What Does it Mean to be Truly Great? | Matthew 20:26

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[00:00:01] Real Truth Daily This is Daily Truths with Dave Ahlman.

[00:00:07] Hi everybody, welcome back to Daily Truths.

[00:00:09] I have a question for you this morning.

[00:00:11] What is true greatness in the kingdom of God?

[00:00:15] Well some might say it's one who's a gifted order who mesmerizes a mega church congregation

[00:00:21] and could just captivate people's attention by their great oratory and biblical skills.

[00:00:28] Others might say, look at those musicians and those large churches.

[00:00:31] Look at how gifted they are.

[00:00:32] Look at how marvelously they're saying, how marvelously they play.

[00:00:35] I mean that's true greatness in the kingdom of God.

[00:00:40] Others might say it's those who kind of work behind the scenes on a local congregation

[00:00:44] who have administrative skills and make the church hum.

[00:00:49] Is that what true greatness is in the kingdom of God?

[00:00:54] In Matthew 20 verse 26, and listen to what Jesus says here about true greatness in the

[00:01:01] kingdom.

[00:01:02] Whoever would be great among you must be your servant.

[00:01:06] And whoever would be first among you must be your slave.

[00:01:10] Now on the Old Testament it was emphasized that God's people should submit to the Lord

[00:01:17] should be submissive to the commandments of God.

[00:01:20] But now in the New Testament Jesus is changing that just a little bit.

[00:01:25] Not saying we shouldn't submit to God, but how do we submit to God?

[00:01:29] We submit to God by being a servant to others.

[00:01:33] Wow!

[00:01:35] What a radical concept.

[00:01:37] You see Jesus is changing the ethic in the ancient world.

[00:01:41] You see the Greeks at that time thought the lolliest virtue of life was to be a servant.

[00:01:48] The Jesus here is saying it's the greatest virtue of life.

[00:01:53] So I have a challenge for you today.

[00:01:55] If you want to be great in the kingdom of God, serve other people in love.

[00:02:02] Look for opportunities to be a servant to other people around you and you might be saying

[00:02:07] well what if they don't appreciate it?

[00:02:10] Serve anyway.

[00:02:11] What if I don't get recognition for that service?

[00:02:14] Serve anyway.

[00:02:15] What if they don't express our gratitude for what I've done for them?

[00:02:19] Serve anyway.

[00:02:21] Jesus is calling us to be servants to one another.

[00:02:24] I've talked about this before.

[00:02:25] Oftentimes when people become self-consumed and start to feel sorry for themselves, the

[00:02:30] best thing that they can do is go outside themselves and be a servant to other people.

[00:02:36] This is way not only to be what God has called us to be but also to get us out of ourselves,

[00:02:41] get us out of the doldrums, get us out of thinking about ourselves wanting to be served

[00:02:45] all the time.

[00:02:46] Boy, I want to tell you that's kind of the way the United States is isn't that the way

[00:02:50] people are in the United States is all about me?

[00:02:53] What's best for me?

[00:02:54] Who's going to serve me?

[00:02:55] Who's going to help me?

[00:02:56] Who's going to support me?

[00:02:58] And Jesus is changing that radically by saying if you want to be great in the kingdom of

[00:03:02] God, be a servant to others.

[00:03:04] Now here's the thing.

[00:03:06] We don't do that perfectly.

[00:03:08] We try.

[00:03:09] We give effort.

[00:03:10] We try to be servants to others, but many times we fall short.

[00:03:14] And when we do, what do we do?

[00:03:17] We go back to the cross and the empty tomb, the cross where Jesus died, the empty tomb

[00:03:22] that declares that Christ is alive.

[00:03:25] And when we go to the Lord with a repentant heart saying, God, I've not been the kind of

[00:03:30] servant I should be.

[00:03:31] As a matter of fact, I had an episode yesterday where I should have been a better servant

[00:03:35] to my wife and other people around me and I was consumed with self.

[00:03:38] So what do I do?

[00:03:39] I got to go back to the cross of Jesus.

[00:03:42] I got to drown that in the blood of the Lamb.

[00:03:44] I got to rise up to an anewness of life by the Holy Spirit's power and say to the Lord,

[00:03:49] make me a servant, a better servant today.

[00:03:53] So my friend, that's my encouragement to you.

[00:03:56] We aren't perfect servants.

[00:03:57] We know what the Lord says in this.

[00:03:59] Whoever wants to be great among you must be a servant to others.

[00:04:02] Whoever must be first must be a slave, holy cow.

[00:04:05] What a change.

[00:04:06] A radical concept.

[00:04:08] Jesus is giving us today and it is a challenge.

[00:04:12] I have a challenge for you today based on the word of God.

[00:04:16] Look for opportunities to serve other people around you in love today.

[00:04:21] It might be a family member, it might be an in law or a parent or a brother or sister

[00:04:28] or someone in the local congregation.

[00:04:30] Look for opportunities today to be a servant.

[00:04:34] I think of that song.

[00:04:35] I don't remember all the words to it, but the captivating thought of this song is, Lord,

[00:04:41] make me a servant today.

[00:04:43] May that be our prayer this day.

[00:04:46] Lord, make each one of us who hear my words today as servant to other people for that's

[00:04:52] where true greatness is found.

[00:04:55] Have a great day in the Lord Jesus Christ and that is today's daily truth.

[00:05:00] Thank you for tuning in to daily truths with Dave Olman.

[00:05:03] Pastor Dave Olman is the pastor of Mount Hope Church in Boulder, Colorado.

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[00:05:18] Come back tomorrow for your next daily truth.