Fruit That Remains | Now Unto Him | John 13:1-17 | Milton James

to you today. I thank you to stand before you today. We're going to continue our series, the fruit that remains. We almost come into the close of this, you know, to all my first time guests and guests. I'd like to say welcome. Welcome to our digital disciples. We thank y'all. We don't take y'all for granted. We also welcome the unbeliever. We welcome the person that's still struggling and vacillating. Is this true? Is this all this that they jumping up, jumping forward and yelling for? Is this all true? We believe it is true. And we just pray one day, even in this gathering today, that you will feel the pull of the Holy Spirit on your heart. And when you do, please do not suppress that or deny that. Just lean into that. That is God calling you out of darkness into his marvelous light. And this is what you see. It's the gratitude of what God has done in our hearts. So we worship him. We are a house of prayer, presence and proclamation. We will stand on that until Christ returns. And while y'all stand in, we will get a big shout to our lead pastor, fill up Anthony Mitchell. And you may be seated in the presence of the Lord. Thank the Lord for a cool breeze today. Yeah, hallelujah for that. Thank you, Lord. That all of today's message is now unto him. Now unto him. Pray for me as I pray for y'all. Frank? Lord, we could just lay in your presence all day. I think very soon, God, we'll just have a day that we just lay in your presence. So a lot of times we don't want to move on from this. But I thank you, Holy Father. I thank you for giving me the opportunity to minister to these, your sons and daughters. Just go before me right now. Go before me in the hearts of them, in their minds, their emotional state, mental state. I accept you will give them revelation knowledge. I accept you will use this broken vessel, this jar of clay that is marred, that you have redeemed, that is weakened in your sight. That is dust. I accept you will do a glorious work through this broken vessel. I lay everything down at your feet in this moment, Lord. Let your word be true and every man be a lie. Just honor you and reverence you. We thank you. We thank you for the worship team, God, for ushering us into your presence. And we thank you for meeting us in this place. We love you even in our sinful state, even in our rebellion, even in our lack. We do all we can to just love you. Father, thank you. We love you. We honor you in your matchless, majestic name that we pray. It is in Jesus' name. Amen. The lovely family, the year was 2012 in October, Pastor Philip started a church called Victory Church ATL. And 2012 in November, I had joined

that church. And all my time, I had already been like 20 years in faith with Christ. And I had really never served at my local church. I was steeped in culture Christianity. And I was just a consumer. So I would just run in on Sunday, run out, run in, run out. [BLANK_AUDIO] The Lord started moving on my heart and He was like beckoning me like served. You need to start serving. You need to start serving. So of course, I tried to serve at my local church. So we had 12 weeks of classes and we had a graduation and got to meet all the ministers and had all these opportunities to serve. I signed up for all these opportunities and I'm like, "Lord, I'm going in. I'm going in." So they were like, "Well, you know, we're going to reach out to you, but nobody reached out to me." And I started calling and going up there and they'd be like, "Be patient, somebody." Now, I didn't sign up for like 10 ministries. I'm like, "Somebody got to call me." So nobody called. So this went off for months and then I would go to my home church and then go to victory, go to my home church, go to victory. So I come to victory one Sunday and I just asked him, "Hey, man, y'all need some help?" And he was like, "Yeah, sure. Come on." And I was like, "What?" I've been up here fighting to serve for like months. So that did something in me. It created something in me that I can't even really explain it. It birthed something in me to like really want to serve God at a much greater level. And then when I started serving, like y'all see those flags out there, I started putting out those flags.

Me and Frank was talking about it a few weeks ago because me and Pastor Philip used to pray over those flags like as they blew in the wind, they would catch the attention of people. And not the Holy Spirit would draw them in that they would hear the gospel and give their lives to Christ. And I was just, I was super content. I would put out the flags. I would put out all the signage. And I was just so, that was like the most purest time that I ever served the Lord. And I'm saying it's not good now. I'm just saying it was just pure. It was like I want to get my little cart and all my flags. And I would go out there and walk and I would just look up to the sky and I would praise God. And thank you God that I got an opportunity to serve you in this capacity and my heart would just be overjoyed. And out of that overjoy I found four principles that unlocked in me. First principle I saw was serving as greatness. I learned that serving as greatness. That's in Mark chapter 10, let me read that for you. Mark chapter 10, oh I'm not in the right place. Mark chapter 10 verse 43 and 45, but it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be a servant. And whoever would be first among you must be a slave of all. For even the son of man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. Second principle I learned as I served was utter humility. Utter humility that's in James chapter 4 verse 10, humble yourself before the Lord and he will exalt you. Humble yourself before the Lord and he will exalt you. These are principles that I learned from Jesus and as I served.

Serving others is serving him. Matthew 25 chapter 25 verse 40. And the King will answer them, truly I say to you as you did it to one of the least of them, my brothers, you did it to me. Practical and sacrificial, like we, a lot of times we don't see what we're doing. Let me read the description. I don't even want to explain, let the Lord explain. Hebrews, chapter 6 verse... God does not overlook anything that you do unto him. Your work and the love that you have shown for his name and serving the saints as you still do. Give me my statement, serving unto Jesus. Serving unto Jesus means treating every act of service as worship done for Jesus, not people's applause and our own desires. Not people applause and our own desires. I had to learn to take like whatever I did, putting out those flags, I did it unto the Lord. Clean in bathrooms, I did it unto the Lord. Those four principles I had to learn that and this statement had to press on my heart, press on my mind. Colossians chapter 3 verse 22. Colossians chapter 3 verse 22. Bond serving, obeying everything those who are your earthly masters, not by way of eye service. Eye service means that the person that's over you standing there, you're doing a good job because they're standing there. Or as people pleasers, both with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord, whatever you do, work heartily. Ask for the Lord and not for men. Knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Jesus. You are serving the Lord Jesus. Paul actually writes this again in Ephesus chapter 6 verse 5 through 9. He writes the same statement to the church at Ephesus. So what's a bond servant? Peter, James, John, Jude, and Paul, they addressed themselves as bond servants. I'm a definition of a bond servant. A servant who has, that should be a servant/slave who has voluntarily chosen to permanently bind themselves to a master. Out of love and devotion rather than out of legal obligation. This service is motivated entirely by choice and gratitude. So where would they get this ideal of a bond servant?

It's going the Old Testament. Exodus chapter 21 verse 1 through 6. Now God, in the ancient world they had slavery all around them. This was a common thing. But God, with his people, he interjects himself to show them a way to flip this upside down. Verse 1, "Now these are the rules that you shall set before them. When you buy a Hebrew slave, he shall serve six years and in the seventh year he should go free." For nothing. God created this. It was like an economic debt management. You went to them and you sold yourself to them because you lost your job or you got sick or whatever may happen that you couldn't pay your mortgage no more. You sold yourself to them and they would take you in but they had to treat you right. They had to treat you like a human being. They had to treat you like family. And as you worked for them, you paid off the debt. So in six years, in six years, he let you go free. And when he let you go free, you went free with your house. He gave you provision. He gave you more than what you came in with. This is God's rendition of slavery. Men have abused that. Wicked men has taken that. Even God even got a commandment in there about that. But let me keep reading this. If he comes in single, he shall go out single. If he comes in married, then his wife shall go out with him. How's he getting married? He's a slave. The master gives him a wife. He's supposed to treat them well. The wickedness that has happened in this life, if his master gives him a wife and she bears some sons and daughters,

the wife and the children shall be. The wife and her children shall be her masters, and he shall go out alone. But if the slave plainly says, I love my master, my wife and my children, I will go out free. I will go out free. Then his master shall bring to him. Then his master shall bring to him, God. And he shall bring to him to the door or the doorpost. And his master shall bore his ear through with a all. And we shall be his slaves forever. That's where they get this, this, this. When they say bond servant, like the master had been so good to me. I sold myself into slavery to pay off a debt. That was my intent. Six years I'm out, but the master was so good to me. Bond servant, like I chained myself to Christ. I chained myself to the master because why? Because he's good to me and I serve him. I serve him in chains because I know he's not going to mistreat me. I know he's going to give me all things. I know he's going to be with me. I know I lack no good thing in his presence. Wherever he takes me, I go. Wherever he beckons for me to go, I go. I am chained to the master. I'm chained to the master. I'm chained to the master. Exodus chapter 21 verse 16, whoever steals a man, whoever steals a man,

whoever steals a man and steals him and anyone found in possession of him shall be put to death. This is God's law. This is what he believes about slavery. If you go to a foreign land and take a man by force, his way of slavery was voluntarily. You go to the master to pay off a debt voluntarily. And you do not mistreat them. You can go and do the astronomy. What is around? Do the astronomy 15. And it talks about even the rest of Exodus. You can keep reading the rest of Exodus. It talks about if you knock a man too far, you got to let him free. If you hurt him, you got to let him free. Anything you do to mistreat him, you have to let them free. This is not God's heart, this is not God's will. It was never for God's heart for men to be in captive. It was never for his heart, never. Even his own people were in captivity and he saw how the Egyptians treated his own people so he created laws like I'm going to flip this upside down. Y'all going to show the world how to treat a slave, how to treat a servant and how to service a treat a master. We all should be taken care of one another. We all should be looking out for one another. Nobody should be mistreating nobody. Ultimately, the Old Testament viewed serving as a reflection of one's loyalty to God, choosing to align one's work and his life with his commandments as we serve. I am chained to Christ. In numbers the Levite served in the tabernacle and the temple, say tabernacle, say temple, say tabernacle, temple, the tabernacle was the place where the spirit of the Lord dwelled

in the desert. The temple was the place where the spirit of the Lord dwelled in a building. The temple, who dwelled there? It was a highly structured physical demanding and sacrificial system of worship, strictly regulated by God's command. The Levites' duties were, this is what they did, they served a holy God that was in the tabernacle that was in the temple. A holy God and a tabernacle and the temple, y'all going to get it, they tend to golden laugh stands, they kept oil in it, they arranged 12 loaves of bread and burning of incense. The day of atonement, the priest went on and sprinkled the blood on the mercy seat. They executed blessings and teachings. They spoke God's blessings over the community and taught the law of purity. Leviticus 11, chapter 11-15 talks about they had to check sores and bodily discharge and what to do if you touch a dead body and dietary regulations, they governed all of that and they taught the Torah, the first five books of the Bible, and they did this in holy reverence. Why? Because they were in the tabernacle and the temple and who dwelled there? So let me actually just, who dwells here? Who dwells here? Y'all say all the time, y'all, I can feel the spirit of the Lord. I feel the spirit of the Lord when I come here. So we should be approaching serving the spirit of the Lord with reverence and awe. We can't keep approaching the spirit of the Lord as common. The Levites, tabernacle, temple, the spirit of the Lord, he's amongst us. Our mindset should be bonds. I am going to wear the spirit of God is housed and as I'm chained to him, I'm going to serve him with awe. This is not common. This is set apart unto him that we serve, unto him that we breathe, unto him that we move. I watch I cling toilets unto him. I shuttle people unto him. I worship unto him. That's why

you see our worship team look at each other because they're not entertainers. They're worshiping and ushering in the presence of God with open arms and open hearts. And as we serve in this place that house the spirit of God, we do that with all and wonder. Physical labor, they packed and moved in the desert. They packed up the tents, the curtains, the poles, the furniture. They had temple security guarding the entrance of the holy place. Don't all this don't this sound familiar. Don't all of this sound quite familiar. Holla at all our servant leaders they say that sound quite familiar. You know why? Because we're we're housing the spirit of God and we're serving him. Treasury and maintenance they managed to tithe, prepared the grain offering and they baked the ceremonial flatbread and kept the area clean. Come on. Hey, we're not we're not we're not doing anything outside the holy scriptures. I'm just trying to get us even even myself not to look at this as a common thing. This is holy. Serving is holy. No matter what you do, it is unto him. And I just told y'all he does not overlook anything that you do for him. He sees you. Men will not see you. I can miss you. I'm flawed. I'm a broken jar of clay. I will overlook you but your father who you are serving in heaven in a holy place with the spirit of the Lord. He sees you and in his timing he will exalt you. And even as we go through that our hearts should have a in a place of humility. Like like nowhere where we serve should be should be higher than any other place that we serve. Like they were shouting out the refresh team. That is not lower than what I'm doing right now. [Applause] Wherever you have your hand on the plow, we are all serving the Lord Jesus Christ. No matter where it is. I was the refresh team. I put our flags. I was a usher. I was a armor bearer. I wasn't shooting for any of this. I still wrestle with the Lord. I don't want to be on a stage. It's weighty. It's a cross for me. I don't want to be on a stage. I'm a background dude. I'm a background dude. I will serve all day in the back. [LAUGHTER]

I think, and no matter where I am or no matter what I'm doing, you've got to chain yourself to the cross, now unto him. I'm up here because of him. And thanks be to God. Paul writes in Philippians chapter 2 about the humility of Jesus and his servitude. Philippians chapter 2 verse 1 through 11. Paul writes, "So there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affections and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, serving the same love, being in full accord and of one mind, do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility, count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests but also to the entrance of others. I have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself. Are we emptying ourselves and taking the form of being born in the likeness of men and being found in human form? He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on the cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow in heaven, on earth and under the earth, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God, the Father. That's how you humble yourself. That's how you humble yourself. That's how you be a servant. That's how you serve. That's how you be a bond servant unto the Lord Jesus Christ. That's how you serve. The ultimate act of serving, John 13, verse 1 through 17, we've heard this a million times. A million times, Jesus washes the disciples' feet. Now before the feasts 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.

Each supper, when the devil had already put into the heart of Judas Iscariah, Simon's son, to betray him, Jesus knowing that the Father had given him all things into his hands and that he had come from God and was going back to God, stop. Jesus knowing, I don't read this, I don't know, five billion times. He is God in the flesh. All things in his hands. All power in his hands. This verse serves as a theological foundation for the foot washing. Revealing that Jesus performed this humble act not out of weakness, but out of total security of who he was and who he is and his divinity, his supreme power. He possessed absolute power. Jesus, like this, it baffled me. Like Jesus thinking like, I can do all things. I have the power to create. I have the power to split atoms. I have the power to do all these things. And the thing he thinks about, the thing he thinks about, he had to come. He had come from God. That's what we should be thinking about that. We come from God. He's thinking about all power. I have all power, all authority. I come from God because Jesus knew he had the highest position in eternity. He had nothing left to prove to anybody. He humbled himself and became a servant.

Now Jesus is thinking, I'm going back to God. After this mission, this assignment of the cross is complete. Jesus knew his earthly suffering within, and he will return back to God and take his rightful place again. [INAUDIBLE] Verse 4, after he thought about all of that, verse 4, he rose from supper and laid aside his outer garment and taken the tile, tied it around his waist. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the feet of his disciples. God in the flesh, God going back to God, taking my rightful place. And the thing that rolls out of his heart was to wash feet. And these ain't the clean feet like we got, we got shoes and socks on. I'm talking like, we only want to touch these feet. We be like, no, but our Lord empty himself. Humbled himself, set an example, and he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the tile that was wrapped around him. He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, Lord, do you wash my feet? Jesus answered him. What I am doing, you do not understand now. How can you understand that? I'm reading it now and I don't understand that. Like he's God. He could have easily said, John, wash their feet. And nothing would have been wrong with that. John, go wash their feet.

No, he said, he didn't say anything, he just moved. He said, he wrapped the tile around him. He bent down and they're going, because that was the lowest place to serve in the house. But afterwards, you will understand. Peter said to him, you shall never wash my feet. Jesus answered him, if I do not wash you, you have no share in me. If I do not wash the soles of your feet, you have no share with me. If I do not wash the soles of your feet, you have no share with me. if I do not watch the scene. wash the souls of your feet, you have no share with me. If I do not wash the soul of your heart, you have no share with me. Lord, not my feet, but also my hands and my head. Jesus said to him, "The one who has bathed does not need to wash except for the soul of his feet. The soul that is in a man needs to be washed." The one who has bathed does not need to wash except for his feet, but is completely clean and you are clean. But not every one of you, for he knew who was to betray him. That was why he said not all of you are clean. When he had washed their feet and put on his outer garment 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." Yeah, that blew by me too. If I then he says it again, "If I then your Lord and teacher have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet." Radical humility, servant leadership, mutual love, commanding followers to selfishly serve others rather than seeking status or recognition. Because he says it twice, but I didn't read this

on my many times, and it still just blew by me. Let's pass the Phillip saying, "Oh, over my head." Because that word Lord also equates to God and teacher, "I am your God and teacher. Having washed your feet, you also, we have no status higher than God. We have no position higher than God. We have nothing that can compare to God." So he's saying, "If God, your Lord and your teacher can wash the souls of men and wash their feet and serve them, you ought to do the same." Five, giving 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. A servant is not," that's just what I say. "A servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him." So if God washes the souls of feet and if God washes the souls of men, if God emptied himself, surely, surely, we can serve the same. Watch verse 17, "If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them." I'm closing frank. "Blessed are you if you do them." This is why we call our leadership our servant leaders. Servant leaders is because of the Lord Jesus Christ. They're not just volunteers. You are not just a volunteer. You are a servant leader. The leader is Christ and we humble ourselves like Christ to the lowest job that we can find and we serve there. And as we do that, he, the one who does not overlook you, he will start exalting you. Not us searching for where we're supposed to be or we think we should be. It's by a sovereign Lord. Like what I am doing is the sovereignty of God. I did not want any of this. I did not strive for any of this. I did not ask for any of this. I just obeyed. I just obeyed. I just obeyed. Wherever there was a need, I just insert myself. Not looking for no glory. Not looking for no path on the back

because I was satisfied in my soul. And I did my best not to treat it as common, but as a holy thing unto him. Amen? Bow your heads, pray descriptions over you. Hebrews 9 verse 11 to 14, I'm going to pray this over you, head bow. But when Christ appears as a high priest of the good things that have come, and through the greater and the more perfect tent not made with hands, that is not of this creation, he entered once and for all into the holy place. Not by means of blood, of goats and calves, but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer sanctified for the purification of the flesh, how much more was the blood of Christ? Through the eternal spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God. Father, I pray this your holy scriptures over your sons and daughters, that they will serve you in spirit and in truth. They will take the lowest place. They will not run after to be honored, to be glorified by men or even their own desires, but they will be bondservants. bondservants to you and you alone, and whatever you have for them, you will exalt them. And Father, for the unbeliever in the room and through this camera, that your heart was stirred, that you can't participate in serving the living God right now until you give your life to the living God, till you confess your sins and know that you are a sinner needing the Lord Jesus Christ to wash you by his blood and his sacrifice on the cross. Even right now, the spirit of the Lord is pressing upon the hearts to draw you into the kingdom. Do not harden your heart in this moment. Surrender right now to the Lord Jesus Christ. Surrender to the beckoning of the Holy Spirit so that you too can come into glory. You too, at the end of this life, you will be with him. And as you surrender your life to him and as you serve him and as you grow in love with him, you will become a bondservant. I pray this over my brothers and sisters and the unbeliever. In Jesus name, I pray. God bless y'all. (applause)