Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Greatness Redefined - 40 Days Of Love

Do great things but forget about getting noticed for it.


Mark 10:43-45  But among you it will be different. Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant, 44 and whoever wants to be first among you must be the slave of everyone else. 45 For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many.

Matthew 18:4  So anyone who becomes as humble as this little child is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven

Matthew 23:1-5 Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, 2 “The teachers of religious law and the Pharisees are the official interpreters of the law of Moses. 3 So practice and obey whatever they tell you, but don’t follow their example. For they don’t practice what they teach. 4 They crush people with unbearable religious demands and never lift a finger to ease the burden. 5 “Everything they do is for show.

We have already talked about being humble, we talked about getting the plank out of our own eye before we can help our friends get the tiny speck out of their eye. Jesus taught us to keep our perspective, we said that we are all in the same dreadful circumstances from God's point of view, we have all sinned and we all need grace. But don't mistake what humble is all about.

 Humble doesn't mean pretending that we don't have any desire for greatness, Jesus didn't tell his disciples to stop wanting to be great he just taught them a better way to get to greatness, there isn't anything wrong with great ambitions as long as we have the right attitude. Great men and women of the Bible had ambitious desires to do big things but their ambition was tempered with humility.

When I am serving, I need to be consider these questions:

Will I exalt myself or will I humble myself?
Am I serving because I want to be noticed or because I notice other peoples needs?
Do I need to see my name on the program?
Do I need to have my name mentioned, how about my title?

Ambition for God's work and wanting to do great things for the kingdom should get God noticed and not myself.

Matthew 5:16  let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father.

Help me Lord to always work for you with a humble spirit.