 Good afternoon pastor David. How you doing John? Welcome everybody to unfiltered a random moment with pastor David today pastor I'd like to share a little bit about what your message is going to be about on Sunday Just a brief context is there's a couple of questions. I'd like to ask you Regarding our love for Jesus, but yet how that can spill over to a selfish ambition even expecting special favor from the Lord In your previous study last Sunday, you were just You taught us about the rich young fool and It came down to Jesus telling his disciples that you cannot serve two masters or even that young man as they're asking what They're asking about that and Jesus was clear on that and then Right after this as we see in our coming up study is that James and John now are Asking the Lord for special favor because they're asking that we want you to do for us. Whatever we ask Can you share a little bit pastor about the danger of first of all speak? Seeking special favor from the Lord, but how that can lead to selfish ambition. Well, I think that selfish ambition can prompt a request like that because When you look at the account as it's given to us by Matthew Matthew points out that the one who is actually Making the request is the mother on so at Salome who is making a request on behalf of her two sons James And John and then when you begin to look at the different portions of scripture that speak related to Who this Salome is it turns out that she is the sister of Mary the mother of Jesus Which would make James and John his cousins and so what they're asking for is favor But it's it's a special request related to the fact that they're related to him And so you see that kind of thing taking place and that's why not that's not the only reason why but that's a reason why the other apostles including Judas got upset that they were asking for a special position in the kingdom of God and so in this The study this Sunday, we're going to be looking at you know the context of that How could Jesus have just told them the third time as recorded in Mark that he's going to suffer die he's going to Go through all of this pain and betrayal and yet the thing that's still remaining on their mind is How can we find special favor in your kingdom now and part of it one commentator pointed out Would have been their love for Jesus. We want to remain close to you as close as we can closer than anybody else We'd like to be seated on a right-handed on the left hand, you know places of honor and and all And so commentator was saying you know this this is a desire that believers ought to have is to be close to Jesus And yet they're using an unfair advantage to try and secure for themselves a position That really was being fueled more by an ambition than for a real love Because if they were really sensing and loving Christ sensing his words and loving him They would not have been thinking at that time of their positions. They weren't they wouldn't have been considering Asking such a question when he had said I'm going to die. I'm going to be betrayed. I'm going to be tortured and So the other apostles who who are aware of this request get indignant And that's when Jesus tells them what true greatness is and I think that in our day true greatness is measured by the wrong Things especially in the church, you know people in the church think that that that many think that positions in the church or even the senior pastor will call him considers himself the most special member of the church in all which is an upside-down way of seeing what Jesus spoke of He said the the people of this world the Gentiles lord it over people they they They have a system that that pushes down the humble and elevates those who are proud and to use that as your metric for what is Good or what is appropriate or right in the kingdom of God is to misunderstand what a what a servant is a Greatest in the kingdom is the one who sacrifices and And I think that this is a timely message not necessarily only for the members of our church It's a timely message for those who are in leadership those who lead churches who who seem to think that the more bodies They get into their their church service the greater they are and they always have people who will prop them up Saying oh you are so good you walk on water. You're so important and it's just destroying the church Because we have made pastors into celebrity and when you make a pastor a celebrity and help him to to Consider himself some great person. That's very dangerous in the body of Christ. It's very dangerous in the kingdom of God So that's the lesson Jesus is teaching his men So as Christians we're to seek not the favor of God in terms of what we can get from it But to seek his favor in a way that will bring glory and honor to him Well, you know Paul called himself a slave of of the Lord who is a policy was Paul were servants You know when you have the right estimate of yourself when you realize that you've been saved to serve when you You come to maturity to understand that the favor of man doesn't match the favor of God Then it helps to to change the direction of your life the path that you're taking Again, you know, I've I've seen the tragedy of I've too many men who've been elevated to a position almost of Perfection and their their churches Are the worst for it? Because they've created an idol and they don't even know and they sustain it by their Agulation and their constant praise and they're boasting about and John You know, I was blessed to have a pastor named Chuck Smith who had an amazing ministry Many churches were birthed from his Great works were done, but Chuck never Never gave the impression that he thought he was something important I remember when in the early days when I was speaking to him and I would say pastor Chuck He said, you know, I'm Chuck, you know He didn't even like it when I referred to him in that way He wanted to be a brother and he told me they said I'm your brother and he was but he was also a man who gave to me Lessons in humility because he truly was a shining light in the kingdom of God But he never used that to his advantage He was asked to be an advisor to presidents But he said my my role is to care for my my sheep to love my sheep to minister to my church And he those kinds of ambitions that many seem to have today to be some mover and shaker in this world Maybe we need to remember the lesson that we'll be looking at this Sunday Amen, and we do want to invite you guys to come out and join us 10 8 30 and 10 45 this Sunday and you again as you mentioned will be going through mark chapter 10 I like your title kingdom greatness So invite your friends and family to come out and join us We look forward to having you and this evening pastor We have our church is hosting a national day of prayer at 7 p.m. In the chapel and we'll be praying for various things So I want to invite you guys to come out and join us as we even have a time of worship And so pastor, thank you so much for sharing guys. Thank you for tuning in God bless you. We look forward to seeing tonight and on Sunday in our morning services. God bless you guys