Servant Leadership Is Our Identity - Pastor Rich Wilkerson Jr.

If you got a Bible, uh, grab it real quick and turn with me, uh, to the Book of Mark, Mark chapter 9. I know you guys started a series last week called Formation, and I like that title. I like that concept, and like the building blocks, get inform-formation. What does God have for us? And tonight, I, I got a message on my heart, um, for those of you that don't know me, my name is, uh, Rich. And, um, about 7 months ago, this church, just like they're doing for Chino, planted us, uh, down in Windwood, and we started a church called Vu church out of this thing called the Rendezvous. And God's doing some really, really amazing things down in Windwood. And, um, man, you guys are all a part of it, whether you're there every week or not, you're a part of the great miracle that's taking place. But, uh, I'm, I'm here tonight because I'm really, really pumped about so many different things are taking place. I'm pumped for my friends Chino and Lydia who are getting ready to plant a church in Atlanta. Can we come on one more time? Can we give them a big round of applause and tell them that we love them? Amazing, amazing people. You know, sometimes it's like you don't realize people's contribution until they leave, right? Some like, I think we should just always have a culture that we just, we say honor as our call. We should just be good at making sure that we talk about people and love on people when they're right there in front of you. You ever notice that you go to a funeral, people are really good at giving eulogies, but not always so good at just loving on people when they're there. And, um, man, I think that as, as Chino takes a step of faith, faith, um, what you see is you see the deposit that he left here, and we're believing the best is in front of him, and we're grateful for him.

But I'm also here because, uh, we're just like six weeks away from Vu conference 2016. And, uh, maybe you have never been to Vu conference. You say, "What is Vu conference?" Vu conference is really just the best of what this is on Tuesday nights and Sundays, and we, we kind of take it down to South Beach for two full days to really encounter Jesus. And you know this conference started out of this meeting here on Tuesday nights, and from that, now we've got a church that we've planted, and this conference in the past was really led and run fully by Trinity Church. Uh, this year, Trinity Church and Vu church—that's kind of fun to say—are putting this conference on together. The Bible says, "One can put a thousand to flight, two can put 10,000 to flight." You ever, you ever noticed Bible math doesn't even make sense? What is, what does two put 10,000? Because in God's Kingdom, when you collaborate, you don't walk into addition, you walk into multiplication. And so I'm believing that this year is set to be the best year yet. And let me tell you something, the devil's not afraid of a big church; the devil is afraid of a united church. And when two churches come together, say, "We're going to put something on, we're going to die to ourselves, we're going to be the church, and we're going to lift up the name of Jesus," that's what Vu conference is about. It's about lifting up the name of Jesus. And I just want to encourage you, get registered. Every year is good, and every year gets gooder. I'm making up my own words, too. And not just that, but consider, you know, tonight you're here, and I got a message, and hopefully it kind of connects some of these dots as we're information. Uh, jump on board and be a part of serving at conference. Uh, next Thursday, Cinco de Mayo, uh, we're going to have virgin margaritas. I'm kidding. Um, Cinco de Mayo Thursday, we're going to be meeting down at Jose Middle School for our first Vu Conference Team night. You are invited. If you want to serve at it, come down, be there that night, um, show up. It's going to be a beautiful night. We're bringing both churches together, and it's a night we're talking leadership, we're talking service, and we're going to get you plugged in. So come down, be there. If you're saying, "I don't know where that is," just find someone who has Instagram and follow Rendezvous Miami, and you'll get all of the information there. Amen. I also want to say I think Joe and Holly Hepler are doing a fantastic, phenomenal job at leading, and I'm so proud of this couple. Come on, can you just show them some love tonight for all of their amazing, amazing work? Love these guys. You know, and tonight I'm here, I'm like, this is amazing, singing songs I never heard before, just like, who are these songwriters? Just, you know, just giving everyone a run for their money, and just a full house. You can sense the Holy Spirit. Nothing makes me happier than to see this place pump. So I came to preach. Did you come to get something tonight? Okay, good. Mark chapter 9, Mark chapter 9. Nelsie, I'm going to need you to shout even louder tonight. Okay, so you better just find it inside you'd actually enjoy this message. Okay. Mark 9:33 is what the Bible says. It says, "They," speaking of the disciples, "came to Capernaum, and when he," speaking of Jesus, "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 12 and said, "If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last and a servant of all." Verse 36, "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 the one who sent me.'"

The last few weeks, um, at Vu church, I've been talking, talking about our values, and our values at Vu church are the same values here at Trinity Church. I think it's always important to understand what it is that you value because ultimately what you value is what you'll do. You want to know what you value? That's where your money goes, that's where your time goes, that's where your energy goes. You wonder what you value? Just look at your credit card bill; you'll find out what you value. My wife, Nordstrom, she values it. Um, but what you value is where your time's going, it's where your energy is going, it's where your focus is going. So you better find out in life what are the things that you value. And as a church here, there's seven different value statements that we have: Jesus is our message, people all our heart, generosity is our privilege, excellence is our spirit, servant leadership is our identity, passion is our pursuit, and honor is our calling. Tonight, for the next few minutes, I want to preach to you from this thought: Servant leadership is our identity. I thought it was fitting for the formation series, and I believe God's going to speak to us. So if you're taking notes, you can title that on your note page, and we're going to jump into this text. We're allowing God to speak to us. Lord, we love you so much, and Lord, we're so thankful. God, we're thankful that we live in a big world here at Trinity Church. God, you're sending people out, you're releasing people, God, you're raising people up, you're developing people. God, miracles are happening all around us. God, I pray that we would be people, God, that have a healthy perspective and healthy vision and are able to see the great things that are in front of us tonight. Lord, I pray, God, that you would deposit something into people's lives. God, I pray for revelation, I pray for paradigm shifts, I pray for new perspective. God, I pray that we walk out of here, Lord, not wanting to be more like a man, but wanting to be more like Jesus. So Lord, help us to see the character and the heart and the love of Jesus tonight as we come around your word. God, we thank you for Vu conference. We thank you for what it means to so many of us and what it means to so many people outside of our local community. God, I pray that this year, Lord, you would show up in a mighty way, way. God, we look forward to the stories of victories, we look forward to the miracles, we look forward to the testimonies that are going to come out of those two days we spent on South Beach. So Lord, prepare us now for what you're about to do in six weeks. We honor you and we praise you. And if you believe it tonight, come on, all of God's people said, all of God's people said, come on. If you love Jesus and you know it, make a little bit of noise on a Tuesday. Amen. Whoa. Um, have you ever noticed, and have you ever, have you ever, have you ever, have you ever seen, maybe in yourself or around us, that you know, down deep, um, everybody down deep wants to be great? Yeah, like it's just the truth, like, like down deep you want to be great. You don't want to be average; you want to be great. Just, just think about it before you're going, "Like that's not me." It is you; it's all of us. Like my wife has never gone into a department store saying, "Hey, I'm looking for," let's say, "an average dress." She just doesn't do it. She walks in with the amount of money she's got and she says, "What can I, what's the best dress I can get for this amount of money?" You don't go to the movie theater and say, "Hey, what's the most average movie playing? That's the one I would like to see." No, you ask your friends, "What, what's, what's the best movie out right now?" You don't go to a restaurant and sit down and open up the menu and say, "Hey, what's the most average dish on the menu? That's that's what I want today." You don't do it. You say, "What's the best thing on the menu?" Why? Because down deep you were hardwired for greatness. Down deep you are hardwired to want and desire the best. We do this, I mean, isn't it, it's almost like American, right? We want to be first place. I grew up, uh, in a, in a pastor's home. In fact, uh, my dad's a pastor, uh, my grandfather's a pastor, my, my, my great-grandfather's a pastor. We don't know what the guy did before that, but we know we've already got trouble. Okay. And my dad, we grew up in a, in a, in a city called Tacoma, Washington, outside of Seattle, Washington. It's not a huge city, and when we were growing up, my dad was pretty well known in our city, and people would know him as the Reverend or, or pastor. And it must have been probably my sixth grade or seventh grade year. I was on the basketball team, and we were playing the all-boys Catholic school called Charles Wright. And I don't know what would come over my dad, but we were in the game, and I'd fouled out of the game, and, and somehow, even though my dad's a man of God, the greatness on the inside of him and the greatness that he was projecting onto his own son resulted in absolute anger towards a referee that he disagreed with. So the guy ejected me out of, out of the game, and my dad stands up and he starts to lay into this referee. I mean, Dad is going in, right? I mean, he's not saying anything profane, but I mean, he's saying stuff in the prophetic. Okay, he, he is, "Who are you, referee?" I mean, he's going off on this referee, and until finally I heard the words I'll never ever forget, "Pastor, you're out of here." The pastor got kicked out of the game, folks. I remember being so embarrassed, going, "What in the world? My dad is so embarrassing. I will never be like that." Don, we don't have kids, but we're working on it, but I do have some nieces. I went to my niece's swim lesson about a year ago. Not a race, not a race. We talk in practice, talking practice people, not a race, not a game, talking practice. She's two years old, swim lessons. She starts swimming. I don't know what comes over me; it's like the same Christian greatness. "Israel, let's go, girl. Find it, dig deep, you got more in you, you're the next Michael Phelps. Come on!" My brother's like, "Bro, what is wrong with you? This is swim lessons." I go, "There's other kids in the water, she's the best!" And all of a sudden, I, epiphany, I have become my father. You say, "What's the point?" The point is is that down deep we don't want second place, we don't want third place, we want first place. This is the side of all of us, whether you want to admit it or not, we desire to be great. The problem is is that so many of us, we don't know the pathway to greatness. Mark chapter 9 is this beautiful, just about six or seven verses, but such beautiful revelation and such paradigm-shifting knowledge that you catch that if you will allow it to permeate your heart, it will transform the rest of your life. The Bible says that Jesus, he's with his disciples, that's his posse, his crew, his entourage, whatever word you want to come up with, his guide, okay, and they're headed to a city, and as they're on the city, they're on this, they're on this road trip, and on the road trip, somehow the disciples, they start to have this argument, and the argument is, "Who is the greatest among us?" Now, just for a moment, I just want you to catch this principle, okay? They're on a road trip. Did any of you actually, like, grow up in a home that you actually took road trips, like, pack up the minivan and let's do a road trip, you know, like we're going camping? I don't want to go camping. You know, I don't know if you ever been on a road trip, but we would go on road trips. My brothers and I, we would get into the biggest arguments, and there would always be this constant, tedious, overwhelming question to our parents, "Mom, Dad, are we there yet?" Why? Because a lot of people, they want to arrive, but very few people want to take the trip, and a whole lot of people, they want to reach their purpose, but they don't want to walk through the process. So here's, here's the disciples. Think about this; this is silly, this is freaking silly. They're with Jesus. I don't care if you believe in him or not, he shifted time, right? Like your calendar, whether you're like, "I'm not even, I'm an atheist," cool, awesome, I get it, I understand it, but guess what? He still impacts your life. It's this whole thing called the calendar system, BC, AD. He's still messing with you today. Okay, so he's a big deal, but he, it's Jesus, right? Like King of Kings, Lord of lords, the Lily of the Valley, the Rose of Sharon, I mean, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the author and finisher of our faith, man, this guy's big, he's awesome. Psalm says he breathes stars into existence, hero of heroes, the man, okay, great. Yet somehow they're with greatness, but they're like, "Yo, what about us? Who's the greatest here?" Like, this is so freaking ridiculous. You, you, you've got Jesus in your midst, but instead of focusing on who's really great, you're focusing on who the greatest is over here. It's easy because we're like, "Oh, yo, I know, but that's like the Bible, those guys are stupid, we would never do that." What? Christians are all time for arguing and getting their eyes on silly, small-time, petty little things, things that do not matter. You know, I'm all, all for doctrine and theology, I love it, I love discussing the scriptures, but there are just some things that are not worth your time arguing about. I was at a conference the other day, and this guy comes, he's a pastor, he's like, he's like, "Pastor Rich, oh, we were wondering as a, as a, as a committee, um, what is the stance of Vu church? Are you guys in your eschatology, are you guys pre-tribulation, mid-tribulation, post-tribulation? When do you think the Rapture will occur?" I'm like, "I'm just trying to make it to Thursday, homie. I don't know, man. I'm just trying to stay married today, man. I don't know when the Rapture is going to happen, but I know one thing, that this city I live in, it needs a Rapture of God's love right now, today. Why don't we get focused on the one instead of getting frustrated about little things that Jesus was never getting frustrated about?" We get caught up in the silliest, pettiest, small-time stuff, and our churches are limping because we get people who've got the greatest among them, but then they want to wonder who's greater between us. What's your position? What's your title? When do I get a seat label? How come I don't have a solo yet? Don't they know my real spiritual gift is a microphone? I got a word, man. You want to put me in the kids' ministry? I don't think so. You don't know the gift on me. What? Now you're missing it, man. You're missing it. You're missing it. You know what I've learned? I've learned you don't need to get frustrated about things that Jesus never got frustrated about. You don't need to get offended for things that Jesus never got offended about. Jesus doesn't need to be defended; Jesus needs to be preached and proclaimed. So these guys, just get this picture, they're on a road trip, they want to arrive, they all want to get to being great, but they don't want to just walk the process out. So they're frustrated, they're confused, and they start this discussion, and they're unraveling. They're going, "Who's the greatest? I'm the greatest. You're the greatest. No, I'm the greatest." So they finally show up to where they're going, and Jesus is like, "Yo, guys, what were you, what were you talking about there on, on, on, on the road?" Real quick, when Jesus asks you a question, he already knows the answer. ITOW, it, my favorite in the garden, right? Adam, Eve, "Where are you?" We're hiding. Like, come on, that's the, like, if you're hiding, shut up. Okay. Jesus goes, "What were you guys arguing about?" And they said, "Yo, God, yo Creator, yo Master, Savior, we were wondering who the greatest is among us." Here's what I want you to notice: Jesus does not condemn their desire to be great. Some of you need to, you need to inhale this. Doesn't, doesn't condemn that, doesn't say, "What a silly thing to talk about," doesn't say, "You want to be great? That's the dumbest thing I ever heard." He doesn't say that, why? Because he actually put the desire to be great in you. But what has happened to us that we so often forget is that we live in this thing called a fallen world, that sin has come in and has corrupted everything. You see, the enemy, AKA The Devil, he's not a creator, he's a manipulator, he's a destroyer. He'll take great gifts that God has given us, and then he'll warp them, and he'll manipulate them, and he'll twist them, and he'll get you to a point where you go, "That thing itself is dirty." No, it's like sex. Sex is not dirty; sex is beautiful. All the married people said, "Amen." But what the enemy likes to do is he likes to twist the beautiful gift that God gave us; he likes to warp it, he likes to pervert it, so, so much so that the church now, we run away from the topic of sex because we don't know what to do with it. But really, God created it, he authored it, we've got the greatest definition about it. So what has, what has the world done? The world has redefined what greatness is, and I, for one, and you probably as well, I buy into the lie of the world too often. See, the world reduces the definition of greatness. What the world will say, the world will say, because of sin and because of corruption and manipulation, the world will say, "To be great means to be known." So the more known I am, the greater I am. You're like, "Not true." It is true. That's why when you put up a photo on your Instagram, you check it 98,000 times. Who's liking it? Who's liking it? Who's liking it? Why, why am I obsessed with this phone and who is, who's looking at it and who's liking it? Because somehow, down deep, because of sin, I am finding validation through your validation, and all of a sudden, I'm trying to live my life because it's like, the more known I am, the more popular I am, the more people like me, the more people see me, the more people notice me, that means I'm great. But friends, come on, you know this is like, this is a bottomless, vicious cycle of fatigue and tiredness. Why? Because living for the audience of those around you, you can please some people sometimes, but you can't please all the people all the time. I know it doesn't happen here at Trinity Church because this is a mature, Holy Ghost-filled, righteous, awesome, very Spirit-led, depth church, but like at Vu Church, you know, there's some guys that's like, they can't serve in the parking lot because somehow in the parking lot you're not going to be known. Serving in the parking lot, I know it doesn't happen here. You know what I'm saying? But saw tons of parking lot workers when I was coming in tonight. Um, oh, got him. Anyways, gotta get over, I feel like this side's loving me more tonight. This side, like, we don't know about you, are you guys sick in there or what's going on over there? And the, are they okay? Or that's, oh, that's the overflow. We still have that. Okay, awesome. But the reality is is if serving is beneath you, then leadership is beyond you. Here's the truth, the truth of the matter is is that there's no reason to try to live to be known and try to live to be popular and try to live to be celebrated by those around you. Guess what? I don't know who's going to like your photo, but I do know this, that God loves you every single day, and you ought to live your life trying to please one, his name is Jesus Christ, and he thinks you're pretty great. But the world doesn't just stop there, right? It's, it makes us go, okay, the definition of greatness is to be known, or, or, or the other path that it takes is the definition of greatness is to be better than those around me. So a lot of us, our scale or our standard to define if we're great is if I'm running faster than the guy next to me or if I've gotten farther than the people around me. This always is an indication of the spirit of religion, why? Because a religious spirit always lives life on the scale. They have scales for sin. "Ooh, I ain't that bad, I ain't kill nobody," you know what I'm saying? You know what I'm saying? No, but you're just as dirty, filthy, rotten of a sinner as the murderer. We all come to a level playing ground at the cross. So so many of us, what happens is we stop running our race and we start defining our greatness and our success by how much better what we're doing by the people around us. Yet the enemy to progress is comparison. Every time you compare yourself to somebody else, you're taking your eyes off of your race, what God destined for you to run. You're taking your eyes off of your process; you're taking your eyes off of your trip, and you're putting on to somebody else's. And here's the pitfall, because every one of these things has a pitfall, it unravels, the bottom comes out. This is the truth, and you know the truth is that you might be the best in something, but guess what? You can't be the best in everything, in every area. You're going to always find there's someone better than you, and what are you going to do if your greatness is defined by what somebody else is doing? What if they're better than you? That means you're not great anymore. Now you see, Jesus, he doesn't condemn the disciples for wanting to be great; he simply reroutes their pathway to being great. This is what Jesus says; this is like radical stuff, and this is some deep stuff. Some of you, it's going to be so deep you're like, "That wasn't much," and other you're like, "Wow, my life just got changed. Wow, I just found clarity. Wow, I just found some air I can breathe. Wow, I'm gonna be okay." This is what Jesus says. Jesus says, "Look, if you want to be great and if you want to be first, well then, guess what? To be great, you must be the servant of all, and if you want to be first, you must, must—key word—be willing to be last." He flips the whole

This is what Jesus does. Right? The book of Acts says that the disciples, they turn the world upside down. This is what Jesus always does. He flips the script. He says, “No, nothing wrong with wanting to be great. I put that in you; you just don’t know how to get there. And if you want to get there the right way, you have to go my pathway.” And my pathway says that if you want to be first, you must actually be last. And if you want to be great, you have to be a servant to all. It’s not about prominence; it’s about significance. The Way Up Is Down. You want to touch the sky? Your knees first have to hit the ground.

I’m going to try to explain this a little bit better. Um, let me get, let me get my boy Chris, let me—Nels, come on man, this is your night. Let’s go. Let’s get you up here, Gabe. You’re gonna come on up here. Luke Beach, that beard—that’s intense—you’re gonna come up here as well. Come on, stand up here real quick. All right, Chris, we gon’ put you right here. Put you right here. I’m—we’re going to do children’s church and adult church here. We go. Here, we put you right here. Look, you’re already like—you’re already like—just face—face the—face the audience. Okay, face the—How are you, sir? You doing all right? Your name, sir? Chris. Chris. Chris. Are you single? No. Praise God. Your name, sir? Gabe. Gabe. Are you single? Nope. Praise God. Are you guys together? Oh, I wasn’t sure. Okay, here we go. Too much, Rich. You know I’m playing with you. Okay, your name is sir? Nelson. Ooh, you got that bass voice from Boys Dem Men. Your name, sir? Luke. Okay, Luke, how are you? Good. How are you? How long does it take to grow a beard like that? Um, like 12 months. Wow, a year? A year. Yeah, a year. Should I pick up at 4 to 8 or 7:45? All right. Now, do you have to like condition that? I’ve always wondered this. Yeah, every day. What do—what do you use? Per plus—um, there’s like beard wash and conditioners and oils—that you—oils. We’re going to move on. Um, all right, so I want to try to illustrate this for a moment. Okay, so Chris—now I’m just playing with you, okay? Like I’m—you’re—you’re—you’re being a fictitious character. Okay, Chris. Chris is—is bought into the LIE of the world, and Chris is like, “Yo, I’m on this Rat Race. Yo, I got—I gotta be known and I gotta be better than everyone around me. So I’m G strive. I’mma work it. I’mma achieve it. I’m going for it. There’s the high life, the good life; that’s what I’m after.” And then—and then Gabe, he’s kind of like right here by Chris. He’s like, “Yo, Chris is like—he’s like kind of my role model. He’s the man. He’s got the car; he’s got the girl. It’s like he seems like life’s going good. Like I think that’s the way to go. So I’m G follow.” And then—then Nelson, like Nelson’s been coming to Rendezvous for a while, and like he’s been hearing Joe and Terrence and Chino and Holly get up here and preach the gospel. What the gospel always does is the gospel is like a time-release pill; it just unravels you. It just—it’s patient. So it takes time, and it goes deeper than just the outside; it goes to the inside. And so Nelson’s like kind of conflicted because he’s like, “Yo, I got kind of this worldly thinking, which is like I got to make my own path. I got to go hard; I got to make it.” But then at the same time, I’m like, “Yo, I need to rest in Jesus. I need to serve.” Trying to figure this out. So he’s—he’s kind of caught up here. And then you got Luke. Luke’s like, you know, he’s got a Jesus beard, so he’s the most like Jesus. Okay? And so he’s like, “Yo, I’m—I’m a Grace guy, man. Like everything in my life, it was a gift from God. And guess what? I’m going to run my race. I’m not trying to be better than anybody else; I’m just trying to be the best version of myself.” All right? So I’m just—I’m going to serve wherever I’m needed. It’s not about me. God, He’s the one who builds a platform. Understand, if God builds your platform, guess what? No man can tear it down. I would much rather be marked by God than to be marketed by man. Okay? So—so Luke’s like, “Yo, I’m just gonna follow Jesus.” But here’s what happens. I want to get the picture because some of you, like Rich, like you’re like a—and you’re talking—you kind of have me captivated, but that stuff don’t make no sense. First shall be last; last shall be first; like servant to all—it don’t make no sense in this world. Right? Right. So let’s just get a picture. You guys ever play Follow the Leader growing up? Follow the Leader? Okay, you’ve played it before. Okay, we’re going to pray for you, but it’s going to be all right. Okay, so let’s just play Follow the Leader. So Chris, he’s at the front, man, like he’s going through life, and he’s like the picture of success. Like he’s doing stuff, man, and he’s on this race, like he’s going, and you know these tweets you see and these Instagrams you see, it’s like, “Yo, eight days a week, yo, you know, work never not working, yo, you know, um—um, yo, 258, whatever this stuff is. You know what I’m saying? Hustle hard, you know, like—like making it happen. I’m striving; I’m doing my fourth quarter.” All this stuff, man. Chris is doing it. Chris is on this—he’s on this grind. He’s—he’s literally being seduced by success, and he’s got this idea in his mind that at some point he’s going to find himself coming to a place of contentment. But what he doesn’t realize is that contentment is not found in a place; contentment is found in a person. His name is Jesus Christ. It’s only a matter of time before Chris, even with all the trappings of the world, even with the prominence of man, even with being known, even with being considered the best, that he is going to be so tired and so fatigued and so worn out and so out of whack that he’s going to go, “Man, why do I feel so dry? And why do I feel so empty?” You say, Rich, “It don’t make no sense, though, because like he’s at the front of the line; he’s first.” Well, right, he’s first if you’re going to go the way of the world. And so what Jesus does is Jesus, He says, “I am your Source. I don’t debunk the desire to be great; I just change the direction of being great.” And guess what? You might feel like you’re at the bottom, but guess what? There’s room at the bottom. Guess what? You can be great because anybody can serve. And guess what? You might not feel like you’re great right now, but guess what? There’s coming a day where you’re going to reap a reward like you will never believe. Just hang on a little while longer. There’s room at the bottom. Jesus changes the direction. Somebody give God a big shout of praise. Come on, give these boys a big, big hand clap. When you catch the idea that Jesus is going in a completely different direction, you go, “Wait a minute now. I am first? Wait a minute. That’s not my goal; that’s not my destination; that’s not where my arrival spot is; that’s not my purpose.” That’s my arrival spot; that’s my purpose. Jesus, He changes the direction. He’s saying, “If you want to be great and if you want to go higher, you’ve got to be willing to go lower.” I love what Dr. King said. Dr. King said these words, one of the greatest men to ever live. He said, “Anybody can be great because anybody can serve.” See, when you catch this Revelation, all of a sudden what you realize is—is that you weren’t put on this Earth to just—just suck in air, but rather you understand that everything that’s happened in your life, every moment, good, bad, and ugly, it was there on purpose for you to be a blessing to somebody else. When you start to walk in servant leadership, all of a sudden the conversion rate is unbelievable. Why? Because when you walk in servant leadership, all of a sudden your wounds can become somebody else’s wisdom. When you walk in servant leadership, all of a sudden your pain can become somebody else’s medicine. When you walk in servant leadership, all of a sudden your breakdown can become somebody else’s breakthrough. Why? Because I’m not here for me; I’m here for everybody else around me. You say, “But Rich, that kind of sounds like God’s using me. Isn’t that what you prayed for? Didn’t you come to this altar a couple weeks ago and say, ‘God, use me,’ and now you’re mad at him because you feel used?” See, when I walk in servant leadership, every moment has a purpose. Every bump on the trip is just part of me getting to my arrival. And greatness is not defined by how known I am, and greatness is not defined by how much better I am than everyone else. Greatness is defined in my willingness to serve.

I love Jesus because He’s the Master Preacher; He’s Master Storyteller. All of a sudden, in the middle of this like beautiful little lesson, like He does, He like grabs this kid, you know, if you’re like reading the story, like, “D, why’d you grab that kid?” You know, she’s like, “Come over here,” and all of a sudden He starts talking about this child. And as you—as you read the story, you can go, “Yo, why is He bringing a kid into this lesson?” Starts saying, “Hey, if you really want to serve, you got to be willing to serve this child. For anyone who actually welcomes this child doesn’t just welcome me, but he welcomes the one who sent me.” He said, “Rich, why is He talking about kids?” I think it’s pretty simple. This past week I was laying out by a pool, and there was this dad there, and this Dad, he had—he had three kids, probably like four, and then two twin boys that were three. And I heard a comedian one time say, you know, like two kids, it feels like you’re drowning; three kids, it feels like you’re drowning, and someone threw a kid in with you. And I’m watching this dad across from the pool, and it just—it was this beautiful picture because you can see he gets up from his bed that he’s laying on; he’s going to get his boys out of the water. And you can tell he’s preparing himself to try to get these kids who can’t swim—they’re in water wings and life jackets—out of the water. They’re having a best time, but he’s like stretching; he’s like, “Here we go,” you know, like, “I got to get him out.” And so he walks over the edge of the pool; he’s like, “Cody, Cody,” you know, these are white kids for sure. And um, he’s like, you know, “Cody one, you know, one Cody out—out now. Cody one, you know, two. Cody two—two and a half. Cody, Cody, don’t you make me come get you, Cody.” Finally, Cody, you know, he’s four years old; he’s like, you know, practically—is it sugar or a demon? We don’t really know. And you know, he gets this kid out; he’s like, “Come here,” and he gets him out of the water, and he—he goes and he—he sits him down on the—on the bed. He’s like, he’s got one out of the water, right? He’s like, “You sit there, Cody. Don’t—don’t move. You know you don’t know how to swim.” And he goes back up to the edge of the pool, but while he’s at the edge of the pool, Cody runs up behind him—no life jacket—with a big G.I. Joe. He’s like—he throws it in the pool. He’s like, “Ha!” He’s like, “Dad’s like, ‘No, Cody! Sit down! You’re gonna die! You don’t know how to swim!’” You know, and he sits him back down. He’s like, “All right, Tommy, you know, Tommy out of the water, Tommy.” And Tommy’s like, “No, Dad!” He’s like, “Tommy, come on, we gotta go.” And so he—he wrestles Tommy, and he gets Tommy out of the water. He pulls his water wings off; he’s like sits him down by Cody as he puts Tommy down. Cody runs; he’s like, “Cody, get back over here, you freaking kid!” And then Tommy’s going—he like—Tommy get over here. Zach, I’m coming for you, you know. And he finally has Cody out; he has Tommy—like, “You guys don’t move,” you know. And every time he walks to the pool, one of these boys—they get out; they’re running—like no water rings to jump. He’s like, “Stop it! Sit down!” Finally, he’s like, “Zach,” he’s like—he’s full—it’s like 20 minutes into this process, you know? He’s like, “Zach, get out of the water; we got to go. It’s over, man. We got to go; we gotta go; we gotta go. Come on, Zach.” He finally goes and he gets Zach out, and as he’s getting Zach out, Cody’s back—Cody—back. And I’m watching like this scene unfold in front of me, and I’m like, “Yo, that Dad just saved those boys’ lives like 22 times literally. And all 22 times they never once said thank you. If anything, they got—they got angry—angry—frustrated.” I think Jesus goes and He grabs a little child to end His illustration because He’s wanting you to see, you know, what true service looks like; you know what true greatness looks like. It looks like when you will serve someone who can’t thank you, who doesn’t know how to honor you, who—my God—has no money to pay you anything, can’t vote, don’t know how to work the like button on Instagram. I had this thought; I was like, “Is this not the picture of Jesus towards [Music] us?” How many times have I gotten up from the chair going, “I’m going to swim,” and God’s like, “Rich, you don’t know how to swim.” I’m like, “Yes, I do! You’re so mean to me! You’re holding me back! I got a gift! Don’t they know I’m The Soloist?” God say, “Not yet. Sit down. Sit down.” He just keeps—he just keeps serving me without me ever even thanking. How many times has God saved your life without you ever thanking Him? Bible says that while we were yet sinners—you know what that word—look what that means, right? When you were cursing His name, when you didn’t know His name, when you were literally His enemy. Bible says that while we were still His enemies, God made peace with us. What’s He doing? He’s saying, “I came from high and I got down low to serve you.” And the reason why you’re still talking about me as the greatest man ever is not because I was the most known or because I was better than everyone in every area, but because I was willing to go the lowest and serve the longest. This is why at our church we don’t use the word volunteer—not a bad word—just too small of a word, but rather—Jesus, He says, “I’ve called you to be servants.” We believe the path to leadership is through servanthood. We believe that everything that we do, it literally is impacting and pushing the kingdom of God forward. Some of you, you walked in tonight, and someone greeted you at the door, and you thought to yourself, “Man, those people, they must not have very much time on their hands.” Wrong. They got the same amount of time as you, and they’re just as busy as you. They got kids that are crazy, but they said, “You know what? I’m going to come and I’m going to serve, whether anybody thanks me, whether anyone recognizes me.” Guess what? It’s not something that I do when I sign up for it; it is my identity. I’m wanting to be like Jesus. Servant leadership—it’s not something I do on Tuesday night; that’s who I am. Why? Because I’m called to be great, and I know the pathway to Greatness: to go up, I got to go down. To be great, I got to serve. Before we were called Christians, I don’t know if you know this, we were called the Way. I like that—book of Acts. They weren’t killing Christians; they were killing people that were part of the Way. Why? Because Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” So before we had this cool title—The Graphic, the haze, and the lights—we were just known as the Way. We were simply people that knew the Way, that had the Way, that had met the Way; we got the Way. Don Sh and I, two years ago, we were leaving Bali after a little vacation. We were in Bali, in the airp—airport, and uh, we’re in this International Airport, and nobody speaks our language, and I’m having a hard time trying to find my gate. And so I’m looking around; it’s me and Don Sh. I’m kind of frustrated, and all of a sudden, praise God, in the middle of the airport, I see this big desk; it says Help Desk in English. There’s this woman sitting behind the desk. So I walked over to her, so desperate for her help, and I walked over; I said, “Ma’am, I said I’m trying to find my flight; can you help me out?” And she didn’t just look at me; she just looked right past me. Like you ever—people kind of like, you know, like, whoa—you just threw some shade at me, you know? Like I’m like, “Oh, what—what do you do?” You know? Like you raise your voice. “Ma’am, uh, did you not hear me? In the name of Jesus, we don’t know where our gate is; can you help us?” And she just looked over the other way again. And I’m like, “You know, ma’am, we need some help here.” Somewhere in my antics, a fellow passenger saw us and walked over and said, “Sir, what’s going on?” I’m just trying to get help; I’m trying to find my gate. And so she started talking to the lady, and she looked back at me and she said, “Oh, sir, she doesn’t speak English.” I said, “Apparently.” And then she said, “And, sir, she doesn’t work here either; she’s just sitting behind the desk.” Fancy meeting you here. How smart was that for you to sit behind a desk that says Help Desk? Every one of you who call yourselves Christians, you are saying you are a part of the Way. And what that means to this world, it means that you are sitting behind a 24/7 Help Desk. And when people come to you and you’re not serving and you’re not ready to serve, it’s like they get there and they’re asking for help, but guess what? You don’t speak the language. It’s like they get there and they’re asking for help, and you’re going, “Guess what? I don’t work here today. I only work here some days.” Guess what? Not the truth. At Rendezvous—at Rendezvous, we got a bunch of people who say, “I don’t care who you are; I don’t care how big you are, how small you are; I’m a Help Desk. I know the Way. His name is Jesus. You need peace? It’s Jesus. You need hope? It’s Jesus. I came to serve all because I’ve been called to be great.” Come on, is the Greatness in the room tonight? Come on, is the Great in the room tonight? Somebody give God a shout of praise. Come on.