True Greatness

Welcome to the Awakening Church podcast.

We pray this message encourages you and provides the hope and light of Jesus Christ.

Thanks for tuning in.

Welcome to those who are joining us online.

We're absolutely thrilled to have you join us today.

And I am reminded, as Ryan brought up, that the scripture tells us, commands us to rejoice with those who rejoice and mourn with those who mourn.

And I don't like it as a DOS Cowboys fan, but I do mourn with you 49ers fans.

Wow, we got some Seahawks fans, so we will rejoice with you as well.

And for those who don't care, that was my last football thing, I'd say.

What if God, in this new year, in 2026, what if he wants to awaken you to a bigger, truer vision for your life?

You know, every year we have a theme, at least the last several years for us as a church.

Last year was biblical literacy.

We taught through the book of Genesis.

This year, uh, it's one singular word, it's the word pursue.

I think it's always good when you begin a year to wrestle with what am I pursuing, what am I running after, what has my attention, uh, my energy?

And here's what we're inviting, asking, dreaming together.

What would it look like to passionately pursue the heart of God in your life, in your marriage, at your workplace, on your campus, with your roommates?

And then secondly, what does a church, what does a church look like that passionately pursues the heart of God?

What if we as a church, as a body, awakening, just said, this year, 2026, if we're gonna get after anything, if we're gonna run hard after anything, we're gonna run hard together to figure out what it looks like to passionately pursue the very heart of God.

In the series, we started this way, week one, with what is most important?

You have to ask that.

What is most important?

And when Jesus was asked this, he didn't hesitate in any way.

He said, Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.

And the second is like it, love your neighbor as yourself.

There's there's no greater, no more important commandment, no nothing more important to orient your life around or to direct your life is to love God with all that you have and love others.

Uh, we're doing something that's pretty fun.

It's a memory verse, yeah?

You do you with me?

We started this.

Uh, I've asked if you haven't tried it yet, put it as the lock screen on your phone.

I have it right here.

It's awesome.

I love it.

Every time I open my phone, I'm reminded, like multiple times throughout the day.

So can we just say this together?

This is our memory verse this week.

I'm gonna give you a new one for the week coming up, but can we say this together?

You ready?

One, two, three.

Amazing.

Very good, very good.

Well done.

Um, I'd encourage you just whatever you focus on is forming you.

Allow God's word to start to have the first word and the last word of your day.

Last week we talked about one life.

Uh, one life.

What might God want to do with my one life?

Did you take time to answer that?

We heard from Shadi.

It was so powerful, so good.

In fact, uh, I'm gonna, if you didn't hear it, go back and listen to it, watch it on YouTube or Spotify or our podcast, and while you're there, go ahead, like, subscribe, and share, okay?

Because it just gets the word out, and by her, like what she shared was awesome.

It was so good.

And if you missed it, go listen to it.

Uh, today the title, as we continue this awakening vision, is um true greatness.

Would you say that with me?

True greatness.

True greatness.

What is it?

Uh what is true greatness?

Here's what I love.

Silicon Valley, we do not settle for average, do we?

We live in a place obsessed with greatness, achievement, influence, innovation, impact.

It's the home of startups, high-tech, build your brand, overnight success stories.

This is a world that pure pushes us to pursue greatness at all costs, but have we actually wrestled with stop to ask and answer?

What is true greatness?

Brian just asked us about the greatest of all time.

I'm curious how it went.

LeBron or Jordan?

Anyone?

Yeah.

Dave says LeBron and he's wrong.

It's Jordan.

And I'm biased, I think, is Steph Curry.

Is it the 96 Chicago Bulls?

Is it the 2016 Golden State Warriors?

Is it Michael Jackson or is it Prince?

Is it Whitney or Beyoncé, Jay-Z or Drake?

Is it Serena or Federer?

We love to talk about the greatest of all time, and the reason we wrestle with this, and it's a debate, is we can't agree on the definition for what makes them the greatest of all time.

Here's what's fascinating, though.

What's fascinating is if you step back and ask, who is the greatest of all time in history?

It's not even close.

The answer is pretty much unanimous.

Whether you're a theist, atheist, believer, non-believer, the answer is this penniless preacher, as one historian called him, H.

G.

Wells said, he's like, I am not a believer, I am a historian, but it is undeniable that this penniless preacher from Nazareth is at the very center of history.

That's from someone who doesn't even believe in him.

Think about this.

This Rabbi turned carpenter who lived in an obscure part of the Roman Empire, who never wrote a book, we have no images made of him, who is executed upon a Roman cross at the power of the day.

His very life divided history.

We live in the year 2026, ano Domini, the year of our Lord.

His teachings have shaped Western culture and how we understand what is to be great when it comes to humility, love, equality, service, all these other things.

I mean, just right now, a third of the world believes in this man that he was more than a rabbi, he was Lord, and worship him.

2.4 billion people on the planet.

Who?

And that's 2,000 years after the crucifixion and resurrection.

He stands alone as the greatest of all time.

In fact, the people that we would say are indeed incredible are great.

Look back on history, Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, and whose we like honor as a country and as a nation this very weekend, Dr.

Martin Luther King, all point back to Jesus as foundational, influential in how they live their lives.

So as we ask this question, what is true greatness?

We maybe want to ask, stop and ask, how does the greatest of all time define greatness?

How does Jesus define it?

To do that, if you got your Bibles, would you open up to Matthew chapter 20?

Matthew 20 · chapter mention

Matthew chapter 20, verse 20.

Matthew 20:20

Then the mother of Zebedee's sons came to Jesus with her sons and kneeling down asked a favor of him.

Let me give you a little context in the messiness of this, because as we start on that opening sentence, this could be ripped out of today.

The sons of Zebedee, this is James and John.

These are two of Jesus' disciples.

Now, the messiness of this, one, they have their mom coming to ask Jesus for a request for them.

Not that we have that today, that parents are going to bosses or trying to get special favors at their colleges or admissions.

That doesn't ever happen today.

Most scholars believe that the mother of James and John is Simone.

Or no, sorry.

Help me out.

Why did I just go blank?

Salome.

Salome, thank you.

Salome.

Yeah.

And she is the sister of Mary, Jesus' mom.

And James and John are Jesus' cousins.

So this is both a request from a mom and her boys, and it's familial.

It's like, hey, we're family.

This is like insider stuff.

And I love Jesus' response.

What is it you want?

He asked.

She said, Grant that one of these two sons of mine may sit at your right and the other at your left in your kingdom.

Now, when the ancient Jewish people thought of the Messiah, they primarily thought of one who would come, who was a king, who would conquer Rome, defeat them, expel them, and institute the kingdom of Israel.

So when Jesus showed up and they're looking at him, they're looking at him as a political leader who's going to overthrow Rome and institute a new kingdom of Israel.

He will be the most powerful person in the area.

And she's like, I want my boys to sit at your right hand and at your left hand.

I want them in the seat of power.

I want them near greatness.

I want them the second in command and the third in command.

I want them right there with you.

And Jesus says, Well, you don't know what you're asking.

Jesus said, Can you drink the cup I'm going to drink?

And the cup is this allusion to your destiny or your calling.

And in the Old Testament, it signified suffering or even the very wrath of God, which is all combined with Jesus as we know that his destiny and his calling ultimately ended in suffering for the sake of humanity.

And they said, We can.

They had no idea what that meant.

Jesus said to them, Well, you will indeed drink from my cup, but to sit at my right or left is not for me to grant.

These places belong to those whom they have been prepared by my Father.

Now, you can only imagine the stir this sent with the rest of the disciples.

When the ten heard about this, they were indignant, enraged, P.O.'d with the two brothers, probably because they didn't get or think to ask first.

Jesus called them together and said, You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lorded over them, and that their high officials exercise authority over them.

In the ancient world, as this is uh Middle East, especially shame honor culture, there's a limited amount of honor, and so to go up you must push others down.

And so the Romans, especially, lord over.

It was to be served.

How many people report to you?

How many people do you control?

How much power do you have?

And do you wield it for your own self?

And then Jesus says this great line, and I want you to say it with me.

Not so with you.

Say it again.

Not so with you.

There is a definition of greatness, there is a vision of greatness that has permeated the world and the culture, and everyone is running after it and pursuing it.

And what I want to let you know is this is not the way of Jesus.

This is not the way of the kingdom of heaven, not so with you.

I took off my glasses.

I'm gonna have to read up here.

Oh, there they are.

Instead, whoever wants to be great among you must be your what?

And whoever wants to be first must be your.

Why?

Jesus, God incarnate, the God man, all power, all authority, the creator of the universe, who stepped into time, space, history, into humanity, took on the flesh.

So just as the Son of Man, speaking of himself, did not come to be served, which would be totally acceptable.

His right.

It just says he came not to be served, but to serve.

Like the reason Jesus stepped into our world wasn't to be served by you, though he is God and deserves it.

He came to serve you and to give his life a ransom for many.

What is true greatness?

How does the greatest of all time define it?

First thing I want you to notice, I want you to see is simply this.

Jesus doesn't rebuke the desire for greatness.

Did you notice that in the text as we're going along?

He doesn't go to James, John, his mom.

How could you ask?

Wrong question.

What's wrong with you?

He doesn't shame him.

He doesn't rebuke the desire to be great.

In fact, notice what he asked.

What is it that you want?

What is it that you want?

He actually asks that question quite a few times when you read the gospels.

In fact, a few verses later, there's going to be two blind men calling out to Jesus, and eventually he turns to them as the crowd's trying to quiet them, and he says, What do you want from me?

Think about this.

You have a God that looks at you and he asks you, What?

What do you really want?

I don't think a lot of us have answered that question well.

Maybe in the church we try to answer it, but we feel bad.

Like there's some, we got this uneasy relationship with desire, like it's bad, it's wrong.

Like to even desire greatness.

Jesus looks at you and says, What do you want?

Some of us are so disconnected, so busy, we don't know what we want anymore.

How would you fill this in?

I want.

How would you finish that sentence?

Be honest.

Not the churchy answer that you know, like, oh, I should want this.

How would you really answer it?

See, because I think we stop short.

Desire is actually the starting point of discipleship with Jesus.

He begins with you and he starts with your very desires.

What is it that you want?

I want to help you understand that your desires are ultimately pointing you to your biggest divine need, your longing.

Because here's what happens when we answer this question well.

When we ask it, we sit with it.

We don't just answer it quickly, which we often do in our day, but we really wrestle with what is it do you want?

It it begins to bubble up our surface desires.

And as you sit with your surface desires, what it will eventually move you is to the significant desires.

I've sat with people, um, heard this, I want to be rich.

Ryan, I want to be rich by 30.

I want to retire.

I want to make lots and lots of money.

I want to be beautiful.

Because beautiful people have so much like people treat beautiful people differently.

I want to be wanted.

I want to be married.

I want a boyfriend.

I want a girlfriend.

I just want a friend.

I want to be successful.

I want to launch a tech company and be the unicorn.

I want to be happy.

I want power.

I'm tired of eeking my way.

Everyone telling me what to do, what when to do it, how to do it.

I want to have some power.

And those surface desires move us to those significant desires.

Underneath, I would sit with those.

Underneath those, you'll find like the deep desire soul is like, I what I really want is I want to hope.

I want future.

I want to be loved.

I want belonging.

I want to be known.

I want this sense of wholeness.

I want acceptance and purpose and meaning and peace.

I need, I want safety and security.

Jesus looks at you in this moment and he does not rebuke the desire to be great.

He's looking at you and going, what do you really want?

Would you answer it well?

Would you sit with it and would you allow it to move from those surface things that point to the deeper things, the significant things, the longings of your soul, which those surface things can never satisfy, and that's why Jesus came.

Jesus doesn't rebuke the desire for greatness, but listen, this is what he does.

He redefines greatness.

He redefines greatness.

In the Roman world, greatness was power, prestige, and honor.

Fundamentally, how many people served you?

I have the ability, I have the power, and I will push you down so that I can stand up on your backs.

Self-sovereignty.

Self-sovereignty.

I get to decide, I get to do what I want, and no one gets to tell me no.

Those are the truly great people that made it.

They get to decide, they get to do what they want, and no one gets to tell them no.

They can do what they want when they want, whenever they want.

The job's not hindering them, money's not hindering them.

It shows up in power in power.

I get to make the decisions, I have control.

Who answers to you?

Do you have control over your time, your calendar, your outcomes?

It shows up in affluence.

I can afford the life I really want.

This is an area of security.

I mean, where do you live?

Where do you vacation?

What do you drive?

Who do you wear?

Influence.

I matter.

It's an issue of significance.

Do people listen to you when you speak?

How many followers do you have?

Education.

I know more than you.

And that's, I mean, like, we have so much of that in the silicon.

We're such a highly educated area.

This legitimacy that, like, this makes me, I finally arrived.

How many letters are before or after your name?

What school did you go to?

Autonomy.

I get to live life on my terms.

Silicon Valley, when we look around, it's like, we're running after that.

It's a picture of greatness.

It's the self-made woman or man that lives in that house, driving that car, wearing those kinds of things with that kind of jewelry or watch, that gets to travel wherever they want.

And then you get to that level and you realize, oh, there's another level of greatness that I didn't realize that actually has private jets, not just first class seats.

And then you get to the private jet area, and then you realize there's other people that have bigger jets and they have an island.

And we won't get into that anymore.

Okay.

Where does your picture of greatness lead you to?

Jesus' definition of greatness, not self-sovereignty.

Sacrificial service.

True greatness, according to Jesus, is defined not by how many people serve you, but how many people you serve.

True greatness, and by the way, that list that I just listed, you must be very careful.

Those aren't inherently bad things.

Jesus, God, the most powerful person on the planet.

Make no mistake of that.

At any point, he could have called down angels and obliterated from the cross every enemy, vanquished every enemy.

Instead, he stayed there for the sake of love.

True greatness is leveraging your power, your effluence, your influence, your education for the good of others.

True greatness is not how much you can get, but how much you can give.

Notice that Jesus.

Jesus used two words for this.

He used servant and then he used slave.

He actually built these in intensity.

Servant, the word diaconus, it later became an official role within the church deacon.

Servant means one who works for the service of others.

This is your job description.

If you are a follower of Jesus, I just want to let you know your job description is servants.

I don't care what position you hold, whether it's the lowest in your company or if it's at the top, my number one job description is here to serve.

And then he takes it one step further and he says, slave.

The Greek word doulos.

It means exactly what you think it means.

Exist for the service of others.

My job description is to serve, and I exist, my identity, my purpose, my calling, my cup is to serve.

Greatness is sacrificial service.

My first job, you guys got handed this.

Go ahead and grab that.

My first job in the church, I was 16.

I was hired as a janitor.

Janitor World is awesome, you know.

We get this cart.

Get these keys on the belt that is zipped out, you know, big old thing.

Pushing this cart and it's got cleaning supplies, trash bags.

Um showed up on Sunday mornings, the first one there unlocking everything, making sure it's ready during the week, cleaning, buffing the floors, vacuuming, setting up chairs, cleaning the bathrooms, which I learned uh the women's bathrooms, a whole nother mama.

I said, Wow, whoa, that was a lot for a 17-year-old to take in.

And he had towels.

As a janitor, we never go without a towel because you're always ready.

You never know what you're gonna use it to wipe up some, clean something up.

You might need to offer it to somebody who spilled something on themselves.

It's just one of the tools of being a janitor.

I learned so many important lessons in that season.

One one was simply this: that uh the true test of servanthood is when someone treats you like a servant, how you respond.

Like it's not just the action of serving, and we can, you know, um virtue signal online and try to get all this adulation and praise, but it's like when you're actually overlooked, when you're just treated like a servant and you just do you respond with indignation like the disciples.

I learned that there's no job beneath a follower of Jesus.

I learned that I'll never ask anyone to do what I won't do.

Some of these just foundational core messages.

I'm gonna ask you to actually just take this rag with you.

Put it in your car.

Um you can keep it in your pocket.

Maybe we could start something like this.

Is a whole style trend.

Like, what do you wear?

Well, I wear a rag.

It's pretty cool, right?

Yeah, I wear a rag.

What's up, bro?

Um, you know?

Because Jesus took this as the sign of greatness.

And on the night he was betrayed, he took off his cloak, wrapped his towel around his waist, and took on the very nature of a servant and washed his disciples' feet.

Yes, the one who betrayed him, he washed even his feet.

So do not tell me there's somebody you can't serve when Jesus is washing Judas' feet.

And that's greatness.

And where we as a church would go, what does true greatness look like?

It's not a platform, it's a posture.

It's not the size of this church, it's the service of this church.

Oh, what God would want to do through a people like that.

How a watching world desperately needs followers of Jesus like that.

We have this thing called the discipleship pathway.

It's what we're trying to help us form and grow together as a church, to come to know Jesus, like to learn to love him with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.

Grow as a disciple, that we're not just like watching and attending, but we're apprentices of Jesus.

Following in the way, like he is our leader and Lord and master, and whatever he does, we do.

And so as a result, what do we do?

We serve in the name of Jesus.

Let me tell you about some really great people at Awakening.

Guy named Kevin, works in tech, been around since the very beginning of Awakening.

In fact, every Sunday he helps tear down whether he's on or not.

And Thursdays, when we have our um our food pantry in the back parking lot, he organizes his work week.

So whether he's signed up to serve or not, Brian, who just gave the announcement, he knows, man, there's a handful of people.

They are so faithful, they show up every single time, and that's greatness.

I think of a family in our church that stepped into the foster care system and began to love one particular child.

That child had siblings they adopted and wanted to make sure they kept the siblings all together.

Their family continues to grow and grow.

They had to change the size of their cars, the way that they live.

And they did that to love these kids.

That's greatness.

And yeah, we keep looking at all these people on Instagram.

Yeah, I don't know what that was either.

Like there ain't even a guitar right there playing.

This church is filled with great people, by the way.

Think about this.

The chairs you're sitting in, somebody set up in advance.

There's people that greeted you and welcomed you right now.

If you have kids, there are people that are creating a safe, loving, fun environment for your kids to know Jesus and for you to encounter his presence right here, sacrificing their weekend so that those who show up might encounter the risen Savior.

That's greatness.

Jesus doesn't rebuke the desire for greatness.

He redefines it.

Now notice this.

And this is where we want to end.

Jesus is the revelation of greatness.

Like, you know how we use that word revelation?

You ever use it?

Like, wow, the way she wore that dress, she was a revelation, right?

Like that restaurant, the steak.

Ryan, let me tell you, that steak.

Whoa, that was a revelation.

That performance.

Oh my goodness, that performance, a revelation.

It helps us see something we never saw before, experience something we didn't think was even possible, like take in something new that you can't see it a different way.

It's like you, once you see it, you can't unsee it, and it changes the way you live, the way you think, the way you act.

This is the Apostle Paul in Philippians chapter 2.

Philippians 2 · chapter mention

His words to you and to me, speaking of Jesus.

Therefore, if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in the spirit, and of one mind.

Good night, we need that today.

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit.

Well, I want to do some things, Ryan.

I mean, it's about, I gotta make sure I get mine.

I gotta make sure I take care of my needs.

Someone wrote on our uh wedding day in our little kind of wedding book.

Compete to be selfless.

Some of the best marriage advice we ever got.

Because the first thing we realized, the greatest learning in our first year of marriage, was just how selfish we were.

And then we had kids, and we realized that the selfishness went even deeper than we realized.

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit.

Rather, in humility, value others above yourself.

This is a radically different vision than Silicon Valley, the American way, and our culture gives us.

This is the Jesus way.

Rather, in humility, value others above yourself, not looking to your own interests, but each of you to the interest of the other.

In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus, who being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage.

Rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness, and being found in appearance as a man.

He humbled himself and became obedient to death, even death on a cross.

Therefore, God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

That's true.

Greatness.

See, greatness is actually found in cross-shaped decisions.

As we close, I just want you to wrestle with like what is the cross-shaped decision?

Jesus laid down his life for the good of others.

In fact, I love my dad's definition of love.

Love is giving the other person what they need the most when they deserve it the least at great personal cost.

That's sacrificial service.

Love is giving the other person what they need the most when they deserve it the least at great personal cost.

I don't know.

Um I actually I don't think that this tau is the universal sign for us janitors.

But I do know across time, across cultures, the universal sign for humility is bowing, is kneeling.

Declaring our dependence, declaring our desperation, declaring humility before the one who is greater.

And I want to invite us, just as a church, in a posture, if you're willing, if you're able physically to do it, that we would just, before we head into a time of worship, kneel.

That we get on our knees.

And we kneel before our Heavenly Father.

And I want you just to identify where have I bought into Silicon Valley's greatness?

And then just who can I serve today?

Imagine if we just asked that question, who can I serve?

Who can I take up the Tao?

Who can I love the way Jesus loved me?

Would you do that with me?

Would you get it on your knees?

I like how Dr.

King said it.

He said, everybody can be great.

Because anybody can serve.

Everybody can be great.

Because anybody can serve.

You don't have to have a college degree to serve.

You don't have to make your sub chicken verb agree to serve.

You only need a heart full of grace and a soul generated by love.

Would you ask your Heavenly Father to do that in you?

What is it that you want?

Allow that to drive you to the deeper needs and desires of your heart that only Jesus can fulfill.

And to give his life a ransom for the saving of ours.

And so we fix our eyes on you, Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith.

God, I just confess it's so easy in our world to get caught up in keeping up with the Joneses, the rat race, the Silicon Valley hustle, the feeling like I need to be bigger, faster, more beautiful, and feeling behind.

Would you remind us?

Reorient us.

That looks at the other in love and compassion.

Because we have been looked by our Heavenly Father with love and compassion.

And move towards our friend, our neighbor, and our enemy with love and compassion because you have moved towards us with love and compassion.

That we might be your hands and feet to a hurting and broken world.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

Let's worship.

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