Good morning. Good morning, Resurrection.
Wow. OK.
Well, I'm so glad so many of you went to the evangelism workshop.
So I want to catch everybody that wasn't there up Kern
County. Saved my life.
I came here to Kern County to make money because I made $3.00
an hour on a farm in Arizona and somebody said come over here,
you drive tractors and stuff. They got a place called the oil
field, they'll pay you more. So I came, I saw and was
conquered by the oil field. And some of you know exactly
what I'm talking about. But I also thought, gosh, I was
watching your high school minister's sermon last week, and
he said something, no offense. He said something like a
dirtbag. I'm a dirtbag, right?
OK, well, I'm dirtbag #2 OK, just so we're on the same page
about what's happening right here.
Gosh. And I so enjoy serving the
churches. It's kind of off the hook
sometimes. I don't know how I feel about
it, you know, And it is amazing. In our churches, there is so
much fruit. People coming to faith, people
giving their lives back to their faith.
Almost every church I go to, the churches are already coming to
the altar, doing things that they need to do.
And it's just I, I, I, I don't feel like I'm doing much.
We have a bunch of new young pastors that have come into the
churches. They're phenomenally interesting
guys. I like these young guys.
I don't know what it is. I really like pastors.
They, I just, I 'cause I guess I know him.
I was there and, and we, I was a church planner.
I was a new starter. I mean, I understand what that
is, to start from scratch. And anyway, so I'm really just
glad to be here. But the main thing is what Vance
just said. I'm a pastor.
This is just what I'm doing right now.
And I was given the task of talking about losing your
status. Are you guys ready to lose your
status? Yeah.
Take it away from me, will you? OK, that's the Well, that's
Jesus's job. But I'm going to try and let him
do that this morning. But we're going to be in John
13. And so I would like to to read
that John 13 verses 3 through 10.
Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his
hands and that he had come from God.
It 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, 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 only my feet, but also my hands and my head.
Jesus said to him, The one who has bathed does not need to wash
except his feet, but is completely clean, and you are
clean, but not everyone of you. May the Lord add a blessing to
the reading of His Word. I'd like to pray.
Father, thank you for your word. Thank you for how you speak to
us in your church and how your words come out of so many people
and we ask today that your words are found in this somewhere in
this sermon for those that are here this morning, you know, you
knew who was going to be here. You know what they need.
And so Lord Jesus, just do your work this morning.
We pray in your grace in Christ's name, losing your
status. OK Amen.
So three points this morning is I just going to talk.
Keep it really simple. Is the person of Jesus, the
person of Jesus, the washing of feet and the double cure.
Double cure. So this is a interesting I, I
love this series. It's interesting because it's
the longest teachings section in the New Testament of Jesus.
It's the longest time he talked. That's really interesting.
Of all the Gospels that that one is loaded with, that 13 through
17 is actually what it is. And what's even more interesting
is how long it took. This is not a week.
This is not multiple days. This teaching section is ours
only. And it's so interesting that his
disciples and those that were around him remembered it.
There's a little show right now. It's called The Pit.
It's in one of your streaming and the show has several
episodes but it just describes one shift at an emergency room
hospital. I feel like this is Jesus in the
pit with these guys and he's going to do some things that'll
help them. It's his final training.
They've watched him for three years.
They've seen him stop, you know, stop storms, feed thousands,
heal all kinds of people, do all kinds of stuff that they had no
understanding of what it was, and now he's going to do this
with them. Very interesting.
He just wants to have a meal with them, just wants to talk,
just wants to say a few important things, do a few
important things, talk to his father and then do the thing.
Do the thing. The Easter thing.
Yeah. So it starts off, it's very
interesting. It starts off in the very first
sentence of this section where it says that, you know, Jesus,
knowing that the Father had given all things in his hands
and he had come from God, who I think we just sang that shout to
Lord, He come from God to us and he was going to go back to God,
right? That's what the Bible says, and
that's what happened. And so it's kind of all this
high talk. It's all this theology about
Jesus. I want to tell you right now in
Orange County, California, I was a minister down there for a
while, worked at church in Garden Grove and some other
place, Riverside. There's some billboards right
now down there. Did you know that?
You know what the billboards say Jesus is not God.
They do. You said big, big black ones
down there in different locations.
And you know what? They are exactly wrong.
Why do you suppose they did that?
Well, they're poking us. They're poking the Christians,
they're poking Jesus. There are different groups that
might do it for different reasons, but in this we have the
all this high talk in that one sentence and verse 3, it says
that he rose it It's interesting because it says that he rose up
and took his clothes off. So he's just got his, you know,
his, just his bottom area covered, you know, and he and,
and he got up and, and he, he went to do this washing kind of
like his, his birth, you know, his death, his resurrection.
Jesus is an incredible meme all the time.
He's always doing stuff that represent other things to us.
So we kind of go, gosh, he didn't like that because, you
know, nobody understands what he's doing here.
Man. I didn't understand anything
when I got to church, for goodness sake, I had a Deacon
Get Me Out in the parking lot at the church and, and I was just
new there. I've been about a year.
I did not, I could not understand anything.
You guys were so weird to me. It was the strangest thing,
singing all this stuff. And then that guy talked to me
about tithing and I said, oh, my gosh.
And it was kind of serious because he pulled me aside.
You know, when an older guy pulls a young guy aside and
said, son, you know, and he told me that.
And I said, gosh, I got to start wearing ties to church.
That's what I thought he meant. So Philippians 2 says Jesus
rose, it's Philippius 2 is the great theological big talk
section. He says he rose, he emptied
himself of his privileges, of his status, of his everything
and took the form of a sermon. So he washed their feet.
He rose, took, you know, you have a meal with a guy and now
he's getting up to wash your feet.
Man, that is so strange. So that's where you start.
This is the beginning of their training.
We all know, you know that they that they wash their feet for
good reason. Their feet were dirty.
There's lots of stuff on them and usually the lowest person,
the the lowest slave and you know, they had a maybe a several
people that were considered slaves, which were usually
conquered countries that they brought them in no matter who
they were and they made them, they're slaves.
And so the lowest on the totem pill got to do the feet job, you
know, come on in Bobby, wash this guy's feet.
It was certainly the person who washed the feet was certainly
not the host, certainly not the guest rabbi, not those guys.
It was the lowest of the low, the person of Jesus.
He refused his status and he had lowly behavior.
What we have to understand and what you have to grapple with is
Jesus incredibly high status and his incredibly low behavior.
Have you do you guys watch chosen any chosen people in this
room? OK, they get sometimes they do
it and and it makes your heart wince.
Do you know that feeling? You go, oh, shoot, how did he do
that? Why did he do that?
That bothered me. Those things.
That's the wince. So he claims so much and he
behaves so low. Claim to be God.
I have some Muslim friends and Muhammad didn't claim to be God.
I know some Buddhists and Buddha didn't claim to be God.
I have some people that believe in Confucianism and he didn't
say he was God. Nobody said that.
But Jesus did over and over actually, and he didn't even
brag about it. It just was what it was.
In John 8 he said the divine name Moses the I am I am the I
am the I am Jesus took that title.
He said before Abraham was and they took stones to to stone him
right there in John 5. They knew what he was saying
equal with God. John two he forgive sin.
I will judge this world. No one can come to God except
through me. If you've seen me, you've seen
God. Sometimes people got down to
worship angels. And what did angels do?
Oh, I know they said don't do that.
Stand up wrong, wrong. There is right information about
God and Thomas thereafter the resurrection, He says, look, my
Lord, my God bowed. Jesus didn't refuse that
worship. He took it.
But strange behavior, high claims, wrong behavior, humble,
odd. Who did he hang out with?
He hung out with the raw in society.
He hung out with the social rejects.
Tax collectors was one of them. And of course the people that
were more this way of things thought you can't do that.
And then he was over here with the prostitutes and the people
that way said, oh, you can't do that.
He always screws you up. If he isn't screwing you up,
you're not following him. I'm just telling you, he touched
lepers. Love them.
He pushed to the edges all the time.
Edge over here, over here, over here.
Nobody beneath him, but above everyone.
Which is it? It's the same.
It's a conundrum. It's what do you want to call
it? A contradiction?
The woman at the well, he was so patient with her.
He just brought her along. And what about Martha and Mary?
The Martha and Mary seen. I love it.
To this day. They're having a meal, you know,
and Mary's sitting at his feet and Martha's in there banging
pots and pans and stuff. Or whatever, not pots and pans,
ceramic, I don't know. She's in the kitchen and and
Jesus kind of is blunt. With Martha, he's blunt.
He was blunt with his own mother right at the wine making rides a
little blunt woman called her woman.
And then with Mary, he's real tender.
Why the difference? What about the woman?
Here's another. What about the woman that's gets
healed from the the continuous blood flow she has?
Do you know what he did with her?
He made her acknowledge the healing publicly.
Why? What about the guy who's deaf
and he's he, he needs another healing and the deaf mute and
and Jesus takes him into a private place and does it.
Why? Why?
Because Jesus is not driven by ideology, Temperament,
temperament, personality, styles, nothing.
He is guided by the heart of God for people and the crazy things
he says. We can have that too.
So strange, so humbling. And Jesus, what you know about
all the things he did in the gospel is Jesus knew exactly the
point and the thing that the person needed done.
And he knows that about all of us all the time.
We don't always get it, frankly, we don't want it, but Jesus knew
exactly. It's almost like they he listens
to our hearts because the heart is the wellspring of life.
He's always going after hearts because, you know, your mind's
just your heart's lawyer. That's all it does.
I want that. Well, you should get that.
You know, you can just talk yourself into any dumb thing.
And so he knows what's wrong with people's personality.
He knows where our idols are. He knows what how we're trying
to protect ourself or save ourself, make ourself look good
to others. The isn't it funny the crippled
guy where the guys brought the their friend in and they
couldn't get in to see Jesus. So they cut a hole in the roof
of the people's how how crude. And then they lowered the dude
down and they're like, man, we're getting Jesus going to
make him walk and he didn't. He said your sins are forgiven.
So his friends didn't know what his real need was.
They thought his need was just to walk and Jesus didn't do it.
Sometimes He doesn't do stuff we want, and that is exactly His
behavior is radically different than his claims his entire life.
Let me just read you a list. Tenderness without weakness.
Holiness without harshness. Humility without any
uncertainty. Towering confidence.
Unbending convictions with complete approachability.
Insistence on truth, always bathed in love.
Power without insensitivity, Integrity without rigidity.
Passion without prejudice, No prejudice.
Highest of claim, lowliest of behavior, strong.
And you know what? That is actually the thing, The
contradictions, the highest of claims.
And then the lowliness of behavior is actually proof of
God Himself, because no human had ever done that, right?
He's the new way to be human. One song says that's that's a
wonderful thing. I didn't know that.
And I understand you guys are sent to tell people that they
don't have to be the kind of human they are right now.
I didn't know that when I went to that little Spanish church
over at 1010 High Street. I didn't know that.
I didn't know anything but what a beautiful life.
Even people that don't like church, if they see much of
Jesus, but the longer and the further apart, you know that
they they get weird ideas and you get to present Jesus to
people. That is he is the good news,
right? He, he is in his body and he is
in his action and he is in his words.
He is. His claims are high.
His beauty. You know, anybody makes wild
claim, we say they're a quack, right?
They're a nut. That's a guy's a nut.
And the history is full of nuts, but not this guy, not this one.
There's only one conclusion. He is exactly who he said he
was. He is the person.
So now the washing of feet. So.
And, and, and Jesus says to Peter, you don't want me to wash
your feet, then you don't get nothing of me.
You don't get what I want to give you.
It's a, you know, it's kind of a this contradiction that Jesus
continues to act out. Let me just we're going back to
the washing of feet. It's customary to wash guests
feet. It's interesting.
Sometimes people that invited Jesus into their house didn't
show him hospitality. It was strange.
They did it for the rabbis, but they were really there to size
him up. You ever find yourself doing
that, sizing people? Man, that is such a relief when
you can let go of all that. God rescues us from ourselves so
often. But people that set at tables
and they kind of set sideways with a bunch of pills at a low
table. And So what was right next to
you at the table? Somebody else's feet and what
was on their feet stuff. And it wasn't just dirt, you
know, no sewer systems, lots of donkeys on the road.
I grew up around farms. We're always avoiding cow pies,
you know, try not to step in them.
But they they had really. What was that show?
Dirtiest job? Yeah.
So that was the dirtiest job in 1st century.
Dirtiest job, lowest job. And so you had to have your feet
wash. It was a normal thing.
It was normal behavior. And also sometimes they rub your
head with oil because your head kind of itches from all the, you
know, they just did stuff to make you comfortable.
Comfort, creature comfort. And so and so what's really
funny, I, I really feel like this thing is like a small group
thing. You ever been in a small group
and. And, and there there's a
question being asked and the first dude or gal has to answer
it and then it's moving around and it's almost to you and
you're going what did I say? I'll probably say something
wrong. Yeah, you'll probably look dumb.
You know, you're, you're just kind of working.
You're revving yourself up to stupidity, you know, like I do.
And and so here comes Peter, and he can't stand on his Jesus.
Get down by his feet. And Peter goes, what are you
doing, Jesus? Why would you do this?
No, no, because you know what it is?
Those of you who are longer in the faith, it's easier to serve
people than it is to let them serve you.
I'll never forget I was at Cal Baptist University and I was
played a little sports, played on the soccer team.
And I had a hernia, a bad one. And so I, I, I had to have a
surgery. Ouch.
And so I was walking around campus, it's like, you know,
really, really slow. You try not to sneeze or laugh
because those little muscles in there, man, they scream at you.
So you just kind of walk and, and people were walking And I
before that I, I thought, man, I am kind of a little bit of man
on campus here. And then I was like cripple man
on campus or, you know, just, and people wanting to do stuff
for me. And it was just like a six
months of humility exercises. It's easier to serve than let
somebody serve you. But at in the church we learned
to all serve each other, don't we?
Beautiful, beautiful thing. But Peter had pride and Peter
was a sufficient guy. He had a vision of himself as
Mr. Faithful, Mr. Stand up, Mr. can do guy.
I mean, he had this picture of himself, but Jesus said you're
dirty. What is dirt?
Dirt. He is it really about our feet?
No, it's about what dirt represent.
Dirt is a metaphor for spiritual, relational
uncleanliness, spiritual hygiene and and the scriptures are full
of it. When, when David said with
Bathsheba, he said, Lord, wash me clean in, in, in acts, when
there's a giant conversion story of all these people said, be
baptized, be washed clean clean of your sin.
It's the metaphor. It's the barrier between US and
God. It's relationally pugnant,
pugnant stinky. My wife and I are at Subway in
New York and there was some strange folk.
We were riding around New York for a while and there was some
guys that they could just come through the other car into your
car and they could be clear at the other end of the car and the
stench was incredible. We don't like that generally
most folk, and I mean alcohol, urine, just stuff feces, you
know, it's just, and so it's a barrier between people, right?
And it's also a debt. So let me give you an example.
So say somebody that you kind of kind of know, but not that much.
They jump you and beat you up and take your money, which
doesn't sound normal. I understand that, but they do
that anyway. And then you're sent to the
hospital. You're you're beat up so bad,
they send you to the hospital and you're laying in bed and
guess who comes and visits you? The guy who jumped you, beat you
up, took your credit cards, ran them up.
You owe 10 grand on Citi card now and whatever else.
And he's he wants to be your friends now.
Well, tell me what you're doing. Do you say OK?
Do you, Why don't you just say, OK, because there's a barrier?
What's the barrier? You've sinned against me, you've
sinned against me. And Jesus was trying to say,
Peter, you need something more drastic than you know.
So trust me, there's a lot of Peters out there that don't, you
know, they trust in themselves and they say, I don't, I'm not
doing anything wrong. We have a whole culture of that.
There's a big debate about what a good person is.
Well, if you do this, you're not a good, you're over here, you're
not good because you do this, you do whatever.
But it is true for humans and for everybody that walks in this
doors that we all have guilt from the stuff that we've done
and that this is a moral universe.
It's not just gravity at work. It is God's presence that is at
work in this world. And people in this culture want
to say, don't make me feel guilty.
Don't say I'm a bad person because I'm doing such and son.
And and just like in the book of judge, every man did what was
right in his own eyes. Our culture is full of that
bubbles up every week. It's online, it's in everywhere
you go in schools. There is this worldview that
says, Nah, there's nothing to worry about.
You just do what you want to do. You just be who you want to be.
It doesn't matter. A lie from the pit, a lie, you
know, I say, you're good. My grandparents felt guilty
about this sort of stuff. But modern people, we know
better. We have YouTube and videos.
And but if you look on YouTube and videos, you find these
things about shame and guilt and everybody's trying to figure out
how to get rid of it. You know, you feel guilty about
stuff. I feel ashamed about who I am
and what I've done. And, and, and, and so it's this,
you know, how do you get rid of that?
You, you say, I feel I still remember.
I still remember in Texas at a church that where I worked and
there was this little girl and she had this of brother and he
was cross eyed James and he was up.
He was a rough kid. Sometimes we had to pick him up.
You guys don't do that over here at register.
We had to pick him up and carry him out of the church because he
could disturb the whole church. Anyway, his sister somehow heard
the gospel one Sunday and her name was Sarah.
I still remember little brunette girl mom was on the 3rd or 4th
boyfriend and we should just pick him up for church.
My wife and I, that's all we did, take him to church.
And you know, she said when she went forward, she said we're
sitting somewhere back there and she just said I, I got to, I got
to go forward. I feel dirty.
I thought, wow, how did a 10 year old know that?
How did she get that? You know, how did she get that?
And so guilt and shame and so. In spite of maybe not believing
in some kind of moral law, I don't believe in hell or
judgment or any kind of that stuff.
We all, we all know that we're responsible to somebody and, and
it will come out and we will spend a lot of time trying to
make ourselves OK. It's really nice when you get
off that treadmill, when you finally say, God, I can't do it.
That's the first step in all the recovery programs, right?
My life has become unmanageable. It's a wreck, and I can't do it.
Please, God fix me. So what's a cure?
There it is. Peter.
He's just now Peter the disciple.
He's this wonderful, balanced kind of guy, isn't he?
No, he says he is pop off Peter. He pops off about all kinds of
stuff. He's he's a little bit snarky,
cheeky, whatever you want to call it, smart aleck.
And he's he's got enough nerve to tell Jesus not to do
something, you know, I mean, he's just got a lot of nerve and
he wants a whole bath. And I, I, I looked at that
again, that passage and I, and I think I could kind of see, I
could kind of see Jesus down here and, and he's looking up at
Peter and Peter's doing his complaint, you know, and Jesus
is down here getting ready to do his feet.
And he finally just looks at, at Peter right there and he says,
Pete, just the feet, just the feet.
That's all you need washed. So, but he said, interesting, He
said you, you, you get a bath once, you get a bath once, but
you need your feet washed regularly.
So it's the twofold offer. You need your feet washed and
you need a bath once for salvation.
God wakes your life up, God saves you.
He does it all and it changes you.
That's the bath. That's the bath.
In Titus 35, we see the washing of regeneration.
God regenerates us. When I was sitting in that
little Spanish church over on Hyde St. and I heard stuff.
I didn't know why, but I, I knew something was talking to me.
Couldn't explain a thing, very confused.
But I would go to my room on the way out on the West side of
Bakersfield off of Wilson, sit in this room that I was paying
for with this other guy who was selling dope.
And I was just there trying to, you know, work in the oil field
and stay out of trouble. And, and I would sit in my room
and I say, God save me, God save me, you know, and I would try to
read and the Bible made no sense.
Did work? Anybody else do that?
When you become a Christian, you're pardoned.
How many times do you get pardoned if you're stuck in the
state pen? One time.
But then you got to live out the pardon.
You're forgiven. That is salvation.
It doesn't mean though, you don't get yourself dirty again,
right? Are you hearing me, Christians?
There's the bath and then there's the foot washing.
And so becoming a Christian. So in a sense, and, and let me
just say this to you this morning, if God saved you, he
loves you as much that day he saved you.
And he can never love you any anymore or any less than that.
Always, it's always the same. It's always the same love that
God has for you. And what's the foot washing
first? John 19.
If we are faithful to confess our sins, he's faithful to
forgive us and we can walk again in the light.
If there's anything I've learned from being a minister is we need
a lot of foot washing. We need salvation.
But you got to have your feet washed.
And I tell you what happens. You know, if you don't do that,
you end up in weird places. And so you end up, you know,
some people are more religious. They're kind of like Martin
Luther, who used to go to confession all the time till the
priest started complaining to him, him, he's in a monastery.
And they said, this guy's always coming like five times a day
talking about his sins and said, man, Martin.
But Martin finally understood what it was to be saved.
If you just understand foot washing, there's a chance you'll
become a legalist. And those are painful
Christians. If you just understand the bath
and you don't understand the foot washing, there is a chance
that you'll be a libertine. You think you can do whatever
you want, but in fact you're being sinful above the law, I
think. And so Jesus did this and he was
really, when he did this, he said you will not understand
this, but later you will. And so his he was headed to the
cross. It was just hours before his
arrest, just hours, and they did not know what he was doing.
And so today, just like a famous Baptist preacher once preached
Charles Haddon Spurgeon when he got saved, he was a teenager.
He went to a little tiny church and there was some substitute
preacher there. And there was a dozen people in
that building. And this guy preached about look
to me, the Lord says, and I will save you.
Look to me. Look to me, I can wash away your
sin. Nothing but the blood of Jesus
can make us white as snow, can make us whole.
Nothing but the blood. And so I don't know what God's
saying to you because it's his choice.
It's your heart. But I want to have a prayer with
you right now. And this is about receiving the
bath. Have you received the bath?
Have you received the gift of God?
He does it. You don't.
You just say, OK, God, have your way.
That's all you do. So right now, I want you to bow
your head and close your eyes with me.
And I want to say a prayer with you.
Father, thank you for this moment.
This moment when there would be someone who would say, I'm not
sure I'm yours. Lord Jesus, can you, will you
please save me? I'm tired of trying to look
good. I'm trying tired of judging
others. I'm tired of being religious.
I'm tired of being sinful. I'm just tired.
God, please save my soul, save my life, save my everything.
Ioffer myself up to you because you died on the cross for me,
for me. So I receive you in this moment
at Resurrection Church, February 8th, 2026.
I receive you and your salvation.
Now keep your heads and eyes closed and anybody that prayed
with me, please look up here if you will just look up at me.
No one's looking. Thank you, thank you.
And if you prayed that if you're ready for the bath, the
salvation, then we have some tables in the back and I want
you to get up and go there right now.
So just just get up, don't be embarrassed, just get up and go
right back there. And now I'm going to have the
our prayer partners, our ushers, our deacons come forward and
we're going to sing and we're going to invite you forward for
prayer. What's driving you nuts?
This is God said my house shall be a House of prayer.
Don't ever be afraid to come forward and pray.
I was in a church last week. I went forward and prayed and
prayed for them. Please come.
So let's stand and you come. You need to pray and if you need
to go back those tables, you do that.
God's peace.