Pastor Tim Dunn "Servanthood" (Sunday 9-3-23)

Welcome to Life City. This podcast was created to celebrate what God is doing

and what's for Texas. Our vision is to reach the hungry, the hurdy,

and the hopeless. God has given us our heading. Join us today

as we listen to the Word and we pray that God speaks to you in

this message. For a period of my life, I tried life without the

Body of Christ, and I just made a wreck of things because not just

was it without the Body of Christ, it was without the Lord in my

life. And it just became a disaster. And so He taught me that

I need him. And the quicker you can come to that understanding that you

need him, the better off you'll be. Amen, you need him.

Look at somebody and tell him you need him. I know what just happened.

I know exactly what just happened. The husbands that are sitting by your

wife, like he said it, not me. You need Jesus in your

life, a lots of Jesus. Or maybe it was a spout the wives

that said it to the husband. You know, either way, it fits

both ways. Amen, We're gonna start reading in the Book of Luke and

so if you ever you know Eve like knock knock jokes. Okay, they've

been done a million times over right. Like me and my girls, we

make up our own knock knock jokes. Most of them are the dumbest thing

you've ever heard in your life. Mine are at least, you know,

dad jokes. But but sometimes you get lucky and there's there's a funny one

in there. But so you know, when I read this to get ready

for today, I stopped and I laughed because Luke, Chapter eighteen, verse

ten starts in a way, this is Jesus talking. Starts in a way

that a lot of jokes I've heard have started. Two men walk into a

bar. I've heard a lot of jokes start that way. He didn't say

bar, he said temple. So two men, sorry, he said.

Two men walk into the temple to pray. He says. One is a

pharisee and the other a tax collector. Well that's a crew. Verse eleven,

he says, and the pharisee stood and was praying this to himself.

God, I thank you that I am not like other people. Thank you

God that you didn't make me like you made those other jokers. He says,

I thank you that I am not like other people, swindlers, unjust

adulters, or even like this tax collector, this IRS agent that I walked

in with Verse twelve. He goes on, Now, it's not about them,

it's about him. I, on the other hand, I fast twice

a week. I'm surprised at this point the Bible don't say that he started

levitating, but for some reason it doesn't. But I fast twice a week.

I pay tithes of all that I get Verse thirteen. But the tax

collector, this guy, this joker standing over here, standing some distance away,

was uneven, was even unwilling to lift his head his eyes to heaven.

But this guy was over there beating his chest saying, God be merciful

to me, the sinner. There's two viewpoints here. There's two there's two

mindsets here that are presented to us that Jesus presents to us, one of

the Pharisee and one of the tax collectors. Tax collectors back then, much

like today, are not the just society's most favorite people. You know,

I don't think IRS agents come to your house. But if you ever get

a letter from the IRS, unless you know it's a check coming, you're

not just eager to open it. Oh, I can't wait to see the

irs sent me a love letter like, oh, they love me so much,

they want all of my money. Tax colle lectors were the same back

then. But this man is offering a viewpoint, a standpoint of someone completely

different than the pharisee. And verse fourteen, Jesus is talking. He says,

I tell you, this man went to his house justified talking about the

tax collector. This man went to his house justified rather than the other.

For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled. Now, it doesn't tell us.

Jesus doesn't say when he'll be humbled or how he'll be humbled, just

the fact that he'll be humbled. And that's a scary proposition. Amen.

And he goes on. He says, but he who humbles himself will be

exalted. And then in verse fifteen, and they were bringing even their babies

to him so that he would touch them. But when the disciples saw it,

they begin rebuking them. How dare you bring these babies to Jesus?

How dare you do these things? And Jesus turns to them in verse sixteen

and says, permit the children to come to me. Don't hinder them for

the Kingdom of gungs to such as these. And then in verse seventeen,

he says, Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the

Kingdom of God like a child will not enter it at all. Whoever does

not receive the Kingdom of God like a child will not enter it at all.

The posture of your heart, the position of your heart, matters to

God. The condition of how you view yourself matters to God. What you

think of yourself matters to God. Amen. If you feel like you have

done everything right to earn some hierarchy of humanity, the Lord says, well,

let's check ourselves before we wreck ourselves, because he understand that we,

Paul said, we have all come short of the glory of God. We're

all sinners in need of a savior. And so this isn't this hierarchy of

holiness. I am not holy because we are not holy because of what we

do. We are holy because God is holy. There is this is no

holiness in humanity. There is only holiness in Godliness. There is only holiness

in God. That's what God is. So God is holy can be holy

when we live our life. According to this book, Amen. Self exaltation,

because of what we do, becomes the very thing that hinders God from

working through us in our life. Amen. And so the soul of the

man that is moved in humanity, I mean humility, Sorry, the soul

of the man that has moved in humility draws the attention of God. Have

you ever met somebody that has this false sense of humility? They tell you

all the time, how humble they are. You ever met somebody like that?

Yeah? Yeah, yeah, And so I just you know, I'm

it's no pointing out fingers. Come on, now, we have to understand

what God desires to do in us. See your purpose in life. What

God has designed for you, he can do without you. I hope I

didn't bust your bubble, but if I did, okay, I'm not sorry

that I popped your bubble there. But what God wants to do through you

he can do without you. Man, he doesn't need us, he wants

us. There's a big difference between those two things. Amen. Amen.

That's why the scripture says the rocks can cry out. He can use his

other creation to accomplish what He's called us to do. If we're not willing

to submit ourselves to Him as our creator and as our overseer and our savior.

Amen. And so it's important that humility is a part of our life,

and not this false sense of humility, but a true sense of I

am a sinner in need of a savior. The quicker we can come to

grasp with that understanding that I am I. Whether you've been living for God

and going to church and doing the right things for thirty to fifty to seventy

years or not, or maybe it's just today is your first day. It

doesn't matter the time span. It matters what's going on in the heart.

Amen. And just because I fulfill a role of pastor does not make me

holier than you, It doesn't make me better than you. I am still

a sinner saved by the grace of God, in need of a savior every

single day, Amen. Because sin is still out there, temptation is still

out there. I can fall head first into temptation and sin tomorrow if I

give into my flesh. And so I have to die every single day so

that I can stay submissive to the will of my Father. Amen. And

that's why it's so important to continue, And that's why he associates this with

a child, and then we see Jesus do this again in Matthew chapter eighteen.

Matthew Chapter eighteen, Verse one says, at that time the disciples,

isn't this just like men? Who then is the greatest in the Kingdom of

Heaven? I think Peter may have asked that question. He seems to me

like that guy. You know, he's brash, he wants to cut somebody's

ear off, you know, he wants to fight, you know, all

those things. You know, he's that guy, you know. And so

in response, I love that Jesus doesn't just respond to this verbally. He

looks at them and he calls a child to himself and sits it before them,

sits this child before them. And I wonder if Jesus did this,

you know, Lord tell us who is the greatest in the Kingdom of heaven?

And he sees a child, he calls him over here, and he

just sits him there and he just looks at him. See how long it

took for them to grasp what he was saying, Like, I'm sure there

were some like, oh yeah, sorry about that, And then there were

some others like why did you call a child? Over there. You know,

you get those people You're like, they just don't grasp you know what

you're saying. So he calls a child to himself and he sets him before

them, and he said, truly, I say to you, unless you

are converted, that ver that phrase there spoke to me. Unless you are

converted and become like children, you will not enter the Kingdom of heaven.

All you teachers that teach elementary students, raise your hand, Lord bless you.

There's no way I could do that. They would find me. You

would find me in a padded room with a very tight jacket on, beat

my head up against the wall. I couldn't do it. But he calls

this child and he says, unless you are converted and become like children,

you will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. And it hit me that the process

of conversion is birthed by the spirit of humility. To really be converted into

a follower of Jesus, it begins with dependence upon Jesus. You think of

your own children, if you have children, grandchildren, whatever the case may

be. When they are very young, they are completely dependent upon you,

amen, I mean completely dependent upon you. They eat when you feed them,

They are changed when you change them. Now. You know my kids,

you know, if we were slow on the job, we'd walk around

and there'd be this naked baby walking through and be like, okay, time

for an Easter egg hunt. We gotta go looking. You know, we

have lost some clothing in the house. You know, they would try to

help us out from time to time, but you know they're like, come

on, dad, you're not getting it done. No. When my daughter's

twelve years old and she is appalled that I would even say anything like this

right now, she's like, Dad, shut up. I was talking about

Grayson, not you, London. You never did that. Grayson's not in

here. She'll beat me up later. But they're completely dependent upon you as

the parent. They need you. And this is the deal, and this

is it's not just they need you physically. They have an understanding of their

need for you. They know they need you. That's why it's daddy,

daddy, daddy, mommy, mommy, mommy, mommy, mommy, daddy,

daddy, dady, mommy all the time. Why because they know they

need you for a certain period of their life. And Jesus is telling them,

we if you really want to be a disciple of mine. If you

really want to be a follower of mine, you have to get to the

point you have to you have to come to a mindset where you need and

you understand you need me. This is not being self reliant. This is

not about being self efficient. And our society is so caught up in this

idea of being independent. And we were not created to be independent of our

creator. We were created to be fully and wholly dependent upon Jesus Christ.

That was the order and the design of our creation. And so this idea

in our society that that we are supposed to be independent and we're supposed to

pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps, which is physically impossible. But that

that's a lie. You need Jesus. Turn to somebody else, not your

spouse, and say you need Jesus, every single one of us. This

is the thing. The Pharisee needed Jesus, the tax collector needed Jesus.

Zacheus needed Jesus, the preacher needs Jesus, the sinner needs Jesus, the

addict needs Jesus, the deacons need Jesus. There is no position you can

hold in this life or in the church that you get and wait to the

place where you don't need Jesus. Every single one of us need Jesus every

single day a man. And if we ever get puffed up in what we

do site of our need for Him and start banking on what we've done to

earn salvation, then we fall prey to false teaching. Amen, because we

are justified through humility. We heard Jesus said, look these two men.

This one has fasted, and this one has prayed, and this one he

talked about fasting every day. And I pray, and I pay tithes,

and I do all of these things. But this one over here is beating

his chest and weeping on the floor and saying, God, I am a

sinner. That one is justified. So it's not so much about what we

do, it's about what are the condition of our heart. Now, I

do believe that we must and have to walk in obedience to the word of

God. I believe that this word is true. Amen, And we have

to walk in an obedience to his word. But verse four of Matthew eight

Matthew eighteen says, whoever then humbles himself as this child, he then after

he calls the child up there and begins to you know, display this child

in front of all these you know, disciples, followers of Jesus. He

says, whoever then humbles himself as this child is the greatest in the Kingdom

of Heaven. Amen. Because the dependence of a child creates a pathway for

God to work. Amen, the faith of a child. You tell your

child, I'm gonna be there, you know what, They're expecting you to

be there. It's ingrained in them. It's ingrained in you have to This

is the deal. This is you know in you that work with kids understand

this, probably even on a greater scale than I do. But you have

to constantly disappoint and be absent from a child to get them to lose their

faith in you. It doesn't happen because of one time you don't show up

one time. You know what, They believe the next time that you're gonna

show up. You know why, because it's ingrained in them to believe you

as a parent. Amen. And this that's exactly what he's talking about,

is if you will become as a child in your faith understanding that if you'll

just take my word for what it is and just believe that I will be

there, but us educated adults. God doesn't show up exactly why we think

he should show up. I'm gonna quit church, quit paying my tithes,

quit giving in the offering. I'm gonna quit small group. There are a

bunch of crazy people anyways, Amen, because God doesn't He said no,

no, no, no, no, he said there. We as Christians

have to get a resolve in our spirit. We have to get some grit.

Hey, man, you gotta get some sand about you. You gotta

you gotta, You've gotta get something in your spirit that says, no matter

what happens in my life, I'm gonna stand upon Jesus Christ and his word,

no matter what comes against me. I'm gonna stand on this because of

everything in my life, he has never failed me. Amen. I may

not understand all he does, but he's never failed me. I may not

see everything he does, but he's never failed me. Amen. We have

to get some resolve about us. We can't be so flippy floppy like a

fish out of water. Amen. That's moved about with You know, the

wind blows and we woo follow every trend and every fad, and you gotta

get just some be founded upon the rock Amen. That is Jesus Christ.

Amen. Because without the understanding that we are in need of a savior,

the submission to these says becomes a foreign concept in your life. Amen.

And then I found this scripture. Lord led me to the Gospel of John,

chapter thirteen. He says. Verse one of John thirteen says, now

before the feasts of the Passover, Jesus, knowing that his hour had come,

that he would depart out of this world to the Father, having loved

his own who were in the world, he loved the end during supper,

the devil having already put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, the son of

Simon, to betray him. Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all

things into his hands, and that he had come forth from God and was

going back to God. Verse four, got up from the supper and laid

aside his garments, and taking a towel, he girded himself. He got

up and grabbed a towel, and he got ready. Verse five. Then

he poured water into a basin. He's going through this process as all of

the disciples that are there are watching it. They're not understanding what he's doing.

And so many times in our life we question because we just don't understand

the purpose that God does. He never promised us that we would understand everything.

And so he pours the water into a basin, and he began to

wash the disciples feet and to wipe them with the towel which he was girded.

So he came to Simon, Peter, that guy, and he said

to him, Lord, do you wash my feet? Peter's talking to Jesus,

And Jesus answered him and said, what I do You do not realize

now? This isn't about just what you see here. See, that's the

thing. We've got to understand. What you see doing is just the tip

of what God is really doing. There are so far greater purposes to everything

God does in your life and through your life. And that's why I said.

You may be here because you were invited, You may be here because

this is your church family, But that's just the tip of the iceberg as

to what God has in store for you. There's something divine, there's something

eternal that He threw your life if you'll just allow him. And so he

tells Peter, he says, what I do you do not realize now?

But you will understand hereafter in verse eight, Peter said to him, never

show you wash my feet. No, Lord, you're Jesus. You can't

wash my feet. And Jesus answered and said to him, And Jesus answered

him, says, if I do not wash you, you have no part

with me. He was teaching Peter a lesson and submission and servanthood. He

was showing Peter what he was gonna have to do once Jesus was resurrected a

man. It was this display, but it was more than just that.

It was about this thing called a relationship. Man. And I want London

to come here, Adam, if you'll grab her a chair, and I

want you to sit down in this chair, and I want you to take

your sandals off. I didn't prep her for this, as that expression clearly

shows, go ahead and take your sandals off. I asked her what kind

of shoe she was wearing when we left the house this morning. She had

no clue. Why. Yes, that's fine. And so he tells Peter.

He says, if I don't wash you, you have no part with

me. And Simon Peter says to him, Lord, then wash not only

my feet, but also wash my hands. And my head. Amen,

Because this is the thing about a relationship. This is I'm her, I'm

her earthly father. Okay, I'm her earthly father. And so because of

my relation to her, my Dna that all of those things, there is

a there is a certain level of relationship there, man, And so her

and I have a choice. We can increase that relationship or we can grow

apart. See if I choose to walk away from my family and never speak

to my daughter again, that doesn't change the fact that I'm still her earthly

father. I will always remain her earthly father. No matter what I do

or don't do, I'll always remain her earthly father. But you see,

when I choose to engage in a relationship with her, then it allows there

to be even a more dynamic relationship with her. Amen. And so it's

this idea that when there is a true relationship, when there is servanthood in

practice, obedience flows hard. If if I was a poor her father figure,

if I was abusive or hurt her in numerous ways, her tendency to

walk in obedience to me would be less and less and less. Ay,

man, you agree with that, go ahead and put your foot in there.

Whichever one. It don't matter. Is it cold? You see?

But the idea of a child and a father's relationship is not always do as

I say. It's let me show you by example. And so Jesus bends

down at his disciples feet, these people dedicated to following him, and he

begins to wash their feet. They're dirty. Her feet are not dirty,

very clean, but the disciples feet were dirty. And he began to wash

them, and he began to speak to them, and he began to bless

them a man because he understood that there's going to be times when Jesus is

no longer physically there, that he's going to be talking to them, and

he's going to be requiring things, and he's going to be asking things,

and he's going to be leading and directing them, and he wants them to

understand that he requests of them is done out of a heart of love.

And so when I give a commandment to my daughter London, when I tell

her I want you to do this and this. You see, when I've

been practicing servanthood to her and letting her understand how I feel about her,

it gives her a higher understanding that what I do I do out of love.

Solomon wrote in Proverbs three, he said, he said, the Lord

corrects and chastises who he loves. You see, the Lord corrects, he

disciplines who he loves. Amen. But it's up to us to develop that

sense of relationship with him. It's up to us to seek after him.

Why Because if we don't develop that relationship, his commandments start to feel like

hurts, and we viewed his word as disciplinary instead of love, and start

to view his commandments in a different light, and we start to view the

things that he's asked of us in a different light. Why Because we don't

have a heart of submission, because we haven't spent time developing a heart of

servanthood. Lift your foot up. But as long as London understands that,

yes I'm her dad, and yes I'm going to tell her clean a room

and every and then let her off the next day, she understands that the

things I do are done out of love. You know why? Because my

daughter and I spend time together. We have developed a relationship that goes far

beyond just her being my daughter and me being her earthly father. Amen.

She knows my voice, I know her voice, and that's the beauty and

the power of your relationship with Jesus Christ. Amen. And that's why it's

so important for us to develop, to develop this relationship with him where we

know his voice and he knows ours as my wife comes, so that when

he speaks, we can understand that what he speaks, even if it cuts,

even if it deal good, even if it's not what we want to

do. When he speaks, we understand it's out of love from a heavenly

father, and he knows better than we know. He sees greater than we

know. His ways. What does Isaiah the prophet say? His ways are

higher than our ways, his thoughts are greater than our thoughts. We have

to trust that. We have to believe that, Amen, because direction commandments

flow from a heart of love and they can be received as such. But

when there is a lack of a relationship, it breeds rebellion and rejection when

there's a lack of relationship, because then it just feels like rules. But

when there is a true relationship with Jesus, he can call something out in

your life, and not only do you know it's from a heart of love,

you can receive it in love. And even if it goes against your

flesh. You understand he loves me, and it draws us to an altar

of submission, to where we can bow our knee, bow our life,

bow our face before him and come to this understanding that I need you Jesus.

Won't you stand with me? Hallelujah? Because everything that God has for

you begins at servanthood. Everything that God has for you begins at servanthood.

Amen, what He has in store and your humility, your humility activates His

work in your life. Because the scripture tells us, I think it's James.

He resists the proud, he elevates the humble. I don't want to

be resisted by the Lord. I don't want to be pushed to arms length

by my Savior. Amen. And so it starts with the heart that understands

I need you. I need you. And I know this may be a

very simplistic message, but I felt like the Lord was calling upon me to

speak this to you because as the Body of Christ, there are so every

one of you have a different story. Every one of you have a different

background. There may be some similarities here and there, but it's different because

you're created unique. You were fearfully and wonderfully made. Amen. And all

of the things that we could find that would separate us, I find the

one thing that must unite us, and that is we are all sinners in

need of a savior. That must be the thing that unites us. Oh

to bring division into the body of Christ a man their scripture on that.

I won't go into it. But there's scripture on that too. We can't

let anything come in here and divide us and drive us apart. Why,

because it's not about us, it's about Him in your life. Amen.

And So as my wife begins to sing, I wonder just just where you

if this altar is always open, if you want to step out and come,

but just where you stand here today, I wonder if you would take

a moment, as she begins to sing, and just once again visit that

age old understanding of our need for Jesus in our life, our need.

Maybe there's something in your life that you need to ask step into repentance over.

Maybe there's some attitudes or some things that you've allowed into your heart into

your life that has caused some some some strife in your internally, and maybe

you need to ask the Lord to forgive you for those things. If you

do, take this time and do that, take this time and ask him,

Lord, I need you. Will you be the master in the Lord

of my life. Amen. All over this place, I wonder if we

would close our eyes. Thank you so much for being with us today.

We hope you were blessed in some way by the message. To learn more

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and we hope you have a great week.