that loves like Jesus. That's our vision going into this coming year. And we pastors have been sharing with you different ways that we as a church community and as individuals can and should love like Jesus. So my part in this series is to talk about how Jesus' love caused him to set an example of humility for his disciples. So loving like Jesus will move us to serve and be served by his church. And our text that John Daniels just read for us is just a wonderful picture of this, taught by Jesus to his disciples. How many of you have read the Gospels? You ever read through the Gospels? Some of us read through that? The disciples can be a little boneheaded, huh? Yeah. Sometimes they just don't get what Jesus is saying. He uses parables, he tells them stories, and sometimes he has to show them what he's doing. They just sometimes just don't get what he's saying. So loving like Jesus will move us as a church community to be served by his church and to serve his church. So right now, if you've been here for the past 12 years, or going into the 12 years, you probably just, your brain probably just shut off. You probably saw Pastor Jeff get up here and you're like, oh yes, of course, Pastor Jeff's gonna get up here and preach about how we need to be serving in the church. This is not my first time preaching about that, so you're not wrong. I am gonna talk about that. but not totally, but totally. But let me start by asking you a couple of questions. What is a servant, and what do they do, and what does it mean to be served? Like I said in the first verse, I guess that's kind of three questions, but I put them together. So what is a servant, and what does a servant do, and what does it mean to be served? Most of us can probably come up with some answers to these questions. I'm sure most of us can even picture certain people in our minds right now when you think of a servant, who a servant is, and what a servant does. A few weeks ago as I started looking over, well actually it was more than that. It was back in July when I started thinking about this message because I accidentally started working on this message instead of the one I was supposed to preach in July. So I was ahead of the game. But I started thinking about servants. What a servant is and people I know who are servants in my lifetime. And I could go all the way back to when I was a little kid and there's a long list of people that have impressed me with their servant heart and servant spirit. But you know what I find when I make that mental list? I find that it's difficult for me to say exactly what the definition of a servant is. I know when I see one, I mean, I can tell you what they did, I can tell you what action they took, I can tell you what feat they performed or whatever, but I'm not sure I can give a good definition of what servanthood is. I looked up servanthood. The definition of servanthood is the act of being a servant. So not helpful. Okay. But, you know, when I see a servant or experience someone serving, I say, wow, that's that. That's what it is, right? All right. How many of you, when you were younger, as a child or a young teen maybe, were asked the question, what do you want to be when you grow up? Okay, a lot of us. And we probably got just as many answers, right? I want to be a nurse, a doctor, a fireman, a lawyer, a computer genius, CEO of a Fortune 500 company, movie star, a singer, right? Mine was I wanted to be a secret agent. I did. That's why I worked for the IRS. I was working my way into the government. I wanted to be a secret agent. My wife had other plans, though. And God had other plans. So let's imagine for a moment, let's not think chronologically in our lives, not as young biological children, but young spiritual children. And our walk and our faith with Christ, from the moment that we accepted him as Savior to now. For some of us, that may be when we were a child. For some of us, like myself, it could have been well into adulthood, well into your 30s, or later, you never know. What if Jesus asked you that question? What do you want to be when you grow up? If you ask it to a child, their answer still might be the same. I probably still would have said secret agent. Why are you asking me? Jesus has already answered this. But as a Christian, a born-again believer, would your answer be any different? Would it be any different? So I'm going to talk about loving like Jesus will move us to serve his church. We'll talk about that first part first. Because I'm not sure, as many times I've been asked that question, as many times I've asked that question to children, I've rarely heard anyone say, oh I want to grow up to be a servant of Christ. Don't mistake what I just said. I didn't say never. Absolutely, I've run into young folks who are like, I want to grow up to serve Christ, I want to be a missionary, I want to be a pastor, whatever. I rarely run into anyone who says, well, I want to be a CEO of a Fortune 500 company and work 40, 50, 60 hours a week, and all my free time, the other 10 to 20 hours that are in that week, I want to serve in the church cleaning the toilets, or working in the nursery, or something to that effect. Usually you don't hear that. But I'm certain that's exactly what Jesus would want us to be. So what do you think of when you hear the word servant or someone who's serving? It might be a mental image of an African slave in the 1800s. Maybe it's the concept of a servant being a migrant worker who's come to pick the crops. I grew up in farmland next to an apple orchard. We had migrant workers who came from Jamaica who came and picked the apples and then they'd go back. So that was my version of a servant when I was younger. Or maybe when you think of a servant, you think of a maid or a butler who's bringing your daily tea and crumpets. Anyone here have a butler? Just asking. Jared? No? No butler? You got Alyssa. That's close. That's not true. I'm going to get hit for that. Wow. Many people think of a servant as one who lacks position, lacks dignity, lacks self-esteem or ambition. Definitely, they don't have a high social status. So maybe that's not what I should ask. Maybe I should ask, what is it that makes the difference between being a servant and not being a servant? Is it visiting someone in a nursing home? Or making a meal for someone who's sick or shut in? Is it giving money to those who are in need? Well, I don't think so, because you can visit a nursing home with a servant's heart, absolutely, or you can do it out of sheer sense of obligation. Oh, my Aunt Millie's in the nursing home, I gotta go by and visit her. Hopefully she's been drugged so I don't have to talk to her very long, because I got things to do. You can make a meal because you want to serve somebody or you can make a meal because you want to look good for them or for others around you and have them praise you. Hey, look what I did. I took time out of my busy schedule and I cooked a chicken casserole and brought it to this person. Look how good I am. The same action can be the action of someone who feels led to serve or the action of someone who is prideful. So I think the difference here is motivation. Why are you doing it? Why are you doing it? Some of us will find it easier to serve others than some others of us. It's just a fact of life. It just comes easier to some people. There are just those serving in the church or serving another person that really it just comes naturally. You're like, wow, that person was born to serve. Look, they're always doing that. They're always there, you know. They're always helping somebody out. And then there's those that just feel it's way too far outside their comfort zone. And they can't be bothered with it. Or maybe it's not my job. Or maybe, hey, I'm a corporate director, dude. You just heard me say I work 70 hours a week. I don't have time to serve somebody else. Maybe I'll tithe. I'll write my check. But on that, don't bug me. Did you know that the Bible commands us all to be servants whether we find it easy or not? Did you know that? Yeah. And of course, there are folks within our church community who are specifically gifted by God at serving others. That's their spiritual gift. Romans 12 tells us that if your gift is ministry, serving, then use it in ministering. There are people that that is their spiritual gift. But there's also a command for all believers, whether we have the gift or not, to serve one another. You heard Sally go off on a bunch of one another. There's Ricky there, right? We all know Sally's the brains behind the operation. One place we can find this is in Galatians 5.13, where it says that we're called to freedom. We have freedom. We have liberty and our salvation in Jesus Christ. Absolutely. And it says only don't turn your freedom or your liberty into an opportunity for the flesh. Don't use it for yourself. That sacrificial love of salvation that Christ did for you, great, don't use it for yourself. But serve one another through love. So whether you find it easy or whether you find it difficult to serve others, it's still commanded that we should. So what is a servant and what does a servant do? Well, I think we have the best example right here in our scripture reading this morning. And that passage from John 13. And I think you go almost anywhere in the Gospels and see examples of Jesus the servant, right? You see it all over the place. But to me, the greatest expression of his example of serving others was right there at the Last Supper in that upper room that John just read for us. So I'm going to recap that and what's happening in that passage, which means I'm not going to read it again because I'm lazy. Actually, it's because Kevin St. John told me I only have so much time, and even though it's Second Service, I can't go longer with you guys. Yeah. Yeah, I see you up there. He's pointing at the clock. No, he doesn't. Yeah, he does. Yeah, I think you can go anywhere in the Gospels and see the example of Jesus the servant. Here we have them at the beginning of their last meal together, because remember, what's going to happen next? He's going to get betrayed. He's going to get crucified, right? Here we are. He's together. He gets up, takes off his outer clothes, wraps a towel around his waist, and he pours water into a basin and then washes his disciples' feet. Jesus, who is the Lord of glory, lays aside all of his privilege, all of his status, and humbly does the work of a servant. And what happens? Peter objects. Peter kind of freaks out a little bit. He's embarrassed that Jesus should wash his feet. Why? Because feet are dirty and smelly. That's my own interpretation. To wash them is the task of a servant. Not a disciple. Hello? They're one of the inner circle. They're a disciple. They're important. And certainly not Jesus. They're a rabbi, they're a king, they're messiah. But it seems there's no servant present in this passage and none of the disciples certainly volunteered to do this task. And this is something that happened whenever you came in in Jewish culture. Everyone in this culture and at this time face the same problem. Sandals or bare feet did very little to keep dirt off the feet. Jesus talked about, you know, you were bathed so you don't need to bathe again. He's talking about if you bathe in the morning, you don't need to bathe again in the evening if you're just walking down the road. But if you're walking in sandals with your feet, your feet are going to get messy. They're going to get dusty. Or if it rained, it's going to be muddy. And at the entrance of every Jewish home or establishment was a large pot of water just to wash dirty feet when you enter. This is something they're accustomed to. But for some reason it didn't happen. So I have a question for you. Actually, it seems like I have lots of questions for you. I've asked quite a few questions this morning. Hopefully we'll answer some of them, but no promises. So I have a question. If foot washing was common, and according to what I studied and looked at, it was, and they had come together as friends, right? These 12 guys have traveled together with Jesus for the past three years. They hung out together day and night, so I'm assuming they're friends. I'm assuming they got along, yes? Would you agree with that? Okay. So yes, they did come together with friends to have a meal. Then why hadn't they already washed each other's feet or taken the time to serve each other in this manner? And certainly, why hadn't they washed Jesus' feet already? Hello? Jesus! Your rabbi, your king, your messiah. I think he should get the preferential treatment of somebody washing his feet, right? What was it that the disciples were so distracted about? that they couldn't focus on this. What were they talking about? Why were they preoccupied? Maybe they came in and saw this beautiful meal in front of them, like, ooh, food, because we're Baptists. We understand that. We come in like, oh, we're going to a fellowship. They go, oh, look at all the food. Anyone could be talking. We won't hear it. Maybe it's that. I don't know. Maybe. But I think we need to jump over to Luke. chapter 22 verse 24 to find out what was going on it says now there was a also a dispute among them as to which of them should be considered the greatest they were arguing they're arguing about who would be on jesus's left and right who would get the best seat who would get the position of privilege or elevated in their social standing. They were caught up in their pride and position, not in showing humility and humbly serving each other. That's not what they were doing. All right. I don't want you to judge these guys too harshly, okay? I want us to think about the disciples, think about what's going on for the past three years. They are guys serving in ministry. Have any of you served in ministry for six months or more? Not easy, is it? You have your head guy, Jesus, right? So he's the lead rabbi, the lead elder, the lead pastor. And he has his guys under him. They're doing ministry. They're traveling around. And it's worse. They're together all the time. We at least get to go home. We don't have to be around each other all the time, right? So they're around each other all the time. They're serving under Jesus. But you know, they're disciples. They have their own ideas of how Jesus's ministry should be run. Don't we? I'm sorry, don't they? I mean, I think we read earlier on that one of them was upset because somebody smashed open a thing of expensive perfume and wiped it all over somebody's feet. That could have been sold for a lot of money and fed the poor. They knew how to run Jesus' ministry probably better than Jesus. So don't judge them too harshly, right? Because these humans, that's what they're doing, serving in ministry. They can't be bothered with serving one of these other so-called followers of Christ that they've been hanging out with all this time. I mean, come on. Think about this, really. Check out those Sons of Thunder. Guys, can you imagine trying to serve those hotheads? Or that Peter guy? Man, he's wishy-washy. He can't seem to make up his mind. I just can't be bothered with someone like that. Now, I'm not sure that's what was going on. But how many of us have been caught up in this type of thinking? Finding a reason why we can't serve others in our church community. I'm going to change that word right now. It'll stay the same on the slides and everything, but I'm changing it because I just like to be difficult. I'm going to change it to what I think is a better word. I'm going to use family. Is that OK? Is that OK? Is that okay? Timothy, you think that's all right? Okay. Because, right? I'm assuming a good number of us in here are followers of Jesus Christ. Yes? And there's probably some of us here who have accepted Christ as their Savior. I see a couple nods. The rest of you, no. Which is okay. We'll talk about it. If it's no, we'll stop right here and we'll change the sermon. But I'm thinking there's a good number of you that accept Christ as your Savior. Yes? Okay. Okay. So, that makes you a child of God, correct? So if you're a child of God, that means you're a member of the family of God, correct? Oh, okay. Stay with me. You're good. You haven't fallen asleep? Kevin also told me to do things once in a while to wake you up. You awake? Okay. If you're a child of God, which means you're in the family of God, then who's the family of God? Louder? We are. We're the family of God. That's all of us. So let me go back to my rant. I can't be bothered to serve my family this way because that's not what I want to do. It's beneath me. I'm too busy with my own stuff. My spiritual gifting's in another area. I've heard that as a pastor. Hey, can you help me move this table? I can't. That's not my spiritual gifting. My spiritual gifting is this. I'm like, I just need help moving a table. Hey, can you help me? This kid, you know, we need to get the kid to the bathroom really quick. I need another adult. Not my spiritual gifting is your spiritual gifting cleaning up a mess because that's about to happen. I can't do that. I can't serve my family this way. Well, I can't serve because of COVID. But I'll see you in church on Sunday. Sit next to me. Or let's go to the ball game together. I know that's a sensitive subject. I'm sorry. I believe in COVID. Don't get me wrong. And if you need to protect yourself, you protect yourself. But be real about it. I can't serve because there's a recession. That's going back to earlier in my ministry. But those come back around, don't they? I can't serve because it's too hot outside. We've had that. I can't serve because it's raining. I can't serve because it's too cold. It's snowing. Or my favorite that I've heard every year since being a pastor, I apologize if this calls anybody out and you feel convicted with this, how dare you ask me to serve this fall? It's football season. I won't even be here. I've had that said to me exactly that way. I won't call that person out. No, I'm kidding. Listen, as long as you're focused on you and what you want, you're not going to have any time to do any feet washing. Because feet washing and looking out for number one are mutually exclusive from each other. They don't go hand in hand. And the disciples in this passage kind of remind me of children. If you're a parent and you have children, you might be able to relate to this picture, okay? They're going to sit down to have dinner together. They're eating dinner. Something's supposed to happen and nobody's doing it. I go to sitting around the table with my children. We're done eating. Something's supposed to happen. The table needs to get cleared. But you ever see your kids do this? Jamie, clear the table. I'm not doing it. It's Jonah's job. He's the boy. Jonah's like, ah, Jessie should do it. She's the youngest. Or better yet, they all just start looking elsewhere. They hope you don't see them. They're sitting at the table, and all of a sudden, they're like. Until a parent makes them do it. Or maybe the parent gets up and makes a show of doing it themselves. That's usually what stung my kids when I did that. Tell them pick up their toys or not so I go do it myself or Julie does it herself. I feel this was kind of happening in the upper room as the argument over who is the greatest went on. Maybe the disciples said to themselves, I'm not about to wash anyone's feet. I'm not a servant. I'm above that. I'm one of the inner circle. Alexia, did you know when we think of Jesus and the 12 disciples, right? Do you know there was more that followed him? It wasn't just these 12 guys. There was a bunch of others. There was. So these guys are probably thinking, where are those women that have been following us around and serving us? Where's these other guys that were hanging out with us? Where's the multitude that was there? They should be doing it. I'm above that. I'm a disciple. We're about to see the Messiah manifest himself as the deliverer. And I'm so close to Jesus. I shouldn't have to do that kind of work. I don't know if that's exactly what was going on, but possibly. But Jesus waited until they all were reclining around the table, because they didn't have chairs, they sat on like pillows and stuff. So they were reclining around the table, and no one had offered to do any feet washing yet. And without a word, he got up, took off his garments, reducing himself to the position of servant, and kneeling in front of each disciple in turn. Let me repeat that. Kneeling in front of each disciple. You know what that means? That means he washed Judas's feet also. You heard John read the scripture, right? You read along with him? Jesus knew what Judas was about to do. Judas was about to betray him. Jesus knew that. Within moments this was going to happen, but he still knelt before Judas and washed his feet. They were all shocked, stunned, embarrassed. You saw Peter's reaction. They didn't know what to make of this. But instead of being concerned with his glory and in spite of the disciples' selfishness, Jesus was totally conscious of revealing clearly his personal love to the twelve that they might be secure in it. That's the nature of Jesus' love as he humbly served these men and he showed it repeatedly through the Gospels. I think we may have found what a servant is and what a servant does. Only absolute humility can generate absolute love like this. And the nature of love is to be selfless and giving. Not selfish. Selfless. Love is supposed to be something you give. Yes, you get it also. Don't get me wrong. But it's supposed to be selfless and giving. In 1 Corinthians 13 5, Paul said that love doesn't seek its own. It doesn't look out for itself, it looks out for others. Jesus' love and his humility are inseparable. He couldn't have been so consumed with a passion for serving others if he had been primarily concerned with just numero uno, with himself. Can you imagine how that must have stung the disciples' hearts? I want you to think about that. They know who Jesus is. And he just did this. Can you feel the pain and the regret and the sorrow that must have shot through them? One of them could have easily had the joy of kneeling and washing the feet of Jesus. I'm sure they were dumbfounded and brokenhearted. What a painful and profound lesson this was for them and for us. The majority of you in here just admitted in front of each other that you are children of Christ, part of God's family. Jesus said, whatever you do to any of these, you do to me. Sadly, today's church is full of people who are standing on their dignity, on their pride, when they should be kneeling at the feet of their brother and sister in Christ, washing their feet. When we're tempted to think of our dignity, our prestige, our rights, John 13 gives us a good look at who Jesus is and how his love caused him to set an example of humility. Clothed like a servant, kneeling, washing dirt off the feet of sinful men who are seemingly indifferent to the point and fact that he's about to be dead, that he's going to die, he's going to be crucified. To go from being the God and glory in verse three to washing the feet of sinful, unglorious disciples in verses four through five is a long step, but he took it. So think about this. The majestic, pure, just, righteous, glorious God of the universe comes to earth as a human. We know what humans are like. We're humans. That's humility. Then he kneels on the ground to wash the feet of sinful men. That's indescribable humility and love. Love has to be more than words. It has to be more than something on a slide. It has to be more than something we say. It has to be more than words. The Apostle John wrote, Love that is real is love expressed in activity. It's an action, not just words. If we are to love like Jesus, we are to serve and be served by his church. I want you to notice what happened after Jesus finished washing their feet. So when he had washed their feet, taken his garments and sat down again, he said to them, Do you know what I have done to you? You call me teacher and Lord, and you say, well, for so I am. If I then your Lord and teacher have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. He wasn't specifically talking about we have dirty feet, you need to wash them. He was talking about dirty feet. We need to be serving each other. We need to be getting into each other's lives. He's saying, hey, you need to be doing this. Okay, and I'm no podiatrist, I'm no foot doctor. I'm not. I've seen one, but I'm not one. And through my limited studying on this subject, I've come to the conclusion that feet washing, by definition, is dirty, smelly, disgusting, and humiliating. But again, I'm not a doctor, so don't quote me. I don't know. So think about this. Have any of you ever tried to wash someone's feet after they got home from a hot, long day at work? I don't see anyone nodding. Okay. Have you ever tried to wash somebody's feet covered with grime and perspiration? Somebody's feet when they really, really stink? Can you imagine washing Bob's feet after he gets out of the woods in the middle of August, cutting down trees all day? Woo, doggy. Have you put your face down next to a foot that hasn't seen a pedicure in five years? Or even a toenail clipper in five years? Or maybe a foot that has that toe fungus on the toenails. Yeah. I would hazard a guess that it would not be pleasant. Enjoy lunch later, by the way. I would hazard a guess it wouldn't be pleasant. I mean, come on, you don't want to be touching dirty feet. But I don't want us to miss the point here. What does dirty feet have to do with serving the church? Well, I'm going to ask you another question. Sorry, I'm just full of questions today. This is an interactive sermon. What type of feet need washing? Dirty feet, that's right. Only dirty feet need to be washed, right? Jesus was making the point that we need to love each other in such a way that we're willing to do something for our church family that just might not be pleasant to us. Again, I've been pastoring here for 11 years. I'm in my 12th year right now. And being the guy that's been over the ministries for a while, I can probably list off some things that my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ may find unpleasant. So I'm sorry if this makes you squirm in your seat, what I'm about to list. It's going to make some of you uncomfortable. Something like listening to someone who just needs to talk. And it might not be a comfortable subject. Or helping someone move. We've all been hit with that at some point, right? Hey, you got a pickup truck, right? It's like, oh, why did I buy that? Mowing a shut-in's grass or shoveling their driveway in the winter? How about visiting someone who's sick or homebound? That means I have to talk to them. They're going to ask me to come in. Maybe. Getting involved in somebody's life at a personal level, where you actually know more about them than their name and their favorite color. And they know more about you. Praying with a church family member. Unbelievably disgusting. Working in the nursery at church. Setting up or stacking the chairs before or after church, which we do. Teaching in Sunday school. Here's the biggest one. It's gonna make you uncomfortable. Volunteering anywhere at church. Okay, I could keep going, but I think we get the picture. For some of us, or maybe even a lot of us, this list very much is dirty feet that we want nothing to do with. You know, we have plenty of ministries that need our church family, desperately need our church family to serve in order for them to exist. And at the end of this service here, there's going to be some of those ministry heads in the back. Some I've asked, some I haven't asked yet. So if you're a ministry head, I would like you to stand in the back. They'll be there so you can approach them and say, hey, you know what? I need to know how I can serve. Or, hey, you know what? I need to be served. They'll be there at the back, at the end of the service. I'll point them out when I'm done. There is a great need. But there's another area that we all need to consider when talking about serving. Not just in the ministries to help this church function, which is very, very important. Do not get me wrong. Very important. We like to take part in the things that happen here. Well, we need you in order to make them happen. But there's one other area which I think is more important in my opinion. We need to serve each other. We need to serve each other. It's weird to say it this way, but as Ricky said, we are the church. We are the church. We are a church family. Every verse in the Bible where it says that we need to serve, guess what? Has a flip side to it. Did you know that? Yeah, double meaning. Now don't go stoning me because you're thinking that I'm being doctrinally unsound, but if we are called to serve and Bible verses tell us that we need to serve and we are serving, that means someone is being served. Correct? You can't have one without the other. We need to release our pride and humble ourselves, just as Jesus demonstrated for us in this passage, and wash each other's feet, not literally, figuratively. And that brings me to the second part of what I wanted to talk about today, and that's loving like Jesus will move us to be served by his church. And believe it or not, I think this is the hardest part of this lesson. And you may be sitting there like, well, because I don't want to be involved in ministry, so what can be harder? What can be harder is asking for help. I think this is the hardest part. Because for me, helping others is so, so, so much easier than asking or accepting help. I am that type of person. I will be there and help you. but I won't ask for help. And when you see me hurting like my brothers have before, they come and they offer help and I won't accept it. I know I do that, Dave. And I'd like to tell you that this tendency I have to not do this is because of my Christ-like selflessness. But there's a far, far less noble motive behind it. Pride. It's because of my pride. Because if I accept help from others, that means someone might see my mess, my dirty feet. Which one of them is an awesome color right now? Rainbow color, actually. Declining offers from those that want to serve me means I never have to let anyone see the messy side of my life. I can pat myself on the back for being self-sufficient. while secretly exhaling that, whew, I am self-sufficient, I didn't need to accept Pastor Dave's help, so that way he didn't have to come to my house and see that in my bedroom there is unfolded laundry everywhere where I can't even get around the room. I did ask permission before I shared this with my wife, by the way. That he didn't walk into my house and have to see a week's worth of dirty dishes piled up in the sink. Or maybe someone might find out that I'm a sinful human. I'm a sinful human who has bouts of depression and self-doubt often, very often. Or they might see that I messed up somewhere in my life and I'm not perfect. If I let someone serve me, then that shows I can't handle it by myself and pull myself up by my own bootstraps, which is how I was raised by my father. And knowing a lot of you here, I know you were raised the same way. We're New Englanders, like Ricky said. We don't ask for help. Do it yourself. Get her done. Yankee pride. But that's what's being served by Jesus' church is. Now, I don't consider myself a scholar. I do read once in a while. I do read once in a while, Pastor Joe. And I did read somewhere once that you need to rely on God for everything. Anyone else here read books at all? Is there any book where you may have heard that? We need to rely on God? I can't remember the book. What book was it, Bob? Oh, the Bible! Right! The Bible! Proverbs 3.5, 1 Peter 5.7, Isaiah 26.4, Philippians 4.19, Jeremiah 33.3, John 6.63, Psalm 18.8, Matthew 6.25-34, Isaiah 41.10. I could keep going, but you guys are going to be here to two o'clock. It's everywhere in God's Word. It's everywhere in God's Word. Rely on Him. All right. Object lesson exercise time for the church. Remember, I work with kids. This is what makes people remember things the best. I want everyone to take their shoes off. We're going to be washing the feet of the person next to us. Why are you laughing, Michelle? How many of you just got hit with a wave of panic that you might have to wash your neighbor's feet or you might have to show somebody else your feet? You're sitting there thinking, oh, no. My feet might smell, or you know, my feet smell. My shoes come off, everyone's gonna know. You're thinking, wait a minute, are these the socks with the hole in it? Did I clip my toenails this year yet? I don't remember. 2020, I kinda lost track. Not sure. Did I get rid of that toe jam that's been building up between my toes? It's not my monthly bath time yet, so. Again, enjoy lunch. It's painful and humbling to finally admit, I need help. That I don't always, or even often, have it all together. I think this is what Paul means when he says in 2 Corinthians 12 9 that God's power is made perfect in our weakness. But if we are to love like Jesus and be moved to serve and be served by his church, then we need to recognize that not only are there feet out there that need to be washed, but that we have feet that need to be washed. Reaching out to our church family and asking them to serve us can set into motion the Lord working in new and powerful ways in our lives. Because I'm willing to hazard a guess that all of us have a secret shame that we don't share. Something that to us, we struggle with and causes so much shame in our lives or in our own minds, that if you told it to someone else, they're probably like, really? I deal with that too, that's not a big deal. But we keep it to ourselves. But those can move from the darkness into healing light. when we share with each other, if we allow ourselves to be served by the church. This is what Galatians 6.2 means when it says, bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. We're to do this. There's another way to benefit, there's another benefit I should say, to letting yourself being served by the church. Because when you let somebody serve you, it opens up a connection between you and that person. Even a small one, but if you let them serve you, you open up a connection with that person, and it may even inspire that person to be served in return. In relationship with people, there is a balance between serving and being served, supporting the weaknesses of others and being supported in our own weakness. And this is what Jesus was modeling in this passage today. He who became associated with and became humanity, leaving behind his divinity for the sake of relationship. That's why God did it, to have a relationship with us, because the relationship was broken, leaving behind his divinity. So if we want to find a way to love like Jesus, if that's our goal, that's our challenge to each other this year, We need to make sure we find a way to love like this Jesus, who, by the way, gave up his, you think you have rights, you think you have social status, you think you have pride. He didn't have pride, but man, he had cosmically high social status, didn't he? And he brought us down to the level of servant. He's the best example we have. He washed the feet of his friends. We see that. We see him serving. But we're talking about being served by the church. Has Jesus been served by the church? If you go back, it's your homework for today. Go back and read the chapter before. He let himself be served by a prostitute who poured oil or perfume all over his feet and wiped it away with her hair in the middle of a social gathering. So maybe sometimes we need to be served in order to serve. Maybe we need to start admitting our weaknesses, our need for help, and our vulnerability to those around us in our church family. I think that's what it means to be served by the church. And as we look forward to the coming year, and we challenge each other to be a church community, a church family that loves like Jesus, we need to look We need to look at areas in our church where we can serve and be served by each other. And again, when I say our church, I'm talking about this building. Yes. This ministry. Yes. We are the church, remember? The people, too. Our family. The pastoral staff are working hard to improve the process of where we can serve, how we can serve, who we can serve. We're working on that. We're looking at making sure that as we all serve, we're looking out for each other. We know who each other are. We're in each other's lives, and we're making sure that there's clear definitions of roles and ways to serve, and that there's set terms so folks don't get burned out, and we're trying to come up with better communication for all of it. So over the past five weeks, you've received a lot of goals from us, us pastors, as we go through our vision. I'm only going to give you two. I try to keep it simple. So in the next year, as we seek to serve and be served by Jesus, Jesus's church, our aim is to have a clear process for communicating what ministry teams and needed roles exist in our church community. Because in order for you to serve, you need to know where to serve, who to serve, you know? Some of those things could be putting up a ministry wall we talked about, or having a ministry fair, or have something on our website. We're going to have that connection desk up and running where someone will be back there, be able to tell you, yeah, this is where someone's needed, or this is where you can go to be served. The second one is identifying a simple process to help the body, the family, communicate personal needs to each other. About a year ago, maybe a little over a year ago, I lost track of time during 2020 like the rest of you, we formed a care service group that it's made up of a pastor and some deacons, and what they do is they kind of cut out the middleman. Because if you've ever tried to reach out before, sometimes you go to Pastor Dave, hey, I want to talk about serving in the nursery. Oh, you could talk to Pastor Jeff, but Pastor Jeff's on, you know, vacation. So then you talk to the person in the nursery, and you got to talk to five different people, and it gets confusing sometimes. We're trying to streamline that process. so you can reach out and have your personal needs addressed. And it doesn't mean just by us, by each other. As we strive to be a church that loves like Jesus, we're going to need all of you to be part of this. We are going to need all of you to be part of this. We are called to serve, which implies that we are also called to be served. And more than ever, more than ever, we need to work together as a church family to be the church we're called to be. Folks, you know what's going on in the world. You're paying attention. We need to be a church family. We need to be what it is we're supposed to be here. We need to be in each other's lives at a personal level. Not just a, hey neighbor, see you next Sunday. And you run into that market basket and you're trying to figure out how you know that person. because they're not here, so they're out of, you know, it's out of your perceived area, out of the concept. And you know what? We are a large church for this area. I get some of you may have come from the South or other areas where it's like, no, a large church is 12,000 people. Yeah, whatever. I have lived my whole life in New England. The church I grew up in is this section over here, that size. The church I came from before I came here is this section here. Well, it looks to me that it's pretty much four times the size of what I'm used to. There should never be a need for someone or something to be served in this church that is not filled. But that's where we're at. Yes, Pastor Jeff's going to get up and talk to you about serving in the church and serving each other because it's needed. It's what we're called to do. When the church first started back in the book of Acts, they were in each other's lives all the time. They ate together, they traveled together, they worked together, they worshiped together. We should do no less as a church. We have gotten so far away from what the church of the Bible is. So that's my challenge to you. Our challenge as pastors to you as we go into this next year, to be a church community, a church family that loves like Jesus. Jesus didn't say, hey, disciples, I'm going to teach you and then go home, please. No, he hung out with them and he even washed their feet. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we are so thankful to be able to come here and worship you, Lord. And Lord, we ask that as we leave here today, as we look forward to this next year, that you strengthen us, but also melt our hearts to be a church that actually loves like you, Jesus. To be a church that gets involved in each other's lives, that puts aside our preferences, puts aside our pride, and humbly serve and love one another. Lord God, we are your children, which means that you reward us and sometimes you do rebuke us. I pray that you just guide us, Lord, and if we need rebuke, we get rebuke, to just be the church family you have called us to be. I pray this in your precious name, Jesus. Amen.