the sound or what it was, but I couldn't make out what you were singing very well this morning from behind you. But tonight I could hear it a lot better. Thank you. That worked out well that you did that again. John chapter number 13 is where we're going to be this evening. We've been studying our way through the Gospel of John on Sunday nights, Wednesday nights, sometimes Sunday morning, just wherever the Lord leads. And we have made it to chapter number 13. of the Gospel of John, and we are 40 sermons in. It seems like a lot, but it seems like we just started. And so we are making our way. We're making our way. I'm trying not to go too slowly, but easy to miss things. Gospel of John, there's been so many different things we've studied and seen, and today will be no different. We're going to see Christ as the servant this evening. I hope it'll be a blessing to you. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for this day. Thank you for your word and the ability we have to study it and to know it. Lord, I pray please help us to not just hear and teach your word tonight, but Lord, help us to allow it to be applied to our hearts and to our lives. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. So we pick up in John chapter 13, verse number 1. We have gone through so much of the ministry of Christ. It may surprise you to find out where we're at in John chapter 13, because it seems like there's so much further to go. I mean, the Gospel of John has many more chapters in it. But in John chapter 13, we're going to start in verse 1 through 3 and see if you figure out where we're at here. Verse 1, Bible says, Now before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour was come, that he should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end. And supper being ended, the devil having now put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray him, Jesus, knowing that the father had given him all things into his hands and that he was come from God and went to God. He rises from supper and laid aside his garments and took a towel and girded himself. So, yes, John, Chapter 13, we are already looking at what is commonly referred to as the Last Supper. Christ would not be arrested in the garden until John, Chapter 18, And so we find from John 13 all the way to John 18 is one evening. There's portions of scripture, there's chapters that one chapter will cover hundreds of years. And right now we have, it's a blessing to see If you know that your time has come and you're about to depart away and you have some followers that you love dearly and you've got a little bit of time left to tell them some things that you want them to know, to teach them a little bit before you face that cross, I would assume that you're going to Give them some pretty important information You're gonna give them some things that you desperately want them to know and to understand and so I think it's important for the context of where we're at to understand that The Bible tells us that he knew his hour was come. He knew he was about to be arrested He knew he was about to face the cross. And of course we know that that he would rise again and that he would be around for another 40 days after his resurrection before his ascension. But at this point he is about to face the cross and all these men that are following him are going to be scattered from him and there's going to be so much disbelief and nobody's going to be waiting at the tomb on resurrection morning. because they're all scattered and in fear. And so here we have this opportunity that he has. He's got this few hours left. What am I going to teach these people? What am I going to show these people that is important? So first of all, we need to remember that we need to know the context, knowing that he knew his hour was come. He knew what was about to happen. And so we would assume that some very important things that he would give out as information in the end here. And then also we we talked about this morning in the message on the hands of the Lord, how that everything is in his hands. And here we have that verse in chapter number 13, where God the Father has given everything into the hands of the son. We've talked about in the Sunday morning message how how Christ was part of creation and Christ by him. All things consist today and how We, even we, are in the hands of the Father and of the Son according to John chapter number 10, I believe verse 28. And so Christ knows that everything is in His hands. He knows that His hour is about to come. He knows that He came from God the Father and He's going to God the Father. All these things that He knows at this moment in time set the stage for what's about to happen. knowing that he was God manifest in the flesh, knowing that he was about to be put on a cross, knowing that he was about to go back to God the Father, what does he do? Well, we read verse four, but let's read it again. He rises from supper and laid aside his garments and took a towel and girded himself. After that, he pours water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel wherewith he was girded. Now, I don't know about you, but I don't even like my own feet. I mean, feet are just something that people don't really want to touch. They don't want to go around. And nowadays, we have socks and shoes and boots and all these things. Back then, it's walking by foot with sandals or whatever you want to have on your feet in the dirty, dusty roads of Rome and Capernaum and Jerusalem and all these places. Feet are nasty. Still to this day, in many Middle Eastern cultures, if you were to show someone the soles of your feet, it would be considered an insult, because feet are just gross, they're disgusting, they're beneath, literally. And so it was the job of a servant to wash someone's feet, or a job of someone to provide for the washing of someone's feet when they would come into a place. to have dinner. And Christ here, as God manifests in the flesh, as the master of these men, as the one that they follow, He gets up from supper and assumes the position of servant to the extent of washing their feet. Now, when I was a youth pastor at one point, we were covering this passage and I actually had, there was a boyfriend and girlfriend in our youth group, which I always hated because there's just so much drama, but we It came in handy because we made him wash her feet in front of the whole class and it was Awesome just to see the reactions of the kids and even him and her with each other They were both grossed out by it. It's just one of those things It's just I don't want to do that for you. And I really don't want you to do it for me You can leave my feet alone. It's okay. I'll let the shower do the work But but here Christ takes upon himself this thing that is not just serving others but serving others in a very low Capacity a very low about as low as you can go having to wash their feet, and he does it willingly and without anybody asking a thing about it. Verse number 6, Then cometh he to Simon Peter, and Peter saith unto him, Lord, dost thou wash my feet? There's that sense of disbelief there, like what are you doing? Why are you washing my feet? Verse 7, Jesus answered and said unto him, What I do thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter. But that verse can describe my life a lot of times, too. Sometimes I don't know exactly what the Lord's doing in a situation, and I don't really understand something. But later on, I can look back and say, you know what? God had a plan, and God worked it out, and God taught me something. Verse number 8, Peter saith unto him, thou shalt never wash my feet. Jesus answered him, if I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me. Simon Peter saith unto him, Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head. Jesus saith to him, he that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet. but is clean every whit, and ye are clean, but not all. For he knew who should betray him, therefore said he, Ye are not all clean. So after he had washed their feet, and taken his garments, and was set down again, he said unto them, Know ye what I have done unto you? Ye call me Master and Lord, and ye say, Well, for so I am. If I, then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet, ye also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example that ye should do as I have done unto you. Verily, verily, I say unto you, the servant is not greater than his Lord, neither is he that is sent greater than he that sent him. If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them. Now, Christ here, of course, in that sense, yeah, he could be talking about them washing each other's feet in the literal sense, but the idea is serving one another. Serving one another as brothers and sisters in Christ. Those who are saved and bought by the blood of Christ, we are supposed to act differently towards each other than the world does towards each other. I believe there's, I forget the passage off the top of my head, but the Bible tells us that that's one of the ways in which people can tell that we're saved and that we're the brethren is because of the way we treat each other. Because you think about it, how the world treats each other, there's people that are really good friends and they get along well and everything's good and everything's fine. But for the most part, Mankind, all the time, we're just seeking to benefit ourselves at the expense of anybody else. It doesn't matter if you are really, really hungry, that's the last bite of mac and cheese and I want it at the buffet. It's just one of those things where there is that lack of compassion, there's that lack of a bond, of a familial bond, but within the body of Christ, we are supposed to be different We're supposed to prefer one another and serve one another and take every opportunity we can to not make sure that we are taken care of and satisfied, but that others are taken care of and satisfied. Now there's plenty of people that do that in and of themselves, but it is a command for the church that we are supposed to do that. And Christ here, He doesn't ever give us a command that He Himself didn't follow. He sets the example, and He even said, I've set an example for you that you do as I've done. Now, look with me in, hold your place in John chapter 13, and look with me in two places, Galatians chapter 5 and Hebrews chapter number 9. Galatians 5 and Hebrews 9. Now we know, We know that Jesus Christ is God manifest in the flesh. We know that Jesus Christ is the Savior. He's the Lord. He's the captain of our salvation, the Bible says. And so we know that the normal way that things should go is that we should be serving Him. Hebrews chapter 9 and verse number 14, the Bible says, I'm sorry, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? When we're saved, we're supposed to serve God. Now, there's there's plenty of verses we could go to prove that point, but I think it's pretty basic understanding that people who are saved by the grace of God, blood bought, born again, no longer on their way to hell. We're supposed to serve God out of love because of what he's done for us. We're supposed to be servants and obedient to our Savior because He has saved us. Not because we have to or because the law declares us to, but because we love Him for what He's done for us. Now, in Galatians chapter 5, And verse number 13, Galatians 5.13, the Bible says here, For brethren, ye have been called unto liberty, only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even this, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. So he says, we've been called unto liberty. We have this freedom in Christ, but don't use that as an excuse to sin. Don't use it as an excuse to feed your flesh. By love, in love, serve one another. And then, of course, that great verse of the whole law being fulfilled in this one word, treating others as you'd treat yourself, essentially, that golden rule that people like to claim and hold to and teach their kids. It's a Bible teaching. We need to love others as we love ourselves and treat others as we treat ourselves. And serving others, serving one another in love, it's a command from Christ. And it's so important that he not only commanded us in Gospel of John, but he also, through the Holy Spirit, inspired the writer of Galatians to remind us to, in love, serve one another. And so what does it mean to serve? What does it mean to serve? We just had last week, we had our 4th of July picnic and we didn't have, you know, servers standing behind the food dishing out food. We, praise the Lord, we got as much as we wanted. There was no one scoop for you, one scoop for you. But there were those who served that day Those that came here early and cleaned up the building, those who came here early and blew up those obnoxious blow up ice containers, and I say obnoxious because about four of us tried blowing them up and it took forever. But people that brought the chairs up and the tables up and set up the games and brought the food and people that cooked the food the night before or that morning and came early and got it all set up, there was a whole lot of serving was going on. And there was no one particular person that took credit for it all. There was no one particular person that benefited from it all. We were all serving each other, and we were all blessed by each other. And that's how it's supposed to work in the body of Christ. Not just when we have a meal, but whenever anything goes on in the body of Christ. Now, I want you to look at a couple of things. I've got three quick things. What I think it is to serve one another. Now, I'm not talking about a servant serving his master, you know, an employee serving his boss so that he gets a paycheck. I'm talking about brothers and sisters in Christ serving one another out of love, not for money, not for anything like that, but just because we're brethren and we care about one another. First of all, I think service is humbling yourself. If you're going to be serving others, you're going to have to get yourself out of the way. You're going to have to humble yourself. Turn to Philippians chapter number two with me. If you're in Galatians, just a couple more books over in your Bible. Philippians chapter number two. Philippians two is one of the best places to study out this idea of serving others and lifting up others. Also grab James chapter four while we're at it. We'll do a little bit of study in the Bible tonight. James chapter four. In Philippians chapter 2 and verse number 5, The Bible says, let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of men. And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God hath also, also hath highly exalted him and given him a name, which is above every name. Now, of course, Christ is the ultimate example of humility. You go from, you think about the boss, there's some show, I never really ended up getting to watch it, but there's a show called Undercover Boss. Anybody ever heard of that? Where the boss of the company goes and and pretends to be just a regular employee. I can see where that would be entertaining sometimes. Somebody complaining about the boss to the boss not knowing it's the boss or something like that. I can see where that could be a reality TV show. But you get this idea of if the CEO of a multi-million dollar company showed up, if you ordered their next package from Amazon and the CEO of Amazon hand delivers your package, you would think that's kind of crazy. Like, this guy's got a lot better things to do than to deliver my package for me. He's got so many other employees that could do that that are less important or have less important things to do than that. You would think it would be strange to have the CEO show up to your door. to buy a Tesla and Elon Musk hand-delivered it to you and said, hey, thanks for your business. You'd think that was pretty special, probably, because he's the CEO of the company. He's a billionaire. Why would he be coming down to my level just because I bought one of his cars? You'd think it'd be kind of crazy. But you think about the God that created the heavens and the earth, the God that owns the cattle on a thousand hills, the one who owns it all, Humbling himself and coming down to this earth to live and die for us. That is the ultimate humility. That is the ultimate in humbling yourself. So Christ humbled himself and gave us that example. James chapter 4 and verse number 6. The Bible says, but he giveth more grace, wherefore he sayeth, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. Verse number 10, the Bible says, humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord and he shall lift you up. A lack of humility on the part of one or both individuals is so often the cause of any argument. It's not necessarily that it's so important to be right or to be wrong, or to prove yourself right and them wrong. It's I am not willing to humble myself. I'm not willing to let go of my pride. I have to be right, even if I'm not right. You better think I'm right and behave like I'm right because it's me. And I know everybody knows somebody like that, I think, in our lives, where the word humility is the farthest thing you'd use to describe them. They're just not humble. They just don't understand the concept that not everything is about them. And sometimes it's very easy. We all have pride in our hearts. We all have pride in our lives. Sometimes it's hard to realize, wait a second, I'm not humbling myself. I'm not making sure that I go low and let them go high. I'm not doing a very good job of that. Sometimes pride is one of those sins that can creep up on you because it's not like people just walk up and say, hey, you're proud. If it gets to that point, you're probably pretty bad off. You're probably pretty proud for somebody to just walk up and tell you that. It's one of those sins that we don't really assume that we're committing, and we don't really mean to commit sometimes, but sometimes we can sure come off as very proud, very haughty. Everything's got to be done my way. I'll serve, but only if it's in this capacity. I'll serve, but only if I get this kind of recognition for it. I'll serve, but only in the way that I want to serve. Well, that's not really true service from the heart. That's you being in charge. A servant's not greater than his master. If you're wanting to serve someone, you're not dictating to them how you'll serve. You say to them, how can I serve? We ran youth rallies and Bible camps and lots of big events and things when I was in Michigan as a youth pastor, and I was a helper at a lot of things, and I still, to this day, I try to help with many things, and I had a lot of helpers. I had a lot of people that came to me, and people that were much older than me, much wiser than me, but they came and said, hey, you're in charge of this event, what do you need me to do? And the best helpers were not necessarily the smartest people in the room. They were the people that just asked what's needed and did it. Because after running a youth rally for six, seven, eight years, we had a way of doing things, and we had kind of worked out the kinks, and we knew what we needed to do, and we didn't need to explain every step of the process to every single helper, because that just is exhausting. I had a point where I had a 30-page handbook for every helper that signed up to help that they could go through, and they could read the rules of every single game. They could read the dress code. They could read what we're going to have for food, when it's going to be served. They could see a detailed schedule for every type of helper, whether it was kitchen, or setup, or takedown, or the preacher. I mean, every little detail you could possibly think of. And there would still be people that would come and say, Well, I don't know about this. I don't know about that. It's like, no, no, no. Don't try to rewrite the program on the day it's happening. Just do the work. Just help. Just be a helper. I had my two buddies, which I say the word buddy loosely because they were jerks that day. They came and they were helping at the event. And they were my runners. And that's the most important job because that's the person who, if I need something, I send them. And if I need somebody checked on, I send them. And so they decided to purposely disappear on me at like the most vital point of the youth rally for about 20 minutes. And then when they did show up, they had conspired with each other to do their best to make me mad and frustrate me just because they thought it'd be fun. Choose help wisely. These guys, they got under my skin that day. I was like, guys, come on. What are you doing? I need this, and I need that, and we're running behind on this. And they were just staring at me. and just laughing. I was like, guys, this is serious. And they were just goofing off. And I get it. I would have been right there with them. And I've done things like that to other people before. But when you're the one trying to get the thing done, you'll want a helper that'll just do the work and not cause problems, especially not just for spite. But they're still my buddies, but not as much so. So humbling yourself, that's very important. If we're going to serve each other, Let it be actual, true service from the heart. Let it not be for pride. Let it not be for vainglory or anything like that. Second thing we have to do is also found in Philippians chapter 2, if you still have that, or if you can flip back there quickly, Philippians chapter 2, if you start back in verse number 1. The Bible says, if there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies fulfill you, my joy, that you be like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind, let nothing be done through strife or vainglory, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves. That's what I was just talking about. Don't do things just to be seen doing them. That's not the purpose of servitude. Verse four, look not every man onto his own things, but every man also on the things of others. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. Now that verse three there, let nothing be done through strife or vainglory, but in lowliness of mind, let each esteem other better than themselves. That is such a hard verse to live. It is a hard verse to live. To look at someone else and consider them to be more important than yourself, and to consider them to be of more value than yourself, it sounds selfish to say, but that goes against our nature. It goes against our nature. Our nature is, I want things done my way, and I want things done the way I prefer, and I want my opinion to matter more than your opinion. And so we've got to fight against that sinful nature and say, you know what? I'm going to value you more than me. That doesn't mean, you know, allow something to be broken and go wrong because you didn't want to step up and say, hey, that's not how that works. But there's a true a true benefit, if you're going to serve one another in love as Christ has commanded us, if you're going to serve as Christ served, you're going to have to value others. Not necessarily more than yourself all the time, but just value others. So many people today in this world that just have no value for other people. No value for the opinions of others, the beliefs of others, Whatever you want to put in there, it's so hard to have a conversation with somebody that disagrees with you nowadays. I mean, you can't even discuss why you're on a different page or why you believe the things you believe because like we saw in Sunday school this morning in Ephesus, they just shout you down and they just refuse to let you talk and they refuse to hear your side or they pretend to listen, but they're just waiting for a chance to jump in and say something else. It's so hard when there's no value for each other. It's so hard to get along. It's so hard to serve. It's so hard to obey that passage and that command of Christ to serve one another in love. So if we're going to be serving each other, we have to humble ourselves. We have to value others. And then we have to be a help, even if it hurts. Be a help, even if it hurts. It's not service. if it costs you nothing. You're not serving someone else if there's no pain to it, if there's no being put out to it, if there's no inconvenience to it. I've got a million things I could do with my day, and so do you. If you're going to take time that you could be doing something that you'd rather do and say, you know what, I'm going to help the pastor at the church today, that's serving. If you are court-ordered to help the pastor at the church today, that's not necessarily the same thing. You have to be there. You're told to be there. Still a blessing, still good, but it's not the same. Service comes with being a help to someone, even if it's inconvenient to you. Let's look together at Luke chapter number 11. Luke chapter number 11. And I'm going to define a word for you while we're there, because every now and then, You know, we come to these words in the King James Bible and we say, you know what? We don't use that much anymore today. I want to make sure I know exactly what I'm saying when I say that word. So Luke chapter number 11. And we'll start in verse number five, Luke 11, five. Before we get there though, as you're turning, I'll read for you first John chapter three and verse number 17. The Bible says here, "...but whoso hath this world's goods, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him." It's a pretty simple statement there. If you have the ability to help someone in need, and you see someone in need, and you refuse to help them, How dwelleth the love of God in you? And it's specific to the brethren there. It says if you see your brother in need and you close yourself off to him, you refuse to help him, you just ask the simple question, how dwelleth the love of God in him? Luke chapter 11, starting verse number five. The Bible says, And he said unto them, Which of you shall have a friend, and shall go unto him at midnight, and say unto him, Friend, lend me three loaves? For a friend of mine in his journey is come to me, and I have nothing to set before him. And he from within shall answer and say, Trouble me not, the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed. I cannot rise and give thee. I understand that verse a lot more now that I have three kids. It's like, my kids are in bed. I don't wanna do anything that's gonna wake those monsters up. I just, you know, it's too late, buddy. You gotta go somewhere else. What are you doing eating bread at midnight anyways? But verse number eight, I say unto you, though he will not rise and give him, because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity, he will rise and give him as many as he needeth. So the first response is, what are you crazy? It's midnight, I'm in bed, my kids are in bed, the door's shut. don't bother me, but then it says, you know, he's his friend, and because of the importunity, he decides, you know what, I'm gonna give him anything he needs. Now, importunity, raise your hand if you're 100% confident you know what that means. All right, now I threw in the 100% confident there just to really nail it down. I wanted to double check it today myself, because I was like, you know what, I think I do, but I don't want to get it wrong, and I surely don't want to teach it wrong, so I looked up, Importunity. Pressing solicitation. Urgent request. Now this whole, all I'm reading for you is the dictionary definition. I think it's really funny at the end. Pressing solicitation, urgent request, application for a claim or favor which is urged with troublesome frequency or pertinency. Men are sometimes overcome by the importunity of their wives or children. That's the textbook definition of importunity. I think it's funny that it throws that in there. Men are overcome by the importunity of their wives and children. I think it's just as applicable to say mothers are overcome sometimes by the importunity of their children. Mom, can I please? Mom, can I please? Mom, can I please? Mom, can I please? Okay, fine. And so importunity is that desire that, I guess you could say, that begging of a friend saying, I need this. I really need this. This is really something that's important to me. And because you see that they have a genuine need and they have that desire, it moves your heart because you're their friend and you decide, I'm going to help this person. It's not just that they casually want something. It's that they really need something. And you can see that. And because you're their friend or you're their brother or sister in Christ, You reach out and you help them even if it's inconvenient to you. I can't tell you how many times people have helped me in my life and it was inconvenient for them. And I can't tell you how many times in my life I've been asked to help others and it's been inconvenient for me. But I do my best to help them because I need that friend sometimes. And I need that brother in Christ sometimes. And how can I ask them to be a help to me if I won't return the favor? In love, we're supposed to serve one another. It's supposed to be a two-way street. We're supposed to serve each other as best we can as often as we can. Being a servant means being able to humble yourself, being able to value others, being able to be helpful even if it's inconvenient. Christ's example in John 13 is of the greater serving the lesser, the master serving the servant, and he still attends to the needs of his people today. If Christ is still doing things for you, which I'm sure He is, He's still doing things for me every day. He daily loadeth me with benefits, the Bible says. Then how could I stop doing things for others? How could I stop serving those that Christ desires me to serve? When He, the God of heaven, is still serving me. Now it sounds weird to say it that way, because how could God serve me? He does every day. He gives me blessings. He hears my prayers. He answers my prayers. He provides for my needs. He does so many things for my benefit that He doesn't have to do. How could I look at my brothers and sisters in Christ and say, no, I won't help. Now, I want to show you one final passage before we close about serving. Luke chapter 17. Luke chapter 17. I hope we're all in agreement so far. I hope we all understand what we've seen so far. Luke chapter 17 will be the test. This is one of those passages that goes against the grain of every fiber of pride within us. Luke chapter 17 and verse number 7. The Bible says, But which of you, having a servant plowing or feeding cattle, will say unto him by and by, when he is come from the field, Go and sit down to meet? And will not rather say unto him, Make ready, wherewith I may sup, and gird thyself, and serve me, till I have eaten and drunken, and afterward thou shalt eat and drink? Doth he thank that servant, because he did the things that were commanded him? I trow not. And just for kicks and giggles, I looked up tro, think. Yes, it does mean think. I tro not. So he says, if your servant does what you expect him to do, do you thank him for it? He says, no, you don't thank him for it. It's his job. Verse number 10. So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, we are unprofitable servants. We have done that which was our duty to do. Now this verse gets me because you think about the wording there. He says, when you've done all that's commanded of you, at that point you say we're unprofitable. We've just done our duty. We haven't gone above and beyond. We're not profiting. We're just doing that which is our duty to do. That's once we've done all that Christ has commanded us to do. You think about what Christ has commanded us to do in His Word and what the Word of God tells us we ought to do. And some of those things daily, like prayer and study of the Word of God and serving one another in love and witnessing about Christ. There's so many things we could get into all the details of all the things that we ought to be doing as Christians for the Lord on a daily basis. The Bible says once you've done all those things that are commanded of you, at that point, you're unprofitable servants. You've just done your duty. Now, unprofitable is kind of a negative word. It kind of sounds bad. And it's not great. But at least at that point, we're not costing anything, right? We're breaking even. We're doing what we're supposed to do. We're not doing any less. But I would say in our lives, we ought to strive for the mark of the high calling of God, as Paul said in the epistles. We ought to strive to do more than is commanded of us. We ought to strive to do more than is expected of us, not because we just want some recognition or reward, not for vainglory's sake, as we saw before in Philippians chapter 2, but because we love Him for what He's done for us. You talk about going above and beyond. I think Jesus Christ went above and beyond for you and for me. So how could we not do the same for him? We talk about service, of course, even when talking about serving one another as Christ has commanded us to do, we've got to remember that our first and foremost service ought to be to our Savior. We ought to serve him because we love him because of what he has done for us. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for this day. Thank you for your word. And thank you so much for all the ways in which you have benefited us at no benefit to yourself. Lord, you did not need to come and die on the cross and pave the way of salvation for all mankind, but you did. You do not need to answer our prayers, but you do. You do not need to consider our struggles and provide for our needs, but you do again and again and again. Lord, even when we're not thankful and even when we don't ask you so often Provide and meet our needs so often before we even know we have them Lord help us to serve each other in love as you would command us to do And lord help us to serve you to the best of our abilities while we have this time here on this earth to do such Thank you for all you've done for us Lord help us now in this time of invitation to reflect on our hearts and consider Whether or not we are serving you the way that we should