[00:00:00] Speaker A: You're listening to the Message podcast of High Ridge Church, Longview, where our vision is to help you know God, find freedom, discover purpose, and ultimately make a difference. We are so glad that you're here and we pray that this message impacts your life as you apply the spiritual truths from God's Word in practical ways.
[00:00:18] Speaker B: Let's listen in.
Hey everybody. I am so glad that you have made it to church today. I want to apologize for being on video.
We did have some scheduling conflicts and I did not want to be out of the pulpit for two weeks in a row if I didn't have to be. So I thought perhaps the best way would be to just record the sermon and give you some original content that I believe the Lord has put up on my heart. That would help you to kind of understand what the Lord is wanting to say to you today. And I think God's got some great things to speak to you today as we turn our attention to His Word. So grab your Bible if you would, or your, your handheld device, whatever you need to, to read the scripture on John Chapter 13 is where we're going to spend all of our time together today. John chapter 13.
And as you're turning there, I want to say thank you for your generosity. All that we do here is only made possible by a lot of people just like you who have decided to be generous, who have blessed us and been so faithful with financial gifts. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. It means the world to me that I can do the things that God has called me to do and that we can do so much ministry in Longview and around the world because of faithful and generous people like you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you truly. Thank you. Also want to say if you've been kicking the tires around this church and wondering, could this be my church home?
We would love to connect with you. We would love for you to be a part of our church family. And so speaking of connection, there, there are three different ways I want to ask you to connect. One is by the connect card. So this is on the seat back pocket in front of you. If you'd be so kind, grab that card, fill it out with your information. If you're new here, place this in one in inside one of the, the giving stations that we have at the back of the room. And, and then we'd love to just contact you and just, just get to know you better. Also, every time that you fill out one of these, especially as a first time guest, we will make a donation to an organization called One child. You can look them up online. They bring a lot of hope to some very difficult places in the world. They feed children all around the world. So spend my money. We would love to be able to make a great donation on your behalf. So that Connect card is one of the ways that we can connect together. Another way is to get into a group. We have groups happening right now. They're all over the city.
There is a group for you. We would love for you to connect with a smaller group of people and just get to do life together. You need that. It's important. Then also our growth track, this is happening every Sunday during the third service. That's at 12 o', clock, our version of the membership class. So we would love for you to be part of that. And if you've wondered if this is your church home, that's your next step for you. The growth track happening every Sunday in the youth building across the parking lot. So hopefully you found John 13 right now, whatever your message today called the low man.
The low man. And as we were thinking of processing and heading towards Easter, I was drawn into the life of what Jesus's last week would have looked like. And, and I was just impressed by his humility. There's so much about the humility of, I mean, the King of the universe, the Savior of the world, but he walked in such humility.
And so as I was reading In John chapter 13, I think it's, it's so obvious. It just screams the humility of, of Christ. And I want to kind of focus on that today. And as I was thinking about what it meant to be the low man, I can't help but, but conjure up some images in my mind of some of the first jobs that I've had. And some of you, you remember your first job, you remember what it's like to be the low man on the totem pole. And some of you are like, I'm in my 50s and I'm still a low man on the totem pole. I'm sorry, I'm sorry for that. But remember when you, when you start off at a job and they, you know, they might haze you or they give you the jobs that nobody else wanted and just the real low end stuff, and you're like, man, this is not, this is not on my career path. This is not how I would choose to do this.
There's specifically a couple jobs that come to mind that had some, that had some hard moments. And one of the first jobs I ever had was putting in fence posts on A few ranches out in West Texas.
And if you've never had a post hole drive, I mean one of those post drivers, if you've never had to use one of those, let me just tell you, that's some difficult work. It's a long metal tube, it's made out of steel. And you grab these big T posts that you're, you know, putting fence, fence post in and you have to drive these things into the ground. And it is heavy and it is hard. And I was doing this at like 11 years old and just, it seemed like that fence was just miles and miles of fence posts.
And if, if you've ever woken up the next morning from using one of those, those post drivers, the, the soreness is incredible. And I did not want to be the guy that's having to be the, the low man on the totem pole, just doing fence post after fence post after fence posts in the Texas heat as a kid. But here I was the low man, you know, doing the job that just, it was hard, difficult difficulty, hard job. And I didn't want to be that guy that was having to do. I want to be the guy sitting in the air conditioned truck, talking on the phone like that's, that's the kind of job I wanted. How do I get that job? How did we apply to get that one?
Because that was a long, long summer, putting in fence posts. And then I remember as a young man, 18, 19 years old, looking for a job and being fresh out of college and high school, I was surprised that the world didn't just open up to me and that career opportunities weren't just laid at my feet because of how arrogant I was.
So the only job I could get was working at a tcby, at a, at a yogurt shop. And, and I was blessed to have that job. It was a tough economy and there was just, there's just not much in the way of, of jobs and careers. And so being a person that had music and, and, and, and that kind of thing at my heart, I wanted to do something in that, in that realm and it just was not working out. So when you can't find the job you want, you take the job that, that's available.
And I remember just within a few minutes of doing that job, I thought, I have made a horrible mistake. Now I ended up working there for years because I don't learn from my mistakes, apparently.
But I remember, you know, there, there was a, it was a rich area of Fort Worth there and, and people would bring in their kids after school and just some of these rich kids and the demands that they had on their yogurt and the way that they wanted it done. I just, I had a hard time not, lord, forgive me, not slapping a kid. I, I really wanted to. And I'm so thankful that that's not on my arrest record because it was close, man, it was close. And when you're the low man on the totem pole, when you're having to do the job that you don't want, nobody else wants, you realize how, how, how hard it is to, to deal with customers, to deal with people that just cannot be pleased. And the way that they treat you, it's, it's humiliating. And when you think about humility and humiliation, those, those two, those two words really aren't the same things.
Jesus came as the humble king, but he also took the jobs that were humiliating in some ways. This is one of the things I want to focus on is Jesus choosing to be the low man, taking the jobs that nobody else wanted. And here's what we see in John chapter 13. Pick it up. In verse one it says it was Jesus knew the hour had come for him to leave this world and to go to the Father. So Jesus knows that this is it. This is the end of his earthly ministry. He's just about to go to the cross. He's just about to leave this world. And I love the words that John uses to capture Jesus's moment as he knows the end is near. He says having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.
That's an important scripture. If you have a, if you have a paper Bible, you're going to want to underline that Jesus loved his own by the way. And if you have received Christ into your heart as your personal savior, you are his own and he loves you and will love you till the end. He has proven it with his character, he's proven it with his words, he's proven it with his scripture. Jesus loves me till the end.
It says he loved his own and loved him to the end. And it says the evening meal was in progress and the devil had already prompted Judas to betray Jesus.
So just it says Jesus got up for the meal, he took off his outer clothing, he wrapped a towel around his waist, he, he grabs the basin and he says he begins to wash his disciples feet, drying them with a towel. And I love how John doesn't just say he washed the disciples feet. He takes his time as he's writing out all the different stages of, of what Jesus did. And that's important for us to notice that there's a reason why John takes his time and is writing out every detail. And that's because this was important.
It was incredibly important. This is not just something practical that Jesus is doing. It's something incredibly symbolic.
And as he takes his time to write down each and every stage of Jesus in this process, it's important that we take notice of it, too.
And it says, he came to Simon Peter.
And Peter said to him, lord, are you going to wash my feet? And Jesus says, peter, you don't realize what I'm doing right now, but later on you're going to understand that's an important scripture, too. There's so much about Christ that, Lord, I don't know why you're doing that. I don't understand why you do this and you don't do that and this is important. That's not important.
But I understand that I can take comfort from your words that later on I'm going to understand.
No, said Peter, you are. You are not going to wash my feet. And Jesus said, unless I wash you, you have no part with me then, Lord, he says, not just my feet, but my hands and my head as well. I just wash all of me. And Jesus answered, okay, you still don't understand what I'm doing. He says, no, no.
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. And I'm looking at you, Judas, could you imagine that moment?
I cannot help but imagine that Jesus says, all of you are clean, though not all of you know. Jesus looked directly at Judas in that moment. He was like, are you serious? Come on, you know what you're about to do. You're all clean, he says, though not every one of you. And when he had finished washing their feet, Jesus, it says, he put on his clothes and he returned to his place. It's interesting that later on, Jesus is recorded in Scripture saying I the exact same words, but speaking of his own life. When it says he. When it says he takes off his clothes and then he puts them back on again. It's the same words later on when Jesus says, I choose to take off my life, and then I choose to pick it back up again. So this is symbolic. And John is capturing this, even though he doesn't understand at the time. It's symbolic of the cross. It's symbolic of his death. He says, I choose to lay down my life, and I'm gonna pick it up again. And so it's interesting that there's so much hidden symbolism in this story as Jesus takes the job of the. The low man.
So Jesus put on his clothes and he's returning back to place.
He says, do you understand what I've done for you?
He says, you call me teacher, you call me Lord, and rightly so. That's what I am.
But now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you should also wash one another's feet.
I have 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.
And then he says, now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.
What a powerful, wonderful, symbolic, incredible story. And I love how John captures the details of that moment. As we're looking at the Last Supper, as we think about Jesus choosing the low man's job, as we think about the humility and also the humiliation of this moment where Jesus takes off his clothes and begins to do the lowest job.
It kind of confronts me because as a, as an American Christian, as a Texas Christian, we have a lot of problems with arrogance and pride. We have a lot of issues with thinking of ourselves as better than everybody else. And I'm thankful that we live in 2026. I'm thankful that we have wonderful things that spoil us all the time, like air conditioning. And I'm thankful that we have a car to ride around in. And it gives us some false sense of superiority sometimes. But here is Jesus himself kind of confronting that in each of us. Now, we, we tend to jockey for positions. We have this me first version of American Christianity. And Jesus just kind of destroys all that with incredible service and symbolism.
And he says, look, no servant is greater than his master.
And I'm Lord, I'm your teacher. He's about to become the savior of the world.
And he says, but yet I'm going to wash people's feet.
I want to give you three things that I think are so important in this story that we perhaps miss as we're just reading through the Bible.
We might miss the nuances in this story. There's things that I believe the Lord wants to speak to us today.
And the first or three things, if you're a note taker, write this down. Number one, love serves anyway.
Love serves anyway.
Imagine, if you will, that this is your last day on earth. Imagine that you. That you know that you're going to die. Imagine that you know your death is coming in 24 hours and let me just ask you one question. Would you go to work?
Would you show up at your job if you knew that this was the last day? Would you want to get in eight more hours to make sure you got a good check? No, you would not. But Jesus did.
Jesus knows that this is his last day on earth and he chooses to go to work.
And his job was to. Was to love them till the end. And love serves. Love has to give and love has to serve. It's one of the ways that we know that Christ is living inside of our heart because we, we. We step outside of our pride and our arrogance and we start serving others. We start being generous, we start giving. It's proof that there's a life change happening on the inside of us. We're becoming more like our Father. Love serves anyway. Jesus knows that the end is coming. He chooses to love and he chooses to serve.
Even though what's about to happen to him is going to be gruesome.
It's interesting that Jesus serves. Jesus washes the feet knowing what's about to happen, not just to him, but think about this. He's washing the feet of people that he knows are going to betray him. Like Judas, that are going to deny him, like Peter, that are going to scatter to the ends of the world that. That had just said, we're going to die with you. We will. We will go to the ends of the earth no matter what happens. We are 100%. We are 10 toes in. We are all down for you.
No, you're not.
And he serves and he loves them anyway.
When we choose to serve anyway, there's something special that begins to happen inside of us. And here's what I know.
Longview is too small to serve and to love. God's people and them stay anonymous. Because chances are, if you've lived in Longview, if you lived in East Texas, you've met these people. And so for some, for some of us, it's. It's difficult to serve some people because you know them, you know their past, you know where they've come from, you know the things that they've done. You. You might know the gossip, you might know their ex, you might know their, Their. Their dating history. And it's difficult sometimes to serve out of love.
And it's. Sometimes it's difficult for us to serve people that we, that we know the history of. Jesus did it.
He proved that he would serve anyway.
I want you to consider that when you think about your own humility and your own willingness to serve Your own willingness to show the love of Jesus as you serve people that you, you know, the good and the bad and the ugly.
And one of the most beautiful things that I think I've. I've ever seen in, in my own church is we have multiple rows in different services of people that used to be mortal enemies. We have, we have people that are sitting on the same row as their ex husband and their ex wife. Have they, you know, gone to court and fought for all this stuff. And now they're, they're worshiping together with, with maybe new spouses and shared kids. But it's a beautiful thing to me to see the restoration of the Lord and how they can love and serve one another and prove that in spite of my past, like we can, we can still serve and love the Lord together. It's. It's a beautiful thing to watch people who have truly had a heart change to love and to serve those that they used to call their mortal enemies.
I think it's proof of a changed heart.
And when we learn to learn to love and to serve in spite of knowing who people really are or who they used to be, it shows us a different lens of grace.
You know, Jesus loves and serves people at their worst, not after they've earned it.
Remember, they're about to be at their worst.
He doesn't wait for them to earn his love. He loves and serves them anyway, despite whether or not he feels like they've really changed that, that they're really saying the words that they're going to hold themselves to in just a few hours. They won't. They're going to miss it. They're going to fall short. But Jesus loves and serves them anyway, because Jesus serves them for what they're. For what they're going to be. He serves them for what they can be.
Jesus sees them not in their weakness, but he sees them through his grace. And this is such a profound revelation for each of us to learn to see people not in their weakness, but through the eyes of grace.
Jesus sees for what they're going to be, for what they can be, and he begins to serve them as if they had become the people that they would become later on in life.
He loves them. He serves them in spite of their flaws, because he sees them through the eyes of faith, not through the eyes of their past. So learning to see people through the lens of grace reframes my attitude. To serve. And I want to just ask you for a moment, do you have a. Do you have a difficult time looking around at the people that. That are in your room. Do you have a difficult time seeing people through the eyes of grace or just through the eyes of their worst mistakes?
Because true love, true service will say, I see you the way that Christ sees you. I see you through the lens of grace, and I choose to love and serve you in spite of the way you've treated me or what you've done.
This is a. It's a pretty profound concept for us to learn to serve people and to love them through the lens of God's grace and not through the lens of our hurt. Here's the second key that we see in this wonderful story. Pride avoids the low job, the low man on the totem pole. Pride has a way of avoiding that at all costs. So John, as he's capturing this story in chapter 13, he includes a detail that we overlook sometimes, and it's important that we see this. He says this in scripture. The mill was in progress.
Now, why is that such a big deal to me? Because foot washing in the first century culture was a big deal. It was done by the lowest of slaves. And by the way, there were even some laws written that said even the lowest of the Jewish slaves, the Israelites, could not wash feet because it's such a demeaning job. And so often this would be a gentile, the lowest slave, the lowest form that would come in wearing just the undergarments and just the towel and a basin and would do the job that nobody else wanted. And pride in each of us avoids that job at all costs. I am better than that. I don't have to do the job. That.
That is demeaning. That's beneath me.
But John says this.
We understand that foot washing was supposed to be done at the. At the beginning of the meal, but he says the. The meal was already in process.
And what that means, it means that the towel was there, the basin was there, The. The. The water was already full. And this tells us that they all saw it, but nobody did it.
They all saw the need. They all saw that this was supposed to happen, but nobody did it. Remind yourself, in this culture, foot washing was not just symbolic. No, no, no. This was a practical thing because people are wearing sandals 24 7.
They're walking everywhere. This is not just, oh, where are my summer sandals? Like, no, no, no. This is like, this is dusty roads. There's no asphalt, so everything is muddy. Everything is dusty. Remind yourself there's a lot of animals on these roads. You can imagine some of the things that people stepped in. And so foot Washing is a necessity, bro, because you're about to eat. And so the, the. This is not just a symbolic ceremonial thing that Jesus did. No, no. This is a, this is a nasty job.
Because you're about to eat a meal. You don't want the smell of people's sweaty, dirty, nasty feet to interrupt your meal, but the meal is already in process. That means all of them had seen the, the tools for washing feet, but nobody did it. Why? Because they were busy.
What were they busy doing? And here's the interesting thing. In Luke chapter 22, it tells us exactly what they were doing that caused them to ignore the foot washing. It says this in chapter 22, verse 24, a dispute also arose among them as to which of them was the greatest.
Which of them was the greatest.
Here's what we find, and I want to put this on the screen. The greatest barrier to serving is rarely ability. It's usually pride. I'm better than that. I don't have to do that. That's for somebody else to do. Oh, that's, that's, that's. That's not worth my time.
Leave that job for somebody else. It's interesting that in that moment of them arguing about who's the greatest and who's going to have these great positions in the kingdom of heaven, the mill was already in process.
Jesus Christ, the son of the Most High God, stands up and begins to remove his outer clothing and takes the job that nobody else wanted.
And John records, line by line, how awkward that was for them to hear and for them to see, for them to experience and to be washed.
He records the awkwardness in the room.
It was painful for Jesus to dress himself like the lowest of gentile slaves and begin to serve them.
That would have been hard to see.
But Jesus gives a living sermon. Remind yourself this is in his last hours.
He begins to wash their feet. So while they argued about greatness, Jesus demonstrated it.
He showed that true greatness loves you till the end. True greatness is willing to take the job that nobody else wants.
I believe our future as a church, our future as a group of believers, our future as High Ridge Lawview is not going to pin. It's not going to depend on how good I preach or how great the music is, the lights and all the different ministries that are going on around us.
Our future is going to depend on how we make people understand the scripture and how we make them feel.
And I think that's the greatest version of us, is when we choose to serve and take the lowest of the Low.
When it comes to serving and ministry opportunities, the low ones.
Jesus demonstrates what actual greatness looks like.
He lays aside pride and arrogance, lays aside his clothes and wash his feet. Here's the third point that we see that's so important for us that John captures. We are each intentionally gifted and commanded to serve, just as Christ served, just as Christ loved. He gives us the exact same commandments to do. He said, this is what I want you to do. I've modeled it for you. I do it first. Leaders go first, by the way.
And he says, now it's your turn that you're trying to make this choice of whether or not you consider yourself better than everybody else. You're. You're too prideful, you're too arrogant, you're too busy to actually serve others.
Jesus commands us to end, he's intentionally gifted you to serve others.
We know this from First Peter, chapter 4, verse 10, says, each of you, each of you. By the way, that leaves nobody out. Each of you should use whatever gift you've received to. To do what? To entertain people, to show them how great you are? He said, no, to serve others.
What are we doing when we serve others? He said, you're becoming a faithful steward of God's grace in all of its various forms. We are extensions of the grace of God when we choose to take the low road, to take the low job, and to be a blessing to people, to serve them. He said, that's a steward of God's grace. God's been gracious to you. This is how I want you to extend his grace to others. Use the gifts that I've given you to serve people. Your gifts are given so that somebody would experience grace through, through you. Our world doesn't understand what grace is.
And he says, one of the ways that people will understand that God has truly done something miraculous in your life is you're going to be gracious. You're going to see people through the eyes of grace. You're going to serve them. You're going to be an extension of his grace in all of its various forms.
And whether you know it or not, you have gifts. Some people are like, I'm not really sure what that is. It might be a teaching gift, it might be a help gift, might be an administration gift. It might be the gift of generosity. It might be the gift of serving. It might be there's all kinds of gifts that the Holy Spirit gives the moment that you get saved. And, and, and we want to help you discover what those are. And so at some point, you will start doing something bigger than yourself.
You'll start laying down your pride, laying down arrogance, and beginning to serve and to give something back, which is really one of the highest callings that God has, has called us to as ministers and stewards of his grace in all of its various forms to, to no longer just be a consumer, but to become a contributor.
This is what Jesus is modeling as he gathers around the table for this last meal.
Here's what I've found, is that the gifts that God has given you are something to be discovered. There's something to be uncovered, to be found. You have to seek after them. And how do I find those gifts are discovered in motion.
Gifts are discovered as you step out in faith and God begins to reveal those things. You start to see them. They don't just appear. And God doesn't just tell you what those gifts are. He gives you some options in his word and he says, this is something I want you to trust me into. Gifts are done when you step out. One of the things I learned about myself, I had no idea that I was really gifted in music or called to music, except one time I was sitting in a church service as a six year old kid and I was just intrigued by the drummer. You know, this guy had, had, had developed his gift and he was really good at what he was doing. I sat there as a kid and I was just intrigued by this guy that moved his hands at different times than his feet. Like how does that even work? And I started, you know, finding like grabbing a couple of pins from the seat back in front of me. And I started like just trying to mimic him. And my parents noticed that I was, that I was watching after him and I was just kind of mimicking what he was doing and he noticed it as well. And he told my parents like, hey, this, this kid wants to play the drums. And I'm so thankful that they didn't just say, oh, you know, he, he needs to shape up in, in church and pay attention.
But instead they said at the end of the service they allowed me to come up and, and he said, let me show you a couple things. And he let me hold drumsticks for the very first time. I'm a six year old kid.
But in that moment like something woke up in my mind and I, I, I just wanted to play an instrument. I wanted to express myself musically. I wanted to be a part of the team. I wanted to, I wanted to serve. And I, and I discovered a gift that was inside of me for music at that moment of my life. And I moved from there to becoming a drummer and then becoming a vocalist and that becoming my career for quite a while.
But it all started with a little six year old kid watching and someone letting me step into that gift. Somebody let me start serving. That was a beautiful part of my life. I remember um, when I, when I came back to church for the first time as a, as a young man and I turned my back on God and got into some hardcore addiction. And I remember meeting with a pastor that, and I told him I'm really good at music. I don't know if you know this, but I'm, I'm really good. And he saw right through all my pride and arrogance and he said, we'd love for you to come on Wednesday night and to start serving. I'm like, cool, you know, if you want to turn this whole worship ministry over to me. And I'm, I know I'm a newly saved believer, but I could do a much better job than you. That was kind of my attitude. I'm too cool for school, really too good. But I showed up on Wednesday night and he said, here's the job I want you to do. And it's, it's holding the door in the youth room so that kids can come in at 6:30. And I thought that is beneath me. Being a door greeter is beneath me. You don't understand the greatness of what is standing in front of you.
But for some reason I decided to humble myself and to just serve.
And I found the calling for my life was when I chose to lay down pride and arrogance and say, I just want to serve. And here I am serving some teenagers that are like, who is this crazy guy? I'm like, I'm not that old, you know, I'm just a little bit older than you.
But learning to love them and to appreciate them, to value them, to talk to them and figure out all the crazy lingo that they used in this next generation. That was some of the greatest moments of my life.
And I became a youth pastor just shortly after when the Lord began to awaken.
That gift that was stirring inside of me had been dormant for so long, hiding behind my pride and arrogance, my consumerism when it comes to Christianity. And I found the gifts that God had given me as I began to step out in faith. Gifts are discovered in motion. When you're willing to take a chance, when you're willing to take a step, when you're willing to try, when you're willing to humble yourself and take the low job.
Here's what we see in God's word. You don't find your gift sitting, you find it serving.
I want to say that again to make sure that you see it. You don't find your gift sitting, you find it serving.
And Jesus backs it up. At the very end of this part of John chapter 13, he says, now that you know these things, you're going to be blessed if you do them. There's an incredible blessing when you actually do it. Well, not when you, to think about it, not when you hear a message, when you. You actually step out in faith and start doing it.
Serving isn't something that we talk about. It's not something we think about. It's not even something that you have to understand. It's something that you do.
I remember when I was a single dad for a while, and my kids, of course at times would have just atrocious rooms. It was just completely, just scattered with toys and all these things. And I remember getting frustrated and coming up and saying, you guys have five minutes to clean up this room. You always had to give them a firm deadline or they'd say, yeah, we'll get it done. And you know, it's, you know, three weeks later. Well, we're still working on it, dad. Like, come on, you say, you've got five minutes, you know, or I'm coming back with a paddle or coming back at the wooden spoon for you. Wooden spoon. Survivors.
But I could not imagine coming back up those stairs after five minutes and my children telling me something like this. Imagine if my kids would have told me when I told them, hey, I want you to clean up this room. You've got five minutes. What if they would told me this day, dad, when you said clean up your room earlier, we felt your passion and we went and we studied the words that you said. We even looked them up in the Greek. And that word for clean room really does mean like a clean room of your house. Like, you want the bedroom clean. We understand it, we get it. We discussed it amongst ourselves, we talked about it. We have a really good idea of what you're talking about. When you said, I want you to clean your room, and you've got five minutes.
Thanks, dad, for being so clear in what you said. Can you imagine if your children would have said that? First of all, those aren't my kids, but second of all, how insulting that is. You took all this time to try to understand what I'm saying, but you missed the point. The point wasn't that you understand the Point was that you clean your room. The point was that you actually do it.
Here's what we know. You were not saved to sit. You are purposed to serve. There's a purpose that God has for your life, and it's laying down your pride and arrogance and starting to serve. Now, wherever you start serving may not be where you end up. As a matter of fact, I know it won't be.
But for those of you that have never served something bigger than yourself, this is going to be a profound experience for you. My job as a pastor is to equip you to do what God has called you to do and to allow you the chance to actually do it.
And we want you to serve. I am unashamedly telling you that this is part of your journey, just like Christ, to not argue about how great you are. Let me just tell you. You're. You're great. You're wonderful. You are loved. You are special. You are precious, great. All those things are true. I even say, if God had a refrigerator, your picture would be on it. But true greatness serves.
True love serves.
Jesus shows us that he loved his disciples. He loved them till the very end by taking the low spot and by serving them, by washing their feet.
Here's what we know. Easter is coming up. Easter is going to bring a lot of crowds. There's a lot of people out there that need a church, that need to see Christ.
And as stewards of God's grace in all of its various forms, I'm going to ask you that you serve. I'm going to ask you that you serve people. There are some people coming into this church that you know them. Some people. You left your last church because you couldn't stand them. And they're coming, and it's a test.
There are some people sitting on your row right now that you don't like, you might have history with. You have things against them. Here's the thing.
Grace.
If you can still serve and love and see people through the eyes of grace, God honors that. Something begins to happen in your heart when you do that.
So I want to challenge you. I want to. I want to push you to serve.
I want to push you to love people. I want to push you to step outside of your comfort zone. And if it's greeting at the door, if it's serving a children's ministry, if it's serving in our youth ministry, if it's serving around the world someplace, you have a gift. And I want to push you. I want to challenge you, mobilize you. Give you a chance to use the gift that God has given you once again. People aren't going to remember the messages. You've heard thousands of messages probably in your life. You may not can remember four or five of them. They're not going to remember the coffee. They're not going to remember the lights. They might not remember the songs that we chose to sing. They're going to remember the way that people made them feel. There's a reason why John takes so much time in John chapter 13 to list out all the details of what Christ did. Why? Because it made them feel incredible. They brought out something in each of them that would. He said, you don't understand it now, but later on you're going to look back and see how important this moment is.
I'm believing that you, as you step into what God has called you to do, it's going to include service, it's going to include laying down arrogance and pride. It's going to include you taking up a little bit of the time that you don't think you have.
But once you start doing that, God's going to do some wonderful things in your life. And you'll say, I can't believe I used to be just like that. But now I see people through the eyes of grace. There's a new lens, and it's by walking in humility and serving others.
A life of service is a beautiful thing for the children of God. That's all I have for you today. I want to take a moment and pray with you if that's all right. Once again, if you like this content, if you believe it's important for people to hear a message on humility and serving, loving. And if you think that's important, do us a huge favor. Would you share this message on whatever social media platform that you're watching from today? It's a big deal when you do that.
And then also as we finish up today, I'm gonna. I'm just gonna pray for you and ask the Lord that. That he would show you places that he wants you to serve, areas that he. That He's. That he's putting inside your peripheral things that he's laying on your heart that he would just reveal Himself to you, that you'd know, Lord, what. What am I capable of doing? What would you. What would you have for me to do? And I'm praying that you'll listen to him and that you'll respond with a yes. Just give God your preemptive yes.
Let's pray. Father, I thank you for this incredible day and for this incredible scripture, Lord, it shows us exactly where we are and what you want for us next.
I pray, Father, that you would speak to my friends, that you would show them in a way that they can understand exactly where to serve, how to serve, who to serve, when to serve, and the attitude with which to serve.
Father, we want to submit to you. We want to recognize that your love, your grace, your mercy, those are wonderful things. And the way that you extend those to a world that don't know you and that is. That is estranged from you, is through us.
Pray that we'd be your hands and feet. That we would serve others like you served your disciples.
That we would see them the way that you see them, not through what they are, but what they can be. Through the eyes of grace. I pray that we would lay aside our petty differences, lay aside our past, lay aside our worries and anxieties, and just start serving somewhere.
I pray that we would become exactly who you've called us to be. Your hands and feet in Jesus name. And now with heads bowed and eyes closed, maybe you. Maybe you're watching this today.
Maybe you were invited to church today and you would say, pastor, if I'm going to be honest, I don't have a relationship with Jesus. Jesus, I. I don't know what that's all about. My friend, I'm so glad that you're here. This next part is just for you. Or maybe like, like, like me, you're coming back to church and you're saying, pastor, I've been a. I've been away from God for, for a long, long time. I. I need to come home. My friend, you are exactly right. You need to come home with heads bowed and eyes closed. I want to invite you to pray a prayer with me. If you've never known Jesus, if you've been separated from Christ, if you've turned your back on him, pray this prayer with me right where you are. As a matter of fact, all of us watching are going to pray this prayer out loud right now so you don't feel singled out, you don't feel embarrassed in any way. But you need this. Pray this prayer with me. All of us saints, let's say this together. Say, jesus, I believe you're the Son of God.
I believe that you came and died, and I believe you rose from the grave so that I could have life and forgiveness for all of my sins.
Will you please forgive me?
Save me, and I'll give you the rest of my life.
In Jesus name, I pray with heads bowed and eyes closed all across this place.
Just those of you that prayed that prayer with me, just those of you that said, pastor, I did. I pray that prayer, would you lift up your hand all across this place. We want to just take a moment and notice and recognize you that you are saying, I took that step by step. Yes, absolutely. I took that step today.
I prayed that prayer. I'm dedicating my life to Christ.
We're so proud of you, the decision that you just made. Good for you. Good for you. High Ridge family, go ahead and look up at me if you would and let's stand to our feet together today. It has been such an honor bringing God's word to you and I believe God is has spoken a powerful thing for each of us. So we want to remind you, hey, if you haven't fill out one of these cards, fill out one of these cards. If you haven't gone to our Growth Track class that's available for you today as well. We would love for you to be a part of the church and to find your fit, to find what God has purposed you with and to plug you in serving somewhere. It's a beautiful thing. Also, at this moment, I'm going to turn you back over to your host today. I cannot wait to see you next week. God bless.
[00:39:11] Speaker A: Thank you so much for listening. Listening in today, our prayer is that you are encouraged and strengthened by the message. If you haven't done so yet, be sure to subscribe to this podcast and leave us a review wherever you're listening. If you want to be a part of our online community, connect with us through Facebook or Instagram with the handle hyridgelv or you can check out our
[email protected] lastly, if this ministry has impacted your life and you'd like to support its word, visit highridgelv.com give we appreciate your support and we're believing with you today for God's best in your life. Have an incredible week and we will see you next time.
