Speaker 1: I am so excited to be back with you.
Speaker 1: Hey, thanks to everyone who helped us celebrate our church's birthday last week.
Speaker 1: Last week we turned one year old and, by the way, yeah, yeah, I missed it, taylor, that's my bad, taylor was on it.
Speaker 1: I didn't know.
Speaker 1: We had so many great bakers at Harbor City Church.
Speaker 1: Did you guys see that, like?
Speaker 1: We had all these different types of cake?
Speaker 1: There were some Sarah cakes that were so good we didn't even want to cut them because they looked so beautiful.
Speaker 1: It was amazing, okay, and God could have led me to be a pastor at many different types of churches, but I praise God that he'd led me to be a church that likes to eat together.
Speaker 1: Amen.
Speaker 1: Anybody Speaking of eating our text today actually happens around a meal.
Speaker 1: If you will go ahead and turn in your Bibles to John, chapter 13.
Speaker 1: If you don't have a Bible, there is one right it should be in the seat in front of you.
Speaker 1: We're gonna be in John, chapter 13.
Speaker 1: If you're new to church, just start like going towards the back half of the Bible and then pass the books those names you don't recognize, and start when you get to areas like Matthew or Mark or Luke.
Speaker 1: You'll know you're close and then keep going until you get to this book called John.
Speaker 1: We are in the 13th chapter.
Speaker 1: So John, chapter 13,.
Speaker 1: Okay, hey, I wanna ask you a question as we begin this morning and I just want you to think about this.
Speaker 1: Don't answer out loud.
Speaker 1: I used to preach to middle school students.
Speaker 1: I always had to tell people don't answer out loud.
Speaker 1: Okay, I want you to think about the best service you've ever had in your life.
Speaker 1: All right, the best service you've ever had in your life Could be at like a restaurant, could be at your favorite coffee shop.
Speaker 1: It could have been at like a hotel you went to.
Speaker 1: It could have been on like a cruise or something I don't know.
Speaker 1: What is the best service you've ever had in your life?
Speaker 1: Just go and think about that.
Speaker 1: As I was thinking about that question in preparation for this sermon, best service I've ever had in my life is actually at the hospitality of one of my friends who invited us up to a house and took us out fishing and he spent the entire day like helping us know how to.
Speaker 1: We were up at the Chesapeake Bay, know how to fish for Striper, and he would bait the hooks.
Speaker 1: He would like put us on the spot.
Speaker 1: He was the captain of the boat.
Speaker 1: He made sure that we had everything that we needed.
Speaker 1: We were just catching fish after fish, after fish, because he was able to put us right on them, but he didn't get to fish.
Speaker 1: Like the entire day, the man loves the fish, but he didn't get to fish.
Speaker 1: But he was just.
Speaker 1: He was finding his enjoyment in our enjoyment of catching all these fish and then when we got back to the house again, we were staying at his house.
Speaker 1: We got back to his house, he we wanted to help him like clean up the boat and bring the fish in and we were gonna eat some of them and we did, but he like absolutely refused.
Speaker 1: He cleaned.
Speaker 1: He was very particular about the way he wanted to clean up.
Speaker 1: It was his dad's boat, cleaned it up.
Speaker 1: He spent hours just cleaning it up, hours preparing the fish, and he came in and made sure that we had everything we needed and it was just like it was like borderline, uncomfortable, like the amount of service that, again, one of my friends was like extending to us was just amazing.
Speaker 1: It was like over the top, it was radical service and I don't know if you've ever experienced anything like that, where you've been served and been honored so much by someone else.
Speaker 1: But we're gonna come to a place in John chapter 13 where the disciples of Jesus are going to experience that type of radical service.
Speaker 1: So I'm gonna begin in verse one and we're gonna actually spend the entire sermon walking through this chapter, john chapter 13.
Speaker 1: There are gonna be a few places along the way where we're gonna see something that is so noteworthy.
Speaker 1: We're gonna stop in our tracks and spend a little bit of time there.
Speaker 1: Harbor City Church.
Speaker 1: Are you guys ready?
Speaker 1: Oh, hey, not today, let's go.
Speaker 1: I need you guys to give me a little more energy.
Speaker 1: You guys ready?
Speaker 1: Are you guys ready?
Speaker 1: All right, let's do this, all right.
Speaker 1: John chapter 13,.
Speaker 1: Beginning in verse one.
Speaker 1: Now, before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father listen to this man.
Speaker 1: We're not even a verse into this.
Speaker 1: Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.
Speaker 1: This is why it takes me so long.
Speaker 1: The preach to a book of the Bible is because there are so many amazing things that this book is communicating to us.
Speaker 1: Having loved his own who were in the world.
Speaker 1: He loved them to the end.
Speaker 1: Jesus loved his own Now much.
Speaker 1: I was reading a commentator by the name of JC Ryle.
Speaker 1: He pointed this out.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of songs that we sing about Jesus' love towards sinners right, there's a lot of.
Speaker 1: Like you hear people like me, preachers preach about the love that God has for people who are far from him, those who are sinners, right?
Speaker 1: Don't we preach those sermons often, don't we sing those songs?
Speaker 1: Don't you hear a lot about that?
Speaker 1: This is a passage that is talking about God's love for his saints.
Speaker 1: Jesus' love for his saints.
Speaker 1: Do?
Speaker 1: Let me ask you this again?
Speaker 1: Don't answer.
Speaker 1: Do you belong to Jesus?
Speaker 1: Well then, know this Jesus loves you and he will love you to the end.
Speaker 1: By the word, that word end here is the word that the connotation is.
Speaker 1: This word tell us it's.
Speaker 1: When we talk about the end, it's not just the ending like the endpoint of a sequence.
Speaker 1: Rather, it means the purpose for which that thing exists.
Speaker 1: It's the tell us the teleological end, and that's what it's saying that Jesus loves his followers, he loves his disciples to the end.
Speaker 1: This is what JC Rowell says about this.
Speaker 1: This is good.
Speaker 1: Let no man be afraid of beginning with Christ if he desires to be saved.
Speaker 1: The chief of sinners may come to him with boldness and trust him for pardon with confidence.
Speaker 1: This loving savior is one who delights to receive sinners.
Speaker 1: Okay, that's the first part of the quote.
Speaker 1: Here's the second part, probably on the screen, you ready?
Speaker 1: Let no man be afraid of going on, in other words continuing in the relationship with Christ after he has once come to him and believed.
Speaker 1: Let him not fancy that Christ will cast him off because of failures and dismiss him into his former hopelessness on account of infirmities.
Speaker 1: Such thoughts are entirely unwarranted by anything in the scriptures.
Speaker 1: Jesus will never reject any servant because of feeble service and a weak performance.
Speaker 1: Those whom he receives, church, he always keeps.
Speaker 1: Those he loves at first, he loves at the last.
Speaker 1: Amen, somebody, amen, amen.
Speaker 1: All right, we can conclude our sermon now, and I'm just joking.
Speaker 1: This passage is just so incredibly rich.
Speaker 1: Jesus, check this out.
Speaker 1: Do you see what's happening?
Speaker 1: Jesus knew that his hour had come.
Speaker 1: The hour is used all throughout John's gospel to refer to the hour of his crucifixion.
Speaker 1: So Jesus knows that he is about to go to the cross and to give his life for the world.
Speaker 1: He knows that he is about to be crucified and yet what we're going to see him do is take the most unlikely.
Speaker 1: He's gonna begin the most unlikely thing imaginable.
Speaker 1: He's actually gonna use this occasion as an occasion to serve his disciples.
Speaker 1: Verse two during supper, when the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, simon's son, to betray him.
Speaker 1: By the way, I'll come back to that later.
Speaker 1: Verse three Jesus, knowing that the father had given all things into his hands and that he had come from God and was going back to God, rose from supper Paul's.
Speaker 1: Make no mistake, jesus knew who he was.
Speaker 1: Jesus knew that he was the second person of the Trinity, that he had come from God and he was going back to God, and that his death was just a detail in him getting there.
Speaker 1: He knew, by the way, at this moment before not after the crucifixion at this moment, that the father had given all things into his hands.
Speaker 1: Now, I did a word study on this word all here, and do you know what this means, this word all in the Greek?
Speaker 1: Do you know what it means?
Speaker 1: It means all.
Speaker 1: The father had given all things into Jesus' hands, all right.
Speaker 1: So think about that.
Speaker 1: All things, everything, all things, all things have been given into Jesus' hands.
Speaker 1: That means Jesus had you know.
Speaker 1: Matthew 28, verse 18 says that Jesus says all authority in the heaven and earth has been given to me.
Speaker 1: Do you remember that when Jesus says that, he's saying that after his crucifixion and resurrection and we almost sometimes can incorrectly assume that Jesus had achieved something through his crucifixion and resurrection he had achieved all authority coming to him.
Speaker 1: But John is saying no, no, no.
Speaker 1: The father had already given all things into the hands of Jesus even before his crucifixion.
Speaker 1: Which means, which means that as Jesus is going to the cross, he is going willingly.
Speaker 1: When Jesus is going to the cross, he's not a victim, he's not being overpowered by Roman guards and being taken to a place where he does not will to go.
Speaker 1: Earlier in this gospel, jesus would say no man takes my life for me.
Speaker 1: I have authority to lay it down and I have authority to take it up again.
Speaker 1: This charge I have received from my father, john 10, 18.
Speaker 1: Jesus went to the cross willingly.
Speaker 1: You know what that means.
Speaker 1: At any second in the process of Jesus going to the cross, he could have said, he could have said a word or thought, a thought, and it didn't over.
Speaker 1: He could have ended it, the suffering could have ceased.
Speaker 1: Can you behold Jesus, who had been given all things and yet surrendered all things to the Father and is going and willingly submitting himself on behalf of his disciples, on behalf of the world?
Speaker 1: Man, I don't know about you, but have you ever, anybody in here, ever done any fasting?
Speaker 1: Anybody, anybody in the room?
Speaker 1: All right, some of you guys.
Speaker 1: Okay, all right.
Speaker 1: Have you ever done any fasting?
Speaker 1: And you're like, if you're around a place where you're just really, really hungry and you're like man, if there was food here I would eat in a second right.
Speaker 1: Anybody in the room?
Speaker 1: Okay, all right.
Speaker 1: Some of you feel that way.
Speaker 1: Like man, if I'm in a place and I'm fasting and there's food, the best way for me to succeed to fast is eliminate all the food around me and then I will not eat all the food around me and then I will have a successful fast right.
Speaker 1: What, jesus?
Speaker 1: What this is telling us about Jesus just marvel with me here is that there was never a point where he could not have had what he wanted to have, because all things have been given into his hand.
Speaker 1: Jesus, would actually say to the disciples later, you know, when Simon Peter takes up a sword and begins to fight to liberate Jesus, he says Simon, don't you know that I could call an allegiant of angels would be here?
Speaker 1: I think he says 12 legions of angels would be here to deliver me.
Speaker 1: In other words, jesus is going to the cross willingly.
Speaker 1: And so he rose.
Speaker 1: From supper, verse four.
Speaker 1: He laid aside his outer garments and taken a towel, tied it around his waist.
Speaker 1: All right, this is just astounding what's about to happen.
Speaker 1: All right, jesus Christ, second person of the Trinity, john, earlier in John's Gospel said in John, chapter one, the word of God that spoke the world into existence, this Jesus is taking aside his outer garments, he's taking a towel and ties it around his waist and he's about to begin to wash his disciples feet.
Speaker 1: Now this echoes another passage in Philippians two, five through 11 in the New Testament, where the apostle Paul, likely reflecting on this event, writes to the church at Philippi and says this have this mind among yourselves, which is yours, by the way, let's stop.
Speaker 1: I want you to hear this like this is God's word to you.
Speaker 1: All right, this wasn't just a letter written to the Philippians 2000 years ago.
Speaker 1: This is God's word to you.
Speaker 1: Listen to this, have this mind among yourselves.
Speaker 1: Harbor City church, which is yours, in Christ Jesus who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but he emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men and being found in human form.
Speaker 1: He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
Speaker 1: Can't you see this image in your mind that John is he's writing this to us in John 13, that the Lord of all creation is taking the posture of a servant.
Speaker 1: This was just making clear to the disciples.
Speaker 1: By the way, this posture of service was what Jesus was doing all the time.
Speaker 1: You know, this account that we just read in Philippians 2 tells us that Jesus humbled himself by simply becoming a man, that Jesus, as the Son of God, humbled himself to become a man.
Speaker 1: This is like you becoming a fiddler crab.
Speaker 1: Have you ever seen a fiddler crab on the beach?
Speaker 1: You go out on the beach and they pop out of the holes and they just run sideways really fast and they run away.
Speaker 1: Think about the difference between a human being.
Speaker 1: Think of a difference between you and a fiddler crab A whole lot more smart, a whole lot more attractive, right?
Speaker 1: A whole lot more like charismatic.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of differences between you and a fiddler crab, right.
Speaker 1: But how much more difference is there between Jesus, the Son of God, and a man?
Speaker 1: And yet Jesus became man.
Speaker 1: And so Jesus didn't just stop to become a man.
Speaker 1: As if that was not humbling enough, he then takes the posture as one of the lowest men, as a servant Verse 5,.
Speaker 1: Then he poured water into a basin and he began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him.
Speaker 1: Let me ask you a question what type of sewer systems did they have in the ancient Near East?
Speaker 1: None, that's right.
Speaker 1: What type of transportation did they use?
Speaker 1: Feet or animals, right?
Speaker 1: So think about this.
Speaker 1: He's in Jerusalem, it's a city, right?
Speaker 1: Lots of transportation, lots of animals.
Speaker 1: You've been to downtown Charleston behind the carriage tour.
Speaker 1: What's going to end up on the road?
Speaker 1: There's going to be manure on the road, right.
Speaker 1: And so you can imagine that these disciples, as they're walking through the city of Jerusalem not just the disciples, but anyone who walked their feet became incredibly dirty and incredibly filthy, and so when you would come into a house, it would be the role of the lowest servant in the house to wash the feet of those who entered.
Speaker 1: And don't you see a picture of that's what Jesus is doing here.
Speaker 1: He's not just serving the disciples, he's taking the lowest role possible in serving them.
Speaker 1: By the way, this is not the same as foot washing ceremonies today.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you've ever been.
Speaker 1: I'm going to offend somebody here, but here we go.
Speaker 1: Christian Schaefer, I'm too late.
Speaker 1: Have you ever been to a foot washing ceremony, especially people who are doing that at a wedding?
Speaker 1: So there's sometimes, in Christian circles at least, there will be an overzealous husband who decides that he is going to wash his bride-to-be's feet at the wedding, and so the bride-to-be knows that this is going to be her moment, that her feet are going to make it on the Instagram, and so she spends like three hours before the wedding getting her feet nice and pedicured and ready to go for that moment when her husband-to-be kneels down, takes a basin of water and begins to wash her feet.
Speaker 1: Her feet are already perfectly clean, but yet he's going to wash them anyway.
Speaker 1: By the way, if you are planning a wedding, I just got to say don't do that.
Speaker 1: It is awkward.
Speaker 1: I'm a pastor, I've done weddings.
Speaker 1: When I'm standing here, I'm like this is awkward.
Speaker 1: I know you, as you're watching the wedding happen.
Speaker 1: It's awkward to you too.
Speaker 1: This is not a picture of what is happening.
Speaker 1: When Jesus is washing the disciples' feet, jesus is not meeting an imaginary need.
Speaker 1: When he washes the disciples' feet, jesus is meeting a real need.
Speaker 1: And so Jesus is humbling himself.
Speaker 1: He's washing.
Speaker 1: It's like Thomas man, you've got an ingrown toenail here.
Speaker 1: Matthew, come on, man, you can do better than this, right?
Speaker 1: Jesus is meeting a real need by humbling himself and washing his disciples' feet.
Speaker 1: And then he comes verse 6, to Simon Peter.
Speaker 1: He came to Simon Peter and said to him Lord, do you wash my feet?
Speaker 1: It's like Captain Obvious.
Speaker 1: Yeah, duh, didn't you see him make his way around?
Speaker 1: Jesus answered him.
Speaker 1: What I am doing.
Speaker 1: You do not understand now, but afterward you will understand.
Speaker 1: That's Jesus for Peter.
Speaker 1: Just don't say anything else, peter.
Speaker 1: You often put your foot in your mouth.
Speaker 1: Please don't say anything, but doesn't stop Peter, peter, verse 8,.
Speaker 1: Peter said to him you shall never wash my feet, peter, if you follow him through the gospel.
Speaker 1: This is a man of extremes right?
Speaker 1: He's like you're washing my feet, you shall never wash my feet.
Speaker 1: And to be honest, don't we kind of resonate a little bit with Peter here?
Speaker 1: Aren't we like man?
Speaker 1: If we have spent any amount of time with Jesus and we consider ourselves Jesus' followers, we would consider Jesus our Lord or our master or teacher.
Speaker 1: And it ought not to be that the teacher or the Lord or the master would actually wash the follower.
Speaker 1: Rather, the follower should be washing the feet of the master.
Speaker 1: Don't we kind of resonate with Peter here?
Speaker 1: But listen to what Jesus says to him.
Speaker 1: If I do not wash you, you have no share with me.
Speaker 1: This leads me to my first major point here.
Speaker 1: If Jesus doesn't wash you, you have no share with Jesus.
Speaker 1: Jesus is talking with Simon Peter here at two levels.
Speaker 1: First, he tells Peter if I don't wash you, you have no share with me.
Speaker 1: He's referring, by the way, to a double type of washing.
Speaker 1: He's not just talking about the washing of his feet, he's talking at least about the washing away of sin that only Jesus can do.
Speaker 1: The reason we know that is because the word share is another word, for that is the word portion.
Speaker 1: There's the language of belonging to Jesus that he's saying there.
Speaker 1: So Jesus is drawing on a theology that Jews had from the prophet Isaiah that went something like this All human beings sin and thus need to be made clean.
Speaker 1: Human beings who sin cannot wash themselves.
Speaker 1: The prophet Isaiah would say this that our righteousness is even like filthy rags.
Speaker 1: In other words, the very best things that we do would be, in God's eyes, like a polluted garment, and so we need one who is not sinful to wash us.
Speaker 1: Doesn't that kind of make sense?
Speaker 1: It's like you know, if you had like really poor vision and you eventually became blind, you would not go get eye surgery from another person who was blind.
Speaker 1: You would need someone who could see in order to perform effective surgery on you if you were blind.
Speaker 1: Or it's kind of like you parents in the room.
Speaker 1: If you have a kid who's out there playing in a mud puddle and then there's one of your other kids is out there playing with them, you can't ask kid A to wash kid B, because kid A has the same problem as kid B.
Speaker 1: If kid A is trying to wash kid B in the mud puddle, odds are kid B is just going to get even more dirty.
Speaker 1: We need one who is not sinful to wash us.
Speaker 1: That's why, in Isaiah 118, god himself, speaking, would say this come now, let us settle the matter, says the Lord.
Speaker 1: Let us reason together.
Speaker 1: Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.
Speaker 1: How would God accomplish that?
Speaker 1: He would do that by sending a figure called the suffering servant that's portrayed in Isaiah 53.
Speaker 1: Isaiah 53, the entire chapter, portrays this Messiah figure that God was going to send to Israel, who was going to be called God's righteous servant.
Speaker 1: But he was going to be a servant who would suffer.
Speaker 1: That's why we call him the suffering servant.
Speaker 1: And so in Isaiah 5311, the prophet would say this by his knowledge, god speaking, shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, how, for he shall bear their iniquities.
Speaker 1: So, centuries before this passage, the prophet Isaiah had prophesied that there was one coming to Israel who would be a suffering servant and that through his work he would, many would be accounted righteous.
Speaker 1: Why?
Speaker 1: Because he himself would bear their iniquities.
Speaker 1: In other words, jesus, by taking that.
Speaker 1: This is again I know that we don't see this in our like 21st century mindset, but to a first century Jew.
Speaker 1: When Jesus took the title as I am the servant, their mind Immediately would have gone back to the prophecies from the prophet Isaiah, just like, just like when Jesus would claim that he was the lamb of God.
Speaker 1: So when, when Jesus is saying I am among you as one who serves, who will say this, sit here in a little bit, immediately, in the minds of the disciples they're like the suffering servant is not coming.
Speaker 1: He is here and he's washing my feet.
Speaker 1: Jesus would bear the sin of the world and he would bear that sin on the cross.
Speaker 1: Because Jesus paid for our sin.
Speaker 1: He is able to wash our sin away.
Speaker 1: By the way, I don't know if you know this, but this is one of the things that is pictured in baptism and Baptism.
Speaker 1: Baptism is pictured as a washing away.
Speaker 1: Now, baptism, the act of baptism, does not save you.
Speaker 1: Jesus saves you.
Speaker 1: The act of baptism does not wash your sins away.
Speaker 1: Jesus washes your sins away.
Speaker 1: But when you are baptized, you are, you are declaring to the world that, even as I have put my faith in Jesus Christ and his shed blood for me, so the blood of Jesus is washing away my sin.
Speaker 1: So I say to you again.
Speaker 1: If Jesus doesn't wash you, you have no share with Jesus.
Speaker 1: And I just have to stop and ask the question have you been washed by Jesus?
Speaker 1: Have you put your faith in your trust in Jesus?
Speaker 1: Have you believed that when he died and he rose again, that it counted for you?
Speaker 1: That would be how you are washed by Jesus.
Speaker 1: Let me keep going.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go to my second point, actually still right here in the text.
Speaker 1: My second point here is one of the things that Jesus is teaching Peter is that you cannot serve others Until you have been served by Jesus.
Speaker 1: You cannot serve others until you have been served by Jesus.
Speaker 1: Okay, you say, oh, yeah, I can, like people, serve other people all the time.
Speaker 1: All right, that's because the service of Jesus is fundamentally different than any other type of service in the world.
Speaker 1: Okay, jesus, you know, when I go by Starbucks up here off Beast Ferry, put it in my order and they're like really nice to me hey, what's your name?
Speaker 1: I give them my name.
Speaker 1: I'm like, oh, they're excited to see me.
Speaker 1: And then I pull up to the window and the first thing they do is they stick this thing out and the first prompt screen is I'd like a tip, please?
Speaker 1: You know, in other words, the employees of Starbucks.
Speaker 1: Many of you work at Starbucks Great, I'm not picking on Starbucks here.
Speaker 1: But the employees of Starbucks serve.
Speaker 1: Why they serve?
Speaker 1: Because they want something in return.
Speaker 1: They want to be tipped, which is a great thing to do.
Speaker 1: I'm not picking on Starbucks here.
Speaker 1: I need to be tipped, which is fine.
Speaker 1: Hospitality industry, that's totally fine.
Speaker 1: We understand how that works.
Speaker 1: But the world will serve in order to get something else you ever had.
Speaker 1: Like a stranger come up and begin to serve you and you're like oh, why are you serving me?
Speaker 1: Like, why are you giving me this stuff?
Speaker 1: Are you gonna ask me for something in return here in a little bit?
Speaker 1: The world serves, but doesn't the world serve in a way in order that they may get something?
Speaker 1: Jesus serves in a completely different way.
Speaker 1: It's a one-way service.
Speaker 1: It's a service with no expectation of return, that when Jesus serves, he doesn't need you to do anything for Him.
Speaker 1: He is God.
Speaker 1: If he had a need, he would not tell you.
Speaker 1: There's nothing that you can do that can give to Jesus that which he needs.
Speaker 1: He is God in Himself.
Speaker 1: He has everything that is necessary for Him, and so that means when Jesus serves you, he's serving you in a one-way direction.
Speaker 1: He's serving you for you.
Speaker 1: He expects nothing in return.
Speaker 1: That's the type of service that Jesus is doing right here with His disciples.
Speaker 1: And listen, and listen, and listen and listen.
Speaker 1: If you miss this, you're gonna miss the point of the entire sermon.
Speaker 1: If you do not first receive that service from Jesus, you will never be able to serve like Jesus.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's just true.
Speaker 1: Okay, let me.
Speaker 1: I got a quick illustration here.
Speaker 1: Okay, I wasn't gonna fill this up with water, decided not to, because new carpet Didn't wanna mess anything up.
Speaker 1: Imagine I have a pitcher and a cup, okay, imagine that I went to go serve you, okay, out here, and I say I'm your waiter and I'm pouring you some water, and I try to pour water into a cup, but lo and behold, there's nothing in my pitcher.
Speaker 1: I would be unable to give you water.
Speaker 1: Why?
Speaker 1: Because I didn't have water, right, okay, the principle there is we cannot give what we do not have.
Speaker 1: All right, we cannot give what we do not have.
Speaker 1: Okay, Can I tell you?
Speaker 1: What happens, particularly in the Christian world and Christian circles, is we try to give away that which we do not have, and this happens a lot of times because we think that, hey, as a good Christian, I'm supposed to serve other people and so I give and I give, and I give and I give until guess what I don't have.
Speaker 1: And then I continue to give, and give, and give, and give and guess what I still don't have.
Speaker 1: And so what happens?
Speaker 1: That begins to lead to burnout, doesn't it?
Speaker 1: Christians in the room, if you've been a part of a church for any length of time, have you ever been around somebody who has burned out from much serving?
Speaker 1: All right, I know no one wants to say amen, but that's a lot of our experiences.
Speaker 1: And have you been there yourself?
Speaker 1: Have you served and served and served until you have nothing left to give?
Speaker 1: And you still feel like, well, I'm supposed to continue serving, and so I'm trying to give even though I don't have.
Speaker 1: And all of a sudden I become what Become?
Speaker 1: A little bitter, I become a little angry at those I'm serving.
Speaker 1: I begin to look around and say why aren't other people helping the way that I'm helping?
Speaker 1: It's because I'm trying to give out of something that I don't have.
Speaker 1: This passage is going to change your life, if that's you Before you try to serve anyone else, you must first be served by Jesus, because you cannot give what you do not have.
Speaker 1: This will forever change your relationship to Jesus.
Speaker 1: I think about particularly in the area of prayer.
Speaker 1: Have you ever met someone who is so holy that they're like, yeah, when I pray, I just don't like to ask God for a lot of stuff.
Speaker 1: I just don't want him to think that I'm always there for something and so when I pray, I just like to praise God for his attributes.
Speaker 1: Or I like to pray like sometimes I just confess my sin and how far short I fall from God, and that's most of my prayers.
Speaker 1: Or sometimes I like to thank God for the way that he blessed me, but I never ask him for anything.
Speaker 1: You ever met anybody like that, who's too holy to ask God for anything?
Speaker 1: Guess what, when you, a needy person, comes before a God who has no needs?
Speaker 1: There's only going to be one type of interchange there, and that is to receive from God.
Speaker 1: I'm going to free you, maybe, from a little bit of Christian guilt.
Speaker 1: Maybe you didn't even know that you were caring.
Speaker 1: When you go and pray before God, god himself, through his word, tells you to ask.
Speaker 1: He tells you to seek.
Speaker 1: He tells you to knock.
Speaker 1: He says ask and it will be given.
Speaker 1: Seeking, you will find knock and the door be opened.
Speaker 1: Why?
Speaker 1: Because he wants to give you something.
Speaker 1: He wants to be able to fill you up with something, so you will have something to give to other people.
Speaker 1: If we aren't in the habit of going to God, even in this area of prayer and bringing our needs to him, we will be serving on an empty cup.
Speaker 1: So I just got to ask you how's your prayer life going?
Speaker 1: How's your prayer life going Like?
Speaker 1: Let me back up a little bit.
Speaker 1: What needs do you have right now?
Speaker 1: What are your needs?
Speaker 1: What are the things that are like screaming at you like is it a need for provision?
Speaker 1: Maybe it's a need for financial provision.
Speaker 1: Have you asked God to provide for you financially?
Speaker 1: Maybe there's a decision coming up and you desperately need wisdom in how to make the decision.
Speaker 1: Maybe, and as some of you in the room, you're caring for aging parents and you're making decisions that are really important and sometimes you feel like you don't have the wisdom that you need to make that decision.
Speaker 1: Well, have you asked God for wisdom?
Speaker 1: Maybe some of you are having conflict with your boss and, as you're having conflict with your boss, you don't know the way forward.
Speaker 1: Have you asked God to give you what you need to be able to have either patience or understanding or just endurance?
Speaker 1: In that situation, do you ask and ask and ask and ask God that you might receive, so that you actually have something to give to others?
Speaker 1: This should change the way you pray.
Speaker 1: Listen, god is not like oh, here's my daughter again asking for something else.
Speaker 1: God, everything that is is God's.
Speaker 1: He doesn't just own the cattle on a thousand hills, he owns every single square inch of the cosmos.
Speaker 1: God can give in such a way that he is not at a deficit.
Speaker 1: He is not like your earthly parents, he's not like your friends, he's not like your roommates.
Speaker 1: He is God and that means when we pray, we can ask for whatever we need.
Speaker 1: And then, as we begin to ask for whatever we need, you know what happens?
Speaker 1: We begin to get history with God, where he begins to supply all our needs.
Speaker 1: I know I could just like ask for some testimonies.
Speaker 1: How has God met your need?
Speaker 1: And I know there are people in this room I know some of your stories who would stand up and begin to say God provided this way and this way and this way.
Speaker 1: Well, look, what if that became your story?
Speaker 1: What if you begin to ask?
Speaker 1: And then God actually is who God is and he begins to provide financially and for areas of wisdom, and he begins to help you have favor with your boss or your employer, or he begins to help you with your schoolwork, or he begins to help you make decisions, and then, all of a sudden, what's happening?
Speaker 1: You're being filled up a little bit more, a little bit more, a little bit more, a little bit more, a little bit more, and then you actually have something to give to other people.
Speaker 1: The reason the whole topic of the sermon is this topic of service, and the reason people don't like, especially in churches, this topic of service is because we feel like the church is ask and ask and ask and I have nothing left to give.
Speaker 1: Well, maybe that's because our job as the church is to go to the one who has no need and receive from him that we may be free to give to other people.
Speaker 1: One of my favorite pastors says it this way you can only give what you possess.
Speaker 1: You cannot give that, what you do not possess.
Speaker 1: By the way, this is why Jesus in his ministry did you guys recognize me?
Speaker 1: Read through the gospel, as Jesus has a rhythm.
Speaker 1: In his ministry He'll engage in like intense ministry, whether it's teaching or preaching, or healing the sick or sometimes casting out demonic powers.
Speaker 1: And then there'll come a time where Jesus is tired.
Speaker 1: Jesus is tired.
Speaker 1: There are times in ministry where Jesus is tired, and if Jesus is tired, you know what Jesus does he actually gets away and he becomes renewed, he spends time in prayer with the Father and he goes back in the ministry and he's good to go.
Speaker 1: There's wisdom here in the model of Jesus for our lives.
Speaker 1: If we want to be a type of people who are effective at serving those around us, we need to be the type of people get away with God, are filled up and then going back into the world.
Speaker 1: But we're going back into the world with full cups, amen.
Speaker 1: Verse nine Simon Peter said to him well, the Lord like don't we love Simon, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head?
Speaker 1: And Jesus said to him the one who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet.
Speaker 1: In other words, you did bathe, right, peter?
Speaker 1: Yes, I bathed, okay great, just your feet are dirty.
Speaker 1: If you've bathed, then you're completely clean.
Speaker 1: And then he's like, as he's thinking about this idea of clean, he says and you are clean, talking about his disciples, but then the whole conversation begins to turn.
Speaker 1: He says and not every one of you, for he knew who was to betray him.
Speaker 1: That was why he said not all of you are clean.
Speaker 1: This scene of this conversation is Jesus at the Last Supper, which he is having with his 12 disciples, among which was Judas Iscariot, the one who would betray him.
Speaker 1: So listen to this in verse 12.
Speaker 1: And when he had washed their feet, whose feet?
Speaker 1: All the disciples, including.
Speaker 1: Who, including Judas Iscariot.
Speaker 1: Can we just take a second and behold the love of Jesus and put on his outer garments.
Speaker 1: And he resumed his place and he said to them do you understand what I've done for you?
Speaker 1: You call me teacher and Lord, and you're right, for so I am.
Speaker 1: Well, if I, then your Lord and teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet, for I have given you an example that you also should do, just as I have done to you.
Speaker 1: By the way, what Jesus is not doing is instituting another ordinance of the church, like baptism in the Lord's Supper and foot washing.
Speaker 1: We get that from this phrase example.
Speaker 1: I've done this to you as an example.
Speaker 1: He didn't say every year, I want you all to gather around and wash each other's feet.
Speaker 1: That's not what he said.
Speaker 1: He said I did this for you as an example that in all your interaction, disciples, followers of Jesus, and all your interactions, you ought to be serving one another Truly, truly.
Speaker 1: I say to you a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him.
Speaker 1: If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.
Speaker 1: This leads me to my third point.
Speaker 1: As Jesus has served, you serve others in the family of God.
Speaker 1: Isn't that what he's saying here?
Speaker 1: He says, if I have done this, I've done this that you also should do just as I have done to you.
Speaker 1: Now that you have been served by me, you are to serve.
Speaker 1: Note here does he say you are to serve the world?
Speaker 1: He doesn't actually say that.
Speaker 1: He says you are to serve one another, and so one of the ways that we would apply this is that man, if you are a part of Harbor City Church, we want you to serve here at Harbor City Church.
Speaker 1: I'm not discounting anything I just spent the last 15 minutes talking about, with going and being served by Jesus so that you have something with which to give to other people.
Speaker 1: I'm not discounting any of that, but having been filled and served by Jesus, jesus calls us to serve others in the family of God.
Speaker 1: One of the reasons we do the model that we do with we have two services every single weekend, as we say this phrase, so that you can attend one and you can serve one.
Speaker 1: You can serve one by doing what the Chapman did this morning, by leading a Bible study.
Speaker 1: Some of you lead community groups all throughout the week.
Speaker 1: That's one of the ways that you can serve the church.
Speaker 1: Others here they serve by helping people park cars or helping people have slides, so that things are clear when we're communicating or leading in worship or serving in Harbor City kids or students or in any variety of ways.
Speaker 1: We have all these opportunities.
Speaker 1: Why?
Speaker 1: So that when we, the body of Christ, the assembled disciples of Jesus right here, called Harbor City Church, when we come together, we practice what Jesus has taught us here that we are a church that serves one another.
Speaker 1: Parents in the room when you come in the room and you know that there are people who love or trained and are passionate about discipling your kids for 90 minutes you can just come in here and you can go right, can you not?
Speaker 1: For a little bit that you know someone else is caring for my kids.
Speaker 1: Others of you when you come into our service and you just had a long week and it's just kind of on your face and then Sammy Penninger is out there in the parking lot and he's so excited to park your car.
Speaker 1: You're like you know what?
Speaker 1: I'm just really glad that I'm here.
Speaker 1: These are pictures of what it looks like for the body of Christ to serve one another.
Speaker 1: By the way, there's a lot more ways to do that than just those examples that I mentioned.
Speaker 1: Some of us we serve one another when we get in here and we have our moments where we're talking and we just sense that somebody else is carrying a heavy burden and we stop and say, hey, can I just take a second and pray for you?
Speaker 1: How many of you have ever been in a church where somebody has prayed for you right when you needed it.
Speaker 1: Anybody, anybody, many of you, you know we come in here together and we serve one another by the encouraging words that we speak.
Speaker 1: I don't know what your work is like.
Speaker 1: Maybe your work is a place where you feel like you are torn down.
Speaker 1: I don't know what your dorm or your apartment is like.
Speaker 1: I don't know about what your classroom is like, but you know what.
Speaker 1: This is a place where we come and we get to hear the words of life for people who are speaking encouraging words to us.
Speaker 1: By the way, this is also a place if we follow the model next to 42-47 where the church comes in.
Speaker 1: We actually give to one another.
Speaker 1: I gave an example last week about how, when we were in our 20s and we had a car breakdown, we came to church and someone there gave us a financial gift that enabled us to repair our car and continue living the way that we were living.
Speaker 1: As you come into the body, we don't just come to consume from the worship or the service.
Speaker 1: We also come to give to one another.
Speaker 1: We're coming and we're looking for someone else's need that we can help meet.
Speaker 1: Verse 18, jesus continues.
Speaker 1: I'm not speaking of all of you.
Speaker 1: I know whom I have chosen, but the scripture will be fulfilled.
Speaker 1: He who ate my bread has lifted his heel against me.
Speaker 1: I'm telling you this now, before it takes place, that when it does take place, I believe that I am he.
Speaker 1: By the way, jesus here is predicting his betrayal to his disciples, so that, when it happens, his disciples will believe that Jesus is.
Speaker 1: Did you hear what he said?
Speaker 1: I am he.
Speaker 1: We've talked about this a little bit in our series through John, but, just as a refresher, that phrase I am he was a reference to the divine name Yahweh, where Jesus Christ is making himself equal with God the Father when he uses the name I am, when he's saying I am he.
Speaker 1: That is a Greek rendering of a Hebrew word which meant Yahweh, which meant the God of Israel.
Speaker 1: And so now go back and look at this again.
Speaker 1: Jesus is using the divine name.
Speaker 1: Here, he's claiming to be equal with God the Father, and so why then is he pointing to his betrayal as a sign of His divinity?
Speaker 1: Wouldn't you actually think it's the exact opposite, that surely God would be smart enough that he would never be betrayed?
Speaker 1: Isn't that a not thing to do?
Speaker 1: But what Jesus is saying is this too is from the Father, and when it happens, I'm telling you in advance it's gonna happen.
Speaker 1: So when it happens, you wouldn't be able to say well, if he was the son of God, he would have known about this betrayal and he never would have been betrayed, he never would have gone to the cross.
Speaker 1: I'm telling you in advance.
Speaker 1: Jesus is saying to his disciples that when I am betrayed, it is going to happen and it is the will of the Father.
Speaker 1: And I'm telling you in advance, so that you know, when it happens, that I and the Father are one.
Speaker 1: Verse 20, truly, truly, I say to you whoever receives the one I send, receives me.
Speaker 1: And whoever receives me receives the one who sent me.
Speaker 1: This right here, verse 20, is a picture of the Trinity.
Speaker 1: Whoever receives the one I send, jesus is about to send the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 1: We'll see that in the book of Acts.
Speaker 1: And whoever receives me, jesus receives the one who sent me, the Father.
Speaker 1: Verse 21,.
Speaker 1: After saying these things, jesus was troubled in his spirit and testified.
Speaker 1: Truly, truly, I say to you one of you will betray me.
Speaker 1: The disciples looked at one another, uncertain of whom he spoke.
Speaker 1: One of his disciples, whom Jesus loved, was reclining at table at Jesus' side.
Speaker 1: This is not the main point of the sermon.
Speaker 1: I just got to take a pause and look at this phrase the disciple whom Jesus loved.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about that really quick.
Speaker 1: We've been going through the Gospel of John.
Speaker 1: In the Gospel of John, the author, a guy named John, never refers to himself by name, never.
Speaker 1: Instead, he only refers to himself in the Gospel of John, the one whom Jesus loved.
Speaker 1: Now, a lot of times people hear that and like hear preachers and commentators say John just kind of thought a lot of himself, like hey, me, you know me, I'm Jesus' favorite.
Speaker 1: You know, I thought that for some time I was reading a commentator, I got by the name of David Gootsig and he actually put it in a different perspective and I'm gonna share it with you today.
Speaker 1: He said you know, maybe the reason that John doesn't refer to himself by his name or his credentials is because when John thought about who John was, the fundamental identity that he thought of himself as was the one whom Jesus loved, doesn't that change the way you think about that a little bit?
Speaker 1: What if, by the way, that was the way that you thought of yourself?
Speaker 1: You know, I'm not who my parents made me to be.
Speaker 1: I'm not what my name means, I'm not my accomplishments.
Speaker 1: Who I fundamentally am is one whom Jesus loves.
Speaker 1: Gotta keep going.
Speaker 1: Jesus, again speaking of his betrayal, was reclining at the table, and so Peter, simon Peter, motioned to him to ask Jesus of whom he was speaking verse 25,.
Speaker 1: So that disciple John leaned back against Jesus and said to him Lord, who is it?
Speaker 1: Jesus answered it is he to whom I will give this morsel of bread when I have dipped it.
Speaker 1: So when he had dipped the morsel, he gave it to Judas, the son of Simon, as caria.
Speaker 1: Then, after he had taken the morsel, satan entered into him.
Speaker 1: Let me take a second and comment on these two things.
Speaker 1: One is the first question is it just seems kind of odd the way that this story is constructed?
Speaker 1: This meal they're celebrating a Passover feast would have happened around a type of U-shaped table called a triclinium.
Speaker 1: It was actually almost more like three sofas around a low table, and you would eat this meal reclining Just think, like Sunday after church watching NFL games kick back in your lazy boy.
Speaker 1: So they're reclining and they're eating and they would lean on their left elbow and they would eat with their right hand.
Speaker 1: And so you can kind of imagine, with these three different types of couches as they're set up, that there's not like the same type of sight lines, by the way, as when we would sit at a table with our feet all underneath which is, by the way, this is also a detail why Jesus could easily wash their feet.
Speaker 1: He wasn't going underneath the table and washing their feet, but everyone was in a reclining position so Jesus could easily wash their feet.
Speaker 1: So John is reclining next to Jesus and that's why Peter, who can't quite see everybody else, says hey, ask Jesus, who's gonna betray him?
Speaker 1: Jesus then takes this morsel of bread, he gives it and then he dips it in this bowl and gives it to Judas Iscariot.
Speaker 1: And the text says this is the other thing that I need to comment on that Satan entered him.
Speaker 1: I read a commentator who said that there are maybe no more sobering warning for people who are in church than this phrase Satan entered him.
Speaker 1: Let's just think this was Judas Iscariot.
Speaker 1: This was Judas one of the 12.
Speaker 1: This was Judas who saw all the miracles that Jesus performed.
Speaker 1: This was Judas who had gone out in pairs casting out demons.
Speaker 1: This was Judas who had seen Jesus walk on water, feed the 5,000, and call Lazarus from the dead.
Speaker 1: He was there in the Sermon on the Mount when Jesus preached the greatest sermon that's ever been preached.
Speaker 1: He was there when Jesus confounded the Pharisees and the rulers of the day.
Speaker 1: He saw it all.
Speaker 1: He had a front row seat to everything Jesus did and he missed it.
Speaker 1: He missed it.
Speaker 1: He never believed that Jesus was who he said he was, to the degree that here he becomes not an agent of God but an agent of Satan, and the text tells us Satan entered into him.
Speaker 1: By the way, I can't give a full treatment here, I don't have time, but the New Testament teaches us that a follower of Christ, a believer, cannot be possessed by any demonic power.
Speaker 1: Why?
Speaker 1: Because a believer, someone who is in Christ, is already possessed by a stronger man, the Holy Spirit, by the stronger one, the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 1: So Christians, believers, cannot be possessed.
Speaker 1: They cannot be filled with a demonic power, but they can be oppressed.
Speaker 1: They can be.
Speaker 1: There can be powers in this world that bring about situations around the life of the believer that cause them torment.
Speaker 1: You can think of stories like in the book of Job, and so what we see here is that Satan.
Speaker 1: To my knowledge, this is the only area in all of scripture where we see Satan actually as one who enters into anyone, who possesses any person, and he possesses Judas, iscariot.
Speaker 1: And so Jesus said to him what you're going to do, do quickly Now.
Speaker 1: No one at the table knew why he said this to him.
Speaker 1: Remember, they can't quite make eye contact with each other.
Speaker 1: Some thought that because Judas had the money bag, jesus was telling him buy what we need for the feast, or that he should give something to the poor.
Speaker 1: So after receiving the morsel bread, he immediately went out, and it was night Verse 31,.
Speaker 1: And when he had gone out, jesus said now is the Son of man glorified and God is glorified in him.
Speaker 1: Jesus is talking about his coming crucifixion, his betrayal, and he doesn't call it suffering.
Speaker 1: What does he call it Glory?
Speaker 1: Now, the Son of man is going to be glorified.
Speaker 1: He's already prophesied this in the previous chapter that when I am lifted up, I will draw all men to myself Verse 32,.
Speaker 1: If God is glorified in him, god will also glorify him in himself and glorify him at once.
Speaker 1: Little children, yet a little while, and I am with you, you will seek me and, just as I said to the Jews.
Speaker 1: So now I also say to you where I'm going.
Speaker 1: You cannot come, class.
Speaker 1: Where was Jesus going that his disciples could not come?
Speaker 1: Was it the cross?
Speaker 1: It's kind of our instinct, right?
Speaker 1: The answer is no, because each of these disciples could have gone with Jesus to the cross, could they not?
Speaker 1: So again I ask you, where was Jesus going?
Speaker 1: Where his disciples could not go, it was to be reunited with the Father.
Speaker 1: His disciples could not come with him to heaven with the Father until Jesus had gone to the cross, verse 34.
Speaker 1: A new commandment I give to you that you love one another, just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.
Speaker 1: By this, all people will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another.
Speaker 1: Last sermon point here our love for one another will be a sign to the world.
Speaker 1: We belong to Jesus.
Speaker 1: Now Jesus gave a sign, a litmus test, if you will, for the world to know if we are his.
Speaker 1: And that sign is love.
Speaker 1: And let me ask you a question If you walked into this room and you looked around, could you tell that the people here love one another?
Speaker 1: I mean, it would be hard to tell just from us.
Speaker 1: I mean, just imagine, just looking at you where you're seated, it'd be hard to tell if you had love for one another, right?
Speaker 1: So how was love manifested?
Speaker 1: Love is often manifested in what Jesus just finished talking about, is it not this one way service.
Speaker 1: So what Jesus is saying is that my people, my church, as they are serving one another, it will be evident to anyone who comes that they love one another and that they belong to me.
Speaker 1: Verse 36,.
Speaker 1: Simon Peter said to him Lord, where are you going?
Speaker 1: Don't you hear the pain and Peter's voice?
Speaker 1: As he asked this?
Speaker 1: He's just been told, with the group that he can't follow.
Speaker 1: And Jesus answers him where I'm going.
Speaker 1: You cannot follow me now, but you will follow afterward.
Speaker 1: Peter said to him Lord, why can I not follow you now?
Speaker 1: I will lay down my life for you.
Speaker 1: And Jesus answered will you lay down your life for me?
Speaker 1: Truly, truly, I say to you the rooster will not crow till you have denied me three times.
Speaker 1: Where was Jesus growing?
Speaker 1: He was going to the cross and to the Father.
Speaker 1: So let's read that again.
Speaker 1: If Jesus is going to the cross, when Peter asked him, lord, where are you going?
Speaker 1: And the answer is the cross.
Speaker 1: Then Jesus says you cannot follow me now to the cross, but you will follow me later to the cross.
Speaker 1: And church history would tell us that this is true, that Simon Peter too would be crucified.
Speaker 1: But church history tells us that he told those who would crucify him that he was unworthy to be crucified like his Lord.
Speaker 1: And so he asked if he would be crucified upside down.
Speaker 1: But let me give you another way of reading this.
Speaker 1: Let's read this again as an understanding of Jesus going to the Father.
Speaker 1: Lord, where are you going To the Father?
Speaker 1: And then Jesus says you can't follow me now, peter to the Father, but you will follow me later.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 1: Peter says man, lord, why can't I follow you now?
Speaker 1: I will die for you.
Speaker 1: And Jesus knew that if Peter were to die for him, then Peter would never be with the Father.
Speaker 1: But if Jesus, if Jesus were to die for Peter, then not just Peter but all men would have a way to live and be with the Father.
Speaker 1: I want to close our time together.
Speaker 1: I'm going to go ahead and ask for the band to come on stage.
Speaker 1: I want to take this text and just apply it to you.
Speaker 1: I'm going to ask.
Speaker 1: I'm not going to give it a formal invitation.
Speaker 1: I just want to create a time of reflection in the room and to do that, I want to ask if you will close your eyes and bow your head all around this room.
Speaker 1: I want to ask you, as all heads or bowed and eyes are closed, I just imagine that some of you in this room, you're burned out.
Speaker 1: Some of you are at the end of yourself.
Speaker 1: You have nothing left to give.
Speaker 1: You're tired.
Speaker 1: You're not just tired, you're weary.
Speaker 1: You're not just weary, you feel it in your bones.
Speaker 1: You've been serving for a long time, you've been giving away for a long, long time, and I want to tell you that the invitation I want to give to you is first, take those needs and go to Jesus and be served by Him.
Speaker 1: You can even do that right now.
Speaker 1: You can begin to pray right now all over this room.
Speaker 1: Jesus, I'm tired.
Speaker 1: Jesus, I don't have a lot to give.
Speaker 1: Jesus, I need wisdom.
Speaker 1: I don't have to make the decisions that are in front of me.
Speaker 1: More and more is being demanded from me, but I just don't have it.
Speaker 1: Jesus, will you please give to me what I need.
Speaker 1: So others of you, man, you might just be in a healthy rhythm of like serving, doing good to other people, and I want to encourage you Do not grow weary in doing good, and then some of you, you may be like man.
Speaker 1: I'm on the sideline, you know, when you talked about serving and serving in the church earlier, pastor Jonathan, like I'm not, I kind of want to, but I'm not there yet.
Speaker 1: I'm not doing that.
Speaker 1: I want to tell you that your brothers and sisters in this room, they need you, they need you.
Speaker 1: They're all around this room.
Speaker 1: People.
Speaker 1: We had the chance to just be honest with one another.
Speaker 1: People are burned out and they're tired and they're weary with much serving and they need you to come alongside them.
Speaker 1: They need you to pray for them, they need you to encourage them, they need you to give to them, they need you to help them, and so this sermon might be a call for you being filled by what Jesus has given you, for you to turn, give it to other people.
Speaker 1: Father, in whatever way you would use this word in the life of your people, I pray, holy Spirit, right now, that you would come and that you would apply it, lord, that this people, harbor City Church, would know how much they are loved by Jesus Christ, that they would be served by Jesus Christ From what he has given us.
Speaker 1: Lord, I pray that we would, in turn, serve our church and that in the way that we serve our church would be a sign to the world that we love one another and that we are your disciples.
Speaker 1: I pray this in Jesus' name, amen.