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"What do you want on your Tombstone?,"
Do you remember the 1995 ads where an executioner asks a condemned man. "Cheese and pepperoni," the man replies in a memorable television commercial for the fastest-growing frozen pizza manufacturer in the United States. Seriously what do you want on your tombstone? If your life could be boiled down to a phrase what would it be? Anger, Greed, Kind, Love, Selfish, etc.
Not long ago the epic poem “Beowulf” was made into the first all-CGI movie. Hollywood succeeded where our schools have often failed in etching this tragic tale and it’s monster Grendel in the minds of a new generation. I mention this because I want us to understand that each of us also have our own ’Grendel.’ A grotesque monster that can’t bear to allow us true, joyful fellowship, victory or celebration in Christ. One who, at any hint of such, must interrupt and end it with suffering and destruction. Of course, the real tragedy is that this monster Grendel is the product of our own dark secrets and sins. Our own selfish and greedy adultery with an enticing siren of evil.
Even the most godly among us must be aware of what ’Grendel’ of our own folly lies in some dark cave waiting to emerge and demolish our accomplishments, hopes and dreams.
Show DVD The Passion Of The Christ – The scene where we see the attitude of Jesus Christ in the Garden.
1. It’s an attitude of self-denial
a. The willingness to say “Yes God!” I will do good even if they persecute me for it.
2. It’s a servants attitude
a. A servant seeks to please His Lord and does not allow others to distract Him from doing what is right for His Master!
3. It’s a no revenge attitude!
a. It’s an attitude of giving mercy even when they make you suffer for doing good.
iii. Let me ask, “Is your attitude like Jesus? Or is you attitude about living this life for yourself!” – allowing your selfish desires to control you?
FEAR, LOVE, JOY
In the movie First Knight, Lancelot (played by Richard Gere) is a wanderer and highly skilled swordsman who fights for whoever will pay him. Seeing a princess and her entourage under attack in the woods, he decides to save her. Attracted to the princess, Guinevere, he later visits her in Camelot, where an annual festival is taking place. Unfortunately for him, Guinevere is to be wed to King Arthur (Sean Connery) at a later date.
In one particular scene, King Arthur and Camelot’s values of serving others and something greater than yourself is contrasted with Lancelot’s selfish and solitary lifestyle. Following Lancelot’s success at "running the gauntlet," an impossible obstacle course of swinging boulders and axes, King Arthur privately meets Lancelot. Arthur is thoroughly impressed with Lancelot’s ability to run the gauntlet, and wants to know how he did it. Lancelot responds that fear caused others to fail, but "I have nothing to lose, so what have I to fear?" He has no home and no family. Proudly he claims, "I live by my sword."
As they walk toward the room that holds the Round Table, King Arthur tells Lancelot what Camelot’s values are: "Here we believe that every life is precious, even the lives of strangers. If you must die, die serving something greater than yourself. Better still, live and serve."
At the Round Table, where the High Council of Camelot meets, King Arthur tells him the table has no head or foot; they are all equal, even the King. Lancelot reads the inscription on the table: "In serving each other we become free." King Arthur remarks: "That is t...
