Taser or Towel? – Bruce Strom
Transcript: Hi, CBF family. I have a confession to make to you. Within just the last 24 hours, I had a major conflict arise at work that just frosted me. I got so angry, I just wanted to leave. I was out of the office. I wanted to return and just butt heads.
Have you ever been there? I bet maybe you have. Fortunately, God checked my spirit and stopped me from doing that, from exerting my power and my role, and instead I just stopped to pray.
What came to mind was a passage of Scripture that just spoke to me. It was a message I’d heard a couple of weeks ago from my pastor, and it just resonated. The Holy Spirit just brought it to my mind. I hope maybe it will help you, as I pray for you as you enter into these situations, and as you pray for me. You can check with how God is working through this conflict that is ongoing – because these business issues continue to arise each and every day.
Here’s the story. The disciples are going up to Jerusalem. It’s a great time. It’s going to be Palm Sunday. Everything’s going great. That’s what happens sometimes in business. Everything is going well, and then all of a sudden, something happens.
In this case, it was a mom that stepped in and wanted her sons to sit at Jesus’s right and left. They thought that Jesus was establishing a great new business, a kingdom, a government, and she wanted them to have positions of power in this government. It created great conflict.
We jump into Matthew 20, starting at verse 24. I’m reading from The Message, where it says: “When the ten others heard about this, they lost their tempers, thoroughly disgusted with the two brothers. So Jesus got them together to settle things down.
“He said, ‘You’ve observed how godless rulers throw their weight around, how quickly a little power goes to their heads. It’s not going to be that way with you. Whoever wants to be great must become a servant. Whoever wants to be first among you must be your slave. That is what the Son of Man has done: He came to serve, not be served, and then to give away his life in exchange for the many who are held hostage.’”
So friends, the next time you get tempted like me to use a Taser and not a towel, will you not shock, but serve those who you’ve been entrusted to lead?
