How to Be Great Matthew 20:24-28

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There are many different temptations that one may fall into in this fallen world.
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But what is interesting about temptations is that they vary from person to person. Impulse shopping is something that I don't have a problem with.
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There's really no temptation that is there. But having two ice cream cones back to back is a temptation that I have that I have to be aware of in my life.
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We are tempted by different things because we're different people with different personalities and different cravings.
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For some people, the desire to have power is the greatest temptation. People want to make something of themselves.
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People want to be great. So thrusting oneself into a position of power is the path to this.
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Two temptations that go with a desire for power are a desire for fame and fortune.
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This desire for power is not something that just happens in the secular world. It also happens, sadly, within Christianity.
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People use religion to have power. There are pastors, college and seminary presidents, and leaders of parachurch organizations who are in those positions because they desire to have power and the fame and fortune that often go with it.
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The temptation is strong to be in charge, to control, to tell people what to do, to have a prestigious title and receive perks that go with the position.
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The temptation to be in this position and to hold on to this position is very strong.
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Some people don't have this temptation, but others do. To those who do have it, it's very dangerous.
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Very dangerous. Because many, many people can be harmed with this lust for power.
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God has great designs for leaders. And these designs are always a blessing for those in their care.
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A good leader who has power uses his power for good. But a bad leader does the opposite.
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He uses his power to benefit himself, to give himself more control, to step on others in the process in order to benefit himself.
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When this happens, many people are harmed. Not just a few, but many. The temptation to control is strong to get what you want, to make a name for yourself, to enrich oneself.
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And so this person harms others as he leads. And the one who does this is more than willing to harm others to get what he wants.
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Inevitably, what happens is an environment that has corruption, that is full of corruption.
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I heard someone talking this week who said that one leader, he described his leadership style as he's like a mob boss.
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He'll put you in these positions to get you to do what he wants you to do. That happens.
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For the person to hold onto this position to get what he wants, he needs to do backroom deals, intimidate those against him, and use manipulation to get others to help move forward his corrupt agenda.
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What I just described is very common in our world and even within Christianity. The last place it should be seen.
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To live for power, to use power in the wrong way is the exact opposite of how the
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God -man Jesus was. The exact opposite of how
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He lived. Jesus is the
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God -man. He had power, far more power than any person in human history.
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But He always used this position given by His Father for the betterment of others.
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This morning as we continue our sermon series through Matthew, we are going to see Jesus tell the 12 what true greatness looks like.
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And it is much different from how the self -advancing world views greatness. So this time
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I encourage you to turn the Bible with me to Matthew chapter 20. We'll be looking at verses 24 through 28.
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And if you see one of those red Bibles, it's on page 981. And this sermon is titled
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How to be Great. How to be Great. And we will begin by reading the text,
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Matthew chapter 20, verses 24 through 28. And when the 10 heard it, they were indignant at the two brothers.
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But Jesus called them to Him and said, you know that the rulers of the Gentiles lorded over them.
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And their great ones exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you.
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But whoever would be great among you must be your servant. And whoever would be first among you must be your slave.
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Even as the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many.
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Here's our big idea. Understand that Jesus calls His disciples to pursue true greatness.
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Understand that Jesus calls His disciples to pursue true greatness.
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And in this text, we will see two practices how, but before we jump in, let me give you a little recap of where we were one
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Sunday ago in verses 20 through 23 of Matthew 20. In that narrative, we saw two of Jesus' disciples, the sons of Zebedee, James and John, asked
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Jesus along with their mother if these two brothers could sit at the highest seats in the future kingdom.
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And Jesus' response to them is interesting. He responds by describing His suffering. Specifically, the spiritual suffering that He would face when
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He would bear the full fury of the wrath of God when He went to the cross. He says that He would drink the cup of His Father to pay the penalty for our sins.
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So He describes His suffering. But then He transitions to His disciples and tells them that you will drink the cup.
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But the suffering that they will experience is different than the suffering that He will experience. The suffering that they will experience is a suffering of opposition.
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And of course, Jesus faced a ton of opposition in His life, but obviously His disciples did not face the
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Father's wrath. But He describes their suffering of opposition that they will face as they go and walk with Him.
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He says, you will drink the cup. You will face opposition. Before you get the crown, where you sit at His right or left hand, if they would even achieve that in the future kingdom, before they would receive the crown, they must first suffer.
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And this is the truth for all the disciples. Every Christian, in some sense and at some level, will experience pushback in this life.
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As we saw, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. You will face opposition.
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The cross comes before the crown. That was what we learned last Sunday. Now this leads us back to our text this morning that we've already read, but now we will zero in on, and I'm going to begin by zeroing in on verse 24, where we read again that the 10 heard it and they were indignant at the two brothers.
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What we learned in this verse is that the other 10 disciples were around as Jesus was having this conversation that I just explained to you, where they're saying, can we sit at your right and left hand in the future kingdom?
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The disciples are there. And verse 24 tells us that they're listening to this conversation and they tell us what they think of this conversation.
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They are indignant. The Greek word translated indignant also means to be displeased or very angry.
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The 10 hear what James and John are saying and they see their great ambitions.
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Their ambition leads them to desire honor in the highest places in the future kingdom. But as we look at this, we must understand that this is not righteous anger.
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Sometimes we say the word indignation, righteous indignation. This is not righteous anger from the other 10 disciples.
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We learn this from the rest of the narrative that we've already read, where Jesus addresses not only James and John, but also the other 10 as well.
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So this indignation, this anger from the 10 is not noble. They themselves want to be at Christ's right and left hand in his future kingdom, just as James and John have this desire.
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As all 12 of the disciples have this selfish ambition, Jesus addresses them in the remaining verses.
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He responds by telling them about the corrupt leadership that they see in their world in the first century.
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He says this, Jesus calls them to him and he says, you know that the rulers of the
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Gentiles lord it over them and their great ones exercise authority over them.
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It shall not be so among you. You can imagine this picture.
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Jesus calls the disciples over and says to them, you know the authoritarianism of the world around you.
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You know the corrupt government that loves power and likes to take advantage of others.
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This is what he is warning them against. The disciples like all the
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Jews in the first century lived in the days of the emperors. For centuries, Rome was a
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Republic, but that was taken over by an empire in the first century BC. The first Roman emperor of Rome, anybody know?
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Caesar Augustus, he reigned from 27 BC to AD 14. Tiberius Caesar reigned after him from AD 14 to AD 37.
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As Jesus is having this conversation, Tiberius Caesar is the one who reigns over the
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Roman Empire. Jesus is telling them this conversation here in 33
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AD. Now, the Roman Empire was the region of modern
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Europe and this region spread down to the region of Judea where the Jews called home.
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I just mentioned that before the Roman Empire was the Roman Republic. In this fallen world, a republic is always better than an empire because if one person rules, if you get the wrong person in power, it is terror for the people.
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As Proverbs 29, two says, when the wicked rule, the people groan.
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Dictatorships in this fallen world are terrifying. The ruler might make some common sense laws that benefit the people, but many of his laws will be destructive.
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As I mentioned in the introduction, a person who loves power will use that power for harm and not for good.
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In the history of the Roman Empire, they had some decent emperors and some who were probably possessed by Satan.
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That's not an understatement. Nero killed many, many Christians, including, by the way, the apostles
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Peter and Paul who died under his reign. Augustus and Tiberius were fairly moderate compared to a man like Nero.
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But during the day of the disciples, as they sat under the rule of the Romans, the governor of their region in Judea was a man by the name of Pontius Pilate.
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That's the name that every Christian knows. We mostly know Pilate as the one who sentenced Jesus to death from the pressure of the
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Jewish leaders. As you look at the narrative, you get the picture that Pilate is this weak politician.
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And the reason we get this picture is because the Jews are pressuring him. And he's like,
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I don't wanna put this guy to death. I don't see a problem with him. He hasn't done anything wrong.
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Why would I put him to death? But eventually, he folds to their pressure and Jesus is delivered over to be crucified.
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Pilate did not want them, the Jewish leaders that is, to report back to the emperor about how chaotic Pilate had let things get in that region because all of these people are following this rabbi from Nazareth named
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Jesus. Crowds are following him wherever he goes. Pilate is not controlling his region very well, is he?
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There's this friction between the Jewish leaders and Jesus, those who follow the Jewish leaders, those who follow
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Jesus. And Pilate had a superior to answer to.
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And he had to make the most influential people in this region happy. And the most influential ones were the chief priests and scribes.
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But taking away the Jesus narrative, Pilate had no problem being ruthless to the people he governed.
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We know this from another place in the New Testament that shows this Gentile leader was one who lorded it over his people.
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This account is recorded in Luke 13 .1 where the author Luke writes, there were some present at that very time who had told
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Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices.
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Okay, so people are bringing their sacrifices to the temple and Pilate slaughters these people and he takes the sacrifices and they're burned on the altar together.
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Pilate did that. The point I'm making is that the
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Jews suffered under the leadership of the Gentiles. And this episode from Pontius Pilate shows this.
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This is how people ruled. They didn't rule for the betterment of the people. They ruled because they wanted power.
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Their agenda was supreme. And if you got in their way, problems would happen.
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The disciples also would have known about the Maccabean revolt in the second century BC where the leader
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Antiochus Epiphanes slaughtered many, many Jews. What the disciples knew about the
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Gentiles is that their leaders, the ones they had to live under at this point in history and the ones they knew about from history were not leaders you wanted to be under.
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They were not leaders who created an environment where people would prosper. By the way, that's a leader in a nutshell.
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People in leadership are supposed to be there to create an environment where the people can prosper.
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And if that's not happening, the person should not be in leadership. And as you think about biblical
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Christians in America right now, we are not seen as a blessing to society, but a hindrance.
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It's interesting that in the history of our country, we're a tax exempt entity.
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And the reason churches are tax exempt is because we're seen as a blessing to society.
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Historically, we've been seen as a blessing to society. You know, people go to church, they're typically good citizens, right?
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They're good neighbors, they do good things. The overall society benefits from that.
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But what we're seeing right now is that we're not seen as a blessing to society because the world's agenda is the opposite of Christ's agenda.
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This utopia that's trying to be pushed forward is against what we believe as Christians, of course.
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And the leaders that the disciples lived under and many of the leaders in our day do not like republics.
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Republics exist to help the people.
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What is America? A government of the people, by the people, for the people.
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Republics put people in office to represent their people.
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That's the whole point of them, right? People want a good society that is a moral society, so they send someone to Washington or they send someone to their state capitol to govern in such a way where the people will benefit, where there will be structure, where there will be blessing.
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But this so often does not happen. Throughout the history of the world, dictatorships happen because people want power.
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People don't understand leadership in this way, where the people are blessed by their leadership. They want to control.
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They want to do whatever they want to do. This is what we see in our world.
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But to follow Christ is much different. What Jesus is telling His disciples is an unhealthy ambition to be in high places of leadership is not the way of Christ.
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Remember, the disciples want to be at Christ's right and left hand in the future kingdom.
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And He notices this unhealthy ambition in their hearts. By the way, the disciples are nowhere near as bad as these
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Gentile politicians that He's warning them about. But He's saying, you have an element of that in your heart right now that you need to rid yourself of.
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This unhealthy desire to be at His right and left hand in His kingdom and thinking that they should be in those positions because there's something great about them.
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That's how the Gentiles work. The disciples at this point in their immature walk with the
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Lord desire to promote themselves, to say, look at me, look how important I am.
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Look at the power I have to tell people what to do. And what Jesus is telling the disciples is that a selfish ambition for leadership and power is what the
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Gentiles do. And those who have this ambition will not rule for the good of the people, but for one's own good.
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Now, not everyone who desires leadership in a secular world has this motivation, but more times than not, that is the motivation.
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That's just the reality of it. But what Jesus is saying is that to be His disciple is to be different from the world.
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Self -advancement for the glory of self is not God's will for any of His people.
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Anyone who follows King Jesus must humble oneself. As John the Baptist said in John 3, sorry, not
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John 30, that's a new chapter. Anybody read John 30? John 3, verse 30,
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He must increase, but I must decrease. God tells us what leaders are supposed to look like in the
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New Testament. Within the church of God, God calls men to be elders within the church.
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And we see what God desires for a leader to look like. 1 Peter 5, verses two and three says that every shepherd must shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you, not for shameful gain, but eagerly, not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock.
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God calls shepherds not to use their position to advance oneself or one's own glory, but to humble oneself and to lead, creating an environment where the people under their care can flourish.
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As John the Baptist said, the whole point of a pastor or any Christian who's in leadership is for the glory of God, that God would be glorified, that He would be glorified through the way that you lead, that people would see the example of Christ in your leadership.
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As John the Baptist said, He must increase, but I must decrease. And this should be the goal, not only of every pastor, but every
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Christian. No Christian should ever desire to elevate oneself, robbing
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God of His glory. Selfish ambition is not God's plan for believers.
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The people of the world desire to achieve self -advancement, to have more power to control others, to be well -known, to enrich oneself.
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These are sinful patterns everywhere, and it's not just those in high positions that have this temptation.
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Think about the person who manipulates others to get what you want. Think about the person who steps on others to advance oneself in the eyes of the world.
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This happens in schools, by the way, with popularity contests. This happens in workplaces with middle management.
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This happens all over the place where people try to advance oneself in the eyes of others, to promote oneself.
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This is a desire that lots of people can have a temptation for, but Jesus calls
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His people to a better way. And we'll see that in the remaining verses here, that what the true way of greatness is.
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But here's the first point. Understand that Jesus calls His disciples to true greatness, and the first practice how is by refusing to elevate oneself like the world.
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Refusing to elevate oneself like the world. And here's our second practice how you are to understand that Jesus calls
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His disciples to true greatness, and that is this. By pursuing a life of service to others.
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Pursuing a life of service to others. And we'll see this in the second half of verse 26 through verse 28.
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Jesus makes it clear what He expects His disciples to be.
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He says this in the second half of verse 26 and 27. Whoever would be great among you must be your servant.
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And whoever would be first among you must be your slave. Now what you will notice in these two verses is that Jesus says that a
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Christian must be a servant and a slave. Two different Greek words are being used here.
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At the end of verse 26 is the Greek word for servant. And at the end of verse 27 is the
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Greek word for slave or bond servant. Those who are called servants in the first century were those who held the lowest position in society as they performed unglamorous tasks for others.
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The other Greek word in verse 27 is translated slave or bond servants. In ancient times as in modern times, slaves were owned by their masters.
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A good chunk of the economy in the Roman Empire in the first century was slavery. In our day, because there is so much conversation about American slavery, we think that all slavery, all the time, was the highest level of evil.
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There was evil slavery in the first century, no question about it, as in the modern era, where a man, woman, or child was forced into slavery.
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And 1 Timothy 1 .10 condemns this. It calls it enslaving. You know, you see someone and you say, okay,
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I want the person as my slave. And they would just take the person and then put that person for forced labor going forward.
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There was also evil slavery in that masters treated their slaves as less than human, abusing them, and the
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Bible, of course, condemns that. But what is interesting is that the Old Testament made laws for the relationship between slaves and masters.
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And the apostle Paul did not call for the outlaw of slavery during his ministry, but rather explained what the relationship should be between master and slave.
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Paul gives these instructions for the master -slave relationship in Colossians chapter three, verse 22, where he writes, obey in everything those who are your earthly masters, not by way of eye service as people pleasers, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the
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Lord. And then Paul tells masters in Ephesians 6 .9, masters do the same to them.
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And stop your threatening, knowing that he who is both their master and yours is in heaven and that there is no partiality with him.
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Instead of publicly calling for the abolition of slavery, Paul set the standard for what the master -slave relationship should look like in this fallen world as he lived in the first century.
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In our text, Jesus had no problem using the master -slave illustration in explaining how we should view our relationship to God and others.
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What Jesus says is that the one who is great must be your servant at the end of verse 26.
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And at the beginning of verse 27, he says the same thing another way. Whoever must be first among you must be your slave.
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A servant was subject to his master. Their work consisted of taking care of their master's property and prospering the land that the master owned.
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And what Jesus is telling you is that your life is intended to be in service to him.
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And if you are truly in service to him, this will be shown in your service to others.
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This is difficult to do because in our sinful nature, we want to prop ourselves up.
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We want to be served, not to be the one who serves. It's a lot easier to be served than the one who serves, is it not?
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But the only way one can truly be a servant is if you follow
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God. One who serves apart from God does it from selfish motivation.
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But when you humble yourself before God, you will seek to serve others, not to be served.
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What Jesus is saying in verses 26 and 27 is that if you want to be great, if you want to be truly great, then humble yourself.
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This is the path to true greatness. The only standard that matters is
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God's standard. When we talk about greatness, do you want to be great? Don't follow some artificial false standard.
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Follow God's standard to what true greatness is. The only people in the world who are truly humble are
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Christians. Why is this? Two things cause a believer to be humble.
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Number one, our sinfulness. Our sinfulness shows that we are beggars, that we need
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God to rescue us, to save us from certain destruction. The one who is truly saved will have humility, realizing how
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God saved you from a hopeless place. You need His help not only to save you, but you need it through the whole
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Christian life. And this will humble you as you go before God. Lord, help me as I go and walk with you.
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The second reason Christians are humble is because we realize who we are. We are creatures.
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God is Creator. We are small. We are specks. He is enormous.
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You are not the God of your life. There is a great God who is above you.
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There is one who has always been and one who will always be. And that's humbling. There was a point where we did not exist.
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Isn't that a humbling thought? The world did just fine without us, by the way. It's humbling to think about that.
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And the day we die, the world will do just fine. It'll go on without you. But there is a
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God who has always been and always will be. And that ought to humble us.
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So when we have this humbling, you realize that life is not about you. It's about serving
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Him. You are commissioned for a greater purpose. You are commissioned to truly love.
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And Jesus sets you and I the ultimate example. This is what verse 28 says. This is the ultimate example. Even as the
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Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve and to give
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His life as a ransom for many. Wow.
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Jesus did this. So I just shared with you the two reasons that Christians are to humble themselves.
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We're sinners. We are creatures. Well, you know what's interesting about Jesus? Jesus is humble, but Jesus isn't a sinner and He's not a creature.
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Now in one sense He is. He's got a human nature, but He's also God. And yet He's humble.
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What made Jesus humble? The answer is that love is the nature of God.
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True love always involves action. It always involves doing good to others.
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As we look at the life of Jesus as He was on earth, it was a life of complete service to humanity.
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We have seen this throughout Matthew. He healed people, cast out demons, rescued His disciples on a few occasions.
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He fed thousands of people on two different occasions. He loved people.
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Truly loved people. He did not come boasting to everyone that He was God, demanding respect.
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Respect followed Him wherever He was because people saw greatness.
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We talk about that, right? That the people who want respect the most are pretty pathetic people.
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And we shouldn't give those people respect. But the people who are worthy of respect are those who live it.
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And Jesus, more than anyone, as the God -man, lived it.
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And people were drawn to Him. People wanted to be around Him. People had the highest respect for Him.
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People worshiped Him because He's not only man, He's God. As He served others as the
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God -man, people saw true greatness. Jesus showed what true greatness is through His love.
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Greatness was not shown through big muscles, through controlling others from showing off.
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No. His greatness was shown through His great love. And His greatness was shown through loving the unlovely.
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Sinners. God shows His love for us. And while we were yet sinners,
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Christ died for us. Philippians 2, verses 3 -9
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I read that this morning, explains that about Jesus. He was equal with God, but He did not use that fact for elitism.
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That is to say, I'm so much higher than you that I don't care about you.
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He cared deeply about others. He humbled Himself, serving others throughout
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His ministry. And the ultimate way He humbled Himself was by dying on the cross for sinners.
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He paid the ultimate price. He was given as a ransom for many, as the text says.
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People often ask the question, what are you saved from when you believe in Jesus?
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It is true that you are saved from sin and Satan, but you are most saved from God, as He is the
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One who pours out His justice on every sinner. Jesus bore that wrath, as we saw last week in verse 22, where Jesus said to James and John, are you able to drink the cup that I am to drink?
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That cup is the Father's holy wrath. He drank it and He became the ransom for everyone here who is a follower of Christ.
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Jesus has set the ultimate example of one who serves others. He served every believer to the greatest extent through His life, and is highlighted here,
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His death. He was given as a ransom for many. And as we behold
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Jesus, what we'll follow is humility. What's interesting is that when we talk about humility, the person who says that they're humble, isn't humble.
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Sometimes you hear people say, I'm a good person. Good people don't say that they're good people.
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Other people will say it of that person. But if we have to talk ourselves up,
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I heard it also said that if anyone ever tells you, I'm an honest person, it probably means they're not an honest person.
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Because they're trying to give this impression. It just happens where people can see that about you if you truly are that person.
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You don't need to say anything about it. You don't need to defend it. It's obvious in your life. So, I find that interesting.
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But as Jesus' followers, we should be the most humble of all people. We should not be looking to our own interests, but the interests of others.
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1 Peter 5, verses 5 -6 says, "...clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another. For God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.
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Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, so that at the proper time,
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He may exalt you." The self -advancers are the ones that God despises.
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Do not seek your own glory, but God's glory. Do not seek your own power, your own advancement, your own desire for control, your own desire for renown, but rather, submit yourself to God.
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When you become God's, He commissions you to a life of service, which is a life of love.
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As Philippians 2 -4 says, you look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. In this way, you are called great as you serve others.
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And by serving others, you are really serving the Lord, as Colossians 3 -24 says, you are serving the
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Lord Christ. As you serve others, you are serving a fellow image -bearer.
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And if you are serving another Christian, you are serving a fellow brother or sister in Christ. As we think about living lives of service, how will this show in our lives?
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It shows in the little things. In opening doors for others. In taking the time to listen, even though you have many things on your mind.
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In helping others financially when a need arises. In driving someone to the hospital.
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In showing patience with others. In telling someone that you will pray and then following through with that prayer.
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You serve others by encouraging someone and even constructively correcting someone.
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That's love as well. That's serving someone in order to help the person. You serve others by sharing the
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Gospel of Jesus Christ. One's forever happiness depends on one's relationship with Jesus.
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When you share the Gospel, you are not thinking of your own personal comfort. You are stepping out in courage and thinking of the eternal welfare of that person.
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Serving always involves having another's best interest in mind. It is a life of selflessness.
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And this is rare in this world. It's hard to find people who are selfless.
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We just had a very selfless man who was here a few weeks back. That's for my friend and missionary
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Brian Stout. I know that many of you loved getting to know him while he was here. Ever since I've known
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Brian, what is clear about Brian is that he is very concerned with the interest of others. Very concerned.
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He's the kind of guy who calls you up just to see how you're doing. And if you have problems, he deeply cares about your problems and wants to know how he can help.
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He's the kind of friend who prays for you before the throne of grace. He's also the best evangelist
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I've ever known. He will share the Gospel with anyone. Anywhere.
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He's not afraid of what people think. He knows that people need Jesus, and so he courageously tells them even if they think he is crazy for doing it.
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He follows Jesus and is a servant of others just as Jesus was during his life.
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What anyone who lives this life discovers is that this is the most joyful life imaginable. The life of selflessness.
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The life of humbling yourself before God. The life where you are commissioned for His service.
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God made it this way. The less we think about ourselves, the happier you will be.
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That's how God made it. Jesus said this in Acts 20 verse 35.
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It is more blessed to give than to receive. What does the word blessed mean?
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It means happy. It's more happy to give than to receive.
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So, you know, Brian Stout, I mentioned him. Brian is a happy person. Why is he a happy person?
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Because he lives like Jesus. He thinks of the needs of others. Who are the most miserable people you know?
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The self -absorbed. The people who might have a lot of stuff.
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They're not happy because they don't think about others. The most joyful people you will meet are selfless servants who follow their master's example.
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According to God's standard, the only standard that matters, these are the ones on earth who are truly great.
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So understand that Jesus calls His disciples to pursue true greatness. And in this text, we've seen two practices how.
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The first practice is by refusing to elevate oneself like the world. The second practice is by pursuing a life of service to others.
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This is the true path of greatness, and it's also the narrow path. The path that Jesus describes in Matthew 7.
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The narrow path that leads to life. Few people travel down this path, but it is
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Jesus' call on each of the lives of His disciples. Think about the end of one's life.
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The person who lives for self will not have touched any hearts or hardly any hearts.
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Will not have helped others flourish. What a sad life that is. We are not here for ourselves.
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We are here to glorify God by serving others. This is the best life and the only life that is worthy of honor.
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And Jesus says, He promises in His Word, through His Apostle, you will be exalted.
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God will exalt you in the age to come for a life of service to Him here on this earth.
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You will be rewarded. He notices these things. And last week, we saw that He said, it's not for Me to grant who sits at My right and My left hand in the future kingdom.
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It's for His Father to grant. But Jesus as the judge will be the one who rewards people at His Father's command for their faithfulness while they lived on earth.
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So keep that in mind as you live. He notices everything that you do. Everything that you do has been written down in a book.
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And the works that are written down are works of selflessness where the interests of others are in mind.
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And the reason you have those interests for others is because you love God. That's the center of it.
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You love Him. And you want to live your life for Him. God promises to honor those who live selfless lives in this world.
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And may that describe the people of Eureka Baptist. A people who are
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His servants in this world. Now next Sunday, we will look at the day when Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey.
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A fulfillment of prophecy that was predicted long ago in the Old Testament. And I look forward to looking at that with you.
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The triumphal entry. At this time, let's bow our heads in prayer. Father in Heaven, You've shown us the way to live, the way to true greatness, the way to live where You are glorified, and we get the most joy from the fact that You are glorified.
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We don't want people to say, what a great guy or what a great lady, or what a great young person that is.
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We want people to say, what a great God this person serves. And may that be the story of our lives.
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And so help us to live selfless lives for You, in Jesus' name, Amen. Okay, so next
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Sunday, we're going to have the Myrons with us. This is going to be a missionary Sunday and we'll have a potluck or we're having some kind of food afterwards.
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Is it a potluck? I can't remember what we said off the top of my head. Okay, sorry Nancy. Sorry to put you on the spot. We'll send an announcement about that.
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But yeah, so the Myrons will be here next Sunday. Looking forward to seeing them as they're back from Ireland right now on furlough.
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And I want to say too, that if you need anyone to pray with, I'm always available and Mark is always available.
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We'd be glad to pray with you, glad to talk with you. So please let us know that. This time though, please receive the benediction as we close.
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The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord cause His face to shine upon you and be gracious to you.