SPEAKER_01: Welcome to an audio teaching from Winter Park Baptist Church in Auckland, New Zealand.
SPEAKER_01: If you would like to look at the message notes or see some questions for reflection that take their lead from today's teaching, head to our website winterpark.org.nz and head to the online tab where you'll see services and series, and you can download different resources from there.
SPEAKER_01: Thanks for joining us, and we hope you're encouraged by today's teaching.
SPEAKER_00: Manakanui actually used to work at Kerry Baptist College, and I had the privilege of learning from him as one of our Kayako, our teachers, as I studied Tiaw Maori.
SPEAKER_00: He was a great teacher, both passionate and patient with us as he led us on our journey.
SPEAKER_00: Among other things, in his court with Andrew from Rima, he highlighted the three key elements of Matariki, remembering the past and particularly those who have passed away, celebrating the present preferably over Kai, and looking forward towards the future.
SPEAKER_00: Today as a church on Matariki weekend, we remember the legacies of service left by our spiritual ancestors in this church, and particularly those who have passed away this year for whom the grief is still fresh.
SPEAKER_00: At the same time, we we celebrate and receive with gratitude the good that God is doing in our midst in this present season and everything that we have received from Him.
SPEAKER_00: We also look forward to the future together and continuing to build stronger communities by putting our faith into action.
SPEAKER_00: One thing we know for sure about the future of this local church at Windsor Park is that it exists not for itself, but to serve our wider community.
SPEAKER_00: So the theme of our one-off message today is love like Jesus, serve like Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And we're going to look at three requirements of serving like Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And I'll warn you they're pretty challenging.
SPEAKER_00: So are you ready to get into them?
SPEAKER_00: The first is to serve like Jesus, we need to get on our knees.
SPEAKER_00: And I've learned about this since becoming a parent.
SPEAKER_00: Meal times are a little bit tidier now, but in those early days of solid food, the chances of a spoonful of food making it successfully from the bowl to the mouth of my son was extremely low.
SPEAKER_00: Baby feeding guides tell you to embrace the mess.
SPEAKER_00: But as each spoonful hit the floor, I was thinking more about limiting the cleanup.
SPEAKER_00: When it was time to clean up, I I tried to reach the bits I could and spot clean the mess that I could see.
SPEAKER_00: As I realized the scale of the situation, I reluctantly got down on my hands and knees.
SPEAKER_00: And although it was uncomfortable, it did make the cleaning a lot easier.
SPEAKER_00: I was closer to the floor, so I could see the spots that I might have missed otherwise.
SPEAKER_00: And I didn't have to keep uh bending down.
SPEAKER_00: While scrubbing the floor underneath the table, a thought came to me.
SPEAKER_00: This is a lot like many aspects of the Christian life.
SPEAKER_00: You don't have to get on your hands and knees, but it helps.
SPEAKER_00: Let's look at a perhaps the most famous example of Jesus demonstrating humble service from John chapter 13, verses 3 to 5.
SPEAKER_00: I bet you know where we're going.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power and that he had come from God and was returning to God.
SPEAKER_00: So he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist.
SPEAKER_00: After that he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.
SPEAKER_00: Now, although this text doesn't explicitly say that Jesus got on his knees to wash the disciples' feet, you have to imagine that he did.
SPEAKER_00: Like I said, some things are just easier on your knees.
SPEAKER_00: Ultimately, though, this is not about body posture, it's about heart posture.
SPEAKER_00: Kneeling represents humility, a willingness to take the low road and to put another first.
SPEAKER_00: Mark, in another in his gospel account, reveals what we might call the philosophy of leadership behind Jesus' actions.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus called them together and said, You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them.
SPEAKER_00: Not so with you.
SPEAKER_00: Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all.
SPEAKER_00: For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.
SPEAKER_00: That is Mark Chapter ten, verse forty-two to forty-five.
SPEAKER_00: After washing their feet, he says, Now that I, your Lord and teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another's feet.
SPEAKER_00: I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.
SPEAKER_00: And some of you will be relieved to know that I'm I'm not going to ask you to wash the feet of those you're watching with, but we all have the opportunity today and every day to practice humble service.
SPEAKER_00: I wonder how we could get on our knees in service today.
SPEAKER_00: It may be a small act, it may feel unseen, but Jesus, who taught us how to serve, will see it.
SPEAKER_00: And of course, this is not just about a one-off act or serving for one day.
SPEAKER_00: As we look to the future this Matariki season, our hope is that we can make humble service a habit, cultivating a lifestyle of service as we continue to build stronger communities by putting our faith into action.
SPEAKER_00: So our first point is that to serve like Jesus, we need to get on our knees.
SPEAKER_00: Perhaps literally, but definitely spiritually.
SPEAKER_00: Getting on our knees means getting over ourselves and serving with love and humility, just like Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Our second point is to serve like Jesus, we need to get our hands dirty.
SPEAKER_00: If the story of Jesus washing the disciples' feet wasn't enough, there's a beautiful story in the Gospel of Matthew that shows Jesus' willingness to get his hands dirty in loving service.
SPEAKER_00: When Jesus came down from the mountainside, large crowds followed him.
SPEAKER_00: A man with leprosy came and knelt before him, saying, Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.
SPEAKER_00: This time it's the man with leprosy on his knees.
SPEAKER_00: And the word used here for leprosy could actually have been at any of a range of skin conditions that happened at the time.
SPEAKER_00: But whatever the precise condition, the outcome was clear.
SPEAKER_00: Social isolation, ritual impurity, and an untouched life.
SPEAKER_00: Lepers were known as unclean, the epitome of dirty in the ancient world.
SPEAKER_00: Untouchable.
SPEAKER_00: Imagine how you felt at the height of the COVID pandemic when someone sneezed near you.
SPEAKER_00: Unclean.
SPEAKER_00: That is nothing compared to how people distanced themselves from lepers.
SPEAKER_00: For them, this was not just physical, it meant complete social and spiritual cutoff.
SPEAKER_00: So of course, nobody got near them, let alone touch them.
SPEAKER_00: This man on his knees had long forgotten the warmth of human contact.
SPEAKER_00: So he doesn't ask Jesus to touch him.
SPEAKER_00: That would be ridiculous.
SPEAKER_00: He asks him to clean him.
SPEAKER_00: Perhaps if he's healed, people will come near him again.
SPEAKER_00: Perhaps if he's clean, people will touch him.
SPEAKER_00: So he says in faith, Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus was willing to do even more.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 3.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man.
SPEAKER_00: I am willing, he said, be clean.
SPEAKER_00: Immediately he was cleansed of his leprosy.
SPEAKER_00: You see, the man asked Jesus to clean him so that people could touch him, but Jesus flips the order.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus touches him so he can heal him.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is willing to get his hands dirty as he goes about the Father's mission of grace.
SPEAKER_00: He touches the leper, eats with sinners, includes the outsider, associates with all the wrong people, and of course that includes us.
SPEAKER_00: We are all beneficiaries of the grace of God, the grace that comes first, the grace that didn't wait for us to clean ourselves up, but that reached out and touched us, as Paul says, while we were still sinners.
SPEAKER_00: And as Jesus said to the disciples after washing their feet, I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.
SPEAKER_00: The question is, are you willing?
SPEAKER_00: That's what the leper asked of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: If you are willing, you can make me clean.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus was willing not only to heal from a distance, but to reach out and touch.
SPEAKER_00: And now Jesus asks us the same question.
SPEAKER_00: Are we willing?
SPEAKER_00: Are we willing to get on our knees?
SPEAKER_00: Are we willing to get our hands dirty?
SPEAKER_00: And lastly, are we willing to get out there?
SPEAKER_00: Because our final point is that to serve like Jesus, we need to get out there.
SPEAKER_00: The final characteristic of Jesus' service that I'm highlighting today is that it crossed all sorts of social barriers.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus seemed to go out of his way and quite enjoy breaking every preconception about who he had come to serve.
SPEAKER_00: Here's a quick list of just a few examples of Jesus' boundary-breaking ministry.
SPEAKER_00: Gentiles, he he heals a demon-possessed man in the region of Geresensinus.
SPEAKER_00: For children, who could forget Jesus' famous line, let the little children come to me.
SPEAKER_00: As for women, the healing of the woman who had chronic bleeding.
SPEAKER_00: Tax collectors, a despised group of people, well he invites himself to Zacchaeus's house.
SPEAKER_00: And even the oppressing forces, he heals a Roman centurion's servant.
SPEAKER_00: And those are just five quick examples, I could give many more, of Jesus going beyond the expected norms of ministering to well-educated Jewish men.
SPEAKER_00: As we attempt to model our love and service on Jesus, we have to ask ourselves what social, cultural, or geographic barriers may hold us back.
SPEAKER_00: And of course, it is important to serve one another within the church.
SPEAKER_00: The New Testament is full of instructions to do that, and we should never stop doing that.
SPEAKER_00: But we also need to get out there and serve beyond the walls of the church.
SPEAKER_00: I can't claim to have done this maths myself, but some estimates suggest that over 90% of Jesus' public ministry took place outside of a synagogue setting.
SPEAKER_00: Sit with that for a moment.
SPEAKER_00: What if 90% of our ministry happened outside of the church walls?
SPEAKER_00: At Windsor Park, one way we seek to keep an outward focus is through our Beyond the Walls ministries.
SPEAKER_00: And these are amazing local, regional, and global projects doing incredible kingdom work.
SPEAKER_00: And I love being part of a church that prioritizes supporting initiatives that are quite clearly beyond these walls.
SPEAKER_00: But we can't leave all the work to them.
SPEAKER_00: And to put it another way, we can't let them have all the fun.
SPEAKER_00: Because we are all called not just to support Beyond the Walls projects, but to get out there ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: Whether that's at our local school, university, volunteer fire service, or local bush project.
SPEAKER_00: What are the ways that we can get integrated into our local community and build serving relationships?
SPEAKER_00: Today has been all about loving like Jesus and serving like him.
SPEAKER_00: We've seen that serving like Jesus means getting on our knees, getting our hands dirty, and getting out there.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus is still asking us the question of the leper.
SPEAKER_00: Are we willing?
SPEAKER_00: As we conclude, I want to read you a quote from someone who is well acquainted with costly service, Mother Teresa.
SPEAKER_00: And she once famously said, The fruit of silence is prayer.
SPEAKER_00: The fruit of prayer is faith.
SPEAKER_00: The fruit of faith is love.
SPEAKER_00: And the fruit of love is service, and the fruit of service is peace.
SPEAKER_00: It's a beautiful and poetic quote, and uh it speaks to you more and more the more times that you read it over.
SPEAKER_00: But Mother Teresa was, by all accounts, an extremely strong, determined, and disciplined woman.
SPEAKER_00: Yet she knew that the source of her love and service did not start or originate with her, but was born from silence, prayer, and faith.
SPEAKER_00: If the prospect of serving like Jesus feels overwhelming to you, remember that it's not about what we can do in our strength.
SPEAKER_00: It's about joining with God and what he's doing and giving out from the love that we have received from him.
SPEAKER_00: So, what we're going to do now is take a minute in silence where you can simply receive God's love for yourself and ask him in return to give you a sense of his heart for someone or some area of our community.
SPEAKER_00: Let's listen together, receive God's love and his heart for those around us, and then I'll close our time with a blessing.
SPEAKER_00: God who redeemed the world, inspire you to go out as laborers into the harvest.
SPEAKER_00: God whose breath fills the whole of creation, help you to bear the fruits of love, joy, and peace.
SPEAKER_00: And may the blessing of God who creates, redeems, and gives life be with you always.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much for joining us this Matariki weekend.
SPEAKER_00: I hope that you will have a wonderful Matariki with your fana and maybe the opportunity to practice some humble Jesus-like service.
SPEAKER_00: And we'll see you next week.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you for joining our audio teaching today.
SPEAKER_01: If there are ways that we can continue to support you or help you in your journey, please reach out to us.
SPEAKER_01: Head to our website, windsapark.org.nz, and you'll find various ways to contact us.
SPEAKER_01: God bless.