Let Me Be Great

Well, good morning, OneChur.

How are you feeling today?

Anyone grateful to be in church this morning?

All right.

Awesome.

Well, unfortunately, I'm not Pastor Greg Ford.

My name is Shane Huey.

If you have any objections to this sermon, just feel free to email those to ryan.breath at one.church.

He'd be happy to field those for you.

No, I'm just kidding.

I'm so excited to be able to spend a few moments with you all.

Before we get into today's message, I do want to extend you a personal invitation to something I'm really excited about.

We launched it just last week.

It's called Midpoint.

Midpoint is a four-week Bible study happening the next three Wednesday nights in August.

It goes down right here at our Gehenna campus at 7 p.m.

Midpoint emerged out of a result of that healthy community survey we had you guys take.

Anybody remember that survey?

Yeah, I should take.

Thank you so much for your participation.

We wanted that to be more than just uh gathering info.

We wanted to be really actionable with that info.

And one of the things that you all indicated on that survey was that you desired more environments for learning.

So Midpoint is exactly that.

It's a time for us to come together.

We're actually working our way through the book of Philippians.

And our hope is to equip you with the practical tools to study the Word of God on your own.

So again, it's going down this Wednesday.

Midpoint is open to everybody.

We do have programming for your kiddos, and if you have a teenager, a student in middle school, or in high school, they can check out one youth that's going down at the exact same time.

So I hope to see you on Wednesday.

Is that okay?

Sound good?

Awesome.

Well, uh let's turn our attention to the word.

We're going to be in Mark chapter 9.

Mark 9 · chapter mention

If you brought a Bible, go ahead and go there with me, or you want to uh scroll there.

Mark chapter 9.

Mark 9 · chapter mention

Uh I I thought about titling this message The Goat, The Greatest of All Time, because at the heart of this scene we're about to read is the disciples bickering over who was the greatest.

And this is sort of a conversation, a debate that we have that we have all the time, right?

I'm gonna give you uh two names, and and I want you, by a round of applause, to indicate to me which of these two do you think is the greatest, all right?

The first two names, Michael Jordan and LeBron James.

You got the the perennial debate, okay?

If you think, if you think Michael Jordan is the goat, make some noise.

LeBron James?

Any LeBron James?

LeBron got more leather than I anticipated.

How about the goat gas station snack?

Starburst or Skittles?

Starburst or Skittles, okay?

If you're a Starburst person, make some noise.

Skittles people, let me hear from you.

I hate to burst your bubble Skittles, folks, but did you hear this study that just came out recently?

Your mother laughing because you read it.

Like there's there's something in them in the hard candy shot.

You should lay out the Skittles either way, but if that's not your sign to let the Skittles go.

Alright, next next two, uh Miranda Carey or Whitney Houston.

Miranda Carey.

Miranda Carey, make some noise.

I'm talking about old Miranda Carey.

Old Miranda Carey.

Anybody seen uh Prince of Egypt?

There can be miracles, baby, if you just believe.

How about Whitney Houston?

Whitney Houston makes some noise.

Wow.

That one wasn't even close.

Well, like I said, we're gonna we're gonna return our attention to this story and we're gonna see the disciples arguing over which one of them is the greatest.

So if you're at Mark chapter 9, give me a good amen.

Mark 9 · chapter mention

Amen.

We're gonna pick it up in verse 30.

Scripture says this they left that place and passed through Galilee.

Jesus did not want anyone to know where they were, because he was teaching his disciples.

Catch that.

Jesus wanted to withdraw from the crowd so that he can teach his disciples something.

He said to them, The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men.

They will kill him, and after three days he will rise.

But they did not understand what he meant and were afraid to ask him about it.

They came to Capernaum.

When he was in the house, he asked them, What were you arguing about on the road?

But they kept quiet, because on the way they had argued about who was the greatest.

So sitting down, Jesus called the twelve and said, Anybody who wants to be first must be the very last and servant of all.

He took a little child whom he placed among them.

Taking the child in his arms, he said to them, Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me.

And whoever welcomes me does not welcome me, but the one who sent me.

Let's close our Bibles and open our hearts.

Let me be great.

Let me be great.

Let's pray together.

Holy Spirit, we ask that you would fill this room, fill every heart, speak to us.

Father, I pray that every single person in this room leaves with a greater sense of their belovedness as a son or daughter of God.

Father, I pray that you help us to see and understand that the way to greatness is through servanthood and sacrifice as modeled perfectly by your son Jesus, who sacrificed his very life so that we might be set free and brought into right relationship with you.

We love you, Jesus.

We pray that you're exalted.

Have your way in this place.

We pray all this in Jesus' name.

And everybody said, Amen.

So, how many of you want to be great in some regard of your life?

Warm up your shoulder and go ahead and raise your hand.

Great.

Anyone want to be last?

Not too many.

Anybody want to be the biggest loser?

Not too many people.

I think greatness is a universal desire.

Upon a quick survey, nearly every hand was raised.

I rarely meet the person who would say, you know what, Shane, I'm just content being average.

Mediocrity is my MO, man.

I'm good.

We all want to be great in some measure.

Maybe you want to be a great spouse, uh, great husband or wife.

I hope you do.

Maybe you want to be a great son or daughter, brother, sister.

Perhaps you want to be great on your job.

We all want to be great.

We all want to live a life of substance, a life of consequence.

We all want to make a difference in the lives of the people around us.

Think about it with me for a moment.

Why are superhero movies so popular?

Any Marvel fans in the room today?

Make some noise, Marvel fans.

Marvel fans are quiet.

Any Star Wars folks in the room, any Star Wars people?

I'm more of a Star Wars guy.

I just don't have the capacity to journey along with Marvel, but if that's you, that's great.

I think, I think part of the reason why Marvel movies are so resonant is because they tap into this, the superheroes tap into our desire to want to be great, to want to make an impact, to want to leave a life that outlasts us, a life that actually turns into a legacy.

If you need further evidence of the universal desire to want to be great, just ask a child what they want to be when they grow up.

For the record, when I was a little kid, the thing I wanted to be more than anything was I wanted to be in a boy band, y'all.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Pop music is my not so guilty pleasure.

Y'all can judge me if you want.

My first uh concert was the Spice Girls at your main amphitheater.

Yeah.

I know every word to every Backstreet Boys song, every InSync song.

I wanted to be in a boy band, but the problem is I can't sing to save my life, and I don't have an ounce of rhythm in my body.

So that dream went out the door, and I decided to pivot to what I thought was my much more realistic, totally attainable goal, which was I was gonna play in the NBA.

I was gonna be a professional ball player.

But the only problem with that is in order to play in the league, you actually have to be good at basketball, of which I am not.

I am spectacularly average.

But most kids, you'll get the usual response of, I want to be a police officer, I want to be a firefighter, I want to be a professional athlete.

If you're my son, you want to be a cheetah, which I'm like, JR, I'm not sure if that's gonna work out for you, bud, but you keep dreaming, big man.

Here's what you don't hear kids say often.

You don't often hear kids say something along these lines.

You never hear kids say, When I grow up, I want a cubicle all to myself.

They're aiming a little higher.

You never hear little kids say, I want to work a dead-end job while I drown in student loan debt.

Now, to be clear, I'm not throwing shade on anybody who finds themselves in a cubicle or at a job that you don't necessarily find fulfilling.

In fact, what I hope to show you, the case I'm gonna make, is that greatness is accessible even to you.

But what usually happens is somewhere along the way, whether it's because our ego gets involved or we're influenced by what our culture celebrates, we start confusing greatness with things like status and authority and celebrity and power, we start measuring greatness in terms of dollars and cents instead of impact and legacy, or perhaps worse, and this is a word for somebody this morning, we think that because we've settled into a job that feels worlds away from the one that we had in mind when we were little kids, we buy into the lie that greatness has passed us by altogether.

So now we're just getting by.

But I came to remind you today that you were made for greatness.

The desire to be great is God given.

God wants greatness for you.

Okay?

God's calling did not come with an expiration date.

You were created on purpose and with purpose.

It is God's will for you to be great.

But God's greatness, greatness on God's terms, might not look the way that you think it looks.

Let's let's look at the word together again.

We're gonna pick it up in Mark chapter 9, starting in verse 30.

Mark 9 · chapter mention

It says, They left that place and passed through Galilee.

Jesus did not want anyone to know where they were because he was teaching his disciples.

Come on, do you believe that you're destined for greatness this morning?

Make some noise if you believe that.

If you have faith to believe that.

The first person I want to speak to is the person who feels like you've got more greatness to give, but for whatever reason, your greatness has been delayed.

Maybe your life hasn't quite lined up with your vision board.

Maybe life's circumstances have gotten in the way of your dream, has derailed your dream.

Maybe you're just sitting on your gift and you feel like it's you're feeling it atrophy within you.

Whatever reason I want to speak to you.

Verse 30 says that Jesus and his disciples were passing through Galilee.

Now, in Galilee, earlier in Mark chapter 9, the disciples just saw Jesus do some amazing things.

Mark 9 · chapter mention

They saw him walk up the Mount of Transfiguration where he beheld the glory of God, and his clothes literally started glowing.

Scripture says that they were whiter than anyone could bleach.

And he starts chatting it up with Elijah and Moses, two dead guys.

I kid you not, read it.

And then he walks down that mountain.

If that weren't crazy enough, he walks down that mountain and he and scripture tells us that he delivers a boy from demonic oppression.

And so that's what happens in Galilee.

We're told that they're making their way to Capernaum.

Keep Capernaum in your back pocket for a second.

I'm going to tell you why Capernaum is important in a moment.

But in between, Jesus decides to take the disciples on a detour because he wants to teach them something.

It says that Jesus wanted to be alone with his disciples in order to impress this vitally important truth in their hearts that he was going to die for the sins of the world and rise again three days later.

Now, for the disciples, this isn't anything new.

In fact, he just told them this one chapter earlier in Mark chapter 8.

Mark 8 · chapter mention

He's going to tell them again in Mark chapter 10.

Mark 10 · chapter mention

So I imagine the disciples are probably thinking to themselves, yeah, yeah, Jesus, we get it.

You're going to die, you're going to rise again, we got all that.

But you mentioned a kingdom.

Let's talk about that kingdom.

Should I be fitted for my robe?

My head is seven and three-eighths.

Make sure that crown fits snug.

And where is my throne gonna be?

Is it gonna be on your left or on your right?

Let's get to the good part, Jesus.

It's like that TikTok.

Can we get to the good part?

Let's talk about this kingdom thing here.

The disciples were hearing Jesus just fine, but the problem was they believed the Messiah to be the one who would finally and fully overthrow the Roman Empire and usher in the kingdom of God.

Surely they conceived this kingdom as coming by way of war and power.

And they fancied themselves as partakers of this power.

That's what they were after.

They were power hungry.

So Jesus is throwing a bit of a wrench in their mix when he tells them that, in fact, fellas, my kingdom is coming, but it's not coming by way of war and conquest.

It's coming by means of a bloody cross.

It's coming through the greatest act of sacrificial love that the world has ever seen.

So Jesus is trying to get them alone for a little bit to help them understand that his kingdom is not of this world.

And it isn't until you and I understand the upside down nature of the kingdom, where the last become first, where the hungry are fed, where we're told to do crazy things like love our enemies and bless those who curse us.

It's not until we understand the upside down nature of the kingdom that we can be as great as God intends us to be.

But evidently, the disciples wanted greatness without the preparation.

Hello, somebody.

Greatness without preparation.

We all want to be great.

Very few of us want to pay the price for greatness.

And so sometimes God's got to get you away from the crowds.

He's got to get you away from the noise.

He's got to get you away from the hustle.

And he wants to get you alone in the company of Jesus because that is the place where spiritual greatness is grown.

Think about it this way: Joseph, who we just learned about in our lemonade series, took a winding road from slavery to a prison and didn't end up in the palace until 13 years later.

13 years.

Moses was hidden in Midian for 40 years before he ever delivered the people of Israel out of Egyptian oppression.

David was anointed king over Israel.

But he didn't take the throne.

He was sent back into the field to tend sheep.

He was tending sheep as king of Israel.

Jesus himself, the man we're called to follow, lived his life in relative obscurity for almost 30 years.

And he didn't launch his public ministry until the last three years of his life.

And it's through all these pit stops, it's through all of these detours, it's through all of these dead ends, it's through these things that God matures you, that he refines you.

It's through these things that God purifies your motives and grows in you character and integrity.

It's been said that character is forged on the anvil of adversity.

I've seen, I've seen a lot of really gifted people.

They had the talent, they had the charisma, they had the it factor, the x factor.

They appeared to be destined for greatness, but they didn't have the character to sustain that greatness.

And so usually one of three things happens.

Either number one, they never reach their full potential.

It's heartbreaking every time you see it.

Number two, they do, but they do so by the worst means.

Instead of doing it God's way, they do it the wrong way.

They backbite, they gossip, they use and abuse people, they push people down to make their way up.

Or thirdly, they flame out in a blaze of glory because their gift might have gotten them there, but it's their character that would have kept them there, and they didn't have the character to sustain themselves.

But God wants to take you through a season of preparation so that when the day comes for you to have all eyes on you, you can actually give folks something to look at.

You're giving them a view of a person of substance, a person of character, a person of patience, a person that has been refined through hardship.

If you're in here today and you feel entirely unnoticed, you feel like you have greatness to give, but your potential is untapped.

I want you to know that you have God's attention.

I'm talking to the stay-at-home mom this morning.

The woman in here who had dreams and goals and ambitions, but now you got kids.

And you feel like you've had to put your whole life on hold.

I'm talking to the person in here who you feel like you're stuck at a dead-end job.

And this job isn't fulfilling, it's not permitting you to be as great as you believe God has called you to be.

You feel like you're wasting your time.

I want to remind you today that God doesn't waste anything.

Instead of asking yourself the question, what am I doing here?

Perhaps you want to ask the question, God, what are you doing here?

In other words, God, what are you doing in me?

What are you teaching in me?

What are you refining in me?

What are you purifying in me?

What are you pruning in me?

What are you doing here?

Let's keep going in verse 33.

If you're still with me, give me a good amen.

Verse 33 says, They came to Capernaum.

Now, now this is important because Jesus was born in Bethlehem, raised in Nazareth, was crucified in Jerusalem, but actually spent most of his public ministry in Capernaum.

Capernaum was where a lot of his miracles went down.

So, in other words, Capernaum was the place of reputation.

And so the disciples start thinking to themselves, Jesus is popular in Capernaum, we're a part of his inner circle, so we're going to become popular by proxy.

So I imagine the disciples walking into Capernaum with a little strut in their step, right?

They're feeling themselves.

They're like, we're about to get so many Instagram followers.

They probably are wearing their sunglasses inside because they're that guy, right?

They think, they think it's about to go down in Capernaum, but but listen to this argument that ensues.

It says, when they were in the out house, Jesus asked them, What were you arguing about on the road?

But they kept quiet because on the way they had argued about who was the greatest.

They kept quiet.

They were embarrassed.

You know how this goes?

It's sort of like when somebody finds out that you're super into the bachelorette and you wanted to keep that on the DL.

You get real quiet real quick, don't you?

They kept quiet.

Now just imagine this argument with me for a moment, right?

I don't have any scripture to substantiate this, but I imagine Peter was the one that kicked this argument off.

Because we know elsewhere that Peter was a bit of a knucklehead.

He seemed to lack that filter that should exist between your brain and your mouth, and he starts spouting off.

And I imagine Peter starting the argument off like this.

He's like, fellas, it's going down in Capernaum, but don't get it twisted.

Don't get a big head.

I'm the greatest.

I'm the lead singer of this group.

I'm Beyoncé.

Y'all are Destiny's children, alright?

I'm Michael Jackson, you're Tito.

But then James and John, the Sons of Thunder, they're not going to stand for this.

So they're like, nah, Pete, you're not the greatest.

We're the greatest.

Peter responds, Well, don't forget, fellas, I was the only one to walk on water while you all were too scared to get out of the boat.

To which James and John probably responded, Yeah, Peter, but only one of us ended up drenched that night.

So who's really the greatest here, man?

This argument is meant to read ridiculously.

We're supposed to feel a sharp contrast between Jesus telling his disciples that he's gonna suffer and die as an act of sacrificial love for the sake of the world.

And these guys arguing over who was the greatest.

Jesus was concerned with servanthood, but the disciples were caught up with status.

Now don't get it twisted.

What I'm not saying is that it's always bad for you to want to be seen, particularly if you do it with the right heart, for the right reasons, with the right motives.

Jesus himself modeled this.

It wasn't as if Jesus had an aversion to crowds.

Jesus wasn't allergic to crowds.

Crowds are made up of people, and every single person matters to God.

Jesus wasn't alert, it wasn't that Jesus didn't want the crowds, it was that Jesus didn't need the crowds.

Jesus didn't need the affirmation or attention from people.

Why?

Because Jesus was so secure in his belovedness as the only begotten Son of God that he didn't need the recognition.

And this is so counterintuitive for those of us like me who equate greatness with recognition.

Now I'm not projecting this on y'all.

I'm sure you are much more spiritual than I am, but for me, it's not enough to be great.

It's not enough to be faithful.

I need to be seen being great.

I need the pats on the back.

I want all the attaboys.

Am I talking to anybody this morning who can relate to this?

And so much of that feeling, so much of that sense is rooted in this, in the st in the sneaking, in the stinking, in the sneak, in the sinking.

One of those suspicions, one of those suspicions.

Which one is it?

Sneaking in the sneaking suspicion.

It's rooted in this sense that you aren't good enough.

So, really, the desire to be seen is ultimately a desire to be loved.

Which is a good desire.

You should want to be known.

You should want to be loved.

You gotta remember, these three disciples, or these disciples just three years prior, they weren't disciples at all.

They were largely a ragtag group of unsuccessful fishermen and tradesmen.

You throw in a tax collector here or two.

Surely, like you and I, the thing that they want most is for their life to matter somehow.

Which, like I said, is a good thing.

That is a God-given desire.

But they were trying to fulfill this desire out of a place of deep insecurity.

They were arguing about greatness.

Jesus wants to speak to their sense of security.

How many of you know that insecurity makes a mess of things?

Insecurity is loud, it clamors for attention, it's ugly, it's unbecoming.

Insecurity cannot celebrate the successes of others.

Because if your co-worker is successful, you view success as a zero-sum game.

That's that much success, that's that much less success that's available to you.

Insecurity causes you to deflect responsibility for your failures, and you're always playing the blame game.

Insecurity ultimately, fundamentally, causes you to work for approval rather than from approval.

But Jesus, I want you to pay close attention to what Jesus was teaching them.

He's essentially teaching them the gospel.

He says, You want to know how much you're worth?

I love you enough to die for you.

You want to be fully known?

That's fine by me.

I have numbered the hairs on your head.

My thoughts toward you are more innumerable than the grains of sand on the sea.

Find your security in me.

And the person who knows that they are secure in God is a bad person, y'all.

That is a dangerous person.

There is no more powerful force under heaven than the person who is secure, who lives out of their identity as a blood-bought son or daughter of the Most High God.

When you are secure, when you are secure, it frees you up to serve for all of the right reasons.

Serving ceases to be a means by which you build yourself up.

And it and it becomes the means by which you build others up.

You got to understand this.

Greatness isn't about recognition from others to add value to your life.

Greatness is about knowing God loves you so you can be freed to add value to others.

Let me say it again in case you missed it.

Greatness isn't about getting recognition from others to add value to your life.

Greatness is about knowing God loves you so that you can be freed to add value to others.

That is the true measure of greatness.

Jesus says, Find your security in me.

Find it in me.

I'm almost done.

Let's let Jesus define greatness for us.

Look at verse 35.

It says, sitting down.

Now this is important because rabbis in this culture, when they would teach, they would take a posture of sitting.

So instead of sitting down, this was Jesus' way of saying, y'all better listen up.

And he goes on to say, anyone who wants to be first must be very last and servant of all.

Very last, servant of all.

This is Jesus, the master teacher, shattering our misconceptions of greatness in a single sentence.

He says, if you want to be first, you must become last.

Now notice this.

This is vitally important.

Lock in here and catch this.

Notice Jesus doesn't condemn their desire to be great.

He doesn't condemn their ambition to be great.

In fact, he blesses it.

That ambition that you feel in your heart, that's there by design.

God wants to nourish that.

God wants to fan that into flame.

Ambition has sort of gotten a bad rap.

Right?

We're told we shouldn't be ambitious.

We should be humble.

Listen, the opposite of ambition isn't humility.

The opposite of ambition is cowardice.

One of our core values here at One Church is adventure, which means we believe in taking spirit-led risks.

Anybody ever seen the person who, when you give them a compliment, they immediately deflect.

They're like, oh, it's not me, it's Jesus.

It's all Jesus.

It's Jesus.

I used to be that guy.

Like Shane, that was a good sermon.

I'm like, oh, it's Jesus.

It's all Jesus.

I'm over that now, y'all.

You want to know why?

Because I don't think Jesus is in heaven saying, Shane, you better not take that compliment serious.

It's not you, it's me, man.

Don't do it, Shane.

Don't get a big.

I don't think that's Jesus.

I think Jesus is in heaven saying, Shane, well done.

That's my son.

That's my guy.

Ambition is a good thing.

But you may have clapped too early.

But ambition, like everything else, has the potential to be corrupted.

And it gets turned in on itself.

And what should be Godward oriented becomes very selfish.

So, so how then do we redeem selfish ambition and allow it to become godly ambition, holy ambition?

Well, the first thing we need to do is to be able to discern the difference.

Let me help you out with that.

Selfish ambition is primarily concerned about who?

Yourself.

It's not a trick question.

Selfish ambition is concerned with your wants, your needs.

God's godly ambition is primarily concerned about God's glory and the good of his people.

Selfish ambition is all about uh uh getting all that you can get.

It's about hoarding, it's about uh greediness.

God self dang, selfish ambition, help me out, Holy Ghost, is about getting.

Godly ambition is about giving.

There it is.

Come on, clap it up for a good word there.

Took a little bit, but we got there.

This is hard, y'all.

Get up here and try it.

Selfish ambition is about upward mobility and working our way toward the top.

Godly ambition is about downward mobility and serving our way to the bottom.

And here's how you can tell the difference.

Ask yourself these two questions.

The first is this if my dream was realized and I didn't get any of the credit for it, would I still be happy?

If my dream was realized and I didn't get any of the credit for it, would I still be happy?

If the answer to that question is no, you might be operating out of selfish ambition.

Here's another question.

If my dream was realized and no one else in my life was made better for it, would I still be happy?

If my dream was realized and nobody in my life was impacted for the good, would I still be happy?

If the answer to that question is yes, you may be operating out of selfish ambition.

If your dream is all about you, your dream isn't a God dream.

Your dream is far too small.

James chapter 3 actually says it this way it says that if we harbor godly ambition in our hearts, we will be disoriented in every practice.

James 3 · chapter mention

Why?

Because the chief aim of your life, the target, the bullseye that you should be pointing all of your time, energy, talent, and effort toward should be glorifying God.

That's the chief aim of your life.

And so when you make the chief aim of your life glorifying yourself, you're essentially aiming at the wrong target.

So, how then do we redeem our ambition and live a life of eternal consequence?

How do we aim our ambition at things that will last?

Well, let's take our cues from Jesus.

He says, if you want to be great, if you want to be first, number one, you must be last.

Be last.

Now, again, think about how this flies in the face of conventional wisdom.

This is a value of the upside down kingdom.

Be last.

The famous theologian Ricky Bobby said, if you ain't first, you're last.

And we laugh because it's funny, but because we mostly agree.

Last isn't anywhere we're trying to be.

There's no ability in being last, there's no notoriety in being last, there's no recognition in being last.

But you have to understand the heart of Jesus.

What he's not saying here is that you should be last in such a way that you give up, that you throw in the towel, that you quit trying, that you sit idle by and passively take this L.

That's not what Jesus is saying.

When Jesus is saying finish last, what he's saying is that you should do everything in your power.

You should exhaust all of your means to ensure that everybody else in front of you finishes first.

Do you see the difference?

When Jesus says be last, he's talking about serving others.

He's talking about serving, he's supporting others, he's talking about celebrating other successes.

He's talking about doing what you can to help others succeed.

This might mean you work a little longer, stay a little longer, so that your coworker might experience some success.

Some of you are in positions of power and authority, and you have a lot of people under your employee.

Are you using these people as a means to an end?

Are you serving them in such a way that you're finishing last so that they can finish first?

Jesus says, You want to be be first, you need to be last.

That was enough to mess with the disciples' sensibilities.

If we weren't so spiritual, we would mess with ours too.

But then he takes it a step further.

He says, Be last and be a servant.

And this is when the disciples' jaws would have hit the ground.

They lived in a stratified society that was closely knit together based on your gender, your social status, your economic class.

And right there on the lowest rung were servants and people with disabilities and children.

And so Jesus is saying, I want you to work your way to the bottom.

And Jesus modeled this for us.

Scripture says that Jesus did not account equality with God as something to be grasped, but instead he laid to the wayside the majesty of heaven.

He died a death on the cross that you and I deserved, so that all that's left for us to do is tie ourselves to him by faith, so that we can be brought into right relationship with God.

This is leadership in the way of Jesus, the one who laid down his very life.

John 15, 13 says, Greater love is no one than this.

That he would lay down his life for his friends.

But then Jesus tells his disciples, and he tells you and I, fellas, this isn't just true for me.

This is true for us all.

Jesus was their ticket to greatness.

But he says, No, you guys, I'm the suffering servant.

And the way to greatness is by serving one another.

True greatness is not about being served, it's about serving others.

True greatness is not about status or celebrity, it's about sacrifice and servanthood.

And just to further illustrate the point, Scripture says that Jesus grabs a baby.

Now I am a baby snatcher.

I have baby fever, y'all.

Serious, I'm the creepy dude who's probably walking up to your baby and tickling their toes.

My wife's smacking my hands away like shame.

You cannot just touch some random person's baby.

But Jesus being God, I imagine he just plucks some baby out of some lady's arms.

He's like, I got this, I got this.

Jesus probably the baby whisperer.

And he uses this child to illustrate this point of servanthood.

You gotta understand this.

Children in this day and age, in this culture, weren't romanticized as the epitome of cuteness and cuddliness.

There was no Disney Channel, there was no daycare.

Children were right there on the same rung, largely as people with terminal illness, slaves, servants, children, somewhere in there.

Now, of course, there was familial love for their children, but in the broader society, children were largely looked at as commodities, they were free labor, which is why people just were cranking them out by the dozen back then.

And Jesus takes this child in his arms and he says, Receive one of these, serve one of these.

In other words, in essence, what Jesus is saying, He's saying, Serve in such a way that there's no thought of reward.

Serve those who are marginalized, those whom society has casted out, the widow, the poor, the orphan, or in our day, the child with autism, the single mom who's just struggling to get by.

The foster teen.

Jesus says, You want to be great?

Serve these sorts of people.

This is servanthood in the way of Jesus, the one who came not to serve, but to be served and to give his life as a ransom for you and I.

Amen.

Let's stand together.

I want to invite our prayer team to come forward.

If you desire prayer for anything this morning, we're ready and trained to pray with you.

I encourage you to get prayer.

I say this every time I preach, but it's so true.

This is a holy moment.

This is your moment.

When you leave here, you're going to be bombarded with a thousand different messages and distractions and the simplicity of these next few moments we have together.

I pray that you would come and encounter the living God and pray that He embeds these truths deep into your heart.

If you're in here today and you feel like greatness has passed you by, would you come and would you get prayer?

If you're in here today and you feel like God's got you on a detour and you want to have the grace to have eyes wide open and pay attention to what he's teaching you, come get prayer.

If you're in here and you have a heart to serve, you say, Shane, that's so resonant with me.

I want to give the best away for the least of these.

Come, we want to bless that in you.

We want to pray for you.

If you desire prayer for anything, come now.

If you stay in your seat, that's alright with me.

I just ask that you turn your hearts to Jesus and fill this room full of faith as we consider the cross, the greatest display of servanthood the world has ever known.

Jesus laid down his life for you and I.

And then he calls us to come and do likewise.

Let's worship that Jesus.

Amen?

Amen.