We're going to open our Bibles to the book of Mark, Mark chapter number 10. We've been working our way through the book of Mark, the gospel of Mark. We've been kind of going through all of this expositorily and we've been making making many sermon series and that's supposed to say the way to greatness. I think it must have gone down to the next line, I apologize. But we've been looking at different parts of the book of Mark and making our way through and here we are in this portion of this book looking at the way the gospel turns things upside down, and it kind of brings things over. Now, you could say it this way, that the gospel turns things upside down, but in a lot of respects, the world turns things upside down, the gospel turns them back upright. And so as we go through this, this is kind of what I want you to think about, is it's not so much that we're upside down, we are upside down to the world. The world sees things a certain way. The world sees that we ought to do things in a certain fashion. But when we come to the Word of God and we find that the Bible tells us differently, to them, we look like we're doing things wrong. But in all actuality, the gospel has turned things back right way up. Satan is the one that has turned things upside down. And so as we kind of work through this, it's time for us, and if you'll notice the way I kind of worded this, living upright in an upside down world. We are the ones truly living upright when we follow the word of God. The world is upside down to us. And how we do that and how we learn how to navigate through this is all dependent upon the way that we see scripture, how we study the word of God, and how we come to these different things. Now, have you ever noticed that nobody puts the quiet stuff on social media? You ever notice that? You don't see somebody posting something like, cooking dinner for a bunch of ungrateful family members. Yeah, you don't really see those kind of things. You don't notice the mundane, the average everyday things. You see things unlike, here I am doing the dishes again, or I did five loads of laundry today. You don't see those things. No, everything that goes on social media, by and large, are the highlight reels, right? Does anybody else write, and I say anybody else as if I'm one of those, I'm really not one of those, but I know some people who do it. They write those end-of-the-year Christmas letters and they send out the Christmas letter. We've got a couple. I have friends that do that. I'm too lazy. You know, it's all I can do to just say Merry Christmas sometimes. But people do those kind of things. They don't tell you how many loads of laundry they did. They don't tell you how many times they washed the dishes a second time after their kids washed them and you pulled it out greasy. They don't tell you any of those things. What they tell you is this big accomplishment, this big thing that happened in our life, this person got married, this person had a kid. They tell you all of those kind of things. Now, I don't know about you, but does anybody also remember the high school superlatives? Some of you are like, I have no idea what you're talking about, right? It's the most likely to, you know, you had people that were most likely to get married, most likely to, most likely to be, you know, all these different things, the superlatives. I was homeschooled, so I was most likely to do all of it, right? I graduated first and last in my class, and so, you know, good luck. Those of you who are like, I was valedictorian, yeah, me too, and it's really not that great of an accomplishment when you're a homeschooler, but. You know, they had these most likely to succeed or most popular or most talented, most athletic. I never saw the categories of like most likely to reheat their coffee three times and still forget to drink it. Anybody else kind of fit that bill? That's me. You know, I've done it. I've put my coffee in the microwave, hit the reheat, walked away and forgot about it, come back and it's cold again. What about the one most likely to pull a muscle getting out of bed? Anybody get that superlative, right? You know, those are the things. You don't see those in the yearbook. You see the other ones. You don't see those. The issue is, even back then, we were being trained to think in terms of who's the best. We've been trained this way. All through society, we're trained to think of who's the standout, who's the one that's most important, who matters the most. And understand, that desire doesn't go away with graduation in high school. It doesn't change. The main difference, you know, we give trophies for the best, or we give highlights for the best, and we promote the most ambitious. Everywhere we turn, there's this message that stands out. But this doesn't go away when we graduate. it gets a little more sophisticated, right? But here's the thing, is honestly, if I'm being honest, this sounds right. I mean, who doesn't want to make a difference? Who doesn't want to have their life count for something? And so I guess the question that I would ask is, what's so bad about wanting to be great? I was a former professional athlete. I know you couldn't, you wouldn't be able to tell that by the physique that stands before you today, but at one point in time, I was felt, right? And I was a professional athlete trying to make it to the Olympics. I wanted to be the best. I wanted to succeed. But I think something happens to us when we read a passage like what's before us this morning. where we start to think that there's something wrong with the desire to be great. With that in mind, I'd like to invite you, if you're able, to stand with me as we read the word of God. Look with me, if you would, at Mark chapter number 10, and we're gonna start reading in verse 32. Word of the Lord here says, and they were in the way going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus went before them. And they were amazed as they followed, they were afraid. And he took again the twelve and began to tell them what things should happen unto him, saying, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man shall be delivered unto the chief priests and unto the scribes, and they shall condemn him to death, and shall deliver him to the Gentiles. They shall mock him, and shall scourge him, and shall spit upon him, and shall kill him. and the third day he shall rise again. And James and John, sons of Zebedee, came unto him, saying, Master, we would that thou shouldest do for us whatsoever we shall desire. And he said unto them, What would ye that I should do for you? They said unto him, Grant unto us that we may sit one on thy right hand, and the other on thy left hand in thy glory. But Jesus said unto them, Ye know not what ye ask. Can you drink of the cup that I drink of and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with? And they said unto him, we can. Jesus said unto him, you shall indeed drink of the cup that I drink of and with the baptism that I am baptized with all shall you be baptized. But to sit on my right hand and on my left is not mine to give. but it shall be given to them for whom it was prepared. And when the ten heard it, they began to be much displeased with James and John. But Jesus called them to him and saith unto them, Ye know that they which are accounted to rule over the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and their great ones exercise authority upon them. But so shall it not be among you, but whosoever shall be great among you shall be your minister. and whosoever of you will be the chiefest shall be servant of all. For even the son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give his life a ransom for many. Father, would you open our hearts. Father, help us to see you in scripture. Help us to see ourselves in the mirror of your word. Help us to see the areas that we need to change. And Father, do whatever You must to bring about that change in our life. We offer ourselves unto You freely and fully. Now work in our hearts, we pray. May we bring glory unto Your name. It's in Your Son's name we do pray. Amen. Thank you. You may be seated. So we have before us here, we have this passage where we have a couple of disciples coming to Jesus and they're asking a pretty bold thing of him. And just as I introduced this thing, I talked about how we strive for greatness, we strive for prominence, position, things of that nature. It's not just in the world that this happens. It happens so often in the church as well. Even in the church, this desire creeps in because many of us, we want to be used by God. We want to do something significant for his kingdom. But if we're honest, if we're truly honest, sometimes it's not so much that we want to do what is great, but we want to be seen doing what is great. We want it to matter. We want it to be great. But the question is, how do we do this without getting things out of order and out of alignment? We want to do things correctly. It's not just a matter of, this is what we're to do. We're supposed to do something big for the cause of Christ. There have been many well-meaning Christian leaders who have wanted to do something big for the cause of Christ, but they did it wrong. They went about it all the wrong way. They didn't care who they stepped on in the process. They didn't care who they hurt in the meantime. It didn't matter to them. I've heard preachers stand in pulpits, say, that doesn't matter to me. I don't care who I hurt. I'm just going to do what God's called me to do. Beloved, God does not call you to hurt people. He doesn't. He may call you to share something with them. And I pray every Sunday before I enter the pulpit, I pray and I ask the Lord, Lord, I know your word can be offensive. I know your word can rub people the wrong way, but Lord in heaven, don't let the man of God be the one who does that. I don't want to be the one to purposefully hurt people, to walk over them, to step on them, to not care who gets injured along the way. I don't want to be that person. Let the word of God do that, that's different. God's word can show you things that need to change. And there have been many times through the years, I've learned this, that as you preach and as you present the word of God, invariably someone is going to have their toe stepped on. And how many times have you felt as you sat in a main service, you sit there, you listen to the preaching of the word of God. I can remember a friend of mine looking at his wife, angry, he told me about this. He said, when we first started going to church, I just looked at her, I was furious. Because I was sure she had called the pastor before we arrived. She didn't know the guy from Adam. Make sure you preach on this one, preacher. Right? That's not what was happening. But the Word of God has the ability to confront us. It will do that. Let God's Word do that. Let it happen. And it's a different story when the Word of God does that. A friend of mine at our last church, he'd come in and he'd be wearing his steel-toe boots. He'd walk up, he said, all right, preacher, I'm ready to go. I got my steel-toes on today. Put the plow down and don't bring it up until you've dug every root. Okay. As we look at the passage before us, this is one of those that can rub people the wrong way. But it's also one of those that we can get the wrong ideas out of. So let's not be too hard on James and John to start off with. Look with me at verses 32 and following. James and John, or I'm sorry, 35 and following. It says, James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came unto him saying, Master, we would that thou shouldest do for us whatsoever we desire. And we get pretty upset at James and John on this one, don't we? We get kind of frustrated and Jesus is like, okay, what should I do for you? They said, grant unto us that we may sit, one on thy right hand and the other on thy left in thy glory. Yeah, on surface, it's like, well, that's, They want to sit next to him, right? What's the big deal? Well, look just a few verses before, verse 32 down, as they're making their way, look at the end of verse 32, it says, and he took again the twelve and began to tell them the things that are going to happen to him. What we find right here in front of us, it says that we're going to Jerusalem, the Son of Man will be delivered up to the chief priests and unto the scribes, they will condemn him to death, shall deliver him to the Gentiles, they shall mock him, they shall scourge him, spit upon him, and kill him. Well, can we sit on your left and right hand when you get to your kingdom? Did you just completely miss the first part of his state? Were you paying attention? You know, somebody wants to just walk up and kick James and John, don't they? It's like, dude, seriously? Really? He just told you that he's going to get spit on, beaten, killed? Well, can we have the seats next to you? What? Are you nuts? So we get pretty frustrated at James and John. I don't think I'm the only one that looked at it that way. But before we give them a hard time, because we roll our eyes, we shake our heads, Jesus just finished describing in painful detail what's about to happen. And then they start asking for things. It's kind of like the woman. who she goes into her house and she cleans and she scrubs and she gets everything taken care of. Her kids are at school, her husband's at work, and she goes out to the backyard where the chicken coop is. She kills the chicken, plucks the chicken, takes it inside, makes the chicken, cooks it up. It's gorgeous and it looks great. She gets all the fresh vegetables out of her garden that she has planted. tilled, weeded. She pulls those out. She takes them into the house and she cooks the vegetables and she gets everything looking great. She sets a beautiful table and people come in. She's pouring the drinks as her family comes home from school and from work and her family sits down and her husband goes, where's the napkins? Get up and go get them. Really? All that she has done already and you're going, where's the napkins? I'll pass the salt, this isn't salty enough." You know, they say that J.C. Penney, when he was interviewing people for management positions, he would have a meal with them. I don't know if this is true or not, I never met J.C. Penney, but it makes for a good story. And he'd have a meal with them, and if they salted or put pepper on their food before they tasted it, he didn't hire them. He says, how do you know it needed an alteration? You made an assumption. Many of us are just like James and John. They come up to him, they say, we want you to do whatever we ask. In that vernacular, basically, they're just asking, will you do something for us? So we don't wanna give him too hard of a job, of a time here. But it sounds pretty bold. And Jesus says, well, what do you want? They said, we wanna sit on your left and your right hand. It's almost like they didn't hear a word about what's coming. We do the same thing. We do the same thing. We think about it and we say, well, how can they be so self-centered? But the truth is that we're not much different in that the question, their question is just like our question. How do we get ahead? How can I get higher? How can I climb further? How do I make my life count? I think, ultimately, this is what James and John were looking for. We want to know that we are doing everything that we can. We want to get a little bit further ahead. You know, we do it when we pray for a job. Well, pastor, I wouldn't ask for something like that. Yeah, we do. Lord, I really want a better job. I want a better pay. I want more money. I want a bigger car. I want a nicer house. I want this. I want that. And we do the same stuff. It's not a sin to pray for those things. Don't misunderstand me. We just need to understand what's taking place. We, just like them, are moving in the direction of trying to find how do we become great? How do we become better? How do we rise in the ranks, right? So again, I ask the question, what's wrong with wanting to be great? What's wrong with that? You know, I think that this can apply to just about anyone. The stay-at-home mom, the entrepreneur, the teenager, the retiree, the employee, anyone. Because in some way, shape, or form, we're all looking to become great. In some way. The stay-at-home mom may say, well, I'm not worried about a career. I'm not worried about any of those kind of things. I'm not sure. But we want to be the best mom. We want to be the best homemaker. Or we want to be whatever it may be. Everybody wants to be better. This is a question of purpose, significance, meaning, and ambition. It's exactly what it is. You and I, hopefully, we have ambition. But I want to complicate the problem just a little bit because it's not enough to just wonder what's wrong with being great. Now let's take a look at their view of greatness because the disciples had a distorted view of greatness. Look at verse 38. Jesus said to them, you know not what you ask. Can you drink of the cup that I drink of and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with? They said unto him, we can. Jesus said unto them, well, ye shall indeed drink of the cup I drink of, and with the baptism that I am baptized withal, shall ye be baptized. But to sit on my right hand and on my left is not mine to give, but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared. See, Jesus looks at them, and I want you to imagine with both compassion and sadness, he says to them, you don't know what you're asking. You don't know what you're asking. He gives them the opportunity to withdraw the request, essentially. They say, no, this is what we really want. He says, here's how it's going to have to happen. So, beloved, I want you to note right off the bat here, Jesus is not criticizing. He doesn't get mad at them for asking this. He doesn't criticize them. He just starts to redirect and make an explanation here. He's talking about suffering, about the cross. They didn't understand that part. They say, we can do what you're getting ready to go through. They think greatness comes through proximity to glory. But Jesus knows it comes through suffering. Comes through suffering. You see, the world says climb higher and get noticed to prove your worth. Jesus says lower yourself and take the role of a servant. The world says get to the top where people serve you. Jesus says go to the bottom and serve everyone else. This is a differentiation that needs to take place. We see these kind of things and we wonder to ourselves, why would James and John want that greatness? Why would James and John want that status? Why would they want that position? It's not wrong to want greatness. Don't misunderstand. I think what happens, we get into church life, we get into Christianity, and we think to ourselves, well, we have to be a nobody. We have to be a nobody from nowhere. And I've heard a lot of preachers, I've heard preachers from pulpits say this, a large church is out of the will of God. That's not true. That's not necessarily true. I've known some small churches who are just as out of the will of God as others. I've known some small churches and some big churches that I believe are right where God would have them to be. And so we can't just, you know, shake our heads at these guys. And we can't just say, well, their desire for greatness was wrong. No, it wasn't. The desire for greatness wasn't wrong. The direction they were pursuing that greatness, that was wrong. And that's what Jesus wanted to redirect. You know, Before we shake our heads at them, just pause for a minute. We measure worth so often by position, by productivity, by platform, by praise, we chase significance instead of servanthood. Here's the thing. This drift doesn't just show up here. shows up in our homes, in our workplaces, and even in our churches. Sometimes without even realizing it, those of us who serve in leadership roles can start to drift from servanthood into management. You know what it is to be a leader in the church? We use these terms, leadership, right? Let me tell you what it means to be a leader in the church. It means to be a bigger servant than anybody else. Now that doesn't mean a better servant. Don't misunderstand. The more you lead, the more you serve. If you're trying to be a leader in God's kingdom, which means I get to tell everybody what to do, you're not a leader in God's kingdom. The way Jesus explained greatness was not by how many people answer to you or how many people you tell what to do or how many people you get to boss around. That's not leadership in the ministry of the Lord. Leadership is being servant of everyone, coming alongside somebody saying, what can I do for you? How can I help you? How can I make this easier for you? What can I get for you? Being that person. And so I remember when I worked in construction, I had this, we were doing this one job and our GC, our general contractor was talking with the homeowner and the homeowner said, I'm going to be there for every part of the job. If you've ever worked in construction, you know, that's not exactly what you want to hear. Now I've worked and I've had homeowners that were, you know, their own contractors and they've done a good job because you know they come alongside and they're doing the job with your what have you that that works ok but we had this one guy and we were every time we were working he pull up driving his little volkswagen beetle any come out and he point everything he says you need to be doing this differently you need to be doing this differently and he point all these different things out And my boss got frustrated at one point. He was nice about it. He just walks over to him, unhooks his tool belt, and hands it to him and says, either start working or get out. There's a lot of people that want to point at everything. There's not a lot of people who want to be pointed at and be told what to do. That's greatness in the kingdom of God. Being willing to be the one who's serving. Leadership is always more effective when the person giving the instructions has their hand in the job as well. You see, leadership in the kingdom is never done from the back of the room with instructions. It is done from the front by example. Biblical leaders don't just say, go do this. They say, come with me, join me. Jesus is exposing this. Not to shame us, but to show us something better, something truer, something that actually will lead you to greatness. Now here's the thing, in the world's viewpoint, this will not lead you to greatness. In the world's viewpoint, you're going to become a doormat. In the world's viewpoint, you're becoming less than and less important. Beloved, I want you to understand something. You are to be less important. The most important one is God. The most important one is the Savior of our souls. You are not that important. I am not that important. The only thing that makes me anything of any value is that I can show you and others around the God who's so loved that He gave His only begotten Son so that I get to have a relationship with Him. Not one day in the future in heaven, but today. That's what we are offered. That's what we're called to do. And He says, serve others. We've gotta get it right. We've gotta quit striving for people to notice us and we've got to start showing people Him. Listen, I'll be honest with you. Even as a pastor, sometimes this can creep up. I'm not immune to this. I've been leading and I've been doing things and I've been moving in the right direction and then somebody invariably wants to come up and say, I remember a lunch I had with a young man one time and he said, I invited you to lunch because I wanted to talk to you you. When you're in a leadership position, that's never an enjoyable thing, you know. Anybody ever start a conversation with you like that? I want to talk to you about you. That can be difficult. And I'm just like anybody else, you know that? When somebody wants to critique you or wants to offer you some, they call it constructive criticism, but most of the time it's just, let me kick you for a minute. But every once in a while, you got that person that, you know, I have a friend of mine, he's doing a church plant because he got tired of feeling every Sunday afternoon like he was drug out into the parking lot and had his teeth kicked in by the people who weren't happy with the way he was doing things. Sometimes it feels that way. As a pastor, there have been times in my life where someone has had to confront me. You know, Pastor, I know your heart, and I don't think that this is what you're trying to do, but this is what it feels like. Of course, then you want to go down the defensive route. Well, it's not my fault that you... Every once in a while. I've learned through the years. I've been in ministry long enough now to where I don't try to jump back. I still do from time to time. But I'll go home. I'll lay in bed at night. I'll think. I'll stare at the ceiling. Won't get a minute's sleep. Staring at the wall. Staring at the ceiling. Staring at the wall. Staring at the ceiling. Looking over at my wife. Staring at the ceiling. Staring at the wall. Every once in a while, I just go, you know what? They're right. They're right. You see, we've got to be willing to be corrected. Sometimes you just have to let people complain. Sometimes you do. But then there are those times when you have to think and realize maybe they've got something here. They weren't trying to tear me down. They were just trying to help me grow. And it reminds me of the leaders in Jesus's kingdoms. Because they're not always perfect. They don't give directions perfectly. We are imperfect people, but we serve a perfect God. And if I, and all of us as a church, can learn how to receive instruction, maybe even a little gentle correction, maybe we can let the Spirit shape us through the honesty of a brother or sister, then maybe we would start understanding what true greatness is and what it looks like. How can I serve? As a pastor, there are two types of people that I have seen in churches. People who are servants and people who like to be served. That's generally what it is. Every once in a while, you see those people who they have that servant's heart, and they come in, and they get involved, and this is what I want. They don't come up and say, pastor, what can I do? They come up and say, pastor, I'd like to do something. I was thinking about this. Are you okay if I do that? Yeah, run with it, dude. Do it. I think it's great. But then you have people who, what's here for me? And they want to be served. And Jesus doesn't criticize. He says, you wanna be great? Quit asking to be served and start looking for whom you can serve. Now, look at the next part of this, look at verse 42. Jesus called them to him and saith unto them, ye know that they which are accounted to rule over the Gentiles exercise lordship over them and their great ones exercise authority upon them, but so shall it not be among you. But whosoever will be great among you shall be your minister. Whosoever of you will be the chiefest shall be servant of all. It's interesting. Not leaders. Servants. Servants. That's the heart of a child of God who is honestly seeking greatness. Jesus gathers them all together and I can kind of see it in my mind's eye as He does so and He says, you know, the people in the world think that way. We shouldn't think that way. See, He doesn't condemn, He just redefines. This is the turning point, the clue in the entire thing. In God's kingdom, greatness isn't about how many people serve you, it's about how many people you serve. Think about what James and John were asking for. They were asking for seats at the table. Who's doing the serving? The one seated at the table or the one walking around? Not the one at the seat. And Jesus was trying to get them to understand. Quit looking for a seat of prominence. Grab a towel. Grab a bowl of water. Grab a tray. Get a pitcher of coffee. Start going around and checking on everybody else. Quit looking for that seat of prominence and get busy. See, true greatness isn't measured by how high you climb, but how low you're willing to go for the sake of others. Let that sink in. Jesus doesn't remove the desire for greatness. As a matter of fact, he leaves it there. Greatness is something that we should attain to. Greatness is something that we should strive for. But the question is, what kind of greatness and in whose eyes? Greatness in the world's eyes? Greatness in your eyes or greatness in His eyes? The world says, be first. Jesus says, be last. The world says, get noticed. Jesus says, serve quietly and in secret. The world says, take credit. Jesus says, give the glory to God. The issue comes in when we stop wanting to be great, here's where we mess up. Pastor, I want to do something for the Lord. I want to do something for the Lord. Well, that'd be wonderful. I really appreciate that. Pastor, I want to do something small for the Lord. I want to do something unseen for the Lord. You don't hear that too often. What you hear is, I want to do something big and noticeable. Now don't misunderstand me. Don't misunderstand what I'm saying here. It's fine to have an ambition to do something big. I want to do something big for the Lord. One of my prayer requests daily is, God, I wanna do something that will leave a lasting legacy. I wanna do something that will leave an impact in this community, in this state, in this nation. I wanna do something that is going to bring glory and honor to you. But here's the truth in that prayer. But God, if no one knows my name in the process, that's okay. I just wanna do something for you. Now, sometimes we move from wanting that greatness to wanting to be greater than. And that's where we mess up. It's one thing, Lord, I wanna pastor. I wanna be a pastor for you. I want to do what you have called me to do. And then you get that, I want to pastor a church bigger than his. I want to be more popular than that guy. That's a different story. Lord, I want to serve you. I want to teach people about you. I don't want to just pour water. I want to teach. I want to be more important than. I want you to kind of think about this from a marriage standpoint. I teach young people and I teach people who are thinking about getting married, if you're curious about who you're going to marry, who you should marry, perk up for just a minute. Because so many people, they marry someone based on what that person can do for them. Don't ruin their life, please. Don't. The number one issue that I find when I counsel married couples, the number one issue that I find is a communication breakdown based on expectations. I want them to complete me, to fulfill me, to better me. They're not doing this for me. If you're thinking about entering into the sacred bonds of marriage, do it with this mentality. That's the person I will serve for the rest of my life. That's the way we enter into marriage, biblically. Husbands, love your wives. Wives, reverence your husbands. It doesn't say wives, reverence your husbands in order to get their love. It doesn't say, husbands, love your wives in order to, you can fill in the blank. It doesn't say that. It says, serve one another. In lowliness of mind, let each esteem others better than themselves. So we find verse 45, where we see the gospel pictured. For even the son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give his life a ransom for many. This is the center of the gospel. You see, our problem runs deeper than just selfish ambition. It's not just that we want to be great. It's not just that we want to be better than. It's that we want to be great without. We want to be able to do this without him. We want to be able to do it in place of him. It's not enough for us to elevate God. We have to elevate ourselves. And this is the very problem that Adam and Eve had back in the Garden of Eden. Satan, he whispers to them, he says, no, no, no, no, no. God doesn't want you to eat that because in the day you eat thereof, you will be great just like Him. And Adam wanted that prominence. He wanted something more. He wasn't happy being just in the image of God. He wanted to be equal with God. Think about this. Here's the good news. This sin that we have separates us from Him, but Jesus, the only truly great one, stepped down from His throne to serve sinners like me. He didn't just wash feet, He washed hearts. He didn't just lower Himself to help, He laid Himself down. He gave His life as a ransom. That means He paid the price to set you free from the slavery of sin and the sentence of death. And the cross was His act of ultimate sacrifice. He took the punishment. He took the punishment that your pride deserved, that your sin earned. He took it all willingly. So the first miracle is the miracle of the gospel. How Jesus' act can save you. The service that Jesus provides can save you. But not only that, it can change you. It can change you. You see, when you trust Him, when you turn from your sin and believe that His death and resurrection were for you personally, He doesn't just forgive your past, He transforms your heart. He changes you. And if you can't see this change in your life, if you can't experience it, then perhaps you haven't met the God that I serve. Think of James and John again as good examples. They went from fighting for prominence to laying their life down. James was martyred. John was boiled alive in hot oil and when that didn't work they exiled him to Patmos. Lived a vast majority of his latter years exiled on a prison island. They were willing to go through what Jesus said they were going to have to go through for others. You see, that's what happens when the gospel grips you. You stop living to be served and you start living to serve. At the beginning of all of this, earlier in the day, we started with Philippians chapter 2. Paul says, if there's any consolation in Christ, any comfort of love, any fellowship of the Spirit, any bowels and mercies, fulfill you my joy that ye be like minded, having the same love, being of one accord of one mind. He says in verse five, let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. And then he goes through the mind of Christ. He didn't thank himself of any, he was, he made himself of no reputation. He humbled himself. In other words, it wasn't an issue for him to have equality with God because he rightly deserved it. But even though he deserved worship and praise and honor and glory, he humbled himself. and became obedient unto death. Even the death of the horrific, shameful, embarrassing cross. Many of us, we won't help somebody set up chairs. We won't help somebody across the street from us. Jesus was willing to lay everything aside and serve. So, What's wrong with wanting to be great? Not a thing. Nothing wrong with wanting to be great. The question is, how are we going to come about that greatness? Jesus let us know. And so let me ask you, whose greatness is shaping your life? Think about this for a minute. The question isn't, will I be great, but whose greatness will shape my life? If Jesus has stooped down and willing to serve you at the cost of his life, how could I not stoop and serve others in his name? Now, if you remember earlier, we were talking about leaders and how leaders can drift, guiding to directing. Any one of us can slip into this. But here's the beauty of the gospel. Jesus doesn't just save servants. He forms servants. You know, the will of God. Is that you and I would be conformed to the image of his son? We are no more. Like Christ. Than when we're serving others. when we're trying to be a help, when we're trying to come alongside, when we give ourselves to do for someone else. You see, greatness in the kingdom means going lower. Receiving correction isn't failure, it's discipleship. It's God chiseling us into the image of His Son. So let me ask you this, are you too proud to be shaped by God Himself? Are you too proud to let Him shape you and mold you? This is true for every one of us. Pastors, deacons, teachers, parents, husbands, wives, students, whatever it may be. Leaders in the kingdom don't say, watch me from a distance. They say, walk with me as I walk with Christ. So, the path that Jesus walked is a path of service. And that's the path that He invites you to walk now. Not in your own strength, but in His power living through you. See, here's the beautiful thing. Jesus' service did not stop at the cross. It continues today. He is still serving you. He's still growing you. He's still trying to change you. So if you've never trusted Him, today is the day. Hear His invitation. If some other Christian, if some other church has led you to believe that maybe we feel that we're better than everybody else, please, forgive that. Don't hold that against my God. On behalf of churches and pastors everywhere, let me apologize. That's not what needs to be communicated. I'm not perfect. And I'm surely not better than. I'm sure that there are easily a dozen people in this room alone who have a whole lot better job of pastoring than I ever could do. Let me just be your servant. That's what He did. He served you. Let His service save you. Let His service change you. and then let us live lives of joyful service, humble service in the name of Jesus. Beloved, you will never humble yourself to serve until you humble yourself in need of a Savior. The question is, are you willing to humble yourself and bow your knee to Him? James 4.10 James says, humble yourself in the sight of God. And he will lift you up. What could be greater than having the creator and sustainer of the universe be the one to lift you up? There's coming a day. There's coming a day. where we're going to stand before Him, and He's going to say, well done, good and faithful servant. Or, will He say something else? I hope it's not, depart from me, I never knew you. I hope it's not that. But I want to hear, well, That comes through service. So strive to be great in His sight. Which means humble yourself and serve one another.