Okay. Well, good morning, everyone. It's good to have everybody here with us this morning. And we will get started here shortly with our Sunday school hour. As most of you probably know or already, if not, you should know by now that we are missing our pastor this morning. He was away up at camp this past week for teen camp. And I believe Brother Dan was up there with him and Brother Todd and the Nelsons from Winnipeg. And that other family in Broxgaan, I always forget their name. We're up at camp this week and he come back, just texted me yesterday afternoon about 11 o'clock and told me that he's got a fever of 102 and he's not doing well and can I preach in the morning? I said, well, I can try my darndest, but so that's where we're at. Pray for our pastor that he would be feeling better. I mean, our pastor is always busy, we know this, but especially in the summertime with camp season and obviously just the normal everyday work of the ministry. And so pray that he would be feeling better as he come back from team camp, as I said, I believe it was Friday that he came back. And then this week we're having our vacation Bible school. And so he is kind of overseeing the whole thing. I want to be careful how I say this. We don't necessarily need him to be here, but he would certainly like to be here and it would be good if he could be here. So hopefully he'll be feeling better by tomorrow or certainly by this week. So with that as well in mind, Vacation Bible School this week from 6 to 7.30. If you didn't notice that, that is on our sign out front as well, ages 5 to 12. And that's going to run from 6 to 7.30, from Monday to Thursday. And so same as we done last year. And that's also why we have no pulpit up here. We have all of these animals and this nice scenery behind me. If you notice in the back, some of the ladies that help with the decorations and such. And I kind of knew they were doing that and that it was kind of a wildlife theme. And, you know, I wasn't thinking a whole lot about that, but that this type of thing would be going on. I walked in this morning, I thought, you know, if I was really in tune with the Holy Spirit, I probably would have preached on Noah this morning, and Noah and the ark with all these animals behind me. And, you know, the Lord's not gonna flood the earth again, but he didn't say he wouldn't come close, and it looks like we've been getting a lot of rain. So pray for Vacation Bible School, pray for our pastor and his health. Also, he mentioned yesterday, in speaking with him briefly, a fellow by the name of Cody Crever, and I do not know him whatsoever. I don't know the connection, but he is a church planter in Ottawa, a missionary, and will be here, I guess this next week already, August the 4th. I don't have a whole lot of information other than that, whether he'll be here for Sunday school, Sunday morning. I guess next week there'll be no evening service because we'll have our fellowship meal, but Cody Crever will be here next week, so I encourage you to be here to listen to him and to get an idea of his burden of ministry and church planting there in Ottawa, Ontario. Also, the following week, I believe that's the following week, August 18th, two weeks from then, August 18th will be our quarterly business meeting so just a few announcements this morning to keep in the back of your mind or to mark on your calendars and things to be praying about. Let's go to the Lord in a word of prayer this morning and then we will open up our Sunday school hour. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you Lord for the opportunity to be here this morning. I thank you Lord for men and women who are faithful to you, faithful to the house of God and to be here this morning at the Sunday school hour. And Lord, I pray for those who are not here and may be coming later or traveling, may be sick like our pastor. Lord, you know each and every case and each and every heart and where each and every one is and what they stand in need of, Lord. And so I pray that your hedge of protection will be about them. I pray for safety for those who may be traveling. I pray for health and healing of those who are struggling with illness and sickness, that you would be close to them this morning, Lord, and put your hand of healing upon them, that they would recover to full strength. I'm thinking of our pastor as well, that he would be feeling better even today, Lord, that he would have his energies back and his temperature would go down and he would be up and ready and back at it. Lord, as we know, he likes to stay active and busy. And Lord, I pray that you would just touch his body as well. I pray, be with me this morning, that you would guide my thoughts and my tongue and help me, Lord, to speak. your word, your truth boldly and accurately according to the scriptures. Help me to say everything that you would have me to say and nothing that you would not. And Lord, as we look this morning at you as the servant, our model servant, and what it means to be servant-minded, to be like Christ in this area of servanthood, I pray that each and one of us would have a humble heart, a humble spirit, to follow your example and to be an encouragement and a blessing and a servant to one another each and every day with every opportunity that we have. Lord, I ask these things in your name I pray, amen. So if you have a Bible this morning, we're gonna look at John chapter number 13. John chapter number 13, again, as I mentioned, I didn't have a whole lot of time yesterday, but one of the thoughts I had done a short devotional It's been a few months ago now with our young adults at the Young Adult Bible Study one night, and it was later in our year, in our season, so a couple of you have heard this devotional, something along these lines. But this is going to be regardless whether you were there that night or not. This is a very familiar passage, and I would imagine if you've been in church or Sunday school or read your Bible for any amount of time, this is a story, a message that you have heard in the past. Jesus washing his disciples' feet and the model of servanthood and what it is to us to be servants to be Christ-like. We know as believers it is our job. We are called to be little Christ, followers of Christ, to be Christ-like. And here I see, we see the ultimate example of what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ, but to be servant-minded, others-minded. And so I want to look here this morning at John chapter number 13 with that thought in mind. of servanthood, the model servant following our Savior, Jesus Christ. And let's look at verse number one in John chapter 13, and we will read down until verse number 17. The Bible said here in verse number one, 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, the disciples, 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. And 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 garment, 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. Then cometh he to Simon Peter, and Peter saith unto him, Lord, dost thou wash my feet? Jesus answered and saith unto him, What I do thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter. Peter saith unto him, Thou shalt never wash my feet. And Jesus answered him, If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me. And 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. For he knew who should betray him. Therefore, he said, ye are not all clean. So after he had washed their feet, and had taken his garments, and was set down again, he said unto them, Know ye what I have done to you? Ye call me master and lord, and ye say, well, for I am. If I then, your master, 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. Verily, verily, I say unto you, the servant is not greater than his Lord, neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him. If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them." Notice here the model of servanthood in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Here they are at the Feast of Passovers in verse number one, and Jesus knew that his hour had come. It said there in verse number one that he should depart out of this world unto the Father. That's an interesting phrase because again, if you've studied your Bible or especially read through the Gospels, that phrase that his hour had come is now different. It's now new. Up until this point, you had heard the Lord often say, Whether he was teaching, whether he had done miracles, he would send people on their way and oftentimes tell them to say nothing, to tell no one. And he oftentimes said, because what? Mine hour has not yet come. If you remember in John chapter 2, the wedding of Canaan, Jesus is there at the wedding of Canaan and the men come to marry the Lord's mother and tell her that we have no wine. There is no wine left. And so Jesus' mother comes to the Lord and she tells him, look, they've ran out of wine. And Jesus responds to his mother in John chapter 2, woman, what have I to do with thee? Mine hour is not yet come. And, you know, this is not my message this morning, but by the way, I love the response of Mary, Jesus' mother, in that moment in John chapter 2 and verse number 5, when after they had come to Him, He said, Woman, what have I to do with thee? Mine hour is not come. She tells these men, Whatsoever he saith, do it. You know, that's good advice for every one of us this morning. Whatsoever he saith, in the 66 books of the inerrant, infallible, inspired, heaven-sent, God-breathed words of the living God this morning, whatsoever he saith, do it as a child of God. But he said, my hour has not come. And yet in John chapter 13, now he's saying my hour has come. And so I want to help to draw a picture in your mind of what's happening in the Lord and our Savior, Jesus Christ's life at this moment in time. He knew that from the beginning of time that he was sent from the Father, left the portals of glory to live on this earth for some 33 years, to live a sinless, perfect, spotless life. Why? To die on the cross of Calvary. In 1 Timothy 1 and 15, the Bible said that this is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came to the earth to save sinners amongst whom I am chief. That's what the Apostle Paul said. He came to seek and to save that which was lost, and now he knows, my time has come. that I must go to Calvary, that I must walk up Dark Golgotha's hill and shed my blood on the cross of Calvary for whosoever will, for the entire world. And while all this is going on in the mind of Jesus, can you imagine what's really at the front of his mind, where his heart would be. I believe that when he went to the garden to pray, before the soldiers came and took him, he cried, Father, if it be Thy will, let this cup pass from me. But not my will, but Thine be done. And he sweat these great sweat drops of blood, the Bible said as well in the book of John, and I don't believe that's because The Lord was wounded or hurting. Surely we know that on the cross He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities and the chastisement of our peace was upon Him according to Isaiah 53. All we like sheep have gone astray and have turned everyone to their own way. And the Lord will have laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was afflicted and he was oppressed, yet he opened not his mouth. As a lamb led to the slaughter, and a sheep before shears his dung, yet he opened not his mouth. He is the fulfillment of Isaiah 53. But I believe in the garden there, those great sweat drops of blood were in agony, knowing that the first time in history, God the Son would no longer be able to have right relation and fellowship with the Father. Why? Because the weight of the entire world The wrath of God, the sins of mankind were poured out from the Father on the Son during that time on the cross of Calvary. Paul said that he could no longer look at the Son with favor. Why? Because he was carrying the burden, the weight of your sin and my sin as he's hung there suspended between two thieves between heaven and earth, naked, bleeding and dying for the sins of the entire world. He cried out in the Greek, Tetelestai, it is finished. Literally, in the Greek there, the term is mission accomplished. And on the cross, Jesus Christ cried to his commander-in-chief, Father, mission accomplished. It is finished. And God is all-knowing, all-powerful, everywhere, always at the same time, knowing that this is what's gonna happen. This is what's about to come. Amazingly, what's at the forefront of his mind, surely, in my mind, the forefront would be what I'm about to go through. but at the forefront of the mind of Jesus is his 12 disciples. And he girds himself with a towel and he gets on his knees and starts to wash their feet. That's amazing enough that he had done this to his 12 disciples, his inner circle, those who were closest to him, but being an all-knowing God, to do it and look Judas square in his God-given eyeballs, knowing that hours from now he is about to betray him. to get down and wash his feet as well. The ultimate sign of service and servanthood. And so in verse number three and following Jesus, knowing that the father had given all things into his hands and that he was come from God and went to God again, he will be ascending back to heaven after crucifixion we know on that third and glorious morning up from the grave he arose and is alive forevermore he is headed back to glory to the portals of glory to be seated at the right hand of the father but before any of this can happen he must first go to dark Calvary he rises first number four from supper and laid aside his garments and took a towel and girded himself and after that he poureth water into a basin, and began to wash his disciples' feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith he was girded. Now as we come to Simon Peter verse number six and following, then cometh he to Simon Peter, and Peter saith unto him, Lord dost thou wash my feet? Now Peter knew what type of man he was. Peter knew the mistakes that he had made, and he also knew the type of man that his Savior Jesus Christ was. Now back in this day, Servanthood or washing of the feet was left for the lowest of the low on the totem pole. If people had slaves or servants, it would be their job to wash the guest's feet. Sometimes it would be the children's job to wash the guest's feet. And so all of these disciples knew one thing, that this is common practice, this is common courtesy for somebody to wash the feet. Now, it's interesting at this time, the King of King and the Lord of Lords, the God of glory in the form of man, Jesus Christ, is doing the lowest on the low of the totem pole. And yet just a few chapters earlier, what are in the Gospels, what are the disciples questioning? What are they wondering about? Who will be the greatest? You know, I want to sit on the left hand and my brother on the right hand in glory. And so the disciples know this, that somebody ought to wash the feet. But you know what? If we can figure out who's the greatest, then we can figure out who's the least. Now, I might not be Peter, but I'm certainly not James. And I might not be Timothy, but at least I'm not Bartholomew. And I don't know who's the least, but we know for sure it isn't Jesus. But I don't want to be the one to wash the disciples' feet. That is for the lowest of the low. That's a servant's job. And yet Jesus Christ girds himself to wash the disciples' feet. So I ask this morning, if we are followers of Jesus Christ, he has left us this example, what is it in your life that you are unwilling to do to be a blessing and encouragement or of service to somebody else? I want you to think about that question as we study this passage. What is it in your life? What is it in my life that I am unwilling to do for the service of the Lord to be a blessing? to others. There's areas in our life every single day where we can be an encouragement, where we can be a blessing, where we can be a servant. And I believe, honestly, far too many times we miss opportunities because we think, I want to do this, I want to do something big for the Lord. And yet something little is laid in front of us, like maybe cleaning the toilets or vacuuming the carpets. Well, somebody else can take care of that. I want to preach. I want to evangelize. I want to be up there. I want to do something with the preacher. And the Lord's saying, I just want you to do something simple. Just be faithful where you're at. One of my favorite illustrations is always David as a shepherd boy. And here comes Samuel to look for the next king of Israel. And he comes to David's house and to the father, and he goes down the line of brothers. And he said, I know that this ain't him. This is not him. This is not him. And he said, but there's nobody left. And so he asked his father, Jesse, is there another? Well, there's one more, but he's just a little fella and he's just out keeping the sheep. David was a shepherd boy, but he was faithful just being a shepherd. And then David became the king of Israel, a man after God's own heart. And so what is it in your life that you are unwilling to do to be of service to others? And by the way, If you've ever had opportunity to be a blessing, an encouragement, or to serve somebody, you know this, that it's always going to come at the most inconvenient time. It's always going to happen when you're busy. It's always going to be something you don't really care to do, but there's an opportunity to be a blessing. There's an opportunity to be a servant. And Jesus said, I know that mine hour has come, and I must go to the cross of Calvary. But at this moment, with all of that in my mind, I must be servant to the men that I love, to the people that I care about, and so ought we. And so here is Peter, Lord, dost thou wash my feet? Now, if you've read the Gospels, you know Peter at times has a bit of a motor mouth and has a bit of a tendency to stick his foot squarely in his mouth. Lord, dost thou wash my feet? And Jesus answered and saith unto him, verse number seven, what I doest thou know not, but thou shalt know hereafter. And look at Peter's response, well, if that's the case, Lord, my feet, my hands, my hair, just, I mean, give me a bath, Lord. And Jesus said, you're missing the point, Peter. Once you have been washed, verse number 10, he said, he that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit, and ye are clean, but not all, speaking of Judas Iscariot, for he knew who should betray him. Therefore he saith, Ye are not all clean. Now what's he speaking about here? It's important to point this out that the Lord is speaking about fellowship with the Father. Once you have been saved, friend, you don't need to be continually reborn again. Once you've been saved, you are saved, indwelt with the Spirit of God, placed into the Bride of Christ, the Body of Christ, the Family of God. So what is this continual cleaning? It's a picture of washing the disciples' feet. It's the picture to us of continually coming to the Lord, asking for forgiveness, washing of our sins, not for salvation, but to restore fellowship with God. because you can be born again and have fellowship broken with the Father. According to 1 John 1, 6-9, the Bible said that if we say we have fellowship with Him, being Jesus Christ, we say we have fellowship with Him, yet walk in darkness, we do not the truth but lie. But if we walk in the light as he is the light, we have fellowship one with another. The disciples, the other believers, the body of Christ, we have fellowship one with another and the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sins. If we say we have no sins, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. But if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." And so he said, Peter, fellowship can be broken. The moment that you sin, you have sin in your life. Yes, as a believer, you are still blood-bought and heaven-bound, but fellowship, relation with God, has been cut off, has been broken, and you must be cleansed in order to restore fellowship back with the Father. By the way, that's a very serious, that's a very dangerous thing, because not even as a believer, according to the Bible, if you believe the Bible, according to the Bible, not even your prayers will be heard or answered without fellowship with the Father, with fellowship being broken, according to Psalm 66 and 18. If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me. And so fellowship with the Father as a believer is a very important, very serious thing. So he said, Peter, You don't need to be continually born again. You don't need to be continually baptized. That's why so many of these religions nowadays have this backwards. Once you've been truly born again, once saved, always saved, you are in the hands of God Almighty. And my God which gave them me is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand. So you have fellowship with the Father. You don't need to be continually born again, but when you do mess up, you do need to run back to the cross. You do need to show repentance. You do need to ask forgiveness. You do need to restore fellowship with your Father. Just reading this morning again through the book of Proverbs in chapter 28 and verse number 13, he that covereth his sins shall not prosper, but whoso confesseth those sins and forsaketh them shall find mercy. There's an interesting little phrase at the end of that passage, that whoso confesseth and forsaketh them. Have you ever been done something wrong, had a sin in your life or been living in sin, know it's wrong and ask forgiveness, but in the back of your mind think, I kind of like that and I might go back to it. Is that forsaking your sin? I believe that's very clearly in there for a reason. Whoso confesseth their sin, and forsaketh it, that person shall find mercy at the throne of grace." So we need to be continually restored in the sense of fellowship with the Father. Look at verse number 12. So after he had washed their feet and had taken his garment and was set down again, he said unto them, Know ye what I have done to you? Ye call me Master and Lord. 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." Here is our example, Jesus Christ and what he has done for us, the ultimate example of servanthood, but not only servanthood, giving his life on the cross of Calvary. In chapter number 15 of John, the Bible said that, no greater love hath any man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. And so he said, he also ought to wash one another's feet, for I have given you an example, verse 15, that ye should do also as I have done to you. Verily, verily, I say unto you, the servant is not greater than his lord, neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him. If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them. As believers, as followers of Christ, we are, as I mentioned off the start of this message, we are to be little Christ. We are to be Christ-like, to be like our Savior, Jesus Christ. He left us this example, an unbelievable example of servanthood, and we are to do the same. I've got my dad here with me this morning, I believe my grandma. and grandpa are coming for this the morning's message but two of my heroes in the faith are my dad and my grandpa and two men that I have seen this type of servanthood my entire life watching the both of them and you know one of my best friends now lives in Thunder Bay and He said he spent a lot of time at our place. We really met in high school and played a little bit of golf and things like that together and became really good friends. And he spent a lot of time at our place. And I certainly wouldn't say he had a rough childhood by any means, but he was a bit of a goofball, got himself in some trouble at times at home and spent a lot of time at our place and kind of became like a third son to my parents. And Kevin said to me, he actually said this, he said, one day, George, if I ever get married, have a wife and kids, I want to name one of my boys, if I have a boy, after your dad. Well, he had one boy, and just about coming up on three years now, I guess a little over two years ago, had his second son. And his wife is of Finnish descent, and they named that boy Mikko. And he told me that in the Finnish, that's Michael. because he had that much respect for my dad and what he had seen, the man that he is in the time that he spent with our family. And he said, Jordan, I've known a lot of people, I've known a lot of men, I've known a lot of families who have way more money than you guys have. And I've seen at times them even give that money. But I have never seen anybody give of their time like your dad gives of his time. Now, I'll be honest with you, in a chaotic world, in a rat race society, not everybody has lots of money to give, but at times it's a whole lot easier to hand somebody a $50 bill or a $100 bill and say, God bless you, and don't bother me no more than it is to take out of your busy day and to encourage or be a blessing to somebody else. I have a grandpa that's darn near as old as Methuselah, is not healthy at all, and is still out there haying for a guy that he don't want to be haying for, and shouldn't be haying for. I mean, it's 95 degrees in the shade, and he's out there giving her, sweating his ever-loving guts out, and my mom, I remember sitting right at the kitchen table with my mom, my grandma, and my grandpa, and them saying, Sonny, you need to start telling Johnny no. And by the way, I don't disagree with him. And he just said, well, if I die in a tractor, I'm all right with that. Johnny can do his own hay or get somebody else to do his own hay. Or guess what? Johnny may be as old as Methuselah. Maybe he ought to quit too. And my grandpa just looked at them and looked at me and smiled and said, George, do unto others as you'd have them do unto you. Don't you hate getting in an argument with somebody and then they kind of use the Bible on you, you know, get spiritual? What are you going to say to that? You're right, Grandpa, do unto others as you have them do unto you. There's a man that's same as my father, didn't have money to give to people, but would endlessly and continually give of himself and of his time. What is the Lord doing here? He's giving of Himself and He has given to His disciples. He has given to us the ultimate gift of salvation that whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. We don't deserve it. We can't earn it. But He has given us that gift, that servanthood that He showed Those of you who know, my mom has a daycare, and I asked you earlier, what is it in your life that you're unwilling to do? Whether it's at your home, in your family, at your job, certainly in the church, within your church family, what is it that you're unwilling to do? You say, you know, maybe I would help out with cutting the grass, or I would help out maybe even cleaning, but I am not helping out with VBS. I cannot handle children. Maybe you say, I'll help out at VBS, but you're not going to catch me cleaning toilets. What is it in your life that you say, I'm not willing to do that? Now, my mom, I have a funny illustration here for you, but I believe there's a lot of practical truth in it that my mom has a daycare and A couple of years ago, we started early there at the shop, and we come in one morning, around nine o'clock every morning, she has breakfast ready, and so we come in from the shop, and I went into the washroom to wash my hands, and there was no lights on, there was no nothing. And I opened the door, and there's this little fella, and he's standing there, he wasn't quite naked yet, but he's standing there like he's got to do his business. And I said, whoa, I said, you gotta go to the bathroom, buddy? And he just nodded his head, yeah. And I said, do you need some help? And he nodded his head, yeah. And so I helped him get undressed. I sat him on the toilet. I closed the door, and I thought, I'll go back in there in a few minutes or after breakfast, and he'll be all done, and it'll be all right. And when I went back in there and opened the door, had turned the lights and everything on for him, it, well, it smelled a whole lot more like a number two than a number one, if you know what I'm saying. And I said, are you done, buddy? And he did that one. And then he jumped off the toilet, and he went like this. And I said, no, sir. Ain't gonna happen. You're gonna have to get Auntie Brenda to help you with that. That's nasty, that's for the daycare and your mama, but I'm not touching that. Now that's a funny and a cute illustration, but how many times do we have opportunity, whether it's at our jobs, in our homes, like I say, at our church, to be in a blessing, to be an encouragement to somebody and say, ain't gonna happen. I ain't doing that. Maybe somebody down the road that'll do that and help you, but not gonna be me. Maybe you're that one that, you know, unless somebody's there to witness it or somebody's there to praise me afterwards, I ain't gonna do that. You know how many men and women I have seen over my time in this church, within this congregation, even still today, who have worked countless hours behind the scenes? Who do you think set all this up this week? Now, they're gonna see it all when they come here this week, but they didn't do it so that they could be talked up or encouraged. But I've seen countless men and women throughout the years in this church spend countless hours of time, who do you think leveled the parking lot this past week? Now, a lot of us never seen it, might not have even noticed, but now that I bring it up without even saying, we know who done it, right? But nobody phoned Brother George to do that. And Brother George don't want me up here congratulating him or praising him. But how many people, well, unless I can get some glory for it, or unless I can get some praise for it, I'm not doing that. Hear the Lord in the back of his mind, knowing that mine hour has finally come, and he's in the garden sweating these great sweat drops of blood, and he's crying in agony, Lord, if it be Thy will, let this cup pass from me. I know that for the first time in my life, separation between the Father and the Son is going to be broken off, and I'm going to bear the wrath, the weight of the entire world of the sins." In Revelation chapter 19 and 15, speaking of that, it said that, "...out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, and with it he will smite the nations, and he shall rule them with a rod of iron. And he treadeth on the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God." and he hath on his thigh and on his vesture a name written, King of Kings and Lord of Lords." That same wrath that is going to be poured out on a lost world right before the Battle of Armageddon, the Great White Throne Judgment, when all of the lost are wiped off this earth. That same wrath was poured, was laid on the shoulders of Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary to cover our sins. And all of that on the Lord's mind, should be on the Lord's mind, and yet he said, here's 12 of my disciples that I can be a blessing to, that I can be a servant to, that I can be an encouragement to, because I'm not gonna be here forever, but this is something that they will never forget. So I want to close this morning by asking you this question. Have you been or are you willing to be servant-minded, to help others, to encourage one another? I love what it said there at the end of verse number 17, that if you will do these things, happy or blessed are ye. Isn't that the truth? How many of you believe that we are blessed to be a blessing? I believe everybody sitting here this morning, no matter where you are, what circumstance in life, if you're sitting upright and breathing God's air, you are blessed this morning. and you are blessed to be a blessing. But how many of you have maybe had an opportunity to do something that you didn't want to do, or didn't think you had time to do, but knew it was the right thing to do and went ahead and did it, and after you were done doing it, you thought, what a blessing? They were blessed, but I think I was even more blessed being in encouragement. It's an amazing thing to be in a blessing, to be an encouragement to people. As I said, I've seen it many times from older men and women in this congregation. And I've seen it a lot with our young people and our young adults. And we've got a couple of families here that are farmers, that are hardworking, that are busy, especially during the summer season. and trying to get harvest and things like this ready, planting, seeding, harvesting, and the summers are short and time is tight. But there's a brother sitting in the front row this morning that at the drop of a hat, at a moment's call, will stop what he's doing to come and help you. Matter of fact, there's three of them. And their sister probably wouldn't be far behind. Why? Because they have a servant's heart. What a blessing. What an encouragement. and God is pleased when we do so. May I encourage you this morning, as I believe many of us are doing, but let me encourage you again this morning to follow the example of our model servant, Jesus Christ, and be a servant, be a blessing to others this week and in the weeks to come. Let's close in prayer. Dear Lord, I thank you for this morning. Thank you, Lord, for the opportunity that we have. for health and strength to be a blessing, to be an encouragement, to be... Servant-minded. Lord, and even those who may not be young in years anymore have the strength, the endurance, or the health that they once had. I know there are many, even in this room this morning, who do not have that, and yet they are finding ways, whether it's just having someone for lunch, or going to lunch, or starting a Bible study, or witnessing to their neighbors in their communities where they live, sending text messages of encouragement. I think of some of our ladies this morning who are certainly doing these things. Lord, what a blessing it is to see that as a younger man, to see older men and women who have been that example in front of me for many years. And Lord, help me help each one of us to follow their example, to ultimately follow your example of servanthood. Lord, not that we might receive glory, but that everything that we say, that everything that we do would bring honor and glory to the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords. Lord, give us the heart to follow you as you, the Apostle Paul said in your word in Philippians chapter two, verse five, let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. And you took on, made yourself of no reputation and took upon the form of a servant and humbled yourself even unto the death on the cross. Lord, may we be humbled, may we be servant-minded as we head into a new week, afresh and anew, and we ask these things in your name I pray, amen.