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But what I'm what I'm gonna do, and I have the opportunity to share with you, is I've been talking with Ray. I know you guys have been working through the Gospel of John, and so it just worked providentially that I get to speak on John 13, which is very relevant in terms in of its message into the motivating work of of why we do what we do in Billings, Montana. So so we're gonna look at that today. So I would just encourage you guys to to read along if you would like to, but let me just open this up in a word of prayer. Father guys, thank you so much for this day.
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Thank you for this place and these people. I thank you for this church. We thank you for this city. Lord, I pray that you would just be with me now. Lord, that I would speak your words.
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I pray that you, Holy Spirit, would illuminate our hearts and our minds to know and understand what it is you are teaching us through the life and the example of Jesus and through your word. Help us to be the people of God you've called us to be for the sake of your great name. In Jesus name that we pray. Amen. Well, as we as we will be looking at John 13, I I I haven't been here for the last number of series of of sermons that you guys have heard.
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And so I wanted to jump back and I wanna just point out a few things as it looks as we learn from John 12 because I believe it's gonna be important for looking to what we can learn from John 13. Just a few, three main observations. The first one is here is Jesus, he is the son of God, he is the Messiah, he is the appointed one, and the people are seeing this and they're seeing Jesus, they're hearing his teachings and they're dumbfounded by what he has to say and his insight and his knowledge, but also not only is he speaking about the kingdom of God, but he is also tangibly bringing in the kingdom of God. He is feeding the multitudes, is healing the sick. He's raising the dead dead back to life.
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He's giving sight to the blind. And so here is Jesus. And here in in in the gospel in chapter 12 alone, he refers to this death of his that is upcoming four on four different occasions. And as you guys remember the anointing of Mary and she she broke the alabaster jar and she she put this perfume upon Jesus and it was it was worth a lot of money and so some of the disciples were thinking that this was a a foolish waste of money that could have been used in different ways but but Jesus says that no, do not do not give her trouble. That what she has done will be remembered and that she is preparing me for my burial and so here Jesus knew what was coming.
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He knew that upon him was that a part of his being the Messiah and a part of him being the savior was that he would also have to die upon the cross. So, we see that there. We see it on a couple other different occasions and in fact, in verse 27 of chapter 12, we we see that Jesus himself even though knowing that he will die, knowing what is as ahead of him and knowing that this is a part of God's plan to take that which is broken to make it whole again. There's there's agony there and he's troubled in his soul because of what is ahead of him and so we see that not only is Jesus divine and he's of God and he is God but we also see the human human side of Jesus and the part that that is agonizing over this upcoming trial and ultimate crucifixion that he's about to place. As we look at John 12 verse 32, we see it again.
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He says, and I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself. Realizing, knowing that Jesus knew that a part of his being crucified was so that he might be exalted, so that he might raise up from the dead as a result of this, that he might be able to draw all men to himself, and that this is the way that it must be for him in order to take broken mankind and to bring them back into a right relationship with God. Now the other thing I wanna look at is John 12 verse starting in verse 12. And I want you to imagine now that you you are here and you've heard this thing of Jesus. You've heard that he's an incredible teacher.
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You've heard the miracles that Jesus has been able to perform. And people are saying that this is the Messiah. This is the appointed one. This is the one he's going to come and he's going to establish his kingdom. And here we read in verse 12.
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It says on the next day, large crowds who had gone had come to the feast and when they had heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, they took branches and palm trees and they went out to meet him and they began to shout, Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the king of Israel. I want you to imagine this picture. People lining up the streets and bowing down. This is the king. This is one that's going to establish his kingdom.
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He's going to do something awesome. It says, Jesus, finding a young donkey, sat on it. As as it is written, fear not daughter of Zion. Behold, your king is coming. Seated on a donkey's colt.
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Now, don't know if you you guys, but I'm sitting here. I want you to picture that Jesus is riding on a donkey, people. Is this how it has this how a king comes and and overthrows the rulers to establish his kingdom? This isn't this doesn't make sense. And so Jesus is doing something radical here.
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He's doing something different than we can understand, different than we can even begin to imagine. And so we see here that Jesus is embodying something different. So I think we have two realities. One is that either Jesus is a lunatic and he's off his rocker and he doesn't get it and the people are blinded to the reality of the truth or Jesus really is king. He really is Messiah.
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He really is the son of man, the son of God, and that this kingdom that he is coming to establish is unlike anything that we've ever seen or known. It's this thing that we call the upside down kingdom. It's really interesting to know that I I I love this picture of Jesus coming in on a donkey because it shows the humility of Jesus. It shows that Jesus is bringing with him the gospel message, this message of peace, this message that is crying out to you who are lost, to you who are sick, to you who are dead. Come to me.
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Look to me for I am the way to life. I am the way to find a right relationship with God the Father. And God is beckoning to us now. The gospel is going out. This message of Jesus is going out all around the world even as we speak here right now.
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But as we look at Revelation 19, there will be a day when Jesus is not going to be coming back riding on a donkey. Revelation 19 says he will be riding upon a horse ready for war, wet ready for for for what is to ensue and Jesus will have a sword and he'll come and he'll come and bring judgment. And so we have this day that Jesus will come back and he will no longer it will no longer be a season of peace, but he'll separate the sheep from the goats, the wheat from the shack, and he'll gather those whom are his to himself, and the others will be burned up, it says. So now we we are the recipients. We get to see and hear Jesus coming in on donkey as he's beckoning us to a life of walking with him, to a life of knowing God the father through him.
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And lastly in verse 23 to 26 of chapter 12 it says this, it says, Jesus answered them saying the hour has come for the sound of man to be glorified. Truly, truly I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls onto the earth and it dies, it remains alone, but if it dies, it bears much fruit. He who loves his life loses it and he who hates his life in this world will keep it to eternal life. If anyone serves me, he must follow me and where I am and where I am, there my servant will be also. And if anyone serves me, the father will honor him.
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And so as Jesus has been referring to his own death, we also know that Jesus is calling his followers. He is calling us to walk in his footsteps. And so we hear from Jesus himself, he says, if you love your love your life, you will lose your life. You cannot save it. But if you hate your life, you hate the things of this world, you hate the pleasures that this world has to offer because they're fleeting and they will not last and they will burn up and you will not be satisfied and if you die to yourself to to come to Christ, then isn't that that you will gain life.
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And so we are called to walk in his footsteps, to live as Jesus lived, to do as Jesus did, and to be as Jesus was. This is our call as his followers. So we are to value life, but we're not to value our own life. We're to value the life of Jesus. Jesus the Messiah.
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And then we are to walk in the way of humility because this is what Jesus has done for us. He is our lord and our God and he's come and he's come in the form of a baby. He he's lived a woman. He's lived a simple life and now here's Jesus in his ministry and he's a he's a homeless man. He has no place to lay his head at that.
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He's dependent upon the needs of others, and yet he is calling out to us to follow in his footsteps and to walk with him. And as Jesus was our servant, so are we called to serve. We also see that Jesus is the sacrifice. We know as you guys read on in John what will happen to him. We know it's through his sacrifice that we are able to be made right with God.
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And so he says that we are also walking in his footsteps that as Jesus lived his life sacrifice to God the father, guess what? You and I are called to live our lives as sacrifices to God the father. And as we do this, we are going forward knowing that what the world offers us is zero it's nil. It it it doesn't satisfy our hearts and our souls. Money, possessions, things, it does not satisfy our hearts and our souls.
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But Jesus alone can answer this. Jesus is our hope. Jesus is our life, and Jesus is our joy. Okay. So now as we look at John 13, and let me just say this on the front end is that John the gospel of John is loaded.
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There's there's so much here, and so we're just gonna be looking at the first 20 verses and even within that it's like we're taking this a speedboat approach. So we're just going to touch on a few things and know that I'm gonna be missing a lot, but I'm hopefully, I wanna point out a few things as we read these first twenty twenty verses. And so what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna read along and I'll stop here and there and I'll I'll I'll share a few things and hopefully it'll shed some light as to what what is going on in this passage. So if you wanna read along, John 13 chapter one. It says, now before the feast of the Passover, Jesus knowing that his hour had come that he would depart out of this world to the father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.
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Now I don't know if you guys know this or not, but this is the third recorded time we have where Jesus is going and during his life ministry and it's the Passover. It could be that there was a fourth in there. We're not entirely sure, but but as we look and we we're nearing the the end of Jesus' life here, and it's really significant that Jesus is going to Jerusalem at this time during the Passover festival, during the feast of unleavened bread. And so for us to really understand why is that so significant, we need to go all the way back to Exodus. We need to go back to the Old Testament.
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And if you guys remember the story of of Joseph who was a beloved brother who was sold by his brothers into slavery and eventually he was he was made a basically a ruler of of Pharaohs, his second right hand man and and and eventually the the Hebrew people would go and they they would relocate themselves because there was a great famine in the land and eventually that pharaoh would die and eventually the new pharaoh, he wouldn't like the Hebrew people and so he was trying to kill them and for four hundred and seven years, the people were out of their element and they're in the land of Egypt and they've become slaves and they're oppressed and they're crying out to the Lord their God. And one day, finally God heard them. By that, my wife pointed out to me, I did not mean to imply that God didn't hear them those first four hundred years. But there's something about God's timing in this, and and God heard them, and he had heard them, and he'd seen their suffering all along, and and God's perfect redemptive plan, he raised up this man named Moses. Moses was was born, he floated down the river, he was raised up in the house of Pharaoh, he was trying to defend justice on his own, he watched, he killed a man, he was he was he had to flee to the deserts for forty years, and as an 80 year old man, God called him up and he said, Moses, I want you to go back to Egypt and I want you to free your people who are in slavery.
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And so as we hear and we read this dynamic story of what has happened, we we learn about the Exodus exodus and and we we learn learn about the the nine plagues that had happened and and all these amazing things that happened, but still Pharaoh's heart was hard and still Pharaoh said, no, I will not let you go. And so God said there will be one last plague and it will be a terrible plague and after this, God will the Pharaoh will let your people go. And he says, I will come through in the middle of the night that I will strike down. I will kill the firstborn of every household and I'll kill the firstborn of every every livestock that exists. He says this for you, my people, what I want you to do is I want you to go find a a year old lamb that's without blemish, that's healthy and strong, and I want you to kill it.
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I want you to sacrifice it and I want you to eat it. You know, I want you to take that blood. I want you to put that blood upon the doorpost of your house and and when the when I come through that night, will pass over your house because that blood and your firstborn will not die. And as a result of this, I will show the people of Israel. I'll show you as Israelites that I am the one true God.
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And sure enough, it happened just as the Lord said. In the middle of the night, there's a loud wailing and crying and Pharaoh summoned Moses and he said, I want you to get out of here. My there there's death all around us but your people are okay. I don't understand. You need to be away from here.
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Get out of Egypt. And so we know that there was it was through through the blood that the people were protected and was eventually would lead to the way of life as they would eventually enter into the promised land. And so here, Jesus is coming to celebrate the Passover, but I I would like to say he's not coming so much to celebrate this Passover, this remembering of the blood, and that that's how his people were saved, but Jesus is coming to be our Passover. If guys remember back in in the beginning of John as John the Baptist was seeing Jesus with the disciples, he said, look, behold, the lamb of God. He was speaking prophetically that Jesus was it.
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He was the son of man. He was the savior and as the savior, he was the lamb that would be crucified. He was the perfect lamb without any blemish. There was no flaw in him. There was nothing wrong with him.
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He had done no wrong. He was perfect and sinless in every way and Jesus is a is a sinless lamb. We have to be crucified. It would be through his shed blood that we would be we would be forgiven of sin. That we would we we would be drawn into this right relationship with God.
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And so again, it's it's incredibly significant that that it's through Jesus and through his blood that he has shown us to the way of life. As we see in the in the rest of verse one there, it says that he loved his own who are in the world and he loved them to the end. And again, as we as we read through the Old Testament, we can see something that there's something about God's love that's pretty divine. His people are hard hearted. They would turn away for them.
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They they would quickly go to worship false gods and golden images. And still God would love them. Still God would pursue them. And so we see that in God and now we see that embodied in the life and the person of Jesus as he lived among them and he loved his disciples well. He loved those that were in his life well.
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In fact, Romans five eight says that God loved us, that while we were still yet sinners, Christ died for us, that his love is so divine, it's it loves us without any end and it loves us with with not expecting anything in return and it loves not only those who like us but it loves his enemies as well. And so we see this again embodied in the person of Jesus. As we go on to verse two, it says, during supper, the devil having already put the heart of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, to betray him. So, here we we we see that the betrayal is in motion and and that what is about to happen is that one of Jesus' own disciples is going to be prompted and he is going to turn against Jesus and he is going to hand Jesus over to the religious authorities and they're going to falsely accuse him and they're gonna find anything to pin on him that they possibly can in order to have him put to death. Now it happened at the hand of his own disciple, Eucharist.
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What's interesting to me to note is that up to this point that Jesus had he infuriated a lot of people. The religious leaders did not like him. They did not like what he was doing. They did not like what he was speaking of. He did not they did not like what he said of them.
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And it says many times that they would pick up stones ready to stone him but it was not yet the appointed time. And somehow Jesus would walk through the crowd unescaped, not even touched. And so what I like to show up we show with this is that it was of God's doing, God's providential timing that Jesus now is the time for Jesus to be handed over. Why? Because now Jesus was to be the fulfillment.
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He was to be the Passover loved Jesus had to die in order that others might have life in Christ. And so this work that we can despair and think, well, this was a horrible thing that Jesus had to die. But we can stop and realize that God is bigger than even Satan himself. And it was God who allowed this to happen. It was God who allowed this work to happen in order that the greater work might be done.
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As we go on to verse three and four, it says, Jesus knowing that the father had given all things into his hands and they had come forth from God and was going back to God. He got up from supper and he laid aside his garments and taking a towel, he girded himself. I sometimes wonder what we really think of Jesus. I I I think we can understand Jesus as a man. We understand that Jesus was hungry.
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We understand that Jesus got tired. We understand the human side of Jesus, but sometimes I think we underplay the divinity of Jesus. It said that all things had come from Jesus. It was through Jesus that all things were created in heaven, on earth, that all things that Jesus had existed since all times. And so Jesus knows this.
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He knows his identity. He knows that he came from the father. He knows that though he was born two thousand years ago in the form of a babe to to Mary that that his identity was his father was not Joseph. His mother wasn't even Mary. That he was he was a son of God.
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That he was God himself And so he knew where he'd come from, he knew who he was that day, and he knew that even in the face of his death, he knew where it is that he would one day go to again. And so he had this strong sense of identity, and it is a result of that he was free to do exactly as the father had called him to do. He was free because he no longer was bound to try to meet the expectations of those around him. He didn't care what the religious authorities thought. He didn't even care what his own disciples thought.
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Jesus' ambition was to what? To do as the father would lead him to do. And so the world thought he was a lunatic and a little bit crazy and a little bit off his rock and the way that he lived was was was different and the way that he loved was unworldly. And his message of this this gospel of the kingdom of God was entirely different than anything they'd ever heard. He was free to do that because he knew his identity as as being a child, as being God's own son.
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And so as a result of that, he was now able to look at death in the face and to realize that this may not be something he would choose to do on his own, but he knew where he was going. He knew that it would be not only to the good of us as mankind that he died but he also knew it would be to his good that again, he would be back with the father. And so just as a side note that, you know, I wonder, for those of us here in this room that have faith in Jesus, I wonder how differently we would live if we lived our lives as children of God. Let's stop trying to play the game. Let's stop trying to to win the approval of others.
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Let's stop trying to to make ourselves look good. Let's just embrace this idea and this thought, this truth that we are God's children. There's no greater gift, no greater identity than that. You are the Lord's servant. There's no greater honor in this world than that.
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And I wonder if we understood that. I'm a child of the king. I'm a prince and a a princess of the of the king. How differently would we live? Maybe we'd be a little more unashamed in how we love.
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Maybe we might even love our enemies a little bit more like Jesus loved his enemies. Maybe we would pour ourselves out just a little bit more as Jesus himself poured himself out for us. And so as we look at this and we look at Jesus and it's because of his identity being knowing of who he was and where he was going, where he'd come from and where he was going to be going, that he was able to what? He says that he took off his outer clothing and took up the the towel and he took on the nature, the role of a servant, of a sold man that's worth what pennies. Jesus identified himself with that person, that role, to be that of a servant and to do what we're about to read here.
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So let's read on in verse five through 11. So girding himself as a slave then. He says, he poured the water into the basin. He began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel with which he was girded and so he came to Simon Peter and he said to him, lord, do you wash my feet? Jesus answered, said to him, what I do, you do not realize, but you will understand hereafter.
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Peter said to him, never shall I wash my feet. Jesus answered him, if I do not wash you, you have no part with me. Simon Peter said to him, Lord, then wash not only my feet but also my hands and my head. And Jesus said to him, he who is baby is only to wash his feet but is completely clean and you are clean but not all of you. For he knew the one who is betraying him for this reason, for this, I'm sorry, I've lost my place.
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For he knew who the one who's betrayed me. For this reason, he said, not all of you are clean. And so as they're up there in the upper room and it's the last supper, Jesus looks around. There was no slave. There was no one to to do the dirty business of of washing the feet of the disciples.
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And so Jesus identifies himself as as that of of a slave and as a servant and he he unclothes himself, he puts on that that roll and he grabs the water and he goes and gets down on his hands, his knees and he literally gets his hands dirty as he's he's washing the the dirt and the grime and the manure and all the other dirt and the felt from from the feet of his disciples. And it's really interesting to note that none of the disciples stopped for a moment and maybe I should even wash the feet of my king, my savior, let alone my brother that's here in the room. Because we know the heart of the disciples very much like our heart. And moments before, they had been spending time arguing about who was the greatest among them. So here Jesus shows the exact opposite of that.
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Though he is the greatest, he shows that he is can be and will function and serve as the least among them. And so as we look at Peter's response to this, I I I think it's one of pride in the way that he responds. You know, for Peter, he's like, you can't wash my feet, Jesus, because for him, he's thinking, Jesus, you are my master, my lord, and and I am your disciple. I am your follower, Jesus. And if you take on the role of a servant, if you identify yourself yourself as a slave man, as one who's been sold to slavery and a servant who just washes the feet of people, what does that say about me?
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What does that say about my name? I don't wanna be identified with that. I don't care what so much even what what that says of you. What does that say of me? And I think the other reality within this too is just for Peter to realize that he also was in need of the grace and the love of God.
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He had not yet arrived. He was not yet perfected and as we will see is is the gospel of John goes on, a a time will come where Peter will betray Jesus in his very last hours and so we see again his own need for God's grace. But within this, we also see that that Jesus response, he says, Peter, you you do need this. And you you do want me to wash your feet. And Peter says, wash all of me.
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He says, you don't need that. And so again, he's speaking to Peter's identity. He says, Peter, I know you are mine. I have claimed you. I've claimed your life as my own.
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And Peter was a disciple of Jesus. He did love the Lord as as as messed up. He's as he may have thought sometimes and as as as quickly as he might have spoken out of turn and and with some of his actions, we sometimes wonder but he really did love Jesus and Jesus said, I know that you are mine but I do need to wash your feet because you are out in the world and and there's muck and there's dirt and there's grime and and I need to watch that and since when I think about that, I I think there's two things that we as as the church, we as followers of Jesus can identify with it. One is just to grab a hold of that identity that you are Christ's chosen child if you have faith in Jesus and are loving him and following him. We can run with that and that will not be taken away from you.
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That God's mark is upon you. He has called you out from the domain of darkness and to the domain of light and he has marked you with the Holy Spirit to lead you and to guide you. But he does also offer us this picture that you need to come before me present. You need to come before me continually. That you are in this world but you have not yet arrived.
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You're still in need of God's mercy and you're still in need of God's grace. And so it's a picture of us of of this daily walking repentance and and daily coming before him and and in need of of God's mercy. And I don't know about you guys, but that's really good news. I think about my own life and I think about how proud I can still be and how I can act in anger and how I can still lust and I can still be so greedy. And I see just this this filth of the old life of Eric Basie and I think, God, please forgive me.
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I know I'm your child but put this old man to death, Lord Jesus. So And we have this picture of Jesus coming and washing our feet, and he's slowly putting to death the old man. He's slowly putting death the old woman. And he is fulfilling and wording. He's making us more and more like Jesus Christ each and every day.
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And so I don't know about you but that's that's good news to my ears. Because I think the sooner we realize, man, our feet are messy and we're a mess and we need Jesus, the better off we are. It's also really interesting to note in this that that Jesus knew that there was one there that who was not clean. He was not his. He had been there and he had been a part of their fellowship in their body and and Jesus had been in personal relations with a long time but Judas had had been set apart for this very thing to betray Jesus at the upcoming hour.
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And so Jesus knew this and so even though he knew this of him, he still got down and he got down on his hands and knees and he still acted as a servant unto Judas and he washed his feet. He loved him and acted in humility. And I don't know about you, but that's not the way I would act in my flesh towards my enemy or towards one that spoke ill of me or towards one that was about to to do something as horrendous as as Judas did. But Jesus knowing these things demonstrated the way for us. Let's go on verse 12 through 20.
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It says, so when he had washed their feet and taken his garments and reclined at the table again, he said to them, do you know what I've done to you? You call me teacher and lord and you are right for so I am. If I then the Lord and teacher washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I gave you an example that you also should do as I did to you. Truly, truly, I say to you, a slave is not greater than his master nor is one who is sent greater than the one who sent him.
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If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them. I do not speak to all of you. I know the ones I've chosen, but it is that the scriptures may be fulfilled. He who eats my bread has lifted up his heel against me. From now on, I'm telling you before it comes to pass so that when it does occur, you may believe that I am he.
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Truly, truly I say to you, he who receives whomever I send receives me and he who receives me receives him who sent me. There's a lot here but I wanna just point out three things that I think are relevant to what I'm trying to share with you today. One, and the first and foremost is that Jesus provides for us an example. He says, if I then your teacher and lord have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. So here Jesus is our lord and our master and the savior.
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He says, look what I've done. I have taken on the role. I've identified myself with that of a servant to wash your feet. If I have done this as your master and Lord, so should it be expected that you will do the same. And so as we receive that, then we we begin to embody that not because we want to look great, but because this is what Christ has done for us.
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And as Christ has loved and poured himself out for us, well guess what? So also should we be motivated motivated by God's love in in the example of Jesus to love and pour ourselves out for others, both the church and and those outside of the church. And secondly, I I believe it's for us to know our place. You are not it. You are not God.
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You're not upon the throne. You have not arrived. You are not Jesus. Jesus says this. He says, truly, truly, I say to you, a slave is not greater than his master, nor is the one who sent greater than the one who sent him.
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Jesus is our master. He is our lord. He is the one, the only one that is is right enough to sit upon the throne of God. I think a lot of times we we in our pride, in our arrogance, we we like to move Jesus to the side and say, well, I wanna sit there, Jesus. I'll give glory to you, but let me sit here.
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That's not our place. That's not where we belong. We are servants of the Lord and I know that some of us may not like that but guess what? I wanna tell you today that you apart from Jesus are broken and the only way to live your life in the way that God intended is to live with Christ as your lord and to live as though we are servants of the king And as we do that, it is to our greatest joy, it's to our greatest honor. And so we are to remember that and to remember that if Jesus has done this, he is our example, we will follow his footsteps, and that we do so knowing that the Christ is our Lord.
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And lastly, as Jesus shows us this way of humility and love and sacrifice and servanthood, he also shows us that this is the way of life and blessing. He says, if you know these things, you are blessed if you do them. I don't really get how this works. I call it the Jesus factor. But somehow, Jesus is we call it the upside down kingdom.
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Jesus says, stop trying to live as God. Stop trying to live as king and live for me. Follow in my footsteps. Follow my lead. Follow my example.
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Pour yourself out for my sake and for the sake of others. And as you do that, you will be blessed. You will find life. You will find satisfaction. You will find purpose and wholeness.
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And you will finally understand why it is that God has made you. Again, don't fully understand because that's not what the world teaches us. The world teaches us that you you put others aside. You constantly try to leapfrog over others. You constantly try to put others down so that you look better.
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Did you say that's not the way it is? I am king, I am lord. I am master. Follow my example. This is what I've done, so should you do for me.
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We also see in verse 20, it says, he who receives me, he who receives me receives him who sent me. And we we we find and we see that the gift in the way of life is that we receive God himself and we may follow in his footsteps. And so we give up the world seemingly in order to gain God himself. And so we are to walk in this way, but to know that the ways of servanthood, the ways of sacrifice, the way of dying to ourselves to love another is actually the way of life, the way of blessing. And so should you choose not to do that?
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Should you choose not to serve, should you choose not to be outward focused, should you choose to focus only on your life and your own agenda and your own self preservation, you're missing out on the very life that God has intended and desires to give you and I. Now, I wanna just share a few more things and just as I'm sharing, these these are things that are that speak to my heart that are relevant to us and and motivating for us to to do the work that we do and my my hope is, you know, I I can't offer you a prescription of Jesus has called you as the church, the saints of life, for those who are in Christ to go and to be servants and to serve in a likewise manner. I can't tell you exactly what that looks like. I can only speak to my own life and I can pray that the Holy Spirit will show you and lead you and guide you as individuals and as families and as a family of God to know how it is that you can be servants here in this community in the lives of those you encounter.
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So just a few things and the first thing is that that everything has got to start with Christ in this call of discipleship unto him. We need to set aside our false humility. We need to understand that Jesus came to save the sick and guess what? We are all sick. Let's stop pretending that we're healthy.
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Let's stop pretending that we're good enough or we're we're not that bad. The reality is that we are all messed up. Had a conversation between the services with somebody out there and you know, one of the work that I I do do, I work with a lot of men and some of the men are sex offenders. And these are men that have sexually violated children. And I know that's a horrendous thing.
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And I I had thought about them. I've sat in these meetings and and do we take this man into our house? This man that now professes Jesus. Do we let him come into our house of ministry? And on my flesh, I scream out.
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Wanna just reach over the table and pound the guy in the face. I'm being incredibly honest with you guys. But in my in my spirit, I know that this is not the grace that Jesus has offered me and the grace that Jesus has offered me is that though I was wicked and vile that Christ pursued me and called me to himself. And Christ died in order that I could have life. So who am I to think that I'm any better than this man?
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Amen. The reality is, you guys, because his sin is more socially unacceptable, I am no better off than him. I am just as sick as this man apart from Christ. So let's let's let's set aside the false humility. We are a sick people in need of a savior.
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And now if we we can if we can come to grips with that and and and unfortunately, God is a good God and he doesn't leave us in this loath and state but as we look to Christ and we find that he is the way and the truth and the life, all of sudden, we realize that we do have help. We have to be excited because God has come through the person of Jesus to offer us something different. And we can't clean ourselves up. We can't make ourselves free. We can't fix our lives.
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We can't fix the past, but Jesus can. Jesus can take that which is sick and make it good. Jesus can take death and make it alive again. And so as we come to this life of following Jesus is is we believe in him and believe that he is the son of God who had to die and was was in the grave and was raised up and now it was is ascended and is now in the right hand of the throne of God and receiving him now we we submit ourselves to him in the full and this is the daily taking up our cross and walking with him And we realize that this call of following Jesus, embracing our identity as children of God, no longer is your life your own. It's never been your own.
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We just pretended it was. But now we know this and so we know we go forward knowing that our life is not our own. And so we give all things to the Lord. We give him our passion. We give him our dreams.
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We give him our our desires and our time and our possessions. We give him our marriages. We give him our children. We give him the things that are dearest to our heart because Christ is to be Lord of all things. Christ is to be our greatest love.
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And though this is a great sacrifice and know it is certainly at taking our cross and following the footsteps of Jesus. What we find is that in this way of sacrifice, in this way of submission to the Lord of Lords, is that we actually find not hardship, but we actually find life. I don't if you guys remember the words of Jesus. He says, I came to give life and to give it abundantly. Again, it's a Jesus factor.
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I don't fully get it other than it's real. He says, you die to yourself and I will give you life. You give up the things of this world and I will give you the kingdom of God. You leave behind behind family to love and to serve me and I will give you the family of God that will love you for all eternity. Amen.
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And so what we find again is is that this sacrifice is actually the avenue to the greatest blessing we could ever imagine. But the reality is that we still live in this world. The reality is that the kingdom is here but yet not fully. And so there will still be hardship among us. There will still be difficulties.
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Jesus warns us. He says, if you love me, you will be persecuted because they persecuted me. If they hate you, it's because they hate me. There is still death and there's sadness and there's despair and there's lonely days, hard days, good days, bad days. And so what you do within our hearts is create a longing for the kingdom of God, to long for the day when no longer will sin be present, no longer will there be sadness or despair or tears or hunger or pain, but a day will come when Christ will establish his kingdom in full.
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And so this is our hope. This is what motivates us. And so it says that we understand that now we can understand our identity. Again, man, because of my faith in Jesus, literally, I'm a child of the king. I'm no longer bound to sin, but I'm a slave of righteousness.
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That I try to do wrong and the Lord will direct me. The Holy Spirit will convict me and is that even when I try to run away from God that he will rip me back and he will lead me in the way of repentance and he will show me the way to go. And that though I'm not yet perfect and we are not yet perfect, still he each and every day moves us and calls us and loves us as a father and teaches us and guides us and through his Holy Spirit makes us more and more like Christ each and every day. And so as we grow in this understanding that I'm a child of God, that that is my identity. No.
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It's not I'm not identified by what I do, what titles I wear, who I'm married to, what family I'm of, what school I went to, where I live, what community I live in, what car I drive. We're liberated from the things in this world. It doesn't matter what you do, you are a child of the king, you're a slave of God. It doesn't matter where you live. It doesn't matter if you live in a poor neighborhood or rich neighborhood.
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You are a child of the king. The greatest most significant thing is that and that alone. Doesn't matter what you have again, because what you have in Christ is more than than the world could ever offer. And it doesn't even matter what others think of you. Because guess what?
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You're a child of the king. And I can just tell you right now, if you are faithfully following Jesus, there will be lots of times when people don't think too highly of you, and you will be critiqued, and you will be spoken of poorly and you will be looked down upon and that might even happen within your own brothers and sisters. And so I wanna encourage you in those moments, in those times that we have got to embrace all the more that our identity is in Christ. That we are a child of the king, that we are his servant, and there's no greater gift, no greater honor than that. And so now that we know this and we've been called out of this way of death and we've called received this call discipleship and we've embraced this new life in Jesus, then now we are free to go and to do the things that are pleasing to the Lord.
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We can serve as Jesus served because that's what he did for us, so shall we go out and serve. We can love as Jesus has loved us because guess what? He has given you grace. He has given you mercy freely. So should you go out and give the same great mercy and grace and love freely unto others.
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And as Jesus has given you everything, so do we freely give of all that the Lord has given us. And as Jesus has lived in complete obedience to God the Father, so is this our ambition of the life that we want to be obedient to God the Father, not to be religious, not to be do gooders, but because we want to please the heart of our king. And I can tell you that as we do this, and that to follow Jesus from the eyes of the world, it's not attractive nor is it pretty. Again, when the when I read through the the gospels, we we we think of who are all the people that Jesus ministered to. He ministered to the wealthy and the poor.
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He ministered to the religious and the non religious. He ministered to the Jews and to the Greeks. He ministered to the healthy and to the sick. He ministered to those who are alive and those who are dead, frankly speaking. But as we look and we see who was it, the large crowds that were gathering around him, who was it that was following him from city to city and from place to place?
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It was largely those that were in need, broken, sinful, hurting, despaired. They're on the margins of society and they had no hope and they looked to Jesus as their last string of hope. And so we know that this is the gospel message that those who are poor in spirit, whose hearts cry out, Lord, this world can offer me nothing. I can offer me nothing. Jesus, you have got to be my hope and my place.
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And so to the world, that's an unattractive place to be. The world doesn't like the margins. The world doesn't like those who are broken in spirit. But in the kingdom of God, that's exactly where we need to be as a people of God. And so it says the result of this and then the result of experiencing these these things and experiencing the mercy and the grace of God that now we are motivated to go into love as he is loved and serve as he has served.
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Not because we wanted to do great things for our sake, but because we simply want to be obedient to Lord our God. We simply want to walk in his footsteps. You know, for us in our community, we can look around and I see the needs. I see the needs that we have for for who are on the margins, what children are on the margins, how can we minister to them? How can we minister to the broken families?
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The kids who grow up not knowing their dads because they're in prison, whose moms are strung down on crack and she's a crack prostitute. What do you do with that? Well, look at these felons, these men and these women who come to our city and within a a mile radius of my home we have four sixty two registered sex offenders, violent offenders. What do we do with this population, father? What do we do with this people in need who can't get jobs?
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They can't find places to live. They don't socially fit in. They're they're lonely and they're needing new Jesus. They're needing the fellowship of the church. And so I can see these things and we can begin as a faith community in Billings to respond to these things.
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We can begin to provide housing. We can begin to provide jobs. We can begin to engage them and try to love them as as Christ has loved us. And it's this that motivates us to do the things that we do in Billings, Montana. And so I wanna encourage you this morning.
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I want you to think for a moment to think of your community, to think of the relationships you have, to open your eyes. Who are those who are on the margins in this society? Who is on the margins here in Jackson, Wyoming? Who is lonely? Who is hungry?
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Who is despaired? Who has no fellowship? Who is in need of a lending hand? How can you as the church of God begin to respond to that? How can you move outside of these walls?
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Move outside the walls of your own family and in your own place and your own security and begin to engage those and to draw them in and to empty yourself for the sake of Christ because this is what he has done for you. And And I trust and I believe that as you are faithful to that and as I am faithful to that, God will do great things because it is for the sake of his name and it is the the the reality of his kingdom that we will see unfold. So just again, knowing what Jackson is like, knowing that there are many unbelievers here, knowing that there are many folks that don't fit into the social status of Jackson, Who are those folks and how can we minister to them? How can you minister to them? What can this church do?
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What can you as a faith community do to begin to respond to this? My charge is that a desire for us to go and to live in such a way that we fulfill Jesus's words. He says in John thirteen thirty four and thirty five, he said, love one another even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this, all men will know that you are my disciples If you have love for one another. Let me pray for us.
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Great guys, thank you so much for the powerful example and testimony of Jesus himself and lord, I do pray that you, Holy Spirit, would would grant this faith body wisdom and discernment as how it is that they can love and to serve and walk away with humility and servanthood in the lives of those among their day to day interactions in this community, in this city, in this state. Lord Jesus, I pray that you would make much of the name of Jesus Christ. That people would hear your gospel call. They would come to know you. Their identity would be in you.
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Jesus, we'd experience a life and a blessing of such a life. We love you. We are thankful for you. I thank you for this faith body. In Jesus name, amen.
