[0:00] Thank you.
[0:30] I'm not as tall as Jonathan. And secondly, I'm seeing less and less well, so I have to put my stuff further and further away from me before I can read it.
[0:41] So that's why I have to kind of lower the stand a bit. Brilliant to be with you guys today. It's a strange day for you. Sunday afternoon service during midterm.
[0:56] Quite odd. Hammering down rain sometimes. It might happen again. Who knows? But I just want to bring greetings and love from Douglas Baptist Church, your sister church.
[1:07] We are truly sister churches because we actually came from the same mothership. If you go far enough back, few enough here I suppose remember it, but Kergoline Baptist was planted out of Cork Baptist somewhere in the 80s.
[1:21] 87, 86, somewhere there. And then Douglas Baptist was planted out of Cork Baptist Church in 2006. And so we're delighted with the fellowship we share, the fact that we share in the love of the Lord together, the ways that we're part of the Cork-Carrie project together and are able to share in the work of the Lord in various ways.
[1:42] And so I just want to bring greetings from Douglas to all of you. And it is just great to be here today unexpectedly. Johnny wasn't expecting me to be here.
[1:53] I wasn't expecting to be here. But sad that Johnny's not well at the moment and happy that I can stand in, I suppose, this morning. So John chapter 13, verses 1 to 17, we're going to look at today.
[2:08] Now today we're going to be looking and seeing a towel. And we're also going to be looking and seeing a basin.
[2:18] Now, seeing the towel and the basin, which we must see in the passage, makes me kind of terrified. And here's why.
[2:29] Because in John's Gospel, which we've been working through in Douglas, throughout John's Gospel, people see physical realities but miss the spiritual and eternal realities behind them.
[2:42] So what do I mean? Jesus speaks about being born again. You must be born again. And you must be born of the Spirit. And a man starts thinking about, do I have to go back into my mother's womb then?
[2:53] Is that what has to happen? Jesus speaks about the temple being torn down. And what he's really speaking about is not the temple built by Herod. He's speaking about his own body.
[3:05] The disciples think Jesus is talking about lunch, when in reality Jesus is talking about the thing that feeds and energizes me is doing my Father's will. And so throughout John's Gospel, we have again and again these physical realities that point us to something much deeper, more eternal and spiritual.
[3:25] And so we need to see the towel and the basin today because they're here. But we need to look through them at what Jesus is really teaching to us in this passage. And I'm a bit terrified that in my teaching or that in your listening we might only see towels and basins and go out and say, okay, everybody get a towel and a basin.
[3:44] That's all that needs to happen this morning. And I hope that we can look past that as we look into John chapter 13. So John 13 verses 1 to 17 is a passage that's brimming with implications, brimming with applications, too many for us to talk about today.
[4:01] But what I want us to think about today is this. I want us to see here the love of Jesus.
[4:13] See his love. That's what I think this passage is really all about. If you look at verse 1, it says, What's going on in John 17?
[4:39] Jesus is trying to show his own people the full extent of his love. Now as we think about this passage, I want us to be clear that the scriptures teach that we live out of our hearts.
[4:57] We live out of our hearts. We don't just live on the outside. So as we speak today about servanthood, there will be no one serving consistently unless that comes from a heart that wants to serve.
[5:11] You know, you can whomp it up for a day, but if you want to serve ongoing, it's got to come from your heart. You know, you think about fitness training or strength training or things like this. I tried some of that strength training with some of my friends in school.
[5:25] They had hearts for it and they kept it up. I went and said, Man, I'm a wreck. And that was it for me. You know, I didn't have a heart for it. Unless you have a heart for something, you don't carry on doing it.
[5:38] We live out of our hearts. And in the Bible, when it speaks of our hearts, it's actually really speaking about basically the engine that drives us forward in life. It's the energy that we live from.
[5:50] Our hearts are the reason we do what we do. They are the compelling purpose behind the things we do in life. And so when the Bible speaks of our heart, it speaks of our desires, our will, our choices.
[6:03] It speaks of our motivation. It speaks of our emotions. It speaks of our thoughts, our devotions, our cravings, our worship. The whole inner man, in reality, the whole you that I can't see today.
[6:18] I'm looking at your physical bodies, but the whole you that I cannot see today is really the heart. It's this kind of wrapped up term of everything that has to do with the heart.
[6:30] We live out of our hearts. It is the engine that drives us in what we do in life. And Jesus, here, is living out of his heart. And we want to see in this passage the very heart of Jesus.
[6:45] I think of in another place in Matthew 11, verse 29, where it speaks very similarly. Jesus says, I am gentle and lowly in heart.
[6:59] My very heart is that I am gentle and lowly. And here Jesus, the lowly and gentle master, is showing this heart of love which drives him in everything he does.
[7:14] So we want to see that today. He loves. And here in verse 1, we see that he loves his own to the end. It says, having loved his own who were in the world, verse 1, he now showed them the full extent of his love.
[7:30] I really hope that today we will get to see something more of the love of Jesus. He would love them to the death.
[7:41] He would make a display of the ultimate form of love. Jesus, actually, if we were to look back into chapter 12, he says, now my soul is troubled within me.
[7:54] He is in the most troubling personal circumstances anyone could imagine. No matter how troubled yours are, you cannot imagine how troubled Jesus are in this moment. And yet, in this time, when he is facing all these troubling circumstances, his heart is troubled within him.
[8:12] He loves and he serves his own. That's very telling, isn't it? He loved, it says, his own. Now, back in John chapter 1, at the beginning of John's gospel, it says, Jesus came to his own, but his own did not receive him.
[8:31] There it's speaking of the Jewish people. He came to his own Jewish people. They did not receive him. And so, in a way, what we see here is that his own, in this passage, are no longer the old covenant community of genetic people coming from Abraham, the children of Abraham, genetically.
[8:52] His own are now a new covenant community of all who did receive him. John chapter 1, verse 12. To all who did receive him, who believed on his name, he gave the right to become children of God.
[9:06] Children born of God. John 1, 12, and 13. His own. It says here that his own were in the world.
[9:20] We really want to look at it, what it is, is his own are those who he has called out of the world. They are no longer those of the world. He has called them out of the world, but here they are in the world.
[9:33] A very important word in John's gospel. The word world here is the word cosmos. And wherever it is used in John's gospel and throughout much of the New Testament, I think it is used 186 times in the New Testament, this word cosmos, it refers to humans living opposed to God.
[9:51] Humanity in opposition to God is what this word world brings to mind. Think of this. John 3, 16.
[10:05] Probably the most well-known verse in maybe the Bible. For God so loved the world.
[10:17] Really? The cosmos? Humans in opposition to him? He so loved them? For real? Yes. He did.
[10:29] Think of this love. He so loved that he loved those who were completely opposed to him. He loved those who were his enemies.
[10:40] He loved those who lived in direct rebellion against him. He loves those who have done their worst and most harmful evil to himself and to his son.
[10:53] God so loved the world. But now we read here that not only does he so love the world, he loves his own.
[11:05] Nevertheless, can I just point out this love where God so loved the world, this love for his enemies, for those who are against him, you have never experienced love from anyone else like that.
[11:21] In fact, I would dare say, you and I have never loved like that, have we? That is an incredibly remarkable love, to love in that way.
[11:32] And yet here we find that Jesus wants to go beyond that love of God so loved the world to show the full extent of his love for his own.
[11:45] His own. He loved his own and showed them the full extent of his love. About 10 days ago, we have some friends in Germany, their names are Sam and Jesse.
[11:58] And Sam and Jesse had their first child 10 days ago. His name is James. And Sam and Jesse for years have been involved in a ministry where they are ministering to students, they spiritually care for many young people and help them towards the Lord.
[12:14] And they love those young people they work with. But I can tell you that Sam and Jesse are experiencing love to a new extent. Love of their own.
[12:26] His little James, their own son. And if you're a parent, I think you know what I'm now talking about. There's this love to a greater extent. And here Jesus is showing his love for his own.
[12:39] Now in John's Gospel, see if I can get some of this going here. Sorry, I should have had that up ages ago. But in John's Gospel, there's a bigger picture and I'd like to just point this out briefly so we can see what's happening with the love in this passage.
[12:53] But really throughout the scriptures we're shown this love that is in the God of Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And what's described for us is this fellowship of divine love, the love of the Father for the Son, Spirit, Father, Son, in this divine fellowship of love.
[13:12] we read in 1 John 1 verse 3, we proclaim to you what we have seen and what we have heard so that you may have fellowship with us and our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.
[13:28] And so what we have is this picture throughout scripture of this fellowship of divine love and it's being brought out in a unique way here in John chapters 13 to 17, where there is this unfailing, eternal, perfect love on display between the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
[13:49] There is no love like it. It's a love of delight and we're told that in that fellowship of divine love there is fullness of joy. But there's a problem.
[14:01] The world is the problem. Sinners living in rebellion against God. Sinners that cannot enter the presence of God because they are condemned sinners opposed to God.
[14:17] And so we have this fellowship of divine love but we have this separation from fellowship. But the story doesn't stop there. The good news goes on and this, in love the Father sends his one and only Son into this world of rebels against him.
[14:35] but not only that, the Son, we know, died, rose again, returned to the Father and in love the Father and the Son send the Spirit into the world as Jesus ascends to heaven.
[14:52] We learn a lot about this in John 14 to 16. But it doesn't only stop there. It's that in love the Spirit draws rebels to be God's own.
[15:06] He draws rebels to be his own children, to belong to Jesus. And through repentance and through faith, these rebels turn to him.
[15:18] They become those who are Jesus' own people. Their lives are joined to him in this unique way. And those who the Spirit draws to repentance and faith, they themselves enter into the very same fellowship of divine love shared between the Father, the Son, and the Spirit.
[15:43] Those who become Jesus' own enter the same fellowship where there is fullness of joy and delight in God's presence.
[15:55] Do you know what it is to be called into that same fellowship of divine love? So that's a bigger picture of what's going on here. But the disciples are thinking about external realities.
[16:06] They're thinking about slaves, servants, towels, basins, smelly feet, water, Passover feasts, lambs, things like this.
[16:18] This is what they have in mind. And Jesus says, you actually don't understand what I'm doing for you now. Later on, you will understand. Verse 7. Jesus is about to show the ultimate in servanthood, the ultimate lowering.
[16:38] He will wash his disciples, but the primary way he will wash his disciples is not by washing their feet. It is by shedding his own blood for them.
[16:52] later on, you will understand what I'm really doing for you. The washing he's speaking of, the washing he's really trying to demonstrate for them, is a washing by his own blood.
[17:06] 24 hours later, Jesus will go to the cross. Let's look at this. First of all, in our passage we see that the master knows how low he must go.
[17:20] If you look at verses 2 to 3, the evening meal was being served and the devil had already prompted Judas Iscariot, son of Simon, to betray Jesus. Jesus knew that the father had put all things under his power and that he had come from God and was returning to God.
[17:37] And so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing and wrapped a towel around his waist. Jesus knew. There's this early emphasis in the first four verses of what Jesus knows.
[17:52] Verse 1, Jesus knows that his hour has come to return to the father. Jesus knows throughout John's gospel that his hour had not yet come.
[18:03] His hour had not yet come. And Jesus knows his hour has come. He is going to the cross. The time to go to the cross has now come. It's a matter of timing.
[18:14] His time to return to the father. Many people call these chapters of John Jesus' farewell discourse. That's kind of a fancy way of putting it. It's a farewell message that he gives to the disciples.
[18:27] It is the time that Jesus will go for his own to the cross in love. But also, it's not only that he knows his time has come, the hour has come, but verse 2, he knows who will betray him.
[18:42] And we read later on, actually, as well, throughout, that Jesus knew that it would be Judas Iscariot who would betray him. He knows who will betray him.
[18:52] Then verse 3, we see that Jesus knows that the father has placed all things under his power. He knows that he has come from God, and that he is the eternal son, that he is returning to God with all power, all authority, and he is exalted to the highest position.
[19:11] And this is what it means that Jesus has ascended on high. He rules over all. And he is sat down, having finished the work as our great high priest. So knowing all this, it says in our passage, Jesus got up from dinner.
[19:27] He takes off his outer garment, he takes up the towel, and he begins to wash his disciples' feet. Jesus is doing the unthinkable.
[19:39] Think of how much he is lowering himself. a writer you may have heard of from a few hundred years ago named John Flavel.
[19:49] He gave this illustration. He said if the sun was reduced to a tiny wandering atom in space, that would be a remarkable and unimaginable degrading, wouldn't it?
[20:02] If a mighty angel was lowered and transformed into a tiny little fruit fly, that would be a tremendous lowering and degrade, wouldn't it?
[20:16] And yet, from the sun to an atom, from the mighty angel to a fruit fly, is still a finite distance, because they're all created things.
[20:27] But for the almighty creator, our Lord Jesus Christ, who is God himself, the one who made all things, for the creator of all things, to lower himself to the place of a servant.
[20:42] Not only to lower himself to a place of the servant, but to lower himself to disgrace, to rejection, to torture, on a cross, crucifixion, the ultimate lowering.
[21:02] This is an infinite distance, which we can't even fathom. The lowering of our savior in love for us. Jesus' time has come.
[21:13] He knows Golgotha is clearly in view, and there he will show his love for his own. We see in verse five, where it says, after that he poured water into the basin and began to wash his disciples' feet, drying them with a towel that was wrapped around him.
[21:34] We see this, that the master lowers himself to wash filthy feet. Now, we do need to see this foot washing for what it actually is, so that we can see through it to what Jesus is actually showing to his disciples.
[21:48] Without getting into all the jigs and reels of foot washing in the tradition, can we just say this? People had very smelly and dirty feet in those days, and the washing of feet was the job of a slave.
[22:03] It was a lowly job. I get the sense that if you were a free person in the Roman Empire, you had never experienced the washing of someone else's feet.
[22:15] Jesus is doing this unthinkable thing and lowering himself to this position. He is, in a sense, lowering himself. He's demoting himself to the place of a slave.
[22:28] Have you ever been demoted? Have you ever had your grades knocked back? Yeah, I have. I deserved it. Have you ever lost your position or lost a job or had your pay cut or had a position lowered at work?
[22:45] I remember one time I was on a baseball team when I was 17. It was my second last year of school and I went on the team and I had a good year and I was in the starting lineup every game all season. It was great.
[22:56] Next year I decided I needed some friends on the team so I invited some friends and two of my friends ended up playing the two positions I played. And we got a new coach. And I spent the whole year playing only off the substitutes bench.
[23:08] I never once was in the starting lineup. It was humiliating. Beyond that when I did get out there I had a humiliating injury. I got smashed in the face with a ball and bled everywhere. But anyway lowering demotion.
[23:22] Jesus is giving this incredible, it's like a living parable about a demonstration of the full extent of his love. Washing feet is a humble servant's role.
[23:35] You know, we don't expect to go to the headquarters of Tesla and find Elon Musk pushing around a mop and a pail, do we? We don't expect to find Vladimir Putin volunteering for the most toxic radioactive cleanup at Chernobyl.
[23:55] people. But we can expect Jesus, the Master and Lord who created all things, the sovereign ruler of the universe, the King of all kings, we can expect him to be found lowering himself to the place of a slave, humbling himself to wash dirty feet.
[24:18] But we can also expect Jesus to lower himself far, far more than this, to lower himself to the degraded and disgraced position of going to the cross, suffering wrath that was ours.
[24:36] He did it in love for his own. See his love here in John 13. Carrying on we see that the Master not only lowers himself to wash filthy feet, he lowers himself to wash filthy sinners.
[24:55] even in the presence of evil. Looking there at verses 6 to 10, he came to Simon Peter who said to him, Lord, are you going to wash my feet?
[25:09] Jesus replied, you do not realize now what I'm doing, but later you will understand. No, said Peter, you shall never wash my feet.
[25:21] Jesus answered, unless I wash you, you have no part with me. Then Lord Simon Peter replied, not just my feet, but my hands and my head as well.
[25:34] Jesus answered, a person who has had a bath needs only to wash his feet, his whole body is clean, and you are clean, though not every one of you. Sorry.
[25:47] Peter, don't you love Peter? Straight out with him. He has these objections, these protests, verses 6 to 8, the disciples are basically clueless of what's happening, it says in verse 7.
[26:00] Peter then has the complete opposite reaction within seconds, okay, hold back please, and then Jesus points out in verse 9, or verses 10 and 11, sorry, one of them is actually not clean.
[26:18] He knows who his betrayer is. He knows one of them is not clean. Jesus says in verse 8, unless I wash you, you have no part with me, Peter.
[26:33] And Jesus' words to Peter weren't about his feet, were they? Jesus' words to Peter were about more than just Peter too, they were about you and me.
[26:48] Unless Jesus washes us, we can have no part with Jesus. In fact, the reality is that only Jesus can wash us.
[27:02] Oh, thank you very much, you're very kind. I actually have water up here and here, I'm ignoring it. thank you. Thank you.
[27:13] Thank you. Jesus is saying, you can have no part with me unless I wash you. There is no one else that can wash us.
[27:26] We can't go anywhere else for washing. You can try any substitute you want, unless Jesus washes you. you will never be washed.
[27:37] That is the point Jesus is clearly making to Peter here. Only he is able to wash us. And it's a far, far greater issue than smelly and dusty feet.
[27:49] He's pointing to the washing he will provide for sinners less than 24 hours later at Golgotha at the cross. Jesus hasn't come to only take up a towel.
[28:01] He's also come to take up his cross and provide washing for sinners by his blood. Quite significantly in these verses, they bring out the issue of Jesus' betrayer.
[28:15] Now, as you move on into John 13, it deals a lot more with this. We won't go too deep into this, but Jesus points out that not all are clean. Not all are his own.
[28:26] In the room, only 11 of the 12 are his own. Evil is at work already. And yet, remarkably, here we find Jesus also washing the feet of Judas.
[28:44] Wow. Even then, reaching out to Judas, giving him opportunity. Evil is in the room as Jesus is providing washing.
[28:57] But the master, he lowers himself to wash dirty feet, filthy feet. He lowers himself to wash filthy sinners.
[29:10] But it's also clear in these verses, verses 11 to 17, that the master lowers himself to set a pattern for the servants that he has washed.
[29:21] Looking at verses 12 to 15, when he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place.
[29:31] Do you understand what I have done for you? He asked them. You call me teacher and lord, and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your lord and teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another's feet.
[29:46] I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. I am your teacher, I am your lord, I am your master, Jesus says.
[29:59] Do you, verse 11, understand what I have done for you? Do you understand? When we begin to understand what he has done for us in lowering himself to wash us from our filthy sins as filthy sinners, and when we understand that Jesus lowers himself to become a lowly servant, there is an obvious action that we ought to take.
[30:30] But this is a dangerous part of the passage, and it is this. The easy thing to take from this passage is this, go serve like Jesus, do better everybody.
[30:42] But going back to the beginning when I talked about the fact that we live out of our hearts, Jesus isn't just doing this to do better, he is doing this because his very heart is a heart that is lowly and gentle and full of love for his own.
[30:59] And so just telling you all, go serve better, is not going to sustain this. It must come from the engine of your hearts. We must, as servants, have hearts of servants like Jesus has.
[31:12] And so the easy application is just everybody go serve better, and that's true, but we're going to have to get deeper than just try harder. We're going to have to look at the heart that drives this service.
[31:26] Because Jesus is calling them, verse 15, do as I have done for you. We are being given something to do, aren't we?
[31:37] It's to lower ourselves as he has lowered himself. Verse 34, Jesus will go on to say, as I have loved you, so you must love one another.
[31:49] He has lowered himself to show the full extent of his love. We will never be able to lower ourselves to serve like Jesus serves unless the engine of love and the love of our master drives our service.
[32:06] We will never be able to sustain it. There's a promise also in these verses for those who would lower themselves and become servants of others, even to serve God's enemies.
[32:20] Promise is found here in verses 16 and 17, I think it is. Verses 16 and 17, I tell you the truth, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him.
[32:34] Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them. There's a promise here for anyone listening. if they are Jesus own, if they have been washed by Jesus, and I must be clear about this, you cannot truly serve unless you've already been washed by him.
[32:52] It starts there. But if you have been washed by Jesus, here's the promise. You will be blessed if you do as I've done. Blessed you will be.
[33:06] The word blessed means, or blessed means, happy you will be. happy you will be if you lower yourself to serve others like I have done.
[33:20] Happy you will be if you take the more degraded position in order to serve others in love. Promise. Happy you will be.
[33:32] Blessed. If you're like me, when I read that promise, I had to ask myself, do I actually believe that? Do I actually believe that lowering myself in the service of others is the path to joy and happiness?
[33:51] This is the promise Jesus makes. Do we believe him when he says it? Do we believe that pursuing the role of lowly servants is actually the pursuit of our own joy?
[34:03] joy? So what are we going to do about these verses? Just a couple of quick suggestions as we finish out. Because what we really want to see here is the love of Jesus.
[34:20] First off, you can't go anywhere with John 13 unless you've been washed. have you been washed through Jesus' blood?
[34:34] Are you someone who through repentance and faith, and repentance is really quite simple, someone put it quite simply for me, repentance is turning away from self and faith is turning to Jesus.
[34:48] Through repentance and faith, have you ever come to Jesus to be washed of your sins? Because this passage is showing us we need washed.
[35:00] We need cleansing from sin. If you won't let Jesus wash you, then you can have no part with him. You cannot be his own. You actually reject him.
[35:13] And if you haven't been washed by Jesus, then you will never sustain a heart that truly wants to lower yourself in the service of Jesus' people, his own.
[35:25] So would you today respond by turning away from yourself and turning to him for washing? And Jesus asks, this is a very practical thing, he says, those who repent and believe the good news are to be baptized.
[35:40] Now, baptism is a little like the basin. It doesn't save you, it makes you wetter, it doesn't make you any better. But baptism is a sign that you are someone who has come to associate yourself with Jesus, and Jesus associates himself with you.
[35:58] And baptism is a way that you yourself declare, you go public with the proclamation that you belong to him. So I encourage you to repent and believe the good news, and if you haven't been baptized, if you're someone who has, then you should obey Jesus in that manner.
[36:14] Again, baptism does not save you, it does not make you clean from your sins, but it is what he's called us to do. Now, for those who belong to Jesus, for those who are his own here today, and many of you are, I know quite a few of you, can I give a practical suggestion, and it's this, you're already doing what I'm going to suggest, I'm just going to say, keep doing it.
[36:41] One very practical thing that you can do in relation to this passage is attending your services consistently, attending your home groups, as it was talked about today, consistently.
[36:55] Why do I say that? Well, what I would say is if you refuse to turn up where his own people are gathered, how are you going to be one who humbly lowers yourself to serve them?
[37:07] And so I would encourage you to keep doing what you're doing, but also be looking around you, because this has been a strange time, hasn't it? Pandemic, odd stuff. It's a time when a lot of us have become very disconnected from many of the patterns in life we may have had before.
[37:24] And some have become disconnected from fellowship. I'm guessing it's happened here. It has in Douglas. It definitely has happened to some. And so maybe some of us can even begin to pursue and reach out to and serve others who become disconnected.
[37:43] It's true, you ought to. It's scriptural that you should gather regularly to meet. Is it so that you yourself will be encouraged or is it that the music is always exactly the music you would have chosen and it really blesses your heart?
[37:57] That's not possible in a room with a bunch of people in it. There's no way we're all going to like the same music. Although those might be solid reasons, the reason to gather is how where they are gathered to encourage them, to help them, to help those who haven't yet found washing to find washing, like we're hearing about the Sunday schools, many of them have yet to put their trust in Jesus.
[38:26] Let's help them and lead them to the Savior who washes. So I encourage you to commit yourselves to what you're already doing and help others commit to that and to your midweek meetings.
[38:39] But also I just want to say a quick word as I finish about your leaders here in this church. I know the leaders here, a lot of them quite well. You have imperfect leaders, just like we have in Douglas.
[38:53] I'm one of them. But I know that you have very good leaders who want to lead and help you. And one of the ways that you can really serve your leaders is by being consistent in servanthood, by being consistent in turning up.
[39:14] One of the best ways that you can serve your leaders is by showing up so that they can serve and care for you. And so I want to encourage you in relation to your leaders to serve them because you are blessed with some very good leaders.
[39:27] And this time, these two years have been brutally hard on leaders. I'm sure on the leaders team they've not always agreed on everything and every move and yet they've come and worked together I'm thinking likely in this church but it's been hard.
[39:40] I don't even agree with myself completely on the pandemic. Sometimes I disagree with myself. So how am I meant to agree with everyone else? It's a difficult time and I would encourage you to serve your leaders and thank God for them.
[39:53] The love of Jesus changes us. It's a hymn that says what kind of love is this that gave itself for me? I am the guilty one yet I go free.
[40:06] What kind of man is this that died in agony? He who had done no wrong was crucified for me. What kind of man is this he laid aside his throne so that I may know the love of God what kind of man is this?
[40:25] No eye has ever seen no ear has ever heard nor has the heart of man conceived what kind of love is this?
[40:39] What wondrous love is this oh my soul to be washed by a savior who lowers himself for his own for me father we thank you for the washing we find in Jesus please lord would you help us to follow in his steps as servants but help us to realize it all starts with going to him to be washed and we thank you for the washing we receive at the cross by his blood and we pray that we would see through the towels and basins today through the lambs and the Passover sacrifices to see Jesus our Passover lamb the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world thank you for this congregation bless and encourage them we pray in Jesus name amen thank you
[41:56] Bryson what wonderful love of our Savior that he would lower himself as he did we are going to respond in the singing of how deep the father's love for us behold a man upon the cross Jesus going to the cross becoming one like us going to the cross humbling himself as he did we are going to stand and sing and then we are going to spend time around the table he did on the cross his body broken his blood shed for us let's stand to sing how deep the father's love for us God how that beyond whole measure shall be shook in his holy love to make a wretch his treasure away the pain of feeling none the thought of time his face away has wounds that empower the children bring many love to hopefully hees
[43:47] Amen.