Episode 6
Empowered to be Great (North OC)
Is what our society views as greatness accurate? Is there a different way to achieve greatness? We continue our Empower series learning how Jesus redefines greatness and how to achieve it therefore empowering His followers to be great
Transcript
Good morning.
Speaker:Good morning.
Speaker:You're on it.
Speaker:You're on it.
Speaker:You're ready.
Speaker:Huh?
Speaker:Hey man.
Speaker:Hey man.
Speaker:Good morning, brothers and sisters definitely want to thank the, uh, the
Speaker:worship team for leading us this morning.
Speaker:Hey man, we appreciate that's a little old school track.
Speaker:Huh?
Speaker:There is a gun.
Speaker:Come on.
Speaker:I was fired or were you fired up about that?
Speaker:Come on.
Speaker:Hey man.
Speaker:What as was mentioned, my name is Marcel hall and I have the privilege
Speaker:and honor to be one of the ministers here for the OSI church of Christ.
Speaker:And I'm so grateful to be able to speak this morning and, uh, they
Speaker:want to share some good news.
Speaker:We had a great time.
Speaker:Last night for our first ever Saturday night live event.
Speaker:Amen.
Speaker:And so you're saying, well, what was that?
Speaker:Well, that was for the emerging generation.
Speaker:I am part of the generation that's already emerging.
Speaker:But I was able to sneak in there.
Speaker:I was able to bribe a couple of people and then get in, but I did want to share
Speaker:a couple of pictures here, so you can get a feel there of what the event was like.
Speaker:And so we had O O C ministry or our teenagers are college students and
Speaker:some from our professionals ministry.
Speaker:Some folks from long beach, our church in long beach, our church in the Covina
Speaker:area and our church over in the heart of LA come Carson Hawthorne area as well.
Speaker:And it was.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:Wasn't it a blast.
Speaker:Those who were there, we had a great time.
Speaker:It was fun.
Speaker:We can't wait to have it again.
Speaker:And so we're planning on having our Saturday night live events, at least
Speaker:at least three to four times a year.
Speaker:And so we're excited about this.
Speaker:So if you didn't get a chance to go well, pray and stay alive.
Speaker:And then you can possibly go in 20, 22.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:But unless you're a part of the emerge generation, then you'll just have to ask.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:So it was a great time and I'm excited that we can do things like that.
Speaker:Right now.
Speaker:We're going to continue in our sermon series empower.
Speaker:And so we only have about one this one and one more.
Speaker:And in fact, Eric, this is going to close out our empower series in about two weeks.
Speaker:So we're excited to hear from Eric Ines.
Speaker:And so we've been doing this service series and power where we're looking
Speaker:at Jesus through the gospel or the biography of mark and how he
Speaker:empowers those who follow him.
Speaker:And so we've looked at a number of things that we empower to leadership
Speaker:and power to, to, to, to, to, uh, to, to do great things, to
Speaker:recognize him, empowers us to give.
Speaker:And so today we're going to be talking about how he empowers us to be great.
Speaker:Empowered to be great.
Speaker:So as you go ahead and write that down in your notes there, we're going to go ahead
Speaker:and we're going to continue our worship, or we're going to have a word of prayer.
Speaker:Let's pray, father.
Speaker:I thank you so much for this opportunity to hear your message from the scriptures
Speaker:and God, I pray right now, father, that you will speak to our very soul.
Speaker:I pray that every distraction has been cast to the side.
Speaker:God, I pray that we can not only receive, but God we can give to you as
Speaker:we receive your word and father, that we can come away, changed, inspired.
Speaker:And as we can see from the passage is here today, empowered to go and do
Speaker:your will in Jesus name, we pray a men.
Speaker:Let me ask you a question.
Speaker:Do you want to be great?
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:I asked, but only about 18 people said yes.
Speaker:Do you want to be great?
Speaker:It's okay to say you want to be great.
Speaker:Some of us are saying, wow, no, you do want to be great.
Speaker:Every single person in here wants to be great.
Speaker:You don't want to be lame.
Speaker:Do you?
Speaker:I want to be bootleg.
Speaker:Nobody ever says that everybody here wants to be great.
Speaker:Do you want to be an average friend?
Speaker:No.
Speaker:Yeah, man.
Speaker:I just want to be your average friend.
Speaker:No, you don't want to do that.
Speaker:Let me ask you this.
Speaker:Do you want to be a great boyfriend, a girlfriend?
Speaker:You better?
Speaker:Do you want to be a great spouse?
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Do you want to be a great parents?
Speaker:Do you want to be a great employee?
Speaker:I guess it depends on where I'm working, but we all want to be great.
Speaker:Don't worry.
Speaker:And that's not a bad thing.
Speaker:No, that's a good thing, but it's interesting.
Speaker:And we're going to talk about this, this idea of greatness.
Speaker:In fact, let's do this.
Speaker:Who are some people currently that our society thinks is great.
Speaker:Did somebody say Marcel hall?
Speaker:Oh, that was so kind.
Speaker:You're probably the only one that thinks it more so on his grave.
Speaker:But I appreciate that.
Speaker:I appreciate that.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:Let's just go ahead.
Speaker:Who are some people that, uh, that, that are considered?
Speaker:Great.
Speaker:Let's go ahead.
Speaker:Let's get a couple of people here.
Speaker:Uh, what'd you say?
Speaker:LeBron James.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:LeBron James.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:Elon Musk.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Elan Musk there.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Let's go here.
Speaker:Let let's, let's do this here.
Speaker:Let's look at this idea of greatness.
Speaker:I got a couple of people, Billie Eilish, a lot of people think she's great.
Speaker:Hey, this ain't a time to hate.
Speaker:I don't know if you like her.
Speaker:I don't, but that's okay.
Speaker:The girl went like 25 Grammys.
Speaker:How many of you?
Speaker:One?
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:So she's considered great.
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:Somebody mentioned LeBron James right now.
Speaker:Now some people don't like LeBron, but it still he's considered to be
Speaker:great others there Al Pachino when the greatest actors of all time,
Speaker:my favorite actor of all time.
Speaker:Well, ham dinero Dinsdale and myself, you know what I'm saying?
Speaker:But also others consider Michelle Obama to be great.
Speaker:Wow.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:There you go.
Speaker:Nobody else got any claps?
Speaker:All right, there you go.
Speaker:But then also Elon Musk, right?
Speaker:A lot of people consider him to be great.
Speaker:Now what constitute their greatness?
Speaker:Well, they've achieved something, right?
Speaker:They've been excellent in their particular field or area or whatnot.
Speaker:But let me ask you this.
Speaker:Makes greatness in our society.
Speaker:What are some of those things money.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:So, so someone with a lot of money, we can send it to be great.
Speaker:That's part of the reason Elon Musk is up there.
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:Well, what are some other things?
Speaker:So money, what else?
Speaker:Talents.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:You had to be Uber talented there.
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:And so we see a lot of these people on the screen are very talented.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:What else?
Speaker:What are some other things.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Working hard.
Speaker:We're hard work there.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:Heard a whole lot of other people.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Well, what are some other things wouldn't say versatile.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:So a number of different things here.
Speaker:I wrote down a couple of here status, right?
Speaker:If somebody has a certain status, we consider them to be great.
Speaker:Or another thing that might be respects.
Speaker:Hey, they're well respected.
Speaker:Everybody respects them another fame.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:They're well-known also, uh, followers.
Speaker:They got a lot, they have a lot of followers, maybe they're
Speaker:they're social media influencers.
Speaker:Maybe it's also a control.
Speaker:They're able to have a lot of power or they're admire.
Speaker:And so we can see these are some of the things that go along
Speaker:overall with this idea of greatness and what our society considers.
Speaker:Great.
Speaker:And so if you have status, we consider.
Speaker:If you have a large amount of respect, then Hey, they're great.
Speaker:They're famous.
Speaker:They're great.
Speaker:They're fun.
Speaker:They have many followers.
Speaker:They're admired.
Speaker:They have a lot of control.
Speaker:It's the, our society says, well, their greats, I would say maybe yes and no.
Speaker:I would argue that these things that we lift and we think of automatic.
Speaker:Don't constitute greatness, but many times are perhaps the results of
Speaker:greatness maybe, but these things don't automatically make you great.
Speaker:And we're going to see Jesus here.
Speaker:He's going to redefines, redefined for us the idea of greatness.
Speaker:And he's going to show a reveal how you, yes, you have been empowered to be great.
Speaker:And I would argue even greater than anyone on this screen.
Speaker:I want to show a commercial here real quickly, that the quality, uh, for
Speaker:some reason, it's not going to be that great here, but even the world
Speaker:has some, you know, our society.
Speaker:We, we, we might value these things, but even a world where we look down,
Speaker:we go, you know what, all those things don't automatically mean.
Speaker:You're.
Speaker:And there was this really cool commercial by Nike, uh, for the 2012 London Olympics
Speaker:talking about find your greatness.
Speaker:And so we're going to go ahead and play that, uh, video.
Speaker:There were no grand celebrations here.
Speaker:No speeches, no bright lines.
Speaker:There are great athletes.
Speaker:Somehow we've come to believe the greatness of the chosen few, a superstar.
Speaker:The truth is greatness is for all of us.
Speaker:This is not about.
Speaker:It's about raising every last one of us,
Speaker:because greatness is not in one special case.
Speaker:It is not in one special
Speaker:greatness is wherever somebody is trying to find.
Speaker:I'm not plugging Nike, but I just liked the commercial there,
Speaker:but we could add some powerful lines in that about greatness.
Speaker:You can go ahead and stop it there.
Speaker:I'm not sure why I was playing twice there.
Speaker:All right, there you go.
Speaker:But we can see here that you can achieve greatness without having
Speaker:the things that were listed before.
Speaker:You don't have to be Elon Musk in order to be considered great even in our society.
Speaker:But as we can see in the eyes of God, And so this image of greatness, it's key,
Speaker:that, that we no longer adopt what we've been fed or what we believe by society.
Speaker:But we adopt Jesus's view of greatness because I believe that some of us, yes,
Speaker:why we hesitate to even answer the idea of being great, even though we really want is
Speaker:because we believe that we can't achieve its or that our level of greatness does
Speaker:it compare with those that we consider in our society to be great, but that's not.
Speaker:And so when we have a different view, a godly view, we will see
Speaker:that what we attain and strive for.
Speaker:We can have an even more, and it'd be for a greater cause because what do we see
Speaker:here that Jesus and powers to be great.
Speaker:So we're going to look over here in mark chapter nine church.
Speaker:Are you with me?
Speaker:Church.
Speaker:Are you with me here now here in mark chapter nine, Jesus is
Speaker:nearing the end of his ministry.
Speaker:So he's on his way over to Jerusalem.
Speaker:And we're going to read mark chapter nine and chapter 10.
Speaker:And so he knows what's going to happen.
Speaker:He knows that he's going to give his life as a sacral.
Speaker:Yeah, he's going to die upon the cross.
Speaker:He knows that there's a resurrection has coming.
Speaker:So he's trying to get his disciples to understand this so they can be prepared.
Speaker:And he also wants them to be able to share this good news will after he raises
Speaker:from the dead in a sense to heaven.
Speaker:So we take it up in mark chapter nine in verse 33, it reads that came to.
Speaker:When he was in the house, he asked him, what were you arguing about on the road?
Speaker:But they kept quiet because all night on the way they had argued
Speaker:about who was the greatest.
Speaker:So we can stop right there.
Speaker:They're having this arguments who was the greatest, and those are,
Speaker:uh, you know, remember Muhammad Ali.
Speaker:You remember, he'd always say I'm the greatest of all time.
Speaker:And those who have seen my, one of my favorite movies, the last drag.
Speaker:Only a couple of y'all have seen it, but Bruce Lee Roy and
Speaker:show know who's the baddest.
Speaker:And they realized, so now you got to watch the movie anyhow.
Speaker:So they're having this argument, Hey, who's going to be great.
Speaker:Who's going to be greatest.
Speaker:And Jesus hear me.
Speaker:Doesn't address it there.
Speaker:But he's like, Hey, when we get back inside, we're getting,
Speaker:we're going to talk about that.
Speaker:And so he goes, and he sits down and says in verse 35, sitting
Speaker:down, Jesus always taught.
Speaker:Not always, but when you know Jesus sitting down, he's, . And that was some
Speaker:of the culture there that the rabbis would actually sit down and teach.
Speaker:But every time you see in the scripture where Jesus sitting down some knowledge,
Speaker:he's about to drop he's about to go ahead and drop the mic on you.
Speaker:It's about to be fired.
Speaker:And so here's what he says in verse 35, Jesus called the 12 and said, anyone who
Speaker:wants to be first must be the very last.
Speaker:And the servant of all, he took a little child whom he placed among
Speaker:them taking the child in his arms.
Speaker:He said to them, whoever welcomes one of these little children in
Speaker:my name welcomes me and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me.
Speaker:But the one who sent me and this was pretty remarkable at this time.
Speaker:But what we'll come back to in a second here, let's go on over to
Speaker:mark chapter 10, because we're going to see a theme here at what Jesus.
Speaker:So again, he goes, he's been teaching his disciples and they
Speaker:get it and then they don't get it.
Speaker:And it says in verse 35 and chapter 10, then James and John, these are
Speaker:two of Jesus's apostles and disciples.
Speaker:They've been with them since the beginning of his ministry, the sons of devotee.
Speaker:They came to him and said, teacher, we want you to do whatever you ask, whatever
Speaker:we ask that's that's a bold request.
Speaker:Isn't it?
Speaker:Hey, I want you to do whatever I ask.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:The automatic question or the response is, well, what do you want?
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:And so here they go.
Speaker:They say, Hey, we want you to do whatever we ask of is Jesus says, Hey,
Speaker:what do you want me to do for you?
Speaker:They reply.
Speaker:Let one of us sit at your rights and the other at your left in your glory and say,
Speaker:Hey, we want to be your right hand, man.
Speaker:And your left hand, man, when you have this glorious moment,
Speaker:we want to be right there.
Speaker:We want to be in the myths, not in the background.
Speaker:We don't want to be in the back row.
Speaker:We want to be right here on your right and right here on your left.
Speaker:Jesus says you do not know what you're asking.
Speaker:Can you drink the cup?
Speaker:I drink or be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with.
Speaker:We can they answer?
Speaker:Jesus said to them, you will drink the cup.
Speaker:I drink and be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with, but to sit at my right
Speaker:or left is not for me to grant these pit.
Speaker:These places belong to those for whom they had been.
Speaker:Verse 41.
Speaker:When the 10 heard about this, they became indignant with James and John.
Speaker:So there upsets.
Speaker:Did you hear what James and John did?
Speaker:They wouldn't ask Jesus, can they be on the right or left?
Speaker:I can't believe those guys.
Speaker:So they're upset, man.
Speaker:James, John, what's wrong with you?
Speaker:How dare you?
Speaker:You're so arrogant.
Speaker:You're so prideful and you're so slick because you beat me to the punch.
Speaker:I wanted that spot.
Speaker:You always do that.
Speaker:James, I'm tired of it's.
Speaker:It's another getting into this argument here, right there, man.
Speaker:Hey man, how could you ask that?
Speaker:And all these different things in verse 42, Jesus called them together
Speaker:and said, you know, that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles,
Speaker:they Lord it over them and their high officials, exercise authority over them.
Speaker:Not so with you.
Speaker:Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servants.
Speaker:And whoever wants to be first must be slave of all for even the
Speaker:son of man did not come to be.
Speaker:But to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many we'll stop right there.
Speaker:You see this theme here as Jesus approaches.
Speaker:And as he goes to his, his guys there and he sees me, you guys are
Speaker:arguing about who's going to be great.
Speaker:You're arguing about who's going to be on my right and to my left, you're mad.
Speaker:Hey, let me help you out.
Speaker:Let me drop some jewels and some knowledge on you.
Speaker:If you want to be great, you need to become a servant.
Speaker:Jesus's completely turning world views upside down, no matter what the culture
Speaker:is, we all have this idea of greatness and they had theirs and they're thinking,
Speaker:Hey, he goes, no, no, no, no, no, no.
Speaker:Let me flip this upside down for you.
Speaker:Your view of greatness is off and how to achieve greatness is off as well.
Speaker:You see in the kingdom of God, greatness is defined and achieved differently.
Speaker:This is what he reveals.
Speaker:He doesn't say greatness is something that should not be a strive for it.
Speaker:Didn't say that this is not something that you shouldn't have any type of
Speaker:aspiration for, but what he says is, Hey, it's a different definition in God's
Speaker:kingdom and how you reach that point.
Speaker:It's a different approach.
Speaker:And so he goes, and he blows their money and he blows our mind as well.
Speaker:To be first, you must be last and a servant and slave to all.
Speaker:Then he grabs the kid.
Speaker:And this was powerful because at that time, in that culture kids, weren't
Speaker:highly regarded the way they are today, you know, in our society, Hey,
Speaker:let the kids do any and everything.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:And I'm not saying that's great parenting, but, but kids are lifted up.
Speaker:It was completely opposite back then.
Speaker:Kids were weren't, weren't regarded in the same steam in lights.
Speaker:And so he says, Hey, you guys want to be great.
Speaker:Guess what?
Speaker:And he goes and grabs there's Dominique right there.
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:Maybe I should grab Dominique real quick.
Speaker:Let me grab Dominique real quick.
Speaker:Jesus goes, Hey, you guys want to be great.
Speaker:Hey, here's what you do.
Speaker:He goes, and he grabs his kid and he says, he puts him in his arms and they're all
Speaker:looking like, man, why is he doing that?
Speaker:Get them no bad kids away.
Speaker:He says, Hey, whoever welcomes one of these welcome.
Speaker:When you welcome me, you're welcome.
Speaker:The father.
Speaker:This was mind blowing for them.
Speaker:Wait, wait, wait, wait.
Speaker:I don't just have to serve those who are around me.
Speaker:My peers.
Speaker:I have to serve those who are not highly esteemed.
Speaker:I have to serve those who society considers it, maybe
Speaker:lower than the norm in average.
Speaker:You're telling me if I want to be great.
Speaker:If I want to sit in your right left, I got to serve and welcome one of BESE.
Speaker:So he's completely blowing their mind.
Speaker:He's completely blowing our mind as he redefines what it means to
Speaker:be great and how to achieve it.
Speaker:All right, Dominic, you got to go back.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Here we go.
Speaker:Those who remember he, this is his second time on stage during the sermon.
Speaker:He ran up on stage one time when he wasn't supposed to.
Speaker:So this time he was invited there.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:But we can see, this was incredible.
Speaker:He said, look guys, if you want to do all that other stuff that doesn't take place
Speaker:in society, what it means to be great.
Speaker:Maybe you lie.
Speaker:Maybe you cheat, you neglect your family.
Speaker:You, you, you have priorities that are wrong.
Speaker:Maybe you, you disregard God and, and you, you make him
Speaker:second in order to cheat grace.
Speaker:He says not so in my kingdom.
Speaker:He said that might be what the world does.
Speaker:That might be what society does.
Speaker:But if you're in my kingdom, this is greatness.
Speaker:You know, the common belief is you have to be special.
Speaker:You have to have the right genes.
Speaker:Maybe the right family have the right money, the right career.
Speaker:But Jesus says, no, you don't need any of those things in order to
Speaker:be great in the kingdom of God.
Speaker:And so what does that mean for you?
Speaker:In me, it means that Jesus empowers anyone to be great.
Speaker:Anyone to be great.
Speaker:If we follow Jesus, then we have the capacity.
Speaker:We have the ability, we have been empowered to be great.
Speaker:You know, Dr.
Speaker:King has a famous quote.
Speaker:But, you know what I decided, you know, I don't want to just quote Dr.
Speaker:King or I just want to show the quote on here.
Speaker:He actually preached a whole sermon.
Speaker:It's a very famous sermon that he is about this passage right here.
Speaker:And I figured, you know what?
Speaker:Dr.
Speaker:King can preach it.
Speaker:He's I think he's a better speaker than I am.
Speaker:And so we're going to get a little clip of Dr.
Speaker:King here and, and this idea of anyone being.
Speaker:In the kingdom of God, let's go ahead and let's play it if
Speaker:you want to be in parliament.
Speaker:Wonderful.
Speaker:If you want to be recognized, wonderful.
Speaker:If you want to be loving the phone, but recognize that he who is
Speaker:greatest among you shall be yourself.
Speaker:That's the new definition of greatness this morning?
Speaker:The thing that I like about my giving back definition of greatness, that means.
Speaker:And everybody can be great because everybody can say you don't have to
Speaker:have a college degree to say, you don't know, you don't have make your subject.
Speaker:And your say, you don't have to know about Plato and Aristotle.
Speaker:You don't have to know relativity.
Speaker:You don't have to know the dynamics.
Speaker:Okay, great.
Speaker:Generally the love and you can be
Speaker:as powerful.
Speaker:Let's go backwards here.
Speaker:So what do we see here?
Speaker:Again, you don't need talents in order to be great in the kingdom of God.
Speaker:So that means that you and I, no matter what status, what talent level we have,
Speaker:we can be great in the kingdom of God.
Speaker:We don't have to be born on this side of the tracks.
Speaker:We don't have to have this.
Speaker:We don't have to have any of those things because all of us
Speaker:are capable of serving others.
Speaker:And so it doesn't matter if we're big and strong.
Speaker:Because if we meet a need of someone else, that's a greater deed.
Speaker:In fact, let's let's uh, let's do this.
Speaker:My man, Miguel.
Speaker:There you go.
Speaker:Miguel.
Speaker:Come on up here.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Miguel, come on up here.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:Here.
Speaker:Let me go.
Speaker:Let's go Miguel here.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:Maybe girls in a, okay.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:Hello?
Speaker:Hey, you want to come up here?
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:What did I say?
Speaker:Masa more.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:All right, here we go.
Speaker:Okay, here we go.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:Can you guys say your name here real quickly here?
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:Did you understand that?
Speaker:Go ahead.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:We got Lorraina.
Speaker:We got Miguel.
Speaker:And so we're looking here.
Speaker:We can say, all right, well, Marcel, what are we doing up here?
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:Let, let me ask you a question, Miguel.
Speaker:Uh, you're you're a pretty strong guy there.
Speaker:You've got a couple muscles on you.
Speaker:All right there.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:Uh, can you bench press, okay.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:You see that here?
Speaker:Oh yeah.
Speaker:Why are you trying to call me out more?
Speaker:So, yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Mel bench press shoot.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:So Miguel you're you're you're you, how much can you bench press here?
Speaker:To to, okay.
Speaker:There you go, brother.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:He said he could get to 20 that's two plates on there.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:Until two 20.
Speaker:All right, so we'll reign.
Speaker:How much can you bench press 20 Thomas you're fired up.
Speaker:Come on girl.
Speaker:Get that 20 pounds.
Speaker:It's all in some ways, it, no matter, maybe in our certain, you know, uh, uh,
Speaker:culture or maybe our environment, we might look at this and go, Hey, you know what?
Speaker:Miguel is obviously stronger.
Speaker:So he's automatically the greater one or the more potential to be a greater
Speaker:one because he's big and strong.
Speaker:But here's the thing.
Speaker:If there's a need out there, Aiden, let's say you were, you, you were thirsty.
Speaker:Let's say you had some needs out there.
Speaker:And we said, Lorraina, go ahead.
Speaker:Can you give him some water?
Speaker:Because he needs, he, he has a need right there.
Speaker:He's thirsty to go ahead and go give it to him.
Speaker:Yeah, you go.
Speaker:There you go, girl, go ahead and give it to them there.
Speaker:Guess what this happened?
Speaker:She became great.
Speaker:And he became obsolete now, brother, I love you.
Speaker:But he became obsolete.
Speaker:And there's no, here's the crazy thing, right?
Speaker:We look at things on the outside.
Speaker:We go, well, you gotta have this, this and this.
Speaker:And there it'd be great.
Speaker:But you say that's nonsense.
Speaker:If you just serve others, you became greats.
Speaker:And we're seeing that here.
Speaker:If we serve others, it doesn't matter how big, strong, talented,
Speaker:cute, pretty, whatever it is.
Speaker:If we serve others, he says your grades in my eyes, you guys can go ahead and sit
Speaker:down, go ahead and give it up for them.
Speaker:Again.
Speaker:This is radically different for all of us, but even if we look at,
Speaker:we just looked as a whole lot of people who are Uber talented, right?
Speaker:But there are underachievers.
Speaker:We look and we say, man, they didn't do anything with it.
Speaker:And I believe that this should encourage and challenge every.
Speaker:This should encourage us.
Speaker:Wow.
Speaker:You know what?
Speaker:I don't need to be the five star recruits.
Speaker:I don't need to have this to, in order to sit for God, to be glorified
Speaker:in and through my life, I just need to serve, and I can do that.
Speaker:And we're talking about not just becoming great in our particular environment,
Speaker:circle of whatever we're talking about, being great in the kingdom of heaven.
Speaker:I don't care what your circle of influence is or what your, your, your
Speaker:culture, your environment, your circle is nothing is greater than being
Speaker:great in the kingdom of God than it is in whatever area you can imagine.
Speaker:And so we're talking about being great and that's better than any profession or any.
Speaker:And so this should encourage us.
Speaker:Wow.
Speaker:God, you believe in me, you are giving me the opportunity to do
Speaker:something great for you to be used for your glory and for you to look
Speaker:down and say, Hey, I'm well pleased with you because you are a servant.
Speaker:This should bring us great encouragement, but also should be a great challenge
Speaker:for us because what this means is there's no excuse to not be.
Speaker:There's no excuse to not be great.
Speaker:Well, God, you didn't give me, can you serve?
Speaker:Well, God, you did.
Speaker:Can you serve?
Speaker:So none of us can ever go, thank God I couldn't serve because we can serve.
Speaker:And so the challenge for all of us then is to serve, to become great.
Speaker:So it makes sure that that we're using our talents, our experience on
Speaker:our tie to serve in Christ name and a church full of followers of Jesus,
Speaker:a church full of followers of Jesus.
Speaker:Let me ask you this.
Speaker:Should there ever be a need that cannot be met if we're following the teachings
Speaker:and the example of Jesus at worst serving didn't it, should there ever be a time?
Speaker:We have to bed for volunteers?
Speaker:Should there, of course not because all of us are saying I'm here to serve.
Speaker:I'm here to give, I'm giving it to others.
Speaker:God, I'm being great.
Speaker:Just the way you are great on this earth.
Speaker:So I applaud those who serve.
Speaker:I lift up our family group leaders who serve, I lift up
Speaker:our new shepherds who serve.
Speaker:I lift up our V team who serves every week.
Speaker:They get here eight 30, some of y'all even have breakfast at eight 30.
Speaker:I said, I so salute those who are volunteering for our kids
Speaker:right now, who are watching them.
Speaker:They say yes, that there was an email went out and they said, yeah, I'll do it.
Speaker:Well, others decided on.
Speaker:I salute all of you who serve because in God's eyes, you are great writer, the
Speaker:Elan, Muslim, Brian, James, and whoever else, Billy, I is all combined because
Speaker:you're using your time, your effort, your using your, your, your ability,
Speaker:your experiences to serve others.
Speaker:See Jesus empowers every one of us to be great by serving.
Speaker:So here's the question in forest?
Speaker:Am I.
Speaker:Or maybe the better question is, who am I serving?
Speaker:Who am I serving?
Speaker:Is my service for me?
Speaker:Am I doing things so that I can have, or is my service to others?
Speaker:Is my service to the king.
Speaker:And God almighty is my service to his people.
Speaker:Is my service to those around me, or is it just to feed and better?
Speaker:My self.
Speaker:Are we serving?
Speaker:So for others, you know, the scripture, Jesus said it several times or
Speaker:several times where he says a servant to all serving your roommates.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:That's right.
Speaker:Your roommates, serving your family, serving in your family, group,
Speaker:your in the church, serving those, just like we learned last week,
Speaker:who agree and disagree with you serving the haves and the have not.
Speaker:Finding ways in order to be a blessing to those, we come in contact with, and
Speaker:again, Jesus is the model to follow.
Speaker:He says, I didn't come to be served.
Speaker:Y'all I came to serve and to give my life as a ransom for many that's
Speaker:the model that he sets for you.
Speaker:And, and that's his teaching.
Speaker:And if we're followers of Jesus, what do we do?
Speaker:We follow his teaching and example.
Speaker:And so how do we respond?
Speaker:What should we do?
Speaker:I think it's this.
Speaker:I think we need to think and act like a servants think and act like a servant.
Speaker:Think, first of all, what I mean by this, that means view yourself as a service.
Speaker:We are chilled.
Speaker:Those are followers of Jesus.
Speaker:You are a child of God, hallelujah for that.
Speaker:You're not what your, your job is.
Speaker:You're not what your nationality, what your race is.
Speaker:You are a child of God.
Speaker:But guess what your identity also is a servant of Christ.
Speaker:And so our view can't be anything else.
Speaker:That's contrary to that.
Speaker:Our view must be I'm a servant of Christ.
Speaker:And when I adopt that servitude attitude, then guess what that will produce
Speaker:that will produce service in my life.
Speaker:So therefore I have a lifestyle.
Speaker:And this is key for me to remember that always remember.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:More say you are a servant leader.
Speaker:Don't don't, don't, don't forget the servant part, Marcel.
Speaker:You're a servant of the king and make sure you serve his people.
Speaker:You humble yourself and you do the dirty work.
Speaker:You do the work that nobody else knows about and you serve it's.
Speaker:I need to remember that.
Speaker:And you remember that my identity is if the minister of the church, my
Speaker:identity is a servant of the king.
Speaker:So we think like a service that means we view ourselves as a service and then
Speaker:we act like a servant that means finding the ways to consistently serve others.
Speaker:You know, I love the fact that we have an MLK day in our church.
Speaker:We always do.
Speaker:We don't take a day off.
Speaker:We take a day on, right.
Speaker:And we go out and serve.
Speaker:But if we're only serving one thing a year, you're not a survey.
Speaker:If I don't eat meat in one meal, that doesn't make me a vegan.
Speaker:And so this is a lifestyle of service that means serving in the small ways.
Speaker:I mean, serving into grand in big ways.
Speaker:That means serving in my home.
Speaker:That means serving in my family group, serving in a church,
Speaker:serving in my neighborhood, maybe serving at my school and at my job.
Speaker:And if somebody say, well, Marcel, I want you, but I'm too busy.
Speaker:Well, if you're too busy to serve, then you're too.
Speaker:That means you need to re reorganize some priorities then, because if we have
Speaker:a lifestyle, which we are too busy to serve, that means we're too busy and
Speaker:we need to restructure our schedule.
Speaker:To make sure that we think and act like a surrogates.
Speaker:You know, if we do this, Jesus says, then we'll be great in his kingdom.
Speaker:But here's the incredible thing.
Speaker:I just love this about God.
Speaker:Here's the incredible thing.
Speaker:Is that when we serve, yes, we can be considered greatness keen to be used for
Speaker:all this boy, but it's reciprocal in a way that God ends up blessing you more.
Speaker:In fact, I love this scripture.
Speaker:Many of us love it too.
Speaker:A generous person will prosper.
Speaker:Whoever refreshes others will be refreshed.
Speaker:Hey, when I'm generous, Hey, I'm going to prosper when I serve others.
Speaker:Guess what?
Speaker:Somehow some way I too will be refreshed and many of us can testify to this.
Speaker:Cause here's the mantle.
Speaker:I just love this.
Speaker:Th th this, this, this truth, then in this idea and this.
Speaker:And we'll even test it out right here.
Speaker:I mean, we've all been served in some way.
Speaker:Somebody has served you, maybe they gave you food, you know,
Speaker:breakfast in bed or something.
Speaker:So you've all been served in some way.
Speaker:Everybody here has been serving some way and that brought to you some happiness.
Speaker:Didn't it?
Speaker:You're like, oh man.
Speaker:Cool.
Speaker:Thank you.
Speaker:But think about the time in which you served others, what did that producing.
Speaker:Did it bring some joy?
Speaker:It probably didn't even more than joy, but probably brought not just
Speaker:happiness, but it brought fulfillment as well because you started rest, man.
Speaker:That was cool to give and you felt built up.
Speaker:And in fact, you probably were like, man, I'm gonna give myself a pat on the back.
Speaker:That felt good.
Speaker:And you felt good about who you were and what you were doing.
Speaker:And so again, if we tested the idea of just being served and that for a natural
Speaker:tendency, Hey, when we actually look at our lives, the most fulfillment and joy we
Speaker:receive is when we actually serve others.
Speaker:And so this is the incredible thing.
Speaker:Yes, God is raising us up to be great in our society and through his kingdom.
Speaker:But he's also saying, guys, you don't understand the blessings you have.
Speaker:If you serve, it'll be incredible.
Speaker:Why because you're fulfilling the calling of actually following Jesus.
Speaker:So let's get real practical church.
Speaker:Are you still with me here?
Speaker:Let's get real practical here.
Speaker:Let's talk about some action steps this week.
Speaker:That means every single one.
Speaker:And I love how we have a church that just doesn't listen to the word on Sunday,
Speaker:but we're a church committed to following the word Monday through Sunday as well.
Speaker:Amen.
Speaker:And so as we give this direction here, I'm confident that this is a church for
Speaker:the people who say I'm going to follow.
Speaker:And so, as we see here, first off, I want to say those who may be
Speaker:coming around, I encourage you.
Speaker:Number one, action.
Speaker:Step is to study God's word and figure out, Hey, how can
Speaker:I be a servant in his kingdom?
Speaker:What does all this mean?
Speaker:How does this look?
Speaker:How was Jesus a servant?
Speaker:How did he give his life as a ransom for me?
Speaker:And if some of those who have been studying the Bible for a
Speaker:while, I wanna encourage you make a decision to follow Jesus.
Speaker:There's no need to wait.
Speaker:There's no need to wait following Jesus is the best decision you
Speaker:will ever make in your life.
Speaker:And now for all of us, every single one of us, here's the action step of
Speaker:the week here serve someone every day.
Speaker:This week, they say, what should I do, serve how I serve.
Speaker:Serve someone everyday this week, maybe it's in your family.
Speaker:Maybe it's a classmate.
Speaker:Maybe it's your coworker.
Speaker:Maybe it's somebody in this room.
Speaker:It's the church at large.
Speaker:It's your small group serve someone every day.
Speaker:This week.
Speaker:Maybe it's big.
Speaker:Maybe it's small, but serve this week.
Speaker:Imagine if we all follow Jesus' example and teaching, and sir.
Speaker:Imagine if every single one of us and those who are alive, every single
Speaker:one of us, if we all decided, you know what, we're going to take Jesus'
Speaker:example and it's taking seriously, and we're going to go out and serve.
Speaker:Imagine if your family or your household decided, you know what
Speaker:we're going to serve others.
Speaker:Imagine if your neighborhood in your complex decided, you know
Speaker:what, we're going to serve each.
Speaker:Imagine if the citizens of our country decided, you know,
Speaker:we're going to serve others.
Speaker:No.
Speaker:If service is greatness, how great what our society be?
Speaker:If service is greatness, then how great, what our cities and our neighborhoods.
Speaker:How great what our church be, how great was your family group in the church be?
Speaker:How great would your household or their family members who you live with?
Speaker:How great would that be and how great would you be in the kingdom of God?
Speaker:We close out here and mark chapter 10, verse 43.
Speaker:Not so with you.
Speaker:Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant.
Speaker:And whoever wants to be first must be slave of all for even the son of
Speaker:man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as
Speaker:a ransom for many brother, sister, Jesus, and powers to be great.
Speaker:So let's serve.
