Real Discipleship - How to Become #1 in God's Eyes, Part 1

In Jim Collins' classic book, Good to Great, he talks about level five leaders, and there's one quality of every leader who's effective, dynamic, and makes a difference.

It has nothing to do with their intelligence or their gift. It has something they actually learned, probably indirectly, from Jesus. That's today. Don't go away. Welcome to this Edition of Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. I'm Dave Gruy, and the mission of these daily programs is to intentionally disciple Christians through the Bible teaching of Chip Ingram. Thanks for joining us as we near the end of our series, Real Discipleship, How Jesus Chose to Change the World. For these last two programs, Chip's going to focus on what it means to be number one in God's eyes, which has nothing to do with what the world says is important. Now, a quick listener note before we get started. Chip taught this series several years ago, so this program's going to sound a little different. But the truth he'll bring from God's Word is still really impactful.

Okay, here's Chip with today's talk. I think all of us want and strive to be the best and be number one because it makes us feel significant, important, worthy, valuable, esteemed, honored, and prestigious. And with becoming number one, we get that all important, you ready for this, power. Power to influence, power to control, power to direct, power to have people serve us.

You get a group of men in a room and you talk to them in the corporate world and you find out very quickly how many people are under them, how many people report to them, what their salary is, where they work, what they do, what their expense account includes or doesn't include, whether they have a company car. Because when we get people to honor us and revere us and to idolize us and to esteem us and to look up to us and compliment us, it makes us feel special and important and worthwhile and, in a word, significant. Let's face it, we are living in a world that is obsessed with being number one, from top to bottom. We buy clothes at certain stores because that's how number one people dress. We drive cars of certain make because that's how number one people drive.

We long to be on top because down deep in our hearts we believe that if we are there, that will be the key to being significant, to really being a somebody. Turn to Mark chapter 10. It's one of the most revolutionary pieces of thinking I think ever recorded in history. At first it seems almost absurd. If you've never heard this before, if you happen to have never heard of the ethic of Jesus, you're going to think this guy's nuts, that he's a lunatic, illogical. He's going to describe, are you ready for this, how to descend into greatness. He's going to raise into question maybe, just maybe, the root to significance and worth and esteem and value just might not come from being number one.

That's what he's going to say. As we look at the content of this passage, there's not a lot of people that want to get on this road. Only the very shrewd, only the very spiritually perceptive people who understand what really makes a person significant want to get on this road with Christ. The context is in verse 32 through 34. Jesus is for a third time predicting his death. He's with the disciples and beginning in verse 32 it says, now they were on their way up to Jerusalem with Jesus leading the way and the disciples were astonished while those who followed were afraid. Again, he took the 12 aside, a little private powwow and he told them what was going to happen to him. Guys, I want you to know, no surprises, what did he tell them? We're going up to Jerusalem, he said, and the son of man will be betrayed to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. He's going to be sold out.

They will condemn him to death, they will hand him over to the Gentiles who will mock him, spit on him, flog him and kill him. This idea of me being the political messiah is wrong. I've explained it and explained it and explained it. James and John are like us. You know what we do? We tend to hear selectively. We hear from people what we want to hear. You ever notice that? Have you ever been in a conversation especially that involves money with another person and a deal and you're both Christians so you just shake on it and you come back nine months, a year later and what they heard about that deal and what you heard about that deal and what other people heard about that deal gets so foggy in nine months? That's why I tell people you need to write things down. It has nothing to do with your faith.

It has everything to do with your humanness. But listen how selectively they hear. So first is the request. Verses 37 and up to 35 and 37, James and John, sons of Zebedee come to him. Matthew records that it was their mother that basically led the charge and it doesn't contradict. Apparently she kind of kicked things off and pulled him aside and then the boys took over from here and this is what Mark records. Teacher they said this is what a set up. We want you to do for us whatever we ask.

You know blank check. You know come on guys. Interesting word too the verb for ask gives some connotations at the middle person. We want you to do whatever we ask for us. This is not you know there's a million starving people over there and we want you to do whatever we ask. This is we want you to do whatever we ask for us.

And so Jesus plays along. Well what do you want me to do for you? Well you're numero uno right? You're number one and we have a lot of faith and we'd like to be number two and number three.

One on the right one on the left. What do you think huh? When you get into your glory, when you're the big bambino and we don't really understand it because we're so naive we haven't caught on to the plan at all but for our naive understanding all we see and hear is what we want to hear and that you're going to be hot stuff and we want to be hot stuff with you. Jesus verse 38 knowing what they're really asking says guys you don't have a clue of what you're asking. So he makes two questions. Can you drink the cup?

Personal pro down the cup. He's speaking of what's going to happen in the garden later. Can you drink the cup, the will of God for me that I'm going to drink? Can you undergo rejection, flogging and future martyr? Then he repeats it with another metaphor. Can you be baptized?

Can you be so identified with me? Can you be baptized with the baptism which I'm going to undergo? And by the way this is a classic example of where baptism is used in the New Testament in a non-literal or meaning having nothing to do with water. The core idea behind baptism is identification and here he's using it as a metaphor. A baptism as it's used in the Old Testament. A baptism of wrath. Can you go, basically he's saying can you guys go through what I'm going to go through?

I mean if you're going to be on the right and on the left, I mean if you're going to be in with me, you got to go through what I'm going to go through with. And they're naive but I think they're sincere and loyal and they answered, we can't. You know what's exciting?

They did too. Well, Jesus turned to them in verse, end of verse 39 says you will drink the cup that I drink and you will be baptized with the baptism that I'm baptized with. He looks down the road. James will be martyred early in the church. John, my land, what he goes through, exiled at the end of his life.

Kicked around everywhere. Becomes the apostle of love, the writer of the gospel of John. The writer of the last three epistles, first, second, third John. Weathers out the storm of all the early church. But he says to sit at my right hand and my left hand. That's not for me to grant.

Not that he doesn't have authority. It's a picture of God the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit and this divine sovereign plan that has been put into place in ages ago. And James and John kind of show up at the last minute and say, hey can we get these number one and two spots? And Jesus says, this is a little bit bigger situation than you dream of. Those are kind of already prepared and taken care of. You know, it's kind of like at the inaugural ball coming up to the president saying, by the way, can I be vice president? I don't know how this all works. And you say, no, that's all sort of taken care of.

But thanks for your heart. Now, what's the reaction? Jesus is vulnerable.

Let's picture this thing. He spills his guts. He's getting ready to die.

Where's James and John's focus? Compassion for their dear friend Jesus at what he's going through and if he's going to make it. Identification. Hurt. Concern.

No. What do they hear? All they hear is that you're coming into your glory.

You're number one. We want to be there. Now what happens to the other ten when they hear it? Do they run to Jesus' defense and say, how could you guys be this way? Don't you see what the master's going through? Don't you see he's hurt, he's emotionally vulnerable?

How could you guys be so inconsiderate, so selfish, so self-seeking? Is that what they do? Or do they get hot because those two beat the ten to the punch to ask the question? That's what happens. It says the ten, when they heard of it, what their request was, they became indignant. Interesting word.

It has to mean got hot under the collar. What's this deal? Hey. You know, it's kind of like finding out that there's a sale and all your friends go and after it's over they come back and tell you. You know?

We didn't get in on it. And so they're jealous. Two of them want to be number one and the other ten are jealous and they're envious and they're indignant. This provides them the opportunity for the teaching of this passage. Teaching this passage is very simple. The world's way of becoming great is by self-promotion. But I say to you, God's way of becoming number one or great is servitude.

It's simple. Now, if some of you are here thinking, haven't we heard this sometime earlier in this book? This is a theme of this book.

It's come up over and over and over. Let's listen to verse 42. Jesus called them together and I think he probably had to almost stop a fight. You know that those who are regarded as the rulers, you know the number ones, the hotshots, the CEOs, the rock stars, the people with power, the people with authority, the people down in downtown Jerusalem that can afford a Rolex.

You know, those people that people tend to look up to, nothing wrong in and of those selves, any of those things on themselves. But he said, the rulers of the Gentile, their method of operation and exercising leadership is to lord it over people. Hey, I'm the boss. I call the shots. You do what I say, my way or the highway.

That's what he's talking about. Look, I work my way up the ladder. I got the job. I got the degree. I got the bucks. I own the place.

You're a peon, buddy. You do it my way or hit the road. And yeah, I know there's all these government regulations.

That's fine. And you may be a part of the union. You may be part of that. We can make your life so miserable.

Trust me, we can get you to want to quit. So you either do it my way or you're gone. That's what he's describing. How the Gentiles, people in leadership and with power, they lord it over people.

Notice the contrast, not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, dikaios, same word for be a minister. And in fact, whoever wants to be first, if you want to be a numero uno, if you want to be number one, you got to be the slave, the bond slave of everybody, of all, not just the people you want to serve, but of all. And then he caps it with verse 45, which is maybe as good a verse as in this entire book at pulling things together. For a reason, the son of man, me, Jesus, God incarnate, came not to be served, but to serve, to give, not to get, but to give.

And what? To lay down my life as a ransom, as a purchase price for many. That little word for is an interesting preposition. It means instead of, as a substitute for. Jesus is not just saying that he's coming to care for people and to serve people and to meet their needs.

Yes, but he's also saying this passage very clearly with this word for purchase and this word anti. It's a little preposition for for, that he's coming to die as a substitute in their place to pay for their sin. The ultimate in serving another person is to take the thing that's the biggest problem in their life and remove it or take it on yourself. And what he does is he takes on their sin and ours and he dies for them in their place. So, what's God's way to be a servant?

We've hit it a number of times in this book. It's to be a servant. I think if I grew up in the time of Jesus and he said be a servant, I'd think, whoo, I got that down man. I know exactly what they do.

We've got five of them in our house. One of them does this, one of them does this. And we would know what it means to be a servant. And we're living in a culture. I mean, we're taught from day one, be independent, be your own strong self. You can do it on your own.

You don't need anybody. And so what I've learned is that unless you've had some strong role models, you hear a message like this on servanthood and you say, gosh, boy, that's right, man, boy, God, ooh, emotions, ooh, ooh, I want to be more of a servant. And two days later, you know what, you just, basically back to last week. So, let's talk about how to serve well and then how to serve wisely. And I'm going to give you some ways to remember it. To be honest, I think they're kind of corny. I'd rather say it up front than you get down to number three and say, boy, this is corny. It is corny. But it reminds me of a message I heard by a pastor from Oakland and he taught us what he learned at driving school. And I thought the whole message was corny.

That was three years ago. I still remember all of it. So, how to serve well. First of all, it starts with the heart. And by that, you need to develop, if we're going to learn to serve well, it's not an activity. We need to develop a mindset and an attitude of viewing ourselves as a servant.

Jot down Philippians chapter two and study the passage about Christ didn't consider equality with God, a thing to be grasped, but humbled himself, taking the form of a bondservant. And it says, have this attitude, have this mentality about how you think about life. Now, let me give you what I think are the three elements of developing the attitude or the mentality of a servant.

All these specifics are going to flow out. If you don't get this attitude, you won't get the rest. But see, I don't think like a servant. I tend to usually, any given day, the way I think is what can make this best for Chip. And if it helps some other people, great.

But basically, I'm looking out for number one. I've been trained well. Three aspects of developing the heart attitude. The first I think you have to grasp is a clear sense of gratitude. Both in scripture, I find over and over and over again, whether it's in forgiveness or in caring or loving, I hear over and over again, consider what God has done for you. And then in light of that, forgive others.

In light of all that God has done for me, I'm to love others. And see what I think is, until we get a grasp of how undeserving we are, and we get real thankful toward the Father, then we're not real open to start giving it out to other people. So gratitude, I think, is key. By the way, if you're thankful, it's hard to have your focus on yourself too. The second thing that I think grows out of gratitude is humility. And so what happens is you start to get grateful, and you realize you don't deserve it. Then you get humble and realize, the way I tend to think, and most of you tend to think on your honest days, is people who are on your level you'll serve, and people above you you will serve, and on a good day you'll serve a person and not your soul below you.

Humility says, you know what, there isn't anybody below me. See, I'm just here. And I do for whoever God brings. It doesn't matter what they look like. It doesn't matter what color they are. It doesn't matter what their background.

It doesn't matter their orientation. Nothing matters. You get a genuine humility. If God did this for me, I'm humble.

I'll do whatever God wants me to do for anyone, anytime. You've been listening to part one of Chip's message, How to Become Number One in God's Eyes. He'll be right back with his application for this teaching from his series, Real Discipleship. Are you familiar with the term, compounded interest?

In economics, it's simply the idea of rapidly growing your investment. So what does that have to do with becoming a disciple of Jesus? Through this six-part series, Chip explains that discipleship is kind of like spiritual multiplication. Our job is not just to lead people to Jesus. We're called to help them mature in their faith and empower them to take others on that same journey. So join us as we study the Gospel of Mark and discover how to spiritually invest in the lives of others.

And if you happen to miss any part of this series, the Chip Ingram app is a great way to catch up. Well, our Bible teacher, Chip Ingram, is with me now. And Chip, it's been incredible to see how God is working both here and across the world.

So as we near the end of this mid-year match season, what final thoughts do you have? Well, Dave, it's been absolutely amazing when I think of what God has done through the Daily Discipleship. This global pastors expansion is something that we never saw coming.

But in the midst of where the world is, I feel like God is moving like never before. So as we come to the end of this mid-year match, we need everyone who feels led to give to do that in the next couple of days. If you've been praying and meaning to give but haven't done so yet, would you turn those good intentions into actions? Help us to finish strong.

The match ends at midnight this Thursday, July 7th. Up to then, every gift will be doubled dollar for dollar. Thank you for praying and doing whatever God leads you to do.

Thanks, Chip. Well, let me just add that by partnering with Living on the Edge, you'd be helping us take the truth of God's Word across America and literally around the world. There's never been a better time to join the team, because between now and midnight tomorrow, every gift we receive will be matched dollar for dollar. Regular mail needs to be postmarked before then. To make a donation, just visit livingontheedge.org or call us at 888-333-6003.

Again, that's 888-333-6003. App listeners, just tap donate. Thank you in advance for your generosity. Well, now here's Chip with some final thoughts. As we wrap up today's program, I realize that the teaching today in some ways might feel sort of idealistic.

That's great, Chip, but you know, if you knew my real world, if you know where I work, if you got the bickering, the backbiting, the politics and all the rest. In the end of the message, I talked about the first two of three attitudes, if you will, that create servant leaders and people that really have an impact. The first one was gratitude. It's being thankful for what you do have instead of focusing on what you don't have.

Whether you're the supervisor, an employee or the CEO, the more and more you focus on what's not right, what you don't have, what other people are doing, you turn into that negative person who's dissatisfied with your work, your job and your life. And so servant mindset and servant leadership starts with gratitude. That produces a different kind of person. And the second one is akin to it, it's humility.

And humility is that practice of considering other people more important than yourself. I have two friends, one in probably the most powerful and richest company in America and the other in the financial services. Both these people are in the highest levels of leadership in these companies.

And what I can tell you is what promoted them along the way was this crazy practice of considering others more important than themselves. One in the huge financial institution, he literally invested in and trained people that actually got promoted above him. And he rejoiced and people wondered, what in the world happened? And he remained quiet and loving and humble.

And it wasn't but a year, a year and a half later, he got promoted leapfrogging over everyone to one of the highest positions in the company. You see, God honors humility, but he often tests us for a season. Are you serving because it's just a technique? Or are you serving in humility? God honors the humble. He will exalt you in due time. Today, make a list of what you're grateful for and put other people ahead of yourself. Stay on that path.

You'll never regret it. Just before we close, I want to quickly remind you about our mid-year match that's going on right now. To those of you who faithfully support us, thank you. Your generosity is impacting countless lives all around the world.

But for those who haven't yet joined our team, will you pray about doing that today? Your gifts will help us train pastors, create resources, and produce broadcasts like what you heard today. And right now, every donation we receive before midnight tomorrow will be doubled dollar for dollar. To send a gift, go to livingontheedge.org, or give us a call at 888-333-6003. That's 888-333-6003, or go to livingontheedge.org. App listeners, tap donate. Thank you for praying and doing whatever the Lord leads you to do. Well, I hope you'll be with us again next time as Chip wraps up his series, Real Discipleship. But until then, this is Dave Druey saying thanks for listening to this Edition of Living on the Edge.