Mark 10:35-45 | Training in Open Hands

Alright, we’re several weeks into our series now, and I’m curious: how many of you are starting to feel fatigued by the list of practices we "should" be doing? Solitude, Scripture, Sabbath, Prayer, Fasting... If we aren't careful, that list is going to start weighing us down with a whole lot of should.

Listen, I get it. But if these practices are weighing you down, chances are you’ve adopted a CrossFit mentality to your spiritual growth. You're in the basement of your soul trying to "will-power" your way onto the spiritual fitness machines you bought three Januarys ago!

As I shared last week, you cannot willpower transformation. Spiritual growth isn't about rowing harder; it comes by hoisting the sail. We can’t manufacture the wind of the Holy Spirit. All we can do is position our lives—to hoist the canvas of our habits—so we are in a position to catch it.

If you are exhausted, renounce the lie that you have to change yourself. Instead, today we are going to hoist one massive, beautiful sail: The posture of Open Hands. We are going to look at two areas where we naturally clench our fists—our time and our treasure—and see how Service and Generosity are actually just two sides of the exact same coin.

Speaking of coins... (Hold up the coin). Someone gave this to me—it is a real Roman coin.

One day, some religious leaders tried to trap Jesus with a question about taxes. Unfazed, Jesus asked for a coin just like this. He held it up and asked: "Whose image is this? And whose inscription?" They answered, "Caesar's." And Jesus delivered that famous line: "Then give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s."

This wasn't just financial advice. In asking who the coin belonged to, Jesus was actually asking who the people belonged to. The coin bears the image of Caesar, so it goes back to Caesar. But what bears the image of God?

You do.

When you look in the mirror, whose image is on you? Our past, our families, and our struggles can explain us, but they do not have to define us. You were made in His image, to carry His name! Sometimes that image gets tarnished by sin, shame, and exhaustion. But with the daily training we are doing in this Residency, the dirt gets wiped away.

Here is why this matters for how we view our time and money: If you think your life bears your own name, you will live in a "Rowboat of Scarcity." You will white-knuckle your bank account and fiercely protect your weekends because you’re terrified that if you give an inch, you’ll lose your life.

But if you bear the Image of God, your life is not a possession to be hoarded; it is Kingdom Capital to be deployed.

Here is the truth we need to embrace today: You can’t catch the wind with clenched fists. Open your hands to serve and give, and you’ll find the rest of a life you don't have to carry.

Today, we are going into the Operating Room in Mark 10. We’re going to see a group of Residents who are still trying to "row" their way to the top, and hear the Master’s radical invitation to drop the oars.

Our Roadmap:

The Ambition of the Rowboat: Why we fight for position.

The Architecture of the Body: How to find your specific SHAPE to serve.

The Anchor of Abundance: How to trust the Wind for our provision.

I. THE AMBITION OF THE ROWBOAT (Mark 10:35-41)

If you have your Bibles, open to Mark 10, verse 35. Jesus is walking with His Residents on the road to Jerusalem, and the timing of what is about to happen is staggering. He has just finished telling them—for the third time, in graphic detail—exactly what is about to happen to Him.

In verses 33 and 34, the Master says He will be mocked, spit on, flogged, and killed. He is setting His face like flint toward the cross. He is preparing to give everything.

Now look at how two of His lead Residents respond in verse 35:

Mark 10:35–37 NIV

35 Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to him. “Teacher,” they said, “we want you to do for us whatever we ask.” 36 “What do you want me to do for you?” he asked. 37 They replied, “Let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left in your glory.”

Let’s just call this what it is: completely tone-deaf. Jesus has just poured out His soul about His impending torture and death, and James and John essentially say, "Wow, Master, that sounds really hard. Quick question though... can we get the corner offices when we get to Jerusalem?"

Look closely at the posture of their hearts: "We want you to do for us whatever we ask." That is not the prayer of a Resident submitting to an Attending Physician; that is the demand of a consumer talking to a customer service rep. They are treating the Master like a cosmic vending machine.

Why do they do this? Why, in the shadow of the cross, are they jockeying for position?

Because they are trapped in the Scarcity Mindset.

They are looking at the Kingdom of God like a corporate ladder. They believe there is only a limited amount of security and glory to go around. If Peter or Andrew gets to the top first, there won’t be enough left for James and John. So, they hustle. They manipulate. They white-knuckle their future to secure their own spot.

This is what I call The Ambition of the Rowboat.

If you are in a rowboat, your forward motion is entirely dependent on your own strength. If you want to get ahead, you have to row harder. You have to manufacture your own momentum. And most importantly, if you ever stop rowing, you lose your position.

Are we really that different from James and John? The water we swim in every day tells us that life is a competition for scarce resources. Our culture screams at us: There isn't enough money, so you better hoard it. There isn't enough time, so you better protect it. So, what do we do? We row.

We row in our schedules, packing every minute with productivity. We row in our finances, building little kingdoms of security because we are terrified of what might happen tomorrow. And when the Master invites us to the practices of Service and Generosity, we look at Him like He's crazy:

"Serve on Sunday morning? Jesus, I don't have the margin. If I give away my time, I’ll never get it back!"

"Give a percentage of my income? Jesus, You don't know my mortgage rate. I need that money to secure my family's future!"

When you live in the Rowboat of Scarcity, your hands are gripped so tightly around the oars of your own life that you couldn't possibly open them to serve someone else or give anything away.

But hear me on this: If you are the engine of your own life, you can never stop rowing. And if you never stop rowing, you will eventually drown in your own exhaustion. That is why so many of us are spiritually, emotionally, and physically burned out. We are carrying a life we were never meant to carry. We are trying to manufacture the wind.

But the Master is about to stop the boat entirely. He is about to call a staff meeting and completely flip the architecture of what it means to be great in the Kingdom of God.

II. THE ARCHITECTURE OF THE BODY (Romans 12 & SHAPE)

Look at verse 38-42. Jesus sees the disciples pulling out their oars, ready to fight for position, and He calls a timeout. He says,

Mark 10:38–44 NIV

38 “You don’t know what you are asking,” Jesus said. “Can you drink the cup I drink or be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with?” 39 “We can,” they answered. Jesus said to them, “You will drink the cup I drink and be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with, 40 but to sit at my right or left is not for me to grant. These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared.” 41 When the ten heard about this, they became indignant with James and John. 42 Jesus called them together and said, “You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. 43 Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, 44 and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all.

Jesus completely inverts the pyramid of power. He says, "In the world, you climb to the top so people can serve you. In the Kingdom of God, you train to go to the bottom so you can serve them."

Now, let me be totally honest with you. When some of you hear the word "serve," your rowboat anxiety spikes. Your brain immediately thinks, "Great. More work. I’m already exhausted, my family is barely holding it together, and now the Pastor is telling me I need to volunteer in the nursery."

You hear the call to serve as a call to do everything. Let's call that what it is: a Messiah Complex. You are trying to row the entire boat yourself! But listen to me: not every good thing is a God thing for you. The Apostle Paul unpacks this beautifully in Romans 12 He writes,

Romans 12:4–5 NIV

4 For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, 5 so in Christ we, though many, form one body...

If you are a Resident in this Church, you are a limb in the Body of Christ. Think about how a physical body works. An eye doesn't try to hear. A foot doesn't try to digest food. If a cell in your body tries to do a job it wasn’t designed to do, we call that disease. But when every part does exactly what it was designed to do, we call that health.

Church, we serve a God of Abundance. He has enough time, enough resources, and enough people to accomplish His will on the earth. He doesn't expect you to do it all! But He does invite you to do your part.

This week, we are rolling out a tool church-wide to help you figure out what your part actually is. It’s called the SHAPE Assessment (Spiritual Gifts, Heart, Abilities, Personality, and Experience).

We aren't asking you to take this assessment so we can fill empty volunteer slots on a spreadsheet. We are asking you to take it so you can learn discernment. Knowing your SHAPE gives you the freedom to say a "Holy Yes" to the specific way God has wired you to serve—which gives you the permission to say a "Graceful No" to everything else. It takes the heavy oars out of your hands!

But maybe you're sitting there thinking, "Okay, but why serve at all? Why not just come on Sundays, listen to the sermon, and go home? Isn't that enough?"

Well, let me show you how human beings actually learn.

Educational researchers have mapped out the "Learning Pyramid." If you just sit in these seats and listen to me give a lecture, you will retain about 5% of what I say by Tuesday. (And honestly, for some of you, that's generous!) But look at the bottom of the pyramid. If you "Practice by Doing"—if you actually serve—retention jumps to 75%. And if you "Teach Others"—if you disciple someone else or serve the next generation—you retain 90%.

"Why does the Master call you to serve? Because human beings learn by doing. You will never catch the heart of the Master from the bleachers; you have to get onto the field."

Opening your hands to serve in your specific SHAPE isn't a burden; it is hoisting a massive sail! It puts you directly in the pathway of God's transforming grace.

But let's be honest. If you are going to open your hands to serve, it means you have to take your hands off the oars. You have to give away some of your precious time and energy. And that brings up a terrifying question for the Resident—a question we have to answer if we're ever going to find rest.

III. THE ANCHOR OF ABUNDANCE (Sabbath & Generosity)

The question is this: If I let go of the oars, won't the boat sink? If I stop frantically protecting my schedule so I can serve, and if I stop hoarding my money so I can be generous, how am I going to survive in a world that demands I fiercely protect both?

Will there ever be enough? Enough time? Enough money?

Church, this is where we have to come back to the spiritual practice of Sabbath to help us hoist the sail of Generosity.

Let’s talk about Sabbath first. If you want to know if you are trapped in the Rowboat of Scarcity, look at your calendar. Do you have a day of rest? And I don't mean a day where you catch up on laundry and answer emails from the couch. I mean a full 24 hours where you completely stop producing. Where you focus on the Lord and spend time enjoying His creation, your family, and your friends.

Here’s a really cool thing I learned in a podcast a couple of years ago: In the Kingdom of God, the day begins with sleep.

If you go back and read Genesis 1, you’ll notice a pattern. "There was evening and there was morning, the first day… There was evening and there was morning, the second day." Evening, then morning. God designed you to begin your day by doing absolutely nothing. He meant for us to work from rest, not to work for rest!

Sabbath is the sail we hoist to enter into that rest. When you stop working for 24 hours, you are standing up in the middle of a frantic, exhausted world and declaring, "I am not the engine of my life. God is." Sabbath proves that the world doesn't rest on your shoulders—it rests on His.

Now, what does this have to do with Generosity and how we handle our money?

Well, Generosity is simply the Sabbath moving into our wallets.

When you live with a scarcity mindset, every dollar you give away feels like a loss. It feels like you are bleeding out. But the Apostle Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 9 that money isn't something you lose, and it certainly isn't a master you are meant to serve. Money is a seed that you plant. He says, "He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing!"

You see, we serve a God of abundance, not scarcity. There is always more than enough in Him!

Generosity is not God trying to take your money; He doesn't need it. Generosity is a spiritual practice that puts money in its proper place in your life and heart. It is an act of spiritual warfare against the lie that you are your own provider. When you open your hands to give sacrificially, you are beating back the idol of greed. You are hoisting the sail and saying, "God, I trust Your wind more than I trust my rowing."

I know money is a touchy subject—partly because the Church hasn’t always stewarded it well, but also because we often treat it as a god we serve for comfort, rather than a tool we manage for God’s glory.

Hear me on this: I’m not after your money, and neither is God. But He does want our hearts. And giving—as God commands us to do all over the Bible: sacrificially, proportionately (meaning percentage-based), systematically, and intentionally, not under guilt or pressure—that’s a tool God intends for us to use to keep money in its proper place. It’s a tool He uses to help Him get our hearts!

God invites us to hoist the sails of Generosity and Service to remember that there’s enough time, there’s enough money, and that He is our provider. He provides the wind so we can stop rowing. These practices are sails we can hoist to enter more fully into God’s rest and joy!

THE GOSPEL TURN: THE RANSOM (Mark 10:45)

But I know what some of you are thinking. "Pastor, this sounds great, but I'm just too tired. I've been rowing for so long, my hands are blistered. I don't know if I have the strength to open them."

If you look at the very end of our text in Mark 10, Jesus gives us the final, ultimate reason why we can let go of the oars. Verse 45 is the hinge of the entire Gospel. Jesus looks at His exhausted, ambitious, scarcity-driven disciples and says:

Mark 10:45 NIV

45 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.4

Do you know what a ransom is? A ransom is the price paid to buy a slave out of bondage.

Jesus is looking at you today and saying, "I see you. I see you exhausted in the rowboat. I see you terrified that you don't have enough time, enough money, or enough status. I see you trying to earn your way to the top. But I didn't come to sit at the top and demand that you serve me. I came to the bottom. I took the towel. I took the cross. I paid the ransom to buy you out of the boat."

We do not train in Generosity and Service to earn God's love. We train because His love has already set us free. Because the Master served you to the point of death, you don't have to be afraid of moving downward. You don't have to be afraid to open your hands. Jesus has already secured your greatness. You give because you’ve already received everything in Him!

(Hold up the coin one last time).

Let’s circle back to where we started. Whose image is on this coin? Give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar. But whose image is on you?

If your name is on your life, keep rowing. Keep hoarding. Keep protecting your little kingdom until it crushes you. But if you bear the image of the Master—if His name is stamped on your soul—then you can let go. You can’t catch the wind with clenched fists. Open your hands to serve and give, and you will find the rest of a life you no longer have to carry.

And Church, let me just shoot straight with you for a minute as we close. We just passed the largest budget we've ever passed. It is responsible and faithful, but the reality is this: if our giving as a church remains flat this year, we're going to be short by about 7%.

But I want to pause right here and celebrate some really cool, good-God things that are happening, because many of you are already hoisting the sail! As of today, February 24th, our total Year-to-Date giving for 2026 is $136,505.16. Compare that to this same time last year in 2025, which was $94,941.88. That represents an increase of approximately 43.8%—over $41,500!

This is due in part to you, our Church, stepping up to resource our budget more faithfully. But it’s also due to God rallying some outside "Gospel Patrons"—people who love what God is doing here and have given generously from things like Donor Advised Funds to help us further the mission.

And what is that mission? Helping the lost get found and the found live free! We are connecting people to Jesus and others, maturing them in their spiritual lives, and partnering them with God on mission.

We have a big vision for the future—praying about a disciple and youth facility, and adding staff to better equip you. This requires resources, especially as we whittle down the debt on our current facility. We’re in a great spot, and we're confident God will provide. But do you know how He's going to provide?

We’re in a really good spot, and we are completely confident that God will provide for us when the time is right. But do you know how He's going to provide for this vision? The exact same way He has in the past: through me and through you. When we open our hands and hoist the sails of Generosity and Service.

Now, I realize this is a really full message, and I can't teach you everything about biblical generosity and stewardship in one single sermon. If you want to dive deeper into practically managing your finances God's way, we're spinning up a brand new course on this exact topic. We'll have more details for you soon.

But for this week, your next step isn't to try to fix everything all at once. Your next step is simply to step into the Lab.

THE HAND-OFF (To the Lab)

Today, we’ve talked about the "Why." We’ve looked at the Master who paid our ransom. But this week, you get to practice the "How" alongside your community.

I want to invite every single person in this room to take the SHAPE Assessment. The link is in your bulletin and on the church app right now.

Please don't do this out of guilt or religious obligation. Do it to discover the specific, beautiful way God has wired you. Learn what God has for you to do so you can remember the incredible truth: you don't have to do it all! Finding your God-given "Yes" is how you finally find the freedom to say "No" to the things exhausting you.

In the coming weeks, grab your fridge friends or your connect groups and take a look at your SHAPE results together. Take a look at your calendars and your bank accounts not as burdens to be feared, but as tools to be joyfully deployed for the Kingdom.

Church, you don't have to carry the weight of the world anymore. You don't have to keep rowing until your hands bleed. The Master is in the boat. The ransom is paid. The wind of His Spirit is blowing. Let's open our hands, hoist the sails together, and step into the abundant rest He has prepared for us.

Let’s pray together.

“Father, forgive us for the times we have treated Your Kingdom like a competition. Forgive us for living like orphans who have to hoard our time and our money because we forgot we have a Father who provides. Thank You for the ultimate downward mobility of Jesus, who bought us out of our slavery to exhaustion. Give us the courage this week to unclench our fists, to discover our SHAPE, and to hoist the sails of Generosity and Service. Blow through this church with the wind of Your Spirit. In the name of the Master we pray, Amen.”