SERVANT LEADERSHIP - The Blue Letter Bible Institute

Servant Leadership – Lesson 14 11
Jesus, Part II by Gayle Erwin
When I first saw this though, I had two reactions. My first reaction was, “Boy Jesus, I
love You now more than I ever have before. I am glad to follow You.” Then I had
another reaction. Have you noticed that the old carnal nature had habit patterns. These are
thought patterns that every once in a while will zing through. You know what I found
myself thinking? “Oh come on, Erwin. You cannot do that. You are having a rough
enough time being a Christian now. You will never be able to do this.”
Ah, but I have some good news. The first bit of good news is that Jesus is “otherscentered”
toward us. That is good news. There have been times, for instance, in my
sharing the gospel with individuals that I would offer them the opportunity to follow the
Lord and they would say “no.” And a few times I had the presence of mind to ask them,
“Well, would you mind describing God as you understand Him?” Boy, when they got
through describing Him I would not have followed Him either. They did not know that
Jesus is others-centered. How can you say no to Him? This is good news. This is the way
He is toward us.
The other item of good news comes from Philippians 2:13 which says, “For it is God who
is at work in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure.” It is God who is at work in
you to make you want to do His will and to enable you to do His will. In other words, you
are God’s fault. Ephesians 2:10 tells us that we are His workmanship, His poema—His
work of art—which is awesome.
I best understood this some years ago where I used to work. On Tuesdays and Thursdays
the men of the department would go across the street to a gymnasium and during lunch
hour they would play basketball. Now basketball is not my best game. Sometimes they
would confuse me with the ball. And sometimes when we would choose up sides they
would get down to me and say, “Look, we had Erwin last time. It is your turn this time.”
So I was playing basketball for the fellowship and the exercise.
There was one guy whose name was Dave. He was about six feet thirty inches tall and He
could play basketball. I loved to get chosen on his team because we would always win.
By the way, I saw this guy just a year or so ago for the first time in many, many years.
And he tells me, “I am most famous because of this story you tell, Gayle. When they find
out that I am the Dave—‘Oh yeah, we know you.’” And he says, “I tell people that I am
not as good as Erwin said I was. But Erwin is as bad as he said he was.” But I loved to
get chosen on his team because we would always win.
Now on his team I only had one job: get the ball to Dave. So I would bring the ball
inbounds and I would lob it over to Dave. And he would turn around and score. The other
team would be amazed and then they would miss half of their shots. And it would be my
turn again. I would bring the ball back in bounds. And by now I am feeling my Cheerios
so I do a few Globe Trotter stunts to make them think that I know what I am doing. And
if the ball got stolen it would be when I was showing off, you know. Then I would lob it
over to Dave and he would turn around and score again. And the other team would go,
“Whoa!” And then I would say, “Aren’t we good?” We? There was no “we” to it. It was