This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

Welcome to our look together through Mark chapter 9, day 4 today. We're going to
look at verses 30 to 37 and we're going to continue to learn from Jesus.
Remember Jesus is heading towards the cross.

Just a few weeks left with his disciples. He's teaching them that which is most
important and he's using different ways to teach them. They've learned through
experience, they've learned through questions, they've learned through failure,
and now they're going to learn through relationships.

And this teaching that they learn through relationships is a teaching about what
makes our lives truly great, about who is really the greatest in life. Listen to
what happens. It's amidst the most familiar teachings of Jesus, Mark chapter 9,
verses 30 to 37.

They left that place and passed through Galilee. Jesus did not want anyone to
know where they were because he was teaching his disciples. He said to them,
"The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of men.

They will kill him, and after three days he will rise. " But they did not
understand what he meant and were afraid to ask him about it. They came to
Capernaum.

When he was in the house, he asked them, "What were you arguing about on the
road? " But they kept quiet because on the way they had argued about who was the
greatest. 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.

" He took a little child and had him stand among them. Taking him in his arms,
he said to them, "Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name
welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but welcomes the one
who sent me. " Now, first, as we get into this teaching, I want you to notice
verses 30 and 31.

It's what we've been talking about all week. Jesus is focusing on teaching his
disciples because his death is approaching. He's speaking increasingly about the
cross, and so the Bible says he didn't want anyone to know where he was because
he was teaching his disciples, and he taught them about the cross.

But they didn't understand it. They missed it. The question in the disciples'
mind was not about the cross.

They were walking down the road after this teaching. The question they had was,
"Which of us is the greatest? " And they all had an answer why they should be
the greatest.

Peter, James, and John, they could have said, "Oh, we got to go to the Mount of
Transfiguration. We are the greatest. " Judas could have said, "I'm the
treasurer of this group.

Jesus, trust me with the money. Obviously, I'm the greatest. " Andrew could have
said, "He called me first.

" First equals greatest. I'm the greatest. If you do a careful read through the
Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, you find out that the subject of
greatness seems to have been a favorite topic among Jesus' disciples.

I just want you to think with me about what Jesus faced every day. He was
empowering these men to change the world. And they always seemed to be lagging
five steps behind, saying among themselves, "I'm better than you are.

No, I'm better than you are. I'm greater than you are. " There had to be moments
when Jesus thought, "They're going to change the world?

" Of course, with divine insight, he knew that there was far more than there was
apparent on the surface here. And so he taught them about how humility could
manage their ambition. Even as they argued about which one of them was the
greatest, Jesus taught them about true greatness.

Jesus teaches them from his heart about what it means to be first. And he says
this, "The first shall be last. The first shall be the servant of all.

" They all needed to know this, to understand the cross, what Jesus was going to
do on the cross. He was serving us all by dying on the cross. And they all
needed to know this to understand how they were to serve him from that point on.

To continue to serve Jesus after his resurrection, they had to know that the
first is last. The greatest is the servant of all. And Jesus doesn't want us to
miss this.

So in this case, he teaches through relationships, and then he brings an object
lesson, a child, into the midst of these disciples, and he says, "Be like this.
" It's interesting. As you read how Jesus uses the illustration of a child to
teach us about greatness, he teaches two things, two specific things from the
example of this child.

He teaches us to become like a child in the other gospels. And here he teaches
us to welcome this child, to become like a child, and to welcome this child, to
become like a child. What does that mean?

To become like a child. If I had to say it in three words, it would be these
words, "Depend on God. " What can you and I learn from a child about the kind of
humility that manages our ambition, that looks to true greatness, that allows
the first to be last?

Depend on God. Children have different facial features and backgrounds and
personalities, but at the core, they've got one thing in common. They have to
depend on someone else, on their parents, other adults in their lives.

They've got to depend on someone for food that's put on the table. They've got
to depend on someone for shelter in their lives. And I don't know if you've
noticed, most children are totally fine with this arrangement.

They don't agonize over asking their parents for things. A child doesn't think
for days or weeks, "Should I ask them? Shouldn't I ask them?

Will it depress them? Will it make them angry if I ask them? " In fact, most
children don't think about it at all.

They just see their parents as the source, the God-given source for meeting all
of their needs. And you and I have that kind of relationship with God. Not a
selfish relationship, a depending relationship.

I depend on God. That's what Jesus teaches us about becoming like a child in the
other gospels. But here he focuses on a second thing.

Not only do we need to become like a child, but taking him in his arms, Jesus
said, "Whoever welcomes one of these children welcomes me. " We also need to
welcome this child. That's the focus of Mark.

Let me say it this way. Servants have time for children. Lords don't have time
for children.

Bosses don't have time for children. Presidents don't have time for children.
Rulers don't have time for children.

Servants have time for small children. Servants have time for God's priorities.
Kings don't.

Princes don't. Servants do. Kings and princes have their own priorities.

But as a servant of Jesus Christ, that means that my life is about his
priorities. And if you think that isn't hard sometimes, you haven't tried to
live it. I've got priorities I'd like to live out sometimes.

I've got things I'd like to do in my life sometimes, but to be a servant is to
put those things last and put him first. In God's economy, the way that he works
in my life and in your life, and in the view of eternity, it is not important to
God that you be number one on some spiritual totem pole right at the top where
everybody can see you. He'd rather see you welcoming a small child any day of
the week.

Jesus says this is what it means to serve me. Welcome this child. Here's what's
happening here.

Jesus is teaching us about true greatness. I'd like to live a great life. I
guess you would like to live a great life also.

And there are a lot of opinions out there about how to live a great life. Most
of them have mixed into them somewhere the idea that other people have to call
you great. Other people have to notice you.

Other people have to see you as above somebody else in some way. Even above
somebody else as a servant. Oh, they're the greatest servant I've ever seen.

How do you live a great life? Jesus teaches us here about true greatness. What
is true greatness?

True greatness is depending on God. What is true greatness? True greatness is
welcoming a child.

As we take a minute today to talk to God, I'd like to talk to him together about
helping us to see, like we've never seen before, what true greatness is. As you
talk to God today, just say, "Jesus Christ, there's lots of reasons why I want
to put myself first. There are a lot of reasons why I want to be at the head of
the pack and not behind.

There are a lot of reasons why greatness is all about my definition. And if I'm
going to begin to redefine greatness, true greatness is depending on God, true
greatness is welcoming a child. If I'm going to define it, Jesus, like you
define it, I need you to do something in my heart.

I need you to change my heart. Instead of my priorities being what I live for
all the time, help me to begin to understand in a way I never have before, your
priorities, your life, the kind of life that you want to give me. God, Jesus, I
pray that at the beginning of that, you'd help me to see that other people's
opinions of my life don't need to drive my life.

That your invitations in my life are what can, in an incredible way, develop and
guide my life. Lord, help me not to be a slave to the burden of other people's
opinions. Help me be free to live out the life of this invitation that you've
given me.

I want to live a great life. I want to live a life of depending on you. I want
to live a life of welcoming a child.

I need you, Jesus. I need you to teach me how. I ask it.

I ask you to teach me how to do this. In your name, amen.