Good morning again, everyone. We're so glad you're here with us today. Welcome to Smart on Campus. We love you guys. Glad you're connected there. Everybody that's connecting with us online, we're happy to have that connection with you as well.
As we continue our message series we started a few weeks ago called Love Notes, I got a new podium. How many of you noticed? Yeah, this one rolls out. I don't have to pick up that heavy table, or I didn't do that very often. Usually, Mike Scherer did, and I appreciate that. But I had one like this before, and I really liked it, but it wore out, and it wouldn't stay upright and everything. So I'm trying a new one. So if it falls today, you'll know it's another failed attempt at a new podium. But I think it's going to be alright.
We are excited to continue this series because we are focusing on what is often called the love chapter in the Bible. It is often used, parts of it at weddings and things like that. I often use a portion of it at weddings, and it just speaks directly to God's love, what that love is like, and how He wants us to love like He loves.
Turn to 1 Corinthians 13. If you're familiar with this, you might remember these verses. We're going to put them up on the screen for you. In 1 Corinthians 13 and verse 4, it says this:
"Love is patient, love is kind, it does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud."
We've already covered the first few: the patience and the kindness, and last week we talked about how we shouldn't envy. This week we're focusing on how this kind of love does not boast and it's not proud. We're talking about developing humility in our lives.
Now, some people have a personality trait where they're withdrawn; they appear to be more humble, but that doesn't always mean they are. They might still be struggling with humility even though they may not be outwardly showing that as much. I think everyone in our culture, because it's fed into us all the time to take care of yourself, look out for yourself, lift yourself up, make sure you get yours, it's pushed on us a lot, and we have to battle that all the time.
So what we're talking about is developing something that may not always be in the flesh natural for us to remain humble. But God wants us to love with this trait of humility. In fact, when you look at Scripture, I went back and just looked at it again, some key characters in biblical history. God has often humbled people before He ever used them and exalted them.
Think about Moses for a moment. Moses tried to act on his own power and his own strength, and it got him in trouble, and then God humbled him. He had to escape, and he had to go to a remote area, and for 40 years he had Moses tending sheep in the middle of nowhere before He called him to go back and lead his people out of Egypt.
Joseph, a very gifted, talented person, well-loved, but he had to spend some time in prison before God really exalted him and used him in great ways. Peter, think about the Apostle Peter. He's such a great bold preacher for Christ in Scripture, but before that, he denied Christ three times. Immediately after that third denial, you know what happened? Jesus looked right at him; their eyes met. Imagine how humbling that was. He swore he would never let Jesus down, and then in that moment, he knows that Jesus knows he's done just that three times in a row.
The Apostle Paul, we know him as the Apostle Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles. Before that, he was Saul, and he was powerful, and he was bringing out threats against Christians. He was going from town to town to arrest and persecute Christians, and one day on the road to Damascus, God humbled him, and he was blinded. He went there with power, but then he had to be led helpless by his friends into town before God called him to do the great things he did as an apostle.
God often humbles us because we have to be humble for God to use us in His strength and His power instead of us trying to do it in our own strength and our own power. And this world really works against us in that.
So I wanted us to go to Scripture. To me, this is the greatest passage on humility exemplified. Now, there are other good passages that talk about this and examples of this, but you can't get any better for an example than Jesus Christ Himself when it comes to humility. Of what it means to humble yourself, to develop humility, to make the decision—because you have to decide to do this if it's not natural in the flesh—then you've got to counter that by making a decision. This is who you're going to be. You're going to develop humility in your life, and Jesus sets that great example.
The passage I want to focus on today is Philippians 2. If you want to turn there with me and pull it up on your smartphone or tablet. In Philippians 2, we'll put these up on the screen too, beginning with verse 1. The first part of this chapter in Philippians, Paul is saying to the church at Philippi and to all Christ followers that we have an amazing example of a humble kind of love in Jesus. And we need to have that as a goal for our lives, that we develop the kind of humility that Jesus displayed in coming here to be our Savior.
Let's pick up in Philippians 2, beginning in verse 1. Remember when it's there for, what do you do? You see what it's there for. He's talking about living a life worthy of the gospel of what Jesus has done for us in the previous verses. Therefore, he says, this should be what we think about and how we approach it.
"If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, are you encouraged by your relationship with Christ? Amen. If any comfort from His love, are you comforted by the love of Christ?"
So he's saying, therefore, this is leading into what he wants.
"If any common sharing in the Spirit, you know what, if you're in Christ, He gives you His Spirit as a gift; we have a common sharing in the Spirit in Christ. If any tenderness and compassion, has God been tender and compassionate with you? He has with me over and over again."
He says, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same—what's that word?—love. He's talking about agape love, being one in Spirit and of one mind. He describes what that looks like now.
In verse 3, he says, "Do nothing, do what things? Nothing, do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit; rather, in—what's that word?—humility, value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interest, but each of you to the interest of others."
That's not how the world tells us to live. The world says look out for your own interest. Take care of yourself, make sure you get yours. But the love of God in us transforms us, changes us to be able to shift gears and start looking out for the interest of others above ourselves.
He says, "In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus." I like that translation; in the NIV, it says the same mindset. Some translations say, "I want you to think like Jesus," which is what that means, to have the same mindset, take the same approach in your mind, in your hearts that Jesus did.
So he's leading us into, I want you to know the greatest example of what he's been talking about all the way through here, of being humble, of in humility, valuing others above yourselves. Who's the greatest example of valuing others above himself? It's Jesus, so listen to what he says.
"So the same mindset as Christ Jesus, who being in very nature God—in other words, He was God come in the flesh—did not consider equality with God something to be used to His own advantage."
Right away, he introduces Jesus as somebody who's thinking of others above himself. Jesus is God. He had no reason to leave His position, His rule in heaven to come here, except that He had the humble kind of love that thought more of us than the position that He had there. And He was willing to let go of that to come and do what needed to be done.
Listen to the rest. "Rather, He made Himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant." The word translated servant there is "doulos"; it means the lowest servant in the household. It means the one who did the lowest, dirtiest jobs that had to be done willingly.
"Being made in human likeness and being found in appearance as a man, He hears that word again, what did He do? He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross."
That's what this humble love did. The example of Jesus in that love is to humble yourself even to the point of being obedient to death, even death on a cross.
Now look at the Father's response to that, verse 9: "Therefore God exalted Him to the highest place and gave Him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."
He goes on after that to talk about doing everything without grumbling and complaining. I mean, when you think about what Jesus did for you, it's kind of hard to grumble and complain, right? After remembering that, after seeing that example, after seeing His humility, His willingness to sacrifice and serve, we don't have any right to go around grumbling and complaining about we have it so hard in our lives.
"I can't believe God, you're making me go through these hard things." Remember what Jesus did for you? He did hard things for you. Harder things than we'll ever face or ever imagine. Therefore, let's develop humility in our lives.
So with the time we've got left, I want to talk about two main things in particular. First, I want to focus on the Bible is full of teaching on the problems with being prideful and warnings against being prideful. So I want to start out today looking at four problems with pride. I could have picked more, but I wanted to focus on four main ones here, okay?
The first problem with pride is this: being prideful produces misunderstandings in relationships. Pride does. If I think I know it all, I won't be willing to listen to anybody. Neither will you. If you come into a relationship thinking that other person has nothing to offer me that I don't already know, then you will never have a close relationship with that person.
If you come into church for a service on Sunday morning and you think Pastor Randy's got nothing he can teach me today, I already know all that stuff, then you will not grow one iota today in your walk with Christ. You will not. Whether it's Pastor Randy or any other pastor, right? If you assume you know it all, then your pride is going to cause misunderstandings.
Listen to what he says in Proverbs 13 and verse 10: "Where there is strife, there is pride, but wisdom is found in those who do what? Take advice." You're not willing to take advice if you're too prideful. If you're too prideful, you will not listen to anybody else.
There's a man who had just completed a first aid course, and he was very proud of himself for doing it. Right after finishing the course, he came up on this accident, and there was a lady there already rendering aid. He walked up and pushed her to the side and said to her, "I've just completed first aid training; let me see if I can help."
And the lady responded, "That's fine. As soon as you get to the part where it says call a doctor, I'm right here." You see how pride can cause misunderstandings? It can cause you to misjudge other people. It can cause you to think more highly of yourself than you should. It causes us to presume and prejudge and overlook others.
And I'm not going to pick on teenagers, but I can tell you when I was a teenager, there was a period of years there when I thought my parents were idiots. They didn't know anything, but I knew everything. It's amazing how much smarter my parents got after I got married and had kids and started doing life and trying to work a job and all that. All of a sudden, I respected them a lot more for what they were trying to tell me and teach me.
Now teenagers, if you're listening today, please learn that sooner than I did. Be humble enough to listen and learn from others. It not only can cause great misunderstandings, but it can also provoke arguments. Pride is behind so many arguments. It really is. And Scripture teaches us that.
In Galatians 5 and verse 26, it says this: "Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other." Right, we talked about envy last week. If you're envious of them and you're a proud person, you're battling with pride, you don't like the fact that they've got something you don't or they're more respected than you are, and it will produce arguments. You begin to provoke each other.
A guy named Lamar Slay, his father was a prominent doctor in the town he grew up in. It was a small town. Everybody knew him, knew each other. And he went around telling everybody he was Dr. Slay's son, and his mother thought he was sounding arrogant and prideful about it. She told him, "Don't keep saying that; just say your name. Just tell them who you are by saying your name. Instead of telling them that you're Dr. Slay's son, just say, 'I'm Lamar Slay.' And they'll probably know; you know, in this small town, everybody knows everybody. You don't have to promote that."
Well, a few days later, someone asked him, "Aren't you Dr. Slay's son?" And he said, "Well, I used to think so, but my mom told me recently I'm not." Misunderstandings, arguments, conflict come out of pride oftentimes. Bragging always gets you into trouble.
Romans 12:16 says this: "Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited." There's a thin line between competence and being conceited, isn't there? Sometimes we cross that line. There's nothing wrong with being confident, but be confident with who you are in Christ.
Now that's where your confidence needs to be, not in yourself, in your own power, in your own strength, in your own wisdom and talents. Be confident in Christ. Gregory Peck, who was a great actor years ago, very famous at the height of his career, went to an exclusive restaurant in Beverly Hills with some friends. He went up to get a table, and they said it's going to be a two-hour wait. He came back to the friends and said it will be two hours.
And his friends said, "Why didn't you tell them who you were?" And he said, "Well, if I have to tell them who I am, then I ain't." Don't think more highly of yourself than you should. Don't try to throw your weight around when you shouldn't.
Suanne and I, just this past week, we went to a pastors and wives conference. Somebody had to do it; it was tough. It was down in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. I volunteered to go, and Suanne said she'd come with me. It's a conference we go to almost every year. As pastors and wives of churches that are fairly large churches, they're doing pretty well.
When I was first invited to go there, I thought I probably won't fit in. All these guys at big churches and all that, and I just don't know that that's a place I would be welcomed. Because I had this idea they probably all have these egos; they're probably just not really wanting to show off. And that's why they have this conference and everything.
But when we got there and got to know the people, they welcomed us right in. And it was never about what size church you're at or how successful you've been. It was all about let's help each other. Let's build each other up. Let's learn from each other. They really did want to learn from everybody, regardless of what church you're from or where you're from or what background you're at. And I love that. And we had another great experience like that this year.
But honestly, I was a little disappointed. There's always, even within a group like that where they really set the tone of being humble and let's just work together and learn from each other. As we were waiting to check out, we had to check out of our room before we needed to go catch our flight. And so we had to check our luggage there. They had a place; the valet would keep your luggage while you were waiting to leave to go catch your flight. I liked that service.
So we went to see if we could check our luggage. And they said, "Oh, it's going to be a little while." It was at a time where so many people were checking in and checking out. And the valets were running like crazy trying to get cars and bring cars for people and get people checked in and all. They said, "It'll be a little while. Is that OK? You have to wait." I said, "Yeah, that's fine."
And then somebody else from our group—and it doesn't matter who it was—came up to the window where I was and said, "How long is it going to be?" And they said, "Probably about 20 more minutes before we have somebody available to check in your luggage." And he said, "That's unacceptable."
And I looked and I saw he was one of the guys in our group. And she said, "Well, all the valets are really just covered up right now. We don't have anybody available to do this for you." He says, "Well, that's not acceptable at all. These people and I've been waiting over 20 minutes, and I can't believe you're telling me we still have to wait longer. There's no way you ought to be running a place like this and stopped off."
And I looked, and I was so thankful we had name tags for the conference and didn't have his name tag on. I was so thankful because it said that we were pastors here for a pastors conference. Now, it's easy for me to point that out in that person. But haven't we all been that person sometimes? Haven't we all let the pressure of the moment get to us, and we try to throw our weight around or show how influential we were in some way?
That's the opposite of what you're talking about here. That's what causes conflict in the world, provokes arguments.
Well, something else. Another problem with pride is this: it prevents intimacy when you have too much pride. It really prevents intimacy. It's hard to get close to a prideful person. You know why? Because image is so important to them. They don't want you to get close enough to see the cracks and the flaws in their lives. So they put up these walls and these barriers to keep you from getting too close.
And as long as you're putting up walls and barriers that way, you never have real intimacy in your relationship. You're trying to protect yourself too much. Behind a lot of pride is actually the fear of rejection. If they really knew me, they wouldn't like me. If they really knew the details of my life, they wouldn't respect me or love me or care for me anymore.
You see, pride is behind a lot of that where we won't get close to people. We just don't want them to discover the real us. Someone once said this: "If you worry too much about what people think of you, you might be disappointed to find out just how seldom they do." Isn't that true? We're so worried about image, and they're not thinking about us at all.
And even if they were, it's not their opinion that really matters, right? Not the most. I mean, we want to be liked; everybody does. But that's not the opinion that matters the most, is it? If it is, then maybe pride's a real problem for you.
In 1 John 1, verse 7, it says this: "But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another. And the blood of Jesus, His Son, purifies us from all sin." You see, when you get in the light, what does light do? It exposes everything. And we are afraid sometimes of all of our lives being exposed.
But here's the thing Jesus does for us. If we have fellowship with one another, it says the blood of Jesus, His Son, purifies us from all of our sin. It's not that Jesus is unaware of the flaws. He knows every flaw already. And that's why His blood was necessary to cover and cleanse us in all of those areas that were flawed and cracked and imperfect.
We all need the same covering of the blood of Jesus, every one of us. We're all broken a little bit. And I'm so thankful God can even use crackpots. Because we're all a little bit crackpots, right? We all have flaws and cracks in our lives. The light exposes, but the blood of Jesus removes what would be exposed.
Another problem with pride is this: it postpones reconciliation. Pride postpones reconciliation. Cliff Barrows, who's done a lot of teaching on marriage, says this: "There are 12 words that hold a marriage together: I was wrong. I am sorry. Please forgive me. I love you." If we could learn to say those more regularly, more marriages would last. More marriages would stay together. More families would stay intact.
If we could just learn to humble ourselves enough, not just to say the words—obviously—but to say them and mean them when we say them. See, a lot of people have learned how to say the words to manipulate, but they don't really mean it, and they don't really live it. But if you could say these words with sincerity, it will change everything in a relationship, and it will allow for reconciliation to take place.
I love Jesus' teaching in one area of that that He taught in Matthew 5 in that great sermon on the Mount, verse 23 and 24. He said this: "Therefore, if you're offering your gift at the altar," talking about your gift to God, right, "and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar; first go and be reconciled to them, and then come and offer your gift."
Now, the implication is that your gift won't be welcomed by God until you're humble enough to take care of the thing you need to resolve in your relationships as far as you're concerned, as far as you have power or control. And who's the only one in a relationship you really have power to control? You yourself.
So as far as it depends on you, you make the effort to reconcile. "Well, they should have to apologize first." That's not what Jesus is teaching us to do here. That's not what this kind of love is about. This kind of love acts first. This kind of love doesn't wait for the other. This kind of love gets the pride out of the way and says, "I'm sorry, let's see if we can work this out."
You see, pride delays reconciliation in relationships. We're waiting on the other person instead of taking the lead with humility and love, trying to reconcile. Proverbs 28, verse 13, he says, "He who conceals their sins does not prosper, but the one who confesses and renounces them finds mercy."
You see, humble truth is what sets you free. It really allows you to find healing for yourself and in relationships. Well, you see the problem with pride. We could go on. There's a lot more things there we could talk about, but I want to spend the rest of the time looking at four steps to humility that we find in Scripture.
Okay, four things we need to do to develop a humble attitude and approach to life. Okay, four things. The first one is to acknowledge your mortality right up front. What's the death rate in America? What's the death rate around the world? What's the death rate in Nashville, Antioch, Laverne, wherever you live? 100%. We are all going to die. Let's acknowledge our mortality right up front.
You know the word humble comes from the root word; the word humble in English comes from the root word humus. You know what humus means? Soil or dirt. You know what that means? We all come from dirt. Remember how God created the first human being? He took the dirt and made the man Adam. And we're all descendants of dirt.
You know you can do the genealogy you want. You may find out you're a descendant of George Washington or a descendant of some famous person, great person, but go back a little further. And then go back a little further. And if you keep going back, what are you going to get to? And if you keep going, what are you going to get to? Dirt. You came from the dirt; you're going back to the dirt. All of us are. No reason to be too prideful about that, right? We all come from dirt. We're all going back to the dirt. So let's be humble in between time, between the dirt and the dirt.
We all come from there. James 4, beginning with verse 13, he teaches us this: "Now listen, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow, we'll go do this or that, spend a year there, carry on business and make money,' well, you don't even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You're just a mist that appears for a little while and then it vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, 'If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that.' As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil. If anyone then knows the good they ought to do and doesn't do it, it is sin for them."
On average, 151,600 people die every day, and almost all of them have plans for tomorrow. You don't even know. Quit your boasting and your bragging about all the great stuff you're going to do. Acknowledge your mortality right up front.
Well, the second thing we can do to help us slay this pride dragon is to remember our fallibility. Fallibility. We keep scrapbooks and trophies to remember our accomplishments, don't we? Some of you may still have some old trophies from your childhood accomplishments or your college days, right? They didn't give out trophies to everybody when I was a kid coming along. We had to earn them the old-fashioned way. Right back in the day, they didn't just give you a trophy for showing up. So if you got a trophy, it meant something.
But you know what it meant? For a brief moment, you did something okay, and they recognized it. You know how much that trophy's worth today? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. I'm old enough, thankfully, to have done most of my embarrassing things. I've still got time left, hopefully, Lord willing. But I'm old enough to have done most of my embarrassing things before the Internet. Right? Nobody had a cell phone there recording me when I did the most stupid stuff I did in my life. I am so thankful for that, right?
Because here's the thing. We keep the trophies in the scrapbooks of the what? The good things. But the bad things, we would rather everybody not see those or know about those. But all of us have some of them. That's why the Bible says all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
The Apostle Paul, other than Jesus, is one of the greatest examples of taking that approach of humility with his past especially. He says in 1 Timothy 1, beginning in verse 12, "I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength, that He considered me trustworthy, appointing me to His service." Now why is that such a big deal? Because Paul confesses the problems of his past here.
Listen to it: "Even though I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man, I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and unbelief. The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. Here's a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the worst. But for that very reason, I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display His patience as an example of those who would believe in Him and receive eternal life."
Paul confessed. He confessed his fallibility, how flawed a man he really was. And what that comes down to is this: that exposes our need for a Savior more than anything else. But if you're not humble enough to admit that, you'll never grasp your need for Jesus, your need for the covering and the cleansing of the blood of Christ that He shed on the cross.
If we want to get past that pride, we've got to confess our fallibility, our sinfulness, our flawedness. Acknowledge your immortality, remember your fallibility, then surrender to God's sovereignty in your life. Surrender to God's sovereignty. Philippians 2:8 says this about Jesus. Remember, being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming—what's that word?—obedient to death, even death on a cross.
Even Jesus had to surrender Himself to do what? Be obedient to the will of the Father. While He was here in the flesh, He could still have made the decision not to do what the Father sent Him here to do, and He chose to humble Himself, and it led to His willingness to be obedient, even to death on a cross. Remember His prayer in the garden? "Not my will, but your will be done." That's humility. That's coming under the sovereignty, the rule of one who is over you when you do that.
If you're too prideful, if I'm too prideful, I won't be willing to submit to the authority of God over me in my life. And friends, Satan wants you to be just prideful enough to disobey the Father. That's all he needs to do to destroy you, is cause you to have just enough pride that you're not willing to submit to God's way instead of your way or the world's way of how you're going to live your life.
Cause then he's ruling when you think you are. Satan actually has the control there, not you, because that's exactly how Satan destroys you. Remember in the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve? He didn't have to get Adam and Eve to decide that God was an idiot and he was stupid and none of his teachings mattered. He didn't have to get them there. All he had to do was get them to think, "If we eat this fruit, we can be like God. We can rule our own lives. We can decide evil and good, right and wrong for ourselves."
All he had to get them to do was be prideful, prideful enough to say, "God told us to do something, and we think we know better than God." Maybe that's what he's whispered in your ear for a good part of your life. Or maybe there's been some bad experience along the way with Christianity or the church, and you turn your back on it, and Satan's trying to convince you, "God just wants to restrict you, and everybody else is living that way, so you should follow that plan or that pattern. Do it the way the rest of the world is doing it instead of letting God be sovereign in your life."
Acknowledge your immortality. Remember your fallibility. Surrender to God's sovereignty. Let Him rule. Get your pride out of the way enough to let Him have that place on your throne of your heart, and then you can practice servanthood, which is the whole goal of humility. Love, like God loves, is humble enough to serve others above yourself.
Remember Philippians again, 2:7, speaking of Jesus: "Rather, He made Himself nothing by taking the very nature of a—what?—servant and being made in human likeness. He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross."
We often say and use the word love in so many lesser ways than God loves us. We say we love people, but when asked to or expected to do something we think is beneath us, our pride rises up, and we're unwilling to do it. The greatest evidence that we're not loving like God loves is that we're not willing to serve the way Jesus serves. We're not willing to be a servant to all. We expect others to serve us instead of us being willing to serve them.
The heart of love is a heart of service. Jesus was willing not just to serve, but to serve to the point that for people who in the world's eyes, when you think about it, did deserve it, had not earned any right to it, He still served. You remember the night in the upper room Jesus had His disciples there? It was the last Passover He was going to have before the cross, and He knew the cross was coming very soon after they finished that meal.
When they got into the room that night, you know what nobody did? Nobody took the lead to say, "I'll wash the feet tonight, Jesus." It was a common practice. It was done before every meal. They had walked there in sandals on those dusty roads. What would their feet be like? Nasty. I could ask you to take off your shoes right now. I don't think I want to take mine off. Wouldn't be pleasant. I took a shower this morning, but I've done things since then. Had my feet in shoes since then. May not be the most pleasant thing.
When they ate at the table, it was a low table, and they reclined at the table. You know what you would have close to you? Other people's feet. Does that sound like a fun way to eat? Not without somebody washing the feet before you sat down or reclined at the table. So at every meal, they would have someone designated to wash the feet of the guest for the meal that day. And you know who had that job in every household? The lowest servant in the household had the job of washing the feet before the meal.
And here you've got these guys that have been with Jesus for three years now. They've seen His attitude, His spirit. They've experienced His love and His care. And they don't know it yet, but they're about to witness the greatest example of love ever given to human beings on the cross. And not one of them thought, "Hey, I'm going to be the one who steps up to wash the feet tonight." Of my brothers and sisters, my friends, my teacher, I'm going to wash His feet. Not one of them thought to do that.
They were still battling what you and I are battling every day: pride. "Why should I be the one to do that? There's other people here that ought to do that. Why would that fall on me? I shouldn't have to be the one to do that." And you can imagine what's going on in their minds. See, most of the time, they didn't have to do it in their role with Jesus. They would go places and be guests where other people did that for them.
You've got to get used to that, can't you? We stayed at a really nice resort for this preacher's conference. I could get used to that. It was nice, and they had stuff provided for us. They had desserts in our room when we got there. They had bottled waters for us. They had flowers on the table. I could get used to that easily, quickly.
Got back in the room the next day after some things at the conference, walked back in. I thought, "Huh, they didn't bring us any more dessert." Right, you know, that could happen quickly. It's a dangerous thing, friends, to start letting that pride rise up.
So Jesus gets up from the table when nobody else had done it. Here He is, God, in the flesh. And He took off His outer garment, and He took a towel and wrapped it around His waist, and He got a basin of water, and He washed their feet one by one. Good old Peter said, "Oh, no, don't wash my feet, Jesus."
Well, Jesus could have been a little more direct than me, than He was, like I would have been. I would have said, "Well, you didn't get up to do it, Peter, right?" But He didn't. He said, "Peter, if I don't wash your feet, you have no part of me." And he said, "Just wash me all over again."
You know what He already knew Peter was going to do when He washed his feet? He already knew he was going to deny them that night three times before the night was over. Denied it; he even knew Jesus. And He washed Peter's feet. You know who else was there in the group? Judas Iscariot was there. The betrayer was there. And Jesus went to Judas, knowing that he had already made the deal, and he had the money, probably with him that night, the 30 pieces of silver that he had taken for turning Jesus over to His enemies.
And Jesus washed Judas' feet in the other room that night. Before you ever think again, "That's beneath me," or "I shouldn't have to do that," remember the teacher that you say you are a disciple of. Remember His example. Remember His heart of love that humbled Him to the place that He took on the role of the lowest servant. And He didn't just wash their feet; He went and bled and died on the cross for them, for you, and for me.
Let's grow up to be like Jesus.
Let's pray.
Father, we thank You. We thank You that we have such a powerful example of what it means to love and to not be proud or arrogant in how we love. Love is not boastful. It is not proud. It is not arrogant. Love humbles by choice to the point of being willing to serve others.
I pray for those who today might want to come and follow after Jesus, but Father, help them to know in their heart and their mind that following after Jesus means following Him in service to others. May we all have the heart of Jesus, the heart of our servant. In His name, we pray. Amen.
We're going to offer an invitation today to come and follow that example in following Jesus as we stand and sing. If you have a decision to make, just come right up front while we're singing.
Let's stand and sing together.
Everybody have a seat. Ada comes today to ask for continued prayer with a little update about her niece Chloe. Chloe has been here at the church a lot, been part of our church, our youth program, and all that. She's battled with different mental and psychological struggles, and you told me she recently had another episode of breakdown and has had to be admitted into a facility. Did you say Arkansas? In Arkansas.
So she just wants us to continue to lift up Chloe and those that are working with her to give them wisdom and discernment. She's been battling this for a while and has had some good days and some not-so-good days, and sometimes the battle is one that seems to get the advantage sometimes. But God is not done, and Chloe's still there, and God's still working on her, and her heart and her mind and transforming power is at work there.
So that's what she wants to pray for, for this to be used in a good way, for Chloe to be restored in a good place again in her life. Let's pray together with her.
Father, we lift up Chloe. We thank You for this care facility that's provided that she's in. Even though it's hard for her to be there, we just pray that You would work with the staff and those that are working with Chloe. Give them wisdom and discernment to be able to offer the right counsel, the right example, the right teaching, the right provision for her to find that You are at work through all of this to bring healing and restoration of health for her.
Father, be with her family and friends that are concerned about her and give them the comfort of knowing that Chloe is still very much in Your care, and You will never leave her or forsake her. It's our prayer in Jesus' name. Amen.
God bless you. Thank you.
At this time, Hugh's going to come and lead us at a time of communion around the Lord's Table.
Well, as we come to a close today, we want to thank you again for being here. It's a joy to have this time together with you. If you'd like to continue your worship through the giving of an offering, we have offering boxes available. There's one in the back of the auditorium mounted on the post there, and one mounted on the post in the hallway as your exit. You can drop your offerings in the top slot of those boxes.
You can also give online at lakeshorechristian.com. Just click on that Give tab there, and you can scan the QR code in your bulletin shells. It'll take you right to that page. And, of course, you can mail in your offerings to the church office.
Again, I'll remind you, no matter which way you do it, it does the same thing. It shows that you're honoring God, putting Him first, and it supports the work in the ministry of the church that He planted on this earth. So thank you for faithfully being a part of supporting that work, that God is still actively doing that work right here through this church and churches all around the world every day.
And I thank you for helping to support that. We are going to close out with Jeremy coming up to share a few announcements with us and then close us out in prayer.
Thanks, Jeremy.
on Feb 26, 2024
