Keys to Greatness

It's the greatest office in the world. It's the most powerful office in the world. Jeff Bezos of Amazon might be worth billions and billions. And China may be growing in influence, but in terms of power and prestige, the office of the American presidency is unmatched. It's unmatched. I think it's fair to say it is the greatest office in the world, and the person who fills that job is looked up to. Because they are in that office.

Over time, people begin to compare presidents by saying things like, He was the greatest president, and then fill in the blank for this or for that. Sometimes people even just say, He's the greatest president. You've probably heard people say that. It's not just the president, where we might say, He's the greatest this, the greatest that, or just the greatest.

We think about in sports, if I say, Who is the best basketball player of all times? I'm sure we get a lot of opinions in this room. Who's the best quarterback? Who's the greatest quarterback of all time? Suddenly, you know, not him. So we throw around this term, the greatest. The greatest president, the greatest quarterback, the greatest point guard. Whatever we're going to say, we're going to throw out this word, greatest. And, you know, the Bible, too, has a lot to say about greatness, and how greatness is defined.

And I want to bring this subject to our minds today, because I think we'd benefit from looking at how the Scriptures talk about greatness. And as we do this, I hope we can consider our own mental models of greatness, and compare these with what we read in the Scriptures. And through this process, you know, I think we need to ask ourselves whether we have what I might call a unified and consistent way of judging greatness. That is, whether people are of the faith or not of the faith. You know, do we have do we do mental gymnastics of like, well, you know, in terms of the church.

Yeah, that, you know, this person's, you know, this way or that way. But, you know, for some, you know, given they're not of the faith, well, then, you know, they have to be this way. Well, and does that make sense? Or should there be a unified consistent way that we think about greatness? And I think we'd have to ask ourselves whether our value system in terms of judging greatness is aligned with Scriptures and is aligned with God's Kingdom.

So today, I want to talk about what I'm going to call keys to greatness. And that's the title of the message today, keys to greatness. And we're going to look at three characteristics of greatness that I think just come right off the pages of the Bible. Faith, perseverance, or what the Bible describes as overcoming, and humility. Faith, perseverance, and humility. Now, before we start talking about greatness, I think we need to define our terms a little bit.

When we say someone is a good person or a great person, generally, what we're doing is we're passing some moral judgment, you know, or some kind of judgment over that person. Oh, he's a great guy. He's a great gal. He's a really good person. He's a good person. Now, we know, at least we should know, and I think you can mark this down, that in Mark 10, verse 18, Jesus said, Why do you call me good?

No one is good except God alone. So when we say, Oh, he's a really good person, well, I think we know what we mean, but technically, technically, that's not really correct because now what we're doing is we're passing a judgment.

And I think if we said to Jesus Christ, you know, good master, and he doesn't want to take that, then I don't think we can apply that to anybody. So if we can't say, Oh, he's a good person, we can't say he's a great person because that would be the same thing. All it is just like one step above, right? Oh, he's a great person. Well, you know, why would you say that? So we have to be careful about how we use the term. Merriam-Webster's dictionary defines great in different ways. It's got an adjective form, it's got an advert form, it's got a noun form. As an adjective, you know, he's a great person, right?

Modifying the word person. Merriam-Webster says, notably remarkable, eminent, notably large in size or number, distinguished, marked by superior, marked superior in some way or superior in character or quality. And even as a noun, great is defined as an outstandingly superior or skilled person. In other words, we might just say greats. Like, you know, we'd say attribute to the greats of baseball, attribute to the greats of the NFL. But we can throw that around. So when we say great, we would need to say something is, someone is good or great at something. Like, she is a great leader, or he is a great cook.

We're describing their skills in cooking, or their skills in leadership. And I think the Bible is consistent in this approach because when the Bible speaks about the greats, or when we think about the greats of the Bible, we speak about people who are, and then you can fill in the blank, great in, right? Well, we just know that he's a great person in the Bible. What do you mean? He's great in what?

So let me ask you, when you think about some of the great figures mentioned in the Bible, what do you think of? What do you think of when you think of it? If I asked you a name, tell me one of the greats of the Bible, one of the great figures in the Bible. Some of you might, I think I talked to Mr. Cruz. He's like, where's Mr. Cruz? Probably Daniel, right? We talked about Daniel, right?

I talked to my wife, she's like Joseph. You know, others might say Ruth, David, Peter. I mean, we each kind of have something in our mind in terms of a figure in the Bible that we, you know, we're just like, wow, you know, this person was so amazing.

And what do all these people have in common? What do all these people have in common? Well, and that's the first point. The preeminent characteristic that defines the greats of the Bible is faith. Look over in Hebrews 11. Now, let's see how God actually introduces many of these people, these greats, because they're not called great people.

They're called great people of faith. They're great in faith. And that is really how we have to begin to think about greatness from a biblical standpoint. Look at Hebrews 11 verse 1. We so often read verse 1, and we skip over 2 and 3, and we get right into Abel. Hebrews 11 verse 1, now faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen.

And then in verse 2, it's a very short phrase, but we can skip over it so quickly. It says, for by it, that is faith, the elders obtained a good testimony.

They obtained a good testimony. Now, we don't use the word testimony very often in modern usage. That's not something, I mean, maybe in religious circles, you know, people say, well, I gave my testimony or in court circles, I gave a testimony. What does that really mean? Well, the English Standard Version translates that verse as, For by it the people of old received their commendation. The NIV talks about being commended. They received a commendation. What happens when you receive a commendation? It's an award. It's an honor. It says you have done something remarkable. You know, when somebody receives the Medal of Honor or the Presidential Citizens Medal of Honor, I told the story of Rick Rascorla and talked about his sacrifice and the sacrifice that he made over years. You know, I didn't have a chance to mention, but last November, his widow received from President Trump the President's Medal for for bravery on behalf of for her husband. And that that was a commendation. It's something that says this is something remarkable, something great has been done here. And so that's what that's what that's what's being said here is that God is saying, Great job. I commend you. I commend you. God is saying someone did a great job and it is going to be it is because of their faith that he's saying they did a great job. This is the biblical definition of greatness. God commends us and he commends us because of our faith. And then we read the names Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Rahab, Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel. And and the author just keeps says I could just keep going. There's so many to describe.

You know, as as I get older, I see more and more how incredibly powerful faith is. Faith. Faith is the great equalizer among us, no matter where we come from, no matter what our background, no matter no matter what our situation. Faith is the great equalizer because whether somebody's got everything going for them and, you know, they got money and they got background and all these kinds of things, they're going to carry their cross. They're going to carry their burden. They're going to carry issues in their life that they have to deal with. And if they don't deal with them, they're going to suffer because they need faith. That person needs faith no matter where they're coming from. Most societies look at wealth. They look at power. They look at prestige. And I think that's why this this election is so fascinating because you're talking about, quote unquote, these great powers, these great people, these very charismatic individuals. And people are fascinated by that. I think it's clear that God doesn't look at that. He looks at his faith. What is that person's faith and how are they doing in their walk with with their creator? We are all tested. We all have a cross to bear. And the definition of greatness, biblical definition of greatness, is the opposite of how this world's leaders operate. Because this world's leaders operate. Is it based on faith in God? No. What is it based on? It's based on faith in themselves.

Self-confidence. It's all about confidence and projecting confidence and projecting power and being assured because, trust me, I know what I'm doing. Follow me and we'll solve this together. Or follow me and don't worry, you're going to be okay. Or follow me, unfortunately, in many countries and I'll give you money.

If you vote for me, I'll give you money. Right? I mean, this is the opposite. So in godly leadership, in godly greatness, it's about faith in God. And in human greatness, it's about faith in yourself. It's about self-confidence and how we move forward in self-confidence.

And in fact, these great leaders of our modern era, and you know, we speak about politics, but there's many other areas. It can be in sports, like I said. It can be in our homes. I don't think there's a big difference, frankly, between the autocrat in a governmental position and the autocrat in a home. It's worldly and it causes grief within that community. But there's a term that we've come up with in English that describes these people who have incredible confidence in themselves. The term is confidence men. How many people have heard that term? Confidence men? Some? Okay. Yeah. Confidence men. What are confidence men? Confidence men are men who are so confident in what they're saying that they convince people that what they're saying is true. And they're like, no, this is how it is and this is how it works. And what they do is they use that charisma, they use that confidence to convince people typically to buy something. And so, you know, in the 19th century, in the West, there would be these people and you'd probably seen them in movies and they've got this wagon and they come into town and they sell an elixir. This elixir is going to fix your lumbago or whatever it is. They were called confidence men because they were so confident about what they were saying. And people would just say, I'll buy it. Yeah, yeah, it's going to fix it. And you know what we've done is we've shortened that term today. And we don't call them confidence men anymore. We call them con men. And that's where the word con men came from. It came from confidence men.

And so now we call them con men. And what they are is they're people who are so self-assured that people are like, well, that person's so self-assured. He or she, typically it's a he, must be right. I'm going to buy the elixir. I'm going to follow what they're doing. And that is the opposite of what the biblical definition of greatness is. The biblical definition of greatness is not confidence in ourselves, it's confidence in God.

And so we see this distinction. Now, there's also a distinction that James describes in James chapter 2. James chapter 2 describes this distinction. And James is just...it's amazing to read this because James chapter 2 and verse 1 to 4, if you look at this, this could be taken out of any storyline today, 2020. This was written, what, 60-ish AD? So, you know, 1900 and something years ago. And yet it's right out of what happens today. He says in James 2, verse 1, He says, My brethren, do not hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with partiality. Our faith in God, our faith in His law, our faith in terms of how we live our lives is not to be held with partiality. Verse 2, For if there should come into your assembly a man with gold rings and fine apparel, and there should also come in a poor man in filthy clothes, and you pay attention to the one wearing the fine clothes and say to him, You sit here in a good place and say to the poor man, you stand there or sit here on my footstool. Have you not shown partiality among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? And I think this is recorded because God knows this is how our human nature operates.

We look at the rich person and, of course, money is power. So we look at the rich person and that often means there's power. And maybe there's some prestige with that. Maybe there's some influence with that. Maybe there's some connections that that provides.

We look at that and we treat that person better because maybe they're impressive in what they do.

And we can be tempted to think that they are great, that they are worthy of commendation, that they are worthy of some special treatment. But notice verse five, which makes it clear why this is a problem. Listen, my beloved brethren, has God not chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which he promised to those who love him? James is like, don't pay attention to those things.

What matters is the faith. And in this case, he's saying that quote unquote poor man, you might call him poor, but he's not poor. He's rich in faith.

That person is rich in faith and that person should be treated with the same respect as anyone else because I don't look at power and prestige and money. I look at faith. That's what matters to me is faith.

Whatever situation we might be in in life, God makes it clear that our faith defines our greatness. It is faith that remains despite what we see around us. So as we saw in Hebrews 11 verse one, you know, the evidence of things not seen.

It is a faith that God exists. It is a faith that he loves us. He loves his creation, that we are his children.

And no matter the bleakness of our personal circumstances, God is working things for our good if we love him and are called according to his purpose.

We've probably heard that in Romans eight verse twenty eight.

If we go back to Daniel, Daniel walked into the lion's den and it was first faith that allowed him to do that. And then the courage came from that. It was first faith. When Peter denied Christ, you know, Peter, you know, as we say, he, you know, he wasn't aiming for that high priest servant ear. He had a sword and he was going to defend his master. That was passion. That was impulse. That was lots of things. But when the chips were down, he didn't have the faith to stand up for his master and denied him three times.

When Joseph sat in jail and he didn't hear back from his cellmate after he got released, it was faith that allowed him to rise to a point where he was the chief assistant in that jail that he was in.

Even though he thought, hey, I did something good. Why don't you come and help me get out of jail? He didn't become bitter or upset. He developed that faith. And when we get up in the morning, it is our faith that is going to carry us through the day, not our money or our hobbies or our distractions or our personal courage or our personal self-confidence or whatever we might say about how we're going to bootstrap things.

It's our faith. It's our faith that even though what I see in front of me seems impossible, seems awful, seems wrong. I don't know why this is happening. We know that Jesus Christ is the head of the church. We know that God is our creator and that these things are working according to his plan and not our plan.

And that defines greatness when we can go through the day and have confidence that God is in charge and that we are following his lead. If we have confidence, we must have confidence in God to carry us through our trials. So how is your faith? Have we asked that God strengthen our faith? I think it's really important to strengthen our faith because we each go through things and we're just like, why is this happening?

God, why are you doing this? This makes no sense. Have we confessed our sins, wanted to know that we might be strengthened in our faith? Faith is the first and most critical mark of greatness. And let us not be deceived by those who put faith in themselves and in their own abilities, including ourselves. I got this. I got this. No, it's faith. So let's talk about the second characteristic of greatness, the second key that I want to mention.

So what do you think of when you think of a great athlete or a person who rises from a difficult background to achieve something meaningful? What do you think of when you think of a great athlete? You know, somebody who just comes from a very, very difficult background and they manage to just rise to some level, right? They're just breaking out in terms of what they've been doing. Often when we discuss what we discuss is someone realizing his or her potential. And you hear a lot about that in modern psychology. Oh, you know, he's maximizing his potential.

You know, he's actualizing his abilities and so forth. But this process of realizing our potential is actually something that's talked a lot about in the Bible and outside. And it's often referred to as perseverance, perseverance, or what I think the Bible calls overcoming. So overcoming is the second characteristic of biblical greatness. Now, many of us might not think of ourselves as great in that way. We might say, well, you know, what have I achieved?

You know, what potential have I done? I just, you know, I go to work. I, you know, I do my job. I come home. I make dinner or, you know, I try and just kind of keep up with things. I go to bed exhausted. We might say, well, you know, how does that apply to me? But, you know, I think when I look out here today and I don't know all of your stories, but I know many, I think I'm looking at greatness.

And I mean that. I mean, because I've talked to many of you and I know that many of you have overcome. You have overcome day after day and year after year. You have overcome. You have persevered through great difficulties and you are here. You are here because you have made a decision that you are going to put one foot in front of the other and you are going to surmount that difficulty. You are going to bear that cross and you're going to walk with God.

And that's greatness. Look over in Revelation 2, verse 1. Revelation 2, verse 1. Sometimes, you know, we talk about the things that we need to improve on and so forth. But I think this is one where we need to be encouraged and we need to read the encouragement that is in Scripture. Revelation 2, verse 1 says to the angel of the Church of Ephesus, right?

These things says, He who holds the seven stars in His right hand, who walks in the midst of the seven golden lampstands. And now He's going to describe the Church in Ephesus. He's going to give them admonition or He's going to give them encouragement. And in verse 7, He concludes. This is the revelation here of Jesus Christ to John.

He concludes by saying, He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches, to Him who overcomes, I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God. To Him who overcomes. Now, this Greek word is nikayo, N-I-K-A-H-O. It means to conquer.

It means to conquer. To Him who conquers. To Him who prevails. I will grant to eat of the tree of life. To conquer or to prevail means that we are in combat. We are in combat. We are fighting something. And not just that we're in combat and we're fighting, but we emerge victorious.

We persevere and we win. We win. In fact, the complete Jewish study Bible translates this phrase as, To Him winning the victory, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life. Overcoming. Sometimes we think, to Him who overcomes, we have this kind of sense that we're here and then there's this overcoming part and then there's some sort of reward or commendation at the end. But the way this is written is it's not like we're here and then there's this and the commendation. It's actually on the other side. We have overcome and now here's this incredible reward. There is this sense of you're going to make it. You're going to get there. You're going to win. Hang in there. God is with you. That's the sense here that is it's a sense to Him winning the victory. This is an achievement. This is using our God-given potential to become something different, to become a new creation. This is taking personal responsibility for our walk with God by not allowing ourselves to be victimized. To recognize that we are promised a victory. This means becoming leaders under God's authority, instruments in His hands. And it means using our talents, not burying our talents in the ground. That's an unfaithful servant. Using the talents, the parable of the talents, describes that. And notice how consistent this message is. So consistent. We've read this before, but let's look at it again. Verse 11, to the church in Smyrna. He writes, He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. He who overcomes, he who is winning, shall not be hurt by the second death. And then verse 17, to the church of Pergamos. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will give some of the hidden manna to eat, and I will give him a white stone, and on a stone a new name written, which no one knows except him who receives it. And then notice now, in verse 26, And he who overcomes and keeps my works, until the end to him I will give power over the nations.

This is greatness. This is the achievement of greatness because of this desire to overcome. Look in chapter 3, verse 5. He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out his name from the book of life, but I will confess his name before my father and before his angels.

And then to the church of Philadelphia, in verse 12, He who overcomes I will make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go out no more. And I will write on him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the New Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from God. And I will write on him my new name. And then verse 21, to the church of Laodicea, to him who overcomes I will grant to sit with me on my throne as I also overcame and sat down with my father on his throne. To every single church there is this beautiful promise. No matter whether that church was Sardis, which was this problematic church, Laodicea, very problematic, Ephesus, who lost their first love, every single church there is a promise to Him.

To He who overcomes. Are we ready for greatness by fighting the good fight? Do we encourage our brothers and sisters to persevere and to overcome? So what is it that you must overcome? I'm asking myself that question. What is it that I must overcome? Addictions, reliance on self versus reliance on God, pride, lack of faith, fear of failure, fear of success, poor health, a difficult childhood, cultural prejudices, race and gender, a broken family, limited family support, and insensitivity to the needs of others. What is it that you need to overcome? I urge each of us to take the time to think about that. To think about it and write it down. What is it we need to overcome? What is our battle right now, this minute? And take that to God. That's greatness. That is greatness.

This is what we might see in the hard work of a basketball player.

Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, you know, name them, right? They didn't get there because they were lazy. They got there because they worked very hard and they overcame and they pushed themselves.

Let's turn to 1 John 5, verse 3 and 4. Again, I just give you the example of sports because we can sometimes relate to that. What I'm talking about are character issues. What I'm talking about is what's inside, not necessarily, you know, how do they say, you know, basketball is people with sort of a gland problem or something? You know, like they're very tall. They have some sort of malfunction and they're seven feet tall or something. 1 John 5, verse 3. You can remind me what gland that is that doesn't function properly and causes people to grow.

1 John 5, verse 3, 4 and 5. For this is the love of God that we keep His commandments and His commandments are not burdensome. And you know how many times have you turned to 1 John 5, verse 3 and you've read that and somebody says, see, we have to keep the commandments and love God and period. And then they go on to the next one.

But look at verse 4 and verse 5 because it builds, it's going someplace. John is going someplace with this thought. In verse 4, for whoever is born of God overcomes the world. It's a done deal. You're born of God, you overcome the world. We have that promise. Sometimes we might think, God, this is too hard. This is too hard. My childhood, my this, my that, you know, my addiction. Well, it's too hard. It's done. For whoever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world. Our faith. It goes back to faith. That's why we start with faith. Our faith overcomes. This is how we achieve that greatness. These are the keys to greatness. And then in verse 5, who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? See, when we say this is stupid, I don't know why this is happening, then we're saying is, God, you don't know what you're doing. You just don't know what you're doing. You must you must have forgotten me or you got distracted. You let this happen. That doesn't make any sense. When we believe that Jesus is the Son of God, we acknowledge that he is omnipotent and that he has a plan for us. It is through our faith that God and Jesus Christ have a plan. They had a plan from the foundation of the world. They have a plan.

And when we consider greatness, then this is how we consider it because we recognize that we are going to overcome through our faith. So when we consider greatness or decide to call someone great, we should consider how the pages of the Bible reveal how God looks at greatness. Has this man or woman demonstrated faith through perseverance and overcoming sin? This is how we should be aligning our concept of greatness. This person is a person of faith. This is a person who has overcome. That is greatness.

Finally, I want to ask how we consider Jesus Christ fitting in here. What was his teaching on this? What was his teaching on greatness? We are called by his name. We are to follow his example. Let's look at Jesus Christ's teaching on greatness. This is the third characteristic of Biblical greatness, which is humility. Luke 9, verse 46 to 48. It says here, Many times we read the parallel account in Matthew 18. I want to focus on this account, which focuses on the receiving.

The receiving or welcoming sometimes. It says here, whoever receives, in verse 48, this little child in my name receives me. That's not something that we focus on a lot, this concept of receiving. Within the first century context of Judea, there were many, many hierarchies. Roman citizens were above non-Roman citizens. If you were educated, then you might be above someone who is not educated.

If you were free, you were above somebody who was a slave. One of the hierarchies that was very deeply entrenched was that you had men, women, and children. Man to man is another thing. Man to woman is another thing. Man to children is another thing. These are very established hierarchies. Children have the lowest status in the hierarchy. Even today, for example, if you were going to host the president of the United States, or maybe the president of the United States was going to come into our church today, and we had some of our little children kind of running in front of him, maybe causing him to trip, or distracting in some way, some of us might be tempted to shoo those kids out of the way.

The president's here. Let's get our act together. We can't have these children running around. Control your children, right? Poor moms have heard that many times. So, you know, we can kind of get a little glimpse of that. However, we know that from this teaching, and hopefully all of us would follow this, that if the president of the United States were to visit us, and he were to come through this door, and some of the children were to run in front of him, we would be gracious to those children. And we would say, oh, you know, it looks like you have a toy here, you want to run over here.

Why don't you go run over here and play a little bit? Because those children don't know that's the president of the United States. They don't know the significance of the event, and that would be the gracious thing to do. But that is not necessarily the case. Some of us might, you know, get a little flustered. When I'm in Africa, I see a lot of children. The average family size in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is seven.

So if you can imagine everybody's having seven children, children are everywhere. And I imagine in the first century that was probably the case as well. There were children everywhere. When I go to a congregation, there are just children following me everywhere because I'm a white guy. They don't see white people very much, and I'm tall.

And so they kind of cluster. And after a while, you see so many children, you don't even notice the children anymore. They all kind of blur into one kind of mass. And their individuality, their uniqueness, their God-given gifts and personalities don't necessarily come through. And you have to step back and go, these are people.

Every single one of these little children are people, and they have potential, and they have an opportunity to grow into something special that God can use. And I have to remind myself of that. And that's what Jesus is saying here.

He's saying this smallest, most insignificant, lowest on the hierarchy list. If you treat a little child like this with all the respect and graciousness and kindness, then you are receiving me, and you are receiving the one who sent me.

That's what he's describing. The lowest of the low. And he wanted to make a point, because in the verses right before, in verses 43 to 45, he was attempting to show them that he was not going to be coming to create this enormous kingdom right now. He says, you know, he was going to be a suffering Messiah. Look at verse 44.

Let these words sink down into your ears. Listen, he says, like, pay attention. I'm trying to tell you something important. Listen to me. For the Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of men. Listen to me. I'm not going to be the king right now. It's going to look like its defeat. It's going to look like it's the end.

And yet the disciples were disputing who would be the greatest. Why? I mean, what do you think is happening right now? People in the United States and Washington, D.C. are scrambling to see who's going to get the new positions of power. That's what they're thinking about. I mean, you can take verse 46 and imagine right now, all over Washington, D.C., people are scrambling. Who's going to be this? Who's going to be that? I'm best on this. I'm best on this. And this is kind of what they're doing. The Twelve are like, okay, well, I'll be Secretary of State. You'll be Secretary of the Treasury. You can be over recruiting. And they're all trying to figure out who's going to be. I'm going to have. Well, that's not as... And that's what they were doing. They were basically trying to figure out where they fit in this great government that was going to be established when the Romans got kicked out.

And there was always discussion later of sitting on Thrones and judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And that's what they were thinking about. And Jesus was like, you don't get this. You don't get this. That's not right now. Right now, I need you to look at this little child over here, this little two-year-old or three-year-old, who can barely walk and has no status.

And I want you to think of that person as a child of God. And I want you to just really think about that potential. And I want you to really just minister and welcome that child like that child was the greatest.

And it was just something they couldn't imagine.

Look at the variation of this teaching over in Matthew 20, verse 20.

Because this discussion of who was going to be the greatest was happening all the time.

Matthew 20, verse 20, 28.

And we have Peter, James, and John, and we know what Andrew did and so forth.

But Matthew 20, verse 20 says, The mother of Zebedee's sons came to him with her sons, kneeling down and asking something from him. And he said to her, What do you wish? And she said to him, Grant that these two sons of mine may sit, one at your right hand and the other on your left in your kingdom. Positions of power, positions of greatness. Jesus answered and said, You do not know what you ask. Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with? And they said to him, We are able.

Skip down to verse 24. And when the ten heard it, they were moved with indignation against the two brothers. How dare you? You know, we were talking about what we were doing. Now you went behind our back. You know, you put your mother up to asking this question. And, you know, now, like suddenly, you know, you're going to step in these positions and this is just wrong. You know, we should have discussed this together as a group. You can imagine all the kinds of discussions they were having about what was going on.

But Jesus called them in verse 25 to himself and said, You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lorded over them and those who are great exercise authority over them.

Yet it shall not be so among you, but whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your servant. And whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave.

Just as the son of man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many.

So here's what Jesus said himself about greatness.

He who wants to be great must be a servant.

You know, and I think our Judeo-Christian roots in this country, I think, is picked up on this concept because we tend to use this language.

And when we talk about government service, because what do we say? Government service? We say public service.

He's a public servant.

And so we do pick up on this.

We say that those who govern are those who serve. But unfortunately, I find this tends to be just in words only.

Often, once people get into positions within a governmental structure, the power of that position can become intoxicating, and they want to stay in that position.

I remember attending a business conference in 2011 in Maryland, and one of the speakers was the junior senior, and he was elected in 2008 and started his term in 2009, so about two, two and a half years into his six-year term as a senator.

And he had been in business before entering into politics, which is why they asked him to come speak at this conference, because we were all... I think there were three or four hundred of us there at this business conference.

And he was a very articulate person. He spoke very clearly. He said, you know, look, I came from business, I want to get things done.

I know this is how we get things done. We've got to act efficiently. I'm only going to be in Washington in a short time, and I'm going to do what I can, and then I'm going to get back to where I came from.

And, you know, very... again, it was an impressive discussion. He had a question and answer afterwards. Many of us had a chance to ask questions.

And, you know, he was talking about how, you know, these career politicians and these people, you know, they just get in government and so forth.

And, you know, I was preparing this, and I was thinking of that story, and I thought, I wonder what happened to this junior senator from Virginia, who I listened to back in 2011.

And I looked, and sure enough, he just won reelection. Third term. Third term. And now he's the senior senator from Virginia. And I'm like, oh yeah, okay, sure, yeah.

You're in business, just going to do it a little while. Yeah, 18 years. I don't think that's going to count. It's just a little while.

People talk the talk, but when they get in there, that power can just be intoxicating, such that they're just going to keep going and they're going to keep going.

That's a mild example. When Jesus said the leaders of the nations lord it over them, I think we understand that the world is, frankly, a dangerous place.

We have dictators. We have strongmen. We have people that, you know, if we live at a time, I think, you know, you've heard this term Pax Americana, right?

We live at a time where the United States is so powerful that all of these various people around the world, they have to stay in line.

It wasn't always like this. You can go back to European wars and African wars and, you know, things that go on in Asia, the Middle East.

This is the history of our human nature. We have these people, and they're going to just start... they're going to dominate this people, and then they're going to dominate their neighbors, and they're going to dominate the people after that, and they're just going to march through until somebody else comes and dominates them. That's what he's describing. These people lord it over. They control, they manipulate, you know, they inspire through their charisma, whatever it might be.

And frankly, whether you're controlling or manipulating a country, like I said, or you're controlling or manipulating your family, it's the same concept.

Whatever domain you have, big or small, this is how the world operates, but not so with the people of God.

The people of God do not operate this way. Greatness, as defined by Jesus Christ, does not operate this way.

He said, not so among my followers. We are to act as servants. In fact, not just as servants, but as slaves. The lowest of the low.

Imagine being a slave and being great. Joseph was great, right? He was in prison. He had no control of what he could do, and yet he is held up as a standard of greatness.

And again, I think it's important that we do not somehow do some mental gymnastics between, well, yeah, in the church you can be a slave and be great, but in the world you can't do that, because you'll just get run right over.

You know, in the world that's different. You know, things have to operate different. No. This is a single standard of greatness that Jesus is talking about. And if somebody does not adhere to this, they're not great in terms of how God views them.

And I don't think they should be great in terms of how we view them either.

There should be a single standard of greatness that we follow and we look at. I remember when I worked at Intel Corporation, probably about 20 years ago now, I had the chance to work closely with the Chief Financial Officer, and the CFO at that time was a very well-respected individual. He was probably one of the most well-respected CFOs among the Fortune 500. Great deal of credibility. He led the company to a very stable stock price, rising dividends.

So people who would have their 401ks invested in Intel stock had stability, and they saw increased retirement funds and so forth. He was in his 50s at the time, and he could have worked anywhere. Again, very well-respected.

One day, there were a number of us, and we were all in this conference room, and we were waiting for him to arrive for the meeting. It was his meeting. We were there basically to serve him.

He was running about 10 minutes late, and we were talking, and we came in, our watch was like, well, we're going to be able to get through this and so forth. And then, in he comes. He kind of bursts in the door, and he's kind of out of breath, and there's kind of some perspiration on his brow. He comes in, he's a big guy, and he sits down. He's like, okay, let's get started.

And we're like, you know, this is your meeting. You can go along, you know, you can arrive 30 minutes late, you know, it's your meeting.

But that's how he was, because in his view, you know, there were 10 or 12 of us in the room. We had schedules. We prepared something to present to him, that he was then going to present on Wall Street or to the board of directors or wherever he was going to present it. And this was a form of disrespect to be late. And so he had kind of briskly, if not run up the stairs, run down the hall, and walked in. You know, he could have been an extra five minutes late and walked and not been perspiring out of breath, but you know, that's the way he thought. And that was, to me, that was quite an impression. This man considered it to be a disrespectful thing to be late. And he wanted to be on time. He wanted to make sure that he was, in that sense, a servant to us, that we could get our jobs done, even though we were there to support him. And that's, again, just a simple example. But I've seen other, I've had other bosses. I've worked with other people who aren't that way. They show up 30 minutes late, like, well, you know, I'm the boss. You know, you got plans? Well, change them. You know, I'm the boss.

And that's not great. That's not greatness. That's lording it over people. As God's people and as future leaders in the world tomorrow, our greatness will be measured by our degree of service to others, our degree of service to others, by our deference to others, by whether we listen to others' needs, even if their opinions differ from our own.

And that's the hardest time, because sometimes we're like, well, you know, I'm not sure that I agree with you. What does that matter? You know, maybe you don't agree with me. Maybe I don't agree with you. But that doesn't mean that I can't defer to you. That doesn't mean that I can't serve you. That doesn't mean I can't help in some way based on what your needs are.

It says, verse 28, just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. Literally, he came to give his life to be a slave.

Faith, perseverance and humility. I think these are the keys to greatness. And I think this should be our mental model of greatness. Great men and women, we might call them. And again, we know that we can't call them good or great. They have to be great in a certain manner. What do they do?

Unfortunately, as Jesus describes, most leaders today have substituted these things for self-confidence, fraud and the pursuit of power. That tends to mark greatness today.

Trust me. Follow me. Hit your wagon to a star. I'll take care of you. Well, you know, we have to cut some corners. That's okay. Trust me. I know what I'm doing.

And then, obviously, the rules apply differently for me than other people. We're all equal except some are more equal than others.

You've probably heard that before. So let's not make the same mistake. Let's not define greatness for ourselves and for others by the measure of the world, but by the measure of our dependence on our Maker, our faith in His power and in His goodness.

And let's persevere to the end, humbling ourselves that God will lift us up.

I want to conclude with 1 Corinthians 1, verse 26 because I think it really summarizes this discussion and really what we're called to do.

1 Corinthians 1, verse 26. 1 Corinthians 1, verse 26. You can see the definitions of greatness. The worlds and the churches right here. 26 and 27.

For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise, according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. What are the what is wise, mighty and noble? Those are the greats of the world. The great, the great people.

Not many, but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the great, the wise. And God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty.

God's definition of greatness is different than the world's definition of greatness.

And we need to align ourselves with this definition of greatness because this is our calling. Verse 28. In the basesthings of the world and the things which are despised, God has chosen and the things which are not to bring to nothing the things that are. That no flesh should glory in his presence, but of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, that as it is written, he who glories, but him glory in the Lord.