They came to Capernaum. When He (Jesus) was in the house, He asked them, "What were you arguing about on the road?"  But they kept quiet because on the way they had argued about who was the greatest. Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, "If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all."  He took a little child and had him stand among them. Taking him in His arms, He said to them, "Whoever welcomes one of these little children in My name welcomes Me; and whoever welcomes Me does not welcome Me but the One who sent Me." Mark 9:33-37

Text, Mark 9:35 "If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all."

My dad was a very insightful person. I only hope that my children have learned as much from me as I learned from my dad. And the older I get, the wiser dad seems to be. When I was a kid I was bugging dad for an electric train. He finally said, “You should never give a child everything he wants.” That ended the discussion.

Christmas is a beautiful holiday. Christians around the world celebrate the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ, the Son of God who gave up everything for us.

Jesus paid the full penalty for our sin at Calvary so we can become God’s adopted children! Wow! How wonderfully we have been blessed.

Originally December 25^th was a pagan holiday. The early Church decided to establish itself as the powerful force God called us to be, so they commandeered the day by celebrating the birth of our Lord.

Depending on the source, this happened sometime between 273 and 440 AD. St. Paul did a similar thing on Mars Hill. When he found an inscription to the unknown God he said, “Let me tell you who this God is!”

In all probability Jesus was born in the spring. But no one can prove the date.

While I believe that celebrating on Dec 25^th is fantastic, we are probably out of line when we get upset when the world does not honor Jesus as the reason for the season. After all, we stole it from the pagans!

Now don’t waste time feeling guilty! Worshiping idols and false gods is totally inappropriate. We need to be busy winning people to Christ, not straightening them out.

As we celebrate Christmas let's not waste time and energy by being greedy, jealous or seeking to promote ourselves. The disciples fell into that trap as illustrated in today’s scripture. Jesus rebuked them and then explained that “If anyone wants to be first he should seek to be the last and be the servant of all.”

As we rear our children we should strive to teach them to be like Jesus. The little dears can be very cute and they often manipulate us in many ways. When a parent gives a child everything he wants, the child will become a spoiled brat.

A child that never has to do chores around the home will be ineffective in rearing his own children. A child that cannot cook will have difficulty after leaving home.

Children that are not held responsible for their acts become tyrants and children that are given everything they want develop an entitlement attitude. (That is the problem that our nation faces today with its current financial crisis.)

When I was a child we would sometimes tease our mother. Pretty soon she would get frustrated and say, “Do as I say, not as I do!”

God will never say that. He is always our supreme example. So when Jesus said, "If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all." He was telling us what He did.

Think about it! In many ways, God is our servant. The Father has the master plan for the universe. He is holy, He knows everything and He is present at all times in all circumstances. And what does He do? He serves us! He is on call 24 hours a day 7 days a week. He dispatches angles to serve and protect us. When we pray, we pray to the Father in the name of Jesus. He hears and answers our prayers.

Not always when and how we ask, but He does answer them.
 

Our heavenly Father meets all of our needs and provides whatever we need in response to our prayers and acts of faith.

Jesus is the Son of God, very God Himself. He has always existed; He was never created. 2,000 years ago He became a Baby and was born in poor circumstances. He was truly human with all the limitations every human has. He wet his diapers and had to be burped, just like we did.

He lived among us for 33 years, and then died a terrible death to pay the penalty for our sins. That act also purchased our healing. Through Jesus Christ each of us has access to God the Father.

The Holy Spirit is the 3^rd person of the Trinity. He lives in the hearts of believers and acts as Comforter, Counselor, Guide and Teacher. It was His power that raised Jesus from the dead. He gives us the power to live victorious lives.

However, we have to do the living… He does not do that for us.

While on earth Jesus illustrated a servant spirit in many ways. Although He was born in poverty, every need He had was met through faith and obedience. He once told a man that He had nowhere to lay His head. However He also owned a home. He showed great humility when He washed the disciples’ feet at the Last Supper.

Everything good thing that we have is a gift from God! He always watches over us. Never tell me that you are not important when God Himself cares for you every day!

Since God serves us, we should serve Him and serve each other. How are we going to do that? Sometimes that is easy, sometimes it takes great faith. For instance, when Jesus needed to feed 5,000 people He did it by performing a miracle through faith in God. When the disciples checked with the crowd, they only found five loaves of bread and two fishes. How was that going to help?

Jesus simply trusted God to meet the need. He held the food up in faith, blessed it, and then started distributing it! God answered the prayer of faith!

Elishah was a man just like us – same feelings and emotions. But he walked in faith and obedience.

 

Elijah fed a widow and her son by making a bottle of oil and a container of meal last throughout a 3 ½ year drought. The widow was down to her last meal when the prophet showed up… one more loaf of bread then they planned to starve to death. And the prophet wanted part of that meal!

Can you imagine her amazement!

However, God blessed her faith and she and her family had all the oil and meal they needed until the drought was over.

God does not have favorite children. What He has done or is doing for one person He will do for all of us! But we have to serve Him with a pure heart!

King Saul lost his kingship because he did not serve God from the heart. He merely went through the motions. When God did not do what the king wanted, he did things on his own. It cost him everything.

This morning God is asking each of us to totally commit ourselves to the Lord. By that we mean that we are making His priority our priority. We do not act like brats or spoiled children. We simply pray, “Lord, what will you have me do?” then we do it.

That is what Jesus did every day of His life, and what He prayed before Calvary.

That is what the Holy Spirit does. The Holy Spirit is subject to Jesus Christ.

2 Peter 1:3, 4 “His (Jesus’) divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness. Through these He has given us His very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.

Are we going to be spoiled brats, or are we going to walk in complete obedience to God? If we will commit to walking wholeheartedly with God, He will bless us beyond our wildest dreams.