WWJD Week 4 FW
Notes
Transcript
He Would Serve Others
He Would Serve Others
Main Idea: To be humble means that you use your influence to serve others.
Good Evening students!
It is great to be with you all tonight!
We are entering our last week of our WWJD series.
Over the last several weeks we have asked the question What Would Jesus Do?
The first was?
He would love first
and the second week?
He would seek and do the will of the father
And last week we looked at?
He would met us in our mess.
And this week we once again ask the question:
What would Jesus do?
He would serve others.
There is no better moment in Jesus’ life of him serving others then John 13.
Tonight I invite you to turn here as we read about Jesus washing the feet of his disciples.
ME:
I was listening to my Mom play with our middle child Rosey one day.
And they were playing King and Queen.
Rosey was the Queen and my Mom and Evey my oldest were the queen’s daughters.
The princesses.
And man Rosey led with an iron fist.
No compassion, no grace— just all power.
She would send her daughter (aka my mom) to her room with no dinner.
She would just be so mean.
You see Rosey sees a lot of what plays out in movies with queen wanting power and wanting to command her children around.
Now she does play nicer now, but there is something about leadership and control that we all want.
This is something that we want right?
Control, power, boldness.
We want to lead.
If I wrote the word leader here:
What are some qualities that makes a good leader?
What are something that come to mind?
Bold. Gifted. Persuasive. Courageous. Motivated. Powerful. Humble.
Of all the things we mentioned you know the one that shouldn’t belong?
Is humble.
I mean think about it:
Bold. Gifted. Persuasive. Courageous. Motivated. Powerful. Humble.
If you were any of these things as a strong leader— humble would probably not describe them.
WE:
I mean some of us may be okay being in the back row and there is nothing wrong with that.
How ever you will still influence others.
We know that this world is crazy and messed up and when stuff hits the fan and chaos falls.
But in those moment, you know what people do?
They look for leaders.
We look for leaders who create change.
Not everyone can do this:
They must have the right qualities.
Remember that list:
Bold. Gifted. Persuasive. Courageous. Motivated. Powerful. Humble.
That last one seems out of place.
It sticks out when you compare it to the other qualities.
Would you want to be famous for your humility?
If we are all honest, we would love to be remembered for our talents or the things we accomplish.
It would be amazing if when people thought of you, the first thought would be “courageous” or “powerful.”
But who wants to be remembered for their humility?
We want to be able to influence others.
Right?
Can we do that if we are being humble?
How will they know about all the awesome stuff that I am doing, if i don’t tell someone, put it on the gram or be real it.
How can I be humble and still influence others?
Some of the greatest leaders of our time are leaders that are humble first.
While we may understand that leadership takes humility it is often loss on us.
We all want to follow a humble leaders but we tend to be a leader that spends time arguing about how great they are instead of just serving those we get to influence.
GOD:
This is the conversation and the situation that took place for Jesus on his last night here on earth.
John 13 tells it like this:
Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. During supper, when the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray him, 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,
Jesus and his crew are together and partaking in the passover meal.
Remember the passover meal was a chance to remember the past— when Moses led that Israelites out of Egypt.
This night, this meal would shape into a new meal that we observe today, called the communion.
But before that.
Jesus is sitting around the table and they were going to be taking in this meal together.
It was very important that they would be partaking in this meal together.
What is crazy about this meal is that the disciples were arguing about who the greatest was.
We read about this in Luke’s account.
And while we don’t know when this happened this night.
I would like to think this conversation is what prompted Jesus to get and change what leadership looked like.
A dispute also arose among them, as to which of them was to be regarded as the greatest.
The disciples were arguing who was the best disciple.
Who was going to be at the table next to Jesus.
And in this moment Jesus is going to change everything again!
rose from supper. He laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him.
It was Jesus in this moment that took on the role of a servant.
The whole practice of foot washing is something that we have lost touch with today.
What made this incredibly significant was that the foot washer was normally the low of the lowest position.
So low that in fact Jews were the ones who would not fill this role.
But this role was typically for gentiles, the non-Jews.
I mean you have to understand we are people who have shoes and socks, and to be honest— most don’t like feet still.
Can you imagine washing people’s feet pre nikes?
And really pre sandals?
So the amount of just mud and filth that that would be caked between toes.
The very really probability that someone stepped in poop is very high.
And Jesus stands up in this moment to wash the feet of the “greatest disciples.”
That is powerful.
Never would they want to see their rabbi, their teacher, the Messiah in such a disregarded way.
So much so that Peter is like stop it.
You do not need to wash my feet.
I get it we will stop arguing.
You have humbled us.
But look at why Jesus did this.
Jesus acted in a very unique way.
When he had washed their feet and put on his outer garments and resumed his place, he said to them, “Do you understand what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. 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. Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.
Greatness is not up for debate.
It doesn’t matter.
Stop this fruitless argument.
Seek humility.
That is what it took for Jesus to get up and wash the feet of the disciples.
We live in a culture that sees humility as a weakness.
But I think that is far from the truth.
Jesus was humble.
That word doesn’t mean less power or less important.
To be humble means that you would use your influence to serve others.
Do you see how that mentality is different from how we measure power?
We measure greatness by how much we can achieve and by how many people must do what we say.
But Jesus used a different metric.
In the Kingdom of God, greatness is measured by how many people we serve.
Jesus loved people and he came to this earth to serve.
Him acting as a servant was on full display in this room.
Think back to when Jesus took off his outer garment.
This robe was symbolic of his honor as a teacher and master.
He took an identity that was His life and he laid it down and clothed himself in the identity of a servant.
He washed everyone’s feet, including Judas.
Can you imagine the amount of humility and love it takes to wash the feet of your enemy?
Picture us going and getting the person who hates you the most and putting them up here and you washing their feet, or serving them dinner, or giving them water.
It’s power right, let take it one step further.
Let me ask you a question, If you knew tomorrow that you were going to die, how would you spend your last 12 hours?
What was Jesus doing on his final night on earth?
He was serving his friends.
He was serving.
If Jesus served other and he was the son of God, what do you think you should also do?
You:
You are not greater then anyone else.
We have to get this through our mind.
We see other people’s failures and we stack them up to our and if theirs are greater then we know we are better then them.
Stop— when we compare to others we lose.
Let me ask you a question who have you served lately?
Your greatness is measured by who you serve –
In the Kingdom of God, the first are last and the last are first.
A leader too good to serve is an oxymoron in heaven.
Humility is not the absence of power or influence; it’s using our influence to serve others, even if it means laying our identity on the floor and washing the feet of our enemies.
Your influence is meant for others –
When Jesus was at the last supper, he told His disciples that He was giving them the keys to His kingdom.
They would be in charge when Jesus was gone.
But the Kingdom that He gave them is a Kingdom defined by serving others.
The greatest thing a leader could do is serve people beneath them.
The second greatest thing a leader could do is to give their influence away.
This could look like letting someone else lead or giving them responsibilities.
When You Serve, You Are Encountering Jesus –
In Matthew 25, Jesus told a parable about a king talking to his servants.
Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’
When we serve others, we encounter Jesus.
In the Kingdom of God, we are closer to the presence of God when we serve others.
WE:
So what may that mean for you guys?
Maybe it is serving somewhere in our church!
There are tons of opportunities and to serve at FW, come and ask me and I can help get you plugged in.
Or maybe you don’t go to church here, then maybe we can find you something to do in while at Youth group, like being in our worship band, serving in tech or just being someone who greets students as they come in.
There are lots of roles to be played here.
Or maybe the Lord wants you to serve someone else, maybe God is calling you to go out of your way to serve someone at school or work or even at home.
How can you love on people well.
The King of kings came to serve.
The Lord of lords laid His life down so that you could live.
He served people that no one else would go near, and He loved His enemies even when they deserved hatred.
Jesus came to this Earth as the lamb that was slain for our sins.
That is the humility of Jesus.
What would Jesus do?
He would use His influence to serve.
And He calls us, as His followers, to do the same.
Pray
Before you leave I’m going to invite Zach Fleer up to chat with you guys.
Q:
1. What are some qualities that make a leader great?
2. Would you consider yourself humble? Why or why not?
3. What does it look like to live a life of humility?
4. When was Jesus humble?
5. How can we use our influence to serve others?
6. What does leadership look like in the kingdom of God?