How To Be Great - Religion to Redemption - Matthew S6E1

Let's go. Hey, if you've got your Bibles, I hope you do. Matthew chapter 20 is where we're going to be. We're just going to pick it up where we left off. But we are shifting into a new season. And as you turn there and find Matthew, I just want to say this was so good. This last week, we started our neighborhood nights, and I was at Mandarin and Palatka and Ponte Vedra. A ton of fun to be there. It was awesome meeting so many people. In this upcoming week, I will be at Nordchak's. Me and a whole team of us. It's going to be awesome. I'm excited. I'm excited. I'm excited. I'm excited. I'm excited. I'm excited. I'm excited. I'm excited. I'm excited. And so, if you plan on being there, or if you plan on coming to neighborhood nights, which you should, we need to know because we're having so many of you show up, thank you, that we've got to run multiple services. We just need to know how many to run. So if you would text the word neighborhood to 44-1122, it's awesome, man. You need to be there. It's really incredible. Trust me.

If you don't like it, then something's wrong with you. I promise. Hey, listen, as we shift into this new season, what we're talking about here is religion and redemption, and they're not the same thing. You see, what we're going to see in several of the events that we walk through is that there are people that are just kind of neck deep in religion, and religion is just trying to earn my position with God based on the activities that I do, because honestly, that's all man can bring. And then Jesus is going to come along and say, no, no, no, no, it's not about what you do to make yourself right with God. It's what Christ has done on your behalf, and that is that he redeems us. And so we're going to pick it up in Matthew chapter 20, verse 17. Again, this is like a continuation of what we've been studying. As I've told you before, the chapters and the verses were not in the original text. Somebody just put them in there, so it wouldn't take you three hours to find Matthew 20. I mean, what am I going to be like? About three quarters through Matthew. You know, it'd be hard. And so the addresses are just put there, so there's not like a break, like a chapter in the book. This is one kind of continuous thing, and before we get into what we're really going to spend our time on, about what it means to be great in the kingdom of God, right before that section, Jesus, in Matthew chapter 20, verse 17, I read it last week, but he lays out the gospel as clear as you possibly could. He wants everybody to know exactly why he came. Even though he was a teacher, he did not primarily come just to teach us lessons about who God was and how we should act. And even though he did miracles, he was not primarily a miracle worker. He came for the redemption of mankind. So Matthew 20, 17, it says, and as Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the 12 disciples

aside, and on the way he said to them, see, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man, which is a declaration that he is the Messiah, and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified, and he will be raised on the third day. I mean, can you get any more clear? Jesus said, this is why I have come. We are going to Jerusalem, but for me, this is a one-way ticket. I am not coming out of there until three days later, I'm going to come out of the grave. This is the gospel. Now here's what's crazy, man, is that the religious people, they all expected the Messiah to show up and flex his power. They all expected that if he is the Son of God, the Messiah, the serpent crusher, the one that the Old Testament pointed to, that he would come and take over by exercising power, and what Jesus does, this is the reason they miss him, because he doesn't fit in their religious box, and instead what Jesus does is he shows his true strength by being obedient even unto death on a cross, that he completely and totally redefines greatness, and in our society, in our culture, if you want to be awesome, if you want to be successful, if you want to be great, that it's most often defined by position, possession, power. That's what it's defined by. And so, in this next section, beginning in verse 20, right after Jesus lays out the gospel, I mean, think about this. He's like, all right, everybody pay attention, we're going to Jerusalem, and I'm going to be arrested, crucified, dead, buried, and on the third day be resurrected from the grave. You ever find yourself in a conversation, I know you do this all the time, and the other person's talking, but you're not listening to them, you're thinking about what you're going to say when it's your turn? You know what I'm talking about? Like you're just waiting to respond, you're not listening to understand. This mom does that.

Jesus lays out the gospel, his arrest, his death, his burial, his resurrection, and she's like, enough about you, I've got a question. And you think, who would do that? You know? Many people walk into church that way every single week. You know what this whole thing's about? It ain't about you and it ain't about me. This whole thing is the gathering of the saints here to make much of the one true God that we are to gather together and lift up the one name under heaven whereby we must be saved. About his glory and his power and his love and his grace and his life poured out of the cross and so many times we walk in with a checklist and be like, I didn't get anything out of that. Well, what did you bring to it? Not you, I'm talking about all those terrible churches out there, terrible church people, okay? But we all have a tendency to do this. So right after Jesus had shared the gospel, well, they should have done something, say more about that, but instead, verse 20, then the mother of the sons of Zebedee came up to Jesus with her sons. She's like, all right, enough about you, I wanna tell you something. And kneeling before him, underline that in your Bible because that matters, we're gonna come back to that. She asked him for something and he said to her,

what you want? You gotta understand Greek to get the nuances of how he said it and I think that's how he said it because he knows the heart of every person and what she's looking for is position and power. That's what she's looking for if we're on behalf of her sons. He said, what you want? And she said to him, say that these two sons of mine are to sit, one at your right and one at your left in your kingdom. Again, because she thinks when Jesus kicks out the Romans and Israel returns to the superpower that it was meant to be, then if he's gonna be in charge, then her boys can be like senior VP of Jesus Incorporated. This is the original helicopter mom. You know what a helicopter mom is? There's some of you sitting in here and you don't realize it. That's that doot, doot, doot, doot, doot. And every time little Timmy needs something, you're like, I'll get it for you, Timmy. That's what that is. It's been around for at least 2,000 years, all right? This is what she is doing. Now, here's what's interesting. Both her and her boys, I don't know whose idea this was, but they wanna be great. They want greatness. And here's what's very interesting.

Jesus never scolds her for wanting to be great. He doesn't say, how dare you wanna be great? Let me ask you, do you wanna be great? I hope so, it's not a trick question. I want you to be great. I want you to be a great dad, a great man, a great woman, a great husband. I want you to be a great father. I want you to be a great mom. I want you to be a great student, a great athlete, a great employee. I mean, what do you wanna be, a loser? Be average? Be a doormat? No, no, no, no. Jesus never scolds them for wanting greatness. What he's going to do is he's just gonna redefine and redirect what greatness is in the kingdom of heaven. That greatness is not about possession and position and power. That greatness in the kingdom of heaven means that the reason that we have our strength is not to leverage it for ourselves, but to leverage it in the service of others. That we don't try to make my name great, that we humble ourself under the only name that is worthy to be made great. This is what Jesus is gonna do. So this sermon is only for people that wanna be great. So if you don't wanna be great,

then I don't know, go to sleep. But if you wanna be great, we need to listen to what Jesus says here. You should write these things down. If you're a note taker, you're gonna love it. I don't often have things like, number one, I got four numbers you can write down. Number one, according to Jesus in this passage, if you wanna be great, then you must first bend your knee to Jesus. That's where greatness begins. You see, even though this mom, she may have impure motives and she doesn't understand kingdom economics, but what she does understand is she walks up to Jesus and she kneels at his feet, ask him a question, and she understands that it is proximity to Jesus, not what you produce that determines success in your world. This is a really big deal. That if you don't bend your knee to Jesus, you can gain the whole world and forfeit your soul and you've lost everything. So let me ask you this, man. We talk about this all the time, that he is first. That he went first, that he loves first, that God is first. Well, the question is, is he first in your life? Is he first in your life? Do you treat God like he is who he is, first, preeminent, before all things, the one thing that drives everything?

No, I'm not saying, I mean, listen, man, we're in the middle of a church service. We just sang three great songs. You saw two cool videos. By the way, those little bumper videos that Pastor One does, it's my favorite thing we do right now. Aren't they awesome? I'm gonna start taking them around with me to travel and just be like, introduce me, man. He'd be like, the gospel of Matthew. You know, it's so good. Love it. I wish I talked like that. So you might feel like it right now, but feelings are coming. kind of irrelevant. Do you know, it's not very hard to take an account of your life to see what's actually first in your life. Just take a gander at three things. Look at your time. Is he first? Do you give him your first, like first thing in the morning, what do you grab? You know? I'm telling you, I try really, really hard when I wake up in the morning to not first grab my phone, but first grab my, well, I am 50, so I first have to go to the bathroom, and then I come back, 52, about to be 53, okay? But I want to try to give the first minutes of my day

to the one who is first in my life. Part of the reason that the church gathers on the Lord's Day Sunday is on the first day of the week that the believers get together and say, hey, we want to give you the first thing, we want to give you our worship. Is he first, or does he just get your leftovers? Another way, this is gonna hurt your feelings, just look at your bank account. Is he first? Do you bring him first and best, because Jesus says where your treasure is, there your heart will be also? Or do you try to navigate your world and try to do a whole bunch of like New Testament gymnastics to prove to yourself and everybody else that you can keep everything for you, and yet still call him first in your life? Is that what you do? Because it's very popular to do right now. Is he first? And then what about with your affections? Like when we worship, are you more concerned about what he thinks or about what everybody else thinks around you? Is he first in your life? This is so crucial to the Christian life. It's so crucial it goes all the way back to the very beginning of the beginning in the book of Genesis.

Before sin has even entered into the world, God sets up this idea of Sabbath, okay? In the Old Testament it's a law, the New Testament it's a principle. It's not necessarily about a day because Jesus says our Sabbath rests. But the idea of Sabbath is not even totally just about rest. And here's why I'll tell you that. Because if you read about the creation account, Adam and Eve are created on the sixth day. And I want you to think about this. You ever wonder why God took six days to create everything? Because he's never in a hurry. He didn't need six days. He could've just went, he spoke everything into existence. He could've just went, everything. And pfft, there's everything. But he didn't, man. Like God is this God of rhythm. And in the first three days he creates the environments and then he fills them up on the subsequent three days. And on the sixth day he creates his image bearers. And for the first time he says, he says everything's good, but when he creates Adam by himself he goes, this ain't good, it ain't good for man to be alone. So he creates Eve with him. And then he gives him the cultural mandate. He gives him some commands.

There was only one thou shalt not, there's a bunch of thou shalts in the Bible. He says subdue and cultivate. Be fruitful and multiply. Now, I'm just making this up. The Bible's way over here. I'm gonna stand way over here. I'm making this up. Can you imagine the conversation that Adam may have had with the creator? I mean if I'm Adam and I've been around now for what? Like, I don't know. The Bible doesn't say what time of day he created him. So you know, you've been alive for five hours. And here you are, there's your wife. Like, thanks. And then you look at God and be like, hey boss. We're about to go to bed. What are we gonna do tomorrow? We got a lot to do, don't we? I mean, we've got this whole garden to subdue and cultivate. We got a lot of work to do. We gotta be fruitful and multiply. I'm looking forward to that. So God, what are we gonna do tomorrow? We gotta get busy, right? And God's like, okay, here's what we're gonna do tomorrow. Are you ready? Here's what we're gonna do.

We're gonna Sabbath. And Adam's like, cool, what's that? What's a Sabbath? He's like, we're gonna rest. And Adam's like, from what? I ain't even tired. I just got created. I'm like six hours old and I didn't even do anything. You just gathered the dust of the earth together and breathed the rule of life in. I mean, shazam, and I've already had a nap. I mean, what am I doing? But the point is not that you're resting from work. It's you're resting for work. And it's not just about rest. It's about orienting your life. This is what God does when everything is perfect. I want you to orient your life in such a way where I am preeminent and before all things. Because if I am not number one in your life, I don't care how you reorder your life. Your whole life is out of order. And if your life is out of order, you will never be great. This is what is happening, man. So let me ask you, do you live in that kind of Sabbath rhythm where you work six days, but then you take a day to reorient yourself, to just refuel and reorient yourself and just declare, God, you're the first thing in my life? Or are you just busy, busy, busy, busy?

The only seminary professor that I liked in seminary, and the only one I think might go. Go to heaven, because I went to a liberal seminary. It was terrible, and I would tell them that, so they didn't like me, so whatever, okay? So there's one guy who's a pastor for a long time in Texas. He used to say this, a real old saying. If the devil can't make you bad, he'll make you busy. If he can't make you bad, he'll make you busy. Let me ask you, are you busy? Are you busy? I mean, think about this. We use busy as a greeting in America, don't we? You walk up to a dude and say, hey, bro, you staying busy? And what do you expect him to say? Oh, heck yeah, man, cover my eyeballs, hadn't slept in three weeks. We're like, good job. Can you imagine if somebody said, no, no, no, I try not to get busy. I live in rhythm and Sabbath rest. You bet. Are you in a cult? Like, what are you talking about, man? But I'm telling you, we make terrible decisions when our life is out of order. So are you spending your most precious commodity, your time, on the most important thing, which is declaring that he is before all things in the things that you do?

We've talked about this before. It's not just that Jesus is number one on your list. That's not how it works. That's a compartmentalized life. Because what are you gonna do? Check off your God time and then forget him and then move on to family and work and all of that? No, no, no. It's more like he is the page on which you would write your list. And what you say is, Lord, I'm gonna kneel at your feet and it's my proximity to you that's gonna produce everything in my whole life. So God, how do I honor you at church and at work and with my family and in my country? That's how we were supposed to live. In a few weeks, we'll get to Matthew chapter 25, like in October, November, something like that. And when we get there, you're gonna see this parable and this master gives three different dues, three different sums of money, and the busiest guy gets in the most trouble because he takes the master's money and he gets real busy, but he's not faithful because he's afraid. And so, do you make worship and rest and refueling a priority so that you can do all that God has called you to do? I mean, this is daily and weekly or even those kinds of rhythms

to make sure your life is rightly ordered with Jesus before all things. I mean, this idea of Sabbath goes all the way back, he made the top 10 list, the 10 commandments. Do you realize this? It's the fourth commandment. The rabbis will call it the hinge commandment because the first three commandments are about our vertical relationship with God. And number five through 10 are about our horizontal relationships with one another. And what they believe is that Sabbath, and again, in the Old Testament, it was a day and it was a law. In the New Testament, it's a principle and it's a way to live, is that if we don't rightly connect with God, if we don't receive his love, we will not be able to love one another. Do you live your life in such a way where he is before all things? It is proximity to Jesus and not what you produce that'll make you great. The second thing, you wanna be great in the kingdom of God? This is a little bit of a curve ball for you. You must be able to endure pain. Listen, man, if you just wanna live a carefree, comfortable life where everybody likes you, sell ice cream for a living, don't be a Christian because you are signing up for pain.

She says, hey, can my boy sit at your right and left? Verse 23, 22, Jesus answered, you don't know what you're asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I am to drink? And they said to him, the boys are right there, we are able. And he said, oh, you'll drink the cup. And the cup that Jesus is talking about is the cup of the pain that he will endure at the cross. He's talking about the cup of the wrath of God that has been stored up, that will be poured out against sin and sinners. We know this because when he goes to the Garden of Gethsemane on the night that he's betrayed, he knows he's gonna be arrested, he knows the next day he's gonna be tried and he's gonna be crucified. And he goes before his father in heaven, he feels the weight of the sin of the world on his shoulders. The Bible says he falls down, he feels like he's gonna die. He asked his boys to come in a little farther and pray for him. He's praying with such intensity that he's sweating like drops of blood. And he cries out this prayer, Father, if there be any other way, let this cup pass from me. And he's talking about the judgment of God against sin. Here's what he's saying, by the way. He's asking the question that people ask

in our culture all the time. They're like, you mean to tell me that Jesus is the only way to go to heaven, the only way to the Father? Well, dude, we didn't make it up. Jesus himself says it in John 14, six. He says, I am the way, the truth, the life, and no one comes to the Father except through me. Then in the garden, he's asking the question, hey, Dad, if the liberal theologians are right, the Unitarians and the people that just like to make up stuff, if they're right and all roads lead to heaven and just. good people go to heaven, then why in the heck do I have to die on the cross? If there be any other way for sinful humanity to be reconciled to a holy and just God, seems like an awful waste of my blood on the cross tomorrow. Father, if there be any other way, let this cup pass from me. Not my will, but your will be done. If you're gonna be great in the kingdom of heaven, you have to endure pain. And that's terrible news in a culture that pursues comfort as its number one priority. I mean, it is the air that we breathe. Part of the reason that you have to endure pain as a believer in Jesus is because we have to take responsibility for things that are not our fault.

If you're a Christian, we just gotta quit talking about fault. We don't say it's not our fault. We say, I'll handle that, because we take responsibility. The Bible calls us to bear one another's burdens. Is your brother burdened in your fault? No, but you gotta pick him up and help. Husband, you gotta love your wife like Christ loved the church. Well, how did he do that? Sit on the couch and watch SportsCenter? No, gave himself up for her. You have to endure pain. Jesus says, you follow after me, the whole world's gonna hate you. Why? I thought we would be loving and kind. We are, but when you stand on the truth of the word of God, instead of being ruled by your feelings, it will not make you popular in this world. I hope you know that. If you wanna follow Jesus, you will endure pain. Proverbs 24, 17 says, the righteous man falls down six times, but he gets up seven. This doesn't mean we're perfect, but we persevere through the pain. The reality is this, the level at which a person is useful to God

is directly related to the pain he or she can endure. A.W. Tozer says it this way, it is doubtful whether God can bless a man greatly until he has hurt him deeply. Chuck Swindoll, one of the greatest preachers still alive, says, when God wants to do an impossible task, he takes an impossible man and he crushes him. Leave room for the crushing. Jesus says, you wanna follow me? You're like, yeah. You know what he doesn't say? We'll come to church every once in a while when it's convenient and say a prayer and sing the songs you like and maybe give me a little tip on the way out. That's not what he says. He says, you wanna follow me? Take up your cross daily and follow me. That's a crucifixion to yourself, to your flesh, to your own sin, to your will, to your ego. That's what it means to follow Jesus. And then he says, and if you're really getting it right, if you're really following in my ways and being obedient to what I have called you to do, congratulations, this world is gonna hate you. And blessed are you when they revile you and say things about you that aren't true and they hate you on account of me. Yeah.

And the thing that makes you great is not that you experience pain. Welcome to earth. You're gonna experience pain. Because humans are gonna human. I mean, it's just gonna happen, man. Stuff's gonna happen. But what makes you great is not just that you experience pain, but you can endure and persevere through the pain in accordance to what God has called you to do. So you wanna be great? Don't avoid it. Get ready. You're gonna walk through it. But the good news is, is he's gonna walk through it with you. You wanna be great? Here's number three. You gotta learn to live under godly authority. This one is so countercultural to where we live right now. Because everybody wants to make a name for themselves. But look what happens. Jesus says, oh, can you drink the cup that I'm gonna drink? And they're like, uh-huh. He's like, well, you're going to. I mean, both of them died for their faith. He says, but to sit at my right hand and at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father.

Did you catch that? Do you realize what's happening here? Jesus is a big deal. Jesus is before all things. Jesus is the second person of the Trinity, God the Son. The Bible says that in the fullness of God, he was pleased to dwell in the Son, Jesus Christ. That Jesus created all things. Everything that's been made was been made by him, for him, through him, and to him. And I know the first time he came, meek and mild like a little baby, but that is not his current existence. Right now, Jesus is king of kings, lord of lords. He's sitting at the right hand of God the Father on the throne. It is by his very power that we have breath in our lungs and the earth is on its axis, and the reason that we survive. And he's waiting for the moment where God the Father taps him on the shoulders and says, go get mine and bring him home. And then when he comes, he's coming in power. And the trumpet's gonna blast and the heavens are gonna be torn apart, and he's coming back on a war horse with fire in his eyes and a sword out of his mouth and tattoos on his quads, and he's coming back to judge. And my favorite part is the Bible says he's dressed in white for the final fight.

And I've said it a hundred times, and I'm gonna say it a hundred more. You know who wears the white to a fight? Somebody who knows they're gonna win. We're gonna win and it ain't gonna take long. And then it's dipped in blood. I don't know if it's his blood of the cross or the dead people's blood, but like he's coming back in charge. This is Jesus. He's king. And mama says, hey, can you put my boys, like can you give them a promotion? And he goes, that one's over my pay grade. Do you see the humility? That Jesus consistently, every single time, submitted himself to the authority of his father. That's what he does. I mean, he's standing before Pilate and Pilate thinks he's in charge, right? Because he's got the name badge and he's got the scepter. And Jesus said, you would have no authority over me unless it had been given to you from above. You see, Jesus demonstrates strength and security not by flexing, but in humility. Pastor Britt says this all the time, and it's just true. No one can keep you from what God has for you and no one can give you what God has not. And God will not bless rebellion. You wanna be great in the kingdom of God,

don't you ever expect God to trust you with authority until you've learned to live under godly authority. You are sitting in expression of that. Do you know why we get to exist as a church? Because we had the blessing of Pastor Jerry Sweat and Beach Church to launch us as a church. We didn't rebel, we didn't split, we didn't try to run off and do our own thing. I submitted to the authority of my pastor, Pastor Jerry Sweat. And here's the thing, man. When we started the 1122 service back in the day at Beach, and that thing began to blow up like crazy, do you know what most senior pastors would do in America? I was just like an elevated youth guy, that's what I was. And what most senior pastors would do when the one service is blowing up to turn into two and three, they'd walk over to me, pat me on the head, be like, hey, that's cool, I'll take it from here. But not Pastor Jerry, he prayed about it and he was more concerned about the name of Jesus than the name of Jerry. And he heard from the Lord and he said, this is what you should do. You should go and plant. And with his blessing, like I was under his authority and got his blessing and that's how we stepped out and God has trusted us to be the church that we are now. You wanna be great in the kingdom of heaven?

Learn how to live under authority. Ask yourself, man, are you constantly self-promoting or do you trust God to promote you? The last thing, the fourth thing, you wanna be great in the kingdom of heaven? You gotta humble yourself and serve. Look what happens in verse 24. Now when the 10 heard it, the other 10 disciples hear that the boys have sent their mom to kind of jockey to get a promotion over them. And when the 10 heard it, they were indignant at the two brothers. I think they're thinking, dang it, we should have sent our mom, but they didn't. Verse 25, but Jesus called them and said to them, do you know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them? This is a big deal. And when he says Gentiles, he doesn't just mean like people that didn't grow up Jesus. He's like, you know the people that don't even believe in God? You know how they act when they are in power? They lord their position and power over them. And their great ones exercise authority over them. Look at this next verse. It shall not be so among you. Let me ask you, is it so among you? Like when you're in charge, what do you do? Lord it over people?

Like what do you do when you realize you're in charge, you have all the power? Now some of you are the boss. Some of you are the shift manager. Some of you are the CEO, you hire people. You know, you're the dad, whatever, you're the boss. And I know some of you are thinking right now, well, I'm never in charge. Listen, all of us at some point are in charge. At some point, you're sitting in the living room and you have the remote, you have the power. Or you're driving carpool and everybody in the minivan is in your minivan and you have all the power. You determine the radio station, you solely determine are we doing Chick-fil-A or not, it is up to you. You're coaching the little league team. Everybody's three feet tall, you're six feet tall. And you're like, it's about time, okay? What do you do when you have all the power? Do you flex it? Because Jesus says it shall not be so among you. Let me give you one more that we're guilty of that we promised we would never be. You ever do this one? As long as you live in my house, you live under my rules. You ever do that one? Do you remember when you were 13 and your daddy talked to you that way? And you're like, what a dummy, I'm never gonna do that. And now you do it all the time?

Confession, man, the spirit of Perry Martin is manifesting in me and it's getting worse every year. I'm walking around just turning off lights. Anybody in this room, who's in this room? The door's open, I guess we're gonna ace the Isle of Jacksonville. Run into him, okay? Yeah, Jesus says, it shall not be so among you, but whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave. Here's what's crazy. Everybody wants to be a servant until you get treated like one. Let me make it worse. Anybody been to a leadership conference lately? Like, you know, like at your work, they have these leadership things, and you know what the buzzword now is? We're gonna be servant leaders. You see how we twist that? Servant is a noun, and we've made it an adjective to the kind of leader we're gonna be. That's not what Jesus said. Like, the question is, do I see myself as a servant who, by God's grace, gets to lead, or do I see myself as a leader, and then sometimes, when it's convenient and the right people are watching, then I'll serve? You see, because if you are a leader, I'm just gonna tell you, if serving is beneath you,

then leadership is beyond you in the kingdom of God. And then he says, even as the Son of Man came, not to be served, but to serve and give his life as a ransom for many. You wanna be great, you better humble yourself and serve. Let me tell you who a great man he is here at our church. Charles Martin, you've heard him preach before, right? He's a really big deal. He's one of my best friends now, one of my Mack carriers, but when I first met him, I had only heard that he was a big-time New York Times best-selling author. I didn't know him at all. And he comes up to me one day, and he's like, hey, if I can ever do anything around the church, let me know. And I'm gonna be honest, I'm gonna just tell you the truth. Most of the time when people ask me that, because here's what you could do, you could be on the parking team. Like, you don't have to have all kinds of super skills to serve here. If you can fog up a mirror, we got a job for you, man. Just serve. So most of the times when people ask me that, what they really mean, they're like, I'm a little above that. Is there something special I could do? And I didn't know him, so I just went back at him. And he's famous. Like, he does book signings,

and he travels all over the place, and he's been on red carpets, because they turn his books into movies. And I was just checking his spirit. And I go, well, the trash always needs to be taken out. So I said. And then I forgot about it. Because, you know, I don't sit up every night and think about Charles Martin. Then about two weeks later, I'm leaving church, and I walk out back, and guess who's out there throwing the trash away for the next several years? New York Times best-selling author, Charles Martin. Why? Because he just did whatever needed to be done when he was asked. You wanna be great? Then lower yourself and be a servant. Leverage your strength for others. You see, in our world, our world teaches us it's a dog-eat-dog world. It's a rat race that you gotta climb over people to get to the top. And Jesus says, in my kingdom, you lower yourself so that you can lift others up. That's what makes you great. In fact, Paul is gonna give some ink to this in Philippians chapter two. Paul says this. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit.

So if I looked at your Instagram, would it look like selfish ambition or vain conceit? He says do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility, consider others better than yourself. Now, they're not actually better than you because the ground at the cross is incredibly level, right? We're all image bearers of God, but he says we should treat other people as if they are better than us. Now, it's easy to treat somebody better than you when you feel like they're better than you, but what about Matilda that you work with? I'm trying to use names that nobody has anymore, okay? The number of Tammys that have come up. Why do you hate Tammy? Every Tammy I know is great, okay? Matilda, you know you work with Matilda at work, and nobody likes Matilda, man, because she ain't likable. She smells like cats, and she's got opinions, and she complains all the time, and she brings her Tupperware, and when she opens it, it smells like somebody had an accident. You know Matilda, and you don't want to talk to her, and she gets on your nerves. Paul says what you ought to do is when you walk into work tomorrow, you should say, Matilda, can I get you some coffee? That you should treat her as if she's better than you, more important than you,

and then I know what you're beginning to think right now. Yeah, but pastors. I mean, won't I get taken advantage of? How far should I take it? Paul's like, oh, I'm glad you asked. Here's how far you should take it. Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but he humbled himself in obedience, being born as a baby, lived an obedient life, and went all the way to the cross on our behalf. That's how far we should take it. This is how Christ demonstrated greatness, by humbling himself and becoming. becoming a servant, paying the ransom for you and for me. He gives us this beautiful picture in John chapter 13. We'll be there in a few weeks in Matthew's account of it. This is a really big deal in the life of Christ and in the life of the church. This is at the Last Supper. This is where Jesus institutes the ordinance of communion. He's sitting around the table. They're about to celebrate Passover. And the Bible says that Jesus, knowing all authority in earth had been given to him and it was his time, that means his time to go to the cross, the Bible says that Jesus shows to the disciples the full extent of his love. And what would you do?

Well, guess what he didn't do? He didn't get up and preach a sermon to demonstrate how smart he was. He didn't get up and do a miracle to demonstrate his power. He could have. He could have been like, open the windows. Look, I'm gonna spell your name. Look at here. Philip, put your name in the sky. That's not what he does. He didn't start a political party. That's not what he does. He gets up from the table and he starts walking over to a little basin and he dresses himself as a servant, and not just any servant. There was levels of servant. And he dresses himself as the lowest of all the servants and he washes his disciples' feet. Now, when we read that he washed his disciples' feet, we're just like, yeah, that's neat. You ever been a part of a ceremonial foot-washing service at some kind of Christian thing? Anybody done it? Okay, I hate them. I hate them. Because we don't know what they mean. This wasn't like that. Listen, man, back when I used to do weddings, I don't really do very many anymore,

but back when I would do weddings, couples would come to me and they'd be like, we're gonna do a foot-washing service. I'm like, look here, Levi, because it was always Bible names. Levi and Rebecca, we ain't doing foot-washing because here's the thing, man. I know what you think it means, but listen, when you get there in the service with your tux and she's got her little dress on and you get your little towel and you get down there and she pulls out her little perfect feet and you pat them, that's not what's happening in the first century. When she pulls her little foot out of that slipper, that's the cleanest foot in the history of foots. She's had a NASCAR crew on that foot for eight hours. They've been scrubbing and buffing and every toe, bro, you could eat off of that foot. In the first century, these feet were nasty. You ever watch The Chosen? Everybody walking around, got their Tevas on the Jesus sandals. You ever see any sidewalks? Ain't no sidewalks. And this is an agricultural society with all the camels. You know what you don't see? You know how when you walk around the neighborhood, everybody's walking around with their little bag of scooby-long, you know? Ain't nobody on The Chosen with a big old bag

of camel scooby-long cleaning up. Ain't no cleanup. See, you know where that is? That's on the road and that's on your feet. These feet were dirty, not just dirty, these feet were crappy, literally. And so then when they would get to dinner, they would have a process by which you would clean up. They would wash their hands. They'd dip them in six times. They'd wash them all off because they didn't have forks or chopsticks. They would eat with their hands and they would double dip. Seinfeld would have started this. That's what they would do. They'd share out of the same pot. And then, you ever seen the da Vinci painting of The Last Supper? He got it completely wrong. They're not all sitting at a high top, like 13 guys on one side, like they're about to judge the Olympic dive. No, no, no, no. The little tables in the first century were about this tall and there were pillows all the way around and everybody lay with their face towards the food and they'd put their stinky camel feet way out there on the edge so it didn't get close to the food. And it had an odor.

And so, the lowest of low servants would go and he wouldn't just like get a little water and just kind of pat it ceremonially. Bro, he's scrubbing animal dung and dirt and gross stuff off the feet of people. And Jesus, the King of Kings, gets up from the meal. He begins to walk over to the basin and I'm thinking the disciples are like, oh, don't pick me, don't pick me, don't pick me. Because they're probably thinking he's gonna walk over and be like, all right, who's the worst one, Peter? But he humbles himself. He humbles himself. He doesn't say, I'm above this. And he dresses himself as a servant and he washes all of their feet. He washes the doubter's feet. He washes the denier's feet. He washes the betrayer's feet. And then he says, hey, y'all don't understand what I'm doing right now, but you will. It's a picture of the gospel. Because he gets up from the throne in heaven, he dresses himself as a servant, he comes to this earth and he. He doesn't just wash us with water on our feet, but he washes us with his blood at the cross, and then he sits back down at the right hand of God the Father.

That's what he meant, but I've read ahead. And then he says this. I have set for you an example, and you will be blessed if you do likewise. And what's the blessing? Some kind of reward? The reward is that we act like Jesus. That's the reward. The reward is in the obedience. The reward is when we humble ourselves and we do what he says. Listen, man. Humble yourself and serve, serve, and not with strings attached. Don't serve because you feel guilty, and don't serve out of obligation, and don't serve out of manipulation. You know what I mean? Like you ever, all right, husbands, you finally get a hold of the love language book, and you read, oh, my wife's love language is acts of service and you're trying to do an act, you know, you're cleaning up the dishes, but she don't notice, so you do it real loud. You ain't serving her, you're trying to be served. That's not what he's doing, man. He lowers himself and he serves. So you wanna be great? Bend your knee to Jesus. Live your life with Jesus before all things,

preeminent in your life. It's proximity to him, not what you produce. That's what makes you great. You wanna be great, you will always have to endure pain. Because if you're gonna be great in this world, things have to change, and every time something changes, there is pain, and we have to endure it. You wanna be great, be humble, honor godly authority. You wanna be great? Serve. Pastor One, a couple of weeks ago, when he was taught, when he was preaching, I think Pastor One went to law school, and he's so smart, isn't he? And he said that when Matthew is putting together, Matthew, he's like a lawyer and he's building a case, so there's nothing out of order. Everything is in the right spot. And oftentimes, he will juxtapose different events together to draw a contrast between them. And so if you back up several weeks, if you'll remember, the events that are coming in order are, there were a bunch of little kids that come to Jesus in humility, and they're accepted. Then there's a rich young ruler that comes in arrogance, and he goes away sad. And then, if you'll remember, last week, Jesus shares a parable about the laborers in the vineyard who were fighting for more for them, and then right on the heels of this,

now two boys make a power play to use Jesus to gain status. And they send their mom to make a request, and the request is denied. And then the next thing that happens is Jesus encounters two blind men, poor in spirit. They don't ask for power, they ask for mercy. Verse 29 says this, and as they went out of Jericho, a great crowd followed him. And behold, there were two blind men sitting on the roadside, and when they heard that Jesus was passing by, they cried out, Lord, have mercy on us, son of David. They see Jesus for who he really is. They're humble, they're submitted, they're not making a deal, they're just asking for a favor. And the crowd rebuked him, saying, be silent. You realize this, everybody in the crowd would have looked down on these men because of their condition. And maybe the only thing worse than being looked down upon is not being seen at all. But Jesus sees them, and they cry out, and they cry out all the more, Lord, have mercy on us, son of David. You see, they were more concerned about what Jesus thought than what the crowd thought. Are you? You'll never be great in the kingdom of God if you're more concerned about what the crowd thinks than what Jesus thinks.

I had to deal with this all the time, man. I'm just telling you, I have one verse on my desk, it's Galatians 110. Am I now trying to win the approval of man or of God? For if I try to win the approval of man, I cannot be a servant of Christ. I don't know if you realize this, if you teach the Bible for a living, the internet will get mad at you. And I have to constantly remind myself, I don't care what the crowd says, I'm not doing this for the crowd's approval, I'm doing this for the approval of Jesus because it was his idea for me to do this, and not a popularity contest. And so that's what they do. They cry out all the louder, Lord, have mercy on us, son of David. And stopping, Jesus called them. And he doesn't say what you want. He says, what do you want me to do for you? And they said to him, Lord, let our eyes be opened. There's no deal making, there's no power move, there's no posturing, there's no quid pro quo. There's not, if we serve in kids for three weeks, then will you do it for us? That's not what they do. They just ask for mercy. And Jesus, Jesus in pity touched their eyes

and immediately they recovered their sight and followed him. You see, in this world, greatness is defined by power, position, possession. In the kingdom of God, greatness is with a humble posture and passion. Not mean, that doesn't mean like what you love the most, what you were willing to endure pain for and prayer. That's what these guys do, they get on their face and they pray. You see, the way we end our services, they're not just random, bro. They're not. When we sing, it's about our posture, that we humble ourselves because we're not singing to us, we're singing to him. We're making much of the one that is worthy of our worship. And when we bring, we're telling our hearts that the things of this world don't get to tell us who we are and where our treasury is there, our heart will be also. So we cheerfully, gladly bring our first to best to set up our whole life for the rest of the week to say, I'm not looking for my money to provide satisfaction and security because Jesus, you and you alone provide that. And when we pray, do you know why we invite you to come down here and pray? Because I don't want us to be like the sons of Zebedee that are posturing for position and power. I don't want us to be full of pride

and our pride keep us in our seat because we're too afraid of what everybody else thinks. I want us to be like the humble, poor in spirit blind man that have nothing to offer to the king. But we come down here and we get on our face and we say, Lord, son of David, I've got nothing to offer, but I need your help. Have mercy on me. And God says, what do you want me to do for you? Because what you need is not more information from me, man. What you need is an encounter with the resurrected Jesus Christ. And just like these men walked away being able to see, then it'll change everything about everything about everything in your life. You wanna be great? Humble yourself. Serve, live under authority. Bend your knee to Jesus and be like these blind men. We got nothing to offer you. Have mercy on me. And I'm telling you, you have no idea, no idea what he may do in and through you. Would you stand to your feet and let me pray for you. Our good and gracious heavenly father. God, we love you because you love us first and Lord, we thank you so much that you came not to bring religion of the rules of the do's and the don'ts and the haves and the have nots and a hierarchy of power.

But God, you came to bring redemption. You came not to be served, but to serve and give your life as a ransom for many. And so God, as we respond to the gospel, God, we do so by lifting our hands and lifting our voices and saying, Lord, we just wanna make room in our lives for you to do what you wanna do in our lives. And we bring to you our first and our best, God, because we reach out to grab on to the things of this world and they grab a hold of us. And Lord, you and you alone are the only one worthy to sit on the throne of our hearts, not the stuff of earth. And God, we pray because Lord, son of David, we just need your mercy upon us. So spirit of God, that's what I pray that you would lead us to do. We pray it in Jesus' name, amen. So church, that's how we're gonna respond. Not with arrogance and position and power and religious activity to try to earn a position, but in humility before an almighty king. And so I would invite you, if pride has kept you in your seat when you need the mercy of God to move, like these blind men, I'm going to invite you like the mother of the sons of Zebedee, at least she understood the success of the firstborn son of David. And I would invite you to sit down with me and say, this is not in what I produced, but I've got to bend my knee to Jesus and make that request.

And he's the kind of God, the whole world may be overlooking you and he sees you and he hears you. So we're gonna sing to the one that is worthy of it, we're gonna bring our first and our best, because he first loved us by giving us his best in Jesus Christ and we are gonna come and pray