Christ's New Commandment

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Well gentlemen, today we are going to be doing something a little different than what was originally planned.
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But it's going to tie together, and I think you'll see that it all fits.
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For those of you who don't know me, if you're new or you've never taken my class, I do 12 weeks through an overview of theological principles.
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It's a practical theology class that I do, and every 12 weeks it rotates.
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So if you're coming in today, and this is week 11, we'll start over.
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And you'll get weeks 1 through 12 when we're done.
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Normally this would be our week to do ecclesiology.
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Ecclesiology is the doctrine of the church, the study of the church.
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What is the church? What is its purpose? What is it meant to be? And what is its function in the world? However, today is a special day.
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Today is a holiday that a lot of people don't realize that it is a holiday.
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And so I'm going to be teaching on the holiday, and I'm going to tie it into ecclesiology.
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So we're still going to have somewhat of an ecclesiology lesson, but it's going to be focused more on the day, and you'll see at the end how we tie it all together.
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The day is Maundy Thursday.
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Maundy Thursday is the title of today.
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Now, for those of you who may or may not know, we are in the middle of what is called Holy Week.
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Holy Week begins on Palm Sunday.
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That is the day that Jesus went into Jerusalem on the back of the donkey.
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The people were shouting, Hosanna.
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They were waving palm branches.
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They were saying, Save us, Lord.
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And Jesus went into Jerusalem at shouts of, Save us.
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Shouts of, Son of David, Hosanna to the Son of David.
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Well, it was shortly thereafter that He went into the temple, and He cleansed the temple.
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Ran out the money changers.
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And He had already had a bad reputation with the Pharisees and the Sadducees, but then that was the last straw.
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That was the straw that broke the camel's back.
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So they courted Judas Iscariot, who went to them and said that he would turn them over.
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Turn Jesus...
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What's that? Okay.
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Well, they courted him, and he went to them, and he offered to sell Jesus for 30 pieces of silver.
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And so they made a plan when to arrest Him.
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Well, on the night before the crucifixion, the night of the arrest, Jesus was with His disciples in the upper room.
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And it was in the upper room that He gave the Last Supper.
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It was in the upper room that He washed the disciples' feet.
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And it is in the upper room that He gave a new commandment.
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And that is where we get the word mondi.
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Mondi comes from the Latin, mandatum, which means command.
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And so it was on Mondi Thursday that Jesus gave a new command to His disciples.
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And we're going to read about that now.
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If you'll open your Bible to John 13.
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And we're going to look at verses 34 and 35.
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And then we're going to pray.
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John, the Gospel of John.
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John 13 and verse 34.
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When you're there, say Amen.
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Amen.
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Amen.
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A new commandment I give to you.
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That you love one another just as I have loved you.
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You also are to love one another.
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By this, all people will know that you are My disciples.
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If you have love for one another.
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Father in Heaven, I thank You for Your Word.
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I pray even now that as I seek to give an understanding of it.
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That You would keep me from error.
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For Lord God, I am a fallible man.
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And I am capable of preaching error.
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And I do not want to do that.
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So I pray that You would keep me from it.
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I pray also Lord that You would give me boldness.
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That I would preach not only accurately.
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But that I would preach without fear.
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I pray Lord that these men would hear Your Word.
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I pray that it would go into their ear.
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And pass the ear and the brain into the heart.
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Lord that You might use it to draw them closer to You.
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Lord for those who know You.
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I pray that this message would be to them life.
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And encouragement.
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And Lord I pray for those who do not know You.
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That this message would be a challenge to their heart.
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That it might bring conviction.
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That they might turn from their sin.
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And turn to You.
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But Lord whatever be Your will today.
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We pray that we would be submissive to it.
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And that we would be moved again by the power of Your Spirit.
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And the truth of Your Word.
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In Jesus name.
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Amen.
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When we come to John chapter 13.
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We find ourselves.
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In the midst of Jesus doing something very odd.
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In fact it is odd in the sense that.
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Most of us probably could not see ourselves doing it.
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Chapter 13 verse 1 it says.
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Now before the feast of the Passover.
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When Jesus knew that His hour had come.
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To depart out of this world to the Father.
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Having loved His own who were in the world.
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He loved them to the end.
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During supper.
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When the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot.
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Simon's son to betray him.
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Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into His hand.
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And that He had come from God.
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And was going back to God.
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Rose from supper.
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He lay aside His outer garments.
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And taking a towel.
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He tied it around His waist.
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Then He poured water into a basin.
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And He began to wash the disciples feet.
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And to wipe them with the towel.
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That was wrapped around Him.
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Alright before we get to verse 6.
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With Simon's interaction with Jesus.
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I just want you to for a moment.
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Kind of get an idea of what is going on.
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In the ancient world there was a custom.
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And the custom was whenever you would have a guest.
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You would provide that guest a basin of water.
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For which to wash their feet before they came into your home.
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It was common because in the ancient world.
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They didn't wear Nikes or Reeboks.
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They didn't wear socks in general.
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They wore open toed sandals.
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A little more elaborate than the flip flops I have on.
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But similar.
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And as they.
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The kind that Chuck wore.
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The kind that Chuck.
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I don't know.
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But I will tell you this.
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Recently I picked up gardening at my home.
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And it has become sort of a new little hobby for my wife and I.
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And we built a little garden outside.
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I had to buy boots to wear out in my garden.
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Because I wore flip flops.
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And I came in and my feet were so nasty.
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I mean it's black soil, dirt in our yard.
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And it's just so.
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It sticks to you and it don't want to come off.
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Even when you get in the shower and you scrub your feet.
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It's just the blackest of black dirt.
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And you can imagine what it was like.
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In the ancient near east.
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Where everybody walked pretty much everywhere.
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Now there were some times when you got to ride on horseback.
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Or on some other beast of burden.
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Like a donkey.
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Jesus.
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The only time we know that he didn't walk.
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Was the time he rode on the donkey on Palm Sunday.
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That's the only time that we're aware of.
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I'm sure he probably did other times.
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But that's the time we know about.
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So most of the time people walked.
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And they walked with these open toed shoes.
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And if you imagine people got some rough feet today.
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With our pampering of our feet.
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With wearing nice comfortable shoes.
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You can imagine the lack of pampering.
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That was done in the first century.
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The last thing people did care about.
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Was making their feet look pretty.
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But they did want them clean.
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And so before they would go into the house.
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They would wash their feet.
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And it was not only an opportunity for sanitation.
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And for hygiene.
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But it was also somewhat symbolic.
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Of washing away the dirt of the world.
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Not bringing that into your home.
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There was a time when you know.
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If the Jews went out of the nation of Israel.
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And came back.
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They would dust off their feet.
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You know because that was symbolizing.
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Knocking that Gentile dust off their feet.
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You remember hearing about that in Scripture.
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So there's this whole importance.
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That surrounded the idea of cleaning your feet.
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Well the night where Jesus has the Last Supper.
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And that's where they're at.
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We're not going to talk about the Last Supper in this class.
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Unfortunately we don't have time.
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But this is all in that same event.
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This is in the upper room.
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Apparently the normal practice of having the feet washed.
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Prior to coming in.
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Wasn't done.
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And I would imagine.
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I don't know this.
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Because the text doesn't say it.
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But I'm making an inference.
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I assume that Jesus did that intentionally.
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Because He knew what He was going to do.
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Right? Ordinarily they would have already had their feet washed.
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Ordinarily before they came in.
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This would have already been done.
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So when the guys arrived that night.
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They might have said.
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Hey where's the tub? You know.
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What are we doing? Calm down.
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We'll get to it.
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You know.
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So they're inside.
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And they're in this room.
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And here comes Jesus.
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And He takes off His outer garment.
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Now He wasn't naked.
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This wasn't some kind of debauchery thing.
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He just took off His good clothes.
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So that He didn't get them dirty.
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And He put on a towel.
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So that He'd have something to dry them with.
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And He sat down.
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And He began to wash their feet.
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Now.
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I don't know if you've ever washed another person's feet before.
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But it's a pretty humbling experience.
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You've got to really love.
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Or appreciate the person you're doing it for.
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Or you've got to be making some kind of an income.
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I remember years ago.
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My wife was having her nails done.
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At one of these nail salon places.
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And I was there.
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And I was just reading.
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While she was getting her nails done.
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And a lady comes up.
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She goes.
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I'll give you a pedicure.
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You know.
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Do your feet.
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You know.
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And I was like.
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I don't want nobody touching my feet.
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And she goes.
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No.
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No.
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No.
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It's not much money.
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She's trying to make a little money.
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And I said.
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Alright.
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Whatever.
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You know.
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So she put my feet in this bath.
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And then she.
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You know.
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Did this little scrub thing.
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And cleaned my feet.
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It was very nice.
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But.
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I mean.
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Huh? What's that? She changed your life.
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She did.
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I mean.
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It was neat.
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I never had it done before.
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But I'll say this.
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She didn't do it out of love.
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She did it because.
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There was a financial investment here.
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That's her job.
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She's sitting there doing nothing.
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Here I am.
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But there was still a humility there.
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Somebody willing to get down and wash another person's feet.
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Even if it's for money.
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Most of us won't do that.
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Most of us won't wash feet even for money.
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Huh? What I'm saying is.
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Most people.
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You know.
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They don't want to.
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They don't want to humble themselves.
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You know.
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The biggest thing that we lack.
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As human beings.
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Is humility.
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The greatest sin of all sins.
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Is not murder.
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The greatest sin of all sins.
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Is not lying or stealing.
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Or homosexuality.
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Or any of these sins that we might point to and say.
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Oh icky.
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Oh bad.
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Whatever.
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The sin of sins is pride.
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Because that is the sin.
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That caused Eve and Adam to fall.
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You remember what Satan said to Eve? God does not want you to eat of this.
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Because on the day that you eat of this.
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You will be like God.
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And she saw that the fruit was good to eat.
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And knowing that it would give her knowledge.
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She took of it and she ate.
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And she gave some to her husband and he ate.
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And their eyes were opened.
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What do they want? They wanted to be like God.
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And ever since then.
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All of the posterity of Adam.
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Have all wanted that same thing.
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They all want to be like God.
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They want to be their own God.
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They don't want to be like God in the good way.
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They don't want to be godly.
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They want to be their own master.
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Yes.
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Yes.
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According to 1 Timothy.
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That is the reason why Satan fell.
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It says that in 1 Timothy.
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It says that the reason why we don't ordain new believers.
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Is because they might get puffed up with pride.
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The same way Satan was puffed up with pride.
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So yes, you are right.
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Pride was what caused Satan to fall.
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Pride is what caused Adam and Eve to fall.
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And pride goeth before all falls.
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It's the thing.
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Because it's pride that causes me to look at any sin and say.
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That's good for me even though God says it's bad for me.
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Every sin I commit is preceded by a moment of pride.
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And so.
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Getting down on a kneeling stooped position.
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And washing the feet of these men.
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These grody, dirty, fisherman feet.
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I'm just trying to paint a picture for you.
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Funky feet.
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Is an act of pure love.
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On behalf of Jesus.
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One, he didn't have to do it.
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He could have just had the basin out.
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When they came in they could have washed their own feet.
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Or another servant.
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May have been because it was a special occasion.
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They may have hired a servant.
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Whose role it was to wash their feet as they came in.
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But they didn't do that.
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And Jesus becomes the servant.
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Jesus takes the place of the man or the young child.
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The boy who would have done it.
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And Jesus submits himself to an act of humiliation.
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Now with that in mind.
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I want you to just hold your place in John.
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Because I want you to go over to Philippians chapter 2.
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I want to show you something.
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Because this is not Jesus' greatest act of humiliation.
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I want to show you what the Bible says is Jesus' greatest act of humiliation.
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And that's in Philippians chapter 2.
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This passage in Philippians 2 is called the Carmen Christi.
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That simply means the song of Christ.
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It is a recounting of the humility of Christ.
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And I want you to notice what it's saying.
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If you look at chapter 2.
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The Apostle Paul is calling the people to be humble.
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And look at verse 4.
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He says, Let each of you look not only to his own interest, but also to the interest of others.
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Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus.
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Who though he was in the form of God, did not account equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men, and being found in human form.
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He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
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Notice the picture that Paul is painting of Jesus.
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He's saying you need to be humble.
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And if you want to know what humility looks like, look at Jesus.
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Because he was in the form of God.
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He was in the form of God.
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He has always existed in the form of God.
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But he did not count equality with God something to hold on to.
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But rather, he submitted himself to becoming human.
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That is the greatest act of humility that has ever been demonstrated in the history of the world.
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God becomes a man.
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The Creator becomes part of His creation.
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The One who made all things becomes part of the world.
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The Bible says in John 1, in the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God and the Word was God, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld His glory, the glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
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That is an act of sheer humiliation that not only would He come as a man rather than as God, but He comes as the God-man, man being the focus.
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And He dies as a man, the most humiliating of deaths.
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He dies naked on a cross.
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Every picture we always see of Jesus, He's somewhat clothed on the cross, at least with a loincloth.
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No.
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In Roman practice, it was a practice to strip them bare and hang them naked as a sign of absolute humiliation.
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Before the eyes of the world, Jesus hung between heaven and earth, naked, shamed by the world, and smitten of God.
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That is humiliation.
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Yes? Carmen Christie.
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That section I just read to you is considered to be one of the early confessions of faith that was pronounced among Christians.
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And the profession of faith would begin in verse 6.
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He was in the form of God, but He did not account equality with God, a thing to be grasped, but made Himself nothing, taking the form of a servant.
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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 a cross.
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Scholars have noted that that particular section sounds as if Paul is quoting something that was already well known within the community.
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Paul, it seems to be quoting a confession of faith or a song that was well known within the community.
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So they call it the Carmen Christie, the song of faith.
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This is what we believe of Jesus.
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Carmen, C-A-R-M-E-N.
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And then Christie is just Christ with an I on the end.
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Yeah, yeah, yeah.
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It's Latin, but it's just the song of Christ.
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And it goes on.
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It says, Therefore God has highly exalted Him and bestowed upon Him the name that is above every name so that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.
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You see, it goes from humiliation to exaltation.
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He goes from stepping down to being lifted up.
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He goes from becoming a man to now being the God-man who lives forever to make intercession for His people.
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You see, the humiliation doesn't last forever.
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But we can't forget that there was an act of humiliation.
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And we see again, going back to John 13 now.
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Like I said, hold your place because we're going to keep reading.
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We see in John 13 this act of humiliation pictured in the washing of the feet of the disciples.
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Now, verse 6, there's a little interjection here that is often the focus.
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It's an interesting moment because one of the apostles objects.
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Listen to verse 6.
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It says, 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, but afterward you will understand.
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And Peter said to him, you shall never wash my feet.
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Now stop right there.
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Just for a moment.
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Get the juxtaposition between the humility and the pride.
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Because Jesus is humbling Himself by bowing down and washing the feet of His disciples.
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Peter comes up and he says, you're going to wash my feet? Jesus said, you don't understand what I'm doing.
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And He says, you will never wash my feet.
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Can you imagine? Looking at the Lord of glory, a guy you've been following for three years, you've seen Him raise the dead.
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You have seen Him take five loaves and two fish and feed 5,000 people.
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You have walked on the water with Him, yet you're going to still run your mouth and say, you won't wash my feet.
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Now you might think Peter is exercising a grander humility than the other disciples.
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But you see, he's not.
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In a moment, he's exercising pride.
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Because he's telling Jesus what he ought to do.
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This was Peter's biggest...
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And I tell you, of all the disciples I tend to relate to Peter the most because he had a big mouth and he didn't know when to keep it shut.
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And I get it.
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I understand having a big mouth and I understand not knowing when to keep my mouth shut.
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And Peter was like that.
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Yeah, and that's coming.
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And he's about to tell Him that that's going to happen.
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That's actually the end of the chapter when Jesus tells him, you're going to deny Me three times.
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So Peter had this problem of he'd run off at the mouth.
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And he says, you will never wash my feet.
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And Jesus, of course, responded and said, if I do not wash you, you have no share with Me.
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So now Peter realized he got messed up.
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So verse 9, Simon Peter said to Him, Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head.
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So now Peter wants to run in the other direction.
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If washing my feet ain't good, I want you to wash everything.
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Hands and head and everything.
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In verse 10, Jesus said to him, the one who has bathed does not need to wash except for his feet, but is completely clean.
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And you are clean, but not every one of you.
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Now, for a moment, just for a moment, there is a theological principle here that we shouldn't miss.
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Because when Jesus tells Peter, basically, that if you take a bath, you don't need to take a bath again, but you do need to wash your feet.
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This was somewhat of an issue in the first century, because as I said, walking from place to place, you pick up stuff on your feet.
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But if you bathe, you don't have to wash your whole body.
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And I think it's not explicitly stated, but I do think that there's a principle at work here that Jesus is trying to get across to Peter.
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And the principle is this, when we are saved, when we come to a knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ and we believe on Him, we are justified of our sins.
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We are cleansed.
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We are bathed.
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And that only has to happen once.
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You don't get saved every time you believe, right? Because you're saved.
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And you continue to be saved.
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You abide in Him and He abides in you.
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Right? I always get frustrated when I see people at some of these churches that do these invitations and the same people come down every Sunday.
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Why are you coming down every Sunday? Well, I feel like I lost my salvation.
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Come on now! You ain't holding on to Him.
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He's holding on to you.
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Right? And so there's a dangerous thinking when you start thinking that salvation is like a yo-yo and one week you're up and one week you're down and it's back and forth, back and forth, back and forth.
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But Jesus said you don't have to wash your whole self again, but you do have to wash your feet.
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Why? Because you pick up the dirt.
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And I think that we have a distinction here between our salvation and our sanctification.
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We do have to repent every day of these sins that we deal with daily.
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We do have to wash our feet daily even though we don't have to get saved every day.
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So keep that in mind.
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There's a principle at work here Jesus is teaching.
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But notice He says, He says, You are clean, but not every one of you.
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For He knew who was to betray Him.
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That was why He said not all of you are clean.
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Now, stopping right there, we know who He's talking about.
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He's talking about Judas Iscariot.
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Judas Iscariot is the one who has betrayed Him.
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He is the one that is going to sell Him out with a kiss.
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Judas Iscariot is the one who is seen in many sense as being the villain of the narrative.
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And certainly he is villainous.
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But Jesus doesn't point him out immediately.
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Rather, He goes and takes His place back at the seat.
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Look at verse 12.
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It says, When He had washed their feet and put on His outer garments and resumed His place, He said to them, Do you understand what I have done to you? You call Me Teacher and Lord and you are right, for I am.
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If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet.
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By the way, I'm just stopping right there for a quick interjection.
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Some churches believe that washing the feet is a third ordinance.
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Now, ecclesiology question.
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What are the first two ordinances? That's right.
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Baptism and the Lord's Supper.
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Right? Or the communion.
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So, we do have two ordinances in the church.
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And what does ordinance mean? A law or a command.
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Sacrament is another word.
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The word sacrament actually comes from the Latin which means an ordinance or a law, but it later would become more in line with a mystery.
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Sometimes the word sacrament can be referred to as a mystery.
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But it did in its older sense meant an ordinance or a law.
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So the idea of an ordinance or a command, there were two.
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Jesus said, Go ye therefore and baptize.
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That's a command.
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And He says, Take this bread and this cup and remember Me.
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That's a command.
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Right? Well, some people believe that foot washing is a command on the same level as the first two.
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And they consider it to be a third ordinance.
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In fact, I just finished reading a book on Baptist history.
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It was called Baptist in America.
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And it's interesting that early in American Baptist history there were some who distinguished themselves by being foot washers.
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That was part of how they distinguished themselves as they not only practiced baptism which was different than the Presbyterians and the Lutherans because they baptized adults by dipping them in water rather than babies by sprinkling them on the head or pouring on the head.
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And so not only did they practice baptism differently, not only did they have a different view of the Lord's Supper, but they also took a distinct view of the foot washing.
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Now, I want to clarify and say I don't think that this is an ordinance in the same way that baptism in the Lord's Supper is an ordinance because what we're going to see is that the act of foot washing is not meant to be something that is practiced as that, but foot washing is a symbol of a larger principle of service.
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Foot washing is a symbol of a larger principle of how we ought to treat one another.
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Right? Because I tell you what, if I won't wash your feet, I probably won't do other things that you need done.
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Right? If I'm not willing to stoop down and love you like that, I probably won't love you in other ways.
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So the principle when He says here in this text, for I have given you an example that you also should do as I have done to you.
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I think that word example is important because that's what foot washing is.
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It's not intended to be practiced in that way for all time.
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Not to say that it's wrong.
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If you want to wash your brother's feet, wash his feet to the glory of God.
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If you want to have a foot washing service, have a foot washing service to the glory of God.
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There's nothing wrong with it.
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But if a church doesn't practice baptism, then it's wrong because we're commanded to practice baptism.
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If a church doesn't practice the Lord's Supper, then it's wrong because we're commanded.
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Now, how often we do it, that can be debated.
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Some people do it once a month.
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Our church does it every week.
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That's a debate as to how often.
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Jesus says as often as you do it.
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Right? And again, this is getting back to ecclesiology.
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Part of what makes the church is the practicing of baptism in the Lord's Supper.
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If a church doesn't do those two things, it ain't a church.
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Because those are commands.
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They're ordinances of Christ.
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But foot washing is not an ordinance in this example.
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And so, could a church have a foot washing service where all the elders wash the people's feet? Yes, I've seen it done.
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Don't have any problem with it.
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But it's not necessarily what's being told here.
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Foot washing is the example.
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So He goes on.
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Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him.
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If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.
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Then He goes in verse 18, I am not speaking of all of you.
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I know whom I have chosen, but the Scripture will be fulfilled.
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He who ate My bread has lifted his heel against Me.
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I'm telling you this now before it takes place, that when it does take place, you may believe that I am He.
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Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever receives the one I send, receives Me, and whoever receives Me, receives the one who sent Me.
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Now, verses 21-30 is Jesus defining His betrayer.
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That's Judas.
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I don't have time to get into that right now.
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That's not my goal.
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If we had time to exegete the whole thing, we would, but I don't want to.
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I want to get down now to verse 31 because He's going to tie the new commandment.
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Remember I said that's what we're talking about.
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That's the mandato.
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That's what today is about.
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He's going to tie this back to the foot washing.
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So look at verse 31.
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When He had gone out, Jesus said, Now is the Son of Man glorified.
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God is glorified in Him.
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If God is glorified in Him, God will also glorify Him in Himself and glorify Him at once.
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Little children, yet a little while I am with you.
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You will seek Me, and just as I said to the Jews, so now I say to you, where I am going you cannot come.
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He's talking about, of course, first of all the cross, and then, of course, He is going into glory.
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But then verse 34.
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A new commandment I give to you that you love one another just as I have loved you.
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You are also to love one another.
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By this all people will know that you are My disciples if you have love for one another.
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Let's for a moment ask a question.
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Is loving your neighbor a new commandment in the New Testament? No.
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Don't we have the command to love our neighbor in the Old Testament? In fact, let me ask you this question.
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When Jesus was talking to the crowds, He asked a question.
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He did this on at least two occasions.
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He asked the question, What is the greatest commandment? Actually, one time He was asked and one time He asked.
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So one time He asked, What is the greatest commandment? And the teacher of the law said, Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.
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And what? Love your neighbor as yourself.
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So there's one time Jesus is asked and that's the answer He gives.
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Another time He asks and that's the answer the man gives.
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So there is an understanding that there are two basises or basises...
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I don't make up words, but I think I just did on accident.
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Two foundations for love.
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The first is to love God.
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Now, just real quick, where does the command to love God come from? Well, it comes from God and your heart.
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I mean in Scripture.
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In Scripture, where is the command to love God? Actually, there are passages.
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The one I'm specifically thinking of though is Deuteronomy 6.
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Because Deuteronomy 6 gives us the prayer of Israel called the Shema.
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And it says, Hear, O Israel, the Lord thy God, the Lord is one.
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And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and all your mind, and all your strength.
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So when Jesus references that, He's referencing Deuteronomy 6.
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Now, love the Lord your God.
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Deuteronomy 6.
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Okay, so we have this.
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But then the second commandment is love your neighbor.
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And not only love your neighbor, but how? As yourself.
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Now, for a moment, I want to ask you, where is that in the Old Testament? No, that's a good guess though, because that's the Ten Commandments.
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And it is exemplified in the Ten Commandments, but that statement, love your neighbor as yourself, is in the Old Testament, but it's not in Exodus 20.
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It does, and you're both right, but it's actually stated just like that.
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It's in Leviticus 19.
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Turn with me very quickly.
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Because it's so weird.
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And I'll explain what I mean when I say it's weird.
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Turn to Leviticus 19 and look at verse 18.
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But listen to it in its whole form.
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You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself.
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I am the Lord.
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Now, just for a moment.
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Just for a moment.
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If you look at that, that's part of a lot of other commandments.
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If you go to verse 15, you shall do no injustice in court, you shall not be partial to the poor.
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Verse 16, you shall not go around as a slander among your people, you shall not stand up against the life.
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Verse 17, you shall not hate your brother in your heart, you shall reason frankly with your neighbor.
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Verse 18, you shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself.
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It's not even the whole verse.
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It's part of a larger verse.
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And here's my point.
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Jesus attaches the command of behavioral ethics, love, to an obscure passage in Leviticus.
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It's not part of the commandments.
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It's not part of the Ten Commandments.
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It's not in Exodus 20.
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This is an obscure passage in Leviticus.
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And you say, Pastor, what are you trying to get to? What I'm trying to get to is simply this.
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This command, though it's in this small text in Leviticus, was understood by everybody to be the heart of ethical thinking.
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The how we ought to live as followers of Yahweh, followers of God, is we ought to love Him first and then love our neighbor as ourself.
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Now, go back to the Ten Commandments.
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That is the Ten Commandments compressed because the first four commandments, have no other gods before the Lord, do not make any idols, do not use the Lord's name in vain.
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Remember the Sabbath.
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That's all ways we love God.
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And then the last six commandments, honor your father and mother, do not commit murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not lie, do not covet what is your neighbor's.
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Those last six commandments are the way we love other people.
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Right? It's almost like he's using our pride to put everybody else.
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You know what I mean? Because we love ourselves.
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You know what I mean? We just love ourselves.
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We do.
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We do.
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So he's saying, yes, love them more than you love yourself.
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That's right.
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In fact, you may have heard this before, but I do like it.
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You ever heard the definition of joy? J-O-Y is Jesus, others, and yourself.
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Because Jesus is first, others second, and then you.
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Well, if you order your life that way, it will certainly make a difference.
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But my point in all of this is simply to say, the command to love your neighbor was already well ensconced in the Hebrew thought.
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It was Scripture, the very text.
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Love your neighbors yourself is there in Leviticus 19.18.
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It is codified in the commandments which teach us what love looks like, that we love God by not serving idols and not using His name in vain.
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And we love our neighbor by not committing murder, not committing adultery, not stealing, not lying, not coveting.
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We see it in the commandments.
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So what makes this a new commandment? One phrase makes this a new commandment.
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Jesus said, a new commandment I give to you that you love one another.
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That's not it.
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Because they already had that command.
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But the command is different now.
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Jesus says, a new commandment I give to you that you love one another as I have loved you.
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So the commandment was love your neighbor as yourself.
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Now the commandment is love your neighbor as Jesus has loved you.
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That's a big change.
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Because now we have the greatest example of love and humility in history as our high water mark, our benchmark.
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Jesus is love.
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He is the example.
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Therefore, if I have a question about how I ought to treat somebody, my first question ought to be, how would Jesus treat this person? If I'm being hated by someone, how did Jesus treat people who hated Him? He loved them.
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If I am in the midst of a situation where somebody is making it very hard to love, I have to remember I made it hard for God to love me.
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I have made it hard for God to tolerate me.
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And in all rights, He shouldn't tolerate me.
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God should have crushed me a long time ago.
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But He loved me and He gave Himself for me.
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He loved me and He sacrificed His life for me even though I didn't deserve it.
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While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
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Let me give you a thought here and I want to write this down.
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If you are taking notes, and I know not everybody is, but if you are, I want to give you three thoughts as to the love of Christ.
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And this is not from me.
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This is actually from Pastor Blake White.
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I heard it about two or three weeks ago and ever since I heard the sermon, it has stuck with me because you've heard the phrase the law of Christ and that's in the New Testament.
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It talks about as Christians, we live under the law of Christ.
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We live according to the law of Christ.
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And he was defining what is the law of Christ.
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And here it is.
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It's simple.
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Self-sacrificing, rights renouncing, burden bearing love.
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That is the law of Christ.
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This is the Christian ethic.
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This is how we are to live.
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First, we give ourselves to others.
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Self-sacrificing.
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Jesus got down and He washed feet.
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He even washed the feet of the dude He knew was about to betray Him.
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That's humble.
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That's right.
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So self-sacrificing, rights renouncing.
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You know what? Everybody always wants to talk about my rights and I have my rights and I get to have my way because of my rights.
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Jesus was rights renouncing.
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He had the right to be...
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He was God and He became man.
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Now He didn't give up being God in the sense that He divulged Himself of His deity, but He became man in humility.
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He wrapped Himself in flesh.
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Rights renouncing.
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He didn't come into the world through the palace.
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He came into the world through the manger.
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He didn't come through a queen.
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He came through a virgin maiden.
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He didn't come and be the son of a pharaoh.
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He was the son of a carpenter.
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And He lived 30 years as an obscure man from Nazareth.
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This was Jesus.
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Rights renouncing.
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Burden bearing love.
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The Bible says that we are to cast our cares upon Him.
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Why? Because He cares for us.
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He bears our burdens for us.
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He is the One who takes our sin upon Himself.
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Jesus loves us.
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And He tells us, Here is my commandment, my new commandment.
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Love one another as I have loved you.
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And this is how the world will know you.
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By the way, getting back to ecclesiology, I'm going to wrap the whole lesson up right now.
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The main purpose of the church is that it brings the people of God together to love and serve one another and to make disciples of all nations.
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That's our purpose.
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We come together to love and serve one another and then go out together and make disciples so that we can love and serve even more.
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So, that is my lesson today on Maundy Thursday.
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Yes, sir? What was the two other commandments? Love yourself as you love your neighbor, as you love yourself.
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And what was the other one? The first one was love the Lord your God with all your heart.
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Love your neighbor as yourself.
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And Jesus says the new commandment is not just to love your neighbor as yourself, but love as I have loved you.
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Alright, I hope this...
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That's also the rule though, too, isn't it? That is, yes.
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Yeah, I believe so.
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I believe so.
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Well, gentlemen, I hope that was encouraging.
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Let's pray.
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Father, I thank You for Your Word.
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I thank You for Your truth.
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And I pray, Lord, that Your Word today would remind us all of the importance of self-sacrificing, rights-renouncing, burden-bearing love.
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Lord, and I pray that these men would love one another.
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I pray that they would love those who have been put in leadership over them.
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I pray that they would love their pastor.
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And I pray that they would serve well knowing, Lord, that You have called us all to serve one another as You have served us.
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In Christ's name.
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Amen.