Attitude of Greatness

Introduction

Well, that certainly was more of an introduction than I expected or deserved. So before that, I do have some depressing news to share. It’s something that we need to address from the very beginning. In Bible class this morning in the book of Jeremiah is what we’re studying, I’m in there co-teaching with Josh Creel, the other evangelist here, besides Mr. Bob. And he said that we should no longer pick on him because he’s no longer the new guy. I’d like to suggest that if you are planning to pick on the new guy, remember two things. The first one is the golden rule. And second of all, if you are bent on ignoring, number one, that I have been here twice as long as Josh.

Having grown up in Orlando, though, I’ve been to Disney World several times, and some of you visiting may be on your way to Disney, and you know that there’s much to see and do there. There’s the Cinderella Castle. I was told I pronounced that wrong by a member of Disney that is not Cinderella’s castle, it is the Cinderella Castle. There’s Tower of Terror, there’s the Mountains, Space, Splash and Thunder. But the most popular event, or at least one of the most popular events at the Magic Kingdom, is the three o’clock parade. That’s something really funny about this to me, not just because it’s a parade, but the most commonly asked question of Disney Park employees at the Magic Kingdom is what time is the three o’clock parade?

Now, I appreciate that you laughed because I was kind of concerned maybe someone here had asked that question. But you think about it. How does that happen? Why would you ask such a thing? Well, it’s because people are busy. There’s so much to see and do that you forget about the little things. It’s hard to step back, if you will, and realize that some of the most basic fundamental aspects of what you’re doing there are already spelled out for you. Or if they’re not already spelled out for you in a way that you know you can simply find that information by just reading the name or the time associated with that parade. But I think I think what that shows us and should be a warning to us as Christians is that sometimes our faith is right in front of our face, and we ignore it.

We turn away from the basic common senses of Jesus’ teachings. After all, he taught to audiences that were not the most rich, the most wealthy. The gospel, according to 1 Corinthians, doesn’t often appeal to those who are wise in this age. In fact, God shows his wisdom by making those things which are foolish wise and powerful. So let’s examine that idea as we go out into the world, and first and foremost, as we form our attitude. And that’s what I wish to talk about this morning. We’re going to talk about an attitude of greatness as prescribed in a very basic way by Jesus Himself. If you will, open your Bibles with me to Matthew chapter 18. If you have a marker there, you want to leave it.

Right there in Matthew chapter 18, beginning in verse 1.

In verse 1 of chapter 18, Matthew writes, At that time the disciples came to Jesus saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them and said, Truly I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me. But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea. Now, this is a very familiar text to most, if not many of us here this morning.

But I think the key to understanding the passage is found in verse 1. Look at what the disciples, these are Jesus’ closest acquaintances. These are the people who, of anyone, following Christ would have understood what it means to do just that, to follow him. And yet, what is the question being argued? Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? Now look with me at Mark chapter 9. Turn over there with me, please. In Mark chapter 9, a parallel account, but you see a little bit more detail on what exactly Christ’s disciples were doing on this subject. Mark chapter 9 and verse 33. And they came to Capernaum, and when he was in the house, he asked them, What were you discussing on the way? Now can you imagine being the disciples?

As you’ve been, what verse 34 describes as arguing with one another about who is the greatest? And Jesus is to ask you, What are you talking about? The answer Jesus gave in Matthew chapter 18 surely would have shocked the disciples when his example was not one of them, but it was a little child. And not just a little child, but it was a little child who they were to humble themselves like, and to act like as well. Jesus is teaching them that they’re looking at the kingdom of heaven all wrong. It’s not a matter of rank or of importance or of any type of stature or personal gain. It’s about obeying God. And until we have entirely humbled ourselves into committing only the acts that God has prescribed for us to, we will miss the point of all of Jesus’ teachings, as obvious as that may seem.

1. We Must Empty Ourselves

So, because I did work with David Banning in Texas two summers ago, this morning’s lesson will have just three points. The first one is that we must empty ourselves. We just read and look in your Bibles if you have it open there to Mark chapter 9 and verse 34. When Jesus asked, What were you discussing on the way? They kept silent. For on the way they had argued with one another about who is the greatest. Can’t you just hear this conversation? Peter’s the one saying, Well, guys, I’m the rock. Then you have John saying, but I’m Jesus’ favorite. It’s got to be me. Andrew’s saying, Peter, you wouldn’t even be here if it wasn’t for me. And then, of course, you have Matthew says, hey guys, I’m the governmental official here.

But again, I want to go back to the very first, look at the first four words of verse 34. When Jesus asked the question, but they kept silent. Can you imagine the deafening silence that these apostles must have felt? Again, they may have been missing the point of what heaven is like and what obedience to Christ and to God the Father is. But they knew enough to know this was a pretty superficial thing to be talking about. And it certainly wasn’t something that they would want to stand up and teach and talk to Jesus about.

And he sat down and called the twelve, and he said to them, If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all. Boy, how that must have flyed straight into the face of those apostles. They were arguing who would be first, and Jesus has answered, You must be last. You see, as Christians, we must put aside our pride. We must put aside the things of this world and be like Christ, and subsequently view life the way he did. We read a passage this morning, I’d invite you to turn back to Philippians chapter 2. Turn with me in your Bibles, please. Philippians chapter 2. Philippians chapter 2, beginning in verse 5, Paul chronicles about how Jesus thought about living this life. Verse 5.

Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.

Why can we not realize that we need to empty ourselves and do what Christ did, which is fill the void with God? We’re not running around like empty vessels. We should be filled with the words, with the fruits of the Spirit. We should be acting out of the commands that we read. We should be thinking and meditating on good things always. Because that’s how God wants us to be. That’s how we can be effective for God. We see Jesus realized the big picture. He understood the gospel isn’t for gain, as we see some people preaching it today. And some people want it because it’s good for them. It’s a good work. It makes them feel good. It will make them financially wealthy, and most importantly, it’ll make them happy.

The gospel’s certainly not a competition. I think we all know that, especially when we reread passages such as Matthew 18 and see the foolishness of the disciples bickering. What about this final point? Our lives and our religion isn’t about convenience or making ourselves feel secure. See, that’s kind of hard for us today. Because we understand we should be obeying God. We should be filled with God and His fruits. But what do we choose to fill our time with? Of course, there’s nothing that is a better representation of what we are than to see what we do. So let me ask you in this country of ours where entertainment is so important. Do you make time every week to watch a special show? I personally love the voice.

I think it’s entertaining. Do you make time to watch a sporting event? I certainly always catch that. I like to watch the gators beat the seminals. Or do you focus and, or in conjunction with at least, make time for helping others, or for your prayer life, or for reading your Bibles, or for simply teaching others the gospel. You see, there’s many things we can do in the kingdom of God, and if you’re filled with Him, you will be bursting at the seams to make sure you’re doing it. Until we get off the entertainment, until we stop viewing the gospel as anything except simple obedience to God. We have missed it. And we are not only ignoring the example of Christ, we are ignoring his words to the disciples in Matthew 18.

We don’t want to have to read our Bibles every day or show integrity at work. Or come to service and wake up at 9 a.m. or before 9 a.m. to get here because it’s not convenient. But God never promises a convenient gospel. The gospel isn’t one of convenience. It’s not about living conveniently. You don’t work conveniently, and it certainly never comes across conveniently to others who your example flies in the face of. Christians live like this. The world lives like this. It doesn’t mesh. You can’t have it both ways. You have either emptied yourself and filled it with God, or you have not filled with God. We think we’re humble. We think we’re different than the apostles because we wouldn’t dare have a conversation about once we get to heaven, who will be greatest?

We might out of intellectual curiosity, but we certainly wouldn’t spend time in a church service debating that. But we need to understand the way we live demonstrates the same attitude of either understanding Jesus’ calling or misunderstanding and ignoring it. God lives and works in us. Let me ask you. Was he in the apostles when they were bickering over who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?

Is he in us when we’re looking out for ourselves or our reputation? Or do we allow ourselves to get out of the way so God can be all that shines through? I’m mindful of a television show I watched growing up where there was this 18-year old boy, and boy, he did about everything you can humanly think of wrong. He set things on fire, literally. He was a pain and disrespectful to his parents. He failed in school. He was always in trouble and detention and suspended and expelled from schools. And frankly, many people thought he just wasn’t going to be that good at anything. And so his parents finally fed up, sent him to military school. And then he liked it so much that within the six months of graduation, he enlisted in the army.

And within just six more months, this failure of a kid, this disobedient son, this rude, this failure, this dumb individual rose to the top of his class. And one of his sergeants who knew him when he came in said, Reese, how can you possibly be that good at that? What changed? How are you such a good soldier? I don’t understand. And he looked at him and he said, It’s simple. I just stopped thinking. And we think, how can not thinking make him such an effective soldier? But you see, the explanation is simple as well. What he meant was that he had finally decided that he would do just as he was told. He inserted none of his personal thoughts or bias in the way of his training.

He took all the instruction of the military school and of the boot camps of the army after he enlisted and he applied it to how he lived. He applied it to his strategy, he applied it to how he kept his bunk and even how he ordered other soldiers around. You see, it’s simple when we commit ourselves to being soldiers of Christ in the same way. If we look at exactly what God has told us, and we do just that, we do nothing more. We don’t worry about what we think about it. We don’t worry about what the world thinks about it. We just fill ourselves with God and act accordingly. Obeying him becomes very, very simple. Go back to Matthew chapter 18. Jesus makes another point that you have to build off of that simplicity because after all, Jesus has more of a message than to simply understand that we should be living a certain way in obedience with God.

2. Our Focus Should Be on Others

In Matthew chapter 18, Jesus teaches our focus should be on others if we truly wish to reach the kingdom of heaven. Look at verse 5. Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me. Little child here is sometimes viewed as a young child, but perhaps it’s more likely referring to a Christian. We see that same type of language in the book of 1 John, particularly in chapter 3. But look at what he said again in verse 5. Whoever receives one such child in my name does what? Receives me. Now let’s think about that for a moment. Isn’t that kind of strange? Of anyone who ever lived, wouldn’t the apostles have been the ones to have received Christ? After all, they lived with him. They worked with him, they followed him.

They were teaching his message. So what could Jesus mean? Well, back in verse 1, when the apostles were asking, who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? Christ suggests that they should be putting others first. The gospel, as we said already, isn’t a means of gain, it’s not a competition. Jesus is saying, stop thinking about where you rank and start going out and doing what you’re supposed to. And again, it’s common sense, but the gospel is just that. If we obey God, it’s easy. It makes sense. But I’ll tell you what, this is very, very difficult. It means we have to welcome and care for and promote others before ourselves. Let me ask you. Do you struggle the same way I do in that you think of things through what you think?

Think about that. See how many times I can say the word think in a two-centence phrase. When you view life, when you view your obedience to God, what lens are you using? Are you using the message, the mirror that is the gospel that James calls it as? Are you looking at yourself in the mirror? Or are you thinking about how serving makes you feel? Or how serving is difficult for you in this day, or it’s inconvenient to me to be teaching my neighbor, or to stand up for what’s right, or to just be an example to the world. Or do we think about it the way God did, the way Christ did, and think, how can I help others? How can I be a tool in the service of Christ our Lord?

But secondly, under this point, we need to realize that takes making time. It’s not enough to just say we understand that we need to help others or be thinking of others, but that means making the conversation. Because after all, who here lives and has an abundance of free time? No one volunteered even if you did, you probably wouldn’t have raised your hand. We all live, we’re busy. Our calendars are full. We do sporting events that are good for growth for our children. They’re in musical events. And someone has to drive them there, so there’s the parents’ time. We have to feed ourselves. We have to nap. We have to sleep. We have to study. We have to do all of these things. We have to work.

When do we make the time for others? Because let me suggest, and this is something I know if I don’t plan it, it’s not going to get done unless it’s a priority to me. And until we have shifted our focus so radically off of ourselves onto others that our natural disposition with free time is to think, what can I do for others? We better be making some plans. Because that’s the easiest way. If it’s on your calendar, if it’s on my calendar, it pops up and says, time to serve others, I’ll say, oh, well, okay, it’s time to serve others. We have to be making a commitment. That takes prior thought. And again, that takes the attitude adjustment that Christ is prescribing to the apostles in Matthew chapter 18.

An attitude of greatness in the kingdom is an attitude of not only humility, but of service and trying to pump others up to be great rather than yourselves. And that runs contrary to just about everything today that our society wants us to think about. Let me steer you to a passage in Matthew chapter 25. Turn with me to Matthew chapter 25. I know I’m preaching to the choir, so to speak, about how we talk and should think. And certainly putting God first was the first point, more or less, and seeing ourselves. Secondly, serving others. And certainly we all would understand that that’s a fundamental principle of Christianity. Allow me to illuminate verses 31 through 45 and 6 here and see just how difficult of a transition this really is for our lives.

Beginning in verse 31. When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations. He will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on his left. Then the king will say to those on his right, come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. Verse 35, he’s going to say, here’s how you get there. Let’s read this. 35. For I was hungry, and you gave me food. I was thirsty, and you gave me drink. I was a stranger and you welcomed me.

I was naked and you clothed me. I was sick and you visited me. I was in prison and you came to me. And we get that. We need to put others first. We certainly need to respect God. We need to be there for him. We need to give in the contribution to encourage the work, to further the spread of the gospel. We get that. But look at what the righteous response is in verse 37. Then the righteous will answer him, saying, Lord. When did we see you hungry and feed you or thirsty and give you a drink? Verse 39, and when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you? And the king will answer to them, Truly I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these of my brothers, you did it to me.

Are we getting the picture here of how simple God and Christ are trying to make this for us? Christ in chapter 18 of Matthew is talking about taking a little child. Look at verse 40. Truly, as I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these. The gospel is about service. It’s not about reading your Bible and being biblically knowledgeable, although that helps you fill yourself up with God. It’s about embracing and putting others first. Here’s why. In verse 41, then he will say to those on his left, Depart from me. So were these people just wicked? Were they terrible people? Let’s look closer. In verses 42 and 43, Jesus explains how they didn’t feed him. They didn’t give him drink.

They did not welcome him. They did not clothe him. They did not visit him in the prison. Look at what these people say in verse 44. Then they will also answer, saying, Lord. When did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison and did not minister to you? That’s what we do. We say, Where did I miss the opportunity? You missed the opportunity by not making it. Until we have understood the simple call of the gospel to simply serve others, we will never see God. We will never see him to feed him. We will never see him to give him drink or to clothe him or to visit him. It takes active looking out for other people. It takes action to have the greatest attitude.

Christ had that attitude in his humility in Philippians chapter 2. Jesus submitted to the will of the Father. And because of that, verses 10 and 11, God exalted him. And as we sung and read this morning, he is Jesus, given the name above all names. You see, it’s that simple that we need to focus on others, but we need to be watching for it, or I’ll tell you what, we’re going to miss it. We will get too busy and we won’t even know it passed us by. Serving others is not a warning symbol, a flash in your face that says, Here’s your opportunity. Sure, that comes sometimes. You may know a close brother or sister that you can help, and I certainly hope we’d be there.

3. Our Example and Encouragement to the Weak

But I’ll tell you what, a lot of them go by under the radar, and we will ever even know unless you look for it. Or if you ask about it. And allow me to give just a couple ways you can do that. This congregation, talk to the elders. They know who needs help in whatever way that is. Talk to the deacons. They know who needs help or what needs assistance. Talk to people. Ask them about their lives. And then we will have been successful in trying to think about others. And that leads to the final point this morning. On our example and our encouragement to be the encourager to the weak. Jesus makes an intriguing point to the apostles in verse 6 of Matthew chapter 18.

He says, But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea. If you aren’t frightened by that, I don’t know what you’d be frightened by. Because Jesus is saying, if you do this, my wrath is on you. Jesus tells them what not to do. But conversely, if we’re not to drag them down, we’re not to do that. That means that we need to go about lifting others up. Again, it’s action. It’s not just inaction that saves us or allows us to come into contact with the grace that God offers. It’s action, it’s submitting to the will of God.

And when we have embraced others, we then have the responsibility to encourage the weak. Now, this can have two different responsibility splits. It could be to our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. In Hebrews chapter 10, verses 23 through 25, we talk about the need to assemble with one another, to be an encouragement to one another. Let me ask you, do you go about creating an atmosphere of encouragement when you’re here at the building? What about when someone does something good? Are you the first one to tell them congratulations? Or excellent job. Or just have their back, so to speak. Be supportive of them. Send them a card. Write them a note. Or give them a nice, reaffirming, loving handshake or hug. You see, this means loving someone, even if we don’t usually talk to them, or if they don’t always agree with us, because we’re all on the same team here.

We should be encouraging the others because we’re going to need encouragement at some point. I guarantee you that. And beyond that, we’re all trying to get to the same place. We have to help each other. I’m mindful of the NBA player, Kobe Bryant, who, in my humble estimation, has to be one of the most prideful guys I’ve ever heard give an interview. He will talk about his brand, his tremendous abilities, his brand being all the people that buy his stuff, his clothes, his shoes, etc. And yet last year in the playoffs, this Kobe Bryant, this egotistical maniac, so to speak, who would want to take the shot and probably deserves it, in the playoff game, passed the ball to one of his teammates who took a shot, and you could see his face.

He was mad. And the shot missed. So you can imagine how mad he would be. And so they got to the post-game interviews. And they asked him, they said, What did you think about your teammate blowing the shot? And you know what he said? He said, You know what? He said, he had a good look. He missed it. He’ll get it next time. Why would he do that? Why wouldn’t he slam him? Because Kobe Bryant knew he had to encourage his teammates. If they were going to get to the NBA finals and win, they had to be a team. They had to be a unit, a family that supported one another through thick and thin. We had a bunch of sermons recently about bearing one another’s burdens.

That’s a very important responsibility among the local church. And that means helping everyone. Being the encouragement. Because someone has to do it first. That leads to the second point. Someone has to be the example. You can sit back and say, Well, I haven’t been touched by that. It doesn’t affect me. I’ll tell you what, at some point you will need the help of someone. At some point in time, you’re going to step up and take the shot and miss. And you’re going to want someone to pump you up rather than tear you down to everyone who will listen. How encouraging are you when you come here on Sundays? Do you talk about how wonderful God is? Do you talk about all the blessings that He’s given you?

The fact that Christ, the Jesus that has the name above all names, came and died and was raised again so that our sins, the very thing that nailed him to the cross would be eliminated. Do you talk about that? Or do we instead talk about how long the preacher went? Or how the singing was a little bit off key. Or how my leg hurts today, and I really didn’t want to come. You only can be one way. You can be an encourager or you can be a discourager. Jesus is saying we have a responsibility to lift one another up. And that implies we need to be the examples. And that could even be being the first one. And the final point this morning is we need to be looking in two senses.

The first sense is looking for that opportunity we talked about. Paul teaches in Philippians chapter 2, if you looked at verse 15, the previous verse is about we need to be obedient without grumbling or complaining or disputing, as some translations say. But in verse 15, Paul teaches that we’re going to stand out from the world and we need to be lights to it. The last part of verse 15 states. That means looking for your opportunities. I can tell you what. If you’re looking for an opportunity to stand out in the world, simply do what Jesus says. You’re going to stand out. And you know what? You can do it. Because everyone around you is this family. Everyone here has emptied themselves, hopefully, and filled themselves with God, and because of that, we have strength from above to help us overcome anything that may get in our path.

And so the second part of be looking is realize that the apostles were arguing over who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven, who would be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. That answer is very simple, actually. It’s God in Christ. But tell you what, if I was the apostle, I would have been more concerned with am I first getting to the kingdom of heaven. We need to be looking to the day in which we will be judged. As Matthew, as the Matthew account we read says, we will be parted right and left. When you give an account, will you have clothed he who sent you? Will you have fed him? Will you have visited him? Will you have obeyed the simple commands of Christ by simply letting God pilot your life?

Conclusion

If you have not realized that if you’re looking, God is coming. But God is also in his mercy and in his grace given us this very day to make things right. And even more so than that, he’s given us one another to help us do just that. Let God pilot your life this morning. If you wish to start anew, you can have your sins washed away because of the blood of Christ. Because I’m the one. Because of our sins, Christ needed to die, but he did. He came and he was resurrected, freeing us from the bondage of death. You can have that eternal life and break Satan’s bondage of death on you this very morning. If you come forward right now, as we stand and as we sing.