SERMON

[edited for readability]

 

This is Hillside, and we’re really simple. We love to make much of Jesus Christ because we believe that Jesus really, truly does change everything. It’s the way He changes everything that really blows my mind. If you read the bible you would see that He changed everything by becoming a lowly servant. That’s what we’re going to kick off and look at in Mark. Jesus emptied himself, humbled himself, and became the greatest servant this world had ever seen. In and through becoming that servant, He literally changed everything. Let me read it to you and then I’ll jump in and we’ll do it together.

 

Mark 1:1-8 God says, Mark writes:

1 The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

2 As it is written in Isaiah the prophet:

“Behold, I send My messenger ahead of You,

Who will prepare Your way;

3 The voice of one crying in the wilderness,

‘Make ready the way of the Lord,

Make His paths straight.’”

4 John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 5 And all the country of Judea was going out to him, and all the people of Jerusalem; and they were being baptized by him in the Jordan River, confessing their sins. 6 John was clothed with camel’s hair and wore a leather belt around his waist, and his diet was locusts and wild honey. 7 And he was preaching, and saying, “After me One is coming who is mightier than I, and I am not fit to stoop down and untie the thong of His sandals. 8 I baptized you with water; but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

 

Now let me jump in. Kicking off new books is always hard. [It’s a] big hill to climb. I’m going to ask you one question over and over and over for this next year: How do you define greatness for your life? See, all of us have defined what we perceive or think greatness is and that’s what you’re pursuing today. So my question is; how do you define greatness for your life? Because that’s what you’re going to chase after. Now let me get into that… I’m going to peel this apart and show you how great God is. Let me give you some big theological themes so that as we walk through, you’ll understand it. If you read straight through the Bible you’d see that there’s no one like God. He is definitionally great. He’s awesome. There’s nobody like Him. The small theological picture that you and I are going to struggle with, even today, is this: sin separated us from the Great One. I’m going to say this again: sin separated us from the Great One. Sin separated me from the One who is Great. Therefore, I function day in and day out even now with deep levels of insecurity because I know I’m not great. You know I’m not great and I’m afraid you might say I’m not great. And how un-great would that be, Amen? So all of us walk around with this insecurity because we long to be great. We were made to be connected to the Great One but sin separated us. So we all bounce around in insecurity and fear that we won’t be great. Our sin has driven us (this is why most of us function in a performance mentality) [to think] we’re only as good as yesterday’s performance. We have to prove how great we are day after day and that’s exhausting, isn’t it? Day after day, functioning in this insecurity, separated from the Great One, trying to prove that we’re great.

 

What the gospel says, what Mark is going to outline, is this: (It’s life changing y’all. It will set you free.) Jesus comes to show us what true greatness is. He humbles himself, empties Himself and He becomes a servant. He defines what true greatness is. in fact, that’s the whole theme of Mark. Do you want to be great? Do you want to live a truly great life? You want to be great in the kingdom of God? Learn to be the servant of all. Isn’t that amazing? Jesus comes and turns this world upside down.

 

This is the theme that Mark’s going to put forward week after week. The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many. Christ’s life in you is going to lead you to serve. You’re not going to be content, you’re not going to be satisfied unless you’re serving and pouring your life out. I’m going to call you to serve in many ways this year. Not because I desperately want people to be busier. I don’t, but I know the life of Christ in you longs and desires to serve because that’s a great life. You and I have happened to grow up in a society that says, “no, to be great means to be served.” The church is going to function in the lost and fallen broken world and we’re going to show what true greatness is; serving and pouring our life out, serving one another, serving our spouse, serving society, serving our Savior, serving the saints, serving sinners. And we’re going to live great lives for the glory of God. I’m going to walk you through the first eight verses and show you how well God has served you.

 

This is totally amazing. God has served you really well. I’m going to show you how he served you and has given you a simple gospel. It’s not that complex – it’s very simple. He’s given you a simple guide. He’s given you simple directions. He’s given you a very, very simple way to walk in this world. Let me show you the simple things that God has given you to serve you really, really well. Start out with verse one:

“The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.”

 

Now for those of you who are here who aren’t Christians and think the Bible is incredibly complex and confusing, I want you to know how simple it is: The Bible is one book, that tells one story, about one God, who has one plan, to send his one son, to provide one way of salvation for whosoever would believe. Totally simple book. It’s amazing to me how simple it is and this book is all about good news. That’s where Mark jumps in. He says, “I want you to know that this book is all about good news.”

 

Here’s something that’s totally astounding. You know that God had every reason to give us bad news today? And He would have been totally fair and doing it. He could have showed up and said, “Dave, you’ve been weighed and measured and found wanting…and I’ve got some very bad news. I have to condemn you and judge you, and send you to hell for all eternity.” And He would have been just in that, but He didn’t. This whole book tells the story of how this God who loved us so much that He sent His son to pick up the tab for us. Has anybody ever been to a restaurant and somebody picked up the tab for you? Isn’t that awesome? It doesn’t happen to me a whole bunch but it’s happened a couple of times. I’m sitting there eating my breakfast tacos, finishing my coffee, having a meeting… We go to pay the bill and the lady says,

“Somebody picked up your tab!”

“That’s amazing! Someone likes me! That’s cool!”

That’s good news right? Then I’ll ask,

“Did they tip?”

“Yes they tipped.”

“Even better news! I don’t even have to tip! What a great day.”

That’s the message of the gospel! It’s a simple message – God sent His Son to pick up your tab, eternally. This One who knew no sin, became sin for you so that you might become the righteousness of God in Him. It doesn’t get any greater than the gospel. I can camp out here for the rest of the year, for the rest of my life, because it doesn’t [get any greater than that]… It’s that good.

 

Let me talk about how we twist it up in society because we’re insecure… Do you know that even in the church, much of our lives are spent trying to prove our worth to God? There are many [people] here this morning who are trying to be ‘very good’ and ‘trying to do more.’ [They say,]

“I’m starting foundations! I’m very busy, very busy doing a lot of good things to prove to God how great I am.”

That’s not the gospel. That’s not the good news. The good news is not ‘try really hard to be great and prove to God how great you are by great things you’ve done.’ Listen, there’s nothing wrong with the foundation you started, right? But you can reject the Gospel by trying to do good things to please God. In essence, you’re trying to one-up God. How lame is that?

“God, I understand the gospel. This is great news. Jesus the Son of God came, born of a virgin, lived a life without sin, was crucified in my place for my sin, was buried, defeated death, rose again, offers forgiveness, reconciliation, redemption to all who have come to him, ascended to heaven, is coming back…I understand your story is really good – but I started a foundation to spay and neuter cats. I do great things too.”

Isn’t it lame to try and one-up God? When you take Jesus’ story and [compare it to] your [own] story… See, greatness is not measured in what you do for God. Greatness is measured in your response to what God has done for you. And we can totally rest in that! Salvation is by grace, through faith in Christ alone. I’m pleasing to God this morning by simply showing up and saying,

“I just want to respond to and worship everything you’ve done for me, so that my life flows out in gratitude, not guilt.”

You see, guilty Christians make horrible witnesses, Amen? It’s awful.

“Come be as guilty and grumpy as I am.”

That’s lame. Lame, weak sauce.

 

He starts out: simple message, simple gospel; Greatness is not measured in what you do for God. Greatness is measured in your response to what God has done for you. It gets [even] better from there. Mark’s a young guy. He’s just gotta get after it. He’s like, “Where do I start the story? I’ve just got to jump in.” So he skips Jesus’s birth. He skips all the narrative and says, “Let me just grab something from Isaiah and we’ll take off with this.” Verse 2 and 3,

2 As it is written in Isaiah the prophet:

“Behold, I send My messenger ahead of You,

Who will prepare Your way;

3 The voice of one crying in the wilderness,

‘Make ready the way of the Lord,

Make His paths straight.’”

 

God has not only given us a simple gospel simple good news he’s given us a simple guide. Go back to verse two… watch this. I want you to see it I want you to underline I want you to circle it. If you highlight a highlight star by it. Watch this “as it is written in Isaiah the prophet.” So Mark goes back like 800 years and says “Where do I want to start this story? I’ll start with as it is written…” Do you know that God has totally telegraphed everything that He’s going to do? He’s totally laid it out there for you against all best practices and military strategery. He’s totally laid it out there. Can you imagine having an enemy that wanted to defeat you and you go ahead and you detail and outline everything that you’re going to do because you know that you’re so unstoppable, unquenchable, unending, that you totally outline everything that you’re going to do? Ok I’m going to come at this from a different angle…

 

Let me tell you why I didn’t get a whole bunch of ‘Amens’ on that. Most of us are trying to write our own story about our own name, own fame, and own glory. So we get up everyday and we just grind it out. We’re just trying really hard to write our story about our name, our fame, and our glory. When stuff doesn’t work out… (because it’s very hard to conquer the world, Amen? Many people have tried… a lot) and that’s what we try and do with our own story.

“I’ll get it done. I’ll figure it out. I’ll become very wealthy and write a great story about myself.”

And it makes you very grouchy-grumpy, right? Irritable bowels- the whole thing, it’s just a mess. And I wish we would stop, but we keep trying to do it…

“I’ll get it done…”

Then relationships fall apart. Your wife doesn’t like you, your husband doesn’t like you, your kids don’t like you. Your finances fall apart because you’re overspending, overeating. Then you’ll come to see me.

“Dave, things aren’t going well. My wife doesn’t like me, my kids don’t like me, I’m overeating and overspending and life is really horrible”

And I’m going to say,

“Well tell me about who God is and how He made himself known through His Son who indwelled you through the Holy Spirit and empowers you to be a witness to tell His story about His name, His fame, and His glory.”

And you say,

“Well Dave, I mean, I believe. I believe.. I just don’t like the whole “church thing” you know? Church has hurt me and I don’t like religious people. So I believe… I’m just not really that into this whole religion thing.”

So I’m going to tell you, (and this is why I’m potentially the worst counselor on the face of the earth, that the world has ever known.) I’m going to say,

“OK, you came in to talk to me about a troubled marriage, overeating, overspending and things aren’t going well. I’m about to make your life a whole lot worse because if you don’t know that it is written – If you don’t know that God is in sovereign control, working out all things according to the counsel of His will, (ref. Ephesians 1) If you aren’t absolutely convinced that God absolutely has this whole thing buttoned up, beginning to end, then my full recommendation to you is that you should freak out. Because your marriage and your kids, your finances, and your food are just the tippy top of the iceberg, bro. Do you know that you’re standing on a globe that’s made of carbon matter? And that globe, that ball, is filled with molten magma?”

Oh, you guys didn’t know that either? You go down 1800 miles and you’ve got molten magma and it doesn’t want to be down there. It wants to be up here. We call those volcanoes. Whenever there’s a volcano, you’ve got tectonic plates. You’re standing on one of those! There’s seven majors, a whole bunch of minors, and none of the plates get along. They’re all fighting (call those earthquakes) Earthquakes are followed by tsunamis. This ball that you’re standing on is spinning around at a thousand miles per hour on an axis (which is fine enough because we don’t feel it – the whole gravity thing. Love it.) But as it spins at a thousand miles an hour, it is rocketing around this ball that is glowing, blowing-up hydrogen and helium – a bomb. You’re going around that at sixty-six thousand miles an hour, yo. You bend a little bit this way, a little little bit that way, you freeze or burn to death. That could happen at any time.

 

This whole thing, this whole Milky Way, (delicious name – horrifying reality) flying through what we aptly call “space” at five-hundred and fifteen thousand miles per hour… And there are billions of billions upon trillions of different space matters and things that could destroy us, just like that. People ask me [all the time], I’ve had this conversation twice this week,

“Are you sad that the dinosaurs are gone?”

“No that’s one of the things I give thanks for.”

With everything you study and now know [about them], I praise God that the dinosaurs are now gasoline. That is a great thing, Amen? Life is tough enough without the T-Rex and Pterodactyl. I call that “death from above” and “death from behind”. Can you imagine… So, you should go home and say “Lord thank you for taking T-Rex out. Thank you.”

That’s it. Listen, that’s just the stuff that’s out there.

 

If you don’t understand that it is written. That God is so good that he is working out all things perfectly according to the counsel of His will… He calls me to come to Him, to rest in Him, to abide in Him, to enjoy Him, to love Him, and be loved by Him and to love others and be loved and known by others. We live in a world that is freaking out, melting down, and rightfully so because just about everything in this world can end you, can’t it? And it will end you, because death is the one reality. Mark says it is written… y’all… Greatness does not come from writing your own story about starting a foundation spay and neuter cats. It’s not about that. Greatness doesn’t come from writing a story about you conquering the world. True greatness is measured by understanding that Jesus has conquered the world and I worship The One who is greater than this world. That’s true greatness. Not in the story that I can write or that you can write, but in the story that Jesus Christ has written to fulfill exactly what is written.

 

God said, “Here’s my plan: Male child born of a virgin. Watch the line of Abraham, the line of David, the Tribe of Judah, watch Bethlehem.” He outlined it and He’s been carrying it out. And you can rest in Him. True greatness finds its rest in Christ Jesus. Now, watch where he goes from here. Mark 1, verses 4 and 5: simple message. It doesn’t get much better than this y’all.

4 John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness preaching a baptism of repentance…

((ref. Metanoeo) A change of mind… Quit chasing after sin and follow Jesus…)

…for the forgiveness of sins. 5 And all the country of Judea was going out to him, and all the people of Jerusalem; and they were being baptized by him in the Jordan River, confessing their sins.

Do you know how simple God has made this whole thing? Truly simple. Take your profession [for example] – I guarantee you it is complex. It is changing. It is multifaceted. You have to buy books upon books because the whole thing is [always] changing. Sin makes everything complicated and confusing. Do you know that the message of this book has remained steady and simple throughout the ages? Here’s the message: God is really super-duper good and He loves us. There is no one like Him. Where we rebelled, sinned, and walked away, brought foolishness and folly, death, damnation, and destruction into this world – God loved us so much that He sent His only begotten Son, who provided a way by His death on that cross for us to be reconciled to God. Will you just walk in truth, confess your sin and repent? That’s the message of the scriptures. Just walk in the truth. Confess. Say the same thing about your sin that God says. Isn’t that simple? You don’t understand how complicated life is, do you? Don’t you know that sin makes everything confusing?

 

It’s no longer easy for me to go get an ID card for my two-year-old. I go to get an ID card for my 2-year-old, my 4-year-old, my 6-year-old, my 8-year-old:

“Sir, we need proof that that your daughter lives with you.”

“Ex-squeeze me? She’s two. Where else is she… Are you suggesting she has an apartment somewhere? Because I’ve thought about that but I thought it was illegal. Those nights when she’s crying I’m like, “Get an apartment! It’d be good!”, but she’s not viable for the workforce yet, you know, child labor laws and all.”

“No, we just need something official.”

“Like what? I’ve got reams of stuff… Birth Certificate..?”

“No, we need mail, like a power bill.”

“Are you suggesting that we put the power bill in my 2-year-old daughter’s name? Because that seems unhealthy. Something about that seems wrong.”

“No no no. Like auto insurance or something.”

“OK. Good. Because this is getting better, my mind is not glitching at all…”

 

Sin complicates and confuses everything. Jesus comes and he makes it incredibly simple: Confess, walk in the truth, believe, put your faith in Jesus Christ. Stop trying to write your own story. Trust in Christ Jesus’s story. You’ll notice as we go through, greatness isn’t measured by how fancy or fluently John the baptizer spoke. Do you know that greatness isn’t measured by how fancy or fluently you can speak the gospel? When I get to heaven, Jesus isn’t going to say,

“Man Dave, you sure made that message fancy! Good job.”

That’s not the goal, right? That’s not what it’s about. So you can’t come and say,

“Well I stutter. I’m not very good at explaining it.”

He makes it so simple. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. There is none righteous, No not one, but God made Him who knew no sin to become sin for me so that I might become the righteousness of God in Him, (ref. 2 Cor. 5:21) and I beg you, I beseech you, be reconciled to God. I love you. I’m for you. Quit chasing after sin and writing your own story because He’s appointed a day in which He’s going to judge the world in righteousness through a man who He’s appointed heir of all things.

 

It’s not about how fancy or fluent you can make it. Greatness is measured by “were you faithful to the message?” John the baptizer was faithful to the message – Repent and believe. Watch what comes next in verse 6 because this is just going to strip our culture to bare. This is just going to peel it back. Have you ever wondered why Mark was all caught up with what John the baptizer was wearing? All of a sudden he busts in and is like,

“And here was his wardrobe and his diet. John was clothed with Camel’s hair and wore a leather belt around his waist.”

Which just a weird sentence and connective conjunction.

“Here’s what he ate. His diet was locusts and wild honey”.

All of a sudden, he just busts in with what he’s wearing. Let me tell you why: these were the clothes and the diet of somebody who was the poorest of poor. John the baptizer had nothing.

 

Isn’t that amazing? As you go through the scriptures, [we know] Jesus was the greatest man who ever lived. Matthew 11 says that next to Him, was John the baptizer. No one [else] was ever born like John the baptizer. Isn’t this amazing? That both of these men had nothing? I have more than my Savior Jesus Christ ever had. I have more than John the baptizer ever had. The two greatest men who ever lived had nothing. Literally. That’s what Mark is outlining here. See, here’s the amazing thing for me, in America we tend to judge greatness by what people have, where people live, what people drive, what people wear, and what people dine on. I grew up watching Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous. And I was like,

“Oh, to be great means to have all of this stuff… these yachts… all this crazy amount of stuff.”

Isn’t it amazing that the two greatest men who ever lived had nothing? You see, greatness is not measured by how much you have, friend. It’s measured by how much of your heart He has. That’s true greatness. That can change the world. Just to surrender your heart, your life, to Him today – It’s true greatness. To get down and say,

“Lord I’ve been putting my hope in stuff, in things, truly… I’ve been finding greatness in the size of a bank account. I check it and I check it and I get all wound up and freaked out about it.”

Isn’t that amazing? We ask [God] as American-Christians, “Give me more! Bless us.” I read through all the warnings in scripture… Young Timothy, ‘Flee from the love of money, flee from the love of money. Oh, that all kinds of evil stem from it and some have become shipwrecked in their faith…’ (ref. 1 Timothy 6:10)

“10 For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.”

 

Read through Hebrews 13:5:

“5 Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have,because God has said,

“Never will I leave you;

   never will I forsake you.””

 

Read through Matthew 6[:25]:

“For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on…”

 

He’s going to take care of you. Everything in the scripture tells me, “Dave be very, very careful because money can take you over.” You see, the greatness of your story, the greatness of your life, is not based upon what you have, but how much of your heart He has. And Mark sees that, and just says – look at John the baptizer. He had nothing and he wrote a great story about a great life totally dedicated to Jesus Christ. Let me ask you a question. On the last two points – repenting, confessing sin, humbling yourself, and holding loosely the things of this world; How many sermons do you think we need to hear on that before we just do it and repent and humble ourselves? Why is it so hard for us in America just to bow down and say,

“Lord I’m sorry. I’m sorry, I’ve loved stuff, I’ve loved money, I’ve loved this world. I know you’ve told me in 1 John chapter 2 not to love this world… none of the things of this world… but I’m addicted, Lord. I chase after it because I believe greatness and true happiness resides there. Will you forgive me?”

And to begin being a body that just repents, instead of trying to write great stories about collecting stuff… We make our lives about collecting spoons instead of collecting souls like Jesus called us to. Isn’t that ridiculous? And we can criticize the sermon and say,

“Well it wasn’t good enough. Maybe if the sermon was good enough I would repent.”

A great story is one that’s written in humility where we simply humble ourselves before our Creator and Maker. And that’s what He’s calling us to. Not to be a place we just come to church and listen to a message. What would it look like to go home and truly repent? Say,

“Sweetie, Let’s rearrange things. Let’s do things different so we can write a great story about a great God who loved us.”

Watch where he ends up… Verses 7 and 8.

7 And he was preaching, and saying, “After me One is coming who is mightier than I, and I am not fit to stoop down and untie the thong of His sandals. 8 I baptized you with water; but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

John had a simple aim for his life. That’s why I’m going to ask you over and over… How do you define true greatness? Because that’s what you’re going to be pursuing with your life. How do you define true greatness? See, for John baptizer, true greatness was not in what people thought about him. It was what people thought about Jesus because of him. Do you have any idea how much time we spend worrying and fretting and how much money we spend to try and control what other people think about us? You know, I spend good parts of my morning just repenting because I’m afraid of what people will think about me. I just have to get it out.

“Lord I’m sorry. I’m sorry. Would You root out that evil from me? I’m such a people pleaser. Lord, would You forgive me? Would You strengthen me? Would You grow me?”

Because greatness is not measured by what other people think about you. Greatness is measured by what people think about Jesus because of you. And this is John’s whole point.

 

I’m not worthy to untie Jesus’s shoe. That’s how low I am. I’m not worthy. I can’t do anything to change you. That’s verse 8: “I can dunk you in water…” John says.

“That’s about all I can do. I can function on the outside. I can dunk you deep, I can sprinkle you and dunk you. I can dunk you, I can drench you with water… That’s it. That’s all I’ve got. But Jesus is coming and He’ll change you from the inside out because He’s going to put his Holy Spirit in you. Give you a new heart, new passion, new direction, new devotion. He’s going to change everything and He’s going to do it through His Spirit on the inside.”

You want to know why I think 1,500 pastors a month burnout, freak out, and just quit? Probably for the same reason you’re afraid of people and avoid relationships and connection and community and small group. You see, We think that we have to have all the answers. We think that people look at us and say “give us the answers” and we try to have all the answers. Problem is – we have no answers… we don’t. And we don’t know how to enter in and serve people and love [them] and just be with them and point them to Jesus Christ, who has all the answers and truly can love them and serve them.

 

And so, instead of entering in and being in awkward relationships you just isolate and alienate [yourselves]. True greatness is not what people think about you. True greatness is not in performing or proving how great you are. True greatness is measured by what people think about Jesus Christ because they see Him in your life, serving and pouring out and loving. And this is what Christ Jesus wants to do in us. We’re going to take time now to celebrate the Lord’s Supper – Communion. We’re going to celebrate the greatest man who ever lived on the face of the earth. His name is Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the greatest man because He came and He humbled Himself and He became nothing. And He gave His life as a ransom for many. He left us an example that we might follow Him. He says whoever wishes to be great – whoever wishes to be great must become the servant of all. It’s what He’s called us to, Hillside… to make the Gospel audible by proclaiming, and visible by laying our lives down as living sacrifices. As we do that, the Spirit of God will work through us mightily. We serve one another, serve our Savior, serve the Saints, serve the sinners, and serve a society that desperately needs to know that Jesus Christ is worth everything that we are, everything that we have. Every single day.

 

Father God, thank you so much that You’ve loved us so deeply. You’ve made this whole thing simple, so that we can’t miss it. And I pray that You would realign my priorities and our priorities, that we might see and understand that true greatness is not measured in how well we speak, how much we have, or what people think about us. True greatness is measured in pouring out our lives like Jesus Christ did, so that people can see that Jesus Christ is worth everything that we are. I pray your heart would be pleased now, as we celebrate His life that was given for us, in Jesus name. Amen.

 

SCRIPTURE REFERNCES

Mark 1:1-8 NASB

¹ The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

² As it is written in Isaiah the prophet:

⁴ John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. ⁵ And all the country of Judea was going out to him, and all the people of Jerusalem; and they were being baptized by him in the Jordan River, confessing their sins. ⁶ John was clothed with camel’s hair and wore a leather belt around his waist, and his diet was locusts and wild honey. ⁷ And he was preaching, and saying, “After me One is coming who is mightier than I, and I am not fit to stoop down and untie the thong of His sandals. ⁸ I baptized you with water; but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

 

OUTLINE

• A Portrait of Greatness – Mark 1:1-8
  • 1 Simple Gospel
  • 2-3 Simple Guide
  • 4-5 Simple Message
  • 6 Simple Lifestyle
  • 7-8 Simple Aim

 

QUESTIONS

1. How do you define greatness? Who do you look up to and consider them great?  What was your big takeaway from this passage?
2. Where have you allowed our culture to define greatness for you? What would repentance look like in turning from that?
3. Mark portrays greatness in John the Baptist and in Jesus as being a servant. Where is Jesus leading you to serve and be great?