The Upside Down Kingdom- Breakthrough Faith

Well I don't know if any of you have had the privilege of being in the Holy Land, but uh when you go to Israel, a little more dangerous to go these days.

I'm glad I went when I went some years ago.

I'm not even sure you could go to all the places.

Bethlehem's on the West Bank.

But it's really cool to go uh to Bethlehem.

Now you realize that they built churches over all these sites that they think were the Jesus places.

So It's not quite this.

I don't think those churches were there.

Do you in the thirty AD?

I'm pretty sure.

But uh the Church of the Nativity What's happened over the years is the archaeologists have determined, they think there was just one inn in Bethlehem at the time of Jesus' birth, and the best they can determine it was probably where the church of the nativity was built.

And basically what you see when you go into the church and you've got to go through the nave of the church and go downstairs into the basement because we know that the manger was more a cave than anything else, and um you are in the cave that's underneath the church And uh and you it it's um uh obviously it's very humble and uh it just you still feel uh you know some kind of a Jesus feeling when you are there, just remembering this is where the the fireworks in the reverse arrived.

But to get into the Church of the Nativity, I just, for me this was interesting.

The door is about this high.

This means even I have to duck to get in.

And um actually the reason for that, I don't know if you really care, but uh during the uh oh about a thousand years ago when uh Muslim armies were sweeping through and and conquering a lot of territory uh they they actually closed up the door of the church of the nativity so horses couldn't get in there and ransack it Well today as as I got to the Church of the Nativity and some of you would have like a major chiropractic issue getting in there, believe me, but it wasn't as bad for me, but I you know and so you got you've really got to stoop low to go into that Jesus place.

And I thought, how appropriate that is.

That to get to any real Jesus place in your life You don't stand up straight.

You've got to stoop low.

It is the posture Jesus himself assumed in his very birth, that very nativity.

We're going to talk about the upside-down kingdom for the next few minutes.

Let me take you to the scene, and we'll go to the scriptures in a minute in John 13.

As you can tell, I've kind of landed on several key chapters in the book of John that I think captured the glory road.

We were in John 2 and John 4 and John 15 this morning.

But tonight, the 13th chapter of John, we've read it a lot of times, but I if you can enter into the experience of the disciples and how this must have, they did not have a file folder, what was going to happen in that upper room.

This was unprecedented.

It was Peter didn't even like it.

Peter argued with it.

Peter said, you can't do this It's just wrong.

See, Jesus displays his glory in the most unusual ways.

On a cross?

And as he did in John 13.

He's getting the disciples ready, obviously, for his departure, and he's about to issue their ID card.

He's about to give them and every future follower of Christ the ID card they will carry that will identify them as a Christian.

John 13, 34 and 35.

He says, boys, this is what it's going to be about.

A new command I give you.

Love one another.

And I can hear them going, got that.

As I have loved you.

And pretty soon that's going to mean a cross.

As I have loved you, so you must love one another.

By this all men will know.

Here's your ID card.

By this all men will know that you are my disciples.

They're going to be able to tell by the way you love one another.

Love like he does.

Now, Jesus is not one to just leave things abstract.

He tells parables because fishermen are like when they hear kingdom of heaven, they're going.

What is the kingdom of heaven?

And he says it's like this wheat field and it's, you know, and we got this grape vine going and we got the sheep and the shepherd.

So Jesus is going to show them.

An unforgettable for the rest of their lives example of what loving like he does actually looks like in action.

They're in their final hours together before the cross.

He flushes out what a world-changing love is going to look like, and is it ever a surprise?

John 13, 1-3.

It was just before the Passover feast.

God's Lamb, of course, is on the verge of being sacrificed.

Jesus knew that the time had come for him.

Throughout the Gospel of John, he kept saying it's not time, it's not time, it's not time.

He says, it's time.

The time had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father.

Having loved his own, who were in the world, Now, we know this was the cross, but he did something immediately that did this to a lesser extent.

He now showed them how much he loved them.

I love you guys, but man, I'm gonna show you how much And he wants them to see how you do that.

Let's go.

Next verse.

The evening meal was being served.

The devil had already prompted Judas Iscariot, who's in the room, son of Simon, to betray Jesus.

Now this is important.

Jesus, and what does this have to do with the story?

It has everything to do with the story.

Jesus knew that the Father Now there's why is this kind of like that thing where Jesus loved Mary Martha and Lazarus?

This is like an editorial footnote to in a narrative.

Why are we saying this?

You'll see.

Jesus knew the Father would put all things under his power.

He knew he had come from God.

He knew he was returning to God.

Now let's stop right there.

What am I expecting to happen next?

A coronation , trumpets glaring, some something that would, I mean, if if if this All things are under his power.

He's come from God.

He was returning to God.

We are going to see a mighty display of his royal identity, his deity.

This is going to be amazing.

Before we go ahead and you know you're ahead of me because you know the story.

I wish you didn't.

I wish I could surprise you with it.

But sadly, the upper room that night was not a happy place.

Because we know that from the other gospels, there was a big argument going on.

Jesus is about to die. for these guys.

And they're going, uh, who's going to be the assistant Messiah?

You know, you're making noises like you're gonna leave and you're gonna probably need a vice messiah here.

And uh I think that would be me.

John says, well, I'm the apostle Jesus loved, and Peter 's going, well, I'm the Rock.

Rocky, me Rocky.

Come on, give it to Rocky And they're back and forth, you know, and um and it gets pretty contentious in there.

And here is like this ego explosion in the room As Jesus is about to go to Gethsemane and beg God, is there any other way to do this?

Well It turns out that the people who want to be leaders and aspire greatly to have power and authority disqualify themselves from that very goal, as far as Jesus is concerned.

Interesting thing, and some of you will be familiar, especially those of you who do management type stuff, if you uh ever read the book Good the Great, it's kind of a classic by Jim Collins.

And Jim Collins talked about, he actually looked at Fortune 500 companies and identified 11 of them, only 11 met his qualifications, that they had been mediocre and by certain measures he had mediocre as corporations for at least 15 years but had experienced a dramatic turnaround because of their leadership a sustained turnaround He only, out of Fortune 500, he only found 11 that qualified.

So he made a major study of them and found out what the leadership was that made that explosion of success possible.

And he ended up identifying five levels of leaders.

And what he called level four was a highly aggressive leader. but who was sort of a self-aggrandizing leader.

Very effective in his leadership, but not so much in his relationships.

Level five, there weren't many, they all all these corporations had the level five leader.

And here's what the that level five leader was known for two characteristics, which seem almost contradictory Internal drive.

And humility.

A lot of times people will internal drive.

Don't have humility.

And a lot of times people who are humble don't really seem to be driving too hard.

But he said those two characteristics were what made leaders great.

By humility, here's what he meant.

He said there is a window and there's a mirror.

A level five leader has a window and a mirror.

And when something goes wrong, he looks in the mirror for the reason.

And says, I am responsible here.

When something goes right, he looks out the window at his people and his team and says it's because of them.

We'd call that humility.

I don't mean to diss Jim Collins.

Jim, read the Bible, baby.

It's this that's that's right here.

That's 2,000-year-old insight.

I'm glad you did your study.

But what's going on in the upper room is jockeying for position, jockeying for dominance, jockeying for superiority, jockeying for the spotlight.

Scrapping with each other?

Sounds a great deal like the American Church, doesn't it?

A whole lot of ego in that room, and the room is charged with ego and self-promotion and competition and conflict.

Warren Wearsby wrote, you would not expect in light of Jesus' coming sacrifice that there would be this kind of ambition and ego and selfishness. in that room, but he said, Satan even goes to church board meetings and committee meetings.

You've been in some of those?

So he was right there in the very beginnings of the faith In the room.

What's about to happen is a living, breathing representation of the cosmic choice Jesus was about to make to rescue us.

Let's go over to Philippians chapter 2.

And this is Paul pulls the camera back and says, this is what was this is really what was going on when Jesus went to the cross.

Doing nothing out of selfish ambition.

Do nothing out of but check yourself on this.

Do you do anything out of selfish ambition?

You do anything out of conceit?

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility, consider others better than yourselves.

So, well that's good that's a nice idea.

Right.

Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interest of others.

Your attitude, here we go, should be the same.

Now this is taken to a whole new level.

This isn't just relationship advice.

Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus.

What do you mean?

Who, being in the very nature of God, this is going to be very important in a minute, being in the very nature of God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped But made himself nothing.

The one who was everything.

Made himself nothing.

Zero sum sacrifice.

Made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, which he is about to demonstrate in a way they'll never forget. became obedient to death, the ultimate act of service, even death on a cross And then of course we know that the passage goes on to say, therefore, as a result of that emptying of himself, God exalted him to the highest place.

He didn't exalt him.

Jesus didn't exalt Jesus.

God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name I love that sinners above every name.

That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth.

Now, let's go back to that upper room.

Who can God trust?

Remember all those shows that become very popular?

Started with American Idol?

The search for talent, you know, and they they search all over the country to see who the greatest talent was.

And then what was the next show?

Um America's Got Talent and now the voice?

That I I don't expect to be called for because I'm saving myself for uh so you think you can dance.

But um The answer is no.

But in the in 2 Chronicles 16, 9 is this incredible talent search.

I don't know if no, it's not talent search.

It's a character search.

The God is on this night in this room Doug actually referred to it when we saw him talking at WLS.

For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth. to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him.

We'll just take that part of the verse.

Okay, what is that telling us?

Right now, the eyes of the Lord are looking at seven billion people.

He's looking over seven million people and every once in a while his eyes stop and he goes, wait a minute.

Whoa.

That's my guy.

That's my girl right there.

Don't you want him to stop when his eyes get to you?

How do you get his attention?

How do you get trusted?

Who can he trust with influence that will not use it for themselves?

Who can he trust with money?

Who can he trust with authority?

Who can he trust with lives?

He says, I am looking for somebody whose heart is fully committed to me.

And I got to look at seven million people.

I don't think he finds all that many, but somewhere, and I believe as he scans this room, he's gonna stop and look at somebody here and go, that's my guy right there.

And it might not be one we would pick.

Because it has nothing to do with looks or appearance or what we would call human human potential.

He says, I know their heart.

I want to know whose heart is totally mine.

Okay.

What happens in the upper room?

is another facet of his glory on display.

Let me take you to what it says in the latter part of John 13.

What Jesus is about to do is display his glory.

Here's how we know.

Because at that same night, it says when he was gone, that would be Judas, Jesus said, now Now he's gonna he's speaking of the cross, but also that night.

He just did something that makes him say, now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him.

So we are on the glory robe right now in that room With all this arguing over who's going to be the greatest.

I remember we're we're we're at our fifth passion of six that will ignite your life.

We've talked about loving Jesus for his unspeakable sacrifice.

We've talked about believing in Jesus for amazing miracles and joining Jesus.

And his life-saving mission.

And surrendering.

Completely.

So you can have supernatural empowerment.

And now passion number five on the glory road.

Stepping up to Jesus' example. of servant leadership.

Stepping up to Jesus' example of servant leadership.

And we're going to take four steps to humility that God can bless.

Because God says, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God and He will exalt you.

When you give up being exalted, he says you humble yourself, that's when I start to promote you.

Number one is surrendered, this is the first step, surrendered entitlement.

Surrendered entitlement.

You remember the verses I told you were important?

Knowing God had put all things under his feet He was coming from God, going to God.

If anybody was ever entitled to expect to be treated wonderfully, to be treated royally, to have his way.

To have people serve him, to have it his way.

It would be the one who has come from God, going to God, who under whose feet God has put everything.

This is the only entitled person on the planet is Jesus.

Here's what entitlement.

You see the definition?

The fact of having a right to something.

I have a right.

I have a right to be loved.

I have a right to be bitter.

I have a right to be promoted.

I have a right to feel this way.

I have a a right to leave my marriage.

I have a right to feel wronged.

I have a whatever it is.

Well, a right to guaranteed benefits.

Now that's the old me.

We were born selfish for heaven's sake.

When you were born, you didn't care about anybody but you.

And you were really good at getting your way.

You've taken care of a baby.

Don't they get their way?

It's a babyocracy.

I mean they rule.

They want something, it's over.

And they're not gonna let you go till they get it.

They're like, I'm hungry And you gonna you are will feed me.

You don't gonna have no peace until you feed me.

You you can decide you go do something else, but you are not gonna do something else.

You're gonna feed me.

You are gonna change me because I'm uncomfortable.

It's my own fault, but I'm uncomfortable.

You're gonna burp me.

Now some of you do that very well on your own.

But I mean there was a time and you can you believe there was a time you needed help burping?

Some of you like not anymore.

People need help when you burp now.

But so So it's like the world revolves around me.

It's all a me world.

Now we get older, but I'm going to tell you that baby's still alive in us.

We just get we don't go wham wham wham.

We have new ways to go wham wham wham.

We have new ways to manipulate and make people miserable until we get our way.

Don't you be elbowing anybody next to you, please.

You elbow yourself if you can do that, okay?

So the old me, what do I care about?

My needs, trump your needs, my needs.

That was not a political statement there, by the way.

You have to be listening for that.

My needs are more important than your needs.

My agenda is more important than your agenda.

My desires are more important than yours.

My satisfaction, my happiness, my comfort.

My convenience, that's what matters to me.

I know of a Christian author, and he wrote in a book that he would come home from his ministry trips.

And he would just walk in the door and immediately be all about all the exploits that he had been in in ministry.

His wife has been home.

Dishes, diapers, garbage.

You know Mrs.

Murphy's law, right?

Murphy's law is anything that can go wrong will go wrong Mrs.

Murphy's law is anything that can go wrong will go wrong while Murphy's away.

And so he comes home and she one day just said to him, Keith, When you come home, you're a spoiled king.

Excuse me.

A lot of us are.

Hey, I've been working hard all day.

I'm tired.

Or I'm not feeling good.

Oh, we're all a real joy when we're sick.

Boy, when we're feeling bad, it's all about us, man.

World, revolve around me.

I'm not feeling good.

I wonder how many spoiled kings we have.

I'm not we're not taking a survey and I'm not asking the wives for sure, but I guess you could have a spoiled queen too for that matter Um I should stop and pray right now.

Um Seriously though, the only one who had a right forfeited it We live in a selfie world.

What a great idea.

Everybody's walking around like this.

The Pope is taking selfies.

Unbelievable.

Selfie.

Jesus says, I don't want any selfies.

I want to take a UI.

Is that a word?

I just made one.

We're supposed to be doing UI's, not selfies.

It's not about me.

It's about you.

It's about me, not you knowing how important I am.

It's about when you're with me, you feel important.

That's Jesus So Jesus took off his God rights and wrapped himself in the limitations of humanness.

And again, the only one who was truly, truly entitled.

Now you know what he did.

It says he took.

A towel, a basin, and he went around and began to wash the disciples' feet.

Knowing God had put everything under his feet, knowing he came from God and was going to God, he washes feet.

This is mind-blowing.

I know we know the story, but you know, the guy, the disciples didn't know it.

And a lot literally, Peter's like, this is wrong.

You can't you can't I know who you are you can't do this and the one who should be served is serving Let's go to Mark chapter 10.

And this doesn't matter whether we're talking about your leadership in a family, in a friendship, everybody's a leader because somebody's following you.

James and John, the sons of Zebedee came to him.

Teacher, they said, we want you, this is another scene in that same room, we want you to do for us whatever.

We want you to do for us whatever we ask.

We're entitled.

What do you want me to do for you, he asked.

They replied, uh let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left in your glory.

Great That's nice that they didn't , at least the brothers didn't fight.

They said, you can have both of us.

You don't know what you're asking, Jesus said.

Do you know what it's going to mean to be by my side?

Can you drink the cup I drink or be baptized with the baptism I'm about to be baptized with?

You have no idea what's about to happen, do you?

Oh, we can, they answered.

Yeah, right.

Jesus said to them, you will drink the cup I drink.

You will be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with.

And these men did die for the faith one day But to sit at my right or my left is not for me to grant these things.

These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared.

When the ten heard about this James and John want what?

That's in the Greek.

They became indignant with James and John.

Now they're like, oh you guys are trying to get a one-up on us.

You're trying to play King of the Hill.

Well we can play King of the Hill too, you know.

It's like kids.

Jesus called them or church meeting.

Jesus called them together and said, you know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them.

He says, I know what leadership usually means.

It means you the boss and everybody's gonna know it.

Their high officials exercise authority over them Jesus, and yet not so not so with you.

Instead, whoever wants to be great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first, well you get to be slave of all.

For even the Son of Man did not come to serve, to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many Imagine now that Jesus, when he talks about serving, he does not leave it vague.

He says it means doing something like the dirtiest job in the room.

And the one who had everything, the father who had put everything under his feet, is under their feet.

Isn't that amazing?

He's at their feet.

I call this game-changing humility.

Can I ask you, when I say humility Who is someone from your life that embodies it?

Now realize humility doesn't necessarily mean I am a worm, I am nothing.

That's insulting God who made you.

You can be a very strong person.

You can be a very passionate person But you can be all about other people.

You don't use it for you, you use it for them.

When I say humility, if I had to, if you had to tell me about somebody, who is the living embodiment of the word humility.

For if you had to embody it in someone , I'm not looking for a name But but who would it be in terms of a role in your life and what makes you nominate them for that?

Can I hear from somebody?

What does humility look like in a real person you know?

Can you give us some words that help us Bring this word down to what when when when somebody has really touched you with their humility, what have they been like?

What have they done that made you feel that way?

Unselfish.

Unselfish.

How did they show?

Why do you say they're unself?

What did they do?

They put others' needs ahead of their own.

Okay, an example of how they put others' needs above their own.

My mom professional woman who who stand up so people can hear you a little better.

My mom's a professional woman.

Are there amateur women?

Oh, okay.

All right, go ahead.

She would go visit people in the nursing home that she didn't know.

Just because she knew they were lonely, she'd make them special treatment.

So she sensed who needed something.

And she she went to that person.

I think that is one of the characteristics of humility, because humility means the magnet for you in a person is not what they can do for you.

It's their need.

When Jesus came into towns, who did he stop for?

Did he go to the rotary?

Did he go with the big theologians?

Did he go with the big Jewish big shots?

No, he stops for a blind man.

And a hated man in a tree, who happened to be a short guy, whose house he went to for lunch, by the way.

No tall guy.

So that's a good trait.

That's a good sign of humility.

Is that they what makes them want to go to a person is their need, not that they need the person Well, okay, so the ultimate somebody serves like a nobody.

To be like Jesus, you have rights.

Jesus had rights.

That's how the chapter started.

He had rights.

But you lay aside your rights.

Do you know what the ultimate example is for me?

Jesus is enduring the most agonizing death ever died.

It is when we are in pain we become the most selfish.

Wouldn't you say?

We tend to become all about me.

Hanging on a cross He's concerned about the dying thief next to him.

He's concerned about his mother.

He's taking and trusts her to John and he says John you guys he's thinking about John he's thinking about Mary He's thinking about a dying thief and he's thinking about the soldiers who nailed him there Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.

This is who we're supposed to be like.

This is why I gotta admit I'm a failure.

What I said this morning, start abiding in him.

You've got to say, I you know, I cannot crank this up.

I've got to get it from you.

It's got to flow from you to me, Jesus But think about Jesus, totally about others, in his most painful moment.

Let's go to that second step, a secure identity.

Jesus knew who he was.

Knew he was coming from God, going to God, everything had been put under his feet.

And yet he's able to be to surrender all of that because he doesn't have to prove anything.

He knows who he is.

Queen Elizabeth was once Princess Elizabeth.

And when her dad was on the throne, she and her sister Margaret had gone for a little hike.

They were at Balmoral Castle, one of their favorite places to go in Scotland.

And um they wandered away and they got so far away on one of the country trails that they couldn't see the the palace anymore.

They couldn't see uh Balmor Castle.

So as they're coming back, they're a little confused and disoriented.

They're both little girls, and they stop at this lady's house, and they're the little girl lady Takes them in, gives them a little something to eat and drink, sends them on their way, and as they're walking up the road, the lady has some second thoughts, and she she goes to the door and says, girls, girls, excuse me.

And the little princesses, they never said who they were, but they swung around and she said, are you somebody?

And little Elizabeth Elizabeth said, Oh no, we're nobody, but our father is the king.

That's kind of us.

I'm nobody but my father is the king.

He painted a sunset tonight we all went ooh ah over.

That's my dad he does that.

He's my favorite artist.

When you know who you are, write these three things down.

When you know your identity in Christ, I am complete in him I am a son of the king.

I am a daughter of the king.

I am a royal prince.

I am a royal princess.

I am God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus.

Everything I need for what I was put here for, I have.

What I don't have, I don't need.

Somebody else needs it.

They got it.

I don't got it.

I don't need it.

I've got everything I need to fulfill what I was God's workmanship to be I am the blood purchase of the Son of God.

I am the temple of the Holy Spirit.

The very God of gods lives inside of me.

I know who I am.

So I am nothing, write this down, nothing to prove.

How am I gonna look if I wash people's feet?

I got nothing to prove.

I got nothing to hide And I got nothing to lose.

Because I know who I am.

Isn't that awesome?

Will you will you put your value where it comes from?

God gave it to you when he the egg and sperm came together and made you.

That's when you got your worth.

You can't add to that by your income, your achievements, your accomplishments, climbing the ladder, Facebook friends, nothing Remember Touched by an Angel?

The TV show?

And the Irish one?

Roma Downing?

God loves you.

That's what she used to say to everybody.

I just seen, I don't know why it's stuck with me out of a touched by an angel.

And she of course is an angel uh you know in in human form uh doing various missions for God supposedly.

And there's this old derelict guy.

He's he's dirty.

I think he had just gotten out of prison.

He was just looking at him.

He's Mr.

Scruffy.

And she gets down to his shock and starts to wash his feet with a towel and basin.

And he's like, just like Simon Peter, he's like, what are you doing?

Because by now he knows she's an angel.

He said, you should not be doing this.

And she looks up at him with tears in her eyes and says, I have to do this.

So I remember who I am.

And it is in the acts, the unselfish acts of serving, that you remember not only who you are, but whose you are.

Then the third step toward this humility God can bless is selfless serving.

Now look at Ephesians 1. 22 says this about Jesus.

God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church.

So I've said this already.

Here it is in your notes.

Humility is me at their feet, not them at my feet.

If the Lord of glory can do it, who do I think I am?

You realize what Jesus just did?

Any feelings you have of I want to be somebody are absolutely devastated by his example.

The one who was the somebody Said, I will serve as a nobody.

I will do the nobody job of a slave.

See, humility is about elevating someone else.

I heard this great story of James Ford has a radio program on the Moody Network and He said that they they lost a special needs child.

Their special needs child died fairly young.

So he's always had a heart for the Special Olympics And he said he went to the park with his wife, because there was Special Olympics, a kind of a preliminary round of the Special Olympics in a local park in the city of Chicago.

And he said there was a scene there he could not forget.

He said when the race started, there was a race they were trying to qualify to go to the Special Olympics, the big ones, and he said, this one little girl took off at a burst of speed and left everybody behind her.

And it's like this isn't even going to be a contest.

And all of a sudden, one little boy back here stumbles and falls.

Everybody stopped.

The girl who was about to win the race and go to the Special Olympics stopped.

And she goes back. to the boy on the ground and gathers all the other special Olympics competitors together and forms a huddle kind of quarterbacks them and they go together and they pick up the boy and they join arms and hold him up And they cross the finish line together.

What a great picture.

This is Jesus stuff when you do that.

To say, I don't have to win.

How many marriages would be better marriages if you didn't have to win?

It's just about crossing the finish line together, whatever that takes.

How many parent-child relationships will be revolutionized?

But you say we're going to get the finish line together.

I don't have to win.

Loving like Jesus means doing what no one else wants to do.

Think about what that would look like at your office.

What would that look like in your home doing what no one else wants to do?

What would that look like in your neighborhood At the PTA, the club you're in, the rotary, the country club.

Loving like Jesus means I don't care how I look.

He wouldn't hang on a cross if he cared how he looked, would he?

Loving like Jesus means getting my hands dirty.

Doing the hard stuff, and I got a couple that aren't in your notes.

Serving when it stinks.

Like fisherman foot.

Serving when it stinks and the working conditions and the serving conditions give you no reason you'd ever want to. and serving when they don't deserve it.

Do you know what had to be an incredibly emotional moment in that upper room?

when Jesus washes the feet of Judas Iscariot.

For Judas is still in the room.

And the man who will sell him out for 30 pieces of silver, Jesus bows down. to his feet and puts himself beneath his betrayer and washes his feet.

You say they don't deserve it?

Your Savior washed his traitor's feet just before he left the room to betray him So uh John 13 verses 12 to 14.

Let's look at it.

When he finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes, returned to his place.

Do you understand what I've done for you?

Who asked them?

I don't think they did You call me teacher and lord, and you know what?

I know who I am, and you know who I am.

I am, I am.

I am who you said.

But now that I, your Lord and teacher, have washed your feet Oh, you also should wash one another's feet.

Now I know there are denominations that take this literally and And uh I remember when we were on an Indian reservation and and uh our team had just arrived, Karen and I were absolutely, we didn't know what to do with it.

Because the native pastor and his wife brought us up front and started asking us to take off our shoes, washed our feet.

I was, you talk about humbling.

Oh my goodness.

It was, and and and so, but I don't it sometimes might mean that, but That was in that culture that that would kind of fit.

But the idea, what is washing someone's feet?

It means looking for a need that you can meet.

I'm sure they needed their feet washed.

And showing love in selfless ways.

That's what washing, I think the the the the principle is, you're looking for a need you can meet and showing love in selfless ways.

Y'all I'll tell you, here's a test of your heart.

Wake up in the morning.

That's not the test.

And ask this question.

Who needs me today?

That's a great start on a servanthood day.

Who needs me today?

You may or may not know yet who needs your smile, who needs your email of encouragement, who needs an arm around them, who needs a listening ear?

Who needs some physical help?

Who needs a ride?

Who needs transportation?

Who may maybe he's in financial straits and needs some help right now?

Who needs me today?

Can you identify?

Ask God to show you somebody who needs you.

And if you don't see them Right now, you don't know right away.

Say, I bet I'm gonna know.

I bet I just I'm gonna ask you somebody's gonna need me today.

Actually, they're gonna need you through me today, Jesus.

They're gonna need somebody who'll treat them like Jesus would treat them.

Help me know when I get to that person Who needs me today?

It might be right in your family.

It might be the person right there next to you who needs you today.

And they might not be able to do a thing for you.

This is a great way to program yourself to be unselfish that day.

It's a good start.

Who needs me today?

Now what would be some examples of do because washing the disciples' feet is also a hard thing to do.

So let me give you some examples, real practical examples of what it might mean to wash somebody's feet today Forgiving.

Oh rats.

Had to bring that up.

To be able to forgive and let a grudge away you're entitled.

You're entitled, right?

You're entitled to feel this way.

They really did do you wrong.

But forgiving is to see a need and show love in selfless ways.

I mean, look at Colossians 3, 13 and 14, like we have a choice when our master says, forgive them of the people who nailed them to a cross.

Have you been nailed to a cross?

Bear with each other, not be a bear with each other, bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another.

You're like, oh boy, forgive, oh boy.

As the Lord forgave you.

I don't base my forgiving of you on the way you treated me.

I forgive on because of the way Jesus treated me.

I'm going to treat you like Jesus treated me, not the way you treated me.

Many a marriage could have been saved by a forgiving heart.

Many a parent-child relationship could have been saved by a forgiving heart.

Many a relationship, many a church.

Could have been saved by a forgiving heart.

You remember the campus shooting at Virginia Tech?

There was a girl named Mary Reed who was 19 years old who was shot, one of the victims at that awful shooting.

And she wrote a journal in her journal that she had a red journal, and she wrote something the morning she died, and her father read it at her funeral.

And she said, until we forgive.

We will be a slave to our unforgiveness.

You really are a slave to the person you can't forgive.

Some of us in the room have a very difficult but very Christ-like assignment to wash their feet.

If he can wash Judas' feet.

Can you forgive the person who hurt you?

You will not be free until you do.

Because forgiving sets two people free.

And you're one of them.

Reconciling.

Reconciling.

That's footwashing.

There's a broken relationship.

Would you be willing to say I was wrong or are you like Fonzi?

I was wrong, you can't get it out James 5. 16, confess your faults to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed Some of us in this room have kind of a distant or broken relationship with an adult child I've seen some healing begin when a parent Would set aside their entitlement and their pride and say I was wrong.

Parents don't say that.

I will lose authority if I do.

No, you'll gain it.

Because they know you were wrong.

They just know you won't admit it.

There's a psychiatric clinic in Southern California, has a sign you walk in, says, do you want to be right or do you want to be well?

You say, well, they were wrong.

Okay, why don't you take care of your 10%?

I bet it's more than 10%.

And I believe a healing of a broken adult relationship can begin with a parent who goes, who's willing to say, I should have given, I should have done more of this or less of this or the way I said or the way I did.

You don't have to say you were wrong about what was right, but were you all right?

Reconciling.

Matthew 5, 23 and 24.

I mean it's it's pretty powerful.

If you're offering your gift at the altar, that's the holiest thing you could do.

And there remember your brother has something against you.

God says, forget me.

Go to them.

What?

Leave your gift in front of the altar.

I'm not interested in your your holy thing you're doing.

It's not holy right now.

First, before you come to me, go to him.

And then come and offer you a gift.

How about loving someone who doesn't deserve it?

Loving someone who doesn't deserve it.

Luke 6.

27.

Jesus taught, love your enemies.

Oh boy.

Do good to those who do good to you.

Oh wait.

To those who hate you.

And then he goes on to say, pray for those who despitefully use you.

How do you do this How do you reconcile?

How do you forgive?

How do you love someone who is giving you no reason to and a dozen reasons not to?

Listen to Corey Ten Boom.

We have several Dutch friends in the room and they asked me to mention someone Dutch as an example.

And so please pay wake them up if they're sleeping.

This is your Dutch example.

Corey Tenboom, many of you know, um, from the hiding place, she and her family harbored Jews at the cost of her family's life. during World War II in their watchmaker shop and Corey went through terrible, terrible abuse in the in the Robins Brook concentration camp.

Her sister Betsy died there. saying, Corey, there is no love, no pit so deep, but that God's love is deeper still.

Corey Tenboom was an amazing glory spreader Anybody who was ever in a room with her felt the glory after a concentration camp.

She said that she was speaking um several years after she was released on a clerical error, clerical error from the concentration camp, right before she was to go to the oven And Corey said, a man came up to her, a German man, she was speaking in Germany, and she recognized him immediately as one of the monsters who had been a guard at the concentration camp.

And he said, Ms.

Tenboom, he said, I have become a Christian.

And all of the feelings of bitterness and hatred and all the awful memories that that face represented to her started to flash back.

She said, I can't do this.

He reached his hand out.

She didn't want to touch him.

And she said, at that moment, she issued a silent prayer.

And she said, Jesus, you are the great forgiver.

And if you will send your forgiving of this man through me, for I know you forgive him.

If you will send it through me, I will give it to him.

And suddenly her feelings changed.

And she reached for her brother in Christ and grasped his hand and said, I forgive you.

There's someone you can't love.

Remember, without me you can do nothing.

Abide in the vine.

It'll come from the vine.

It will not come from the branch.

The branch has no love for that person, but the vine does.

He died for them, whether they know that or not.

They were worth dying for.

So would you be willing to deliver his love if you don't have any?

That's the glory road.

To deliver Jesus love to somebody who really you can't think of any other way you could love them.

Okay Last of all, surprising leadership.

These steps to humility God can bless is surprising leadership.

John 13 And beginning at verse 13, and we we saw what Jesus said about calling me teacher and Lord.

And we've already kind of looked at this.

We don't need to look at it again.

He basically said leadership will be demonstrated by washing people's feet.

Can I just tell you there's something magnetic about selflessness?

Don't you like to be around somebody?

Who's not about themselves at all?

Don't you feel safe with them?

Don't you feel comfortable with them?

So come.

You got no agenda but me.

I'm okay with you.

A servant.

A servant is uniquely positioned to lead.

And this is kind of, this is the payoff of all of this. of this hard thing of being a foot martian servant following the master's example of servant leadership.

There's no one that's more qualified and better positioned to lead than a person who has learned Christ-like humility.

Servanthood.

After the Iraq War, many people who had fled, Kurds, who remember had been gassed by Saddam Hussein.

Many people fled the Hussein Iraq and were in the mountains across the border.

They were dying.

It was filthy, there was no sanitation, there were thousands of people with nowhere to go to the bathroom, with little to eat.

It was becoming almost subhuman there.

Well, the relief agencies started to roll in, many of them Christian agencies that you probably would think of.

But unfortunately, I mean they were doing a good work.

They were handing out food and they were handing out clothes because it was also very cold up in the mountains and the people were freezing too.

But they were doing it from a truck.

So the really only contact with the people was from it from up in the truck and handing to them and maybe saying a word to them if they could speak a word in their language.

But then there was Operation Mobilization Who a friend of mine, George Verwers, started many years ago.

And the OM people did it differently.

They didn't hand out food.

They didn't hand out clothes They got down on the ground.

And they started picking up some of the filthiest garbage you can imagine.

And all day long They were handling this, I don't even want to describe, what they were handling, making it at least a somewhat human place to be.

Guess what was the only Christian agency that consistently was able to share the gospel with the Kurdish people?

It was the people who won the right to do it by serving them.

Think about the lost people you know.

Maybe the name you wrote down.

How could you wash their feet?

How could you serve them?

See, a servant is positioned to lead because people feel safe with them.

Do you know there's almost nobody people feel safe with today?

They don't even feel safe when they go home.

Sometimes they don't even feel safe with their marriage partner.

They don't feel safe with their parents.

But if you are if you're all about them, they're like, well, I don't have to worry about you.

You're safe.

You're a haven for people.

Guess how that positions you to take them somewhere.

They'll follow you.

Not because you have positional authority.

I'm the boss.

I'm the husband.

I'm the father.

That's why.

I'm the president.

I'm the chairman.

I'm the That's positional leadership.

The weakest form of leadership there is.

If all you got to your position, they ain't gonna follow you.

You lose the position, nobody gonna follow you.

They follow you because they got to But personal leadership means that you have personal authority and all of you know somebody who doesn't have a title, but everybody in your ministry or everybody in the neighborhood or everybody in the church respects them and listens to them.

They have authority, not because they have a title, but because they have humility and they are safe and they are servants and they have God's wisdom and they have God's When his eye looked for somebody he could trust, he put his wisdom into them, and they are more power than the people with the titles.

You probably know somebody like that.

And you're safe because you have no agenda but them.

You're not taking selfies, you're taking Uis.

And because you give all the glory to Jesus.

Let's go to 1 Peter chapter 5, verses 5 and 6.

Young men in the same way be submissive to those who are older.

All of you.

When you get dressed in the morning, put on your humility.

Toward one another because God opposes the proud.

Oh, that's great.

You want God in the middle of the road?

Standing in your way?

God opposes the proud, but he gives grace.

To the humble.

Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand that he may lift you up in due time.

Now let's wrap up with 2 Corinthians chapter 4.

Let's go to that verse.

Remember, the God of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers so they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

For we do not preach ourselves.

Would you get this?

Now what do we do about these blind people?

Well we don't we come to them as somebody who's not about I'm not about me, I'm all about you.

They don't know many people who are all about them right away.

You are beginning to disarm them.

We don't preach ourselves.

We preach Jesus Christ as Lord and ourselves, read it out loud with me. as your servants for Jesus' sake.

Do you know who is most likely to succeed in leading a lost person to Christ?

Is someone who makes that lost person feel safe. and loved and valued.

They'll trust you.

You don't have an agenda.

They're not a notch on your belt, a scalp for you to take.

They're like, I trust you.

I would listen to you because of the way you've been so selfless toward me.

So For God who said, let light shine out of darkness.

Now here's the remember the blinding?

I didn't get to the good news the other day.

What was God's first command?

Genesis.

Rat.

Let there be light and there was light The God whose first command that we know of in all time, let light shine out of the darkness, made his light shine in our hearts.

I used to be the blind guy But I'm not blind anymore.

There's hope for that person that you're concerned about because he made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.

Paul is basically saying when we come as servants to people, when we live as servants to others, we position ourselves to be a window for people to see the glory of our Jesus.

How do we get them to see how great our Jesus is?

By serving them.

Not by some magic little speech you have your little Jesus speech you give them But one day you'll be able to explain why you treat them like you do because you're loving them like you got love.

I must conclude by saying this.

Jesus said, I came not to be served, but to serve and to give my life as a ransom for many.

The ultimate act of serving another person. is to do whatever it takes and make whatever sacrifice it requires and pay whatever price it takes. to help them understand the price that was paid for them.

You can do more to no more to serve another human being than to take them to heaven with you.

Ralph Panursky.

A name like that, you gotta play football, don't you?

Ralph Panuska!

Ralph was the uh lowly kicker, but he was a good one.

Played for the San Diego Chargers.

Ralph Binershke uh helped, he he had some like playoff-winning kicks His his uh his holder was a guy named Mike Fuller.

Now for those of you who are not real football people, you're like, what's a holder?

Do you remember Charlie Brown and Lucy?

Just so we can demonstrate Lucy was Charlie Brown's holder.

Not a very good one.

Yeah, you remember she didn't hold.

She moved the ball every time he started to kick.

Okay, that's the holder.

He's very critical to a kicker's success Taking the snap, putting it down, holding it just right.

Ralph Banershka didn't have any time for God.

I heard his story, by the way, the Billy Graham Crusade.

In San Diego.

Because Ralph Panershka was the chairman of the Billy Graham Crusade in San Diego.

What?

Well what happened was this.

He was a young kicker making records and all of a sudden he got a a ter potentially terminal disease as a 20-something young man.

Well he actually came through that but his heart was softer and he kicked Mike Fuller his holder knew Jesus And he said, Mike, you know the pressure of the NFL.

I mean, we could be done.

Your career could be over. with an injury, you're cut one one week.

You're as good as your last game.

But you always, it doesn't matter.

You always have peace.

I don't get it.

He said, I don't have that.

And Mike began to share Jesus with him.

And he said, Mike Fuller introduced me to his Jesus.

And he said, now helping to organize a massive effort to get other people to his Jesus, he said, I realized something and I told Mike this.

I said, Mike You weren't just holding the football for me.

He said, you were holding my eternity in your hands.

Well, in a sense, there might be someone whose eternity you're holding in your hands.

Because you know what they need to know to get to heaven.

And they don't know.

You know what they need to know.

You know Jesus.

You know them.

Who would be the one to bring them together?

Jesus in one hand, that lost person in the other.

There is no greater service than to help them cross over from death to life.

Let's pray.

Lord, we all admit we got work to do on this.

Sometimes we're still the wow-wah baby wanting our own way.

Pride, ain't I somebody?

Feelings come along.

I want to be somebody.

I deserve, I'm entitled to.

Lord help us to remember you in the upper room watching Judas Iscariot 's stinking traitor's stinking feet.

And help us to learn what it means to serve and to let your love and your forgiveness fill us up when we don't have it.

And may we be agents of making other people feel when they are with us how important they are to you How a home could change, a marriage, a parent-child relationship, a church, a business, how a relationship could change with this kind of revolutionary humility.

O Lord, may we aspire to this and walk the glory road with you.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.