So but if you want to turn in your Bibles to John 13, John 13. So this is going to be a series that we're going to do that will end up being a free class through the seminary, probably in next year sometime when I get it all done. But it's going to be entitled. Yeah. Oh. There you go. You need it green. Okay. So it's gonna be entitled developing leadership in the church Developing leadership in the church. So this Lesson is lesson number one. So this is basically your foundation of Alright, so I want I want to be a leader and remember when you look in Scripture many times God's world and Man's ideas or God's ideas and man's ideas are opposite All right, for instance, man has his idea of salvation. And what is his idea? Well, I can work my way, I can get baptized, I can go to church, I can do a lot of good things. All of that'll help me to get to heaven. And when I get to heaven, if my good outweighs my bad, then I'll be able to get into heaven. Well, that's not, What the Bible says, the Bible says in Ephesians 2, 8 and 9, for by grace are you saved. And then it continues on, and what does it tell us? It's not of works, lest any man should boast. It's not of ourselves. So when it comes to leadership, the world has their idea. And a lot of times, even in church, I would say, I'm using the idea of church in a broad spectrum, and we'll include everything, even the Episcopalians. So Episcopalians or Lutherans or Methodists, all of them in that church world, they say, all right, we need the leaders. And the idea is, well, what does the world say? Well, they're looking for somebody that can run business and they're looking somebody that can take charge and they can look, all right. And there are qualities that are probably pretty good and we can go through scripture and we can find some qualities. But what is one of the foundational qualities that we should have if I want to help out in the church? It's developing a servant's heart. Matthew chapter 23 and verse 11 says this, but he that is greatest among you shall be your servant. So in John chapter 13, we're gonna use this basically as our springboard for our lesson this evening. And what kind of heart should I have? Well, the heart should be the same as my master, and that is Christ. So what did Jesus do? So this is, let's put it into context. Oop, there we go. It's crinkling a little bit, all right? So I'll put it there, maybe it won't crinkle as much. We're trying not to. All right, can't move anymore, all right? All right, so in John chapter 13, so John 13 to 17, does anybody know what John 13 to 17 basically covers for us with Christ? John 13 to 17. The Last Supper, and then it's just before the crucifixion, so John 18. What would be the garden? John 17, we would call the high priestly prayer. That's what most people call it. John 17 is basically, if you want to know Christ's prayer, how he prayed, John 17 is that prayer. So John 13, 14, 15, and 16 basically are Jesus' last words to his disciples, the last time he's with them. He's basically going up into the, what we would term the upper room, and he's gonna teach them, talk to them for the last time. So it's interesting. You think, all right, so this is kind of the big event, the last time you're gonna talk to the disciples. So we picked it up, that's verse one. Then verse two, and supper being ended, the devil having now put into the heart of Judas Iscariot Simon's son to betray him. Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he was come from God and went to God, he riseth from supper, and laid aside his garments, and took a towel, and girdeth himself." All right, so what does Jesus do here? Yeah, all right, so here's the last thing, one of the last things you're gonna do. You're gonna give them financial advice. This is the way you need to invest. You need to take that and we're gonna develop a 401k and then by the end if you invest this, nope that's not it. All right, so then let me see. How are you gonna take over the world? He takes a lays aside his garments, took a towel and girded himself. The idea there is that Jesus set aside basically his normal garb and he took on the garb of a simple servant and started washing his disciples' feet. Now remember, this is God. I know he's all man, but he's all God too. It's Jesus here. And he's washing his disciples' feet. And look at verse eight, and remember Simon Peter. Peter's funny because it just sometimes doesn't know what to say. So he says, thou shalt never wash my feet. Jesus answered him, if I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me. Then, Lord, not my feet only, my hands and my head. Wash me. All right. But verse 10, Jesus saith to him, he that is washed needeth not to save, to wash his feet, but is clean everywhere, and ye are clean, but not all. For he knew who should betray him, therefore said he, ye are not all clean. So after he had washed their feet, and had taken his garments, and was set down again, he said unto him, know ye not what I have done to you? Ye call me master and lord, and ye say, well, for so I am. If I then, your lord and master, have washed your feet, ye also ought to wash one another's feet. So what is the Bible telling us? The Bible is telling us Christ is here and he's giving an example. It's example for us to be leaders in the church. Wouldn't you call the disciples who most of them would end up being apostles? They're the ones who basically take the gospel and they spread it across the world. And what was the advice? Learn to be a servant. Learn to be a servant. So let's turn to two passages, and they're in Mark. Two passages, and in Mark we're gonna look at two passages, Mark chapter two, Mark chapter 7. They're very similar and from there we're gonna get all of our points this evening on how do we develop a servant's heart. Okay, how do we develop? Because Christ, we want to follow Christ's example and what did he tell us? If I'm gonna be, if I'm gonna be a leader, I need to learn to serve. It's opposite of what the world says, because basically in the world, what do you do? You push everybody down, climb over top of everybody, get to the boss first and tell him how bad everybody else is and how good you are, and that's why I need a raise, and that's why I need this position. And Jesus says, you know what? What I did, you need to do, and that is wash each other's feet. So look at Mark chapter two in a story that many of us probably know. So Jesus enters into Capernaum after some days. It was noise that he was in the house. And straightway many were gathered in so much that there was no room to receive them, knowing not so much as about the door, and he preached the word unto them. And they come unto him, bringing one sick of the palsy, which was born of four. And when they could not come nigh unto him for the press, they uncovered the roof where he was, and when they had broken it up, they let down the bed wherein the sick of the palsy lay." Now, most people are gonna, when you read of this story, most people deal with Jesus. We're gonna deal with the four dudes, all right? We have no idea who they are. But there's four guys here. So let's go to Mark chapter seven. Mark chapter seven and verse 32. 31, we'll pick up and again, departing from the coast of Tyre and Sinai. He came unto the sea of Galilee through the midst of the coast of Decapolis. And they bring, so who is it? They. they bring unto him one that was deaf and had an impediment in his speech, and they beseech him to put his hand upon him. So here, we're gonna do the same thing. Both stories, we have the intro, and that is Jesus. He gives us an example as he's teaching the people who are gonna go out, and he launches them into the world, basically, in Mark 16, Matthew 28, John 21, Acts 1. He launches them out and says, go ye into all the world. How are you gonna do that? Remember to wash each other's feet. You gotta have a servant's heart. And we see examples of this in the Bible. I put, I think, a quote on your handout, and it's a quote from William Booth. He was the founder of the Salvation Army. He was interviewed near the close of his life, and this is what he said. God had all there was of me. There have been others who had greater plans, greater opportunities than I, but from the day I got a vision of what God could do, I made up my mind God would have all there was of William Booth. It's a servant's heart. So we're gonna take, I think it's five, is there five points? So how do we develop a servant's heart? So we have Jesus. We have the four men that are carrying somebody and we don't know their names. And we have in Mark chapter seven, they. And from these three stories, we are gonna come up with our lessons. So first is sweat. If I'm gonna develop a servant's heart, I've got to learn to sweat. Now, what does that mean? I've got to learn to work. Isn't that a servant? When you think of a servant, what is basically Jesus doing? He's putting off his normal, maybe everyday clothing, putting on servant's garb and washing feet. It's work. You know what the church needs? Workers. That's what it needs. That's what really, in some sense, leadership is. It's working yourself. You know, have you ever heard this phrase, the world uses it, but I believe Jesus exemplifies this. You don't lead from behind, you lead from the front. You know what Jesus was doing? By getting on his knees and by washing their feet, he was showing that he led from the front. And what is the leading? It's being a servant. Remember Paul? What do we think of Paul? Paul is, most of us, we're like, wow, man, someday I'd like to be like Paul. You know what Paul called himself over and over as he introduced himself, the chief of the sinners, but also most of the time when he introduced his letters to Corinth or Rome, to the Thessalonians, many times he would call himself the servant of Jesus Christ, a bond slave. No, wait a minute, come on, it's Paul. So what was he trying to do? He was learning to sweat. So let me give you a couple of points here under learning to work as far as a servant's heart. Do you know that serving Christ, you have to understand that there's gonna be times when you're serving that there is gonna be some strenuous days. All right, I worked, in fact, I was telling Brother Combs, And I forgot to bring the book. So I told him if I'd have brought it, it would have been free, but now he's gonna have to buy it. But we just got in a book, I think it was yesterday, just got a book in yesterday or Monday, but we teamed up with Dr. Sorenson on a book on the bus ministry. And the book is called From Bus Crowd to Drive-In Crowd. Because Brother Sorensen spent a lot of time working in bus ministry and so did I. And so we kind of teamed up, we wanted to put some things and some thoughts together. You know, at the bus ministry, this is what I can tell you. My wife and I ran a bus in Indiana for 20 years. You know, it's just a ton of work. A ton of work. And there's a lot of ministries in the church that are just a ton of work. And you say, well, I mean, what are you getting out of it? You serve. You know, serving God is just that, it's serving God. And there is, it's what we're supposed to do. We're following our master. You say, well, how many people or how many of this? I understand that, that's good. All right, we all like to see things accomplished, but really some of it is serving God is just that, it's serving God and that is enough. It doesn't matter who gets the accolades, it doesn't matter if there's all kinds of growth and all kinds of, some of it is the gospel has to go out. So how many tracks should we hand out? Should we have like a quota? Like I'm only gonna hand out 50 tracks at a time, and I will stop handing out tracks if 10% don't come to church. No, we just hand them out. What about in the area of giving out the gospel? I'm gonna knock on doors, and we're gonna knock on doors, but if after 30 doors, Somebody does not accept Christ, I'm done. I'm pretty sure you're gonna be done. What we have to understand is there's gonna be days that it's just hard. Also, you'll see serving Christ also means that there's not a punch clock. All right, so let me see, it's Saturday night or it's Saturday afternoon and we have Sunday coming. So the church has to be cleaned. I agree, we've talked about it. I mean, I'd buy as many robot vacuums as you can possibly have all over the place running wild, all right, all through the buildings, all right? But there has to be people checking some things. People love good music, all right? When I'm back in town, In Dover, I try to work with a few of the men, and we put some groups together. And that might be singing duets, it might be singing in a quartet or a men's group. And you know what I've told the guys? It takes work. So they have to practice. So if we're there, like next Wednesday, I told my wife, because she's going to be out of town, I said, we've got to get together, and I want her to play the piano, and we'll record it, because we'll sing via the recording. Why? Because we have to practice. People enjoy it when somebody gets up and, man, that sounds so good. Yeah, we just threw it together. Yeah, it sounds like it. Sounds horrible. Please, don't sing anymore. You know what it takes? It takes some sweat. It takes some work. Like, oh, I'm tired. Well, everybody's tired. Guess what? I realize once I hit 30, I'd be tired the rest of my life. I think maybe at 25. I learned that at 25, basically the rest of my life, I'd be tired and I'd be more tired. I get up in the morning and I'm thinking about when I'm going to be able to see my pillow again. Why? Because sometimes it just, it takes sweat. It takes work. Duty means we have done what we owed. When we do our duty, we are merely paying our debt. Duty is something that is important. So it'll take some rigorous effort. It will not always be a nine to five workday, and your work may go unnoticed by others, but so what? That's what it takes to have a servant's heart. Like, wait a minute, I don't know if you noticed, are you gonna have a medal? Because I vacuumed the floor for four weeks in a row. We need a medal. No. Sometimes, Just things that you gotta do. Things that have to be done. All right, so the next one. All right, the first word is sweat. The second one is sacrifice. H.A. Ironside said this, that no sacrifice should be too great for him who gave himself for us. Service requires a price and servanthood requires sacrifice. We sometimes get the idea that I'm sacrificing so much, really? So how is that in comparison to Christ? Remember, he's John 13, he's our example. And here we had two examples of men, all right, the four men that are carrying, guess what it took them? It took them sacrificing of their day, their time, their energy. And I started listing out some things. So you'll notice, all right, this is the blanks there. So here's some things that it's gonna require us to sacrifice. It's gonna require us to sacrifice some time. Have you ever tried to work without it costing you time? I have. I remember doing that with papers, maybe in grade school. I tried to do homework without doing homework. I tried to write a paper without writing a paper. I tried to do something without doing it. Guess what? It didn't turn out well. And the same thing, if I'm gonna be a servant, it's gonna take some time. We're one of the things we're trying to do this as far as putting some courses together. All right, and here's a promo for you. We can help you see us afterwards. But what we're trying to do is through the seminary also offer some free things every once in a while. So we released a free course on the King James issue. It's a simple course, but you have to go online. You have to log in. You have to do it. And there's actually some quizzes there. You can kind of skate through them. You can actually avoid them. But we were trying to make it a little bit like a class. But guess what it's going to take, though? If you're going to do it, it'll take time. Some people are like, well, I'd like to learn more, but can I learn more without studying? I don't know how you're going to do it. but it probably is not gonna happen. And the same thing, we're trying to do it with this one, the leadership also, I'm working on this with the bus ministry. In November, I'm going to Indiana and we're doing a little bus, like a mini seminar on a Saturday and we're hoping to do some recording with that. Because what we're trying to do is help churches with some materials and maybe some courses, things like that. But guess what it's still going to take? Even on my part, guess what it takes? Time. It takes time. And guess what it takes for a church? It takes people that are willing to sacrifice some time. Notice, secondly, it takes energy. This is what I challenge any of you to do. Just run a bus route for one week. you will appreciate anybody that works with children after that. I worked, so when I was an assistant pastor, on the weekends it was pretty busy, because basically visit on Saturday, I was running a bus route, so we would visit. Then on Sunday morning, usually you're up pretty early, getting ready, and I would run the bus route, bringing the kids in. Then I ran to Sunday school class because I also was the youth pastor, so I taught the teenagers. So I was preparing for that. Then after that, I also was in charge of junior church. And so from there, I went to junior church. And Sunday afternoon, oh my word, I was just dreaming about Sunday afternoon to take a nap. But normally then, it'd have to be a quick nap, because they made me the song leader. So I had to be there, and band would meet, and the band director wanted to go over the songs at 4.30. So I had to be there at 4.30. But you know what? All that takes energy. Takes energy, doesn't it? Takes effort. So time, energy. All right, here's the next one. Money. All right, if I'm gonna be a servant, I'm gonna have to be willing to sacrifice a little bit of money. All right? P, plans. You know, there are some times that it's gonna take some planning on your part, or it's gonna be maybe setting some things aside so that you can serve. All right, for instance, There's always this debate. Sometimes there's a debate with pastors recently. I was, I think in the last couple of weeks, debating some things with some pastors on visitation and soul winning. And my opinion is that basically, you're not gonna have people go to visitation or soul winning if it's not scheduled. And there's a debate on it. There's like, well, I just like people to go whenever. I understand that. There are people that should go anywhere. But this is what I find. When I went to school as a little kid and even in high school, if they would have just said, hey, we just would like you to do it whenever, I would have done whenever. I would have done basically on Friday night from like 2 to 3. That was it. And I would say, I was here all week. You know what, it was scheduled. They wanted us there at a certain time, and it went to a certain time. Even in class, it was scheduled. All right, and that's what I find is that plans, we need to make sure that there's some plans for church, and also that sometimes my plans can be set aside. These men. that brought a man that couldn't walk. Do you think they'd set aside some plans to bring this man to Jesus? Yes, they did. Plans and then talent. Talent, that's the last one. Sacrifice, you say, wait, sacrifice of talent? Well, this is what is amazing to me. We will do so much for the world and efforts for all kinds of things out in the world. But then when it comes to church, you're like, well, I don't know. I don't know if I want to use that for that. Why not? Why wouldn't we take what God has given us, those gifts, and use them for God? All right? So it takes sweat. It takes sacrifice. But then it takes sympathy. Sympathy. What do we mean by sympathy? Matthew 9.36 says this, but when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them because they fainted and were scattered abroad as sheep, having no shepherd. Colossians 3 12 through 13 put on therefore as the elect of God holy and beloved bowels of mercy kindness humbleness of mind meekness long-suffering forbearing one another and forgiving one another even if any man have a quarrel against any even as Christ forgave you so also do ye So what is the Bible telling us? It's saying that we need to have compassion or sympathy towards others. If I'm going to have a servant's heart, if I'm going to learn to basically be what God wants me to be in the church, and what is that? A servant. How do I know that? Because Jesus said to his disciples, what I did, you need to do. Now, if that was good for Jesus, and if it was good for his disciples, I'm pretty sure he's meaning it's good for us sitting here. So how do we do that? I need to learn to sweat. I need to learn to work hard. And that means in the church. I don't just come and sit in the pew and basically by the time I die, there's a permanent spot that I've sunk and basically I've kind of molded into the pew. And they could just pry me off of there and place me in my casket. No, I'm here in the church. God brought you here to do something, to work, to do. That's what he's left us here to do. So I learned to sweat. I learned to sacrifice. Then I learned also, or I develop a servant's heart by having sympathy or compassion. So what does that mean for out in the world? Yes, but also within the church, sympathy, it's compassion, it's caring. My wife's grandma was unbelievable at that. She loved Tupperware, if you know what Tupperware was, and that shows her age, and she's in heaven now. But she loved cooking meals for people in the church. And she was a fabulous cook. So my wife would go there every once in a while, and she would have just Tupperware all over her kitchen. And she would cook all day, pack it up, and freeze them. And then on Sunday, she would just go around to a family that had a lot of kids or this person, and she'd just say, hey, just bring this back to me sometime, and I'll refill it. You know, she couldn't do a lot of things. But I'll tell you what, I loved when our freezer was filled up with grandma's food. It's like, yeah, all right, wash it, and we're getting it back. She said she'll refill it. You know what she found? She found that within the church, she could do something. You know, there are a lot of things within the church that you can look around and you can fill a need and you can help somebody out. And that's within the church. It's compassion, it's caring. It's like, what's wrong with them? All right, sometimes we can get, you know, you get older and you're looking around and here are the kids running around and you're like, I'm going to stick my leg out and trip that kid, man. He's just like way too much energy. Oh, you know what? Don't think about the parents there. They're fried and like, all right. You know what? Maybe, maybe you could say, hey, why don't you, why don't you bring the kids over and I'll torture them for an hour or two. Why don't you have them over to your house? I do different things. It's having compassion. It's caring. It's sympathy. Sometimes we have more sympathy for somebody that's out in the world than right here. And what does the Bible say? That we should care especially for those that are in the household of faith. Because the Bible says what will make a difference to the world out there is when they see that you have love one for another. It's compassion, it's caring. All right, so how do I develop a servant's heart? I develop a servant's heart by sweat, by sacrifice, by sympathy, but then by sound judgment. What do we mean by sound judgment? So here's some scriptures to consider. as far as sound judgment. Uh, I think we already read the passage in Matthew chapter nine. Let me turn there again. Matthew nine. But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them because they were, they fainted and were scattered abroad as sheep having no shepherd. Matthew 1414 says this, Matthew 1414. And in them is fulfilled the prophecy about Isaiah, which saith, by hearing ye shall hear and shall not understand, and seeing ye shall see and not perceive. For this people's heart is wax gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed, lest at any time they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them. But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear. So what is Christ telling these people? And he looks out and he sees a people that have no shepherd. Sound judgment is understanding that as a servant, ultimately what I can do is point people to Christ. And by pointing people to Christ, he gets all the glory and I'm just a servant. Sound judgment is this, as a servant, I know my place, and also I know that ultimately it's Christ that needs to get all the glory, and it's Christ that I need to bring people to. It's not about me, and it's not about you, and it's not about our church. Which be the greatest church in the world. Really? Why don't we just lift up Christ? Sometimes even in that, we still get very carnal. Because it's all about us. Instead, as a servant, I need sound judgment. And what's the sound judgment? The sound judgment is that I've got to push people to Christ. Because as a servant, I know my place. And that is, I'm just a lowly servant. The world would take the needy to everyone but Christ. However, Christ is the one who can solve man's problems. So lastly, is supplication. Supplication. They beseech him to put his hand on him. What is the idea of beseeching? It's praying. You know what service requires? Service requires, in a servant's heart, is humbleness, and humbleness is seen by us praying to our master, asking God, praying, seeking God's face. It's earnest prayer. Beseeching is the language of earnestness. Many do not do much serving of God because they do not do much praying. You know what will happen? If you say, so I wanna be a leader in the church. So how do you become a leader? I would say that this last point will help you the most. Get on your knees and start praying more. and saying, God, help me to help this church. You know what God will start doing? He'll start speaking to you. He'll say, all right, they just announced that they need this done. Why don't you go do it? Like, wait a minute, wait a minute. I thought they needed the choir leader. Like, no, he was asking for someone to clean the toilets. All right, so let's do that first. Like, oh, wait a minute, they needed a soloist. No, they needed somebody to put the toilet paper on the thing there, the holders, so you gotta do that. What about this? Well, he was saying that we needed a little more giving. you know what, none of that seems to be to my level. Get on your knees, and what you'll find is our level is on our knees, washing feet. On our knees, washing feet. So this is what's interesting. Remember we read that passage in John chapter 13? And what was that John 13 passage? It was Jesus, and it says this, And verse four, he rises from supper and laid aside his garments and took a towel and girded himself. So what's interesting is, and remember Peter was talking there. What's interesting is if you go to the book of, I believe it's first Peter, yeah, first Peter five. So here's a, And it'll make you feel really smart. So here we are in 1 Peter. So guess who wrote that? Yeah, the apostle Peter, who was there. John chapter 13 and this is what he says and John and first Peter 5 1 the elders which are among you I exhort who am also an elder and a witness of the suffering of Christ and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed feed the flock of God which is among you taking the oversight thereof not by constraint but willingly not for filthy lucre but of a ready mind Neither is being lords over God's heritage, but being ensamples to the flock, and when the chief shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away." Listen to this in verse 5. So it's on the context. So who's he talking to? He's talking to pre-church. Guess what he says, likewise ye younger. Submit yourselves unto the elder, yea, all of you be subject one to another, and listen to this, and be clothed with humility. For God resisteth the proud and giveth grace to the humble. Humble yourselves, therefore, unto the mighty head of God, that he may exalt you in due time. Most say that that idea of being clothed with humility has the idea, think about this, of a servant getting down on his knees and taking off his regular garb and putting on the garment of servanthood. Do you think Peter's thinking of something there? I do. I think he's thinking of his Savior who showed him an example, an example of being clothed with humility. And he said, all of us need that. That is how we develop a servant's heart. We follow our Savior. So wait a minute, I wanna be a leader in the church. First and foremost, let's work to get a servant's heart. How do I do that? I learned to sweat. I learned to sacrifice. I learned to have sympathy. I learned to have sound judgment. And I learned how to have the right supplication. All of that will help me to develop a servant's heart. So my question for you then. is this, as we close. Evaluate your service to the Lord. Are you giving your best service to the Lord? Are you giving your best service to the Lord? Are you doing your service fully with all your strength? All of these are biblical commands. Did you know that God says whatever our hand finds to do, we should do it with our might? That includes our service for the Lord. You know, sometimes our service for the world, Chick-fil-A, Chick-fil-A, man, I'm making that chicken. and I'm gonna make it the best. I get accolades or whatever. So what do you do at church? Nothing, what are we talking about? Wait a minute, so you're saying that for Chick-fil-A, which is chicken, it's fast food. I know it's glorified fast food, but it's fast food. It's fast food. It's French fries. Yeah, but it's gotta be the best. But our service for the Lord? Yeah. Sad. French fries get more quality than the house of God. So, am I giving my best in the service of the Lord? Am I doing my service fully with all strength? Are you doing your service out of love or out of selfish motives? We need to be thinking about our service. At the end, I put this poem. All right. I'll go the way you want me to go, dear Lord. Real service is what I desire. I'll sing a solo anytime, dear Lord, but please don't ask me to sing in the choir. I'll do what you want me to do, dear Lord. I like to see things come to pass, but don't ask me to teach girls or boys, oh Lord, I'd rather just stay in my class. I'll do what you want me to do, dear Lord. I yearn for the kingdom to thrive. I'll give you my nickels and dimes, dear Lord, but please don't ask me to tithe. I'll go where you want me to go, dear Lord. I'll say what you want me to say. I'm busy just now with myself, dear Lord. I'll help you some other day. May God help us to learn to be servants.