Luke 19:47-48 - Serving God or Self?

Luke 19:4-48 (ESV)

[47] And he was teaching daily in the temple. The chief priests and the scribes and the principal men of the people were seeking to destroy him, [48] but they did not find anything they could do, for all the people were hanging on his words.

Jesus warned of the destruction of Jerusalem that was coming because of Israel’s sin. He then drove the sellers out of the temple. As he was teaching every day in the temple people were hanging on his every word while the “chief priests, and the scribes, and the principal men of the people were seeking to destroy him.” Why? Because he did not support or further their agenda.

The drive for safety, position, and power lead us places we should never go. It is easy for those in positions of authority to feel threatened if someone asks a hard question, challenges our decisions, or appears to be threatening our influence in some way. But we can’t go there. Like the chief priests, scribes, and principal men we may end up finding ourselves opposing God while thinking we are serving him.

That means that we need to stay humble. We need to remember that life and ministry are not about us. We need to embrace the role of a servant, not a master. Whether we are a parent, a church member, a board member or elder, or a pastor, God has not called us to protect our sphere of influence, he has called us to serve our sphere of influence. Maybe the chief priests, scribes, and principal men would have been hanging on Jesus’ words along with the people rather than seeking to destroy him if they too had that attitude.

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