, what do we need to see to be formed by Jesus as his disciples and living lives of service? I'm going to keep this real simple. First thing see God, what do we need to see? See God? Here's a passage that's appropriate to begin. Begin with. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
See God the Creator
We typically move past this. God is creator means that you were made by God and the beautiful fields that you pass by, and that the fog evaporating in the sun this morning was made by God. And yes, our Atlantic Ocean, where we can watch the sun come up in the Pacific Ocean. You get to see the sun set on the ocean.
God made the oceans and the rivers and the small little pictures of creation. Have you been any fans of hummingbirds in here? Are the birds lovers. And you're like, look at this amazing creature. We're invited to go through life, invited to go through life just giving thanksgiving to God for all these things, glorifying God that you made this beautiful world.
You made these beautiful people. You made this little baby child. He made the birds and the oceans. Psalm 16 says, I have no good apart from you. This goes back, goes back to creation. Everything you experience, every breath in your lungs and your lungs, themselves and the beautiful things you see, and poems and music and good meals with friends.
You never have to look at a meal of friends and you're like, this was not just your body was fed, but your soul was fed. Just like we laughed. We told stories. We're comfortable enough to admit how we're kind of messed up too, and we can joke around and actually encourage each other. That's a gift of the Lord.
Every poem, every song, every sunset, all that good we receive from God. And it's all God's. Okay, this is Psalm 24. The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein. For he is founded upon the seas, and established it upon the rivers. A foundational truth. What is God's the earth? What was God have his mark on?
What does he sort of own because he made it the world and all who live there, all who dwell therein, every human being you have ever encountered. When you look in the mirror, there's a human being made in the image of God and in line at CVS and streaming past you on the road. Every human being is made in the image of God, and we still belong to him.
He's our creator. We belong to him. It's all his. You know, I gave this a use a sermon illustration three years ago, and I couldn't resist doing it again because, okay, this is a a the pinto guitar made by a guy named Chris De Pinto, and his name's at the top of the neck, says De Pinto, USA. He happens to, live in my old neighborhood in Philly.
He's had a guitar shop there for 20 years and for a while these were all hand-built in the Philadelphia area. He doesn't just design the parts and design the guitars, but he actually in a factory nearby. All the different pieces were created and then he puts them together. Now, where do you think I take this when he needs a tune up?
I take it to Chris Pinto because his name's on it. He created it. If someone found this and they didn't know what it was or what it was for, oh, it says de Pinto. Maybe I should ask him how it works and what it's for, how to use it. There's ever a problem with it. If something was out of whack, who better than to go to the creator to ask about, like what needs to be fixed on this?
What is this for? Now?
Your life and your world were made by God and God knows how it works. He knows what relationships are for and actually how family's supposed to work and marriage supposed to work, and what sexuality is for, and how we can bless God with our gifts and work, and how to think God thoughts, godly thoughts about his world. God is our creator.
We go to him to understand how his world works. And here's the here's the thing that's just in direct confrontation with the culture. The culture says, go to your self, define your own true meaning. And you look in within and you're like, I got mixed up thoughts. I got good thoughts, I got bad thoughts, I got light thoughts, I got dark thoughts.
How do we know which thoughts?
Go to God and go to your creator. God has the authority to communicate things that are true for us and they're good for us. And because he loves us, he tells us what's real. God is the one. We go to you. And here's here's where that analogy breaks down. Look, God's fingerprints, his name are on is still on everything in his world.
And his fingerprints are on everything you've ever experienced. So go to him and submit to him and listen to him.
And here's where the analogy breaks down. I bought the guitar, so now I own it. Chris Pinto made it, now I own it. God in a way, still owns everything. He gives us gifts to use alone. He lets us use his world and use nature and we steward things and manage things. But even your own gifts God has given you.
Now what does this do? Okay, this makes you super humble about your gifts and abilities and what you have, what you have control of. You recognize in a deep way, a foundational way that we tend to forget it's all from God. So at one point in the New Testament, there is this church in the city called Corinth, and the leaders are boasting.
They're bragging about, hey, this leader's better than this leader. And it's like they had t shirts. Some had the Apostle Paul t shirt and a Peter t shirt, and they are arguing about which leader they should follow, and they are actually just people in the church weren't treating each other well. And some people are saying, hey, I have more gifts than you.
They were treating the poor bad as well. Poorer folks. They treated them different and in a way that's deeply offensive to God. And correcting this, the apostle Paul says, what do you have that you did not receive? And if then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?
So essentially saying name one ability you have named one aptitude or one gift, or one way God has made you, whether it's from fixing cars to like fixing computers or leadership in some way. What? Let's name one gift that you created yourself, and if you ultimately received it, why do you act? What do you boast? It's like God didn't give it to you.
Just like remember God, remember where all your abilities come from. So he straightens him out about spiritual gifts and another place in the Bible. It's applied to money. And this is in Deuteronomy eight, there's a warning about boasting. Deuteronomy eight beware, lest you say, in your heart my power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth that's basically a lot of Instagram posts, you know, like, look at me, what I have done, look at what I bought, look at what I've accomplished.
That boasting is in the dark part of all of us.
What's the scripture say? Be careful, not say that next verse says, you shall remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the power to get what? To get wealth. God gave you the power. You say, hey, I'm a self-made person, man. I went to school. I put myself through school, I started this business. I did that.
Who gave you the mind to do that? And the ability to work hard. And a lot of times, successful people, you look back over your life and you're like, yeah, you got this break, you got this gift, you got an opening.
In this scripture just calls us to remember that God gave us that power. It's from God. So see, God and I'm telling you all that because once you get a sense of that, service doesn't feel like an extra tip that God doesn't deserve. You ever been to a restaurant where you do all the work and then you're like, you go up and order.
Maybe you have to go up later. And I always tip. I think it's good to tip and let's help service people, okay? I want that to be clear. Okay. Let's help service people. And especially as a Christian in the area, I try to tip extra generously. I hope you think like that. And sometimes, the way some places are set up, it's tempting to say in your heart, I'm doing the work.
I'm doing the work, and yet I'm being asked to give this gift. And here's the thing in the logic of the gospel with God, that's never true. Every good thing we have, every ability, every talent, is ultimately from God. Do you see that? Do you see God? God the creator created the world. Every good gift that you've ever experienced and every gift you have, we need to seek God.
See Jesus the Savior
We also need to see Jesus in order to serve. And obviously trying to keep this very real and very basic. See Jesus and His love for us and salvation. Listen to Romans five for why are we are still weak at the right time? Christ died for the ungodly. So it's not like Jesus didn't just come to die to people who are trying hard, seeking God, serving God, loving God, thinking God.
No, people like us who've rejected God turn from God, not think God sought God, acknowledge God, listen to God, followed God. Next verse. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person, though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die. But God shows his love for us, and that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
You see, while we're on the outside looking in, while we're in a state where, like God, we're not listening to you, seeking you, knowing you, following you. That's when Jesus died for us. And this counts for all of us. Jesus died for us when we had sin. And this is what he's done for us. So this passage, look, it just invites us to reflect on the love of God.
You'll serve Jesus differently if you see how Jesus has served you in salvation. So just let me mentally take you back to that opening verse. The Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. What's a ransom? A ransom is an amount paid so someone can be free.
It's a debt that's paid. That's what the ransom is. So someone can be free in Jesus Christ, in his death, on the cross, in our place and in his resurrection. Pay the debt so you can be free from guilt. You can know the wonder of forgiveness. You can be free not just from the penalty of sin, but actually more and more from its presence.
We know, we know we're not going to be perfect in this life, but we don't have to, like, remain in our sins. We don't have to be trapped in our sins. We don't have to be slaves to our sins. Jesus actually came to set us free. He didn't come to be served, but to serve us any. What was the ransom?
Jesus life. Jesus life. So and here's the diagnostic. And look, if you're new to faith, you need to know how this is. This works. Becoming your Christian is receiving the gift of Jesus and His work on your behalf. Becoming a Christian is letting Jesus serve you. You have to let him serve you. You have to let him be your Savior.
You can't be your own Savior. You have to let Jesus do it. And if you see that serving makes sense, you’ll be like, oh man, Jesus saved me. He's loved me. I want to love and live a life of love because look how I've been loved. It's like you have an emotional wealth. You have an overflow. Look how I've been loved.
You're forgiven. God is with you. Even the hard things in this life. God does not leave you or forsake you in the middle of suffering.
God is with us forever and we get to serve that God. That's the logic when we tend to forget Jesus or we don't trust Jesus, or what God has done for us. When he becomes distant from us, we'll tend to treat God in this way: God, what can you do for me? Instead of, God, you've loved me. I want to serve you. Live for you. We flip that script and in sin we tend to say, God, what can you do here for me? I want you to serve me. The way out of that is to look at how Jesus has already served us. Look at what God's done.
This is the reason why a lot of times, people that we look up to as great servants and as amazing servants of God, they have a powerful sense that they're just doing basic things because they're loved by Jesus. Like when you talk to them, they're like, look, I'm just, I've been led by God and held by God, and I'm just doing simple things to live for God.
An Example of Humble Service
I'm going to give you an example of a doctor in Africa. There's a danger about giving an example of a doctor in Africa, because I could create the impression that the right thing to do is actually for all of us to go to Africa to serve God, when actually most of us are called to serve God here in Bucks County.
And there's a service of God in your work and through your work and in your parenting and in all your life. Okay. And also, though, can we learn from people who have rearranged their life to be part of what God is doing in the world, in other places? Yeah, we can learn from them. So this guy named Carl Becker, Doctor Carl Becker, he died 35 years ago.
So he died in 1990. He was born in 1894, grew up in Lancaster County. He went to, usually this bright, kind of shining star, doctor student at Hahnemann. And he worked at Reading Terminal Market, putting himself through med school. He was like, when he came out of med school in 1928, he was kind of like a big deal.
He could have gone to, like, any town and been their doctor. He was a star. Actually, Boyertown—you guys know that town? Boyertown offered him $10,000 a year in 1928. Now, $10,000 a year in 1928 was a lot of money. And they were like, dude, we love you. We're going to set you up. Here's the starting salary. Come be our doctor.
He said, thank you. Appreciate that. It's very flattering. Thank you for that kind invitation. He humbly explained that he thought God was calling him to be a missionary doctor in Congo. He got paid $800 a year. So that was—let’s do the math—a 92% pay cut. And he served there his whole life. And I have a biography of him.
He became famous and known because of the countless nurses and medical workers he trained who just expressed the care and love of Jesus through all this medicine in this whole region of Africa. Another reason he became famous and he won awards for this: he changed leprosy treatment for the world, like how lepers were treated. He discovered things scientifically that hadn’t been discovered yet.
And he was this amazing surgeon as well and went out. And he didn’t like to come to the States because people would try to keep him from going back. And he felt called there. And he was a Christian and he felt, in his description of his own life, like he was just a guy who’d been loved by Jesus and given some gifts, and he was trying to use those gifts.
The name of his biography is a line he liked to say. The name of his biography is Another Hand on Mine. People would say, you’re an amazing surgeon. You discovered these life changing, life saving techniques. You changed how lepers are treated throughout the world. And his humble response was, there’s been another hand on mine the whole time, and God has given me these gifts. God has guided and blessed in these ways. He was just so humble.
Can we imitate that example, see the love of Jesus like Doctor Carl Becker, and see the love of Jesus and live out that love humbly? And for most of us, hear that the other hand will be on your hand as you seek to love people here in this place.
See Your Gifts and Opportunities
So we need to see God. We need to see Jesus. And thirdly, we need to see our gifts and opportunities. Listen to First Peter: As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another as good stewards of God's varied grace. Whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.
So here's the apostle Peter, and he's shaping how these early Christians were supposed to think of themselves. As each has received a gift, use it to serve others. If you're a Christian, you have your natural abilities, and you also have spiritual gifts. Everyone has gifts. And what are the gifts for? They’re for others, for God’s glory.
Serving in the Church and Community
At Covenant Church, that looks like the care team, Covenant Kids, Covenant Students, meal ministry, local outreach, safe families, welcome team, creative arts, tech, and more. Serving is not just for others—it’s for our own growth and joy. Jesus wasn’t too busy for children, and neither should we be.
A Call to Prayer
How is God calling you to serve? Where is He inviting you to step in? Today you can come for prayer—whether for courage, for healing, for your family, or simply to receive God’s love. God hears and He cares. Let’s seek Him together.
Lord, we pray that we would see you as Creator. We pray we’d see your grace in saving us. We pray we'd see the gifts you’ve given us to use. Jesus, thank you for serving us. May we, with your strength, use our gifts in ways that bring honor and praise to you. To you be glory forever and ever. Amen.
