And he sat down and called the twelve. And he said to them, "If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all." (Mark 9:35 ESV)

There are many things that can be said about leadership. One of the distinguishing qualities of a leader that we discussed in our c-group last night was the mark of being the "lead servant" of all. Our discussion actually centered around what does "genuine biblical maturity" look like. After much discussion, we came back around to this point and made some observations. (Not exhaustive, I must admit, but just some thoughts).

Maturity in Christ is demonstrated not by the number of books you have read, conferences you have attended, or the amount of time spent at Starbucks discussing the "deep truths of scripture." (Admittedly this is a little sermon that I am choosing to direct at myself.)

One way of thinking about maturity is the ongoing renouncing of your own desires, and freely giving of yourself to be taken advantage of, spit at, laughed at, mocked, and even killed, for the sake of laying down your lives joyfully in the service of others. For the Christian specifically we are talking about the fact that you and I are not our own, we have been bought with a price, and we have an obligation to do good to all (as we have the opportunity) especially the household of faith. (Galatians 6).

If we desire to look at an example, we can find no greater example to follow than the Lord Jesus Christ. The older I get and the more I think on the scripture that I read, the books I have studied, I keep coming back to this. Though I am a big fan of reading great books. We should read biographies, autobiographies, and all those other helpful resources. Still there can never be anyone greater that we must study that the Lord Himself. Christ Jesus, God the Son, humbled Himself, becoming as one of us, came to us, and is the only one who has lived on this Earth who ever truly suffered unjustly and did not lash out in doing so, but rather freely gave his life away in obedience to His Father and for the sake of His people. What an example.

I finish this post with restating, if you and I need an example of how to "share hope", "share the faith" learn what it means to be a "man" or anything other desirable quality, you will find no greater example than the Lord Jesus Christ. He is Worthy of our time and consideration.




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