Jesus’ top tips on how to be the greatest

Jesus Top Tips for Greatness [00:00:00] Hi everyone. I hope you've had a good week. I'm gonna start with a question. Who do you think is the greatest person you know or know of and why? Do put your answers in the comment section 'cause it'll be interesting to see who you come up with. I asked one of my sons and one of our lodgers, Jenny, to put this question to their friends this week and hear are some of their answers. So the first on the list is Eleanor Rothbaum. Um, and she was a politician and they thought she was great for her campaigning amongst other things. Next up, we have Christian Dior, the French, French fashion designer because he sculpted wom, uh, shapes for women's clothes never seen before. Then we have Will Smith, the actor for bringing up his children in a nonviolent home without profanity or raised voice. We have Juergen Klopp, the football manager for his management skills, [00:01:00] success and humility as a leader. He is so popular in Liverpool right now after leading Liverpool football Club to winning the Premier League. Uh, we have, on the subject of football, we've got Christiano, Ronaldo, and Stevie Gerard. And then someone said, uh, mentioned a friend because the friend cares more about what God thinks than other people think. A couple of people said their dads because of things like listening before speaking and integrity. Someone else said their granddad because he was smart and amazing at teaching life skills without you even realizing that he was teaching you. The reason that I'm asking this question is because, um. Of an argument that Jesus disciples had. They'd just all walked to a place called Capernaum and had just gone into a house. Um, and let's have a look at the beginning of today's passage. So it's from Mark nine, verse 33, and it says, then he came to Capernaum. That's [00:02:00] Jesus. When he was in the house, he asked them, what was it you disputed amongst yourselves on the road, but they kept silent for on the road. They had disputed or argued amongst themselves who would be the greatest. Jesus knew exactly what they were arguing about, but he asked the question anyway, and you get the distinct impression that the disciples were embarrassed that they'd been arguing about this, so were, why were they arguing about who would be the greatest? Well, over the past few weeks we've seen that the Jewish people had many prophecies predicting that a Messiah would come, someone who would save his people. They were expecting a strong and powerful warrior type of Messiah who would come and set up his kingdom and get rid of the Romans who were the ruling power in Israel at the time. They believed that Jesus was this Messiah. They were arguing about which of them was gonna be the most important in this new setup, the one who'd have the most power and the most prestige. [00:03:00] To start, to some extent, it was an exercise in comparison, but Jesus had already told them it wasn't gonna happen like that, and that he had to be killed, but was gonna rise to life again. As I said in my last talk, they couldn't get their heads around it. It was so different from what they were expecting. Now it, I teach English to people whose first language is in English. And sometimes the people who find it the hardest to speak correctly are the ones who've been here for years but never learned the correct way of speaking. They've, um, picked up bad habits and just speak, um, like the vocabs wrong and the grammar's wrong, and it's just all a bit mixed up. And it's harder for them to change from the bad language habits they picked up than it is for someone to learn from scratch. So I do get how difficult it was for the disciples to understand what Jesus was about. I dunno where everyone else is from who's watching this, but it is not very British. To be in a group [00:04:00] of people and to be arguing about who amongst you is the greatest in politics, we see a lot of arguing about how all the other parties are worse, or in boxing, there might be a lot of talk about who is the greatest. But in general, in everyday life, we don't openly argue about this, but I don't think we are that different to the disciples. We are much more subtle than that, but we do most of our comparison and working out who is the greatest in our mind. I think when we meet people, we tend to weigh up internally who's greater, depending on the characteristics that are most important to us for gaining love, acceptance, power, and prestige. Who has the better job? Who's higher up in the career ladder? Who has more money? Who's more beautiful or has a better body or better abs? Who has more followers on social media? Who has more power or influence? Who's the most active in fighting for social [00:05:00] justice? Who's done the most charity work? Who's the most morally righteous? Um, who we are greater than, better than, more important than we compare ourselves to other people and either come out worse off and feel bad about ourselves, or we feel we are greater than them, and we can become so full of pride. So what's Jesus' response to this? In those days when a teacher wanted to communicate something important, they sat down. So Jesus sits down and says to them, come on guys. Quit talking about trying to be great. It's not very spiritual to wanna be great, is it? Actually, he doesn't say that. That's the kind of thing I'd maybe expect him to say. The next few verses say this, um, sitting down, Jesus called the 12. Says anyone who wants to be first must be the very last and the servant of all. Then [00:06:00] he took a child, a little child, and set him in the midst of them. And when he'd taken them in his arms, he said to them, whoever receives one of these little children in my name receives me. And whoever receives me receives not me but him who sent me. In chapter 10 of the Book of Mark on the same subject, Jesus puts it like this. You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles, that's the non-Jews Lord, it over them and their high officials exercise authority over them, not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to be great must first be the slave of all for even the son of man did not come to serve. But to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. So he basically affirms the desire, desire to be great, and tells him how to be great. I think God actually made us for greatness. One of my son's [00:07:00] friends that was asked the question, who's the greatest person, said, it depends how you define greatness. And that's true, isn't it? All the people mentioned at the beginning could be described as great depending on how you define the word. Jesus. Here is defining greatness in terms of life poured out for others. He also contrasts it with many of the leaders of the world who in positions of greatness, but who are not great. You can probably think right now a few of those. And we've all seen it in the news where people are in positions of power, abuse that power and make it about fulfilling their own evil desires or using it to gain possessions, money, privileges, or to leave a legacy that will make them look good in the history books. Sadly, this has included the church, but it's not meant to be that way. And deep down we know that just because someone is in a position of power that doesn't make them great. Hitler would be a good example here. He had much power [00:08:00] and much adoration, but he wasn't great as a person. We can often have a mix of, um, godly and ungodly motives when we serve. Um, I think we can, we, we generally just one or the other. We tend to be a bit more mixed than that. We've had some suggestions as to who the greatest uh, people are, but there's one who's greater than them all and everything. God is the greatest. My Muslim friends agree that God is the greatest. But what they have trouble understanding is how the Christian God can be sited, can be considered great because he came to earth and lived in a human body, having to do all the not so pleasant or messy things have to, uh, that humans have to do like being born or going to the loo, and then he let himself be killed by the people who've made him. How is that great? It looks messy and it looks weak. I think a guy called Abdu Murray explains this really well. [00:09:00] He said, um, and he's, um, a, a former Muslim who became a Christian. He said, I finally saw God's greatness. The greatest possible being, would express the greatest possible ethic, which is love in the greatest possible way, and that is sacrifice. God is so great that he didn't just give himself for those who were trying to follow him, but for his enemies too. Romans five, um, verses six to eight is this. You see at just the right time when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person, someone might possibly dare to die, but God demonstrates his own love for us in this. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Jesus contrasts two systems of greatness in the world. System. Being great is [00:10:00] about getting power over other people, getting wealth, being seen with the right people and gaining the adoration of people to make you feel good about yourself and that you are significant and worth something. Sometimes it can mean doing good things for the wrong reason. In God's system, it's about being so secure in the love and acceptance of your Father God through Jesus and his death and resurrection, that you don't have to get the power and wealth and adoration of other people to feel good about yourself. You don't need to try to bolster your self-esteem through these things instead. You are free to serve God out of love by serving other people. So how does this work in real life? There are many ways, um, loads and loads of ways, but I wanna share just three with you. The first is a true story, as told in Pete Greg's book How to Pray, and I think he actually got it from another book. Um, but I'm just gonna read it from his book. And, and it is, and it. An [00:11:00] example of how sometimes serving God through serving people can lead us into not having any position that the world would consider, um, would consider. Great. So I'm gonna read this story. It's about a man called, um, Dominique Val. I hope I've said that right. And he lived in a ministry. It says, uh, Dominic was lean, muscular, six feet, two inches, always wearing a navy blueberry. And he learned at age 54 that he was dying of inoperable cancer. With the community's permission, he moved to a poor neighborhood in Paris and took a job. Night Watchman at a factory returning home every morning at 8:00 AM he would go directly to a little park across the street from where he lived and sit down on a wooden bench. Hanging around the park were marginal, PE marginal people, drifters, winos, husbands dirty old men who ogled. The girls passing by. [00:12:00] Dominic never criticized scolded or reprimanded them. He laughed, told stories, shared his candy, accepted them just as they were. From living so long outta the inner sanctuary, he gave off a peace, a serene sense of self, um, possession and a hospitality of heart that caused cynical young men and defeated old men to gravitate towards him, like bacon towards eggs. His simple witness lay in accepting others as they were without questions and allowing them to make themselves at home in his heart. Dominic was the most non-judgmental person I've ever known. He loved with the heart of Jesus Christ. One day when the ragtag group of rejects asked him to talk about himself, Dominic gave them a thumbnail description of his. Then he told them with quiet conviction that God loved them tenderly and stubbornly, that Jesus had come for rejects and outcasts just like themselves. His witness was credible because the word was in fleshed on his bones. Later, one old timer said the dirty jokes, vulgar [00:13:00] language, and leering at girls just stopped. One morning, Dominic failed to appear on his part bench. The men grew concerned. A few hours later, he was found dead on the floor of his cold water flat. He died in the obscurity of a Parisian slum. Dominic never tried to impress everyone, never wondered if his life was useful or his witness meaningful. He never felt he had to do something great for God. He did keep a journal. It was found shortly after his death in the jaw of the nightstand of by his bed. His last entry is one of the most astonishing things I've ever read. It says All that is not the love of God has no meaning for me. I can truthfully say that I have no interest in anything but the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus. If God wants it to, my life will be useful through my word and witness if he wants it to. My life will bear fruit through my prayers and sacrifices. But the usefulness, the usefulness of my life is his concern, not mine. It would be [00:14:00] indecent of me to worry about that. I think that is a beautiful story. Makes me feel quite emotional. Um, my second example of how having this serving mindset can actually lead us into positions of authority. And I'm gonna hand over to my friend Felicity for this one. Felicity: Hi, my name is Felicity and I live in Egypt. And I'm gonna be talking about a time when God unexpectedly called me to serve him, um, a few years ago. I was, my occupation was, um, full-time mom with some charity work when they were at school. Um, my girls went to a small Christian school and the principal of the school took a sabbatical and the school needed somebody to take on his job whilst he was away. And, uh, the board asked if I would do this, and I said, no. I, um, I'm not a teacher. I had no experience in management. I [00:15:00] know nothing about curriculum or budgeting. I, it was just a silly idea and I said no. Uh, then a little while later, um, they still hadn't found anybody, so they asked me again and they said, we really feel that God is asking us to ask you about this. And I said, okay, I will pray, but I'm pretty sure that the answer's gonna be no. So I did. I spent some time praying and I said to God, okay, God, what do you think of this idea? And God spoke to me. He spoke to me almost audibly in the clearest way I've ever heard him speak. And he said three statements. The first word of the first statement was serve. He said to me, serve the teachers. Love the children. Include the parents. And I thought, [00:16:00] okay, I might not know anything about the nuts and bolts of running a school, but God's asking me to serve some people. And so I said, yes. My first day of work was right in the middle of the Egyptian revolution, um, 2011 at the start of the Arab Spring, and all that was needed. Was for somebody to go there and look after frightened, scared people and God gave me everything that I needed to do. I ended up working at that school, running that school for seven years, some of the seven, some of the happiest years of my whole life. And, um, I never really did get to understand about curriculum and budgeting and what have you. The important thing was that God called me to serve. And he gave me this, the, the grace and the, the wisdom as it says in James, the [00:17:00] wisdom that I needed to do what he had called me to do. The first thing he called me to do was to serve. Thank you. Hmm. So. Those two examples are quite, um, of, uh, Dominic and Felicity are quite big examples. Um, but serving can mostly be made up of lots of little things. So here's an example of a small act of service that's stuck in my son, Josh's mind. So over to Josh. Josh: So a time I can remember a simple act of service really making a difference was when my friend, who at the time, I think we must have been maybe 10 or 11 years old. Bought an apple pie with his own money and then deliberately didn't eat it because he knew I was coming round at some point in that week. And so he saved it so that we could have it together. Uh, just the two of us. And though that wasn't a life shattering event, it's one of those things that's really stuck with me because he didn't have to do [00:18:00] that. And so, you know, it just kind of shows that that lack of service can make a really big difference. Thanks, Josh. Sometimes it's lots of little things done consistently over time that make all the difference in our relationships, our schools, our universities, our jobs, and our society. If you don't know this servant God that I'm talking about, and you'd like to know more, do you get in touch with us or join us for the alpha, which is starting this Wednesday, if you are already a Christ follower. But realize you're serving, um, people or God to get, to get other people or God to accept you. Take time to meditate on passages from the Bible, which talk about God's love for you. Let them soak into your soul so that they go from your head to your heart. Why not also have a think about how your life would look in each area if you had an attitude of serving people out of a place of security and love. What would your relationships look [00:19:00] like, your study or your work? For some people it'll mean working in jobs that are not highly esteemed in society. For other people, it may mean getting into top positions as that is where you are called to serve God. During the week, I'm gonna expand on this subject of serving to look at two related questions. Um, the first question, what about me and my needs? And question two. Won't I get burnt out if my focus is on serving other people? But for now, we're gonna put on a worship song. And while it's playing, either use the time to worship or have a think about two, these two questions. What ways do you compare yourself to other people for greatness? And what has challenged you during this talk? I'll see you in the comments. Bye.[00:20:00] Music: He's coming on the clouds, kings and kingdoms will bow down. Every chain will break as broken hearts declare his praise for he can stop the Lord our God is the lion. The lion of Juah, he's roaring with power and fighting our battles. Every knee will bow be for him. Our God is the lamb. The lamb with slave [00:21:00] for the of the world. His blood breaks the chains. And every knee will bow before the lion and every knee will bow. Open up the gate, make way before the king of kings. The God who comes to save is here to set the free. For who can stop the Lord. Our God is the lion, the lion of Jude. He's roaring with power and fighting our battles [00:22:00] every day. Will bow be for our God Is the lamb. His blood breaks the chains, and every knee will bow. Knee will bow. The Lord. Who can stop the Lord? Who can stop the Lord, Lord.[00:23:00] Who can stop? The Lord Almighty? Who can stop? The Lord Almighty? Who can stop? The lordy. Who can stop the Lord. Our God is the lion, the lion of juah. He is roaring with power. And fighting our battles. Every evil bow for him, our God is the lamb. The lamb will slave for the sin of the world. His blood breaks the chain and every.[00:24:00] Matt: Okay. Wow. Well, firstly, wasn't my wife. Fantastic. Big shout out to the beautiful Sharon. Thanks babe for doing that Was awesome. Uh, Sharon was quite worried about it, as we always are before we do these talks. Um, and so make sure you just, you know, if you enjoyed it, tally you enjoyed it and she did a good job. 'cause I, I mean, I thought she did, but then I'm biased. So this is the book that Sharon was referring to, if you would like to read the [00:25:00] book. It is a great book. How to Pray by Beat, Pete, Greg. Um, I've no idea whereabouts in there the story was, but this was on the desk and I thought I'd show you the cover. That was the book. So definitely, definitely worth a read. So what did you get out of today's talk? Uh, have you been writing your answers in the comments below? Uh, definitely write them as we go. Now, let's bring some in, Sarah's put here, challenge. What is my motivation for serving? Is it to look good or to please others? And how many of you sort of in the same time you are serving, you go from one emotion to the next, from one attitude to the next. You're still doing the same thing, but it kind of, you know, goes up and down and it's um, it's not always that straightforward, is it? You know, one of the big things that I got outta this scripture, this talk. And this whole idea of serving, uh, was when, and Sharon mentioned it when the disciples asked Jesus, or when the [00:26:00] disciples told Jesus, you know, that they were arguing about who's gonna be the greatest. It was Jesus's response. His response was. Not to go. Why are you talking about it being great? What is wrong with you? We don't do great in the kingdom of God. That's not very humble, is it? He didn't do that. He didn't chastise them. He didn't tell them that they were wrong. He didn't have a go at them. He basically tells them how to do it, hence the title of the talk. Sharon's Talk. Uh, Jesus' top tips for greatness if you want to be great. And he is almost talking like greatness is a good thing. It's good. To be or to have this ambition. Ambition. Is that a dirty word? Hmm. Do you know what I mean? This, and the disciples obviously thought it was 'cause they went quiet and I just, yeah. Sharon and I have been talking a lot about this over the last few weeks and I just really have got a lot out of it that actually greatness, ambition, they're, they're, they can be both detrimental to life, society, your health, whatever. [00:27:00] But they can also be really positive when they're applied in a godly way And Jesus's way is to say, if you want to be great. Increase how much you serve. I mean, it is phenomenal, isn't it? How do I be a better CEO at work? Well, the bottom line is I serve more, how do I become a better boss? How do I become a better team leader? How do I become, uh, a better husband? How do I become a better partner? How do I become, you know, just better at whatever it is that I'm doing? Serve more. Awesome. Awesome. Uh, what's this one here? Sarah's put Children's Challenge. How can they serve others? Absolutely. They're all trying to be super helpful. Now, I think I wrote in the comments. Amen. Prayers are answered. See how long it lasts for. That's awesome, kids, because every time you are super helpful. Guess what happens? You can color in one of those hands on the sheets. That's right. You can do that. Uh, what's Matt put here? Um, I need [00:28:00] to renewing, acknowledge that God made me to be who I am and not to shy away from it when people reject me or my way of living, uh, or the person they try to demand me to be. Absolutely. I think I. I think that's the heart of serving, as Sharon talked about, is this idea of identity, isn't it? It's like understanding who you are in Christ, who God has made you to be, and you serve outta that because you know, here's the thing, right? And again, we've talked about it. You are already great. You are already great. You're already there. You're already the greatest in some respects. You know what the disciples were arguing about? Who's gonna be the greatest in heaven? Well, you are already there. Just, you know, the Bible says that you are the righteousness of God. You have been made perfectly righteous in Jesus. There is, you can't go any higher. Do you know what I mean? It's just in terms of your right, standing before God. It is all there, Jack, let me tell you, when you [00:29:00] are a Christian, when you have given your life to Christ, you are in the kingdom of heaven. One of the greats, just one of the greats, you're in the Hall of Fame. It just is what it is, right? Your pictures on the wall, when you walk down the streets, you'll see yourself there, not because of anything other than the work that Jesus did on the cross, and that's fantastic, and the more we understand that, the easier it is to serve. And so I think you're right, Matt, acknowledging who God has made us to be. Uh, what's put John, John's put here similar to Sarah. For me as someone that feeds off affirmation, it can be easy for me, uh, easy for that to become my motivation to serve. Yeah, I think so. I think it's a really interesting one, isn't it? I, whenever I do something that is classed as serving, I always am grateful for the gratefulness. Just let that sink in. You'll get what I mean. So when you do something and someone comes in and says, oh, great job. Thanks for that, appreciate the [00:30:00] effort, um, appreciate all you're doing. That's great. And that's good, and that's godly. Um, but very quickly, uh, that can become the source, uh, of that can become. It can become unhealthy, can't it? And we can want to, want to get it from the entirely wrong location, uh, if you see what I mean. Um, and so when our, when our affirmation doesn't come from God, when it doesn't come first from God and what he says about us and his gratitude and gratefulness to us. We can sort of tend to get off peace. So I appreciate, uh, you saying that, John, although I was, I'm in a quandary now 'cause I was gonna say, listen, I really appreciate you taking the time to put that music together for the worship. I know it's not a quick, easy thing to do. I know you put your heart and soul into it. Um, and I do appreciate it, but I, I don't want that to be your motivation to do it. If that makes sense. You're doing a cracking job. Uh, and I, I, I really appreciate you doing that. So again, everyone give a big shout out to John for doing the worship [00:31:00] for us. He is a legend. Uh, and then what's Matt put here? Sharon is one of the greatest. Absolutely she is. That's why I married her. I just wanna say that, uh, brownie points, Matt. Score. Okay. Thanks guys for your comments. Uh, really appreciate you putting those in there. I hope you got a lot out of today's talk, uh, with Sharon. She was a legend, um, doing that for us. Next week we have the very reverend. Uh, pastor Dave Connolly, uh, sharing God's word with us. So he's gonna be carrying on our conversations in Mark, so he's looking at the, uh, next, uh, phase of scripture. So make sure you tune in for that as we carry on with church online. Let's jump put here. Add to broadcast ahas. Appreciate the shout out. Well, you know, I didn't know what to do. Uh, so that is all, that's, uh, left for me to say, except two things. Number one, make sure you have subscribed. To the YouTube channel so you get [00:32:00] between Sunday. So Sharon mentioned in her talk, there's a couple of things that she's gonna look at this week to get access to that. Make sure you subscribe to YouTube and you connect with us on Facebook. 'cause that's where that content will go out and you can get that and get into that, which will be absolutely fantastic. So do subscribe to say, oh look, the love for John's coming in thick and fast. Uh, thanks John for the music. Uh, that sounds like a song title in itself. Uh, we love the worship today. Josiah was sing along at full volume and I bet that sounded awesome too, which is fantastic. It's good that we can worship together even online. Um. So yeah, make sure you subscribe. Here we go. Let me play this for between Sunday. Make sure you subscribe to the YouTube channel to get access to that, which would be cool. And uh, finally we are gonna head on over to Zoom to carry on our conversation, uh, in Zoom. And I've just realized I've not, again, put the link in. Uh, let me do that. [00:33:00] There is the Zoom link. Hopefully that is gonna come up on the feed. There it is. Uh, add to broadcast. There you go. Not that you're gonna be able to write that down, but in effect, that's the thing that you are looking for in the Facebook's comments. So you take that, you copy that, paste that in your web browser, and if you would like to come join us in Zoom after this live broadcast has ended, um, it'll be great to see you there. So all that's left for me to say is thanks for joining us. Appreciate everybody coming and sharing and giving their comments and their thoughts and their ideas. It was absolutely fantastic. Oh, I've just noticed also, ah, before I go, let me, um, let me show you some of the pictures that have come in from the kids. Sorry, I, I almost forgot, uh, that was very naughty of me. Let me just download them onto my computer. And we have, what have we got here? We've got this. Let me bring this on the [00:34:00] screen. Look at that. That is absolutely fantastic. It's looking good there. Um, and the next one we have here, oh look, that one's got three hands colored in already. Good skills. Like it. Like it. How many has this one got? We, this one's got two hands colored in. So whoever did this one, um. You, you, you're one hand behind. So it's, but it's great to see so many hands on them already so far. And you know, we're just like an hour into the broadcast, which is just amazing. So keep it up kids. I wanna see them completed by the end of the week, so make sure you send me those when they have been completed. That will be absolutely amazing. Um, so do you do that so. Uh, and send 'em to me on the WhatsApp. Like I said, we'll be back next week with Dave who's gonna carry on, uh, our conversations in the book of Mark. Do stay, [00:35:00] uh, tuned. Do stay connected with what's going on. Any questions, any comments, do let us know. Uh, be great to see you, great to connect with you. If this is your first time here, big fat, warm, welcome. Um, I hope to see you again soon. Uh, I am gonna end the broadcast here. Um, look at that. I'm two minutes ahead of schedule. I am just gonna stand here and look smoke or sit here and look smoke for the next two minutes. Number, uh, we're gonna end it there. I will see you in the zoom room, which I'll open up at five past five. So in approximately seven minutes time, we will open up the zoom room. We will see you in there. I just need to reset a whole bunch of stuff here, um, and we will be in there. Uh, God bless you. Have a fantastic week. We will see you either at Alpha on Wednesday, the walk next Sunday morning, or at the live stream back here again, 4:00 PM next Sunday. God bless you. Have a fantastic week. Stay safe everybody. We'll see you again very, very soon.