Life Lifters

One of the hardest things, being Christian, is sometimes looking back at your life and just being distressed at some of the things you did before you were a Christian. Believe it or not, the Apostle Paul had that same distressed feeling. Read this section from 1 Corinthians chapter 15:3-10, "Jesus Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, he was buried, he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures... Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born. For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them - yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me."

When the Apostle Paul looked back over his life, he saw that at a time in his life he persecuted the church of God. Because of that, he didn't think he even deserve to be called an apostle. He also says, "I worked harder than all of them," and I wonder if there was some part of the Apostle Paul that was trying to work out that sin of persecuting the church. But it comes to the conclusion, "I worked harder than all of them - yet not I." As if he is saying, "Not the hard work that I did." Hard work was important, and he worked hard for the kingdom. He tells us at the end of 1 Corinthians 15 that we should give ourselves fully to the work of the Lord. But this kind of hard work can't make up for the persecution, or for any sin in our past. He finally gets to the point where he says, "but by the grace of God, I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect." Even though Paul worked harder than all of them, it wasn't him, but the grace of God that was within him. The persecution in his past bothered him terribly, and yet he found his freedom in the fact that the grace of God had worked so powerfully in his life. The same is true for you and for me. We can't go back and make up for things that we did in our life. We can't make up for those things, but what we can do is see that the grace of God has set us free to be who he wants us to be. We can live productive lives presently, because of God's grace, no matter what we've done in our past. I hope for you that that will give you the lift for life that you need today.

We live in a day in which we suffer from a critical disease called "me-ism," where we tend to think about ourselves. We used to have a magazine in our country called "Self," which seems appropriate. For this disease, me-ism, we have a term called "narcissism" where all we do is think about ourselves and what interests us. We all know that's wrong, but unfortunately, we're all tempted to live in "Me-ism Ville." That's a new word (or place)!

I want to instead propose a new idea that's completely countercultural, radical, and goes against the flow of everything you probably see, read and hear: put others first. It's interesting that narcissistic people that focus on themselves are the most unhappy people. All the research shows you this; the more you focus on yourself, the more unhappy you are because all you're doing is examining yourself and critiquing yourself. It's why social media is such a colossal flop for so many reasons. I mean, it has some positives, for sure. The negative of social media is that you see all these people putting their fake images of themselves out there, and meanwhile you're going, "I don't seem that happy, I'm not doing all these fun things like they are." All social media can do quite often is feed narcissism, or me-ism. All the research says that it will depress you. "I think about myself all day long."—It's a radically depressing thought. But you know what the research shows about people who put others first? They are the happiest people! Counterintuitive? Countercultural? Yeah, but it works.

I get this idea from the words of Jesus Christ with one of his marquee statements in the Gospel of Mark, chapter 10, verse 45, where he said this: "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.” He didn't come to be served, but to serve. Now, Jesus Christ is God. Jesus Christ is perfect. Jesus Christ deserved to be served. Instead, He served. Why? Because in His humanity and deity, He loved us to the full and because of this, He served us. He served us because we needed serving because of our sin. He served us because He loved us. He also served us so that He would be a model for us. In fact, here at Lakeshore, when we teach people about leadership, we teach about not just any leadership, but the driving motive for the leadership we teach here is servant leadership. Servant leadership puts other people first.

Do you put other people first? It's really hard, in fact, it's probably impossible, but I can say this: when you begin to engage and appreciate God's love for you, then you have something to give others. You cannot give what you do not have. But if you are a follower of Jesus Christ, you are a Christian, and God's love is in you, and then you can put others first.

I already told you that if you think about yourself all the time, it's depressing. If you think about others first, it's enjoyable, but here's the thing: if you put others first and yourself second, you're going to be more satisfied because what happens is when you put others first, most 'reasonable' people will be appreciative of you. It will encourage you and you'll feel more satisfied. If you think about yourself, people are going to think, "I don't want anything to do with that". That's depressing. So, put others first. When you do, you'll find life has more meaning. If Jesus Christ said the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve and give His life for ransom, I'm thinking that's the right way to live for me. Is it easy? No. It's especially hard if you're Italian, but I can tell you this: it's worth it. I think it'll be worth it for you, too.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you so much for this reminder to put others first. If you Lord, and your Son, Jesus Christ, put others first, help us to do it. Help us catch ourselves when we're trying to put ourselves first, and others second. And help us to think about ways we can elevate others and when we do, you'll lift us up. You say that the last shall be first when we humble ourselves. You will exalt us. So many great promises. So help us to do that. Help us start at home, start at work, start in our neighborhood and do it to everyone we can. We asked this through your Son, the servant leader, Jesus Christ, Amen. Thanks for joining us today. Have a great day.