Who's the GOAT? | Mark S4E3 — The Suffering Servant

Mark chapter 9.

Mark 9 · chapter mention

I'm going to jump right in and read our text today and then we'll we'll get going.

So Mark chapter 9, though it'll be on the screen.

Mark 9 · chapter mention

If you guys need a Bible, you can raise a hand and we'll have a seating crew to bring a Bible to your seat.

But Mark chapter 9, verse 30 is where we're going to start today.

Mark 9:30

And it says this.

If you've been with us for a couple of weeks, Jesus has been telling his disciples that Mark chapter 8, Mark Chapter 9, Mark Chapter 10.

Mark 8 · chapter mention Mark 9 · chapter mention Mark 10 · chapter mention

But they did not understand the saying, and they were afraid to ask him.

Just know that you can bring your misunderstandings, you can bring your doubts to God.

Their problem here is that they don't do that, and we know that that gets them into trouble down the road.

Verse 33, they they came to Capernaum, and when he was in the house, he asked them, What were you discussing on the way?

Again, there's no Ubers.

They're walking from town to town, and they have this moment where they're having a conversation.

Jesus apparently overhears it, verse 34, but they kept silent, for on the way they had argued with one another about who was the greatest.

And he sat down and called the twelve and said to them, If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.

And he took a child and he put him in the midst of them, and taking him in his arms, he said to them, Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me receives not me, but him who sent me.

John said to him, Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he was not following us.

But Jesus said, Do not stop him, for no one who does a mighty work in my name will be able soon afterward to speak evil of me.

For the one who is not against us is for us.

For truly I say to you, whoever gives you a cup of water to drink, because you belong to Christ, will by no means lose his reward.

Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea.

Pretty drastic statement by Jesus.

Verse forty three And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off.

It's better for you to enter life crippled than with two hands to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire.

And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off.

It's better for you to enter life lame than with two feet to be thrown into hell.

And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out.

It's better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell, where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.

For everyone will be salted with fire.

Salt is good.

But if the salt has lost its saltiness, how will you make it salty again?

Have salt in yourselves and be at peace with one another.

I want to preach a message today titled Who's the Goat?

The disciples just had a little bit of a discussion on the road.

When I say the question, Who's the goat?

Where does your mind go to?

Tim Duncan.

I mean, it's not a my goat debate.

He's up there for power forwards, but in basketball, it's like it's MJ.

Any MJ fans?

Woo! Yeah.

Any Kobe fans?

That's my guy, Kobe, LeBron.

Like, it's usually between those three.

Any LeBron fans?

Thank you.

God, you blessed me with an amazing church.

He's not he doesn't belong in that debate, in my opinion.

I'm a Kobe guy.

But when it comes to football, it's like Tom Brady or Peyton Manning?

Or Bo Nicks, right?

I mean, I I hope for the sake of the Broncos, Bo Nicks is one day in that conversation because that means things are going pretty well for the Broncos.

But man, we love to have the goat debate.

You can go on threads and whatever, like comment sections, and just watch people go at each other about who's the goat.

And this doesn't just apply to sports, but we do this in every area of our lives, and even if we don't say it externally, like we debate it in our minds about ourselves comparing to people on our right and our left.

And what Jesus is saying today, and what we're gonna see, is there is no room in the kingdom of God for the goat debate.

There's no room in the kingdom of God for you to think that you're the greatest or even superior to anybody else.

And so I want to start with this question just to frame our talk this morning.

Do you think about yourself more or your savior?

Because the whole goat debate comes down to what our minds are focused on.

Are you more focused on yourself or your savior?

We all know that there's one goat, and his name is Jesus.

He is the greatest of all time.

But we're gonna see, and this is whole Mark's whole point in writing the book, he didn't come to say, I'm the greatest.

That's not how he showed up.

Like he was born to really poor parents.

He was born in a stable, laid in a manger, like not in a palace, like we would expect the Messiah, the king of all kings, to come.

He wasn't born in Jerusalem, he was born in Bethlehem.

It just didn't add up.

And then all along the way, he didn't check the boxes of the Messiah.

He didn't fit into their political expectations and all those things.

He came as a different kind of king, and yet he was still the greatest.

So in Jesus we see something to be emulated.

Here's the main idea I want to start with today.

Greatness isn't about rising above others, but going lower than others.

Greatness in the kingdom of God isn't about just climbing the ladder like the world tells you.

Doggy dog, like who cares?

Who's down there?

Just get yourself to the top, climb the ladder.

That's what the world says, but that's not what greatness is in the kingdom of God.

What Jesus is going to show us, it's it's about getting off the ladder, not even being on the ladder, getting off the ladder to go lower and to serve other people.

And so greatness in the kingdom of God isn't about rising above others, but going lower than others.

Now I want to walk through our text this morning, and I want to show us three things that we have to be more concerned about in the kingdom of God.

If we're going to live this kind of life, three things we must be more concerned about in the kingdom of God.

And number one is to be concerned about things that matter to God.

Be more concerned about things that matter to God, not to man.

There's things that matter to people, even people's opinions of you, like that feels like it should matter.

But in the kingdom of God, if we want to be great, then we got to be more concerned about being great and things that matter to God.

We see this in verse 30 through 37.

Jesus once again is giving them what is called the discipleship discourse, Mark 8 through 10.

He's like, hey, Mark's kind of shifting to showing us that Jesus is, he's pushing forward, you know, Jesus a little bit more in the story as the suffering servant.

We're coming up on Passion Week in the gospel, and so he would become the lamb, the Passover Lamb, the last and final lamb that would be sacrificed for us.

That's the kind of Messiah he was coming to be.

And Mark said he started to tell the disciples plainly, like, I'm gonna die, I'm gonna be handed over, but I'm gonna rise again on three days.

And it goes right over the heads, chapter after chapter.

And even after he's talking about this, they're they're walking on the road and they get into a discussion.

They're talking about the Messiah, like who would give his life, and yet they get into a discussion about jockeying for position.

They're trying to call shotgun in the kingdom of heaven.

You guys ever play the game shotgun?

You're walking to the parking lot, you're all getting into the same car.

How does shotgun work?

The first one yelling out, shotgun, what do they get?

They get the front seat next to the driver.

But in the game of shotgun, there's only one winner.

Right?

Everyone else gets the back.

And you win by being first.

You win by thinking of yourself first.

And in essence, that's what they're doing.

They're playing shotgun.

They're they're trying to get first in the kingdom of heaven.

And Jesus, to illustrate his point, he he sits him down, he says, if anyone to be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.

And then he takes a child and he puts the child in the midst of the group.

Now we love children at CBC.

Like we are very pro our CBC kids' ministry.

But we like we would say, like, that's not babysitting, right?

There's value.

But in this day and age, children didn't offer much social status, right?

Children couldn't do anything for you.

They didn't give you any power or influence necessarily.

And so the the children were considered like the least of these.

And so here is Jesus, the creator, the savior of the world, saying, Hey, if you want to be great in the kingdom of heaven, look to the least of these and take care of them.

Here's how he defines greatness.

One of the clearest signs of greatness in the kingdom of heaven is noticing people who can't do anything for you.

Parents, you guys know this.

Like, I mean, when you get married, people will tell you marriage will show you how selfish you are.

You take two sinners, you put them in a relationship where we even say they're one flesh under God.

These two sinners are now forced into each other's lives.

Not forced, they they gladly chose it.

Some days it might feel like that.

But you're you have the same hopes, dreams, same address.

Like you're you're you're going in the same direction, but you're two sinners trying to outdo one another and dying to yourself and to serve the other.

But there's still this mutual like benefit back and forth.

Right?

There's there's a give and take.

But then you get into parenting, and you thought you were selfish before in marriage.

Then in parenting, you're like, man, I'm so selfish.

All I think about is myself.

Because now I have this human being to keep alive who can't do anything for me, not at least in their early age.

Right?

They offer nothing.

Eat, sleep, poop, change the diapers.

That's it.

Now God has made it amazing where I mean the feeling you get from being a parent is unparalleled.

Don't hear me say that.

But they can't serve you in any kind of way.

And yet we do it out of love.

And this is what Jesus is saying in the kingdom of heaven.

If you want to be great in things that matter to God, you got to look and notice the people that no one else notices.

Rather than overlook them, you actually become overlooked.

Like you humble yourself underneath them to elevate them so they can be noticed, so they can be esteemed and valued.

And the question I want to ask you today is who are you tempted to overlook because they can't do anything for you in return?

Go to your workplace.

Because there's positions probably in your company where people talk lesser than that position.

Are you a person that comes and notices that person and elevates them?

Man, I think of like custodians.

Man, if it wasn't for the custodian of Alameda High School, I don't know if Junior's in the room.

Sometimes he's he makes it in here.

But we wouldn't have church if it wasn't for Junior.

Junior is the only person in CBC who has never missed a Sunday.

He's been here every Sunday since launch.

Like that is a man worthy of honor.

We could not open these doors without Junior.

Like he takes care of these facilities, he cleans up after we leave.

Man, that is someone worth honor.

Like, there's people in your life that you should notice as a disciple of Jesus.

There's a man by the name of David Brainerd.

He was an American missionary in the 1700s.

And God gave him the burden to take the gospel to Native Americans.

Think about an overlooked people group.

People that, I mean, there's there's language barriers, there's there's hostility.

Like we we we know the history.

And yet God had put this burden on David Brainerd to take the gospel into the frontier.

There's no Buckeys, there's no McDonald's, there's no Chick-fil-A.

Man, medicine was not what it was.

He would lose his life at 29 years old to tuberculosis because of the life he chose.

And yet, he went on to inspire people like William Carey, Jim Elliott, people that led the Great Awakenings in America.

They look back to David Brainerd as one of their inspirations.

The world would look on his life 29 years old and say, That man, that guy didn't live a great life.

It was cut too short.

But I think what matters to God is God looks at his life and says, He saw people in need.

And he responded.

And David Brainerd has this quote.

It'll be on the screen.

It says, It is sweet to be nothing and less than nothing, that Christ may be all in all.

It is sweet to be counted as nothing, so that Christ could be counted as everything in my life.

When people look at my life, they don't see Casey, they don't see David Brainerd, they see Jesus.

That's what he's saying.

And part of the problem I think in our culture today, especially Western culture, think of social media, think of all the ads that we see.

Everything is telling you this is about you.

And what it's doing in our society is it's crippling us.

We have mental health crisis, we have depression, we have anxiety, we have suicide.

I mean, in numbers we've never seen before.

Because culture is telling us all about us.

But the gospel says that's not what you actually weren't created to hold that kind of glory.

That will crumble you.

That will fall apart.

Greatness isn't about rising above others but going lower.

And so be great in things that matter to God, not to man.

Number two is this celebrate kingdom wins, not competition.

Celebrate kingdom wins, not competition.

We get to verse 38, and John kind of interrupts, and he I think he thinks he's gonna like redeem himself in this moment.

Like we got caught, you know, on the road.

And I don't know about that moment if Jesus, like just being God, knew what they're talking about, or if he actually overheard them.

You guys all have those conversations where you thought it was just between you and your friends, and then someone else heard, and you're like, crap, like we're caught.

We were gossiping, like we were, you know, whatever.

Parents, you guys know that kids in the backseat.

They have that kind of moment.

John's trying to redeem himself, and he's like, Teacher, hey, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we don't worry, we tried to stop him.

We try to put an end to it.

And I think he's expecting like a pat on the back from Jesus.

And Jesus is like, Don't stop him.

Like, encourage him even more.

Like, he's on the same team.

Anyone that would do a work in my name, they're not gonna go do something against my name.

If they're for us, like let's celebrate.

They're not against us.

And what he's basically saying is we are all on the same team.

Think about Denver for a second.

This is how big the kingdom of God is.

Right now, I mean 10 o'clock is probably the most attended church hour in America.

Right now across Denver, God's church is meeting.

CBC is not the only church.

There's Bible-believing, gospel preaching churches.

There's millions of people who don't know Jesus.

CBC itself cannot reach Denver, right?

We need all churches to keep preaching the gospel, to keep planting new churches.

But it's not just in Denver, it's the you know the rest of the United States, it's around the world.

And yes, we we meet and we gather in different spaces on Sunday morning, but we all are technically part of the same locker room.

We all belong to the same team.

We all wear the same jersey.

On the front, it says Team Jesus, right?

Not even CBC, it's it's about Jesus.

Right?

And you might have your name on the back, but it's about the name on the front.

It's about team Jesus.

And I think we get caught up so many times in being territorial about the kingdom, competing for the kingdom with other churches or with whatever, even people in our own church.

We want more recognition than they.

And the disciples, if the disciples can walk with Jesus and be so close to Jesus and still have this attitude, I think we can we can learn something from them as well.

But sometimes I think our greatest threat is believing that we control the kingdom or that God can only use us.

Sometimes we need to die to the idea that God can only use us.

And yes, we can pray the prayers, God use me, but what if you wanted to answer your prayers but through somebody else?

Would that like wreck your paradigm a little bit?

Because if it would, then it's not praying from a right motive.

If we really want God to move in that kind of way.

There's a church that helped plant us called the Heights Church.

They're our landing church here in Denver.

Their pastor is on our board as well.

They had a mission trip in Kenya, and someone on that trip texted me and said, This morning we prayed for you in Kenya, and it wasn't the Heights idea, it was the church in Kenya who'd been following along.

And that we're part of the same network.

We we have been launched by that network, we give back into that network for future church plants.

But they said, let CBC know.

First, they said, How is CBC doing?

They they were like leaning in on what God's doing in our church in Kenya.

And they're like, let CBC know that we're praying for them this morning.

And I got the text and I just showed my wife, and I couldn't even like, I couldn't even read it to her.

So I'm like, man, that's the kingdom of God.

They're celebrating kingdom wins.

We might even say like they're on the front lines, right?

We have it a little bit easier.

And yet they were praying for us.

It's not about competition, it's about celebrating what God's doing in the kingdom.

We have this phrase in our good news crews.

We we have some leadership behaviors that we want to strive to be.

This is our culture.

And one of the phrases, we said it today, is we want to honor up, down, all around.

And what that means is yes, there's no gossip.

Yes, we want to be unified.

But man, we want to celebrate what God's doing in others because when you win, I win.

Right?

And when I lose, we all lose.

That's the kingdom of God.

There's this quote, I have it on the screen.

I don't know who it's attributed to.

But it says this that world missions is God's major therapy for our sin of selfishness that eats at the heart of the local church.

Here's what he's saying.

What can wreck the anointing of God in the church is self-centeredness.

And very quickly we can plant a church with the right motives, but very quickly, and you guys have seen this in other churches, what can happen?

It can turn inward, it can turn on ourselves.

It becomes this holy huddle.

We stop inviting people, we stop looking to the people on the outside.

And world missions, the fact that we're here, the fact that God hasn't raptured us and taken us to heaven, is proof that there's still work to be done.

And it's following the example of Jesus who laid down his life, who came not to climb the ladder, but to get off the ladder and to serve and to go lower.

So, missions, serving is God's major therapy for our sin of selfishness.

Here's what I know to be true.

I've been in ministry for 14 years.

I've seen this all 14 years.

The people that are growing the most, you want to ask the question like, how do I know if I'm growing?

What do I need to do to start growing?

The people that are growing the most are the people that are serving.

Like, you cannot convince me otherwise.

And it's not just time and talent, it's also giving financially.

Like they're serving time, talent, treasure.

They're investing those things into God's kingdom, his economy.

Because here's why that's true.

One, like you're gonna be surrounded by accountability, you're gonna be serving alongside other people, you don't serve alone, you get to link arms with people in our church.

But you've already come to the place in your mind and your heart where this isn't about me.

And if we want to look at the gospel and the person of Jesus, what do we see?

We see Jesus step off the ladder and get down and serve.

The last night with his disciples, what did he do?

He picked up a towel and he got on his knees and he washed their feet.

The thing reserved for the lowest servant in the house.

That's what our Lord and Savior did for his disciples.

We're all wearing the same jersey.

Let me ask you this question: where are you celebrating Team Jesus and where are you competing for personal stats?

Because, man, if we make this about us, I'll tell you really quick, God will take his anointing off of what he's doing.

This is all about Jesus.

Your marriage is all about Jesus.

Like your workplace, praise God for the paycheck, but it's about Jesus in your workplace.

Your neighborhood, it's not just a place to check out, flip off the switch of mission.

Like, I'm just I'm just here to.

To sleep, to chill, like no, like you God's put you in that neighborhood because it's about Jesus.

Everywhere you go is about Jesus.

So where are you celebrating Team Jesus and where are you you trying to make it about yourself and celebrate what you're doing?

Playing for the name on the back, withers, or playing for the name on the front, Team Jesus.

Number three is this stay salty and useful.

Stay salty.

Turn to your neighbor, say, stay salty, but don't get salty.

That's what Jesus is saying.

Stay salty and useful, but don't get salty.

How do you get salty?

Rather than like being trying to be great in the things of the kingdom of God, you are more concerned about what people think, which leads you to not celebrate kingdom wins, but to actually compete for the kingdom wins.

And if you're playing for the horizontal, for this comparison game, and for the approval of people, and your identity is based on that, I promise you you will get salty in this life.

Because nobody can give you the affirm the affirmation, the approval that you actually need.

That can only be satisfied in Jesus.

And the whole reason that they are jockeying for position is because they are playing for that kind of game.

And it leads them to getting salty.

We see the the idea of salt kind of in the book of Matthew and the Sermon on the Mount.

What was salt used for in that day and age?

We we kind of still use it today in that same way.

It's a flavor additive.

Like I put salt on everything.

I love salt.

But it also preserves decay.

And so they didn't have all these like other preservatives that we have now that we probably need to get rid of.

Like they just used salt.

And it would preserve decay.

And so, as Christians, what is Jesus telling us to do as the salt of the earth?

We are meant to go into a society that is evil, right?

That is broken, that is sinful, that thinks greatness is like stepping on other people to get to the top.

And to actually be salt, to be flavor, to show people Jesus.

But then also to prevent decay, to look into the broken areas of our community and actually bring beauty.

We prevent decay by voting for policies that are gonna be for the good of our countr our city and our country, right?

To put restrictions around evil so that our society can flourish.

All of those things matter to be salt.

But here's the point that Jesus is making.

You can't bring flavor to a world if you taste just like the world.

If you say the same things that they say, if you go to the same places, if you act the same, if you compromise in the same kind of way.

If you look just like our culture, you have no flavor.

You've lost your saltiness.

And so Jesus says, like you have to understand whatever would rob you of your saltiness, you gotta cut it off.

And here's a lie that we always believe that my sin doesn't really bother anybody else.

Satan will tell you this lie, he'll whisper it to you.

It's just between you and God, which pause, time out.

If it's between you and God, God sees it.

There's nothing you do that he doesn't see and already know.

Even if it's in your thoughts, God sees your thoughts, he knows your thoughts.

God sees everything.

But your sin isn't just something that maybe harms you.

There's a passage in the Old Testament where one person in the whole children of Israel nation uh committed sin, tried to hide it in his tent, and the whole nation suffered because sin was in the camp.

And the same can happen in a church, the same can happen in a marriage, the same can happen in a family, the same can happen in a school.

When there's sin in the camp, everybody suffers.

There's also this idea that everyone is watching.

So if you've been following Jesus for 10 years, 20 years, guess what?

A new believer or a younger believer than you, they're gonna look to you and they expect to be able to look to you and to follow you, and you're gonna lead them in the right direction.

And what does Jesus say would happen or would be better for someone that would cause a little one to stumble?

He's talking about little Christians, new in the faith.

He's like, it'd be better for you to have like cement shoes and to be thrown into the ocean, right?

Than to cause a little one to stumble.

God cares about new believers, God cares about the vulnerable.

Your actions matter.

Maybe you've been following Jesus for one week and you're like, man, there's no real nobody really looking at my life.

There's some unbelievers that just watched you get saved, and now they're looking at your life.

All of us have people looking at our life, and what do they see?

Are you staying salty?

Do you have flavor?

Are you preserving evil or preserving good and encountering evil?

Sin never just affects you, it always becomes a stumbling block for other people.

Let me ask you this question.

If Satan was gonna take you out and wreck your influence, he can't take your salvation as a Christian.

But man, if he was gonna wreck your influence, if he was gonna take you out, what would be the temptation he would use to come after you?

Jesus said, if your eye causes you sin, get rid of your eye.

If your hand, get rid of your hand.

Like, what is that that you have to get rid of to avoid whatever that temptation would be, whatever that sin would be.

That we don't flirt with sin.

Think of like a row of dominoes, not dominoes pizza, but dominoes the game.

You have them all stacked up, lined up.

What happens when you hit the first domino?

Brrrrr.

Like all the way down, right?

And what's Jesus saying?

It's the same idea with sin.

That first temptation, that first compromise, that first desire or lust that you give birth to, what can it lead to in your life?

Complete destruction, but not just your life, also all the lives around you.

And he's saying, go to that first domino, whatever would cause you to sin and stumble.

Man, cut it out of your life.

If it's an app, delete the app.

That's not worth it.

Right?

If it's being alone and isolated, don't be alone and isolated.

If you need accountability, like find accountability.

If no one knows that you're struggling in that sin, you gotta let people in.

They're here for you, they're fighting for your success.

But don't fight in restful temptation alone.

Whatever it is, cut it off.

And then he says, be at peace with one another.

I think one of the quickest ways to lose influence in the kingdom is through being divisive.

So don't be a divisive Christian.

God's not gonna bless that.

God won't bless a church like that.

And so there's three things that we have to be more concerned about being great and things that matter to God, celebrating kingdom wins, not competing for them, staying salty and useful, not getting salty.

So, how do we live like that?

I'm gonna give you five takeaways right here at the end.

These will be very quick.

But these are five desires that you have to put to death as a Christian.

Five things you must radically kill in your life that are tied to the flesh.

The first one is this you have to put to death the desire to be first.

The crazy part is Jesus just told them he's headed to the cross.

And what are the disciples arguing about?

Who's gonna get the crown?

Like who's gonna be in first place?

Well, their savior, their rabbi, they're the one they're following, has already told them he's going to lay down his life.

It's not about being first.

You gotta kill the desire to be first.

Number two, you gotta put to death the desire to be important.

And I'll just put an asterisk on that because the desire to be important is the desire to be important in other people's eyes.

Man's eyes.

Because here's what's true there's a creator that has already said you're important.

You are important to the most important being in the whole universe.

The one who created you, the one who died for you, the savior of the world.

If he says you're important, what what does it matter what people around you think?

Right?

That's what he thinks about you.

That's your identity.

Don't live for this world.

Don't live for the people around you.

You gotta kill the desire to be important in other people's eyes.

Because God has already said you're important.

How else would he give his own son?

John 3 16.

For God so loved the world that he gave his only son on the cross, so that whoever believes in him might not perish but have everlasting life.

Number three, you gotta put desire put to death the desire to be exclusive.

And this is the desire to be exclusive about the kingdom.

Like I'm entitled to things in the kingdom of God because of my my better standing with God, because of the works I'm doing, or whatever you have it.

Like the disciples are like, God chose us, we're his twelve disciples, and so they try to go and like squash what other people are doing for Jesus.

Because they're the chosen twelve, right?

And we can do this in the kingdom of God.

God's invited you into his kingdom to play a part, but just like everyone else, you're not more special than anybody, right?

And when we really understand the gospel, you want to serve everyone, you want to go lower.

So put to death the desire to be exclusive.

Number four, put to death the desire to be selective with sin.

There's already sin that we kind of make justifications for.

That we see like those aren't as bad as like that.

And do not be selective with sin.

There's a quote that I've heard since I was 20.

I don't I don't know who said it.

Maybe a famous pastor, but the quote goes like this be killing sin or sin will kill you.

You can either be killing sin or sin will kill you.

Just like cancer.

You get a diagnosis that you have cancer, that you have cancer cells in your body.

You don't just tolerate that.

You don't just like go keep eating sugar because that feeds cancer cells, right?

You change your whole life.

You try to eradicate it.

And if we know that there's something in our life, that first domino, whatever it is, man, why would we not go to extreme measures to stop being selective with sin and to cut it out of our life, to bring accountability.

Whatever that sin is, do not tolerate it.

Bring it into the light, and you'll be healed.

And then number five, we gotta put to death the desire to be right or to have your way.

We see this right at the end with the idea of pursuing peace with one another.

This happens in marriage, this happens in church.

Like, who gets their way?

And if we really understand the kingdom of God, it doesn't matter if we get our way.

What Jesus is saying is put to death the desire to be right, the desire to have your way, your preferences, your comfort.

Because it's not about us.

The kingdom of God is where self-centeredness goes to die.

It's where comfort goes to die.

We've talked about this in recent weeks.

It's where we are willing to risk it all, whatever he asks of us.

And it's no longer about our way.

If you get frustrated with people, it's probably because you didn't get your way.

Just look back on your last week.

Where did I get frustrated?

That probably shows something deeper in your heart that you're holding on to.

But we we can do it in the church as well.

It's not about our way, but it's about God's way.

And what is God's way?

Philippians 2, it's called the Christ Hymn.

And in Philippians 2, Paul's writing from prison, by the way.

Look where living this kind of life has got him.

He's in prison.

He's in a cell, he's chained between guards.

But he writes this letter.

And he says, Do not have selfish ambition or empty conceit, but in humility of mind, count others more important than you.

He says, Don't look out only for your own interests, but also look out for the interests of others.

And how do we do that?

He goes on in verse 5.

He says, Have this attitude which is in Christ Jesus, who though he was in the form of God, he did not count equality with God, a thing to be grasped, a thing to be held on to.

But he emptied himself, meaning he set aside the crown, he set aside his majesty, he emptied himself, and being found in appearance, he humbled himself like a servant, he became human, and it said he became obedient to the point of death, even death on the cross.

Therefore, God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every other name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow and every tongue confess to the glory of God the Father.

That is the greatest of all time, is Jesus.

And what did he do?

He set the crown aside and he picked up the cross for you and for me.

He moved into our neighborhood.

He left heaven, he left majesty, and he moved here.

The greatest became the least to serve you and to me.

And if that's true, here's the big takeaway for today.

When you see Jesus as the greatest, you no longer need to be.

Like coming to Jesus for salvation is literally saying, God, you are the Savior, I am not.

It's dying to pride.

You can't be a prideful person and accept Jesus.

But sometimes we do that, we accept Jesus, and then somewhere along the way we pick pride back up.

The flesh is still a part of our life.

And that's got to die every single day.

And so if we want to be more concerned about being great in things that matter to God, celebrating kingdom wins, staying salty and useful, then we have to kill these desires.

The desire to be first, the desire to be important, the desire to be exclusive, the desire to be selective with sin, and the desire to be right and have your way.

And what I want to invite us to do today is to behold Jesus, who took off the crown, didn't grasp heaven as something that he couldn't set aside, but he set that aside.

He emptied himself to go to the cross for you and for me.

So can we go lower to serve others just like Jesus?

Heavenly Father, we pray today that you would convict us for where we try to be great in our own eyes or in the eyes of people.

But God help us to be more concerned with what you have for us.

God, thank you for the example of Jesus.

We don't worship a God that's a dictator.

God, we don't worship a God that's distant, but we worship a God who left everything to come after us.

So, God, would we take up that example in how we follow you and how we serve others?

We love you and we pray this in Jesus' name.

Amen.