Great to Good 1 – 10.21.7          

           Great people.  Who are they?  Who has it made in this world?  Who has done exactly what you wish you could do, or who has lived THE life worth living?  Who exactly is great among us?

            Normally, I'm going to name high-achievers.  Steve Jobs, for example, one of the co-founders of Apple.  When he is with the company, it produces the most beautiful, innovative electronics ever, and it makes money.  Or Bono – Irish rock-star, Christian, social activist, able to cross lines between liberals and conservatives (formed an unlikely friendship with Jesse Helms, always working for the cause he believes in...ending AIDS and poverty in Africa.

            Who else is great?  How about Peyton Manning, Super Bowl Champ, UT icon.  If he walked past your table in a restaurant, wouldn't your heart be all aflutter?  Or how about one of our Presidents over the years, someone who you think led with distinction and vision?

            On a more personal scale, who gets to be thought of as great in your school or work?  Who gets the perks, who tells a stupid joke and everyone laughs, who has the most friends or wannabe friends?  Isn't it those who intuitively know how to market the brand of ME?  The exceptionally pretty or the athletic or the one with the most commanding personality?  Isn't it usually the ones with money and nice things that we look up to?  Aren't they often the ones we identify as the best potential church members?  Who are the great ones?

            Good people.  Who are they?  Who would you call “just good folks”? Probably someone the rest of us haven't heard of.  Maybe a neighbor who spends hours taking care of others.  Or a couple whose life is defined by seeing to the needs of a disabled child.  Or a volunteer at a local ministry who puts in lots of hours that no one ever will see (and they wouldn't really appreciate it if they DID see it). Maybe an older person who spends hours in prayer for her church and for its missionaries.  Maybe a couple who simply live their lives with quiet godliness and purity.  These are just good folks, and really it is hard to think of another word to describe them other than simply “good”.

            Now see the pattern here.  Great people rise to the top.  A big part of the reason we call them great is that they ARE at the top.  Good people blend in. 

            Great people – you've heard of them.  Good people are anonymous to most. 

            And this most of all:  Great people do for themselves.  Good people do for others. 

            Great people do for themselves.  I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that if you want to rise to the top of your vocation, you have to focus on yourself and give yourself over to the best training, education and experience you can get.  Think Tiger Woods, the Williams sisters in tennis, Peyton Manning, even Bono.  None of them got where they are by dedicating themselves primarily to serving others.  I'm not saying they aren't generous people and I'm not saying they can't use their position for good. But what brought them to greatness was talent plus a single-minded devotion to self. 

            And good people do for others.  That's why we've never heard of them.  They help others, and they don't blow their own horn (and if they blow their own horn, they come off as self-righteous, not good).  Good people do for others, and that's nice, that's admirable, and we should all be more like them, but that is not the path to greatness. 

            Just one more piece of evidence:  Who could fill this sanctuary tonight?  Bono, the rock star, here to talk to us about his work meeting world leaders and getting financial commitments for the fight against AIDS?  Or some little old lady from Oakdale who can't drive herself anywhere, so she spends hours each day praying for Bono and all the people in Africa hoping for a solution? 

            I've got my tickets for Bono!  I can listen to some little old lady anytime, and we can ALL pray (even if we DON'T).  Bono is a rock star!

            Jesus set us a very different standard.  Good people do for themselves.  Good people do for others.  Good, average people pay their bills and stay out of everyone’s way, and they may make a lot of money and fame doing it.  But a truly GREAT person does for others.

One passage where this is made clear is Mark 9:33-35 - They came to Capernaum. When he was in the house, he asked them, "What were you arguing about on the road?" 34 But they kept quiet because on the way they had argued about who was the greatest. 35 Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, "If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all."

             Now sometimes I get frustrated because it seems like people don't listen to my preaching, or they don't seem to remember it from one week to the next.  It must have been different for Jesus, right?  A great communicator like him surely would get his point across, right? 

            No, because in the very next chapter, Mark 10:35-45 – 35 Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to him. "Teacher," they said, "we want you to do for us whatever we ask."

            36 "What do you want me to do for you?" he asked.

            37They replied, "Let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left in your glory." (Let us be vice-president and Secretary of State).

            38"You don't know what you are asking," Jesus said. "Can you drink the cup I drink or be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with?"

            39 "We can," they answered. Jesus said to them, "You will drink the cup I drink and be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with, 40 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."

            41 When the ten heard about this, they became indignant with James and John. (It always makes you mad when someone asks for the thing YOU wanted but were too HUMBLE to ask for!) 42 Jesus called them together and said, "You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. 43 Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, 44 and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. 45 For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."

            And thus, Jesus redefined greatness.  GOOD people do for themselves.  GREAT people do for others. 

            On the front of your bulletin I have made up a parody of the cover of the book Good to Great, by Jim Collins.  I'm not making fun of the book or even contradicting its concepts.  I'm trying to show you that when we use words like GREAT and GOOD in the same way the general culture does, then our path as Christ followers is one of decent from great to good, from glorification of the self to service for others.  Please understand that I'm not suggesting that we give up excellence in our lives and pursue mediocrity, only that we turn away from any idea of greatness that centers on me and follow the will of God radically into serving others.  Bill Hybels calls it downward mobility or Descending Into Greatness.  That's what I'll be preaching about for the next several weeks. 

            If we intend to become the church I have been talking about for the last couple of weeks, we need to see examples of people who decide to radically follow Jesus rather than pursue the culture's path to greatness.  If were going to show the younger generations something other than the hypocrisy they identify with us, we're going to have to descend into greatness as Jesus described it, and become people who routinely turn our backs on the culture's standards of upward mobility in order to follow Jesus to wherever he wants us to serve.

            Today I want to introduce you to a young woman who is trying to do just that.  Her name is Amy Steinnagel and she has been a member at MHCC for just over a year.  You know her as one of the primary leaders of The Refuge, which she'll tell us about later in the service.  The thing I like about Amy is that she isn't a self-promoter.  I never doubt that she seeks God's glory rather than her own.  Yet I think she has chosen an interesting career path over the last several years that can enlighten us as to what it means to value greatness like Jesus values it.  Please welcome Amy Steinnagel!

Interview

            Amy's path is what it is because she is following Christ, NOT because she is following some formula that says that true Christians don't go to graduate school.  What I admire about Amy is her commitment to follow Christ no matter where he leads, and if that is on to grad school or back to her old college someday, I know she will follow.  The point is that her path is Christ's path for her, which isn't about how she can become great, but about lifting up Jesus by serving others.

            If you are 50 years old and you have your education, following Christ might mean becoming a new kind of engineer or nurse, where you turn your back on perks or status or the ability to control others and you use the power of your position to make life better, in Jesus' name, for everyone who works with you.  If you're 42 and your children are moving up and out, and NOW (they say) is the time to get serious about retirement.  Bank all you can, and maybe even retire early.  And perhaps you plan on using your retirement to get busy serving.  I understand the need to save and plan ahead, but THIS is the day the Lord has made, and how can we say we follow him if we pass up so many opportunities to do good today, with many good intentions about what we'll do in 2031? 

            If you're 70 and retired, what would Jesus have you do with that power?  Golf?  Fish?  Camp?  Watch TV?  Do woodworking?  Maybe one of those things in a small proportion, as you serve others in some other way.  Or maybe he has a way for you to make his name famous at the golf course!  But your priority and mine HAS to be not to be served but to serve, for that is why Jesus came.  IT – life, money, talent, fame – IT is not about you, not about me.  It's about Christ.  That's what the world needs to see.

            If you're 18 or 20, you have so much opportunity before you that it's scary.  YOUR attitudes, your choices, are going to shape the world and the church.  What a beautiful thing if you would, without qualification or reservation, choose to follow Jesus, to descend into greatness, to reject the egocentric models of leadership all around you and to be the servant of all, no matter where he leads you.  Pursue that relationship with God and let him show you the way he has in mind for you. 

Mark 10:42 Jesus called them together and said, "You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. 43 Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, 44 and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. 45 For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."

 Morrison Hill Christian Church
P.O. Box 59 - 1008 E. Race St.
Kingston, TN  37763   (865) 376-5205