Life.Church with Craig Groeschel - The Greatness Code

Episode Date: September 3, 2023

It’s time to settle it once and for all … who is the G.O.A.T.? Is greatness defined by ability, wealth, or status? Or is the true meaning something completely unexpected—like serving others? We���re unlocking the answer in The Greatness Code.ABOUT THIS MESSAGEIt’s time to settle it once and for all … who is the G.O.A.T.? Is greatness defined by ability, wealth, or status? Or is the true meaning something completely unexpected? We’re unlocking the answer in The Greatness Code.NEXT STEPSHave you made a decision to follow Jesus? You may be wondering what’s next on your journey. We want to help! Let us guide you to your next steps in your walk with Christ: https://www.life.church/nextCONNECT WITH A PASTORDo you need prayer? Would you like to find out how you can get involved at Life.Church? One of our pastors would love to meet with you. Schedule a video call with a pastor: https://www.life.church/meetwithusABOUT LIFE.CHURCHWherever you are in life, you have a purpose. Life.Church wants to help you find your next step. Our hope is that your journey will include joining us at a Life.Church location throughout the United States or globally online at https://www.live.life.churchFind locations, videos, and more info about us at https://www.life.church or download the Life.Church app at https://www.life.church/appFIND US ON SOCIAL MEDIAFacebook: http://www.facebook.com/life.churchInstagram: http://www.instagram.com/life.churchTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lifechurchYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@LCNowCONNECT WITH PASTOR CRAIGYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/craiggroeschelFacebook: http://www.facebook.com/craiggroeschelInstagram: http://www.instagram.com/craiggroeschelTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@craiggroeschel#lifechurch #craiggroeschel #thegreatnesscode Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Can we settle it once and for all? Who is the goat? Who, if you don't know what the goat is, what is the goat? The goat is the greatest of all time. Who is the greatest of all time? We're going to look at a few categories to get us into our talk just for fun, and you get to vote online. You can type in the comment section,

and I need all of our live churches to participate. It won't be any fun without you. Let's start with basketball. Do we have Jordan or are we talking about LeBron? Who would say Jordan? Can you something? Who would say LeBron? Who would say LeBron?

Oh man, online, you can type in whatever you think because I think that people where I am would say Jordan. Let's go with soccer or for my international buddies. We're calling it football. This one should be easy. Is it messy? Or is it Ronaldo? Oh man, those of you online, we got some very opinion.

I mean, this has like been debated for years, and at Life Church, it's very clear. It's very, very clear. Online, is it messy or is it Ronaldo? Let's get out of sports just to keep it a little bit broader. Let's talk about superheroes. Let's just go for it. Is it super?

Okay, this should be interesting right now. Okay, we're just going to see. I'm guessing this one 50-50 or I don't know how it's going to go. Do we have Superman? Help me up for Superman. Is it Superwoman? And online, you guys can type in the chat. Who is the greatest of all time?

Comes to the kingdom of God. Our Heavenly Father has a very different standard of what makes you great. In fact, in Mark's Gospel, Chapter 10, Jesus said that this world wants to show you its greatness. Right? see my shoes, see my fit, see my car, see my friends, see my photo of my post on my vacation with my tan legs while I'm pretending to read a book by the beach trying to make you jealous.

See how great I am? Jesus said the world wants to show you how great it is, but in Mars Gospel, Mark chapter 10, verse 43, Jesus said, not so with you. would you nudge the person next to you and say not so with you online you can type that in the comment section not so with you the world wants to show its greatness but jesus said not so with you he said instead whoever wants to become great among you must be what must be your servant for even the son of man did not come to be served but jesus came to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. In the kingdom of God, greatness is service,

not status. Greatness is what we do for others. It's not drawing attention to ourselves. Why? Because it is impossible to love Jesus without serving people. Today, we're going to do something different, and I'm very excited about it. For those of you online, I'm going to continue teaching to our Life Church Online family and to our YouTube community. I'm going to be with you all the way throughout. But at our 44 Life Church campuses, we're going to do something different today. We actually have 104 different people that will be preaching today, helping me with this message at our Life Search locations. 104 different people. Now, let me tell you about these people. They've been chosen by their local

campus pastor. Many of them, they'll be teaching for the very first time. They'll be a little bit nervous. They might be a little bit insecure. Many of them are a little bit younger on the team, and we want to give them a chance to share God's word, help them grow in their communication skills and help you grow in your faith to serve. So I want you to show them some love. I want you to cheer them on. I want you to help them feel welcome. They're going to preach on a powerful story about Jesus washing the disciples' feet today at 44 campuses. Could you please help me welcome our team teachers? Now it's just us. Back to my online family. How cool is that to imagine 104 different people teaching God's Word today? Just us in the room. Those of you online, I would love to know where

you're watching from. Just type it in the comment section. Tell us where you're watching from right now. And for the rest of our time today, we're going to be in John chapter 13. And then toward the end of the message, they're going to come back to us. And I'm going to let you cheer again. So John chapter 13, we're going to start in verse one. Scripture says this, that it was just before the Passover festival. and Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. When you read John's Gospel, you'll see he was obsessed with time. Over and over again, he'll say the time has not yet come. The time is coming.

Now the hour has come. It's time the hour has come to leave this world and go to the Father. And scripture says, having loved his own who were in the world, Jesus loved them till the end. So for context, Jesus literally had just a handful of hours left to live before he gives his life as a sacrifice. So what do you do if you only have a few hours left to live? Well, let me tell you what Jesus didn't do. He didn't go on vacation.

He didn't go on a massive spending spree. Jesus chose to spend his final hours with his closest friends. And John tells us that Jesus loved them, and how did you love them? He loved them to the end. In fact, in the Greek language, this to the end is the word is haste telos. And in the Greek it means to the end, but it also means to the fullest extent or to the uttermost. So when scripture says Jesus love them till the end, it doesn't just mean. he loved them to the end of his life. It also very literally means that there is no end to his love.

He loved them to the fullest extent. And what's amazing about Jesus is he doesn't just state his love, but he shows his love. And he shows it in one of the most personal, meaningful, and powerful ways you could ever imagine. We read on in the text, it says this, that Jesus got up from the meal. Everybody says, Jesus got up. Jesus got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples' feet, drying them with a towel that was wrapped around him. Two verses. In these two verses, we see Jesus doing seven specific acts of service. Let me show you what he did. Jesus, Jesus got up, Jesus took off his outer clothing,

Jesus wrapped a towel around his waist, he poured water into a basin, he knelt down, he washed his disciples' feet, and he finished the jump. He dried their feet with a towel. Jesus, in just a moment of time, literally did seven specific different acts of service to show that he loved his disciples. to the absolute fullest extent.

And what I want you to notice, first of all, on the very first thought is this. The first thing is, number one, what did Jesus do? Jesus got up. Type it online, he got up. He got up. He got up. Jesus got up.

I want you to picture this. The disciples lounging at a Passover meal at a low, use-shaped table called a triclinium. I've got a kind of a piece of art that is not perfect in the looks. most likely the disciples would have been more lounging in each other's laps, like literally kind of laying over another, which would be unusual for our times, that very intimate and appropriate for their time.

And they're having this beautiful holy meal with something that is displayed very clearly. What do you see at the edge of this artwork? What do you see? You see their feet. And this would have been unbelievably unusual because they're celebrating this meal while eating with dirty feet.

So Jesus is lounging at the table, celebrating the Passover, one of the later moments in his life, and he's eating with the disciples who had dirty feet. So what is the first thing that Jesus did? He got up. He got up. I want to tell some of you to have a meaningful life.

You got to get up. In fact, when I look at, look at the most meaningful moments in my life, almost none of them were sitting down. Think about it. I got the end of my life, I just love that Netflix time. It was so amazing. I loved all those hours of scrolling, looking at other people on social media. Almost all the meaningful moments were not sitting down there when I was standing up. I wasn't sitting when I was born. I wasn't sitting when I took my first step. I wasn't sitting the first time I wrote a bicycle. or hit my first home run. I wasn't sitting when I knelt down to give my life to Jesus. I wasn't sitting

when I taught my first Bible study. I wasn't sitting when I took Amy out on a date. I wasn't sitting when I watched her have baby number one or baby number two or baby number three or baby number four or baby number five or baby number six. And I wasn't sitting when baby number one got baptized and kid number two got baptized and kid number three got baptized and kid number one got married and kid number two got married. I'm not sitting now while I'm sharing God's word with you. I would say to really have a life that matters, you might want to turn the TV off, you might want to set the phone down and get up. Somebody needs to get up, get up if you want to have a life that matters.

I promise you to have a life that honors God, to have a life that you love, you've got to get up. Jesus got up. He took off his outer clothing and wrapped his shirt. servant's towel around his waist. What's interesting is he removed what was on the outside, and suddenly you could see what was on the inside of him. Humility. He removed what was on the outside, and you could see what was on the inside. A humble heart to serve. I wonder if we could, metaphorically speaking, remove the facade that we all put on our outsides. What would be revealed on our insides. Because I can tell you right now in my life, there are so many times that if you saw

what was on the inside, you'd say, Pastor Craig, you're not looking so good right now. Because a lot of times on the inside, there's more of an entitled spirit. Like, I'm too good for that, and I don't have time for that, and I'm not going to do that. And that's someone else's deal. And I'm not, that's beneath me. When Jesus got up, removed his outer garment and revealed a humble heart of a servant on the inside. See, what I've learned is that God doesn't just care what you do, but he cares about the way that you do it. There are times when I do the right thing, but my heart's not right. And you can do the right thing with the wrong heart, the wrong motives, and it's still wrong to God.

So in humility, Jesus got up, took off his outer clothing, put on a slave's apron, and he poured water into a basin. And then what did you do? he knelt down and he washed the disciples feet it is entirely impossible to completely and accurately describe how jolting shocking unexpected this one act of self-sacrificial service would have been to the disciples they would have never in a million years ever imagined that Jesus, the son of God, would do the job of a servant. And for context, they were at a Passover meal, a formal meal that was a tradition for generations when the people of God would gather to celebrate the faithfulness of God, the goodness of God, the forgiveness of God. And in the middle of that, an argument breaks out between the disciples.

in the middle of the Holy Meal, the disciples start arguing with each other. What are they arguing about? They want to know, according to Luke's gospel, who's the goats? Who's the greatest of all time? Like, literally, they're sitting there at the Passover meal with Jesus, like, who's the most important person in the room?

Who's got the most followers? Who's verified on Instagram? I'm not talking about the way, going that you buy for money. I'm talking about the real verification, you know, back in the old days when it really meant something. Who's the most important? And I can almost imagine this is not in the Bible, but I'm reading into it. I'm guessing John, because when you read John's gospel, he says that he was the one that Jesus loved. I'm guessing John's going like, obviously me, because I am the one that Jesus loves. That's what he's saying. Peter, if I'm Peter, I'm going,

yeah, hey, I'm the one that walked on water. It's all me. You losers, you stayed in the boat. I walked on water. I'm the greatest. What we know is it wasn't Bartholomew. He's just sitting there being quiet, going, nobody even knows I'm a disciple so I know it's not me, all right? Whatever it is, okay, these guys are arguing, who's the greatest? Who's the goat? And Jesus looks across the room. And when he looks across the room, what does he see? He sees proud hearts and dirty feet. when Jesus, who's about to give his life for the disciples, scans the room of those he's loving to the fullest extent and to the end, he sees two things.

Type in the comment section, what did he see? He sees proud hearts, and he sees dirty feet. So what did Jesus do? He saw a need, and he must have thought something like, I can wash feet. This one's mine. So he got up and he knelt down.

To kneel down, you got to get up. He got up, he knelt down, and what did he do? He washed the disciples' feet. Jesus, feel it. The son of the most high God.

our living water, the good shepherd, the true vine, the bread of life, the light of the world, the living stone, the king of glory, the prince of peace, our great high priest, the righteous judge, the chosen one, the king of kings and the lord of lords, the alpha and the omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end, our redeemer, our rock, our sanctification, our righteousness, the lamb of God who was about to be slain for the sins of the world knelt down and washed dirty feet. What did Jesus do? He saw a need and thought, I can do this. He showed his love to the very end because there is no end.

end to his love. Now, that raises the question. Why didn't any of the other disciples take that job? Why didn't Peter go, I see dirty feet, I can do that. Why didn't any of the other disciples wash the feet? Well, we can be pretty certain that any of them would have washed Jesus's feet, because that would have been an important job. But if they had washed Jesus' feet, they wouldn't want to wash anybody else's feet because that puts them beneath everybody else and that would rank them lower than those around them.

In other words, they were too proud to serve one another. Aren't you thankful that we're not like that? Why are you laughing? I mean, aren't you thankful that we're not like that? Or are we? What makes it even worse sometimes

in our churches, in our pride, sometimes in our pride, we often criticize those with dirty feet instead of washing them. Can we just stop there for a moment and recognize who was one of the disciples that Jesus' feet he washed? Who betrayed him? Judas? Did Jesus know that Jesus would betray them? And what did Jesus do? He washed his feet. And he were like, you know, those people don't look like us. They shouldn't be a part of us. and in our pride, we often criticize those with dirty feet instead in dealing to wash them. I wonder how often God looks at our church as today and see something similar to that. Because some of us here, we've accepted cleansing from Jesus.

He washed our feet. We've been forgiven of a lot. I don't know about you, but I've been forgiven of a lot. lot. And yet sometimes we're still too proud to wash someone else's feet. Who's the greatest? Who's the greatest? In the kingdom of God, greatness isn't about status. It's about service. Because we can't truly love Jesus without serving people. I was in a hardware store and I saw late that was older. Mid-70s, tiny, frail and she was trying to get these big hedge clipper things down and I walked up to her and said

ma'am can I help you with those and she said do you work here? I said no no but I'm happy to help you and I got him down for her and I just started thinking like what in the world she could do with that I said so I said what are morally going to do with that and she said I'm going to trim some trees they were bigger than her there's no way she's going to trim some trees and so my mind raced and I thought of all the reasons why I was too busy to offer what I was about to do. And then I just thought, you know what? I can do this one. This one's mine.

And so I said, would you mind if I helped you trim your trees? And she said, are you a yard boy? And I said, today I am. And I just think that some of you, if you're open to what the Holy Spirit might say to you, if you want to become great, you might watch for a need, you might see a need, and you might think, I can do that one. This one's mine. A friend needs help moving.

I can do that. This one's mine. You hear it Switch, an amazing movement that's ministering to teens all over our church. They need adult volunteers to come and love on kids. I think, you know what, my Wednesday's free. I can do that. This one's mine. You're at one of those campuses at Life Church, like most of them where they're full at the 10.

an 11.30 service and your campus pastor said, could you come to another one and make room for people far from God? You know what? I can get up an hour early. I can sleep in an hour more. I can do that one. This one's mine. Your pastor says you need help in the baby's room and you think, I can change a diaper. I can be a butt wiper for the glory of Jesus. This one's mine. You see a need and you think I can do this. This one's mine because it is impossible to love Jesus and not people. At this moment, we're going to welcome back our local team teachers, so I'm going to look and I'm going to welcome them back. Hey, can you help us say thank you today to our amazing team teachers. Thank you for sharing God's words. We praise God for every single one of you. Thank you for

being a light at your local campus, and let's wrap it up. In the kingdom of God, greatness isn't about status. It's about serving. Therefore, if you, you're not, you're going to You are a follower of Jesus. Let me just say, if you are. If you're not, this isn't for you. But if you're a disciple of Jesus, if you're a part of the church, the body of Christ, every part of the body matters. Every part that means you.

Every part has a role. Therefore, if you are a part of the body of Christ in his church, not serving somewhere in the church, that means that something that God wants to be done is not being done. That means that there is a need that God wants to be met that isn't being met because you're not doing what you were assigned and called to do. Think of the excuses that Jesus could have given. He saw dirty feet.

He could have said, and disciples are being all entitled. And they don't deserve it. Judas especially. But because of his love. Because there was no end to his love. love. He would say the same thing that he did. He would say, serve anyway. Serve anyway. Because there was no end to his love, he served anyway. And I'll shoot very, very straight with you when you

serve. Some people will take you for granted. Serve anyway. Some people will just expect it when you do it and not understand the sacrifices. Serve anyway. Some people will never say thank you. They'll never appreciate it. Serve anyway. Because you can't love Jesus and not serve people. For me, I have to.

Because I had a proud heart and dirty feet, thinking I could do it on my own. Thinking I could be good enough. Thinking I was better than other people. the whole time with dirty, filthy, ugly, sinful feet, and due to no credit of my own whatsoever. The son of God, who didn't come to be served, but to serve gave his life as a ransom for my sins. He washed my feet. He forgave me.

and he says greatness and about status is about service so family what are you waiting for what are you waiting for you see a need think to yourself i can do that this was mine stand up stand it's get stay i'm not i'm not going to sit here on the sideline and miss out on all the fun put your phone down turn a TV off get up from your self-focused life, stand up and say, I'm going to serve somebody else. And then after you stand up, kneel down and wash someone's feet. Because greatness in the kingdom of God is it about status? It's all about serving.

It is impossible to love Jesus without serving people. So Father today, we ask that you would do a work with those watching online and those at all of our life church locations. Holy Spirit stir within us. A heart to serve. As you're praying today without looking around, at all of our churches, I wonder how many of you would say,

man, I am. I am a disciple of Jesus. I am a follower. He washed my feet. He made me new. And I'm not accusing my gifts somewhere in the church, I want to get up and make a difference. Would you lift your hands now? Don't think about it. Lift your hands now and say, yes, that's me. I want to make a difference.

I'm not using my gifts. I want to make a difference. Lift your hands up now. If you're watching online and that's you, you're not serving in a church. You're not using your gifts in the community and say, I want to make a difference. Just type that in the comment section. I want to make a difference. I'm going to pause right now and I'm going to pray for you. There are some of you. Your hand didn't even go up and I'm going to pray especially for you. God, I pray for a lot. God, I pray for every person who is the disciple of Jesus, that we would see the calling that you've chosen us, you've set us apart to be a light in this world, that the greatest are those who serve. God interrupt us, disturb us, show us needs, God, help us not just to be so focused on ourselves,

but say, yes, I'll serve others in the church that help change my life. I'm not just a spiritual consumer. God help me to be a spiritual contributor. God, show us people at our work that we can serve in our school, even as we go out through the day. I pray, God, that every day we would see a time when you interrupted us. And we say, yeah, I can do that. This one's mine.

We'll give you the glory when you give us those opportunities. God, for everyone who is a follower of Jesus, I pray that you would give them, show them. them the opportunity, stay on them lovingly, that they are a part of the church. Your church needs their gifts. If they are not yet using their gifts somewhere in the church, God stir within them to say, hey, I can do that. This one's mine. Because we know it's impossible to love Jesus without serving your people. As you keep praying today, wherever you're watching from, some of you would say, hey, you're talking about those who are disciples of Jesus, and that's not me.

I mean, you may have even, like, growing up in the church, but you're not faithfully walking with Jesus. If we sat down across from each other, and I just ask you, how's it going with you spiritually? Like, where do you stand with God? If there's any hesitation, any hymn hauling around, any like, I'm not sure, whatever, let me just be as clear as I can and tell you, by the love of God. God loves you. He loves all of you. He loves you. He loves you. He loves you. So much that he became one of you. Who is Jesus? He is God in the flesh. He is the son of God. And Jesus was perfect in every way. He's called the Lamb of God. He was without sin. And you would sacrifice in the Old Testament of Lamb for temporary forgiveness of sins.

He is the Lamb of God who was slain. He was slain. for the permanent forgiveness of your sins, he shed innocent blood, died in your place, and God raised him from the dead. And he did that so that anybody, let me just tell you, when I say anybody, that means anybody you, you. No matter what you've done, no matter who you are, no matter how far you feel from God, no matter how many questions you have, no how many, how many doubts are in your mind, anyone who calls on his name, he'll wash your feet. He will forgive all of your sins. And he makes you new. He did not come to condemn the world.

This is what the Bible says. He came to save the world. He came to serve, to give his life as a ransom for you. Our only reasonable response is not to join a church or become religious. Our only reasonable response is they take all of my life. And when he takes all your life, you just start to be a part of a church because you just can't help it because he's washed your feet. today for those of you that you don't know where you stand with God, you feel far from God, you've walked away from God, Jesus is inviting you to come, he's ready to wash your feet,

he's ready to forgive your sins, he's ready to make you new. If you need his forgiveness, if you need His grace, we're just going to turn away from the old life, we're going to turn away from our sin, we're going to turn to him, we're going to call on his name, and when you do, he hears your prayers, he'll forgive all of your sins, and in a moment you become new. The old is gone and the new has come. Wherever you're watching from today, you're here, not by accident. You're here because God loves you. And this is your time. I need his forgiveness. I need his grace today. I step away from my sin today. I give my life to Christ. That's your prayer. Lift your hands high right now. All over the place, lift them up.

Praise God, people right now, as we see at all of our churches, we see people saying yes to Jesus. Those of you online, I want you to type it in the comment section. I am surrendering my life. to Jesus. Put it in your own words. I'm choosing to follow Jesus. Type it in a comment section today. We're going to pray with people all over the world and then we're going to go crazy because we serve a good God. We have a savior who washes feet. Would you pray a lot? I pray Heavenly Father, forgive my sins. Jesus save me. Make me brand new. Thank you for washing my feet. Thank you for forgiving my sins. Thank you for making me new. Change me. My life is not my own. I give it all to you. Use me to serve others and glorify you. Thank you for new life. You have all of mine. In Jesus name I pray. Come on church. Let's celebrate today. Let's welcome those born into God's family.