"Do You Understand What I Have Done for You?” by Daniel Floyd

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪

♪ You are Jesus and I know a name ♪ Come on, let's sing it out. ♪ That can silence roaring waves and I know a name ♪ ♪ That can empty out a grave and I know a name ♪ ♪ And I know a name is the only name that sings ♪ ♪ And it's worthy of all praise and I call you Jesus ♪ ♪ I call you, I call you healer, risen and reigning in power ♪ ♪ Something comes out of the grave every time I call you Jesus ♪ ♪ I call you, I call you savior, worthy of glory forever ♪ ♪ Something comes out of the grave every time I call your name ♪ ♪ I have a key, yes we do, with dominion over death ♪ ♪ With dominion over death, he holds the key ♪ ♪ In his holy nail scarred hands, he is the healer, yes ♪ ♪ That has crushed the serpent's head, our resurrected creator, yes ♪ ♪ I call you Jesus, I call you, I call you healer ♪ ♪ Risen and reigning in power, something comes out of the grave ♪ ♪ Every time I call you Jesus, I call you, I call you savior ♪ ♪ Worthy of glory forever, something comes out of the grave ♪ ♪ Every time I call your name, shades break, dry bones flake ♪ ♪ Every time I call your name, the gates of hell shake ♪ ♪ Every time I call your name, the gates of hell shake ♪ ♪ Every time I call your name, shades break, dry bones flake ♪ ♪ Every time I call your name, the gates of hell shake ♪ ♪ Oh, hell shake ♪ ♪ Every time I call your name, the name, the name ♪ ♪ Jesus, Jesus, yeah ♪ ♪ Oh, and where, oh, death is now your sting ♪ ♪ And where, oh, grave your vigil ♪ ♪ Where, oh, where, oh, death is now your sting ♪ ♪ And where, oh, grave your vigil ♪

♪ Where, oh, death is now your sting ♪ ♪ And where, oh, grave your vigil ♪ ♪ Dead things come alive, dead things come alive ♪ ♪ Dead things come alive in the name of Jesus ♪ ♪ Dead things come alive, dead things come alive ♪ ♪ Dead things come alive in the name of Jesus ♪ ♪ Dead things come alive, dead things come alive ♪ ♪ Dead things come alive in the name of Jesus ♪ ♪ Dead things come alive, dead things come alive in the name ♪ ♪ I call you Jesus, I call you, I call you Healer ♪ ♪ Risen and reigning in power ♪ ♪ Something comes out of the grave ♪ ♪ Every time I call you Jesus ♪ ♪ I call you, I call you Savior ♪ ♪ You're worthy, you're worthy forever ♪ ♪ Something comes out of the grave ♪ ♪ Oh, the cold, the cold, the cold, the cold, the cold ♪ ♪ Chained, wrecked, trampled, quaked ♪ ♪ Every time I call the gates of hell shake ♪ ♪ Every time I call, dead things come alive ♪ ♪ Dead things come alive, dead things come alive in the name of Jesus ♪ ♪ Dead things come alive, dead things come alive in the name of Jesus ♪ ♪ Jesus, we declare it, we lift your name over all ♪ ♪ What can you stand against, nothing, nothing ♪ ♪ And I call you Jesus, I call you, I call you, come on ♪ ♪ We know he's our healer, risen and reigning in power ♪ ♪ Something comes out, all I know ♪ ♪ Every time I call you Jesus, I call you, I call you, Savior ♪ ♪ Worthy of glory forever, something comes out of the grave ♪ ♪ Every time I call your name ♪

Lord Jesus, we call on his name. Aren't you grateful we can call on the name of the Lord? Aren't you grateful today that he's the same yesterday, today, and forever? He's the King of kings and the Lord of lords, and he's our Savior. And he hears us when we call. And he hears us when we call. You know, some of you may be with us today and you're thinking, wow, this is a really zealous group. But if you're here today and you're shouting and you're giving it all that you have, it's because Jesus has done something in your life. I know for me, that's the case. He's changed me. He's transformed me. His grace has reached down and pulled me out of... And I'll tell you how many times he's pulled me out of things that had I not called on his name, I would still be there today. Amen? Is there anyone else like that in the room today? You know, Philippians chapter 2 tells us that God gave Jesus the name that's above every name. That at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. That means every other name must bow. The name of sickness must bow to the name of Jesus. The name of fear, anxiety, worry, weariness, it must all bow to his name. And maybe you've come in today and you're carrying one of those things with you. Can I encourage you as we continue in worship that you call upon the name of the Lord and declare his name over your life, over your heart, over your situations. He is Lord over all. And so Jesus, we fix our eyes on you this morning. And we lift up your name above every other name. You're worthy. Come on church, sing this with me.

Your name is the highest. Your name is the greatest. Your name stands above them all. Above all thrones and dominions, all powers and positions. Your name stands above them all. Sing it again, your name. Your name is the highest. Your name is the greatest. Your name stands above them all. Above all thrones and dominions, all powers and positions. Your name, it stands above them all. And the angels cry, lift it up. Holy, all creation cry. Holy, you were lifted high. Holy, holy forever. Hear your people cry. Hear your people sing, holy to the King of kings, holy, you will always be, holy, holy forever, you will always be, you will always be, holy, holy forever, you will always be, you will always be, holy, holy forever, yes you will Jesus, all in one, there is no one like you Jesus, you chose to grace the world that you so loved, the hands that turned the universe surrender to the cross, despite the sin that separated us, you took the fall once and for all salvation's in your blood, lift your voice, what a worthy name, Jesus son of God, high and lifted up you deserve the praise, what a worthy name, Jesus son of God, high and lifted up you deserve the praise, you deserve it all, all the praise is yours when hope had grown too cold to resurrect, you beat the grave that you raised, the firstborn from the dead and everything you have pre-eminence, the first, the last, the great I am, beginning and the end what a worthy name, Jesus son of God, high and lifted up you deserve the praise, what a worthy name, Jesus son of God, high and lifted up you deserve the praise, you deserve it all come on church we sing

on your head the victor's crown, hell retreats and heaven shouts at the name, the name of Jesus, risen king of righteousness knees will bow and tongues confess, at the name, the name of Jesus on this rock the church will stare, songs of joy will rise again at the name, the name of Jesus, Christ will reign forevermore all the saints and angels roar, at the name, the name of Jesus what a worthy name, Jesus son of God, high and lifted up you deserve the praise, what a worthy name, Jesus son of God, high and lifted up ♪ You deserve all of heaven's victor's crown ♪ ♪ He'll be treason and heaven's shock ♪ ♪ At the name, the name of Jesus ♪ ♪ With His King of righteous fame ♪ ♪ He's come down to take us down ♪ ♪ At the name, the name of Jesus ♪ ♪ On this rock, lift it up ♪ ♪ Storms of joy will rise again ♪ ♪ At the name, the name of Jesus ♪ ♪ Christ will reign forevermore ♪ ♪ And the saints will hear His roar ♪ ♪ At the name, the name of Jesus ♪ ♪ At the name, the name of Jesus ♪ ♪ At the name, the name of Jesus ♪ ♪ At the name, the name of Jesus ♪ ♪ Shout Jesus on the mountain ♪ ♪ Jesus in the streets ♪ ♪ Jesus in the doors over every enemy ♪ ♪ Jesus for my family, I speak the holy name of Jesus ♪ ♪ Oh shout it, shout it, shout Jesus from the mountains ♪ ♪ Jesus in the streets ♪ ♪ Jesus in the doors over every enemy ♪

♪ Jesus for my family, I speak the holy name of Jesus ♪ ♪ Oh Jesus, shout Jesus from the mountains ♪ ♪ Jesus in the streets ♪ ♪ Jesus in the doors over every enemy ♪ ♪ Jesus for my family, I speak the holy name of Jesus ♪ Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Come on, church, can we shout Jesus for a moment? Can we just declare Jesus over this nation? We declare Jesus over this state. We declare Jesus over this city. Jesus over our homes. Jesus over our families. Jesus over fear. Jesus over sickness. Jesus over confusion. We declare Jesus. Jesus. Jesus. There is no name like the name of Jesus, amen? Jesus. Come on, aren't you thankful today for the name of Jesus Christ? That there is no name like the name of Jesus. You know, one of the things I love about the name of Jesus is that the meaning of the name tells you something about God's heart. Because the name Jesus literally means the Lord saves. You want to know what God is about? He's about rescuing. About redeeming. He's about delivering.

He's about sending his son to die so that we could be saved from our sins. Come on, aren't you thankful for Jesus? And one of the things I love about this church is that every single weekend, we have people make a decision to place their trust in Jesus Christ and receive salvation. Every weekend, someone raises their hand and says, Yes, I want you to be the Lord of my life. And guess what? Next weekend is Easter weekend. And here's what I want to challenge you with. Statistics tell us that 8 out of 10 people would come to church if someone personally invited them. 8 out of 10 people would come to church if someone personally invited them. And I love what Pastor Daniel has said to us. He's challenged us to move from information to invitation. Information is telling someone about something, but invitation is saying, Come with me. Come with me. It's the power of an invite. In fact, I want to invite two people that you may or may not know, Jessica Gray and Jordan Gray, to come to the platform, because they are a great picture of the power of an invite. They've been around Gateway for a very long time. Jordan is one of our... are lead deacons, and Jessica is actually one of the pastors on this team. But in, yeah, you can give it up for them. But back in 2010, they were just friends. And honestly, Jessica was going through a very difficult time in her personal life, and Jordan knew about it.

And so Jordan invited her to church. And he didn't just say, let me tell you about church, but he said, come with me to church. And that particular weekend, Jessica heard a message that changed her life, because in the message, she realized that there was a difference between knowing about God and having a relationship with God. How many of you know that's different? And so she leaves that weekend, and she decides that, and she wants to go all in, and so she starts serving, and she joins a small group, and then years later, she ends up joining our team on staff. And then at some point in between there, she decided that Jordan was really cute, and said, okay, will you marry me, and mixed into that. But here's why I tell you that story. I'm not telling you that if you're single and you invite somebody to church, you're gonna marry them, that's not what this is about. God may do it, but you know. But here's what I'm telling you, that if you'll invite someone, and you'll say, come with me, we have the opportunity to see God transform someone's life for eternity. And so I wanna encourage you to do that, and we've made it very easy for you. On your way out today, we have invite cards that you can take, we also have yard signs that you can take as well, and then we've added additional services.

And so on Saturday, we have a three o'clock and a five o'clock service. On Sunday, we have a nine and an 11 o'clock. Everybody say nine and 11. If you show up at 10.30, we'll just assume you're really early for Easter service. But we don't wanna encourage you, invite someone to come, and we're gonna see God fill this place, and we're gonna see people give their lives to Jesus, and we're gonna see God populate heaven and plunder hell. So we encourage you to do that. Well, as we continue, Pastor Daniel has an incredible message for us, but before we turn our attention to him, why don't you turn to two or three people, greet them and welcome them to Gateway Church. ♪ Whoa oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh ♪ ♪ Whoa oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh ♪ ♪ Whoa oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh ♪ ♪ Whoa oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh ♪ ♪ Whoa oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh ♪ Whoa oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh whoa oh oh oh ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Gateway Kids is gonna have incredible things for the entire family, and so make sure you're here. I've already got my outfit, so I'm a week ahead. You know, that's learned that's a really important part of Easter. But it's gonna be a great time together, and we're gonna believe that God's gonna speak to hundreds and hundreds of people, and they're gonna respond to the gospel and begin a new life in Christ. And it's gonna be the greatest day in their history, and as they meet Jesus. I'm excited to get into the Word today. I wanna say hello to all of our locations, everybody joining us online or on demand later in the week. Of course, our prison campuses and our gateway gatherings. I wanna say a special hello. We were at Plano last week. Tammy and I got to spend time with our Plano campus, and I just wanna say God's doing wonderful things all across the life of the church. And we have one more campus to get to. Frisco, we are coming, we promise you.

But our one week of snow in Texas canceled that one, so we had to reschedule it. But I'll say I'm loving Texas weather. I enjoyed the one week of snow, and this is good golf weather, everybody. All right, praise God. Hey, let me, we're in this series, if you're new this week, we've been in a series called That's a Great Question, where we've been looking at the questions that Jesus asked. He asked over 300 in the gospels, and we're looking at those questions to not only learn more about Jesus, but learn more about ourselves and what he wants to reveal to us. And so we're gonna continue in that today. I want you to look at John chapter 13, if you have a copy of the scriptures, if you have a copy of the scriptures, if not, it'll be on the screen for you. John chapter 13, verse chapter one, or chapter 13, verse one, it says, it was just before the Passover feast, and Jesus knew that the time had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he now showed them the full extent of his love. That's the important part. The evening meal was being served, and the devil had already prompted Judas Iscariot, son of Simon, to betray Jesus.

And Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, that he had come from God and was returning to God. So he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples' feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him. Let's jump down to verse 12. Here's the question. When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. Here's what he asked. Do you understand what I've done for you? He asked them. That's the question we're gonna look at. So if you're in the note-taking type and you need a title, go ahead and write this down. If you're not, go ahead and write it down anyways, all right? Do you understand what I've done for you? That's the question we're gonna look at. Let's pray together. Father, our hearts and minds are open to you. We ask that you would speak to us. We believe your word has the power to change us, and we'll never be the same because of it. So have your way in our lives. And we pray this in Jesus' name. Everybody said, amen.

Amen. So this past week, Tammy and I were at dinner with some dear friends, and we were, both couples were recounting how we met each other. You ever had that conversation? Like, you know, you're catching up and like, well, this is what happened in college. And so we were going through all the list of boyfriends Tammy had and how I just waited and prayed and fasted. Believe the God. Really just the opposite, everybody. Okay, let's be honest. She's the way more holy one in the group. But we started talking and you ever had those moments and maybe you're at that place right now where you're beginning to look at life in the future. And you're thinking, man, this is the dream and the goal that I have. Or maybe you're a little bit down the journey and you look back and you think, wow, we were so young and had no idea what we were doing. And how many of you know that regardless you get to wherever you are in life and you go, man, it's the grace of God that I am where I am. How many of you can attest to that? Just the grace of God that I am where I am. But I was thinking about that. And most of us, I would think, nobody I don't think

starts out out of high school or out of college or trade school or whatever. And you think, man, I just want to live a mediocre life. My whole goal in life is just to kind of live mediocre. I think we all kind of think, man, I want to build something great with my life, right? I want to build a family or I want to build a future. I want to build a career. And we kind of live the Western culture. We have that feeling and kind of that drive is in us. We want to build that. We want to do something great with our lives. We want to live a life of fulfillment, live a life that matters, live a life that makes the difference. And so then we begin to pursue that, right? And we begin to want to have success and we want to have wins in our life. And we want to move forward in our life. And I don't think any of that is inherently bad. And we begin to climb, right? We climb professionally and we climb financially and we, you know, climb and in relationships and friendships and we begin this pursuit in life. And sometimes there's setbacks in it. Sometimes we move forward and sometimes it's three forward, it's two steps backwards, and life happens to us right. And I don't think any of that is inherently bad. I actually think God is pleased when we have ambition. Believe it or not, the Bible doesn't say

you shouldn't have ambition. Paul said you shouldn't have selfish ambition. I don't think the Bible has a problem with us having dreams and goals and all those kind of things. But in this text that we read, John chapter 13, I think Jesus is confronting how we build our lives. Not that we shouldn't build great lives, but I think Jesus is confronting and wanting to give us a different framework on how we build the lives that we end up building. And in John chapter 13, for a little context for you, it's Palm Sunday. Happy Palm Sunday, everybody. Glad you're here. But it's Palm Sunday was on that Sunday, the triumphal entry right into Jerusalem. He comes over the Mount of Olives. He had been on the other side with his friends and Bethany hanging out. And then he just comes over and they're, Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. They're laying palm branches down. That's why we call it Palm Sunday, if you didn't know. And then the week goes on and we get to John chapter 13. This is Thursday night of that week. If you're with me, say amen. Thursday night of that week, he's about to have the Passover meal with the disciples and he grabs a basin and water and a towel. So Jesus, in the moment where all authority

has been given to him, he's about to reach the pinnacle of the reason that he came to the earth, which was to ultimately die for all the sins of humanity, to give us a way to have a right relationship with the Father. Here he is in this moment. And in the moment where he could have exerted authority, he picks up a towel. And really in this moment, he redefines what it means to be a follower of Jesus. He's doing something we'll learn that is so counter to the culture. He flips the hierarchy of the day on its head in this moment. And I think what he is communicating to us is this, is what it looks like to be a follower of Jesus is this, it looks like being a servant. I think what Jesus is trying to tell us is say, as you build your life and as you pursue the things in life, that whatever it is that God has on your life, the dreams, the desires, the goals, whatever it is, just make sure the how is with a heart of a servant. Because in the kingdom of God, to go high is really to go low. To be the greatest is really to be the servant. And it's not that we're all supposed to pick up a towel and go wash some people's feet. It's that Jesus is trying to give us a spirit to live with. He's trying to give us a heart, a perspective, a filter.

I could say a framework for how we build great lives as we build them with the heart of a servant. And so I'm gonna give you four observations today about how do we do that? How do we build lives that have the heart of a servant? Because really that is what it is to follow Jesus because he was the chief servant. This is who he was. So four things, I want you to write these down. Thought number one is this, is love is the motive. Love is the motive. Look what he said in John chapter 13, verse one. We just read it a minute ago. I wanna reread it to you again. It says, it was just before the Passover feast, Jesus knew that his time had come to leave this world and go to the father. And here's the verse, having loved his own who were in the world, he now showed them the full extent of his love. So Jesus is wanting to show these disciples the capacity of his love, the full extent of his love. Matter of fact, in the original language the New Testament was written in, which is the Greek language, this word telos means that he was wanting to show them the extent to which he would go. In other words, the idea is this, is that his love had no limits. It had no boundaries.

It was withholding nothing. That he was wanting to show them the full extent of his love. And in doing this demonstration of love, he picks up a towel. It's such counterintuitive. Here he is the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords. He's the great God. He's come and put on flesh. He's fully God, fully man. He didn't shed his deity to become humanity, but in the midst of that, to show his love. I mean, think about this. There's a lot of other ways, a lot of other moments. How many times do you think Jesus entered into a house with his disciples and had a meal? Hundreds. And this one moment, this strategic moment, right before he's about to go to the cross, right before Judas is about to betray him, he goes, I'm gonna demonstrate what love looks like. And so he picks up a towel. I'm gonna show you the extent of my love. And shouldn't it be said of us as followers of Jesus, that we live this life. life of a servant's heart, but we have to live it motivated out of love. How many of you know that whenever it's not motivated out of love, it's duty and it's not delight? How do you think that would go over in your relationships?

How about in your marriage relationship, if you showed up, you know, to your spouse on your anniversary and you were like, gave her a gift, you know, you went to Highland Park and you got a good gift. I figure all the ladies would say a big amen right there, but you know, you missed your opportunity. And you showed up and she was grateful. And you were like, nope, read the husband manual. It's what I'm supposed to do. How many of you think that wouldn't go over very well? What if I showed up every weekend and was like, hey, I'm supposed to preach to y'all people. I went to seminary. That's what they told me to do. So I have to be here. No, that's duty, right? That's I have to, that is I have to Christianity. That's never what Jesus wanted for you. He wanted delight. No, I'm in love with you. No, and because I love you, I want to demonstrate my love to you. I can't, I get to, it's, it's, I get to, I get to worship. I can't wait for the doors to be open. I can't wait for Sunday to show up. I don't have to be here. I get to be here. I can't wait to get into a small group. I can't wait to open my Bible in the morning. Come on, somebody.

I can't wait to pray and talk to God. I don't have to, I get to. There's a big difference between duty and delight. If you're living a duty-filled Christian life, man, what a frustrating life. What a, what a drag of a life. I bet it feels like you're on a treadmill and you can never get traction and you can never move forward because it's all out of duty. And that is not what God ever meant for you. And Jesus, out of delight, out of showing the full extent of his love, he picks up a towel to serve his disciples, and he's a radical moment. Did you know that love is not only the marker of a disciple, but it is the means of our witness to the world around us? The Bible says this, a new command I give you that you love one another. So it's the marker of a disciple. In other words, whenever the world looks at you, the marker of you being a follower of Jesus, one of the major markers is that you love well, that you love well. Not only that though, it's a means of our witness to the world around us. The scripture says this, by this shall all men know that you are my disciples because you have love one for another. It's the supernatural thing of the body of Christ. I mean, it's really supernatural.

Think about it. We come from different backgrounds and different experiences and we have different perspectives and we have different family of origin and we have different families of choice. And we come from different socioeconomic backgrounds, different ethnic backgrounds, but we all come together because the ground is level at the foot of the cross. And so no matter where you come, I grew up on Sunday school singing red, yellow, black and white, they are all precious in his sight because this supernatural thing happens where we come together because God does a work in us and it should be the marker of our witness to the world around us that we love one another. Come on, you should clap your hands better than that right there. It's why it so grieves my soul when you see believers going after other believers. It's antithetical to who we are as Christians. When other churches are tacking other church, what is that about? We need everybody and the marker of our witness to the world around us. When we're at each other, the world goes, they're no different than us. But man, when you love someone that isn't like you, didn't grow up where you grew up, doesn't think like you think,

it's a supernatural witness to the world around us. It is the marker of a disciple and it is the means of our witness. Love must be the motive, everybody. Jesus said, I want to show him the full extent of my love. And so he picked up a towel and he served. Thought number two is this, humility is the method. If love is the motive, then humility is the method. Says this in verse two through five, the evening meal was being served and the devil had already prompted Judas Iscariot, son of Simon to betray Jesus. If you're new to the scriptures, Judas would come into the garden where Jesus was praying and he would let the Roman soldiers know by a kiss on the cheek that that's the one they're looking for. And Jesus knew that the father had put all things under his power and that he had come from God and was returning to God. So he got up. from the meal, took off his outer clothing and wrapped a towel around his waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples' feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him. I wanna help you understand for a moment how radical this moment was. So, feet washing was a normal thing in the culture of that day.

And I have a towel and a basin, I carved it this week. It was a lot of work. I'm joking. So, you know, they didn't wear closed-toed shoes, obviously, at that time. There were sandals, straps of leather that they put around their feet. And so they're walking over these roads. They're not paved, it's not asphalt, not concrete. It's dusty roads they're walking on. And the same roads they're walking on, animals are walking on. And I don't wanna gross you out on this Palm Sunday morning, but the animals left gifts behind. And so, you know, there's times you're not gonna be able to avoid the things that they left behind. And so you can imagine how disgusting the feet were. Are y'all with me? And so there would be servants in every house and these servants would have a basin like this and water. And so you would come into the house and the servant was responsible for washing your feet before you came into the house. Now, here's what I want you to understand. One scholar said that Jewish servants were not even ones that they would pick to wash feet. They wanted Gentile slaves to do it. So the job was so lowly that they didn't even want a servant who was an ethnic Jew to wash the feet.

They would rather have a slave that was a Gentile washing their feet. This, I'm trying to help you understand, to see the lowliness and the moment that Jesus is doing here that he, because evidently somebody didn't do the job in the room. And so the meal is about to start and they reclined at tables where they would have their feet out behind them. And so Jesus gets down. The King of glory, everybody. I want you to see this. We don't get this in our culture because we're not walking around washing people's feet because feet are gross, honestly, in my opinion. And so I want you to understand the cultural moment. Like Jesus was crashing cultural norms in this moment to communicate something to these disciples. And it's not like the disciples were happy he was washing their feet. They would have been resistant to this moment. No, you're our master. You're our Lord. What are you doing washing our feet? But Jesus kneels down and he takes the water and he takes the towel and he wraps it around his waist and he gets on his knees and he gets in the posture of a slave to communicate and to show the extent of the love that he has for his people.

This is what our Savior does in this moment. This is him serving them. This is him showing the extent of the love. But I don't want you to miss something that the text says. It says right before that, that he knew that all authority was under his control and that he was going to God and had come from God. And then comma, it's not the end of a thought. It's not the completion of a sentence and the beginning of a new one. It is the ongoing. So he got up and grabbed the towel. Here's what I want you to understand. You'll never be able to operate in true humility if you don't know your identity. He knew who he was. He knew what authority he had. And he didn't leverage authority like the world leverages authority. He leveraged his authority for the benefit of the other people that were in the room. He didn't leverage authority to go, how can I bless me? How can I take care of me? How can I make this more about me? And he could have, he is God. Are you following me? It's okay if he says, hey guys, it's all about me because it really is all about him. But in that moment, he didn't say it's all about me. He leveraged his authority to make it about his disciples

and to demonstrate for them what love looked like. But it's because he was confident in his identity. In other words, he is what people would call transcendent. Transcendent simply means this. It means that you are not controlled by your feelings. You're not controlled by your past. You're not controlled by the pressures of the day. You are living for a greater purpose. And I believe this is the goal of every believer and every follower of Jesus, that we would live a transcendent life. Where we would live a life where we have got so confident in our identity, we're so rooted in who we are in Christ. We're not identified by even what we do or what we have built. We're not identified by the negative things in our life or the mistakes from our past, but we are identified and rooted in who God says that we are through his word. And we're so confident in that, that we're not jockeying for a position. We don't have to make people think that we're this. this or that, but we're just so confident that we can get on our knees and we can wash some dirty feet if we have to, and we can stand up and lead something great if we have to, and we can go serve some food to somebody if we have to, because we are not building our identity on what you think about me, I'm building my identity on who Christ says that I am.

And he says, I am the head and not the tail. He said, I'm blessed coming in and blessed going out. He said, I've been blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. I'm letting the word of God define me. No weapon formed against me will prosper, that he has plans to prosper me and not to harm me, to give me a hope and a future. I'm just quoting the Bible to you right now. But my identity is rooted in Christ. And so because of that, I'm living for a greater purpose. I don't get up in the morning and I don't walk into rooms and think, what can you do for me? When you live a transcendent life, you walk in and go, God, everything you've put in my hand, how can I leverage it so that my life matters and makes a difference? I don't think God has a problem with you building a big life. It's just, what are you gonna do when he blesses you with a big life? You never graduate beyond the towel, everybody. You never graduate beyond, how can I serve you? How can I show up in my marriage with the towel? I'm not talking, I'm not, don't get so myopic in this that you think I'm talking about I want you to be a greeter. I'm talking about a life of service. I'm talking about, I show up in my dorm room with a towel.

I show up in the boardroom with a towel. I show up with my children with a towel. How can I serve? How can I think about others? How can I be a blessing? How can I look like Jesus in every room that I walk into? Can we take it a step further? No, okay, we'll go to point three. How about this thought? He didn't skip Judas. He didn't skip Judas. It would have been me. I've been like Matthew, wash your feet. Bartholomew, wash your feet. Peter, wash your feet. Judas, I ran out of water. Sorry. John 13, 11 says this, for he knew who was going to betray him. And that's why he said, not every one of you is clean. He knew Judas would betray him. And he still did in front of. You know, this tells me we don't get to choose who we serve. If we're followers of Jesus, we don't get to choose who we serve. You don't just get to serve the people you like, the people that like you, the people that respond well to you. If we're going to live this Jesus life, we don't get to choose who we serve.

He didn't skip Judas. Philippians chapter two, verse five and eight says this, in your relationship with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus, who being in the very nature, God did not consider equality with God, something to be used to his own advantage. Rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness and being found in the appearance as a man, he humbled himself. By becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross. The word that he, the idea that he took on the nature of a servant doesn't mean that he shed his deity. Fully God, fully man, but he humbled himself. The only one in human history who ever had the right not to humble himself, chose to humble himself and became obedient to even death on a cross. Leads us to thought number three, Jesus is the model. If love is the motive and humility is the method, then Jesus is the model. Verse 12, he said, when he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. Do you understand what I've done for you?

He asked them, you call me teacher and Lord and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and. Teacher, have washed your feet. You also should wash one another's feet. I've set you as an example that you should do as I have done. I tell you the truth. No servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him." Now, I will say the text isn't saying that you're supposed to leave church today and like have a basin of water in your car. It's whenever you find somebody, hey, come here. I grew up in a small rural Baptist churches and the denomination I was a part of, we actually believed that foot washing was a sacrament like communion. So Wednesday night church, I don't know if any of you grew up around this. You're like, we're not heading that direction, are we? No, I do not believe that, do not believe that. Wednesday night church though, you had communion and then the men went to one part of the fellowship hall. Come on somebody, if you grew up in that. And the women went to another part and then you wash feet. And I always got stuck by some, somebody who had never cared for any part of their feet.

And I think feet are disgusting in general. And my sisters wanted to get me off the couch as a kid. All they had to do was lay on the couch and put their feet up. I was in the floor immediate like that. I just don't, feet aren't meant to be seen. They're meant to be walked on. It's not meant to be seen, especially men feet. Anyways, just saying, that's personal opinion. That's not theology or gospel. You don't have to write that down, all right? What Jesus is saying to us is not that you need to walk around with towel and water and you need to. And what he's saying is that the word there I've given you example is actually has the idea I've given you a pattern to follow. In other words, it's a spirit everybody. It may result in you serving in the church, may result in you serving outside the church. But what he's trying to get us is to get our aperture opened a little bit wider and go, no, this is a spirit I live with. It's a mindset, take on the mindset of Christ Jesus who being in the very nature God humbled himself and took on the nature of a servant. It's a mindset, it's a way I live. It's a filter I look at life through that I don't walk in the room going, who can bless me today? I walk into the rooms I walk into going,

how can I be a blessing? How can I live in others first life? How can I not live my life with my eyes so on me all the time? But how do I get my eyes onto the needs of others? This is what he's calling us to live. Matter of fact, it's this idea that some of us think when we come into this thing called being a follower of Jesus, becoming a Christian, that it's about, you know, rights that, oh, now I have some rights. I get some rights. Can I tell you that it's all about responsibility. Just Jesus bless and does he do some amazing things in our life? You're going to see that in a second. But what he's trying to tell us is I'm giving you some great responsibilities. I'm giving you the responsibility to model me. You're my image bearer. In other words, when people look at you, they're supposed to see Jesus. One of the greatest ways that we see Jesus is as the chief servant. And he gives us a model to follow, a pattern. If here's what I want people to see when they see me through you. Thought number four is this, is blessing is the outcome. It's not the motive. Don't get it mixed up, but it is the outcome. Look what the scripture says.

The very last verse of this section. He says, now that you know these things, you will be, everybody say it together. You will be, you'll be blessed if you do them. You want to live a life with the blessing of God on it, then live with the heart of a servant. It's a promise of God. Now, the idea of this word blessed is the idea of you will prosper, but even stronger is the idea of this, you'll live fulfilled. In other words, what Jesus is saying is there's a level of fulfillment that comes into your soul that you cannot get when life is all about you. Now hear me, I'm not saying you don't take care of your needs and make sure your family's good. Are y'all, okay, don't go to extremes, all right? It's bad theology. What I am saying though, is when you live in other's first life, there's a level of fulfillment that comes when you know your life made a difference and eternal difference in the life of somebody else. There's a fulfillment that nothing else in this life can bring. But whenever you live a life that is all about you, there is never enough. It is a bottomless pit. It is a hole that can never be filled because it's just more and more and more. And that's why, you know, that's why through life and you've experienced this and I've experienced this

that whenever I get to here, whatever that line was, then I'll be. content, and then you get there and what happens? The line moves, because it's a mirage everybody, right? The promotion, the thing, the own the business, the sell it, the get the equity moment, whatever it is, it's a mirage, it keeps moving. So you have to live for something that's bigger than that. You've got to live transcendent. And when you do live a transcendent life, then God says, you're gonna be blessed. There's gonna be a fulfillment in your life that you just can't explain. Whenever your life is making a difference in the lives of others, whenever you leverage all that you've been given, and I pray God gives you a lot, but when you leverage it for the benefit of making a difference in the lives of others, there's a fulfillment that nothing else was bringing. All authority was given to him, and he served. And he said, if you'll follow that model, you'll be blessed, you'll be fulfilled. You'll have a contentment that only heaven can give, it's supernatural. I want you to hear a story of a lady in our church who experienced exactly what the text is teaching us in her own life. So if you would turn your attention to the screen. I really felt like I was supposed to start serving at Gateway.

I've always had a heart for the next generation, but I have one stipulation for God. I was not gonna do sixth grade girls. I never really got involved at Gateway, and I had been feeling the nudging of the Holy Spirit for quite some time. Because serving is the pathway to joy in your life. It's when you go, I'm gonna put others first, I'm gonna bless, instead of waiting. And then when Pastor Daniel did one of his first sermons and calling us to serve and be obedient, I was giving the Holy Spirit all the reasons why I couldn't do it. I'm what they call a surgical tech, I specialize in neurosurgery, and there are some really long days. I told the Lord that I just didn't have the energy after those long days in surgery. Being a mom, taking care of my daughter, it's just a lot to give, and I didn't have it. Nevertheless, I chose to be obedient, and so I reached out to a friend who was serving in youth, and she got me in contact with Pastor Jasmine, who then invited me to come out in shadow and see if this was for me. I'm so excited. They butted me up with somebody and explained how service works, and then we go into service and worship starts. ♪ And worthy is your name ♪

♪ Jesus, you deserve to be praised ♪ I was just in awe, and I was like, God, this is what you're doing in our youth? What's up, NWU? How are you? After service, they break out into small groups. Afterwards, Jasmine pulls me to the side, and she's like, so what did you think? I was like, I love it. I wanna be a part of what God's doing in this next generation. I told her, I think I wanna lead a small group, and she's like, awesome. I was like, okay, so where do you need the most help? And she looked me dead in the eyes and said, sixth grade girls. And I was like, okay, God, if this is where you want me to be, I don't know how to relate. I haven't been around that age group in a long time. My daughter is a senior. What do these girls need? The Lord said that they're entering into the world where they're just now finding their identity. They need to be equipped. He said, if you could just listen to them, love them, encourage them, I'll do the rest. So I gave the girls a little challenge. I got a verse jar that has verses

for every emotion that they are feeling. They pull out a verse that represents that emotion that helps them be biblically equipped. And I made them lanyards with their name on them. So I told them if they memorize these verses and they ran back to me, I'll give them a button to put on their lanyard, and it's like an outward expression of your faith. I have about 10 to 15 girls who have accepted the challenge and are memorizing Bible verses. They can turn to scripture and find equipment for whatever emotion they're feeling. I cannot believe I was gonna tell God no. Every Wednesday night, I leave more energized, empowered, seeing what God is doing in each of their lives. I am blessed because of those girls. Amen. Amen. Amen. You hear what Shi said there at the end? She said I am blessed leading those girls. You know why? Because John 13 is right. If you do these things, you will be blessed. And so here's my question to you today. And for you to keep answering throughout your week, is are you willing to pick up the towel? You willing to pick up the towel in the kitchen at your house, your family? Are you willing to pick up the towel

in your marriage? Are you willing to pick up the towel in homeroom, on the baseball team? Are you willing to pick up the towel in the boardroom, in the cul-de-sac? All the areas that God allows you to have influence, are you willing to go, I'm gonna go in with the mindset of Christ Jesus and look for ways to serve? To serve. And you know, this week, obviously we've been talking about it. Here may be the most simple way for you to pick up a towel is to say, I'm gonna bring somebody to Easter with me. I'm gonna serve them by inviting them into an environment where they can encounter the love of Jesus and the love of God's people. Because love is a marker that we know Jesus and it's a means of our witness to the world around us. So I wanna challenge you, be a servant. When Jesus wanted to show us what love looked like, he grabbed a towel. And may we as a church, when people experience us in the community, be like, man, those are a bunch of loving servants. If I've ever seen anything in my life. You received the word of God today. You received it. We're gonna live it. Will you pray with me?

Every head bowed. Every eye closed. If you can where you are online or on demand later in the week. You know, maybe you're here today and you've never received the greatest gift that Jesus ever gave. It's what he gave through his death and resurrection which we'll celebrate next weekend. And that is life. It's true life. It's life to the full is what John 10 10 calls it. The Bible tells us the thief comes to steal, kill and destroy. And for some of you, you know that to be true. He's tried to rob you of so many things in your life. But Jesus said, I've come that you might have life, real life, life to the full. And he offers that to us through this thing called salvation, called forgiveness of sin. And today, if you know in your heart that you're far from God, you don't need me to tell you that. You don't need someone to beat you down. You know, when you lay your head down at night, whether or not you have relationship with Jesus. If you're here today and you'd say, pastor, I've never surrendered my life to Jesus. Or maybe you're here and you'd say,

man, I walked with the Lord and there was a time, but it's been a long time. I've really strayed away. Here's what I want you to know. Is that the love and the grace of the father has open arms to welcome you home today. And we're gonna pray together in just a moment. There's nothing special about the words I say. It's just me helping you communicate your heart to God, that you wanna surrender your life to him. You wanna make him the Lord of your life today. Before we do that, I just wanna know who I'm praying with. So with no one looking around, we would not embarrass you for the world, but I will count to three. When I do, I just want you to shoot your hand up high. If you say, that's me today. I need to come back to God or I need to surrender my life to Jesus today. If you say, that's me, hands are already going up. On three, you shoot them up. One, two, three, you shoot it up all over the room. God bless you. You keep them up. God bless you. I see you waving at me. I see you in the very back. It's incredible. You keep it up.

I see you up in the balcony. God bless you. God bless you. Beautiful. You can put them down. Church, let's pray this together out loud together for the benefit of those who just slipped their hand up. Just say, Jesus, I need you. I ask you to forgive me of all my sin. I believe you died for me. I believe God raised you from the dead. Today, I make you my Lord and savior. Thank you for a brand new beginning. In Jesus name, everyone said, amen. Come on, can we celebrate those who made that decision? Incredible. We would love to know if you made that decision. We promise we're not gonna spam you. We just wanna help give you some resources, connect with you. You can text Jesus to 71010, or even better, in just a moment, we're gonna sing one short chorus. And while we do, our prayer team's gonna be down. front, you just come down and let our prayer team know they'll be here at the front or up in the balcony and just say, Hey, I prayed that prayer made that decision today. Or maybe you're here and you're carrying some kind of burden and we don't want you to carry that alone. The Bible says that we're called to bear one another's burdens. Maybe you have a need of some

sort. Our team would love to pray with you today. Or maybe maybe you're praying for someone to come next weekend and you've been inviting year and they're just heavy on your heart. Why don't you let us join together and believe God that this will be the week they say yeah, and they respond. So we stand with me all over the room, ask our prayer team to make their way down front, getting positioned in the balcony. Team's going to lead us in one chorus. And as they do, you make your way down and we would love to join our faith together. Jesus, breathe with me. Like a mighty storm, stir within my soul. Lord, have your way. Lord, have your way in me. Like a rushing wind. Like a rushing wind. Jesus, breathe with me. Lord, have your way. Lord, have your way in me. Like a mighty storm, stir within my soul. Lord, have your way. Lord, have your way in me. Lord, have your way. Lord, have your way. Lord, have your way in me. Amen. Amen. Listen, I want to let you know, even as we get ready to close out the service, if you have a prayer need today, our leaders here at the front, we also have leaders in the balcony area, we would love the opportunity to pray for you. And so even as we close out, you keep coming forward, we'll stay here as long as we need to, to pray with you. How many love that message? Wasn't that such a powerful, challenging message? Thank God for how he spoke to us through that. And I love this thought of showing up with a towel. How can we serve? And as Pastor Daniel said, one of the ways we can do that is invite people to church. And so on your way out today, we have invite cards at the exits, you can grab a few of those and invite people to come and be a part of what God is doing here at Gateway Church. Also, maybe you're wondering, how can I show up

with a towel at church? And we have some great opportunities for you to serve here literally dozens of opportunities from leading groups to outreach opportunities to even serving in youth like you just saw on the video, I want to encourage you if you want to find out how to get more involved in that way. We have tables out in the lobby, you'll see them there, they have balloons next to them, we have leaders there, they can tell you all about our opportunities to serve and get involved and get connected there. Or if you can't stop by one of the tables, just text the word serve to 71010. That's serve to 71010. And we'll follow up with you there. And then lastly, if you are new to Gateway Church, we're so honored that you chose to be with us this weekend. And we would love the opportunity to personally connect with you. I'll be out at an area called Connect Central, which is located in our lobby. We'll also have some other leaders there. But if you have a moment after service, just stop by Connect Central so we can meet you answer questions that you have. And we also have a gift for you if you can swing by there. And if for whatever reason you can't, you can just text the word connect to 71010. Or if you're joining us online, you can text connect to 71010. And we'll follow up with you that way as well. Let me pray a blessing over you out of Numbers chapter six as we close our time out together. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. Amen. God bless you. We love you. We'll see you next weekend. Transcribed by https://otter.ai Transcribed by https://otter.ai ♪♪♪

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪