Serving Challenge Introduction | Zach Zehnder

Everyone wants their life to matter. In this opening message, we discover that true greatness isn’t found in status—but in serving others like Jesus.

Transcript

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Hi, and thank you for listening to this message from Shepherd's Gate Church, located in Kelby Township, Michigan. To learn more about Shepard's Gate and to access more content, visit at GateCurch.org.

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Jeez, wow, that's great. Thank you for uh having me here today. What a blessing to be with you. I'm from Omaha, Nebraska these days, some Big Ten country. Uh we share that in common, but uh what a joy and what a blessing. What a cool thing to see that my grandpa served here a couple of years, about a quarter century ago. He was a special man with a great sense of humor, filled with the Holy Spirit. And uh I stand on broad shoulders. Not only was my grandpa an LCMS pastor, but my great-grandpa was. And then my dad is as well. So that makes me fourth generation. Um, you saw two sons in there. I think I broke the chain. Uh, I'm not sure what happened, but we'll see. We'll see what happens. But uh really genuinely great to be here and excited to kick off 40 days of serving with you. We're gonna really look at how did Jesus serve us so that hopefully we can serve more like him with others. And it's gonna be a real fun 40 days. I'll tell you a little bit about the journey and where we're going as we get going today. But I do want to thank uh Pastor Tim. Can you give it up for our your pastor Tim and the amazing team here at Shepherd's Gate? They've been awesome to work with, and and we really love coming. I love coming to preach about Jesus on the road, and especially when I get to go to a church where I know the pastor, and that pastor's a friend. And Tim and Lisa have been good friends of Alice and I's for the last half decade or so, and I'm just super excited to get to know them more. And I love his heart for ministry, his heart for you, how church happens here. Um, he really is a great leader, and so it's great to be with you. Speaking of great, I figure let's settle it. Let's settle the debate of who is the goat. You know the goat, right? The greatest of all time. Uh let's let's see if we can settle it here once and for all. Who is the greatest? Is it Michael Jordan? Or is it LeBron James? Hang on, hang on. Don't go yet. I'm gonna ask you. Uh they were both good enough to make Space Jam, apparently, but how many of you say, let's start with LeBron? How many of you say that LeBron James is the goat of basketball? How many LeBron James we got out there? Two, three, four. Hey. Yeah, you are amazing people. I appreciate that. I I already like this service better than the nine o'clock. Don't tell them I said that. There were zero at nine o'clock. And the rest of you, how many say that Michael Jordan is the GOAT of basketball? Wow. Just got some salty pistons fans here that uh didn't like what LeBron did to him a while back. Well, maybe more on that later. We'll see. Let's move to maybe less controversy. How many think is it Batman or is it Wonder Woman? How many say it's Batman, the greatest superhero? How many of you say it's Wonder Woman? Yeah, you hear the ladies whoop. Not gonna touch that. How about this one? Coke or Pepsi? How many are Coca-Cola people? Yeah. How many are Pepsi people? Coke is actually the right answer there. Congratulations. I don't know what you guys see in Pepsi, but good for you. All right, I'm from Omaha, Nebraska, right? And you are from Michigan. And well, there was something we shared in 1997. The national championship for college football. And so, who was the greatest in 1997? How many of you think it was Nebraska? I take back what I said. There were more Nebraska at 9 o'clock. Now we're even, we're even. I thought there might be a few just Michigan State anti-Michigan people that joined me on that. What the heck? How many of you think it was Michigan? We'll never know. Like, why didn't they have a national championship? I don't get why it took them that many years to figure that out, but uh but you guys did get the basketball championship this year, so well done, well done to the Wolverines. I picked you at least, so I won some brackets I was in. That was nice. All right, one more, one more, one more. This one's three categories. Is it Chicago style? Is it New York style, or is it Detroit style pizza? What is the greatest? How many of you say it is Chicago style, the deep dish? Moderate? How many say it's New York style? Well, okay. And then how many are like it's Detroit style? Yeah. I yeah, I actually genuinely believe it is Detroit style. It is really good. It's been introduced to me in the last decade, and I'm like, how do I get more of that Detroit style pizza? And so if you're Chicago style, uh like we'll pray for you. If you're New York style, you can be forgiven. But if you want to walk in the truth, Detroit style pizza is where it's at. Amen? On that note, since I'm here, is it Jets or Buddies? Jets, how many Jets? How many buddies? Just trying to figure out where to eat before I leave today. It sounds like Jets was a little bit more than buddies. Okay, well, great. That's all I really wanted to do. I wanted to tell you about how the good the Huskers were and figure out where to eat lunch. Thank you for having me. I hope you have a great day. That's not all I want to do today. We didn't settle too much, except that this is an anti-Lebron crowd. Aren't these debates fun though, to talk about who the goat is, who's the greatest, what is the greatest? Well, I think human beings are infatuated with greatness because I think deep down we all want to be great. And so I want to kick off serving challenge by answering this question in the message today is what does it take to be great? What does it take to be great? Because we have a great God, amen. And that God created us in his image, and so we are all created with greatness inside of us, and yet I think there's a lot of us that are like, I don't know that I'm living a great life. I don't know that I'm experiencing the greatness that God has put inside of me. Some of us, our least favorite word in the English language is the word potential, right? It's like a mirror potential of showing me how I haven't how I haven't lived up to my potential or realized my greatness. I think some of us, when we were singing that song that was right before this, and we were singing, I was made for more. I think there's a lot of us that are like, I was, but I just why why why am I not experiencing what I feel like I was made for? And that's where I really want to press in this morning is to talk about what you were made for and how you can be great. And we're gonna do it through serving challenge. And so it is a blessing to be here to kick this off, and it'll be a blessing to come back five weeks to close this down with you. But over the next 40 days, we're gonna really look at how did Jesus serve us so that we can know how to serve others. It's an invitation, by the way, to not just come on the weekends to hear messages, but to press into the daily readings. Um, there's 40 readings, and so actually I was told to tell you instructions, day one reading starts on Tuesday. So get that right, and everything will flow really nicely for the next several weeks. Um, so you can watch your pistons win tonight. You can read the introduction tomorrow, and then day one reading on Tuesday. Uh, it's really cool because the kids and the students are also taking part in this as well. And so it's hopefully gonna be a 40-day immersive experience, uh, really not just learning about how Jesus served us, but practicing. Practicing how Jesus served. And so you can help serve others around you. And so this morning, what we're gonna start to do is we're gonna look at the goat, the true goat, the greatest of all time, the greatest servant, Jesus. We're gonna start in a in a story in Matthew chapter 20, where James and John, along with their mom, come and ask Jesus a question. Actually, the mom asks the question on her boy's behalf. And she asks, Jesus, can my two boys, Jimmy and Johnny, can can they have the prominent seats to your left and to your right? Like when it's all said and done and eternity is set up, can my two boys have those two incredible seats? Couple of thoughts. Number one, what a ridiculous request, right? And number two, come on, James and John, still having your mom do the dirty work, right? These guys were nicknamed Sons of Thunder, and yet couldn't even ask Jesus. I had to have mama do it for him. And Jesus' answer, which we'll look at in just a moment, is kind of surprising. Because you would expect with a question like that, that Jesus might condemn them for that question, rebuke them for their type of thinking, but he doesn't do that. And the reason he doesn't do that is because actually the desire to be great is a God-given desire. We all, I think, want to be great. I think all of us, when it's said and done, we want to know that our our lives have mattered, that that our years uh were with purpose, that we had significance when we were here. When I hear stories of like my grandpa being here, it's a reminder to me that yeah, your life can make a difference in someone's life. We all want to be great. But what Jesus does do is he corrects them and he tells them that the world's definition of greatness is not true greatness. And so that's what we're gonna look at, this paradigm-shifting teaching moment of what does it really take to be great? Jesus actually calls the other disciples together at this point, and so he speaks to not only James and John, but to all the disciples, and he said this. He said, You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, that it would be their greatness. They lord it over them, as do the high officials exercise their authority over them as well. Jesus is saying, What's going on and what you're seeing, which I think sounds a lot like what we're experiencing in our day, is that somebody, if they really want to be great, they get power, they get wealth, they get fame, they get status, they get a high seat, and they kind of lord that over them and make sure everybody knows how great they are. But Jesus says, not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your what? Must be your, come on, must be your servant. And whoever wants to be first must be your slave. Just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. In the kingdom of God, greatness is not about status or seat. It's about, are you serving? How well are you serving? And Jesus not only said it in this moment, but he lived it out on display for the world to see. And we're gonna look at how he did that. But first I want to go correct some uh bad theology on who the goat of basketball is that only four people agreed with me about. Now, let me throw some cards on the table here. So, so my dad and his family grew up in the Cleveland area and actually moved to Ann Arbor, Ipsilani area when dad went to college. And so we we've been to Ypsilanti, Ann Arbor, Michigan many, many times in our life. But sadly, because he grew up in Cleveland, I was past all of the Cleveland sports teams on. And it's a very sad and unfortunate life that I live. And so I needed to tell you that to tell you that I am biased in my opinion. But I've noticed no matter what you think about LeBron, there's a pattern around LeBron. And here it is that before LeBron goes to a team, they're not great. Then LeBron is on the team and they're great. Then he leaves the team and they're really not great. And because he's done it a few times, we actually have evidence, and because I get into this debate a lot, I made a chart because that's what you do, you make a chart about this stuff because it's really important. So you can see the statistical evidence of LeBron James being on a team. But I question I want to kind of ponder for a moment, though, is this is was the team great? Or was LeBron James great and just happened to be on that team? And again, I'm biased. I have one championship in my 42 years of life, and it was from LeBron James being a Cleveland Cavalier. Were the Cavaliers great though? Or was LeBron great? And just happened to be on the Cavaliers. LeBron is one of the more ball-dominant players that the league has ever seen, and by ball dominant meaning the ball in his hands. And an NBA game, an NBA game is 48 minutes. And LeBron James, being one of the more ball-dominant players, though, actually only held the ball in his hands for five minutes. That's not very much. Because I think there's this myth of greatness that is kind of like, let me show you how great I am in the five minutes where the ball is in my hand. Let me be the star that I was made to be. And by the way, I'm not saying it's wrong for you to ever have the ball in your hand, or when the ball, whatever that ball is for you, that's in your hand, I'm not saying that you shouldn't shine like the star that God created you to be. Sometimes I do think that God calls you to take your shot and to and to seize the opportunity and to shine when your gifts align. And that's there's no problem with that. But but what LeBron James shows us and what we learn in many other aspects is it's not only about what happens when the ball is in your hands for those five minutes, but what about the other 43 minutes of the game? Can you elevate your teammates around you to be great? And what about not just the other 43 minutes of the game, but what about all the practices that we don't see? Malcolm Gladwell, an famous author, says that to be an expert or to be really great in any field, that there's a 10,000-hour rule, that you've got to put 10,000 hours of practice into the game to be great. So again, no matter what you think about LeBron, what he does do is he elevates the others on his team to be great. And what Jesus teaches us is that greatness is found in elevating those around you to be great. Greatness is found. What does it take to be great? Greatness is found when you can elevate those around you to be great. But at the end of the day, I didn't actually come up from Nebraska to Michigan to tell you about a guy that one time took his talents down to South Beach and hurt a lot of us. I came to tell you about a God who took his talents down to South Bethlehem and helped a whole lot of us. And his name is Jesus. Because if we're comparing the two, it's one thing to take really, really, really great NBA talented players and turn them into really, really, really, really great NBA talented players. It's a whole nother thing to do what Jesus did. To take what the Bible says is people that are dead according to their sin and bring them back to life. And not only bring them back to life like eternal life, like I've got my security, um, my eternity secured, and I can be confident because I know that in heaven I'm gonna be and you're gonna be with Jesus, this beautiful gift of grace that we have that that's amazing and that you should absolutely have confidence in. But also, I I've I've not only given you that gift, but I've given you that gift so that you can be made for more in this world, so that you can be great right now. I've given you the Holy Spirit who fills you with a gift, with gifts, so that you can use those gifts. And this is what God has done for each and every one of us. He's taken us who were dead in our sin. He's the only one that can do this. And he's awakened us by his grace, and he's equipped and called us to now live our lives in service to others. And so, as we look at serving, the purpose of serving, as we see in Jesus, is to elevate and help others, and this is what Jesus has done for you and for me, and it's what he did on the display for the world in 33 plus years. We get to see Jesus do this with the people that were around him. And so the question I asked us to consider as we launch into this 40-day challenge is what does it take to be great? And from Scripture, the answer is serving is the number one factor on whether you live up to the greatness God has placed inside of you. How are you serving? You think about that much? Because that's not what the world teaches, right? The world, again, it's gonna be much more on the line of what the disciples were seeing with the Gentiles and the high officials. The world will tell you to look out for number one, you do you, build your own platform, chase what you want, gain power, wealth, uh status, a seat, and you let people know how great you are. And that's the way the world works. And yet there's been a lot of people that have lived by that formula and actually succeeded according to the world's patterns, and yet have found that as high as they've climbed this ladder, where they get higher and higher and higher, they're actually still really empty. Because at the end of the day, it's not actually about that. It's not actually about climbing higher and higher and higher and higher for your name. Actually, what Jesus teaches us, it's about going lower and lower and lower and lower and even lower. So, these 40 days we're gonna be jumping into serving challenge, and we're really gonna look at how did Jesus serve us so that we can be greater servants. And the anchor passage that we're gonna be learning throughout serving challenge, kind of for the 40 days, is a passage of scripture I've grown to love. I think it's probably the best passage of scripture that I found that really embodied what it looks like to be a servant, and it's in Philippians chapter 2, verses 5 through 11. These verses were so popular that they actually called it the Christ hymn in the early church. So they would learn how to sing these words and memorize these words. And I want to go through these verses with you, and as I go through these verses with you and kind of lay the land of where we're headed the next 40 days, we're gonna see Jesus, five aspects, if you will, of how Jesus served us through the text that over the 40 days you're gonna learn a lot about these five aspects. And so let's start in Philippians chapter 2, verse 5. It says, in your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus. Some translations use the word attitude. And so serving starts with attitude. How's your attitude? Have you ever noticed that sometimes you can serve somebody, but if you do it with the wrong attitude, it's almost better if you didn't even serve? Any spouses out there? I will do the dishes, fine. Right? And then it's like, well, I did the dishes, but I'm in trouble. What happened? When you look at Jesus, you notice he had a great attitude. He never walked around grumpy, never gritted his teeth together. Fine, I'll serve you. And that's not what we're gonna do. We're not gonna grit our teeth together as Pastor Tim tells me we gotta serve more. That's not what it's about. It's about getting the right attitude. And for us, that attitude comes directly out of what the gift that God has given to us. That I am so dang grateful, and aren't you, that God saved me from my sin, that I can't help but want to do everything possible to help other people know that that same God that did that for me is their God too.

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Wow.

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So it starts with our attitude. The next verse of the Christ hymn says, Jesus, who being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage, but rather he made himself nothing. And the word I've chosen, the aspect there is availability. Availability, that God made himself available, that that yes, he didn't have to, but he did. He made himself, he didn't consider himself equal with God and using that to his own advantage, but rather he submitted to just make himself nothing and to come into this world as one of us. He didn't have to. Do you think about that enough? That God made himself available. This is a real practical piece for us as we look at this aspect, because some of us, like, yeah, we do have the right attitude, but the thing that's stopping us from really serving is a real practical thing. It's it's I don't know if I have margin, I don't know if I have time, I don't know if I can fit it into my calendar. This is probably the one out of the five that's the most challenging for me. Because sometimes I got so many tasks I want to do that that people are not people for me, they're interruptions. And so you might have the right attitude, but practically how is your life? Are you available to help? Are you available to serve? And I don't think we think about this part of the journey of Jesus enough. That he didn't have to even choose to start this rescue mission. Do you know that? He was seated in a pretty comfortable spot. I like imagining that spot that Jesus came from to just remind you of where he was. And we have images of this all throughout the Bible, but even in the Old Testament, before Jesus walked, there's some images in the Psalms, and there's this beautiful image in Isaiah chapter 6 of Jesus who is seated on the throne at that time, and Isaiah gets a glimpse of this vision, and he sees Jesus seated on the throne, high and exalted, clothed in glory, and it says the train of his robe filled the temple. You've been to a wedding before where the bride's got a big train? Can you imagine a train that would fill this entire church? And the thing about the train in the Old Testament is the bigger the train, the more powerful the person was. And so he's already a God who, before he went up against sin, death, and the devil, that's got a train that powerful. That's cool to think about. Actually, kings, when they would go out in battle and defeat other kings, after they would defeat them, they would cut their robe and they would sew it onto their own because, again, the bigger the train, the bigger the robe. This is a powerful God clothed in glory that as he is seated on that throne, Isaiah sees angels in triple replicates saying, holy, holy, holy. And as the angels are saying this, it's awesome to see the image of the foundation, the walls and the foundation are trembling. And so now we've got inanimate objects worshiping the Jesus who is seated on the throne. And Psalms tells us that as this was going on, the sun and the moon and the stars, which were created for him, for his glory, were praising him. I'm just telling you that Jesus was in a pretty good seat, wouldn't you say? And he considered himself not equal with God, but made himself nothing, made himself available. And then when he walked, and you'll learn about this when you study availability week, when he walked in this world with ministry, he had the most incredible mission that the world has ever seen. And yet he had this beautiful gift of even though he was busy, he was never hurried. And he was able to spend time with the person right in front of him that needed to hear the exact word that he would give over and over and over again. God will work more through the available than the able. You can have all the ability in the world, but if you don't show up, God's not going to work through you. The third aspect is action. And so we see Jesus leaving that seat, making himself available. And it shows here, we just get to see Jesus descending lower and lower that he took the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness, found an appearance as a man, and he humbled himself. The third aspect, we've got attitude, we've got availability, is action. Sometimes you might have the right action, and maybe you do got the margin in your day to serve and be available and help, but the problem is, ah, acting on it like there's some steps of fear sometimes to serve. And sometimes we don't always take that step. Many much research has been out there that the thing that people regret most are not regrets of action, but regrets of inaction. Steps they didn't take, opportunities they didn't seize, dreams that they let go of. When you look into Jesus and you will, you'll see the emotion most ascribed to Jesus was this word compassion. But you'll find after the word compassion a conjunction and every single time. The compassion of Jesus was not just an inner gut sorrow, it was compassion and action. That's what Jesus calls us to. The fourth aspect then is ability. Now, just a second ago, I said God will work more through the available than the able, and I do agree with that, but he's given us all an ability. In fact, his ability, his unique ability, was he was obedient to death, even death on a cross. He was the only one that could pay for the sins of the world, and he chose to. So you don't have that ability, you don't have that unique gift, but the Holy Spirit gives each and every one of us a spiritual gift. And that gift is to be used for the building up and the edification of others, especially the body of Christ. And I really believe that when you match your availability with your unique ability, it's kind of the secret sauce for God to do really cool and powerful things. And then the fifth and final aspect is this word ambition. And you've noticed so far in the Christ hymn that Jesus serving is very much an elevator or an escalator that goes down, down, down, down, down. But then everything flips. Everything flips. Therefore, God exalted him back to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. That is what it's all about. That's our ambition. Ambition is just a definition that means hard work or determination to see something happen. And the more your ambition lies up with that, the more you will experience what you were made for. It's what you were called to do: to serve, to go low, so that at the end of it, all of us will be raised up with Christ and be able to praise and glorify Him. Amen. And so over these 40 days, we're going to be looking at these five words in greater detail. In fact, the first five days are very introductory. You'll learn a little about a little bit about each one, and then you'll spend a week going through each aspect of this is how Jesus served us. Now, can we serve like him? And you'll be challenged to not just read his words and to read about how he did this, but you'll be challenged to put it into practice as well. And you might already have of those five, you might already be like, I already know which one I'm weakest in. I already know which one is my strength. And that's really great. Keep pressing in on that strength. Let's recognize our weaknesses, and how can we grow? How can we improve? How can we, how can we become greater servants? How can we elevate others around us? Because that really is what greatest greatness in the kingdom of God is all about. Now, some of you, some of you have given up on the idea that you can be great. And honestly, you're not even sure if I'm kind of using appropriate language here today. Maybe this is some of that Nebraskan heresy, you know, that you're bringing up to the great state of Michigan. Pure and pure unadulterated state of Michigan. Because some of you aren't sure that it's appropriate because I'm focusing so much on human beings being great. And I've found that whenever you get in a room filled with Lutherans, there's a bunch of Lutherans that are like, oh no, Zach, it's not about us being great, it's about God being great. And somehow that if we focus on us realizing our greatness, that we might be diminishing the greatness of God. Um, how prideful and arrogant do you need to be to think that by you doing great things you can diminish the greatness of God? Let me just say this way: God is not threatened by you being great. Remember where he is? He is seated back on that throne room in that very same seat that James and John's mom was like, Can my boys be right next to you? He is seated right there, those angels are in triple replicate, mountains are bowing in reverence, sun, moon, and stars are bouncing in to praise God. He's not like sitting up there being like, oh man, I didn't plan on her doing that today and stealing my glory. I didn't see him showing up like that today. Stop being great. Let me let me ask this. We disagreed a little bit on the goat stuff earlier, and that's fine. But maybe we can agree to this. Do you believe that God is great? How many say, yes, God is great? Amen. Amen. In the very beginning of our book, in the very beginning book, very beginning chapter, you who just said God is great, said we were created, God created us in his image. And so if God is great, and we are created in his image, we are created to be great as well. And some of you have given up on that idea. And today, I hope, is the day that that can be reawakened. Because I do believe that there are people here that God's given you beautiful dreams, beautiful visions, beautiful opportunities. Maybe, maybe a new nonprofit, a new ministry, maybe somebody in your world that you just feel compelled and called to serve, and through whatever reason, you haven't acted on it, you haven't taken steps. Maybe the enemy's been lying to you and been working in your mental health, and like that, you're you weren't called to do that. And I just wanted to come here today to tell you that no, God actually called and designed you to be great. And so don't suppress your greatness, be great. But the path to greatness, oftentimes, our steps they go lower and lower and lower and lower. It's not wrong to have the ball in your hands and shine like the star God made you to be. But for the most part, you're gonna be using your gifts to help somebody else. And that's what Jesus has done for you. He used his unique gift, ability. He's the only one that could have done it. And he did it. So that you could be reawakened to not just life eternal, but to the life you were made. You were made for more. And so many of you have been struggling with, ah, I just don't know if my days count, my years matter, I don't know if I'm living with significance, and I'm not even sure what that would look like. And what Jesus says to you is your life does count. You do matter. Your years are important, but greatness is not what the world says it is. It's simply by elevating and helping others. And when you do that, not only will you help other people's dreams get realized, but this kind of crazy thing happens, is that you actually get to experience so much fulfillment and so much joy and so much happiness knowing that you are doing what God put you here in this world to do. And so I'm excited to kick this off today and to watch from afar for a few weeks and to hear all of the great things that are happening here at Shepherd's Gate. I know God's gonna do some great things through you. Will you pray with me? God, we are just honored in your presence here this morning that we can not only be saved, we can not only be your children, but we can be destined for greatness, that we can be, uh Lord, our years can matter, our lives are important, and that through what we do, the Bible says, others can glorify the name of the Father. And so, Lord Jesus, give us clarity over the next 40 days, give us opportunities over the next 40 days, give us reawakened dreams that we've maybe let go in the next 40 days. And I pray that, Lord, as more and more of us step into the calling of being a servant and helping other people, elevate other people, lift up their dreams, Lord Jesus, would you bring so much fulfillment and so much joy and so much happiness on Shepherd's Gate? And Lord, would would as all of this is going on, would you would you remind us and help us to remember that it's all for your son and for his sake? And so, would you get all the glory, Jesus? You are the holy, holy, holy, perfect God who is seated in heaven right now, and we exist to glorify you. And so, Jesus, be glorified as we serve you and we help others. We love you, Jesus. It's in your name we pray, and together we say. Amen.

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