Stoop To Greatness

I want you to think back with me to when you were a kid and your first recollection of just dreaming about what you wanted to do when you grew up. I don't know what that looked like for you, but I went through seasons where I wanted to be a firefighter, an airline pilot. I had a season where computer programming seemed like that was in my future. Jedi Knight was also one of my aspirations. Sometimes I still kind of dabble in that aspiration.

But, I mean, maybe you were an atypically practical kid and you wanted to be a teacher or a nurse or a plumber, and that's great. But oftentimes it seems like our childhood dreams focus on careers that we think have the capacity to make us rich and famous, right? Professional sports. You know, if you had a professional sports dream as a kid, you probably didn't dream of riding the bench on a last place team, did you? I mean, it was to be the MVP on the team that won the title.

Or maybe your dream was to be a rock star. And the rock star dream isn't typically about playing in dive bars and living in a van and barely scraping to get by. It's about headlining massive arenas, selling platinum records, winning Grammy awards, being a jukebox hero, right? Or maybe your dream was to be a movie star. The Hollywood dream typically isn't to serve as an extra in a crowd of thousands in an epic movie.

It's not usually to play a hotel clerk or a waitress who has exactly one line and then disappears, never to be seen again. That dream is to be a sensation, right? It's to be the face on the poster, the Oscar winner. Little girls are more likely to want to be princesses than to be housekeepers. Little kids are more likely to say, I want to be President of the United States, right?

Than to say, when I grow up, I want to be the Senate Minority Whip. That doesn't roll off of kids tongues quite the same way. But as we grow up, reality sets in, right? We begin to realize that fame is rare, that wealth is elusive, that most people don't become superstars, and that celebrity often isn't all that it's cracked up to be. So we find a way to earn a living, glamorous or not, and we do our best to content ourselves with that.

But then some of us have kids and the cycle starts over again as we begin trying vicariously to live out our own unfulfilled dreams of fame and fortune through them. So if you're not 100% happy in your job you might push your kids to excel academically, to try to get into a really prestigious college so that they can land a successful and high paying career that sounds more glamorous than your own. Or maybe if your personal sports career fizzled when you were in high school, you drive your kid to play year round in travel leagues and you send them to a whole bunch of sports camps and you, you hire professional trainers, all in pursuit of that D1 scholarship and a shot at the pros. The same could be said about dance, or cheerleading, or show choir, gymnastics, beauty pageants. And you know what?

These personal and parental ambitions are actually nothing new. If you'll open your Bible with me, your Bible, your mobile device, whatever you brought with you, we're going to go to the Gospel of Matthew today. Matthew chapter 20. We're going to pick this up starting in verse 20, and we're just going to listen in on a conversation between Jesus and his disciples. Matthew chapter 20, starting in verse 20 says, Then the mother of Zebedee's sons, Now Zebedee's sons were named James and John, two of Jesus disciples.

So these men and their mom came to Jesus. And kneeling down, the mother of Zebedee's sons asked this favor of Jesus. What is it you want? Jesus asked. She said, grant that one of these two sons of mine may sit at your right and the other at your left in your kingdom.

So Mrs. Zebedee was happy that her sons were following Jesus, but surely there had to be more. I mean, what if instead of just being disciples, her boys could be president and vice president, right? She meant well. She's just a mom trying to help her kids get ahead. Maybe her sons were the ones that put her up to the request in the first place.

But either way, she didn't understand how Jesus kingdom works. You don't know what you were asking. Jesus said to them, can you drink the cup I am going to drink? We can, they answered. Now, what cup exactly was Jesus talking about?

Well, if you were with us last week, you saw last week how Jesus, right before he was betrayed and arrested and crucified, he went to the garden of Gethsemane and he prayed these words. He said, father, if you are willing, take this cup from me, yet not my will, but yours be done. Scripture repeatedly uses a cup or a goblet as a metaphor for God's wrath against sin. To drink the cup of God's wrath is to face his judgment. Jesus came to carry the world's sins to the cross and drink every last drop of God's holy and very legitimate hatred of sin.

Jesus came to be cut off from God so that you and I wouldn't have to be. And there was nothing fun about that. But his love for the Father and his love for us, for you and for me, compelled him to go. So Jesus asked James and John if they were ready to drink the cup that he was about to drink. And in their naive idealism, they said, you bet.

Yes, we are. So Jesus said to them, you will indeed drink from my cup, but to sit at my right or left is not for me to grant. These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared. Prepared by my father. James and John didn't fully grasp what Jesus was asking, but their answer was actually more truthful than they realized.

Because later James would be killed and John would die in exile for preaching Jesus message. This was no time for handing out awards or asking for honorary titles. Jesus wanted his disciples to see that in his kingdom those the road to greatness leads through suffering. When we read on, it Sundays, when the ten the other disciples heard about this, they were indignant with the two brothers Jesus. Other disciples saw what James and John and their mommy were trying to pull, and they didn't like it.

And I'm not sure that their objection was primarily philosophical. It may be that they wanted those places of honor too. They were just kicking themselves that they didn't think to ask Jesus. Jesus first. Maybe all of the disciples ultimately wanted to be commended and set apart and distinguished and put above the others in some way.

In any case, Jesus called a huddle. Jesus called them together and said, you know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them and their high officials exercise authority over them. Some things are just human nature. I mean, in Jesus day, there were people in positions of authority who enjoyed looking down on others and telling them what to do. I'm so glad things aren't like that today.

I mean, in our culture we have a tendency, don't we, to rank people in order of importance. Store managers would often be assumed to matter more than stockers or cashiers. Bank presidents surely matter more than tellers. I mean, lead singers, they're famous in a way that the, the people behind the audio board or serving backstage are not going to be. Film directors usually get their name up in lights.

They're listed early in the credits. But if you're the, the key grip or the gaffer, your name is going to be buried in tiny little print way, way down in the end credits. The corporate ladder, as we know it climbs from salesperson to manager to executive to owner. So when we're given authority, when we're given awards or promotions or pay raises, it's easy to feel entitled to believe that we have somehow earned special treatment, to think of ourselves as more important than others. And when we go there, there are a number of foundational biblical truths that sort of go out the window in our minds.

For example, the foundational biblical truth that all people are created in God's image.

Entry level, first day on the job, veteran CEO, all created in God's image. We all arrive on earth empty handed and we leave this life exactly the same way. Foundational biblical truth that we are all sinners in need of God's grace and that we are all loved by God in a way that has nothing to do with our titles or our salaries or our position on an org chart. Jesus Kingdom is unlike any other. And to make that clear, he said to his disciples, not so with you.

Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant. And whoever wants to be first must be your slave. 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, the world that we live in values power and position and perks, elite status, the ability to tell others what to do. But Jesus Kingdom is vastly different. In the kingdom of Jesus, to be great, be a servant, you want to be first, you have to choose to be last.

In God's kingdom, power and privilege are not commodities to be hoarded. They are actually tools to be leveraged for the benefit of others. We are most like Jesus when we serve. Now, just a few verses earlier in Matthew chapter 20, Jesus told a story. It's kind of a head scratcher of a story.

It's about a landowner who is hiring laborers to work in his vineyard. So he went out early in the morning and he hired some workers and he put them to work about 9am he hired some more. At noon he hired some more and at 5pm he added to his workforce. And that evening at dusk, the foreman rounded up all of those workers and began to hand out their wages and paid all of them exactly the same. Now naturally, the workers who had been there from the very beginning and worked all day long were kind of chapped about that.

But the landowner paid each worker exactly what he had agreed to pay them. And Jesus said the point of his story was that the last will be first and the first will be last. Jesus Kingdom takes everything we think we know about what's important and turns it upside down. The story of Jesus is that the rightful King of the universe came to earth not to enjoy celebrity status, not to be fawned over by adoring fans, but to serve and to offer his life as a sacrifice for the world's sins. In fact, if we zoom out a little bit, we see the context of Matthew chapter 20.

We find that James and John made this rather tone deaf request right after Jesus had predicted for the third time that he was about to die. They're on their way to Jerusalem for the final week of Jesus life and he explains to them that when we get there, I'm going to be handed over to the chief priests and the Gentiles and I'm going to be killed. And their follow up to that conversation was to say, Jesus, do you have any special places of honor and distinction for us? So let's look again at Jesus words. Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave.

Just as the Son of man Jesus says, just as I myself did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom. Many Jesus came not to be served, but to serve. And yet, if we're honest, I think many of us would rather be served than serve. Allison and I love the ocean. So over the years many of our family vacations have been in beachfront condos where we buy groceries and we fix most of our meals and we just chill and we love that family time.

But our favorite way to vacation, we reserve this only for like five year milestone anniversaries. Our favorite way is to go to an all inclusive resort in the Caribbean where we can order snacks and drinks while we read by the pool, where we can order room service on our balcony and just watch the cruise ships sail by. That makes for a really fun, really relaxing vacation, but it's not good training for life. That's not really how life works. It's certainly not how the church works.

And speaking of cruise ships, JD Greer has this brilliant analogy I'd love to share with you. J.D. greer suggests that some Christians think the church is a cruise liner. I mean, the goal of a cruise liner is to offer Christian luxury to the whole family. Sports programs and childcare and social opportunities.

So cruise ship minded Christians show up at church asking questions like are the facilities nice? Do I like the music? Are the service times convenient? Are the sermons funny, but not too long? Does attending make me feel better?

And don't get me wrong, inviting facilities and quality music and Engaging, encouraging messages are all good things. But if you think about it, we ask a lot of those same kinds of questions about vacation destinations. Cruise ship Christians may go to one church because they like the music, another church because they like the kids, program another for Bible studies or small group experiences, and then listen to sermon podcasts from several others. Cruise ship Christians remind me of the grasshoppers in that movie A Bug's Life. They come, they eat, they leave, right?

They do a lot of taking, they do a lot of consuming, but they don't give much back. Now Gursh says other Christians think of the church as a battleship. They recognize that the church is not made for entertainment, that the church is made for mission. And they like to see the battle fought loudly and dramatically. But they tend to think that most of the fighting is done by the church as an institution.

So they see programs and ministries as the primary weapons in this war. And battleship Christians tend to think that their role is to give, to pay trained ministry staff to find the targets, and then the church can gather on Sundays to to watch them fire the guns. But in reality, the church is an aircraft carrier. See, aircraft carriers engage in warfare not by going directly to battle themselves, but by equipping and deploying lots of planes to fight elsewhere. Much of the spiritual warfare that God calls us to engage in as his church doesn't happen on Sundays, doesn't happen on this campus.

It happens in our homes as we minister to our spouses and our kids. It happens in our neighborhoods as we befriend and encourage the people who live near us. It happens in our workplaces as we live and we serve with integrity and compassion. It happens in our schools as we develop our minds and we try to extend friendship to others for whom that's rare. It happens in our community as we tackle projects like Everybody Impact Week, right?

See aircraft carrier Christians personally share the gospel. They personally study scripture. They personally serve wherever they are. And I am convinced that our church should be an aircraft carrier because we want to make disciples who go and who serve and who make more disciples. I don't know if you noticed this, but when you walk into this room, you walk through this breezeway where the restrooms are, and on the wall just outside the women's restroom is a sign that displays our church's mission statement.

I don't expect that all of you have looked at that as often as I have, or maybe memorized it in the way that we've asked our staff to. But if you look at it, one of the things you'll notice is that the three key words in our mission statement are not attend, meet and watch. They're not. I mean, if we offered programs every single day, there are some cruise ship Christians out there who would fill their schedules with them. They'd be here every day of the week to attend a Bible study, a life group.

You know, we have Bible study and life group collectors sometimes who do several at a time. But when we do that, we have zero influence or impact beyond these walls. That's not what Jesus wants for us. That's not what we want for us. Our mission is to love God through a life of worship, to grow together as disciples of Christ and to inspire others to follow Jesus.

That mission is not passive and it is not self focused. Jesus established his church to be an active, serving, outwardly focused. Take ministry with US Aircraft carrier. So there are some things on the basis of this conversation that Jesus had with his disciples that we need to understand. The first of them is this.

Serving is a non negotiable part of following Jesus. Just like denying ourselves and taking up our cross daily. There is no version of following Jesus that doesn't include serving. If you have bought into an idea of following Jesus that doesn't include serving, I would challenge you to ask yourself whether it's Jesus you're actually following because that is not what he taught. Number two, serving is vital to the life of our church.

There is work to do, there are needs to be met. There are people to reach and encourage and not just on Sundays. Number three, serving is for every stage of life. We're never too young, we're never too old to serve. We've had multiple generations serving together.

All of this last week as a part of say it with me Impact week. Really cool. Friday night, Allison and I got to go over to Isom elementary with a handful of friends and we worked on. We had a hundred one by four boards that we were painting black so that a crew on Saturday could cut them up and use them to frame some bulletin boards. Our youngest participant was less than a year old.

I think I was the oldest one there and we had everybody in between.

Chris and Meg Allen were with us with their little baby Graham and they took turns holding Graham while they painted with one hand. That's starting them young. I love that. I love that we have volunteers in our ministries who are kids. We have others who are in their 80s and 90s.

You can retire from a job, you can retire from a career, but we never retire from serving in the kingdom of Jesus because To follow Jesus is to serve. And that's why number four, serving takes all of us. God gives every single one of us in his church gifts for ministry. We all have abilities God has given us. And if you're not using yours, here's what that means.

It means there are needs that are not being met. It means there are opportunities, there are open doors to ministry that are not being walked through. It means there is spiritual growth that you're not experiencing. Whatever abilities God has given you, there is a way to use those abilities in ministry to others. Scripture calls the church the body of Christ.

And all of us who belong to Jesus are a part of that body. The body just like yours and mine. If half of your body is paralyzed, that's a medical issue. That's not ideal. The body isn't fully healthy.

If we aren't all serving, a person with only 20% of their body functioning is on life support. But in so many churches, that's the norm. Like many other churches, Greenwood Christian Church is only partially mobilized. So we're not doing all the ministry we're called to. We're certainly not doing all the ministry we're capable of in this community.

Now I've shared in the past when we've talked about financial stewardship that we have hundreds of people who give generously to our church and we are so grateful to the hundreds of you who faithfully do that. We're so grateful. But the reality is, the flip side of that is there are also hundreds of people who call our church home for whom giving is not a habit, it's not something that is a priority. And the same is true. I've just got to tell you today when it comes to serving, we have lots of servant hearted people who serve in multiple ministries and we could not function without you.

We so appreciate all of you who serve. But in most churches, ours included, the people who don't serve outnumber those who do. Serving is an area where our church needs to grow because we are most like Jesus when we serve, want to look like Jesus, we have to serve. If you'll take a look at the screens for a minute, I have a few friends that I would love for you to hear from.

Have you ever had those Sunday mornings where the alarm goes off and you just want to turn it off and go back to sleep, where you feel for a brief moment that the day will be a whole lot better if you just can do nothing and go nowhere? I've had those mornings myself. And really for me though, as soon as I Walk into the church may sound weird, but I feel alive. It brings me so much joy to serve. It's not just a checkbox for an obligation.

It truly allows me to see beyond myself and just be able to kind of see into who God says I am and what he has in store for me and for my life. When we started coming to church here, we had an almost one year old and I was pregnant with our second one. And so we started working back there because I thought, well, I keep putting babies in the nursery, maybe I should help out in the nursery. Serving here at first was just something to do and get to know people, but then it turned into kind of like a family loving to see everybody catch up with everybody, see what's going on with them. All of us growing at the same time with production, but then all of us growing spiritually as well.

It's just something that I really love. When you have a large church, you need to have some small pockets to be able to feel comfortable with and feel involved with, and serving provides that. It just fills my heart with joy that people are being introduced and are understanding what Christ did for us. I have really enjoyed watching students become who they are meant to be. And there's this.

This special attachment that they have to other adults when they're not just the same mom and dad at home. It's someone that cares about them when they don't have to. They're not obligated to be there for you and to see how that matters to them and shows them part of their identity in Christ and how loved and special they truly are has been one of my favorite parts. I think God created us to be in community with him and with others. We say around here, love God, love others all the time.

And I think it's important for us to love others that we're serving with and love others that we're serving. So I think it's just a huge opportunity to worship together and really go through life the way God intended it by loving him and loving other people. So back in GC kids, what I love is just being able to see the same kids week in and week out. I get to hear their stories, get to watch their personalities grow, just to get to see them get excited about Jesus and about the things that they're learning. And it's just a really fun environment to be in with them.

It's just good to know that parents and other family members have the opportunity to worship and hear the Word regularly and get rejuvenated. I love being able to point others directly toward God. I love the camaraderie within the team. It feels like we are a second family. We have everyone from teenagers to grandparents and then everyone in between.

And I really feel like everyone genuinely cares for each other and learns from each other. Sometimes I'm doing lyrics, sometimes words up on the screen. Sometimes I'm doing different shots. Sometimes I'm even at the cameras, like, helping with it. And it's just a lot of fun.

And it's created such a family for me, especially since I'm kind of a loner person and I don't really depend on people as much, but it's created those people where I can share what's going on in my life because it's hard for me to share, but they've been there through that. And. And that's definitely something I appreciate about the worship ministry. I would urge anyone who's not currently serving to just do it, to jump in, to not be scared. Man, we have so many things that we can use as excuses.

I've made a million of them myself. As to why maybe I wasn't ready or I don't have it all together. It's going to take a lot of time or whatever our excuses may be. I would really just encourage you to push those aside and realize that those are not coming from God, but instead those are from the enemy who wants to keep us from serving. I promise you that when you serve, you will find out that it is so much bigger than you, that the things that you get to see, the people you get to interact with, the way that you get to experience this life through serving, it just really helps us to see that God's kingdom is huge.

It allows us to be used in just a small way. And again, there's no one job is better than another. No job within this church is too small and no job is too great. So find a place. Maybe it's a place that you don't even feel comfortable yet, but if you feel God pulling you to that, I just really encourage you to be brave, to be bold, to take a step and say, I'm willing to serve.

And then just get to be able to sit back and. And be amazed at how much God will use you and the things that are going to change within your life and within the life of this church.

As you watch that video, did you notice how many of our volunteers said serving is kind of a drag, but somebody's got to do it? Zero people said that. I want to clarify, this is not something that we want from you. I know churches sometimes have that, that reputation. Just always have a handout, asking people for stuff.

This isn't nearly as much about what we want from you as it is what we want for you. We want you to experience the joy of utilizing the gifts God has given you in a way that impacts other people's lives. And what you heard represented in that video is really just the tip of the iceberg. If your only connection with our church is an occasional connection. Sunday morning, maybe you're with us for the very first time today in that limited window.

When you park your car and you walk in, you, you come into this room and then you walk back out, you probably notice that there are a few dozen volunteers who park cars and they, they open the doors and greet you when you arrive, people trying to make you welcome, people staffing the hub and our new here spaces. You'll come into this room, you'll see some people get up on stage who are going to sing, they're going to play instruments, going to speak. But if that's all you experience, you probably don't realize that there are even more people working behind the scenes at this very moment on sound and lighting and computer graphics and cameras. You might not realize that our musicians on average give six to eight hours of their time every week that they serve. There are volunteers who prepare those trays full of double stacked communion cups that we all shared in together a few minutes ago.

We have a multi member security team working to keep our campus safe. We have volunteers who arrive early to make sure the coffee is hot and ready when we get here. There are volunteers who drive people to church every Sunday who couldn't get here otherwise. We have volunteers with medical training who are on standby each week just in case we have a health emergency. We have volunteers who facilitate our GC Kids ministry to infants through fifth graders.

GC Kids is an area I just want to double down on right now and say we desperately need help in our children's ministry right now. If God has gifted you to work with kids, if you're a teacher, if you're a grandparent, if you are someone that has a knack for connecting with children, we need your help. We have multiple Bible studies that are led by volunteers that take place each week. We have volunteers who serve a free meal to dozens of people every Monday night. And we need more people to help with our community meals because our goal isn't just to put a plate of food in front of people.

It's to be able to sit down with them and have conversation and build relationships and encourage them and let them know that they're loved. We have volunteers who mow acres and acres of grass and help with all kinds of meat maintenance on our facility. We have volunteers who coach kids in our sports leagues. We have volunteers who help to prepare our financial reports. We have dozens of volunteer life group leaders who open God's word and their hearts and their homes to others.

And that's another place right now where we really need help. We have more people at this very moment wanting to get into life groups than we have life groups for them to get into. So if you've experienced healthy life group community, would you prayerfully consider whether God might be prompting you in the season ahead to join with some others in launching and leading a new group where some other people can find that same community that you found to be such a blessing? We have volunteers who serve at our office welcome desk during the week. Volunteers who lead our women's and men's and seniors ministries.

We have multiple volunteers who help in our student ministry. We send dozens of volunteers on mission trips each year. And each year we have numerous volunteers who take personal time off work. They take vacation time to go with kids to Camp Allendale. That is not a vacation.

It's fun, but it's not a vacation. They go to Ciymove. They go on retreats. They go on mission trips. Our elders are volunteers.

And that's just a sample. We haven't even talked about all the people in our church who pray. Pray for others who prepare meals and take those to friends who are sick or grieving or adjusting to new babies. People who drive others to medical appointments they couldn't get to otherwise. People who help each other move, help each other with home improvement projects.

People who send notes of encouragement. And we could just add so much more to that list. Friends, we are most like Jesus when we serve. The health of our church and our impact on our community require that every single one of us who claims the name of Jesus reflects the example of Jesus. By serving.

You can access the serve page of our website by clicking Find your place to serve. If you're following along on our digital sermon notes, there's a button at the bottom that just says find your place to serve. And it will take you to a website that you can also find at Greenwood page.

And at that page you will find tons of ways to serve our church and our community. If you're not currently serving, we want to help you find a place to make a difference with your life. We want you to personally experience the joy of doing what it is that God wired you to do. So would you check out our website? Would you talk to a member of our staff team?

Would you ask God to show you how you can make a kingdom impact by serving? Because we're most like Jesus. We're most like Jesus when we serve. Let's pray.

Father God, we're thankful today to be a part of your kingdom. And we're thankful that your kingdom is not reserved in an exclusive way for the most talented, the best educated, the highest earning, the most popular or most famous. That. Father, you invite all of us to the table and through your spirit, you give all of us gifts and abilities that are designed to be used to grow your church and to touch people's lives. We're thankful for the example of Jesus who, although Philippians 2 says existed in the very nature of God, didn't consider that equality with God something to be held on to.

Rather, he emptied himself and he.

He took on a human likeness and being found in appearance as a man. Your Word says that he humbled himself and became obedient to death, even death on a cross. Father, we're thankful that you have lovingly served us, that you have met our greatest need. And we ask you to show us as a church by showing us as individuals where you have equipped us, where you've called us, where you want to deploy us to serve. We're thankful, Father, for so many people who are serving.

And Father, it's exciting to think about the potential of what could happen as more and more of us decide that that's something that, that we want our lives to be about as well. Father, thank you for loving us. Thank you for challenging us. Thank you for equipping us, for calling us, for using us. We pray all these things in Jesus name.

Amen.