Erwin McManus | The Drive For Greatness

what a great night already yeah Wow great see you guys while you're standing let's pray father thank you so much for life for inventing laughter and joy for making us capable of experiencing such Wonder and awe thank you that before you spoke light into existence you knew one day there'd be our MV you are an amazing God and tonight we want to revel in the reality that you are the source of all pleasure of all beauty of everything that is good and beautiful and true and even when we lost our way you became the way and so Jesus we walk you Mew here and we know that you are not our invited guests that we are your invited guests and so tonight we we celebrate the life that you gave on our behalf God we pray for all of our guests and for everyone listening on the livestream the podcast we pray that you would speak hope into every heart the God that you would bring light where there is darkness strength to those who feel weak and I pray that tonight wherever people are even worried as day that they would discover the power of what you have done and to know the wonder that the ultimate battle has already been won we thank you Jesus and we pray in your name so you heard a lot of big announcements coming up and I want to sort of go back to a few of those because sometimes it takes us a minute to catch up to what's going on so we have Easter coming up it's going to be epic it's gonna be amazing last year we had over 8,000 people crash under this corner it was insane in one moment about 3,000 people were going in and out I don't I don't know how 3,000 cars found their way here and it was beautiful but this year we want to make room for more people and so we have decided to go Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Avalon and mosaic here and it's gonna be a great day so you invite your friends again I'm here it's the one time of year even atheists will go to church it's the one time of year you know that that person who's never opened they'll be open and the number one reason people give for not visiting a church is because no one invited them it's terrifying going anywhere when you don't know anyone so this is the moment to extend your your networks and to invite people and I mean kind of cool go hey come with me on Easter meeting at the Avalon that's that's kind of that's kind of epic and and and then you can actually when you're there on Friday night go hey I'm coming back on Sunday right for church you want to come and join me and then we're going to start a series after Easter called life's toughest questions and this is gonna be exciting time and the idea here is to actually engage with people all over the world with the questions that they have and so you'll have an opportunity through text or email Twitter or whatever social media medium is the best one for you and just you can send all your questions and I'm gonna start stacking the questions up and I'm gonna choose the subject for that Sunday based on what are the most profound and significant questions people have so this series is not can I ask the question the stumps Erlin the answer is of course you can I'm not that smart and this is not I'm gonna prove I'm smarter than urban I already can see that you are smarter and this is not the I want to ask the question for a friend serious don't ask the question for a friend go to your friend and let them ask the question ask the questions for you what I want to know will are one of the questions that you're grappling with what are the things that are keeping you from trusting God well what are the deep issues in your soul that have arrested you and held you back I want to dive into those questions and see what might happen through that series so we're going to start that series coming out of Easter and I I'm convinced that God's gonna use this to create a beautiful conversation across the city and by the way we're hard at work with the Rialto we just received the lease from them and so we're going to the details of that and when I say we I mean someone else and we're working through the lease is gonna be exciting there's so much work to be done but I want to clarify something we are not relocating to the Rialto in South Pass we are expanding so we're gonna stay here on the corner of Hollywood Boulevard and La Brea in until they tear this place down probably and but we're expanding to the Rialto and hopefully we'll be able to expand West as well and and we want to create opportunities for people who are searching for God to have as they can go and process the deep questions of life to not do it alone and I know if you're a person of faith you'll drive a long distance for an experience that has become meaningful for you but sometimes it's harder to bring your friends sometimes it's easier to bring a friend if the the distance they have to travel isn't as significant so we're going to try to solve some of those issues as well as the fact we can't grow here anymore we have so many different gatherings and we have so many people and even tonight we're basically standing room only we love that but we just want to make room for one more person just one more person the person you care about and we always want to have room for that one more but speaking of questions have you ever had someone ask you a question and it it just sticks to you you can't shake it I had to have them me last week after the gathering this young guy came up to me named Shane Reid and I love Shane I thought his mom and dad for years and years and I've watched Shane grow up and and Shane was always one of those savants you know one of those kids who just knew was a genius before he knew he was a genius although I think he knew at a young age because it was sort of obvious that he was smarter than everyone else and and over the years he's come to me and said I have a question I always made me nervous no no I know his 14 year old question is this gonna be profound and I don't know if I can answer it and sometimes when I would answer the question I look at him thinking am i right so it came up to me Sunday and he said I have a question I I said okay because I'm always gonna make room for Shane and and but I was nervous I was bracing myself because I knew this was gonna be some metaphysical question so question about God's existence was no question about the cosmos or some question about quantum mechanics but I was ready for all of those I can handle those and an a was for the asteroid crush I was not expecting he said is it wrong to be competitive and where did that come from but I knew right away that he was competitive because the only competitive people ask that question I mean let me let me be clear competitive people do not ask that question everywhere see if you're on the US Olympic team you're not asking is it wrong to be competitive if you're a gymnast you're not asking is it wrong to be competitive if you're playing the NBA you're not asking is it wrong to be competitive you wouldn't be there if you're still asking that question but what I have discovered is that in the church in the conversation around faith that question becomes a really significant question and more so now outside of faith in our culture we've created a not-so-subtle narrative that it is wrong to be competitive I think we have a lot of other complimentary phrases that we use to replace being competitive instead of being competitive you we should be collaborative everything so yes I want to be collaborative I don't want to be competitive we shouldn't be competitive we should be cooperative we like that too and what's happened in our culture is that if someone is competitive we place that in our minds as a negative attribute in that person's character they're competitive because they haven't fully developed as a human being they're competitive because well they're still barbaric they're primitive one day you're going to outgrow your need to be competitive and this is what's disturbing to me is that we admire those people who are the most competitive in the world we celebrate them we aspire to be them and yet somehow we have embraced this reality this these that it's not right for us to be competitive especially if you want to be like Jesus because everybody knows Jesus isn't competitive everybody knows Jesus is is chill and Zen and hipster and Jesus is not competitive at all so if you want to be like Jesus you cannot be competitive so here's the dilemma I'm just gonna be transparent with you tonight we were playing basketball on I don't know Friday or Saturday and and it wasn't going well I'm a me for me it was going well for others I was losing a lot and it's not an experience I'm I'm comfortable with and after having lost quite a bit and the way we play is we rotate and if you lose you go to the timeout section of the gym where you have to shoot by yourself waiting for your turn to be allowed to go back and play with the real players so this happened to me multiple times and I was processing it so I walked down the hallway and I saw a chair by itself and so I went and sat down in that chair because I needed a timeout so I sat in that chair just set by myself and you ever needed a moment you just need a moment by yourself alone with Jesus and my son Aaron walked through and he says what are you doing here by yourself this is stop he doesn't make eye contact he just walked through it he goes are you pouting I know if it counts as child abuse when they're in their 20s but I had thoughts this is exactly why I came to sit by myself so I got up because he disturbed my peace my Zen and I went over to the other side of the passport and tighten out section and she started shooting to try to get myself in the rhythm so they don't have to have this experience again and he but he couldn't leave me alone he has to come over to my section he starts shooting with me I don't want him shooting with me I want to shoot alone he goes are you mad I'm not mad here's no lawyer you mad at me is I'm not mad at you coz are you sure you're not mad at me and I said I'm not mad at you I mean I'm getting mad but I'm not mad at you right now and indefinitely he did something earlier in the day that I forgot he goes are you are you sure you're not mad at me about what I did earlier today said I don't even remember that so I'm not mad about that it was over but your madness I'm not mad because you seem mad I said all right you all know cuz yeah and I said I hate losing oh yeah I know that so no no no I said I know I hide it well but I hate losing because you don't hide it well you can no no I like it what I mean is I know I've hidden it well throughout your life when you were young I hid it well they don't like was though you never hid it well then either dad so I hid it well but I'm maybe I'm just tired of having to hide the fact that I hate losing yours well I don't know why you tried to hide it because everybody knows but you see but my dilemma is that I believe in Jesus and I'm trying to become like Jesus and and I have been subtly taught throughout my faith that you cannot be like Jesus and be competitive you have to be okay with losing and I used to say really nice little phrases like I don't hate to lose I just love to win I hate to lose and here's the dilemma I think that most of us have subtly given up what may be one of the most powerful expressions of being human and that's ambition see I want to destroy a framework inside of your soul that says it's wrong to be competitive and when Shane asked me is it wrong to be competitors that no Shane it is not wrong to be competitive and it's just that you need to be careful what you're competing for and who you're competing against in fact I would just encourage you do not benchmark yourself or compete in comparison to other people and said so so compete but don't compare yourself thousands because but isn't it okay if I want to compete against other people oh he's really competitive so well that's ok too but I'm sorry I was assuming something he goes what's that I was assuming you're going to be the best in the world if you're gonna be the best in the world there'll be no one you can compare yourself with you can only compare yourself to other people as long as you're not the best and so if you're competitive and you're comparing yourself against other people you can actually create a subtle deception you can make sure that you're always in a room with people less gifted than you and that way you feel great that way you feel like you're better than you really are and so if you're competitive but you're measures other people be careful because you may be choosing the wrong people to measure yourself against I don't know if you know this but I am tall do not let your eyes deceive you see I'm from El Salvador when I go home I go to salvo they don't even believe I'm from Oh Salvador like they don't live in Vienna is you're a baby I keep the other bodies sly Python oh no no Daniel what's a grande so you cannot be stopped adoring you're so huge today I'm a giant man from the land of Sun Sol with her my people roaming the hills here he might my mom ruined it for me if I could have stayed though Salvador would have been a giant I would have been the John reuleaux of Central America but nice just to bring you here to the land of the Philistines for their Giants here I just advertise I could have been a center could have been great could have been a champion if I could have just lived with short people I could have been to all if you spend your life competing against other people measure yourself against other people you may endanger yourself by always making sure yours too the rooms short people because the reality is that nobody not supposed to say to see the lies that we're all the same see there there there is a subtle socialism that is shifting into our culture that says we are all the same and we need to act the same and be the same and if you start standing out there's something wrong with your character and here's the problem if we're all going to be the same we have to meet at the lowest common denominator because we cannot meet at the highest one is if we're all gonna look the same if if we're gonna find some way where we can all seem as if we're all the same no one can allow their greatness to ever emerge but my family is so gracious they they gave me um a gift for Christmas and they gave me a guitar it's a beautiful guitar it's how I've always wanted and I used to have guitars when I was in college I would buy guitars rather than eat food and I had great guitars until I had children and then there they are thieves so they stole my guitars and I had no more guitars and and then something happened they became better musicians than me and so when they became better musicians I just sort of stopped playing and when I picked up the guitar I've reminded myself how bad I am oh wow and now I'll have a false memory I used to be better then going on though I wasn't I used to be younger but I wasn't better and I'm so glad that my lack of talent in this arena was not the feeling on their talent buddy I think a lot of us we want to feel like we're important by making everyone else laughs rather than elevating ourselves to more Seether I think there's a passage a moment in the scriptures that has given us a false perspective on greatness Matthew chapter 20 verses 20 to 28 it says then the mother of the sons of Zebedee came to Jesus with her sons and kneeling down asked the favour of Jesus now by the way I want to notice how this starts Jesus has twelve disciples and two of them are brothers John and James and they're the sons of Zebedee or translated the sons of thunder now love that would be awesome we had the sons of thunder and so the sons of thunder asked their mommy to go to Jesus to see if she could negotiate for them a place of importance at the seat of Jesus and so the mother goes out now if my mom went to my boss and said do you know how valuable my little boy is you see my mom would say do you know how talented little Urbanism he's just amazing if she did that without my knowledge I would be humiliated it would be terrible if your boss calls you and says and your mom came to see me she's wondering why I haven't given you that promotion but just worse than that she didn't even go on their behalf without them she went with them they were with her they were lined up behind her come on let me tell you it never works well when a parent tries to live vicariously through the talent of their children ask UCLA [Applause] some of you have no idea what that means but it has the meaning so she goes to Jesus and and Matthew describes what she does and kneeling down in front of Jesus I think this is important because she's taking a posture of humility as she steps into an act of arrogance nask Jesus her a favor what is it that you want he asked she said grant one of these two sons of mine that they may sit at your right and the other your left in your kingdom you don't know what you're asking jesus said to them can you drink the cup I'm going to drink we can the answer jesus said to them you will indeed drink from my cup but thus it is my right or my left is not for me to grant these places belong to those for whom they have been prepared for by my father yes you got to commend her because she believes that Jesus is the king you have to give it to her because she believes that Jesus has a kingdom worth being a part of and she wants the best for her sons I have two sons you have two sides I want one son on your right the other son you left Jesus you can choose I don't wanna be bossy here but I want them there at your right and your left and Jesus looks them and says you do not know what you're asking for and then he says do you understand can you drink of this Cup and and of course they don't understand what he's asking so they said yes we can and Jesus said to them you will indeed drink for my cup but to sit at my right or my left is not for me to grant Jesus says do you understand that you're asking for a place of greatness in my kingdom and in my kingdom the level of greatness will be determined by the level of sacrifice are you ready to bear the level of sacrifice necessary to have this level of greatness see I think that we've been seduced by a mythology of greatness because we've seen greatness and we see it so often and it looks so easy we see the best in the world do what is most difficult in the world and they make it look as if it's the simplest thing on the planet when you watch your mathematician do math it he makes it look so easy when you watch a world-class swimmer swimming she just makes it look so easy when you watch the best in the world shoot three-pointers you think it's so simple and so what happens is we have been seduced by a mythology of greatness that has translated into our belief that if we're actually great at something it should just come easily and because something is required of us more discipline and more effort and more struggle and more pain than we expected we assume that isn't the greatness God has given us but I want to suggest to you that the things that come easily for you are probably not the root of your greatness that your greatness is hidden underneath the hard work of discipline and determination and courage and failure and resolve and Jesus are you ready to take on the level of sacrifice this kind of greatness demands see Jesus was the greatest man who ever lived because he made the greatest sacrifice that has ever been made and then in verse 24 it says when the ten heard about this the other ten they were indignant with the brothers I love that they were indignant indignant here how dare she do that how dare he do that have you ever you ever want asked a girl out but you didn't have the guts and you even pointed her out to one of your friends and then he went astray out and she suggests you were indignant who does he think he is the guy who got the date that's what he thinks he is you ever wanted a promotion at work you're just trying to shine see me you're just I'm just gonna do my job and hope they see me but you don't apply for the job you don't ask for the job you don't step up and say I can do that job someone else does and they get that job and you're a bit indignant he's only been here six months who does he think he is asking for that job and he got it I'm indignant saving a lot of us are indignant because someone else had the guts to get what we wanted I think they were indignant cuz they were asking Jesus what they wanted and Jesus called them all together cuz he had to he says you know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them and they're high officials exercise authority over them not so with you you think you still have a wrong view of greatness you're measuring greatness against all you've ever known that I'm here to create a new way not so with you instead whoever wants to become great I have to stop here see what normally happens here is we read this whole sentence and we go right to the second half whoever wants to become great dot-dot-dot must become servant and so we focus on you see you need to become a servant and so we create this dichotomy this false polarization between being a servant and being great because oh it's wrong to want to be great Jesus told us we need to be servants but we missed exactly what Jesus said he never said do not want greatness in your life he never says do not be great he never said give up on greatness he says in fact what I'm gonna say doesn't even qualify if you do not desire to be great [Applause] whoever wants to become great what he's about to tell us only has meaning for those who want to be great I want to interrupt Jesus right here I'm just gonna complain I want to be great it feels kind of awkward saying that are you a little bit uncomfortable is it just me see it makes you uncomfortable so I want to be great we're not supposed to say that we're supposed to want it we're supposed to pretend we don't because humility is saying that we don't want what we want but Jesus says whoever wants to be greater but I am whoever you have to look any further Jesus I want to be great I don't the average I don't want to be middle the pack I don't want to eat runner-up I want to be great so whenever you have to say a place to me does it apply to anyone else in this room does anyone else here say Jesus I want to be great cuz this is the part of the dilemma that people without God aspire to greatness and we admire them we celebrate them but in some ways we envy them and we betray ourselves because we think we laid greatness on the altar of faith and it was never a sacrifice God called us together he called us to give up our ego not our aspiration whoever wants to become great that's me if it's you pay attention if you have this in your heart pay attention if you walked into this room and you believe there's something inside of you the world needs if you walked in this room determine that your life would not turn to dust without meaning if you're here in this moment and something burns inside of your soul and you know that your life MUSC out then listen to what Jesus has to say whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant so if you have the desire for greatness you will never understand the power of servanthood because they are not mutually exclusive they're interconnected and whoever wants to be first must be a slave just as the son of man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many I love this whoever wants to be first we're not allowed to say we want to be first we want we we have to pretend then we want to be third or fourth I know I followed Jesus down I don't want to be first anymore that's what I was like before now I'm happy being last look at me we have some great friends here from Ecuador they're here with us tonight and we went to dinner with them and we met them for the first time that was a conference and then Andres got me invited using his social clout to get me in as a speaker at a completely secular event where they wanted him to speak but he would not speak so he used that slot said you need to bring this guy and the people in charge are atheists or agnostics and they didn't want a pastor or a believer or a person who had faith but they respect him so they invited me so I flew down to Ecuador and I spoke this event and I mentioned this those of you who are here a while back so speaker before me came in front I think London and she talked about how you have an economic base available to you that you may be unaware because if you start filming your sex life as a married couple you can actually turn it into porn and that was the speaker performing and she was given two slots another one of the speaker's was the the head of the Kahn Film Festival they they had some of the most renowned speakers in the world and me and last night at dinner and this is so graciously he just smiled he goes I don't know if you knew this but they did surveys of all the speakers and it's so exciting you came and forth and what you yeah of all the speakers you were the fourth most popular speaker the event he said the other person came in seventh I don't care about the other person okay what seventh that's below fourth course I lost my appetite I can barely eat you want me to celebrate get it far Wow let's go for average let's be fourth best I love that it should be a motto for like adidas or or converse or Nike coming forward so I was sick to my stomach I came in fourth really so you have to understand they didn't wanna a believer in this you were your breakthrough like person and and it changed so many minds and hearts and oh that was like fourth lose yeah and now it's just over the door they want me to bring a believer every single time now for a cousin and and people just they've been reading your book and they've been responding orison and I just couldn't get that out of my head like that forth he thinks I'm gonna be happy with fourth you think this is something to celebrate like invite me back I come in first I can do better baby see we've been raised to believe that it's okay to not be the best in the world and so we keep putting ourselves in platforms where we are first because we're the only person in the room and we live in fear of stepping up and elevating into a room where we have to struggle from fourth to first Jesus said if you want to be first yes in case you're wondering Jesus if you want it yes precious and if you want to be second this doesn't apply to you because you'll under only understand what Jesus has done if you understand the desire to be first see Jesus says he want to be first and serve just as the Son of man did not come to be served but to serve leave his life as a ransom for many did Jesus didn't come in second he came in first Jesus what do you want to do when you grow up I want to be the savior of the world okay I don't think there's a degree for that what do you want to do if I be lifted up I will draw all men to me Jesus what do you want to accomplish I want to seek and to save that which is lost Jesus what's your aspiration that everyone would believe and have life see Jesus didn't come to be second he came to be first and so he became the greatest servant who ever lived because he has the greatest mission that has ever been lived out in the parallel the parallel passage in mark chapter nine says they came to Capernaum when Jesus was in the house he asked them what are you arguing about on the road what were you arguing about on the road they were walking down the road and they were having conversation without Jesus it says but but they kept quiet because I'm the way they had argued about who was the greatest Muhammad Ali had nothing on the twelve and I love the fact that Jesus what were you guys talking about nothing to say they were him quiet because they knew they were talking about something that shouldn't been talking about they're talking about who is the greatest now here's what I know even though I wasn't there if those twelve we're going who's the greatest see if Thomas said it's the obvious man it's Jesus okay okay if you don't outside of Jesus cause ain't right who's the greatest then see it is John and changed to say we're the sons of thunder Penta we don't even we we don't even compare when it comes to Jesus I don't even know if we should be talking about greatness in comparisons Jesus when Jesus asked them what were you guys talking about I don't think they would have been quietly said the reason they were quiet is because they were advocating for their own greatness I've experienced things like this I've come into meetings with some of my crew and they're talking just talking with intensity now what can I go well you guys talking about look what nothing right Amber's it's just a number nothing and I go no what do you guys talk about nothing see I know when it's nothing there was something but they don't want me in that conversation I just wanna let you guys know that I know that say we were they were arguing about who was greatest you know what I found if I go you're the greatest there's no argument there's only argument when everyone's claiming greatness for themselves they're arguing about who was the greatest and then sitting down see I think the physical metaphors are important Jesus who is the most powerful man who ever walked on this earth sat down beneath them sitting down Jesus called the twelve and said anyone who wants to be first must be last in the servant of all if Jesus had wanted to extricate greatness from our souls this would have been his moment they are human who was the greatest if Jesus wanted to kill our drive for greatness this would have been his moment but he did not he redirected it he didn't say what are you doing haven't you finally understood what I'm trying to say you should not aspire for greatness he doesn't say that at all he says if you want to be great if you want to be first then take this drive for greatness and channel it to be the greatest servant the world has ever known be like me see III I think they felt like it was a catch-22 all right I want to be great so if I want to be great what I need to do as they need to become the servant of but how long right after like I can serve for a while as long as I know that one day I get to be great then we think that the greatness is on one side of the pendulum and servanthood is on the other side pendulum geese because they don't understand this is not a pendulum it's a circle and if you'll go to the edge of servanthood you will find yourself standing on the brink of greatness and [Applause] and it's I I think this is an anemia that's killing the soul of the church because we think that when you come to faith you need to advocate the pursuit of greatness you need to give up on such primitive drives as competition I mean when I wrote the artisan soul a few years ago I was really excited I mean was nominated for five awards a 1/3 and that was also but it lost to and and I can't shake that and I know that it was like a finalist and it's an honor to be nominated it's not it's like you just let me know that I almost want thank you so much and and and they'll already send me letters you almost won this is the book that one it's not your book but your book lost to this book now I know that there are thousands of other books that lost from a further distance but I lost real close and I'm supposed to be happy about that but I'm not anybody here's the difference see I could go oh I need to write a book when bad writers are writing a I need to make sure I write a book when no good writers are publishing because if I'm going to be the best I need everyone to be a little bit worse than me well I can celebrate that there is a standard has been elevated by someone who committed themselves to the craft and so that's the best of the best that's exactly who I want my life to be measured against cuz I want to be first because I want to serve the world with the bass that I have and somehow we've come to believe that if God's involved he's really okay with bad work he's perfectly content with mediocrity and he's comfortable with average and I want you to hear the language of one of the most competitive people in the scriptures God who personifies this you know it's David David I think maybe the most competitive person in the scriptures and in fact it's hard to talk about David not saying King David but before he was King David he was warrior David and before he was warrior David he was Shepherd David and before he was Shepherd David he was servant David and in fact when when Saul came to his father and said do you have any sons he brought all the sons except for David it was because one of your son's is gonna be king he's like him know him know him know yeah if any more sons he's like do I have any more sons than you imagine reading the story being David well I'm right here oh yeah there's this other son the other side they have Europe and the other one there's some of you here you're like me you're the one no one sees that no one believes there's greatness inside of you and because they don't believe there's greatness inside of you you stop believing this greatness inside of you and so then David is is tending his father's sheep and his brothers on the front line going to war but nobody wants to fight this giant in Goliath you know what David's job is to deliver cheese I love that you can do this you're you're right you are destined for greatness I'm a king oh no you're really like a cheese delivery boy I'm a warrior no no no I don't think so take this cheese to your big brothers you know to the men you ever felt like people have underestimated you and you just need someone to see you maybe the reason they can't see you is because you can't see yourself clearly had because this is what happens he comes to the front line he delivers the cheese he sees no one is willing to fight Goliath so he volunteers to die and in 1st Samuel 17 verse 33 says Saul replied to David you are not going to go out against this Philistine fight him you are only a young man and he has been a warrior from his youth but David said to Saul your servant oh listen to that not your king not your warrior not even your Shepherd your servant I want you to know who I am King Saul I'm just a servant and there's a job that needs to be done by someone who's willing to die your servant has been keeping his father's sheep not even his own sheep he's been keeping his father's sheep when a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock I went after it struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth like everyone does when it turned on me I seized it by the hair struck it submit oh you down and I killed it you're a servant sound like a serpent to you your servant has killed both the lion and the bear the uncircumcised philistine will be like one of them because he has defied the armies of the Living God the Lord who rescued me the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will rescue me from the hand of the Philistine insulted the David go ahead I love what he says go and the Lord be with you because we will not you won't be alone but you won't be with us do you do it David is saying you're serving see I was a shopper attending my father she's not even my sheep they're my father's sheep and a lion came and took one of the sheep now David was not comparing himself to other shepherds because I don't think other Shepherds did this saddening other shepherds would think to themselves well they're not my sheep or the my things of this is just the cost of doing business or I'm not gonna go get killed by a lion I just let him to have a sheep I've protected the rest covering my losses and no one was watching what kind of Shepherd are you when no one is watching what kind of employee are you when no one is watching what kind of human are you and no one is watching because no one was watching but that lie and it took one of my father's sheep so I went after it I grabbed it by the hair I struck it and I killed it and then there's a bear that I mentioned the bear there is a bear and that bear grabbed a sheep and I grabbed the bear and I killed the bear because that's what Shepherds do where I'm from not the other shoppers for this kind of Shepherd right here all right I can tell you this when David was killing that line and killing that bear he had no idea he was learning what he needed to know to be able to kill a giant but he was faithful where he was because he was a servant when he was a shepherd and he became a servant when he was a warrior he became a servant when he was a king and to many of us we want to be Kings but we don't have the courage to be warriors and we want to be warriors but we don't have the faithfulness to be Shepherds and we keep wondering why no one sees the king and the warrior and the shepherd Anastas because we've not yet become servants if you want to be first be the servant of all learn how to be fearless be the servant of all see if you want to learn how to overcome the fear of death and the fear of failure and the fear of man you're gonna learn how to live your life where no one is watching and you become what everyone else will want to watch that used to be the servant of all no one saw David kill the lion except God then one saw him kill the bear now me if I killed that lyin I think I would probably skin him and be wearing my lion suit the next day with my lion hoodie up now I wouldn't say anything I'm too humble for that I just wait somebody says where'd you get that lion I'm glad you asked cuz yesterday there was a lion the thought he could have my father's sheep but didn't know that I'm David so I'm wearing him that was just being Tuesday because I'm Friday night I'm wearing my bear it's Friday night is date night where my bear what happened your lion oh that was Tuesday I work a full week so I had to kill the bear see David was studying a new standard of what it meant to be a shepherd he said a new stand or what it meant to be a warrior he said a new stand or what it meant to be a king because when you choose to become a servant the sky's the limit Paul puts it like this the 1st Corinthians 9 beginning in verse 24 do you not know that in a race all the runners run well not like in our races in our races some people just walk somebody just sort of hanging but in in a real race all the runners run but only one gets the price that you know that now I know that some of you don't know that but there is a time for everyone did not get a prize for participation some of you have your participation trophies I was there some of you have been devastated because now that you're an adult no one is giving you a trophy for showing up at work because you have to actually do something that distinguishes you from everyone else can we get real for a minute do you not know that in a race all the runners run but only one gets the prize listen to what he says next run in such a way to get the prize I want you to hear that because some of you're still not sure the competition is a good thing see some of you still think ambition is bad for the soul but I want you to hear what it says run in such a way as to get the prize now I want to be clear that's in the Bible Yellin sigh just be happy you're running see we throw on the clothes but never take on the challenge may I love Nike I love going to the Nike store I like wearing Nike shoes I like wearing Nike clothes this is a free commercial for a Nike just do it it's kind of awesome but I saw this coat and there's several in there and it says something like everyone is an athlete I love that I mean it's over like inspiring it's some like if you have a body you're an athlete I got a body so I'm an athlete don't you just love that don't you love great quotes like that that are not true at all all right let me just take the truth just cuz you have a body does it make you an athlete just makes you human you have to choose to be an athlete yeah I love the idea that everyone's an athlete and I've read that before I got winded climbing the stairs to the second floor see just because you're in the room doesn't mean you making a difference you have to choose to make a difference just because you exist doesn't mean you're alive you have decide to live for more run in such a way as to get the prize this is what the Scriptures tell us stop acting like it doesn't matter stop being satisfied coming in the middle of the pack stop thinking it's cool bring up the rear and run and when you're winded and you're gutted and you realize you can't go any further then get up and discipline yourself and do the hard work that allows greatness to emerge from you you cannot be the best of the world like anything if you're not willing to bear the pain of greatness and I don't want to be good for a Christian but you hate that wow that's a great Christian band well you're a great Christian communicator well that's a great Christian film well no one says that [Applause] because Christian has become equivalent with average run in such a way to get the prize doesn't mean I'm gonna just come clean I'm tired of living in a culture that says being average is spiritual and Paul says everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training by the way that's an assumption some people avoid the strict training and think they're still going to win he says they do it to get a crown that will not laugh so here it is oh isn't it nice to get a little reprieve they do it to get a crown that will not last this is where we can be so spiritually condescending like I've been putting all that effort into that it's all gonna burn you can't take it to the grave hey yeah we have so many cliches to justify our apathy so many cliches to justify our lack of ambition go over there they're doing it for crowns it will not last we're not doing it at all we think that's actually the counter-culture but listen nobody says they do it to get a crown that will not last but we do it to get a crown that will last forever see now that's where if we were at church we would applaud back but here's a problem it's obvious that they're doing it to get a crown that does not last but where are the we who are doing it to a crass get a crown last forever and so we we mock and look with derision on those who are aspiring to do great things in this world me after all you're an Olympian last year but that's last year you and the champion last year I was last year you made that scientific breakthrough last decade but now that's that was last decade and we look at things in this world you have you ever just look someone rich and going yeah but it's all gonna be dust isn't it great to say that about people who achieve the things you longed to achieve so that we can belittle it but you know what it's saying here in the scriptures they do it for a crown that does not last we're supposed to be doing for crown adults we're supposed to have more ambition see if a person who doesn't know God aspires to be the greatest teacher in the world you should aspire even more to be the greatest teacher that has ever taught see if a person wakes up and says I want to be the greatest architect has ever lived and they don't even know god then those who are pursuing a crown that lasts forever should be inspired me the greatest architect that has ever lived because we know God we shouldn't be last we should be more and yet somehow we're still uncomfortable with ambition this needs to be our first a a meeting ambitious anonymous and we need to stop being anonymous and start becoming ambitious listen to what Paul says in Philippians chapter 2 verse 3 do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit but rather in humility value others above yourself so be the bass in the world because you're determined to serve the world the best of you make your life the greatest gift the world has ever known realize that there are gifts and talents there's intelligence and passion inside of you that the world desperately needs and stop giving the world last thing God gave you an own your responsibility just set the standard of the best in the world when Shane and Reid asked me is it wrong to be competitive I think the tragedy is that anyone anyone anyone who has ever grown up in the church should ever wonder if it's wrong to be I told him my surgeon dr. khalili said I have a theory about him see my surgeon he's like this almost like the perfect surgeon he has this great personality he's he's solid and stoic and and and has a level of empathy but but you just since he's in charge but but he's not expressing emotion he's just walking through the process in my mind if I could create a surgeon he would have the personality but I was pretty sure I saw right through him behind that stoic mask control and I told Shane I have a theory about dr. Killeen I think he's extremely competitive in fact that's all I don't want a non-competitive surging operating on me I want the most competitive searches in the world operating on my cancer yeah I want a surgeon who hates to lose because my body is going to be the playground the field that cancer is gonna be his opponent I want a surgeon who has to win and can't sleep at night when he lost I want a surgeon who will remember if he lost me and will celebrate when he won so I think dr. khalili is one of the most competitive people I've ever known and he hates to lose but that was just my theory so this last week I had to do a follow-up and and I'll admit I'm trying to break records I asked dr. khalili what's the fastest that's ever happened it was this okay I'll be dad what's the faster that's ever happened I I i I've determined to break every record I want to have the fastest recovery in human history they just tell me what the record is okay I'm gonna beat that because I'm competitive so I went to dr. Khalil Ian we're doing really good both of us and he said you have zero zero signs of cancer you're basically a man that all right we're good none I said that's what khalili as I was leaving I was talking to this young man named Shane and he asked me is the wrong to be competitive I told no it's good to be competitive it's good to be ambitious and so then I told him about you and I have a theory about you and he goes what's that said I think you are very competitive in fact I think you're so competitive that you hate to lose that you see yourself in competition with cancer and you want to win every single time in this stoic surgeon his entire face transformed he started smiling from ear-to-ear is it if I found out his secret and his eyes lit up and he looked so alive and he goes I am so competitive he said I hate us I knew it I knew you were competitive than you hate to lose that's why I'm so glad that you're the surgeon who took out my cancer because he faced the lion and the bear and the giant and he knew that it was better to wind and be comfortable losing him there's some of you here I still think ambition is a problem but I want you to hear the words of Paul do nothing out of selfish ambition see theirs they're selfish ambition just like there's selfish love selfish acts but you know what we never say you ever said someone don't be too ambitious you know you'd be careful about being too ambitious you know why we say that because we don't think ambition is a virtue because we never say be careful don't be too loving no you don't do that don't be gotta hold back a little bit on the love don't be too compassionate be mildly compassionate but don't go crazy all right don't don't be too wise you gotta be just a little stupid okay don't go be too wise yeah baby I said don't be too generous you're never gonna hear that here but you know what you're never gonna hear here don't be too ambitious so I want to tell you you need to get ambitious you get up in the morning with a fire you have a passion to make a difference in the world need to stop settling for absolutely take the moment you decide to elevate to your greatness you will not be applauded by the people around you who have settled for mediocrity some will despise you because you've pulled them out of a malaise of average and you will not be like me you will not be like anyone else you will be uniquely you and you need surround yourself with people who celebrate the greatness inside of you you surround some people who pull out that greatness from within you you need to surround yourself even allow you to settle for average you will not demand that you meet them at the left you want people in your life then you inspire because you are societal greatness and their greatness inspires you and I'm tired of losing don't losing people I love to despair to brokenness I'm tired of losing people in this city who are drowning and their loneliness their emptiness and we need to get ambitious and we need to get in the game and we need to get competitive because there are millions of people who - would need us to win for them to believe the power is found in love and that love can set us free wouldn't be a beautiful thing if you decided to live your life ambitiously god do more in me to more in me god make me more not so that i can be more but so that i can serve more what would happen if tomorrow you decided it doesn't matter where you are see maybe you're a shepherd and you you feel called to be a king but right now you just have this job and you feel like the job is beneath you it's too small for you but let me tell you if you will kill the Lions and the Bears and that job God will move you to the frontlines to fight the Giants and if you will be faithful where you are if you will face the challenges that are in front of right now I'm telling you God will put his hand on your life and he will use you to set people free to lead people to life what I want for us is mosaic and I want us to fight for the prize Jesus didn't come in seconds He gave His life so that we could live his greatest sacrifice made him the greatest who's ever loved and I want you to know that Jesus fought for you and the battle for your heart has already been won you just need to trust him and receive him would you just bow your heads with me just for a moment if you're here if you're here today and and you just tired of struggling and fighting the Battle of life by yourself if you know that there's something inside of you that it's waiting to come to life if you sense it that there's a greatness in you that has been placed there by God I want you to realize that it will never be awakened without God that Jesus sees you and he knows you and he loves you and he fought for you so tonight why don't you step into that if you're here tonight and you're ready to cross the line of faith and give your life to Jesus if you're ready to receive his forgiveness and his love and his life I want you to pray this simple prayer Jesus I give you my life that's it Jesus I give you my life it's not all that needs to be said it's just what needs to be said first it's the starting point Jesus I gave you my life I want to assure you that if you pray that prayer Jesus will hear you if you give him your life he will give you his life and today he will come to life if that's your prayer right now if you would say this is my prayer Jesus I give you my life if that's your prayer I just want you to hold your hand up high right now mr. Urwin that's me that's my prayer tonight I give Jesus my life right now I just hold it a pile I'm gonna see you beautiful beautiful anyone else right now wherever you are right now this is your moment beautiful anyone else right now father I pray for those who in this moment said Jesus I give you my life this is a battle you've already fought it's a victory you have already won I pray that right now you would wrap them up in your love and let them know you have heard their prayer that they belong to you that your death on the cross is now their source of life I thank you Jesus now you are the greatest man who ever lived because you made the greatest sacrifice that has ever been made if Father I pray for the rest of us that we would become insanely ambitious that we would become competitive that they would be in us a drive for greatness their father out of this place greatness would emerge that we would be the greatest businesspeople and the greatest teachers and the greatest artists and the greatest storytellers God that would be the greatest husbands and wives the greatest parents the guy we would be the greatest humans that have ever walked this earth that we would redefine what compassion is we would redefine what it means to be humane that we would redefine what it means to be alive god I pray that our meeting place would not be the lowest common denominator but that our meeting place would be our mutual greatness that we aspire to be the person you create us to be may we take your path may we become the servants of all may we trust you that if we give our lives to serve the world that we will live our greatest life Jesus because all we want is to be like you so we pray in your name amen can we just thank God for all those who's finding then I hope I hope there's something inside of you that's stirring because there isn't me man I'm done with my participation trophies I want to live my life fighting for the hearts of people I want to believe that there are giants that need to be taken down that God is preparing me he's preparing you for those great battles ahead I hate to lose I refuse to lose because what we are fighting for we are fighting for the heart of humanity we are fighting for the future of the human race we're fighting for what Jesus gave his life for and he was willing to die for the world we must be willing to live for them and it's time because it's time for us to step up and win [Applause] your love is strong your love has won [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] why [Applause] Oh go [Music] [Applause] you [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] Oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] yes [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] at Bo's a can we just thank our pastor or McManus one more time [Applause] you know earlier in the day as I was back here worshipping before he came out I realized the last line of that song it says your love is strong your love has won and that beautiful and it beautiful to know that there is a love that Jesus Christ gave up his life is sacrificed to win for you and I love how pastor Erwin said the world is waiting for others who be willing to step out and win for others so other people could find that life you see we're convinced here that there's a whole room full of greatness and we want to be the church that harnesses that so other people can find life so if you're here today you rose your hand or maybe got a spoke to you in the past and you've never taken that first step I want you know we have a copy of the scriptures but more importantly there's some volunteers in the back there's a community that wants to come alongside of you because we believe that your greatness can change the world we want you to do it with us we have a baptism coming up soon let that be your first step say hey Jesus is Lord and I am all-in I don't know about you but I'm not I want to leave tonight you guys want to go home guys I want another round of church Irwin take a breather we're gonna bring him out a little bit we're gonna round - hey we got one more song you down let's go people don't realize we turn up in church people say is that a club I'm like just coming in let's find out hey I love you guys this week see you team night Wednesday come on [Music] it gives little Salinas back to where you are [Music] your love UPI's your joy that fills our hearts [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] goodbye [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music]

Channel: Mosaic

Views: 31,971

Rating: 4.8571429 out of 5

Keywords: Worship, ErwinMcManus, MosaicMSC, Church, Hollywood, LosAngeles, Faith

Id: wj5BMzEiFsM

Length: 80min 50sec (4850 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 27 2017