201: Meaningful Ministry | Part 6

Welcome to the Awakening Church podcast.

We pray this message encourages you and provides the hope and light of Jesus Christ.

Thanks for tuning in.

Happy birthday! To be with Caleb C and our teens over here, welcome.

Our school college students again.

Welcome.

And everybody else can work.

And we're absolutely thrilled to have you.

We've never met school.

And it's hard to believe that we've been in church for 12 years, and maybe some of you are going like I've never heard of the thing.

Some of you are wondering why in the world does a church have a birthday party, anyways, right?

You're like, what is that about?

I've never heard that.

They have anniversaries, right?

My birthdays.

Here's what we believe.

We believed 12 years ago God birthed a movement, a new community of people that set out to reach and awaken this generation's new life.

We started something, and we're a part of that.

And birthdays are just more fun to celebrate, let's be real.

And we want to have a party.

We love the party is the one time of year that we gather as one church.

Just look around.

Isn't it fun to see all of us together as one?

Yeah.

Yeah! This is gonna be like a call and response time.

Like I'm glad some of you uh are there with me.

Here's one of the wild parts.

Twelve years ago, thinking about where we were at, uh, just the ages of my kids.

My daughter's birthday's in September in a couple weeks.

In just a few weeks, she's turning 20.

Yeah, oh, yeah.

I'm like, really?

When we started this, she was seven, turning eight, my son was five, and then two, we had seven, five, and two, and now we have a 19, a 17-year-old, and a 14-year-old.

This is crazy.

Um, and I was trying to think, like, um, just like, what is like a meaningful 12th birthday?

I was looking back at mine, I really asked that question, that was crazy.

I don't remember my 12th birthday at all.

And then I was looking through pictures of our family, and I remembered, oh, this was a meaningful 12th birthday.

It was Ryder, who was then 12, now 17, then 12, his birthday week, and on his birthday week, he broke his nose skateboarding.

Or no, he broke his arm skateboarding, I broke my nose playing basketball.

Here's a picture of me.

Uh no, next slide.

There we go.

Here's a picture of me.

Yeah.

And that something ugly.

Okay.

And then here's a picture of me and Ryder together at urgent care.

And the nurses thought it was so cute.

A father and son, I'm like, this is this is terrible.

What in the world?

But memorable.

And my hope is that today, our 12th birthday, will be memorable for very different reasons.

Uh I'm I believe and trusting that God wants to speak to you.

He wants to meet you.

He wants to move in this moment, that he wants this moment to be memorable, informing, and transforming in our life.

Uh, over the summer, I came across this poem by uh American poet Mary Oliver.

It's called Summer.

It's a great, wonderful, whimsical poem, and she uh concludes with this thought-provoking question.

She says, What is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?

Isn't that a great way to ask that?

Like, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?

You know, when we're younger, our birthdays are all about celebration, aren't they?

It's the party, it's the people, but it's really the presence, you know?

And when you're younger, you look forward to every birthday, don't you?

You're like, I can't wait for this birthday.

It's gonna be great.

Every birthday you look forward to, but there's some bigger ones, 10, 12, 13, 15, 16, 18, 21.

Um, but and you you are excited to get older.

Like you can't wait to get older, right?

And then as you get older, when you get older, it moves from celebration.

There's still celebration, don't get me wrong.

But when you get older, it shifts from celebration to evaluation.

It does.

You begin to feel you're like, yeah, that's right.

No, that's right.

Because then you hit some numbers you don't really want to hit.

You hit 30, you're like, oh my goodness.

What is going on?

Am I an adult?

I don't feel like an adult, but I'm just that people tell me I am.

Then you hit 40.

Midlife crisis comes knocking on your door.

I mean, my brothers just celebrated their 50th, and we're having so much conversation as they're talking about there's more life behind us than in front of us.

And you just begin to evaluate life, and I think it's incredibly wise and good.

We start to ask questions like this: are we living life well?

Am I living it well?

Isn't it interesting, by the way, that we spend so much time, money, and energy to live longer, but we don't spend enough time, energy, and money on are we actually living life well?

All those supplements, cold plunges, amen.

You know?

Whatever it is that you're taking to help you live longer, but we have to evaluate at some point, am I living life well?

And then there's times where birthdays just catch you by surprise and we just hurry and rush through them, and we find this, don't we?

Why is it that we tend to live such full lives that often leave us unfulfilled?

I filled up my life with all these things.

I thought that mattered, that all these things have ultimately fulfilled me, but why do I feel so unfulfilled?

There is actually this disillusionment with success.

People who have been successful have had this conversation so many times.

I climbed this ladder, I pursued this dream, this is what I was going for, and it fulfilled me for a moment, but it doesn't really now.

There must be more.

Isn't there something else?

Is this all there is?

Renowned social psychologist Roy Ballmeister, he says this about the human species.

He says, what sets human beings apart from animals is not in the pursuit of happiness.

Isn't that interesting?

It's not the pursuit of happiness.

Which occurs across all the natural world, but the pursuit of meaning, which is unique to humans.

And just as the body cannot live without food, the soul cannot live without meaning.

And as we celebrate our 12th birthday, we're celebrating for sure, but we want to evaluate as well.

How do we live a meaningful life?

How do you live a meaningful life?

How do you ensure that you don't just get caught up in the rat race going through the motions thinking this is what life is supposed to be and look back 20 years, 30 years and go, is that all that was?

A life filled with purpose, significance.

You know, Jesus, um, arguably, uh, well, I'll argue it, um, lived the most impactful, meaningful life of all of human history, right?

I mean, we actually divide our time by his life and death.

We're in the year 2024 on Odomini, year of our Lord, right?

So that's pretty significant.

But his teaching as well.

Our values today founded on equality, on love, on acceptance, on tolerance, they're all found upon the very teachings of Jesus.

And it's in his final moments with his followers that he teaches us, he shows us what does it look like and how do you live this meaningful life.

If you got your Bibles or you got your phones, if you want to open up to John chapter 13, it's a if you've been around the church world, it's probably a familiar passage to you.

John 13 · chapter mention

If not, man, welcome, and we're thrilled that you're here.

Jesus, just to set the context, it's the night he's going to be betrayed by Judas.

Judas Gariot, one of his 12 disciples, has already set this into motion.

He's already received 30, you know, shekels of silver.

And Jesus has about a few hours with his disciples.

He set up this time in this upper room.

Later, it would be called the Last Supper.

And what happened to the disciples before this moment, it's funny-ish.

The disciples, well, James and John started it really.

James and John had their mom Mary go to Jesus and ask for a favor so that they could have a position of authority in like Jesus' kingdom.

And the rest of the disciples got wind of it.

They're kind of pissed.

You can understand why.

And an argument breaks out among the disciples that was carried into that room.

They're arguing over who is the greatest.

This is the night before Jesus dies.

He spent three years with them.

He's been teaching them all these sort of things.

And this argument, this dispute of his twelve disciples, is who's the greatest?

And this is where we pick up the story.

It was just before the Passover festival.

Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and to go to the Father.

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

I love that.

You can underline that if you're highlighted in your Bibles.

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, notice this, had put all things under his power that had come from God.

He was returning to God.

So he got up from the mill, took off his outer clothing, wrapped the towel around his face.

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 don't realize now what I'm doing, but later you'll understand.

I love Peter, by the way.

He said, He always puts his foot in his mouth.

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

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

Then Simon replied, Not just my feet, my hands, my hand, everything.

Give me a bath.

Jesus goes, You don't need that.

When he'd finished washing their feet, he put his on his clothes and returned in his place.

Do you understand what I've done for you?

He asked him.

You call me teacher and lord, 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've set for 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.

How in the world do we live a meaningful life?

That we don't just fill our lives with activity, but it's filled with significance, purpose, and meaning.

I want to draw your attention to just three observations about Jesus and then three applications for us of a meaningful life.

The first thing I want you to notice about Jesus is that Jesus was moved by love.

Jesus was moved by love.

Notice what it said.

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

I like how another translation interprets this translated.

It says, now he showed them the full extent of his love.

I don't know about you, but when my kids, they rarely do this, they're amazing, they're wonderful, they're but when they are arguing, or when they're doing something that is clearly not right, my first response is, and now I want to show you the full extent of my love.

Right?

It's just not.

Jesus sees what's going on, and he sees that his moment's short.

And he says, I'm gonna show you the full extent of my life.

I love you.

This is love.

Love is giving the other person what they need the most.

When they deserve it, a great personality.

I love you.

I'm gonna give you what you need the most in this moment.

You don't deserve it.

The way you're acting, you don't deserve it.

And it's gonna cost me in this moment.

Jesus, he begins.

I love this.

He is moved, he is fueled by love.

Like his motive.

The thing that is energizing his activity is love.

Jesus is moved by love.

And one of the things that we have to ask is how?

How in the world is he moved by love?

In the text it tells us.

And this is one of those keys to a meaningful life.

A meaningful life begins with who before what?

A meaningful life begins with who before what.

Jesus was secure in his identity.

Jesus was secure in his identity.

Notice what it said that Jesus knew, remember this?

Jesus knew that the Father put all things under his power, that it come from God and was returning to God.

He was secure in his identity.

His identity wasn't in his disciples' response, like an insecure parent that gets all ruffled when their kid acts out in public as if it's looking bad on them and reacting poorly to their kid.

His identity isn't in the respect he's owed as a rabbi, like an insecure boss.

That lords it over you or always has to put you in your place.

When Jesus started his earthly ministry before he had ever done anything, he got baptized.

We're doing baptisms, by the way, in just a bit.

And today might be the day for you to get baptized as well.

All who put their faith in Jesus are to get baptized, to follow in the example and to follow in the command of Jesus.

Jesus gets baptized.

He comes out of the water.

Now notice this.

The Holy Spirit descends on him like a dove, and the Father speaks over his life.

This is my beloved Son.

What has Jesus done up to this point?

He's about thirty years old.

What does he accomplish?

Can we trade?

You're beloved before you ever did anything.

You're approved before you ever went to the cross.

You are well pleased.

That is your identity.

That is your standing.

It's who you are before what you do.

In our culture, in our day, our identity is found in what we do.

How I perform.

How other people see me.

I have to meet certain standards to be loved, to be approved, to be liked.

It's what before who.

Your what informs your who.

And Jesus says, no, no, no, no.

Who before what?

You are beloved by God.

Honestly, if Christians could get this one thought, it not only would change the church in America, it would change America.

Where we understand that your identity is not achieved, it is received.

You have been given a new identity.

You are of the beloved.

And being beloved is the core truth of who you are.

Core truth of who I am.

Much of our activity, by the way, is born out of a misplaced identity.

We spend all of our hours.

I have to perform.

I'm not worthy.

I'm not lovable.

I feel what others say about me is true.

I feel like I'm just damaged because the truest thing about you is Jesus loves you.

The most profound truth on this planet.

God is not angry with you, he's not disappointed with you, he's not frustrated with you.

When he sees you throwing the tangent, when he saw you going your wayward way, when he saw you acting the way you were throwing a fit of who's the greatest.

By the way, secure people serve.

And who you are.

And you are love.

Now notice this.

Jesus moved by love moves towards the mass.

Jesus moved by love moves towards the message.

Notice what he doesn't too.

He doesn't shame the messy.

What were you thinking?

Right?

They're having this argument.

He doesn't shame the messy.

Like, how could you?

Don't you know?

Guys, three years.

Really?

He doesn't give a lecture.

You know what you needed was a little bit more teaching.

You haven't got enough teaching from me.

And this is really hard for us.

But when we get our identity, we'll get it right.

He doesn't judge the messenger.

He takes the posture of a servant and lovingly washes the filth away.

He got up from the mill.

Think about this.

I want you to just, in your mind's imagination, go back and think they're coming to this upper room.

There's 12 disciples, and they walk in, and there's a container of water, a basin, and a towel.

But there's no servant.

You've been arguing about who's the greatest.

And by the way, the person who's not the greatest of the disciples really should take this on.

You walk in and go, huh?

I wonder who screwed up and didn't plan for somebody to wash our feet.

Not my responsibility, not my job.

Walk in.

One by one, there's a there's a picture, there's a towel, there's a basin.

They saw it there, they walked in, and the way you would recline in the ancient days, you would have a pillow, you'd lean on your left side, your feet would be going away from you, and you would be all kind of close together, your faces round this table to have intimate conversation.

Their feet are pointing away.

And Jesus, he gets up, and he takes off his outer clothes.

The garments that signify, I'm a rabbi, I'm the master.

And now he's in his undergarment literally.

And the lowest position in the ancient day was the foot washer.

And he takes the towel, wraps it around his waist.

You can just imagine they're sitting, kind of looking over their shoulders.

What's he going?

What's going on?

This is getting weird.

And he pours the water into the basin.

And then one by one, he comes behind them.

And imagine their feet are right here, but their heads are all close to one another.

And they're looking at each other.

Is he really doing this?

I mean, Jesus did for the disciples what the disciples weren't even willing to do for Jesus.

Is he really doing this?

Is he taking the posture of a slave?

Did he put on the garments of a slave?

Like our rabbi and master.

We've been arguing over who's the greatest.

And he sees the dirt, and he sees the filth, and he sees the messiness both of my feet, my external, but also my internal, all of our arguments.

And love is not repelled by the mess.

It is compelled by the mess to move in.

Jesus.

He takes and he begins one by one to wash their feet.

And then Peter.

I guarantee you Peter said what everybody else was thinking.

Not me.

Not me.

No.

Jesus.

I've seen what your hands have done.

I've seen you touch lepers and they're healed.

I've seen you touch the blind and their eyes give sight.

I've seen you hand bread and fish and they multiply.

Like these are the very hands that have created healing and wholeness.

And now you're touching my feet.

And I think that for some of us.

Oh, I think most of us.

When it comes to the messiness inside of us, we either believe we gotta get it figured out before we let Jesus see it.

Or we just cover it up.

Don't we do that really good in church?

Come on, we can be honest as church.

Oh wait, we're not as honest as we should be in church.

Right?

Because what we do with the mess of our lives instead of showing up in the church and going, I'm a mess, and by the way, Jesus loves me.

And he's moved towards the messiness of me.

What we do is we cover it up, we sweep it under the rug, we hide it in the closet, and we pretend like we have everything figured out.

Oh, the church would become more of an enemy.

That's God's vision for the church.

Honestly, you begin.

Hey, hey, I'm powerless.

I'm powerless to change.

Welcome, my name is Ryan, and I'm a mess.

And I'm powerless to change.

I need a power greater than myself, and I yield myself to Jesus, the power greater than me, who's moved by love towards me, not away from me and my mess.

See, a meaningful life, and for us, what one of the things that you desperately need, that we desperately need, is you need to let Jesus minister to you.

No, not I! No! Don't touch that part of me.

That's my secret side.

That's the stuff that I've hidden from other people.

That's the gambling stuff.

That's the pornography.

That's the addiction.

That's the bulimia.

That's my thought life.

Don't touch that.

Don't touch me.

I feel like I'm just damaged goods.

Somebody did it to me, but I don't feel worthy anymore.

Jesus would never want me.

I mean, I I just cut myself to feel something.

Feel anything.

I harm myself because I just don't feel good at God.

I feel like I keep trying to run away from my past.

I've changed cities, I've changed jobs, but the past keeps catching up with me.

Why do I go from one self-destructive relationship to the next?

Would you let Jesus minister to you?

The word minister literally means to serve, to attend.

Jesus says in Revelations, behold, I stand at the door and knock.

Like today, I'm knocking, child of God.

I'm knocking, one who's wandered far away.

I'm knocking.

You've never come close before.

You feel like you're disqualified.

I'm knocking.

My love compels me.

I move by love and I move into your messiness.

See, when Jesus, when Jesus sees disease, he sees an opportunity to heal.

When he sees sin, he sees an opportunity to forgive and redeem.

And when he sees dirty feet, he sees an opportunity.

He says, I'm knocking, and a lot of us are like, hang on, let me tidy up.

House is a mess.

There's some rooms I don't really want you to go into.

It keeps us stuck.

It keeps you stuck.

Jesus, so powerless.

And for some reason, grace alone, you love me.

And nothing I can do will ever change your love for me.

When I'm not doing well, you don't love me any less.

And when I'm doing great, you don't love me anymore.

You love me with an all-consuming, unrelenting passion.

And your love disrobes your rabbiness.

And the God of the universe takes the posture of servant to come and meet you right where you're at.

Would you let Jesus minister to you?

Would you say, Jesus, come in?

A step one, I'm powerless.

I've been trying.

Step two, Jesus, you're powerful.

And you're good.

We sang that.

And you love me.

Step three.

I yield my life.

Jesus, move by love, moves towards the mess.

And then finally a final observation.

And Jesus calls us to follow him.

This is as simple and difficult as that.

We cannot follow him if we don't get our identity and who we are, a little of it.

And if we do not allow him to minister to us first before we minister to others.

He calls us to follow him.

And he says to his disciples, I've set for you an example.

I've modeled this.

That you should do as I've done.

Very truly, 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 say that with me.

We'll try it one more time.

There's a lot more of you than that said then.

Now that you know these things, you will be less.

Huh.

So the blessed life is the servant-filled life.

Jesus redefines greatness, doesn't he?

No servant is greater than their master.

I'm your master.

I'm your rabbi.

He redefines greatness as the one who takes the posture of a servant and loves another and loves them in the mess that they are and loves them through the mess that they meet, Jesus.

And so are we.

And really the blessed life.

The blessed life isn't how much you have in your bank account.

The blessed life isn't what car you drive, what clothes you wear, what's on your wrist.

Blessed life isn't a house.

And there's nothing wrong with any of those things.

I just want to tell you though, the blessed life is the person that takes up the top and sees their life as grace.

I've been given grace and now I take up the towel of service.

Jesus moved towards me in love, entered my mess.

He has healed me, he has watched me, he has redeemed me.

And I can't help but share in love with other people his grace in return.

I just become a foot washer.

I just become a foot washer.

And so instead of when I see a mess around me, I'm going like, oh man, they really need to get that fixed up, don't they?

Moved by love, I'm going to enter the mess and I'm going to love you, I'm going to love you, I'm going to love you.

Why?

Because Jesus loved me.

That's it.

And so I'm going to take up the Tao of service.

A meaningful life says, I'm going to just take up the Tao of service.

You know, there's so many people in our church that I just I'm amazed by.

That have done this.

You know, our kids' ministry right now, there's leaders that are serving our kids.

They won't get to be in this service.

They're just serving.

Why?

Not because they have to, not out of application.

They love your kids and want them to experience the wonder of Jesus.

There's a man named Nick over there.

He's an incredible guy.

He's awesome.

Hang on, let me tell you about who he is.

And then clap.

Serving in our kids' ministry so consistently and faithfully.

He's a teacher.

He loves teaching your kids.

He spends so much time working on the lessons.

He's got a full-time job, full-time family, full-time everything.

I was talking to him the other day and just seeing him work through like a lesson.

Because he just longs for kids to truly come to know Jesus.

I think of Carrie in our church, who saw a need.

She saw a need where, you know, people going through the extremes of life, whether it's, you know, having a baby or losing a loved one and everything in between, just needed extra care.

And she lives an incredibly full life.

And just began to love.

Think of Stephen and Angie Chang, who outside, they're providing coffee, like really nice coffee for free.

We were going to pay them.

And they said, no, this is our church.

We'd love to serve our church.

But it came from a place for them.

They started our homeless ministry.

They used to lead our food pantry.

They've just taken up the towel and said, you know what?

My life is just a service.

I have been served.

Jesus has loved me.

And wherever there's a need, I'm going to take up that towel and love others.

I think of my friend Brian.

Brian, who suffered a career-ending injury as a detective.

And God is okay.

Began to figure out what am I going to do next, and he just began to give his time.

Just serve.

He actually was a volunteer staff member for a while for us.

You ever heard of something like that?

A volunteer staff member?

And now he just joined our staff in our local outreach.

Life looks very different.

Not as they planned.

When I serve the way he served, Jesus.

Move by love, move into the message.

And he calls you.

And he calls me to do it.

As we were celebrating our 12th birthday, I really was like, I wanted, you know, the 12 to be like, what are the what's the meaning behind the number, right?

And you go, like, well, there's 12 disciples.

There's 12 tribes of Israel.

And that's cool.

And we could talk a little bit about that.

But what was most impactful for me is the 12th step in AA.

The 12th step in AA says, after having a spiritual awakening.

And that's my prayer that many of you have already had, but some of you will have in this moment a spiritual awakening where you go through steps one, two, three, and four.

God, I'm powerless.

I'm a mess.

I need someone greater than myself to clean up this mess.

And I yield my life to you, Jesus.

The loving, gracious Savior, my Lord and Rabbi.

After having a spiritual truth away, takes these things you've learned and gives them away.

Because they're all fellow strugglers.

And the truth is we're all fellow strugglers.

And we just get to help one more fellow struggler along the way.

One more mess.

One more mess.

Hey, I'm a mess.

But Jesus is cleaning up my mess and I've been there.

Come on.

Let me walk with you.

Where they give their life away.

They have a slogan in A.

It says this, we keep what we have by giving it away.

Isn't that paradoxical to what we do?

Because we just try to cling to it.

And if you want a life full of meaning, you've got to start giving it away.

So as we close and the band comes up, actually, would you just mind standing with me a little bit?

Close the worship.

Just want to give an opportunity.

If you've never heard that Jesus loves you, you've never given your life to him.

You've not gone through those steps of the A.

Which is just the steps of salvation.

God of a mess.

I need you.

Would you come into my life?

You're knocking on the door.

Would you come into my life?

Would you just pray with me?

And if you're in that space, you want to trust Jesus as your Savior, would you just pray this prayer afterwards?

Heavenly Father, thank you for your love.

Thank you for Jesus who came for me, died for me, and rose again on the third day that I might have life.

I admit I'm a mess.

I can't change it.

Would you come into my life and make me new?

I welcome you in.

To every part.

Would you be my leader and rescuer?

And if you prayed that prayer, would you just with a heads bowed, would you just raise your hand so I can pray for you?

Just now.

Amen.

Raise them high.

Amen.

And then there's those of us that we've been wandering.

We may be even headed church, but like we're just not tethered to Jesus because we think there's stuff in us that you'd be repulsed.

Your dirty feet.

Your stinky attitude.

Your secret addiction.

Your sauce to keep.

Would you welcome?

Would you welcome?

Jesus, I welcome you into my name.

I welcome you into my day.

I welcome you into my heart.

I welcome you into my death.

I welcome you in to the moments where she's been lying from one relationship to the next.

Welcome.

We hope you are blessed by this message.

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