Speaker 1 0:05

Hello and welcome to the West Side Church's Special Podcast.

Speaker 2 0:13

Well, good afternoon, truly. It has been good to be with you all this weekend. And I wanna start just by blessing the Lord for he has truly blessed us with this opportunity to be together, to worship him, to praise His name. Um, we praise God and we bless God because he has blessed us so richly, not just today and not just this weekend, but all the time. And let us not forget his benefits that he has given us. Thanks to God, and thanks to all of you who've served in so many ways to make this weekend happen. Um, a lot of things have been said about so many different people who have contributed in lots of ways and we're so grateful for that. Uh , I wanna say thank you to all your young people who have made the , made the effort to be here and to be a part of this weekend. You are what makes this weekend valuable , uh, for all of us. And , uh, it wouldn't be a very fruitful youth lectures if there wasn't many youth here. Um, and so we're really grateful for that and grateful for , uh, how much you love the Lord and how much you want to do his will. Uh , I came to Texas for the first time. I think it was 2007. I dropped , I got dropped down here from New York and I didn't know what I was getting into. Um, how many of you guys have gone to Texas camp? Did any of you guys go to Texas camp? We got a lot of y'all went to Texas camp, okay. Um, that's where I showed up. This was before it was a luxury resort, you know, back in the days of , uh, of suffering and pain. Um, but it was , uh, it was quite an experience. And some of my best weeks , uh, some of my best memories, we were talking about some of those this morning , um, are, are weeks I spent at Texas camp under that hot sun , uh, enjoying life with people who have forever since changed my life. I remember I met people in Texas who, who, who helped me in really dark times in my faith to turn my life around and turn back to God. There are people I met in Texas, one of whom , uh, I , who when I reconnected to with in Texas, I eventually married. And unfortunately she's not able to be with me, but I got married here in Texas. And so this state is near and dear to my heart. And I , in all my years coming here, I , I've learned that I can always expect three things every time I come, that there'll be good barbecue, that there'll be great and kind people who will encourage me, and that there'll be somebody who gives me a hard time about being a Yankee <laugh> . And I just wanna say thanks to Mark. This is the first time I think he's ever introduced me without some sort of insult about the Yankees <laugh> . Um, I was so encouraged even this week, there's a , there's a young lady here wearing a Yankee shirt. And I felt, I felt seen, I felt heard, I felt loved. I'm really grateful. And , uh, I , I appreciate that very, very much. Our topic this weekend is more like you and I wanna tell you, I've come here before a few times and there have been a lot of good topics through the years, but I , uh, truly there have been a lot of good lecture shifts , but none with a better topic and a topic that is more needed than this one. More like you becoming Christ like , this is what we need more than anything else in this world. And I wanna say to you as we get started here, that many of us want Jesus as our savior, but we are not interested in becoming more like him. We have no interest in making Jesus our role model. We love Jesus, but we don't want to become like Jesus. And that's concerning because in one John chapter two in verse six, the passage was read last night, whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus lived. That's pretty clear. If we want to live in Jesus, we must live as Jesus lived. And brother PJ just said to us that everybody has a map that they look at. I wanna tell you that everybody has a role model. Everybody has somebody in their life who they are trying to become. Like when I was young, I had a dream of being like a man. Most of you guys probably never heard of him at this point in your life. Um, but a man named Sean Kemp , um, he was a basketball player. He played , uh, at my school that I dreamed of going to one day. Um, and I , and then played in the N B A , he could dunk. They called him the rain man . He could break a backboard when he would dunk. It was a amazing player. And I , I found a way to get my parents to buy me one of his jerseys. I actually ended up with two jerseys. My kids are still wearing them today. Um , I lowered my little basketball goal down 'cause I was only about this tall so that I could dunk like him. And I dreamed of walking like him, talking like him, and becoming like him. Everybody has a role model. Unfortunately, he wasn't always the best of role models. But as I grew over time, my desires changed and I've tried to make it my aim in the past few years of my life to make Jesus the role model of my life. Let me ask you this. Who is your role model? Who's the person in your life that is shaping the way you think that is shaping the way you're trying to live? That is the person that you are trying to become. And if it's not Jesus, I wanna challenge you again as you've been challenged throughout the weekend, that today that you pray to God that your desires will change, that your desire to be like Jesus will change. Do you want Jesus as your savior? Then you must learn to desire him. Also, as your role model for John says, whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus lives . You can't experience God's work of salvation and refuse to undergo his work of transformation. That's not just true for young people, that's true for all of us. We cannot choose to experience God's work of salvation and refuse to undergo his work of transformation. We can't say to God, I really love you, Lord. I'm really grateful. I'm really thankful for what you've done for me. That you came down here, that you suffered and died on the cross. But I'm not really interested in becoming much like you. We can't do that. And I hope that as we listen to the words from God over the course of this weekend, that our desires are changing, that my desires are changing to be , want to become more and more like him. And I wanna tell you, there may be, there may be , uh, there may be no area where we get more exposed for not wanting to be like Jesus than in this area of service. I wanna talk to you for in this hour about serving like Jesus. Serving like Jesus. A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like his teacher. I want you to imagine what the conversation would've been like between the father and the son up in heaven when the father said to Jesus, Hey, you know, Jesus, I got a mission for you. Okay, great. Where are we going , um, into the world? Okay, how are we gonna get there? Gonna be riding on the clouds like a chariot, you know, coming in like, you know, fire and brimstone. You know, I know it's bad down there. How am I gonna end up in the world? Now you're coming in as a, as a newborn baby. Newborn baby. Wow. Well , where am I gonna be born in a barn ? Where am I gonna grow up in a palace, in a place where, you know , um, I'm gonna sit under my vine and my fig tree and people are gonna come to me and they're gonna wave palm branches over me and they're gonna worship me and gimme the glory that I'm going to deserve. No, you're gonna grow up in a small town that nobody's ever heard of. And when you're grown up, you're gonna be homeless. You have no place to lay your head. Okay, well, what's it gonna be like there? How are people gonna treat me? Um, is it gonna be like a place where everybody's serving me day after day, they're taking care of me, they're honoring me? Am I coming down to be served? No, no, you're going to serve and to give your life a ransom for many. Let me ask you this question. If you were Jesus, would you give up being in heaven to come down here? Would you have left heaven being at the throne of God in the very throne of God? When you read the book of Revelation and you read the pictures of what it's like to be in the very presence of God, the beauty, the splendor, the honor, the glory, all of the worship coming to you, would you, if you were Jesus, would you give that up to come down here into this? The son of man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life a ransom for him . A disciple is not above his teacher, but when he is fully trained, he will be like his teacher. Are you ready to become like Jesus? Are you ready to become a servant? I wanna make three simple points here. And they're really not that profound. These , they're , they're quite simple. But I think these points, if you will take them deep into your heart, I do believe they will completely transform your life and transform everything about you . These are the points . Number one, Jesus became a servant of us. Jesus became a servant of us. So therefore we must become servants of others by looking to Jesus and being filled with his love . Alright , we're gonna break these down a little bit. Take a few minutes to meditate and just chew on this for a little bit together. But let me start with this. Jesus became a servant of us. Turn with me if you would open your Bibles, John chapter 13. That's where we're gonna spend most of our time today. John chapter 13, open your Bible with me, John chapter 13 and verse one, John chapter 13 and verse one, let me set the stage for you. Jesus knows that the end is near. He's been on, he's been on earth for now for 33 years. He's been working and serving and laboring and going about doing good for a long time. But the time of his end has come near Judas plan to betray. Jesus is already in process and Jesus knows it. And listen to what the text says in John chapter 13. And verse one says, it was just before the Passover festival and Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and to go to the Father having loved his own who were in the world. He loved them to the end, the evening meal was in progress and the devil had already prompted Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot , to betray Jesus. And I just want to ask you here, I wanna pause here for a moment and ask you this question. Do you remember the last time you were hurt by someone? Do you remember the last time that somebody caused you deep pain? What was the cause? What did they do? Maybe it was this weekend, maybe something that got said last night, something , uh, hanging out with friends. Maybe it was at camp, maybe it was around my parents, maybe it was around my siblings. Do you remember the last time that somebody hurt you? How many of us, the last time we got hurt is because one of our closest friends organized a plot to go and murder us. Jesus is hurt. In the midst of this story, Jesus is hurt. It's the night before he's going to die. He knows that one of his friends who he's devoted the past three years to loving and serving and to doing everything he can to show him the way to follow God and to please God, one of those friends is plotting to murder him for some chump change that's not gonna do anything for him. What did you do the last time you got hurt, the last time you were caught up in your feelings, feeling that pain of some being of betrayal, somebody doing something that pained you? Were you thinking, wait , is this what was going through your mind? What can I do to love this person who hurt me? What can I do to serve this girl who's harmed me in this way? What can I do to help this person? Were you even thinking about that other person at all? Some of us, when we get hurt, we're so self-absorbed in our feelings. So thinking so much thinking about ourself that we're not even thinking about anyone at all. Jesus loved his disciples in spite of who they were. And so he served them. Keep reading with me in John chapter 13 and verse three. Jesus knew that the father had put all things under his power and that he had come from God and was returning to God. So he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing and wrapped a towel around his waist. And after that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples, feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him. When I read these texts, I'm reminded of something Jesus loved his disciples and because he loved them, he served them. Love is service. We have a lot of wrong ideas about what love is in this world. We have a lot of wrong ideas about what love is in our culture. Love is service. Jesus loved his disciples, therefore he took up a towel, wrapped it around his waist and began to wash his disciples feet. It is so hard for us in this world in this day to appreciate how unthinkable this was for Jesus to do this In our world, love is so often it's romanticized. And I'm not just talking about dating, I'm talking about the way we think about love. Uh, we think about love as being attraction. Love is about attraction. So , uh, I love this person because I'm attracted to this person because in some way they're attractive to me. They benefit me in some way. So love is something that's rooted in attraction. They have something to offer me. They benefit me in some way, therefore I love them. Let me just suggest washing feet not the most attractive part of the body. I don't think I have to argue that with many of you. That's not the place that you think like , wow, this is very attractive. No, washing feet is not attractive at all. Love is demonstrated through service. Love is demonstrated through service, and service is an action. It is not a feeling of attraction. Do you get the point that I'm making? Sometimes we get it mixed up. Another thing I'll say in our culture, in our society, love is often viewed as love is accepting and celebrating everyone and everything regardless of whether it's true or right. And hate is choosing to not accept, not agree with, not celebrate what other people say, regardless of whether I agree or not, what does Jesus teach us about love? What is love? Actually love is actually serving people who you have strong disagreements about who you may look at and you may say they're going completely the wrong way, but I love them anyway and therefore I'm going to serve them. I love them anyway. Therefore, I'm going to be kind to them. I'm going to do good to them. They don't have to agree with me. They don't have to be even be on the right path at all. I'm going to love them and I'm gonna care for them. This is true love. Our love is often not really love at all. Sometimes what we say when we say I love you, what we really mean is I have a desire that you are satisfying in me. But here's true love. Jesus demonstrates his love through his service when his disciples were not satisfying to him at all. Look at their behavior throughout the meal. And here's the craziest part about this. Look at verse three again. Notice in verse three that Jesus knew that the father had put all things under his power, that he had come from God and that he was returning to God. This is the craziest part to me. It's not as if Jesus had some sort of spiritual dementia, that he just forgot who he was. And so he said, Hey, maybe I'm the servant here and I'm just gonna pick up the towel and I'm gonna go and I'm gonna wash the feet. Jesus knew who he was, he knew where he came from. It's not like when Jesus became that newborn baby that he forgot where he came from. He knew where he come from. He knew where he was going, that he was going back to be back, to be sitting on high at , at the right hand of the throne of God. Jesus knew exactly who he was, and yet he took up the tower . He knew he was Lord and he had all the power. And yet knowing this did not make him think he was above carrying out one of the lowest forms of service known in the ancient world. He gets up from the meal he takes out, he strips himself of his outer clothing and he wraps a towel around his waist, pours water into a basin and begins to wash the disciple's feet. What Jesus is doing here is completely and utterly unprecedented in this world. It's possible that at the time a wife might wash her husband's feet. It's possible that at the time children might wash the feet of their father, but even these would be extreme acts of love and devotion. They were not the norm at the time. The the role of washing feet was not a high ranking one, it was a role reserved for a servant. And we know from later times and later tradition that actually even , uh, even even Jewish servants were prohibited from washing people's feet. That was a role that the Jews would leave for the gentile servants. I want you to appreciate what Jesus is doing here. This is not the role for a rabbi. This is not the role for a teacher. This is not the role for a Lord. This is not the role for a king of kings. And so imagine the scene , they come together at the meal. Apparently there's no servant present at the meal. So as the disciples come in, they see the basin, they see the towel, but nobody picks it up. Of course, everybody recognizes that the , that the master Jesus has no business picking up the towel, but they refuse to pick it up. For a group of men known to be arguing over which one of them is the greatest, none of them dared to be presumed as the lowest in this group of disciples and pick up the towel . And even as do you notice this in the text, sometimes you gotta look at what the text does say, and you also what it does not say, even as Jesus gets up and grabs the towel and the basin, you can imagine the disciples here, they're nervous and they're embarrassed, but it sure appears from the text that none of them stood up and said , Hey, I'll take, I'll take the towel. None of them offered to take his place. As Jesus gets the towel and he starts to wash his disciples feet, the , the , the , the disciples sit there in an awkward silence as Jesus goes one by one and washes their feet until Jesus comes to Peter. Read with me in verse six. He came to Simon Peter who said to him, Lord, are you gonna wash my feet? And Jesus replied, you don't realize now what I'm doing, but later you'll understand. No said Peter, you shall never wash my feet. And Jesus answered, unless I wash you, you have no part with me. Then Lord Simon Peter replied, not just my feet but my hands and my head as well. And Jesus answered, those who have had a bath need only to wash their feet, their whole body is clean and you are clean. Though not every one of you, for he knew who was going to betray him, and that was why he said not everyone was clean. I don't know how many times I read this before I ever thought about the fact that one of those disciples sitting in the room, that Jesus picked up the towel and washed and dried his feet, was Judas the very one who was gonna go out that night and betray him ? Let me ask you again, if you were Jesus, would you wash Judas feet? I can imagine us disciples are in a circle sitting around. We'll start with the guy next to Judas. Get around the circle, come to the end. Ah , I think we run out of time. Maybe we're gonna go on to the next thing. <laugh> , what would the attitude be like if you washed his feet? Maybe we're gonna ruffle him up a little bit, you know, rub a little hard. Maybe try to shake him into his senses. Tex doesn't say this, but we know this about Jesus from other places. You have to imagine that Jesus washed his feet just as tenderly and just as kindly As he would every other disciple. Only Peter, and I appreciate this about Peter, only Peter was willing to step up and say something so he does. Lord, are you gonna wash my feet? He understands that this is not Jesus' place, but Peter won't dare to offer to take up the job himself. Of course, Peter also didn't understand that Jesus' self humiliation and washing the feet of his disciples was simply a foreshadowing of an even greater humiliation that would take place within the next 24 hours when Jesus would hang on the cross and suffer and die to bring about their cleansing from sin. And in this way, Peter had to accept what Jesus was doing for him in order to have a part with him. Unless we are willing to accept Jesus' humiliation on the cross and his suffering and his service for us, which is fully realized when he hung on the cross. Unless we are willing to accept that about Jesus, we can have no part with him either. We must accept that he died for us. It is a humiliating thing to become a Christian, to think how wretched I am that my God had to come down from heaven and earth and humiliate himself in order to set me free from my sin and to bring about my salvation. This story makes it clear our God is a servant God. Jesus came down to become a servant of us. And so what does that mean for us? We must become servants of others. Read with me verse 12, when Jesus finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. Do you understand what I've done for you? He asked them , you rightly call me teacher and Lord and rightly so for that is what I am now that I your Lord and teacher have washed your feet. You also should wash one another's feet. I've set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. Very truly, I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them. I don't know about you, but I'm forget , I I'm good at forgetting lessons. I've learned even important ones. Somebody did this for me when I was younger and I thought today, you know, to ensure that we will not quickly forget the importance of this story and the impact this story should have. Uh , that I would try to make this story a little bit harder to forget. And so I brought a basin and a towel And some water. Here it is. We got our basin, we got our towel, we got our water. Jesus said, now that I your Lord and teacher have washed your feet, you also should wash one another's feet. You should do as I've done for you who wants to volunteer, to lead us before you raise your hand, before you raise your hand. Remember, you aren't only volunteering here to wash the feet of your best friend sitting next to you, but to wash all our feet. Those of us who showered last night or this morning, and those of us who didn't

Speaker 3 25:13

<laugh> ,

Speaker 2 25:14

Those of us who've been wearing these socks just for a couple of hours and some who've been , haven't changed their socks all week, right? <laugh> , how many of us are ready to take up the towel and wash feet? I wanna tell you this truthfully, washing feet, while it would make for a memorable moment in this church, and it'd probably take a little longer than I got left in my sermon to wash everyone's, it's probably not the greatest service that you could provide to your brothers and sisters who are here today. It might be meaningful, it might be memorable, but it's probably not the greatest service that you could offer to your brothers and sisters who are here today. But what I want you to think about is what is the modern equivalent to washing feet? Some of you have probably got a little nervous. You started seeing the basin come out, you started seeing the water here, the towel. You're wondering if I was gonna call on you. Somebody said to me before the , the , the sermon said, Hey, I hope you say something really good to the young people. I said, I got something to say to you too. They , they , This is not just for young people, this is for all of us. What is the modern equivalent of washing feet today? What is it that you're nervous about that you're like, I could never do this. I could never do that for my friends, for my family, for my church, for the world. Are you willing to do it? To become like Jesus? Are you willing to give up your pride and give up your selfishness and give up your own desires to lay your life down like Jesus and to become a servant? Jesus said it. Read it again with me. Chapter 13 and verse 12, do you understand what I have done for you? You call me teacher and Lord and rightly so for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and teacher have washed your feet. You also should wash one another's feet. I've set an example that you should do as I have done for you, that you should do as I have done for you. You wanna know what it means to be a Christian. This is what it means. Everything that Jesus did for us, we do our best to do that also for others. Everything that he has done for us, we do our best to do that. Also for others. I recognize that there are many things that Jesus has done for us that we could never do for others, but there are many more that we could. And this is what it means to be a servant. It is enough if a disciple will become like his teacher. We really, really love Jesus, the servant, but we have a hard time learning to want to become like Jesus the servant. I want to encourage you today to take up the towel in whatever area of your life, in every area of your life. Take up the towel. Do you wanna be great in the kingdom of God? Do you wanna become something magnificent in the kingdom of God? Martin Luther King Jr. In discussing what Jesus said in Matthew chapter 23 in verse 11, he said this, if you wanna be important, wonderful. If you wanna be recognized, wonderful. If you wanna be great, wonderful. But recognize that he who is greatest among you shall be your servant. That's a new definition of greatness. By giving that definition of greatness, it means that everybody can be great because everybody can serve. You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't have to make your subject and your verb agree to serve. You don't have to know about Plato or Aristotle to serve. You don't have to know Einstein's theory of relativity to serve. Thank God. You don't have to know the second theory of thermodynamics in physics to serve. You only need a heart full of grace and a soul generated by love, and you can be that servant. Isn't that true? Isn't that wonderful that we can become great in the kingdom of God by stooping down and learning to wash feet by taking up the towel, we can become great in the kingdom of God. Are you ready to become that kind of servant? You see, what often happens is while Jesus is showing us that he came to become a servant of us, we are sitting around arguing over how we can be great while avoiding all service at all costs . And it ought not be that way among us. May it never be said of us. What was said of the disciples in Mark chapter 10, when Jesus said to them, the son of man didn't come to be served, but to serve. I wanna challenge you today to become a servant like Jesus. I wanna challenge you today to take up the towel. Let me challenge you in this way, to take up the towel in your friendships. I want you to think about in your friendships, are you being a servant? All of us want friends. And here's the problem, a lot of times we want friend , we want somebody to be a friend to me, but we don't actually put in the effort to be a friend to someone else. I wanna tell you, most of the closest friends I have in my life, most of them, I'm close to them because of the work I've put in to love and to serve them

Speaker 3 31:28

To .

Speaker 2 31:28

And I thank God that Jesus didn't wait for me to take initiative to then be a friend to him, that he chose to take initiative to be a friend to me first. And I wanna tell you, if you want friends, learn to be a friend. Learn to serve, learn to love, learn to sacrifice. Learn to give up your own desires, to think about the desires and the needs of others. Learn the best way to be to to , to have friends is to be a friend. And we need to think about in our friendships. I I was asking, I was on a panel, we were talking to a bunch of young people , uh, up in, in in Pennsylvania at a camp a couple weeks back. And then one of the topics we had was friendship. And I was asking , um, I was asking a couple of the , the brothers who were with me, how many of your friends from high school are you still close to today? You know how many, for all three of us people that we actually went to the same high school as, the answer was zero. Sometimes we get so focused on all the wrong things. It mattered so much to me in high school. What these people thought about me. You know how much it matters to me, what those people think about me today? Not at all . Not much at all. You know what I wish though? I wish that I had been a better servant to them for the first three years of my high school. It wasn't until about my senior year that I really started caring and loving and serving the my friends that I went to high school with. I wish I'd invested more time. My only regret about high school is not that I had worked hard at serving, it's that I didn't work hard enough, that I had I had wasted too much time. The people you are gonna be close to are the people you're going to invest in. Greater love has no man than this, than he lay down his life for his friends. Jesus shows us how to be a friend. Are you ready to take up the towel in your friendships? I wanna challenge you on this. Think about this this weekend as we're together and you guys are gonna spend more time, God willing, hopefully many of you to together tonight. And you're gonna have time. I want you to think about this. Are you just thinking about what can we do to have fun together? What can we do to enjoy our time together? What's gonna make me most happy in this time? Or are you thinking about how can I build this brother or sister up? Why is it that when we come together in the assembly of God's people, that oftentimes we are not even thinking about how we can stir up. We're thinking about what we can get out of it. We need to become servants. We need to become servants in our family. Uh , we need to think about how Jesus treated his parents. You know, Jesus knew better than his parents how to live, but Jesus held himself in subjection to his parents . Why did he do that? Because he was submitting himself first to God. How are we doing it ? That how are we doing it? Loving our brothers and sisters, Jesus, brothers and sisters, man , uh, his brothers especially man, they were jerks the way they treated him. How did Jesus treat them? How do you think he treated them on a day by day basis? We need to be a servant in our family. Sometimes it's tempting as young people. I'll be a servant at camp. I'll be a servant with my friends. I'll be a servant in settings that I enjoy. But when I'm home with my parents and my brothers and my sisters, eh , that's the me time . How are we doing at this? God created us to serve. And that includes my parents, whether I like them or don't like them, whether I appreciate how they're, how they're raising me, or whether I don't appreciate how they're raising me. Whether I God is teaching me to be serving to my brother. That's easy to like and to my sister. That's not easy to, like God is teaching me to be a servant. And if I wanna be like Jesus, then I need to become a servant. I started to say this a moment ago. It disappoints me to see young and all Christians, not just young Christians and all Christians coming into the assembly of God's, people thinking about the church as what can the church do for me? What am I getting out of this? What I didn't really appreciate that worship day , it didn't really build me up. That sermon didn't really help me at all. Is that what we're thinking about when we come together? Just what can everyone do for me? What is wrong with us? Is that what Jesus thought about when he came into the assembly of God's people and into the synagogue? No, he brought the word of God. Do you come to, to , to assemblies with a word from God that you can share with your brothers and sisters to build them up? Do you come to the assemblies wi with , with a desire to stimulate, to stir up and to build up your brothers and sisters? Do you come with questions? How can I pray for you? How can I serve you? How can I help you? How can I encourage you? It disappoints me to see how often we gather sometimes in Brooklyn. We'll be gathering together and there's nobody praying together. We're sitting, hanging out, talking for hours together and nobody's praying what's going on. Don't we believe that God is the one who can change us? Sometimes we can get so self-absorbed. What would life be like if when we finish our assemblies, we spent our time together asking one another? How are you doing? How can I pray for you? Let's pray together. Let me know this week how things go for you. I'm gonna check in on you. I'm gonna be there for you. I'm gonna encourage you. I'm not just gonna see you . This is not a club where we just show up once a week or twice a week. This is a family of God. We are loving family. We are trying to help each other. We're trying to be together, not just on once a week for a few few weeks or for the rest of our life. We are trying to be together for eternity and we need to act like it. Do you take up the towel in your church? Don't think I didn't get much outta that. Consider instead, how can I give something to that and to the people of God? What if part of our conversations tonight as we enjoy these good friendships and the time with our friends and family was devoted to how can we build each other up? How can we help each other? Not just this week, not just through the summer, but when we get back to more challenging times? How can I help you overcome temptation? How can I help you have a greater , uh, desire for God's word and a greater devotion to it? How can we encourage one another? Do we want to be a servant? What about in the world? I love that text that Jordan read for us last night. Jesus went about doing good. I love that summary of Jesus' life. Is that how the world views Christians here? Is that how the world sees you? This brother, this sister, she just goes about doing good. She's always doing good. Do you know, do you know that many of the ways that people came to be changed by Jesus was by ways that Jesus served them doing good for them? I'm not trying to say here that we need to preach the gospel without words. I don't believe that we gotta talk to people about the good news of Jesus. But what I wanna say to you is I can preach the gospel and use all the words in the world, but if I'm actually not living a life that lights up the world, that shows the world the goodness of Christ alive in me, that cares for the needy and for the poor, that cares for those who are orphaned and those who are in distress, that cares for the people who are isolated and strangers and foreigners. If I don't learn to live like that, then what good are my words? Do people actually believe them? Do they think it means anything? I wanna challenge you today to take up the towel.

Speaker 3 39:09

Uh ,

Speaker 2 39:09

I don't know how you feel about this. Um , I think if I end the lesson there, I haven't helped anybody today. Um, maybe some of you, even as I'm saying some of those things, you're , you're looking at yourself and you're like, man, I'm a mess. I'm a problem. I , I know what it's like to be 15, 20, 25. I remember times where I loathed myself. I look in the mirror of myself. I hated myself. Who I had become, who I was, how I lived, things about myself. I think if we left the lesson there, we might all walk outta here. Man, we're really not very good servants. Probably all of us, if we have any humility at all, would have to admit there are ways in which we failed as servants. I'm not the servant I ought to be by God's grace. I'm not who I used to be, but I'm still not everything I ought to be and there's room for me to grow. Is it even possible to become a servant like this? Is it even possible to be a servant? Serving is hard. I want you to think about, we're not just talking about one time thing. We're ta Jesus didn't just wash feet and then the rest of the time everybody's taking care of him and serving him. That's not the, this is a lifestyle that Jesus lived. This is a , this is a lifestyle from the beginning of his life until his death. And even as he's in heaven, one John chapter two says, he's still working, serving us. This is who he is. Serving is hard. Is it even possible to become a servant like Jesus? I wanna say this. Don't take this the wrong way. I think the answer to that is no. No, it's not to serve like Jesus day after day. No, not for men and not for women. But what is impossible with man

Speaker 3 41:00

Is

Speaker 2 41:01

Possible with God . What I may not be able to do when I look at myself and when I try to draw strength for myself, what may be impossible for me to become if I'm just looking inward is possible when I look outward and when I fix my eyes on Jesus, who became a servant for me. And so this is where I wanna encourage you as we end. When you serve, there are gonna be some things that are hard. There are lots of obstacles. We're gonna be frustrated by sometimes. And sometimes we get frustrated 'cause we have the wrong expectations. We're expecting. We think if we served , then we should always be loved and appreciated. Somebody should have told that to Jesus. 'cause people sure didn't love and appreciate all the ways he served them. Sometimes they did. Many of them didn't. They hung him on a cross. Sometimes we get frustrated 'cause we think if we serve, others are gonna be changed by it. Sometimes that's true, sometimes it's not. That certainly is not a promise of God that if you serve others, others will be changed. You know who's gonna be changed. If you serve others, it's you. That's who'll be changed. You'll become like Jesus. Sometimes we just get fatigued. Do I have to keep serving in this way day after day, week after week, month after month? I've been going through this for years. We get fatigued by the exhaustion service. But truthfully, I wanna tell you the the , the main reason I have found in my life, the main reason why I struggle to become a servant is because sometimes I'm following the wrong role model. I've, I've lost my vision. My eyes should be fixed on Jesus, but they're not. I get frustrated because I'm not thinking about, Hey, the goal of this is for me to become like Jesus. I'm thinking about some other goal or some other end or some other reward that I'm wanting from my service. I get fatigued and I wanna give up because I've forgotten how much Jesus spent and was spent for me. I'm following the wrong role model. And I wanna leave you with this last text, Philippians chapter two, and verses five through eight, Philippians chapter two, and verses five through eight. Let me start in verse three. Do nothing outta selfish ambition or vain conceit, but rather in humility, value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests, but each of you to the interests of others in your relationship with one another. Have the same mindset as Christ Jesus, who being in the very nature, God did not consider equality with God. Something to be used to his own advantage, but rather he made himself nothing. By taking the very nature of a servant and being made in human likeness and being found in the appearance of a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross. I wanna tell you this, sin makes you want to use people. But if you'll have the attitude that Jesus had, if you'll fix your eyes on Jesus, Jesus will make you want to love people. Not because of what you will get it from them in return, but because of what God has already given you through Jesus Christ. Jesus came And he lived the way we should have lived, and he died the death that we should have died. And when you realize that the king of the universe has come down to serve you, then you are empowered to serve. Think about this. Our biggest hang up with being a servant is we don't wanna be walked over. We don't wanna be a doormat. We say, Hey, if I become a servant like this, what's gonna happen to me? Well, here's the good news. God in heaven came down and became a servant. Jesus, though he was equal with God, gave it up, became a servant for us. And when I think about the fact that the king of the universe has come down to serve me, then I am empowered to come down from my high horse and learn to serve others. You ain't gotta worry about you no more. The king has got you. And so because of what God has done, you're free. So use your freedom to love and serve others. I wanna challenge you one last time with me. When we leave this place today, take up the towel and take it with you in your friendships, in your family, in the church and in the world. And may God help us by his grace to become more and more like him. If you're here today and you're not a Christian, now's the best time. There's no better day to start becoming like Jesus than today. There's no guarantee that there'll be another day, and we wanna encourage you to help . We want to encourage you and help you toward that end. If we can help you in any way, I'm the I . The one thing I regret about this weekend is not getting to meet all of you face to face , not getting to know all of you and all of your stories. You're a beautiful people made in the image of God. And when you feel terrible about yourself and when you feel like you're a lost cause, you need to remember that God came down to serve you and He knows you. He knows you. He knew you at your worst. He knows He knows every bad thing about you, and yet he loves you anyway . May you use the grace that he's given you to be empowered to become like Him. And may God help us toward that end. If there's anything we can do to help you , let us know as together we stand and sing The last song.

Speaker 1 46:55

Thanks for listening to the West Side Church of Christ podcast. Far more information about Westside. You can connect with us through our website, just christians.com and our Facebook page. Our music is from upbeat.io. That's upbeat with two PS U P P P E A T, where creators can get free music. Please share our podcast with others and we look forward to seeing you again.