All right, young folks. Everybody's looking around like, wait, are we supposed to go now? This morning I'm going to ask you to turn with me to a passage that on this Sunday before Christmas you may not be necessarily thinking of as a Christmas passage, but in keeping with what we have done the last couple of weeks, bringing messages from passages that It may not seem at first blush to be Christmas passages, but passages I think really do fit the bill and hopefully will challenge our thinking. So, John chapter 13 this morning, John chapter 13. While you're turning there, just a couple of things. I did mention the candlelight service, which will be Tuesday, Christmas at 6 o'clock. And if you're interested in being a part of that program, please let me know so that I can put you on the program. And secondly, once we pass the first of January, if you have an interest in membership in the church, then talk to me and I'll be happy to work with you on that. On chapter 13. I'm not going to read, we're going to actually be covering 13 verses here this morning, but I'm not going to read all of those here at the beginning. But I do want to read the first three or four verses and then we'll ask the Lord to bless our time together. This morning there's a question that we want to answer. What is the spirit of Christmas? So I want you to be thinking about that as I read these three verses, as we pray, and then as we get into the message. What is the spirit of Christmas? So John writes in John 13, 1, now before the feast of the Passover, 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, put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray Him, Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He was come from God and went to God, He riseth from supper, and laid aside His garments, and took a towel, and girded Himself." Let's pray together. Our Father, as we come before You on this Sunday before Christmas, Lord, as we this morning will be thinking about our Savior and thinking about the spirit of Christmas, I pray, Father, that though this is a passage that we might typically associate with Easter much more than Christmas, yet, Father, I believe that this passage does speak to the heart of what we should be thinking when we think about Christmas, the spirit of Christmas. More specifically, what was the purpose for which Jesus came? Why are we celebrating the birth of this baby? And when we celebrate the birth of this baby, what is it? that we are truly looking to? What should be our understanding? What should be our takeaway? Lord, what is it that we want to impress upon our children ultimately about the importance of His birth? So help us, Lord, to think about the spirit of Christmas even in these moments we have in this passage. And we'll give you the glory as we pray this in Christ's name and for His sake. Amen. So, what is the spirit of Christmas? Well, to some, you might be thinking of Scrooge, and the spirit of Christmas would be a ghost, right? You know, the ghost of Christmas past, something like that. To the liquor industry, they refer to spirits, right? Only their spirit is found in a bottle. And this time of year, there are many who find their at least are searching for their solace in that way. To Madison Avenue, Christmas is found in the bottom line, right? It is all about profits. It's all about the rising share prices of their company, if you will. And so the spirit of Christmas is all about how much money do people spend and can I get them to buy my widget instead of somebody else's widget. So, the spirit of Christmas, what is it? Some people feel like the spirit of Christmas is, you know, that uneasy truce that takes place in families when we can gather together, hopefully for a short period of time without getting into our issues and our quarrels. And so, you know, there's a shaky peace because, well, after all, it's Christmas and we ought to be able to spend a little bit of time together. The Spirit of Christmas. What is the Spirit of Christmas? Well, perhaps, if I simply ask that question, you might say, well, it's not really that difficult. Because most people would say, well, the Spirit of Christmas is all about giving, right? Because after all, do we associate giving with Christmas? Well, there'll be a lot, there already has been a lot of giving, right? And there will be much more giving over the next couple of days, and Wednesday in particular, a lot of giving. So perhaps most would say the spirit of Christmas is giving. After all, what are the bell ringers asking us to do when we walk out of stores? They want us to give, and there's nothing wrong with giving to help those who are in need. So that's not a bad thing. But could I take it a step further and say, maybe if we were more exact, the spirit of Christmas is not about giving, it's about exchanging. What do I mean by that? Well, if your neighbor brings you a plate of Christmas cookies, what do you feel obligated to do? Well, I need to take them some banana bread or, you know, something we want to reciprocate. Somebody buys you a gift, no matter what size it is, we feel like, well, I need to reciprocate. So, much of what we say the spirit of Christmas is, is not really about the giving per se, it's about reciprocating. It's about, you gave me something, now I need to give you something. Well, let me take this a step further and make this suggestion. that the spirit of Christmas is not about giving, and it's not about reciprocating, that the true spirit of Christmas, from the standpoint of a believer, is about receiving. It's not about giving. I'm not saying that it's wrong to give gifts. It's not about reciprocating. It's not wrong to reciprocate. But truthfully, the spirit of Christmas is about receiving from my standpoint and your standpoint. It is giving from the standpoint of God because He gave. But from my standpoint and your standpoint, it is about receiving. It's not about reciprocating because in point of fact, how can we even begin to reciprocate what God has given to us? It just can't happen, can it? So we can't repay the gift that God has given to us. It came at an infinite cost to Him, but His gift is totally free to us, to you and me. So the spirit of Christmas is receiving because the heart of Christmas is God's grace. And really, that word, that concept, that doctrine, if you will, is kind of the tie that binds the message from two weeks ago, Matthew chapter 1. We talked about the grace of God displayed in the very genealogy of the Lord Jesus Christ. Last week, we talked about the selflessness that there is in the incarnation. a picture of Christ humbling himself. He became selfless for us. And of course, in the context of Philippians 2, the challenge that his very act of selflessness was a challenge that Paul used at the church of Philippi, that we should also be selfless, just as he was. That we should have the good of others that we would place ahead of ourselves. because we see grace, the unmerited love of God for you and me, in the very humbling of the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace was at the very center of last week's message, truthfully. And now we come to this week's message, and we see here in John chapter 13 a very familiar passage, but again, a passage that we don't think of to connect with Christmas, because Christmas is all about the birth of Jesus. And when does John 13 take place? the last night before the crucifixion. His last night before he dies is John chapter 13 in the following chapters. So it doesn't really seem to fit the picture that we would take the last night of his life and somehow connect that with his birth and yet I think in this passage we have the very illustration of what his birth was intended to do. And that is that He came to save sinners. So we would say at the heart of Christmas is God's grace. And in John chapter 13 we have an example of God's grace which only can be received. We can only receive it. It's not a quid quo pro. It's not a reciprocation. All right, you died for me, therefore I will do this for you. It is God By grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, saving us. Not of works. Works would be a way of reciprocation. Not of works, lest any man should boast. So we're saved by His grace. The truth is, all the world's religions teach that you have to do something to reach heaven. And unfortunately, many who walk under the banner of Christianity teach that we get to heaven by our good works. Now, they will say Jesus died for our sins, but we're required to do A, B, C, D, E, F. But the real beauty, the real message, the real spirit of what Christmas should be communicating to us is God's grace. He has saved us, not because we deserve it. In fact, in spite of what we deserve, God gave His Son for us. And we see Him, I think, here in John chapter 13, giving us an example, giving us an illustration of that very Spirit. So we can't work to receive salvation. In Romans 4, verse 5, Paul puts it this way, So if a man thinks that he can be good enough or by his own works he can somehow make it to heaven, he has a great debt. He'll never be able to repay it. But for those of us who recognize it as a gift, It is God's grace. He has given this to us because He loves us. To illustrate this point, let's think about this text. We're not looking at the beginning of His life. We're looking at the end of His life. We're recognizing in John 1, verse 14, that the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. But He came for a purpose. He came for a reason. We've said it many times. We love Christmas, we love the decorations, we love all the buildup for Christmas. I mean, if you think about it, when do we start building up for Christmas? Well, if it's Madison Avenue, probably September, right? When do you start seeing Christmas things in the stores? Seems like earlier and earlier and earlier we see Christmas things because, you know, they want us to buy their stuff. I understand that motivation. But the reality is, there's much more in terms of our culture in celebrating Christmas, but how many Easter parties do companies give? I mean, think with me. How many Easter parties? We have Christmas parties, right? I mean, many of you have been involved in different Christmas parties, but how many companies say, oh, listen, Saturday night before Easter, we're gonna have a big party. Now that doesn't happen. Why? Because it is wonderful to think about the birth of the baby. We can all enjoy that and all that comes with it. But Easter is something a little bit different. If you're really going to sing about Christmas, you don't sing about the bunny rabbits. and the eggs, you sing about the fact that Christ died, was buried, and rose again the third day. People don't want to do that, and that's why it's much more restrictive. You don't spend the time building up to Easter and celebrating all the stuff about Easter that you do about the child and his birth. But let's be honest, the birth of the baby is meaningless if there's not an Easter. It's because of Easter, it is because of His death, burial, and the resurrection, that there is meaning to His birth. Because we understand that that person, that one who died on the cross, taking my sin and your sin upon Himself, is the one who was born on that first Christmas morning, and His birth was on purpose. intentionally, in the fullness of time, God sent forth His Son. He came into this world and He came for the very avowed purpose of being the Lamb of God slain before the foundation of the world, being the one who would take away my sin and your sin. And so we celebrate the birth because of who He is and because of what He did. And so, that's why when we look at this particular passage, we may not associate it with the birth because, and I'm not downplaying messages around that season of His birth, but I'm saying that we wanna be sure and highlight the purpose of His birth. And that would be conversations you may have in the next few days with family members or with friends, that yes, we all get behind Christmas, But why was he born? He was born to die. There was a specific time when God had ordained that my sin and your sin would be dealt with by Jesus on the cross. So, that brings us to what some have said could be a parable of why Jesus came into the world in his interactions with the disciples on this night. So let's just think about it. Three things I want to point out to you from this passage this morning. Number one, we're thinking about Jesus. He came to give. Christ came to give. As we said last week, He was God in the flesh, the incarnation, God in the flesh, God, eternal God from ages past, who willingly lowered himself that he would die, born a man, and ultimately die for us. So Christ came to give. We'll note in John 13 that John begins by saying that it was the Passover. He wants us to understand that this event that we call the foot washing, and that's what we're talking about here briefly this morning, that it took place at Passover. Jesus is the Passover lamb slain to spare us from God's judgment when we apply His blood to our sins. He also notes that He loved His disciples to the very end. He loved them to the uttermost. Even though He was facing horrific suffering beyond our imagination and he knew what he would be suffering in just in mere hours, yet he wasn't thinking about his own needs. He was thinking about their needs. That's the reflection of what we talked about last week from Philippians chapter 2. So he is focused upon them, he is focused upon their needs, not what he was facing. Verse 3 notes that Jesus had come from God and notice if you really need the connection to Christmas, if you'll notice verse 3 it says that the Father had given all things into his hands and that he was come from God. Okay, there's your Christmas connection. He came from God. The birth of Jesus was God the Son descending from heaven, as we talked about last week, to be born in that place and put in that manger. So he came from God, he was going back to God. So he left the glories of heaven to be born of the Virgin Mary so that he could die for my sin and your sin. John knows that the Father had given all things into his hands. He was willing to let those hands to be nailed to the cross. He was willing to take those hands and lay aside his garments and take a towel and a basin of water and begin to wash the disciples' feet. Someone has said, I'm not going to spend a lot of time on this, but since last week we were in Philippians 2, someone suggested that there's a connection between, a parallel would be a better word, between John 13 and what we saw last week in Philippians chapter 2. In Philippians chapter 2, here we see Jesus rose from the supper and laid aside His garments just as He rose from His throne in heaven and emptied Himself. That's Philippians 2, which means that He temporarily laid aside His glory. He girded Himself here with a towel and did a servant's lowly job of washing the disciples' feet. Philippians 2, verse 7, He took upon Himself the form of a servant. He poured water in a basin. In just a few hours, His blood would be poured out on the cross. In Paul's words in Philippians 2, verse 8, He became obedient to the point of death. He began to wash the disciples' dirty feet, just as the application of His blood to sinful human hearts cleanses us from all guilt and all defilement. After He had washed their feet, He took His garments and reclined again at the table. After His resurrection, the end of that passage last week, after the resurrection, He ascended to the right hand of the Father. He resumed His place of glory again. Hebrews 1.3 tells us that when He had made purification for our sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high. So, the foot washing that we see here in John chapter 13 is a short drama that shows Christ's work of redemption from glory to glory. But there's a twist in this story, and that's the Apostle Peter. When you read anything in the Gospels where Jesus is speaking to the disciples, you can almost typically expect to hear something from Peter, right? We sometimes shake our head and say, Peter, weren't you listening? But the truth is, I think Peter is in many ways an individual who mirrors what we would have done, and maybe we would not even have been as faithful as him. if we were under those circumstances. There was a stunned silence in the room. I mean, understand how atypical this is. We're so familiar with the washing of the disciples' feet that for us, we just sort of read through it, right? Okay, it's that night before the crucifixion, and he washed the disciples' feet after supper, and we just go about it, right? Like, oh, that's interesting. We don't understand how atypical this was. And so, because it was so atypical, We find that, verse 6, He cometh to Simon Peter, and Peter saith unto him, Lord, dost thou wash my feet? Now, the pronouns are emphatic here. So we read it, and it's like Peter's saying, Lord, are you going to wash my feet? But it's the idea of, Lord, you wash my feet? He's emphasizing, wait a minute. What are you doing? And then we read, beginning in verse 7, Jesus answered and said unto him, What I do thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter. 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. And Jesus saith unto him, he that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit. And ye are clean, but not all. The interchange here pictures again God's grace, which is at the heart of the meaning of Christmas. That's what we are trying to encourage us to think about this morning. We begin with Christ getting We begin with Christ. We're talking about our relationship with Christ. We begin by getting washed all over, which makes us completely clean. Titus 3.5 refers to this as the washing of regeneration. It is a once for all bath that does not need repeating. He cleanses us one time. God forgives all of our sin at that moment. It isn't simply making the slate clean, and now it's up to us to keep it clean. It is all of my sin, from my perspective, past, present, and future, all of my sin being dealt with at the cross. All of it has been cleansed. But, from a practical standpoint, though I stand before God, cleansed this morning, positionally in the Lord Jesus Christ, From a practical standpoint, I still live in a fallen world. We all do, right? And what happens as we walk through this fallen world? Our feet get dirty. You know, this time of year, I see an illustration of this. I chuckle sometimes because it just hits me that way. When we have snow, generally what gets put on the snow? Salt. And then we go walking through it with our shoes. And have you ever noticed your shoes from time to time? You know, I got to church one day recently, and I was walking to the front door, and I just happened to look down. I was like, oh. And I had these salt marks all over my shoes from where I'd been walking through some slush somewhere that was mixed with salt. And I had to, well, this isn't going to work. And I had to figure out how to get the salt at least make it less noticeable off of my shoes, right? But to me, I chuckled because, well, that really is an illustration of what our Lord is saying here in John 13. I am fully cleansed. But I'm walking through the dirt and the filth of this world and my feet get dirty. Your feet get dirty. And that is what we have in this passage. To maintain our relationship with Christ, we need to apply that cleansing to our everyday sins. My standing before God as a child of God cannot be changed. Because that was accomplished wholly and fully by the work of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross. but I can have the filth of this world sticking to my shoes and my feet, and I need, on a daily basis, to take care of that. So by telling Peter, if I don't wash you, you have no part with me, he is telling Peter that if Peter would not allow Jesus to wash his feet, then he would never submit to be cleansed from all of his sin. If you won't let me do this little bit of cleaning on your feet, then what about the rest of the filth that needs to be cleaned, Peter? So Peter was in a dangerous place, if you will, because at this point he needed the full cleansing that would be brought about through the death of our Lord Jesus the next day. So we begin with Christ by receiving His grace. We continue with Christ by growing in His grace. That's 2 Corinthians, or excuse me, Colossians 2.6 and 2 Timothy 2.1. None of the disciples did anything to deserve Christ washing their feet, It was normally the job of a servant, not the master. Here, the master is washing their feet. Peter was uncomfortable with Christ doing that for him. He thought he should be washing Jesus' feet, not having Jesus wash his feet. Later, he would say he would lay down his life for Jesus, but he didn't want Jesus to lay down his life for him. You can kind of visualize that. The story shows that Christ came to cleanse us from our sins. To have a relationship with Him, we must begin by receiving His grace. We're saved by His grace. Fully, totally, completely. It is unmerited. It is undeserved. Shouldn't we thank God for His grace? but we grow in His grace. This is the practical side. We sometimes refer to this as sanctification. Positionally, I am fully cleansed, covered in the righteousness of Christ. My eternal destiny is settled. Practically, I gotta keep washing my feet, and so do you. And so that's the challenge that he is laying at Peter's feet, pun intended. Thank you for that courtesy laugh. But at first glance, Peter's refusal, I want you to think with me for a moment. At first glance, Peter's refusal seems like humility, doesn't it? Lord, you're gonna wash my feet? Implication, I should be washing your feet. It looks like humility, but I think it stemmed from pride. I think Peter wasn't comfortable just receiving from Christ. And that leads me to the second point. So we're talking about a relationship with Christ. We folks must set aside our pride. Years ago when I was a young man, yeah, I was a young man at one time, I really was Peter. The pastor of the church, First Baptist Chapmanville, where I was saved, I was probably 16, 17 years old, hadn't been saved long. Some folks in the church, can't even remember what it was now, but they were gonna do something nice for me. And I had a mindset that, no, I don't want you to do anything for me. I can handle it all myself. And the pastor of the church, I can remember this as if it were yesterday, he said, you know, son, you need to come to understand the meaning of grace. Because there are folks who love you and they want to do something kind for you and you're refusing to allow them to be a blessing. And I've thought about that through the years. If they had said, hey, if you will do this for us, we'll do this for you, great. But I didn't want to just take charity. That was kind of the mindset. If you do something for me and I haven't earned it, then it's not right. Well, from what side is that not right? From the side of the person who wanted to be a blessing? Clearly they were doing something good. So what was the problem? Pride. I didn't want to accept this act of grace on the part of believers. I think that's what we see here with Peter. Peter wants reciprocation. Pride wants to reciprocate. Pride is embarrassed by receiving without giving in return. Pride wants to offer something to God to pay its way. The proud person wants to be able to take credit for doing something even in his relationship with God. Well, God did this but I, so it's taking, wanting to take some of that on self. But to come to God, we have to recognize that we have nothing to offer Him. I mean, in point of fact, what do you or I have to offer Him? And even when Jesus came into this world at the incarnation, when we celebrate the birth in a couple of days, We can do nothing to offer anything back to Him that in any way would repay Him for that act of selflessness. We can't even comprehend, as I said last week, the glories of Heaven. And then He steps down to this earth? And not only did He step down to this earth, He didn't step down to a palace. He stepped down to a stable. to smelly animals, that his first bed was a feeding trough? That act of selflessness, how can I even begin to repay the omnipotent God of heaven who became a man? Pride says, well, I need to do something. It's been suggested that pride takes different forms. Let me just quickly touch upon this. We're talking about grace and we're talking about the spirit of Christmas and how the spirit of Christmas really is about our receiving God's grace. And the impediment to our receiving God's grace is pride. So here are some things that have been suggested about pride. Pride often hides under the mask of humility. Peter's protest, you'll never wash my feet, sounds humble, but I think it stems from pride. I think he is, in essence, saying, these other guys, they may let you wash their feet, but not me. I know better than you do in this matter. Think about what he's saying to Jesus. Jesus is coming to wash his feet. And he says, you're not going to wash my feet. What is he, in essence, saying to Jesus? I know more than you do. I know better than you do. Jesus... Remember, Peter has already said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. Remember Matthew 16? So how could he be telling the Christ, the Son of the living God, you can't do that? It's his pride speaking. I know better than you do. Someone said embarrassment can be a sign of pride. Is that true? Can embarrassment be a sign of pride? How many of you have never been embarrassed? We've all been embarrassed from time to time, right? Peter was embarrassed by this whole thing. Maybe the other men needed their feet washed, but I think Peter felt, this is kind of beneath my dignity. My feet aren't that dirty. I mean, if you think about when we're embarrassed, oftentimes it's because something happened, we said something or something, there was some event that in our own eyes somehow makes us feel like other people think we are less than we think we ought to be seen as. We're embarrassed, I didn't know the answer. You know, kids get embarrassed in classes, right? The teacher says, so and so, what is the answer to this question? And the student gets embarrassed. Why? Because they don't know the answer. Well, why are they embarrassed by not knowing the answer? Because it hurts their pride. I don't want the other kids to think that I'm not smart enough to know the answer. And I'm using that as an illustration that it doesn't matter whether you're 10 years old or 80 years old, we're all susceptible to that same way of thinking. Elizabeth Elliot humorously told the story about overhearing her daughter one day singing a very familiar song to her cat. Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like you. Sometimes that's how we feel, isn't it? Other people might be wretches with dirty feet, but not me. Someone said, discomfort with being close can be a sign of pride. I mean, to let somebody wash your feet means you have to let them get a little bit close to you, right? And when somebody gets really close to you, they may discover that not only are your feet dirty, but you also smell. Are you with me? That's embarrassing. To allow the Lord to wash your life means that you have to let Him see all your dirt. Well, He sees it anyway. But in our pride, sometimes we like to kind of compartmentalize, right? Someone said an independent spirit is a form of pride. Each of the disciples was perfectly capable of washing his own feet, probably would have preferred to do it that way, When it comes to salvation, pride says, really, Lord, I'd rather do it myself. Isn't that the world at large? Doesn't the world at large operate that way? You talk about the need for a savior. Well, I'm not really that bad. and they think that they can do it themselves. Someone said, pride is sometimes the driving force behind serving Christ. Whoa, now this is getting a little bit too close to home. The others we can chuckle at, right? And say, yeah, that's right, yeah. But can pride be the driving force behind serving Christ? Sometimes those who serve Christ do so out of the pride of thinking they can pay Him back. Well, the Lord saved me and look at everything I've done for Him. And what have we done for Him? You say, well, some people do more than others. If they're doing it with the right spirit, they would acknowledge, I did nothing. Anything that has been accomplished through my ministry was by the grace of God using a broken vessel to honor Himself. To put it another way, if you reach in your toolbox and you find a screwdriver that's kind of old and the teeth have been worn and you try to put it on a screw and you try to get that screw off and it just, have you ever had that experience? It just, you know, the Phillips head screwdriver just keeps flipping around the head of the screw and then you find somebody who has done this their whole life and they know how to take that old screwdriver and still make it work. Does the glory go to the old screwdriver? Or does it go to that master craftsman that knows how to take a worn-out tool and still use it to accomplish something great? Well, God takes you and me, and we're worse than even worn-out tools. And He uses us. and He accomplishes great things through us. And so when we are used in service in some way, it isn't that we can take pride in what we have done because God could do better with raising a rock to accomplish His purposes. But He chooses to take you and me, worn out screwdrivers or whatever you want to picture, and He takes us and uses us, not because we are pristine and new and sharp. It's precisely because we aren't that whatever... This is 1 Corinthians chapter 1, by the way. Maybe it'd be a good passage to read in the run-up to the new year, especially the second half of the chapter. Because the second half of the chapter, I look at it and think of it as the Lord's toolbox. Because what that passage says in a nutshell is this, God didn't raise the intelligent, smart, good-looking. He rose the base. He uses the worthless. He uses those who have nothing that they can accomplish in themselves to what end? That whatever good is accomplished, God gets the glory. Because it's not about how good the tool was, it's about the fact that it's the hand of the Master. And so, pride says, look at what I have done. But the truth is, we come to Him in service and say, Lord, I yield myself as a living sacrifice. I am yours to be used in your hand however you choose." So we have to accept God's grace freely. Isaac Watts, someone suggested talking about pride that Isaac Watts, one phrase of his song, a familiar tune says this, when I survey the wondrous cross on which the Prince of Glory died, my richest gain I count but loss, and here's the phrase, and poor contempt on all my pride. That's why these old hymns, just as Randall was saying this morning, if you really spend time looking at the words of some of these older hymns, they can really be very impactful. Poor contempt on all my pride. So, as I walk with the Lord, I need to set aside my pride. It's a barrier to His grace. And then, having done that, We receive God's grace with no thought of repayment. Salvation is God's free gift to those who deserve judgment. Possible because Christ paid the penalty we deserve. John 3, 16, for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. What do you do when somebody offers you a gift? If somebody walks up, and let's turn it around, if you walked up to somebody after church day and said, hey, man, I've really enjoyed getting to know you this year and serving with you and working with you in the church and I have a gift for you. And you went to reach the gift out to them and they reached in their pocket and pulled out $20 and said, oh, well, okay, here's $20 for the gift. What would you feel like? Would you say, oh, that was nice, he gave me $20 for my gift? Or would you feel a little bit put out, like, wait a minute, I was giving you a gift because I genuinely care about you and you feel like you've got to buy it from me? I mean, you'd kind of wonder about that person, right? Because what do you do with a gift? Thank you. I don't feel like I deserve it, but I appreciate the sentiment that is behind the gift that you're giving to me. That's what we do when God gives us gifts we don't deserve. In fact, John 1, 12 says, but as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. God gave his son. We accept the gift. Thank you, God, for saving a sinner like me. Let's move on quickly. To the third point. So he came to save. He came to give himself for us. We have to set aside our pride and receive the gift, understanding that we can give nothing back. There is no reciprocity. There's no reciprocal nature of this gift. Otherwise, it's not a gift. That brings us a third point. Having received God's grace, we can learn to give and to serve. Having received His grace, now we can give and serve. After Jesus washed the disciples' feet in verses 14 and 15, 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 to you. Now, there are churches that practice washing feet. Just like we have communion, as part of their communion service they will have a foot-washing service. Are they heretics because they have foot-washing services? No. They're simply following the example that Christ gave here. There's nothing inherently wrong with it. But did Christ, in this passage, give a physical example of washing feet? Because that alone is the lesson. No. Aren't you glad? I'm not throwing stones at those who do. I have family who are in churches where they wash feet, and that's fine. But aren't you glad we don't wash feet? Okay. Maybe it would be a good exercise sometime. I don't know. But what is the lesson? What is the point when Jesus says, what I've done to you, you should do to one another? I've given this example to you. He wasn't saying you should be washing each other's feet. Because there's the lesson that lies behind it. Once you've let Jesus wash your feet, then you need to be willing to wash the dirty feet of others. Now, what do I mean by that? Well, four things. I'm not going to park on these because we could park on these and spend the rest of this time, our fellowship time, and then the Sunday school time. So I'm just going to throw these out there, but I want you to think about it. We're talking about having received His grace. I am a child of God because of what Christ has accomplished for me. He has saved me in spite of myself. I am His. That being true, Here is what now can be true of me. So this is the practical side, if you will. We can freely forgive those who have wronged us and ask forgiveness when we have wronged others. I'm stepping on my own toes. How about you? Because I have received this grace of God. He has forgiven me. Not because I deserve it. What does the Bible say? God demonstrated His love to us in the while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. That forgiveness that I have from God is not because I earned it. That's the whole point. We receive the gift. We don't give anything back because we have to give something back to deserve it. It is a gift given to us by the grace of God. That being true, I now have, and this is what the wonderful empowering of the Holy Spirit of God who indwells me now as a forgiven child of God, I have the capacity by the grace of God that saved me to extend forgiveness to others or to go to those I've offended and say, would you forgive me? That's not easy, is it? Why is it so hard to go and tell somebody you're sorry? What is the impediment to admitting you were wrong? Pride. Isn't it? I mean, for a long time, you know, Jan and I would have a little You know, couples have their inside jokes, and theirs would be, you know, I might do something I know I shouldn't do, and I'd say, Jan, I was... I made a mistake. And we would laugh because she knows I'm laughing at myself because I was having difficulty saying, I was wrong. You know, it's hard to say that, isn't it, sometimes? So we say, well, it was a mistake. Well, what is a mistake? I did something wrong, but I'm just kind of whitewashing it a little bit. Well, because I've been forgiven, because I now have this relationship with God, having received the grace of God, I can. Now, I'm not saying it's easy. That's why I say we could park on this for a good while. But the illustration in Matthew 18, our Lord gives the parable where one servant was forgiven a debt that basically was thousands of years' worth of wages, and then he turned around and wouldn't forgive a guy who owed a few hundred days' worth of wages. What's wrong with that picture? The point is God has forgiven us an incalculable debt of sin. We need to be a forgiving people. It should be that we live our lives that way. We do not withhold grace from those. Number two, having received God's grace, we can offer correction to those who are in the wrong and receive correction when we are wrong. We like the first part of it. Well, you know, it's just out of love, brother, that I'm trying to help you. But what if you're the brother that's being approached to say, Hey, listen, Dana, there's something I need to talk to you about. But because I have been washed in the blood of Christ, because I've received the grace of God, then these words should be meaningful to me and to you. Galatians 6, 1. Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual restore such in one in the spirit of meekness. Notice, considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. The spirit of meekness. It's not looking down your nose and saying, yes, brother, you're a sinner, you need to get right with God. But it's looking at that brother and loving that brother and saying, listen, I know things happen and sometimes we lose focus and we live in a fallen world and the pressures of this life just sort of pile on us. But I want you to know I care and I'm here for you. And if there's a sin in that brother's life, then you are there to help challenge that brother. But you're doing it lovingly, not self-righteously, right? And you're doing it meekly. Why? Because you understand tomorrow you may be the one who needs somebody to love you enough to approach you. That's the body of Christ. Because I've received the grace of God, this can be true. Number three, having received God's grace, we can serve others with the right motives and the right expectations. What do I mean by that? Well, if you aren't serving with the awareness that you are the recipient of God's grace, then you might expect responses from others that will never come. And if you don't get it, you feel hurt and unappreciated. Is that true sometimes? I thank God that we have such a loving family in our church. And there's so many of you who do so many things, and many do them behind the scenes. And I've actually approached folks and said, you know, could I acknowledge you publicly? No, I'd rather you not. They don't want the pat on the back. They don't want the public acknowledgement. But you and I, We would recognize very quickly if some people weren't doing the things they're doing behind the scenes. Because we'd come to church and say, somebody needs to do something about this. Well, somebody is right now doing something about these things. But it's that heart and that willingness to say, I'm not doing this for the public pat on the back. I'm doing this because I have received the grace of God and I can lovingly serve others. Not so that people will say, hey, you're so wonderful. But so they will come and say, isn't God wonderful that He's brought together a family like this? That brings honor to God. Number four, having received God's grace, we can freely give our resources to the Lord's work. When you recognize that all that you have is because of God's grace, that's 1 Corinthians 4, 7, it frees you to give generously to the Lord's work. You don't do it to earn points with God. Well, Lord, look how much I gave to you. You don't do it to earn points with others. Well, I gave that to you, so now you need to do this for me. That's not exercising grace to others, is it? As Jesus said in Matthew 10, freely you have received, freely give. As Paul put it in 2 Corinthians 9, 8, as God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that always having all sufficiency in all things, you may have abundance in every good deed. It is God's grace that empowers us. It is God's grace that has saved us. It is God's grace that keeps us. It is God's grace that through the power of God and the promises of God, one day will see us into glory. And we'll be in His presence. And no one of us will be able to stand before Him in that day and say, Lord, look what I did. In fact, we only have, you know, there is at the end of the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew an example of some who will stand before Him and say, Lord, Lord, we did this in Your name. And what will He say to them? Depart from me, I never knew you. They did things in His name. Clearly, they never knew His grace. If they had known His grace, perhaps their response would not have been, look what we did in Your name. It would have been, thank You, Lord, for allowing me to in any way be a small part of what You accomplished. Because it is what God accomplishes. God is the one who does the work. He is the one who saves. He is the one who keeps. When we celebrate Christmas, And we're reading in our family, we always read the passage, the narrative there in Luke chapter 2. Perhaps you do the same thing before we get to all the other stuff that goes on. We want to acknowledge the birth of Christ. So as you're doing all of that, and that's all good, and all the other traditions you might have in your family, I hope that the very foundation of that will be this idea. The spirit of Christmas is not my giving or receiving gifts. It isn't my reciprocating to others and saying, well, you know, last year they gave me something I didn't give them. I better give them something this year. The spirit of Christmas is, thank you, Lord, that you love me enough that you gave me the gift of eternal life through my Lord Jesus Christ. I don't deserve it. I can't earn it. There's nothing I can offer back to you that in any way is reciprocating. But thank you, Father, that I am your child. Spirit of Christmas, God loved us so much he gave his son. And ultimately, that baby was born so that as we get to Easter in a few months, We celebrate the resurrection. He died for my sins, was buried according to the scriptures. He rose again the third day. He ever lives to make intercession for you and me. By God's grace, may we revel in his grace to us in this Christmas season. Let's bow our heads. Father, I thank You that we can think through Your Scripture, and even, Lord, if we use a passage like this that isn't the typical passage that we might go to when we think about a Christmas message, Father, we sometimes use the same messages over and over, the same passages over and over, and Lord, that isn't wrong, but Lord, trying to express the same truth through another passage that really is connected, Lord, my prayer is that that will make it that much more special for us this year, that much more memorable, and perhaps, give us just another avenue, another way of talking to others who don't know Christ, that we might be able to share even the foot-washing episode with Christ the night before His crucifixion, that we might be able to use that to demonstrate in some way why He was born. because it ties into the fact that he died for us. So Lord, help us in this Christmas season to honor you. Father, as we are praying here this morning, perhaps someone of your children here today has been struggling with one of these aspects of pride that we talked about, the fact that pride does get in the way of our experiencing your grace, even as believers, in the way that we should and exercising our having been recipients of that grace to accomplish things that would honor you, not to earn salvation, not to give back to you, but simply as a result of what you were doing in our lives. Father, help us to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Savior. Lord, may this be a blessed Christmas season for all of your family present here. But Lord, may it carry us into the new year that we would honor you, Father, in the days to come. We'll thank you and give you the praise as we ask this all in Jesus' name and for his sake. Amen.