Pride Kills
Tom Shrader walks through Matthew 20, beginning with Jesus' third prediction of His death and resurrection as He heads toward Jerusalem, emphasizing that God's redemptive plan cannot be stopped. He then examines the request of James, John, and their mother for positions of honor in the kingdom, using it as a launching point to confront the deep-rooted sin of pride and call believers to countercultural servanthood modeled after Christ. The teaching closes with the healing of two blind men near Jericho, inviting listeners to honestly examine their own hearts by asking what they would request if Jesus asked them directly: 'What do you want Me to do for you?'
“Pride is a complete anti-God state of mind, and if you want to end up at the top of this organizational chart, you start at the bottom.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: A Study Of The Life Of Jesus Christ (2005)
Recorded: 2005 at East Valley Bible Church
Duration: 45 min
Themes: pride, humility, servanthood, ambition, suffering, resurrection, heart examination, countercultural living, struggling with pride, seeking recognition, navigating conflict, young adult, new believer, new to leadership, parent, feeling overlooked
Scripture: Matthew 20:17-34, Matthew 16:21, Matthew 17:22, Matthew 23:12, Mark 9, Mark 10:35, Mark 22, Luke 13, Luke 18:31, Luke 19:28, Luke 22:24, Daniel 7, Mark 2, Isaiah 53, 1 Corinthians 15:3-4, 1 Thessalonians 4, Proverbs 8:13, Proverbs 15:25, Galatians 6:3, James 4:6, Psalm 139:23-24
Theological Themes: kenosis, servant leadership, soteriology, redemptive plan, christology, sanctification, atonement, kingdom of god
Full Transcript
The Road to Jerusalem
Turn your Bibles, if you would, to Matthew chapter 20. We are at a time in the life of Christ that is indeed the very end of that life. We are in the final few days of Jesus' life. Chapter 20, verse 17 says, "And Jesus was about to go up to Jerusalem." You will see in chapter 21, verse 1, He approaches Jerusalem. That is the triumphant entry, when the crowds gather around and cry, "Hosanna, Hosanna to Him." A week later, that same crowd begins to chant, "Crucify Him, Crucify Him." So we are at the end of the life of Christ as we work our way through a study of the life of Jesus.
As Jesus heads toward Jerusalem, we have three passages to look at. We will stay in Matthew, but we also draw insights from Mark chapter 10 and Luke chapter 13 as corresponding passages. Mark tells us that Jesus is heading a processional. He is at the front, followed by the twelve disciples, and then a large crowd. Mark tells us that the crowd is amazed and afraid. The word "amazed" means to be astonished or bewildered, sometimes even carrying the idea of immobility because of fright — literally incapable of reacting to an idea or a concept. It is a strange environment. The group following Jesus is confused, amazed, and afraid, while Jesus is absolutely determined to go to Jerusalem. He will not be deterred.
Jesus Foretells His Death
What Jesus does in chapter 20, verses 17 through 19, is remind the disciples why they are headed to Jerusalem. When I say "remind," it is because this is information they have received before, though presented here in a little more detail. Look back at Matthew chapter 16, verse 21: "From that time Jesus began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, suffer many things from the elders and the chief priests and the scribes, be killed and be raised on the third day." Then in chapter 17, verse 22: "While they were gathering together in Galilee, Jesus said to them, the Son of Man is going to be delivered up into the hands of men. They will kill Him and He will be raised on the third day."
Now in the passage before us, chapter 20, verse 18: "Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem. The Son of Man will be delivered up to the chief priests and the scribes. They will condemn Him to death. They will hand Him over to the Gentiles." And then Jesus adds, "They will mock Him. They will scourge Him." Mark adds in his account that they will spit upon Him. "And they will crucify Him. On the third day He will be raised." Jesus speaks here very plainly. This is not a parable. This is not some sort of allegory. Jesus simply lays it out.
And yet the disciples have a difficult time comprehending this. A large degree of that difficulty in comprehension is probably rooted in the fact that they are looking for a Messiah in the traditional Jewish sense — a conquering Messiah, one who would establish a new reign. They are not looking for a suffering, dying Messiah. They want a Messiah who is going to make things easy, simple, and prosperous. We could say the world is a little like that today. People love the idea of an easy Jesus — not just easy believism, but an easy Jesus who does not demand much, who simply says, "Follow Me and everything will be fine. Believe in Me and everything is going to go well. You have problems? Pray them away, and there will never be any suffering or hardship." The problem with that Jesus is that He is not the biblical Jesus. The biblical Jesus is One who suffers and dies, and the biblical Jesus is One who calls His people to suffering and to death. That is the call He places before them.
God's Plan Cannot Be Stopped
They are amazed by this. They cannot fully get their arms around it. My sense is that the little bit beginning to sink in causes them to wonder, "What is going on here? This is not what we anticipated." In Luke's account, chapter 18, verse 31, Luke says this: "Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem and all the things which are written through the prophets about the Son of Man will be accomplished." Here is what Luke is reminding us, the same thing Paul reminds us in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, verses 3 and 4: "Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures. He was buried and raised on the third day according to the Scriptures." Things are not out of control. We need to be reminded of that over and over again.
Sometimes it feels like they are, does it not? We can look globally, look at the news, and it becomes intimidating very quickly because it appears as though things are out of control. We can even look at our own lives — a call from the doctor, a call from a friend, or a call from the boss — and all of a sudden it appears as though things are out of control. We have to be reminded over and over again: they may be beyond our control, but they are not out of God's control.
I sense that when Jesus was on that cross, there were two conflicting emotions from the people gathered. Those who hated Him were rejoicing, saying, "Finally we are done with that Jesus, done with His followers — this is the end of it." His followers, on the other hand, were saying, "What has happened here? We gave our lives to this." Three days later, those emotions reversed, and they realized they could not stop Him. You cannot stop Him, because God's plan is effected and you cannot stop God's march of redemption through history.
The Son of Man and the Cross
Jesus had you in mind as He hung on the cross, and nothing could stop that plan. The same is true in your life. I know there are those moments when you get news you don't want, and there may be that reflex to wonder where God is. He's right where He's always been. He's right on the throne, in absolute control, and He's not going to allow anything to come into your life that you can't deal with — not just survive through, but thrive in the midst of. He will work all things that come into your life together for good, to those of us who know Him and love Him and are called according to His purpose.
Is that you? Because if that's you, that promise extends to you. If not — if you're in that group of people who at communion time just passed it by and said, "No, that's not me" — that promise is not for you. Things are not going to end up well for you. There is no "happily ever after" ending available to you if you stay in that state. That is the call.
Jesus says, "I am going to be mocked. I am going to be scourged." The Son of Man is Jesus' favorite term to describe Himself — over 80 times in the Gospels, Jesus refers to Himself as the Son of Man, reflecting back into Daniel chapter 7. After healing a paralytic, Jesus speaks in Mark chapter 2 and says, "I did this that you might know that the Son of Man has authority to forgive sin." Every time Jesus uses this phrase, He is saying, "I'm God. I'm God come in the flesh. I'm God incarnate."
Delivered Up, Mocked, and Scourged
Jesus says He will be delivered up to the chief priests and the scribes — the elite group of Jewish leaders. They will want to kill Him, but they don't have the power to execute Him. So they will pronounce Him guilty and then, as we see in verse 19, hand Him over to the Gentiles. The Gentiles will mock Him, the Gentiles will scourge Him, and the Gentiles will spit upon Him.
Those of you who saw the film *The Passion of the Christ* witnessed a graphic depiction of this. Is it accurate? My sense is that it probably is. And yet, as horrific as it may have been to you and me watching it, it was still not as horrific as having been there and seen it in person. And it still in no way fully captures the suffering and agony of the death where He who knew no sin traded His righteousness for our sin — the Great Exchange.
My mentor Larry Wright wrote a poem called "The Great Exchange," and his grandson Justin made it into a song. The line goes: *You'd never guess — I trade my sin for Christ's righteousness.* Is that a good deal? We talk a lot about good deals. My car had a little problem this week, and I was in the dealership looking around thinking I'd love to get Susan a new car. I thought, I wonder if I could make a good deal. And then I thought — not a good enough deal. Because the best deal is the one Jesus gives: you bring your sin, He brings His righteousness.
I had lunch with some old real estate friends on the first Friday of December, which is our time to get together. We talked about deals — land we used to buy by the section and sell by the acre, and now selling it by the square footage. There were great deals along the way. And all I could think of was the Great Exchange: you trade your sin for Christ's righteousness. That is what took place on the cross.
Isaiah's Vision of the Suffering Servant
Speaking of the Messiah, Isaiah writes in Isaiah 53:
*"He has no stately form or majesty that we should look upon Him, nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him. He was despised and forsaken of men, a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief, like one from whom men hide their face. He was despised. We did not esteem Him. Surely our griefs He Himself bore and our sorrows He carried. Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, smitten of God, afflicted. But He was pierced through for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed. The Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him. He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth."*
That is the scene Jesus is describing here.
The Resurrection Hope
Then Jesus does what Scripture always does — whenever Scripture speaks of the crucifixion, it speaks of the resurrection. Whenever it speaks of the cross, it speaks of three days later and the hope we find in that. Paul writes to the church at Thessalonica in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, addressing what happens to the dead in Christ and how this ending will take place. As an introduction to that discussion, he writes: *"We do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope."*
We want you to have hope — hope in this world, hope in this life, and hope for all eternity. As a Christian, when I face death, there is an almost unexplainable calm that transcends the moment of death. This is always a tender thing to share, but I looked out and I saw Jewel, and when I saw her, I thought of Mike Senior. I thought of the night before Mike died, when he knew he was going to
A Peace That Makes No Sense
He knew he was going to die that night. I have been around Mike Senior a lot, and I never saw him smile ear to ear like he did that night — knowing full well, as they had told him, that when he went to sleep he would not wake up. There was a peace that makes no sense to the lost world, because to the lost world, that is the end. But he knew he was not one who dies without hope. Those of us who grieved around him that night, and really from then on, do not grieve as people with no hope.
There is the crucifixion — Jesus dies. There is the resurrection — Jesus rises. And in His resurrection, we find life. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 15, verses 3 and 4, "that according to the scripture Jesus died for our sins, that He was buried and rose again on the third day."
It would be very easy, just on the surface, to blow through this and see only despair and agony. But Jesus is talking about this agony in the context of God being in control. Yes, there is a crucifixion, but there is a resurrection. In your life and mine, there is hardship, but there is redemption. There is difficulty, but there is the ease of understanding that Jesus is with me — and no matter what the world throws at me, however horrific it could be, you fill in your own blank, whatever it is, greater is He that is in you than whatever can come at you. And Jesus tells them that.
The Request of James and John
Then a really interesting occurrence appears in chapter 20, verse 20. The mother of the sons of Zebedee — that is James and John — came to Jesus with her sons, bowing down and making a request of Him. Mark records it slightly differently, and the picture, as we put the accounts together, is that the mother came with the boys, the mother probably spoke first, and the boys may have put her up to it before speaking themselves. In Mark's Gospel, chapter 10, verse 35, when the boys spoke, they said, "Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you." It is much like a child who approaches a parent and says, "I want to ask you something — will you say yes?" I always wanted to know what the request was going to be before I agreed to anything.
This is a significant moment involving significant people. As we bring the scriptures together and look at the women gathered at the foot of the cross, we discover that this mother of James and John is the sister of Mary, the mother of Jesus. That makes her Jesus' aunt and James and John His first cousins. It may well be that the boys thought, "If we bring his mother's sister, someone he loves, that will make it even more likely He will grant the request."
They bowed down to Him as though to a king, and He said to her, "What do you wish?" She said, in verse 21, "Command that in Your kingdom these two sons of mine may sit one on Your right and one on Your left."
The Hunger for Greatness
If you look back to Luke chapter 19, verse 28 — just one page back in my Bible — they were probably building on something Jesus had already said. In Luke 19:28, Jesus said, "Truly I say to you that you who have followed me, in the regeneration when the Son of Man will sit on His glorious throne, you shall also sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel." These men heard that and said, "Wait — if there are going to be thrones, we want ours right next to Jesus."
Now, is there anything wrong with wanting to be near Jesus? I do not think so. Our call, all the time, is to draw near to the Lord. But motive is an issue here, because we get the sense that this is part of an ongoing discussion. Mark's Gospel, chapter 9, records that the disciples were traveling from Caesarea Philippi to Capernaum, and Jesus, walking off to the side, noticed they were talking among themselves. He came and asked, "What are you discussing?" And they fell silent — because they had been arguing about who was going to be the greatest.
This request from James and John is a continuation of that argument. It is not simply that they want to be near Jesus. They want to be near Jesus for the power, the prestige, the preeminence. Pride is at work. They want to be the greatest in God's kingdom.
Jesus Redefines Greatness
Jesus gives them a lesson. He says, "You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink?" — the cup being the cup of sacrifice and suffering. They say they are. He tells them that His cup they shall indeed drink, but to sit at His left or His right is not His to give away. The Father will determine that; those places belong to the ones for whom they have been prepared.
Look at verse 24. The other ten become indignant with the two brothers. But notice why they are angry — not because they are outraged at this presumptuous request, but because the two beat them to the question. Jesus sees what is happening and says, in effect, "We need to have a serious discussion, because you are thinking just like the world." Verse 25: "You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great men exercise authority over them." There are the governing officials ruling with a harsh hand, and there are the charismatic leaders exercising authority over those beneath them.
"It is not that way among you," Jesus says. "Whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant. Whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave." And if you want a role model, look at verse 28: "Just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many."
Jesus is saying we have to think counterculture. If there was ever a generation and a culture to whom this message applied —
Pride in a Self-Obsessed Culture
We are a culture that has created entire industries out of puffing ourselves up. Advertisements say, "You deserve a break today," and "You should have it your way," over and over. All of it appeals to pride. C.S. Lewis defines pride as a complete anti-God state of mind.
Here is what the Bible says about pride. "Pride and arrogance and the evil way — they pervert the mouth, and I hate them," God says in Proverbs 8:13. Proverbs 15:25 says the Lord will tear down the house of the proud. Matthew 23:12 says, "Whoever exalts himself will be humbled." And Galatians 6:3 warns, "If anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself." James 4:6 declares, "God is opposed to the proud."
Yet we live in a whole culture that says we need to feel good about ourselves. I was watching the UCLA-USC game, and at halftime Keith Jackson asked Dan Fouts what UCLA needed to do. They must go to broadcaster school to learn that answer, because I could give it to you: they need to put together a drive so they will feel good about themselves. It was 33 to 3. There is no reason to feel good about yourself when you are about to get drilled — but apparently they need to feel good about themselves.
The Old Cross Versus the New Cross
That is the world we live in, and if we are not careful, we try to make the cross make us feel good about ourselves. One author has written this: the cross of popular evangelism is not the cross of the New Testament. The old cross slew men; the new cross entertains men. The old cross condemned men; the new cross assures them. The old cross destroyed confidence in the flesh; the new cross encourages it. The old cross brought tears and blood; the new cross brings laughter.
Pride is a complete anti-God state of mind, and that is what is at stake. When you think like the world, you say: I want that position of preeminence, I want others to see me, I want power, I want prestige — I, I, I, I, I. And Jesus says no. It is a complete reversal of that.
The Self-Help Shelf and the Gospel
I love to go to the bookstore on my day off. I will say to Susan, "Do you want to do something?" and she knows that if she does not have an answer, she is on her way to Barnes and Noble. I will be there by the hour, and I will wander through fiction, history, and bargain books. But when you get to sections like self-help, business, management, leadership, and entrepreneurialism, the whole message is: yourself, yourself, yourself — look out for number one, be number one, strive, you can do it.
When we turn to God, we have to abandon all of that. If we come to God with the idea that we can do it, He says, "Have at it — if you can do it, you don't need Me." The whole idea of the Christian faith begins with a word that says I cannot do it. "Blessed are the poor in spirit" — that is how this whole thing begins.
Jesus told His disciples that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over people, but they were not to live that way. They were to be servants. He uses the Greek word from which we get the English word "deacon," which originally described someone involved in the most menial of tasks. One author writes that Christ elevated this word to a place of great significance, using it to describe His most faithful, devoted disciples. He could have chosen any number of noble words to characterize obedient discipleship, but He chose this one because it best reflects the selfless, humble life that He honors.
Larry Wright used to say it this way: our title is impressive — Ambassador for Christ. Our job description? Not so impressive — slave, bond servant. How hideous and difficult is this to deal with.
Pride Dies Hard
Keep your finger there, because we are coming right back. Turn to the Gospel of Luke, chapter 22. You see the preparing of the Passover meal and the celebrating of the Lord's Supper. Jesus is talking about how He will be betrayed. Look at verse 24: "And there arose a dispute among them as to which one of them would be regarded as the greatest." This is hard to let go. This is pride.
Here is the sentence I wrote yesterday: pride dies hard. It is a stubborn enemy, a resilient foe that is not truly defeated until we die. This morning I picked up a book by Wayne Mack on humility, and in his preface he quotes Spurgeon. Here is what Spurgeon said — and Spurgeon is stealing my material — "That demon of pride was born with us, and it will not die one hour before us." It is woven into our very life.
A New Illustration Arrives
Since we last met, Haley and Tyler have had their baby. He arrived about two and a half weeks early — a little dinky guy, but he is fine. God is good, because I think God is about to give me a whole new file of illustrations. In the hospital, when Haley was done, she said, "That wasn't that tough." Which proves a theory I have had for a long time — but that is a topic for another day. She had about fifteen minutes of labor, and he was just a little dinky guy.
A Grandfather's Moment
Everyone else had gone, and I was in there talking to Haley a little bit while she was holding him. It was an incredibly tender moment, a magnificent moment for me to watch. She was holding him, as serious as she could be, and he was so small. She said, "Well, buddy, I haven't got a clue what to do with you now."
That was Friday. Monday was my birthday, so we were down at their house, and she fed him and I was holding him. They got distracted and wandered off, and I was sitting there holding him, thinking, "Well, pal, I hope you know what you're in for." I said, "I'm going to pray for you now. I'm going to pray God saves you, because that's really going to be important." So we had that moment, and I was looking at him, and then they came back.
Pride in the Nursery
While I was sitting there with him, I was thinking about pride. His room is completely baseball-themed — everything is baseball. That was Tyler's life. Tyler's dad was a baseball coach, and the jerseys Tyler wore in peewee baseball are in there. There's a magnificent picture on one wall of a kid standing there with a bat, looking to be about ten years old, and you'd say, "This must be a natural athlete." It's a picture of me in Little League.
And I thought to myself: what if he doesn't like baseball? Right now, everybody is fine with him because he hasn't yet disappointed anybody. But the minute he can walk, the minute he can talk, the minute he can do things — if we're not careful, our pride can get in the way. There's nothing in his genes that would indicate he's going to be a major league baseball player, though Tyler was a pretty good player. Anything I bring to it has been diluted over the years.
Wasn't that the case with your parenting? With my parenting, my pride got in the way all the time. It is a subtle thing, pride. And that's what these men were doing — operating under the illusion that they were saying, "Jesus, I just want to be close to You, I just want to be near You," when that was not the case at all. They didn't even understand what the cost was going to be.
The Upside-Down Kingdom
If you really want to be near Him, Jesus said, then He is going to give you a whole new organizational chart. If you want to end up at the top of this organizational chart, you start at the bottom. If you want to be first, you push and shove and claw your way to the end of the line, because it's all backwards — just like Him, the Messiah, who came not to be served but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.
The word "ransom" is an interesting word. When it's used with an object, it carries the idea of loosening — to free something up, to loosen it. When it deals with a person, it carries the idea of a payment made to redeem that person. So when Jesus says, "I came to give My life a ransom for many," what does that mean? You were bought at a price. You are not your own. There was a great exchange: you traded your sin for Christ's righteousness.
What Jesus is saying is that all of a sudden we begin to see things totally differently. We understand that our life is about serving, not being served. It's about finding the spiritual gift that God has given you and using it. It's not about a specific task — I get troubled when we say, "Oh, here's a servant; those are the ones doing this task." No, it's not about task. It's about using God's gift to glorify Him.
Is there anything wrong with wanting to be near Christ? Absolutely not. Is there anything wrong with wanting to draw near Him, or even to have Him draw you? No. But the question is: what is the motive?
The Blind Men of Jericho
Then there is this fascinating illustration that God has orchestrated in verse 29. They are leaving Jericho, and a large crowd is following Him, and there are two blind men sitting by the road. Hearing that Jesus was passing by, they cry out — in a loud voice, an agonizing voice. The word used describes a sound that a woman might make during the birth of a child, or the rantings of an insane person. They cry out, "Lord, have mercy on us." The crowd warns them, because the crowd is too dignified for something like this. That's not proper behavior. And they cry out all the more: "Lord, Son of David, have mercy on us."
Jesus stopped, called to them, and said, "What do you want Me to do for you?" It is virtually identical to the request He made of the mother of James and John in verse 21: "What do you wish?" And they said — and I'll admit, if it were anyone other than Jesus asking, it would almost seem like a strange question. What do you think they want? They're blind. They can't see. They want to see. And He says, "Fine," and He opens their eyes.
The True Son of Honor
Bartimaeus is the name of one of these men. It literally means "son of honor." There is a powerful picture in this setting. Here are James and John and their mother saying, "We want to be first. We want to be in this kingdom. We want proximity, prestige, power. We want to be right by You. We want honor." And Jesus said, "Really? Let Me show you honor." He came not to be served but to serve — and here is this blind man, the son of honor.
Here is how he understood that he was indeed a man of honor: he cried out from his misery, his lostness, and his lack of sight. He did not talk about being self-sufficient. He talked about being totally dependent upon Him.
What Do You Want Me to Do for You?
If Jesus said to you the same thing He said to the blind man in verse 32 — "What do you want me to do for you?" — what would you say? My sense is that the answer to that question is a great revealer of where your heart might be. You can also see spiritual maturity there.
There may be a time where you would just fire off: "God, I need this and this and this — I need this house, I need this job, I need this promotion, keep the kids healthy." But what do you really, really, really need? Don't we have to admit that for some of us, that's almost a hard thing to come up with an answer to? It's like Christmas — trying to find gifts for people who already have everything they want. We're giving hot air balloon rides and we still can't come up with something, and meanwhile we're supposed to go to God and answer this question seriously.
I think you and I need to develop an answer to that. It might be a reflex at first — you may right away say you don't know — but I think we need to think this through. I think we need to be able to answer that question: "God, what do You want? What do You want to do for me?" Whatever the answer to that question is will be a great revealer of our heart.
The psalmist cries out in Psalm 139, verses 23 and 24: "Search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me, know my thoughts. See if there's any wicked in me, and lead me into the way of everlasting life." That question — "What do you want me to do?" — is a great revealer. All of a sudden you're going to see your priorities as they really are. There's this house, there's this car, there's this ache, there's this job. I have a feeling that if those are on God's agenda, they're all way down at the bottom.
Thinking Like God Thinks
I became genuinely intrigued with that question. For those of us who are Christians, we've already experienced the great exchange — we would never have guessed that we could trade our sin for His righteousness. Now what? It's almost like holding a newborn baby and saying, "I don't know what to do now." Some of us have so much that we're genuinely stumped, much like trying to come up with our own Christmas wish list.
That's because we're not thinking like God thinks. God is concerned about His Word. He is concerned about His people. He is concerned about lost people. Somewhere in our answer to that question, those three things have to play a major role. If they aren't present in that answer, then whatever is there, I guarantee you, is not in line with God's agenda for our lives.
Closing Prayer
Father, search our hearts, and in there You will find things that are sickening to You. Will You bring them out before us so that we can see them? Some we know are there; some we honestly don't even know are there. God, will You bring them out and call them to our attention so that we can confess them as sin?
God, here is what we do know is important to You: people — those who are Yours and those who are lost — and Your Word. I pray that we would be individuals and a church that are dreamers, ambitious and striving — not for a place next to You, not for a place of power, prestige, and prominence, but to be servants, using the gifts, talents, and resources You have entrusted to us for Your honor and Your glory.
God, I pray that when we pose this question — "What do You want me to do for You?" — our answer would evolve, and that in time You would take our hearts and line them up with Yours. May our desire for You, and to be the men and women You have called us to be, grow so strong that when we answer that question, it would be the exact answer You would have flow from us. There is nothing wrong with our desire to please You. God, let us be ambitious in our servanthood. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.