Long-Handled Spoon

Good morning kids.

Today, in just a moment, Pastor Tim is going to come and talk to us about what it means to serve other people. Someone tell me what it means to serve.

Those are all good answers.

I want to share with you a passage of Scripture that comes from the book of Mark. OT or NT? Mark is a Gospel. Who do the Gospels tell us about?

This is what Jesus says:

35 Whoever wants to save their life will lose it. But whoever loses their life for me and for the good news will save it.

I like the way the Living Bible puts it...

If you insist on saving your life, you will lose it. Only those who throw away their lives for my sake and for the sake of the Good News will ever know what it means to really live.

You see Jesus tells us that if you want to find your life, if you want to know what it means to truly live, you have you lose your lives. You have to give your life over for the sake of others and for the sake of the Good News!

It means we cannot be focused on ourselves. What’s a word for always being focused on ourselves?

Instead, Jesus says, lose your life, give it away. Don’t just look out for yourselves! Look out for others!

One way we do that is by serving. When we serve for the sake of the Good News, we can find what it truly means to live. When we serve, we live like Christ did. The Bible tells us that Jesus came, not be served, but to serve!

That’s what we have to do to!

I heard a story the other day that perfectly exemplifies what Jesus is talking about. I need two volunteers.

It goes like this:

One child asked his grandpa why we should serve? Why is it important, not to be selfish, but to look out for others...

The Grandpa said it’s like two doors:

Behind the first door there was a large bowl of delicious soup. And a group of people huddled around it to eat. The bowl was so deep that the people around the bowl had to use really long spoons in order to reach the soup. But the people around the bowl were thin, sad, tired, and hungry, because though they had long spoons to reach the soup, the spoons were so long they couldn’t feed themselves.

The grandpa said, “This is what it is like when people can only focus on feeding themselves” When we are selfish, we end up tired, hungry, and discontent.

But there’s a second door. Inside this one everything was the same. There’s a large bowl with soup and all of the people had long spoons to reach the bowl. But the people in this room were happy, they were full, and celebrating.

“What’s different about this room?” the child asked.

And the Grandpa answered, “They’ve learned to feed one another.”

That’s a great illustration for how God wants us to live. We shouldn’t live our lives always trying to feed ourselves. We shouldn’t always be looking for what’s in it for me? What can I do for me? How can other people serve me? If we do that we may find ourselves just like the people behind the first door: Tired and sad in our selfishness.

Instead, God’s desire is for us to serve other people. And not just every once in a while, but instead, we should live our lives serving others! Each one of us has been given an imaginary long spoon by God. And he expects us to use it to serve others! If we do that we can truly find what it means to be alive. We can live like Christ–not to be served, but to serve. Like the people in that second door, we can be full, and content, and happy knowing that we are doing what Christ is asking us to do: Serve other people!

Let’s pray....