How Are You At Washing Feet?

Lord, I wanna care for these people and God, I wanna bring the message, Lord, the way you would have it brought. We’ve already prayed and asked you to speak to our hearts. I pray you’d speak to mine and touch my heart. Lord, I’m not the servant that I should be. And God, I pray that you would make me over new and afresh, Lord, even tonight and change me and Lord, change us to be more conformed to your image. Help us to realize just how self centered we are and how much we fail in this department and how it’s available through your power to be like you. Lord, we can’t do it in the flesh but Lord, I pray you’d help us tonight see Lord, what it is specifically that you’d have us change in our lives tonight so that we might be more like, Lord, just to your image. In Jesus’ name I pray, amen. He rises from supper. He lays aside his garments. He takes a towel and he girds himself.

The Bible says after that he pours water in a basin and he begins to wash the disciples’ feet. You gotta get that picture in your mind. When you read the Bible, don’t just skip over it. Don’t just read it, I know this. Try to take a moment and really get that vivid picture. I don’t know if you’ve ever been to The Middle East or I don’t know if you’ve ever been somewhere where there’s animals and dirt in the streets.

I’ve been now in some 60 countries around the world in almost thirty years we’ve ministered. And I promise you, we wear different clothes when we’re ministering in some of these countries because it’s just dirty. Everywhere you go, you get dirty. You’re in the African roads or you’re in India or different places. It’s just dirty. Everywhere you go there’s just dirt everywhere. And men wearing sandals. I don’t know if you’ve ever, I mean down south I pick on my daughter-in-law for going barefoot sometimes even around the church house.

We’re from New York. We don’t see that a lot because it’s cold where we’re from. But you’ve gotta get, we’re not talking through walking through Green Meadows. We’re talking dirty, animal dropping, smelly, dirty feet. And I don’t know if you’ve ever been filthy like that but the lowest of the low, the lowest servant would be the one that would take that basin. It was the lowest job to to bow before someone and wash their feet. And our Lord did that.

He literally did it. It wasn’t metaphor. He literally did that. He girded on the towel. I can only imagine the disciples are going, what is he doing? He comes to Peter and Peter says, you will never wash my feet. That is beneath you. You will not do that. And he says, Peter, if you don’t allow me to wash your feet, you have no part in me. And he says, listen, I’m trying to give you an example and this is the model that you must follow. We’ve read in first Corinthians that there be no schism.

And we talked about how it’s so important to have the mentality of the other, to care for the other, to think about the other. And Jesus is teaching us this fundamental principle that we’ve got to be a foot washer. Now I know in the South they have foot washing services and it’s like one of the ordinances. I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about our heart. Our heart to be a servant.

Our heart to do to say, God, give me the lowest job. Lord, whatever it is that no one else wants to do, I will do that for your honor and for your glory. And I don’t need a pat on the back. I’m not looking to be seen of men. Lord, I’m doing it for your honor and glory. That’s rare. And listen, I put my hand up and say, Lord help me to be like Christ. Is that not what he’s saying? That we should be like that. And that’s every member in the body of Christ. Same spirit.

We talked about different abilities, different gifting, different positions. Some are singing and some are preaching and some are doing different things in the body of Christ. We can’t all have, not everyone can be the leader. There is leadership and fellowship in every department, in every family and governance. God sets up leadership and there’s gotta be leaders and followers. And there’s gifting for that and God builds the church. But everyone’s gotta have the same spirit. Everyone’s gotta be a good foot washer if the work of God’s gonna go on.

Proverbs says before honor is humility. And a lot of times we’re seeking our instead of seeking God’s honor. And that’s really It’s gonna be our destruction. And what the world needs to see is God in us. Amen. He needs to see some people that are saying, I’m willing to do Preacher, give me give me the job no one else wants to do. A lot of times, I know as the preacher, you come to someone and the Lord’s leading you. They say, Preacher, do whatever God leads you to do. I hear that all the time. Preach whatever God leads you to preach. Do whatever you want them to, you know, whatever God leads you to do. And then all of a sudden, I’ll rearrange the service a little bit.

All of a sudden, someone that’s on the schedule to sing doesn’t get to sing. All of a sudden something happens and guess what? Now we put that to the test. Did they really mean do what God would have you to do? That’s when it gets tough. Now listen, I’m a musician, I’m a singer, I’ve led choir, I’ve worked with orchestra. I know what it’s like to be at rehearsal time and time and hours and hours. My father knew nothing of any of that. My father just thought, you you just get up there and 90 people sing together with an orchestra and it’s perfect. Like I don’t know what he thought. He just never lived it so he had no idea. I go, dad it doesn’t work like that. You can’t just say, okay, let’s all stand up here and and they got a tune. They’ve gotta they’ve gotta get ready. So I know what it’s like to put that effort in. My wife when she she plays on Wednesday nights a lot of times when we have a prayer time and she takes she’s got a big harp and she’s it’s a big ordeal to get that harp over to the church and play and all of that. And so if she’s scheduled to play and all of a sudden I cancel that or I say we’re gonna do something else, that’s tough.

That’s tough for a musician. Now she handles that all well. What I’m saying is I’m a musician. I know what that’s like, but we’ve got to follow God. There is It’s good to have a plan. I could take the Bible and show you how I believe God blessed people that were good stewards, that followed the plan. Joseph, God gave him a fourteen year plan. I mean, during the seven prosperous years, go out there, take up the fifth part, and then listen, this is what you’re gonna do during the seven lean years and God gave them a fourteen year plan. And you can go throughout the whole Bible about counting cost and looking ahead and all that. I believe God blesses that.

But we’ve got to, at our very core, be a servant and be willing to allow God to upset our plans. And we’ve gotta be willing to even be demoted at times. Boy that’s hard. Lot of God’s people in the Bible, Joseph, Daniel, they were demoted. I mean they were Joseph was dad’s best. Dad’s I mean he was the favorite son. He was the coat of many colors and then he’s in the pit.

And then he’s sold into slavery. Then he rises up in Potiphar’s house. And why does he do it? Because he’s got an excellent spirit. He is a humble young man and he’s got an excellent spirit. And listen, if you’ve got an excellent spirit, you know what’s gonna happen? You’ll rise up. Everyone will want you on the team. What happens if you don’t have an excellent spirit? Well maybe maybe you’re not so much fun to have on the team. I’m just being real. Like a lot of times I’ll have people and it’s not just the teenagers. They’ll say, No one’s friendly.

No one’s my friend. You know what the Bible says about having friends? To have friends you must what? Show yourself friendly. You’ve gotta be a friend. That’s right. You’ve gotta be a friend first. So if someone says I don’t have any friends, that’s an indictment. Right? I mean that’s hard to take. Let’s be honest. That’s tough. That’s tough. But that’s the truth and the Bible is just It will reveal us and it will instruct us. But God says before honor is humility and it’s not that we are looking to be raised up. It’s looking that the the goal is to bring honor to Christ.

Not that we can pretend to be some kinda, you know, serve in the lower ranks so someday we can be in the upper echelon. That’s not the goal. I mean listen, the goal is to bring honor and glory to him and we can’t do it if we’re filled with pride. And Jesus is setting the example. He girds on the towel himself. The the king of kings and the lord of lords is willing to gird on the towel and come and serve.

And he’s saying, listen, as I have done, this is what you need to do. Let’s go to first Peter chapter five and we’ll look at verse five and following. Peter talks about some specific things here that I think are important.

Dealing with our humility. First Peter chapter five and verse five. The Bible says, likewise ye younger, submit yourself unto the elder. There’s that submission that’s taught throughout the whole Bible. And then the Bible says, ye all of you be subject one to another. So in the body of Christ if there’s gonna be no schisms, if we’re gonna care one for the other, we all need to be having this mind like Christ. It’s it’s about the will of God and it’s about the other and let this mind be in you which was also in Jesus Christ.

You remember that scripture? Who being in the form of God thought it not robbery to be equal with God but what did he do? He made himself of what? No reputation. So in other words, he had the right to be first. He had the right to be king. And yet willingly he said, I’m going to lower myself. I’m not going to take the upper seat. I’m not going to put myself in that position.

I’m gonna take the difficult task and I’m gonna do it according to the will of God. So Jesus is our perfect primary example of this that we need to have a heart that’s filled with humility and we need to be subject one to another. Yes. It is clear in the Bible. We ought to respect older people. Young people, you ought to respect older people. I get after the people, the young people. We got a lot of young kids in our church and you know what? They start running through the auditorium knocking old people around and you say, Is old people a bad term? Not in my mind. I think people that have lived some life, and I’m starting to be old myself, I’m a grandfather now, so I fit the category.

But listen, there ought to be some respect to older people and not knocking them over and coming up and shaking their hand. We ought to teach that. That’s important. But young or old, whether we’ve been in church a long time or wherever we’re at, we’re supposed to be subject one to another. In other words, the young person is supposed to be taught, I need to put the older person first.

The older person needs to be taught, I need to be a servant. That’s the same way with the pastor. The pastor needs to be taught, you need to be a servant. Listen, if you’re the minister, listen, the higher up you go in rank, the more you need to be a servant. And that’s a good message for the preacher. But to the people, the message is you need to serve the pastor and you need to serve Christ and you need to be subject to him and you need to put yourself down, you know, lower. All of us, the pastor on down. All of us need to be subject one to another.

Clothed in the spirit of humility. There’s no big shots in God’s economy. There’s no, you know, clergy and laity. I grew up with that. I mean, the Roman Catholic church, there’s none of that. But God has the order of the home. He’s got leadership and fellowship. He’s got it in the church, but we’re all supposed to be clothed with humility. We’ve got some older people in our church, they are clothed with humility.

They they When I was a much younger man, they referred to me as pastor. I didn’t deserve any of that. They were a blessing in our church. But can I tell you, I’ve got a few crotchety old ones that they’ll talk to a younger pastor like an assistant? I’ve got some assistant pastors and they’ll call them by their first name and they’ll they’ll say, why are we doing this? And they’ll be pretty rough.

And I think that’s not what the Bible’s teaching. You don’t have that right just because you’re of age. And we have a struggle in our churches with this. The Bible teaches that the older ladies are supposed to teach the younger ladies. And there’s a great divide because neither one of them are putting the other first. You say who’s supposed to put the other first? Both of them. Both of them. The older ladies will say and I’m talking about our church. The older ladies will say, well those young ladies they don’t wanna learn anything. They don’t ever come around. They’re too busy. They don’t mind me. They don’t ever ask me any questions.

That’s probably true. For a lot of the young ladies, they got their nose in their phone. They got their nose in their life. You know, they’re posting something online. I don’t know what they’re A lot of the older people are doing that now too. They’re probably posting more stuff than the younger people. I don’t know. But you know, the younger people got their life. The older people, they’ve got their life and they’re very disconnected from the younger ones. And listen, the older ones are supposed to be mature enough to understand we need to teach those that are immature.

The younger ones need to have a mindset that I need to be taught. And thus it goes in God’s house. That’s the way it’s gotta be. But we’re more separated than that than we ever have been. And the same for the men. I mean God wants the older men and those elder men to teach the youngers. And it’s important but Peter is talking about mutual submission here and our example is Jesus Christ girding on the towel, doing the job that no one else wants to do. And what makes it possible? Being clothed in humility.

So Jesus is washing feet. And God says, for God resisteth the proud and giveth grace to the humble. And then the Bible says in verse six, humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you in due time. And the Bible says, casting all your care upon him for he careth for you. I promise you, if you’re gonna be a good foot washer, there’s gonna be times that you have some burdens, that you have some care, that sometimes you’re serving and maybe your flesh gets the better of you.

Now that can happen to anybody. You say, what do you mean? Well, you say, I’ve said many times, I just want to be a servant. I just wanna be a minister of Jesus Christ. And that’s what I want to be. And I’m okay with saying, Lord, help me to be a servant. I’m totally fine with that until someone treats me like one. And then all of a sudden, I get in the flesh sometimes and I think, what?

I mean, how dare I’m the pastor of this church and how dare Have you ever been like that? Where you just in your heart you wanna be a servant but all of a sudden someone treats you wrong and then all of a sudden the old flesh, the old man kinda starts rising up. Now on the outside, someone may not see that at all. But you know, on the inside I know it’s there. God knows it’s there.

And God’s saying, listen, you’ve got to you’ve got to truly humble yourself. And if you’re truly humbled, then you’re not gonna think of yourself. I think that’s one of the best definitions of humility is not thinking of yourself. Not thinking of yourself as a little person or some kind of off scouring but just not thinking. Not thinking of yourself. Having your mind on others. And Lord help us to follow your example. Casting all your care upon him for he careth for you. And when we’re serving, we need to know that God knows about all of our burdens and all of our cares. But you know what we do? We do it in marriage. We do it in the church. We have to voice. We have to say, you need to know about what I’m going through.

You say, preacher is it bad to put a prayer request to the church? No. I think it’s biblical. But if our heart and our driving force and what’s always on our mind is what about me? I need prayer for this. I need my problem solved. I need my request taken care of. Then we’re not practicing this and we’re not gonna be a very good foot washer. So Lord help us with that. And then the Bible says in verse eight, be sober, be vigilant because your adversary, the devil as a roaring lion walketh about seeking whom he may devour.

I’ve often preached this scripture and said, listen, if you don’t cast your care on the Lord, you’re easy prey for the devil. That verse is put in there chronologically that way for a reason. You need to put your care on the Lord. If you don’t, you’re gonna be easy prey. But we just covered verse six about humbling ourselves and in verse five it’s talking about submitting ourselves.

Do you see the progression? We are gonna be easy prey for the devil and we’re gonna be that schism in the body of Christ. And if something doesn’t change right away, we may be broken off and blow away. I’m a gardener. I love when I have time. I have some flower beds at homes, roses, lot of different things. Winters in Buffalo, believe me, they’re not kind to plants.

You get four feet of snow breaking down branches and cracking things off. But you know what happens when you have a schism? When you have something broken off? If you don’t fix it right away what does it do? It dies. You know it’s it’s it’s it’s sticking out, there’s this break. What’s got to happen is it’s got to be bound together and it’s got to get closer and it’s got to be bound tighter maybe than it was even before if there’s gonna be a chance of healing. But you know what we tend to do is when things get sideways and we get a little bit sideways with each other, we start pushing away further.

And it’s just gonna result in being broken off and that part of the church dying. You say what’s keeping it alive? The spirit of God. The spirit of God is what’s working inside. And the Bible says we’ve gotta abide in him and he’s gotta flow through us. If that Holy Ghost is flowing through us and we’re yielded to him, we’ll be a foot washer. It won’t be about us.

It’s so clear in the word of God if I if I am in the spirit, if I walk in the spirit, I’ll not fulfill the lust of the flesh. It’s not gonna be about me. It’s not gonna be about selfish, selfish It’s gonna be about others if I’m walking in the spirit.

Peter goes on, but for sake of time, we’ll continue on. But the Bible here is talking about humility and submission and that’s what is being taught. So what does this look like for me practically? This means that if a servant, if I’m gonna be like Christ, if I’m gonna be a good foot washer, this means I need to be careful about what suggestions I make. What comes out of my mouth?

How much me is being projected? Would you agree with me? If I’m gonna be a servant then what comes out of my mouth matters. And we already covered my dad’s old statement. We have too high of an opinion of our opinion. And we covered the definition of a schism which is talking about all these many opinions and a lack of charity. And that’s really what what causes that schism.

And so I’ve gotta be careful if I make suggestions, when I make suggestions, and how I make suggestions. We covered Esther and we talked about she was so careful to come with the right spirit, prayed up, fasted before she came and bore her heart out. Boy, that would fix a lot of problems in the church. If before you went and talked to that brother, before you talked to the pastor, before you went to your wife, before you went to your husband, before you even had interaction with the children, or children with their parents that you had prayed, sometimes that you had fasted, Said, Lord, give me the right thing to say. Help me to have the right spirit. Give me wisdom. If any man lack wisdom, let him what? Ask of God.

And a lot of times we don’t have wisdom because we haven’t asked. And then offer sometimes that in a spirit of meekness, a suggestion or trying to get something right with that humility all around us. This means if I’m a foot washer and I’m a servant, I might wanna hear other people’s opinions before my own. I mean if I’m clothed in humility, what does that look like? If I’m a servant, what does it practically look like? How does it work out in my life and in the body of Christ?

Well the Bible says let every man be what? Swift to? Here. Here. I’ve blown up that scripture a few times. I mean one of the old preachers used to say how do you, know, he what’s the definition of a preacher? And he would say a man that comes at every situation with an open mouth. I remember him preaching to a bunch of us preachers. I was like woah.

But you know sometimes if we’re leaders, if we’re the preacher or we’re we’re a ministry leader or we’re we’re a father. Listen, we’re used to If you’re a business owner, you’re used to being in charge. So you just talk to people. If you’re a drill sergeant, hard to throttle that back when you get home. Hard to throttle it back in the church but we need to. We must be, it doesn’t matter what our rank, clothed in humility.

And if I am gonna consider other people’s opinions more than my own and let them speak, I need to be swift to hear and slow to speak. And too many times we’re not a good foot washer because our heart is not right. And so this idea of publicly washing another’s feet, I mean how degrading. A lot of times we think God would never ask me to do something that would be degrading, that would lower me, that would cause others to go, what is he doing?

But do you understand the Lord Jesus Christ literally did that and said, I’ve given you a pattern. This is what you do. You pick up the worst job. You do the servant’s role and listen, you show others that listen, it’s not about you. You’re here to serve others. And he taught his disciples that and they went out throughout the world and practiced that and won the world to Christ.

I mean they turned the world upside down. Those followers of Jesus. And I say, Lord, if we had your spirit maybe we would make a greater impact. But you know what’s wrong with Lou Guadano? There’s too much Lou Guadano in Lou Guadano. And so I I have a sneaky suspicion. The same is true of you. Lord help me to be slow to speak. Help me to be a servant.

You know, the way we live, it’s important that that our testimony and how people see us, and I’m talking for the cause of Christ. Too many times we’re worried about our image. People are online. They care about what others think of them. I mean it’s it’s gone far past keeping up with the Joneses. You know how it was in the olden days. I mean now it’s it’s likes and likes and people following me and all this kind of stuff. And you may not be into all of that but you’re impacted by it.

We still care far too much what others think of our person, our persona, our our reputation. You know in a prideful way. And we’re maybe not so concerned about what they think of God. And that’s gotta change. Lord help us if we would have the right heart. If we truly would would submit ourselves to God and just say, Lord, I will I will be a foot washer. I will humble myself. I’ll take the dirty job.

Lord, I’m not gonna say no anymore. Whatever you tell me to do, even if it’s the lowest of the low, I’ll do it. And Lord, I’ll serve you the best I know how. You know, a lot of people are looking for star power and they’re looking for people seeing them. And they’re struggling in this area of being a good foot washer. You know, we live in a time, and please turn to Second Timothy chapter three.

We live in an era of gross selfishness. This is truly the selfie generation. And I don’t just mean the young people. I just mean across the board, young and old. We’re filled with self and we’re not clothed perhaps in humility the way our Lord was. Now the trouble is is that we measure ourselves among ourselves. And it’s a whole another message about that strength of the team where the older generation, they have some things that they need to be able to blend in with the younger generation. And the younger generation has some things that they can, the older generation can learn from them. And there’s that youth and vibrance and wisdom from the older folks. And it’s all supposed to work together.

But you know, across the board though we’re gifted differently and God intended us to work together generationally, we tend to compare each other. We compare ourselves among ourselves as the Bible says. And the Bible says that’s unwise. We think well, you know, our generation had a better work ethic. Our generation, you know, they operated without memorized all the phone numbers. I don’t know what you think. I mean we just have all of these different things that we think and we compare ourselves among ourselves. We say the kids, they’re all stuck in their phones. And what we mean by that is I’m not stuck in my phone.

And what we start to do is think better of ourselves than we ought to think. And God is saying we all need to be clothed in humility. And listen, we’re not what we think we are or you know are.

We’re maybe not as like Christ as we should be. The model’s Jesus Christ. If we compare ourselves to the kids that are downtown or the vagrant that’s downtown, we’re gonna feel pretty good about ourselves and go, I’m a independent Baptist and I got my suit and tie on and I was in church on a Tuesday night and you know I’m the top dog here. But when we compare ourselves to the Lord Jesus Christ, we go, oh boy. Amen. We’ve got a long way to go. And God will guide us and direct us and teach us humility.

Notice second Timothy three one, this know also that in the last days perilous times shall come for men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedience to parents, unthankful, unholy. All of that’s true but we start verse two with lovers of their own selves, selfish generation, without natural affection, truce breakers, false accusers, incontinent. That means they’ve got no self control. Fierce, despisers of those that are good. Traitors, heady, high minded. Lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God. Boy that’s America today and I’m talking in the church. Every generation, every person. We love our comforts.

We can’t get by without you know having just the right coffee or just the right temperature in the shower or our food a certain way. I’m just saying we’re used to our name brand products and I’m just saying we’re in this generation. It’s not just the young people. Having a form, this is this is tragic, having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof. From such turn away.

Turn away from those that come to church that have an outward appearance of Christianity but they’re lousy foot washers. They’re willing to sing the song but they’re not gonna clean the auditorium. They’re willing to stand on the platform or they’re willing to go so far. They’ll shake hands but I’m gonna tell you preacher, I don’t do this and I don’t do that. Oh Lord help us. I mean this is what the Bible’s talking about. Having a form of godliness on the outside.

I’ve been a You know, I’m a fourth generation Baptist, but you’re a lousy foot washer. Lord, help us. Help us to be more like you. I would dare say we have a form of godliness on the outside. We seem generous. We seem generous. We we give to missions projects. We’ll you know, we’ll give to something where the the plate comes around. We know we’ll we’ll throw My dad used to call it tipping god.

Oh no, we got our money. We got And and I just throw I just throw a little money at it. Like like you do a tip at the table. I’ll give a little I’m I’m gonna be generous to the Let me show you how generous I am gonna give a little bit to the waitress here, know. And we do that in church. A form of godliness. We don’t mind throwing a few crumbs to the peasants.

I’m talking third world. I’m talking missions projects. As long as there’s no real sacrifice involved. I I know that I’m I’m shooting straight at you. I’m preaching to you just like I would our church and preaching to me. Listen, I’m preaching to me tonight. Listen, we we are guilty of thinking we’re spiritual. We’re guilty of thinking we’re like Christ but when someone says gird on the towel, then we find out what our real Christianity is like.

Lord, make me a servant. Lord, I just wanna serve you. Lord, just I want to be a servant for you until someone treats me like a servant. And then it’s, what? How in the world you talking to me? Oh, I’m just saying, we reveal what’s in our hearts. Lord help us to gird on the towel and not just have a form of godliness but to be able to truly get our hands dirty.

Sacrifice. Boy, through the Bible that’s taught about David and others that they were willing to sacrifice. I will not give God what doesn’t cost me anything. I’m gonna make a sacrifice is the word. A lot of times we’re giving just out of our abundance and we’re serving out of our abundance and we’re doing things that we like to do and we’re doing things that make us feel good.

Whether it’s giving or singing, but all of a sudden God asks us to do something that’s well, that’s difficult. You know, every message that’s preached is not, you know, if you’re a preacher and you’re following God, sometimes God asks you to preach something and you don’t feel good afterwards. But you gotta do it. Jeremiah was told to deliver a message. It wasn’t easy. The prophets of God, others, I mean the disciples, they went out and they gave the gospel and a lot of times they were under persecution. It’s not always easy.

But Lord, help us to just follow you. We live in a time of self deception. The Bible says in Galatians six three, for if a man think himself to be something when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself. Could it be that we think that we’re a servant or that we are like Christ in that we name the name of Christian but we only have a form of godliness?

And maybe we just don’t have that servant’s heart the way Jesus taught us to. We’re struggling in our foot washing department. Perhaps you think of yourself a servant, generous, humble. Well take your bible, turn to Matthew 15, we’ll take the humility test. Jesus, as he walked on the earth, a lot of times he asked questions. Do you know when Jesus asked a question, he’s not asking a question because he doesn’t know the answer.

Jesus knows everything. So sometimes he’s asking questions because he’s revealing to someone what’s in their heart. And sometimes he wants them to know. Sometimes he tests people. And we have a situation here where Jesus interacts with someone. Jesus in verse 21 of Matthew 15, then Jesus went thence and departed into the coast of Tyre and Sidon. And behold a woman of Canaan came out of the same coast and cried into him saying, have mercy on me oh Lord, thou son of David my daughter is grievously vexed with the devil.

I mean can you see her with her pressing prayer requests? I mean with a broken heart? What what is what is Jesus going to do? What’s he going to say? I mean he’s the one that heals the blind and he’s he’s what’s he gonna do? But he answered her not a word. Well, that doesn’t seem very nice. Listen, Jesus is going to test this woman. He’s gonna teach something to all the crowd.

He’s got a purpose in all of this. Listen, when when the Lord makes you wait, he’s got a purpose in it. He’s not just you know, he’s not just forgetting about you. His timing is always right. And so he doesn’t answer and his disciples came and besought him saying, send her away for she crieth after us. Now they misunderstood how God cared for this woman. We know the Bible. Did God care for this woman? Did the Lord Jesus Christ care for this woman? You know he did. He’s not willing that any should perish. He loves the world, the whole world.

But here the disciples because he doesn’t answer, they misunderstand. Oh, send her away. This woman’s crying and coming and asking and she’s bothering us. Send her away. But he answered and said, I am This is what he says to the woman. I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. In other words, he’s saying, listen, I’m a Jew. You’re not a Jew.

Now can the Lord Jesus Christ help someone that’s not a Jew? Can others be saved? Absolutely. But he’s testing her. Verse 25, then came she and worshiped him saying, Lord help me. Can you see this woman? I mean groveling. Can you see this woman begging? Begging for her child? This is tough. I mean sometimes I have to do some things with missionaries overseas or national pastors to put them to the test to see if they’re a true man.

I mean sometimes I I I see if I if I test them in their way of money or I test them in the way of if they will honor their word, my wife can’t stand it. Now listen, I’m not the Lord Jesus Christ but sometimes God puts me in a position where I’ve got to test them. And it’s hard to see if they will make a sacrifice.

And Jesus is testing this woman. Of course he knows the answer but he’s doing it for our benefit. And this woman is saying, Lord help me but he answered and said, it is not me to take the children’s bread and cast it to dogs. Well, that’s that’s the humility test if I ever saw one. I mean, what are you gonna say to Jesus now? I mean, if if if you were treated that way, if you were desperate for your child and you were treated this way, what would come out of you?

I mean, would you say this is a humility test? I think this is a humility test if I ever saw one. And listen listen to the heart of this woman. Verse 27. And she said, truth, Lord. You’re right. I’m a no good dog. I I mean, I don’t deserve a thing. I deserve nothing. Yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their master’s table. Just give me the crumbs, Lord. Amen.

Then Jesus answered and said unto her, now Jesus didn’t have a change of heart. Jesus didn’t all of a sudden have an epiphany where he thought, oh, I misjudged this woman. You know that’s not the case. Jesus turns to this woman says, oh woman, great is thy faith be it unto thee even as thou wilt and her daughter was made whole from that very hour. We wonder why we don’t receive of the Lord sometimes.

I wonder why I don’t receive of the Lord sometimes. There’s been many times God’s corrected me and said, you wanna know why you’re not being blessed or why you’re not preaching or why this isn’t happening? Look at your sour attitude. Look at your heart. Where’s that servant? Where’s that one that’s ready to gird on the towel? Where’s the one that’ll take the lowest seat? Where’s the one that just says, give me the crumbs?

Let everyone else go first. No matter what’s your rank, no matter what’s your age, no matter how many years you’ve been in the church. Lord help us to be good foot washers. So here’s the test and and it starts here with this woman and seeing her humility. But here’s a few questions for us tonight when we’re talking about am I filled with humility? Am I someone that would be a good candidate for a foot washer? Well, here’s a few things to consider. Can you receive harsh words?

We just read a little account of Jesus interacting. Can you endure that? Can I endure that? Can I endure harsh words? What comes out of me when harsh words come my way? And that’s gonna reveal what’s in my heart.

The same people that curse Jesus, he bled and died for them. And if we’re to be like Christ, if someone is cursing us, our attitude needs to be like Jesus Christ. Now we can’t do that in the flesh. We must be in the spirit. We must be plugged into him. We must say, Lord, you’ve got to do it through me because I can’t do it in myself.

My nature is knock them out. My nature is I’ll straighten them out. But that’s not what the Lord Jesus Christ called us to do. Lord help me to be more like the master. Can you receive harsh words? Do you accept demotion graciously? We already talked a little bit about you know David and we talked about Joseph. David, David was taken from being the captain of the entire army and put over a thousand men.

And he took it and he served Saul. And then he lost his rank altogether and Saul was trying to kill him. And he just kept on going for the Lord. Can you receive demotion graciously? I’m thankful that I’ve seen, I’ve lived long enough to see some people that really embody this.

We’ve got some people in our church. I’m telling you blessings. You say is everyone a blessing in your church? Absolutely not and don’t tell them that I said that. It’s just the fact of the matter. Some people are difficult. Some people are blessing. We’ve got some people that are blessing that I’ve had to say I I need to take you off of this or demote you in this way or or I I need you to not sing tonight. I need someone else to sing tonight or you’re not gonna preach or you’re not gonna teach that Sunday school class. I need someone else to do this. That’s tough. It’s tough to take.

But it’s part of the humility test. It’s part of being like the Lord Jesus Christ. It’s part of this idea of being a foot washer and saying, I’ll be a keeper in the I’ll be a doorkeeper in the house of God. Lord just help me to to do that. Naaman in the Bible, I mean he is someone that you know he is filled with pride. And this is another test when we’re looking at submission and obedience. You remember Naaman had leprosy.

If you know your Bible, there was a captain of the host of Siri. He was he was a leper and the little maid that was a slave. That’s an amazing story that she would show kindness to him. He goes travels to the land of Israel and Elisha’s there and the king’s all upset because he’s thinking this guy wants to me to cleanse him of his leprosy and Elisha says, come to me and there they’ll see that there’s a God in Israel.

And then Naaman’s got all in his mind the way it’s gonna play out. The man’s gonna come out. He’s gonna strike his hand. I’m the leper. And I I mean, I’m we’re gonna have a healing service and I’m gonna go out, you know, victorious. And Elisha doesn’t even come to see him. There is an important dignitary out there and he don’t even come to see him. Don’t you know that’s God doing that on purpose?

And he sends his servant and he tells him go wash in the muddy river and dip not once, dip seven times. And Naaman leaves in a I mean he’s foaming at the mouth. He’s mad. And and his servants, they they plead with him and finally he submits and he yields. And what does he do? He humbles himself and he passes the submission test and the obedience test and the humility test.

And you know what? He leaves cleansed. And that’s that’s that’s what God wants in our life. We’ve got to be that one that’s filled with submission. Our heart is filled with submission that we’re willing to just humble ourselves and simply obey and God will bless. How quick are you with your tongue? I mean when we’re talking about speaking and those things, how quick are we answer or give our opinion?

A lot of times in our staff meetings, there’s a guy that sits in the corner. His name’s George Rue. George has never given me a problem. I mean George runs a bus for twenty years or twenty five years. I don’t even know. He’s been doing it. He was just a young kid. I mean he was honestly a backward kind of kid. I mean he didn’t talk to no one. He was beyond shy.

People thought he had something wrong upstairs. I’m just being honest. But that guy is the most faithful guy. And a lot of times when everyone’s chattering in the staff meeting, I’ll just say, Brother George, what do you think? Because he’s not saying nothing and he’s sitting back there. And I’m telling you, you learn a lot of things when you just keep your mouth shut. And I can’t say that that’s been me all the time. And I’m just saying, Lord help us to embody the principles that we find in the word of God. Are you quick with your tongue?

Are you someone that’s gonna judge God or quick to say, God what are you doing? What are you doing? As if God doesn’t know what he’s doing. God why are you doing this to me? You say is it sin to do that? I don’t I don’t know that it’s sin. I mean it’s in our heart God knows it anyway but we should not judge God falsely. Job didn’t charge God foolishly.

There’s a fine line there between saying God I don’t understand and charging God foolishly and saying God I don’t deserve this. And sometimes that’s the way we think but we don’t really say it. And God’s gotta rearrange our thinking. Are you consumed with your problems? These are the humility tests. How do I know if I’m humble? How do I know if I could endure what this woman endured when when Jesus put her to the test? Well these are some of the tests.

How do you know if you’re a good foot washer? If you’re someone that’s willing to serve? This is part of the test. Are you consumed with your problems? The Bible says, let nothing be done through strife or vainglory but in lowliness of mind, let each esteem other better than themselves. One of the most common scriptures that we use for marriage conference is these two scriptures. And then the next verse says, look not every man on his own things but every man also on the things of others. Do you know that is true for even your marriage?

You’d have a good marriage if you practice that. Not that you came to your wife or the wife came to the husband and said, you need to put me first. That’s not what God says. You need to look at you. But this You you would have a perfect church if everyone did that and just put the other one first. One more one more we’ll look at tonight. Luke 18. You’ve listened well tonight. Luke 18.

This will be the last one tonight. And as you’re turning there, I’ll just give you the thought, what do you think of you? Because that’s important. What you think of you. Now sometimes we’re thinking more highly of ourselves than we ought to think and we don’t even know it. But we’re praying that the Holy Ghost of God would reveal it. And a lot of times I will tell our church in transparency, I think I’m loving my wife. I think I’m practicing charity.

And then all of a sudden I don’t get the response or she doesn’t say something or do something the way I want. And guess what? All of a sudden that wrong fleshly side will rise up inside of me and I realize, uh-oh. It’s a revealer that I was not practicing charity. In other words, giving without expecting anything in return. Really I was giving and expecting in return.

And it’s a revealer of if we have that charity that causes us not to have the schisms. Luke eighteen:nine, And so what do you think of you? And he spake this parable unto a certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised others. Jesus’ words. Two men went up into the temple to pray. The one a Pharisee, the other a publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. Now when we read that scripture, if you grew up in church and you read this scripture, you think, I mean how horrible is this guy, right? I mean that’s what we think of him.

But we gotta get real honest. What do we think about someone that commits adultery? Do we think that could be me? Do we think our sin is just as bad as their sin? Do we think we deserve hell? Do we think we’re grateful that God would even use us? What do we think? And if our heart is not like Jesus Christ, then we’re not the publican. We’re the Pharisee.

I thank God that I’m not as a adulterer. I thank God, you know, we think, oh, thank God I’m not like the Democrats. I thank God I’m not like this. And you fill in the blank. Pharisee.

I fast. I go to church. I wear a suit and tie. I’ve got a dress on. I fast twice in a week. I give tithes of all that I possess and the publican standing afar off would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. I tell you this man went down to his house justified rather than the other.

For everyone that exalteth himself shall be abased. He that humbleth himself shall be exalted. Just again the picture of Jesus. Jesus knowing that the father had given all things into his hands. That he was come from God and went to God, he rises from supper. He girds on the towel. He’s gonna go and sacrifice himself on the cross at Calvary. He’s gonna take on our whole sin debt.

And what does he do? He’s there washing feet. Let’s all stand.