Go ahead and turn to John Chapter 13 we're.
Finally out of 12. Took us three weeks to get out
of that thing. Amen.
All right, we're locking in. You like that?
OK. What's that?
OK, yeah. To get what?
Benji, what are you going to say?
It's time to. What?
He wanted me to say it's time to.
Cook. What are we cooking?
See what happens. Whatever.
OK, all right, so here we go. The context is this guys, that
Jesus, if you remember in John chapter 12, the context is that
many did not receive him and so the first 12 chapters really.
We saw the glory of God. Show up as he's doing.
Miracles. He's doing signs and wonders
that point back to who he is as a person, right?
He's not here to give you a better life.
That's not Jesus's plan per SE. I mean, he does want to give you
a better life. He does offer life, but not in
that sense of like I can have. My American dream.
And then also add Jesus on. That's not what I mean.
Many people thought that that was what was going to happen.
They thought, man, I'm getting a free lunch today.
I'm getting, you know, grandma's getting healed.
You know, all these amazing things are happening.
And then they thought, man, what?
They'd be awesome if he could take out Rome.
Because our lives would be a lot easier that way.
That was not Jesus's plan. We'll see here in a moment that
there was another guy. That thought that that was
Jesus's plan and he had some opinions about that, but then so
they saw the glory of God and people did not receive him.
It says his own did not receive him.
And So what did he begin to do right?
Chapter 13, there's a major, major shift and we'll start
reading this in a second, but that shift is now let me ask you
a question this morning. Are you his own?
Are you his? If you were and you were to go
back 2000 years and you were there with Jesus the physical.
Incarnate God man that was on the planet walking, who created
you? Would he look at you and say you
are my? Direction he goes.
Back to his own. There's a few more than a 12 at
that point, but he he goes. Back to his own and he gives
them. Some of the last words, right,
which is go make disciples. We just talked about that a few
minutes ago. So chapter 13 to 17 he begins to
reveal. Really.
The glory of God in this private setting, it's almost like ADS,
right? We have the church and we have
ADS. We're like, this is, you know,
20 people in today's graduation, right?
Except for those who did not. Pass the test.
No, I'm just kidding. Does everybody graduate?
Where's, where's Edson in? Yeah, as everybody.
Everybody's graduating. Praise God.
That doesn't always happen, does it?
Every week, Every year. OK, Yeah, I know it happens
every year. No worries.
If you've not done ADS, please
sign up. It's awesome.
It's amazing. I told the students every year,
I mean, like, you know, we, we have about 20 every year.
We we kind of cap it at that and.
They're always like, what am I signing up for?
And I'm like, trust. Me graduation comes I know it's
it's August right now, but graduation comes in April and
there's going to be some tears in the room because you're sad
you don't want to leave this this class it's just so amazing
why? Because.
You go deeper, you're right. You go deeper in God.
You get a little bit more than Sunday service, right?
You get, you get more. You, you, you spend time
together with 20 people. You band together.
It's kind of like Jesus walking with his disciples for three
years, but you get it in eight months.
It's amazing. Please sign up.
If you've not done it, please sign up.
It's amazing. And, and Etzen gets just a
little, a little, a little portion of, of everyone.
No, I'm just kidding. He does, He doesn't.
He does nothing. No, I don't know.
OK, so let's start reading chapter 13 before I get in
trouble. OK, so now, now before the
feast. Of Passover, you guys know what
Passover is. Everybody know what that is.
OK, so back right back in the book of Exodus, second chapter,
second book of your Bible. There was a a celebration called
Passover and basically the Israelites were in slavery under
Pharaoh's reign and rule and reign under for 400 years or.
Something like that. It's crazy.
And so they were crying out to God for salvation.
They're crying out to God for God save us from this evil
tyrant, right? This this evil nation that does
not know God. And so God wanted to come in and
reveal. Himself.
He uses Moses. We'll talk about him when we
close. I have a few things to say
there. But what happened was they
needed a deliverer. And so he rose up Moses.
He was going to be the deliverer for for Israel.
They're going to cross the Red Sea because some of you guys
know that story. And so before they cross they
they celebrate the password. So these 10 plagues, the last
one, the last plague against Pharaoh and his his evil nation
was the kill the first born. And so in order for your first
born child not to be killed, and it's it's symbolic of all of our
lives, in order for you not to experience the wrath of God,
which we all deserve, they needed to kill a lamb, an
innocent lamb, right? And take the blood and wipe the
door frame of it. And so the Angel of Death, which
will all visit you one day. The Angel of death, Will Will
Will was literally passes over your house because he sees the
blood. Isn't that amazing?
So if you do not like you want to know if you're his own, you
need to be marked by the blood of Jesus.
If you are not marked by the blood of Jesus, you are going to
hell. It's very simple.
So it's something outside of you that saves you.
There's nothing inside of you that saves you.
It's all false religion. So good just to mark yourself
like I want the blood of Jesus all my life.
And then so when I die, he overlooks my sin and he says
welcome home. It's amazing.
So they're celebrating that, celebrating Passover, Jesus
knowing that his hour had come, that he would depart out of this
world to the Father, having loved his.
Own any time you see God loving you like you're these people.
Struggle with the love of God. We talked about that a few weeks
ago just. Underline that this is explicit.
You know, there's a lot of implicit passages in the Bible
that talk about the love of God, but this is explicit.
It says he loved his own. Right, He was going back.
He would depart out of this world, back to the Father.
Right He left the glory of heaven to come to A to a dirty
sinful earth right to deal with sinful man, but he was
eventually going to go back to his Father into heaven, having
loved his own who were in the world.
He loved them. What is it say to the end?
He loves them to the end during supper, the devil having already
put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, to
betray him. Jesus knowing it's kind of like
parentheses, right? You got the love of God and then
you got whoa, what's going on here with Jesus?
And then again the other side of the parentheses.
Jesus knowing that the Father had given him all things in his
hand and he had come forth from God and was going back to God,
he got up and he served his people right.
He served his own, got up from supper, laid aside his garments
and taking a towel, he girded himself.
Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the
disciples feet and to wipe them with a towel with which he was
girded. See.
And then so he came to Simon Peter and he said to him, Lord,
do you wash my feet? Jesus answered him and said,
What I do you do not realize now, but you will understand
later on. Hereafter Peter said to him,
never. So you wash my feet.
Jesus answered him, If I do not wash you, you have no part of
me. And it's Simon's like, Lord,
then wash not only my feet, but my whole body, right, my head,
everything, my head to toe, which is very impulsive, right.
I mean, is any any impulsive people like Peter in the room is
like one guy, right. And everybody's, you know,
pretty even keel. Yeah.
OK. Yeah.
Thank you. Like, I, I agree with your
hands, you know, agree, agree with those who raise your hand.
I'm like that. But OK, so.
He had bathe. OK, he who has bathe.
Needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean and you are
clean, but not all of you. For he knew the one who was
betraying him. For this reason he said not all
of you are clean. So when he had washed their feet
and taken his garments and reclined at the table again, he
said to them, do you know what I've what I have done to you?
You call me teacher and Lord, and you're right, for so I am.
If I then the Lord and the teacher washed your feet, you
also washed one another's feet. For I gave you an example that
you should do as I did to you. Truly, I say to you, truly,
truly I say to you, a slave is not greater than his master, nor
is one who is sent greater than the one who sent him.
If you know these things, you're blessed if you do them.
I do not speak to all of you. I know the ones I have chosen,
but it is the scripture might be fulfilled.
He who eats my bread and is lifted up his heel against me.
From now on, I am telling you before it comes to pass, so that
when it does occur, you may believe that I am.
He isn't that so loving of Jesus just to let them in on what's
going to happen so they're not so startled and run away or
doubt. Truly, truly.
I say to you, he who receives whoever I sent receives me, and
he who receives me receives him who sent me.
OK, so three simple points this morning.
The first one is this Jesus's words of love.
Jesus knew. The hour had come and He would
depart and go back to the Father.
But I love this. Now listen, listen very
carefully. It takes knowing who you are,
that's your identity, and knowing where you're going.
That's security and faith in order.
To love. Isn't that true if you're
insecure? And you don't know God, you
don't know His love, you don't know what he's done in your
life. It creates a sense of
insecurity, and you have no desire to serve people.
He's at the hour of his death. The hour has come.
The last thing anybody in this room would want to do is serve
somebody. How many know when?
You are going through a trial. The last thing you want to do is
serve somebody. You want somebody to serve you,
right? I mean, we know that and so.
When you're going through something, when this whole
message is about Jesus, I mean, I.
Hopefully every message is, but I just, I can't help but think
I'm like, I'm going to be very careful this morning not to lift
up anybody but him and. Because he is the hero.
I mean, nobody else is like him. Nobody else is like him.
I mean, he suffered. He was suffering immensely.
He knew exactly what was coming. He knew what the Romans had
power to do, and he's like, you know what I'm going to do?
I'm going to get down on my knees.
I'm going to gird myself like a slave and I'm going to wash
dirty. Feet.
That's amazing. Though Jesus desire to be back
in God's presence, I mean he couldn't wait.
I mean that's a good thing. And and that was great.
God wanted him back. You know, he wanted to be back
in, in heaven, of course, no pain, no suffering, none of
that. But what kept him there like
what kept him on earth? Paul said something very
interesting too as well. I desire to actually be with
Jesus, but for your sakes. I'll be here.
What does that mean? What does that mean to the
purpose and meaning of life? Does anybody know?
It's not you. It's not people like, it's not
you creating a, a, a world where people serve you.
Like that's not what life's about.
Literally. Like if you think about just
even what Paul said, the whole purpose of life is to either be
with Jesus or be on earth and serve.
People. But what does that take?
An incredible amount of what? Humility.
His love for us is unbelievable. It says this.
Not only has he loved his own, but he loved.
Them to the very end. What does that mean?
What does it mean to be to love? What does it mean that and this
is going to blow your minds And I, when I say blow your minds,
meaning that it's so amazing that you're not going to be able
to even comprehend it. You need the Spirit of God.
To do that. What does it mean that when
Jesus says he? Loves his his own to the end.
It means teleos just means. That's the word means to the
end. It means complete.
Fullness. It means it had no beginning and
no end. Whoa.
So you mean to tell me that God's love for you and me had no
beginning and no end? This life will have an end, but
His love will not? How in the world is that even
possible? You know why that's such good
news for those who are trying to catch up with what I'm saying?
Why is that such good news? Were you able to do anything
before you were born? Were you able to do anything
before you even conceived? You didn't have a brain, you
weren't even there. You were nothing, poof, nothing.
Like there's nothingness. You weren't even there, but you
were in God's mind and what we know from Scripture.
Is, he says. He loved you before you were
even born, so why is that such good news?
Just as you never earned the love of God before you even
existed, you'll never earn the love of God here on earth, and
you will never, never earn the love of God.
In heaven and you need to hear that and and knowing that
changes our life. But I don't know about you, but
I struggle with that. Like I get it as a dad, like I
knew, like I know more the love of God because when you you're
with your kids, right? I mean, and so you know, I mean
even even as a 14 year old, right?
I mean like I. Was 14 she's we're.
Flying to Denver and she's just, it was so.
Funny on the airplane, she's she's does this.
She's like, I normally like the aisle seat.
Just quick, easy, boom, you know, you need to go to the
bathroom. You're not like trying to
awkwardly get over to people. So I'm just like, I like the
aisle. You right no one likes the
middle seat and so we are going there we.
Are like I, I, I'm on the aisle, she's in the middle it's fine
and no one's next to us. She she gets the layout it's
great She's like, dude, I love traveling, you know, and, but
then then on the way back, you know, typical Orlando flights,
right booked full right going other places.
I don't know why it's not like that, but going home, going to
Orlando, it's like I don't think it's always booked full so.
And, and I was like, I have a feeling this plane is booked
full. Like, yeah, it, it probably is.
You know, this is our city. This is where we live.
It's. Always going to be that way.
Disney World, Everybody's in their Disney outfits, you know,
they're all going to Disney World and.
She's like, you're taking the middle seat.
I. Was like.
If my wife was there, she'd be like.
Don't let her do that. Don't let her do that.
I'm like, OK, so I take the middle seat.
She's having fun. She's like chilling, laying
back, feet hanging off, dangling.
And no joke, I'm like reading this book.
I'm getting all into it and I'm leaning so hard to the right.
This dude, no joke, he. Wakes her up.
He's like, hey, can I get a little bit more space?
And I'm looking I'm like. Oh gosh, I'm so sorry.
I'm like. No awareness, none at all.
I'm into my book, into my book. It's a good book.
And I'm just told no awareness. But you, you know, and then.
Allen just like, looks over and she's just like giggles.
She's like. You know, like she goes back to
sleep. But what?
OK, say all that. What you do for the people you
love is crazy, right? It's crazy.
It's always gets crazy. It is just like, you know, you
don't even think about it. I didn't even think about, like,
if I thought about long enough, I'd probably think, no, no,
dude, you're 14, man. Get over there and then get in
the middle, you know? But what you do like, I get it
as a dad, like you love your kids.
And it says something so interesting in Luke, right?
If your kid. Asks you for a loaf of bread?
Do you give them a rock? If you ask them for what?
An egg? Do you give them a scorpion?
You being evil. Right.
Do you love your kids? You love your kids?
How much more God, being perfect loves you and gives you the Holy
Spirit to those you ask. Why do you need the Holy Spirit?
Because it says in Romans 5, what what does it say?
You don't you can't experience the love of God without the
Spirit of God. So I was praying for somebody
over here going through a hard time, lost his dad right during
the month of May and he's like, every time I'm reminded of
finals week, I'm. Reminded of my dad's death when
I was younger, I said, look, I don't know how to help.
I, I don't. All I know is we have a lot of
great fathers in the room and they'll be there for you.
But what I do know is this is God the Father is going to
father you perfectly. And you're going to need the
Holy Spirit right now to experience that.
That's why the Psalm say right, taste.
And see, it's not just yeah, God loves you, but he loves you.
Like it's amazing. I mean, literally we have if you
just turn just. For a second, I just want you to
see it just in your own Bible, OK?
Psalm 136. I think you all know this one,
right? Psalm 136.
Sometimes when Ricky singing, he repeats himself over and over
again. Some of you guys are annoyed by
that. Some of you guys like that.
But I'm going to show you real quick.
What did I say? Psalm 130?
I said 136, right? I said 1/26, 1:36. 26 times.
It literally repeats itself. The love, The love of God lasts
forever, right? His loving kindness is
everlasting. 26 times. I wrote that at the top of my
Bible 26 times. I can't account it for myself 26
times. He says that and he goes through
and he's like give thanks to the Lord for he is good.
Give thanks to the Lord for give.
Thanks, give thanks, give thanks.
His loving kindness lasts forever and it's just going
through this and it says in verse 10.
To him who smote the Egyptians in their first born, there you
go again. There's the the Passover.
It's a reminder. What is that?
A reminder of? You were lost in your sin.
You had nothing to do with the love of God, but He found you
and He saved you, and He gave you a purpose.
And a family thank you for your love.
This is not. This is not a classroom.
This is not a classroom like. Hey, God loves you and you
didn't know that, like intellectually.
No, God loves you and you need to experience that because it
will transform your life. Remember, I said that's what
we're about around here, Transformation.
To him who divided the Red Sea, verse 13, his loving kind is a
reminder. And you guys can remind you, you
literally if you wanted to. And I'm not being heretical at
any at all. You can write your own song.
I mean, you can't put it in your Bible.
I mean, you can't put. It in your Bible.
But you know what? I mean, you can write your own
song and I, I would encourage you to do it because really, the
Red Sea means nothing to you. Red Sea gets farted.
Wow, it's amazing. I mean, it's good for those
guys. I mean, I'm so thankful for
Israel, but for you it might sound a little different.
I was in. Drugs, lost, broken in
depression. But someone shared the gospel
with me. His loving kindness endure us
forever. You can write that if you want
to. You can write that.
Not only just that one day when you're 18.
Whatever. For me, at least for the last 25
1/2 years, at least for me, for Dick, I don't know where Dick's
at, but for the last 155 years, right?
Did I get that right? OK, that's right.
Just checking. OK, back to John 13.
Before I get in more trouble had no beginning or end.
OK so the second thing against go.
It goes literally from the brightness of Jesus's love to
the darkness of Judas's heart. You know what's so crazy about
this? The devil put it inside his
heart. The devil ever put something
inside your heart Anybody. Anybody want to be honest.
I would imagine everybody, why do you think people do stupid
stuff there Isn't there just a shooting just happened.
I feel like these things happened all the time.
Now. It's pretty normal in the United
States of America. It's pretty sad.
But I read about that and it said that the guy who did that,
the guy who shot up all those kids, it said that he wrote,
wrote something and said the devil came in my heart.
It said he, he said he, he felt darkness.
He extends such darkness. The devil does.
Work with already something that's in your heart and it's
called sin. You can't ultimately blame the
devil. The devil made me do it.
That doesn't work. Yes, the devil had influence and
what what the problem with Judas was is he never dealt with the
sin in his heart. You know what that sin was?
Pride, greed and selfishness and never got dealt with.
So he killed God. Didn't work.
If you never deal with the sin in your heart, it will only grow
and get more ugly and more disastrous.
And it will that will end up hurting people, which it says.
But what's so crazy about this whole thing?
It's not even that. What's so crazy is that Jesus
washed his feet. If you were to think about this,
if you were to think if like the person in front of you that
you're about to serve the devil told him to do something, the
last thing you want to do is serve that guy.
But Jesus did so. If you think you have so much
evil in your heart that you don't think God can do anything
with that, you're crazy, because God can.
You could be a Judas and he's still serving you.
You and I want to know even more crazier than that.
Here's the warning. Not only that, Jesus wash this
man's feet. Who the devil tempted to do
something? Really.
Bad to the person who's washing the feet, by the way, but that
love never actually did anything to his heart.
So I say. This morning I could tell you
until I'm blue in the face, God loves you, God loves you, God
loves you, God loves you. But if you never receive it, you
will be a Judas. Because the devil's tempting us
all the time. And the only way to actually say
no to him and yes to God is to know that he loves you.
God loves you, and he is drawing you in and he's going to do
whatever it takes to come after you.
Like we just said that. Sing that song.
His love is coming after us because it is #3 you're probably
like #3 what's number one and two?
OK, I understand I'm bad at this.
OK, I'll just tell you Jesus number one is Jesus's words of
love. OK?
Number 2 is verse 2. Jesus is hard, hard heart #3
Jesus's demonstration of his love for us.
And I think that's what's so important is that he does not,
Jesus does not remain in the realm of words.
He's not just about, you know, why people leave the church is
because they hear a lot about God loves you, God loves you,
but they never see a demonstration of that, not
around here. We're going to be not only a
loving church and talk about the love of God, but we're also
going to demonstrate that to each other.
And this is from verse 3 to 11. It takes a lot of humility to do
what Jesus did, and I love this. The way it starts is Jesus
knowing that he has his hour had come and that he would depart
from this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in
the world. He loved them to the end.
Skip Judas for a second. Jesus knowing that the Father
had given him all things into his hands.
He had such security and knowing that God loves him so much and
he couldn't wait to see God's face and that he had come forth
from God. He knew where he was coming from
and he knew he was going back to it says in verse four.
He got up, he took action, he got up and he started serving.
That is the only way to sustain the purposes of God for you many
people, it says in Ecclesiastes. Many people have a great start,
but they do not have a good end. So you can have you could be a
big dreamer. We're going to do all these
amazing things. It's going to be amazing.
Oh my goodness, I like you got to know who cares if you don't
finish it? The reality is like it doesn't
matter. Like I, I, I almost like we have
so much idealism in our country, the whole United States of
America, when I see the flag of America is idealism, but we need
a dose of realism. We need to be known, not.
Just for what we start, but how we end that is this church.
That's who we want to be. Jesus finished well.
He came and said, behold, right? He'd even say it.
John. John the Baptist said behold the
Lamb of God. Chapter 1, John right.
Chapter 13, still doing it. Obviously, chapter 18 and 19, he
dies, resurrects, he's still. He's in the game, he finishes
right for the Hebrews 12. It's the whole thing right?
Hebrews 12 for the joy separate form he endured the cross.
We've got to be a people to not only have a good start, but a an
incredible finish. And sometimes, I mean, I mean,
and I'm not talking about like Jesus did not have a finish.
We're like, woo, this is awesome.
He came in that way in a sense, not in boasting way or anything.
He came in healthy. As far as we know, his bones
were intact. I mean, there was, he wasn't
like beaten up, but at the end of his life he was beaten up.
And some of us that's, I mean, we're, if you're living out the
things of God, like if you're in the Kingdom, you're giving your
life, that's what you're going to look like all scarred up
bullet wounds, like, you know, maybe no nose, ear missing or
something or whatever it is, it doesn't matter.
You're going to get a brand new body when you go to heaven.
And that's what God's called us to.
He's called us to finish well and it's not going to look.
Pretty sometimes when we finish, but it's going to be good.
Amen. That's our life.
That's what we leave. Much of today's love is
narcissistic. Any narcissist in the room?
No. One wants to admit that that's
weird. It's awkward.
Right self focused, right self focused, self gratifying, right?
I mean, this is a fickle, fickle love.
I mean, I kind of love Jesus when he's feeding me, but I'm
not really loving Jesus when he's asking me to deny myself
and pick up the cross and follow Him.
I'm tempted to read in First Corinthians 13, but I'm only on
.3 and I just, I mean, I just. Can you read?
Can you read First Corinthians 13 like on your own at some
point? Yeah, all promise you're shaking
your head. I'm going to keep you
accountable to that at some point, but so good.
This is love is patient, right? Do you see incredible patience
here? Do you know that just moments
before. Let me just give you a few
quotes from his group of people that he calls his disciples, OK?
A few, a few. Moments, scenes before,
disciples were saying, Hey, let's call down fire from
heaven, kill everybody that does not respond to you rightly,
Nathaniel said. Can anything good come out of
Nazareth? I don't know.
We have no record of. Nathaniel apologizing to Jesus
at some point. Maybe at that point when?
He's washing his feet is like, hey, so that thing about
Nazareth, I guess a good thing did come out of Nazareth, you
know, like, what did he say? Like it's awkward, you know, And
then Jesus shows Jesus shares something he says to Peter,
Satan desires to sift you like wheat because Peter, you're
going to deny me a few times. He's washing these people's
feet. He knows their past failures,
their pet present failures. And look, we just showed here
because after the feet washing, Jesus tells that to Peter, he
knows his their future failures. You know what's different about
Jesus, different about him and us?
As we look at people, Jesus looks at their eventual
victories. That's how he sees people.
He sees people and what they can become as God gets a hold of
their life, as they humble themselves and submit to His
leadership. If you think.
All that was interesting during that scene, literally right up
that John does not show that John's trying to make a
different argument. But we have to go back to the
synoptic gospels, Matthew, Mark and Luke, and we look back and
at the very table that they're having the Passover meal.
What are they doing? What are these jokers doing?
They're arguing about who's the greatest.
Can you imagine that? What's going through the
Savior's mind about what he's about to do?
He's about to go to a cross, but before he gets to the cross,
he's going to get beaten up like no one's ever gotten beaten up
before, right? Beer being plucked out, nail
like thorns going through his his head, blood coming down 39
lashes with glass, pieces of glass and rock to just shred his
body apart. And these?
Dudes are all talking about who's the greatest.
And at that moment when everybody is talking about who's
the greatest, you have to remember something there.
There was no slave in that room at the time because it's just
his own. So that says we know nobody else
is in the room. Mary wasn't there, Lazarus
wasn't there. Nobody else but his own, no
slave. And Jesus probably was going
through his mind. He's probably thinking, at what
point are one of these guys going to do the hard work of
washing the feet before we have a meal?
When no one took action, he took action and the amount of love
that you see here, he takes right?
Instead of serving, they argued who is the greatest?
So Jesus took action. He literally wore what he was
doing is He took off his garment and he wrapped around his waist.
He was wearing what slaves would wear.
And that's what made Peter. Do you ever have just a loss of
words or just it just feels so uncomfortable, so awkward?
That's what he's doing. This is nervous talk.
He's like, I, I mean, you're not going to wash my feet, you know,
like, just don't, don't do that. And then he's like, wash my
whole body. I don't.
He's, he's, he's frantic, he's
right, he's neurotic. He's, he's freaking out because
he's like, you're the king. Kings do not do this and Jesus
had to remind him and the reason why.
What do you have to remind him of?
He's like, I'm coming as a lamb, Peter, I'm coming to.
Serve you and die for you. I'm not coming as a king.
That's for later, and I love this about if you think this
morning you're like, man, I don't know.
I just. I'm so sick of of me.
Could you know, committing the same sin over and over and over
again. I'm, I'm weak, I'm weak, I'm
weak. If you're just like man, there's
no hope. There is hope for you this
morning because God can't actually change your life.
And I want you to just look for a second here and, and Peter
look at just a few verses. First of all, he writes this.
Remember who did Mark get help from writing his gospel?
Basically, scholars say Peter was behind Mark writing the
Gospel. For whatever reason, Jesus, you
know, the Holy Spirit, didn't want Peter to write a gospel.
He wrote some letters and a few letters, and I'll show you that
here in a second. But Mark 10:45, what do you
think was going through Peter's mind years later after the
resurrection? Jesus came not to be served, but
to serve others and give his life as a ransom.
That is our job, right? That's what we do.
But listen to these first. Peter, 118 to 19.
You were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or
gold from your futile way of life inherited from your
forefathers, but with the precious blood of the Lamb,
unblemished and spotless blood of Christ.
Remember, when do you remember when Jesus said this?
He's like, you're not going to understand this now, but you're
going to stand it later. There's just certain things that
in the moment right now where you're sitting, you're like, I
don't understand what God's doing in my life.
I don't like it. I'm going through something, but
you're going to understand it later.
He's going to reveal why He's taking you through this.
It's not now, but if you stick with it long enough and you
persevere, He will show you, and I love this about Peter.
He's transformed. First Peter 224, Jesus bore our
sins and his body on the cross so that we might die to sin and
live to righteousness. It's a different man.
First Peter 318 for Christ died for all sins, once or for all,
just the just, for the unjust, so that he might bring us to
God. And then first Peter 5, I love
this. This is one of my favorites.
I want you to just picture with me Peter saying all those silly
things as Jesus is washing his feet and then I want you to see
the life transform. He's looking back like we all
will one day look back at the trials and stuff we've gone
through and say that's embarrassing that the things
that I said and did, but look at his grace in my life.
Therefore I exhort the elders. He's rocketed now, right?
He's pouring into other leaders. They're planting churches, says.
Therefore, I exhort the elders among you as your fellow fellow
elder, not above you, but I'm with you.
Is that just? It's reeking of humility and the
witness of the sufferings of Christ and the partaker also of
the glory that is to be revealed.
Shepherd, the flock of God among you, exercising oversight, not
under compulsion, but voluntarily, according to the
will of God, and not for shorted gain, but with eagerness, nor
yet as lording it over those allotted to your charge, but
proving to be examples to the flock.
And when the chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the
unfading crown of glory. You younger men, likewise be
subject to your elders, and all of you clothe yourselves with
humility towards one another. For God is opposed to the proud,
but gives grace to the humble. Therefore humble yourselves
under the mighty hand of God, that He might exalt you at the
proper time, casting all your anxiety on to Him, because He
cares for you. This is a man who experienced
all this. He says be.
Sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil,
prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking to devour someone.
Right Be, he says, but resist him.
She had to do at one point, right?
Firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of
suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are around
the world. Right after you have suffered
for a little while, the God of all grace.
I love this. After you suffered a little
while, the God of all grace, who calls you to His eternal glory
in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and
establish you to Him be the dominion, and forever and ever.
Amen. That good he experienced that he
was impulsive. So what's going on here?
Just real briefly, right? What does he mean?
What is Jesus saying to you and me?
What is he saying is a wave application right now?
What is he? Saying about OK, once you've
been washed, what is he talking about?
He's saying that once you've taken a shower right in the
morning, when you get up in the morning, you take a shower or
some of you guys take the night before, whatever, but you take a
shower in the morning and then you go and get dirty all day,
right? In a in a way like.
At least first century of talking, right.
So these people, they took a shower in the morning, they
bathed and then they the part that got the most dirty
throughout the day and it's just symbolic.
It's just a way of an example their feet.
And so when they walked into people's homes to have dinner,
someone would be there to wash their feet.
So what Jesus is saying is all of you are washed.
If you come to Christ, you are washed.
Like one of my favorite passages is First Corinthians 6.
He's listing all these crazy sins which you find yourself in,
right? And he's saying once were you,
but now you're washed. You're washed.
So it's not about losing what it's not about.
He's like, you're not a part of me.
If I can't wash your feet, then you have no part of me.
What is he saying? Guys?
This is so important. It is not just saying some.
Prayer when you were little. It's not even about losing your
salvation, but it's about losing intimacy with Jesus.
What he's saying is what I want, which is really the whole point
of this message, I think what Jesus trying to communicate to
us. Just look, you come to me, I'll
wash you, come clean completely. You'll never, ever have to worry
about past, present, and future sin.
It is 100% forgiven. But what I want, and a lot of
churches misses, miss this, a lot of believers miss this.
But what he wants more than anything else is fellowship with
you. So good, isn't it?
I mean, this is what he wants. This is what God of the universe
wants with you. He wants fellowship with you.
He literally wants to know you like a friend.
When's the last time you thought about that and just went outside
your front door and just went for a walk with God?
Just walk with him, telling him how you feel, listening to his
voice. Being able to walk in
fellowship. He's saying, look, if you want
to actually live this life, you're going to have to come to
me daily to confess your sins, to agree that yes, you're yes,
I've washed all of your sin away.
But in order for us to fellowship.
I want you to be holy. I want you to clean the dirt off
from this world. You just thought about that.
You just had a thought. Was evil wrong?
Let me cleanse you and wash your feet, not save you again and
again and again. But walk with you, Amen.
That's what he's asking you to do.
He's asking you to come to him daily, not to be fully clean.
From all your. Past sins, but daily it's a
daily walk with him. It's a daily walk with him and
confessing all confession means guys, is this is just to agree
you're you're basically coming to God that first John 19 right,
you're coming to him confessing your sins to him.
He's talking to believers by the way, right in first John, he's
talking to unbelievers in John his gospel.
He's talking to believers in his letter and he's saying, look, I
want you just to come to Jesus and just confess your sins to
him and he is faithful, faithful to cleanse you of all and
righteousness. Just come to him and confession.
All confession is, is just to agree.
Jesus. I agree that what I just did was
wrong. I said what I said was wrong,
what I, what I thought was wrong, what I did was wrong.
I agree with you. Not only do I agree that that
was sinful, but I agree that you were able to forgive me from all
of that. And now I get to enter this
amazing, beautiful fellowship with you.
As we close, I just, I want to just share a few more things
here because I think God is inviting.
I believe he's inviting all of us to come to him this morning.
And James 48 says this, draw near to Goddess and he will draw
near to God and he will draw nearer to you.
When we take a step, when we choose to take a step forward in
him drawing near, he will draw near to us.
Isn't that interesting that it says this at 1st And I'll I'll
I'll get to why that is and I'll make sense of that hopefully in
the end. But it almost.
Looks like man, is that up to us?
Is it up to us? Like man, we have to draw near.
What if I don't want to draw near?
Like I, I, I don't have any strength to draw near.
But he says if you just take one little step, a mustard seat of
faith, just take one small step towards him, he will draw near
to us. I want you to turn really quick
to Exodus chapter 3. Exodus chapter 3.
Now Moses was pastoring the flock of Jethro, his
father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to
the West side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain
of God. The Angel of the Lord appeared
to him in a blazing fire from the midst of the Bush, and he
looked and behold, the Bush was burning with fire, yet the Bush
was not consumed. This dude who is out there, if
you have to remember right, he grew up in Egypt.
He killed a guy. He had a runaway right because
he was trying to save God's people with his own strength.
That didn't work. So God has sent him to the
desert for 40 years. It's a long time.
She got used to tumbling weeds, you know what I mean?
It's just tumbling. And they would blow up, right?
I mean, just this desert, these things would blow up all the
time. They'd be.
Consumed to be. Just ashes.
Well, he's like this one caught his eye.
It's like this thing's not turning to ash.
It's still burning. That's weird, Moses said.
I must turn aside now and see this marvelous light and why the
Bush is not burned up. I want to ask the question when
God is trying to get our attention this morning and even
in your life right now, He wants to fellowship with you.
He'll use whatever means possible, but it's up to you to
turn aside. Says here, right?
I must turn aside now and see this marvelous sight and why the
Bush is not burned up. And when the Lord saw.
That he turned aside to look. God called to him from the midst
of the Bush and said, Moses, Moses.
And he said, here I am. Of course.
Then he's like standing on holy ground.
Remove your sandals and God begins to reveal himself to
Moses. But he needed to turn aside.
He needs to pay attention. To the presence of God, He
needed to pay attention. To God's voice.
You think maybe that was the only time in Scripture?
Well, no, there's more before we get there.
It's very interesting, Moses. Then had in a sense full
control, right he he got the people he.
You know, through the plagues and then the Passover, the whole
thing, right? And they're going through the
desert and it's interesting. I always thought it was
interesting. Why didn't God just like if they
needed to get away from those evil people, why did God not
just take him through a shortcut?
Why did he have to go? It didn't say.
You're a Bible scholar in the room.
Test me on this, he didn't say. Let my people go so that we
might worship Him in the land. I promise.
But I might worship him in the desert.
Why? Because if you if those.
People in Israel were anything like us.
If we get everything we want, we begin worshipping the things of
God, not God himself. So.
God in his mercy. If you're going through a trial
this morning, God in his mercy is taking you through the desert
a little longer way than the shortcut to get there.
So that you might meet with him. So that we don't worship the
promises of God, but the promisor.
Do you understand what life's all about?
If you came this morning, I'm not sure what you think church
is all about. But it's not.
About a lesson. I'm not giving a Lesson plan
today. Sometimes I don't even know
what's going to come out of my mouth at the times.
But what God is wanting to set up in your life is an.
Encounter with him and it's not just once a month or once a
year, but every day and he's looking for a people that will
turn aside. You.
Fast forward a little bit, you enter into the story of.
Samuel, Samuel's sleeping and he just, he's like, you don't get a
knock, but he's like Samuel Samuel.
He's like, what's going on? What's happening?
Is it a dream? I don't know.
And he's like, no, it's a voice. She goes to Eli.
You calling me? Eli's like go to bed.
You know. And so he goes to bed.
Samuel, Samuel. He gets up again.
He's like, what's going on? God could have done it another.
Way God doesn't, you know, if he really wants.
Our attention, he can get it right.
He can do a lot of stuff. What is he doing?
What's he doing? He's drawing him near.
He's wanting him to respond. Not to Eli, not to man.
But to God he Fast forward. Jesus says hey.
Disciples, take the boat, go to the other side, I'll meet you
there. So Jesus goes to spend time with
God, and he decides. To walk on water.
It's pretty cool. It's cool to decide that, like
today, I'm going to walk on water.
She's walking on water. It's amazing.
He's walking on water. What does he do?
Says he intends to pass them by. Wait a second.
Intends to pass them by like you.
Only that's not right. Like, why would you?
He intends to pass them by. Why?
Because God is not here to force you to Himself.
He wants to be wanted. Do you understand that when you
draw near to God, he's drawing near to you.
The God of the universe that made you wants to be wanted.
You're like, what in the world? What kind of universe am I in?
You know, he's he's tending to walk by and they're freaking
out. We're going to die.
You know, just seeing that like, he's like fools, you know, like,
I mean literally like they're like, where am I and what
happens? Please help us.
Does he keep walking? Does Jesus keep walking when you
ask for help? Does he keep walking?
He intended to pass by, but when he heard their cry.
He went into the boat. If you're going through
something this morning, I want you to understand something very
clearly. When he calls your name.
There are times when we need to respond when you're but other
times you are in a dark scene and you do not know which way is
up when you cry out to God, he is not he does not keep walking.
He wants to be wanted and there are just two people, right?
And there's two kinds of people when he's washing the feet in
the room right? And John 13, he's kneeling down
like with a towel with a basin and he's kneeling down to these
jokers that were literally all like saying, oh, hey, who's the
greatest? Are you going to be in the right
hand? Are you going to be in the right
hand? What did my mom say this and
that and the other. And Jesus is like, he's just
doing it. He's not.
I don't know if he's a smirk on his face or smile.
I don't know what, but you know, he's just going for it.
He's serving them. And he's saying, look, I want
you to do the same thing. I don't want you look, you all
know, like washing people's feet.
That's not like I don't know if you maybe I mean we've done that
before is not do as I did as it's.
A very important Greek work, right as I did not the same
thing, not do the same thing that I did, but do as I did.
What is he talking about? It's.
Humble love, it's serving, but I hesitate.
I was like, man, I was going to just do all this like this.
A sermon on like humble serving. You know, I'm like, I don't
know. I just feel like we all would
get up out of the chair and be like, OK, we got to do this.
That's not the point of this message.
The point of this message is Jesus gets down on his knees and
a few scenes later he's going to die in a cross for these very
guys who are just talking about who's the greatest.
He wants to serve you this morning.
Do you? Understand that and that doesn't
make sense to anybody. You'd much rather me say get up
by your seat, Sir. You know, like, let's go.
No, no, no, no, no. He wants to serve you this
morning. I don't.
Know what you're going through, but he desires to come alongside
you and hear your cry. But he wants to be wanted.
That's the nature of God. He wants to be wanted.
He wants to. He wants you to draw near to
this one. Who is going to?
Serve you and meet all of your needs.
Amen. That's who he is.
He wakes you. Up in the morning.
If he does 3:00 in the morning some sometimes right with all
the worries of the world, he's not wanting you to just go to
sleep and but maybe he wants to meet with you and calm your
fears as you draw near to him. You just take one step.
Don't even have to be. Some of your just laying there.
I don't even know if I can take this step.
I can't take this step but. You take this step in your mind,
you take this step in your heart.
You say, God, I'm drawing, choosing to draw near to you,
and I know that you promised to draw near.
To me in this moment. And you meet with him.
Amen. Lastly.
I think it's a word for our church.
I, I had this, this word that I, you know, Psalm, like Exodus 33
when they're going through the desert and they're getting to
know God. This is after the manna, after
the quail, after all the stuff, the water bursting from the
rock. He get they all.
I mean, they get to meet. God guys, I mean like if anybody
like I was like man, that would be so cool to watch God move and
it show his love in a way, right?
But God gets to this point where he says, Hey, I'm actually not
going with you to the promised land.
What did Moses say? God if, I mean essentially he
says, God, if, if, if you, if you're not going to this land
that you've called us to, it's not a promised land, it's hell.
I, I, I don't, I don't want to go without you.
And I think when I think about our church, like, OK, we've man,
God's doing so many amazing things in our church.
It's incredible. I love what God's doing in our
church. He's saving people.
People are getting baptized and people are coming.
It's awesome. It's amazing.
But God is just so, you know, like as we enter into a new
season, the summer season, we come back to the fall.
It is no promised land without God.
We want him. I, I just we, we, we cannot go
without like, do you understand? Like like this whole when you
read the scriptures and I just oh, it's like like just want to.
Everybody to know this, you know.
When you what gives me great. Joy is to sit in my office a few
times a week and just to sit with God and to study his word.
And I get to. See.
First hand before I get to deliver it and it's so
incredible those moments of I remember MacArthur saying like,
oh, it's just sanctify. It's like sanctifying you and I
believe that. And as I'm I'm reading the
scripture, I'm like, he really does love us.
Like he really does set up all everything, everything in our
life, every trial in your life, he is this.
Divine setup and a test to test us.
Do we want him or not in the successes?
Would we go to the promised Land and would we?
Go to the next level of success without him.
That's a test what we're all going to go through very soon.
Or when we're going through a trial, are we, are we wanting to
just abandoned ship and leave God?
No, God sets all that up so that we might know him in the
successes. We might follow Him and say,
God, I am not going to whatever next level that is without you
because you are everything to me.
And on the other side, God, I don't really know how I'm going
to make it through this, but I'm going to take one step towards
you in faith and I'm going to meet you there because you set
this up in my life, this painful circumstance in my life to meet
with you because that's what this whole thing is about, this
meeting with God. Amen.
We just pray for everyone. It's just, why don't we just
quickly stand to our feet and just maybe even open up our arms
and our hands or open them this way.
Just receive the love of God this morning.
Lord, we know that we are desperate.
We we can't. Actually like a mantra like just
say God loves me, God loves me, God loves me.
That doesn't. Work what works is what you said
in scripture, that you would reveal yourself to your people.
You love us and you want to meet with us, but it is the power of
the Spirit that allows us to experience the love of God when
we're in a. Trial and we're crying out like
the disciples on that dark scene in the boat.
So you'd come in and rescue them.
We're like Samuel just minding his own business or like Moses
just doing the normal work. He was just working.
He was a farmer. He's he's a shepherd.
I mean, he's a. He's just working like many of
you work throughout the week. And are you hearing, MM, are you
hearing Nathan? Nathan, are you hearing?
Are you turning aside from your work in the moment to hear God
and to hear His love, to hear Him reveal Himself to you?
And Lord, I pray that we would pause and we would see that you
are here. You're coming to serve, You came
to serve us, You came to die for us.
Lord, we thank you for your love and I just ask you for every
person in this room and they would experience your deep love.
This morning that would transform their lives that they
would not be the same. Like Moses was not the same,
Samuel is not the same, the disciples were not the same.
Why? Because when they heard you
coming, when they saw you coming, they turned aside.
Because you want to be wanted. But all along the crazy thing
is, is even though we you said draw near to me and I'll draw
near to you ultimately in throughout the scripture, you.
Were ultimately the first one to draw near to us.
We thank you that you initiated all of this.
So for feeling weak, we're like, I have no energy to actually
take a step. Forward.
God's going to give you that strength because He is the
initiator. All along, His love has been
coming after us. His love comes after us over and
over and over again because. We are too weak.
He is strong and Lord, I pray for every person to receive your
love this morning. Especially for those who are
really hurting and have a lot going on.
I just pray that they would be encouraged even by that dark
scene. Is Jesus intended to walk by
just to test them, to see where are they going to find strength
today? They're going to find in the
world. They're going to find in
themselves, or they going to cry out to God to receive everything
that they need and to find hope again and again and again
through Jesus. Amen.