Can I Be in Charge?

 SBS:  I leave one week and read in the paper that I’ve been replaced.  If I’d known you were going to do that I would have left earlier.

Prayer: especially for great new things happening

Intro:  Meg. F. Quijano related the following incident that happened upon her return from a meeting of the National Organization for Women. Her five-year-old daughter, Lisa, greeted her with the news that when she grew up she wanted to be a nurse. There was a time when nursing was thought by many to be a “woman’s job.” Quijano told Lisa she could be anything she wanted to be. “You can be a lawyer, a surgeon, a banker, President of the United States—you can be anything.”

Lisa looked a little dubious. “Anything? Anything at all?” She thought about it, and then her face lit up with ambition. “All right,” she said. “I’ll be a horse.”

A lot of problems in the world are caused by people trying to be what they should not be.  Trying to be what God has not called them to be.  The personal ambition overrides Godly ambition.  We see that in today’s passage.

EVERY PERSON SHOULD FOLLOW JESUS AND NOT PERSONAL AMBITION.

1. FOLLOWING JESUS MEANS LISTENING TO A GRAND REVELATION  vv. 17-19
1. The bad news of the revelation vv. 18-19a
2. The good news  vv. 19b
2. FOLLOWING JESUS MEANS AVOIDING GROSS REQUEST  20-26
1. When-v. 20- right after the revelation of Jesus’ death
2. What- v. 21 Put us in charge  Mother and the brothers were all asking as is seen in Mark’s account, the mother may have been Mary’s sister
3. Why v. 25- ambition causes us to do foolish things.
3. FOLLOWING JESUS MEANS SEEING A GREAT REVERSAL  v.  26-28
1. Reversal starts with “yet” v. 26
2. Reversal changes desires  v 27
3. Reversal has an example in Christ

Ambition can be a terrible thing.  It can lead us in the wrong direction and eventually kill us.

In The Wounded Healer, Henri Nouwen retells a tale from ancient India: Four royal brothers decided each to master a special ability. Time went by, and the brothers met to reveal what they had learned.

“I have mastered a science,” said the first, “by which I can take but a bone of some creature and create the flesh that goes with it.” “I,” said the second, “know how to grow that creature’s skin and hair if there is flesh on its bones.” The third said, “I am able to create its limbs if I have the flesh, the skin, and the hair.” “And I,” concluded the fourth, “know how to give life to that creature if its form is complete.”

Thereupon the brothers went into the jungle to find a bone so they could demonstrate their specialties. As fate would have it, the bone they found was a lion’s. One added flesh to the bone, the second grew hide and hair, the third completed it with matching limbs, and the fourth gave the lion life.

Shaking its mane, the ferocious beast arose and jumped on his creators. He killed them all and vanished contentedly into the jungle. We too have the capacity to create what can devour us. Goals and dreams can consume us. Possessions and property can turn and destroy us—unless we first seek God’s kingdom and righteousness.

William Carey, who is called the father of modern missions, served the Lord in India for many years. He gradually became very concerned about the attitude of his son, Felix. The young man had promised to become a missionary, but he reneged on his vows when he was appointed ambassador to Burma by the Queen of England. Carey wrote to his friend, asking prayer for his son with these words: Pray for Felix. He has degenerated into an ambassador of the British government when he should be serving the King of kings.