Let Him Be Your Servant

There was once a soldier who was a battle-hardened veteran of many campaigns in service to his country. He had been all over the world at that point, and after 25 years of service, returned to his home and to his family. When he came to his home, he learned that one of the members of his household was sick to the point of death. Now, this soldier himself had been involved in combat. He was familiar with death on the battlefield. He had risen to a prominent role and rank within the army. He knew how an army worked. He knew how people were. He knew a lot about human nature. He knew how to make an army succeed, how to train soldiers to fight. But there was one thing that he knew that was beyond his abilities with a soldier and life, and that is the moment of death. Because in battle, death always comes, and as often as the case, there was nothing that could be done. So when he returned to his home and he was met with the news that one of the trusted, loved members of his family was sick, and sick to the point of death, he knew how helpless he could be. And how serious a situation it was at that particular moment in time.

The member of his family was really not one of the blood relatives. It was actually one of the servants.

Now, in this particular man's family, those who were servants were actually part of the family. They were just like they were family. And this soldier knew that he had a responsibility to that servant, to care for him. He also, as I said, knew how helpless he could be. All the medical care had been exhausted to provide for this particular servant, and he was still sick. But he had heard of an individual, kind of an itinerant preacher, who had had a reputation, both good and bad. And in his mind, he had heard so much that he thought that it was worth a try. If you will, turn to the book of Matthew, chapter 8. Let's read about this story.

Matthew, chapter 8.

This soldier was a centurion of the armies of Rome, who had spent at least 25 years in service to Rome. The itinerant preacher that he'd heard about was Jesus Christ. And so he made a decision to put his servant's life in the hands of Jesus Christ. And that's what we perhaps can consider by way of background when we begin to read here in Matthew, chapter 8 and verse 5. That Jesus had entered into the city of Capernaum when a centurion came to him pleading with him, saying, Lord, my servant is lying at home, paralyzed, dreadfully tormented. And Jesus said to him, I will come and heal him. Now this centurion had heard about this man called Jesus. He'd heard about healings. He'd heard about miracles performed at his hand. I'm sure he had also heard a great deal of rumor and speculation on the negative side about who and what Jesus was. Perhaps a charlatan of fraud, perpetrating fraud upon the poor rural country people of Galilee and fleecing them or hood-weaking them and performing bogus miracles in one sense. And yet, probably what he had heard was so much that couldn't all be denied. The centurion perhaps thought there must be something here. And so he went to him. Jesus said, I'll come and heal him. In verse 8, the centurion answered and said, Lord, I am not worthy that you should come under my roof, but only speak a word and my servant will be healed. For I am also a man under authority, having soldiers under me. And I say to this one, go, and he goes, and to another, come. And he comes, and to my servant, do this, and he does it. So he knew, as I said, a centurion knew what authority was all about. He knew how to operate in an organization. So he knew that all Jesus had to do was give the word. He didn't have to come. And Jesus heard it, and he marveled, and he said to those who followed, Assuredly, I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel. And I say to you that many will come from east and west and set down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into outer darkness, and there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. And Jesus said to the centurion, Go your way, as you have believed, so let it be done for you. And his servant was healed that same hour.

It's a remarkable story, and it is one that Jesus holds out as the epitome of faith, and to that point, and perhaps for the remainder of his ministry, this remained the most significant and outstanding example of faith that Jesus could point to. And it was from a non-Israelite, a Gentile, a soldier, a man who would have been perhaps the last one to have wanted to approach Jesus in the midst of Capernaum, wherever he was there, and make this request of him.

But this is the example that Jesus Christ used, and this is the story, brief but to the point, of a servant who was sick, and a centurion who really had a servant's heart. When you really stop and analyze the centurion. There are two individuals along with Christ that are the focus here, but it's a servant and a centurion with a servant's heart. You know, Christ used this man as an example of a standard of faith.

He's kind of the gold standard for faith, for confidence, for action, for what he did on this. It's helpful for us to kind of step back for a moment, kind of consider the step that this centurion took and what he did. It's more than just the miracle of healing that was performed here. There's a great deal of background. There's a whole attitude. There's a whole life to consider in what is in the story of a centurion who went and asked on behalf of his servant for Christ's intervention in his life. Let's consider for a moment a little bit about who this centurion could have been.

In terms of just the type of man and what a centurion was in the Roman army at that time. A centurion was a position within the Roman army of a soldier who was over a hundred men. That's where he took his name. Centurion from the word centuri, or that is also used for centuri, meaning 100. He was responsible for a group of 100 men within the unit of the Roman legions. A centurion was an interesting individual. They were battle-hardened veterans. Before they could ever rise to the rank of a centurion, they would have had at least 15 or 16 years of service under their belt before they were made a centurion.

So they were not greenery recruits. They had been in the army for a long period of time. They were not appointed politically. They didn't buy their way to this particular role. The Roman army, like a lot of other armies through history, officers very often came from the ruling class and many of them even bought their commission. This was not the case for the centurions operating at that level within the ranks of the Roman legion. He got there by merit. He earned it the old-fashioned way, as the commercial used to say.

So there was merit, and he earned it by service, by loyalty, by bravery, by competence, and by action and by performance. A centurion had to carry 90 pounds of equipment on his back at least 20 miles a day in a march. He was trained under the harshest conditions. A centurion had to provide his own weapons and tools for the fighting.

He was also an individual who would have had knowledge in how to build a bridge across a river or some part to transport men and material or to build a battlement against a city or a fortress. He was the equivalent of what the army calls today a combat engineer, someone who can carry a rifle in one hand and a pick and shovel or other instrument in the other to build and actually do certain things in regard to the day.

My father, talking about him again, he was a combat engineer in the army. They were the ones who were off the boats first on D-Day on the beaches because they had to clear the obstacles. The mines and everything that was there, they had to open up roads for the infantry and the troops that were coming behind. So they literally had to work quick and fast as a combat engineer fighting as well as planning to open up roads and ways by which men and material could be moved.

This is what a Roman centurion had to do. A Roman centurion had to do what all the other soldiers had to do. He lived in the same conditions that they lived in. A centurion also led his troops from the front. When the armies of Rome engaged the enemy, the centurion was at the front and it was said his sword touched the enemy first.

So he led from the front. They didn't lead from the back. He had no perks. He had no protection just because of his rank or anything else. For that reason, the survival rates of a centurion were quite low. In fact, it is said that they had to even pay into their own burial fund to pay for their burial in the event of their death. After 25 years, a centurion was given a cash payment, a small plot of land, and released.

That is, he got the money if there was enough money in the treasury at the time. He had no guarantees of a retirement. In some cases, there may have been nothing available for him other than a pat on the shoulder and his release. But in that case, if he had lived and held the rank of a centurion for 25 years, no doubt he left the camp with his honor at least, if nothing more. But he was an individual responsible for the morale of his unit.

He carried out punishments. He offered the rewards. He was responsible for his men day and night in that particular role. Understanding that helps us to understand a little bit about this man who then came home, found that his servant was sick, and did what he did in this case here in Matthew 8 for him. This centurion took a risk by even going to Jesus. He was a respected veteran of the army. He, in Capernaum, would have been a known individual. Perhaps in retirement, he was a constable.

He was perhaps on the police force. But certainly looked to with respect within the small fishing community that Capernaum was, he was well known. And certainly well respected, at least among a certain number, for his service and for his abilities, regardless of how they may have felt about the Roman army in itself.

Jesus, on the other hand, was not a popular man among the Romans. He had a mixed reputation even among the Jews, as we know. Some loved him and some hated him. Among the Romans, he would have had perhaps more of a negative attitude or reception. And for this centurion to go out of his home and to go to where Jesus was in broad daylight in the open and make this request, he was taking a chance.

Think about the equivalent of a Nazi soldier in World War II going to a Jewish doctor for help, with everybody knowing about it and the risk that he would be taking to his professional standing. The centurion was taking a risk in his community by even going and asking. He risked a great deal of loss, but he was concerned more with his servant than he was about his own reputation.

He had developed a code of honor that had been obviously honed and tested through the years of service to Rome. He was an exceptional man. That's why Jesus said that he had not seen such faith, even among the other Israelites. Now, why focus on the centurion? Why take a few minutes at the opening of this sermon to focus on this centurion and this account? Because of what we've just done with the blessing of the children, because of what this particular Sabbath is as a tradition within the Church of God.

The time when we bless the children, if only one, we focus for a moment upon the teaching and what Christ tells us in regard to becoming like a child. It's become a tradition, and it's appropriate, I think, at this point in the year, as we have set this as the second Sabbath after the Feast of Tabernacles, as our tradition has it, to focus on Christ's teaching to become like a child in attitude, in which we would not enter the Kingdom, as we've already read.

We should understand that without that attitude, Jesus points us to. Now, in this life, we are not even progressing toward the Kingdom. Yes, we are to enter the Kingdom upon the return of Christ, but we are to be living the Kingdom today. Jesus' teaching is for us, really, to take on that attitude now, or we're not going to enter the Kingdom. It is now that we are being prepared for that future role. We don't have it now. It's not going to be suddenly given to us with the waving of a magic wand at the time of the resurrection.

Jesus' intent in His teaching is for us to learn it now. He gave the example of a servant. He gave the example of a child, and becoming like a child as a representation of the epitome of attitude of the Kingdom of God. I think that the Centurion gives us an object lesson to look at, and something to hang on to in concrete form of an individual of faith who had a servant's heart. He had a trusting attitude toward Christ as he went to Christ and asked on behalf of his servant.

It is interesting to look at this because we know Jesus' teaching toward that becoming like a child. In this case of a Centurion coming forth on behalf of his servant. Jesus' teaching in other passages that He who is great among you let him be a servant. Matthew 20. It is interesting to think about this. The Centurion was a servant. He had a servant's heart.

He was going on behalf of his servant. But what is important for us to note is that he had a servant's heart for him to do what he did. That is why he was a Centurion. He had developed something far beyond the military rank. He had developed an honor. He had developed a personal code. A care for people that is at the heart of a servant. That is why he had the faith. That is really what Jesus is pointing us to. It all ties into the lesson that we are to focus on at this time of the year again, as we do within the Church.

A servant does an interesting role. We could turn to Matthew 20. Perhaps this is the time to do that. Matthew 20. Verse 20.

It says, The mother of Zebedee's sons came to him with her sons, kneeling down and asking something from him. He said to her, What do you wish? She said, Grant that these two sons of mine may set one on your right and the other on your left in your kingdom. Jesus answered, You do not know what you are asking. You do not know what you ask. Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink and be baptized with a baptism that I am about to be baptized with?

They said, We are. He said, You will indeed drink my cup and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with. But to set on my right hand and on my left is not mine to give. It is for those to whom it is prepared by my Father. The other 10 disciples heard this exchange and displeased them. Jesus called them to Himself and He said in verse 25, You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them and those who are great exercise authority over them. Yet it shall not be so among you, but whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your servant.

And whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave. Just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give His life a ransom for many. All these episodes, that of the children, the centurion, Jesus is teaching here in Matthew 20, all tie together to teach us lessons that we really do need to go back over year by year.

And this is again, is one part of, I think, the inspired genius of having this Sabbath set aside for us annually in the church for the blessing of the children. To refocus, reorient us, to bring us back to these lessons that are at the heart of the gospel, that are at the heart of our preparation for the kingdom of God. To become like a child, to become like a servant, and to serve others as the path to greatness. When you look and really analyze what Jesus says and what He actually did as He gave His life, and what He points us to in regard to becoming a servant, that's really the greatest calling.

You notice in Matthew 20 that Jesus does not say that those of you that will be great, you'll become a minister. Those of you that will be great, you'll become a deacon. Those of you that will be great, you will become this or become that with some whatever title you want to put on it. Think of whatever title, appointment that you could think of, ecclesiastical or otherwise, as we would look in the Scriptures or even have within the Church. What He says, you become a servant, and that is the path to greatness.

You become a servant. You don't have to be ordained to be a servant. You don't have to be appointed to be a servant. You, every one of us, male and female, can be a servant.

You have to choose it. It's by your choice to be a servant, to have a servant's heart, to have the attitude of being a servant. You have to be a centurion who looked after someone who by society's standards was his inferior. After all, it was a servant in his own house. And under the Roman system, a slave was someone who was owned by the superior or the master, and he held life and death over them. But this centurion looked upon him, it seems in the Roman fashion, of one who actually was a servant that became a part of the family.

And regardless of whatever his official status was, he looked upon him and recognized that he had a responsibility to care for him. And even at the point of death, that's why he put his own reputation on the line by going to Christ. All of that he did by choice because of his honor. That is what we choose to do when we choose to become a servant. You don't have to be told to do that. You don't have to be appointed to it. You don't have to be designated to it.

No one else needs to know what you do or who you are when you become a servant. But God will know. God will keep his own scorecard in that sense. When we do become a servant, God notices and is well pleased.

And we could spend all afternoon focusing in one sense on that. But what we choose to do in that regard is up to us. And every year it's important, I think, that we kind of reset and refocus on this concept that Jesus teaches us of service and greatness and leadership along that path toward the kingdom. Because when we finally do learn that lesson, if it's this year, if it's another two years off for some of us, or maybe five years, I don't know. When we individually learn that lesson, we're on the path to the kingdom. We're on the path to what Jesus talked about being greatest in the kingdom, whatever that will be. We can speculate what that might be. I'm of the firm opinion that when we get to the kingdom, the fullness of it, and we enter into the kingdom, there will be a lot of surprises.

That those who were looked upon as great by some will not be quite as great in the kingdom. And that those who perhaps were just overlooked, kind of like you might do if you literally overlooked someone as you're talking to them, or as you're in a group of people. Have you ever been overlooked? Have you ever been talking to somebody, or you're trying to engage someone, and you know they're not paying attention to you? They're looking at someone else. They're looking for someone a little bit more important in the party, or at services, or wherever you might be. They're tolerating you until they can move on.

Well, again, God knows. I think that there will be a lot of surprises for all of us in that particular way. Because when you take Jesus at his word here, the most important position, the most important thing we can learn is to be a servant. When we go to the feast every year, we certainly talk about the Scriptures in Revelation 20 about becoming a king and a priest. We focus on that. A king and a priest are certainly roles of service as well. When they are handled by the biblical standard, a king and a priest will be the ultimate servants and approach their jobs with that heart and attitude. They will be doing righteousness with those exalted titles. As we often look at that, we sometimes may think that we're just a little bit wrong and think that we are perhaps a bit too kingly today. We want to become a king or become a priest without having first become a servant. A true king and a true priest is going to be, first of all and foremost, a servant. I always hold up and look to the example of royalty today and perfect as she may be, but yet she set a standard. That's Queen Elizabeth II of England. When she became queen at her father's death back in 1951, she pledged herself to be a servant. That's one reason she's in her 80s and she will not give up her crown because she made a pledge to serve her people in the role. If you know anything about how she works and the schedule of being a queen and what are the demands, you recognize that it's hard work. I truly think that she's had to have a measure of a servant's heart to have done it all these years day in and day out and to stay on the stage as a queen for that period of time. It's as imperfect as she would be in the human realm, but certainly an example to at least look at and to at least understand that it is that of service. While we were in France, we went to the Palace of Versailles, which is this great French landmark that was built by the French King Louis XIV back in the 1600s. It's a fabulous palace. He built it on the outskirts of Paris. It ultimately became this grand palace. Have you ever seen pictures of it? It is a place to behold, gold and the famous Hall of Mirrors inside and building and rooms. The grounds outside are just stunning. When you walk out on the back terrace, it just stretches as far as the eye can see with pools and fountains and shrubbery and landscaping. It is this great edifice. It was built on the backs of the people for the Sun King, Louis XIV, during a different period. He taxed the people and lived high on the hog, as we say. Louis XV did as well. Louis XVI did. By the time Louis XVI came along, the French had kind of got fed up with it. He was married to this Austrian gal named Marie Antoinette. One day, they raided the palace and arrested them. The people rose up in rebellion and ultimately the King and the Queen lost their heads, as history tells us. They had enough of supporting that lifestyle. They maintained the property, and it is, in a sense, the crown jewel of French tourism. That day, we were there. Half of Paris was there. Stand in line, stand in line, stand in line, everywhere you went. It's quite a place to see. It's also quite an object lesson in how not to be a king. Truly, a lack of a servant's heart and a servant's attitude that is there.

Jesus talked about a servant. He lived the life of a servant because it was all prophesied for him to be a servant. It was a lesson that Israel never learned, and it's why he lived it and used it as the benchmark standard for his disciples to learn. The prophecies of Isaiah, especially, speak over and over again in the latter half of the book of Isaiah about a servant.

You can begin in chapter 40 of Isaiah through the end of the book, chapters 40-66. We are often looked at as passages that speak about servants. The suffering servant. Scriptures talk about Israel being a servant to God. One scripture in particular is Isaiah 44, verse 21, where God says to Israel, the nation, to the people. He says, you are my servant, O Israel. You will not be forgotten.

Many of the scriptures through that section talk about Israel being a servant. And of course, other scriptures in those passages talk about Jesus Christ being a servant. The most famous of which is chapter 53 of Isaiah, which we read every year at the Passover time and tend to focus on. Isaiah 53, if you will recall, talks about the suffering servant and the visage of Jesus that was ultimately fulfilled at the time of his death.

But the entire chapter talks about the man of sorrows, acquainted with grief, despised, was not esteemed. He was oppressed. He opened not his mouth and he was led as a lamb to the slaughter. That's all of chapter 53, but it is also called a chapter 53, it's called a chapter that describes the suffering servant, which indeed fit Jesus Christ perfectly in his particular role. When you take those together, Israel is a servant, Christ is a servant, it helps you to understand Jesus's mission and his role and what he said in the Gospels.

He did live the role of a servant, he did live that life, as well as taught his disciples how to be a servant and that it was more important to be a servant. You also see in the story how, just as we read, the mother of the sons of Zebedee came and asked her two sons, James and John, to be given the top two positions.

It shows you through that example what really the entire, all of the disciples had to learn and Israel had not learned and that is the individual role of service and servanthood. Israel didn't learn it. Jesus lived it. You know, in the book of Acts, when just prior to Christ's final ascension to heaven, his disciples at that point in time asked him, will you now, at this time, restore the kingdom to Israel?

And Jesus said, no, not now. You know, think about that statement, that request, and where their mind was at that point in time in connection with Jesus' teaching about a servant. And again, what you can see in Isaiah that Israel was to be a servant. The disciples, those closest to Jesus, even at that moment, had not yet fully figured it out of that of being a servant. And certainly the nation of Israel didn't either. Christ wasn't going to restore the kingdom. They were not going to live like kings and royalty at that point in time. In fact, when you look at the story of the book of Acts on the New Testament period, they became suffering servants.

They set out the apostles and the church. They set out on several decades of a work of service as they slogged through their world, taking the gospel, building the church, dealing with persecution, just like everyone else who had gone before them. That's why when you come to Hebrews 11 and you read about this Hall of Faith, these examples from Abraham, Noah, all the way through, and those who were sauna sunde, those that says, of whom the world was not even worthy, all of those individuals named and unnamed in the book of Hebrews 11 had to learn to be servants, suffering servants, just like Peter, James, and Paul and the other apostles would have to learn.

Jesus did not establish the kingdom in their day, and they lived and died learning to be a servant. We come along today, and we still must learn to be servants. We must learn yet the role of service among ourselves within the church. God gives us that chance. That is our calling until such time as the kingdom will be established.

This brings us to wherever you and I might be today along this path of service, becoming like a servant. We miss the mark today when we try to live like the Gentiles that Jesus talked about here in Matthew 20. If we try to lord it over anyone in any way, shape, or form, even in our mindset or in any practical way, Jesus said the Gentiles do that. They lord it over. He said, It will not be so among you, and it should not be so among my followers.

He who will be great, let him be your servant. Choose to be a servant. If that is, in a sense, all that one would become when you read the Scriptures right, that is quite enough. That is quite enough. Whatever opportunity, whatever position, whatever title one might ever have among the people of faith, people of God, it will always be and should always be used and considered to be another platform of service, of dedication to the needs of others within the Church, others in life, as we develop that attitude.

We can't stress that enough. We really can't focus on that too much. Whether it's the way we conduct business within the Church, conduct our family business, conduct our personal life, we miss the fact that we are to be first servants, if we try to do anything other than that. The pattern of a servant is at times that we will suffer as well.

That's part of the job description. Turn over to 1 Peter 3. Peter had some things to say about service and suffering in 1 Peter. I find it interesting to consider what Peter writes here. In 1 Peter 3, verse 18, Peter writes, he said, Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit.

That verse there captures Christ's role as the suffering servant from Isaiah 53. He suffered for sins, he was just, and he suffered for those who are unjust. We focus again on that at the Passover, but he did that. Down in verse 1 of chapter 4, Peter says again, Therefore, since Christ suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same mind.

For he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, that he no longer should live the rest of his life in the flesh, for the lust of men, but for the will of God. And so Peter says, look, if Christ suffered, arm yourselves with the same mind, that he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin. In other words, take on the same mind that Jesus had, which was that of a servant, willing to suffer for the good of all, or just one, just for the unjust, but to have that frame of mind, and to submit yourself in that way. I look at this and I think, you know Peter was from the same town as the Centurion?

Capernaum. Peter lived in Capernaum. If you go to Capernaum today, you can see a home that has been excavated, right there in the center of it all, that they say could be Peter's home. There's no real definite proof that it is, but they make this claim, in fact, they built kind of a church over it, but you read about Peter's home in the Gospels, they're in Capernaum. Now, if Peter had a home there, and it's a fishing village right on the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee, the Centurion we are told from Matthew 8, he lived there as well. Capernaum wasn't a big town. It was one of these small towns where, you can well imagine, everybody knew one another. I imagine Peter knew this Centurion by name, certainly by reputation. Probably knew him before that day that he appeared before Jesus. Maybe if Peter was right there in the band with Christ and he saw the Centurion coming, maybe Peter thought, uh-oh, we're in trouble. Here comes the Roman officer of the city. Maybe he didn't know what to expect. Maybe Peter was stunned when the Centurion asked for the healing for his servant. I imagine, this is my imagining to try to fill in a little bit between the lines, that Peter knew this man. And if he didn't know him before this incident of Matthew 8, he certainly knew him afterwards. I imagine he studied him, and he watched him, and he learned about him, and he knew what he was. And I wonder if, as Peter later then led to write down what he did here in 1 Peter, when he talked about Christ and Christ's suffering and the attitude and mindset, I wonder if in the back of his mind he might not have been thinking about this Centurion in his mind. And maybe even inspired to use some aspects of that Centurion's life to flesh out some of the things that he writes about and says here in terms of service. Because if you look in 1 Peter 4 and verse 7, Peter then goes into this and he says, The end of all things is at hand. Therefore be serious and watchful in your prayers. And I wonder if, as Peter wrote this, and for us to think about as we contemplate where we are on this road to greatness, this road to the kingdom, this road to the attitude of a child, this road to becoming and having a servant's heart.

If some of these points, some of these action steps that Peter now begins to get specific about, are things that Peter had in his mind that epitomize that of a servant. He says, Be serious and watchful in your prayers. We prophetically talk about being a watchman or watching for fulfillment of prophecy. Here in this case, he says, Be watchful in your prayers. Be attentive. Be understanding of what we are asking as a result of a serious attitude and approach to life. To our calling. To the role of being a servant. To caring for one another. Caring for each other. The needs and the opportunities that are within the Church. In verse 8 he says, Above all things have fervent love for one another, for love will cover a multitude of sins. As taken from a proverb, you can look it up in the margin of your scriptures, in the proverb, he just quotes the last part of that proverb. The first part says, Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers a multitude of sins. It's always useful to sometimes go back and look at the source of some of these quotes from the Proverbs or the Psalms that you'll find in the epistles, especially. Above all things have a love for one another. That centurion who went to Jesus on behalf of his dying servant had a deep love, but he was willing to do more than just profess it. As I said, you have to think that he was putting his reputation much on the line by walking out in the streets and approaching Jesus and making the request that he did. That was showing a great deal of concern and compassion for his servant. In verse 9 he says, Be hospitable to one another without grumbling.

It's always an interesting thing to consider. But to be hospitable. Being hospitable is many different things.

Being able to invite people into your home and to entertain or to take food to someone who may be in need. It may be just meeting someone for a cup of coffee, meeting someone for a meal, and sharing stories and listening over something very simple. But at the heart of being hospitable is liking people and being around other people and getting to know and listen to their story. In that way, that can be a form of service and being a servant and doing it without grumbling. In other words, just freely, openly not always expecting something in return, but being able to do that. Probably at any given time in the church, one of the greatest needs is that of people fellowshiping with one another beyond the confines of services. After services, through the week, in other types of venues, formal or informal, through the opportunities for hospitality. It's one of the quickest ways for us also to help anyone to grow weary in it because sometimes it takes a lot of work. I used to think having somebody over was just a matter of inviting somebody to your house and putting out a gallon jug of milk or opening a can of beer or whatever. Then I married Debbie. I made the mistake early on in our life of inviting people in from the church without asking her or taking into account her plans or where she was and whatever. She had a different approach to hospitality than what I had been taught and grew up with. My family had traits of hospitality, but they were manifested in different ways than hers. I soon learned that when we were going to get along together and endure, I was going to have to adapt to her standards of hospitality and understand that, which were all quite good. Excellent!

For those of you that have been to our homes, she just doesn't put out a gallon of milk or open a can of beer.

The first rule of holes is stop digging. I better stop digging in that sense. When you do it, to whatever degree you do it, you always want to do it from the heart. But you also realize that sometimes it takes work, it takes planning. To do it well, to take people's even dietary needs into consideration, to understand a lot of things, you have to plan it. But whatever degree of hospitality you and I have, never be ashamed of it. That's really the ultimate point to learn. But do it. Peter says be hospitable to one another, out of a transparent heart, out of a desire to serve, to get to know, to give. It is one of the strongest bonds of fellowship and the strains of glue, if you will, that bind the church together. Always has been, always will be. And if you've done it, slacked off of it, consider restarting it. In whatever form or fashion you may decide to do it. But what Peter mentions here is a key action point on the road of service. In verse 10 he says, As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. Whatever your gift is, allow it to minister or serve others. The heart of the concept of being a minister or ministering is service. And again, this is being used in this verse, not in the term of a position of ordination, but an action verb. It's not a noun, it's a verb here. Of action that we provide for service to one another through our particular skills. As good stewards of the grace of God. If anyone speaks, let him speak as the oracles of God. If anyone ministers, let him do it with the ability which God supplies. That in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To whom belong the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen. He goes on and finishes out, I won't read the remaining verses of chapter 4, but he talks even more about aspects of suffering for the glory of God.

Suffering servant will suffer for righteousness sake. Sometimes we will suffer for our own mistakes. We know at times if we really mess up bad, we will deserve whatever suffering because we brought it upon ourselves. Those are understandable times of suffering. It's harder to understand times with having to suffer because you've done right, or suffering in an unjust sense. But that's part of it, too. That's part of being a servant. That's part of what we have to learn. I think Peter had in the back of his mind certain traits that he had probably seen of this centurion when he was writing through this, as well as certainly the example of Jesus Christ in all of this. This is a day and a time through our tradition of the blessing of the children for us to annually recalibrate where we are as servants. Where we are, taking on the attitude of a child, the humility, the meekness, the openness that all of that comes through because really that's at the heart of an attitude of a true servant. When you look at the centurion and what he did for someone who was a part of his house, albeit in a servile position because it was his servant, and yet he understood the responsibility that he had because he had honed that through decades as a centurion in the armies of Rome, rising by merit, by a shared desire to accomplish the mission that was in front of him. Centurion did that for a human mission based on warfare. Yet, in this particular man's case, he was able to translate it into a spiritual service that Jesus used as an example for all of us to look to. A centurion who went and asked Jesus to help his servant, and he did it because he had a servant's heart. I hope all of us will look at that and take this day and this tradition through this to refocus, to rethink in our own minds where we are as servants, where we are taking on that attitude of this centurion, who indeed had a childlike approach as he went to Jesus Christ and asked for help for someone who needed it and was willing to put his own life on the line. That's the essence of service. That's the essence of what Christ has called us to. That is the ongoing annual lesson for us to learn in the church to be a servant.