Smell my Socks

Music.

You're listening to a teaching from the Heights Church, Sydney, Australia.

We hope that through this message you will be encouraged and grow in your faith and trust in Jesus.

If you are in the Sydney area, be sure to visit us in person at Hornsby Heights, Sydney, Australia.

You can find out more about the Heights by visiting our website at theheights.org.au.

So Leanne is going to come up now and bring the Bible reading to us.

It's from John chapter 13.

John 13 · chapter mention

Good morning, everyone. Our Bible reading is John chapter 13, verses 1 to 17.

John 13:1–17

It's about Jesus washing his disciples' feet.

It was just before Passover festival. Jesus knew that the hour had come for

him to leave this world and go to the Father.

Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.

The evening meal was in progress, and the devil had already prompted Judas,

the son of Simon Iscariot, 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.

So he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist.

After that he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples' feet,

drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.

He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, Lord, are you going to wash my feet?

Jesus replied, You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.

No, said Peter, you shall never wash my feet.

Jesus answered, Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.

Then, Lord, some and Peter replied, Not just my feet, but my hands and my head as well.

Jesus answered, Those who have had a bath need only to wash their feet.

Their whole body is clean. And you are clean, though not every one of you.

For he knew who was going to betray him. home, and that was why he said, not everyone was clean.

When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place.

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.

I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.

Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master,

nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him.

Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.

This is the word of the Lord. Thank you, Leanne.

Mark's going to bring a message to us using that story this morning.

We're going to pray for our kids as they go out to junior church and the senior

youth will be staying in with us today. But let's pray for the kids as they go.

Father, we thank you for the responsibility that you've given to us to care

for these, your children, our children.

We pray that as they go, that they would have attentive ears and hearts and

desire to learn your word and to apply that into their own lives.

We pray this in Christ's name. Amen. Thank you.

Well, bad habits. It's a song, but we all have bad habits, don't we? No?

Do you leave your dirty clothes on the floor for someone else to pick up?

Maybe you pick your teeth or your fingernails or something else.

We're going to take up our offering now, and as we do, if you're game,

Jim, why don't you share with somebody near you what your bad habits?

Well, I guess my bad habit is that I pick my fingernails.

Not because I'm nervous or have a concern or anxious, but I only pick them when

they're ragged and broken.

Of course. And it drives my wife nuts. So we all have bad habits.

And Mark's going to raise that as well.

That's not my bad habits, but bad habits.

Let's pray, shall we? Let's pray for our fathers.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for the fathers that you have given us.

We thank you that on this Father's Day, we can remember them.

We thank you for those who taught us about you.

And showed us by their godly lives and the examples that they lived.

Let's pray for our Heavenly Father. Father, we thank you that we can be called

the children of God, your children.

We thank you, Father, that you, through your word, guide us and lead us,

you infill us with your Holy Spirit, you teach us, you show us how to be a good father, a good husband.

And how to treat our children. Let's pray for our children.

Heavenly Father, we do pray for our children. We thank you for the blessing that they are.

We thank you for the responsibility that they are. And as parents,

and particularly as fathers, we want to model Christ to them.

Help us to do that, Father. We so often fall down in doing that.

But you are a forgiving God, and you provide all that we need,

the resources that we need to be better in Christ.

Let's pray for our nation.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for our state and we thank you for our nation.

We thank you for the leaders that you have placed over us.

We pray, Father, that they might be guided by you, that there will be godly

people in our parliaments who would be able to give wise counsel.

And we pray for our church leaders, Father, we thank you for them.

We ask for our church council that it would make wise decisions as well and

that we would be always listening to your voice.

We thank you for Mark, we thank you for Chris and we thank you for all those

who serve in any capacity here that you would continue to bless us as we serve

you here and bring you glory.

We pray that each of us might desire to live holy lives guided by your word

and encouraged by one another.

We pray for those in our congregation, everyone here this morning,

those who could not attend.

We pray particularly for those who are unwell or struggling with any issue.

We pray, Father, that you would bring healing and you'd be able to meet the

needs of those who are calling out to you in their need.

Heavenly Father, we pray for the missionaries that we support.

We pray for Hansia and the work that is done in the local high schools.

We pray for your encouragement for them and that we pray for the funding that

is required to allow this ministry to continue.

We pray for Mission Samburu. We think of Mick Alley and we thank you for him

and his love for you and for the Samburu people that have taken him back to Kenya.

We thank you for the way that you have blessed that ministry.

We pray for those who are preparing for their school exams and university exams,

that you would give them the ability to recall those things that they have learned.

We pray for the Bototo event upcoming. We thank you now that they are in Australia,

that this journey would commence.

We pray for safety for them as they go across the east coast of Australia.

We pray as they come into our church on the 23rd of October that,

indeed, Father, all the things that need to be done would be organized and ready.

We pray for the fair trade market that's happening here next Saturday,

and we pray, Lord, that that would go well, that everything that is needed to

be done and planned out has been done, and that we will have the volunteers,

the helpers that we need.

We pray for our junior church as they meet now. We thank you for them.

We thank you for each little life that is represented there.

We thank you for the teachers, and we just ask that you would bless them as

they impart your word to our children. We pray for our youth.

We thank you for each one of them as well. We thank you for Chris as he leads

them, and we think of the State Youth Camp as it comes up shortly.

That as it does and they go off to the State Youth Camp that you would give

them a great time of fellowship and unity and love and a time of learning and growing.

We thank you for Rob and Rob Holt as he goes for his walk out of the shadows next Wednesday.

We ask that you would bless him in what he is doing and those that he is supporting.

And we think of Leanne's rewind service that she held last week.

And we thank you that that was able to be done here.

And we just ask that you continue to bless her in her efforts there.

And we pray for ourselves now, Father, as Mark comes to bring your message to us,

that we might have hearts that are attentive and desire to want to hear and

learn and to apply that which we learn to our lives. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

Morning, everyone. These glasses were $2 at the shop because my other ones broke.

And so, well, who, like Buddy Holly or who's the person that,

Roy Orbison, there you go. So he got these thick glasses on.

So hopefully it doesn't reflect off my head.

Your new niece, is it? Who is relations?

Leora in, yes, okay.

So you can pray for Sam and the Watoto crew. Sam was down in Melbourne,

met everybody, got a new granddaughter, had to come back up here,

has to go back down there. All the running around that happens.

Meantime, we had people from our church, actually.

Wayne was going to drive the bus down in Melbourne, and then he went and broke his hip.

So now they find new people, and then Peter come forward. So all this stuff's happening.

That's trying to, I don't know, disrupt or disturb or to take away the focus.

And many times in great stuff like newborns and then other stuff about God provision.

So we can pray for all that's going on.

Here's how you can be part of Wototo.

Part of it is billeting and part of it is being able to take some of the people

into your home and be part of that.

But the other part is very easy. The same as the market day.

It is extremely easy for you to be part of the market day, not only coming here,

but all you've got to do is go to the Heist Church Facebook page and press like.

That's it. And share, maybe. I don't know.

I'm afraid to put up your hand. Hand up if you've seen a Wallaby kangaroo Instagram post.

So there's three people here. Do you know that that Instagram post had 185,000 people look at it?

Now, Cody doesn't know 185,000. He knows a lot of people. All it takes is like

and share, and all of that stuff goes viral.

All you need to do is to promote our fair trade days.

Either take posters, take flyers, send flyers, press like, share the post,

and then the word will get around about Watoto, about anything we put on here.

It's very, very easy to do.

So I pray that you can do that. I pray that you can be part of that.

I don't really want to know about your bad habits, like chewing your toenails or something like that.

Don't know what they are. Don't really want to know about them.

Kids are amazing. They have all these bad habits that they don't even know they've

really got yet in some sense.

They don't know about social acceptability. In fact, they don't even know what

habits they have and they haven't really formed them.

Most parents are embarrassed by the nose picking on camera or the spitting out

of the food at Christmas time because they don't like it, or the flatulence

that comes at some most inappropriate time.

You may be a parent and you're going to be fairly resilient,

I think, as a parent. Otherwise, you would just give up.

One of the big ones in my place was our kids, and they didn't know that it was

inappropriate to shove your foot in someone's face.

And they did. And it normally followed by a comment saying, smell this.

I don't know what the fascination with feet is.

Not too many people ever have thought, I don't think I've ever thought,

when I grow up, I want to pick the crusty bits off someone's feet.

But if you're a podiatrist or you know a podiatrist, good on you.

You can charge us whatever you would like, because I wouldn't do it.

Because feet basically smell.

Some people don't mind the smell of their own feet. Now, you don't have to answer this.

This is a rhetorical question, but have you ever smelt your shoes to see whether they stunk?

Or have you ever smelt your socks to see whether they could go another round?

But it's one thing to have dirty, smelly feet, but the whole different thing

is to wash another's feet, much less a stranger's feet.

And when you listen to this story in John, most people will be thinking to themselves,

oh my goodness, I can't believe that Jesus is washing someone's feet.

Washing someone's feet is a nasty thing to do.

Now, before you think to yourself, as well as communion, I'm going to bring

out the bowls and we're going to wash each other's feet.

Well, I'm not going to do that because I think that Jesus has a different meaning

in mind and he used this common practice of the day to tell us something great

about his love and about his care for us.

Imagine walking into a wedding reception, and maybe you've done this in some

sort of sense, where the food is lavish, the hall is beautiful,

the guests are all important.

And when you sit down, you realize that the coffee cup that you had,

the sipper was on the seam and you now have a river of coffee down the front of your shirt.

I don't know whether you've done that or not, I have.

All night long, you're covering up the spill down the front of your shirt.

But in the ancient world, dirty feet was not just uncomfortable,

like having a stained shirt that would stand out. It was socially offensive.

Foot washing was essential, but it was always done by the lowest of servants

and it was considered to be too degrading for anyone else to do so.

The lowest of servants would get that job.

So we need to picture this. We're at the Last Supper.

The one with all authority, the son of God himself.

God himself gets up, takes off his robe and,

and begins to wash his disciples' dirty, smelly feet. And that's the scene of John 13.

It's shocking. And once you see it, you can't forget it.

Yet it tells something about the core of who Jesus is, about how awesome the

good news of Jesus is and how we are to live in response to that good news.

So what things do we get out of the passage? First of all, we get the first

thing is that the love of Jesus is secure and unshakable.

And John sets the stage with these words, having loved his own who were in this

world, he loved them to the end.

It's more than just an introduction. It is the key to understanding everything that follows.

Jesus knew the bell had told, and in the next days he was going to die on the

cross for the sins of this world.

That's why the Last Supper is called the Last Supper.

It's the Last Supper before he died and went to the cross. He knew that Jesus,

one of the disciples, was about to sell him out.

He knew that Peter, another disciple, was about to deny him that he even knew

him just to save his own skin.

But praise God that his love is not dependent on us.

We don't earn his love. His love is not dependent upon our behavior.

Like somehow there's this karma thing involved that what I give to him,

I will then get back to him in equal measure.

That's not what it's about at all. Jesus just loved them.

Didn't love them halfway. He didn't love them until it got too costly.

Didn't love them dependent upon their behavior or not. He loved them to the

end, completely, fully, and perfectly.

In today's language, Jesus not only had their back, because he was completely

committed to them, he was committed to the mission of God.

The Father had sent him to come and die, to pay the cost, and he was committed

all the way to the end on the cross.

Now, it's not like he didn't deserve to be honored. It's not like he didn't

deserve to have someone wash his feet.

Jesus knew the Father had put all things under his power.

He had authority above all things, and he could have demanded service and honor and worship.

Instead, he took on the posture of a servant.

It's an important point, that. It's an important point for us to remember that

the posture of a servant,

and we'll get that back towards the end, true greatness is not about what you demand from others.

It's about how you're secure in God's love so that you can be free to serve without fear.

We live in a world that's trying to build up our own position,

our own self. when we think about celebrities and leaders who need to constantly prove themselves.

They're always checking how many

likes they have, how many followers they have, how many fans they have.

Their worth depends upon public approval.

And in contrast, let's think of a parent, some of the crusty things that you

do as a parent when the kids are really young, much less kind of like souping

down just as a simple thing to help them tie their shoes.

They don't feel, parents don't

feel like they have lowered themselves because they serve their kids.

It's an expression of love. And Jesus, infinitely secure in his father's love,

stoops down in servanthood without hesitation at all.

You and I don't need to fight for recognition in our life.

We are children of God, as Tony has already pointed out, because we're already

loved by him. We're loved by him to the end.

And when we're secure in Christ's love, we are then free to serve others in

ways that our world might look at it and take a step back and say, what are you doing?

Aren't you a Christian, a child of God, one that's going to heaven?

Aren't you loved by the creator of all? You go, yes.

That's why me serving another person doesn't mean I lose myself in the mess

of this world and the needs of this world. In fact, we actually find ourselves by serving another.

Jesus' action really gives us a reality check.

My favorite verses that I had actually written on my wall in Canada is 1 Corinthians 10, 12.

It says this, those who stand, take heed lest you fall.

In my sort of understanding, it was don't think of myself better than what I was.

Take heed and be careful. Keep my ego in check as you're always just one second away from the dirt.

That's what I had it on my wall for.

Because when you rise above other people and you put yourself above other people,

well, then it would be very hard to humble yourself from your prideful position

and serve them the way that Jesus did.

But this is what Jesus did. We read in Philippians chapter two,

Jesus Christ, who being the very nature of God, didn't consider equality with

God something to be exploited, but rather he made himself nothing, nothing.

Taking on the nature of a servant, being made in human likeness,

being found in the appearance of men, he humbled himself by becoming obedient

to death, even death on the cross.

Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him a name above all

names, that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and earth

and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord

to the glory of God and Father.

Jesus, who is God, stooped down to tie up the shoelaces, so to speak,

to humble himself, to serve humanity with the ultimate service that he could

give, which was his own life.

The humanity of Jesus shocks us in some sense, our pride that we have.

Why would he ever do that? And John describes his action incredibly slowly,

call them almost like frame by frame, so that what he did in washing the disciples'

feet become a parable of action.

So in other words, it's a parable where you can put things in to the water,

to the actions or whatever it be.

He describes it incredibly slowly, frame by frame.

He rises from the meal. He lays his outer garment down. He takes a towel.

He pours out water into a basin and he begins to wash feet.

Liberate. The one who laid aside his heavenly glory now lays aside his robe.

The one who came to cleanse us from sin now stoops to clean the dirt from between

the toes of the disciples.

Peter's reaction would be ours. I can imagine if Jesus did that for us,

knowing that he is Lord and he is Lord of all.

Lord, are you going to wash my feet? You shall never wash my feet in verses six to eight.

Why? Because it just feels wrong.

It offends our sense of honor. Yet Jesus replies, unless I wash you, you have no part with me.

We must be willing to receive from Jesus what we cannot do ourselves.

Our pride says that I must be able to contribute to my salvation somehow.

Now, humility says I can't, so therefore I need washing from you.

I need cleansing from you.

I need to let Jesus stoop down and let him wash me and serve me by dying in

my place where I should have gone and died. Christ did it for me.

As we go back to the wedding reception, you accidentally drop food on the floor,

And instead of one of the reception staff coming along, cleaning it,

the groom, the one who you're gathering to honor, gets down on his knees with

a cloth and you feel embarrassed and maybe even resistant.

No, you don't have to do that. No, it's my mistake. I dropped it there. I'll clean it up. No.

He says, no, I'll do it. And that's how Peter feels.

And that's often how we feel about the grace that the Lord Jesus Christ gives

to us. seems too much it is undeserved.

You're right, it is too much and it is undeserved.

But the next phrase, surely I can contribute to my salvation,

just knocks and makes little of what Jesus has done for us.

Pride resists God's grace.

And we rather prove ourselves than to be washed by Jesus.

But unless we admit that we need him, he says, in fact, you have no part with me.

And there is a question, isn't there? Have you let Jesus wash you,

completely cleanse you of your sin?

Now, while I think this parable is a parable of action, and that's what Jesus

has done for us, Jesus also calls us to service by setting an example of how we should serve.

And we see that in verses 12 to 17.

So after finishing, Jesus put his clothes back on and asked,

do you understand what I've done for you? Then he explains this,

you call me teacher and Lord, rightly so.

Now that I, your Lord and teacher, have washed your feet, you should go and

wash one another's feet.

I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.

Now, while the point I don't think is literal foot washing, although there are

some traditions that might practice this still, the point is a mouth,

I think, that proclaims the washing of Jesus.

Lifestyle also of humble service before Jesus.

See, obviously, I can't wash your sin away.

I can't go and do likewise that Jesus has done for you.

All I can do is bring you to the point that you are at the feet of Jesus.

You are the one who is going to be washed by him.

That's what I can do. And that's what you can do.

So where he says to his disciples, you go and do it likewise,

I think part of it is to say you go and get other people to sit there while I wash them too.

Proclaim the gospel. Proclaim the good news. Proclaim that you don't have to

work and work and work to make yourself clean, that Jesus will do it.

If you ask him like Peter had to, then wash me completely.

But obviously, it's not just about that voice.

It's about service and having a position of service or a posture of service.

Jesus gives us a practical example of that posture that we should be serving

one another. And it's hard. It's hard, this story.

If we're to take one of the characters, who would it be?

So most stories that Jesus tell, we take on a character. So obviously,

we normally would take the position of the disciples.

Jesus washes my feet who's a disciple that stands at the,

or stands in front of Jesus as he washes his feet. We would normally not take on the person of Jesus.

But what Jesus says is you need to take on my example.

You need to be me in this story.

Mother Teresa was asked how she could spend her life cleansing wounds on the streets of Calcutta.

She replied, each one of them is Jesus in disguise.

And that's the spirit, I think, of John 13. Not glamorous, not headline worthy,

but deeply Christ-like. Jesus says that you should do to them,

or what you're doing to them, you're also doing to me.

So be in service.

But as I said, our sinful inclination is to have others serve us,

and for us to be in a different spot, like the one who's being served.

But Jesus came to serve, not to be served.

John Piper says, and I can't put it any better than hymn, so I'll read it for you.

Around 50 times in the New Testament, Jesus and the apostles tell us to feel,

say, or do something to one another.

We are to care for one another, we are to bear one another,

honor one another, sing to one another, do good to one another,

forgive one another, and then there's the grand, arching, most repeated one

another, the commandment that binds everything together in harmony, love one another.

The one another statements offer a brilliant picture of life together under

the lordship of Christ, and not only under the lordship of Christ,

but also the pattern of Christ.

For rightly grasped the one another's are nothing less than a life of Christ

at work in the people of Christ to the glory of Christ.

That's it, isn't it? The king of kings kneels down, then no act of service is

beneath us. and we need to notice the promise.

Now that you know these things, you'll be blessed if you do them.

Sometimes we get it wrong and feel that the blessing comes when we're served.

But as Jesus said, it is better to give than it is to receive.

You are blessed when you do that, when you serve one another in whatever way God has led before you.

It's interesting that the blessing is not knowing the example of Jesus is following it.

And the Holy Spirit works in us and through us as we serve others from a humble

heart. And we're blessed.

Closer to home, think of the way that people serve us here, just in this service.

Volunteers that work behind the scenes. You're sitting in a clean environment

because someone has cleaned up.

There's people who serve morning tea. There's people out there teaching at kids

church. There are people who mowed the lawns this week.

People who blow the car park, all of these behind the scenes stuff,

like the IT stuff that goes on.

No spotlight, no applause, but in the quietness of a Christ-like heart.

So there is a question, isn't there? Where is God calling you to kneel.

Maybe it's serving someone in your family in hidden ways.

Maybe someone from the church, possibly a neighbor who is in need.

Maybe it's forgiving somebody who hurt you as you're serving them.

Maybe it's giving your time or your energy or your resources to help someone who can't repay you.

We need to remember not to get it wrong. We are not to evaluate my needs and

how we're getting them met.

We're not to be critical of people around us to say, you're not one another,

ring to me, because the call is not to do that.

The call is for you to serve them. And in that, you will be blessed as we serve others.

So what does discipleship look like? It looks like this, humble, sacrificial service.

No matter where you're at in life, there is somebody that you can serve.

Are there people in your life? Do you have neighbors in your life?

Are there friends at school? Are there friends at work?

Are there shopkeepers down in the shop that you regularly attend to?

If God has placed people in your life, he has placed people in your life so

that you might serve them.

Might give of yourself in humble, sacrificial service.

At the end, Jesus' love is unshakable, and the humility of Jesus we know washes

us clean so that we might serve as an example of his great love to others as we give of ourselves.

The God of this universe kneels with a towel and a basin, and if he has done

that for us, then nothing is too low for us to do to others.

Here's the thought to take home.

True discipleship and godliness is not measured by how many people serve you.

True discipleship and godliness is measured by how many people you serve in

the name of Jesus. Let's pray.

Lord, I pray that you bring people along our way.

And through your Spirit, Lord, you might reveal to us the needs that they have.

And we might be open enough to share with each other the needs that we have,

so that we might serve each other.

But help us, Lord, to not be myopic and think about all the needs that we need

to have catered for within our own life, but rather we might have your eyes so that in humble,

sacrificial service, we might see others through your eyes,

not as someone we can get something from, but rather that we can give,

we can give in ministry to them.

So whether that's opening up our mouth, Lord, and seeing the need,

the ultimate need of others who need to know your salvation,

your ultimate washing that you went to the cross for.

Also, Lord, help us to open up our eyes so that we see the human need of other

people and be in service for you in that. We pray this in your name. Amen.