“I Have Given You an Example” By
Brother Parrish Lee March 4th, 2018 Giving honor
to God who is the Head of my life, and our lives. Giving honor to our
Maker,
our Master, our Creator, the lover of our souls. The Giver of all good
and
perfect gifts, the one who never fails, the one who never fails, the
one who
never leaves us nor forsakes us, the one who hears even our faintest
cry, the
one who understands the things that we don't even know how to put into
words,
the one who really, really, really is God and Lord of all, giving honor
to You,
Almighty God. Giving honor to all of those who have come on, who’ve
come and
stood in the gap, and made up the hedge. Down through those who were in
the Word,
down through history, those who have stood in the gap in this ministry,
our
founding pastor and his family, those who are our—as our pastors were
up here,
the pastors and their families, all of those who’ve come to stand in
the gap
and make up the hedge. Giving honor to every single one of them,
knowing that
it is a calling, it is a calling. And, giving honor to all of y'all, to
present
yourselves before that one self-same God, and say, “Lord, here am I,
just as I
am. And, use me just like I am. What You clean up, You clean up, and
what You
decide to keep, You keep, because, God, I am Yours.” Giving honor to
all of
y'all. Just so
thankful for the opportunity to be a Christian, in 2018. To know His
name, to
receive Him at His word, and to know what the love of God is, that
peace that
passes all understanding, the love that the whole world chases after.
He who
makes a difference through everything. We've taken on a—we had a
wonderful
time, the last week, and all, but we've taken this as a thought, as a
theme
this month. It's from the Book of John, chapter thirteen, and verse
fifteen; that
is our theme for the month. And our theme for the month is: John
13:15
For I
have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to
you. Marvelous.
What a marvelous thing. The Lord Jesus talking to the disciples: “I
have given
you an example.” and He even told them. What a marvelous, marvelous
thing for
our Almighty savior to come and say to us: “I have given you an
example, and as
I have done, as I have done unto you, that is what you should do to
others.” but,
our thought for today, our thought for today, if brother Jesse would
come, is going
to be from the Book of John, chapter thirteen, verses four through
sixteen. The
title of the message today is simply, “I Have Given You an Example.” I
have
given you an example. From The Book of John, chapter thirteen, verses
four
through sixteen. Brother Jesse: John
13:4-16
he riseth from supper, and laid aside his garments; and took a towel,
and
girded himself. After that he poureth water into a bason, and began to
wash the
disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith he was
girded. Then
cometh he to Simon Peter: and Peter saith unto him, Lord, dost thou
wash my
feet? Jesus answered and said unto him, What
I do thou
knowest not now; but thou shalt know hereafter. Peter saith unto
him,
Thou shalt never wash my feet. Jesus answered him, If I wash thee not,
thou
hast no part with me. Simon Peter saith unto him, Lord, not my feet
only, but
also my hands and my head. Jesus saith to him, He that
is washed needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit:
and ye
are clean, but not all. For he knew who should betray him; therefore
said he,
Ye are not all clean. So after he had washed their feet, and had
taken
his garments, and was set down again, he said unto them, Know ye what I have done to you?
Ye call me Master and Lord: and ye say well;
for so I am. If I then, your Lord and
Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that ye
should do as I have done to you. Verily,
verily, I say unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord;
neither he
that is sent greater than he that sent him. Thank you,
Brother Jesse. If we could just bow our heads for just a moment.
Almighty God,
we are just amazed at what You do, over and over. Who is like You, God,
in all
of creation, through all of time, who is like You, who just casts out
and
receives what You will? Who speaks, and light is formed? Who separates
darkness
from the light? Who calls what is right, and what is not right? Who is
like You,
Almighty God? We thank You, we thank You, Almighty God, for that which
You have
given unto us, the opportunity to raise up this morning, open our
mouths and
sing a praise to You, The Giver of all good and perfect gifts. And to
know for
a fact, in our mind and in our hearts, that You are the Lord of all.
God, we
thank You for the opportunity to worship Your holy, holy name, and,
Lord, we
ask, we ask now that, at the time that we go over Your Word, we ask,
one, that Your
messenger is not in the way, God, but Your message would have free
reign and,
Lord Jesus, number two, we ask that it would do, as You said in Your
word, not
return unto You void, but from Your servants, from Your sons and Your
daughters, that it would accomplish that to which You sent, in our
lives, Almighty
God. And, that make us better for Your sake and for the Kingdom’s sake.
This we
do pray and claim in Jesus’ Name, and everyone said, amen. Amen. Part
1:
The Background for The
Example So the Lord
said, He rises from supper, and He lays aside His garments, and took a
towel,
and girdeth Himself. If we could give just a little background on this
passage
of Scriptures that we go to today, if we start at the beginning of the
chapter,
we see that this is the time—a familiar time, of The Last Supper. The
Last
Supper. And we know, we've seen the paintings, we've seen the pictures,
we've
heard that, and we've got services around it, that’s this time that the
Lord is
addressing right now. And, at this time, as we go here, we see that
this is
after the supper. Dinner is all done. The Lord rises, He lays aside His
garments, He takes up a towel, He takes up a basin, or a bowl, and He
gets
water, and He pours the water into the bowl, and He commences, He
commences—that
means He had to be down on His knees to accomplish this task—He
commences to
wash the feet of the disciples, of His disciples. He commences washing
their
feet, and wiping them with the towel. Now, this act, this custom, has a
lot of
relevancy in that, you see, back then, they didn't have Nikes. And,
they didn't
have Florsheims. And, if my sister were here, she would say, did they
even have
Jessica Simpsons back then? And, for all you guys, that's a woman shoe,
that my
sister's crazy about. Jessica Simpsons. No, they didn't have Jessica
Simpson's
back then. Either they had animal skins that they used, and a lot of
times they
just had the threads that would come through, and they would wear
sandals. They
were an agricultural type of people, they didn't have the big combines
that
they had that would do everything. They had to do everything by hand,
and they
would use their beast that would go out into the field. So, their feet
would
get dusty and dirty, and they didn't have asphalt and concrete like we
do.
Things were dusty and dirty back then. And, they didn't have fancy
running
water, so, yeah, you can just imagine what that would mean, all over
the place.
Animals, yes, people, yes. So, this was a relevant part of their
culture, to go
in and to have your feet washed. In fact, when this were to happen,
when people
were to come into the house, it was considered unfriendly if you didn't
provide
a bowl, a basin, some water, for them to wash their feet. And, it was
the duty
of the lowest person in the house to do the washing, the lowest person
in the
house. That was their duty, to wash the feet of those that came in.
Except for
a couple of exceptions. Except for the case of the wife to her husband;
when
the husband would come in the house the wife was to wash her husband's
feet.
And his face. I knew it was going to be quiet on that one. I knew it
was going
to be quiet—I can imagine today, I can imagine, today, if a husband
goes
walking in the house, and says, “Wife, I'm home. Wash my feet,” I know
exactly
where she would go. Right over to the telephone. Right over to the
telephone,
call nine-one-one, and tell them, “You better get here quick, because
he's going
to need you. He's about to get a beat down. Who he think he talkin’
to?” Times have
changed. Yes, times have changed. But, back then, it was a custom. It
was a
custom that this was what the wife would do, for her husband. No other
person
in the house was supposed to. If they had servants, the servants
weren't supposed
to do that. That was the duty and entitlement between the wife to the
husband.
Because, the wife and the husband, see, they had a special bond, a
special
bond. And, that was between those two. And, there was another
exception: when
it was to be, that someone, other than the lowest person in the house,
wanted
to show a lot of respect, a lot of honor, to whoever was coming in,
they would
humble, or even humiliate, themselves down. Which means, they would
take
themselves down that they would elevate the one who came in. And, that
was a
sign of deep respect, of deep honor, they would wash the feet of those
who
would come in. And, this was to show high significance. High
significance to
that person who was the washee. The washer was the humiliated one. The
washee, that
who received washing was the elevated one, the honored one, the
respected one,
the cherished one. So, you see,
at the Last Supper, when the Lord did this, He even told them, He even
told
them, “You don't even understand what I do for you, right now. But, you
will,
you will in time.” And Peter said, “No, no! No, Lord, You don't do this
for me.
You don't do this for me, Lord. Because You are the high and elevated
one. I'm
the one who's down, if anything, in here, I'll wash Your feet. If
anything,” and
the Lord said, “No. Right now, you don't even understand this kind of
love. You
don't even understand this. But you will, in time to come. And, so, I'm
leaving
you an example. I'm giving you a example. And, you would have thought
that He
was making himself beneath, beneath—hold on to that thought—beneath.
Now,
family’s and friends’ houses were not the only places where there was a
foot-washing going on, you see, you see, you couldn't enter into the
presence
of royalty, of nobility, unprepared, unclean, unwashed. If you wanted
to go see
a king, or a prince, no, you had to wash, at a minimum, your face, that
was
going to be presenting, and your feet before you walked in, at a
minimum. In
fact, in fact, the people of Israel knew that they couldn't go into the
presence of God unwashed. When I was a
Muslim—I
debated on whether I was going to tell this—when I was Muslim, we had
to, whenever
we were going to go and pray, and the whole thing, we had to do what
was called
ablution. I never understood it, I didn't know why, it was just
something that
you did, it put a certain thing on. You had to wash your face three
times, you
had to wash your hands three times, you had to wash your feet three
times. And
I thought, “Man, this is really something. It sets us apart from
Christianity,”
when I was Muslim. Because, I thought, “Christians don't take their
religion,
their faith seriously, but, we who are Muslims, we take it so much more
seriously.” Never mind that we don't have a savior who shed His blood.
Never
mind that we can't feel the precious Spirit of God. This one act is
what makes
us clean. Never mind that we could never be clean except for the blood
of
Christ. Never mind that. Some sort of act with accomplish this purpose.
But, if
we could see, even the origin of that, we would go to the Old
Testament. And,
in the Old Testament, the Jews knew. Priest, family, nobody could go
before the
presence of God without washing. If Ed would come, from the book of
Exodus,
chapter thirty, we want to look at verses seventeen through twenty-one.
If Ed Kretzer
would come. The Israelites were not permitted to go into the presence
of God
without being prepared. Exodus, thirty, seventeen through twenty-one: Exodus
30:17-21
And the Lord
spake unto Moses, saying, Thou shalt also make a
laver of brass, and his foot also of brass, to wash withal: and thou
shalt put
it between the tabernacle of the congregation and the altar, and thou
shalt put
water therein. For Aaron and his sons shall wash their hands and their
feet
thereat: when they go into the tabernacle of the congregation, they
shall wash
with water, that they die not; or when they come near to the altar to
minister,
to burn offering made by fire unto the Lord: so they shall wash their
hands and
their feet, that they die not: and it shall be a statute for ever to
them, even
to him and to his seed throughout their generations. Thank you,
Brother
Ed. So, verse nineteen said, “For Aaron and his sons should wash their
hands and
their feet thereat:” Verse twenty: “When they go into the Tabernacle of
the
congregation they should wash with water that, that, that they die
not;” You
ever heard the term, “Cleanliness is next to Godliness?” It is rooted
right
here. Cleanliness is next to Godliness. Now, of course, the Lord came
and gave
us the true expountion of that. He talked about, “You wash the outside
of the
platter, but the inside, the inside could be filled with dead man's
bones. In
other words, you're coming into the presence of God, you got to take it
seriously. It is a serious thing to come into the presence, or as the
scripture
said, it is a fearful thing to come into the presence of the Living God
(Hebrews 10:31). “so shall they—” in verse twenty-one, “so shall they
wash
their hands and their feet, that they die not: and it shall be a
statute, this
shall be a statute forever, to them. Even to him, and to their seed,
throughout
their generations.” That was Part One, that was the background for the
example. Part
2: Exploring That Example Exploring the
Lord's example. Definition of example: the definition of an example is
one that
serves as a pattern to be imitated, or not to be imitated as a good
example. To
be imitated or not to be imitated as a good example. If you want an
example,
you have examples that are good for you, and you have examples that are
not
good for you. In other words, examples are given to teach. Examples are
given
to teach. And, an example is a powerful thing. An example is such a
powerful
thing. Wherein our walk by the examples that are set before us. We see,
when
we're babes, and small children, we see walking and we know. We start
crawling,
but we see other people on two legs and we strive to get to that point,
walking.
There are recorded incidence of babes who were raised by wolves, and
raised by
monkeys. Raised by wolves and raised by monkeys. And, so, guess how
they learn
how to walk? Those who were raised by wolves went around on all fours.
And,
they ate like wolves ate. Those who were raised by monkeys went around
humped,
like monkeys go around. And, they climbed trees like monkeys do. They
were raised,
they had their example, by monkeys. So, an example is a powerful thing.
By
example we learned how to talk. If you're around people that speak
French,
that's your example; that's what you grow to speak. People who are
around
French people, raised by French people, don't go around speaking
Mandarin
Chinese. That isn't their example. Their example is French. The people
who were
raised around Americans, they speak American. And, if you wonder why I
didn't
say English, talk to somebody from England and ask them about the
language that
we speak, they'll tell you, “That ain't English. You guys speak
American, and,
some of you, I don't know what you speak, because I never can
understand what
you're saying.” Those of us that were raised by Americans we speak
American. If
we were raised by Texans we have a Texas drawl. If we were raised by
those in
the Midwest, we have what they say is the neutral accent. But, if you
were
raised from out east, especially around Maryland, especially around
that
Baltimore area, you speak the right language, you speak the language
that I can
understand, yes! But, that's the example that is set before us. We're
going to
walk and talk by those examples. By that same token, by that same
token, that's
how we learn how to worship; we see other people worship, and that’s
how we got
forth in worship. Now, that's how we learn how to pray. We see an
examples of
prayer, and, so many times, what is in our life, takes what we've
learned to a
new level, to a new level, to a new height. But, the origin of it goes
back—peel
off what we add to it, peel off our talents and our modifications of
it, and
you go back, and you find the example. So, by the examples, you know
how to
work on your job. Jobs provide examples. They tell you what they want
from you.
They show you how it's done. They provide you an example. Schools
provide
examples. They show you what you need to attain to, they show you the
formulas
and everything, how to go through, they provide an example for you to
go
through and get your certificate. And, the military, they provide
examples.
They show you how to talk, they show you how to walk, they show you how
to
stand, they show you how to dress, they provide an example, how to be
successful in the military. So, examples serve a purpose. The purpose
of an
example is to teach, is to teach. And, there's
several examples that the Lord had left for us. There's several
examples.
Example number one, if Greg would come, we're going to go to the Book
of John,
chapter twelve, and we're going to read from verses twenty-six through
thirty.
So, the Lord provides us many examples. Example number one: The Lord
shows us
we can have audience with the Almighty; in example, He shows us we can
have
audience with the Almighty. From The Book of John, chapter twelve,
verses twenty-six
through thirty: John
12:26-30 If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am,
there shall
also my servant be: if any man serve me, him will my Father honour. Now
is my
soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour:
but for
this cause came I unto this hour. Father, glorify thy name. Then
came there a voice from heaven, saying, I have both glorified
it, and will glorify it again. The people therefore, that stood by, and
heard
it, said that it thundered: others said, An angel spake to him. Jesus
answered
and said, This voice came not because of me,
but for
your sakes. Thank you,
brother Greg. So, the Lord went out, and He began to going share, and
He led
them in, and He showed them, as He said, “Father, glorify thy name,”
addressing
Almighty God, having audience with Almighty God. And, at the end of it,
it
says, in verse number twenty-eight, it says “Then came there a voice
from
heaven, saying, I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.”
and
everybody was kind of wondering, “Hey, what's going on here?” and, they
thought, maybe it's this, maybe it's that, but, in verse number thirty,
the
Lord answers, and says, “This didn't come for me. This didn't come for
me. This
came for your sakes, that you might know to present yourself before the
Lord.
And, you may be able to have audience with the Lord. Pray, humble
yourself, come
before Him with Thanksgiving, give honor unto Almighty God. You, too,
can have
audience, audience with the Creator of the universe.” Yes, yes. Example
number 2: We can be baptized with His baptism. From The Book of
Matthew,
chapter twenty, verses twenty-two and twenty-three: Matthew
20:22-23
But Jesus
answered and said, Ye know not
what ye ask. Are ye able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of, and
to be
baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with? They say
unto him, We
are able. And he saith unto them, Ye shall
drink indeed
of my cup, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with:
but to sit
on my right hand, and on my left, is not mine to give, but it shall be
given to
them for whom it is prepared of my Father. So, three
things happened when the Lord got baptized. If we were go to Matthew
chapter three,
three things happened. The Bible says, “Lo, Jesus when He was baptized,
they
came straightway up out of the water, and, lo, the heavens were opened
unto Him.”
The heavens were opened unto Him. Good Lord! The heavens was opened to
the Lord
Jesus. Wow! What a sight that must have been that everybody around sees
Heaven opened
to the Lord Jesus. And, the second thing they saw, they visibly saw
it—the Spirit
of God descending on Him, like a dove, and lighting on Him. They
actually saw a
physical manifestation of the Spirit of God; they saw it with their
eyes. And,
number three, they heard, as it were, a voice from heaven, and, it
didn’t say, “Hey,
you know what, that was kind of interesting.” No, the voice said, “This
is my
beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” Three things: the heavens
being
opened, the spirit of God descending on Him, and, and God acknowledging
from Heaven,
“This is My—not servant—Son, in whom I am well pleased.” (Matthew
3:16-17) And
the Lord Jesus turned around to His disciples, His people, and He said,
“You
can be baptized with my baptism. You can have that, too.” Amen. And, example
number 3: we can learn to love like He loves. We can learn to love like
He
loves. Is Brother Ed still there? Brother Ed Kretzer? That's okay.
Brother
Mike, why don't you come on up? I'm going to ask you to read from the
Book of
John, chapter fifteen, verse number nine. So, three examples we’ve had:
the
Lord shows we can have audience with the Almighty, and the Lord shows
that we can
be baptized with His baptism, and, here, from the Book of John, chapter
fifteen,
verses nine through thirteen, we can learn to love like the Lord loves.
Electronic Bibles. I tell you, you can't count on them. Electronic
Bibles—I
like the old paper. I'm sorry, I'm a little old-fashioned on that one.
Well,
I'm behind times. But, that's okay, the Lord still loves me. From The
Book of
John, chapter fifteen, verses nine through thirteen: John
15:9-13 As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you:
continue ye
in my love. If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even
as I
have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love. These things
have I
spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy
might be
full. This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved
you.
Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for
his
friends. That's it.
Thank you, bro. Thank you, brother Mike. As My Father has loved Me, so
have I
loved you. Continue in My love. If you keep My Commandments, if you
keep My Commandments,
you shall abide in My love. Even as I have kept My Father's
Commandments, and I
abide in His love. And, verse number twelve, this is My Commandment,
that you
love one another, as I have loved you. The example, He showed, the
Father loves
me. It is all come down on Me. We love the Lord. We love the Lord
Jesus. And we
get that same Commission. And, His Commandment, if we abide in His
Commandment,
we abide in His love. And, His Commandment was that we love one another. Part
3,
(and
the last part)
Letter to CFC Letter to
CFC. I don't know if you were able to put that up there, Pete, yeah. My
computer
had a devil in him the last two days, and I couldn't cast it out.
Pastor Ulysse
was up here though, and he said, “You know, as I was going through the
Book of
Revelation, in the letters to the churches, it was unto the Church of
Sardis, unto
the Church of Philadelphia, and the Church of Laodicea, there was
messages,
letters written to the churches,” and he said, “I wondered, I wondered
what the
letter to Christian Fellowship Church would be, if the Lord were to
write that
letter.” And, he said it made him a little happy. And, if I had enough
ink and
paper, I would have printed out a letter for us all. But, I was out of
ink and
I'm out of paper. But, I don't have to print that out for us all to
know that
God is sending us a letter. And, I believe, I believe that we have some
semblance of what that letter might say in one part of it. In one
part of it, I believe I know what part of that letter would say. I
believe part
of that letter would say, “I have left you an example, that as I have
done, you
do likewise.” and, I know that, the Lord said, “What I do for you right
now,
you don't even understand everything that's going on. But, you will
understand
it in My time. In My time, you'll be able to understand everything that
I'm
doing for you. Everything that you're going through. The understanding
doesn't
come at the time, faith is used at the time. The understanding comes
later. So
many times, it is for someone else; you're going through a trial for
someone
else. You're going through a little tribulation, to be able to have a
blessing.
You are being prepared for something. You might not know it right then,
at the
time, but, you will know it in God's time. And, I think so many of us,
so many
of us, we have certain needs. The letter to CFC. So many of us have
certain
needs, in how we need to be ministered to. You know, I know that one of
the
things that affects all churches is loneliness. Loneliness. Many of us
have a
terrible, terrible—actually, according to the little thing that I read,
it said
everybody has a struggle with loneliness. Even if you're in a big
family.
Sometimes you feel like the connections aren't being made. Nobody can
actually
hear what you're trying to say, because you can't even put it into
words, yourself.
Loneliness, and it goes on to say that loneliness, especially when
there's
nobody around even trying to help, they say it's so dangerous that it
affects
your health. They say it's so dangerous that it causes people to
shrivel up,
because they feel like there's no reward for what they do or what they
are. In
fact, I was talking with a finance person who's trying to—you know
those finance
people, they're always trying to get your money—the work sent for all
the
people that we're getting at a certain age, I ain't going to tell you
the age,
but they sent out saying, “Hopefully, you'll make it to retirement
sometime, and
so you need to be prepared.” And, one of
the financial advisors, we got a little conversation going, because I
run my
mouth all the time, and he said, “You know, I find that so many people
don't
prepare themselves for what they have,” and then he went on to say, “I
find, another
thing that I find is that, you know, older couples,” he said, “I find
that when
one of them passes, the other one isn't long to go, because all their
life has
been wrapped up into their significant other and to their marriage.” he
said, “I've
seen it time and time again.” This financial advisor was saying that to
me. And
I thought, “Well, God has a plan for that.” God said that we should
fellowship,
that we should care for one another, that we should love one another,
that we
should look on the needs, not only of ourselves, but on our fellow man.
God had
a plan for all of that, and, as he was talking, I thought, “Well, it
shouldn't
be that way in the church.” And, you know, he goes to the synagogue,
so, he changed
the conversation, so that was it for that. But, God has a plan for
everything
that we go through. So, loneliness was one of them. Another one is,
when people
say, “You know, I just need to know that somebody's got my back. I just
need to
know that I'm not in this life alone. I could talk with people, but I
need to
know that somebody is on my side. I need to know that somebody is going
to come
through for me. If I stumble, if I fall, if I don't make it as far as I
want to
make it, somebody is going to come along and say, ‘Hey, look, I'm here
to help.’”
That's ministering, ain't it? And, the Lord said, “Hey, I've got an
answer for
that.” He said, “I'll never leave you, never. I'll never leave you nor
forsake
you. I will always have your back, and I will always make sure. You
come to me,
and I will send people to you to have your back.” Some of us want to
know that,
this, somebody cares. Some of us want to have a mentor. Or a teacher.
Some of
us just want to have a friend. When we turn to the Lord, you know what
He says?
“I love you like that. I love you like a friend. In fact, there is a
friend which
sticks closer, the Bible says, than a brother (Proverbs 18:24). I love
you like
that.” You know, some of us will say, “Lord, I need You to be able to
reach me
where I am. I just need You to reach me where I am. It seems like
nobody else
can reach me.” The Bible says we have not an high priest which cannot
be
touched by the feelings of our infirmities, but was in all points was
tempted
like as we are (Hebrews 4:15). He knows how to come to us wherever we
are. All He
asks is that we ask Him. “Lord, I need You to help me.” “Granted. I'll
be right
there.” And, some of us, we might say, “Lord, I can't find my way. I'm
in a
certain situation, I just can't find my way out of this.” and the Bible
says that
Thy Word is a lamp to my feet, and a light to my path way (Psalms
119:105). Yes,
and He loves us to the very end. In fact, how is it to know that the
love of
our Savior is the type of love that passes all understanding, the type
of Love that
never fails, the type of love that is able to minister, and even go
into the
deepest recesses that we might have. That love, that love, people still
are
trying to imitate. It amazes me that they look at Christians, and, you
know,
they want Christians to pray for them when they're going through,
because they
want to come and be touched by what God’s done for them. They know
there's
power in what God does for His people. But, they also know there’s some
accountability and responsibility and, “I don't think I'm up for all of
that. I
just want the blessing. Let me, let me, let me get the blessing but
none of the
responsibility or accountability. No, I don’t want to do it myself, I
want to
come to somebody else. Don't ask me, don't ask me to come before the
Lord. Why
don't you go for me? Because, if I go before the Lord, I know He's a
righteous
God; I'm going to have to get it right. His brightness and His glory is
going
to chase out some of the other stuff.” Yeah, the Lord. But, His love is
not
something that is far away. And, He loves us regardless. And, wrapping
up, He
loves us regardless, His letter, His letter would say, “I love you like
that.”
His letter says, “I lowered myself, not because I'm beneath you; I am
your Lord
and Master. I didn't lower myself because I felt like there was
something that
I couldn't do. I lowered myself to show you that I love you.” In other
words, He
chose to lower himself for us. He chose it. And, He still chooses it,
day after
day after day. All because He loves us. All because that love is so
great. It's
a Godly love. He chose to come down and wash us, because He loves us.
And, the
love of God, the love of God chooses humility. The love of God, yes,
the love
of God, the love of God chooses humility. The love of God, the love of
God
chooses to serve. The love of God chooses to love. Amen.
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