Unlock Your Greatness | Jeff Pries | Harbor Point Church

Greatness starts with a high bar. People see greatness in athletes, performers, moments at work, a date that went great, a round of golf that felt once in a lifetime, and it looks like something only special people get to touch. God, though, repeatedly calls ordinary people into moments of greatness. Gideon hides in a wine press and calls his clan weak. Moses says, “I have never been eloquent,” which is another way of saying, “I don’t have what it takes.” David looks at what God has done and asks, “Who am I, sovereign Lord?”

Greatness can feel dangerous because anything less than great can feel like failure. The fear of being merely good can make a person hide, quit, or play it safe. Jesus does not lower the bar, but he does redefine it. He turns greatness upside down and makes it doable, not by making it easy, but by making it about service and sacrifice.

Matthew 20 places that redefinition right after Jesus tells the disciples he is going to Jerusalem to suffer and die. The request from James and John’s mother, asking for seats at the right and left of Jesus, exposes how naturally people think greatness means status, position, and being seen. Jesus calls the disciples together, not to scold them, but to teach them. The rulers of the Gentiles lord it over people, but “not so with you.” Whoever wants to become great must become a servant, and whoever wants to be first must become a slave.

Jesus gives himself as the picture. The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. Service feels right because people were born to serve, but sacrifice costs something. Nothing great happens without sacrifice.

John the Baptist shows what greatness looks like. God calls John great, yet John says of Jesus, “He must increase, but I must decrease.” His greatness comes from serving, suffering, and making room for Christ to be seen.

The cross makes the cost plain. A cross was not jewelry or wall decor. A cross had a smell, a feel, shame, insult, and death. Jesus says discipleship means saying no to self and yes to him. John 13 puts that greatness in a towel and basin. Jesus gets up from the table like a servant, washes feet, and tells his followers to do the same. The great ones do not just sit. The great ones get up from the table.

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Key Takeaways

• 1. Greatness gets turned upside down Jesus does not make greatness smaller or safer. Jesus takes the world’s ladder of status and flips it into service, where the great one is not the person being waited on but the one who gets up. The kingdom’s greatness is not less demanding, but it is open to ordinary people who will serve and sacrifice. [11:33]
• 2. Service reveals human design Service feels strangely fulfilling because it lines up with what people were made for. Small acts, like helping someone lost or serving someone overlooked, carry more weight than they first appear to carry. The soul often feels most alive when it stops making life about itself. [17:05]
• 3. Sacrifice is not optional greatness The cross shows that greatness has a cost, and Jesus never hides that cost from his disciples. Saying yes to Christ sometimes means saying no to desires that look fun, normal, or harmless. A cross is not subtle, and discipleship is not built on self-protection. [18:10]
• 4. Decrease makes Christ visible John the Baptist is called great, yet his own words are, “He must increase, but I must decrease.” That kind of greatness does not clamor for attention or fight to keep a crowd. God’s kind of greatness makes room for Jesus to be seen more clearly. [16:15]
• 5. Great ones get up and serve John 13 shows Jesus leaving the place of honor and taking the place of a servant. The towel and basin reveal what authority looks like when it is full of love instead of ego. Daily greatness may look like doing what feels beneath someone, simply because the Savior did it first.
  
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Youtube Chapters

• [00:00] - Welcome
• [02:05] - Unlock Your Greatness Begins
• [03:15] - God Calls Ordinary People
• [04:36] - The Danger of Chasing Greatness
• [07:02] - James and John Seek Status
• [11:15] - Jesus Redefines Greatness
• [12:28] - Nothing Great Without Sacrifice
• [14:43] - John the Baptist and True Greatness
• [17:05] - Born to Serve
• [18:10] - Take Up the Cross
• [20:15] - Losing Life to Find It
• [22:07] - Jesus Washes the Disciples’ Feet
• [23:17] - Get Up From the Table

Bible Reading

Matthew 20:20-28
Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee came up to him with her sons, and kneeling before him she asked him for something. He said to her, “What do you want?” She said to him, “Say that these two sons of mine are to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your kingdom.” Jesus answered, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I am to drink?” They said to him, “We are able.” He said to them, “You will drink my cup, but to sit at my right hand and at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father.” And when the ten heard it, they were indignant at the two brothers. But Jesus called them to him and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” [07:02]

John 13:1-17
Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. During supper, when the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray him, Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going back to God, rose from supper. He laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him. He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, do you wash my feet?” Jesus answered him, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand.” Peter said to him, “You shall never wash my feet.” Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no share with me.” Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!” Jesus said to him, “The one who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet, but is completely clean. And you are clean, but not every one of you.” For he knew who was to betray him; that was why he said, “Not all of you are clean.” When he had washed their feet and put on his outer garments and resumed his place, he said to them, “Do you understand what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you. Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.” [22:07]

Matthew 16:24-25
Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” [18:10]

John 3:30
“He must increase, but I must decrease.” [16:15]

Observation questions

1. In Matthew 20, what does James and John’s family seem to think greatness looks like, and how does Jesus describe greatness differently? [11:33]
2. In John 13, what specific actions does Jesus take at the table that show him stepping into the place of a servant? [22:19]
3. In Matthew 16:24-25, what two commands does Jesus give to anyone who wants to follow him, and what promise does he attach to losing life for his sake? [20:15]
4. What ordinary people were mentioned as examples of being called into God-sized moments, and how did they describe themselves at first? [03:15]

Interpretation questions

1. Jesus says, “It shall not be so among you.” What does that suggest about how different the culture of Jesus’ people should be from the world’s usual way of using status and power? [11:33]
2. Jesus ties greatness to both service and giving his life. Why do service and sacrifice belong together, instead of service by itself being enough? [12:17]
3. John the Baptist is called great, yet his words are, “He must increase, but I must decrease.” What does that reveal about the kind of greatness God values most? [16:15]
4. Jesus says a person finds life by losing it for his sake. How does that challenge the common belief that protecting self is the best path to a full life? [20:24]

Application questions

1. Where is there a place in life right now where greatness has quietly become about being noticed, being right, or being important? What would it look like to turn that area upside down through service? [06:47]
2. What is one simple act of service that would feel small to others but meaningful to the Lord this week: at home, at work, in the neighborhood, or in the church? What keeps that act from happening more often? [17:05]
3. Jesus says following him includes saying no to self. Is there a desire, habit, attitude, or pattern that needs a clear no right now so there can be a clearer yes to Christ? [18:33]
4. “He must increase, but I must decrease” can sound beautiful until it touches real life. In what setting does decreasing feel hardest right now: reputation, control, comfort, credit, or something else? [16:26]
5. The great ones do not just sit; they get up from the table. When an opportunity comes that feels beneath someone, inconvenient, or like it should belong to someone else, how does that moment usually get handled? What would getting up from the table look like this week? [23:17]
6. A cross is not subtle. Where might following Jesus carry a real cost right now: time, money, pride, popularity, or plans? How can that cost be carried faithfully instead of avoided? [19:04]
7. Jesus says people can spend life trying to save themselves and still end up feeling empty. When has serving others brought a kind of life or joy that self-focus never could? How might that memory help shape the next few days? [20:46]