Why Good People Still Feel Dirty | February 8, 2026

Good morning. Good morning, Resurrection.

Wow. OK.

Well, I'm so glad so many of you went to the evangelism workshop.

So I want to catch everybody that wasn't there up Kern

County. Saved my life.

I came here to Kern County to make money because I made $3.00

an hour on a farm in Arizona and somebody said come over here,

you drive tractors and stuff. They got a place called the oil

field, they'll pay you more. So I came, I saw and was

conquered by the oil field. And some of you know exactly

what I'm talking about. But I also thought, gosh, I was

watching your high school minister's sermon last week, and

he said something, no offense. He said something like a

dirtbag. I'm a dirtbag, right?

OK, well, I'm dirtbag #2 OK, just so we're on the same page

about what's happening right here.

Gosh. And I so enjoy serving the

churches. It's kind of off the hook

sometimes. I don't know how I feel about

it, you know, And it is amazing. In our churches, there is so

much fruit. People coming to faith, people

giving their lives back to their faith.

Almost every church I go to, the churches are already coming to

the altar, doing things that they need to do.

And it's just I, I, I, I don't feel like I'm doing much.

We have a bunch of new young pastors that have come into the

churches. They're phenomenally interesting

guys. I like these young guys.

I don't know what it is. I really like pastors.

They, I just, I 'cause I guess I know him.

I was there and, and we, I was a church planner.

I was a new starter. I mean, I understand what that

is, to start from scratch. And anyway, so I'm really just

glad to be here. But the main thing is what Vance

just said. I'm a pastor.

This is just what I'm doing right now.

And I was given the task of talking about losing your

status. Are you guys ready to lose your

status? Yeah.

Take it away from me, will you? OK, that's the Well, that's

Jesus's job. But I'm going to try and let him

do that this morning. But we're going to be in John

13. And so I would like to to read

that John 13 verses 3 through 10.

John 13:3–10

Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his

hands and that he had come from God.

It was going back to God, rose from supper.

He laid aside his outer garments and taking a towel, tied it

around his waist. Then he poured water into a

basin and began to wash the disciples feet and to wipe them

with the towel that was wrapped around him.

He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, Lord, do you wash my

feet? Jesus answered, What I am doing

you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand.

Peter said to him, You shall never wash my feet.

Jesus answered him, If I do not wash you, you have no share with

me. Simon Peter said to him, Lord,

not only my feet, but also my hands and my head.

Jesus said to him, The one who has bathed does not need to wash

except his feet, but is completely clean, and you are

clean, but not everyone of you. May the Lord add a blessing to

the reading of His Word. I'd like to pray.

Father, thank you for your word. Thank you for how you speak to

us in your church and how your words come out of so many people

and we ask today that your words are found in this somewhere in

this sermon for those that are here this morning, you know, you

knew who was going to be here. You know what they need.

And so Lord Jesus, just do your work this morning.

We pray in your grace in Christ's name, losing your

status. OK Amen.

So three points this morning is I just going to talk.

Keep it really simple. Is the person of Jesus, the

person of Jesus, the washing of feet and the double cure.

Double cure. So this is a interesting I, I

love this series. It's interesting because it's

the longest teachings section in the New Testament of Jesus.

It's the longest time he talked. That's really interesting.

Of all the Gospels that that one is loaded with, that 13 through

17 is actually what it is. And what's even more interesting

is how long it took. This is not a week.

This is not multiple days. This teaching section is ours

only. And it's so interesting that his

disciples and those that were around him remembered it.

There's a little show right now. It's called The Pit.

It's in one of your streaming and the show has several

episodes but it just describes one shift at an emergency room

hospital. I feel like this is Jesus in the

pit with these guys and he's going to do some things that'll

help them. It's his final training.

They've watched him for three years.

They've seen him stop, you know, stop storms, feed thousands,

heal all kinds of people, do all kinds of stuff that they had no

understanding of what it was, and now he's going to do this

with them. Very interesting.

He just wants to have a meal with them, just wants to talk,

just wants to say a few important things, do a few

important things, talk to his father and then do the thing.

Do the thing. The Easter thing.

Yeah. So it starts off, it's very

interesting. It starts off in the very first

sentence of this section where it says that, you know, Jesus,

knowing that the Father had given all things in his hands

and he had come from God, who I think we just sang that shout to

Lord, He come from God to us and he was going to go back to God,

right? That's what the Bible says, and

that's what happened. And so it's kind of all this

high talk. It's all this theology about

Jesus. I want to tell you right now in

Orange County, California, I was a minister down there for a

while, worked at church in Garden Grove and some other

place, Riverside. There's some billboards right

now down there. Did you know that?

You know what the billboards say Jesus is not God.

They do. You said big, big black ones

down there in different locations.

And you know what? They are exactly wrong.

Why do you suppose they did that?

Well, they're poking us. They're poking the Christians,

they're poking Jesus. There are different groups that

might do it for different reasons, but in this we have the

all this high talk in that one sentence and verse 3, it says

that he rose it It's interesting because it says that he rose up

and took his clothes off. So he's just got his, you know,

his, just his bottom area covered, you know, and he and,

and he got up and, and he, he went to do this washing kind of

like his, his birth, you know, his death, his resurrection.

Jesus is an incredible meme all the time.

He's always doing stuff that represent other things to us.

So we kind of go, gosh, he didn't like that because, you

know, nobody understands what he's doing here.

Man. I didn't understand anything

when I got to church, for goodness sake, I had a Deacon

Get Me Out in the parking lot at the church and, and I was just

new there. I've been about a year.

I did not, I could not understand anything.

You guys were so weird to me. It was the strangest thing,

singing all this stuff. And then that guy talked to me

about tithing and I said, oh, my gosh.

And it was kind of serious because he pulled me aside.

You know, when an older guy pulls a young guy aside and

said, son, you know, and he told me that.

And I said, gosh, I got to start wearing ties to church.

That's what I thought he meant. So Philippians 2 says Jesus

rose, it's Philippius 2 is the great theological big talk

section. He says he rose, he emptied

himself of his privileges, of his status, of his everything

and took the form of a sermon. So he washed their feet.

He rose, took, you know, you have a meal with a guy and now

he's getting up to wash your feet.

Man, that is so strange. So that's where you start.

This is the beginning of their training.

We all know, you know that they that they wash their feet for

good reason. Their feet were dirty.

There's lots of stuff on them and usually the lowest person,

the the lowest slave and you know, they had a maybe a several

people that were considered slaves, which were usually

conquered countries that they brought them in no matter who

they were and they made them, they're slaves.

And so the lowest on the totem pill got to do the feet job, you

know, come on in Bobby, wash this guy's feet.

It was certainly the person who washed the feet was certainly

not the host, certainly not the guest rabbi, not those guys.

It was the lowest of the low, the person of Jesus.

He refused his status and he had lowly behavior.

What we have to understand and what you have to grapple with is

Jesus incredibly high status and his incredibly low behavior.

Have you do you guys watch chosen any chosen people in this

room? OK, they get sometimes they do

it and and it makes your heart wince.

Do you know that feeling? You go, oh, shoot, how did he do

that? Why did he do that?

That bothered me. Those things.

That's the wince. So he claims so much and he

behaves so low. Claim to be God.

I have some Muslim friends and Muhammad didn't claim to be God.

I know some Buddhists and Buddha didn't claim to be God.

I have some people that believe in Confucianism and he didn't

say he was God. Nobody said that.

But Jesus did over and over actually, and he didn't even

brag about it. It just was what it was.

In John 8 he said the divine name Moses the I am I am the I

am the I am Jesus took that title.

He said before Abraham was and they took stones to to stone him

right there in John 5. They knew what he was saying

equal with God. John two he forgive sin.

I will judge this world. No one can come to God except

through me. If you've seen me, you've seen

God. Sometimes people got down to

worship angels. And what did angels do?

Oh, I know they said don't do that.

Stand up wrong, wrong. There is right information about

God and Thomas thereafter the resurrection, He says, look, my

Lord, my God bowed. Jesus didn't refuse that

worship. He took it.

But strange behavior, high claims, wrong behavior, humble,

odd. Who did he hang out with?

He hung out with the raw in society.

He hung out with the social rejects.

Tax collectors was one of them. And of course the people that

were more this way of things thought you can't do that.

And then he was over here with the prostitutes and the people

that way said, oh, you can't do that.

He always screws you up. If he isn't screwing you up,

you're not following him. I'm just telling you, he touched

lepers. Love them.

He pushed to the edges all the time.

Edge over here, over here, over here.

Nobody beneath him, but above everyone.

Which is it? It's the same.

It's a conundrum. It's what do you want to call

it? A contradiction?

The woman at the well, he was so patient with her.

He just brought her along. And what about Martha and Mary?

The Martha and Mary seen. I love it.

To this day. They're having a meal, you know,

and Mary's sitting at his feet and Martha's in there banging

pots and pans and stuff. Or whatever, not pots and pans,

ceramic, I don't know. She's in the kitchen and and

Jesus kind of is blunt. With Martha, he's blunt.

He was blunt with his own mother right at the wine making rides a

little blunt woman called her woman.

And then with Mary, he's real tender.

Why the difference? What about the woman?

Here's another. What about the woman that's gets

healed from the the continuous blood flow she has?

Do you know what he did with her?

He made her acknowledge the healing publicly.

Why? What about the guy who's deaf

and he's he, he needs another healing and the deaf mute and

and Jesus takes him into a private place and does it.

Why? Why?

Because Jesus is not driven by ideology, Temperament,

temperament, personality, styles, nothing.

He is guided by the heart of God for people and the crazy things

he says. We can have that too.

So strange, so humbling. And Jesus, what you know about

all the things he did in the gospel is Jesus knew exactly the

point and the thing that the person needed done.

And he knows that about all of us all the time.

We don't always get it, frankly, we don't want it, but Jesus knew

exactly. It's almost like they he listens

to our hearts because the heart is the wellspring of life.

He's always going after hearts because, you know, your mind's

just your heart's lawyer. That's all it does.

I want that. Well, you should get that.

You know, you can just talk yourself into any dumb thing.

And so he knows what's wrong with people's personality.

He knows where our idols are. He knows what how we're trying

to protect ourself or save ourself, make ourself look good

to others. The isn't it funny the crippled

guy where the guys brought the their friend in and they

couldn't get in to see Jesus. So they cut a hole in the roof

of the people's how how crude. And then they lowered the dude

down and they're like, man, we're getting Jesus going to

make him walk and he didn't. He said your sins are forgiven.

So his friends didn't know what his real need was.

They thought his need was just to walk and Jesus didn't do it.

Sometimes He doesn't do stuff we want, and that is exactly His

behavior is radically different than his claims his entire life.

Let me just read you a list. Tenderness without weakness.

Holiness without harshness. Humility without any

uncertainty. Towering confidence.

Unbending convictions with complete approachability.

Insistence on truth, always bathed in love.

Power without insensitivity, Integrity without rigidity.

Passion without prejudice, No prejudice.

Highest of claim, lowliest of behavior, strong.

And you know what? That is actually the thing, The

contradictions, the highest of claims.

And then the lowliness of behavior is actually proof of

God Himself, because no human had ever done that, right?

He's the new way to be human. One song says that's that's a

wonderful thing. I didn't know that.

And I understand you guys are sent to tell people that they

don't have to be the kind of human they are right now.

I didn't know that when I went to that little Spanish church

over at 1010 High Street. I didn't know that.

I didn't know anything but what a beautiful life.

Even people that don't like church, if they see much of

Jesus, but the longer and the further apart, you know that

they they get weird ideas and you get to present Jesus to

people. That is he is the good news,

right? He, he is in his body and he is

in his action and he is in his words.

He is. His claims are high.

His beauty. You know, anybody makes wild

claim, we say they're a quack, right?

They're a nut. That's a guy's a nut.

And the history is full of nuts, but not this guy, not this one.

There's only one conclusion. He is exactly who he said he

was. He is the person.

So now the washing of feet. So.

And, and, and Jesus says to Peter, you don't want me to wash

your feet, then you don't get nothing of me.

You don't get what I want to give you.

It's a, you know, it's kind of a this contradiction that Jesus

continues to act out. Let me just we're going back to

the washing of feet. It's customary to wash guests

feet. It's interesting.

Sometimes people that invited Jesus into their house didn't

show him hospitality. It was strange.

They did it for the rabbis, but they were really there to size

him up. You ever find yourself doing

that, sizing people? Man, that is such a relief when

you can let go of all that. God rescues us from ourselves so

often. But people that set at tables

and they kind of set sideways with a bunch of pills at a low

table. And So what was right next to

you at the table? Somebody else's feet and what

was on their feet stuff. And it wasn't just dirt, you

know, no sewer systems, lots of donkeys on the road.

I grew up around farms. We're always avoiding cow pies,

you know, try not to step in them.

But they they had really. What was that show?

Dirtiest job? Yeah.

So that was the dirtiest job in 1st century.

Dirtiest job, lowest job. And so you had to have your feet

wash. It was a normal thing.

It was normal behavior. And also sometimes they rub your

head with oil because your head kind of itches from all the, you

know, they just did stuff to make you comfortable.

Comfort, creature comfort. And so and so what's really

funny, I, I really feel like this thing is like a small group

thing. You ever been in a small group

and. And, and there there's a

question being asked and the first dude or gal has to answer

it and then it's moving around and it's almost to you and

you're going what did I say? I'll probably say something

wrong. Yeah, you'll probably look dumb.

You know, you're, you're just kind of working.

You're revving yourself up to stupidity, you know, like I do.

And and so here comes Peter, and he can't stand on his Jesus.

Get down by his feet. And Peter goes, what are you

doing, Jesus? Why would you do this?

No, no, because you know what it is?

Those of you who are longer in the faith, it's easier to serve

people than it is to let them serve you.

I'll never forget I was at Cal Baptist University and I was

played a little sports, played on the soccer team.

And I had a hernia, a bad one. And so I, I, I had to have a

surgery. Ouch.

And so I was walking around campus, it's like, you know,

really, really slow. You try not to sneeze or laugh

because those little muscles in there, man, they scream at you.

So you just kind of walk and, and people were walking And I

before that I, I thought, man, I am kind of a little bit of man

on campus here. And then I was like cripple man

on campus or, you know, just, and people wanting to do stuff

for me. And it was just like a six

months of humility exercises. It's easier to serve than let

somebody serve you. But at in the church we learned

to all serve each other, don't we?

Beautiful, beautiful thing. But Peter had pride and Peter

was a sufficient guy. He had a vision of himself as

Mr. Faithful, Mr. Stand up, Mr. can do guy.

I mean, he had this picture of himself, but Jesus said you're

dirty. What is dirt?

Dirt. He is it really about our feet?

No, it's about what dirt represent.

Dirt is a metaphor for spiritual, relational

uncleanliness, spiritual hygiene and and the scriptures are full

of it. When, when David said with

Bathsheba, he said, Lord, wash me clean in, in, in acts, when

there's a giant conversion story of all these people said, be

baptized, be washed clean clean of your sin.

It's the metaphor. It's the barrier between US and

God. It's relationally pugnant,

pugnant stinky. My wife and I are at Subway in

New York and there was some strange folk.

We were riding around New York for a while and there was some

guys that they could just come through the other car into your

car and they could be clear at the other end of the car and the

stench was incredible. We don't like that generally

most folk, and I mean alcohol, urine, just stuff feces, you

know, it's just, and so it's a barrier between people, right?

And it's also a debt. So let me give you an example.

So say somebody that you kind of kind of know, but not that much.

They jump you and beat you up and take your money, which

doesn't sound normal. I understand that, but they do

that anyway. And then you're sent to the

hospital. You're you're beat up so bad,

they send you to the hospital and you're laying in bed and

guess who comes and visits you? The guy who jumped you, beat you

up, took your credit cards, ran them up.

You owe 10 grand on Citi card now and whatever else.

And he's he wants to be your friends now.

Well, tell me what you're doing. Do you say OK?

Do you, Why don't you just say, OK, because there's a barrier?

What's the barrier? You've sinned against me, you've

sinned against me. And Jesus was trying to say,

Peter, you need something more drastic than you know.

So trust me, there's a lot of Peters out there that don't, you

know, they trust in themselves and they say, I don't, I'm not

doing anything wrong. We have a whole culture of that.

There's a big debate about what a good person is.

Well, if you do this, you're not a good, you're over here, you're

not good because you do this, you do whatever.

But it is true for humans and for everybody that walks in this

doors that we all have guilt from the stuff that we've done

and that this is a moral universe.

It's not just gravity at work. It is God's presence that is at

work in this world. And people in this culture want

to say, don't make me feel guilty.

Don't say I'm a bad person because I'm doing such and son.

And and just like in the book of judge, every man did what was

right in his own eyes. Our culture is full of that

bubbles up every week. It's online, it's in everywhere

you go in schools. There is this worldview that

says, Nah, there's nothing to worry about.

You just do what you want to do. You just be who you want to be.

It doesn't matter. A lie from the pit, a lie, you

know, I say, you're good. My grandparents felt guilty

about this sort of stuff. But modern people, we know

better. We have YouTube and videos.

And but if you look on YouTube and videos, you find these

things about shame and guilt and everybody's trying to figure out

how to get rid of it. You know, you feel guilty about

stuff. I feel ashamed about who I am

and what I've done. And, and, and, and so it's this,

you know, how do you get rid of that?

You, you say, I feel I still remember.

I still remember in Texas at a church that where I worked and

there was this little girl and she had this of brother and he

was cross eyed James and he was up.

He was a rough kid. Sometimes we had to pick him up.

You guys don't do that over here at register.

We had to pick him up and carry him out of the church because he

could disturb the whole church. Anyway, his sister somehow heard

the gospel one Sunday and her name was Sarah.

I still remember little brunette girl mom was on the 3rd or 4th

boyfriend and we should just pick him up for church.

My wife and I, that's all we did, take him to church.

And you know, she said when she went forward, she said we're

sitting somewhere back there and she just said I, I got to, I got

to go forward. I feel dirty.

I thought, wow, how did a 10 year old know that?

How did she get that? You know, how did she get that?

And so guilt and shame and so. In spite of maybe not believing

in some kind of moral law, I don't believe in hell or

judgment or any kind of that stuff.

We all, we all know that we're responsible to somebody and, and

it will come out and we will spend a lot of time trying to

make ourselves OK. It's really nice when you get

off that treadmill, when you finally say, God, I can't do it.

That's the first step in all the recovery programs, right?

My life has become unmanageable. It's a wreck, and I can't do it.

Please, God fix me. So what's a cure?

There it is. Peter.

He's just now Peter the disciple.

He's this wonderful, balanced kind of guy, isn't he?

No, he says he is pop off Peter. He pops off about all kinds of

stuff. He's he's a little bit snarky,

cheeky, whatever you want to call it, smart aleck.

And he's he's got enough nerve to tell Jesus not to do

something, you know, I mean, he's just got a lot of nerve and

he wants a whole bath. And I, I, I looked at that

again, that passage and I, and I think I could kind of see, I

could kind of see Jesus down here and, and he's looking up at

Peter and Peter's doing his complaint, you know, and Jesus

is down here getting ready to do his feet.

And he finally just looks at, at Peter right there and he says,

Pete, just the feet, just the feet.

That's all you need washed. So, but he said, interesting, He

said you, you, you get a bath once, you get a bath once, but

you need your feet washed regularly.

So it's the twofold offer. You need your feet washed and

you need a bath once for salvation.

God wakes your life up, God saves you.

He does it all and it changes you.

That's the bath. That's the bath.

In Titus 35, we see the washing of regeneration.

God regenerates us. When I was sitting in that

little Spanish church over on Hyde St. and I heard stuff.

I didn't know why, but I, I knew something was talking to me.

Couldn't explain a thing, very confused.

But I would go to my room on the way out on the West side of

Bakersfield off of Wilson, sit in this room that I was paying

for with this other guy who was selling dope.

And I was just there trying to, you know, work in the oil field

and stay out of trouble. And, and I would sit in my room

and I say, God save me, God save me, you know, and I would try to

read and the Bible made no sense.

Did work? Anybody else do that?

When you become a Christian, you're pardoned.

How many times do you get pardoned if you're stuck in the

state pen? One time.

But then you got to live out the pardon.

You're forgiven. That is salvation.

It doesn't mean though, you don't get yourself dirty again,

right? Are you hearing me, Christians?

There's the bath and then there's the foot washing.

And so becoming a Christian. So in a sense, and, and let me

just say this to you this morning, if God saved you, he

loves you as much that day he saved you.

And he can never love you any anymore or any less than that.

Always, it's always the same. It's always the same love that

God has for you. And what's the foot washing

first? John 19.

If we are faithful to confess our sins, he's faithful to

forgive us and we can walk again in the light.

If there's anything I've learned from being a minister is we need

a lot of foot washing. We need salvation.

But you got to have your feet washed.

And I tell you what happens. You know, if you don't do that,

you end up in weird places. And so you end up, you know,

some people are more religious. They're kind of like Martin

Luther, who used to go to confession all the time till the

priest started complaining to him, him, he's in a monastery.

And they said, this guy's always coming like five times a day

talking about his sins and said, man, Martin.

But Martin finally understood what it was to be saved.

If you just understand foot washing, there's a chance you'll

become a legalist. And those are painful

Christians. If you just understand the bath

and you don't understand the foot washing, there is a chance

that you'll be a libertine. You think you can do whatever

you want, but in fact you're being sinful above the law, I

think. And so Jesus did this and he was

really, when he did this, he said you will not understand

this, but later you will. And so his he was headed to the

cross. It was just hours before his

arrest, just hours, and they did not know what he was doing.

And so today, just like a famous Baptist preacher once preached

Charles Haddon Spurgeon when he got saved, he was a teenager.

He went to a little tiny church and there was some substitute

preacher there. And there was a dozen people in

that building. And this guy preached about look

to me, the Lord says, and I will save you.

Look to me. Look to me, I can wash away your

sin. Nothing but the blood of Jesus

can make us white as snow, can make us whole.

Nothing but the blood. And so I don't know what God's

saying to you because it's his choice.

It's your heart. But I want to have a prayer with

you right now. And this is about receiving the

bath. Have you received the bath?

Have you received the gift of God?

He does it. You don't.

You just say, OK, God, have your way.

That's all you do. So right now, I want you to bow

your head and close your eyes with me.

And I want to say a prayer with you.

Father, thank you for this moment.

This moment when there would be someone who would say, I'm not

sure I'm yours. Lord Jesus, can you, will you

please save me? I'm tired of trying to look

good. I'm trying tired of judging

others. I'm tired of being religious.

I'm tired of being sinful. I'm just tired.

God, please save my soul, save my life, save my everything.

Ioffer myself up to you because you died on the cross for me,

for me. So I receive you in this moment

at Resurrection Church, February 8th, 2026.

I receive you and your salvation.

Now keep your heads and eyes closed and anybody that prayed

with me, please look up here if you will just look up at me.

No one's looking. Thank you, thank you.

And if you prayed that if you're ready for the bath, the

salvation, then we have some tables in the back and I want

you to get up and go there right now.

So just just get up, don't be embarrassed, just get up and go

right back there. And now I'm going to have the

our prayer partners, our ushers, our deacons come forward and

we're going to sing and we're going to invite you forward for

prayer. What's driving you nuts?

This is God said my house shall be a House of prayer.

Don't ever be afraid to come forward and pray.

I was in a church last week. I went forward and prayed and

prayed for them. Please come.

So let's stand and you come. You need to pray and if you need

to go back those tables, you do that.

God's peace.