Mm-mm-mm. That'll stick with you right there. I like those kind of songs before I preach. Sometime you need to be calmed down before you preach, I need to be charged up before I preach. It's a weird thing I get, and I've always got it, especially when I preach out. And it may sound like a good thing, and it probably is a good thing, but it sure don't feel good. Is it right before, maybe 40 minutes before I preach, everything just empties out, and I feel like I have absolutely nothing. It don't feel good, but God seems to use that when you get out of the way. Let's read chapter 13, 1 to 10, I'll pray, and we'll get started 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, and having loved His own, which were in the world, He loved them unto the end. Aren't you glad about that? And supper being ended, the devil now, having now 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, laid aside his garments, and took a towel and girded himself. After that he poureth water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet. and to wipe them with the towel wherewith he was girded. What a scene. Then cometh he to Simon Peter, and Peter saith unto him, Lord, dost thou wash my feet? 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. Jesus saith unto him, he that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every wit, and ye are clean, but not all. Father, we thank you again for your living word in a crazy world. Thank you that we got a king. Thank you that we have a Master, thank you that we have a Savior, thank you that we have a book that we can just expound and try to help your people as you've helped me, and we'll just give you all the praise and the glory, Lord, that you've given us truth. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. I want to bring a point out in this text, not focused as much exactly what Jesus is exactly doing, namely washing the feet here, and the whole scene, the way it plays up. But I wanna look at the surprise it was to Peter of what he was doing. You know, Jesus' ministry included lots of surprises. When you're healing the sick and raising the dead, which he just did a chapter earlier, I'll call those big high-end surprises. But washing feet? Maybe not as dramatic as healing a leper or raising the dead, but no less, and I think Peter's reaction is proof of that, a surprise. Peter sees Jesus as his Savior, Messiah, King. And his expectations and his preconceived notions in his infinite mind says, kings don't wash feet. And in that part of the world, man, that is the lowest. Remember our president, George Bush, when someone took and threw a shoe at him? And he dodged it, I like that. Looks like the guy last night dodged it. But kings don't wash feet. Yeah, but Peter, you're forgetting this is no ordinary king. So just imagine what's going on in their mind. They eat a meal, and all of a sudden Jesus gets up. Let's read it again. Let's look at verse four. He riseth from supper and laid aside his garments. So my first question here is, why? and I don't understand all the culture, but if I'm gonna wash your feet, I'm gonna wash your feet. Why do I have to lay aside my garments? Would they get in the way? Would they get dirty? And I'm trying to picture the scene. Was it overgarments and undergarments were left? And it doesn't look like it because you don't usually put a towel over undergarments. That's a wild scene. And then he takes this towel, verse four, and he girds himself. And everybody's probably wondering, what is he doing? So he's washing feet. Comes down the line, he gets to Peter. And you can always count on Peter making public out of his mouth what everybody else is probably thinking, maybe, in their hearts. But normal people consider that a little bit over the top to make it public to say something. You know anyone like that? Just gotta say something. Doesn't matter the audience, doesn't matter the hurt, You see something, I got to say something. I just got to say something. Never a hesitation to confront. Most people like that don't see it as confrontation. It's just a fact. I didn't mean anything by it. Parents. Let me give you some advice. One of my kids said, Dad, you should just preach family messages till you go. And I said, well, we won't do that, but I'll try to give some hints, mostly from bad experience along the way, failures. But let me give you some advice on dealing with your adult children, especially out of the home. Pray for wisdom to know when to curtail that when you see something, you have to say something. In the home, they are rising as adults to your equal. Well, bless God, I pay the bills, I know that. That's where they're not your equal. And as long as you're in my house, I understand that. And when that thing moves, but you need some practice. And when they are out of the home, you better take this, it's true, they are your equal. Oh, and that goes for in church, too. I know we got some weird dynamics here. You get generations. I mean, Pastor Charlie calls Dan Mr. G still. I can't call him Dan! So, older generation, be careful about when you see something in the younger generation that you have to say something. And I'm not talking about 13-year-olds. I'll use Jason and Hallie, because they're perfect and nobody could ever find anything wrong. But, well, you know, I saw Jason and Hallie doing this, and I told them... would you tell Tim and Donna if you saw them doing it? You see what I'm getting at? It's hard to see. They got three kids, man. Do you remember your parents trying to control your life when you were 30 and had three kids? Are we okay? Amen, I'm trying to help ya! My dad was that way. No filter, man. No filter. That's what makes me a little crazy. whether I was 5 or 55, man, he sees it, he's gonna say it. My cousins were big, big drywall contractors in Rochester, and I remember one, and I really liked that. They were Jehovah's Witnesses, but really, really good people as people go, and they liked me, so I kinda liked them. And I remember one time, and it wasn't long before I said to my father, I said, Dad, isn't this something how Uncle Dave and David just how they... Did that drywall all them years. And he goes, that's because they're stupid. Jesse, no offense. I remember when Julia's little boy was born. That Julia had a little boy, yeah? What'd they name him? Jackson. Where'd they get that name? Dad was 87 and blind, Aaron. Had all these points on his credit card over the years. Let's take a trip to Cal. Let's go see your cousins in California. We'll go down to see Jenna and Pat in Texas. And well, unbeknownst to us, after all the arrangements were made, I had these surgeries, I think it was 2022, and I couldn't go, I couldn't travel. They told me not to travel. Well, blind 87-year-old dad went on his own. Now, my cousins in California, they have means, you know. And so, they're going to Uncle Junior. My dad was named after his dad, and so they were gonna treat Uncle Junior good, and they're taking him out to the best restaurants, and they're catering good food in the house there, you know, highfalutin people. And I can remember calling my dad just to check on him one day, and I'm hearing my cousins. When I say cousins, 60-, 70-year-old, you know, in the background, and I said, how's it going? He goes, nobody cooks here! Then he goes down to Texas, same thing, and he's spent a lot of time with Jenna and Pat and Allison. Well, Allison just had a baby. So their same thing, they'll take him to the best place. Took him for oysters. Dad likes oysters, Pat like oysters. And Dad says to the waiter, how much are they? He says, $3. He goes, oh, a dozen? That's not bad. No, a piece. A piece! He'd get chicken wings, man, if they're not big. Come here. Are these pigeon wings? Crazy. Same thing, Pat Nelson taking them out and catering stuff in. How's it going? Nobody cooks here! Nobody cooks! So, he's coming home. I think he went 10 days. All I want is... What everybody wants, A-A-A, affection, attention, approval. And I know what I'm gonna do. Dad's, you know, he's blind, so he's being wheeled around these airports. You don't have time to stop and get something to eat, so I'm gonna get him his favorite, which is Egg McMuffin. Trouble is, he doesn't get in until 5 o'clock at night, so I'll stop. I know they do that all day. So I go in to get him at the airport, and I stop, and... And the grease one, no Egg McMuffin. They're not serving at that hour. Oh, man, now I'm kinda running behind, getting nervous, and pulling the gates there. We're not serving them. Oh, man, all right, give me a couple cheeseburgers, because, because you say, just a cheeseburger? Why don't you get them a big Whopper Duper? Because she's got, Mom's got dinner waiting. So if you get something too much, why'd you give me all this? It's gonna spoil my dinner! Just something to take the edge off. So I'm waiting, kind of excited, he's gonna love me and he's gonna say, thank you so much, this is perfect. And he takes one bite out of the cheeseburger, he goes, me, this is like sawdust. And so, the whole way home, me, nobody cooks out there. You can't believe... So the next day, which this is a miracle, because most people like that have no self-awareness. People that just say whatever they want, all you were thinking, well, you say it in the pulpit every week, that's different. Some people like that. So it's amazing that he asked this question. He said, Joe, can I ask you a question next day? What's that? Was something bothering you yesterday? Well, you asked, right? Yeah. Dad, all you talked about was how nobody cooks. Dad, those are my kids. And the whole way home, all you talked about is that nobody cooks. And you know what he said? They don't. I said, Dad, I went to two different restaurants, because I know it had been a long day, you hadn't eaten, you're blind, they're wheeling around you these airports. They didn't have Egg McMuffin, so I get you the cheeseburger, you bite in, you say, this is like sawdust, and what does he say? It is! I'd walk in, he'd say, who cut your hair? I said, Pastor Fokus, who cut your hair? Pastor J. He said, what'd you do to make him mad? Why do you cut it so short? You look like Sir Walter Head of Bulgaria. You're all head. You know, he like his pants so, you know, you can't have a break. See the break? Well, you can't have a break. It's gotta be no break. The trouble is, when you get up and cross your legs, I'm not gonna pull my pants way up with it. Me, you like them dragging on the ground. You gotta slow down when you eat. Okay, Charles Atlas, we're both 5'8", 220. Parents, you better pray for wisdom with adult children or you're gonna die alone. When they are married, they are your equal. And if you have a troubled grasp in that, just remember when you were married with a kid or two, older generation, and we're not the third world. We don't worship our ancestors. They are their own. Treat them as such. You don't have to... I was talking to a man the other day, he goes, I see something, I gotta say something. I said, don't tell me you say that to your kid, your adult. And he said a wise thing. Men, take note, he said, I say it to my wife. About the kid, see? Are we all right? Okay. So Peter's gotta say something. So Jesus is washing the feet. He comes to Peter. And again, most people, that see something, as I said, they don't have self-awareness, so he's washing them one by one. I don't know if they're in a line, probably not. When he comes to Peter, and you look at his response. Now, if Jesus was Italian, This would've been the response, because this is the way it went. He'd get down, and he'd wash his feet. Then, he'd wash Zane's feet. Then, he'd wash Gloria's feet. Then, he'd wash Vicki's feet. And then, he gets here, and Eric says, you're gonna wash my feet? And if he was Italian, he would've said, no, I'm sizing you up for a pair of shoes. Aren't you glad our Savior, although sometimes he was a little bit... What a response! Are you gonna wash my feet? I just washed half the room. What do you think I'm doing down here? But here's how he answered, and here's what he said, and this is the message, verse 7. Jesus answered and said unto him, What I do thou knowest, and I want you to say the next two words that are the title, not now. Isn't that how so often it seems in our Christian walk? We get what we perceive to be God's plan for our situation, our families, our marriages, our ministries, and we get it all mapped out. Child-rearing is a big one. Man, I went to the seminars, brother, you do this, and God's gonna do that, and we will eventually be in the Christian Hall of Fame. Until the Lord reaches for a towel. What are you doing? Are you doing this? Are you allowing this to happen to me? This wasn't on my flow chart. I was sure if I came to this church, all my kids would be pastors and missionaries and wives of such. We won't lose a one until the Lord reaches for a basin. You got a call from God, or you had a family from God, or you came to a church of God, or you got a vision from God. You had an idea the way it was gonna be. And how the Lord should have responded. But now, like Peter, you're looking at Jesus dumbfounded. Because God's doing something in your life that you don't understand now. The situation seems out of your control, and frankly, we don't like losing control of God. How dare God jump out of my box? I remember Rex Harrison preaching that. He goes, you don't wanna put God in a box. God's gonna ooze out of your box. How dare God get off my track? How dare God sidestep what I thought me and him had all worked out? It's in the Bible. And he didn't even check with me. And totally staggered, I look and say, You gonna wash my feet? Again, I'm not so focused on what he's doing as my surprise and what he's doing because, to be honest, when he surprises me, it didn't seem much like a foot washing. More like a body thrashing sometime. Maybe it's sickness, maybe it's a wayward child, maybe you found out your spouse isn't the person you married or didn't meet your expectations. Maybe it's that little country church that you thought you'd take, and those people are just dying for a young pastor, and you find out they're monsters. I could tell you stories all day long about friends. Losing your job wasn't in the plan. And like Peter, you find yourself puzzled and saying, what are you doing? And you look up to God and say, like my mother used to say to me sometimes and make me feel guilty, where did I go wrong? What have I done to deserve this? Have a listen to. Young in the Lord, I was always in a hurry to get through, man. I told you, I think a couple I just consumed. But I've been listening to the Bible a lot lately. I think I listened to the book of Job like 10 times in the last two weeks. And I'll tell you the thing that hits me to the dismay of many charismatics, when God says to Satan, thou movest me against him to destroy him without cause. I think Job's friends were charismatics because obviously if something bad is happening to you, you must be in sin. If your child is wayward, you must have done something wrong. You didn't read the Bible very close. To the contrary, maybe you're so godly that God wants to use you. to show the world what a true follower of Jesus Christ that's conformed to the image of Jesus Christ can handle. I believe it was Harold Sightler which pastored the church that many of you are familiar with down in Greenville. He lost, and forgive me if I'm getting this wrong. It's him, if it's not him, it's someone else, but I believe he said, he lost a daughter in a car accident. And she died. And he kinda quit. This is what I'm hearing from the person that was close to it. He quit, I'm done. One day... he got a knock on the door, Opened the door, man standing there, he said, uh, what can I do for you? He said nothing, he said, I just... drove halfway across the country because I want to see a man with my own eyes... that God would hold in such high regard that he'd let him go through this. Have a good day, sir. And that kind of got him back in the game. Well, I wouldn't put up with that. That's why God didn't put it on you. How are they doing it? He doesn't give you the grace for tomorrow, and he doesn't give you the grace for what's not happening yet. His strength is made perfect in weakness. Here's what Jesus didn't say. You can wash my feet. Oh, no, no, no, no. I would never do anything that you didn't approve of. I wouldn't allow something that's not in your plans. You've heard this one. God will never give you more than you can handle. I believed that, I believed that, till a man said to me one day, are you kidding me? That's all he'll give you. That's exactly where he wants us, so the only option is to lean on the everlasting arms. While we don't know what in the world is going on now. When we get to the point where we're not sure if anything is going right. But it's those times that we understand, and the only thing we do know is who He is, and His attributes of grace and mercy and patience and comfort, and that He will never leave me. And for that, I can be comforted and thankful, listen, not for what I'm going through, but in what I'm going through. Jesus said, "'What I do, thou knowest not.'" I'm so glad he said that last word, now. Our faith is not measured by what we are doing for God, but how we are reacting to what he is doing in us. Now, this is not gonna be. Good for the super-duper preachers that know positive of God's will in their life and positive of God's will for your life. But it's okay to go through seasons when you are not really sure what God is doing. There's gonna come seasons in your life when the only thing you know is let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the Lord, which exercise loving kindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, saith the Lord. Now here's the good news about this. I don't know what's going on now. Are you reaching for this towel? What are you doing? It's the second half where he said, what I do thou knowest not now. I'm glad he says this, too. But thou shalt know hereafter. Look over in 12, verse 16, chapter 12 of John, verse 16. Verse 15, fear not, daughter of Sion, behold, thy king cometh sitting on an ass's colt. These things understood not his disciples, say the next three words. Now, now. But when Jesus was glorified, then remembered they that the things which were written of him and that they had done these things unto him. You might not understand now. but chances are good you will understand hereafter, and I mean before it's over. And that's when we wring our hands and say, man, I'm glad I didn't do it my way. Three quick illustrations in my own life that I basically, I felt like I was in the will of God, I was doing right. Man, I think I had more standards than God back then. And when I got saved, my mother was diagnosed when she was 49, and she died at 56. She died of multiple myeloma, which is terrible. Some of our people have suffered with that. And I remember her just suffering. Myeloma is a disease inside the bones, where the bone marrow is, and those cancer cells just expand. It's like putting hydraulics in your bones, where they just... and your bones started breaking. And I remember watching her on her deathbed, just suffering, and I remember going in a little side room there, and I'm newly saved. I'm not saved 12 months. Why does she have to suffer? I'm sure she's saved. Now can't you take her? And you know what I didn't understand then? God, if I could hear him saying, I know you don't understand this now, but one day you're going to be working for me. And you need to understand the way people feel when they're going through what you're going through right now. And you need empathy, and you need sympathy, and frankly, you don't have a whole lot of that. And life goes on, and the first time I find myself at the side of a deathbed, I understand hereafter. and now I wouldn't trade it. Thou shalt know hereafter. I've told this too many times. I was slated to be on staff at the church I came from, and I couldn't understand why not now? Why not now? Why not now? Why not hire me right now? Well, first of all, I probably needed some lessons on, you can't have everything you want right now. I remember Mom and Dad saying that. My father would say, I mean... I remember him taking me fishing, Jason. Well, I didn't realize, being a little 8-year-old, that old people have to have their coffee. Well, man, I'm up 5 o'clock, I'm buggered, I got the worms, I'm ready to go, and he's getting like those... what was those crackers that said you taste like you just spread them with butter, and it came in a green box? Man, I love those things. But, and there he's out there. I'm sitting in my room, waiting on the edge of the bed, and he's out there... reading the paper. Man, I get 18, I wanted a Dodge van. Two days, I got a Dodge van. The minute you want something, you gotta get it the next day. That's right. I needed to learn. But second of all, if I could hear God probably saying, I got a bigger job for you. I couldn't understand now, but thou shalt know hereafter. I hug my hands and I say, oh, thank you. And then the last illustration is God giving me eight girls, daughters. What man on the planet prays for eight daughters? My motives were pure for wanting boys. We had given our whole being to God. Girl, girl, girl, boy, okay, there's hope. Girl, girl, girl, girl, girl. What thou, what I do, you don't understand now. God, I wanna raise preachers. And if I could hear God saying it, he'd probably say, listen, stupid, that's his pet name for me. Did that help meet for you that I gave you? She's better at her role than you are in your role. So you're not gonna produce preachers. You're gonna produce musicians and singers. I wouldn't change it. I did something we never do here. I counted this morning. There's probably not 150 people on this whole property. And I'm not bragging, I'm giving you an illustration just to show you, because you might be in that place where you say, God, what are you doing? And better yet, young people, what aren't you doing? They just turn whatever the social media thing, 100,000 followers. You sing a song and you get a million views? I passed through a little country church, see what God said? Let me do what I'm doing. You don't understand it now." And now I can lift my eyes and say, thank you! People calling them that lost their husbands, lost their wives, lost their baby, just a mess, and say, that song encouraged me. And now, we're impacting Florida, and we're impacting Texas, and we're impacting Carolina, and it's like, what thou doest, you don't know now, but you're gonna know. Hang in there. Oh, P.S. Girls come home. You have a lot of girls, and now that they're married, they want to come home. That's pretty good. I found out a new... All right, let me finish that thought. Brothers don't care about seeing each other. Hey, man, how you doing? Good, why don't you step over? We'll get with the brothers together. Especially, you know, we don't drink beer or nothing like that, you know? They don't, they, let's go to Mom's, because all the brothers are getting, no, it's the sisters, they wanna kibitz and all that. So that's been a plus, but I found out this has nothing to do with the message. My daughter, Jenna, analyzed me. Because I'm headed for some big changes in my life. You know, I always had a large family, nine children. But when you add, what are we up to now? I don't know who's pregnant, who's not. 25 more people that I don't have control of, like I did the nine, that could make you a little batty. And I love it... until I hate it. And I'm thinking, do I need some happy pills? You just take a couple, make you happy. And my daughter said this, Dad, you... it's a term, yeah? You're an introverted extrovert. Immediately, I search Google. Sure enough, man, you love social connections and all that, but you love a little bit of time and quiet. We're taking everybody to the zoo. We're picking up my sister and my mother and bringing all the grandkids. I'm going to be alone all day. I don't know what to do. Woo. We don't dance, but with nobody looking, we can dance before the Lord. Jesus said, down the road, when you look back, you'll understand. In the meantime, trust me, do your best, because I found the fact is God is much more interested in building me than in what I am supposedly think I'm building for him. The truth is we don't grow much when everything's according to plans and we are in control. We don't need God much in those situations. I've learned way more by failures than successes. Success usually distorts our view of ourselves. I was very critical of people that had wayward children. Oh, yeah, you're just saying that because you messed up! Judge not lest ye be judged. For what the measure you judge others, I'll mete it out to you. So if your plan was A, and now you find yourself building a boat when there was never rain, or childless and you're sure that God told you, or at a Red Sea with no way out, or in a lion's den for doing right, or in a dung pit when you're sure he called you to preach, or on a cross when you're supposed to be king, Hang in there. Sunday's coming. And you know what he ends up showing you? Exceeding abundantly way more than your plan would have entailed. You may not understand, but you probably will in a bit. Two more verses and we're done. Matthew 17, Hebrews 11. I'll use this analogy for this verse. When I was young, I remember, I don't know, some family member might have been cremated or something, and I asked my dad about that, and he said, well, you don't wanna do that because you need this for the hereafter. So if I got up here and started talking about the hereafter, you probably wouldn't think, and I'm talking about after what we're doing this time, you'd think eternity, right? Sometimes, you may die not understanding. But one day you will. Did I say Matthew 17? After six days, Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John, his brother, and bringeth them up into a high mountain apart, and was transfigured before them, his face that shines as the sun, his raiment as white as the light, and behold, there appeared unto them Moses. You think Moses died with some questions? You're not going in there. Why? Well, you know, you get a little hot under the collar there. Yeah, but I got hot before and you didn't do it. You got hot and I talked you out of it. Tell you what, he understands hereafter. You think Elijah, all he went through, they understand now. Tempted and tried, we're off made to wander. Farther along, we'll know all about. Hebrews 11, we'll sing. Hebrews 11. Let him wash your feet. He said, if I don't wash your feet, you have no part with me. Now, we could go on salvation and all that. How about what he wants to do in your life? He wants to take you to the next level. And if you don't trust him with this, you're not going to probably trust him with this. So that's when you sit before the Lord, that's when you wait, that's when you walk and not be weary and run and not be faint, and you just watch what he's doing, and you know what? He'll usually paint the portrait, and when you get done, say, man, he knows what he's doing. Hebrews 11, verse 13. These all died in faith, not having received the promises. The hereafter was hereafter, but having seen them afar off and were persuaded of them and embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth for they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country. That's what he's looking for. 16 but now they desire a better country that is in heavenly wherefore watch that this is it God is not ashamed to be called their God for he has prepared for them. That's the plan I'll trust him chances are pretty good when I get down the road Man, I'm glad I didn't marry her. I Thank you, Lord. Man, I'm glad I didn't end up in that position. Thank you, Lord. Sometimes things we don't understand, but he knows, and we understand and know that he is good. Let's stand. And that's when he gets glory. That's died in faith? You don't know now, Peter, but you're gonna know. I'll tell you what, on the day of Pentecost, Peter knew. Now I see it all. Now I see it all. What number? 850. In old time, let's just sing this song and mean it to God, amen.